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

[wingedman]

[After a moment, Sam returns the embrace, his shoulders shuddering with silent sobs. Unsurprisingly, he's not the kind of guy who's worried about crying in front of other people - and he's certainly close enough to Stephen to not worry about expressing emotion.]

Not long before I got here, we had this big fight at an airport in Leipzig, Steve's crew against Tony's. Vision fired some kinda beam at me, and I evaded. Sort of thing that's second nature after you've trained enough, you know? You see something coming, you get the hell out of the way.

Except when I dodged, it hit Rhodes, and he dropped like a goddamn rock in that armor of his. I tried- I tried to dive, but I wasn't fast enough. And I know it's not my fault, I don't think he'd say it was if you asked him, but goddamn, sometimes it sure as hell feels like it.

[suckstobestrange]

[Stephen held firm, hand running over Sam's back, dipping his head to rest his forehead against the top of the man's head, small continued bits of contact. Little things that he hoped added up to something helpful.]

It's... hard being the one who survives in that situation. All I can really do is echo what you already know for what it'll help. It wasn't your fault, no matter how it feels.

[wingedman]

[It really does help to have someone there with him, someone grounding him with touch. Sam appreciates it more than he can express; it's not often that he has anyone with him during one of his episodes.]

Nah, but being locked up in superjail right afterwards didn't help much, either. Ross had some goddamn prison built in the middle of the ocean, called it the Raft. And guy like me? Let's be real, it's not like I could escape from regular jail without help. I don't need any special containment measures. Only one who did was Wanda.

[And god, he's glad she doesn't remember that. But that's a whole other kettle of fish that he's not touching right now.]

[suckstobestrange]

People and their fucking special prisons... [Grumbled more than anything, ire stirring in him. The more he heard piecemeal about Sam's world, the more he was reminded of the disaster of the Registration Act and the deep divide it had caused in the world's heroes. He hadn't liked it then, and he sure as hell didn't like it now.]

Let's be real jail is a shitty place to do any sort of coping.

[wingedman]

Yeah, tell me about it. Especially 'cause Lang wouldn't shut the hell up, like, ever.

[Sam has regrets - okay, not really, but there were definitely times when he'd wanted to throttle Scott.]

Other you's lucky he didn't get caught up in that bullshit.

[Maybe if he just talks about inconsequential things, he'll be able to distract himself.]

[suckstobestrange]

...Yeah? D'he try and play neutral party Switzerland or what?

[He'd tried that at first. But with how things went it didn't sit well with him, the way things were being handled, good people being treated like criminals in what basically amounted to a witch hunt.]

[wingedman]

Dunno what he was up to, I'd never even heard of him till he showed up here. Maybe he missed his Hogwarts letter.

[Not that Sam knows all the superheroes in his world, but it seems to be a much shorter list than it is in Stephen's.]

[suckstobestrange]

Owl must've gotten distracted by a lady owl or something.

[It was a better thought than the other following his poor decision-making footsteps, that much was for sure.]

[wingedman]

He hates Harry Potter jokes, you know. No sense of humor. Must be 'cause he's new to the whole magic thing.

Or because he was bullied by Gryffindors.

[suckstobestrange]

Get shoved into the Potions closet often enough that'll kill anyone's sense of humor.

[wingedman]

All those flobberworms.

[He shakes his head with mock sadness.]

So is magic like, a natural thing, or could anyone do it?

[suckstobestrange]

A crying shame.

[Poor Babyface.]

Some branches of magic are tied to specifics. Species, or more commonly bloodline if you're working something that taps into ancestors. But generally magic can be learned by most people to at least some degree.

[wingedman]

[A pause, and then:]

So I could learn magic?

[Let's be real, Stephen, you knew this was coming.]

[suckstobestrange]

I don't see why not- you're open-minded which is usually one of the hurdles to jump, and I don't see anything that'd hinder you otherwise.

[He's not at all surprised.]

[wingedman]

But the most important question - do you have a Sorting Hat?


[Sam everyone knows you're a Hufflepuff.]

[suckstobestrange]

As if you even need it we all know where you belong.

[Pretty plainly Hufflepuff in every way.]

[wingedman]

Come on, you can't even let me pretend for a moment I'd be in Gryffindor? I'm pretty brave. And everyone knows Gryffindors are the cool kids.

[As if Sam has ever been cool.]

[suckstobestrange]

But then we would have to be at odds, it's practically school rules.

[wingedman]

Slytherins hate everyone, though.

And I would totally be able to kick your ass at Quidditch.

[suckstobestrange]

Apparently I'm a shitty Slytherin then because I don't hate you.

But you're not wrong there. Would you follow the protag-bait and be Seeker?

[wingedman]

[Aww, Stephen. Sam might just reward that sentiment by brushing a kiss against his shoulder.]

Um, with my flying skills? You damn well bet I would.

[suckstobestrange]

[That kiss earns a faint hum from the sorcerer, lips pulling to a grin.]

Gonna spoil Gryffindor's winning streak like that.

[wingedman]

Doesn't matter, they'll end up getting extra points and winning the House Cup at the last moment, even if they lose the Quidditch Cup.

[Sam yawns, his eyelids starting to feel heavy once again.]

Gotta say, this is better than going out and jogging till dawn.

[suckstobestrange]

Gotta fight the system.

[Stephen's not budging from where he's tangled up, far too warm and comfortable to do much moving.]

Without a doubt.

[wingedman]

Mmh.

[Sam finally loosens up from the tense posture he's had since he woke up, sprawling over Stephen again.]

Why'd you come over, anyway?