☆ Event: Mirror Mix-Up

[moustre]

Event Log: November, Mirror Mix-Up

The 20th of Noveuer starts out innocuous. The Looking Glass House is quiet and still at this late hour, largely empty but for the apprentice Witch dusting the many mirrors on the walls in the middle of the night. When the bells chime for 3 am, though, a night of tidying turns into something... a little more hectic. He panics, initially, as things push through various mirrors to scatter across the floor, and then animals, scurrying about, unhappy with their current change in locations. He clings to his duster and waits apprehensively for more Mirrorbound to slip through, prepared to run and get Miss Nessie, but the minutes tick by, and none come. Eventually, he can't ignore the mess any longer, and flees to fetch someone higher up to deal with this nonsense.

I. Early Morning Message The initial hours after 3 am are a bit of a nightmare. Miss Nessie is unavailable, stuck in a long Parliament meeting with Mhairi that has continued into the early morning, and her assistant, given new duties lately due to her packed schedule, is sent to speak with her. It's a bit of a cluster, everything - they've never had something like this happen before! Then again, they'd never had people come through either, until the first group of Mirrorbound several months ago. She gets away long enough around 6 am to make a magical announcement to Mirrorbound only, her voice, at a casual speaking tone, carrying across the city enough to be heard anywhere. "Good morning, Mirrorbound! So sorry for disturbing you at this time of morning, dears, I am. It's just that we've had a bit of an incident in the Looking-Glass House last night! How strange, what I'm hearing, how bizarre. If you would all please report to the Looking-Glass House at your earliest convenience, we believe we may have some things of yours, we do. The sooner the better, as- well, some of the things come through the mirrors last night must be pets! They're terrorizing my poor staff. Now, I won't be the one to greet you, I'm afraid, I'm still quite wrapped up with Parliament, but I hope you'll all be kind to my Assistant Theodore and his Bonded, Sowilo. They'll be making sure everyone gets their things back. Theodore might be a bit buttoned-up, but he's a good lad! Bye for now, dears, I must away back to my meeting, but rest assured, we will be looking into today's unexpected surprise!" After it's been heard, the message cuts off - it's impossible to miss unless one is trying very hard to miss it. Miss Nessie's duties will keep her away during this event, but limited NPC interactions, IC or handwaved OOC, are available with her newly-minted assistant Theodore Rosethorne, and his Bonded Fae, Sowilo. In the future, anything requiring Nessie may also be brought to Theodore! The NPC Contact page will be updated in the next few days to reflect this change. There may be a slight delay on Theodore's responses, but all NPC interaction requests will be answered as soon as possible.

II. A Bit of a Mix-Up It's a red-headed Fae in shoe-lifts who arrives first, glamoured to look perfectly put together despite his long hair being up in a haphazard bun, having been dragged out of his bed to deal with a crisis this early in the morning. He immediately starts directing efforts, red dragonfly wings occasionally flicking with irritation as he reads things off a clipboard and directs this to be piled there and that pet to be corralled before it crashes into something or sets something on fire. The other Witches are a little apprehensive about his presence, but when one protests, he just says with a scowl, "Excuse you. I am Bonded to Miss Nessie's right hand man." The efforts to reunite incoming Mirrorbound with their possessions and pets are... well, an effort is made. Sowilo may just shove something into your arms and announce in an authoritative voice, "You look like you could use one of these." He hears no arguments that it doesn't belong to that person, brushing them off with a haughty, "Well, find the owner, then, make yourself useful, hm?" Before he flits on to the next Mirrorbound, the next item or creature, eager to get rid of everything cluttering up the Looking-Glass House. Fae. Sometimes they're just like that. While the Witches are bustling around trying to get everything sorted out (it's impossible to match things to mirrors, but an attempt is made anyway), it's easy enough to breeze past them and survey the goods on your own, but no one will be allowed to leave with more than one item or creature in their hands or pockets; Sowilo has a sharp eye, and attempted theft will result in an illusion being placed on the thief of being trapped in a maze with their worst nightmare. It lasts until the extra item is returned or will otherwise dissipate after three days. Those that can see through illusions naturally or through practice get a stickier punishment - literally, one of the Witches present will, when prompted by Sowilo, charm the thief with a glue-trap spell, which will cause them to stick to everything except what they're trying to steal - again, until the extra item is returned, or until three days have passed. There isn't much warning about the punishment for attempted theft. The rumors have it that Sowilo's family are descended from Unseelie, and he's... a pain in the behind, to put it lightly. As a reminder, all mixed-up items should eventually find their way back to their original owners unless explicitly plotted out otherwise!

III. Late Morning After a couple of hours of Sowilo's "management", Theodore Rosethorne finally arrives. One quick glance and the poor Witch already looks like he's going to faint. Miss Nessie's assistant is a young Witch who seems to hold himself as prim and proper as possible. Clothes neat and straight. The only thing that seems to be impossible to tame is the mess of curls on his head. He takes the clipboard from his Bonded, but seems at a bit of a loss. Mirrorbound arriving later in the morning are much more likely to get an item that actually belongs to them, though mix-ups may still happen. He gives the best smile he can offer before adjusting his glasses. Exasperated. "I'm quite sorry. Terribly so. If it isn't too much trouble, it would help us greatly if you could find the original owner. I only just escaped digging up documents from Miss Bell's desk..." Needless to say, the poor guy seems to have been thrown into the thick of it and already overwhelmed. Oh, and about Sowilo? "I apologize. He's...Well, he can be a lot when you first meet him." Or a lot in general. Sowilo is quite the character! For those having trouble finding the original owners of whatever they've been given through more conventional means such as word-of-mouth or the Watches, a quick spell is taught and passed out in slips of paper meant to be stuck to the item in question - it acts as a divining rod, pointing the item toward the owner and pulling the person holding it along for the ride. Careful! The charm has no mind for things like walls and doors and people in the way, and will always try to pull the holder in the shortest possible line to its owner. This isn't much help for pets, though, who have minds of their own, and, in some cases, just don't want to be corralled by strange and somewhat-frantic Witches or Monsters.

