logsinthenight | VISIT: THE NIGHT MARKET

Entry tags:

VISIT: THE NIGHT MARKET

characters: everyone.
location: the floating night market, docked at the harbor.
date/time: april 10-12.
content: the night market arrives.
warnings: n/a.

and i came down from the stars.

In the wee hours of April 10, strange blue lights appear just under the waves in the harbor, approaching the dock, until they finally surface entirely. They're submarines, glowing a dim blue now that they're up out of the water, and the fleet is four vessels strong. They've brought with them a floating bridge system to attach to the harbor's main dock to allow access to all four submarines, and they start to unpack...

By "morning", under the light of the full moon, the Night Market is open for business!

This time, it's four vendors that arrive:
Pluto, the Night Market's leader, who rolls out of her submarine in a custom-built wheelchair.

Catherine, a coy-eyed blonde with a bombshell choice of wardrobe, who appears to be somehow teeming with secrets.

Variks, the Loyal, a prison warden who deals in all variety of secrets.

John Silver, an opportunistic cook who spent his life aboard a space pirate ship.

They've brought a handful of helpers with them to set up the market and run the various booths and games. Though they have no torches among them, the docks are lit with the blue glow of the submarines, their lights rippling slowly in intricate patterns and shapes, reminiscent of carnival lights.

•••
Accepted currencies at the Night Market include: Building and scrap materials, old tablets, old lanterns, captured forest spirits, torches, information, and most importantly... Plutonium. Of course, attempting to barter is always an option... but these currencies are your best bet for dealing with the various vendors offered by the Night Market.

All purchases must be logged on the Night Market purchase page while the market is open! Backdated purchases won't be accepted. However, as long as transactions are started ICly while the market is open, you're welcome to belatedly submit those transactions to the purchase page. Please do your best to log the purchases as close to the window as possible, though!

Congratulations to Sydney and King who won our last AC lottery for a chance to play Night Market shopkeepers! Sydney is playing Variks and King's playing Silver! Be sure to hit up these awesome shopkeepers up under the NPC header below! And as a reminder, please direct all plot questions/topics to one of the mod NPCs, as our players and discord mods aren't given any plot info beyond what's already available in the game. This visit, Danielle is playing Catherine, so she can answer plot questions, along with Pluto. P is for plot!

Here are the vendors and their inventories for the current Night Market visit:
PLUTO
Special orders - Pluto can procure items just like Rastus, but she can get you specific goods from homeworlds. The more specific the request, the more it will cost. Items ordered through Pluto will arrive on the next ferry.

Heals - A borrowed gun-looking device allows Pluto to heal even the most grievous of injuries. This item doesn't belong to her, though, so... results may vary

CATHERINE
Confession - In the place of a standard vendor's stall is a small, modest confessional. Catherine keeps the door open on the priest's side, sitting inside it while she waits for her customers. Feel interested in airing out your grievances? Well, it might not be an official sort of purge, but hop into the curtained compartment and she'll give you a non-judgmental ear to listen. Just don't ask for advice; she's not here to give it. But if you want to pray to her, well, she won't object to being treated like a Goddess.

A brief reunion - Just want to see someone's face again? A friend, a family member, someone you miss more than anyone else you've ever known? It seems that this mysterious lady has a knack for sensing who it is you desire to see again the most. Exactly how this works, she's not inclined to share, and unfortunately there's no real way to provide you with who it is she's able to show you... but a few meaningful moments could mean some peace of mind for some people.

Adult toys - A padlocked trunk full of specialty toys and supplies (and apparent torture devices?) to tide over any individual who would consider themselves properly kinky (or perhaps just a tad adventurous in their intimate exploits). Anyone over the age of eighteen is free to browse the wares, but the stall's keeper will keep it locked for anyone who died before reaching a legal age of adulthood. Sorry, kids. Maybe when you've been dead for a few more years.

VARIKS, THE LOYAL
Restraints & prison supplies - Cages, shackles, handcuffs, chains, rope. Want to keep a forest spirit (or fellow resident) contained and restrained? He's got you covered. Maybe it's for their own good, he may be the Kell of the House of Judgement but he won't question your motives too hard. What he has on display is mostly person-sized restraints and smaller cages for trapping forest spirits to use as currency elsewhere in the Night Market. But if you need something specific he may be able to accommodate.

