logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: SEPTEMBER

INTRO LOG: SEPTEMBER

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: september 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. everyone gets a special gift, courtesy of the lighthouse keeper.
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

It's dim, and the room won't stop swaying, gently rocking you back and forth. A loud sound startles you fully awake, a deep, moaning call: a foghorn. As your eyes adjust, you note faint red light streaking through the room from a tiny, round window.

You've found yourself in a private room, lying on a bed. The last things you remember are the events that led up to your death. Beside you is a folded tablet and a lantern that glows steadily with a healthy flame.

You're on a ship. And that ship is docking.

Making your way to the deck, and eventually the pier, you find only moonlight to greet you, and a dark forest beyond. There are other people here, each with their own unique lantern, and many of them look just as lost as you are. On the ferry you've just disembarked from, the speaker system begins to play a song.

In the distance, across the waters of the lake, you can see the tall silhouette of a lighthouse, its red light slowly turning.

•••

Unlike the past two months, there's not a whole lot happening down at the dock today. It's quiet, disconcertingly so, after the foghorn blows once and then twice to signal the ferry's arrival. Winters is dead, and as such there's no one around to dole out the "need to know" info for the new arrivals.

Luckily, the tablet and the town do have some resources available for playing catch up! The Keeper's recent network post is available for everyone to read, and newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records in town hall. Everyone's also welcome to get in touch with the NPCs through their inboxes, too.

But, oh! In the ferry's cargo hold is a rather large crate addressed to the Postmaster General, and inside? A bunch of ocarinas! The Postmaster General, set up at their little stall, will be passing out ocarinas (free of charge!) to everyone that happens by. Anyone who doesn't come by the stall will receive one in their mailbox.

Shortly after the ferry arrives, a new message from the Lighthouse Keeper appears on the network:

Did everyone get their ocarinas? If you didn't, check your mailbox at the post office. There's plenty to go around. The extras will be in the general store.

You can use these to communicate with the forest spirits. Their language is based on musical notes, so you have to play little songs for them. Here's a couple of basic translations that should help you guys out:

The rest of the message contains playing instructions and example audio files for the following messages:

- A friendly greeting!
- An assurance that equates to "I come in peace".
- A short melody that translates roughly to polite terms like please, thank you, and you're welcome.
- A shrill note that asks for help.

Characters can use the ocarinas to communicate these phrases to the forest spirits (and are welcome to try learning or communicating other phrases), but keep in mind that there's not much plot info to be learned from the forest spirits, at least not for right now. These ocarinas won't exactly help you translate anything the forest spirits might say back, after all.

The Lighthouse Keeper won't be responding to that network post, but she can be contacted through her inbox!

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, you are officially without a chaperone. Rastus is back at the bonfire, Will is characteristically elusive, and Robin is, well, you know where she's at. It's up to the veteran residents to fill in the new folks.

We're also happy to introduce the YARD SARD... The Postmaster General will be appearing in any intro logs where a player formerly in the game has ordered something through Rastus but is no longer around to claim it! These items will still come in, but since they have no owner, they'll be available for other characters to claim. It's usually a first come, first serve situation, though the Postmaster General may turn folks away for any number of weird reasons. (OOCly, it's us attempting to spread the wealth among the playerbase.)

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
Two silver prosthetic pieces (they aren't a perfect fit, but they work well enough) for Polnareff
A few bottles of holy water, a pouch of powdered silver, and a magic wand (the wand doesn't have the permanence spell Elden was looking for, unfortunately; instead, it will temporarily change the color of its target to either pink or blue!) for Elden
Webfluid components (about a three month's supply) for Peter
A spice rack for Davina, and one for Ignis as well, plus a little geology kit with both of their names scribbled on the package and crossed out various times. Looks like these orders got a little mixed up! Everything each of them requested (plus a little extra) can be found among these packages, but they'll have to sort out what goes where
2 cartons of cigarettes, a flintlock pistol, and 100 rounds of ammo for it (though none for the shotgun, hm!) for Rosinante
A small assortment of dreamcatchers, all with a lot of feathers for Xayah
A flash drive (on which is a very simple app for Morse code translation! this can be passed around or uploaded to the network for many users to download) for Matt
A bounce house (small and with quite a few holes that need patching, but it'll get the job done; it's deflated, but it does have a built-in fan!) for Lunafreya

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

YARD SARD

The Postmaster General is here! They've set up a little stall on the dock, and have a couple of items for... sard?

~~A carton of cigarettes~~
4 2 boxes of .45 bullets
~~A sewing kit~~

If you would like to purchase an item from the Postmaster General, you can haggle with them below!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Aziraphale becomes more and more mysterious... Kakyoin gives the shelf one last longing look, sighs, and temporarily abandons this mystery to take a seat diagonal from Aziraphale at the table. He's keeping the astronomy book just to have something to fidget with, flipping an idle page again.]

I'm a student, so traveling makes me a tourist, for the most part... My parents like going abroad, but I've been from Japan to Cairo without them.

Ah, interesting!

Japan to Cairo... Oh I do miss both places. Have you gone to many temples? It's such a shame they're covered in graffiti.

[ Aziraphale still remembers when they were built. Glorious things, Abu Simbel constructed in such a way to let light into the back room only once a year. ]

The first time I went to Cairo, yes— with my parents. Not the second time.

[He as very busy getting in a lot of trouble that time, and his friends' preference for hangouts is cheap bars. It happens.]

You've been? [To both. Either. Travel Trivia is his favorite.]

Oh, yes, both. Egypt not for a long time, I'm afraid. But Japan quite recently, the restaurants are so wonderful.

[ Also it's one of the modern languages Aziraphale canonly speaks, but he's not gonna whip it out without reason. ]

I was there on... holiday, and thought I'd have an extended stay.

