logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: PLEADER

EVENT LOG: PLEADER

EVENT LOG:
PLEADER

characters: everyone.
location: the floating night market, docked at the harbor.
date/time: december 12-16.
content: the night market arrives.
warnings: n/a.

yo voy a volver tu vas a ver.

In the wee hours of December 12, the lights return, appearing just under the waves in the harbor, approaching the dock, until the lights surface entirely. They're submarines, glowing a dim blue now that they're up out of the water, and the fleet is three vessels strong. They've brought with them a floating bridge system to attach to the harbor's main dock to allow access to all three submarines, and they start to unpack...

By "morning", under the light of the full moon, the Night Market is open for business!

This time, it's three vendors that arrive: Aaravos, an expert in all things magical; Michelle Cheung, master of papercraft; and Pluto, the Night Market's leader, who rolls out of her submarine in a custom-built wheelchair. They've brought a handful of helpers with them to set up the market and run the various booths and games. Though they have no torches among them, the docks are lit with the blue glow of the submarines, their lights rippling slowly in intricate patterns and shapes, reminiscent of carnival lights.

•••
Accepted currencies at the Night Market include: Building and scrap materials, old tablets, old lanterns, captured forest spirits, torches, information, and most importantly... Plutonium. Of course, attempting to barter is always an option... but these currencies are your best bet for dealing with the various vendors offered by the Night Market.

Here are the vendors and their inventories for the current Night Market visit:
PLUTO
Special orders - Pluto can procure items just like Rastus, but she can get you specific goods from homeworlds. The more specific the request, the more it will cost. Items ordered through Pluto will arrive on the next ferry.

Heals - A borrowed gun-looking device allows Pluto to heal even the most grievous of injuries. This item doesn't belong to her, though, so... results may vary. If you want proper healing, you'll have to wait until the Night Market's medical unit shows up in the future.

GPS coordinates - Looking to discover more locations and resources out in the forest? Pluto can hook you up with hints to do just that.

Lantern charms - These charms can be attached to your lantern to provide BENEFITS as well as DRAWBACKS. The following charms are currently on display, with these labels attached: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma. You'll be given instructions for use at the time of purchase, or you can try asking Pluto for more information.

AARAVOS
Drugs - You want it? He's probably got it! Cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol, and pretty much whatever else you can dream up is worth inquiring about.

Magic potions - These potions last for no more than 24 hours unless otherwise noted. The following potions are currently on display, with these labels attached: Hair change, genderswap, body swap, love potion, luck potion, night vision, weather in a bottle, fake an injury, invisibility potion, furry shit, daemon shit. What does all of this crap do, exactly? You'll be given instructions for use at the time of purchase, or you can try asking Aaravos for more information.

Lantern charms - These charms can be attached to your lantern to provide BENEFITS as well as DRAWBACKS. The following charms are currently on display, with these labels attached: Disguise, Energy Boost, Charmer. You'll be given instructions for use at the time of purchase, or you can try asking Aaravos for more information.

MICHELLE
Handcrafted paper contraptions - Michelle can craft nearly anything out of paper, and don't let the lightness fool you—she can make her paper sharp and solid as steel. As long as you keep it out of the water (or do something to protect it from water damage yourself), your one-of-a-kind paper contraption is built to last! (She'll accept the typical Night Market currencies, as well as payment in the form of books. Any book will do! She'll even provide something to help you if you chose to go on a mission to steal a book for her from the library. These library stealth missions can be handwaved while making purchases from Michelle; just let us know in the form below if you'd like to pursue this.)

DR. SCHICKSAL'S HINT-O-MATIC
AMA - Does your character have any burning questions they just need to have answered? Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic is a phonebooth-looking device with a screen prompting the user to input a question. When a question is asked, Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic will spout out an answer! Questions can be typed in via keypad or spoken aloud, and answers will be automatically read aloud for characters that can't read the screen. These answers are always true, no matter what the question, but this information comes at a cost—your character will be blessed with a random status effect for the remainder of the month. We will check permissions posts before issuing a status effect, so there's your hint for what to expect. 😃 And, yes, you can literally ask anything.
•••
Other than the vendors, the Night Market has brought with them the following attractions:
COFFEE CART - The coffee cart offers every variety of hot drink a person could fathom, and it's complimentary! A few small tables have been set up in front of the cart around an outdoor heater, glowing happily as it warms this little section of dock.

