Tired of this human duet...

[smokedout]

who: Jamie Dodger and YOU! (run.)
what: General catch-all with an open prompt that can be used for mingling.
when: June 25th through the end of July.
where: All over the place.
warnings: Dodger. Lots of swearing, drug use, sex and violence.

--

Lampyr is Here for You.

If anyone missed his commercial, or simply didn't want to respond to it, they may instead find his second marketing scheme. Around the city, usually hidden in alleyways, you may find a small display similar to sample trays in grocery stores. Each has a sign that says "DRINK ME" in a bright neon color, which matches the covered trays of drinks below it. Sketchy? Absolutely, but curiosity may take the better of you... or maybe you read the inscription on the table siting the tempting results of the liquid.

RED - ENRAGED LAMPYR: Feel as strong as an ox! Filled with bravery and fighting spirit! Defeat your foes without giving them a chance!
ORANGE - HONEST LAMPYR: Open up your inner emotions! Come to terms with startling truths! Share with others to learn their deepest secrets!
YELLOW - FEARFUL LAMPYR: Enhance your adrenaline! Give yourself goosebumps or share with enemies for a frightful surprise! Raise the stakes of night-time hide-and-seek!
GREEN - ENVIOUS LAMPYR: Test your social safety! Learn the intentions of others! Share with friends and lovers to learn their honest opinion of you!
BLUE - GRIEVING LAMPYR: Strengthen your bonds! Open the depths of your feelings! Instigate attachment with others!
PURPLE - AFFECTIONATE LAMPYR: Let go of your reservations! Accustom yourself with touch and social comfort! Become cuddly!

Each display also features a very crude drawing of a firefly showing the appropriate emotion, although it looks like a kindergartener drew it. One of these days Dodger will have to hire an artist. While your character will not see Dodger initially, he is watching from a nearby hiding place and will come to observe and mess with them if they take a sample, to see the effects of the drink.

The drink tastes spicy, savory, sour, bitter, sweet and minty respectively, although not particularly good regardless. They all have an aftertaste like cough syrup. Obviously the effects don't exactly match up with the claims; they simply give you a very strong form of that emotion, which may lead to side effects. Bloodlust, impulsive truths, paranoid hallucinations, a compulsive need to check your importance to others, uncontrollable crying, or a lovedrunk, affectionate stupor are respectively the most common side effects. Though the effects are strong, they are significantly lessened within an hour (when they stop entirely is up to the player) and the character will never do anything they are morally against.

While Dodger will generally try to speak to anyone who has inadvertently become a test subject, feel free to make open top-levels for others to come across your character in an affected state. Please assume that Dodger is watching them during their exchange, though, and any information passed between them is now known by him.

Comments

Closed to Nico

[smokedout]

[So, pretty straight-forward. At two in the morning, Dodger can be found sitting on the second-floor fire escape outside of the communal housing. Smoking heavily, while he waits for the kid to show up with his zombies. Which, at this point, he's not even questioning. Zombies are cool, why bother getting confused by it.

Wherever Nico pops up from, even if it's Dodger's own shadow, he just gets a lazy wave and a deadpan expression.]

Ready to do some crackpot science, kiddo?

Closed to Christian

[smokedout]

[Christian hadn't been his first choice for first aid. He'd fully intended to dump himself at Shigeru's door again, because that had worked so well the last time. But he's fading in and out of consciousness, and after blacking in and out a few times in the elevator he just sort of... ends up on the 12th floor.

At the very least he's not bleeding much, so he doesn't get any stains on the floor near Christian's bed. But he's badly bruised across his face and body, and well, he's fully unconscious when Christian finds him. So that's not super good.]

Closed to Widowmaker

[smokedout]

[So, you'd think Jamie Kingsley would have embarrassed himself enough to swear off of romance. And he absolutely did. But Dodger exists in a constant state of self-embarrassment, and shame doesn't affect him anymore. Which means that he sees nothing wrong with taking another stab at attracting Widowmaker.

When she gets back to her room at the end of the day, there's a trail of toy spiders leading from her bed out to the balcony. The balcony which, as far as she'll be able to see, has nothing but some paper lanterns strung up around the fence of it. Were those left over from Memoria? No, those got taken down. Hmm.

