[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

A: Blindness/eye creepiness

[sleight_of_fate]

It's Rhys, more or less, and at a fairly calm moment as he just listens to the vibrations around him, assures himself he's not completely helpless. He can hear the crowd moving through the ground, feel the shift and flow of them and all their weird mobility, and that's somewhat comforting.

He reaches up to touch his face again, smearing more soil, but that's okay. He doesn't think anyone will mind that he's a little dirty. Or mostly dirt-y.

"Hey. ...Gabriel?" The name comes with a rush of warmth, a memory of shared heat and touch, and he feels the glow in his chest, as his lips form into a tentative smile. It only lasts a second, though, as he registers that the other man is there, but not really walking, not moving like he expects. There's a staticky Gabriel-shaped presence, and he tries to reach out, too, to see if the barrier is both ways.

"I feel lightning. I feel people moving. I don't think it's dark down here, I think I'm just blind." He tries to touch his eyes again, finds smooth, cool stone instead of flinching, delicate eye-flesh.

[termineur]

Gabriel, at least, can hear the warmth in Rhys' gravelly voice, and it makes him smile with a little relief. He's close to panicking on his own- touching is more important for him than he wants to admit, and not being able to reach Rhys is so---

He stops and takes a moment to calm, and realizes the static sparks calm too, going from a sputtering mess to a more leisurely climb across his torso and in between his fingers. "So we've got about half an eye between us," he says with a light snort. He reaches forward to touch Rhys' face. It probably feels like a sparkler going off too close. He reaches for the hand he finds there, tries to rub the dirt between his fingers. It's not quite what he expects, but neither are they. At least this time, he thinks he felt a little of it.

"I'm the lightning. We're both different. Everyone's different." Obviously. That part's easy to talk about. The next question is more difficult to approach. "Are you- anything uncomfortable? In pain?"

[sleight_of_fate]

"I feel pretty good, actually," Rhys admits after a second, even though he shouldn't be okay. Nothing should be okay about this. "Just...restless. Dizzy. I can't see and I feel like I'm moving even when I'm not moving. It's kind of messed up."

The fizzling of Gabriel's fingers on his cheek is weird, but he can tolerate it. In nature, Earth smothers lightning, calms it, absorbs it. The dirt shifts, and Rhys reaches out, too, entombed in soil except for the pale and filthy hand sticking out of the crush.

"And hungry. Not, hungry-hungry, but...hungry." He's not making any sense, but it's still hunger. Not like the incubus's want...in fact, the incubus is strangely silent in the mess of earth and stone...but the hunger of too many long shifts, too little money, and too tired to decide what to eat.

"You? Lightning sounds pretty cool." Maybe not cool at all, but this is just surreal and it's nice not to be panicking or in agony.

[termineur]

Nothing is okay about these changes, but Gabriel's long since lost the idea of what's all right and what isn't anymore. To not be cold and sore and so very fragile after so long is fantastic, even if it does come at the cost of being monsters.

He lets out a sigh of relief as Rhys reaches for him, and he automatically leans into the touch- he's unsure if it's due to their new natures or just how Rhys has always been for him, but Gabriel feels like he can relax here. It's only to a certain extent, but the electricity moves around his body in almost lazy patterns, and the bolts are light in wattage and voltage.

"It is pretty cool," he replies, and vaguely wonders if they're both just utilizing their coping mechanisms. "I used to have it as an ability- that wasn't quite the same. But it's still close. Familiar."

He's quiet for a long moment before he continues. "I'm hungry, too. Like- like I used to be. Like I'm in an incomplete circuit, like I need other people's help to make things work properly again." He speaks quietly, practically whispering into the soil. He doesn't want the others to hear it.

cw: references to Noisy Black (mutilation), compound fractures

[sleight_of_fate]

It's probably part of the sickness, that they're okay with something that would normally be sanity-destroying. Rhys is certainly trying not to think about the fact that his jewelry is now part of his body, somewhere, rattling around in the loose grit like treasures, or that someone actually put stones in his eye sockets.

It probably looks better than no eyes at all, but not by much. Ew.

But Rhys is used to surviving awful things. He's looked at his own shattered arm and leg, his vivisected back and scalp, the alien thing that became his friendly tail but was at first a horror. he's survived bad, and he'll survive this.

Especially with a little support.

"I don't know if it's the same. It's not my Predator. But it's something. We were down there so long, though, it's not a surprise. We should try and...I don't know. Find something to eat that's safe, and maybe try and find a tablet or something."

[termineur]

At least whatever it was, it wasn't the same for Rhys. Maybe that meant it wasn't as bad as he thought it might be? But when Rhys mentions going to eat something that's safe, Gabriel looks up at the only lights he can see, little pulsing bits of life, and he sighs slightly.

"A tablet, yeah. That's a good idea. Not sure if they'll work for us, but it'd be good to try, right? Let people know we're not mindless anomalies." He's pretty sure people won't be convinced, but they can't be sure unless they see it for themselves.

[sleight_of_fate]

All the strain and confusion is making it hard for Rhys to tell what he's feeling, and his need to feed had mostly been walled off in a corner since he came to Norfinbury and lost his powers. While he's used to pangs, he's still not sure what he's feeling now and with everything else changed, he has no idea where to start.

It's probably the only reason he's keeping his shit together. That, and the fact that he's not cold.

"Don't see why they wouldn't. They took them for a reason, right? They always take them." He gives his best smile, even though he can't look at Gabriel's face, can't really comfort him beyond the touch he's already offering.

Unless he could wrap him in himself/in earth, ground him completely and let him be still for a while. It's a thought that makes him wonder, makes his heart under the layers of soil beat a little faster.

[termineur]

"You're right, they always do. Yeah, they've gotta be somewhere. We just need to keep our eyes out for them," he replies, but his mind isn't really on the tablets anymore. Because while he can't see the smile, he can hear it. As much as Gabriel feels like he is (and he kind of is) jumping out of his skin right now, Rhys is always good at calming his nerves. Now is no different. It makes him want to reach out and see if he can connect with him under that dirt- even if he knows...he can't see Rhys, so it's not going to be enough.

Still, more of his flesh singes off where Rhys is touching so that he can get to the electricity underneath. As Gabriel realizes what's going on, he murmurs, his voice staticky. "Can I maybe just- stay with you, awhile? Till we figure ourselves out?"

[sleight_of_fate]

The tablets seem like they should be important, but everything is so big and fucked up right now, Rhys is content to take a breath.

Especially with someone who's never judged him for being a dangerous monster. There's a lot of reasons why Rhys doesn't miss his own world, and this is one of them. He's always tried to be on the side of acceptance, given how many things in his own world are dangerous by nature but just want to be left alone, he's just never been good at applying that filter to himself.

"I'd like that," he says with a small smile that neither of them can see. Stay here in the calm, with the soil covering him like a blanket and a comforting voice nearby. He likes that: he doesn't have to worry about seeing, then, he can just be for a little while.