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

[bring_the_beatdown]

Now that Nick was on the ground the creature was at an advantage. Catching his footing and turning to pin his quarry down, he retreated back raising a hand to rake those claws across the synth's back. But moving like that tilted his weight and exposed more of himself to attack. The elbow caught Scout full in the face, causing him to falter and miss with his claws, but he wasn't deterred, wouldn't stop until one of them was dead.

Instead of backing off, he took the brunt of the impact to the side of his head then turned, biting at that elbow with hundreds of sharp teeth. He didn't hear the crunch of teeth on bone he'd hoped for, but he at least had the jacket in his mouth, shaking his head back and forth like a dog with a toy.

The gun was ignored, he didn't need it and had all but forgotten about it at this point, now that he had something in his teeth.

[synthedick]

Though his body was artificial, the pain Nick felt as the wendigo latched onto his arm was not. The coat didn't offer him much in the way of defense: the sensors in his synthetic skin went off all at once as the creature's teeth took hold, giving a shock to his system.

Nick's immediate impulse was to wrench his arm away from the former human; his instincts told him better. He instead put all the strength he could muster into pushing his elbow further down the creature's throat, hoping to choke him and force him backward in the process. And if he managed to push hard enough to slam the wendigo head-first into the ground? That'd be just peachy.

And if not, he'd have to go to plan B... as soon as he figured out just what plan B was.

[bring_the_beatdown]

The lack of struggle was strange. Some primal instinct in his brain telling him that wasn't a normal reaction and he should be wary of what was to come. But he ignored it. He was going to wrench the limbs from this mechanical man one at a time if he had to.

Backing up he kept his teeth firmly clenched there, trying to drag with his jaw and cause maximum injury. But then there was the elbow in his neck, he hadn't paid attention to it at first because generally when he got things in his mouth or claws that was endgame, there wasn't anything to worry about after that point.

So the fact that he was being slowly forced back and twisted down to the ground goes unnoticed until it's too late for him to brace himself. Down he went, right into the pavement, crashing heavily as he lost his balance completely.

An inhuman wail left him, frustrated and enraged at this turn of events. But he wouldn't be down for long, already struggling back up for another attack.

[synthedick]

The second the creature was on the ground and wailing in frustration, Nick tore his arm from his mouth, losing a bit of his coat and skin in the process. His shoes slid on the ground as he scrambled for his gun, trying to reach it before the monster found his way back to his feet.

Though he went for the weapon, he considered shooting the former human a last resort: what he wanted, needed to do was find some way to incapacitate him, to calm him down just enough to drag him to Hope's temple. He knew better than to let himself get too torn up, though -- the god promised he could raise the dead, but whether or not he could fix a mechanical man was something Nick didn't want to find out the hard way.

His metal hand wrapped itself around his firearm, and he ducked to the side, turning sharply, hoping the wendigo wasn't practically upon him.

[bring_the_beatdown]

Claws scrabbling at the ground to right himself he shrieked in rage and frustration. Why was he losing? How was this creature defeating him? All he wanted was to eat, and that's what he was going to do; frustrated enough to chow down on wires and metal pieces out of sheer spite at this point.

Though he'd been tossed around a lot, he wasn't really injured, and with supernatural strength and abilities he wasn't going to stop until one of them was dead. Preferably the one standing in the way of all his meals in the cave.

He sprung up, launching himself high up into the air for a pounce attack, ignoring the gun, it wasn't important. All that was important was the ever present hunger and that he was about to satiate it with Nick's face.

Lashing out with teeth and claws he attempted to tackle Nick to the ground again, ready to end this right now.

[synthedick]

By the time Nick turned to face the wendigo, the creature was already off the ground and in the air, pouncing like a cat coming in for the kill. He might have had all the best intentions in the world -- of getting this kid help, of finding a way to rid him of the god's corruption before he lost his life along with his humanity -- but when it came down to the wire and he had only a split second to react, Nick fell back on old instincts. There was no fighting them sometimes, even if they weren't truly his to begin with.

The real Nick Valentine had been a hell of a cop, one who fought to protect others and sought justice when no one else would, but even he'd known when there was no turning back from a fight. The synthetic Nick knew it just as well, those old memories programmed into him, influencing his every action, guiding his every move. The world was often kill or be killed, and as much as Nick liked to believe there was always another option, sometimes things just ended up in a mess anyway: the pieces didn't fit, things fell apart, and people died no matter how damn hard he tried to avoid it.

And so, in the instant before the wendigo collided with him, his claws reaching, ready to tear the synth apart, Nick brought his pistol up, aimed it at the former human -- someone cursed to be a monster through no fault of his own, someone who hadn't chosen to be that way -- and fired.

