vestigelogs | (event) GHOSTS & HOSTS

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(event) GHOSTS & HOSTS

GHOSTS & HOSTS

SEPTEMBER 22ND - 28TH

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

and

watched

harm

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

can

book

seconds

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

end

done

somebody

 ►  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.

Threaded | Flat

[ i: coffee break ]

[ This place hasn't been used in years, from the look of it. The tables are dusty and unattended, the coffee maker doesn't work, the mugs and plates are half shattered, and the door has to be forced open with a groan of protesting metal.

That doesn't mean it isn't occupied, though.

Ashraf sits at one of the old tables, a blurry form across from him. There's a bloody butter knife on the table between them, and the white shoulder of his robes is stained deep red. He doesn't seem that bothered, though. He's addressing the figure across from him reproachfully, inches away from scolding it. ]

I'm listening. You've got my full attention, I promise.

[ It sort of looks like a woman -- a woman in her late 50s, dressed in heavy armor, hair long and full. She's difficult to see, like a reflected distorted by the glare of light. She flickers, and Ashraf purses his lips. ]

Look -- I'd make you tea if I could, but I don't know how most of the appliances in here work. Maybe we can chat without it.

[ ii: showtime ]

[ There's a crash in the cinema. There's a crash in the cinema, because there's a fight in the cinema. Ashraf ducks behind the counter as a ghost that absolutely isn't his little friend uproots a bench in the lobby to throw it at where he'd just been standing. ]

Look, I'm trying to help! If you could just --

[ It will not just, and here comes a hail of glass from a broken door at the front. Ashraf ducks away almost unscathed, though a few shards catch his cheek. And still, stubbornly, the ghost just won't enter the exorcism circle he's drawn for it in the center of the theater lobby. This is turning into a really inconvenient exorcism. ]

Edited 2020-09-23 17:53 (UTC)

001. foodland

Hell yeah. [ Anyone in the grocery store today will see a teenager whose arms are very overloaded with packaged goods. At the moment, she's stretching up to try and nab some cookies that are just out of her reach, and though she manages to snag them, some of her other picks spill to the ground.

Ellie peers at them with an unimpressed frown, heaving a dramatic sigh before leaning over to recollect. ]

Wish there was something to keep all this stuff in. [ Mumble mumble. All the same, it's an absolute thrill for a child of the post-apocalyptic world to come across such a well-stocked place, and she seems to be generally in high spirits as she picks a slew of groceries and other goods, occasionally sending them across the floor as she becomes more and more inundated. ]

...Oh, shit. [ The section with medicine and other first-aid products stops her in her tracks. This is...the really good stuff, and, out of habit, she glances around to make sure someone isn't trying to catch her off-guard before moving forward to inspect the supplies.

It's...weird, right? That all this stuff is just sitting around. Like they're the first group to ever live here. Except for the fact that the rest of the city (?) is pretty dilapidated... ]

002. "family farm"

Hey - come here. I'm not gonna hurt you.

[ Horses! Feeling more at peace and - frankly, at home - than she had since her arrival, Ellie reaches out a hand to one of the horses she'd come across while exploring the farmland. They're clearly skittish, though, and gallop out of her grasp to peer suspiciously at her from afar.

Sigh. She offers them a wave - a goodbye, for now - before continuing on her way. Maybe she could recruit some other people who might be able to help round up the animals, and any others that might appear. They'd definitely be useful in trying to get a sense of the full scale of the land.

It isn't long before she approaches the farmhouse, entering with her bow drawn and her breath silenced. This...is much more what she's used to. Clearly once lived-in and since abandoned, the house has all the usual trappings of a place from her own world that hasn't been lived in in decades. She half-expects to find Infected inside, or at least someone squatting in the place who'll try and stab her.

She doesn't find either of those things. Unsettled all the same, Ellie comes across a bedroom that'd clearly belonged to a child and steps inside to investigate. It's...about what she'd expected, and without anything worth taking, though when she picks up one of the drawings that depicts a terrifying hand scooping up what looks like this same farmhouse, she pauses. ]

Freaky. [ Enough of that! Setting the paper back down and trying to put it from her mind, she quickly heads back out and into the fields, casting the house only a somewhat-wary look over her shoulder as she goes... ]

003. ghosts

[ She's in the woods when she hears the voice. It's just audible enough, but her ears prick at the sound of her own name: a faint, luring "Ellie..."

She swallows, standing stock-still. It isn't a voice she recognizes, and not even one she can really attribute any identifying features to. If pressed, she'd have to admit that something about the voice that makes it impossible for her to determine its gender, age, or even location. The sound is just a soft call for her alone, and she feels...almost like she's melting on the spot, relaxing against her will.

Fuck. She thinks, vaguely, as her mouth goes somewhat slack. The disembodied voice calls again, and her legs begin to carry her into the forest, in a direction unintended. The twigs and leaves crunch underfoot, but nothing seems to break the charm, and Ellie herself is only half-able to generate any internal resistance to it.

