logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

characters: everyone.
location: the path from downtown beacon to the harbor; all over town.
date/time: february 16-21.
content: the forest spirits send off their friends to join the aurora. memory opals drop from the eerie green lights above.
warnings: n/a.

i had all and then most of you, some and now none of you.

For most of the day on February 16, all of the town's forest spirits can be found along the stretch of road between downtown and the harbor, clearly setting up for, uh, something. They're piling snow onto the pathway, creating a miles long sled trail that starts outside the Landmark Inn and ends at the very end of the harbor's dock. Not only that, but the forest spirits are also not super willing to explain what they're up to! They're busy, you lantern-havers.

By the time evening rolls around, the spirits have set up wooden railings alongside the snowy path, as well as a warming tent, hot chocolate booth, and announcer stand outside of the Landmark. Oh, and a starting banner for the race! It's dogsled time!

Throughout the event, Beacon's downtown and harbor areas will be completely overrun with forest spirits, all there to bear witness to this holiday celebration—this holiday is for them, though, not you weirdos with your naked faces. Point is, none of the spirits will be hostile at this time! They're more interested in interacting with each other than with Beacon's residents, though if pressed, a kind spirit might be willing to explain what's going on:

The aurora arrives in Beacon for about a week each year, and the forest spirits believe it to be "friends in the sky". The lights are old friends of theirs, it seems! And each night while the aurora shines above the town, the forest spirits send off a handful of friends to join the aurora! The spirits ready to join the aurora build sleds of their own and assemble mighty sled teams, sometimes comprised of dog spirits and sometimes... other stuff. Then, when the aurora is at its peak in the wee hours of the night, the sled teams will ride off one by one, racing down the snow-covered path all the way down to the harbor, where they'll finally rocket off the dock and out over the lake, picking up more and more speed as each team gallops wildly over the water before arcing up into the sky. Once the spirits are barely a speck, they'll hit the aurora and burst into a shower of light. Beautiful stuff!

See, since the aurora is made of light, forest spirits launched into it are killed on impact! Isn't that wonderful! The forest spirits seem to think so! What is death to a dead thing!

All of this information can be learned through handwaved/played-led interactions with the forest spirits during the event. They'll all be focused on saying goodbye to their friends and cheering them on as they stream through the sky, but they're happy to welcome lantern-havers to join in the celebrations. The hot chocolate is free and only tastes a little bit like mud, so. Enjoy!

•••
For the entire duration of the event, the aurora will dance in beautiful silence overhead, lighting up the whole town with its eerie green glow. Every so often, handfuls of opals will rain down like meteorites from the lights above, and these opals each contain the memory of someone currently in Beacon! They can be found all over town, landing on paths and atop buildings and maybe even rocketing straight through your ceiling to crash into your living room. Perhaps a forest spirit decided to hide some shiny rocks in your cereal box or under your pillow... Better hope the Postmaster General doesn't find your opals before you do, though. That spirits sure does love their rocks. Point is, who knows where the opals might turn up?

On that note, if you signed up for a random event, we'll be RNGing characters to receive these random events throughout the event! The event may happen in response to a toplevel on this event log, or we might turn up in your IC inbox... 👀 These events will be entirely random, meaning we could dole out any number of them at any time, so it'll be a fun surprise for all of us.

If you missed signups and would still like to toss your name in the ring, go right ahead! Signups will remain open throughout the event, though we can't promise everyone who signs up will get something.

And finally... Each day, we'll post a list of the forest spirits joining the aurora! What, did you want to know in advance? The forest spirits have never been a particularly organized bunch, so they're winging this—which means more surprises for you. :)

Enjoy the races and the lights and the opals, residents of Beacon, and remember: WHAT IS DEATH TO A DEAD THING!

QUICKNAV
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Yeah. [Whispered, but still M.J. That's what the dream said, that's what Peter said in this dream. While overlooking the city, from somewhere way up high, with the wind throwing... M.J.'s hair back over her shoulder in pale, red waves.]

That's what it said. M.J. And you were in it. You were showing her something, something beautiful and--

[Quentin stops himself, and he pulls his shirt down over his hands and pulls out the opal, showing it to Peter.]

You told me about her. In the church? When... when Eliot died. You told me about her. She seems nice.

[Quentin is really just walking around. Looking at the light and trying to not pick up rocks with his bare hands because these are dreams. Memories. Of the people here, and the worlds they came from and his head is brimming with more memories than one timeline already.

