logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY

Entry tags:

INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY

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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Sora is about to pass behind Jason, intending to give Jason a pat on the shoulder and wave hi before heading back up to his room, when he spots the disaster area around Jason's feet. He looks at it, then back up at Jason, then, uh, bends down to start picking them up. "Okay! So there's a story here. I wanna hear it."

He assumes this is the board for the patrol route Jason mentioned earlier, so he's pretty sure he would have stuck around anyway, but he also wants to check in with him to see how he held up last week after they part ways. Two birds, one stone.

"Oh. Hey Sora."

That's right, Sora lives here now. He smiles and while Sora starts collecting push pins he picks up the bulletin board itself and takes it over to the wall. "The Ferry came in and had the bulletin board stuff. The Spirits got a little excited and ran off with it when I mentioned I was taking one to the Landmark. So that's what all this is." He turns back to Sora, "It was hard explaining to them that we didn't NEED to put all the pins in the board. I can't tell if this was them getting the pins out or just getting frustrated with me."

He glances over the door they had run out of of. He hopes he hadn't offended them. The Conceirge is watching them with some curiosity, but Jason figures as long as they pick up the mess it should be fine.

"Thanks for stopping to help."

Sora huffs a laugh through his nose as he finds the little box the pins fell out of, pouring his little handful in before continuing to gather pushpins. He wants to be a responsible Landmark resident, after all.

"Glad to help." He grins wryly. "I think that as long as they wanna help you, that's a pretty good sign? Or at least if they aren't, you know, obviously mad? I think they might be like fairies. Only room for one feeling at a time. As long as it's not extra mad, you're good."

"I wouldn't know. I have actually never met a fairy."

Which seems odd to say, given all the creatures, monsters, and various other mythological beings he had encountered. Fairies were not among them.

"But I'll take your word for it. I can always ask Daylight later if it seems to have upset them," Jason adds. He briefly wonders if they'd go back to the spirit he'd left behind at the Invincible. He makes a mental note to go check sooner rather than later. Jason scans the floor to see if any pushpins got knocked away from the immediate area.

"They aren't really that Greek or Roman, huh?" British, maybe? He's not really sure where that little fairy or the guy in green were from, although he does remember quite a bit about a boat. Kind of weird what memories the universe decided to throw at him.

"Daylight... Oh, that makes sense." Because he's the one focused on talking to him! As he looks for more pins himself, pacing between the board and the concierge's desk, Sora is suddenly reminded that he needs to talk to him about getting in on one of those spirit days. "Yeah, you should do that! But trust me, if they were really mad at you, it'd look totally different." Sora sighs. "I can't even go back into the tavern at the Invincible anymore."

Jason shakes his head. "I think about the closest thing we have are, like, fawns and nymphs and stuff. But they are definitely able to convey a wider ranger of emotion than just one at a time." He thinks about Coach Hedge in particular, well, okay maybe SOMETIMES it's just one emotion, but Coach had shown some range after he had a kid.

Jason finds some stray pushpins next to a vent in the floor. He squints and then shrugs. He wills a gust of air out of the vent, but it only coughs up dust bunnies. Jason waves it away with his hand and glances back at Sora. "What'd you do?"

"Fauns and nymphs..." Either that's not specific enough or he's never seen one before. He shakes his head! Enough of that. Back to the now.

Sora had sunk down to a knee to see if there were any stuck where the desk met the floor when he hears the sneeze. He looks back in time to see the dustcloud. Huh? "I uh. You want the long version or the short version?" He pauses, then chuckles. "Don't worry, both the long and short versions are shorter than my weird reincarnation backstory."

"I think it'd be hard for you to beat that," Jason replies, though he hopes Sora doesn't take it as a challenge. Although if they need visuals again a hotel like this would probably have notepads.

"Let's see if you can really keep it short," he says instead.

Hm. A challenge, huh? Sora's going to sit right here cross-legged next to the Concierge's desk and start putting up fingers as he counts out words.

"Broke - something - on - my - first - day - here. Promised - I - wouldn't - do - it - again. Did - it - again - last - week." Sora looks down at his hands, then back up at Jason as he wiggles the remaining two fingers at him. "Eighteen. How's that?"

Jason shakes his head with amusement, chuckling softly. "Yeah. That's good. Was it an accident though?"

Now that they have the push pins gathered, Jason can get back to actually hanging up the bulletin board. He has the hammer and the board. Jason reaches into his pockets and frowns. He pats his other pockets and then groans.

"Crap. I left the nails back at the Invincible when I went chasing the spirits."

"Accident the first time. It was my first day, I ended up getting kind of overwhelmed. Last week..." Sora winces. "Lanterns." He hopes, hopes, hopes that'll be enough to explain the issue. Sure, Jason may know about Skyler, but that doesn't mean he has to know that he was temporarily awake last week, causing havoc. He isn't even sure how he's handling that, to be honest. He's still not sure how that worked, on a metaphysical sense.

Oh, dang. Sora looks around, just in case he might have left it on the floor. No dice. "Dang. That's, uh, an couple hours there and back, bro." ... Sora's got time, though. "I haven't done my patrol for the route I'm gonna do yet. You want me to walk you back?" He's assuming that Jason's just gonna wait to put up the board another day.

