logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: JULY

Entry tags:

INTRO LOG: JULY

characters: everyone.
location: all over beacon!
date/time: july 1-3.
content: we have some new arrivals, some items finally arrived, and a new bulletin!
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

The first thing you're aware of as you come to is the glow of a lantern, just within reach. As you start to become more aware of where you are (it could be the forest, it could be a room in a long forgotten school, it could be on the upper level of a severely flood damaged house), you start to recall the events leading up to your arrival. You died, somehow, but how does that equate to you being wherever you are?

A few answers can be found if you pick up and look through the tablet that's settled right beside the lantern. Some of the information is a little out of date at this point, but the most important details are still there: yes, you're really dead, keep your lantern close, and watch out for the spirits. You might notice mention of a ferry, but that's odd, especially if you're nowhere near the lake...

Leaving where you are and using the provided map on the tablet will help you find your way to town, and along the way you might find some out of place items, like crates of food or toiletries or clothing. Feel free to grab what you find as you make your way there, your new neighbors are sure to appreciate it.

•••
Requests have been made and thusly have arrived, but... since there's no ferry, where on earth are they? Good news... Another bulletin has been posted!

Luckily for all the newcomers, the tablet and the town have some resources available for getting acquainted with their new situation! In fact, as soon as they're prompted to enter a network username, an app containing all sorts of useful welcome information will launch. Well... it's not quite what it used to be, but there's still helpful stuff on there! Newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records that were thankfully saved from the storm. There's no obvious guidance for newcomers other than that... but some have been existing in the dark a year now. Surely they have a wealth of information to share, if someone wanted to ask.

happy anniversary.

While it might be hard to accept in a world of eternal darkness, it has been a year since the last reset. It's been a long year, and it seems as if the spirits have noted the fact it is an anniversary of sorts, and have seized the opportunity to present any Beaconite, both new and old, with a little something to celebrate.

Present what? Well, that depends. Either an item of player's choosing (anything not tied to a canonical world, though if you're not sure, feel free to confirm with us), or comment here to receive a mod-generated gift, complete with a spirit bringing fair tidings. There is no risk of danger or death in these prompts. Just an opportunity to celebrate and for characters to get something nice!

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to The Next Night! This is an exciting arrival, as it marks a year in the world of Beacon and the very first arrival for our GPSL!

A lot has been happening in the last two months. Many of the NPCs that helped and protected the town seem to be unfortunately absent. A group of explorers managed to find Dr. Solis' lab, and everyone in Beacon helped contribute to restoring lantern repairs and teleportation functionality. There's absolutely need for more help, though -- please do have your character sign up to help out as well!

Last but not least, upon discovery of the radio tower, it seems as if something went south in the Helix Station below the lake. Characters are working to organize a way down there to potentially tangle with a adolescent version of what killed this world, and soon. This might be the calm before the storm... so enjoy it. Please check in here if your character would want to be involved (and just to check out the plan for the month)!

DELIVERIES

As mentioned by the Librarian, the newly ported in items have arrived. It's just that they're... kind of everywhere. Characters will have to recover the items from wherever they've landed, and safe to say they're all over the place. However, for specialized items that characters requested, they can find a spirit guide by the General Store to lead them exactly where their item landed. Whether it's quite what they expected is another story, though nothing will befall them collecting their wares!

The monthly store restock, which is more bountiful and generous than usual! The lab crew must have worked really hard to get this just right. Meat and vegetables arrive fresh, already washed, and in great shape, the bread is still warm to the touch, and huge sacks of beans and grain don't even have a single stray stone in the mix. Add to all that a lot of neatly-coiled rope, fresh clean blankets and sheets, and a variety of other helpful goods - and even a huge box of frozen chicken nuggets and fries for the lunch lady.

Strewn across town with the requested items and the usual restock are what appear to be... limbs? Heads? Bodies? But on approach, it turns out to be the parts of ruined scarecrows, stuffed with straw and corn husks. They look to all be very well-dressed, though, and have some pretty nice buttons sewn on for eyes that might be salvageable. Of course, they do seem to be watching you as you walk around, but surely that's all in your mind. They can't really move, right?

For Rosinante: Six cartons of cigarettes plus a bonus sampler pack with a few different fun flavors!

For Minimus: A brand new package of eight rust-resistant galvanized steel signs in a variety of shapes, all the nuts and bolts required to assemble them with included signposts, and several tubes of paints, brushes, and even some premade stencils for common safety symbols.

For Pudding: Three dozen candy jackets and one large island-themed wedding cake.

For Fitz: Five cartons of very fine tobacco cigarettes, two sets of bright red guitar strings, a child-size string clipper (functional, but quite small), and a guitar slide inscribed with the phrase n̵̹͆'̸̰́g̶̼̔h̶̡̒a̷̝͒ ̷̬̂à̵̗ḧ̶̙́ ̴͉̀s̸̻̈y̷͖̓h̷̜͠à̶̳'̶̯̚h̷̘̏ ̵̤̍v̷̹̀u̴̟̚l̶͚̒ǵ̴͇t̸̘́m̷̗̓ō̵̧g̴̩̈

For Cao Pi: A well-packed wine box with twenty bottles of quality red and white wines, plus an additional bonus bottle of champagne.

If you submitted an item request last month and we've missed it here, let us know!

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It looks small and undramatic, but Reiju knows that quite a bit of science looks undramatic, even boring, when it's going on. It doesn't mean the scan was a meaningless thing, but just what it meant... well, that remains to be seen. She's not certain she trusts anything yet, but she's also not displeased at the idea of having a backup in case anything happens to her here. That such a thing is possible is... intriguing.

And the compliment to her hair makes her smile. "Thank you. I'm rather fond of it."

Yeah, Fitz know Chinese and a few other more pictoral texts but this...is different. Maybe concerning.

"Good idea," he says, and pockets the slide again. "In the meantime I'm not sure I should use it. Shame, since it'd probably help make a good noise."

[ from here ]

[ Pudding lights up. ]

[ No one in Beacon has ever seen her look as happy as Law's seeing right now. Tears streaked across her face or no, she's incandescent. ]

He's okay!!

[ It's quiet but she squeals. ]

I'm so glad, I'm so glad, I heard when the Sunny got beyond the border, but Mama was following and I had no way of knowing if they'd make it once they were out -

[ She's rambling. She's effulgent. ]

[ continuation from hereish ]

[ Pudding is absolutely, one hundred percent all-in on this meal. She cooks in Beacon every day, sure, has since not long after the flood subsided: always breakfast, sometimes helping Soldat with lunch, makes at least her own dinner. ]

[ But when was the last time she cooked for someone? ]

[ ... That particular cake very entirely notwithstanding. ]

[ And if this is her apology, an olive branch, by god she is going to fucking do this right. ]

[ She leaves a little sign on the bar for anyone following their nose - I've made a private dinner for myself and a friend, but any leftovers are free game! Ask after 9:00 tonight! xoxo Pudding - but she's not serving at the bar. There are a couple little private dining spaces, partitioned more than walled off, and it's in one of these that, just ten or so minutes before the appointed time, she's setting out lidded platters - plural, very plural - made especially for Reiju's palate as much as Pudding knows it. Apples and fish? Done. A fruity cold salmon salad with apples and pears, an apple cider stew with cider Pudding made herself the night before (yes, immediately after their conversation), tuna steaks with a citrus and apple roasted topping on the side, and a baked apple streusel in a warming dish. Even the greens have roasted-dry apple skin shavings mixed in. She's going to take advantage of that fixed portal, thanks. ]

Edited 2020-07-23 13:47 (UTC)

It will work for others, though as it might need some time to get to know them, it will be a little more scant with portions until it gains affection for them. It will always like Pudding best. Unless she's in the stage of regaining its affections, in that case it might provide boatloads for a total stranger to be very passive aggressive.

The use of bolding in these comments has been hilarious to write.

[ For social occasions, one does not arrive early; lateness is expected, with the degree varying in a complicated equation of factors including social rank, event, nation of origin, and more. ]

[ On the battlefield, one arrives early when expected late, on time only for allies, and never when expected early. ]

[ Is this a battlefield? She would like to think it is not. She accepted the invitation, bold in the presumption that Pudding could not poison her and would not attempt to harm her another way. But as the time has drawn closer, she has felt some uncertainty. She does not know -- does not remember -- how Pudding got the drop on her before, when they were both still alive and the wedding was going forward. Only knows that it happened at all thanks to Sanji, and he did not witness the beginning of the confrontation. ]

[ This could be a dreadful mistake. ]

[ But despite her disquiet, she does not think it will be. And what does she have left to lose? Her life? That is lost already. She is dead. If she dies again, what of it? And what would Pudding gain? ]

[ No. This is an olive branch. Not a battlefield but a parley, perhaps a peace conference. ]

[ Reiju does not arrive early. She does not arrive fashionably late. Two minutes past the appointed hour is plenty -- if Pudding has enough knowledge of the intricacies of royal politics to read it, the choice speaks volumes. ]

