The Lantern Festival (9) : Scientists have been hard at work trying to understand the strange, glowing qualities of the luminescent caterpillars found in the caves by the reservoir. The caterpillars still shrivel up if they are taken out of the caves but their glowing secretions have been processed into an organic paste that can withstand the outside world. The city is selling paper lanterns infused with various seeds. The glow paste is full of minerals to support healthy plant growth without risking damage to the environment; all lantern purchases come with a small packet of activating power that will heat the paste up enough to mimic the effects of a candle without the concerns of flammability. When the glow paste loses its heat, the lantern will return to the Earth and upon the first rain (or any contact with water) the paper will dissolve and the seeds may begin to grow. All proceeds from the lanterns are put right back into the community to support local conservation and environmental protection efforts.
The Star Festival was one time of year that Breanna looked forward to the most. Not just because it was pleasantly warm out now, or that the daytime hours were much longer either. But because this was a time when the city was most lively.
New pop-up shops appearing, cafes and apparel stores; just small ma n’ pa places for people to congregate in small groups. The streets were lined with covered booths full of trinkets, and sometimes food with samples like dips, tucked under white canopies.
Idle chit-chat all around coalesced in a pleasant murmur of voices while Breanna waited patiently for Illyria to join her.
“Do you like what you see?” A woman, probably in her late thirties, approached with a softened smile.
“Oh,” Breanna blinked back in surprise, clearly startled by the sudden conversation. “I’m so sorry, you were so quiet I hadn’t noticed you sitting there.” Granted with the vibrantly colored paper lanterns, it was easy for her to overlook a woman of such petite stature whose clothes were equally as brilliant. “Yes, these lanterns are very beautiful. Especially the orange one with red painted suns.” Given her sphere when powered, there was little room to wonder why she gravitated towards it so much.
“Ah, yes. I like that one too. All the patterns are hand-painted.” A reason for the higher prices than the ones a few booths down which allowed customers to paint their own.
“I can tell a lot of work went into them.” Breanna took a step back, taking in the different shapes, sizes and unique patterns. “You are definitely a talented artist. Thank you for allowing me to look at them.” Another step back and she was once more on the street, sun beaming down on her snow-colored hair. “My friend should be here shortly so I’ll wait for her out here so I’m not in the way…”
The shop owner, and artist, looked a bit disappointed when yet another potential customer slipped out of her little stall without making a purchase. But Bri had come here hoping to actually color one of her own with Illyira. Didn’t matter that her own artistic talent could be compared to a fifth grader's masterpiece. It was all about having fun at the moment.
tefla
Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2023 2:26 am
Illyria had been excited for this meeting ever since she'd received the invite for an outing from Breanna. It had been far too long since the duo had hung out together and Illyria was keen to know of any changes in her friend's life. There definitely was news to share on her end if she was asked about it. She was curious about which form would have been best for this get together. On one hand it was probably easier to do things with fingers instead of paws and Breanna had once seen her glamoured appearance before so there'd be recognition right away and it wouldn't look odd to see two young women conversing instead of the image of only one woman conversing with a cat. And yet there was the option of appearing as her cat form and then slinking away to shift forms afterwards. It would allow her a longer period of time as a regular human but what was the right thing to do? What would be easier for Bri to handle?
Cat as she was right now Illyria gave herself a mental shake before eyeing all the activity that was going on in the distance. Perhaps it was easier if she were to just make the change now instead of having someone possibly link two random occurrences together. It'd be safer for her and for Breanna if she were to just start out as her human disguise. Slinking into the shadows where she knew she wouldn't be seen did Illyria draw out of subspace the little transformation tool that allowed her up to three hours of a civilian disguise. Activating it took seconds and once she felt she was ready did she situate her shoulder bag to a more comfortable position before strolling onto the main thoroughfare in search of a familiar face.
It took about five minutes of time to locate Breanna and when she did spot the other did she call out to let her know she was finally there. As she neared her friend Illyria started to gush, "Oh gods Bri. I'm sorry I'm late. Have I missed anything? There's just so many people here I got turned around a little."
Illyria had noticed the various lanterns that people were selling or designing on their own and her gaze caught Bri's ... showing surprise and also appreciation for the thoughtfulness in their chosen activity.
