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DUST TO DUST ❅ EVENT
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.
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.
❅ 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.)
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"Yeah, same," he says, knowing Bunny understands him without explanation, too.
"We brought the gloves and some clothes that'll fit better around the hips," Virginia says, between little whoops of glee as she gets played with, juggled around and running across Acacia's broad shoulders and strong arms like a track.
Dan hands them over, gloves first, knowing that just having those will give Acacia less discomfort defending Bunny, and Dan wants to make defending Bunny as easy and intuitive as possible. "Let me know if there's anything else you need, honey."
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They can talk about how much they both hate the problem that this is later, if it persists long enough that they find themselves in private, but Bunny and Acacia are both hopeful that this will be a blip that gets undone by lunch. There's no mission to carry out in this circumstance, just a piece of malfunctioning equipment that they know is here, even if they don't know where it is yet. This could be so much faster and so much easier to solve than the last time all of Bunny's durability and power got sucked out of him and saddled with a deep revulsion against touching any of the people who might pose a threat to her person.
Acacia takes the gloves, again without the care she takes not to touch other people. Bunny shivers a little each time his soul, unfiltered, brushes up against Dan. This is the kind of intimacy that would have been unthinkably vulnerable only a handful of years ago. It's still something he'd rather not be happening. He'd still so much rather have Acacia safely infused in his whole being, where they can be powerful and intimidating together, instead of her having to take the whole burden of it on herself.
"I gotta practice some," Acacia says, pulling the gloves on and trying to flip a boomerang through her fingers the way Bunny is able to when he has her stature. She can't manage it, even if she doesn't outright drop the weapon. "Let's go to the warren. It's safer for us there."
"Might not be, if they fix all this and we're not here to get fixed with it," Bunny points out, and Acacia groans at not being allowed to indulge in her immediate desire for the safety and warmth of home. But she doesn't argue.
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"At least we ain't trying to infiltrate hostile territory this time," Virginia chirps. "No mission besides putting us back together like we ought to be."
"Yeah, we can prioritize like we couldn't could on the Rig." Dan figures this isn't terribly reassuring to either of them, but it's what optimism he can manage at a point where he feels like his own sense of safety has been extracted from him and left exposed. He's sure Bunny can hear how his own heartrate is elevated, thrumming along at a nervous clip. "Should we might look for Stacia? See if we can have her daemon provide you some cover for yours again?"
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Bunny settles into Dan's hood and resists the urge to nuzzle his chin. There's no dignity in this and it peeves him. Acacia, not possessed of the same restraint, runs Virginia back and forth along her cheek like a piece of silk.
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As such, she visibly sags with relief when she rounds a corner and spots Dan and Acacia, and Ben makes a chuffing noise.
"Hey Acacia, Virginia," Stacia calls out as she approaches. "Long time no see."
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"We were just about to go looking for you," Dan says, greeting Stacia with the customary hug, careful not to squish Bunny. When they separate, he idly pets Bunny with one hand. "Reckoned it was best to rally the folks we can trust to take this serious without getting into a panic about it. Are you two alright?"
It feels strange saying "you two" about a person and their externalized soul, but it seems it would be just as weird to speak in the singular.
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"You all right?" Bunny asks Stacia. She probably is but it makes him feel better to hear her say that. He sounds rather resigned from Dan's hood as Acacia wrestles Ben to the ground to play fight him with Virginia wriggling all about.
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"Yeah, we're good," Stacia assures Dan and Bunny. "Still can't shift, but at least we're at the Pole." She wiggles a finger at Bunny, but does not boop his nose, for the same reason Benny is letting Acacia touch his soft furry belly. "I was worried you might be out and about somewhere, I'm glad you weren't alone somewhere when this hit."
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"We're glad too. Do you reckon we might could want to keep the option to do, you know, the thing we did last time?" Decoying Bunny as a daemon, decoying Benny as Acacia's. "I don't reckon we'll just be running around here trying to fix this. Nothing ain't never that simple."
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She holds her arms out, in case Bunny is inclined to hope over for Stacia-cuddles instead of staying in Dan's hood.
"Of course I'm willing to play cute and harmless while Benny and Acacia look tough and scary on our behalf."