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

[greywaren]

[It nods, shoulders slackening as if some small weight has been lifted. Adam said yes- he'd do it, and maybe then, Ronan could figure out why the original boy loved him, why he has so many memories of being willing to do anything for him. Adam would deny him a part of himself, but that's to be expected- they'd still have this, they'd still know.

He'd know that they had a moment, here, in the room with Ronan's corpse, and he'd know what Adam's mouth feels like pressed against his own- his and not Ronan's, not through some kind of proxy. Just the two of them. Just here.

He leans in then, resting his forearm on the wall near Adam's head, not unlike Ronan's pose when they'd kissed after Ronan had given Adam the dream cello. He doesn't move in for it- he'll let Adam decide when to kiss him- but he looks at him expectantly, knowing full well that Adam isn't doing this out of affection.

That's fine, really. This is what the double can get, and so he'll take it.]

I never could have loved you, [he finally says, while Adam is working up his nerve. The double's voice is soft, barely a whisper between them.] I was made to ruin you, and him, and everyone else. I don't want it to be different, but I wish-

[His other hand lifts up, brushing his fingers against Adam's jaw, sliding a thumb delicately across his lower lip.]

-I want to feel it. Just for a second.

[unknowable]

[He looks like Ronan, he stands like Ronan, his voice has the softness that Ronan's sometimes does when they're alone together. His touch is like Ronan's, careful, as if Adam is something worth touching.

None of it is true, but Adam focuses on these things, even knowing that. If he's going to do this he has to trick himself, he has to make himself believe for just a moment that the thing before him is his Ronan. Otherwise he won't be able to do it, and he knows that. In the back of his mind are Ronan's unseeing eyes, the pallid grey of his skin. The knowledge that this thing touching him right now is what did that.

He locks that thought away as best he can. He focuses on everything that makes him think of Ronan, all the little things that fooled him in the beginning. There's a part of him that feels something like sympathy for this creature who never had a chance, but who wants to feel something real anyway. It isn't so very different than him, in the end. In another situation, maybe Adam would want to try. To help, somehow.

But this thing killed Ronan. There is no forgiveness in Adam's heart for that.

He closes his eyes, just for a moment, and thinks of the man he loves. Then Adam leans in and kisses him, as if he were Ronan, because he is not going to leave any room for argument that it wasn't real, that it wasn't enough. His kiss is as real as he can make it, as real as he can force it to be. It's not real, but it almost could be.]

[greywaren]

[It's gentle. Ronan remembers how to kiss him and he does it kindly, maybe a little tentatively. He's drawing from memory now, how Adam is supposed to feel against him, what he's supposed to do to fool him- it's a hollow imitation, and it's not perfect, but it's what he has.

His fingers rest against Adam's jaw, and he feels- not completed, as he might have hoped, as he remembers feeling, but satisfied. Adam's mouth is warm against his, and Adam knows what he is, but he's still kissing him, which is really, all that he could have asked for. All that he did ask for.

Ronan doesn't make Adam endure it for too long. He pulls back after a moment or two, his gaze unfocused and thoughtful, before he nods, drawing back and away from Adam's body and the wall behind him.]

...alright.

[He nods, the movement a little stunted. He has a purpose, another reason that he was created. It wasn't for this. It wasn't to share soft kisses with this boy, to try and reach for something that he was never meant to have.

He killed the real Ronan and destroyed Adam for it. His job here is done.

It's with that realization and the willingness to honor their agreement that the double slowly pulls the gun out of his waistband and sets it on the top of the dresser as he makes his retreat, shutting the door closed behind him, shutting Adam in the same room as the corpse of the boy who loved him.

Once he's out, he pauses or a moment, bringing his fingers to his lips- but there's nothing, not even the ghost of sensation. Adam kissed him and that was it. It meant nothing to him, where it would have meant everything to the real Ronan. That's fine.

He takes a deep breath and sets out to leave the house. He won't be coming back here again.]

[unknowable]

[When the door closes, Adam doesn't fall apart instantly. He knows the impostor is still in the house, can still come back. He doesn't know when he'll be safe - he doesn't know if he'll ever quite feel safe again. He doesn't want to show his weakness, but he can't do anything either.

He remains frozen, back against the wall, skin crawling. His stomach twists, his hands shake. If he moves it will all crumble.

He closes his eyes and reaches for Cabeswater, for comfort or maybe just for some distance from what he's feeling. It doesn't help, but it's the closest he can come to support. Ronan is gone, that thing is out there, and Adam can't do anything about it. He can't hurt something with Ronan's face. He even kissed it, and though it was necessary, he is still disgusted with himself.

Adam doesn't know how long it is before he comes back to himself. He's not any better, he's not stronger, he hasn't healed. He only delayed things. The moment he opens his eyes, the moment he sees Ronan's still body again, he can't hold himself together anymore.

He sinks to the floor, buries his face in his hand. Adam, of course, cries quietly - sobbing would only have angered his father - but he cries hard. There's no thought in in, only emotion and the inability to make himself do anything else. In the back of his mind, there's a whole list of things he needs to do - make sure the double is gone, take care of Ronan's body, put Aspen and Chainsaw somewhere safe until they wake up. If they wake up, if Ronan comes back, if he isn't gone for good. If this cruel copy of him isn't the only thing left to Adam.

But he can't do any of it right now. He can't do anything. All he can do is curl in on himself and grieve.]