INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY

[inthenightmods]

INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY
GRAVEYARD WHISTLING

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: february 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. rastus gathers the town for a debriefing meeting.
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.

•••

On February 3, after the newcomers have had a chance to settle in, everyone's tablets will ping with a message from @rastus!

Come tob onfier squae.Pl eaas , we wikll disucss our orogress sincereeluy rastuaas I am th ebonfire keeeeeeepr.

...Followed by another message a few minutes later, this time from @keeper

Omg will everyone head down to Bonfire Square for Rastus' town meeting please? He wants to recap what you've all learned so far!!!

And can someone please teach him that he can record an audio message and then send it to everyone instead of looping the whole dang town in on a group text?? 😂😂😂😂

Assuming you do indeed head down to Bonfire Square after all that, what you'll find is this: a series of benches and tables have been set up surrounding the bonfire, and there's enough seating for all of Beacon's residents. As people take their seats near the fire, the barkeeper forest spirits from the Invincible toddle through the crowd with trays of hot chocolate and warm cider, along with a sampler tray of acorns and pinecones, if that's your thing.

Once everyone's here and settled, sipping on hot drinks and maybe busting a tooth on an acorn, Rastus hobbles forward to address the crowd:

"Crrk. Hello. I am Rastus. I tend to the bonfire. I have tended to the bonfire, mrawk, for years and years. You are doing, rmmm, well. Good."

He nods to emphasize the point. Yes, you are doing good.

"Talk. To each other. Share what you have learned. Yes. Crarrk. It is important."

He nods again, and then... shuffles back over to his post near the bonfire, waiting for anyone who might come by with an interest in torches. Seems it's up to you all to get each other up to speed?

Luckily for all the newcomers who may find themselves confused by their sudden arrival here, 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 thrilled to welcome so many new faces into the community, and you've come at a great time! Alongside this intro log, we have our very first cat herd, which is essentially a recap of the plot thus far, as well as a rundown on a ton of great info to help get you started in the game.

But don't feel like you have to read it all right this second! ICly, Rastus will call everyone together for the town meeting on February 3 to give new characters (and players) a chance to get their bearings before smacking them in the face with all the plot. This log will cover both the ferry arrival and the cat herd meeting, so feel free to bounce around in time in your toplevels.

Remember, too, that all of the plot info available in the cat herd can now be considered common knowledge! Newbies and oldbies alike, feel free to assume that your character learns as much of that plot info as you like at this meeting, regardless of whether or not you thread it out.

And of course, go ahead and introduce yourselves on the OOC intro, as well!

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

• The monthly store restock
  
• For Sora: A gameboy(?), 3 CPR/AED kits, a dozen CPR/first aid training manuals, two packages of capiz shells, a set of candy molds, a caldero, and 3 gameboy games: 3-D World Runner, Decapathon VII, and Sheep It Up!
  
• For Crowley: A variety of clockwork equipment, a large clock face, and the goods
  
• For Jason G: 2 bulletin boards with materials for mounting, 3 packs of pushpins
  
• For Lucius: A manual sewing machine
  
• For Castiel: A dozen flasks of holy oil and a pillowcase-sized satchel of various natural spell components
  
• For Duster: A double bass, complete with a case
  
• For Prompto: A polaroid camera with enough film for 50 photos and a folding sword, which is cruder than the example he gave but roughly the same size
  
• For Aziraphale: A large crate of snowshoes, jackets, and coats in various sizes, a bottle of wine, and a bouquet of red, white, and pink roses tied together with an elegant bow
  
• For Javert: A large crate of various fencing gear and 3 fencing handbooks

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

QUICKNAV
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Comments

Re: Cao Pi | Cat Herding Open

[lunchbreaks]

[ Cool, cool cool cool, Aziraphale just has one thing to say to this. ]

My pardon your Majesty, but who is Dr. Solis?

[pure_havoc]

[a valid question, especially for those still around to hear the answer]

She is the person who created the portal that brought all of us here, and perhaps also doomed this world in the first place. She understands everything of how it works, how we come to be here - and also, restores our lives if we die here.

[lunchbreaks]

She is and she spoke to you? What did she say? Where is she now?

Why hasn't she announced herself to us?

[pure_havoc]

[easy there...he holds up a hand in a calming gesture, the universal 'hang on a minute' sign]

She is where she feels safest. The group before us which was reset, to which Dr. Ingram belonged, began to murder each other in order to try to get her to show herself, I would not blame her in the slightest if she still has difficulty trusting any of us. Master Daylight and I met with her, and she will speak more publicly if and when she is certain we aren't about to launch another murder spree - or worse, threaten her.

[lunchbreaks]

And how do you propose we prove such a thing as good behavior? Especially if it has to be unanimous?

[ Because they all know it only takes one person deciding to murder someone else to send a chain reaction. ]

[pure_havoc]

I propose nothing of the sort. This isn't an official requirement, it is simply accepting that one person who has, by all estimations, witnessed hundreds of groups get reset, may need some time to decide to come forward publicly.

I can understand that it may be difficult to simply accept one man's word for it, as a go-between, even if the situation warrants. Master Daylight can corroborate. Please, Master Aziraphale, put your mind at ease. The doctor has no vested interest in harming us but a very long history of watching things in this town fall apart. I would like very much for her to feel comfortable sooner rather than later but I would never rush a lady.

[lunchbreaks]

It is not that I don't believe you, your majesty, but if you and Daylight are meant to be the only liaisons between the rest of us and Dr. Solis, then you must be the ones to persuade her of the people's good intentions, and I suppose I had hoped therefore there'd be some sort of... I don't know, proposition!

