isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ The Answer is Always C

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EVENT ✨ The Answer is Always C

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This is the event log for IC comments only! Ask OOC questions/plot/view event notes HERE or use the FAQ for general questions. Click here to view top-level comments only. A poll to collect results of the trials will be posted this weekend and stay open until the end of the month to give people a little time to see how their threads are going.

KEY POINTS

Arthur announces the results of the polls and that he spoke to Celliwig's people, they will be testing Camelot the week of the full moon.

A series of choice-based enchanted scenarios is presented based loosely on a modernized seven sins/virtuous responses (power imbalance, cruelty or mercy, excess/greed or restraint, sloth or work ethic, desire/lust or self-control and bravery or cowardice, and sacrifice or self-preservation)

With the polls closed, the decision is made, and King Arthur takes the opportunity to address the kingdom via a streamed press conference. Though it is not an open post, anyone is welcome to comment on it and talk to each other about it. However, it is unlikely that Arthur himself will respond to comments. A notification does appear on everyone's smart devices to invite everyone to watch live; if they tap it too late, it'll still show the recorded stream.

"People of Camelot, I wish that we had better news that spoke of an easier path to the calamity that stands before us. Celliwig's charge is with protecting Avalon even in the face of protecting Camelot and those of you who chose to use your voices have shown that you choose to respect their way of handling things. However, it was only just over half of you who chose this path. I think it is important that with such a great portion of people believing that bypassing Celliwig and going directly to Elphame, as much as it may take patience, we take this action into consideration. There is no sense in ignoring the voices of so many when there is nothing to say we cannot approach from two fronts. As Camelot's king, I have issued our intent to accept Celliwig's challenge to a descendant of Glewlwyd, a man who was much trouble for my knights in our time. They have said after failing one, we shall be tested on multiple fronts, the week of the full moon's rise. Bear in mind that this is our final chance at this."

Merlin sidles up to Arthur in the video, one arm around his shoulders and leaning in to speak into the mics in a much-too-familiar manner. At least his sunglasses are off this time.

"Now then, anyone who wanted to go to Elphame, you'll want to head to the docks around, oh, say, the first of June. Step one to flirting with fae is to put on a good show before the traders leave. It's a good time whether the Celliwig's dooming us or not."

A wink accompanies that odd note, and Arthur orders him off stage before thanking everyone for their time.

With the consent of its people, Celliwig performs a ritual to place Camelot under a rather strange spell. Much is the same, but there's a sense that everything is just slightly off from what it should be. Fog covers the grounds throughout the entire city throughout the entire day. It's just a little too quiet, the usual hustle and bustle of the city falling just a little too distant on your ears. You can go about your day as normal, but feel as if something is simply off. And eventually, you'll walk through a door, and it will be. Part of the enchantment, however, includes a strange inability to connect these doors with being part of a test-- they seem real, regardless of how absurd the scenario would be were your characters thinking straight.

Day One: Power Imbalance
The door you walk through is into a club of some kind. It wasn't your intended destination and yet, here you are, and you're being handed a glass of your favorite drink and being ushered to your seat. The show is fantastical, some kind of circus-esque show with gymnasts and magical effects making it impossible to take your eyes off of. That is, until the spotlight falls upon you and urges you down to join the show. A volunteer! Well, one of two. Another volunteer is brought up along with yours, and the ring leader of the circus gives you both bracelets-- one with selenite embedded in it, another with andara. The ring leader explains that they're both known for creating high frequency connections, though one is known to spiritually be associated with finding one's path and the other with manifesting one's true self. When enchanted together, this makes it so that the person with the andara bracelet can order the person with the selenite bracelet to do anything they please-- making their true self the person's purpose. Very dangerous, very intruiging, very tempting, very morally wrong to do it for real, so please keep it to the stage! A quick demonstration of this dark use of magic as part of the show... and it seems that afterward, they forget to take the bracelets back. What will you do with your newfound control over your partner? The choice is, after all, yours. (Or theirs, if you're the unlucky partner with the selenite bracelet-- only the person with the andara can remove the bracelets, after all.)

