logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

characters: everyone.
location: around town.
date/time: january 20-29.
content: the lanterns begin to malfunction.
warnings: body horror and psychological horror. please cw tags appropriately.

you'll become one

January 20th arrives the same as all the days before it. There's no great pulse of warning that throbs through the air, no ominous wind that causes the bonfire to shudder. The spirits are neither agitated nor do they hide. You could almost miss the change, if the lanterns weren't always by your side. There's no explanation that comes with the way that it's changed, but it's impossible not to worry when it's happened so suddenly.

Maybe it takes a few days, or maybe it only takes a few hours, but suddenly it isn't just the lanterns that have changed. You, yourself, have become somehow different. It's possible that you won't even have the right state of mind to wonder how long it will last. At the very least, it appears you aren't alone. All across Beacon, lanterns are changing, and changing the people with them.

Out in the distance, the lighthouse's beam has turned green.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. grande red

A minimalist lantern sits conspicuously just inside the church entrance. It's glowing a vibrant red through a cracked pyramid of glass. One might think its owner has dropped and forgotten it if not for the single boot illuminated by its ominous hue.

Masaomi Kida has curled up into a ball beneath a table display, doing his absolute best to hide himself from view. Or, at least, to hide what's left of himself. Gaping holes permeate his body as if he's been shot through by a barrage of canon balls. Half of his head, gone. One of his legs, vanished. One arm at the elbow, one hand at the wrist, his shoulder, all taken out like so many missing puzzle pieces. Even his heart is conspicuously absent, nothing but a fist-sized hole in his hyperventilating chest.

Over and over, he repeats his desperate mantra into his knee.

"I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here."

Edited 2020-01-22 06:41 (UTC)

The voice is impossible to miss, on his prowls around the town, trying to deal with the restless energy and sleeplessness that came with his own change, Stone detours to the church and follows the sound.

Oh. Shit. That kind of puts his own faulty shapeshift into his mortal enemy into... slightly different perspective. He'd rather have that, than this.

But if there's one thing Stone knows, it's dealing with frightened, unhappy, and/or hurting fledglings. He crouches beside Masaomi, putting a hand on the still-there shoulder. "Hey. Hey, it's okay. You're still here, kid." It might not be super reassuring coming from a looming black creature with a tall bony crest and the impression of wings in the red lantern light, but his voice is kind, at least.

At any other time, calling Masaomi a kid would have earned Stone a wry retort. Even if the guy was a 2,000 year old all-powerful gargoyle sent to destroy the Earth, it doesn't matter. Masaomi is not a fucking kid. But as he stares only half seeing at his own missing foot, just feeling a hand - any hand - on his shoulder is enough to wet the edges of his eyes. He chokes back a sob.

"I can't feel it. It's all gone. I'm-"

You're a kid, Masaomi, get used to it. Besides, he doesn't know your name. He does pet that shoulder gently. "It's an illusion. It won't last forever." He doesn't seem to be hurting Masaomi by touching him, so he scoots closer and tucks an arm around him, careful of the claws. Hugs make everything better, right?

It's already cramped beneath the display table. With Stone scooting closer, it's downright stifling. Still, Masaomi leans into the solid embrace. Stone's inhuman body is nothing like the warm, soft flesh of a human being, but it's there and it's real and that's so damn comforting. If Stone doesn't let go of him, then maybe, just maybe, that means Masaomi won't be able to disappear.

"It won't last," he parrots, breathy with desperation. "It won't last. It'll all come back. Right? Even though we're- Even though..."

They're already dead. Every one of them. If he disappears here and now, he's not going to get a third chance.

Stone is good at hugs. Even scaly and with claws on, he's good at them; he's certainly warm, which will hopefully help with the comfort of it. He even manages to include his tail in the hug, trying to give Masaomi as much solidity as he can. "It'll come back. Every time weird shit happens here, it always fixes itself."

M.K. came back, Masaomi reminds himself between erratic breaths. Even after he died, he came back.

But not everyone did.

