I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't

[reddosmod]

DECEMBER 2021 EVENT

Hello! We are trying a new style of event this December with archival-like entries that characters can ICly find in the Archives. This should allow characters to be able to plan against certain events that occur in-game and do research ahead of time, during the event, or after the fact.

The idea is that these prompts will provide you with all the possibilities characters could theoretically face from the prompt. We hope this leaves more open-ended opportunities for people to engage with. Anything mentioned in the excerpts could be an experience characters encounter. You can always ask for clarification on any prompt on the plotting page.

This is a way to keep all event prompts relevant since new characters would be able to "read up" on these events/excerpts by visiting the Archives or other such resources for information about past events and what they can anticipate from the setting.

We hope this new style makes sense and is fun for players to work with! They will rely on players creating more of the atmosphere than the prompts, but we think that the prompts will provide the perfect guidance as to what the atmosphere should feel like. Enjoy!

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Holiday themed antler decoration.]
[Image Two: White stag with perfect, circular antlers with bits of ice attached.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Sculpture of white rabbit with neck caught in a snare. Non-graphic.]
[Image Two: Person in red cloak and wolf mask turning around.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Puppet making bloody snow angel in snow.]
[Image Two: Bloodied hands wrapped in bandages clenching.]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

WINTER MOURNING

WHEN: Begins in December and can last until the end of Feb.
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Spoilers for various canons, survival situations, forced memory share

---

[A passage from Rituals of Trench: Remembering Our Pasts reads the following:]

"A long-standing tradition to celebrate Bone Season is for Deerians to collect antlers and bones salvaged from natural resources and create decorative home accents. These antler-bone decors are known formally as Winter Mournings and can be found in almost every residential home throughout Deer Country. Winter Mournings can be made to look like wreaths, candle holders, or simply an antler with a bow hung up on a wall.

Winter Mournings is seen as a way to honor one's past tribulations and how one has managed to survive and overcome hardships during their life. Winter Mournings serves as a testament to survival and a willingness to keep surviving even when things look bleak and dismal.

Creating Winter Mournings is considered a blessing to the Pthumerians Dorothea, Remina, and Argonaut. You will know if the blessing was accepted once your Winter Mourning begins to glow like the moon. Touch your Winter Mourning and you will be pulled back in time to a memory of a specific time when you or someone else had to survive something physically or mentally challenging. For some, it is merely a memory that cannot hurt, but for others, you may want to proceed with caution as it has been known to pull people physically back to times of war.

One cannot choose which memory they wind up in if it is their own, a friend's, or a complete stranger's. Winter Mournings was designed to create a sense of union and empathy among residents and is meant to open your mind and heart to those who have suffered around you. It is time you explore your past, or someone else's past, with an open mind and see how the other side has lived through hard times. These memories are known to be from adolescence, adulthood, or sometimes even futures that have not yet happened or timelines you have never known. After all, Remina sees all past and all history. That means they see all of your past and history too.

No memory lasts forever though. Once the memory has been concluded, you shall be brought back to the present by the Winter Mourning Stag: a great white beast with a circle of frozen antlers. It will come to you when the time is ready, and you will return to the present like waking from a dazzling dream.

Experiencing Winter Mournings can stabilize one's mood and provide restful sleep after, even if the memories may be difficult to swallow. It truly is a tribute to honor past horrors and traumas. Some memories are painful to remember, but forgetting them will never do anyone any good either. So hang your Winter Mournings and remember what matters.

Survive another day. You are worth it."

FAQ

1. Winter Mournings can produce new memories every time you touch them or the same memory.

2. Characters cannot choose what the memory is.

3. Characters can arrive in each other's memories regardless of if they already know each other. Multiple people can experience the same memory.

4. You can either experience the memory as a memory you can't touch or experience - or you can physically be in the memory and have to survive the situation as well. If you die in memory, your body will die wherever you had been touching the Winter Mourning.

5. Palebloods are capable of altering memories or how they or others experience memories.

6. Characters can be pulled into memories at random - as long as one of the characters in the memory share is touching a Winter Mourning at first.

RUN, RABBIT, RUN

WHEN: Month of December
WHERE: Everywhere/the woods
CONTENT WARNINGS: Themes of hunting, ghosts, curses, attempts at animal violence, hunting people based on blood types.

---

[An excerpt from Legends of Trench: Curses and Causations reads the following:]

"One of the most notorious legends of Trench is without a doubt the tale of The Huntress and the Hare. Most Trenchies have been told this tale since they were children, but for those unfamiliar, settle in.

