(no subject)
Night 019 Plot Update
As night falls over the house, the scuttling and whispering plaguing those bitten by the beetles--who disappear during the transition, creeping and flying away through cracks in floorboards and bushes in the Greenhouse and the like--grows ever more intense, to the point where it becomes unbearable--something has to give, as the breaking point is reached.
Naturally, that "something" is the characters themselves.
As the sun sets completely, the characters will realize the unsettling truth: more than just biting them, the beetles have also used them as a fertile place to lay their eggs in, eggs which have now started to hatch. Characters will either find themselves overcome with nausea and violently (and probably rather bloodily, at that) vomiting up eggs and newly hatched or hatching beetles, or seized with pain as the eggs hatch within their body proper and the beetles begin to gnaw their way free. Those holes will probably be rather sizeable, too; the hatching beetles are about the size of grapes, and characters can expect to produce anywhere from a dozen to a hundred beetles, depending on how many times and how severely they were bitten.
The scuttling and whispering are relieved immediately, of course, though nausea, intense pain, and substantial blood loss probably become much more immediate concerns, both for their own sake and for the possibility of hellhounds coming after them. Also worrisome is the fact that the whispering in their minds has taken on an entirely new dimension--beneath the fresh hum of the beetles, they can hear themselves whispering in their own minds, their own voices pouring out their most intimate truths and closely guarded secrets, dark or pure, fantastic or mundane. Naturally, the beetles are fully functional and move to scatter almost as soon as they are out of the character, ready to spread through the house and spread the characters' secrets with them.
Naturally, they're fast little creatures, and bite viciously when cornered or caught. They also have an aggravating habit of reviving or disappearing from traps (like closed jars) within minutes of being killed or imprisoned, once they're no longer being watched. After all, the truth never dies, does it? And the truth, of course, will set you free.
Unfortunately, killing these beetles has a markedly greater effect than killing those spawned by the house and its creatures. Rather than simply hear the truth, characters who kill a beetle know the truth. They experience it in its full context in a rush of understanding, the secret's owner's thoughts and feelings surrounding it, its meaning, even its context. That particular truth becomes painfully laid bare, an intimate connection between the secret and those who have been told it, as the latter took a piece of the former's life and identity into their hands.
Of course, the beetles' venom hasn't run its course just yet; characters will find themselves just as unfortunately truthful tonight as they were earlier in the day.
NOTE: If your character is having secrets spread, please give a run-down of them in this post. If you would like to have your character hear or experience another's secrets, please request to do so in this post, or between yourselves. Basically, please just cooperate, make sure anything done with this plot is kosher with other muns before doing it, and that everyone has their facts straight!
As night falls over the house, the scuttling and whispering plaguing those bitten by the beetles--who disappear during the transition, creeping and flying away through cracks in floorboards and bushes in the Greenhouse and the like--grows ever more intense, to the point where it becomes unbearable--something has to give, as the breaking point is reached.
Naturally, that "something" is the characters themselves.
As the sun sets completely, the characters will realize the unsettling truth: more than just biting them, the beetles have also used them as a fertile place to lay their eggs in, eggs which have now started to hatch. Characters will either find themselves overcome with nausea and violently (and probably rather bloodily, at that) vomiting up eggs and newly hatched or hatching beetles, or seized with pain as the eggs hatch within their body proper and the beetles begin to gnaw their way free. Those holes will probably be rather sizeable, too; the hatching beetles are about the size of grapes, and characters can expect to produce anywhere from a dozen to a hundred beetles, depending on how many times and how severely they were bitten.
The scuttling and whispering are relieved immediately, of course, though nausea, intense pain, and substantial blood loss probably become much more immediate concerns, both for their own sake and for the possibility of hellhounds coming after them. Also worrisome is the fact that the whispering in their minds has taken on an entirely new dimension--beneath the fresh hum of the beetles, they can hear themselves whispering in their own minds, their own voices pouring out their most intimate truths and closely guarded secrets, dark or pure, fantastic or mundane. Naturally, the beetles are fully functional and move to scatter almost as soon as they are out of the character, ready to spread through the house and spread the characters' secrets with them.
Naturally, they're fast little creatures, and bite viciously when cornered or caught. They also have an aggravating habit of reviving or disappearing from traps (like closed jars) within minutes of being killed or imprisoned, once they're no longer being watched. After all, the truth never dies, does it? And the truth, of course, will set you free.
Unfortunately, killing these beetles has a markedly greater effect than killing those spawned by the house and its creatures. Rather than simply hear the truth, characters who kill a beetle know the truth. They experience it in its full context in a rush of understanding, the secret's owner's thoughts and feelings surrounding it, its meaning, even its context. That particular truth becomes painfully laid bare, an intimate connection between the secret and those who have been told it, as the latter took a piece of the former's life and identity into their hands.
Of course, the beetles' venom hasn't run its course just yet; characters will find themselves just as unfortunately truthful tonight as they were earlier in the day.
NOTE: If your character is having secrets spread, please give a run-down of them in this post. If you would like to have your character hear or experience another's secrets, please request to do so in this post, or between yourselves. Basically, please just cooperate, make sure anything done with this plot is kosher with other muns before doing it, and that everyone has their facts straight!