>>I am wide awake [Open]

[zerosuitjill]

Who; zerosuitjill and open to anyone passing by
What; Christmas decorating. Some post-Wesker angst moodiness.
Where; Residential area, outside her place.
When; Friday, December 23rd
Rating; Starting with G, may go up.
Status; Open; ongoing

Comments

[fealty_to_none]

Balthier was walking down the street, enjoying the sort of muffled silence snow brought. It kept his mind away, at least, from how dire the prospect of owning a home was.

He wouldn't have minded renting a room in a flat, or above an inn, or a hotel. Anything to not give the impression of permanence. Having a... home of his own felt like he was in some ...ménage à trois while his poor Strahl back in Ivalice was unaware of his dalliances. It was a ridiculous notion- Balthier needed a roof over his head, a tub with which to bathe and a place to horde whatever machinery or treasure he stumbled upon for when the time came to haul it all home (after all, not many pirates got the right to brag they stole from the underworld). He needed to be practical here. And a cave was no place for his beautiful Strahl. She deserved clear skies and vast horizons- Fran and Nono would surely take care of her in his absence.

He still yearned for his airship. But there was nothing he could do about that.

The sky pirate was pulled from his musings when he spied a most peculiar sight. A young woman wearing a dark, grim scowl putting up rather jolly and colourful lights. The contrast could not have been odder. Never one to let his curiosity be left un-sated, Balthier leaned forward on the gatepost to watch a moment before interjecting.

"The colour of the lights suggests you're setting up for the approaching festivities. Yet you wear the expression common when one has recently departed." A pause. "Though if this is the Underworld as I am led to believe, that is not an unlikely scenario."

Mind if I slip in here too?~

[morethanafour]

Elena wasn't doing much for the holiday other than wearing a scarf and thick winter sweater. She was walking back from the market after doing the only other thing she was doing for the holidays - a little warm-hearted Christmas shopping - when she saw two sights she hadn't been expecting. One was Jill putting up lights, the other being Balthier, a man she had only just met over the network.

An eyebrow raising, she peeked into the bag at her side to make sure Jill's Christmas present was still towards the bottom of the bundle, then she shouldered the bag and moved towards the two figures.

"Jill! Need a hand? Hey, Balthier, right?" Then she went quiet, apparently she had walked in on a conversation - and she held back further comment or introduction to keep from from interrupting.

not at all! The more, the merrier

[zerosuitjill]

Jill looked up quickly -- a reflexive reaction rather than any sort of paranoia. Her expression shifted easily into something more relaxed and neutral at the stranger's comment, her poise shifting slightly as she shrugged.

"Christmas lights, yeah," she confirmed. "I've just... had a lot on my mind lately."

Her features did break into a slight grin, though, as she caught sight of Elena and nodded in greeting. "I'm not doing much, but a hand wouldn't hurt. Mostly just getting the knots out." Amazing how the factory line -- or whatever they used here -- couldn't avoid even that much; still, Jill's dexterity made it considerably less frustrating to a point.

She glanced back at the stranger. "Are you new?" she asked, genuinely curious.

Elena yay~~~!

[fealty_to_none]

Balthier nodded towards the newcomer. He recognized her as the young lady, Elena her name was, on the tablet.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you face-to-face, Elena." Balthier says, offering his customary roguish grin. He turned his attention back to the woman who'd been putting the lights up. It seemed her scowl had diminished.

"I am indeed. I take it you've been here a time?"

[morethanafour]

Elena set the bag safely down, out of the way of prying eyes, and went to help Jill with the lights. She gave Balthier an amused grin.

"You too." The journalist said without preamble before she started untangling a string of lights. For the moment she was listening mostly. Since she and Balthier had already 'met' on the network, she wanted to let Jill and the 'rogue' get acquainted.

[zerosuitjill]

Jill stepped aside to allow Elena some room beside her, offering her a length of the lights.

