EVENT LOG: FEAST OF LIGHTS

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
FEAST OF LIGHTS

characters: everyone.
location: around town.
date/time: december 23 - 30
content: Holiday cheer is here!
warnings: n/a. please cw tags appropriately.

a show of lights

When characters wake on the "morning" of the 23rd, they'll find all of Beacon is lit up beautifully. Spirits have carefully placed candles all around the town, lighting up the familiar buildings and streets with a warm, comforting glow. If others wish to help, they're more than welcome, but it won't take too long: they've clearly spent all night getting things ready. If asked, Rastus will explain the spirits do this every few years, and yes, those candles are lit from the bonfire, but he'll get them back before the end of the event.

Once the spirits finish their task, it's time to hand out dreidels! While the four-sided toy has the usual Hebrew letters on it, characters will soon realize that they've little correlation to the typical rules. Instead: each side offers a certain kind of prize (listed below). Characters can play against the spirits or among themselves, but either way, they'll find a personal dreidel in their possession for the duration of the event.

secret santa

Of course, the spirits aren't the only ones in a holiday mood. Thanks to the tireless (and secretive) efforts of Eleven, quite a number of people wake up to find a present nearby. The wrappings vary from elegant to, well, an effort, and the gifts range form big to small, but there's no doubt each was given with at least a little thoughtfulness in mind.

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Comments

[pure_havoc]

[chains are smart, he's building one on his side too]

What is it? Something to eat, I take it?

[what is this strange confection you hold...]

[scarsolderthanyou]

You unwrap it, like this.

[Stone peels the foil off, revealing the chocolate underneath, and offers said chocolate to Cao Pi. Then makes another move, on his first stone's other side. Let's branch this out a bit.]

Pretty tasty, actually.

[pure_havoc]

[he breathes a small mutter of something that might be thanks and gives it a sniff before taking a little nibble. HMMM. Verdict uncertain he needs to think about it]

...so many things here are so sweet. I'm not used to it.

[oh right, his turn. He begins a risky gambit to try to draw out his opponent, leaving space between stones that he hopes will prove tempting]

[scarsolderthanyou]

It's one of my favorite things about being dead. Sweet things all over.

[Stone doesn't take the bait, not wanting to get one of his game pieces out in the open and trapped out there yet. He continues consolidating his own side with another stone placed next to the first, closer to Cao Pi's cluster, but not touching yet.]

But I'm from a world that doesn't have a lot of options like that. It's fruit or sweet teas, mostly. Groundlings are creative with pastry, but nothing like here.

[pure_havoc]

[it's already starting to look more like a war plan than a game board - one cluster of black there, an advancing line of white over here. Cao Pi mulls over his move while finishing the chocolate, thinking deeply about both of them.]

We have nothing like this in my country either. I've had cooks who can do marvelous things with honey and fruit, but this is rather...unique.

[he's not taking to it the way he took to coffee, though. Ah well. Time to expand his line, in a gambit to expand territory. Stone's phalanx move isn't a bad one, but there are definitely strategies against it, and Zihuan knows them all.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Whereas Stone only knows the kinds of strategies that work for aerial assault. That may not serve him well, here. He expands his little core of black in the direction of Cao Pi's expansion, at least, aiming to cut him off from that half of the board.]

I like it, but I'm told I have too much fondness for sweet things. And groundling food, in general. I like the variety and the clever things they come up with. We don't cook much, in the colony, most of what we eat, we eat raw or with only a little preparation.

[pure_havoc]

[yess, come to his battlefront, give him a war of marbles...]

Groundling? [what a word, but it gives him the perfect opening] You know, I had hoped to ask after something you mentioned at the meeting. About being a dragon...?

[his arched eyebrow suggest some slight skepticism but all things considered around here, he's willing to accept the truth no matter how weird it is. It may make him have to bite back some sarcasm, though, even he knows not to piss off a real dragon]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Technically, I'm what we call a Raksura. There aren't any humans on my world, and we don't use the word dragon. But I do have another shape with scales, wings, claws, an a tail. I'm told it looks like what you humans call a dragon.

[He shores up his attacking line with a second stone beside the first.]

"Groundling" just means people who live on the ground, instead of in the sky or sea. It's easier than trying to remember exactly what species everyone is when there are dozens, maybe hundreds of intelligent species to keep track of.

[pure_havoc]

[a fine gambit, one that requires him to shore up his line a little so that when he goes on the attack, it'll be brutal]

I see. Or, well, I think I do, though I clearly haven't seen your other form with my own eyes. How fascinating the universe is, that creatures which resemble gods are perfectly normal in their own homes.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone puts another one closer to Cao Pi's line, extending his reach and coming almost right up against Cao Pi's white rocks.]

I'm surprise you haven't. I use it a lot around here. Maybe you don't ever look up, or you've missed me using the lake as a bath. I can show you any time you want, though. Just not in here.

