logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: JULY

INTRO LOG: JULY

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: july 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. winters, will, and rastus introduce themselves and explain the situation.
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.

•••
Winters and Will are waiting for you on the beach. Winters flags you down from where he's standing atop a large rock, surveying the gathering crowd. Will stands next to him, though he's monkeying with his tablet and looks rather bored. He barely looks up as Winters speaks:

"First thing's first: I'm sorry you're here. There's no easy way to break this news, so let's just get it over with, hm? You're dead. Or, ah, you've died. Call this the afterlife if you want, or don't if that ain't your thing, but point is, you're here 'cause you died. Those are the facts.

This world's dead, too. You've noticed by now it's pretty dark, yeah? That's 'cause there's no life here, not anymore. And that lantern you've got? That's your life, so to speak. The flame goes out, you die, and vice versa. Keep it close. Should be easy enough to remember on account of how the sun don't rise. You'll need something to see by.

This place is called Beacon, and that's Lake Red Jacket. Town's 'bout a mile down the road, and we've got a bonfire there, but that's the only other light you'll see in this place. Save for the moon and all, though the sky won't do you much good out in the woods. I'll let Rastus explain the bonfire to y'all.

Ah, right. I'm Ben Winters—Winters'll do—and this here's Will Ingr— What? For christ's sake, Dr. Will Ingram. Likes to think he's the brains of the operation, as you can see. If you've got questions about these tablets, he's your guy. Rastus tends to the fire, and you'll find him in town. He's married to his job in a way. And you may never've seen a person like him back wherever you came from, but don't make a big fuss over it. He's a nice fellow. Mind your manners.

The three of us are leftovers from past resets. We came here on that ferry just like you, but it's just us left now. 'Sides the Lighthouse Keeper, but it'll be a bit before you get to meet her. She's got control over the town, see, and if she ain't satisfied with a group's performance, they get the axe. Town gets reset. If she pulls a reset on you folks, a couple of you might end up like me and Will here, giving this speech to the next crop."

The red beam of the lighthouse pulses over the group, over the trees. Winters glances up to watch it swing out over the bay.

"But don't hold it against her. Ain't her fault we're in this mess, and we've all got a job to do, including you.

For now, concentrate on accepting your lot, yeah? We're here to answer your questions, but we ain't gonna tell you all there is to know just yet. Some things are best learned on your own, and some of it we just don't want to saddle you with yet. There's a limit to how long we can stay here safely, that's true, but thing is, we do got time. Time enough to play this smart. Do better than the folks before us did. Settle in, make peace, explore a bit if you're up for it. Use these first couple weeks to come to grips. You ain't gonna be any good to the town if you don't sort yourself out before worrying about what comes next.

So listen up: You're dead. You died. Whatever your old life was, it's done now. None of us can go back, so all we've got is forward. Welcome to Beacon. Could be worse, yeah?"

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, all three NPCs will be available for chatting with, whether your character wants to make casual conversation or ask questions about all this. The headers on each NPC toplevel are there for easy reference as to what each of them are responsible for, but you're welcome to go to any NPC for whatever reason. You're welcome to assume your character has overheard any NPC conversation to learn more about the game. After the NPC threads have died down, we'll compile the info learned ICly and add it to the game history page. If your character would contribute something specific to the game history records, let us know!

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock

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A cheat sheet.

[The words come out as a mutter- not the kind that belies a snide remark, but instead the sort of suggests they're talking about an inside joke. And maybe, in their own way, they are.

He doesn't really remember this Riku, the same way he doesn't really remember Naminé- but it isn't as simple as forgetting either. Sora knows that it's been explained already, that this experience, all the things that happened in Castle Oblivion and all the people he met there- it got taken out and rearranged. But where does a memory go when it isn't being recalled? If Sora can't keep it, then who hangs onto it instead? Is it really lost forever? His travels to other worlds have taught him so much- about people and places, how small the differences really are and how much even the most opposite people can have in common. But maybe what he's learned the most about is the heart itself. Sora stands by what he said- the heart's true nature is to never ever let go.

If he believes that, then there isn't any room to accept that those memories are gone for good. Some part of him knows that they're there. There's a space that's been made for them even if there's nothing there to occupy it; and in the meantime? He can trust this Riku and Naminé to remember for him.

The difference is their heights is small enough that Sora doesn't have to work so hard to keep up. Instead, they fall in beside one another easily. His lantern swings, casting their shadows in see-sawing motions against the sand behind them.]

Does your cheat sheet tell you what I'm gonna say next?

