YEOWCH!
The fuck's...going...on?
Uh, hi, Ladette.
Vince. Why the hell were you carryin' a box full'a candles.
It's how I celebrate Candlenights! I get a bunch, then keep a bunch lit every night.
Look, Vincenzo, I don't really care what you do in the confines'a your own room, but please tell me no-one else is gonna be doin' this, because a buncha candles being lit every night's gonna make me real nervous.
...Do you...not know what Candlenights is?
Sounds like a buncha fuckin' nights where people light a buncha fuckin' candles.
Nnnnnnnnno. That's just how I celebrate it. Do you really not know about Candlenights? It's a sacred tradition both here in Etria and where I come from! Probably a bunch of other places too!
Don't exactly have much time for sacred traditions when I gotta spend every day either shootin' dumb bastards or backstabbin' people that're plannin' on backstabbin' me.
...Dang, right, you...probably didn't have much time for holidays when you were in the mob, huh.
Yup.
Okay, so, uh... Oh, screw it, get your coat, it's easier to show than tell!
Wha-- And he's gone.









Fuck it, not like I got anything better to do.



















Ready?
This'd better damn well be worth my time, Vincenzo.


















So, Candlenights is why people put a buncha boxes in the town square, huh?
Someone told me it's an Etrian thing; people leave a buncha gifts in the center. Anyone that wants one is free to take one.
Oldest trick in the goddamn book.
Huh?
One'a those boxes is bound to have somethin' embarassin' in it, settin' you up to be blackmailed.
...No...?
Why the fuck else would anyone just leave a "gift" where anyone could take it?
Because it's Candlenights. It's the roughly-month-and-a-half where you celebrate the joy of winter, giving, friends, or whatever you want.




As long as it's not murder. Or anythin' that makes people that aren't rich feel bad.




Other crimes are fine though.
That last part seems suspiciously specific.
You can't tell me that shoutin' stuff at rich people that don't share with everyone else and then taking some of their things isn't fun and festive.
You're a real man'a the people, huh, Vincenzo.
I try.





























'Kay, so, lemme get this straight. People spend a month--
Roughly a month-and-a-half. It's bad luck not to say that whole thing.
...People spend roughly a month-and-a-half celebratin' the general joy'a livin' and bein' around others however they want, usually with gifts involved?
Yeah, that's about the gist of it.
The hell did any of this come from?
Apparently there used to be a bunch of holidays that happened around the end of the year, a long time ago, but people just sort of...rolled them into each other. And now we have Candlenights!
No fuckin' wonder no-one in the family ever celebrated somethin' like this. If ya ask me, this is just one big opportunity for coercion and extortion.
I mean. I guess, if you're a scummy person. Or paranoid. Like you kinda had to be.
...Well, 'least you get why I didn't get it. Still seems dumb t' me.
You willin' to at least give it a shot? Celebrate it your own way?
No promises.









:<
Quit lookin' at me like that.
:<
I said quit lookin' at me like that, Vincent.
:<










:<
Alright, fine. I'll give this Candlenights crap a shot.
Yay!
I reserve the right t' stop if it gets in the way'a anything, though, you got that? Oh, and no fuckin' candles in my room.
:<
VINCENT.

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