EVENT LOG: BURY A FRIEND

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
BURY A FRIEND

characters: everyone.
location: around town.
date/time: october 9-17.
content: the hallucinations begin...
warnings: psychological horror. please cw tags appropriately.

it's probably something that shouldn't be said out loud

October 9 feels like a normal day at first, save for the red lighthouse beam cutting through the darkness overhead. You know by now—or you've heard—that the lighthouse is only active during ferry arrivals and events... And there's definitely no ferry docked at the, er. Beach. The town is quiet, the forest spirits behave business-as-usual, Rastus doesn't know what's up. Whatever's going on, you'll have to figure it out for yourself.

And you will, though the hallucinations are subtle at first: objects moving when they shouldn't, people's proportions looking just a bit off, voices in an empty room, and so on. Is it just your mind playing tricks in the darkness? Might be! Will did warn you all about the effects of living without a sun and a proper day/night cycle.

As the days go on, the hallucinations are harder to ignore, no matter how much you may wish to wave them off as flukes. What's wrong with everyone's faces? When did all the howling start? Who do you hold onto when the world drops out from under you? And those hands...

While you might know it can't be real, it certainly feels real. But at least it can't last forever!

...Right?

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Ignis Scientia | Final Fantasy XV | ota | Event CWs

[reigniter]

Early in the Event

1. [When Ignis woke up that day (normal), everything seemed normal. He went around doing his stuff, from making coffee and breakfast to taking a stroll to the library and Bonfire. It was unusally calm... or was it just him? The spirits acted normal, although not many wandered around the edges of the Forest. That's fine, Ignis figured. They were probably wary of new arrivals, and vice versa.

Still, as he takes a seat at the usual table in the Library, he could have sworn he heard a giggle. Not just any kind of giggle- a giggle of a small girl. Or was it a boy? He lifts his gaze and looks around but refocuses on the pages once again.

But when it happens again, he places the book down and straightens, frowning. The Librarian never giggles. They hoot and hum and and chew on the pages and glide over the bookcases. He lifts his lantern as exits the bookshelf row.]

...Hello?

[...could be nothing.]

Middle of the Event

2. [To say that Ignis is a clean freak would be an understatement. He really appreciates when everything is in order. Yet somehow everything in the house seems to be misplaced.

And those cobwebs! They are driving him insane!

He's on the porch, in front of his house, with a broom, cleaning up the corners and the walls of the wooden cottage of the webs... that don't really exist. After dusting off his broom from "cobwebs" he "cleaned up" he returns to wiping windows from (non-existent) dust and ash.]

3. Isn't this a bit excessive...?

[Ignis' question is quiet and mostly to himself, as he stares at, well, nothing. Just an empty space between the trees. But his hallucinating mind sees a lot of hands and bones hanging on the nearby branch. Are spirits trying to freak out the newcomers? Because they are doing a hell of a good job because Ignis almost got a heart attack. He seriously hopes those hands aren't real and just made from a lot of very... convincing-looking material and ketchup.]

Excuse me, [he stops the first person that comes his way,] would you mind helping me take these off the branches? Spirits are being a bit too playful tonight.

End of the Event

4. [It happened again. Only this time on his way back from the Bonfire and just as he stepped onto the bridge. At first, Ignis didn't want to believe what he was seeing, that it was mere trick of the light. But now he can't deny it. He is here. And standing on the bridge, bolcking his way.

A tall figure with ragged attire; long, tattered scarves, drenched in filth of the scourge, mud from the battle and water; skin so pale with demonic liquid dripping down his cheeks, grinning toothily at Ignis as he raises both of his hands, as if beckoning Ignis to come closer.]

I knew you would come here eventually... [Ignis says and gets into fighting stance, summoning his blades and infusing them with lightning. The shadowy figure cackles, tilting the hat up with finger-]

How the mighty have fallen, [Ardyn speaks in his ominously silky and sickly voice. The figure charges at him from the bridge to where Ignis is standing near the forest, and Ignis' blades strike the ground, making it explode loudly, sending rocks flying everywhere. In his vision, he had pushed Ardyn back- for a second- and he's getting ready to do it again.]

Wonderful. I get to kill you this time.

WILDCARD

5. [OOC: If you have any idea or you want to plot something up, hit me up at WindsongWitch ]

3

[notthatjason]

[Jason had adapted a schedule for himself and it was the time of day that he had dedicated to odd jobs, though recently those jobs mostly seemed to consist of repairing broken buildings. First the church and then the docks and now the boat house. He wondered how he could live in a camp with hundreds of demigods and their legacies with hardly a dent and yet a building seemed to be destroyed once a week around here.

