EVENT 009

[sticksandbonesmods]

RULER OF MY HEART

HOW SWEET IT IS

As time ticks on in that strange, wobbly way it does in this place — where the nights feel like they last days, and the days feel like they’re only a few hours long — the fog, ever so gradually, rolls back in, until it’s that oppressive black wall it normally is. It means no more trips into the greater forest for the time being, though the surrounding ring of treeline around the Grove and the burned town to the north remains readily accessible.

The woods, now awake and alert, sends its regards with the occasional roar of a beast in the far distance, and the occasional biblically-accurate deer wandering into the Grove proper to nibble on grasses starting to spring up through the snow. Speaking of things springing up through the snow, there are some new trees near the riverbank, sporting perfectly normal lemons that are growing perfectly normal eyeballs. It’s fine, they’re edible, although they don’t seem to be native. Hmm.

All is peaceful thus far, until you open your dresser drawer. Suddenly, a little  creature flies out at you, or cries out angrily because you woke it up. Perhaps, that creature climbs on you instead, shuffling into your pocket to snuggle up. Or, maybe you lay down for a nap, and your pillow feels just a touch lumpier than normal, and when you move your head, something squeals at you. No matter where you find them, even if they’re being a nuisance and eating your shoelaces, these creatures are harmless: they’re merely cold, and you, a Warm Thing, will now be their space heater.

I REALLY LIKE YOU

One of Ydalir’s secret passions is cooking. You would not know this, because she doesn’t have the ability to eat, but that doesn’t mean she lost the ability to cook. A holiday is coming, you see, and it’s tradition for everyone to partake in cute chocolates and have candlelit dinners! (She will not be providing the dinners, that’s on you.)

What feels like early on in the month, Ydalir will approach everybody with a box of chocolates customized for each person with their favourite flavours. For those of you who don’t eat human food, don’t worry: These are safe for consumption for vampires and robots alike.

Like with most things here, though, things are not as they seem. Eating one of these chocolates suddenly makes you feel very, very cuddly, like suddenly you wouldn’t care who you snuggled up to right now so long as you were comfortable. With the candy in your system, you feel affectionate to anyone who you come across, even if you may not have liked them previously.

As it turns out, mixing magic with cooking makes a potion. Ydalir swears up and down she didn’t mean it, but enjoy your cuddle-chocolates anyway!

LET’S STAY TOGETHER

Sometimes, when you touch another person, your mind goes elsewhere. This isn’t a result of the chocolates, but rather some other force at work. If you see two people asleep somewhere — the ground, the couch, the kitchen counter — it’s best to leave them where they are, unless you want to risk passing out with them and seeing what they see. They’ll wake up in a little while.

What those who get dragged into their own minds see depends on the person, and what lies within their heart. These “heartspaces” are made up of core memories to the participants — important locations, emotional states given form, meaningful items, or anything else, really. When in contact with another person, these heartspaces will combine into one, perfectly interactable and wanderable at your leisure. Touching objects within these spaces will play a core memory before your eyes, or even change the scenery a bit, depending on whose heart it is you’re messing with.

Perhaps now is a good time for bonding and learning about one another, in the comfort and privacy of your own minds. After all, you won’t exit the heartspaces for quite a bit.

PAIN IN MY HEART

…just try not to break anything while you're there.

It might be an accident. Maybe you walk backwards into a table containing a framed photograph, and that photo falls and the glass breaks, the picture inside the frame ruined. Maybe you broke that cheaply-made but still-important toy while fiddling with it. Or, perhaps, it wasn’t an accident at all: You broke that thing on purpose, you punched through that wall, you set that fire.

Whatever broke the thing in question doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is that the memory associated with it begins to fade away like smoke on the wind. Fixing the broken object will bring that memory back, but failing to fix it before you wake up from the dream will have that memory gone forever.

Although, there are some pretty bad memories out there… if the memory broken was terrible, or if the item in question showed someone a dark secret you didn’t want them to know… shouldn’t it stay gone?

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

HOW SWEET IT IS

The fog is back. The creatures are clinging to you because they're cold. The eyeball lemons are, uh... lemon...y. Enjoy your completely normal slice of nature.

