EVENT LOG: DO YOU REALIZE? PART TWO

[inthenightmods]

EVENT LOG:
DO YOU REALIZE? PART TWO

characters: everyone.
location: Bonfire Square.
date/time: August 18-19.
content: the party takes a turn for the worst.
warnings: violence, gore, character death.

"but if your lantern's too banged up to fix, you ain't coming back."

Late on Saturday evening, just as the party's hitting its stride for the night, the foghorn sounds. It's a frantic blaring, the deep, hollow bellows of the horn echoing over the trees in some approximation of a song, impossible not to hear from wherever you might be lingering this evening.

It captures the attention of the forest spirits, first and foremost. They drop whatever they're up to as soon as the first note strikes the air, and they listen. You listen, too, though any sense of understanding is lost on you. One thing is clear, though: the time for distraction is over.

•••
The tone of the party has changed, and not for the better. Before, the forest spirits at least seemed to be enjoying themselves, feasting and dancing, wobbling around and entertaining themselves. Now...

Now, the atmosphere has changed. There's tension thrumming through the air.

One's head snaps to the side sharply, focusing on something unseen in the forest. A few moments later, and others do the same: bodies locked in place, limbs frozen, they stare at something out into the darkness. Can you see it? Maybe. Maybe there's something out there... and maybe you'd better not attract its attention. Two pinpoints of green light, glimmering though no light manages to reach its body. It doesn't move, and neither do the spirits in town, but perhaps it's best not to disturb them.

A few aren't so calm. Mouths dropping open, the noises they emit range from low urgent clicks to desperate howls, but all give off a deep feeling of anxiety. Fear, verging into terror, claws digging into dirt and spirits skittering madly over buildings, limbs snapping erratically, the path of their movements understood only to themselves. They don't lash out at others, not yet— but there's a frantic energy to their movements which suggests something is wrong.

Good thing you're disguised as a spirit, isn't it? Although if you haven't gotten to that station yet, rotten luck. Maybe you better get to hiding, because right now it seems like the spirits aren't so keen on things that don't belong.

•••
Ah, but after that initial panic, the foghorn abruptly goes quiet. The lighthouse beam shuts off, too. The thing with the green eyes vanishes, and most of the other forest spirits have already fled or are still stuck frozen in town, but it's now that the others attack. Apparently not all of the spirits were won over by the party's attempt at diplomacy.

The hostile spirits attack with abandon, and can't be reasoned with. The only way to stop them is to kill them or detain them, although you could just wait it out and hope they move on soon. In any case, how you deal with the spirits is up to you. Feel free to NPC them in your own threads if you'd like to fight them or attempt to interact with the frozen ones, though the fighting spirits will continue to fight until dispatched and the frozen spirits won't snap out of it no matter what you do.

As far as what the expedition teams are up to, that's up to them. All expedition teams including the team that's with Winters are able to make it back to town to witness the chaos. What happened out at the lighthouse, though? The Winters crew will be sure to let you all know... soon.

And if you'd like to go after the spirit with the green eyes? Well, go ahead, but do so at your own risk.

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Comments

II

[saibot]

[He'll find that the table actually isn't solid as a shadow portal appears in it's vicinity and if MK falls through it he'll land slightly away from the mob and a little closer to his lantern. The shadow figure known as Noob Saibot and his shadow clone are also there, though neither of them would actually look in his direction.

Normally he wouldn't rescue anyone as he does not care if everyone in the town suddenly drop dead, but he is also not stupid and in a situation like this numbers matter. So the kid gets a small get-out-of-death free card for this one time only.

Both Noob Saibot and his shadow clone work in almost perfect unison with each other against the forest spirits, each using a sickle against their opponents. The shadow clone does seem to take less risks though as it is the one carrying the lantern.

At least MK won't have to fight alone now even if his helper is an evil undead guy.]

[darkeyed]

<sub>[What the fuck is happening to him? It's the last thought he has before the table he tries to catch his weight against proves not to be as solid as it appears. Too off balance to recover, he falls with an undignified yelp, and when he lands--he lands on hard ground dancing with shadows cast by the bonfire. Still Bonfire Square, but the other side of it. What...?

The trip is... disorienting, to say the least, and yet he feels better almost at once. Energized. Like plugging a hole in a leaky pipe, power floods back into his limbs, warming him from the cold feeling of being drained. It'd been like the times the Master and Pilgrim had blocked his chi to bring him out of his dark state, but also not. Closer to when Rastus had stuck a stick in his lantern. He's never felt anything like it before.

Rolling onto his front, he pushes himself up to see two dark shapes cutting swathes through the attacking band, one darker than the other. As he watches, something grabs his boot, and he looks down to see an ermine-looking creatures with rows of teeth looking back at him.

He knows his strength's back to what it should be when he kicks and the spirit sails a good fifteen feet right into the flames of the bonfire. Better.]</sub>

Was that you?

_{[Whatever... that actually was. He moved. Or was moved by a helping hand.]}

[saibot]

[He finally gave a glance in the direction of the young man, only briefly giving him his attention. The forest spirits were more pressing, though this was much the same as fighting demons in the Netherrealm. A much easier, though still quite deadly fight.

But nothing like facing a kombatant in mortal kombat.]

You make mistakes. They will cost you next time.

[Only sort of answering the question. But that's how he does things: cryptically Much to his brother's dismay. He also meant it, he gave the kid a pass this time, but if he ends up doing something stupid ... Well, he'll probably just consider it a lost and let the spirits eat him or whatever.]

[darkeyed]

_{[There's no better motivation to get back in this fight than a ghoulish presence(s?) like Noob talking down to him. He twists his lower half to regain his feet, seemingly no worse for wear for his trip beyond a hard fall and a dozen questions he has no time to ask. His legs take his weight without qualm.]}

Something happened, I don't know what that--

_{[Another spirit charges. He uses the longer reach of his leg to deflect with a kick again, sweeping a scimitar back into his grasp. With a grunt, he slashes at whatever constitutes a throat, pushing the wounded spirit aside.]}

--was.

_{[It'd been more than a mere mistake--more like a chilling paralysis that had come out of nowhere. No god has ever answered his prayers in or out of the Badlands, but now is not the time for something to be doing wrong with his powers. Between the spirits and these people with abilities the likes of which he's never seen, there's too much uncertainty in play without adding that.]}

[saibot]

The lantern is linked to your soul. You went too far.

[As arrogant as Bi-Han could be, he did not know everything about the town or world they were currently in. He had made some observations however and stalked kept track of what others said on the network to some degree. Also certain things seemed to be the same no matter what sort of afterlife a person ended up in.

He jams his sickle directly into the head of an attacking spirit with a force that was fully intending to kill. He was certain his brother was out there probably only trying to wound the creatures instead of going the more efficient route. It was no wonder he considered him a disappointment]

You picked an ample time to discover the limit of it's radius.

[darkeyed]

That's--

<sub>[But it makes a certain dawning sense. Hadn't Rastus warned as much? Your lantern is you. And that horrible, soul-sucking feeling when he'd jammed the stick into the lantern, like it was penetrating his belly and not the fire.

Black eyes glance over the lantern attached to the shadow. Could it be? Had he gone far enough evading the spirits to test those limits...?]</sub>

You don't know that's true. _{[Rebuffing the reprimand, even as he steps back-to-back to Noob to prevent the spirits from crowding into their blind spots. He'd almost prefer there be another explanation than for a virtual stranger to read the moment more accurately than he had while in it.]} Whatever you did to me... Thanks, but next time, don't.

_{[It takes a particular person to fall into step with a fellow combatant while paying thanks for and dismissing an assist in the same breath, but one supposes if M.K. ever did things the easy way he wouldn't have landed in Beacon well before his twentieth birthday.]}

[saibot]

[If he still had the capacity to do so, he'd have laughed. This kid kind of reminded him of himself when he was younger.]

I never said I'd aid you a second time.

[Mostly because he probably wouldn't. He gave the kid one chance and it was proving to be a good decision. He had some skill which made him useful when fighting the spirits.

How did you die before you came here?

[darkeyed]

<sub>[Good. M.K.'s no slouch and no child. So says his pride, and the remaining bit of his disoriented, roiling stomach that doesn't know what to make of being whisked through a hole in the world.

And that pride allows for the slightest buzz of annoyance that on top of his extraordinary abilities, this strange person is floating him questions as-easy-as-you-please as he swings his massive scythe around, like they're having a casual chat over tea. He's impressed--and definitely not about to show it.]</sub>

Ask me later.

_{[Maybe when not batting away tooth and claw.]}