CANDY SHOP - Sweet treats offered at the candy shop are also free for the taking, but be careful—some treats carry with them a random status effect that will last for the next hour. The treats and resulting status effects are left entirely up to you players, so feel free to create your own hijinx! This is us trusting you not to break the game, so don't abuse this privilege, and feel free to ask us if you're unsure about limitations! Not all treats will produce an effect, but those that do will have no tells, meaning characters will not be able to strategize when eating the candy. (In meta terms: if you want your character to engage in wacky bullshit, but they're a party pooper and hate fun and wouldn't willingly indulge, this is your opportunity to trick them into shenanigans.)

CARNIVAL GAMES - The small section of carnival games includes ring toss, skeeball, balloon darts, a shooting gallery, a fishing game, a plinko game, and an RC racing game with toy vehicles. The rules are all somewhat nebulous, but feel free to play out your characters interacting with these games on your own! They're all free to play, and prizes include knitted forest spirit plushies, wind-up goldfish that float through the air, and buckets of those plastic spider rings and finger topper guys that cost like one ticket apiece at Swings-N-Things.

WHACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MEN - They are also here, and they have a jukebox with them with an unfathomably large selection of songs. This area of the dock is probably meant for dancing.
•••
Finally, though you can trade with the various NPC vendors in this log, check out the new Night Market Purchases page for fast-tracked transactions.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Coffee

[This isn't a very common drink on the Nowhere Islands, so this does make the visit feel special, at least. Duster stands behind the heater, preferring to people-watch while warming up. He's very good at standing still.

Maybe you don't even notice that those shadows hide a person until he moves his cup to his face.]

Carnival

Just hit those targets?

[The attendant confirms: yes, just shoot those painted animals with that gun and you win.]

Right. [He looks over the toy gun in his hands - he's seen the Pigmasks use them, so it seems simple enough?

He holds it in both hands, clearly never having held such a weapon, fires, and misses.]

Huh.

[She's not sure whether she feels sad or annoyed that this guy can't handle a simple thing as shooting. Note: she shouldn't be either because not everyone's a marksman.

Rolling her eyes, she steps out of the line from behind him,] You're holding it wrong.

Aim and focus on the lower part of the target and steady your hand. The gun recoils a bit when you shoot and it will send it up. So you aim lower.

[She reaches out to fix his hold on the gun and corrects his shooting stance a bit.]

[He's been corrected on his stance and method of doing anything useful so often, he doesn't even protest when she moves his gun lower. And then his stance. He does resist a bit when she nudges his legs, which she most certainly does if she notices that his stance is uneven, favoring on leg over the other. He's not budging there.

Duster closes one eye, shifts the gun to the left, and fires. He's closer that before, though he doesn't hit the balloon again.]

Huh. I think I get it.

[She's not going to force him to move that leg, but he does need a steadier footing to shoot. It's kind of an exact fighting style. With a hand on her hip, she nods when he just barely misses.]

Well, at least it's not interstellar shot.

[She nods-]

Try again. My people say 'practice makes perfect'.

[And balloon is not a small target. He'll get it in a few shots.]

Just steady your hands.

Yeah. I can work on this.

[If there's one thing he's good at...well, not counting music, being nearly as good as his dad at using the Thief Arts, or fighting...besides all that, he's good at spending hours on practicing one thing over and over again.]

It's different from throwing things. I'll just have to get used to it. [Keeping the same stance, he moves his hands a little to the right and fires. He's still close.]

Sorry about that.

[She raises her eyebrows and nods.]

Yes, it really is. You train your hand to be fast and precise as well as the eye. There's a throwing weight included in it too. [She gives him a look, up and down.] You can throw knives?

