isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

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EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

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This is the event log. If you have questions about y event, reply to this comment HERE. Click here to view top-level comments only.

The Fairy Queen sends out an invitation for all otherworlders to an eccentric party with ulterior motives that aren't necessarily bad.. after all, they're protecting players from a ritualistic curse cast by escaped convicts from the Elphame prison. But that doesn't mean it's the party's entirely safe either.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

1st Prompt: Mild elements of body horror in the fairy queen's description (paragraph starting with "Opening the message"); this paragraph is description only and may be skipped without loss of content.
2nd Prompt: Ball prompts include reference to drugs, alcohol, smooching, and fake murder.
3rd Prompt: May have potential for mild body horror depending on player preference, as it features cynanthropy/lycanthropy.

The night before the full moon, a message is sent out to all the otherworlders in the land. In each person's inbox, the message sender reads simply "ELPHAME" and appears to have a verified account, despite that looking into it doesn't seem to reveal much content. The profile pic is simply a picture of a mushroom. Opening the message will reveal a video recording. For the first full minute, a woman simply stares into the video through one pure white eye and one wholly black eye. Her hair is white and fair and longer than can be seen in the video of her torso. Her skin is sallow, gray more than any other color, and her décolleté is peppered with what seems to be shells of mushrooms growing out of her flesh like they would on a tree, patches of bleeding tooth mushroom creeping down the side of her neck.
Atop her head, a headpiece made of platinum formed into the tiniest branches, filled with leaves of precious stones- diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and moldavite trailing down in long chains that keep her hair out of her face. Her lips are just slightly parted, painted in what seems to be an enchanted design that shifts patterns as she moves, as if they were a green screened galaxy in real life. There is a stud in the bow of her lips, and the top of her clothing appears to be colorful, but is only visible toward the top of her frame, as her top is low-cut to account for the fungi. A number of small stitched scars are visible, but largely healed. She tilts her head slightly. Even though it's only a video recording, it feels as though she is looking directly at your character. "You are busy bees..." A soft voice speaks, almost as if the wind itself is whispering in your ear and not from a recorded video. "Busy bees could barely bother, but bother is basically all you do. I bequeath you busy bees a bidding. Bother blithely, busy bees, in Elphame as bristling beauties are bound to do. A ball before you, beneath the Wolf's Moon big and bright, betwixt burgeoning fae blooms. Do not baa, do not bray, bruin nor boar will keep big bad wolf at bay. Bop and bounce, ballet you may, or brawl your basest behaviors in my ballroom before break of day. Broadcast not your boorish bumf, though, or busy bees will be broken brisker than bats banished from Beelzebub's borders and bound. Bless my bestowal and with bated breath I shall bade you betokened truth, if truth be told." Whether or not your character understood what was actually said or their brain shut down in the middle of those barely benign instructions, they may additionally notice fairy circles made of tiny mushrooms start to crop up regardless of where they are in Avalon.
	Once night falls, if a character dances in them they will be transported to a costume party within the ballroom of the fairy queen in Nicnevin. Costumes will be magically applied upon arrival, based on a favorite childhood fantasy. (Did they want to be an astronaut? A dinosaur? A cowboy? A cat? That's what they'll appear as.) You can choose from any age of childhood for your character, depending on whether you want to go funny or more serious about their later childhood dreams. Whatever your character chooses to do as part of the party, the following party happenings should be noted:
1. If your character or anyone they know uses your character's name or reveals enough information about themself, they will become unable to disobey the fairy queen in future events. They've technically been warned about this in the fairy queen's message, even if it wasn't easy to understand. B. Alternately, you can have your character's name be captured by a more mischievous party guest fae and play with that as you will. You can be released either by someone else killing your captured fae for you, or the fae saying your name backward. So if your character's name is Stevie, they would have to trick the fairy into saying Eivets. This option to NPC your own fae captor is endable on your own terms, but 1a will be on the fae queen's terms down the line. 2. The party itself is a protected area; refusal to attend or leaving the party before sunset will subject characters to the Wolf's Moon, which has been put under a ritual by a prisoner group released from the fae prison during the previous dark web quest, Banyanished. This ball is being held as a gift to otherworlders to protect them from the second part of this event. (See below for details.) Characters will be told that they are in a protective area if they try to leave and to trust the fairy queen, but will not be forced to stay against their will by the fae. The only people who may try to stop your character from leaving beyond telling them this information are other player characters. 3. Dancing, food (fairy food), psychedelics and drink will be provided to those of age who want them throughout the night. If the partygoers don't seem to be having a good time or the party grows dull, the fairy queen (dressed in the award-winning submission to the Elphame Trader's contest some time ago) will make a demand participation in a party game*. If your character is standing around and not participating in the general activities, they may be coerced to participate. Anyone may join willingly as well, of course. The following party games will be played throughout the night:

a bottle on the floor

Spin the Bottle, Elphame Rules:

