☆ 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

OOC QUESTIONS

[moustre]

GENERAL

[moustre]

EVENT

[moustre]

IC QUESTIONS

[moustre]

If you wish to interact with Theodore or Sowilo, please 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. Theodore responses may take a day or two to get to but all will be answered as soon as possible.

Berserker (Cú Chulainn Alter) | OTA

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ II. Bit of a Mix-Up ]

[ Berserker is none too thrilled when he's just handed a piece of yellowed sheet music. It's not his nor is it even in a language he can understand. He hadn't been expecting anything -- he arrived here with everything save for Curruid Coinchenn and somehow having that returned to him didn't seem likely.

With the sheet music safely tucked inside his vest, he takes a moment inspect what else has been thrown out of the mirrors. Nothing seems familiar...Annoying. He turns his head towards someone else nearby. ]

Have you seen anything that looks similar to my tail? In color and pattern only...A helmet or gauntlets.

[ II-A. Mix-up pt. 2 ]

[ Sometime later, Berserker posts a picture of the sheet music on the network. Of particular note is the title: Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia. ]

is this yours? come get it, i'm tired of holding onto it. i have no use for it.

[ III. Late Morning ]

[ Sometime after fixing his mix up and regaining what was his, Berserker seems completely unhappy. He holds a plushie that looks suspiciously like him by the tail at arm's length. It appears he wants to keep this thing as far away from him as possible, even if it looks absolutely innocuous.

That's about the time he notices someone looking at him. He gets flustered and growls. ]

What are you looking at? Don't you have your own problems to deal with?

[ IV. Wildcard ]

[ These prompts not doing it for you? Got an idea? Drop me a starter or PM me here or on discord at glitzkrieg#0673 and we can work something out! ]

[hearthebell]

I've got a question about how those in an illusion labyrinth would perceive others who are attempting to interact with them! Would they be distorted by the illusion themselves, or unable to interact at all, or is that up to player discretion?

[moustre]

Player discretion! It's just a mean little trick to discourage trying to run off with everyone's stuff. Sowilo's methods and morals are questionable.

IC THREAD FOR SOWILO

[starseedling]

[Sowilo... Steven recognizes that name, and as soon as it clicks with him, he becomes more excited about that than the random items tumbling through. He was already there to check things out, but when he sees the other fae, he knows he has to take the opportunity.

He waves his arms, fluttering his wings.]

Sowilo! Wait! I know you!

[Except that's not quite right.]

I mean... I know of you.

you guessed it: THE BEES

[faithlikeaseed]

I don't know if this belongs here or as an OOC question down below but: how will our NPC friends feel about...the bees...

(To limit the initial horror I imagine the hive will be in a skep & not interested in going anywhere until it gets light or they're disturbed, haha.)

L Lawliet (Linden Tailor) | Death Note | OTA

[hearthebell]

II. A Bit of a Mixup

[When L hears the announcement, he makes his way post-haste to the Looking-Glass house. L guards the information and significant relics and people of cases past jealously, because there's always the possibility that they can cause mayhem and damage even worlds away. An old case file, a long-destroyed birth certificate, or a shred of genetic material falling into the wrong hands could be disastrous...

...and if the murder notebook made it here, that would be a calamity on a different level, entirely. But when L arrives, and is confronted by a Fae who thrusts a leather riding crop into his hands, it's... unexpected, to say the least.]

This isn't my--

[It doesn't seem to matter. L's left holding the thing in his spindly, white-fingered hands with an absurdly delicate and somewhat distasteful grasp, glancing uneasily at the other minglers in the crowded space.]

I don't suppose you have an equestrian penchant, or...

[He's thinking it very, very loudly. You can already probably sense what's coming through his extremely intense, round-eyed stare.]

...maybe a fetish?

III. Late Morning

[L's been holding onto the riding crop for far too long, by this point... but he's a detective, and it feels wrong to just leave it without at least figuring out who it belongs to. He also still hasn't found the object that supposedly came from his world, and that, above all, is extremely necessary.

Fortunately, there's a spell for that. The enchanted riding crop leads his steps, and as he travels with his gaze intently on the leather fetish gear, there's a good chance he pokes it right into someone.

Maybe it's you!]

Wildcard Option

[Riding crops aren't your thing? It's cool! Throw something else at me; feel free to catch L before or after he gets his hands on it (it belongs to Niles, who has L's handcuffs.)]

[moustre]

That poor apprentice deals with so much from you all. He was just trying to dust the mirrors, and then bees.

The bees will likely cause... a bit of a stir once they get woken up. They won't faze a Fae much, but the Witches will be frazzled, to say the least. To their credit, they will try to keep them contained in a bubble charm should they start to swarm, so they can eventually be returned.

[petaluridae]

[Oh. It's a child.

Sowilo stands taller than a normal Fae at 5'4" (thanks to the obvious height to his shoes, otherwise he'd be about 5' even), but holds himself like an aristocrat, dressed finely despite the hour. His eyes are a deep crimson with no distinction between sclera and iris, and narrow in on Steven with something like haughty disdain. Which... isn't any different from how he's looked at pretty much everyone else in the room so far.]