Lantern shells - Tired of carrying the same lantern around day after day? Change how it looks with a lantern shell. The "shell" looks like a shimmery 12-sided die in various colors but touch it to your lantern and it'll be absorbed and change your lantern into a specific color / shape / size, etc. They can be removed at will and return your lantern to it's default look. Get multiple shells and have a different lantern every day of the week! You're only as fashionable as your Ghost. Er. Lantern.

ACCEPTED CURRENCIES - He'll take all the basics, with a preference for lanterns or lantern pieces, and also secrets. Secrets can be about yourself, others, places, the Wild Hunt... The juicier the secret the more valuable it is to him. He probably won't tell Pluto. Probably.

JOHN SILVER
Ready-made meals - This extremely personable vendor will greet you jovially and invite you up in a very thick, very pirate-y accent— though it's probably not him that draws you up so much as the mouth-watering smell of cooking food. He has a number of ready-made meals, but he can also whip up something special if you have a specific request. And when he says specific, he MEANS specific... looking at those of you with Certain Dietary Requirements.

Bonza Beast Stew: What's a Bonza Beast? Who knows! Where did he find one on this planet? You'll never find out, because it's a secret recipe. Have a bowl of this hearty stew, though, and you'll find that you'll be pleasantly warm and happy for a good long while.

Wild Rosemary Quiche: Vegetarian and beautifully fragrant. Consuming this will make you particularly nimble for a while.

Fish & Chips: What is says on the tin and possibly the best you've ever had. Wonder what that fish is...? The only side effect is that you have an almost insatiable desire to go swimming. Might want to be careful with that one...

Steamed Buns: A meaty option and the veggie option. Both buns will increase good fortune for a limited period of time.

Apple Rose Puffs: Sweet and delicate, they will also leave you smelling sweetly of flowers for hours afterward.

Baklava: Nutty and sweet, after eating this you feel compelled to say whatever kind things you've been feeling or have been on your mind.

Moonshine: No side effects, unless you count getting completely blasted very quickly.

You can also purchase ready-made packages of ingredients with a written recipe included to take home and cook for later! Except the Moonshine. That you'll have to buy directly.

Poisons - Ask the right questions, and you can get access to Silver's under-the-counter stash of goods. "Poisons" here is used loosely, as it includes concentrated doses of all sorts of concoctions. This includes: deadly poisons of varying intensities, poisons that induce sleep, poisons that will warm you from the inside or that will give you a bone-deep chill, poisons that are actually venom you can put on a blade, etc. All poisons are good for 2 doses, so use them wisely.

Repairs - Nothing too complicated, mind! Silver is good with mechanical fixes, but not with anything too delicate.

ACCEPTED CURRENCIES - Silver accepts all the regular kinds of currencies, but he does have a preference for gossip (which he loves), information, and building/scrap materials. He will also gleefully take recipes your character might know and ingredients that have been foraged or brought from the ferry as a form of payment. Keep in mind that the more you ask for, the more you will have to pay— and those poisons don't come cheap.

DR. SCHICKSAL'S HINT-O-MATIC
AMA - Does your character have any burning questions they just need to have answered? Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic is a phonebooth-looking device with a screen prompting the user to input a question. When a question is asked, Dr. Schicksal's Hint-O-Matic will spout out an answer! Questions can be typed in via keypad or spoken aloud, and answers will be automatically read aloud for characters that can't read the screen. These answers are always true, no matter what the question, but this information comes at a cost—your character will be blessed with a random status effect for the remainder of the month. We will check permissions posts before issuing a status effect, and please keep in mind that these effects stack! 😃 Each question you ask it (or say at it, rhetorically or otherwise) will "cost" one status effect. And, yes, you can literally ask anything.

Finally, please use the Night Market Purchases page for all transactions! We're changing this up from how we did it last time so that we can better keep track of what's going where. You're still welcome to thread out purchases on this log, though! Just be sure to note it on the purchase page, as well.
•••
Other than the vendors, the Night Market has brought with them the following attractions:
COFFEE CART - The coffee cart offers every variety of hot drink a person could fathom, and it's complimentary! A few small tables have been set up in front of the cart around an outdoor heater, glowing happily as it warms this little section of dock.