Breanna’s previously pensive expression turned pleasantly cheerful when she heard her name called out over the crowd. Her eyes scanned the many faces before settling on the one with dark-rainbow ombre-colored curls. “Illyria, hey!” She weaved past the small group of gossiping girls and with arms opened wide, bri pulled her friend into an excited hug. “Don’t be silly, you’re not late at all.”
It hadn’t even been ten minutes since she arrived. Just enough time to park and walk into the one artists’ booth.
“I’m just happy you were able to come.” Brianna released Illyria lest she unintentionally make her friend uncomfortable. “I was thinking you n’ I could go over to one of the festival-ran booths and design our own lantern. That is, unless you’d prefer we get one premade.”
tefla
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:48 pm
"But I feel like I'm late, I can't help it."
Even as Bri enveloped her in a hug Illyria fought the urge to purr. It would sure sound strange. A human purring like a cat. I guess that is the one downside of appearing human. You can't do cat-like things and expect not to be stared at Illyria's brows furrowed for a moment before she felt Bri pull out of the hug before she stepped forward and initiated her own in return. "I've missed just being able to hang out. I'm glad I was able to come too."
Taking in the sight of the price tags that were assigned to the lanterns that she had seen earlier Illyria's mind spun for about a second or two before she gave a joyful laugh. The idea of creating their own lanterns seemed a lot more fun and a lot less expensive. She gave Breanna the tiniest of smirks before she nodded in an abrupt manner, "as beautiful as these lanterns are, I really like the sound of creating our own special designs. Lead on and I shall dutifully follow," Illyria wasn't sure exactly which booths were offering the do-it-yourself design sessions so she hoped that Bri would understand that she was partly serious but also trying to have the best of times. This outing was something to treasure: something without a magical aspect to it ... something that two good friends would enjoy spending time together to do.
“Certainly!” Breanna pivoted on a heel then stopped abruptly as if suddenly stuck by a random thought.
“Oh, before I forget…” She reached into her back pocked and from it pulled out an orange and an opal star charm. “When I arrived, someone was walking around with a basket of these so I grabbed one for each of us!” Holding them out, one in each hand, she offered Illyria her pick. “Which one would you like?”
tefla
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:42 pm
Studying the two charms that Bri held out for her inspection Illyria's gaze went to studying the orange colored charm before giving an equal amount of time studying the opal colored charm. Perhaps it was closely matched to what she wore as a humanoid Mauvian that had Illyria's gaze constantly drawn back to the Opal charm that lay in Bri's open hand. It was definitely a long moment of silence before Illyria gently plucked the Opal charm off of Bri's palm before studying it more closely by holding it up to see if it could catch any ambient light from the various lighting that the festival booths were employing to draw potential patrons to look at their wares.
"I think I'll take this one," and she waggled the charm she'd picked up before giving a shy smile of gratitude, "thanks for this Bri, it means a lot."
Even as she found a place to gently place her newly acquired charm on her bag did the memory of the previous year come back to her. It had been a cache they'd found together that had yielded Illyria's first ever star festival charm and she still treasured it to this day.
Having a feeling that Illyria would choose the opal charm, Breana grinned knowingly before pocketing the amber charm once more. Later she’d add it to the zipper part of her laptop carrying case. A cute place to put it since her keyring had too many things on it as it was.
“It’s down this way,” she motioned with her head in the direction of the crafting booth she had passed by earlier. “They have several tables set up under the tent area where we can use paints or colored pencils to draw on them.” Things that weren’t highly flammable or toxic to the seeds.
“I had the idea of maybe trying to draw one of those dot mandalas on mine.” A few weeks ago a co-worker had shared one of those TicTok videos with her of someone doing painted circles or thin swipes on a remarkably round black stone. The end pattern was brilliantly vibrant and mesmerizing.
tefla
Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 12:28 am
Dot mandalas?
Illyria's gaze went blank for a moment. She'd not heard of the term before but she could imagine that it would end up being something beautiful just by the mental image the words invoked in her mind. But she wasn't going to try and pass off on the bluff that she knew what Bri was talking about and she she followed her friend before softly muttering to herself before shrugging her shoulders in resignation, "I'm not sure I've ever seen a dot mandala but if you are able to design one on a lantern, I won't be able to say that for much longer."
