deercountry | TANABATA ⟶ July Sanctuary Log

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TANABATA ⟶ July Sanctuary Log

Sanctuary - TANABATA

"SEE YOU AGAIN, MOM"

The "star festival", celebrating the one time of the year when star-crossed lovers could cross over a sea of stars to meet again. One based on hopes, wishes, and the fervent desire to see each other again. Following the departure of Amaterasu back to the sea, wolf momgod of all who is responsible for the Guardian Saplings including the one Sanctuary has been founded around, Sanctuary is hosting the best approximation to a Tanabata celebration as the Trench will allow. Why? Because hope keeps the trees alive and strong, and Tanabata is about people having hope -- and would have been happening around the same time.

And because people miss dogmom and she would have liked it.

The festival is taking place at Sanctuary, but all Guardian Saplings can be paid visits. Paper for wishes and decorations have been set up at each/given to the other caretakers.

A Sea of Stars
The main hall has been transformed into a living night sky, with jars of hope from the moonlit butterflies back in April hung with care high up, each repacked with a single orb of hope per small vial with care, creating a river of starlike glowing lights overhead. The windows have been covered to aid with the nighttime effect, in addition to helping to keep out the light of the Beast Moon after dark. The gentle glow, as they are literally the tactile hopes and dreams of people, provides a small purifying, uplifting effect to everyone underneath. The light ebbs and flows calmly. The hall is cool as well, thanks to the pale/cold bloodstone cooling system that glows like moonstone along the walls and keeps the indoor areas regulated.

In the evening, as the sun sets, the new choir bell will ring out as well, cleansing corruption entirely from all who hear it. The lights gently pulse in time with it.

Wishes and the Guardian Sapling
The sapling is no longer in bloom, but despite the sweltering heat in full glory. Paper wishes are hung in its branches, along with origami streamers in colorful paper of cranes and other shapes. A bustle of activity is in the cloisters around it in particular, with most tables set up there to keep the courtyard itself clear. Origami streamers are hung in all the doorways leading out to it as well, creating the effect of string curtains, and there are paper lanterns as well.

A life-size stone statue of a wolf bearing a striking resemblance to Amaterasu has been erected next to the sapling, with her most radiantly happy canine expression she could sometimes get. There is room to place offerings for her, and people are encouraged that she would like "all the foods."

Colorful strips of paper (tanzaku) have been cut and placed out on a table in the cloisters surrounding the courtyard, where one can write their wishes for the next year down on them and hang them on the guardian sapling. They come in the following colors with a helpful, but... somewhat hard to read note with arcane handwritten note:

Red will help with wishes relating to ancestors and family, and giving thanks.
Yellow is the color of friendship and is the best choice for wishes about relationships.
White is the color for determination and responsibility, and for making personal resolutions.
Blue represents tranquility and trust and will aid wishes aimed at self-improvement.
Purple is the color to choose if you want to improve your brainpower and skills.

Food and Activities
Following all of the best creative recreation methods available to them in Trench, the cooks in the kitchens have been trained by Megumi Fushiguro, among others, on how to best serve culturally appropriate dishes. These foods are served free at little vendor booths in the main hall (with people encouraged to help out and help serve!) and include pawprint mochi (the inside is either chocolate or strawberry), pickled sakura mochi, mitarashi and tricolor dango, chilled somen with a yuzu-soy dipping sauce, various types of filled onigiri, and cut watermelon in a variety of shapes including stars, sunbursts, and pawprints. Many have been made with small amounts of the Paleblood jam from June and have mild corruption cleansing effects as well. Various kinds of tea made from the dried or pickled cherry blossoms and/or leaves of the guardian sapling are being served as well, and they have a corruption-cleansing effect and have been noted as tasting "heavenly". Some of the jams have been cut with fruit juice/lemonade and frozen into popsicles as well... you're welcome, CorruptionPops are now a thing.

Various demonstration and activity tables have been set up including origami, with... questionably penned instructions from Palamedes in an arcane style for several shapes including cranes, sunbursts, stars, and wolves. Various Sleepers familiar with the practice have also been encouraged to set up there and help teach people how, and everyone is encouraged to hang their completed crafts in the guardian sapling. Most of the paper is red, white, pink, and gold. Paper lanterns have been made as well and light up various parts of the whole festivities.

A few vendor booths are set up, including one "selling" white yukata, trimmed in red and gold and bearing a distinctive star pattern on the back of it and intricate embroidery. Most Sanctuary members would receive one for free if they expressed interest, and anyone else can receive one for volunteering their time and helping out. People are encouraged to wear them for the celebration if they didn't have their own; these are styled in honor of Amaterasu.

Koz Orphanage has been specially invited as well, and children from it can be found running around during much of the event and given various activities to do or items to play with.

Sparklers are available for individuals as well, also courtesy of Viktor. Perhaps there might even be glowsticks from someone... :)

Fireworks and Closing Celebrations
On the final night, all the wishes will be gathered from the trees and collected in a ceremonial firepit. The wishes are burnt in order to release them to the heavens to be heard—and perhaps by Amaterasu still at sea—and will be ignited by several Sleepers with fire abilities (Shouto Todoroki, Megumi Fushiguro).

As they're burnt a fireworks display will begin overhead, launched from the steeple up high, courtesy of Viktor and anyone else assisting him in the matter. Anyone outside watching them in the courtyard will have the effects of the Beast Moon diminished by the blessing in effect from Moon Presence. The choir bell will toll a final time at the end, to clear the effects of any lingering corruption, and signal an end to the festivities.

WHAT

Sanctuary is about humane beast purification efforts and corruption relief. Renovations began in May 2022 and room clearing and rebuilding is still in progress. Beast patrol efforts and purification started more in earnest in June-July.

All roles are volunteer on an as-you-can basis up to full time, with time reimbursed by food, shelter, care, and community support. And because it's run by people who BLEED SENTIMENTALITY EVERYWHERE in addition to being founded on discovery of a Guardian Sapling, it's hosting a Tanabata celebration in conjunction with honoring the memory of Amaterasu.

WHEN

Starting July 7, ending after a few days in a final celebration and ceremonial burning of the wishes.

THINGS OF NOTE

Tanabata
➢ Please feel free to presume your character could have helped out with setup if they have any ties to Sanctuary or characters here! If they would provide a food, service, or game they are free to have a table set up.

➢ This event is open to the whole of Trench and would have been freely advertised as such, including as a safe place to treat effects from the Beast Moon and corruption.

General / Member Update
➢ Sanctuary has been blessed by Moon Presence for the month of July, thanks to the efforts of Luna and Sansa. All negative effects of July and the Beast Moon are lessened within its walls, and anyone meaning Sanctuary or the people in it will be physically repelled. Lunar flowers have begun growing up the sides of the monastery in earnest like morning glories as a result.

➢ as of June, coordinated efforts to patrol Trench on their own and save Beasts and people both have begun. Members will be on a group chat in order to coordinate with each other and reach out to purification Sleepers when encountering Beasts. Everyone is encouraged to work in teams, especially to partner with someone who can purify Beasts or corruption.

➢ a training facility has opened up, with currently self-defense hand-to-hand combat classes being taught by Jason and others willing to train others encouraged to come forward. Fighters on patrol and wardens will be contacted to let them know about open sparring times so members can coordinate better in fights. There is an indoor room with training dummies (that fight back courtesy of Viktor) that opens up into an outdoor space between two of the long halls that can also be used.

➢ with the hidden archives now unlocked, scholarly members of Sanctuary are encouraged to help study them and uncover other artifacts—and especially the strange new locked door discovered within.

➢ there is a family of batcat kittens old enough to be crawling everywhere throughout the building now. They might still be learning manners and latch onto you in an overexcitement to taste your blood from time to time.

➢ the large communal baths have been cleared out and renovated, thank god. They run on being open to male-identifying characters for one set of hours, female-identifying for another, and the rest of the time operate on "nobody cares". Privacy screens are hung between the tubs though—one side is regularly cooled down with ice for the hot months.

➢ with more people needing safe harbor during the Beast Moon and rising violence from natives during July, more actual rooms have been cleared out and are free to use for anyone who will also help work to maintain the place (chores, grounds keeping, etc.). There are always spare beds in the infirmary wing as well.

➢ members who patrol or purify beasts/fight in some way now have access to various relic items that have been donated for use for when they are actively on patrol. These will eventually be tracked in the member spreadsheet... eventually. Just give them back when you're done.

➢ Viktor and K's efforts have resulted in the lunar generator coming online and bringing lunar lighting and cooling throughout the building via a cold-pale bloodstone network. Rejoice!

➢ There is now a small, hidden stash of coffee bartered from Dabi. Someone might have to pry it from Viktor's jittery fingers.

This log is WIDE OPEN for Tanabata festivities and serves as the general log for Sanctuary for the month. Go wild and do whatever you want, have fun with your top levels, etc. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He takes his and starts eating it. ... He does feel a little better with some food in him, though not totally. He watches some kids run around, screaming and playing tag. It's been a long time since he played... any sort of game.]

Did you write your wishes down?

[Since that's. Sort of the whole point of the festival. He had some trouble with his own, don't judge him.]

[Palamedes, uh... picks at his food, but he's eating it. Slowly. He's eating the cute star things, there's that.]

Mm, I did— but I think I got carried away. Half of mine turned into letters to my cavalier.

