DUST TO DUST ❅ EVENT

[nightmods]

DUST TO DUST

It will take them time to discern the cause. After all, all the artifacts brought back from the fight with Project Prometheus were deemed safe or at least contained, only able to have their dangerous power unleashed if people were dumb enough to try it.

The altheiometer is not the real thing. It was created by the belief of a child, after reading a certain book series, and therefore is more of a symbolic object, with none of the real capabilities of the device in fiction. Instead, it had other magical abilities. It was not entirely understood by the Project itself, just kept there to be studied and eventually co-opted for sinister use if possible. But it had remained inert in their company.

At the Pole, it passes the magical scan, since it technically is "safe," then finally activates. It works on a child's logic, after all. A child would think daemons are cool but wouldn't think bad people deserved them. A child would think the device should only activate to let good guys have daemons.

In the study containing the safer artifacts, the altheiometer opens of its own accord. Gears turn. The hands start clicking as they move in circles around its clock-like face, rotating back and forth between different symbols. The hands finally stop, clicking as they meet in the same spot, on the symbol of an apple, with a bite taken out of it.

It's all very metaphorical isn't it. The soul can't exist without free will. In some worlds they think free will only exists because of an apple in a garden.

There is a burst of light and sound that reverberates through the Pole. As the floor shakes, everyone sees a brief glimpse of the wave as it passes through walls - and then passes through each of them. Getting hit by it is like getting hit by a storm wave in the ocean, briefly lifting everyone off their feet.

Alongside the sensation of being briefly levitated, there is also the painful sensation of suddenly being aware of something deep inside, briefly made to feel almost like a splinter in their very core.

Then, with all the subtlety of getting attacked with a giant hole punch, the splinter is removed, excised. It does hurt, but there is also a strange relief. Except...whatever it was, it's still here. Next to each of the Guardians. Still attached, just...an externality now.

The wave crashes to the shore. They're all knocked to the floor again.

If they were alone in a room, they aren't now. If they weren't alone in a room, said room's occupants have now doubled.

DAEMONS
Each PC now temporarily has a daemon. Daemons are the soul externalized, sentient and able to talk. Taking the form of animals, they often shapeshift and change forms during someone's childhood, but settle into a permanent shape during someone's teen years as the person's personality becomes more concrete and distinct.

• Form: A daemon takes an animal form that represents the person's personality. They usually have a gender opposite to their respective person's, but there are sometimes exceptions, sometimes for entirely unknown reasons, or if the person is some flavor of queer. Daemons will know that they're their owner's soul and be able to tell them that.


• Daemon Selection: Here is a page with interpretations of a few animals and what types of personalities they can represent, but please don't take it as law. It's just possible inspiration. The daemons can be any animal. For characters not from Earth, their daemons can be animals that are entirely made up or ones in their canons.


• Link: Daemons are connected metaphysically to their person through an invisible link, allowing that person to still be attached to their soul. Moving too far from your daemon can cause physical and spiritual agony. Suddenly being ripped apart by a great distance can kill someone. Killing a daemon - which is only as hardy as the animal they are - also kills their owner.


• Personalities: Daemon personalities are often similar to their owner's, but sometimes daemons are more willing to be honest about feelings or subconscious impulses. For instance, daemons often instinctually show affection to the daemons of people their owner is fond of. Daemons will remember everything their owner remembers, and was basically there the whole time they were alive, just integrated. Despite being externalized, they aren't something separate from each person, they were always a part of them.


• Physical Contact: People can touch their own daemons without effects and cuddling their daemon can be a positive experience of self-love. Someone hurting their own daemon can feel like they've caused the damage to themselves, and hurts on a spiritual or almost self-hating level. Meanwhile, picking up someone else's daemon without permission can cause incredible discomfort and pain. Alternately, touching someone's daemon with permission can cause comfort, a surge of happiness, or even pleasure, depending on the context of the contact and the relationship the two people have.

OOC DETAILS
❅ Event Length: The plot will last an OOC and IC 2 weeks before they can figure out what's causing the change and reverse it, making the daemons internal again. During this time, allies of the Guardians will temporarily take over their duties and fortunately no major crises will happen. Players can set their own opens during this time as well as play out anything that happens over the whole 2 weeks in this post.

❅ New Characters: If your character is introing at this time, assume they arrived just in time for the magical wave to hit them, or walked into a cloud of its residual energy.

❅ Opt-out: Anyone that doesn't want to play in the plot or have a daemon can handwave Vasilisa's magical defenses caught on to the power surge and her glowing charms protected at least some people in the Pole from the transformation. You can ignore this and thread as if there's just a little extra chaos around the Pole.

