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

[ninehundredlives]

Could be. Did it talk to him?

[perpend]

It did, yes.

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

[ninehundredlives]

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.]

[perpend]

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.

[ninehundredlives]

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]

[perpend]

[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.

[ninehundredlives]

[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.

[perpend]

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.

[ninehundredlives]

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.

[perpend]

[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.

[ninehundredlives]

Yes. Including you.

[Time to go all multiversal vigilante on this shit]

[perpend]

Of course.

I'm not immune to this by any stretch.