event } that was easy

[seeingyou]

WHO: All y’all who feel like playin’.
WHAT: MARKER TAG
WHERE: On Navi.
WHEN: Jan. 17-31
WARNINGS: Use ‘em in your threads if needed! And if you end up getting a marker punched through your skull, please report it on the death page.

Something weird is afoot.

Everywhere you look, you’ll find piles of markers, all shapes and sizes and colors. And without explanation, you may find yourself overcome with a deeply competitive impulse to win. Win what? Why, a classic game of marker tag, of course. Why is this happening? Who cares! If affected, the only thing you’ll care about is marking your target.

This "game" will be played out in one-hour increments. For that hour, one person will be the target, and the rest of the ship's affected passengers will have an innate sense of who their target is. Anyone not "it" will chase the target character with the aim of placing a mark on them. Once a target has been marked by another character, the impulse to chase will fade, until the next target is selected at the start of the next hour. Target characters will remain targets until the end of their hour or until they have been marked by all participating characters. After that hour, the game starts all over again with a new target.

Sure hope those marks wash off in the shower!

Comments

[forgarlemald]

[No, that's not the answer that he wanted. That's not the question he asked, and though that lingering touch of concern at Gaius' reaction is telling as to why...it touches something, raw and brittle, and he knows better than to let his emotions get the better of him, but-]

Your Navi conveniently failed to explain the fact that we would find the dead walking the ship, as well.

[But he's been finding that increasingly harder, these last months.]

[He doesn't mean to lose composure. Can't remember a time he's ever taken such a tone with the man before him, and the shame of it heats his face, washing across the fear and frustration that's plagued him since he woke on this damned ship. It would be better if this were a dream, he thinks, because at least then...]

[At least then, he wouldn't have to deal with the guilt. With the thread of shame, still eating at the forefront of his mind as he grits his teeth and lowers his head, to take whatever retribution was to follow the outburst. Because even now, it's easy enough to see that his emperor has little idea of what he's talking about, if any.]

[And Gaius can't decide if that's a blessing, or something else entirely.]

Please- [He pauses. Takes a breath, tries again, to keep his voice steady.] Forgive me, I... I don't yet fully understand everything that is going on.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[It's not, and Emet knows it. But neither can he say he feels much remorse. He did die, and though he had hardly been privy to the depths of Gaius' feelings in the wake of that death, he has had first-hand experience with Navi's ability to bring people in that might have otherwise been assumed dead.

(Experience that he cannot acknowledge, without risking what little foothold he has already managed. But experience nonetheless.)]

Perhaps it hadn't occurred to them that it might be necessary?

[After all, he has seen no sign that Navi has any direct control over who happens to find themselves onboard. Although at this rate, he's half expecting to see someone from Allag next, given how many figures from his long history have shown up thus far - they may only number two, but compared to the number of people onboard at all it's still a fairly significant proportion.

He lets his voice slide a little sharper, in answer. Not enough to betoken anger, at least, but enough to at least indicate that he is not unaffected by the conversation.

And he could lash out, in retribution. Take Gaius to heel for his tone, for losing composure. Perhaps even should, and he makes absolutely no attempt to hide the displeasure that crosses his face. That Gaius has done so is understandable. But though it is a role that he has not donned in some time, he knows that Solus would have, and the words to do so are already on his lips when Gaius begs his forgiveness, and he transmutes the words instead to an airy wave.]

Granted.

[That, at least, he can manage and if nothing else, perhaps Gaius will take it as a boon. Or as him not wanting to dwell too much on the implications that Gaius has seen him die. (Which is not entirely inaccurate. Say rather that he would prefer to not dwell on the moments that had preceded his mortal demise.)]

Although I can hardly claim to have all the details myself. Enough to know why we are said to be here, yes. But not the full details of the methods by which we are plucked from our worlds.

[forgarlemald]

[The man's words, his mannerisms. That familiar, imperial tone. It's hard for that lingering doubt to keep its foothold, when everything about the man before him is Solus zos Galvus, in every way Gaius remembers him to be.]

[Which means that forgiveness is most certainly a boon, after the sudden sharpness that had overtaken the other man's tone. But it's a sharpness that Gaius accepts nonetheless, without complaint or further argument; he'd do the same himself, after all, had done the same, when his own men seemingly crossed the line with him. So when he sees that almost flippant wave of Solus' hand out in his peripheral...]

[He doesn't quite relax, no. The situation is still difficult to digest, still feels too much. But there's gratitude in his eyes when he finally lifts his head, beneath his guarded expression.]

You sound as though you still have far more details than I do.

[It still feels like a dream. Is still disconcerting to look up to that face, and the feeling is only made worse when he's standing there as he is, far from the image of the respected legatus he'd once been. And that Solus doesn't appear interested in questioning that - in questioning the news of his own death, for reasons Gaius can understandably guess - leaves him...surprisingly more grateful, and gives him the scant moments needed to collect himself (to try to collect himself) before he speaks again, with only slight hesitation.]

I must admit, I have to wonder how much truth there is, now, to our arrival being accidental. It seems difficult to believe they would have abducted an emperor without meaning to.

[Although that begs the question... There's a pause, as Gaius considers his next words, the cautious frown on his face taking a turn into something...unreadable.]

...has anyone else arrived? Of our people?