When the Fire Works (14) : Innovation is expected in Destiny City, so seasonal commodities are always expected to sell well. This year, the hot new summer item includes some chemically enhanced logs: carefully modified with environmental and health-safe chemicals, these logs are guaranteed to burn bright, burn long, and burn beautifully. It’s not just a pretty flame: each individual log has several rings that will light up like a sparkler when the flame hits. Larger logs will even pop off small, colorful fireworks for several hours while they burn. Though the lightshow is beautiful, it’s also calm. The logs have a pleasant, earthy smell, and unlike the sounds of normal fireworks, these simply sound like a crackling fire. There’s something curiously nostalgic about these fires; they are able to elicit a sort of childlike whimsy, if only you let them. If not, it’s still pretty.
Karakorum was trying, really hard, to banish her awful fight with Winston from her mind. She'd powered up, once she was done sitting on a bench feeling sorry for herself, like being Karakorum and being hot and able to shoot people with magic arrows was going to fix the broken heart that she hadn't wanted and wished she didn't have. It was stupid--this was exactly why she wanted to stay away from relationships that were too serious. Everything she'd expected to happen, all her worst case scenarios--somehow it was almost worse.
And being Karakorum hadn't made her feel better. If anything, given how much time she'd spent patrolling with Achird, it felt worse. This was how she'd met him, how they'd dated, how they'd...
How they'd done everything.
She'd found another star charm, this one bright and shiny sapphire, and tucked it into subspace, and then she'd run into another of those sparkler logs...and this time, she couldn't help but sit closer and watch, since there was no one else hanging around. Might as well mope powered up if she was gonna mope. Maybe some nefarious Chaos jackass would try and interrupt her bad day and she'd get to kick their a**, that sounded fun.
It was pretty, at least, and she felt a little happier watching it. That was something.
xxxgenovianprince
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:09 pm
Amateru hadn't wanted to go visit his home yet. Perhaps it was cowardly of him, but he enjoyed settling in for life on Earth with his fiance. And it was hot enough on Earth as it was. Stepping back into that bleak heat, that unnatural heat that had taken so many lives even before the disease had time to, it... wasn't an ideal situation. Not one he wanted. If he could avoid addressing it forever, he would, but... He wanted to stabilize his magic. So he'd have to, eventually.
But not tonight. Tonight, he wanted to enjoy the city's star fest, to feel like he was alive, to enjoy life while it was here, rather than go back to a desolate planet he had failed to protect.
He approached one of the bonfires full of those exploding logs at the park and paused when he realized someone powered was nearby. Peering around, he saw her sitting at one not far from the one he'd approached to sit by himself.
Deciding company was better, he headed her way instead.
"Is this seat taken?" he asked, giving her a little grin as he finally recognized her. "Hopefully not by a crazy chicken?"
Karakorum looked up, when someone spoke to her, and she managed a wan little smile when she recognized the person offering.
"Hey, Amateru, "she said, and she scooted over a little to give him more room. "Open seat, no evil chickens tonight," she said, and she hoped she sounded passably chipper.
She knew she didn't, but she hoped nevertheless.
"How are you? Enjoying the festival?" If she focused on him, maybe she could deflect from her own obvious misery. At least she didn't have runny makeup or anything, and maybe he wouldn't notice that she was sort of a cloud of gloom.
genovianprince
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 11:55 pm
Well, she was obviously deflecting. But he smiled and sat down beside her, staring into the fire. It popped and crackled and sparkled with the special effects that had been put into the logs, and he found it almost soothing. Occasionally, a bigger one would shoot up and make an even bigger, more colorful sparkle that took his breath away. The people of Earth were so fascinating. So many interesting ideas. So much to occupy one's time with. He couldn't wrap his head around it, most days.
"I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The air of a festival seems to be universally the same, even if the things being celebrated and the rituals of celebration can be incredibly different," he answered lightly, rolling his neck to crack it with a soft grunt. "But you don't seem much in the mood for any celebrations. You don't have to talk about it, but it might help with the rain cloud over your head to talk to someone out of the loop of whatever it is you have going on right now."
Amateru was so ******** nice. It was really, really unfair, because Karakorum wanted to lie and say everything was fine, but there was something about this gentle man--and gentleman--next to her that made her want to talk.
And maybe he was right. Maybe dumping on someone else might make her feel better.
"I'm glad you're enjoying things," she said, sincerely. "And I'd rather be in a festive mood. I just..." She huffed. "I'm really young for a human, okay? I dunno if you guys have different lifespans, but I am only twenty-one and we live to be a hundred and I am like, barely an adult by our standards. So I have done my share of living my life and having fun. And I have never had a serious relationship because I did not want one, okay? Don't judge me. I've slept around, I've had a good time. I thought that was all I wanted.
"But there's this guy. And I think--I think I really want to be serious with him. Except I guess he thought we were already serious because he's not the casual type, and I just--I'm standing there, telling him I want something real with him, and all he focuses on is that it hadn't been before that, and I--uuugh. Why did I even bother." She buried her face in her hands. "I was so stupid. I should have kept my dumb mouth shut. We were fine. And now it's all ruined."
genovianprince
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 1:00 am
Amateru nodded and listened quietly, though part of him wanted to respond to each point as she spoke about it. He knew it was better to simply shut up and wait for her to finish.
"Well... I'm not sure how long-lived any of us are, on average," Amateru mused, "but we're all adults. Maybe he should have been more mature about it, rather than focusing on how wronged he felt, but... A lot of us come here exhausted, in pain, half-mad from starving or from waking up to everything gone in an instant. We seek new permanences in our lives to cling to. I can't speak to whatever specific issues this not-boyfriend of yours has? But... When your understandin' of somethin' you thought was happier for you than it turned out to be, that you had thought about it all wrong, that you'd put more effort 'n care into somethin' than you knew you were gettin' out... After losin' everythin' else you ever had in the world by a thousand years? Maybe it's less about you two, exactly, and more about that he feels like he's lost somethin', again. Even with you right in front of him sayin' he hasn't."
He shrugged. "Like I said, I can't speak to specifics, maybe he's just a jackass, but it's somethin' to consider, at least. And if he's willin' to talk to you again in a few days? Tell him that you want to be in his life. Apologize for not bein' clear about your expectations from the relationship. Hell, maybe that kind of thing was even vastly different on his planet. I feel for you, darlin', I really do, but maybe he had his own kind of cultural expectations he just... didn't examine, the same way you didn't."
Karakorum exhaled. It felt...good to listen to Amateru talk, to listen to him break it down. Maybe it wasn't as hopeless as she'd so dramatically decided it was, and maybe she didn't want to completely give up on what she;d had with Winston.
Even if her chest hurt, just thinking about it.
"I....thanks, Amateru," she said, reaching over to pat his arm. "I really appreciate the advice. You're...you're a really good friend, and I just..." She wilted, a little.
"I'll send him a note in a couple of days. See if he wants to talk. Maybe we can fix things."
Or maybe they couldn't. But at least she would have tried.
