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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Right. Manners.

[He doesn't actually roll his eyes, but it's the verbal equivalent.]

Quite frankly I don't want you anywhere near my dick. How old are you, even?

[His own childhood has completely skewed his ideas of what children at certain ages should and should not be talking about.]

I was going to offer more than one, but now I'm rethinking it.

Gooood question.

[ Well. One in three hundred sixty five chance that they have a birthday in common too, right? He closes his eyes. Sora's a sensitive bitch, he probably started counting down birthdays right when he landed.

He starts picking through those memories... then chokes, then coughs, then laughs. This is an actual, real snorting cackle. ]

Motherfucker. Holy shit. Oh, god, that son of a bitch got us killed sixty-nine days before my birthday. Nice. [ He continues laughing - it's honestly not that funny, but this is one part amusement, one part hysterics - then it peters off into a mildly better mood. Good laugh. ] Still nineteen. Jesus. That's the first cool thing he's ever done in our lives.

The first cool thing he's ever done is kill you? Why is that hilarious?

[At this point, Will is still working on the assumption that "he" or "that son of a bitch" is not, in fact, someone inside Skyler, but an outside person that he left behind. His killer, probably.

Will is also aware of the slang for a sex act, but he's not making the connection here.]

At least you're not a child. That should make me feel less bad about giving you this, but I already didn't, because it's not illicit where I come from. Apparently that's not the case in most worlds.

[Your turn, Skyler. Puff pass dude.]

Yeah. Oh my god. [ Skyler will look at this dude in a considerably better mood and reach back to grab the blunt. ] Even better - he got us killed on June 6th, and the year was 2016. Six, six, six. [ He'll take his hit, give it back to his new dealer (?), and put the fingers of his other hand up to his lips, chef kissing the smoke out into the night. ] Mwah. He couldn't have timed that better if he tried.

[ He finally gets the last of the laugh energy out on that sentence. ] Phew. I always wondered why the universe decided to stick me with that limp dick. God works in mysterious ways, I guess.

[ Skyler looks at this guy askance. ] I dunno. Last I remember, Obama was still in office. Maybe he'll retroactively legalize it, save you the jail time. [ Skyler will roll his eyes and look back out into the night. ] Where are you from, anyway? Amsterdam?

Edited (memed too hard) 2020-01-28 04:54 (UTC)

Obama? What office?

[That sounds... vaguely familiar? Maybe? It could just sound like any number of the thousands of names he's heard in his life. ]

I've no idea where Amsterdam is, and I'm going to assume I'm not from anywhere you're familiar with. Unless you happen to know anything about Mining Colony 27.

[Not something he'd normally admit to, but hey, this kid doesn't know shit.]

The sixes, that's some religious thing, isn't it? Don't answer that, it doesn't matter.

President. United States. Chill guy.

[ Skyler closes his eyes, then opens them again. Just trying to vibe. Hey, sometimes it's nice not to constantly thrum with useless rage. ]

Hm. Cool, I'm in hell with an alien or a dystopia reject. That's nice. [ He looks over at his dank companion. Not smiling, or like... trying to be reassuring, but he is serious. ] Not a joke. Wherever you were legalized it. That can't be much worse than where I'm from.

[ He will not, in fact, explain the Bible. Hashtag Bad Catholic Skyler Veracruz. ]

United States, right. You're from before the NDRT, then.

[He will not, in fact, explain what the hell that is.]

Alien, if you want to get technical, but I'm still human. Just not from Earth. Most of us aren't, these days.

[ Skyler figures he's been as equally as inscrutable, so he'll give this guy that. He's watched enough apocalypse movies, figures that this guy came from an Earth where things went pearshaped. ]

What happened to Earth, where you're from? [ Actually a little curious. ] Did you guys just up and leave?

Not by choice, and not all of us.

[Is he really giving this kid a history lesson right now? A future lesson??? Whatever, he's got nothing better to do.]

There wasn't enough room anymore, not for all the humans and a livable planet. The people in charge decided the planet was more important, sent most everyone else to the void. Mars, at first. Then farther. Earth itself? It's fine. Much better these days. It's a veritable garden-of-fucking-Eden. Just most people can't afford to see it.

[He's never been there himself, either, but that's more out of spite than anything.]

[ Scifi bullshit, nothing that really resonates with him except for the last part. It's the bitterness that he understands more than the actual situation. ]

Hm. Okay. Sounds like they're shit. Guess not much changes in however long it takes for us to get that far. [ He sniffs. Damn it's cold out here. ] Knew those Greenpeace motherfuckers were up to some bullshit.

You're right, they are shit. Same shit as the rest of us.

[Yeah, it's cold, but he kinda doesn't feel it anymore.]

I don't know who Greenpeace is, either, but I'm willing to blame them anyway. Fuck them whoever they are.

[ Skyler takes in what this guy says, rolls it around in his head a little. He takes in a huge breath. Sorry, Will, he is about to do a yell. ]

FUCK YOU, GREENPEACE! FUCK THE WHALES! CLIMATE CHANGE WAS GOOD, ACTUALLY!

[ And he'll lean back on his heels, satisfied. ]

Hope that starts a butterfly effect and kills us all in the past.

[Will watches with a blank, perplexed expression. He's silent for a second.

And then he just laughs, not even his usual sarcastic laugh, but the genuine sort. It's just the absolute absurdity of it. That and the weed. That's helping.

It takes him a minute to catch his breath.]

Well, we're already dead, so what the hell do we care? End the fucking world, I guess.

[ The yell echoes across the frozen lake in a way that pleases him. It's nice to use his outdoor voice in a place where the cops won't shoot him on sight.

