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

[forcegalactic]

But how else can you explain it? Only time I've ever seen people come back to life after dyin' of fatal wounds was because of my Force Galactic. Which is a power. Which none of us have, apparently.

...We got ghosts here; there mighta been somethin' happenin' while he was passin' over.

[perpend]

.....

Maybe he was just too stubborn to die.

[forcegalactic]

How's that even possible? Once your body's done, you're dead.

[perpend]

...I've seen it happen before.

Though it wasn't anything like Logan miraculously coming back to life.

[ninehundredlives]

If it was something to do with ghosts, one of them could probably tell us later.

[Susan leans forward, apparently interested in the conversation. It's totally not a cover for slipping Cabanela a note.]

[perpend]

[He gives a little laugh.]

Maybe so!

[He'll just take that note, thanks.

Let's take a look at it all secretly.]

[ninehundredlives]

What I do is very much like what Logan did

Don't think it's the same - no scars, takes me longer

Will answer questions if you have them, would rather everyone didn't know. Don't want to test if it still works.


[Cabanela's the only person she's mentioned her multiple deaths to at all. There's a reason for that. Still, she won't keep information about this to herself, if it could be of any use...]

[perpend]

[Now that's interesting.]

I suppose we could always hold another seance. Even if it's just to ask Logan what the hell he was thinking.

[That gives him time to write something back and send it her way.]

[ninehundredlives]

We'd better wait until day. We're all safer from the shadow then. Besides, I'm sure if it were night, he'd just be off fighting it while everyone else used the board.

[Let's just open that up and read it surreptitiously. God, it's like they're back in primary school...]

[perpend]

Let's not test anything here, but how does it work?

Are there any limits to how quickly you can heal, and are certain wounds easier to heal from than others?

Logan never mentioned being able to heal to me, but that doesn't mean he couldn't.

[ninehundredlives]

At least an hour when stabbed to death the first time, less the second. Maybe a few minutes from a bullet to the head. That or less when gassed. That first stabbing was -

[Several words here have been crossed out heavily.]

excessive. Maybe it took longer for that many wounds. Fixes all injuries, not just the fatal one.

It isn't normal for me or my world. It was given to me by some sort of entity. I didn't want it, but she didn't care.

[perpend]

Logan did encounter something-- the Crawler.

Maybe there's a connection.

[ninehundredlives]

Could be. Did it talk to him?

[ninehundredlives]

...I know this is...a nasty sort of thing to say, but...

If his ghost somehow went back into his body, would that really heal him? Bring him back to life? Or would it just sort of...

[Susan makes a vague gesture. Meat puppet. She's talking about a ghost possessing a bloody dead meat puppet.]

[perpend]

I'm preeeetty sure it would be like controlling a.... well. You know.

But I could be wrong.

[forcegalactic]

N-no, I don't think it works like that. Unless you count a ghost and a soul as the same thing, but then you have the issue of bodily damage, and...well, I never saw that happen, so I don't know how that would turn out.

[perpend]

Why wouldn't a ghost and a soul be considered the same thing?

After all, ghosts are capable of controlling other people.

[Cabanela, you don't know for sure that can happen here.]

[forcegalactic]

......

[Sigh. He needs to stop questioning ghost theories. He's already been proven wrong once when it turned out they are real.]

Does that happen often where you're from?

[perpend]

I don't know if it happens often.

But I know it happens.

[forcegalactic]

But do they control dead bodies, or just the minds of people? That's a mighty powerful difference, if you want to think of how it would technically work.

Because for the former, it's like hauntin' that spirit board we got. And the latter, you can convince someone alive to do whatever you want.

[perpend]

Dead bodies, living bodies-- don't matter.

[forcegalactic]

So, bodies, then. Not minds. [An important distinction. Possibly. But can't hurt to make sure.] So you'd know if you'd have a ghost possessin' you, if that's the case. And as far as we know, none of our ghosts tried anythin' like that lately.

[perpend]

From what I understand, that's.... not entirely the case.

But I don't quite remember everything that happened right now, either.

[announcemyvictory]

Not entirely the case? Could you explain?

[perpend]

There's-- my ba--

I don't think people who are possessed remember being possessed.