Event Log: Flu Season

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters
What: The event log for the Flu Season event
Where: All over the city
When: March 20th-March 30th
Warnings: Gross sneezing, sick people, and paranoia

It starts with a cough, a sneeze, a sore throat - something small and simple, easily ignored. But then your symptoms get worse. It's probably been awhile since you've been sick, that sort of thing doesn't usually happen here. You might be able to raid the shops for some tissues and tea before it gets too bad, and hopefully you've got a friend to help out until you get better. Surely it'll be over soon, right?

Until the fever sets in, and you start to understand why your friend is really there. They don't want to take care of you. They want to make sure this is the last anyone will ever see of you. They want to learn all your secrets. They want to steal your most precious possession. You know they're plotting against you, you know they're keeping something from you. What will you do to find out what it is?

Then, as the sickness fades, you realize it was all in your mind. Let's hope you didn't do or say anything too awful. But that friend of yours... they seem to have picked up your cough. Maybe you should help them out?

► This log covers March 20th-March 30th.
► 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 your paranoia ends in murder, please let us know here.

Comments

[nascere]

[ He had genuinely, truly never thought that he would see Umbra again, the familiar sight of his favorite dog wagging and bringing a new notebook to him sending a surge of warmth in his chest, and a skip in his heart. The notebook is new, carefully chosen, and he can't help but smile and crouch beside Umbra, scratching behind his ears fondly when he opens up the book.

There is no sylleblossom in it, no flash of blue as a final goodbye. There is lovely, beautiful sketch, carefully created and her careful, thoughtful handwriting. It's just like her, isn't it? Going for the personal touch, her words neat and flowing, and it's impossible not to sense the feelings she's poured into the notebook. A creature of habit, and wonderfully so.

He doesn't respond, the words caught in his throat as he shuts the book. There is so much he has yet to say to her, all the things he'd wanted to relay right back. Gentiana, or rather, Shiva, had relayed her message to him, the love they could never have had, and maybe here, maybe now. ]

Take me to her.

[ He says quietly. Maybe now, they can begin to make things right -- how many other chances will he have? Umbra barks, then runs ahead with the prince following close behind, overwhelmed with the depth of his own emotions and of Luna, the memory given to him of her in tears in a field of sylleblossoms, a young woman who is more than just the Oracle.

Noctis finds her, eventually, and before he can lose the nerve, he says, words coming all in a rush. ] Gentiana told me. What you felt.

[ And some things, some things can't be limited to the written word alone. He grips the notebook tight, like it's a lifeline, like it's everything important to him in the world. ]

[lunarie]

( she's seated outside the house she shares with her brother when umbra reappears. the harsh sunlight makes spending long hours outside hard but luna cannot deny herself the simple comforts in these moments. there is a simplicity of sitting outdoors, writing while her familiar slept nearby and her thoughts lingered toward noctis as they had many times before in their long years apart.

with a warm gentleness, she reaches out to greet umbra when she realizes that he is not alone. there is a pause in her motions, a stillness as she takes in the sight of noctis but never once does that warmth leave her features. it was still strange, in a way, for him to be so close like this as if any moment she would awaken from her dream to find him gone and she no longer able to reach out to him, to touch him.

her mouth opens but her greeting is lost, trapped in her throat as he speaks and she finds that day in the fields of tenebrae returning back to her. her wishes spoken through tears, the selfish want for them to share a life together free of burdens and duties. a wish to hear his voice again— ) Truly, I am undeserving of her kindness.

( her hands grip at the fabric of her dress, her eyes closing briefly before she wills herself to stand and greet him with a smile. )

My feelings... I so longed to tell you with my own voice. Many times I dreamt it but I always I awoke before I could hear your answer, before I could hear your voice again. I thought perhaps that in Altissia, I could finally tell you everything. ( but there was no need to linger there. ) My silence toward my own feelings, I think, are my biggest regret.

[nascere]

[ Simpler times -- when the notion of loss is still a world away, where Noctis believed that he still could save her. Luna is not her duty, she's more than the Oracle even if her kindness and her warmth shone out through the world. He understands, better than anyone else, the loneliness that envelops her, the isolation of destiny and a title that seems too big, too far above everyone else.

He sees her again, beautiful and shining in the sunlight, the way he had first seen her in Altissia, when she had been out of reach but had spoken so passionately to the people. She's more than that, she's human, real, and so close to him that he knows if he reaches out, he would be able to touch her, to brush his fingers over her hand, her cheek. His words are trapped in his throat when she speaks, nerves alight and rendering him tongue-tied. There is so much he wants to say to her, to much he wants to give voice to, and to know that she feels similarly is overwhelming. ]

Luna... [ He manages at last, and swallows hard. Not again. He can't fail her again, he can't swallow his longing like a secret, smudging over it out of pride and an ineptitude for eloquence. This is his second chance with her, this beautiful girl he had let slip through his fingers, who had saved his life at the cost of her own. ]

Then tell me. [ He says hoarsely, quietly. ] And I'll give you my answer.

