nightlogs | XOXO ❅ VALENTINE'S EVENT

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XOXO ❅ VALENTINE'S EVENT

XOXO

One major problem with being the group that's responsible for solving all kinds of problems in the myth world is other myths can kind of be dicks about it. That's why, on Valentine's Day, Cupid shows up, quickly offloads his kid (the toddler Baby Cupid), and runs off to take care of spreading love on his holiday, with barely a how'd you do. He doesn't even say thank you.

To be fair, you can't fault him too much for only trusting the Guardians to babysit his kid in these dangerous and uncertain times, especially when children at risk against the fearlings.

Still, that means there's a giggling toddler, about 2-years-old in appearance, but maybe with the mental age of a 4 or 5 (he is definitely old enough to understand he's being naughty and deserving of a time out) flitting around the Pole causing all kinds of Valentine's related problems. Fortunately, the toddler has learned that he's not quite old enough to know the right times to help people fall in love (Adult Cupid just helps things along when they're already falling, or when they need help falling back in love, of course).

Instead, Baby C is doing what his father taught him to do and causing all kinds of tricks to try to get people to admit feelings that already exist or manufacturing ways for them to become closer to each other.

HONESTY ARROWS ♥ Baby Cupid isn't shooting magic arrows that cause anyone to develop feelings for each other but he sure is trying to make sure people talk about whatever feelings they have. Anyone hit will be compelled to blurt out various truths about themselves, their personal history, and their feelings to whoever is around them and will have difficulty stopping or drawing themselves away. In fact, if someone walks away they'll feel compelled to find someone else to confess to. The effect wears off anywhere between 5 minutes to a half hour.

TATTLETALE ROSES ♥ Vines of roses are now growing all over the Workshop. For those who are in love, they take the form of the face of the person they're in love with. The more they try to hide it or deny it from someone they're talking to, the more of them bloom with the person's face.

THORNY VINES OF CLOSENESS ♥ The rose vines have their own annoying purpose: bonding! For people that clearly need to become friends, fall in love, or fall deeper in love, thorny vines will wrap around both people, forcing them into a little cage together. The thorns fortunately won't poke them - they seem to be maneuvered in a way to just make sure there are no gaps to escape through. The vines are magically reinforced and can't be opened with any physical or magical means. After that, one of two things will happen:

1) A card will fall from the ceiling of the cage saying: Tell each other how you really feel about each other!!! This will happen if the cage thinks they need to affirm the status of their relationship, whether they need to admit they're in love, admit they've been bitten by the friend bug if they're reluctant to, or really need to talk about how much they mean to each other as friends. Only then will they be let out of the feelings shame corner.

2) If the two don't know each other, or both people could afford to get to know each other better multiple cards will drop from the ceiling with icebreaker questions, as if they're a bunch of new hires at an orientation.

How many will they have to answer before they're released? Who knows! But they have to answer them honestly or the cage won't open.

CANDY LONELY HEARTS ♥ People who are on the lonelier side and in need of support might find a candy heart on a random surface. The messages on them are on the platonic side (Like "You rock!" or "Shine on!") They'll feel compelled to eat them (even if they're on the floor). When they do, a glowing red thread will appear and tie itself around their finger. Briefly, in the air, the glowing string will form into letters that tell the person what they need to do to be release, whether it's telling someone they're lonely, asking for some kind of support, or admitting a vulnerability.

Then it'll whip out and grab someone else nearby, wrapping around their finger as well. Sometimes, two people might eat a candy at the same time and each have a string appear and they'll tie in the middle.

The strings are unbreakable, and they won't be set free until whoever ate a candy talks about their loneliness or vulnerable feelings - regardless of whether or not the other person is an eager listener.

OOC DETAILS
❅ Starters: You can make up your own wildcard effects, feel free! If you do, please consider posting it to the Wildcard comment below so others might be able to pick up the same effect as well if they like them.

❅ Multiple effects: Feel free to have characters slammed by as many of Baby C's traps in the same thread as you want. No reason someone can't have the worst luck and trip three Cupid traps at once or several of them in a row.

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"Thank God for that," Dan says, coming to a stop. He's lost whatever it was that shot him, and he doesn't consider that Branch could be the source of the tiny arrow for more than a half-second. The arrow isn't the right size, but more than that, it just doesn't seem in keeping with Branch's character. Branch antagonizes with painful traps out of terror, not mischief, and that issue has largely been addressed as Branch has settled in and had autonomy and resources.

