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

[dedikated]

( Moving works. Whether it's running, or actually leaving. Maybe that's part of why Kate hates this place. Not just the memories that being underground naturally brings forward, but the fact that she's trapped, essentially caged with only so much to see. Two continents and three countries, a job that - despite all the things that sucked about it - provided reasons to hop from city to city.

Kate would agree. Ever conversation she's had, especially the most recent one in the wake of her death and resurrection, just proves that more and more. They may not be able to help how they feed - like Creatures, without possessing people, can't help their powers going haywire, affecting the earth and the weather if they're startled - but they're certainly capable of trying to understand why it isn't as easy as just settling down and letting them feed.

Maybe that's what frustrates everyone, in the end. )

... Delight managed hair dye. ( She says it with a shrug. ) Didn't screw it up. ( So, that's a start. Maybe start with her? )

[hasitsthorns]

[ After over two years in Haven (it was hard to keep track, in the end) and now a half a year here, Rose hardly remembers what it feels like to move freely. She'd done it for two centuries prior - granted, a hiccup in the way of enslavement broke the routine for a while - and remembers the panic that settled in when she realized she was forced to make roots in Haven. The last time she had wasn't pretty so she was hard pressed to do it again. But it ended up being the best and worst thing that could have happened to her.

Hadriel is a bit more free form with no barrier but the tunnels make her think of the convenience store. Access at your own risk. It's your funeral. She wonders if anyone here would do what they did then and stage a run of the tunnels. See how far they could get, see what really was keeping them underground. Rose wouldn't be surprised if the monsters were just an excuse the gods kept so the inhabitants didn't hate them more for keeping them trapped down here against their will on top of squeezing every bit of precious emotion out of them for their own gain. ]

You dye your hair? [ Huh. Rose wasn't about to be surprised if it was naturally that color. She's seen stranger. Her own natural hair is snow white, so. ] Though that's good to know, I guess. I wanna decorate the temples a little. [ One the ones destroyed are restored, anyway. ] Especially Sorrow's. It's super drab.

[ That's the point, she knows. But she likes to think she's funny. ]

[dedikated]

( She's had more freedom than she ever realised, even during her Agency days. There's always been a chance to sneak the joys of endless sky, of running across an expanse that seemed without borders.

(Compared to this fishbowl, it was.)

She tried running through the tunnels, when she first got here. Was determined that she didn't need to heed the warnings of others, or find information from them. She could leave, right? After all, she'd left the underground back home without problem every time. But no exit after no exit, monster after monster...

She had to give in, eventually. Accept it.

But eventually, Kate tilts her head. The dark brows should be a pretty stark giveaway that pink isn't usually her colour. The occasional roots that peek out. ) Aye.

( She almost wishes it were natural. After so many years, it's second nature to dye it, but here everything's a little harder and she looks weird with her natural colour after everything. )

Can help me repaint Delight's next time.

( After all, that'll help her get more dye, which means she keeps looking like herself. )

[hasitsthorns]

[ That's more than Rose can say. Haven had taught her the hard way there was no escape. Between the barrier and the murderous convenience store, and cold storage... There was never any way they were escaping. Not unless Yao toppled. Which was just about as likely as Hell freezing over, so.

At least Hadriel has enough merits - in her opinion - to warrant wanting to stay. The worst the gods could throw at them was child's play compared to the experiments done at Yao's whim once a month. ]

Yeah, I'd like that. Gonna' slap some color on the other Temples too. Gotta' find out what they like first though. [ Tranquility warned her that some of them might not care, but... That just means it'd be more fun for her. Sorrow's temple 'bout to become the pride flag. ]

[dedikated]

( It's hard to imagine how things could get worse when you haven't seen worse, lived worse. But Kate will never like the underground, will always feel uneasy in the presence of earthen ceilings instead of sky, so she will always be intrinsically biased against the imprisonment in such a place. )

You gonna ask 'em their favourite colour or summat?

