isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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SUMMARY: In the days leading up to the fall equinox, geese intended for eating escape and cause havoc around town, people share techniques to preserve plants for the winter, and Camelot's citizens compete to make the best light shows with traditional wax candles to draw spirits peacefully into Camelot.

With all the harder preparations gathered for the Fall Equinox, throughout the month people will notice that decorations start going up around town. The colors of fall seem to seep throughout Camelot, but more than that, so do more traditional sights and smells. In the days leading up to the equinox, traditional acts such as the sacrifice and consuming of flesh are performed. Well.. normally they would be. The fattened geese that are normally eaten in preparation for the equinox have escaped and are causing havoc around town. Geese are running around causing trouble for everyone-- stealing glasses, opening gates, putting up toilet seats when people try to sit down so they fall in the bowl... all kinds of madness! Even if you weren't intent on eating geese and were going to settle for the vegetarian option (pumpkin and nut soups are frequently served using the gourd itself as a bowl), you have to agree the general public needs to be rescued from these menaces. If you have the stomach for it, you are welcome to keep one of the geese you capture for your own table... but otherwise, please return the birds to the farm where they can be handled accordingly.

Birds are not the only sacrifice made to the autumnal equinox. As the flowers begin to reach the end of their life, there is a strong tradition of gathering flowers and herbs and preserving them for the upcoming winter, either to protect their beauty, scent, edibility, and sometimes magical properties. The simplest form of preservation is, of course, drying and pressing-- a technique you don't need magic for, but some of the locals will happily teach you. A more advanced technique can be learned to enchant glass bell jars to suspend the lifeforce of any living thing within its grasp for up to a year, if no one opens it. It's a technique used to preserve important or rare plants that may otherwise die out during the winter, such as herbs used in your favorite spell.. or dish. The glass bell jar will protect the plant, but each time it is picked up, a single petal or leaf will fall off of the plant. If all the leaves fall off, the plant becomes unrecoverable, and come spring the caster will find themselves cursed with a touch that wilts any plant they come in contact with. So if you choose to use this, be warned that there are consequences for misuse and a wide number of horror stories from people who have tried to use this spell for anything other than plants. Any type of mage can pour their magic into a bell jar to enchant it, and the type of magic will be reflected in a glass design that forms around the rim and handle. (An elemental mage may have glass flames form, or frosted etchings of your favorite animal may appear if you're an animal mage, and so on. Feel free to get creative.) Green mages may find this magic a little useless, since they can just replenish plants with their own magic, but it's still a good technique to know.. just in case!

Perhaps the most beautiful tradition that takes form leading up to the autumnal equinox is the candle pathway. Every street in Camelot will be lit up with thousands of candles for two nights leading up to the autumnal equinox, as a guiding light to help the spirits find their way to Avalon. The way the streets in Camelot are mapped out, the lights will form a path to the square where the fairy coins are being held until their release on September 22nd, the same area where the guardian egg ceremony had been performed. Some people get very creative with their lighting displays, which can sometimes result in beautifully lit streets and magnificent structures of flames. Accidents are quickly quelled by volunteer elemental mages throughout the city to prevent any structural damage. Some people might be compelled to make their own light display the most outstanding on the block, and it becomes a bit of a game to compete with your neighbors to see whose section of the candle pathway is the most extravagant.

SUMMARY: The autumn equinox ritual is interrupted by a huge earthquake caused by a Stone Giant bursting out of the Ash Mountains, bringing the closest Ash Mountain and Lestari to the ground. The purple dragon erupts from the ruins to attack Celliwig. The survivors of the collapse need help desperately. Characters must choose where they go to determine the fate of Avalon.

Calm and mundane preparations are a nice break from the sometimes stressful lives of Camelot's citizens and otherworlders, who often are asked to embark on life-threatening adventures and tasks. It's probably a good thing most of the month has been relatively peaceful, as things need to go a little bit differently this year on the fall equinox itself... but not as differently as they actually do.

