player-suggested mini-event: A STRANGER'S BED

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Player-Suggested Mini-Event
when: August 26th - August 31st
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

a stranger's bed

As a lead in to September, Riverview's ♥ Month of Romance, this is a completely optional mingle that will cause affected characters to end up in each other's beds. There are various options for both established and new CR. While it's easiest for characters still living in Communal Housing, anyone who has moved to their own homes can be affected and end up finding their way to Communal Housing, or within their own housing.

Residents of the Quarantine may notice that various businesses selling food and drink - cafés, diners, bakeries, restaurants, and other such establishments - are heavily advertising a new flavor that's supposed to be the biggest thing since pumpkin spice. A flavor additive that's said to subtly change the flavor of whatever the diner is eating or drinking to optimize the dish, drink, dessert, or any other food item it is added to for each person's individual taste, it's been selling like wildfire and is the latest trend.

After the cause of the rash of amnesia was revealed to be plant-related, sellers are keeping the origin of the secret ingredient very close to their chests, since it is a derivative of a recently-discovered plant dubbed chameleonis. Depending on the method of ingestion, this additive can have a variety of unexpected side effects, but only once the person who has ingested it becomes sleepy. Methods of ingestion include:

● Ingestion: Beverage: When ingested as a flavor shot to drinks ranging from sodas to coffee to alcoholic beverages, it can cause a desire for closeness to a particular other person. Affected characters end up crawling into bed with that specific other character when they become sleepy.

● Ingestion: Food: When ingested as a flavoring added to a baked good or other meal, it can cause an intense desire for body heat when the character becomes drowsy. It won't matter to an affected character who is providing the body heat, so long as it's someone, and they will end up sleepily crawling into someone else's bed for warmth.

● Inhalation: When inhaled ether from a steaming hot beverage or soup, or as an essential oil or aroma from a bakery, it can cause disorientation when a character becomes sleepy. Affected characters either aren't sure which bed is theirs and simply crawl into the closest one, occupied or not, or become convinced that another character's bed is their own.

Feel free to post up a top-level for your own character either affected and invading a random bed or unaffected but open to having their bed invaded by affected characters, or tag around to other people's top-levels.

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Comments

[ikols]

We are masters of having our heart broken, Neeks. You realise this.

[ Patting him on the back consolingly, genuine in his compassion. ]

We deserve a great deal of ice cream.

[deathkid]

Apparently. [ a sigh. ] Ice cream sounds good.

[ikols]

You want to come to the kitchen for a snack?

[ It's far enough away in the Sanctum that going together is probably ore personable. And he doesn't want to let go of Nico's hand, if they do get up. ]

[deathkid]

[ considering this for half a second, nico nods. ]

Sure.

[ and he doesn't release loki's hand either. it seems to be comforting for them both. ]

[ikols]

[ Loki's room, while dimly lit by a green flame that sits on a shelf next to Freyja's tank, is a lot less shadowy than the rest of the Sanctum when he leads Nico out (with only a little stumbling and swaying, to Loki's credit). The huge old house that is often bigger on the inside now has the feeling of a gutted carcass, old magic torn out from its bones here and there and the heartbeat gone. A dead thing slowly returning to life with its two points of strength being Loki's bedroom and Stephen's, somewhere on the other side of the ground-floor.

One bare feet he pads his way to the kitchen, skirting the fridge to peek in the freezer below; growls and shrieks are muffled in the former, with chains keeping the mini cthulu in check until Stephen is hungry.

Loki pulls out a neopolitan tub, then searches for spoons. ]

[deathkid]

[ the house is certainly strange. it gives nico a weird feeling and he feels magic all around him. there's so many auras that intermingle that it leaves him feeling a bit off balance at first, but he soon adjusts. he's reminded, vaguely, of the house of hades and its strange maze-like corridors, but he shakes the memories of that time off, not wanting to think about jason, hazel, or the others battling their way to save percy and annabeth.

when he's led to the fridge, he gives it a strange look. he can tell there's living things inside and not just because of the noises. it makes him shiver a little, to be surrounded by such strange magicks. ]

Who lives here with you?

[ikols]

Stephen Strange from my universe. You can call him Grandpa Spells.

[ That one will never get old. Loki hands Nico a spoon and leans on the other side of the breakfast bar, leaving the shorter boy the stools. ]

This is the Sanctum Sanctorum, he wouldn't let me stay if I were evil like I used to be, most of his sorcery and shenanigans were under heavy lock and key here. Now we're buddies.

