Event OOC: Prisoner Exchange

[hadrielmods]

THE EXCHANGE

It's time. You all voted to attempt the exchange - to take Delight to the Null and hand her over in return for Tranquility. The gods have been preparing in advance of the exchange date, but can anyone really be prepared for something like this? Besides, how can they even prepare when only Fear and Delight are supposed to go?

On February 23rd, all characters who volunteered to go along in Fear's post receive messages from Fear asking to meet at his temple the next day. (All characters involved have been contacted privately by the mods.) Upon arrival, they will be given some time to prepare themselves... and then Fear brings Delight out of her prison and teleports everyone to the meeting place.

Some characters suggested in Fear's post that Delight should be asked what she wants, or at least told about the trade. The gods took that into consideration, and told her. What they didn't expect is that she does not want to be traded, which she's since made very clear to them. While imprisoned, she has had time to think upon her choices and her interactions with the Null, and she believes this is nothing but a trap, that this is not a good-faith trade, and that none of them will return.

Upon arrival at the designated meeting point, Delight tells all those who accompanied Fear that the Null are surely intending to kill or capture them all. Instead of a trade, she proposes that they band together and attack the moment the Null appear, free Tranquility, and immediately teleport away.

Needless to say, this results in intense discussion, disagreements, and conflict among the accompanying characters. The discussion is cut short by the arrival of the Null earlier than expected (so perhaps Delight was correct, or perhaps the Null are just incredibly punctual). With no time left for discussion, Delight attacks the Null alone. Her surprising, instantaneous attack shatters Tranquility's prison, but the Null rally almost instantly. Fear, being Fear, prudently decides to get the fuck out of there - but he is a moment too late.

The Null hit Delight with one of their god-killing weapons. While Fear is able to transport himself, Tranquility, and the people who accompanied them back to Hadriel, he isn't in time to save Delight. Her essence is shattered into millions of particles, and Fear, already in the process of teleporting, only catches some of them. The force of their return scatters them across the city.

THE CITY

Delight is dead, part of her essence scattered across Hadriel, part still in Null territory. Her temple is shattered, crumbling in the moment of her death. Hope will be unable to resurrect her - but that isn't the only thing that's about to go wrong.

Just after Fear and his party return on February 24th, everyone within the city will feel a sudden surge of pure happiness. This is stronger, more intense than anything they've felt before. It's the definition of happiness, the ideal, perfect and pure and feeling as if it will last forever. Nothing in particular sparks it, but while in the grip of it your character may think of the one thing that makes them most happy, even if they weren't aware of it themselves. A person, a place, something that they love doing. Delight's parting gift, unintentionally.

But of course, it can't last forever. After only a few minutes, this feeling fades into a more normal kind of happiness, then disappears, leaving only the memory of the feeling - and a deep sense of loss. Something is gone, and in this case that something is expressed by the emptiness left after that overwhelming feeling of happiness. And you're ready to do just about anything to get it back.

That means it's time for Bad Decisions: the Event. Sure, normally small things might make your character happy - hanging out with friends, a good meal, a stiff drink, a kiss from their sweetheart. But that isn't enough anymore, not when there's this aching void within them. They need more, they need to go harder and do more.

Your friends make you happy? You don't want to leave their sides. A good meal? Now you're gorging. A stiff drink? Nah, a bender that lasts four days sounds better. A kiss from your sweetheart? Uh... just remember to take snack breaks sometimes, guys. Whatever it is that normally makes you happy, you'll be doing it to excess in a fruitless attempt to feel anything like you did in that one sweet moment. And if there's not much that makes you happy, you'll be searching for anything that might fill that hole inside you - drinking, breaking stuff, fighting, anything that will give you a moment of joy.

And speaking of fighting, there's one god who cannot control her own reaction to Delight's death. For the duration of this, anyone going anywhere near Rage's temple (basically, anywhere from the edge of the river to Love's temple) will be affected by intense miserable rage that cannot be ignored or control. You'll want to fight, to destroy things, to kill. Your need to recover the happiness you once felt will be replaced by the certain knowledge that the only way to feel even a little better is to destroy as much as you can, whether that's a person or a building or something else entirely. And of course, with the armory right there, it's easy. Once you're far enough from the temple, the anger will fade - but you'll still have to live with what you've done.

This will all last until March 3rd, after which everyone's emotions will level out. It's not easy living through the true death of a god.

THE OVERVIEW

► February 24th: The exchange
► March 3rd: Emotions level out, for now

Comments

QUESTIONS

[hadrielmods]

[bloodbathing]

If a character is outside the city limits at the time Fear & Co. return, will they be hit by the wave of happiness? Or is there another way to opt out of the event?

[hadrielmods]

If they are far outside the city, they won't be affected, but if they are close (just outside the edge of the city or a bit further) they still could be, though perhaps more weakly.

[bloodbathing]

Just to clarify: the only way to opt out entirely will be if the character is far outside the city?

[hadrielmods]

Yes, to opt out entirely your character will have to be far outside the city (though they could come back during the event and be unaffected, since it's kicked off by the initial burst of happiness). However, it's up to you how much your character indulges their impulses if they are affected.

[bloodbathing]

Okay, thank you! o7

Re: QUESTIONS

[theweakhavepurpose]

Will Love's housing be affected by the Rage thing?

[hadrielmods]

Love's housing is around the southern shore of the lake, so the answer is: yes, if you want it to be! If someone is living in Love's housing and doesn't want to be affected, they can assume their dwelling is more towards the west, whereas if they do, it's probably on the east side and closer to Rage's temple.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Perfect. Thank you!

[dedikated]

What's considered "far enough from the Temple" for Rage's portion of this? Are we talking a few feet from the affected areas or, like, halfway across the city?