Fairies are quite randy creatures at times, and the first game played is none other than spin the bottle. The rules are as such: when it is your turn, you are blinded by fairy magic and must spin the bottle. Once the bottle stops spinning, the person the bottle lands on will kiss them. The person who is kissed must guess who from the circle kissed them; a correct guess will mean they stay in and the blindness spell will be lifted. An incorrect guess will eject them from the circle and they will wander around blind for the duration of the game until a winner is declared. Feel free to play out gameplay or your character needing assistance after being ejected from the game circle.

Truth or Dare:

The standard game of truth or dare. Don't forget to be very careful, as certain truths may have dire consequences. (See point 1, be very careful.) You can play issuing and completing dares or asking and answering truths with other player characters or receive dares from NPC'd fairies, which may escalate to dangerous and magical lengths. The only solid rule is that no dares are permitted to require exiting the party to complete, and lying during a truth gives permission to fairies to steal your tongue from you if they discover your lie at any point, even after the party is over.

a woman gasping dramatically with subs that say "Escandalo!"

a woman threatening a balloon with a knife

Balloon Game:
Everyone loves a good murder game! Everyone is outfitted with a single balloon. You may secure the balloon to yourself for 2 minutes before the start of the game. In the center of the game circle is a pile of close-range weapons varying in usefulness from binoculars and pots to knives, slingshots, axes and more. Magic is also permitted. If your balloon "pops" you are "dead" and will float to the ceiling to fly around until the end of the game, out of harm's way. Do not commit any actual murder or the balloon of the deceased will immediately wrap around you in a full rubber bodysuit and imprison you until the fairy queen can deal judgment. (If this happens, notify a mod so we can discuss Queen Elphame's judgment with you OOC.)

Helping to empower otherworlders to improve their chances of saving the world is the kind of task that can be a little.. subjective. A little questionable when it comes to consent, at times. After all, no one is here with their consent and no one was bonded with their familiar or given magic with their consent. What's a little more empowerment? Certainly, a group of imprisoned lycanthrope wizards seem to think they have something of a solution to increasing other worlders' potentials: a ritual using the Wolf Moon of January's full moon cycle to transform unprotected otherworlders into fellow cynanthropes or, in layman's terms, werewolves and other types of weredogs. Anyone not protected (at the party) will be affected by the curse ritual.

dog in front of full moon

Cynanthropes in Avalon have the following characteristics:

Character is now able to transform into a humanoid dog or wolf form to the extent the player chooses (go ears/tail or full-furry)
Experiences enhanced strength, enhanced sense of smell, night vision, blood lust, and characteristics similar to the character's dog or wolf breed.
These effects are only applicable the day before, the day of, and the day after the full moon from sundown to sunrise on each day.
Note that new weredogs/wolves do not have control over their instincts for the first few months of transformations and will behave aggressively. If in an emotional state, they can lose control of their transformed form regardless of how long they have been cursed.
Though characters can be killed by normal means throughout the month, they can only be killed by silver bullets during the 3-day full moon cycle
Full-time side effects include cravings for meat, animal mages having mild influence over them, being able to eat food from Elphame without being bound to the land, and the occasional hair ball.
It is up to players how painful they want the transformation to be/not to be; you can play this how you want and chalk it up to ritual reaction variation.

Cynanthrope ritual curses are particularly strong and require at least two siphoners working together to break the curse, a counter-curse potion (only available through events), or a deal with a powerful being such as the fairy queen or Morganna.

If your character did not attend the party, left the fairy queen's party, or wasn't at the Red Springs (protected by the mysterious crystals that turn it red during the full moon-- conveniently for your excuse not to participate in either prompt if you want to opt out!) they will become a werewolf or weredog.

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[Aaaand silence. Kadoc cringes, but he's not exactly surprised. He's not even stung, because he's done everything he can to bury the possibility of his feelings being hurt by anything that happens here. He can't see anyway . . . though he does have a vague idea of who was here. He'd better, if he wants any chance at guessing this. Just the silence isn't a clue, because he's convinced anyone would react the same way.]

