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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Huh. [ He thought Caelum meant "sky"? Or maybe it's one of those words that mean a lot of things, or it means different things when you put them together with other words.

In the first? Not really. The second? Possibly millions, but Sora would only be familiar with Greek myths taught at school, the Abrahamic stuff from his brief brushes with Catholicism, Izanagi and Izanami from his mom, and Bathala from his dad. He doesn't put much stock in any of them. Hard to believe in a single creation story once alternate dimensions became a part of his reality. ]

You were... fighting someone. [ He scratches the back of his head. ] I think it was your brother? You explained it to me before, but to be honest, I still don't get it. [ The action was pretty clear, but the why is very elusive to Sora. He understands betrayal conceptually, but this application is a little beyond him. ] It just... kind of seemed sad. You didn't seem like yourself.

You sure you want to take that chance?

[ He rolls the stone between his fingers, it's a taunt on it's own, the way he waggles it. ]

Too late to change your mind.

[ It's entirely possible that this isn't hers, but he's not about to fall for the bluff. The glove comes off and he holds it in the scoop of his hand, trading it for the white soft stone to put it in his bare palm. ]

They shake their head a little. "It would have to be something bad. Destroy my torso or head, dismemberment. Anything else, technicians would just bring me back." The idea that HYDRA would let their singular and very expensive Asset go without at least trying to recover them is ridiculous. Unless all of HYDRA had been taken down, somehow, but... there's a lot of HYDRA.

"Might have just been standing in the wrong spot, yourself." There's more than that, but it takes a brow-furrowing second to put her finger on it. "Whatever they can do to bodies, I promise you, they can't do to souls. This might have just been you slipping by before they could do anything. Heavy arm, sink faster."

[ Sora actually pauses at that, studying Aziraphale with his keyhole eyes, before... shaking himself out of it and smiling. ]

You sure you don't want to stay here? Making sure friends stay with friends is really important, too. I mean, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, but that's because I don't know anything about blessings or whatever you're doing.

Plucking that opal out with the metal fingers, they drop their own in its place on the towel: much brighter, silvery white with sparkles of blue and red, but half buried in plain brown stone. Jason touching it will show this memory.

Soldat considers the dark opal, glancing at Jason once, then braces themselves and touches the one he gave them.

( He recoils a bit at the wording. It's not as if it's untrue — quite the opposite, in fact, and that's the issue. It's not something Javert wishes to be reminded of. He doesn't take the opal from him. Even with the wrapping, so thoughtfully tucked around it so as to prevent unwanted recollection, he doesn't dare touch it. He doesn't know what he would do, overwhelmed with those emotions again. )

I don't want it, then. Destroy it if you must.

Here, as in the cabin? It's great. A little dark - [ See? That was a joke, Quentin. ] - But it's nice. Quaint, actually. If you mean Beacon, it's no Fillory. Or New York. But, you know.

[ Quentin's here. That makes it instantly likeable. ]

I've adapted to weird shit before.

[Soldat tilts their head a little at Javert, expressionless and looking for signs that their handler might change his mind, before nodding once and unwrapping the opal, letting it rest on their metal palm in the optimum place for crushing, and closing their fist tightly, servos whining. There's a cracking sound, then a crunch, and then the opal is a bunch of tiny, harmless pieces of stone and dust.]

Some memories you don't want to relieve. I understand.

Trust me, there's still a scale, but it's more about what kind of weird than it is the amount of weird. If that makes sense.

[ And Sora will immediately nyoom over there! Oh, thank goodness. He'll start poking at the undergrowth carefully, unwilling to lose that little red flash to a sudden shower of dead leaves or snow. ]

Man, what a relief. Imagine how much harder this would be if there weren't any lights on? I'm gonna miss this. [ And he'll gingerly grasp the stone with a besocked set of fingertips, immediately rolling the sock down his arm a little. He rises to his feet, peering at it. Yup, those are the cumulus clouds. He breathes out gustily. ]

Safe. [ And he'll bag that little sucker up in the sock. He'll take it to Naminé later. ] That wasn't so bad. Thought I was gonna have a heart attack, haha.

Yeah, I get that a lot. [ Less because he's been around the block and talks about things people aren't familiar with and more because he is godawful at explaining things in a way that makes sense. (He looks appropriately sheepish about this. Hey, it's not like he wants to be difficult.) He'll just explain in a different way if it becomes important later. ]

Minks? [ He closes his eyes. No echoes, no memories. He shakes his head and opens his eyes. ] I don't think so? Either that or, uh, the word's not specific enough for me to get it back. I don't think I'd ever met anyone like them before, but on the world they're from, everyone's a talking animal. [ Well, except Pluto, but Sora is going to pointedly ignore that bit of the conversation. Very Much Not Worth It. ] What's a mink? An animal who's a person in your world?

They aren't sure if trying to give them hope is helping or hurting. Well. It's definitely hurting, but that may or may not be a good thing. "Maybe," they say, voice finally falling out of the cadence of reporting to a handler. That just means it sounds small again.

Already know about one sibling death, though the direct memory hasn't come back yet, so. They're aware of that, too. Soldat sighs out a bit more smoke. "Yeah, there's that. Keepin' busy. Got Jason to set up the patrol list, sure you saw that." They took initiative, Rosi, a little tiny bit, just like you said to.