This story begins with a mischievous god and an ambitious huntress. The Pthumerian Dorothea loved to play tricks on hunters trying to survive the Bone Season, setting animals free from traps and remaking the traps to catch the hunters instead. One day, a darkblood Huntress was fed up with Dorothea preventing her from catching food for her family and decided to settle the score. The Huntress began to hunt for Dorothea specifically, but it is no small feat hunting the god of trickery and survival.

The Huntress started to rely on her darkblood powers to alter reality to make the perfect traps. Innocuous trees turned into glue traps that anyone would stick to until they were freed by a darkblood or death took their pain from them. Walking through bushes would snag legs and necks, effectively trapping whatever creatures were unfortunate enough to wander for food. Magical snares and beartraps lock around victims with unrelenting force, leaving people and animals to try for help until they cry no more. While this took many innocent lives in the woods, animals, and people alike, it never seemed to work on Dorothea.

Dorothea continued to outwit the Huntress until she eventually drove the Huntress insane. The Huntress died without ever catching Dorothea, but they say her vengeful spirit awakens in winter and begins to set her traps yet again. The Huntress sends her traps and her dead animals after vilebloods and warmbloods to spite Dorothea and hope to maybe catch the god's attention. But Dorothea is no passive god. Dorothea spurs vilebloods and warmbloods to defend themselves against darkbloods and coldbloods.

Infamously, this has created enormous tension between the blood types during December some years, and it is said that the blood lust has caused the types to begin hunting one another regardless of old friendships and alliances. Beware the Huntress's curse. Some believe darkbloods and coldbloods can still hear her haunting commands and cries from the Trenchwood.

They say there is no ease for the tension between the bloodtypes until December has passed, but some believe palebloods may provide relief if they are willing."

FAQ

1. Characters will increasingly feel the urge to actively hunt one another using traps/etc.

2. The Huntress's curse includes undead animals/beasts chasing after warmbloods and vilebloods and magical traps. Players can invent unique traps for their characters.

3. There will be an innate urge to chase/hide from one another.

4. The curse can be broken by paleblood intervention, character death, or a gradual wearing off by the end of the month.

LOCKJOINT

WHEN: All of Bone Season
WHERE: On Sleeper bodies
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mild body horror, blood magic curses, physical curses, cures through blood ministration/blood letting, possible skin removal, injuries, possible death via starvation/exposure.

---

[An passage from The Sleeper Condition; Chapter 13: Bodily Aches and More. Found exclusively at the Lumenarium:]

"Generally speaking, Sleeper blood allows Sleepers to navigate this world without the fear of illness and disease. However, no organic body is perfect, and Sleeper blood has its own set of ailments to fret over. Blood Ministers have studied the phenomena of Lockjoint for years now and believe that it is linked to the crystalization found in Sleeper death, though the exact connection remains unknown.

Lockjoint tends to begin and last throughout Bone Season. Some Sleepers may never experience it, but for many, it becomes a reoccurring issue to dread each season. This condition forces blood magic to gather at the joints and effectively lock up. Sleepers find it difficult to move their bodies at the bends, fingers, knees, shoulders, etc without some form of discomfort. Minimal lockjoint can be painful and annoyance, but critical lockjoint can be fatal.

The most severe cases of lockjoint documented have shown Sleepers to have crystalization form over their joints, rendering parts of their bodies completely immobile. Some Sleepers have been found dead in this condition, all their joints crystallized, and it is believed most died from natural causes thereafter.

One can determine they are experiencing lockjoint when the coloration around the joints begins to darken in color, typically looking like a bruise. Calcification may occur rapidly the more magic a Sleeper uses or the more they expose themselves to outside elements. It is imperative that Sleepers remain properly clothed during Bone Season, even if they are coldbloods, and to invest in enchanted clothes that can lock in heat.

A known cure for lockjoint is the art of bloodletting. Puncturing the joints with small incisions seems to allow a release of the built-up magic and can provide immediate relief to the Sleeper. Catching lockjoint early is imperative. Alternative methods are soaking in hot springs and salted water.

Those who are in a more severe state will have to carefully have the crystals removed. This will likely remove the skin as well. Local anesthesia is highly recommended for the procedure. This process is known to leave scarring. The crystals can be saved and used as bloodstones from whoever they were harvested from. If you find a Sleeper dead from lockjoint, make sure to harvest the crystals as they are incredibly valuable.

