47Haven
Tomboy Appreciator
What is a holiday? Sounds simple, isn't it? It's a day of festive where some workplaces close for that day to let their employee celebrate whatever that day was supposed to celebrate. That is, of course, only applies when people actually remember what they were supposed to celebrate to begin with. Even way back when, there are already people who only celebrates holiday because they have a day off, even when the holiday didn't have anything to do with them. Abolitionist still enjoy the day off on the National day, follower of other religion still enjoy the sale on other religion's holiday, and realist still enjoys the food stalls during Hallow's eve. Not that there's anything wrong with it, that's how it is supposed to be in an equal society. Either everyone kept on working, or everyone took the day off. Except if you're in retail, of course, as you work when everyone is on holiday, and you work when everyone isn't on holiday. Still, as long as there's a group of people dedicated to actually celebrating the reason the holiday was there, then it would be enough. Even a small candle would be enough to light up a room, no matter how dim.
But then, what happens when there's no more group around to celebrate it properly, as the demographic had literally died out, but it had become such an iconic holiday that literally everyone knows of? Like Valentine or Halloween? Well, that's what happened to Seishin no Indou, abbreviated Sei-in a Nu-Shinto holiday that happens somewhere near winter, as it celebrates the first snowflake that falls onto the barren earth. Date used to vary greatly, and sometimes there's not even a proper ritual in a year due to the lack of snow all year round, but for most people, the holiday itself fell on the third Doubi of the last month. That also means, that usually, people combine the much more famous Christmas with it, as both are, essentially winter's festival. Difference is, Christmas is an established one, dating far beyond the old world, while Sei-in is a relatively newer one, only appearing once the climate changes had gone so severely that the sight of snowflakes is considered a divine intervention. Compounding this problem, Nu-Shinto opposes the SkyDomes that cover most of the thriving cities, as they believed it inhibited the kami, or the gods' blessing, and decided to live outside of the domed cities. As the condition grew harsher, it is no surprise to everyone that the Nu-Shinto believer had mostly died out, leaving the Sei-in as their legacy, which, sadly, was now wholly combined as the last day of Christmas week.
And Elizabeth, for that matter. While Liz wasn't a believer in Nu-Shintoism, she did learn about the Nu-Shinto tradition and ritual. Way back when, while diving for scraps, she found a relatively intact picture book for children. She couldn't read anything within it, either due to how damaged the text was, and that she can't really read, but the pictures were enough. The book quickly became one of Liz's treasured possession, as it was the only source of entertainment for her back then, before she discovered her Raven. The picture tells a tale of a spirit guide, taking the form of a soft and cute white blob, flying around a small boy living in the vast, empty desert. They were best friends, with the boy wanting for a friend to accompany his lonely life, and the blob needed someone to tell it about the world, for the blob was amnesiac. One day, after years of wandering, the boy collapsed from overheating and lack of nutrient. The blob panicked, and no matter how much it screamed, no one came across them, for they were far from any civilization. The boy proceeded to comfort the blob, telling it that it was inevitable, and thanked it for being his friend. The boy's last wish, is for the blob to regain its memory, and for everyone else, who might also wander this barren desert, to have a friend like the blob. The shock turns out to be enough to awaken the blob's memory as the Kurao, the snow deity, and his disappearance from the pantheon were the main reason there was no more snow. So Kurao soared up into the sky, determined to not let anyone else suffers from overheating in the desert ever again, and expended his power to make snow fall onto the desert, causing himself to disappear into the sky, but saving the boy's life. It is said that due to the amnesia, Kurao was forever weakened, which is why the Sei-in itself happens irregularly, or sometimes not at all, as the believer believed Kurao hadn't recovered his power yet.
There were more stories within the book, but the Sei-in story was the one that stuck with Elizabeth the most. "…Shame no one else remembers about you, huh?" Liz said to the sky as she waded through the sands. In the distance, the domed city is currently 'celebrating' Sei-in, by having more retelling of the Christmas story, complete with their version of Santa and Krampus, which was somehow made canon into the Christmas story along with the birth of the savior. As the domed city can control the climate within them, it was easy for it to cool down the city and produce artificial snow so it fell from the sky, adding onto the winter festival vibe. Forgetting that, outside of the dome, it is still hot as hell, as there wasn't even a rain, let alone snow out here. The sight of the domers celebrating their faux holiday, the shop crier shouting about winter discount and special deals, costume to celebrate the holiday, all were suffocating for a duster like Elizabeth, who's used to the vast emptiness and loneliness of the desert. Still, Liz had to go into the domed city, because there's one thing that she needed to get, and there's no way that she could find it by scavenging through the junk out in the desert.
