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

[did they get her? she's got two cranes in one hand, and bends down to pick up the third.]

Well, they definitely chose right. Smart kids.

[does she mean it literally? is she joking. both. it's both.]

That's some shirt.

[Oh boy, they sure got her. Palamedes in his cool shirt definitely looks like a man running after his wayward kids, which, well, he is. There they go... he watches them until he sees they've found something else to grab at and yelp about (more folded paper, it seems), and then looks back to Vi.]

They're intuitive. [And he looks down at his shirt, like oh, yes, he is wearing this, huh,] Thank you. It's— they're a team. The kids. It's sports.

[It's Sports, says local nerd, who has never in his life touched a sports ball.]

[she casts a glance toward the retreating kids - wistful - sad - something.]

So you teach them sports and bring them to places like this. Because you're a team.

[it's kind of a question, she's chewing on it. it's bringing up feelings. the orphanage had been the first place she'd gone after she'd gotten her bag and robes and legs, after all. a team. a crew. a kind of family, maybe?]

What do I do with these cranes? The wishes go on the ...other paper, right? So...

I mostly hand out snacks. And make sure everyone is accounted for.

[He takes attendance. And schedules, but the kids don't see the spreadsheeting, only the snack times. But it is a team, and he's already been accused of being nurturing a dozen times, so; yes, basically.

He glances at the cranes, expression softening. His office in this very building is going to be full of crooked little origami creatures after this, he knows it.]

Keep them, I suppose. If you want to. Millie's is the one with the bent wing, [he points; it is indeed jacked up more than the usual child-hands clumsiness] but she insists it will 'still fly.'

[Hmm! He glances up from the cranes to her face; the wistful-sad-something is hard to miss.]

If you've got a minute to spare, I could show you how to make something to trade for them.

Somebody's gotta hand out snacks.

[that can be - depending on the situation - an important job, and well, making sure everyone's accounted for is just a fancier way of saying being responsible for everyone. if he's been entrusted with a bunch of orphans, and if he's here - chances are he's a more than halfway decent person.

vi thumbs the paper wing, resisting the urge to straighten it and deciding then and there for again, reasons, that she prefers it bent, and that yeah, she'll make sure it files somehow. she will carefully tuck them all into the small bag that alayne has made to match her violet yukata (she's not completely comfortable in it, but it's not as awkward as she expected).]

Yeah. I've got a few. [more than a few}

[Ah, and he doesn't like to assume, necessarily, but he's getting good at educated-ly guessing when people are full to bursting with emotions about things like family, or kids, or teamwork, and so he makes his educated guess here - and gestures for her to follow him back towards the origami tables. He's the type who hands out snacks and takes responsibility, so it's not taking up his time at all, really, to divert from his scant few kid-free minutes to teach someone else to fold paper.

So, let's go!]

I left packets back there with instructions, but I'm fairly sure everyone's only making wolves and birds, which is a criminal waste of my generous transcription.

[There are so! Many! Shapes! He copied down so much stuff!!]

I'm Palamedes, by the way.

Hello, Palamedes. I'm Vi.

[once at the tables, she finds herself with a packet - taking a seat and looking thoughtfully over the patterns, trying to decide between a sunburst and a star. eventually she goes with star. it doesn't come as easy as drawing does - it's a skillset she's unfamiliar with, but the vibe here is so ...calming she isn't even tempted to crumple up her first attempt. instead she smooths out her mistake and tries again. (she will at some point, have churned out eight stars by the time the night ends, but that doesn't mean she makes all of them now.]

What else you got? Any squids?

[she is joking. mostly. but. is there. ...a rabbit?]

[Oh, Vi— that makes his eyebrows go up in recognition, but he'll look for a squid first, obligingly. There isn't a squid; he knows there isn't a squid, he wrote all these directions, but he will rifle through the packet he has, anyway.]

I could try my hand at a squidly original.

[Terrible idea; his understanding of what real squids look like comes entirely from a children's book on marine life. Instead, he flips another page in the packet, casually. Hmm.]

