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sticks and bones. ([personal profile] sticksandbonesmods) wrote in [community profile] sticksandbones2024-02-01 10:46 am

EVENT 009

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.

UPDATES
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lupusxylem: (10)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Haha, this sure got heady in a hurry. Yet, for some reason, Wolfwood isn't shying away from it, even though he could very easily walk away.

Maybe he should.]


Somethin' tells me Liv wouldn't like hearing you say that.
livlaughlove: MY DEMONS (ONE SIX NINE)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-09 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Shut up. You don't know shit. [raz grumbles and shifts on his feet, not knowing what to do with his neverending restless energy but finally admitting (at least silently, to himself) that he can't rip wolfwood's spine out.] He don't give a fuck about me.
lupusxylem: (73)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
If you want me to shut up so bad, come make me.

[Maaaybe he's getting a bit too brave, but hey-]

If that were true, I don't think you'd be here at all.
livlaughlove: TAKE ME HIGH AND I'LL SING (ONE SIX TWO)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-09 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
[please don't fucking tempt him, wolfwood, he is barely managing to keep his fists at his side instead of in your FACE.

it helps, actually, to focus on the pain of the bullet slowly working itself out of his shoulder as his body finally starts to heal.]


Dumbass. It don't work like that. He can't just fuckin' wish me away. Much as he tries to...
lupusxylem: (43)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Sure. How come you ain't always here, then?

[Livio, from what Wolfwood understands, is more often at the forefront.]
livlaughlove: BUT STILL THEY SAY (ONE EIGHT EIGHT)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-09 01:57 am (UTC)(link)
Where's "here?" What the hell d'ya think I mean by "he wants to get rid'a me?" Why don't y'just say what the fuck y'mean, asshole?
lupusxylem: (18)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Here, as in- [Wolfwood gestures between them.] -here. Where it's you.

You know I didn't know you before. Or at least, I don't remember you.

[He leans his weight forward on his feet a bit, pushing his hands into his pockets.]

But from what I've seen of you, you seem too prideful to be that keen on self-depreciation when you're the whole fucking reason Liv is probably still alive right now. Guess maybe I was wrong.
livlaughlove: IT LEAVES MY BLOOD RUNNING COLD (ONE EIGHT SEVEN)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-09 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
[self-depreciation? does wolfwood want raz to hit him that bad? he stances right back at nick, looming even as a hunk of lead finally slips out of the wound, leaving the sizzle of healing in its wake.]

I don't have a damn problem with myself. Not one. Liv don't have to like me for me to do my job 'n do it well.
lupusxylem: (24)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
[I mean...............]

Riddle me this, then. If you don't, and you don't care if he even gives a shit about you, then why are you here? What do you get out of it, huh?
livlaughlove: CIRCLING LIKE VULTURES (ONE FIVE NINE)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-09 05:22 am (UTC)(link)
[he is this →← fucking close.]

Because I can't just fuckin' disappear! What are ya, stupid?! Quit with the goddamn interrogation, I'm sick of it!
lupusxylem: (64)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-09 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[Wolfwood steps one foot forward, fists balled at his sides.]

Not until I figure out what your deal is! You're the reason Liv is...different. You're a part of him, so I wanna know.

[And as bad as it sounds, he doesn't even necessarily mean different in a bad way. Mostly.]

You're...I don't know shit about you. You weren't there back home. And I don't know why.

[If Razlo had made himself known...would he have saved Livio, back then? Would he have survived their encounter on the landship?]
livlaughlove: GIVING BLOOD FOR THE UNBELIEVERS (ONE NINE ONE)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-10 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[right... even if their encounter was the freshest in razlo's memory before this place, he's aware that they're not even from the same no man's land. he doesn't have any context besides the vague snippets livio has given him.

a big part of razlo is sadistically amused by that. watching him flounder and grasp.

... a tiny part, the part that stems from and connects to livio, says he deserves to know.

well... at least wolfwood might shut the fuck up if razlo sheds some more light on himself. that's what he tells himself, anyway.]


Already told ya. I'm here to protect Liv. 'n if he's different, it's by his own choice. I've been here longer'n you've known 'im.
lupusxylem: (73)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-11 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[On one hand, that’s genuinely hard for Wolfwood to believe. Is Razlo suggesting he’s been with Livio since before he came to the orphanage? How is that even possible? Livio was so…gentle, and meek, and followed him around like a lost puppy the entire time he knew him. So unless he just was managing to keep things tightly under wraps…

It feels. Strange. Because from Wolfwood’s perspective, Livio- at least at the time- would have told him…wouldn’t he?

It’s clear just by the way Wolfwood’s expression tightens that he’s struggling to comprehend Razlo’s explanation, despite knowing that it’s probably completely true.]


Then you should be on the same page as me, not trying to kill me. I just wanted to keep him safe, too. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
livlaughlove: TAKE ME HIGH AND I'LL SING (ONE SIX TWO)

[personal profile] livlaughlove 2024-02-11 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[raz opens his mouth to snap back, but... doesn't. livio probably would have been safe, to this day, even, if razlo hadn't ruined it for him. but wolfwood is literally the last person in this grove to whom raz would ever want to admit wrongdoing or personal failure.

eventually, he scoffs and forces himself to turn away. less urge to strangle wolfwood if he isn't looking at his stupid fucking face.]


Ain't tryin' to kill ya. [anymore. at this moment.] So just fuck off, will ya?
lupusxylem: (6)

[personal profile] lupusxylem 2024-02-11 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[It’s actually a surprise that Razlo turns away from him. Wolfwood doesn’t continue to instigate, for a blessing, but at the same time he isn’t really de-escalating the situation either.]

To where? If I could leave, I would’ve by now.