[She watches him shot again and the shakes her head.]

Why are you apologizing?

Wall Staples. Bombs. Usually I'm up close to an enemy when I'm fighting.

[He lowers the gun and shifts his grip. Maybe he's not holding it right?]

...I think I should do some more practice with this before I can hit any of these targets. [Apologies for not getting it right the first time. Messing up at the start is a bit stressful, not that Duster dares to show it.]

[Bombs, huh? Interesting. Then again, regular humans don't have access to wild magic.

She looks around to see if the shop keeper is around, before summoning one of her daggers. She takes the gun away from him and offers that instead.]

Try with this. Maybe it will work better.

[She doesn't expect much and he won't damage or lose the dagger either, she'll just recall it when he's done.]

[He has no experience in those either, but it's like throwing a Wall Staple, right? A staple that's straight and pointed at only one end and has a different grip. Duster takes hold of the knife and a deep breath.

No need to be nervous. You're fine.

He grips the handle, holding it to head-level and throws it in a near-straight light. It brushes against the side of a balloon and lodges itself into the wall.

The attendant unsurprisingly looks worried and upset at this cheating.]

[And Xayah doesn't look upset at all that they are caught; there's actually smirk on her face as she recalls the blad back into her hand.]

Blades are easier to control compared to tiny bullets.

[She gives him a look-over. He doesn't look like much of a fighter, and his shooting is bad too. He'll die here in a blink of an eye if he can't defend himself.

She twirls the blade between her fingers and with an airy swing of her hand swings at the balloon. It pops and she recalls the blade again, raising a hand as an "apology" to the attendant.]

If you want I can train you to shoot. You won't last here long without knowing how to fight.

I can fight.

[This is the most assured he's sounded the entire conversation.]

Just not from far away.

[He pulls out his one remaining projectile weapon - a Thunderbomb, small enough to rotate between his fingers.]

My friends were the ones with PSI powers. Everything I know comes from my training in the Thief Arts.

Ah, a brawler.

[That's fair enough. She's not a brawler, and close-ranged fights are not her forte. She fights from a distance and she's goddamn good at it. She eyes the little ball. Hmmm...]

You were a thief?

[A nod.]

All my life. I was hoping that once we saved our world, I could be a musician all the time but...

[ Ellever has been out of it, for the past... oh, week and a half, probably. Most of her wounds from the previous month are now just light scars — over her legs, arms, and neck, almost like thin zebra stripes — but the majority of her time was at first spent sleeping and then poking around. But in either case, too much time was spent inside her own head.

She's had a few cups of coffee by now, but it finally seems to be having some sort of effect as Ellever realizes that there's a person standing a few feet away. Didn't she come from that direction? Why didn't she see him? ]

Oh! Hi.

[ And there goes cup number three, down the hatch. She'll make that her last for a while, as she explains, ]

Sorry. I'm not being very mindful. I hope I haven't stepped on your toes.

[Duster turns his mug of coffee in his hands, letting himself warm up.]

You're fine. I was just watching the festival. [The bright lights fighting against the dark night reminds him of late night performances, though back home they at least had stars and the moon.] It feels a lot more like a home than before, don't you think?

[ She takes a deep breath, letting it in and out, feeling far more engaged and mentally alert than she did ten minutes ago. At his question, Ellever looks over the Market, the carnival, and the crowd, and smiles faintly. If she squints, she can forget that they're in Beacon. ]

This does make it look very nice here. [ Ellever crosses her arms, pulling her thick corduroy coat tighter around her. The coffee's helped warm her, but the night's still chilly. ] Like we're... visiting some strange little village in the mountains or something. Except we're the strange villagers.

[ No one's clutching a wound or anything! ...no one she can see right now. She pauses, smiling. ]

Well, I'm strange, at least. I don't want to lump you in. That'd be rude.

[His eyes shift at the display of games to his mug.]

I grew up in a strange little village near the mountains. [In the sense that the people were all unusual. But in the nice way. And the secret history of the actual village itself.]

This is still more lights that what we had before electricity.