In the town square, elaborate celtic-similar symbols are carved out into the ground and filled with mysterious glowing liquids. All of those who gained guardian tattoos and their attendants were asked to attend a ritual to release them on the night of the 22nd, along with anyone else who would like to witness. Everything is ready and as the witching hour approaches, several individuals dressed in flowing robes with their faces painted like skeletons approach. As the leader raises his voice to explain why they've come and what to do to make this night a success, a sudden shock-- Avalon itself shakes with the might of an earthquake... or at least, that's what it seems like for the first few minutes as everyone gathers themselves until they hear mass screaming in the distance. Though it's hard to see what's going on... there are still some very, very obvious problems.

A stone giant rises from the first of the Ash Mountains, crumbling the mountain around it as if the ancient being were holding the very mountain itself up... and it was. Those who visited Lestari will have seen its giant feet within the underground city. The former city. Lestari is now buried beneath the mountain, along with many of the other creatures living on and around the mountain. A huge storm of mixed weather forms above the giant's head, blizzard and lightning raging around it to no avail. As the people of Camelot watch what's only visible at a macro distance, they may not be as quick to notice that all of the fairy coins have begun glowing vibrantly, then suddenly burst out of the jars they've been held in, shattering right through them to fly off en-masse toward the stone giant. They embed themselves in it, fueling the giant with enough power to both begin to walk away from the rubble and for the spirits that have begun gathering in Avalon to head toward it, rather than where they had been intended.

As if that were not enough, after the Stone Giant takes two large steps through the Land of Rot, the gargantuan cloud of dust covering the ruins of the first of the Ash Mountain range rather suddenly lights up with a vibrant, ultra-violet burst of flames that illuminates the smoke. The gargantuan purple dragon that once took up residence in the mountain clambors out of the dust and shoots straight into the sky, enraged and furious, and able to sense where the magic came from that raised the stone giant. The reason it immediately begins flying toward Celliwig with the intent to raze it to the ground is likely not immediately apparent, but it is quite odd that it bypasses the much closer target of Camelot with its rage. As does the Stone Giant, though it does not head toward Celliwig and instead seems to absorb the souls of the dead that were intended to be guided by the fall equinox's rituals as it lumbers through the land. If someone does not stop it, it is headed for the Forest of the Felled.

King Arthur is immediately on the emergency broadcast system to implore people to join one of three groups:

Investigate and stop the Stone Giant

Slay the dragon and save Celliwig

Rescue survivors of Lestari and the Ash Mountain

The success of each of these missions is dependent on character participation. See the poll for details about how certain character types may affect the outcome of the missions.

~~Please refer to Event Poll Notes for information about aftermath of this event and additional event info~~ > Event Outcomes.

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[He cracks a little grin.]

Likewise. And hell, geese can be really troublesome! They're best handled through teamwork.

[Hijikata doesn't know his own world's Sakamoto Tatsuma personally, only as a public figure, the leader of the Kaientai trading fleet who took to the stars to seek out business with foreign planets after the Amanto invasion. On TV the tall brunet man seemed like a cheerful person, but that's about the extent of Hijikata's knowledge. Granted, his world's timeline got... pretty scrambled up compared to most.]

Are you going to be okay from here on? Do you know your second magic type already?

[He's not usually this helpful, but hell, Ryouma seems nice, and for once there's no pressing other business.]

Figures.

[That's his short, dry response to everything Darin said... of course it's an S rank boss. Of course. He nods, though, sincerely grateful for the advice, given how little he knows about dragons, and he truly is appreciative of his gear - it's situations like this where it'll make all the difference.

The archaeopteryx sweeps down a moment later, and it's a real pity that there's no time to introduce it to Darin and vice versa, but that'll just have to happen later. Hijikata climbs on its back (without a saddle or any kind of security... something he really ought to rethink in the not-too-distant future) and looks back at Darin.]

You stay safe too! I promise I won't waste your gear.

[Just as he's about to take off one of the ritual leader runs up to them.]

Are you going after the giant?!

No, the dragon!

Please follow the giant! Your spirit guardian can lead the souls back out!

But I don't know how--

We'll help you!

[The man turns to Darin, visibly stressed out but trying to keep it together.]

Are you a spirit guardian host as well? If so please come with us!

Precisely. Let's look at the upside here: we're being trusted to neither be agents of chaos nor total morons.

