hadriel_logs | Event Log: Bad End

Entry tags:

Event Log: Bad End

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

great.
good to know I guess.
i'd like to say it makes me feel better but it kind of doesn't.
do they ever do the same thing twice?
or did I get lucky and miss clone day?
at least that would be a good thing.

Delight can't get back soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

I won't ask what it is
but how bad is yours?

there haven't been any repeats yet, actually
not as long as i've been here anyway
so looks like you missed clone day

you and everyone else
i miss that glowcloud, she's awesome
she was the one who gave us the bar and all the alcohol
but because we apparently can't have nice things some idiots blew it up not too long ago

[ There's a definite pause between those messages and the next one. It's not that she doesn't want to answer, but. Okay. She kind of doesn't. ]

honestly?
pretty fucking bad
so how about you?
on a scale of 1 to what the absolute fuck

no repeats is good.
and they blew up a bar?
jesus christ
i get why some people don't like them but like
don't punish the rest of us

[Not that he drinks but, whatever.]

gonna go with a "what the absolute fuck"
except I kind of know what the absolute fuck
but I didn't want to see it every time I turn around

i know, right
it was during one of the events
i don't know, i was a hermit for a while here tbh

yeah
same
it's actually something I already know but
like not having a reminder thrown in my face every time I look at my reflection would be nice
also I can only punch so many windows before people get upset. again.
'jfc stop getting glass in ur knuckles, rose'
'omg are you bleeding again'

[ Hilarious. ]

I can see the appeal
of the hermitting that is

didn't think to punch the windows
i just kind of covered them up
do you really have a bunch of cuts on your hands?
do you need like
medical attention?
I mean I get it if you're not up for that but
thought I'd ask.

[Worrying about someone else is way easier!]

sometimes
you just gotta be a recluse

yeah
i do
it's a bit of a problem?
but i'm sure it'll be fine
i also go to the clinic too much and I really don't want to hear it from them right now so

listen if it's that bad
I could take a look at it?
I usually work with dead people but
i did go to med school
so I mostly know what I'm doing
I at least can't make it worse probably

"""probably"""
that's so reassuring
and it probably says a lot about me that I'm still going to accept your help because I'd much rather avoid the clinic if I can

where do you live?
i'll swing by

hey, that's a strong probably
I'm in spire four
fifth floor
it's the only apartment on this level
i guess i'll see you soon

[ She's there pretty quickly. Instead of a knock on his door, he gets a gentle kicking to the bottom of it to signify her arrival. Look, her knuckles are all bloody and she thinks leaving stains on his door would probably be rude? There's, like, etiquette against that. She's pretty sure. ]

[Considering how fast other people have been dropping in on him, Michael knows he doesn't have much time. He uses it mostly to clean himself up and make sure all the windows are covered. As Rose is kicking at the door, he nudges his mirror back under the bed where it belongs. He answers without bothering to ask who it is.]

Hey. [He looks about as good as he sounds, which is to say: not great. He steps aside for her to come in.]

[ Rose isn't as swift as she used to be, but. She's still fairly speedy. Also, she's an absolute mess who needs help so. That might be contributing a little, honestly, to how soon she appears at his doorstep. ]

Yo, dude, [ she greets, easily. Ignore the fact that blood is seeping in-between her fingers. ]

One helluva of a trip, right?

[Ignore the blood? Did you mean do the opposite of that? Because he's doing the opposite of that. Which is to say, staring.]

One hell of a trip is right. Jesus, here, hold on.

[He doesn't care so much if she gets blood on his floor (he will... take care of that later...) but he kind of thought she'd at least, like, have covered it or something? Michael takes a few steps inside to grab a store-looted, too-small shirt off the couch that he's been using pieces of to deal with his own injuries. Which are presently covered so that he doesn't look like a hypocrite.

He brings the shirt back to Rose. If she doesn't stop him, he'll sort of hesitantly take one of her hands and start trying to clean it up enough to tell what he's dealing with.]

How many mirrors did you punch, exactly?

[ She's fine, really. It's fine. It's whatever, totally cool. Just a smidgen of blood! She's lost way more than this and bounced back. Though, to be fair, she wasn't also practically baseline mortal in those times. ]

Uh. I lose count after, like, six. [ Which is probably six too many to begin with, but- She also doesn't care. She'd destroy everything reflective in this city if she had to. Though maybe she's less... angry now, more dejected because someone did see her bad end.

Like, the last person she wanted to. So it was out there and the worst case scenario happened and what's a lady to do now besides bleed. She doesn't stop him because she knows it's better to let him do... whatever it is that he's going to do. ]

It didn't make you angry, what you saw?

Six? [He's not looking up at her, but his eyebrows rise anyway. Who even has six mirrors in their house? Not Rose anymore, he guesses.

He's dabbing at the blood, and he's finding himself squinting a lot, and he's realizing it's because he can't see. Sort of hesitantly, he pulls his glasses out of his jacket and puts them back on. Please don't punch him in the face, Rose.]

No, it didn't make me angry, not really. Mine isn't exactly unfair, so I don't have much to be angry about.

[He's half in Concentration Mode right now, because that makes it easier to deal with the blood.]

Six, [ she answers. Though they weren't all in her house. She had destroyed the one mirror there and thrown out all the rest of the reflective belongings they had.

The blond tenses just a bit at those glasses but not to worry. She's reined in her temper enough to not outright punch him in the face. If it helps him tend to her wounds, she's not about to complain. ]

What'd... What'd you see? I mean, you don't have to tell me. But, like. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

[ The equivalent of a trust fall, she supposes. ]

[Now that he's not flying blind, Michael's managed to wipe away enough blood to see the cuts. No glass shards sticking out, so that's good, but some of these might need stitches, and unfortunately he hasn't managed to loot a sewing kit. For now he'll have to make due with the shirt.

He's working on wrapping it around each of Rose's fingers while he decides what to say.

I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. That's about what he said to Harlan, and that worked out pretty well. He knows his is Bad, but if Rose has been breaking glass enough to hurt herself, hers has gotta be serious, too. Plus, he's already told three people about his whole situation. What's one more? And Rose has only ever been kind to him...

He decides it's probably best if she knows what she's dealing with, either way.]

I... still have it. I can show you.

[ Ew. Stiches. No thanks, she'd rather just bleed. (Okay, not really, but she feels that pathetic and melodramatic in this moment.)

She's quiet while he contemplates. The woman focused on the rotation of the bandages around her figures idly, just a mindless thing to distract her from the buzzing beehive that is her mind at the moment. ]

Only if you're alright with it, [ she adds, since. Even though she'd suggested it, it was more just... a selfish bid, maybe, to see if her own reflection was really that bad. Perhaps a grasp at catharsis, a slim chance that she wasn't alone in the level of 'what the fuck' her reflection was showing. ]

[Michael finishes his task and ties off the improvised bandage. He's going to have to find another band-aid shirt, but that's fine. He's more focused on other stuff right now, anyway.

He considers backing out. Maybe they can take it in stages, instead? If she reacts badly to what she sees, he can say he doesn't understand it- except he already said he didn't think it was unfair. Shit. Good going.

Whatever. Fuck it. If she freaks out and runs, that's probably for the best, honestly.]

Yeah, hold on. [He stands up and shoves his glasses back in his pocket, then goes to retrieve the mirror from under the bed. When he comes back, it's tucked under one arm.]

So... who goes first?

[ Once it's done, Rose gives her fingers a test flex. It stings a little still but- Nothing that won't heal. She'll just add the likely scars to the numerous ones already littering her body. ]

I'll go, [ she says, feeling braver than she feels by far. ] I broke my mirror but- Let me see. [ She'll grab whatever is the closest reflective surface hoping that it works.

