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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[ He nearly arches an eyebrow in question. Red or green? He's picked up a few opals by now, but he remembers the vivid coloring of this one. ]

Red.

[ Memories are personal things, so he volunteers and asks for no more than that. ]

[ Sora breathes a small sigh of relief. ] Okay. Good. Do you need the glove back? [ Sora will remove it from the glove and stow it in his own pocket (extremely careful not to touch it) if necessary! Otherwise, he's also perfectly happy with keeping the glove as well. ]

Thank you. I really... [ He shakes his head. ] Thanks, I owe you. Is there anything you need a hand with? [ Very serious. He Owes Him Now. ]

[ He cants his head to the side. His hands remain at his sides, indicating that Sora is free to keep the glove if he so chooses. It's only the one glove, though, and rather colorfully woven from yarn at that. As for repayment, well—Somnus directs his gaze to Sora's tablet. ]

Just now, I saw my name.

[ Sora is constantly wondering if Somnus is awkward or rude, but if he's not going to say anything as he puts the glove in his pocket, Sora's not gonna take offense! ]

Really? Your name? [ Sora looks down at the tablet, thinking about it for a second, then looks back up at him. ] Somnus, Lucis, Caelum? That's the one, right? [ And even before he answers, Sora's going to start digging through his pockets, revealing little white paper packets similar to the ones he made for Valentine's day. They each have labels! ] That's kind of a mouthful. Does it mean anything? Your name.

[ The correct answer is both. ]

Lucis is light. [ He raises an arm and motions to the aurora.] Caelum means sky. [ His arm drops back to his side as he appraises the packet from where he stands. ] And my name is sleep.

[ Oh good, Riku was the same way. ]

Caelum, huh. [ He finds the paper packet with "SLC - Not good!" and hands it over, looking at him carefully. ] There's a world where I'm from called Scala ad Caelum. Never looked it up. [ And light is what he's been about, and sleep is where he's been for a long, long time. Just odd coincidences. ]

It's where everything in my universe began. I don't really get it, but maybe it's like the Big Bang? [ Sora shakes his head. ] Which is a theory from the second life about how the universe began, but I don't really get that, either. Never mind.

[ Is Somnus going to accept that stone? Or is this an orange situation again? ]

[ He's going to accept it, all right. As he does, he looks down at the label with an expression of indifference that belies the words running through his mind. Sora may never have looked them up, but Somnus knows what they mean. ]

A stairway to where the gods rule above.

[ This talk of universe and a big bang of which he's never heard is far beyond him, but this much strikes him as familiar. The gods reign above; mortals, below. In his Star, the gods gave birth to mortals. He wonders if the story would be similar for either of Sora's lives. ]

What did you see?

Huh. [ He thought Caelum meant "sky"? Or maybe it's one of those words that mean a lot of things, or it means different things when you put them together with other words.

In the first? Not really. The second? Possibly millions, but Sora would only be familiar with Greek myths taught at school, the Abrahamic stuff from his brief brushes with Catholicism, Izanagi and Izanami from his mom, and Bathala from his dad. He doesn't put much stock in any of them. Hard to believe in a single creation story once alternate dimensions became a part of his reality. ]

You were... fighting someone. [ He scratches the back of his head. ] I think it was your brother? You explained it to me before, but to be honest, I still don't get it. [ The action was pretty clear, but the why is very elusive to Sora. He understands betrayal conceptually, but this application is a little beyond him. ] It just... kind of seemed sad. You didn't seem like yourself.

[ The heavenly abode would be synonymous to the skies overhead. That's how Somnus, who hails from a time of deep religious fealty, interprets it. By itself, the sky means nothing.

But fighting? That's different from an argument. There was only one time he ever raised a weapon at his brother outside of a mock battle, and that can only mean that Sora saw the moment where he'd put on airs in the hopes of persuading the crowd to see reality as he saw it.

Those airs came from him. Somnus closes his eyes, then reopens them to look at Sora. When he thinks about it that way, he was being himself. ]

You and I are as good as strangers. Perhaps what you experienced is who I truly am.

[ Sora feels the same about the sky too, but it'd be a little awkward after that to explain that he's associated himself with it in every way he can possibly think of. It'd be nice if Somnus' gods were up there. Perhaps it wouldn't be so empty to think about it.

Sora stares at Somnus, blinking as he says that. It's the strangest thing to say. He shakes his head slowly. ]

I know we don't know each other too well, but I'm not buying it. You weren't smiling like you were happy then, and you don't smile now. [ Sora thinks about it. ] If you ask me, both suck, but if you gotta smile, I think I'd like it better if you smiled because you were trying to be happy.

Happy?

[ He echoes the word with little to no feeling. What nonsense. He hasn't truly laughed or smiled in a very long time, and neither is a priority. ]

I was trying to fulfill my duty. Happiness had nothing to do with my actions.

[ Sora will stare at Somnus for one more beat... then puff out his cheeks. ]

See? Here's where it's useful to say that you aren't the person who you were back at home. [ Sora reaches up and scratches at the back of his head with both hands, ruffling his spikes even spikier. ] I get that you weren't happy, like. You were a leader and stuff, right? There were things you had to decide and they were hard. [ Sora frowns. ] But there's no army here. It's just us. Sure, it's good to have leaders and all, but that can't mean that we have to make sure that people like you don't get to, like, have fun and be a little happy, too.

