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

Azem? Okay, nice to meet you!

[He's not going to ask too many questions about it. Right now perhaps anyway. Besides, that was his truth used up.]

Hm, how about a dare this time?

[She'd prepared this while she answered, rather suspecting he'd choose that path this time. So without hesitation, she let fly.]

The foremost wicked or mischievous impulse in your head, one you've been holding back because this is a somewhat formal occasion. Act upon it.

Oh ho, that's not a bad one. Hehe, done and done~

[While one idea would be to throw his ridiculous costume off, he doubts it can work that way. However, there is something he's been wanting to do... and glancing around, he soon seems to spot what he's looking for, nods and walks off.]

[Oh, now hold on! She intends to see what chaos she's unleashed, and so she follows along behind at a discreet pace. What fun is making such a dare and never knowing its consequence?]

[She likely catches up just in time to see him scaling the wall. Could he fly? Yes. Would that be as fun? Of course not. Also, a ballroom with a few chandeliers - someone has to jump onto them eventually. And that someone would be him and he'll raise a hand: first, in greeting to those floating past after 'dying' in the Balloon Game, and second, he waves at Azem.]

[Her laughter is bright, warm, and perhaps more vivid than the feat demands -- and for more reasons than the feat itself. For the betailed boy is not alone on the chandelier! Rather, as he reaches it, a creature that looks much like an axolotl gives him a rather cheerful, slightly dopey smile.]

[Of course he's going to give a cheery grin to the axolotl-like individual before sitting down with them.]

Hey! Truth or dare!

[And hell yes they're still playing like this.]

[What to pick? A truth is simple, for she has nothing to hide. Nothing he could ask could perturb her. A dare is a challenge, something to fear. She lacks so many things now, power and knowledge and purpose, that she can barely even imagine what she might achieve or risk.]

A dare, of course.

[Taking the safe path is not her way.]

[Aha! He is hoping that she would pick that!]

Join us up here!

[Which is probably a simple dare, but a dare nonetheless that must be carried out.]

[Oh, now. That is not so simple. The walls don't look like something she can climb readily, and as for jumping... well, she can't quite manage what she used to, here. A shame, that.]

[Clearly, this calls for a little magic. Concentrating, Venat lifts her hand to invoke a flat plane of light in the air. Nothing more than a disc, the sort of thing she's been using as a shield for training, but not affixed to her arm this time.]

[Graceful and elegant, she hops up onto it, balancing carefully as she conjures another one. From there, it is a simple matter to move upwards, banishing a disc and summoning another in exchange, till she reaches the chandelier. A simple grip, a gentle swing, and she settles into an easy seat next to him.]

I think you did it better. Truth or dare?

[Where there's a will to fulfill the dare, there's a way. And honestly, if she'd asked for a lift, Zidane would've helped her up somehow. Still, watching her use her magic to make platforms to join them, and would keep that in mind. It's interesting to see how everyone chooses to apply their magic in situations.]

[And now the three of them have a pretty good view of the party and all the hi-jinks going on besides the more simple dance and talk at one end.]

Maybe, but that was still cool. Let's go with truth!

[Answers. No small irony.]

What is your passion, above all things? What drives you forward and onward?

[Not a light question, but not an embarrassing one asking for a terrible secret, either. Instead, a truth she wishes to know. What drives those from other stars? Have they found their answer, their reason?]

Huh, asking the deep questions. I thought most people try to go for more embarrassing things or finding out secrets?

[But this woman was a little more serious than most he thinks. She might get along with someone like Somnus... maybe.]

Well, if you gotta know, I guess what drives me forward is that I am living. It's not always easy, and some things happen that I can't stop or don't want to deal with, but those are days alongside the good times, too. I also get to share it when I know others don't have the chance, or they ended up unable to.

It's kinda hard to explain, but not like that's a question I get asked a lot either. So, truth or dare?

That is a wonderful answer to a very important question. [She shuts her eyes, as if granted a moment of perfect peace in the midst of chaos, with a smile genuine and heartfelt.]

[Then the moment passes, and she opens her eyes, and it as if nothing had ever happened.]

Truth for truth.

Is it? Ah ha...

[It's a little embarrassing to hear that. But maybe it did take a while for him to come to that ideal too. Or, maybe he'd always? He hadn't considered that.]

How're you doing? I mean, like, since you arrived here in Avalon.

[Maybe they'd only met at the party, but everyone should be asked how they're doing from time-to-time.]

[This sort of care, this concern... makes her glad to be a person again. Simply herself, nothing more. Among the people whom she loves, whose laughter and warmth are her world.]

My circumstances were very different, for a very long time. [Her fingers curl, unconsciously, in front of her chest. Just a thoughtful gesture.] I haven't lived like this in longer than I think you can imagine. And inside of me there is a core of exhaustion, one furious and dismayed that I have been denied the rest I've craved for so long. But over that, eclipsing that, rests a joy and a warmth in simply living again that I cannot deny, nor would I want to.

Hm...

[Sounded like a unique circumstance alright. He's met people who wanted to live forever, and there's always plenty of people scared to die. That she had accepted it, but was alive again? Sounds like it would be mixed feelings. And he nods.]

... it's totally fine to feel that way.

[She knows that. Yet his sentiment is appreciated nonetheless, and earns a nod and a smile.]

Thank you. But perhaps you will regret all I feel after your next challenge. Truth or dare?

Oh, are you trying to unnerve me now? Dare.

[Would he regret this? Only time would tell!]

Make up a song. And sing it. Right now, without delay.

[Venat folds her arms, satisfied in her challenge. That ought to be just a bit of awkward for him.]

[Make up a song right now? My, he hasn't been in any musicals lately.]

Ah, I see, how ever so clear!
If you wanted music, just ask, my dear~

After all, it's a party, why leave out the songs?
Of course you'd ask the performer to play along.

Not at all a problem now at this wonderful fair.
But I think that is your truth or dare.

[He's no lyricists, but hey! He can do his best in the moment. Also, she didn't say how long she wanted it, so...]

[It suits the dare and came out quickly and rhyming besides! A marvel if she must admit, and 'tis well worthy of the applause she grants it.]

Well, being where we are, I suppose I shall select a truth for this one.

[Don't mind him, he bows.]

Thank you, thank you~ I'll be here all night. So, do you like musicals?

What you might consider one, I can't say I've seen. Performances and theater often involved singing, but in truth our society relied more on creation magics to enhance a performance, rather than relying solely on evoking feelings with music alone.

[A complicated answer to a simple question, she fears.]

Creation magic? I mean... you can still build props for a performance here...

[It's the first he's heard of Creation Magic, but maybe Garland...? ... Nah. But on the topic of theater!]

You should come see the Kaika Theater Troupe perform!

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