Event Log: May, An Inauspicious Arrival

[faileas]

Event Log: May, An Inauspicious Arrival

I. Boaltinn (1st - 3rd) Boaltinn comes around again. A handful of Mirrorbound will remember the holiday from last year, but for others, it will be brand new. In both Residential Districts, bonfires burn in central locations through the night, frequented by the residents celebrating another summer come to Aefenglom. Curiously, while last year the bonfires seemed quite segregated by human or Monster, this year, there is more of a noticeable mix at each, and Mirrorbound are invited to join the games and festivities quite happily. Characters are invited to try and jump through the bonfire's flames to burn away any poor relationship experiences, be it romantic or platonic, past or present; to aid them in this, those at the Eastern Bonfire will give those participating rune-etched accessories to protect them from the fire. The city has quite a bit to offer for this holiday: shared rose baths at public bathhouses and pleasure establishments that increase feelings of friendliness and talkativeness, poles draped in ribbons meant to be danced around, wrapping a ribbon around the pole to bring good luck for the summer, food stalls whose offerings are meant to be shared, and fortune-telling set up by Divination students of the Coven, who can tell your day is going to go. To see last year's Boaltinn prompts, you can take a glance right here! Much of it, including the bonfires, baths, and entertainments will be similar this year, so feel free to use those in your top levels.

II. An Unusual Arrival (3rd on) A full year from the arrival of the first group of Mirrorbound, the 1st passes quietly, with no one showing up in the mirror-lined halls of the Looking-Glass House. Dates and times are important in most kinds of magic, and this is strange enough that some Witches of the Coven get together on the night of the 3rd to try a probing ritual, attempting to gather some kind of clues that could be useful in prying out the cottage's secrets. Boaltinn is the best time for such things, when the boundaries are thinner, and magic is stronger. Those who are awake that night at 3 am might notice a pulse of harmless silvery light that spreads like ripples on water throughout the whole city, originating at the Looking-Glass House, but nothing further happens, and the Coven receives no answers. Well, nothing happens in the Looking-Glass House. Before long, the reports start coming in: people are emerging from mirrors, regular old mundane mirrors, all over the city. Anything with a particularly reflective surface could be an entry point for someone from another world! Inhabited homes, businesses closed and locked for the night, pools of still water in fountains or the river, these unorthodox Mirrorbound pop up anywhere and everywhere, causing chaos for the City Guard (folks aren't happy to find strangers in their bathrooms at 3 in the morning) and the Coven both. Out of nowhere, a glint of light catches your eye; your heart thunders in your ears as your body moves on its own, your mind consumed with inspecting the source. Your reflection stares back at you, just as curious from the surface - a mirror, a pool of water, your most trusted sword, something fleeting that your mind can barely remember - then ripples at your touch. If you are one of these unfortunate arrivals, it's likely a rude awakening for you, to find yourself somewhere inconvenient, somewhere other than where you've been. It only makes sense to be confused. Hopefully someone finds you and explains to you what's happened to you. Resident Mirrorbound will hear a message from Miss Nessie shortly after it begins, a call to arms: "Dears, I'm quite sorry to disturb you, but it seems your fellows are arriving elsewhere than the Looking-Glass House this month! We're trying to track them all down for the usual welcome, but we could use a hand or several! If you could just bring them by the Coven, the usual spot, that would be lovely." She'll give her usual orientation and pass out Watches, but no doubt the Mirrorbound will be more helpful in this regard, with so many arriving.

III. The Goblin Market (All Month) Life goes on in Aefenglom, despite the addition of so many new residents. With the City Guard decidedly busy dealing with the sudden flood of break-ins (or, more accurately, break-outs?), the vendors of the Goblin Market find opportunity to set up their stalls more openly than they have since the crack-downs some months ago. They pop up all over the city, but clustered more often in the Residential Districts and the Harbor District, where there are even fewer law enforcement agents out and about to run them off. These sellers, while not as devoid of morals as those major players of the Black Market, still have very few compunctions when it comes to lying, cheating, fencing stolen goods, and misrepresenting their wares to unsuspecting buyers. It's also the place to find those things that are- not quite legal, shall we say. They won't say a word if you don't. If confronted, they are quick to pack up their things and slip away, however; they know this city and its hiding places a lot better than you do. With a brand new batch of what the natives assume are Mirrorbound, many undergoing rapid transformations into their Monster forms, many of the wares on display are potions: supposed cure-alls for aches and itches, calming draughts for the full moon restlessness, some even claim their brews can halt changes entirely! Some concoctions are meant to increase a Witch's magical ability, or decrease it, or provide them a finer control. They offer potions that they say will eliminate the need for a Bond, or temporary Bonding potions of their own that they claim are more pure, stronger, than the ones offered by the Coven. Claims are only claims, though. A few remedies for the pain of changing or some regular temporary Bonding potions can be found here and there, but for every potion that works, there are twenty more that have less than pleasant side effects. A brew that will cause everything you touch to turn to solid gold for up to an hour; a potion that will invert your sense of direction - trying to turn right will make you turn left, trying to go forward will cause you to walk backward; a potion that will remove all traction from your feet, causing you to slide around as if cobblestone are the slickest ice. Worse, some shadier vendors sell things more sinister, including a potion that gives you the appearance of being moderately to heavily infected by the Cwyld. Even if you don't drink any, the vendors are not at all careful where they're sloshing those bottles around, trying to show them off, and they all activate on skin contact.