[ His eyes narrow. Useful? ]

We were brought here to prevent the collapse of this world, not to chase dreams suited for an afterlife of peace. That duty is paramount, and I shan't rest until it is fulfilled.

[ In life, he dedicated himself to protecting the people. When he considers that, he hasn't changed at all since his death, so he says nothing of that. ]

[ Sora will shake his head firmly! If there's one thing he knows, he wasn't brought here for anything. He doesn't really have a destiny. ]

It might be important, sure, but no one is meant to just work and work and work forever. I don't think that's a thing. [ At least he wants to believe that. ] Look, did you not have friends back where you're from? Did you do anything for fun?

[ Looking away, Somnus folds his arms.

He wasn't like his brother, who had no time in the world to spare for anyone but his patients due to his shortsighted planning. There were moments of downtime. Friends were, on the other hand, a different story for them both. ]

I would rest when my attention wasn't needed elsewhere. That was enough.

[ He had two hobbies, and one of them was literally napping. ]

Rest? Just like... sit and stare? Or sleep? [ ... Okay, to be fair, that sounds GREAT to Sora, but it's still not like. Fun. That's not a hobby! Hobbies are things you feel accomplished for doing afterward. ]

Answer the friend question, bro. Did you or did you not have friends? [ No judgment, but Sora is rather determined to have his answer, and Somnus seems like the straightforward type. He'll see if he can get his answer, and if not. Well. It won't change what he's going to do, anyway. ]

[ Binch, there's nothing more fun than napping. Why is Sora so obsessed with knowing about his (nonexistent) social life? ]

I did not.

[ And he's not his brother. ]

[ How could someone's life possibly be so grim that unconsciousness could be the nicest part of one's day? Is something he'd ask, but 1. Somnus kept that to himself, and 2. Sora's experienced several years worth of those kinds of days so he's not in any position to throw stones. ]

Okay, cool, so now you have one friend. [ Sora shrugs. Easy. ] Hope you got some nicer memories back. Anything worldsaving in them?

[ He looks at Sora for a moment, not struck speechless so much as taking time to consider the memories he's gotten back and had to relive. Sora says a great many things easily. Somnus, on the other hand, says them with some difficulty. ]

None. Unlike you, I had no power to save the people.

[ Between himself and his brother, only the latter possessed such talents. Even now, thinking about it still stings. How many days, weeks, months had he prayed and prayed until he couldn't pray anymore? Just to go ignored. ]

[ Things are easy for Sora to say when they're obvious and true. Usually! ]

That's fair. Although, you know, my powers probably should've gone to someone else. Someone like you, maybe. [ It's hard work making sure that these powers don't go to waste. Surely someone who actually knew what they were doing would have an easier time with them. ]

Was that what the memory was about? The one I gave you. [ He nods to wherever Somnus stuck it. ] Saving people.

[ Doubtful. The gods of his world didn't give him a second glance, and he was ultimately unable to protect the people of a single country. Sora was able to receive those powers for a reason. Dwelling on what should or could have been never helps, either.

Such thoughts only serve to engender a dark mood within him. Somnus takes a moment to recall everything he experienced from the single opal. ]

You were under the sea, where you aided a callow princess and her father the king.

[ Sora tilts his head in surprise, but takes the change in the conversation's direction in stride. (Is coincidence the same as a reason? Being in the right place in the right time? Sora doesn't think so, but he's not sure if he believes in fate or destiny as much these days, either.) ]

Oh! Oh, uh. [ There's a second where he holds himself back, thinking. HM. ] She had red hair, right? And a little yellow fish named Flounder? [ Sora pauses. ] Uh, what was her name?

[ It seems that memories of the past can be fractured or downright faulty for someone who's been reincarnated. That's what Somnus assumes in passing when Sora struggles to recall it. The very concept of rebirth is a bit strange to him. ]

Ariel.

[ This is a bit of an awkward four second pause. Sora's face is usually in the midst of some kind of expression - a huge grin, a frown as he tries to figure out what's going on, embarrassment, and so on - but this is four seconds where there's nothing at all. Addressing him in this moment will come to nothing.

He shakes himself out of it after a moment. ]

Ariel. [ He says it to himself, shaking his head softly. ] Well, if that that doesn't beat all. Man, I wish that... [ He shakes his head again. ] That's so funny. Thank you. Did you like it there?

[ Somnus waits patiently, only to cant his head toward Sora. How is that funny?

And wish what?

This time, it's Somnus' turn to take a moment for himself as he considers his vicarious experience in the realm under the sea. Words can't describe the exact feeling when he attempts to reach for it without Sora's influence. He doesn't know if he liked it, per se. As much as it felt natural from Sora's point of view, it was just so far removed from that to which Somnus is accustomed. ]

It was different.

[ He settles for this, saying nothing about the decisions made by important persons from the aquatic kingdom. That's a whole other can of eels. ]

EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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