This curse is believed to stem from Sleeper blood magic congealing within the body in contrast with the atmospheric magic of Bone Season. There is no known prevention for lockjoint. Lockjoint can impact all Sleepers regardless of bloodtype or the material their bodies are made from."

FAQ

1. This impacts characters regardless of blood type or their body - meaning it can impact characters with metal/plastic/plant/wood/etc bodies.

2. Players can choose how rapid or severe this gets and how quickly they can be healed.

CODING

Comments

[azurestar]

[It's always bodies because that's just what Pthumerians are hot for, he supposes a little hysterically somewhere in his head. But his throat is a little too closed up to say anything like that, and the thought is fleeting as he presses himself against the wall and tries not to… literally explode.

When he's stressed to this level, his star powers react in kind and he starts to glow as he loses control. Blue and gold light emanates from his body and wisps of energy and plasma arc off of him like from the surface of a star. He is breathing hard and fast as he tries to center himself, eyes closed. The light gives a clearer view of the carpet of stitched together corpses in the dark twilight lit tunnel and it's… gruesome to say the least.]

A memory… just a memory. [But he's shared memories in Deerington before that could hurt. It might not be that, but he keeps trying to hold on to the fact that it's "just a memory." Then he shakes his head, not sure how to answer her question. He manages to keep speaking in between panicked breaths.] A lot… a lot happened. Here.

[Then farther down the tunnel, the haunting song of the Winter Lantern distantly can be heard and the memory starts. He visibly recoils and shines brighter and hotter when he hears the song, covering his ears. It's definitely safer for Luz to keep a distance from him for now. But there are many dangers in this memory if it can harm them and he doesn't want her to be harmed by them either.]

Hide. [He manages to tell her in a choked voice. And he hopes it goes without saying she should hide away from the guy who is a literal beacon right now.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Well if this was a memory, it sure as heck wasn't a good one. The corpses being here definitely were freaking her out and then, with a small, rising terror in the back of her throat, she remembers. Vira had told her about these tunnels. It had been her fear that this was where they were going to go, and she even remembered having to help fight off some sort of monster.

Looking at Lance, she could now see that he was trying to compose himself, and in that process, he was giving off a power she was sure she'd never seen before. That part wasn't so scary to her, in all actuality it was pretty cool looking. She was beginning to think this when she started to hear the la la la's that were audible, and her heart flipped. She could feel her skin getting clammy, the hairs on her skin rising, her heart rate tripling.

Something was coming. Something bad.]

I...I can't move.

[And though she didn't say it, she was also thinking I'm not leaving you alone, with whatever that is but her ability to form words were being drowned out by her pants educed terror right now].

[azurestar]

[Trauma is a funny thing, you don't always react the same way every time there's a trigger. And sometimes it's a kick in the ass to move, if the circumstances are right. Lance doesn't remember the tunnels except when some kind of force makes him relive it like this. Every time his mind starts to brush close to these memories, it skitters away like there's a wall of fire around them.

And every time he's had to face it all again, he knows in the basic sense what happened. The cliffnotes. He knows Allura was hurt and he killed her and it was all his fault. There are flashes of those moments. The moment she was grabbed by the winter lantern, and the moment she died, the look on her face. The rest is… locked away from him.

Now, as he hears the returning of the lantern and the echoes of his and Allura's hushed voices ahead, he's not alone. He's hyperventilating and looking at Luz, trying to control his powers. Then she says she can't move and he feels like he stops breathing. 'I can't move' yes, that's right… he couldn't move either when the creature zeroed in on him, that what it does. How could he have forgotten?

But is it that she's scared or that the lantern is targeting her. It's a memory lantern that is about to grab Allura, so perhaps there's no reason to worry. But the voices scream at him all at once and he sees shadows forming behind Luz and when he blinks they're gone. He's muttering to himself and the voices he hears in Spanish and then it subsides and he takes several deep breaths. If it's not just a memory, then…

All at once, the glow in his body goes out. It's not that he isn't still a complete psychological mess, but something snapped, something shifted. Something is different this time. Once he's no longer a beacon, he stiffly shoves himself forward and puts his arms around Luz, pulling her close to his chest as he makes his way across the tunnel and into another alcove on the other side. There's room enough for her to peek out and look if she wants to, but Lance is just going to squeeze his eyes shut now and hold her if she needs it.]

Shh-sh. It won't- [Allura's shout of his name interrupts and he takes in a sharp breath, his teeth clacking shut.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz wasn't sure what had stopped her, what this lantern thing even WAS, but the moment she heard it, the moment she felt it, her whole body seemed to freeze up. She dimly remembered Vira Lorr describing them, and somehow her body seemed to feel their capability, their negative influence and what this particular memory meant to Lance.

All in an instant, she could guess what might happen, and understood that if she were really to see it, it would be something she would not be able to unsee. That much was clear in Lance's own face, the understanding that he was about to relive one of the worst memories he had, that no one talked about or wanted to think about again.

But of course, the human mind could dream, could conjure up the worst of worst when you gave it free reign, and obviously Luz had been coping in Deerington because Usagi had given her those pajamas that allowed her to sleep. She didn't have to have something like this remind her that bad things, bad situations could get worse, could force you to wake up in a cold sweat, remembering something so bad you thought you buried it, but no.

Then Lance grabs her and she is a football, carried away from the area and still processing the reality of whatever that was, and much as she doesn't want to, that she knows she shouldn't, she hear Allura and looks.

And because she knew she'd go mad otherwise, she held tightly to Lance's hand].

[azurestar]

[He is silent and frozen where he is, but he refuses to close his eyes, he has to keep an eye out for any other threats. He doesn't remember what happened here in its entirety, most of it blank, so for all he knows another beast could sneak up on them. Putting as much of his focus on that task as he can, he tries to tune out the sounds of himself failing to save Allura in time.

Down the tunnel, the Winter Lantern has had its meal and been slain, and he holds onto Luz protectively… but also like her presence is a lifeline. Legitimately the only thing reminding him that this is a memory and it's not happening again.

The damage that the Winter Lantern did to his own mind before this memory, exists even right now. Moira's treatment helped to seal many of the cracks, but enough remain that when he's put under this kind of mental strain, his hallucinations become more intense and confusing. Usually, he can ignore them and distinguish them from reality quite well.

So when he sees a licker crawling across the ceiling in the opposite direction of the memory (he can't look, can't (WATCH WATCH)), he takes in a sharp breath. Shakily, he tugs Luz's arm to get her attention, staring at the shadowy creature moving above.]

Do you… see it?

[He whispers, sounding not all there mentally. By now, the memory has progressed to the worst parts of his struggle with an insane Allura, desperately trying to save her while visibly insane himself. And he desperately tries not to hear it.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[The farther down they went into this memory, the more Luz began to see exactly the kind of terror she missed by only being in Deerington for sixth months. She could hear words in the distance spoken by Lance and his friend Allura, and it didn't sound good. What was more, she could see that Lance was terrified.

This wasn't just a memory where someone died: things happened here that brought about abject fear. Luz knew about that well enough now, because it was the same fear she had in dark caves and being tied up. All it made her think of was how close she'd been to being slowly dismembered and eaten alive. This, she could see had taken an emotional and mental drain on Lance, so she had to tread carefully. She hung onto him too, just as willing to back him if he needed it.

When she saw the licker though, her pulse jumped a bit and she licked her lips anxiously, but clenched her fist until it hurt, and spoke to Lance softly].

Yeah. I see it. How do you take them out?

[azurestar]

[When she confirms that it's there, he sinks further into the crevice, just watching it. Then he brings up a shaking hand to press a finger to his lips to indicate that they need to be extremely quiet. He doesn't know if this thing is just pat of the memory or if it can hurt them, sometimes these memory shares physically harm you and sometimes they don't.

Right now he can't bring himself to initiate anything with it even if he could think clearly enough to consider it wise. Best to wait and see what it does. Down the tunnel where his memory is playing out, there's an ear piercing shriek of a Licker and Lance's panicked unhinged voice rises: "Allura, there's nothing there! Just listen to my voice, whatever you're seeing is not real!"

If Luz looks again she'll see Allura stripping off her armor like she thinks it's going to hurt her and Lance trying to reason with her as he tries to take down the lickers coming for them from further down the tunnel with his rifle. Allura seems to not even really hear him correctly, she speaks Altean: "Geattu pulin! Fid verdum adra fara!" and grabs him by the back of his armor. Lance panicks, imagining it as another threat and in a split second, his rifle glows blue as it shifts to take the form of a sword and he… slices off Allura's arm.