[ If not, then it is merely a time, approximately correct. Close enough. ]

[ The smell is enticing as she enters, a bright warm sweetness of scent that sets her mouth watering. It calls forth a smile for her hostess, small but genuine. ]

Pudding, it smells wonderful. [ Apples, her favorite -- apples everywhere. ]

[ She has not missed the sign at the bar, on her way back to the private dining room. "For myself and a friend." ]

"Sometime I wonder what I would look like if I was human because so many of you are human and it makes me wonder! I hope I would have hair like yours! But the very good thing about being a robot is if I do not like something it is easy to change it, or I can add things! Or other people can add things, like this flower!"

She points to a bent wire flower that has been attached to her shoulder, possibly made out of someone's unused clothes hanger.

"This was a gift from Masaomi! He is not here now but I will always remember him."

Guess his own post-mortal revival didn't work out so well.

"Just because you don't recognize the writing?"

Yeah, it's strange, he'll definitely give it that. But he's never been a big fan of giving in to the fear of the unknown. For all either of them know, it might mean something nice. "Play on," in some alien script.

"I guess you'd have a better idea than me, though, considering all the travel you've done. Can words make something like that do something dangerous?"

"Yes. I'm... rather curious about those, actually." Now this is easier footing. The prospect of an enemy -- something she can fight against, unlike the implacable hatred of the ocean -- does much to settle her nerves. "The sort of creature that can do what they're supposed to..." Unspoken, her confidence glimmers beneath those words. She is not afraid of monsters, even world-eating ones.

Of course they made it out.

[ law says that like it's the same as saying the sun rises in the morning, or the tide turns, or devil fruit users sink in water.

there are few things, and even fewer people, who have his full faith. the straw hats just happen to belong in that exclusive club.

he sighs. he's not heartless, so: ]

Blackleg-ya is healthy and alive. The entire crew is, too. They're going to take down Kaido and open Wano's borders.

[ just a few days ago, that they had been we, and he crushes the guilt and anger that he wasn't able to keep his promise. ]

"Just about everyone... you can add me to that."

Since, you know, he lives with Rosinante and Mary, now. He figures it's fine if Soldat knows that — he'd see him there anyway.

"I'll see you around."

High praise, [ he says dryly... "not an idiot". gee, thanks.

but then, he matches the smirk. ]

I could say the same to you.

[ a pause. ] About the fashion, too. [ is it a dig at cao pi's clothing style..... maybe. or maybe just him acknowledging that what they are used to wearing are two wildly different styles.

anyhow, ]

Guess I'll see you around... Lord of Wei.

[they're either going to hate each other or be best friends and Zihuan for one can't wait to see how this all falls out later. Be still his icy heart, someone who can match wits with him.]

Indeed, doctor.

[hopefully there's some nice tight jeans in the supply shipment somewhere, you need those]

"It could yeah," Fitz says with what he hopes is a wise nod. "There's places where saying 'I wish...' can have wide-spread consequences. Magic's out there, and I don't want to run the risk of opening a gateway to an eldritch dimension just cuz I want to try riffing on 'Whole Lotta Love'."

Well that sure went largely over his head. He studies Fitz for a moment, trying to determine how much of that was serious and how much was supposed to be a very dry joke, but he's missing too much of the context to really know.

"An... eldritch dimension?" he ventures, having never heard that particular word. Hell, it's only recently he learned that a dimension could mean more than just the size of a thing in a certain direction.

[ Oh, Pudding knows that tone. Katakuri-nii all but breathes that tone. Hearing it from this known-unknown, this stranger, really, about the Straw Hats... that tells her everything she needs to know, doesn't it? Hee! Her chest feels so full it's a wonder she has room left to breathe. ]

Thank you! Thank you! I - [ She laughs, softly, a little hysterically, a little tone of embarrassment. ] I'm standing here making a fool of myself, come come, sit down, I'll make you a plate.

[ She crouches down again, but mainly so she can pull out a clean cloth from under the bar and clean her face a little before popping right back up and turning to the hotplate area. ]

How do you like your coffee? Anything you don't eat? Aaah I'm bursting with a thousand questions to ask you, I don't know anything that happened after the Sunny left Mama's territory...

