Event Thirteen.

[awashmods]

To love a human face was to discover The cracks of paint and varnish on the brow; Soon to distrust all impulses of flesh That strews its sawdust on the chamber floor, While at the window peer two crones Who once were Juliet and Jessica.

t's a regular morning here in the Town. The sun isn't shining at all, snow is falling like crazy, and...there may be the sounds of shouts coming from the well, thoroughly muffled. Okay, so it's not a regular morning at all, but you'd better go help those people! The newcomers are here again. Of course, once you get to the well, you'll notice that there's actually no real help you can offer -- it's totally frozen over. As for the newcomers, well... hopefully being suddenly dumped into freezing cold water in the middle of November in a dark, damp well is your idea of a good time, because that's your life now! And that's not even taking into account the mirrors in everyone's homes that are about to wake up and start chattering... Welcome to Awash's thirteenth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. Please keep in mind that while this is a general event log, it is also an intro log; be sure to pay plenty of attention to our newcomers! If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

Comments

[hypertoxic]

[ i. escape!! ]

[ So, first of all.

Vriska could not possibly be more unhappy to come to in the well. Of all places! With all her shitty braids and tattoos and piercings and horrific fashion choices intact. She'll spend at least a minute peering down at herself with disgust before the overwhelming cold becomes too much to ignore. Enjoy a high-pitched shriek of rage, fellow newcomers. ]

Are you fucking kidding me?! Again with this bullshit? Bye!

[ look, she can fly, see you later losers

except she severely underestimates the ice and just kind of smacks into it like an especially angry bird with a loud and sickening whunch, and bounces off to fall back into the icy water below, utterly dazed.

Only after she's somehow managed to calm down will she actually try to help everyone else escape, thoroughly mortified. ]

[ ii. guess who's back, back again ]

[ Once she's finally free of that icy hell, Vriska will take to wandering around town to look for people she knows. She is sopping wet thanks to her stunt, and her hair and clothes are quickly and quite thoroughly starting to freeze. If she weren't already dead, she might die of hypothermia, what with all the actual icicles that are stuck to her stupid dreads. ]

What the fuck are you looking at, [ she'll grate if she catches you staring. Unless you happen to be someone she was friendly with before, at which point she'll just kind of stop, blue in the face, and haltingly go: ]

Hey. ... uh, do you know where I can find a towel?

[ iii. mirror mirror ]

[ iii.a ]
Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting.

[ Given time to settle in, Vriska will find her mirror, and ... honestly, she seems a bit underwhelmed by it. Perhaps just whelmed. Find her sitting on the steps to her new abode, staring into it with her chin in her palm, eyes half-lidded.

Her reflection, on the other hand, is animated, her very much alive (yellow sclera, you see, with a total of 8 bright blue pupils) eyes peeking into every corner of the frame trying to see past it. ]

God, you are such a worthless fucking loser. Couldn't you at least show me around? I'm guaranteed to be way more interesting, as we both know, and who wants to put up with a pathetic whiny weak little sadsack like you in the first place? Shouldn't you be busy weeping in a corner about how fat and lonely you are? Haha. You might as well let the rest of them see the real Vriska, so they can get a taste of what they're missing! Oh, and kill yourself while you're at it, just to save us all the trouble. Even stuck in this piece of shit mirror I'm clearly the preferable option to the whole "disgusting, tragic mess" thing you've got going on.

[ Vriska herself doesn't really react to this animated ranting, though if possible her eyes hood further, their whites just bright slights in her face. If you come anywhere near her when she's got her mirror, you can expect to be called out by reflection!Vriska, who is every inch the gleeful evil imp you might expect a girl like her to be given her, like, everything. ]

[ iii.b ]
[ Later, you may find her wandering anywhere the houses are especially run down, ignoring her reflection chattering maniacally away at her. With her free hand she seems to be picking up, and assessing the worthiness of, various rocks. Approach and she'll offer, deadpan: ]

Want me to break yours too?

[ iv. wildcard ]

( ooc: hit me up with anything you please! i can be reached for plotting at heartfuls! )

ii

[glaciers]

[Shouto just kind of stops entirely, staring at Vriska like she's not entirely sure she's real. It's been months and months since she's even been around- but Shouto's expression quickly turns to a smile.]

Yeah, we've got a couple at home if you wanna follow.

[hypertoxic]

[ honestly, for an extended moment, vriska just stares at him, her expression perfectly blank. she takes one step forward, then another, and then--

--then she's off, actually leaving the ground in her haste to crash into him with a hug. ]

Shouto! Thank fuck, you're still here!

[ A beat, and she'll kind of pull back all at once, bright blue in the face. ]

I mean ... shit. You know what I mean. Sorry.

ii.

[messianic]

[Oh.

Oh.

Minato was not expecting someone to come back. He's gotten used to people disappearing, but people coming back...that's a new one.

But...

