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

[supersoldier]

[His impassive features threaten to crack a second time, as if made brittle by that question. He had abandoned the initial thought, unsure of where in the timeline he hailed from; it was in Sephiroth’s experience that there was no steadfast rule that any of it had to align. Those from Gaia were proof.

But it’s a moot point now, isn’t it? Zack knows. How, he cannot say. How can someone be here after death? What rules did this world operate on, that it could bring a man back, functional and healthy-looking enough, without consequences?

Sephiroth forces words out, like they were stones in his throat.]

Yes. Aerith told me. We arrived here at the same time.

[Unknowing that Zack has already found her, he continues.]

I asked because I had to know the consequences of everything that… Shinra keeps doing, to all of you. [Genesis, Angeal. Now Zack, too, caught up in something he didn’t know the details of, but he has no doubt the company played a part in it.]

What happened? She said you died near Midgar.

[exsoldier]

[ For Aerith of all people to deliver the news...

It's strange to think about how all of them are now connected to each other in some incomprehensible web. Zack can still clearly remember how Sephiroth had lightly teased him about his interest in the young girl who lived in the slums, while also paying the kindness of letting Zack visit her one last time before they left on their mission. Knowing now how everything turned out just makes the memory ache.

Sephiroth speaks of Shinra, of how they've done so much to "all of you," but the irony is that it's Sephiroth himself who was the most betrayed by them. He doesn't know, and he can't know; not here, not now. Even Zack doesn't have all the details. He definitely has no plans to utter the name Jenova while in Sephiroth's presence, though.

She said you died near Midgar.

Zack's silent for maybe too long after those words are spoken, gaze casting downward as he lets out a breath. It's weird to hear it described that way, as something that's old news, in the past, an event that came and went with the wind. It's all still so fresh to him, and he knows it's where he'll be going once his time here is up. ]

That's right. Well... Shinra got a hold of me and Cloud after things went south during the Nibelheim mission. We were their test subjects for years, but eventually we got free. I knew I couldn't go home, so I decided to head back to Midgar. [ He lifts a hand up to rub at his forehead, as if trying to stave off a headache. ] Out on the bluffs, though, there was a whole army of Shinra troops waiting for me. I fought for as long as I could, but even a SOLDIER can't withstand that much resistance.

[ There's a pause. Zack smiles wryly and lifts his head so that his glowing eyes can meet Sephiroth's own. ]

Well, maybe you could.

[supersoldier]

[To Sephiroth, it’s an event that hasn’t even come to pass. Hearing about it was like knowing of some dread premonition, a pall hanging over the his future that’s been put on hold. In that way, it is surreal to him as it is to Zack — even more so, now that the man stands here living a second time.

The ex-SOLDIER tries to smile at him, but when Sephiroth meets his eyes, he can only feel something akin to dreadful realization churning in his chest. The same kind of acridity when struck with news that should not be as surprising as it is, not after what they had learned about both Genesis and Angeal. In tandem with details of how Zack died, it feels like a weight pressing into him.]

No. No one would have been left standing if I had been treated that same way.

[Maybe Sephiroth doesn’t realize just how true that is.]

You were test subjects? [Hojo? his mind flashes white-hot with blame, immediate and accusatory. And probably correct.

Why would Shinra impose that fate onto either of them? Treat them like the enemy, chase them down after their escape? Because of a mission critical failure? Is that why he, too, had gone “missing” soon after?]

What did they do to you?

[exsoldier]

[ No one would have been left standing.

It's a chilling statement, given what Zack knows, and he can still remember that fateful night in Nibelheim with such clarity. Not just the heat of the flames, but the groans of the dying, people who'd been run through with Masamune or those who were just succumbing to smoke inhalation. Sephiroth had razed the whole town to the ground and hadn't given any thought to those who he'd let live (if barely) to be collected and used by Shinra's science department.

Which is why it's even more disorienting when Sephiroth goes on to sound so outraged, his voice losing that almost emotionless quality as he questions Zack. Like he does actually care, even if he's bad at it and even if he's one revelation away from his mind snapping, and all of his empathy going with it.

Zack doesn't know how to answer his question. He hadn't known what to tell Cissnei, either. There are some things that are too horrific to put into words, and his eyes seem to shutter off as he shakes his head.

"S cells." Jenova. He can't talk about any of that without risking a terrible repeat of that day. ]

It doesn't matter. What matters is we got out. And—

[ But before he can say anything else, he picks up on a presence near them, dragging its way through the underbrush nearby. Zack turns sharply toward the noise. ]

What's that?

[supersoldier]

[It doesn’t matter? How can he say that it doesn’t matter? Sephiroth had lived years under the cycle of experimentation and testing, and though likely not nearly as detrimental as what Zack had been through (Hojo would not risk permanently injuring, disabling, or otherwise making useless his most successful project to date), he knows what it is like. The pall it casts over the perception of time, the inability to always understand what’s being tested, or why, or if he’s reached an acceptable threshold in the data he represents so that the same round of prodding can be avoided for that one day.

No. It matters. He is almost offended by Zack and for Zack’s sake. He’s sweeping the details under the rug, and Sephiroth wants to pull it out from under his feet to see all the ugly things that Hojo might have done. To better bring to light all that Shinra had taken from those who gave them their loyalty, and for so long.

The wildlife won’t give either of them the chance.

A noise picks up, thudding and rustling, and Sephiroth’s instinct already has him turning to face it, Masamune gripped tightly.]

A Shade, probably.

[He replies, his voice chilled from their severed conversation, but not enough to deter the undertone of a warning. They’ll have to continue this later, because the Wilde cares for no one’s idle chatter in the woods.

