logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: FOR EVERYTHING A REASON

Entry tags:

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.

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[Superficially, the word does sound like 'soldier' but he takes it as coincidence. How is he to know what naming schemes are common in other worlds? They're all so foreign to him - for he's learned he's something of an outlier in that he didn't come from some version of that place called Earth.]

Nice to meet you then, Soldat. Yeah, I got here in the first group after the last reset. You're the third, so... A little over two months, if you're going by the tablet's calendar. Has someone shown you around yet? Filled you in on the situation?

I explored the open spaces and buildings, and I read everything on the tablet. So, not really, but it was good enough.

[Just about everyone the Soldier has talked to for more than a few minutes at a time so far has been new, like it is, so it's had to piece things together mostly on its own. Which doesn't actually bother it much. Anything else requires more talking.]

[ he's always nosey as hell, but seeing q with his lantern hanging back at the edge is a special sort of reminder that something needs to be done. even that first month quentin had been a brakebills, this had been the norm for a reason. some people just shouldn't be left on their own sometimes, and this moment especially is not one when quentin should be sitting out. ]

Don't you want to make one?

[ it's hard to appear out of nowhere like he used to when the fact everyone has to carry a damn lantern everywhere to see anything at all makes it impossible to, but he still tries, even if quentin probably saw his light coming out of the corner of his eye. ]

[ she's so far off away from the group that when eliot catches the light, he can't help but wander over to see what the hell is going on. not that people aren't allowed to do their own thing, but it is curious to be so close to a gathering like this and yet staunchly keeping away from it.

especially to make what appear to be a bunch of spears. ]

Going vampire hunting?

[ he doesn't realize how apt this joke is. ]

[ he watches the exchange off to the side as well as the awkward pause that follows. when most others seem to take their moment only after they've sent a craft off into the water, it does stand out as interesting. ambling over, he pretends to hold some interest in the other boats out on the water for a little bit before eventually speaking. ]

It's not going to walk onto the water by itself, you know. [ if he had a cigarette, this would normally be when he takes a puff and pretends to be distracted by it before speaking again. but he doesn't, so eliot just rolls his shoulders and tilts his head to the side, still watching the boats drifting further out. ] Sometimes you just have to take the leap instead of thinking about what leaping actually means.

Mmm?

[It's almost hypnotic, the way the small waves carry the boats away, wavering a little up and down as they sail out and past the point of where they're easily distinguished from the stars. Rolling his head back, he looks up at Eliot and just waves his hand a little.]

I didn't know any of the people who died. Or, uhm, the spirits? The message said some of them died, too. And-- look, they're making boats. How is that even-- I mean, we've seen some shit in Fillory, but something like this?

[There's little noise coming from anyone, even the forest spirits, and Quentin keeps his voice pitched low, an almost whisper in the darkness, only it's a little lighter now that Eliot's lantern is lighting things up as well.]

I don't want to, like, interrupt them? Mess it up for them? You know.

[ Daylight is singing. ]

...

[ Riku had built a small boat - more accurately it's a raft, on which sits a cylindrical lantern. It's a few layers of paper, actually, with one of them having large five-pointed stars cut out of them, so that the glow is brighter through them. It's simple. He's not the arts-and-crafts one of the trio of his best friends.

He aimed to make sure that at least one of the three stars he cut out of the paper is visible even if the raft bobs and rotates on the water. There's one for each of them - Sora, Kairi, and himself, but the lantern itself is not in their honor.

It's for the other Riku, whose name became Dawn, not his first independent choice as his own person, but maybe one of the most significant. A sign. That marked him no longer a replica, a fake, a copy, but someone real and whole.

He's carrying it as Daylight finishes his song, and he approaches in the silence that follows, contemplative and quiet by his side.

He watches Daylight's boats drift away and, despite the disparity in their sizes, reaches up one hand to place it against his back. ]

[ She's so used to the subject of Vampires being normal that Scarlett doesn't even blink at his joke, instead giving him a looking at him like he'd lost the plot... though not for reasons a 'normal person' would have been thinking. ]

Why on earth would I use spears when I've got these? [ Pointing over her shoulder at the Katanas on her back with the equally sharp knife in her hand. ] A headless Vampire is a dead Vampire. A spear is just as likely to piss them off.

[ JFC Scarlett. It was a joke. ]

A. September 7th

[She had silently followed the group down to the docks and the lake. The mood was somber so Xayah kept silent most of the time. Her feather cloak covered her left side and front, hiding the lantern hanging to one of many belts at her waist, and she watched with rapt attention as Rastus enchanted many stones. Gratefully, she accepted several from him and then found a spot to sit down and fold the boats. She had a company of one of the spirits she met at the party, a shy and bashful one, that keeps wearing bag over the head. The spirit is currently hiding underneath her cloak, peeking out to grab paper from time to time, and then disappearing again.

When she spots a person standing nearby, eyeing a free place to sit, Xayah gives them a short look, then focuses back on folding the paper boat, her fingers twisting and spinning the paper skillfully, entwining it with some of the vines she picked in the forest.]

