logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: ENTER MR. SANDMAN (DREAMERS)

Entry tags:

EVENT LOG: ENTER MR. SANDMAN (DREAMERS)

characters: all characters that signed up as a dreamer for the event.
location: dreamland feat. beacon of the past.
date/time: november 16-29.
content: the dreamers investigate beacon as it once was.
warnings: psychological/existential horror. further cws will arise depending on the location; mods will cw tags appropriately, and you will too!

say your prayers, little one.

Hello, dreamers. Welcome to Beacon.

Below, each group has a toplevel ready and waiting for the investigation to begin. Feel free to tag in however to establish a tag order, and mod responses will begin once each character has tagged in. If you need a refresher on how the event will work, give the OOC info another read!

As for those of you in the ~~sin bin~~ opt out area...

The Beacon of the past isn't all too different from the Beacon of the present, frankly, except for a few notable exceptions. For one, it's far better lit: daylight leaves everything feels a lot brighter and more sensible than eternal night does. Several advertisements for community theater in the Invincible are hung up (Tryouts for the Ice Man Cometh! Cometh try your luck!) and minor lost and found posters are tacked to a community bulletin board nearby. Oh, and a merry little tune is playing on loop from a record player set up outside the Invincible.

It's cheerful, if not a little off-putting. But the signs of life are clear, even if the forest still looks darkly oppressive over yonder.

Additionally, since investigation threads 1) rely on mod responses, and 2) will likely move on the slow side given the nature of the event/size of the groups, if you would like to have your characters "mingle" in their assigned location, please feel free to write your own toplevels! We ask that you post them as separate toplevels not in response to the mod toplevels (so our inboxes don't get super flooded/we don't accidentally miss stuff). Remember that groups may only interact with each other during the event, but you're welcome to assume timey-wimey shenanigans to excuse why your characters are mingling instead of searching for clues—they do have two weeks in this dream, technically, and dreams are not always linear. If your investigation thread has not yet progressed to a point in which you've got enough of a handle on the setting to write a separate mingle starter, ask the mod you're working with! We'll fill you in on some OOC details so you can mingle accordingly while still allowing for characters to discover those details ICly in the investigation thread.

If you're still jonesing for more threading action during the event, we encourage you to check out the TDM!

QUICKNAV
comms	\|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[The fire gets a sidelong look. That's flashier magic than Stone is used to, but he can still mostly take it in stride. Groundling magic is always kind of weird.]

So we ought to look around. If you're gonna be okay, son. Stick close together, maybe, both of you.

[And there's... fish. Fish? The lake back in the current version of Beacon absolutely doesn't have fish in it. Stone gives Matt's shoulder a squeeze, then goes closer to the lakeshore, crouching to peer down. Maybe even holding a hand steady to flash down and grab a fish if he spots one.]

Whatever this dream is of, there's life in it.

[ daylight is looking up at the drophead ceiling and about to reach out to jiggle a panel out - he has fuzzy memories of auntie laura doing this, helping fix auntie saralyn's office for renovations one fall - when he hears the glass of the window shattering.

between that and sarissa's very eloquent response, the spike of fear and anxiety causes daylight's concentration to waver violently. the poor computer groans in protest at the sudden surge of arc energy coursing through it, forcing daylight to dial back his emotions. it's very, very, very hard when he looks at the direction of the window and sees the smiley face it now sports.

urgh. definitely - as nightbreak might summise - 'some fuckery about right now, fuck.' ]

But why not barricade all the doors here, then? Wouldn't whoever was here be worried about whatever they're scared of trying to get through the other door...? That seems like a major oversight for anyone. [ and maybe that's why there's that awful smell in the air, as kol pointed out just now.

speaking of which- daylight looks to sarissa and kol, a little worried now that he sees they're kinda far away from each other but... they gotta make ground, somehow. he promises himself that the second he's finished checking this out, he'll hurry to one of them to have their back. probably sarissa, who might going further in? kol, who day knows and likes? that's a future him problem for the time being.

with that in mind, daylight regathers his nerves to look up at the drophead ceiling and attempt to find a panel to jiggle free. curiosity only killed cats, right? ]

[ the eyes of spirits? it sets a reference, even if this isn't quite the same. maybe it really is that the spirits intend to impart something by this. or they're just bored and messing with people. ]

Will do, Mushu. [ he says it mostly for himself, even though he gives his newfound dragon companion a small, lazy salute. ] Light's working correctly too, so.