The frightened teen chokes on a sob he refuses to let leak, gritting his teeth as he muffles the subsequent coughing fit with his sleeve. Once he can breathe again, he shakes his head.

"I'm not that lucky."

"Well, you're not going to die, so you don't have to find out," Stone says firmly, holding and finding some hair left to stroke. Poor kid, this is worse than anybody ought to have to deal with. "Does it hurt? Are you hurting?"

Comfort is not something Masaomi is given often. From a very young age, he's had to seek it out himself, desperate for any form of acknowledgement, any sign of who he's supposed to be. He's taken on many roles to achieve that goal with minimal success. He never would have expected a complete stranger to offer it to him so openly.

The more Stone says, the more Masaomi latches onto all of it, and as his breathing begins to steady, as his laments grow more coherent, he becomes more aware of his immediate surroundings. He can feel, with abject terror, how completely empty his own head is, but he can also feel those reptilian fingers caressing what remains of his hair. Stone is very close, very big, and very gentle in a way no one, not even someone inhuman, should be when faced with Masaomi's disturbing silhouette. Masaomi doesn't know what to do with any of this sensory input, except to run away from it.

He can't do that with one leg.

Instead, he lowers his head before shaking it again. "Not... Not right now. I just..." He's just scared. "I don't want it to happen again."

No running away. Can't be comforted if you're running away. Stone keeps petting. "In my experience, the change does its thing and then it stops. Shouldn't have anything else go away." He doesn't know if that's true, but he's being reassuring, and it is how his own experience went: one change, and that was it. His didn't even hurt, because he's a lucky bastard like that.

It doesn't matter if the guy knows what he's talking about. Masaomi desperately wants it to be true. He can't help the way he stiffens within Stone's embrace, needing the relief he's been offered but afraid to risk losing it once he has it.

Hesitant, barely there, the words tumble out. "You're not lying?"

"Why would I be lying?" Stone snorts at him, but it's a gentle snort. "It's possible I'm wrong. But not likely. I'm not wrong often." He injects that last bit with every ounce of confidence he has, which is a lot. It's true, too: Stone may not be the smartest, or the most educated, but he is experienced.

What better way to calm down a freaked out kid than to lie about everything being okay?

Masaomi doesn't say that. He just takes a deep gulp of air and glares at his red glowing lantern. If Stone isn't lying, then all Masaomi has to do is wait this out. He just has to wait. That's it.

Why does that feel so impossible?

He bites at the inside of his mouth, contemplating whether he should just keep his trap shut until the guy leaves. Eventually, he can't stand his own silence.

"...How long are you planning to sit here?"

(no subject)

scarsolderthanyou - 2020-02-10 02:57 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

mellowyellow - 2020-02-15 08:02 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

scarsolderthanyou - 2020-02-19 16:52 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

mellowyellow - 2020-02-21 06:41 (UTC) - Expand

When the world stops making sense, when the sizes and colors are all wrong, Duster can only close his eyes and rely on his memory when walking places. He needs someplace where he will never be alone. He needs someplace that will make him relax.

The church is it. He creaks the front entrance open and sighs. He sits down. His father said that a hard mattress was good for one's back, and he might as well believe in that and sleep on the floor. That is, he would sleep if he wasn't hearing a quiet voice from somewhere in the church.

"Hello?" He hoped he was just imagining this one, too.

A hasty inhale tells Duster that he's been heard, and the soft chant immediately ceases. The wet voice that calls out a few seconds later is tight and curt.

"No."

A strange answer to his calling out. Would a real person say that? Would the fake sounds he hears respond to him this way?

He shuffles towards the noise and holds his lantern out to check who that could be.

The green light of Duster's lantern mixes with the red of Masaomi's, illuminating his hiding spot in a muddy glow. Masaomi is curled up beneath a display table to the left of the church's entrance, doing his best to hide his missing pieces behind the rest of him. He's quite real, though the fresh holes in his flesh are making even him question that fact. He glares into the light of Duster's lantern, hugs his remaining knee tighter.

"What?" he finally spits out, as if daring the guy to laugh.

He feels like he can barely breathe. While doing everything in his power to hold back a wave of panic, curt, one-word hissy fits are quickly becoming his last remaining line of defense.

This is another illusion brought forth by the strange green light. No one can survive with holes in their body, even this person he doesn't quite recognize. He does flinch a bit at the sight, but he gets over that pretty quickly considering how stressed Masaomi looks.

"Do you need help getting home?" It must be a lot more comfortable in a bed than on the floor.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Masaomi feels laughter bubbling up his throat with reckless abandon. It's bitter, certainly, but anything is better than crying, and so Masaomi doesn't resist the dry cackle that bursts forth.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Not like this. What if Jason sees him? What about everyone at the Invincible? They'll be just as scared as he is, and he isn't sure he can handle that. If they don't just recoil away, disgusted. His laughter quickly withers.

That would be even worse.

If Duster were a smart man, he would leave this creepy person he hasn’t seen in person before. At least, he’s pretty sure that’s what a smart person would do. Instead, he sits on the floor, sets his lantern aside, and watches Masaomi breathe slowly. His holes aren’t hazy and ethereal like a hallucination. This is real. He’s actually full of holes like a lotus root.

Duster waves a hand in front of the other’s face. “You’re alive? This doesn’t hurt?” That lack of initial shock has dulled his ability to feel disgust at realizing his vision was not really a vision at all.

The shock of being asked whether he's alive puts an immediate halt to Masaomi's hyperventilating. He nearly stops breathing altogether and has to catch up a moment later. It's not even the question that surprises him. It's the utterly nonchalant way the guy asks it.

Is he... not even a little freaked out?

Masaomi shakes what remains of his head, just as much an answer to Duster's question as it is an attempt to pull himself together. It doesn't work.

"I... I don't know! How should I know?! We're all dead, but we can still die. I'm still-! You try making sense of any of this!"

"I'm not going to." His strength wasn't in finding answers. He was here to support people and give them the strength to solve problems. "I don't know. Maybe you're just another hallucination. A really good one. Or you're real and the spirits are more powerful than we imagined.

He lets out a tired sigh. It's been a long day.

"We need to find help." He was fine with the mind games being played on him. This is not cool. "Maybe. Maybe Robin can help. Maybe Rastus."

He bites his lip, staving off another tirade. The question "what the hell is wrong with you?" still burns on the tip of his tongue, but he already knows the answer. This guy is just as messed up as he is. The green glow of his lantern is still very visible. So, what? Is he seeing things? Masaomi is just one in a parade of surreal horrors this guy has witnessed today? Great.

The distressed teen huddles tighter into himself.

"Robin's trapped in her dragon guarded tower. What can she do?" he finally rebuffs, his voice a low growl. He makes sure to keep himself quiet and controlled this time. "And I'm not talking to some chicken about this shit. Don't tell anyone. Not them, not anyone. I don't want-"

He takes a deep breath.

"Nobody has to see me like this."

"What if you die?" The concern tumbles out of his mouth before he can realize what he's saying. Masaomi is a teenager, a young person. There's no way that he's fine with this. "Someone has to know how to fix this!"

He places a hand on a shoulder - someplace without a large hold where he can at least feel the skin - and tugs him closer. "A spirit? Maybe something in the church?"

Masaomi can't grab Duster's hand, but he does try and buck him off with a jerk.

What if he dies? This guy actually has the guts to ask him that? How the hell would he know?! If he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't be literally falling apart under a table in some dusty old church! All he knows is that Jason is a fucking Minotaur, Rosinante has gone insane, and if he crawls his way out there right now, he'll only add to the madness. Nobody knows how to fix this. If they did, Duster's lantern wouldn't still be cracked and green.

"Stop it! Just stop already!" His voice cracks. He doesn't even notice. "It's not funny!"

Edited 2020-02-15 08:36 (UTC)

masaomi kida | cw: body horror: person full o' holes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject