Event Log: Dead Ringers

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Dead Ringers event!
Where: All around the city
When: January 16th-January 25th
Warnings: Evil doubles, so we can assume manipulation, violence, murder, and maybe some nasty words

Everything seems normal on the morning of the 16th - actually, everything seems normal about the city for the entirety of this event. Nothing is strange, nothing is obviously wrong. Well, except that the population has mysteriously doubled, and the new residents each look exactly like one of the old residents. So weird! Definitely not ominous at all.

At least until your new double gets down to business. After all, their only goal is to ruin your life, and that can take any form. Smashing your favorite coffee cup? Telling your worst enemy they're right? Kissing someone else in front of your girlfriend? Brutally murdering you and then hiding your body in a closet so they can more effectively destroy your life? The possibilities are truly endless, and the only way to protect yourself is to kill your double first. They're not really open to negotiation, after all - but they sure might pretend to be in order to trick you.

So watch your back, and try to make sure that really is your best friend and not an evil clone masquerading as them. Boy, that would be awkward. If you can stick it out until January 25th, good for you! But if you didn't manage to and your double survives until the end - well, just as a final 'fuck you', there's a chance you'll come back to life and remember every awful thing your double did. Hey, at least that'll make it easier to fix, right?

► This log covers January 16th-January 25th.
► 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 evil clone happens to take you out, please let us know here, and remember that you will not revive until the event is over.

Comments

[fibia]

[There's something incredible, truly incredible, in watching the face of someone who takes such pride in being impervious - crumble so completely. No smiles, no blank, locked-away flatness; no. Just the slow collapse of every brick they've laid down, the protracted crumbling of their very foundation, as it all skids and slides away into nothingness.

But still, despite everything, there remains the fact that everybody just seems so terribly eager to overlook.]

Y'know, good ol' Sans was right about one thing.

[He stares down at the pair of them with a cold, ruthless grin, and he hurls upon them the meanest insult he thinks will stick, for a pair of children like them.

He surveys them with something resembling pity. Cruel, blank, flat, devoid of any actual meaning, but pity. In knowing they are not, and never will be, enough. Not for each other. Not for Sans. Not even for themselves.]

You really are just kids.

[And kids will cry for help. Lost, scared, alone, and unheard. Always, unheard.]

Pity it took him so long to realize, huh?

[And the minute he did, someone else was there to take his feet out from under him. A number increases, and he grins, victorious. Content in knowing - he got what he came for.

He got what he came for, and everything else can burn.]

[somuchlove]

[Sans, at LV 20, wasn't a concept that should scare Chara.

There was fear, but that was reserved for Frisk's well-being. They knew full well that he was capable of killing them with an ease that was ridiculous. Bones could slice through them as easily as a Knife did Sans, once upon a time. Chara's fear of a LV 20 Sans come from there.

But it wasn't just Frisk's possible death that was frightening them beyond belief. They could lose their Partner but it's likely that this Sans was smart enough to realize that Chara didn't put much stock in their own life. There was nothing to gain from killing them, unless he wanted to take that last precious person from them.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Took a life. Just like Chara did, carving their way across the Underground, slaughtering everything they came across. Using every method to get every single Monster until nothing was left. Grinding it all out and leaving a blot where love once was. All with a smile on their face.

Once upon a time, The Human was friendly.

Once upon a time, so was Sans.

And nobody likes looking in a mirror. The roles were reversed. This is what it was like to face down a LV 20 Chara, wasn't it? This was the terror of having your life threatened by such a thing.

But it's not just that. Sans had been hugging them, telling Chara it was okay. That they could stop. That moment of peace had allowed them to understand the words that he said when he slammed Frisk's double into the ground. They called. He came. Sans helped them, despite everything Chara had done to him. Despite it all.

But that's just the setup to the whole joke, isn't it? Chara doesn't have to say the punchline either. Everyone here knew.

Sans had been killed at his most vulnerable moment. Just like Chara had done to Toriel.

Something snaps. Something deep inside of Chara just breaks. It may have to do with the font they're still staring it. Maybe it was the Demon. Or it was just simply breaking under the events they had gone through just far. But something just...slips out in a quiet voice, begging in the way the words had been when they first read it.]