[pure_havoc]

[and so the encirclement begins, a white stone flanking the black]

Well, I do confess that I spend a lot of time in my room, writing and working on things. Perhaps I should look up more, if winter allows for more expeditions out in public.

[but he's not going to go outside in the cold if he doesn't have to, let's be real here]

Fascinating, that you have such a world to experience. In my world we are only one, not counting animals, and no amount of insisting that gods are real has ever made it possible for me to see a dragon in person.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone places a game piece right on the other side of Cao Pi's first attempt at encirclement, forcing him to either shore up or start moving around in a wider path.]

So I've heard. Are you from Earth, then? Everyone from Earth seems to think they're the only intelligent species out there. Very weird perspective, but if your world is that limited, I guess it makes sense.

[pure_havoc]

[a fine move, but he's got this, placing another stone at an adjacent intersection. His strategy specializes in sacrificing one token to capture several of his opponent's, when they least see it coming]

Yes, as far as I can tell. I have met several who claim to know my kingdom if not my own name, who are from far in the future. It does make sense, does it not? It can be hard to conceive of other options when you've been led to believe you are, in fact, the only creature capable of speech, reason, and art, among other things.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone's next stone goes to one side of the one he just placed, shoring up his own line and edging towards the side of the board, aiming to cut Cao Pi off from most of his pieces entirely from that direction.]

At least you all seem to react pretty well. I've only had one person who looks at me like I might try to eat her.

[pure_havoc]

[oh no we're heading that move off at the pass (ha) with a stone right...here. Still not threatening but definitely a valid defense]

To be fair, under normal circumstances I might have done the same. But I've spent some time in a demon dimension so there is much that no longer fazes me. Seeing gigantic monsters on a regular basis does a lot for enuring one to the unusual.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone puts another stone below the first, forcing Cao Pi to either continue extending, or give in and let him have the edge.]

In a what now?

[His brows go up.]

I don't know what either of those words mean. Not in that context.

[Dimension just means height, length, width-- doesn't it? And "demon" is a word he's heard once or twice, but his world has no concept of them, so he doesn't know the definition.]

[pure_havoc]

[hmm the edge is risky but if he lets Stone have that line, he'll never be able to surround and capture. Best head that off at the pass.]

It is, or was, another world much like this one. Not the darkness, no, but it was a world not connected to the living world. Created by a demon of immense power, outside the flow of natural time. He was arrogant enough to believe himself greater than humanity but...well, we sure showed him in the end.

[but if he doesn't know what a demon is...?] Have you no demons among your many species? Mystics, gods, or anything of the like?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Mystics, sure. Our mentors auger the future, though it's not usually very precise, even when they have actual visions. Gods, no, though I've met some creatures pretending to be gods before. And unless we call them something else, no demons. But we don't believe in anything after death, either, and here I am, so maybe they exist and we just don't know about it.

[Stone continues chasing Cao Pi's advancing line, trying to box him in.]

[pure_havoc]

[what a good time to introduce a reinforcement unit on the opposite side of the board! Well. One stone. But like reinforcements advancing on a flank, he's coming in from two sides now.]

Fair. I would have been loathe to label anyone a god or a demon simply because of how they look or what abilities they have, but things tend to get a bit turned on their heads when you are introduced to the goddess of creation in person. After that, I have learned to take nothing for granted, you never know who you will meet. [a nod and a smile for Stone] Like, a dragon.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone considers a moment, then finishes blocking off the first arm of attack. Better to not get distracted and wind up being hemmed in on both sides. He chuckles at the last comment.]

You have a goddess of creation that you actually met? Now I'm curious. What was that like?

[pure_havoc]

[all part of his plan, no worries here]

I do not...well, I did not actually believe in the old myths, until I came face to face with Lady Nuwa. She is a fierce and formidable woman. [all the smirking] My father tried to hit on her. He is...rather lucky she didn't behead him for it.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sounds like our queens. Likely to bite you if you offend them.

[He finishes blocking off that first line of advance, then turns his attention to filling it in and shoring up the line he'd had to make to do that. Cao Pi has a couple turns of advance on the far side to play with if he wants to.]

They're not goddesses, though they are responsible for creation, after a fashion.

[pure_havoc]

[he's certainly going for the other side, trying to force a confrontation. If they don't start capturing each other's pieces quickly here, it's going to end in a tie and then he has to do math.]

After a fashion? Why, Master Stone, are you making scandalous jokes now?

[not that he doesn't appreciate a good sex joke now and then...]

[scarsolderthanyou]

It's not scandalous, Cao Pi, it's life. Raksura don't have a lot of weird rules about sex, like groundlings do.

[Stone does look amused, though. He finishes his protection bit, and starts attempting to tackle Cao Pi's second advancing line, now, though it may be too late to stop it.]

[pure_havoc]

[he's definitely using that secondary front to try to force areas to surround and capture individual stones. Whatever little bit he can manage.]

Of course it is. I was kidding. I am quite well versed in the beauty and power of sex, and that's not just speaking of my lovely wife. It is, however, usually impolite to joke about it in unfamiliar company.