logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: BURY A FRIEND

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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At least he's starting to get it. That they aren't fighting her because they don't want to, but because they don't want to die, probably worse death than the initial one.
The advantage is- there are no new souls to get here to be trapped. The disadvantage- no food or supplies. If that's the case, winter will be unforgivable and they'll have to travel very deep in the forest in search of anything to help them.

She almost falls over when Crowley leaps, but her feet dig into the ground and somehow she retains balance.

"Another one, huh?" She's not even mad now. This is really fucking them all up. Looking around frantically, she can't come up with an idea where they could go to hide but this isn't like running away from the physical enemy. "What the fuck do we do..." her eyes go wide as several pale hands start to creep their way from the dark lake.

"We get away from them," he says. He can't see the ones she can, but he can see all of the ones around him, all of the ones coming from the woods. There are so many. So many, coming for them.

"We can fly, get away," he suggests. He looks out to the ferry. It looks solid enough, even as it's sinking. He could land them there for a while. It doesn't look like there's any hands by the ferry. Aziraphale could help.

"Get away... but where?!" These hallucinations will follow them, wherever they go. So long their eyes are open and they are aware of is going on. Sleeping it off is a good idea, but it's not going to happen with all the things they keep hearing.

She follows his gaze out on the water and frowns; "I don't know what you're seeing there, but it's not there. Just... floating hands," she warns him. She also knows that floating hands aren't real hands but it's more than enough to make her legs freeze solid.

"...maybe on some roof? Like the top of the Invincible?"

"But it's there," he says, firmly. "I can see it, we can hide on it before it sinks."

She has to believe him, he can see it. He knows it's there.

He looks back to the town. They could hide on top of the Invincible. It's a place to go, but the ferry, out on the water, seems even safer. At least, for a moment or two.

He lets his wings spread out, long and black, and offers her his hand.

Before it sinks? What is sinking? She sees nothing.

"Crowley, whatever you're seeing, better be actual fucking firm ground or I'll drown you," she warns and takes his hand, after nailing a few crawling hands with her daggers. The hands squirm and eventually stop and she retrieves them with a snap of her fingers and braces herself, one of her hands clutching on the back of his shirt.

"Go, go, go-" they are cutting it VERY close!

He doesn't hesitate. He turns, wraps his arms around her, holds on tight, and takes to the air. The town has gone completely mad, he thinks. Hands, hallucinations, and now apparently the ferry is re-sinking in the water. He's completely at a loss about what to do or how to make any of this stop.

"We are fucked," he says again, because it's important they're all aware of this. "Completely fucked."

He flies out as far as he can see, which is just over where the ferry is sinking. There's a spot on the deck that looks like it's solid, and he begins to lower them towards it.

It's as if taking a flight into the air, where it's cool and fresh, makes her finally take a proper, deep breath. Far away from those hands and crying children- the only sound in her ears being the wind.

But then... they are going straight back to the lake and holy shit what the fuck is Crowley doing?!

"Are you insane! Don't drown me you hallucinating idiot!" She screams at him, her nails digging into his back. "There's nothing there! YOU'LL DOUSE OUR LANTERNS, IMBECILE!"

For the love of everything, don't-!

Crowley lowers them, but her words stop him when they're less than a foot above the water. Douse the lanterns; that's real death, total death. He thinks he sees the ferry, and he thinks it's solid as all hell, but it can't be there----he knows it, he's certain of it. It already sank. That already happened, it's already done. It's just another hallucination.

He flaps his wings and brings them back up, over the town. He doesn't fly farther than he can see, so he stays up, just above the town's lights.

"Roof of the Invincible?" he repeats to her. "Think we'll be safe there?"

Xayah breathes a shaky sigh of relief when Crowley gets them back up in the air. Now she's not sure what's making her stomach twist- the flying or the fact that they were a mere foot away from dying.