Present day Lance also thoughtlessly looks that way, jerked out of his focus on the creature and forgetting where he is for the moment. His breath hitches and he makes a choking whimpering sound as he turns away, covering his face with his hand and breathing hard and fast, muttering softly to himself, the other hand remaining free to hold on to Luz. On the bright side, it seems that the commotion of the memory has the attention of the Licker he spotted earlier. For now anyway.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz wasn't making a sound. She knew enough to know this was a situation that, even as a memory, could make the difference between madness and sanity. Vira hadn't told her about these things so Luz could just foolishly antagonize and get herself on worse trouble.

And as it was, there was more than enough for Luz to be traumatized by.

Luz may not have known enough to know who Allura was, or what language she spoke or how badly the Lickers would affect the two of them but as she watched she was starting to get the picture. It helped that Luz had hallucinated due to mushroom last month, but she knew that was far different from now. What was happening, and she could quietly and fearfully see it, was that Lance and Allura were losing their grip on reality, seeing things that were not there, and then with a swift movement, she saw the sword come down and take Allura's arm.

Luz was slack jawed, shocked at the moment, but all it took was a glance at Lance to know he understood what he'd done, that he'd found himself surrounded by a decision he was impaired to make. Without thinking, her hand hand found his and she held tightly, trying to give him strength she knew he was faltering on because of how bad this memory was. All she could do was hold on and steer him away from that memory].

[azurestar]

[Lance endures the moment Allura sees him as her father who just removed her arm, practically fully dissociating in his mind to get through it. And from there he's struggling with trying to treat her and battling lickers, it's a blur of chaos and fear and insanity. And then there's a lull in the violence as the lickers are all taken care of. For now. Memory Lance then shakily pulls out his fluid to call Moira.

"Moira? I need your help." The conversation is on speaker and the voice of a middle aged Irish woman replies: "Are you injured again?"

Unstable and shaking, memory Lance is trying to tend to Allura's arm and keep her calm as he explains, "No. Not me. One of my team. My..."

The way he says it and trails off after that tremor makes it clear to anyone who has ever felt the same, that Allura at this point in his life is someone he has romantic feelings for. It's Moira's voice and the tone in his own voice that pulls present day Lance out of his complete disconnect and he looks over at himself as he talks.]

I… forgot this. [He sounds dull, not all there.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Oh. Oh no.

Luz was starting to feel this full force now, because once he starts to place the call she can see that these lickers weren't just gross monsters that made you kinda loopy, they would literally eat away at your sanity. There was no backpedaling over that. AS the conversation persists, Luz feels a dull feeling of knowing that there was a solution Lance had to make, one that he was dreading and one that he hated to make.

And he cared about Allura, so now Luz felt full force the pain of what he had to do. The start of the "My-" was more than enough to make her think of Amity, and she clutches his hand, looking at him with tears in her eyes].

T-the call, you mean?

[She pretty sure he didn't mean what was going to happen next].

[azurestar]

[He doesn't answer right away, just staring off into the middle distance, unfocused as the sounds of his conversation with Moira get more and more distorted to his ears. He's in the memory, but simultaneously, flashes of what happened later hit him in his mind's eye, out of order. Not just in the next minutes or hour, but the next days.

He remembers a flash of Allura thanking him after she revived, and then a flash of Moira injecting him with something. Then Reaper and the Red Lion. His breath sucks in sharp and his eyes shut and then open and the present moment is back in focus.]

Most of it… [His voice is hoarse and less detached and his hand comes up to cover his eyes.] Everything.

[By the time he came out of his haze, the conversation has gone on to the point where Moira is explaining he has to mercy kill her. He is still and quiet, his hand covering his eyes as he listens to the logic he knows now in hindsight but he… clearly did not at the time. His memory self is visibly broken, unhinged and panicked and not understanding basic reality, calls her a liar.

"What? …Shut up, shut up, shut up! You want her to die. You're LYING!"

"I've no reason to lie to you. I don't want anyone to die. Lance, I am telling you the best advice I have for your current situation. Do not make her suffer because of your morality."

"No, no nonono. [He's not even talking to her anymore.] You're right... this's all my fault. I gotta fix it. Shut up!"

There's a screech of lickers down the tunnel and it's clear memory Lance hears them, "I-I'm wasting time."

And the call is ended, he goes back to trying to deal with Allura and the oncoming lickers. Present day Lance is back to detaching himself and he watches in a daze, thinking about that call and the order of the flashes of memories he had earlier. He sounds far away as he mutters.]

…She sent… Reaper to help me.

