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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Gregor could have noticed it's warmer, except that requires a person to be have the normal amount of temperature sensitivity. To be honest, he didn't even feel that cold to begin with. Thankfully he's used to that by now, enough to know he still needs a coat when it's snowing.

"Incidents in the past? I've both heard and seen it mentioned before, but not in any useful detail."

Which is somewhat understandable; sometimes there are things you just don't want to talk about. But in this situation, you sort of need to get past that for the sake of information sharing.

"I hear you on the boredom, though. Only been here a few days and I'm already getting restless. Not used to having so little to do." Which would be a very ironic statement if you followed him around for a day. About 12 hours of which is spent sleeping.

"I wasn't here for the first one," Jason admits, "but from what I've put together it was bloody enough and had enough loss of life to probably be considered a massacre." He keeps walking, figuring Gregor isn't going to mind continuing on. They were walking away from the Bonfire, Jason's path taking him in the direction of the Church.

"I can try to tell you a bit about the second time things got bad...and also the incidents involving hallucinations and other incidents that prompt strange behavior and the need for a patrol. What sort of things have you heard already?"

He nods at the agreement to boredom, "Same. Despite the dangers, this still doesn't necessarily feel any worse than what might have happened to me back home. Violence and conflict wise anyway."

Gregor's fine with walking onward. He hasn't gotten to scope out the church yet, so that's even better.

"Not much, really. Just that everyone's on edge about the spirits that live in the forest, and they've attacked more than once, but not very often. Hardly seems like a sound strategy if they actually want to kill us all. I wouldn't mind hearing about the one you were around for."

Assuming it's not, like, horribly traumatic or anything. He gives Jason a measured look when he talks about home.

"You must come from a rough place. Not many people your age are this used to violence, not unless there's a war on."

"It's less the location and more the genetics," Jason admits and then adds, "Though there were wars too." War with the Titans followed very closely by War with the Giants and of course war with Gaia. Those were the big conflicts too, that wasn't getting into the various monsters and such that had tried killing him or attacking New Rome over the years.

As for the violence here, Jason came out of the feast a little better than many of the others. The problem had really been that he'd immediately gone on that exploration with Rosi and that had more or less compounded his injuries. "There seems to be some division among the spirits...which one's want to hurt us and which one's are friendly. Unfortunately, most of the friendly ones still end up having to answer to the stronger spirits that also want to hurt us or at least have hurt us in the past. I think someone implied at one of the town hall's that it was less a desire to harm us intentionally and more a misunderstanding." He shrugs, indicating that he's still on the fence about that particular conclusion.

As they walk towards the Church, Jason provides an account starting with half of Beacon falling into a coma at the feast, the immediate attack (where Jason fended off spirits alongside Cao Pi) and then setting up blockades at The Invincible (and the few times he set out to help others that were stuck outside the building, getting supplies, etc. -- so more fighting), and finishing with one of those trips that resulted in a particularly nasty spirit breaking his arm.

Gregor isn't sure what genetics have to do with being used to violence— not in Jason's case, anyway, but then he doesn't really know him. Maybe they have some things in common.

He listens quietly to Jason's explanations, nodding along without interrupting, taking his time digesting everything before responding.

"The spirits seem to have a skewed idea of us, of people in general. Their thought processes seem to be just adjacent to ours. In other words, I can believe that a misunderstanding could result in a fight. They're enthusiastic, and they can't quite communicate as well as we do."

So they're probably not being malicious, just frustrated, or maybe they genuinely don't quite understand that people can be hurt and killed by their actions.

"All the same, we can hardly be expected to lie down and let them kill us. Do the spirit attacks always start with people falling into comas? Or was that new?"

Gregor is free to ask of course. Jason always feels weird having to state it, but he's never been the kind to hide who or what he is either. It's why he talks about it so openly and when people asks he answers honestly about it. It just seems weird to lead with something like I'm a Demigod.

His summation of the problem is pretty spot on, eliciting a nod of agreement from Jason. "Yeah, and their way of helping isn't always gentle. I think they might also misunderstand just how much we can handle on top of everything else."

Jason considers that, "I think it was just the one time that lead to a coma. The other mass attack also involved a feast, but no coma. And if I remember hearing right the feast was more of a distraction for the spirits, not for us. It had something to do with the Lighthouse too. You're really going to have to ask someone else for those details though."

He might ask, in time, but he knows quite well how closely some people protect their secrets. Not only is it awkward to say those things out loud, but it's often much safer not to.

"You'd think they'd learn after... accidentally killing a few people." Maybe they're just bad learners.

"I'll find someone to ask about the first attack, I'm sure there are a few still around. But while we've covered the spirits, I have to ask: are they the only reason you do these patrols? Are there other threats out there? Are there threats in the community we should be concerned about?"

Just, you know, scoping out the situation.

It's an odd space. On the one hand, when Jason was alive, he hadn't needed to tell people because the people who needed to know already did and the people who didn't wouldn't have believed him anyway -- the Mist would have probably taken care of some of that anyway. However, here it was different. Here people came from all kinds of weird circumstances and if they didn't were quickly exposed to them by simply being here. Jason felt it was his duty to share his skills, and that included his lineage as a demigod or at the very least his abilities. And most people here had accepted it with only a few follow-up questions.

The point is, Jason may come across as trusting with this secret, but only because he's never been burned by giving it out.

"Death...doesn't mean a whole lot to them," Jason says. In many ways the spirits remind him of some of the monsters and creatures back home. A satyr or a bassilisk or a creature died and it either returned to the earth to come back as something new or it returned to Tartarus to reform over centuries and come back as the horror it once was.

