Event Post: Home Sweet Home

[hadrielmods]

THE RUNDOWN

Everyone misses home, right? Or at least most of you do. Probably. If nothing else, the gods feel like they're constantly being asked to send people home, no matter how often they say they can't. But is that really true? Well, actually, yes, but that doesn't mean some of them can't bend the rules a little. Or maybe it would be more true to say - bend reality a little.

Confusion in particular has very few qualms about messing with people's minds, and she might be kind of tired of all the complaining. Starting on June 20th, the residents of Hadriel will begin to experience waking dreams of their homes. While walking, while working, hopefully not while swimming, they'll become transfixed, staring creepily into the distance as they experience a normal day in their previous lives. They won't remember Hadriel at all, instead believing that they never left home.

But of course that isn't all. It's kind of weird to see someone standing around staring, right? Wouldn't you want to wake them up, get their attention... shake them a little? The moment anyone does that, they'll be transported into the same dream that the person they touched is having. They'll visit their home, and while they might remember Hadriel, they also might fit right into that world, with a whole imagined history and place in it. That's up to you!

This will last until July 2nd, when the dreams will cease. Maybe you should just enjoy it. Who knows when you'll see home again?

THE DETAILS

The general focus of these dreams is a day in the life. Rather than seeing specific events or memories, dreamers and visitors will be living out a more-or-less average day - though, of course, average can mean a lot of different things, and what's average to one person might be totally bonkers to someone else. And of course, these worlds are based on the memories and the thoughts of the person they belong to, not reality - which means people who are dead back home can be alive and kicking, and don't even know they're dead.

Feel free to choose more than one home, location, or memory for these dreams. Maybe they used to be a Wendy's employee but later became a galactic traveler - they could dream about both lives, flipping burgers and blasting aliens, at different times. Maybe they've settled down in a number of different places - they could dream about all of them, each time feeling like they're safe at home again.

Confusion's goal is to make people think that they're home, just like they've always wanted, so things that have a chance of breaking that illusion would be much less likely to be part of these dreams. Memories of home from too long ago (when the character was a child), huge life-changing events that would never happen twice, memories of Hadriel - while it's possible some of these might come up, it's unlikely, because each of them would be much more likely to shatter Confusion's imposed suspension of disbelief. After all, most people will remember that they're not a child anymore, that they saw their mentor die in front of them horribly once already, that Hadriel is not their home.

That said, the visitors are not held to these same standards. They can remember Hadriel, or they can fall under Confusion's influence and believe that they belong in that world too... in which case, so will the dreamer. Enjoy your glimpses of home.

THE OVERVIEW

► June 20th: The trances begin
► July 2nd: They're all over

Comments

Caedra Nisariel

[abyssalarcana]

I will have a selection of three open prompts! All of these take place in parts of Caedra's home in the Abyss, which means that all of these environments are hostile to unprepared mortal travelers (and still also relatively hostile to the natives) and come with a bucketload of potential CWs so although these are open prompts, I still recommend you chat with me here or on plurk @ tinylongwing regarding your visit. The easiest way to AU your way into the dream would to make your character into a demon, though in the City of Rust this will not be necessary if you don't want to do that! You are absolutely free to decide for yourself what the demon version of your character would be like, but I've included suggestions for specific locations below if that helps inspire ideas about the sort of form your character might take to best fit in.

The City of Rust: This is the bustling port city at the boundary of Amamot's domain. All sorts of people can be found here, and all sorts of activities. Caedra often comes here to do some shopping, or just for general entertainment purposes. It's crowded and noisy, and anything you might imagine can be bought or sold. The climate is generally hospitable, and while you might have eyes watching you from every angle, looking for an easy opportunity to steal your goods or eat you whole, generally most anyone and everyone is allowed to wander freely within the city.