If this is Beacon, which-- [ he turns on his heel to get a lay of the land behind them ] --it certainly seems likely, is it something real or imagined? And if real, a memory? Or. Precognition?

[ he pivots again, finishing a full 360 spin. ] It's almost hard to imagine people could have lived and worked here.

[Stone catches a fish out of the crystal clear water! It writhes, panicked, in his hand, the slippery little thing. Nearby, something else glints: in the ferry that's beached itself, it looks like there's a stack of metal sheets.]

So right now the plan is that you have no plan. Got it.

[Noctis isn't exactly one for making plans. He always left that Ignis. But he does know a few things. Like the fact that they have no idea what they're actually walking into. All of this could just be another grand hallucination that they're all sharing and the moment they enter the building a giant Mindflayer could jump out and turn them all into frogs.

He knows. He's had it happen more times than he's proud of.]

Can either of you fight? You don't know what we're going to find inside. It might just be a trick to get us in there.

[There are a lot of things featured on the bulletin board, though none of them seem to have any kind of indication of when they're from. Someone's offering guitar lessons, and there's an advertisement for a new ice cream stand that'll be opening soon: coupons attached! There's something about some kind of housekeeping workshop, and a festival looking for booth sign-ups. The different advertisements go on like this.]

[ you know what? kol's just going to shove all that furniture aside like its paper. picking up one of the chairs, he tosses it back into the window in a bid to shatter what he feels is a passive aggressive grin. take that, smily face!

it achieves what he wants, though—he stands in direct sunlight and feels nothing but a nice warming sensation. no fizzling, no burning—his skin doesn't even smoke. it should be. he should be either screaming in agony or leaping into the shadowy portions of the room.

instead, all it smells like is that of sweat, whatever daylight smells of, and that gross coppery decay that feels pungent to his heightened senses.

he turns to look at both of them with a frown. eying the panel daylight wiggles and the door sarissa has her hand on, he shakes his head. ] Something's wrong.

[Scarlett will note that this forest is pretty much identical to the forest of Beacon, though of course it looks different in the daylight. She'll also notice though that there are many signs of life around! Cicadas, yes, but birdsong can be heard as well. There's a squirrel hopping around in the tree branches, and if she's particularly nature savvy, she'll notice marks from a deer's antlers in a nearby tree.

But, going into the building, they'll find themselves in a small lobby with an adjoining stairwell—or, what used to be a stairwell. It's long since collapsed, cutting off access to the upper floors. From here, there's only one option: Another set of doors, these made out of thick steel.

Over the doors, there's a sign: SOLIS LABS]

[Chairs and desks topple noisily to the ground as Kol clears a path for Sarissa. And hey, now that all the junk is out of the way, the group will spot the sunlight shining in under the door. Apparently, this is an exit.

...Which is why I'll spare you all some trouble: The door is locked, and no matter what they try at this point, it won't open. Weemp womp.

The window shatters as the chair crashes into it, glass flying in all directions. It's a good thing no one was standing too close; that would've hurt. Unfortunately, though, the outlines of the window panes have withstood the assault. No one's crawling through this window anytime soon.

As Daylight jiggles the ceiling tile, he'll notice that it's heavy, much heavier than a thin little ceiling tile should be—

The tile buckles at Daylight's touch, and a thick, wet mass drops to the ground, splattering sickly brown filth across the floor and up Daylight's legs. The stench will hit them at full force now, the unmistakable rot of things long dead.

The thing in the ceiling looks to have been a bird at some point... Or perhaps more than one bird, given the three long, gently curving beaks among the remains. The mass of decaying carcasses is too decomposed to tell which parts go where. The beaks are about the length of a pencil.

Oh, but the flies, the flies, the flies... They're swarming now, having been freed from the ceiling, and there are hundreds. They don't bite or attack, at least, but a good number of them do beeline for the old blood and foulness splattered over Daylight's legs.

The buzzing is inescapable.]

