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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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."

"Two years isn't any time at all," Crowley says. "I've taken longer naps than two years. We have to make a plan and make it fast. Or figure out a way out of here first."

Crowley doesn't like the idea of being seen as 'useful'. It's the sort of thinking that keeps people alive in Hell, and he never really got on with people in Hell. He likes wine and movies and being generally rubbish at everything, and he doesn't like being useful. He doesn't know who the Heaven this Lighthouse Keeper thinks she is, but Crowley isn't about to dance around for her.

"What do you think about flying away?" he says, turning to Xayah. "Getting a few torches to light the way and just flying as far as we can go?"

He naps for two years? Huh.

"First we have to find them. The Keeper says she can roughly estimate where they are but she can't pinpoint them until they are close. And if they are close, then it's the end for all." So, as long as Robin says she doesn't feel them in the vicinity, they are good to go. That won't help for a long though and Crowley is right, they do need a plan more than this.

"Flying away..." That sounds nice and freeing. "I mean, we could try but- what if we actually run into them? Besides, World Eaters react to our lanterns, as they are our source of life." But flying around did give her an idea.

"...we should fly around though. Because maybe, if we move around with our lanterns and scatter into small groups, it will confuse the monsters? Apparently, they are slow-moving so it can buy some time." And this would be such a good plan in general- if it weren't for Forest Spirits. She loves them, but they are really hindering their progress when it comes to exploring.

"Could leave our lanterns behind," he suggests. "Take a torch from the bonfire for light, leave the lanterns locked up in a cabinet or something for safekeeping."

Would also do them well if they didn't return. Crowley almost lost Aziraphale when he nearly doused his own lantern in that water, he isn't about to see what happens if one of them accidentally dropped it.

He glances at the girl's back. "Do you think you could fly? You've got the wings. If you, I don't know, learned?"

She shakes her head, "Can't. I'm not sure why, but we can't go around without them." She also had that thought, of locking up her lantern. "I tried doing that with mine, but the moment I stepped few meters away from it, I almost fainted. I think it's our lifeline, of sorts. Too far away and it will break and we'll die here." So leaving the lantern behind is a no go.

"Huh?"

Xayah glances at her wing and her fingers curl into a fist, and she shakes her head.

"I... think I knew once how to." Before she was forced to hide and pretend her wing is part of her clothing. "Now I don't- I don't know. I can jump really high and float in the air for a moment, but flying the distance- not my forte." She tries to sound casual about it but it's certainly a topic that bothers her. What kind of bird doesn't fly?

"Oh."

Crowley has spent centuries not flying, but he's always known how. It's always been there, in the back of his mind, the how of flying. He literally couldn't imagine himself not able to fly. It would be tragic, he thinks, to forget how. That must be how Xayah feels.

"That sucks." He looks back over the town. He could teach her, he supposes. He could show her how to use her wings and fly. It wouldn't even be hard. He looks back to her. Would that make her happy, flying again? She seems to really like it when he flies her places.

Oh, but it would be so nice of him, wouldn't it? He cringes a little inside.

"I could----you know---if you wanted---?"

That's- not an offer she expected from a human. Well, sort of a human. He looks human and acts human but he has wings too and he can fly. She stares at him wide-eyed for a long time as if having a hard time to believe that offer leaving his mouth.

Is he nice to her?

"That's--"

Yeah, now they are both stumbling over their words. Great. But the thought of flying, on her own above everything else, is terrifying. It's not just leaping, but proper flying.

"I-- I mean-- don't you have a dock to rebuild?" She doesn't want him wasting time on a flightless bird. "Also- I'd- I'd need time to shapeshift this wing back into two wings..."

Crowley makes a face. "Right, the dock. Aziraphale's got plans on rebuilding it, I've promised to help with it."

All the same, it's not like he's really doing much else besides moping---not moping, just thinking very hard about the failures of the ferry hijack.

"Whenever you want," he says. "I can make time, I suppose."

Can't be too nice.

Well, they probably can't make much progress with these visions that keep happening but- she's impressed that he's staying true to his word.

She nods:"I'll shapeshift the wings while you're working on it. Then when you're done, I'll come find you."

Shapeshifting takes a lot of energy and magic to do. She needs to mentally prepare herself for it. It takes some time... when was the last time she had both of her wings on her back?

"We go drinking once we're done."

To be completely fair, if he'd promised anyone except Aziraphale, there's only a fifty-fifty chance he'd have actually kept his word. But he can't deny the angel anything. One of Crowley's curses.

"Yeah, that's all right, then," he says. "Work on it a bit every day, drink a bit afterwards. Give me something to make sure Aziraphale doesn't stay on the docks all night long. And he would, if you let him. He shouldn't be feeling as guilty as he is."