But he picks up this one, either by accident or because it looks a little different than the rest.

Once the memory stops, he puts the opal in to the egg crate in his bag with a note on it Stone. Just in case he finds him.

Stone turns out to be the easiest person in the world to find, seeing as how he's sprawled across a pretty large area and Quentin comes to a hard stop at the edge of the lawn]

You look better.

What? No, wait. I'll show you, but be careful? It's-- it knocked me on my ass. And not just because I got hit in the head.

[He pulls the opal out, with his sleeve pulled down over his hand and he holds it out.]

I'm pretty sure I saw-- that I was... I saw someone who looked like a potato but with a nose? And a bow? I saw a red bow and I saw people I've never seen before in my life. And I saw you. Here.

What are you doing?

[ Lucius peers over at Aziraphale blessing the spirits. He hasn't been much informed about anything, so he looks over curiously. ]

[Soldat blinks a couple times, hastily wipes their face with a sleeve, flesh fist still closed around the stone they picked up.]

Yes. Yes, sorry. I'm fine.

[They are not fine. They just got hit over the head with a memory of their father, from when they were like four years old, while they don't actually admit they're even a person.]

Wow. They practically jumped for the opals without knowing more, didn't they? But that's fair. It's hard to imagine how he would feel if a large portion of his own life was missing. Of course he'd want to regain what had been lost, even if the truth was painful.

"One of them," he says as he pops the box open and uses the spoon inside to scoop out the two stones in their little labeled slot. "One seemed like it was before then. The other I think was right after you got the arm."

He angles the spoon toward Soldat with the two stones in it, while mentally preparing for whatever this might result in.

If only the tablets had video capability, there would absolutely be a video on Prompto's at least fifteen minutes long just pointed at and filming the aurora. It's like an oddly-colored sun that's just a little safer to look at--at least for the residents of Beacon who aren't masked spirits.

Sadly, there's no aurora video on his tablet, but there is a pretty good picture of Riku's face, if slightly greener due to the lighting, which kinda makes his eyes look cooler. Prompto has no idea the worth of it, but it isn't worth giving up the tablet just yet and he holds the tablet away from Riku to admire it.

"No! It's a good picture. Besides, you're smiling in it. See?" He's still holding it out of Riku's reach for now, but he's turning the screen.

Rosinante can tip them into the metal hand, since they know that one doesn't activate anything. So there's no big reaction yet, just metal fingers closing around the stones and holding them close to their chest, as if relieved to have them back even without knowing what they are yet. "I'm sorry. The ones with the arm are the worst ones. You shouldn't have had to remember any of that." If it was right after... they don't actually have much from that time. After the worst of the experiments, before the missions started, maybe. The training. They know there was training.

[ Eventually Stone gets pelted by one of the opals and it's someone familiar to him. It's a vision of a pure white room that's barely large enough to fit Stone's winged form, with light coming in from an impossibly high ceiling above.

There's someone sitting in the center of the room, with white wires coming from all four walls of the room and being attached to the person's hands and arms. The person has pure white hair and skin, and while they are unclothed, it's hard to tell if they're male or female. Their eyes are closed, and it seems like they're just sleeping... until the light from overhead dims. The person's eyes open - bright gold, a colour that Stone has definitely seen before.

Nothing else seems to be happening, and the memory ends after. As for its owner... Lucius is outside, looking at the aurora. Being able to see is pretty nice. ]

[This is yet another one where he doesn't know who he is even if everything makes perfect sense when the memory plays across his mind. It's like being someone else more completely than he's ever tried before and it's... not good.

He gasps and grabs for the nearest tree when the memory lets him go, swaying on his feet and the stench of burning bodies is still in his nose, the sight of humans flaring up like torches still playing on repeat behind his eyes.

The opal goes in to the egg crate in his bag, a small note saying Lord Somnus. Burning bodies as he sets off in to town.]

[This time, the dream doesn't just stop. It seems to hurl Quentin out of it and he lands on his hands and knees. Not kneeling so much as gripping the ground with everything that he's got and he's trying to breathe slowly through his nose and failing miserably.

Holy fucking shit. Sure, Plover was a fucking douche and watching the memories of what he did to Martin will never not be a nightmare, but this?

