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

Seidou Takizawa | Tokyo Ghoul | Witch

[devilyouknew]

i. he's beauty and he's grace

[He's falling flat on his face.

That's what happens when you're walking distractedly and then suddenly you're stepping out of a mirror above a sink in a public bathroom. Takizawa's foot twists under the faucet at an odd angle and he gives a startled cry as his nose smashes right into the tile.

He still has a few toes hanging off the edge of the porcelain as he lays there in stunned confusion for a few moments.]

Ow.

[Finally getting himself in the appropriate upright position, he's a little surprised to find that his nose is bleeding. And even more surprised that it hasn't almost immediately healed and stopped. An injury like this should be nothing.

Well it's no big deal. It's just a bloody nose. He has more important things to worry about, like getting out of wherever he'd ended up and figuring out how he'd gotten here in the first place.

So it's a somewhat-bloodied young man that steps out onto the street, looking like a misplaced goth who hasn't slept in days. He really hates being this confused.]

ii. soylent green

[The food stalls smell delicious. And that's the problem.

As a ghoul, Takizawa is unable to eat the same food humans do. It tastes and smells revolting to him. In order for it to be palatable to him it would have to have been human at one point. (Even parts of another ghoul, while edible, wouldn't smell this good.)

Do the other people here know? Are they all ghouls like himself? Some of them are clearly monsters, so perhaps this is to be expected. He's eaten plenty of humans in his time as a ghoul, but this scenario just feels wrong. He can't tell if the food is designed to look like regular food or if he's hallucinating that it is. It brings up some pretty awful memories.

He stands back from the stalls, looking a little shaky. If anyone else approaches he'll be sure to give them a warning.] Don't eat that.

[Unaware of his own physical changes, all he can do is assume the worst.]

iii. buyer beware

[In the course of cautiously looking through the wares offered at the goblin market, a curious concoction might have accidentally been spilled down the front of Takizawa's robe. As a result, the ghoul might have "accidentally" punched the goblin in the face.

Look, it's been rough and confusing. He's not interested in adding strange potions to the mix.

The man is now quickly exiting the area while trying to pull his robe up and over his head at the same time. Hopefully he doesn't bump into anyone with this contaminant on him in the process.]

iv. wildcard

[Anything else!]

ii - suspicious food time

[lmpatientdefense]

[So far, so good. Beau hasn't started sprouting feathers or fur or whatever, or accidentally setting things on fire, so she's ahead of the dire warnings the people at the Coven started giving. Sure, she can't sense her ki, and she doesn't know how to get back... but she knows how to wander down a city street and find a decent enough food cart to grab a quick bite before getting back to research. Not too shabby.

So when a, frankly, kind of haunted looking guy starts cautioning her away from the stall, she gives the food a second glance. It seems fine. The stall's proprietor looks and sounds a little offended by the advice, but not in a way that gets her hackles up. She looks back at the haunted guy, tilts her head a little.]

...Why not?

[devilyouknew]

[And here's the problem with his words of caution - he has to explain them. No one is going to accept what he says at face value when faced with seemingly delicious food, and it's difficult to tell them why he's concerned without revealing his cannibalistic nature.

He frowns and doesn't meet her eyes, glaring ahead at the stall.]

It's wrong. You're gonna have to take my word on it.

[He can't even say he has a sensitive nose for these things, as said senses have been dulled since he arrived. Still, he knows that no real food should smell this way. Not to him. Despite all his ghoul abilities not responding, Takizawa is in deep denial.]

If you eat it, you'll regret it.

[lmpatientdefense]

[Beau considers the advice, and the contrast in the expressions of the two people here. An increasingly flustered stall owner, offended at the accusations against their wares, without signs of guilt, shame, or shameless willingness to poison people for a profit. Awkward and haunted, avoiding eye contact, telling a stranger to just take them at their word.]

...You have some history with each other, this some sort of sabotage, or what?

[She doesn't think so, there's no recognition in the stall owner she can see, but hell, maybe this guy's face is an illusion.]

[devilyouknew]

History...?

[Takizawa hasn't even been thinking about the stall owner - was in fact completely ignoring their existence until Beau had to go and point it out. He turns a disconcerting gaze to them but ultimately shakes his head.]

No. Never seen them before.

[He almost adds "But they're probably a cannibal", then thinks better of it.

He shakes his head a second time, almost as if to clear it, then turns away from the stall entirely. This isn't getting him anywhere. He can't police the entire festival, or whatever this is.]

Never mind. Get what you want.

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?]

[devilyouknew]

[The ghoul watches her, frown deepening as he does. Then he exhales slowly and crosses his arms over his chest.

What is he doing? Half the people here are transformed in some way. Surely they know exactly what's in the food and what they're doing and he looks foolish for standing here and trying to get them to do anything else.

That's fine. He's not guiltless. As long as they know what it is and aren't being fooled by it what's he supposed to say?]

Do what you want, then. I'm sure you all have a system.

[But he won't be eating anything yet. He has to know where his food comes from.]

[stopfen]

[She pauses, there's still some of her weird rolled sandwich left. A wrap, with things in. So many strange foods here she'd never heard of. Then there's a snort, a small dismissive noise.]

Yeah, a system. The farms outside the city sell their produce, we pay for it.

[Complete deadpan from the fae. One day, her own crops would have grown enough to eat.]

[devilyouknew]

You know for a fact that's where it's coming from?

[If people don't go outside the walls often here, it would be easy to dupe them into thinking they were eating something they weren't. Though that level of trickery seems unnecessary.

He doesn't know how well he can trust this woman's word anyway.]

[stopfen]

I'd hope it is. I've been out there to work before. They'd have to have gotten my wages somehow...

