XOXO ❅ VALENTINE'S EVENT

[nightmods]

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.

Comments

QUESTIONS

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[nightmods]

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Stacia

[credit_not_blame]

Honesty Arrows

[credit_not_blame]

"OW!"

This isn't as bad as the horrible little cupid-monsters on the Rig, but Stacia's still not thrilled about getting shot with magic arrows.

"At least you're not trying to take bites of me," she grumbles as the toddler flies off to, presumably, continue to commit shenanigans. At least the North Pole is largely childproofed due to the elves. Come to think of it, maybe she can distract the flying source of shenanigans with the elves!

Cheered by that thought, she proceeds deeper into social territory.

Thorny Vines of Closeness

[credit_not_blame]

Well, Stacia had been considering weaving herself a rose flower crown, but apparently that's not allowed!

"Yikes," she says as the vines weave themselves together to form an impenetrable barrier. "...I wonder how sharp and sturdy these are."

Listen, you think about these things when you turn into an eight-foot-tall wolf monster!

Candy Lonely Hearts

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia pauses just after she's crunched the candy heart between her teeth -- which isn't soon enough to save her from the attack of the red thread. After another moment, where she restrains herself from yelling or trying to fight something in her vicinity, she swallows the candy.

"Somehow, I don't think this is why I was always told not to eat random pieces of candy I found lying around," she says evenly. As if she needs and excuse to ask for a hug or emotional support!

Tim

[mostdangerousbird]

Honesty Arrows

[mostdangerousbird]

[ He pushed a yeti out of the way. That’s how this happened.

A streak of hot pink light, a shove, and a burst of something that isn’t pain flooding from where the glowing arrow hit him in the chest, right at his heart.

Tim’s momentarily frozen in primal dread, waiting for a flash of pain. His legs to give out.

Nothing.

He’s… fine? There’s a growing, warm itch that’s feels like cabin fever in physical form. An urge to find someone and burn off an overcharged social battery.

(That can’t be good.)

Tim tries to pull the arrow out, but it turns to rosy mist in his hand. Fantastic, he doesn’t even have proof of what happened after getting shot by a cherub and oh shit he’s so screwed. He sees the little shit flying up in the dome and shouts after it. ]

I didn’t need your help!

Boimler

[boldboimler]

Lonely Hearts

[boldboimler]

[Boimler is tapping away at a PADD when he walks down into the workshop proper from the rooms and happens to look up at - at a weird, flowery, candy colored disaster. There are vines with roses trapping Yetis who are being forced to have little confabs about their feelings, random candies crunching under foot, arrows flying around, Elves trying to read questions off little index cards but struggling since they can't read...]

Oh nuhnuhnuhnonono, I'm not doing weird magic stuff today, please and thank you.

[Excuse you, weird magic past land. Sometimes you're amazing, what with all the history, and neat stuff like trains, telenovelas, music that doesn't exist in his world because it was made during all those nuclear oblivion years back home (this world is a much kinder one for having Lady Gaga in it, seriously), but he is doodling around with data on quantum resonance signatures this morning and having a grand old time of it.]

Yep, just gonna - excuse me - there we go - [He pushes past flowers that don't take the form of any faces for him but seem to be doing so for others, nudges past a viney cage of yetis who are actually sort of getting engrossed in a conversation about some really deep and unexamined feelings apparently, and steps over more of those stupid candies and some of the vines, to go get a mug of coffee from the kitchen and go back to his room for a quiet morning in of being a high octane nerd.]

[The problem is he sees one of the candy hearts on the floor and for some reason he's lulled into freezing in place. It says "Bee Yourself!" with a little outline of a bee stamped on it, which...really doesn't seem to fit the heart theme. Mixing some metaphors there.]

[Feeling a strange compulsion he picks it up off the floor.]

[...and then pops it in his mouth. The reflex to spit it out is only partly the fact his brain is rebelling over eating things off the floor like a weirdo, but mostly because it tastes like chalk.]

