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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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.

"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?

"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.

"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.

"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."

"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.

"Yeah, as currency."

And he laughs again, louder this time and his face hurts from all the smiling.

"I don't know. I don't know why I'm laughing, it's just-- funny?"

Except for all the ways it's not. The Market people had asked for spirits in return for goods and information, maybe when they die here-- the people, when they die like Eliot died, and they don't come back. It's because there's a similar deal with the spirits. The ones who can communicate. The ones who can twist a person's mind.

"It's really not funny, but I just can't-- I can't stop."

Weirdly that makes a lot of sense now that Kuai thinks about it. If the Night Market trades in spirits, why wouldn't there be a similar Market for the spirits that trades in humans.

"What do you suppose the Market does with the spirits it receives?" He hadn't seen anyone actually trade in a spirit, and would have been disgusted with whoever did so, but someone must have. It's inevitable that someone would be callous enough to trade a living (or dead) creature for their own selfish gains.

He's not sure what to say to that, where Quentin apparently can't stop laughing about things that are absolutely not funny. "Perhaps one of the spirits is doing this to you? If they can make us see things why couldn't they manipulate our emotions?"

Why they would want to make someone laugh about horrible things is anyone's guess, but not much the forest spirits did made sense anyway. "Were you out in the woods? Did anything happen to your lantern? Mine was cracked when I woke up a few days ago. So something is definitely amiss - and the creatures in the forest are likely to blame."

"I've been drinking," Quentin says brightly, holding up an almost empty bottle of wine and he wiggles it in the air. "I've been drunk for-- wow, weeks. That is also a funny story but."

There's nothing to lean against out here, so he just kind locks a leg and tries to now sway on his feet too much.

"Autopsy. Figuring out what makes them tick." He laughs, high and clear. "Taking them apart, that's what I think they're doing. I really don't think giving them spirits are a good idea, because-- because the only ones we could catch, are the friendly ones."

He winks, "You know, the ones that help us and bring books and stuff."

"My lantern's been weird for days. I think this means I'm dying, but that's okay. It could be the spirits, but last time? Last time, no one else could see it. Everyone can see it now."

"Oh. I take it something happened that is distressing you?" says Kuai, master of observation. He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but he hadn't really talked to Quentin, or seen him in a while.

"I certainly hope no one is going to trade in any of the friendly spirits. Those have been helping us. But should anyone kill or capture the green-eyed ones.. well those have earned what would become of them." Now that he says it he's actually considering that. Maybe they should go out there and capture one of them to study.

"You are not dying. We are already dead, what would you be dying of?"

"Oh, but we're not really dead. Not all the way."

And Quentin steps up close, really close, and puts his hand against the side of Kuai Liang's neck. Fingers probing around until he can find it-- there! A heartbeat!

"Feel that? Your heart is beating. So's mine, and that means-- well, I don't really know what that means, but we can't be fully dead."

Still standing much too close, Quentin nods and giggles. "They're dangerous. They're the ones who made us see things."

Kuai recoils because he is very, very, unused to being touched. He's also frigid to the touch, but his heart is definitely pumping blood around.

"True. And we do bleed and can be injured." Okay so maybe they can be dying. He was optimistically assuming that they'd either be alive or dead, a simple binary. But injuries could occur and then need to be healed from which throws his theory out of sorts.

"Yes, we need to figure out a way to shield ourselves from that. But now we're all seeing the same things - the same shifts in our lanterns. It must mean something to happen all at once."

And stepping away now, he doesn't want to be this close to anyone.

Quentin lets him go, and blinks back slowly, the slime on his face stretching his mouth too much, a cartoon smile that hurts.

"We die and don't come back. We've been over this, you know."

Since Kuai Liang steps back, there's no reason for Quentin to move and he doesn't, he just stands there, hands by his side. "We do, but nothing I've tried works. It just keep changing, no matter what I do. And stepping away from it really doesn't work."

"It's this place. These spirits."

"You tried to abandon your lantern?" Well that's a first. He'd accidentally left it once and it'd been physically painful until he'd retrieved it, he'd not heard of anyone purposefully getting rid of it.

"It definitely is. We need to strike back at them, or they're just going to keep doing such things."

Conversing with someone smiling that big is incredibly unsettling. None of this is funny, and even though it seems that something is messing with Quentin's ability to be serious, it's so odd that Kuai is having trouble ignoring it. He takes a few more steps away, wanting to put more distance between them.

"I'd like to find out where they are coming from. The green-eyed ones. They must have a place they reside."

"I think they have a nest. I wanted to go look for it, but--" He shrugs, giggling. "Something happened and I didn't. I forgot."

It seemed like something happened every two weeks here, and maybe they should try to keep track of that. Like circumstances for magic. Maybe the spirits got worse in tune to the waxing moon or something. The tide? He grins wider, still giggling through it as Kuai Liang steps back.

"I did. I left it and hoped that, well. Maybe if I got far enough away, it would reset. Like turning it off and on again."

That's not what happened and even the horrible, skin-searing pain had been funny at the time.

Well there is a certain amount of sense to that, that maybe if the lantern is the cause of all this then resetting it and letting it ... boot back up, so to speak, would improve things. It's an interesting experiment and if nothing else Quentin learned the hard way that it doesn't work.

"They must have, they're coordinated enough that they likely have a base of operations where they assemble. Or live. They're smarter than animals, but don't seem to think like people." On the other hand they may communicate via telepathy or a hive mind, but he'd like to go the simple route first of the spirits all being a pack that works together.

And Quentin keeps right on laughing and Kuai is going to find a way out of this because wow is it unsettling. "It's a shame that did not work. It would fix a lot of things if we could control our lanterns in such a way, rather than them controlling us. I wish you luck in the future with.. fixing this."

Whatever this is. Thinking that everything is funny? Laughing at the distress of others? It's potentially the oddest thing the spirits could have done but it's definitely effective in being very weird and creepy. So maybe it was a good attempt on their part.

"Like I said, they have a nest somewhere. We should go look for it."

And Quentin face lights up with glee, the smile growing larger with a purpose and a goal. "We should go find it right now. I mean, how hard can it be? And if we die trying?"

He giggles, cupping his hands in front of his mouth, "If we die, at least I'll die laughing? That's not nothing."

It should be terrifying. Every other time, trying to go in to the woods, was always accompanied with a liquid feeling of fear rushing through him. But not now.

"How about it? Want to go in to the woods with me?"

Completely unarmed and even doing magic like this is close to impossible. Magic comes from pain, and Quentin really isn't feeling any of it right now.

"Now?" He looks down at his clawed hands, at the scaled skin that now adorns his arms. "That seems a terrible idea."

Could he still shoot ice like this? Yes. Was it all horribly wrong and malformed and kind of melty? Also yes.

"We do need to find their nest, but you will fail any attempt at stealth and I am.. not at my best for defense." All they need is Quentin to start laughing and get torn apart by the alerted spirits.

"Do we need stealth, though?"

Quentin didn't think so. Just walking in to the forest, armed with absolutely nothing and see how far that got them. That was a good plan. If they died-- well, worst thing that can happen is that they come back, and get to do it all over again.

His smiles grows impossibly wider. "You look awesome like this, come on. If something comes, just-- fist those hands in to their chest cavities. I bet you can do some damage with those."

"Do you have a death wish?" Because walking into the forest unarmed with no idea where any of these creatures are sounds like a recipe for disaster. It's pretty much guaranteeing they get to see the underside of the church in close up detail.

"Possibly, but I'd rather not find out while being ripped limb from limb." He's not sure he agrees with the 'awesome' assessment, but he does have claws and that's gotta be good for some amount of damage. As if he needed more knives.

"You're not thinking straight, whatever has been done to you.. it's affecting you."

That just makes Quentin giggle even harder, doubling over to curl both arms around his middle and sucking in his breath in harsh gasps.

"I do, yeah. I kind of always been like that? That's nothing new. This is new, though. The laughing." And he giggles again, high-pitched and wheezing in the cold air. "Suit yourself. I think I'm just going to keep walking, see where that leads me. But let me know if you want to try using those claws, I'd like to see that, I think."

"How about this: When you are thinking more clearly we can organize something with slightly more of a plan? I wouldn't mind taking down one of those green-eyed creatures. Might be useful to find out what happens - if they come back as we do, or if killing them keeps them dead."

Because he does want to kill one, or at least fight them again. But not.. like this. The claws may be useful, but he's more concerned that Quentin will do something unexpected and dangerous. Kuai isn't about to take an unnecessary risk like that.

"Hey! I am thinking clearly," Quentin laughs, tilting his head. "I'm just not-- I can't feel if I'm scared anymore. I think that's it, maybe."

The total lack of fear, the bubbling of laughter in his belly? Could be the same thing.

"But you know what? Once I'm... not quiet so happy? I'll come find you and we can go in to the woods. How about that?"

Not having fear might be a gift at some moments, but watching Quentin laugh about everything doesn't really feel like it. This seems more like a curse.

He nods, managing something like a smile. Sort of anyway, given the circumstances and that his back is still in loads of pain, "Good. We can bring the fight to them, and maybe learn something in the process."

Looking at those claws again he smirks, "Or at least get some revenge for what's happening."

"Sure!"

Quentin agrees willingly enough, but then again even the thought of stepping in to the woods to take on the Green Eyed ones seems hilarious right now. So does Kuai Liang and his claws.

"Oh wait, how will I find you? Should I just look for a scratching post or something?"

Because claws, get it? And Quentin laughs quietly to himself.

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