Event: Curses!

[applesaucemod]

The twenty-seventh of August dawns bright and clear, but when your characters wake up, they will immediately notice something wrong. They've woken up the wrong size, or species, or age. Or perhaps everything seems normal until they take a bite of their apple-flavored toaster strudel, or attempt to speak, or wander into the woods, or bump into that old crone in the subway and fail to adequately apologize. However it happens, there's no getting around it: your characters are cursed, like an unfortunate out of a fairy tale.

On the bright side, many curses can be broken. Unfortunately, none of them come with user manuals, so how they might be broken isn't clear. Perhaps true love's kiss will do it, or a heroically sacrificial act, or some serious reflection followed by revelatory insight into your own soul. Or, y'know, whatever. But it's far more likely that your character will just be stuck with whatever it is until sunset, when any and all remaining curses will be broken.

[OOC: Feel free to use this post for initial reactions to whatever curse your character has found themselves suffering. Any additional posts for more specified shenanigans can go up under the 'events: curses' tag. Sunset is a little after 7:30 PM. Backdating and backtagging are the best and you should do both of those things if necessary.]

Comments

[peeta_mellark]

"Uh." Peeta's expression of surprise turns sheepish. "I think it's my fault. I was drawing - drawing you, in dog form," he explains, waving a hand in her direction, "and then the drawing was gone and you were here." He frowns again, more confused than ever.

Effie, torn by Peeta's and Daine's dueling emotions, isn't quite sure where to turn. She whimpers softly, looking between the two of them, before coming to lean against Peeta's leg. He absentmindedly runs a hand down her back, his focus still on this new Daine he has somehow conjured.

"Is this - could this be the Rift?" he asks, wondering if this is some new mischief. He certainly didn't have this power before, when he sketched Effie last night. A thought suddenly occurs to him. "Could this be my rift power? Do people ever get rift power this late after arriving?" The idea is disturbing for many reasons, chief among them the thought that he might have to give up sketching.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine frowns. "I don't think so. If it was your rift power, you'd think it would have happened before today." She shifts from one forepaw to the other, brow furrowed in concentration. He sketches all the time - he's drawn her several times already - and it's not like a rift power to kick in so late.

Anything odd happen today aside from this? she asks her counterpart.

Aside from little animals falling out of my mouth whenever I speak? comes the dry reply. Odd things are probably happening to lots of people. I've got to help a new arrival, but we can meet up and try and sort this out later. After a beat, she adds, I suppose you can help yourself to my things, if need be.

Daine huffs aloud - they're her things as much as the other Daine's, she figures - then returns her focus to Peeta. And Effie, who she sends a thread of reassurance.

"I think it's just rift mischief. Strange things are happening to the other Daine, too." She glances between Peeta and his sketchbook, then asks, "What if you draw something else? Maybe something that's not alive, this time."

[peeta_mellark]

Peeta frowns in concern and opens his mouth to ask about the strange things apparently happening to Daine - the other Daine - when this Daine asks him to draw something else. "I - okay," he agrees, not without a little hesitation.

What if he draws something else and it appears? Will he have to stop sketching forever? And painting, too? He doesn't think he could live like that. Or what if he draws something and it doesn't appear the way this Daine did? Would that mean the new power only works once? Or only works on things that are alive? Or only works on Daine?

He rolls his shoulders once, pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind. After a few moments of consideration about what to risk drawing, he settles on a chair. He could use a spare for company, and as chairs are inanimate objects there can't be any harm in it suddenly appearing.

With quick, sure strokes, he draws a chair very similar to the one in which he sits. He subconsciously adds in the smallest of details, giving the back of the chair an arching curve more common to District 12 than anything he's seen in Manhattan. Still, the sketch is complete in only a couple of minutes. He lifts his pencil from the paper and has just long enough to take in the picture as a whole before it disappears. A soft thunk announces the chair's arrival in his quarters, and he lifts his eyes from the pad to find it sitting in the corner.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine lets her head lapse back into dog shape while Peeta works, taking the few minutes to reassure Effie that she's fine... or that both of her are well enough, anyway. The Daine in the park might have a hard time talking to two-leggers, but at least she can still communicate with the People (and with her). At least neither of them are injured or ill; that's the man thing.