[ Mama isn't a particularly... standard kind of um. "Royalty." If Pudding had learned all her politicking from her - well, she'd be in trouble in more than one way. But for every one of Mama's shortcomings there's at least one of Pudding's siblings to fill in, to maintain the fondant-smooth facade. So while she sets the dishes out just a little early - the chef, particularly, the hostess even more so, must be prepared and presentational for any situation - they're all neatly covered, arranged in the best placement for the ambient temperatures of each dish to keep the others just so. When Reiju enters, Pudding's resting in a lean against the side partition of the little booth, checking a few things on her tablet. Before Reiju's shut the door behind her, Pudding's tucked the tablet neatly into her apron pocket, standing straight and facing her guest with her hands clasped neatly in front of her, bright and winning (and real) smile on her face. It wouldn't do to fail in her own appearances when Reiju's are just so. ]

Thank you! I hope you like everything. [ She gestures Reiju in, letting her guest sit first before taking her own seat and setting out the first course. ] I might've gone a little crazy... it's been slim here for a while. It's so nice to be able to do this. [ Her smile widens, eyes tucking shut with the strength of it. ] I'm glad to be able to do it for [ this? tonight? no. no, say what you mean even if it sounds stupid and overblown. ] you.

[ That smile is oh-so-sweet, and Reiju is torn between dearly wanting to believe it -- wanting to believe that someone can smile at her like that, like no one has done for so very long -- and being thoroughly on her guard. This is Pudding, after all, and she hasn't forgotten the bullet wound in her leg, right through her supposedly impervious skin. ]

[ But. A parley. A peace conference. Wanting something different. ]

[ To do it for you. Her eyes widen slightly -- noticeably -- at hearing that. It's so far from anything she expected out of Pudding, and she's off-balance and out of her depth here already. Pudding's comment about starting new, about having friends here -- but the battle they only just finished, the plot that this slim teenager was the linchpin for -- there's so much to think about. So much to weigh. ]

[ And yet. And yet. ]

[ She remains calm. ]

A feast after a famine, hm? It certainly seems fitting to celebrate. And I couldn't ask for a warmer welcome.

[ Unlike last time. ]

[ for a moment there, law —

stares

stares

stares —

before he represses the urge to groan. this... this is just like dealing with them, isn't it? overly emotional, mood swings, suddenly disappearing hostility.

when law steps forward to actually sit down, he's some kind of a weird mix of incredibly tired, relieved, and just resigned to his fate. ]

... black, [ he says, because he needs to answer in order to get the coffee. and then, with the strangest sense of deja-vu, ] Don't give me bread and it's fine.

[ he sighs. ] Pudding-ya. Before you ask any of them [ and here he fucking is, not even telling her she can't ask him anything, because chances are he'll end up answering all her questions anyway, when did this happen to him ] let me ask you one thing first.

Would you consider yourself an ally of the Straw Hat crew?

[ Pudding doesn't actually pause, doesn't miss a single beat at the words don't give me bread. But all the wheels in her head clack for a second before whirring up to double-speed. ]

[ ...No. It - has to be a coincidence. Rosinante is a Marine. ]

[ But then - there are so few of them from home, and suddenly here's another, after Rosinante joined the calibration of the machinery... and she sure as hell has no idea how portals work, exactly; she's neither scientist nor mathematician. But as a strategist, coincidence plus unknowns equals not coincidence until proven otherwise. ]

[ ...This is so weird. ]

[ But she's moving right along even as all of this flies through her head, pouring coffee - her coffee, so it's good coffee - and sliding the mug onto the bar in front of Law as he continues. ]

[ This time, she pauses, stills entirely for a moment with a look of utter confusion on her face. ]

What else would I be?

I'm glad. Waking up here is... well. If this is where we have to be, then I want to do what I can to make it less of a burden on everyone. [ That, she means. She's not the picture of pure altruism that Sanji is - she couldn't be, she's sure, if she tried. But. ]

At home, there's always enough for everyone. I want to make at least that the same, if I can. Nobody should be hungry.

[ Totto Land, for all of its veneers and facades and poisonous underpinnings, is a land of absolute plenty. Beacon is not. And that's unacceptable. The residents here are not alive, per se, sure, but it feels like they are. Hunger feels like hunger. So Pudding's meeting that the same way. ]

[ She pauses, biting her lip. She caught that look in Reiju's eyes. She knows, she knows she has so much to answer for. If it had been one of Sanji's brothers who'd shown up... ha. No. But the way he'd looked at Reiju, every snatch of time Pudding was in the same space with the siblings over those short few days... The way Sanji looked at, spoke to, his sister was entirely different. (The same held when she wasn't around; so she'd heard from Mama, reports, the Homies.) And Pudding... hell, Pudding had kind of liked her too from the little she knew. Academically. At home, she'd only ever liked anyone academically. ]

I don't know... how much you know. Everything was so wild. [ Her next laugh is short, one note of disbelief that would be tinged bitter if things had gone differently that night. If Sanji-san wasn't Sanji-san. ] The Straw Hats are everything you read about in the papers and don't believe and then some. [ She... sets her fork down. ] I know you said you're not bearing grudges. And I genuinely appreciate that. But. I'm a Power User.... I might... have more to apologize for than you know about.

