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]

[ tbh there will be plenty of time to unlock one another's tragic backstories later.

He says the bit about the well being magic and her eyebrows fly up, but instead of interrupting she lets him finish. Wild, it's almost like she has manners. ]

Yeah, I know Jake. We're all from the same, uh, set of universes. Are he and Dirk gone? Damn, that sucks. [ ... though she feels a quiet, guilty relief that someone who knew her living doppelgänger is no longer here to remind her of her failure. ] So, wait, go back to the well. Of course it's fucking magic! I could have told you that before I left. Wait, how did you find out?

[pursestrings]

[He nods first - yes, the not-so-duplicates are gone, tragically so because he lived with Jake for a while and never got to play with guns!! It's been a while, though, and the well being magic is the one thing he never gets sick of, somehow--]

I went back down there to see what would happen. First time me and Emma saw the town's memories or something, then me and Zelda saw these magic strings that tried to suck our color out, then a whole bunch of us went down and heard invisible people talking about their great new lives here in shitsville.

[These things he also counts off on his fingers. He's been busy!!]

So shit's magic, and everybody told me it was dumb 'til they all wanted to go down there too, and Mr. F's definitely got a secret base down there.

[hypertoxic]

[ Vriska muses on this quite seriously. She does not gainsay him, nor even seem to think any of what he's saying is that unusual. ]

I guess that confirms that feeling I had. [ A glance sideways at him. ] I don't know about a secret base, but he's definitely associated with the well somehow. Before I left I used my powers to try and track him down, and the well is what they led me to! All I found was that locket, though. [ a thoughtful pause. ] Huh. I wonder what happened to it after I left.

Well, forget it. Point being I'll go back down there with you if you decide to go again.

[pursestrings]

[Hold on!!! A locket!! A tangible thing that isn't just a vision!!]

Yo, what? No kidding? You think your old stuff's still here? We gotta take it down and see what happens!

[hypertoxic]

[ She grins at him. See, this is why Okuyasu is cool. ]

Haha. I dunno! The only person we could ask would be Minato. I lived with him, so if I left any stuff, he's got it. That said, yeah! Let's do it. I can even fly you in.

[pursestrings]

Cool, 'cause the rope ladder Emma made is starting to look a little like a death trap.

[RIP ladder made by 12yo.]

Minato's not a throw out people's stuff kinda guy, so...

[hypertoxic]

[ The way she smiles at him now is a little warmer. It's actually kind of sincere! ]

Don't worry about it. I don't mind ferrying people in and out. It's probably safer, unless I get fucked up somehow down there.

Anyway... [ A pause. Vriska kinda paws at her hair, the motion idle. ] Probably not. He's still here, huh? Is ... he okay?

[pursestrings]

[Ah, friendship is beautiful... Okuyasu shrugs.]

I never got fucked up down there apart from when my hands turned gray.

[But whatever, never mind that because it went back to normal eventually! Problem solved.]

...He was giving out pies the other day and looking like they kicked his dog, y'know? Dunno what was up.

[hypertoxic]

[ Hmmmmmmm. Nope, she doesn't like that. Okuyasu gets a deep frown. ]

Seriously? I'll have to find out what happened. Who the fuck would make Minato sad? He's one of the nicest people I've ever met. ... wait, pies?

[pursestrings]

[Another shrug!! That's today's theme.]

Dunno, me and him don't talk that much. But yeah, pies. Apple, but not apples that make you go nuts, like what happened last month.

[hypertoxic]

You should! He's...

[ Vriska trails off, words apparently failing her. in the end she continues the Shrug Train™, leaving I-Don't-Want-To-Commit-To-My-Emotions® station. ]

Well, whatever. Why is this place so bugshit crazy? I think about that a lot. Have we learned, like, literally anything about why we're here, or what the deal with the colors is, or anything useful at all?

[pursestrings]

Uhh, no, not really. Besides the well being magic... Guren and that quiet guy [sorry dex] went into the woods and found some old journal or something?

[Gonna be honest... he wasn't even busy that time, he just doesn't remember much of the post.]

Said something about the woods not always being full of monsters and shit.

[hypertoxic]

The quiet guy? You mean that mute kid? [ sorry dex ] Good for them. I'd like to see that. Think they'd show me if I asked?