[She didn't know the whole trade route. She'd just worked on the harvest and making wine. But the produce had to have gone somewhere. Otherwise the owners would haven't been able to pay her. But she shrugs at him.]

Are you hoping to go home soon enough that you won't have to eat?

[It wasn't like this group of new people were going to stay long.]

[devilyouknew]

[He's mentally spamming X to doubt still.]

Do you think I'll be sent back the way I came?

[They might have arrived in an odd way, but the others here arrived through mirrors too, didn't they? Will he definitely be returning? Is there something he doesn't know?

The answer is yes, of course. He doesn't like to starve himself, not after what happened at the beginning, but a ghoul can go for a month or so without eating. If they won't be here long than he should be able to manage.]

[stopfen]

[Welll, she didn't have an answer there. So she just inhales, giving the smallest hint of a shrug.]

I don't know. [Welp] I've been told people just arrive here and disappear at random. But the Coven was doing something this time. [She had no idea what other than it was a Mistake.] Whatever they did means there's nothing tying you here. We have the mirrors in the hall.

[And all the new arrivals just plopped out of a mirror somewhere.]

...We've been told to take you to the Coven. It sounds like you haven't been yet.

[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.

[stopfen]

[It didn't mean much to Mikasa. Witches weren't really a thing for her to know what the word meant, other than it was what the group called themselves.]

Yeah... Normally everyone arrives at the Looking-Glass house and the Coven is ready to explain everything there. [Then he continues and she shrugs.]

They can explain all this better than I can. Besides you've already been abducted haven't you? [Come on...]

[devilyouknew]

[That's true. His arrival had been odd enough that "abduction" hadn't really come to mind, but in a sense he's already disappeared.

Not for the first time he wonders if anyone will notice back home.]

Right, right. Fine. Take me there.

[It's something else to worry about aside from the food, at least. Until he finds the need to bring it up with them.]

[stopfen]

[Oh that actually worked. It wasn't like she could force him...Well she could. But she'd rather not have to. So with that, she turns starting to wander off, heading to the Aristocratic district where the Coven was. Ignoring the jeering of the merchants.

Enjoy the sights. Because his tour guide was one of the worst conversation partners. With him convinced to go she says nothing. There was some very, very colourful buildings. Some that looked like they'd collapse if it weren't for magic.

There weren't as many monsters once they got to the district though.]

[devilyouknew]

[Well this isn't awkward at all.

Takizawa follows closely, taking everything in as they go. Aside from the obvious oddities, nothing appears overtly threatening. It brings him little comfort. He can't get the smell out of his head.]

I'm not seeing nearly as many black pointy hats as I expected. Not sure if I should be disappointed or not.

[stopfen]

[Excuse her, she just slowly turns her head. Still walking but just looking at him.]

...Black pointy hats? [She doesn't get the reference. Witches weren't really a thing where she was from. At least not the variation that existed here or in most other worlds. But then after another moment she snorts.] These people her dress up too much to just wear a black hat.

[Sure it was Victorian-esque fashion(not that she knew that) but the clothes had a lot more going on that they'd normally would. Small enchantments and spells that made things change colour. But then they start to approach something not at all colourful. With the only colour being the nice green grass, with the occasional scorch mark, leading up to the Coven's grey bricks.

Though, Mikasa stops at the grass. Gesturing with her arms to keep going. Without her.]

[devilyouknew]

I suppose these are fancier than your run-of-the-mill broomstick and cat sort of witch.

[He is not counting himself among this population.

Takizawa stops when she does, staring at those outstretched arms and then at the building ahead.]

...What, that's it? You're taking your instructions very literally.

[No introduction or anything. Not that he probably needs one.]

[stopfen]

Oh, it's a myth thing... [So resigned about it. Half the time when someone said something knew and strange it related to something that only existed in their world. Like Momo talking about monsters she'd never heard of.

At the comment she shook her head, the dangling antenna swaying.]

I can go further, but they nag... [But she does take a step forward. Slower than her other steps. Did she have to? She would if he pressed again but still...]

[devilyouknew]

They nag?

[He makes a face at that, rolling his eyes a little.]

Do they want people to come here or not? It's not very helpful to shoo away our guides. Things are uncomfortable enough.

[Not that her presence makes him comfortable at all, but it's the principle of the matter. Either way, he isn't going to force her to come along.]

And this is definitely the right place? You're not dumping me off somewhere to be rid of me?

[stopfen]

They'll nag me. You've got a few weeks before they start... [But she inhales, squaring her shoulders and walking in, head held high. Like she hadn't been about to back out.]

It's the place. I would have just left you on the market if I wasn't going to help.

[devilyouknew]

A few weeks before they start what? Nagging?

[Now she's walking ahead, so he can only follow. He didn't have any concerns about going in on his own, but it's nice not to feel like such an unsettling figure that she would ditch him first chance she got.]

Probably close to ending?

[stopfen]

Yes, nagging. It took nearly two months for them bother me about getting a bond... They can explain that part to you. Though it sounds like you won't be here long. [Because she was tried of explaining that part. Still there is one older witch working at the coven by the entrance who asks if she's found a proper bond, but it's not pressed as the woman leads the newbie through the door.

After a good few months of nagging she'd gotten a bond. A bond with another monster, which apparently wasn't good enough, even if she felt better.]

Sure.

[devilyouknew]

A bond. I've heard that mentioned.

[Sounds like marriage. He's not interested. People bothered him enough about that before he became a ghoul, he doesn't need something similar now.]

So that's what you meant. Guess it's a good thing I'm only here for the short term, then.

[Supposedly. He gives her a bit of a smirk as they go inside. Good luck with your bonding and all of that. May you find someone worthy of your charming personality.]