( It sounds like the kind of thing Faith would do, and that just hurts, her mind flashing back to Faith's excitement and joy before and after her date.

Dammit, they were happy. Or at least close to it. )

[hasitsthorns]

[ Pain is relative, right? If you've only ever gotten a scratch, that's the worst pain in your life. If you're put through physical psychological torture every month, the bar starts to get raised in the amount of pain you can take or adapt to. ]

That's the plan, actually. Don't think they'll really think too much of it, but.... I'unno. Gives me something to do, if nothing else.

[ It is the kind of thing Faith would do which is, actually, another reason Rose plans to. Maybe in case she doesn't come back it'd be nice to keep some of her spirit around.

Though Rose hates dwelling on the word 'if' and all that entails. So she doesn't. ]

[dedikated]

( True enough.

Kate shrugs, because she imagines most of the gods won't see the point in it. They don't seem to see the point in a lot of things, it seems. )

Do what you can to stop being bored?

( To stop thinking? She knows that well. )

[hasitsthorns]

[ That they don't. Though Kate's right, it's just as much for Rose as it is anyone else. ]

More or less. There's only so much to keep one busy when you don't really sleep.

[ Nightmares. Plus, she doesn't need as much sleep as the average person. ]

[dedikated]

( That's one more thing they have in common. Sure, Superhumans need to sleep, but they get away with far less than humans can. Things that used to be taken advantage of in The Agency, a sore spot and old, repeating argument.

Everyone's exhausted.
We're understaffed.

But now Kate pushes herself for herself, mostly, even if that often means for the sake of avoiding her thoughts. The exhaustion is different. )

Aye. Specially here.

( It's not as bad with Faith around, but before that, nights where sleep didn't come easily were only endured by working out and texting until someone passed out.

She misses that outlet, even if it doesn't sting any more to know Sam's not here. Misses him with the wistful sort of melancholy that comes from knowing that anything which happens down here can never really last, but damn do you wish it would. )

[hasitsthorns]

Least the boredom's not as bad as where I was before.

[ Just imagine a place without late night texting. Haven didn't have any written word, including on their phones, and Rose hadn't realized how much she missed it. That city really did a good job of teaching her not to take anything for granted. ]

We had an orchard but then a couple idiots burned it to the ground. [ She says 'idiots' almost affectionately though. Gods, she misses Hiruma and Jesse. She hopes they're off raising Hell in whatever world they've found themselves in.

That's better than the alternative, anyway. ]

Not gonna' let that happen again on my watch here. And I got other side projects to keep me busy, so...

Not all bad.

[dedikated]

Wouldn't be surprised if someone tried that here. ( She pauses, thoughtful, and then adds; ) Or th' gods do summat and then-

( well. Kate gestures to the rubble around them.

And then this.

She stares at the altar for a minute that seems to take forever and eventually glances back at Rose. )

You gonna stay here?

( Because she should probably go pretend to work for a few hours, try to do something other than sit here and stare at the empty air. )

[hasitsthorns]

[ A valid point. ]

I don't have anything else to do.

[ As in, she doesn't want to do anything else. Sitting right here and not thinking about how sideways her life went during this event (killing herself, Faith being dead, the things her double did) is a small reprieve.

Maybe she should keep her mind busy lest she does fall into old mental tricks and traps. But another part of her just wants to stay put. Rest. ]

So yeah, probably.

[dedikated]

Gotta go work.

( Well. Not really. The clinic is pretty lax on schedule, but if she doesn't, it'll grow harder to tear herself away, she'll have nothing to do with the energy that buzzes impatiently inside herself. Nothing to distract herself from the way time seems to go so slowly.

Kate stands, glances down the road towards the city and exhales. )

Lemme know if she comes back.

( Her voice is deep, dark, the signs of someone who doesn't really believe that'll happen but says it anyway out of habit, or some futile hope.

She'll be back after work. Probably with booze. )