IV. A Wilde Hunt (7th - 22nd) All Mirrorbound, temporary or not, are likely to feel it. Monsters are always affected by the full moons, but this month, it is more. Stronger. Instincts rise to the surface as the Sisters emerge full and visible in the night sky, and for many Mirrorbound, they are undergoing rapid transformations into whatever type of Monster they are meant to be. Curiously, the natives get along like they usually do, noticing nothing out of the norm, other than the increased agitation and restlessness from Mirrorbound Monsters. Monsters' aggression fades when the Sisters start to wane, but as the new moons approach on the 22nd, Mirrorbound Witches will notice their magical reserves overfilling, and will find themselves stricken with the overwhelming urge to use it, until casting spells, pushing one's magical limits, is almost a compulsion. Those who are not in proper Witch-Monster Bonds will feel it even stronger, with no stabilizing magic to consume (for Monsters) or avenues to expend magic (for Witches) other than casting spells. (For those who are interested, the Coven does offer temporary Bonding potions which can be used to help alleviate the effects somewhat.) The Coven Witches notice the signs, and they take decisive action on the morning of the 6th, the day before the full moons. So many Mirrorbound, likely to be so heavily affected by the lunar cycle this month, many of them coming into new features and abilities at a breakneck pace, only spells danger for the city. They barricade off a massive chunk of Wilde outside Aefenglom, largely free of Cwyld and totally bereft of farms, homes, and Wilder outposts. They invite anyone who feels the effects of the moons too strongly to control to come out for a Hunt. The hunting grounds will be open nightly to anyone who needs to work off restless energy or overflowing magic; all participants will be warned that their safety cannot be guaranteed from others, but they won't be able to harm bystanders out here. The woods are thick, with the river cutting through them, and full of wildlife. There is room to run and chase prey, or room to play with your developing magic. Play cat and mouse with your friends or Bondmates, or stalk a stranger. If playing games isn't your thing, there is something else to hunt out here as well. With the deep Wilde entering into Winter, this patch of land so close to the city is much warmer, and fearsome Shades have emerged to search for prey. These were once living beings, Monsters, Witches, or animals, who have been overtaken by Cwyld infection long ago, leaving them dead but for the infection, white-eyed and seeking out sources of magic to consume and infect. Anything could become a Shade, but the most common out right now are the ferocious remains of bears, wolves, and nomadic Arachne and Turnskins. If not killed, these Shades threaten the people of the Outer City, when they inevitably escape the barricade. Careful to limit your contact, though; anyone infected upon their return to the gates will be escorted straight to the infirmary.

Welcome to May's Fourth Wall event, An Inauspicious Arrival! The comms are now open to comments from all registered users and will be until June 1st. Current players, if you don't want fourth wall characters tagging your posts, just say so in your text. Fourth wall characters can use this post for their own network top-levels, or this post for log top levels. This event is game canon; threads from this fourth wall can be used as application samples later and current players may use these threads for AC. As always, be courteous to each other! Let the mod team know if there are any problems and we will handle things.

As always, please direct your questions to this thread!

Comments

I read your grammar comment as grandma, we do good word

[stopfen]

[It wasn't a difficult topic to find more information on. In all honesty, Mikasa would have been much happier if it was easier to avoid. But go into the Coven, they ask. Go into a dream, they try and match-make you with some unbonded witch.]

I've been here for four months. When I arrived it was winter and there was snow... [She just lifts and arm to gesture slightly to the whole...lack of snow, the sunshine. It was nice and warm. Please ignore that there's more dark shell visible when her arm movement tugs her shirt.] I've been told that time is frozen when we come here.

[Guess Jean was proof of that?]