Okay, first of all...why did I just eat off the floor?! [He looks around accusingly at the everything. It is directed at the shenaniganry around him because surely there is something weird and magical behind it. (He wasn't paying attention to the babysitting thing because sooo not his wheelhouse.)] Also, follow up question, who makes candy that tastes like chalk? How is that candy?!

[If it were something alien he'd chalk it up to alien palates and call it a day but it's clearly human candy?? Whomst? Why, past people? You're also responsible for Beyonce! Why this?!]

[But he's distracted by a magic glowing string appearing and tying itself around his pinky. It spells out "Share your insecurities and make a new friend!" He has just enough time to roll his eyes and start to say something about magical bullshit before the string suddenly whips off and starts dragging him on Mr. Boim's Wild Ride through the Pole, somehow making his body lighter so it can drag him along with his heels scraping on the floor without breaking his pinky.]

[Before long the string will either tie itself around someone else's pinky without them eating their own heart, forcing him into a one-sided "making a fool of myself in front of a stranger and all they can do is stand there and feel awkward" dance, or the string will tie itself to someone else's string if they've eaten a candy heart themselves, and they'll be compelled by the same magic.]

[Either way it's going to suck. And naturally as the string drags him along at a high speed while looking for the right person, he shrieks like a train whistle the entire time.]

[ooc: Just let me know your choice whether he's just going to blather and it'll be weird, or there's mutual blathering!]

Dan Sagittarius | Open

[hallelujahjunction]

I. Honesty

"Ouch!"

Dan was putting together a sandwich in the kitchen - peanut butter and honey with maple syrup and marshmallows, delightfully nutrition-free - when something stings his shoulder. He whips around to see what caused it but finds nothing, and because his hands are covered in maple syrup and peanut butter, he has to take a moment to wash them before he paws at his shoulder and retrieves the tiny red arrow with a few drops of blood on it. The delay means that he's lost precious time in tracking down the miscreant, so when he turns the corner he doesn't see the archer, but one of his fellow myths.

"I don't know what the solar system is and at this point I'm afraid to ask," he blurts at the first person he runs into.


II. Candy Hearts

Dan's come back from one of his horse runs to a gas station - part of his weekly ritual to restock on his personal favorite junk foods, drugs and alcohol - and has just come in from the stables, having finished giving Concrete Blonde a full care session with brushing, new shoes and plenty of treats to reward her for her work running across the ocean in sub-zero temperatures just so Dan could get his creature needs met. He smells a bit like a barn, and because the stables are cold, he's beelining towards the common area to warm his hands again over the fire - which is when he sees a selection of small candy hearts on one of the side tables to the couch.

"Oh, hell yes." He can tell the candies have writing on them, but if someone wanted him not to eat the candy because it was already claimed, they wouldn't have left it sitting on a table. And surely these can't be warning labels or anything, and if so, he probably wouldn't heed them anyway. He loads up seven or eight candy hearts into his palm and wolfs them down in one bite, murmuring through chewing, "candy for Danny..."

And that's when some red strings seem to come out of nowhere and wrap themselves around his hands, then up his wrists and eventually putting him in a clumsy hogtie on the couch. Some sorts of squiggles that doubtless have meaning parade around in the air, but damned if Dan can interpret them.

He doesn't cry out for help. He's near a warm, cozy fire, and he's got nowhere to be, and truly, he's sure someone's going to get on his case about this and evangelize about how he needs to either cut back on sugar or learn how to read, and given that he has no plans to entertain either idea he's just going to wait.

Honesty

[boldboimler]

Where Boimler is standing there with a cup of coffee, he suddenly perks up, like a dog hearing a dog whistle. Dan may as well have turned on a bat signal in the shape of a Starfleet delta instead of a bat.

There are some people that Boimler would mock for not knowing about the solar system but even though he only knows Dan in passing he's at least keened on that he's a Past Guy, one of many Past People on the team, and he has no idea what the technology or education is like for him back home. He's read things on the past internet that make it clear the education is pretty bad even in lots of places in this time on this version of Earth. If he'd been raised in Modesto in the present day, he might have even not have learned multivariable calculus during his pre-Starfleet education. (Perish the thought!)