❅ Jack Frost: There will also be a network post with Jack explaining what Vasilisa has magically discerned has happened. It will take time to find the source, as the altheiometer is very good at cloaking its readings and registered as "safe." (Technically, it is safe, it's just...inconvenient.)

Comments

MOD QUESTIONS

[nightmods]

Ask any mod questions here!

Open, Library.

[manofanxiety]

Clark starts to pick himself up off of the floor only to find a dog, a lab mix with pur white fur by the looks of her, hovering over him. 5 feet over him, in fact.

"Clark, are you okay? I'm sorry, I wasn't here but now I am and it's really weird and I think it hurt you," she rambles, circling around in the air as Clark gets back his feet.

"I'm fine. Who are you? What just happened?"

Elle | Antony

[millenyal_pink]

closed to first reply, existing CR only please

[millenyal_pink]

Elle is still sitting prone on the floor where she was knocked over in the initial wave of… whatever that was. What looks like a giant red fox is standing in front of her.

She’s just been informed that his name is Antony, and he is not a fox, he is a wolf thankyouverymuch. Her mind has turned to static. She stares at Antony in what can only be described as horror and heartbreak.

Whether she’s alone or in the company of others, it takes her a moment to come back to reality.

“No.” It’s a denial tinged with desperation. Antony flinches back. “No, you’re not— you can’t be.
you can’t.”

Elle’s voice is thick with suppressed emotion. She can feel the heat of angry, hurt tears behind her eyes.

open

[millenyal_pink]

Elle and Antony have come to a truce, of some fashion. The hurt is still there, she still feels the sting of betrayal every time she sees his canid form, but she feels an equal amount of guilt for it because it's not like he has any control over it. They're equally responsible for whatever's wrong with her soul that it manifested like this.

(It's not fair, she wants to scream! It's not fair that after everything, after all the work she put into proving herself and making herself not only useful but acceptable, this is what she has to show for it. The soul of something she isn't-- something she will never be. Something she doesn't want to be. She rejected that. She carved herself into something new, something better, so why is her soul still a monument to what she never was?)

They're walking carefully back to her their room, both hoping that they don't run into anyone else. They don't want to answer questions or give an explanation that they don't have yet. They need to get to a safe, private space and regroup. They can figure out what to do from there.

Elle walks with her spine straight and expression neutral. It would take a very close look to tell that something is wrong. Antony lopes alongside with head lowered and his tail drooping behind him in a clear expression of their emotional turmoil. There's always at least a foot of space between them.

crowley (and asteria) | throughout the 2 week period | ota

[demonicmiracle]

[In the days immediately following the altheiometer's activation, Crowley is conspicuously absent, needing to take a few days to come to terms with the reminder of what it felt like to have his grace ripped out of him. At least the results of this are better than falling.

Asteria eventually nudges him out of his room, if only under threat that people might notice if he's gone too long and ask questions about it. He's not sure how to feel about how good she is at manipulating him.

With that particular hurdle over, he can be found in his usual haunts, now accompanied by a sleek black serval. He lounges in the community area with Asteria draped over his lap, tailing lashing lazily. They'll loiter around the dining hall, because although neither of them need to eat, Asteria is more inclined to indulge the occasional desire for a snack, up to and including stealing a bit of meat off someone's plate.

She's also more willing to indulge a little playfulness, and will stalk both people and their respective daemons around the halls of the Pole. She has no interest in actually hurting anyone, but she may pounce just to give someone a good scare.

Every now and then, Asteria seems to be missing entirely, and Crowley is instead accompanied by a large lion. It seems as eager to use him as a pillow as Asteria is, either unaware or uncaring of the fact he's significantly larger than her. There may be an occasion or two where Crowley ends up pinned on a sofa in the library by a sleeping lion. He could move the damn thing, but he doesn't have the heart.]

dining hall

[composinghistory]

Jaskier slides into the chair next to Anthony with a plate stacked with baked goods. With a trill and the flapping of wings, a small, brown bird with a spotted breast lands on Asteria's head. The bird is just over 10 inches beak to tail. It immediately starts to preen its feathers as Jaskier makes himself comfortable in Anthony's personal space.

This is the first time they've seen their friend in several days and they're both rather excited to show off.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce us?" he asks before Anthony has any opportunity to actually do so.

throws spaghetti at the wall this can go wherever in the timeline

[oldbookshop]

[ Crowley's first and great mistake was finally starting to leave his room at all. All he's done is unlock a fresh new morning routine, where he starts to open the door and a lion tries to stick its giant dumb rumbly face through the opening immediately.

