logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: GRAVES

EVENT LOG: GRAVES

EVENT LOG:
GRAVES

characters: everyone.
location: Bonfire Square.
date/time: July 12-19.
content: mysterious shrines appear and bring visions of death.
warnings: likely violence and potentially gore.

time to pay your respects.

It happens when no one is looking, when most of the town is asleep and the rest are inside. A makeshift cemetery has come to Beacon, taking up residence in the middle of Bonfire Square. Each monument, shrine, and altar is dedicated to someone who now resides here, a memorial of their previous life.

Some may be drawn by curiosity, others by fear, and some may simply have to pass through this strange graveyard to get to the Bonfire itself. Whenever a person gets near, the altars beckon with a mysterious urge— an urge to approach, and an urge to leave something behind. They will feel compelled to make offerings at the various shrines, but doing so has a curious effect; it causes one to experience the death of the person whose grave they've honored.

Whether you resist the compulsion or give in willingly (or something in between), you'll also have to wrestle with the fact that a grave exists for you. Will you let your death be known, or try your best to keep it secret? Destroying it sure won't work, as it will return— with a duplicate somewhere else in town.

However you choose to deal with this, one thing is hard to ignore— this a tangible reminder of your death, and the fact that it's probably permanent.

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[That's fine. He understands. He nods, then sits in place and crosses his legs. Not going anywhere, not for now.]

Have you been out here the whole time?

[She nods. But he's sitting, which means he can't reach her grave, which puts her a bit more at ease once again.]

I have to keep it secret.

[Her death, she means. That much is obvious. Has she succeeded so far, he wonders? Hopefully nobody here would be cruel enough to go against her wishes so long as she's here to keep watch.]

I'm sorry you died, Mary. I might not know how, but I know you shouldn't have. Everyone here went early.

[And she went the earliest of all. Two weeks of this has proven that to be true - there's nobody here younger than her.

He feels awkward just holding onto the pack of chocolates in front of her so while he stays seated, he opens the bag and reaches out toward her with it so she can reach in and take one, if she'd like.]

[Mary hesitates--like she thinks she's about to be tricked. Or maybe she isn't sure that she should relax even enough to eat a chocolate. But...she does love chocolate. And Rosi's her friend. And he'd tell her if anyone else snuck up on her, right?

So, she approaches and sits across from him, accepting the gift.]

Even if someone wanted you to die? It still shouldn't have happened if nobody wanted you?

[That's better. Yeah, he'll keep an eye out. For now, he sets the package between the two of them and takes one for himself. It's a weak substitute for a cigarette, but he'll take what he can get.]

It means the people around you were heartless. Not that you were worthless. I've seen it a lot of times, Mary. There's always someone out there who wants you.

[So much like Baby, but he's hesitant to bring the girl up. Yeah, she found herself a new, loving family all right, but his brother's love was always based on how others could serve him, and he decided she could serve him as a weapon. It's not really the comparison he wants to make right now.]

[Mary savors her chocolate slowly, even though there's a whole package between them. Usually, she'd be much more exuberant, but, well, these aren't necessarily usual circumstances.]

Heartless.

[Repeating the word, she puts a hand over her own chest and frowns.]

If someone doesn't have a heart, they're not a good person?

It's a phrase. Not meant to be taken literally. Means they can't care about anyone except themselves.

[Besides, someone without a heart is probably dead. But then here they are, dead, but speaking and walking and living. There's something odd about how she reacts that sticks with him. Makes him wonder about her death and how it happened - was her heart removed or damaged somehow? He regrets the thought as soon as he's had it.]

You care so much, Mary. The flower you let me hold, and the drawing you gave me, that's all proof of it. You're the opposite of someone who's heartless.

Proof? It's really...it's proof?

[That she's good and whole and kind? That she has a heart, a heart of some kind? Maybe it's her exhaustion, but she shakes as she lets that idea sink in. Her big eyes fill with tears.]

Then why? Why am I so scary? Why do I...I think such terrible things sometimes? They ran from me, they ran! I don't understand at all...I don't understand what I am!

Mary...

[Boy, he doesn't have any answers for that. It's possible there's something wrong, he's not naive. But he's certainly seen instances where children are feared and hated for things they shouldn't be. Experienced it firsthand.]

I don't know. Do you think, if I saw what happened to you, I might understand better?

You can't--if you did, you'd hate me! I know you would, no matter how you feel right now. You'll, you'll...

[It's too scary. After what happened, how can she let anyone know?]

I don't want you to throw me away.

I won't. I would never. Mary, I just-

[Ugh. He sighs. He's so reluctant to share anything with these people, but clearly it's becoming something he has less control over than ever before.]

I just spent the last several months of my life protecting a boy who the whole world didn't want. They were afraid of him and I saved his life. I don't make a habit of tossing people aside.

The...the whole world?

[And they were afraid of him? She's tempted to believe that he's making it up, but she's not one to consider someone a liar. Mary's tears ease as she's shocked to lucidity by the admission.]

So now...

[Now he is the one who's all alone. She hangs her head.]

And he's a good boy?

