But the stars tonight are just unbelievably bright...
Who: Everyone!
When: Tanabata
Where: The west coast of the island, on the docks
What: Time for the summer star festival~
Rating: PG-13.
This year's Tanabata, while perhaps not as familiar as the ones of the students were used to, had nonetheless gotten off to a pleasant start. The weather had been warm and clear all day, perhaps the last truly hot day of summer, and even the rather two-dimensional staff members and professors had been cheerfully taking part in the event, dressed in brightly coloured yukata.
Delicious food was, even now, still being served around the campus, the mouth-watering scent of everything from yakitori to dango floating through the evening air from the entrance of outdoor stalls. Paper streamers and decorations were hung from all the building eaves, and then some. Trees and bamboo stalks all over the island still bore the fluttering burden of dozens of rainbow-coloured strips of paper, and the encroaching night was filled with the sounds of music and games and laughter.
Overhead, the stars burned clearly through the darkness, for once not overwhelmed by this world's overly large moon -- it was in its dark phase tonight, turning a black face to the celebrations so that the twinkling highlights of the festival were left with no rival for their light.
When midnight approaches, the headmistress emerges from her drinking the festivities to oversee the send-off of this year's wishes -- either cast on the ocean's currents, or into the bonfire that has been built in the docks' firepit. The atmosphere is one of hope and calm and high spirits, and if one watches carefully, they might notice how the released wishes glow brightly right before they disappear.
Just like a star.
When: Tanabata
Where: The west coast of the island, on the docks
What: Time for the summer star festival~
Rating: PG-13.
This year's Tanabata, while perhaps not as familiar as the ones of the students were used to, had nonetheless gotten off to a pleasant start. The weather had been warm and clear all day, perhaps the last truly hot day of summer, and even the rather two-dimensional staff members and professors had been cheerfully taking part in the event, dressed in brightly coloured yukata.
Delicious food was, even now, still being served around the campus, the mouth-watering scent of everything from yakitori to dango floating through the evening air from the entrance of outdoor stalls. Paper streamers and decorations were hung from all the building eaves, and then some. Trees and bamboo stalks all over the island still bore the fluttering burden of dozens of rainbow-coloured strips of paper, and the encroaching night was filled with the sounds of music and games and laughter.
Overhead, the stars burned clearly through the darkness, for once not overwhelmed by this world's overly large moon -- it was in its dark phase tonight, turning a black face to the celebrations so that the twinkling highlights of the festival were left with no rival for their light.
When midnight approaches, the headmistress emerges from her drinking the festivities to oversee the send-off of this year's wishes -- either cast on the ocean's currents, or into the bonfire that has been built in the docks' firepit. The atmosphere is one of hope and calm and high spirits, and if one watches carefully, they might notice how the released wishes glow brightly right before they disappear.
Just like a star.