EVENT LOG: WE ALL STILL DIE (PART ONE)

[nextnightmods]

EVENT LOG:
WE ALL STILL DIE PART ONE

characters: everyone.
location: around town.
date/time: june 14-15.
content: make masks, play music, and enjoy the festive atmosphere!
warnings: n/a. please cw tags appropriately.

success is a song of the heart

Hear that? When you awake, or first go outside, there's a constant, cheerful chatter outside from the spirits. Their excitement is infectious as they babble to each other - and to you - while dragging around logs, clearing empty spaces on the ground, ripping the sheets off of beds, and then converting the open spaces around town into what looks like a very wild crafts fair.

Piled high on these surfaces are strips of bark, colorful stones, grasses and branches and some of May's strange flowers. Among them also are things that might once have been owned - scraps of clothing, broken ceramics, discarded jewelry, and more from the things swept out of buildings during the flood. There's paint, too, though the spirits look like they're mostly smearing their hands (and tails, and noses) all over rather than using brushes as they create examples for you all and line them up alongside pan pipes, simple flutes, blocks of wood to beat with sticks, and empty cans full of pebbles. Instruments, to go with the masks!

What are they doing? One or two who get the gist of the questions point at the fire, and then at the sky, and mime huge circles with their hands. Big! Bright! And then point at the lanterns and swipe fingers in the air as if sealing the cracks in them. This is a party to bring back the sun - or in its absence, a party to celebrate the arrival of summer! And some have even heard that a group went out to the Doctor's house deep in the forest and that you may finally be able to fix lanterns, and if the sun doesn't deserve a party, that sure does!

There will be a big spectacle in a couple days and everyone will get to celebrate together, so get your masks ready and practice your best songs and dance moves! Have an impromptu jam session, have a picnic with what remains of the meager food supplies, and put your best creative self forward.

You may not even notice the smallest, slowest changes yet although they begin to take place. The more you wear that mask, the more you want to wear it. The dancing and music are addictive, aren't they? It's not so bad here in Beacon, in the dark. It's kind of starting to feel like home.

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Comments

[catholicisms]

( he had a discussion, once, about how art required honesty more than all else. for starters, Matt is not a particularly honest man. and secondly, he doesn't care what Vanessa says, working eyeballs do make it a lot easier.

Matt still patiently lets Elektra lead his touch over the details. he'd known it was a mask, and he could feel and sense the protrusions off the top. still, the details are too fine and narrow for him to get a proper sense of the design. the colors were ridiculously beyond him. Elektra's description helps. ) Makes more sense than the horns, ( he decides. yeah, the horns are sort of his territory... thank god he doesn't have that dumb outfit here.

meanwhile, her leading has finally been noticed, and his agreeable gait in the same direction stalls a little. to be honest, he doesn't really feel like dancing. Elektra is probably right that he's been killjoy incarnate lately, it's just hard to let his guard down around here. ) You go on without me, ( he suggests, offering a weary fragment of a smile.

he can be way more of a killjoy if he wallflowers on the sidelines, Elektra. c'mon, this is textbook stuff. )

[ultraviolents]

[ he'd described how he perceives the world to her once, some time after they'd broken into fogwells, in the early morning hours while they were still lounging in bed. she'd known something about how his senses worked before, but to hear him describe it was what had put things into perspective. she's tried to be mindful of how she describes things when he asks her to, especially since having viewed how he had lost his sight firsthand.

he stills and she comes to a reluctant stop in front of him, her face falling slightly before she shifts it into a more exaggerated pout. her free arm winds around his waist and the hand still covering his moves to entwine their fingers. ]

We never dance. I want to do it with you.

[catholicisms]

( he does pretty well with his world on fire. all the same, he misses out on plenty of details that he's honestly too proud to ask after. Elektra has taken to describing things more of late, and while Matt can distantly connect as to why — a shared experience that he can't help but wish she never had to experience — he can't exactly complain about the fact she's taken to trying to paint pictures for him, to fill in the blanks.

actually, it's safe to say he appreciates it, even though he hadn't ever articulated to anyone he could benefit from it. he's too proud to ask, but not too proud to enjoy.

he hesitates, slightly, at her pout and her arm winding him closer. never dance... Matt would like to protest, that they dance plenty, but... truthfully, they don't get a lot of easy, uncomplicated downtime around here. which is sort of required for dancing. and any time they do have, he tends to find so suspicious that he can barely enjoy it.

this is one of those times. this celebration has him on edge, though he can't exactly say why. Matt worries that Elektra is not taking it seriously enough, though, is it really so wrong to not want to be miserable and paranoid every waking moment? Elektra will see him relent, his posture relaxing, just a little, before he admits it with words. )

All right. ( as much as he'd like to remain in his stoic suspicion, a dance... he can manage a dance. he'll have time to be suspicious later. ) A dance can't hurt, right?