[deathkid]

Grandpa Spells... [ with mild skepticism. he wonders if stephen approves of such a nickname. then again, he's only spoken to stephen and his alternate-universe counterpart a few times.

taking the spoon, he hops onto one of the stools, finding himself surprisingly hungry. or maybe it's not surprising since he's been hungry after nightmares before. ]

The magic is strong in this place. I can feel it around me. It's a little weird.

[ikols]

The Sanctum used to be alive, it was built on a site where American Indian rituals and Pagan sacrifices took place. It soaked up those energies, the latter of which call to me. [ Mmm, strawberry and chocolate. Loki licks his lips. ] There was a great battle here and we had to fix it up. Now, most of the house's treasures and powers are gone.

It's still spooky as shit, though.

[deathkid]

And you somehow brought it here. Yeah, I can definitely sense the death connected to this place.

[ scoops up a bit of ice cream and sucks on his spoon, thoughtfully regarding the kitchen around him. ]

Even the house itself feels dead.

[ikols]

Stephen brought it here, it's his home. I'm grateful that he lets me stay. [ Thoughtfully sucking his spoon clean, it pops free of his lips. ] He was never as ... close-minded as the other heroes, back home.

[deathkid]

Heroes tend to be pretty closed minded.

[ a nod as he scoops up more, trying to keep from watching the way loki sucks on his spoon. ]

For all their willingness to save people, it's like they can't think outside the box. And are unwilling sometimes to do what needs to be done.

[ a pause, and then. ] Percy could never kill someone if he needed to. Monsters, sure. But other demigods, not so much. I, on the other hand, have never been so... [ he gives a gesture with his free hand. ] Then again, I've never really been much of a hero anyway.

[ikols]

Mm. [ A sage nod is Nico's immediate answer until Loki can swallow his mouthful. ] Which demigod did you take down?

[deathkid]

A legacy of the god Orcus named Bryce Lawrence. I ripped his soul from his body and forced it into the Underworld to be judged. He was cruel and evil. I would've killed Octavian too, another legacy, but he ended up doing the job for me. I stepped aside when he was tied to an explosive onager and didn't realize it. He was about to use it to attack Camp Halfblood, but I had some other demigods sabotage it first. So when he set it off, he exploded with its payload.

[ says all this while casually nomming more ice cream. ]

[ikols]

[ Nodding along because all that sounds fair. Anyone who judged Nico for his actions, or in-actions as it were, would have had to be prepared to deal with the guilt; and the loss of some people isn't worth it. ]

I tricked a fleet of Angels into thinking we were attacking Asgard. I gave them plenty of outs but it was when they started chanting for the blood of babies I crashed their ships and killed them without warning. They deserved it.

[ Much like the legacies Nico mentioned. ]

[deathkid]

Sounds like we're the same, in a way.

[ tilting his head back to look up at the ceiling, spoon hanging from his lips as he speaks. ]

Sometimes you have to do a little evil for the greater good.

[ikols]

No part of you is evil, Nico.

[ Said with great certainty. ]

[deathkid]

[ shifts his gaze back to loki, a little surprised. he flushes again and looks away, taking the moment to scoop up more ice cream. ]

I can be. It's the same as you, right? The potential is there, but we both choose not to be evil.

[ikols]

You couldn't be evil even if you tried, son of Hades.

[ Splooshing his spoon on Nico's nose, take that. It's meant as a compliment, not an argument. ]

[deathkid]

[ nico looks like he's about to argue until his nose is bopped by a spoon. he settles for pouting scowling a little before digging in for more ice cream. ]

I think the same could be said for you.

[ikols]

I think you need to eat more ice cream.

[ Carving out a big spoonful of chocolate, he dumps it on Nico's side of the vanilla. Absolute chaos. ]

[deathkid]

[ sticks his tongue out at loki because he is the most mature and goes about digging in. ]

You're pretty okay, Loki.

[ikols]

[ Tension lines ease around his eyes, softening the way he looks at Nico. He doesn't comment as they eat for a bit, then after a short, companionable silence, offers up a suggestion. ]

Am I paying you enough at Trix?

[deathkid]

Hm? [ nico is watching loki during all this time, even though they fall silent. but when loki asks him that question, he makes a thoughtful noise around a mouthful of ice cream. ]

I guess so? I've never really had a job before.

[ikols]

I'll double it.

[ BOOM. ]