Event Log: Bad End

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Bad End event
Where: All over the city!
When: August 23rd-September 5th
Warnings: Bad futures, awkward conversations, smashed mirrors

You wake up to find a mirror at your bedside - a pretty nice one, too, a silver hand mirror perfect for fixing your hair in. Only when you try to do that, it's not your gorgeous reflection that you see. It's something else - a terrible future, just about as bad as anything you could imagine for yourself.

Maybe you see your loved ones dead on the ground, and you know it's your fault. Maybe you see the goal you've been working so hard for pulled out of your reach forever. Maybe you see someone you've hurt in the past ruining your life. Maybe you see your hot girlfriend leaving you to shack up with your worst enemy. Whatever you see, it really sucks, and you know that it's possible. This future could happen if you make the wrong choices, give in to your worst impulses.

Break the mirror if you want, but you'll see the same vision in any reflective surface in the city. You can't break them all, but you can sure try. And what will you do when you see your best friend's vision - and it features you betraying them?

Seek reassurance, give reassurance, lash out, vow to yourself that you'll never let it turn out that way, sink into the depths of sorrow because you feel like the future you see is inevitable. Whatever you do, it won't take away those visions - not until the event is over.

► This log covers August 23rd-September 5th.
► 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 handle the idea of your dark future, or maybe you just accidentally slip and fall on a mirror shard, let us know here.

Comments

[pocketspa]

[Taako rolls himself over on the chair so he's on his stomach, looking down at Merle.]

Yes. One thousand times yes. I will put a wind spell in this thing and we'll fuckin' sail it over the rooftops.

[This is so much better than being depressed about reflections.]

[restinglichface]

Jeezy creezy, what am I sticking around you bums for, then? [Said with her usual grin, as if a little thing like hearing about her dearest friends dying was going to kill this party. Hell nah.] Bringing down my luck score and shit. I really need to get out and met new people. Luckier people. Maybe with a little less apocalypse followin' them around.

[Yeah right.]

Cool, I'd be down. I could make those weird-ass cookies you like and I'll have a glass of red and you can give me the whole John Hunger spiel. Knowing him that much better is gonna make punching that dick's face in all the more satisfying.

[restinglichface]

[Only girl cooties in this room. They'll be just fine.

While Elena drinks, Lup leans back into her pillows, getting a little more cozy.] Oh yeah, [and the grin that plays on the elf's lips says it all.] We all went a little crazy in school, I'm sure.

[Magic school was no exception]

Re: in the house 2/2

[toiletseat_girl]

Not saying there is. But mention any book written in the 20th or 21st century to him and he'll go on about how postmodernism sucks and how death of the author is a lie and how, thanks to Amazon, everyone thinks they're a critic and it just goes on and on and on.

[unknowable]

I'm fine with terrifying.

[This is not entirely true. Adam has certainly never let anyone around his own age intimidate him - not the rich private school boys, not even angry, violent Ronan before they became friends. But adult men? That's different, it can frighten him sometimes, and it's something he tries very hard to keep under control and not to show even a tiny bit of.

It's a visceral reaction to anyone too much like his father, and he's not proud of it. It's a weakness. Something he'd never admit. He's faced down impossible magic and demons possessing him and friends dying. A simple human man moving too fast or speaking too sharply shouldn't disturb him.]

He sounds like a pretty decent person. But Dr. Brennan is too - I would expect her to pick someone like that.

[She's pretty clear-headed, after all. Rational. Maybe a little too much, but Adam admires that, as someone who's also been accused of being a little too rational sometimes.]

That makes sense, though. I think anyone, finding themselves in situations like that, would want to be able to help - to be able to handle it, instead of being a liability.

[Maybe not anyone. Some people wouldn't care, or would want to avoid it, but to Adam it makes perfect sense. He's always done what needed to be done.]

You seem pretty competent to me, though.

[mismanagement]

Maketh puts her hand on Kalu's back, feeling his rumbling noise. It's a comfort. She leaves her hand there. "What was the reason?"

Re: in the house 2/2

[knifecollecting]

He sounds cranky.

wrap up with this? c:

[jocoeur]

( not like some.
akira often wondered if he was 'like some.' was he dead? had that bullet been the final nail in his coffin? hadriel had no answers for him, and so... )

You're right. ( his friends, the phantom thieves... they would be all right too, even without him there playing the part of fearless leader. ) I probably shouldn't worry about my crew either, when you put it like that.

( there's a single chuckle, as he chastises himself inwardly. coming back to the point of... ) But if you have time, why not tell me more about those pirate missions of yours?

[circumitus]

Everything in Rey's muscles and instincts resist any desire to continue. Hands squeezing into tight knuckles, palms clammy, head light, vision shaky. But she can't avoid it, even when it feels like a thousand hot needles are sticking into every inch within her mouth.

"My first body looked much different than the ones I have now. Although it was just a prototype, it was... conventional. Beautiful. Almost perfect." She stops, swallows hard. "It was enough to catch the attention of someone fucked up enough to think that what he felt was anything close to love. He decided to 'help' my mother get me out of that place when it was decided that I was a lost cause, useless, should be destroyed. Naturally, his intentions in doing so were far from pure. My mother paid the price for it."

And so did she.

yeah, we can

[hot_mes]

...time doesn't seem to be an issue, here.