Which reminds them: "Met a guy who can put things in a pocket stasis thing-- food, medical supply-- keep it fresh. He's experimenting with how much he can fit before going public with it." There's downsides-- if Somnis disappears on them, they might not be able to get that food back-- but that's for other people to work out if it's worth it. Soldat found the exploit, now someone can make the decisions regarding it.

"I'm not trying to sell you on it," she hastily tacks on, moving to touch an arm and catching herself. "I'm just saying you - don't have to feel sure until there's a lot of reason to be sure. Or maybe feeling it in either direction would help. I wouldn't look at that and think all hope is lost, is all. If I'm off base, I'll hush."

Sora cautiously smiles back, nods as he falls into step with Jason, continuing on their way. Okay... as long as it's not painful to him anymore. (Is it? Sora isn't sure if he can read Jason well, but he thinks that if Jason was really upset, he'd... say something? Maybe. He actually isn't too sure. Might want to check. That smile was a little too awkward for him to let it go so easily.)

"My version of Hades had a serious thing against all the other gods. Kind of a bad attitude, too." Sora shakes his head. "I think I'd want your Hades, man. If he's no better or worse than the other gods, maybe I could have talked to him."

Sora raises an eyebrow at the last, then grins. "Huh. Good. People like him tend to be really lonely. Glad he has someone to watch out for him." He vaguely wonders if they've talked about Nico's boyfriend at all? Leo seems real unlikely, though, and he's the only guy he can think of off the top of his head.

"I know. I know." She just wants to help. Soldat understands that. Helping just hurts, too. "He stopped fighting me when the carriers started to go down. He knew me. And I just kept hitting him. He would have let me kill him." The immediate memory of that moment is tainted by fear and dying, not as perfect as many they still have, but they know the look on the target's-- Steve's face. He would have.

"Is this something you just got back recently, or did somebody - leaving - put it back on your mind?" If there's a clear means of talking one through that memory alone, she doesn't know it, and thus the method is turning-over questions until something crystallizes for her. "You were hardwired. You couldn't have meant to, and there's no certainty in thinking you did just yet."

[ Ellever thinks back to the memory, shakes her head. ]

But they were the ones in charge. Or that's how it seemed. You had to do what they told you.

[ Tis is a slippery slope, she thinks, in any case. What would have happened if Ezra had raised her like a weapon, instead of a daughter? Or if he'd raised her like a true prisoner? Would she be on Conquest's side? ]

It's not your fault, what they did.

If Cao Pi has found that particular memory stone, he certainly hasn't shared it, so talking is the best they can get. Soldat leans back against the counter, disentangles their fingers from the now-mangled dish towel, wonders vaguely how that happened because they don't remember the metal hand doing that. "I didn't. I hadn't put together that the target was Steve. He was just some. Weird asshole who said that name and scared the shit out of me." Which sounds really dumb now that they say it out loud, Christ.

Okay! I'll wait right here, and I'll draw you a picture for encouragement!

[Because everybody deserves to have a nice picture!]

"That makes sense," she murmurs, consoling despite herself. "And is...horrible, Christ. I'm so sorry. I think there's a real chance he'll get out of that, but this...that's a lot, on you."

[For a moment, there's no reaction. Then Soldat scrubs at their face with the metal hand, a very vulnerable sort of gesture, before putting the opal away.]

Don't know how much that's true. But I. Couldn't even think of anything else to do, then.

[Maybe they should have, but they can't change the past. Just feel guilty about it. Moving the fuck on now...]

Did you try yours?

[ Ellever's smile broadens as she accepts the pocket and glances at the writing on it. Her heart skips a happy beat as she catches sight of Fuzz. It would be cruel and unfair to have her best friend here in Beacon with her, given the lack of light, but Ellever still feels a pang whenever she thinks about Fuzz. ]

Ah.

[ Hmming, she takes the white opal out of the packet and lightly brushes it with her fingertip. The following sensation still isn't something she's used to. It rushes through her, raising the hair on the back of her neck. But this is a good one. It makes her smile brighten from the melancholy it was in. ]

That's one of mine, all right. [ She chuckles, amused that Sora, too, thinks a truck-sized moth is cute, putting the opal in her pocket. ] Fuzz, I called him. I found him in the woods when I was a kid. I was good at finding... odd, different creatures. [ Other people would say she was good at locating monsters. ] He was kind of a pain sometimes, though. Like this memory. And trying to get him to do anything he didn't want to was a complete nightmare.

[ Ellever takes a deep breath. ]

Thanks for getting it back to me.

[Link curls his fingers around the hem of his tunic and shakes his head slowly.]

No.

I mean...

I'd convinced myself that I died for a reason, that I was sent here...

But I was wrong.

Rastus said that it was a mistake.... The portal... all of it...

None of us are supposed to be here, which means, I...

I just died.

[His eyes drift closed.]

I just died for no reason and left my people behind.

Edited 2020-02-26 06:45 (UTC)

Between the unearned sympathy and the topic, it's probably unsurprising that Soldat is finally hitting tears. They don't do anything with them, just stare some more at their hands and the shredded remains of terrycloth. "What kinda person tries to kill their best friend."

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EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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