[barbeardian]

[ He might not have heard him correctly, being so far away and all. Although that sure is a lot of words and Grog is as ignorant of them as Jin Ling is of his friends, it seems. ]

Yeah? Well I ain't heard of no gin lands sex either. Sounds like a pretty questionable position if you ask me. And how old are you, anyway? You sure you should be shoutin' things like that?

[voktys]

⟪ he twists, and her eyes focus on his – her own attempt, perhaps, to grant him what privacy she can and not focus on what he evidently has so quickly come to loathe of his changes. ⟫

A potion knows nothing.

⟪ the vendor is grumbling, unhappy that someone tries to dissuade a sell, but melisandre pays him no mind. the entirety of her razor focus is on him. ⟫

Even if it only kills a part of you, as soon as you drink it, the choice is no longer yours, my lord. The way to gain control must not be to relinquish it to a fool with a cauldron.

[lightblooming]

Thank you. [ She answers politely. ] That's sweet of you to say.

[ She doesn't mind, really. Despite being forced to change in such a way here, she's come to accept them more and more with each passing day. ]

No. I'm from another world like you are. In fact, I was human before I arrived here.

[ She needs to explain more about this world - the changes people have gone through included with that. ]

[freecshow]

—Oh! Well, I...guess that makes sense...

[Gon's expression falters somewhat with a weird nervousness that makes him want to squirm. Aqua sort of reminds him a little bit of Palm, when she says that—the scales, having once been human...

he didn't want to let himself think so, but right away, Aqua had sort of reminded him of a Chimera Ant. in fact, he'd considered if he was still somehow in his own world, it may have been something like that—grimmer yet, that maybe it was some sort of Nen ability that had suddenly popped him through that river into what seemed like a different part of the world (maybe that was why it was suddenly dark), and... Gon feels a little guilty, too, that a part of him, deep down, had thought all of that.

his expression recovers quickly, though.]

You look plenty human.

[even if Gon is resisting the instinct to other her. what an unkind instinct.]

ᴀɴ ᴜɴᴜsᴜᴀʟ ᴀʀʀɪᴠᴀʟ -yeets self into the most panic inducing option

[stopfen]

[The three bedroom cottage her and Trucy shared was a nice place. Sure, but the standards of the average Aefenglom resident it was small and cozy. And Mikasa would admit it was cozy, but she thought it was luxurious. It had been four months and she still wasn't sure what to make about it being free.

Because this place had more rooms than the cabin she'd grown up in, a bigger garden. Hell, it was bigger than the Jaeger's home had been. This would have been one of the larger bases if it belonged to the scouts.

All for the low cost, of having to chase the mice and pests out themselves. Something Mikasa had thought they'd done a pretty good job of, until she hears the noise. And it's not Trucy. She'd seen Trucy heading to the hall in the opposite direction of the third bathroom. Could hear in the kitchen.

So slowly Mikasa opened the door, wincing a little at the creaky hinge. Please don't run mouse or whatever you were. She'd rather catch you before you got into the walls. But then she sees the person folded over the edge of the tub. Catches a glimpse of the face for just a second-

AND SLAMS THE DOOR SHUT AGAIN.]

aaaa I'M GLAD YOU LIKE HER i L O V E your dany

[voktys]

⟪ she inclines her head with a smile at the first part, all agreement – this is rather why there are, at the end of the day, only so many priests. to read the flames is to be shown glimpses of fate, falling apart and intertwining and ever-changing. to make something of the revelation is an art few master. ⟫

I belong to God, mind and body and soul. How could this be true if I would tie myself to a place, call it mine, and long for it?

⟪ even the concept of a 'self' that is not an instrument of his will is near-absurd. there are many things she has been granted: pleasures, safety, a life and comforts far, far from what a slave girl would have dared dream of, if only she would have hardly lived to see adulthood without his intervention. ⟫

I must return to the world I hail from, but that is hardly the same as a home, is it?

[holybeasts]

It's alright. Life goes on one way or another, yes? And we have to find opportunities even in what may be bad situations, if we can.

[She's a little disgustingly easy going about this. For better or worse, that's just how Maria handles things, it seems.]

[weiward]

Aye-aye, be careful!

[wei wuxian turns to face him again, trying to get a better look at his hand for any scratches. he stops at those words though, looking up slowly to meet jin ling's eyes. his expression says that he's not sure if he heard the boy right, even when he knows that he did.]

Jin Zixuan is dead?

[look, the man was an insufferable peacock sometimes, and he wished his sister would get over him once and for all. but wei wuxian didn't want him dead.]

