EVENT ✨ Nightmare on Elph Street

[avalonmods]

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The ritual-wiping ritual wasn't the best news for Avalon and magic has been wacky for everyone since it was performed. However, if there was a time for it to happen, it happening before the Spring Equinox was just about the best time it could happen. The Spring Equinox, after all, is a time of renewal and rebirth. It's what you'd call a silver lining. As long as enough people participate in the Spring Equinox rituals, it should be fine... right?

CONTENT WARNINGS:

• 1st Prompt: --
• 2nd Prompt: --
  
• 3rd Prompt: --

This part of the event takes place on March 20th.

Though there is no Spring Masquerade this year as there had bene the last, there is a much smaller token of appreciation from the castle of Camelot to all of those who live within its borders: a gift basket with a salad of edible flowers, eggs, breakfast sausages, and a small bottle of champagne (or sparkling seltzer for those underage) and a bottle of orange juice to make mimosas with. Those of the vegetarian through vegan persuasions will receive vegan white chocolate eggs filled with coconut cream frosting and a mango puree 'yolk' and Avalon's best plant-based sausages. It's not quite a feast, but no one should go hungry on this day of celebration! Brownies will help to deliver these overnight, so you'll find them on your doorstep in the morning with a special spell to keep everything fresh through most of the early afternoon. Since there is no party this time, everyone will have the chance to see Avalon's plants begin to overgrow at a rapid pace within the city.
Those who saw it last year or locals who are normally residents of Avalon will tell you not to fear, this happens every spring. The plants grow around and not through structures, the buildings still safe and sound beneath large vines and leaves and pools and flowers. Most notably, huge beds of vines, open seed pools, and giantic flowers large enough to take a bath in have started cropping up around town, and they all seem to be filled with a vibrant, glowing liquid of some kind.  Each of these floral wonders, locals will tell you, is called a vernal soul pool. Upon entering one, you'll enter a lucid sleep state that connects you to everyone else in Avalon and the island itself. Doing so will cause your magic to be amplified and grow and stabilize, but also allow you to be cleansed and refreshed as a person. How much detail the person you're talking to gives is up to you (in case your characters would back off of it if they had the following details but you still want to experience it). Once someone enters, they will immediately feel as if they are at home and the pod will close over them gently, leaving them in a pool of that mysterious glowing substance-- vines grow further to encase, the pool closes, flowers close into buds instead of open blossoms.  Under normal circumstances, the pools would remain closed and in this state until the witching hour and slowly and gently awaken those within. However, even the magics of the spring aren't stable right now, and what ends up happening is the pools suddenly spill open before anyone's dream sharing can truly get underway, dumping their passengers out onto the ground into a state of jarring awakeness. With them, they will find they are unable to access their Avalon magics but instead have one of the following: Unstable, uncontrolled access to their canon powers. They may start shooting off random magic, they may be unable to shut down a normally passive ability gone into overdrive, or when they try to use their abilities, it goes outright wrong-- "Accio Excalibur" in an attempt to save the multiverse might result in all figurines of Excaliburs within 10 miles to come hurdling toward you, for example. Access to the beginner, untrained level of canon powers of someone whose shared consciousness you entered. Even if you don't have canon powers of your own, you will be able to access someone else's with this option.   This part of the event takes place late night on March 20th through slightly past midnight on March 21st.
	The fairy queen's envoy, Princess Bluebell, sends out a panicked emergency message (complete with the obnoxious alarm that sets off phones even on silent) after a couple of hours of this, and casts a mirror-travel spell to Nicnevin so that any may quickly arrive just outside of its borders, next to the river. The message states that the dream world and reality have melted together due to the majority of magic being funneled into the time freeze spell or the equinox ritual, which uses Queen Mab as a vessel through which the vernal soul pools channel everyone's magic. The Spring Equinox renewal did NOT go as planned, needless to say. Otherworlders must head to Mab's Cavern to locate Queen Mab and absorb some of her energy by touching her to stabilize their magics and drain the spring equinox's out of her before even bigger disaster strikes!
Mab's Cavern is typically a place forbidden to enter under normal circumstances. It is the world of dreams and nightmares takes from our subconscious what we most desire and what we most fear and our memories and turns them into reality. This is what your character will have to face without their Avalonian magic and the above either unstable or beginner-level powers. Mab normally goes into a slumber and connects herself to the whole of Avalon during the Spring Equinox to allow the vernal soul pools to utilize her magic, so she cannot let everyone in or help anyone navigate her realm. Mab's Cavern looks like a normal mountain from the outside, covered from head to toe in pink cherry and plum blossoms trees, shrouded in a fog that's pink itself from reflecting the petals. The entrance to the inside of the cavern is an ancient door, carved from white marble and enchanted to be impassible without an offering and engraved says: "Offer me your most secret dream and enter this forbidden realm. Dream with me for eternity." The offering, in this case, is simple: speak your most secret dream out loud for the door. The open door will allow one person to pass through per offering, and leads into a hall entirely coated in flowers of a variety of colors. These flowers speak, and will ask you how you are, warn you to turn back, tell you and whoever you're walking with that you make a cute couple, sing the national anthem of their people, whatever. They seem to get more and more chatterbox-y as you head inward and the lights grow dimmer until there is no light left. Even if you light one, it seems as if you are in a black space where nothing exists but you and whoever you walk with (if anyone), and voices.

