EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

[inthenightmods]

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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Comments

Stone | OTA

[scarsolderthanyou]

I. Weird customs are weird

"I knew a groundling culture once that assigned people their homes without consulting anyone's opinions," Stone comments with a shrug, once he discovers about the spirits' strange tradition of dog-sledding to the sky. "And another one who staked their loved ones out to be eaten by birds to try and send them to their gods. Culture is weird."

He's really more concerned with the whole can actually see shit thing. With the light from the aurora, his vision is in fact much, much better. He can see distances again! He can look out into the murk and actually see something! It's amazing!

Stone actually shifts up to his winged form eventually, finds a patch of ground that's not too cold, and spreads his wings to attempt to bask. It's one of his favorite passtimes, and he hasn't been able to do it, with no light to bask in.


II. Pelted By Memories

Of course, being a very large creature with wide-open wings and a long tail splayed out means he actually gets opals landing on him. It actually stings a little, and his head comes up and swivels around, spines all standing on end and teeth showing a little bit. Between the sting and the sudden vision of someone else's life, he's absolutely startled.

He shifts down to try and find the damn thing, and so can be found patting the snow and growling under his breath. "Hey! Hey, get over here and help me, something hit me and now I can't find it." Because he still can't see worth shit up close.


III. Rest of the Time

Stone is not particularly worried about finding his own memories. There's nothing in his life he's particularly embarrassed about or ashamed of. But he's available to try and return things that he stumbles upon, and to try and return his own to him, usually around the Invincible or the harbor with the spirits.

Pelted by memories

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[Quentin is walking around town, not actively looking for the opals, but he's also not shying away from them.

He is, however, being very careful before picking them up. Which... tracks. Because the first two knocked him on his ass and now he sits down, legs bent and if he can, he'll find something to sit against.

And he reaches out, slowly closing his hand around the opal on the ground.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[There's nothing unpleasant about this memory. It's set in a room shaped out of a living tree, full of the scents of clean, happy, sleepy babies and steady Arbora who look after them, and Moon, someone Stone clearly cares for deeply. The sounds are all of children playing or protesting in the distance, the chatter of happy teachers tending them, and the breathing of five-day-old infants in their arms.

The conversation is somehow less important than holding his great-great-great grandchildren on the palms of his hands, thinking about the generations before, the generations still to come. Moon worries. That's okay, Moon always worries. Stone will be steady for him. After raising so many of his own babies, he knows how this goes. He can't wait to do it again. The next generation will be the happiest, most-loved of all. There's the comforting feeling that his court, his family, will do just fine, even after he's gone.

If Quentin feels like returning the memory, Stone can be found lounging in full winged form in the village, taking in the closest thing to sunlight he's felt since he died. He takes up pretty much the entire lawn between the cabin cul de sacs, one wing actually spread out over the library roof.]

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[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.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[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.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

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.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Good to see you're not laughing still. And I can hold babies in my hands like this, too.

[He cups his hands, as if demonstrating, and he's smiling as he does so.]

Raksuran babies are very small. We make them five at a time.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Yeah, I remember you telling me that. Even before I was... I don't even know what that was? The laughing?

[That had been weird. Weird-er. Like anything in this place made any sense, anyway.]

I have something. The rocks? Some of them have memories, or dreams. I'm still not sure which, but. It's not mine and I think maybe it's yours?

[Careful not to touch the rock by pulling his sleeve down over his hand, Quentin holds out the one labelled Stone.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Well, you weren't the only one, I spotted a few other people with the same problem at different times. All right, let's see what this is, then.

[He collects the little rock and considers the memory with a little grin.]

My great-great-great grandchildren. Yes, that's mine. I remember that, it was only about fifteen or twenty turns ago.

III

[diastima]

[ 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. ]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[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.]

[diastima]

Huh?

[ He peers at the stone in between Stone's fingers, recognizes it as a memory stone later. He can't help but wonder what exactly Stone saw, since he doesn't have a lot of memories himself... ]

Oh, okay. Can I have it then?

[ Lucius wonders if Stone will ask him anything about his memories. ]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Well, I didn't bring it here just to brag about it.

[He holds it out for Lucius to take back.]

Should see what it was yourself, when you take it. That's how it worked with mine.

[diastima]

Thanks.

[ He offers Stone a smile, then takes the pebble. The memory floods into his mind - though in a different way from most. He's used to seeing through his eyes and through a sensory conduct at the same time, so he can still keep his awareness in the real world while viewing it.

... it's not really that important. Maybe. He wonders if Stone had an idea of what he saw. ]

Oh good, it's not something super embarrassing. [ He says this jokingly, though there's some self-deprecatory intent in there as well. ]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Nope. Not sure what all those cords were for, but I'm not from a fancy space-faring anything, either. Kind of reminded me of the roots that connect the heart seed to the colony tree, back home, but that's organic.

[diastima]

[ Lucius opens his mouth, then closes it. He's wringing his hands a little again, a sure sign that he feels difficulty in finding words for what to say. ]

... before I became like this... before I was a real person, that was what I was. In that small room. Using the sun's light to control the weather.

[ This is a very simplified version of what he did, to not confuse Stone too much. ]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[So maybe kind of like the heart seed, actually. Except as a person. Type thing, if he wasn't a person back then. Stone watches the hand-wringing, head tilted a little, then flicks the end of his tongue out to taste the air.]

You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to.

I

[paletteswap]

"Traditions exist for a reason, even ones such as these." There's something to be said about a culture that's so dedicated to their ceremonies that they're literally killing themselves in a very festive way. He doesn't exactly condone it, but he won't do anything to stop it.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I didn't say there wasn't a reason, just that it was weird," Stone comments, and gives Kuai's shoulder a very gentle punch. "Not sure why exploding is fun, but hey. My people go pretty quietly into death, if we make it old enough to fade."

[paletteswap]

He inclines his head in agreement, can't argue with that, "You're right there. Personally I'd rather they didn't. Or maybe only those that are violent."

If only they could selfishly keep the helpful spirits and not the others.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I don't know, maybe it'll make way for more spirits. Death is pretty natural, just not something one normally seeks out like this." He pauses, frowns thoughtfully, and wonders, "Do spirits even have babies?"

[paletteswap]

"I'm not sure, I've seen some that are smaller than others, but none that appeared to be children. But maybe they do not nurture them. They may lay eggs for all anyone knows." And thanks to Duster he actually knows a little too much about the spirits recreational habits.

"They must come from somewhere, so maybe there'll be new ones. This being a form of population control does make the spectacle a little less poignant though."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"It might not be. For all we know they don't have babies-- all that talk about being dead." Stone frowns. "If they don't. Does that mean they either come back, like we sometimes do, or there used to be a lot more of them?"

[paletteswap]

"I've been assuming they come back; that they have their own version of the church. Everything was too chaotic during the last attack I don't think anyone thought to keep the body of a dead one to see what happened." Which is why he's been considering hunting one of the green-eyes to see one way or the other, but this probably isn't the best time to bring it up with hundreds of spirits all around them.

"Maybe only certain things truly kill them. I doubt these ones are coming back." He nods towards the aurora where they've been happily hurling themselves.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"The church is manned by a single spirit. Or person, now, right?" Stone says with a frown. The new of Dr. Solis has gotten around, by now. "A person who is behind the lanterns? Do the spirits have a single spirit who repairs them if they die?"