What the fuck?! There's no visible danger - yet - and she can't see the person, or - thing that owns this creepy voice, but the fact remains that she's slowly being forced to move farther into the woods.

Fortunately, if she regains her independence, she's armed (as she always is). For now, it's really all she can do to step with slightly more vigor onto the wooded ground in the hopes that someone nearby will hear the sound and investigate... ]

PRAGMATISM, anywhere, earlier in event

( the first step in figuring out how to deal with this manifesting-spirit is to get a read on the scope of the situation. how far does it spread? how dense is the population of spirits? so the early days of the incident find him mostly skittering about as if scouting, but watching for one thing in particular this time: lingering spirits.

the search doesn't have to be overly thorough. while he can't feel them nearly as strongly as he could the infected back in finland and the silent world, he can still sense a spirit within a half-dozen yards, making his scouting more of a mage-sense broad sweep than a visual scan.

all of which means that his eyes are free to notice you, a fool, making a clear attempt to help one of the spirits out. maybe you're talking to one directly, or maybe you're just doing something odd (most of the odd things that anyone does are spirit-related, right now). regardless, he huffs out a sigh and averts his course over to wherever you are and whatever you're doing to interrupt with a flat and mildly accented, ) You're wasting your time.

EXORCISM, in town, anytime

( the second step, unfortunately, can't be narrowed down to anything more specific than a thorough sweep of the town, beginning with the areas with most spiritual activity. he can be found just outside of a given building in town (especially those particularly rife with spiritual activity), hands lifted palms-out, eyes closed, speaking sharply but firmly in finnish.

any attempt to enter or even approach the building in question has his eyes opening abruptly, revealing a light blue glow, as he interrupts his recitation(?) with a sharp - ) Don't. ( and then continues on in finnish.

or perhaps you don't interrupt. perhaps you catch him as he's finishing, backing away as his hands drop back to his sides and curl into fists. his eyes flicker open, glowing for just a moment before that fades to a regular old wary glare aimed into the building's nearest orifice, though he's not really watching - he's sensing. if the building is satisfactorily spirit-free (which it often is, unless an especially potent spirit lingers inside), his face shifts briefly into something more adjacent to pleased, and he turns to head for the street to move on to the next. glancing at you, he says, ) It's clear. ( under the assumption that anyone lingering is just waiting to go inside. )

RITES, near the lake, the day after the event ends

( today, there is peace - maybe the first actual peace since the fence around this place got bigger and the spirits started to watch from hiding. but lalli is not at peace.

his job is not yet done.

most of the beasts have retreated to places unknown, no longer a presence or a threat, but too many of their bodies remain. and while their souls were apart from their bodies, each beast still did technically have a soul - and so the 29th finds lalli picking his way around the lake, excising each beast's bare skull from its lifeless body. the bones of the body, or what remains intact of them, are placed in array near where the beast fell as lalli sits and cleans the skull. then the skull is placed upon his head, and he makes his way up the tallest nearby tree to place the skull on the highest branch he's able to reach, offering the appropriate verbal rites.

he does this again for each beat carcass he finds. it's definitely not what one typically does with a carcass, but his efforts are nothing if not dutiful and meticulous. it doesn't quite occur to him that it might be considered 'making a scene'. )

[ Individual prompts in the comments ]

A. Ghosts - town

[ So, Rhys won't pretend that he hasn't done a lot of bad stuff in life to get what he wants. But in this case, he really is just minding his business! Just browsing the windows in the shopping district when the ghost appears. And while he's sure he didn't see anyone there just a moment ago, the man looks solid enough that, at first, he offers it a casual wave. ]

Uh, hey there. Don't think I've seen you around before. You new?

[ It definitely looks like the ghost is trying to answer, but what comes out is nothing but a wheezing sound, and now that it's closer, Rhys can tell there seems to be ... something wrong with its breathing. And are those bruises on its throat? And, wait ... ]

Why can I see the road through you ...? You're kidding me.

[ His first thought isn't that it's a ghost he's dealing with, though. Rather, he thinks that it has to be some kind of projection. Doesn't stop him from shouting when it leaps at him, its hands immediately going for his throat as he stumbles back and lifts his hands to keep it at bay--

Only for it to phase right through him. Not that it stops. In fact, it seems very insistent on getting its hands on him, and he bats at it with both hands like it's a fly as he keeps backing up. Could he turn and run? Technically, yeah. But that would mean turning his back on this thing. ]

What the f--? Hey, cut it out!

B. Beasts - southern town edge

[ The first time Rhys saw one of the beasts on the way out from town, he truly thought it was nothing. But after a couple of times, when the outline of the trees start bothering him more and more, he finally takes a closer look at it. While his ECHO-eye can't tell him exactly what it is, it can tell him that the outline isn't a tree, and as soon as that's clear, what he's actually looking at becomes clearer too. ]

Uh ... Please tell me I'm the only seeing this and I'm ... hallucinating or something.