Shapeshift the wings, though. Crowley can shapeshift into a snake, do a bit of shapeshifting to scare people, but nothing as intense as moving his wings around the way it sounds like she can. Such an odd bunch they have in this town.

They all have their curses. Despite her complaining about it, Xayah wouldn't be able to say no to Rakan either. Then again, he never said no when she asked for something too so fair was fair. She is sad, though, that she couldn't see Aphae waterfalls again.

"Sounds like a plan to me," she nods. The odd sounds are starting to pick up again and she shivers, curling into herself a bit, trying to ignore the crawling over the wooden planks just left of her. "He doesn't drink?"

Shapeshifting came as a blessing with her magic, or that's what her tribe taught her. If you respect its freedom, the magic will reward you. She just needs to set her mind to it and focus for several days- her travels forced her to hide her wings like a cape to blend in easier with other humans. Less harassment. Bigger advantage for a sneak attack.

Edited 2019-10-21 22:20 (UTC)

"Oh, no," Crowley says. "Aziraphale will want in on it, too, I imagine."

She shivers and he turns to look at her. He doesn't hear anything, but he looks out to the town, to see if he can hear anything out there. Nothing. So many strange things over the last few days, it's really a wonder he's escaped them this far.

He's terrible at comforting anyone. Never knew how to do it his whole life. He can't even really remember being very good at it when he was an angel---though to be honest, that was a very long time ago. What would Aziraphale do? Be his charming self, Crowley imagines, and that would be enough to make the person he was with feel light and comforted. Crowley isn't like that at all.

He gestures to Xayah to come closer. "Come here," he offers. "I don't see anything, I'll let you know if I do."

"Ohh, a drinking party then," she snaps her fingers. All she knows about that Az person is what little she remembers from the other night when Crowley and she got drunk. Which is not a lot. She can't draw proper conclusions with a boozed-up brain.

Again, Crowley surprises her. She's not weak she, she can handle these hallucinations and auditory tricks, it's fine, it's... fine. It's fine until wood cracks loudly and her ears go up and head whips to look at the spot it came from. She's wary as a person but this will make her full-on paranoid.

So, okay, she accepts the offer... for now, and scoots closer. "I know they are hallucinations, you know." Say 'thank you' Xayah, you used to know how to say it. "Just- just wood breaking, that's all." Yeah, and ominous feeling that the roof will cave in even though she knows it won't.

Crowley puts an arm around her shoulders. That's comforting, right?

"Should've seen some of the things I saw," he says. "Thought my whole cabin was engulfed in Hellfire. It felt completely real."

He didn't stop believing it was real until the hallucination stopped. And at the time, Aziraphale was there, and it looked like he'd become a demon. The whole thing still brings a shiver to Crowley's spine.

"Aziraphale nearly killed himself over his hallucinations," he adds. "So as long as you don't go trying to out your lantern, we're good. Because I'm not about to risk my leg again to save you."

Hellfire huh... well at least he saw some kind of light, not creepy-crawlies.

And yes, the hand is a comforting weight, a reminder that it's just another night in this godforsaken place and that there's nothing threatening them. Pleasantly distracting.

"What?" That's a huff. "Do I need to remind you who tried to dunk us in the lake an hour ago?" She squints up at him.

Crowley runs his free hand over his hair. Definitely not embarrassed or anything. Definitely didn't almost get them both killed. And death for Crowley means a bit different than it does for Xayah. Crowley can't survive resurrection in a church.

"Hallucinations look real," he says, firmly. "Impossible to tell the difference between them and reality."

She just chuckles at his expression and nudges his ribs with elbow- just teasing here. She knows just how realistic the hallucinations are. She's not aware that he can't be resurrected though, and she definitively doesn't see this church in Beacon as anything sacred. Just a place people get revived at if they die.

"Well, keep repeating that they are just hallucinations until they stop happening. Which is, hopefully, soon," she leans very slightly against him with a tired sigh.

"It might not stop," Crowley warns her. "Until we make them stop."

He turns his gaze out to the Lighthouse. He's certain these are punishments for the ferry, of course. What else could they be? Punishing the whole town for what Crowley did. Hardly fair, but when are people like the Lighthouse Keeper fair?

"Do you think we could fly up there?" he asks, nodding to the Lighthouse.

EVENT LOG: BURY A FRIEND

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that offer sounds so ;D haha

LOL!

XD (also I'm doing research if xayah can actually fly in lore, it's never stated if she can or no)

If you can't find a yes or no, let's assume yes cause I wanna see this girl fly

there's a heated debate but I still didn't find anything solid e.e

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