annexedlogs | Relief Log #2

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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.

NAVIGATION

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III. The Skyclad Lightshow

[ 'It reminds me of the Eye of Aldhani'. Obi-Wan though to himself as he stood beneath the colorful, aerial display.

He had allowed the positive emotions brought on by the combination of adrenaline high into endorphin rush to buoy along a good mood for the past few hours, but that was beginning to fade. It left him feeling nostalgic, allowed memories he'd long thought forgotten, to come to the surface.

Obi-Wan had only just begun his apprenticeship with Qui-Gon Jinn the first time they had gone to Aldhani to witness the atmospheric event known as The Eye of Aldhani. It happened that the three year period had fallen in line with a bit of mandatory leave. Mandatory leave, meaning that Qui-Gon had defied the Council and said Council was debating the next best course of action with their resident Maverick.

Qui-Gon had serenely decided that this was the Force telling him to indulge in the opportunity to participate in the pilgrimage. He'd packed up a protesting Obi-Wan -how could they leave the Temple with the Council angry at them???- and flown them both to Aldhani.

The memory of their whirlwind trip continued to unfold as Obi-Wan stood, arms crossed over his chest, watching the light show above. His lips twitched in a melancholy smile, gaze far, far away. ]

IV - Night of Remembrance

Oranges

[ There was never any question of which lantern Obi-Wan was going to pick up. Still, he was slightly embarrassed by the way the volunteer had practically fawned in his direction as they'd handed over the magical lantern. Taking his oranges and the bento box, along with his magical lantern, Obi-Wan made his way into the cemetery.

Here he could be found stopping to speak with the ghosts who approached him. It did not matter if their approached him with friendly intent or with anger, the old Jedi calmly met and spent time with each and every one. Even those that appeared angry, violent at the start left the encounter with an orange.

With the amount of time Obi-Wan took, sometimes sitting and listening to a ghost for what felt like hours, one would assume that he was going to fail at keeping the food warm. ]

Memories

[ By the time Obi-Wan made it to the shrine, he appeared almost painfully withdrawn. Serene, peaceful even but openly sad and lost to memories.

Memories that had been initially stirred up when he had taken on the towers in magical combat. Memories he'd done his best to shove back under various mental rugs as he made his way through the missions and initial aftermath. But Obi-Wan had learned, after ten years of trying to avoid these emotions, that ultimately he had to face the shatterpoints that littered his past.

At the shrine he paced out a small five by five foot space and with a deep breath, spoke a small cantrip. He'd learned the cantrip while he'd been studying for the more complicated magics they'd needed to use out in the field, and in short order a small bonfire flared to life in front of him.

It wouldn't last long, but he didn't need it too last long. The meal he'd prepared and set into the bento box would benefit from the heat, warming enough to be palatable upon the tongue of phantoms who resided only in his mind.

When the box was heated, Obi-Wan walked to the shrine and artfully began to lay out the food. There was something of ritual to his motions, as if he were setting a table or perhaps merely going through the motions a Padawan learned in order to prepare a meal for their master and themselves.

'There is no death. There is the Force' he repeated to himself as he finished setting out the food, then sat back on his heels. He ran through the Jedi Code again, and again, but there was something in about the night. Perhaps it his experience speaking with the ghosts in the cemetery, perhaps it was a hold over from the fears stirred up in the battle; probably it was a combination of both.

Whatever it was, for the first time, Obi-Wan allowed himself to say words he'd never spoken aloud. ]

I miss you, Master.

V. Wildcard: [ooc: Want something that doesn't line up with these prompts? Feel free to throw it at me! ]

Edited 2022-10-23 21:34 (UTC)

[From nearby, Elma hears the words -- and the tone. In a situation like this one, she thinks that calm engagement without an excess of any emotion, positive or negative, is probably the healthiest way to approach. (Not the least because she's terrible at engaging any other sort of way.]

Did one of them say something that got to you, or is it just the sheer volume?

[She doesn't look up from her own careful arrangements, instead focused on making the food as lovely as possible.]

[ Further testament to how lost he was to his own thoughts, Obi-Wan had not recognized how close he was in proximity to other people. It was a little embarrassing to be caught talking to himself, but he offered Elma a gentle smile. ]

Not entirely. [ Obi-Wan explained, glancing over his shoulder towards the cemetery. ] Battling the magical barriers around the sensor towers stirred things up, quite a bit more than perhaps I realized at the time.

Our friends [ he motioned towards the wisps of ghosts flitting about within eyesight ] blew a soft wind, that raised awareness a little higher.

[To be fair, she does blend in a bit. Darker skin, and rather than her usual red armor she's in subdued, casual clothes -- for the first time since coming here, in fact. The reason why is no small amount of embarrassing.]

That was an experience, to be sure. First incident in a Tether having... interesting consequences, for me.

I'm not much for terrific advice on love and loss, but I can listen, if it would help you get it out.

I expect my tether partner is getting quite fed up with the experiences he's had to go through, being tied to me. [ Obi-Wan said, his tone expressing genuine regret towards what the Doctor has been dragged through in the past. At least now, with his connection to the Force reestablished, Obi-Wan can try to shield his tether partner from the worst of it.

As for her offer, Obi-Wan gave his head a small shake before he leaned towards his offer and nudged a bit of bread. His own display was no where near as artistic as her own, though those he was honoring would not have looked for it to be so. ]

I should not be allowing it to be a case of either of those. We are taught from a young age, that there is no loss and though our duty is to have compassion for all, love is a form of attachment that needs to be set aside.

[ The words felt particularly hollow as he said them, but all the same Obi-Wan turned towards Elma with a warm smile. ] It would be a kindness, were you to forget you heard me say anything.

[ With that, he nodded towards her own display. ] That is beautiful.

I don't try to put a lot of energy into missing the dead... but the dead don't usually show up demanding oranges from me, so I'm making an exception for this memorial.

[The job is worth doing right, if it's worth doing at all, and though she doesn't understand exactly what truly lies behind this 'ghost' phenomenon, there's no sense in treating it at less than face value in the meantime.]

Your philosophy sounds like one that originated on Earth. The basic idea being a rejection of attachment, because nothing is permanent and thus nothing can provide a satisfactory life. To oversimplify it, of course.

Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi | Star Wars | All Open

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memories }

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IV - Memories

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