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avalaughs2022-03-17 02:25 am
EVENT ✨ Nightmare on Elph Street
QUICK NAV: LOGS ⚔️️ NETWORK ⚔️️ MEMES ⚔️️ OOC ⚔️️ NAVIGATION This is the event log for IC comments only! Ask questions in response to this comment HERE or use the FAQ for general questions. Click here to view top-level comments only. |
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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: --
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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. |
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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:
 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. |
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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. 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.
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Rinea keeps her face turned to their surroundings as they walk through the now-deserted halls of the theater, though her mind remains on their tumultuous encounter. It's easier, somehow, to talk side by side; when she speaks again, it's soft, mostly recovered from her miserable outburst.]
Do you.. place trust in other people, sir Somnus?
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At her question, so softly spoken, Somnus glances at her, but his gaze doesn’t linger. ]
How do you mean?
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I mean, taking the behavior of those you know in good faith. Do you?
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With discretion.
[ He looks at her again, head canted a degree to the side. No doubt she has a point to this line of questioning? ]
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I see. [Said with fondness, before she continues on.] As for myself, I prefer to extend it whenever possible. Rigel was always such a bleak place, and as tensions heightened in its power struggle... my constitution wore very thin. Nurturing trust with those I cherished was my own defense against it.
[Rinea smiles again, though her eyes are drawn to the polished marble floors.]
Of course, trust comes with an inherent risk. The vulnerability associated with kindness, the advantages that can be stolen-- I am aware of that much. [It is not naivety that drives Rinea's behavior; it's a value held with clear eyes.]
But to be accused of such treachery myself, well...
[...well, Somnus can intuit the rest. Berkut's accusations left a deep groove upon her psyche. Somnus's were simply an echo of it.]
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Never is it wise to assign blame to those who believe in the goodness and veracity of others. [ Rather, all the more important to shield them from the horrors of mankind, and punish those who trespass.
Somnus looks ahead of them. ]
Your betrothed insulted your character.
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That... is true. [She still manages to sound a little unsure about it. Is she allowed to say as much? That she was hurt?]
But even if I've been pained so... Even if there is something I should learn from this, from curses and fae trials... I do not wish to stop. Trusting in people, I mean.
[Rinea takes in a breath, finally brave enough to look back up at Somnus's face.]
Do you find that foolish?
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Thus he concludes, ] No.
[ At an intersection of two halls, he stops in their walk, turning slightly to face her. The expression he wears relaxes the sharp features of his face, both thoughtful and solemn. ]
Rather, you are all the more beautiful because of it.
[ It is an nigh untouchable sort of goodness she has. ]
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[Rinea is genuinely stunned for a moment, only barely able to stop herself from gaping up at him. Her cheeks go pink. It's an unexpected compliment from the stoic Somnus, sure, but more than that-- it's an affirmation. Even as she'd said it, even as she'd expected Somnus to be understanding, Rinea still felt like the answer was yes, she is foolish. But he means it.
The gravity of such a gift takes her breath away.]
You... have a way of saying things that makes one want to believe it.
[Actually, it makes her feel a little silly for worrying what he might think in the first place. She can't help the smile--grateful, embarrassed, but deeply glad-- that blooms on her face.]
Thank you.
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Would that the world could be better to her. Avalon, with all of its cruel tricks and fae-trials, is a far cry from that ideal. She needn't change, but the world with all of its strife and those who would use such kindness to their advantage does. If only there was a way to make it so...
The storm breaks with her smile, and there's a pause on his part before he's unable to behold its radiance any longer. Somnus head tips slightly in acknowledgement of her thanks, then turns to look down the intersecting halls. ]
We are at a crossing. Which way will you step towards the future?
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[Somnus's question is so cryptically phrased that Rinea isn't sure if he is asking symbolically.. or literally, as they stand in the crossroads of the intricately decorated castle's hallways.]
