aionmods: (Default)
Aion Mods ([personal profile] aionmods) wrote in [community profile] aionooc2022-05-13 11:18 am
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EVENT PLOTTING: THE COST OF INNOCENCE

The Cost of Innocence
As the Innocent's Moon reaches its peak, a shift will begin to be noticed across Horos. At first it appears in individual cases that could be explained by regular ennui or poor mental health, but as the zenith arrives, the clear supernaturality of the trend will become clear. Horosians, first in handfuls and then en masse, are succumbing to a strange malady characterized by a complete and utter indifference to the world around them.

This manifests most grievously with its victims losing all sense of self preservation, sometimes falling in combat or at the claws of wild beasts with a look of serenity on their faces. Others allow their hands to be burned in the fire as they cook, or are struck by falling objects that they may have otherwise avoided. There is no specific will to die; no, instead there is simply the absence of a will to fight or struggle, whether it be for their lives or anything else.

On the tenth day of Inoseri the cases may only be one in a thousand, but will gradually become more common as the full moon approaches, eventually settling at around one in fifty. Curiously, however, these ratios are not uniform; Venera, a city under the Regent's rule in the grasslands of the south, has an infection rate straying closer to one in ten. It is not entirely clear why, but something about Venera is causing the ailment to run rampant, and without intervention the results could become catastrophic to the citizen's way of life.

On the side of the Kenoma, to investigate will be an order. After all, Venera is the breadbasket of the Regent's empire, and without their abundant farmland being worked by its people, there will be food shortages continent wide. Even more important will be the Regent's implication that there is another force behind this infection... one that they will allege is the fault of the Pleroma.

The Pleroma themselves will have fewer immediate clues, but in the days leading up to the moon's zenith will experience dreams of depthless white. Word will spread to Godsblood soon enough, telling of the terrible phenomenon sweeping through Venera. Though they won't have a way of knowing why exactly, the Pleroma that hear of or witness the malady will have a feeling that they will find its source there.

INCLUDED EVENT PROMPTS
◆ VENERA: Once a city embodying culture, passion, and romance, Venera has fallen on hard times since the loss of its patron Aion nearly a century ago. While still prized for their handicrafts, particularly their elaborate weaves and diverse artistic masterworks, they are scorned continent wide for their cowardice and desperate supplications to the Regent. Venerans are a people focused almost entirely inward, happy to ignore even the most grievous of wrongs if it meant continuing their way of life, and this was true even before the mysterious ailment took hold. Now it's unclear if they will even have the strength to go on.

◆ INNOCENT LEGACY: Those from the Legacy of the Innocent will continue to feel a sense of presence with them as the full moon arrives, with that presence only getting stronger as the month goes on. They may even hear a voice whispering in their ear, though they cannot make out the words.

◆ INNOCENCE CONTAGION: While at first the malady spreading across the continent will not seem to affect the Aions, once they arrive in Venera that will no longer be the case. Instead of repelling the effects, they will instead begin leeching it from the inflicted civilians they encounter, its power drawn into them like a sponge. As a result, they will end up taking on the malady's symptoms but enhanced and gone wild with their spiritual potency. Brand new side effects will be cultivated within them.

Along with the risk of a trance-like indifference to life, they may encounter any of the following: daydreams so deep they become subjectively real, a loss of sense of self, excessive malleability, or a loss of short term memory. They may also be several physical symptoms, including: a body-wide loss of pigment (partial or total), flesh that becomes stiff or porcelain-like that hinders movement and cracks (or breaks off entirely) when forced, the emergence of white feathers or wings from anywhere on the body, halos of light, or singular horns growing from the forehead. Advanced cases may result in becoming completely petrified, their very presence becoming a beacon for the power causing this. Physical and mental side effects may happen together or independently.

These side effects may be additionally enhanced for characters from the following Legacies:

Innocent, Lover, Celebrant: As the Legacies most craving of comfort and the most welcoming of stagnation, Aions from these Legacies will not just more readily accept the contagion, but feel the urge to actively spread it to others. It will feel like doing them a kindness, as if simply removing the trouble associated with desire, action, and choice. Those that succumb to these temptations will be able to cause or speed their effects in other Aions with a touch. This feeling can be resisted, but is nagging. The arrival of the contagion will feel peaceful and right, as if they are communing with a higher force that deems it a necessity.

Visionary, Firebrand, Artisan: As the Legacies most attuned to feelings of unrest, obsession, change, innovation, and passion, these Aions will experience a violent clash between the energies of the Innocence Contagion and the energies of their own spirits. The same physical effects will manifests, but far more aggressively, with the Innocence warring against their natural essence. Their stone-like skin may crack and shatter painfully, the wings and feathers emerging with blood and violence instead of peace. Their predisposition towards resistance seems to only make the contagion attack them more doggedly, as if particularly determined to extinguish the threat they represent.

◆ THE CURE: In the face of this contagion, a solution will eventually become clear. The excess of Innocence can be banished by causing its opposite. This means, the cure to the infection is to inflict upset in whatever way possible: by dragging up their worst memories, getting a rise out of them, causing them pain, destroying their inner paradises with communion. Empathic connections during this event will be intensified, allowing characters to delve into each other's mindscapes. Ironically, causing your allies misery and torment may be the key to their salvation... but do you have the heart to inflict it?


