logsinthenight | 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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It matters to me.

[ The worst part of it? Is that in spite of knowing there's a chance to avoid being taken out in a reset, Riku feels completely unprepared for one. Like he's been wasting time with a bunch of meaningless nonsense when he should have been...! ]

Will was able to survive. If there's a chance, I'm taking it, and I'm taking you with me.

Now are you coming or not?

[ It's an interesting response, and Vanitas' face relays his surprise. With the gleam of his eyes and the melt of shadows all around, it's a little more difficult to parse his expression than it normally would be.

They respond to these things in such radically different ways. Vanitas, in some way, doesn't really care if his existence is snuffed out in the snap of someone's fingers— not because he's ambivalent to being at the mercy of someone else, but because he doesn't ride against fate the way so many others he knows do. He just wasn't taught to do it, and stretching back in some ancient part of his memory, he thinks it can't be avoided.

But Riku has something, someone, to live for. Just because Vanitas has waned in his use of Sora as a weapon doesn't mean he's forgotten.

What's unexpected is that Riku so fervently wants to save Vanitas' life, too; even knowing who and what he is. The swell of impotent frustration off Riku is palpable, and Vanitas' eyes hood a little as he watches him. ]

What if I say no?

[ There's a sing song to his voice, like a taunt, but it's a real question. ]

[ Everything about Riku goes very still at that response, not balking at the potential bait, but considering it as a real possibility.

After all, it wasn't long ago that what got Vanitas through the long lightless days was found at the bottom of one bottle or another. Too inebriated or too hung over to act on any self destructive desires.

He understands the feeling, he's sat on a dark and distant shore and thought this world is perfect for me. To fade into oblivion.

Riku's eyes dart around, thinking. Sometimes, they catch the bonfire's light and flash like bright coins. ]

Then I need to tell Bruce not to wait up for us.

[ Seeing this monstrous side of Riku is alluring; maybe because Vanitas sees himself in it. Even if this is only a side effect of the lanterns, it doesn't really matter. Riku looks a little like something the darkness has taken over and warped into something unnatural. Vanitas has seen it time and again, the effect it can have on people. Riku is immune, but he still has this potential inside of him. ]

Oh?

[ The surprise is clear as a bell, and Vanitas straightens up, cocking his head almost like a bird. ]

If you did that you might just meet your destruction.

I thought you said you weren't giving up?

That's right. I'm not giving up on my friend.

[ No matter the danger.

Has he forgotten? No - Riku's certain he hasn't, but he might be filled to the brim with the Darkness the town reeks of, the way it does whenever something like this happens that causes distress and anguish.

It was terrifically dangerous to stay, to hold on to Vanitas and offer even a little comfort and company as he died, but he stayed. He'd do it again, try to strike down any spirit that attempted to answer the call to destroy them until they were inevitably overwhelmed.

He didn't leave Vanitas alone to his fate then, and wouldn't now. ]

[ He hasn't forgotten, but Vanitas knows his place in the hierarchy. He's disposable; the lesson isn't one he can unlearn overnight. If and when they survive these World Eaters, Riku will go back to Sora, and Bruce will go back to his city, where his unnamed friends are. Vanitas has nothing, and is nothing.

But Riku looks at him and says I'm not giving up on my friend, and Vanitas knows in his fractured heart that in this moment, he isn't talking about Sora.

The most annoying part is that Vanitas isn't even sure he can say I wouldn't do the same for you anymore. ]

Tch. [ His mouth curls up in the corner in a smirk, and it bares one of his canines. ] You should be careful, saying stuff like that.

[ He reaches one inky hand out, his fingers unfurling in the shadow, and curls them in to the scarf Riku has pulled up to hide his face. ]

Someone might see the real you.

[ Things can change.

The truth is, Riku has a more fatalistic outlook; if and when they survive or defeat the World Eaters, he expects light to return, and, like the spirits who can't survive in a world that isn't dead, they'll probably disappear.

Their hearts will go wherever it is hearts go, when the body and heart together die at last. The thought briefly comforted him, when Riku thought it meant that he could rest with his friends. But they wouldn't be together, would they? Not with evidence that one of their three was split apart and scattered across who knows how many universes, how many worlds and points in time.

Riku doesn't think of that, he thinks of Vanitas and his fingers reaching out, shadows peeling off his hand. Of how he grasps his scarf and the warning he issues, how it pulls at the corner of his own mouth until he's showing more than a little fang in return. ]

Worried about me? Flattered.

[ He sobers, reaching up to cover that hand with his own, to coax it away from his scarf. There's a point at which he should let go, but if anything he doubles down, releasing his hand to clasp him by the nape of his neck, leaning in until their foreheads almost touch. ]

Reconsider. You know Bruce won't let you off that easy.

[ Riku catches his hand, and somehow he thought maybe he would go right through him. Like maybe Vanitas' perception of the world is offset from what's really happening. The unrealness of what he is has never been more stark to him than right now, the proof of it dripping off him, instead of contained in armor.

He tugs his hand back, slipping his fingers from Riku's palm, but there's no getting away when instead Riku takes him by the back of the neck. He freezes, like a rabbit; this touch is strange. He's been grabbed here before, but the intent was different. Knowing Riku isn't attacking him is why he locks up, confusion making him still.

The red of his eyes raise to meet the reflective discs of Riku's own. This close, Vanitas' darkness spills all over him. ]

...Like either of you can dictate what I do.

EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

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