avalaughs | EVENT ✨ Nightmare on Elph Street

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EVENT ✨ Nightmare on Elph Street

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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

glowy cave water

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.

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[Well, that escalated quickly. But Hijikata is used to that. He has half a mind to toss Noah his short sword, but it might not even help him if he doesn't know how to wield it, so for the moment he simply draws the long sword and charges in.]

Got it!!

[The monsters are all completely zeroing in on Noah, which makes it easy for him to swing at one's neck. He's a very strong man, steeled from years of hard training and fighting, so he may just cut its head clean off - and hopefully that'll be enough. He picked up on their pesky self-healing mechanism already. Without giving the other beasts time to adjust to the new danger to them he swings the blade at the next one, then turns his momentum into yet another slash to double his chances of downing this one too.]

[ There's a yelp before the first monsters head comes clean off, black fog coming out of its neck before the body quickly hardens to a texture and fragility like charcoal.

The second yelps as well but manages to escape death, though lost a front leg in the process which did not deter it from trying to attack Noah which he put down by driving and twisting the knife in its skull and pulling down its neck then out. The next was the most unfortunate having upper half of its head sliced off mid pounce, then falling and crumbling to the floor.

All of these monsters, even the ones Noah has managed to harm, were all focused only on him. ]

Thanks for the assist. [ He says with, surprisingly still a fair amount of breath in his lungs. ] Fuck. I never expected to see these bloody things here.

Edited 2022-03-25 17:06 (UTC)

Any time!

[That's what knights are for! Seeing how well Noah uses his knife Hijikata does remove the short sword from his belt with a swift loosening of the ties around the sheath and offers it to him while the creatures are mostly crumbled, crumbling, or incapacitated.]

If you want it--

[The one monster that's still standing (~~if his mun is counting right~~) lunges at him - he's not sure if it's targeting him for the danger he poses or only because he's in the way of getting to Noah -, and he delivers a fierce cut across its chest, twists around and tries to follow up with another decapitation. These enemies are entirely new to him, but this seems to work well enough, so he thinks that Noah can make better headway with a sword as well, in case there will be more of them.]

What are these?!

[ He stepped back as the last of the beasts lunged. Whatever that weapon is, Noah wants no part of getting in its way. ]

Thanks, torch. I owe ya.

[ With that out of the way he goes over to the solidified bodies and pounds on it the butt of his knife, making it crumble rather easily. ]

Fog monsters. Strange abominations born from the fog. They're from my world. [ He looks to their surroundings. ] Which is currently all around us. Something is weird about these ones though.

[ He continues to smash the body to dust until he spots something and pulls it out. A small clear crystal, about the size of bottle cap, with a pale blue-ish color. ]

Well, that is weird. There's supposed to be red globs in there.

[Hijikata blinks at "torch", but that's probably slang from Noah's world - the monsters take priority right now. Luckily they crumble easily enough as Noah smashes them. As he discovers the crystal Hijikata steps closer to inspect it too.]

These things power them? Have they always been around, say? Or could it be that someone created them? They really seem to be after you.

[Maybe they simply recognise the boy as a native to their world, and thus potentially their natural prey, but if Hijikata didn't know better he'd almost think that those creatures are somebody's minions and were specifically sicced on Noah... and actually he doesn't really know better, does he?]

Not exactly power it. It forms only after death, we call it an origin stone. This one is no good though.

[ He throws it away before going to another of the creatures and doing the same, pulling out the stone only to find it in the same state as the first. ]

They're born from the fog, from the dark. No one really knows how to make them, the happen naturally. And if anyone did figure out how to make them and kept making them, then they're out of their bloody fucking mind.

[ He moved to the rest to retrive the stone, all turning out to be useless. ]

They did seem to have something against me. Maybe it's my good looks. [ A half hearted attempt at a joke. ] Ah crap. The fog is thickest where we're going.

[ He points again to the distant factory where black fog rolled out of the yawning doors and broken mirrors, and with Noah's lack of enthusiasm in his voice - chances are that there's more monsters inside. ]

[He takes that information in. What odd creatures... it seems like his first assumption about them was way off (and a little paranoid), but he's seen some shit in his time. He snorts at Noah's quip, then sighs as he follows his gaze and looks ahead.]

Figures. Where does that route lead, anyway? Is there no other way out?

[Perhaps this factory is walled in or somesuch, but a wall might be less of an obstacle than the fog monsters... but then again neither of them has access to their magic, which makes everything more cumbersome. Oh well, he's ready to fight his way through if need be. He offers the short sword to Noah once more.]

You're good with your knife, but if you want something with a wider range I'll lend it to you.

[ He looks at the sword and hesitated for a moment before taking it and putting away his knife, understanding that he'll need the extra reach. ]

Right. I have to warn you though, I have no idea how to use something like this.

[ He draws the sword and checks the balance in his hand, then examining the edge, before giving it a swing. ]

Okay, I think I can figure it out as I go. I didn't get your name by the way. I'm LeClair.

