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

[herotypical]

The bottle was surrendered without a fight. For now, at least. She was far too busy ruminating on his words: he wished he'd been nicer to his little buddy. These words sounded foreign, coming from Jack. They rang hollow only in their unfamiliarity, but a moment's concentration brought them back into relief. She trusted them. Heaven help her, she trusted him.

"Fairly -- uhm -- fudged up." Because for all her blood and guts and horrors, she couldn't bring herself to swear so foully. "But...here's where I'm lost. He must have had some reason for sticking it out, right? Some reason for being at your side to the very end."

You must have been something decent, once, to make him think you were worth it.

[originaljackass]

"I had a mountain of gold. But I don't think that's why." As he found himself thinking about it, he really couldn't think of anything.

"... I really have no idea what possessed him to keep coming. Maybe he was worried I'd leave the mountain and cause trouble."

But that wouldn't explain Gary staying when Jack had warned him of the danger coming for him. Gary could have escaped before then if he wanted. But he didn't And that baffled him.

He look a long hard drink from the bottle.

[herotypical]

"...You don't know what he could possibly have seen in you, huh?" It was wry. But it was also cautious. Because Buffy, herself, had no way of understanding what force on this earth or any other drove her to accept Jack's company. He was an ass. He was a cretin.

But there was something to be said for the cretin you knew, partway understood, and could stand to be around.

"You feel guilty."

[originaljackass]

"I still sleep at night."

There was some guilt there, but he'd done a life time of horrible things and never really stopped to feel bad about them. But it was rare for anyone to give so much to him, despite being fully aware of how horrible he could really be.

[herotypical]

"So do I. Guilt is so singularly exhausting, I don't see how anyone could not sleep like a baby after lugging it around all day."

[originaljackass]

"I don't do guilt." He took swig from the bottle before handing it to her again. "But I miss the little guy. Makes a guy kind of sad, you know?"

[herotypical]

If pressed, she might claim his sadness was a symptom of the guilt she so strongly wanted him to feel. She wanted to pin it to him and smother him with that darkest of Summers virtues: culpability.

"I know--" She thought of Anya. Anya, who she'd tried to gut. Anya, who she'd always doubted. Anya, who died in the big battle and who was now here -- annoying as ever but clouded in that faint guilty mist. "I just don't know why you hide it."

[originaljackass]

"It's not hiding. It's just not talking about it."

And if he didn't talk about it, he didn't have to suffer awkward moments of feeling upset. He could go entire weeks without thinking about stuff and do just fine.

"So what about you. I'd say it's your turn now."

[herotypical]

"...What would you do -- right now -- if I broke our agreement and told you nothing?

What would you do if I lied?"

[originaljackass]

He didn't see that coming. After all, Buffy was the good one.

"I'd want to know why."

[herotypical]

Because I could was not an adequate answer, even for her. And the answer she tripped over, in the end, revealed more about her problems than she cared to admit: "Because I'm what you said I wasn't. I'm selfish. I use people. I'm using you right now. Or, at the very least, the situation."

[originaljackass]

He eyed her for a moment, before setting a hand on her shoulder again. This time less gentle and this more of a firm push. Not enough to knock her aside, but to maybe knock some sense in her.

"Bullshit."

[herotypical]

"It's comforting, to know a guy like you can still feel the things I feel." Her throat constricted. What a queer thing to admit to herself and to others: your pain soothes me.

[originaljackass]

Part of him bristled at the idea she'd be comforted by him being in pain. But he was mostly just confused by the concept. "Why would that help?"

[herotypical]

"Misery loves company. And I like knowing that a person can get as calloused as you and still feel things. You know, instead of just being...stone."

She wasn't being fair. Buffy could handle being cruel, but she didn't care to be unjust. So: "Don't get me wrong. I'm not glad you're unhappy about something. Just...relieved that I could get as far gone as you and still have an emotion or two to indulge."

[originaljackass]

"As far gone? Buffy, my story isn't some long one where I became the way I am now. I've always been like this. It's just who I am. And you're not any different than when I fell off a roof in front of you. So if you're worried about becoming like me? Don't."

He then smirked. "You could never be that cool."

[herotypical]

She ignored his paltry excuse for a joke and instead tried to shrug away from his hand.

"...If you think I'm no different, then either I'm a way better liar than you give me credit for or you're not looking hard enough."

[originaljackass]

He pulled his hand back and leaned back.

"Or you're a lot simpler than you think. You're a mundy, pumpkin. A super strong one, sure, but it's not too hard to figure out."

[herotypical]

"You wouldn't understand," her tone turned catty, "you weren't here the last time the General reared his bearded head on a draft."

She didn't care to count that mission, although its rotten fruit was still stinking up her life.

[originaljackass]

"... that's the big bad for the vultures, right?"

He had only heard of him, but he had never really bothered to learn more. He had no reason to.

[herotypical]

"...Yeah, their Grand Fromage. He really knows how to get under a girl's skin."

[originaljackass]

Now they were getting somewhere. He just wasn't sure where. "So what happened? If he kicked your ass, then big deal. I've had that happen plenty of times."

[herotypical]

"C'mon, Jack. I'm not so conceited that I can't take an unfriendly ass-kicking between mortal enemies. Well. Semi-mortal enemies. Semi-mortal enemy and pesky blonde nuisance." Funny, really, how ones moral sank when one realized the enemy held you in such little esteem.

"He...got inside me."

[originaljackass]

For a man with a very simple obsession, his mind went to one place immediately.

"Sexually?"

1/?

[herotypical]

"What?"