EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

[abraxasmods]

Event #7 - The Sight

go to the OOC event info and plotting post

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The night before APRIL 18, your dreams are disrupted by a vivid image of the same eclipse that occurred last month. The black sun seems to be an endless void in the sky, growing ever darker - until it suddenly opens into an eye that stares straight at you.

When you wake up, much of your night seems a blur except for the vivid dream of that eye. Whether you find it unsettling or try to ignore it, the image is something you cannot get out of your mind. If you ask, you will discover that none of the locals of your faction saw another eclipse. Speak with your fellow Summoned, however, and you may learn that while there was no eclipse that formed over the world, you were not the only one who had this dream.

Of course, dreams don't need to mean anything. You can't feel or see any immediate effects, and nearly everyone around you is going about their day as usual. Maybe you should do the same.

The Awakening

It might happen that very morning or a day or two later. You could be discussing the dream with a fellow Summoned or perhaps you simply brush shoulders with them as you walk by. Whatever it is, as soon as you make brief physical contact, one of you is struck with a sharp pain in your temple that grows into a terrible headache. It's disorienting and painful as the world around you shifts to someplace you may or may not recognize. Like an old film reel, you watch the events of the past play out before you: the past of the other Summmoned. It might be something they would rather hide, a moment of failure or despair, or something they are immensely proud of and brings them great joy - or even a jumble of several images over the course of a person's life. But you see it as if it were real and right in front of you all the same. When you come to, you'll likely find yourself on the ground or bent over, possibly with one or more people around you to see if you're okay. It'll take you a bit to gather your bearings, and the subsequent pounding in your head could last from minutes to hours.

Or, maybe you aren't the one who receives the vision. Instead, as you watch, another Summoned might grasp their head and crumble in front of you. They may go silent or groan in pain. They'll be impossible to shake out of their stupor until it's over. If you ask what happened, they may be inclined to tell you the truth - that you, you were what happened to them.

Or, if your Arcana signs happen to line up in a specific way, you'll see each other in the shared memory itself. You may also find that for certain Summoned, you can help soothe the effects, calm their emotions, or help draw them out of the memory before it consumes them for too long. It's not entirely clear what determines which effect, but one thing is for certain - within each memory, every Summoned as they appear in the past seems to wear the mark of their Arcana somewhere on their person.

For some, they might experience this only once. For others, they might experience it multiple times: with the same person, with several other Summoned, or with a different memory each time. Over the next 7 days, you'll find the Summoned around you are all receiving a glimpse into each other's past, as if the Singularity has awoken an eye within each of you.

Flee for the safety of the Horizon if you want, but you'll find that in there, it's much the same. In fact, inside the Horizon, the other Summoned don't even need to be anywhere near you - just existing in the Horizon space itself together will be enough to possibly set off a headache-inducing vision.

The Factions

What has occurred between the Summoned will not go unnoticed within the factions. While it's difficult to say how faction officials have picked up what's happening, it'll be obvious they do know.

In THORNE, characters will be asked to remain in the castle walls until further notice. Characters will not be allowed to leave the castle grounds, not even to go into the surrounding city, and anyone who is already outside will be requested to not leave again as soon as they return. If asked, they will be told it's for their own safety, given the Singularity is behaving unpredictably and the Summoned have a unique connection to it. Soothing potions and healers are on hand to offer assistance, if anyone is particularly suffering from ill effects.

In the FREE CITIES, characters will find the army by the outposts show more activity than usual. A higher number of guards will patrol the streets throughout the event, particularly in areas frequented by the Summoned. Anyone who publicly and visibly experiences the effects of the memory share (pain, doubling over, etc.) will be offered assistance by the guards. They are generally there to help, but they are also there to maintain order and ensure anyone behaving erratically due to this incident is properly contained. This might include confinement for a day or two if anyone is especially posing a risk, but no one will be punished except in the most extreme cases, as the locals are aware this is not within the control of the Summoned.

In SOLVUNN, the locals will be watching what's happening with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. Host families and neighbors will be on hand to help with charms meant to offer protection, as well as general care and assistance (soup, blankets, and so on) if your character seems to be especially under the weather or afflicted by the event. Towards the end of the event, more elders and mages will be out and about to check up on the Summoned to make sure they're doing okay. If asked, the mages will say they aren't sure what's going on, but that they are currently divining with the gods and hope to have a definitive answer soon in the upcoming days.

None of the factions appear to be doing much more than keep a watchful eye on the situation - but as the week comes to a close, officials will start making a decision as to what they want to do and how to handle the Summoned who have demonstrated this unforeseen connection to the Singularity.

Comments

OKAY finally alive again from my vacay hello sorry

[itookashot]

"Honestly, I think a utopia would only freak me out. It's Inej's dream, not mine." Jesper wouldn't know how to fit into that situation. He can barely handle being in Cadens where there's no one to shoot and no gang to make himself a part of. Being surrounded by peace would probably bore him. Better for the world, yes, strange for him, very yes.

Jesper follows her into the elevator and gasps when it moves, wide-eyed again. "What is this? Is this magic?" Yes, he has never seen an elevator before, that's how far back they are. It feels like they're being transported. Between the ship and this, the advanced technology feels like it might as well be magic, with how drastically different it feels. "This is great."

It's so bright and exciting. Jesper looks out at all the lights and he might be a little in love. It definitely feels like the first time he shot his pistols, or the first kiss he shared with Wylan, that sort of rush of disbelief and excitement.

"This guy isn't your boyfriend?" He gestures at Kaidan. He's attractive and right by her side, so he assumed. "That kind of makes sense, he seems a little too stiff for you." Maybe it's an unfair assessment from a quick once-over, but Jesper knows the type. Matthias was that type.

[nightwash]

Ronan doesn't say it's not possible. Kylo should already know that and Rey doesn't need to.

"Is that something you'd try to do?" he asks with a wry edge, because he's not really asking. "I saw that he captured you, then he saved you, then you saved him. He offered you everything and you turned him down because you wanted to fight."

There's no criticism in his tone. Ronan, too, wanted to fight, and in his case, it was Hennessy who'd urged him to step back and let the others die. He'd refused.

"I think he didn't want me to figure out you and I are the same."

[monomachy]

[Every little thing makes her head hurt, right now; the light, the sound of their voices, even the slightest movement as she shifts her weight. Whatever this is--spell or sickness or something else entirely--she can only pray that it passes soon.

Diana nods, running a hand through her hair to smooth it away from her face. She believes that she will be able to endure these... episodes; she's more worried about how they're affecting other Summoned. Her brows draw together, and she looks him up-and-down, but he appears whole. Her shoulders relax just so.]

I have been here perhaps a month. [Not long at all, by any standards.] I take it you are not so new?

[provenforce]

She could deny that, but she'd seen his memory. It had resonated deeply with her, not because she'd picked up on his feelings, or because she was a compassionate person. She could be compassionate, but they'd both seemed wrong in the moment to her. No it had resonated because she'd had such a similar moment with Kylo.

"You'd probably have to ask him that. We aren't exactly on speaking terms right now. That seems like a reason he'd want to keep us apart, though." She doesn't know how to feel about that. That he somehow found someone so similar to her in this place, that they had connected and were friends at the very least, if not more. Hennessy hadn't given her specifics on their relationship and Rey didn't ask.

[monomachy]

[All across the galaxy? Diana remains wide-eyed, trying to picture humans living on other planets. What would other planets even look like? Are they even habitable? She shakes her head again.] I have never heard of such colonies. [Granted, there are a lot of things she has never heard of, but she's fairly certain that would have come up during the weeks she was traveling to the Front.

She tries to wrap her head around the different parts of the galaxy, and wishes she'd paid more attention in her astronomy lessons.]

And you've been all of those places?

[nightwash]

Ronan doesn't intend to ask Kylo anything. To have concealed something like this for so long feels tantamount to a lie, and Ronan doesn't make it his business to drag the truth out of people. The truth is a gift given to the worthy, which tells Ronan where he currently stands as far as Kylo's concerned.

"Is that his choice?" Ronan asks. "The whole not on speaking terms thing."

[monomachy]

What do you hunt? [She'd assume game, but she knows there are other creatures in the desert that the locals talk about with fear. From the look of the training he put the girl through, she has a hunch that his prey isn't anything so tame as deer or fowl. But it's always nice to have confirmation. And to know who has experience with the monsters.

Diana follows him to the table, and watches him right back without an ounce of reticence. Though the seed of doubt has been planted in her heart, she still wants to believe what she grew up learning. Who would she be, without that belief? That isn't something she's had the time to even consider.

The corners of her lips turn down.]

I killed Ares. [She's learned that unfortunately, her gods aren't widely known here, just as they were no longer known in the world of men, but she doesn't think to clarify. She looks down at her hands resting on the table for a moment before looking back to Geralt, brows drawn together.] His death should have been the end of men's corruption, and of their wars. But... I'm no longer so certain of that. [Saying it aloud feels like a betrayal, but also allows something in her to shift for the better. Like a weight she's carried has become different, if not exactly lighter.]

[cryptsleeper]

I'll ask him about the unflattering ones later. [Alucard flashes Geralt a real grin at that, hardly hiding the glee at the idea. Jaskier's good at what he does and not subtle with his feelings.]

That may also just be too many songs about one person. [Fuck it. May as well.] At least I just got a statue and a weird prophecy.

[provenforce]

She presses her lips together, picking at the skin around her nails with her opposite hand as she looks away.

"You saw what happened. After that he put a bounty on my head. If we talk, we fight. It's better this way."

never forgives u, ever <3

[earthborn]

"Kaidan?" Shepard considers the option. From this angle, looking at him in profile... alright, she can see it. He'd never been an ugly man, after all: very much the opposite. Shepard shakes her head, and laughs, just the same, "No. We don't uh... we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. He's a little too straightlaced. Law and order type, you know?"

We don't think about Virmire. We don't talk, about Horizon. While she dithers, the memory of Kaidan Alenko opines that the council will see sense, and had his optimism immediately rebuked by both women. There wasn't a great deal of faith, going into this meeting.

"I got lucky; my boyfriend was summoned too. I could introduce you for real, sometime. Oh, here, we go," The elevator door slid open on a beautifully spacious chamber, ceilings vaulted high enough to vanish into twilight, trees in bloom and flowing water, beautiful people of every shape conversing seriously in every corner. At the top of the steps, two aliens wearing the same blue armored uniform were arguing, "There he is."

Commander Shepard? demands the apparition, Garrus Vakarian, I'm with Citade Security

[wiedzminka]

[ Ciri isn't faring much better. She's caught herself on one of the tables, thankfully managing not to disturb any of the bottles atop it, though they are shivering precariously from the shaking. She lowers herself down on one knee for now, panting and wincing, mirroring Viktor's gesture unconsciously when she presses her own hands to her face and wills the world to stop spinning.

Fuck. Every time. This is exactly why she's leaving. ]

It's not-- It's fine. I have to go.

[ She grabs her things off the floor and staggers to her feet, bracing herself for a few more moments on the table's edge before backing away. Viktor doesn't seem hurt, only stunned and probably feeling sick as she is. She sticks around only long enough to make sure he really isn't injured or anything, then retreats quickly out the door. He'll get some silver for the modifications later, and a couple of specimens to study. Eventually, when she gets back. Right now, she needs to get the fuck away from people. ]

[vixening]

[ while she doesn't, exactly, know the extent her hand on his arm bring him back - she does see a bit of that growing tension ease, wonders exactly what happens here, or why its affecting him enough that he needs to be brought back. or why, when he seems to slide out of that place but still doesn't look at her.

there is a feeling that something more is going on here, something that anakin doesn't exactly want to be seen. while part of her would normally stray away from this, she can't help the curiosity that wells in her. anakin points up to the two moons, and yennefer follows his pointing. tatooine. it's a strange thing, but anything can be possible on different spheres. still, she follows the young version of him, takes off to follow him across the sand and into the store. that is when she sees the other figures arrive - a taller man, some bipedal...frog? perhaps? and a young girl.

the exchange is understood, even if she has no idea what the language is meant to be. then the memory continues, the older man steps out, and yennefer turns to look at anakin again - to ask for some other context, to see what he's watching, or focusing on. and, in a way, she gets that answer in the pained, tight way she sees him steps towards the younger girl. for a brief moment, her eyes flip between the image of the young girl, the young boy of anakin's past, and anakin himself. ]

She's important to you.

[ it's not a question, but in a way it is a reminder - as anakin seems to slide dangerous back into the memory again - that she is still here. that this is being seen. ]

[monomachy]

Diana's attention is shifted from the hologram map to Shepard herself. The longer her description goes on, the wider her eyes get. She tries to imagine such a creature, such a monster, but it seems too vast and cruel to even picture. She exhales slowly, trying to separate herself from the horror she feels after listening to Shepard's explanation.

"What kind of purpose is that?" She asks it rhetorically, though she still tries to think of any reason at all for such an act. She can't come up with a single thing.

Diana reaches out, intending to place her hand on the other woman's shoulder, but stops just short of doing so. Her hand hovers there instead, a comfort she'd give if not for the potentially disastrous results caused by physical touch right now. "I am sorry that your people are under attack by such creatures." And it isn't just her people--it's everyone in the galaxy. "If there is any way I might help you, I will." It isn't as if there's much she can do from here, but the offer is sincere.

[a_better_man]

You aren't getting worse, at least!

[Mat grins cheekily, despite his own weariness. This week is a fresh new hell of magic going mad and he's had more than enough of it. But also more than enough of keeping to his room to try and avoid it.

Not that staying in even works. They've been careful. Both of them have. And maybe they should have stayed to their own beds, but light damn it, they're both bored. Mistakes have been made. Mat feels the light brush of touch and before he can even jerk back and admonish Anakin to be more careful, that sharp pain hits him and their shared bedroom begins to fade away...]

[gynvael]

They aren't about me. [ He shifts over to help with the next wooden plank. ] About the monsters, more.

[ He is a figure, a name. Jaskier hears about him stumbling out of the woods, covered in blood and filth, and he spins a tale. Leaves out the part where the villager's children are found torn apart, adds a maiden or two. Describes a particularly fearsome beast.

Stories. It's what Jaskier does, and it's what Geralt has accepted. In the end, what does it matter to him, that they imagine him a monster or a knight? Neither are the truth. Men do not much care to know the truth. At least Jaskier's path helps put a few more coins in his pocket, keeps a town now and again from kicking him out of their gates.

Statues and prophecy. He knows a bit about that, as well. He snorts. ] Was it written in meter, at least?

[cryptsleeper]

I'm not sure how I feel about that balance either way.

[Alucard knows what monster stories do. They cement images in ways that are impossible to fight against, for better and for worse. They keep others away. They keep the monsters safe, if people hear them and realize they shouldn't go looking for trouble.

Dracula was a story to most before his mother's death. His father preferred it that way. It let him work in peace.

Meter? The dhampir snorts.] Not at all. But the people who carried it with them, the Speakers, understood it not to be a prediction of the future but a record of an event that happened and the future transmitted to the past through magic.

[nightwash]

"That doesn't answer my question."

But it's very interesting that she's evading it. The bad kind of interesting. The kind that makes Ronan's heart sink into his stomach.

[wiedzminka]

[ Her head snaps up -- a mistake, which makes bright spots burst across her vision dizzyingly, a wicked throb of pain nearly making her white out. A whimper catches in her throat.

Panic wells, sudden and jagged, and with it the instinct to throw up her guard and her sword (which, luckily, she is not carrying). Ciri reacts without realizing it; she shoves herself back with her stinging palms onto her haunches, like a cornered beast with lips peeled back to show her teeth.

Heartbeat pounding in her temples, stabbing into her brain. Sephiroth, slumped in front of her. Sephiroth, in her mind's eye, small and vulnerable, stabbed with needles filled with strange concoctions, fighting until he vomited and then fighting again.

She realizes her hand's around the wolf's head dagger at her belt. Her fingers slowly uncurl. ]

Tell me what you saw.

[ She demands, hoarse and catching, and hides her fear with anger. ]

[cointosser]

[For once, Jaskier does not dissuade him. Rinwell, especially, he thinks -- she's quite strong, of course; possibly stronger than himself, but he still does not think she should see this. Or anything similar. If he had seen another memory of Alucard's, the one he mentioned --

No. He won't think of it.

He sighs quietly, then gives a nod.] You're right. It's a good idea.

[And torturous for him, who cannot bear the idea of sleeping alone again. Not only with his own memories, but now burdened with more.