CANDY SHOP - Sweet treats offered at the candy shop are also free for the taking, but be careful—some treats carry with them a random status effect that will last for the next hour. The treats and resulting status effects are left entirely up to you players, so feel free to create your own hijinx! This is us trusting you not to break the game, so don't abuse this privilege, and feel free to ask us if you're unsure about limitations! Not all treats will produce an effect, but those that do will have no tells, meaning characters will not be able to strategize when eating the candy. (In meta terms: if you want your character to engage in wacky bullshit, but they're a party pooper and hate fun and wouldn't willingly indulge, this is your opportunity to trick them into shenanigans.)

CARNIVAL GAMES - The small section of carnival games includes ring toss, skeeball, balloon darts, a shooting gallery, a fishing game, a plinko game, and an RC racing game with toy vehicles. The rules are all somewhat nebulous, but feel free to play out your characters interacting with these games on your own! They're all free to play, and prizes include knitted forest spirit plushies, wind-up goldfish that float through the air, and buckets of those plastic spider rings and finger topper guys that cost like one ticket apiece at Swings-N-Things.

WHACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MEN - They are also here, and they have a jukebox with them with an unfathomably large selection of songs. This area of the dock is probably meant for dancing.

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What does he think...? Does he start with the trunk filled with adult toys or with the whacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men? The possibilities are endless.

In response, though, Haein lifts one shoulder in a slight shrug. It's a lot to take in, but so was his arrival, and he's beginning to get used to the fact that things are just weird around here.

"I think I need to start collecting junk if I want to make any use of future markets."

"Yeah, I still never have half the things these people want. But sometimes they'll take things they don't ask for. I've had pretty good luck trading food and information. And you're welcome to take any of the wood I've cut that's stacked north of The Invincible. Sometimes Pluto takes building supplies. Scrapyard's a good place to look too."

He shrugs and offers the controller to Haein. "You know anything about how to work these?"

Haein's taken aback by the offer to take wood, not really sure why it's been offered to him in the first place. As someone who's always been surrounded by people with hidden motives, it's... suspicious. He doesn't say anything in response, though his expression does look somewhat skeptical before he's pulled out of his thoughts by the question.

Stepping closer, he takes the controller from Rosinante and turns it over in his hands to inspect it. Nothing about it seems all that different from the ones he's seen back home. "They're fairly popular where I'm from," he says, then tests the controls for a moment. Once he gets the gist of it, Haein manages to maneuver the little car away from where it had crashed so that it zooms in their direction and stops neatly at their feet.

"Looks like it still runs just fine."

"Never seen one before the market," he says as he peers down at it. "Neat little toy, I guess. It's a car, right?"

Says so on the display, but honestly this is something he's never asked about. "Car" is one of those mysterious words like "computer" that until Beacon, he'd never even heard. The real ones must be bigger. He knows they're supposed to carry people, and travel at great speeds. This toy is the closest he's ever seen to one, though.

The pause that follows is longer than necessary, and while he remembers Rosinante describing his world as being mostly water, Haein had figured there were at least cars on the islands. Maybe they're rare? Maybe Rosinante lived under a rock back when he was alive??

"Uh, yeah. A miniature model, of course." He offers the controller back to Rosinante. "There aren't any cars where you're from?"

"No. People here told me about them, but we don't have them at home. Not much use for something like that, I suppose. Feet and horses do fine."

Carriages exist too in some places, sure, but they're rare and usually only owned by the wealthy. He takes the controller back with a shrug, and tries more carefully to direct the little toy back toward where that race track is, just ahead. It takes a gentle touch and while his hand to eye coordination is fine, sometimes he just... slips a little. Nobody's perfect. He winces slightly as it crashes once more, this time just before it's about to be back on the track. He'll get the hang of it eventually.

Haein supposes that makes sense, and he nods along. Some places on Earth don't have cars, so... sure. He's going to have to get used to hearing about such differences in a place as diverse in worlds as this one.

When Rosinante crashes the little car a second time, Haein raises his eyebrows.

"It's a good thing you don't have cars where you're from." Imagine... the death toll...