At least it kept him distracted from the most recent strangeness. Well, most of the time, he hadn't given it much thought but he was pretty sure it was starting to get worse. He stops walking when he hears a familiar voice and notices Ignis standing near some trees and looking kind of worried.

Jason's eyes drift to the branches, glancing over them.]

Take what off?

[reigniter]

[Jason is almost right on the spot when he says Ignis looks worried. Everyone should be, when they see severed off hands hanging from the branches like they are some kind of Christmas decorations. There's an uneasy feeling settling in Ignis' gut the more he looks at it, and he's seen some terrible shit in his life.]

The... [he takes a deep breath and then sighs]...hands, of course.

Don't you see them? [Ignis pushes his glasses up.] I do not mind pranks and Spirits pulling them on us, but this is a bit too much.

[notthatjason]

[Ignis doesn't strike him as the type to make stuff up, and he's being very vehement about this. Jason looks at the trees again but still sees no sign of hands or really anything besides bark and leaves. He hesitates, but he's never been one to lie and he's not about to start now. Though he's not sure who he should be more worried about: himself or Ignis.]

I don't, sorry. [He looks lost for a moment.] Maybe it's still a prank though...maybe there's a way they can hide it from view or something.

[Jason says this as someone used to things like the Mist and his own encounters with magic and those like Hazel or Hecate. Which, really, was one in the same. The other option, of course, is that Ignis is truly seeing things...but now that Jason thinks about it, he's pretty sure he's been seeing things too. But he still felt new here and wasn't sure if what he'd been seeing was just the latest bit of strangeness about this place.]

[reigniter]

Clearly they are the-

[Ignis cuts himself off in half sentence when he looks from Jason and back at the tree branches. The hands were gone. Like, not even a drop of blood from where they were dripping onto the ground. It has been a while since he felt this disturbed, the last time being seeing Ardyn hovering over Noctis with a dagger.

He takes a deep breath and tries to calm down, closes his eyes briefly and then opens them, checking again the tree. Nope. Nothing.]

A rather disturbing prank for Forest spirits. I've never seen them do anything like it before.

[They were mostly into making thorny scarecrows and hunting shiny things.]

[notthatjason]

[Obviously Jason doesn't see them disappear since he didn't see them to begin with, but he gets a sense for it from Ignis' face alone. He frowns, but otherwise does his best to keep his expression neutral, masking his concern. He steps closer towards the trees, putting a hand on the tree and peering up into the branches like any of that would tell him anything. He sighs and steps back.]

Maybe it's something else then. I hate that we keep blaming the spirits for things, but I guess they're kind of the unknown factor around here.

[There's a pause and he looks back in the direction of Bonfire Square.]

Unless it's a new arrival...someone we aren't aware of with an ability that could do that.

1

[callada]

[Rosinante doesn't frequent the library nearly as often as he should. The novels, something he normally enjoyed on long voyages or in quiet downtime, now feel like a distraction. The library never seems to yield the informative nonfiction he wishes it had.

But he's here today in search of distraction. The hallucinations are mild. Irritating at worst. He'd like try and tune them out. Instead, shortly after arrival, he hears Ignis' voice from an adjacent room and assumes his entrance has been noticed, so he walks over and pokes his head in through the doorway and knocks on the frame.]

Just me. How are things?

[reigniter]

[The sound he heard doesn't match the person he sees. And Ignis is sure it was real because it actually echoed in the empty, silent library. Seeing Rosinante instead is a bit offputting and certainly distracting from other noises.]

Everything's alright, thank you for asking. [For now. Ignis does seem to try and peer behind Rosinante, as if looking for something.]

And you?

[He can hear the giggle again and some shuffling and Ignis prays to the gods it's just Librarian that found a very delicious book to gnaw on.]

[callada]

Doing fine. Not sure that's the case with everyone, though. The boathouse got torn to pieces in the last day or two, kind of like the church did before. Darkness must be getting to people.

[And the lighthouse beacon was lit - he saw that too on his walk over.

Ignis must have been waiting for someone else, he figures. He can't help himself and glances back over his own shoulder but no, it's just the two of them for now.]

Have you spoken to Robin lately?