[Did he hang them up anyway, yes! Do they look a mess because he tied them all together into one giant wish-letter, also yes! It happens.]

I know the likelihood that she'll know I miss her just because I wrote it down is incredibly low, but it felt better writing it down. How about yours?

To your what?

[That's not a word he knows. Sounds... French, maybe? He's not sure.]

I... wrote apology notes, mostly.

[Even though they're not going to do anything. He still felt like he had to do it regardless.]

... It still feels kind of dumb to do. I don't think it'll do anything, just... hanging on a tree.

Cavalier— it's an official position back home, but you can think of her as my best-friend-plus-occasional-bodyguard. I'm eminently fragile. [haha, anyway,] She was here, a few months ago. Then one morning she wasn't.

[He's quiet a moment, fully in his head about that particular loss, before he sighs shortly and comes back to the conversation.]

Does it have to do something? Think of it as practice. In case the people you wrote to show up here.

I see. So she went back to the ocean.

[Mm. That's not great.]

I guess? I don't know if they'll end up here. They're... all better than me. So they probably ended up someplace better.

[Maybe Machi would show up here, but the others? No.]

It was... hard, though.

She did. I'm sure she'll be back, but it's taken long enough that I'm... well; never mind.

[He waves a hand; this sad child does not need his Camilla-based anxieties dumped on him, on top of everything else.]

Sometimes the truth is hard. You know, my House, where I'm from, we have a saying— something like a community catchphrase, I guess. It goes 'truth over solace'— in the end, painting over our ugly parts is worse for us, even if it feels worse to look at them at first.

[But oh, is he preaching. He's preaching. Well, circling back--]

Do you think this place is a punishment?

Mm.

[It's not a bad saying - he prefers the truth himself. But then someone asks the question he's been waiting for.]

... I don't know. It might be. I don't know about the people who came here alive, but for the dead it might be. This place, with monsters everywhere and bad things that keep happening... I don't believe in gods or an afterlife or anything, but...

... But if I'm here, maybe it is. I wasn't... a good person.

Hmm.

[Okay, so this maybe isn't a conversation to have while idling in front of food stalls. Palamedes gestures again for Jun to follow, so they can idle in a more isolated location just off to the side - loitering, not close enough to anyone Activity that somebody might come up and try to get them to try something.

So.]

I think, if I had to choose, I would say this place is punishing itself. It used to be different, or so I hear; some of the people here now, the Sleepers, used to live in something they call 'the dream'— it's thematic, you get it. But something happened to that that led to the way this place is now; that's all I know.

[He shrugs lightly, but not dismissively; he really doesn't know any more details than that, other than something about a Julia Sodder that he hasn't made an effort to confirm, because it seems sensitive.

...And,] I died before I came here. If you're looking to call this place some kind of 'hell,' well, I don't really know. I don't think so.

[He follows along and listens, taking the information in. It used to be different... hm.]

I don't know what this place is. I don't know how to make sense of it. And I don't know how to make sense of being alive again.

[His voice is quiet, a little shaky.]

I don't know what to do. People say I should be grateful for a second chance, but... a second chance to do what? I can't exactly do what I wanted to do when I got older...

It might not make sense for a while.

[The city. This world. Being alive again. Any and all, but he doesn't bother to specify. He quits picking at his noodles to put a hand on Jun's shoulder, light and brief, an understanding if nothing else.]

Frankly, platitudes are useless. Other people, they want to help, but it's like I said: painting over it doesn't make it go away.

[The unique circumstances of his own death- and the one he suffered here, come to think of it- leave him wondering what he might have wanted someone to say to him, afterwards. What would have helped.

...Well, it wasn't precisely afterwards, but,] It's enough just to exist for a while, you know. You don't have to make sense, either. Or worry about doing something to 'earn' this.

I guess. Nothing here makes sense at all, so...

[He freezes at the touch to his shoulder and relaxes when it's away. No offense, Pal - he's just not used to physical touch.]

I don't really know how to exist without... watching people die. It's been months, and I can barely remember what it's like to have any kind of normal life. The nightmares are bad, and every day I'm just tired.

[It's the trauma, he knows it's the trauma. But he can't remember how life was like before.]

[Ah, noted. Encouraging shoulder pats placed firmly in the 'better not' category, for now.]

A lot of people died around me before I woke up here, too. D'you want to know how long it took me to talk to anyone— really talk to anyone about it? [A beat, for effect,] Five months.

[He holds up a hand in advance, like, he knows, he knows-]

I won't push you to say anything else to anyone. You're already more opened up than I was. Trust me, I know it's embarrassing, and messy and awful— but you should know, you're not the only one.

... I already talked a lot on the network about it. People don't know it's me, though. ... Most people.