[they've nearly reached the library, where Law will be able to see for himself that all those books are going to be completely useless to him. He's not sure the adventures of the Heart Pirates are all that entertaining, but since he has nowhere to be, why not sit down and tell some tales? It's almost as good as reading a book.]

[unknowable]

I didn't have many friends, no. I managed to fit in some time to see them, though.

[More often he cut hours of sleep out of his day.]

Hmm... I wonder about that. They aren't the ones bringing in us or the monsters, that's the Door. I don't think they can just reach out and get movies from our worlds for us.

Re: in the house 2/2

[toiletseat_girl]

Cranky? Nah, not really. Not unless you got him going on those subjects. No, my mom was cranky.

[toiletseat_girl]

That's good. That you had friends, I mean. I. . . never got around to that part of high school.

[sounds like he had a rough upbringing

Damn. Well, there go my ideas for the best DVD collection in this or any other world.

[mismanagement]

Maketh holds herself very still as she listens, one hand resting on Kalu's back. The cat's tail lashes against her chest. It's something to focus on, reminding her to gather all the facts and to analyze them thoroughly before responding. But this is not an incident that can be read cold, either. It's Rey. The importance of that cannot be forgotten.

Nor can the pain of it.

She swallows hard, fighting the urge to reach out. Run her hands through Rey's hair. It might not be welcome.

In the end, she offers her hand. If Rey wants to take it, then--

"What he did was cruel. I am--sorry. For you. And for your mother."

[circumitus]

Rather than reaching out, Rey can't help but pull inward this time. Curling up on the couch, forehead falling to her knees as she sits there; burying her scarred face in the fabric of her pants. Her shoulders shake. "I still remember what it was like, when she died. The crunch of bones. Couldn't stop it. Easy to say that it's not my fault, but..." She's heard it before, time and time again -- she didn't have a choice, she couldn't fight it.

All the more reason for her to battle the compulsions that are inflicted on them in this place. She would rather die than to go through that again.

"It was a mistake. This face, these scars... they were a correction to that mistake. My memories, my personality -- kept people away. Kept that shit from happening again."

No longer a perfect little doll with the porcelain face, but something made less approachable by the average person.

Fortunately, not many in Rey's life are particularly average.

[mismanagement]

It hurts not to touch, but Maketh has the sinking feeling that it wouldn't help. That it might, in fact, make things worse. And she cannot make things worse for Rey. She has done too much wrong already, for the Empire. This is meant to be different and she will not falter now, when Rey is telling her about the past.

It hurts. But she holds.

"It is a piece of you," Maketh says, softly. "It--contains you. Do I have that right?"

[circumitus]

The hairs on the back of her own neck stand on end in the silence that follows. Rey doesn't move. She's frozen.

"Yes," she finally says. "I can't... I can't see that person again. That weak, disgusting thing that let a good woman die. That took so long to make it right, the only way it could."

She resents that piece of herself. The last thing she wants is to see it in the mirror.

[weedbgon]

[ That's the spirit, Taako. Also heck yeah, something fun and interesting! ]

Great! Hang tight, I'm gonna dig around for somethin' long enough.

[ SHOWER CURTAIN ROD QUEST: BEGIN. He guns it to find what he's looking for, and he rolls a 17 on his quest so that's like. A dinged-up rod, maybe. This gondola is gonna fucking happen, is what I'm saying. ]

[weedbgon]

[ It's not necessarily a bad picture to paint. Lup punching John in his smug mopey face. ]

Now, Lup. How weird-ass can cookies be if I like 'em so much, huh?

Re: in the house 2/2

[knifecollecting]

I think moms have it hard.

[Jo knows her mom sure did.]

[claritatis]

I couldn't give you details of the battle. I haven't been in a position to enquire.

[It's... probably a sore subject, and with things being as they are, Ignis does not want to draw attention to himself by seeming to be prodding into those events too much.

At the moment, flying under the radar seems like the best course of action.]

Our jailers make themselves known to us, at times, and I believe them to be open to communication.

[mismanagement]

It's a risk. A great one. But one that she has chosen for herself, in the end.

Carefully, Maketh puts her hand on Rey's head. Smoothing through her hair.

"You endured, soldier."

Her voice is soft.

"Look forward. Not behind."

Re: in the house 2/2

[toiletseat_girl]

Mine both had it hard and made it hard. What was yours like?

[because George's mom is an uncomfortable subject for her]

[circumitus]

There is comfort in those words. Things she has no doubt that Undine would agree with. Though it was just a memory, a specter, Rey has no concern whether her mother would have appreciated Maketh.

Her eyes closed, shutting out the world around her save for the woman beside her, she tilts her head into Maketh's hand, before leaning to the side.

Hopefully Kalu won't mind sharing a little space.

"Thank you," she murmurs under her breath.

[mismanagement]

Kalu flicks his tail at Rey's head, but doesn't hiss. None of his many mouths bare teeth as Maketh runs her hand through Rey's hair. Slow and steady, careful not to catch on tangles. It's simple, suddenly. Maketh knows that she has to be steady, that she has to hold her own, and so she will. She'll be steady and when the time is right, Rey will come back to her.

"It's all right," she says, meaning it. "You can rest. I'll keep watch."