Possession Event

[lucetimods]

Who: People in Luceti
What: Spiritual possession
When: The 26th to the 1st
Where: Luceti!
Summary: Check out the previous mod post.
Rating: If it gets smutty, move it somewhere private.


Starting at midnight on the 26th, Luceti and its inhabitants will find itself the focus of the Filial spirits, usually quiet and reclusive, now stepping out to deal with one of their own.

As promised, here is some additional information to help figure out how to play around with the spirits and interacting with similarly possessed people.

First off, each spirit has a certain time or place when they are at their most powerful. Consequently, characters possessed by them will enjoy these boosts and this in itself can be a deciding factor in what would otherwise be a stalemate. Here’s a quick run down:

Sona - She’s most powerful around lakes, rivers, and the ocean. Mostly this is concentrated at the southern lake.

Kipinn - He’s most powerful in high places, like mountain tops and the roofs of community buildings.

Faeren - She’s most powerful in the farmlands alongside things that grow.

Tsinku - He’s most powerful in the village itself, where technology thrives.

Eferin - He’s most powerful in the center of the forest where his heat may cause trees to burn. In fact, the upcoming forest fire may cause some trouble if his followers get too rowdy.

Hyt - It’s most powerful during the daytime under a bright sky.

Twila - It’s most powerful during the night time.

Nala- She has no domain and is generally welcome wherever she goes.

How possessed characters will deal with other possessed characters will depend on the interactions of the spirits themselves. A useful spreadsheet sums up these relationships. Those that have a friendly attitude to one another will generally allow ‘trespassers’ into their domain, but those they are not so friendly with may cause conflict.

Finally, to elaborate on Twila-possessed characters. Those with a natural affinity for darkness are likely to be possessed first. Once they have, they can try to recruit others less-compatible candidates to ‘join the cause’. Their goal is numbers. The more who are working with Twila, the better. Once they do, they’ll be inclined to act in their own self interest and if necessary, deal with others who try to get in their way. In the long term, the spirit Twila wants to stay this way, bonded to the Lucetians as hybrids, that way it cannot be imprisoned again. Think of it as pure survival instinct of an animal that’s spent way too long in a cage.

All isn’t lost. The other spirits may not be able to cage it again, but they won’t accept Twila reacting in this manner. Though it’s hard to tell what their beef with Twila is, they have an instinctive familiarity with the dark spirit and seem to act as its jail keepers.

They have the power to free people from Twila, but given their poor communication skills, figuring that out might just be a challenge. After all, the spirits can only communicate in shades of feeling and intentions, but not actually verbalize directions or marching orders. However, there will be a Malnosso post mid-event that will give everyone, possessed or otherwise, the info they need to turn things around.

Comments

[knifesedge]

'Spirits'.

[Pseudo-religious bullshit, now of all times? But Knives doesn't throw it out immediately. The English language wasn't the most nuanced in existence, and simply might lack the right words to convey what's meant. Just like plants weren't angels, but were called so sometimes. He crosses his arms over his chest, frowning.]

If 'Hyt' is the one who's donated these very peculiar abilities to me, then I don't mind it being there. It seems to have no ill intentions, if dark wings aren't involved.

[So much can be done with light. Focus it intensely enough he could even get fire. He couldn't control the resultant fire, however, that seemed to be the area of the red-wings. He rolls a tiny ball of light across his knuckles like a coin, absently. It was so easy to do.]

You don't have to do anything except stay away from them. I'm not the only one with white feathers. We'll handle it. Didn't you say that death isn't permanent here?

[It's certain that if he hasn't already, sooner or later Knives was going to go hunting. He was more proactive about self-defense than most plants were.]

Try to travel with someone who isn't a blackwing. If you do encounter one or more and can't escape, use what your... spirit, has given you. Don't use your powers as a plant. Avoid it at all costs.

[goldenglasses]

Even if it's not permanent people still lose something when they die! Usually something very important! Killing people shouldn't be you very first answer when it comes to things like this! What if you were being controlled against your will. Would you really want us to kill you just because it was the easiest solution?

[knifesedge]

[It's a very sober pair of sharp blue eyes that are turned on Vash, measuring, weighing.]

I would hope, Vash, that you would be merciful enough to put me out of my suffering if something like that happened to me. I would rather 'lose something' than regain my senses and find I've been forced to do terrible things against my will.

[His gaze shifts away, to watch the treeline, always scanning for potential trouble. Hyt's suspicion sat comfortably there.]

Not all killing is an act of cruelty. Sometimes it is a kindness.

[goldenglasses]

Even if what you lost was your eyesight? Or you hearing? An important memory? Or even just the ability to eat certain foods? No one really knows what gets taken when you die until you wake up.

It's one thing if these people are actively doing something wrong and need to be stopped. Something else entirely if all they are doing is living their day to day lives but with their wings being the color black.

[knifesedge]

I would survive. To lose a sense, or all senses, or all memories, or the inconvenience and pain of a temporary demise would be a small price to pay. Unless it isn't temporary at all.

[But Knives would still prefer to be shot over being someone else's puppet.]

If they are simply 'living their day to day lives' as you put it, I think you'll find soon it's just a cover. Don't be so blind again, Vash. Does your 'spirit' tell you they're harmless and above suspicion, or is it refusal to acknowledge there might be an active threat you simply don't want to deal with?

[goldenglasses]

[There's a stir from Kipinn. Almost of an agreement, but with who Vash isn't exactly sure. Right now it's just not clear to him.]

You don't know that. You can't trust things like that so easily here in Luceti. I will not betray and attack my friends and other villagers when this is something that, like many other experiments, may eventually wear off without bloodshed. We need to be strong together, not fighting each other needlessly.

[knifesedge]

I didn't tell you to betray and attack anybody. You're not listening. You never do. You just hear what you want to hear and then spin it until it is what you want it to be. It's all you've done for fifteen decades, will you for once in your damned life actually listen?

[goldenglasses]

I am listening. You said that all I have to do is sit back and watch. Watch you do what Knives? If my wings were to turn black right now, what would you do?

[knifesedge]

[There's anger beginning to creep in, but whether it's his anger or Hyt's at someone seemingly defending the black-feathered possessed, Knives doesn't know. It doesn't prevent him from reaching out to grab Vash by his shirt and physically drag him the few steps it takes to put them nose to nose.]

There! You've just proven you aren't listening. I never said you should sit back or watch at all! I told you to stay away because they're dangerous, and to not use your natural power against them! Everything else you've added as filler for your own selfrighteousness! Do you even listen to yourself anymore?! Do you see what you are doing??

[What he'd do if Vash was a blackwing himself is completely and utterly irrelevant right now, Hyt's own wishes on the matter drowned out.]

[goldenglasses]

[Vash doesn't back down as Knives pulls him close. Doing nothing to stop his brother or even raise his own hands to try to yank Knives's hand off his shirt.] Yes, stay away because you and others who have white wings will take care of them. Now I'm asking you Knives. If I was to stay away, to do nothing to stop you, what would you do? Because right now the only answer I'm hearing is killing. What kind of killing are you thinking of? Just because they are black feathered?

Of course you haven't answered my first question. If I was standing here right now and my wings turned back what would you do Knives!? Would you kill me even though I haven't done a thing against you!?

[knifesedge]

[Disgust boils up rapidly, blending easily with anger and perhaps only enhancing it. Why he ever thought he could live peacefully with this verison of Vash, he couldn't understand. There wasn't even the illusion of trying to listen instead of reinterpreting it all through Rem-O-Vision to make Knives seem to be the worst possible being that could walk the earth.

Well if that's what Vash wanted, then that's what he was going to get.]

I would kill you. I would kill you where you stand before you could set off another July or Genora Rock or burn a hole in this moon. You stupid bastard, don't you realize what you can do when out of control? It's not what you'd do against me, you mindless little shit, it's what you'd do to everything for iles, and that is a risk that can't be taken when I know that blackness is dangerous! You want something to twist around in your disgusting little obsession, twist that.

[He lets go suddenly, expression going blank.]

You sicken me. Take your revolting holier-than-thou bullshit and choke on it. You want me to be the enemy, the terrible monster just so you have something to rail against and feel smug about..