I REALLY LIKE YOU

Ydalir has made everybody chocolates! They're delicious and induce feelings of affection and a deep need to cuddle others. Surely this won't go terribly awry. Also, she's very sorry.

LET’S STAY TOGETHER

Sometimes, touching someone else takes you to a combined mental space made up of the important things to you and the person you touched. You can touch things within the space to play memories, or explore the environment together. Outside, you're just asleep on the floor somewhere probably, so hopefully no one trips over you.

PAIN IN MY HEART

Be careful in the heartspaces. Anything you break will take a relevant memory with it. If you can find a way to repair it, the memory will come back. Although, sometimes memories need to stay gone, don't they? Maybe leaving it broken is okay?

OOC

Happy February! The mod team will not apologise for the amount of pink in this event log. If you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. We will allow you to make up various plantanimal creatures for this event, they don't have to be like the images linked as examples. Have fun, enjoy creatures, they're here to stay. Reminder this month will have Heimrquest, so if you want to sign up, please do so on the OOC plotting post.

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Comments

[oleaeuropaea]

No, no. Our mother was a Plant. Fully dependent.

[Vash didn't really know which Plant. He'd never asked, not when he already knew who his mother was.]

We called her our sister. Her name was Tesla.

[Was being the key term here.]

[livlaughlove]

[livio doesn't think to ask for more context than that. just a mother plant and her two independents.

three?]

Tesla. She didn't make it to No Man's Land?

[oleaeuropaea]

Tesla - Didn't make it to our birth.

[In the distance, the tree flickers briefly. In one minute, it's nothing more than bark and life. In the next, cool glass replaces it, giving just the faintest flicker of the body within.]

It isn't a happy story. You shouldn't have to hear it. Not here, at least.

[At least part of this place made Livio happy. Vash doesn't want to tarnish those memories.]

[livlaughlove]

Vash -- ?

[he sees the flicker, and the faint silhouette. incomplete. or at least... all there, with gaps between.

but vash insists upon avoiding it. liv is torn between staring at the tree-tank and trying to look away out of respect for vash's wishes. it's... difficult.]

[oleaeuropaea]

[He draws a breath in, clearly waffling on whether or not to speak any further. Livio appears to want to know, but actually talking about it is an entirely different beast.

... In the end, he offers only an inkling.]

When you are the first of your kind... there are a lot of questions. Once you can't just answer with words.

[livlaughlove]

[slowly, livio rises to his feet, watching the distant image fade in and out. given a moment of time, and vash's cryptic words...

well. livio can put two and two together. he was a test subject, himself, after all. he's just remained in one piece, mostly.]

Vash, I...

... We don't have to talk. Or even stay here, if you don't want.

[oleaeuropaea]

I - [His voice wavers. His eyes stay locked on the flowers. He watches them furl and unfurl, struggling with the patchwork of memories. The sunlight flickers in and out as the world around them seems to shift this way and that.]

This was home. For me, too. [He nods to the flowers.] Something horrible happened there, but it was still home.

I never wanted to leave. Not even after we found out about everything.

[livlaughlove]

[livio gave vash an out, but he's still talking. that means he wants to, right? at least, that's what livio thinks... so he listens.]

What happened?

[oleaeuropaea]

[He's willing, at least. He doesn't want to — who would. But he's here and ready for it.]

When we found her body, Nai and I were both inconsolable. Rem, our mother — the one who took us in after we were born — told us everything. I believed her. Forgave her.

Nai never could. He didn't trust humanity. And so he - tried to end it.

[The world around them flickers briefly, a new memory forming. Blaring lights, plummeting ships, all play out for a split second, before the hybrid of Hopeland and the biodome appear once more.]

[livlaughlove]

[... their mother was a human?

even battle-hardened livio trembles at the sheer force of the big fall played out around him for the blink of an eye.

there's so much to unravel and understand... it hurts to think about.]

I --

It's... horrible. All of it.

[oleaeuropaea]

[Vash flinches as he trembles. The guilt is evident on his face.]

Sorry.

[He tries to keep the peace within his mind. To maintain the mostly idyllic scenery.]

Tell me more? About growing up here? Gotta be better than talking about all of this.