MOD NOTE: All characters who go to Venera and participate in the event log will be awarded 1 Token, so please make sure to mark that on your AC. You will not receive the token if you don't claim it.
passio: (pic#12189864)

dextera • pleroma (lover)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-13 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
emotional damage? sign me up!

in general, i'm hoping to put my greedy little hands all over as much as possible. since he is of the lover legacy, there's only so much he can do before the mysterious disease comes for his ass but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. for now, here are the plans that i will surely mentally add to until the event post goes up.

cross-faction bonding

since this is an event where the characters could ostensibly work together cross-faction (unless your kenoma believes the regent's lies that this is the pleroma's fault, which could also be fun) it'd be nice for dex to link up with some kenoma pals in a slightly more proactive way than hey how are you doing please don't kill me... and if there are consequences from the regent for that, then that's not dextera's business!!

of course, the offer of "go around and try to help people" is absolutely also open to my fellow pleroma, but since dex can hang out with those guys any ol' time i want to get my grubby paws on y'all sludgy kenomas.


infections

like i said, since dextera is a lover, there's only so long he can last before the plague comes for him.

the early stages probably don't look all that different from his normal behavior, actually: he's usually not so great with self-preservation, and a lot of those damaging behaviors could just be chalked up to dextera being a little freak. this makes him perfect to infect characters who might normally be more cautious than to get caught... or before he goes full statue, there's an opportunity for some slapstick comedy if you want a little levity amidst all these painful threads??


the cure

you wouldn't hurt lil ol' dextera, would you?

he's actually pretty easy to blast open emotionally, since he's gone through so many things. depending on how things go this'll probably just be a thread with one or two characters, but i'm very much interested in getting dextera involved in everyone else's problems. when it comes to "curing" things, dextera can actually be pretty ruthless. once he knows the cure is to break someone down, he'll... probably get right to it, tho of course this requires some evil communion. he's an equal opportunity fucker-upper for either faction!


this got a little long lmao but basically tl;dr the main things i'm interested in are building kenoma CR (positive or negative!) in the earlier stages of the event and getting him in everyone else's business regardless of faction in the later stages. diseases where people retreat into themselves are a bit of a sore spot for him and he's going to have a lot to say (metaphorically) about all this, leading to some unusual proactivity from him.
lockedon: (027)

[personal profile] lockedon 2022-05-13 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
hey i want dex breaking eustace open like a pinata
passio: (pic#6016795)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-13 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
too bad nothing bad has happened to eustace so there’s nothing for dextera to do

right
lockedon: (b028)

[personal profile] lockedon 2022-05-13 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
oh you're right

nothing bad has ever happened to him ever, dex has nothing to work with


guess they just gotta eat floor meat together and chill
passio: (pic#6016793)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-13 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
but actually unfortunately for me who doesn’t want to hurt eustace

dextera will come for him and force him to majorly relive his childhood trauma and then flee in guilt
lockedon: pid 4667155 (pic#14244914)

[personal profile] lockedon 2022-05-13 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you for your service dex, eustace will forgive him for fleeing in guilt
passio: (pic#12118226)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-13 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
tell me what kind of pain you want eustace to suffer and i WILL find a way to inflict it
lockedon: (Default)

[personal profile] lockedon 2022-05-14 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
hello please inflict some family trauma pain on him then

i will brainstorm a specific variety once this heat wave passes
passio: (pic#15613642)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
RUBBING MY HANDS TOGETHER LIKE A LIL FLY
galdorleod: (Default)

[personal profile] galdorleod 2022-05-13 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
time for their reunion?? 🥺

this event is perfect for them. it has the same vibes as sitting under a tree watching birds, and also sharing trauma and being miserable together, lmao.

i'd really love for them to hang out again, but also for dextera to sense that something is.... not quite right about howl anymore.
passio: (pic#6016772)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
yesssss i’m desperate for dextera to see howl again, think that he’s okay, and realize that he’s not completely okay
galdorleod: (Default)

[personal profile] galdorleod 2022-05-14 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
PLEASE!!! I would legit make their thread a priority, I wanna do more with them ;u;
passio: (pic#15613642)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
yeeeees we’ll talk on discord when i have time >:)
hikikosaurus: (well yes)

[personal profile] hikikosaurus 2022-05-13 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Alphys is still new enough to believe it might very well be the Pleroma behind it, but differentiating between the Pleroma (entity) and the Pleroma (faction) - enough to maybe work together with individuals who seem to be trying to figure things out! Of course, both being Lovers, I suspect any collaboration on solving the mystery will get shelved pretty quickly... But an effort can be made
passio: (pic#6016795)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
they can absolutely try!! dextera doesn’t mind people thinking the worst of him but if alphys is agreeable that’s excellent news…
lachtara: (Crowd)

[personal profile] lachtara 2022-05-13 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
They had some CR in the first TDM of the game, would you wanna follow up on that a little bit? 😔 Here for cross-faction bonding or a little cure-ing.
passio: (pic#12118211)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
yesssss yes absolutely i want more grandpa!!! i think they would be a good pair to investigate together…
lachtara: (The night sky)

[personal profile] lachtara 2022-05-14 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that could work! They investigated the ruins before, let them investigate a horrible plague today.
passio: (pic#12160329)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
that’s what friends are for!!!
lifespanned: (pic#15666235)

[personal profile] lifespanned 2022-05-14 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
places paws on dex.... i would love for these two to reunite!! maybe they can cross faction bond before everything goes to shit, she would be so curious about what he's been up to and would act super friendly like they're just two pals catching up after not seeing each other for a while. nothing bad going on here at all guys

alternatively she would never suspect that dex would infect her with the innocent contagion sauce bc she thinks he wouldn't hurt a fly, so i think this would be funny as well 😔🧍‍♂️
passio: (pic#12160326)

[personal profile] passio 2022-05-14 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
yeeees yes

dextera has not processed that misa is kenoma LOL he hasn’t seen her in godsblood or greentruth but i think he’ll be genuinely shocked to realize that she did, in fact, go to the dark side and didn’t just find a way to ditch the whole thing…

she can also get some plague for the road