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!

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And the soldier is right! All Sora will do is watch with simple, intent curiosity as they take his hand (!! Important!!) and sets that stone right there and --

A second later, Sora's back, and hey, he's smiling! It's a safe memory. A warm one. It doesn't bring back any particular echoes from his own childhood, but he figures that it just isn't specific enough. It's a good share, regardless.

"I liked that." Sora thinks he understands why the soldier shared that with him. It's a memory that he'd like to share if it was -- oh, that's right! "Wait, who does that memory belong to? I think I --" And he'll start rummaging around in his pockets, checking, because he's sure he remembers those other kids, but then it strikes him that the soldier probably wouldn't share a memory that belonged to someone else? Probably? They know how important memories are, too.

Wait a sec. Sora pauses in his search for the little packet in his pocket with the word "Susie -- Patty cake" written in a quick scrawl on it. "Hey, uh, who did that belong to? Do you know?"

[It's no wonder she feels so lonely.

Rosinante recognizes the girl, of course. It's the same girl who was ultimately responsible for Mary's death. Someone Mary cared about deeply, but as with so many relationships, their feelings weren't perfectly aligned. This girl, Ib, sure - she probably thought of Mary as some sort of friend, in that innocent way that children are friends with everyone. But it's clear that she means more to Mary than Mary means to her.

For now, he keeps the stone. Places it in the box he's collecting the rest into. Takes one of the markers from the tray and writes her name at the end of the compartment. He'll be on the lookout for more. But for now, he keeps this to himself. He isn't sure he can bring himself to remind her of the bitterness and pain she must feel over someone who she loved and yet who planned to leave. Who eventually reduced her to ash.]

That earns Riku a slightly baffled look. Soldat doesn't do that much for Beacon, c'mon, man. They look between him and the opal on their palm a couple times, then say, bemused, "Okay. Glad to help. -- If I find any of yours, I'll make sure to bring them to you."

Riku needs to just have a sit-down with Soldat and ask questions. It'll be fun. And traumatic! But fun.

Yeah. It's kind of weird seeing the whole town and not just a few feet of it at a time.

[It's nice, too. To walk and not have to worry about tripping over things left on the ground, things that are too hard to see in the dark.

It's nice to see faces again, too.

Without the constant low-lighting from the lanterns.]

I get what you meant about holding babies in your hand now. You're huge.

Soldat hesitates, but they've come this far. They gave the opal to him to experience, and had expected Sora to know it was theirs. There's nothing different in having to clarify, except it's hard to make the words come out for a moment. Finally they say, "It's mine."

Which means. Sora has another one. They perk up with an almost pathetic eagerness when they see the packet, register the question. "Is that? Is that one-- is it. With the same kids?"

Sora will lead them back to the Landmark and sit heavily on a chair in the lobby, not bothering to unbutton his coat in favor of looking at their next message, staring hard and thinking about it. So, not one he remembers specifically. That's... both comforting and unsettling. It could be anything, then.

A dark world? The duck and the dog are Donald and Goofy, of course, but if the king was also there... and robot looking Heartless? Human experimentation. Sora's fingers begin to clench, curling into his palms. It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments...

He shakes his head. Not now. Now's where Soldat is. Back then can take care of itself. "Talk to me about it." Sora thinks for a moment. "Where is it now? The stone." Either way, Soldat shouldn't have to look at it again.

Your mother and a few others, discussing a sacrifice. Your sacrifice, done ostensibly for peace.

[She reaches into her bag, pulling out an opal covered in an oily cloth. It's his, and she sets it between them. She hesitates for a few seconds, then:]

. . . it wasn't a situation unfamiliar to me.

[Prompto and Somnus don't talk very much. They live in the same cabin, so they see each other fairly frequently, and Somnus was part of the group that went to investigate the lake a couple weeks ago, but they don't hang out together much. So it's a bit of a surprise when Somnus approaches him.

It goes quickly from surprising to slightly terrifying with one sentence.]

One of mine?

[He peers at the opal, wondering what sort of memory it might be, afraid to actually touch it and see. After several seconds, though, he removes one of his own gloves and closes his hand around it.

It could be worse. It's a memory he doesn't really like forcibly revisiting, but it could be worse.]

...Oh. Thanks...y'know, if there's one thing I'm glad about being here...it's that I don't have to deal with that guy anymore.

I thought maybe it was a dream? But yeah. If-- I guess it could be a memory.

[And any minute now, it's going to hit Quentin that what he has in his bag, are all memories of people here and that this means someone might be seeing his memories.

And probably freak out about this, but for now, he's been operating under this being either a very weird, yet kind, hallucination or that it was strange dreams.]

But it's you, right? In the sun.

For once, he has to appreciate the spirits' antics, watching as they bound between them and then away, chirping and whistling in their own language.

"I didn't want a picture of 'someone' smiling, I wanted a picture of you smiling."

Wait, that didn't come out right.

"Uhhh, that was less weird in my head...don't take that the wrong way! I wanted a picture of you because I know you better and I don't know Mary." Nailed it. "And this is yours! I think."

He fishes the opal-holding glove out of a pocket, shaking the stones out onto his gloved palm and then transferring them back to sit on top of the glove. He points to the stones present, trying to remember which one it was that held Riku's memory and finally settles on the golden one.

"This one," he says, holding it out. "Does everyone fight with giant keys where you're from?"

[She sets the opal on the table near her, the noise solid and loud. It's as good an explanation as anything.]

. . . tell me who Ib is.

Soldat pauses, frowns. While that does seem like a Steve thing to do... he really wouldn't be very useful, coming to help. Something pricks at the back of their mind, somewhere in the memories they don't have-- or have but don't acknowledge. They look down at their fist, opens it to look at the opals. "Which one is the one with Steve," they ask.

There is actually a clear difference between them: the earlier memory has much less of the rock encasing it than the one where Soldat had the metal arm. Before Rosinante can even point out the right one, they know. It has to be that one. They pocket the one with more stone wrapping around the shine and spark, glance up at Rosinante for confirmation, and then touch their flesh fingers to the brighter opal remaining.

The memory rocks them back a step, leaves a feeling of nausea behind, leaves a pounding headache, because a very important wall just came down in their brain. That was Steve. And that was the last stupid target. "Oh god. Oh fuck he was right."

Lucky for both of them, they don't have to. Soldat pulls it out of their pocket with the metal hand, wrapped still in that scrap of heavy fabric, to offer to Sora. He doesn't have to touch it yet, the fabric should shield him from absorbing it for now. Then they take the tablet back and start writing more.

Hollow Bastion. Started with guy with silver hair and the mouse disappearing. Then red hair and black robes came and told you Org 13 plan was to free hearts by killing heartless. Then silver came back and there was a fight with horned woman and robot and swaying heartless. Then you all went down into the town. It was dirty and kind of dark and clockwork-y. Scientists. Mouse came back, told you about the experiments. That's when I had memory malfunction and missed the rest.

[ The first Oracle has always been somewhat of a mystery. There's not been a lot written about her in the texts, other than her travels and her love of the people and duty. And flowers, apparently. There was never any mention of the man she married, or anything other than duty, honestly.

Her head tips slightly. ]

You grew up together, then. I'm glad for that.

[ Because the fact that they were throwing pillows at one another said a lot more than he realizes about the relationship that they shared.

It's that last bit of information that has her eyes widening and posture stiffening... that's news to her. Ardyn was hell bent on ending her bloodline enough to where he'd apparently finally succeeded. That he and the first Oracle shared some sort of romantic relationship seems... wrong. ]

I had no idea. The only thing that history dictates about her is that she was beloved by the people and that she and the Founder King fought hand in hand against the daemons. I can assure you... your brother does not feel the same way about my family these days.

okay! be there soon.

[ And ten minutes later, there's a knock at her door. ]

Hey, Naminé. It's me.

[ And honestly, when she opens the door, he'll look none worse for the wear. Maybe a little shaky, with his eyes a little red like he'd had allergies, or he'd been crying, but he's pretty okay. Definitely smiling in the good way. ]

Edited 2020-02-19 20:41 (UTC)

[Bruce can't watch it through in it's entirety. Not the first time. The moment the opal finds his hand it begins to unspool and Bruce's brows come together in confusion, his head turns towards the sound of the knocking. But it isn't happening in real time, it's like being an extra in a stage play that he can neither interrupt or change. And Bruce- whose desire for privacy is matched only by his curiosity, doesn't set it down and stop it. He wants to bear witness.

A want that's abruptly shut off you'll always have someone waiting for you at home.

