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annexedlogs2022-10-21 09:04 pm
modaccount) wrote in annexedlogs2022-10-21 09:04 pm
Relief Log #2
I. In The Aftermath
After the mission is complete, the new recruits are invited back to Central Command for a patch-up and celebration to let loose and socialize a little bit.
The first order of business is the patching up. Anyone who was injured is welcome to go to the Hospital, if the injuries are more serious. Everyone else, those with smaller injuries like scrapes and bruises, minor cuts or burns or abrasions, are welcome to come to the Infirmary in Central Command. There will also be attendants that tell returning new recruits that if they'd like to learn a little first aid and tend to their comrades, they can also head to the Infirmary.
In the Infirmary, anyone who's not injured but shows up will be instructed in basic first aid so they can tend to their teammates and friends. Nurses will be rotating around to check in on people and make sure nothing is more serious than it looks, but generally, the new recruits will be encouraged to tend to their teammates in order to encourage group bonding.
II. A Fine Meal
On an evening a few days after the mission is complete, all the extra-universal new arrivals will be summoned to one of the large meeting rooms in the Central Command for a feast. When they arrive in the room, it is decorated with orange and brown streamers and fall iconography - bundles of twigs and dried flowers, bundles of fragrant herbs, dried pumpkins with faces and fall scenes carved into them, and other decorations. In the center of the room there is a large table laden with delicious-looking fall foods - poultry birds so large they had to have been roasted on a spit, huge roasted portobello-style mushrooms, mashed tubers, gravy, stuffing, bean casserole, candied yams, mooncakes, boiled spicy crayfish, roast herring, various types of stews ranging from traditional stew to fish stew to mushroom stew, and tons of desserts like tarte tatin, ice cream, apple crumble, pumpkin pie, and almost any other fall food you can think of.
Characters will be invited to sit around the table and feast together, while quiet music plays in the background, facilitating conversation. Some of the rebels have volunteered to keep restocking the table as people wander in and out to sit at the table and eat in rough shifts, and these volunteers will encourage characters to share things they're thankful for, things that make their lives better. All of those things that make life worth living, that make the fight worth fighting.
On a table near the door to the room, there is a stack of beautifully cloth-wrapped bento-style boxes that characters are invited to take with them. They are told by volunteers that these boxes aren't just leftovers for later, but a necessary component of the night's test of courage. They encourage characters to take one and participate, as it's a particularly bright feather in the cap of anyone who undertakes it.
III. The Skyclad Light Show
Once the feasting throughout the late afternoon and early evening is about complete, characters will be invited out into the courtyard of the Central Command for the evening's entertainment. The courtyard is essentially a small but beautiful park, with benches, patches of grass, a few ornamental trees and gardens, and plenty of places to spread out a blanket (provided by friendly volunteers!) and watch the show. And what a show it is!
Every year around this time the Skyclad take magical lights that trail behind them, and put on a spectacular light show in the sky. Streaks of vibrant color follow each hoverboard as those riding them in the sky flip, twirl, dive, and perform other feats of hoverboard artistry for the crowd below. The show goes on for about 45 minutes, with the Skyclad twisting and twirling, drawing beautiful designs against the evening sky.
Characters who really bonded with their hoverboards and took to tricks and flips and kicks after the mission would have been invited to participate, especially if they were interested in joining the Skyclad. The Skydance, as they call it, is quite highly choreographed to avoid midair collisions, all with the goal of producing something truly beautiful and ephemeral. Try not to choke!
IV. Night of Remembrance
The final tradition of the evening is a solemn remembrance of the warriors who have fallen in the fight against the Sylphid. After the Skydance, volunteers would have set up another table of those bento boxes from earlier as well as little bags containing 5 mandarin oranges, and would brief the people in small groups about the traditional Night of Remembrance. The Night of Remembrance is a really big deal among the Witches, and is a great opportunity to prove yourself if you're looking to gain respect and rise up the ranks, as it's also partially a test of courage. The tradition involves taking leftover food from the feast to the shrine at the cemetery in the Mages Sector in order to 'prepare a feast' for the dead and honor those who have fallen, and offering oranges to the fallen along the way. The food must still be at least a little warm when it's presented to the spirits. Sounds simple, right?
Once characters who wish to participate find their way to the cemetery, they will discover a couple more volunteers with a variety of lanterns. For some reason, nothing electric, battery-powered, or at all technological will work in the cemetery, and they haven't for as long as anyone can remember. Any light source must be either very old-school or magical in nature, and texting someone for help would be completely impossible. But why would you need to call someone for help?
Well, it wouldn't be a test of courage without a little danger, right? On this night, every year, the spirits in the cemetery are stirred up and come back into the land of the living. Yes, ghosts do really exist. The ghosts have a variety of temperaments - some of the ghosts are very pleasant and will chat with people for a while before accepting their orange, some are playful and mischievous and will play pranks on people coming into the cemetery (these pranks are sometimes harmless and sometimes very not-harmless), and others are angry and resentful at being dead and won't hesitate to viciously attack interlopers. Some of the more unfriendly ghosts can be calmed down with pleasantries and shows of respect, but others cannot be and will continue to attack interlopers until offered one of the oranges that they've brought.