[To be fair, it's pretty much confirmed that this doesn't apply too 100% of the outworlder population on at least one count, but hey!! He starts to actually focus on his totems, combining ingredients for the first one while referring back to the recipe ever so often. He's made them a few times now, but it's better to be safe than sorry.]

[It's a pain to coordinate attacks on an enemy this goddamn huge, that's for sure... but when the giant loses its balance thanks to the group effort further down Arashi sees the effect all the way up where he is.

The colossus flails its massive rock arms in slow motion, but can't fully counteract its misstep, and with a monumental rumble it crashes onto one knee, extending an arm downwards to brace its fall. Hijikata's first instinct is to bombard it with more elemental attacks, but Arashi mentally dissuades him - the win Zidane's team earned them here is more time to extract souls while the giant slowly struggles back to its feet.

That isn't to say that others with more effective offensive magic can't chip away at it with full force now, though, and since Hijikata's exorcism spells run on their own and merely rely on Arashi's magic reserves as their power source he flies down to check on the others.]

Zidane? Moguo? Good work!

"I more meant the bandages and stuff, but that too." She yawns again. Falling asleep is not going to be a problem. It's staying asleep that she's been having trouble with, between roughing it and nightmares about dead and dying bodies.

I've honestly never worked with the undead before... I guess I just find them easy enough to deal with in the conventional way.

[Why should he try to control skeletons or zombies when he can just cut them in half? Which leads him right to answering Naomi's question.]

Back home I'm a policeman, here I'm a knight. Either way I'm a swordsman.

[Their home professions are arguably directly opposed: she heals, he harms (to protect, but even so).]

To cook! Or don't you know how to do that?

[He's not really one to talk, given that his idea of preparing the goose (once properly dead) would consist of crudely plucking it and leaving the rest to his campfire.

By now people are staring, and damn it, there's another kid asking his mother what the man is doing with the goose and if it's okay, so he hastily sets it down and gives it a few pats on the head - only for it to puke on his shoes as it recovers from the near-death-experience.]

...

"Perhaps being rendered unto nothingness had been their fate." He doesn't appear any more or less grim before her answer, he does keep his gaze upon the silent giant. His tone is a touch more reflective. Pity, perhaps, for those lost.

"May their souls find repose within oblivion."

[He smiled. It was a calm expression rather than a truly happy one but it's...something.]

Then I'll do my best not to put you in that position.

[He takes another long look at the treasure in his hands before pulling out a small pouch and putting it inside. It disappears inside despite the fact that it was much smaller than the thing that went inside.

Then he went back to digging through the pile.]

I wonder if gold or jewels are worth more?

"That would be best." He picks up the man's arms and turns around so he could drag them over his shoulders. Li Min smiles at her, it was a small thing, a subtle sort of expression. "And if we fall we won't fall back onto you."

He's calm about all this and maybe that was a strange thing. But he's always been like this.

Then he stands slowly, leaning forward as he pulls the man a little so he'd rest on his back.

His fatigue didn't show, at least; whether that was him intentionally covering it up or the adrenaline covering it for him was anyone's guess. It didn't matter, he followed after her as he was told, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"I've been through so much but I've never seen anything like this..."

He nods. Then he smiles at the little girl. He had always been good with children and, in this situation he had the sort of calm demeanour that was needed.

"It'll be all right." He gently held her hand, letting healing magic glow at his fingertips and spread down her arm. He can't heal it all the way but he can at least ease her discomfort and pain. "We'll bring you somewhere safe afterwards."

[ The Hijikata he knows is a rare sane Berserker, unmatched in his ferocity on the battlefield while still maintaining his insight as a strategist -- in a word, dangerous. The one before him now still has that air of brutality about him, though much more subdued. ]

Ah, yes, I'll be fine. [ Though he may need to visit a cleaner for his dusty and goose-sullied white suit. ] As far as my other magic, I can heal.

[ Well... ]

Sort of. I'm still learning.

[Flayn's brows lift in surprise - first as he thanks her, for doing what she ought to have done in the first place, and then as he apologizes for deeds yet unsaid, that may not even exist.