[Brilliant white wings snap open, the area around him rapidly growing intensely bright.]

Congratulations. You'll get exactly what you've been insisting on since I arrived.

[The tremendous amount of wind kicked up immediately later has nothing to do with power and everything to do with the wake of massive wings beating the air as Knives throws himself skyward again, seething.]

[goldenglasses]

[One wonders what Knives would think if he knew that this wasn't Vash twisting things to fit Rem-O-Vision. No, it was just three years worth of knowing how things worked in Luceti. That at times things went a little crazy, but if you could only wait a week or two that it would usually go back. Attacking the villagers just never seemed like a good idea if there wasn't more information to go on.

That was all he wanted to say. Tries to explain it, try to get Knives to understand that he should just wait a bit, but then there's the blinding light. Vash raises his arm up to shield his eyes, then feels the brush of wind against him, knowing full well it's from his brother taking off.]

Knives, wait!

[Vash pushes off the ground, blinking rapidly, trying to clear his eyesight as he rises in the air. Looking around, trying to figure out where his brother has gone.]

[knifesedge]

[It's swiftly obvious Knives isn't waiting. If Vash is going to try to catch up, he'll likely need to follow using his senses beyond vision, as Knives is very fast when he wants to be, and isn't slowing down. A white and blue dot in the sky isn't so easy to see and track, but it's possible, angling for the tricky wind currents and dangerous downdrafts of the mountains as swiftly as he could manage.

He's heard enough.

Vash's abject refusal to do anything but villify him and refuse to strike a blow even somewhere where death isn't supposed to be permanent, only temporary and inconvenient..

It told him all he needed to know.

It told him Vash was lying to him. It told him death was permanent, and Vash wanted him to die while others would still believe Knives was a monster who needed to die.

If death weren't permanent, there would be no reason to hesitate, to put people out of their misery before they did something terrible. But if it were permanent, then ... Vash was attempting to convince Knives to be more reckless with his own life. Vash wanted him dead, without the guilt of pulling the trigger himself. An 'accident' would handle it just fine, then. Vash was listening, he had to be, nobody who wasn't paying attention could twist everything Knives said or did so poisonously. It had to be on purpose. To drive him to the very actions he'd struggled for six months to resist.

Vash was lying to him. He was no friend, no ally, no brother. He wasn't Knives' brother, just someone who looked and sounded like the man who had dragged Knives' life around until it was headed in the right direction. Even his appearance was a lie, manipulating Knives into not acting simply because he looked like someone the black haired plant cared for.

He can't trust anyone except others Hyt hand-selected. Even his own 'brother'.

His own brother, arguing to defend the blackwings. Had to be friends with the blackwings.

All he could do was trust the spirit of light to show him who was worthy of trust... and who had to die.]

[goldenglasses]

[Vash does try to give chase to reach his brother, but with only a few hours of practice on his new wings and already being winded he just can't keep up. After a few minutes it's clear to him he's just not going to catch up and gives up the chase. Hovering for a moment in the sky, before turning to move back towards the village.

He was angry. Furious. He had been doing his best to make some sort of peace with Knives. The man was asking him to forgive and forget a lot for the sake of a future he had only been told about. By someone he shouldn't believe in the slightest. Yet, for that chance and for the good of Luceti he had tried to set his anger aside and learn to live in peace. To let Knives show him how much he had really changed and Knives had just shown him exactly that.

He hadn't changed one bit. He was still the same brother he had left behind on Gunsmoke. The same man who instead of trying to learn about what scared him would kill first and ask no questions after. Only now instead of humans he's replaced it with these black wings. Was this really what he was suppose to believe to be a changed man?

Vash felt sick to his stomach. If that's what Knives wanted then he'd wait at the village. Maybe the black wings were a threat. Maybe not. First step was not fighting with his brother, but finding that out for himself. If they were a threat, then he'd figure out the next step from there. If they weren't then he was ready to defend his Luceti friends and home from Knives if he was given no other choice. He would not hesitate to put a bullet between his twin's eyes. Not this time and never again.]