Piper 90: Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
goneawaymod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
goneawayworld2020-06-22 01:25 am
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawayworld2020-06-22 01:25 am
Entry tags:
UNICORN HUNTING
unicorn hunting
PLOT DESCRIPTION
Wanting to strike up a good relationship with a town with many magical resources the group is dispatched to help the town with a magical plague harming its children. The only thing that can cure them is the unicorns in the nearby magical woods. However, due to past attempts at capture, the unicorns no longer trust any of the townspeople and can reocgnize them on site. The town wants the New Hires to try their hand at luring them in.
The only catch: the unicorns aren't attracted to virgins, they're attracted to emotional vulnerability, and they'll only come if the whole group displays it. Loudly. Which means the New Hires will have to shout their insecurities into the forest and submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.
After the unicorns are caught they'll also have to navigate a difficult moral choice.
SCENARIO
Meanwhile, one of the locations Jorgmund is building connections with is a small village in an wooded area that one could easily distinguish as “enchanted”, on account of the overgrown mushrooms and general sparkliness of the air. Sunbeams lance down, rainbows seem to sprout out regardless of lighting. Lush berries hang from the bushes and shiny red apples dangle from the trees.
Unfortunately, the idyllic aura of the town is besmirched by the sad fact that the children in the town have all been struck by a mysterious disease - a pox that puts children into an endless sleep and has been debilitating this town for weeks. The locals know that the only cure is fresh emotional wounds for the unicorns that inhabit the woods, but their own fear and sorrow over their children isn’t sufficient to get the wily beasts to cooperate. In exchange for their allyship, they require assistance luring in the healing unicorns, which will require public displays of emotional vulnerability from the hires. Beat poetry readings, a cappella ballads, merely shouting into the woods - so long as the hires bare their wounds and weaknesses to the forest, the unicorns will approach.
There’s still a little struggle involved, though - just because a unicorn gets close doesn’t mean it’s willing to give its forces over to the sick children of the town, or to humankind in general. Unicorns must be lured and lassoed and forced into the role of caretaker, which the Jorgmund insists is both for the best and a task that will be well-compensated.
This is, naturally, even more difficult when other forest denizens decide to interfere; in addition to the mortification of shouting your deepest fears into the forest, a hire might find themself accosted with tricky imps trying to steal their belongings, or pixies trying to pluck out their eyes. The local fae are particularly sneaky, trying to play pranks or draw the hires into loser’s contracts to prevent them from ever going home. One might find that the mortifying ordeal of being known is small potatoes compared to the trials the magical beings in the woods are setting up.
For now.
➤ Characters have been given enchanted golden lariats to catch the unicorns with. Once they get them around their necks, they'll be far more docile.
➤ This is a multi-part plot. A later part will involve some moral choices about what to do with the unicorns after the children are cured.
➤ The vulnerable thoughts they shout have to shout have to be fairly extreme, though characters who have very few insecurities can get away with less serious ones. They have to shout them at a fairly high volume.
➤ Other signs of vulnerability like crooning a love song dedicated to someone they have a crush on are also valid.
➤ Players can make up mystical annoyances or minor threats in the forest, and have the freedom to make them anything that might be reasonably found in your average generic enchanted forest.
➤ Feel free to ask questions in the question top-level below.
no subject
Okay!
Steven can say that when he heard "lure out and catch unicorn," he was sort of base-level on board for that. Just on the principle of the idea that unicorns do in fact exist somewhere, and he wants to see one.
The method immediately threw him for a loop. It's kind of everything he's been trying to avoid doing since the Cactus Steven incident back home. (Since before then, probably, but Cactus Steven was a big selling point on why dumping his problems out isn't the best idea he's ever had.) And he already knows full well what his stance is on the prospect of not letting these unicorns stay trapped and forced to play caretaker for the rest of forever. Cross that bridge when you get to it, right?
On the ground floor of this mission, being the general trekking-through-the-forest part, Steven's doing his best to be a useful participant! Not all of his powers have been online since he first turned up with Jorgmund, but he's got some stuff to work with. Feel free to assume he's employing measures for The Team as needed.