What - how?

[stopfen]

[It was a shame she didn't know more about sports and sport rituals. Or he could have heard about the glory that was monster rugby... That was a fun time. Even to her, someone with a questionable sense of what fun meant.]

With this place, both are possible... [Still in almost deadpan, even if it was punctuated with a small birdlike chirp. But he got a small nod at the mention of names.]

Mikasa. [Not giving her last name, not thinking about the meaning of that tonight. Then she turns looking one of the poles up and down.] I think I need some good luck...

[holybeasts]

[Maybe she seems a touch too naive but Maria is perfectly willing to go along with the first unasked question, rattling off the year without a second thought.]

1797.

[There's no need to go into how she almost forgets it's not '96 constantly. That year was eaten up in her travels after all.

His name though brings a slight look of surprise though.]

Oh! Adrian, you say?

[Hm. Her brow furrows some. This isn't the first moment where she's questioned if she hasn't made a mistake. He certainly looks like Alucard but his voice is somewhat different, yes?

Cheek in her hand once more her tone of voice turns thoughtful and serious for a change.]

Mm, just a day or two. Forgive me, it could be that I let the relief I felt overtake me. Or... do you go by Alucard as well?

[bravers]

[An unenthused breath in. Not exactly what he wants to hear, the fact that he's not changed in all of that time. But it's not about that. He's not going to ask, he's not going to push for clarification. Instead, he simply shakes his head.

You're saying that you hate me, and then you're saying you want to bond with me. You get it, right, that sayin' that doesn't exactly fill me full of confidence?

[Almost there now.]

I'm gonna need more than that to trust you. That's what a bond is. Trust.

lmk if this is okay😭 poor deidara and his terrible no good very bad day

[coherer]

(jonas senses sasuke's obstinacy, sucks a tooth at it, unimpressed. it isn't as though he doesn't agree that deidara is the one causing the problems here, but more violence won't help defuse the situation. at least that's what he thought before a pair of narrow blue eyes find him.

it's obviously news to him. he's never heard the like, and his expression widens vulnerably in the moments it takes it to cloud over with a violent temper that's stayed dormant for the months the witch has been in aefenglom. after the memory sharing, what he saw in sasuke's mirror—a massacre, an anonymous killer's bloody spree—and in itachi's—a field of the dead, a boy of four ending a man's life at the behest of his father—has set him on an edge he's yet to fully back away from. this makes him mad, scared, and panicked. a couple of questions, yet an entire dialogue he's too intimidated to have.

so it comes out as a bitter spit instead, teeth setting.) The fuck?

What do you know about it? Huh? (the only warning before the heel of jonas' shoe slams into the edge of the low coffee table, kicking it forward in a bruising hit to deidara's shins, so close to the sword balanced against his inner thigh. the bat follows suit in a loud smack to the wooden surface that dents beneath its tip; he's heard enough.) Hope that makes it hard to walk out there, shithead. Maybe the shades can teach you not to badmouth someone's family in front of them!

(his heel remains balanced on the table until it's kicked in a fraction harder, then is returned to the floor with a sharp turn, head low, that accidentally knocks his shoulder into sasuke's.)

–screw this, I'm outta' here. Text me when it's done.

(cranky eighteen-year-old: exeunt stage left. he needs jesus and now has plenty to think about.)

[freeing]

[ She had taken a cause with helping the less fortunate, be it from her world or Aefenglom. Why else would she find the courage to speak up to intervene when she does? It was simple – whatever coin he had to barter, it was more useful elsewhere. ]

I am. [ She replies, as stern as his words are as well. ] I know it better than you, so I ask you take my word to heart.

[ There's a stare to the merchant, who hobbles off to his wares as if already admitting defeat. ]

You would be coinless with your extra appendages if you took his cure-all for your own. I'm sorry to inform you, ser, but... the way this world changes you has no reversal we've seen.

soylent green

[stopfen]

[The fae stares for a moment. Large black eyes giving an owlish blink, a flick of her antenna. Then she just lifts her food to her mouth and keeps munching. Watching without blinking as she eats her snack.

Yup, she's doing the exact opposite of what he said. What's he gonna do about it?]

[freeing]

I never asked you to. [ Her words sting, confident that she knows how to handle the temperamental whelp that strayed too far from home. ] He's... my child and has gone missing in the past day. I bear the burden of if anything happens to anyone or him all the same.

[ Daenerys knows how crazy it sounded back at Essos, when she would plead for her knight to save her three children of scales and fire itself – but here when her features bore the same as his? It comes easier to admit. ]

It is difficult to track him, unfortunately.

