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

[quaerit]

[ Gansey isn't aware of it to that extent, even now. He thinks that what he's discovered here has made some of the last few months at home make sense, though. All the time they'd spent together without him, while he was with Blue. He had only barely noticed it, primarily because he'd been distracted by Blue. ]

Has it? Why? I thought this was a relatively recent thing. Obviously, I knew they weren't really speaking when I arrived.

[casperdisaster]

You didn't have to live with the tension for the last few months.

[Everything leading up to the kiss was terrible. Noah pulls back from the embrace then - they aren't talking about Noah's death, about Gansey's survivor's guilt. He wipes at his eyes quickly with the back of his hand, as if that'll hide the whole over emotional last few moments they shared.

He's not really embarrassed by it. All Noah is left is what Cabeswater salvaged from a dying boy, and even much of that has bled away, shame being a large part of what was lost. He doesn't want to overload Gansey, though. He still is settling in. He's always taken responsibility for their feelings, their problems.

Noah takes a deep breath and gives a sigh, leaning back against the counter again.]

I'm pretty sure that's what killed me. The yeti was incidental.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey is trying to watch Noah without appearing to watch Noah.

He seems better, he thinks; more settled, less upset. Enough that he seems calm, anyway. And he's joking again. Who knew that talking about Adam and Ronan's problems would result in that?

With a silent apology to them, Gansey decides that he'll take it. Besides, there's a part of him that wants to know how long this has been going on.

He doesn't appear uncomfortable at all. He just leans back against the wall, his arms folded. ]

I didn't realize there was tension! Adam said this was all very new. Exactly how long have you been trying to get them together, Noah? I'd no idea you were so invested in the idea.

[casperdisaster]

[Noah gives Gansey a bit of a withering look - of course there was tension, not that anyone noticed but Noah - like how Ronan and Adam were too busy with their own to notice Gansey and Blue's.

Noah always notices.]

Ronan's worst cockblock is himself.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey weathers that look as well as he can. Its appearance tells him he’s missed something obvious, which, all things considered, is not very surprising to him. ]

Well, in Ronan’s defence, Adam was dating Blue until very recently. He could have thought he was straight! I know I did.

[ Discovering otherwise had been quite a revelation.

Not so much where Ronan’s concerned, admittedly. ]

[casperdisaster]

[That withering look? Gansey gets another very brief shot of it. It's more vaguely exasperated than anything, really.

Noah can't be truly upset. They all missed a lot of little things, all the time. That's how people were when they didn't have the benefit of seeing the way time circled back in on itself.]

It's probably better that you didn't know.

[That is, Adam is a private person, he was surely relieved to be able to trust Gansey in his own time on his own terms.]

I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't ... me.

['Me' in this case meaning 'dead'.]

[quaerit]

[ Noah always knew everything. Gansey is strangely used to that, but still, he’s shocked that he’d been so oblivious. ]

I knew Ronan wasn’t interested in girls.

[ Which hadn’t necessarily meant he was interested in boys, but if he’d been pushed on it, that would have been Gansey’s guess. ]

But Adam…I suppose it just didn’t occur to me.

How long have you known, Noah?

[casperdisaster]

[Noah gives an uneasy shrug. In truth it isn't just a lack of wanting to answer. He doesn't exactly know, himself. His knowledge that came with being dead in Henrietta is a foggy thing, and he's aware it's full of holes - and none of it is in any kind of liner order.]

... Do you remember, time keeps reusing itself?

[quaerit]

[ Gansey frowns at him, brow furrowing a little. ]

You mean like in Cabeswater. How time is more of a circle than a line.

[ He’d not truthfully understood that it had been more to that for Noah. He might be in for a rude awakening here. ]

[casperdisaster]

[The corner of Noah's mouth quirks up in a smile and he nods.]

Time is a circle. Time is a mirrored lake. Time is a slinky.

I still know some of what I knew, but... I know I'm missing things I used to know, too. I think I can only remember what's already happened to everyone else as they know it. I'd probably be more helpful if I knew what I used to know, but this way I can actually affect things. That's what Adam says, anyway.

[quaerit]

So you knew what was going to happen, because it already had.

[ Gansey frowns, though with interest rather than confusion. He's not unfamiliar with this concept. It explains a lot that he'd taken for granted about Noah. ]

It's like you're seeing it in the fourth dimension. Or you were, before...you came back to life.

You always did seem to know everything, in fairness. Maybe we should've stopped to think about why.

[casperdisaster]

I don't think it works that way.

[As a consolation prize, for the not noticing. Noah's not sure they could.]

Like how even though I told you all I was dead, even though you never saw me in classes and never saw me eat and didn't remember when I moved in or what my last name was... you couldn't know until you found my body. What was left of it.

You never noticed because you couldn't.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey thinks back on that time now, and can't understand why they didn't ask those questions. Why had it never occurred to them to wonder when Noah ate, or slept, or went to school?

He frowns now. ]

It seems ridiculous when you say it like that. There's so many obvious questions we should've asked. And all those times you said so, and I just thought...

I don't know what I thought. That it was a joke, maybe. That you were particularly dry-humored. It was right in front of us. We should've seen it.

[casperdisaster]

You couldn't. I don't know why, but you couldn't. I'm sure you would have otherwise.

[Gansey can be oblivious sometimes, but not to that extent. Additionally, Adam is keenly observant of anything and everything. It had to be something magical in nature stopping them. Like when you're dreaming, and you can't scream no matter how hard you try.]

[quaerit]

So what stopped us, then?

[ Because that's what Noah's really saying, isn't it? That there's a magical reason for this, like magically-enforced ignorance.

That's an uncomfortable thought, for more than one reason. ]

Perhaps that's why we didn't find Cabeswater, until Blue showed us where to look.

[casperdisaster]

[Noah shrugs.

Yes, that's all he's got for an answer. Like his remarkable lack of concern for how being a ghost actually works. It's something that was happening, the why doesn't really interest Noah.

He's afraid of answers, of finding out they're something awful. The unknown is terrifying, but it's a brand of terrifying he's used to. Worse, maybe he knew the answer before and it's a product of his own separation from it that he can't remember.]

I'm glad you tried to talk to Blue for Adam. Even if it crashed and burned. I don't think she'd have joined up with us if you hadn't tried to open that door first.

Also it was pretty funny to watch you flounder.

[Somehow it doesn't sound mean when Noah says it, one friend teasing the other. It's true, though. Would Adam have felt the need to come back and apologize to her if Gansey hadn't put his foot in his mouth over it first?]

[quaerit]

[ Gansey had been thinking that was quite a nice thing to say. Then Noah ruins it, and Gansey ends up rolling his eyes. ]

That was not funny. I think she hated me for weeks.

[ Sometimes Gansey's mouth is his own worst enemy. He can never quite predict when that will be the case. ]

[casperdisaster]

[That's Noah, professional runner of moods. Stand back, people, expert coming through.]

It was really funny.

[Noah HAD been laughing with Ronan back at the table.]

You and Ronan have that in common, though.

[quaerit]

[ Pause. ]

What, Blue hating us? That’s comforting.

[ Ronan would probably be pleased, though. ]

[casperdisaster]

[Well, that's true, but it isn't what he meant.]

Failure at flirting when you care. Not that you did at the time, but... [Noah shrugs.

Failure at flirting with your true love might be a better phrasing.]

[quaerit]

[ Gansey can't help laughing. He'd failed at flirting in a more general sense, but yes, all right. He could take that point. ]

Words can be treacherous things, ruining a relationship before it can begin. I'm lucky she's more resilient than that.

[ And that she gave him a second chance, even if it had been for Adam's sake, at the time. ]