EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

[inthenightmods]

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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IV

[arsarcanum]

Sora is on his patrol downtown, picking up stones from the street as he goes and placing them into separate pockets on his thankfully numerous sweaters and jacket, letting them weigh down the pockets of his backpack. He's doing his level best to make sure that he's steady and okay before eagerly searching for more! There have been at least two that have reduced him to tears or have actually caused him physical pain, and he definitely wants to keep himself as mentally fit as possible so he can collect more stones! He wants his own memories and he wants to return as many memories as he can. It's a win-win as far as he's concerned.

This one's a bit of a mysterious one, though. He may be thinking about it a little as he walks along, pondering the contents. Sure, he has a name, but he's pretty sure that there isn't a Jim, a James, or a Jamie in Beacon - he's been through the directory twice now to check - so who could it be? Someone going by a different name than the one they go by here? That seems perfectly reasonable to him, but that will make this quite a bit tougher.

It's almost time to meet the soldier for their regular patrol overlap, and he smiles as he sees them in the distance. It's nice, all this light. Less squinting for little lantern spots in the dark. "Hey, over here!"

[worthallthis]

Soldat is smiling, albeit maybe a weird, almost sad kind of smile. Between the spirits, er, doing what they're doing, and the all of three new memories they've got so far, they're feeling kind of quiet and contemplative. And the tiniest bit nervous, but you know what, they're always nervous, so that just kind of melds into the background a bit.

But they want to share something. Sora would understand, they think. And they need to share with someone. (And Misty would... probably cry. They're not ready to share with Misty yet.) "Kid. Have you seen these. Tested these." They hold up the first opal, the one with the father in it, in the metal hand.

[arsarcanum]

"Yeah, a couple!" Sora trots over, looking at the stone in their hand a bit curiously. That's a different expression on them. He's not terribly sure what he thinks about it, but they seem like they want to share something, and Sora's certainly not going to be the one to stop them.

"What about you? What have you picked up so far?" And Sora's now wondering if some of his memories might be out there too. Not just the ones he knows. The ones still lost in the universe somewhere.

[worthallthis]

Well, that's a good opening, isn't it, Sora? Soldat reaches out to take Sora's wrist, turns his hand over, and sets the memory-stone right onto his palm. This might be kind of rude, but they're anxious about this, and it's much easier to show than to explain. Showing doesn't require talking about a father out loud, trying to balance personal pronouns in relation to him, and Sora has enough trust for a straight-up share. At least the memory is sweet and gentle, rather than something horrible-- they wouldn't be sharing if it was horrible-- and also will show Sora two familiar children.

[arsarcanum]

And the soldier is right! All Sora will do is watch with simple, intent curiosity as they take his hand (!! Important!!) and sets that stone right there and --

A second later, Sora's back, and hey, he's smiling! It's a safe memory. A warm one. It doesn't bring back any particular echoes from his own childhood, but he figures that it just isn't specific enough. It's a good share, regardless.

"I liked that." Sora thinks he understands why the soldier shared that with him. It's a memory that he'd like to share if it was -- oh, that's right! "Wait, who does that memory belong to? I think I --" And he'll start rummaging around in his pockets, checking, because he's sure he remembers those other kids, but then it strikes him that the soldier probably wouldn't share a memory that belonged to someone else? Probably? They know how important memories are, too.

Wait a sec. Sora pauses in his search for the little packet in his pocket with the word "Susie -- Patty cake" written in a quick scrawl on it. "Hey, uh, who did that belong to? Do you know?"

[worthallthis]

Soldat hesitates, but they've come this far. They gave the opal to him to experience, and had expected Sora to know it was theirs. There's nothing different in having to clarify, except it's hard to make the words come out for a moment. Finally they say, "It's mine."

Which means. Sora has another one. They perk up with an almost pathetic eagerness when they see the packet, register the question. "Is that? Is that one-- is it. With the same kids?"

[arsarcanum]

Delight basically floods Sora's entire existence from top to bottom. This is AWESOME! "Yeah! Yeah, it's gotta be!" And Sora will hand that right over in either hand they provide, metal and not.

"There were kids in there and at least a couple of them looked exactly like the the kids in that one. It has to be yours." Open it! Sora is content to be the bearer of good news. (And no worries about looking desperate or anything. Sora is equally as desperate for anything about himself.)

[worthallthis]

Into the flesh hand it goes, mostly so they can use the metal one to open the packet and pluck the stone out without activating the memory too soon. They roll the stone between metal fingers. "Gotta wonder how many more memories from Before are out there, how many people are gonna wonder. Who the hell this belongs to."