He doesn't touch Alucard, but he does rise slowly, after they've drained tea, and barely spoken more. He should go, in case it happens again.] I'll send a letter, perhaps. When I'm sure it's passed. [His smile is quiet as his tone.] Be well, all right? As much as you can.

[thearchangel]

[Hoo boy. Maybe he should have gotten something to draw with. Would that have been easier? Why does it feel like he's suddenly dropped the cue cards all over again?] I... thought everyone had. This uh. Crap, this is one of those timeline things, isn't it?

[If Shepard and he were missing six months, who's to say there weren't others further behind?]

Not every colony or system, but a lot of places, yeah. Happens, when you're trying to stop galaxy-wide extinction.

[funbreaker]

Here in Thorne, or more generally speaking?

[ The young boy darts away and back into his hiding spot, waiting patiently for the man he just pickpocketed to leave the immediate area before he steps out again, relieved to have successfully "earned" himself some coin. ]

I no longer pickpocket to get by, if that's what you mean.

[ Thancred gives a small shrug of his shoulders. He could expound on the fact that he has put his natural abilities to use in more upstanding ways, but he isn't that compelled to share with someone who appears to be judging him. ]

... And what of you? [ He raises an eyebrow. ] What path did you take after being taken in by... who was he, some manner of royalty?

[photophobic]

This time, Kylo doesn't voice his response. She can say whatever she wants about what she wanted— and he could argue— but what would it achieve? Apparently, she isn't ready to confront the expectation she'd carried with her to the Supremacy, or the anger and hurt she feels at his failure to live up to the ideal she'd invented.

"You're still holding on," he tells her instead, no less frustrated than he had been the first time— but wearier, now. "So tied to the past you're incapable of seeing any way forward but back. It can't be fixed, Rey. Don't you see? It's dead. Unchangeable. Everything that happened to us, everything that we did— it's all locked in place behind us, beyond our reach. All there is for us now is something new."

His eyes are utterly steady now. He doesn't hold out his hand.

"What did you see, that made you come to me?"

[fourarmedandangerous]

"I have seen the Sovereign-Reaper in the memory of another." Goro replies, offering that connection. "By itself it held a mighty fleet at bay. The warlord who controls a fleet of them would be unstoppable." The Reapers are impressive, but they are machines, albeit thinking ones. Someone had to have built them. "Conquest would be understandable with this amount of power, but this is extermination. What is the point?" Goro loves a good fight as much as anyone, if not a great deal more, but he usually expects to gain something from his victories. Slaughter for the sake of slaughter became boring millennia ago. It is the pastime of children drunk on what little personal power they have amassed.

A real victory, a worthwhile victory, increases your own fortune in some way. Even Shao Kahn understood that.

"There is no value in ashes." He says finally, rubbing his chin in thought.

[wiedzminka]

[ Ciri walks with her, wincing and squinting a little in the sun, and keeps her distance just enough so they don't accidentally brush shoulders. She glances over at Julie, considering. Thinking back on what she'd seen, she hadn't understood most of it, but she does know it had surely been far more horrifying for Julie than for her, even without knowing all the people involved. Considering all Julie's told her about the world she comes from and her reactions to this one, Ciri knows enough to realize that a creature tearing open a man's chest to eat what's inside is far from commonplace.

In truth, it hadn't rattled Ciri all that much. She's seen worse things. Not that she is callous enough to say so. ]

Don't apologize, Julie. You didn't do it on purpose.

[ She hesitates, but Ciri knows she would prefer to know. Not to wonder, at the very least. They're still outside, but Ciri speaks quietly, enough for Julie to hear but difficult to catch unless someone nearby is very determined. ]

I saw a... monster of some kind. I'm not sure what it was. It looked like a man, but he couldn't have been human. He was chasing someone named Bobby-Terry. Killed him in a glass shaft of some kind, I think. You saw the end of it, after going down all those stairs.

[ The entrails. The heart. The blood on the monster's mouth. ]

[londonbound]

"No--"

Rhy pushes himself up too fast, the sudden movement making his head spin. He is sitting up, squinting in the sun, but the sweat beading on his brow has nothing to do with its warmth. He wipes it with his sleeve and shaking fingers, trying to rein in his breathing once more when it slips into jagged gasps again.

"Please. Don't go. I'm sorry."