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz nodded quietly. There wasn't any need for words, not now. A part of her was definitely aware she shouldn't be seeing this, that this was something that ripped right into Lance's heart and weighed heavily on him. This was another time Luz found herself truly understanding the absolute wrecking of spirit that Deerington had on people, and the price of knowing some of that. Lance wasn't just some guy that she happened to meet: he was a friend, and knowing that this left such a burden made her want to help even if she knew that there was little she could do.

The lickers were something straight out of a horror video game, and what they seemed to do was unreal: it affected Allura so bad that Lance had little left he could do for her, and the moment she heard that part of conversation between him and the woman (Moira, she thought he said), it was clear what he was going to have to do.

Only...]

Wait. Reaper? She sent him to help you...kill her?

[azurestar]

[Lance doesn't seem to register the question at first, once again dissociating as the memory continues to ramp up again, his memory self tries to get Allura to understand they need to run. To get away. He fights off more clickers and Allura yells and cries nonsense in Altean. He pulls out of it enough to answer her while his memory self is fighting off more lickers, quite impressively using the sword to do so.]

...N-no. I don't know.

[The memory will reach that point anyway. It's all out of order and confusing, and sometimes he thinks he sees Reaper lurking in the shadows too, but it's not him. Where was Reaper again? Not here... but he remembers him somewhere. Memory Lance panics and starts to really break with reality even more as he starts up his jet packs to get to the stars in the rocks of the tunnel. He sees the constellation Centaurus and thinks he can take them home...

Eventually, the end of Allura's life is nigh. To Lance it's all blur, he keeps checking in and out of the memory as it gets closer to that moment and he's shaking, hyperventilating. Unconsciously, he steps out into the tunnel as memory Lance and Allura press into their own crevice right by where Lance and Luz are. They are clearly visible and memory Lance is checking Allura over. She fell and he's pulled her up against the wall, she's saying no over and over again. Memory Lance's head jerks to the side and addresses the voices he's hearing to the right, "Shut up."

Then he turns to Allura where she's frantically swiping at blood on her hand, "Allura, it's okay. It's blood, it won't hurt you."

Lance has pulled his armor off earlier in the memory to use his shirt to tourniquet her arm, now as she mumbles in Altean, he seems to make up his mind on something. He starts pulling his Voltron armor back on over his torso, "Allura, I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? Okay. Wasting time, we're wasting time- Shhh!" He strikes the side of his helmet several times, like trying to get a sound to stop. Then he picks her up bridal style to start running down the tunnels. In a daze, current Lance who is shaking as he watches, goes to follow.]

I... I thought she was... going to die. Forever. [Again, he sounds far away, not connected with himself or the moment.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Now Luz was good and confused, and she imagined that this was what the lickers did, what they had done to Allura and Lance. Current Lance was reliving the memory of that day, and it seemed to be a jumble itself, with flashes of moments that made sense, some of it not so much because Lance had not been in his own right mind when the memory was happening to begin with].

I'll bet you did. There was a lot happening. Even I'm having a hard time trying to keep up, because it's not a clear memory.

[And that's what made everything so murky too: Allura swiping at her blood, Lance talking to things she didn't know what they were, current Lance seeing to look displaced. This memory was, far and away, one of the most scary ones she'd faced, because at least she knew bad thing was happening, good thing was happening. It made sense. Here, everything seemed dubious, and all she could do was stay close to current Lance as the events unfolded].

[azurestar]

Not clear… [He repeats, distant, as he watches himself run and jet down the tunnel.] It's-

[Abruptly, he understands in his gut what is coming next. This memory is mostly a blank in his head and splotchy and out of order where he does consciously recall. In many ways he's experiencing it almost for the first time again while simultaneously starting to recall in bursts and constant traumatic kneejerks and responses. And when he realizes what's next, he stops following, starts panicking and tries to hide in another alcove, pulling Luz along with him to try to protect her.

But the winter mourning magic defies his wishes as seeing it is the whole point of this. And they glitch forward in the memory, the setting around them shifts to transport them to where memory Lance and Allura have ended up further down the tunnel and the stitched carpet of bodies on the tunnel comes to life, grabbing for Lance and Allura.

Current Lance sucks in a sharp breath as he sees them reach for him and make contact. Frantically, he looks over to Luz to find a zombie about to grab her around the waist from below. Immediately, he's firing a precise blast of energy from his hand to incinerate its head and its arms and the rest of it fall to the ground around them. He can't let her get hurt in here, not… not like- (a scream in his head or was it down the hall? (let it eat. down. down.))