[He doesn't really want to launch into a long explanation of why Law was feared. It's devastating to even think of - the boy who was the only survivor of the World Government's genocide against white lead. The long battle of the last six months against his illness and the doctors who would rather see him exterminated than treated wore on them both. And he doesn't want to make this about Law - his heart does, sure, but he needs to console Mary, not wallow in his own grief over being separated from the boy.]

They were afraid they would catch his sickness, even though they couldn't. They called him a monster. But he was the smartest, bravest little boy I've ever met. He's going to be a great doctor someday, I just know it.

[And now he's getting misty-eyed from fondness and the pain of loss. Great. He blinks it back, shakes his head.]

You can do art, and you make people smile wherever you go. You're not hated here.

[A monster, he said. Sometimes she wonders that, too. Is she a monster? Ib looked at her like she was a monster. And maybe a part of her really is one, deep down. Just like all her sweet brothers and sisters...they were always just so hungry, but they loved her and she loved them. They just didn't know any better. Mary covers her face.]

You want to see?

Please, Mary. If you'll allow me.

[Which she seems to be considering, and he's grateful. He'll still wait for her go-ahead, however. Perhaps she has something she wishes for in return.]

[She's silent for a moment. Seeming to have a war with herself of some kind, Mary grips at her hair. But then, just as abruptly, it's passed. Her hands go slack and fall to the ground beside her knees.]

Okay. You...you can look.

Thank you.

[Yeah, he'll really have to make it up to her later. He can see how difficult it is for her. He takes one of the chocolates from the package and hands the rest of the bag to her, then stands and walks the final few feet to her marker before placing the sweet down beside it.

He's not sure what he expected, but it wasn't this. This raises more questions than it answers. The world is made of her drawings; he recognizes them easily since he holds the paper in his pocket still. Or is this simply how the world looks through her eyes? But even stranger is her reaction to the girl with the lighter, and her connection to the portrait. Somehow it holds her life force, much like these lanterns hold theirs now.

The world goes black, and then the light from their lanterns fade into view again. It's over, and he's not sure what he's seen but nothing convinced him that Mary was the sort of terrible thing she seems to think she is. Just a desperate, frightened little girl in a world of her own making. No wonder she seems to fear being alone. He stands still for a moment, head bowed in thought, then makes his way back to Mary and sits before he can somehow trip and fall.]

Do you miss it? Your world full of colors. It's so dark here.

[When he's back from the vision and the pain that's affiliated with it, Mary's curled downward into herself, head bowed low to the ground and hands covering herself like she's trying to hide. She doesn't look up, but she does answer, her voice soft and barely audible.]

No...no...it was so dark there, too. Dark and empty. So I made it less empty. I filled it with things that I wanted to make me happy.

[But they didn't, not really. Because it was all fake.]

It isn't empty here, even if I hate the dark and the fire.

I see.

[She looks too small and too anxious to ask any of the thousand things in his head at the moment. Maybe some day when things have calmed down he can ask a few careful questions. He rests a hand on her back, rubbing lightly, hoping it will help remind her that she really isn't alone here.]

I'm sorry about what happened. And I still don't think it was right. I wish you'd had friends there, but I know you have them here.

It's just that I'm...I'm...

[Mary whimpers, but otherwise doesn't recoil from his touch. Eventually, slowly, she relaxes underneath the soothing weight of that big hand.]

I'm so scared that I'll lose them. That I'll drive them away or, or...or something else will happen, and I'll end up all alone again. If I was in the dark all alone again, I don't know what I'd do.

Yeah. It's scary to feel that. I know. You just have to keep going forward, though. Right now, you're not alone and it's impossible to predict the future.

[Which is not exactly the most uplifting thing he could say, but it's true. And she's too smart and too hurt to be appeased at the moment by claims that she'll always be surrounded by friends and light here, even if he thinks that's true too. He remembers feeling like she does, or something close to it - the loneliness, the desperation, the fear. They're both just a couple children who got a rough start in life.]

Actually, right now I think you probably need sleep, and maybe something to eat other than just chocolate.

[Without uncurling, Mary shakes her head.]

I can't! I have to guard my secret, no matter what!

[He regards her with a frown for a long moment, then gives her back one more rub before standing.]

Then I'll get you something to eat. What do you like?

[Rubbing her eyes, Mary finally sits up. She looks almost guilty...but just as stubborn as ever about the issue all the same.]

No vegetables.

[She likes everything else.]

[GASP THE HORROR it's like 70% of what he eats! But all right. He's not her dad ~~yet~~. Whatever makes her happy.]

Got it. No vegetables.

[He'll spoil her enough anyway by leaving the chocolate there instead of taking it as more offerings. Some people will just have to be satisfied with other gifts.

Forty minutes later, he's back - as quick as he could manage given the time needed to go find food at the shop and make something decent with it. Knowledge of his personal difficulty with staying on his feet means he's packed it all in a little box and then wrappped that in a shirt temporarily repurposed and folded as a baggie. There's sliced cheese and apple, a handful of crackers, and some sort of drinking bottle already filled with sweetened tea. Hopefully she's still where he last saw her.]

EVENT LOG: GRAVES

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