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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[ A block it is. Skyler will throw up his arms in the way Helene taught him to, but it's much too little and a hair too late. The foot will catch both the cross of his arms and terminated as his nose, sending him into the nearest snowbank. It is as cold as fuck in here.

After a moment, Skyler will crawl out, feeling his nose. A little blood. It's not like his cybernetics extend to his nasal cavity, after all.

He won't sniff, but he will just glare at this guy, a little feral. He's had enough of waiting for his magic to come back - he wants to punch this guy in the face now. ]

I'd tell you you hit like a girl, but that'd be a lie. Every girl who's ever hit me has fucked me up harder than you.

[ And this will be his only real offensive move of the night - twice as fast as a normal human, twice as strong, metal bones, still fairly fucked up but giving it all he has because he figures that that won't kill this guy, given what little he knows of him. Just a straightforward punch in the gut. No strategies, no funny ideas, no feints. Skyler's not really crafty enough for that. ]

[Another really goddamn weird thing to say, considering he knows of plenty of very strong women. Some of the most powerful people in the world back home are women. It's something kids might say when they're young and immature, before they get taken down a few pegs by someone's angry grandmother, still as strong as she was in her 20s.

Not that he has any time to reflect on it. Sora reminds him of some of the superhuman types back home - counting himself, though he's not exactly anywhere near the peak of human ability, considering he never mastered the use of haki. Is that what this kid has? Rosinante tries to turn but doesn't back away otherwise, figuring he can take whatever fisticuffs Sora can deal if he hits, but that punch is seriously strong and he staggers back a few steps rather than staying firmly planted in place. But the stagger and a slight wince are all Sora gets. He walked all over Minion island full of gunshot wounds. He can handle a solid punch, and quickly retaliates with another kick, as it's by far the easiest way to hit someone so short.]

I've heard enough of your bullshit, kid.

[And he's sure he'll hear more shortly but since Sora seems unwilling to back off, or surrender, or anything like it, Rosinante is coming around to the idea of having to keep going until he knocks him out cold.]

[ Man, if only someone would knock some sense into him on that front. That's neither here nor there, though.

Skyler thinks he's got this figured out by now - keep low, stay small, don't let string bean get a hold of him - so he puts an arm up to let the leg glance off, then throws in another jab. It's lighter, faster, more of a test run to check his range without his fire (lame) or his spark (LAME) before he pulls away, panting a little. Rodeo clown doesn't play, he supposes. What has Sora been doing this whole time?

Wait. What has he been doing? ]

It's BOGO season bitch, or whatever, hey, listen, if I have a knife in my back pocket that I don't remember being there before, and if I stab you with it, will little health bubbles and shit come flying out? Is this that kind of dream? [ And he pulls out a knife from his back pocket. ] Oh, nice.

[ And he'll launch himself at Rosinante with this knife that no one's ever taught him how to use, and he doesn't even think about trying to engage any muscle memory Sora may have gotten with it - after all, wussy boy has his key, why does he need a knife - and what I'm saying is that this is gonna get telegraphed a mile away and Rosi has all of the rights in the fucking world to end this in any way he likes, because a knife doesn't make you invincible, even if Skyler likes to think he is, sometimes. ]

[Rosinante has zero clue what Sora is babbling about. On any other day he might worry for the kid's mental health but right now he's certain it's some sort of Earth-local coded bullshit series of insults. References to things he can't possibly know, used specifically for that reason. To make him feel like more of an outsider than he already does; to isolate him as something other than everyone else.

Which is true, actually, all of that. Usually he quietly accepts it. Right now, he can't stand it. So much of the anger he has toward Sora truly is a result of anger he feels toward himself. Maybe that's all this is. He's kept it contained for so long that he has to direct it outward before it consumes him.

He's well-prepared for the knife, after it's not only spoken of but then flaunted. Rosinante does still have the plank in hand, even if he's hesitated to use it, but now he swings it full force for that knife hand in an aim to not only disarm him but injure him badly enough to make picking it back up and wielding it a pretty useless idea. A knife-wielding destructive idiot is a problem for more than just him, it's a risk to everyone in town. This is, indeed, muscle memory, and from a trained career soldier. He doesn't taunt back, he simply strikes.]

MotherFUCKER--

[ That arm would have broken if not for the cybernetics, and - and, yeah. It's out of commission at the moment. It's nothing a Cure spell won't fix, but it's also something that Skyler hadn't expected? Knives made you invincible. Knives are real, cut things up. Knives beat everything but guns on the streets. It's the first thing Helene taught him, back when she was teaching him how to fight.

She also taught him how to run from a fight when he was clearly outmatched. Or if someone got the jump on him. "Do not be a fucking hero, pisshead." God, he misses Helene.

She isn't here though. This is a dumbass dream. And fuck it, he wants out.

One more punch then, with his non-dominant hand, wreathed in fire that he knows and doesn't care is mostly useless in this weird, rules-burdened dream, and hopes he wakes up from whatever this clown throws at him because it is fucking COLD and he knows that Kotetsu hates it if he oversleeps and makes them both late to work, even if Kotetsu says he doesn't hate it and usually forgets that he was even mad by the time lunch rolls around.

He misses Kotetsu, too. Why does it feel like it's been so long since he's seen him last? ]

Just - fucking - DIE -

[They're both going to come out of this worse for wear, huh? He does try to sidestep the punch, figuring the slight glow of those flames might be something to do with his unusually tough body - some sort of magic, or haki, or maybe even some strange technology. It's not something he really wants to be hit by. But in the process, his luck catches up to him. He stumbles backward over his own feet and manages to turn it into a diving roll as Sora catches him across the side anyway. He uncurls a few feet away from where he was hit once he loses momentum and sits up into a crouch, clutching his side. Fuck - he hates how there's no padding other than clothing and bandages now over his ribs. That shit stings.

But despite the insistence, he's certainly not dead, and from his crouch he lunges forward, trying to gut punch the guy in the same motion.]

You're tougher than you look, I'll give you that.

[Was that... a less angry retort? Maybe the fight has let enough out to bring him a few moments of near-clarity.]

[ Why isn't he dream dead yet? He saw that one movie, with the spinning tops and the dreams and the hallways in zero-g. You get a kick, you wake up. He's gotten his fucking kick. He's gotten kicks, punches, two chairs, probably some crushed muscle tissue with a hint of a concussion back when he crashed them both into that table, why in the fuck won't that stupid French opera lady sing and wake him the hell up?

Unless. Of course. You know.

He probably could have dodged that punch, but realization hits a little before Rosinante's fist. He wheezes, doubling over Rosinante's arm. Wake up! Wake up, you son of a bitch! If this is a dream, this shouldn't matter, right? His hands scrabble up, trying to find a collar, a shoulder, hair -

Skyler's going to grab onto something in that general vicinity, and he's going to try something. He'll look up and look at this weird clown in the eye, trying to look for some truth in all of this, eyes skittering around Rosinante's face, trying to gauge if his stupid fucking imagination is powerful enough to make up something like this, and for the first time in his life he hopes it is, because otherwise this isn't going to wake him up. And he has got to wake up. He has got to wake up.

So yeah. Rosinante can see it coming and throw him off, but Skyler is going to do his level best to concuss himself by rearing back and smashing his forehead into Rosinante's. He isn't sure what else will wake him up anymore. ]

[This is too much close contact, even for a fight, and he's not down for all this being climbed on. As Sora grabs on and then rears back, Rosinante's hand shoots forward and wraps around the side of Sora's head, grabbing him by the hair, and rather than extracting him nicely he tries to shove Sora face-first into the snow beside them.

Brain freeze, though, maybe that'll work. Either way, Rosinante rolls aside and pushes himself up onto his feet, ready for more but seriously hoping this is about over.]

What the hell is wrong with you?

[ He's just gonna go down. And stay down. And forcibly not think about the progression of events thus far, because he's pretty sure if he steps off this little island of reality he's stuck on, he's not going to like the world outside it. ]

Listen. Knock me the fuck out. Right now. Or else I'm gonna go back in there - [ And his hand will make a vague wave in the tavern's direction ] - and start murdering Keebler elves. Like, pop their little heads off like dandelions. And then I'm going to figure out how to burn this entire place down to the ground.

[Sure sounds like an excessive amount of violence. Threats meant to rile him up that can't actually be taken seriously. But right now? He's too angry to analyze. The fucker wants to be knocked out, so he's absolutely going to do it and think about it, and also how to deal with him, later.

Shouldn't have gotten up, maybe. He drops back down into a crouch, and reaches to take Sora by the head and slam him hard into the ground again - sideways, though so as not to risk breaking his nose because even for him right now that's too much. A good solid blow or two to get him to stop running his mouth, that's all he wants. And then he'll have to find someone to make sure he's taken care of. Aziraphale is a good bet. The angel tolerates too much, and surely that will include one obnoxious, destructive jerk with a concussion.]

[ And he's just gonna try and not brace so he can get good and knocked out. Thank god the first hit is enough. In transit Skyler is in the middle of wondering if this clown has enough juice left to just kill him in the face, and then-

In twenty minutes, Sora's lantern will flicker back to yellow. He will not wake up until a while after, though!

(For anyone following along at home, concussions are bad, do NOT do this, please realize that Skyler only has one brain cell and not much else to lose! Just pinch yourself!) ]

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EVENT LOG: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

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