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!

QUICKNAV
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Her smiling declaration makes Riku smile, his expression softening with something that seems to transcend just "understanding", it's closer to faith. She's overcome so much adversity, Riku might not know everything, but he doesn't feel like he needs to.

Her resilience and strength of heart have seen them through some incredible odds. He remembers the way DiZ... the real Ansem the Wise spoke about her and Roxas and can just imagine the dehumanizing experiences she went through.

That she knew Xion...

No, of course she did. It was the memories she had that they needed, after all, but he'd considered that more business than... than what they had on the beach. Their own lives, maybe. Something personal and precious.

"Decades ago... she was here? Then-- she must have--" either she was taken in a reset, or... even if she escaped somehow, surviving decades out in the wilds of this hazardous world, Riku can't even imagine. She was supposed to be safe, she was supposed to be reunited with her friends, "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"I think... a lot of this wasn't supposed to happen Riku. I don't understand it myself but you saw me and Xion. You experienced more than me but I was there and here. Maybe there are many many versions of us and some have already been here while others aren't yet." Maybe their was a world where she died as a lingering will and another where she faded into Kairi forever.

Thinking about it made her head hurt.

"I don't know... I wish I did. I just want answers." It wasn't that simple but Naminé hoped that it'd some how be more clear over time.

"I wish I knew how we got here. Did we really die or... was that not suppose to happen?"

"Maybe I've just accepted it," Riku admits thoughtfully, "That we're here. The explanation doesn't really make a difference." Whether it's portals or whatever, or whose fault that is. Riku is realizing he's stopped caring about that a while ago. Is that bad? Should he be more angry?

Or has it become a dissonant note rendered meaningless in a ceaseless cacophony of other, louder, more disruptive experiences? It's like recovering from injuries. Sometimes you ache all over so much that you can't really care about a splinter no matter how it throbs.

"I think the idea that Xion was here, possibly away from the friends who were so important to her, so long ago is the part that bothers me the most."

She was supposed to be with her friends, they were supposed to live out their new lives in that town together. Not languishing in the dark, only to be reset.

"I guess... you're right. I just wish I knew what it was." This was all very strange to her and no matter what happened, Naminé would never truly think that they were dead. This was more alive than she'd felt for most of her existence.

"Maybe we can still see her again? Or do you think... she's really gone?"

Naminé hadn't considered it before but now the weight of Xion's fate pressed against her shoulders. Could she had helped her? If she hadn't sync her back with Sora?

It isn't until Eliot's network post mentioning the masked person stealing stuff, and the other tales of other mirror-masked people taking clothes and drink and, in one example, trying to make off with someone's lantern that Riku thinks that there might be survivors of past resets. Who else would it be?

It's not anything Riku ever has time to act upon besides to talk to a few people about it in private.

For the moment, Riku shakes his head. He waited a long time to see Kairi, Dawn, or Sora again, and all he got for the trouble was... a lot of heartache, a living reminder of how badly he had failed to protect the things that matter the most.

"I don't know. The odds of her still being around...you said it was a long time ago? In a place like this, would she be the same?"

"Probably not." Thinking about it that way... it was really sad. She had wanted to protect Xion but she hadn't and she hadn't been able to meet her on the beach that day. She wished that she'd had those moments, even if it had only been for a second or two.

"Riku..." She hesitated, suddenly unsure of what she had wanted to ask him. Would it be too much?

"Could I ask you for something? It's... you can say no." Naminé looked up and met his gaze. "Could you let me see that memory? The one on the beach with me and you and Xion and everyone? I know it doesn't belong to me but I want to remember it." She wanted to treasure the moment that she'd never gotten to experience, even if that meant seeing the familiar beach through another's memory again.

"..."

It isn't the first time that Riku's been asked for something - an answer to a deceptively simple question, for example - and he's been at a loss for words. At first, he was shocked to see the spirits launching themselves to their own destruction, but remembering soldat's observations about them, remembering his own suspicions about the worldview that was so unique from his own, he realized that this was supposed to be a celebration, a happy occasion.

Following one's heart is one thing where a person really shouldn't interfere, he's only done so when it posed a direct threat to the wellbeing of people he considered precious to him. It lifted his spirits, but the request brings him down to earth. Naminé is Naminé, of course he would want to give her anything she asked, but...

"Sorry. It's hard to think about," Riku says, looking away, "What happened right after... a year later, it led me here."

She shook her head. "No. It's alright. I know what I am asking for and it's hard." She smiled with a confidence that she didn't feel. "You don't have too. Please don't worry about it." Naminé wasn't going to ask again. Riku didn't want her in his memories and she could understand that. Memories were precious and she didn't belong on Destiny Island. At least not whatever version of her she was.

"Um... I interrupted you speaking with the spirits. I can go but you should come over to the Landmark to eat. I can make sandwiches. I'm not good at making grilled cheese but I can try again."

She wanted to do something nice for Riku. He always seemed so serious.

The two of them have history, Riku understands that Naminé had struggled with her own worth and the potential for her powers to cause incredible harm makes her weigh her choices with great deliberation on the potential consequences. He has also known her to be decisive and determined when the situation calls for it. Others might see her demure demeanor and mistake her for being too fragile to rely on.

Not Riku. Which is why he doesn't think twice about it when he draws a boundary - the memory is one that causes him pain when he reflects on it, it sits too close to the subject of his prolonged grief. It simply doesn't occur to him that she might take it as a blanket refusal.

But her reaction does stand out, of course he asks, "No contest, you're a lot more important than bleating my way through awkward introductions with these guys," he puts a hand on his hip, "But I'm kinda glad to hear I'm not the only one who can screw up grilled cheese sandwiches."

The joke is dry. "...Are you sure it's alright? It feels like," he pauses as he grasps for how he wants to frame it, "You're withdrawn. Like you used to with DiZ- Ansem the Wise."

"You noticed, huh?" It wasn't possible for her to hide things from Riku. He knew her too well but she had hoped, that maybe he'd let her walk away and be with her thoughts. Even if she feared the isolation she felt when she was alone in the dark that encompassed Beacon.

"I'm not alright but I don't really know what's wrong. I'm finally alive and things are sad but they aren't hopeless but..." She looked up at him and felt her heart knot in her chest. "It's hard to explain, maybe because I haven't really felt like this before. There are so many new things and I want to help but... I don't know what I am doing."

She was trying her best but she couldn't fight like the others and in a sense it felt hopeless or somehow not fair.

"I just. Don't want to be sad or lonely anymore."

I don't want to be sad or lonely anymore.

How many times has Riku thought something similar? Over two hundred nights since he lost everything and everyone who had been the most important to him, how many of those had a thought like that? How much time spent listening to the wind in the trees, to the lake slipping up against the shore, sitting before the graves of his friends on that hill that overlooked the boathouse they used to live in together?

He came here in higher spirits than he's been in a long time, sympathy reminds him of the reality of their shared experience. That he needs to be strong, to persevere, not just to keep a promise made to the dead, but to be present for those friends who remain.

"I'm with you," is all he can say, because he understands what that's like, but can offer no other balm than this. If he knew the answer, if he had a fix, he'd have saved himself months of heartache and despair. "Everyone else, too. We're not alone in this."

Naminé looked up at him and without warning, she stepped forward and pulled Riku into a tight hug. Maybe it was Sora's influence but she wanted to give him a hug, to assure that they were there, for the both of them.

"I know. Thank you Riku. I-" Her voice trailed off as she held on with all her might. It was a light squeeze of her arms and then she was gently pulling away. "I'm always worried that I'm bothering you but I miss you Riku. I want to see you. Even if it's just a little more." She saw him from time to time but Riku had his own habits and Naminé felt awkward intruding on them.

"Will you come see me? You can stay in my room if you get tired." She'd sleep on the couch though she didn't specify what she was talking about.

As is the usual for Riku, he has that lengthy moment where he doesn't know what he should be doing with his hands, so they hover uncertainly over her as she hugs him tightly. It's not that he dislikes her or the attention, he's just also usually slow to warm to physical displays of affection even though he craves them.

There's also the added stress of that question (of course he'd visit) paired with that invitation (s-stay in her room???) that makes him balk, swallowing wordlessly around his mounting embarrassment.

"Hold on," he thinks it's a small miracle he keeps his voice steady, "You can't just invite a guy to sleep over. Think about your safety, Naminé." Guys can be awful! They both know this! There's a whole Organization (and then some) of people who treated Naminé horrifically.

Naminé pulls away to look up and comfortably meet his gaze. Her palms linger on his waist but then slowly drop to her sides as if it's an afterthought to his response. "But you aren't a guy... you're Riku." She pauses, blushes and tries to back track. "I mean you are a guy but we're friends. I don't mind sleeping on the couch and Hana is there too." Living in the other room but it isn't like she's entirely alone.

She paused thoughtfully and was probably now over thinking it. "Have you heard about pillow forts?" Probably but right now there are a lot of pillows in Naminés room.

"Is it really unsafe?" She knew what the organization did but Naminé didn't think that everyone was like that. Besides, half the organization was nice. They had given her the body that she had now.

"You don't know? Even Kairi-" he starts to say, when the twist of grief in his chest cuts him off. Even Kairi had the occasional trouble, he meant to add, but maybe it never looked that way to Kairi, who could handle herself. Just to Riku, who, returning from a long period away from the islands, had realized he fit in even less than before. Kairi had grown and other islanders had noticed.

Maybe... he was just sensitive to the differences, the way time inevitably changes what was once as familiar and comfortable as a favorite pair of gloves. Knowing she's living with another girl - even if it's someone who has absolutely made him fluster, a secret he will take with him to his grave - settles him somewhat.

Only for a chuckle to tumble out of him in surprise as she asks him about pillow forts.

"Sure, I've even built them," Riku finds this easier to talk about than the prospect of explaining why it can be dangerous to invite guys to sleep over, "When I was ten. Come on, are you serious?"

A worried knot gather in the pit of her stomach as Riku's words abruptly cut. She didn't know what was going through his head or why it was bad for her to invite her friends to sleep over. What memories she'd seen of Sora's past had sleep overs. Of course, they'd all been very young back then.

"I've never built one before. I have now, a few times. Sora helped once and Hana. It had made me happy and I thought we could do that too." She was connecting concepts that weren't entirely related to each other because it'd never been properly explained to her. Naminé knew that she was in an older body and technically the same age as Riku had been but this form was still new.

"I thought it'd make you smile if we did that too." This place was sad but she was determined to make the best of it.

Well... look at who it is. Riku knows his best friend had a thing for Kairi, but romance... when it came to the boy who was born and raised on Destiny Islands, it seemed like he was still wrapping his head around the concept of romantic love. There's so much that's different between the Sora he knew and the Sora he's run into here that... What did Riku know?

But yeah, he's pretty sure Sora would've found nothing wrong at all about spending the night in a girl's room unsupervised. Not that Riku was much fares better; he still feels like a creep if he sleeps in the same bed as another guy, even if it was to save his life when he nearly froze in a blizzard.

"Oh," Riku says, when she mentions how they built pillow forts together, "What you're saying is, you wanna do something fun together."

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EVENT LOG: THE NIGHT WE MET

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omg gdsklhgdsl

<3 it's all Sora's fault.

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