logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: october 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. scavenger hunt prizes are awarded. the ferry capsizes in a blaze of glory.
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

It's dim, and the room won't stop swaying, gently rocking you back and forth. A loud sound startles you fully awake, a deep, moaning call: a foghorn. As your eyes adjust, you note faint red light streaking through the room from a tiny, round window.

You've found yourself in a private room, lying on a bed. The last things you remember are the events that led up to your death. Beside you is a folded tablet and a lantern that glows steadily with a healthy flame.

You're on a ship. And that ship is docking.

Making your way to the deck, and eventually the pier, you find only moonlight to greet you, and a dark forest beyond. There are other people here, each with their own unique lantern, and many of them look just as lost as you are. On the ferry you've just disembarked from, the speaker system begins to play a song.

In the distance, across the waters of the lake, you can see the tall silhouette of a lighthouse, its red light slowly turning.

•••

Luckily for all the newcomers, the tablet and the town have some resources available for playing catch up! In fact, as soon as they're prompted to enter a network username, an app containing all sorts of useful welcome information will launch. Newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records in town hall as well, and everyone's welcome to get in touch with the NPCs through their inboxes.

When the ferry docks, it seems as though you've been spared from any weirdness this month! It's good to have a break now and then, isn't it? And if you participated in the scavenger hunt, you're probably eagerly awaiting your promised prize—

But, ohp, what's that sound? Is that the ferry's engine firing up again? The ship roars to life again as some brave mutineers overthrow its autopilot system. Crowley and the Winter Soldier man the ferry's control room while Aziraphale flits between the cargo hold and the deck, attempting to assuage any accidental kidnapees with reassuring words and cake.

Unfortunately, the joyride is shortlived. Between the ferry's complex control panel and the haphazard attempts to override it, all the group manages to do is send the boat charging full speed ahead—which would be great if it wasn't facing the beach. The ferry jolts forward and careens smack into the dock, tearing down the entire structure and punching a sizeable hole in the ferry's hull.

Well, that could've gone better. But there's no time to dwell on the mistakes of the very recent past! The ferry is sinking, and quickly! Looks like you'll have to scramble if you want to save what's left in the cargo hold before the whole thing goes under... And that's gonna be awfully tricky without a dock.

Oh, and maybe save the new arrivals? Make sure they don't drown? But, then again, if they go down with the ship, they'll just show up again in the church... The same can't be said for the restock for the general store!

As smoke billows from the damaged ferry and the last the harbor disappears into the lake, the Lighthouse Keeper appears on the network with a pretty straightforward question. Also, the ferry's song changes, so. That happens.

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, you are officially without a chaperone. Rastus is back at the bonfire, Will is characteristically elusive, and Robin is, well, you know where she's at. It's up to the veteran residents to fill in the new folks.

And regarding the ferry disaster... Well, you have some options. Here's what you need to know:
This is a player plot organized by MJ, Xy, and Gail! A big thank-you to them for providing us with this intro log event!

Whether or not your character and any packages addressed to them are affected by this plot is up to you! If you would like to assume your character avoids dealing with this chaos and somehow grabs their delivery without issue, go right ahead!

Similarly, if you're looking for an opportunity to make your character's life harder, injury and death are always on the table! Or maybe it's your package that takes the abuse, lost forever to the lake's depths or washing up all waterlogged a week or two down the road. In short: How you engage with this plot is entirely up to you.

What happens to the ferry and the dock? Within a couple of hours, the ferry will sink completely, and anything on board when it goes down is lost forever. Which bodes super well for the ferry, huh? Sure hope the next batch of newcomers has some strong swimmers. Oh, and the dock is gone, too. If you want it back, you'll have to rebuild it.

As for Crowley, Aziraphale, Bucky, and anyone else on the ferry or dock during the collision... Hope you boys like concussions, bruised ribs, and a broken bone or two, because you've got 'em! The exact injuries are up to you, but they're the equivalent of a semi-serious car accident.

One last thing: The fate of the shop restocks, including all of the food for the month, depends on you! Let us know if your character will be participating in the rescue attempt. In exchange for letting us beat up your character, you can save a portion of the month's supplies! We'll let you all know on October 3 what the rations for the rest of the month will look like.