[ What need have they for dreams now, when they're so close within the other's reach? When a world of opportunity is laid out for them? ]

[lunarie]

( for how long has she tried to hide it away? to give herself solely to duty and to destiny? how long would she continue to deny it, to bury it deep in her heart when she had already gave herself to duty and to destiny? perhaps that is why, when she hears her name, luna cannot help but wish to hear him say it again and again. how she wishes to feel her heart drumming wildly in her chest, to feel the heat spreading across her cheeks and her voice lock in her throat. it is overwhelming but... oh, how she wished for these simple moments with him.

it is with that in mind that she decides: she is tried of wishing.

something so simple but it spurs her forward, urges her to step closer to him enough and reach out so her hand might take his own with a gentle touch. it is not often that she is at a loss for words, as the oracle she always knew the words to say and how to say it but she is not the oracle. not now, not in this moment. she is simply luna, a girl finally able to speak her thoughts and her feelings. a chance to be normal despite all the threads leading them elsewhere, leading them away from each other. )

My wishes are but simple ones, ones many people ask and pray for. I want to be with the one that love, to laugh and grow old together as we talked about as children. I want us to be happy and healthy and safe. For us to experience what we should have experienced together not something we lived through as letters or what ifs. I want, more than anything, to stand by your side not as the Oracle to her King but as Lunafreya... as Luna.

[nascere]

[ Noctis meets her halfway, taking hold of her hand and tightening his grip on it -- not to hurt, but to remind himself that she's here, that she wants the same things he does, that she's alive and well and she wants to be by his side not out of duty but out of the same desire to be with him. There are a whole world of words he wants to say, his heart so full he fears it might burst with all the feeling that he can't put into words.

She names her wishes, simple ones, profound ones, putting into words what he couldn't say, and he pulls her into his arms, holding her tight. This is what he's wanted, what he's reached for time and time again only to have her slip out of his grasp. No more, now that she's solid and real, her yearning echoing within his heart.

I want to be with you, he wants to say. He wants to grant her all her wishes and to make her happy, he wants for them to be normal, to have something that's long been taken away from them, bereft of simple pleasures and set on their paths that had led to so much pain. Luna, who never had her chance, and Noctis, who had been too late.

Now, they have a chance to be together, to experience what it's like, and he buries his face in his hair, too far gone to be anxious about whether he's pushing it too far too quickly -- he's wanted this for as long as he can remember, to hold her in his arms, to keep her close. Luna. No more what-ifs, no more letters; and the bittersweetness of it all almost chokes him. ]

I want that, too. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you that before. That I -- [ How does he even begin to put it into words? ] I want you. By my side. I want to make you happy, not as a king but -- you know. [ He takes a breath, shaking his head. ] As someone you can love.

[ As someone who can love you. ]

[lunarie]

( there is a simple pleasure, luna finds, in the act of holding noctis' hand like this. her fingers curled together around his own as heart races in her chest. the closeness they share was one she had dreamed of time and time again in their twelve years apart where the distance between them, at times, felt worlds apart. there is nothing to stand between them now, no covenants or gods or duty they must follow in this world.

there is selfishness in her relief, she knows. yet in the moment that he pulls her into his arms, she only cares for the two of them and the realization of hopes she had long wished for being answered. how long had she prayed for a moment like this? how could she ever have imagined it would become reality far from where anyone could hear her prayers.

if he is moving too quickly, he gets no response from luna as she holds him close and buries her face against the crook of his neck and shoulder. her words that day in the field to her high messenger ring clear in her head yet that does not stop the tears, in the overwhelming happiness, from welling up in her eyes. )

To be at your side, I know I shall find my happiness and it is my hope that-- ( ah... it isn't often she is at a loss for words. yet, she can feel her heart race and face flush red against his shoulder. ) I hope that I might bring you happiness too.

[nascere]

[ She's still alive and breathing, and they can start from there. He's always half-convinced that this is a dream, that she'll slip from his fingers like silver smoke -- but the suns in the sky is scorching hot and her words are too genuine for him to dream them up.

Luna is saying what she really, truly feels, beholden to no god or prophecy; she's telling him what she means to say, and maybe they have a long way to go to figure things out, but this, this feels right. He can feel her, soft and gentle, tucked against the crook of his neck and shoulder, pressing tight. She wants to be here with him, and Noctis' own heart races.

Second chances, he won't let that slip from his fingers. He won't let Luna go. ]

Yeah? [ It's one thing to say something like that, but it's another for her to reciprocate, and he pulls back enough to look into her face, cautiously pleased but feeling a flicker of distressed when he sees her tear-filled eyes. ] Are you -- are you sad?

[lunarie]

( there is a part of her that fears to pull away. it's the part of her that dreams of the being surrounded by the energy of a raging sea goddess, sneaking lower and lower away from the hands she wishes so desperately to hold in her own. now, in this moment, she had been granted that selfish desire of hers to be held, to be able to stand at noctis' stand and for the one she loved so dearly to also want to stand at her side.

yet, despite the tears in her eyes, there is a smile on her face. his question is answered first with a shake of her head and then a pearl of laughter, happy and warm. )

No, I am happy. In truth, I feel my heart might leap from my very chest. Yet to be here with you in this moment, to be able to reach out and touch you— words alone cannot describe the happiness that I feel.

[nascere]

[ She laughs, and it's the sweetest sound he's ever heard -- he hasn't heard that in years, so many years, and he reaches up to touch her cheek briefly, thumb brushing over her cheekbone as he watches the joy in her eyes.

To think that he had lost her, and now she's here again, very much alive and smiling and looking like he'd somehow hung the sun and stars in her sky, and he can't help but press his forehead to hers, desperate for touch, for the assurance that she won't slip from his fingers if he lets her go. She's right; she's not the only one feeling overwhelmed and happy, she's not the only one revelling in the fact that she can reach out to touch him. ]

Yeah. [ He manages, at a loss of what to say. ] I just -- anytime. You can touch me anytime.

[ He grimaces, oh -- that came out wrong. ]