hfm_logs | lights out

Warnings: Potential violence and psychological fuckery.
Location: Glitter Carnival
Characters: The Nox and you.
When: June 23rd through June 30th
Summary: There's trouble stirring up in the Glitter Carnival.

Despite its usual state of near-emptiness, Glitter Carnival’s name has been apt long before even the first arrivals were dropped into Freesia; the lights on the rides and stalls twinkle and glitter day and night, a cheery beacon from afar.

Until now.

Unceremoniously and unanimously, every light flickers and dies. The cheery carnival music continues over the rides’ speakers, but the rides themselves are perfectly still. None of Freesia’s citizens stick around, and not solely because of the uncomfortable ambiance.

The Nox have made a move, figuratively and literally. Larger than the ones scuttling through the rest of the city, they’re walking between the games and rides without a care. Some of their murky silhouettes are roughly shaped like clowns, some like every animal on the carousel…and, rarely, an oversized and certainly grotesque mix of both. And they’re whispering.

Glitter Carnival is Nox territory.

Anyone nearby is likely to get into trouble--or maybe that’s what they want. Give those Nox the good old one-two. Or maybe try and realize they can’t and flee. They certainly have options:

1. The Hall of Mirrors always seemed a bit more uncomfortable and frustrating than fun, but it looks like a good bolthole for someone panicking. Alas, only two steps in is the maze...and in the maze, some of the shadows have eyes. Good luck choosing the right ones, or the glass will be nearly as much of a hazard as the creatures themselves.

2. The rides are nonfunctional--or so it seems. If you look close, the inner components of most have a sticky black coating of ooze. Thing is, if you’re close enough to see that, you’re close enough for the Nox to spring into action and try to take you out. Enjoy dodging bumper cars and the like going at near-fatal collision speeds.

3. There's nobody around, but there are still voices, tempting or terrifying or both. The Nox would like to have a word with you.

4. Surely there are other things to do. It's a carnival! Ignore the Nox or try something else, go wild.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Here.

In this dark.

It is...

Its head jerks up, trunk and tusks gesturing over the Carnival.

It could be

A home.

Wash folds his arms, affecting his best unconvinced posture, the same one he uses to ask Caboose who set the kitchen on fire and Tucker who was supposed to be watching Caboose. "Why don't you go back to your real home?"

Our old home was

Hurt.

We can't sur-vive there for-ever

But Lux hates the dark

He would do any-thing to keep it out...

For-give us.

This does not con-cern you, does it?

This is not your home.

"It doesn't sound like it's yours either." He keeps his arms folded, for emphasis. "Why stay here where you have an enemy when you could find someplace else that isn't already inhabited?"

We can't

This is the on-ly route we have.

Free-sia is our on-ly way out.

"Only way out of what?" Don't sympathize with the shadow creatures. Don't sympathize with the things that attempted to eat you and an unarmed man and a kid. Don't sympathize with the desperate things that no longer have a home.

Well, fuck. He steels himself; these things tried to kill him. In Wash's line of work, that's not easily forgivable.

Our world.

There's no-thing there.

Well.

That's one hell of an explanation, if it's at all true. "So you have to come here. Why stop here? Why wouldn't you just pass through and go somewhere else?" Part of him wants to push the limits of their lying, if that's what they're doing; the other part is genuinely curious.

The Nox gestures upwards- far up, beyond the tents and rides, towards the sky.

The barr-ier.

Lux has seal-ed us in.

The darkness hides the rainbow shimmer from view, but it shouldn't be hard for Wash to guess which barrier they mean.

We are as trapped

As you are

Un-til we find a way to break the spell.

That's either perfectly sensical or extremely convenient. "Have you tried actually talking to Lux? Does he know you want to leave?"

Wait. He's overlooking a pretty pertinent question here.

"How did your world die, anyway?"

Lux list-ens to no-thing

except for

him-self.

It bows its head, trunk curling against the ground.

We could on-ly watch

as time passed.

Time kills

every-thing.

Except

us.

"That doesn't answer my question." Too much bullshit rhetoric in there when he just wanted a straightforward answer. "I was looking for a yes or no."

That answer gave him pause. "Wait, you outlived your planet? How old are you?"

We can-not say.

Time in Free-sia is

differ-ent.

"Okay..." It was a non-answer, but it was the less important question. "You still haven't answered my question - did you talk with Lux or not?"

Lux wants us

dead.

He won't.

And there it is. Wash is pretty sure the Nox can't see his unimpressed look through his visor, but they should be able to pick up on it just the same, as he's just about radiating irritation right now. "How do you know? He might just want you out of his city. You tell him you want out, he lets you go, problem solved. Did you even try?"

God forbid anything be easy around here.

It shakes its head. (Perhaps it's only Wash's eyes, but does the elephant seem...larger?)

It is tough to try

and rea-son

with some-one who sends you

to kill us

on sight!

(Wash might be hallucinating that; then again, he might not. Way to tick off the shadow creature.)

"I didn't ask to be here!" It's an explosion Wash isn't prepared for, ripping open his anger and his pain, everything he'd been dealing with since he'd arrived in Freesia, and shoving its heart at the Nox. He took a breath and tried to reel it in. Explosions wouldn't help him - not like this. "And the only ones of you I killed were the ones that attacked me first." He's not yelling anymore, but he can't quite keep the bite out of his words either. "So now that we're all done being angry, let's talk about this like rational-" Human beings doesn't quite fit present company. "-whatever."

Of course you did-n't.

Lux brought you here!

Do you

hate him

al-so?

Its voice--or what qualifies for one--seems to match Wash's intensity.

"Not the way you seem to." Yeah, no, he's definitely not about to put himself on the same side as the Nox. Sympathetic or not, they have attacked him beforebefore, and he's well aware that that's still a possibility here.

Our goals don't have to

Con-flict

Ag-ent.

What is it that you want?

It's hard to read the Nox, but its gaze seems less impassive now, more hungry.

He might have been hallucinating that gaze too. That didn't make it any less threatening. Wash's hand twitched ever so slightly, tightening his grip on his knife. So much for civil conversation.

"To get the fuck out of here." He didn't bother specifying the carnival or Freesia; right now, either one would work.

And we can help you

with that

if you just

let us!

"Really!" The sarcasm is back, and Wash isn't about to stop it. "How the hell do you plan on doing that when you just told me you can't leave either?"

Lux knows how to leave

How else could he have

Tak-en you here?

Join us, and if we find him

We can make him put you back.

And we can give you pow-er

To def-end your-self!

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