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

[gynvael]

[ She is not a young girl any longer, no. Unlike Dean, Geralt does not consider her one. He's accepted she grew up. She can more than take care of herself. More than keeping her safe through his hands, he'd wanted that for her: that she learn to trust in her own strength. He won't always be here to protect her. There's no changing that reality.

But though she may not be a child, she is still his child. ]

She was fleeing when I found her. [ Dean's indignation is met with a shrug of a shoulder. That's how things are. Kingdoms will either want her for a marriage or they want her dead to get her out of the way. Which it is at this point, he doesn't care. He's handing her over to no one. She's not a pawn to be passed around for every bastard's ambition. ] She deserves the choice.

[ And Ciri has made hers. She wants to kill monsters, she wants to be a Witcher. She wants nothing to do with empires or prophecies. She deserves a home, here, where she can stop running for once. He's determined to make one for her.

He brings the bottle to his lips. He studies Dean for a moment. ] If your brother were here—would you do the same?

[righteously]

( It's probably a stark contrast to his answer a second ago that he falters. Not an instantaneous yes like he'd have expected from himself — a flicker of doubt, where he asks himself the same question. On the one hand, it's not like he has anybody else to go back to. Bobby's gone. Benny probably never made it through the portal. Cas is here. He hasn't exactly had a good life where he's from, and hunting here is... simple. No angels, no demons, no politics — at least none involving him. It's like the best parts of Purgatory in its simplicity, where monsters are just monsters, he kills them, he gets paid, he goes home.

At first, the biggest counter-point is just technology and convenience. Hell yeah he misses daytime TV and fast food. Might miss them enough to go back for it, but it's a more evenly split decision than he'd have expected.

And then he remembers his unfinished business back home, the word of God and the prophet that can read it stuck with the king of hell, and his light seems to dim a little. Decision reached, but it's with resignation rather than certainty. Dutiful fatigue. )

Nah. ( He says it with his chin tipping down, eyes on his bottle without really seeing it. Scrubs a hand over his face. ) No, I gotta go... clean up a mess before it becomes too big to clean. That's if shit hasn't already hit the fan while I've been gone, I guess. Only one way to find out.

[gynvael]

[ It's the type of question he expects nothing from one way or another: a dismissive shrug, a joke, or a more genuine answer. Dean opts for the last. Once, it might have surprised him. It no longer does. They've shared enough between each other. What's one more?

The pause says more than Dean's answer. ] They can't find someone else?

[ Wry, gently prodding. A mess. Something in particular. Something Dean feels responsible for? Perhaps. He does understand. He feels like—he's turned his back on his people. Staying here. But he knows there's nothing of his kind to preserve.

The world doesn't need them. When the last of them die out, it will move on with barely a glance back. ]

[righteously]

( That question earns a soft laugh, more than a little tired, and his eyes roll to the ceiling. )

Buddy... believe me, if there was anybody else...

( He'd- what, retire or something? Stay here? Doesn't matter, the point is someone else doesn't exist. He'd love to feel like the world didn't need him anymore. He'd love to believe it would keep turning safely on. He'd especially love to not feel responsible for whatever life-threatening tomfuckery is happening at any given time, but more often than not he is.

The Kevin thing, the tablet thing... that's on him, too.

Not that he intends to go into the whole story, but just to get an idea on how much context he'd have to give if he wanted to try-- )

How much do you know about religion, Gerald? Heaven, Hell, the big guy upstairs?

[gynvael]

[ Some time ago—not particularly long ago—Geralt might've said that's the arrogance of men. That they believe there's no one else who can do what they can. But he's seen more since. Learned different.

There's no one like Ciri, either.

He tips back the bottle before he answers. ] Don't tell me. Fate and prophecies?

[ Destiny? He knows fuck all about heaven and hell beyond what he's gleaned from those he's spoken to. Christmas was explained to him and he still hasn't much of a clue what it is. (Other than that a lamb is involved, and a virgin.)

But he needn't know the specifics. Humans can call it what they want: religion, fate, destiny, a fucking golden rainbow. It all tends to come down to the same thing. A force that follows you. Pushes and pulls you along a path. Tells you what you were made for. He's started to make his peace, with what it is to be tangled up with Destiny. Doesn't mean he likes it. ]

[righteously]

( The answer surprises him a little — or maybe amuses him, some combination of the two. He clicks his teeth, shakes his head once in an unspoken, well, you're not wrong. )

Yeah, something like that.

( It wasn't exactly an I'm a man of the cloth kind of answer, which means there's no point in him going into any detail on any of it. He'd have to probably ramble out a novel to cover a single base, and after the day they've had...

Maybe some other time.

He'll keep it high level. )

I, uh... I screwed up somebody's apocalypse, and it's just been one thing after another ever since. Honestly, man, I'm starting to wonder... ( If the world just wants to end, If maybe he's just postponing the inevitable. Sounds a hell of a lot like him stroking his own self-pity boner, though, so he shakes his head instead. Jumps tracks. ) Doesn't matter. The point is, my world sucks, your world sucks, this world sucks a little harder after that whole non-consensual memory bang thing, so we should all get some hookers, shotgun a beer, and take a nap until this whole thing blows over.

[gynvael]

[ Something like that. Yeah. Between himself, Nadine, Alucard, now Dean—how many of them haven't had some sort of predestined horseshit circle them like vultures?

He huffs a quiet noise. Nearly says, Welcome aboard. Enjoy being swept along by Destiny, where most of it led you into shit your whole life but then you have...moments. People. (A girl, who becomes everything.) Dean fucked up someone's apocalypse, whatever that means (how can the end of the world belong to a person?); Ciri is supposedly the harbinger of one. He doesn't know anymore. He's damn tired.

He takes another drink. Wonder what? His gaze is fixed on Dean. The answers don't tell him much, in truth. Not beyond that Dean appears caught up in his own swirl of fate. What specifically does heaven and hell mean to Dean, when he knows the latter is a real place where the other spent a portion of his years? When that's where Geralt entered alongside him just earlier? What happened afterwards? There are a dozen blank spaces. More.

But Geralt's offered far less about what Dean saw from him in return. Hasn't clarified anything about the Trials. So he doesn't press. ]

I've been trying to have a nap for a hundred years. [ Ask him how that's going. ] Seems we're short on those in any world.

[righteously]

( He snorts softly — yeah, he knows that feeling. Actually, it might be more accurate to say he's been trying to sleep for what feels like a hundred years, and all he gets are naps. Four hours every day or so most of the time, if he's lucky.

He's so tired, on so many friggin levels. There's a somber, quiet pause that he eventually breaks rather abruptly. )

Wellp. ( He grunts, lifting the bottle in a small salute. ) Here's to dying tired. It's been real, it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun.

( He drinks.

Which, coincidentally, is what he does for the next several hours — whether Geralt sticks around for it or not. )

[gynvael]

[ Dean only gets another vague grunt in return to that. Tired is something he does not remember a time when he did not feel. Sometimes it feels like he grew up fucking tired. Maybe he did. Does it really matter?

Probably not.

He does, in fact, stay—not for the entire time, but for an hour or so. Enough time to finish a bottle. Converse of nothing in particular. He senses Dean will go through a couple more bottles; Geralt is tempted, but while he's content to let himself get properly drunk in the Horizon, he's more cautious of it in the real world. As a general rule, he prefers to be what is not sober where humans are considered, but sober enough for a Witcher.

So before long, he slips out the door. Leaves Dean to it. He has people he needs to talk to—people he isn't certain are aware of what's been happening. ]