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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You’re standing at the prow of a ship. The wind blows through your hair and tugs at the toga and purple cloak you’ve donned over your orange camp shirt and blue jeans. Your fingers are gripped tightly around the hilt of a sword -- partly out of fear for a fight, but also for something solid and familiar to hold on to. The scene itself would almost be a familiar one if the boat was cutting through the waves, but instead what stretches before your eyes are gold-and-green rolling hills. This place was home...is home? You can’t be sure any more. Of the people on board this ship you’re the only one familiar with what you are sailing towards, so you know you need to put on a brave face.

You notice familiar landmarks now: the hippodrome, the coliseum, various temples and parks. It’s beautiful, but there are signs that there was a recent battle: cracks in some buildings and craters along the roads. It makes you frown. It was your job to lead the legion and because of the gods you hadn’t been here when you were needed. There’s no time to dwell, however, as among the buildings and on the streets you begin to notice figures moving: dozens of kids in togas like your own rushing out to see the ship you’re flying in on. You hear horns now, blowing and turn your gaze on the small army beginning to gather along the gates.

You brace yourself and sure enough there’s a loud BOOM. You turn in time to see a blonde girl, Annabeth, being accosted by a living statue. The statue was human from the waist up, though the rest of him rested on a pedestal. He had appeared out of nowhere on the ship and was clearly outraged.

“I will NOT have weapons inside the Pomerian Line! I certainly will not have Greeks!”

You move forward, holding a hand up to Annabeth, “Terminus. It’s me. Jason Grace.”

The statute looks less than pleased, “Oh, I remember you, Jason! I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!”

“But they’re not enemies --.” A young woman with choppy brown hair wearing pink and white strides forward. She’s opening her mouth to agree and you can’t help but smile a bit in admiration. Leave it to Piper to take charge of this situation. The memory fades.

Ah, Jason. Military indeed, not that the young man had denied it, but he'd downplayed it a little. Maybe it's just not that interesting to someone who is apparently a child of literal gods.

For hunting opals, Rosinante has taken an old rusted toolbox from the pawn shop. It's a convenient way to keep them sorted. He pops the thing open and selects a new slot for stones from Jason to contain this one in, labels it with a pen, then pushes the whole box into his shoulder bag and continues onward.

But his mind keeps going back to that ship. Massive, familiar, but flying over the landscape - a remarkably beautiful one, even if there isn't any water. It's exotic, due to that fact. In order to ask about it, he'll have to return the stone - but that's fine. There's little here he needs to hold onto for later reference.

When he finds Jason later, he's transferred the opal to a handkerchief tied into a sort of pouch. Wordlessly, he extends his hand with it hanging for him to take.

"One of yours. You never told me you had a flying ship!"

There's a lot to unpack in Jason's life and now that he's met so many people here, he often forgets what pieces he has shared with whom. The demigod bit seems to throw people enough for a loop without piling on about being a former praetor and other titles.

At this point in the day Jason could be found hanging out by the Bonfire. Now that the skies were lighter, it was less populated that usual, but it was familiar and warm in the cold. Jason could look up at the sky or watch the flames without being bothered by his newly gained trio of spirits.

He looks up when he sees a familiarly large figure approach and looks at the offered hand. he doesn't have to touch it to know it's probably something set on board the Argo II. Still, might as well see what the sky wanted to remind him of. He opens his eyes again when the memory finishes, looking at the jagged lightning pattern inside.

He smiles sheepishly, "Sorry. I guess I'm not good at talking about my experiences. Yeah, that was the Argo II. I think I mentioned it when we were working on those boats that one time." The smile falters a bit as he thinks about the last time he was on a boat with the man before him. He hadn't meant to start avoiding him, but that must have been what it seemed like. "I always did better in the air, it was Percy who was in charge of it when we were on open water."

If he'd been told then he'd forgotten - probably because the notion of a flying ship is so outlandish in his mind he can't easily conceive of it, and held on simply to the idea of Jason being familiar with sailing in general. Now, though, he has something to draw from that makes the whole idea that much more tangible.

There's no reason to hurry off to anywhere so he finds a seat next to Jason and lights a cigarette. "Who were those people you were with? That girl who stood up for you?"

It would sort of depend on what memory Rosi had gotten. Jason looks down at the tied handkerchief and pulls it open. The opal inside, much like many of Jason's opals, is streaked with lightning patterns. The base color is a deep indigo, but the streaks are all sorts of colors: reds, oranges, pinks.