[ there's a second where peter tries to work out what vertigo has to do with anything, before realising that bruce means the movie. he lifts a hand in a loose wave when bruce introduces him, his attention resting on villanelle for a beat before sliding away and back to the church. he's been called flighty and disinterested before, and prone to distraction, and if it occurs to him that he could be a little more personable, a little less gung-ho about rushing off, it—

well, it absolutely doesn't occur to him. ]

I always thought Beacon was a bit more Stephen King, [ he comments, hand resting on the handle of a door. villanelle had implied she's going to come with him, and there's a moment where peter internally groans as he pushes open the door — if he got up to the bell tower, he'd want to climb up and out, want to look across beacon and see if there's anything visible in the landscape that's different to usual, anything they haven't discovered yet thanks of the darkness and a lack of visibility.

at the sight of a set of stairs, peter glances back over his shoulder. he shoots bruce a quick grin. ] Don't worry, I've got good balance. [ a beat. ] But it's on you to yell if you see anyone emerge from the trapdoor.

[ his attention shifts to villanelle. there's a question in his look and he thinks, quite suddenly, of the time that norah had asked him to help her with an exposé — it's not that anything here is similar, not really, although for perhaps only the second or third time in the months that he's been here, he finds himself wishing he had a camera.

he lingers just for a second before turning and heading up the stairs — villanelle can follow if she wants or she can stay with bruce. for his part, peter moves quickly and quietly, a lifetime of habit and proportional creepy grace of a spider lending itself to his movements. he doesn't know what he's expecting to find at the top — a spirit, maybe? certainly not a person, although he equally wouldn't be entirely surprised if there's nothing there. ]

[Both references go right over Villanelle's head. She had a strange childhood. She doesn't get the reference to the trapdoor either, except to note a possible exit. She hasn't found out about Beacon's death quirk yet.]

If this is a horror movie, splitting up is maybe a bad idea?

[She figures saying it is enough of a performance. She doesn't actually care if either of them were to be hurt, but she's just remembered she ought not to be showing said lack of care too obviously. Still, despite Peter's comments, nothing here seems dangerous. It's all so quiet, welcoming.

She follows behind Peter, she doesn't have his spidey speed and she's not rushing in any case. The church is peaceful, the sunlight hazy, even the insistent ringing isn't enough to break her from her dreamy pace. If there are other doors or openings along the staircase, she'll peek in on her way up.]

I'll be fine.

( Matt hasn't clarified why he's being Weird, but does he have to? just let him have his baby panic attack over seeing things, he's earned it.

and he's masterfully suppressing it, anyway. while there's a big chance this could just be some new and unique method of torturing residents, there's also a chance they could learn something here. and he's not about to waste the opportunity freaking out about his eyeballs working. he's too practical for that. Matt has never met an emotional reaction he can't powerfully suppress to worry about later. he's fine. )

Beacon used to have a mining operation, way before things went dark. It makes sense all that had to leave somehow. ( he's never seen the dock where the ferry arrives, technically, though he's sensed enough to know it's not as grand as this. that, and the light, makes him think this might be some sort of bizarre flashback to the way things used to be. ) We should get closer. See if we can figure out anything. Does that ferry resemble the one we arrived in?

( Matt can't tell just looking at it. he'd have to go over there and use his other senses to know for sure. )

Abandoned doesn't always mean empty.

[ Both in terms of knowledge and in terms of... well. Company. Danger.

Castiel turns for a moment and regards Scarlett with a hint of confused exasperation. ]

I am not a straw man.

[ With a tone as if he can't quite believe he has to say that.

Yet here he is and here they are.

His gaze tracks up the stairwell. Thinks he could use his wings to bypass the opening if need be, if they can find a way for the humans to climb. It's a consideration for later, should there be no other way to ascend. It brings with it another uncomfortable thought. ]

We should watch our backs. There's little telling what might be in here.

[ From wild animals to more supernatural company. The Beacon they exist in has no animals, but spirits, some of them hostile.

This Beacon has... sunlight and animals. Spirits? They'll have to wait and see, perhaps.

At any rate, the name above the doors makes him frown. ]

Sun...

[ Certainly worth nothing, given the primary difference between where they usually find themselves, and where they've been stranded. Castiel is going is going to try that steel door - with supernatural force, if it doesn't budge otherwise. ]

[ If Elizabeth is put off at all by Elektra's blunt statement that she needs assistance, she doesn't show it. She doesn't recognize the other woman, but the whole situation is strange enough that offered help is welcomed regardless of the source, and Elektra will get an appreciative smile. ]

Thank you, miss. I'd like that.

[ The beginning of their search is briefly waylaid by the arrival of Coraline, and Elizabeth can't help but take note of the skittish body language. ]

Yes, we're all right. [ She glances at Elektra for confirmation before returning her attention to Coraline. ]

The crying, it's coming from someone inside the library. We were just about to go in and see if we can help them. Would you like to come? Whoever it is... they sound so distressed. I'm sure there's something we can do.

Well, since it's being so obvious about making itself available to us, I think we probably should. Does look similar, I suppose.

[Squirming in Stone's hand is literally fresh meat. Meat that hasn't been frozen, salted, or cooked. Even if this is a dream, Stone is going to stand up and sink his teeth (sharper than the average human's, even in groundling form) into the fish's spine to kill it, and then make an attempt at eating, if he can. Even while starting for the ferry making itself so easy to investigate, there.

Sorry, guys. He's basically half-feral compared to them: attempting to eat random dream-fish raw is just what you get out of him, sometimes.]

Completely true, [Ignis agrees as they all enter the building. He doesn't comment on their back and forth teasing (he hopes it's teasing), seeing he has no horses in this race since he doesn't understand the joke behind it.

When he sees the collapsed stairs, Ignis sighs. Too bad he doesn't have warping, it would've been an easy climb. Which only leaves the door.

SOLIS. Hmm... it doesn't ring a bell. He's been to the library multiple times and never ran across the name.

Ignis shoots Castiel a look with a nod of approval to go ahead and open the door, summoning a dagger from armiger (thankfully the powers still work here). He stands on one side, prepared to defend if they have anything large and deadly jumping at them when they open the door.]

[ she shouldn't be; it's not meant to imply incompetence, just matter-of-fact. she doesn't know how new the woman is to beacon, but based on their very brief introduction (and what she's just said), she's definitely altruistic enough to want to help someone in distress, which she knows the more malevolent spirits will use to their advantage.

she nods to her and seems about to say something else when another woman approaches them from the shadows, and the struggle with the brightness immediately catches her attention. she doesn't know this woman, either, but the struggle she seems to be having with the town's sudden brightness looks familiar. ]

Yes, we - [ - and then she's cut off by the sudden clarity of what the person crying is saying, their insistence that they didn't do anything. her attention's immediately drawn inside and she narrows her eyes. ]

It may be a trap. [ her eyes fall on elizabeth again as she speaks, then coraline. ] The spirits have done that kind of thing before.

[Except...strangely, when Bruce goes to find the trap door, he'll find nothing but smooth wood. There's no handle, no loose boards...nothing to indicate there's ever been a trap door at all.

Meanwhile, Peter and Villanelle find it an easy enough trip up the steps to the top of the belltower. There aren't any other doors or exits: it's a one way trip upward, and it feels long. Longer than it likely should be. Far longer than the tower appeared to be from the outside. If they look back, they'll find they can still see the door. It would almost seem as if they haven't actually been making any progress, if the sound of the bells weren't getting louder and louder until they're practically on top of the pair.

And then they reach the top, abruptly.]

[As the group heads toward the lighthouse, they'll quickly discover the source of the sound: The wooden door to the lighthouse tower has been left open, and it bangs against the bricks as the breeze catches it. Inside, it's too dark to see much. They'll have to get closer (or just head inside!) to see what's in there.

Coming around the lighthouse though, they'll also get a better look at the outbuilding! It's a small brick house, like this except pretend there's an outer door to the lighthouse as well. The outbuilding's door is closed, and should the group investigate, they'll find that it's locked.

The song continues from the lighthouse.]

[ really, he doesn't find himself too surprised that a dragon would gobble down a fish, even though eliot is a tad tempted to ask if he needs a napkin. luckily for everyone else, a glint seems to flick into his sight from the ferry, so he's cut off by his own curiosity. his eyes stay locked to the point as he answers the others: ] Honestly? It's so dark in Beacon--well, now--I can't really tell? But. I guess it's similar too, yeah.

