beaconkeeper | IN THE NIGHT IC INBOX

We've really got to stop meeting like this — I'm going to get a complex about going to parties.

What happened, Robin?

[Robin's response doesn't come until late evening on December 6.]

I don't know. I didn't tell them to do that. I don't know why they're going so nuts this time.

Was it really two weeks?

[ there's the sound of movement, something a little like scrambling, then— ]

Robin!

For you? Closer to three. [ a pause and peter exhales. ] Robin, I need you to answer me honestly, okay? Are you okay? Is the spirit still there with you? [ a beat, then by way of explanation: ] I saw the videos on the bulletin.

They left after they gave me the lantern.

I'm... not, really, but I'll be fine. I'll survive. It only felt like... maybe a day or two? It's tough to say.

Is there — any way of someone getting out to you? Loss of time could be related to the spirit, but it could be something else, too.

—Can you talk me through it? What you remember. I know it won't be easy or pleasant.

No, god, please don't try to come out here. I don't want anyone else getting hurt. I'll be fine. I can treat my injuries, and I can get the forest spirits to help... The good ones.

Not long after that feast started, I heard the forest spirits acting up. That got me worried, so I tried to contact Rastus, but he wouldn't answer my calls. Super unlike him. Not long after that, some green eyeds broke in somehow... You saw how that went.

They showed me stuff, I guess? It was tough to make sense of since it would come in bits and pieces, but they gave me all these hallucinations about this place. Some of it might've been real stuff that happened, I think? But some of it... IDK. I saw my brother. :/

This time, sure, but what about next time? Look, I get it, you don't want to feel responsible for what might happen, but we've got some good people here. You don't have to be alone out there. [ pause. ] Is there anything the forest spirits could bring you? Yeah, yeah, I know you've got your fancy claw machine, but we've got, uh, plaid and instant coffee.

Enticing, I know, but just think about it, is what I'm saying.

—I just spent two weeks asleep, Robin. I dreamt I was in sunny old Beacon, and I don't mean that as a euphemism: I was in sunny, comma, old, comma, Beacon. I'm still trying to work out if it was one of those 'I had a nightmare I had an argument with my cat and had to move out because he didn't like the tiny socks I was getting for his tiny paws; and what it meant was I'm anxious about the fact that I've paid my rent late for the third consecutive month and maybe that means I'm going to end up living under a bridge, cold and with only a feral animal for company' kind of deals or if any of it was meant to be a clue as to what happened here in Beacon.

[ okay, to be fair, he's pretty sure that all of it up until the weird gross tar is a clue. that is still a mystery. ]

—You know, the other month, I saw my— thought I saw someone close to me, from home. It wasn't real. I don't know how they make us see things, but maybe some of it's what we want to see.

I really DO have to be alone out here, though. That's how this place works. But the forest spirits can carry stuff back and forth for us, yeah. I've got tons of supplies up here, though. You guys should use the stuff you have in town for yourselves.

Peter, I suuuuuper promise that I'll be the first to let you know if I need help out here. I don't think the green eyeds are gonna come back. I'm ok for right now.

Didn't a bunch of people dream about sunny Beacon? It sounds to me like the green eyeds made us all hallucinate for whatever reason, but like... why?

[ there's a silence, then a noise that is almost definitely an uuuugh, and then the most put upon sigh. is he throwing his hands up in exasperation? yes, quite possibly. ] Fine. Fine. But if you're not fine and you die, I'm definitely getting in an 'I told you so' or three. If it wasn't so logistically difficult, this'd be a very different conversation, by the way.

...Riku seems to think they were trying to tell us something. Maybe what happened to Beacon before? [ beat. ] You said there was someone here from then — have they told you anything about what happened?

[It's a long while before she responds.]

Thanks, Peter.

[There's another pause, though this one much shorter.]

But don't worry. :P I'm not gonna die. Me dying would be reeeeeeally bad news for you guys, and I'm not gonna do that to you.

Wait, he does? Why??

Uhh, she's told me some stuff... and I have access to some of the town's historical records up here. I know that the portal got opened, and the World Eaters came through, I think, but not right away? It took a while for the world to die... That's so freaky, isn't it?

[ the wait makes peter feel a little antsy, truth be told, so when the message does come, he feels a little more relieved than he thinks he has any right to be. ]

Thanks, Peter—? You don't need to thank me. You've been here the longest out of all of us. You know the risks. I'm not going to say I'm always going to agree with you, or that you can always win me over with your endearing use of common sense and rationality, but sometimes? Sure.

All I need from you is for you to remember that just because you're alone, doesn't mean you've got to be alone.

—And maybe someone to laugh at my jokes.

[ a pause. ]

When you were on, uh, forced vacation, they posted a bulletin. I only saw it after I woke up, so I'm not sure of the logistics and if anything went down that wasn't on the network, but after speaking with Riku— they seemed pretty worked up about the people that didn't eat. He thinks it was maybe their way of trying to communicate with us because we don't share a common language. They know we've got questions, so they tried to answer them the only way they know how.

Which means that anyone who didn't eat caused some mass offence and— [ he exhales, audibly. ] Something about dying teaching us a lesson. They're probably not wrong, it probably should, but... People are stubborn, right?

[ another pause on his end. this one's longer, and there's the subtle sound of movement. ]

...Yeah. Pretty freaky. [ beat. ] We found a note in the church. "We're all going to die". There were markings in the stairwell up to the belltower, and on the trapdoor. They must've been terrified.

—Do you ever think it wasn't just the World Eaters that killed this world?

IN THE NIGHT IC INBOX

— audio / @parker.

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