It does. In it is a monster that wears Rose's skin, a wolf-ish beast with blood on its maw hunched over a gored body that will change when he blinks. He might even recognize one of them as himself if he looks long enough or Sorrow or Kate or any other members of their little cave community. That was her once. That could be her again. ]

[After Harlan and Kyna, Michael's figured out that these things aren't just symbolic. They're a person's worst nightmare, but they're the plausible kind, things that could actually happen. Might actually happen. So to see something like this in Rose's reflection- it's not a small deal.

He barely hesitates before flipping his mirror over to show her. Aside from the lack of a wolfish element, the images are somewhat similar. Michael's features a bloodier version of himself, apparently fresh from a messy kill. His eyes are hollow and lit faintly with blue, and something distinctly Not Human stares out through them.

The real Michael doesn't say anything at first, because he doesn't know what to say. When he finally does speak, he kind of regrets it immediately.]

Looks like we match.

[Now is maybe not the time for joking???]

[ In Rose's case, it is something she was and something she could be again. It isn't what she wants but knows every day she continues not to starve herself, the risk grows higher that she might snap and lose it. Rey had told her to seek out Hope's assistance - that if people have special diets, he accommodates them - but it's more complicated than that. So much more.

But to see someone with a potentially bad ending that it's in a similar vein as hers is. It's a double-edged sword, both comforting and unnerving. She wouldn't wish this kind of twisted desire on anyone.

Also, Michael, do you know how hard it is for her to not say 'one of us is going to have to change.' ]

I. I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse, actually. [ A beat. ] Gonna' go with better, I think. Kind of nice to know I'm not alone. But- Sorry.

[ Another pause. Also, ] What's with your eyes? Are you not-?

[ Human. But he looks (and smells, even with her senses dulled) like one so that's. Interesting. ]

[In a different mood, it's the kind of joke he'd come up with himself. And as for Michael, he's also going to go with "better". Well. For now.]

Better's good. But, yeah. I'm sorry, too.

[He rubs at his temples for a second. Explaining this is always complicated. "Always", as if he'd ever done it before a couple of days ago.]

I'm, uh. Possessed, I guess. Inhabited might be a better word. I have control, but it's... hard.

[And speaking of which-]

About yours, that's- it's not something you do? Just that you might do? [Stop beating around the bush.] You don't kill people, right?

[Actually, shit. He shouldn't have asked that. He kind of doesn't want to know. Doesn't want the Visitor to know. Too late???]

It's something I did, [ she says, solemnly. It's not an easy thing to say but it's a part of herself she doesn't see the point in hiding right now. It's a shameful, horrible part of her but she's trying to own it. Acknowledge it, at the very least, and use it to remind her what she never wants to be again. ]

I haven't, for a year now. Not since I arrived here. I just haven't eaten in general, honestly, but- It's fine.

[ Casually mentioning she's starved herself for a year. Yeah, that's. That's totally fine. ]

[Mmmmm this is a tough one. A battle wages briefly through Michael's head. The Visitor hates murderers, but more than that, it hates threats. Those who have killed and will kill again. The unremorseful, the continually dangerous. It likes serial killers best, not people who do what they have to and then resist. (After all, it's never tried to kill him.)

Rose is a weird case. She's a cannibal, apparently- or, no. She's not human, it doesn't count that way, and she hasn't done it in a long time. Plus, there's a bigger problem in Hadriel, there's an active throat-slasher. They should definitely focus on that instead.

It takes some serious doing, but he manages to wrestle the monster's attention away from her. For now. It's given him a headache, possibly as a form of punishment, but he'll take that over murdering a new friend in his apartment.

... Aaaand it probably looked like he just closed his eyes and zoned out for a few minutes. Whoops.]

Sorry, you- you haven't eaten anything for a year? [It takes him a couple seconds to organize his thoughts again. How is she alive?] So what, do you have to eat people? How long can you last?

Event Log: Bad End

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Action!

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