weep not for the memories

[brushoff]

WHO: Everybody!
WHERE: all cities
WHEN: March 4 - March 6
WHAT: it's a catch-all log, sucka! Tag here and thread around for the Dorian Ruins Everything Guilt Extravaganza part of the overall March plot. Please check out this ooc post for details!
WARNINGS: Traumatic memories. Possible talk of murder, death, blood, other nasty things. I'll try to update if the warnings needed but please use content warnings if it gets super nasty!

It starts off on March 4th, the early morning before the sun's even risen. You know those weird mirages that were hanging around the day before? Well now it's getting a little personal.

These mirages come and go seemingly for no reason. They might stay for a minute, they might stay for an hour. The images vary between person but the unifying factor is that the mirages consist of people the player characters have hurt, whether people in-game or from their homes. Whether they murdered them, slandered them, or even had a petty little argument, the unifying factor is the guilt each character feels towards or about this mirage. After all, you know you hurt them somehow. You know their existence somehow makes you feel guilty.

Another unifying factor? The creepy way these mirages just seem to stick to you. They'll follow you if you try to leave, staring you down with their creepy unblinking mirage eyes. And whoops: everybody can see said mirages. Hopefully you're not being stalked by someone you and somebody else both know, wouldn't that be awkward?

Have fun confronting your traumatizing past and/or wondering why your buddy's got some creepy ghost guy following him, imPorts!

( ooc: this is a catch-all log! Make starters of your characters getting haunted by their creepy mirages, have other people react to said creepy mirages, ???, profit. Hit me up on the ooc post if you have any questions! )

Comments

[reek]

And you’re fine with it following you?

[ Because let me tell you, Theon is freaked and the amount of chill Han has is almost a little off-putting. Despite his attempt at a jape, he still comes across as somewhat anxious and twitchy, checking over his shoulder every so often. ]

What have you done to it? To cause it to appear?

[carbonfrozen]

Of course not, but it's not going anywhere for long. [A shrug.] 'Sides, I almost like this version better than the real one. Can't send bounty hunters after me, for one thing.

[All it's doing is staring at him. Sure, it's a little off-putting, but it hasn't actually tried to hurt him or threaten him, so he can afford to be a little calmer about this.]

Search me. It just showed up outta nowhere, scared the lights out of a passenger.

[He looks at Theon, catching him looking over his shoulder, as if nervous.] You expecting anybody?

[reek]

[ Theon would like to ask why a giant slug would ever want to send bounty hunters after anyone, but it seems like that might create more questions than it will answer, so he doesn’t push further.

Besides, Robbwind has arrived, right on time. Suddenly, Jabba doesn’t look so out of place. Not next to the bleeding, half man, half wolf atrocity that makes its way over to Theon, only to return to his silent looming.

Theon’s shoulders slump, and he immediately looks as though he’s being thoroughly crushed beneath the weight of his guilt and crimes. The silence is the worst, most ghostly part. Teach him to shrug this stuff off like you can, Han. You're wandering around with a giant alien slug after you and you're handling it just fine. ]

I am. It’s him.

[carbonfrozen]

Yours is a wolfman?

[His first thought is that Theon's ghostly friend is one of the Shistavanen—sentient wolf-like people from Uvena Prime, with glowing yellow eyes like Robbwind's. Then he takes a closer look at the half-man, half-wolf figure, at the gaping wounds and the haphazard way the wolf's head is stuck on the human body. Almost like it was shoved on and stitched together.

—he's pretty sure whoever this guy is, he did not survive getting his head chopped off in the first place.

He looks at Theon, brow furrowing in confusion.] Who's your friend?

[reek]

He wasn’t.

[ He very pointedly not looking at Robbwind. He’s already seen more than he cares for, and the ground is quite a bit more pleasant of a sight right now. It doesn’t help to shake the creature’s presence, but it is enough to keep him from breaking down. ]

His name was Robb Stark. The wolf was Grey Wind.

[carbonfrozen]

[Oh. Han winces.]

Yeah, I guess you win. [For once, it's not tinged with a sardonic edge, for as much as it's Han making light of the situation. This is kind of gruesome, if you ask him, and he's seen how Jabba treats the people who fail him.] That's the most nightmarish thing I've seen all day.

[He moves closer, raises a hand as if to very awkwardly pat Theon on the back.]

[reek]

[ Theon flinches, glancing up from the pavement just long enough to shoot Han a glare, warning him not to touch him. Theon is a bundle of contradictions. He wants to feel comforted and reassured that things are fine, but he doesn’t want to actually be comforted. In his mind, such things make it easy for him to be perceived as weak.

This is before his total public breakdown. ]

Fortunate that you’ll be free of him as soon as I walk away then, isn’t it?

[carbonfrozen]

[Wow, okay, yeesh. Han holds his hands up in surrender, then sets his hands back on his hips and squints at the half-man half-wolf monstrosity once more.]

So why don't you? [The sarcasm's back, and beneath it a tinge of hurt. That's what he gets for trying to be nice to someone, he supposes.] You wouldn't have to gawk at the slug anymore.

[reek]

Perhaps I will.

[ Theon snaps irritably, clearly beginning to crack beneath the pressure that’s been brought to the city along with his ghost. Trying to keep up his mask while handing the appearance of the creature that was once Robb is a difficult feat, and Han just so happens to be right there to be a target for his frustration. ]

And perhaps when the slug leaves, you won’t need to worry about people having trouble telling you apart from it.

[ Theon. Please. ]