Quentin closes his eyes and just-- gives up trying to move for a moment. The opal is still clenched in his hand, warming with the heat of his too-hot body and Quentin really just. Wants to hurt someone.

Vanitas was a child. Strong, sure. Clever and determined and really, super annoying even on good days. But he also kind of took some of the pain and he gave Quentin somewhere to put his anger and his hurt and his hopelessness.

But he looked so much like a child in the dream, and in pain. There had been so much pain there, and still that man (Xehanort his mind whispers) had made Vanitas go on, and Quentin's heart does a painful clench.]

[ As someone with vision impeded by low light, Lucius is relishing his ability to see without squinting. He notices Minimus cleaning up here and there, holding the shiny stones. He can't help but wonder if he's got any.

Minimus might actually have come across one earlier, of someone looking like Lucius sitting in an empty room. The person has pure white skin and hair, almost like a statue. Wires come out of the room walls and plug into his arms and legs. The vision is an odd mixture of cybernetic and organic, golden circuit patterns occasionally displaying on the walls.

The Lucius in Beacon has human-coloured skin, but he's the only person in Beacon with that particular hair colour and style. It's not hard to draw the connection between them. ]

I— [ he starts and then he catches himself, expression pulling into a brief, bemused frown.

he'd mentioned the wedding, hadn't he? or the total failure of. and then he'd mentioned gwen, but he hadn't mentioned names. did quentin think mj was dead? he doesn't think he'd been very clear about it, which had been fine at the time, because he didn't think the matter of names was going to end up at all relevant. he didn't think the specifics of who he'd imagined marrying and who he'd end up proposing to would matter at any point.

and on the one hand, he's glad he hadn't mentioned names, because now gwen's here and boy, would that be a story and a half to try and explain. "alternate version of my dead girlfriend, yes. ...yes, it's a little bit weird but don't worry, they're not similar enough that it causes issues, also age gaps aren't really—."

(he takes the opal then, and oh. then. or that? he's not sure. he remembers it — it was before he'd made one of the worst decisions of his life, before he'd taken his mask off on national tv and told the world that peter parker was spider-man. before aunt may had been shot and before he'd had to plead with doctor strange to help.

before everything went wrong.

sometimes he can't believe it's taken this long for things to start feeling right again.)

"she's not dead, by the way." is what he half thinks of saying, but instead what he manages is: ] Oh. [ a longer pause, then punctuated by a smile, quick and fond and wistful whilst quentin's words register: she seems nice. ] Yeah. She's one of the best people I've ever met. [ another breath of a pause, and peter splays his hands. then, he shifts his weight and seems momentarily unsure of what he wants to say next. ]

You know, [ he admits, ] I've tried not to talk about her too much to anyone in Beacon — because if I talk about her, I have to think about the fact that I'm not at home and I don't know what's happening.

[ a beat and peter huffs a breath that's almost a laugh. ] And I know how it sounds: oh, yeah, I've totally got a girlfriend. You wouldn't know her, she lives in another universe.

[ Listen. Catra doesn't even want to watch anyone's memories. But the opals are very shiny and as soon as she picks this one up, the memory is starting to play, and, well... something compels her to keep watching.

At some point, she sees Mary in the distance and before she can really think about it, she finds herself walking toward the girl. And there's only one thing she has to say. ]

You don't need her.

[ Funny, how Riku just seems to be able to find him, when before things started to change he would have gone weeks without seeing that shock of silver hair. Vanitas can't scent the darkness like a bloodhound, the way Riku can, but he feels it on an intrinsic level. Like a shark that can feel vibrations in the water; something unmistakable that lures him in.

He doesn't respond, just letting Riku exist in his space as he stares up at the Aurora. He thinks, It's beautiful and then wonders if that's his own feelings, or an echo of Ventus.

Strange, how the more time goes on, he doesn't dwell so heavily on him anymore. The open wound remains in his chest, gaping and unhealing, but like the rest of his pain, he learns to navigate around it. ]

Kingdom Hearts.

[ He answers at length, as if those two words could encompass everything he could be thinking. There is no other way to describe it, though; Vanitas has never seen something else so striking than the way that moon had split open the sky and spilled prisms of light down on them in the Keyblade Graveyard. ]

[Stone peers down at him, smiles (without teeth, because his teeth are very big and very sharp in this form) then lifts one hand-- almost as big as Quentin is, tall-- to tap the top of his head with a knuckle, very gently.

