hadriel_logs | Event Log: A Jar Full of Sunshine

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Event Log: A Jar Full of Sunshine

Who: Everyone!
What: The Jar Full of Sunshine event
Where: Throughout the city
When: May 3rd-May 9th
Warnings: Fireflies as a conduit for drug use. Annoyingly catchy songs.

On May 3rd, you may wake up and notice that something is different about the cave. Are you sure it's the daytime? Maybe you didn't sleep long enough, because it still seems pretty dark outside. Or, of course, the gods are messing with the lights again.

This time, however, it seems like it's actually a good thing. Sometime around the afternoon, some smaller lights begin to appear around the city, trickling in from Delight's temple and flickering on and off. These fireflies are brighter than what you might be used to, but being illuminated by their light will mysteriously allow a small surge of joy to rumble through you.

By May 4th, the shops are stocked with large mason jars, and you can start distributing them and using them to catch these fireflies as you wish. They're most concentrated in and around Delight's temple, but by now, the delight-erflies are pretty fairly spread throughout the city.

Be careful (or don't) of how many you catch! 1-3 fireflies in a jar will be enough to give you a mild emotional boost, at 4-6 you might be able to realize that you're definitely happier than you used to be, at 7-10, you can definitely tell that something is making you more cheerful, warm and happy. Beyond 10 fireflies, the additional effect gets smaller the more fireflies you capture, but it will still continue to build until you may just spend the next few days wrapped around your firefly jar in a pleasantly drugged stupor.

Just, uh... don't forget to eat.

► This log covers May 3rd-May 9th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► Did you OD on fireflies (is that even possible)? Please remember to hit up our death post!

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There will be more fireflies, at least for a little while. Thinking of his friends also makes Noah happy, even more than the glow of delight from the fireflies. Or in addition to. His happiness is greater with the two combined, is the thing.

Krieg's next question throws him for a loop, however, and he looks even more disoriented than he did after the initial fall. Sure, he tries to be nice and good, but he's not sure he always does the best job with either of those things. 'Not as much of an asshole as you could be' is where he figures he falls more often than not.

"... My friends. They're all nice and good, too. So I had good teachers."

This is kind of a horrific lie even those within the trust circle probably wouldn't call anyone except Gansey 'nice', and Ronan and Adam definitely have days where they probably toe the line of 'good'. Noah knows them though, knows their hearts, and he knows they're all both of those things in their own ways.

Besides, it isn't wrong. The person Noah was before he met them was pretty awful, he's certain. So it's their influence, surely.

With some work he gets to standing and holds out his hand to Krieg in case he needs help up too. Noah thinks Krieg is both nice and good as well, in the interactions they've had. ~~It isn't that he has forgotten the buzzaxe so much as he's - well, he's forced himself to forget it because it was just too frightening to remember.~~

"Come on, it's super easy, then you can make your fireflies happy too and keep lots of them."

He brightens (figuratively) and the fireflies do too (literally) as he sits up a little straighter, doing his best to pay attention. The fire-bugs are treating him awfully nice, and he should treat them nice in return. He's been far too careless. And he wants the good, warm feeling in his chest to last forever, forever, because that way he can be happy without being bad and ripping anyone to shreds, and that's how it should be. He can almost be good.

"Can't teach me too?" He peers at Noah eagerly, both in anticipation for learning how to better keep his lightning bugs and because the optimism they've instilled in him has made him...almost hopeful that he could, impossibly, be nice and good too.

And for once, the voice doesn't chime in that he's a monster, a dull idiot, or anything. It's happy too.

"You’ll pick it up in no time at all,” Noah assures Krieg, heading towards a nearby store. Most of them seem to had the little bit of supplies that they need to make a habitat, and Noah can make another while he’s showing Krieg how to.

“Unless you’re asking about being nice and good,” sometimes Krieg’s questions aren’t so clear, Noah’s starting to understand. “I think you’ve already got that part down. Not that I know you that well, but I’ve got a good sense about people.”

No he doesn’t. He’s dead back home because his best friend beat his face in with a skateboard.

Krieg happens to be the least likely of his morally gray teammates to be nice and good, but what he lacks in restraint he makes up for in enthusiasm. A lot of enthusiasm. He bounces to his feet in an abrupt surge of energy, gathering his jars in his hands as he totters after Noah.

"We're monstrous!" he says cheerfully, "evil, bad, and wrong!"

Even in his mildly drugged stupor, he can't deny that. It's a good thing these fireflies have made him so happy, because otherwise he'd be having to rip people's heads off to achieve this level of delight, and that would be bad and wrong!

Sooner or later the ultraviolence is going to be unavoidable and Noah’s going to have to deal with that, but for now he’s is content to ignore things and hope they go away. As a general rule, Noah doesn’t deal with frightening things unless absolutely necessary.

It’s hard work, being this much of a coward, but someone’s gotta do it.

“Well, I guess you know yourself better than I do,” Noah says in a tone that makes it pretty clear he has a hard time believing any of those things are true about Krieg (Still ignoring the buzzaxe).”But it’s pretty mean to call someone a monster, even yourself. You seem okay to me.”

Ordinarily, Krieg would shrug off the implications there, tamping them down with fierce denial and a furious affirmation that he's bad bad bad, but he's been made giddy and blissful by the mere presence of the warm dotlights clustering in the air and in the jars, and he stops dead for a moment to process Noah's words, oddly - oddly touched.

Fireflies make him emotional, all right?

"Why - are you - so nice?" He snuffles loudly, for the moment overcome. "We just met your nephew!"

Noah stops when Krieg does, turning to look back at him, concerned but waiting for Krieg to work through whatever has him troubled.

Given a look at him, it isn’t hard to figure that he’s probably been significantly shortchanged on kindness in his life. Noah doesn’t know anything about Krieg’s world. Maybe it’s common there. But what happened to Adam had also been common in the trailer park, no doubt, and that didn’t make what happened to him okay.

He has to take a moment again to parse Krieg’s words, but he’s thinking he’s getting better at it. You just have to… figure if it’s a metaphor, or ignore some of the others that spill out with the word salad surrounding what he’s trying to say. It’s sad, Noah thinks, that kindness is questioned. It implies that apathy or cruelty would have been more expected from a stranger.

So Noah shrugs. Why is anyone kind to strangers?

“Because you’re letting me be, I guess.”

Oh, Noah. He's so emotional he could hug you right now - but he's not sure he knows how without crushing the target of the hug, so he lets it be. Those fireflies have really helped him expand his emotional spectrum from "shouting" to "a whole lot of other emotions besides shouting, which is not technically an emotion but is when Krieg does it".

He pulls himself together magnificently, considering how taken aback he is to be treated so unquestionably nicely by someone who isn't a teammate and friend he's killed for.

"Friends?" he says hopefully. He's only made a few since ending up here, and even fewer that he didn't know prior to this.

Noah, while absolutely a hugger, knows that not everyone is. Considering Krieg overall, he’s not going to risk getting all up in his space without some kind of warning.

Not because Noah’s afraid of Krieg hurting him, but because he’s afraid of scaring Krieg. He’s learning. Same reason he hasn’t clarified the ‘I’m a ghost back home even if I’m indistinguishable from a person here thanks to living body’ - he gets the feeling Kreig probably wouldn’t take it well, or the explination might be too much for him to understand.

Noah smiles bright at Krieg’s question, untroubled and happy.

“Yeah. Friends, you and me. If you’re okay with that, I would like to call you a friend.”

Personal space is kind of a complicated thing with Krieg, namely in that he doesn't fully comprehend the concept unless it's to a) clap people on the back way too hard, b) split someone's skull with his buzz-axe, or c) all of the above.

Krieg makes a sound akin to a honking goose, or perhaps a reasonably loud foghorn. Honestly, it falls somewhere between a delighted whoop and a dad blowing his nose.

The long and the short of it is that he is really damn happy.

"MEAT-BUDDIES FOR THE DOOM-RIDING!" he exclaims happily, practically screaming it to the ceiling in his glee. "Burn down the hole together!"

Noah does jump a bit at the goose impression, though it quickly becomes apparent that this is a good thing for Krieg. Then he's laughing too - Noah's laugh is the opposite, a breathless soundless thing that's more indicated by a shaking of his shoulders, the movement that accompanies a laugh. Noah's a quiet thing in general.

"Yeah - that sounds like a plan, big guy. Let's make a home for your fireflies to be happy first though."

Krieg makes another deliriously pleased sound, hopping from one foot to another in his enthusiasm. He grips his jars tightly to his chest, careful not to let them tumble and shatter (he's undoubtedly made this mistake several times already), and watches Noah intently, eager to begin.

"Who's first?"

