isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

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EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

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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:

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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[ If they do have a Vincent Price, he probably wouldn't go as his own name. Something like Vincent Bryce or Mincent Mice. They do have an Elvis, but he's basically a silhouette and goes by a totally different name.

Either way, Vincent is a cool name! If Kadoc associates it with Vincent Price, then even better, that's exactly the ambiance Crow wants.]

Naturally, I'm pretty good at names!

[Even though he was going to call Kadoc, 'Bless you' not too long ago.]

So you were able to figure out that weird message from the queen, I thought it was gibberish at first, but someone told me I ought to go. So here I am! Didn't think it would be a costume party, tho?

[ The rock singer looks around seeing everybody dressing in different types of outfits. It's weird since it's out of season, but the hedgehog boy is having fun with it. So whatever.]

. . . I'm glad you made it. From what I can tell, they're pretty serious about this being for our protection. And don't get too impressed, 'cuz it took me way too long sitting staring at this stupid thing to even mostly figure out what she was saying.

[He may have taken some of his downtime at work to just sit there with a pen and pencil and try to translate the thing into something semi-sensical. Sheesh. Fae! Why are they like this!

Still though. This could all be worse. Kadoc's costume sucks for multiple reasons, but it's at least comfortable and not weird and revealing or anything, and everyone else's costumes are kind of enlightening. Crow's definitely is. Kadoc even has to crack a smile at it.]

So you're into cowboys? I guess that makes sense, considering your background.

Huh? I've thought you would've gotten it right away!

[ He'd still be impressed because at least Kadoc figured it out eventually. Crow just didn't bother and just asked around to see if it made sense to someone else. Maybe that Fairy Queen needs someone else writing her texts.

As he mentions his costume, Crow grins widely and even tips his hat.]

Of course! Don't you think they're pretty cool? I've always been proud of my parents and their dairy farm, but not everyone sees it that way. People tend to look down on you because of that line of work.

[For a moment, Crow looks a little irritated. It's still very much a trigger for him when anyone speaks badly about farmers or agriculture.]

But with cowboys, they were people like us who worked the land but could also save the day! That's why they're the best!

I mean, I'm at least used to having my family looked down on . . . I know that sucks.

[And he can't even say he's proud of his parents or anything, so he keeps mum on that part. What would it be like to have that kind of relationship? He can't even imagine it. It's never been about them specifically, though, just the reality of mage society life and the importance of a bloodline.

It's funny to think of someone like Crow, who has the Coolest Job Ever of being a rock musician, dreaming of being a cowboy who saves the day. But in a charming way that Kadoc can't help but smile about.]

You've been watching way too many movies, but yeah, I get it. Why'd you go into music? Not that I think you were actually gonna become a movie star cowboy.

[Maybe he has seen a lot of movies, but his ambitions to be a movie star cowboy were doomed from the start. The popularity was quickly going out of fashion to make room for sentai teams fighting monsters or aliens.]

Well, I guess it was my first concert! I think I was twelve or so. The farm made a big profit that year, and so my parents brought tickets to this massive rock festival called Grateful Rock. It was named after the most popular rock artist at the time, Grateful King. I saw him in concert and I was completely mesmerized! It was like watching a god playing the guitar! I knew from that day on, I was going to be a musician!

[ It's a very fond memory from Crow, so he's grinning from ear to ear. But he finds himself always talking about himself. Nice try, Kadoc, but Crow's catching on!]

How about you? Obviously, there's someone you idolized as a kid. Maybe it's the K-kircher...Zurich...Schwartzeigler person?

[Close but no cigar.]

[HE TRIED. Kadoc can't really be offended; it's funny and kind of refreshing that people have no idea who Zelretch is here. That's sure not the situation he grew up in. So he has to smile even wider, though he already was after that surprisingly adorable and ordinary story about the genesis of Crow's ambitions. Now that he can relate to. Who doesn't lose their mind at their first rock concert?!]

