EVENT LOG: FOR EVERYTHING A REASON

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
FOR EVERYTHING A REASON

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor.
date/time: september 6-7.
content: characters and forest spirits send off paper lantern boats in honor of those who have died..
warnings: character death

a somber kind of serenity.

When you arrive at the harbor, there are already boats in the water, and the lighthouse's red beam flares in slow pulses over the lake. The moon's a bright first quarter and the stars are out in force today, all reflected on the glassy surface of the water. It's uncharacteristically calm, this weather, so take advantage.

Rastus is down at the water's edge, tending to a large mound of pebbles that looks not unlike a miniature bonfire from a distance. The stones are all ordinary, having been collected from the beach, except Rastus has enchanted them to glow with a soft, yellow light. The enchantment will only last a week, but that's ample time for this little ceremony to send off those lost over the past two months. Or to send off something less literal, perhaps.

Next to the pile of stones is an array of craft materials—just the basic supplies like paper, markers, glue, and scissors, but more than enough to accommodate everyone in attendance. A handful of forest spirits (some you may recognize from the party!) are standing nearby to assist in paper-folding or boat-crafting if you're out of your depth there. They, along with Rastus, urge you to join in. This memorial is as much about you as it is anyone we've lost, after all. The boats can look like or represent anything you like.

Releasing boats lit with pebbles out onto the water will fill you will a sense of peace. It's a somber kind of serenity, but it's a relief nonetheless, whether you're mourning the loss of a friend or letting go of some other part of yourself. You're welcome to release as many boats as you like, too. It's not like there's a shortage of rocks around here, and even if the craft materials run low, there's plenty of other stuff around town that could be used in a pinch.

The forest spirits are in attendance, as well. Some are helping with the crafting, yes, but most are taking part themselves, building their own little boats to send out over the water. Their crafting involves more of a hands-on approach: Chomping and tearing and crinkling into unique shapes and textures. They stand out from the townsfolks' designs on the beach, but once the boats drift far enough into the surf, it's impossible to tell which vessels belong to which group. Feel free to NPC your own forest spirits for this event and refer to the OOC info post if you have questions about how they might behave.

On the final night of the event, a sound starts up along the treeline, one you haven't heard in some time, perhaps. Crickets. Cicadas. Katydids and beetles and the shrill hum of a mosquito in your ear. It seems insects have returned to Beacon from... wherever they were hiding, and the night air is now vibrant with their music. No more eerie silence back in town, where the sounds of the lake are snuffed out by the trees. It sounds almost like a real forest now.

And it will stay that way after this event ends, too. Maybe you were enjoying the time away from bugs or maybe you were longing for some sign that, yes, this world was alive once, but either way, the insects are here to stay. Well, until winter, at least.

QUICKNAV
comms	|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

[trivialpursuit]

Oh— [Oh, okay, this is helpful. Precision folding he can do, but coming up with a paper boat shape in the first place is so hard. So--] Thank you.

A turtle...?

[hm......cute.....]

I'll add a face to it, too.

[featherknives]

[She gives him a small smile and sits back, once she's done shaping the boat. It looks pretty nice, and she hands him over several leaves to use as a roof for the boat.]

Sounds like a plan to me.

[And it really will be cute.]

at the shore

[otrazhenie]

It's a nice gesture, isn't it?

[ With her arms crossed over her stomach, Elena waits to speak until the other woman has returned to the shore. She's already set loose her own boat and sat watch over the rest for a while before rejoining the group, plenty of spirits still working away alongside a few others like herself. Like them. ]

Them letting us join in like this.

[otrazhenie]

[ Elena hears someone approaching, but it's as distant as if she were under the water of the lake, trapped in the darkness as cold liquid pressed in against her. The memory of that very sensation is brutally vivid as her gaze remains fixed on the water that she can just barely see moving in the gentle light of the floating lanterns. It isn't until the words drift down to her that she's pulled back above the surface and able to turn toward him, a few moments passing before she's able to really take him in. ]

What's it usually like?