[bring_the_beatdown]

It caught him full in the chest, tearing right through bone and skin and muscle and sending the Wendigo fully off balance. He crashed into the ground again, head colliding painfully with the hard floor of the cave. He slid a few feet without moving, hurt yes, but mostly stunned, before struggling back to his feet.

His arm wasn't really responding anymore, something severed in his shoulder that should have controlled his hand. Wavering and off balance he let out a horrendous feral scream, dripping with pain and rage and frustration. With his good arm he made a swipe at Nick with his claws.

The all consuming hunger was still there, would never be satiated, but now there was something else, something he'd not had to consider in his short time as a wendigo: Survival.

He was considering fleeing as a possible solution to this fight. If this final attack didn't work, he'd turn and run.

[synthedick]

Nick had hoped the wendigo would stay down, that the shot to the chest would be enough to quell his rage; it wasn't, unfortunately, and the creature rose to his feet, ready to try again, ravenous hunger driving him when common sense would have told anyone else to stay down. The shot at close-range had ruined something in his shoulder, leaving one arm limp while the other went back on the attack.

Nick sighed, watching the wendigo stagger, and prepared himself himself to dodge. "You can hear me, can't you? You've gotta stay down, or at least cooperate. I can help you. I want to help you."

But what he and the wendigo wanted were clearly two different things. He was nearly surprised by how quick the creature could be, even when crippled, as he stepped back from the wendigo's swing and found his tie caught by the claws. They cut through the fabric like a hot knife through butter, and Nick found himself glad that hadn't been his body on the receiving end of the blow.

"Don't make me shoot you again," he warned, knowing good and well the creature was beyond such rational thought.

[bring_the_beatdown]

If any part of Scout had been left he would have stopped long ago, or at least hesitated to attack this random stranger. He also would have been on the ground writhing in pain from the agony pulsating out of his shoulder and chest.

But none of Scout was left. Already dead the moment the Wendigo took over.

The claw swipe caught only fabric and he roared again, as if that would make Nick stand there and let himself be ripped to pieces. Staggering forward he tried again. Options were limited with only one arm, and his previous attempts to tackle the guy hadn't gone well. He wasn't out of tricks yet though, aiming to back Nick against a wall where he could really lay into him.

[synthedick]

It wasn't that Nick hadn't killed before. The Commonwealth was a dangerous place, a wasteland filled with gargantuan mutants, rogue synths, irradiated wildlife, and wayward people who felt they had nowhere else to turn to but violence when it came to solving their problems. He'd dealt with each and every one of those threats over the years, talking himself out of predicaments when he could. Sometimes, raiders would rethink what they were doing; occasionally, people would reconsider the path they were taking, and turn themselves around. If a synth could do it, then so could they.

This was not one of those times. There would be no talking his way out of this brawl, no matter how badly he wanted to. Hadriel had plenty of bloodshed to go around without him adding to it; however, as he backed into the wall of a nearby building, he realized he was running out of options, as leading this creature to Hope's temple before he either tore him apart or they stumbled on someone else -- someone with more flesh and blood, and less capable of defending themselves -- was looking less and less viable.

This wendigo had been a person once, something Nick could never claim to be. Hopefully, said wendigo would be a person once again, granted Hope made good on his word that he could -- and would -- revive the dead. It was unfortunate that some things had to be found out the hard way.

Biting down his reservations, Nick brought his pistol up again, and aimed for the head this time.

[bring_the_beatdown]

The gun was a threat, but the wendigo saw it too late. He'd been aiming to swipe a clawed hand across Nick's chest, hoping to shred him apart. The strange metal man wasn't bleeding and didn't smell edible but he wanted it dead anyway. Dead so that he could move on and eat something else uninterrupted.

With a crack the bullet found it's mark, spiraling right through the creatures' head. He followed through with his swipe, raising his hand to make another and letting out an unearthly screech.

There were a few seconds where the body didn't realize it was dead and the Wendigo took a few steps with legs that were no longer connected to a nervous system; screamed with a voice through lungs that no longer expanded.

And then he dropped. Laying on the ground and twitching a few times before going still.

[synthedick]

Nick stood there with his pistol still up, watching the wendigo hit the ground, twitching as the last bits of life ebbed from his muscles. He'd shot in self-defense, but it didn't feel right. This hadn't been a raider, or a criminal, or hell, even a monster. This was someone who'd been cursed by the gods, another person.

Or he had been a person, which was more than Nick could even say for himself. He sighed, and once he was sure the wendigo wasn't getting back on his feet, knelt by the corpse, eyeing the dog tags hanging from his emaciated neck.

"... Shit." That didn't encompass all that he felt at that moment, but it was a start.

There was only one thing left for him to do: take the body to the temple and see if Hope really could do something, anything. Maybe the so-called "god" wasn't as powerless as the rest of them.