[He observes Noah's practice swing and is satisfied to see him do it well enough - at least he shouldn't get the sword knocked out of his hand right away or anything.]

Hijikata.

[His senses are alert as they move forward into the thick dark fog, but he still has a few questions.]

That origin stone... if it had been a useful one, what'd it have been good for?

Ummmm, not exactly certain how they do it but the little red things inside it contain genetic samples of various things.

[ He moves slowly behind Hijikata, feet shuffling across the floor rather than taking steps. If these are the monsters from his world, then he knows that there's more than just that group. ]

The gods in my world can extract it and if there's enough samples, they can create...whatever it's a sample of. I'm not entirely sure, this is all just stuff we're taught. Only the folks on the towers upper levels would know, them and the Architects.

[ His eyes are trained to the shadows waiting for each to just move or blink, any indication that something is there. ]

I also have got to tell you, we're walking towards what is easily their den. These things love the dark, thrive in it. So any shadow you see that they could hide in could easily be hiding a monster. Like that.

[ He touches Hijikata's shoulder to draw his attention to their right where a black shadow cast on the roof suddenly gained a pair of red eyes before dissappearing. ]

They're probably going to be joining the rest of their pack.

[That first part confuses Hijikata more than anything he has heard up until now.]

Genetic samples? So it's organic life? And your gods can recreate that?

[There are plenty more questions to be asked - do people in Noah's world straight-up interact with their gods or are there middlemen, like those upper-level-dwellers -, but then his attention is directed to where the shadowy creature briefly takes form.]

...

Man, this is going to be fun. What exactly is down there that makes it worth it? An exit through the sewers, or an underground railroad, or..?

[ There's clear hesitation from him to answer that question, but also a good mix of confusion as well. ]

....Ah sod it. There's an elevator leading to a well equipped armory in the Deep. If these things are coming from somewhere, it'd be there.

[ Hopefully he doesn't have to explain why he knows that, but he redies just in case something does come out to get them en route. ]

There's something else. These things are attracted to chaos, so if we get into a fight and drag it out - more of them will come. Or..maybe something bigger.

[Don't ask how he automatically assumed that they're going down (~~it's because his mun misread RIP~~), but apparently they indeed are. He doesn't fully like Noah's explanation, though.]

And the armory has weapons that'll reliably take these monsters out? If there's a whole bunch of them down there the swords may not cut it.

[He didn't mean to make that lame pun, but here we are... that aside he frankly hasn't yet understood that they have tests to endure in these dream-imported world fragments, so his focus isn't on facing and defeating the fearsome creatures, but rather simply on getting out of here and back into the cavern proper as soon as possible. If both are only possible in combination, of course, he won't object, but he has a bad feeling about this... especially given that ominous bit about "something bigger" possibly showing up.]

That's the thing though. These monsters aren't supposed to be here. Hells, this place isn't supposed to even exist anymore!

[ The agitation on his face was becoming clear, which in turn called on more creatures to reveal themselves and lick their chops at the sight of the two. ]

This is supposed to be a guild installation after I told them where to find it. If there's monsters here, I honestly don't even know if the elevator is still - contact!

[ Two more monsters of the same type leapt off the roof and bolted towards them, both again seemed clearly fixated on Noah. ]

["What guild", he wanted to ask, but here they go again! The beasts are goddamn fast, but so are he and Noah. Again Hijikata uses the creatures' fixation on the boy to his advantage, having a relatively easy time side-stepping one of them and slashing a deep gash in its back, followed by a couple of violent chops to its neck and head. The shadowy foes have a strange consistency he hasn't yet found a comparison for; it's nothing like fighting a flesh-and-bone enemy.]

Okay, there's an infinite number of them, right? Perhaps we should just make a dash for it!

I-!

[ He's actually not certain if they should, or if he wants to. The Deep, he's ventured in countless number of times but never like this. Never without proper equipment. It was too dangerous.

His thoughts once more were interrupted as he's attacked by the incoming monster. Why were these things after him specifically? Why? He drives the sword through the head of the monster after a quick dodge, killing it with a twist of the blade and wrenching it through the side of its face. ]

Ah sod it! Fine! Lets go! Straight through 'em!

[ He makes a dash for the warehouse, more monsters coming out of their hiding places and giving chase. ]

[Hijikata gives a sharp nod and dashes ahead as well, just a step behind Noah to give him some cover since the shadow beasts clearly have it in for him. Once they're properly inside the dark warehouse he briefly feels a surge of heightened stress - every deep shadow could burst into a dozen of them, he feels, and some do -, but he shoves the feeling back down. He needs to keep a cool head, like always in a battle.

If Noah needs to operate the elevator he'll give him cover while he does that, thought hopefully it has some degree of illumination that may or may not keep the beasts at bay a little. He twists around himself for the n-th time to cut one of the beast's throat as it lunges towards Noah.]