You can sit down, it's free. [She finally speaks up, her feather ears twitching.] She won't hurt you, [Xayah nods at the blob underneath her cape.] She's too shy to even chat.

B. September 7th

[Xayah wasn't especially close to anyone that had disappeared during the incident, but that doesn't mean she didn't feel bad. Well- she mostly felt bad for the spirits, really. They were being manipulated by the Keeper, and as someone who had witnessed a lot of manipulation and strings of shadows in her life, it hit her. She was so happy that her little friend wasn't hurt in the battle.

Together, they step close to the water and let a few boats go. The spirit is doing it ever so carefully, stopping to think for a moment, before sending another. Xayah sends three boats- one for the people, one for the forest spirits and one for... someone who isn't even here. Her prayer goes that he never appears here. This place doesn't deserve his light.

When she stands she feels someone standing behind her. Right, there are more people waiting to let boats go.]

All yours, [she says quietly, turning around and stepping aside.]

C. September 8th

[Xayah continues spending time by the docks. One can easily catch her walking around and just watching the scene of floating, small lights on the lake. Her eyes would drift to the Lighthouse from time to time and an unreadable expression would cover her face.

She'd then return to the tree and sit underneath it, listening to the cicadas and crickets. It actually does feel like a forest. It almost makes he tear up. (If there was light, maybe you even could see it). She's toying with few golden feathers that came here with her, belonging entirely to someone else. She can sense their magic within them. It's something that kept her sane around here.

When she hears footsteps, she hastily returns them under her cowl and cape, pretending she wasn't doing anything. Fiddling with the edges of her hair, her eyes glance back and forth between the lake and person that just arrived.]

Nice night. [...] There's song in the air. [Crickets. She means crickets. Wow. Way to make things awkward, Xayah.]

D. Wildcard

[Add me freely at

WindsongWitch if you wanna run some other ideas at me!~ I am always open for plotting.]

[Let the record show that Kakyoin is trying his very hardest to stop lingering in people's periphery until they notice him, but it just keeps happening like this. And let the record show that he does sit down— but at a polite distance, you know, after last time.

Which is actually why he's approached her at all. It takes him a moment to sort through his little pile of paper and markers, and he doesn't exactly... look up at her when he clears his throat and speaks.]

I— wanted to apologize.

[Now he glances up at her face, briefly; he's had no amazing revelations, but the recent postings and meetings and so on about their dire circumstances have convinced him to be... nicer... at least. More open-minded.]

We have different experiences, and I should have been... more reasonable.

You've gotten better at that.

[And here's Kakyoin, standing with his arms crossed and leaning against the tree a little behind Quentin. He keeps his voice quiet so as not to spook the spirits, which is also why he's still standing; his track record with spirit pleasantries is Bad, so for now, he'll keep a slightly safer distance and watch.

But hey, wannabe translator. How's it going. We are all fully dressed now.]

[ One might think Riku's just sauntering over, fashionably late. He's certainly standoffish enough to give the impression, dressed in a pair of jeans with the knees stained by damp earth and a t-shirt that's smudged with dirt, clods of soil in the soles of his boots. He doesn't even head initially for the gathering, where spirits and more human-like people are working on the crafts that will bear their thoughts and farewells to the water.

Riku stoops by the lake to wash the dirt off his hands and arms, only enough to slough off the worst of it. The rest, crowding into his knuckles and under his nails, will come out in a more thorough scrubbing later. He just wipes them dry on his t-shirt - this does nothing to improve the cleanliness of his shirt - and joins the others.

Good timing, because as M.K. turns, it's to find Riku standing there, starting to cross his arms over his chest with a knowing sort of look. ]

Giving art lessons now?

Read everything, huh?

[Well, to be fair, there isn't a whole lot else to do here unless you have a project or a goal of some kind. There are probably a lot of people who do little more than sit and eat and stare at the bonfire. That's on them; dying is hard and he's not here to command people, not anymore. Least of all civilians. But it's a little disappointing. So the fact that this man has the ambition to at least read up is good to know.]

You probably know it all well enough, then. People have been good at making public anything they've discovered. No secrets here. Is there anything you have questions about?

[It's been like a week. Even with three handlers and a (not!)technician to ask for tasks from, three or four patrols a day, and now half a dozen little boats sent out over the course of the past day or so, there's not a ton to do around here. And the Soldier is a pretty fast reader.]

Plenty of secrets, probably. Just not about what they know about this place.

[The Soldier is not stupid, after all. Not everyone is talking about home. (It doesn't blame them; it's not talking a lot about home, either.) It does have one question.]

What happened to the ones who died here? Are there bodies?

[Yes, all right. Plenty of secrets is true. This time, he hadn't intended on being deceptive; he'd simply worded himself poorly in his attempt to encourage the spirit everyone seems to have adopted. Leave the past behind them, share everything they learn about this place with each other. It serves well.]

