EVENT LOG: GRAVES

[inthenightmods]

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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Comments

[fogey]

[ five notices her startle, of course, the way she might've attacked him if recognition hadn't set in. she's right -- he is trained in this, and it's less that he reacts to her aborted motion as that he doesn't, because a part of him had expected it. he's always on edge or near it, ready.

seeing that it's melisandre doesn't exactly make him feel better about the fact that someone is here, and has certainly looked at this, at his memory, but doesn't make him angrier either. it takes him a second to remember the conversation she mentioned, but then he does, a slight lessening to that scowl. ]

This is it. I suppose you never would've seen it before.

[voktys]

No, we do not even have it in our fictions of magic.

⟪ at least not in any of the ones she had read, and not in scripture, either. god communicates through flame, and ash, and smoke. no more –– but no less either, and most of all, she knows these things to be true. ⟫ But by God, do I wish it could be taught.

⟪ this is not a request, she knows very well that, were it possible for her, she could do it by now. ⟫

You have a good soul.

[fogey]

Can't, [ he says, ] even in my world. Either you're born like this, or you're not.

[ but he doesn't dwell on that line of thought -- wouldn't have anyway, but the next thing she says is so strange and unexpected that he actually stares at her for a beat before reacting. then it happens: the slow spread of a disbelieving smile, and a laugh, shaking his head. wow. ]

Whatever you think you saw? You got the wrong idea.

[voktys]

⟪ she tilts her head at the laugh, but is clearly unaffected by it. no, he is not a boy, not by a long shot, but she has had a few decades on him easily now, and... she has danced this dance a few times.

often all by herself. ⟫

Oh, I don't doubt that you have done terrible things. ⟪ some may say that she has done terrible things herself. ⟫ But you remain capable of goodness, of sacrifice. Even in the depths of your abyss, you should appreciate such things.

[fogey]

You have no idea.

[ terrible things, she says, as calmly as she says almost everything. but no matter her age, no matter what she's seen, he's sure of this. the commission wasn't just terrible, it was unconscionable, it was unimaginable, it was the deepest cruelty he's ever seen or known. and five didn't just succeed there, he excelled. the very best of them. there's not a single decent person who could've done what he's done. ]

What I've done, or what I'm capable of. Seeing one thing I did doesn't change that, so don't pretend you know anything about me.

[voktys]

⟪ in a way, the vision of her death was a blessing – she did not have the time to think of the burnings, of murder, of how willing she was to sacrifice men, women, and children if it meant to defy the great other. oh, he may well have done much of the same, she can't know it, but one thing is true: she has had centuries more to do so. ⟫

I would not say that I know you. ⟪ even-voiced, with her dimmed lantern. ⟫ But tell me this: would a bad person know? Would they argue with me on the matter?

[fogey]

[ there's a moment, brief, where he opens his mouth, closes it, and has to regroup.

(the handler would say she's simply maintaining order, doing her job well, ensuring that what's meant to happen, happens. other operatives in corrections would say they're simply doing their jobs too, and cha-cha is far from the only person who relishes the work. he's seen people across history doing hideous, awful things, sure that they're in the right.)

but finally, he just says, ]

Apparently so.

[voktys]

You don't hold much love for yourself, do you?

⟪ this one is rich, coming from her –– she barely thinks of herself as a person, more as a tool, is so removed from her own heart that she couldn't see its desires if everything in her life is pelting them at her. she can insist on a saviour who is faulty, who does not make half the miracles that were promised, who can only so many of the rituals required, and she still insists it's him.

and at no point does she stop to ponder if perhaps this insistence comes from elsewhere, somewhere other than her god or his enemy. ⟫

[fogey]

Enough with the psychoanalysis, Freud.

[ he knows, of course, that she isn't likely to pick up on the reference. he's feeling petty enough not to care. ]

You might be older than most of us, but you don't know everything. As a matter of fact, is there a reason you're still here?

[ it's ironic, really, how much they have in common this front. five had once been a boy, a child superhero, but the apocalypse had weathered all of that away till there wasn't much left but a desperate old man who would do absolutely anything to survive. the commission took that base, shaped it into a weapon, nothing but hard edges and bloody hands. just another tool, wielded by some faceless bureaucrats to maintain the timeline. ]

[voktys]

⟪ is there a reason she is still here? the question has her looking as though he had struck her across the face, for just a moment, before she gathers her features into order again. she had known she'd outlived a human lifespan easily, but that it had been by this much, no, that had been a surprise.

the how of it is simple – the red god bestows strange powers upon his followers, in her case, he held her together, kept her as she was for centuries now, so she can go on, day in day out, until her mission is completed. ⟫

The Lord of Light would not let me die until my purpose was served.

⟪ not when she was a slave girl, not when she was starving, not when asshai took everything it could from her and then some. ⟫

By natural means, that is.

[fogey]

[ he hadn't quite believed her, the first time she spoke of magic. but it's impossible not to now -- whether or not there's anything to her shadow lands or shadow language, the dates on her shrine and the memory it'd imparted leaves little doubt that there's some kind of real power at work with her.

the lord of light. five doesn't believe in gods, but some kind of powered figure...possible. ]

And what purpose is that?

[voktys]

Find Azor Ahai reborn ⟪ he, Stannis Baratheon, the King, had been on her mind before she died, too, and in quite a personal manner ⟫ guide him into battle against the Other, before the Long Night comes and ends all life.