While Rosinante lights a cigarette, Jason takes a moment to touch the opal, to see what Rosinante saw. Gods, it's New Rome. It's home. He sees Annabeth first, and he knows Leo is around somewhere though not visible in this memory, and then there's Piper. It's such a brief moment that he doesn't get a chance to truly appreciate seeing her again.

When Jason comes back to the present, his grip is tight on the opal. Gods, he never thought he'd see any of that again. It was so brief, but to have a glimpse of home he can visit...this is truly a special opal. He starts to fold the cloth back over it as he answers, "More demigods...some of my closest friends. The girl you're talking about is Piper McLean and the blonde girl at the beginning of the memory is Annabeth Chase." He can't help it, he smiles fondly.

"And those supposed enemies that man was upset about? What happened?"

It feels like it must be a very basic question, but again, he's missing most of the context needed to make sense of this. He's glad he got to see those rolling hills from far above, but he's never happy with only knowing the most surface level of details - so the idea of Jason working with or speaking to supposed enemies of his nation is certainly intriguing.

"The Greeks? Well, at the time I was dating one and the others were on board the Argo II with me: Piper, Annabeth, and Leo are all Greek demigods. I was the sole Roman on board and was hoping that would be enough to smooth things over with Terminus."

He shakes his head, because that wasn't even the part that had gone horribly wrong. He tries to remember how much he had told Rosi about the gods and demigods. Hopefully he isn't repeating a lot here.

"Greek and Roman demigods had a feud going for a long, long time. Their gods are similar, but obviously each side thinks they have the better interpretation. The fighting and rivalry got so bad that at one point the gods used the Mist to make both sides of demigods forget the others existed. It was that way for a long time, but because of Gaea's waking, we needed to cooperate in order to take her on, since neither side could do it alone." Jason sighed, the memory itself making him tired, especially since it made him think of Octavian, "But it's difficult to smooth over centuries of conflict and rivalry, especially when only a handful of people on either side trusted each other."

"I can imagine," he says, lifting an eyebrow. He has no idea what the "Mist" is or some of these other details, but he can put together plenty to make sense of it. War and conflict are not foreign to him.

"But - if the gods are real in your world, how can different people interpret them differently? Isn't there some concrete fact about what they are?"

Jason goes quiet for a moment, not because he doesn't know the answer but because he's trying to figure out how best to explain it. "No, not really. They have specific domains, sure, and certain traits that define them, but just as much of their power comes from how humans see them. It's usually not a big influence, until you start looking at how long they were gods over the different civilizations. They resided in Greece for just as long as they did Rome, and so they developed separate, more permanent Roman aspects that they can change into."

He taps his fingers as an idea comes to him, he'd heard this analogy before and it always made the most sense to him, "They're like coins. The coin is a coin, but each side of the coin can appear different depending on which side you're looking at."

"Huh." Less tangible than he had imagined based on their previous conversation. Less like people. But that makes some kind of sense, considering they're gods, not human.

It's still a bit much to take in. It feels bad to think of someone else's reality as something he doesn't like or feel comfortable with, because it's not his role to decide something like that. It just is, whether he likes it or understands it or not.

"So your enemies, or your country's enemies, were enemies because of religious differences only?" There's usually more to it than that in his experience. Religion becomes an excuse for something else - inequality of resources, food, military strength.

There's a divine form that Jason could talk about that might make that clearer, even though any time a mortal or demigod saw them it was just a part of them and thus more solid. In the end, Jason can just discuss the gods in theory, because while he had met plenty of them that didn't mean he had a full understanding of how they were the way they were.

"That might be how it started...I'm not sure it's quite that any more," Jason replies after some thought. Any time someone mentioned religion he always felt weird, because on the one hand the gods did have temples and he did participate in the events and ceremonies that honored them. However, most people didn't also call the gods their father or brothers or sisters. It was, at least for Jason, more about respect and honor towards them than what he would deem as flat out worship. Worship implied not questioning them, not seeing the faults and flaws that existed there.

"Competition, rivalry, and a distrust for what's not ours...I don't know. The distrust and hatred goes back a long, long time. I'd say we can't remember, but a lot of it is pretty well documented in history. I never really thought of them as enemies though or, if I ever did, that part is gone now." Possibly quite literally, since it wouldn't make sense for Juno to wipe his memory of his time in Rome only to return the memory of possibly disliking or distrusting Greek-related aspects of things. Though, he can certainly remember those early days before his memory returned and feeling a general unease about everything related to Camp Half-Blood. He'd rather not think about it too much though.