[reigniter]

Not just the boathouse but the ferry too. [The thing is at the bottom of the lake now, and it's honestly concerning.]

That is true... it is hard to keep motivation up when there's no visible progress. Still, trying to hijack a ferry and smashing the dock is not a way to do it.

[He's definitely not expecting anyone and finally decides to write off the giggling and whispers to some forest spirit pulling a prank on him. His attention is now fully on Rosinante.]

We had a brief conversation when the ferry crashed. She asked about people that caused the accident.

[callada]

Oh, I know. [And he lifts his left arm ever so slightly, wrapped in its sling, to indicate that the ferry crash is how he got his current injury. Even that small amount of movement still hurts his shoulder badly, but he manages without wincing, though he regrets the action. Nowhere near healed enough just yet.]

Mm, I imagine she's interested in them, yeah. I saw her saying something about working out a solution now that the ferry's gone - a solution for not bringing in more people, I imagine. She has ways to contact people beyond Beacon somehow.

[And she can order people killed, too. He knows that much. The troublemakers had better watch their heads.]

Anyway, I spoke to the man who calls himself Soldat and he took some of the blame, but it sounds like that Crowley fellow might be at fault as well. Do you know him?

2

[nyxulric]

[ Nyx had been out nearby familiarizing himself with the area. Since his arriving here, he's felt restless and a little uneasy with the thought that this is where they all end up. But since it doesn't seem like any of them are going anywhere anytime soon, it's best he have an idea of his surroundings and the layout of where their cabin is.

So with his lantern slung over his shoulder, he comes to slow in his steps and stares a little puzzled at just what it is that Ignis seems to be doing. ]

Cleaning at this hour?

[ It's a bit of a joke since who knows what time it is anymore what with the neverending darkness and all. ]

[reigniter]

[It is a feeling that Ignis is familiar with- not accepting that this is their final destination after death. There are some people around, including Nyx, that don't deserve to be here, in this endless darkness, forever. So he hopes they all manage to find a way out of this damn place sooner rather than later.

He steps back from the window and the house when Nyx approaches, giving it a tentative look. Ignis doesn't consider webs to be a hallucination, just him missing to clean it up. Though, the house is almost too clean because of it.]

I just missed a spot. There were cobwebs in the corner of the windows and it looked rather offputting.

[Nyx is yet to learn how "in order" Ignis likes his things to be.]

[nyxulric]

[ You're gonna have to forgive him, Ignis because... he doesn't really see what you're talking about there. But hey, what does he know about keeping the place spic and span? Not to say that his place back home was a pigsty or anything but he gets the feeling Ignis is a lot better at the keeping everything tidy than pretty much any of them in the house. ]

Spiders a bit of a problem here?

[ He folds his arms against his chest, coming to stand next to the man as he gives a look around. ]

Not so bad for the creepy crawlies if you ask me.

[reigniter]

[Just leave house tending to Ignis. And take shoes off at the door.

Spiders... now that Nyx mentions it, he can't remember ever seeing a proper spider. So where are these cobwebs coming from then?]

They haven't been up until now. I actually haven't seen a spider at all.

[Honestly, anything that doesn't have a logical explanation is going to hurt his brain and he won't sleep.]

It is a perfect setting for them, which is weird that they aren't here.

[broplaints]

[To say that Ignis had been acting strangely was, well, a pretty severe understatement. Cleaning at all hours of the day. Sweeping up invisible dust and cobwebs until everything around their cabin was actually sparkling. Which was why Noctis had been keeping an especially close eye on him, watching his movements, making sure he didn't wander off for too long by himself.

Things had started to get weird around the edges of his vision. Little wisp of hands trying to reach out for him. Sounds of screaming and daemons playing over and over again within his mind. Getting more and more difficult to shake it off and pretend like it didn't exist.

Thankfully it hadn't distracted him into any terrible situations. Unless you counted starting across the bridge to go find Ignis at just the same moment that earth went flying in every single direction. Somehow the worst of it missed him, a stray rock or two cutting across his face and arms before he could react to deflect them.

'Wonderful. I get to kill you this time.'

Great. That was just great. Whatever Ignis was seeing wasn't there. And Noctis could only hope that he could actually talk some sense into him before he ended up injuring himself. Or worse, someone else.]

Ignis... whatever you're seeing. It isn't real.

[reigniter]

[For better or for worse, Noctis was the only one seeing Ignis go almost berserk. It isn't on the level when he encountered Ardyn, because somewhere in the back of his mind Ignis knows this isn't, shouldn't, be real.

