usir | Event #2: The Long Night

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🜙 Event Post #2: The Long Night, December 28th to January 5th Warning: Death and violence

	Nervous, frightened whispers spread across Idan. By word of mouth and courier, warnings that the Long Night has nearly arrived are sent out. Anasta's Shadow, the planet whose orbit lies between this one and its sun, will share a path with this planet for one week before they go their separate ways once more. During that time the far larger planet obscures the light and warmth the sun provides this world. This is nothing new to you. It has happened every year at this time since your birth and although the cold is treacherous and the dark inconvenient, in your time those were likely the only major threats you faced during the Long Night. The great dragon bonfires had always been kept lit by the trio of dragon guardians, their light and warmth keeping away the deadly freeze and the other horrors rumored to come with the darkness. Perhaps you remember the tales from your childhood, stories meant to scare children away from venturing too far on their own in the treacherous heart of winter. The long, cold week of darkness was likely filled with stories of people whisked away in the black cold, either never to be seen again or to be found mangled and frozen with looks of terror and agony forever etched on their lifeless faces. With the dragons ever present in your lifetime, you had never experienced the true horrors of the Long Night for yourself, even if you had witnessed a taste out in the world beyond the safety of the kingdom cities and villages. The true terror of the Long Night had not been experienced in full since the formation of the Elf-Dragon Alliance, many generations before your birth. The massive bonfires kept ever burning by the guardian dragons kept the towns and cities across all three kingdoms protected from the sheer dark and the deadly deep freeze of the week-long total eclipse. Now that the dragons are gone there is simply not enough magic to create the powerful, lasting bonfires that once sheltered the three kingdoms and kept out the dark and the worst of the cold. From the warmth and safety of a hearth, it is easy to dismiss the frightened whispers of Idan's current population as superstition, at least until the sun 'sets' on the night of the 27th, swallowed behind the looming shadow of the larger planet. As night approaches on the 27th, the world goes red. Only slivers of sunlight escape around the far edge of Anasta's Shadow, bathing the world in an eerie crimson until the planet's massive shape in the sky blocks out the sun entirely, plunging Idan into near complete shadow. With the light consumed, the shrieks and howls begin. Starting up like the roar of an angry wind, they grow louder and more twisted the closer they come. Within hours the howls and shrieks are mixed with a sound like metal grinding across glass. Windows are covered in sheets of cracked and spidered ice. Chimneys without lit fires begin to fill with screeching, clawing noises and an unsettling and unfamiliar clicking noise that rises and falls like an unknown language. The sounds outside begin to shift and change, as more human shrieks join the unsettlingly monstrous ones, and the crying sob of a young child, hiccuping in fear, breaks up the brief moments of silence. It's just beyond the door, or just out of sight beside the window, then silence, and the howling and scraping start anew. Now and then an eerie red glow shines through ever more solid ice caking the windows, and they briefly steam up as something living exhales a heated breath against the pane. Citizens within earshot or courier distance warn those who seek answers to stay away and avoid seeking out the source of the sounds. They caution that the answers are not worth the risks and warn that anyone outside cannot be saved. If they're out there, they're already dead. If you insist on going, they'll tell you not to leave the safety of hearth and fire without a torch in hand or your chances of surviving will drop from slim to none. Pay heed to the cautions of those more experienced than you in this new horror or you will not survive the long, harsh night and the ever more unsettling noises it brings.
🜙 Weather

	The cold fluctuates between -18 to -32C (0 to -25F) during the Long Night. At these temperatures, the risk of frostbite and hypothermia are greatly increased and without proper precautions, a person could experience frostbite in 10-30 minutes when exposed to the elements. In addition to this, wind, sleet, and snow periodically drop the temperatures further. The weather may be the least of your worries, however, as the cold is far from the most dangerous threat the Long Night brings with it.
🜙 Creatures

