logsinthenight | 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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[ Shadow sits on one of the stones making up his memorial and stares into space. He's been sitting for a long time, and his body is beginning to protest the uncomfortable position. He ignores it. It's far from the worst pain he's endured.

Although he didn't wish to relieve his death, Shadow did it anyway. He left an offering at his own grave — a gold coin plucked from nowhere — and saw what others could witness. He lived it all again, and he knew that he didn't want anyone else to experience it.

So he sits at his grave, keeping vigil over his own death. If someone approaches, he speaks up: ]

I don't want any offerings. But I'll tell you how I died if that's what you want.

You don't wish anyone to see.

[It was more of a statement than a question. He found it interesting those who choose to stand guard over their own grave -- just because they didn't want anyone to witness their deaths.

He wasn't about to make an offering anyway, this isn't someone he knows so it's of little interest to him. He was mostly just stalking around like a ghost.]

[ Shadow shrugs. He's not going to deny it. Certainly not when his intentions are so apparent, guarding the grave as he is. ]

It was a kind of personal way to die.

[ The visions could be even more personal, he knows. He supposes he should be grateful that the revelations about his parentage were omitted. ]

All death is personal. Either to yourself or the even the one that caused it.

[He didn't really care if someone watched his own death, but he had difficulty comprehending a lot of human emotions anymore. If he were still human he might actually feel the same as Shadow.]

I guess so.

[ Shadow wonders if anyone else could be considered the cause of his death. It was ultimately his choice to hold the vigil. He has plenty of opportunities to avoid it. ]

It sounds like you're speaking from experience.

[ His tone isn't accusatory, nor is his expression. For all he knows, this stranger has just been going around peeking at other people's deaths. ]

The clan I'm originally from were assassins. We played a role in many deaths.

[He actually wouldn't care if he was accused or not. He couldn't really feel anything close to compassion or empathy anymore so regret over anything he's done is out of the picture. He just stated a fact. The Lin Kuei were assassins though he's sure that his brother's new version was nothing of the sort.]

That is the question of the hour. [A moment's pause, and the line of Annie's mouth twists in a small, wry smile.] You don't have to tell me if you want to keep it private.

[Never mind that she would have left an offering at his grave to see how he died, if for no other reason than she's still looking for common threads (travel? death in some liminal space? there must be something), and the shape of his shrine piqued her curiousity.

Discussing the matter out loud seems, if not more intimate, at least more awkward.]

[ While Shadow doesn't return the smile, that's not unusual for him. He has the sort of face that looks like he was born serious. There are certainly no laugh lines to speak of.

He gives a slight shrug. ]

I don't mind. I prefer it to the alternative. [ Said as he taps his hand on the stone, indicating the "alternative" he means. ] And I get the feeling that it'll eventually come out anyway, one way or another.

[ He can't guard his grave all the time. ]

_{[If the overriding theme of these grave visions are any indication, many of them had met a pitiable, untimely end one way or another. And many of them are dealing with that one way or another.

M.K.-- M.K.'s been working his way down the path of acceptance one of two ways: either by getting so numbingly drunk he's barely been able to climb the stairs of the inn some nights, or else pushing any possible dollop of feeling about it as far down as he can. The latter has ensured his curiosity toward the cemetery hasn't been hobbled by shame for choosing to take advantage of it and watch the visions. (Nor, apparently, has it dulled his appetite for pain in willingly choosing to experience tragedies that would knock any sane person's breath out of them...)]}

You're sitting here so you can tell people what this magic could just show for you?

_{[Intrigued by the stone boat, he turns a quizzical look on its captain.]}

You have something against collecting trinkets?

_{[That's a joke, perhaps, if you squint.]}

[ Judging by the slight upward quirk at the corner of Shadow's lips, it's a joke that hits its mark. He shrugs. ]

I've never been big on souvenirs.

[ He arrived in Beacon with no more than the clothes on his back. Given the way that he died, Shadow was grateful to have even that.

The ghost of amusement fades as Shadow addresses the stranger's first question. ]

And I'd rather tell people than let them experience it. It wasn't quick or painless, and it was pretty personal.

_{[Although there's very little humorous about their present circumstances except in the most cynical of ironies, today it doesn't feel like he's digging bloody gouges in his soul to make a jest and have it answered. It'd be a different story if they were talking about his memorial for a fallen warrior, which he hasn't bothered to go near, but he can't deny a certain curiosity toward how others have chosen to respond to mortality rubbed in their faces.

He quirks a brow.]}

Is that for them or for you?

EVENT LOG: GRAVES

keeping vigil

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Re: keeping vigil

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