A nice sturdy shield for fending off aerial attacks! A shield bubble, which is too soundproof to be useful during unicorn-luring, but which can provide a brief reprieve from uhh. Everything else in the forest, while people make a game plan. The occasional potential magic healing kiss for scrapes and bruises, depending on if that power even wants to work right in the moment (up to player discretion or d20 roll, really).
The mortifying ordeal... of being known...
Is a struggle.
At least it's not just him struggling with it. ]
Wow, you'd think I'd be a little better at this part. Emotional vulnerability is like, my whole thing. [ Is it, buddy, or do you curate your emotional vulnerability most days as a prop for the safe vulnerability of others? These are things Steven does not actually think about.
Mostly, he manages to immediately make himself feel guilty for not being better at this. Maybe he should try to come up with a song. ]
Wanna swear to a vulnerabilities secrecy pact before we get started?
[ What happens in the unicorn hunt stays in the unicorn hunt. That would kinda make him feel better, at least. ]
no subject
Also, dead.
Shit, fuck, this got sad and he's going to stop thinking about all the cool things that are dead or probably dead. He's gonna be a good and supportive friend out here in the woods telling secrets to magic horses. ]
One hundred percent, dude.
[ Kevin accepts the proposed pact with great seriousness and a somewhat-forced smile. ]
Also like, if we can also fit in there a whole PS about not worrying about me that would probably be good.
[ He rubs the back of his neck, glancing off through the trees. Kevin's been turning over what he might say in his head, again and again, and anything that feels real also feels like something horrible he doesn't want another person to see.
Not because he's ashamed. Well, maybe a little ashamed, but the big point of worry here is that he doesn't want anyone to feel like they should do anything for him.
That would be weird and selfish and awful. ]
Cause like, I promise you I'm good? Or at least I'm a kind of not good that I'm super used to and I can keep being that way forever probably and it won't be anybody's problem.
no subject
Kevin might be the only person he knows here who's better at Being Fine than he is.
But that thought forces a short, helpless sort of laugh out of him in the same swing, just on the whole principle of thinking it and acknowledging it. Seeing as, go figure: ]
Are you sure you're not a psychic? Because I was gonna say something pretty close to that, too.
[ He's starting to wonder if they are maybe genuinely not okay in a serious capacity, as people. Time to tuck that thought right away beneath the floorboards for now. ]
no subject
Alright, deal.
[ He already knows he can't shut off the worry machine, but he can at least like. Try to keep his mouth shut. That's doable, maybe? ]
If you need a minute I can go, but if you got something bro then like. The uh, forest floor is yours I guess.
no subject
It's a big relief just to have this mutual agreement out there.
Like, at least they get to call the shots on that much. ]
I can go. Uh... [ He shuffles through the ol' mental rolodex with grave consideration. Turns and takes a couple of steps away. Not too many: with the volume requirements, distance won't make much difference in the hearing, and staying closer than not at least means having a shield handy if something tries to pluck their eyes out. ]
I-- [ Oh, wait, volume. Deep breath, because he is committed and he refuses not to pull his weight on a mission of any nature, then: ]
I think I'm too much of a Gem to fit in with normal humans and too much of a human to completely fit in with Gems, and I don't really know what to do about it!
[ These unicorns better be freaking incredible. ]
no subject
And... man. Man.
He had something he was mulling over, but this distracts him immediately.
He squares up, actually removing his hands from his pockets and straightening his back for once. ]
Wow, shit, um! That reminds me of something, actually?
[ He's talking loud, and delaying while sorting this thought into an acceptable shape to get out there. Responding at an angle to what the other person says won't break their agreement, right? ]
I am not good at being a vampire, alright?
Like, this is not news to any vampire that has ever known me, and being good at being a vampire is kind of bad anyway!
But now I am starting to not remember what how it feels to be an alive human person either, sometimes!
