lifeaftr | January Event: Fade to Black

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January Event: Fade to Black

JANUARY EVENT: FADE TO BLACK

Who: Anyone and everyone!
What: Your true self comes to roost
When: January 21st - 23rd; January 25th - 28th
Where: All over!
Warnings: Dark subjects such as violence and self-destruction are likely to come to the forefront - please mark your content accordingly!

Down in that Darkness

This log is primarily for the Shadow and Light portions of the event, for ease and convenience. Your Shadow can be either the Persona-inspired sort - a "brutal, bitterly honest recreation of a character's worst flaws, darkest fears, and deepest secrets" - or the edgier, more laughable variant. The Lights, on the other hand, will do their utmost to convince their real selves of their best qualities, no matter how little they want to hear them.

Remember that the Shadows will be present from January 21st to January 23rd, and the Lights will be present from January 25th to January 28th.

On January 25th, we will post a separate log for Rejection Rooms!

Some useful links, for reference:

[ ♆ ] OOC Event Post
[ ♆ ] Rejection Room Sign-Ups; remember to note your interest in these as soon as possible!
[ ♆ ] Deaths Page; death penalties have been reduced for the duration of this event, but still do let us know if your character dies regardless!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: The monthly Storytelling occurs.
[ ♆ ] January 21st: Shadows of both initial variants appear.
[ ♆ ] January 23rd: Shadows of both initial variants disappear.
[ ♆ ] January 25th Lights and Rejection Rooms appear.
[ ♆ ] January 28th: Lights and Rejection Rooms dissipate. Those still trapped in their Rejection Rooms by the event's end will suffer a character death.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even if I can't stop it... I can at least be there for him. [If he wanted him to be. He's not sure he can actually not blame himself for whatever happens but for this Light of Wash's sake he could try.

It was a bad situation, but not bad situations were in rare supply.] If... If you don't want me here I will leave but you don't need to try and protect me.

"I need to know that you won't try to protect me, either."

[There's a subtle urgency coloring its words now, a tension evident in its stance, in the way it shifts its weight subtly. Washington, the real Washington, is coming, and its window in trying to convince him is going to be small. Very, very small.]

[It can't afford to divide its attention.]

[It's a hard ask. But Shion had asked it first and it's not like he really thinks he is more capable than Wash. It's not like he would be able to protect him against Wash, not really. Not if Wash really was out to kill.]

That's fair. We both assume the other is capable of looking after themselves... Deal?

"Okay."

[Its smile is terse and brief, and slides off its face quickly.]

"He's coming. He doesn't tend to work in a direct manner, and he's better at mid-range. So, if I don't get the chance to say it - thanks."

[Shion nodded, just once. Looking grim.] You don't have to thank me... I'm just glad I got to meet you.

[Glad he got to know this part of Wash. Even if it was a part that Wash himself wished to destroy.

He stood silently beside him, waiting, he would do his best to stop this, for both the Wash's sakes but if he can't then the least he can do is be here.

No one should have to die alone, even manifestations of people's good traits.]

[The Light smiles, faint and melancholic. It opens its mouth, like it's about to say something else - something earnest and calm and perhaps thankful that things went the way they did.]

[That's about the time that its kneecap is blown through by a military-grade round jacketed in lead, slamming into muscle and bone and bringing the Light to the ground with a pained shout.]

[Agent Washington moves in at mid-range, rifle raised and pointed directly at his counterpart at a slow, deliberate advance.]

Shion. [The word is a warning, low and intent.] Get away from him.

[Shion has seen so many awful things, he has seen people die, died himself, in ways that once he would not even be able to imagine. The worlds are terrible places and they are filled with terrible people.

Wash is not one of those terrible people and yet... Anger rises in him that he would hurt someone, anyone, even a strange light version of himself. Anger as he steps closer to the light not away, even as he is ordered to.

He had promised he wouldn't try and protect him, but he had also promised to try and talk to Wash.