Welcome to November's event log! Regains arrive through the mirrors ICly on the morning of the 20th. Questions can be found HERE, and if you wish to interact with Theodore and Sowilo, our newest NPCs, comment HERE. You have the option of handwaving the IC interaction to OOCly ask what questions your character might have for them, for us to summarize an answer for, or you can request an IC thread. Simply specify in your comment's subject and we'll respond accordingly. As always, feel free to use this log or make your own!

Comments

[long_live_the_queen]

[Nyu squeaked again when he bounced like that; she raised her gangly arms as if to catch him, immediately thought better of that (claws), and then froze indecisively, tail the only thing still moving. It was lashing like an uncomfortable cat's, its feathers all bottlebrushed out, and—god, she was a mess of things.

His pause also ended up helping Nyu, and she was able to recollect her thoughts and...realize she bowled over a blind man. Deer...man? Which set her off into startled stammering again.]

I'm—I'm sorry! I'll get those for you!

[The Chimera scrambled after the fallen apples, straying into the street without thinking about it to fetch those too. It wasn't terribly busy, but an approaching cart came to an abrupt, shuddering halt, its horse catching sight of a Chimera in the way and immediately objecting to this. It dug its hooves in and leaned back in its harness even with the wagon's weight pressing against its hindquarters, ears flat and whickering nervously. The driver nearly toppled off, cursing.]

[faithlikeaseed]

Wait, serah--!

[They're apples! They're not that important! Even if he does appreciate the help--he'd be hard-pressed to find them all by his lonesome--and understands her nervous enthusiasm, he knows just how close to the road they are. He starts after her, slower for having to feel his way out and catching sound of what might be a vehicle approaching,]

--look out!

[Though his warning's probably too late, and he cringes at the sounds of the cart's abrupt halt, expecting at any second that they'll be punctuated by a scream or a wet thump or the cracking of broken bones--

--or, well, it seems she wasn't struck, and thank the Maker for that. He hastens after her, unintentionally booting one of the fallen apples toward the horse as he does.]

Everyone all right? [He'd heard the cursing. And the upset horse, which is a convenient sound to fix upon but liable to get him in trouble if he gets too close to it...]

[long_live_the_queen]

[No!! Apple!!

Though Nyu kind of regrets her decision right about now.

As quickly as Nyu ran into the street, she doubled back on herself with an alarmed squeak, not unlike a startled bird's squawk. She focused on the man she'd blundered into for a lack o anything else nearby and Not Scary, running back in his direction. Her feathers hissed together noisily as she darted back onto the sidewalk with an armful of apples.

As for his question--]

Yes. [Nyu squeaked, her voice small. For a Chimera, she was doing a terrible job at being intimidating.]

[The carter who was just trying to do his job was slower to answer; after recovering his balance, he craned his head around to check on his cargo and see if any of the ties had come loose.]

"I am, no thanks to you." [He glared at the Chimera, and Nyu's feathers flattened. She is small and unassuming, please look at something else.]

[The horse continued its nervous whickering, hooves clacking against the cobbles. The apple rolling just in range got the animal's ears to prick forwards, but it was too busy making sure nothing was going to eat it to snatch it up just yet.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[The sound of footsteps and the squeak haul Myr up short--and a good thing that is, since he'd have blundered straight into the horse eventually at the rate he was going. He edges a step closer to the squeak as the carter makes his displeasure with the whole situation known, making a snap decision and acting on it.]

You'll have to forgive my friend, serah. She startled me and was only trying to help, [since he's in no state to be rushing about the street on his own, something he'll make obvious by tipping his head back so the blindfold's evident.]

If aught's amiss with your horse or cart, I'll gladly make it right. [Maybe his damnably inconsistent Faun magic will deign to work in the matter of the horse and he can...calm it down by telling it things horses liked to hear.

Whatever those were. He doesn't know much from horses.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[At first Nyu's mouth opened to protest--and then she thought better of it. It was safer in numbers, even if there were just two. The antlered man was already much friendlier than the one driving the cart, anyway. Though he did seem to be using the wrong name for her, it wasn't...that person's name either.

Nyu hadn't fully realized the antlered man was blind until he lifted his head, though. Once her surprise had passed, the Chimera found herself sidling closer to him, still trying to be Helpful. Her feet weren't the noisiest, but talons still clicked against stone and her feathers elsewhere still hissed together.]

Um--yes! I'm helping!

[Flawless alibi.

The faun's magic doesn't agitate the horse, but from the quizzical way it lifts its head up and pricks its ears forward it doesn't seem to understand what Myr was telling it, either. What was that about its coat...?]

"Just stay out of the way." [The carter was still disgruntled. And there were still apples in the road, and Nyu's hands twitched a bit.

But--wait, that was what got her in trouble to begin with. No apple.]