As soon as she steps out onto the balcony, two mines go off - modeled heavily off of her venom mines, but re-purposed to toss rose petals at her. And Dodger, who had been invisible up until this point (and presumably just awkwardly waiting around and hoping no one else set off his "trap") appears to give her a cocky grin. Just... ignore that he's still got several bruises and cuts healing on his face.]

You still owe me a drink, Amelie.

[He may or may not have a specific drink in mind. That specific drink may or may not be Lampyr. He may or may not be putting this romantic stunt to get her guard down.]

Closed to Shigeru

[smokedout]

[His injuries are pretty fresh from fighting with Taako when he seeks Shigeru out... his cuts have bandaids and any blood has been cleaned up, but the bruises are still very prominent all across his body from being tossed around. Anyway, by now it's a pretty common state to find Dodger in, since he gets in so many bar fights.

He finds Shigeru on floor 2, as expected, and announces himself by placing a vial of grayish-blue, glowing liquid and a hypodermic needle on the table beside him.]

Wanna start that Lampyr trial?

[He might not feel... strictly comfortable with this, and if Shigeru's attentive he might catch that in his expression for a second, but he's genuinely sure this will help. Whether it actually has the effect they're looking for, they'll have to see.]

[howlongiwonder]

Hmm.

[Fireflies? That looks familiar. A woman wearing all black approaches one of the displays. After a quick reading through the descriptions, she picks up one of the drinks from the tray.

She doesn't drink it yet though, something has her hesitate. Glass of suspicious orange liquid in hand, she just stands there, seemingly deep in thought.]

Closed to Khisanth

[smokedout]

There had never been a question of whether he'd see Onyx again. He had planned to play with her and drop her, but instead he'd ended up assuring her as he helped her out of his room that he'd "find her when he felt like it". And eventually that urge comes, and he tracks her down on her way home

He doesn't announce himself, instead teleporting beside her and slipping an arm around her waist lazily as he matches her step. "Hey. You up for fucking around in my room some more?"

Does he care if she had previous plans? Not in the least. But he's counting on her not caring much either.

Closed to Cain

[smokedout]

[It was a pretty short walk... one where Dodger didn't speak even once, not look Cain in the eyes. Whatever he was remembering, it keeps looming over him, and.. honestly he's just happy he's not in his death-trap of a room, but he's got enough self-control to know that if he does go back there alone without some liquid courage, he's just going to end up actually needing gauze on his wrists.

Bad thoughts. Very bad thoughts. He doesn't actually speak, aside from ordering, for several minutes once they get there. He's downed two glasses of whiskey before he glances around, confirms that there are only one or two people in the bar, and... finally addresses Cain without looking up.]

I can trust you not to tell anyone about.. any of that, yeah?

Closed to Shigeru

[smokedout]

[It's taken a lot of awkward handwaved messages to hammer out the details, but... yep. Date time. The worst time in Dodger's opinion, and the time he'd much rather be drunk as shit in an alley somewhere, but... he's trying to be a better person. God help him, he really is.

He's trying hard enough that.. he ended up getting a bouquet of small, unfragrant flowers for him and is sort of awkwardly playing with the petals while he waits at the edge of the path that runs through the local park. Words can't even describe how difficult it is for Dodger to go into a flower shop, but he's honestly trying. And... he smells even more heavily of alcohol than usual, as a result of his trying. But that's fine, right?]

Closed to Mantis

[smokedout]

[So, the first part of this hang out went well. Not much speaking... Dodger had her come over to the auto shop, and offered her a ride one out of the motorbikes that was supposed to be getting fixed. In all honesty it's already good as new, but Dodger's been keeping it in case he gets the itch to ride. Which is what ended up happening - with no warning to Mantis on what was going to happen, just Dodger getting on behind her and revving it.

The only problem came when the acid rain started - although Dodger had seen the clouds forming, and like fuck was he letting himself get stuck in whatever the fuck that is.

So that leaves them safe inside an abandoned building, presumably a house at some point, while Dodger watches from the doorway as the bike that could not be brought inside in time slowly melts into a pile of interconnected metal and glass.]

This is fucking bullshit. [He glances at Mantis, who he'd sort of shoved in here to get her out of the rain's reach once it started burning them and hadn't really paid attention to since.] Great start, right?