[arsarcanum]

Hmmm. "Well, what do you think? Do you think it'd be worth putting up like a notice on the network with stuff related to your memories?" Sora shrugs. "It's what I'm thinking about doing, but I also don't really mind if people see my memories and know they're mine. I don't know if you feel the same way."

Sora is going to understand why he might mind people seeing his memories in a few days, but the possibility of other people getting hurt by his memories isn't occurring to him right now. Oh, to be Sora and only think about five minutes ahead at any given moment.

[worthallthis]

Nuh-uh, nope, absolutely not. That would require explaining that they know their name and just can't fucking use it. Or say it. Or even hear it. Pretty sure writing it wouldn't work, either, though they admittedly haven't tried that one, which means they literally could not put it on the network even if they wanted to.

Soldat shakes their head sharply, once, and puts both memory-opals away in a pocket, left-hand side so they can touch them without activating them if need be. "Can't. And don't like putting important shit on the network, anyway."

[arsarcanum]

Sora nods. That's fair enough. "I think my idea might be kinda bad too, but I'm still gonna do it. I want to think that more people will help me than try to hurt me, you know?"

And he'll pause. "Susie. That was... your little sister, right? Do you remember if you were the oldest?"

[worthallthis]

And this is where the mun realizes Soldat never actually looked at the memory, oops. Let's pretend they didn't put them away last tag. They hesitate a moment, looking at the opals on their metal palm, making themselves admit to sisters, to being the oldest. To, at one point, being a person. "Yes. Then Becca. Then Toby, Susie, Jeanie. If there were more after, don't remember."

(Gotta look at it sometime, pal.)

So they steel themselves and put flesh fingers to the new opal, and after a beat and a blink and a little shudder, now they know what Sora meant by the note. "They're so. Small."

[arsarcanum]

"Right? They're cute." Sora is going to happily back up this discovery, thank you. That was one positive thing his second life afforded him - the chance to be an older sibling, for once - and he's sure as hell going to be supportive about that. "Ari used to be that small, too. Just as demanding. Bratty." He grins. "An advantage to being bigger is like, being able to just pick them up and walk away whenever you're done arguing with them and you just wanna play. Not much they can do but enjoy the ride."

[worthallthis]

The mental image is familiar, though there's no actual memory that comes with it. "Yes. I. He could've done that. With the younger ones. Might have. Becca was too old, though." This comes together in their brain with the previous memory of the pinky promise with a 6 year old Becca. They look down at their hand, and the opal. "Was supposed to keep them safe. That's. What big brothers do."

[arsarcanum]

Ah. That good ol' I/He. Sora feels that on a personal level. "Yep. That's what big brothers do."

And, well, nothing to panic about because Sora doesn't even look remotely upset, but he, with the same fond facial expression, is going to start shedding tears. Just, you know, a few droplets. Probably nothing to worry about. He's even going to go on with this thought. "You should keep hold of that memory. That's a connection! Those are good things."

[worthallthis]

"I'm keeping all these, even the bad ones, because I--" That's when Soldat notices the tears, and they twitch with alarm. "Kid? No, wait. Are you okay. What is it." What did they do?! Was it the talk about big brothers? They know Sora has a sister-- a younger sister-- aw, fuck, that's probably what it is.

[arsarcanum]

"Huh?" Sora will look at them kind of funny! It would be a stupidly, blandly confused expression if he didn't still have tears rolling right down his cheeks. "What's up? What's wrong?"

From his perspective, nothing's wrong! Sure, his heart hurts a bit, but that's just normal. He misses Ari, it's true, loves her like his own sister, but he knows that she's going to be okay without him, or at least he truly wants to believe it. From where he is, he has no idea anything's happening. It's kind of jarring!

[worthallthis]

"Kid. You're crying." Surely he can tell. Even Soldat, who cries at so much stupid shit, can at least tell what's happening when they do. They hesitate a second, then pull out an actual honest-to-god handkerchief-- well, okay, it's a carefully hemmed square of lightweight fabric with a quiet pattern on it, it's a homemade handkerchief, but it's still recognizable-- to offer him. "You miss your sister. Yeah?"

[arsarcanum]

"Huh?" And Sora claps a hand to his face, pulls it back to check it for tears... And god mercy, but he does zone out for four seconds while he stares at his fingers. This has happened before.

"Oh," he says, then looks at Soldat, blinking. Oh. The handkerchief. He, uh, stares at it for a second, not really realizing that it's for him, then accepts it, still in a thoughtful fugue.

