hadriel_logs | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I...

[ Her nightmares have nothing on this. Fear is getting one helluva of a power spike in this moment, honestly, as Rose is shell shocked herself at the event that just transpired at break neck speed. Horrified isn't even close to a strong enough word to describe the dread settling gradually into her gut. 'What the hell,' indeed. It's an inquiry she wishes she could answer but is instead stuck with blood on her tongue that silences any attempt at coherency.

There's a tremble to her limbs that's settling in. Everything feels so suddenly unsteady: her body, her mind, her life. It's all falling to pieces around her and she can't quite figure out how to make it stop. ]

I, I... didn't want you to find out like this. [ She didn't want anyone to find out like this. She didn't want anyone to find this out, period. Especially not Matt. He was someone that looked up to her, wasn't he? What a role model she turned out to be. Who was she kidding? She was never a role model to begin with.

No, she'd been deceitful and deceptive from the start. Not the qualities that someone should admire. There really isn't much about her anyone should think of Rose that's good if she's being completely honest. Matt see that now. It's certain others will follow. ]

I would... [ 'never hurt you' is what she means to say. Though that isn't true either. She would if she was angry enough, unstable enough. Her double was driven by the destruction of her life; Rose was driven instead by pure primal instinct when she had nothing else. She knows what she did to Jo, to the man who'd trusted her, to so many others in Haven. It was only a matter of time before she betrayed them like she did Matt. ]

I would run, if I were you. [ An unfortunately familiar sting. Push them away so they can't get hurt anymore. It's for the best. Right now, at least, she can't guarantee that she won't hurt him. The smell of his blood and fear perforates everything and has her hungry despite herself. Her head turns down in shame, hair shielding him from the solemn expression on her face. ] I'm a monster. I eat people. I thought I could, I don't know, be better here, but. I don't know anymore.

So get away from me while you still can.

... What?

( It's strange, how a handful of months in a place like this can change your perception of what's normal. Matt misses the old perceptions, greatly. The innocence of a time where evil doubles and friends who are monsters underneath it all were simply plots in tv shows and video games. He flinches, hand pressing harder into his shoulder, sharp pain enough to cut through the chaos in his head, the terror and fear and instinct that says she's right.

Because- well. Rose is still his friend, still the person who helped him after he came back to life, who teaches him self-defense techniques even though she doesn't have to. Because he promised he'd be better, promised he'd do more for his friends.

Her included.

So he breathes, lets the sting of his injury clear his mind.

Right.

He can do this. Do. Something. )

Rose. I'm, uh, not gonna go. ( He can do this. ) I'll help you.

( Not that he has any idea how. But maybe- )

Let's... Let's, um, get outta here.

( Away from the corpse of her double, at least. )

I can smell your fear.

[ The smell of blood perforates everything yet beneath she can sense all the signs of the terror that he's trying to hide. It's noble, she'll give him that, but pointless. A lot seems pointless right now to Rose. Her body language shows every sign of someone defeated, someone that's giving up.

She's hanging on the precipice again of going the way of whatever Hadriel's equivalent of Haven East is. She'd willfully walked to an irradiated place knowing it would kill her within a day and that there was no way to revive people anymore. In this moment, she'd do it again. She'd save everyone a lot of pain.

No, that's not right. She'd save herself a lot of pain. Everyone had made that abundantly clear last time, didn't they? It wasn't for them after all, like she'd convinced herself. It was for her. '

'You're not alone anymore, Rose.' That's what Hiruma had said then, it's what Matt's saying now despite how undeserving she was. ]

I can't blame you, I'm scared of me too. [ An honest admission. Rose is terrified of the creature she's become. Of the danger she's constantly putting the people she cares about in. ] I wasn't always like this, I didn't want this.

[ The words are sobbed out, broken and bitter. Kite had inflicted her with something that couldn't be cured; he'd made her the monster she fought her entire life not to be. What's scarier still is the idea that this wasn't actually a biological change but instead a mental one. That maybe, in truth, she's strong enough to overcome it... but she doesn't want to. ]

I wish you could help. I wish someone could help.

[ 'But I think I'm beyond saving now.' ]

Event Log: Dead Ringers

WHOO WHOO PAIN TRAIN INCOMING

no subject

cw; mentions of suicidal ideation