If only we had our goddamn magic!! Actually, what weaknesses do these things have, blades aside?

If you can stick it inside them, it works! Or fire!

[ They're monster born from the fog, removing the moisture in their bodies via a strong heat source would naturally work quite well. ]

Although I would hold off on fire whilst inside a building, eh?

[ He's joking around but, the monsters pace and ferocity goes up a little bit at a time with each attack and each one that falls to the ground. ]

This way!

[ Noah says as he kills another monster to make an opening, running deeper into the factory until he navigates them towards a spacious room with giant empty and damaged vats. At the end of the room, where the dark fog is thickest, is a pitch black maw only vaguely resembling a service elevator, the sight of which stopped Noah in his tracks. ]

Oh no....

[Yeah, not setting the building on fire will be for the better - not that Hijikata's puny lighter would accomplish much in that regard, anyway. Once Noah halts at the sight of the hellmouth-looking elevator the samurai keeps slicing up beasts that try to throw themselves at his companion. By now he's ended up with some rips and tears too (mostly to his clothes, only some to his skin).

He's frankly also scared and absolutely disinclined towards heading in there, but again he forces the fear down. They have a whole pack of shadow beasts on their heels; trying to fight their way back out would probably be more hopeless than pushing ahead at this rate. He doesn't know this world, nor how many more of the creatures may await them in the total darkness that lies ahead, and he really doesn't want them both to die here, but he's making his decision based on what they discussed moments ago.]

Go for it!! Before they all catch up!

[Maybe this is the wrong decision. Maybe this will earn them a 'game over', and they'll simply sleep forever in this dream inside Queen Mab's cavern, but with the mass of shadows behind them the armoury in the depths looks like their best bet, if by a narrow margin. If Noah stays frozen Hijikata will give him a shove to snap him out of it - they need to hurry up!]

[ He hears the voice and makes a dash without looking back, and then the most unusual thing happens.

The monsters see this and immediately stop, the twisted smile on their face suddenly growing wider and twisted as each one took a step back - each and everyone looking at Noah with glee.

Another voice suddenly echoes in the dark, soft but melodious in the chaos of the night, and it was enough make Noah stop. ]

Noah?

[ She appeared, quite literally, in the blink of an eye. One moment nothing but darkness; the next there was a beautiful woman wearing a habit of dark blue and white, a pattern of stars in gold along the ends of her robe. She has silver hair and green eyes, oddly she had round animal ears and bushy tail with fur of the same color. The sight of her visibly affected Noah as his shoulders trmbled. ]

....Nette? Nette, what are-

[ And the chaos starts anew, sudden and violent as it is known for. A large hand made from the darkfog reached out of the shaft behind her, grabbing the nun and dragging her into the abyss. Noah screamed in protest, dropping the blade and running to save her. A moment that the monsters wanted as they made a pitched clicking noise in unison - almost akin to laughter. ]

[When the shadow beasts stop attacking Hijikata's mind races with possible reasons - did he and Noah pass some kind of test (maybe the blue origin stones were a sign of that?), or is something bigger coming and they're falling back due to that? -, but then there's suddenly the silver-haired nun. Her ears and tail leave Hijikata unfazed; he's used to not only the different species convening on worlds like Avalon but also the various types of Amanto that visited his Earth from distant planets.

Before he can voice his suspicions about her presence in such a dangerous area she gets grabbed and dragged into the pitch black elevator shaft, just like that. If Noah's initial reaction to her appearance hadn't already spoken volumes his outraged scream now would make it clear enough that he's not about to simply let that happen. Hijikata darts after him, snatching up the discarded short sword on the way.]

LeClair!!

[The shadow beasts seem pretty amused. Shit!! They better not attack again! If Noah intends to just jump into that black hole in the ground he'll try to grab him and hold him back (emphasis on 'try'). He's not letting him break his neck; that won't save the girl! If there's an elevator down there he'll try to figure out how to call it up, if Noah doesn't beat him to it.]

NO! NETTE! NETTE!

[ Noah is light despite the strength behind his muscles so restraining him isn't difficult, though he is certainly trying. He keeps screaming, reaching out for the nun who was now clearly long gone amidst the clacking noise of the monsters clicking. ]

Let me go! I need to save her! I need to-

Save who?

[ The same voice cuts through to him, this time echoing around the factory and coming from behind them. Once more the nun was there, pristine as if she hadn't been crushed by the darkness, standing at the entrance of where they just came from. Noah was understandably stunned and confused, his struggle moving from his body to his mind as he tries to comprehend just what in the world is happening. ]

H-How? Antoinette, what-

[ Again as he moved an inch towards her, the monsters nearby rushed towards her and pounced, sinking their fangs and claws the feline nun until it was just a pile of shadowy beasts. Noah's eyes flung wide and he stumbled back, hand covering his mouth in shock. ]

Wh-Wha-Wh-

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EVENT ✨ Nightmare on Elph Street

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