nightlogs | DUST TO DUST ❅ EVENT

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.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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. ]

[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.

[ Glenn is so weirdly grateful that Rae can't get all that far ahead of him without it feeling godawful, because he gets the feeling that he'd never catch up to her otherwise. If that's supposed to say something about his soul or whatever, it's not his business.

Rae trots forward to give the pair a cursory sniff, or as much of a sniff as she can give them while maintaining a "not completely sure that they aren't the type of person to maul intruders, so let's just keep a little boundary" distance. Manners: not inherited from the soul she split off of. Caution: inherited. ]

Uh. Yeah, I think so. [ As well as anyone could.

Rae very helpfully contributes: ] To both of those. I want a brush.

[ Getting her to chill out for a few minutes real, not clickbait? ]

[The wolf regards Rae (and then Glenn) rather dispassionately, but he doesn't demonstrate any hostility to their presence. The girl seems at ease as well, but given the size and general ferocity of the animal her soul has manifested as, that's probably not a surprise. She laughs and sets down the brush she's using and selects a slightly smaller slicker brush, which she bounces in her hand to test the weight and balance.]

I'm Stacia, this is Benny. If you're looking to stay out of lunging range, I can toss it to you.

[Benny stretches, as if to demonstrate why one might want to stay out of lunging range. And show off his little toesies, the claws of which seem to have been painted with glitter nail polish. He adds, for good measure,]

We don't seem to shed fur, but it does feel nice.

[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.]

[ This is a hell of a way to keep Glenn's cardio up. Every time he thinks it's the end of the impromptu tour and they've got a minute, there's another sound, another little disturbance, and he's off again.

He wants to be more frustrated or angry or something, but he kinda can't. The problem is he's curious, too. Like soul, like... soul? Weird.

He eventually comes to the point where he's like. You know what. Tired of the going in circles right now. Glenn will just stop and make the minute happen. ]

Okay, look. [ Nailing this. ] If whatever's in here is sentient and not just like, a weird North Pole raccoon I didn't know about, give it to me straight. Is this gonna end with you trying to kill me, or are you just jerking us around?

[ It's an important distinction! ]

[He gets a caw in response that sounds remarkably like laughter, then a crow hops into view. It turns its head to look at the two of them, an avian wink, before flying to Loki, who is sitting in a comfortable chair and has apparently been ignoring the whole rigmarole. He looks up as the bird perches on his shoulder.]

And what have you been up to?

[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.]

[ The real tragedy here is that the society in Glenn's world collapsed long before the rise of the "fuck around and find out" prophecy, because that's really what Rae is doing here.

Asteria startles, and Crowley startles, and Rae startles, and Glenn startles in turn. Just a full chain. He half-trips over a low table and sort of stumbles his way towards managing not to fall on his face (or onto this jazz coffeehouse-ass looking guy on the floor). ]

Jesus, shit- [ No it's fine. It's cool. His own soul is laughing at him. Which honestly just makes him miss his wife. But he's still standing, which means he can proceed to phase two: at least offering a hand up. ] Sorry man, she's, uh.

[ ........ ]

She's a rescue?

[ Look, if people could say that about their crazy dogs while he was just trying to deliver a pizza uninjured... Glenn can pretend that bullshit even makes sense. ]

[Crowley has absolutely no idea what the fuck just happened, on account of he wasn't paying attention, but the salient points are that he's on the floor and there's someone else in the room.

Glenn doesn't seem like an immediate threat, and he's not getting any pain or stress from Asteria, who is now in the process of slinking towards Rae to inspect her, so Crowley doesn't do something dramatic and just accepts the offered hand.

He makes it to his feet, then immediately barks out a laugh.]

That's a good one, I'll be stealing that. [Rude?] And I'm quite sure it wasn't her fault.

[With A Glance™️at Asteria. It was her fault.]

DUST TO DUST ❅ EVENT

glenn + rae, ota

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