aionmods: (Default)
Aion Mods ([personal profile] aionmods) wrote in [community profile] aionooc2022-05-13 11:18 am
Entry tags:

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.
semicharmed: (beast with two backs)

Matt Jamison | Visionary | Kenoma

[personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-14 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
WOOOO HOOOOOO.

broad event thoughts
  • Venera. Matt's going there ASAP!

  • Innocent contagion, Visionary bad times edition. I love body horror, so Matt will definitely be getting cracked porcelain skin, weird halo effects, feathers in uncomfortable places. I think the psychological aspect of it that he's most likely to fall into is weird, hyper-realistic daydreams.

  • Cure. That said, I'd like for Matt to get over his Innocence sickness fairly quickly because I think it would be rad to push him into harshing people's buzzes for their own good.


  • seeking cr/things i wanna do (cw: some discussion of sexual assault/intimate partner violence)
    Some of these are event-specific, but a lot are just "things Merc is thinking about at this time."

  • PLEROMAS COME TO MY ARMS. I need cross-faction CR, babies. Matt will believe the Regent about the Pleroma causing these issues to an extent, but is unlikely to believe it's deliberate and will be open to investigating alongside Pleroma folks if the opportunity arises. (He may have some critiques of your life choices but he'll try to be polite.) He will try to cure anyone and everyone.

  • Shared (day)dreams. (this is where the cw's live) I am always about this! Let me take you on a dream journey. In terms of dreams/daydreams as a vehicle for people to learn about Matt's worst times, there's a buffet of issues to choose from: he summoned a demon when he was a teen that gave him a creepy scar, he had an abusive vampire ex, his parents soft-disowned him back on Earth. Particularly for existing CR, I'd be happy to dig into any of the above.

  • Let Matt tough-love you into wellness. This could be as gentle as poking holes in your dreamworld via communion, or as painful as literally setting you on fire. He'd be very sorry about setting you on fire, but if he ran out of ideas fire is usually his Plan C.

    ETA: OH MY GOD I FORGOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT??? Matt has a power that could potentially interact curiously with this whole deal: sexy psychic radio. TL;DR is if he touches you, he can "open a channel" between your bodies that imparts information about what it's like to be the other person, tilted towards the sensual/sexual. Matt has described this ability here.

  • Visionary things! Visionaries, I wanna do something weird with the enhanced shared Legacy vibes. Stronger-than-average communion? Showing up at the same place at the same time for Reasons? idk come at me with your thoughts

  • Speaking of apathy and stuff. Matt's minor power just got approved! I'd love to find chances to play around with that, as a charisma power with the potential to make people feel attracted to him is .... just the worst, for him.

  • And speaking of "the worst things," a potential PVP scenario. Matt has just told Ciel about sympathetic magic, which basically means "stealing a strand of your hair to cast scary spells on you." If anybody is interested in THAT cross-faction CR, with Matt either failing or succeeding, let me know. It strikes me as something longer term, and I'd like to make sure I discuss OOCly with any involved parties so we're on the same page.

  • Does anyone want to kiss? I don't want a ship in the traditional sense, and like, obviously everyone here has more important priorities, but ........ if anyone wants to kiss, Matt always wants to kiss. That's just perpetual offered CR.


  • As ever, I am on plurk at [plurk.com profile] artistformerlyknownas for plotting and pinging purposes! In addition, you can find me on Discord as euphony#2703. I don't do game Discords in terms of spending time there, but I am always happy to hear from you one-on-one for CR chatter or plotting purposes.
    Edited 2022-05-14 01:54 (UTC)
    emblazer: (034.)

    [personal profile] emblazer 2022-05-14 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
    I have an excuse to finally bug Matt during investigating. Thoma's a not-very suspicious at all Pleroma ready to be interrogated
    semicharmed: (smiles!)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-15 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
    omgomg yes! investigation friends! I'm planning to TL with an investigation prompt, so we can do that OR i can make you a starter if something more specific seems like a good hook.
    emblazer: (081.)

    [personal profile] emblazer 2022-05-18 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
    The general prompt should work if you make one, no worries! I'll hit it up when the post goes live
    sterngaze: (neutral: dry)

    [personal profile] sterngaze 2022-05-15 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
    hello. :3

    would you like to do dream-share things? I am suddenly realizing that we have never done dream-share things with matt and liem, which seems tragic now that I think of it. matt dreams, liem dreams, I can go either way. I will say that I like memory loss in combination with dream things, as an added factor to confuse what exactly is going on
    semicharmed: (mother nature's son)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-15 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
    HECK YEAH DREAM SHARING

    possibly even some mutual dreamscape ..... ing?
    inutilis: (✰ s-sweats)

    [personal profile] inutilis 2022-05-15 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
    v

    vampire ex, you say
    semicharmed: (Default)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-15 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
    vampire ex indeed :3 :3 :3

    does abel wanna learn about the vampire ex? (the ex is actually the reason matt's shard is on his neck, oops ......) at this point, I'm definitely planning to TL with a dedicated daydream-share prompt
    inutilis: (✰ she's going to kiiiiill meeee...)

    [personal profile] inutilis 2022-05-15 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
    please sign Abel up for one (1) vampire ex experience, thank you kindly
    semicharmed: (work and or magic to do)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-15 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
    SOLD
    vapour: (pic#15074782)

    [personal profile] vapour 2022-05-16 12:01 pm (UTC)(link)
    Well, I think this path is clear for me: Minor power + kiss pls
    semicharmed: (smooches)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-16 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
    done and done!

    rofl, matt's gonna be like this time i really didn't mean to fight my own team
    vapour: (pic#15075830)

    [personal profile] vapour 2022-05-16 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
    Fighting Childe in any form is always valid. Saves lives sometimes.
    semicharmed: (Default)

    [personal profile] semicharmed 2022-05-19 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
    Et voila!

    Of the prompts I wrote, I feel like the cuuuure one might be most conducive to our plans? But lmk if you'd like a custom starter!