. . . Kinda. Not exactly. It's not that I ever gave a shit about him as a person, or wanted to be just like him specifically. But he's the most powerful mage in my world, or he's at least up there. His influence is unparalleled. He can perform magecraft that few others have ever been capable of. I just wanted to be like that. Powerful and respected. I wanted people to look at me the way they all look at him. . . . What a joke.

[Even in a decent mood, it's not like this topic doesn't come along with some lingering bitterness.]

Your story was a million times better.

Ah, so it's something like that.

[ It certainly is big shoes to fill, but who doesn't want that kind of fame and glory? Crow certainly wants that! Crow still doesn't understand the magnitude of how great this man is, but it's someone Kadoc strived to be similar to. He only knows a little bit of how hard it was for him in magic school and somehow that didn't work out?]

My story isn't unlike yours, though. I'll never be that guy I saw on stage. He's in a class of his own because he paved that way for himself. I want greatness too, but I can only do it my own way.

[ Crow realizes he can be a little too optimistic, and he can't really help it. He's never hit a wall, he couldn't eventually get through with determination and hard work. He might be imposing that same naive and yet thoughtless implication to Kadoc, when he clearly has no idea what the other mage has endured. So he tries not to encourage his friend that way.]

Sure, you're not going to be K-kirschur---What's-his-face, but is that still what you want? Who do you want to be now?

[What a question. Kadoc's only been struggling with that for almost a year now! He doesn't feel like he can or should come out with the whole of the situation now of all times . . . maybe someday Crow should know about the state of things at home, but it doesn't have to be tonight. The fact that it's hard to even think about the future when he's not sure how much of one anyone will get is always on his mind, but what good does dwelling on it do in response to this? It wasn't meant to be that kind of question.

But the block is there. He can't just pretend he's decided he wants to be a doctor or something. So he pauses, awkwardly, and finally he chooses his words carefully:]

. . . Before anything else . . . I made some mistakes. I think I wanna see what I can do about those first. I can't be anyone if I can't even do that.

[Mistakes? Crow couldn't help but be curious about that. Yet, he holds off on asking any questions since it doesn't seem like Kadoc wanted to go into detail. That's fair.

He nods.]

At least, you know where you want to start. I hope it works out for you. I don't know if I can be of any help, but let me know if you need anything.

[It does seem like something beyond Avalon, so he probably couldn't do anything to help, but he still puts it out there.]

Anyway, there's no time like the present! You came all the way here, I hope you don't plan to be a wallflower.

Heh. I'm always like that . . . you probably remember.

[He'd been like that the first time they met! But actually, despite everything, he's feeling better tonight. It's been almost a year, and he's come some way. Maybe he can manage to have some fun, despite everything.]

What, you wanna waltz with me? Yeah right.

Yeah, I remember!

[ Meeting Kadoc is actually one of his fond memories of Avalon, now the mage was stuck with him!

He snorts at that suggestion.]

Bold of you to think I can even waltz! Come on, let's play some games! You're up for that at least? If not, too bad, you're playing!

First of all, I totally didn't. I would've been shocked if you came out with being a waltz champion or some crap. I was gonna teach you . . . in this hypothetical scenario we don't actually need to think about.

[It's a really embarrassing thought, anyway. Kadoc's taught a couple of girls by now, which is already embarrassing enough, but doing it with a guy would be on another level. Especially Crow.]

But anyway, what games did you have in mind, exactly?

[Wait! He was serious?! Crow blinks slowly.]

You were gonna teach me how to waltz?

[ Kadoc says they don't have to think about it, but now it's in his head and it won't go away! It'll be weird for sure, especially with how oddly they're dressed. And then there's the height difference and where exactly is he putting his hands?! Then there's Kadoc's face (Crow's not saying he's ugly, but it'll just be close, and that's problematic)! No! No! No! Crow cracks a nervous smile as he scratches at his cheek, he's a little embarrassed by his imagination.]

Yeah...let's not do that. Oh, but it does make sense for you to have some dance moves under your belt since you're into classical music. I bet you're a real casanova on the ballroom floor!

