Event: Individuation

[animusmods]

They come crawling out of the elevator shaft and in from the walls of the Tower just after midnight on August 11--shadowy black humanoid shapes with white, wide grins. Attracted to the residents of the Tower, they trail after favored people. Sometimes only one or two shadow children will follow a person around, but others may have dozens.

At first, they seem eerie and vaguely familiar, but harmless. As the week continues, though, the shadow children begin to change. They begin speaking, first quietly, then loudly, but always in the voice of someone the person they're following would remember from home. Each one has its own unique voice, although only the resident they've attached themselves to can hear them. Their words and tone vary, but are always warped. Frightened, angry, sad, accusatory--they whisper or cry or shout blame and doubt at their chosen resident, tapping into their insecurities related to whoever they seem to be, to their situation at home, and to their behavior in the Tower.

No matter how the shadow children behave, they all say the same thing, though in their own way-- "I'm from your world, your world, we're all that's left, look what's happened to me, this is all your fault".

This is what remains of the souls that were torn apart and ruined in your own universe. Only one person is taken from each world, and this is what happened to all the rest.

During the middle of the week, however, some unfortunate residents may find the situation getting worse. What was destroyed was their past and present--and also their future. Some unlucky residents will be trailed by those who they do not yet know and now never will, those who do not yet exist and now never will be. They will not tell secrets of the resident's future, but they will shout and cry and scream at never getting to experience it. This does not have to happen to every character, but it may happen to some of them.

Those followed by shadow children will slowly have their energy drained over the week, represented by their collar becoming lighter and lighter in tone, as well as increasing lethargy, listlessness, and power loss. Once a collar is fully clear, the character will die. They will not be revived until the event is over.

Characters may be saved from this fate by others in the Tower--the only way to guard against the warped bonds of a dead world is with the new bonds of the Tower, and shadow children can be temporarily driven off by others who they aren't following. The more a character is attached to the bonds of their dead world, though, the more powerful the bond in the Tower has to be. Forming new bonds works toward this as well. Still, a misanthropist will find dealing with the situation much, much easier than someone with an innate connection to their worlds, who will have quite a difficult time with this.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[animusmods]

[notachickenhawk]

"they trail after favored people" - what do you mean exactly by 'favored people'?

[notsogrimreaper]

Kind of a stupid question, but characters couldn't have a shadow child with the voice of someone already in the Tower, correct?

[attheclocktower]

How would canonmate bonds count for this?

As in, Xion would probably be followed by the Sora and Riku from her homeworld, and yet she has formed very, very close ties with the OU Sora and OU Riku in the Tower. Would those be sufficient since they're technically not from the same universe or are cross-canon bonds more effective in driving off the shadow children?

[warriorscribe]

If a shadow child's character would be mute (not genetically), but could make sound - does the shadow child speak as the character would have before they lost their voice, make what sounds they could have made, or does the trailed Tower character just know their intent?

Also, I assume "home" includes people of all previous worlds in the case of a game transplant just like it always has?

[sicharia]

Would voices of people who are already dead in a character's home world also show up, seeing as characters can be brought in the Tower after their deaths?

[sageprincess]

Can Tower friends hear exactly what shadow children are saying, or are the words only able to be heard by the one the shadow children specifically are following?

[bashfulshifter]

Do Tower-built bonds have to be reciprocated on both sides for the shadow children to be driven off? That is, if one character feels that they're very strongly bonded to another, but the other doesn't consider their relationship as significant, to the point where only one set of shadow children could be removed but not the other?

Re: QUESTIONS

[bloodyashes]

How much of the shadow children is visible - IE can characters make out specific limbs and so forth?

And relatedly, would a shadow child copy the gestures of the specific person whose voice they have, if it was relevant to what's going on?

[ghostytrainer]

Will a character attract all the shadows they're going to attract immediately or can it be more of a gradual, spread out thing? Sorry I'm just dumb and this was a really obvious answer.

[warriorscribe]

Sorry, have another one - since it's geared towards the target's suffering, would shadow children say things that they shouldn't know about? Like Enoch's world's Lucifel mentioning Meridian, for instance, or mentioning someone here in Animus.

[unkindnessof]

Do the shadow children have any interactions of note with the normal phantoms?

