What, exactly, is this supposed to be?

[He holds up a chain, upon which dangles a cage, within which is a very dark heart.]

Is this meant to be some sort of attempt at a clumsy metaphor? I've seen the other posts, of course, and I'm not entirely ignorant of the fact that this is a curse, but it's an idiotic one.

[He shoves the offending item into his pocket and shakes his head.]

I can't, for the life of me, imagine what it's supposed to mean.

[Charlie's also confused as to where this came from. She woke up next to it and has been carrying it everywhere. It's made of light, as far as Charlie can tell. And it pulses occasionally, colors flickering like flames and puffing out small bits of smoke that almost seem to form words, dissipating quickly before any of the words are fully recognized.

She's at home, in the kitchen and has her device turned towards her heart, held safely in her hand. She tried putting it down at one point, tried setting it on the surface of the kitchen table but there's a charred spot. Oops. She wasn't expecting that, honestly.]

I get that this is mine. Whose else would it be, really? But...where did it come from?

[Charlie turns the camera to herself, one eyebrow raised.] Anyone know where it came from?

[And the feed shuts off. This is gonna be an interesting day.]

[Leah sits on the bed which she never uses, using magic to hold up the device (as may be evident from the slight greenish tint around the edges) while holding in her hands a small, icy heart on a chain.]

I do not understand the purpose of this curse. Am I meant to feel ashamed that my heart is so cold and small? Are the cracks I see within representative of heartbreak? Once again, this City baffles me.

I woke up today with a strange watch on, that doesn't so much tick as beat. Any ideas?

[accidental video]
[There's a heart on Uhura's nightstand. An actual, physical heart. An actual, physical, Vulcan heart, if we're going to get precise about it. Uhura doesn't know about it yet.

Her alarm goes off and she reaches blearily to turn it off. But instead of finding her alarm, her hand lands on the warm, sticky heart. Her eyes fly open and she sits straight up in bed.]

What the hell?!?!


[Now she does.]


[voice message to the police]

[Her voice is a little shaky but otherwise calm.]

Somebody's heart is in my bedroom. I don't know if this part of a curse or someone's sick idea of a joke.

[ She hadn't burned the portrait. She'd put it in a closet with a cloth covering it, facing back into the shadows. It wasn't out of sight out of mind, it was just out of sight because he was still burned into her mind and woven into her skin. He had stolen her heart and her soul and given her nothing in return.

The portrait is lying in the middle of her beach front flat, face up towards the ceiling. That's where Carla found it this morning when she came home to feed the dog and she's trained the camera on it to give herself a layer of distance from the scene. There are purple smears of dried blood marring the painting, a puddle where the man's hands clasp together. ]

This isn't cute.

[ Her voice is low, tinged with self-mockery. Peanut approaches to investigate the scene, but Carla nudges him aside with her foot, leaning down to heft up the canvas. The three of them relocate outside into the chaos-ridden streets.

You'll find the thing slashed and burning if you happen to walk by. ]

[Have a giggling Rain as she carefully holds a heart with beams of light radiating outward from it - and what looks not unlike a halo around it.]





See what I found this morning? Isn't it pretty?

I suppose it was just a matter of time before I got another reminder.

[The red head looks at from the phone to the thin box chain around her neck and the charm. A delicate fragile looking silver heart the size of a quarter with James' star in the center of it. The same one that he has on his shoulder back home, now miniaturized and placed in the center of a stupid metal heart on a chain around her neck. ]

This place... it never does quite let you get back on your feet before it knocks them back out from under you again. [This time? This time it's almost like a punch to the gut. James' star. Of course that's what she'd get.

Green eyes drift from the charm back to the device and she sighs. She's already wasted far too much time just staring. Letting the little heart spin around on the chain and watching as the image appears and vanishes from sight with every turn.]

A curse I'm assuming? Anything special I need to know?

So, I'm guessing everyone got one of these.

[By one of these, he means an off-color, withered little heart, just big enough for him to hold between finger and thumb, and he holds it up to the camera for all to see.]

Has anyone figured out exactly what they're supposed to be? Apart from the products of another curse, I assume.

[Howl is slumped on the chair at his work bench, looking a little scruffier than his usual coiffed self. In front of him is a heart (unsurprising given today's curse.) A normal, healthy looking human heart, beating away steadily. He's glaring at it with a look of confusion and suspicion.]

I must say, it's rather larger than the last time I saw it. Although I suppose five years in the possession of a fire demon would do that to any vital organs.

[ The video feed picks up Stiles' bedroom at the youth center, his cluttered desk covered in a cheap second hand laptop and books upon books, messy and scrawled on pages everywhere. But that's not what it focuses on - instead the feed wavers and picks up the mass of wiring on his desk. It's roughly heart shaped and big, wires that circle in on each other like a maze and pulse light every beat.

The device gets put down so that the arm not covered in a cast can reach out and prod the thing. The reaction is instantaneous, it flairs and Stiles' faint protest of pain comes through as he lifts his hand away quickly, shakes the shock out of his fingers. His computer chair creaks as he takes a seat, angling the device to take in his face. ]

I'm sure there's a metaphor in here somewhere but I'm not looking for it. Anyone else I don't know about stuck with the physical representation of how much life just sucks?

Hope everyone's taking good care of their hearts. And their friends' hearts.

[ pause ]

I know some people've had to go looking for them. If anyone needs help, I'd be happy to.

[ there is some faint mreowling in the background and then a purr and a laugh. ]

Apparently mine makes a good pillow. Or something.

[ 'or something' indeed, not in small part because it is not his alone, not really. details warrant confusion here to say the least but at this point it's always going to be a long story - longer than even Sora himself can consciously recall.

here at least it's been quiet - comparatively - since the zombie-like influx a while back, and although this particular curse makes him sad for different reasons - surface and subconscious alike - , it also makes him grateful. there's a breath like he's going to say something else and then just a click of the recording turning off instead. ]

[ Hey look who the revolution dragged in. ]

Really? I'm gone for a few days and you guys tear the City apart? Not that I'm not totally worthy of drunken riots, this just all looks a little too dystopian for my future. Was this because of the heart stuff, because while I admit this is a little literal, you know, might wanna hold off on all the fighting until the internal organs are starting on the inside, at least.

At least it's just further cardiological proof in the first place.

filter (avengers + pepper):
I actually think I've seen the whole movie now. ET gets grounded and taken back home at the end, right?

filter (pepper):
You home?

Hey! Get back here!

[For the better part of the morning, Jinora is out chasing what looks like a fist-sized, heart-shaped balloon. It doesn't have a string, of course, because it is her heart. This makes it all the more difficult to catch the yellow heart every time it decides to drift away from its owner.

The young airbender is quick on her feet and even faster once she's off the ground, sending snow flying as she propels herself from the ground to the rooftops. She's trying not to get in anyone's way, but such things are virtually inevitable when you're chasing your wayward heart.]

You're mine! Aren't you supposed to listen to me?

[Every time the girl gets close to the heart, it takes off in a different direction, sometimes bobbing near the ground, occasionally spiraling up into the sky. At this rate, she's going to have to go home and get her air glider...]


[ooc: Pretend this was up earlier in the day? Action only; please feel free to have your character run into Jinora and/or her heart!]