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

[Elena leans into the hug. She needs it. What she sees isn't true, she knows that, but it feels real when it's right before her eyes.]

When people told me about how they do things to feed on our emotions, I didn't picture anything like this. They're really good at what they do.

[It's not a compliment.]

[A hand moves to Elena's back, patting her gently.]

Yeah, you're telling me. Buncha friggin' leeches is all they are. [What they need, what they both need, is a distraction.] Hey, let's head to my place. We can kick the boys out, do our nails, get our drink on. The trifecta of girl time fun.

[Leeches, right. Be nice if they were as easy to squish.]

That sounds good to me. As long as all the shiny surfaces are covered up there.

[Dead bodies and invisible friends would really kill the good time.]

No prob, we got that covered. [Both of the twins had gotten rid of their mirrors the first day and the long mirror in their room had been covered since, draped in one of the many scarves they'd collected since arriving.

The women weren't too far away from Spire Four, Lup guiding Elena to take a quick right around the nearest corner, the spiraling building just a minute walk away. It isn't until they are pushing through the front entrance of the building that Lup turns suddenly, facing her friend. Hey, you aren't allergic to dogs or anything, right?

[Hooray for proactiveness. Elena's covered things up as best she could in her own place, but somehow they keep slipping.]

No, I love dogs. You have one?

Not exactly.

[And she turns without further explanation, leading Elena up a single flight of stairs to the next floor, which houses the large apartment her and her friends have taken over. Immediately upon opening the door, Lup raises a hand and casts produce flame, which does exactly that, summoning fire into the elf's hand. And just in time too, considering a very large 'dog' suddenly bounds up to them, making a series of grunts and excited growls, dropping a chair leg with significant bite marks from it's mouth.]

Down, Peanut! [The creature makes a strange whine but the fire keeps it at bay. It's a dangerous pet to keep, as evidenced by all of Magnus' new wounds, but Lup's found her own little solution to keep from just straight up roasting it. Once Peanut doesn't look like she's going to knock the two of them over and gnaw on their heads, Lup shrugs Elena's way.] Mags' new pet. She still needs, uh--[Lup gives a vague gesture to their couch, which has enormous chunks bitten off of it.] --A little housetraining.

[WELL.

It's not the kind of dog she expected, now. Wow. That poor chair.]

Holy—is that a monster? Did he get that from the caves?

[Elena's wary of stepping any closer, but Lup seems to have a handle on things, so after a moment of hesitation, she does.]

Did you call it 'Peanut'?

Yeeep. [Lup drags that single word out before she's stooping to pick up the discarded chair leg. She makes a face when her fingers come in contact with what has to be cave monster drool, but she grips it hard anyway.] He sure did. She's his baby now, as Mags likes to keep reminding us. And yeah, that's Peanut. Fitting, right?

[Lup rolls her eyes like it's the stupidest name in the world, but okay, she's growing more and more fond of the stupid beast daily. She just refuses to admit it.

As she throws the chair leg for Peanut to bound excitedly after, the flames in Lup's hand disappear and she's grabbing for Elena's hand to drag her towards her room, throwing the door open and then kicking it closed once they were both safely inside.] There! No bandages needed this time. Rad.

[Whatever Elena may have expected the twin's shared room to look like, it probably did not include this mess. There were clothes everywhere, forgotten in piles on the ground, pointed shoe heels sticking up from the middle, accessories strewn on every available surface. There's ridiculous poster on the wall next to a full length mirror that's hidden beneath scarves. And since both twins fought over who would get top bunk on their bunk bed, they decided to each have a top bunk, using magic to leave two forever-floating twin beds on both sides of the room, rope ladders hanging from them for easy climbing access.] Pop a squat on my bed over there. I'll grab what we need to get this party started.

Nice baby.

[She nearly offers her hand to sniff, but yeaaaaah that would probably be a bad idea. Elena takes Lup's hand instead and comes with her to the other room, safe from the monster baby.]

And nice poster. Were you guys chefs or something?

[Lup knows exactly where to dig to find where her nail polish collection is hiding.]

Yep! Learned when we were young. That's from this big thing that happened here last month. It was just--[Okay, that would take way too long to explain.] Fake memories basically. It was weird and we were not fans. Poster was worth keeping, though.

Oh. I heard about that. Nate had a different wife.

[She doesn't sound all that upset about it. Presumably she's been reassured that no banging happened.]

He didn't get a poster, though. Too bad.

Shit. [While Lup had known about his scary wife back in those fake memories, she'd forgotten all about it when they'd gotten out of Pleasant Valley.] Talk about awkward.

[Finally finding her stash under one of Taako's skirts, Lup points up at her floating bed before she's climbing up the ladder to plop on the edge, long legs dangling down.] The floor is lava! Hurry up!

[What, seriously? She's a woman in her thirties, way too old for games like that.

But she's great at the floor is lava, so she dashes over to follow Lup, giggling as she goes.]

Oh, lord, I haven't done that since I was—I don't know, tiny. Eight or so.