"I have," she replied to the stranger. "Not as long as some, but long enough to start feeling a little at home." She offered a somewhat wry smile before adding in introduction, "Jill Valentine."

[fealty_to_none]

"Balthier. A pleasure Jill."

Taking that as his cue, he crosses the threshold and picks up a tangle of lights.

"Is this some sort of tradition? Untangling a mess of coloured lights and decorating homes? Or are you opening up some sort of shop?"

And because Balthier can never resist a good challenge, he begins working some of the mess of cords and lights loose.

[morethanafour]

"I think it's traditional only because these things always seem to get tangled when they're put away for a year no matter what you do to try and keep them straight." Elena chuckled. "I'm guessing you don't have Christmas where you're from?"

[zerosuitjill]

Chuckling, Jill nodded in agreement. It wasn't the first time she'd met someone unaware of her own typical traditions, so she replied casually,

"They're usually strung up on trees, but I figure this could do." She nodded briefly at Elena. "Like she said, it's for Christmas. A holy day on December twenty-fifth -- where we're from, at least."

[fealty_to_none]

"I think it is tradition for wires of any sort to tangle if you take your eyes off them for even a second. They do it out of spite."

Nimble fingers and keen intellect see further length of lights fall away. Balthier would probably be a beast with a Rubric's Cube.

"A curious sounding holiday. Nothing in the Kiltias faith calls for strings of lights on trees so I'm assuming that no such sect exists in your world. What do the lights represent if you don't mind me asking?"

[morethanafour]

"It's...for that star the...wise men follow? Or something, isn't it Jill?" Elena had never been very religious, though she knew the basics from her history lessons.

"Kiltias? Who...or...what is that?" The way she asked it was respectful curiosity despite the bluntness of her question.

[zerosuitjill]

Jill nodded again, distractedly. "The star on top of the tree's supposed to be the star, I think." She glanced at Balthier and clarified, "The one that announced the birth of the Savior, if you're a follower of Christianity."

At Elena's question, Jill fell quiet and watched the other with equal curiosity.

[fealty_to_none]

"The Kiltias are the primary faith in Ivalice, following a pantheon led by the God of Light, Faram." He explains to Elena.

He shrugs then, not having grown up a particularly religious man. True enough, he had been born Archadian nobility, and his father had bothered to keep up appearances before Venat so Balthier knew the stories and could go through the motions of most services. "I am faithful neither to Faram or this Christianity. Though I can see the appeal in chasing stars. Are the rest of the lights meant to be all the other stars these Wise Men neglected to go meandering after?" He gave a triumphant smirk as he undid the last tangle of one knot and moved to another.

[morethanafour]

"A pantheon...that sounds a lot like the ancient religion of the Greeks or Romans. That's...actually what the Underworld - where we are here - is based around, as far as I can tell."

She grinned, starting to wrap the now untangled end of the lights around the porch railing, though she looked to Jill for guidance on exactly how her friend wanted it.

"No...I think the lights are really just a result of the consumerizing of Christmas - just another decoration to sell...but they're pretty, so I'm not going to complain."

[zerosuitjill]

"Most likely," Jill replied, nodding in agreement with Elena's last statement. She nodded again as she helped string the lights along the railing; she wasn't aiming for anything overtly fancy, and Elena had the right idea.

"So is anyone else here from your world?" Jill asked Balthier. "I don't recognize any of the terms you mentioned, but friends and enemies alike have a habit of showing up together. You never can tell, really."

[fealty_to_none]

"How do you commercialize Holy Days? I imagine it defeats the purpose of it being 'holy' and not just a party on a wide scale."

The pirate shook his head in bewilderment. He wasn't much of a man to judge, especially when it came to religion (he had, after all, had a hand in the death of a rogue god, and lived in open defiance of all the rest) but some things just didn't add up.

"I have yet to see anyone I know, but it does not mean there are none here from Ivalice. Though I possess the most unlikely of connections, I have yet to meet everyone in all the known world. I take it you both have others you know here?"

Another knot free! Now to start on the last tangle.