isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Something (Celli)Wigged This Way Comes

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Autumn, despite the chillier weather, is a season of warmth and gathering. Perhaps moreso this year than normal, given the rather unplanned gathering of Celliwig and Lestari underneath Camelot's roofs. Though significant contributions from otherworlders have made food, shelter, clothes and other productions and donations, medical care, security and protection, and childcare an amazing group effort, typical individual celebrations for the departure of the dead from Avalon aren't being held, like Lestari's Death Ball. After looking at all the support they've been given, Lestari and Celliwig have looked at what they have to offer to help both their own people and the people of Camelot and other worlds.

The people of Lestari excel in cognitive magic, and while there are those who use it for mind-altering magics, there is a good portion who dedicate their studies to emotional and psychological support. One such method is the enchantment of origami paper into something affectionately called Worry Monsters: an specialized counseling technique used to help form support bonds between people with negative emotions. Having spent a portion of the month enchanting paper, two square sheets of paper are handed out to anyone the encounter. The first paper says: "Personifying your emotions can give them a tangible form and make them easier to face. Write down something that causes you worry, stress, fear, or sadness. This is your Worry Monster." The second paper says: "When your Worry Monster is present, how does it make you feel? Any reaction is valid."
When both papers are written on, the writing on both will disappear as if absorbed by the paper, then the pages will animate and fuse, then begin to fold into a monster! Halloween is this month, is it not? There is no sense in not having a little fun. These little Worry Monsters will stomp off and begin roaming Camelot until they find a match-- someone who shares those feelings. Once they find an emotional matching Worry Monster, the monsters will return to their creator and grow to the size of kaiju. They are very light, enchanted paper, so even if someone or something gets stepped on, they won't be hurt or damaged. However, they are strong enough to pick their makers up and carry them to the matching monster who will do the same. Don't worry-- characters will be invisible while being carried by their monster, so their identities will be protected until they are brought to their match. The paper monster will turn to butterflies and fly away once their task is complete. What matches do after they are brought to each other is up to them-- but they will know, undoubtedly, that they share the same worries-- they are with someone who understands. Do it as many times as you'd like, for as many negative emotions as your character wants. For finding something to do, Celliwig offers a solution. While Lestari's people have spent their efforts this month enchanting papers, the people of Celliwig are less apt to share so openly. Instead, they take their time learning about a variety of holidays from other worlds, and come to find one they can apply their particular talents to. While most of their showcase in the past has been on light magic, a holiday such as Halloween plays in particular to their talents in dark magic. A number of locations that have opted in and won't interfere with other relief efforts have been enchanted with dark magics for brave souls to venture into and test their courage! What's more, each of these locations will yield tokens for the victors that can be used to gain prizes. All courage tests must be performed with partners. Costumes are encouraged but not required.
	The library has been converted into a haunted art gallery, many of which have had their paints and other implements enchanted. Some paintings will seem like they're watching you, others will seem like a small figure in the background is following you throughout the library in different paintings. A painting of fruit may start throwing the fruit at you and materializing it into real fruit, so you may find yourself pelted with tomatoes if you don't run fast! A single painting filled with black paint might start leaking and filling the room you're in, pulling you into shadow until you're stuck in the library's underground labyrinth. (Reference monthly quests here and here for more info about the labyrinth.)
There are a variety of paintings with different curses applied. Navigate through the library and escape the haunted paintings-- pairs who make it through without turning back will gain a Celliwig Token.
Another token can be gained via scavenger hunt in the Broceliande. Find cursed dolls from within tree hollows. The dolls will giggle and try to run away, may move when they're only visible in the corner of your eye if you set them down. What's perhaps a little spookier is that they take on the appearance of the first person to touch them, though they will never exceed three inches in height. Beware during your search, however, as there are a good many trees that have been transfigured into mimics. Though the mimics are not going to attack anyone, they do have giant hidden, wriggling tongues that will reach up and wrap the unalert up above the ground for capture. The only way down is if a partner fights the mimic, so don't go alone! Find a doll of both you and a partner and make it back to Camelot to obtain your token. The curse will break once they're exchanged for a token, so you can keep the cute little doll for yourself if you'd like.

The last test of courage invokes a temporary blindness hex on one of the partners. Both partners are walked into a soundproofed room, entirely silent in a way that truly seems to mess with one's head.

The unblinded partner is only allowed to answer "yes" or "no" questions, though no one will fault them for giggling as long as they give no clues otherwise. The blind partner is to stick their hands into a tank of water with mystery items hidden within. These items may be mere objects like peeled grapes in soggy noodles, or perhaps the tank is filled with chicken bones and those tiny garra that eat dead cells and are sometimes used for pedicures. All the items are set up to feel spooky, but ultimately are unharmful. As long as the partner who can give clues doesn't break the yes/no rules and the item is guessed within 3 guesses, a token will be rewarded!

