annexedlogs | 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh - well, that's easy enough to rectify.

"And if I got you one?" Codi asks, tilting her head with a little, lopsided smile. The 'what would you do for me?' follow-up is left implied.

"A matter of cost, not price." In other words - no, he was going to have her demands spelt out before he entertained any idea.

Trust issues, what trust issues.

When it comes to Codi, this is probably a wise stance to take. She huffs and leans back on an elbow, taking a long sip of her drink.

"One favor," she says after a beat. "Since I'm doing one for you, it's only fair, yeah?"

"As I do not know you, I cannot speculate as to the price." Nor would he offer. "However if you would to name the price, something may be arranged."

Because yes, he'd go for one.

Codi's small smile wraps around the edges of her cup. This man is very untrusting, which could be a problem - but it sounds like he's at least willing to negotiate, and besides, she does enjoy a challenge.

"You want me to name a favor before I even know if I need it, or if you can fulfil it?" she asks, tone playfully incredulous. "Awfully bold of you. I like it. How about you tell me what you'd be willing to do, and we can work it out from there?"

Untrusting is an understatement. Vader is paranoid and that may be underselling it. But that probably is to be expected when the man who often professed to love you was also seriously abusing you and designing you worst traumas and nightmares, then demanded a vow of fealty and only after told you the price would be to slaughter small children who came running to you for salvation.

Which he wouldn't admit to still having nightmares of.

Often. More so now that has brain could too easily put his small daughter's face among the children.

"This is a war zone. Of course you'll need a favor." There's a scoff to his voice. "Which could range from clean drinking water to rescue from interrogation to needing someone silenced."

She might not understand the deeper context of Vader's paranoia, but his answer still tells her a great deal about him. He's fixated on the fact that they're fighters - not an incorrect assumption, obviously, but Codi's machinations spread far outside of their monthly mission dockets, and she knows other rebels' priorities and skillsets sit outside of them as well. He expects to be used for war and war only; considering how useful that could be, Codi elects not to push him outside of that bubble.

"Are all of those options on the table?" she asks, brows raised.

He expects to be used period. Pretending he only exists as a tool for war - not far off the truth - limits that use. That he's also a master engineer, accomplished pilot, and other things also allows him to take advantage of others lack of knowing him.

"It would depend on who needed silenced and how silenced they needed to be." Because from threatening to murder are on the table - it would simply matter who.

Based on how Codi's smile twitches into a grin, this is exactly what she wants to hear. "I'll respect a list," she says. "It would help to know whose bad sides I shouldn't get on, anyway. But anyone else? Really?"

For a hoverboard? Codi will not argue with him, but murder in exchange for a cool floating skateboard is pretty far outside of her initial expectations. From her perspective, she could not have gotten luckier.

"Not anyone, anything is certainly on the table however. It is not a matter of price but cost." Why it wild cost her to hire him for a particular job anyway.

But then again, he's murdered far more for for less.

Codi nods, appraising. "That sounds like something that can be negotiated at the time of the request," she says with a lazy wave of her hand. "If the hoverboard can be considered a down payment, anyway - an assurance for services rendered later. I am, of course, always interested in my contractors' success, so I'll provide whatever else you need based on the task. Within reason. If you'd prefer something more material, that is also on the table."

Relief Log #2

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