A quick glance down at the leg tells him that it is beyond his ability to help, at least with the resources he has here. He forces himself to look away, to focus on what he's supposed to be doing and not to try and do something, anything to relieve the Light's pain. He brings his eyes up to look at the real Wash, real Wash with a gun who could shoot him in a second if he gets this wrong.

It doesn't matter.]

He won't hurt me. If he wanted to hurt me he would have done it already. He just wants to talk to you.

[The Light rolls, trying to get to its feet. Wash plants a foot on its ankle and it immediately stills.]

That's not your call to make. It's mine. [He lets his battle rifle swing down until the barrel lines up with his counterpart's face, the fine sheen of sweat glistening across skin freckled and scarred and the spitting image of his own physical features.]

[Revulsion is a live snake coiling up in his guts, squeezing ever tighter.]

Don't worry, [says Wash, quietly.] I'm not going to kill him. That'd only make things worse. But that doesn't mean I, or anyone else, has to listen to whatever bullshit - [The word snaps into a shout, low and loud.] - you're feeding them.

Edited 2019-02-22 20:43 (UTC)

I know, I'm sorry. [Only slightly though, because he had been helping Wash, or part of Wash even if it had against another part of Wash's wishes.

He steps closer though he makes no move to try and touch Wash, either of them, or to stop Wash in what he was doing. He promised.

It was hard.]

Just like the darkness... He is part of you. Even if you don't like it.

"He knows that." [The Light's words are faint, gasping, nearly soundless. It sounds strangled, the words gummed up in its throat.] "That's why he hates me."

You can shut your fucking mouth. [Wash's tone is cold. All it takes is the slight increase of pressure over the Light's ankle and it immediately curls in on itself, one hand wrapping around his armored shin in protest.] It's over. You're over.

No! [He promised. But he can't. He cannot stand and let someone be hurt without doing something. Without at least trying. He is not that person. That is more than learned helplessness... It's... It would be wrong.

Wash does not deserve to be hurt. Either Wash. And hurting his light is going to hurt Wash as much as it will hurt the Light.] Listen to him. Even if you don't like what he's going to say it's a part of you. You have to accept it. [Just like Shion had to accept the darkness inside him. And his own Light...]

This doesn't concern you, Shion.

[He stoops, swiftly, hooks one arm around the Light's neck and uses it to drag it upright. It's possible he intends to brutalize the son of a bitch into a bleeding pulp before he listens to anything it has to say. It's more than possible.]

Whatever he's told you, it's not the whole truth.

I know but... It's part of the truth.

[It does concern him, it concerns him a lot that Wash is clearly planning to beat up a version of himself, because he doesn't like what he has to say.

Especially when that version is clearly as sentient and as capable of emotion as the original.]

And it's not a part you can ignore.

Do I look like I'm ignoring it?

[If his Light were human, it'd probably be blacking out right about now. It'd be going into shock, bleeding out. It isn't, though. It's the nature of its existence.]

I've got call to deal with this the way I need to.

You're... [He might not be physically ignoring it, not when he has it in his hands and is beating it. But he's not listening, not allowing it to speak and to tell him what it has to say.

He's pushing it away, mentally if not physically. He steps closer, putting a gentle hand on the lights arm, trying to give comfort. Despite the fact there's nothing much he can do.] You can't just... At least let him speak, listen to what he has to say.

"I - " [The Light's words are pained, warped by the pressure of an armored arm tight around its throat. Its eyes are blown wide, pupils dilated, highlighting the brightness of the blue of the irises, so vibrant that they don't look quite right in its face.]

Shut up, [snarls Wash.]

"I forgive you."

Shut up. [He doesn't even hesitate.] I don't need to listen to anything he has to say.

Stop! [Shion's hand moved from where it was trying to give comfort, touching the lights arm to Wash's arm, trying to push him away from the light.