[ Her own jeans are wet, the damp from the ground seeping into the fabric. Her thin plaid shirt does little against the fall chill but she doesn't really feel it. One small perk to being doubly dead in the afterlife. ]

[otrazhenie]

It's the sort of thing someone else might say, someone she'd cared about deeply in life. Still cares about, really. And it's enough to shake something loose enough inside for her to give him a sidelong incredulous glance. Really.

"Pretty sure I'm scarier." She somehow even manages to throw that tone right back at him with just a hint of something like a challenge mixed in for good measure.

[worthallthis]

"Maybe. But I'd be scarier if I had my rifle."

This is a dumb not-argument. But she sounds less tense. That makes it worth it.

[otrazhenie]

"And I'm scarier like this."

She says it easily enough but that nervousness comes flooding back as she lets her face shift into that of a vampire. Fangs elongating, the whites of her eyes turn red, the veins below her eyes turning black. And then she holds it there, watching him, waiting for whatever reaction may come and trying not to think about just how alone she is here.

[worthallthis]

Huh. The Soldier pauses, tilting its head just a little as if to take in the look.

(Knew a guy once with his face all red and skinless and noseless. This don't hold a fuckin' candle to that. The Soldier can't even imagine that. But it does sound worse.)

"Okay," it says after a moment of considering a good response that won't make her tense and afraid again. "But I'd be scarier if I had all my tac gear. There's a mask and goggles. Makes me look like I don't have a face." That was pretty much the point, it thinks. It doesn't even remember wearing the mask, exactly, but it knows very clearly that it's standard mission attire. Not sure why the handlers didn't make it wear that shit on the last mission.

[otrazhenie]

Suddenly, the idea of them vying for who's scariest is almost comical. What does it matter who gets the title when they're both dead and there are actual giant monsters out there waiting to destroy them.

Her face shifts back to normal and she's almost smiling as she responds, "I guess it's a good thing there aren't any werewolves here, they'd out-scare us both."

[worthallthis]

Mini-mission success. She definitely sounds better. (And sass was useful. Good job, buddy.) "I don't know what a werewolf is," the Soldier admits. It's not sure it knew what a vampire was, before her network post. "But I did still say I would feed you."

[kungfuey]

It kinda was, actually. [ The hint of a smile touching her lips and what's perhaps the hardest to take, is that there's sincerity in those words. While the world around her went to shit, Scarlett was one of the few who actually felt like she'd found her place in it.

Another huff of laughter spills over, Scarlett lifting her gaze from what she's doing to look at Eliot. ] Bet your ass I do.

[ She'd been doing it since she was a teenager and this place? It only cemented those habits. ]

Not always something a sharp object can help with either. [ Clearly irritated by this. Vampires she could deal with, she knew the score with them, but Beacon? ] About the only certainty around here is that nothing is certain.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Your friend should talk to my friend, because Eliot does something to those canned things, and it tastes amazing. I think maybe he's using something to flavor them with= I don't really know, I could mess up boiling water.

[There's really no need to meet people, because everyone is already dead, so what's the point? His eyebrows goes way up at that though.]

What's a turtle boat?

[pure_havoc]

Indeed. As much as I want my curiosity satisfied, particularly if it is something dangerous, my sense of self-preservation seems to be rising the more people get killed and don't return.

[with a nod toward the little floating lamps on the surface of the water. Even if most of them are to remember spirits, there's still far too many of them for anyone's comfort]

[pure_havoc]

You're quite welcome.

[well, guess it's time to be Captain Obvious. Emperor Obvious maybe]

I see you're planning a lantern. Is it for someone here, or for what we're missing among the living?

[trivialpursuit]

I'll let him know. I can make breakfast foods, but that's about it.

[Quentin please make more friends. Kakyoin's brow furrows; uh--]

It's a boat that looks like a turtle. I drew a face and everything.

[equinoctials]

Little rougher.