The foliage of the underbrush spreads open like a haphazard curtain pulling back to reveal what can only be described as a monster — a life twisted into a hollow version of itself, mindless and aggressive. It’s shaped like it used to be a bear, but dark with the sickness of the Cwyld, skin like tar and eyes like bleeding ichor. Its jaw is so disjointed that it almost unhinges itself as it lifts onto its hind-legs and lets out a warning roar.

Sephiroth takes a step back, not out of fear or trepidation, not even out of instinct. But only to observe, briefly, from an angle not obscured by branches in his periphery.]

Be careful. You don’t want to get infected, either.

[exsoldier]

[ Maybe it's a conversation that they can have at some point, if only for the catharsis of realizing that both of them had been screwed over by Shinra in their own ways. In truth, anyone who gave the company their loyalty ended up chewed up and spit back out, and Zack should have known better than to expect any different outcome for himself. Even with everything he'd seen, though, he couldn't have predicted his and Cloud's fate.

Now it's time to focus on the approaching threat, though. When Sephiroth indicates that it might be a Shade, Zack's eyes widen for a moment and then he shifts toward the noise, peeking past the foliage to spot the infected monster. It doesn't look like it's even really alive anymore. It's more like the parasite is forcing the bear-like animal to keep moving past any point of logic, and when its partly-broken jaw shutters open for it to roar, Zack feels his stomach churn.

It's not like he hasn't seen plenty of monsters during his time with SOLDIER, and those monsters had taken many different forms, but the sheer wrongness of what's in front of him is difficult to ignore. Still, he'd come out here because he wanted to see one of the Shades with his own eyes, and so at least he's accomplished that much.

Zack also takes a few seconds to hang back and watch as the Shade falls back onto all fours and begins to sniff ineffectively, its hindbrain driving it to fall into old habits even though Zack doubts that it can smell anything other than its own sickness at this point. Sephiroth's warning is well-taken. ]

Yeah, I really don't. Sorry, but I'm gonna have to leave this one to you. Didn't show up here with my sword.

[ There's a reason for that, not that he feels a particular need to get into those details with Sephiroth. Especially not right now. ]

[supersoldier]

[Monsters are a gil a dozen back on Gaia, and even more so if one lived the life of a SOLDIER, often delegated dangerous missions where their threat was not so much an exception than it was an expectation. Both Zack and Sephiroth have seen their fair share; the first time the latter had seen a Shade upon his arrival to this planet, it had not so much as fazed him.

They’re awful, mindless creatures, of course. But they are manageable, adhering to the instinct of their previous lives. A deer will act as a deer, attacking shattered-antlers first. Wolves will work in packs, moving to surrounding their prey. And a bear will act as a bear, aggressive and territorial when encountered, sniffing at the air to assess the threat and deciding, quickly, that the two men are not welcome here in its section of the woods.

It lets out another guttural noise, darkness leaking from its maw, and charges straight towards them.

Sephiroth sidesteps quickly to the right, his priority an instinctual, if clear one — pull its attention away from Zack, who remains unarmed. Masamune lashes out in a wink of steel as he moves, and the Shade barrels straight ahead, lumbering in a straight line between the two. His weapon's edge shears into its hindquarters and it makes an angry noise, and on instinct swipes at the closest warm body to it. Zack.]

[exsoldier]

[ For all that the thing that had once been a bear looks like it's on its last legs, with its body twisted and its blood black and tarry, it moves with a surprising amount of speed. Again, Zack has to assume that it's the infection itself that lets this miserable creature move like it's still alive, and as it charges toward them he's already bracing himself to dodge out of the way.

That's the plan, anyway. But something happens when Sephiroth darts into action. The way that he moves, that inhuman speed, is the same as Zack remembers. It's when Masamune slices forward, moving so swiftly that it makes a sound as it cuts through the air, that Zack freezes in place for a few precious seconds.

It takes him back to the reactor. To how desperately he'd fought to overpower Sephiroth's raw strength and skill, and yet in the end it hadn't been enough. With all the power of Masamune, Sephiroth had cut him down, leaving Cloud to finish the job. And after that...

By the time that Zack comes back to himself, it's too late to move out of the way. The bear's massive claw swipes out at him, scraping down his arm and leaving behind three deep, ugly scratches. Zack cries out in pain, but his instincts finally kick in and he jumps back, the hand of his good arm darting up to grip the fresh wound.

Not good.

Well, if nothing else, at least the monster is focused on him now. It should give Sephiroth the opening he needs. ]

[supersoldier]

[He watches as Zack freezes up.

There’s no other way to describe it, and he’s sure of what he witnesses, having seen it assail the fraught features of young cadets amid the Wutai War so many times before. Struck by fear, their bodies treacherously disobedient, they can only watch as danger comes for them, useless and vulnerable.

The same happens now. The bear’s claws swipe into the man’s flesh, leaving marks long and too-deep for Sephiroth’s liking, and for a moment all he can think to himself is, He should have been able to avoid that. He’s fought worse before.

Instinct overrides thought, however, and Sephiroth takes this opportunity to end the encounter. He rushes forward with his blade, and in a vertical thrust of steel, impales the creature diagonal through the chest and heart cavity — for whatever that’s worth, undead thing that it is.

It seems to work, and the Shade groans, crumples, and twitches. Its breath is haggard and uneven until it stops breathing altogether, and Sephiroth seems unfazed by the violence as he pulls the long length of his blade from blackened flesh, oozing ichor.

Eyes lift, landing on Zack’s wound in concern all the while.]

Let me see it.

[An order. Masamune is freed and he crosses over to him with a deep frown.]

[exsoldier]

( overflow! )