Event Log: Senses Fail

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Senses Fail event
Where: All over the city
When: May 14th-May 20th
Warnings: None

You wake up on the 14th, and something is different. Maybe it's something small - you can't smell anything, or your hearing on one side seems to be on the fritz. Or it could be something large and impossible to miss - you've gone completely blind, or you seem to be missing a leg. You've lost something, and no matter what you do, you can't seem to fix it.

Will you ever get it back? Probably, but it's impossible to be sure. And even if you're thoroughly convinced that this is temporary, that still means you have to figure out how to live like this for the next week. Even small things can be huge difficulties. Your sense of taste doesn't seem that important, until you accidentally eat something that'll make you sick. And sure, maybe you can figure out how to live without one hand, but what about when you wake up three days from now and you've also lost your magic?

Do your best to keep yourself calm, but remember: it can always get worse.

► This log covers May 14th-May 20th.
► 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 lost sense turns out to have been essential to your survival, please let us know here.

Comments

[pocketspa]

[He thinks, for a second, that it might have worked. She watches, stands, and he's almost within reach. Without thinking, he tenses in the way that should've made a mage hand, something he can offer out to her. But nothing comes. That's almost enough to make him cry.

It's forgotten under the wake of what happens instead., because her head snaps, there's a scream, and Taako goes entirely still.

The one thing Taako has, the thing he'd consider himself good at to the point of being better than everyone he knows, and it's survival. His relationship with death is obviously incredibly complicated, having liches for family and dating the grim reaper, but out of a hundred years of free deaths Taako made it out with the lowest count of the entire IPRE. Eight. He can count every single one, ticked along a timeline, because he will always survive when he has any, any option. Water is wet, the Light always falls, and Taako keeps living.

But Lup charges at him, and he doesn't fucking move.

He does drop into a defensive stance, a crouched motion with forearms crossed in front of his face as she shoots through him. For a moment, he isn't even afraid- he doesn't feel anything at all.

Then, as soon as she passes, she bolts, and Taako can hear his own sharp inhale as his heart thrums in his ears. She didn't hurt him. She's acting like a lunatic but she didn't hurt him. She's in there, she's got to be. He moves two shaking legs to turn, running the direction she went, looking almost frantic for where she's heading.]

Lup! C-Come on! Stop acting like-- it's not Halloween, okay! You got me! Come back!

[restinglichface]

[Whether the lich is consciously trying to avoid her brother or not is a mystery, but she doesn't make it easy for Taako to follow.

The man gives chase and Lup immediately slides through the building in front of them, shifting right into the wall and leaving him behind, trying to cut a path straight through as many shops and buildings as she can. She floats forward, gliding silently through the air, but there's no mistaking the crackling of electricity that follows her, the sound each strike makes when it arcs off of her and scorches the ground she leaves behind.

He calls out to her, but she gives no answer, makes no motion as if she understands or hears him. Whatever bit of Lup remains to keep him safe, that is all that is left, just barely clinging on.

If Taako waits long enough, the lich will make her presence known with another loud wail and an explosion of fiery magic just a few blocks away.]

[pocketspa]

[This is, more than anything else, horribly frustrating. She goes through walls and he finds himself nearly slamming into them, punching them fruitlessly with bare hands. Couldn't the fuckers in charge at least have given him like, Magnus strength, or something? He's useless like this. Before he even knows it, he's lost her just by needing to follow the roads, and he can't be a bird or do anything to get a better vantage or view.

She gives it to him, of course. She's good at giving him everything. And he has to keep trying.

Taako digs in his heels, bolting the direction of the sound, hands sweaty and heart still thrumming in his ears as he yells back.]

Lup! Stop! Just stop, alright! I can fix this, we can figure it out, please--

[But he'll bolt to wherever she is, and try to place himself at the end of the road.

She didn't attack him. He can do something, at least. With what little power he still pretends to possess.]

[restinglichface]

[Even if she doesn't address him, doesn't exactly react to his presence, it becomes clear very quickly that the lich is avoiding her twin, slipping swiftly through buildings, dodging around corners, full on running from him.

Whatever part of Lup still remains, the part of her that doesn't want to hurt Taako makes her flee instead of facing him, knowing somewhere in what remains of her soul that distance is the very safest thing for her twin now. And his safety is so very important.

But Taako's just as stubborn as Lup, and even if it takes time, he tracks her down again, just as the lich is striking down an innocent bystander with a bolt of electricity, a lifeless body thudding to the ground beneath where she's floating. She hovers like a shadow in the air, the body crumpled beneath her, just as she turns upon hearing her brother's familiar voice. He's still pleading, still calling her name, still expecting to hear her answer. What is he thinking? He should be running from her, not to her. He should be keeping himself safe.

