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

[spitefullight]

At least that got their attention. His mouth thins a bit in anger as he moves quicker towards them. From the looks of it, Vanitas already seemed like he had had enough and Riku didn't look like he was going for it. Even if it didn't look like they were going to get back into it, Elden was going to step inbetween them. His hand reaches out to grab Vanitas shoulder to both steady him and to move Vanitas away so Elden stood in the gap between.

"Look, I don't get what the hell is going on with you two, but that's enough. If you guys beat each other senseless and the spirits get in you'll have made an easy job from them to gut you," Elden says simply. He looks to Vanitas though this time his eyes narrowing a bit. "Also, what's with you and having to start a fight with everyone? Do you just DECIDE to pick the worst moments possible for it or is that just a habit?" Seriously, first with the defense group now this? What's this after world coming to?

[equinoctials]

That's a stagger, but the timing of that shout and the way Vanitas seems to be fighting with the collapse that eventually crumples him is too conveniently close to the prickle of magic in the air. Despite how Vanitas meant to hurt, he falls towards Riku.

It says something that Riku's instinct is to catch him before he hits the same floor Riku's been trying to launch him into. That he hefts him up, for a moment peering into his face with his mouth a troubled flat line.

He knows all kinds of magic, not nearly as many spells as Elden might. There's magic that can induce sleep, that can turn the blood toxic, there's even the old, old magic, the kind that can hit pause on time itself.

Could be any of those things, but Vanitas had tried to shake his head like that, and Riku's so strongly reminded of his own echoed gestures and their causes - no, their one cause - that he feels his skin go hot and cold at once.

It's all grit teeth when Elden steps in, angry; it'd be more controlled if he wasn't exhausted in every level, if he didn't have the instinct to fight still boiling in his veins - that adrenaline crash will be something, all right - but instead a hand bolts out to try to grab at Elden by a fistful of his shirt to yank him close.

"What did you do?" Like he isn't breaking anything up, like he isn't doing the right thing, just reacting to the method, "What was that?!"

[evulsed]

Riku pulls him up and dizzy, Vanitas looks into his face like he doesn't quite recognize him— just long enough for Elden to get in the middle. The movement jostles him back into the present, lets him shake off the remainder of the spell in time to look Elden in the face when he tries to dress him down.

Vanitas snarls wordlessly at him and violently slaps the hand on his shoulder off. It gives him the space to take a single step back and take a breath, even as his chest is heaving, even as he feels the echoing burn of Elden's Light in his body. He curls his hands into fists and turns his face, spitting blood onto the Invincible floor as his eyes stay trained on the other two boys.

i lack a many angry icons

[spitefullight]

He's taken aback when Riku yanks him forward like that. He had come here to stop a fight but now it seemed like there was another one just about to start with him involved. Is this what he gets for trying to intervene as non violently as possible? Looks like.

He brings up his hand to grab hold of Riku's to at least try and loosen it so his shirt wasn't cutting into his neck as painfully as it was. At the demand he looks confused, perhaps it wasn't obvious to them? Either way he lifts up his other hand trying to placate the other "It was a spell! Hold person. It's just meant to paralyze someone temporarily," Elden says quickly.

He looks to Vanitas frowning a bit as he watches them spit blood. "Don't give me that look. You've been having a go at just about anyone today."

[equinoctials]

Poor Elden's just trying to do the right thing.

He doesn't deserve the way Riku's grip stubbornly tightens, the way his mouth presses into an angry curl, eyes hard and suspecting. His explanation, however, stays his hand from doing something Riku might regret later, once he's backed away from the reflexive rage at the hint that something might have stolen into someone's mind or heart.

It tracks. There are spells that Riku's aware of that do the same thing. None of them involve the sort of thing he suspects.

Riku releases his hold, using that hand to flick at his own silver hair, "You're right. This isn't the time or place," he relents, turning to narrow his eyes in Vanitas' direction. There's no way it's not coming down to another altercation, if they remain in each other's presence.

Which is exactly why Riku chooses to remove himself, taking a few limping steps away, too proud to apologize.

[evulsed]

Riku looks at him and Vanitas' mouth curls. It would look like a smile, if there weren't so many teeth, but maybe that's par for the course. Even with Elden there, acting as a metaphorical and physical barrier between them, Vanitas can't help the burn in his blood that hungers for more. The sheer nature of his being, thriving off all that negative emotion.

But then, maybe it's also because this is just all he knows.

"Coward," He snarls, teeth bloody, as Riku puts space between them— but their fight, at least for now, isn't going anywhere. Vanitas isn't interested in going toe-to-toe with a Keyblade Wielder and another denizen of Light, especially injured as he is. And maybe, some deeper part of him, shies away from the effect Elden's power has over him.

He sneers at Elden, but doesn't bother trying to argue the point. This guy doesn't know anything about him, and just because Vanitas owes him his life doesn't mean he's going to treat him any differently. A vindictive part of him wants to say I should have let you die out there, but he swallows it in favor of pushing passed him; violently knocking their shoulders together as he makes his way for the stairs.

[spitefullight]

He can't help but let out a small sigh of relief when Riku stands down and offers those words. At least that was one fire settled in all this madness, but he can't help but look to Vanitas when he see's their face. The darkness cast across their face, that glint of hate in their eye? It's enough to give Elden the impression that this kid was definitely not on the up and up...

and the fighting and bickering with people wasn't helping their case.

He's easily moved though when Vanitas knocks into him. Elden frowns, taking a slight step beside Riku as he watches the other storm off. "He's not exactly the friendliest guy is he?"

[equinoctials]

He's being addressed and that stops Riku in mid-limping stride. For a moment he considers just leaving, too tired now that the adrenaline has started to run its course, leaving him with a body full of aches and pains and that vaguely jittery fatigue lingering in his limbs. He should rest.

Should, but he knows himself better than that, when he still wants to storm off after Vanitas and make him eat the word coward. See how that tastes along with the blood between his teeth. But he's not doing that.

"Neither am I," he admits, turning to look at the other boy. "Couldn't tell you what his deal is. The only one who could is- ...gone. Sorry I roughed you up."