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

[wolfsclothing]

[Sentient or not, there were certain things that canines still enjoyed. It's why his friends would still get together to play fetch and get praised.

Hell, he still listens to commands like Stay.]

I appreciate it. People seem surprised here that I had said I don't eat meat. [It's really quite a shock. Sure, he had been around the back alley market long enough, but it was still different to see it being accepted like it was normal to vend meat to people out in the open like this.

Legoshi almost drops the bowl given to him at the mention of exploding. He'll remember to thank the other in a moment, but the idea of Louis exploding-] E-Explode?! People can explode here? [Why?? Why is that a thing?!]

[wolfsclothing]

I'm not a Herbivore though. I'm definitely a Carnivore. It's just forbidden for us to eat meat. [Legoshi definitely feels like the distinction is worth noting.]

I still eat byproducts like milk and eggs, but we aren't allowed to give into predation towards our fellow animals. [Though he could guess that things were very different for people here, where it doesn't seem those kind of laws existed at all. With how everyone is selling meat so freely...] We just get protein in other ways because it's against law to prey on Herbivores.

[He is curious how things are here that makes it so people eat meat without such a weight on their conscience though.]

I now have competing mental images of Zenos and doorways and I know not which one is funnier

[purposefulnonsense]

"I have spoken with a few here already," he supplies before commenting further, "...though I did not know there was a standard welcome for those of my situation." Or is it their situation? After all, is it not possible that she may have found herself here in much the same way?

"...Are there many who have arrived here thusly?"

[devilyouknew]

The Coven? [Yeah, that sounds like a real upstanding place.]

I only have a small idea of what's going on. I fell in through the sink in a public restroom. [Surely there are much better ways to arrive, and that seems to be what she's inferring. He'd hate to think he's somehow attached to that particular mirror now.]

If you're trying to take me somewhere people go to disappear, forget about it.

don't you @ me with that cursed image

[eyeforaneye]

Unsurprising.

[ His only warning before he's being dropped unceremoniously down onto the floor. ] You're no longer in your home world. You're in a city called Aefenglom, brought here by magic like all of us. Yelling about it won't help you.

[duckflails]

[Oh he's absolutely justified in giving precise instructions. Donald assumes it won't be that hard and doesn't commit most of the instructions to memory. He'll be lost in no time. Farewell, ominous snake man.]

It was inevitable

[duckflails]

[Donald squawks loudly as he falls to the floor, landing right on his feathery bottom. He quickly hops to his feet and then steps back from Sasuke a little. No longer flailing, but generally looking unruly.]

Are you saying we've all been magically kidnapped?! [A whole city of people...

Wait, magic. Donald sighs and rolls his eyes.]

Don't tell me. Magica Despell?

[blankpieces]

That seems like a precariously built society, but it's understandable if all animals have your level of intelligence. [He's a little fascinated, honestly, especially if it functions in accordance with the actual laws of nature and not the magic of this place.]

Here, and in most worlds attached to this one, most animals aren't sentient. The whole addition of monsters is more unique but in mine the only sentient beings are humans. Ah... well, what the witches look like and the mirrorbound who aren't yet changed the way I am.

[This is quite the explanation to be giving, but he supposes the longer he's here the more individuals will arrive that are from worlds completely different than his own. At least he can approach most topics from a calm, rational perspective. Though that's not always a given anymore.]

As the dominant species, they're also the only ones who talk - unless you consider the mimicry of birds. You'll find you're unique here.

[sakyo]

So why d'you think I'd be a Monster?

[Sakyo just gives Omi a Look. You opened this door, Fushimi.]

[sakyo]

That was a few days ago.

[sakyo]

It's annoying, at least, like he can't make up anything on his own.

[gunsmithed]

Ah while, yes. [ Even as he says it, Percy can feel his eyebrows lifting. Demonic overflow? It's certainly a term that brings a few ideas to the imagination. ] I haven't seen any demons at all, if that's what you mean.

[ For which he is profoundly grateful, honestly. The few brushes he's had or more than enough. But something about the way she says it, has him tipping his head thoughtfully in her direction. ]

Is that something you deal with often?

[gunsmithed]

[ That is an oddly complicated question, and Percy can't help laughing again. ]

I would think it might be easier for someone with any interest in it.

[ Which isn't entirely true. Percy had been intrigued in the same way he was for learning anything new, but the loss of it hasn't hurt him any either. ]

I've gotten along without for most of my life, I don't see how that needs to change.

[wordsinthesoul]

[Well- that's probably simplest, in the end. Thancred gives a little shrug, wings shifting with the movement.]

Finding myself to be in Dravania, after… well, after the banquet turned sour. And yourself?

[gunsmithed]

Yes, and then you'd probably die.

[ Metal not noted as being particularly breathable and all. But underneath the sarcasm is a sort of patience a fondness for even this after so long on his own. Percy keeps towing Grog out of the market anyway, just to be on the safe side. Might as well head to the forge. ]

Why not just use gold cloth, instead?

Market

[prophexy]

[Urianger is an attentive person - while his living space may end up disorganized from things being put down at random, he's not usually the kind of person to be carelessly dropping things out of his pockets without noticing. But this bustling marketplace has him visibly out of sorts: although he's tall enough to hold steady and keep from getting shoved around, he's having trouble navigating the crowds as they distract him by pushing their way through his personal space. It takes a moment for Byleth to even get his attention to ask.

At least the teeth and scales don't seem to be putting him off any. Is this what the offspring of an Au Ra and a Hyur would look like? How interesting.]

Indeed, 'tis my possession. [He carefully accepts the return of a notebook half-filled with experimental spellwork.] I should have missed it dearly in short order; thou hast my deepest gratitude for returning it.

[sneaksweet]

[It's all just wild.]

Yeah... [A long time of not being able to act.]

There's a network you can ask stuff on 'nd a school you can visit? The mirror house is a pretty good place to check too.

[prophexy]

For a moment, he thinks what he has seen is some sort of construct. After Tataru volunteered him as a playwright, Urianger decided of his own accord to make his way down to the theater and have a look around where the performances would actually take place. The sight of what is obviously meant to be an Amaurotine among the set pieces sends a jolt of shock down his spine, but the first thought that crosses his mind is that between four Warriors of Light and Emet-Selch, someone has conceived a poor-spirited jest.

And then the figure turns and greets him, and a fresh wave of incredulous emotion sweeps through him to realize that in fact underneath the robes and mask is a living being, either an actual Amaurotine or someone who has been dressed to look like one for reasons unknowable. Who he's now going to have to have a conversation with.

"...Greetings," he returns after a pause: though he's still visibly discomfited, there's no call yet to be rude to this person, whoever they are. "Prithee forgive my startlement; none had informed me to expect thee, or anyone, laboring yet in this portion of the backstage."

[hypomeneo]

[Silence. Eyes slowly close as a mixture of emotions play across Waver's face.

Deep grief.

Regret.

Dread.

Wistfulness.

Love.

Hope.

Resignation and acceptance.]

One last chance to say what needs to be said. [A soft, soft sigh as he looks at his hands.] I continue to be surprised by what silver linings appear in these types of situations... no matter how complicated they become or what other things they bring.

[sneaksweet]

Maybe he'll get better at it with more experience?

[He started as a terrible actor, and he's slowly starting to get better.]

[timenace]

[ The assumption is a safe one to make, and all the burns on Sougo's hands are pretty freshly made. He should really learn a least a little healing magic, because largely he's just been banging himself up out in these woods without any way of fixing himself up.

For now he holds to Momo's request by stepping back, but watching the fight carefully for any signs of the tides turning. For now it looks like Momo is holding his own just fine, and he's already seen for himself that the guy is a capable fighter despite his job title not necessarily leading one to expect he would be.

In all likelihood Momo won't have any problems here! But it's not like Sougo's going to be able to keep concentrating on making fires with this fight raging behind him. ]

Huh? Really? I can if you need me too, but isn't it dangerous to pick a fight with these guys if you can't finish them off?

[ Right now his magic definitely feels unending, but he does know it has an eventual limit. ]

[anbu]

[With only some delay (the watch will always feel strange and foreign in his hands, not to be trusted), Itachi transfers the image over to her own device. She'll receive the notification attached to a user name: itachiuchiha.]

I admit, they were unfamiliar to me as well. They are easier to use with practice. [Or you could send letter via bird, as is his new cheat.] Does your world have nothing comparable to magic?

[As if irritated by its master's negligence, the crow perched overhead spreads its wings and cackles — loudly. A few more chittering sounds follow, then it swoops down, landing on talons and walking a circle around Sansa's feet.]

... I apologize. That is my familiar. If it bothers you, I can dispel it.

[supersoldier]

[The years haven't changed much, he notes. Vice President or President, Rufus Shinra had always been a coolly smug man, something that might have gotten under Sephiroth's skin if his personality was not so unaffected to begin with. Regardless, the "famed war hero" comment is ignored (nothing new, even if it is joking in its superlative), nor is Rufus' propensity to turn this into an equal exchange of information all that surprising -- as if this were a board meeting rather than a random encounter in a forest on another planet.]

I won't stop you from asking.

[But neither is Sephiroth the sort of person to bend or acquiesce if he doesn't want to. Still, there's no reason to be shy or restrain oneself from sharing information, is there? Not when he wishes to pull out all he can from others, hailing from a far-flung future he has no insight into.]

How long have you been President? That's a new promotion since last I recall.

[His father must be proud. Or purposefully dislodged from his Shinra throne. There's an equal chance of both, and not necessarily mutually exclusive from each other.]

[exsoldier]

Guess seem people aren't that good at making connections.

[ Zack knows the type. If he's honest, a lot of people who'd been in SOLDIER had been that way. Not just Sephiroth, because he's sort of in his own category, but some of the others he'd risen through the ranks with who had joined because they hadn't known what else to do with their lives. Kunsel had been a welcome change for that reason.

Jessie here, on the other hand, seems like the sort who would strike up a friendship with ease. In fact, for a second he thinks she might be checking him out, up until that question's asked.

Not what he was expecting. ]

Oh, well... [ He pauses and looks down at himself. Once he's got some money, he should really look into a new outfit. ] Used to be, anyway. [ He glances back up to her, one eyebrow raised. ] You from Gaia?

Arrival

[prophexy]

[She'll especially figure it out when a very tall elf peeks his head concernedly around the corner of the doorframe to determine exactly what is going on in his bathroom.

He isn't really sure what he was expecting, but a dazed young girl sitting in his bathtub definitely wasn't it, and he spares a moment of processing time to be grateful that she's fully clothed as he steps fully into the room.]

...Miss? Art thou...lost? [Maybe a teleportation spell gone wrong?]