MUSHI DISASTER

[dontpokethat]

Who: Anyone and everyone; it’s a mingle-style log!
What: A sudden spike in the mushi population brings some trouble to the carnival.
When: Around day 87-90
Where: All around the carnival
Warnings: Illness, potentially some minor body horror, and so on



[Following the recent disappearance of Ginko and Tanyuu’s mushi repellent, there will be a sudden increase in the number of mushi in the carnival this week.

This is a mingle-style log, so just post a toplevel, tag out, and have fun with mushi disasters! Event information and questions are here.]

Comments

Rita | OTA! / will match format

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita has yet to encounter any mushi until now, and even with Ginko's radio warning, she doesn't really know what sort of "something strange" to look out for. But, whatever. Whoever he is, it's probably his job to take care of it, so she figures she can ignore it. There are so many weird things going on in the carnival at any given time that she can't be bothered to pay attention to it all.

With her lack of spiritual sense, she doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, and doesn't notice when one mushi, a tamashi-ka, slips under the collar of her shirt and latches itself onto her upper back.]

(around the carnival: sightings)

[Rita's not used to being sick, but when she starts feeling weak and feverish, she assumes it's because of the large number of people (and people-like things) in the carnival. She probably caught something from one of them.

However, the tamashi-ka has another effect on her, and she soon finds herself noticing the strange spirit-like creatures in unexpected places all around the carnival.

She may be backstage, working on setting up the lighting when she sees something slithering around the equipment. Or perhaps she's just walking around the carnival grounds, or hanging out near the trailers when she notices them floating in the air. Wherever she is, she'll suddenly flinch, staring wide-eyed at the creatures (or just an empty space, to those who can't see them.)]

--Gah! What the hell is that!?

[She points wildly at the mushi. If she sees one attached to your character, she might even be freaking out and pointing at them instead.]

(cookhouse - employee area: soup, meet face)

[After a couple days, Rita's fatigue is even more pronounced. She's pale and looks as if she hasn't been getting enough sleep, despite taking extra-long naps during the day to attempt to sleep off her "flu". However, she manages to drag herself to the eating area to try and get some kind of nutrition in her body.

She procures a bowl of minestrone soup with a glass of water, and sits in a far corner of the employee eating area, trying to keep enough distance so as not to make anyone else sick. She props a book up with a creative arrangement of condiment bottles so she can try to read while she eats, though she ends up staring at a single page for an extra-long time, spacing out.

After some time, she simply passes out, planting her face right into the soup bowl. There isn't enough soup left to be a drowning risk, but... she doesn't seem to be sitting back up.]

(wildcard!)

[Feel free to have your character encounter Rita around the carnival in some other context! She'll be spending most of her time resting or reading in her trailer, eating at the cookhouse, or working backstage. If you want to plot anything, you can PM me or hit me up at pzue! Also, this player loves horror of all kinds, so feel free to tag this thread with creepy body horror stuff!]

cookhouse!

[kingsroads]

[ By now, Strange is equally fatigued. The mizukagami is doing it's job and the thing following Strange is starting to look more and more like him. It's not a perfect copy: the thing occasionally gives off a silver sheen, it's liquidy to the touch, and the mizukagami hasn't actually gotten things like 'expressing emotions' down pat yet, but it's certainly enough of a replica to be eerie as heck.

Strange hates it and has tried to set it on fire at least once. No dice.

What matters is that even though he kind of wants to fall asleep here and now, he knows he should actually get some food himself. Strange has a few hard-boiled eggs for his lunch, wrapped up in a napkin. So, as he sits down to look at Rita with her face right in the soup bowl, he can't help but frown. Huh. Her too? But she doesn't have this thing following her around, why is she so tired? Strange sighs before making half-hearted efforts to push Rita slightly, nudging her in the shoulder. He should be doing more. She's planted right in the soup bowl, for heaven's sake. But mostly, he just wants to fall asleep here and now on the dinner table himself. ]

Wake up.

[anti_nonsense]

[At first, Rita's only response is a groan. Is someone trying to wake her during a much-needed and well-deserved nap? He's got some guts. Maybe she should teach him a...

... why is her face wet?

It takes a few seconds for her to react, but when she does, Rita's head shoots up in a startled jolt. Disoriented, she whips her head around to look at her surroundings before finally acknowledging Strange. She stares at him... and notices what looks like a second, blurrier him not too far away.

Still staring, she wipes her eyes and squints. Is she so tired that she's seeing double? Or did she get something in her eyes just now? Her efforts don't seem to make her vision any clearer, though they do succeed in wiping some of the sticky vegetable bits off of her face.]

[kingsroads]

[ As Rita's head shoots forward with a jolt, some of the soup goes flying as well...right on Strange's face and clothes. Thankfully, it's only a few droplets and a few pieces of vegetables but why does this keep happening to him, this is the second shirt that he's gotten food stains on

There's a pause, as he sets down the napkin with his eggs in it. Strange stares at the napkin for a moment, as his groggy mind tries to figure out how to figure out how to use the napkin to dab at the soup on his shirt while keeping the eggs from not touching the table before he decides 'fuck it' and accepts the fact that the shirt will be dirty. Picking up one of the eggs, he starts to slowly peel the shell off as he looks over at Rita. ]

You've got carrot on your forehead, [ he can't help but offer, blinking heavily. And yeah, Strange is 100% not acknowledging his creepy mirror doppelganger hovering behind him. Because, well, isn't it obvious? ]

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita's narrow gaze slowly shifts to the real Strange, and she lazily rubs her hand over the rest of her face, knocking the carrot down and wiping a bit more of the soup away. Her hair remains a soup-soaked mess, but she doesn't seem to notice. Her attention soon drifts back to the mysterious doppelganger. By now, she's pretty sure she isn't imagining it.]

What the hell is that.

[Her tone is so flat and tired that it hardly even sounds like a question.]

[kingsroads]

[ What the hell is what? There's a pause where Strange looks confused for a moment before the dots connect and ohhh, she means that odd thing following him around. That makes sense. ]

Do you mean this thing? [ said as he gestures vaguely towards the doppelganger with the hand not holding a hard-boiled egg. ]

I've no idea. It came out of the lake and has been following me for the past few days. It won't leave me alone.

[ His tone is equally tired, but with a hint of annoyance. He's tried everything to get rid of this stupid thing but to no avail. Stabbing, setting on fire, trying to lose the thing via mirrors, he's tried everything but with no luck. The fact that he's far too tired to come up with new combinations of spells to try on this thing isn't helping either. ]

sightings! let me know if this works

[whattaprick]

[ 'What is that' turns out to be a cluster of un clustered beside a crate, their coiled shell-like bodies glowing with a low light. However, what that also means is that when Rita speaks, she won't actually be able to hear herself, as the mushi consume the sound as soon as it leaves her lips. If Rita wasnt too tired to pay attention, she may have noticed the environment around her growing unnaturally silent as soon as she came within a few feet of the crate.

Luckily, however, gesticulations work just fine. The wild pointing is enough to get the attention of one of her coworkers, a horned, dragon-tailed guy with a wolf's-head medallion on his chest who's been standing around scowling and looking around the area. Spotting her pointing at the crate, he nods.

Without any warning, he raises his hand, folding his fingers -- and the crate just explodes into splinters as though blown back by invisible force, scattering the un backwards in complete silence. As the mushi fly into the air, the Carnival's sounds come flooding back in. ]

[anti_nonsense]

[When her voice doesn't come out the way it's supposed to, Rita touches her throat, wondering briefly if something's wrong with her... but it's not just her. The usual carnival sounds don't seem to be reaching her ears.

Seeing the horned man, she furrows her brow as she tries to understand his response, but he soon makes his intentions clear. When the crate bursts, Rita raises her arms to guard her face from any flying debris, though most of it seems to fly away from them. The sounds of the carnival return all at once, and she shoots a bewildered look at the man.]

You mind telling me what the hell just happened!?

[Just now... he used magic, didn't he? And those things...]

