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

[kairotic]

I'm fine. S-Sort of. I haven't seen any of them, though, n-not really. Are they okay?

[He looks so haggard... he can be convinced to stay for a few minutes so she can say her piece, she's sure of it.]

Please, s-sit down for a minute, you look awful.

[skelebro]

Not sure.

[She's...gotta good point. He's gotta take a break. He don't sit down, but he leans up against a wall, the closest surface he can, hands tucked in his pockets. He cracks a socket open to eye her warily.]

No offense, Alph, but I kinda can't trust you're the right one I'm talkin' to.

[kairotic]

[She shies back just a little when he speaks, intertwining her fingers together in what mimics her usual nervousness.]

Oh, uhm, I g-guess that's fair. Uh. I guess you could ask me something, but if it's s-something small I can't even promise I'd remember it right, or, uhm, anything. I'm sorry. I mean, not that I'd, uhm, b-be much danger to you anyway.

[Maybe she can work with this, though.]

I guess you could ask me something if you c-can think of it. Maybe something only I would know?

[skelebro]

[Shit. How's he meant to narrow things down? If they got all the memories the real one's got -

He does a quick mental scramble. Somethin' near enough to the truth but just different enough not to set off any bells unless she'd remember it legit, maybe. Maybe. It ain't much, but it's a chance.]

How 'bout, uh...when I switched all the mustard with sriracha, what was the first thing you did to get me back?

[If she's good, she'll catch it.]

[kairotic]

[Mm, he's smart. Always too smart. But she doesn't want him to take first blood, here, and if she waits too long, he'll have enough energy to run away. So she thinks she can spin this right.]

Uhm, I think it was the thing w-with the microwave beeping in your bed. But you didn't switch the m-mustard. I don't even think we have mustard. It was ketchup, or it w-wouldn't have looked the same.

[C'mon, Sans, switching mustard wouldn't have been a good prank. But she has one that's even better.]

Here, uhm, I can ask one I think.

[And just like that, the facade is dropped; her smile grins too wide, head titled too high. Let her take the judgement reveal this time, buddy.]

Where w-were you when I took in corpses and made abominations in my lab? Lazing around in Snowdin, p-perhaps?

[skelebro]

[She is good, and she does catch it. Can't say that's all that surprising - the real Alphys is sharper than she's liable to give herself credit for, and in the end, it don't even matter one way or another.

He already knows he's talkin' to the wrong one.

He grins right on back, hollowly. The cut edge of his grin feels like it ought'a glisten, but it don't. It's just the same smile it always is.]

Abominations, huh? That ain't a very nice way to refer to anybody.

[No matter what might'a happened to make 'em - what it is they are. Might'a been? It's...hazy, at best.]

I figured you knew labs needed to be fed, just like any other dog.

[kairotic]

Oh, well pardon m-me. What should I be calling them? Their proper name? Amalgamates? Melted together creatures stuffed in the basement to be forgotten about?

[The level of fucking around she's doing has gone from a 20 to like, a -72. Now she's just aiming to hurt, but in the end, it's not necessarily him she's hurting.]

But I'm sure you already managed to know all that. As you a-always do.

[skelebro]

[Heh heh. All right. Sure. She wants to play that game? He's reached the absolute nadir of his tolerance for this, all of this, and he just went from tired to cranky. He's had enough people takin' digs at him; he's been kicked while he's down, and he gets it, all right, he truly does, he absolutely does. He gets it.]

Uh-huh.

[No confirmation or denial there, nah. Just gonna be infuriatingly vague, as always.

That one's his element.

So his smile
ｗｉｄｅｎｓ.]

How 'bout you cut the shit and get to the point, huh? I'm a busy guy. I ain't got all day.

[kairotic]

Ooh, t-touchy.

[He wouldn't fight her. He doesn't get off his ass until the last possible moment, and this is nowhere close.]

But fine. How much do you know about them, Sans? Did you know they were made f-from the bodies of Fallen Down monsters? From determination, s-stolen from human souls? Or that she locked them in the basement and left them f-for dead? There's really a lot to parse through here, and that's not even getting to the lies she told to get the job.

