EVENT LOG: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
LIGHT UP THE NIGHT

characters: everyone.
location: around town.
date/time: november 5-7.
content: use that bonfire!
warnings: n/a. please cw tags appropriately.

maybe we can bring back the light

Shortly after Robin's network post, a magnificent display of fireworks will start to launch from the lighthouse! They're odd-looking, though, given that they glow but don't cast light. But still cool to watch! The best place to view the show is at the beach, but some of the bigger explosions can be seen just over the treetops from town, and they can certainly be heard from all over Beacon. Exciting! Maybe! Robin sure thinks so! The fireworks will continue for a couple of hours before a very colorful grand finale, after which the lighthouse beam will shine red again for the duration of the event.

Meanwhile, back in town, Rastus has set up a magnificent display of his own. Torches are set up in a wide circle around the bonfire (which looks a bit less bright, given how many torches he's pulled from it), ready for the taking. You don't even have to talk to him first! He's lingering nearby, though, and... has looked more excited about things in the past. This is gonna be a bookkeeping nightmare, he can tell.

In any case, the torches are free for the taking, but do remember to report any torch movement to the event header on the item requests page. Don't let Rastus's fears become reality!

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Comments

Rosinante | OTA

[callada]

1. Clumsy

"Want to come for a walk?"

Rosinante is hefting a torch, and gives it an experimental toss. It sure would be cool if he caught it by the lower half, as if practiced in torch-juggling. Instead, he reaches to catch it and the burning side strikes him in the palm. Alarmed, he jerks his hand back and squeaks with pain as the torch falls to the ground.

Reassuring, isn't it?

2. Fireworks

The show is absolutely stunning. Nothing like he's ever seen before. Rosinante lies on the pebble-covered shore with his hands behind his head and a cigarette in his mouth, staring up at the sky.

"How do you suppose they make them so colorful?" he asks to whoever is nearby.

2

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone hasn't seen anything like it, either. He's sitting, rather than laying, because the ground is cold and he's a frail old man (damn aging), but he's watching fairly avidly himself. It's far enough away that he can actually see it clearly, which is amazing these days. Occasionally one of the louder ones will make his hands twitch, like they might have claws and might want to swipe at something, but mostly he's just enjoying the show.

"Magic?" he guesses. "That's what they'd do on my world. If they did anything like this anywhere on my world. We have fire guns and flying boats, but not colored explosions, that I know of."

[callada]

"Mm." He's thoughtful a moment. It's not the response he had hoped for, but admittedly it's one he had expected.

"Is that how things are in your world, then? Enough magic where if you don't know how something works, 'magic' is a good answer for everything?"

After months here, he's becoming sort of torn on this particular topic. Magic is interesting, but it's also kind of a letdown when used to explain anything at all, as if no deeper understanding is needed. It seems dismissive, rather than engaging.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I'm a shapeshifter, my people live in a giant sentient tree, and I've sired two mentors who regularly got visions of the future," Stone says, sounding vaguely amused. "There was a magister I knew who could make people invisible, and another who could make rocks open like flowers. Magic is a perfectly reasonable answer."

[callada]

Yeah, okay, fine. He can't really argue, even though he finds himself frowning in the dim lantern light.

"Yeah, I guess. Not sure if it's the same here or not. These must have come in on the ferry. Could've been made in another world."

Which is wild to think about, but it's what Robin had confirmed in her latest series of messages to them all. Everything they ask for comes from some other distant corner of the universe. It would be hard to accept if he hadn't already come to terms with being dead and now reanimated with his soul, or something like it, trapped in a lantern.

"Have you asked Rastus to deliver you anything since you've been here?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

Damn right, he can't argue. Stone doesn't know much about science, sadly, but he's seen a lot of magic. The only science he's really been involved with had been designed to destroy an entire species, and had been falling apart anyway, it was so old.

"No, there's not really anything I need. Besides fresh meat, and that comes anyway." He can't very well ask for live animals to hunt. Even though that would be great. He glances aside at Rosinante, brows up. "Have you?"

[callada]

"Cigarettes." Lots and lots of those. "Makeup. A sextant. I didn't think much about where they were coming from, just that they would be nice to have. Funny to think it's all from one of those stars out there."

But it confirms his impression that out in the distance, those other worlds hold life. All the planets the people here come from and more are out there, winking out one by one as the World Eaters render them lifeless and dark.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I never thought about other worlds before waking up here and meeting all of you," Stone admits. "It's fascinating to think about. My world is so full of diversity. What would other worlds be like, that's even different from what I know?"

He says it with a smile, looking up at the stars, beyond the fireworks.

"If I ever do see my family again, I'm telling them to have the groundlings start looking for other planets out there," he adds. "I'm sure there's a people clever enough to figure something out." He doesn't have much hope for seeing his family again, of course, but it's still a thought.

[callada]

It's a nice thought, getting to go speak to family and friends again, not that he has many of either. The sort of poisonous thought that latches on and gives false hope. They're dead, there's no way they're going back home and to wish otherwise is like allowing a wound to fester.

"Doctor Ingram talks about building a ship that can fly sometimes," he says. "Fly in that, up there, between the stars." He's seen it through Will's memories, in fact. A vision that was hard to understand, and painful due to the violent nature of the man's death, but incredible.

"Seems like it would take a lot of time, though. Materials and expertise we don't have. But wouldn't it be incredible?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

That does sound pretty incredible. "I'd like to see that." Stone considers, then adds, "Maybe not use it. I'm not sure you'd want to make anything big enough for my other form to fit on it." Anything less than that would feel much too small, he's sure. "My ancestors made a ship... thing. Docked on a big spinning machine. We destroyed it on accident, but it would have been interesting to see what it could do, if we hadn't."

[callada]

"Shame of an accident. Did you see it yourself?"

He can't help but be curious. Things like that in his own world, the relics of a past era, inspire his curiosity and yet too often they're taboo. Dangerous subjects. Discoveries of those old technologies "accidentally" get unwritten; their discoverers disappear. And it's that fact, plus his own kin's fascination with the truly ancient stories of descent from the stars, that keeps him from digging too hard despite his own tendency to seek the sort of knowledge that's hard to find and hoard it.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I landed on the thing," Stone says with half a smile. "We were trying to stop the machine it was stuck on from destroying half a dozen species, so it was probably worth it. But some of the groundlings we were with were really upset about losing all that potential knowledge." Stone has only started being unhappy about it since waking up here; before this, he never thought much about their history and future as a species. Shown that there are other worlds with strange human-people on them has kind of piqued his curiosity some.

[callada]

"Sounds like you did the right thing, though," he assures Stone, nodding along. Yeah, losses like that are regrettable. But more regrettable? Mass extinctions, genocides, that sort of thing. Of course, Stone didn't say they were intelligent species, but at this point it seems out of place to ask. Maybe for them the distinction doesn't matter.

"Maybe by some stroke of luck we'll be able to see something like that here some day. Flying in space, I mean. If not through Doctor Ingram's technology, then by some of the magic some people have here."

1

[lunchbreaks]

Aziraphale is laughing along with Rosinante up until the point where he isn't.

"Rosinante!" he exclaims, coming over to inspect his hand. "Do be careful, please. Are you alright?" If allowed, he'd take Rosinante's hand into both of his and apply a little healing, which wouldn't heal him all the way but at least get him through the painful bits of a burn.

[callada]

"Fine," he says almost automatically, but before he can continue to brush it off as nothing, he watches, mystified, as Aziraphale takes his hand and the bright red mark of the burn fades slightly, taking some of the sting with it.

"That's... Wow. Thanks," he comments, as he turns his hand to inspect it, then stoops to pick up the torch. "Just like that, huh?" Not fully fixed, but obviously better. Magical healing! From an actual angel!

"You know, used to burn myself all the time at home. Harder to do that here. I coulda used your help," he says, smiling. Never in his life would he have thought an actual guardian angel might be a real kind of thing.

