Event Log: Beetlejuice

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Beetlejuice event!
Where: All around the city
When: August 13th-August 18th
Warnings: Scary stories to tell in the dark! Maybe a few goosebumps? Taking a walk or two down Fear Street.

When you wake up on the morning of August 13th - well, you'll notice that morning just doesn't really happen. The light that usually illuminates the cave doesn't start coming on, leaving things as dark as night. As if that's not enough, the light switches don't seem to work either. No matter how many times you flip them, the lights won't come on, although mysteriously the other appliances work as normal.

Afraid of the dark? Don't worry! You have oh-so-kindly been provided with lanterns, candles, and flashlights that sure do love to flicker just when you least want to be terrified. Hey, it's something, right?

Just as you begin to realize the artificial 'sun' isn't coming up, Fear appears to make an announcement to the network. What's not fun about scary stories when you're stuck in a dark cave surrounded by monsters? Nothing, that's what! So have fun, everyone - terrify your friends with that story about a cactus filled with spiders, try that classic scarecrow-falling-from-the-ceiling prank. It'll be a good time for everyone, especially Fear! We're sure no one will hold anything against you. On the morning of August 18th, the lights will finally come on as usual. Let's hope you don't have any nightmares!

► This log covers August 13th-August 18th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you scare yourself to death, please let us know here!

Comments

[quaerit]

[ Gansey lifts his eyebrows. He'd thought that wasn't going anywhere, but the end was decent, in fairness. ]

That's not bad. Although, the ceiling is a terrible place to hide. No doors to rattle, and you see it as soon as you lie in bed.

[ A little pause, thoughtful. Like he's thinking of a better solution, and then he folds his arms. ]

I have one for you.

There once was a boy, a lonely boy. He was quiet, and cold, and sometimes the people around would ignore him entirely, as though they didn't see him at all. But he was there. He dressed for school, and he told jokes sometimes. But he seemed sad, and lonely. His room always looked so neat, and he rarely ever ate. He used to say that he'd been dead for seven years, and no one would listen, or no one could listen.

Until the day they went into a forest, and came across a set of bones. And they realised that they knew the one whose bones they were, and they came home to challenge him, and he was gone. A ghost had been living in their house, and he told them all along, and they didn't hear it said. He was hiding in plain sight, all along.

That one is a true story. It was creepier at the time.

[benumbing]

I think that's when it's supposed to really crawl under your skin.

[When you go to bed, when the lights are out, and you slowly open your eyes to look up at a dark ceiling...

Jack listens to Gansey's story, one with a twist of its own - possibly better, though the dead boy's confession kind of gave it away too early. But if it was a true story, and they really couldn't hear him telling them that, what a surprise that would've been.

He clears his throat at the end of it.]

Creepy or not, it was certainly sad. I wonder if they were afraid of him once they knew the truth.

[quaerit]

[ Jack's not wrong. It's a sad story, the more so because it's true. Gansey very clearly remembers that moment of horror when he had found Noah's body with Blue, and they'd realized he had been living with a ghost for the last two years. It had been horrifying, though actually what had happened next had been worse. ]

Not afraid. There was nothing to be afraid of in him, not really. But once you know that kind of truth about someone, you can't forget it again. They went from thinking he was as whole and alive as all of them, to being certain that he wasn't. And then when his spirit decayed, they could see it, and understood that they were losing him, and that nothing could stop it.

That's the most frightening thing about it.

[ And the saddest thing, too. ]

[benumbing]

It sounds like he died twice. And what a bitch that must be.

[Horribly unfair, and yes, sad and frightening too. This damn cave has given him a lot to think about when it comes to life after death - maybe that was the whole point of this. But it unsettles him in ways that he never expected. He used to think that his soul was already decaying inside his body, but maybe the worst is yet to come.

Jack huffs and takes another drink before looking directly at Gansey. He's squinting like he's trying to see something.]

Were you the boy?

[quaerit]

[ That first comment makes Gansey smile in a way that's all too personal. Jack's right. It's not fun at all to die twice, and he knows that first hand. He's right, too, to think that this story is all too personal for Gansey. He's been there and seen it all, and felt far too much of the pain.

But his ending was a happier one. He shakes his head. ]

No. I was the one who found the body. Fitting, I suppose, because we were connected in many more ways than the ghost being my roommate at the time.

