maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: Feb. 16
WHAT: This month's swear-in!
WARNINGS: Possibly some violence

A spiraling new skyscraper has just completed construction in De Chima and, to celebrate, the owners and several of the businesses renting space in the modern wonder have elected to host this month’s swear-in on the top couple floors. These floors can be reached be elevator, slowly strolling up the winding ramp that circles from the bottom to the roof or, if you can, fly or leap or use whatever other superpowers you have to get to the top or to reach one of the many open balconies and gardens available along the sides of the tower.

Though it’s a few days late, the theme of the gathering is still an unsurprising one for this time of the year: love. And, really, after the past couple of months who doesn’t need that in their lives? There are several activities available to celebrate the many stages of romance, all available in different subsections on the top couple floors. On the second floor from the top is where you enter and houses the business end of the swear-in, what you typically find at these gatherings. A lovely ballroom decorated to the nines in red, white, blue (and pinks) with an open buffet of finger foods, drinks, and various information pamphlets about local businesses, the government, and job opportunities for new imPorts.

Branching off the main ballroom are gorgeous balconies looking over the city, as well as a few indoor/outdoor gardens. These gardens range in themes from tropic jungle, to evergreen paradise, to desert oasis. They are all only about 600 square feet each, but they are a nice break from the socializing and whatnot of the main gathering. There are also special drinks provided by the Color Me Cupid company making their way around, both in alcoholic and virgin varieties. They have no clever names, sadly, but rather are labeled after the bright, almost glowing colors each is. A few sips just leads to a fizzy feeling on the lips, but have at least half of the drink and you’ll feel a few effects for the next twenty minutes or so:

Pink Drink: Sentimentality. You’ll feel a fondness for people, places, events, or even a nice piece of furniture. Cozy on up with this soft puppy love or platonic general desire to be near that person/item of interest.

Blue Drink: Melancholy. Alas, love isn’t all butterflies and sunshine. But this isn’t just being in a bad mood, wanting to go home. No, this is artistic, bohemian angst. The kind of mellow drama the poetic soul feeds on. Drape yourself over a table and opine on your lost loves, or stare tragically at the stars, sighing loudly until someone finally asks you to reveal your dark, mysterious past. Follow your tortured heart in getting that attention you suddenly need, just make sure to make a show of your inner turmoil.

Red Drink: Passion. Whether its for a person, a sports team, or a favorite hobby, you suddenly feel the need to share your enthusiasm with the world. Talk for an hour about a baseball game, or shout your love from a roof top. Or challenge someone to a duel over the hand of your loved one- or a balcony you really wanted to stand on. How ever passion works for you.

Green Drink: Jealousy. It’s an ugly part of love, but hard to escape. Depending on the person, this could induce feelings of neediness for attention from people you care about, to paranoia that others are out to steal what is yours.

Scattered throughout the main floor, a couple of the balconies, and along the twin ramps spiraling up to the top floor are two person tables, set for enjoying those finger foods and drinks. Also on each table is a stack of brightly colored note cards. These are important because, you see, the Loose Lips communication service is showing off one of their newest innovations in dating technology: Speed Honesty. When two people sit at a table, a small force field is suddenly erected around them. It won’t suffocate you or anything easy like that, no. It will simply stay in place, keeping you two at the table, until you pick up a note card and, worst of all, each of you must answer the question on the card. The speaker hidden in the table will evaluate your tone of voice, as well. No sarcastic answers accepted and, unless you’re a skilled liar, dishonest ones won’t do the trick either. The table’s AI needs to believe both parties have sincerely answered the question picked, then the force field will lower. Then you can either run or, if you wait more than ten seconds without moving, the forcefield will reactivate and you have to do it all again. This will happen every time two people sit at any of the tables, and sometimes an unwitting third standing too close may be trapped and must answer as well. Good luck, guys.

[[Questions for the cards can be found here or here, or you can OOCLy make them up for fun.]]

The top floor of the building is owned by the With Your Best Shot company and, trying to keep with the theme of the night, they have opened the (bullet proof) glass enclosed training areas on the roof of the building for duels. Hand to hand, with (dulled) swords, (paint ball) pistols, it’s all open for use so long as you declare your grievance against the person you are about to duel and declare what the winner will gain. These can be anything from traditional romantic items- the hand of the maiden fair- to silly things, like who gets the last soda in the fridge back at the apartment after this. Seconds are encouraged, but not required. There are viewing spaces for people to enjoy both the fights and the amazing view of the city below.