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
For Daylight: A variety of gardening tools piled into a wheelbarrow, as well as packets of seeds for the following plants: Boneset, dogtooth violet, starflower, Carolina springbeauty, pipsissewa, bloodroot, red columbine, narrowleaf blue-eyed grass, harlequin blueflag, and purple pitcherplant; he will also receive a translation for the following: An invitation to join the speaker as company
For Aziraphale: A record player, the complete discographies of a variety of bands (Abba, Rob Zombie, Tool, Hanson, Eiffel 65, and Spice Girls), a two-tiered wedding cake, and packets of seeds for the following plants: Strawberry, cherry tomato, cucumber, blackberry, carrot, potato, raspberry, and pumpkin; he will also receive a familiar copy of a familiar book: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, along with a blue ribbon that reads "BEST IN SHOW"
For Bruce: A handheld metal detector and a rechargeable battery for it, a chisel, a climbing harness (that, according to the packaging, is the #1 Safety Rated!) and a 50 ft. coil of rope
For Cao Pi: A go board
For Rosinante: A sextant, and 3 cartons of cigarettes; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Danger! Run and hide!"
For Kuai: A basket of 16 mooncakes, as well as incregredients for more
For Javert: 3 pairs of handcuffs, a greatcoat in Javert's size, and a trunk full of swords in varying styles and conditions; he will also receive an electric chainsaw
For Kol: A record player, the complete discographies of a variety of bands (New Kids on the Block, Weird Al Yankovic, Sound Garden, Ke$ha, INXS, and Spinal Tap), a cooler full of blood bags and ice packs, and an assortment of stamps; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "I'm lost" or "Need directions"
For Elena: A journal; she will also receive a portable generator (powerful enough for a single power tool or small appliance; can be charged through a typical wall outlet)
For Xayah: A thick journal and a glass vial of black ink; she will also receive a sizeable roll of barbed wire, as well as a stuffed animal
For Ignis: A spice restock (with a few new ones mixed in!), 3 paired of leather gloves, and... 12? pairs? of glasses? They're all in slightly different prescriptions, though. A variety pack!; he will also receive a power drill (runs on a rechargeable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Riku: A wood stove, a set of paints, and 5 canvases; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Looking for water" or "Thirsty"
For Matt: A rosary and a Braille Bible... which is more of a collection of volumes, really; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Looking for food" or "Hungry"
For Noctis: Two complete sets of the Lord of the Rings series (except, wait a minute... they appear to be the novelizations of the movies); he will also receive an SD card that, when plugged into a tablet, will upload GPS directions to a new location...
For Rosalind: A crate of basic all-purpose lab equipment, a fancy microscope, an emergency eye wash station, a mortar and pestle, a lab coat, a Lite Brite, and... the things she needs to make things float, whatever those are; she will also receive a pair of dousing rods (that will actually point in the direction of water, checkmate atheists)
For Jason: A translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Sympathy" or "I'm sorry"
For Coraline: A translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Teach me"
For Eliot: A bottle of hospital grade painkillers (it contains 10 doses and functions similarly to Vicodin)
For Allie: A bottle of strong antibiotics (it contains 10 doses and can fight off most any infection)
For Vanitas: A portable camping stove (runs on a portable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Hope: A soldering iron (runs on a portable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Quentin: A cannister of foaming bandage (can be used 5 times to immediately close a wound/stop semi-severe bleeding)
For Mary: An SD card that, when plugged into a tablet, will upload GPS directions to a new location...

If you submitted an item request last month and we've missed it here, let us know!

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She actually laughs, though it holds no humor in it. A dry huff of air spilling past her lips as he hits painfully close to home by running through a checklist that she can tick almost every box on. Likely more boxes than she's willing to admit, but Scarlett doesn't want to think of the way her Dad raised her as programming. It was necessary, even if she hadn't understood that until long after his death.

"Do you think I'm not a person?" Not trying to make it about herself, but trying to use herself to help change his perspective. It was one thing for her to keep silent - not to push him about the 'memory malfunction' and her subsequent injury. Then it felt like it was only herself who might be at risk but now? She couldn't dismiss these things as quirks if it meant others could be at risk because he was ordered by the wrong kind of asshole. More than that? She didn't want that for him.

"Because I don't have a family or a home and the only thing I've ever known is training to kill. It makes me different - heh, fucked up? Sure. But it doesn't make me a thing."

"You remember having all those things," the Soldier points out, turning the bulk of its attention to its arms. "You told me about your parents. That you used to have a home. The only home I know is a bank vault in Washington DC, with the Chair and the cryotank and a bunch of HYDRA assholes. And now Crowley's house, I guess," it adds as an afterthought.

