logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: DECEMBER

INTRO LOG: DECEMBER

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: december 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. robin posts a bulletin.
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 glowing 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.

•••
The ferry has barely docked when everyone's tablets will ping: A new weekly bulletin has been posted!

...Aaaaaanyway, luckily for all the newcomers, the tablet and the town have some resources available for getting acquainted with their new situation! 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.

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! You've happened to come at a chaotic time, as we've just wrapped up a rather large event. Half the town was stuck in a dreamland version of past Beacon, where they explored for clues about the town's history. The other half stayed awake and defended the town from a brutal onslaught of green-eyed, hallucination-inducing forest spirits. The town's pretty haggard after all that, so hey, there's a conversation starter! It'll be good to have some fresh faces around to help with the recovery process.

You can check out the various Enter Mr. Sandman event posts in the OOC and log comms if you're curious, and plenty of the details will likely come up ICly, as well! The aftermath is just beginning, and we're so glad to have you along for the ride. :)

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
For Eliot: A carton of cigarettes
For Prompto: 17 pairs of reading glasses
For Eleven: A pair of walkie-talkies, and enough batteries to last for 3 months of casual use
For Aziraphale: 12 drums, 11 lead pipes, 10 pairs of shoes, 9 wilting corsages, 8 bottles of milk, 7 taxidermy swans, 6 goose eggs, 5 stale onion rings, 4 bins full of duck armies, 3 dead chickens, 2 turtles, and a whole tree, though it's long dead... and strung with lights and garlands and holiday ornaments!
For Kol: A book
For Crowley: Peppermint extract, cream of tartar, a candy thermometer, a tin of cocoa, graham crackers, a generic bottle of red wine, a t-shirt with a crown logo on it, a book of love poems, and the goods
For Eleven: An assortment of wrapping paper, gift tags, ribbons, bows, and gift bags.
A lot of medical supplies. The supplies are plentiful enough that everyone may handwave finding common first aid supplies that will help to triage injuries sustained during the Enter Mr. Sandman event. The supplies won't immediately cure wounds, but they will help to prevent infection and ensure proper healing. There's even an assortment of painkillers, ranging from over the counter pills to IV morphine (though, hm, it seems each character will only be able to find one dose of the hospital-grade stuff, no matter how hard they search)

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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Although not checking as obsessively as Aziraphale, Rosinante drifts into the church multiple times those first few days himself. He's not waiting for any single person; rather, he's simply hopeful to find any of the fallen defenders after the violence they all went through. They may not have been a particularly cohesive unit, but they shared the common goal of keeping everyone safe and now he feels he owes it to them to watch for the ones who make it back, and keep track of those who haven't.

It's no shock he finds Aziraphale there too, having heard what happened to Crowley. He doesn't know much about their relationship; only that they're clearly some sort of unit, most often seen together or referred to together. And he'd seen how affected Crowley had been by the sight of the unconscious angel; how furiously he had fought to protect him in particular.

Were he in a lighter mood, he might joke about how easily Aziraphale had awoken at the sound of his limping footsteps, now; how easily he had slept through so much worse for two weeks. Maybe another day they'll all feel up for jokes. Not right now. He rests a hand on his hip as he looks around but no, it really is just the two of them.]

Just me. Sorry to wake you up.

Oh, Rosinante. You're a-- well, you're a sight for sore eyes, dear.

Quite terrible what's happened to the town, isn't it?

[ He stands up immediately, brushing himself off, going to get his tin of biscuits that he'd had delivered for anyone who woke up in the Church - he is primarily waiting for one person, but he'll wait for the others. Much blood was shed in these past two weeks and he wants for no more of it. ]

Biscuit?

I have some tea as well, I'll have to heat it.

That's... all right. No thanks.

[He shakes his head, appreciative but not really feeling it. If Aziraphale insists on tea he might give in, but food just isn't appealing right now and he doesn't much care for biscuits or cookies or anything like them anyway. But he gingerly takes a seat on top of a pew, figuring he'll stick around for at least a few minutes.]

It was a hell of a time. You're fortunate to have missed it. Did you... dream anything?

[Some have, some haven't. Not all of them were very pleasant and he almost doesn't ask, but he's so curious.]

Oh-- yes. We were in a mine, and there was this... creature there, like a spirit. Semi-permeable. He ripped off one of my wings and came back for Molly's eyes and Akechi's ankles. Horrible thing.

The thing is - I saw a mine cart with a man's-- or woman's-- but certainly not a spirit's-- belongings, blood, but no body.

[So, not very pleasant then. He grimaces at the descriptions.]

A mine, huh. Did you get to see the entrance at all or was it all underground? Seems like some people dreamed about places that looked like Beacon.

[And he's still not sure what to make of it. Chasing dreams, illusions, could all just lead nowhere and waste a whole lot of time.]

No, it was all underground. We were trying to find the exit, but we got ambushed by the grasshopper. It ended up eating us, that's how we woke up.

But it was-- it was definitely a dream, because we were at peace.

[ He doesn't think he's describing this correctly. ]

[Not in a coherent, chronological way, but dreams are rarely coherent or chronological in his experience. Still, his puzzled expression shows he's not really following.]

I don't expect dreams to make sense, but I can't say I've ever experienced being at peace with being eaten by a grasshopper. Have you told those two they were in your dream?

Ah-- yes, it was so real, that I went to go see them.

[ Which - I forgot to actually do on an OOC note ]

The spirit had taken Molly's eyes and Akechi's ankles, you see. I just wanted to make sure they were alright, and, well.

--I have both wings!

That vivid, huh.

[But not actually real, thankfully. Those who had been awake had suffered enough for all of them already.]

I'm glad you're up. In fact, if you're going to stick around here for a while, do you mind if I send people your way? A lot of us are still kind of bad off.

[Not that the angel's healing is perfect or complete here, but if it's enough to close up open wounds that are otherwise just covered over with bandages and stitched together, it'll still be a big help.]

Oh-- yes, yes of course. I can make a round. Dreadfully selfish of me, isn't it? Staying here?

[ He looks off away a moment into what seems to be nothing at all, or wherever his thoughts are. ]

Churches are consecrated, they're holy. It-- burns Crowley's skin, it's why I've been waiting here.

[ Well, not the whole reason. But possibly why he's so reluctant to leave. ]

I'll phone the Soldier.

[His shoulders tense slightly and he shakes his head.]

Let Soldat rest. Please. He's been through enough. You staying here is fine, I'll just make sure people get to you. Better you stay here actually, until Crowley turns up. It's easy to tell people where to find you.

[Interesting, though, that church thing. Good to know.]

I thought it might help if he were-- you know, here. He blames himself. No idea why, hardly think that Crowley would and I certainly don't.

Right, I'll be here. With biscuits.

[ Also he's been telling everything about the burning church thing and it turns out it's not even consecrated ground. Whoops. ]

Rosinante.

It really is good to see you.

[Blames himself for what, not being able to stop Crowley leaving? Crowley would have gone anyway. Did go. He doesn't have to know the guy all that well to realize this.

Doesn't much think he'll be forgetting any time soon, either, how he had to spend the rest of that day cleaning blood and shrapnel off him and Mary. He's jaded to a lot of things but seeing someone sacrifice themselves like that is, and will remain, deeply disturbing.

He doesn't quite realize he's ended up staring vacantly at the floor but Aziraphale addressing him by name gets him to look over again.]

Thanks. It's good to see you too. Awake, I mean. Awake and well, and... helping us hold this hell of a place together.

Edited 2019-12-03 05:06 (UTC)

Oh, it's the least I could do after something so terrible happened to everyone.

[ He looks on sad, a little guilty. ]

Thank you for protecting us and the town.

I hope whatever the spirits have done will have been worth the trouble it's caused.

You don't need to thank me.

[But you're welcome. He's just. Really bad at saying that kind of thing. Figures it's his duty, not something anyone should thank him for.]

