Festival of Lights
Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:17 pm
Note: I am not Hindu and have not celebrated Diwali personally. I have researched as much as I can, but if mistakes remain I apologize sincerely. Thanks to Roach and Lauren's players for giving this a look over for me!
Diwali - the Hindu festival of lights and one of the most important festivals of the year. Celebrates the victory of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance
Heading back to the dorms, Diya left the box of donuts on a table in the commons. Even though it was getting late, she was sure someone would come by and eat them. If not now, then in the morning. This was a high school - there would be someone hungry enough to eat donuts without wondering where they came from or how old they were.
Diya found she had her room to herself when she arrived. That was just as well. She’d spent the whole day around people. All she wanted was some time to herself for now.
It had been a long...confusing...and exciting day. Despite it being freezing cold, she went out to Circe Island with Brodi. He wanted to talk. She was feeling a little hurt after the talk the night before, but still hopeful. Maybe that made her like a kicked puppy, but she dutifully went, finding Brodi with a good sized bonfire already going. He apologized, again, even though Diya kept insisting he had nothing to apologize for. They finally settled on an apology for being cranky the night before as being acceptable.
Sitting close together, sharing chili dogs (vegetarian chili over a tofu dog for Brodi) from Westy’s, and looking at the stars, it was beginning to feel like old times again.
And then Brodi kissed her, and it was definitely like old times again. Except she felt nervous. Partly because of Brodi’s new abilities - she had no idea what sort of memories he’d be getting from her - and partly because while she definitely liked Brodi, had feelings for him, feelings she was finally willing to acknowledge even if she couldn’t name, she had no way of knowing if they matched the intensity of the feelings he had for her.
And maybe she’d never get to know that. Maybe this was something that relationships were about - taking risks. She was pretty sure that had come up in a session with Ms. Wilson at some point or another.
Brodi, ever perceptive, told Diya before they parted this wasn’t the start of anything official. He knew she had issues to work out - with herself, with Lauren - and wasn’t going to ask anything of her she wasn’t ready to commit to. He was just happy they could be together again.
And she was happy, too.
Unfortunately, Diya couldn’t spend her entire evening at the beach with Brodi. She had plans with Roach to blow stuff up. Or, more accurately, light a few sparklers and eat some donuts. She’d only remembered the start of Diwali after catching an e-card from her mother late the night before. She couldn’t put together a full scale celebration in less than twenty four hours, but surely there’d be people up for fried foods and sparklers.
It was a quiet night on campus, though. Her only co-revelers were Roach and Lauren. Diya tried to convince Roach that one of the tenets of Diwali was to be nice to your friends’ friends, but Roach never quite caught the subtleties of that. Or knew she was lying through her teeth. She had thought at one time that Roach was perceptive thanks to his psionic abilities, but in the last few weeks she’d come to think that he had a good eye for people all on his own.
In the courtyard, standing around a trash can Roach had procured while Mr. Herbert stood to the side acting as a nominal chaperon for the pyrotechnics, Diya stumbled through an explanation of Diwali as Roach handed out the sparklers. Her family wasn’t religious. She’d mostly been into this for the food when she was a kid. Her parents hadn’t really grown up with the celebration, either, so Diya was pretty sure she was missing some of the finer points.
“Aren’t there special lamps involved?” Lauren asked as she twirled a sparkler absently.
Diya glanced over with a smirk, sure this was a trick question, but Lauren seemed oblivious. And then Roach had to go and interrupt the moment. “I see you went and did your research on what you eat.”
Diya rounded on Roach, but before she could scold him too badly, he tossed the remains of his sparkler into the trash can he’d hauled into the middle of the courtyard. “You guys might wanna step back,” he warned, doing so himself. Before Diya could respond, a shower of multi-colored sparks shot out of the trash can.
“What was that?” Lauren asked, startled.
Roach grinned and started to explain that it was just a little firework, but Mr. Herbert wasn’t having any of it, and hauled Roach away while Roach, displaying his usual cultural sensitivity, demanded Diya “curse the white man.”
So despite the fact that Diwali usually consists of lighting fire crackers and eating too much food, Diya spent her evening sitting quietly in the courtyard, watching Lauren make crazy flowers out of sparklers and talking about their families.
And for brief moments, when she could forget the inherent awkwardness of being around Lauren these days and the weirdness in the school, it actually felt kind of normal.
In her room, Diya picked up her phone and stared for a moment at her phone’s background. She’d changed it last night after getting her mom’s e-mail to a picture of a diya - the special lamp lit during Diwali that Lauren had been asking about earlier. Lighting the lamp was to symbolize the destruction, through the light of knowledge, of negative forces. During Diwali, you were supposed to overcome and forget about the anger and greed and injustices of the last year. Diya didn’t think she was quite capable of doing all of that, not at once. But she could start making some small steps.
She tapped in a number on her phone. The answer came on the second ring.
“Happy Diwali!”
Diya smiled. “Happy Diwali, Dad.”
“Dynamo! Good to hear from you, kid.”