It does say a lot. Jason winces with a sincere look of sympathy. If the 'cow' thing hadn't been bad enough, Jason had also suffered from his light turning 'blue.' He'd said and done some things he was going to have to apologize for eventually. At least he hadn't been kicked out of the Invincible though. He hadn't realized the spirits were so strict. "I'm sorry. Have you tried offering to fix it? Maybe I could help."

He wasn't exactly Leo's level of fixing things, but he knew quite a bit about construction thanks to having to tear down and rebuild the campsite for war games on a weekly basis back home.

"I hate to think that you can't come hang out with me at the Invincible because of an accident," there's a pause and he adds, "Though I guess I could always sneak you in the upstairs window." There were many reasons Jason had picked a room with a window with easy flight access.

He takes the board and sets it against the wall, out of the way of others, and turns back to Sora, "Sure. Oh! Hey, I could send you back with the nails! You stay here right? Maybe you can be my co-sponsor and help keep this up to date here while I maintain the Invincible one?"

They're either too hurt to listen or it's fun to them to hold a grudge. Sora will brighten at the prospect of help, though! "Could you? I got someone to sneak a broken chair out of the tavern, but I didn't get around to fixing it yet. I don't know how."

Even if Sora can't exactly fly up there, he has plenty of jumping power and can always, er, just run up the wall! Kingdom Hearts physics, what would he do without you. "I'd be down for that! I just don't want to keep bothering them if they don't want me in their space." He still remembers where Jason lives, so it should be easy to get the hang of making his way up there, even if the bartender spirits do end up forgiving him.

Sora perks up at that, making eye contact with Jason! First excited at the prospect of responsibility, then terrified with the prospect of responsibility. It's some mixed signals. "I can put it up for you, yeah! But, uh, I dunno. Co-sponsor sounds really official." His expression here ends up looking a little flattered, a little bashful.

"A chair? That's not too bad. Do you have it here or stashed somewhere else?" Jason wanted to get a look at it before he made a 100% commitment, but if he could assemble Roman ballistae and help built the fortifications for war games he was fairly certain he could help with the construction of a chair. And it wasn't even construction so much as it was repair.

Jason smiles in a reassuring manner, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder. He looks him very squarely in the eyes, "Listen to me Sora. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think you could handle the job." Maybe if he elaborates on his expectations that will put Sora at ease, he releases Sora's shoulder and pulls out his tablet. He pulls up a picture he took of the log when it was in notebook form and shows it to Sora. "All it really means is making sure the patrol schedule here matches the one at the Invincible. When I get information written on the Invincible board I'll send you a message so that you can write it on the Landmark board. You'll have to do the same for me, you can even take a pic of it if you want."

"I... stashed it in a tarp behind Aziraphale's house." Look, he just didn't see the point of lugging the thing an hour downtown then an hour back! "I don't think that'll hurt it, right? It's already pretty, uh, hurt."

Sora's back goes very straight as Jason addresses him, but then relaxes when he starts elaborating on his potential responsibilities. That... doesn't sound so bad? "You're right, I can do that. All I have to do is make sure the boards match, right? And make sure you know when mine changes." It's a little weird to think that Jason's three (four?) years younger than him. He said that he was a part of something called a cohort? Was he the leader? He seems so responsible.

No, that makes sense, especially if Sora hadn't even known if he could fix it. Jason figures the tarp probably prevented any warping that might have occurred due to the weather. Which is good, since otherwise fixing it might become more of a challenge. "We'll have to check to be sure...but yeah it should be fine if you put it under a tarp."

It's difficult to say. Jason turned sixteen LAST July and he'd died the following year around...well this time of year. So he was probably closer to 17 if you considered the weird time difference of "living" here for 5 months. Jason didn't think about it much, since he figured if he died then technically he was never going to be 17. That wasn't how being dead worked.

But that was a discussion for another time. He could answer questions about the legion and cohort and being a leader if Sora asked. "See? It's not so bad. It'll be a big help to me too." He nods at Sora's question, basically it was just a matter of keeping them as close to the same as possible.

Oh good! “Then yeah! Cool, thank you!" Getting an extra hand to fix up that chair will be great! Surely this will win over the tavern spirits! (Hopefully. As long as he doesn't, uh, trash the place again.)

Sora already knows Jason's difficulty with birthdays in general, so he won't argue that point too hard, but time and space look very different to him! He honestly just goes with whatever interpretation of time makes him happiest, or does the most good. These can sometimes be two very different things.

"Okay! I'll check it once a week!" A lie, he'll probably check it every day to make sure he hasn't missed anything. He just doesn't want to let Jason down! "The soldier said that you'd be the right person to do stuff like this? They're right, you're really responsible. Is this the type of stuff you'd do? Like, with your cohort?" Sora pauses. "Maybe we should go up to my room so I can drop off some things." Walking and talking is always good.

