EVENT PLOTTING: HEARTS LIKE YOURS

[aionmods]

Hearts Like Yours

PLEROMA

After surviving their trial against the Kenoma, the Pleroma will finally have the chance to spread their wings. Having spent some time recovering in the Valley of the Innocent, there will be few options but to strike outwards, looking for a safe haven that they can be less readily tracked to. Characters who are inclined towards information gathering are welcome to do some handwaving of their characters first venturing beyond the boundaries of the valley, where they will find an assortment of small villages - including the one that left their offering of clothing and food. If they are careful, they will be able to get an idea of where to go next, as the locals seem mostly inclined to help them, but only if they can be given some plausible deniability.

According to the villagers of the region, there are two places that may be of use to one trying to avoid the Regent's forces: the rebellious city-state of Godsblood, or the reclusive village of rebels said to live among the trees of Lohkimareen. Both trips will take at least a week to complete, depending on if the Pleroma can expedite things. While Godsblood is a sure shot by traveling West and catching a boat ride at Syraku Shipyard, it is technically a Regent-controlled city despite its tendency to spit in the face of Achamite's demands. Any Pleroma travelling there will have to disguise themselves. On the other hand, Greentruth is famed to be a haven for rebels that oppose the Regent's reign, but getting there requires traveling through a forest famed for its reptilian megafauna and threatening atmosphere. That is, if rebels still live in the first place. They haven't been seen in quite some time.

Whichever journey they choose, they will have a long trip ahead of them. Part of the event post will cover their travels to their destination of choice, while the rest will be about exploring what each location has to offer. There will be portal between Godsblood and Greentruth unlocked, but it will take a bit of plot to gain full access to.

❖ INCLUDED EVENT PROMPTS

◆ GODSBLOOD: The seaside city known for its rebellious stance against the Regent, it is technically within Achamoth's control. According to the villagers near the valley, though, it may be the Pleroma's best bet to hide out in. When characters arrive, the city will be in the middle of their "Lover's Festival", the spring celebration of Lovaseri, the Lover's Moon. The local's boisterous activities may be the perfect environment to explore the city within, as long as you can keep your nature concealed.

◆ GREENTRUTH: While vaunted as a place truly free from the Regent's influence, it's also uncertain whether it has survived the last few decades. Those that are brave enough to undertake it, however, will be rewarded by their journey into the Lohkimareen forest with an encounter with its resident scouts, and a path straight to the heart of the resistance. Life in the forest is hard, but freedom from the Regent's gaze has its advantages.

KENOMA

For the Kenoma, it's time to meet their boss. Arriving in Achamoth through the great river that flows through it, the new recruits will be brought straight to the Regent's grand citadel to tour their new living space. They will find themselves greeted with lavish personal bedrooms, servants at their beck and call, and religious fervor befitting their status as demigods. While the sailors bringing them there seemed nervous and ideologically neutral, once inside the city proper, they are unambiguously treated with reverence.

After sorting out their basic living requirements, they will all be invited to a luxurious feast put on by the Regent themselves. Make no mistake, attendance is mandatory. This will be their first opportunity to speak with Horos's resident despot and to learn more about their role among the Kenoma. They're well informed on your actions back in the cavern, and they may have some thoughts on them. (PS. Please reply with your character's actions to this toplevel if you haven't already.)

Provided they survive that encounter, they will be allowed to wander Achamoth and spend most of the month getting themselves comfortable. The Regent has the impression that another conflict with the Pleroma is on the horizon, and it would not do for Achamoth's new elite to be unprepared.

❖ INCLUDED EVENT PROMPTS

◆ THE CITADEL: The Kenoma will be introduced to their new living space, including luxurious private rooms and personal servants. Before long, it will be time to dress up for their first meeting with the Regent, in the form of a formal feast. It would probably be smart to make a good first impression.

◆ ACHAMOTH: For the rest of their month, they'll have free reign over their new stomping ground, given an allowance for new purchases and to partake in the city's illustrious entertainment district. Rest and prepare, is the Regent's first order. Soon, there will be work to do.

