hotelcaelum | Event Log #002

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ow is right. Astarion grimaces as they hit the dirt, the whole world feeling like it's been jarred out of place for a few seconds, before he blinks a few times to orient himself again. He's somehow splayed himself on his side, across Sumina's middle-]

I... [He scrunches up his face.] What? You're asking I'm all right?

[He sits up quite suddenly, very awkwardly, hair all tousled, lips pulled back in a sneering frown, fangs glistening. He seeks the ground; seeks her shadow, in case it's still up to no good.]

Your shadow, is it back to normal? How are you feeling?

[ Yeah, that's an elbow to her tummy right there, but it's fine. She can't help but groan as he rights himself, but soon she is sitting up, too.

Sorry, once again, about how this messes up his hair; her eyes stay on those incredibly prominent incisors, though she is much too disoriented to really think anything of it other than huh. ]

I think...

[ Her gaze then slides down, to fix upon the sight of her shadow momentarily, as if waiting on bated breath for it to suddenly become a horrible void once more. ]

...I think it's alright, now. I feel— [ with another labored breath ] I don't know.

[It's okay. Sumina messing up his hair is just becoming a theme in their threads, now.

He, too, eyes the ground again, distrustful. Even of his own shadow, which overlaps her own.]

Gods. What is happening in this hotel.

["I don't know" is not the best assessment, but he still allows some relief to wend through him, though barely subdued by his own indignity.]

The same happened to me. My own shadow trying to gobble me up!

[ For what it's worth, even when his hair is messed up, Astarion still looks fire. ]

I wish I knew... It's been happening to so many of us. I somehow thought...

[ ...That she'd be able to deal with hers by herself. There's nothing so remarkable about her, or so she thinks, yet even her shadow saw fit to cause so much trouble for others. ]

...Anyhow. Thank you, Astarion. I'd have sunk into mine in my sleep if you weren't here.

[And perhaps it's because he's equal parts hissy-cat-mood and vaguely-concerned-mood that he doesn't let that dangling sentence fade into oblivion. No, he picks it right back up.]

You somehow thought what? That you'd be fine? Why's that?

[He stands, then, only slightly wobbly, then actually offers her a hand up, too.]

The only thanks I need is your promise to be more careful.

[(Again, says Astarion, who had also fallen victim to his own shadow. Pot, kettle.)]

[ Ah. He doesn't let her get away with it.. Her brow furrows in thought, knowing full-well that she's being scolded, yet not really wanting to own up to what she'd been thinking, either. Still, she takes his hand with a grateful nod as she rises up to her feet with his help. ]

...I thought I'd be able to deal with it by myself. I didn't think a shadow of mine could get so... aggressive.

[ But, to his latter remark: ]

Is being careful really something that would have helped, here? It's not as if I chose to fall asleep like this. You'd felt it too, hadn't you? That... awful lethargy, from something being missing from you.

[To be fair, he's not in any state to actually criticize her, knowing full well that she might have been as careful as possible yet still have fallen victim to her shadow. After all, how should one prepare for something they can't possibly guess?

And while Astarion realizes this to some degree, what else should he ply his concern towards? He huffs out a breath of air.]

...I did. And it was awful. And no, I suppose there was nothing else you could have done, but doesn't that just frustrate you?

... It does.

[ It frustrates he more, however, that she's troubled so many because of this, even when she really couldn't help any of it. ]

For what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to deal with this, too. Not just with my shadow, but with yours, too. I'm uncertain how we might prepare ourselves better in the future, but... You have my word that next time something goes awry here, I will do my best to help you, Astarion.

Event Log #002

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