[whattaprick]

[ Once the un disperse, Lambert can hear again. Unfortunately, that isn't going to do a damn thing for his voice. When Rita speaks, he scowls, crossing his arms and tapping a foot impatiently. He opens his mouth, but though his jaw moves, not even the sound of breath comes out, and his lips don't seem to shape any meaningful words either. A few seconds of fruitless effort and Lambert's shoulders sag angrily, and he reaches for the magical walkie-talkie at his belt instead, unhooking it.

Looking at Rita, he points at her, the radio, and then his ear, before his brows raise inquisitively. Hopefully, she doesn't find it too hard to catch on to his meaning. ]

[anti_nonsense]

What... you can't talk? [Rita can gather that much from looking at him. That's odd, though... if dispersing those creatures restored all the other sounds, shouldn't he be fine too? And from his attempts to speak, it's clear that his inability to do so is a recent affliction...]

[His gestures continue, and she sighs.] We're playing charades now? You've got to be kidding... [Despite her scoffing, however, she takes a stab at interpreting it.] You're asking if I heard something on the radio?

[whattaprick]

[ At least she's pretty quick on the uptake. Lambert nods at the question, looking visibly relieved she's understood his point.

Her apparent cluelessness about the situation is answer enough to his question, though, and Lambert sighs (soundlessly) before rubbing at the bridge of his nose. After a moment, he points at Rita, using two fingers to indicate his own two eyes before waving at the destroyed crate and tipping his head to the side. ]

sightings! backstage, to be precise

[walkonedge]

... Eh? What?

[ It's precisely his lack of spiritual sense or anything of that sort which means that he has totally no idea what Rita is freaking out about, except for the fact that she's pointing at him.

Or more accurately, the manakonoyami that's currently attached to him.

Not that he knows about the manakonoyami attached to him though, since backstage is still somewhere between dim and bright enough such that the sensitivity to light isn't entirely too evident - the only thing that's been slightly off really has just been how he's been squinting at things for most of today. ]

[anti_nonsense]

[Sorry Yamato, but Rita is staring right at your face with a disturbed look.]

What do you mean, what? [She grits her teeth, her shoulders tensing as her gaze follows the unnatural movements of the things in his eyes.] Haven't you looked in a mirror today?

[walkonedge]

... No? Why would I... [ ... why is she looking at him like she's completely disturbed, he's looking back at her like she's gone completely nuts too, so they're pretty much even at the moment. ]

Is it a fae change? Is there something on my face? [ He literally does not connect it to mushi. If anything, he's thinking that it's probably some kind of change that happened while he's not looking. AS IF HE HASN'T HAD ENOUGH CHANGES TO DEAL WITH ALREADY. ]

[anti_nonsense]

On your face? [She's hesitant. In his face is more like it, but...] Yeah, let's go with that.

The hell is a 'fae change'? [Nobody told her. She never asked, either. Rita just assumed that people from other planets naturally look like freaks.]

[walkonedge]

[ Conveniently, there are mirrors backstage. It doesn't take him long to locate one and quickly glance over at it when she confirms it, although since he can't see anything mushi-related, he's just going to squint back at her in a Very Confused Manner. ] ... I don't see anything...? What did you see.

[ Wow, wow, rude? He looked about as human as she does! Still, Yamato holds out his arm - the sleeves of the jacket that he tends to wear slip down to reveal blue stripes along his skin. ] Stuff like that. You mean it hasn't happened to you yet?

wildcard!

[atouts]

[ It's still early after Ginko's warning, though not earlier than the beginning of Rita's own problems with suddenly seeing the mushi. Childermass himself hasn't been too perturbed by them, having been lucky (or perhaps unlucky) enough to have been able to see them all on his own before now. So it is that he doesn't seem inclined to freak out at them as they drift in and out of the trailer as he works on his notes, right up until— ]

...what?

[ Right up until he spots a bright silverfish-like mushi dart under a piece of paper. He goes after it, picking the paper up until to have the sheet fall apart into pieces in his hand. An entire swarm of the spirit-like insects scatter from it as well, falling to the table or dashing down his arm, any manner of escape they can make. He leaps to his feet after that, knocking things in his way askew and making a racket that may or may not disturb Rita.

He'd been trying to be quiet before, after all, and, well, he generally is quiet all the time. He slaps his hand down on another sheet of paper, trying to pick that one up and finding it's being chewed on as well. Frankly, it's impossible to keep the rising horror out of his voice when he all but shouts, ]

No! They're eating all the paper!

[ Because if there's one thing Rita's somber trailermate has, it's notes written down on paper, lots and lots of loose leaf notes as well as tiny memo books jammed with the very same, but it doesn't end there. The mushi aren't just getting into his notes, but all the things made of paper in trailer #19. ]

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita was curled up in a messy cocoon of blankets, sleeping soundly despite having only been up for a short while before. At first, her roommate's stirring only elicits incoherent grumbles from her. But that last shout rings clearly to her ears, and she shoots up with a start. It takes a moment to process what was actually said, and when she looks around, she sees the creatures skittering about the floor and the walls, converging on papers and flocking to books.]

That can't be... no! [With a gasp, Rita dives out of bed and grabs the one book she brought from home, a heavy magic tome, and shakes it violently to dislodge the creatures attempting to creep into it. Some fall to the ground, and she tries smashing them with the book's cover. They flee, seemingly unharmed.]

[atouts]

[ It's completely ridiculous to scramble around, trying to shoo away silverfish, of all things, but Childermass is still busy getting them away from his own papers. He shakes out books, sweeps papers up off surfaces, finding the damnable things everywhere.

Likewise, trying to crush them does nothing. ]

Mushi? They must be mushi... How are we supposed to be rid of them if we can't kill them?!

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita holds the book high above her head. It might not be working as a weapon, but she's not going to put it down if it means it'll get eaten by those things. Her roommate seems to have some idea of what they are, however, and she turns sharply to face him.]

What the hell are mushi!?

[From the corner of her eye, she sees a few of the critters crawling over to a pile of her belongings, including a few books she picked up in Alola and a notepad she's been using for research. She stomps the floor next to them, startling the creatures into scattering, though some immediately start circling back.]

[atouts]

The... things! Energy! [ Damn it, how had Ginko explained them? He isn't going to take the time to stop and try to recall, but the general idea still sticks in his mind. ] Creatures made up of life force or something like that.

[ Though they seem a lot like will-o-wisps or glowing spirits to him, even if he supposes those may very well all be the same thing. ]

around the grounds, near the trailers!

[puddingemote]

[Having discovered that he's completely lost his voice, Tamaki's in a bit of a bad mood. He's walking with his Oricorio, Riori, so she can get some exercise, but he looks overall rather gloomy, slouching a bit. But when the girl suddenly yells and points, it startles both him and his Pokemon, who jumps and squawks in the air.

Tamaki looks around wildly for whatever the girl is pointing at, but doesn't see anything. After a second, he looks back at her quizzically. What is what?]

[anti_nonsense]

[Catching his look, Rita scowls. At first, she takes his look to be one questioning her reaction, rather than whatever it is she's reacting to.] What? Don't tell me these creepy things are a normal sight around here. There definitely weren't any in the past two weeks, and-- ugh!

[Out of the corner of her eye, Rita sees another (like a weird-looking jellyfish?) floating way too close behind her. She jumps a bit, then backs away from it, moving closer to Tamaki while keeping her eyes focused on the strange creature.] Seriously, what are they?

[puddingemote]

[Tamaki still has no idea what she's talking about, but he's definitely starting to get nervous. If this girl is reacting to something only she can see, what if it's some kind of ghost? That's scary!

He backs up, too, because whatever she's seeing, he doesn't want to be in its direct path. But wasn't she pointing at one right behind him? Oh god, are they everywhere!?

He crouches a bit, ready to start flailing for his life if anything touches him. Riori takes cues from him. They both look ready to attack, but they don't know what they're fighting.]

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita puts up her arms as if preparing to defend against an attack, but all the while, she glances back to the boy and the bird, studying their reactions.]

So it's not normal. [...is what she gathers.] They look like they could be spirits, but... I don't think they're elementals of any kind. So... what? [Another floating one bobs up close to them, causing her to bristle and grit her teeth. It floats around, passing right in front of the others' faces. But oddly... their eyes don't follow it.]

Wait... are you... [This doesn't make sense, but...] You can't see them?