"I just don't want no one to think I'm ignorant on purpose," he says, unsure why he's just blurting things out. Normally he keeps his ignorance fairly under wraps, and more than that, he keeps his self-consciousness about it quiet. Nothing's less sexy than someone being insecure, especially when it's something they could change about themselves, but Dan isn't about to learn to read. That's a hard pass. He'll never share the love for archives and tomes and the written word, never will try to, and never will want to open up the conversation as to why he's committed to staying in the dark on certain things - which makes it so strange that it's so close to the surface, like it's not even words he's saying, like it's just thoughts he's drooling out.

There's a beat as he realizes what's happened. He holds the blood-tinged arrow out in his palm, then tucks it into his pocket and wipes off his hands with a handkerchief.

"Err, careful. Someone's running around taking shots at folks with these little arrows, and if it's big enough to draw blood on me it could be dangerous for you." He keeps scanning around for the threat, but can't seem to see anything. "Let me know if you want a bodyguard until the hooligan's caught."

"That makes them even more dangerous. Ain't nothing so frightening as an inexperienced gunman." Dan isn't sure it wasn't an elf, but he thinks he got a glimpse of someone slightly too large and toddler-shaped to be one of those little munchkins.

Like Garurumon, Dan's vigilant of the setting, scanning behind Garurumon and half-listening as he keeps keen for the patter of tiny mischievous feet. It isn't obvious; Dan's hunter career, and his father's survivalist training before that, has primed him to keep aware of threats even as he looks completely at ease.

"The reindeers are friendly, but they ain't the most eloquent bunch." He laughs. "I like them, though. I keep my horse in the stables with them."

Dan looks confused, not so much at Henry as about the fact that he just confessed to ignorance about something inconsequential and irrelevant to anything happening around him right now. Surely if something's on his mind it should be the arrow he just got winged by and the miscreant who fired it.

He isn't confused that Henry doesn't know he's illiterate. Lots of people at the Pole know, but Dan doesn't exactly advertise it. And, well. Henry's got a full box of stubby crayons in that head of his. "That's alright. I'm sure you got a handle on it. Try me."

Dan skids to a stop to avoid crashing into Jake. He isn't sure why that particular confession escaped his lips, but it occurs to him that it has something to do with the arrow he got sniped by.

"Oh. That's it? Really?" Dan figures they must be quite popular, given that he's heard about them about as much as the Rolling Stones, a little more than Chris Isaak, and a little less than the Beatles. It doesn't fit with the context he's heard the term solar system in, but potentially he's just really missed the mark. "Did they take their name from something?"

"No!" Dan says, laughing, secretly a little relieved to be getting away from a lecture on evolution. It's the sort of conversation where Dan will need to ask clarifying question after clarifying question, and each question will make it more clear he doesn't have the faintest idea what he's talking about, which is a bad combination when he's already decided that he isn't open to changing his mind about something.

He nuzzles the tip of his nose into that sensitive spot on Bunny's neck that he's become so skilled at exploiting. "I'm trying to make you fifteen minutes late."

***

It's another two weeks before they get to see each other for any quality time, and as ships in the night between missions that take Bunny to Kilimanjaro and Antarctica and Dan to Haiti and Bolivia they mostly just get some quick kisses in while swapping out their gear. Dan doesn't even get the chance to do the ritual of combing out all the parts on Bunny's fur that are a little hard to reach, which is the best way for both of them to decompress after a mission.

But then they get sent on a mission together, a milk run to rural Louisiana to trap a gator that got its snout into some dangerous magic and started spitting fire all over a trailer park, and they do a brilliant job. It's enough that Dan's able to keep that he's fairly sure Bunny wants to talk to him about something from ruining his good mood. He opens the door to their room here at the Pole and pulls Bunny in with him, closing it behind them before he goes for his also-ritual post-mission shot from the makeshift mini-bar and then flopping onto the bed, snuggling up with a pillow and the comb for Bunny's fur and making come-hither eyes.

"We done good today. Saved a lot of folks. Saved their homes, even."

Edited 2024-03-03 05:06 (UTC)

[Loki's studiously collecting the various magic items when a red string ties itself around his pinky. Even though he hasn't eaten anything, smelled anything, and limited the amount of contact (made easier with magic). He's somewhat annoyed as he follows the pulling, though less than he would be if he felt any particular compulsion besides to follow it.

[Seeing someone on the other end, clearly being pulled far more strongly, annoyance is replaced by amusement.]

And what did you fall afoul of?

[Have fun blathering at a God of Mischief.]

[Loki was close enough to see Tim get shot, but not close enough to do anything about it. He still rushes over quickly, hands glowing with magic, ready for field first aid.]

Wait- [And by the time he gets there, Tim's already pulled the arrow out, leaving no trace of it or any wound.] Ah... magic. Likely seasonal.

It seems you are not wounded, but also likely not untouched. Do you know what it has done, and whether the culprit should be stopped from causing further trouble?

[He scans the dome as he talks, looking for the winged baby, but it seems to be gone. Or maybe it's being stealthy...]

[The screaming is fairly typical, some of his general purpose being-yanked-wildly-around screams. (Being yanked wildly around happens a lot to him.) Just some of the usual sorts of screams he keeps in rotation.]

[But then all of a sudden, the yanking goes very vertical. And keeps going. The Pole is very large with its many stories, with an open design in the center core and a very high ceiling. There is a whole lot of "up" happening very fast and he has no idea when or where it's going to end, or under what circumstances the "down" is going to happen after.]

[Boimler is not really scared of heights but it's very different to look down the vertical drop of a long vertical Jeffries tube or turbolift shaft when you've got lots of ladders and other surfaces for gripping and can voice command an emergency shut off of the gravity plating.]

[The screaming therefore gets louder and even more shrill the higher he gets pulled. He's screaming all the way until the thread throws him up in the air and slams him right into...somebody?? This high up? He doesn't even catch a proper glimpse before he's dangling again but he notices they're decidedly stationary and somehow not falling and he practically scrambles up them.]

[It is definitely some...body that he slammed into. An unusually firm body. Letting out a little "waaah!" of panic, he manages to swing up to an arm first and then scrabble his way up to a panicky hold around their neck, wrapping both legs around their waist so he doesn't lose grip with his weenie arms. Not exactly easy with his stiff back but terror is a great motivator.]

[He does not trust in the stupid magic thread to hold him up because an immortal toddler is behind it and toddlers aren't great about consequences even when they aren't surrounded by people not beholden to the whims of normal mortality.]

[It is only then that he leans his neck back enough to see a familiar mask and he realizes he absolutely is bodily clinging to nearly seven feet of familiar spandexed beefcake.]

Uhhh...

[Awkward.]

[The "Don't. Ask." confirms somebody must have also enjoyed a floor-based snack, too.]

"Wouldn't know for sure. Pretty much every human coming into my world is defenseless, no weapons like that." Therefore assessing how dangerous anyone who doesn't know a thing about guns or weaponry can be is just guesses for him.

Still, some things are easier to be attuned to. Flaps of wings, the whistle of something crossing the air, all that is universal and easy to catch if you got good hearing like he does -- or experience like Dan does. It's unmistakable, and Garurumon stands up and pretty casually blocks an arrow with his paw. In matter of less than a second he saw the arrow, he saw how small it is, and foolishly and born from a little too much confidence in his own strength, merely let it hit a paw. Doesn't even break skin, really, it just hits a bean and pretty much bounces off.

But magic arrows is something he knows nothing about. Just that much contact was enough.

"The stables are fine but I'd like more a place for myself up here. I tolerate you all far more than I like to show."

Pause. And Garurumon slaps his paw over his eyes.

"I didn't just say that!"

It's pretty obvious he distrusts humans but also warmed up to the place more than he wants to admit. He's the kind of person who digs his heels instead of admitting being wrong or changing his mind about something, really.

[Miguel feels hands around his neck and makes the distinct realization that the other end of the string had come up to meet him. He turns around... ]

Boiml-

[ ... and is promptly smacked on the cheek by the back of his own tied hand! All the pent-up rubber band energy had yanked it at full force, as if retaliating for his obstinance. This jostles Miguel off his corner, dusting them with the splinters of broken wood and dust.

Luckily, they only fall for a split-second or two before he webs himself to the wall - tensing some of the muscles in the process, as one does while climbing. ]

Boimler - I have a feeling that I can't just cut this thing, but you should hold on anyway.

[ The arm blades materialize off his non-tied wrist. Anything to wriggle out of the greatest terror of all: emotional vulnerability. ]

Edited 2024-02-19 18:37 (UTC)

[Boimler screeches again at the brief fall but Miguel stops it. He's shaking when Miguel stickies them to the wall. Miguel doesn't have to tell him to hold on, he clings even harder.]

Can't you just swing us down?

Why can't we work on this on the floor?! Any floor!

Edited 2024-02-20 03:29 (UTC)

Jaskier pauses at Dan's suggestion, then remembers there are children and elves that should be kept out of the room and goes to lock the door. More sentences appear above him just as they appear above Dan.

I SURROUND MYSELF WITH NOISE BECAUSE I AM AFRAID OF BEING ALONE WITH MY THOUGHTS and UNTIL I WAS NINE I THOUGHT MY LAUNDRY MAGICALLY CLEANED ITSELF.

He takes Dan's confession in stride. The high literacy rate of this world surprised him when he first arrived-- being able to read little or not at all is very common where he comes from.

"You'll have to let me read you some poetry by the fire one of these nights, perhaps after we are done putting our mouths to better use."

Jaskier doesn't look above either of them as he returns to Dan and finally throws his leg over the other man. He wiggles his hips a little as he settles, his right knee won't enjoy this position later but that's a problem for future Jaskier.

The compliment makes him grin.

"Doesn't it just? Anthony took pity on a poor bard and took me shopping. I made some lovely purchases that I've been just dying to show off." He brings his hands down to trail over Dan's chest, across his shoulders, and down his arms until he reaches the rope binding his wrists. He plucks it playfully. "Though none are so lovely as the picture you make right now."

"You know those panels that eat the sunlight to create energy? That kinda implant is called a solar system."

Why lie, you ask? Because, why not?

"And it probably took some engineering to figure out how that works."

"Eh, being a jerk is kinda my job. And I get to do that 24/7, y'know, the joys of freelancing."

Jake scoffs, he doesn't really mind making fun of himself.

"Thanks, dawg."

[Jake completely ignores Tim's complaint.]

Santa with guns would be pretty badass. We can ask him, if he's done enslaving elves and shit.

[A moment of silence follows. Henry blinks slowly, displaying confusion.]

Does it hurt?

[Why else would he be upset?]

"Uhh, you know how the Sun is in the sky? The solar system is all the planets that rotate around the Sun, including Earth."

Well that wasn't so bad. Maybe he can talk after all.

"It mostly isn't."

He looks away, trying not to talk but ends up mumbling:

"I'm not good at being human."

Odd things to be saying, certainly. Garurumon's ears twitch.

"You are human, right?"

Or perhaps he isn't? Many kemonogami can disguise themselves as humans for one reason or another. Perhaps this is something pretending to be human?

Apparently Garurumon took a little literally what Price just said.

"I am...Which is exactly the problem. I suppose it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things."

Don't finish that thought, don't finish that thought, don't--

"Because I don't matter."

"Consider taking a vacation from that. You're not really the most liked guy around here."

Garurumon has been trying to be cordial since arrival despite his general personality, but that's also because he was brought here at the right point, when his anger was starting the simmer down somewhat yet not so soon he'd be too trusting.

"I'm not really here to be an asshole."

Really?

"But I'm pissed off because I was in the middle of something very important."

"Do you want to back off on treating me like I'm an idiot, Tim, or do you want me to drag you around until you find a compulsion candy?" Stacia asks in a pleasant tone that doesn't match her eyes. Danger, Will Robinson, danger! "Because I also enjoy free will, but you seem to be using yours to be an asshole right now."

"Ah yes, two great methods of producing joy for the people of the world," Stacia agrees cheerfully. "Ugh, I need to get my computer skills back up to par so I can steal billionaire digital money. I don't know what tech level you're used to, but I get a little too much glee out of the idea of someone trying to trace a hack back to the North Pole."

It would be hilarious. Stacia indulges in a little giggle at the thought before resuming the conversation.

"So, I'm Stacia, I'm a werewolf. Don't worry, it's not contagious."

"Did that something important have to do something with wrecking wherever you came from?"

Apparently that's the very first thing he'll always associate Jake with. In Garurumon's eyes it'll be ages before that's replaced with something else.

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XOXO ❅ VALENTINE'S EVENT

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