#featheredbirblet

[minecraftbookshelf]

MOS.

Would you like to tell us about regional holidays and festives? Whale migration festival? End of Harvest Season? First day of Spring? Do Empires share a big common holiday, maybe like Christmas?

Absolutely

So we have three categories here; canon holidays, holidays I already had in mind, and holidays i figured out while thinking about this ask. We'll go in that order.

There aren’t exactly any universal holidays, but there are some that are fairly widespread.

Canonically we have two holidays, Winterfest and Halloween.

Winterfest is from Rivendell and is their winter solstice celebration. It's primarily centered around communal celebration and gift-giving. There is also a strong religious aspect to it, though that has been a bit more subdued of late given the somewhat awkward situation with the whole "the king is the champion of Exor" thing. (Scott usually presides over the Winterfest ceremonies.) This was also Scott’s favorite holiday growing up. Traditionally the people stay up all night (children usually have varied success with this) and there are bonfires and food. Gifts are usually left to be found, rather than given directly.

Hallowe'en is a mortal celebration, primarily in Mythland. Lately Katherine has taken an interest in it as well and often travels to Mythland to celebrate it. It is also celebrated in Helianthia, the Grimlands, the Crystal Cliffs, Mangrovia, and the Swamp, to varying extents. It is celebrated on the Autumn equinox and involves costumes and pranks and gifts, usually of the edible variety.

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Some holidays that I already had percolating are…

Solstices and Equinoxes tend to be fairly universally celebrated to different degrees in different places.

The Helianthian harvest festival, which takes place in the fall, usually either shortly before or after Hallowe’en and is their largest holiday. It is primarily celebrated via food and community, with lots of music, dance, and story-teling. People weave crowns and jewelry from wheat and grass and wear them. No other accessories are worn during the celebrations. 

The Church of the Blood Sheep has several smaller observances throughout the year, especially on the solstices.

Pixandrian new year is a major event, when they celebrate the death of the old year and the arrival of the new. This is another “stay up all night” event. The oasis is lit up so bright it can be seen for miles across the desert during this time. Feasts are held and the old year is honored at the vigil. And then they dance and dance and dance until dawn. Pixandria uses a lunar calendar and their new year is the new moon that marks the transition from winter into spring.

The spring equinox is the biggest seasonal celebration in the Overgrown, though the autumn equinox and both solstices are also huge. But they are the Spring Court so obviously, that equinox is their biggest. This is not a safe celebration for mortals. It’s wild even by fae standard, with music, alcohol, and hunting. Mortals straying too close tend to end up hunted. The Helianthian border villages will celebrate this equinox during the day, but they lock their doors tight that night.

There is a late summer observance in the Swamp centered around the slime harvest.

Rivendell has a sheep-shearing festival in the late spring.

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Some that I thought of because of this ask…

The Ocean Empire is primarily in warm waters so they don’t actually see whales most of the year but I really do like the idea of the towers being in sight of a whale migration highway and that being one of their major seasonal observances. It would also be a hunting event, though they probably would only hunt one or two. A single whale goes a long way towards sustaining a community. When they first were establishing themselves at their current location it was probably only one whale but they have enough people now they might go for two or three. They wouldn’t need more than that most likely because they have trade-routes and established infrastructure for food.

Mezaleans celebrate the spring equinox around the mother tree. This is when the annual coming-of-age ceremony is held there. People travel into the capitol from all over the mesa for it.

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There are more of course, smaller region observances especially. But this is a good collection I think! Thank you for the ask!

[theunfairfolk]

Happy Halloween! Or is it Samhain?

Anyway, trick or treat?

trick or treat

you get PNG GNOME

[orchidbreezefc]

blue lies: whomst the fuck is red

here's the Big theory: blue lies introduces a new, red-coded entity to the world of clock 0ut. this one owes a lot to @quotesandmiracles , @reflingthefox , and most of all to @featheredbirblet , whom i didn't speak to directly at all but whose insights pretty much form the backbone here.

this first observation is all i need to conclusively prove the existence of the red entity imo. like, putting aside all the rest, this here is enough. here's the camera when the narrator is monitoring stanley from the control room, displaying his signature yellow:

and here it is in blue lies, when the narrator is decidedly not monitoring from the control room:

like. when the narrator is monitoring things, the camera is lit up yellow. now he's not monitoring things and the camera is lit up red. and the camera is moving, so somebody's in control of it. somebody represented by red. QED.

i do have more though. the whole video is structured around film--which, of course, is the medium a camera uses. film is the force that attacks stanley in blue lies in the absence of the office, which doesn't take an active role like in yellow zone, only collapsing.

the film is what apparently captures(???) and attacks(?????) the narrator:

but less obvious is the fact that just before this, the force that rushes to attack him is red:

which tells me the red entity and the film are the same, or at least working together. the film is also what manifests stanley as he appears at the end of blank decay (note his clothes, his longer hair, and his wound)--but with red eyes.

of course, this raises the question of who or what the red entity is. i like @featheredbirblet 's theory that their appearance as BD!stanley may indicate the narrator's unconventional reset at the end of BD, or perhaps the broken-game status of BD in and of itself, led to a corrupted save. film is, after all, just another way of saving and recording data. maybe this is an improper save of BD!stanley "haunting" the files.

my first instinct is that the red entity is the timekeeper, just because it's one of the other entities within the stanley parable and the only one we see use power independent of and equal to the narrator. it could also be the curator, who after all keeps records of the game, but she's more passive. i have no evidence for either, they just seem logical for a new entity coming into play in a story inspired by TSP.

P.S.: note how the title of each video refers to the color associated with the person in possession of the clock at the time. the narrator has it in yellow zone; it doesn't exist at all in blank decay; and stanley has it in blue lies. i very much anticipate a red video in the future.

i have one more post in me of bits and bobs, observations and details i have yet to fit into a coherent point. if you missed the previous one, you can find it [here]. EDIT: bits and bobs post is [here]!

[aquinnix]

For @featheredbirblet

The movement was automatic, a soft click parroting back into metal ears. Over and over again, satisfying tick after satisfying tick. To say it was a trance would imply something magical, would imply something other. Yet there was nothing, just Sparrow.

Click.

No, that was untrue. He was not alone, numerous friends stared back with unblinking eyes. But all their clockwork judgments faded into the background now. Metal against metal. Cold against cold. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else could steal away his gaze.

Click.

Orange, washed out and bright. This was his purpose, it was why the machine had chosen this for him. This was why his joints creaked and his touch grew numb. There was no such thing as thought, just command and execution. Just programming.

Click.

Cantaloupe and pale green, peppered and smeared. Something grainy and red coated his hands, product, success, reason. Draw back, push forward, listen, repeat. It was beautiful in a way, a dance, leaning into and responding to one another.

Click.

Emerald and avocado, crusty and covered. Keep pushing through. Keep moving. It was slow and strained, the screeching now drowning out all other sounds. But the noise was not a complaint, it was motivation.

Click.

Teal, consuming and authoritative. Stillness. Frozen. A statue. A memory. He could feel his limbs begging to move, but they would not. He could not turn his head to peer at the circumstances of his near end. The sound still seemed to echo, taunting, teasing.

Silence.

[quotesandmiracles]

Tagged by @6wings-manyeyes, ty!

Last song? Der einfache Weg from Mozart! Das Musical, Oedo Kuipers & Mark Seibert; was relistening my Warframe/Dishonored playlist.

Favourite colour? Teal; i have a hexcode somewhere.

Last movie/TV show: Rewatched Fate/strange Fake pilot episode.

Currently watching: Nothing specific. Secret Life Mumbo POV?

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury? Savoury.

Relationship status: All good.

Current obsessions: Waver Velvet, my beloved; also been playing AFK Arena a lot and hanging out on dragon capitalism site.

Last thing you googled? Searched for where to watch strange Fake.

Tagging: @reflingthefox @orchidbreezefc @riddlesandlies @barbrububble @featheredbirblet, whoever else sees this and wants in.

[minecraftbookshelf]

(MoS)

Can I ask a question about the Heart of Heliantia? It makes Pearl strongly connected with her land. How does it affect her everyday life? Does she feel the weather in different parts of the country? Season changing? Also, is this bond both-sided? What happens in Heliantia if Farmer Queen broke her arm?

Absolutely!

On an everyday level, Pearl does have a sort of surface, low-level awareness of the physical state of the land. Usually, unless a major disaster of some sort strikes, this does mean that she's going to either be very high energy or a bit more chill, depending on the season and overall situation. (Pearl during harvest season is over the moon, no pun intended)

Localized weather doesn't usually effect her on a notable level (unless its in her current locale) but if she concentrates she can usually get vague impressions of any given area. And of course, major storms and such are felt. (Or, you know, raining fire and Blood Sheep)

It is a bond that goes both ways (this is part of why Helianthia has a minimum of three possible new emperors on deck at any given time, in case disaster strikes.)

Simple, minor physical injuries that Pearl receives don't usually have an impact on Helianthia at large. There seems to be some magical quantity of emotional impact required as well. So her bumps and bruises and even occasional broken bones from sparring and construction and day-to-day living don't do anything notable to Helianthia (though her personal garden does sometimes get some damage)

Part of that is probably that none of these linger. As Queen of Helianthia, Pearl has basically unlimited access to potions and other healing items (and is strongly encouraged to use them.) Sickness tends to be the thing most damaging, though Helianthia's emperors tend to be resistant to such things, bolstered by the land itself, unless, of course, the land is also suffering. (As someone pointed out, its very much a Fisher King situation.)