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
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) hotelcaelum | caelumserver | caelumooc |
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caelumstaff) wrote in 
i literally dont think ive ever used this icon but here we are
Sumina groans in her frustration, but the good thing is that now she has Gojo by one hand. Swiftly, one of her mage hands floats away from him, positioning itself as a sort of mid-air anchor for her to reach for with her second hand; despite its spectral appearance, the mage hand is tangible, or else it would be incapable of doing much of anything at all. In this moment, it serves as her leverage to be able to more earnestly pull on Satoru, to meet the shadow's resistance with her own. ]
Whether or not Satoru is really lying to me is— [ she huffs ] between himself and I! I don't know whose voice you are, but it is not your business!
Besides, who says— that neighbors can't be friends, too!?
thank u for this honor
What is he doing? This isn't...he's not —
Does she really...think of him as a friend?
Sucking in a deep breath: ]
Heave-ho, Mina-chan!
[ Which is to say, he's going to try to climb out of the shadowy vortex now, but he'll need her help to do so. Meanwhile, the shadow remains where it is, its voice now returning back to Gojo's own, but still full of humor as if it finds all of this very amusing.
"Go on, then! Back to your 'friend'! A man is only as strong as the company he keeps, after all. Hehe!" ]
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Perhaps Sumina is a sensitive sort of woman, but even at the inn, when adventurers tell her of their exploits... Often, she is the one pointing out all of the things that should be alarming. No, it's not normal for someone to be on the brink of death twice in the span of 24 seconds. No, being enthralled by an aberrant creature is not just a funky little thing that happens to everyone.
So why is it so funny that she's upset by this?! Ah, she's only getting more frustrated, so even as Gojo seems to come to and begins trying to climb out in earnest, she clicks her tongue when his shadow pipes up again. It sounds more like him now, at least, but still— ]
Ahh— Just be quiet and - [ another huff, as she keeps on pulling, as her mage hands now pull on her in turn ] go back - to being a regular shadow!
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Still, she's trying to help him. She's just that kind of person. She just has that kind of heart. ]
You tell him, the bastard —
[ The voice has changed back again, to the soft-spoken one from before. "But why would I do that? Then Satoru will be lonely again."
Stop it, he tries to spit, but the words stick to his throat. Taking advantage of his paralysis, the shadow instead springs up from the vortex at their feet, lunging for Sumina instead. ]
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To always be the harbor in a storm, no matter where the starry seas take you.
And what a storm this is. For such a brief window in time, Sumina thinks they might be close, very close to freeing Satoru of this predicament, but then that unfamiliar voice cuts in once more. It's not until now that Sumina truly pays it mind, beyond the fact that it sounds wholly unlike Satoru's. It is... such a soft voice, and Sumina would almost think it gentle, too, if not for all of the things it's said in the last few moments.
Her gaze slides over to Satoru's face. She has never seen him so utterly arrested... ]
Satoru—
[ Don't listen, she wants to say, but instead that inky darkness is lunging at her with a menacing speed, and her words are lost in a gasp choked out in desperation. But she doesn't let go. Her grasp with one hand only seems to grow tighter around Satoru's arm, while the other lifts to shield herself - though that hardly seems necessary, when a soft glow emanating from her chest envelops her, and the shadow's darkness glances off of her
like Choso's Blood Manipulation hitting Limitless. ]S—Satoru!
[ She calls out, this time, like a clarion bell. Wherever his mind has gone after hearing that voice again, he needs to come back, loneliness be damned. She's lonely, too, but it's not going to stop her from calling out to him.
A glanced blow doesn't stop the shadow from another onslaught either, but this time, Sumina's free hand intercepts the blow with an almost fluid grace. ]
1/2
A shield rises to protect her before he can intervene, the glow of a soft light at her chest as its source. Later, much later, he'll definitely be asking for that, but once is more than enough. He's been such an idiot, just lying here in a stupor, unable to so much as lift a finger to protect her when she had been trying to help him —
It won't happen again. Sumina might catch its blow more easily than he expected, and that gives him all the time that he needs, while the shadow is distracted by Sumina's countermeasures. It should have been so obvious before, how to solve this problem, but preoccupied as he was with his own emptiness without his shadow beneath him, he hadn't realized it until this moment.
But maybe he's just the desperate to make sure Sumina doesn't get hurt. Especially not on his behalf.
Keeping a firm grasp on her hand with one of his own, he lifts the other, his index finger and middle finger interwoven. Where can't a shadow follow them? ]
Domain Expansion —
2/2
[ With a swell of unfettered cursed energy, the flow of metaphysical space unfolds from him and encapsulates them both — but not the shadow. He keeps an impossibly tight grip on her hand, unwilling to let her deviate away even a little bit in the space of the void, but here it is so, so very quiet, blessedly so, a way for him to reset his connection to his shadow, by rendering it unmade.
Finally, he can just...think. His shoulders sag back as an exasperated while escapes him. ]
Ughhhhhhh. Finally! I thought he would never shut up.
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Perhaps because it is a part of Gojo, it is not unbound from the rules of his reality. But Sumina herself will decidedly refrain from any conjecture, especially when in just a few short moments, she finds herself and Satoru enveloped into a starry void that came from him, one that has cast out the shadow in its wake, leaving them standing in an unknowable expanse of space not too unlike their own hallway, yet entirely different in how it feels, which is unlike anything else she's ever experienced.
Free to breathe once more, Sumina draws in a deep breath, which conveniently serves as an expression of her utter awe, too, before she simply falls to her knees with their hands still joined together. She may have been brave and bold facing off against that shadow, but she really is just a humble innkeeper at the end of the day, and that was a lot for her.
...It still is. ]
Are you - [ she huffs. ] Are you back...?
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Quickly, his free hand is reaching for her chin, urging her to tip it up to he can get a better look at her neck, to see if the shadow's attack left any mark or injury behind. ]
...Yeah. I'm back. Sorry I took my sweet time and kept you waiting.
[ He shouldn't have. None of it should have happened, and yet, here they are, within the confines of his ultimate technique, simply because he was so fed up with being so beside himself that his frustration left little other recourse. It was absolutely overkill, to employ something so powerful for the purpose of ridding them of a shadow, yet it was a decisive and effective action. Like cutting a thread with a saw.
And if nothing else, maybe the captivating otherworldliness of the void will be enough to distract her away from...you know. The everything that just happened. ]
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She is pliable in his hand as he inspects her neck; blessedly, the contact had been all too brief to cause anything worse than perhaps some bruising, but more than anything, as he keeps his grasp on her hand and on her face, Gojo would find—
Sumina is shaking, from the unsteadiness of her hands and legs and shoulders to the quivering in each expelled breath.
She has said it so many times before, hasn't she? She doesn't have an adventurous bone in her body. Rarely has she ever faced real danger, much less danger like this, danger that feels mind-boggling and impossible even given all that is made possible by her very magical upbringing and surroundings.
Which, by the way, includes somewhat-regular jaunts to the Astral Plane, a starry sea not too unlike where they are now... And as such, despite its otherworldliness, Sumina still thinks of what just transpired, above all. All she really needs to know about this place for the moment is that the shadow isn't in here with them, and that Satoru is back. ]
Good, [ she pants, ] I'm glad...
[ She shuts her eyes tightly. It's going to be okay now, right...? ]
What happened back there, Satoru? Your- your shadow...
[ It wasn't quite like the others she had encountered. It almost seemed an entirely different person its own... ]
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And more than the redness at her neck, she is trembling, too, and before he's even thought it through, he kneels down more fully in front of her, his hands gliding over her arm and sweep of her neck, so he can grasp her shoulders, steadfast and reassuring. He doesn't quite pull her into a hug, or anything like that — he knows better than to cling too tightly to someone who is having an extreme response like this, but he offers what he can with his presence, with the weight and warmth of his hands.
This is his fault. She wouldn't be in this situation if not for him, so he owes her answers, as much as he wants to run from her question, from memories that even now dance across his mind, fresh and indelible as they were the moment they happened.
His gaze falls away, distant and inscrutable. ]
My shadow...must have known it couldn't take me in a real fight, even when I was out of it. So I guess...instead, it decided to use someone I cared about against me. Someone I lost.
[ A dirty trick someone else had used against him not that long ago, either. His heart is his greatest weakness, isn't it?
Love really is the most twisted curse of all. ]
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No, not quite like this. She has never had to personally, literally pull someone out of peril. She's... only an ordinary, humble innkeeper, yet still, she wishes she weren't quite so shaken, to the point that the person that she'd tried to help now has to help her.
...And he does help, his grounding grasp on her shoulders enough to allow her to focus on her breathing rather on the trembling of her body. Before long, she lifts her own hand to rest on top of his, and lifts her gaze to meet his, although she is unable to given that he looks past her, into the void that surrounds them. He had looked that way at last week's party, too, hadn't he...?