Illyria had her own possible designs in mind that she wanted to create and it felt like it would be a masterful tapestry that wove together to tell a story. She just wasn't feeling like she would do her design idea justice. But she would try and even if it wasn't a masterpiece worthy of hanging in a world-famous museum ... well Illyria wouldn't care. It would be a masterpiece from the heart, linking connections that she'd made over the past years spent on Earth ... bringing them all together onto one canvas. That would be a spectacular picture for the ages. "I look forward to seeing your design come to life," even as she said that did Illyria eye the tent that was approaching ever closer. She checked the time before sighing in relief. So far she still had a good chunk of time remaining in this form.
“Mandala's are look complicated but are just a repeating pattern essentially. Really pretty though, at least from the ones I've seen online. Honestly though, I'm looking forward to seeing what you draw on yours.” Eleonora linked her arm through Illyria’s and fell in step beside her. “And- Maybe once we’re done here we can find one of the shaved ice stands, my treat of course.” She quickly added, afterall it was her idea to come to the festival.
“Hello, welcome.” The festival worker greeted the two of them with a warm smile. “Feel free to have a look around. We have a wide array of lanterns; there are solid colors for $8.00 each, some that a tye-dye ombre effect that are $2.00 more, or plain white ones that are $5.00 eachfor you to choose from.”
The child-like grin on her face spread even more. “Ohhh,” curiosity piqued. “That sounds kinda fancy. Why don’t we go take a look?”
tefla
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 11:00 pm
Illyria tried to bring forth an image of what Bri was describing but figured that the best idea was to wait to see what the finished product would look like but it didn't stop her from commenting, "that sounds like a gorgeous idea to try and create." As they neared the tent and the mention of shaved ice was brought up, the young woman was puzzled by the concept before she slowly nodded in acceptance of the offer. Illyria didn't think she'd ever had shaved ice so it'd be an interesting experience but soon her attention was turned to the worker who greeted them warmly.
Upon listening to the options available for a DIY lantern Illyria's mind worked quickly in assuming that the tye-dye ombre option wouldn't work very well for the idea that she had in mind and unless there were markers/and or other designing tools that would project their colors well on a solid background color that the best option for her would to go with the simple white lantern. With one of those she could bring her design to life and then spend a little extra time making the plain white paper fancier.
Letting Bri lead her into the area where the lanterns waited to be claimed Illyria knew deep down what she needed and she spoke softly, "I think a plain-white lantern is in the cards for me. It'll work best for what I want to design."
Illyria's gaze travelled to one of the plain-white lanterns before envisioning her upcoming artwork before nodding. Yep, one of those would suit her well enough.
“Sure thing. I think I’m going to go for that ombre one.” On the second shelf was a simple circle lantern that had an orange and purple gradient and the area in between was a brilliant pink. It looked like a beautiful sunset on paper.
Breana picked out one of the unassembled lanterns while Illyria selected the shape she wanted. “If you want to go over to one of the tables, I’ll get these paid for and meet you over there.” she offered in kind before turning towards the cashier.
The transaction only took a couple of moments as she paid by credit card and didn’t worry about waiting for a receipt. A few seconds later Breanna pulled a chair out from under the table and took a seat beside her friend. “Alright, we’re good!”
tefla
Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:37 pm
Illyria's gaze followed Bri as her friend went to pick out her lantern and pay for the both of them before she let her gaze wander over to the crafting table where one could feasibly sit down and decorate their own lanterns to whatever their heart was whispering to them. Illyria had no idea if her prospective design would fit on the lantern as it was so was there anyway that she could scale down what it was that she wanted to create?
Mentally ticking off what she needed to design to encompass everything that she wanted to represent Illyria began by grabbing a scrap piece of paper and jotting down nouns to represent the connections that the image needed: orchid, scalpel, bobcat and sunlight. Each noun represented a senshi's sphere that she had connected with on a more personal level. Orchids was of course the pictured image for Ida. Sunlight would represent the individual that she was with currently, Eleonora. The bobcat would stand in for Meissa, a senshi recently upgraded ... and the scalpel would be for Takamizawa, the senshi of surgery that Illyria had lost contact with over the years.
Illyria began by first removing the paper from the lantern before setting the empty shell aside. Once the art was done she would carefully reassemble everything or get an attendant's aid in doing so. But her paper needed to be flat for this scene to work. The field of flowers, orchids in her mind, but maybe not drawn correctly to scale were the first to be applied to the paper. She was careful to sketch out everything in pencil lest mistakes were made. The young woman then left an open space amongst the orchids in which her bobcat would be placed before thinking of how the scalpel would be incorporated. Well ... maybe the bobcat could hold it in it's mouth. Next Illyria turned to the design of the sky before drawing a rather large circle to represent the sun and drew lines in the air that could be taken as mirages caused by the sun's heat hitting the ground. Once that was complete did Illyria tackle the hardest part in her design ... a bobcat. She knew that basically it was rather like a rather large house cat but without a tail. Figuring that she didn't have too much time to dwell on the other differences that were there did Illyria do her best to incorporate a bobcat holding a scalpel in it's mouth.
