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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[Jason should have known that with memories raining from the sky that there would be plenty of reminders of the time he had forgotten who he was and his past. He thought they would only come from his own opals. He wasn't prepared for the reminder to come from others: Soldat, Daylight, and now this opal.

Jason had collected so many of these things now, he never hesitated to pick them up. He knew how important memories were, but some still lingered in his mind longer than others. This one was one of them. He sat by the Bonfire, turning the opal over and over in his hand as he thought about it.

Sora...and Namine. What a terrible burden for them both. Jason knew something of what it was to lose all of your memories, to have them taken, and while this was similar to that there was also something different between what Namine had done to Sora (and then undone it seemed) and what Hera had done to him. He couldn't imagine having to chose, in fact he'd purposefully NOT chosen between his life at Camp Jupiter and his life at Camp Half-Blood. It had nearly ripped him apart...but he'd done it. He'd forged a place at both camps and, he hoped, maybe Sora had found a way to reconnect with both Namine and his "real" memories.

Jason stops, holding the opal up to the fire light and watches the colors dance across it. The way they shift makes him think of Piper. He wishes things could have ended differently, that she hadn't felt so strongly about their relationship being built on a lie because they began with false memories. He had hoped that maybe...

He sighs, lowering the opal again and watching the aurora's lights shimmer. He needed to find Namine and give this to her...it felt more like her memory than Sora's, but if it wasn't hers then he'd figure it out. He wanted to sit with it a little longer though, sit with his own memories and feelings about those memories for a bit.]

[Naminé isn't hard to find. Not only does she live a few rooms down from Sora but she regularly wanders around the lit areas of the town, taking in the sights or sketching using the supplies she'd gotten at the general store. There is so much for her to experience first hand and while the darkness is daunting at times, the recent gray light of the island has made it a little easier to see the buildings and setting around her.

She's found a few opals herself, memories that belong to both her and others. Naminé isn't sure what to do with them but she knows that they need to be returned to their owners. Memories are precious things.

She is holding one such memory in her palm when she spots Jason by the fire. They've never met in person but they've spoken before and she's asked Sora a little bit about him.

Naminé slips the opal into her sweater pocket and steps over towards the boy.] Excuse me. Are you Jason? [She isn't actually sure but she hopes that she's right.] I am Naminé.

[Jason looks up. With all the activity and noise around Beacon, it's easy to sneak up on him. He recognizes her almost immediately. Less from her time here and more from the memory he'd just seen -- after all they hadn't really met in person yet -- so it's a little odd to have her suddenly appear. For a second he wonders if she stepped OUT of the stone, but stuff like that doesn't happen here.

He blinks out of his daze and nods.]

I am. [He offers her a smile and moves over a bit on the bench.] Naminé. It's nice to finally meet in person. Guess we get to sit by the fire together after all...if you want to join me anyway.

[Her smile widens when she realizes that she'd guessed his name correctly. It'd be incredibly embarrassing if she'd messed it up.] It's nice to meet you too Jason.

Yeah. [She nods her head and steps around the small bench to sit at his side. She doesn't realize that he has the opal of her memory or that he knows any more about her than what they had discussed in their texting conversation.] Thank you. That is- for worrying about Sora and me. Sorry about back then. I didn't mean to. I was just worried.

[Naminé is not great at talking to people.]

It's nice to meet you in person. I was looking forward to being able to speak with you again.

Hey, no worries. You didn't really know me and sometimes that can be awkward, right? I just didn't want Sora getting hurt and it didn't seem right to just leave you by yourself to worry about him coming back.

[He smiles.] I would say if you're a friend of Sora's, you're a friend of mine...but I'm pretty sure Sora's friends with everyone.

[He shrugs, saying it like a joke. But he has a feeling Sora can be a bit TOO trusting. Or at least a little clueless. From what little Jason knows of Skyler there might be a more discerning personality to him now, but it's hard to say. Sora doesn't talk about that much and Jason doesn't press.]

We can work on it though...being friends I mean. I'm glad you came along too...I was actually about to go looking for you.

[Naminé relaxes, a light smile tugging across her lips as she takes a seat next to Jason. The warmth of the fire kisses her cheeks and heats her face with its pleasant radiance of heat. She hasn't noticed it before now, perhaps she couldn't feel in her past body but the heat is comforting, surrounding her and lifting the weight that occasionally settles just beneath her breast bone.

Her expression reflects all of this as her baby blue eyes glance over at the curling flames.] I think he is but we're friends anyway, aren't we? [She turns back to him and meets his gaze directly.] We've already spoken and I like you.

[She's meeting a lot of people but like Sora, she wants to make friends with them all.]

Look for me? What for?

Oh! Yeah, we can be. [He blinks. He hadn't expected her to say that. She likes him already? He smiles, the scar on his lip disappearing as he does.] Thanks.

[He hadn't wanted to come across as insistent or pushy about being friends. Ever since their conversation over the network he'd wanted to learn more about her. He hadn't expected it to be through a rock and now he felt a little badly about it. Still, if they were going to be friends, it was all the more important that he didn't lie to her or keep things from her -- especially if it was hers to begin with.]

Well, there's all these memories falling from the sky, right? I've been finding a bunch of them...some of mine, and some of other people's. I found one near here...it could be Sora's since he's in it, but I think it might actually be yours.

[It was a hunch, but the feelings in it were different than the ones he'd experienced as Sora so far.]

