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

He wants to delay things further. He wants to hash things out and give a thousand what-ifs. But...if they do nothing...

"So. You want to go ahead and fight this thing, then?"

It's incredibly difficult to say, but he knows he has no choice.

"It's a dragon, by the way. I just...think you should know. It's a fire breathing dragon."

This time Finn smirks, making him look more confident than he feels and because it's what he would do were he still whole. "I eat dragons for breakfast. Let's go get it."

Without so much as a kiss for good luck, Finn starts to walk back in the direction that Jonathan came from, figuring his Heartless is back that way.

He nods, heading back to where the dragon was...is. He can see it now. Gigantic and looming. Honestly he's terrified of the creature, remembering it as it was about to breathe fire on him.

"So...uh...do you have a plan on how we're going to fight it?"

Finn's not afraid, but he knows he would be were he his old self. Not just for himself, but Jonathan. That thing better not be as powerful as an actual dragon, or dragonborn.

"We need to get you a blunt instrument. I can distract the thing while you break the leg off a table or chair, perhaps. There might also be something in the supply closet," He nods to a nearby door marked as such. "Or you could just throw things at it."

"Right. I'll be right back."

Jonathan rushes off, hurrying to the supply closet before frantically digging through it, tossing a vacuum cleaner and a broom to the ground before he decides on grabbing a metal mop handle. It's not great, but it'll do. He hurries back to Finn's side.

"All right. It's not great, but it'll do. I hope."

"If I survive this, I'm buying you a proper weapon for your next fake birthday."

The Heartless turns his head towards them, growling when it spots the prey that got away, as well as new prey. It doesn't seem to recognize its counterpart, its eyes glinting with death.

With a roar, it lopes towards them. Gently pushing Jonathan to the side, Finn waves his arms, "Yeah, come get me you fetcher!!" Once its close enough, Finn throws lightning at its head, which startles it momentarily.

"Aww, thanks. Can it be one of those collapsible batons?"

For a guy with no heart, Finn still seems to know the way to Jonathan's. When the creature is stunned from Finn's lightning, Jonathan moves in, swinging the mop handle at the creature's knees. He has no idea how much damage this will do, but he's hoping with his enhanced strength it will do something, at least.

The Heartless stumbles, apparently hurt by the blow. But it's also turning its sights to Jonathan now, since he's the closer opponent.

"Yol!" A burst of fire from Finn catches the beast on the wing, getting its attention back onto him. He can't risk using frost, with Jonathan so close by, so he opts for more lightning spells, hitting the monster at random body parts.

The thing rears up and Finn ducks before the Heartless breathes more fire, singing his hair.

As the Heartless rears up, Jonathan runs back to it's hind foot, stabbing the mob handle down into its foot as hard as he can. As he does that, he hears the crackle of flames behind him and turns, eyes going wide when he sees the smoke from Finn's singed hair.

"Finn!" he cries out, concerned.

"Don't worry about me!" Normally, Finn would be cussing and worrying, yet his Nobody feels no fear, not even at the prospect of dying.

The Heartless roars in pain, and tries to kick Jonathan away with its injured foot. Finn's Nobody barrages the dragon with more lightning, feeling his mana drain. The creature is starting to slow down. "Keep attacking it! It can't keep this up!"

Oh, Jonathan is going to worry about Finn. But he's also going to worry about himself, especially when the creature tries to kick him. Yelping in panic, Jonathan scrambles away from the kick, falling back as he does so before crawling back further on his hands and knees, and for a moment he stares at the injured foot, unsure of whether he wants to approach it again, but Finn calls to him, telling him to keep attacking it.

Jonathan will do whatever Finn needs him to, no matter how terrified he is, so he gets back up and rushes to the other leg, swinging the mop handle into the knee so hard that the mop handle snaps.

The Heartless grunts as Jonathan continues his assault, Finn doing what he can to keep its attention on him instead of Jonathan, throwing fire and lightning at it still. He can feel his mana run low, and he feels tired and sluggish, even as he sees that the monster can't keep this up either and goes to its knees.

Even as it starts to collapse and lose life, the monster turns to Jonathan and parts its jaws. At that moment, Finn can only think of one thing to do.

"Wuld!" In a flash-step, Finn is right beside Jonathan, and pushing him out of the way. Right at that last second, the Heartless gives one final attack as it breathes fire, causing the Nobody to cry out in pain.

Having spend the last of its energy, the Heartless finally goes down, vanishing completely, and the heart flowing upwards. The Nobody falls to the floor, groaning in pain. The burns are quite extensive, and even the Dunmer's natural fire resistance isn't going to help against this kind of injury.

Jonathan barely has time to realize that the creature is opening its jaws when Finn knocks him out of the way and...

"Finn!" Jonathan cries out helplessly, unable to do anything before his lover is engulfed in flames.

It's the second time this has happened. The second time someone he cares about died saving him from certain death. This time the threat is gone now, this time he doesn't have to run.

"Finn!" he cries out again, scrambling to his feet and going to Finn's side. "Don't worry. You'll be okay. I'll find a healer and they'll fix you right up."

Finn looks up with sad eyes. "No," His voice is weak, and he's using the last of his strength just to talk, the grey of his skin is even more ashen, having lost a lot of color. His hand touches Jonathan's, though it's limp.

"You wouldn't be able to find one in time." He smiles with effort. He doesn't regret this, because it's what he would have done had he still had a heart. "Please don't blame yourself for this. It'll be all right."

He lets his eyes close as he vanishes in a haze of shadow.

Nearby, under a pile of turned-over tables and chairs, something starts to form and stir, just a few seconds after the Nobody's died.

Edited 2020-03-02 00:00 (UTC)

"Finn..." he says, desperation in his voice and eyes, not knowing what to do, but not wanting to leave Finn to die alone if he's right.

And he does seem to be right, as his eyes close and he seems to evaporate as if he was never there.

Desperately, frantically, Jonathan begins to mutter, "No, no, no, no, no...."

All the while he's completely unaware of any movement anywhere else, as his focus is completely on the space where Finn had just been occupying.

Under a couple of chairs and behind a table, Finn groans quietly and stirs, as if he'd just had the snot beaten out of him, or like he'd just taken a very, very deep sleep.

Luckily, the chairs aren't very heavy and Finn's able to push them off, before emerging from behind the overturned table. He rubs his face, then catches sight of Jonathan on the floor, muttering to himself. Everything catches up to him at once.

"Jonathan," Finn starts to approach his lover, his hand reaching out, and his voice full of emotion.

Edited 2020-03-03 02:33 (UTC)

The second Jonathan hears his voice, he turns and springs to his feet. He can't believe it. He knows people come back from the dead in this place, but it's usually days, and there's always lingering uncertainty over whether they'll really return. But here Finn is, only moments after Jonathan saw him die.

He doesn't question it, embracing Finn in a hug.

"I thought you were dead."

"I was," Finn hugs Jonathan back, like he intends to never let him go. "But then I just appeared close to where my Heartless got created."

He feels... lots of things. That alone is making Finn want to laugh and cry, and instead what comes out is a combination of a sob and laugh. He feels happy, sad, so many things.

Jonathan just continues to cling to Finn for a moment, not saying anything, just glad he's there and whole again. Finn may have died, but now he's back, and Jonathan's clinging to that fact like a life raft, completely ignoring everything going on around him.

Then, seeing one of the shadow heartless turn and look at him, Jonathan suddenly pulls back.

"Oh, crap." He pulls away. "We should get you somewhere safe."

Because he just lost Finn, he won't lose him again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only