logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: JANUARY

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INTRO LOG: JANUARY

INTRO LOG: JANUARY
ALLES NEU

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: january 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. the forest spirits engage in some new year's shenanigans.
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

It's dim, and the room won't stop swaying, gently rocking you back and forth. A loud sound startles you fully awake, a deep, moaning call: a foghorn. As your eyes adjust, you note faint red light streaking through the room from a tiny, round window.

You've found yourself in a private room, lying on a bed. The last things you remember are the events that led up to your death. Beside you is a folded tablet and a lantern glowing with a healthy flame.

You're on a ship. And that ship is docking.

Making your way to the deck, and eventually the pier, you find only moonlight to greet you, and a dark forest beyond. There are other people here, each with their own unique lantern, and many of them look just as lost as you are. On the ferry you've just disembarked from, the speaker system begins to play a song.

In the distance, across the waters of the lake, you can see the tall silhouette of a lighthouse, its red light slowly turning.

•••

A small crowd of forest spirits have shown up at the harbor to welcome the newcomers and to ring in the new year! They are very excited to promote and partake in the following traditions:

Making lots of noise! Forest spirits are passing out a variety of noisemakers of all shapes and sizes with which to create a lively ruckus. Happy year!!!

Setting off fireworks! Sort of! More like firecrackers, sparklers, and bottle rockets, but close enough, right? None of them cast light, but they're still pretty glowy things.

Hanging bunches of onions from doorways! And also trees! And fences! And people! Hanging onions on everything! The more onions the better! Where did they get all of these onions!

Smashing stuff! Specifically, the forest spirits are yeeting whole-ass pomegranates into doors and smashing every plate they can get their hands on before sweeping the debris into a pile. In fact, the forest spirits seem to be having small contests to see who can amass the largest pile of broken kitchenware. Hide your fruits and fine china, Beacon bits, because the spirits have a loose definition of "pomegranate" and "plate".

Banging loaves of bread against walls! Maybe the tradition doesn't call for actual destruction or maybe it's just hard to smash a loaf of bread, but forest spirits are definitely running through town whapping hunks of bread on anything (and anyone) they run into. Some of the loaves even have coins and... acorns? Inside? Sure. All the better to bruise you with.

Tossing flowers into the lake! They're all white flowers... mostly? Flowers are tough to come by this time of year, so it's more like white "anything that looks like a flower"s that are getting hucked into the water.

Ringing bells! A couple of forest spirits have been tasked with scurrying up into the rafters of the church and town hall's clock tower, ringing the bells madly. Problem is, the spirits are trying to count and coordinate how many bell chimes peel through the town, but counting is hard and so is coordinating across a distance. So, uh, the bells are just kind of going hog wild for the day.

Melting lead! One forest spirit covered in fur with a long tongue lolling out from their mask seems to be in charge of a lead-melting booth, where lantern-havers can melt bits of lead over a torch borrowed from the bonfire. The molten lead is then dropped into the lake and fished out with the spirits long, long tongue, after which they'll examine the lead's shape and hoot... something at whoever's dropped it in. A fortune for the new year? Tough to say. Even the other forest spirits don't seen to be able to understand this tonguey gent.

Drinking burnt stuff! Be prepared for a forest spirit to run up and shove a scrap of paper and a glass of something bubbly into your hands. The idea, after some miming from the forest spirit, seems to be to write a wish or resolution onto the piece of paper, burn it in a bonfire torch, and mix the ashes with the glass of... something. Maybe you got lucky and it's champagne, but there's no telling what's in that glass. Bottoms up, though. You have to drink your wish to make it come true!

Burning stuff! The forest spirits are making cute little dolls of each other and other folks in town! How cute! Less cute is that these cute little effigies are getting chucked right into the bonfire and swallowed up by the flames. Rastus is moderately distressed by this development, though he won't stop you from making your own effigies to burn.

By the end of the week, the forest spirits will have cleaned up their festivities, but for now, eh, get in the spirit of the holiday. It's a new year, after all.