He doesn't make the decision to think about Selina. He just does. Bruce inhales and drops the opal, closes his hand around empty air. It isn't something he can explain to the world at large because it won't be understood. People die in Gotham every day. People are murdered and their murder is never solved and it isn't right or fair but people move on. It's painfully, horribly ordinary. What was it that made him the exception?

Whoever Bruce Wayne might have been, he died that night in the alley. He was buried with his parents, with his past, and with his future.

Selina didn't want to change that. Getting involved had never been her intention, it's the reason she'd turned away that night, the reason she chose not to come forward, the reason she refused to come closer by an decision except her own. And despite all of that, Bruce found himself wanting to imagine a future again- a future with her in it. Where she wouldn't be the person waiting at home for him. And he wouldn't be that either, but maybe it would be alright. Maybe they could do things their own way, like they have up till now.

The opal goes home with him and Bruce is reluctant to handle it again despite the way he gravitates towards it. When he finally sees it through to the end it's a night where he can be alone- where he can hear Peter say loving me is a death sentence and remember the way Selina's eyes had become glassy as she bled out on his floor. The confession from Valeska that she'd been shot only because he loved her. It comes with the memory of her turning her head so that he wouldn't see her cry when the doctors said she would never walk again. The sound of her screaming when she was stopped from ending her own life, because a life without her freedom wasn't a life worth living. Was a death sentence.

When he finally contacts Peter Parker it's one week later and over the tablet. The opal sits in front of him and he has no more answers than he had to start with.]

I have something of yours.

Prompto tells him he wanted a picture of him smiling and Riku's eyebrows lift a little.

He recovers - or tries to - and when he says don't take that the wrong way Riku's eyebrows arch higher, a hand landing on his hip and staying there.

The worst part is probably how neutral the reaction is. It's a reaction, but not explicitly positive or negative. Truth be told, Riku himself doesn't know what to make of the explanation. He doesn't really get a chance to unpack that, either, because when Prompto brings out the opals, that arrests his attention right away.

"You mean with Keyblades?" he glances over the opals and starts to reach for the golden one, "They're... pretty rare in my time. Are you trying to get these stones back to their owners? That's nice of you, Prompto."

"That you are kin makes it that much worse... family should never have to fight each other." The only family she'd had left was her elder brother, and while they did fight, it wasn't like that. She can't imagine having to face beloved family on the battlefield like that. Ravus and she hadn't seen eye to eye about many things, they still don't in a sense, but they have only ever had one another, a fact that remains even here. "Jealousy can run deep, especially in the veins of relatives sometimes. I am so sorry that you were saddled with that burden."

The image of her own brother suddenly flashes to the forefront of her mind, holding the Ring of the Lucii high and declaring himself the Chosen King... and moments later, writhing and screaming in agony on the ground when the Kings of Yore burned his arm off.

Shaking the memory off, she smiles tiredly at Cao Pi. "I do. The prophecy dictated that my life was to be sacrificed for my King, that the covenants could be forged for him. I knew from the time I was a little girl that was my only true purpose, and I accepted that. I was glad to do it... my only regret is that despite our best efforts, my King and his friends are here now. As is my elder brother."

Which means that her world must surely be in a state of absolute chaos. The darkness here is bad, but if there is anything left of Eos, it must be running rampant with daemons, with darkness everlasting. Ardyn must be sitting atop the throne of Lucis laughing his head off right now.

Cao Pi bows, and she bows in return, because he's told her very sensitive information about his life and his family as well, something he's trusted her with and something she will hold dear to her own heart. She takes the stone, barely reacting as the memory flashes back briefly into her mind, before she drops it into a cloth with the other stones she's re-collected.

"Please, it would be nice to have some company," she replies, hardly wanting to turn them away after they've gone to the trouble of returning such a burdensome stone. "They are... but perhaps it is not the worst thing in the world to have them out and about, either."

[ when the message comes through, peter thinks that it could mean anything.

—no, correction, he wants it to be anything. something simple, something like 'hey, you dropped your watch and I found it by the invincible', or similar.

what he imagines is the likelier answer is that he found one of those stones. one of the opals that had let him experience something of jason's past; one of the stones that had let quentin experience something of his. he's not sure, yet, quite what the common thread is, beyond that it's always something important.

or seems to be. ]

My signed glove from the Mets vs Yankees game of '98?