It's a good question. "I mean it's dark and not so easy to get around...but if you're asking if anyone in Beacon has attacked people then I haven't heard about it." Which was true, to a sense, "It's really more about having something to do and keeping an eye out for things that could go wrong." He doubts it makes any one feel safer except for those that go out on the patrols. And in that case it's left safety and more about a semblance of a job, of a task that they would do anyway and Jason just put a chart together to organize it a bit.

Death doesn't mean a whole lot to them, huh? Gregor can relate. Except apparently this death meant something, for whatever reason. Or maybe this sort of thing happens every time and he just forgets about it later.

But about the absence of people attacking each other: good to know. He might be dead, but old habits certainly are not, and this community is in a familiar situation. Small and vulnerable, surrounded by enemies they can't see, with most of them unequipped to defend themselves. Beacon can't afford any overly violent elements, any threats from within. They have enough problems as it is.

"I can't imagine something like that would go unnoticed in such a close-knit community, so it probably hasn't happened."

Unless Jason is straight-up lying to him, but that doesn't appear to be the case. He seems like an honest kid, and he doesn't really have a reason to, anyway.

"Just to be clear, I'm not interrogating you because I think you're wasting your time. I think this is a good idea, actually. It might seem like it when we're all together in one group," like at the bonfire meeting, "but there aren't that many of us. Any issue could quickly become a disaster. A fire, bad weather, the hostile spirits deciding they're bored..." Jason gets the idea, he assumes.

"So it's a smart strategy. Was it your idea?"

Jason appreciates the explanation and acknowledgement because there were points where he felt like he was being questioned. He wasn't used to that, but he also had to remind himself that very few people here knew or truly understood the meaning of his parentage and backstory. It was funny, a year or so ago he would have loved to be in a situation where that stuff didn't matter and his merits as a leader could be proven or earned in ways unique to him. Now, he understood a bit about how frustrating it could be having to prove yourself just as capable as the adults.

Though he didn't think anyone doubted his skills that much, after all, he'd been here long enough to prove useful and even lead in some capacities.

"Just so far as it was coordinating the effort. Several people were kind of doing their own thing anyway and this was just a way to get us all on the same page and know who was out when. Maybe even notice if there were any gaps in the patrols or areas uncovered by someone." He'd made an off handed comment about it at one of the previous town halls and since everyone else seemed to have a project already in mind, Jason had taken up this one. "Dividing responsibilities among people was pretty much one of my duties when I was still praetor." Centurion too, to a lesser degree. He had claimed Camp Half-Blood as his new home, prior to everything leading to his death, and yet it was his training and skills at Camp Jupiter that were being used more often here. He supposed that wasn't a bad thing, just a sign that he truly was of both camps.

Oh, hm. One part of that, probably meant to be insignificant, catches Gregor's full attention.

"When you were a praetor?" As in, an ancient Roman official? He's figured out by now that people here are from different times as well as different worlds, but Jason sure didn't strike him as being from the first few centuries CE. Maybe he's just been here long enough to pick up modern speech and habits. "What did you mean by that?"

Maybe he'll return to the previous topic in a bit, but then again they've mostly covered it.

Most people don't know what he means when he uses that term. Most either gloss over it or perhaps think the place he's from has a different use for the term, either way they don't often hone in on it like Gregor seems to. It's interesting, but not necessarily super surprising. After all, they had beings like Castiel and Aziraphale here...but also people from all points of time too.

He considers the question and how to answer. Since arriving he's not been one to lie and so he speaks rather frankly, "I mean I was a commander of the last functioning legion of Rome. The Twelfth Legion Fulminata." 'Was' being less to do with his death and more to do with his shift in position after joining Camp Half-Blood and still maintaining ties with Camp Jupiter.

Jason doesn't think to clarify that this legion happened to exist in the modern United States, because he doesn't realize Gregor is thinking he's some weird out-of-time Roman soldier.

And Gregor doesn't know enough about the exacts of late Roman history to realize whether that was a real legion or not. "Real" in the sense that it existed in ancient times, at least. Which he currently thinks it did.

"Really." It's not a question, it's more of a statement of surprise. "You seem a bit young for that, though I guess that's by my standards, not yours. Has it been hard for you to adjust to all this?"

He makes a wide gesture to indicate the place, the technology, the architecture. Very different from ancient Rome.

He looks around as Gregor indicates everything and Jason quickly realizes his error upon hearing the next question. Perhaps he should clairy.

"Uh...maybe I should explain. I'm from modern times," he pauses, recalling that some people are from different worlds and also from different points of modern, "well the 2000s. When Rome fell the Twelfth Legion was given orders by Jupiter himself to stay alive and bring together the demigods and their children and to keep Rome going. There numbers were a lot smaller, but they still managed to make it last until modern times. They settled in a place we call New Rome in the hills outside San Francisco."

Oh. Hm. That sure is a lot of information all at once! Jupiter being real, or at least real to Jason, demigods being a thing, ancient Rome still being a thing, and all of this in California. That's. Huh.

"So you're... from a secret remnant of the Roman Empire? And related to the gods?" Gregor is careful not to sound too skeptical; stranger things have happened, honestly, so why not this? But he's also allowing for the possibility that this is just a story in Jason's world, something he's been taught about his history but might not entirely believe.

He's also trying not to sound too enthusiastic at the prospect of all of it being true. There are worlds where gods are so present and real that they have children? Fascinating.

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INTRO LOG: FEBRUARY

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gregor like white guy blinking . gif