Enjoy the evening, imPorts. This month's swear-in appears to be going well until, later in the evening, the shadows seem to grow darker. Attendees might assume there's been a change of lighting to facilitate a romantic mood until hundreds of Heartless emerge from the darkest corners, intent on attacking imPorts and capturing as many hearts as possible.

Quite a few of the unwelcome guests are of the Shadow variety, stronger in swarms than they are individually, but still dangerous. The more fearsome Neoshadows are also in attendance, as are more colorfulvarieties -- some of which may have been people imPorts knew, before their own hearts were claimed.

Whoever they were and wherever the Heartless came from, attendees have three options: fight, run or hide. Whatever they do, they'll want to guard their hearts closely, or they may find themselves becoming the enemy.

[[OOC: Please ask any questions here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[she squeaks, flinching when he makes impact, her hands going to her face out of habit, but just as quickly peeling away to gawk in alarm. curling her fists under her chin, she witnesses shadows being sliced and diced by absurd-looking keys (no, she will never not think it's weird), and the spectacle is gripping enough that she nearly misses the puddle growing in mass and shape nearby.

small gaggles of these things are annoying enough, but what's with this gross excess?!

oh right. it's a swear-in. this is true to form, isn't it.]

Roxas! I, I can zap them! But people have to be out of the room!

[It's fine. He's done this sort of thing before, and it's not like the Shadows leave behind Shadow gore or anything. They just...fade, as insubstantial as their other halves.]

So what do you want me to do about that?

[He's not exactly in a position to escort them out.]

[she sputters a bit, given the accidental grace of needing to wait for him to finish clobbering another clump of the things.]

I mean, I don't know! I'm just saying. I guess? I--YEEAUGH NO EW!

[feeling wiggly antennae on her ankle as one wriggles to life on the floor, Cecelia squeals, jumps, and just discharges electricity anyway, zapping it, a few others, and magnetizing all the silverware remaining in the room.]

Watch out!

[He leaps toward her, mistaking her shout of grossed-out-edness for one of fear of pain. He's not so careless with his Keyblades that he'd let them hit her—his strike is true, catching the Heartless directly in the head. But the electricity strikes him, briefly shocking him down to his toes and leaving him frozen in place as it courses through his body.]

Edited 2020-02-25 01:45 (UTC)

[it's unfortunate he's just going to stand there, because after that stellar display of coordinated keyblading, Cecelia hasn't stopped moving, still in the midst of recoil.

that means that instead of him getting out of the way and letting her eat shit, she slams right into him.]

Yah! Ouff--!!

[The electricity is just starting to wear off and if he could jump away in a fragment of a second, a fragment of a fragment, what's about to happen wouldn't. But as fast as he is, Roxas just isn't that fast.

Their bodies collide, and her flailing arm catches him in the chest, elbow knocking solidly against the middle of it. It should just hurt, but instead, there's a strange sense of...nothingness. In all the commotion, it may go unnoticed that a sparkling sphere of light has just been knocked out of his body, but it's extremely obvious when that body morphs into a featureless replica and collapses on the floor.]

Ow! Ooh! Gods! Sorry! [mortified and out-of-sorts, Cecelia flusters while keeping her footing, alarmed that he's just gone and...y'know. dropped like that.

looking about, pushing hair out of her face, she checks about for sign of more of those creepy shadow-blobs amid the steaming tablecloths, broken glasses, and clung-together flatware.]

Well. I mean. That...it did work? So? Sorry, I didn't mean to, like...y'know. [zap him? she's about to clarify when she looks down and sees the complete void of a face and just.

y'know.

shrieks in horror.]

[That sure is a thing that happened. What was? Roxas has no idea; he's disoriented, confused, not sure why he's suddenly lost touch with all of his senses yet retain a sense of self. The twinkling heart that is his essence floats somewhere above Cecelia, fumbling for something to grab on to (metaphorically).

The replica body remains as still as a corpse.]

