[ME] dreams in darkness

so is there any treason in the tricky little price I pay?

i can't open up to you

LongNight has arrived, and with it the intense cold temperatures that seem to rebound within King’s End. Without the sun to heat up everything around them, the snow that’s fallen appears somehow colder. But this time, New Haven in particular is lit with bonfires and torches, the pathways cleared throughout the entire town, and stalls pop up across the main avenue with food options and hot drinks, spaces for blankets woven by wool of their most well known yak herds.

There are sitting areas dotted around a bonfire of varying colors with packets to be dropped in to change them on a whim and a space down by the courtyard where the snowpack has been built up for a ramp for children and adults to go sledding should they wish to. And while there isn’t much to see in the sky, there’s plenty to do on the ground whether it be chatting and enjoying each other’s company, sledding, watching the bonfires change colors, and the music that flits through from the musicians that wander up and down the alley to offer everyone a chipper and exciting time.

Sunjata wanders around as well, content to keep an eye on things but also trusting enough that the party will go on after all of the work they’d put into it, taking up a seat on the edge of the largest bonfire in the middle as a few adults across from it giggle and toss a packet into it to erupt the flame into a bright pink as he wraps himself in a warm navy blue blanket. It was strange for him to be out this season, given the previous years, but Sunjata’s trying to be more focused on the region and less his own fears and worries. And gods knew he needed to spend time with people these days.

---

Welcome to King’s End’s first little LongNight gathering!!

We’ve got sledding, colorful bonfires, food and drinks, and cozy hangouts! There's musicians wandering around and loads of stalls with blankets and other trinkets to choose from.

HAVE FUNNN

me and my friends are lonely

i always figured i'd be the one to die alone

SUNJATA

i want to taste you again

The Boondocks and Castaway Exchange are no place to spend Longnight in King's End, not when there's the promise of warmth and something akin to a party deeper in the region. Even so, Jack will not leave his ship alone, and whilst the crew will be on shift rotation throughout the week of darkness, someone will always be with his galleon to keep her deck and hull free of ice, her sails oiled, and her belly warmed as much as possible.

And if The Ark wants to stretch her legs with him in New Haven on one of those rotations, Jack isn't going to complain either.

The use of magical signposting makes the trip almost sickeningly easy, but the Captain remains bundled up as he arrives in streets freshly cleared of snow, music adrift on the air and the smell of spiced wine wafting from a nearby stall. The sledding, the bonfires and the general cheer is wholesome in a way that makes him feel immediately out of place, but it still beats the dark and silent chill of the docks, and so he heads for the stall to get a cup of mulled wine to start his celebrations off.

like a secret or a sin

JACK

Alys

LongNight had not been Alys's favorite time of year for quite some time. She preferred to stay home with her partner, staying as safe as they could reasonably expect to be with all light leeched from the world. But when she heard that King's End was throwing a party, well, she had to admit to some sense of curiosity. Besides, she hadn't interacted with her own region in so long that she was starting to feel like a bit of an outsider. She hadn't managed to talk Tal into coming, but she'd promised to stay safe in her exploits, and so he hadn't protested very heartily when she'd suggested she might swing by for a look at the festivities.

So here she was, wandering the stalls, bundled in her warmest coat to ward off the endless chill. Sascha, in her element, plodded along beside her bonded, snuffling at this and that in the snow as they followed the glow of the bonfires into the heart of the party.

It didn't take long to spot Sunjata, sitting by the largest fire and cast in a pretty pink light as merry partygoers celebrated around him. Still, despite being surrounded by people, he seemed alone - a sense that Alys felt further as she moved closer to the Heartless. In truth, she wasn't sure how her appearance would be perceived, when she had been so absent in recent seasons, but she knew, too, that Sunjata wouldn't begrudge her the time with her family after they'd all been through so much.

So she approached with a small, but no less genuine, smile on her face, sliding onto a seat beside the Archon. "Hi, Sunjata," she said, calm and pleasant as ever. "I'm glad to see you. How are you doing?"

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

// You could be lonely, or heartbroken—Or hungover from the night before //

"A party?" Colt's voice crept higher than she meant it to when Hawthorn first told her what King's End was planning for Longnight. While it's true the residents had often had little gatherings, in their own homes or 'gathered' in the House of Midnight, it had never been quite as grand as what Thorn is describing, or, what she's seeing as they head there. "I didn't think he liked to party this time of year," she murmurs, huddling closer to Thorn's side and flopping her head against his shoulder for a stride or two. "Guess it's true what they say. The only constant in life is change."