I should mention: Viktor told me about you. All good things, I promise. Honestly, I was hoping you'd come around here sooner or later.

[Mostly because it's been 84 years that Viktor has had no one from his world around town, and Palamedes would rip a hole in the universe himself for Viktor's chance to see a familiar face, but also because of all the good things he's heard.]

I'm not gonna make you do that on my account. You're supposed to be putting me to work, right?

Just toss something my way that's not a bird or a wolf, then. I wouldn't want to contribute to anything ...criminal. [heh]

Oh, he told you about me? [it's a teasing tone, and she's smiling now:] All good things? Okay, now I know one of you's full of it.

[re-folding, and folding again.]

Now you'll never be rid of me.

Not a bird or a wolf; I can do that. I could make a squid with a little effort, though.

[Haha. Probably. Anyway, how about... this: he flips some pages and passes her the frog directions. He only barely knows what a frog is, but it had eyes drawn on it and he was compelled to copy it down for how silly it looks.]

And: you don't know how many things he told me. It might have been two, only they were quite impressive.

[Now, it's frog-making time, so he selects a piece of paper; red, for funsies.]

Besides— well, I'll skip to the end: I don't lie. I really was looking forward to meeting you.

[because she's, well, vi, her face ...does things she's not aware of at that last sentence: it's not one she often hears. she can't remember the last time she'd heard it in any form (unless it had been some sort of threat) before ...here. ]

Fair point.

[but how many things? how many things and what things - but she doesn't ask outright. she just skims over the directions what things and then realizes she has no idea what she's doing and reads over them again. oh. this one doesn't look too hard. it's silly-looking, but it's kinda cute. yeah. it was probably two things.]

Yeah, well, he really helped me out when he could have made everything a lot worse than it was.

I'm gonna guess you're pretty good friends, then? No offense to Viktor, but be doesn't seem like the team sports type. Or any sports, really.

[viktor and his fellow nerd friend gang. it's cuter than the frog.]

Do I look like the sports type?

[He doesn't, it's okay to admit it; he's always going to be just a little too thin and a little too tired to look entirely healthy, leaving aside the way he gets out of breath going down too many stairs. He glances up from his frog folding to give her a Look, like, really - he is dry pasta with glasses, it's fine to state the truth.

Still,] Sometimes I think Viktor's 'team sport' is doing as much as he can for everyone else. He's easily one of the best players on that team.

[Said warmly, as he resumes frog folding, because,]

He and I are partners, and that's both 'lab' and 'romantic,' so don't worry about asking. [people always do! nerd curse.] I'll be the first to admit I'm somewhat biased when it comes to him.

[Somewhat.]

Nope. [sir, you do not. deadpan, but it's not an insult. the look he gives her is priceless. and yes, people are different and good at different things, and that's honestly fine.]

I'm not gonna argue that at all. Like I said, he stepped in between me and some Trenchers ...I mean Trenchies---

---still getting used to that, by the way---

---and stopped things from getting really ugly. He got in my way. After the um, the me that was here before threatened to rob him. Which was really stupid and really brave.

[her smile is self effacing: she knows something about both of those things in combination. she continues to be surprised by it, and there's respect in her tone.

she's fighting a battle now with this paper. unfold, refold. this frog won't sit level when she's done with it, it's listing to one side, but she will finish it anyway. and out of her mouth comes an unfiltered:]

Aww. That's so cute.

[she pauses in her work, slowly reaching - raising her hand in the air - waiting for that high five.]

[Palamedes glances up from his own frog-- oh? She wants a crisp high five, for him and Viktor? He blinks, but without any questions he leans up a little out of his seat to reach over and deliver the crispest of high fives, or at least as crisp as someone with the physique of a matchstick can manage. The audible whap! is satisfying, at the very least.

Hell yeah.]

Thank you, and don't tell him I agreed with you. His ears turn pink in a heartbeat when you tell him he's adorable.

[Or: try it sometime, for sure. He settles back down for more frog folding, squinting at it -- it's adequate? He could do better, but this frog will remain as a reminder.]