. . . You know I can't see, so if you're tapping out, I get it, but you're gonna have to use your words.

...Um!

[ Well, that gets a response out of her! It's a high-pitched, startled little squeak, louder and more surprised than she means for it to be. If she'd been thinking, she should probably have tried to disguise her voice at all, but come on! Please, give her a break! Who would expect anything like this?!

(Honestly? She should have. She'd stuck around in this game, after all, too confident in her own luck to think she'd get caught up in this. And now here they are!)

But there's almost no way Kadoc won't recognize her voice. He's a smart guy. He already knew her, long before this ridiculous party. And now...

Well. Here they are. ]

...

Hi?

[ . . .

Well, good news, he didn't think it'd be this easy. He was genuinely expecting to struggle to place a voice with a person without being able to see them or use real names, and was half convinced he'd just be blind for the rest of the night. But no, this is immediate recognition of who the bottle must have landed on.

Bad news,

everything else!

That's overstating things, but right now, he doesn't know how to feel. He just stammers, sightless eyes widening. Wh? Why? She? This?]

Ffffff—

[That was the beginning of her name, before he caught himself, but it could easily have been something else.]

—you.

Me!

[ It does not even occur to her that he almost said her name. After all (to the continued despair of everyone who's had to keep an eye on her on the field), it's not like Ritsuka pays attention to her own safety, most of the time. Mostly, right now, she's focused on the feeling of: wow, awkward!

Even more awkward, though, is the fact that she's getting nudged forward. It's probably good that she is? Because she'd otherwise be stuck in place, which would have only added to the levels of Uncomfortable. Ritsuka stumbles a couple of steps, though she catches herself before she actually trips into him. Thank goodness for small favors. ]

I, uh... I didn't actually see you get dragged into this game...?

[ That's hardly comforting, and she knows it. But here they are! Oh boy. ]

. . . We're probably not supposed to talk too much to make this fair, even though you're the most incredibly obvious person ever.

[He doesn't need even more dialogue from her to know who's stumbling over to him, okay! Also, he doesn't want to invite the wrath of any fae who are strict about their rules, though as far as Kadoc knows, there is no rule against having a conversation with the person you're about to kiss.

> the person you're about to kiss

Oh oops he thought about it. For fuck's sake. He can feel his entire face going bright red, starting with his ears, and not being able to see it or anything else happening doesn't actually help!]

Thanks for that, I think?

[ Ha ha ha, wow! Every time she thinks there's no way this could get more awkward, she's proven wrong! Amazing.

Someone gives her another, stronger nudge, which gives her the last push she needs to actually be in his personal space. Maybe he can't see her, but surely he can tell, in that instinct sort of way of his, that she's close enough to touch now. Ahhhhhhh. She can't even look at him too closely, because the way he's blushing only feels like it's feeding into her embarrassment. There's a part of her that's kind of surprised he hasn't thrown the round yet.

Ritsuka gives a quick glance at the crowd, then mutters to him, low and under her breath: ]

Do you think we could get away with, I dunno, on the cheek or something...?

Ngh.

[That's kind of like his usual ugh, but more miserable and embarrassed; it comes out weirdly, in a way he doesn't like. He doesn't like any of this! It's not that he expects her to want to kiss him, or even wants her to want to kiss him, but it still doesn't help his self-esteem that she's being open about not wanting to kiss him?! Which is stupid! It should be a relief!]

Just—do whatever you want. Try it if you think it'll work, and then neither of us has to think about this ever again.

...

[ There is a part of her that wants to snap back--wow, way to make a girl feel special!--but she bites it back before it's more than a thought. Of course he wouldn't be happy about something like this. All things considered, she's actually more surprised that he's taking this as well as he is.

...But there's still that part of her, the small ordinary human part, that can't help but feel a little stung.

Whatever. It's not that important. They've been making progress, and the last thing she wants is to set them back, or worse--reset everything entirely. So she bites it back, takes a breath, and leans in. It feels awkward and uncomfortable, and not just because there's an audience: she's never done this before! She's watched movies and dramas, and she's read books and comics, but actually doing something like this yourself is very different.

The kiss lands kind of off-center, more at the corner of his mouth than his cheek. It's more just like the contact of her lips on his face, and she holds it for a second before she pulls back. That probably worked, right? Please let that have worked! ]

[ . . .

