(event) GHOSTS & HOSTS

[vestigemods]

GHOSTS & HOSTS

SEPTEMBER 22ND - 28TH

► WAS THERE ONE YOU SAW TOO CLEARLY? DID THEY FEEL TOO REAL TO YOU?

To some, the newfound territory within the containment zone is a blessing. Others, perhaps, worry that it may be a curse in disguise. The only way to find out which is true is, of course, to explore it for yourselves. But while the nature of the miles of new frontier remains ambiguous so far, one thing has quickly become apparent: You weren't the first to find it.

While every ounce of rationality (and all five or more of your senses) may tell you as you step into town or explore the farm's shady orchard that you're alone in this place, not a day has gone by since the barrier expanded that you haven't at some point felt a prickle along the back of your neck, or a subconscious tension inching through your body. Not a day has gone by that you haven't felt inexplicably watched.

Perhaps you told someone. Perhaps you kept it to yourself, for fear of sounding crazy. Either way, your suspicion is soundly validated on September 22nd as spirits begin to manifest all through the containment zone. Some are overtly hostile, utilizing their newfound traction on this mortal plane to wreak some form of harm. Others at first seem benign, but you'll quickly learn that no spirit here is truly harmless.

DID YOU TOUCH THEM, DID YOU HOLD THEM? DID THEY FOLLOW YOU TO TOWN?

You'll also learn quickly that very little that you do can stop them. Fists and blades sail through their intangible forms as if through fog, and unless you're actively working toward gaining them that which they seek (and even still then, sometimes), words do little against them either. So what can you do? Good news, research nerds: The answer lies in a book. A very familiar book, to those who were here when they and others rotted away or turned to glass. A copy appeared on the coffee-table of each cabin that month, and regardless of where it has gone or what has been done with it since, it does so again now with a formerly-blank space now filled in. The diagrams, it seems, depict what seems to be a spirit giving his heart to what seems to be a ramshackle beast. Below it, a figure seems to be waving an iron object through a spirit - insight on how to disperse one, even if not to kill it entirely.

But what are these ramshackle beasts they depict? The answer lies amongst the trees, stone-still and watchful. You may not even realize once you've spotted one - it hardly registers as a creature, a feral patchwork of skeleton and loose fur and misshapen flesh, limbs too long or too gangly, posture far too still to be canny. Very few still have eyes in the holes of their skeletal faces, yet there's no mistaking the way they watch you. It isn't predatory, for these aren't predators, but it's vigilant and unafraid.

It makes no move to attack. Instead, it offers acknowledgment - perhaps a less derelict creature might have offered a bow of its head, but all the beast can offer is a twitch-tilt of its skeletal head, a shift of weight from one forelimb to another. And from here, you may very well seal your fate. Should you choose to walk away, a halcyon truce falls between you and the beast, and it makes no move to threaten or hinder you as you make your way off through the trees. Should you try to approach or so much as flinch in the direction of your weapon, however, and the best is upon you in seconds, far more strong and fast and sharp than such a dilapidated creature has any right to be.

THEY WERE KIDS THAT I ONCE KNEW, NOW THEY'RE ALL DEAD HEARTS TO YOU

Whether you fall prey to your better nature and strive to help each damaged soul find peace or risk life and limb to carve out the beating heart within each beast, the war against the spirits is not an easy one, and few escape it mentally and physically unscathed. It lasts for nearly a week, at which point you may very well have begun to feel hopeless, wounded and sleepless and unable to see any end to it all.

And yet an end does come. As September 28th approaches sunset, the spirits have begun to retreat. Even those who have one of the living in their clutches may stop abruptly, appear to draw in a bracing breath, then turn and step into nothingness, fading from sight right before your eyes. What has drawn or sent them away, and where have they gone? These are questions for another day. For now, take a moment to bask in the first time you've felt truly alone and unwatched in weeks as, deep within the woods, an array of beasts clamber serenely back into the muck from which they emerged.