But the feeling is the same, the aura, the rotten smile Ardyn gives him, just several feet away from where he's standing.

And now Noct's here and he cuts his attention. The hallucination seems to waver for a moment, but it's still there, in the background, Ardyn cackling and his eyes glinting their way, as if taunting them.

Ignis pushes Noct to the side then stands in front of him.]

You don't know that for certain... [What if they write it off to an illusion but in the next moment it kills them? Kills Noct? He's not taking any chances with that.]

Stay back, Noct.

[broplaints]

[There were certain things that Noctis would never get accustom to, no matter how many times they occurred. Being shoved out of the line of fire and firmly pushed behind someone was near the top of that list. Like he hadn't somehow received literal years of training and didn't have an entire arsenal of weapons and magic available at his fingertips. Normally it was Gladio doing the shielding - and Ignis had always been beside him. Always having his back. ]

I do. [Finding his footing on the soft dirt, he tried to shift, to move around Ignis to place his body between him and the sight of the illusion. To draw his focus away from it and onto him.] Trust me, Specs. There's nothing there.

[reigniter]

[Ignis never did that before- pushing Noctis aside and from the front lines. He knew he could pull his own weight. But this felt like it was something Ignis had to do himself. And with them being together, it just adds another layer of protective urges from Ignis.

It's hard to breathe and Ardyn's cackle is filling his ears, almost making him miss what Noctis is telling him. And he tries, so hard, to convince himself that this isn't real, that Noct is telling the truth and that Ardyn isn't about to suffocate them with the plague.]

...I trust you... [the first time he fully relies on only words and not the sight. He trusts Noctis implicitly so he lowers his daggers and lets them fade back into armiger. Please be an illusion...]

[broplaints]

[Somewhere off in the distance is the soft humming buzz of white noise, an eerie sort of occurrence that only plays within his own ears. Voices calls out, begging for help, crying in pain. Asking why their king isn't there, why has he done nothing. So strong and so sudden that it's almost impossible to fight off and for a brief moment he loses his concentration, forgets what he's doing and simply reaches out, grips whichever part of Ignis he can latch onto.

Not helpful some still rational portion of his brain whispers. It brings him back, makes him remember what he was attempting. Has him glancing up, catching those stunning green eyes and locking their gaze with his own. Uses the hold he's established to push them back a single step. And then another. And another. Until they're feet away from the bridge and the illusion that stands upon it.]

Then let me take you home. Stay there with me. We'll keep each other safe. Just like we promised.

2.

[paletteswap]

[Kuai is agitatedly pacing from the village to the tavern trying to work off the weird nervous energy that's been plaguing him. Something just feels.. off. More off than it had been for the past few weeks. By the fifth time he walks by and Ignis is still cleaning he finally says something. ]

You have been doing that for quite some while. Is it not up to your standards yet?

[reigniter]

[If only Ignis could spend his energy just by pacing around. His mind knows that there are cobwebs around his house and, the extremely neat person he is, he can't just leave it be. Also, it helps with ignoring that giggling voice he keeps hearing ever since he visited the library a day or two ago. Some forest spirits are really persistent with their pranks.]

It was hard to reach some places, [he says nonchalantly, stepping away from the windows and putting away the duster.] It's really weird to see cobwebs around, considering I didn't see a single spider in all this time we were here.

[paletteswap]

I've not seen any spiders. Nor cobwebs.

[Which is actually really strange now that he thinks about it. No cobwebs or dust, like there's nothing living to make such things. Though he has heard the crickets and cicadas in the forest - but he's never been able to find them.]

Have you noticed ...

[Hm. How to phrase this. Have you been hearing people from your past - sounds more delirious than he wants to admit.]

Are the forest spirits being louder than normal?

[reigniter]

Odd... [because he was sure he's seen some, right in the corners. They are gone now but still...

In any case, Ignis now fully focuses on Kuai, frowning a bit in thought as he thinks about the question. Loud spirits?]

I did notice their increased whisperings and general shuffling, yes. But- not right now.

[It's oddly silent, now that he thinks about it.]

I wonder what has them acting so oddly. Did they attack you?

[paletteswap]

No, but whatever they're doing does not seem friendly. I keep seeing them on the periphery of my vision and they scurry away when I turn to look.

[To the point that he's not 100% sure he's even seeing them. But it's happened so many times it can't be coincidence.]