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

[mockingself]

So you're not a fish? You smell like one.

[ His smile should be a little sweet and flirty but it reveals the serrated edges of teeth that were in no way normal. Neither is the pattern of cinnabar scales under his one eye (the other one covered by a monocle of silver and gold) leading to his left ear or the slightly larger scales that could be seen under his thin robes.

That second question is ignored. He could always claim he didn't hear it - which he didn't not really - despite knowing that such words would probably make him madder. Not his problem even if he did get attacked.

He takes a drink of wine and offers the bottle. ]

Gods only knows where we are or what we are. Now.

[sandu_shengshou]

Shut the fuck up, what the fuck.

[ Jiang Cheng does not trust smiles, no matter how sweet or bright. he has seen first hand what can lurk behind the mask of someone who is apparently kind. he trusts the smile even less when paired with the teeth of a predator.

he sneers at the other as he shakes water from his person as best he can, ignores the uncomfortable feeling that is crawling beneath his skin, and focuses on simmering anger in his bones that this asshole is only fanning.]

So you don't fucking know, perfect, thank you for the help. [ a pause while he considers the implications of the last bit. what they are now. interesting.] Are you not what you have always been?

[mockingself]

Eh?

[ He squints at Jiang Cheng, tilting his head to the side which only shows that those cinnabar scales were growing over the ear covering it almost completely. Shaking his head, he clicked his tongue against his teeth and stood up, swaying a little as he tucked the wine jar into the sash around his waist. ] Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry! I forget!

[ Gu Yun bows with full court manners, only one step off as his sash moves - well it acted like a sash but was actually his tail coiling around his waist for comfort. He had been tall back home, but his dragon form was taller still though it still retained the frail beauty that had marked him throughout his life. ]

This one is Gu Zixi, Marquise of Order, General of the Black Iron Camp and Commander of the Ghost Army. [ He laughs and straightens, reclaiming his wine and taking a deep drink from it. ] Or I was. I had no aspirations of claiming the dragon throne yet dragon I am.

[ And leaning forward, he squints at Jiang Cheng, tilting his head as if he couldn't focus at him at all. ] And you are... not a fish?

[sandu_shengshou]

[ these mannerisms remind him so much of Wei Wuxian that a scowl settles into his features without a second thought. there is the same easy arrogance there, something forgetful and dismissive in the way he speaks and moves and it makes Jiang Cheng want to unleash Zidian without care.

he does not.

he reigns in his temper just enough to greet the other -- Gu Zixi -- stiffly. ]

Jiang Wanyin, Sect Leader of Yungmeng Jiang. [ that probably means as much to the other as the titles spouted off meant to him. though he understands enough, the man is no nameless commoner, which explains the air about him. Jiang Cheng raises a brow at the mention of dragons.] Dragons. Is that what you are now.

[ he eyes the scales a little more, something wary in his look, though that quickly morphed back into annoyance.]

What the fuck is with you and fish, I woke up in a lake that does not make me a fish! Should I call you boar of hiding amongst the trees?

[mockingself]

Mm?

[ He pauses, nose scrunching as instincts battle with reason, a task that would have Shen Yi hiss at him as being ridiculous (Gun Yun was often a rude person that didn't care about the differences but here and now it mattered) before he leans back, his tail uncoiling enough to hook onto a nearby branch to keep the general on his feet. That too was still something to get use to, as he turns his head to look at the long twisting limb marked with black pearlescent scales. ]

Sect? Like the people of jianghu? I didn't know they had groups that large.

[ His tone remains light as he says that, even as he tried to think of where and who and when. He may not have been a good student of some matters, but he knew a lot of the worlds outside of Qi Lian. His main focus had always been on the 18 Tribes and the strange Westerners but he was sure there were always others. But that was a discussion for a later time. ]

That is what I've been told I'm becoming. A rare monster, or so they say.

[ Gu Yun ignored the rest of his words, his ears going deaf yet again as he pours the rest of the wine down his throat and sighs. It's been so long since he had drank his fill; his young lover always endeavoring to steal wine away from him, replacing it with vinegar. ]

[sandu_shengshou]

[ Jiang Cheng watches with a tinge of curiosity as the tail is unwound and used so easily, like another limb.it is fascinating but also disturbing, something about the possibility of turning into a monster in this place unsettling to him. (he cannot yet tell that his teeth have become sharper, or that he has gills against his throat, but eventually...). the curiosity does not last long before he is snapping his gaze back to the other's face and sneering ever so slightly.

when it comes to matters of his sect, Jiang Cheng will always be a little touchy.]

One of the four largest, perhaps if you spent less time drinking in the woods you would have more information of the world.

[ maybe if you spent less time arguing, Jiang Cheng, you too would know more about the world you were in. alas, that is not about to happen any time soon.]

Fucking useless monster, [ his words are bitter, clipped, as he turns on his heel. this conversation is getting him no where and he is willing to bet it will continue to go no where.] If you could point me in the direction of civilization that would be appreciated, but I understand if you are unable to.