Luckily for all the newcomers who may find themselves horribly confused by this welcome committee, their tablets and the town have some resources available for getting acquainted with their new situation! In fact, as soon as they're prompted to enter a network username, an app containing all sorts of useful welcome information will launch. Newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records in town hall as well, and everyone's welcome to get in touch with the NPCs through their inboxes.

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! We're super jazzed to kick off the new year with a fresh crop of new players and characters.

For these New Year's festivities, you're all welcome to play out your own forest spirit interactions! NPC away, my dudes.

Go ahead and introduce yourselves on the OOC intro, and as you settle in, we'd like to ease everyone's minds with a little spoiler: More housing will be unlocked soon! A location discovery announcement will go up in the next week or so, whenever that exploration wraps up, and a whole crop of new housing options will then be made available. In the meantime, don't stress about finding lodging for your character. So long as everyone's settled by the end of the month, we're good to go!

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
For Midge: A menorah, a seder plate, a mezuzah, and a siddur
For Rosalind: A dozen elegant eyepatches and the equipment necessary for her to construct her Lutece device
For Hux: Equipment and tools to create mouse droids
For Aziraphale: A fountain pen and two bottles of blue ink
For Maes: A large crate full of collapsible cots and sleeping blankets, and an additional crate of various bedding and pillows
For Crowley: A book of prophecies from home, a bottle of white wine, a box of various sizes of PVC tubing, a water pump, the goods, and a variety pack of seeds
For Bucky: Bucky's armored vest from home
For Daylight: A dozen packets of Soldiers' Kisses seeds
For Rosinante: Two newspapers from Rosinante's home published in the months after his death, three bottles of nail polish (red, green, and pink), four cartons of cigarettes, and a crate full of various winter equipment
For Peter: Webware
For Rhys: A froyo machine
For Kol: Kol's daylight ring from home
For Elektra: A make-up case with a full set of make-up, six sets of good quality clothing (three for men and three for women), two bottles of fresh honey, three bags of coffee, and a Braille Bible (which comes in the form of seven very thick volumes)
For Scully: A poster, three sets of medical scrubs, two sets of silk pajamas, and a bag with enough medical supplies to treat 5 major injuries or 10 minor injuries
For Matt: An orchid-scented perfume, twin sai, a bottle of fancy tequila, three classic rock records, and a record player
For Ignis: A violin, two dozen containers of various spices, a dozen skeins of knitting wool, and a dozen spools of colorful thread
For Javert: A dozen outfits comprised of all 19th century clothing and a crate full of bedding materials

If you submitted an item request last month and we've missed it here, let us know!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Stone, you are a delight and infinitely direct, but you're going to have to wait while Sora stares at you for a second - maybe two, maybe more like four - as he sees another time he's watched a dragon transform in a cloud of darkness... although her fate wasn't nearly as kind.

He'll look a bit empty and hollow as the memory catchs, but then he'll snap out of it, shaking his head. One would be forgiven if they wrote it off as the shock of watching a very large dragon transform into a relatively normal old man. "Do-? The - sorry, I missed what you said. That was so cool!" At least he doesn't miss a beat?

Stone is fairly used to getting reactions like that. Or screams. Sometimes people scream. Everyone here in the village has been pretty good about it, though, as if they completely lack fear of large, scaly creatures with wings. "I'm going to assume 'cool' means something good," he says dryly. "I asked how you landed like that. Usually I only see people manage soft landings if they have wings to catch them."

He's seen things about the same size who are actually out to murder - like, even not in Sora's memory. Giant stone snakes come to mind. As long as this guy's willing to just talk, he's fine in Sora's book. "Cool - you know, like uh. Impressive. Chill - no, uh, wait - Uh. It's a good thing."

Sora jumps in response to the question and catches himself in midair, his clothes hovering along with him as he floats a few inches off the ground. "Like this. I can't fly, but if I get off the ground, I can float, kind of like a paper airplane." Huh. Wait, if he doesn't know what "cool" is... "Do you know what a paper plane is?"

