EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

[inthenightmods]

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

Comments

Kuai Liang || OTA

[paletteswap]

January 20-25: Suspicion

There's something wrong. It isn't just a subtle feeling, he knows it deep in his gut. Something horrific is on the horizon and it's only a matter of time until it comes crashing down. He's tried to think it through logically, pinpoint the source of his unease: is it the lighthouse that has suddenly changed color? Maybe the forest spirits? Their surroundings?

The more he tries to rationalize it the more it slips away, making his unease worse.

He hasn't slept in days, out on patrol around the town, heading in a loop from The Invincible to the Library and the Village then back again. Round and round he goes certain that the moment he turns his back or gets some rest that all hell will break loose.

The worst part is that every person he sees triggers alarm bells. Could it be the problem is the residents themselves? Is someone plotting something?

How can he find out?

January 25: Arctic Dragon Transformation || CW: Body Horror | Blood

It happens without warning.

Kuai is walking from the Invincible to the General Store when his lantern abruptly bursts with red light, the coppery surface turns black and the glass seems to crack, threatening to shatter.

But he doesn't notice, the lantern is all but forgotten as he cries out in pain, dropping to his knees and bracing himself on his hands. The ground beneath him freezes solid a good distance around him and icicles shoot out of his back like spines. That's not what's causing him so much distress though, blood is oozing from his arms freezing into long rivulets as his skin peels away to reveal blue scales, shimmering with the red light of his lantern. His fingers stretch and break, nails growing into sharp claws that dig into the ground as he pants.

A ridge of sharper scales dusted with frost jut up along his spine, following his neck to disappear beneath his hair. What's visible of his side beneath his tunic is covered in the same icy reptilian skin. Blood is dribbling down continuously freezing into odd icicles themselves.

Invisible beneath his armor is the source of the blood, deep slashes along his back where his ribs have separated from his vertebrae to make way for wings that didn't form.


January 26-29: Arctic Dragon
After the initial transformation, this is still incredibly painful. His ribs feel like they're only being held in place by his skin which has changed to be something leathery and reptilian from the neck down. Eating hurts. Sleeping hurts.

But what's most alarming is that his ice powers don't seem to be working properly. Maybe it's because his hands have become clawed or that he's in enough physical distress to not be mentally managing them, but he's always emitting a slightly frosty aura now. Not enough to freeze anyone nearby, but the temperature around him is significantly lower than anywhere else. It's visible as a bluish smoke that seems to roll off him and gather around his feet, his breath huffing out in a white cloud every time he breathes.

Everywhere he goes he's followed by footsteps that melt almost instantly, as if he's constantly walking through freshly frosted grass.

January 21st

[moderatelymaladjusted]

There's really nothing he needs from the cabin, Quentin decided. Not just because of the blizzard, which-- is maybe over now. He doesn't know, because he hasn't been outside except to find wine or liquor since. Well, some time in the past.

He's crashing on Peter's floor, he's stealing Peter's shower when he starts to make jokes about it and really, Quentin is sneaking off to get drunk every chance he has.

Why the fuck not?

But not today. Today he woke up and felt-- happy. Carefree. Like a huge weight has been lifted and even watching Peter drool seemed funny. Thinking about the cabin was-- still a little funny and he giggles to himself on his way out of the Invincible for the first time in a week, clipping his lantern and it's soothing blue light to his belt like always. Since the snow hit hard and left him stranded there.

But. Not today.

Once outside, Quentin leans against the freezing wall, still laughing and really-- just look at everyone, all bundled up against the cold and they look ridiculous.

"Hey, why the long face?"

[paletteswap]

The only thing that Kuai does trust right now is the blizzard. He's thriving in the ice and snow, feeling more like home than he ever has before. But now with this looming dread, he's ignoring the glittery displays of ice all around.

Not that he can feel the chill, and he's not dressed for the weather like others he's keeping an eye on. Everyone seems to be doing things just a little bit off, not enough to be outright suspicious, but tiny things here and there that he notices.

"Something seems.. off. Have you noticed anything?" He'll ignore the question for now, wondering who's left here he can trust. Probably not Quentin, especially as the man stands there and snickers at people as they walk past. That's not inspiring much confidence.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

The wall is cold enough to freeze his shirt to it and there is a small ripping sound when he peels away from it to take a step closer to Kuai Liang.

"I haven't noticed anything. Nothing weird or anything, just. Things. People. Did you know that not every one locks their doors when they sleep?"

Which was pretty stupid, since anyone could walk right in and sure, everything was free here and there was no reason to break in to people's room. But still-- locking up seemed like the better idea anyway.

No, there's nothing different about anything. It's still the same old, dark Beacon and it's the same old people walking around, talking and chatter and looking so serious he just can't help smiling at them. At Kuai Liang.

"Why? Did you see something? Oh, is someone attacking us?"

And Quentin giggles again, looking around. He's not worried.

[paletteswap]

"They don't? Were you opening doors on people?" He's not sure why Quentin choose to share that tidbit of information, especially as he keeps on smiling. As if he knows something Kuai doesn't and is going to use it against him. Not the door thing though since Kuai would install more locks if he could. He's all about his privacy.

"I haven't seen anything yet but... You are awfully cavalier about the potential of an attack." Which is extra suspicious, maybe he's up to something. Kuai looks him up and down, trying to figure out what he's getting at. And what is so funny?

[moderatelymaladjusted]

"Just one door and no one was in there anyway," which really was a shame because Quentin was feeling so good, he just wanted to share that with everyone. Everyone should feel this good today. It's like he can finally breathe again, after being under water for so long.

"We're dead." Like that explains it, and Quentin tries again, waving his hands through the freezing air and even that's funny. A laughing riot, the cold seeping in through his clothes and making his shirt stick to his back.

"And dying again? How bad could be? We might not even come back again, and then--" he pitches his voice lower, an almost whisper "and then we can rest." And he laughs again, like it's the best joke he's heard all week.

[paletteswap]

"Or something worse happens. What makes you think those that die are meeting their eternal rest and not just teleported to some other location or held hostage in some pocket dimension under the church or any number of things we'd never know about?" He'd spent far too long thinking about what happened to those that died when they were already dead - where those who didn't came back ended up. None of his conclusions were positive.

"I don't find any of this funny." He actually takes a step back, not wanting Quentin to get too close and accidentally freeze himself.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

"Oh,"

And the smile on his face weavers a little, almost slipping off of his face completely because-- yeah, that could be what happened to everyone who died here and never came back. People like Eliot. Like Elena.

But it's gone in a flash and then Quentin is laughing softly again, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe. Maybe that's what happens. Or-- listen, or maybe they get eaten? By something really big. In the lake. Maybe they're used to buy safe passage for the next ferry."

[paletteswap]

"As a currency?" Well that's several tiers of horrible worse than what Kuai had imagined. He can try and think up worst case scenarios but his optimistic nature means that his worst case scenario is someone else's mediocre scenario.

"Why is this funny?" The laughing is starting to grate on Kuai's nerves. "Do you not care that some who have died never returned?"

Because he seemed to care a lot more when they were trudging through the woods to the armory, so this is rather an abrupt change.

Jan 29

[callada]

Beneath the crushing weight of everything that has happened in the last week, Rosinante wants little more than to isolate himself. He needs time to process what he went through, or at least time to bury it so he doesn't have to deal with it. Maybe, with everyone suffering, it will just be forgotten. Some strange quirk of whatever the lanterns are doing, nothing to do with an element of his personal life that he both fears and despises.

Wanting to isolate himself doesn't fully translate to actually doing it. He's worried about the others, and unable to keep entirely away. He finds quiet places to be alone but then passes through the outskirts of town, looking out across the dark landscape for familiar lanterns. Making sure people are still around, still alive, even if violent or monstrous.

He spots an icy creature not far off. Reptilian, draconic. Is it Stone? But Stone is so much larger. He quickens his pace so he can get a better look at the lantern, which is more recognizable than the person.

"Kuai?" he ventures, and then his face bursts into a grin as he laughs. "Kuai, are you - What are you?"

[paletteswap]

He glowers, not appreciating the laughter at all. Not having a good time is what he is.

Clawed hands clench and unclench as he stares at them hoping maybe one time he'll do that and be back to normal. "I've no idea. A dragon maybe. Part of one."

If he'd fully turned into a dragon he would have taken that far better than this half and half state. Especially with the pain in his back and spine where wings should be that never formed.

"Is this happening to everyone?" Because Rosinante looks fine. And while he doesn't wish ill on anyone, being the only one afflicted isn't ideal either.

[callada]

"Turning into a dragon? No, I don't think so!"

He smiles comically wide and leans downward, eyes large to inspect the transformation with apparent giddy delight. Kuai doesn't sound pleased at all, of course - his posture and tone suggests this is not only unnatural but probably fairly uncomfortable.

"Some people are, or were, but not me!"

[paletteswap]

"Well what do you think it is?" He snaps back, holding his hands up to inspect them. Sure looks like blue reptilian scales to him. Maybe he's becoming a really big lizard, but honestly he doesn't care about semantics right now. Not only does this hurt pretty constantly, it's making it difficult to do things.

It's very hard to use a touchscreen tablet with claws.

"Were? So some people have transformed and are better now?"

He doesn't recoil, but has Rosinante's smile always basically split his head in two? That is very unsettling.

[callada]

"I meant I don't think everyone is!" he replies hurriedly, becoming increasingly more distressed that he can't make it sound like he's as worried as he is. Everything comes out like a joke, like teasing. Maybe he should just leave, since he's making Kuai more upset.

"Everything keeps changing! Some people got better, some people got angry! You shoulda seen it, I almost knocked Sora out with a chair!"

The last part blurts out as if it's particularly funny, even though it is not only the opposite, but he really hadn't even wanted to say it at all - not like that. He'd meant to say his anger made him do terrible violent things he would never have done, but it passed in time. He tries to clamp his teeth and lips together before he can say anything more.

[paletteswap]

"Some have recovered. That's..." He pauses mid sentence to stare at Rosinante's big toothy grin. Wait what? Surely he misheard. "You hit Sora with a chair?"

Well that doesn't sound right. For starters Sora looks like he's fourteen years old, and Rosinante had been pretty reserved in terms of combat so far. Of course there is another possibility.

"On purpose?" Because Kuai wouldn't be surprised if Rosinante stood up too fast and sent a chair flying across the room into Sora's face by accident.

[callada]

"He insulted me," he snickers despite his best attempts to keep quiet, knowing he's continuing to make this worse. "He - my makeup! He doesn't like it."

Hilarious, but really not. It's one of the things that reliably gives him some amount of joy through self-expression. Otherwise he'd go without, seeing how clearly it isn't popular on Earth the way it is at home, and assimilation has always been a goal of his. But here there's no need to, so he thought he'd been safe to do something small like that for his own enjoyment.

Which is why he's got lipstick and eyeshadow and all of it on again still. Fuck you, Sora.

[paletteswap]

"And that was reason to hit him with a chair?" In good news, Kuai is suitably distracted by this turn of events that he's not thinking about the lizard creature he's becoming and can ignore the pain from his back. Rosinante probably wasn't intending to help in that sense, but it's something.

"I'm not sure I'd recognize you without it." A lie, but he would definitely do a double take seeing Rosinante scrubbed clean. He'd never really thought about it as 'make-up' really. Just figured that was his thing. Everyone back home was so thematic it didn't even seem strange. Kuai wore blue, Hanzo wore yellow, Erron dressed like a cowboy, and Bo'Rai Cho carried around an infinite number of flasks. Rosinante would have fit right in.

"Is he okay? You didn't hurt him did you?" Because if Sora took a chair thrown by Rosinante at full force he might be crumpled in a heap still.

January 28

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Brr. What is-- oh." Stone is over his own weirdness, so he's looking like a normal-- if colorless and slightly off from standard human-- old man. He frowns over at Kuai. The smell is close enough to the same that he knows who it is, at least.

He pads over, despite the chill. They haven't spoken before, but if he's going to talk to anyone about their physical changes, it's going to be the poor kid who got turned half into a reptile. "That looks worse than what it did to me... you okay?"

[paletteswap]

"So it's not just me?" He manages a wry grin, misery loves company after all.

"I am.. Surviving." He looks down at his newly clawed hands, blue scales trailing up his arms. Everything feels strange, the scales aren't transmitting touch the way he's used to so occasionally he has no idea if he's holding onto things properly. His poor tablet has been dropped a few dozen times already, partly because he can't use it with his claws and has to type on it with his knuckles.

"What happened to you?" Not only is he curious, but he could use a distraction from his own predicament.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Spent a clutch of days shapeshifted into something that normally I would rip the head off of if I saw it," Stone says with a snort. "A Fell ruler, the breeding class of the Raksura's crueler sister species. It went away after a while, only then I kept seeing things speeding up and slowing down."

He circles Kuai with a concerned frown. "That looks like it hurts a lot more than mine did. There anything I can do?"

[paletteswap]

Fell ruler? Raksura? He's not sure what any of these things are, but from his tone he can assume it's some species that Stone hates. Maybe a rival clan? Either way the thought that this isn't permanent is reassuring.

"How long did it last? When you became something else?" Because it's been long enough that Kuai is tired of this. He either wants it to go away and he reverts to normal, or fully change into whatever dragon-y thing this is.

"There's something wrong with my back, where my ribs connect to my spine feels like it didn't finish forming. It's been a few days now and nothing has gotten better." He manages a grimace-tainted smile. "It has not gotten worse either. So there is that. What were you saying about time distorting for you? Going slower than it should?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"It lasted several days. The time thing a lot less. Let me have a look at your back, maybe we can tie it up with something and that will help." At the very least it can give the illusion of protection, and make the poor guy feel better; at best, it might actually provide support so it doesn't feel as loose and unconnected.

As he stops at Kuai's back to pick at the remains of his clothing there, trying to get a look if the guy lets him, he explains, "Mostly faster, I suppose. I kept watching things rot and die, and then I'd blink and they were back to normal. And everyone seemed to be zooming around, I kept trying to grab them to make them slow down."

[paletteswap]

He doesn't know Stone, but he's miserable enough that he's willing to take the chance, he hasn't seemed like a threat yet. So Kuai shucks his metal shoulder guards off and pulls the leather armor over his head. Beneath it his skin is blue, shimmery and very reptilian.

No amount of contorting in front of a mirror would allow him to really see what the problem was, so he's not sure how bad it is. On either side of his spine are two vertical slashes through the scales where he should have had wings, but are now red angry gashes. Not bleeding anymore, and it's not a gaping wound, but it hasn't scarred over or healed.

"That's odd. Time distortions only happened in my world when the gods interfered in the timeline. But it usually affected everyone, not one person. Were you maybe seeing into the future? If only briefly?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I don't know. I've seen places where time slows down and stands still, before, due to groundling magic, but never places where it speeds up like that." He helps with the armor, just a little bit, and hisses softly through his teeth at the wounds. "How long have you felt this? It looks like these have hardly healed at all."

Some kind of wrapping, definitely, if just to hold the skin together. That looks very unpleasant-feeling, though at least it doesn't look infected. That's something. Stone has no idea how to deal with infection without the help of a mentor, his people's mages and healers.

[paletteswap]

"A few days. Three I think." He mentally scolds himself for not keeping better track, but he'd been so alarmed and subsequently miserable that it hadn't been a top priority. Also without the series of alarms he'd set he wouldn't be able to determine day from night in this place anyway. It was all arbitrary. He'd set the time on his tablet to match what few others he'd talked to but who knew if that was remotely accurate. His day might start at the equivalent of 3 a.m. for all he knew.

"Speeding up all around you, but not affecting you directly seems like some sort of cursed spell aimed at you specifically. Though it might have been targeted at many, I don't often see people on the network sharing individual experiences when they happen." He winces as the skin on his back stretches, trying to focus on anything but that. "Maybe that's something we should change. Some bulk network post where anyone can mention odd things that have happened. Try and keep track, or form a schedule as strange things tend to happen on a cycle here."