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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Prompto has stopped attempting to photograph the aurora, graduating to attempting to photograph spirits and others attending the event. Or at least the spirits that haven't decided to fight him for possession of the fallen opals. He has a couple in his possession by now, one of his own and a couple others that aren't his, currently being stored in the fingers of one of his gloves for lack of a better place to put them.

He's notably mismatched in contrast to Riku, with a yellow plaid jacket, black stocking cap, one glove, and boots whose shade of brown differs slightly but visibly.

"Hey, Riku!" He has his tablet up to his face, and without giving Riku a chance to respond to the greeting, continues. "Look sharp, dude!"

Riku lacks in any kind of artistic talent, including photography, but if a phenomenon like the aurora could be permanently captured, Riku himself would've been interested in distilling that moment to treasure later, in the dark watches of Beacon's endless nights. Their skills and their attire are opposed, though... if he's honest, the yellow suits him. It also helps that yellow is one of Riku's favorite colors.

It dazzles, like the light that seemed to radiate from a precious friend.

"Hm?" Riku's still smiling when he glances over, only for the expression to fall from his face the moment he hears the tablet's shutter sound effect. "Wh-HEY! Give me that!"

It's not that Riku is particularly opposed to having his picture taken.

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.

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!

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?"

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."

"Yeah, Keyblades."

Riku doesn't say anything, so Prompto's assuming he at least saved part of his dignity. Though, the higher Riku's eyebrows go, the more a faint blush creeps over his face, so he's glad for the distraction of talking about large key weapons.

"It...well, it feels...creepy to keep them." Like he's peeking into people's lives and shouldn't be. He hands Riku's opal to him--it's actually pretty cool and he'd keep it if it didn't contain a memory--and grabs a different one, rolling it between two fingers.

"I noticed the little guy and whoever Mr. Time Travel was both had them. Are there more than that?"

Prompto might be edified to know that the aurora casts a strange, greenish light over everything, which has the added effect of canceling out any telltale flush that might make his face go too pink. He calls it creepy to hang onto the opals, and Riku abruptly laughs - it's really short, he brings up his fist like he could stifle it like he would a cough.

"Tell me about it," he agrees. It's like accidentally peeking through someone's window, he really couldn't agree more. He's been collecting them whenever he finds one, trying to get them back to their owners or, failing that, he's started to collect ones he can't tell belong to anyone with the intention to chuck them into the lake.

"...Yeah," Riku says of the keyblades, "On our side of the conflict, we had a handful of wielders and even fewer formal masters. Your world doesn't have anything like them?"

Ah, what he wouldn't do for actual sunlight. Even if he thinks at this point if the sun ever did decide to come up, it would be physically painful after living in constant darkness for this long.

"Nah...not in mass production, anyway. They might be out there somewhere." He hasn't been everywhere in the world, after all. "Masters? Is mastering a keyblade different from mastering a normal sword?"

He doesn't know much about swords. He knows enough to be able to hold his own for a while in melee combat with them--with the exception of greatswords, where he feels like he's swinging around a car door--but doesn't claim to have much proficiency with the weapon besides that.

They'll be rocking that Nuclear Winter Tan and a hell of a case of photosensitivity for sure. That is, if they don't explode like the spirits do on contact with the aurora. Riku tries not to think too much into what will happen if light returns to the world, he's just trying to get through the month, sometimes just trying to make it to the end of the week is a challenge.

"Keyblades aren't like normal weapons. They grant powers that... well, let's just say they do a heck of a lot more than a sword," Riku explains loosely, "To become a master, you have to undergo a trial called the Mark of Mastery. I'd say it's intense, but that's not doing it justice."

He thinks back to that awful two weeks.

"You fight with a gun, so... obviously, you've seen combat. Why did you have to learn to fight, Prompto?"

Prompto would rather not consider the possibility that they would just explode upon contact with sunlight. But the spirits clearly don't do well with aurora light, and he, Riku, and everyone else are about the same as the spirits, so...hm.

"Ohh, it's one of those weapons. You can use it, but you gotta prove your worth to use it to it's fullest extent." Or something like that. That's the message he's getting.

"Heh...I've seen enough combat. I don't really like fighting, but I had to learn so I could go with my friend on a trip."

A trip?

No- Riku's seen what he's like. Prompto is a softer hearted guy who doesn't really search for the thrill of desperate combat. He doesn't even seem like the warrior type. More like... a good friend, someone whose value isn't measured by how many fall before a blade.

"Was it a dangerous trip? Or did you learn to fight out of an abundance of caution?"

"Ehh...kinda both?" This is accompanied by an iffy hand.

Riku's not wrong there, Prompto would definitely rather be at home playing video games or on a farm taking care of chocobos--both of which he sorely misses.

"It was sorta dangerous to begin with because we were in the middle of a war. That's what the trip was for, for a wedding...for the friend I mentioned. He's around here somewhere, you might know him. Noctis? Anyway, the wedding was never a thing because absolutely everything went wrong and we had to go fight things and claim ancestral weapons."

That's about 5% of the whole story, but he's sure Riku doesn't want to hear ~~the entire plot of FFXV~~ their life stories, so.

Prompto's initial answer and the gesture that goes with it makes Riku smile, even if it's just a suggestion at the corners of his mouth, it makes his whole expression a little bit softer. Yeah, he thinks he knows what he means. A journey that might be fraught with danger, training to be strong enough to protect those who matter the most. Sounds familiar.

It fades as he talks about war, because mentioning a wedding in almost the same breath seems like a non sequitur. It doesn't seem like the name Noctis rings any bells. Which isn't surprising; Noctis tended to keep to his own, and Riku isn't nearly as public a presence as he used to be.

"So there was a war going on, and one of your friends was going to get married so you... went on a trip together for one last time and everything went wrong after that?"

"That's about it, yeah."

The wedding may seem like a non sequitur, but in context it was very important to the outcome of said war. Unfortunately, Prompto doesn't have all the context, because he may be friends with a prince, but he doesn't understand all the affairs of royalty or all the details of the peace talks between his country and the enemy.

"The wedding was pretty much cancelled when Noct's fiancée was reported dead, and then his dad was confirmed dead. So as prince of the country, he had to take up some of his dad's duties." He starts to continue, then cuts himself off, pausing to think before talking again. "Don't tell him I mentioned that."

That's fair, intrigue only entered Riku's awareness because of the mark his possession by Ansem and the machinations of people like Maleficent, they're all very much a product of their experiences and influences.

"Which made him king," Riku says, "It's okay," he adds a reassuring gesture, by miming turning a key near his mouth and tossing it. He'll find Riku is very discrete about stuff told to him in confidence. Only times he's broken that rule was when he needed to accomplish a goal that was much greater in priority than a kept secret.

Unfortunately, those reasons are pretty much all dead and in the ground.

"I imagine that put the brakes on your trip."

"Pretty much. Though not officially, because there's some kind of ceremony that has to happen--anyway, he's kinda weird about people knowing his status sometimes."

He supposes it doesn't really matter now that he's dead and all, but Prompto's not a mind reader and doesn't know for sure.

"Ah no, not really. Like I said, we had to go get a bunch of ancestral weapons...and let Noct talk to some gods, then we found out that the bride-to-be was actually still alive but in another country. That's only part of it, but we'd be out here all night if you wanted to know everything."

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EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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