This portion of the event contains a FOURTH WALL EVENT element and takes place on March 21st.
 

That is, until you hear a new voice and the chatterbox flowers hush. Anyone from any canon can appear and team up with you within Mab's Cavern as this is a fourth wall event. Guest characters will have access to their canon abilities, but cannot leave Mab's Cavern or affect the environment outside of it. Your new party member can accompany you through Mab's Cavern, which takes the form of a location from in-game characters' memories. Within it, their darkest fear will turn into a physical enemy and attempt to hunt them down. (How you interpret this is up to you as a player-- please create your own monsters based on your character's fears, even if they are more conceptual than physical.) Within it, their deepest desires may find fulfillment (we leave this to player
interpretation again, but be sure to ask permission if it involves another character who is in the game or a part of the fourth wall) and their new party member may need to convince them to leave instead of staying in the dream world forever. Characters who are able to get past both desires and fears will find themselves able to see a door that wasn't within their memory before. Upon going through it, they will be able to find Queen Mab, asleep in the center of what appears to be a glowing, underwater pond with stones that raise above the surface that lead to her bed some hundred feet in. Beneath the surface, more of the talking flowers start to cry about their woes-- unveiling that they failed against their fears and desires, and those who do will find themselves turned into flowers within Queen Mab's cavern, only able to escape if they are able to touch another living person!  If you've trusted the flowers, you'll find yourself in trouble. These are actually souls who crossed Queen Mab and attempted to steal their desires away from her cavern and bring them into reality. Their curse? They can escape if they trade another soul for theirs. Now would be a good time for a partner to help pull you out because as soon as you touch one of the flowers, they will turn into vines and attempt to wrap around you to pull you under the water and drown you! The "water" itself is the same liquid used within the vernal soul pools, so you'll find your life literally flashing before your eyes as this happens, making it very difficult to escape without someone else's help. If you die in the water, the flowers who did it will transform back into their original selves and flee, and you will be transformed into a talking flower yourself. If you make it to Queen Mab, you'll need to place a hand on her and all dreams and reality will sort themselves out within you-- that is, your broken powers will disappear and your Avalonian magics will return. As you head out again, the guest character brought in to help you will begin to fade away slowly enough that you can say your goodbye before they are gone. There is no way to stop this. All memories of fourth wall visitors will be retained as part of game canon. After enough people have come to take Mab's powers enough to deplete the effects of the Vernal Pools, the Fairy Queen herself will come to Mab and run a strange-looking dagger through her heart. All of the Spring Equinox magic that was being filtered through her will be released into the land and stabilize magic for everyone, and a flower will blossom out of Mab's heart around the dagger. Within the center of the bud glows a small child version of Mab, and anyone still in the cavern will find themself just wandering around in a dark cave. The Fairy Queen glows in the dark and will lead them out with little magic glow bubbles that try to make them follow if they get separated from her vicinity, but is still not speaking to anyone. She will also transport anyone who has been turned into a talking flower out of the cave via some kind of levitation spell and give them to someone they know-- whether they know them in a positive or negative light is up to you, she can only register connection on sight with magic, not emotion. A little research will reveal the following solutions to restoring your character: Siphoners and countercurse potions can remove the curse to get them back to 100% normal. Animal mages can transform them back into their original species (but they will still smell like flowers for the rest of their life). Green mages can use their magic to cultivate them into flower people-- who look like themselves, but now require sunlight and water to survive instead of food and occasionally sprout a flower or two in their hair.

Comments

[receivedagift]

[Not everyone, is what she wants to say, but at that point it would be stating the obvious... and most of the people they did manage to rescue. Most of the citizens.]

Yes. Unfortunately there is a sandstorm on the other side of the portal and everyone's emotions brought Grimm to us.

[She does have a question in return. Before that she looks quickly at the grimm, both to see the distorted faces of the fallen and to see if they were moving. None of them, however, made a move. It's like they were waiting... but also continuing to weight on her mind just by existing.]

What is the last thing you remember?