[ it's an inside joke — a little ribbing between friends is normal, isn't it? that's what people do, right? he's seen riku do enough of that in his memories, and the fact that he's able to pick it up with sora now despite how long it's been and how much time has passed should make him pause. but it feels easy, natural in a way that feels simultaneously right and out of place. sora doesn't remember him, but the way he acts now in spite of it is no different than he did back at the castle.

but that too makes the passage of time more obvious — sora is taller now, older, less like the lanky, all-limbs teen he was before. a part of him feels a little envious that he never had the same opportunity to grow and move on like sora and riku did, but it's not nearly as all-consuming as it was before. it doesn't matter now, anyway. ]

It's telling me a few things. [ they fall into step and he shrugs, a rare smile on his face. ] Like you'll ask me to help you set up. Or ask me to stay with you guys there, maybe.

[The thing is- in a lot of ways it really does just feel like he's hanging out with Riku. Or rather, like he's hanging out with his memory of Riku. It isn't just the difference in their ages and heights, there are years missing between them- time that Sora was able to fill and that he wasn't. They're the intersection of two points in time, past and present; but it's strange to know too that neither one of them have a future.

Maybe it's something they're both at peace with. That they at least made their own choices, especially when it mattered most. But there isn't really a good way to ask that and if Sora lets the question sit inside him for even just a little while, he finds that he doesn't really have to ask.

There isn't enough light for him to read this Riku's face, but he knows a smile when he hears one. It's enough to soften Sora's features all over. His weight sways inward just a little, between one step and the other; their shoulders bump.]

Hmmm...

That must be the same way that my cheat sheet says you're not gonna say yes, but you're gonna stay anyway.

[ two years is a long time. two years running in darkness, two years trapped in it in limbo — it feels longer than it should be. maybe it was; like dog years, they count for more because they demand more: more pain, more sorrow, more regret.

but a few more years of pain doesn't matter as much in the end, maybe. it's all he'd known for most of his life. and if a few more years of pain meant he could save her, it was a small price to pay. ]

Am I? [ he hears the shift in sora's step, the way he sways closer in the comfortable space between them. he lets their shoulders bump and doesn't pull away. ] Guess you'll just have to wait and find out, then.

[ he doesn't know if sora's right, not right now. being in riku's heart for a while was nice in that no one else could see him, but now, everyone can. there's more people in beacon than he's ever experienced in his short life; he's still trying to get used to it. ]

If I have to wait and find out then what's the point of a cheat sheet!

[It isn't something he thinks about, the sudden narrowing between them- the familiar knock of skin on skin, bone on bone. It's just something that happens, the way inhales follow exhales, and a hundred other circular things. But it isn't the only thing he doesn't think about.

Sora isn't immune to feeling out of his depth. He knows he isn't as strong of fast or smart as his peers, and traveling to a bunch of other worlds started out daunting in one way only to become daunting in another. There was a time when his whole life, past, present, and future, had been his island and his friends. Was that naive? Or was it just youth? Either way, he can't really pin down when it started to change, or why. The same way his favorite color turned from red to green, Sora woke up one day and noticed. It'll be like that for this Riku too, he thinks. Being here, being around them, being his own heart and his own person- it'll be strange until it isn't. The world will be new and unfamiliar until it isn't. Maybe in time Sora will be able to tell if that's a good thing.

The lake laps up against the shore. He still can't see the boathouse out there, but like a hundred other times before, Sora keeps going just because he trusts that it's out there.]

This is like math. Like that time I had to learn fractions and they said fractions and decimals were the same, but they aren't at all!

Then maybe your cheat sheet needs an update.

[ sora isn't immune to feeling out of his depth, and the same could be said for the replica: one foot in riku's shadow and the other planted firmly outside of it, stuck in the in-between, the transition to finding himself. there are still things he has yet to discover and learn, and just as many things he needs to unlearn — forever a work in progress, never complete, just as he's always been.

and yet, here he is now, whole and complete. way to dawn sits comfortably in his heart, just as whole and complete, as if it was meant to be there all along. ]

Just because they don't look the same, doesn't mean they aren't. [ it's funny, in a way — like him and riku. they no longer look the same, not as they once did, but it doesn't change the fact that he was wrought from riku all those years ago. ] Depends on how you look at it.

I don't think I'd go that far.

You don't cut pizza into decimals. Or cake! And you don't take temperatures in fractions!

[The thing is- it doesn't escape Sora's notice that they aren't really talking about math. That they're talking about this other thing- the space between Riku and his Replica, the overlap and the distance. But it hasn't really come out of either of them yet. It hasn't been said outloud and by extension, maybe they're both delaying the inevitable. Making it less real in an attempt to soften the blow.

The trouble is finding the line.

Because it's always been Sora's way to hold thoughts back- to keep his fears and his worries to himself despite his eager and enthusiastic nature. He knows that there are things his friends are looking for in him, that they're relying on him to say and do and be. Even all the way out here Kairi's voice reaches out to him, don't ever change.

His gaze stays forward, but there's something companionable about that too. Like he isn't looking away so much as he's trying to offer the illusion of privacy.]

