(event) SHATTER & DECAY

[vestigemods]

EVENT LOG: SHATTER & DECAY

JULY 21ST - 27TH

► IF THERE'S NOTHING BUT PAIN, PUT IT ON ME

On the morning of the 21st, the sun dawns peacefully over the crystalline lake just as it has every day for nearly three weeks now. Birdsong melodies soften the crisp edge to the morning air, and woodland creatures retreat from many a cabin backyard, unhurried but unwilling to contend with the cabin's residents as they wake. It's... peaceful, more so than one might expect after such a dire fate spelled out in the pamphlets upon your arrival. Perhaps, after many such days, it has managed to lull you into a sense of something like security.

Today we'll be learning a valuable lesson on why that is, in fact, a mistake.

Sometime between the 21st & 22nd, you begin to feel a bit... off. Perhaps the source is apparent at once, the ends of your fingers or toes going stiff and crystalline or swelling and blooming in small rotting sores. Perhaps the source of your discomfort is a bit less clear as your senses begin to sharpen or dull. But make no mistake, this is only the beginning.

As time passes, your situation only worsens. The glass or decay carves a slow but steady path up your limb or limbs. Your sharp senses begin to overwhelm you. Your dull senses muffle altogether. Soon, you may not be alone in your own mind, bombarded by the omnipresent thoughts and feelings of those around you in a way that you can't seem to hide from. Or worse - maybe there's no one around you, and yet you hear whispers in your mind all the same... Whispers which turn to yelling and screams and sharp violent emotions and imagery you can't simply close your eyes to because it exists inside your head.

But there is a solution.

It's detailed inside your new coffee-table centerpiece, a book bound roughly in leather and written in a language none here know or can recognize. All you know is that this book was not here last night. Not far from the book's front cover, you'll find two pages of illustrations with a page of text between them. One depicts humans holding their heads as if in distress, then cutting themselves or one another, then no longer holding their heads in distress. The next depicts much the same, but instead of a their heads they hold a discolored arm or leg... and instead of simply drawing blood, it shows them rubbing one another's blood on their discolored limbs. Skimming the rest of the book will find a dozen or so pages roughly torn from the bindings. Perhaps those were further illustrations. You may never know.

Besides - you have more pressing issues to attend to. Like bleeding, or finding someone else to, in order to make this stop.

You who only suffer the mental effects are lucky, in a sense. Your condition is deeply uncomfortable but it almost definitely isn't fatal. If you've found your limb crystallizing or rotting away, however, you have little choice but to seek a solution or resign yourself to a distinctly unpleasant death.

Regardless of which effects may be lingering, you'll find blessed relief at midnight on the 27th. Over the course of an hour, your senses will fade back into their proper strength, the unwanted guests will evacuate your mind, and the glass or rot will recede from your limbs to leave them just as they were before this veritable nightmare of a week.

Now, it's time to breathe, to recover, and to lick your figurative wounds.

► MOD NOTES

• This log is a general dump for all log threads pertaining to July's Shatter & Decay event! Feel free to utilize vestigenet for any event-related network posts you'd like to make.
  
• The event takes place from July 21st - 27th. All characters begin to experience effects by mid-22nd at the latest. Any event effects lingering at midnight on the 27th fade away over the course of an hour, in much the same way as they would if provided sufficient blood during the event itself.
  
• All event information (in detail rather than the flavortext I've provided) can be found on the July Event Infopost!
  
• Important semantics reminder! While you can have a character experience both psych and body horror within the event, both must be either rot or glass, not mix and match.
  
• Limbs lost or irreversibly damaged to this event reappear next time your character sleeps (as early as right when the event ends) unless you OOCly choose for them to retain the loss, in which case they instead regain the limb upon their next death + respawn. (If your character doesn't sleep, they go offline/fall unconscious and return to consciousness with the limb fixed.)
  
• Any questions can be directed to this top-level or, for a quicker response, to Trace on discord/plurk.

Comments

[mannerless]

( the concern earns a vague wave of his hand, though it's a careful one (you see? he's minding the bandages). ) No, no, here's fine. I slept on a stone for a year before this place, a couch is a luxury. ( as if to emphasize his point, he's squirming down to lie on his back more properly head resting on one of the floppy decorative pillows. you see? comfy.

ah, but he's peering up at sizhui again now, because - ) But stay for a moment - you haven't slept well? Is it just since the rot, or before that?

[deferences]

[sizhui opens his mouth, ready to complain how wei wuxian must have a perfectly fine bed he should utilize while they have the chance but— then he has to make the comment regarding sleeping on a rock for so long and after a somewhat resigned sigh,] Alright, that's a fair point.

[perhaps standing might've been premature, he does stay however, mouth tightening and hands clasping together behind his back.] Before that. I was [pause] anxious about sleeping someplace I'd never been.

[mannerless]

( the confession earns a thoughtful hum, because that's quite fair. wei wuxian may never have felt that same way about any particular place, but the adjustment to having his own room instead of sharing jiang cheng's had a not dissimilar effect on him, as did the first few times he slept more than a few rooms away from both of his siblings. )

Mm, and a whole room to yourself. You Lan boys share dormitories, don't you? ( his bandaged arms stretch up above his head now, getting in a good shoulder stretch, as he says - ) Well, if it's ever too quiet you're welcome to bunk in my room as you please. I'm sure we could rustle up a cot or something.

[deferences]

[following a nod of agreement,] Yes, we do. [and that being part of the problem may seem silly, but he does miss the sound of other disciples, especially on nights when the insomnia gets to him.

wei wuxian's offer hits deep within his chest, stirs something – possibly a memory? – that has sizhui reaching to touch his temple, expression momentarily creasing. no, it's... too fuzzy, much to his dismay. right now, however, it has him grinning and accepting without hesitation.] I'd like that. One day, we'll put something together, even if it's just a nest of blankets.

[mannerless]

( the grin pulls a grin out of wei ying as well, as it will likely do from now until however long it takes to get used to the fact that this fancy lan boy is, indeed, his a-yuan (and probably most of the time even after that). )

Don't underestimate a nest of blankets! I've had excellent naps in nests of blankets. ( granted he was much younger then. it's quite a bit harder to get away with once you're of a certain age (which they both certainly are, but who's to stop them?). )

[deferences]

[it's obviously fine with sizhui, who just keeps right on smiling and nodding with agreement toward wei wuxian's acknowledgement. keeping in mind the lan clan aren't supposed to ‘wallow in luxury,’ even an extra pillow probably seems lavish by then.]

I have more than a few blankets in my room, it's been far too hot to use many of them, though. [they stay folded up in a corner on a chair, which makes him think he should maybe see if anyone else needs one, but not until the heat dies down.] The nights seems a bit cooler, however, so perhaps it wouldn't be so bad?

[mannerless]

We'll figure something out, ( wei wuxian assures him with another vague dismissive wave of his hand - one which lifts up just after to cover a yawn. ) Ah, it's apparently time to go to bed, so says my bloodless cadaver. ( eyes flicker down to the blood on the boy's sleeves (and the little bit on his front, too) and - ) I'll help you wash all that out later, hm?

[deferences]

[an agreeing nod is what the boy offers in return, followed shortly after by the faintest smirk toward wei wuxian's yawn. sleep might be a good idea, yes, and perhaps it'll come easier tonight. sizhui glances down at his robes, examines the bloodstains for a couple seconds.] Later, [he repeats.] For now, I hope you sleep well. [then – before they can get distracted again! – he offers a slight bow and turns to make his way back upstairs.]