(He's happy, he's really happy. He can feel the leap in his chest, and...)

He stares for only a moment before he lifts his chin, and then he's unwinding his scarf.]

Vriska-chan... you look freezing. Here... [Incoming scarf!]

i even have a cute scarf icon to use in this situation

[hypertoxic]

[ so they're just kind of here, awkwardly staring at each other, until he takes his scarf off.

Vriska doesn't stop him from winding it around her neck, but she also turns bright blue basically from her collarbone to her hairline. ]

You fucking idiot, [ she sputters, ] a scarf isn't going to make me less a literal walking icicle.

[ a beat and ... she beams at him, unable to help it. ]

Hi, Minato.

towels for roomiefest 2k18

[pursestrings]

[It's been almost nine months and Okuyasu has seen his fair share of random disappearances and sulked about each one, in his own way, but somehow he's never actually caught someone coming back. Sure, sometimes people talk about disappearing for a week and coming back feeling like it's a year later, whatever, it's never happened to him— and what exactly is the protocol for when someone vanishes for months and then climbs out of the well again one day? So weird.

But mostly what he thinks when he sees Vriska is "oh, spider chick," and what he actually says is,] Yo. They drag you back here?

[He does know where she can find a towel, though, so just follow him. Let's go!!]

[hypertoxic]

[ you know, honestly, he gets roughly the same reaction. without any protest she'll fall in beside him, floating along, because her frozen clothing crunches when she walks and it's annoying. ]

Hey! I mean, yeah, looks like it. That or the universe just spit me back out. [ a sharp laugh. ] It's, uh, it's good to see you? Shit, how long was I gone? Why is it so fucking cold?

i

[girod]

[ He'd been heading to the well when he heard the voice and then he's going much faster, leaning over as he actually does shout- ]

Vriska?

[hypertoxic]

[ like honestly,

once she recovers from giving herself a fucking concussion, she'll realize she heard a familiar voice. getting herself back out of the water and all the way up to the ice takes her a few minutes because her head is ringing like a fucking gong after a collision like that, but eventually he'll hear her call back: ]

Clark?

[ Her voice is muffled through the ice, naturally, and her form is blurry and indistinct, but there's enough distinct features to tell it's her. ]

iii.a

[photoshooter]

[It's a sad, mostly monochrome Prompto that blinks at the troll girl sitting outside in the cold with her tank top and her partially-shaved head and her mirror.

He blinks again, breath fogging out in the November air, then walks closer. The feelings are muted and far away, but he knows her. He knows this girl.]

Vriska.

[Blink.]

You could bury it in the snow. For a little while.

[hypertoxic]

[ There's like, a lot of things wrong here.

Vriska stares at him blankly, and then kinda.. settles her brow low before quirking one eyebrow. She discards her mirror like she doesn't give a single fuck about it, ignoring the furious screech of her counterpart, and floats over to him. ]

Prompto? ... uh, hey? What's with you?

iii.b

[fineprinted]

[ tsumugi's own mirror has been eerily silent, only speaking when it's told to, so he can only shake his head solemnly at the strange-looking girl. ]

Thank you, but... isn't it bad luck to break mirrors in some cultures? I don't think I can handle seven consecutive years of it.

[hypertoxic]

[ for some reason that's hilarious, and she laughs, the sound of it sharp. ]

Bad luck? Please. Who cares. What, you're going to let some made up bullshit for infants keep you tied to that thing?

ii

[windeity]

[My favorite thing is that they're familiar and not entirely friendly so here we are! It's hard not to notice Vriska because she's always been So Much, but he doesn't say anything just in case she isn't real. Instead, when she speaks up, he just wordlessly drops a towel out of his sylladex and holds it out to her.]

I could also blowdry you if you want. [Hi Vriska, what the fuck.]

[hypertoxic]

[ ...

Ah.

Vriska's expression blanks out, and she kind of glances away, but after a moment she'll hug herself and move towards him. ]

Only if you can do it without freezing me to triple death, Egbert.

iii. b

[satanslash]

[Rin knew, had known for the past year that his inner self was obviously not going to be anything close to normal. Sure, insecurities and uncertainties, a certain level of self loathing that remained even following certain levels of growth; these things were bound to be there, naturally.

What Rin did see in his mirror, though, was not at all what he had expected and frankly? It scared the absolute fuck out of him.

Was this... really what was inside him? A true demon that shared his face but stared with a cold, hungry fire and spoke hissed words about power and burning everything.

You could be free of this place if you just burned it all. Stop trying to keep my suppressed. You know I won't stay this way forever. Sooner or later, you're going to weaken and break.

God, he wanted that mirror to go away. Every word felt like claws on his brain and made his chest ache.

Staying around the house where others could see this felt like the absolute worst idea in the world, though it wasn't as if he could avoid people outside for long, either.

Which is, naturally, how he comes across a familiar figure searching for just the right rock to end her own mirror's existence.