[If he scrolls back through the network, there'll indeed be a text post that Palamedes may or may not have seen. But that's a later thing.]

I don't really feel like I've opened up, though. I don't... I'm not used to people caring about me. It used to mostly just be me and my sister - adopted... sister. I'm the one who's adopted.

[He lets that sit for a moment. He's still not over the betrayal, the sudden realization that what he blamed Kana for wasn't even the right thing.]

And I treated her... terribly. So... everyone being nice to me is... weird. I mean, I had friends, before they died... but we never talked about stuff like this.

[Things have been. ...A little raucous, around many people he knows, this month; if not for that, he might have caught it. As it stands, he raises his eyebrows, almost like a question - would Jun like him to go back and read it? Would that be simpler?

Something for later.]

The thing about other people is they're going to make their own decisions, anyway. Especially when you don't understand what they're doing it for.

[And there are just so many boisterous hero types ready to forgive everybody no matter what, which is maybe its own, separate problem, but--]

You still want to be punished, huh? No one here knows what you've done— I don't advocating lying, obviously. Or listing off your sins as soon as you meet someone. But I doubt you'll feel better if you push people away from the start.

I... I know that. And people keep going on about how I should make friends, and how it's easy to make friends in this place - but I'm not... I never know what to talk about, or to do or to say. Friends just kind of happened to me before.

... I don't know about pushing people away. It's all I seem to know how to do.

[He doesn't... know how to make friends. It's not like something he was ever taught.]

[Hoo boy. Palamedes looks down at his noodles, for something else to look at, making a quick pursed-lip decision before, of course:]

You and I can be friends. Don't mistake this for pity, or for charity; it isn't. But if you're willing to try, I'm willing to give you a chance. I'll even tell you when you're out of line, if you like.

[He holds a hand out, but mm, maybe not a handshake, after before - a fist bump? Accept these knucks?]

Want to give it a whirl?

... Okay.

[He lifts his hand and fistbumps Pal gently.]

Why not? I don't really have anything left to lose at this point.

[He picks at his noodles a little bit, eating a few quietly.]

[Fistbump completed, friendship secured. It's that easy! If it's Palamedes, anyway.]

Such confidence in our new friendship. I assure you, you'll be fine.

[He too resumes looking at his noodles, although mostly just to pick out the other star-thing and nibble at that. Eating... bleh.]

To that end, you can stop by my office anytime. You wanted to study, didn't you? I can show you where the secret archive is.

[He snorts. Don't mind him, he's just a pessimist.]

I did, yeah. And there's a secret archive? Forbidden books, or something like that?

[Who knows what a weird book might do to him in this place, but he's totally up for seeking knowledge that isn't widely available. He wants to learn so much more, and if it's blocked off somehow it's got to be good. Right?]

There is, and I'm not sure yet. It does house at least one cursed relic and an aggressively locked door, at least.

[He loves that secret archive with all of his librarian heart, especially because it doesn't move.]

I've found a few texts that I've seen in the other Archives, but I haven't read all of them yet.

Aggressively locked door? I'm not sure I can help with that, but I can look at it, at least.

[Maybe if they just bashed it down? It depends how it's locked. Padlocks is what he's picturing.]

I can help you go through them, if you'd like.

Sure, the more the merrier. We've determined it's not covered in Norse runes. You'll see.

[Because it is indeed covered in runes, but they're gibberish. Absolute nonsense. Actually, as he puts his noodles down... just on the nearest corner of a table, sorry table, to pull out his omni and swipe to a picture of the door--]

You can see right now. Look, here- [It's a photo of a big wooden door covered in runes of some mysterious origin, arranged in a way that's definitely specific and likely tied to the locking mechanism. The picture is... weird, because the omni has tried to translate some of the runes, but the result is, again: gibberish. Nonsense to the highest degree.]

That's our door. The current plan is finding out if anything in the archive helps us crack this one open.

Oh.

[Well there's... the problem.]

I don't know anything about those kinds of locks. But I can help look. There's got to be some way to go through.

... I assume you already tried knocking it down?

[It's the most obvious solution, but that doesn't mean it's been tried.]

Well... no.

[In fairness, most of them are skinny little nerds. However,]

The last door, the one into the secret archives- it didn't even like to be touched by the wrong blood; nearly blinded me! I've been taking it easy around doors since we got the place open.

[Hmm...]

We could try a battering ram, if the straits get dire enough.

Oh. I... I guess that's fair.

[Not really, but fair enough in this place.]

As long as it doesn't take the wall out around it... that might be an issue.

[He sighs and runs his hands through his hair. Stupid magic doors.]

Have you tried putting different kinds of blood near it to see which reacts with it? Maybe you can do that and make sure you don't get blinded again.

TANABATA ⟶ July Sanctuary Log

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