trustfell | So When Sleep Just Won't Come

So When Sleep Just Won't Come

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

.....

Maybe he was just too stubborn to die.

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

...I've seen it happen before.

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

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.]

[He gives a little laugh.]

Maybe so!

[He'll just take that note, thanks.

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

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...]

[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.]

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...]

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.

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.

Logan did encounter something-- the Crawler.

Maybe there's a connection.

Could be. Did it talk to him?

It did, yes.

He told me it spoke to him in his head, showed him his fears and taunted him.

Mine looked like an old woman. She had a strange voice, and she lived alone in the woods. The name she liked best was the Queen of Maggots. I think she might have been Death or something...

She said she had chosen me, for an offer of sorts. It wasn't really optional. The immortality lasts until I've done her job.

Or until now, maybe.

[It's not a new thought. This could be her escape, if she wants it enough.]

That doesn't sound much like the Crawler, but it does sound like she's pretty damn unpleasant.

But we've been gone for so long, maybe she's gotten bored.

Can't say the same for the Crawler, though.

Yes - he hadn't told me much about it, but now I doubt there's a connection.

He did say it was going to attack his country in a year's time. We have to make sure he gets out of here - they're going to need him.

[Are they going to need Reaver? Who the fuck cares]

[And here's where Cabanela visibly hesitates before passing along his next note.]

There was a coup.

He might not have been alive in his own world by the time he was brought here.

[Susan frowns down at that note, then stares off into space for a little bit before writing a response.]

Nevermind then. I'm sure we can work something out.

[She's always had vague suspicions about Logan's actual rule, what with "Likes: executions" and all that...but even so. If they're just going to kill him again, they can't have him. Let them handle their own war.]

I wonder if that could have anything to do with it. If they brought him back just for this and overdid it. That's even crueler than just normal kidnapping.

Sometimes good people make terrible mistakes when they think it's the right thing to do.

I wonder if that was the case with Logan.

There must be a way to save him from a possible execution; I don't want us to bring him back only for him to be killed again.

He was preparing for a war against the shadows. He didn't say how, but the way he talked about it...

[She thinks mistakes were made. Maybe they even had a good reason for the coup. But she doesn't care about that.]

He's not getting executed. If he must return there, we'll make sure it's safe first. Perhaps Reaver will help.

[By the sounds of it, the reasons may very well have been good.]

I didn't get the chance to get to know Reaver, but he and Logan have known each other for so long, I'd hope he would help.

We need to make sure everyone is safe when they return home.

Yes. Including you.

[Time to go all multiversal vigilante on this shit]

Of course.

I'm not immune to this by any stretch.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So When Sleep Just Won't Come

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject