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

[icyspicy]

[ Thankfully, they're not drifting for long, and soon enough his feet find solid ground again. ]

You're not the only one. The whole hotel is out of sorts.

... You can let go of me now.

[velluminous]

[ lifts her head ]

You smell nice.

[icyspicy]

[ A beat, as he glances down at her with arched brows. Then, a small laugh. ]

So kind of you to notice.

[velluminous]

[ ........................................................... ]

[velluminous]

Mammon, I need to sleep.

[icyspicy]

Perhaps then you ought to retire to your room and leave the research for later.

[ He is definitely still holding her while they're having this conversation. ]

[velluminous]

They are going to keep causing trouble until I find way to ... [ biting her lip to stifle a yawn ] bind them to me once more.

[ ..... ]

You have volunteered to carry me, then?

[icyspicy]

You can't very well do that if you're sleep-deprived.

[ Little does he know that 1) that's her default state, and 2) the tiredness is a side-effect of the shadows gone missing.

He'll figure it out eventually. ]

I suppose I could. Where are you staying?

[velluminous]

[ sentient shadows are out of story or myth, but they aren't unheard of. nearly fey, something you might run afoul of in an excursion through the Feywild. so why here...? so far away from any place she knows (but never far enough to escape Waterdeep entirely)—

...she realizes he'd asked her something.

refocuses her eyes, shaking her head slightly as if to clear cobwebs. ]

Hm?

[icyspicy]

[ Gods above. He nearly thinks she's dozed off in his arms and is just contemplating what to do with her when she stirs again. ]

Your room, Sprezzatura. Where is it?

[velluminous]

Ah... Third floor. Three-oh-three.

[icyspicy]

All right. I'll take you there. Try not to drool on me if you fall asleep.

[velluminous]

[ already laying her head back down on his shoulder, with a noted lack of self-consciousness. ]

I do not drool.

[icyspicy]

[ She can probably feel the soft "mm-hm" rumbling in his chest more than she hears it. ]

Don't snore either, then.

[velluminous]

[ it's... nice. this blasted thief is... nice. she should care more of the ramifications, why he would be kind to Sprezzatura Vaux, what value does he see that she hasn't realized yet...

but she is so exhausted that all she feels is the gratitude to not have to hold up her own limbs.

murmured, ] I will not sleep.

[icyspicy]

You're halfway there already.

[ Mildly. She wouldn't be the first person he hauled off to their room while they were dead asleep. He and Astarion got to know each other much the same way. (Don't ask what force managed to put an elf to sleep.) ]

[velluminous]

[ correcting herself, then, if he's to be pedantic, ] I don't sleep. Not anymore.

[ not after Teaferth ]

[icyspicy]

Too many dreams of flames?

[ It's not a prying question, at least not in tone. He can already guess at the answer. ]

[velluminous]

[ why does he ask these things? meant to pry or not, it feels invasive, like he's putting a hand inside her chest and feeling around for something that's no longer there.

everything just aches, a raw and throbbing wound ]

All tieflings dream of flame.

I still see it collapsing.

[icyspicy]

Teaferth? I suppose you would, since your life collapsed along with it.

[ They've reached the elevator, and he shifts her a little so he can press the button. ]

[velluminous]

[ she should care more. find some element of embarrassment in being toted around like a child who can't be trusted to walk alone. blame the adrenal collapse, blame the insomnia... the shadows that no longer splay out at her feet. she curls her tail close around her hip and adjusts as he shifts her, but no more.

it's nice... to be held like this, for as brief as it is. for as perfunctory as it is.

really, she's too tired to carry her own body downstairs. feels like being spellbound. and to talk about Teaferth... a little more life smothers into melancholy. ]

You do not know my life.

[ everyone in Waterdeep knows Sprezzatura Vaux's life. now. ]

[icyspicy]

[ She really is like a sleepy child in his arms, a little shift, a little curl of her tail, and then nothing more as she drowsily settles. ]

No, I suppose I don't. Am I being presumptuous, saying the things I'm saying?

[velluminous]

You would not be special if you were.

[ she's learned how much strangers love to presume. especially when it's elite rubbing elbows with fellow so-called elite. ]

You are right, anyway. It did collapse. What am I now? Not scribe, not even academic.

[ a slow breath in... and out again, heavy. her gaze drifts over to watch each dot on the elevator panel light up as they descend, floor by floor ]

[icyspicy]

[ He supposes her name is on the lips of a great many people after what happened. In his circles, it’s little more than a curiosity. A thing for the underworld to wonder at only insofar as how it might benefit them. But in the circles of the elite? It’s a full-blown scandal.

In his very few interactions with Sprezzatura, he’s not so sure what to believe. Is this a woman who regrets her actions only because they blew up in her face? Or is there something more to it? ]

Perhaps here, hundreds of thousands of miles, or perhaps even hundreds of worlds away from home, you can begin to figure that out.

[velluminous]

[ hundreds of worlds away and still it follows her. people know her name. they know.

it aches in her chest, her heart and her soul, and up into her throat which seems to squeeze shut in the silence after he speaks. shaky breath; painful, too. even here, a library is somewhere she has to leave in a rush. she has to rely on someone else to pick up the pieces before it gets out of control.

maybe it's the tiredness talking, or the misery in general. but she's very quiet, and eventually, despite the iron-knuckle grip she's trying to keep on herself, there's also a little warm, wet spot on his collar. ]