logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: AULD LANG SYNE

characters: everyone.
location: Everywhere
date/time: December 31-January 1
content: Another year gone by, and a sunny future ahead
warnings: n/a

Most of a year has passed since the World Eater was defeated and light began to trickle its way back in to the world. Spring brought new green growth, summer brought the first few pale flowers, and fall saw ever-longer days even as the crispness of frost returned to the air. Now, the longest nights of winter have passed (which still were shorter than those in that first spring), and as the sun rises on the new year, it does so with reassuring warmth that cuts through the ice and snow.

we've wandered far beneath the stars

Many left in those early days, lured by the chances to take the portal home, or to new worlds - and hopefully they made it successfully. The few who stayed behind in Beacon have worked hard on making the place into a home, or at least a solid base of operations for future work, whatever that might entail. Exploring has become easier thanks to the longer, brighter days, revealing a seemingly endless expanse of forest pockmarked by ruined, overgrown cities. Beacon stands at the center of it all, somehow harbors the brightest light, and so out at the edges of the explored areas, forest spirits still linger. They're generally friendly and curious, encouraged by stories spread by the spirits who fled Beacon and its sunlight in order to carry news of the lantern-folk and their success at bringing the aurora to the ground.

All right, so the story may not always be accurate, but it has been told.

And given the spirits still understand the emotional meaning to the start of a new year, counted not on a calendar they follow but on one they barely remember, they begin a strange sort of pilgrimage in those long winter nights. On the night of December 31 they swarm the darkened town of Beacon with whoops and hollers and gifts of ancient decayed (but possibly still viable) seed packets looted from broken cities, crude jewelry made of bones and shards of pottery, and something that looks a bit like it was probably modeled after bread, but are actually buns of baked clay. Before the sun rises, they depart again, leaving Beacon quiet in the snow except for the strange, eerie noises of ice breaking around the edges of the lake.

Should anyone, intentionally or by mistake, break one of these clay buns, they'll find there was something inside. Is your luck good or bad, or will their token object be too obscure to decipher?

and we ran into the night

You probably have your own way of celebrating, too. The portal works, and experimenting with it and the old lighthouse keeper's notes have provided a means to bring in gifts, food and drinks, and even sometimes living creatures, plants, or fungi, though things don't always go intended (an order for goats one day instead brought in a pair of these).

Those who live in Beacon have generally agreed not to bring in new people, but accidents sometimes happen. If you're new on the new year, this must all be awfully confusing, but if you've been here a month or so, maybe you've had time to settle in. It's certainly been made easier by those studying lantern repair over the last many months, as small dents and cracks can often be patched back up, usually with good success (but sometimes with temporary side effects).

Enjoy the new year from the shore of the lake, the warmth of The Invincible, or wherever you like - you've chosen to stay, at least for now, and Beacon isn't a bad place to call home.

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I. Pre-Holiday Catch-up

Soldat is one of those who stayed behind in the world. Most of the time, they're at the outlying farm, where they spend a few days at a time tending the field, feeding goats (and not-goats) and chickens (and not-chickens) and the one dog and cat that got portalled in more on accident than anything else, and putting the old farmhouse back together to make it more liveable. They never did repair their lantern despite the increased understanding of how, preferring to let their headmates all remain. They mostly get along, these days.

But twice a week they're back in town for a full day, checking on people, exchanging books at the library, and making food for everyone to collect in the Invincible should they want it. Most of it will keep in a freezer or in a big pot on low simmer on the stove, or gets delivered to doors and porches of any others remaining. They can't manage without people; being out on the farm alone, or even just with Misty, makes the paranoia and nightmares and internal bickering worse.

So they visit. Regularly. And beg for social interaction.

II. New Year's Eve - Invincible

Today is a day when they're in town, because they remember the calendar, too. They bake up some warm pies for Rosinante's little party, though they don't expect very many people to show up, and their fluffy sheepdog gets the scraps from it as they bake. (The cat stayed back at the farmhouse, getting by on the bits of wildlife starting to sneak in via portal or spirit-animals still hiding out from the light, plus plenty of home-made kitty kibble.)

Then night falls and spirits pour into town and Soldat-- Soldat is delighted. They greet any spirit who wants one with, of all things, a hug, and singing greetings and excitement in their own language. They're a little rusty, as it's been a long time since they've had any need to use it, but their voice is still good and their memory still impeccable.

While they've been content, working and helping and checking in with people, this is the happiest Soldat has looked since the sun started to return. "They're still here," they tell anyone who asks, smiling. "We're not alone yet."

III. Sunrise

Soldat stares after the last departing spirits, rather than watching the sun as it comes up, but they're still outside, bundled up against the cold, hands in their coat pockets, dog at their feet huddled close to share warmth.

"It was nice," they say quietly, maybe to themselves. "Seeing them again. Even if they're not our friends, exactly, it's still nice." Then they turn a little to whoever came up to see them in the dawn's light, and say, "Oh. I have a Christmas gift for you. Didn't come to town then, but the snow was too thick, so. I have it now, if you want it."

They pause, and add, "No, it's not another funny hat. Though I did consider it." A reminder of last year's early Christmas gifts which were in fact all silly, but still very warm, hats.

"I wouldn't have said no," Rosinante admits with a chuckle. He still loves that bunny hat, and wears it regularly, which probably doesn't surprise the people who know him well. Even Law has stopped rolling his eyes at it.

"Glad you could make it in, finally. Hasn't been a much easier winter than the last one, even with the sun. I guess that's just what it's like here," he says with a shrug. Spending some of his youth in the North Blue should have prepared him better for all the snow, but at least the ocean currents helped moderate the weather on the islands in ways the lake here just doesn't compare to. At least the sounds from the ice can't keep him up at night if he shuts them all out.

And Soldat spends so much of their time at the farm, they can't hear the ice noise. Here and now, though, it's actually kind of soothing. They know it from the past two Christmases here, and it's familiar rather than weird.

"It might still take another year to settle in to exactly what the seasons are like here," Soldat allows. "We still don't have full days. And it'll probably take time for warmth to really take hold." A pause. "But it might just be cold in the winter no matter what. It's not like we didn't have regular summers, sun or no sun."

"Hard to know," he agrees. "Long as we don't have another flood like the one that swept half of town into the lake."

But now he really feels like some rural oldtimer, talking about the weather, and laughs at himself for doing it. "Oh well. Hey, I have something for you too, it's back at the Invincible," he says, and motions with a thumb pointed in the building's direction.

"We're more prepared for a flood this time," Soldat says. Because they are. Also, they're more spread out, and both the farm and the lab are on higher ground than Beacon proper, so hauling the handful of people remaining out to safe locations won't be as hard as trying to keep track of all those people before.

It's not talking about the weather like rural oldtimers if it's a potential life and death situation.

They shake themselves out of that line of conversation, though, when Rosinante does, and look back at the big building. "That's where yours is, too. Guess we can exchange, yeah?"

"Convenient," he says as he waves for Soldat to follow. Might as well head over there, at least it's warmer. He stuffs his hands in his pockets on the way, because even with gloves on, the chill finds its way through the fabric.

"And yeah, I saw the spirits earlier," he says as he walks, noting Soldat had mentioned them early on. "I was starting to think we wouldn't see them again."

"I thought they'd all gone away," Soldat admits. They have their warming rubies still in their right pocket, so that hand? Nice and cozy. The metal one, of course, doesn't need to be kept warm. "I thought. I wonder if any of them want to stay," they say, changing the course of their sentence mid-thought. "If all they need is somewhere constantly in the darkness, if they did."

It's probably not going to happen, the spirits have never had any problem just... leaving. But they kind of want to ask around, now, anyway. Maybe they can go down into the underwater lab. Or the mines. Anywhere the sun doesn't touch.

"Dunno. Maybe. Some of them like people well enough, maybe they'd enjoy it. You'd have to... Well, maybe they don't change, now."

Into green-eyes, that's the worry. Inviting spirits to stick around means inviting that potential risk. But with the World Eater gone, no longer driving them to madness, maybe they won't.

He doesn't voice his darker concern, that as long as spirits still exist in good numbers, some of them may still eventually evolve into even bigger problems. Doesn't want to kill the holiday mood, especially when Soldat is so happy to see those strange little creatures again. And Rosinante too can't help but feel a sort of warm nostalgia at their presence, after all the help so many of them gave in the end.

EVENT LOG: AULD LANG SYNE

Bucky/Soldat | MCU | OTA

Sunrise

Re: Sunrise

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