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XOXO ❅ VALENTINE'S EVENT
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.
❅ 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.
Dan Sagittarius | Open
"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
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.)
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Boimler's so jazzed that Dan feels like prioritizing his own insecurities about his ignorance would be tantamount to kicking a puppy. He doesn't know Boimler well at all, and the guy has definitely seemed more teamwork and order than Dan could ever imagine feeling enthusiastic about, but this could be a good opportunity to get to know the kid.
He follows Boimler on over. "I'm Dan, by the way. Ah, thank you for walking me through this. It's kind of embarrassing to not know stuff that folks seem to know from birth, practically."
He isn't sure why truth just seems to be rolling off his tongue - usually he's habitually, casually dishonest. But at least this is a very minor sort of confession. Everyone feels stupid and inadequate at some point in their lives, and it makes sense to Dan that when surrounded by people from all different levels of education and technology that that edge would feel a little sharper for him here.
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Attention from commanding officers matters less and less. Trying to do good matters more.
Something about this place, so wildly different from his world, with people from wildly different worlds too, has been making him think about all the possibilities out there. The people, the different backgrounds they come from.
"You can just call me Boimler." He has no idea if Dan ever caught his name.
He starts drawing circles on the tablecloth with marker.
"Nobody knows things from birth. In my dimension and the time I come from, our education is great so we learn about this early. But there were also times in humanity's history it wasn't." He shrugs a shoulder. "If I'd been born at a different time, my education might have been only okay, or I might not have gotten one at all, especially during all the world wars that happened before humanity got it together."
He looks at him again. "It's all just circumstance, right?"
Besides, maybe there were other things that were more important for Dan to learn instead. These wildly different worlds probably have wildly different problems.
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[mild conspiracy theories]
I
"...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.
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But no one who's explained the solar system to him.
"No, I ain't sure-- but I also don't know why that just came out of my mouth." He leans to look around Garurumon. "Did a tiny archer come through here?"
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"Those elves wouldn't know how to shoot a bow even if their lives depended on it."
It's not like he underestimates anyone based on size...well, no, he has a bit of an ego...but after having observed the elves he wouldn't ever think they can do much.
But yeah, not having seen nor fallen victim to a certain little cherub, he thought the only tiny archer that could exist around here was an elf fooling around with things they shouldn't.
"If there was anyone shooting us everyone would be alarmed. Only thing weird today are the candies forcing you to talk about feelings." Garurumon settled down on the floor like a much smaller dog would, unwittingly leaving himself open to arrow attacks, grumbling. "I didn't need to tell anyone about me trying to hold conversations with the reindeers."
He may be somewhat misanthropic and not trust humans at all, but also he gets lonely!
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II
"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.
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Dan sits up on the couch, which is a bit of a struggle given the way his hands and feet are tied together. He has no idea that I THINK THE PERIODIC TABLE IS A PIECE OF FURNITURE is floating above his head; rather, he can tell there are words, but there's no point in fretting about them because he can't read them.
"Don't reckon we've met. I'd offer to shake, but..." He's tied up. He hasn't asked for her audience, so he wonders if the words above his head indicate that he's wheedling for some sort of free therapy (no thank you). "I'm Dan. How are you?"
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Doesn't even ask if Dan wants it or if he's fine like this. Taylor is squarely at that teen age of thinking she knows how things should be and tries to make things shape up according to them, no matter what others think. Thankfully, she generally is right. Most times.
What she reads isn't at all what she prepared herself to handle, and she's immensely relieved because although she's ready to help, trying to help with deep things can be exhausting and especially invasive if it's with a stranger. Feels like a weight off her shoulders. Grinning a bit, she asks, just to be sure that's accurate:
"You know what's the periodic table?"
Either Dan is immensely ashamed of this, or he has so few skeletons in his closet a confession of ignorance is one of the few problems he has, she thinks to herself. Almost everyone would be jealous of him -- who wouldn't prefer this to confessing something deeper? Taylor knows she'd have preferred to unveil she's not aware about a scientific concept than talking about her feelings!
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Re: Dan Sagittarius | Open
phonecomm 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."
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"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."
II. Candy Hearts
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."
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"Can't let some free sugar pass you by neither, huh? Reckon this is what we get for liking it sweet." He winks.
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I USE SEX AS A DISTRACTION FROM MY EMOTIONS
"Oh, fuck me."
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II
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.
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But, of course, he hopes Bunny does. He gestures with his nose at the floating letters. "What are those, by the way?"
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Bunny smirks at Dan's predicament, pointedly not helping, until Dan asks about the letters. They could have gotten at least a little bit more gentle ribbing in before getting to that. "They're secrets of yours. I already know most of 'em. Want me to get you out before anyone else sees?"
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II. Candy Hearts | rip Jennifer you would have loved the eating candy off the floor prompt
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
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."
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"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?"
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II. Candy Hearts
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.
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"I been alright. Trying to beat the winter blues, you know how easy it is to just hibernate when it's dark and cold out. You?"
I'VE CRASHED MY CAR DRUNK THREE TIMES is over Dan's head, but he can't read it, and he doesn't even bother trying to interpret Price's.
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timeskip!
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I. Honesty
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.
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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."
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