"Well, at least this is on discount as well." Liz opened the cork of 'Wolke', a cheap cloudy gin, before she poured a few splashes onto an old dried-up well, and drinking some of it herself. As Kurao was mostly associated with clouds, the Nu-Shinto believed that by 'pouring cloud', Kurao would regain his power sooner, and send more snowflakes down. Liz didn't know what does 'pouring cloud' meant, as the images in her book shown the boy literally pouring cloud from a bottle to a well, and no one could read what it was supposed to represent. So Liz improvised, by buying the cloudy gin and have that cloudy substance represent it. Also helps that the cloudiness resulted from the cheap filtration process, so she didn't have to spend too much on it. Elizabeth had been doing this ritual for several years now, ever since she got enough money that she can afford to buy some gin to splash onto the well. The well itself was dried beyond salvation, and the ruins surrounding it were completely abandoned. So in essence, there's only Elizabeth, and hopefully, Kurao. Not that she's too hopeful about the prospect of deities, anyway. If there's a deity, then they wouldn't have screwed up earth this badly that most people had decided to abandon it. Maybe that's why, because there are not a lot of believers, and the gods require belief, that made them weak, and that's why they couldn't save earth.
Liz chuckled, as she drank some more of the bitter gin, splashed a bit more, before she threw some coin-sized gear onto the well. "Hope these'll suffice. Can't really spare any currency, but hey, it's shaped like one." Liz sighed before she finished her yearly ritual. She bowed deeply once, clapped her hand twice, silently prayed for snow, or at the very least a cool weather for scavenging, and once she's done, bowed another time. "Cheers, Kurao-sama, here's hoping it's the year you'd return, if you exist." Elizabeth poured the rest of the bottle into the well, before she placed the gin bottle next to the well, next to the rest of empty bottles from all the years she had been visiting the dried well. It didn't matter whether this Kurao deity existed, or that the ritual was long gone and forgotten. It's for Liz herself, for her to feel like she's still human, that she still exists, and not like what the domers called her, a dust in the desert. It's a sad ritual, but it's a way for Liz to anchor herself to the world she inhabits, the culture of the past desert dweller, the hope they used to cling to. There has never been an organic snowflake throughout her life, anywhere in the world, making the whole ritual pointless at worst, or blindly hopeful at best. But hey, just like how the domers celebrate Christmas, despite only a small minority of them is Neo-Catholic, this is just Elizabeth's own way to celebrate her holiday, out here in the desert. Smiling, Elizabeth slung her pack back, before she walked out of the ruins, and back into her mundane desert lifestyle.
But then, what happens when there's no more group around to celebrate it properly, as the demographic had literally died out, but it had become such an iconic holiday that literally everyone knows of? Like Valentine or Halloween? Well, that's what happened to Seishin no Indou, abbreviated Sei-in a Nu-Shinto holiday that happens somewhere near winter, as it celebrates the first snowflake that falls onto the barren earth. Date used to vary greatly, and sometimes there's not even a proper ritual in a year due to the lack of snow all year round, but for most people, the holiday itself fell on the third Doubi of the last month. That also means, that usually, people combine the much more famous Christmas with it, as both are, essentially winter's festival. Difference is, Christmas is an established one, dating far beyond the old world, while Sei-in is a relatively newer one, only appearing once the climate changes had gone so severely that the sight of snowflakes is considered a divine intervention. Compounding this problem, Nu-Shinto opposes the SkyDomes that cover most of the thriving cities, as they believed it inhibited the kami, or the gods' blessing, and decided to live outside of the domed cities. As the condition grew harsher, it is no surprise to everyone that the Nu-Shinto believer had mostly died out, leaving the Sei-in as their legacy, which, sadly, was now wholly combined as the last day of Christmas week.