Comments

ciel | kenoma

[expiera]

Citadel
→ Ciel doesn't really care about all the luxurious stuff and the servants, but may try to talk to them for information
→ Will chill at the tallest vantage point in the Citadel that's not off-limits to Aions, girl likes high places
→ Similarly would want to grab a bedroom high up if they can pick, she'll be more likely to come and go using the windows than the actual door...
→ Going to be in a slutty fancy gothic-ish dress because she does have passable fashion sense and doesn't care about showing skin, objectifying yourself is A-OK especially when you don't consider yourself human, convenient!
→ Will spend most of her time in libraries/barracks/training areas if applicable, she wants to learn more about the overworld/Legacies and start materializing/testing Black Keys, her weapon of choice. They're made out of Bible pages back home, so in Horos this means doomsday end of the world Satanism texts, fun stuff.

Achamoth
→ She has no interest in any of the indulgences, what's having a good time? Something that only applies to everyone else, duh. I'd be open and happy to have her get dragged around, she's very much the type to only focus on work.
→ She'll only poke around in a "know your homebase" capacity and will therefore be going around anonymously with no intention of flaunting her Aion status, gotta over-prepare just in case!
→ "Crime in Achamoth is defined almost entirely by things that have anti-Regent sentiments" is neat and she may look into it, as a lawful type who nevertheless goes hard on the gray morality scale.
→ Finding a restaurant that sells spicy food maybe... She's a fattydingdong who eats a lot, high metabolism t-that's all it is.
→ Won't spend much of their allowance, she's saving up just in case.

Etc
→ "Rest and prepare" bossman said, she absolutely intents on focusing on the latter
→ I'd be happy for more Kenoma interactions in general, she's flexible personality wise! Still kinda stuck in serious work mode considering what went down with the Pleromas back in the cave, but she can tease and joke and act like a normal girl/woman once she gets over herself, which is... a Work In Progress, admittedly. But she wants to be helpful at her core and does have an exposition streak, part of why she's busy looking info up to regurgitate it to everyone else if they ask u_u
→ Not sure if I'll TL just yet, but down to plot and write closed starters o7
→ If the banquet doesn't turn into a big "introduce yourself/meet you coworkers" thing and the topic of "your shard=your soul" doesn't crop up, she'll definitely end up making use of communion to share the info once Xishen explains to them (as per word of (G)Mods) how it works. Not technically event related, but something I'm keen on touching upon in April and have the knowledge ICly spread since Ciel already knows after talking to Xishen during the boat ride to Achamoth.

[lockedon]

ciel 🤝 eustace
focusing mainly on work

Anyway let's do...........something, unsure of what yet. :|a Eustace is definitely the type to also check out and spend most of his time in the library/barracks/training areas, overachievers unite, though maybe we can handwave CR there and do something more lighthearted like checking out the local restaurants?? IDK, I'm mostly waiting for the event itself to go up with further details.

[expiera]

🤝
morbidly curious of eustace's tier list of tolerable people he's interacted within Kenoma so far ngl, I mean--

Why so srs... I'd love to do more too, maybe we can touch base once the event post is up? I'm going to choke and die if this turns out anything like some sort of business dinner where the soulless CEO roasts the entire company for shitty quarterly gains, but I'm sure they'll make it out alive for trying and can find something to do one way or another... Lighthearted would be nice, I'd be more than happy to throw together a closed starter too depending on what we have to work with?

[lockedon]

tbh they're all hovering in the same area, the people he really dislikes are all on pleroma.... :thinking:

but yeah, i'm happy to touch base once the event post itself goes up, kind of hard to plan specifics right now when we don't know a lot of the details. i hope they all get roasted though, this hot mess of a team u_u

[expiera]

mood... at least after the Regent is done roasting them we can hopefully have a communion roast session about the Pleromas in general 😔🙏

[vapour]

welp if nothing else Childe's def gonna be staring at her boobs in that dress nice.

[expiera]

CHILDE...

is it going to be a thing that she asks him for opinions on the Pleromas he's fought and descriptions/summaries of their abilities for "Business" reasons, and he's going to be looking down instead of up... Because it could??

[vapour]

... yeah, probably. it's not everyday you meet a girl that's totally into fighting and whips AND can survive throat being torn out plus has a nice set of knockers!! these things must be appreciated in their entirety. D:

[zauneyete]

it looks like investigating crime would need to be in some kind of official capacity -- but if Ciel is looking into the anti-regent crime with regent's blessing... would she benefit from having someone around who knows criminals? 👀 I'm planning on having Silco do some vague peeking, so it could be established that they somehow work together on that!

I'd love for them to have CR anyway, so it might be a good in?