[Naminé isn't practiced at making friends or any general interactions with another person. She's learning and a lot of what she's learned has come from Sora who trusts fair to easy and attempts to make friends with everyone. It might end up back firing on her one day but this is what Naminé has decided to do.]

Yeah. [She meets his smile and continues to smile even as he explains that he's found one of her opals.] Oh. Right. I know about those. I have found a few… [It is a little awkward but if he found one of hers then she'd want to know.]

Sora… he doesn't remember me. At all. [It is very awkward admitting this.] If we are both in the memory, then it is likely mine.

Right. That makes sense.

[Jason winces slightly. Between the whole 'not-quite-reincarnation' thing this version of Sora had going on combined with the opal's memory of Sora agreeing to have his proper memories restored, there was no way this one belonged to him...was there.

He sighs, feeling like it was a stupid thing to forget, but at least Naminé doesn't seem to be overly offended. He holds up the opal he'd kept carefully cupped in his palm. It was warm from a combination of his hand and being so close to the fire. Jason offers it to her.]

Then this is yours. Uhm...here.

So you know?

[It isn't that this Sora is different but in the scene he saw, Sora was choosing to forget her and the castle. There isn't a single Sora in any world who has a memory of that castle or of her. The fact that Sora here knew her had been surprising. He shouldn't remember her.]

Oh. thank you.

[She takes the opal and winches.]

You saw this? Saw what I did to Sora?

Do you hate me for it?

[He nods, because obviously he had to have seen the opal if he knew to bring it to her. Her other questions though...that's a little harder to answer.]

I don't think I have the full story, so I don't have any right to judge you...let alone hate you. In fact, I'm pretty sure even if I did have the full story I wouldn't hate you.

[Sora doesn't, that much is obvious, but if Jason doesn't hate Juno for taking his memories, he can hardly hate Naminé for something similar.]

From what I did see though...it seemed like neither of you had much of a choice to begin with. Sora had to make an impossible decision and you were the one that had to live with the consequences of that decision.

[He shifts his gaze away from the fire to look at her.]

It may be hard to believe...but I've actually been in a similar situation.

[She holds the opal close to her chest, the tips of her fingers lightly teasing the smooth edge of the glimmering stone as Jason explains. Her heart sinks and then lifts as it's been given wings.]

You have?

[She leans closer, her crystal blue eyes glimmering in the flickering flames of the bonfire.]

I... I don't want to hurt people like that again but if I can use these powers to help others... I'd like to do that. I- what happened to you? [Her face turns red and she retracts a bit.] That is if you want to talk about it. You don't have to tell me.

I don't know exactly how similar it is...but seeing this opal definitely made me think back to it.

[He shakes his head.]

I don't mind. It's been on my mind a lot with all these opals around. Over a year ago a goddess named Juno took all of my memories, put fake memories in the minds of two people who would eventually be my friends, and set us up to be the key heroes in her plot to prevent Gaea from gaining power and destroying the world. She didn't ask to do any of this, but did it because according to her judgement it was the only way to ensure that two sides -- Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood -- that hated each other would cooperate.

As I started to get my memories back over the course of the year, I started to realize that my time spent with my new friends and at Camp Half-Blood had changed me. Not drastically, but I no longer really felt at home with my former Camp, but at the same time I didn't want to have to abandon everything about my past either. I still saw parts of Camp Jupiter as home...but Camp Half-Blood was now very much my home as well. I was conflicted and that started to mess with me. But, eventually, I decided that I could be part of both. I could be a go between for the camps.

[Naminé listens to his story and finds far to many parallels between it and her own situation. All except one.]

This wasn't for a greater good. [Her voice was very soft but she's decided to be honest with Jason since he's been nothing but honest and open with her.] I altered Sora's memories because I didn't want to be alone anymore because I wanted someone to know I existed and care about me. I was... already connected to him through Kairi. So it was easy.

Then the organization came and they wanted to use what I had done to manipulate Sora. I- couldn't stop them. I wasn't- I'm not very strong.

I told Sora the truth but of course he doesn't remember now and he hadn't remembered Kairi then. Even so, I knew that I couldn't replace her. I was only her shadow and I knew the more I tried, the more he'd remember or I eventually hoped he would. But it's still my fault because I was selfish. [Because she's scared of being alone.]

[Jason doesn't know what that's like, which was why he had led with 'I don't know how similar the experiences are.' And he knew comparing problems was never a good idea, but between seeing -- no -- experiencing the memory for himself and now hearing her take on it. He still wasn't sure he could blame her.

She was certainly taking responsibility for her actions, her choices, and that said a lot about her as well. It'd be very easy for her to blame someone else for what she did, but she doesn't, though perhaps she does ignore some of the elements that led her to those choices to begin with.

He realizes he hasn't said anything for some time and directs his gaze towards her, being sincere.]

I'm sorry you were put in that situation. I...don't know if there's much more I can say, but I still stand by what I said earlier...I don't think I'm in a position to judge you. I don't think anyone really is.

[He looks back to the fire, always finding comfort there.]

After all, everyone is a little selfish sometimes...especially when we're scared. It takes a lot to act differently from that and the fact that you can look back on it now and see it for what it was...I think that's something too.

[Naminé shakes her head.]

It's alright. There isn't anything to say. It's something that happened and it's sad but I got to meet Sora and Riku and the Replica and... and it's because pf them that I've been allowed to live. [Otherwise she'd be alone and had faded away long ago, in no ones memory.]

I am grateful. Even if it's hard.

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EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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