[ ...Once he says the words, they feel easier. Terrifyingly easier. Some more come spilling out. ]
Like I knew this was going to happen to me because it's just what happens to vampires, but guess what, unicorns! It sucks! I'm scared of it!
no subject
He waits for a few seconds. No unicorn comes charging through the trees to feed on... frankly their misery, because that's all it feels like, just a big miserable experience. There are, maybe, the distant sounds of other people yelling their issues into the void. ]
This is awkward. I mean, it- it's a little regular awkward but--
[ He fumbles because maybe it's dumb to say that like that. He doesn't want Kevin to think it's because he's judging him. ]
The thing is, my mom left so much damage behind to deal with that I never figured out what to do when I ran out of damage to deal with! I think I just assumed I'd be dealing with it for the rest of my life? Only it turned out that I got that over with in like, three years, and there's still a ton of "rest of my life" left!
Everyone's doing great and moving forward back home, but I don't even know how to make friends if I'm not helping someone work through exactly the kind of stuff we're yelling about! So I'm-
[ Preemptively sorry if the no-worrying clause gets broken at the end of the day, because it's such a big part of what he does. Also ready for a stress nap. ]
I'm kinda glad to be stuck with Jorgmund because at least it means I know what to do! And that freaks me out!
no subject
[ What the fuck even is this? Kevin lets out a long breath, mostly out of habit because "out of habit" is the only way Kevin does any kind of breathing to begin with. ]
It's not the same thing but I feel you cause like.. I'm like... there's a whole rest of my life, or my death I guess? That was all out in front of me forever. But I've just been me for ten years now, man, and I don't... nothing changes for me? Everybody moves on but me.
[ ...That came out a lot more sincerely than he wanted it to. He's focusing more and more on what's being said here than on the theoretical mythical horse situation. ]
Like don't get me wrong, the whole apocalypse thing I was dealing with was fucking horrible and this is a really selfish thought nobody should ever have. But uh.
[ He holds out his hands. ]
At least it meant that's... things got no choice but to change now.
And here, things got no choice but to be different like this.
And maybe I don't know what to do, but like. I've never known what to do? And having no choice but to do something sort of feels better than spending forever doing nothing again?
[ Kevin manages a half-smile, and that expression is much more tired than anything he's shown thus far. ]
It's a couple kinds of fucked and it's scary as shit and I promise I'm not like, worrying, but also bro I'm sorry you got anything close.
no subject
He's good at empathy. It's his thing. Someone has something going on, and he stops and he thinks about what he can unpack for them. 'I'm not the same as you, exactly, but I understand enough of this to have a foot in the door, to know what you mean when you tell me about it and why it hurts.' Or sometimes he doesn't really understand it at all, and all he can do is listen, bear what comes his way until they're tired enough, until they've vented enough of it out to go forward.
So this is weird. As many times as he's dug out pieces of himself to offer, it's kind of like being a one-way mirror from one of those cheesy TV shows. Showing people pieces of themselves they can recognize. They're looking at them. He's also looking at them.
It's really rare that Steven looks at another person and thinks there's enough big pieces to reflect that they both might... be looking at each other through a window, with themselves sort of also laid over in the reflection?
Rare because he doesn't look for it. Rare because people don't tend to do what he does back at him. Which is fine, obviously, it's not like that's why he tries to help them.
Usually this kind of thing only happens when he's, uh. Literally looking at himself. (He looked at Amethyst once and felt it. And it was a good thing back when he did, because it meant they weren't totally alone feeling like they were. But it changed.)
Steven hears nothing changes for me and everybody moves on but me and having no choice but to do something sort of feels better, and he thinks you're like me-- oh no, you're like me-- turns to Kevin with a heavy, helpless laugh that strains on the way out. ]
Yeah, it sucks, right? [ Relief like this has never meshed well with guilt for feeling relief, but he can multi-task. ] But hey, if you ever wanna... not wish it on anyone else together, at least we know where the other one lives?
[ Local teen offers to form "well it's too late for me probably" support group with fellow emotional workhorse for home universe adults. ]
no subject
Yeah. That's... that's very true. I'm good with that. It actually sucks less to admit that I got these problems than I thought it would?
[ One of those things to feel? That weird sort of relief that comes from letting go of a lie. Kevin swings one arm lazily and lets his closed hand thump against a tree trunk, thoughtful. Then he sighs. ]
...Shit, I already forgot yelling.
