hadriel_logs | Event Post: Ghosts That We Know

Entry tags:

Event Post: Ghosts That We Know

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Ghosts That We Know event
Where: All over the city!
When: June 21st-29th
Warnings: Emotional trauma, ghost murder, long slow deaths

It's been awhile since something really awful happened. Or maybe it hasn't - maybe you had a really awful day just yesterday. Don't worry! Things can always get worse. And they sure will, because when you awaken on June 21st, you'll find yourself haunted.

Maybe it's a relative, someone who raised you and loved you deeply. Maybe it's a friend, someone close to your heart. Maybe it's a former - or current - lover, someone you've given your affection to. Maybe a mentor, a coworker, a person who doesn't even know you love them. Whoever they are, they're someone who matters very much to you - and now you're seeing them where you shouldn't. They're haunting you, taking each step alongside you, and they're exactly like the one you love.

Over time, you'll feel yourself growing weaker as the ghost gains strength. Being able to see your loved ones again is a double-edged sword, because they're sucking the life from you. What are you going to do? Die, so that they can live? Or kill them to preserve your own life? And what do they want you to do?

By the 26th, the ghosts will have taken enough energy from you to be solid. That means you won't be the only one who can interact with them anymore - and maybe your friends here have opinions of their own about what should happen to that ghost draining your life away. But hopefully someone will do something, or else you'll die along with your ghost on the final day of the event.

Hey, didn't we get a few psychologists here in our cave city? Man, you guys are gonna be booked up after this one.

► This log covers June 21st-29th.
► 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 can't bring yourself to murder someone you love, no one else is around to lend a hand, and you die - please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cal, you fuck, this was not okay.

He was still in Hadriel, Pell could sense him, but he'd been intentionally staying away. It was almost cruel to do so after what the city had done to keep them apart, and with Cal knowing how clingy Pell had become -- especially with Seel around now. In the days without Cal, Pell hardly ate, he didn't sleep, until finally he decided he couldn't take it anymore and headed out to find his partner. There had better be an excellent reason Cal was in hiding, not that it mattered. Pell was going to find him if he had to search every building in Hadriel.

By the time the light began to fade from the city, It seemed as if he had. Just a few more buildings, Pell told himself, forcing open the door to a ruined store. The other har's presence was a little stronger here but not enough that Pell was confident this was the place. Same as everywhere he'd been so far, he called out, "Cal? Show yourself!" and stepped inside.

Fuck. He should have known better. But he could never quite bring himself to close up entirely--not after the wall. Not and lose the comfort it gave him to at least feel that Pell was there. He selfishly clung to that more often than he probably should have. It was probably unfair but it was a relief, too. Balancing it was difficult.

He looked up at the voice, terrified, but didn't move. If he was hidden he would keep it that way as long as possible. Even if his voice was weak and shook when he tried to answer.

"Go away, Pell. You'll only get hurt."

And if course that damn ghost couldn't resist.

"No, let him inside. I'd like to meet him."

...fuck.

It sounded like Cal was the one hurt, but even with how weak he sounded Pell was relieved to hear his voice at all. He stepped inside, picking his way through the ruins of the shop, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness so he could find the other har.

"Why would I--" and then he heard the other voice, stronger than Cal's and echoing slightly like they were in a cavern. He didn't recognize it. Who was Cal hiding with... and why? "I'm warning you, I'm armed," he called out, pressing forward with his hand on his sidearm. Not drawing it yet, just ready. Just in case.

Why could you never listen, Pell? Maybe it was the stubbornness that he loved but in times like these it was damn annoying. Cal barely wanted to confront this, let alone drag Pell through it all. The best way he could protect him was to be away from him right now. Maybe he should have just come out and said it. That could have saved everyone all of this.

"Pell, please..." Now he was just begging. And it wasn't going to work. But the other voice laughed and Cal flinched at the sound, unseen.

"Stubborn. Maybe he was worth it. You'd die for him but not for me, after all."

He was stubborn, yes, but more than anything he wasn't willing to leave Cal to suffer through whatever was happening. And so he crept through the shop until he saw them... Cal lying on the floor with a figure looming over him. A har, he could tell, though he didn't sense another. Didn't know another. But Cal did. Someone he wouldn't die for?

"...this is Hadriel's doing," Pell tells him, drawing his gun now and gathering his strength in case the weapon fails. "There's no one there, Cal. He's empty."

If he'd been able to stand up and keep Pell from entering and seeing him, he would have. As it was he could barely roll over and look at him. This was just one more fucking shard of his past to dig into him and make him bleed. He'd thought he'd covered all the sharp bits and hidden them deep enough that Pell couldn't cut himself on them but of course in this place it was never enough. The guards he'd built out of his own flesh and soul to save the ones closest to him were torn open too consistently.

"Really? Does it even matter?" He gave up even trying to sound like he was alright. It was obvious he wasn't. He was on the fucking floor. "I deserve it either way." He sighed. Fuck.

There's a question. Does it matter if he's "real"? Cal is obviously still suffering, trick or no trick. Pell glances away from the creature and it's a mistake -- the empty har darts forward and grabs his wrist, twisting viciously to get the weapon away from him. Caught off guard and physically lacking compared to the creature, Pell drops the gun with a sharp cry of pain and tries to pull free. A hand closes around his throat for his troubles.

"Who are you meant to be?" he chokes out, kicking savagely at the larger har's shins and willing him away with a telekinetic shove.

