EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

[avalonmods]

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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:

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.

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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.

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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.
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.

Comments

[kiss_it_better]

As much as I've ever enjoyed these things.

[He is not really a party person but he's learned to deal. It helps to have company he doesn't mind keeping.]

Are you dressed as some sort of soldier?

[Because by this point he's figured out what all this costume nonsense is about.]

[rediscovering]

[ The polite "no" draws a huff of a chuckle out of Zuko, feeling much the same about such affairs. But he's in an unusually good mood, overall. ]

Yes. I am. You're the first to guess right.

[ He's still smiling behind his helmet at that, pleasantly surprised yet somehow not surprised that Li Min was the only one who's made that guess so far. ]

My uncle was the highest esteemed general in our nation's army for many years, and his son was a proud soldier, as well; my cousin died in the line of duty when I was eleven. But as a young boy I admired them both.

[ Other people would maybe make this sound quite somber, but to Zuko, military culture is so commonplace, so as much as these truths were extremely impactful and devastating at the time, it's just the facts now. He says this all so lightly. Well, y'know, lightly by Zuko standards. ]

What is your outfit? You look like you are getting married.

[ By his nation's customs, at least, that's the first image that comes to his mind. He doesn't mean anything by it, not even necessarily teasing, just... stating his first impression neutrally. It's a handsome ensemble, certainly; that's not up for debate. ]

[kiss_it_better]

People like that can be easy to admire.

[Who doesn't like a war hero? They were often revered among the general population. Even when he was young he had studied the calligraphy and writings of the Marquis of Order. Even later, when he knew the man behind the legend (knew that the legend was really just a man), he still thought...the Marquis of Order was still someone amazing.

He smiled, amused.]

It seems the wedding clothes of our countries are not so different.

[Not if he can recognize them.]

When I was little, there was someone I cared about greatly. I wanted to grow up and take care of that person...cooking for them, mending their clothes, making sure they dressed warm in the winter, spending the rest of my life at their side.

[His smile took on a softer quality, not exactly nostalgic but fond, never-the-less.]

I hadn't thought about it in terms of marriage, but I suppose that is inline with what I had dreamed about.

[rediscovering]

[ Zuko smiles at this, unseen behind his face guard, but it can almost be heard in his voice. ]

That's touching. Did you stay friends with that person?

[ Zuko's never felt that way about anyone. Perhaps his sister, while living spirited away together, but that was... different. That was worry — not just care. There was love, he figures, but it was complicated, and unhealthy — as their relationship has always been, even when they were little... And certainly, he never wanted to care for her before living in these worlds. At home, she didn't need it. It conflicted him, because she also didn't want his help... And he didn't have much help to offer. He can't cook or clean or sew or do any of these useful domestic things. He's never needed to, as Li Min could probably assume from their first time meeting in the trust exercise in the tents. Frankly, Zuko admires people who can do these things in a new way he never considered before being spirited away and realizing he and Azula, the most capable and clever person he's ever met, couldn't actually take care of themselves on their own... It's been a harrowing thing to grapple with in a larger sense. To dream of doing those things for someone as a child... It's sweet. More caring than Zuko's ever been. It'll stir some deeper thoughts, for sure. ]

[kiss_it_better]

We're still close...perhaps even closer than before.

[Because he understands that man...but also because they're actually together now.]

Incidentally, like your uncle he was also in the military.

[And also really high up on the command chain.]

[rediscovering]

[ Ah. It's a man. That actually draws Zuko's curiosity a bit more, considering the wedding outfit resembles one of a bride in his country... and considering that in his country, homosexuality is illegal. ...And considering he just recently started a so far very happy romantic relationship with his own best-friend-turned-boyfriend here in Avalon, regardless.

But he's not really advertising all that. It seems rude? He's still feeling these things out. So a more comfortable topic to pursue: war. Woof. ]

What branch was he in? Army? Navy? Was it wartime in your world then?

[kiss_it_better]

[One day, they will have that conversation. Maybe.

For now, yes. Time to talk about war!]

Army. He is a part of the Black Iron Camp which is the only battalion that specializes in using armours that run on ziliujin. [Though technically, as Marshal of Great Liang's arm he sort of can commandeer any part of it...even if their navy isn't much of one. Also, 'part of' really means 'leads' but that's something for Gu Yun to decide if he would share or not.

His smile dimmed a little. Though the expressions are still subtle, his sigh maybe says a lot.] The situation was tense at the time when I was taken from...but for him, war has broken out.