You've done it. Or... at least somebody has.

► MOD NOTES

• This is a catch-all log for top-levels pertaining to September's Ghosts & Hosts event. Go ahead and utilize vestigenet for any event-related network posts you'd like to make.
  
• This event takes place between the IC dates September 22nd and September 28th.
  
• All event information can be found on the Ghosts & Hosts Infopost! The logs are largely flavor-text to supplement the information offered in the infopost.
  
• Feel free to use my Example Spirits list to inspire your own ideas, or even steal spirits wholesale from that list if you'd like! You're also welcome to bring me a theme or desired effect/ability for the spirit and have me brainstorm up a spirit idea for you.
  
• Please take care to label your top-levels with identifying information like the IC date and location, so that others can see at a glance if their character can hop in!
  
• Also make sure to label content warnings for any troubling subject matter in the backgrounds or present behaviors of spirits you create. Possible CWs coming to mind are for self-harm or suicide, excessive/vivid gore, any sort of abuse, or animal harm/death - but even if I haven't listed it, if it feels like it might need it then slap one on there anyway!
  
• Any questions can be directed to this top-level or, for a quicker response, to Trace on discord/plurk.

Comments

[singularwidower]

Maybe it is. [His tone is light and contains some small amusement.] I wouldn't put it past this place to dredge up the demon-dead or other creatures past living for us to play with.

[theprezident]

I hate that.

[ Really, really hates that. ]

I'm just gonna ... go.

[ Not that he's about to turn away from it. No, he's going to walk sideways down the road. Hopefully he doesn't make a misstep and provoke it. ]

Did you wanna...fight 'em? XD Daemon can do the honors...

[singularwidower]

Probably wise.

[Daemon follows at an amble, carefully drifting to place himself where he might intercept the creature if it did try to attack. He's well-accustomed to dangerously-looking things being perfectly reasonable, but they are often dangerous-looking for a reason.]

I'm unsure if I'd like to simply leave it be, however. It's rather close to what passes for a thoroughfare here, and I wouldn't want someone unwary to stumble upon it.

I was gonna have Rhys fuck up bc that's just like him but I'm glad you're up for it :')

[theprezident]

Do what you want, but I'm getting nowhere near that thing.

[ And despite how scared he is, he can't stop himself from talking with his hands. So he swings an arm out in the creature's direction, and the next moment he shrieks as it takes off at a sprint towards them. He almost trips over his own feet in his hurry to get the fuck away from it, but even if he hadn't stumbled, he wouldn't have been quick enough. It's almost on top of him in an instant.

Help. ]

heck yeah

[singularwidower]

[Daemon inclines his head. Reasonable enough. He won't drag the unwilling into something like pest removal, especially when then pest looks like something out of a nightmare.

And then it moves.

He is not...entirely sure what prompts the beast to move, in all honesty. With having his one wary eye on it, however, he is already pivoting to face it as it launches forward. It's fast. Fast enough that Daemon only has time to throw a kinetic shield between the beast's claws and jaws and the tender, squishy flesh of the human it's attacking. The shield is made of pure psychic energy that flickers solid black where the beast impacts.]

Well. That answers the question of whether we should take care of it, does it not?

[Daemon moves with the easy of someone who has fought a great deal in his life, flowing backward to keep out of reach of the beast's natural weapons, far more cautious about fighting the thing that he wants to be but, well. This place has limited him in ways he has not fully explored, and finding an unknown limit in the middle of a fight is not his preference.]

[theprezident]

[ His eyes squeeze shut for a moment as he braces himself for pain, and it takes him a second to realise that there is none. When he opens them again, it seems the beast has decided to go for Daemon instead, if only because it didn't get to its first target.

He doesn't manage much in reply except a strangled noise that could mean just about anything, as he backs up several steps. The question is, is it worth putting his back to this thing to run when it can definitely run faster than him?

Probably a better idea to stay close to the guy that definitely just saved his sorry ass. ]