metalogs | 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.)

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.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

"No. I don't like that. Please tell me it's not that."

Matthew frowns. David very clearly doesn't like him, but that doesn't bother him - Matthew has always been universally disliked. So there's no sense of kindness in his desire to figure out what's going on.

"Calm down," he says gruffly. "When you speak, do you feel compelled?"

"Not compelled, just... I don't know. Blunter."

"And you're NOT just being an asshole?"

Look, it's a legitimate question.

"If it feels different from how you'd usually act - and I don't think it is, for the record, you're kind of an asshole - then you must be influenced by something. Are you on drugs? Have you had anything strange to drink?"

"Oh, I can be an asshole. But this seems like more than normal."

Something strange to drink? No, that didn't sound right.

"I don't do drugs, and I haven't had a drink. Only a bite of this biscuit."

Matthew stares at said biscuit like it's a bomb.

"Did you get that here?"

"Yes," David answered.

Dude, it's not a bomb. It's just a pastry.

"Then it's probably drugged. Sodium thiopental or something."

David frowns. It's food, so he can't track the history.

"No, I don't think so. Loki said magic."

"So why don't you believe him? I assume he would know. What did he say?"

"He... uh..."

David blushes and looks away.

"We split up in our investigations earlier. He didn't look into it, and he wasn't specific on which food. The cookies were harmless after all."

Oblivious, Matthew presses on. "But he warned you. So obviously you've eaten magic biscuits."

"Those just had silly decorative effects," David insisted.

Unless they're why he and Loki got...

Wow he pushed that thought aside for fear his mind might broadcast it.

Matthew just looks at David like, and...?

"And they were harmless."

Matthew snorts.

"And you think I'M stupid. This asshole attitude of yours isn't harmful. I'm just saying you're clearly being influenced. Is knowing that going to make you freak out?"

"I think you lack experience with the world you're in, and how normal people work," David answered with a shrug.

And he's wrong, it could be harmful. They just didn't know how.

"I'd be upse, yes. I don't like being manipulated."

Matthew sighs. "Obviously. But that's sure not how you phrase it."

He actually looks mildly sympathetic for once. "I understand. I can kill the baker for you."

No, it's not. And David sighs. The sooner they aren't living together, the better probably.

"WHAT!?" David asks, his head snapping up. No, no that was not okay.

"Wow the Baker may not even be responsible!"

Matthew raises his hands defensively. "I was just offering! You hang out with Loki? Maybe try learning from him, huh? He's more relaxed than you."

Yes, because the thing he needed to hear after what they got caught up in earlier was that he should be MORE like Loki. Nope, he did not agree.

"I assure you, he's not."

Matthew snorts.

"I think I might be more relaxed than you, actually, and I spent Friday night organizing my drawers."

"My drawers were organized well before that," David mumbles to himself. Except they only partially were before Matthew had arrived. Now they were absolutely neat and everything was tucked away where they needed to be.

"We're all more wound up than might be realized."

"Yeah, I don't think other people compare, actually." Matthew sighs.

"So you DON'T want me to go see if the baker magically drugged you?"

"No, I really don't want you to do that. If he did, he might not have intended it. And if he did intend it, it might have been a cultural thing I didn't understand but other people knew going in."

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