She shakes her head, "No- no idea. But it's high up..." she'd suggest a tree but odd sounds keep coming from the forest, and she doesn't want to be too far away from the Beacon if a true fight suddenly occurs. She has no idea what the fire is, but she realizes it's important for them.

"We can try at least..."

"Good enough for me."

Crowley gives a spin mid-air and directs them towards the Invincible. The town isn't large, it isn't some magical flight across the world, but it's fast, because he doesn't want to be seen and doesn't want to see the strange things the town has for them waiting in the woods any more than he has to.

He lands them softly on the roof, taking extra care as he tries to hand on only one foot before putting his weight back on Xayah.

It's over too soon for Xayah's liking. If it were her, she'd stay in the air forever and avoid all of the things crawling on the ground. And also- it's freaking cool. It was something new and fresh that cut through the horror of the hallucinations that just keep piling up.

When they land, she heaves a sigh and then helps Crowley sit down on the pile of planks and stone bricks because of his leg. She can hear people talking from here and the hallucinations subsided... for now. A moment to breath.

"Jeez, you almost killed us both," she huffs, taking a seat as well.

"I saw the ferry," he says, lowering himself to the planks. "I thought we could get down there, be away from the ground for a bit----"

He looks up at her and makes a face. "But it wasn't real. Of course it wasn't. It just feels so real. Like you can smell it, feel it, see it."

He runs a hand over his face. "I had one the other day with Aziraphale. Still not sure what it all meant."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say this place is out to get you," she mutters. Which, to be fair, it would make sense after the ferry fiasco, but then why is everyone else having hallucinations? Mass punishment for the innocent folk too?

"You just have to keep that in front of your mind all the time. Y'know how they say "pinch yourself to wake up"? Same thing." Honestly, if she can't get a grip of herself, she just slices her palm with a feather.

She silent for a moment. "You hallucinated him or you were with him when it happened?"

"She could be punishing all of us for what I did," Crowley says. "The Lighthouse Keeper. Doing this to all of us. Starting the nightmares, causing the visions."

It's all he can think. He doesn't know how the town works. It makes as much sense as anything else.

He reaches into his pocket, producing a single white feather. He'd collected it from Aziraphale when he was grooming his feathers. It made him think of the way Xayah had her lover's feather with her. He'd never had Aziraphale's with him, not even when they spent centuries apart. He never could. Now he could.

"He was there. It was---" He shakes his head. "Just not what I'd want to happen to him."

"Or it could be the Forest Spirits," she says casually. "They aren't above this and there are rumors about some spirit that messes with everyone's head." She rubs her hands together and blows at them, "This entire place is fucked up, can't blame it on just one person." Even though she really wants to.

Her eyes land on the feather he pulls out and her expression softens. It's from that guy that got her in bed when she got drunk a week ago, huh? Fitting.

"I know but... you just have to trust him that he can handle it."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Xayah, but I can blame whoever I want," he says. "And right now, she's the person with all the power. She can take some of the blame until she proves otherwise."

After all, why else would the Lighthouse be on?

Crowley spins the feather in his hand, and then tucks it away.

"I don't know if I can," he says. "These hallucinations get into your head."

Xayah rolls her eyes, "I've seen people trying to get her to take some responsibility for the carnage that happened. She just acted like a kid she is." Xayah's still not sure how she survived through that night, those several hours while the forest spirits rampaged. She felt so bad killing them, but she didn't want to die either.

The feather is very pretty and Xayah watches it until Crowley puts it away.

"They do. But I'm not going to lose to some visions," she huffs. The determination is there, but it's the strength to pull through that she's worried about. "I wish I could just sleep through it all," she mutters, curling her feather cloak tighter around herself.

Edited 2019-10-15 13:56 (UTC)

A kid? Crowley realizes immediately he doesn't know a damn thing about the Lighthouse Keeper except what he's heard. He doesn't read her posts, he doesn't interact with her. He mostly treats her like a faraway problem maker who passes judgement on all of them---which, really, is also how he treated the Almighty Herself when he was back at home.

