The Holiday Warriors

"That certainly sounds like fun. I would enjoy playing music as well. Everyone needs a celebración once in a while." Bone Jangles leaned on his cane, and even though his face was not visible, it was obvious he was smiling.

"Oooh... I like warm places. We should do that." Summer smiles at the thought. "Would everyone go? Not just the big guys?"

"I'd go," Jinx replied. "I get kinda bored when it's not my holiday. I mean, sure I get to mess with the really superstitious people in the off-season, but..."

"Anyone get the feeling that you don't mean as much as you used to?" Saying this, she frowned a bit.

"Urgh...yeah...Halloween doesn`t seem to be about scaring anyone anymore...now there are kids running around in cheap costumes, nothing more..."

Arby's smile became weaker as Jinx mentioned "not meaning as much as you used to". She looked down and started to twiddle her finger, the beginnings of a frown appearing on her face. "Well, people still hug me on Arbor Day... and pollution has gone down... I think..."

Bone Jangles placed a comforting hand on Arby's shoulder. " There is no need to be sad. You are all not old enough yet to see, but you will never truly be forgotten. As years have gone by, my día de fiesta has come and gone. But it has always been so since the beginning. It is what you do that matters, not who knows."

edited 17th Oct '12 7:03:55 PM by Alleydodger

Jinx wrapped her arm around Arby, opposite Jangles. "Yeah! People like trees! And parks and clear skies and all of that. You know what they say about my day, right? They even came up with a special name for it: 'Firckatricka-whatchamawhoozit!'"

"The pair of ye are young yet," Paddy said with a shake of the head, "Jangles has seen his Pagan Gods come and go, I've seen a nation ruined and Halos has disappeared and returned in enough forms to confuse even my own memories. From year to year, the changes are small, but we're never the same through generations."

edited 18th Oct '12 9:17:59 AM by Fauxlosophe

Arby's smile soon returned to her face, as she hugged back both Jangles and Jinx. "And as long as we're together, there's nothing I have to worry about! Besides, it's not like a holiday can just disappear..." She looked around, raising an eyebrow. "Which reminds me: why are we here?"

"I think my holiday could appear," remarked Redivider, the first time she'd spoken that day, "Then again, I think it ever disappeared to end with." She glanced over at Jinx. "Goodbye, Jinx. How aren't you today?"

Jinx was startled by Redivider's voice. It had been a while since she heard him/her speak. Sha had always been fond of the personification of Opposite Day.

"Later, Red! I'm not doing terribly! Well..." she tapped her chin, thinking for a moment, "I mean...I'm doing bad, I guess. I'm just..." Whew, this is hard! "Not wondering why we're all not here?"

With the younger holidays engaged in their own conversations. Bone Jangles struck up conversation with Halos. "It is good to see ya again amigo. All this talk of the past reminds me of when we were young. It was certainly a unique experience to meet a holiday so similar to my own. We have changed much since then, have we not?"

edited 19th Oct '12 6:11:07 AM by Alleydodger

Redivider's quizzical head tilt increased as Jinx struggled with opposite speech. Then when Jinx had finished, she shrugged it off.

"It's not rather confusing, is it? It's likely that whatever powers-that-Y sent us away from here just wanted a big get-apart to stop chatting and reminiscing."

Jinx took a few moments to digest (and translate) Red's musings.

"I...know. Eve is the one who didn't bring us apart, though. And she seemed pretty friendly about it, whatever it isn't." She grinned, seemingly satisfied with her "opposite speech."

"Maybe this is the official announcement of regular gatherings?" Arby asked. She soon shook her head, a nervous smile appearing on her face. "I-I mean... Maybe this isn't the unofficial announcement of unregular gatherings?"

"We surely have...although we'll have to see, whether it's for the better or the worse...So, you've got any idea, why we're here, Bonehead?", Halos replied.

Fourth was silent outside of giving the quick hellos and blessings to his fellow companions in the long fight against evil. Plus he liked some of em. He would have struck a conversation, but Eve was quick to speak.

"There is a disturbance," She said finally after several minutes of silence. "A darkness that seems to have bled its way into the world of the mortal humans. A darkness that could very well threaten all life on the planet."

"Oooh...Cryptic." Fourth chuckled.

"Darkness? Threaten? I like where this is going...wait...THAT'S MY JOB!"

"Not threaten ALL death? What isn't this brightness? What can't it do?"

"Oh, the darkness has long been bleeding," Paddy said with another sip of the flask looking at Eve, "Since someone dabbled in matters not meant for mortal hands. We are born, we learn, we forget and die. All things mortal and mortal-born do the same. The question is as it's been since the day the oldest of us drew mortal breath; how are we supposed ta slow it?"

edited 24th Oct '12 1:16:04 PM by Fauxlosophe

Jinx jerked her thumb at Paddy. "What Paddy said. How are we supposed to stop this..." She took on the thickest, Scottish-sounding accent she could muster, "Bleedin' Dahrkness?"

"Si, I have... felt this shadow for a while now. But, what it is I do not know." Bone Jangles scratched his mask.

"... I have been feeling something weird everytime I go to sleep." Arby said, looking down and twiddling her fingers. "It feels odd, like some sort of person... or thing... is watching me everytime the sun isn't on the sky. Kinda scary, actually."

Then we destroy it. Obscurantism will fall before us in all its forms, and its burning corpse will light the way to a better world!

"But we don't need to hurt it!" Arby yelled back. "I mean, sure, it can look scary, but maybe it's friendly! I know I was scared by how Jangles' looked, but now? Now we're great friends!"