Where does his mind go, when he looks so far away like that? He doesn't leave her wondering for long. ]
Someone you— [ Lost. Oh. ] Oh, gods. I'm... I'm sorry, Satoru.
[ That the shadow played such a cruel trick on him, that he knows such a loss to begin with. Little wonder, then, that he was so shocked every time that person's voice cut through... And moreover, what the shadow kept saying... No, she won't ask about it, yet, about the 'lying' it kept mentioning. How could she, in any case, when her heart is twisting with sympathy? ]
He must have been so important to you...
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Maybe that's the worst part about all of this. It all came from him, in the end.
He takes in a deep breath, reigning in his emotions with deft precision, as he's had to do as a sorcerer so many times before. Thoughtlessly, his thumbs smooth over the fabric of Sumina's top at her shoulders, an attempt to soothe her as much as its one to soothe himself. ]
He was. [ Best friend, lover, enemy, now his shadow — where does it stop? ] Pretty cheap trick, if you ask me.
[ Were those things he would have really said, if he were here? Or is it just how Gojo himself perceives it? What a mess. ]
We...went through a lot, and weren't exactly on the best of terms when he died. Still, I never stopped caring about him, and my shadow knew that, too.
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A heartless trick.
[ As Satoru goes on, Sumina listens dutifully; and listening, as it turns out, is something that she is rather given to, with the life she leads as an innkeeper. And really... No matter where the inn goes, no matter who walks through the grand doors of the Elderflower, some things simply stay the same. That much is true here, too.
The heart is such a delicate, but precious little thing.
And as such, she often meets people, adventurers especially, who tend to hide their hearts, who keep theirs tucked away for safety when they lead such perilous, tumultuous lives that would see their hearts fractured until they break. She doesn't blame them. And she doesn't blame Satoru, either, for hiding his beneath his bright, flippant, eccentric personality, even though she thinks she has glimpsed past it from time to time.
She's never before experienced a loss like what he speaks of. But she has met plenty who have. It feels very much like she's overstepping, here, but at the same time... Perhaps they're past that point, when the shadow of his past quite literally has attacked her. So she takes a deep breath, and casts her gaze out towards the cosmic void that surrounds them. ]
No matter what the magic of this place is capable of... Your shadow will always be exactly that - your shadow. It will always be tethered to you, in a way, but... it doesn't need to engulf you like yours tried to, today. It doesn't... It doesn't need to be your only company when you're lonely.
[ "Satoru will be lonely again," that's what the shadow had said, hadn't it? Has he been alone since he lost this person? ]
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She's made of much sterner stuff than she realizes.
His hands at her shoulders slip down to the crooks of her elbows instead, still holding fast, though his gaze remains downcast. It doesn't need to be your only company when you're lonely.
If only it were so simple...but then again, she would understand loneliness well herself, wouldn't she? Given how transient the people in her life must be, by the very nature of her work. Like him, she's defined by that, too, even if in wholly different ways.
He doesn't respond back to her right away, instead letting his eyes flutter closed, white eyelashes pressing into a tight line, as the void around them starts to recede, cracking like a sphere to reveal the hotel hallway around them once more. Even as his domain gives way, he keeps the both of them grounded, rooted to this spot. If he moves, he might lose his nerve, might lose the meaning of this moment. Just...what is she offering him? ]
Sumina? [ Not Mina-chan...just Sumina. ] You...you're lonely too, aren't you?
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Just like she has her family, and her precious guests. Even if she doesn't get to see them all too often... Even if it does make her lonely. Even still— ]
...Mm. Lonely, yes. But never alone.
[ There's a difference between lonely and alone... right? She's not so sure, herself, but she'd like to think that there is. The contemplative, poignant look on her face, the hooded gaze of her eyes as she at last draws her attention away from the veil that no longer surrounds them - to try and look at him, though she doesn't quite make it there, instead looking somewhat off to the side. ]
Even though you've lost this important person, you still have your fellow sorcerers, and your precious students, too. [ She moves her arms in such a way that she can then take his hands into hers, instead, if he would allow it. ] In my family, we have this notion that... When a Heartleaf passes on, after hundreds and hundreds of years, their adventures continue through the people they met over their long life. But, you know, I don't think that idea fits only to my family. You understand, right? What I'm trying to say.
[ That even though this person has gone, he lives on in Satoru, and in turn in his friends and students. Perhaps especially his students. ]
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That's all he needs to hear to know — she does get it. She understands, all too well, how you can be surrounded by people, even people you care about, and still feel like the only person in the room. Whether its duty or status or infinity that separates them, there's just something that sets them apart as the other, and how do they ever fully address that?