[No comment on calling herself strange. Duster would be lying if he didn't feel that way about himself at times.]

[ Ellever glances at him, eyebrows raising momentarily. ]

That sounds nice.

[ There's a slight emphasis — almost so slight you can't hear it — on sounds. Sometimes a person's past is a mixed bag. A few people in her life have expressed envy that she grew up in LA, but if they'd known the full story... Anyway, Ellever's not the smoothest person to talk to, but she does sometimes try not to shove her foot into her mouth.

Sometimes it ends up there anyway. ]

I grew up in the city, but... I could see mountains. On clear days. [ A little joke there. Dang smog. ] Do you think these guys are... legit?

[ Or are they just trying to get everything valuable out of them before Beacon finishes everyone off? It's a cynical thought that keeps presenting itself to her. ]

...It was alright.

[He hadn't really experienced everything the village had to offer before he left, and even then it had changed so much when he was gone that there was little to be attached to.]

I liked the forests and countryside the most, actually. It wasn't constantly dark and full of monsters and spirits like here. That's what I missed the most.

[Now to be alone with his thoughts, he can just find a corner and let the darkness isolate him.]

I don't know. They aren't selling anything suspicious, but I won't miss a few pieces of scrap if they're lying. No point in not trying, right?

Then we'd just be beating ourselves up for not trying, so yeah, I think you're right. And it's a nice change of pace.

[ But it's a little nerve-wracking. Just a little. ]

Forests are nice. [ A smile creeps onto her face as she thinks of — well, much nicer forests than the one currently surrounding them. ] I used to spend more time in the wilderness than under a roof. Those were fun times.

[ Back before she became an adult, took on more responsibilities, and figured out her place in the world. Back when life wasn't so set in stone. Back when she was alive. She glances at him. ]

You don't like the spirits? I mean, I don't like the ones that attacked us, but some of them are okay.

That...depends. I've heard mostly bad things about the spirits, but I'm hoping we can find a way to get them on our side.

[He couldn't talk to that one spirit. This wasn't going to be easy like with the Osohe ghosts.]

The forests just sound dangerous in general.

[ Ellever tilts her head from side to side idly, filled with uncomfortable memories of spirit claws. Not to mention being told, after, that that had been some crude way of trying to communicate with them. ]

The forest, yes. Not a great place. [ She sighs. ] I want to think the spirits are on our side? But... [ An indistinct sound in the back of her throat. ] Communication is gonna be a thing we'll need to work out.

[ She's got that project with Daylight on the horizon, but that's a smaller step in a bigger plan at large. ]

Some of them are really nice. Or at least neutral. I'm not a big fan of the ones that like using their claws instead of the rest of them.

[ Ellever pulls up one of her sleeves to reveal some fading, intense scars that run all the way up both arms, her neck, and most of her legs. Going close-range with the spirits hadn't been that fun. ]

[Duster leans in but doesn't react to the scars apart from a hum of recognition. He's had worse. He'd seen worse. But those spirits mean business.]

Do you have something to defend yourself? A stick, a tool?

I got a knife from a kind soul, after I'd been punching and kicking a bit.

[ Well... a practical soul. Ellever hasn't talked to the Snarky Red Head With Prophecy Experience that much. But she'd been very appreciative of the knife. Everyone here's been kind. Castiel, her roommate, has managed to speed along the healing process of the scars. ]

I'm keeping that sucker close, now. [ She smiles dryly. ] But, fighting with knives has its drawbacks. You get your shot in, and so do they. I don't know how long you've been here, but... keep your distance from the green-eyed spirits. Those're what did this.

[He hopes that "punching and kicking" means actual training. It can be dangerous to strike an enemy without a plan - that's why Lucas was safer with a stick. At least he could be kept at a distance while the trained Duster closed the distance. The knife, though...]

I'll be fine. I've been training for this sort of thing almost my entire life...but thanks for the advice. Sometimes, you have to be smart about battles, is what my dad used to say.

EVENT LOG: PLEADER

Duster | OTA

Carnival

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coffee;

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Sorry for the delay!

np!

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