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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You are a Good, Jason. People who accept and even accommodate Soldat's weird quirks are always appreciated.

They smile a bit, subtle expression somewhere between soft and pained. "I've already gotten a couple back from this. I. There was a father. Told bedtime stories." Wonderful to know, but also-- hard. Not only is this man long dead, but the idea of having parents keeps battering against their paradigm of "not a person".

Was. Jason wonders how he should respond. It's not often that Soldat opens up like this and Jason doesn't want to say something that is going to make him feel as though he should stop. He could bring up his own troubling relationship with his parents, but that doesn't sound like what Soldat is getting at. It's clear he's bringing this up because he sees that Jason had the same problem once, in a way, that he had dealt with lost and returning memories.

"It just makes things more confusing, doesn't it? Only having a few pieces...even the ones that are supposed to be happy or at least nice." He lets the opal continue to twirl for a bit, not letting it touch his skin, but still do a little flying through the air. If only keeping Gaea up had been this easy. "I can't say it's going to get any easier...in fact it might make things more confusing for you. But...for me I'd rather have all of my memories because they are mine. I want to know that I'm deciding for myself who I am because I have all the pieces."

All anyone ever has to do it ask, but it never seems to occur to anyone to ask for personal details. Which, honestly, is okay. There's no real reason to tell all and sundry about parents that died fifty years ago, probably, and it would make things awkward as Soldat continues to avoid using personal pronouns related to them. They still need that distance, but the wall they keep between the past and the present is getting really fucking flimsy with all the new memories of family.

"I've been getting them back in pieces," Soldat agrees, subdued. "Since I died. I'm used to not remembering. That's how it's been for decades. But now that I am. I. Want them. Even the horrible ones." Of which there are many. Even the good ones are difficult. "Did yours come back in pieces?"

Jason nods. As he'd just said, he understands that desire. Who wouldn't want something back if they knew it was missing. Even more so if it was taken. Which does spark a question and he blurts it out before he can stop himself, "How did you lose your memories? Do you know?"

His had been magically taken by a goddess. He knew Sora's memories were an even stranger thing, but that wasn't his information to share (not to mention it was overly complicated). But he knew there were more normal ways to lose your memories. He's not sure how much his experience applies here.

Either way, he nods at his question, "Yeah. At first the process was slow, but sometimes if someone said something or I saw something strongly tied to a memory it would help it come back. Once my friends and I rescued Hera the memories started to come back a lot faster. I'm still not sure if she ever gave all of them back or not."

"Oh. Yes. There was a machine. It. Came down over." Soldat stops, shudders all over once, then shakes their head and starts over, more steadily. "Before and after every mission, the technicians would wipe me. Fry everything." Their memories have been taken over and over and over, more times than they'll every clearly remember, or that they even care to clearly remember.

It's the things in between they want back.

"Maybe more like yours than most people's. Took them away for a purpose. Though I wasn't ever supposed to get them back. Called them malfunctions for a long time." Still do, when it's a full flashback, because they don't know the word "flashback", and it still fits.

Okay, he was pretty sure this did not count as a normal way to lose your memories. Soldat's were stolen too it seemed, but in a much more violent way. Jason's face is a mixture of shock and horror at what Soldat had experienced He doesn't miss the shudder and honestly is amazed that Soldat can discuss it at this level.

What troubles Jason the most is that it wasn't just a one time thing and he had used a plural (technicians) so multiple people had subjected him to this repeatedly. Who would do something like that and for what purpose could they possibly need to?

He thinks to why Juno had done it to him -- a bigger plan, a need to get him to the Greek camp without dying. Had Soldat been needed for some bigger purpose? But why the constant reset? What good would that do? He'd be...mindless and maybe that was the point.

Shit.

Jason's gone from shock to looking irritated. Not at Soldat, of course, but at the situation these nameless people had put him in -- the things they had done. "They're not malfunctions though...they're your memories! That's not a glitch or something. That's who you are..." Or who he was, but Jason wouldn't be who he was today without the combination of both.

The goal was to keep skills, reasoning, and tactical ability intact... just not personality. Or loyalties. The body remembering what was taken away from the mind. It more or less worked, anyway, between the fear and the programming.

"I know that now." So much has changed, that they can even say that. Six months isn't objectively that long, but it's still long enough to be miles from where they started. Hell, they're facing someone showing annoyance, and they're... not shutting down. (Hey, good job!) Soldat blinks a few times, digesting that, then elaborates. "But when I didn't have any, didn't know what they were, and they kept taking over and making me think I was somewhere else." They shrug. "Felt like malfunctions."

Jason tries to imagine what it would have been like if his memories had been taken and he hadn't been with someone like Piper or Leo. Heck, even with them he'd certainly been thinking about how he must have been going crazy. His expression softens at that and he nods, understanding a little of where Soldat was coming from if his was wiped again and again with no one to contradict him. Or, likely, telling him that those things he was seeing weren't real or were lies or something else.

"I wonder if seeing other people's memories will help."

Or shoving them right back into the Chair any time they gave so much of a hint of remembering. Of showing personality or opinion. The gaslighting was one way to keep them in line, sure, but the American branch of HYDRA didn't bother most of the time. Rather reboot the machine than try to tinker with the programming.

"One already did. I think," they say. "Someone's memory of seeing people being shot. I remembered shooting like that."

Jason nods, like this makes sense. He hadn't had opals like this, but there were definitely items along the way or things people said that triggered most of his memories to start coming back.

He tries to think of some of the opals he has. Unfortunately, knowing so little about Soldier means it is difficult to determine which of his memories might help. Combat is something he is good at, though his style is certainly very different from how Jason approaches it.

"Well...if you think it would help. I can share some of my other memories...it would be hard to tell what might help though." The flying thing certainly hadn't triggered anything as far as Jason could tell.

Soldat looks sidelong at Jason, still no eye contact, but at his face. "That wouldn't bother you. Sharing your memories like that." It bothers some people here. Soldat only in the fashion that it means a lot of people are exposed to memories of torture, experimentation, and murder.

Jason glances up. He figures it must sound like a strange offer.

"I know what it's like to not have your memories. I looked for clues and reminders of my past everywhere during those months they were gone. If showing you some of my memories could help you, I don't see the harm in that." He shrugs, "Besides, they've all been seen by other people already."

The Giants and other monsters were a little worrisome, but somehow he didn't think Soldat would be afraid of those.

You're basically talking to a stealth nerd, here, Jason. The giants and the monsters would be awesome.

But. Huh. Soldat considers for a long moment, weighing the options: small potential for new memories, versus the discomfort of seeing into someone else's life like that. "Whenever I chase memories. They don't come. But don't mean I'm going to stop trying, I guess. All right. Do you want to see any of mine? They won't help you, probably. But seems fair."

"Yeah. It was like that with goddess-induced amnesia too. I never really knew when something was going to make me remember something." But, it wasn't like he knew enough to strategically try to trigger a memory anyway. This was more trowing things at the wall to see what would stick. And, hey, if nothing stuck then at least Soldat might get some cool demigod adventures out of it.

Jason hadn't considered making it a trade. Soldat had seemed rather surprised at his original suggestion that he hadn't thought he would want to share his own memories. "If you're sure you're comfortable with it. I didn't expect a trade out of it."

Edited 2020-02-26 01:33 (UTC)

Soldat shrugs. "You're giving me pieces of your life. It's only fair. Most of mine are kind of terrible, though." Maybe the baby Widows, that wasn't so bad. Horrifying in hindsight, and might raise questions for Jason, but at the time it was downright happy for a Winter Soldier memory. They slip the metal hand into the pocket where they've been keeping the memory stones, feeling the ridges of each one until they find the right pattern, pull it out to verify, and nod. "This one isn't that bad."

He nods. Jason had seen a lot in his short life, all things considered. He had never shot anyone, but he'd certainly been in combat and used weapons of other kinds. If that was a hint at what Soldat had going on in his memories, well, Jason would prepare himself for that. He had a hunch that he actually had a lot worse.

While Soldat went through the rocks on his person, Jason considered which one to share himself. A lot of his memories were back in his room, but he did have a few on him that he had either found on his way here or were handed over to him before he could get back to his room today. Maybe one with another friend...a friend who had been difficult to win over.

Yeah, that might be good. Jason shuffled through his bag that he'd started carrying for this very purpose and produced a dark blue-almost black opal with even darker streaks of lightning through it. Jason uses a small towel to pick it out of the bag, offering it out to Bucky, "Here. Then this one is for you."

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.

It's an odd little exchange, especially knowing what's coming. Still, it seems Soldat has an easier time showing his past than maybe talking about it. Then again, maybe Jason just didn't know the right questions to ask. As he experiences the memory, Soldat is taken on a part of a quest with Nico.

It's a strangely pleasant memory, if a little odd. Jason probably isn't the one to find it strange at first, given that he'd been set to training with the sword at a young age himself. Still, there are little things that seem...off. The way the memory seems to be confused about aspects of previous girls or the concept of not being able to ask questions or even liking things. It hints at something that Jason's not quite sure he wants to know the details of because all he can think of is prisoner or, perhaps even worse, slave.

He blinks and he's back in the present, looking down at the rock. He runs the pad of his thumb over the colorful surface, thinking.

"When you agreed to help Javert with combat training...did you remember doing this before?"

Soldat is less disturbed, more fascinated. What the hell. There's flying, and skeletons, and kids who don't like to be touched, and the fucking. Nineteen-thirties. Seriously. (Also, what the fuck is a crush and why is it so important that it be on this Percy person?)

They frown at the opal, thoughtful and a little confused. Jason's answer is almost absent. "I hardly remembered anything, then. Felt natural when I started. Especially with people who don't know anything about combat. Might've been from that. Got no idea how many groups of little girls I had a hand in training, but enough that it was familiar then. In the only way things felt familiar, back then, anyway." Which is to say, the prominent "know things without remembering why" that Jason would have experienced.

If Soldat asks, Jason will try his best to answer some of those questions -- some of it would be more difficult to explain than others. But it was the start, in a way, to Jason and Nico becoming friends at all. Which, honestly, the memory probably made it seem like they weren't going to be friends. Things had gotten better though.

The feeling was familiar. The main difference of course was that Jason hadn't started from scratch so often that his own memories were scrambled and lost completely. The memory had definitely given him a better sense for what Soldat was going through now -- familiar feelings and people just out of reach. A constant 'tip of the tongue' syndrome that had to be frustrating.

"Training kids can be hard." says the sixteen year old, but he did have some experience of his own at it. Lupa just started their training, you still had a lot to learn once you reached camp, "You seemed pretty good at it. And I definitely have seen you be good at it here. You have a lot of patience."

They're not unaware of the irony of that statement. Soldat looks at him sidelong in a way that subtly but fairly clearly says "says the kid", but then it bleeds into a small smile. "I like it. Knowing fewer people might be hurt or die because I helped them. I'm glad the Inspector decided to trust me with it." Patience is easy. Patience has been ingrained into them. It's nice to have a completely helpful task to put it towards.

They offer Jason the opal back. "Do you have any more with this boy? Nico? He's from. I mean, I was older than he was I think, but I knew 1938."

Jason returns the look with a smile of his own. Six is very different from sixteen, thank you. Per the exchange, Jason offers back Soldat's opal as well. He makes sure to take the other opal with the towel he had used earlier.

"At least two others...as of right now anyway," Jason says. He glances at his bag, "Though one of them is back in my room." He turns his attention to Soldat's general direction, not really making eye contact or anything. "You did? Nico never really talked about his original time much. I think it reminds him too much of his sister." Among other painful things, well, Soldat had gotten most of it. That was really the first and only time Nico had talked about some of those things and most of it had been shouting. He'd heard more of the story from Percy, but that hadn't exactly pleased Nico at the time.

"I only have pieces, still, and not very many of them. But I know I fought in the second world war. Crowley told me the years that took place." They offer Jason his opal back. If the other Nico memories don't mention the 30s, they're probably safe to not view them. Even if they're curious. "Who was Cupid? And." Their brows come together a little. "What was that crush business about?"

Look, coming from the 1930s, clearly they're missing some modern slang.

Jason returns the opal to his bag, considering the information Soldat had just shared. So he was from around the same time as Nico. That was interesting, though Jason didn't know what to do with that information. It wasn't like he had memories of Nico in the 30s to share and Nico certainly hadn't been the type to talk about his past much. Honestly, if the son of Hades were here, he'd probably get along fairly well with someone like Soldat.

It's weird to be asked about Cupid. Of all the gods, Jason would have figured that name would be fairly common, but he has to remind himself that Soldat doesn't have all of his memories and it sounded like most of what he had was related to war and fighting.

"Cupid's the god of love. In the memory, he was making Nico confess to his feelings about Percy." Jason feels suddenly protective of Nico and the memory he shared. He knows it is too late now and he knows Nico is more open about it, but having just re-lived the memory recently himself he recalls very clearly the look of fear and self-loathing Nico had carried with him. Being gay wasn't an easy thing for Nico to come to terms with and it was why he'd hidden his feelings for Percy for so long in the first place.

Yeah, most of mythology is a big black hole for Soldat, sadly. They really need reintroduced to it. Also, it takes them a minute to combine "feelings for" with god of love with jealous of the girl. Then they blink. "Oh. Right, okay." That makes sense. So does the fear, actually. "You know. People used to get arrested for that. Back in our time. Was just considered wrong by pretty much everybody. So I can see it being hard to say out loud. Even admit to himself, maybe."

There may be a bit of sympathetic understanding, there, to be honest, though Soldat is not entirely sure where it comes from. It's just a feeling unmoored from context. Weird. (Look original Bucky Barnes may or may not be gay, but he clearly loved Steve a whole hell of a lot.)

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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