isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ The Summer Solstice

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EVENT ✨ The Summer Solstice

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This is the event log for IC comments only! Ask OOC questions/plot/view event notes HERE or use the FAQ for general questions. Click here to view top-level comments only. A poll to collect results of the trials will be posted this weekend and stay open until the end of the month to give people a little time to see how their threads are going.

KEY POINTS

Celliwig responds-- y'all barely passed, so they kidnapped everyone and brought them to Celliwig for the summer solstice.

The summer solstice ritual is about renewing the sun and moon within a sacred fountain called Diamond Falls within Celliwig, which requires large-scale magics to essentially create a sun and moon cycle for the following year for Avalon, which exists outside of normal space and time.

Not everyone is happy about Celliwig opening back up, and some cursed spirits cross the river to attack the homecoming trip.

There have been some whispers about the summer solstice, but for some reason, Camelot doesn't seem to have put in as much effort for the summer solstice as they do for the other solstice and equinoxes. If anyone had asked around town, they'll say that the sun always seems to come out after they banish the water spirits, so there isn't much to do for it. A few of the more elderly fae around town seem to say there's a lot to do about it, but not to worry about it and just enjoy the time off. Even more silent has been the results of the trials. It seems as though it's bound to be a quiet June, relative to the last couple of months.

At least until the morning of the 20th. The sun has yet to rise, though birds have started their morning rounds and chirping. Rather suddenly, the entire atmosphere goes completely white, as if everyone has been enveloped by the sun itself. It's too bright to keep your eyes open, though if you'll try to squint through it you'll notice the entire ground is enveloped in shadow despite the impossible blinding light all around before you're pulled down into the darkness within a matter of seconds.

Regardless, when you open your eyes next, everyone has been teleported to a strange-looking park. The trees seem to be made of ceramic, blossoming strange, pure black leaves. Those with green magic will be able to tell the trees are alive and well, despite their odd appearance, and once out of the park, it may become more apparent where everyone is: A city beautiful and glistening, its buildings made of crystal and glass. Welcome to Celliwig, the Splendored Court. And this time? Their doors are open.

Explore: Celliwig
Celliwig is a city that's hidden with a large-scale glamour that causes it to look like a shanty-town from the outside. Those with permission to enter, however, will find that the city is actually a splendorous city made entirely of crystals and glass of all kinds. At its center is the Hall of Mirrors, which is typically closed to the public and guarded by a strange old man with huge, rippling muscles of at least 7 feet tall and a long, scraggly beard. Some may recognize him as the man from the #ChaliceChallenge trial, but he'll mostly ask you to call him Glewlwyd (the IV, but you can drop the number.)

Everything in the city appears to be open now, in contrast to the city mostly hiding away during the first visit. It isn't too crowded, but there are people out and about, and they seem to be less wary. The popular fashion seems to be styles similar to gothic lolita/aristocrat and cyber lolita/aristocrat, largely in black, white, or gray with sparks of color for accent that make each outfit unique to its wearer, and each person seems to have an almost airy, ethereal nature to them. They seem humanoid, and yet distinctively not human, gliding around rather than walking. There aren't too many typical dogs and cats around as pets, but snow-white ferrets and owls seem to be the popular animal companion of choice, often being carried around with their owners. There are also wild hamsters with tiny, useless wings that seem to run around during the day, so please watch your step. (They are fairies who used to be able to fly, but their wings seem to have gone the way of the appendix.)

Music seems to be largely string in nature, though it can range from calm and peaceful to sometimes more familiar music styles. It is played more openly in areas like the park or shopping centers by musicians who simply wish to share their sound, but outside of those designated areas it is mostly quiet in nature, save for the clamor of the newly transported guests from Camelot.

Celliwig's restaurants typically serve molecular gastronomy versions of food, and alcoholic drinks seem to come in vapor form and flashes of light if ordered, but seem effective nonetheless. Stores in general are open now, though except for a singular general store, seem to be very specific in nature. If you're going to a magic store, there is one specific store for crystals, one specific store for hand-crafted woodcrafts (wands, staffs) to better direct magical energy, a store for vegetables that's peculiarly separate from the store for fruit and the store for fish and the store for cooking supplies (which again, are all oriented toward molecular gastronomy-- good luck finding a whisk, enjoy your nitro whip canister), and so on.

Of note toward the entrance of town is a very large waterfall fountain that seems to be made of massive amounts of diamond, with inscriptions and a plaque toward the front. The plaque reads "Those who walk only in the light miss the truths hidden in the dark." This is of particular note given the invitation extended to all devices in the area:

Welcome to Celliwig. Tonight we celebrate the summer solstice. Having Barely Passed your trials, we ask you to participate in this sacred ritual before we grant safe passage and open communication with Queen Elphame. To the north of the park you arrived in, a hotel is prepared for your stay free of charge for the night. At sundown, come to the Diamond Falls. Be warned, thieves: The Diamond Falls are sacred, and thus cursed.

Those who try will experience a curse that causes food and drink to turn to ash in their mouth and an inability to experience pleasure, heal from injuries, or die. While they appear normal in the sun, the moonlight will reveal their true nature-- no matter how gruesome that gets, and will only be lifted when the sacred diamond is returned. Drinking water from the fountain is fine though, and if drunk can heal all wounds, regrow limbs, and get rid of scars so long as the drinker stays within the walls of Celliwig. The sacred water's effects wear off outside of the Splendored Court, unfortunately. Characters can ask around and Celliwigians will tell them this information freely, as they are quite proud of their splendor.

Those who choose to participate in the summer solstice rituals and show up at the Diamond Falls on time will first be offered a drink from the fountain, though it is not necessary to take the sip. (You may choose whether or not your character was informed of the effects of drinking the water ahead of this decision, if you want them to do so but they would not on their own.) After the drinking, a number of Celliwig's citizens will engage in a dance that rapidly picks up pace until they go into a trance, glowing magical energy starting to flow out of their bodies and create an almost solar flare-esque glow before they collapse to the ground. Not a moment later, the earth shakes and the ground begins to open up beneath the fountain, the waters draining down over a staircase that opens up beneath the floor of Celliwig to a large crystal cavern. The crystals within are huge, some easily surpassing twenty feet in length, and burst out from both the floor and ceiling. At the bottom of the staircase, the ground itself is covered entirely in at least half a foot of water save for raised platforms that those performing the ritual will be expected to jump across instead of disrupting the waters. At the end of this long passageway, there is a door made of stained glass. On the other side, a room carved out in stone, lit in vibrant orange and heated by a scorching heat. The stone forms a circle that flows around a large pool of lava.

One of the Celliwig leaders reads some sacred texts, then offers the following instructions: "Turn to the person next to you and offer them a piece of yourself. It can be tears, blood, hair, a whispered confession made tangible with magic-- anything that is yours. That person must then throw it into the lava and do the same in exchange. By giving part of ourselves to the fire and weaving that energy through those around us, we share the light with all around us. We fuel the sun of Avalon."

Once this portion is done, water will rain down from the ceiling and the entire room will be filled with steam, and then darkness as the lava's flames are rapidly put out. It's blinding and almost unbearably hot, and you'll have to find your partner-- or maybe someone else, by wandering around carefully and blindly. It may help to use a little magic at this point to see or guide yourself or others, either by cognitive suggestion or something more physical like creating vines to catch someone from falling on the still-rather-hot solid substance created by the water hitting the lava. Regardless, there seem to be giggles and screams and all manner of unnerving sounds as people try to find each other in the dark and look for the exit, which... doesn't seem to be where it started.

Eventually, the steam seems to get hot enough and shatters the stained glass door, which reveals a different room than before. The temperature drops rapidly, the air fresh and much easier to breathe as the steam spills out over the surface of the cool water. Light spills out from the ceiling, dim from the moon, and it becomes apparent that everyone has been let out into a massive cenote. It seems as if it's now time to relax and swim for a little while and just enjoy the cool release of no longer being trapped in the hot Diamond Fall's underground.

Eventually, everyone will find that regardless of how they felt when they got in, anyone in the cenote will feel their mood lift, until eventually they find a song in their heart that cannot be contained. People start bursting into songs that express part of who they are. For some, it will be songs they know. For others, it may be a song they've never heard but matches who they are to a tee or shares something they hadn't intended to about themselves with whoever is there. It's also possible two people could end up in a duet and end up swim-dancing together through a musical number. With each song that finds its way into the cenote, crystals seem to light up in the walls, as if they're reacting to the music itself. Once the entire cenote is lit up, the water begins to rise within the cenote much as the tide might, finally raising high enough to bring the people within back to the surface, the small pond within the park that everyone started in.

