hadriel_logs | Event Log: Dead Ringers

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Event Log: Dead Ringers

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.

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Not even a second longer.

[he steps into johnny's apartment like he already owns it, which isn't at all out of character for him. jack looks around before turning to face jack.]

I just realized why I wanted to fuck you. [well, there's no dancing around it now. it can't be ignored when jack comes right out and says it like that. he smiles at him, but sometimes the sharpest words follow the gentlest curve of his lips.] It's because that's all the pretty but dumb ones are good for.

[ What the hell -- Johnny stares at him, surprised at the sudden viciousness of those words. He's more awake now, staring at Jack as he processes two things: that he wants to sleep with him and he wants to do that because that's apparently all he's good for.

The words startle and hurt, especially when he smiles that way, like he's actually enjoying this. ] Why are you telling me this?

Johnny, Johnny.

[jack clucks his tongue and shakes his head, like this should all be obvious to him. but maybe it's not. he did just call him stupid, didn't he?]

You know I'm trying to be more honest. Didn't you even encourage it? You can't take it back now when I'm just trying to be honest with you.

[he steps closer to him, lifting a hand to rest it on johnny's shoulder.]

Seriously though, I'm telling you this for your own good - for everyone's. So you have a little firepower, big deal? You don't have the brains to back it up, and if you keep it up, you're just going to get someone killed. [jack dips his head, trying to catch the other man's eyes.] You know I'm right, don't you? Friends tell you what others won't.

[ Johnny recoils from him -- he's usually a tactile person, thriving on being around people and making them smile, loving their attention. But Jack, Jack is different. This is not the guy that he remembers. Jack's not usually this cruel, not even when he tries his hardest.

But then this is him, right? This person looks exactly like him and knows just what to say, what to pull and step on just because he can. He presses on every quiet insecurity, all that he's sensitive about, but if someone this close to him can say it, then it must be true. ]

Is this what you really think? [ Johnny can't even think of anything to say to refute this, not when it's pulled out between them like this. Secret fears made true, but Jack... ]

It's what I've always thought.

[this is even sweeter than he expected, because right now it's so clear that johnny cares about his opinion. he cares about this face, and the real jack doesn't even know it.

he sighs and steps closer to him, reaching out and attempting to curl his fingers around johnny's side.]

But it's okay. You don't have to think at all for what I want you for.

[ Johnny steps away from him again -- his temper can't rise because it's true, because somehow Jack has gotten a stranglehold on his deepest and darkest fears and how do you fight something that makes complete sense to you? ]

I don't want you. [ Johnny says, his jaw set. His insecurities and fears are one thing, but Johnny has control over where and whom he wants to do this with, and he doesn't want this Jack. ] If you're drunk or drugged -- [ Because he wants to believe in him so much. ] -- it's better you stayed in here than go out there. [ Who knows how many more powerful, less forgiving friends he has. ]

[that's something that he does wish his original could hear, just to twist the knife a little deeper. he idly wonders if he could even make johnny lose control and turn this place into ash. but he's not done playing yet. Besides, he wants Johnny angry, not regretful.]

I'm far from drunk. [but he has had a couple of drinks, if only to keep his mimicry believable. jack peels off his jacket and gives it a casual toss.] You can pour me another if you want. I'm sure you're capable of that.

[ Sober is worse. Sober is so much worse. This means that Jack actually came all the way here just to tell him this, and he turns his back on him, rubbing at his cheek. Is this all some sort of elaborate, cruel joke? If it is, the funny died way before it even got out. ]

You can get it yourself. [ He responds abruptly. ] So, this friendship, how does it work? You get bored, you come by, drop some truth bombs on me?

[truth bombs. johnny believes it already, but it's so easy to get under the skin once you've found someone's insecurities. it's just as true with his original, and now he feels like he has two dolls to play with, to press together until they kiss- no, that's not what he has planned at all.

such a long-suffering sigh as he gets a beer for himself, twisting the cap off and taking a long drink. jack studies the back of him, from his shoulders to his waist to his ass. he can see why the other him would want him from that alone. but those aren't his original's only reasons, and that confuses him.]

