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.

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"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?"

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?"

"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."

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?"

"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.

"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."

"That Maes Hughes boy did that," Stone says, frowning at Kuai's back. "I didn't chime in because my worst problem was definitely something more like this, and everyone has red-colored changes pretty clearly explained. Come on, let's get you over to the store, I'll grab some bandages from there and at least wrap you up so these don't feel like they're flapping open all over the place."

"Was it recently? It's been difficult for me to use my tablet." He holds up his clawed hands as a way of explanation. The system doesn't want to respond to his claws, and he's dropped it a few times now.

"Red-colored changes? So Ignis was right, it is something to do with our lanterns. Has anyone figured out what's caused it?"

The one time that Kuai really wants to actually use the network and he can't. Cruel irony.

"I know that problem. I couldn't use it when I was shapeshifted, either." He gives Kuai a nudge in the direction of the store. Move, friend. He starts that way, himself. "There's no understood cause yet. People have figured it's to do with lanterns, since everybody's lantern shows the same kind of problems when it happens. Different colors mean different things. But why it's happening, who shitting knows? Robin said something similar happened before, though, so it's not completely new."

He obediently trudges along beside Stone, glad to be doing anything other than his normal patrols that he was going on out of sheer familiarity and desire for a structured routine.

Speaking of Robin, "So the lighthouse being green means she's under the effects as well? That doesn't bode well, though I suppose there's some small comfort that she's just as susceptible to everything as the rest of us."

It's not much, but at least it proves she's one of them. Kind of.

"She was last time, too, right?" Stone says absently, already thinking about what he can use to bandage that up, if they have enough actual bandages to use or if he has to get creative. "When the spirits attacked and the rest of us had to sleep? They attacked the lighthouse, too."

"They did something anyway." He's not sure he'd call what he saw on the video an attack, but it was certainly menacing and foreboding.

"I know she's trapped here same as the rest of us, but it's easy to think that she's separate, especially when she wields such power over everything." He's not a fan of hers, but he also doesn't wish her ill. Not unless she proves to be actively malicious. "She's vulnerable out there, if she were attacked, we couldn't do anything about it. And if something such as this is occurring - she'll not be able to get aid."

He shifts his weight back and forth, muscles in his shoulders twinging from the way he's been standing to keep his back from hurting even more. His precise posture is taking a real beating.

"Don't know why it's such a trial to get to her," Stone grumps. "If someone has good intentions, there's no reason to keep her isolated." He ducks into the store to get what supplies he can. Let's just take a bedsheet and use that, instead, rather than waste actual bandages. This isn't bloody or infected, so.

He starts a tear in his find with his teeth, making a strip. "All right, let's get this wrapped around you. It'll at least help keep them closed and protected so your clothes don't irritate things."

"It will be difficult to get enough people for a concerted effort to try again considering what happened last time." He winces, letting Stone bandage him up. It's a strange sensation considering he's almost never let anyone tend to his wounds before. Though he will chalk this one up to extenuating circumstances.

"There's few still here from then. Last I looked I think there were maybe a dozen so maybe it will be easier to convince newer people that it's a good idea. Though many are gone because of the lighthouse situation."

"I do remember hearing about that," Stone says, half-distracted by his work. Bandaging things isn't exactly his specialty, but tying strips of fabric around someone's chest and back is at least relatively straight-forward. "How many people died, the first sighting of the green-eyed spirits, and all that. And someone tried flying out there while the rest of us were asleep, and died, too. Does anyone know why?"

"Those that were hooking up the lighthouse to the network were attacked by spirits. I'm not sure about the other. I know Rosinante tried to sail to it on the lake and was attacked by large monstrous creatures. There's something that does not want us to get to the lighthouse."

His back actually does feel better now that it's not exposed to air and he can breathe a little easier.

"Something about the water itself is treacherous as well. Every time we've crossed the river in the woods something has occurred. And while camping near it there's an odd feeling, it's unsettling."

"And I tried to fly over the lake and got smashed for my trouble, too." He makes an annoyed noise. "And no one knows why these places are off-limits, just that we all die when we try going there. I didn't notice anything about the river, but I haven't tried sleeping next to it, either. Wonder if it would be a problem to something my size." All eighty-foot-wingspan of him. Hmm.

Might be worth testing sometime, if he feels like risking it.

He ties the chest wrapping off, good and tight, plenty of support to keep those gashes closed and protected. "That feel all right? Not too loose?"

"I heard about that. You and Bodhi?" Rosinante had let him know after his own attempt hadn't gone so well. And then they'd both gotten drunk and depressed. Best not to dwell on that.

"There was some howling creature that sounded big, but we never saw. And an eerie singing." He's seen enough shenanigans here and in the Netherrealm, he wasn't going to go looking for the source.

"That seems fine, thank you. I take it you've suffered the same?"

"Yeah. Poor kid didn’t even seem that rattled, but I'm pretty sure he was hiding it." Good to know about the river. Stone doubts there's anything out there big and bad enough to take him, not in the woods, there just wouldn't be room. (He is probably wrong.) But it's still good to know.

He gives Kuai's shoulder a pat. "Good. My change wasn't this bad. Nothing partial about it, and it didn't hurt like most of yours did, since it basically was a shapeshifting problem. I changed shape, and it was into the wrong shape. Into one of my people's ancient enemies, in fact."

"Right you are often... larger." He's never seen it, but he does know that Stone can turn into something that can fly. And is apparently quite big.

"Unfortunate, I assume it was intentional to make you suffer mentally. The spirits who do these things can be cruel. I'm unsure about this, there are dragons in my world but they are quite small and don't really look like... this." He looks down at his clawed hands, flexing his fingers. He can see the resemblance to a dragon (or maybe some sort of lizard) but the fact that it's only part of him is making it hard to tell.

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EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

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