logsinthenight | 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

It's an interesting request. Maes is tempted to press, but he also isn't sure he'd get a response. Maes recognizes baggage, everyone came back from Ishval with it after all. And, really what good would the knowledge of its meaning have for him? He had requested it as a favor and that's probably pretty good currency around here.

"I can do that," Maes finally says, picking up his cup of coffee again and taking a drink.

A slight droop of the shoulders shows Soldat is relieved. Whatever Maes asks in return is worth it not to have a fucking freak-out over hearing a name. "Thank you. I appreciate it." The number of people who know that name has increased far more than they'd have ever wanted. Especially considering the preferred number for that is "zero".

If Maes wants an explanation, though, he'll have to ask for one. Soldat is open and honest... but usually only if people ask.

"If I find any of your memories, I'll let you know immediately," they add, honest. He'd been very kind returning their own memory.

"I appreciate that." He considers something and then adds, "Actually, if you find any of the war...I can do without those. You can trash'em." He doesn't specify which war -- it'll become pretty obvious should they be discovered which memories are of wartime. "But my wife...my daughter. Those I'll take." Even if his memories of war contained memories of Roy...it wasn't worth it. He relived those days often enough in his nightmares...even if many of his nightmares had been replaced with more extreme experiences in recent memory.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), the man's relief makes Maes far too curious to let it slide. Screw it, he's going to ask. "Why does he or the name bother you so much?"

Funny how easily he forgets what got him killed in the first place, asking too many questions and sticking his nose into business not his own, but if Soldier wants him to drop it or not answer that's his choice. It would still bug Maes, but at least he would have asked. He just didn't understand since Bucky, however that split occurred, seemed like a fairly decent person.

There's understanding, there. If Soldat had their memories, if all of these weren't new and filling in the gaping holes in their past, maybe they wouldn't care to revisit the memories of war, either. Or memories of the Soldier, which mostly seem worse. So they nod, prepare to step back--

--and flinch visibly at the question.

"It's not allowed," comes out the automatic answer. Which probably just invites more questions, to be honest, but it's a conditioned response more than anything. It's not allowed.

Maes frowns. He'd been assuming it was a personal reason or perhaps a change in feelings about his name -- don't remind me of my past kind of deal. As usual, one question leads to another. The way Soldat phrases it though, it sounds like an order. It doesn't make sense to ban a name. Or, at least, it doesn't make sense to ban a name here. They're dead.

"Why? Or maybe a better question is by whom? Because any obligations to your past become pretty null and void when you're dead."

"There's. Protocols. Programming." The metal arm makes a grinding noise, and they look firmly at the table-top, voice tight and low, not wanting all of the damn Invincible to hear this conversation. The ones who did the programming aren't here, but that doesn't make the conditioning from it go away. All they remember now is that name means pain and fear. It means being a person, and that's not allowed, either. "I can't know that name."

Nevermind that they clearly do know it. They just keep it firmly walled off, out of their consciousness, for their own safety and peace of mind.

The wall is gonna get really fucking thin, the more of these memories that keep raining down.

Maes had kept his voice low for this entire conversation. And now, well, now he's realized he definitely is toeing that line between gathering information and letting his curiosity get the best of him again. This is quite the puzzle, but it has nothing to do with their current predicament.

So, he drops it. For now.

"Okay," he says in a level voice, "Then the name stays buried."

Thank fuck for that. Soldat ducks their head in something approximating a nod and, with that settled and before more questions can be forthcoming, promptly flees for the kitchen. Out of sight of Maes and his curiosity for now.

Soldat may answer questions posed to them but that doesn't mean, apparently, that they have to stick around to wait for more of them.

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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