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LOVE POTION #9
LOVE POTION #9
LOVE IS... not in the air! The reintroduction of Confluences into this world has left it rocked, so the season of love is not quite as lovey-dovey as it usually is. People are stressed and anxious. Valentine's events are being cancelled left, right, and center in fear that a Confluence may catch young lovers unawares.
Unbeknownst to mortals, the God of Love really can't afford his month to be ruined by a few little dimensional catastrophes. This is his month! ... And for whatever reason, he seems to be stranded on the Earthly plane.
Surely he can fix things. Push it along a little. Though Gods don't usually meddle in mortal affairs, this is a personal catastrophe. All it takes is a few drops of love potion on a token of affection, and voila! Instant-connection.
(This event has a blanket warning for dubious consent of the love spell variety. To opt out completely, characters can simply not be in Sunset Falls at the time of the event, which runs through Valentine's Day.)
Unbeknownst to mortals, the God of Love really can't afford his month to be ruined by a few little dimensional catastrophes. This is his month! ... And for whatever reason, he seems to be stranded on the Earthly plane.
Surely he can fix things. Push it along a little. Though Gods don't usually meddle in mortal affairs, this is a personal catastrophe. All it takes is a few drops of love potion on a token of affection, and voila! Instant-connection.
(This event has a blanket warning for dubious consent of the love spell variety. To opt out completely, characters can simply not be in Sunset Falls at the time of the event, which runs through Valentine's Day.)
WHITE HEARTS FESTIVAL
Welcome to Sunset Falls, the most magical place in all of America! Literally. The streets are charged with magical energies, and while it won't be spinning your words into spells, it will give anyone who is magically inclined a comfortable little buzz. Maybe it's the boost you need to get a spell working, or maybe it's just a pep in your step. Confluence-displaced metas who take the Guilds up on their offer to tour the new housing will arrive just in time to witness the an annual tradition: The White Hearts Festival, a festival dedicated to all forms of love - familial, friendship, and romantic.
The whole town is decked out in pinks, golds and reds. Town square has been overtaken by food booths peddling elaborate meals and desserts with various magical effects. (It's probably better not to ask why some of the cookies being handed out are in the shape of anatomical hearts.)
- Eat an emoji cookie and find yourself sprouting heart-eyes, or gaining a flurry of hearts above your head.
- The Bolder Biscuit - by far and above the densest thing you've ever tried to eat - makes you bold. It compels you to march right up to someone and tell them what you think, good or bad.
- And there's also the Firework Delight cake, which makes you shoot off literal fireworks the moment you touch that special someone that makes your life complete... but honestly, they go off when you touch anyone. Sorry if you end up giving off the wrong impression!
In addition, pop-up craft stands sell trinkets that guarantee you'll be together with your people forever and ever. The most popular item on sale this year appears to be the Eternal Bond - which is just an enchanted finger-trap that refuses to let go unless you tell someone a deep dark secret.
There is an altar at the town park where you can make your offering and give prayers to the God of Love in hopes he will smile favorable upon you. Lay your chocolate heart at its base and offer up a prayer to the God so that your life will be full of love and connection.
Truthfully, when it started it wasn't as cutesy as it is now. It became a lot more wholesome when people began to offer only chocolate hearts to the God of Love. Now it's fun for the whole family! ... So long as you don't veer into the woods. Some people still practice the old ways, and there are (what you hope to be) animal hearts nailed to trees. This is Sunset Falls, after all. Weird often goes hand in hand with terror.
LONELY HEARTS
For those of you who don't yet have those special people, lonely hearts still single can collect white rose enamel pins from the festival committee. They're expected to pick someone to give it out to as a declaration of their attraction by the end of the festival. However... there seems to be an issue this year. There's more pins here than there are people in town. Committee members start handing them out to anyone, single or not, and from there that's where things start to get a little weird...
You clip the pin onto your shirt and at once, your life has suddenly become a romcom. Everything is just a little brighter, the sounds a little more musical (sometimes literally), and you're suddenly compelled to reach out and find connection.
And the universe is conspiring to bring it your way! Cliches won't stop happening around you. Suddenly people are determined to give you a makeover so you can catch the eye of an admirer. Your friends are betting on your romantic future. A complex love triangle is springing out of previously platonic friendships.
You're not not limited to one partner, and that partner doesn't need to be romantic. It could be a best friend, or a nemesis that you're compelled to fight over and over again for the joy of it. What matters is the connection and the way the world seems to stop at nothing to give you that perfect three act structure: You Meet, You Lose, You Get.
Reach the end of your romcom's little arc and you'll find yourself freed from the spell... and probably will have some choice words for its caster.
HEARTS ON FIRE
Regardless of how you participate in the festival, everyone is at risk when the town itself falls under a love spell.
This may be unlike anything you've known before. Perhaps it's the first stumbling steps of puppy love. You want to be with this person all the time. Hold their hands and work up the courage for a kiss. Or perhaps this is something fierce and passionate. You want to be kissing them always, pursuing these passions heedless of consequences.