It's too early for childish delight. Do you need something? The Looking-Glass House needs to be cleared of all this junk before Dory arrives.

[faithlikeaseed]

Myr is gonna pull to have a party thrown for that apprentice. Or two weeks' vacation.

EXCELLENT Myr will be along Soonest on hearing there's bees.

II - mixup

[spaghettimonster]

That... No.

[Of the questions Papyrus expected from fellow night owl, previous coworker & neighbor... that wasn't one of them.]

That's not mine. I don't own anything like... that.

[The skeleton leans back from it a little, like he's concerned Linden will try to give it to him if he stays too close. And he squints at it, making sure he's seeing it right.]

It didn't come with, uh... a saddle?

Papyrus - turnskin | Undertale | OTA

[spaghettimonster]

I - EARLY MORNING WALK
Papyrus, fortunately for him, is a bit of an early morning bird. Or dog, or skeleton, or skeleton wolfman... Whatever!

The point is, he's awake when Nessie helpfully sends out a magical communication right at the start of day. Not in bed, tired and irritated, trying to cover nonexistent ears to continue sleeping, but awake and curious about it. Every mirror incident so far has been people, so this is an interesting and worrying change. It's also a great reason to get out and going someplace that isn't cleaning up other peoples' garbage. Or... Well, it is. But this isn't street garbage, and this time he hopes to find a little he recognizes as his own.

He takes a somewhat meandering route to the Coven, longer than necessary, to enjoy the early morning streets. There's few scowling humans about, and he wants to enjoy that. If he recognizes any faces headed in roughly the same direction, he'll wave and offer greetings - and even offer to walk there with them. The quiet early morning walk is even better with friendly company.


II - A BIT OF A MIX-UP
Papyrus, unfortunately for him, is an early morning skeledogman of a bird. So he gets to be subject to Sowilo's brusque... helpfulness. A fluffy brown blanket, more furry than he already is, is thrust upon him.

The skeleton stammers a brief protest, but the fae is uninterested in it, and, well. Sowilo seems so confident about giving it to him that Papyrus guesses this is the closest to an item for him that he'll be getting.

After all, he doesn't see anything in his glance around - while Sowilo shoos him out of the way - that he recognizes as his own. The early message was guesswork, and it's not at all clear that the belongings here actually belong to the current Mirrorbound. Maybe they belong to people who disappeared back into them, or people who were never kidnapped in the first place. Or...

"Do you think the mirrors are throwing out their trash, too...?"


III - LATER / WILDCARD
Between the warm welcome, the comfortable pace of things being distributed, and how spacious the Looking Glass Room is... Papyrus doesn't stay for very long. Either the blanket is his, or it's someone else's and they'll... post a Lost Blanket ad on the watch network, or something. Maybe he'll put something up saying what he received, to be sure everyone gets the chance to claim it.

Later. After he relaxes on it, maybe reading a book or curling up for a nap, because it looks indescribably comfortable and he want to try it out.

And later comes, and later passes. Papyrus takes that nap, sleeps longer than intended. Throws a little tantrum about it that the neighbors can overhear, and goes out to work on the remaining trash twice as hard to make up for it.

And, eventually, the truth of what items belong to whom... It begins turning up. One of his beloved action figures - a prop for theoretical battle scenarios - returns to his life, a little piece of home again. He's pretty emotional about that for the rest of the day.

[(Got another prompt in mind? Give it a shot. Prose or action tags are both good! I'll match what you go with.)]

wildcard driveby

[niespodzianka]

[ Geralt is doing even worse than the last time they saw each other, one hand at the side of his head, visibly in distress. Sort of. If you know him; mostly he just looks pissed off, which is like, only 3% different than his normal resting bitch face. ]

Hey, [ he grates, coming up alongside the dragon. ] I'm not staying long. [ Because otherwise someone from the Coven is going to notice he's about to pop and do something about it, probably. ] Doing okay, or did you get gifted a bomb?

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ Berserker knows him well enough by now to recognize the difference. Well, he's more alive than he'd expected, if he's going to be honest. Of course he can't leave well enough alone. ]

You look like hell. [ This is a good way to avoid the topic of the weird plush toy he's holding in one hand for a moment. ] And...I don't want to talk about it.

[ The stuffed doll looks suspiciously like him, down to the spear it holds in one hand. It wasn't what he'd been given originally -- there'd been a mistake and someone else ended up with the cursed object in his hand. It's something that reminds him of Medb, of his former Master, and he's really not okay with that. ]

[niespodzianka]

[ He just makes a monosyllabic grunted noise. Yeah, he probably does look like hell, he's not about to argue. He also feels like he's about to crawl out of his skin or punch someone, but fortunately, he's used to not acting on odd emotional states. (Or any!) ]

Alright, [ is his easy response, and then his gaze ticks down to ... that. How, uh, adorable. But he doesn't have the presence of mind to tease him about it at the moment, so his tense gaze sweeps back up without comment. He has a splitting headache. He feels like an idiot. A voice in the back of his head is needling him to just fucking do it already. ]

Do you--

[ ?? He's derailed by commotion somewhere down the hall. Maybe it's bees. So he shakes his head. ]

We'll talk later. But soon.

