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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[Mary does stir, just slightly, but only turns her head more into his hand as he lifts her. She's so light, it's easy to to so--it looks like at least for now, she is indeed sleeping deeply enough not to wake.]

[ Just as he thought, she's completely exhausted. And as for the reason... Riku looks over at the marker and the doll there, narrowing his eyes. Whatever the purpose is to having these things here, he's already experienced first-hand the way well-meaning items left in their vicinity causes an unwanted intrusion into one's recollection of their death.

He isn't interested in invading her privacy, and obviously, she's not too keen on it either, if she's willing to go this far to protect it. Or that's... pretty much how it appears, from where he stands.

Riku brings Mary up off the ground with him as he rises. He rests her up against his shoulder, cradled by one arm so he can retrieve her lantern. ]

This is no place to take a nap, trust me. Let's get you inside.

[ By inside, he means the Invincible, not that it's where he rests his head, but it's warm, safe, and there are beds. ]

[He'll be able to get pretty far before the subtle movement of his footsteps stirs her further. Fortunately, at least for now it seems as if she can't quite remember why it is she was outside in the first place. Her arms automatically find purchase around his neck as she gets comfortable.]

Bedtime?

[ Riku knows what it's like to be that tired. When exhaustion rests so deep in one's bones that every limb feels like dead weight, when the mind aches for rest. So he doesn't try to wake her, even when she stirs again and manages two meager syllables.

His breath puffs, amused. ]

Yeah. [ Definitely. Way past, given how hard she'd crashed. He takes care not to jostle her too much, though trying to manage the door handle with her lantern occupying his only free hand requires a bit of that.

Eventually, checking one door after another without finding an unoccupied room, he settles for an overstuffed armchair. She's small, perhaps something is better than nothing, and the last he can do is try to find her a blanket. ]

[It isn't until he tries to put her down that the trouble starts. At first, it's just a small groan of protest as she attempts to keep her small arms wound around him. Still, she relents, curling up in the armchair as content as a kitten.

Then, all at once, her eyes snap open fully. She sits up, looking around, and begins to shudder as it hits her exactly where she is. Or rather, where she isn't.]

No--no, no! Nobody's watching! I have to protect it!

[ He had only just started to go look for something he could use to drape over her small frame, a blanket, anything. Mary's distress isn't a thing he can ignore. He knows why she's upset. What's more concerning is what might cause someone so young to be so protective of the marker mysteriously erected in her memory.

Does she already know about the visions? ]

Hang on. Mary, I found you asleep on the ground. If someone was going to do something about that thing, they would have already.

Is guarding it really that important to you?

Yes!

[She jumps to her feet and nearly falls over again, her eyes darting around until they find her lantern.]

I'll lose all of my friends if I don't!

[ It's there. Right at the foot of the armchair he'd placed her into, safe and sound. Like he'd intended her to be. Instead, her distress is a difficult thing to watch.

Lose all her friends?

Riku doesn't bother to speculate on what secrets she's hiding, even one so young. They're hers, and apparently secrets she guards well past the point of exhaustion. His gaze darts away from her face a few times as he thinks. ]

Then I'll take the first watch. Come find me later. After you sleep.

You'd...

[It shocks Mary still, that he'd volunteer himself for such a task without any proper explanation. Without seeming to want anything in return. Without answers.]

You'd really watch it for me?

[ He still has questions. Any answers he seeks won't come from stealing them from off the girl's grave marker, though. Maybe having the answers won't even matter here.

It simply boils down to this: Riku likes even less than the secrecy, the way it's driven a young girl to utter exhaustion.

And yeah, the fact that they're all dead isn't something he's forgotten. Maybe that even makes the idea of hunger and fatigue an illusion, he hasn't tested it that far. ]

Don't look so surprised. [ The manner in which he turns away suggests he's a little sheepish under her scrutiny. ] I'll find you a blanket.

[But she is surprised. Forgetting about her lantern halfway through picking it up, she half-runs and half-stumbles her way forward, launching her arms around Riku. Since he turned away, her face squishes squarely into his back. Mary's little hands clutch into his shirt.]

Don't leave me, okay? If something happens, and you see it, even by accident, please just don't go away!

[ What startles him the most is her desperation - and how... he guesses a part of him can relate with that. Of being so desperate for the friends that he has that he resented deeply anything that threatened to get between them, that could lure them away.