Past and present feel like they are beginning to meld for him and he's hyperventilating, but still managing to act. He goes to try to pick Luz up to try and keep them from grabbing her ankles and hurting her, there's a lot to fight through but luckily she has stayed close. Down the hall not far from them, memory Lance struggles in almost the exact same way.]

[imaglyphwitch]

Wait-

[Luz follows, trying to keep the pace and finding that trying to make reason out of all of this is pretty much coming from naught. A memory, she was reminding herself, doesn't mean that things are going to come out all nice and easy and this doesn't, it's all jagged and piecemeal. She's hurrying along, trying to make sense of everything.

That all goes out the window when the bodies start to move around them, and Luz lets out a little shriek. She could take a lot of things, but a carpet of bodies that were now starting to come to life? No. Luckily, Lance was there to take it out, and now Lu is reaching for her glyphs because that is not going to happen again.

She's already letting a fire glyph give them some leeway, and even that's tricky since it's all around them. She was still following Lance though, kicking out where she could].

[azurestar]

[Memory Lance places Allura safely down in an alcove and pulls his bayard out to start slicing through the corpses and protect her. This was long before he got his star powers, so he's limited to his blade and combat ability which is nothing to sneeze at. Current Lance, on the other hand is not so limited, even if it hurts to use them.

When Luz's fire glyph opens enough leeway for him to reach her, he lifts her up over his shoulder and then lets out a blast from his free hand. It burns up the corpses all around them enough that they can get a breath and look down at the memory again as he lets her back down. He looks up just on instinct to see himself slicing and dicing through… unmoving bodies. Memory Lance is clearly not realizing they stopped trying to grab him, and he's hallucinating. And then there's the winter lantern song in the distance and that yanks Memory Lance out of his haze and Allura is still screaming.

Current Lance seems frozen in some sort of shock and horror as he realizes this part of the memory and what is about to happen. Memory Lance rushes to Allura to cover her mouth to stifle her screams, "Allura, please! I-it's coming!"]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz didn't expect to be lifted up like that, but she could honestly improvise if needed, and did so, going with Lance's improvising and managed to still stay oriented. She looked back at what Lance's memory was doing and was alarmed to see him attacking nothing. Oh no. Was that craziness getting to him?

When she heard the lantern song even her heart was beating pretty fast now, because she didn't want to imagine what else could happen if it caught up with them. She looked over at HER Lance, because he was looking like he was starting to remember something bad.

Luz grabbed his hand and held it tightly, a sign she's help him weather with what would happen next. It didn't look good]

[azurestar]

[Luz's grab of his hand goes barely noticed as he stands frozen, watching himself try to hush Allura. She's still babbling nonsense and the terror is gripping Lance more and more, he's hyperventilating as he crouches by her, eyes shifting this way and that and muttering to himself. Voices only he hears, a hand to his head as he tries to just think think think. But the song is louder now…

"Allura, I don't- I... please." It's a final, desperate plea that sounds completely unhinged and frantic and broken. And She doesn't hear it, and the next thing he knows, his sword has pierced her heart. She convulses. But she's quiet.

Current Lance looks like a deer in headlights, expression stricken, horrified and frozen. His body trembles and shakes as he watches himself not even realize what he's just done. And the song grows closer.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Ok, Luz's horror goes from a seven to a TEN. She had definitely knew this was coming, that it was a possibility since they were both in such a bad place, but actually seeing it was something new altogether. She knows it hits her Lance hard too, because he's spellbound now.

He must have known that he did this, right? But he's acting so shocked, like it was his first time SEEING it.

And once she hears the song getting close, she knows darn well they can't stay. Luz slams a glyph down and a vine stalk pushes them forward, farther from the approaching song].

Lance! We've gotta go!

[azurestar]

[The vine is turned to ash before it even touches him as his powers start to activate in response to his mounting distress, he can't really seem to get himself to pull out of it or really hear her warning. But the song is closer than he thought and it's all he hears. He starts breathing heavy, his head bowing and his shoulders rising close to his ears. He's sort of just staring into nothing, wide-eyed and unfocused. Then the Lantern appears and energy increases around his arms, bursting forth like bright plasma arcs from the surface of the sun.

It might be safer for Luz to step to the side, but if she doesn't she's not in the path between him and the lantern. Lance isn't present anymore, he's pain and instinct and he launches himself at the monster in a fit of psychosis and hysteria with a strangled burst of sound. His entire body is engulfed in the light of his powers and then he's rocketing past his memory self and Allura to slam the Lantern with powerful force and then slice through it with arcs of energy from his hands.

This is the Lance that snapped and killed Reaper, and he's trying to overcome another demon… this one is more complex, though. Pounding it to ashy smithereens with energized fists and blasts from his palms and wild, whipping arcs of energy he's barely in control of doesn't return any shred of control or freedom… it's just momentary catharsis. The real demon he has to overcome is the complex monstrosity of the act he himself committed.

While current Lance tears apart the Winter Lantern, memory Lance is in a state of disconnected shock. Time has lost all meaning for him and the Lantern would have just passed him by if Lance had not obliterated it. And he's standing over it still, heaving half sobs and bouts of hyperventilation, the glow dying down because he's reconnected with the physical pain it causes him to use his powers right now.]

[imaglyphwitch]

[Luz thought she might have had an idea of what to expect, maybe, but it was obviously very much not THIS. She did not expect Lance to lose it so quickly, to go after the Lantern with such zeal. It wasn't like she didn't understand, of course: the Lantern monsters had caused them to go crazy, and that in turn had led to Lance doing something that was unthinkable.

And honestly, Luz could relate. She remembered having this very real feeling when Eda had been captured, or when she'd finally caught up with Lilith. She could even attribute it to the Cave cannibals and how she's burned them all and not let one go free.

But this? She knew it wasn't just anger, but a memory of something he'd done under duress, just as he was attacking the Lantern in the same way. Luz knew she was witnessing a breakdown, a detachment from reality. She went after him now, and as he heaved, she put her hands on his shoulders].

Lance, Lance! Calm down. It's gone. You-it's not there. Cálmate. You're just going to hurt yourself this way.

[azurestar]

[Lance stops, and he's breathing hard, ragged breaths that are only interrupted by wheezes and hiccups of emotionally distressed sounds. Her hands on his shoulders have him jerking away like it hurts and he's spinning to face her with his hands raised and glowing. But the moment he sees that it's Luz, he freezes. Or… what looks like Luz, his wild eyes are moving all around like he's seeing more than just her. He's shaking and his breaths are still coming in heavy and wet wheezes as he tries to figure out what is happening, where he is.

Then he hears his own voice coming from memory Lance nearby: "Allura?" It's a tentative whisper, like he's trying to wake her up from unconsciousness, not death. Then when she doesn't respond, he seems to pull himself out a bit to say "I'm... I'm wasting time."

Then, he carefully pulls her into his arms, like she's a fragile thing he still has to save. Pulling her remaining arm around his shoulders and tucking her head against his chest so she doesn't get a crick in it. And then he's standing up and racing down the tunnel. Current Lance watches, expression slowly turning more heartbroken as it pulls him back to where they are, he sounds choked as he speaks in a voice barely above a whisper.]

We'll… we'll get out… if we follow.

[It's painfully clear how much he does not want to follow, to see what's next, but he knows that much. Remembers that much, at least. He has a clear flash of memory of carrying Allura out of the tunnels… and they shouldn't stay here.]

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz swallows when Lance turns to her, ready to strike. For a moment, she saw her life flashing before her eyes, because Luz had not died yet and wondered if today might be that day. Luckily, he seemed to regain himself, and seemed to have a better grasp on what was happening to him. It was maddening to Luz, because if she were just watching this on a screen or a movie, she might be able to piece things together at her own pace.

It was very different when you found yourself a part of someone's memories and you were trying to make sure that you didn't wind up a casualty of the things in the memory itself.

Watching the past Lance starting to move with Allura in his arms, Luz didn't need to be told to follow him. She couldn't help but feel a spark of pain for her friend, for Allura. It was worse to know that Allura wasn't even here anymore, and the two of them couldn't resolve their feelings for this past memory].

Right! We don't want those lantern things affecting US, even if this is just a memory.

[azurestar]

[Lance nods, numbly and follows after his memory self. His eyes are on his feet as he goes, not able to look at Allura's limp form in his arms. There's a couple times when they have to briefly hide from the creatures that lurk in the tunnels, but it's not long before they reach the opening. And it's the bottom of the sinkhole in front of the hospital, there's a whole mountain of corpses piled high in the tall space and looking up, there is a pinprick of light indicating the way out.

Memory Lance is rocketing himself up and using parkour to make his way to the top using his armor's jet pack. Lance reaches a hand out to Luz for her to take after a moment of detached thought where he doesn't seem all there again.]

…I can get us up… maybe. [He can rocket himself up as well as across lateral distances… he thinks. Unless she has vines that can reach that high and lift them all the way.]