[lunchbreaks]

"Yes, well, I wasn't really allowed to do this kind of thing at home," he responds, shyly. He won't tell Rosinante that he used to be much better at it-- fixing broken bones, getting rid of burns. Bringing anything back from the dead was honestly quite trivial to do.

"It would have upset God's plans, I think. So... I like to use them here as much as I can," he answers. "To help." He inspects Rosinante's hand one more time and then smiles up at him -- all the way up -- and goes to retrieve the torch.

[callada]

"Well, I appreciate it," he says, then turns to resume walking and gestures for Aziraphale to follow. He has plans for this torch, but they can talk about mysterious god plans along the way.

"Good to know, too. It seems we've been short on medics and doctors of any sort since we lost our first two."

[lunchbreaks]

"Did we? Who were they?" he asks, blinking. "And I'm-- really not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination. Used to be a better healer, it's this place," he explains.

He keeps going, wanting to see where Rosinante wanted their walk to go.

[callada]

Well, healer, doctor, same results even if the methods are different. Maybe. Maybe it's unfair to call them similar, it isn't as if he knows the first thing about magical healing. This is the first time he's ever encountered it.

"Just good to have on hand. I got here alongside two medics from Earth. Irwin Wade, and Gene Hicks. Both from America, I think they said. Fought in some enormous war." Died there, too. Died here soon after. Poor guys. He misses Wade in particular; the man was a pleasant roommate. And he's grateful that he and Hicks had managed to patch up their differences before the man was lost to the spirits' assault.

He adjusts the bag over his shoulder, more full than usual, as they walk west. Extra rope, extra paint, in case these strange dark-loving plants have grown in thicker since the time he and Cao Pi came out this way. He makes his way toward the river, heading upstream.

[lunchbreaks]

Aziraphale follows but looks back as if wondering if he should have packed something for the trip. Still, he is sure that Rosinante would let him know if that were the case, and he trots a bit to keep up with him.

"The Great War, possibly? Or World War II?" Though there had been very many large wars in America's short history. "The Civil War?" he tries. There would be more, but it's not really that important. He just wants to establish a timeline. Why would they have died here so quickly? Where might they had gone?

"But yes, I'm-- more than happy to assist, even if my area of knowledge is quite lacking."

[callada]

Aziraphale glances back, and Rosinante notices. Realizes yeah, maybe people here don't typically just wander off on multi-hour walks like he does sometime. In his defense, dropping the torch had distracted him from following up on his initial request for a walking buddy.

"One of those," he agrees, but man, American wars are not his specialty. He pauses at the riverbank. "Hold that thought. I should finish explaining. I wanted to head out to a ruined bridge I found months ago, and start getting it ready for repair. It'll take us a couple hours to get there. It's marked the whole way, though."

[lunchbreaks]

"Oh, alright. I'm very good at building bridges now, though I think possibly my assistance will have to wait until we're done with the docks. But I think we might have extra material. We did make a whole lot of planks and fell a lot of trees for the effort. I daresay I'm quite adept at planking wood by hand."

He looks very proud about this.

[callada]

"Long way to drag it, though. I've already got a crew for building the bridge, we're just waiting for all this fog to clear up. Glad you're all working on the docks, though."

Fixing the mistake they made. But it does mean more people who, like him, have now had to learn construction out of necessity, and it's an awfully useful skill to have around town.

"Point is, when I said a walk, it'll be more like a quarter-day trip there and back. You have the time for it?"

No hard feelings if he says no. The dock is important, but so is a hiking break. Can't sit around and build all day long.

[lunchbreaks]

"Oh, that's wonderful to hear, Rosinante."

Then he thinks about the request and-- "Yes, I think I should have the time. Just today, mind."

Then it's back to work for the daily grind. You know how it is, Rosi.

[callada]

"Right."

Then with a nod, he resumes walking. "You named off a bunch of wars a moment ago. What were they about?" History was always one of his favorite subjects. It amazes him how much happened in the past to make the present what it is.