Event Log #002

[caelumstaff]

EVENT LOG number 002 The hotel humbly hopes that you're settling in well and are taking advantage of the various pleasures on offer for your stay. In Mr Bennet's opinion, things have been going quite well and he doesn't think that the guests are unhappy at all. New guests have arrived, some have left, it's all going along perfectly. So, of course, this is when the next troublesome thing pops up. SHADOWS One morning, characters will find the hotel to be a little dimmer than usual, a little more shadowy. Yet if anyone asks Mr Bennet about it, he will claim to not have noticed anything different than usual. Either way, as the characters move on with their day, they'll start to notice a few odd things start to happen. PHASE ONE: Initially, characters will notice their shadow beginning to move a little out of sync with them. Discreetly at first until eventually, their shadow takes on a life of its own, mischievously playing with characters and enjoying their newfound freedom. Very Peter Pan, and completely harmless. PHASE TWO: Now, shadows might disappear entirely, roaming the hotel to their own discretion and ignoring the characters they belong to. As the shadow takes on this free will, characters will begin to feel slightly off balance and have a hard time feeling whole without their shadow around. The shadow may become slightly aggressive as well if told they should return to their characters, fighting back in their own way from knocking things over to outright attacking other characters. It's a little hard to fight back though when your opponent is a shadow, isn't it? PHASE THREE: The shadows have become fully aggressive now, fighting anyone who tries to get them to return to their original person. Characters will find themselves feeling weak and low energy as a result of losing their shadow. Eventually, the shadows will come back to their owners but the characters will find themselves sinking into their shadow, eventually changing places entirely with their shadow. The only way to rescue a character from this fate is for another character to pull them out of their shadow forcibly. The bright side is once a character is pulled out of their shadow, it all returns to normal and their shadow is no longer sentient. These phases will last over the course of the week and it is quite alright to stay in phase one/two/three. Not all shadows will become aggressive, not all shadows will be playful. Feel free to manipulate your character's shadow in the way that's most fun for you. NAV | PREMISE | RULES | FAQ | TAKEN hotelcaelum | caelumserver | caelumooc

Comments

[velluminous]

[ yea ]

Are you cleric?

[ the elevator dings and opens to floor three. ]

[vecna]

No. But I can [try to] resuscitate you.

[Out they go! It’s off to his room, and he fusses for his key, opening his door moments later.]

Ladies first. Make yourself at home.

[velluminous]

[ today she all but pours herself onto his sofa, sighing in relief to be off her feet. she is so desperately exhausted that she has to fend off the urge to close her eyes and curl up right here.

looks down at the pills in her hand. the warmth is beginning to turn the capsules tacky. ]

[vecna]

[She has all the space in the world to sprawl out on the sofa, considering he keeps his room nice and tidy. Unlike some people.

He enters and closes the door behind him, then fossicks through all the items she bought at the konbini. Did you have the foresight to buy bottled water, ma'am? Regardless, he does bring something over for her to take her pills with.]

You'll have to sit up and take them.

[This really is... like.. dealing with a child.]

[velluminous]

[ listen. he'll have to settle for bottled green tea. she pushes herself up slowly and reaches for the glass. Tylenol in one hand; drink in the other. and she just stares down at both for a long moment before abruptly tossing them into her mouth and washing them down with a mouthful of tea. very much with the grim resolve one would generally reserve for self-surgery.

then she grips the glass between both hands and waits. ]

[vecna]

[This woman. Henry purses his lips together, arching a brow. It really is a little amusing, her acting like he just offered her poison.]

…Do you want me to hold your hand while we countdown the minutes?

[Sorry, he can’t help himself.]

[velluminous]

[ JERKS HER HAND OUT STIFFLY ]

[vecna]

[MA’AM HE WAS JOKING?

But, despite himself, he reaches out to grasp her hand. Better?]

Okay. Talk to me about something. We have thirty minutes or so before it should kick in.

[velluminous]

[ only in the sense that she now has a hand to hold literally hostage, squeezing more tightly than you'd expect of such a small woman ]

Thirty minutes?! I could go to sleep faster and would not need to worry about coma!

[vecna]

[HOW TIGHTLY ARE WE TALKING, HERE

Blithely ignores her comment, in favor of picking the topic himself, I guess-]

Tell me about your city. Where drugs are, apparently, only liable to make someone fall into a coma and not much else.

[velluminous]

[ tightly. ]

Waterdeep... City of Splendours. It is very particular about such things are allowed within its borders.

[vecna]

[His hand......]

So what makes it so... splendid?

[velluminous]

Its size. Its potential. Two million people—artisans, scholars, lords with such incredible wealth. Its port, its guilds, its trade, its festivals. Griffons soaring through sky. Its Walking Statues. I barely know where to begin to explain to someone who has never even heard of it.

[vecna]

[He can’t even begin to imagine.]

Why don’t you start with where you live? What’s it like?

[velluminous]

[ you mean Teaferth?

...

oh, the Vaux estate?

...

or, no—her little flat in the South Ward...?

... ]

...I do not live anywhere now.

[vecna]

[…?]

You have to live somewhere.

[Even Henry lived somewhere, even if that somewhere was another dimension parallel from his own.]

[velluminous]

I am living here, then.

[ quietly, somewhere in the room, a clock ticks... Mammon, just let the coma take her. ]

[vecna]

[Well, now she’s just being difficult.]

You have a knack for avoiding answering very basic questions, you know.

[velluminous]

[ her grip becomes nigh-crushing ] My college burned, my family home is vile and loathsome, and I am being evicted from my boarding house. I live here now! There! Happy? Same answer!

[vecna]

[Ow? Ow??? Wherein Henry realizes how strong she is for such a tiny woman, help him.

His other hand moves to rest on her crushing grip, fingers flexing, as though asking to dial it back a little.]

Your college burned down?

[And then a series of not-homes followed. That feels familiar. ]

[velluminous]

[ that grounds her, his touch. just enough that she realizes the pain she's causing and releases, all at once, pulling her hand back like the arm of a machine. ]

Oh, why not? It is not as though I can escape Teaferth's Great Conflagration even here. Yes, there was fire. Swallowed up. My home of eleven years...

[vecna]

[Such a concise explanation, yet it reveals more lurking in between the lines. It is not as though I can escape Teaferth's Great Conflagration even here. An event that must loom over her like some great shadow.

Henry retracts his hand, flexing his fingers again, banishing the soreness.]

All that knowledge, too. For someone like you, that must have been heartbreaking.

["Heartbreaking" is what he says. But "enraging" is what he wonders at, what he means. The bitterness here is already on display.]

[velluminous]

Heartbreaking? It was fucking enraging. [ and yes, her heart has been shattered by it. she guards the pieces she managed to preserve like a hyena guards its scraps from the lions; by baring her teeth, snarling. biting, if she must. ] Nothing should have been lost that day. Where were those mages who could produce water, or smother flame? Where were those wards that would keep spark from catching on so many fragile, ancient pages? Where?

[vecna]

[And there it is. Precisely what he wanted to hear — that anger is so enticing to him, feels like it’s reflected in himself. Strange, how it almost feels a comfort; though of course he knows better than to say that.

Curious, though, what she said.]

You’re saying… What, then? Something had been conspired against the college?

[velluminous]

[ oh, she's gone and said far, far too much. she snaps her jaw shut with a click and glances down at the handkerchief and its new spot of blood. deep breath. ]

Mammon, I don't know! I am tired.