That's an answer he's searched for for a long time, and will continue to search for, as much as he allows himself to, for fear of never finding something satisfactory, instead stuck at a pinnacle no one else can reach, elevated further away from the ones that do try, that do come close. Isn't it easier to just keep his distance in the first place?
But that...isn't what he wants. Not in his heart. It isn't what Suguru would want for him, either. His shadow was right about that one thing.
Sumina's hands around his own are warm, and draw his gaze to her face, even if she herself is looking elsewhere. He understands, and even if it won't be a lesson he learns in a day, she has reminded him of something important, something he had almost forgotten in Shibuya. ]
Mm. I sure as hell won't be the one to let his legacy down.
[ What Suguru had once hoped for, and what he stood as a cautionary tale of. He doesn't quite think of it as Suguru still being with him, but it's what he can cling to for now. ]
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For a moment, Sumina closes her eyes, brows creased, her countenance disquieted. What if her words don't reach him? Could she truly have overstepped, now? What if—
What if he pushes her away, while their newfound friendship is still budding...?
But soon enough he responds, and though it feels selfish, she also feels relieved that what she'd said seems to have resonated with him enough. Her expression softens at once, and her lips curl into a faint smile as she at last meets his gaze, looking through the tint of his sunglasses. ]
Of course not. You are a persistent man, after all, Satoru.
[ She squeezes his hands once more before her grasp loosens along with a sigh that escapes between her lips. ]
I'm glad... That you'll be alright, now.
[ With the rush of urgency and danger dwindling, Sumina is reminded just how heavy her own body has been feeling, too, in the absence of her own shadow. But it's probably fine. ]
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Yeah. He's alright. His body and shadow are one again, and his wayward strength has returned to him. He will no doubt be thinking about the implications of this encounter for a long while yet, and just how easily he was laid out by a shadow, of all things, but...
Alright is enough for now.
He doesn't let her hands slip away completely until he gives them an appreciative squeeze of his own. ]
...Thanks, Mina-chan. [ He's lucky, to have a friend like her. ] You're still missing your shadow, too?
[ That hasn't escaped his notice either, even if dealing with his own was the more pressing matter. ]
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Mm... Glad I could help.
[ It's just how it is with a humble innkeeper, isn't it? That she should always render assistance for others before ever worrying about herself.
Overcome by the weakness that settles fully into her body and soul without her shadow, she slumps forward and leans onto Satoru's shoulder and chest, or as much as Limitless will permit her to. ]
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He probably shouldn't be enjoying it, given what they just went through...he'll just think of it like this making them even, or something. ]
Hey...we should get you back to your room. Your shadow is giving you grief too, huh?
[ No one should have to go through that, if he can help it. ]
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It's... Nothing to worry about. She's harmless, like me.
[ Smash cut to her shadow throwing an absolute rager on the Ren Faire floor. ]
I'd appreciate the help getting to my room, for now... I'll - I'll search for her again later. You need to rest, too, Satoru...
[ She fully intends on resolving this by herself, but we all know how that's going to go. ]
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Ehhh, after barely being able to move for the last day or so, the last thing I want to do is just lay around resting. C'mon — up and at 'em.
[ You know, in a metaphorical sense, since he isn't expecting her to get up at all, as evidenced from the way he winds his arms around her back and beneath her knees and pulls her against his chest. Princess carry!! ]
I'll have you there in just a sec. Comfy?
[ Or, comfy enough for a quick teleportation trip. ]
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At his question, she nods her head. ]
Mm. I'm in your hands, Satoru...
[ Quite literally. Her grip on his shirt tightens as she braces herself for the impending teleportation. ]
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Ah, it may be something of a blessing in disguise that she's as out of it that it is. Maybe it's the emotional rawness that they've experienced these past few moments, but the implicit trust in her words stirs something fond in his heart, heat rising to his cheeks in an unfamiliar way.
Or...no, it's not familiar. Just...exceptional, the sort of thing that doesn't happen often, or hasn't in a long while. ]
Okey-dokey! Let's get you to your room before I go knock the daylights out of your shadow.
[ It's the least he can do, now...
With a gentle squeeze of his arms around her, the pop out of existence in the hallway where they had fought his shadow, and appear just inside the door of her suite. Normally, he wouldn't just, you know, go right in, but desperate times, and all that. ]
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