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

[shithogs]

[Their stances almost mirror one another as the other woman slowly steps out of the shadows, but even finding her to be armed, Kainé finds herself more inclined to relax— if only a little. It's a person, rather than a beast that's been driven to madness or aggression by infection. She's picked up on enough since her arrival to know that people aren't as much of a threat as she would normally assume them to be.

She exhales, her hold on her own sword going lax, though only slightly, and she follows the other woman's gesture to glance at the remains of her prey.]

Pretty sure I did it a favor.

[Whatever it meant to suffer the Cwyld, she'd clearly put it out of its misery.

She nods towards the woman's sword, just once.]

Looks like you haven't done so badly yourself.

[abandonware]

[Her gaze flickers down to the corpse of the bear, the dark, sap-looking blood pooling beneath it, and gives an almost-imperceptible nod. She recognized this woman as one of the other humans, but she'd only met a handful so far that she thought of as being able to protect themselves. Anyone with a weapon that could hold their own caught her interest, albeit in the detached way she normally experienced it.] Yeah. Once they're that far gone, there's no saving them.

[She shrugs some.] They multiply fast. I'm just evening the odds.

[a pause.] There are more further in. If you're bored.

[shithogs]

Shitty way to go.

[Disease was slow, painful. Better to end it quickly. Even the trees and flowers in this place had been afflicted— the further she goes from the city itself, the more she's seen evidence of the Cwyld's progression.

Another dying world, just like hers.

The other woman's phrasing catches her interest, and she turns to look towards where the trees once more lead into darkness.]

Evening the odds, huh? I like that.

[She gives just the barest hint of a smirk as she turns back, though it doesn't last. 'Bored' isn't quite right, but it's close enough. This is something that makes sense to her— she needs that right now.]

Why the hell not. Someone's gotta do it.

[abandonware]

[A2 feels some measure of pity for the animals, mostly because they reminded her of infected androids, too wounded and in too much pain to have anything resembling cunning or free will. She does not say this, however. Instead she turns in the direction from which she came, raising her hand to motion for Kaine to follow her.]

Yeah. Follow me, then.

[A pause.]

Watch your step. Sometimes the moss isn't moss. You can't trust the terrain further in.

[shithogs]

[She's careful in the way she steps away from the infected bear's remains, glancing back once more before following in A2's footsteps. They're here for the same thing, more or less, and as much as she often insists on doing things on her own, she's well aware of the fact that if she wants to guarantee her survival in this place, she could stand to listen to those who have experience.]

Because of the Cwyld.

[She assumes, anyway.]

You seem to know your way around here pretty well.

[abandonware]

Yeah. It infects everything. Some of the trees will attack too, if you aren't careful.

[A2's gait is unusually heavy for someone of her relative size. But she is careful, even in the dark, to avoid stepping on anything that might give their location away.]

I've been here a month. I spend a lot of time out here. [a pause.] I don't like the crowds in the city.

[It was too jarring, too loud, when she had come from a world that was mostly long stretches of quiet and solitude when fighting was not taking place. It made her nervous, though she would not admit to this.]

[shithogs]

[Attacking trees. That's a new one on her. Not the weirdest thing she's ever heard, but still.]

You really weren't kidding about not being able to trust the terrain.

[Not that she'd doubted. She takes care as she follows A2 through the trees, stepping lightly as she keeps an eye out for anything that might look suspicious underfoot. It's getting to be less of a struggle, seeing in the dark, but she still hasn't adjusted to the rhythm of being somewhere the sun actually rises and sets. Of everything she's been confronted with here, that's been one of the most unsettling changes. Monsters, magic, Shades? She can handle all that. Not so different from home, deep down.

She nods once as they progress, regardless of whether or not A2 looks back her way.]

We've got that in common, then.

[City life isn't for her, either, for her own host of reasons— but also habit, as much as anything else. She feels much more comfortable out here in the Wilde, dangerous as it is. She knows how to handle Shades better than people, regardless of their origin.]

Too busy for me. Part of why I came out here in the first place.

[abandonware]

[A noise of assent follows this, but otherwise, A2 is silent, letting the human talk, listening out for anything that might give away where the next infected creature.]

Hm.

Thought humans liked... [a pause. She searches for a word, settles for one Pod has used before.] "congregating."

[Something shifts in the brush underfoot, and A2 stops midstep to wait. What emerges is a rodent — a mouse, she thinks, uninfected and startled out of its hiding spot. Her new and abnormal instincts make her want to chase it, but the part of her that is still an android holds steady. Her eyes follow it in the dark, and then it is gone.

Her attention shifts instead to where it's run from, and she motions for Kaine to follow.]

This way. It was scared — running from something.

[shithogs]

["Congregating." Not a word she'd use, and a humorless laugh that comes out closer to a snort says as much.]

Some, maybe. We're not all the same. [It'd be simpler if they were, maybe, although that sounds boring to her.] You look human enough.

[Looks can be deceiving, she knows that better than most, but it's strange to hear the other woman refer to humans like they're something foreign. The hunt, however, takes precedence over any further questions in that vein, and she follows closely once A2 gives the signal, taking note of where her gaze moves.]

Something other than us.

[She assumes, at least.]

Stay alert.