"I mean, I can hardly hate the Greek demigods when one of them is also my sister."

Being someone's sibling surely does not rule out hatred.

But. Rosinante nods. It's so foreign, all of it, and so there's nothing he can really do but accept what Jason says as the truth of his world. "History has a way of tangling things up," he says. "Making small disputes grow larger and more complicated over time. People get bitter and divided. I'm glad you're able to look past that for the sake of your people, and your family. Not everyone can."

True enough, Jason could not dispute that.

He wishes he could do a better job of explaining it to Rosinante, but in the end, how much can they really understand about entirely different and foreign worlds? He figured if he couldn't do that then maybe he should at least tell Rosinante how that particular trip had ended.

"It's not like it was solved over night. Our little diplomacy trip on the Argo II didn't exactly end well. There was sabotage which then caused a major misunderstanding. We pretty much had to turn and retreat."

It didn't help that one of the more powerful figures in the Roman camp had a major stick up his ass and a superiority complex to rival the gods. Jason hoped he could avoid gaining any opals that may contain memories of Octavian.

"It wasn't until the camps were nearly about to kill each other that we were able to redirect their ire at our true opponent."

"And who was that?"

Jason doesn't take compliments well, noted. He's a serious young man, no doubt because of some heavy responsibilities he's had to take on, and it seems with that has come a great deal of humility. Rosinante's attempt to praise Jason for his wisdom was glossed over in favor of continuing the story hinted at in the dream. But that's fine - he's eager to learn more.

It probably hadn't even registered that Rosinante had been trying to pay him a complement. Jason didn't receive praise like that often and even if he had, he holds himself to fairly high standards. He always feels like he should be doing better, doing more, and it's only been in the past year or so that he's started to ease up a bit on himself. It's still a work in progress most days though.

"Gaea." There's a pause and then he remembers that Rosinante has no context for the gods and beings from his world. "She's a primordial goddess. Mother of the Titans and the Giants who were both enemies of the Olympian gods and their kin." Which, of course, included Jason.

"Sounds like one hell of a tough enemy."

Hard to say more than that though, it's not like he has a single clue about what all of that really means. But primordial goddess, well. The older things like that get, the more powerful they likely become. Right? That's how all the stories usually go.

"What was the goal, though? What do you do if your enemy is a goddess?" he asks, for surely killing something like that would cause some serious repercussions. Imprisonment sounds incredibly hard. But what, then?

Rosinante was certainly not wrong in his thinking -- that was exactly what made Gaea so dangerous. That and she was essentially an embodiment of the world itself -- the mountains, the land, the soil -- all of it was her domain.

"There was a prophecy." There's always a prophecy. Jason takes a breath and then rattles off the following as if it were ingrained into his very being. Which, in a way, it was:

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall,
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

He's quiet for a moment, muttering old prophecies is always weird because you know what all the lines mean but you can still remember a time when each line was a mystery. He doesn't like discussing prophecies, never had, but seeing as the discovery of a new one had led to his death, they leave him feeling a little more antsy than usual. He decides to focus on this one, it's easier to talk about since they won...mostly.

"She was a goddess of the Earth. So we separated her from her source of influence and since you can't really kill a being like that we had to scatter her essence instead." He frowns, thinking about what that had cost too. Leo had died at the hands of a prophecy as well. "Gaea fell to a combination of storm and fire in the end...though Leo definitely got in the last shot."

Prophecy and superstition aren't new to him. Rosinante has always struggled, just a little, with figuring out which to believe and which to cast aside. Most seem like nonsense, naturally. Most certainly are nonsense. But some of the oldest might just have some weight behind them. So it's not too terribly hard to accept that the words Jason recites have real meaning for him in his world; that they're not just fantasy.

"A literal divide and conquer?" He nods, although with a being like that and with his lack of knowledge, he can't help but wonder if the pieces might some day put themselves back together. Still, surely it's better than surrender. "Must have been a hell of a battle. I'm impressed."

They would, but it would likely takes another millennia to do so. Gaea wasn't like other monsters or even like the other gods. Piper had been putting her to sleep before they scattered her, so it was likely she would stay gone for a very, very long time.

If she came back at all.