With the sketch now drawn out ... she glanced over to see Bri hard at work on her own design before she reached for coloring pencils. They would be the easiest to color with if perhaps mistakes were made. Grabbing only the colors that she needed Illyria began to slowly fill in sections of her paper before pausing at moments to inspect how the image was turning out. All in all ... it was coming together quite nicely. Blue sky, yellow sun, green grass and stems for the orchids and the blooms themselves colored appropriate shades of color. The scalpel was a silvery sheen in the bobcat's mouth and the bobcat itself was a mixture of tawny yellow, brown, and black in places.
Upon finishing with the colors Illyria spied a tube of glitter and began to draw on the scrap paper a smaller version of a human with cat features before taking scissors to the paper and cutting out the figure. From there glue was found and after coating the image in the adhesive did Illyria shake glitter all over it before smiling. She was the sparkled-figure that would be added post design to tie everything together. With careful dexterity did Illyria turn over the image that represented her before adding dollops of glue to the back. Once it was covered she gently pressed the freshly glued side down to an empty space in the orchid field before sighing happily. Adding a representation of herself had been a stroke of genius and she was pleased with how her design had turned out.
For now though Illyria watched as Bri continued to work at her own lantern before making a note of the time. It definitely wouldn't do well to lose her glamoured appearance in a tent full of civilians.
Such a meticulous task to put so many dots on a lantern. But Breana was laser focused and determined to see this pattern though. So much so that she hadn’t even realized in her concentration she was chewing on her lower lip while she tried to hold her hand still.
Silly, really. Especially when you consider that soon they’d light the lanterns and within mere seconds they would be too far away to see any imperfections, but alas she wanted it to look right because she’d know if there was an error.
Eventually, when she finished the next to last row and had almost reached the top, Bri looked up and her gaze locked with Illyria’s. “I’m so sorry,” feeling embarrassed at how engrossed she was with the art project Breana sat up straight. “You’re so quiet I didn’t realize you were already done.”
“Can I see what you drew on yours?”
tefla
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 4:13 pm
Illyria had been quietly watching Bri work and also letting her gaze wander to the other creations that were being designed before she gave a small motion of surprise as Bri suddenly shifted in order to look up at her. Illyria's gaze went down to look at the artwork that she'd made before giving a wave of dismissal to Bri's apology. It wasn't that big of a deal that she had been able to enjoy just watching others work and she gave her friend a shy smile, "it's okay. I've been just watching everyone else work magic on their lanterns. Yours included," she paused slightly before gently picking up her paper and holding it up for Bri to see everything that was on it.
"I figured it was best to do something meaningful, even if I may not see the paper again. It's an image showing all the connections that I've made with people around me. Those lives that I've made an impact on... and all that's associated with that."
Illyria pointed to the sun before sighing and lowering her voice, "this represents you and your sphere. All the images represent other spheres too."
The bobcat, the scalpel and orchids. ... Illyria gently caressed the paper in which the cat-figure was, "and that's me."
“Aww,” Bri placed a hand over her heart, truly touched to have been included in the design on Illyria’s lantern. “That is such a sweet idea. I love how personal you made it.” She wanted to tease her and comment on how the sun is her favorite part but Bri was definitely biased in that regard.
However, the last thing she wanted to do was offend her friend or make her feel that the connections she had with other senshi were less meaningful. So she kept the thought to herself.
“I think I’m pretty much done with mine.” She spun the lantern to show the myriad of dots and semicolon type swooshes that gave the pattern an almost floral look. Definitely not as thoughtful as what Illyria had drawn but it was still fun to make. “I wonder how long it will take to dry…” she ponder aloud, tested one of the first dots she had put on the paper with her index finger and smiled when it left no paint on her skin. “Fast drying, nice!”
“Do you want to pack up our things and head out? See if we can find a good place to light these once it gets dark out?” In a couple hours the fields would become packed and Bri wanted to find a place more private so theirs don’t get lost in the sea of twinkling lights too quickly.