Swapping the screwdriver for a pair of very tiny pliers, it continues, "Scarlett, you're a person. You have a full range of emotions, every memory you've ever made, and personal autonomy. You don't freak out at the idea of having an actual name, and you don't need a handler to tell you what to do with yourself between patrols and knife maintenance."

(That's a lot of honesty, there, pal.) Shrug. More tinkering.

"So if I hit my head tomorrow and forget all of those things? Is that when I stop becoming a person?" The truly messed up part of all of this? She can't say there's no logic in his words. What were people but a collection of memories an experiences that he apparently doesn't have?

He wasn't what he claimed to be either, that much she believed. He had emotions. She'd seen it when he'd snapped out of the 'memory malfunction' to see her bleeding on the ground. She'd seen it in the way he'd shown up in her room, concerned about her shoulder. She'd seen the look on his face when the Ferry had lurched when he'd realized how bad it was.

"You don't need one either." A handler. "You just believe you do." And he doesn't need to follow orders, he can make his own choices but how in the fuck can she begin to get him to see that?

"And you didn't want to do that today." She's not saying anything new, nothing that he hasn't said himself. "What's the worst thing that could have happened if you didn't?"

She also has a kind of logic to what she's saying, though-- there's nothing that would make the Soldier think Scarlett isn't a person. She's vibrant and alive and so much more whole than it feels like it could ever be. It's just that everything in the Soldier shies away from the very idea, from the thought of being a person, from having a name and a past and actual choices. Even the chatty guy seems uncomfortable thinking too hard about it.

(If I'm a person. If I'm like her and Crowley and Noctis. If I'm like all the people I've killed.) The chatty guy has nothing to say to that. That makes it feel even more frightening.

Though its voice continues to be flat and calm, at least, and the plates on its arm stay obediently expanded rather than rippling and clicking and getting in the way of its work. "I don't know. When it happens I don't have any thought about not doing it. I just do it. It's programming." That's even true, for the most part, and not any kind of self-defense mechanism bullshitting.

Shit like this doesn't happen in the real world. People don't get programmed to be assassins. People don't get stripped of everything that made them a person in order to become a weapon. It was the sort of thing you saw in Hollywood action movies, not in somebody you were having a conversation with.

People used to think the same thing about Vampires, though.

"I don't believe that." There's a softness in her voice as she says that, Scarlett leaning forward, leaning her other elbow on her knee so it takes most of her weight. "I was in that Cabin with you - we were talking. The only reason you did it was because you believed it wouldn't work. It wasn't automatic, not like when you came at me. You made a choice, to follow an order because you thought it would be okay."

Maybe he would have done it anyway and she had it all wrong but it wasn't so automatic that he couldn't reason out what he was doing.

"If you can decide that something is going to be okay to do, you can learn to make a choice not to do it."

The Soldier shrugs its flesh shoulder, not sure it agrees, or where she's even getting all that. It's definitely sure it's uncomfortable with that tone, though. It's... nice, maybe. But it's also unfamiliar in a way that's almost painful. Not even Misty sounds quite like that. "There is. Flexibility. Making decisions on a mission to complete the objective is usually required."

(And sometimes you make excuses for why you do shit to make yourself feel better.) That one actually hurts a little. The Soldier doesn't even bother telling him he's an asshole, that time. It's clear from the immediate silence that the chatty guy realizes it, himself. Doesn't apologize, though.

"But that doesn't mean I actively disobey." It shifts the arm a little, to reach some inner workings on the bicep. "I didn't when Crowley told me to run."

"Because you weren't thinking." She'd been there for that too and it wasn't a measured decision. Crowley barked his damn order and he reacted. Reaction and action were two different things though. Maybe, just maybe if she could get him to recognize that? "You say you were programmed to follow orders. That's what you were doing but - you could choose to do things differently. You could learn how."

She can't believe that it's impossible because that opens doors she's not willing to consider when what's behind them is too dark, even for her to examine.

"You're already making choices, you've admitted that much already. You chose Crowley to be your handler, didn't you?"

(He was in the right place at the right time with the right kind of confidence.)

Which the Soldier knows, now, wasn't actually confidence. It'd just been so frightened and off-balance that it had accepted the bluster as "good enough". The Soldier's arm plates do shiver a little, now, and the flesh hand isn't as steady as it was. It pauses its work until both hands settle. It doesn't like this conversation much anymore. (Did you ever really? No. Not really.)

