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

[meteodrives]

[ But is Aerith all right because this is somewhere else, because it's some kind of afterlife, or is she just saying all of this to make keep Tifa from worrying?

In the end, she supposes the particulars of it doesn't matter. Aerith is doing what she does best, trying to make her smile, trying to reassure. It's a role Tifa dances in and out of on her own, usually, but in the face of a friend long gone, that part of her simply breaks apart. Her hands tighten briefly around Aerith's when she says there's not a scratch on her, because she knows--

She knows what it means to have been hurt by Sephiroth. The wound doesn't need to remain on the outside for it to be raw, painful, infected. But that's...a lot of assuming. And she eventually loosens her grip, though doesn't let go. ]

I'm just...so glad you're alive. That you're okay.

[ 'Okay', of course, being relative. Tifa tries for a smile, one that matches Aerith's with mirrored worry at the edges. ]

Maybe you can explain where we are and what this place is. We'll take it one step at a time.

[ If the answer is that this is the Lifestream or an afterlife or something similar, she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it. ]

...And maybe we can find somewhere quiet to talk so I don't continue to look like I'm a crazy person, walking in circles?

[ That's punctuated with a slightly stronger smile, just for her. ]

[evanescent]

[It's not as easy as saying she's alright, she knows. Were their positions reversed, Aerith would never believe it, coming from Tifa. For now though, her gentle lie is left as it is, and she can feel grateful for that much.]

One step at a time, [she agrees, and at the question nods, turning away slightly to regard the thinning crowds.] Things are closing up soon... but we can walk while we talk?

[a beat.] Cloud is here too. He showed up around the same time as I did. There's a place we're staying at with someone else, a friend. We can head that way.

[meteodrives]

Cloud too?

[ She isn't certain whether to feel hopeful about that. If Aerith is here, does that mean something happened to him? For now, she doesn't pursue that line of thinking, instead walking with Aerith, keeping herself grounded in the gratitude she'd allowed to feel before. Whether she's dreaming or dead or something else, she holds fast to the comfort that Aerith and she are walking side by side, like they did before. ]

Okay, let's head that way.

[ At least it'll be a point of reference, somewhere familiar with friends. ]

How long have you been here? And what is this place? I fell out of-- Maybe it was a mirror? [ It happened too fast. ] It was in a shop close by.

[evanescent]

Mm. He's been worried about you! He'll be happy to see you.

[She knew that much to be certain. He'd be worried — she was worried herself, with the both of them here and not really knowing what this world meant for either of them — but it wouldn't be an unhappy reunion either.]

It's been about three months or so? As for what this place is, I... I'm honestly not sure! I can't say. [She laughs, helplessly.] That's not something I'm used to. I only know that it isn't the Planet, and it isn't the Lifestream, either. I can't be sure, but I think it's some sort of crossroads. A place where many worlds meet. Usually, the mirror travelers go through is in a hall. Everyone has their own.

[meteodrives]

[ That makes sense. She hasn't come across anyone yet that she can definitively say is from another planet or world, so Tifa's frame of reference might be off, but if it's some kind of meeting place... She hums, thoughtful. It's easier to swallow than the idea that this is another side of the Lifestream, and she trusts Aerith's word on that without a doubt. ]

It's okay. I guess... I was really worried this was a piece of the Lifestream when I saw you. And when you said Cloud--

[ The worry just amplified at that point. ]

I'm assuming there's no way back since you both are here. But...Cloud was with me just before I came here and you're saying you've both been here three months.

[evanescent]

You're both okay, in my time, anyway. [She's quick to reassure Tifa of this.] I'm further along than everyone else here.

[Which came with a bountiful set of problems.] I can't explain how time works here, since I'm not sure I understand it myself. My only guess is that everyone is getting pulled from different points without the people around them knowing about it. That's why I can exist here, and Cloud can still be with you in your time without anything strange going on. But I can't say I know how it works... or what will happen when everyone's put back where they're supposed to be.

[meteodrives]

That sounds confusing.

[ Which is putting it mildly. If things sort of work out for the moment, she guesses it's okay right now. But in the long run, she's not so sure that's going to work out for any of them. Still, it's not like she can change it.

But hey, that begs a question, which she's pretty chock full of at the moment. ]

You say you're...further along. [ Aerith's dead. How can she be further along than them if she's passed? ] What do you mean?