[ a pause. ]

I wonder if it's some shit like, once these woods were peaceful, and then some malevolent evil force arrived that cursed them or whatever the hell. And that same force is why the town is all fucked up. I'd believe it. It's always some hokey narrative like that.

[pursestrings]

Maybe, I dunno. Guren stopped bitching about the well and came down last time, so they're probably down to share.

[It was in the post he doesn't remember... Okuyasu is an attentive citizen. Now, grimacing; ugh, that sounds sooo--] That's the dumbest bullshit I ever heard, so you're probably right.

[hypertoxic]

Man. I am sorry I couldn't tell you sooner about the well and the locket. It probably would have helped sway people to your side!

[ Ha ha har. That gets a smirk. ]

I know, right? That's always what's happening with this sort of epic quest horseshit. The clues get revealed slowly and the heroes have to eventually save the world! Same shit, different label. Every single time.

[pursestrings]

[Months wasted, being called an idiot online... Next time, the locket, for sure.]

Fuck that, I'm not saving shit for this clown. I got my own shit to do besides play along with Mr. F's dumb story.

[hypertoxic]

[ Now that? That is what Vriska likes to hear. She drives a fist into her other palm, smiling like a shark. ]

Hell yeah! Seriously, fuck that guy. I am beyond sick of playing out bit roles in narratives cosmically empowered assholes decide to try and force us all into. We're better than these two-bit buffoons.

... but seriously I need to defrost. [ UGGHGHGHGHGHGH ] I hope someone in this town is feeling charitable and has a jacket to spare.

[pursestrings]

[That's so weirdly specific! Hmm! Too bad he's immediately distracted by the whole, like, cold thing-]

Oh shit, the towel— I got one!

[nyoom with him to the house, which is probably like, a brisk walk-slash-float away by now.]

I got my other jacket too, I guess... [But you could probably fit three Vriskas into one Okuyasu jacket, considering.]

[hypertoxic]

[ yeah weird right let's definitely not revisit that weirdly specific description ever again

Honestly Vriska is just incredibly grateful to follow him to somewhere warm, though his offer gets an odd look, like she can't decide if she should be grateful or laugh at him. ]

Wait, seriously? Are you sure? I don't want to just, like, take your shit.

[pursestrings]

Have you noticed I got this cool hoodie?

[VERY COOL, Vriska. He gestures to it, walking backwards up the little path to the house before leading them inside.]

I was gonna let you borrow my shit, not keep it forever.

[hypertoxic]

[ okay, now she does laugh, though the sound of it is not bad-natured. ]

Yeah, how could I forget that you announce how cool you are to the entire world at every possible opportunity?

[ BEING INSIDE, THOUGH.

being inside though. bless the lord. vriska is visibly very grateful to finally be indoors. ]

Okay, okay, jeez. Who am I to look a gift hoofbeast in the mouth? I will borrow your shit.

[ a beat, and: ]

Thanks, though. Seriously.

[pursestrings]

Sooner or later, everybody else is gonna catch on.

[Ha... yeah, sure. They won't, and he knows this. Anyway: a towel. He's going to run upstairs, so first, while he waves a hand at her like please, it is no problem:]

Uh- just hang out for a second, I guess. Eat a snack or something.

[hypertoxic]

I am going to drip all over your furniture, [ she calls after him, casually mocking, though there's no bite in it.

By the time he returns he'll actually find she hasn't gone far at all. Mostly because the ice on her actually is melting and she actually is, like. Dripping ice water on his floor. And she didn't want to actually do that. ]

This might be a two or three towel situation.

[pursestrings]

[On like, day one in this town, Okuyasu volleyball spiked a skull through the floor and literally never repaired it. This house has seen some shit worse than water.]

What, for real? Do I gotta put down newspaper? [you can't say that to people] Hang out again.

[He balls up the first towel and chucks it at her from, like, halfway up the stairs again. He'll go get more!!]

[hypertoxic]

Fuck off, [ she immediately rejoinders, and snatches the towel out of midair.

by the second time he returns she has moved, if only to puddle on the floor. there is no troll here, only a towel ball with one single horn sticking out the top.

and then, after some wiggling, also her hand, which she holds out in silent demand for towel #2. ]