Lup catches sight of Taako, let's him take a few steps closer to her, before she's already turning, heading straight towards another building to disappear through.]

[pocketspa]

[His mind has been reeling over what he's going to do when he finds her, what he can possibly do to make her listen, but it's lost when he sees her again. If whatever happened to Lup ripped her apart, this is what gets him. Suddenly, he's endlessly glad he didn't take this leap with her- seeing her this way would surely have ended him, too.

Maybe that would be better. Not forcing him to deal with the fallout. To just let go.

But there are people he wants to protect, even if he never, ever wanted it to be from her.

Taako's eyes dart between the form on the floor and her, mouth slightly open, words gone. But she goes to move and he digs his hand into his bag. He might not have magic, but items don't need the charge, finally realizing how he can follow her.

As soon as she's even partially through the wall, he's retrieved the hole thrower to toss at the wall, instantly punching a 6x6 opening into the wall. He doesn't have the strength to yell in delight, but the meaning should be clear- he can follow her now. No escape.]

Lup! You're gonna have to talk to me! You can't just-- I won't let you run!

[restinglichface]

[If Lup was even a touch more in control of herself in this moment, she'd be endlessly furious with the way Taako was chasing after her, throwing himself recklessly into her path, practically begging for the lich to turn against him. He continues to scream for her, to call her name, to humanize the woman who is no longer there, but something finally seems to break through.

Just as she's floating through the other side of the building he's currently dashing through, the lich pauses, frozen in mid-air, hovering there. And then she turns to face him.

There's nothing beneath her shadowed hood, just an empty, endless darkness facing the elf down, not a hint of his sister left.

And then she casts Paralyzing Touch on Taako, hoping to root him to the spot.]

[pocketspa]

[There's a glimmer of hope when she stops, thinking he's finally done the right thing, made the right breakthrough. Lup may be a scientist, but Taako's an engineer, and he'll break through with all his tools if it fucking works. But then she turns, and his throat closes up.

He won't admit she's gone. He won't. But Taako is good at reading a skelital face, the motions of a body to mirror his. But she's not moving right. She's not matching him. And finally, he just tries to take her hand.

He doesn't make it that far.

The magic hits him like a train, without any of his defenses or anything he can use to fight. It settles into his bones, over and under his skin, and he barely feels like he can breathe. Instinctively, he tries to jerk his hand to his throat, but he can't. Even as he pushes, fights and struggles, he's stuck.

All he can do is move his eyes, look at her, plead without words not to do this. To come home to him.]

[restinglichface]

[He pleads with every inch of his face, even with his frozen hand just beginning to reach out for her, the look in his eyes just screaming for Lup to go to him, to let him wrap her up in his arms, to give him the chance to take her safely home. But whatever remains of his sister is only enough to keep Taako safe, not enough to contest the emotions warring so violently within her. There's just not enough of Lup left to fight.

Taako freezes and the lich remains there hovering in front of him for only a moment, the shadowy space beneath her hood an expressionless void, before she's drifting right through the elf again, phasing through his body to leave. To put as much distance as she can between herself and him, to keep Taako safe from the destruction that's going to come.

That's how unbreakable you and I are, babe.

Lup may be further away than she's ever been from him, including the years she'd been unseen at his side, but her words of so many months earlier still ring true. Even like this, even if she can't go to him like he wants, they're connected in a way that defies the very nature of an unstablized lich. He's still the whole of her beating heart, even when she doesn't have one.]

[pocketspa]

[For the first time, in a long time, there's nothing he can do.

It's almost more paralyzing than the spell, the thing keeping him from her, feeling like the fear and helplessness is squeezing his lungs and moving to his heart. Taako has made himself into something strong, something unable to be undone, a shield around himself and what he loves in every sense. He can beat everything. They can beat everything, as long as they're together. An unbroken wall.

But he's alone now, as she phases through him, and he can't do anything.

He can feel the tears beginning to fall as soon as she's gone, something desperate and raw in his throat, where he wants to scream but he can't find the words. It's like being back on that horrible judge planet, like he can feel the stone creeping up his legs and into his blood and seizing his organs but it's Lup looking down at him, that empty hood and skeletal hands giving nothing of the compassion of his sister. He wants to claw it out of him, to move his arms to his chest and rip the flesh there until he can find his own heart, because he's certain it isn't there without her.

But no matter what he tries, he can't break it. So she leaves. And eventually, the spell wears off, and he collapses into a wheezing, sobbing mess right where he stands.

It's a long time until he can get up again. It's a long time until he can pull himself up, in mortal flesh and blood and no power in his hands but purpose in his stride.

He has to fix this. He has to.

Maybe, with what little power he has, he can save someone else.]