[livlaughlove]

[while vash struggles to keep the horrors™ at bay, livio tries to do the same. at least, to get his own body under control. he's stronger than this.]

I -- you really wanna hear about that?

[oleaeuropaea]

I do.

[Though his voice is small, his tone is no less genuine than ever.]

Feel like I barely know you. I wanna change that, if I can.

[livlaughlove]

[livio can't argue that. it's only fair that he shares something, given the secrets he's sure vash would have been perfectly content never coming to light.]

Sure thing, Vash.

[he takes a steadying breath, tries to focus on the warmth he once felt at hopeland.

quieter still than the distant chatter of children going about their day, there's the faint sound of a boy weeping, as if just around the corner. it fades out as he speaks.]

... I wasn't here -- there. For long. And I sure as hell didn't fit in at first. But Wolfwood... Nick. He got me to pull my head outta my ass. Even... made a friend or two, for a time.

[oleaeuropaea]

[Vash starts at the sound of crying. He shifts, instinctively trying to reach out toward the noise. He chides himself when he remembers that it's just them — everything else is memory. If he's going to reach out to anyone, it should be the man in front of him.

So he does. A hand comes to rest against a massive bicep, gentle as can be.]

Only for a time?

[livlaughlove]

[livio notices vash's movements, even if he doesn't acknowledge them. the guy really does just want to help. it's... comforting, actually, even if livio doesn't quite deserve that.]

... It was nice while it lasted. But I fucked it up. Made myself unwelcome. After that, everything led to... this. [he gives a weak gesture toward himself.] And you don't want to hear about all that.

[oleaeuropaea]

[He knows it can't possibly end pleasant — you don't end up in the Eye of Michael and have things go well. Maybe it's a good thing Livio doesn't elaborate, though, Vash is already misty eyed enough as it is.

Are they close enough for Vash to reach out? If they're not, he'll sidle a few steps closer and lay his hand over Livio's. He'll even thread their fingers together, if given the chance.]

The good thing is... it's never too late for second chances. That's what I think, at least.

[livlaughlove]

[livio stiffens but doesn't fight vash off. his ears feel hot, even in this space. when was the last time someone held his hand? was it back here -- at hopeland?

he's quiet for a decent chunk of time, wrestling with himself.]

... Do you actually believe that? You can't even forgive yourself for inadvertent manslaughter. I'm a repeat murderer.

[oleaeuropaea]

Of course I can.

[Livio's hand is squeezed gingerly, a rather tender gesture considering the all-but tenuous friendship between the two of them.]

You and Nick aren't that different, right? What you wound up caught in, and all that. And if I can believe that, beneath everything he's done, that Nick is a good man, why wouldn't that be true for you, too?

[livlaughlove]

[the touch, while gentle, perhaps because of the gentleness, makes livio's skin crawl. but still, he doesn't move away. somehow it seems like that would be akin to slapping vash in the face.]

Because I didn't "get caught up." Nick -- they used the kids as leverage against him. I chose it. I sought out the Eye. I knew what I was walking into.

[oleaeuropaea]

Even still.

[He doesn't squeeze again, nor does he break the contact. He merely offers a tender smile to Livio.]

Have you ever heard of a blank ticket? It's something my mom used to tell me about.

[livlaughlove]

[livio takes a deep breath, focusing on relaxing his muscles as he exhales. this is important to vash, and he's trying to help... it's only fair that livio tries to see his point.]

No, I haven't. What's that about?

[oleaeuropaea]

So. The way she tells it is that everyone has a blank ticket in life. Always.

[His eyes close behind his glasses. The smile he wears is sad but genuine, one that's full of both love and loss.]

At any time you can take that ticket and write a new destination. Doesn't matter where you've been or gone. You can always change your direction.

[livlaughlove]

... It sounds nice. Something I'd like to try if I get the chance. [back home, at least. where it matters.

but as far as livio is concerned, changing direction by itself isn't enough. it'll never be enough.]

[oleaeuropaea]

You don't have to wait. You're already on a different path here, right? Haven't pulled a gun on me or anything!

[He shifts, whole body angling so that he can properly face Livio with that beaming smile of his.]

You're already changing.