Bring tokens to the inn where a stall has been set up, with Gwion working the booth to exchange tokens for the following prizes:

1 Token: Celliwig glasswork glass set of 4-- spooky themed! It's filled with candy upon receiving, so they are friendly for everyone.
2 Tokens: Recipe: Smokescreen - Cast this spell on any liquid to make it billow plumes of fog. The smaller the water surface, the smaller the billow. A shot glass might just create a small whisp, but two mop buckets would be enough to fill up a medium room. Will not effect the contents of the liquid. Cannot be used on water bodies larger than a swimming pool (could screen about half a block).
3 Tokens: Recipe: From the Void - Summons a disembodied tentacle from the shadows. It takes a lot of energy, so you could probably manage up to three casts a day at most before becoming exhausted. Great for binding enemies, sneaking in small spaces, and reaching places you might not be able to otherwise. The tentacle will follow whatever command you have in mind upon summoning, so be sure to concentrate on the task at hand!

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"No, it doesn't," he agrees absently. It may be a little unsettling the way his eyes roam over her face now. In his world, not even the most complex of machina come close to mimicking a living person.

"...Forgive me, had you not said anything then I would have assumed you were another flesh and blood woman."

She didn’t seem overly affected by the way he looked her over. It was one blessing of being what she was. She was accustomed to being examined and sized up, usually in the most dispassionate way. Or with a scorching criticism coming on the end of it when she thought about the Commander. Mediocre, not worth talking to, abysmal scoring on her tests.

What he said after that took her by surprise as her eyes widened in shock. “There’s… nothing to forgive. I’m flattered that I’ve adapted well enough that I could pass as a human to someone who didn’t know me.” Her expression softened a bit as she gave him a tiny, hesitant smile. “We were created in the image of the humans after all.”

Delicacy isn't Emet-Selch's forte but he's quite aware that staring overlong is rude. He forcibly pulls his gaze back to her face, yet even then he can't help searching for the little tell-tale signs that indicate she is indeed an artificial human.

"A long, long time ago, 'twas not uncommon to have familiars fashioned after man's own image. They oft possessed physical qualities which clearly marked them out of course, but never before have I seen such artfully constructed machina." He pauses, lips pursed. "I wonder..."

But he shakes his head with a sigh.

She watches him trying to contemplate her. The android smiled slightly at him. “Well, when one considers the year of my manufacture and deployment, it wouldn’t be so far fetched that technology had grown advanced enough to create us.” She said as she pushed a stray lock of silver-white hair behind her ear.

“If you want to confirm what I say, you could feel my hand. Lost the layer of skin a long time ago to make repairs.” She suggested, the her head canted to the side at his aborted line of thought.

“You wonder what?” She asked.

"The span of years means little. My people never had cause to develop automated devices. So I wondered if perhaps one of the civilisations I oversaw in more recent millennia could have developed machina like you if given the chance to thrive."

He holds his hand out, inviting her to place her own upon it.

"I was created to kill and fight. So that the humans could return to the Earth from the moon. But they're really sick too, making us so much like them with feelings, and hopes, just to watch us die and be tossed in the junk heap." She said softly.

She took the offer and placed her hand on top of his own. The black of her hand was a rubberized layer of specialty carbon fiber, but it had the same warm as the flesh.

Now that he is holding her hand, he can tell the difference. It is a remarkable imitation of skin but it is not skin at all. He wonders if the Garleans or Allagans would have been able to recreate this synthetic material given time...

Turning over her hand and gently pressing his thumb along her palm, he says absently, "They must think you a mere machine, in the same way my people treated familiars as expendable creatures. Without a soul, one's personhood comes under question."

Edited 2022-01-14 16:39 (UTC)

She let him examine her hand. The exposed black material still warm and bounced back like a normal hand with each press. "My nerves are under this black layer." She said glancing up at him.

"I'm not a machine. I kill machines. I'm an android, a soldier that they created because they can't fight their own damn battles." She had a hint of bitterness in her words. "Instead they make us, to fight and then die when we're inconvenient. But I think you're most likely right, they don't think that we have a soul. Yet they made us in their image."

He shoots her a quizzical look, briefly pausing in his examination.

"Putting aside the matter of the soul... Androids are machines, are they not? They are more complex machines but machines nonetheless."

The distinction seems arbitrary. 'Android' simply calls to mind something humanoid but that that, as far as he can derive from his own language's roots, merely refers to the thing's shape. Not its nature.

She grinded her teeth at being referred to as a machine. But she wasn't about to lash out. People didn't know the difference unless it was explained to them. She had learned that much while being here.

"No, we are not machines. Machines don't bleed, they don't have feelings or emotions. They don't have any complex thought of their own, everything they have is filtered through their network. Death means nothing to a machine. When one's gone 100 more take its place." She told him.

"Whereas androids were made to be autonomous, we bleed, we feel, we love, we hate, we fear. Death scares us, we worry about being forgotten and left without someone to care if we were there or not. We make decisions and live with the consequences." Her voice softened as she spoke, casting her eyes downward thinking of her team. "We feel guilt..."

EVENT ✨ Something (Celli)Wigged This Way Comes

big F :(

I know. :(

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I'm so sorry, this month has been a mess

I know that feeling