[ He eyes the trees. ]
I don't like yelling, by the way! It's too much attention usually!
[ He'll make up for it, it's fine, it's good! It's not like the plan was to yell everything. Or that they even had a plan that was in any way detailed. ]
no subject
I'll happily promise to plug my ears, but I have no intention of participating in this - whatever this is.
[His voice is low, cultured, and at the moment, extremely snotty.]
no subject
First week, he can't imagine how much more it would've sucked having to do something like this.
It doesn't stop an impulsive little flare of irritation, alongside that understanding. Big picture, he'd like to think he can attribute that towards Jorgmund in general. ]
If you don't feel up for it, then yes. I'd appreciate you plugging your ears while I yell at unicorns about my insecurities. [ In fact: ] I... also wasn't totally joking about the secrecy thing. Is that okay? I'm, I'm working on my own stuff. It doesn't need any extra hands on deck.
[ Things that are lies that he doesn't know are lies, 2020. ]
no subject
I doubt your innermost secrets are of any more interest to me then mine are to you. That being said -
[he covers his ears]
- whenever you're ready.
no subject
He believes very firmly on every level that he'd rather be going solo on unicorn duty than forcing someone else to yell a bunch of sensitive stuff out into the void. He doesn't have a grudge to hold over that, nothing he wants to take out on someone. He knows that.
Being in this situation at all has him feeling a little short, though.
This guy sort of reminds him of Yellow. There are better and worse people to be reminded of. And in theory, way worse people to be forced to yell deep insecurities around. Yellow really wouldn't be interested enough to listen. Empathy was always more his thing than any of the Diamonds.
What vulnerabilities has he not trotted out for unicorn luring already...?
Oh.
Ugh. ]
I'm... secretly still pretty sure my mom had me so she could permanently avoid all the lies she told and ways she hurt people? I mean, I don't think she thought I'd have to deal with all her stuff! She just didn't really think about what she did at all! Except that maybe if she had me, no one would think she was selfish for running away from it!
[ It's hard to reconcile everything he's ever been told or found out about her, still. Every time he thinks he's got the full picture, it's like some new horrible thing was only waiting for that signal to come out of the woodwork.
It always comes back to his mom. Every time. Except for Jorgmund, this mission excepted. It's been a while, but he's still tired of it all the way down to his bones. ]
Honestly, I'm. I'm not so sure I'm ever gonna work back around to a place where I think good things about her, and I'm not sure I want to anyway! If any unicorns might be interested in hearing about it!
no subject
[Hellfire and damnation, now he's feeling either guilty or indigestion. He doesn't owe any of these people a damn thing.]
[Besides, he's almost embarrassed for the boy. They may be prosaic but they're still his private feelings. Hearing them confessed is an intimacy he has emphatically no interest in. Like being forced to rifle through someone's underwear drawer. Just... icky.]
[So surely a unicorn will come along any moment now. It's quite a lot of emotional blood in the water. Any moment now.]
[Any.]
[Moment.]
[Now.]
...For heaven's sake, isn't that enough? What do the damn things want, a bloody memoir?
no subject
Just standing here... in the quiet... awkwardly.
Beckett's complaint drags a short burst of genuine, surprised laughter out of him, though. Unexpected, but something he's infinitely grateful for. ]
Yeah, they're, uh. They're awfully picky about their emotional flavors, I guess?
no subject
[He doesn't like that idea one bit. And he's damn well not going to participate. What would he even talk about? Anatole's dead, Aristotle might as well be, Lucita's vanished up her dead sire's arse and who knows what Vykos is doing. Beckett probably doesn't want to know.]
I suppose... [he hesitates. Weighs risk vs risk: exposure again being stuck out here indeterminately and dealing with Jorgmund if they fail]
Hmph. One could make the argument that there are certain secrets my kind hold so close that revealing them might satisfy these damn creature's fetish. Without getting into any - personal details, on my part.
[Sometimes there are end runs. He devoutly hopes this is another one of those times. The thought of being forced to watch the child bare his soul again is excruciating]
no subject
[But the alternative is a kid alone in the woods calling out his problems and it feels like something where he shouldn't be alone. Where he should have an adult to empathize and reassure him.]