[Lup laughs when Elena races to get off the floor and up onto the bed with her, nudging the other woman playfully in the side once she's next to her.] Same. Taako and I were pretty young the last time we did. I dunno, seventy-five or something?

[oops elf age is weird]

Alright, so whatcha thinking? Pick a color--[she spreads out a selection of nail polish between them]--and, uh, we can either ignore the shit going on or if you'd like an ear while I do your nails...?

[Elena blinks, then shrugs it off. Elf aging isn't even the weirdest thing she's heard of here.]

I don't wanna talk about it. Let's just do our nails. I'll probably chip them in a day, but it's worth it.

[Hmm. A deep pink or a dark purple? Choices, choices.]

You don't look a day over fifty, by the way.

[Hey, keeping away from unhappy feelings is definitely a Taaco family speciality. Lup accepts Elena's answer without question, shifting around to face her friend, crossing her legs in front of her.]

Hey, if we're speaking in elf years, that's a compliment! We could do a cute accent nail too, maybe in pink. Go purple for the rest. How's that sound?

That sounds perfect.

[She kicks her shoes to the floor and joins Lup in a cross-legged position, finally starting to relax for the first time in days.]

God, this actually feels normal, for the first time since I got here.

[Lup shoves the rest of the polishes aside, plucking up the two chosen shades and plopping the pink into her lap for later. She reaches for Elena's hand, moving to rest it against her knee to keep her swipes of polish more steady. Sure, she could just magic them pink and purple, but where was the fun in that?]

You're not wrong. It's like we haven't even had a chance to breathe since popping in here. [And really, if Lup's being honest, not in the forty-seven years before that either.] Hey, how'd you meet your hubby anyway? Something tells me it's a good story. Nate doesn't seem like the guy anyone would pick up on like, a speed date.

[At the last second, she almost opts to change the colors to something matte so they won't reflect anything, but doesn't. Surely she won't see Nate's body in her fingernails, right?

She hopes not.]

Oh, please. Nate just has to grin and start talking about history to pick someone up. Had to, anyway. [Because: duh.] We met when I was hosting a TV show about archeology. He conned my producers into funding an expedition to retrieve the coffin of a famous explorer. Then we spent some time on an uncharted island and came home with a bunch of Spanish treasure.

[Not to worry. If it comes to that, Lup will magic that shit matte.

The elf laughs, pulling the small nail brush up and away from Elena's nail while she does, not wanting to risk going too crazy on her fingers while she's giggling.] Alright. Knowing everything I do about you two, that seems pretty fitting. And treasure! [She whistles, low and impressed.] What a way to meet your man.

[Magic is great.]

The treasure didn't go as far as you'd think, split three ways, but it wasn't nothing. And I got a nice fling out of it—that's what I thought he'd be, anyway. Nate didn't strike me as the type to stick around after the adventure.

[So obviously she had to take him to Bone Town and become the mayor immediately.]

[Lup grins while she leans in close, carefully finishing up the pinky finger on Elena's right hand before she moves to the left.]

Okay, so it wasn't just me. I barely believed him when he said he was married after all the shit that happened between him and my brother. Just seemed like an excuse, y'know? Especially with how hard he kept insisting. Sounded fake.

But look at you, girl. Hopping on the Nate train hard enough that he just couldn't let it stay a fling, huh? Rocked his world.

[Elena laughs. Lup's not entirely right...but she's not completely wrong, either.]

Something like that. [Choo choo.] It took a few tries to really take, but we got there. Honestly...I don't know what my life would be like if I hadn't met him back then.

[Less dangerous, at times. But lacking something more important, too.]

[Lup knows it's silly, cause they are perched on her bed while she takes her time painting Elena's nails, the two women chatting aimlessly to distract themselves from the horrors their reflections have been showing them. But there's something about Elena's words that strike deep in her chest. She's still pretty new to this romantic love thing, even at her age, but the sweetness of Elena's declaration is just so damn sincere, it's hard for the elf to ignore the way it makes her heart swell a little at her friend's obvious happiness with her husband.

She may not know Elena as well as she knows Magnus or Merle, but this woman clearly loves Nate. And after a lifetime of distrusting anyone but her brother, then slowly accepting a handful of weirdos as her friends, it occurs to Lup that this may be the first romantic relationship she's witnessed in her life outside of her own.

Wow. That's a weird revelation.] That's cute. I mean--[Lup is absolutely working to stuff her weird emotions down and focus on the nail painting at hand.] Real cute. Sappy and sweet. I know Hadriel sucks ass, but I'm glad you're here. Just so you guys can be here together.

[Elena chuckles, feeling a little sheepish now but warmed by the sentiment all the same.]

Thanks. I'm glad, too.

[Despite everything, including these shitty visions. She'd rather be with Nate here than the best place in the universe alone.]

And hey, at least it's not boring. In an okay way, most of the time.

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lmao shit we're having a dog time paradox with the magnnus thread nice

OH SHIT

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