⟪ but that had been before arya stark had wandered in and decided to... talk of what the girl thinks the future might look like. ⟫

[fogey]

[ it sounds like bullshit, at first -- azor ahai, some others, even the long night -- but. goddamn if talk of something ending all life won't always be of interest to him. his expression shifts, from that simmering anger to something sharper-eyed, attentive.

but, then, melisandre saw his memory and felt the afterimages of his own apocalypse; this reaction probably isn't a surprise. ]

You're talking about the end of the world?

[ might be nothing; many civilizations had myths, stories, songs about the end times. but rosalind had been trying to end a world-ending catastrophe too, and he has to wonder now, if there aren't more. ]

[voktys]

Yes.

⟪ she is used to being disbelieved, few westerosi believed her, but it hadn't mattered, had it? as long as stannis chose to fight this battle, they would all be saved. long as he does not fall, of course.

did not fall.

does not fall. ⟫

Is it not what you fought?

[fogey]

[ no one would've believed him, if he'd told them. normal people going about their lives -- why would they? his own siblings had had a hard time with the idea. vanya had never quite believed him, instead doubted his sanity, and the others...well. there'd been luther, with his calm, steady faith. and with his backup, with the clear evidence of hazel and cha-cha trying to track five down, the others had slowly come on board.

they still thought he was crazy, probably, but it didn't matter as long as they stopped harold jenkins.

when he looks to melisandre, he does with all the intensity that more than 40 years in a dead world breeds. ]

Yes.

[voktys]

⟪ in beacon, many had been... kind, yes, but she does know that this kindness came in part because they had not seen why grown men fear to speak her name in westeros. they had seen the woman and the priestess, but not the sorceress who had lived on poison and poison alone in asshai to become beyond human enough to speak r'hllor's language of fire better than any other living thing. and this is how r'hllor could show her what few others have ever seen, the darkness to come, the price they would pay for a loss.

and she bore it all.

he can see her now, just as she can see a man who has gone further than any hell his compatriots could dream up. ⟫

To live with the knowledge is a lonely thing. ⟪ just like that, she is the priestess again, an incline of her head, a soft smile. ⟫ Perhaps less so here.

[fogey]

[ had five stayed with the commission, he might have lived for centuries, himself.

the commission has, literally, all the time in the world -- and then some. oh, his contract was only for five years, with the promise of retirement at the end, but he knows better. the terms might have changed, right at the end. or maybe he would've been offered that promotion that the handler tried to lure him back with -- work at the headquarters, have the option of the best pension and benefits, sign away another handful of years, and what's time when you can time travel? she thought he could be her successor. how big a cost is the rest of your life when that can be an infinite length of time?

(you don't leave the commission. once you sign your name with them, they own you until retirement or death. usually the latter.)

so the length of melisandre's life is hardly strange to him. nor her apparent inhumanity, and it takes so much for him to feel horror anymore. he's seen it all, done it all. how can he possibly judge anyone?

he makes a sound, bitter, says, ]

If that's meant to be reassuring, it's not. I don't like the idea of multiple apocalypses, even in different worlds.

[ makes his fight feel that much more impossible, pointless. the handler kept saying he was fighting fate, but he'd refused to believe it. but -- if the end of the world happens in multiple realities, timelines, whatever, then what if it is inevitable? ]

[voktys]

No one said you should like it. Do you believe I enjoy this? Do you think I relish seeing the end of all life when I search the flames for the future?

⟪ he is a man grown, that much she believes, but in some ways, he is a boy still. ⟫

This is not about want, this is about a purpose. You had yours and I had mine. I have seen the good end, too, it just need be reached.

[fogey]

[ he hears out her rebuke, at least, which is about as close as he comes to apology. blows out a breath before answering, a long exhale, and then speaks lowly. ]

Yeah, me too. I didn't see it, but I had an idea how it could go differently. Guess neither of us will know what happens.

[voktys]

You trust those you left in charge. Your family.

⟪ it's curiosity, that, the steel from before entirely forgotten. part of her just wants to hear that he has a little bit of hope, somewhere. that he's had it good, with his family, even if it was only for a little while. ⟫

[fogey]

Yes.

[ it's all ever been for his family. i want them to live, he'd told the handler, and it's the truest thing he's ever said. what else kept him going, all those years, but the chance to go home? ]

If anyone can stop the end of the world, and that's an if, it's them.

[ they failed before, but they hadn't known what was coming. hadn't had his help. in a better timeline, he would've fought right alongside them, but that apparently just wasn't meant to be. ]

What about that king of yours? Think he can do it?

[voktys]

⟪ there is nothing more human than the slump of her shoulder at the question. sometimes, when the pain of her visions grows too severe, she weeps, but she's been younger than he looks when she learned to hide such things from prying eyes. ⟫

He is dead.

⟪ and it's a personal loss, that. ⟫

The Long Night will be fought and ended regardless, but... two of those from my lands here have said the same.

[fogey]

[ five doesn't offer any sympathy, but he looks off to the side, jaw clenching. of course he gets it. the goal was always to save the world and his brothers and sisters. just saving his siblings wasn't good enough for him; but on the flipside, saving the world, but not their lives, would be empty. ]

We're dead, but we can still lose people. If that isn't irony, I don't know what is.

[voktys]

I was never meant to care.

⟪ people confess to her all the time, so why not turn it around on him? ⟫

I was always going to die as soon as the war was done. Who is or isn't King was never my business. Mind, he had to be, he needed the troops –– but if this meant having the throne by the end of it all, that never mattered.

[fogey]

People aren't tools.

[ he was, all his life, but that's all the more reason for fire to burn in his words. he's not angry at her, of course; it's for her. ]