[schmisse]

[ Truth be told, the last thing Weiss remembers has nothing to do with Winter. It was a horrifying experience— she saw her teammates fall one by one. To where? She... doesn't know. It could have very well led to the death of her teammates. And with no one around to boost her optimism, her heart sinks just thinking about it all.

For now, despite the battlefield they're in, she lowers her sword. ]

It was... it was awful. [ Weiss has been able to cope, because she's distracted by other things and other people, but now that she's thinking about it again? ] Cinder was there, fighting all of us. Yang fell... so did Ruby and Blake.

I don't think we would make it to Vacuo.

[receivedagift]

[She doesn't remember more than that? Could it be the result of traumatic experiences or the fall? Winter closes her eyes for a moment, wondering what she should say.

The truth. Weiss would want to know what happened. She opens her eyes again, looking straight at Weiss.]

You didn't. I entered the fight and... and watched you fall as well. [She takes a deep breath to calm herself so she can explain till the end.] Jaune was also fighting with you but... he didn't make it in time before the portal closed, so I have a reason to assume he also fell where you are.

[Whether it was a place or... death.]

[schmisse]

[ She hears what happened after what she remembers straight from Winter's lips. It should be the truth; Winter wouldn't lie to Weiss, after all. And yet... there's something about how straightforward the news is delivered that Weiss can't bear to accept this.

Even though she had a feeling, in the first place. The events surrounding it— like Winter joining the battle, Weiss doesn't fully understand yet. In time, perhaps, she will. Right now, though, her concern is more for herself. ]

How can you that that with such a straight face?

[ Her heart feels like it's being crushed, but she's doing her best to stay as calm and defiant as can be, even though her voice sounds like it's breaking already. ]

[receivedagift]

[Winter is barely hanging onto her emotions. She wanted to deliver the news as calmly as possible and not break down while saying it out loud. Especially since the enemy was still there. She couldn't just let her feelings overtake her. That's what she keeps telling herself.

But when Weiss asks how, her tears appear once again. Something breaks in her. The air around her grows colder and the Grimm seem to move reacting to the upset in her. There's snow mixing with the sandstorm around them.]

... I couldn't save you...! I wasn't fast enough to grab you, even with the maiden powers. Penny entrusted these powers to me and I couldn't even save who I care about the most!

[schmisse]

[ ... Not that Weiss was hoping for good news, but it still feels like she got stabbed another time hearing that she falls. Then again, she's not really sure how to continue without her teammates. She'd pick herself up, because of course, she does, but not without taking a lot of time for herself to cope and recuperate.

The environment is changing. There's a battle to be won, and she has a mission in this cavern. Entering this place, she had to voice out her most deepest desire. If, in her heart of hearts, it weren't true, then she wouldn't have been allowed entry. And so, if what she yearns for with all her heart is to bring peace to Remnant and have her happy ending with the person she loves most, even if it's in a different realm altogether, then there's no mistake. This is one of the things she has to face in order to make that a reality. ]

And you became the Winter Maiden after all... [ There isn't much enthusiasm left in her voice. Weiss would be a lot more sensitive to Winter's tone right now, and to how her sister is feeling, but the pain she feels in her chest is a little too much. It's taking all she has not to start crying right now ]

We shouldn't lose sight of the battle. [ Though right now, she's still questioning why she's fighting in the first place. ] We're surrounded.

[receivedagift]

[Winter's emotions are swirling. There are a lot of them that she has learned to keep bottled up over the years, but with the recent events and losing Weiss, it was hard to do that anymore.

Weiss sounds cold and she doesn't blame her sister one bit. With news like this and with everything the fall of Atlas and their home represents... it was a desperate situation.

The reminder of the battle makes Winter blink and look back at the Grimm that are steadily approaching, ready to bounce at any moment. She needed to regain control and cling to however little she would have left. She takes deep breathes, the snow storm around her calming down slowly.

Deep breaths. Perfect calm. She could break down later when they weren't in danger. She might really need it. But now... she needed to fight. For her sister in whatever situation this was.

She brings towards her sword, pointing it at the nearby Grimm.]

I'm ready. [As she'll ever be.]

[schmisse]

[ This would have been a happy reunion. Weiss would have done anything to see Winter again. Perhaps when there's no danger looming in the air and Weiss can process everything, she would be able to understand her emotions better. ]

So am I.

[ But with her access to her Semblance not as good as it used to be, she's not quite sure what works and what would. Either way, she decides to tap into her Aura and her Semblance, summoning a line of Glyphs that can lead her to the nearby Grimm to battle them. Should her Glyphs disappear, which they fortunately don't, she would have landed face first in front of a horde of Grimm. ]

Take the other side!