The Garden of Thorns: A vast untamed area of thorn thickets, upstream on the same river the city is alongside, although technically a separate layer of the Abyss. This is Caedra's primary residence, and the place she is usually most often found, as she is supposed to keep an eye on things as a sort of deputy ruler of the area. She has a nice cottage and greenhouse within a walled garden, and is often there writing, or at her scrying pool, from which she keeps an eye on everything and everyone. Intruders are not welcome here, so anyone visiting her here will be presumed to belong, and you're best off adapting your character as some sort of demon because the temperature hovers around -200 °C (-320 °F), the air is not well-oxygenated, and the most common liquid is nitrogen, rather than water. Common demons present here are jariliths (predatory big cats with spikes, venomous fangs, whatever you like), chasmes (giant intelligent botflies with piercing snouts that patrol the skies and lay eggs in living intruders), quasits (little goblin-like creatures that can turn invisible and prowl the thorns trying not to get eaten by everything else), although certainly other types of demons are present and around.

Ironhold: Technically the name of a very vast area, the actual prompt will be set at the palace: a grand gothic-style building of black iron with heavy ornamentation in a desert baked by intense ultraviolet radiation. The environment indoors is hospitable enough but intruders are not welcome here as this is the central place of Amamot's rule. Caedra is usually here attending meetings, enjoying lavish parties, helping to teach and train her grandson, or sharing some private time with the demon lord himself. It's a nice place to go for a walk, enjoy the courtyards and sculpture garden, or take a trip to the library (where arcane research is conducted and histories and occult knowledge is collected) or the forge (where proud, capable smiths work long hours to make powerful weapons and armor of the realm's metals). Anyone here for more than a few minutes will quickly start to experience strong pulses of aggression, ambition, and delusions of grandeur, though these can be resisted by those of strong will. Typical residents include armanites (demonic centaurs with armored hide), klurichurs (20-foot tall winged bestial creatures with mouths on their stomachs who serve as guards and military leaders), succubi and incubi who often are employed as spies and assassins, goristros (demonic minotaurs), and nalfeshnees (winged bipedal boars with an affinity for magic and knowledge) - but others are certainly present and anyone Amamot has personally selected to be here will be.

Hope that helps! I'm super excited for people to realize the sort of nightmarish world Caedra belongs to!

[hot_mes]

slides into City of Rust what up gurl

[abyssalarcana]

hey boy heyyy let's have some fun

[hot_mes]

he can have some adventures like it's just another seedy port rife with pirates and slavers.

[abyssalarcana]

It basically is but 1000% seedier. Yugolothi mercenaries, abundant trade in slaves, drugs, and stolen/rare/magic items, gambling, nightlife, and all run by and populated with the wildest mix of humanoid and monstrous creatures. I don't know exactly what he'll want to do but Caedra won't mind showing him around, or I guess whatever you want, it's extremely open-ended.

[hot_mes]

I think for that setting it's best if Law remembers her, but if she doesn't know him, he'll at least know that he can easily ingratiate himself with her and get the tour. bare minimum having a look at where she comes from, but if I'm feeling inspired adventures can happen.

[abyssalarcana]

She's going to probably have to remember him even if she doesn't fully understand why (having forgotten Hadriel for this) because otherwise she just has way a ton more other concerns right now in her world that need to be dealt with that don't involve hanging around with a mysterious attractive human boy and keeping him from getting eaten by something bigger. But yeah! We'll see what time and ideas we end up with. Sail the Anahita River! Go out for drinks and a play! Watch everyone give her a super wide berth if they know what's good for them lmao. She could probably smuggle him to other areas too, depending on what seems like fun.

[abyssalarcana]

ALSO omg I can't believe I forgot, Law still doesn't even know she has a son and a grandson and all that, since she doesn't talk about it with these people. Law do you want to meet Malthus he's basically your age lmao, he technically mostly hangs out around the palace but he could easily turn up anywhere really, and he and his gran are super close.

[hot_mes]

...that's right, he doesn't know that. OMG he needs to. He so needs to.

[abyssalarcana]

So many things I talk about on plurk that she never brings up. What a learning experience this will be!

[demonsional]

Considering Hayden's already a demon, we could probably figure out an easy enough way for him to belong here!

[abyssalarcana]

Oh definitely! He's much more like a devil than a demon in her world but I don't think it would make a difference for the dream - it would be pretty easy for him to show up as-is!