"I know what paper is, but not a plane," Stone says mildly, looking amused. "I don't think I need to, though. You have some kind of flying magic. There were some groundlings I knew, back on my world, who had a kind of moss that made them float. Very strange to see. You got a name, kid?"

"A moss? Did they have to eat it?" Sora frowns, sitting in midair. That sounds much less convenient than fairy dust.

As for Stone's other question... he blinks. Oh, right, the greeting process. "I do. Uh. Too many, actually! What about you," he asks. He's not being avoidant... he thinks... He just hasn't made up his mind, and this is the next question on his mind. Really, it's a very logical, non-rude progression of the conversation in his head.

That does sound kind of avoidant, kid, but given Stone has met people without names before in his own world, or with very complicated names, or cultural mores against sharing names, he doesn't ask. He just gives Sora a long look, tilted towards his good eye, then shrugs his shoulders in a way that looks less like a shrug and more like, if he had spines there, he'd be settling them. "I'm Stone. Line-grandfather of the Indigo Cloud court. Since you smell human, I'm guessing you're not from my world at all."

He shakes his head. "And no, they wore it. The moss itself floated."

He hasn't got the strongest heart in him, unfortunately. Wavering until he gets his head on straight is what he does! Thank goodness Stone is rolling with it though, he's had enough of trying to make stuff up today.

Sora nods. Stone, not-dragon, full-on grandpa, probably a king. He can work with that! "No humans in your world, huh... So I guess that 'groundling' isn't another name for humans?"

"Groundling means anyone who lives on the ground," Stone explains. "Instead of in the sea, or in the sky on floating islands. There are so many intelligent species on my world, we have terms to refer to any of them we don't know the species or cultural name of. Humans count as groundlings-- unless you live in the sea?" It's said a little teasingly, because it's pretty obvious humans aren't water-dwellers.

Sounds like a cool place to be! In most of the places Sora's been, people have been mostly human. Or human adjacent. Or, uh, monsters? Undead? He's made friends with a lot of people, to be honest.

Sora laughs. "Nah. Used to live on an island, but in it? No. Can't even swim." He thinks for a moment. "So, what would you be? A skyling? Or... I guess not. You guys probably have a name for yourselves."

"I'm a Raksura. This is my groundling form, or that's what we call it, anyway." He spreads his hands a little as if to show off the human-ish shape he's currently wearing. "And I suppose if you want to be technical, you'd call my species treelings, because we live in our colony trees."

"You're a Raksura, and you live in the trees..." Sora nods, finally touching down and walking up to him. "Must be pretty big trees! You're a pretty big guy. Can you look like whatever you want when you go back to groundling form?"

"They're big trees, we call them mountain-trees," Stone says with half a smile. "Bigger around than the village that way, taller than the lighthouse by at least twenty times." He leans over against the side of the church, casual and comfortable. "And I only have two forms, this one and the big one you just saw. Why does everyone ask about being able to turn into anything? It's the most common question I get."

Sora's eyes widen at the sound of those trees. "Whoa, that's enormous! I wanna see one of those someday!" And then, of course, their current situation occurs to him. He looks bashful. "I... guess that's something to work for, huh?"

"I guess it's because people like me change pretty slow? I guess there are exceptions, but most of the time, people can't do what you do. Not where I come from, anyway."

"Well, shapeshifters aren't all that common where I come from, either. I think there are about four species I know about, and one of them is mine," Stone allows. "Five if you count the extinct one Raksura and Fell are descended from. Just kind of interesting that humans in particular assume 'shapeshifter' means 'turn into anything we damn well want to'." He reaches over to ruffle Sora's hair lightly. "I'd show you all our colony trees if I could, though. They're beautiful."

Sora grins, batting at the wrist lightly. He's been short long enough to know how to play with someone messing with his hair.

"I think people just find it cool? Without magic or something, people just stay what they are. I think people want to know what it's like to be someone else, even if it's just the outside." He pauses. "I've been to places with lots of trees - tall trees, real jungles, trees big enough for houses - but if your world has stuff like that, I guess I haven't traveled long and far enough."

