nightmods: (Default)
nightmods ([personal profile] nightmods) wrote in [community profile] nightlogs2024-02-06 09:58 pm

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.
credit_not_blame: (Default)

Stacia

[personal profile] credit_not_blame 2024-02-07 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
credit_not_blame: (Pensive)

Honesty Arrows

[personal profile] credit_not_blame 2024-02-07 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"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.
credit_not_blame: (Default)

Thorny Vines of Closeness

[personal profile] credit_not_blame 2024-02-07 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
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!
credit_not_blame: (Default)

Candy Lonely Hearts

[personal profile] credit_not_blame 2024-02-07 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
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!
mostdangerousbird: (144)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-10 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
Tim was minding his own business -

Well, monitoring the globe wasn’t exactly minding his own business, but he wasn’t paying much mind to the workshop.

- when it happened. A red thread just lashed out of nowhere and curled around his pinkie finger like it belonged there, and Tim’s reaction is verging on panic. He stands up so abruptly the chair knocks over, because he lives in Santa’s workshop with an assortment of impossible myths and the red thread of fate just found him.

He has to find Kon.

No, he has to avoid Kon.

He hasn’t finished the internal debate over whether this calls for avoiding or finding when his eyes see the other person on the string. That can’t be right. Stacia’s not supposed to the one the other end of the thread. “What did you do?”
mostdangerousbird: (011 sweet you rock and sweet you roll)

Tim

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-10 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
mostdangerousbird: (008 that i'll never talk again)

Honesty Arrows

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-10 07:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ 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!
orivodika: (Exp- Glare)

[personal profile] orivodika 2024-02-10 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[Boba is about to walk past Tim when Baby Cupid swoops around for a second pass. He feels the impact on his back, but the following pain doesn't come. ]

What the-

[He whips around to see what-- or who-- got him, but Baby Cupid's already flying out reach again. He can't reach the spot where he was hit, but it doesn't feel like there's anything stuck in there, and looking down at his chest it's obvious that nothing passed through his chest.

He looks up and meets Tim's eyes at the same time a terrible itching-feeling starts to build.
]

My name isn't Lucky, I've been lying since we got here.

[Why did he say that?

At least the itching isn't as bad now.
]
lowercase_el: (047)

Re: Honesty Arrows

[personal profile] lowercase_el 2024-02-11 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
[Kon would think that can't be good but also it's some little toddler flying around getting up to mischief. Somehow he thinks mischief is about the worst it's going to get. Still, Baby Cupid, an arrow...]

[Kon practically dives in front of Tim's face to try to make sure he's the first thing that he sees, instead of another Guardian or one of the Yetis. It's not even flying, this is just a pure impulse based superspeed dive, like the reverse of someone getting instantly punched out of frame in a movie, that only ends in him flying so he doesn't straight up hit the deck. Basically, he Jazzy Jeffs it but under his own power rather than getting Uncle Phil'd.]

[The point of it is, having dived in his face, arms spread wide, he's taken up Tim's entire frame of vision. So if that arrow is a love at first sight thing, he's hopefully keeping him near the usual love baseline so he doesn't feel awkward about it later.]

Just checking but you're not suddenly in love with one of the Bigfeets, right? 'Cause if I have to wander around the Pole in a gilly suit all the time just for a chance to win you back, that's gonna get old pretty fast.
Edited 2024-02-11 07:52 (UTC)
boldboimler: (002)

Boimler

[personal profile] boldboimler 2024-02-11 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
boldboimler: (026)

Lonely Hearts

[personal profile] boldboimler 2024-02-11 09:06 am (UTC)(link)
[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!]
Edited 2024-02-11 09:11 (UTC)
dontleavehome: (uh huh)

[personal profile] dontleavehome 2024-02-11 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Ami is ...not really running after the little cupid, because she has arrived at the conclusion that there's no much of a point in using her usual methods of controlling children on it. Most of them rely on having her packmates and mate (or other kinfolk) around, anyway, so they would only be so applicable in this case, anyway.

Which means that she's taken to wandering after it, half out of a feeling of duty and half because she's bored (what do you even DO when you're not trying to keep a Sept from sinking into chaos at all times). And is mostly just observing, watching what it does and what seems to delight it in an attempt to learn enough to distract it from causing chaos for a while.

Maybe. So far, the chaos has been all on the amusing and sometimes even helpful side. She appreciates the toddler's style. So at the moment, she's more coming up with contingency plans for if something goes wrong than actual plans to stop cupid. She's always been more of a hands-off-until-actual-problems-arise person.

So when she spots a younger woman starting to go after cupid, too, she does a quick jog to catch up with her and falls into step beside Stacia.

"Keeping an eye on the kid too?" Stacia will notice that the way she speaks resembles Rowan's a lot, though her pitch is a good deal higher.
dontleavehome: (smile)

[personal profile] dontleavehome 2024-02-11 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm pretty sure that baby cupid's no mindreader.

[Ami has been following the little kid for a while now, observing the mayhem it causes and staying well out of reach. It hasn't always worked, but so far it hasn't taken a shot at her - she HOPES that's not because of her age, because she'd be insulted if that is the case, also on behalf of everyone else her age - but she's not too worried about it, having seen people's reactions. Not that she's going to say that.]

So he's not no way of knowing that you need no help. [Said in a tone that implies that she's not so sure of that.]
mostdangerousbird: (079)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-11 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I know. Lucky was always more likely to be a nickname, unless your parents were into being unique but were also blind to the fact that Lucky's actually a common nickname so how unique is that.

[ Ooookay, the itch in his chest is making him bitchy apparently, and Tim's just insulted the kid's parents about his name, or nickname. Very mature. ]

My friends called me Rob until I was 15 because I couldn't tell them my name.

[ What the - okay, relevant, but where did that come from? Tim doesn't usually put that out into the universe. He rubs his sternum and wonders if old wounds are able to cause phantom pain unprompted years later. ]
mostdangerousbird: (011 sweet you rock and sweet you roll)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-11 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That was also what Tim had been worried about. He didn't need Cupid's help because, well, he was already in love. Quite happily, with someone who was smart enough to dive bomb him to make sure the arrow's magic didn't take with anybody else.

(Nothing against the yetis. Mike in Action Figures is great. Tim just prefers partners that are more traditionally humanoid and named Kon.)

Tim gives Kon a warm smile, intending to say Nope, still love you and then make some as yet undefined flirt about Kon in a World War II military uniform.
]

Nope, gonna spend the rest of my life in love with you, even after I find a way to screw it up by trying to convince you to move to Gotham or making you promises you know I can't keep or putting your life above mine because I said I wasn't doing that anymore because I can't stop thinking that way. I've tried and you're going to find out again -

[ The smile's fading into horror, because Tim's opened some sort of floodgate that he can't close. The pressure of the words won't let him stop, and the itch where the arrow struck him is burning. ]

And be upset because I'm in love with you, and I don't know how to get out of that cycle because something always takes you away. Why am I still talking? I think I have PTSD.
mostdangerousbird: (075)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-11 03:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Tim keeps his eyes closed to avoid looking at anyone until he has this figured out. He waves a hand blindly upwards. ]

No, he's a menace. And maybe yes. He's Cupid, isn't he? Not the greek god, but the modern greeting card myth, flying around shooting people with non-fatal arrows tipped with hearts that cause people to fall in love at first sight?

[ He is definitely not feeling the holiday spirit, despite wearing a red sweater. ]

I've already got someone out of my league, so I don't need his help overwriting that. I'm sure you're great. That probably means you're a bad idea because my track record is yikes.
mostdangerousbird: (021 never slow down you never grow old)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-11 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ This time, Tim sees the red string whipping towards him with enough warning to zoinks! down to mini-Tim and go streaking off in the opposite direction like a teeny comet. Not today, Cupid.

Tim leads the red string, and the man that is getting whipped around on the far end of it, on a merry chase through several levels of the workshop with a mindset of help me help me save me hide me.

(It is a perfectly reasonable reaction to these shenanigans.)

He's going to owe so many favors though, because he definitely just burned a hole through an 8 foot tall teddy bear.
]

Sorry, Paulie!

[ The yeti's loud grumbling fades into the distance. Tim takes a hard left, then two rights, and abruptly extinguishes himself, dropping down onto a table and panting to catch his breath. He lost them, had to have.

There's a tiny candy heart next to him that answers his question with YAAAS. He smugly pops it into his mouth and crunches away at the familiar, vaguely fruity candy that tastes of nothing and yet is so identifiably candy hearts.

And then his finger sprouts a red thread, and tiny Tim is yanked off the table and flown back in the direction he came.
]
dontleavehome: (uh huh)

[personal profile] dontleavehome 2024-02-11 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[She has to laugh. And then raises a hand, counting on her fingers:]

Let's see. Old enough to be your mother. Very much taken already. I'm sure I can think of more - [like being the wrong species, but that's not something she can say out loud.] - You know what, don't sweat about it. [She pats his arm.] I'm not offended. Go drink something cold. You'll be just fine.

That someone out of your league here?
mostdangerousbird: (079)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-11 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I've dated people who were a thousand and five. It's not like it sounds - gods and clones were involved. Why am I still talking?! Everyone involved was mentally, biologically and legally an adult!

[ Despite the growing frustration, he is still very much not looking at her. Neither of them sound interested, and the simplest explanation is really to be avoided, but there is clearly something else going on i. ]

Who invited the myth about non-consensual romance? I'm going to have a talk with Jack.
orivodika: (Exp- Grumpy)

[personal profile] orivodika 2024-02-12 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
[Boba feels weirdly defensive about the fake name he chose.]

It's not just a nickname, most clone names are short like that. Long ones are safety hazards.

[He did not want to bring up the clones. What is happening?]

Rob... so you're good at stealing? Or did you get mugged?

[Because obviously if you've been given a name it has to be relevant to your skills or a standout event in your life.]
lowercase_el: (048)

[personal profile] lowercase_el 2024-02-12 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
...oh that arrow sure did something.

[Some kind of truth serum kinda thing?]

Ooookay, why don't we go somewhere private? Since I know you, and I know if other people overhear you, you're gonna hate it.

[He takes him by the hand, lifting him in the air with his teke.]

And then I'm gonna say some stuff since I'm not going to ignore giant feelings like that, but so you don't spend the one minute it takes to get there twigging out about it possibly being bad, I'll say up front that it's all gonna be good stuff.
Edited 2024-02-12 03:36 (UTC)
mostdangerousbird: (44 shake the hand of a brand new fool)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2024-02-12 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ His ears are hot, and the embarrassment of throwing stuff out there completely unprompted like this is a normal conversation to start casually.

In public.

Kon can’t get them somewhere else fast enough for Tim’s liking.
]

Please get me out of here. I’m still twigging because that’s what you’re supposed to say when someone’s in distress.

[ He’s so careful with his words. He didn’t tell Kon his name for well over a year. It’s not easy filtering out every precious personal detail; caution is carved into his very being. It’s like he’s been pantsed in a crowded room. ]

They’re giant feelings.

[ Not. He meant to say they’re not giant feelings, nor are they new, to try to make this more his choice and spin. ]

I mean they’re giant feelings!!

[ He has no control over his tongue at all. This is possibly the worst nonviolent thing that’s happened to him. Ever. ]

Can we focus on how I’m planning on middle age now? That came out right. We can talk about that.
credit_not_blame: (Upset)

[personal profile] credit_not_blame 2024-02-12 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
Stacia looks around for the source of the voice and smiles warmly when she finds it. She doesn't recognize the woman, but given that she's in the Pole, it probably means she's in the same boat as the rest of them. Or an enemy spy or whatever, but probably the former.

"Yeah," she says. "I don't know how much trouble an unsupervised flying kid could get into here at the Pole, but I'd feel bad if I just let him find out. And since my Rage doesn't excuse me from babysitting in this instance..."

Hang on. Stacia's brows knit together and her expression darkens.

"Son of a fuck."

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