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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[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.]

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.]

[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.

[Everyone keeps warning them about spirits, especially Keeper. And while he almost hates her, he figures there's some kind of truth in what she says. Maybe.]

They can be manipulated by music. [They got those ocarinas, but Ignis didn't use his much.] So yes, they are mysterious and hard to work with. [One can't know when the spirit will just turn around and attack them. Because that's what happened when the horn went off last time.]

That I did not take into consideration. I've seen couple of people arrive though.

[And while they keep coming, it's still not in quantity of the first night when he arrived. Maybe that's for the best.]

[This is all true and Jason's not saying that the spirits should necessarily be trusted completely, but he'd definitely picked up on the fact that they tend to get the blame first for a lot of incidents. Perhaps it's because he wasn't here for the attack.]

True. But I haven't heard any strange sounds lately.

[Jason does notice any one nearby -- spirit or otherwise.]

So what did you see exactly? Were the hands attached to anything? How many were in the tree?

[Honestly, if Ignis was to blame anyone for this, he'd blame Robin and the fact that she still keeps finding stuff from them and then casually mentions things in a "oh I must have forgotten" manner. Ignis can't wait to hear an excuse for this. She'll probably say it's spirits too.]

Indeed. That is worrisome.

[Ignis doesn't blame spirits completely, it's in their nature to act this way. These are their lands after all. Humans are invaders here.]

I saw... a lot of severed hands, hanging from a tree branch. Placed as if someone left them there to air dry them.

[Jason steps closer to the tree, peering up at it even though Ignis had already indicated they were gone. He tilts his head and then, without saying anything, jumps up towards the lowest branch. It's just out of reach, but Jason presses his foot into the tree and does a kind of part-run, part-air blast to get himself into the branches. He wants to make sure there's nothing lurking where he can't see and apparently the easiest way to do that is to climb the tree.

Teenagers, right?

He looks back down at Ignis. Jason opens his mouth, but then catches sight of something in the trees out of the corner of his eye. He frowns, shifting his weight in the branch, as his attention is drawn to the mysterious movement.]

Hey...wait a second.

[That's a swift climbing technique. It's been a while since Ignis himself had climbed up the tree. He did use that grappling hook in Altissia, but it's hardly the same. With hands on the hips, he steps closer to the tree and looks up.]

Hm? Is there a problem?

[Did he see something? It's too dark and high; from where Ignis is standing, he cannot see anything. But maybe the guy can?]

Do be careful, some of the branches look exceptionally dry, they might snap.

[And Jason might snap his neck as he falls down.]

[Jason doesn't want to lose sight of the thing...he thinks he saw a thing anyway. He doesn't look back at Ignis, though he does respond.]

I thought I saw something up here...maybe it's one of those hands or something that caused you to see hands.

[Jason was fine with heights, though he was very much aware that if he fell the wrong way he could hurt himself. There was no ambrosia here and it was likely it would cost him his life. At least he had left his lantern on the ground, the tree wasn't so tall that the distance made him uncomfortable or anything.]

I won't go higher...this is probably the most secure branch anyway.

[He does move a little closer to the trunk, reaching out to balance himself and try to find what he thought he'd seen. Without warning a large pale hand dropped from the branch above and seemed to hurl itself at Jason's shoulder. He yelped in surprise and, sure enough, started to fall back.

The hand overshot his shoulder and landed on the branch he was currently falling off of, though luckily Jason had been climbing trees and falling from heights for a long time. Instinct took over and he blasted the ground with a blast of air to cushion his fall, tucking and rolling, before popping back up. It wasn't as graceful as his name would imply it should be...but his neck and bones were all intact at least.

The lone hand scurried along the tree branch, though made no move to launch a second attack. Jason brushed off his pants, glancing over at Ignis.]

Guess you were right about the hands in the tree. At least one of them was still there.

[Ignis watches the guy with raising dread in his gut- if he knew he'd climb it that high, he wouldn't have let him. Who knows what were those hands in the trees, it is really unflattering place to fight too- dark and unsteady.

-And as suspected, the guy falls. Ignis didn't see if anything attacked him or no, he's rushing to his side with a worried look on his face.]

Are you alright? That looked like a really hard fall.

[He gives guy's legs a look, then takes his forearms to check the wrists- ankles and wrists tend to get damaged first during the fall.]

Anything sprained? [Ignis asks, eyes glancing at the tree to keep an eye out for those hands that Jason mentioned.]

[Jason takes a minute to take stock. Checking himself for injuries is more or less second nature. After a moment he nods, holding up a hand in the hopes of being reassuring.]

I'm fine, really. I know how to take a fall.

[Kind of the other side of learning to fly is learning to fall. Jason could have handled it better, because now that he's "checked" himself he definitely feels some soreness, but nothing that's worse than a bruise. His gaze drifts back up to the tree. Unlike before, his eyes clearly lock on something this time: watching the pale hand skitter along the branch, sometimes swinging under it. After a moment it starts to make its way back up the trunk and out of sight.]

Hm? No, no sprains. Probably have a few bruises.

I suppose there's a silver lining in everything.

[Ignis looks up to where the guy was staring, but again, he sees nothing. In any case, they ought to move from the tree before something worse happens.

He offers the guy a hand to help him up, with a short nod.]

Well, better bruises than broken bones.

We should move from here. Whatever is playing pranks on us won't hesitate to do it again. [And it might end up being worse.]

[Jason accepts the offered hand and pulls himself back to his feet.]

True. Bruises I can walk off.

[Technically he'd walked off a few broken bones as well in the past, but that was also with a nice heaping dose of ambrosia and in the middle of battle with adrenaline pumping.]

Yeah, good idea. Especially if they can appear and disappear like that...

[Jason wasn't planning on going back up into the tree, but Ignis had a point about maybe clearing the area and leaving well enough alone.]

We should find some of the others...see if they've seen anything similar.

[Back when he was alive, he had potions that could handle serious injuries like broken bones and concussions. Here, however, he doesn't have that luxury so he has to be extremely careful.]

Yes, [Ignis nods,] we should see if others at the Bonfire or Invincible encountered something.

[If it were any other situation, he'd suggest to look around and take down any other pranks set up by the spirits; to take them down before anyone else runs into them.]

We should keep eyes open for anything similar on our way.

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EVENT LOG: BURY A FRIEND

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