So When Sleep Just Won't Come

[ninehundredlives]

[Well, that sure did happen.

Logan is dead, and for once the rest of the students were all there to bear witness. After that, does anybody really want to lie alone in their dark bedrooms all night?

Of course not. That's why people are gathering in the dining hall. It's still dark, but the room is lit with a hastily-assembled host of candles, mostly forming a protective half-circle around the far corner of the room. There's also at least one garbage-can fire, courtesy of Sukuyo. Will that be enough to keep the shadows at bay? Only one way to find out...

There's pillows and blankets too, but try not to fall asleep out here. Keep an eye out for any neighbors who might be nodding off too. That would be against the rules, and there's been more than enough punishment for one night.]

Comments

[perpend]

[Cabanela looks like hell.

He's certainly not going to be sleeping tonight, though he is resting close to the garbage-can fire, ostensibly to keep an eye on it.]

....Forgive me, my friend. I did promise I wouldn't say a word, but....

[And then he speaks up.]

....Back in Albion, Logan had experience fighting shadows. He told me as much a while back. He told me a horrible creature of the shadows was coming towards his country-- that it was poised to attack.

But he also told me that the shadows here did not behave like the ones he had faced before.

I beliiiieve he thought he might stand a chance against it.

[announcemyvictory]

And it attacked him and not you because he tried to fight?

[perpend]

I.... when I found him, he was already dead.

[announcemyvictory]

...Was it still there?

[perpend]

No. At least I don't think so.

But you saw it, didn't it? When Logan..... woke back up. The thing reappeared, and was impaled by a sword. That must have been his work.

[announcemyvictory]

I only came out when Susan started ou think that he revived on his own?

[perpend]

He was dead in my arms. A hole straight through his chest.

And then, all of a sudden, he was awake. Healing from some impossible to recover from wound and charged the thing.

[swirlied]

Did he say what was different about them?

[perpend]

He... he mentioned something about the one he was worried about being able to influence people-- being able to show them their worst fears, and to taunt them in their own minds.

The shadows he's faced were an extension of that thing-- its "children."

[swirlied]

That's scary... Does that mean he thinks the shadows here don't have those abilities?

[perpend]

I....

I believe Reaver said as much at the seance, judging by how Logan reacted.

[swirlied]

[ That's kind of a relief. But only kind of. ]

At least we sort of know what it can't do... We just need to find out what it can do. Did you hear anything else about it at the seance? [ He didn't catch a lot of it since he was talking to Chie. ]

[zomgboom]

[only woke up once everyone was bangin around in the hallway. she looks kind of pissed that she's been dragged out of her room but.

it's 100% possible you all did it so she didn't just steal all of Logan's shit and have a straight up fist fight with Youko over it. she is willing to respect that.]

I, like, told him someone was controlling it! That was a dumb plan.

[Tabby, you said no such thing even if you heavily implied it.]

[ninehundredlives]

I really doubt he planned any part of this.

[zomgboom]

It's like, still a plan even if your plan is just "fight the monster instead of running away."

[SHOULD HAVE RUN AWAY.]

[ninehundredlives]

He mentioned that to me, too.

[Susan may have suggested this whole thing, but she seems more inclined to curl up in as close to the garbage fire as possible and not really talk much.]

He said light, and...and fire were effective against it. Maybe guns. He didn't mention swords. [Why would he do go out without a light?] He wasn't prepared for this.

[housenurse]

If only the sword had been on fire, he might still be here today...! We need to invest in flaming swords, to prevent this from ever happening again!

[announcemyvictory]

Where would you even get a flaming sword!?

[housenurse]

... The flaming sword store?

[announcemyvictory]

It says something about your world that I'm starting to wonder if that's a real place.

[oftheland]

...Didn't the ghosts mention something about a weakness to light, too? And we saw what happened with Chie, so... really, I think the biggest question here is why he didn't... I don't know, douse his sword in alcohol and set it on fire before going after the thing.

[zomgboom]

Because alcohol burns off too quickly to be useful. You'd need to soak something in it, wrap the sword, then set it on fire.

[This is said with an air of "duh," because Tabby's one skill is setting shit on fire.]

[perpend]

There must be something in the chemistry lab.

You're good enough with explosives, I'm sure you'll know which of the materials are flammable enough to be useful but not melt whatever's carrying the rag.

[zomgboom]

It depends on how long you wanna use it for. Like, alcohol is probably fine for most purposes? But if you wanna, like, fight for hours or something I'd have to basically, uh. Create a sword from scratch? It's kinda complicated.

[forcegalactic]

We were just talkin' about that...a few days ago. The ones in his world focus in mind control and other mental abilities, these are more about fightin' and physical prowess.

But that got me thinkin': don't that mean we should other methods besides beatin' it up? I thought since it was more of a doer than a thinker, we can try to outsmart it instead.