This doesn't need to be a romantic love. It can be strong and familial. Perhaps the sort you've always desired but never had. You could fall into a family unit with others affected by the spell. Compelled to hug each other and say words of encouragement or praise. Perhaps you, while living your own love story, are the best friend in someone else's - offering up the speech that tells them they deserve more than they think they do.
Whatever your flavor of love may be, you're prone to dramatic declarations. Confessions at the drop of a hat. It's go big or go home, and since nobody's going home right now, you might as well go as big as you can. Perhaps you're arranging for Flash Mobs to declare your feelings! Or making plans to move in together despite only having met a few hours ago.
This is all fine and well at first, but it may become clear pretty quickly that characters who try to hold their burning passions are likely to burn themselves! If you're the repressed type and you try to resist the compulsions that the love spell puts on you, you might just burst into flames, and someone will need to put you out. Don't worry — move quick enough, and there won't be any lasting damage, and if there is, the Guilds' healers can help you out.
MEET CUTE-PID
For those paying attention to that sort of thing, one constant of all these wild declarations can be spotted in the background. A tall man with curly blonde hair and an all too charming smile never seems to be far from the romance.
Those who are curious enough to follow will find he retreats to a lavish mansion on the outskirts of town. The mansion has the gaudy and abundant decor of a honeymoon suite on the Las Vegas Strip, with lights attuned to music and a massive twirling heart above the roof of the building. Peer inside and you will see hundreds of tiny viewing windows, each depicting a different romantic story unfolding outside of town. The door to the mansion appears to be locked tight and the windows are magically sealed, but some quick thinking may get you inside.
If anyone wants to engage him, HERE is a top level where we will summarize encounters. The more PCs involved in an encounter, the bigger its outcome will be. We will determine the impact on the god of love on Valentine's Day, so get your comments in by end of day on the 13th! You may also use this top level to ask event-specific questions about the effects on this page! (Please refer general questions about the setting to the FAQ, and refer any player plots to the PLOTTING page.)
✗ Jean Grey
💖 SERGEANT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB 💖
❤️🔥 THAT LOOK ON YOUR FACE, FULL OF WILD DESIRE, HEART(S) ON FIRE ❤️🔥
[
Yes, it absolutely had to all become music lyrics today.From Jean's pov-side, I'm going to be keeping these platonic for all threads that aren't Logan, but feel free to throw friends and family at Jean or to SUDDENLY BECOME friends and family with Jean with either of you under the platonic love fest effects, or to end up all distressingly Heart-Eyes yourself in the other way. If you want to plot things or request a private start for pre-planned etc., Jean & I can be found at
White Hearts Festival + Lonely Hearts
And maybe she took some of the cookies from one of the vendors when they were helping someone else. She grabbed a handful and shoved them into a plastic bag she was carrying.
Then she turns around, takes a sniff and she knows exactly who is three booths away. The one person who seems to keep wanting to talk to her, even when X is off ignoring her in the woods. Not that she wants to talk to her right now. So she plans to just turn a different direction and go on her way, only to be stopped by a girl with a large bowl of pins.
"Welcome to the Festival! Here's your pin!"
She grits her teeth but doesn't even get to tell her to get lost before she's shoving the pin at X's chest like she's in a hurry and takes off.
...What just happened?
So maybe she wasn't paying attention at that point to exactly how close Jean was now.
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There is a bit of a 'what can you do' air to Jean's smile, the barest touch of a chagrin without a hint of shame, because there's still that swirl of several sparkling heart balloons above her head that seem to be going nowhere else fast. But that's not going to stop her.
"What a surprise to see you here."
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But it's hard to feel all of that when you're staring at someone with hearts swirling around their head. What do you even do with that?
"Surprising that I'd investigate how this place works?"
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This silly foofaraw of a festival that she was pretty sure Logan wouldn't have done if they hadn't basically rounded a corner on it in the announcements on the way to look at this newest city with everyone else. All these booths, the kitch, everything. Done up in flowers and hearts. People making awkward and sweet romantic gestures, lovers and friends and family jostling everywhere, close together, arm in arm.
"I didn't think a Valentine's Festival would be the first place we might run into each other again." Because it bears saying, without a pause. "I'm glad to see you're looking better."
that look on your face, etc., wildcard
...was she carrying something before? well, no matter, the law of shitty romcoms states that she is, and they're both a little flustered, and as they reach for the same whatever, their hands awkwardly touch. when his gaze rises from her fingers to her face, he suddenly remembers her name. ]
Jean.
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Jean's plastic box of cookies, a water bottle, and the small set of coffee chocolates she bought for Lorna, plus that weird little pin, all go wildly out of her hands. Those hands flutter uselessly to catch it all (and somehow, that always trained impulse to just catch everything in mid-fall, doesn't pop into mind). Instead, it's a scramble down to her knees, Jean already saying I'm sorry, even as she's trying to grab for the chocolate box.