"Your world might not have them," Stone offers. "Everyone seems pretty shocked here when I talk about them. They're magic, after a fashion, that lets us shape them and helps them protect us. But if you want to know what it's like, I am always happy to tell stories. Especially in exchange for food." He's mostly kidding. Unless Sora offers to cook for him, or something.

"It probably doesn't. My world is a bunch of little tropical islands." He pauses. "Or, uh, a city? Both." Those trees sound pretty cool, though! He wonders if they ended up braiding branches like hair, or if they had little windows.

The offer pulls him out of his reverie. "Food! I can do that. I'm good at that." He pauses, backs up. "Well, okay, I can do like, American and Pinoy, and not real Italian, but I don't need recipes for any of it. I'll trade you, it'll be fun!"

"I don't care what you make, so long as it's warm," Stone chuckles, and heads into the kitchen to sit on one of the stools there. "Let me know what you want me to talk about, and I'll regale you about Raksuran life while you cook." Free food, excellent.

"Warm, huh..." Well, first to find something he can actually work with in this kitchen. He's not sure what dead people eat, much less what they get shipped in, but there's a thing or two he can do in most American kitchens. Chicken adobo comes to mind.

He starts poking around in the refrigerator, searching for food. Yo, is that rice? He picks up the little carton, opens it to smell it. "I can do warm. What do you eat where you live?"

"Raw meat, mixed fruits, and flatbreads," Stone answers. "Groundlings make pastry things that I'm pretty fond of, but we don't have the ingredients at the colony tree. Or the knowledge of how to cook them, though I bet if we brought a groundling or two in who knew how, the Arbora would figure it out pretty quickly."

"Pastries, huh..." Sora closes his eyes, thinking back. "I used to know how to make... Tarte Aux Fruits? It's kind of like this tart with cream filling, and it has fruit on top. I'd need help with it now, but maybe I could find a way to make it here."

Not today, though. Sora turns to Stone. "Do you want something sweet today? I could make rice pudding."

"I don't know what rice pudding is, but I always like something sweet," Stone chuckles. "Now how about you tell me something you'd like to hear a story about, while you work."

Fortunately enough for Stone, Skyler (and Sora) made rice pudding enough at home for his little sister that he knows the ingredients by heart. He'll give Stone a thumbs up and bustle off find a pot to reheat the rice.

"Um... let's see. How specific should I go?" Sora nabs his pot, standing up and heading to the sink. "Can I hear about a friend of yours? And maybe an adventure?"

"A friend and an adventure." Stone considers. "All right. When I was visiting another court, to try and drum up some help for mine, I was flying on my way back when I stopped to rest on one of the floating islands over the eastern plain. Turns out I wasn't the only one. There was this kid, a consort like me, only much younger and smaller, and he was picking around in the ruins there." Stone chuckles. "I startled him, I think. I can't talk in my big winged form anymore, so I couldn't tell him I didn't mean any harm. Kind of chased him around trying to get a better look."

He settles more comfortably at one of the worktables, watching Sora work with interest as he speaks. "He got away from me, but I stuck around. Turns out he was living with some groundlings, but they worked out what he was-- like me, a shapeshifter, a predator, though we don't eat groundlings they don't always believe that. Idiots staked him out to get eaten by some of the local wildlife."

The rice in the pot will need a few minutes, so Sora will rummage around for fruits and nuts in the pantry while that gets going. Hmmm... "Hang on, do you have any food allergies? Do Raksura have any food allergies? Otherwise I'm just gonna put everything I find in." This is a very non-specific statement, but should he cook for Stone again, he would like to know!

He'll wince though, digging around for those ingredients. (Oooh, dried blueberries! Perfect.) "So they were scared of him because they thought he'd hurt them someday... Poor guy. Was he not a Raksura?"

INTRO LOG: JANUARY

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jebus so sorry this took so long

bro it is all good we are just soldiering. on. ouo

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