"The tides can feel your hearts and souls and raise with your spirits, and the Moon of Avalon in turn finds its will to dance with the Sun, providing light for the dark as the sun rests." the same leader speaks, before finishing, "Thank you for your assistance. With so much more energy than normal, even with the world as strained as it is now, Avalon's day and night cycle will remain as it should be. Rest now, and stay as long as you like. We will speak to Elphame and arrange a meeting. This shall not be forgotten, and you are welcome in Celliwig so long as you remember that light and darkness exist in tandem."

With the stay in Celliwig over, a special squad designed to help use a large-scale dark magic spell to pull everyone back to Camelot has come to greet everyone at the entrance to the city. However, the sudden increase in noise and flow of magic has attracted spirits from the Forest of the Felled to start crossing the nearby stream. The Forest of the Felled is a haunted forest, filled with spectral creatures alike of all manner that are often trapped in a labyrinth of spells and wards that were once put up by Camelot's finest. This haunted forest is part of the reason that Celliwig had cut ties with Camelot to begin with, after a group of people from particularly morally strict times had decided that the dead and cursed should not wander among the human witches and wizards that, at the time, had largely populated Camelot and sealed them off in the Forest of the Felled.

Enraged by Celliwig's reacceptance of Camelot citizens into its borders, a wave of specters has rushed across the white waters without concern for the Pure of Heart bridge to attempt to possess and attack the citizens of Camelot and prevent them from easily getting home. Ultimately, those with death magic are going to be most effective in this case, particularly at stopping possessions. However, green mages, alchemists, and elementalists are going to be important for staving off the death-like state of freezing that specters passing through your physical body can cause by creating means to rewarm people before they succumb to freezing temperatures and die. It seems as though light magic is very good at hiding people from the specters as well as temporarily warding them off with large blasts, and they seem particularly fearful of dark mages who are willing to curse the dead, given they've already lead a miserable existence. There are plenty of ways for each type of magic to find themselves useful in this battle, whether it's to help others escape or to fight on the frontlines.

Be particularly cautious as some of the will-o-wisps joining in the battle can transform into the visages of the deceased that they sense are close to your heart and draw you into the white rapids of the river. In the end, it will be a fierce battle.. or a fierce retreat, for those who don't have fight in them. Regardless of your solution for getting home, this time, you're going to have to walk home after escaping instead of relying on Celliwig's shadow transportation ritual.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

🌠 i. the wrong way to consume alcohol

[Being transported to a new place without her permission or a warning once was enough, but twice? The game starts to get old pretty fast, even for a patient soul like her. She'd been up before the crack of dawn (had she even slept?) so she was already awake when the light overtook her room in the middle of a morning kickboxing routine, and there when it dropped her off in the park with everyone else.

Needless to say, after a lot of walking and looking around, it's about time she finds something familiar to help take the edge off and doesn't care so much about if it's past noon in Celliwig. It probably is, because the bars, restaurants, and shops are all open, beckoning people to check out their wares or taste their newest dish! It doesn't take much convincing to get Tifa through the door of what they claim to be the fanciest, most modern bar and restaurant in town, and within minutes, she's seated at a booth at the dimly lit bar, and she isn't the only one.]

Beer's fine. Just give me whatever you've got. Please.

[Looking around, she hardly sees a bottle or glass in sight. Instead, it's odd little things that no one is drinking, but rather... Well, she isn't sure what they're doing with them but it isn't what she would expect. Raising a brow, she turns to whoever is seated nearest her.]

For a bar, I don't see any actual drinks anywhere. Bit strange, don't you think?

🌠 ii. summer solstice

["Turn to the person next to you and offer them a piece of yourself."

The words don't do much to calm her nerves, but she'd come to Diamond Falls to help, not chicken out. She's already drunk from the fountain and followed the stairs down into the caverns, and now she's breaking a sweat over the pool of lava with someone else... It would be difficult to follow through on a change of heart now. So, she offers to go first, pulling a strand of hair loose from her neat ponytail and tugging on it until it's out.

It's a bit odd to be offering someone a strand of her hair, but a ritual's a ritual. It's the better alternative, she thinks, when the other options are blood, tears, or... a confession.

She's not sure what to expect next, but Tifa takes her partner by the wrist and places the hair in their palm, her smile small and shy, reassuring, and perhaps a touch uncertain about all of this.]

Okay. Your turn.

🌠 iii. raging waters

[Nothing is going to get in the way of getting people back to Camelot, least of all a bunch of magical ghosts. Tifa is late to the party, coming in once the fight against them has already broken out, but she isn't one to waste precious time in helping... after a brief moment of swallowing her fear of ghosts first. She rushes in, sliding to dodge one that tries to pass through her. She has no idea what they're capable of, but no way is she letting them touch her, or anyone else, so when it's already moving on to the next person, Tifa follows.]

Get down!

[In a fiery whirl, her foot comes around and the magic lands a blow against the specter, chasing it away. It gives her time to right her stance and check on whoever's soul she's helped.]

You alright?

---

[When not fighting the specters off, Tifa's helping those who have fallen to the ice-cold sensations of the ghosts passing through them. No matter who it is, she winces when she presses her fingers to their cheeks or neck, the cold leaving a bite on the tips. Hopefully the injured don't mind a woman throwing an arm around their shoulders in an embrace, while her other hand opens up to a small ball of warm fire in her palm.]

It's gonna be okay, [she reassures.] Just gotta warm up, then we can get back out there, okay?

🌠 iv. will-o-wisps

[The ghosts don't scare her anymore, at least, not these ones. They're just that: ghosts. They can be fought off, and once they are, she'll never have to deal with them again. They can all go home. It's been a fierce battle up until now, and Tifa's gone between fighting and helping the injured, but she's shown no signs of stopping or slowing down.

Not until now.

These ghosts don't scare her, but there are others that do. She's about to throw another blast of fiery magic at some incoming specters with other magic users, when she stops short. Something in the rapids catches her eyes, or rather, someone. Two of them. It's familiar, but in a dreadful sort of way. Not the welcome kind that she's been lucky to have here.

It's as if everything else around her slows to a crawl. Ankle-deep in the water, she sees a man and a woman, and they're smiling at her. Reaching out to her. Memories come rushing back. Sitting in her room, wishing she could have her mother back. The reactor... the strong smell of mako... Her father... "I'm sick of all of this!"]

Mom? Dad...? No way...

[She wanders closer, eyes burning red, and ignoring the battle raging around her like it isn't even there. Hopefully someone is paying close enough attention to snap her out of it before she wanders too close to the water...]

🌠 v. wildcard

[ None of these prompts work? Feel free to leave something else below, or feel free to contact me via PM or at crystariums! Her plotting comment is here. ]

Edited 2021-06-20 22:38 (UTC)

[ Tifa isn't the only one uncertain about this. Weiss is all for rituals and all, but with the way she looks at the piece of hair being offered her? It's all just so ridiculous. ]

I hope this isn't going to curse us in the end.

[ ... Hopefully she didn't just jinx them both by saying that. Now, she figures she should just pull a strand of her hair and give to Tifa as well, but hers is much longer and even tied in a braid. But then she has her bangs... ]

This is going to hurt, I can tell— [ Bam! She manages to pull one of her shorter strands, hurting her scalp in the process. After a soft help, her hand rubs on the spot by the forehead where she'd "taken a part of her" from. ] Right— you can have it.

[ Ow... Please take her hair, Tifa. ]

[Tifa takes it between her fingers, not quite sure how she should be holding onto... someone else's hair.]

Uh, right... [What do you say to someone who's just handed you a "piece of themselves"?] Thanks...?

[This is so awkward, and even more so that the girl she's exchanging hair with is a complete stranger. It would be weird enough if this were Cloud or Aerith, but this is on a whole other level of uncomfortable. If she'd known it would come to this, would she have still agreed? ... Hard to tell.

With the hair just awkwardly hanging from her hand, she turns to the Celliwig leaders, then back to Weiss.]

So I guess we just... throw it in?

[The leader nods, and Tifa tries to gently let it down, but it sticks and wraps itself around her fingers. Now she has to flick it, and this is not as graceful as she'd hoped she would be.]

[ This wouldn't be so awkward for Weiss if she didn't have to pretend like she didn't know this girl! But she has to, so she isn't creepy! Not to mention, Weiss does value first impressions by a lot. Hopefully, the two of them would be able to make it out of here without thinking ill of the other.

Now then... ]

It'll just fly away if we throw it in. [ It's hair, after all! Just one strand of it, too. ] Hold the one you have with your fingers and I'll try to use my magic on it.

[ And hers, as well. Weiss demonstrates, now holding Tifa's strand of hair with the tips of her middle and index fingers. It's difficult to see, but it does dance with the wind. Should kinetic magic be applied to it, though, then she'd be able to control where the strand goes. And in this case? Down into the pool of lava. ]

tifa lockhart | final fantasy vii | elemental + light

summer solstice

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IV

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Summer Solstice

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i

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