For... Reasons.

[synthedick]

And a follow-up to this: how long does it take for the effect to wear off once one is out of range? Is it immediate, or gradual?

[hadrielmods]

It's gradual, but rather quick once someone's out of range - maybe ten minutes before it's completely gone.

[tongueamok]

Sounds good! Thanks, mods!

[hadrielmods]

It will begin to fade as soon as someone leaves the affected area, so they could conceivably stand just outside the edge of the effect and be completely fine. The farther away someone gets, the faster it'll disappear.

plotting with maine!

[bloodbathing]

maine will be far outside the city and thus unaffected by delight's demise. he'll be returning on the 26th or 27th, and i am definitely down for plotting with affected or unaffected characters!!

some ideassss:

• for the drinkers: maine is one of the people who distills the finite amount of alcohol in the speakeasy. if you'd like him to haul your character away from death by alcohol poisoning, lmk!

• for the talkers: need an ear — any ear — to listen to your character talk? does your character just want someone to be silent while they pour their heart out? try talking to maine! he'll be so baffled by the sudden sharing that he'll listen to every word, no matter how ridiculous or overdramatic.

• for the cuddlers: want to snuggle up to a 7-foot-tall wall of muscle? sorry, but maine will nope the fuck out. feel free to try chasing him down, though! it'll be great!

• for existing cr: if your character wants to spend time with maine, lmk! alternately, if they want to (try to?) kick his ass, also lmk! as long as they're not trying to murder him (and maine likes them), he'll aim to incapacitate instead of kill.

as a note: i'm down for having maine get hit with rage's … rage … but only with extensive plotting in advance, since this would likely result in severe injury and/or death to one or more characters involved.

OKAY THAT'S ALL I GOT RIGHT NOW, come at me!

[dedikated]

drinking drinking! filling the void with alcohol is a totally acceptable solution wdym.

[bloodbathing]

normally yes but not to the point of alcohol poisoning, kate!!

[dedikated]

sounds fake but ok.

kate & steak;

[dedikated]

Let's start with the guy who's involved in the exchange:

Steak will be seeking to fulfil the picture of a knight, and he may mostly seem like his brusque, abrasive self with a bit more of a manic devotion to duty. He will very much be looking to stop anyone causing problems, and generally trying to keep the city and the innocent parties in it safe. So, if your character is going to start trouble and you want someone to fight them down, or if they're going to be in trouble and need a helping hand, he will be there to fulfil his duty! Please let me know if you want him to put your rowdy character in line, as I'll be tagging out only due to his involvement with the exchange.

Meanwhile, Kate... is gonna be hit by Rage pretty badly since she lives in Love's Housing and she's going to take out her long-time frustration at the fact that the people she's met here are interfering with her desire to go home in Rage's favourite way: violently. This will involve her being physically aggressive towards pretty much anyone who comes into her range while she's in the circle of Rage's effects, but the closer the relationship she has with your character, the colder and crueler it will be.

She'll need dragging away from the epicentre of Rage's effects and calming down, really.

When she's not being affected by Rage, Delight's death will be taking its own toll. Unsurprisingly, finding her at The Speakeasy, trying to give herself liver failure, will be likely. Beyond that, her usual rooftop running / parkour habits are going to involve quite a bit more risk-taking than they usually do. She'll be pushing her abilities to the limit and probably trying to race anyone she finds up there.

She'll have a top level, where the Rage-effect stuff will be contained. I'm also happy to tag out with her for Delight-effect things.

But, as ever, I love hashing out specific things, writing closed starters and all the rest of it, so please feel free to hit me here or at discord (isanghae#8071) or plurk (forethought) and we can do that!

Plotting with ya boi Mettaton

[mttbrandlegs]

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!!!

So here is Kitten, crawling out of the woodwork with a GOOD IDEA(?) to bring everyone together(?!?!) after the shit that's happened.

Basically the Delight juice in the air is going to hit Mettaton facefirst and make him happy at first, then ofc as it wears off he's going to want to cope with things the only way he knows how

FLASH AND BANG AND LOOK AT MY TV SHOW!!

...That is, while part of the city is mad and the other part is desperately trying to not feel empty, he's going to go hard with attempting to successfully run a contest like he did a while ago when he was in space hell (Thisavrou).

Because of Sans--everything is Sans' fault--it's called Leg Con, and basically it's just a contest where everyone can vote on who has the best legs and there's probably no prize except for excessive and verbose adulation including but not limited to an actual network post talking about how hecking awesome your legs are.

Unless he wins. In which case it's all about his legs. And yes he's participating because what do you mean he can't be the hype man and also a contestant?

This is where I'm going to put most of my post effort ofc, so if you're interested, I'll be throwing up a network post hopefully on the 24th for sign-ups with more info, and the actual Leg Con log will go up 1-2 days after! If you want an example of how I plan to have this work, here's OG Leg Con.

If you want in, lmk here! The only way for this to work is with contestants AND judges so hey, there's a spot for anyone! And yes, judging is real lol. If you're a judge, you get to pick the best hot leggy and discuss such in private away from the audience. ;)

OTHER THAN THAT...

Mettaton's going to be aggressively outgoing and actually peel up out of his living space. HE'S GON' BE OUT ON THESE STREETS!! He'll be social butterflying and likely flirting with other characters, basically anything that he'd have done otherwise if he didn't have The Hangups from Space Life, but dialed up just past 11.

If you are into that, let Mettaton hug you. Let him compliment you. Would you kiss a robot? However, bear in mind I'm tagging out, not making any toplevel plans other than Leg Con!

As an aside, I could be convinced to do Rage influence, but I'm not going hard there since Mettaton doesn't need any more rage in general lol.

Pls come at me frens. I'm here!!