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[notthatjason]

[Jason is sitting on what looks like a bunk of a cabin one might find at a camp. His back is propped against a wall and his sleeves are rolled up. He sets something aside, the slight twist of his arm briefly showing an eagle tattoo, and directs his attention to the screen. He moved too fast for you to see what he had set aside though.]

Okay, so I've been trying to do some research lately on Valor's Day since it was mentioned and I guess I didn't realize that meant we were nearing Earth's winter already. I mean...I guess it's not hard to get confused on your timeline when your abducted from your own time and dimension and brought to space.

[He shrugs. That's not his point so he presses forward.]

Anyway, that's not why I'm here. This time for me last year I was dealing with goddess-induced amnesia and going on a quest to rescue said goddess. I wasn't able to really celebrate any holidays. Which sucks because New Rome always throws a big festival this time of year. Guess I'm missing it again this year too. I know someone or maybe multiple people will be throwing parties around though, so that's good.

But before I got here I was given a title, Pontifex, that I've been more or less neglecting because I wasn't sure what to do with it here. The title basically means I'm supposed to start celebrating or at least acknowledging all of the gods again and I was hoping, before I came here anyway, to use that to help reunite the Roman and Greek camps. Kinda hard to do that from the future...and space...in another reality...

[Is he making sense still? Gods there's a reason he doesn't usually do these video things except to reply to other people. Still, his nerves don't outwardly show, except for the fact that he keeps fidgeting with something off screen.]

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I'd like to celebrate one of my own holiday traditions here. But the holiday in question is supposed to be about feasting and celebration which is a little hard to do by yourself. I figure the feasting part can be taken care of during the New Valor celebrations, but I thought I could at leave have a small part of the celebration of Saturnalia the way we used to do it in New Rome. We would line the Forum with hundreds of candles and have a ceremony in front of the statue to Saturn.

My section of the Habitat Deck has a small recreation of Camp Halfblood.

[Which, don't get him started on how that should be a contradiction because no one is probably going to understand but him anyway]

I don't have a Forum, but I've been working on getting candles and the right holo figure to use. Would anyone be interested in a candle-lighting ceremony before all the other celebrations begin? I imagine there are a few other traditions that follow the pattern of lighting candles or logs, so if someone wants to add that in that's fine too. Or, you know, a little quiet reflection before any more craziness starts.

[Pause and then he adds lamely.]

It just seemed strange to light all those candles by myself.

What about the rest of you? Any traditions for this time of year that you'll be missing out on?

Comments

[meanmonkey]

[ Sariatu is not entirely comfortable with this technology, but she's got a steep learning curve - when you've been around for a while, you learn to adapt quickly in a pinch.

So her face is slightly too close to the camera, but otherwise there's no sign she isn't capable of using it. (Thank you, Kubo, for helping her learn it.) ]

Kubo and I never celebrated much in the winter. But I'd be happy to light candles with you if you'd like my company.

[notthatjason]

[Jason smiles. He's relieved someone responded positively. Even better it's someone he likes and the mother of a friend. It seems pretty perfect.]

Sure. You two are more than welcome to come. Since it's Saturn's holiday I can even share some stories about him. I'm not nearly as good a story teller as Kubo, but he seemed pretty interested when I talked about the gods from my world before.

[meanmonkey]

Kubo has a very healthy love of stories. [ she sounds very proud of that fact ] He gets it from me. We would love to hear your stories.

[notthatjason]

No pressure then.

[What? Trying to impress another family? Never.]

[ka_sera_sera]

[Roland, like certain others who've sent Jason their own message already, is not at home with the omnicom yet, so whenever he does send messages with it he's decided to experiment, try its different functions. Today it's the audio. His voice isn't old, but it definitely isn't young; his words are precise and to the point.]

Any traditions in my - What was that word you used? Dimension? - are just the stuff of old stories now. But I'd help you keep yours alive, if you'll explain just what it is we're remembering.

Is it remembering? I know what those candles would symbolize in my own dimension [That unfamiliar word doesn't come out quite smoothly, still, but better.] but that doesn't mean much here, does it. What do they have to do with your Saturn?

[Not that he's familiar with that word either. One thing at a time.]

[notthatjason]

[Jason ponders that question for a moment.]

I don't think we're really remembering something, per say. Unless you count remembering one of our gods. I think the candles are more a carry over from an ancient part of the celebration, it was a festival of lights in Ancient Rome when they were celebrating the winter solstice and how the light would start coming back now that winter was at its peak. Candles were also one of the common gifts given back then, so I think we just ran with that in New Rome.

[You don't think about these things until someone asks. Jason never even really considered the meaning behind some of these traditions until now and now he wished he'd asked more about it.]

Saturn is the Roman god of plenty, wealth, and agriculture...to name a few. The festival came about after the Golden Age when he was representing the peace and prosperity of the time -- that just carried over and Romans continued to celebrate the peak of their civilization.

Oh, so I guess that could be another thing they are remembering.

[ka_sera_sera]

What's the ritual consist of? More tributes to Saturn, or do strangers simply gather to light the candles?

[notthatjason]

It's mostly about lighting the candles. Usually we'd go have a feast afterwards, but I think enough people are planning to do that anyway that I don't want to step on any events like that already planned.

[ka_sera_sera]

Mhm. I'll be there on the day once I find your camp. You'll not light your candles alone, at least this year.

[notthatjason]

[He smiles slightly. He doesn't really know this man and yet he's offering something that Jason really desires and appreciates.]

Thanks. That means a lot.

text;

[deafleppard]

Sure, I'll join in.

text;

[notthatjason]

thanks for coming. it shouldn't be too hard to find the camp in the habitat deck. but if you have trouble let me know.]

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[katsudork]

Valor's Day seems a lot like how they celebrate Christmas in America.

[Which he'd seen a little bit of in his time in Detroit, but he hadn't really had a lot of time to engage in it because the bulk of his winters have been taken up by the figure skating season. Still, there's plenty from back home that he missed in all his time away.]

Back home, we always had fried chicken at Christmas. Instead of buying it like everyone else, we made our own, though.

[His family always figured there was absolutely no point in braving the Christmas lines just for a bucket of the Colonel's own when they made perfectly good food as part of their living. As far as Yuuri's concerned, his mother's recipe is better anyway.]

And we had Christmas cake.

[Of course, it's not just the food itself he missed while he was away. He went five years without being able to sit down with his family for the holiday. For any holidays. For any meals at all. While he loves food just because...food, it's also because it's always been the most obvious way they've shown their love.]

Christmas is still more of a couples holiday in my country, though. Our bigger winter holiday is New Year's.

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[notthatjason]

I noticed that too, I think that's what got me thinking about my own camp's traditions.

[Jason also likes hearing about other traditions, so he's very attentive as Yuuri explains his.]

Fried chicken and cake? That sounds delicious. We had a big feast, but usually that's where the American tradition started bleeding in to our Roman traditions. Our food was usually things like a big carved turkey and various pies.

[Now he's making himself hungry.]

New Years is a fun holiday too. Although, we're usually partied out by that point. I know a few of us used to sneak out and go to the big fireworks show that happened in San Francisco though.

[He tilts his head.]

So you aren't from America though, but you visited. Where are you from originally?

[katsudork]

Hasetsu, Japan. I lived in the States for a few years to train in figure skating with a coach, and went to college there.

[College being the afterthought, really. He'd finished school but it definitely hadn't been his biggest priority.]

[notthatjason]

Oh! Cool. So do you skate competitively? I mean...was it necessary to move to the states to train in that?

[It's probably obvious that Jason knows absolutely nothing about figure skating -- professional or otherwise]