You and Riku are kindof like that, but I guess I figure that's true of everybody.

We all have more in common than we think. [A beat, and then a small laugh.] Well... some more than others.

And that's before I even think about Roxas, or Ventus, or Xion, or Naminé.

The things that make us different are pretty small. But I don't think that's a bad thing.

Half a pizza is still zero-point-five, isn't it?

[ they aren't really talking about math, and they aren't really talking about the other thing, not really. but it's easier in a way, to allude to it rather than explicitly state it. and maybe it isn't so bad, to delaying the inevitable, to holding off on bringing everything out so soon. after all, they have all the time they want now, and it isn't as if they're rushing to reconcile everything just yet, not when he's still trying to figure out the rest of it. the replica doesn't hold his thoughts back for the sake of anyone else so much as it is something he knows only he can deal with: the fact that he's a replica will not change and it is something he has accepted. the struggles of finding himself, the insecurities that he still has yet to shake off entirely — those are things only he can do, things that no one else can truly help him with.

unlike sora, there's no expectation. nor would it be right of him to expect anything more from anyone else. ]

... No, it's not. [ but he thinks about vanitas, about the differences and similarities between them. is it really just their faces? ] But whether you're similar or different doesn't really matter, does it? It's the choices you make in spite of it that do.

I think it does.

Actually, I guess I find thinking about all those similarities kinda comforting. It means we can understand each other better 'cause we all have the same kinds of feelings. [Like so many times before, now that the thought has taken hold Sora's head tilts up, face turned towards the sky and the hundreds of unknown, unfamiliar stars. Are they like the ones back home? Are they also far away worlds full of far away people?] But it also reminds me that I can change- and that they can change too. So maybe it's like you said and it comes down to choices.

[The boathouse announces itself in degrees at a time- an indistinct darkness that becomes deeper, more precise as they close the distance. The walls become perfectly vertical lines, the roof cuts a diagonal across it. The pier begins to manifest.

Sora's gait slows. Slows. Pauses. Stops.]

But when we made choices we make new memories too. So even though you and Riku might look the same [The idea of the boy he knew and not a mirror of the one who exists now.] you've had different experiences and learned different things. Had your own feelings about it.

[When Sora turns his face to look, his hands remain still and open and empty at his sides. There's a declaration in that too, of a different kind.]
You're even holding onto some of my memories right now.

I guess I should've expected that from you.

[ there's an undercurrent of something softer beneath his dry tone, a sort of fondness that generally comes up when one is dealing with someone like sora. it's a sort of tone that riku would use, and maybe that just proves sora's point: despite the years that have passed since riku and sora moved on from the castle, despite how much of a failure he'd been, they still understand each other to some degree. he still remembers, even now.

the boathouse takes shape in front of them bit by bit, until it rises from the sand like something from a pop-up book. sora's steps slow and so do his, as he meets his gaze; in his mind he sees a younger face: rounder, a little shorter, the same clear blue eyes that seem to glow in the moonlight. something in his chest aches —

"who cares if someone created you?
you are you and nobody else. you have your own heart inside you.
those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. they're special!"

he swallows and turns his gaze to the boathouse instead. ]

They're all I have left.

That's not true either.

[There's a time when a reply like that would have bite to it- the insistance that he be heard, that the truth should cut through everything else, that it should be the only thing that matters. But the more he's seen of the worlds and of the people in it? The more he's come to realize that he can't really save anyone. People have their own experiences and they make their own choices. This Riku will have to decide for himself what the truth is. He'll have to decide what matters most, and what's worth hanging onto.

The best he can do is be here to remind him that things aren't as black and white as they seem.

The boathouse is a clear and distinct shape now, the promise of a destination and in it's own way, signaling the end of their conversation. Someone else is inside, he can see the light of a lantern flickering within and while he doesn't know yet if it's Riku or Kairi, this feels like the kind of thing that they'll only talk about with each other. Not a secret, but.

Sora watches him watch the building, like he isn't looking at it so much as he's looking through it. And instead of bringing them both to the end, he reaches out and takes Riku's hand.]

You have friends here with you.

You were never alone.

[ things are never so simple as black and white; he's learned that the hard way in his time at the castle. and the same could be said here as well, where nothing is what it really seems, where things that should be familiar really aren't. but that's the thing, isn't it? even that isn't absolute — where do riku's memories end and his start?

he looks at the boathouse, seeing it and through it until sora's fingers touch his, and then the rest of his hand. he blinks and looks at him, as if he just remembered where he is. ]

Are they mine? [ he glances down at their joined hands and folds his fingers over sora's, brushing his thumb lightly over the rise of his knuckles. ] Or Riku's?

[ he lets go of sora's hand, hefting the blanket higher on his shoulder as he continues his steps to the boat house. ]

Edited 2019-08-01 00:10 (UTC)

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INTRO LOG: JULY

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