logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: ENTER MR SANDMAN (DEFENDERS)

Entry tags:

EVENT LOG: ENTER MR SANDMAN (DEFENDERS)

EVENT LOG:
ENTER MR. SANDMAN (DEFENDERS)

characters: those who signed up as defenders for the event
location: all around Beacon
date/time: november 16-29
content: the defenders attempt to drive off a spirit invasion
warnings: lots of horror! body horror, psychological horror, gore, violence, etc.. please cw all threads where appropriate! mods will do the same

in your closet, in your head.

It all happens in a matter of moments. Your friends, your companions, and even some people you aren't all that fond of; everyone who took so much as a bite of the spirits' feast suddenly collapses into a comatose heap. Which is bad enough already, but the worst, by far, is yet to come.

Before anyone can really figure out what's happened to the sleepers, the woods surrounding the town come alive with sound. Rustling, screeching, clicking, howling, and under it all, the characteristic hoots and whistles of the forest spirit tongue. But these aren't the friendly creatures that set up the banquet in the first place, and they aren't the familiar faces (or masks) from around Beacon. As they begin to emerge, bursting forth from the trees, these spirits reveal themselves as a horrifying army of terrors. And sprinkled among them, distinguishable by the emerald glint in their sockets, are the infamous "green eyes", the dangerous spirits that appeared once before.

Attempting to talk to these spirits is a moot point, made obvious by their immediate assault on anyone they get close to. They attack with claws and teeth, with limbs far stronger than they have any right to be, and the green eyes, as they are wont to do, will try to get into your head. Somehow, they seem to know what it is that scares you most, and they don't seem too hesitant to use it. It's not clear what they want— are they here to eradicate you? To frighten you? To send a message?

Whatever the case, one thing is very clear: you and everyone else, sleeping or waking, are in serious danger. Are you ready to defend Beacon?

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The accent is different, too, which helps differentiate the two, the words much more clearly enunciated. "Or we could just keep killing them in ones and twos. Thin out the horde. Which is what I've been doing." The Soldier does note the look at their plate, though, and without comment offers one of the two remaining sandwiches there to Kuai. They can always make another one, or have some of the stew that's simmering in the kitchen for everyone to share.

"I'm okay. Keeping people safe." Which is their only goal here, to be honest. "You?"

A sandwich is not the most elegant meal he's ever eaten, but he'll take it, offering a nod of thanks towards the Soldier.

"Ones and twos may work for a while, but there may be hundreds of them. It becomes a war of attrition." If it hadn't gotten to that point already.

"The same. The few I've killed seem to not be making a dent in their numbers, but more importantly we seem to have gotten those who were rendered unconscious to safety. I haven't seen anyone else out there that needs to be secured."

Not to say that there might have been some that have already died, but he'd heard Rosinante doing a headcount earlier - he'd leave it to him to figure out who was missing. Everyone that Kuai knew had been accounted for.

Food is food, man. This one has most of the major food groups, too (thick slices of cheese and meat, tomato and lettuce, some kind of green fruit thing that was tasty, and some sharp yellow sauce). It's good fuel and doesn't taste terrible, it's fine.

The Soldier has also been doing a lot of hunting around, and all of their own friends and associates appear to be accounted for. There are a few faces they don't have names for that they haven't seen yet, though.

"We come back after we die," the Soldier points out with a thoughtful frown. "Do they? If our numbers do not actually go down. And theirs do. We may have an advantage."

It's not rice which is basically all he eats. But it's fine. It'll keep him alert and going for a while longer.

"I'm unsure. If they do they return elsewhere and not in the church or someone would have noticed by now. I wouldn't count on us returning after death as a free pass for recklessness either. Not all who die here return."

"I am not reckless," the Soldier promises. This may or may not be a lie; they don't think it's a lie, but their perspectives are hopelessly skewed. As evidenced by: "But I am tougher than most people. And trained very well. So far, I appear to be slightly stronger than most of the attacking spirits, though they are often slightly faster." Being superhuman is fun. (Only most of the time not so much.)

Kuai hasn't seen him fighting enough times to really judge, but with things starting to get desperate the longer this battle goes on, it's only natural that people start to get sloppy and reckless. Though the Soldier does seem to be one of the calmer ones.