	The creatures that emerge during the Long Night are nearly all horrors rarely or never seen beyond this week of frozen darkness. The only exceptions to this are the Tundra Manticore and the Greater Bearbat which can be rarely found living in the highest points of the mountain caves and peaks where the weather remains icy year-long. Tundra Manticore: They share little in common with their lower mountain counterparts beyond their violent disposition. Their bodies glow from within due to the venom stored in their abdomen. They can secrete this deadly venom from their mouths or their barbed tails. The venom is said to burn like liquid fire and causes severe burns on contact. They live only in the coldest parts of Idan due to the significant heat generated by their venom that would cook them from the inside out in warmer climates. They consume ice and snow to maintain an internal temperature balance and if that balance is thrown off the combustible venom within them causes them to burst into flames. As a result, they are terrified of fire. They are silent stalkers and lone hunters. Greater Bearbat: Greater Bearbats are sound-based hunters that descend from their mountain homes, attracted by the shrieks of the shade imps. They are indiscriminate hunters, content to eat wayward travelers or other monsters without concern for what prey they catch in their long claws. They run on four limbs while hunting and will rarely take to the skies unless in pursuit of flying prey. Sound and heat deter them and light will blind them. Shade Imps: Seekers and servants of the Darkener, these monstrous shade imps can take a multitude of forms (Crawlers, Scouts, & Hounds) and shift between them at will. They are completely blind and travel as silent as the shadows they melt in and out of. They hunt through scent, sound, and taste, searching for traces of blood and fear on the air. When they aren't hunting, they communicate with other imps via ear-piercing shrieks or gut-churning howls, going silent only when they locate their prey. Their silence is more dangerous than the sounds they make. They recoil from fire but grow increasingly more determined the longer they are kept at bay, eventually overcoming their fear and attacking the source of the fire to attempt to extinguish it at the cost of their own lives. When fire touches them they go up in a puff of black smoke and a scream. Darkling: No one knows what darklings look like. They are the lost spirits of elementals consumed and controlled by the Darkener. They have no physical form and can control and manipulate shadows and sound. They mimic sounds to trick people into opening their homes or venturing out of safety and can perfectly replicate any sound they have heard, even capturing the voices of people speaking on the other side of walls. Their goal is to lure or force people out into the darkness where the Darkener can find them. They can be disrupted with light. Bayobat: Swarms of flying bat-like insects summoned by the Darkener. They have sharp, metal proboscises they use to pierce victims before consuming their blood. They are blind and seek out warm-blooded bodies to launch themselves at. Their screeches are metallic and mixed with insectoid clicking. Their bodies are sharp and metallic but their mouths are vulnerable. Their tails are lined with tiny, sharp spikes similar to barbed wire. They fear fire. The Darkener: An ancient being that is thought to come from the Outer Realm. The Darkener consumes flames with a touch, transforming them into shadow flames that burn black, giving off no heat or warmth. It possesses long-forgotten magic. Few have seen more than a glimpse. It causes temporary blindness in all who witness it, their eyes turning black with trapped shadows. Its image lingers in the mind, causing hallucinations. Those who witness it are often driven mad, growing increasingly certain the Darkener is watching them from the corner of their vision. It can be struck but doing so only causes darkness to erupt from the wound, consuming the Darkener and everything around it. There is only one Darkener.

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[ It's a hideous thing to corner her on because way down deep the answer to her stubbornness is that she's simply more willing to risk her life than others' because she doesn't believe it's as valuable. That fewer people will notice her gone or miss her. But confronting that is beyond her, so she twists herself into knots to justify her defensiveness without logic to support it.

To that end, she's desperately afraid of leaving that girl to the same fate. To not being important enough. Even if it means succumbing to a trick. ]

I didn't look. [ She would have seen them. Even without looking for them specifically, she'd have seen them. Rey notices things like that. ] Get out of my way and we'll see.

No.

[There, that's the full of it. He isn't moving, and this is a good enough fight to pick. Stubbornness is a good trait to have, but too much just leads to death. The inevitable conclusion of this if Rey is permitted to step outside again.

Alucard can't guess the deeper meaning for this stubbornness. He has no reason to oppose this other than the sense that this Inn shouldn't lose any occupants for the Long Night. Whatever the damage to the kitchen is, he will pay for it.]

If there is a body out there when this all concludes, I will accept that blood on my hands.

You'll accept responsibility, and she'll still be dead.

[ It's not good enough. ]

Move.

[ It has the tune of a final warning to it. She's doing the math in her head over whether or not she can take him. Rey has tussled with larger foes before, people who wanted to rob her of what she had salvaged for her boss. The kitchen is a cramped space. She's smaller than he is. Maybe it'll mean an advantage, if she can get a weapon first. ]

[Alucard doesn't move an inch. The wolf beside him doesn't either, although she's tenser than he is. Just by a hair.]

She's lived through these before. Don't doubt her own ability to survive.

[Don't pick this fight.]

[ Character flaw #1.5: a natural extension of stubbornness is prideful reluctance to let go of a stance she has previously adopted. So even as his words clearly find purchase, softening her gaze, she stands there in a stand-off with him for some time longer, fists balled.

Don't doubt her ability to survive.

When Rey's aware she's projecting onto this girl, it makes it easy to snap back that Alucard shouldn't doubt Rey's ability either, but ... It's true. If the girl is like Rey, and she certainly is, then she's fine. She'll make her way. She'd never needed anybody to swoop in and rescue her.

(The girl had, during the fire. She'd been so small, barely breathing, that cat. It's surely an outlier.)

