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.

QUICKNAV
comms	|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

[donttalktome]

[Will makes a face when Skyler snaps his fingers at him. Chill out, bro. You're harshing his vibe.

He hands the blunt over, though.]

Your muscles and bones break down. Your body can't regulate blood pressure, because the liquid inside of you is in free fall. Ruins your sense of balance. Damages your eyes.

[Maybe there's more, but he can't think of it. He can barely concentrate on what the other question was.]

You know, the boxes. [Very helpful.] The colonies. Less room for people means more room for machinery. More production. Whole families living in goddamn closets.

[arsarcanum]

[ Weirdly enough, the stuff about the muscle and bone deterioration actually makes enough sense for Skyler to follow the rest of the explanation. Hey, you don't get double varsity without learning about how muscle mass works.

Anyway, that's fucked up. He shakes his head. He'd like to stay on Earth, thank you, where gravity regulates his insides without him having to think about whether his blood's in the right place or not. And apparently where he doesn't have to worry about whether his family will get stuffed into a box, holy shit.

He sucks in a pretty sizable hit, then stares at the end of the thing. This little guy has been as dank as hell, but they're really going through it, aren't they? He takes one last little puff and hands it back, just breathing it in and out. Host gets last dibs. Again, he's not a caveman. ]

We live in houses in America. [ He pauses. Not technically, 100% true, but not on the scale of a colony of tiny boxes. ] That bad, huh? So, what's better? Infinite, uh, this. [ He points out into the darkness. Spaaaaace. ] Or a box where you know your shit won't go floating off wherever? [ ... ] I probably would have said the box, but a year's long enough.

[donttalktome]

A year? Try fourteen.

[He's only sort of lost track of what he's responding to. Just a little. He reaches for the last remnant of the joint. As he finishes it off, he wonders how many he's already gone through. And how many he'll end up going through before this bullshit is over.]

Given the choice, I'll always pick that.

[He makes a really vague gesture toward the sky.]

That's home. Not some... place.

[God he is so fucking blasted.]

[arsarcanum]

Fourteen years in a box. I'd go batshit. [ ... He doesn't know much about this guy, but it's enough to get the feeling that it explains a lot about the neurotic mess he's talking to right now. ] Well, congrats for getting out, I guess.

How long have you been here? [ He turns to the other guy, eyes studying him and the dock around them. Did this guy clean up somehow or did he leave them all over the floor? ] Both here and here. I guess.

[donttalktome]

[Maybe he did go a little batshit. Maybe they all did. There aren't a whole lot of other ways to explain what happened, are there?]

Here? [It still takes him a second, even with the clarification. This thought train is struggling to reach the station.] Almost two years, I think. And... god, I don't know. I can't keep track.

[He shakes his head dismissively. Skyler won't find any remnants lying around, but not because Will has been a responsible citizen. He's just been tossing them into the lake, my dude.]

[arsarcanum]

[ Will finally answering the age old question: Can the lake monsters partake of that sweet, sweet ganj? A true scientist.

Anyway, Skyler will watch his dealer finish off the little twist of paper impassively, caught in the globe of the appropriately green mood lighting. ]

Two years. [ Skyler’s pretty sure that that’s supposed to be impossible, but he really only skimmed that part of Sora’s memories, and Sora himself has only a vague understanding of the reset process. So, whatever, sure, two years. ] That's fucked up.

[ ... Nope. Nope. Nope, he is not doing that thing where he ends up feeling sorry for whoever he's toking up with and tries to call them an Uber or something. (There is no Uber here, he knows, hush.) That has never, ever, ever, ever ended well, and also he's dead and has no social obligations to take care of his fellow man. He has only had perhaps a fraction of a fuck to give about anyone but himself and his own anyway. He's just going to leave this guy as high as a kite and frozen to this pier and he's going to go to wherever the hell Sora lives and knock himself the hell out with booze probably. That's an excellent idea. ]

I don't know if you've noticed, but you're deep fried. Go back to your dead person home before you float back up to your mothership, E.T.

[ ... It's a suggestion, okay. ]

[donttalktome]

Yes, it very much is.

[Time to add more of the devil's lettuce to the lake. Will flicks the last remains of the joint into the water.]

E.T.? What's that supposed to mean?

[Maybe if he wasn't off his shits he'd be able to make the connection, but not right now. He slowly seems to comprehend that he was told to do something. And while normally he'd refuse out of spite, because who are you to tell him what to do, this time he can't really argue.]

Mm. Yeah. I did notice.

[He grabs his lantern and struggles to his feet. He turns away, then turns back, looking as if he might be about to say something. Then he frowns, like he forgot whatever it was. Eh, it's fine, he'll just say it later. He hasn't yet realized that he might never get the chance.]

[arsarcanum]

Extraterrarium or something.

[ Skyler looks at his dealer blankly as he totters off, and when he turns back... Without changing his expression, he lifts a hand and flicks him off. Like, in a friendly sort of fuck you way. ]

Get moving, space case. I want some me time.

[ And he does. Always did. He doesn't need a weedsicle for that. ]

[donttalktome]

[The word Extraterrarium makes him laugh for unknown reasons, but Will doesn't linger. He probably needs some me time too, if by "me time" you mean "sleeping off a considerable high".

He wanders off into the dark, and probably makes it home without tripping in more ways than one. Probably.]