"Let's see if the shop has everything first," if they need to do this in steps across multiple stores that might complicate things. Thankfully the first one has everything - what little these require, sponge, jar, a bit of plant matter, sugar water, that kind of deal - and a bit of empty counter space that they can use to work.

Noah spares a thought to wonder if there were ever fireflies here before, or if this is something Delight has created just from their own memories, modified to suit her needs. He often finds his thoughts drifting to who lived in this place before, if they all truly died.

"Okay, how about we make yours together first, and then you can see about making another on your own to make sure you remember how. That way I'll be right here and you can ask if you've forgotten."

"Good!" Krieg nods eagerly, so vigorously that he gets a crick in his neck a little bit, but he doesn't really care so it's all fine. "GoodGOODgoodgoodGOOD!"

Wow, someone's really eager to get started. He prowls the rows in the shop, eyeing the various potential ingredients with marked enthusiasm. If he can keep this happiness all bottled up forever, maybe then - maybe then he won't need to ride a meat bicycle ever again! And that would make everyone happy, and he wouldn't even need to eviscerate anyone to do it!

Noah watches the vigorous head nodding (more like headbanging) with a vague sense of worry. It looks like Krieg should have pulled something with that level of enthusiasm.

He does not proclaim any pain from the act, so Noah won’t suggest looking for an ice pack first. Instead he trots after Krieg’s prowl through the store. Noah DID promise to help Krieg make the first one so that he knows what to do, and he’s going to keep good on that, pointing out the various supplies when they come upon them - and then quickly clarifying the amount needed if (when) Krieg gets very enthusiastic about that, too.

Wouldn’t Ronan be so happy, knowing he’s helped a bunch of people with their fireflies? Noah will have to figure out how to tell him in a way that does not imply that Ronan cares about such things.

Krieg gathers the ingredients as they're pointed out to him with the same amount of, er, passion that he infuses into everything else he does. He ends up toppling a few jars and shelves of things in his zeal, but he forges on regardless.

"How do we get them all inside?" He scrutinizes his jars of fireflies with rapt amazement. Opening the jars lets them all out if he's not fast about it, and then he loses all the happy-juice, and then where would he be?

At least there's no real shopkeepers for them to get in trouble, right? Noah feels a little bad about the mess, though.

Well, maybe they can clean up before they go. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. And a bridge to cross and/or burn when they get to it.

"Ah... I guess we'll have to be careful about it. You can't just... pour fireflies from the jar into a finished jar. Hm, maybe we can use something as netting here..."

Noah hadn't bothered to catch any until he had his little habitat set up precisely so he could avoid this problem. A bit of searching comes up with a couple things that look like the strainers used to catch goldfish. They'll do. "If you lose any, I'll help you catch more, okay?" Noah promises before they make the attempt, so that Krieg doesn't worry.

"Don't let the log go out?" Krieg surveys his jars morosely, unwilling to relinquish the clusters of the bright lights that give him such a good warm tingling, even for a moment. He slides them onto a few of the shelves he has successfully "emptied" due to his fervency in obtaining the materials Noah indicated, and retrieves a few new jars so he can start filling them up as Noah instructed.

It's all a bit slap-dash, perhaps a little too sloppy and clumsy and not as carefully put-together as Noah's little mini-environments, but Krieg presents the first of his jar habitats proudly to him, eager for praise of some kind.

Praise costs nothing for Noah to give, so it’s given easily. If nothing else, Krieg’s enthusiasm goes a long way, and Noah’s pretty sure the fireflies aren’t inclined to care about their home’s appearance if it has what they need.

“Good job! Especially for your first try! I’m sure they’ll love it.” Noah assures Krieg, giving him a smile. Now to get the fireflies from Jar A to Jar B. How hard can it be, right?

“Here, you hold the habitat jar ready, and I’ll use the net to get the fireflies you already caught into it,and that way you can close the lid quick when they’re in.”

This is probably the time to mention that Noah is not, nor has he ever been, ‘the plan guy’. To the point that when he makes a suggestion his friends usually follow it because it’s so rare.

But sure, how hard could this be?

He scrambles to hold the jar ready with the lid cupped in another hand. Krieg isn't particularly any kind of "ideas" man either, since his "ideas" tend to involve, in short order: slicing things up; setting fire to things, setting fire to himself, slicing things up and then setting fire to them, pulling out sticks of dynamite and running around trying to detonate it over someone's head, and slicing himself up just for kicks.

None of those skills are very useful for transferring fireflies from one jar to another.

"Weapons primed and ready!" he says proudly. He wants to keep his fireflies safe and happy for as long as possible!

It'll be just like scooping up goldfish, Noah's pretty sure.

Spoiler: it turns out to be absolutely nothing like scooping up goldfish.

First off when Noah carefully opens the first jar they don't seem terribly interested in going anywhere, agitated as they might have been earlier. The scooper is too wide to fit into the jar itself, so he ends up giving a little frustrated huff, raising the goldfish scooper to peer inside and see if maybe there's something wrong.

That's when they're interested in making a break for it.

"Oh fuckstick! It's okay, don't worry, I got it!" Noah assures Krieg, sounding very much like someone who does not got it. One of them is a pretty slow wobbly thing, so that one's easy to catch again. It's like it wasn't even trying, or maybe it felt bad at the comedy of errors between Noah and Krieg. Most of the others require a lot of arm pinwheeling but Noah's been catching fireflies for a few days now so he's got some skill at it, memories of a life long gone by resurfacing to provide assistance in this time of need.

The last one though.

That one's a motherfucker. It's trapped in the shop too so it can't get very far, but that's going to require some shelf climbing to get.

Noah uses his hand to cover the opening of the goldfish scooper to keep the fireflies in. He's going to have to get them secure in the jar while he catches that last one. Getting the ones he's caught in the jar proves thankfully easier, though he's trying to keep an eye on that last one so he doesn't lose track of it. This shit is personal now. He made a promise and he's gonna keep it.

"Here, close these ones in - I can get the last one!"

Krieg's single eye pops wide open the more this scene plays out - Noah getting a faceful of bright-bugs, yelping obscenities that would probably make Salvador roar with laughter, Noah flailing about and nearly knocking more supplies off the shelves in the kerfuffle. Krieg even pumps his fist helpfully, hooting wordless encouragement whenever he scores a catch.

He snatches the goldfish scooper and dumps its contents unceremoniously into the fresh jar, screwing the cap shut before they can worm their way out. And then, because he's much more a do-er than a watch-er, Krieg sets the jar carefully down, bunches up like a cat about to pounce, and springs, hands outstretched to catch the final firefly zipping around the shop like an errant firework.

He misses spectacularly.

And crashes into one of the shelves that's still sending, bringing it loudly to the ground with the protracted, angry clatter of things being dislodged and being thrown into the air.

Noah watches with abject amazing as Krieg pounces. That's an incredibly impressive pounce, even if he failed equally as incredibly. Noah sees his chance, though, as Krieg falls. The firefly ducking low to avoid Krieg's hands.

Noah goes for it.

He uses some of the fallen shelving as a springboard, which is not the wisest plan as this means his foot lands on one of the glass jars. Pro: It didn't break. Con: Now Noah has also lost his balance and is kind of in an uncontrolled soar.

He still tries to catch the firefly as he falls, cupping his hands to not hurt it. This means he has no hands to break his fall. Helpfully(?) there is Krieg, who he ends up falling into a second time today.

The wind is knocked out of him and he's definitely going to have bruises but he can feel the firefly bumping unhappily against his cupped palms. He has caught that little son of a bitch.

"Got it!"

Please do not ask Noah to do a repeat performance of this it will never happen again.

The shop is in definite shambles by now, their attempts to both create a safe firefly habitat and then catch the little squirts having thoroughly trashed it. Noah lands on top of Krieg in a bizarre repeat of their earlier performance.

Krieg oofs in surprise - he'll undoubtedly have a fresh mélange of bruises to go with a story of this adventure, but Krieg being Krieg, he earnestly doesn't mind in the least - and then, in his infinite joy, utters a shout of victory.

"ENCORE! ENCORE!" He actually applauds, a little clumsily given Noah's awkward position on top of him, but it's the thought that counts.

Noah feels a LITTLE bad about the state they’ve left the shop in, if only for the people who come looking for supplies later, but…

Krieg’s happiness is infectious, especially with the fireflies adding to it. Noah doesn’t feel that bad. Not bad enough to not laugh through the pain, even as he quietly adds ‘ouch’ between breathless laughter as he struggles to get off Krieg and stand using only his elbows as his hands are still occupied holding on to the firefly. Just give him a second here, he’ll get it.

“I don’t think I could do that again even if I wanted to. That was all luck.”

Event Log: A Jar Full of Sunshine

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