[Look at that main character energy!]

As for games...that balloon game seems fun or nobody's favorite truth or dare?

Like hell I'm a Casanova anywhere at all . . .

[The very thought of that is laughable. Seductive Kadoc! As if! He's still embarrassed enough just thinking about the stupid waltz that wasn't real and was with a guy anyway! But they're leaving that behind now. Kadoc keeps his arms crossed over himself, taking a look over at the setup for the balloon game.]

You wanting to stab me more than you wanna dance with me just means you have good taste. I bet everyone feels that way. You actually wanna give it a try? There's no way I'll win, though.

You say that, and yet you're over here sweeping girls off their feet!

[Crow's exaggerating, but teaching girls to dance is pretty smooth. It's a skill that he lacks, and hell, Kadoc should use it to his advantage if he wants to play his cards right. Then again, this isn't a fairy tale and takes more to impress people than a few dance moves.]

And who said anything about stabbing you? It's the balloon I'd aim for, not you!

[Crow tilts his head to the side, not sure about whether everyone feels that way, but he sure doesn't!]

Well, I'm playing with Vincent, and I think he can take them! Otherwise, we can go into it as a team effort! They won't see you as much as a threat, so I'll steer their attention away from you and maybe you can try to get the last man standing.

. . . Yeah. That'd be pretty cool, actually. Like that time at the party.

[Surprisingly good strategy from Crow . . . no, Kadoc shouldn't be surprised by now. He knows the guy's not an idiot by a longshot. But this works out, doesn't it? He gets to be the one acting behind the scenes, being subtle and sneaky, and Crow gets to be the one grabbing attention with his loud and ostentatious ways. That's really playing to your strengths. Kadoc nods, slightly, thinking that over.]

If you wanna go about it like that, I'm in.

[Good times, good times!]

Exactly! It's a similar play, but I think it should work out in this setting too!

[There are a lot more factors to consider. Especially since Crow isn't dealing with an intoxicated crowd of people who were easier to manipulate. This time people were a bit more coherent and bloodthirsty, but it should be fun either way.

He grins at Kadoc who seems to be agreeable to the idea. He then beckons him to follow so they can get their balloons and choose their "weapon" of choice. And by weapons, it's really your usual household item variety kind of shit! Crow throws up and catches a cheese grater in his hand.]

Only slim pickings are left, but I think I can work with this!

That's definitely gonna be distracting, I'll give you that.

[Will Crow manage to pop a single balloon with that thing?! Who can say! If he does, Kadoc hopes he gets to see it, though. That seems hilarious. For his part, at least he still has his knife—

Wait. This costume doesn't have pockets. He starts patting himself down with increasing alarm, looking for the pocket knife he always keeps on him, but it doesn't match his outfit, so poof! It's gone, at least for now.]

—What the hell did they do with my stuff?!

Why? It is already grating on your nerves? I'll definitely do some damage don't worry.

[ He had to get at least one pun in.

Though he didn't think too much about using their own weapons. He didn't bring his guitar along because it was a party, and they emphasize it being safe. However, at Kadoc's alarm, he realized that it would've gone poof anyway.]

I guess we're limited to what our costumes would have, but it's probably to enforce the no-violence rule. Hence these lame tools. Hopefully, you'll get them back at the end of the night, but for now...

[Crow swings the handle of the cheese grater around his finger and tries to look for something sharp for Kadoc. He spots something at the bottom of the pile, he finds something for the mage to work with. He presents a small ice pick.]

How about this?

Edited (html fail) 2022-03-06 04:14 (UTC)

[He holds out his hand to take it, looking it over there in his palm.

. . . Huh. Feels interesting. There's something brutally satisfying about it. But maybe that's the point of this game. His fingers close on it, and he nods, holding it in his fist.]

That's not bad. Yeah. You gave me the better weapon, but yours is more distracting, so that's probably the better move.

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EVENT ✨ Wolf's Moon

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