"Okay. Um." How much does he say? "No. I mean, yeah, I do. She's... amazing. I worry about her a lot." Now that he's focused the right direction, he does notice what's happening - the loneliness, the worry, the grief. How well it blends in with the background noise of his heart. He begins to wipe his eyes, still smiling, still crying, but more self-aware, more careful to telegraph that he is fine. "But this isn't, um, me. He's, um. Borrowing my emotions. Since he can't do this on his own anymore." Yes, soldier. This is him. The other kid.

[worthallthis]

"Oh." Soldat blinks now, too. "The other one. Okay."

And then they... settle. That absolutely makes sense to them and isn't as much a cause for concern. Sora is talking to the guy with two people in their head, both of whom often have wildly different emotional reactions to the same set of stimuli, which are often wildly different from their own reactions. Mostly the emotions don't leak out like that... but their headspace isn't quite the same as Sora's headspace, and they understand that.

"What can we do to help," they ask. The "we" means Soldat and Sora, but could probably be taken to mean the three Soldat-pieces, too.

[arsarcanum]

Sora closes his eyes, thinks back to the echo he just got. It... only makes sense in context with the other spare bits of memory he has, but he thinks he grasps what's going on, especially with what he understands about Roxas. Roxas, the other boy stuck in his heart long ago.

You're me, so you can feel what I felt.

"Not much, to be honest." He hands the handkerchief back - the moment's already passed, the ache just a faint pang. "He's not like the Sergeant or the Asset. I mean, he - well, I - used to be? But there isn't enough of him left to talk." There isn't enough of Skyler to make Sora say things he doesn't mean, green lantern aside. Or to trade in the same way Soldat does with the Sergeant and the Asset. He doesn't even dream.

"If something that I see or hear hurts him enough... He doesn't really understand what's happening, there's not enough of him left for that, but he knows how certain things feel. Like home, and family. He can't feel for himself, so the pain can't go anywhere, and if it can't go anywhere, then he has to be incomplete and hurting all the time. But I can feel things for him? So I do." He's still trapped in there, but Sora doesn't want it to be a horrific experience of pain and loneliness. Better to let him borrow his feelings for a while, even if Sora has to get the butt end of the catharsis process.

[worthallthis]

The level of comfort Soldat had with the situation just went a little sideways. The idea of feeling something for someone else is horrifying. Soldat has enough trouble understanding their own feelings. But at the same tim Skyler is part of Sora, to their understanding, and shutting off part of himself isn't right, either. It'd be like trying to silence the Sergeant (the Asset doesn't count, it's awful).

They think on it for a minute more, unable to come to a real decision on that, then sigh a little and fall back on not making other people's decisions for them as long as it doesn't actively harm anyone. "As long as you're all right."

[arsarcanum]

"This isn't the first time this has happened to me. I got this." Sora gives the soldier a small thumbs up. "This is one of the things a replica's probably gonna fix. If I can get out, and if everything works right, he'll be able to feel for himself again." And he knows for a fact that Skyler hates this entire situation, on many levels and simply on principle. Getting himself out is one part keeping his promise to Skyler and one part making everyone's mental health a little more manageable.

"It's one of those things I don't really want to forget, either. Not that I think I can, not anymore, but..." He shrugs. "Carrying around other people has taught me a lot, is all." He won't be able to not be a little bit Skyler anymore, he thinks, but he is still capable of making Sora decisions and feel happy about them in a way he thinks Sora would, and at this point, he's determined to be content about that.

[worthallthis]

This raises one particular concern in Soldat's brain, and though they hesitate a moment, they still voice it. "Kid. If there's not enough left of him to feel. Or to talk to." A pause. "Is there gonna be enough to still be himself if you leave him alone in here?" The lantern malfunctions really don't count, those were some kind of magical alteration. Soldat, after all, will never be that one again. That one is pretty much gone, and no one is going to bring him back.

[arsarcanum]

Sora... is a little unsure, but he hesitantly nods. "I think I have all of the pieces, but that's what the reports are for. Roxas was the same way - he was in the same position Skyler was, only it was before." He shakes his head. "Actually, I guess I'm in Roxas' position? 'Cause I'm the accident and Skyler's the one who's supposed to be here."

"Anyway, Roxas was incomplete too. I... think I had another couple of people in there at the same time, but there wasn't enough pieces for me to even notice they were there. Or, um..." He thinks about it for a moment. "If they were... maybe they'd been with me for such a long time I thought it was just the sound of me talking to myself." He certainly doesn't remember how or when Ventus got in his heart, but he's pretty sure he would have remembered that happening by now. (Probably? Maybe? Listen, he really needs those reports.)