You can change the friendship if you want. We don't have to talk at all.

[he smirks, eyebrows jumping.]

[ Something's not right about this. There's something different about Jack; he wouldn't be this way, would he? Capricious, thoughtless -- or maybe this is the way he's always been and the past few months had been a front?

No, that's impossible. That makes no sense. The Jack he knows is better than this, finding his own kind of redemption. This one, this one feels like he doesn't care about anything or anyone at all.

He turns back around to him, frowning. ] How many people have you already done this to?

I don't keep count.

[sharply. johnny's looking at him like he's trying to dissect him, like he's trying to see something that this jack doesn't want him to see, that he wouldn't be able to see if he was truly the idiot that jack's saying he is. he stares right back at him, almost challenging.]

As many as I want. It's my right as royalty.

You're not royalty here.

[ Something about Jack's callous entitlement sets Johnny's teeth on edge. Sure, he isn't the most generous guy around either, but at least he isn't like -- like this, right? Something's wrong. ]

Are you really Jack? Why are you acting like such an asshole?

[jack's jaw tenses before he leaps from his seat, toe to toe and eye to eye with johnny. he can't have this, he can't have the doubt.]

Do you want me to prove it to you?

[he kissed him once before. he goes for it again, a hand roughly at the back of johnny's head.]

[ Another kiss, and his mouth is familiar, soft -- Johnny's thought about this, on and off; the truth is that he usually prefers women, even though he's experimented now and then, but something about his kiss is worth remembering, the heat and the passion, and he doesn't know if it's its own kind of terrible that this tastes like what he remembers Jack to be.

He kisses him back, heart sinking when he finds this familiar, which means this is what he really thinks of him, pretty but dumb, disposable enough to be wanted for this and nothing else. A few seconds, more, and finally he pushes Jack away, confused and pissed. ] This is what you want? So all that noble talk, but all you really think I'm good for is this.

[he's detached from the kiss, though he fakes it well enough. it's an action without emotion.

the same can't be said for johnny, and isn't this interesting. after the surprise and before the anger, he actually kisses him back. A little part of johnny actually wants him too. it's icing on the cake, and he dips his tongue in for a lick.

he's appropriately breathless when the kiss breaks, grasping and trying to pull johnny right back in, hands not the least bit shy.]

But at least it's something, right? It's something you're good at. Something you enjoy. Most people can't even claim that much, I've been with enough to know.

[ He's realizing the same thing too, that somewhere down inside, he wants him -- he's just usually too confused to tell. But then Jack is pulling him back in and he remembers what he'd said; he doesn't want him, not the one who is happy to use him and throw him away.

No, he deserves more than that. ] No. [ He catches his breath, staring down at him. ] You weren't like this before. I don't want the person that you are now. [ Someone who can so casually, so easily hurt someone else for no reason aside from the fact that it clearly entertains him. This one is colder, different, and if it's not the alcohol then what is it? Some sort of drug? ] You weren't like this before.

[it's a shame, almost. johnny is more clever than even he gives himself credit for, and more observant of other people than anyone else gives him credit for. he wonders if even his original knows just how well this man knows him.]

I was always like this. It's just a side I never showed to you, because I knew it would ruin my chances. [he tries hard not to smile at his own words, including the ones that come next.] And now that it has, I might as well go.

Ruin your chances at what?

[ There's a twinge of guilt that flickers in his chest -- no matter what, he doesn't want to turn Jack out, he can't. He's pissed at him, yes, hurt, even more so, but how can he throw him out this way? Something's wrong and Johnny can't put his finger on it, but Jack needs help. ]

[jack stands, pursing his lips thoughtfully as he makes his way to the door. he pauses there to smile back at johnny.]

At a good time, what else? See? You've forgotten the only thing that you're good for already.

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Event Log: Dead Ringers

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