[ is the message he sends in reply. it's pointedly irreverent, pointedly dismissive, because if it is an opal, he's not convinced he wants to have the conversation that might follow. ]

[Soldat is picking up opals, because there are so many that contain their own memories, and they need those, dammit. By now they're pretty sure the black ones and the red ones aren't their own, so they touch nothing black so they at least start to experience fewer other people's memories without their permission. But these clear, reflective ones are so close to the ones they've found and been given with pre-HYDRA memories in them that it's hard to tell them apart.

So Soldat is kneeling in the snow to collect one without a second thought, hoping for something of their own, but prepared if it isn't.]

[ nancy likes to think she's gotten the hang of not trusting a damn thing that happens here, even something as beautiful as the night sky above them over the last few days. she knows better, she really does. she's not sure what made her reach down to pick up one of the rocks that her sneaker scuffs against when she's walking back to her new house here, besides the fact that it had a glowing shimmer she couldn't quite take her eyes off of, but yeah. she should have known better.

the scene hits her like a freight train and plays out like a nightmare, in a way, in that it's all terrifying and very real and she can't control a fucking thing about it. she's dealt with horrifying situations before, had been close enough to two different monsters to be spit on as it screamed in her face and tried to eat her alive, but this registers on a whole new level. back in hawkins, the "is this even real?" factor was always cleared up pretty damn fast. yes, it's real, and yes, she needs to figure out how to defeat the thing before it kills the whole town. but this? this is questioning reality almost every step of the way. this is some part of her knowing it's not real, that it can't be real, but then seeing her friends ( wait, how does she know these people? ) screaming and running for their lives and realizing it's definitely happening and they all might actually die.

her thoughts aren't really her own, she realizes that once she starts shouting names of people she doesn't know, feels protective and worried about people she's never met before. kids. eddie, bill, ben, eddie, bev, eddie, mike, eddie, stan, eddie, eddie, eddie. and it's surreal because she almost recognizes the voice she hears herself yelling, but it's not... quite right.

it all happens so fast, too. every step of the way she's scrambling, pretty literally, to keep up. there's no such thing as relief in this nightmare, and even once it's finally over she's yelping like she's been burned by something, dropping the opal and stumbling back away from it, landing hard on her ass, lantern slamming against her knee as she barely manages to keep it from hitting the ground with her. which is fine, she definitely... needs to be sitting. for a second. just, real quick. if it looks like she's having a panic attack, it's because she very nearly is, breathing wild and hands shaking. as she holds her hair back off of her face.

what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.

once she finally gets her shit together, she stands back up, but only after pocketing that stone. hell no is she just going to leave it for someone else to find, she can't let that happen. however, she kind of hates herself for it, because she knows eventually she'll take it back out and relive it, just to see if she can figure out what the hell it was. or at the very least, who it came from. ]

Edited 2020-02-19 21:14 (UTC)

Well, if she's going to ask that nicely... Soldat does step inside, looking a bit shy about it. They haven't really been in that many homes, here, and usually only those belonging to friends and handlers. Lunafreya is not either one of those things. "It's good for me. Not so good for people finding mine. Mine are mostly a lot worse than this one of yours." And they feel really bad for people collecting Winter Soldier memories-- and anxious about people collecting memories from before then.

[ elektra has yet to handle one of these things, pretty as they are, so when she takes the stone from matthew it's without any precautions, though it does end up landing on a part of her hand that's covered by her sleeve. ]

It's a stone. Red, with some kind of iridescent reflections when you rotate it. It's like it's got part of the fire inside it, but the reflections change color in the light. [ her hand shifts to hold it differently, her bare skin touching the stone's surface for the first time. ]

Edited 2020-02-26 02:05 (UTC)

The memory inside is dreary and dark. Vanitas will find himself in a small, barren room that looks to be part of an abandoned house. There's an uncomfortable twin mattress on the floor with a threadbare blanket that he and his sister share, and a single lamp meant to serve as light.

It's turned off for now, masking the water damage to the walls and the spiderwebs lurking in the corners. Vanitas and his sister are hunched by the window; it's been boarded up, but they can peer down at the street below from the spaces between the planks. Outside, it's storming hard. Thunder shakes the house, and somewhere unseen, Vanitas can hear water dripping from the roof overhead.

But despite the storm, an ice cream truck scoots down the road, its warbly tune barely audible over the wind.

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Page 26 of 125

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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get off his lawn, you damn kids! (except don't, he loves people)

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text >>> action

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Clear opal pls! a couple days into the event

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even though they weren't so great | prompt a

VANITAS FINDS AN OPAL