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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What's with the sour look?

[Asking the question: a gentleman out of a wuxia film, with a long white beard, flawless robes, and hands folded into his opposite sleeves. Of course, the face isn't as old as it should be, and the voice is unquestionably Morgan's.]

Headache.

[He replies and takes the cigar out of his mouth, angry at it. He offers it, unlit]

Can you throw this away or smoke it? I’m trying to quit.

[Morgan makes a pfft noise that makes his moustache tremble, but takes the cigar nonetheless. Some troll or something will Bargain for it, he's sure.]

What kind of headache? You've doomed yourself, I'm just going to try to help you now, you know.

Doomed myself? How so? By trying to quit? It’s not like there is a bad reason for me to! Just like anything worthwhile, it comes with a cost.

[He frowns, trying to think about what kind of headache he has.]

I don’t know, but I feel dizzy… and tense.

[So he’s obviously not going to be looking happy. That, and this party is a tad… overstimulating. And he’s hungry, and can’t eat the fae food. He’s never felt so much irritation.]

I meant with the headache. Which sounds like a tension headache. Which I know how to treat.

[Morgan holds up his hands, flexing his fingers demonstratively.]

I'm trained in the fine art of acupressure massage!

[Gokudera looks on at those fingers and his brow furrows even more. It… sounds like it would help. He’d be an idiot to turn Morgan down.

BUT-!

He doesn’t know how that would look.

What if Zuko noticed? Would he take it out of context or get jealous?!

No.]

… Maybe.

[He looks around, as if there are excuses scurrying about and he’s trying to find the right one to pick up.]

You just gonna grab me by the head and press your thumbs in little circles or something?

[Why is Gokudera acting like this is the most sus offer of his life?]

[Morgan doesn't even register this as strange. In his position of undeniable privilege, he's prepared to give a lot of help that people just don't want to accept for very understandable reasons. A 'maybe' is pretty positive in his perception.]

Shoulders, actually. A lot of the tension comes from in there, usually, so they're the best place to start.

The withdrawal can effect my shoulders?

[Gokudera’s reasons are understandable, but there’s all sort of panic. Most prevalent in holding back his acceptance is that his boyfriend could see and assume things. Or even Aurora! She doesn’t strike Gokudera as the jealous type.

And then there’s all the leftover base-layer trauma from living in a different world that if someone with a dark hair color touched him, he’d be arrested.]

[Not being up-to-date on Gokudera's relationship status or PTSD triggers, Morgan suspects none of this.]

Not directly, but as your body deals with stress and chemical imbalances, that naturally makes you tense up. Fight-or-flight reflex, you know? Except that reflex isn't supposed to last as long as withdrawal can take, so your body stays tense much longer than it should, and that starts having its own fallout.

[So he’s not just uncomfortable, but seems more apprehensive than most. Gokudera’s not going around sharing any of that personal information. He just seems a little on-edge. Extra tense.]

Oh… Okay. Go for it.

[He’s got shit posture and typically holds his tension in his shoulders. Anyone could see it. A child could probably notice how this guy looks short most of the time, folded in on himself as if he had a shell to draw into.]

[Well, some of that is about to change -- with permission granted, Morgan steps around him, then clamps his hands onto Gokudera's shoulders in what practically amounts to a pincer group. All those worries about what other people might think might seem a bit silly when he squeezes, pressing thumbs and fingers firmly into the knotted muscle. Not gentle, not affectionate -- this is the sort of massage that doesn't hesitate to hurt a little for maximum relief.]

[He’s been massaged by a cowboy with magical steel balls. Gokudera drops his head with a grunt. He wants bruises left behind so long as it kills this damned headache.]

Fuck-! Owwwwwwuh

[He needed this. Thanks. Please ignore the foul language.]

If you say stop, I'll stop. Otherwise any noises you make are assumed to be therapeutic.

[Because damn, this is worse than he thought. Mere thumbpower might not be enough...]

[Stepping slightly to one side, Morgan presses a hand to his collarbone, then jams his elbow into the stubborn knot of muscle on the opposite side. Some solid pressure from THAT ought to loosen Gokudera up a bit.]

Nhhmm-!

[He’s fine! This is fine! He actually knows that he needs it, and while it hurts, it isn’t bad. His muscle is tense, but it does loosen with the press of that elbow.

Gokudera’s face is tight and clearly uncomfortable because yeah, it hurts. Then, he lifts a thumbs-up in agreement.]

[There's a reason Morgan explicitly said "say stop or I won't". Gokudera can make all the noises and expressions he wants, otherwise, because Morgan has taken it on himself to fix that shoulder or die trying.]

[He’s just gonna react to how it feels, which isn’t great, but he knows that this will help, so he will endure it!

And the muscle is getting a bit loose and tender with the way Morgan is digging that elbow in. So… it’s working!]

Okay, other side for a bit. [Let that one recover for a moment, recirculate the blood, refresh. This has become less acupressure and more just pressure, but you do what works, right?]

[Swapping sides, Morgan applies the same push-and-poke to Gokudera's other shoulder.]

We may need to have a talk about a healthy lifestyle.

Phew… okay.

[Gokudera moves his arm a little once that pressure is off and swapped to the other side. He’s cringing at the feeling, but enduring it once again because he knows it will help.]

Good-! Luck with that…

[He wouldn’t have had this stupid headache if he hadn’t tried to quit smoking suddenly. It’s the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle that’s causing him problems!]

Heh, it's what I DO. You could solve some of these problems for good with some physical training, you know.

[Hell, releasing this stress ought to help his posture a little. And this is just the beginning of a major workover, one he doubtless won't complete tonight.]

Well, now that I’ve got that damned collar off, I could get back to physical training.

[Aside from going to school and getting an education, he can actually spend more time on bettering his body.]

Should put on some more weight now that I can do that, too. I’ve become a- ngh!

[Ooh! That was a knot. More pronounced on his left side than his right. His left side is just a bit more banged up, and there are visible marks. Gokudera should take better care of himself.]

Skeleton!

[A skeleton with some mean tension in his shoulders.]

Could benefit from some more yoga, too… that was fun.

[Gave him some time to meditate and work his body all in one go.]

Yoga is great. Surprisingly challenging, great for a whole-body workout. Really can build the core too. Not my personal favorite, but I can get behind it for those who like it.

[Press, press, preeeess. Then release at last, letting the sudden shock of relief and endorphins do its work.]

Used to do it a lot back on Amoi- can’t meditate without falling asleep, so I had to work…

[It hurts good. Not hurting as much now that those knots are pressed out, that it’s just a general heat of blood flowing into that area.]

My body and it gave my mind a chance to focus on other things. Sometimes nothing. What’s your favorite workout?

[Morgan looks like he’s in good shape. Gokudera needs to eat more and build some muscle. It helps that the King of Conquerors is trying to help him bulk up by introducing a KFC (Knight Fried Chicken) diet.]

Martial arts. It's what I do.

[All right. There's shoulders worked out, so now Morgan starts to move his elbow down to other strategic points of the trapezoid. The most annoying of back muscles, for sure!]

Who do you train with? Or is it more solo, like marksmanship or tai chi?

[‘Martial arts’ is such a broad answer. Gokudera wants to thank Morgan, but instead, his next word is actually a grunt as that elbow presses strategically into his muscle.]

Anyone I can, though here in Avalon I'm teaching. [No one is quite at his level of aikido and his own assorted techniques, though many people are incredibly skilled and capable in their own right.]

Back home, I was privileged enough to study under the world's greatest martial artist, and probably one of the greatest of all time.

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