She's struck by a very unnerving sense of how quickly her recognition of this place is fading. With home feeling like it's worn on each boot, and each is standing in a different place, it's a little unbalancing to suddenly feel like the one foot keeps sliding further and further out from the place she first was afraid to step away from. She tucks it neatly behind a smile though, never one to pass up a celebration, and not about to dampen the night by claiming back in my day.

The first stall they encounter catches her eye, jewelry gleaming softly in the low fire light, that dances across it nearby. She hasn't the spare coin to waste on trinkets at the moment, but a girl can window shop.

COLT

// Turn that frown into a smile real quick—There ain't nothin' that a beer can't fix //

so is there any treason in the tricky little price I pay?

i can't open up to you

Watching the events unfold and the rainbow hues of the bonfire blooming and illuminating everyone’s faces. He takes a moment to look around again and sees Alys arrive, shifting a little to make room for her to sit next to him and soak up the warmth if she wants to – shooting her an easy smile. As she settles, she asks a fairly loaded question and he wonders if she’d heard from Hotaru how he’d broken off the engagement, how his heart had withered and died and now romance felt lightyears away.

“Hey Alys. I’m doing alright, how’re you and Tal?” He asks, opening it up as easy as he can. And without the magic that Alys has, there’s little to go off of trying to read her. He remains open, though, easy and calm and trying his best to be more social during this dreadful time of year. “I thought a party would be nice for everyone.” The Heartless tacks on after a moment, his smile twisting a bit lopsided.

me and my friends are lonely

i always figured i'd be the one to die alone

SUNJATA

wish I could bottle the taste

The Ark slips into place at Jack’s side as if she’s merely been there all along, the dark fall of her coat brushing against him and the cold following close at her heels like something she hasn’t quite managed to shake. She’d lasted only a few minutes after he’d gone before the silence aboard herself had become less restful than hollow, the kind of quiet that made every small groan of timber and shift of ice feel too large in the dark. There’s no chance of sneaking up on him with the way his mind touches everything, and so when a second cup of mulled wine is already waiting for her, she doesn’t bother pretending surprise. Pleasure suits her better anyway, softening the blue of her eyes as she takes it from him and folds both hands around the heat.

"Everyone but Murphy is in bed," she says by way of explanation, shrugging one shoulder as if this is reason enough for leaving the ship to stretch her legs after him. It is, mostly. Murphy is reliable in the particular way of men who prefer their orders plain and their solitude unexamined, and with the others tucked away from the cold and the dark, there’d been no sense in lingering only to listen to the water bite at her hull and the wind try its luck against her seams. Not when Jack is here, warm in the shape of himself beneath all that bundling, with spice and wine and smoke drifting thick through the cleared streets around him.

She draws a slow breath over the rim of her cup before taking a sip, the heat of it blooming across her tongue and down her throat in a way that doesn’t quite reach far enough, but still earns a low hum of approval. New Haven is too wholesome by half, all bright bonfires and coloured flames and music wandering cheerfully through the black, with families wrapped in blankets and children sending sleds shrieking down the packed snow as if the world hasn’t misplaced the sky entirely. The Ark watches it all with a look that’s more curious than charmed, her gaze moving from the pink flare of the largest fire to the stalls heavy with steam and food and wool, before settling back on Jack with a curve of her mouth that turns warmer for him than for any of the celebration.

'cause i'd drink up the look on your face

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

i want to taste you again

"Better asleep than stumblin' around in the dark an' causin' problems," Jack says, smirking over the rim of his cup of wine and turning to slip a casually proprietary arm around The Ark's waist. "I can see how that'd make for a borin' watch, though." This watch is much more interesting, even if the two of them stand out like ink stains on an otherwise perfect little painting.

"Bassian's out there somewhere, sledding." Jack says it like a warning rather than a casual statement, because it is, and if anyone is likely to need someone with healing magic before the end of their time at this merry little shindig, it's the big sailor.

The Captain freezes for a moment then, though, his magic catching on her mind before he recognises her face, and he nods subtly across the way towards where he can see Colt at a jewellery stand. "That's gonna have the kid pissin' venom," he mutters to the redhead tucked against his side. "Pretty sure he's up in the desert right now."

like a secret or a sin

JACK

wish I could bottle the taste

The Ark snickers under her breath as her blue eyes lift towards the larger hill beyond the bonfires, where colourful jackets scatter and streak across the snow in shrieking little bursts. For a moment she scans the slope as if Bassian’s particular disaster of a shape might be picked out by instinct alone, though with the dark pressed close around New Haven and every body bundled into wool and fur, he’s only one more moving piece on a hill full of them. 

