☼ 006 [audio]

[promises_to_keep]

So this Christmas thing is pretty great, but it isn't something I really knew about 'til I left home. When I was a kid we had a solstice festival thing instead. Today's the 21st... shortest day of the year. Not that you could tell, what with how dark it tends to be around here anyhow, perma-winter and all that. [A shrug nobody can see. This feels so weird. Okay, come on Lea, you can be social. Maybe. Sort of. Just. Say something nice.]

Well, I guess happy solstice anyhow. Keep a light on you, just in case.

[Nailed it.]

Comments

Audio.

[logicist]

It's been a while since I've heard someone talking about winter solstice. It's not that surprising to hear some other planet had a festival for it, but I guess it is kind of interesting to hear the implication that you had no winter holidays beyond it.

How long did your festival last?

Audio

[promises_to_keep]

Pretty much all the holidays we did back home were based around light and darkness, so solstices and equinoxes were pretty important. Times varied, though--there was a big to-do on the day of, usually, but everybody kind of did their own thing their own way too. My folks and I kept lanterns along the front walk for the whole week.

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[logicist]

So a lot of it was less uniform and more individual. That's not too bad a way of doing things, though I bet it made it hard to celebrate shit with someone else if your traditions and theirs were radically different.

[promises_to_keep]

Most folks had similar traditions, I think. I don't actually remember what all the neighbors did--it's been a long time--but I don't recall anything being so radically different that it caused any problems.

[logicist]

Oh.

I'd ask what you'd consider "radically different" but I think I can take a guess. [ A pause. ] Out of curiosity, what did you typically do during your winter festival?

[promises_to_keep]

Well, I mean inasmuch as even if everybody was kind of free to do their own thing, everybody's things were all kind of along the same vein. When a holiday's for a specific purpose I guess people gravitate toward the same ideas of how to celebrate it?

The whole point of our solstice was to make sure nobody got lost in the darkness. So there were a lot of lanterns, candles, stuff like that. People would line their walkways with 'em, kids got to stay up all night and sit around the fire. Since it's the longest night of the year, the idea was to stay up 'til sunrise, to make sure everyone made it back to the light.

[logicist]

Yeah, that's more or less right for my homeworld too. Though, there are deviations and occasionally in some of our societies someone gets the wise idea to reinvent an existing concept, add new shit, and pass it off as their own idea. Which leads to some groups shunning others.

And that's surprisingly practical for a holiday. When you first mentioned having a festival, I imagined something more along the lines of a party. Which I guess was probably presumptuous as fuck. Still, I don't think you guys had a terrible idea. When there's darkness, it's always a good idea to have a light on hand.

[promises_to_keep]

I guess we were fortunate to be a small town; everybody kind of knew everybody else, even if we weren't all close; we all got along for the most part. [You know, minus those creepy weirdos who worked in the castle...

[This guy swears so casually, it's really interesting.]

I dunno if I'd say that presumptuous. Usually 'festival' and 'party' are kind of synonymous. I guess we tended to keep things low key, for the most part. How people celebrated solstice tended to be kind of personal, I guess.

[logicist]

I'd say fortunate, yes. Smaller communities tend to behave a little better, it's usually only when you go global people decide to be more than just "black sheep." The whole thing is sort of fascinating its own way.

[ Ok, he didn't exactly expect to be countered. Or pacified or whatever. He pauses to think; he's not exactly the most social person there is, but he guesses he should try bantering or something? ]

Are you defending me from myself with cold hard dictionary-given facts? I can't decide if that's cold or warm of you, dude. Might have to make up a word just to describe the act. What do you think of corm or wald? Pretty sure both are shit, but that's part of why I like them. That or we could split the difference and call it "tepid." [ Oh wait, there was information about winter solstice in there too. This is getting to be a lot of conversations in one and he totally brought it on himself. ]

And if you ask me, sometimes low key is better than pulling out flashing lights, feasts, and dancing anyway.

[promises_to_keep]

[There's a beat of silence, and then Lea just laughs. What the hell?]

I dunno; corm sounds kind of cute so I'm not sure that's the effect you're going for. Wald might work. How about 'room temperature'?

But yeah, I mostly have to agree there. I like a good party as much as the next guy, but they always seemed a little impersonal to me.

[logicist]

It's a ruse, dude. The second you stand there going, "aw, corm, that's fucking adorable," it'll snap and you'll be on the ground before you know it, heart thudding madly thanks to its mean streak. It'll have the temperature swapping between hot and cold faster than you can adapt. Corm is deadlier than a grizzly bear, yo. It's twice as deadly if you add an -y to the end of it.

And, nah, room temperature doesn't have the same oomph as corm or wald.

It depends on how many people you have attending and if you're having a party or a festival. If you're having a party of four, it gets personal fast. If it's a festival of more, I think you're supposed to just do whatever without caring and laugh and have a good time.

[promises_to_keep]

[More laughter.]

Man, gotta watch out for that corm. I guess that decides it, then.

I gotta say, I like your style. Got a name?

[logicist]

Exactly.

And, yeah. I do. It's Dirk. [ He pauses. ] What about yours?

[promises_to_keep]

Nice to meet you, Dirk, I'm Lea.

[logicist]

Nice to meet you too.

Is Lea a common name where you're from?

[promises_to_keep]

Mm, don't think so. I'm the only one I know. Why do you ask?