He knows it's futile. He knows Wash is stronger than him.]

Let go of him!

[Wash only tightens his grip around the Light's throat, his tone low and dangerous. The amount of stress the Light is under should kill it, if it were human. It's probably for the best that it's not.]

Don't touch me. I swear to god, if you don't stand back and let me handle this, I will break your fucking arm. Clear?

Then break it. [Shion's eyes have gone hard and angry. He knows the Light should be dead. Would be dead if he was an ordinary human and yet there he is, still struggling to breathe, still in pain and Wash seems to think the only way to solve this, the only way to deal with the good parts of himself is to hurt them.

To hurt himself.] Let go of him. [And his hands go to try and pry Wash's fingers away.

Shion has changed a lot in the last few years but he is still not someone who can stand and see others hurt.]

He's not a person. He is a thing that I am going to put the fuck down because I'm not going to sit here while another version of me pretends to be something he's not.

[But, fine.]

[He slams one foot into the back of the Light's knee, driving it to the ground. It sinks immediately with a strangled yelp. He draws his sidearm with a fluid pull, and instead of aiming it at Shion - ]

[Fires once, twice, into the Light's throat.]

He's still a person! He can still feel things! [But it was too late, Wash had drawn his gun, too quick for Shion to stop and shots ring out.

The Light is on the floor, Wash had... Rage blazed in Shion and for a moment he tried to push it down, tried to remember that Wash was not a bad person, he was scared and angry. He tried to remember that he had promised not to interfere. Tried to remember that what he should be doing is helping the Light, bleeding on the floor.

But the Light had done nothing to Wash, except exist. Exist as a double of Wash and though he was a product of this place... He didn't deserve to be treated like this. No one did.

After everything that had happened Shion was too tired to fight the anger, to fight the urge to do anything to stop Wash from hurting someone, just for existing. Just for looking like him.

He dived twisted, trying to grab the gun from Wash's hand, leg striking forward in an attempt to kick his knee.]

[It chokes.]

[Hands fly to its neck, its eyes stretched wide and beseeching. It's worse than Maine, it is so much worse than Maine because he was never there to watch the full clip get emptied into the team heavy's throat and he never had to watch the slow and steady shift of his expression, watching red leak out and pool in his suit. He only had to pick up the pieces after, and then fail to notice when things started to go catastrophically, horrifyingly wrong.]

[It's not the brutality of his own actions that arrests him. It's the memories unfurling in his soul in the tight clench of roots he hadn't realized he'd tried to stamp out. It's remembering whose throat got shot out and how.]

[Which is how Shion gets the drop on him.]

[Wash curses, torques on the spot, and reacts by instinct: with a ruthless backhand aimed for Shion's temples.]

[There is rage and anger and then there is pain. The world for a moment doesn't seem quite right, then he hits the ground, pain flares in his head, he feels nauseous but he doesn't stay down.

You stay down and you're dead and Aster might be gone but there's still people who will be angry at him for dying. He forces himself up to his knees. The blow has shocked a chunk of the anger out of him but there is still fire, still rage that wants to burst through.

He is right next to the Light though... Shion moves, his coat is not his preferred choice for attempting to stop bleeding but it's what he has. It takes more effort than he would like to pull it off his arms but he presses it against the Light's neck.

It's probably too late, he doesn't know... He makes sure he is between the Light and Wash, a human shield.

He realises he's crying, he wants to scrub the tears away but he needs his hands for pressure.]

[The Light can't speak. Of course it can't speak. It can't speak to say anything, much less a reminder of what Shion promised, and what oath he's breaking. It can only silently urge him to get out of here while the hot red leaks out from between clasped fingertips, crimsoning out in a warm gout that looks and feels so very, very human.]

[It's trying to shake its head at him.]

[Wash is trying to fist fingers into the back of Shion's shirt to yank him away.]

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1/2 cw: gore

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cw: neck trauma

Re: cw: neck trauma

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