Which is where those hands meet, and Jean pulls back as a jolt of energy seems to roll up her arm from that touch. Cheeks flushing, as one of her hands goes nervously to her neck, and she means to apologize all over again, but what comes out instead is ]
I was just thinking of you.
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no. he shook his head sharply but still found his body responding to its own script as he suddenly finds that they're both standing, awkwardly close to one another now, as they still haven't quite transferred ownership of the box of chocolate yet, each of their hands left grasping at one side of the heart between them. somewhere, in the distance, a street musician starts playing fuckin maroon 5 or something. ]
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Not worried. That's the wrong word. Obviously, you can probably take care of yourself, given you said this didn't look too much like your own -- [ Jean does not ramble, but today The Fluster is Afoot. ]
So. Not worried. Just hoping -- [ Hoping what, Jean? ] -- that you were okay out there since I hadn't seen you after that one night.
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[ the personal dialogue seems unnecessary in the long run, compelled to address the box of chocolates between their grips. he hasn't stopped looking at her yet, smiling even as a small nagging in the back of his head tells him that something is wrong here. ]
But how about you? It looks like you have a Valentine's admirer already.
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[ Except as readily and easily the answer comes:
(A small but reasonable assumption! A tiny overstep of warm implication!
An easy retraction with the playing field left wide open to be stumbled right into!)
There's something else. Something about it being wrong.
But not being wrong. Too. About already being spoken for?
That thrums with a well-worn refusal to have been forgotten. Anywhere. Ever.
Jean frowns. The box of chocolates in her hand almost too solid against it. ]
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[ he beams suddenly, though manages his overreaction quickly. ]
I mean, not great. [ he laughs. ] You know what I mean.
[ his life wasn't this. the casual romance, awkward repartee's back and forth as two lovers avoid their own attraction for one reason or another. he was a sad man who lived in a bad city who lived through tragedy and dressed up like a bat to stop it from repeating itself, but still... ]
I guess that means you don't have a Valentine yet?
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Jean opens her mouth to say something, even if it's an apology (for what, she doesn't know), but Bruce beats her to the following words with that question. That. Question. It's like the tinkle of chimes, asking for a response. It's like a hammer hitting something so far away. It's more like she feels rather than hears the echo of the connection between the two. A shadow so far in the distance it looks like a line. But one so upright that Ozymandias would weep.
(And of course, she doesn't, right? Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, right? Friends with the best of sweepingly romantic stories of torrid passion and sweet content intertwined, right? Terrible building super's and weird roommates and awkward copy boys who ramble and spill coffee, but not ... someone, right? That's not how the stories go. Right?)
Her mouth opens again (there's only ever one right answer here, and from it unlocks all the doors in the hallways of the future), but all she can get to come out is. ]
I --
III. soakin' my soul in gas
He touches down and immediately begins striding toward Jean with single minded purpose. Anyone who tries to walk in front of him bounces off a telekinetic shield and goes sprawling. Nobody is seriously hurt, thankfully - Matt is too focused on the woman in front of him.
"Jean," he says, voice thick with actual emotion.
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There's a raise of eyebrows; that's more question than her single word. "Matthew?"
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He stops in front of her, nearly six foot five and pure muscle. His good eye searches her face, and then without warning he drops to one knee.
"You are the most powerful creature I have ever met," he says, looking up at her. "You make all other women pale in comparison - they are weak imitations of the apex predator that you truly are."
And then he bends low, forehead nearly touching the ground.
"You may step on me."
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It's already startled open toward a baffled question when Matthew drops to a knee, and pretty much every word out of his mouth doesn't help the cause of either the blinking or her mouth settling on a shape. She's pretty sure those were supposed to be the weirdest compliments in the world until he hit the words 'apex predator,' and her ability to process stalled.
Before she can even connect that thought to the Shi'ar and the Phoenix properly, Matthew has put his face on the ground, and the following words catch her so widely stunned, she's nearly stepping back while choking on the explosion of the word, "What??"
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"If you like," he clarifies. "Anytime at all."
He'd look completely insane if everyone around them weren't being equally overdramatic.
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Words. She has them, and they solidify as she squats down, enough to let her hand float a second before deciding that hesitation is just not going to work where it comes to the face of insanity. Her hands settle on his shoulders, and she's pulling without any more warning than he gave her, to begin with. "You need to get up now."
But as she's dragging him up, there's an off flicker of warmth that slides up her arms (and maybe even a shift in the tempo of a guitar being played by someone standing on the bench not too far away). Not the sharp, fast one, but something smoother, softer, almost ... sympathetic.
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"Of course. Anything you say. Anything."
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But in a different way. Speculative suspicion.
"Anything?"
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Does she think it's going to work, while surrounded in the mayhem that only just seems to have set its sights on her, too? Not likely. But it's worth trying it at least once, too.
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"...stop what?" he asks, and there's a note of genuine hurt buried deep below the words.
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"This is not good."
Matthew might have been an apathetic asshole.
But even he didn't deserve whatever this was.
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(We can feel free to continue, or arrange a handwave! Whatever's best for you.)