As for what's going to happen to them in the long run... well, they'll just have to worry about that later. Maybe it'll be like having a twin, or something. And she could help more animals if there were two of her.

She pricks her ears forward when the chair appears in the corner, then trots over to investigate it. It looks and smells normal enough, and when she rears up to put her forepaws on the seat, it holds her weight. Daine reshapes her mouth and turns back to Peeta, tail wagging. "Well, that's one way to make a chair."

[peeta_mellark]

Despite Daine's enthusiasm, Peeta's stomach sinks when her inspection of the chair shows it to be just as real and solid as she is. He sets the sketchpad on the desk behind him again, but can't bring himself to discard the pencil yet. It might be the last time he gets to hold one.

"So what does this mean?" he asks, only slightly morosely. "Do you think it's permanent?"

[wildmage_daine]

"I doubt it," Daine says, hopping off the new chair and crossing back over to Peeta. "This sort of rift strangeness doesn't tend to last too long. I'd be surprised if you weren't drawing normally again by this time next week." Maybe she shouldn't be making such implicit promises, but it really would be strange of the rift to just change the way things are for everyone in one fell swoop like this.

"... Though I don't know what'll happen to the chair once this is all over with," she admits. "Or to me, come to think of it." Will she just vanish? Stop existing, like snuffing out a candle? Mithros, she can't say she's looking forward to that.

[peeta_mellark]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Peeta doesn't find Daine's reassurances exactly comforting. As much as he wants to cling to the possibility of losing this new power and regaining the ability to draw without consequence, it coming at the price of this Daine's existence seems wrong. The chair he isn't worried about.

"Maybe you won't. Maybe my drawing will stop coming to life but the things that I've already created will stay." He shrugs and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. "I wouldn't put it past the rift to do something like that. We're so used to things like this happening and then the results disappearing after a while; it wouldn't surprise me if the rift decided to be fickle and change things up this time."

It wouldn't surprise him, but he doesn't really believe that's the case. But if it is - well, they'll deal with that when and if it happens.

[wildmage_daine]

"From your lips to the rift's ears," Daine scolds lightly, rearing up to plant a forepaw on his chair and press her cold, wet nose against his cheek. Then she gets back down to the floor and trots over to his door.

"I'm going to change," she informs him. "Then I'll be back. You might check and see if your thing works no matter what you draw with. Maybe you can still use pens or markers and it's fine." Or maybe it won't matter, but they'll never know if he doesn't experiment, and at least now he knows to stick to things that aren't alive.

[peeta_mellark]

Daine's doggie kiss does more than her words to calm his concerns, and Peeta gives her suggestion of experimentation a steady nod. "Right. Good idea." Maybe there's a loophole somewhere he can find.

Once Daine disappears around the door frame, he turns his chair back around to face the desk. He stares at the blank page of the sketchpad where the chair that now sits in the corner of his room began its existence. A vague worry taking shape in his mind, he puts the pencil still in his hands to the page and draws out a random set of numbers. He pauses, lifting the pencil from the page, but nothing happens. Then he tries a random set of letters. Nothing. Finally, he writes out the word chair. When the word remains on the page and no new chair appears in his room, he lets out a small sigh of relief. It seems only his pictures are affected which, while still upsetting, is better than all his writing somehow coming to life. Though he doesn't know how that could happen with random words and letters. Them appearing on his walls, maybe?

Shaking his head at himself, he pulls open the desk drawer and withdraws a handful of various writing utensils. He lays them out on the desk, then trades his pencil for the first one in the row: a colored pencil. Not much difference, but a good enough place to start.

A few options later, the chair in the corner has been joined by a lamp, a quilt, a set of mixing bowls, and a dog bed that Effie sniffs distrustingly before dragging it to Peeta's feet and curling up on it. Meanwhile, Peeta selects a pen from the diminishing pile on the desk. It's the nicest one he has, given to him by a kind old man he'd met while sketching in the park. He stares at it for a second, then at the page - as clean as can be despite the numerous objects he's drawn upon it - before starting a new sketch. While the other sketches have been of nothing specific, this one he draws from memory.

The pen lays down smooth, thin lines, perfect for the control he needs. The image is seared into his memory, and his hands don't hesitate even though his heartbeat accelerates ever so slightly. He lifts the pen before he can change his mind, and the soft tink that sounds from the mixing bowls matches perfectly with the image disappearing from the page. Setting the pen down in the pile of tried implements, Peeta crosses the room and retrieves the object from the bowls.