It makes a weak attempt to change the subject. "He isn't anymore. By the way. He never really liked it, so he asked not to be."

"Because that makes him less of a dangerous asshole?" She's not even going to try and hide her disdain because she doesn't buy for a second it was some accident. Bucky had pretty much confirmed that now. Crowley knew he was giving him orders. This wasn't something he accidentally fell into. Ordering him off the sinking ferry didn't buy him a whole lot of goodwill from Scarlett.

"Didn't stop him from doing it though, did it?" Scarlett and Crowley having some serious words was an inevitability at this point.

"He also keeps doing what you're doing," the Soldier says quietly, staring down at its arm, which still isn't settling. "Trying to make me think about things like this."

Oh. Wait. Maybe she knows... The distraction does finally make the arm plates stop trying to calibrate, and it blinks. "Scarlett, what's holy water?"

"In between ordering you around? Yeah. He's a peach." She's not, nor will she ever be sold on Crowley now. The image of Mary on the shore that will forever cement that fact.

That question does at least distract her from their current conversation. Scarlett's face twisting with confusion as she tries to redirect her thoughts.

"It's just water that's been blessed." It didn't have much use with Vampires, not like it did in books and television. At most, she supposed it could be used to fuck with The Sisters but they'd have to know it was Holy. "It's a religious thing. Why?"

The image of Mary on the beach is the Soldier's fault. Why doesn't anyone seem to get this fact.

It's about to make her opinion of Crowley worse, too, probably. "That's what killed him. Crowley." That doesn't make sense. Why would a religious thing kill Crowley? "He seemed to think that was significant and I didn't understand why. I still don't."

Because, Bucky. You don't blame the bullet. You blame the person who fired it.

She stares at him for a long moment before a bubble of disbelieving laughter rises up. Scarlett leaning forward to scrub her hand over her face as she tries to slip that into her new reality. So he didn't just have some asshole as a handler. He had an evil asshole.

"In my world. There are these Vampires called The sisters. I'm talking the worst of the fucking worst. Wanna know what they're scared of? Concercreated earth." She looks at him, knowing that he's not going to understand the significance of that. "Consecrated earth is just, regular earth that's been blessed. If he got taken out by Holy Water, then your former 'Handler' is probably about as bad as they come."

Wasn't she going on about how the Soldier had made a choice to do all that? Can't have it both ways, Scarlett. (Neither should it, honestly, because that's what it's doing, only the other direction.)

The look it gives her is highly skeptical. The Soldier is good at reading people. It has to be, given the whole handler situation, many of whom actually were evil, demonstrably and palpably. It can't remember all of them, or even most of them, but it still knows. It knows what evil looks like and act like. Crowley is a dumbass. A flamboyant idiot who tries very hard to pretend he doesn't care while actually caring very much, who doesn't think things through and is desperate to get back to life because of something he feels he has to do there.

The Soldier literally can't put the words "evil" and "Crowley" together in its brain. (Ironically, that disconnect doesn't exist with Aziraphale, the actual angel.)

"Okay," it says, obviously doubtfully.

Yes she can, because he still needs to realise he does. What's Crowley's excuse :|

"No. Not okay." Frustration creeping into her tone. She's trying to get him to respond like a normal person when she knows he's not. He's barely able to comprehend the emotions he does feel, let alone navigate the actions and decisions of others.

"Giving you orders was not okay. Trying to get out of here without giving a damn about what that could mean for the rest of us was not okay. Death by holy water is probably the least troubling of the fucked up things that surround this guy." But she can't make him see it and the fact is, she wouldn't want to either. His whole problem seems to be that he's had too many people telling him how to think and feel. That doesn't mean she can just say nothing, though.

"He used you to get what he wanted." Again trying to soften her words. "Don't you see that?"

And now they circle back to the uncomfortable stuff. What comes out is automatic, to the Soldier's mild embarrassment: "That's what I'm for." It feels like the opposite answer to what she's looking for, but what the hell is she looking for?

Yes, it's good at reading people, but it has some very big blind spots, too, and they all center around treatment of itself. That would really explain both its confusion now and its understanding of Crowley's actions.

It pops its mouth shut after the nearly-rote response, looking away again, and focuses back on its arm with an air of continued embarrassment and maybe a little frustration of its own.

They were back to this, this idea that he had to be one thing. That he was defined by an existence that ceased to mean anything the moment he's shown up here If she thought for a second that she could shake him until he got it, she just might do that but this wasn't like trying to explain Holy Water. It was like trying to rewire the whole way he thought about himself and his role in the world.

