Story Reader / Festival Event Story / Once in a Blue Moon / Story
Heave-ho...
Pulao puts down a box with fireworks where she's been instructed to.
That's the fifteenth box. Almost there!
Pulao runs her hand playfully through the fireworks in excitement before she walks away ready to carry the next box.
???
Slacking off, huh? The celebration is about to begin and we can really use some help here carrying the rest of the boxes over.
Oops, my bad, but, see...
I guess I'm just feeling a little nostalgic. It's been a while since I last spent a night here.
Changyu looks away from the sea and focuses on the boxes that Pulao has put in place.
...
Nostalgic about the Golden Age, I guess?
Well... Sure, I guess.
Did people back then have to start doing all the prep in the morning for celebrations like we do now?
One morning would never have cut it. If the event came with performances, we'd have to start doing all the rehearsals and getting everything we needed a month ahead.
Wait, a month?! But isn't that a little...
A lot of people literally had nothing to do back then because the Punishing Virus wasn't around yet.
So in a way, the events were opportunities for those people to busy themselves with, who otherwise would have just sat around doing nothing.
Changyu looks over at the old buildings.
While looking the same old, these buildings seem eerily unfamiliar to him.
That tall building over there used to be pitch-dark after dark without those lights.
Being the Construct he is now, Changyu has a different take on the night after dark—that night is no longer a drape that veils the world when the sun is gone, and that all the lights, if anything, only serve to accentuate the lack of living souls out on the streets past dark.
And I guess you'd have been as busy as a bee now if we were back in the Golden Age?
You bet. People came to Kowloong from all over the world back then, and we never failed to take advantage of that to advertise ourselves.
Festivals are more fun when you celebrate them lively, they said.
Of course.
I really enjoyed hanging out on the street because I didn't hate how crowded it was. I actually really enjoyed being around a lot of people.
Changyu nods in agreement—as the hustle and bustle of the good old days becomes one with the view in front of him...
We'll probably never see days like that again, though.
People are all over the place now on the planet, and there are even those that left Earth and went up.
It wasn't even an emergency, and it's a real shame... that the world has become what it has.
Changyu says with a sigh as he scratches his head.
But there is nothing we can do about the past.
Come here and give us a hand with the fireworks. We probably won't see days like those again as you just said, but I'm sure people still look forward to the celebration all the same.
Pulao turns around ready to leave—but shoots another glance back at Changyu, having sensed something out of the ordinary about him.
Changyu, are you okay?
Changyu doesn't say anything—all the while keeping his hand held out and open, as though trying to catch something.
Right then, a colorful splotch rains down from above. Pulao snatches some of them right in time.
Are these... paper?
Opening her hand, she sees tiny pieces of paper sitting on it quietly...
Not knowing that there are more where they came from.
What's going on?
Changyu is about to speak when a notification box pops up in his terminal signaling the arrival of a new email.
Is that a card from Jamilah?
No...
Seemingly taken aback, Changyu raises his head and looks into the distance.
It's from Babylonia.
Boxes containing marine creatures in all kinds of colors are being carried out of a fishing boat docked at the port.
These fish should last us for a while.
You've all been most helpful, my dear Forest Guards.
What happened to the place we used to fish at, though? The amount of fish there just suddenly plunged.
You know, I was actually thinking about borrowing old John's water pump to pump some water.
Right in the middle of their conversation, all their terminals let out the same beep.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival... from Babylonia?
Got all the extra supplies for the holiday sent to where they were supposed to go.
Thanks. You deserve some quality rest.
What's your plan, Boss?
I'm going to collect everyone's cards.
And pick a few out and read them out? God, I wonder who's going to get picked this year.
C'mon, we're keeping this practice around for a reason. And you don't even know if you'll be picked.
Boss! Boss!
Hey, pull yourself together, What's going on?
We got a mail from Babylonia!
Babylonia? Why now, though?
What does it say?
They... I mean, Babylonia says...
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival...
In the moonlight pouring over a pile of ruins, a girl can be seen setting up a drawing board and rolling out a piece of drawing paper.
Wherever her paintbrush goes, it leaves behind strokes that gradually come together to form a meticulous painting, reproducing the image her sensor has picked up.
Then, right before she paints her last stroke, the girl stops cold.
Haicma.
Confirmed to be public information. Assessing level of risk...
Let's just accept it. I don't know if it's going to do us any harm.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival... from Babylonia? Any chance this mail might carry an encrypted message with it?
...
Haicma?
A-apologies... but the handwriting in the message seems familiar to me, and I was just thinking why this mail was sent to us like this.
It's probably some sort of miracle, I guess.