Jason is a little surprised at the complement, but also pleased. It meant he hadn't been doing as poorly around here as he had thought. He knew some of those thoughts had been amplified when the lantern had changed from red to blue, but it was nice to hear that his efforts to organize and keep people working together had not gone unnoticed.

"Yeah, sort of. We had other chores too, but I didn't really have to be in charge of organizing it until later," he admits.

Jason glances around. Usually he had met Sora outside or they'd meet each other in the middle of a walk, "I don't think I've seen your new room yet." He gestures for Sora to leave the way, figuring his board will probably be safe under the gaze of the concierge.

Okay, Sora would be floored if he knew Jason had thought he was doing poorly around here. So far, it seems like he's got everything together! He definitely didn't catch him during the blue lantern debacle, though.

"Yeah, it's up on the third floor. C'mon." Sora leads them to the stairs! He wouldn't use the elevator even if it was working right now, but that's a bit of a moot point right now. He'll wait for Jason to grab his things and catch up.

"So... what is a cohort, anyway? I feel like I've heard the word, but I don't know what you use it for. It's just, uh, a group, right?"

Sorry Sora, he's just very critical of himself.

Jason follows along. He lives on the top floor himself and The Invincible doesn't have an elevator. He glances in that direction, curious, but decides this is Sora's lead. Besides, it's probably just a power thing, right? Elevators aren't going to work without electricity...he thinks.

"Pretty much, though that's kind of underselling it. Camp Jupiter is made up of members of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata and within that are five cohorts. The first is considered the best and the fifth the worst. When a demigod or legacy comes to camp they have to present themselves and if they have good recommendations they will usually get taken in by one of the better cohorts. Of course, if you don't have those recommendations usually you will probably get put in the Fifth. You're with that Cohort for the rest of your time in the Legion"

As far as Sora's concerned, Jason hung the moon. (Sora thinks he could probably literally do that. Hey, demi-god perks.) He should probably tell him that someday.

Apparently it's the 25 torches stuck in the shaft, but Kal-el's going to find that out soon! A good thing, too, Sora has a friend with injuries that he wants to move in here, and the elevator will definitely help her out.

"Okay." Once Sora gets past the fancy words, it's a pretty straightforward concept. Not... necessarily one that sits well with him, though. "Why are they ordered from best to worst? Like, wouldn't it make sense to, like... just balance everything out?" Not to mention it just seems kind of mean.

Jason resists the urge to roll his eyes. Sora, do you know how often he posed that exact question? It might be hard to believe, but by Rome's standards he'd been something of a rebel. "Tradition mostly. That's how the Legion structured the Cohorts dating back to ancient Rome. The fifth wasn't always considered the worst though...that happened more recently when a former praetor lost a great deal of Imperial Gold and the Legion's eagle on a failed quest," Jason explains.

"When I was brought in I could have easily been accepted into the First, but I chose the Fifth. At the time, it was because they seemed more fun," after all, he was four when he made it to New Rome, "but as I got a little older I decided I wanted to show people that the ranking system was VERY out dated and that the Fifth could be just as good as any of the other Cohorts." He'd wanted other changes too, of course, but getting a group steeped in centuries of law and lore was such a pain.

Jason? A rebel? Well... perhaps with context he'd understand, but Jason seems so orderly that Sora would never assume so right off the bat.

They breach the landing for the third floor and Sora turns to him, walking backward into the hall. Sora's door is right next to the stairs, conveniently enough, a paper sign with his name in permanent marker scrawled on it tacked right next to the room number. "So... does that mean you could have changed, but you chose not to?" Sora nods, smiling a little to himself as he fishes his key out of his pocket. "That's cool. If I were you, I wanna think I'd do the same thing. I hope the other members were on board with that."

"Changing cohorts isn't necessarily impossible, but typically it's not done. Usually you are with your cohort until you leave the Legion," Jason muses, so yeah, in a way he HAD stuck it out with his Cohort because that had been his choice. One of his acts of rebellion from being the perfect son of Jupiter they all dreamed he should be.

Jason smirks at the sign on the door, "Afraid you'll forget your room number?"

"Oh, for Pete's - I've been meaning to update my schedule. That looks sure does look weird without it, huh?" And he unlocks his door and pushes it open, giving Jason enough room to enter.

His place still has the furnishings common to the rooms of the hotel, but stuff already clutter the available surfaces; prizes from the gacha machine, a whole pile of knitwear from the yarnbomb, some knit blankets haphazardly thrust on the couch on the living area, his coat hanging from a chair. The door to his room is open, and surprisingly, most of the floor space is clean. There are some shoes and socks that perhaps aren't where they should be, but all of the dirty clothes are in a hamper and the bed is made. A couple of crayon drawings, clumsily drawn and taped against Sora's door, depict a colorful beach and a sky. The door to the other room is closed.

"Hang on a second," Sora says, then drops his backpack to the floor next to the door and trots over to his room. He'll leave the door open for conversation, he's just getting more sweatshirts. "So, staying in your cohort was definitely your choice, then. Nice." So he is a rebel.

INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY

The Landmark

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idk if you want to keep going or wrap up so we can start getting ready for March stuff.

yup! sora walked jason back to the invincible, then went back to put up the board. all good!