[skelebro]

[Might wanna re-evaluate how well you know how he'll act, Alphys. 'Cause he might not kill her, but his patience was already fraying when this whole debacle started, tinted with desperation, and she ain't helping.]

She didn't leave 'em for dead. She doesn't do that.

[Alphys has her flaws, she's made her mistakes. The details of what she's sayin' - he'll parse 'em out later. He'll talk to her, the real her, later.

This one don't deserve to get the time of day.]

[kairotic]

Oh? How do you know? She's h-here now. Did you see her, before she left?

You don't know. You're telling yourself things to make you f-feel better.

[He's mad, but she's confident enough to get away. He's tired. He'll slip up.

That is, if he has the heart to kill someone who looks just like one of his best friends.]

That doesn't even cover the w-work she did with a certain other someone. Or do you not want talk about that again?

[skelebro]

[That smug contempt, that cold superiority - it helps, in its own way. 'Cause even at her worst and her lowest, Alphys'd never be capable of that kinda low. That just ain't what she does.

It ain't what she is.

He tips his skull to one side, lazily, coldly.]

So how 'bout you the damn bombshell and get on with it?

[kairotic]

[UGH, he is the OPPOSITE OF ALL THINGS FUN. She rolls her eyes overdramatically.]

You're not even any fun, y-you know that? But then again, I guess you m-must know plenty about Fun.

[Seriously, don't make her do all the god damn work here. Just fall apart on your own, won't you?]

Regardless. You know you hurt her, too, by r-running away from your problems? By not talking to her? You're going to have to f-face her eventually, you know.

[skelebro]

[What were you expecting here, exactly? Figured he'd dance to your little tune, play your little game? Let you lead him along as though with a carrot on a stick?

Sorry. He don't play that game, no matter what kind of itch that emphasis on Fun implies.

He laughs.]

So you're givin' me life advice now. Is that it?

[kairotic]

Well, you certainly need it. It's a miracle Alphys event p-puts up with you, you know that? You cling to her so you'll feel less lonely, and she just takes it because she's too desperate to go it alone.

[Ugh. She infinitely prefers Sans' double. At least that guy owns up to his... well, everything.]

[skelebro]

[Just 'cause he figures it'll bug her, he hitches his shoulders in a guileless shrug before they drop back down into their default slump, his skull rolling idly to one side.]

Okay.

[As if he don't know that's the truth already. C'mon, not-Alph. You can do better than that. Actually, on second thought - please don't do better than that. He'd rather not deal with whatever other shit you're planning on chuckin' his way.]

And?

[kairotic]

And? D-Do I need to spell it out for you? You don't support anyone. You take, and take, and t-take, and it will be your undoing. Eventually everyone will realize there's no point to you. And y-you'll be alone.

[You can know things, but can you stand hearing them? She knows the real Alphys sure can't. Maybe this tactic will work here too.]

[skelebro]

[He digests that quietly. Actually, wait - no he doesn't. He don't have a digestive tract. Instead, he stands there, one eyesocket slitted open as he contemplates her wearily.]

You done?

[It ain't nothing he hasn't told himself a million times already. Ain't nothing he's already see play out in plenty of ways. Seein' it play out now, in fact.

Nothin' new.]

[kairotic]

[Goddamnit Sans you are the epitome of not fun.]

You're impossible. I don't see how anyone even p-puts up with you.

[But fine. She supposes her job is done here!!! Seeing as he's so infuriating he doesn't even care about all her carefully chosen barbs.]

Well, go on! Run off and f-find the real Alphys. Unless you're going to actually do something about me being here.

[skelebro]

Cool.

[Yeah, okay. He's done here. He spins on his heel, a neat about-face, and starts ambling off, 'cause he's just about done here. To her credit, he don't much see why anyone puts up with him either. It's just kinda a thing that continues to happen, despite all odds.

Still, he manages a ragged grin and tosses her a jaunty salute.]

Don't work too hard now.

[And the next time she blinks, he's gone.]