[ Because what the fuck is that. ]

C. Wildcard

A. || FOODLAND

[ The faint sound of crying echoes throughout the market.

There's something distinctly wrong about it - the fact that it's there at all notwithstanding. What it is that's not right is hard to put one's finger on, exactly, but if one should happen to follow it down the aisles, they'll soon find that the sound only gets slightly louder as they draw nearer, rather than becoming much clearer as one would expect. Over the sobs there's another audible voice, and this one might be a bit more recognizable. ]

It's alright, [ Naminé murmurs, her attempt at sounding soothing actually pretty effective even through the slightly unsettled tremble hiding underneath it. ] I'm not going to hurt you.

[ Anyone curious enough to check in on these ministrations might very well round the corner to find the girl herself bending down to speak to... what looks an awful lot like a child. Undoubtedly it's the source of the weeping; it holds one hand to its face while the other fusses anxiously with its tattered clothing. Its short hair doesn't make it easy to tell whether the individual is a boy or a girl, but it's definitely not alive; the wispy thing is mostly transparent aside from the pale blue glow. It'd almost be pitiful except for the fact that despite the audible cries, it doesn't actually have a face.

But that doesn't appear to stop Naminé from understanding it, nor does the fact that it hasn't made a sound other than its noises of distress, because she gives a soft hum of what seems like confirmation, then says, ]

Well - if she's here, I'll help you find her.

B. || ANYWHERE IN TOWN // ON THE ROAD // IN THE LAKE CABIN AREA

Excuse me.

[ This address might come out of nowhere, if one didn't happen to see the girl approach either inside one of the buildings or along the path. She's just a slip of a thing, after all, and quiet - but her company is perhaps more concerning than she is. That strange ghost-child from the market clings with both hands to the hem of her skirt, its transparent form just peeking out from behind her slim frame. It sniffles and fusses, but appears curious enough to peer past her leg. Which... frankly, is probably quite unsettling, because the little specter seems to lack anything resembling features, let alone eyes. Its face is entirely blank, as if the whole thing's been smoothed over.

Naminé, for her part, seems aware of how odd it might look, going by her beat of hesitation. But presently, ]

Have you seen anyone who might be this child's mother...?

[ Ghost or otherwise, honestly. At this point, Naminé's running short of options. ]

C. || THE ROAD // EDGE OF LAKE CABIN AREA

[ This time, Naminé is quite alone. Only, she might nevertheless make a strange sight; she's absolutely still, eyes trained on something in the distance. Even breath doesn't seem to stir her - she could very well be holding it. Whatever it is she's seen, she appears to be quite concerned about disturbing it, because no sooner does she realize someone else has come along than she calls a soft, ]

Wait...!

[ The single word is urgent, even though she doesn't dare turn her head. If one's close enough, a thorough inspection of the trees just might indicate that there's some manner of deer standing nearby. Or at least the antlers sticking up out of the brush might suggest as much, but if one looks even closer than that, one will find that it is, in fact, very much not a deer. ]

Don't move - please.

D. || LAKE CABIN AREA

[ Despite having had some success with appeasing ghosts, Naminé has since become extremely aware that not all of them can be assisted. And when they won't listen--

Her lungs burn as she stumbles along the path, feet a little unsteady in her sandals. She's not equipped to run, but she doesn't have much of a choice - she's only barely staying ahead of the thing that's on her heels. This particular ghost isn't like the fragile apparition that followed her around before; this one's malice is far more obvious. Intangible flames roll off of the howling entity, mostly obscuring its true, humanoid form as it gives chase. The grass and leaves are singed in its wake, sending up the smell of smoke despite how the fire never quite seems to actually catch on the tinder.

Still, it's not hard to imagine what might happen if it were to touch you, and that's precisely what Naminé appears to be attempting to avoid, if the hurry with which she's fleeing from the entity is any indication. ]

E. || LAKE SHORE

[ It seems Naminé and the flaming creature have come to a stalemate. Still gasping for breath, the girl stands almost hip-deep in the water of the lake, one of her hands clutching the opposite forearm as if to protect an injury. Bits of her clothing look like they might be faintly singed, but it's hard to tell from the shore. Why she's staying out there, however, is pretty much immediately obvious.

Across from her, just beyond the edge of the water, is the fiery ghost that seems to have chased her into it. Its indignant screeching isn't exactly convincing her to leave the lake, and it seems equally unwilling to yield to her, ]

I'm trying to help you!

[ She sounds more frightened than angry, but there might be just a hint of frustration in amongst the pain. ]

F. || WILDCARD

[ Choose your own adventure. She'll be out and about a lot this event to help out where she can. ]

Threaded | Flat

ashraf | ota

ellie ; ota

lalli hotakainen, open!

Jiang Cheng | The Untamed

Rhys // OTA

Naminé | OTA | CW: Child ghost