"What, just because I've never played with this damn toy?" he grumbles back, turning to look down at Haein with a firm frown. Is the guy genuinely unpleasant or just a little lacking in tact? He doesn't know him well enough yet to really judge and most of their conversations so far have been fine. Maybe it was just a lame attempt at a joke.

"No need for them," he says as he decides to continue on as if Haein hadn't probably tried to insult him. "And I feel like they'd take up too much room. Nothing wrong with walking. Gregor was telling me on Earth some of your continents are so big you can drive for days and not see water but we don't have that problem."

Sounds like an awful problem to have, too. Imagine how boring it must be.

Genuinely unpleasant and completely lacking in tact are good ways to describe Haein. He's used to insulting people, whether he means to or not, so the frown directed at him is nothing new. What is kind of new is that Rosinante moves on without much of a fuss, and Haein blinks a couple of times in surprise as the conversation continues on like nothing had happened. No... fight...? Hm!!

After the initial moment of confusion, he hurries to catch up with what's said.

"Don't you run into the opposite problem of not seeing land for days?" He's actually curious now. "I guess unless your islands are close together."

"No, plenty are weeks or even months apart. But the point was we don't have cars because we don't need them. What are they like? Other than bigger versions of that."

How many people fit in them? How do they move, is it batteries like this thing? They don't have sails, so they have some other sort of fuel. They're not actually controlled remotely as that wouldn't make any sense, so how does someone steer them and make them speed up and stop? It's not that he really needs the details, but now that he's thinking about them he can't help but be a little curious.

Haein never thought he'd have to describe a car to someone, but... well, he knows about them so why not?

"They're everywhere where I'm from. The streets are clogged with them." It's strange that talking about Seoul is already feeling nostalgic. He hasn't been dead for that long... "There's a driver, sometimes passengers. People get pissed off at each other's driving skills and honk their horns at one another constantly."

Ah, yes, the important part about cars.

Rosinante's face scrunches at the unpleasantness of the description. So not only do they take up a lot of space, they're noisy, too? How can they actually be faster than horseback or foot if there are so many they all get stuck in one place?

"Don't expect I'll ever see your world, but I'd stick to walking if I did. Sounds awful."

There's essentially no way to visit, he knows that. Even if the portal could send people backwards, they're all dead. This is a world of the dead, where the lanterns allow them some semblance of life, but he doesn't expect it would work out if he went back home - rather, he'd probably simply vanish and leave behind his body. While he's satisfied with the life he lived, he's growing attached now to the second chance he's been given.

The response makes a lot of sense, and Haein gets it. He relies on public transportation most of the time partly to avoid the headache that comes with driving. Would he have liked the kind of privacy and convenience that a car would've afforded him? Yes, but he's dead now so cars are off the table.

"It's not the greatest. Accidents happen all the time, too." He's reminded of his relief at there not being any cars in Rosinante's world, but he's at least somewhat mindful not to mention it again.

"I can see that, if they're all crowded together. Bet they're useful over open country, but I don't know why you'd want one in a city."

Status symbols, maybe. He's canny enough to work that out as a likely reason. Such a vehicle can't be cheap, for they must be hard to build. And like ships, people probably customize them to show them off as a point of personal pride. With one at the helm and several other passengers, there are probably people who pool funds together to buy them and have them designed to their liking, so of course they want to drive them everywhere.

"Nice thing about the sea, there's a lot of open space. Doesn't mean you don't run into other people, of course, or I'd be out of a job, but if you stay out of major trade routes you can have a nice sail without anyone in the way."

There's not a lot that interests Haein. He's quick to make judgement calls and settle on his opinions stubbornly, and most of those opinions are firmly negative.

Sailing the seas, though? That's more than interesting. That's like... a far off dream he's long since forgone. Haein's never really had any kind of time for himself, the talisman he'd been cursed with sealing him in the service of others at a constant rate. It was always their wishes, never his own. All he'd ever wanted was to get away, and what better way than to drift off into the water where people would have a difficult time finding him?

"That does sound nice," he admits, sounding hesitant. "I don't know anything like it."

There have always been others in his way.

"Wish I could show you here, but the lake spirits are pretty vicious. Still, these folks with the market have ships that the spirits can't chew through, so there's a way somehow. That, and the ferry."

Something to think on more, but he's going to crack this one way or another. It's not practical here really, though there might be ruins still to find around the lakeshore and he does still want to know how big it is. It's mostly just for the sake of curiosity and his own need to be out on the water after so long spent landlocked.

Enough about himself, though, and Haein's just given him an opening. "You said you were a student, right? What were you studying?"

Oh damn, can't even trust the water in this place! It's a good thing he's trained for this by being high-key suspicious of literally everything around him.

... And this is what he'd been hesitant about... He's normally not one to speak about himself, but the question is easy enough to answer.

"Medicine." A weird choice for someone who doesn't like people, but Haein had had his reasons, a lot of them relating to his mother and how he had hoped to look out for her once she reached an older age. But look who had departed first... "Feels like it had been a waste of my time now."

Medicine! Rosinante's eyes light up, and he shakes his head adamantly.

"No, no that's - we need that around here. Actually, that's probably one of the skills we need the most. We've lost a few of our doctors and healers along the way. What sort of medicine?"

Part of his enthusiasm comes from the necessity of it, yes, sure. Absolutely. With Aziraphale and Crowley and Dr. Scully all gone, and Wade and more gone before them, they're probably at the fewest medical people they've had in his time in Beacon and that could be devastating. History has proven that the spirits, the green-eyes in particular, will attack again - even if they say they mean no harm. He's certain that can't be trusted.

But beyond that, there's genuine warmth and appreciation in his voice and on his face. Law, after all, was training to be a surgeon, and was already remarkably accomplished in his studies as a young teen. And he has a lot of respect for the profession in general, having had to see his share of doctors throughout his time in the military - though as he came to find in that last year of life, not all doctors are equally deserving of his respect.

Haein hadn't expected the enthusiasm, but considering the circumstances, it makes a lot of sense. With all the danger lurking about, there were sure to be an abundance of injuries along the way. Normally he wouldn't worry about something like that, his body used to healing itself at rapid speeds, but he's found over the past week and then some that he doesn't recover from small cuts and bruises like he'd used to.

Maybe the effects of dying? He isn't sure. Just another item to add to the long list of mysteries.

"I... I was studying to be a physician." It's kind of worrying to hear about the loss of doctors and healers. Haein isn't the sort of person to volunteer for positions like that, and hopefully there aren't any expectations that he'll step up to the plate and fill in for the vacant positions. He'd only been a student, after all, along with the fact that his current priority is looking out for himself.

And while he does have healing powers, it's not something he'll offer up easily. If he even still has them, that is.

"Those doctors and healers you lost... Did they die?"

Rosinante's enthusiasm sobers, and he gives a solemn nod. "Dead, or missing and presumed dead now after having not found them or their lanterns after months of searching. There are lots of dangers here, and Doctor Solis only manages to bring back about one in three."

Lanterns too damaged, presumably, or something else about their life force can't be retrieved. The strange occasional discolorations to their lantern light suggests there are many forces at work that neither he nor the others truly understand, but having last heard from Dr. Solis that she's working on improving her methods, he can only hope the deaths will become less permanent. They need every person here to help if they are to succeed.

It's too bad Haein has yet to learn about the power of teamwork. The last time he agreed to help someone, it cost him his life, so his track record of one is real bad.

But hearing about the loss of doctors and healers... It's a not-so-nice reminder of what this place is. Haein had gotten semi-complacent just hanging out at the hotel he'd picked as a place to settle down, and so far he hasn't come across anything especially dangerous. He's been waiting for the tide to turn any day now.

"I hope I end up on the better part of that ratio." For now, he's happy to leave the conversation of medicines and doctors behind. "I'll quit bugging you and head out, then."

"It's no trouble," he says with a shrug, but gives a nod of understanding anyway. Haein was probably on his way to something more important when Rosinante accidentally involved him in his car woes, and Rosinante is content to leave that as it is and go grab something to drink as he keeps an eye on the people here and an ear on their conversations.

"And - yeah. Just be careful around here. Don't go out alone." It's not even reliably helpful advice in his experience - so many of the spirits are strong, fast, and completely alien in their behavior. But he feels like he should say it anyway. Just in case.

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VISIT: THE NIGHT MARKET

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