Then he sits back down at the desk, running his thumb over the image of the mockingjay in flight, and thinks.

[wildmage_daine]

It's a short trot to her room, where Sarge and Molly greet her with no small amount of confusion. She does her best to explain the situation to them as she shifts back into her human shape and dresses. There's not much to say so far - all she knows is that there are two of her, that the rift is involved (of course), and that - as with most rift troubles - no one has a gods-blest clue what happens next. She gives them each a reassuring scrub with her fingertips before heading back to Peeta's.

Once she steps inside, she raises her eyebrows at his new collection of objects. "You've been busy." She drops into a crouch to give Effie's ears a ruffle while she looks over the new creations in the corner. "I'm guessing it doesn't matter what you use to draw with."

[peeta_mellark]

Daine's voice drags Peeta from his ponderings, and he pockets the pin as he turns to her. "So far. I haven't tried everything, but there doesn't seem to be a difference." He smiles wryly. "On the positive side, it only seems to be pictures that are affected; I can still write words and numbers."

Not that that's any comfort. Already there's a slight tingling in his fingertips, whether phantom or not, the underlying itch to draw. In response, he puts his hand in his pocket, fingering the pin there, still warm from his touch.

"What was happening to Daine - the other Daine?" he asks. Now that they've figured out what's happening to him, his concern about her rises again.

[wildmage_daine]

"Oh." Daine winces sympathetically. "She can't speak - not aloud. Well, she can, but it's best she doesn't. I guess little animals fall out of her mouth whenever she does - frogs and mice and things like that." It's a strange sort of thing to have to deal with, but then again, she doubts anyone else could deal with it better. At least she could apologize to any creatures she unwittingly relocated and explain to them what was going on.

"But aside from that, she's all right," Daine hastens to add. It's fair strange, watching Peeta be concerned about her while she's also standing right here. Like one of those jokes about folk faking their deaths so they can see what everyone really thinks of them.

[peeta_mellark]

It's strange for Peeta, too, to be sitting here in front of Daine and asking about her like she's someone else - which she is. He adjusts to it more quickly than he might have otherwise; having been confronted with lookalikes the same day he arrived went a long way toward shaping his adaptability. He got used to talking to people who looked like someone they weren't. This Daine and the other Daine might be the same person, but they're still separate and therefore separate individuals in his mind.

He winces gently when this Daine details her counterpart's troubles. "Ah." That must be terrible for her, in a multitude of ways. At least she's comfortable with the People; other people would be far more traumatized at having small animals spill out of their mouths.

"Is she in the park?" That seems the most likely place for her to go, with animals falling from her mouth. Plenty of safe places to relocate them.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine nods. "Yes. That's where they're coming from - it's like they're getting taken by little rifts from wherever they were and spat out her mouth." Daine wrinkles her nose, not envying the other her one bit.

"I think I might go out there as well," she says a moment later. "The other Daine's helping a new arrival, so I could finish her--my?--rounds." Odd's bobs, this is going to be weird. At least it won't be hard to avoid herself if need be. The other her glows in her mind's eye like a beacon. "But I expect we'll both be back soon." She offers Peeta an apologetic smile. He'll understand, surely.

And now he knows not to draw anything alive.

[peeta_mellark]

Peeta does understand and he gives Daine a nod. "Sure." He pulls his hand out of his pocket and, opening the desk drawer, swipes all of the writing utensils off the desk top and into the drawer. Then he pivots back to face Daine, unconsciously rubbing his hands on his pants.

"I guess we'll catch up later, then?" He gives her a half smile. "It'd be fun to watch you and you together."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine glances down at Peeta's hands, feeling a bit sorry for him. She knows he normally spends a fair amount of time sketching; hopefully it won't needle him overmuch to have to take a little time off. Whatever this business is, it won't last that long, surely.

Never mind what that means for her.

"We'll be back soon," she promises with a lopsided smile. At least the two of them can distract him a bit. "I expect she'll be needing me to translate if she wants to talk to any two-leggers, anyway." She crouches to give Effie one last ear ruffle, then straightens. "We'll be sure to find you."