"That's something. They seem to be determined to get to us, to the point that they make mistakes to their detriment. If they backed off and regrouped they'd be even more dangerous - but I witnessed one continue to fight towards us to try and get inside here even as it was dying. It makes me wonder if something is driving them forward."

Last time it had been Robin with the foghorn, maybe this time it's something else.

"The green-eyes." If that's really what's happening, it's not hard to work out what's behind it. And the Soldier is no stranger to being driven by an outside force, so can easily imagine a force like that forcing the other spirits to attack. They frown at their sandwich. "The ones that caused the hallucinations. The ones that attacked when people tried to connect the Lighthouse. They're the dangerous ones. I was warned about them in particular."

He'd put together that the green eyed ones were different than the regular spirits that interacted with them in a much friendlier manner, but not why. Maybe they were different species, or had different intentions. Were they attacking the friendly spirits as well? It occurred to him only now that he hadn't seen any of the regular forest creatures since this started.

"Someone warned you about them? What did they say?"

"I have a contact with the spirits. They said that the green-eyes are 'nasty'. Mean. Not just to us. To the other spirits, too. That they were the ones behind the hallucinations. That they don't like us, or anybody." The Soldier looks aside again, away from both meal and Kuai. Looks vaguely worried, in fact. "I looked for my contact yesterday. I can't find them."

"I see. Communicating using the instruments we were given? Or do some speak?" He'd tried before with several of the friendly spirits but there was limit to how much could be pantomimed.

"I wonder if they are being attacked as well, I've not seen any of the familiar ones that are normally around. I hope they're well."

For being a menacing ice assassin he's quite soft when it comes to innocent people or in this case creatures.

"Perhaps they didn't know what would happen during the feast."

They're both just soft-hearted assassins, apparently. Though at least Kuai got to decide to be one.

"Morse Code. I can't use the instruments well enough." They hold up the metal hand briefly, to indicate that the metal fingertips have no give for covering holes properly. "Not all of the spirits know it, but many of them do. Can sing some of the words, but my range. Isn't as good as theirs. So Morse is easier. I'm pretty sure none of the ones who know us. Would have hurt us on purpose. Or without being coerced."

These two need a vacation. Not that they'd know how to relax, but they need it.

"Strange they would know that. I wonder if someone here previously taught them." Undeniably useful if the Soldier knew morse code and could communicate, but why would forest spirits on some other realm know an Earth military language?

"No, that seems unlike them. Many genuinely seem to want to help us. And now this..Could the green eyed ones be associated with the world eaters?"

"They all might be. They respond to commands in the World Eater's language." And oh, hey, wait, the Soldier knows more about this one. "Morse Code is how Robin communicates with the spirits, except for the reset command. That's the one in the World Eater's language. So it might be that older Lighthouse Keepers taught them." It seems a lot more likely than spirits on one planet knowing a man-made code from Earth.

Someone needs to pay way more attention to the network than he does because that's news to him, "The World Eater's have their own language?"

Older lighthouse keepers. It certainly makes sense that Robin hasn't been the only one and there's been a long succession, but he hadn't really considered what that truly meant or how many resets there had been. He'd taken what Robin had said in her post at face value and not really thought deeper about it.

Mostly because he didn't enjoy talking to her.

"Maybe there are more commands in their language. One that has made them attack like this."

"If there are, Robin doesn't know them, or claims she doesn't," the Soldier says, pausing just long enough for another bite of their second sandwich, now. "Said she got the reset command from the last remaining Beacon resident. And that she doesn't really understand it, and trying to change it. Has bad results. She said we would be meeting that Beacon resident eventually. Once we proved we wouldn't kill her." This is a lot of talking. Time for more lunch while Kuai chews on that.

"Changing the command? Is she trying to only reset some people?" He looks perplexed. So Robin has the ability to reset everyone via a command in the language of the World Eaters which she got from the only remaining original resident of this place. And she's trying to change it for some reason.

Kuai is constantly complaining that there's so much information they don't know, but it seems that every bit they do find out only raises more questions.

"Why would we kill her? It's Robin who set the creatures to attack, and who threatened to reset everyone. What did this other resident do where we would have quarrel with her?"

