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

[closerift]

[ Things would be exactly the same if the situation were reversed. ... Mostly. If he had run off to protect them, she would follow immediately, would try and get him to come home and find a cure. If he was a danger to himself and others... if there was no other way... she would do what needed to be done, though it would tear her into pieces in doing so.

Cecily looks, in a word, terrible. Deathly pale skin stretches tight over bones, which stick out at odd angles beneath her clothes, visible even under her cloak at her neck, face, and hands. Her eyes, usually so dark, are only days from being completely blinded, and now are much lighter, an almost milky-white, with the transformation. The hood is drawn up over her head and face, obscuring the loss of hair she's faced thus far.

When she hears his voice, she isn't surprised. Her immediate reaction is shame, and then, hunger. ]

Don't- [ She rasps abruptly, heart thudding powerfully. Briefly, the tip of her tongue pokes at her own teeth, growing sharp and jagged by the day. It hurts, all over, it's intolerable. ] Cullen, it isn't safe.

[ But she can see him, still, though it's much more difficult. More than that, she can hear him: Pup's heavy breathing, the brush of fabrics, the metallic tap of weapon on shield. Her pulse only increases with adrenaline and the wendigo spirit says he's come to kill you, to put you down like an animal, and the voice in her mind that it still her own says I hope so. I am.

She wants to run. She wants to attack. ]

I don't want to die. [ Is what she says. ]

[smited]

[ remembering what had been said about the--creatures once they were fully transformed, cullen stayed very, very still. his hand on the back of pup's neck kept the mabari from leaving his side. the fact that it helps steady him is just a nice side-benefit. ]

I know. [ he says, and his calm facade cracks along with his voice.

he knows it's not safe. and very few people actually want to die. he had, once. the feeling is branded across his memory and it makes him certain that cecily isn't the kind to wish for the release from pain death would bring. not even in this state. even if she knows, rationally, that was she's turning into is--well. ]

Come with me to Hope's temple. We can try again. I can-- [ try to help. do his duty should it truly fail. break his own heart upon his shield as he does it, but he will do it if it is needed.

maker. haven't they suffered enough? ]

[closerift]

[ She can still see him, even when he's still, but the form wavers in and out of focus. Panic rises like a tide in her throat and she feels sick, suddenly, wants to scream at him to get out before she's more wendigo than human, before the hunger and anger and violence is greater than everything she feels for him.

What do people promise within their marriage vows? What did it mean for the husband when his wife, or future wife, became a monster? ]

All right. [ She agrees despite herself, but as she says it, a chorus louder than her own thoughts hisses in displeasure. No, this is wrong. Bad. Mistake. Louder than that is hungry, starving, famished.

Careful to keep herself at some distance from him and the dog, hood drawn up over her morphing features, the Inquisitor begins to follow. ]

You know I don't trust Hope. [ Cecily says quietly, not looking at him. ] He may well have known about this. He plays us all for fools more often than not: why should this be any different?

[ Can't, can't be healed. Won't. ]

[smited]

I don't trust him either. [ which is the understatement of the century. but, then again, there's pretty much no one cullen trusts to deal with this right now. including himself. ] If he's lying...

[ he trails off. licks his chapped lips as he tries to come up with a relatively polite way to say what he's thinking. ]

If he's lying I will raze his temple to the ground myself.

[ no, he has no idea how he's going to accomplish that when he's just got a sword, a shield, and a dog. but he's determined, dammit. he'll do it!! ]

[closerift]

[ "If he's lying"... But, she isn't going to be the one to find out. She already knows, as sure as anything else, that she will not be going to the temple. It's strange, this acceptance, because it feels more factual, logical, and unavoidable than anything. It doesn't upset her to recognize the conflict that will arise, either, and the potential for violence has her pulse quickening- ]

You may have to fight some others off for that; you aren't the only one not fond of him. [ Talk, talk while you have the words, because her thoughts are getting too dangerous and terrifying, when she stops to think about them. The Inquisitor swallows hard; they haven't caught sight of the god's temple yet, she still has time to figure something out. Is there any way she can distract him? Change his mind? Even as each occurs to her, she knows as well as she knows Cullen that there isn't a chance. ]

... He could be trying to lure us all there. [ She says, aware, somewhere, of how feeble it sounds. ] This may have been his doing all along, if he changed our food and then blamed it on the others-

[smited]

[ pup recognizes something's wrong before cullen does. by the time she says 'this may have been his doing,' the dog is standing, growling low in his throat. cullen looks between his mabari and cecily, his heart sinking. he should have seen this coming. should have guessed that her--passenger would not want to be evicted. ]

Down, pup. [ it's said quietly, but the mabari does hunker down a little. it's clear the dog doesn't like it, isn't fond of being told not to protect his master, but--cullen's not going to risk the dog taking a bite out of cecily and something going terribly wrong.

after a moment's hesitation, cullen amends his command. ] Go home, pup. [ the dog whines. ] I know. I'll make sure she's alright. Go.

[ once the dog trots off, cullen turns back to his wife. no, what was once his wife. he can't think of her--it--in those terms if he wants to keep himself sane. he can't hesitate. not here. not with this. ]

Did you actually try the cure before? Or was that a lie?

[closerift]

[ Templars, her memory tells her, feeling more separate from her body by the minute, hunt abominations. Track down dangerous creatures. He was a templar, he knows when there is a duty to be done, no matter how unpleasant. The dog growls dangerously and her skin prickles, fingers twitching. She almost growls back.

He addresses the animal and she has a hard time understanding why he's separating himself from a potential ally. Another weapon, a resource, in the impending fight against Cecily. He sends the dog off and she sucks distantly at the inside of her cheek, missing the taste of blood and raw. ]

A man who claimed to be a healer removed all the symptoms. [ She's angry at the insinuation; although he's being rational, her rage spikes wildly, making her lip twitch into scowl, betraying flashes of sharpening teeth. ] I felt normal again. But, it wasn't permanent.

[ Obviously. ]

He offered a solution and I accepted. Am I to blame that it didn't hold? That I put my trust in another person before a god?

[ Why is there so much conversation? It's so difficult. Needless. They'll never see eye to eye; they're only postponing the inevitable. ]