[ The fire and smoke had been the only indicator of his appearance in the woods. Fortunately, Geralt seemingly helped her in the right direction – that much was at least helpful. ]

[kingsroads]

[ Strange...continues to bother the hell out of Alucard. ]

You could have told me already by now! I don't know why you're being so stubborn!

[weiward]

[the last time wei wuxian saw him, he'd upset her yet again, right in the middle of the phoenix mountain hunt. and the nicest thing he could've said to jin zixuan at that moment would've been that at least he wasn't his cousin, who was an even bigger ass.

but he's had some time since then, and they're here now, so he's not going to deny him help.]

Aefenglom. It's another world. Did you come through the water or someone's mirror? The mirror's the normal way, that's how Lan Zhan and I arrived a few months ago, along with Zewu-jun.

[so he doesn't think he has to take wei wuxian's word for it.]

un

[stopfen]

[From behind, and with the nice little straw sunhat on, Mikasa looked very human. That is almost completely shattered when she turns, showing pointed ears and eyes that were just large enough to be uncanny on a human face. Said face tilted at him, staring impassively for a moment. Pursing her lips.]

I can. Though I don't see why they don't want us to gather you all at the mirror house... We're not even sure how many people we're looking for.

[Next time the Coven nag her about bonds, she's bring this up.]

ii.

[stopfen]

Wasn't planning on it...

[At that the merchant which had been trying to hawk his wares sputters and starts his pitch again. Like that'll convince the fae that's just spent the better part of half an hour just picking up things, looking at them, reading the labels, then putting them down in the wrong spot.

Looking like an intent customer, actually being a retail workers' worst nightmare.

Then she turns her head to look up at the voice. And her pupils just, expand.]

...You're not a person are you.

[Plz, be a cute little kitty cat and not someone's dad. She can't deal with that again.]

[jichengren]

[ Okay. He did come through someone's mirror. So that at least lends credibility to Wei Wuxian's words. He's still trying to piece the rest of it together. ]

I still don't understand. I saw Hanguang Jun only this morning, at Carp Tower. [ He hasn't seen Wei Wuxian in months, so maybe he has been here instead of at the Burial Mounds. What does he know? But he would have heard if Lan Wangji had gone missing, months ago.

It's not that he doesn't believe him. He's come a long way towards forgiving Wei Wuxian's... Wei Wuxian-ness, ever since marrying A-Li. But he has to admit, this is a lot to take on faith. ]

How do we get back? We can't stay here. You must come with me to A-Ling's one month celebration.

[ He had been worried that his brash cousin would accost Wei Wuxian and ruin things, but now here they are, things ruined for entirely different reasons. ]

[themogget]

[The cat blinks.

Mogget expected many things, but he didn't quite expect that question. He regards Mikasa for a few long, silent moments, then makes a sound that is a cat-approximation of a throat-clearing cough.]

A person? That really depends on what your definition of 'person' is.

[Whatever he is, he is clearly talking. Mogget's voice comes out wrapped around purrs, hisses and yowls... but he talks.]

Adds to ur pile. Arrival

[shinkunochou]

[His answer from the girl he’s snapping at is an alarmed yelp as she backs away, eyes wide. Her feet are bare and splattered with mud and blood; there’s a giant blood splatter all over the front of her white kimono, and a deep rope-burn-like mark across her throat; clearly she’s seen better days herself.]

I-I don’t know!

[Look, man, she’s just trying to figure out where she is too and came to investigate the noise.]

I just arrived here too.

[shinkunochou]

[She waits, back straight and hands folded in her lap, the picture of propriety and patience. On the inside she’s buzzing with uncertainty and there’s a visible look of relief as Xichen returns. A look that quickly turns into surprise as she takes the stick of strawberries.]

These are... Strawberries? They’re so rare! Was this expensive? [She looks bewildered and a little uncertain. Strawberries weren’t really a big thing in her time period; they hadn’t reached a point of being easy to find until years after her, but it’s likely she’d had a taste of it once before.]

How much was it? I can— I’ll... [She hesitates and falls silently, suddenly very much aware of how little she actually had with her.]

[beaumains]

[ Freya couldn't have known it, but those were definitely magic words she just spoke. Like Competition, and Strong, and other things that got the young knight fired up more than anything. Fire burned in emerald eyes as her smile turned more of a smirk, flashing wolf-like fangs. The ira lupus was hungry. ]

You're on, my lady! This lance of mine will give you a sport like none other, I'm sure! After all, I'm a Knight of The Round, and they don't come stronger than us!