"We were talking about the reset. Not disconnecting her from the network," the Soldier explains. "I don't know what else she may have tried. But it seems like she tried that, at least. --And we don't know that Robin set them to attack." Why does everyone assume that. It is only one possibility, and doesn't even necessarily fit all the facts as they've been presented. Sure, Robin could be lying. But the Soldier is moderately sure the owl-spirit is not. "She claims she did not. The spirits themselves claim the. Green-eyes. Are nasty, mean to other spirits as well as us. It could be. Just the green-eyes, organizing themselves."

"No but it seems likely." With the limited information he has, he's willing to place blame on the person who appears to be culpable.

"Maybe they are, that would explain the organized attack now rather than the singular one in the forest last time." There's a lot to take in here, and he's trying to process it while not having most of the information because he still hasn't come to terms with the fact that he can read other peoples network posts. It seems invasive and dishonorable and he usually ignores them.

But it definitely means that he has no idea what's going on most of the time.

"What is she trying to change about the reset command?"

Accept some new info, Kuai. The knowledge that there are other people on this planet who know things, presumably, that only Robin has access to. The knowledge that even some of the spirits are wary of the green-eyed ones. That there is more going on here than one person manipulating an entire population. The Soldier is not entirely in Robin's corner, but right now, given the information they have, attacking her is tactically unsound.

"Nothing, now. It seems she determined it was not possible. They do not understand the language it is in well enough. The only thing I know she tried. Was to keep the spirits. From disconnecting her from the network. Each time. And it didn't work." They hitch a shoulder. At least with all this explaining they're doing lately, they're getting better at the talking thing. Even if they kind of hate talking this much. It makes them feel awkward.

Tactically unsound endgame maneuvers are his specialty.

"I see. Unfortunate it did not work, if we're reset the new population will have to do the same as us and risk much to reconnect her. Though without Winters they may not even know that's something they should do."

This is a lot of talking for Kuai as well, he'd rather be outside kicking things to death - but unfortunately he's only human and needs to rest and eat and maybe even sleep for a few hours. "We should try and contact Robin. It didn't occur to me before, but she may be able to tell us more about what's happening."

"Can't. Doesn't get through. People tried. You can try too, if you want." It'll just be the same result, the Soldier's sure. Also, they've plowed through their second sandwich now and is looking at their plate with mild disappointment. That was not enough. They turn towards the kitchen, glancing at Kuai and jerking their chin-- come with, if you want-- before starting back that way.

"If we attack Robin," they say, "we lose access to the people she knows. We can't risk that. Right now." If evidence points towards Robin more clearly in the future, then sure, the Soldier is willing to entertain the notion. But not until they've met the mysterious Beacon resident and the "surprise" people next month, at least.

Well so much for that idea. And right when he thought she could have been some help, "Network down or is she not answering? If we have to reconnect the lighthouse again..."

They'd lost so much doing that the first time, trying again seems like punishment.

He follows the Soldier into the kitchen, what he's saying makes sense, but Kuai really wishes there was an easy answer here. Someone he could just pummel and make it all right, "I don't know that attacking her is the answer, and I definitely don't think we should kill her, not when she knows so much. But I don't trust her, nor do I think she's telling us the truth all the time."

"Not answering. Network is fine. Spirits can use it, too," they add, in case Kuai missed that part. They go to the stove, where a large pot of stew has been simmering for a couple hours, available for everyone to dip into. Something hot sounds good, and there's plenty left. And they can't go back outside again yet, or Crowley will worry. They crouch at a cupboard and pull out two bowls, offering one to Kuai.

"If we prove ourselves trustworthy, that we don't try to kill each other, the original Beacon resident might come," they say. "She's the one who knows the language of the world eaters. Knows what happened here. Might tell us." They can't fix the problem until they know more about what happened.

At least that's one thing he did know. But if he survives this whole ordeal he needs to make a point of actually paying attention to everyone elses' conversations instead of jumping to conclusions.

"Why the wait? If we kill each other Robin can simply reset us. What's to gain by making us prove ourselves?"

"Because the original Beacon resident. Maridel. She won't come unless she can trust us not to try and kill her." The Soldier shrugs helplessly, then ladels stew into their own bowl. "I don't know why. Maybe she isn't dead like us. Maybe she can't be reset. Maybe she just doesn't feel like dying. Robin didn't say."

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