I don't recognize our surroundings any longer, so... So long as it's forward, I'll be satisfied. [The answer is a bit simplistic, but it suits her choices for now. The worst has already happened; she feels surprisingly light. So long as she doesn't have to go back to what she faced before, surely they handle whatever they might come across now.
It's her turn to peek up at Somnus as his gaze looks away.] What of yourself, sir Somnus?
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[ Metaphorical of an answer or not, he begins moving in the direction directly ahead of them, still guiding her with his arm linked with hers.
The hall itself is windowless, and the destination ahead remains obscured by darkness. For each step they take, a new foot beyond seems to emerge from the shadows just as the last, as if the recreation of the area itself is as spontaneous as their walk, until at last…
…A pair of metal doors impedes their path. Somnus stops. ]
…This should not be here.
[ In the layout of the Citadel, the doors were placed after a lobby, not at the end of a hall, not that Rinea might know this. It seems that Somnus is familiar with whatever building this dream recreates. ]
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Now, at least, she knows why the crest adorning the halls was so familiar. Of course: it's Somnus's crest. The man whose arm she's holding-- whose body she damaged with her own fae-born terrors-- must be very storied indeed.]
If you recognize such things... [She's almost not brave enough to ask.] ...did you once reside here?
cw for corpses
Somnus steps forward, unblinking their arms to press both of his hands to the cool, textured metal of the doors. With a simple touch, they open the rest of the way. ] Behold...
[ The grand chamber they enter is one of both glory and ruin. Although steeped in night and shadows, damaged and crumbling to time, the magnificence of the chamber cannot be understated. The motif of the chrysthanenum-star sigil repeats throughout the chamber, and two grand stairs leading to an empty seat of obsidian stone and gold. Above it, a crystal and four bodies remains chained above.
The sound of their footsteps echoes once upon the marble tile, then stops as if suddenly swallowed by the darkness. Behind them, the door closes. ]
...The throne of Lucis. [ It should suffice as an answer to her question, for in their correspondence he's signed his name with one surname of "Lucis"-- it is the name of the Kingdom. ]
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Most importantly...]
Somnus...
[Rinea picks up her speed again to resume her place at her companion's side. She peers at his face as they cross the silent tile. His expression is as opaque as ever, but... If he is-- or was-- the castle's lord, then...]
Are you all right?
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It is likely that he hadn't even noticed she had dallied, and that is a testament to the effect this room has over him, as well as its significance. The night is overwhelming, a reminder that the Star yet cries for salvation, and this is what he has left behind.... This dream realm isn't a nightmare, but for what he hopes, what he wishes to return to, to save.
His expression has only become more withdrawn, which of course gives away that not all is well. ]
You should not need to see such carnage. [ She had called him by his given name. No title, no honorific. With two thousand years passed since his reign, this is the way it should be.
They should get going. ]
The exit to this realm is just behind the throne.
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...
[Something about Somnus feels.. ephemeral, in this room. His presence is solid and stony as it always is, and yet... he seems so at one with this liminal space that she nearly fears he'll disappear along with it. His ties to his regal line feel so tight that any slack he receives to stay in Avalon is a mistake. If she calls him Lord, even Sir, will he be able to leave this room?]
...Very well. I am relieved we'll be able to complete our original task...
[It's only a fey illusion, and not the real thing, that Somnus is leading her away from. There is not much he could gain from remaining. Still, when Rinea stays close and offers him a gentle smile when she draws his gaze, she can't help but feel a little selfish.]
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She is strong to smile in a chamber such as this, for there is only death here. Does she do so for her own sake, or to reassure him? Either way, she needn’t push herself— thus, better to move on so she may rest for she, too, endured her own horrors.
While he does not hurry her once they reach the dais, Somnus crosses in front of her to the throne, then to the side of it. A door wouldn’t normally be there, but it is. He only pauses then, looking towards the chamber, the suspended bodies, then the throne, and finally back to her. ]
I shall follow after.