Then he shifts back down to his groundling form, so he can talk.]

I feel better, too. Especially when there's actually some kind of light around here.

[ Curiosity killed the cat, as they say. And it happens that this cat both a) has caught hold of this exact memory opal and b) is currently hanging out in the same tree as Sarissa. She looks at the woman beneath her. ]

Is this yours?

[ She deadpans, holding up the small stone. ]

[Being able to see is great. If only Stone could actually see, even with all the light.

The memory is interesting-- reminds him of the seed for the colony tree, with its roots spreading out across the seed chamber. Stone takes a few minutes to hunt down where that opal went-- buried in the spines on his neck, so at least he's going by feel rather than trying to dig in the snow-- and shifts down so he can keep it in his palm without having to lose it amongst his scales. Being big is great for some things. Not so great for others.

At least his roommate is easy to find.]

Hey, kid. One of your memories hit me.

[He holds it up between two fingers and offers Lucius half a grin.]

A potato with a nose? [So an extra lumpy potato? Or it could be a human nose, which is creepy and sounds like a chimera that he's sure he never fought. So he accepts, because why not?

He is back in Saturn Valley, resting in the hot springs after a long day trekking through the volcano, pulling another Needle, and finding that the Pigmasks have barred all pathways out of the valley. Duster hasn't had a good rest in days, but he finally relaxed.

He opens his eyes again.]

...It's a memory rock?

[Well, that's horrible. Stone fishes the memory that just hit him in the back of the head out of his spines, scowls at the tiny stone on his large scaly palm, and weighs the options of returning that to Ashford. Because who would want to relive that?

He finally decides to at least give the guy the option, and shifts down to go hunting for him. By scent, because even in the better lighting, scent is still easier. His expression is sober when he finds the man.]

Hey. Got something of yours, but I'm not sure you're really going to want it back.

[Stone still has two memories unclaimed if Klaus would like one to experience, as well.]

[Aziraphale. Aziraphale. You are a weirdo. But at least this memory makes Stone laugh rather than want to hurl the opal across the lawn. He plucks it out of the feather-scales of his wing, shifts down so he's less likely to drop it, and goes in search of the angel.

If Aziraphale has happened to pick up any of Stone's... well, take your pick really, of anything but the Rosinante one, cuz that one Stone is not going to lose again.]

Riku's reach is stymied not only by Prompto's successful retreat to just out of arm's length, and the fact that a few bouncing spirits get between them, he drops his arm, giving up with a clench of his fist. Besides, he doesn't want to disturb the celebration, spirits might misunderstand any attempts to strongarm Prompto into surrendering the tablet, and he doesn't think he knows enough with the ocarina to defuse that kind of situation.

He says it's a good picture, Riku opens his mouth to object, glancing down at the tablet's screen when Prompto offers to show him. His body language here is subtle, but he's arrested for a moment when faced with what a difference a talent for taking pictures can make. Riku, with no artistic talent at all, doesn't get things like... composition.

After a moment of surprised silence, he looks at Prompto, "If all you wanted was a picture of someone smiling, you could've asked someone like Mary." It would've been a lot easier!

"Yeah, that's what I was imagining. Not just the two of you exclusively, but you always had each other."

Not a scenario he could ever imagine himself in, all that... multiple people stuff, but he's human and Stone isn't and so he's not exactly troubled that another species' culture does things differently. It sounds like it works for them.

"You had a lot of children, too. I know you mentioned that before but I didn't realize how many. Did you get to know them well?" Is that a weird question to ask? With clutches of eggs in a communal system maybe they end up raised by other people. He sure doesn't know.

Ironically, Raksura have live birth! Just... five at a time. Very small babies. "Most of them. The royal clutches in particular-- the ones likely to have future consorts and queens in them-- those were important for me to have a hand in." Stone rolls his shoulders in something like a shrug. If he'd had spines at the moment, it would have been a resettling motion. "Besides, I like taking care of the babies. It's one of the consort's duties I was actually good at. I'm quick at swatting down trouble-makers, but I never wanted the responsibility of being first consort, and I'm terrible at diplomacy. Babies are good, though."

THE SPIRITS RACING ON TUESDAY ARE...

The Round Lads
The Fluffy Flower Friend
The Mouthbird
The Skinamajig
The Sighing Sphinx

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EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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TUESDAY