Wow, he hated that. He hates that they had to do it at all, for some stupid prank, and he hates that he was blinded for it and had to go through with it to fix that. He hates that it was her. He hates that it was short and awkward, and he hates that he hates that—why should he? Shouldn't he be glad?! Why feel, not even disappointed, that isn't the right word . . . but discontent. Wound up over it. Offended, at someone he can't point to right now. When she leans away again, for just an instant he leans with her, chasing her, not because he thinks that's what he should do but because he's not thinking at all. Then he bites his lip and leans back with a grimace. God. He hates it all.]

. . . It was the redheaded girl.

[He says to the fae, because he can't say her name, you know.]

[ There's a polite smattering of applause. Of course he's right--there's no real way either of them would have been able to mistake the other. Ritsuka doesn't say anything, just moving slightly away, taking a deep breath in an attempt to get her expression under control before he sees her. There's a part of her that wants to bolt and leave the scene before they have to both actually look at each other for this.

But she's never run away from anything willingly in her life. She's never liked to back down, even if she's done it with sour grace before.

It's the same reason she doesn't turn her head or look at her own feet, as much as she wants to. If he's going to be angry with her, or lash out, then the least she can do is meet it, and let him get that out. He's absolutely capable of hurting her feelings, and he surely knows that, but she can always pretend otherwise. It doesn't feel right to back off.

It does mean she's left standing awkwardly to the side, watching and waiting to see what he'll do, once he can see again. ]

[What he does is what he always does, automatically, because it's so easy to fall back on without overthinking, and because he does feel she deserves it anyway after that:]

. . . Sorry.

[Slowly, shyly, he makes his way over to her once he's free and has his sight back. Let's get out of that circle, thanks a ton. He moves like a wary but hopeful cat, sidling up step by awkward step, not looking directly at her. God, that had sucked.

Now that he can see, he gets a good look at her costume for the first time tonight and is glad he didn't know she was wearing that when he had to kiss her. Whoa?! What the hell! That's not fair! Be dressed up in a stupid animal onesie or something!]

...Shouldn't that be my line?

[ She says it as gently as she can, the way one might try to speak to a spooked animal, soothing soft tones. Maybe it doesn't hit as well with the amount of skin she has showing, but--to her own eyes, it's just a variation of the plugsuit, right? These aren't even modifications that are outside the realm of what Da Vinci might do. And he probably had a mystic code like this, too. It's probably even weirder to have that reminder of home in his face after what they've had to do.

But it is comforting, at least, that he decided to approach her again. And the interest is off of them now, with their round completed. It's easy to step back now, and let the game continue without them. ]

I know you're not, uh--I can tell you're not really fond of people touching you, so... I wanted to make it easy for you. ...Are you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine.

[He sighs. All right. This is embarrassing, but . . . not so bad as it could have been. She's not wrong, either, even if he can't quite believe that was the only reason she was so hands-off about it. She's being polite, which is nice of her. They both have every reason to be hands off about something stupid like this.]

You didn't do anything wrong! It's not your fault the bottle landed on you. It's not even my fault, which is saying a lot, if even I realize that. But I still feel bad you got roped into doing something like that to me. So that's why I'm apologizing. Not like that was fun for you.

That's--...

[ He's not wrong. It wasn't fun! But not for the reasons that he seems to be convinced of--how does she tell him it's not you, it's the game in general? and actually get through to him? Maybe she hasn't known him as long as some of her Servants, but it's not like it's hard to miss that. As far as she can tell, he'll take every chance to self-flagellate, whether or not he actually has a reason to or not.

Ritsuka mulls for a second longer, then takes a breath. Maybe he'll get mad about this, maybe not--but she can at least be honest. ]

I wasn't really paying attention to the game at all, so... it was probably bound to happen, sooner or later. So, you know--that's kind of--if it's gonna be awkward no matter what, then--at least it happened with someone I knew. That's what I thought.

[That's . . . no, this is good. He relaxes a little, visibly, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and watching her. So far, this isn't as bad as he feared. She's not disgusted. (He would blame her discomfort on both him and the shitty game. Ha! Only half right about him being a self-flagellating asshole!) Even the position of his arms isn't quite as defensive as it might be.]

Heh . . . yeah. I get it. I think we're the opposite kinda person in that way. Me, if I'm gonna be awkward in front of someone, I'd rather it be someone I don't give a shit about.

Yeah... I can see why you'd want it to be someone you didn't know? But that's not how it works for me.

