EVENT 002

[larkers]

> EVENT #002

On July 27, reports begin to spread on local news and social media of strange incidents throughout the city. Initially only a few scattered scenes start to come together as a worrying pattern, as an increasing number of citizens begin to show signs of erratic, violent behavior, turning on their friends, neighbors, or complete strangers. As the afternoon goes on, innocent people find themselves being chased down and attacked in the street, while for others a trip to the store or a normal work day becomes a nightmare as they are barricaded inside, taken hostage. While the NAPD mobilize to try and resolve the situation, they soon find their resources stretching thin, with no apparent sign of a cause to the sudden wave of chaos sweeping the city. Player characters will find themselves inextricably involved, as some of their number also begin to exhibit the same behavior. Further, still, those unaffected will discover they seem to have the ability to stop whatever's happening and return those affected to normal. As the violence spreads, the choice will grow increasingly clear: risk yourselves to try and save these people, or let the NAPD handle it, with finality.

> THE AFFECTED Any characters who entered the burning building on our guided log will experience the below symptoms, stacking in severity through the day: ◉ Mild nausea and headache ◉ Irritability ◉ Vertigo ◉ Feeling feverish and itchy ◉ Kneejerk anger ◉ A strong, unshakeable urge to take vengeance on anyone who wrongs you - no matter how small or irrational the slight may have been. How this vengeance expresses itself may not be deadly! Characters may feel that they need to punish wrongdoers by some other means, perhaps by forcing them to confess, or making them experience something equivalent to the perceived crime. With concentration and a lot of willpower, it is possible to combat these urges - what may be difficult is recognizing that they aren't valid or real. Anyone who does succumb completely will feel entirely righteous and just in what they are doing, and may not be able to understand attempts to persuade them otherwise.   > THE UNAFFECTED Any characters who did not enter the burning building on our guided log will discover that they have a unique effect on those rampaging. By making contact with anyone affected, the symptoms will slowly subside and disappear. ◉ Contact must be physical, skin-to-skin, and maintained for at least 5 minutes. ◉ During this contact, their chest will glow blue and they will experience an increasingly painful burning sensation at the point where they are touching the other. ◉ At the end of the 5 minutes, both will experience a strong sensation of peace, and then a deep, terrible sadness which will dissipate shortly after. Once any affected player characters are "cured", they are then able to go on to help others.

With their unique interaction with the situation clear, characters have many ways that they can choose to react. SAVE - break into the hostage situations or hunt down the people roving the city streets, attempt to get close to them, and cleanse them of whatever's affecting them. Finding them or getting inside won't be easy, though, as the NAPD try to do their work, and making physical contact may be tricky or downright dangerous. Not to mention risking exposing that blue glow to anyone nearby… HUNT - maybe you'd prefer to help in a more efficient way. If you can't - or don't want to - get close enough to hold hands, the best way to stop the mayhem might be to take the unpleasant business out of the NAPD's hands and resolve the problem directly, if you have the means and skills to do so. HIDE - if it's all a little bit too much for you, ducking out is always an option. Find somewhere safe to hole up (which may not be the safehouse, for the moment), and wait it out. It'll have to end sometime, right? WRONG - or you could just have the worst kind of luck, and find yourself accidentally knocking into someone on the street, or being in the wrong store at the wrong time. Before reports or any word has spread, you're already facing the events head on - fleeing from an attacker or taken hostage - with no choice about how involved you want to be. Whoops.

> NOTES

The incidents around the city will last from July 27 to July 30. In OOC time, the event will run from October 20 to October 26. An OOC EVENT WRAP UP POST will be made on October 26 to give a rundown of the aftermath. Characters will continue to have access to the network throughout. There is one power level up available for this event, granted for a thread of at least 5 log/action comments containing your character "curing" either another player character or an NPC. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by November 20 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post. As with our first event, we want to be clear that the above is a basic structure and some prompt ideas on how you can interact with the event! We are totally open to whatever ideas you may have in wanting to get involved, so please feel free to come to us with anything in the questions thread below!

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[covertness]

two questions, one of which i really should have asked earlier...

1. would bobbi's powers of emotional manipulation serve to make people calm down a little bit? possibly long enough for her to hold their hand for a while?

2. (belatedly:) would it be/have been possible for bobbi to emotionally manipulate a fireman or someone else into giving her intel on the apartment of the nurse? if so, would she have learned anything useful?

[larkers]

Hi Tona! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

1. You can most certainly use her powers to do this, and we hope you have. They may even help the affected find a moment of mental clarity so that she can assist them more easily.

2. Bobbi would be successful in getting a fireman to respond to her about the apartment. He would tell her that they believe the fire started at the nurse's apartment, and the man was found dead inside. They do not yet know the cause of death. They are considering the fire itself suspicious, and will be doing a full investigation as soon as the building is safe.

[covertness]

thank you, mods!!