Please don't hurt my family.

[save_theworld]

[He's not



He won't. He won't. Frisk can't know that for absolute certain. Can't know that Chara doesn't have a point, begging for their life (their life, not Chara's. Please don't hurt my family. The words are familiar, make their flesh crawl. They have their sins) and they're just a kid, after all. Just a kid. What does a kid know, about anything?]

...I forgive you.


[Soft. And it would be hard- still is hard, to say which him they're talking to. The smudge of an outline that's still reaching them, or the one that's standing right there.

But outside of Frisk's head, there's still only one pair of eyes to meet.

They're meeting them. Slowly reaching out to pull that folder to their side. Slower still, they slump down. Press their cheek to Chara's shaking shoulder, and close their eyes.

Either way, it's the End. No one said Frisk had to watch it coming.]

cw manipulation and suicidal implications

[fibia]

[Isn't this just precious? The both them quaking like leaves, reduced to nothing but regurgitating old pieces of an old script - the very same script they sought to burn, page by page.

He cocks his skull to one side as he hunkers down, just so he can look the pair of 'em in the eyes.]

Now why would I do that?

[The words drip with a condensed derision, laced with a sickly falseness that he's certain that one of the two, at least, can recognize full well. A plastic smile. A hollowness behind it. But you could swear he almost sounds giddy as he continues.]

You've already done such a great job of it.

[And he starts to laugh. It's an - awful sound. It's quiet, and it's cruel, and perhaps the worst thing about it is that it sounds far more genuine, far more real, than any courtesy chuckle Sans ever made on anyone's behalf. It's full and complete and, for once in his life, it's sincere.

He's just so excited, you see. He's just so happy.

He's free.

He jolts back upright again, kicking the notebook with the toe of a slipperclad foot.]

Now be a couple of good kids, and be brave for once in your lives, yeah?

Do something nice for other people.

[There's no reason for you to exist. Not a couple of selfish, rotten little humans like you. You take too much, too fast, and ruin it all with your corrupting touch. So why don't you make it easier on everyone else, and wipe that slate clean.]

cw for suicidal ideation

[somuchlove]

[Chara looks up when he does get down at eye level with them. They stare at themselves, that LV 20 monster with that painted smile, with a voice that has a hint of the same sort of giddiness that Chara themselves once had when they first arrived to Hadriel. When they thought that they could do it all over again.

They didn't. The ideal of consequences was one that they upheld. They didn't escape Sans's judgment but reviled in it because you can't judge someone who's already condemned themselves. It's nothing Chara hasn't heard before. It's nothing they haven't heard before...

But things change here. Time moves forward. And...people can die. Asriel was killed by Chara's own double and they can just imagine the look on his face as his best friend stabbed him to death. Frisk saw the picture that Chara had hidden, had taken away from them even though it was their right to know. Made them feel like it was okay for them to disappear, "Not needed" and those words will ring in their head for a long, long time.

Asriel was that flower that Chara terrified back in New Home. Alphys had her own demons and if they had it in them, Chara would be angry all over again. And....they fought Sans again. The outcome of that fight had no real meaning. It was the words that broke them in the end. A blurred line because no one like seeing themselves in a mirror.

"Until next time, kid."

They had fun throwing water balloons at each other.

"Now be a couple of good kids, and be brave for once in your lives, yeah? Do something nice for other people."

* You called for help.
* And Sans died because of it.

"I have seen no happy ending. I do not deserve one."

Self-judgment sure was something.

Chara doesn't reply to the double's remarks but he can see their smile from where he's standing. The same one that they wore during their runs, that followed their morbid line of thought.

"What's one more on the chopping block?"

Some laughter escapes out of their mouth. Just a little bit. Because it's funny. So laugh! Just laugh!]

* 1 left.

[He knows that Chara doesn't mean Frisk. But that probably doesn't matter to him, does it?]

[fibia]

[The edges of his sockets curl, almost crinkling with that dark, cold amusement. They get the idea, don't they? Smart. Intuitive. Even when they've all shut down, even when they think they can't possibly sink any lower - they always, always find a way.

The words grind out coldly, pitched low with his own laughter.]

That's the spirit.

[Good kid.

And he turns on his heel, and is gone.]