You see the first time, his death saved another boy who was dying, and that boy was me. I didn't know him at the time, but I would know him, and time isn't quite so much of a straight line when magic gets involved.

[ That's something Gansey only understands now, in retrospect. Now that he knows that it's not just a story, he can frame it like one. He understands why Noah had known so much of what he'd known. Of course, none of that makes it any easier. Especially not now that he knows Noah will fade away completely. ]

[benumbing]

It sounds like it was as much fate as magic.

[Jack's not sure he believes in fate, or even wants to, but the story comes full circle and there's no way it could've been coincidence, not the way it all weaves together.]

Why do you think you were spared?

[Surely there was a reason, or even just a theory why one boy lived and the other one died, the ultimate sacrifice. The bottle in Jack's hand pauses halfway to his lips.]

You said something about seven years?

[quaerit]

[ Gansey leans back a little, smiling at that first question. Why do you think you were spared? For him, that's always been the question. That's been the obsession; why he was searching for Glendower, the answer he hoped he would find when he did. ]

I spent those seven years asking myself the same question. I didn't know. What makes my life worth saving?

I think you'd have to ask the ghost. As it turned out, the choice was his. One life to save another.

[ A sacrifice, that had come with knowing what would follow. ]

That's the only reason it could save me. Even magic has some rules.

[benumbing]

Did you ever ask him?

[Surely he had a reason for it. A person doesn't just throw their life away for nothing, generally speaking. Though Jack can understand why it might've been difficult to ask. Survivor's guilt is real.]

My sister used to love those fairy-tale like stories where faith and true love and magic could solve everything. [He smiles quickly, sadly.] It would break her heart to know that.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey's smile twitches. At this point, it looks more sorrowful than happy. He lifts his eyebrows. ]

He said that it wasn't just about me. That saving me helped to save others, too.

[ Adam and Ronan, in particular. Gansey doesn't name them; he doesn't think that's fair. ]

I couldn't save him, though. I tried. It was far too late for that. He worked that out long before I did. And believe it or not, I used to think the same way as your sister. She's half right, though, there is power in those things. They're just not all-powerful. None of us are.

[benumbing]

[That, Jack understands, the ripple effect that spreads from one person to the next and the next. That in saving Gansey, more people were ultimately saved.]

Dead boys and heroes overlap a lot, don't they.

[He pours himself another drink, smiling before lifting it to his lips.]

It wasn't a scary story, but I'll pretend to jump if you say 'boo'.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey smiles back. In fairness, it hadn't been that scary. Fear will be very angry with him, most likely. ]

Thanks. I suppose it could have been better. Next time I'll work on my delivery.

[ A little pause, then. ]

I'm Gansey.

[benumbing]

Don't. Most wouldn't have told it as well as you did.

[Twisting and melancholy and true. No ghost story could hold his interest that way.]

I'm Jack.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey's lips tick into a smile. There are parts of Noah's story that could have been frightening. He'd chosen not to tell them, though, because that's not really how he sees Noah. When Gansey thinks of a ghost story this is the one that comes to mind.

Fear would have preferred something else, most likely. Well, he'll have to make do. ]

Hi. [ Jack is certainly new. There's a familiarity about his face, which puts him in mind of Steve's friend. But they look otherwise so different that Gansey would never confuse them, not unless Bucky visited a barber and then also some sort of high end fashion consultant.

Jack doesn't just look good. He looks the best that money could buy good, and as a rich kid himself, Gansey recognizes those signs. ] So, you're new, aren't you? Welcome to the cave. I'm sorry we had to meet like this.

[benumbing]

So am I.

[Despite where they are, Gansey's certainly no caveman. His intelligence is clear, but there are other things about him too. He's young and attractive, and in another world Jack thinks he would've fit right in with his party train.

But he doesn't know about his far more interesting hobbies, and how wrong he would actually be.]

But the welcome could've been worse. [He holds up his glass, the alcohol inside sloshing around.] Now if only I had something to do tomorrow.

[quaerit]

[ Jack wouldn't be the first to take that first impression of Richard Gansey III. That's how most people see him until they know him better, and a fair number of people never get to know him better at all.

But things are different here. Gansey's more eccentric interests are less easily hidden in a world that triggers almost all of them. ]

Oh, you mean scavenging and avoiding cave monsters doesn't count?

[ A smiles a little, lifting his shoulders. ] I'd be glad for the monotony if I were you. This is a kind event by Fear's standards. We don't often get this lucky.