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.

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Comments

[equinoctials]

Seeing the boy summon that familiar Keyblade and call on the same magic slams Riku back into himself with all the mercy of a dull guillotine, a dissonant note that kicks a hole in the wall Riku's been trying to keep up around the parts that are still heartsick over the people he's had to bury.

Because those things are Sora's when a lot of other things aren't.

Not much happens on the outside. Link gets it. He's someone who has to stuff down the things he's feeling because what he's needed for doesn't leave room for being a person with a heart to break. A whole kingdom needs their legendary hero to be strong all the time, it's not something a guy like Link can switch on and off, is it?

But it does make Riku's typing on the network sloppy, it makes him a little more harried when he tries to solicit help to make up for all the things he personally lacks. Eventually, he gets what he hopes will work, he doesn't turn back around, cradling his tablet in his bestial arm, trying to keep that hidden. There's enough alarming going on.

"A doctor is coming. Lie still," he warns, adding, after a lengthy pause, "Please."

[arsarcanum]

Sora pushes back until his head hits an arm, and then gets up on an elbow until he has a shoulder propped up against it. Riku, he hears that, but unless he has a straw to work with, he's gonna end up with blood AND juice on his admittedly already trashed sweatshirt. Sora may be a little insecure about what he knows about Riku at the moment, but he's about 80% sure he was never a sippy straw kind of guy.

"Good," he says to Link, looking at him through lidded eyes as he grasps at the glass gratefully... and then maybe winking. He is very lightheaded and has very little impulse control and would like Link to know they are still cool. "If you hear any more voices... tell 'em to buzz off." In the meantime, Sora will lie on this couch, sipping slowly at his juice, trying not to study Riku's profile from the couch as it's lit faintly by a weird, sickly mix of green and red light.

Wait. Red light?

Sora tries to look around again - he has his lantern on him, and Link's still swirling green lantern is right there - but, yep, that's too sudden and he is now seasick again. Nope, bad. Head hurting now. "Where's the red coming from," he asks before putting the glass down carefully floorwards and letting his eyes snap shut again.

[sublimebeast]

Link reaches out to gently support Sora's head with his free hand. His other remains clamped over the wound.

He looks up at Riku and notes that the young man is hiding his arm. Or, rather, that he's still hiding his arm. It's probably something the red lantern is doing and it's probably something that someone who's suffered blood loss shouldn't worry about.

"Red? I don't see any red...," he says to Sora. "You probably just need rest..."

With a sigh he bows his head and his own eyes drift closed.

Sora will live. The wound isn't fatal. All will be well... All will be well...

When he opens his eyes again he asks "When will the doctor get here?"

If a healer arrives maybe he can slip back out. These two young men would be in good hands and he's already feeling like he's intruded into their lives enough. Outside, in the dark, he can complete his descent into black insanity away from prying eyes.

[equinoctials]

Something in Riku's posture seems to stiffen at the observation, only to ease when Link, unexpectedly, covers for him. No- not for him, personally, Riku has no illusions that it was done for his sake so much as the boy nearly delirious on the couch. It hasn't escaped notice that he's so tender with the other boy, either.

Even a part of Sora still draws people in. Even his echo is potent.

"Soon," Riku replies, sending out another message, asking Quentin when he'll return. The better to get the mess cleaned up before he returns, if he can, or beg forgiveness for the unexpected guest, "Is his wound closed, yet? He says he'll be able to restore his lost blood."

[arsarcanum]

No red, huh. Trust your friends. Sora's too tired to anything but trust his friends at the moment, but after Link's reassurance that there is actually no red light - nothing wrong at all, really - the switch Sora's mind makes from suspicion to a calm, sensible understanding is rather stark. His eyes are closed. He was mistaken. It was, indeed, very much his imagination. How silly to think he'd seen any red. If he were to open his eyes right now, he would, in fact, never notice that Riku's lantern had changed color at all.

He lifts a hand to pat Link's, mostly in thanks for the heads up and some what to be reassuring, letting him know that there are still lights on upstairs. Just trying not to be sick again. The wound is still there, front and back, and Link would do well to keep his hand on it for at least one more application of the Cure spell, but by this point, even a layman's stitch could fully close it. Sora's out of danger when it comes to shock or internal bleeding - luckily, the Master Sword seems to be extremely sharp and left no raw edges anywhere inside - but the blood loss is definitely still an issue. No one loses as much blood as Sora did and comes out completely fine.

... He's forgotten to say something. He needs to say it now, or else he'll risk going under without saying it. Come on, say it. Don't be shy. This Riku may be a tiny bit of a stranger, but he's as kind as he ever was. At least, he is kind in the way Sora remembers him - efficient, rigorous, responsible, sturdy. It's good. It's always been more than good.

"Thank you, Riku," he says, as loud as he can manage. He means it. There isn't much energy left in him for much nuance, it's just... gratefulness. He's thankful that he was there, and opened the door to his cabin. A little sorry that it was necessary, a little embarrassed that he'd come back to darken his doorstep at all, but he's grateful to still be alive. Or, well, as alive as he can be in Beacon, anyway.

[equinoctials]

Riku has tried not to look directly at either of them, because he's aware of what the light does to his transformed eyes and it reminds him of... things he isn't proud of, but has nevertheless accepted as a part of who he is. He can't help it at that, though, briefly they shine like two newly minted gold coins split down their centers, like a feline caught in a photograph.

He looks away, conflicted. About what he could say, whether he should, whether he isn't just making this harder on himself than it needs to be, whether his conscience and his heart would have let him refuse when they showed up at the door. No, Riku feels miserable, his grief barely scabbed over before he's scraped it raw again, but maybe that's just life, or the afterlife, when you're the one lagging behind.

As usual, there's a lot more going on behind a brief pause and clenched fists.

"Be more careful." Not that he could under the circumstances. It just needed to be said.