( he's uh, gonna learn the inaccuracy of that statement soon enough!!! )

[ultraviolents]

[ she usually finds it suspicious, too. later on, when they wake up in the labs and she continually flashes back to the spirits tearing him apart for the next week, that'll stand out as the first sign that there's something off about the whole thing and she'll feel stupid for not seeing it sooner. right now she's just happy that he's agreed to the dance, and she beams at him before she leads him onto the dance floor.

once they're on it, she starts moving in time with the music. it's a little more rustic than she's used to, but she can make do with it and does so pretty well, keeping hold of his hand as she remains close to him, swaying back and forth and turning them occasionally. ]

See? It's not so bad, is it?

[catholicisms]

( she's a good lead. Matt isn't a terrible dancer, though honestly, his experiences are more on the formal side. and usually with enforced distance — catholic schools expected one to leave room for the holy spirit. it's not quite like the feverish dancing to blaring club music, the kind of dancing they'd frequented when they were younger. in humid clubs with blaring music, where everything was overwhelming until she whispered a heady invitation to just focus on her. he hadn't realized he liked club dancing until he experienced it with Elektra dominating all of his senses.

this isn't quite that, but she's smiling, her light steps starting a pattern that he can follow. he can put his free arm around her, the other hand still knotted in hers. )

Not sure about the music, ( he confesses, releasing her and lifting the knot of their hands to invite her into a turn. she doesn't have to worry about him being distant for long, Matt doesn't need sight to find his way back to her. never has. he smiles, maybe despite himself. look, stick in the mud as he is, he likes to see her happy. a simple dance seems like a small sacrifice to make her smile. ) My partner makes up for it.

[ultraviolents]

[ this is a far cry from his college days, when she'd lured him away from his dorm rooms and libraries to get him to unwind and forget about his studies for the evening (and the next evening, and the next one sometimes). but it's the closest they've come to it in years, and between those memories and the fact that he's agreed to dance has her feeling too good to not enjoy herself in spite of the odd music and all the frightening circumstances that make up their strange little afterlife.

they're not dancing like they had back then (beacon gets enough of their PDA as it is and the music's a little off beat for that kind of movement), but there's still enough of a consistent beat for her to lead and he follows along admirably. she beams at him as he lifts their hands and she spins underneath them and close enough to him to wind her opposite arm back around his waist. ]

Good thing mine's adaptable. [ her smile grows wider as one appears on his face and she brings their hands to her mouth, kissing his knuckles. ]

[catholicisms]

( yeah, the kind of dancing they'd done in their twenties is probably not proper for public consumption. though granted, Beacon is probably lit worse than a club. this is fine, the children won't be scared by a little slow-dancing in the dark. it's ... nice. she was right, that letting go just a little bit was worth it, even for a moment.

they spend plenty of their time afraid and miserable, it's worth it to grab what little moments they can. he's in the afterlife with the love of his life, and if they don't take some of that time to enjoy being together, what's the point of (not) living? )

Is that what you like about me? My adaptivity? ( he's teasing her, with that dumb smile on his face. she only makes it worse with the fleeting kiss on his knuckles. )

[ultraviolents]

[ now they're on the same page. so much of their time here has been tainted with danger, poisoned minds, injury and illness. not to mention the initial unease and mistrust when they'd first arrived and the fact that he hadn't been able to remember any of their most recent history. but none of that matters now.

she's smiling too, pulling the arm to drape over her shoulders and winding that much closer to him as they sway in the dark. ] Among other things. [ her lips turn their attention to his face now, kissing along his cheek and jaw before they find his mouth. ]

can you get more disgustingly married than this (wrap mb?)

[catholicisms]

( they're not doing as well as they were before about that room for the holy ghost thing. Matt doesn't seem to mind. he's a good catholic boy that makes quite a few exceptions for Elektra Natchios. she winds an arm around his shoulder and his tightens at he waist, their steps closer and yet somehow in sync, even if this is far from the sort of dancing either of them are used to.

they're partners, aren't they? sparring partners, dance partners, life partners. they're all different and yet somehow so many of the steps feel the same. and they've always felt easy with Elektra, as if they'd been meant to walk these lines together. )

Maybe I'll make you list them later. ( is he teasing? is he serious? the world will never know. she might not be immune to him fishing for compliments later, but for now he's content to kiss her back and fall into step beside her to the slow beat of the music. )