Like yes, of course, absolutely come out here. Welcome to the world, etc. But first: let him in. Let him in!!!!!

Also pictured: Aziraphale en route somewhere down the hall already fed up with this nonsense. Full muttering "oh for Heaven's sake" mode. All that restraint and self-control for what. To not be able to reel in his own stupid whatever-angels-have-that-are-equivalent-to-human-souls? It's just embarrassing. ]

dining hall

[start_again]

[Food is still tough for Siffrin some days. It should be better now, right? Because at least it's not just the same things over and over and over again anymore. And some days he does appreciate the novelty of a meal and actually like eating. But others leave him cold, only serving to highlight that it wasn't Bonnie that cooked for them, and every bite tastes like nothing.

It's a bad food day. So after a few unenthusiastic bites and a few morsels fed to the equally-unenthusiastic squirrel tucked in their collar, when a lightless catlike thing suddenly snatches a bit of meat from their plate, he just stares at the creature for a moment before silently sliding his whole plate over to her.

Eat up, kitty. At least you might enjoy it.]

BIRD TIME

[ninjavampire]

Miguel's tendency to be scaling some wall or another works against him when the altheiometer hits and makes his hands slip, sending him tumbling down to the ground of the workshop. Maybe it's fitting that this messiest of dives precedes the appearance of the daemon floating down after him, her proper wings making her own descent all the more graceful.

As he comes to on the floor, Miguel feels the light weight of a falcon standing on his chest. An entirely mismatched animal compared to everything else about him. Except for the talons - they had those matched exactly. Her feathers rouse, showing her comfort with his presence as she shakes free whatever residual magic dust had stuck to her.

"Te sugiero que te levantes del suelo." she adds dryly. "Está sucio."
(*I suggest you get up off the floor. It's dirty)

"What?"

[start_again]

Siffrin is lurking quietly, idly watching the person scaling the walls (?) when the wave of something hits and brings with it that incomprehensible pain and relief. He has no idea what happened in those first moments, and he's saved from overthinking it by the crash of the spider-guy hitting the ground nearby.

And also there's suddenly a bird now. And it talks. Huh. Siffrin approaches tentatively.

"Are you, uh..." A frown, confused and vaguely concerned. "Are you okay?"

They haven't even noticed their own daemon yet, but in their defense, a tiny squirrel thing skittering around on the floor by one's feet is much less noticeable than a man dropping off a wall. And, y'know. Being half-blind is also a solid excuse.

CAW CAW

[orivodika]

A little while after the initial blast Boba walks down the hallway with his head ducked down. He's curled around his torso where he seems to be cupping something in his hands. He isn't looking where he's going. Instead he seems to be scolding whatever he's holding.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up-" he mutters.

A raspy, feminine voice responds. "Me’copaani mircini'ne, burc’ya?*" She's got the same accent as Boba and does not sound happy.

"Be quiet!" he hisses back.



*You wanna release me, pal?

Bunny and Acacia, OTA

[bringinghopewithme]

"No! Aaugh no-"

"No not again!"

Bunny's scream splits into two voices united in this cannot be happening as he splinters and splits into two shapes. The one that's still 6'1 manifests into a powerfully built human woman. The one that's still Bunny is left without any of that size or power that lets him do his Guardian work, or indeed, much of his work at all.

"There's clothes in the pack, get them on get them on," Bunny hisses as Acacia dives in to root through his dropped holsters for the green flannel and khaki shorts he's needed on undercover missions in the past.

"This can't be happening again," Acacia growls as she picks up the gauntlets that fell off Bunny's arms as they separated. She buckles them on and pulls the holster back on her back, keeping one boomerang in hand for defense as she opens up her arm for Bunny to jump into. "Hurry up, get over here," she hurries him, as if he's not also hopping as fast as he can into the defensive crook of Acacia's meaty arm.

"You don't have to rush me," Bunny grumbles. "Find Dan and Virginia. Dan might still have your gloves."

"You oughta carry them yourself, if this is going to keep happening," Acacia mutters, looking around the room like everyone's suddenly become a threat.

"Crikey, it had better not," Bunny growls. The two of them bicker and yet move in perfect harmony while searching for their backup.

[hallelujahjunction]

As soon as Dan's aware of what's happening, he has Virginia wrapped around his neck like a stole and is digging through his belongings for the gloves and outfit he put together for Acacia last time it occurred to him that this could happen again. That's the only thing that delays him from immediately finding Bunny.

He locates Bunny by the sound of Australian-inflected bickering. Virginia, excited to see them, races down Dan's arm and, after making eye contact, leaps onto Acacia's shoulder.

"Looks like we're in for a long day at the office," Dan, who has never worked an office day for a second, says.

Virginia's voice is high-pitched, but has Dan's characteristic scratchy asthmatic quality; it's not necessarily worse than his speaking voice, but it certainly isn't better. "How are you holding up?" she asks Bunny and Acacia.

[ninjavampire]

There's a swish of feathers as a slender raptor shape swoops overhead and finds a perch one level up on the expansive, open floor. A falcon! Well, she is a daemon and not just a falcon, but she still sees something small and fluffy on the ground and considers that she's yet to indulge herself in a hunt!

Acacia is far too large to try and fight directly, but that isn't this daemon's only method of catching things. Maybe if the human gets distracted, she'll have a chance to make a go for the grand prize on her arm. She was quick, after all. As far as she knows, the Easter Bunny and this little rabbit creature are two completely separate entities.

So she'll just watch for now! Eyes sharp, she bobs her head back and forth with a little too much interest.

Brigid and Babd - open

[bostonhowler]

Brigid had been napping, when things changed. She smells something different before she looks up from her translating and notices the raven watching her. Sure, she's a werewolf. Why not?

She goes back to ignoring it until it hopes closer, steals her pencil and takes off.

"Hey!" She says, sitting back in her seat. "Give that back!"

The raven drops the pencil between his feet and cocks his head at her. "No. You work too hard."

"I'm a History Keeper. This is my job." She points out. Wait... Talking raven. Talking raven?! Okay, sure. Why not. She can deal.

"And I'm Babd, and I say you work too hard."

She stares at the raven, going ghost white.

Re: Brigid and Babd - open

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia, following the sounds of protest, sticks her head around the corner. Ben also sticks his head around the corner, looking all the larger by comparison to Stacia's petite height.

"Hey, it's cool," she assures the woman staring in apparent-horror at the talking raven. "Everyone's soul got externalized as an animal. It's going to be okay, we're working it out."

She means well! But her statement is likely less reassuring to Brigid in particular than she intends.

glenn + rae, ota

[rheeliable]

[ Every day is a new test for Glenn. Literally what did he ever do to deserve this?

Which, like-- okay, after he has his initial freakout about this whole situation in the privacy of his room like any person from a world with no magic whatsoever would, it's not the worst thing? It's weirdly nice. Always feeling like he's with someone.

Rae is technically him, he guesses, so he technically is alone if he's not around anyone, but still.

The two of them are out and about together pretty regularly, doing their thing. Glenn hasn't strictly nailed down regular haunts yet as much as he's tended to drift around. The kitchens and dining hall, any number of the lounges, quiet tucked away places that are good for a breather, people who look like they could use company. That seems to agree with his daemon just fine, though.

Maybe a little too well, because she has a very real habit of running ahead to investigate things and a knack for getting herself into places that don't seem feasible. No idea who she could possibly have inherited that from, the narration says like she isn't Glenn's soul or anything.

Don't mind the intrusion, guys, there's just an African Wild Dog (skinny, sort of scraggly) poking her head into open doors, gaps in curtains, spaces beneath furniture, anywhere she may have heard an Unusual Sound, sniffing and snooting around tables holding food. She's all over the place and very alert about it.

Glenn is quick on her heels because he will be the one apologizing for her inconveniences. He can be so much more chill than this, he swears. ]

Re: glenn + rae, ota

[credit_not_blame]

[One of the lounges Rae pokes her head into is occupied by a fellow dog-related soul in the form of a gray (and brown and white) wolf. He rolls over when Rae pokes her head into the room, unwilling to be belly-up in the presence of anyone else; even if it does interrupt the brushing being performed by the teenage white girl also present. She's not much bigger than the animal her soul has manifested as, both because wolves are pretty big animals and because she's pretty small. Stacia's looking around too by the time Glenn catches up, and waves at him with the hand holding the dog brush she'd gotten from the Yetis.]

Hiya! Handling this crazy situation all right? I've got more brushes if you want one.

[bestbrotherever]

[Did someone say Unusual Sounds? A bunch of those might just be coming from the library as Rae passes. In fact, they might even be leading her around the place, a new one occurring as soon as she's finished investigating the last one. They're mainly scratching sounds, or the thumps of books falling down.]

[demonicmiracle]

[The best part about the lounges is the old-fashioned furniture has plenty of space underneath for Asteria to hide under. Crowley's dozing on one of the sofas, sunglasses hiding the fact his eyes are closed, while Asteria hides under an armchair, waiting for someone to pass by close enough she can swipe at their ankles.

Normal daemon behavior.

She's so busy searching for potential targets that she doesn't notice Rae until there's a snout suddenly under the chair beside her.

Asteria startles, bumping her head on the furniture, which in turn startles Crowley so badly that he falls off the sofa in a tangle of limbs.

It's a comedy of errors from top to bottom.]

Loki and Fár

[bestbrotherever]

Loki was sitting down, reading, when the wave hits, so he stays mostly in the same place, but is still staggered. Once he recovers, he immediately notices a medium-sized black corvid looking between himself and his book.

He scowls at it. "One of Odin's spies?" The bird puffs its chest as if offended, but doesn't respond. Instead it- she hops around and then flies away.

Over the next hour or so, other Guardians who visit the library might notice a crow studying things. Especially small shiny objects. If they're paying particular attention, they might realize that items that the crow showed a special interest in are now gone. Or they might only realize that once something of theirs has gone missing.

Some time later she returns to Loki and drops a coin right on his book. "Would Odin's spy do this?"

Loki, curious, picks it up and studies it. "A peace offering?"

She puffs up her chest and spreads her wings, showing off leucistic white streaks on her feathers. "Not just one!" Then she leads him to her cache, which by now has gotten quite sizable.

Re: Loki and Fár

[ferengineer]

Nog had been in the library briefly to check dome reference material. He returns shortly after he left, accompanied by a green and blue cat-like creature, both of them positively steaming with barely repressed anger.

"Give. It. Back." Nog hisses at Loki while his Risian caracal looks ready to pounce on the bird.

[starfleetashell]

Mariner marches up to Loki, carrying her unassuming-looking flour sack of a daemon in her arms.

"Your bird took my commbadge!" she snaps. "Ripped it right off my shirt!"

"Moopsy," Kahless the Moopsy agrees, in a surprisingly deep voice.

aziraphale (and begrudgingly, timothy) | ota

[oldbookshop]

[ Aziraphale hasn't been the most socially outgoing person here to start with, but with all this happening, he now sticks to a select handful of haunts when he does get out.

The library, mainly, which is to be expected whether he's picking a few volumes up or settled into his usual preferred chair to read through them. He also frequents the kitchens and dining hall per usual, and that one lounge where he personally likes the view out the window the best. You know how it is. Familiarity is a comfort in unprecedented times.

He's still willing to offer a greeting to other Guardians who wind up in his vicinity, and generally up for conversation (assuming he's paying attention to his surroundings and not fully absorbed in one of those novels). A touch frazzled, maybe, but if we're being honest that's not very unusual for Aziraphale.

Angels don't even have souls, is the thing. So that bothers him already. And it frustrates him that the manifestation of whatever equivalent to a soul he apparently has is... well. More towards the large and dangerous side. Aziraphale presents himself a certain way. He likes presenting himself that way. He likes to think that there's more truth in what he puts forward than in what he doesn't. In how he acts. So he just thinks maybe an owl or a capybara would have been nice, is all.

(More than anything, really, it bothers him that some part of himself has been split off and it means he no longer has control over presenting it. It says things he wouldn't normally let himself say. It could do things without his permission. It's terrifying.)

Timothy, for his part, is certainly present most of the time. He's very much a lion, recognizably so, if... a bit off, in some impossible to define way. More of something that happened to be put into a lion's shape than a lion proper.

He can be found largely towards the border edge of whatever amount of space Aziraphale can put between them without it being unbearable, and largely sleeping. He'll crack an eye open when people approach the area, might throw a comment in here and there. He could very possibly be a ways away having that nap on top of Crowley (RIP Crowley damn) while Crowley's daemon settles on Aziraphale's shoulders. Miracles happen: somehow he is even more introverted than Aziraphale. Not clickbait???

but real talk this is just a general OTA toplevel and i'm up to plan out starters or more specific closed threads, etc. hmu at comatoseroses for whatever! ]

[start_again]

[Siffrin is also a fan of that one lounge and its large window overlooking the snowy expanse. He's definitely retreated here a few times when overwhelmed by all the chaos of the rest of the North Pole. All that white is a soothing balm when all the color of this place gets to be too much.

It's been empty when they've previously come, though. And the sight of a person already by his window as he turns the corner is enough of a distraction that he fails to notice the tail of a sleeping lion(?!?) splayed out underfoot. They trip over said tail pretty spectacularly, crashing to the ground with an embarrassing yelping sound.]