Nightmare plot!

[isolophobia]

HEEEY YOU GUUUUYS! You knew it was coming, but with the arrival of a certain someone ( coughcough KOZMOTIS coughcough ) Pitch Black is officially riding the crazy train off the rails.

What this means for you;

Havenites ( especially folks Pitch has taken a personal interest in ) may notice a rather dramatic increase in the intensity and frequency of their nightmares. But that's not all that's lurking in the shadows. Fearlings ( children who have been turned into living shadows ) and Nightmare Men ( adults, and fellow warriors who fell to the darkness ) are also gathering, called together by the Nightmare King. Pitch is rebuilding his Nightmare army, but with so much fear running rampant around Haven, he's pulling out all the stops.

On August 12th the Fearlings and Nightmare Men will have gained enough strength to be capable of possessing player characters. Fearlings will go for children first, and try to corrupt them but the Nightmare Men will go for anyone.

So what's it like to be possessed by shadows? Well, think of it as being locked inside your own worst nightmare playing over and over again. You're trapped inside your own mind, but there's something else that takes control of your body. Characters who become possessed will most likely seek out shadows and dark places. They will react with irrational terror to just about anything, and may become very violent. Their eyes will also turn solid black while possessed, so seeing that may be a big tip-off.

Think mass hysteria with a twist of anarchy.

This event will run from August 12th through August 19th, and if your possessed character hasn't found a way to conquer their own nightmares on their own, or been exorcised, the Fearlings and Nightmare Men will vacate their possessed hosts by the 19th.

But wait, there's more!

During the week of August 12th, each time a character is possessed, a Nightmare will be spawned within the Library. The thing is? When this event is over, those Nightmares hanging around the Library and attacking the unwary visitor are sticking around. Pitch may be on his own agenda, but the Nightmares in the Library may just become a permanent fixture to Haven.

Characters are free to notice the horse-like Nightmares in the library ( and get attacked by them, should they go in ) through the event.

So. Want to sign up to be possessed? Have some questions? Want to get an early start on plotting for this event? USE THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST! I'm still recovering full mobility in my hands but I will answer as many questions as I possibly can, or bring said question to the mod's attention if needs be.

THANKS GUYS. And pleasant dreams~

Comments

Signups for Possessed Characters

[isolophobia]

[kirigatits]

signing up... shura kirigakure...

[kissfromarose]

Signing up Rosalina Nurumi here!

[roseinyourheart]

Signing up Ib.

[lets_stay_together]

Possession sounds fun. Signing Tohru up~

[satanschoice]

I'm sure I'll have questions later when I'm more awake, but for now I'm signing Sam up to be possessed!

[nattergalen]

Signing up Luna for this.

[fierily]

Signing up Asuka ~!

[poisonedclaws]

signing up Chouza Habaki here

[keikoslap]

Signing up Keiko Yukimura.

[gunfired]

signing up noki!

[gandere]

Signing up Rin Tohsaka if possible!

Nothing says nightmare fuel like Heaven's Feel.

[thievingironman]

signing up Izumo no Takeru~

[cainotophobia]

Signing up Giovanni!

Re: Signups for Possessed Characters

[mulligrubs]

Croooona

[dragontemptress]

Because I'm a sadist -- or maso. ANYWAY.

Throwing Presa into this!

[isolophobia]

As of August 12th, signups are now closed.

Questions

[isolophobia]

[mellowyellow]

This word. "Corrupt." I like it. Too much. What exactly does it imply in this context?

[isolophobia]

In this case to be "corrupted by the darkness" is to fall to it. So, a child that is "corrupted" is one that's gone from being a normal kid to another extension of the Living Shadows. They live a half-life, and move in swarms through shadows and bad dreams.

It's...actually really sad? Kids that were scared to death, so to speak.

[mellowyellow]

Aaah, I see! Thanks.

[superissues]

Kon's annoyed Pitch enough to count as a personal interest, so I'm guessing he'll be experiencing an increase in nightmares! (enjoy the trainwreck, Pitch!)

However, August 6th - August 15th (ish) and August 20th-28th I am going to be both travelling and entertaining. I'm not taking a hiatus because I think I will be around enough despite this to tag in, but I'm kind of hesitant to throw a possessed Kon into the plot not knowing how much time I'll have to give this. Would it be cool if possessed!Kon went and hid somewhere if I needed to explain why he's not more around? Or would you rather I not commit him to being possessed this time around?

[isolophobia]

What players want to do with their characters is totally up to them! Characters could conceivably hide out in the shadows and run away when approached, or just as easily go bonkers and try to kill people with their teeth?

You do what you want to do! If you want to sign up, that is totes your call c:

[superissues]

Awesome! I will consult CR, think about whether it will be more fun to fight the nightmares or be the nightmares and get back to you!

