EVENT | ALL HALLOWED

[cherrywood]

Characters: Everyone!
Date: Oct 27th - Nov 2nd
Location: The City of Keeliai
Situation: The kedan have decided to participate in an Earth tradition: Hallowe'en! But there are other mysterious things afoot this holiday and when people start disappearing they'll have to find a way to reverse the effect... though all of their selves might not make it back.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

As the weather turns crisper, the nights and mornings carry with them a hint of chill promising cooler days to come, the month starts drawing to a close. This is a pleasant time, soon to be the season of harvest even on such a nomad as Tu Vishan. Yet the relations with the kedan have been good lately and even the Emperor's latest warning has not dampened the resilience of her people (both willing citizens and not) and so today marks a new tradition to Keeliai and it starts with receiving a simple, handwritten invitation.

"Come and celebrate the Keeliai of ages past..."

---

OOC: See the OOC plotting post for event details and this post for assorted subheaders outlining various parts of the plot. Feel free to start your own thread header if none suit, or make your own logs for various threadings... this is just for a central post for the event. Any questions can be directed HERE. Thank you!

NOTE: NPC tagging will be mostly in the Palace Rewards and Touch of Memory threads unless specifically requested elsewhere! Normal rules for players writing NPC interactions remains the same as always.

MID PLOT UPDATE!
Through the course of investigations will be discovered that every Foreigner who went trick or treating has acquired themselves at least one pot of what appears to be iridescent paint, sometimes more than one. Experimenting with these pots (because lbr who doesn't want a few randomly shimmery possessions) oddly enough lets ghosted characters interact with them completely solidly. Which, if you've inadvertently been ignoring someone, might mean you get your new shiny lamp thrown at your head.

Now if people get the smart idea to the paint the paint, that would let ghosted characters get hold of this stuff themselves...

TL;DR - Ghosted characters can paint themselves back into phase. Eating the stuff is also acceptable.

I. GIVE A LITTLE, GET A LITTLE!
Trick or Treating (All Sectors) | Palace Rewards

II. SHADOWS AND SHADES
Tangible: Kedan Museum | Disappearances | Investigations
Ghosted: Sense of Loss | Touch of Memory | Shift of Perception | Poltergeisting

Comments

Disappearances

[cherrywood]

However not everyone who enters the museum will leave it untouched. Within 24 hours of visiting the museum, some characters will be knocked "out of phase"... essentially making them into ghosts! It can happen anywhere, regardless of what they're doing at the time. To any observer, they will simply seem to disappear suddenly if eyes are taken off of them for even a second; there one moment, gone the next.

[backwordscompatible]

[She'd been out when it happened. Flying, specifically, which is why she didn't notice anything right away. It was about nine o'clock in the morning.]

[The air was crisp, but the sun was shining, so Zatanna had opted to go out for her morning tea. When she returned home, she was in fairly good spirits...until she tried to reach for her door, and her hand passed right through.]

What the--?

[She tried again. The same thing happened. A third time yielded no better results.]

[...this could be a problem.]

[Not knowing what else to do, she headed back out in hopes of somebody knowing what was going on, for once 90% certain that it wasn't anything she did this time.]

[imaginate]

[So he's a ghost.]

[Obviously the cure for all his problems of the magical nature happen to be a certain teenage magician. She might be able to reach the plane and hear him, or so he thinks. He approaches her door, a genial, lazy smile on his face. For some reason he feels good. Great, even.]

Hey, Zatanna!

[backwordscompatible]

[She wasn't feeling so good.]

[It was bad enough she suddenly couldn't even get into her own suite. She couldn't even get into Jack's suite, and he was first on her list for people who might have a clue what was happening. But the fifteen year old had been flying around for nearly a half hour before running into Kyle...and he was the only person to so much as acknowledge her existence in all that time.]

Well, it's about time. [Sorry, Kyle. She's just frustrated.] I was starting to wonder what it took for a girl to get a little attention around here anymore.

[imaginate]

[A small wave, half a salute. He's oddly unbothered by the whole affair.]

You've got all of mine, now what?

(if this is in the wrong spot let me know)

[grigio]

[Julie was out when it happened. She was trying to find more things for Ellie. Books. Stuff for her suite. She had her hands on a pretty neat looking journal, not sure if Ellie was even into that sort of thing when the world went black and the book fell through her fingers.]


Uh...

[God. Oh, God. Oh, she was panicking now and she normally didn't but god was this too much.]

C-can someone help me? Please? I can't see.

[A pause as no one seemed to hear her. She heard them around her, but why weren't they listening to her?]


Hello?!

[imaginate]

Hey!

[He'd been about to torment a few customers for fun, but her statement snaps him right out of that. Losing his sight was one of his worst, most primal fears. He reaches out and... whoa, he can actually touch her?]

You okay?

[grigio]

[Julie gasps, startling a bit when Kyle touches her. She wasn't quite expecting that, but the contact helps calm her some.]

No. I don't know what happened. I just suddenly can't see anything and it doesn't sound like there's been a power outage.