There are two types of lanterns available: traditional lamps that are simply a candle in a glass bell that can be easily carried with a ring on the top, and magic lamps that attract spirits and appear as a glowing blue-green orb floating in a glass bell fitted with a ring for portability. People carrying traditional lamps are seen as quite brave, but those who take a magical lamp are absolute legends.
Participants will need to take a bento, some oranges, and a lantern of either variety, present the oranges to various ghosts as they make their way to a shrine on the other side of the cemetery, where they will set out the food from the bento as beautifully as possible...and don't let that food get cold, or your offering will be worthless - who wants congealed gravy and soggy stuffing?! At the shrine, they will find an assortment of delicate beaded charms attached to the branches of a large weeping willow tree. These are protected by magic, and can only be taken by someone who's completed the tradition. They will light up a different color depending on what kind of lantern the participant is carrying. These charms will provide a one-time magical boon to whoever takes them.
Characters carrying traditional lanterns will find their charms lighting up orange and these charms will, when used through the calling of a keyword by either Heba or Tian characters, summon the spirits of the dead in an area with a radius of around 50 feet to attack an enemy or group of enemies. The keyword can be set simply by speaking it to the charm. This charm can be offered to another person as a gift or kept for the character's own use, and can be used only once. If the charm has been gifted to someone, it will turn red, but will still be functional.
Characters carrying magical lanterns will find their charms lighting up blue and these charms will, when carried on a character's person, provide one resurrection from death without the loss of memory that usually comes as a side effect of resurrections. This charm can be offered to another person as a gift or kept for the character's own use, and can be used only once. If the charm has been gifted to someone, it will turn purple, but will still be functional.
Regardless of which charms are given, characters are encouraged to show them off as evidence of having participated in the Night of Remembrance. Anyone who is gifted one of these charms should be grateful, they are regarded as high-value gifts to be given only to someone you care about a great deal. Many people, regardless of whether they've earned the charms themselves or been gifted them, will attach them to their network devices to show them off.
A Fine Meal
Pressure had a sneaky way of building up, especially when it was tucked behind carefully constructed walls. Walls that often felt ancient, whether they had been built over years, decades, centuries or even millennia.
The mission had delivered more than its fair share of challenges, and during the actual mission actions there hadn't been time to process emotional responses to those challenges. The ones directly in front of them, and those suffered by others. Deliberate focus, careful compartmentalization and focus had been paramount in order to execute the mission objectives and survive the effort.
A veteran of war, as well as numerous missions that involved a wide range of dangers, Obi-Wan was aware of the energy that felt like electricity beneath his skin. It was part adrenaline dump, part endorphin rush that came with the recognition that one was still alive; part guilt for having survived where others either hadn't, or had been injured.
In his experience, the latter often expressed itself in one of two ways; mania or depression. As a Jedi he was trained in how to release either emotion to the Force, and believed he had done so before he came to Command Central.
However, as the itch continued to ride him, he suspected he was trying to release emotions that were not entirely his own.
Reconnected to the Force as he was now, there could be a couple of culprits for the emotional bled through. Obi-Wan's awareness of his own Force signature, combined with his strong Force shielding suggested that to be so affected, the source was somehow closer than merely another Force user. It was the sort of bled he could have possibly experienced from Anakin, or Qui-Gon; men with whom he'd shared a deeper Force bond. Since Qui-Gon's Force ghost had not appeared to make the trip to the Broken World, and he didn't see Vader, Obi-Wan dismissed those potential sources.
Which left, one individual.
Externally it was hard to get an accurate read on the Doctor. The Timelord was a master of misrepresenting his emotions, or misdirecting someone from gaining a truthful read of his emotional state. Obi-Wan was no exception, despite the strength of their tether. Respect and politeness meant the Jedi did his best not to intrude, which absolutely was different than meddling.
Their hosts had gone to a great deal of effort to put on this feast and Obi-Wan genuinely had no desire to be disrespectful of their generosity, which is why he would do his best to be discreet. But sometimes, the steam valve had to be hit.
Which was why a green bean, dripping with cream sauce, lifted up from the plate in front of the Timelord, and attempted to smack him right between tightly furrowed eyebrows. ]
no subject
The fun bits had happened. But so had others being hurt and those were things that he couldn't take back or reverse the decisions that had led to those moments. His own well being had never been as much of a concern to him. Time Lords were by no means invincible, but it would be a lie to say that his people lived their lives like they were near impossible to kill because they were thanks to their regenerations. The chip prevented that from happening here in the Broken World, but the power that had been gifted to him made it feel like he was more invincible than before. The swipe to his calf had been rendered nothing more than a flesh wound and the pain he had received when he had tried to heal Rokuro had been a surprise in hindsight, but there was no harm done now. Not to him anyway.
But the thought of Rokuro's pain at the tower flashed through his mind before it was shortly joined by the memory of Clara cold, clammy, and on the verge of death because of a decision he had made. It was why he was sat at the feast with a book on surgery to one side of his heaping plate of food. It was also why he didn't notice the dripping green bean that had risen from his plate like a phantom finding purchase between his brows where Obi-Wan had directed it.
