Emorin Howxander, a moondevil girl from way out in the ocean, crashlands her drug-running airplane in Wavefront, dazzled by fireworks in the clouds. Her plummeting one-person craft slams into the corner of a concrete berth and ricochets through a waterside restaurant, Coral's Reef, demolishing it! Everyone inside it at the time vindictively assigns her the maximum possible punishment, activating a special legal 2x combo effect - so Emorin starts out her Wavefront citizenship on a forty-month incon mandate.

At first dreading whatever that was, she calmed down when her public defender explained the situation. This "punishment" was a more forgiving and relaxed lifestyle than the nature of her job back at home. But, her habits disliking the atmosphere, she knew it would be a grueling, boring experience.

In her first week, she got a job as contract courier. She walked around town handing off parcels -- mostly food for families, specimens between scientists, and minor orders from local stores. Emorin was thinking the variety would keep her interest active, but she didn't anticipate how complex the multi-dimensional civic layout can be. Even delivering up and down one street might need a map... At home she knew all the shortest routes in the islands backwards and upside-down. Once, after a belated overlong delivery, she fell asleep in a faux-ciel arboretum and woke up thinking she was back at home, until she saw a door leading out of the sky.

After a few days she started to get a route down, which impressed her contractor agents. Building confidence and losing any fear of her neighborhood's peaceful and nonconfrontational folk, when she finds a straight stretch of road, she zones out...

Lost in thought...

With a snap, you notice that the street is empty apart from you.

Nobody has been around you for a while.

The air starts to feel a little tight. A peculiar pale fog piles up.
Something is shambling up behind you.
Five misshapen shadows... no, si-- at least ten or more...
You suddenly want to be somewhere else.

A moment later a two-handed tug on your clothes yanks you into an alley.

It's a woman, shorter than you, covered in alpine plants,
and trying to press you against the wall, although only managing it with consent.
She puts a finger to her lips and keeps her eyes fixed on the shadows marching past,
among whom can be heard dozens of hissing, rasping chortles and cold remarks.

After they've trundled off and left the back way silent, the woman doesn't move.
She stands frozen, still looking off. After five seconds it seems time to speak.

[opens mouth]

Shhh!

... They're gone. What are you supposed to be?? Why are you dressed like that?

Dressed like what? What about you?
I'm on Christmas side, duh.
I'm wearing holly and mistletoe.
What are you? A turkey? A pilgrim?
A person?
Wait a sec! You're not even IN Holidaywar!
What are you doing on this lonely street??

Lonely streets

A few dozen sets of neighborhoods bereft of businesses and permanent residences.
They are equipped with fog machines, fans, and moody lighting
to supply a suitably dramatic environ for confrontations and mournful nighttime walks.

The ramshackle buildings may hold squatters and animals but not much else.
Emergency Services deliberately takes a full hour to respond here,
which is an intimidation measure that successfully scares away 98% of the population.

There are actual streets in Wavefront that really have that kind of desolate atmosphere,
but it's not always convenient to get to them.
Hence, more are created and maintained to keep regional hooligans and teens occupied.
True-blue hooligans and extremely rowdy teens look down on the fake lonely streets.

Holidaywar players are usually uncool adults who enjoy artificial theatrics.
Bastions of HolWar combats can be found in the summer -- which is also when people are more likely
to enter the lonely streets, purely by dint of wandering away from the sun and towards the cool mist.

It gets pretty hot in Wavefront during summer.
Not only is the climate naturally heated by the ocean's furnaces,
the city's crazy bustle has led to an enormous thermal efflux,
despite the best efforts of the city wizards to zero out waste and reuse all energy.
In some parts, the waterways drain out and reveal the lower layers of the city.
In others, waterways are introduced to the normal streets as a cheap way to propagate public pools.

It's a street, what the heck! I'm walking on it! To a destination?! I got a package to deliver! What's Holidaywar!
Oh! Out-of-towner!
Yes, I... "moved" here.
Oh, contests are big in Wavefront! Big contests all the time!
We do HolWar in the summer.
In the no man's land when no major holidays are scheduled.
Who's "we"?
The Holidaywar community.
O-kay. What is this, some kind of sport, or...
Yes but the game's ranking determines the budgets for the year's celebrations! The side that scores the biggest gets 1600x times the splendor allocated! Everyone who really cares about a holiday signs up for this. People who have a deep love and respect for tradition. People like me! Don't you have a favorite holiday?

Don't you have a favorite holiday?

She's looking deeply into your eyes.