[pure_havoc]

[he deliberately pauses, thinking back to that little tea party]

...actually, I believe she mentioned being interested in letters. A letter was how we set up the meeting. You are an eloquent writer, going by the correspondence we have shared. She may quite enjoy a letter from you, extending a hand of good will.

[lunchbreaks]

I am an avid reader, Emperor Zihuan, and a bookbinder by trade, so any talent I have for rhetoric will merely have been gleaned from a lifetime of surrounding myself with writers.

[ But he supposes that very few people here are good at this sort of thing-- ]

--We should ask Matthew. Matt.

He's a lawyer.

[pure_havoc]

[OHO...for a moment his expression tightens, he hasn't given permission for his style name yet but...nah, they had an excellent correspondence over poetry and there was a good and proper title. He'll allow it.]

You sell yourself short, venerable master. At the very least, if you wish to send a friendly letter, I'm certain she would be pleased by it. But you do have a point. The counselor has my utmost respect and cooperation, perhaps he might like to write something a little more straightforward.

[lunchbreaks]

[ Listen he can't just keep saying your majesty, and they're all sort of peers. They are dead... ]

I will try to pen something, but I hardly know what to write. I don't know the slightest thing about Dr. Solis. Tell me, what was she like?

[pure_havoc]

Patient, and...hmm, proper? Rather restrained and polite, and knew her way around a tray of tea. [weirdly like him but he can't see it yet] I don't know how the numbering of the years works in the modern era, exactly, but she claimed to have been born in the...1920s, I think it was. If that helps in any way. She seemed old enough to be my mother, give or take the decades spent dead.

[lunchbreaks]

Oh, excellent. As it turns out, I do have a fond spot in my heart for the 1920s.

[ He'd even spent a good portion of it in America with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not necessary information. ]

I wonder if that's why all the technology seems to have stalled aging.

Anyway, that's not important. I suppose I'll have to locate some tea.

[pure_havoc]

[justasplanned.jpg]

You are a unique individual, Master Aziraphale. Dare I ask how it is you can know both my own country and a time period far removed from it?

[he just wants to solidify his theories, that's all, no big deal]

[lunchbreaks]

Oh, right, I-- uh, well, that is. I don't like to mention-- haven't really told many people-- I'm. Just very old, that's all.

[ He pauses. ]

At least... six thousand.

[pure_havoc]

[EXCUSE ME WHAT

of all the things he was prepared for, that was definitely not it. Hence, the blinking like a startled owl]

I beg your pardon....

[lunchbreaks]

Ah, yes.

It gets a little difficult to calculate the younger years, so I don't have an accurate figure.

[ He blinks back, holding his breath waiting for Cao Pi to say something. ]

[pure_havoc]

My math may be off, but as far as I can tell my own country is...to the modern folks, anyway, at least five thousand years old. You are genuinely from before that time? [aw hell man, not another one...] The only beings I have met with such lifespan are immortals, or gods.

[immortals don't count, they're jerks. But gods. Man, he's tired of gods already. He was tired of them before dying.]

[lunchbreaks]

Ah, yes. Well, the thing is that I am neither an immortal in the way you understand them, nor a god. I was created out of firmament by God as a servant, and Heaven was my home until I was sent to watch over the humans on Her behalf.

That was six thousand years ago; it is not possible to accurately measure time in Heaven before it.

China has been around since the beginning, but the first dynasty was... just about four thousand years ago now, to me. I had visited early during the Han Dynasty before you, and then next not until the Tang. You won't get to see it, but it was known as the Golden Age of poetry and painting.

I think you would have enjoyed it greatly.

[pure_havoc]

....ah.

[he doesn't share his thought but he definitely settles down at that. Best to consider Az a mystic, much like Taigong Wang, and leave it at that. If anything he's relieved it's not Gods, Again.]

I am glad to hear my people carried on a legacy of art and culture even after my time. It's for the best that I would not see it, though. After all, no one can truly simply live on the earth forever. [wink wink nudge nudge]

It does explain your familiarity with my language and our works. Still, I can't help but be slightly fascinated. I have some recent experience with mystical beings, it always takes me by surprise.

[lunchbreaks]

Yes, well. That's not the important part, but hopefully you understand now. I won't be letting this world fall, because I've got to return to Earth to avert the next Apocalypse.

Do you think that might work, in the letter?

[pure_havoc]

[Cao Pi sighs lightly. He understands, he really does, but...]

You may try, but I don't know that I know her well enough yet to say whether it will do any good. At worst, she may tell you that the technology renders that impossible, so no amount of cajoling, logic, or bribing will work. I cannot say for sure, as the way she described the portal was well beyond my otherwise learned understanding.

Perhaps if we succeed in restoring this world, it will open up new avenues. But as of this moment, I lack the information to reassure you, one way or the other.

[lunchbreaks]

Yes, I don't believe that I would understand the portal either, but there are several people here from my future, and hers, and they are scientists.

We can all work together to defeat the world eaters, and should. Those of us who are warriors should train.

Those of us who are scientists should study the portal so we may reverse its effects afterwards.

[pure_havoc]

An astute conclusion, I quite agree. If there are scientists among us with the level of knowledge needed for such an endeavor, I would like to know more about them. Who, and what they can do. No one has volunteered their knowledge; which, I suppose, is as much my fault as anyone's. I have publicly asked for skill sets without specifically mentioning that areas of expertise or study count as valuable skills, every bit as much as swordsmanship and tactics.

[lunchbreaks]

Parker is one of them. He was asking for notes. And Hux - he builds machines. He may have some opinions of note. Ms. Lutece, as well; we've never met, but I hear she might be able to help. Those are only the ones I know, I'm sure we have others.