[It just sounds like business as usual around here. People were still bustling around and shopping.]

Can you help me get home?

[imaginate]

[He looks at her blank, unfocused eyes, and with a jolt thinks this is how he must've appeared to Wally. His hand squeezes hers, in reassurance, and with his free hand, he holds up three fingers.]

Of course. Just to check... how many fingers am I holding up?

[aenseidhe]

[ He's been wandering this... whatever it is... for a few hours already when he hears her. Iorveth isn't certain if he'll actually be able to reach her, unlike all the others, but he knows Julie, and maybe is a little invested in her, and if he can't rech her, well, not like she'll notice the attempt.

With a hurried pace forward, a gloved hand stretches out and lands solidly on the side of her arm, above her elbow. Oh good. ]

Calm down, girl. Panic doesn't do you any favors.

[ The other hand comes to the other arm to steady her and he's bending to look in her eyes, trying to see if there's any clouding or injury. ]

[grigio]

[Iorveth. Oh, thank God. Someone she knows. She calms a bit when she hears him, rubbing a hand at her eyes again just to see if she could shake off whatever is wrong with her eyes. It doesn't work.

Her eyes don't look any different than usual. They're still big and blue, just a bit unfocused. That's really the only sign that something's wrong.]

I don't know what happened, Iorveth. Everything just went dark.

[That's said calmly, if a bit shakily. She is not enjoying this at all.]

[aenseidhe]

[ There's concern in his expression she doesn't see, but he watches her eyes, bringing a hand up to tilt her head towards the light and try to watch for any kind of dilation. Though his tone remains neutral and unrushed. ]

You'll be fine. Stay calm.

[ Even if blindness has set in permanently, that isn't the end of her world. Just a change. She's a strong girl and she'll manage. He brings up a hand to shade her eyes and then moves it away, letting light in and covering them again a couple times. ]

Nothing changes? Just darkness?

10/27 evening, closed to Gene

[bacondivination]

Brighten up, buttercup! We're going on an adventure!

[ These are probably words that Gene never wanted to hear, and that's why he's saying them. In that dreadfully predictably unpredictable way of his, he didn't actually knock or announce his presence before he said this, just perching on Gene's couch from out of nowhere. That's what frenemies did, right? They totally broke into each other's houses to make sure that quality brooding time got interrupted. At least, he's fairly certain that's what Gene would be doing without his help. ]

There is mischief to be had, and we're going to find it.

[ If he resisted, Loki was prepared to get physical.

And to conjure a pretty princess dress on Gene as motivation, too, if he had to. ]

[wrathfulkhan]

[Truth be told, since Loki was so predictably unpredictable, Gene had been half-dreading something like this. Which is why, when Loki appears on his couch, he barely looks up from the game of mahjong he's playing on his console.]

Loki, get out of my house.

[He's keeping his voice tightly controlled, trying to sound bored. But a skilled observer would be able to tell he's a little more tense than he's letting on.]

[bacondivination]

You're brooding. [ The order to leave isn't even something he'll acknowledge. ] I despise brooding.

[ Loki is a skilled observer, and he's taken to learning a great deal about Gene's mannerisms. It was hardly his fault that the guy was so interesting.

He moves to throw an arm over Gene's shoulders, positively friendly about it. ]

Come now, you're done. We've figurative Hel to raise.

huzzah I get to use his "irritated" icons

[wrathfulkhan]

I don't care.

[Ugh, dammit...Loki can be as relentlessly cheery as Tony used to be, sometimes, and clearly ignoring him is not going to work. 'Cause, after all, it had never worked with Tony. Loki still has a ways to go before reaching Pepper levels of...well, pep, but hey, even a Mandarin has to know when to fold 'em.]

Okay, [he says, closing his game and turning to face Loki. Good try on the shoulder thing, though; Gene shrugs his way out of it. He is not huge on physical contact.] Only figurative?

[doc_holi]

[Holiday had enjoyed her trip to the museum, really, but she was too busy to really go back any time soon. She was at least grateful that she had the day off to go and check it out.]

[However, the day didn't seem to want her to go to work either. It didn't take the doctor very long to realize that she could phase through objects and she really didn't like it. She needed help and since she couldn't do anything on the computer, she tried running outside...]

[Only... no one could hear her... Holiday began to aimlessly walk, headed in the general direction of the Metal sector. If Wayne or Rosalind couldn't help her either, she would go to the palace... Most of all, she had to stay calm...]

[parallels]

[Clara had been in the middle of a mid-day nap (thanks to many sleepless nights) on a bench near one of the fountains in Water Sector. before suddenly jerking awake as she'd realized she'd just nodded off. With a yawn, she runs her hand through her tousled hair and reaches grab the thermos and mug set next to her on the bench. Waking up is hell without tea.

Another yawn and she reaches for the thermos and misses. She frowns and rubs at her sleep-filled eyes and reaches for the thermos again with determination.

Nope.

She tries again and again before standing back and crossing her arms.]