[ Reiju deeply wants to believe that Pudding is being genuine. She's saying all the right things -- so strongly reminiscent of Sanji, there. Nobody should be hungry. What an ethic. She sounds so admirable. ]

[ And... well, it could be genuine. She has no specific reason to think that this conversation, in particular, is full of lies. Aside from the general distrust, of course. But Pudding makes a good argument for letting bygones be bygones, now that they're both dead and cut off from their respective powerful support networks.]

The Straw Hats really are something else. [ She says it with her sweetest smile. ] Not many would have done what they did for us.

[ And then Pudding mentions more than you know about, and she can't resist the urge to play just a little dirty. ]

Oh, you mean the part where you shot me, gloated about how the only brother I've ever loved is a simpering fool and how you were going to kill him in cold blood when he only ever wanted to do his best by you, and then violated my mind to try and make me forget? [ She says it all perfectly sweetly, and leans just a little on the try. Let Pudding sweat for a moment and wonder if her power had weakened against the Vinsmoke augmentation. ]

... Good.

[ the confused agreement, rather obviously sincere, gets a grin out of him — good, because half of everything he planned, in the time it took for her to get the coffee, depended on that exact answer. ]

That means we are allies. [ because he may be dead, but he's sure his crew is still an active part of the alliance... which means he is, too. he'd tried breaking it once, already, and look how that went. being an ally of the straw hat crew — there's worse things to be. ]

You said you want to keep your name from being known. If others from our world come, and they don't already know you... I'll keep your secret. If they know it, I'll keep them from bothering you. But in return, if there are those who come here who you know but I don't... you share what you know.

[ he reaches for the coffee and takes a sip; his eyes widen slightly, because damn, that's some good coffee. the kind he got used to having, on the sunny. ]

There's just one thing. There's one person here I won't keep secrets from... but he won't care who you are. Cora-san judges people by what they do, not what name they carry. And if I say we're allies... he'll be on your side, too.

[ well, there's the answer to her speculations, right there. ]

[ Pudding's mouth opens when Law so casually proclaims them allies, but shuts just as quickly on some kind of excuse me? or wait a second or she doesn't even know, anymore, as he continues. Out of nothing and from nowhere except that she considers herself allied with Sanji-san's crew, Former Warlord, Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Fucking Law is offering her protection and silence. ]

[ What the fuck. ]

[ What the absolute fuck are the Straw Hats even??? ]

[ All that and then he visibly double-takes at her coffee, and she can't keep the grin off her face. ]

[ Okay. Okay! Maybe things will be a little more okay. ]

Thank you.

[ It's half breathless, but not the put-on kind she so easily adopts, all flutter and winning sweetness. It's real, because this - fucking bizarre twist of fate is real. ]

[ She puts more than a little of the weight of all this on how good Sanji-san is. Some of that's unduly, probably, but. Would Sanji follow Straw Hat so closely if the rubber nightmare weren't worthy of it? ]

Sure, I'll - yes. It's not likely, though. [ A little hesitant, but she decides it's... okay to tip a little of her hand. ] I haven't been off Totto Land my whole life... if there's anyone that's been through who shows up, I'll let you know, but you were a warlord. You took on Doflamingo and ravaged at least half his network. You have to know more of just about anyone than I do.

[ For that matter: ]

Who's Cora-san?

[ what the absolute fuck are the straw hats even is a question he's asked himself multiple times, starting from maybe, oh, two minutes into his alliance with them, and he still doesn't have a proper answer.

a miracle is one of them.

a crew he owes everything to, is another.

"the rubber nightmare", unfortunately, is actually worthy of it.

at the mention of doflamingo, his expression tightens. ] That was mostly Straw Hat. [ he may have fought doflamingo, but he lost. he refuses to take credit for something that wasn't his doing. ]

Cora-san? Ah — [ right, most people wouldn't know him by that name, of-fucking-course. ] He'd go by Rosinante, here.

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Page 11 of 12

INTRO LOG: JULY

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iv / tdm continuation

first date - I mean what

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inserts all the royal politeness levels of who eats what first at what pace as background radiation

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