[ He sinks to sit on his heels, steady as a stone, without any of the ungainliness of someone who might still be growing into his skin and bones. In the months he's been in this dark world, his hair has continued to grow, through the scatter of his silver fringe he peeks sidelong at her, curious.

Maybe a little concerned. The way she'd been staring off like that reminded him of survivors of attacks from the dark forces of his own universe, shellshocked. They didn't really meet in person, he only recognizes her as one of the more recent arrivals. He feels it's safe to ask: ]

How are you holding up?

[otrazhenie]

[ She watches him watching her for a moment before turning back to the water, not really taking much time at all to think over the answer to his question. Usually, she would lie through her teeth, but she doesn't have the energy for it right now. ]

Life sucks. Why should death be any different?

[ But once the words are out, she feels a bit guilty about it, so she shrugs and lowers her gaze to the nearest boat, floating gently by just feet away from them. ]

Sorry. When people ask you that, they don't usually want to know the answer.

[equinoctials]

[ She's honest.

Although that draws more scrutiny, he shakes his head. ]

Sorry? No need.

[ He tips his head away from her, half-shrugging. The motion is uncomfortable, like he might be embarrassed. ]

I'd rather the truth. It's a lot better than wondering if more could've been done if someone fell to ruin in the dark.

[ That's a weird thing to say. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ That's a very weird thing to say. Fell to ruin. It's the phrasing itself that catches her attention, along with the fact that he says it so easily. In a way, it's almost a neon sign signaling that they're from very different backgrounds and more than likely very different worlds. ]

You too, huh?

[ The words are soft, the comment more about the Life Sucks part than the falling to ruin, but honestly, some of that could be in there too. ]

[equinoctials]

[ You too, huh?

It implies a mutual understanding, like by valuing her honesty he might have exposed something himself. Riku would clam up at a moment like this, but releasing that lantern for Dawn had left him feeling centered, like a great internal sigh had loosened the knot that had been tightening in him for months. ]

I didn't die with any regrets, if that's what you're asking.

[ It isn't, he thinks. Which makes that a dodge on his part. Habits die with greater reluctance than everyone here. His glance is less sidelong and more openly appraising, this time. ]

...Riku.

[otrazhenie]

[ Had she? Were there regrets that haunted her every waking moment and stalked through her dreams? Yes. Dozens of them, but none so great as all the time she'd wasted, all the things she'd left unsaid because she'd thought there would be forever stretched out before her.

But she doesn't say that. This isn't the time to talk about those things, he hasn't earned that yet and she isn't ready to share.

It takes her a second to realize what he's said is his name; it's not something one would normally hear in Mystic Falls, that's for sure. ]

I'm Elena.

[equinoctials]

[ He hadn't been as honest with her as she was with him.

Riku did have a regret, a pretty significant one. About taking second or third chances for granted, for not having enough time to say what was in his heart before the opportunity was lost.

Funny how it's the things they don't say are probably the parts they can most relate. ]

...

[ Initially, Riku acknowledges her name with a small nod, but his eyes dart away and come right back a little rounder in recognition. Oh. Oh. Now he realizes. ]

Did that donor thing work out?

[paletteswap]

I was expecting the next ferry arrival after that to be the same amount of people as those who perished; in order to bolster our numbers, but it didn't seem to be. The more we lose the harder it becomes to make any of this sustainable.

[Not actual sustenance which will get easier with less people but the morale of the town, the desire to explore and most of all the ability to solve whatever puzzle it is that the Keeper has thrown at them.]

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[All of Quentin's own boats had looked like the kind a kid would make, large and triangular, with the rocks sitting in them like passengers and his letters for his friends, his dad and the ones who might never have even existed in the first place. But writing them a letter had helped. The overwhelming wave of calm that came after had helped more.]

Did-- wait, you drew a turtle face? How? Is-- are turtles something special to you? Not judging. Just asking.

[primordialerebus]

Oh uh...

[ She looks back down to her current project, silent for a moment before speaking up once more. ]

Just uh... people back home now.

[ Do they miss her as much as she misses them? She really isn't sure. ]