I'm still trying to make sense of how it's all related. The poisoned food, the dreams, and trying to kill us all off. All I keep coming back to is the thought that I haven't paid enough attention to the spirits this whole time. I wish talking directly to them wasn't so much work.

Edited 2019-12-04 04:21 (UTC)

Yes, I'd been trying to figure out their language so that we would be able to speak to them more easily but it hasn't worked so well.

[ He looks so defeated about it. ]

Do you believe they were trying to... teach us something?

That's what that network post claimed, right? But we don't know who really wrote that. Even if we could confirm it was a spirit, they seem to come in different types, with different motivations. Maybe the dreams were supposed to teach, and then the others took advantage of our reduced numbers to attack.

[But that's too simple and clear-cut and reality didn't feel like there was a neat division. Besides, wouldn't the spirits have tried specifically to go for the sleeping victims first? If the goal was to kill as many as they could, they would have been easier targets. It seemed like they went for prominent threats first. Of course, maybe that's what an animal would do. Not smart enough to prioritize easy kills.

But more likely he doesn't fully understand their goals. Their intelligence isn't human.]

We can speculate all day but we'll have to ask them directly if we want real answers.

Well, that's going to be hard to do. I had asked the Church spirit why we were attacked before - you know, before I came. He told me to ask Robin or Will or Rastus. Not very forthcoming, that one. Said he didn't want to get involved.

[ He did never get around to asking Rastus. ]

--I'll go, once everyone's returned. I should bring him something to eat. The spirits all have quite the sweet tooth, you know.

--And it does keep the Librarian from eating the books.

I didn't know.

[But that's very helpful. He'd realized at least one or two individual ones liked those kinds of treats during the autumn party, and recalls the one he had initially tried to communicate with, who had at one point removed the top of its head and placed an entire pie inside. Disturbingly.]

But it's worth knowing too that some of them just don't want to be involved. There must be different races of them, or different cultures, and we're just oblivious to it all. That will have to start changing.

Yes, I imagine we all seem the same to them.

[ He thinks about it. ]

Perhaps we should cook them something together. After this. It'd give us something nice to do.

[Forgive him if, for a moment, he looks unenthusiastic about that idea.]

I'm sure you heard of the first party we threw for them months ago. It was like that. People cooked food for them, tried to make a peace offering to distract them when we went to hook Robin up to the network. Some of them will wonder if we're trying to do something similar. It might make them uncomfortable. Maybe if it's not presented as one big party but instead occasional, smaller treats with fewer people.

[Big parties and feasts keep ending up poorly for them all. Maybe just avoid that from now on in general, no matter which side it's directed to.]

Edited 2019-12-05 02:54 (UTC)

Oh, alright. Yes, perhaps we should go about this more slowly. Honestly, I don't know what they were thinking.

Now there's a large rift. Can't imagine most people trust any of them, now. But they're like us, aren't they?

[ Some good, some bad. Some neutral. ]

I just wish the others would explain.

Yeah. We've faced rifts before, especially after that first time, but if they keep growing wider it might get too hard to get over them. We just have to do better to speak with them. Get to know them and what their needs are.

[Cao Pi had asked him to do that with the people here - find out what they need, what they fear, whatever might make them more amenable to accepting organization and leadership. And he can do that, it's no problem. That's what he does. But those of them dependent on the light of their lanterns are only a fraction of the living creatures in this world. They've been too self-centered.]

The spirits you know best, the ones you say like sweets. Do they associate with other spirits? Do they have... friends?

I don't believe so, no. They're almost always at their posts, unmoving. I believe the one at the church wants no-one to see him, and the one at the library is very shy and is much more suited to the company of books, though he had let me take a picture with him one time!

But I believe they interact with us more than they do with the other spirits. The librarian does speak a few words, and is quite the artist.

[ He seems very proud of the Librarian's artwork. ]

Huh. Didn't think they'd be so solitary.

[Maybe some hang out in groups, though. Maybe it's the strange ones that want to come and be curious about the town and its people.]

You think they're lonely?

church

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