Translate

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #ZaiixiDay (Alt. search #ZDay)


              Well, this story took me quite some time. Lot's of “world building”. Won't have as much time to work on my book but I did like how the story worked out. Maybe I'll my friend CJ over this weekend to edit my book further. He's been pointing out problems as we go through line-by-line even more than grammatically and he just gives out a detailed opinion too so the more I learn from him the more I'll be able to improve said book. I started this book before I did this blog and I'm getting better at writing it as I go along. When I do more rewrites it'll probably be tons better too. Also my next book will be pretty strong too, because as soon as I send this one out to be looked at by publishers(there is a massive wait time for publishers to process your work often months especially if your new) I'm going to doing something new. My current book's in 3rd person and my other book is going to be in a completely different world with a completely different premise in the first person(which I've gotten tons of practice doing from this blog, which I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't have started this blog.) So yeah those are my plans. Anyhow, onto the flash fiction!




Zaiixi Day


        Zaiixi Day was the most important holiday in all the magical lands. It celebrates the day that the sorceress Zaiixi came from her world to theirs and brought magic with her by opening up a hole in her world to allow magic to leak in like water. All magical creatures in their world were ancestors of ones she brought when she came to their world. At least that's what the Ancient Texts said.
         The celebration of this event actually spreads over the entire month before it and even more extending into its own 'holiday season'. In some part because of the absurd amount of decorations the wizards and witches have to set up. And the requirement on decorations. Being on the same level technologically with the more mundane lands in the other dimensions such as Earth gives them access to lights or plastic figures or trains and such. They can use these for the more mundane holidays of the year but for the holiday of Zaiixi Day everything must be magic because it is a holiday about magic. It is a requirement that every decoration must be magical in some way, usually enchanted. Pretty much every lawn has something levitating. A trick that some wizards and witches often use to make their houses really light up at night is to have decorations that have been enchanted to be perpetually on fire without being damaged.
         As for what the decorations usually are a cliché decoration type is animated figurines of magical creatures. Somebody usually has at least has one enchanted plastic dragon flying around in circles on their roof. (Apartment complexes or other residential buildings can be quite spectacular compared to houses as usually every resident inside bands together to decorate the entire building.) Other decorations can including things like “standing spells” which are spells that last quite awhile, or until deactivated and usually involve drawing some symbols in the ground or floor or other surface. They stop when the symbol is removed. An example would be a miniature thunderstorm one or two feet in size. Wizards try to make ones like those turn themselves temporarily off at night so they don't bother the neighbors when they're asleep. Sometimes people make animated sculptures dancing or performing in some other way. Sometimes people spend much more than the usual month setting up decorations, some spend the entire year.
          People don't put up any sculptures or representations of the sorceress Zaiixi herself. That is an entire other division of the holiday culture itself. The Ancient Texts actually don't specify anything about how she looks except that she had obtained eternal youth and extraordinary beauty. It did specify that she wore golden robes and a red witch's hat. But instead of people taking liberty with her appearances it became tradition for young women to dress as her for the holiday season. The definition of age for 'young woman' was eventually settled to be from sixteen to twenty six. Though after twenty four and after it was pushing it. Some older women would dress up to fake being young but this was frowned down upon and if the woman was caught, which they usually were, they would be looked at as, desperate, old crones and would probably have no shot at dating for quite some time. Married women didn't dress up.
         The women's fashion industry made a huge amount of its money off of makeup, robes and hats as women dressed up to be Zaiixi for the season. The texts only specified colors so the industry made thousands of different kinds of robes and hats to sell. Each year they'd try to come out with something new to outdate old costumes. One way a boy could get a girlfriend is to offer whoever he wants a Zaiixi costume, the more expensive the better, at the start of the season and tell her how wonderful she would look in it. And if she accepts it they're pretty much 'officially dating'. The majority of the couples started out like this in the magical lands. The season of this magical holiday was also nicknamed “the couples season”.
         There are various parties in the season. They come in a few variates. First off there are spell parties. Normal, mundane parties are considered against the holiday spirit. Spell parties are where everyone eats dinner(or maybe some other meal but that's pretty rare as these are usually held later in the day) in a circle on the floor or ground around some object. This can be a stone, hunk of wood or doll or something else. Throughout the night the partygoers cast spells on the object. A few people try to use it to show off, but most people use it just to try to be funny or to do something neat and entertaining.
         The most famous spell party of all time involved an incredibly powerful wizard who was also incredibly grumpy. He had decided to pass on casting a spell but every one bugged him so much that he eventually snapped. He said fine. The object they had at the party was an old-timey doll owned by the granddaughter of the host of the party. The grumpy, powerful wizard in his rage decided to summon an elder demon god from another dimension to devour the doll. It did. But instead of being traumatized the little granddaughter thought the elder demon god was much more adorable and asked if she could keep him instead. The grumpy wizard thought it was hilarious and cheered up. He said yes, especially since he couldn't send the elder god back. The elder demon god is now named Snookie and is enslaved to the granddaughter who is currently in her thirties and having it work for charity picking up litter.
         Other parties include illusion parties where participates try to dazzle or scare each other with illusion spells and then there are shape shifting parties where it is like a mundane world's costume party but the people come shape shifted with magic into creatures or animals for the night.
         Various towns and cities and such have their own unique events but there are two seasonal event types that everyone has. First there are the creature shows. This is where magical creature tamers show of their creatures that they have been breeding and taming to the world on television. Since Zaiixi brought these creatures into the world it thought only fitting they are showcased to the world in shows throughout the season. Next are the spell shows. Here wizards show off their spells in various shows. National leagues exist and the winners from those all come together to perform in one big show towards the end of the season. One famous show had a witch going to prison afterward because she caused a miniature earthquake endangering everyone. No one was injured because the stadium was so well enforced for powerful spells like that. She said that she planned for the safety measures but the police didn't care. She replied. “Well doesn't matter, I still gave you the best show you'll ever get!”
         Zaiixi Day itself is actually very calm and reserved in contrast to the spectacular shows. One thing that Zaiixi also brought to this world was many magical artifacts, wands and items plus the knowledge and how to make more of them. So on this day families gather and give each other gifts of magical items, no mundane items are ever given. Dinners are also held if the families can manage it. On this day the young women always wear their Zaiixi costumes and although the families are all giving the gifts to each other the young women wearing the costumes are the ones to hand them out. If there's no one in the right age to be costumed then whoever is giving their gift hands it out. The presents are usually in boxes wrapped in paper with pictures of magical creatures on it.
       And at the end of the day a special spell is cast. This spell unites the minds of everyone in the family for a few short moments in a blissful trance, not by any mind control technique, but by reminding them of all their best memories together all while linking their minds. So after that unity everyone departs and the next day the season closes and everyone puts away the decorations and continues on with the rest of the mundane year until the next holiday rolls around.

No comments:

Post a Comment