Slowly his hand reaches for the bean and he examines it with confused, furrowed brows before looking around the room for the source of its movement. The tether connection of what he knows must be Obi-Wan's version of childlike triumph helps him hone right in on the man and his lips twitch despite the lingering look of confusion on his face. This silly little green bean does, for a moment, dispel the gloomy, heavy thoughts from his mind as he speaks clearly in his mind in mild amusement.
'Is that also what they teach you at your Jedi school? How to start food fights?']
no subject
Which was a round about way of saying that Obi-Wan was aware of his tether mate's disquiet, and the fact that there were weighty subjects on the Doctor's mind. But he was doing his best to shield in such a way that the Doctor could share, or not share, as he felt comfortable.
The current shenanigans required that Obi-Wan have his shielding down a little, as he was actively seeking to read his tether mate's response to the teasing. As such he caught the words shot his way, and did his best to put the most innocent expression on his face.
Who, him?
While at the same time sharing a memory with the doctor. Obi-Wan, around the age of sixteen, sitting with agemates at a long table in the Jedi Temple dinning hall, eating a bowl of soup. A bowl of soup which housed a very much alive and active demon squid which crawled out of the bowl and attacked him.
The memory came complete with Obi-Wan flailing and insisting the Temple was under attack from assassins, and his 'friends' rolling and laughing at the success of their prank. Then, because he knew what the Doctor's next question would be, he shared the image of his friend Prie cooing over the little demon squid and coaxing it onto her wrist where it had settled happy and sweet as a baby kitten.
So, to answer the question; yes. It may not have been a sanctioned class, but food fights and pranks were part of growing up with other high spirited baby Jedi.
Well ... not any more.
Obi-Wan quickly steered that last thought back under the mental rug. The green bean captured, the Doctor may want to duck, least he end up with a small gob of mashed tuber on his cheek.
'You appear distracted this evening, Doctor. Is it not considered discourteous to read at the dinner table?'
no subject
The joke was on him though. Tethering had proverbially shoved him right over the line of his comfort zone with utter disregard for where he had come from or what he wanted. But, at the very least, the person that he had ended up had been in the same boat and - shockingly enough - they got along.
Obi-Wan's shared memory of finding a living, breathing, demon squid in his soup in his younger years is a welcome one and brings a twinkle to the Doctor's eyes along with a healthy dose of amusement. It seemed that they also shared the same penchant for wanting to adopt strange creatures - or at the very least were fascinated by learning more about them. The momentary slip of cherished childhood memory into heavier almost makes the Doctor miss the levitating mashed potatoes, but spoon reflexes are arguably the fastest draw in the land. The large soup spoon that still has yet to make any contact with his soup is in front of his face before the potatoes can make contact.
He raises an eyebrow in challenge.
'It's not like I'm talking to anyone.' And sure enough there seems to be a considerable amount of room on either side of him. Prickliness and angry eyebrows aren't very appealing dinner company apparently. 'And I'm actually very focused on my book. I don't know how you lot live time linearly without getting totally bored by it all.' He motions to his seat but not before taking a bite of the mashed potato that has so graciously landed on his spoon. 'Are you coming to join me?' ]
no subject
'Helps that most of us do not have any other way of living through time to compare it with,' Obi-Wan continued the mental conversation even as he sat down beside the Doctor and got situated. 'I cannot imagine it is easy for you.'
Behind the words was the understanding that Obi-Wan respected the fact that he could never fully understand what it was for the Doctor to be trapped in linear time. While the Force granted him a great deal of power and experience with the otherworldly, Time was a law unto itself. The Doctor's relationship with it, unique to his species.
'I thought Doctor was a name you chose for yourself, rather than a genuine occupation. Are you considering changing that?' Obi-Wan continued to speak mentally as he dug into his own meal. It would probably make more sense to use his voice, Jedi were not telepaths in the traditional sense. His comfort level in using his mental voice, was somehow rooted in the tether.
Something Obi-Wan would probably have to add to the meditation pile at some point. But for this moment, he found it comfortable to speak in this way. Comfortable in the way he could weigh his words with actual emotions; such as curiosity and amusement. ]
no subject
’Well, thank god someone is finally acknowledging that.’ The sentence is laced with sarcasm of course. He doesn’t really mean it that way because he’s long since gotten used to it but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate it because he knows that Obi-Wan is being genuine. To show that appreciation he tries to give Obi-Wan a brief taste of what it feels like to move through time the way he used to. It’s the dichotomy of knowing it so intimately as if you could grasp it while just letting the flows of it ebb around you like sand. Sometimes, he thinks, it’s like falling through an infinite web of golden threads and clockwork.
In many ways, it might feel a lot like the Force.
The Doctor follows suit digging into his own meal and mildly flipping the book to the next page. ’It is and I haven’t. But I’ve lived long enough to dabble.’ There’s a moment of silence as he lets them both enjoy the food in front of them. ‘Clara wants her chip out.’ There’s no point in beating around the bush. Not when the Jedi would feel the distinct feelings of guilt mixed with determination surface. ]