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ It's good Geralt chooses not to tease him about it, at least not immediately. There's a reason he foisted this thing off on his former Master and a part of him hoped to never, ever see it again. Well, now it seems like he's stuck with it and needs to find someone else to give it to...Good thing Berserker likes his currently company enough to not do that to him. He's got enough trouble without it. ]

Hm...?

[ He tilts his head just slightly at the beginning of the question. There's no need to press it further -- he knows it's likely about the offer he extended. Berserker already has his mind made up not to push him towards a decision one way or another. So he just accepts what Geralt says. It would have to be sooner rather than later, judging by the state he's in right now...Nevermind. Time to change the subject so he doesn't have to think about these emotions he's experiencing. ]

Did you end up with anything or are you still looking?

[hearthebell]

[Seeing Papyrus and Sans around period has challenged L's notions of... a variety of things. It's a little jarring to see a walking, talking literal skeleton around, and since he moved out of the Barracks and in with the SQUIP, he hasn't seen either of them around as much. Absence has only made the heart grow a touch more startled at reintroduction.

Still, his question stands.]

Nothing at all? And no, a saddle wasn't included.

[He sighs shallowly.]

Clearly, process of elimination isn't the approach for this, but... I can't help but wonder if the person who owns this would even admit to it.

[niespodzianka]

[ Too bad Geralt's not carrying a severed unicorn head. They could trade! But, no, he doesn't think Berserker's the type to happily endure ribbing (about anything besides a particularly amusing blood spatter, maybe), and Geralt's far from in the mood himself. ]

Neither. [ He's only here to drop off someone else's photo. ] I don't-- [ ugh, he feels like he's gonna puke from this magic. ] Witchers live on the Path. I don't have much that could show up.

[curruid_coinchenn]

[ No, he's not. He's humorless at the best of times and even less so when matters involve Medb and her obsession with him. This stupid doll is a part of that. He'd much rather still be hanging onto that yellowed piece of sheet music he had no connection to.

Berserker could ask about the Path, but he feels like Geralt isn't much for deeper conversation right now. How badly he's struggling still bothers him and he really doesn't like the way it makes him feel. Those pesky emotions bubbling up to the surface are harder to ignore now. ]

... I don't have much, either. I arrived here with nearly everything given to me by the Throne. [ Aside from his other Noble Phantasm -- the complete form of his armor, Curruid Coinchenn. Somehow, getting it returned to him didn't seem like a possibility, even if it was a part of his identity as a Heroic Spirit. Nevermind that. ] So why are you here, then?

steak / ota / chimera

[battlebound]

[ They deliver Steak grass, or greens. Vegetation of a kind he's never seen on Tierra (it almost looks like spinach, but not quite), and Steak immediately has a barrage of questions about just why he would be the one to be delivered a bunch of greens. Is it the horns? It's the horns, isn't it.

Unfortunately for Steak, he delivers them too late, after the coven has already moved onto assigning the next item.

So.

He's stuck with a bunch of vegetables and no idea what to do with them. Are they even edible? He could try one and find out, but Steak has better ideas. ... Well. Steak has ideas. Some snobbish, conceited Food Souls who happen to share a home with him may say that Steak's ideas are all equally bad and should be regarded as such, but we digress. He has an idea.

That idea being that he's met a couple of people in this city who know more about plants than he ever will. Perhaps they'll recognise it, or at least want to keep it.

(What's he going to do with them anyway? Skewer them on his horns, which now curve upright, as decoration?)

Which is how we come to Steak, horned and with four tentacles wrapped around his waist like the world's worst flotation device, wandering through the streets with a bushel of greens that may be very familiar to anyone who has encountered a chocobo before. ]

[[ ooc: Steak's item belongs to Prompto, but the prompt is definitely open for people to come tell him just WTF he got. Otherwise, if you want to interact with him somewhere else, I have an open log! ]]

[rollfordiplomacy]

[Everett is busy setting up his shop for it's grand opening in the following month. He went to the mirrorbound house, but found nothing of him own, hearing it was likely misplaced... Not too fussed, he returned to the "opening soon!" store and was setting up the porch with decoration when he was Steak wandering by.

Presumptuously, he thinks the man must be making an unexpected delivery. What odd plants he's carrying, though?]

Dropping something by, lad? I don't recall growing such vegetables in my garden. Where ever did you get them? [little does he know the Chimera was just passing by coincidentally]

[clickclickbang]

[Not only are they familiar to anyone who's seen a chocobo, they smell really fucking good to a chocobo.

That is why Prompto is barely hanging on as Primula races through the streets, heading for Steak.]

Prim, stop, stop you're going to run into that guy--!