But she doesn't want to simply dismiss his worries, and...perhaps it is true that ever since her talk with Lorenz, she has subconsciously avoided Claude just a little bit. It's easy to let herself lose track of him sometimes, when he has his fingers in so many pies and somewhere in her heart there's a part of her that may not wish for the reminder.

But that is no fault of Claude's, nor of Lorenz's, and revealing her feelings now would be worse than useless.]

You have done nothing to offend me, Claude. Truthfully, there is another reason I fled Camelot.

[Her grip on his hand falters a bit.]

Have Byleth and Edelgard told you of the true extent of Aunt Seiros' misdeeds?

[She pauses to compose herself. She can't keep pointing out that he didn't do this, the dragon did.]

Then what about the next disaster that comes about? Do you plan to keep yourself out of it?

... ... ...

I don't know.

If I keep to the background...I can support the people who know what they're doing.

And what if those people want to have you there with them, at their side?

[And perhaps it's selfish to add this in, but...] What if I want you there?

Because while I can't fault you for not wanting inexperience to get in the way, the only way anyone learns what they're doing is by practice, whether training or getting involved. If you want to support others, that's the best thing you can do, no matter where you ultimately end up.

...If...you asked...

[He's clearly struggling with the answer.]

[In the end, however, he shrugs.]

I'd...help you if you truly needed it...

[The addition of the qualifier clearly means that it's up to him to decide whether or not he'd be needed in the end.]

Aside from falsifying history and keeping a stranglehold on Fódlan? Yes. I heard what happened in their own Fódlan.

[Even as Flayn's grip falters, he tightens his own. That's not Flayn's fault either.]

It seems Rhea-- Seiros-- became as consumed with revenge against Teach as Dimitri did against Edelgard. I know that there was a great battle on the Tailtean Plains, and that when the Kingdom army fell, Seiros retreated to Fhirdiad. And... Well... You and I both know the rest.

[It was Celliwig, but worse. Fhirdiad had offered the Church sanctuary and protection from the Empire, and they had responded in kind by using Dimitri as a human shield and then torching their people out of senseless spite. He can't bring himself to even describe it in such blunt terms, though. Not to Flayn, who was already so distressed by the war they remembered.]

We've seen the worst excesses of the Empire during war, but even then, Edelgard and Hubert knew when to concede defeat for the good of Fódlan. It seems Seiros was just the opposite.

[ ... this has been a day. ]

... Do we even know where it came from? We could just give it back to its owner, if it has one...

[ Not that she'd be opposed to giving it to a chef. ]

[ His replay comes after a thoughtful pause. Then, his head dips briefly, making an affirming sound. ] Aye.

I shall do the same.

[ He swears he's seen comedic plays like this before--

Emet-Selch topples forward and faceplants on the ground. He still has his nose and mouth covered, but the goose is fleeing quickly and trailing those spores after it.

Deciding he is far, far too old for all this shit, the Ascian lets his head fall back into his arms with an irritated sigh. ]

Never should have...approved...damned birds--

[that gets a soft hmph out of the half-elf, not terribly inclined to buy into such an optimistic take, but also not keen on arguing about it, either. what would it prove, anyway?

instead she just picks up a couple leaves in her palm, pulling water out of them with her unoccupied hand. she lets the dried components flutter onto the table to be picked up and used as he pleases.

after a few minutes:] You'll have to forgive me: You offered to aid me, but I haven't had the coin to spare.

I think we have different ideas of what's hard to deal with!

[ Is this the power of being a Berserker?? Ritsuka's cracked ribs more than once over the course of her time at Chaldea, and she still remembers how bad it was the first time!

Or maybe it's just what it's like to be someone who's actually used to physical fighting. She still doesn't really get that. ]

You should definitely--what are you doing still upright?! Lie down for a little bit, jeeze!

[Hmm. Not bad. He closes his eyes a little and bumps his head up into the petting against his head. At the touch around the collar though, he goes quite still and tips his head up in a way that is distinctly not the behaviour of a simple cat.]

What's past is past.

[The voice comes from the cat. He stares up at Darin with unblinking, vividly green eyes and flicks the tip of his tail from one side to the other.]

Lingering on it won't change what happened.

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EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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