[ after a moment, there's the glint again, and he squints. his hand raises to dial back the sunlight hitting his eyes. angling to get a better look, he starts toward the beached ferry. ]

Are you guys seeing that? On the ferry. Sheet metal? Do you think it's from the processing plant?

[ but how the hell did it end up here? is the thing even manned?

eliot scans nearby, trying to gauge the best way aboard the vessel. ]

Shit.

( Muttered as they test the door, only to discover its locked. She's about to mention that there could be a key, stepping towards the filing cabinet to give it another once over and see if there could be a key hidden somewhere or taped to a surface, when the ceiling tile buckles.

Sarissa fights a dry heave at the sudden, foul odor that seems to just burst outwards in a wave as the carcasses hit the floor. She has to take a second, and her vision swims for a second as memories that she'd really, really rather not think about start to press in on her.

Pull it together. Toughen up, Sarissa.

After she takes a second, Sarissa straightens up, a lot calmer than she appeared a few moments ago, and walks to the remains, crouching down to get a better look. She waves her hands to try and keep the flies away so she can get an idea what the remains might be of, if they could give them a clue what the remains belong to. Using the pencil she found before, she starts to carefully try to look through the remains, to see if she can see any feathers, bones, anything weird that could have been hidden in the remains.

Tugging part of her shirt up to cover her mouth and nose as she speaks, to keep the flies from flying into her mouth,)

My first guess is that curved beaks like this would belong to birds that need to eat nectar. I don't get why the forest was totally silent but there are flies in here. What happened to all the life in the forest, right?

( This is all fucked up, and she's looking between the other two hoping one of them will have some amazing insight, as she tries to curb her desire to once again declare this totally fucked up. )

[It is similar, but smaller, more like a glorified rowboat. It shouldn't be hard to get in, since it's washed itself up to the beach. If they look more closely inside, they'll find a set of oars, as well.

Of course, it's impossible, but it seems to be urging them in, somehow. It would be so easy to push it back out onto the lake.]

( Matt is gifted at controlling his reactions. he still blinks placidly at tearing into a raw fish with one's bare teeth. that's sure something.

maybe it's commitment to his aesthetic, maybe Eliot is right and it's just too damn bright out here, maybe it's because Matt feels more comfortable making sense of their enviornment when he can retreat back to the senses he's used to. either way, he puts back on his sunglasses before he suggests, )

Let's go poke around. Maybe there's something on board.

[Perhaps Maes is being too pushy. However, for a year he was deposited in different worlds to solve a problem and usually that problem was right in front of them. Perhaps he shouldn't be pulling from previous experience like that, since clearly that had led to him dying for a second time, but sometimes habits were just hard to break.

Also, he wasn't so stupid as to proceed without at least the support of everyone involved. He looks from one man to the other and then sighs, letting the door swing shut again.]

Okay, then what do you suggest exactly? We don't know what's going to happen lingering out here either. I want to get information, find out what this is, and maybe that will lead to us getting out. Or returning. Or reversing this or whatever, since none of us know what happened.

[Maes tugs at his sleeve and pulls out one of his push knives. There are more, but no need to produce all of them.]

I can fight. Would it make you feel better if we at least check the perimeter for exits then?

[The fish isn't horrible-tasting or fake or anything, so far, so he keeps munching right down the fish's body until there's nothing left but a head-- which he also pops into his mouth and crunches contentedly. He's not actually making too much of a mess, almost daintily keeping blood from getting on his clothes, and using a too-long tongue to keep his face neat. His hand is gonna need a washin', though.

He stands on the shore while the other two climb aboard, holding the prow of the little boat with the non-bloody hand.]

I can hold it here so it doesn't drift off, if you want. Or else I can just shift big and haul it back to shore if it does, I suppose. It's almost small enough that I could pick up the whole thing.

[No, it's not, Stone.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 5 of 16

EVENT LOG: ENTER MR. SANDMAN (DREAMERS)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw dead/decaying animals, flies

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for the slow, sickness etc :[ cw: dead/decaying animals, flies, brief ref to vomit

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject