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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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no subject
She actually did die. That's why I called her lost. We just had to continue on without her.
[Even now it tightens his throat to remember that. He had wanted her to live her own life so badly after she spent her youth raising her little brother, but she passed on before her wedding day - never mind that her fiancé turned out to have ulterior motives.]
When I saw her again here I couldn't believe it. She told me that her last memory from home was losing consciousness in the hospital. It's like Primatica snatched her from death's door. As for me, I'd come here over half a year prior, and I was just taken out of a perfectly ordinary day. One moment I was in Edo, the next I woke up encased in crystal on one of the moons.
[He briefly raises his head, but no moon can be seen from down here, only tiny slices of daytime sky in between the buildings on Lunatia's upper levels. The lanterns never go out in Caihong for a reason.]
no subject
[Perhaps understandably, Thanatos has a certain view of death that many mortals may not agree with. Still... he isn't entirely cold as far as it is concerned. Not so much so that he doesn't notice the subtle reactions in Hijikata's body and voice as he talks about the woman.
This place, then... hm, what an interesting concept.]
How curious. [Best to not make comments about his opinions regarding being 'snatched from deaths door'. That... is a whole debate that even Thanatos can see is best not getting into at this moment in time. Perhaps Hijikata has forgotten just who he is talking to? Or perhaps it simply doesn't matter. The death god doesn't think he minds it, in either case.]
I don't think we ought to stay here for too long.
no subject
...
She's a kind person.
[It's a plain statement, but that really sums up what she is to him: one of the very few people - and the only woman - who accepted him after life led him down a thorny path. He tries to burn the image of her smile into his memory before turning to go with Thanatos.]
no subject
[Thanatos responds quietly, but there's a simple honesty in his words. Thanatos has met many people after all, many mortals, and for all their faults and squabbles he has found that most of them are kind... or want to be kind.
As Hijikata turns away from the image in front of them it might seem as if Thanatos senses why he lingers. The death god places a hand gently against the back of the man's shoulder, the way he might have for a nervous shade as he guided them to the underworld.]
I know that there's little comfort to be given to someone separated from another by death.
no subject
I don't need any comfort. She's here now, and she's happy. That's all I wanted.
[He means it. He and Mitsuba were never meant to be together - he invites in too much violence and danger -, but leaving her behind is less painful when he can see that she's found a fulfilled life without him. And if, once the calamity is taken care of and he can finally visit Prismatica proper again, if she still waited for him even then... then maybe he'll have to reevaluate that assessment.]
no subject
Perhaps the comfort isn't needed, but that doesn't mean it isn't wanted. He leaves his hand where it is for a moment longer before he lets it drop.]
There's more to all of this than meets the eye, I think. Do you remember how you got here?
no subject
I followed the lanterns. Their glow suddenly appeared in the darkness of the cave. I remember which way I came, yeah.
[He leads the way back through stalls of deliciously smelling street food, dimly-lit shops, and a crowd of varied characters. Caihong has always had its own distinct set of scents, sounds, and colours.]
no subject
He knows his magic is on the blink and the powers he does currently have are not working as they should, but he still keeps a hand on his sword hilt as they walk between the stalls.]
You can tell me more about this place, once we're through this. If you'd want to.
1/2
[Another faint smile turns up the corners of his mouth. He never used to be talkative about his past, but his time on Prismatica changed him in some ways. Some things about this world, like the moonblessings, will probably be a little strange to explain, but he trusts Thanatos to not needle him about it.]
2/2
Behold, denizens of Lunatia! I, King Majestas, grace you with my presence once more. Your chroma fed me well last time, so I deemed you worthy of fueling my power again today.
Don't look up. Don't look up!
[To be fair, the view of the sky is pretty obstructed by the upper levels of the city anyway - but those who to risk a glance can see winged figures hovering in the small pieces of sky that are visible: Majestas' winged lion minions. The seraph himself starts appearing on all electronic screens in sight, from people's personal phones to TVs streaming sports events in bars. His six white wings and metal lion mask make him an imposing figure, even disregarding his sheer size. Hijikata grabs Thanatos' wrist and urgently pulls him away from whatever screen he might be looking at.]
Don't look at the screens either!! If you see his face it'll drive you crazy! We need to hide!
[Indeed, Majestas' hand moves to take off the mask. Hijikata, usually so calm in a crisis, pays the panicking civilians no heed, hectically dragging Thanatos along with him in search for a hiding place.]
This happened before - we thought he was gone! He can't be taken down by force, we have to prevent him from draining everybody's chroma, but I-- I don't know if they have any seals left to fix the people who fall under his thrall!
[He's just rambling at this point. By now he's dealt with many mind tricks, nightmares, and illusions, but the first one left him with more frightful memories than he realised, it seems.]
no subject
Hijikata--
[The man is rambling, clearly distressed beyond reason, but Thanatos grips one hand around his arm and pulls him to a stop.]
Hijikata. We're not really here.
[Well. They are, but this place, all of this, none of it is really the real thing.]
We have to do something.
no subject
We can't! I tried to fight him when he showed up for the first time, but-- if you look at him you lose your mind.
[The first couple of people who stared at the screens already start freezing in place and mumbling to themselves, eyes blank and glowing.]
Don't touch anyone!! You'll only be pulled in too. It happened to my friend when she tried to shake me out of it. The only thing that helps are the seals, but-- we need to go up!
[It's doubtful if there's a way to the upper levels, given what a small segment of Lunatia this is, but Hijikata sees no other way in his poorly suppressed panic. He remembers all too well how he simply charged at Majestas with his sword, fearless as ever, only to be thrown into an intense remix of his life's worst memories. If Thanatos has any ideas that don't involve the things he warned him about, though, he'll probably pony up enough to go along with it.]
no subject
But it sounds like there is something to be done.]
Up, then.
[He doesn't have any ideas for the moment, but once he has a better idea of what they're dealing with, perhaps...
Tactics are not his strong-suit. He would leave such matters as those to Athena.]
Let's go. I'll follow you.