He did mention something about your memories being different. [Not carrying over? A different iteration entirely? Therein lies the mystery.] I've been wondering how that works; there's no data, because how could there be a process for keeping track of that? But there's got to be some explanation.

[A beat. Ah,]

Not that it matters. You're here and you're you— I am just insatiable.

[she will have to remember this 'pink ears' tidbit. but to the other thing, she makes a zipping motion over her lips.]

I dunno. I do remember arriving. Kinda hard to forget sitting on the beach and waiting for my arm to lose the tentacles and turn back into an arm. It was Alayne that helped me with that. But ...I don't remember much after that besides getting our bags, robes, you know, that whole drill. We exchanged books. Oh. Yeah, my book. It was different this time around. It looked the same, but there was more written in it. More useful stuff. Everything else in my bag was the same, even the bag.

After that I just remember starting all over again. Same drill, but no snow. No hot food, just... [vague gestures into the air]

Four people remember me, so far, including Alayne. Three of them remember things I don't. Remember me saying or doing them. Not just the mugging thing. Stuff like fighting in a tournament.

[she's stopped folding for some of this, returns to folding for other parts - its an easy excuse to break eye contact, and she uses it now to keep her voice light.]

Viktor met my sister here.

[the unasked part just hangs there: did he say anything about that? about her?]

[Oh, she does have a lack of memory in the middle, then - the 'Vi' who did 'the mugging thing,' is she the same Vi? Therein lies the debacle. Palamedes has wondered how much their own wills contribute to manifesting their own bodies outside of the sea, past the 'squid' level— could memory be a part of that?

He should be writing this down. Instead he folds down a corner on his new frog, and he says,] Someone could write a paper about this. Even the bag?

[Strange; that's an entirely duplicated arrival, then, and different from the return from death, a fact that only matters to Palamedes in the immediate because he can use it as proof that being in the sea and being dead are not one in the same.

Thank goodness. He shrugs, shaking his head over mugging, and the tournament-]

I wasn't part of that; I didn't meet anyone in the tournament.

[And. As for this other thing.]

Viktor told me about your sister— sort of. Blue hair, a little rambunctious? [he did not use the word rambunctious.] That's about it; we're very particular about privacy, considering the myriad ways this place isn't. You haven't found her?

Yup. Even the bag.

Your name came up. So did someone named Ford Pines. As possible people to ask about this stuff, if I really wanted to figure it out. [she shrugs] But I'm not really keen on it happening again, you know? It's hard enough being responsible for one of me, I don't want to have to answer for two.

[regarding meeting people at the tournament, have a joke, palamedes. it's delivered deadpan without looking up.] I didn't either.

[she raises her eyes at rambunctious - (it's an interesting word choice) meeting his if he's looking - holding a moment and then it's back to folding.]

A little. She's--- she's a lot, but... [too many buts to get into.] When That's a thing I remember, too. From being here before, I guess, but it's really hazy. I swear I saw her, talked to her, but I can't...

Alayne looked for her, but no dice. Well, no Jinx, at least. The dice? More like snake-eyes, because some lich emperor murdered a whole bunch of people and fucked up her eye.

[she is aggressively folding now, whoops.]

I don't know any Ford Pines. You can ask me whatever you want whenever you want to, but don't feel obligated; I'm not going to make a case study out of you, or anything.

[Somebody really could write a paper about this!! But it doesn't have to be him, and it doesn't have to be about her.

But put a pin in that, and in the sister, for a teensy little moment. He doesn't want to talk about the Emperor. He just doesn't; he's over it, he's past all that, he's taking his house and leaving, etc etc.

However, since everyone else lacks the luxury of having been raised in the fucking Empire and thus be better equipped to Just Leave, alright:]

So many of you keep calling him a lich, but that's disingenuous— 'lich' implies he's anything more impressive than an angry toddler with a lot of unearned power.

[He folds a corner, casually.]

I'm not begrudging you or anyone else your anger; I have plenty of anger of my own. But he's a playground bully, and they thrive on the attention.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TANABATA ⟶ July Sanctuary Log

cool guy has chill day

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