EVENT LOG: GRAVES

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
GRAVES

characters: everyone.
location: Bonfire Square.
date/time: July 12-19.
content: mysterious shrines appear and bring visions of death.
warnings: likely violence and potentially gore.

time to pay your respects.

It happens when no one is looking, when most of the town is asleep and the rest are inside. A makeshift cemetery has come to Beacon, taking up residence in the middle of Bonfire Square. Each monument, shrine, and altar is dedicated to someone who now resides here, a memorial of their previous life.

Some may be drawn by curiosity, others by fear, and some may simply have to pass through this strange graveyard to get to the Bonfire itself. Whenever a person gets near, the altars beckon with a mysterious urge— an urge to approach, and an urge to leave something behind. They will feel compelled to make offerings at the various shrines, but doing so has a curious effect; it causes one to experience the death of the person whose grave they've honored.

Whether you resist the compulsion or give in willingly (or something in between), you'll also have to wrestle with the fact that a grave exists for you. Will you let your death be known, or try your best to keep it secret? Destroying it sure won't work, as it will return— with a duplicate somewhere else in town.

However you choose to deal with this, one thing is hard to ignore— this a tangible reminder of your death, and the fact that it's probably permanent.

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Comments

[evocation]

[Kyna doesn't mean to leave an offering. After her accidental vision at Gene's grave, she gives the rest of the makeshift cemetery a wider berth, sure not to touch any of them. But when she stopped at Gene's grave a few days ago, she got close enough to Wade's to understand just whose it was, and it starts to grate on her. Something about the bare dirt eats at her, and every time she passes it, she can't help but think he deserves better.

So, finally, the third or thirtieth time, she stops. She's as far away as she can get—a few yards—and she's practiced this illusion spell enough that while it might not last forever, it'll last a while, at least. It shouldn't count. All she's doing is weaving her magic into a facsimile of the real thing, without any true substance. Confident as always that she can solve this little issue with her magic, Kyna waves a hand, covering the grave in flowers.

It doesn't work.

Where Gene's death was sudden and painless, Wade's is horrific and drawn out. When it's over, Kyna finds herself on her knees, fingers tangled in the grass, struggling to catch her breath. She feels sick, but more than that, she feels choked with guilt.]

God damn it.

[She should have just left well enough alone. What an idiot.

It takes her longer to make herself find Wade than it did to approach Gene. They're just... different. Wade is harder for her to read, and harder for her to know how to approach. Worse, she's not sure she really has an excuse this time. Does the intention matter? Does an apology actually matter?

She runs into him on the way to the clinic, and unfortunately for them both, it's instantly obvious from the look on her face and the set of her shoulders that something's wrong.]

Hey. Um, can I... Talk to you?

[sulfa]

[ Irwin's seen more than a few people in a similar state of distress since the graves first appeared around the bonfire. He's not sure how Kyna died, and it's certainly none of his business, but given her age and her life before Beacon, he can't imagine it was pleasant. Maybe someone allowed her to experience their death, which would also explain the slump of her shoulders, or perhaps reality is just... sinking in. Either way, she doesn't have to say that it's a sensitive subject for him to infer that she'd probably like to have this conversation in private. ]

Sure. [ He keeps his tone subdued. ] There's nobody in the vestry right now.

[evocation]

Oh. Okay.

[She's not sure why doing this in a church feels more uncomfortable, but it does. It's not like there's a better place, though, so she heads in, anxiety practically radiating off of her the entire way.]

Look, I... Um. I... accidentally saw. I'm so sorry.

[sulfa]

[ It takes a moment for what Kyna's just said to sink in. He'd done his best to prepare himself for this eventuality after the consequences of leaving an offering had come to light: at some point it would be inevitable that someone would make a well-meaning tribute and experience his death. And indeed a few people have, judging by the small collection of trinkets that have gradually accumulated at the foot of the rifle jammed barrel-first into the bare earth around the bonfire.

It's a violation, albeit accidental, not malicious. He feels a bit like a cadaver being dissected for an audience in an anatomical theatre, every glistening organ on display. She'd felt the terror, the childlike desperation to just go home, the last thoughts of his mother.

The warmth of the morphine in his blood as it eased his departure.

At least presumably.

Wade doesn't give much in the way of external reaction to this news beyond a neutral look - it's important that Kyna knows that he's not upset with her, and experiencing a battlefield death is undoubtedly something very traumatic for someone who hasn't come right out of a war zone. Hell, it was traumatic for the person who did. ]

[ After a brief pause, he speaks up, voice soft and almost monotone: ] How much—how much of it did you see?

[evocation]

[Kyna's not sure if the neutral look helps—it's hard to read, and hard to react to.]

I, um... All of it. I think.

[Which is awful, and she knows it.]

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to snoop. I just... The grave was bare, and so I cast a spell on it to... Cover it, you know? But it was just an illusion spell, so I thought... I thought it wouldn't count.

[But apparently the spell itself had been the offering, which she should have considered.]

I won't talk about it with anyone. I promise.

[sulfa]

[ Wade gives her a faint smile that doesn't reach his eyes. ]

Thanks, Kyna. [ For the agreement to stay quiet about it? For the gesture she didn't realize was an offering? It's not completely clear by his tone of voice. He's grateful, though. He's grateful, and he believes she'll keep her word. Irwin wets his lips with the tip of his tongue, letting a few moments pass as he tries to think of what to say. Finally, he goes for the obvious question, because he is concerned and wouldn't wish such a horrid experience on anyone, especially a friend. ]

Are you holding up okay?

[ He doesn't particularly care to relive his own death by talking about it, but Wade feels a sense of responsibility to do so if that's what will help her process it - both because he's still a medic and because it was his own death she had to endure. ]