[expiera]

She'd be interested as part of getting to know the place in general, she's done some two facing in canon herself and wouldn't be out of place with infiltration work. She won't turn down company, it's in hindsight hilariously backward how the "crime" in Achamoth is just "oppose tyranny" but hey, depends on how they're going at it, means vs ends and all that! Ciel is generally very lawful herself but absolutely not above abusing her power when push comes to shove on top of having extremely gray morality, them working together would definitely be neat!

Sounds perfect, let's see what details the post on Saturday may give us and we can have them look into it together? Silco may already know her to be a front liner with the fighting she's done back inside the cave, and it never hurts to have backup muscle for those sort of investigations she can very much provide?

[zauneyete]

Sounds great! Silco will absolutely need muscle, I bet he did catch sight of Ciel being very... powerful and Ciel would probably have seen him get...

pretty much whacked around by Hubert he literally can only stab people in the back, so he will absolutely appreciate having someone around who can actually knock heads about!

[baltimores]

I absolutely did want to hit up Ciel on the boat but alas, the passage of time in the real world...

Amos is definitely curious about how she survived the whole throat thing which could potentially lead into some good shard = soul talk? That's something I want him to learn about since he'll be pretty surprised to find out he actually does have a soul to begin with. Though that depends on what's going on in the event, but I'd also be down for the whole "rest and prepare" thing — while Amos is indulging he's also taking what the Regent says very seriously. It's all about the work/life balance, man, she should try it sometime

[expiera]

Reality, these mortal coils that bind us... All good, no sweat! I threw up a boat thing super late too, so it's also on me. But we have new things to do now, there'll be shiny new hooks on the event post itself! Lowkey dreadcited to see how badly the Regent roasts them all, lol...

She'd absolutely want to make the soul shard bit known to everyone, it's just a question of timing really so it'll probably fall onto communion to share that fact as a Kenoma PSA once Xishen teaches them how. We can definitely have that conversation beforehand though, either before the banquet or after! She knows she pretty much inadvertently advertised herself as the local ??? with that bloody circus (literally), she'll take questions as they come. While she's not going to really bother leaning into the ""religious"" part of her background, she is spiritually mindful enough to tell him he's valid and so is his soul 🌼 would deffo make for a neat convo! Also yes try to convince her to have fun. The last time she did it didn't end well for anyone involved, so cough, hangups...

We can hash out more details once event actually drops if something particularly neat comes along? Until then the soul talk sounds great as is, I really look forward to threading with you too! *u*/

[baltimores]

Yeah! I figure whatever goes down during the event (also Regent please be nice, everyone is simply doing their best... probably...), there'll be one way or another to get the soul shard talk going. And oh, good re: questions, because this man has no tact hahaha. He's very blunt, straightforward and no-bullshit, so hopefully she vibes with that... especially if she's going to tell him his soul is valid, that might legit be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to him ;;

And hahahaha he'll absolutely tell her to try to have fun! who cares if it ended badly for other people. sounds like a them problem. treat yo self

But yes!! Looking forward to this when we see everything we've got to work with, and looking forward to threading with you too!!

[lifespanned]

can misa drag ciel into having some fun perhaps... she would love to pay her back for healing her and would most definitely try to do something nice like dress her up or treat her to a meal 🥺 i think them going to eat super spicy food would be funny!! plus ciel is actually taking the situation seriously and she would inspire misa to try to get stronger, she might even ask ciel for ideas u___u

[expiera]

Girl times...? 🥺 Girl times!! 😊 They could just do a food tour maybe?! Cake shops would get her nostalgic because she does like sweets and have a baker family background so we can literally do spicy&sweet, it would be cute and silly and a good way to unwind/talk about whatever too. We could potentially combine stuff you mentioned in your plotting comment too, she'd give her gift ideas and humor Misa going off about her bf? It's so hilariously terrible that "yes we only met earlier this year, it was love at first sight, he's obsessed with me" SORT OF... applies to her too to a uncomfortable degree tbh (like not even 2 weeks time span thanks canon), she does Not want to talk about it however (it's Tragic, closes my eyes) but maybe Misa could pick up hints and try to get nosy?

She's totally there otherwise for potential self defense brainstorming/training, though! Ciel doesn't want the normies to force themselves to fight when they didn't used to do it before but also acknowledges their current situation kinda forces their hand, so she'll do whatever she can to help her prepare u_u we have options!!