"Ooh!" He says it with an energy that's half over-excitable science teacher and half a kid desperately wanting the same teacher to pick him in class. He puts his coffee down on a nearby table and gathers up an armful of random toy making scrap junk off a yeti work table near him for visual aids. "I can totally explain that!"

He goes over and dumps the stuff on the table nearest Dan and starts arranging it into a pattern then looks for something to write with. The Pole always has markers and other non-digital writing tools all over. He is definitely going to fuck up that tablecloth with orbital paths on the solar system's orbital plane in a second.

(How often do you get to teach someone about the solar system for the first time?! Like never. Even kids learn it at a super, super early age and he doesn't ever hang around any kids anyway and also he'd much rather talk to an adult. Besides very small children, everyone else knows about what solar systems are already. Everyone.)

I

[kemonookami]

The confession Garurumon hears is one he's not sure what to even do about...

"...you sure you're not getting told some random thing to see how gullible you are?"

...because he doesn't know what a solar system is either. Obviously he knows what the sun is! His world has a sun, after all! What's not for sure is if there's anything else up there beyond the skies. Probably nothing, and if there is, it sure won't be a solar system, and why would Garurumon know about what outer space in the human world is like?

So overall, Dan stating he doesn't know what a solar system makes him likely to think someone was playing a joke on this guy.

II

[arthropoda]

Encountering this guy hogtied on the couch makes Taylor sigh. Truthfully, she has been going around trying to aid others to get rid of the strings they get tied with, with varying degrees of willingness from the other party. Encountering once another person like this, Taylor decides to give this a try as usual. Sitting on the floor, she nods.

"Okay, I'm here to listen, no judgment. Go ahead."

It's a bit exhausting, to be a bit of a sounding board for feelings, but she does it willingly. Despite everything, she does care about other people's wellbeing, so although it's tiring she gives it a try.

Re: Dan Sagittarius | Open

[branchifer]

For a frolicking woodland creature, Branch has definitely taken to doodling around on his phone comm like a pro.

But also to be fair, he'd be a Gen Zer if he'd been born on Earth in the same world and country as Dan. Maybe being glued to a screen just a little too much is some kind of contagion, hopping species.

There's a lot of useful information, though, and he hasn't stopped being curious about the human world. And there's general knowledge too, about human machines, about building things, about survival skills (in case he ever finds himself in the human wilderness), etc etc. He'd never dreamed he could have the equivalent of basically a million scrapbooks right at his fingertips. He liked reading but he'd had so few before rejoining village life - he'd rarely come into the village to have a chance to pick them up.

Right now he's currently sitting against the wall that has his tiny little front door. At this point, everyone knows that's the tiny door to his tiny little house that they're allowed to tap at, though it's clear he's taken over some of the interiors of the walls due to how he definitely comes out of random holes in the walls at times. He's only commandeered one of the actual human rooms for a work room to tinker in with big human stuff.

He's mostly just lounging and looking chilled out. The only sign he's alert to the chaos going on is the way his big ears are sort of scanning to track the noises like little radar dishes.

He's outside his little hole and at his 3-foot size because there's chaos going on and he wants to be aware of any threats before they happen. He's near his door so he can shrink boogie out if one of said threats gets too close. So far it seems like it's just the baby myth kid getting up to some mischief, though.

"...I have no clue what that is either."

Woodland creachur, after all.

He shrugs.

"If you haven't needed to know it by now it's probably not that important."

II. Candy Hearts

[composinghistory]

Jaskier also saw some candy hearts sitting on a table and assumed they were free real estate. He ate a few, then noticed the red thread that tied itself around his wrist. He's intrigued, and it only might be dangerous, so of course he's going to follow where it leads. (He does not notice the bright red words hovering above his head stating "I FEAR THAT EVERYONE I CARE ABOUT WILL LEAVE ME")

Finding Dan all trussed up on the couch is a pleasant sight. He looks quite comfortable. He leans oh-so-casually against the door frame.

"Well, I can't say I anticipated this particular surprise, but I certainly won't complain."

II

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny is on his way from giving Stacia her daily hug to getting some Yeti translator backup for his next mission when he spots Dan. He pops in to say hi initially before spotting the strings tying Dan up, and the words floating over his head. Most of them aren't surprises. "I don't know who the President of the United States is but based on exposure I think it's Kim Kardashian" is of no consequence to Bunny at all; he doesn't know who the current POTUS is, but he doesn't know who Kim K is either. "I don't believe in evolution" is something Bunny already knew, and so is "I hide my health issues from my husband," but it's only that second one they'll have to address sooner or later.

Now isn't later, though. Bunny smirks at Dan. "How long is it gonna take you to get yourself out of that?" he asks, pointedly not helping.

II. Candy Hearts | rip Jennifer you would have loved the eating candy off the floor prompt

[not_your_mary]

Maria wasn't planning to get herself in a predicament like this just yet. Maybe because she is currently shapeshifting as Jennifer, she feels compelled to eat candy off the floor (that girl's glicemic level should be astronomical with how much damn candy she eats).

Now for the the interesting part: the writing on it happens to say 'You are the one I want', and at first it doesn't really sink in, but as soon as she's bound by the red strings and starts seeing his messages being displayed she worries: will the messages that show up for her reflect Jennifer's soul or hers? Maria is nowhere as wholesome as her, so the difference will be visible.

Guess that the only thing to do is to focus on being Jennifer and seeing what pops up.

"Oh dear, we are stuck."

I. Honesty

[50millions1pint]

"Woah, okay, didn't expect that greeting."

Jake is a little stunned, and, to be fair, he is new here and is not familiar with magic. So maybe there is a possibility that he is excused for what he's about to say, but honestly? He did see Dan get shot by an arrow and then confess to something embarrassing, meaning it is a truth spell. It's kind of easy to deduce even without knowing shit about magic, so you would think that Jake might consider being mindful because he can get hit with that spell too at any time, and yet he just decides to fuck with Dan because it's funny.

"The solar system? Oh, they're a band. Genre is called, uh...Math rock? They're a bunch of nerds."

II. Candy Hearts

[myagents]

Price is the precise and pristine type, even the idea of him eating a hamburger is cursed (he would do it a fork and knife, by the way), imagine him eating dusty candy off the floor. Then again, he also does feel impulsive often, and he usually controls it, but not this time. His candy heart says 'I love you just the way you are.'

Then, would you look at that, he finds himself tied to Dan with strings.

"Oh. Greetings. How have you been?"

He tries to stay casual, already sensing trouble, which is not late to arrive. Writings appear above him in too big a size for comfort: 'I CAN'T MAKE ANYONE LOVE THE REAL ME NO MATTER WHAT I DO'.

Thank God Dan cannot read.

I. Honesty

[wisdomreceiver]

"Oh."

Uh, right. Dan is...Confessing to something. To him? Maybe it's because Henry is quiet and not really the type to gossip. Or is it a joke? Like, you know those icebreakers, with sarcasm and all that. Henry is not big on understanding those. Or social interaction in general. For all he knows this could be easily be a normal conversation, is this a normal conversation?

"Uhh, it's complicated." if anything because he's not eloquent "Pretty sure there is a book in the library than can explain it better than I can."

Dan not being able to read has been pointed out multiple times, but Henry can be just a little slow to grasp things.

Garurumon

[kemonookami]

Arrows

[kemonookami]

It's kind of embarrassing he got hit by an arrow, but Garurumon just shrugged it off. He got a little bit cocky, probably -- the arrow was just a tiny little thing! Didn't even stick on him, it vanished in a puff of smoke almost right away. Didn't even get through the skin, his natural endurance making that not do a thing physically.

But the more insidious effects sure make themselves known after a while, and Garurumon absolutely hates it.

Perhaps it's no wonder Garurumon, once he felt the burn of having to share something significant enough about his emotions or his past, he tried to get away, back to the sleigh room as usual, but that didn't do a thing. A couple hours of that itching need to share made him go out to the common areas.

There's something kind of pitiful about this large wolf creature, hunched over in a loaf, head against the floor and front paws over his snout, a tad distressed from what this might all lead to.

Whenever someone is nearby, he mumbles:

"Don't make me speak about anything. Keep walking, come on."

By now everyone must know what's going on with the arrows, so it's not hard to guess what's afflicting him!

Counselor Aiden Price | Red vs Blue

[myagents]

I. Honesty arrows
Brain damage induced rage be damned, Price has been doing an excellent work at staying put and not give in to his ever present antisocial tendencies. Look at him, lovingly nursing a yeti who got a thorn in his hand. It all seems nice, until a cupid has the briliant idea to shoot him with a honesty arrow.

"Greetings. How may I assist--"

The formal greeting gets promptly replace with something that would have been better left unknown.

"...One time I completely filled an outpost for our Red vs Blue war with severely colorblind soldiers who could only see in shades of grey because I wanted to see what would happen."

II. Tattletale roses

Love is a strong word. Perhaps limerence would be more of a suitable term. What is undeniable is that while Price's feelings for the Director are complicated, he is most certainly in love with the life that trainwreck of a man provided him. So, while fumbling trying to contain the roses' growth all over the infirmary, he is surprised to see that signature scowl.

"Director...?"

Someone seems to have just walked in.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I am afraid that this sudden growth of roses might interfere with the regular activity of the infirmary. I will do my best to keep the area sanitized."

III. Wildcard
Bring your own prompt!

aziraphale | ota

[oldbookshop]

TATTLETALE ROSES.

[ Aziraphale would like to speak with a manager. Oh. He supposes Cupid is the manager, in a roundabout way. Not strictly available. Not especially helpful just now, then.

Which is to say it's all fun and games and trying to dodge arrows until the rose vines start growing in around him, with the sort of alarming numbers that come from thousands of years of denial and repression and all that.

To anyone who's seen Aziraphale out and about on missions or at the Pole since first arriving, and the most regular company he keeps, the face on the roses is likely very familiar. ]

Oh. Oh, dear. Oh, no.

[ Old habits win out most of the time with Aziraphale, and the old habit that comes to the forefront in the moment is mild panic. Heaven and Hell aren't in this reality in the strictest sense, at least not in the forms that would be the most concerning, but-- well, who's to say, really. Heaven observes. It's what they do. Anything is possible.

What if they see? But even after that initial burst of panic settles, looks frankly irrational all things considered, he has to consider: what if literally anyone else here sees and then tells Crowley about it?

Good Lord, what if Crowley sees these? Can't have that.

Local angel can be found... basically anywhere, fruitlessly trying to prune and redirect the rose vines putting him on blast, not really thinking about how that's a metaphor for basically his entire existence. It only seems to keep getting worse, though? Nothing is working, can't believe the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone ever is happening to him, personally, etc. ]


VINES OF CLOSENESS.

[ He takes it back. This is actually the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone ever, happening to him personally.

Aziraphale, on his end of this cramped little thorn cage, could not be more clearly exuding an energy of "I hate every single thing about this but god help me I'm trying to swallow that hatred to be polite." Look, he loves people. Generally. Conceptually. He loves learning about them.

But he's also an introvert who really rather prefers to engage with that sort of thing on his own terms. This is the nightmare scenario. ]

Right. Um. Hello. [ World's most short-lived strained smile contender: activate.

He gathers up a handful of icebreaker cards, fishes out a little pair of reading glasses, and starts rifling through questions. The glasses seem to have no real impact on how much squinting is required.

Aziraphale stops on one that seems to nab the bulk of his attention and frowns. ]

I don't suppose you could tell me what an "emoji" is. [ He technically speaks every language and is an avid reader, and yet... emoji... tf. ]


WILDCARD.

[ For everything under the sun. Open to playing with honesty arrows, candy hearts, other misc. wildcard options, planning closed threads, whatever! Feel free to hit me for plotting! ]