[log] Event: Metamorphosis, Part Three

[snowblindmods]

Characters: everyone
Location: all around town; note location in subject line
Date: Night 415 onward; note time in subject line
Summary: They break out and they wake up.
Warnings: extreme body horror, unreality, eldritch horror, absolutely definitely 100% include warnings in subject lines/before your comment if the subject line isn't long enough

Comments

[cahooted]

[Someone rattles at the door and Flynn looks up in surprise.]

Bucky? Is that you?

[He grabs his crowbar for support and pushes himself up. No, it was probably Peter? He said he was gonna go out to get water...]

What are you doing? Did you lock yourself out? It's open...

[bywolves]

[ He tries the knob again, and lets out a frustrated noise laced with static, sludging back down the porch stairs and to the snow, restless. And then - quicker than he really should be able to, he rushes back up the stairs and rams into the door, causing it to shudder with the impact.

It hurts. Royce whines, and sinks down into the ground, wisps coming off him as his shape dissolves. He can't keep it. ]

Help. [ Royce tries, raw. ]

[cahooted]

[Flynn startles at the sudden impact. He jumps back and painfully puts weight on his injured leg, which gives away, causing him to rather ungracefully land on his behind.

And then he feels it. The dizziness, the warm sensation on his face when his nose starts bleeding. An anomaly? Oh no, where are the others? Where's Bucky, where's Peter, Peter, he was out there, wasn't he!? Flynn scrambles back, away from the door, but then...

Help.

What...?

Anomalies didn't talk. Is someone out there? That voice, that's... that's Royce isn't it?]

Royce!?

[Oh no, there must be an anomaly on his tail. And if he isn't unconscious yet maybe there's still a chance, maybe he can still save him...! He struggles to his feet and pulls the door open.]

[bywolves]

[ He pulls the door open to a lump of a creature, letting off wisps of shadow and smoke as it rises. There's no shape to it and it's almost impossible to look at - it doesn't make sense to look at, melted and solid all at once, until it forms a claw to drag itself into the building.

Hungry. That's what Royce thinks, when he sees Flynn, but - no. No. He's still Royce, in here, he's still human, so he drags himself in and says, hurriedly, in that same raw voice: ]

Don't - don't. I won't hurt you. [ The claw's long, brittle fingers snap and vanish as Royce comes to a halt in front of the door. ] Trying. Trying not to.

[cahooted]

[Yes, well.

When Flynn sees the incorporeal lump of darkness approach there's a high-pitched scream.]

Please try very hard! Please try very hard!?

[He backs away from the door, eyes wide.]

R-royce, is that... is that really you? What happened to you!?

[bywolves]

[ Trying really hard means Royce soaks himself up against the wall, shuddering horribly, trying to form some sort of shape. He halfway gets to human - he's got the torso and the legs, but he can't get anything else going. He whines quietly, and then sinks back down into the puddle of shadows, twitching. ]

Turned - they turned us into this. [ Royce manages. ] Why didn't you... you were there, too, you. But not you.

[cahooted]

Wh-what?

[Flynn stares at him, dismayed and confused. This is horrible. This is a nightmare. He's terrified and at the same time he feels for Royce who seems to try so hard to hold on to a shape.

How can he help him? Can he help him? What can he do?]

What are you talking about? Who turned you into this?! Wh-what do you mean I was there?

[bywolves]

[ He lets out a pained sound - he's still trying to form a person and just. Failing, over and over. ]

He did. Miller. [ Royce corrects himself, buzzing. ] You... we were both there. It hurt, we talked. [ Flynn doesn't remember. This isn't the same Flynn. Royce sinks back further; he doesn't want to be the cause of dizziness, of bloody noses. ]

Copies. [ He manages, finally, upset. ] The bad end.

[cahooted]

Royce, you're not making any sense.

[Well, that's not entirely true. He makes a little sense and what Flynn can infer from it is unspeakable and terrifying.]

Miller experimented on you? What do you mean, copy? Are... are you a copy?

[bywolves]

No!

[ The claws come back out - he rakes them across the wall, and loses himself for a second, form rapidly shifting and breaking apart, ripping itself apart. He's not a copy. He can't be. This isn't the end, dammit, this isn't. It can't be. He has more memories than the other one, he knows it. There's another him, running around. ]

No. I remember everything, I can't be the copy, I'm not a copy--

[ But he is, he has to be, there's no way around it. His voice comes almost unclear, a layer of static and white noise underneath it as the shape wildly forms and reforms. ]

[cahooted]

[Flynn yelps, backing off even more, holding up his hands.]

Sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-- Y-you look very real!

[And anomalies didn't talk, right, so it had to be something else. Something in between. Did he say that they were both there...?]

Just... just try to stay calm. I'm sure the Admin will fix you!

cw: suicidal ideations

[bywolves]

[ The puddle shudders and sinks down, shivering on the floor. ]

She won't. [ Royce murmurs, the static blurring his words. ] She won't. This is my end. Just like I wanted. I told you, in that room. I told you I wanted an end and I got it, but I have to be awake for it.

cw: suicidal ideations

[cahooted]

W-what room? I wasn't in any room.

[That's actually starting to scare him. Did something happen while they were out?]

Don't, don't give up. We've had so many awful encounters I thought I'd never come back from? And then I did, so... so don't give up.

[bywolves]

You were. [ The anomaly starts to slowly drag itself across the room, laboriously. ] You were in the room, you were with us, with Ecks and Alfie and Gabriel, and all of them. But not you. Not this you.

This is my end but not - the other's, I... [ Parts of the anomaly start to slough off, and it leaves bits behind like sludge as it moves. ] Light's not coming back.

[cahooted]

You... you could be wrong about this.

[That's terrible. All of this is terrible. Royce giving up, Royce telling him there's a different him and a different Flynn, too – was there a shapeless shadow of himself wandering across town like this one?]

Maybe that's just what they want you to think, they messed with our minds before! Maybe it can be fixed.

[bywolves]

[ It shudders. ]

No. Light's gone. Not coming back. [ It wheezes a little. ] Saw me. I saw me. It - I ran. What was me ran.

[cahooted]

How do you know?

[It's frustrated, a little angry, but mostly because he is afraid. Of the implications, the horribleness of it all.]

The room. Can you... can you tell me about the room? What happened there?

[bywolves]

[ A long pause. ]

Everything hurt. We were sick. Bodies - our bodies melted. And then we changed.

[cahooted]

I'm sorry.

[He stares at him, horrified. Melted? He can't even begin to imagine what that must be like. Or ending up like... like this.]

I... I really am sorry, Royce. Is there anything I can do?

[bywolves]

Not for me. [ The anomaly says finally, sludging across the room. ] Stay away from me. Safer.

You've always been nice to me.

[cahooted]

You don't deserve this.

[Flynn holds his nose, fighting past the dizziness, watching Roye move around with more empathy than abject horror.]

It's not fair.