Rey huffs out a breath and glances away, silent. Now that she can sense they are staying inside, Kira emerges from inside Rey's tunic, a ruffle of feathers and quiet chirping as she picks her way up onto Rey's shoulder to peck at loose threads of Rey's hair. ]

Stop that. [ She grumbles it dismissively, brushing Kira off. The cold is gone, yes. Kira is safe to emerge, tiny magpie that she is, but — It's insult to injury, drawing unwanted attention to her surrender. ]

[Alucard's all ready to tap into all the feral magic he has honed over the years and then...then there is nothing. There is Rey, there is the look in her eyes, and there is no opening move to what he was so sure of just a second ago.

That worked?! he thinks wildly, even if the confusion and surprise doesn't show on his face. That worked.

He doesn't quite move from the door. The voice might come back and try to assert itself again, and if that happens then they are back to square one. Gods help the kitchen too, for that matter.]

If you're in the kitchen, something warm is probably in order. [To soften the suggestion, Alucard's eyes settle on Kira rather than Rey.] Your friend seems to be in need of it.

[ Hm. Hovering. But not really. She looks up to notice that he is not going through the motions of fixing something warm himself — he's herding her, instead. No, it's doubtful he will leave his post until she has evacuated the kitchen, and maybe even after.

Kira makes musical sounds in Rey's ear and Rey brushes her off. The magpie flutters to the counter. ]

Fine. Fine. Stop complaining.

[ She goes to poke at what's over the cook fire, grumbling all the while. When she settles on serving herself (and Kira, by extension) some of it, she grabs a bowl and glowers briefly at Alucard, then speaks with her back to him while she spoons it in. ]

Why do you care what I do?

[Rey in fact has him pinned for that. He'll be lingering at the door for a while now, until he's satisfied that the urge to rush out has passed in full. (What that really means is he's sleeping here now.)

While he lingers though, his wolf does not. She has heard the word food, and now that the very worst of this not-a-fight is over, she is trailing after Rey and Kira. Ellis is also not being told to stop, which means she is going to make darn sure she gets some scraps.]

Because up until now, you've been good at keeping others from going out. That would be a loss that impacts not only yourself, but others here.

[There's soup, there's roasted something-or-other, and there's some kind of stew that has been sitting to the side of the fires for some time now.]

[ Rey looks down to spot Ellis, and the wolf she regards with a kinder face. Though she had stood at her master's — the word seems lacking, somehow, and Rey knows that Kira would not like it, but it is the closest term she has — side, it had not been her choice to bar the door. Rey gets a spoonful of the stew and, faintly huffing out a noise at the heat, plucks out a chunk of meat to pass it over.

Only when Ellis devours it and licks Rey's fingers clean does Rey reach up to pet her soft, snowy fur. ]

'Up until now.' [ She stands with her bowl full and turns around to face him again. ] I still wouldn't let others go out with me. I wouldn't risk anyone but myself.

[ It probably doesn't matter, but it feels important to her that he understand that. She's not looking to put others in danger. ]

[Ellis' prefered way to refer to Alucard is the stupid overdramatic dhampir, as point of fact. But barring that, she just got offered a very good chunk of meat and she is not going to refuse it. She is, however, going to be very, very careful to not get any teeth on Rey's hand as she takes the meaty morsel, because while Ellis has a tendency to be a jackass of a wolf, she isn't that rude.

Giving the wolf pets is also the quickest way to win her over to your side, so sorry, Rey. She's going to shed all over you now out of love.]

I see.

[It is what Alucard would politely consider terrible logic.]

And take care not to spoil that one, she'll not leave you alone now.

That works out fine then, seeing as I don't want her to leave me alone.

[ She's big enough that Rey can set her bowl down on the table and barely bend to lean down and scratch behind Ellis' ear, furthering the point. As far as she's concerned, Ellis is the more agreeable of the two.

Or maybe that's just because Rey's shiftling side is unconsciously resonating on some level, or maybe it's because she isn't used to being around people and struggles with it, so animals are better because they can't argue with her.

Unwilling to confront either of those facts, she settles on the fact that Alucard is just a stick in the mud. ]

A little attention isn't spoiling.

Mmm, except everyone does this to her, and she already expects it.

[It would be funny if it wasn't so very tiring. But at least there is something more relaxed in Alucard's voice now than just a moment ago, and he can at least appreciate the downright ridiculous sight of an entire wolf putting her front paws on a chair and lifting herself up to make it easier to get ear scratches.

Stranger scenes have unfolded, but there's some needed levity in this one. Alucard sighs, the noise intended for Ellis rather than Rey.

Also, he is just a stick in the mud.]