[ Like, several... hundred years ago. For like, a little bit. ]

[Aziraphale, the original weeb.....]

Restaurants are as good a reason as any to linger, I suppose. I didn't know gardeners could afford to leave the plants and jet-set around the world.

[ He is a weeb. He is a NEET. If his mother is God, he definitely lives in her basement. ]

Well I wasn't, at the time. I suppose I was more a missionary. Wasn't even on assignment in Japan, but thought I'd pop over. It was lovely. Well, all those places on Earth were so lovely, I wish I had spent more time there. Suppose it's too late, now.

Tell me more about your travels.

[ Let's not be any more suspicious, Aziraphale! ]

[It all makes sense.]

"Spent more time"... on the earth? [That is a weird way to talk about how this place is probably some other plane of existence and dying has been a real downer for everybody! But now Kakyoin has learned this: Aziraphale has bad workplace habits, like leaving the country to go to Japanese restaurants.

Well, anyway.]

What do you want to hear about? A lot of it is standing in front of landmarks so my parents could take pictures.

Oh, well no wonder you want to read about all the places, that's no way to experience them. The best way is to just wander around and get lost, like someone just moving there. Let yourself be guided by the locals to where they eat and where they spend their free time.

[ Listen sorry, it's hard to turn off the death thing. ]

Where's someplace you haven't been?

[Hmm, that's the travel dream, isn't it. Too bad he's gotten family vacations and roadtrips with fighting. He's been lost before? Baby steps.]

Someplace... [somewhere he'd actually have liked to go, he adds himself, so,] Spain. It looks beautiful in pictures.

Oh, yes, it most certainly is beautiful. You must go see Ronda. The bridges and the cliffsides are breathtaking, and there are peacocks in the gardens.

[ Not that Ronda was overlooked, but it certainly didn't get the sort of press that the bigger cities like Barcelona and Madrid got. Of course - Aziraphale fondly remembers the bath house and the theater back before they were ruins, but even afterward, Hemingway did say it was the most romantic city in all of Spain. ]

And it's quite a bit more temperate than the other cities. Full of history, and little cobblestone streets to walk around-- Oh, you must eat at Bardal while you're there. And the Confiteria Daver just down the street from the Plaza de Toros --

[ If he isn't stopped, he will just start rambling on and on. And then move onto another city. Which I would do but I've just spent the last like twenty minutes on tripadvisor... So I'm gonna handwave the rest. ]

[Cool, he'll be marking all of these down in his travel journal, which he totally has. Maybe he should get one, actually.

But in all seriousness, it's rambling, and not surprisingly veers into the best restaurants, but Kakyoin likes this kind of thing and so he's willing to let Aziraphale ramble for, hmm, a couple minutes. Then he will politely clear his throat, as if to remind Aziraphale that there is in fact another person sitting at this table not daydreaming about the quaint local cuisine of various neighborhoods in Spain.]

So you've been there, too? Is there a place you haven't been?

Oh.

[ He thinks about it. ]

There is Antarctica.

Hard to find a place you haven't been when you get as old as me, I guess. This place notwithstanding.

[Hey what IS going on here, fussy gardener missionary man!!]

How old is that, exactly?

Ah.

[ UM. How to math. So his current chosen birthdate is... and if he subtracts from... oh what year is it again... ]

Fifty... seven?

[ So convincing. ]

You don't know?

[Are you a liar, polite gentleman? Are you going to lie to his face like this?]

One of my friends is 68 and even he hasn't the time to change careers so often and travel the world that extensively.

[And he even knows the, uh, secret to harnessing the sun's energy to retain his youthful fervor? This is what Kakyoin thinks might be weird, unlike "my friend is 68."]

Can't be bothered to remember the exact date.

[ Ha ha ... HA HA... ]

But yes, there are... many geographical books here for your disposal. Yes, possibly over in that section.

[ Let's. Never. Mention age again! ]

[Hmm, fascinating. Kakyoin looks at his handy astronomy book instead. He turns a page. Very engaging material, this--]

Why don't you want me to know how old you are?

Ah... Why do you care to know?

[ Aziraphale practically jumps out of his skin but obviously his shock is from one of the books he is touching. Static, you know, could happen to anyone. ]

Someone who really didn't remember his age wouldn't ask that.

[Just saying. Caught!!]

So I guess now I'm wondering what the big secret is.

It's very personal, actually, if you wouldn't mind, Hierophant.

[ There's a nervous smile and then more fidgeting about around the bookcases. ]

Ah, yes, have you learned much about the stars?

[People with secrets... ugh. Kakyoin levels a scrutinizing look at him for several seconds before looking down at the book again.

He'll let it go... for now!!!]

No, I haven't learned anything. Which chapter is the one about black holes?

[because black holes are raw as hell]

Ah, seven, but there's very little about them. You know, no pictures, not a whole lot of calculations.

[ He supposes if he wants to know about black holes, he'll have to ask someone he thinks might have had contact with any. ]

Frustratingly vague.

[Frustratingly vague. Stop that, hypocrite. Kakyoin flips back to the table of contents anyway, then on to chapter seven.

Nice....]

I know it's impossible, [he says, while peering at what little information and "artist renditions" are here in the book,] but this place feels like living in a black hole so far.

[You know, 'cause it's so damn dark.] ...Without being crushed into infinite density, that is.

Oh, I don't know about that. I think it stretches light, so we'd appear differently to each other. I will let you know if you start getting very long limbs before you disappear into darkness.

But it's just... night here, that's all.

If we're already inside the event horizon, you wouldn't notice. We'd only look different from the outside.

[This is not in the book, he's just a nerd.]

Still; it seems a little bit past just night.

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