Her gaze drops to one mittened hand, and she flexes her fingers inside the wool, feeling the shape of them and the almost-there want beneath it, the strange pressure that sometimes gathers in her as if something warm might rise if only she knew where to open. "Sometimes it feels like I might be able to do that," she says, voice quieter now, her eyes still on her hand rather than the hill. Heal, she means, not needing to clarify, knowing Jack will catch the sense of it well enough. Her mouth twists with faint irritation, not sharp enough to be failure and not soft enough to be longing, before she glances up at him and gives a small shrug beneath the weight of her coat. "I haven’t managed it yet, though."

She feels him still in the way he does when his attention slips below the surface of things, and rather than pry, The Ark takes another sip of her mulled wine, letting the spice and heat roll over her tongue before her gaze follows the subtle angle of his nod as she shifts closer to the Captains. "I’d have thought the Sharpshot would be up in the region she just worked so hard to claim," she whispers back, amusement smoothing itself into something cooler.

'cause i'd drink up the look on your face

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

// and all my flowers grew back as thorns //

“Capital P, ends with a Y. PARTY.” Thorn had explained, grinning vibrantly to get Colt to join in on the fun. He links his arm with hers as they wander through, the heat from the bonfires helping to assuade the lingering chill in the air from the darkest of days and nights. “He usually doesn’t, but I guess he’s been thinkin’ about tryin’ to be more… Region oriented?” He mutters, head tilting in slight confusion before he’s leaning toward her ear. “I think what y’said got t’him.” Of course he knows about the apology after and the explanation of what had happened, so there’s little judgement in it.

Happily drawn to the stalls, Thorn sees the glittering jewelry and sees that Colt’s eyeing the gleaming trinkets. “Which one y’want? I’m gettin’ new hoops.” He points out the grey fire molded hoops that would stand out from the silver currently in his ears. “SoOoOoOo, tell me ‘bout the desert. What’s first on th’agenda?” He asks idly, far too ADHD-esque and over excited at his friend coming to spend LongNight with him as she’d said she would.

THORN

// You could be lonely, or heartbroken—Or hungover from the night before //

The curl of his breath against her ear as he leans in with the message echoes into some far reach of her body, a corner of her soul lifting up and coiling tight. "Yeah," she sighs outwardly, a soft smile and a glance offered over to Thorn as an easy acknowledgement of what he means. "Seems to have." In actuality, the depth of it rocks through her, feeling briefly like she's gripping the edges of a meager rowboat amid the gleeful toss of the open sea in a storm. It forces an uneven step, one she passes off as leaning deeper into Thorn's side, the outcome of a hilly landscape strewn beneath the dark and not the awareness of how thoroughly her words bit into the Archon.

"It is a better way to wait out the dawn," she admits, a conclusion she'd come to last year, when company had vastly improved the experience compared to her habit of wandering old memories alone. She doesn't permit herself to dwell on that thought for long, the gravity of Longnight's only starlight buried in there, although she brushes against it like fingertips unable to resist skimming over velvet.

It's what makes the sight of light glinting off trinkets so captivating, hauling her focus, and her friend, to the booth with an immediacy for distraction. Plucking a pair of blue topaz teardrop earrings, she considers them for a moment before Thorn redirects her gaze to his pair. "Oooh," she appraises at once, gently reaching out to run her thumb around them. "Those will suit you nicely." Her smile beams out, settling into a more natural line as old shadows pull away with the present firelight. "How do you manage to have such impeccable taste all the time?" Though she slips it out with a teasing quality, it's equally as genuine. Thorn manages to make even post-shower comfort look glamorous, the sort of beauty that's effortless for something like flowers and sunsets.

Putting back the topaz as the desert spills over the accessories, Colt's gaze brightens with honest delight as it lifts from the stand to him. "First hint of light and I'm calling down Rae." It's said with the certainty of a plan that's been practiced, rolled over time and again in her mind. "With some divine help, we'll be able to clear out what we need from the jungle to make a genuine town."

COLT

// Turn that frown into a smile real quick—There ain't nothin' that a beer can't fix //

i want to taste you again

Jack follows The Ark's gaze up towards the black hill like he might be able to sense Bassian's chaotic glee, but just as they can't pick out one shape in the dark sea of bodies, neither can his telepathy stretch far enough to pick out the big man's mind. Rest assured, though, he's sure they'll both hear him the old fashioned way if there's a broken bone. Speaking of which, the Captain glances down to the redhead's mittened hand as she remarks on a similar sort of magic laying dormant within her, leaning in like they could both pick it out with enough patience.

"Maybe you just need the right sort of motivation," he considers. "Want me to go an' walk into the bonfire?" He'd normally suggest shoving someone else into the flames, but given who they both are, he doubts that would provide the appropriate impetus for The Ark to unleash her latent healing powers.

As for the Sharpshot and her region cloaked in a different sort of shadow if Vesper has anything to do with it, Jack can only smirk. "You'd reckon," he agrees. "She ought'a be careful. The kid can hold a grudge - she might get back to find him sittin' pretty on her leadership claim."

like a secret or a sin

JACK

Alys

Alys had not, in fact, heard anything from Hotaru on the matter, so absorbed in her own family's rest and recuperation had she been. She'd heard rumors at best, and even if she'd heard straight from the Valkyrie, she'd still have expressed concern for Sunjata's wellbeing. They were friends, too, after all, and had worked together for a time. He deserved someone worrying about him just as Hotaru deserved the same for her.

When Sunjata said he was doing alright, Alys sensed nothing to indicate a lie; he was calm, open, easygoing - in this moment, at least - and the seer relaxed incrementally as she began to enjoy the warmth of the fire. "We're doing well," she said. "Thank you." And after a moment, she added, "I think a party is a wonderful idea. LongNight has such a bad reputation, so it's nice to see something fun happening instead."

Swirling a fingertip on the arm of the chair she'd sank into, she fell silent for a moment. Sunjata had taken her resignation from her position well, but she still felt that she'd treated him poorly. That he was welcoming her now was reassuring, but she would be remiss if she didn't apologize properly. "I want to apologize," she said after a moment. "For resigning from your council so abruptly." There were reasons, of course, but she'd never been one to offer empty excuses, so she let her apology land where it may and stand on its own.

funny how it all works out in the end
you dance with the devil and you lose your head

wish I could bottle the taste

Ordinarily, even the suggestion of Jack stepping willingly into a fire would have sent something immediate and splintered through her, old smoke caught low in the places where her body still remembers being timber and tar and a thing fire had once tried to take apart. But she knows what he means, knows the shape of the test he’s offering her beneath the provocation, and so The Ark only turns a crooked smile up at him over the steam of her wine, the expression sharpening rather than softening. "No," she says, giving her head a slow shake. "There are likely far too many healers around who’d get to you before I could." The last of it comes lower, almost indulgent, but there’s something predatory beneath the warmth of it too, some quiet claim curling around the thought of him hurt and reachable and hers to tend, as if the very idea of anyone else putting their hands on him before she could is enough to make the cold feel briefly less important.

Her brow lifts as she considers Colt again. A dark laugh slips from her, quiet enough that it disappears beneath the music and the crackle of the nearest fire, before she glances sideways at the Captain with blue eyes bright in the torchlight. "It’d be a clever time to do it," she says, her voice made casual only by effort. "When an Accepted like her can’t call down anyone for divine assistance." Jack will feel the hope for what it is before she gives it shape, blackwater-silent and still beneath the surface of her mind: the small, vicious wish that Vesper is doing precisely that.

The Ark takes another sip of mulled wine, holding the cup close where its heat can reach her palms through the mittens, though her attention has gone distant now, turned toward the harbour and the dark outline of herself waiting beyond New Haven. "I’ve noticed how little he comes aboard these days," she adds, of Vesper.

'cause i'd drink up the look on your face

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

i want to taste you again

"They wouldn't," Jack assures her with the smooth promise of violence that often accompanies any magical healer trying to get their hands on him. It's an old hang-up, but one that has persisted, and it isn't going anywhere any time soon. For The Ark, though, the exception would be an obvious one. If she had such power laying dormant beneath her skin, that is.

Taking another sip of mulled wine and angling himself subtly closer towards the redhead, Jack catches her eye and grants her a sharp, wolfish smirk for the trouble. "It's when I'd do it, if I were ever inclined," he agrees. Not that he ever has been inclined; leadership is more trouble than it's worth in his opinion, and Jack has ever been able to make the most of it without holding a title himself.

He doesn't expect talk of Vesper to continue, not even with telepathy, but the Captain hums thoughtfully around another drink as The Ark brings to light what everyone has noticed. "He's a delicate flower when it comes to his privacy," he drawls, winking at her. "Prob'ly to do with the magic we share. He feels some type of way about you bein' about to tell where he is an' what he's up to when he's aboard. Especially now you could tell other people 'bout it, no doubt."

like a secret or a sin

JACK