[ The people who know her are people who trust her, and who have forgiven her for her flaws and inadequacies for greater things than a stupid kissing game. She tries to imagine a Servant in his place--one of the more flirty ones, who've made their name through seduction or similar. Mata Hari would have laughed and called her cute, she thinks; Medb would have been mean, but no worse than she was already. Fergus probably wouldn't even care how good or bad she was.

Just like her failings as a Master, she does think that the people who know her would forgive her her failings in this. ]

So... I didn't hate that, but I am sorry if it made you feel bad. You know?

[She didn't hate it? For a long, silent moment, Kadoc is just stunned; it's her saying it that surprises him more than the fact itself. Had he thought she hated it? Only in his usual way of assuming the worst about everything. Those feelings only go so deep, though. When forced to examine things critically, he's smart enough to know they're reflexes rather than beliefs. So maybe she hadn't hated it. But her going out of her way to reassure him of that is . . .

He's not sure how to take it, and for a moment he's not sure what to say. When he does finally answer, he picks his way through his words slowly, like navigating a patch of brambles, each foot placed with care in its next position—but without necessarily knowing exactly where the next is going to go until he gets there.]

. . . It's not your fault I hated it. I would've hated it with literally anyone. It's the principle of all this crap they're putting us through for this. Hell, you could be my literal girlfriend and I'd still hate being blinded and made to kiss you in front of a crowd of strangers for their entertainment. So I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, but it's not like I want you to feel bad about it. None of it had anything to do with either of us.

...Yeah, I get that.

[ But her shoulders do relax a little. Maybe she had guessed he might say that--in spite of whatever relationship he might have had with Anastasia, she can't imagine him being a terribly demonstrative person--but it's still a relief to hear. It's nice to be reassured that things aren't quite so ruined forever as she'd worried.

Ritsuka rocks on her heels for a moment, tipping her head back to idly watch some of the balloon game players drift by. ]

You know what also sucks? Even if it's just a little thing? I can't even say something like, let's blow this joint and get snacks or something--because either something weirder is gonna happen if we go, and it's not like we can really trust the food here.

[He notices that. She was actually worried? About what? He's not sure. Ruining their . . . weird kinda-friendship? It's a little flattering if she cares that much about his shitty company. Or maybe she just has anxiety, formless and weighty, and he can understand and appreciate that too. It makes him feel a little less alone to see her express it.]

If this kinda thing is gonna keep happening to us, I really need to just start keeping non-perishable food on me wherever I go. After all that shit at the Solstice, I've been burned too many times. And you definitely don't wanna go out there. I tried, and they weren't kidding about how seriously they're taking keeping us in here.

. . . So I guess we've just gotta deal. There's always alcohol.

I'm underage for that.

[ She says that automatically, because that's been her excuse for the past three years. Does it matter that Japan might not technically exist, in this strange snowglobe alternate timeline they're in? Or that in their own world, Japan is definitely not one of the countries that currently hosts a Crypter? No. Not to her, it doesn't. ]

But if we can't eat the food here, wouldn't drinking also be kind of a risk?

I think the booze is safe just to stick it to us, but I don't blame you for not wanting to test that. Uuggghhh. And by the way, I'm pretty sure the legal age here is like 16.

[SERIOUSLY . . . does she actually care about that . . . ? A goody two shoes?! They're not back home with their world's laws! Those don't even exist anymore, at least for now!]

Nope. I gotta wait until I'm 20.

[ She looks him straight in the eye as she says this, as deadpan as she's ever managed to be. That's the legal drinking age where she's from! It doesn't matter if she's somewhere else now! Kadoc, please, Izou is in this Camelot and if he finds out she'd be willing to try alcohol it might end very badly for her ~~liver~~. ]

You're really serious about it. Damn. I'm not gonna try to talk you into it . . . I've gotten plenty of that myself from Beryl and shit. Not gonna do it to anyone else.

[She's committed! Or maybe it's an excuse. He knows all about those, and he's going to respect hers, because he's been there.]

But that just means you've gotta deal with my shitty company sober.

Yes, because I've never had to do that before. I have no idea what you're like when we're both stone-cold sober.

[ She manages to say this entire thing with a straight face, deadpan, before she elbows him gently in the ribs. ]

I have nooooo idea what it'd be like.

Ow, hey.

[Of course it doesn't actually hurt, but you can't not say ow when someone does something like that. It's a reflex! And he rolls his eyes at her, though he doesn't look all that harsh about it when he does. More like a sullen teenager. Moooom!]

And you know what I mean. It's one thing to deal with me normally, and one thing to deal with me after all that.

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