In a gesture that he'd hate if someone pointed out, he rubs at his nose, hiding a smile. It's gone by the time he puts his hand down. ]

Thanks, I'll try. [ He grabs his lantern, checks the color, then takes a peek at Will's. Huh. Samesies. ] Kinda on a time limit though. This light shit's temporary, right?

Fuck, I hope so.

[He doesn't think he'll keep his sanity if this is permanent. Or get it back, rather.]

What do you mean by time limit? Are you incapable of world-ending when you aren't losing your mind?

Edited (QUESTION MARK) 2020-01-31 20:15 (UTC)

Losing my...? [ Skyler pauses, thinks about it. ] Kinda weird if that's what's happening. This is the most me I've felt in years. Sucks to be you, I guess.

[ Big breath. The kind prisoners do at open doors. ] Can't do shit, my guy. But at least I want to now. Once this goes back to normal - [ and he swings his star lantern in a green arc ] - it's back to the Kidz Bop jail for me.

Edited (formatting (poses)) 2020-02-01 01:11 (UTC)

[What, so this kid's getting better while he's getting worse? How the hell is that fair. He wants to talk to the manager.]

What— I have no idea what you're talking about. What do you mean you're going back to jail?

[ Skyler looks over, running a tongue over his teeth... then holds his hand out for the blunt. ]

They still got stories about bodysnatchers in the future?

[Yeah okay, you can have a turn. Will hands it over.]

Stories? We don't need stories. Where I'm from, there's a parasitic species that hijacks a host body for a few years before it's finally ready to pupate into an eight-foot insect-lizard.

[So that's a thing.]

I worked with one, briefly. Not even remotely as terrifying as you'd think.

[ Thank you good sir. Skyler's eyebrows will shoot up as that description hits. ]

Shiiiiiit. I'm fucking jealous. [ He cackles, takes a hit, and continues to cackle as he hands it back, the smoke wreathing from his nose and mouth like a weird Santa's mustache beard combo. ] God. [ He blows the rest of the smoke out, then sneezes. ] Fuck. That's the kinda dead I wanna be. Just chewed up from the inside. None of this slow burn memory bullshit. Just fuck me up on a sch-edule! [ That one comes out as another echoing yell, but it's definitely a little more frustrated. Not exactly directed at Will though. ] Maybe the lizard would eat him.

Edited 2020-02-02 09:24 (UTC)

What is that, some kind of fetish?

[There are definitely those kinds of people out there.]

I'm trying to... Listen, this isn't the best time to be vague with me. [He closes his eyes and holds up his hands, as if in surrender.] I'm not exactly in peak riddle-solving condition.

[Just in case Skyler somehow gets the idea that he's, like, an idiot. Even though it's pretty obvious he's just high as fuck.]

Are you saying you have a body-snatcher? And that's your time limit?

[ At this point? ]

Maybe? [ A shrug. Not gonna put more thought into it than that. ]

Yeah. And yeah. [ Skyler looks down at his lamp. ] The other guy has a Disney prince thing going on. [ A pause. Maybe Disney doesn't exist in the future? ] He has a hard-on for playing hero. Loves the smell of his own shit. Touchy-feely type. Anyway, he's the one who got us killed, so I guess he's the one who's technically dead. [ He looks back up at the lake. ] I've been braindead for, uh, I guess about a year now?

[It takes him a few moments to really put all that together, and then he's still not sure he's got it. He tries to put the explanation up against the closest thing he knows; this is like if one of the parasites' hosts woke up somehow, temporarily regained control, only to know that it wasn't for long.

The sheer, abject horror of that thought hits him harder than it normally would.]

Fuck.

[That's all he can say for a minute. He takes the joint back.]

How the hell does that happen? How do you just... become another person?

[ Skyler doesn't say anything for a second. He, unfortunately, has had enough time to sort out the metaphysics of what Sora thinks happened to them, and he understands at least enough to get the gist of how they both kinda fucked up. How he, specifically, fucked up.

He is really struggling to care though. They're dead. They're dead. Consequences happened. What does it matter that being a better person would have saved his life if in the here and now - or, at least, as of three weeks ago - Sora had died with assault knives pincushioned in his back and nothing but regret in his heart? ]

Reincarnation. Soul shit. [ He rubs his face with his sleeve. Realistically, he probably should not be giving this motherfucker the blessed time of day, but honestly, this is the nicest conversation with a guy who wasn't trying to be his surrogate uncle in... years. Probably. He can spare some honesty. ] I started getting memories from him three years back. Started changing my body. Got powers. It was kind of cool, except for the bodysnatching part. He took over a year ago. [ ... A shrug. ] Got tired of fighting it. I gave up. Bitch move, I guess.

[This continues to be existentially terrifying. Great!

Will can't imagine himself ever making that decision, giving up in the face of being taken over by some other personality. He's nothing if not tenacious, and it's no secret that he values himself over anyone else. He thinks he'd fight tooth and nail and do every spiteful thing he possibly could. That's what he's done in the past.

But those were all threats from the outside. Those were all things he could fight. When the threat's in your own mind, what can you actually do?]

Are you aware? In there? I suppose not, if you're describing yourself as brain dead. So aside from right now, you're just... gone?

[So this kid's double-dead. Will takes a deep breath and lets it out slow. He runs a hand through his hair.]

I probably would've killed myself, to be perfectly honest. Before it got that far. [It's literally the only hypothetical situation in which he would, he thinks.]

If I have to die, I'm going to do it on my own terms. And I'm not going alone. So I guess at least you were kind enough to let one of you live.

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69 420 eyyyyyyy /airhorn noises

https://youtu.be/QJQ4x4Df-c0

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I don't even have a laughing icon, that's how much I thought this would never happen

8') miracles do happen

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cw for frank suicide discussion