Cal could only twitch on the floor while he watched what happened, but thankfully the ghost or...whatever it was now dropped Pell on the floor after only a moment and backing off with a laugh.

"You always did like the fighters, didn't you, Cal?"

Cal sighed. He had been trying very hard not to do this.

"I suppose the introductions are overdue. Pell, Zack. Zack, Pell."

"It isn't. It can't be." Not because Zack is dead, so is he, but because arrivals were two weeks ago. It's one of Hadriel's tricks.

Pell stares at 'Zack' from the ground for a moment, then moves over to Cal instead of getting up, looking him over for injuries. Did this monster do something to him, to leave him in such a state? He turns Cal's face towards him and takes his pulse, which is weak and slow. "We have to get you out of here."

"He's been here for days. I didn't want you to see him." For obvious reasons, but clearly the place had other ideas. Or the gods or who the fuck ever. But Zack laughed at the both of them.

"How are you going to do that? You can't move fast enough that I can't follow you."

Cal sighed again. It was about all he could do.

"Go without me, Pell. He won't follow you."

"No." He's not leaving alone. "He's not real, Cal, I can't even sense him. It's just this place."

Pell pulls his gun over telekinetically, nerves making his hands fumble at picking it up when it's close enough. His voice is steady enough when he addresses Zack again, though.

"You're going to leave. Back to where you came from or into the tunnels with the other monsters, I don't care. You're going to go now."

"Does he have to be real? It doesn't matter." Hadn't he gone over that already? He couldn't remember. It felt like he had. Had he?

"Whether or not he's a dream or a ghost or some fucking piece of my soul it doesn't matter." He knew that already, Pell was just too stubborn to see it right now.

"Or what?" Zack pressed, moving toward Pell again.

"Of course it matters." He levels the gun, but hesitates as Cal continues. A piece of his soul... what if hurting Zack hurt Cal worse? Obviously they were connected, if Cal was the only one to see him until now. But. He had to get Cal out of here.

"Or..." Pell swallows, looking from Zack to Cal and back again, at the har he knew nothing about. If this was the real Zack, wouldn't he care Cal was suffering? Wouldn't he help? They were chesna, after all. Or was that not who he was? Pell didn't know, couldn't guess. Had to trust himself that this was just Hadriel, and that they were in danger if he didn't get rid of the construct. "Or I'll kill you," he settles on, tensely.

If he could have shrugged, he would have. It didn't matter. Either way, it was a punishment. And one he still wasn't certain he didn't deserve. After all what as he? Some...bringer of chaos, harbinger of destructive change. He'd earned this.

"Pell..." he managed, somehow. "Don't...don't be ridiculous."

"Let Zack decide his own fate, Cal," Pell says, still focused on the other har. He won't make the mistake of glancing away again.

"This isn't your mistake, Pell. Don't get involved." Bad things happened to the people who got tangled in his life. That didn't mean he was ready to give them up, but he could at least try to keep the damage to a minimum.

Zack smiled again, looking at Pell and ignoring Cal for the moment. "He and I are linked. We always have been. Are you going to risk losing him to destroy me?"

"Mistake?" Pell doesn't understand. His gaze sharpens on Zack, eyes narrowing with anger. "As for you, to leave him like this? If you actually cared about him you'd have gotten him out of this place. Gotten him some help... so choose. Leave or die. Unless you can't."

Really, Pell? Cal wasn't in any state to explain it to him. He could barely talk as it was. Zack just laughed again instead.

"I'm only doing what he did to me. The only difference is I get to watch."

But Cal had said... Zack had been dead beside the car when Cal returned. Raw meat, he'd said, people with their hands bloodied, looking at him and he'd ran... had Zack still been alive?

Wait.

Get to watch him die? He was responsible for Cal's state, then. Pell's grip on the gun tightens.

"This is your revenge for being left behind?"

He rises to his feet, standing over Cal protectively. Seel had told Flick that Pell reminded him of Zack, but also that he was fierce and cruel... the latter was proving true. Pell would never be able to watch Cal die in front of him, no matter what he'd done.

Cal can only watch, too weak to get up. Half of him appreciates that Pell is still there despite seeing what he is, but the other half would rather he left and kept himself safe. He'd already tried getting him to leave, though, and that hadn't gone well.

Zack, however, is under no such constraints.

"Didn't he tell you?" A laugh. "Of course not. Why should he? Apparently I didn't matter."

Pell shakes his head, thinking there must be more to it than that. "Maybe he simply wasn't brave enough. I saw the look in his eye when he talked about you, lying or not. You mattered. Well. Zack mattered. I don't know what you are."

With that, he fires a single shot into the taller har's shoulder, a non-lethal wound. To see if they're really linked in that way, if killing this creature will lose him Cal. Cal doesn't flinch, just lies there in the same state, and Pell aims higher, to Zack's head. "Hmm. You're a liar, apparently."

There was a soft whimper from Cal as Pell shoots the ghost, but he doubted Pell could hear it over Zack's screams. Cal closed his eyes. He knew what was coming next.

Eventually the ghost got his breath back, though he was still clutching his shoulder and bleeding. "Am I? Ask him. I think he'll tell you the truth, now."

Pell glances over to see that Cal is still lying there, seemingly unharmed physically.

"Cal?"

Cal's eyes are closed--he can't even muster the will to glare. He doesn't want to see this. Pell and Zack are two different worlds that should never have met. At least not like this.

"Don't, Pell. Not right now."

"...if you mean don't shoot, then we have a problem. Because he needs to go."

You should really run, Zack.

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