And Elizabeth, for that matter. While Liz wasn't a believer in Nu-Shintoism, she did learn about the Nu-Shinto tradition and ritual. Way back when, while diving for scraps, she found a relatively intact picture book for children. She couldn't read anything within it, either due to how damaged the text was, and that she can't really read, but the pictures were enough. The book quickly became one of Liz's treasured possession, as it was the only source of entertainment for her back then, before she discovered her Raven. The picture tells a tale of a spirit guide, taking the form of a soft and cute white blob, flying around a small boy living in the vast, empty desert. They were best friends, with the boy wanting for a friend to accompany his lonely life, and the blob needed someone to tell it about the world, for the blob was amnesiac. One day, after years of wandering, the boy collapsed from overheating and lack of nutrient. The blob panicked, and no matter how much it screamed, no one came across them, for they were far from any civilization. The boy proceeded to comfort the blob, telling it that it was inevitable, and thanked it for being his friend. The boy's last wish, is for the blob to regain its memory, and for everyone else, who might also wander this barren desert, to have a friend like the blob. The shock turns out to be enough to awaken the blob's memory as the Kurao, the snow deity, and his disappearance from the pantheon were the main reason there was no more snow. So Kurao soared up into the sky, determined to not let anyone else suffers from overheating in the desert ever again, and expended his power to make snow fall onto the desert, causing himself to disappear into the sky, but saving the boy's life. It is said that due to the amnesia, Kurao was forever weakened, which is why the Sei-in itself happens irregularly, or sometimes not at all, as the believer believed Kurao hadn't recovered his power yet.
There were more stories within the book, but the Sei-in story was the one that stuck with Elizabeth the most. "…Shame no one else remembers about you, huh?" Liz said to the sky as she waded through the sands. In the distance, the domed city is currently 'celebrating' Sei-in, by having more retelling of the Christmas story, complete with their version of Santa and Krampus, which was somehow made canon into the Christmas story along with the birth of the savior. As the domed city can control the climate within them, it was easy for it to cool down the city and produce artificial snow so it fell from the sky, adding onto the winter festival vibe. Forgetting that, outside of the dome, it is still hot as hell, as there wasn't even a rain, let alone snow out here. The sight of the domers celebrating their faux holiday, the shop crier shouting about winter discount and special deals, costume to celebrate the holiday, all were suffocating for a duster like Elizabeth, who's used to the vast emptiness and loneliness of the desert. Still, Liz had to go into the domed city, because there's one thing that she needed to get, and there's no way that she could find it by scavenging through the junk out in the desert.
"Well, at least this is on discount as well." Liz opened the cork of 'Wolke', a cheap cloudy gin, before she poured a few splashes onto an old dried-up well, and drinking some of it herself. As Kurao was mostly associated with clouds, the Nu-Shinto believed that by 'pouring cloud', Kurao would regain his power sooner, and send more snowflakes down. Liz didn't know what does 'pouring cloud' meant, as the images in her book shown the boy literally pouring cloud from a bottle to a well, and no one could read what it was supposed to represent. So Liz improvised, by buying the cloudy gin and have that cloudy substance represent it. Also helps that the cloudiness resulted from the cheap filtration process, so she didn't have to spend too much on it. Elizabeth had been doing this ritual for several years now, ever since she got enough money that she can afford to buy some gin to splash onto the well. The well itself was dried beyond salvation, and the ruins surrounding it were completely abandoned. So in essence, there's only Elizabeth, and hopefully, Kurao. Not that she's too hopeful about the prospect of deities, anyway. If there's a deity, then they wouldn't have screwed up earth this badly that most people had decided to abandon it. Maybe that's why, because there are not a lot of believers, and the gods require belief, that made them weak, and that's why they couldn't save earth.
Liz chuckled, as she drank some more of the bitter gin, splashed a bit more, before she threw some coin-sized gear onto the well. "Hope these'll suffice. Can't really spare any currency, but hey, it's shaped like one." Liz sighed before she finished her yearly ritual. She bowed deeply once, clapped her hand twice, silently prayed for snow, or at the very least a cool weather for scavenging, and once she's done, bowed another time. "Cheers, Kurao-sama, here's hoping it's the year you'd return, if you exist." Elizabeth poured the rest of the bottle into the well, before she placed the gin bottle next to the well, next to the rest of empty bottles from all the years she had been visiting the dried well. It didn't matter whether this Kurao deity existed, or that the ritual was long gone and forgotten. It's for Liz herself, for her to feel like she's still human, that she still exists, and not like what the domers called her, a dust in the desert. It's a sad ritual, but it's a way for Liz to anchor herself to the world she inhabits, the culture of the past desert dweller, the hope they used to cling to. There has never been an organic snowflake throughout her life, anywhere in the world, making the whole ritual pointless at worst, or blindly hopeful at best. But hey, just like how the domers celebrate Christmas, despite only a small minority of them is Neo-Catholic, this is just Elizabeth's own way to celebrate her holiday, out here in the desert. Smiling, Elizabeth slung her pack back, before she walked out of the ruins, and back into her mundane desert lifestyle.
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