Omigods. Omigodsomigodsomigodsomigods...

[shaking in horror, Cecelia wobbles a bit before sinking to her knees, letting out a little squeak of a gasp on impact. there's a few aborted attempts to reach over and poke, pinch, or just generally touch the faceless form (SO GROSS...SO GROSS???) while her head buzzes as though a torrent of bees were let loose.]

Roxas? Hey. Hey, hello? I--oh. Ohhh, ohhmy gods, what. Why is--what...what happened? What did I do?

[a fresh fear grabs her and has her yanking off her gloves to check her hands. they're still...proper hands, yes, and the scales? on her knuckles? they don't...they don't seem anymore prominent! so what? how? why?

eyes welling up.]

What--what's going onnn oh my GAWDS?!

[Roxas is still really confused. He can hear Cecelia now, sort of, but he doesn't have ears and it's like her voice is coming from far away through a muffled tunnel. He bobbles a little closer.

The replica body remains unmoving.]

[the flustered dismay continues, with Cecelia at a loss for words or solutions. she lifts her head as she sniffles and whimpers, looking around for someone to come help. but no! no, everyone evacuated rather hastily when the room started sparking and lighting up! rude!]

What do I...what do I do?! Omigawds... [she sniffs, scrubbing at her eye, and then shudders, her skin prickling as she picks up some sense of...something.]

W-what? AH-!!

[she doubletakes and notices the little spot of light above her. she squeaks and flinches, leaning away.

what the hell is this now?!]

[The sound of Cecelia crying isn't something he hears every day, but the familiar voice bawling draws him ever closer. He dips down, nearly brushing her hair—

Hey. Rude. He's not a bug or anything.

Part of him wants to move closer to her — maybe she can help him — but force beneath him draws him away. His heart drifts toward the figure on the ground.

The replica body remains unmoving, but give him a minute and maybe he can change that.]

[she's fairly sure whatever this is? it's significant. she doesn't know how or why, but it has to be, right?

either that or it's the sparkly prelude to an explosive spell.

blinking through her tears, she watches the twinkling lights descend, as if a blessing onto the lifeless husk!

it...can't be, can it?

whispered, shaken:] F...Felix...?

[Oh, he thinks. This feels right. This is where he belongs.

His heart settles down into the replica body's chest and disappears. He's home.

A few moments later, the blank features abruptly morph into Roxas' and he sits straight up, eyes wide.]

Whoa!

GYAH-!!

[she squeaks in alarm, clapping a hand over her mouth to stifle herself, terrified and confused and---

oh hey, his face is normal again.

HOW.]

How...?!

[Roxas flexes his arms and gives his fingers a wriggle. All seems well.]

That was weird.

[she stares at him, still blinking out a couple stray tears, dumbfounded. after a beat, she squeaks, and then lunges forward and hugs him around the neck, whimpering a bit.]

[That catches him off-guard nearly as much as getting knocked out of his body did. Roxas in freezes in place for a moment, then awkwardly puts his arms loosely around her, giving her back a little pat.]

Hey...it's okay....

No it's not! [she gulps, letting him go almost as quickly as she'd grabbed him, scooting herself so she can put her back to him and grabs a nearby napkin.] I thought I killed you! Or, or whatever that was! What was that?!

I'm not sure.

[He looks down and presses his hand against his chest. Gently.]

I think you knocked my heart out of my body.

What-?!

[she whips her head around to gawk, incredulous.] Knocked your-?! Omigawds, Roxas, that's not normal, you know?! [her eyes go down to her hands, fingers twitching.]

What is...I didn't even use power words, I can't do that! Why did...? Wh-? I? [hands go to her face again; her head is starting to pound.]

I know it's not.

[What is, in his life? In hers, for that matter?]

It's not you, it's me. This, uh...isn't my original body.

[peeking through her fingers:] ...What?

It's a long, long story, but I was...lost for a while, back home. Sora brought me back, but I didn't have a body anymore. So they used a replica body instead.

[He glances down at himself, then back up.]

Replicas are just blank on their own, but it took my form once my heart was inside it. That's why I still look like me.

[she stares and follows his look before blinking slowly.

a beat.

while wiping an eye:] Your world...is really weird, Roxas. Just so you know. [sniff.]