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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He thought he could keep it together until he could shove the opal in Minato's hands and run off to go recover emotionally, but the sight of his face, perfectly all right and not dying of some mysterious illness that Sora is still sort of puzzling through, is enough to, uh. Maybe. Set off a bit of a trickle. More of a sprinkle.

"H-Hey. I - um." Sniff. Why is he like this? "The, opals? The ones with memories? I think I found, um. One of yours? She was, um, wearing your. Uniform." And that's about as far as he gets before the tears swell comically huge and bubbly as he very desperately tries not to do something stupid like apologize or give him a hug without at least explaining what's up.

Oh. Oh, dear. He didn't expect the crying, even when he was told about the opals. A girl wearing his uniform? Why was that sending Sora into a fit of--

Oh. There was really no other memory he could think of than his literal last few moments in life. He sighed and reached over to take Sora's arm to pull him inside and shut the door behind him. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to give to Sora. He didn't need to ask the other boy how much he saw. Minato had a pretty good idea and Sora was already crying heavily now.

"You saw Aigis," Minato said softly. "I can... explain. If you like."

Sora will nod, letting himself get pulled along a bit meekly as he accepts the handkerchief. (That's actually almost enough to make him smile. What kinda high schooler walks around with a handkerchief in his pocket? Is it a Japanese thing? Maybe that's just normal in Japan.)

Anyway, he'll bury his face in it and nod. "Um." He sniffs again. "I dunno about. Y-You, but. I gotta sit down." And he'll let Minato lead them wherever, but he's hoping that he'll get to at least sit and be embarrassed about how emotional he is about this.

It’s more or less normal in Japan. Minato had a box of tissue but this was a bit easier. He led Sora into the main living room area to sit at the couch. Minato hadn’t done much with the place yet, he never figured out what he wanted to do with it.

He sat next to Sora, hands in his pockets and looking a bit embarrassed himself. It wasn’t everyday someone would get to experience your last days. “It was a decision I’d made, during an event called The Fall. But no one else knew because their memories had been wiped of the event.”

He stopped to take a breath, pulling his hands from his pockets to rest his elbows on his knees. “Only me. And Aigis. Eventually even the others. In the end,” He said with a small smile, turning to Sora. “They’re worth saving the world for. So, I don’t regret it.”

Edited 2020-02-19 15:05 (UTC)

"You... decided?" To die? Sora's still has his face buried in this handkerchief, but he'll look at him briefly. This is the red-eyed stage, not really puffy quite yet. That's... tough. And familiar.

So dying helped save the world. And that's why Minato's here. Back to this handkerchief. "That's good, that they remembered. And that you saved your world." A sniff. "I was so worried. That you had to go right after she figured out why she wanted to keep going. B-But you're here now, and she's not alone." Another sniff. "Sorry, I am definitely not like this all the time."

Minato didn’t really have the heart to tell Sora that his fate had all but been decided, if he were honest. Because in the end, when it’s between saving the world or not... well, he hoped anyone would choose to save the world. Perhaps he was being naive, but he loved the world. He loved his friends, his found family. The world was a vastly beautiful place and it was just a no-brainer what he chose. He may have fulfilled his contract, but it was worth fulfilling.

Of course, once Sora continued, Minato couldn’t help the guilty look on his face. Perhaps there was one thing he did regret. That he couldn’t have given them more time, to give Aigis more time, with him. But Sora was also right, Aigis wouldn’t be alone. The others wouldn’t let her be.

He crossed his arms, sighing softly. “You saw me fall asleep, right? I didn’t wake up.” He didn’t know when it actually happened, but he knew that much. Was it within the hour? Day? Week? He didn’t know. “Don’t worry about it. It’s enough that you about Aigis despite not meeting her.”

Sora would have understood if Minato had told him. Sure, it'd be difficult to listen to, but he understands what it's like to love the world like that. He would have done the exact same thing for his own friends. It's a simple choice. Just... there sure are consequences.

"So... it didn't hurt?" That's good. In Sora's world, sleeping and death are two realms that sit side by side, and he'd crossed in a few times in his dreams by accident. He supposes that can't be so bad. He much preferred that to his other two deaths. Just wandering too far and falling in... it was easy. Painless.

Sora laughs a little, even while his voice and nose are still thick and filled with fluid. "How could I not care? She loved you a lot." He finally scrubs his eyes. Dry? Mostly! Success.

"I know how that feels. Not being able to do anything. She's... so strong. She didn't even really give up. I couldn't do that." He knows this simply as a fact about himself. He goes into serious denial, then melts down. If she kept going without him... Aigis must be incredible. "I wish I could meet her. I don't want her to be here, but... y'know."

"No, it didn't hurt," Minato replied softly, with a small smile. It was probably a little selfish of him to think so, but he was glad that it had been painless. After all they had done, even if he consequence was to die, he was at least given time to meet the others again and then go to sleep.

He wasn't sure if the handkerchief would hold out much longer so he stood up to go find the tissue box in the bathroom. He came back shortly after to set it on Sora's lap. "Yeah... she did. She was my closest companion. And she learned so much since we met. I...don't know if you could tell, but she'd an android. Emotions weren't exactly part of her programming but, she's moved so far beyond it. I'm happy for her."

He nodded, he knew. No one really wanted any of their loved ones here, given what it took to be here. But that didn't stop them from missing them and wanting them close nonetheless.

Oh, good, now he can blow his nose without feeling guilty about gunking up this nice handkerchief of his. He'll proceed to do that, maybe a little loudly before he realizes that he can't hear what Minato's saying, before nodding. A robot. Someone who was programmed and didn't have a heart before.

"I could kinda tell, but only because I have a friend kinda like her." He sniffs, checking on those nasal passageways. "Tron. He was a computer program. He... wanted to protect us, too." He nods firmly. "I could tell, you know. They were kind of alike. I guess... that's the other reason why I was so worried." There are a lot of reasons why he's just like this, but this one seems obvious. "Imagining her just learning about friendship and stuff like Tron did, only to lose you right after... That was the worst."

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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