Rather than responding to her actual question he just stood there, mouth slightly open in exhausted surprise.]

Vriska...

[hypertoxic]

[ Vriska's already been her worst self. She has probably always been her worst self, and she saw what the consequences of that did. The old her could never understand Rin, his fear of himself, because it used to be that she could never be anything but extremely, stupidly proud of herself. The her in the mirror is more like a shadow. A nightmare that won't leave once you wake up.

It also happens to be a very chattery nightmare, since it won't shut up even though the real Vriska has gone quite still to see who's turned up. She blinks at him several times, visibly surprised. ]

... Rin? Holy shit, Rin!

[ It's actually enough to make her smile, which says a lot, at the moment. She drops her mirror and the rock both, leaping at him with a hug.

Of course, as with just about everyone she's done this to, she remembers herself a second too late and immediately lets go, blue in the face. Only then does she see how tired he looks. ]

... hey, you okay?

mirror vriska. i mean iii.a

[appraiser]

[ Perhaps it's a little selective hearing at work, but Ryoji had missed the actual words coming out of the reflection's mouth, catching only the inflection in its voice- the confidence and amusement, jeering if he knew any better, but he doesn't and as he approaches, all he sees is Vriska sitting there alongside her mirror and barely paying it any mind. ]

You're not going to talk to it?

[ he asks tentatively, knowing the answer would be "It's best not to engage in any of the demons in this town," but his heart still bleeds a little for it. ]

Being ignored can be a bit lonely, after all...

[hypertoxic]

What? No.

I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, she's right. We have basically nothing in common, after all. Since she's a loser sack of garbage. Anyway who cares about her! Why don't you tell me about you?

[ Vriska stares blankly at herself, then looks up at him. ]

Trust me. This is a bad idea.

i.

[interlucere]

[ Lux already knows where this is going well before it happens. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and she just can't look away. Even when Vriska smacks into the ice, and the small blond winces in pain, she continues to watch as this horned Icarus falls back gracelessly into the pool below. Yikes.

She should probably... see if this person is all right. Lux makes her way over, crouching down and resting her arms on her thighs. ]

Are you still with me? Groan one time for yes, two times for no.

[ They say laughter's the best medicine, especially for wounds to one's pride.

But on plus side, it looks like one of her horns managed to crack a small section of the ice where she hit. So uh. Good job Vriska? Probably wasn't worth it in the end, though. ]

[hypertoxic]

[ Look.

Don't call her out this way?

It takes Vriska a moment to resurface from the water, gasping and sputtering. Her forehead is bleeding? Wow. What an idiot! ]

Fuck you!

[ Sorry Lux. Vriska presses a hand to her head, her sharp teeth showing in her snarl as she stares up at the ice. ]

God. I hate this fucking town. [ .... finally she peers at Lux as if just noticing her for the first time. ] Wait, who are you?

iii.a

[whichcraft]

[The surreal thing about overhearing a tirade like the one Vriska's mirror is throwing at her is the fact that in terms of content, it's not even altogether unfamiliar. Her own mirror has taken a slightly different direction in terms of insulting her lately, but it's not as though the things that Vriska's is saying couldn't just as easily apply, and that recognition hits a little close to home.

It's cold out these days, so she's wearing her town-gifted winter gear around — a red peacoat and purple gloves with a black cloak over all of it. The cloak is absolutely magic, for anyone capable of sensing that sort of thing, but even those who can't would still easily notice that there's something about its folds that make it somehow...hard to look at. As though the eye doesn't want to focus on it, somehow, and naturally just slides away from it to fixate on something else.

She's a disaster of fashion, is the takeaway point here, but she's stopping to regard Vriska thoughtfully.]

Hey, no offense, but mirror-you is a piece of shit.

[JUST SAYING.]

[hypertoxic]

[ Well.

That's a hell of a thing to say to a total stranger. Vriska stares at her blankly for a moment, and then barks a startled laugh. ]

You don't have to tell me! No one knows better than I do what a total bitch I am.

[ Vriska twirls her mirror in her fingers, smiling just a little at the way it makes the mirror version of her shriek. ]

It's fine. No offense taken.

II

[inheritance]

[At this point, it's habit to head back to the house and grabs supplies as soon as he hears that more people are appearing from the well. And it's pure luck that Izuku manages to catch Vriska in the huddle of cold and probably miserable newcomers.

It takes Izuku by surprise, his mouth dropping open for a second, before the surprise melts into genuine joy at seeing a familiar face.]

Yeah. I've got a bunch right here, Serket-san. [With a smile that's too sunny for this cold weather, Izuku teases one out of the stack in his arms and hands it over to her.]

[hypertoxic]

Midoriya! [ the one and only time she'll use his name. she lights right up, beaming as she takes a towel. ] Hey! .... why are you carrying around a stack of towels?

[ regardless she'll happily drape it over her head, beaming out from beneath it. ]