[So he stays. If Steven tries to help him, he'll deflect. And he'll be there if he needs someone to listen because somebody should be.]
[He holds out his hand and sticks out a pinky.]
That's super duper pinky swear territory, kid. Don't leave me hanging.
no subject
That is the most serious pinky swear there is. [ So credit where credit is due, it shaves one thing off of his list of current pressing concerns. Ben is good at that kind of thing. The good energy thing. The shaving off of concerns.
Steven sort of wishes he was unicorn hunting with anybody else.
Because Ben is genuinely nice, and he does have the kind of good energy that even a few rough layers can't hide-- which Steven likes to think he knows enough about to say with confidence, life experience considered.
But he feels on edge around him. Not the way he'd feel if he wound up having to hang with the Diamonds longer than expected, or around Spinel while that whole mess was going on, or-- okay, that super awkward day or so trying to give Bluebird the benefit of the doubt, that counts, too.
Not anything that sharp, that exhausting, but... offbeat. Like he took a step somewhere that he can't walk back, because he doesn't know exactly what it was. Some signal he didn't pick up that he apparently should've been able to, that put the basis of his friend-making brand off course. Something he did wrong.
(It was probably the thing with saying he was fine too much. He'll own that. Even if it also feels like a universal prank that he said it and now Ben keeps seeing him stressed out or gearing up to yell his deepest insecurities? Jeez.)
Ben's a tough nut. It would be lying to say Steven hasn't been curious about what he's so determined to hold back. Because obviously that is part of this equation. Obviously. But this setup kinda feels like cheating compared to his usual method of cracking through a shell and establishing a friendship.
Enough that he knows he's not gonna try to cheap out on the unicorn-luring and leave Ben to do the heavy lifting. Fair is fair. They'll be embarrassed together. It'll happen, and it'll be done, and everything willing, they can pretend that they didn't do this mission and it didn't happen.
Unless Ben is in need of some post-field trip support. But Steven has a feeling that's the longest long shot of all.
He extends the metaphorical hand of brief conversation while he goes digging through his powerpoint presentation of insecurities for... what he is hoping will be the least worrying-sounding starter? He didn't really plot them out in tiers. ]
Maybe next time we'll get a mission to walk into a magical forest yelling knock-knock jokes.
[ All he had to do to lure the attention of a magical lion was sit there being sweaty. This is insanity. ]
no subject
Honestly, I'd even take interpretative dance over this.
[Ugh, they might as well get crackin'.]
[Peter sighs.]
I might as well kick things off. [He draws up his shoulders and tries to think of something that is actually honest without being too serious. (They may as well work up to the serious stuff and hope they don't have to go too far into Deep Insecurities.)]
[He shouts into the woods:]
I know Marvin the hot dog cart guy promised me hot dogs for life for saving him from that falling rubble the one time, but I did the math once on how much one hot dog a day for ten years probably cost him and I'm really starting to worry I'm taking advantage. What kind of person does that make me?
no subject
(Should a person... should a person eat a hot dog every day for ten years? Is Steven qualified to judge that matter?)
Steven doesn't quite tip over into wondering if Ben is taking this seriously. If he knows one thing, it's that insecurities of all levels will eat at a person. And at this point, as long as the job gets done, it doesn't much matter if the problem is world-ending or about getting scared by one of those pop-up snake peanut brittle cans.
Just. Wasn't expecting this. Not that it isn't a helpful measure for somewhere soft to land when Steven takes his turn.
First, though, like a moth to the helping flame, inevitably, he offers: ]
A lifesaver, mostly. Does Marvin not have a tip jar? [ Do you tip hotdogmen? That's an etiquette Steven has not yet explored in his illustrious career. It feels like a person should be allowed to tip Marvin. Those hot dogs are his livelihood. ]
no subject
Oh, yeah. No problem. I wasn't planning on saying anything about it anyways.
[Words shouted into the woods weren't exactly words said in confidence, but Gadget was planning on treating them like they were.]