You have got to be kidding me.

Disappearances

[strategisch]

[Armin was putting some Kirin out to pasture when it happened. While tugging on the rope attached to ones bridle, he suddenly tripped and landed flat on his face as his hand phased through through the lead.]

[What? Did he lose his grip? He rubbed at his face with his sleeves to clean off any clods of dirt, then got up, and tried to grab his Kirin's rope again.]

[And again. And again. Why wasn't it... What?]

[His hands are going through it. His hands are going through everything. The rope, the Kirin, nearby trees-- when he looks down at himself, he finds that he's somewhat transparent, and not exactly touching the ground with his feet either.]

[That was weird, but not particularly alarming. Armin didn't start getting scared until, after trying to communicate wit the Kedan that employed him, that the people around him weren't able to see him. He went back to where he fell to make sure there wasn't a corpse (he knew how ghosts worked), then began to search Wood as a whole. He was hoping that there would at least be one person that could see him, surely...]

[Feel free to run into a very scared, very worried-looking Armin floating around, trying to find his way in the Wood Sector.]

[lineality]

[It had been a curiously worded invitation--more interesting, at any rate, than the museum it had led to, which had contained odds and ends of kedan culture interesting only to any scholar worth their salt. Not to Lin, who had gone expecting lore that might help against Malicant and come away empty-handed.

Still, it's a harmless enough diversion for her morning off, and she finds herself in a reasonably good mood as she makes her way back to the nearest police station. That mood crumbles abruptly mere minutes later when she puts her foot down and encounters--nothing. Not even the slightest vibration. Not a trace of comforting solidity underneath.

It gets worse very fast: nobody can see her. Her bending seems to be intact, but the metal cables she sends out go straight through the trees around her and fall harmlessly to the ground. A series of short, angry movements brings up what looks like a wall of earth--and then an oblivious kedan walks through it, shattering the illusion.

Given the mood she's in, she's not likely to notice Armin--but he just might notice her, shouting at and waving her hands in front of anyone she can see.]

[strategisch]

[Armin, so wrapped up in his own mind would be like to miss her. But when she earthbends, he jumps in surprise, away from the rocks. He's the only one nearby that does.]

What on Earth-- [The ground below him now monopolizes his attention, and he pussyfoots around like he expects it to open up and swallow him whole. Oh God, nowhere is safe ever.]

[lineality]

[Her gaze snaps up at the exclamation, and she stops abruptly, narrowing her eyes at the boy some distance away.]

Kid. You saw that. [Beat.] Can you see me?

[Can you hear me being, of course, too pointless a question to ask.]

Closed to Jim

[asouthron]

Late into the evening when McCoy gets off shift and uses the last of his--Well, Jim's--money to grab a quick meal, he makes a pit stop at his house for his jacket and a new bottle of whiskey. Not his good whiskey, mind you, but one he can stand to lose for certain compensations.

Together (with an additional friend), he comes to Jim's house, bottle ostentatiously held in front when he knocks on the door.

[jirk]

Jim doesn't, habitually, lock his doors. It's just not a big deal to him, and when he's alone - ie: sans roommate or any visitors, he generally doesn't bother. So when McCoy bangs on the door - and Jim knows it's McCoy, how many times has he heard that same knock in his life? - he just hollers 'it's open' from where he's adding to the mural in the living room.

He's wearing a tanktop and a pair of sweats, smeared with paint. The mural's an ongoing project, one he works on every once in a while but rarely without Kyle, so this is sort of an Event, to catch him at a time when he's doodling all by himself.

Let it be said: Jim Kirk is not an artistic man. He's not much for singing, all his best stories are lies of omission to women, superior officers, or both, and his imaginative artistic skill doesn't go much beyond 'stick figure'. But one thing he is good at is replicating things he's seen - mostly scenery - with a severe analytical overtone, one can almost tell he's taken engineering courses in the way he draws. Bones might recognize the red/white landscape of Nibiru. Jim's never set foot there, but he's seen it. First in Spock's mind, and then in the reflections of his own future.

Jim doesn't even turn to look at Bones, rendering that offering of alcohol more-or-less moot. "Make yourself at home, Doc. To what do I owe the immeasurable pleasure of your company?"

Why yes, yes he is a professional pain in the ass, and if he can't use attitude on his best friend, what good is his career path exactly?

[asouthron]

"Immeasurable, huh? That's a mighty kind distinction. I'm flattered." As can totally be discerned by his deadpan voice as he enters Jim's humble abode and takes in the sight of him. While it was up there on his list of the unexpected, it at least doesn't make him want to slap the kid. In fact, he's... impressed. Really, he's impressed to see him expressing himself in a productive way.

"Well, Jimmy boy, I figured I'd take the time out of my busy schedule to catch up with you and bring my friend Jack here. Yer pretty familiar with him, right?" He sets the bottle down on the nearest flat surface, and with both hands crossed behind his back, he slowly makes his way closer to the painting. "But I see I caught ya at a bad time..."