Expecting attention isn't being spoiled either. You're the one standing in the doorway, making a scene.

[ Rey gently pushes Ellis' paws off the chair so she can sit down in front of her bowl, then once she's sitting, pats her lap to invite Ellis back up halfway into it, scratching at the scruff of her neck before leaning over to tuck into her soup. ]

You don't know this wolf.

[He is not making a scene, he was preventing one!

(He was totally making a scene.)

Ellis right back up where Rey's indicated that it's okay to be the red hot second the signal is given. She's not wagging her tail, goodness knows she isn't a dog. For that same reason, she isn't about to try and steal soup from Rey. Just make a few happy noises at the sensation of warm fingers in the thick fluff of scruff.]

I hardly know you either.

[ She eats without manners and terribly fast, even while her attention is divided by the attention-grubbing wolf. It's restoring feeling to her extremities that had been lost out in the cold, though, so she doesn't particularly care about the impression it leaves. ]

And already I can tell I like her better.

[The wolf is...laughing. As close to it as wolves can get, and all Alucard can do is sigh. He is aware that everyone seems to like the wolf more than him.]

That's hardly unique.

[He'll refrain from comments about table manners. Even if he's got a few.]

You should probably consider what that says about you.

[ Just saying. She exchanges a look with the wolf that seems to share in her laughter, even if Rey doesn't externalize it as well. That's right. She's even worse at externalizing glee than a wolf. You heard it here first. ]

It is a concern that will be set to rights in the near future.

[A statement said with far, far too much gravity. He's speaking of something much more private than Rey is privy to (the legacy of his parents, the castle that he doesn't even know the status of).

Ellis lets out a whine. Too dramatic was what that was. She'll take the one who's bad at external happiness!]

[ That draws Rey up short. Her expression twists into something suspicious, and her hand stills on the back of Ellis' neck. ]

What does that mean?

[ Honestly it's too ominous to be anything good. And if she's being honest, she doesn't trust a single person who woke up like she did. They're all sketchy to be resurrected like this, herself included. ]

[Alucard's own response is a thinner smile. A bit pained.]

It means homecoming is going to be very tiresome.

[Ellis, at this point, decides to flop over dramatically. To underscore to Rey that she does not have to worry about this, it's just Alucard being Alucard.

The critique also gets his attention.]

...Really now?

Our homes are gone.

[ Rey's forehead creases, confusion softening her mouth. She's been hoping to go digging for evidence of her parents somewhere, hoping to find some trace, some hint, but — ]

What are you expecting to find?

[ She's suitably distracted from Ellis. Poor Ellis. But Kira is satisfied that Rey has managed to be distracted from the last few bites of her food, because now the bird is scrabbling into the bowl. ]

Foundations.

[There will be foundations. Ruins if he's lucky. His father's choice for a homestead was in the mountains. It will be looted for all finery and the weather will have done it's work, but there shall be foundations.

Ellis' dramatics are ignored though, because what's going on with Kira is far more alarming. He frowns, tone no longer grave but concerned.]

...Your soup is a birdbath, it seems.

[ Rey looks down, eyes going wide and she gripes— ]

Hey! [ She scoops the bird out, which makes a dissatisfied almost squawk as if to point out that it had not intended to bathe but instead drink, and yet here it is. Covered in soup. Rey huffs out a disgruntled breath. It's not like either of them will be washing until the worst of the cold passes. That's a recipe for disaster.

So she just grabs a towel and tries to clean off Kira's feathers as best she can.

Anyway, she got her answers. And Alucard, she thinks, makes more sense to her now. Foundations are the stuff of large homes, solid ones, old ones. He doesn't just have a family. He has a Family. He's someone important. Of course he's used to telling other people what to do. ]

[It's sort of a disaster. But it also means Alucard's moved away from the door because birds shouldn't be in food unless they are the food in question. There's enough fussing (and Ellis has the politeness to get out of the way for this) that Alucard's instinct to just go get a new bowl of soup goes unremarked until he actually puts the new bowl down on the table next to Rey.]

Here. No one will notice, or begrudge the clean bowl.

[That's an all too daring bird to be certain.]

Does she attempt that often?

Go swimming? No. [ She doesn't really think it's what he's asking, but she has wrapped Kira in a dish towel at this point to try and mop up the soup with a sigh. Looking over her shoulder, she notes him, and the dish he sets down. Ah. A kindness. That's ... unexpected, somehow. ] But she gets ahead of herself often. Like she gets these ideas in her head and just ...

[ Rey presses her lips together and grabs for the soup bowl and says, ] Don't say it.

[ They have a lot in common, Rey and Kira. Kira's just more honest about it. ]

Event #2: The Long Night

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