"No." Refusing to accept that. "That's what you've been taught." And that's why she considers Crowley's actions to be unforgivable because while Bucky truly believed what he did was fulfilling his purpose in life? Crowley knew better, he just didn't care.

"What you want? It matters. Do you even know that?"

(To be left the hell alone.)

Except that's not right, because it enjoys Scarlett's presence, and Crowley's, and Mary's and Elena's. Even Rosinante, Noctis, and Javert, albeit for different reasons. They all feel different to be around, and the idea of not experiencing that isn't a good one. It doesn't want to be left alone, not really.

(To not hurt. To not be afraid all the time. To learn how to cook more things. To not automatically want to hit people who fucking touch us.)

It's not supposed to want things. And those don't seem like the kind of things Scarlett means, anyway.

So it keeps its gaze on the inner workings of its arm and says, "I don't know. I've never been allowed to think about it before."

If it's what he wants, then it matters. Whether its what he wants to do, how he wants to feel or things he wants to stop. It doesn't matter how big or small that it is, as long as it's because he wants it.

She watches him quietly for a moment, the way he intently stares at his mechanical arm. Scarlett trying to wrap her head around what the hell had been done to him and getting angrier at the thought that he hadn't been able to escape it here.

"That was before." And she can't erase what his life was like before, anymore than she can erase her own past but they aren't living those lives anymore. "This is now, and now you can."

Even just admitting the little wants to itself is a step in the right direction. Even if it's known about them, and been aware that "not supposed to" doesn't mean "doesn't still happen", it still helps to actively think about them.

It looks at her sidelong, without moving its head. "What if I said I wanted to stop talking about this shit for a while," it says, voice somewhere between annoyed, dry, and just plain tired. "It's been a long fucking day and my brain hurts."

(Notice you didn't say stop talking about it at all. ... shut up, I didn't even notice that. Too late, can't take it back.)

A slow, small smile pulls at the corner of her mouth at that reply. Scarlett nodding slowly as she rubs her lips together, burying every other thing she wants to say. She's not about to be the kind of asshole that tells him he's allowed to want things, then deny him the one and only thing he's asked for. If this has to be the first time he gets something that he wants? Then she can give him that.

"Then I'd say, are you hungry?"

"Doll, I am always fucking hungry."

Chatty guy (Are you really gonna call me that forever? Yes, I fucking am.) recedes again, and the Soldier blinks, remembering. And looks guilty. " ... shit, but we lost some of the supplies... and the ferry. I don't want to eat too much if somebody else is going to go hungry."

She rolls her eyes at that 'Doll' but can't successfully fight the smile that takes over her mouth as she moves towards the 'kitchen area' of the small apartment. A small area that's slightly raised from the rest of the room, a torch from the bonfire casting enough light for her to see what she's doing, by.

"Trust me." As if that was all the explanation he needed. "It's not going to have to come to that." She'd learned from her Father the need to stockpile and ration, knowing that hunting or a trip to the store might not be a viable option. From her first day in Beacon, she'd been collecting non-perishable items, not entirely trusting the ferry to bring food every month.

Opening several cabinets, she grabs the torch from where it's tucked into a sling nailed to the wall, lowering it so that he can see tins stacked upon tins and raises her eyebrows in a challenge for him to keep arguing.

The Soldier leans over to see what she's showing him, otherwise staying put to finish up with the maintenance on its arm. At least the plates have calmed down, now, and it's almost done.

Huh. She has been here longer than it has, it supposes. "I'm not going to eat all your food, Scarlett. Rationing is still a sensible plan. And I'll eat a lot if I don't monitor my intake. I'm not letting the kids go hungry. Or you."

Edited (WOW how did I miss the actual description of all the food she has) 2019-10-10 04:49 (UTC)

"Yeah, well. My room my rules and I say you eat." So it was a weak argument in the grand scheme of things but it doesn't stop her from dragging a tin from the cupboard, the brunette pointedly ignoring what she assumes is a disapproving glare (she's noticed he's good at those.)

"Doesn't do anyone any good if you martyr yourself." And he was crazy if he thought she'd allow the kids to go hungry. Well. If she allowed Mary or Hope to, not that she'd admit as much.

"Besides. I don't know if you can really called sloppy joes in a can food." Not that she wasn't capable of cooking something decent, but between her shoulder and her wrist ~~that she had failed to mention to him~~ she wasn't about to try and be fancy.

INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

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