“Thanks, Dad. Is Mom there? I...think I’d like to talk to you guys for awhile.”
Diwali - the Hindu festival of lights and one of the most important festivals of the year. Celebrates the victory of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance
Heading back to the dorms, Diya left the box of donuts on a table in the commons. Even though it was getting late, she was sure someone would come by and eat them. If not now, then in the morning. This was a high school - there would be someone hungry enough to eat donuts without wondering where they came from or how old they were.
Diya found she had her room to herself when she arrived. That was just as well. She’d spent the whole day around people. All she wanted was some time to herself for now.
It had been a long...confusing...and exciting day. Despite it being freezing cold, she went out to Circe Island with Brodi. He wanted to talk. She was feeling a little hurt after the talk the night before, but still hopeful. Maybe that made her like a kicked puppy, but she dutifully went, finding Brodi with a good sized bonfire already going. He apologized, again, even though Diya kept insisting he had nothing to apologize for. They finally settled on an apology for being cranky the night before as being acceptable.
Sitting close together, sharing chili dogs (vegetarian chili over a tofu dog for Brodi) from Westy’s, and looking at the stars, it was beginning to feel like old times again.
And then Brodi kissed her, and it was definitely like old times again. Except she felt nervous. Partly because of Brodi’s new abilities - she had no idea what sort of memories he’d be getting from her - and partly because while she definitely liked Brodi, had feelings for him, feelings she was finally willing to acknowledge even if she couldn’t name, she had no way of knowing if they matched the intensity of the feelings he had for her.
And maybe she’d never get to know that. Maybe this was something that relationships were about - taking risks. She was pretty sure that had come up in a session with Ms. Wilson at some point or another.
Brodi, ever perceptive, told Diya before they parted this wasn’t the start of anything official. He knew she had issues to work out - with herself, with Lauren - and wasn’t going to ask anything of her she wasn’t ready to commit to. He was just happy they could be together again.
And she was happy, too.
Unfortunately, Diya couldn’t spend her entire evening at the beach with Brodi. She had plans with Roach to blow stuff up. Or, more accurately, light a few sparklers and eat some donuts. She’d only remembered the start of Diwali after catching an e-card from her mother late the night before. She couldn’t put together a full scale celebration in less than twenty four hours, but surely there’d be people up for fried foods and sparklers.
It was a quiet night on campus, though. Her only co-revelers were Roach and Lauren. Diya tried to convince Roach that one of the tenets of Diwali was to be nice to your friends’ friends, but Roach never quite caught the subtleties of that. Or knew she was lying through her teeth. She had thought at one time that Roach was perceptive thanks to his psionic abilities, but in the last few weeks she’d come to think that he had a good eye for people all on his own.
In the courtyard, standing around a trash can Roach had procured while Mr. Herbert stood to the side acting as a nominal chaperon for the pyrotechnics, Diya stumbled through an explanation of Diwali as Roach handed out the sparklers. Her family wasn’t religious. She’d mostly been into this for the food when she was a kid. Her parents hadn’t really grown up with the celebration, either, so Diya was pretty sure she was missing some of the finer points.
“Aren’t there special lamps involved?” Lauren asked as she twirled a sparkler absently.
Diya glanced over with a smirk, sure this was a trick question, but Lauren seemed oblivious. And then Roach had to go and interrupt the moment. “I see you went and did your research on what you eat.”
Diya rounded on Roach, but before she could scold him too badly, he tossed the remains of his sparkler into the trash can he’d hauled into the middle of the courtyard. “You guys might wanna step back,” he warned, doing so himself. Before Diya could respond, a shower of multi-colored sparks shot out of the trash can.
“What was that?” Lauren asked, startled.
Roach grinned and started to explain that it was just a little firework, but Mr. Herbert wasn’t having any of it, and hauled Roach away while Roach, displaying his usual cultural sensitivity, demanded Diya “curse the white man.”
So despite the fact that Diwali usually consists of lighting fire crackers and eating too much food, Diya spent her evening sitting quietly in the courtyard, watching Lauren make crazy flowers out of sparklers and talking about their families.
And for brief moments, when she could forget the inherent awkwardness of being around Lauren these days and the weirdness in the school, it actually felt kind of normal.
In her room, Diya picked up her phone and stared for a moment at her phone’s background. She’d changed it last night after getting her mom’s e-mail to a picture of a diya - the special lamp lit during Diwali that Lauren had been asking about earlier. Lighting the lamp was to symbolize the destruction, through the light of knowledge, of negative forces. During Diwali, you were supposed to overcome and forget about the anger and greed and injustices of the last year. Diya didn’t think she was quite capable of doing all of that, not at once. But she could start making some small steps.
She tapped in a number on her phone. The answer came on the second ring.
“Happy Diwali!”
Diya smiled. “Happy Diwali, Dad.”
“Dynamo! Good to hear from you, kid.”
“Thanks, Dad. Is Mom there? I...think I’d like to talk to you guys for awhile.”