EVENT: Three Days of Rain

[applesaucemod]

EVENT: THREE DAYS OF RAIN



At seven o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, July 30th, it begins to rain. It's not a drizzle or a downpour, but a steady, soaking sort of rain that puddles on the sidewalks and saturates the ground. The storm seems to park itself over Manhattan for the morning, and reluctantly rolls out to sea shortly after noon.

An hour after the skies clear, any rifty who got caught out in the rain may start to notice something unusual: namely, that they're escaping the notice of others. It's as if the rain has washed something out of them, and they're slowly fading out of others' awareness. Afflicted rifties are still corporeal, visible, and audible - they're not ghosts. But as time goes on, they'll continue to slip beneath everyone else's notice. By the evening of the 30th, they'll find that others' eyes tend to slide right over them, and afflicted rifties will have to grab people by the shoulder or raise their voices just to get a little acknowledgment.

Over the next two days, the effects will only worsen. Unless a significant effort is made by both parties, afflicted rifties will find themselves relegated to the background, their voices on par with the ambient sound of traffic, their faces as noteworthy as any given brick on a wall, their touch the equivalent of a sudden draft. Those who were not caught in the rain will still remember their fading friends, but they'll have an increasingly difficult time physically focusing on them.

On the bright side, afflicted rifties will be able to perceive one another with typical clarity, allowing them to easily interact with one another, if not the general population. The network will also be less affected than the rifties themselves, so text messages may be more easily perceived than speech (though by the end of the 31st, text alerts from afflicted rifties will be less noticeable than usual).

Most importantly, the weather isn't done with them. There will be occasional, sudden cloudbursts over the course of July 31st and August first, and another little soaking will reverse the effects of the initial storm. By evening of August first, everyone should be back to normal.

[OOC: Initial reactions to the fade-out can be posted here. Other shenanigans can go up in their own posts using the tag 'event: three days of rain.' Whether your character is affected and for how long is up to you, though it's safe to say that as the first of August draws to a close, rogue cloudbursts will be difficult for any still-afflicted rifties to avoid (we're not saying a tiny raincloud will spontaneously coalesce above the heads of afflicted rifties regardless of whether they're outdoors or not, buuuut we're not saying one won't, either). Backdating is, as ever, allowed and encouraged. And since this takes place over three days in game, forward dating will also be allowed if you want to get right into day three terribleness.]

Comments

(for sunshine)

[erratic_hematic]

Spike is standing just outside the doorway of the bookstore having a smoke when it starts to rain. He'd been having a fair amount of success at keeping people out of the bookstore this way. Not many people seem willing to barrel in past him and risk smoke and him to see what's inside. He marks the new technique down as a success and flips up the collar of his jacket, not quite ready to head back inside yet. He wants to finish the cigarette.

As he's nearing it's end, the rain changes from a drizzle to an abrupt downpour and he gives up, throwing the remainder down and heading back inside.

It's a couple hours before anyone bothers to come in, but he pipes up from behind the desk, "We're closed," which usually is enough to send people away if they're not put off by the store itself. The woman is not put off. In fact, she seems to be ignoring him altogether. He pipes up again, louder this time. She pauses for a moment then just continues on poking around, so he sighs and pushes himself up from the desk. She doesn't seem to notice him until he's within a foot of her. She jumps in surprise and, finally, he gets her to leave.

The same thing happens another two times before noon, and he's starting to think that something might be wrong.

[rae_of_sun]

At around half past one, Sunshine breezes into the bookshop, workday officially over. Hey, starting at five AM has its perks, aside from the most recent one of 'not getting rained on in transit.' Not that she had the means of fully appreciating the downpour from back in the windowless bakery, but she could see it coming down when she ventured out behind the counter to stock the display cabinets, and the pavement is still wet when her shift ends. Ugh. A good morning to be stuck in the bakery, then.

There's no obvious sign of Aziraphale when she walks in, but Spike is there, and looking a bit more glowering than usual. The target of his ire is an actual customer - gods, you don't see those often - determinedly browsing the shelves despite the vampire lite boring figurative holes into the back of his head. Sunshine raises her eyebrows, then sidles up to Spike and slips an arm around his waist. "Hey, sweetie," she says, if only to highlight the yawning gulf between 'sweet' and Spike's current expression. The customer turns to give her a confused look, and she furrows her brow right back at him as if to say, 'I wasn't talking to you.' The guy's gaze briefly slides over to Spike, and then he turns back to the shelf.

Well, that was weird. "You've got a stubborn one," she observes in an undertone.

[erratic_hematic]

"This wanker won't leave," Spike answers, not in an undertone. "He's not the only one. He's number four like this." He glowers at the man for a moment longer, then pulls away from Sunshine to go over to him and physically set a hand on his shoulder. "We're closing early today. We close early every day. Get out." The man startles, seeming to finally take notice of Spike, realize that Spike doesn't seem open to further discussion, then hurriedly makes his way out the front door.

"There's something wrong," Spike says gravely, pacing back and forth as much as the crowded floor will allow. "One of them started leaving a note. A note!"

[rae_of_sun]

He'll have to forgive her for not being entirely convinced, both because he looks and seems normal enough to her, and because she's only personally witnessed one clueless customer - and hell, that guy could have been on something. Several somethings, for all they know.

She fails to fully match his gravity when she says, "Oh, gods. Do you think you might be…" she lowers her voice to a dramatic hush, "… losing your touch?" She grins, but Spike doesn't seem inclined to find any humor in the situation. Whatever's going on, it's actually rattled him. So, fine, maybe she shouldn't tease.

Softening, Sunshine reaches out to snag his arm as he paces past her, arresting his progress (limited as it was, given the clutter). "Hey," she says, her tone gentler than it was before, "you look normal to me. For whatever that's worth." Flipped out and grumpy, sure, but it's not like he's frigging invisible or something. "Maybe there was something wrong with them."

[erratic_hematic]

Spike allows himself to be caught up, halting to dip his head and look her in the eye. She's definitely seeing him, but why hadn't the others? He'd been a ghost once, and that's exactly what that avoidance had felt like up until Sunshine showed up. She'd been here at the same time the man was, so it couldn't be him, right? It had to be the others.

"Maybe. But something's definitely off." He huffs out a huge sigh and plops his forehead down onto her shoulder. Whatever it is, it has him rattled. He doesn't like the feeling of not knowing whether or not he might just start gradually fading from existence. Last time, he'd been headed for hell. Does this universe even have a hell? "Four people is a pretty big number for it to be a coincidence."

[rae_of_sun]

He seems more upset than just an impending bad performance review would warrant (especially when a bad performance is the point, at least for his particular position). But maybe that isn't so surprising, if he's really been fielding oblivious would-be customers all day. Sunshine lifts a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing soothing little circles with her fingertips.

"Well," she says after a considering hum, "maybe Aziraphale did some kind of divine whammy to the whole shop in an attempt to make it less noticeable, or something, and it just… needs some fine tuning." It's a stretch. Aziraphale's powerful enough that she has a hard time imagining any attempted work of his going rogue and fixing itself to the wrong thing, like a charm addled by too much travel. Sure, he might be a bit oblivious at times, but he's still an unfallen angel. Is it even possible for him to churn out a--a faulty miracle?

Well, whatever the problem is, getting out of the shop seems like the most obvious Step One. She turns to press a kiss to his temple, then gently suggests, "Why don't we close up the shop and get out of here?"