Event Log: Jumpscares

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Jumpscares event
Where: All over the city!
When: May 16th-May 20th
Warnings: Some startling jumpscares, interdimensional demon cats, the usual

A dark shadow looms over Hadriel on the morning of May 16th. There's a tension in the air, something palpable, as if everything has gone still and is ready to snap. You've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for hours now, and you're getting to the point where you're starting to wish that it would just happen already so that you can stop feeling this way.

Of course, when it does happen, it's not quite like you expect.

Maybe it's a tiger leaping out of your closet, claws extended. Maybe it's a faceless slenderman, stepping out from around the corner or a monster with beak and claws ripping open your shower curtain when you're most vulnerable- but within seconds, after you've been startled half to death by the monsters, they're gone. They vanish in a puff of smoke, or dissipate into glitter, or become something silly instead for a few brief moments before disappearing entirely.

Weird. But not unendurable, I guess. The bright side is that there will also be a few demon cats that have also made their way through the door. No two cats are ever in the same location, but there seems to be enough of them to go around, though the toothy one can be a bit vicious. Still, they aren't untameable, and might make nice pets, as long as you don't mind a bloody finger or two when it's time for lunch!

► This log covers May 16th-May 20th.
► 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 you have some heart problems that are unfortunately exacerbated by this event, please let us know here, and we're sorry.

Comments

[liveasmyself]

Ray's used to monsters who can't be beaten by confrontation, so she finds herself adjusting rather quickly to these harmless ones--actually, it's something of a relief to experience monsters who seem entirely nonviolent.

She jumps and sometimes yelps a little, but she doesn't think to try to strike any of them. The lingered already had her well-trained.

She definitely wouldn't think to pull a gun, so she's startled when she sees someone nearby react that way. The lady looks very tough, much tougher than Ray herself, but she has to wonder if something's wrong. Aside from the obvious.

Cautious, she pipes up, "Are you okay?"

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha doesn't seem surprised by the girl's voice. She's still tense, as much from frustration with the situation as any lingering sense of dread. She's tired of this, and for all her best efforts, that shows.

"I'm all right." She holsters her gun. No need to pull it on a kid. "Just a surprise. You'd think I'd get used to that."

A pause, then she adds, "You?"

[liveasmyself]

Ray nods sympathetically. "There's a lot to adjust to in this place."

If there's one thing she can say for herself, she supposes that it's the fact that she habituates to strangeness quickly. Too bad that doesn't seem to be a very useful skill in the grand scheme of things.

"I'm fine. I'm just glad that these ones don't actually seem to do anything to us--they're less scary than all of the other monsters here, aren't they? The ones back home, too."

[outstandingbalance]

"You're not wrong about that. On either count." Natasha rolls her shoulders, very deliberately unclenching and smiling thinly. She doesn't say that it's the build up that's getting her, not the monsters.

Monsters, at this point, she can pretty much handle—one way or the other.

"What are the ones back home like?"

[liveasmyself]

Ray hesitates. How exactly to describe the lingered? "...Different. They look like people, only... Um... more dead, I guess. Some of them are much bigger than any ordinary human, too.

"Did you fight things like this back home?" She gestures in the general direction of where the woman had put her gun. Someone so prepared must have prior experience, she'd imagine, though she has to wonder if it's with monsters or other people. She doesn't like to think about the latter possibility; it reminds her too much of Instructor Bai and many of the other faculty.

[outstandingbalance]

That doesn't really clarify much. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, things like that—a long way out of Natasha's experience, but the stories are common enough that what she's saying conjures images.

"Not like this," she says, shaking her head slightly. "Something else. Mostly just people, though."

[liveasmyself]

"Oh." Ray nods at the revelation, trying to act like it's not something that unsettles her just a little. It really shouldn't, given how many fighters there are here and how many there were back home.

"Were you in the military? Many of my teachers at school were."

[outstandingbalance]

"Yeah, something like that." Normally Natasha would say she was in intelligence, but that might be a little above her level. "Maybe something a little more like a police officer."

[liveasmyself]

"There's a--um, the Guard here. Are you a member?"

Danse had said that they were good people, there to help. She's inclined to trust his word after the help he gave her, so maybe this woman too is one of the nicer kinds of officer. Not the kind who escorts people away to some mysterious location.

[outstandingbalance]

"Not here, no." Natasha has reasons to be shy of joining up with organizations these days. It's easier to act alone. "But it's about the same idea. We try to protect people."

[liveasmyself]

That's very nice is what Ray knows she should say, complete with a pasted on smile.

She's never been too good at toeing the party line, though, at least compared to other people back home. She's become even more lax since arriving at this town and realizing that she finally doesn't have to police every little word. So, instead, she asks, "From what?"

Back home it was always communists. She hopes that this lady's answer isn't something similar.

[outstandingbalance]

"That really depends." Something in the way the girl asks that gives Natasha pause. There's no good answer to her question. The truth is complicated, and quite possibly unbelievable.

But it's a fair question.

"What's the biggest threat at the moment."

[liveasmyself]

Ray wonders if she'll have to volunteer a little of her own information to hear something of substance in return.

She hesitates a second, then offers, "Everyone back home said our biggest threat was the communists on the mainland. Is that the same as yours?"

The biggest threat at the moment sounds like it could easily shift to target whoever's causing the most trouble. Good or bad, depending on who's making the decisions.

[outstandingbalance]

That's an interesting tidbit, and one Natasha files away. It could be the girl is from the past, or it could be she's from a very different world entirely. "No," Natasha tells her, the humor in her tone tinged with bitterness. "It's been a while since communism was considered the biggest threat, politically. Over twenty years. And when it was, I was one of the communists."

Or at least she worked for them.

"There are a lot of threats where I'm from. Sometimes they are political. Sometimes they're genocidal robots. Honestly, it depends on the day."

Usually not robots, but Ultron made a big impression.

[liveasmyself]

Rey's shoulders stiffen, like she's a turtle trying to shrink into her shell. "You--?"

She hasn't met a communist since coming here--she hasn't really heard anyone even acknowledge such a thing. She certainly hadn't known any at home either, even if Mr. Chang was likely suspected to be a sympathizer.

"I don't mean any offense. I'm... not particularly political."

Not that it helps, where she's from. It's a political dispute, but many people like to couch it as survival too.

[outstandingbalance]

"It's fine. Like I said, it's been a long time, now." Natasha's not entirely sure what to make of this—she has to wonder when the girl is from. And what kind of world she was living in.

Her suspicion makes a little more sense.

"And for whatever it's worth, I'm not working here. Seems plenty of other people have that covered."

[liveasmyself]

"I see." She pauses, swallows. "...Thank you."

Time was never supposed to make a difference--no matter how many generations passed, the Nationalists would always strive to take back the mainland, and the Communists would always strive to destroy them. At least, that was the plan. Ray herself knows that ideological fervor can fade.

She's eager to seize on the change of topic, nodding. "Yes. Do you know Danse? He said that they do a good job here."

[outstandingbalance]

"Not specifically. Not well, at least. Maybe if I saw his face, I'd recognize him, but..." Natasha shrugs. She's made a point of not getting two close to the guards. Maybe paranoia, but paranoia had served her well over the years.