Mary's hiding something she's terrified will have everyone leaving her? ]

Mary-

[ Uncurling his fists, he lets his exhale sag his shoulders. ]

I understand. Most people have something they don't want to share with others. But you need to rest.

I'll be here when it's over. Then we can talk about it. Ok?

[Mary hiccups, but then nods slowly. Even then, it takes her another minute to actually let him go, and then she turns away from him too, taking a breath as she covers her face in her hands.]

Okay. I'll be good.

[ He recognizes that hiccup of breath for sadness. If she's scared enough to cry, part of that might be youth, but that doesn't matter. It's-

-more than a little heart-rending. And Riku...

He's not sure he's the one for this. Maybe Kairi and Sora are a good influence, because he turns when she lets go, taking a knee to get to eye level, even if she's looked away. ]

Mary...

[ If she resists being turned around, he'll permit her, but should she turn, he'll seek to take her hands.

She doesn't need to hide. ]

Can I tell you a secret?

[Mary does turn around to face him, lets him take her hands, but with her brows knit together she stares firmly at the ground. Still, she nods.]

I'm very good at keeping secrets.

[ He moves them, until he's hooked the little finger of one hand around hers, like the promises kids used to make when he was very young. ]

I did stuff I'm not proud of. My friends and a lot of other people were hurt.

[ The king used to always say that it gets easier, the more he says the things that are hard and often too heavy to put into words. He's a little closer to seeing what he meant, even if it's still an uphill battle. ]

It was hard to face them again. I was afraid they'd turn me away after what I'd done.

[ He understands that fear. ]

They didn't. I won't do that to you either.

[It's hard for her to imagine. When her friends found out what she was keeping secret, when they couldn't understand the things that made her different, maybe a little bit scary, they threw her away. But maybe it was for the best, because that brought her here, where there's people like this who are so willing to try. Her small hands shake as her pinky finger grips around his as best as it can.]

I'm so happy I met you.

[ Riku needed someone willing to try with him, too. He's not like the King, except in that they both harbored secret failings and private regrets, he isn't like Sora and Kairi, even if he's a beacon for them like they are for him.

He believes they're all stronger for the ways their hearts touch each other. Like the way those words touch his, wrap it tight and squeezes out the sentiment born of I'm so happy I met you.

Riku's knuckles push the moist tracks away from her cheek. ]

You gonna be able to sleep?

[Mary starts to nod, but hesitates.]

Do you know any stories?

[ He can easily see where this is headed. It's- not really his sorta thing, but Riku thinks he can indulge her.

Funny. If he's truthful, he wants to. Just to reassure himself that she'll be resting soundly while he goes on his peculiar vigil. ]

A few...

[ Riku sinks to the floor to sit with his back against the arm of the armchair, folding his arms to pillow his head back against it. ]

I know a really old one, one of my best friends used to tell us this story.

[Following his lead, Mary climbs back up onto the chair and gets comfortable. Truthfully, she's unlikely to stay up for the duration of the story...but her desire to hear one doesn't waver with her exhaustion. She's always the one reading the stories. How different it must be to be told one, just like a little girl is supposed to experience. This feels right, and she smiles sleepily.]

I like it already.

A long, long time ago, in an age people used to call the age of fairy tales, all the worlds were one.

All the people living there lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light.

[ Is a story like this unfair, given their circumstances? That depends on one's perspective. Where Riku is sitting, it's more of a story of hope, adjacent to their own situation. ]

Everyone loved the light. They loved it so much, they started to fight over it, wanting to keep that precious light all to themselves. So... darkness was born in their hearts.

There wasn't enough to share?

[She understands. Mary's dreamed of sunshine and happiness and freedom for so long...she'd fight anyone who tried to keep her from it.]

[ That's a question that seems easy - he could give a simple answer, try to package this up in a tidy box of what's right or wrong, but that's not him. All his life people have told him what he should do or who he should be. What he can and can't want. ]

Sometimes when you love something, it's hard to give yourself limits. People loved the light so much that what they had wasn't enough.

They wanted more, they wanted the light other people had. The greed in their hearts, the fear of losing what they had, these things grew and grew. The more light they had, the greater that darkness became.

Finally, it consumed everything.

That's scary...

[They chased it all away. And then everything was dark. It sounds like it could be Beacon, or her own home, if there had ever been light to begin with. But then, she doesn't know if Beacon ever did have light. Her eyes feel heavy.]

What happened next?

EVENT LOG: GRAVES

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