"It was...," he falls silent for a moment. It feels weird to be praised, but there is no other interpretation for the phrase 'I'm impressed.' It was frustrating to Jason. That he could fight that hard and take down a primordial goddess, but his death had been at the hands of a revived, former Roman emperor. "Thanks."

"What you did to fight a god... Do you think that could be used to stop something like a World Eater? If you had the right tools, the right people for it."

Might as well brainstorm some options. What would it take to carve up one of those massive beasts? Even getting close to one seems like a problem - but surely, getting close to a god would be just as dangerous if not moreso.

Jason had yet to equate the two, but Rosinante's question gives him pause. He's got a point. The World Eaters probably aren't gods (at least none he is familiar with) but they are clearly on par with them or at least near enough.

"Maybe? But fighting a god is the same as fighting anything else...I mean obviously it's A LOT harder, but you still have to get some of the basics. For instance, it's easier if you have a strategy and a plan...if you know what their weaknesses are and you have the right people and tools to do so. We couldn't have done what we did against Gaea if we didn't have the abilities that we did, if we didn't know her weakness and could also exploit that weakness to take her down." It was the timing of each demigod being around at the right time and using their ability in the right way -- even those who hadn't taken part directly in the fight had still had a role that was integral to everything working out the way it had.

He takes a deep breath, "Power doesn't mean a lot if you don't know how to use it the right way. We have a lot of powerful people here...but without the right information, I'm not sure how we can take down something like the World Eater."

"I understand," he says, nodding. "And I agree that the lack of information is our biggest weakness right now. If what you did was specific to a weakness of hers, then you're right, maybe it isn't relevant. But - maybe it's worth keeping in mind, too. What exactly was needed to reduce her to pieces?"

He probably should've been more specific with his questioning, but it was still a broadly helpful answer. Dismantling a very large creature is, perhaps, not that unlike taking down an organization from within - both are only going to happen if you know exactly where to strike. His job had always been to gather that information, while the others did the actual striking, so he's entirely in agreement with what Jason says.

Jason closes his eyes, thinking back to that day and their plan. "It was a coordinated effort. Once she had emerged from the earth we had to get her air born and keep her away from her source of power. Leo's bronze dragon Festus was able to help get her in the air. I used my control of the wind to construct a cage around her, meanwhile Piper used her charmspeak to put Gaea to sleep." He can't help it, as he describes this he's drawing loose stick figure diagrams in the dirt -- a large stick figure in a circle, a dragon-like figure, a stick figure on the dragon's back and two more floating in the air.

"She resisted at first, but I've never met anyone who's power of persuasion is stronger than Piper's -- she almost put ME asleep and the charmspeak wasn't even directed at me. Once Gaea was asleep she took on a more human form. It wasn't a permanent solution, but that was when Leo used a massive blast of fire and it hit her at the same time as a strike from a strike from one of the Roman onagers blew her into pieces -- enough to scatter her essence."

Jason draws an 'X' over Gaea...and then an 'x' over the dragon as well.

"The blast killed my friend. Earth fell to fire in the end, just like in the prophecy." Leo had taken that out of his hands, it was just too bad that apparently Jason's own brush with death wasn't far off.

"So we had the right information and the right players to make it work. Maybe with these World Eaters...maybe there's a way to find their weakness or make them weaker so an attack would get to them. But we would need to know their weaknesses first and we've already learned that it isn't Nukes..."

The little illustrations really do add something. He nods along as he watches. "Right," he says as Jason trails off.

"This is good, though. That more than a few of you have experience fighting enormous creatures, I mean. There's you with Gaea, there's Cao Pi who fought the monster Orochi. It takes more than throwing heavy weapons like these people did, it takes strategy. The strategy itself will change, but it's good you've done it before."

He hates how hard it is to find the information they need, but they're all certainly persistent. It will come, and they will work together to develop the tactics they need.

Now that Rosinante mentions it, Jason realizes he has a point. Based on everything he'd gathered, prior to the World Eaters the people of this world were not experienced with monsters like that or even smaller, minor ones. They were normal. Of course they would think that throwing a bomb at it would work and call it a day -- not realizing that sometimes creatures like that had special weakness and that was the only way to take them down. Just because it was big, didn't mean you could just go at it with a bigger stick.

"I'll keep that in mind. I haven't really been paying much attention to the information you and some of the others have been gathering, but maybe it's time I start." His priorities had been more immediate concerns involved in the community and individuals and local spirits. Perhaps it was time to start thinking bigger after all and getting more involved in that process.

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

III. Closed to Rosi

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