"What do you know about her?" he asks.

He'll never admit it, of course, but he rather likes Xayah. She's a survivor, and she's not about to take nonsense when she sees it. The rest of the town could use a lesson or two from her if they're going to get out of this place in one piece.

"I once slept through a whole century because I didn't like it," he adds.

Edited 2019-10-15 14:11 (UTC)

She had thought that after ferry fiasco the guy would've taken the tablet and read through what they gathered. Not to talk to the Keeper but to be up with the things. She sighs.

"There's nothing much on her. She's a teen, from what I saw in posts, and she replaced the previous Lighthouse Keeper during the time her group was about to be reset. There's so much dirt around that story I don't know where to even begin," she rolls her eyes. How did she get to the Lighthouse, why did the previous one step down- questions that she will probably not get an honest answer to if she asks.

"So being the kid she is, she didn't accept the responsibility for the consequences until people got mad at her." Xayah didn't talk to her about that. She's trying to lay low and stay out of Keeper's sight for... reasons. She does sound irritated about the situation and that she can't do anything about it. Yet.

Well, that settles some things. While Crowley isn't against murdering kids, he can't kill them himself. That's just not who he is. So that takes that idea out of the equation. He can always tempt someone else to do it, but there's always the possibility that everything that this person says will happen will happen if she's killed, which would be horrific.

"Did they kill the last Lighthouse Keeper?" he asks. "Is that how she knows what will happen if you kill her?"

Crowley can understand not accepting consequences. He's never been the best at doing that, either.

"Probably in a reset, yes." She sighs. "Apparently the Keeper went nuts, went to reset the town, she got to the Lighthouse and got them to switch places with her." She didn't want to die, Robin said and, well, coming from a teenager she kind of gets it. Still, that guy Will, is clearly against her and they are now getting along purely because Winters is dead.

"Will, that Doctor guy, says she kills off people that are 'of no use to her'. So she's not innocent little flower," Xayah crosses hands and leans forward on her knees. "It's impossible to tell who is telling the truth since we have no means of checking it."

"He's a total wanker," Crowley says, because this is a helpful thing to note right now. "But does he say how she kills them? Not like she has a magical 'kill' button----does she?"

Crowley really should read the network more, he thinks. But reading. Ugh.

She nods- Will didn't say it- Robin said it herself.

"She... something like that. She uses music to control the forest spirits to go to all explored areas and kill everyone they come across." That ominous sound she heard back when Winters died. She visibly shudders and shakes her head, "I don't know if it's a button or what but- the forest spirits kill us when she orders them." She visibly looks pained and angry at the same time.

"She said that spirits don't always listen to her so I wonder if any of the resets ever failed..."

"Sounds like a winner, that one," Crowley says. "She could use them to help us, help herself, but instead she uses them to kill. How helpful of her." How human.

He looks out over the town. It's so dark here. Always so dark, so small. He's spent so long in London, living among the lights of the city, among its ever-buzzing energy. The slowness of this place drives him absolutely mad.

"Does she expect us to trust her? To like her? Does she think she's going to make us with her little army of murderers?"

"No thanks," she abruptly stops him, raising her hand. "Last time she asked the spirits to help us, it was a slaughter. It makes me wonder if she really did ask them to help us." It happened a few months ago but she can still vividly remember every single detail of that night. She wondered how she got herself alive out of that.

Xayah sighs and shakes her head.

"I don't know." There's a perpetual scowl on her face. "She says we don't have to like her but that we should work with her and together to solve this World Eater thing so everyone can move on. And yet..." little army of murderers... it fits. It's like Keeper is holding an invisible knife to their throats, ready to slice whenever she wants.

"Two years to solve the problem, otherwise she'll reset us since we weren't useful and the World Eaters would destroy everything."

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