Event log: Who What Where Wendigo

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone participating in the wendigo event!
What: The accidental-cannibalism-turned-horrifying-monster event that is the Who What Where Wendigo event!
Where: All around the city
When: Feb 14th-March 1st
Warnings: Cannibalism, body horror, evil monsters lurking around.

Don't forget to check up on the Wendigo Guide that Ami posted!

On February 14th, Rage and Fear decide to give Hope a little bit of help taking care of the residents of Hadriel - they'll provide some food for awhile. How nice! Except, of course, that there's an extra ingredient in this food. A can of beef stew? Yeah... that might not be beef. But hey, it still tastes pretty good! Unfortunately, some spirits slipped through the Door last time it opened, and they're ready to possess anyone who participates in cannibalism - even if they don't know it.

Anyone who eats the provided meat will be possessed by a wendigo spirit. Over the course of twelve days, they will transform into a monster that feels little but rage and hunger. While at first it can be explained away easily enough (people are super annoying, and isn't everyone a little hungry most of the time?), by February 18th, wendigo transformations are impossible to ignore. A few days after, on February 22nd, the anger and cravings of the wendigo spirit will overcome all other emotions, and possessed characters may begin hunting.

The physical and mental transformation will be complete by February 26th. The possessed characters will have lost themselves completely at that point. While physical healing (done by a character with Hope's blessing or another healing ability) can turn back the physical and some mental effects, they will remain possessed until death or until Hope removes the wendigo spirit - which can only be done on the altar of Hope's temple. So have fun dragging your angry, possessed friends there!

On March 1st, Rage does Hope a solid (because she feels sort of bad) and kills all remaining wendigos. Upon revival, the spirit will be gone and the character will be fully recovered. Hopefully no one holds what they did while possessed against them!

► This log covers February 14th-March 1st.
► 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!
► Please report any character deaths right here!

Comments

[cowardley]

[ It does not take much to frighten Ashley, no less jumpy than a young doe at night. She slams the door shut, adrenaline flooding her, and quickly slides the lock into the place with trembling hands. There's no real time for her to pause, to think and consider her actions, not as—no, that's not Emily—the hungry beast pounds at the door.

Still, the other girl's hurtful words linger in her head like some fucked up fortune: If I had become a wendigo after that, you can bet your skinny little ass I would've gone after you first.

Ash stifles a sob, green eyes searching for a place to hide. There isn't a lot of choice; the curved bed is high enough off the floor that Ash knows she could slide in with only some minor discomfort, and then there's the closet, with a sliding door to hide behind, but neither offer an escape route.

But maybe she should have considered escape routes before she ran into an upstairs bedroom to hide.

Another bang rattles the door, and Ashley shrieks, finally rushing to the bed, and sliding under. She presses her back against the wall, and covers her mouth with both hands in an attempt to quiet her panicked breaths. ]

[unfollowing]

[If there were enough of Emily left inside the wendigo's mind, she might remember what she told Ashley in the kitchen on her first day here, and she might actually do this on purpose. Mess with her. Scare her. Make her feel like her life depends on her friend's ability to overcome fear. Enjoy the irony, delight in her friend's sheer terror in these moments.

But there isn't. This is all wendigo, all predator. Perhaps there could still be brief flashes of Emily now and then, but now that what used to be her body is barely recognizable -- clouded eyes, curved spine, elongated limbs and fingers and toes, razor-sharp teeth, only the mark above her left eyebrow setting her apart from any other of the beasts -- she would have only a moment as her old self. It certainly wouldn't be enough to help Ashley at all.

Just as Ashley scoots under the bed, the wendigo smashes through the door, ripping the wood as if parting a curtain. She lands on the floor with a thud, the impact sending the faintest of glows out across the floor and giving her a sense of what is where within a few feet of her.

She walks across the floor, hunched low, brushing the floorboards with the tips of her claws as she feels around for where things are. Her hand brushes against the closet door, the hollow sound garnering her attention. Screeching, she rips the door open, in the opposite direction it should go, and searches inside as the door clatters onto the ground.

Nothing.

But she is not deterred. She is too hungry to be deterred. She skitters back out into the room, heading towards the bed now, though as yet she doesn't know it. Ashley's breathing is actually too quiet for the monster to hear, but she stays there anyway, waiting, waiting, waiting.

And then she hops onto the bed and lets out an especially loud shriek. She is hungry, she is ready to go for the kill. Where is her prey?

[cowardley]

[ The wendigo crashes through the door, tearing it apart like a strip of paper rather than something sturdy. As it lands on the floor, Ashley stiffens, all of the muscles in her tightening to the point of a minor ache. She wants to run, to scream, to call for help, but she knows at this point it'll just make things worse.

She'll die if she does anything.

The closet door clatters to the floor, and Ash would feel some amount of relief in her hiding spot if the creature didn't linger. As it rounds back towards the bed, she's almost certain it will discover her. It's only a matter of time.

It hops onto the bed suddenly, and the shriek it releases stops her heart, new fear and adrenaline flooding her system. She grinds her teeth together to keep a sob from escaping her, pressing her fingers into her face until it physically hurts. There's no escape.

How long can she wait under here? ]

[unfollowing]

[The room is still in response to her cry, as good as empty. Her prey must have escaped. That's the only possibility. The hunger twists inside her gut, unsatisfied, demanding meat and blood.

Movement flashes in the edge of her vision. She heads for it--something on the other side of the window. Maybe a bird. Too small, not what she craves, but it's something.

Something about this one, though, who escaped, is staying with her, pulling her back from the window. Because it's a human, it's what she needs. But it's gone now, and somewhere inside, just as strong as the instinct to hunt and devour, is a strange thought that says the world outside will feed her better than the scrawny human who has slipped away from her.

Fine. Better to spend her energy on a meal she can actually have.

She smashes through the window and climbs to perch on it, turning her head back in case she can catch the slightest movement. If she does, then she'll attack. But otherwise, after a few seconds, she'll scamper out the window and hunt elsewhere.]

[cowardley]

[ The window shatters, and Ashley can hear the creature move, glass crunching beneath it's elongated feet. She can't tell when it finally leaves, not above the thumping sound of her heartbeat, but knows better than to dare risk checking.

Hell, she doesn't even dare to breathe a sigh of relief.

She remains beneath the bed, back to the wall, for as long as she physically can. She remains quiet, and still, fear in the back of her mind telling her it's best to stay put. She eventually falls asleep beneath the bed, knees curled into her chest. ]