Some of the bodies were found. Many weren't. From what I've been told, when you die here, often you come back. Your body vanishes, and you wake back up in the church.

[To which he points, though it's not visible from here, but he knows the direction. Out past the bonfire, inland. Not far.]

Most of the ones who died recently didn't come back. We don't know why some return and others don't. One of the men we lost, Captain Winters, had died and been reborn several times in the years before we even arrived.

[It had been the ones who hadn't come back the Soldier had wanted to know about. It nods. And it guesses,]

Because we are already dead.

[There's something making their bodies be here and it's probably not actually flesh. Not like anything the Soldier has any experience with: for all there are superheroes and shit on its version of Earth, there's not magic. The Soldier decides it's not going to think about it too hard.]

Do the lanterns disappear and reappear, too?

Yes. If your lantern breaks, if the fire goes out, you die. If you die for any other reason, the lantern goes out. They're linked. And if you die, when your body comes back in the church, so does your lantern. There are candles in the church too and they're probably related, but I don't know anyone who's looked into it yet.

[He hasn't. He noticed one burning when he awoke there after his own death on the shoreline, that first month. But he hadn't thought to question anything about it, for churches always have candles, don't they? But it seems noteworthy, given the lack of light and fire every other place.]

[This is all definitely complicated and weird. At least the Soldier is mostly used to not understanding everything going on around it, so it's not like the situation is going to stop it from functioning. It ruffles the spirit's fuzzy head a little, then pushes the little one off its knee so it can pick up the paper again for another boat.]

Thank you.

[Since this fella is being so helpful, the Soldier attempts another question, as it folds paper.]

The spirits attacked before. Were they these spirits?

[The one the Soldier just displaced gets a light pat and a gentle shove towards the crafts, itself. As if the Soldier were nudging a toddler along to play, with its shiny metal arm.]

Or different ones?

[The spirit in question slumps forward, a little disappointed in the lack of pets, then slinks off toward the crafts pile in search of something to chew on.

Rosinante shakes his head.]

Not like those. They were taller, and thin. Long limbs and claws. And some of them had green eyes. They're pretty distinctive, and I'd never seen them in town before. I was actually out at the lighthouse when I saw the first one turn on us. Haven't seen one since that attack, either. If you see something like that, say something on the network so we all know where it is. I'd say kill it, but I'd worry about setting the rest of them off. And the first one we saw out at the lighthouse didn't attack right away, anyway. They might not always be hostile.

Did they speak in music? Like these?

[It pauses in its folding to pull out the ocharina from one of its many pockets. The Soldier's is shaped like a curled up cat. What the Soldier's driving at is, maybe next time they can communicate.

It feels like it's done more killing in its life than it wants to, honestly. Even talking sounds better. (Especially if talking is music.)]

[if he's going to be approaching the master for some trinkets, he'd better make nice first. Right? Right. Diplomacy and all that.]

Was this your idea, or the spirits themselves?

[Putting the ocarina away, or, at least pulling it from his mouth instead of just blowing it hard at Kakyoin, Quentin tilts his head back until it rests against the tree. The few spirits that were circling him, stop moving and just sort of looks at them, heads tilted and nostrils flaring. Well, for the ones who had nostrils. Not all of them did.]

I've been practicing. Hello. [He keeps his voice down like Kakyoin and just sort of whispers it back.] You found clothes!

[ oh...!

daylight looks up from the waters and cranes his neck towards where he heard rosinante's voice. his winglets flutter up at the sight of a familiar face and daylight flashes a small smile at rosinante, raising a servo up to wave a greeting. ] Thanks. It's a favourite song of mine.

I- [ he takes a deep vent, tilting his helm from the side like it'll make the words easier to come out. ] I was taught singing by my family. Apparently both my parents were really good at this. I wanted to share something with them so, um, yeah.

[It will be noted, yes. Especially since she's never met a human person that stopped and apologized to her for their behavior. At first, the humans belittled her for her looks- tall ears, tattoos on her cheeks, claws, and feathers. Then it grew into outright trying to use her and kill her.

So yes, when Kakyoin sits down and apologizes, she looks up at him, unable to hide the surprise on her face.]

...you do? [Her lip twitches a bit, attention returning to the boat she's making.] I must admit that this is the first time I hear that from a human.

[She finishes the boat and places it on the ground- it looks more like a warship than anything, from all the weed she wrapped it in.]

Most that I met don't listen to reason...

[Oh-- Kakyoin blinks at her at first, then looks down at his craft stuff again a little sheepishly. After their last conversation, he'd expected something like impatience at best... Well, this is better.

And boy is that is one hell of a boat. Huh.]

The first apology...? [yo what kind of humans are you dealing with gurl] Well, we're all... something like a team around here, aren't we? So.

[He shrugs. So yeah, teamwork makes the dream work, and so he can be Nicer.]

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EVENT LOG: FOR EVERYTHING A REASON

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sept 7. b.

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i. this is so soft

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Xayah - League of Legends - ota

A. once more with feeling

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yes, all the feeling~

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