Re: Questions

[fearguard]

I'm guessing Koz is on the special folks list, right?

HAVE FUN WITH THAT ONE PITCH.

[isolophobia]

Special folks as in "receiving bad dreams, and potentially rubbing Koz's face into the fact he failed"? Sure thing |3

[fearguard]

It's not failing when he kicks your ass across town again Pitch.

Butno, have fun with Koz's nightmares he hopes they give you whatever the equivalent of food poisoning is for you. Asshat.

Considering you are one.

[ubinunc]

a couple questions! I don't know how familiar you are with the Persona series, but basically the protagonists have access to skills that allow them to status effects like fear, confusion, distress. there are also spells that can be cast to remove those statuses from other people. do you think the fear/nightmares caused by Pitch or his minions (the Fearlings, Nightmares, etc) could be cured by said skills or spells?

[isolophobia]

I'm not really familiar with Persona, but I think I get the idea since a lot of MMORPG have similar status effects. But I'm not sure what you're asking exactly?

Do you mean that the casting and then removing said spells ( fear, and confusion especially ) might help, or just casting them as a means to sort of fight fire with fire?

Because the Nightmare Men and Fearlings gain strength from the fears around them. The fear of their hosts fuel them ( like bad memories, phobias, fear of past traumas ) and so become stronger in the presence of more fear. That's why they tend to congregate in shadowy places and stay in those larger groups usually.

[ubinunc]

super late but...!

Sorry, what I meant was there are skills that cure status effects out right! Such as Amrita, Patra, and Me Patra, or permanent status blockers like Null Fear or Null Distress (check out the Recovery Skills and Passive Skills sections), and the casts of Persona may have access to them.

I am also operating under the impression that Fearlings and Nightmare Men first attach to a host, and then bring the host's own fears to the surface for them to feed off of (or maybe vice versa). Either way, that would mean the host has been artificially placed in a state of fear (ie, they were walking along normally and BAM, sudden panic attack over siblings or dolls or whatever they fear, which the Fearlings and Nightmare Men take advantage of). If that's the case, would the spells mentioned above be able to cure whomever they're cast on? Could the status blockers actually keep the Fearlings and Nightmare Men's abilities from working period?

[isolophobia]

Well, if the people who are playing the possessed characters want to allow themselves to be exorcised, ya'll can get together and hash out details on how to do that. Spells meant to be buffs against fear effects would be a good deterrent to being possessed - but that doesn't necessarily rule out being outright physically attacked by the Nightmares. The Nightmare Men and Fearlings don't have much in the way of physical form, but the horselike Nightmares definitely do.

Possession is basically taking the natural fear ( or trauma ) of the host, and amplifying it, yes. People are trapped in a hallucination, or a dream of their worst nightmares and greatest fears, their eyes turn solid black and they behave as people would when utterly terrified. Fear affects people very differently depending on the individual, though, so whether they can be reasoned with or are just gibbering, rabid crazies is dependent on the player.

So, short answer? If the spells were cast several times, it could "cure" the possessed, and the status blockers could definitely protect people from being possessed ( like a vaccine ) provided the spell is kept refreshed regularly. You will need to contact the players on whether they want their character exorcised right away, or would want to be "dispelled" after a couple of days, or if the magic wouldn't work on a particular character at all, but I don't see why it wouldn't work on folks if they wanted to play that out :'D

Hope that helps!

Questions

[kirigatits]

re the possession, when it comes to exorcising the victim would it be treated like your normal demonic possession or would it be different? Like if the victim tried drinking holy water or something would that do anything or absolutely nothing?

i hope that makes sense djkhdkjd

[isolophobia]

Well, Fearlings and Nightmare Men aren't demons so much? They can be exorcised with enough focused positive emotion/memories ( joy, hope, wonder, etc ) so it's more about the intent behind an exorcism.

This...gets kind of tricky to explain because the James Joyce books are all about the magic of belief, and "believing a thing is real makes it real" but it really gets into fiddly chicken/egg scenarios if you try to break it down.

SO, it would be more a matter of what the intent was behind the holy water? If it's "purity" and the belief in purity is very strong in the person carrying and/or using said holy water, then it could absolutely work. But things like silver crosses, or prayer strips, or religious items in general would not work solely on the basis that they are religious items. The person doing the exorcism is the important bit, and the power of their belief determines whether the exorcism works.

...I hope that made sense fff.

TL;DR = If you want it to work, and talk it over with the possessed character's player, and all are in agreement to have the possessed character exorcised, then it's all gravy. XD;

[kirigatits]

aaaaa sorry this is late, but--

thank you! yes that all makes a lot of sense 'u'!!! Thank you for clearing that up for me.