towerofanimus | The weather's annoying, isn't it?

Entry tags:

The weather's annoying, isn't it?

Characters: Enoch and anyone!
Setting: Around the tower, forward-dated to the 12th.
Format: Either is fine!
Summary: Enoch made several cloaks last week and is handing them out....even if he's sick.
Warnings: None yet!

He'd been pressing his luck, going around and trying to give comfort or company to the sick. Though, one couldn't blame him, given that the most illness he's had in a century is a bit of an upset stomach. He's built up quite a resistance.

He'd almost forgotten what it was like to be truly sick, to have a headache behind his eyes and for his limbs to feel weighted. But he wasn't letting it stop him. He was going to give out these cloaks he made before it got even worse. So he wandered the tower, handing out a cloak to anyone who seemed as if they could need one, or anyone who asked.

There were ten of them in his arms, varying colors. All of them were hooded, and about medium-length. They would be large on a child and a little short on someone taller like him, but they would do either way. So even with the occasional cough and sniffle, or the stop to sneeze (not into the cloaks, thankfully) every now and then, perhaps it was worth the risk of being sick for a chance to get a little warmer.

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Tohko smiled a little bit and nodded.

"Yes, now that you mention it. People usually celebrate Christmas by having evergreen trees in their house and decorate them with lights and glass balls. However, people have taken to using false ones to preserve trees. Why do you ask? Did you see them in the world you were at before?"

"I did. ...Would this Santa normally be shown wearing a red hat with fur trim, and would Jesus have been born nearer my time than yours?"

Suddenly, everything was making sense. The contents of the attic were stored away in preparation for the winter...he wondered if that ornate dress hidden away was part of the celebration, too.

And that smile only grows wider..

"Yup! Santa usually wears a red suit and hat with white fur trim, and while I don't know the exact year Jesus was born, he would have been closer to your time than mine."

"Ah...would it involve dressing in expensive gowns as well?"

He'd been going conveniently long without a coughing fit - before he could go on about the box of clothes in there, his body decided to rectify that.

"Sometimes, as people do have Christmas parties..and in the Jesus story, three wise men in expensive robes visited him when he was a newborn. Why do you ask?"

When he started coughing, carefully held onto his arm so that he didn't fall or trip, due to the force of the coughs.

"Hey, are you alright? Want me to grab some cough syrup?"

Enoch shook his head, taking a deep breath after those coughs.

"So that was...what the noblemen were. I'd wondered."

Tohko nodded and let go. If he was fine, then it was alright.

"That they are..did you see some figurine of them or something?"

"In Meridian, I did." Which reminds him, he needed to get on telling Tohko about his time before that. With everything that had happened, he hadn't had the drive to gather his thoughts on such a painful time.

Which was fine. Tohko was patient when it came to this telling stories like this. At his sentence, Tohko smiled and nodded.

"Ah, alright then! So that's what the world you were in before was called..you probably saw a nativity scene then. Small figurines of the wise men with Jesus's parents, a child in a hayloft and some animals surrounding them, right?"

There weren't any animals, no...

*Or was there a lamb somewhere? No, the detail couldn't be fuzzy already! He couldn't be losing those memories! His panic was, thankfully or not, lost in another coughing fit.*

...but everything else was definitely there, with angelic figures above them.

Tohko looked a little worried at Enoch, as it seemed like he was panicking about something before he went into another coughing fit, but she said nothing about it.

"That was probably a nativity scene then. It's common for families to display them during or near Christmas."

Enoch sighed after the fit subsided. He wished the infirmary had something familiar like honey instead of those strange-smelling things.

"Why were they in a barn?"

"Because Jesus's parents, Mary and Joseph, were too poor for the inn that was nearby. So, for a small fee, the convinced the innkeeper to let them spend the night in the barn." Tohko explained.

She had always thought the innkeeper was pretty cruel for doing that, as the nights in that setting were cold, and a barn didn't provide a lot of warmth. At least, that's what she thought.

Hay wasn't a very good insulator, but most livestock or pack animals had much higher body heat than humans, he'd found. It all depended on the situation, of course, but... Children had been born in worse conditions, he was sure.

"So that became immortalized in legend."

How odd, though, that the story should focus on his birth and not his deeds. Enoch thought it was strange, considering how easily a baby could die...though that much wasn't an issue when it was the son of God, was it?

Tohko nodded.

"Yup. So, since, according to the story, Jesus was born on December 25th, some people celebrate it for that reason. Although..again, I'm not sure whether Jesus's story is true in my universe, or, if it is, how much of it is.

Of course, there are quite a few other myths and stories that explain why we celebrate Christmas, but those are the two main ones."

Tohko could pull out all the different stories that explained the holiday, but it would take quite awhile, and she wasn't sure he wanted to hear every single story that explained it.

Tohko clearly underestimated Enoch and his love of new information.

"So, many people celebrate Christmas?"

Apparently so. However, she would not be sad about underestimating him.

She nodded her head.

"In my universe, they do! Of course, some people celebrate different winter holidays, and the dates are sometimes different, thanks to the many stories that have winter holidays. But Christmas is a very popular holiday, and it's celebrated by most everyone."

"Every nation I've ever known has a celebration for the winter solstice. It's a celebration of the turning tide, so to speak. The days will only grow longer, and the weather will only improve for the harvest."

Enoch makes his way to one of the tables and sits down, somewhere with an angle to see the stairs from, that's the fastest way to see who needs a cloak.

"Yup! The cold starts to fade away a little bit, and if people have survived that far, then they'll probably be fine for the rest of the winter."

Tohko nodded and sat down next to him.

"Although..it's funny that you should say it's the turning tide. There's a winter holiday called Yalda. It's an Iranian festival celebrating the victory of light and good over darkness and evil."

"It sounds interesting. But...winter is as much part of God's creation as spring. I can see that it might be seen as evil, but..." He shakes his head.

Tohko nodded.

"Oh, I'm not saying that winter is evil! It's just the story behind the holiday. Winter has a few disadvantages, but it has a lot of good things that spring doesn't. The two have advantages and disadvantages. It's all up to personal preference and stories whether one thinks that one is evil or not."

"I didn't...it wasn't an accusation meant for you. Only for the celebration."

Tohko chuckled and scratched her head.

"I know..I suppose I'm just trying to explain that I enjoy the story and the holiday, even if I know that Winter isn't a wholly bad thing. I'm sure that the people who celebrate it realize it nowadays as well, but keep on celebrating it because they like the stories and the festivals."

"That's true...even when there's no need to celebrate it, some still want to for the sake of celebration..."

Like Armaros had. They'd been planning it, when...

...it felt like so long ago, the longest half-year he'd ever experienced. Enoch lay his head on the table, as if tired.

Tohko nodded.

"For the sake of celebrating, for the sake of being together, for something to look forward to in dark times."

Tohko watched as Enoch lay his head on the table, looking concerned and a bit..apologetic.

"Hey..if you're tired and not feeling well, you should really get some rest. And if I bought up any bad memories, I apologize."

The weather's annoying, isn't it?

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