Re: QUESTIONS

[puppy_lancer]

What if a character attempts to touch the shadow child? Like fight it or embrace it? Would it just be a faster energy drain, or would something even worse happen?

[looselips]

If a character dies through other means while affected by the event, would they revive as normal? Additionally, would that reset the condition of their collar?

[great_king_of_evil]

Given the worlds have been destroyed in every point in time, can characters dead hundreds years ago be phantoms too?

Also, given the bonds with people from his dead homeworld are more or less non-existent and the phantoms's accusations will amuse him at best given what he's learnt in the tower, am I correct to think any tower bond, as weak as they are, would be enough to temporarily drive off the shadow children?

[neverbeamemory]

I'm not sure how to really ask this but here goes nothing.

Whilst Sephiroth doesn't really have more than a handful of those specific individuals he'd remember from home (and even then wouldn't be goaded by them. Cloud, please...) - I was wondering if there would be anything to be said for more of a general, less individual-specific 'bond' with souls (ie. as part of the Lifestream) from his home world. He did taint a lot of them with his will in canon and not to mention that inherent link with Cloud that glued his identity back together just prior to his arrival in the Tower.

Mob of angry, faceless shadows perhaps idek, if not then suppose it would be like with Veigar's question. More of an annoyance than anything?

[shadowpractice]

Will the shadows have scents to be picked up? And if they do will they smell like the characters they're imitating or will they have their own scent?

[axeforasong]

How would this interact with Game AUs; will it be the last world they were in?

Re: QUESTIONS

[frilliance]

DAFT QUESTION TIME!

Well, two daft questions, actually. I want to know these things before I decide whether or not to have my characters have shadows following them.

1. Are these shadows the actual people from the characters' worlds who have just become more twisted for whatever reason? Or are they not? Or are you just gonna go, "It's a mystery!" because you can't spoil that for us yet? XD

2. How easily would the characters give into the blaming and doubt? Would they do it automatically because ANIMUS! or would it depend on their character? Also, either way, I'm guessing that the characters get their energy drained, whether or not they believe the shadows, right? CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, ORZ.

[warriorscribe]

I keep thinking of questions!

The glamour is quite unsteady this week - would the lightening be evenly throughout the body, or would it be uneven? Does the color of the soul change?

When a character dies of energy drain, do their shadow children just hang around or wander off or what? What do they do?

[adorably_evilish]

What if their bond with their world was non-existent? Like, what if they truly hated their old world? What would be the effects of the shadow children since they're supposed to be stronger depending on how good a bond you had back there?

[animusmods]

He either wouldn't have any shadow children following him or he would have angry ones that nonetheless couldn't do much to him except be an annoyance.

[stitchedupbodyguard]

Is everyone going to be affected by this event? Some of us just got here and don't have any bonds made in the tower.

[animusmods]

This is optional! Your character can just happen to not attract any shadow children.

[falseidentity]

Would they be able to tell the characters things they wouldn't know that happened prior to their coming here--as an example, with Kachessa and her AU, would Venomania be able to reveal himself as Cherub instead of the identity he stole from his brother?

[animusmods]

Yes, but they would be unlikely to do so if it would ease the character's fears/worries/insecurities in any way, and if there's someone playing that character, please run it by them first.

Plotting Thread!

[risingshepard]

WHOO BOY. THIS IS GOING TO GET MESSY.

Shepard will be attracting not one, not two, but three particular people from her homeworld -- Ashley Williams, deceased Soldier, Kaidan Alenko, romanced Sentinel, though their relationship was strained as of her current canonpoint, and David Anderson, her mentor. The latter two will be coming from the final game in her series, to make matters worse, so she'll be getting hammered down by a metric ton of survivor guilt, or heck, just guilt in general.

Anyone want to help her out? The floor's open.

Re: Plotting Thread!

[idkworldruler]

He would be willing to take time out of his busy schedule to help if you'd like.

[mywayofhelping]

Would the shadow children appear only how the person they follow remembers them? Or, in other words, if there are things about them that their victims don't know, the shadow children wouldn't work that in to their talking?

[animusmods]

The shadow children wouldn't work that in unless it would in some way torment them more. Additionally, if the character the shadow child is is being played, permission must be granted from the player of that character.