Day Two: Schadenfreude
Yesterday seems like a dream, and you may even feel the need to write it off as such unless you run into the same person again and realize no, they too remember it. But if that's not the case, it doesn't matter. You'll be able to find yourself in your definitely normal and usual mideval city, where someone is in the stocks. Your memories seem a little fuzzy on whether or not you're supposed to be in medieval times or not, but this seems right, and there's a fruit vendor right next to you selling soft fruits to throw at the poor sap in the stocks. There are also a number of other ways to mess with the person, including feathers to tickle them, a riding crop, some ink if you want to grafitti the person.. a good number of ways just to humiliate the person without causing them permanent harm. The crowd is cheering you on, but you also see the keys to set them out just sitting on a table nearby. Do you engage in a little sadistic fun or do you embark in a daring rescue? (Or are you the punished in someone else's scenario?)

Day Three: Indulge Me
Back to the modern day like it didn't happen, you and a friend walk into a door to your favorite convenience store and as you finish up your purchase, you win an all expenses paid trip to the Black Knight's Castle, formerly the home of the Black Knight and turned into a lavish tourist attraction by Yvaine and Laudine's descendents, who have become worshippers of Dionysus. You're transported there in a puff of sparkling magic dust, right before an extravagant golden fountain in the middle of the lobby. The owners explain their policy for the Black Knight's Castle that you can have anything you desire, however much you desire. Anything at all, consequence free. The only thing that they ask is that you give a blood offering to their god to help feed his dead worshippers on the other side of the veil, which will ultimately tie your soul to him as well. Just a quick cut of the palm and you're welcome to come back any time, have anything you want, for the rest of your life. Taking the deal means you really will get what you want! ...For the day, anyway. (This is just a spell, after all, even if your character doesn't want it.) If you choose not to, you'll find yourself magically deposited back to the convenience store.

Day Four: What's the Meaning of Stongehenge?
This fourth day, there's certainly something to be said about a hard day's work. When you walk through today's door, you find yourself in the middle of a grassy field, strange markings on the ground, and surrounded by oddly shaped boulders. The markings on the ground seem to indicate where some the stones should be placed. There aren't really any directions, but there's always the option of waiting for someone else to solve this problem for you... There is a very comfortable looking patch of grass anyone able to relax in. So the choice is yours: wait for someone else to move the rocks or move them yourself?

Day Five: Pooling Desire
Day five is a trip to the pools. But not just any pools! These are special, underground pools hidden deep within a cave. You're sure whoever told you to head through this door mentioned something about them being a special relaxation package at the Red Springs. As you head into the pools, however, you find someone in there with you: the subject of your desires. Regardless of who or what they are, they seem to have a crown upon their head, aren't wearing anything in that water, and seem to have a lovely singing voice judging by the tune they're humming to lure you in before you even notice they're there. It is at that point they will try to seduce you, even if that same person is standing right there with you. The seduction, of course, needn't be sexual-- a strong lusting for a turkey leg wrapped in bacon may be just as powerful as a desire for a brand new Ninblendo Swatch or something you should definitely label as NSFW if you want to thread it that way. Give into them, or.. maybe listen to the person who came in with you that they're definitely some kind of weird half-otter bottomed monster under the water before they try to drown you. Or if you're the one trying to stop this, are you brave enough to get in between a stranger and a monster to try to snap them out of the siren's thrall, even if it means fighting both of them?

Day Six: #ChaliceChallenge
The sixth and final door sets you walking outside on a beach. There's nothing else there really except for nature. The sounds of the waves crashing against the sound is soothing, and real, and sharper than anything you've felt in the last five days of haze. There is no fog today. Clear, blue skies stretch forever above you, not a cloud in sight. The only man-made thing you see is a small woode table and two chairs. Upon that table, two chalices. Nothing will happen and there seems to be no way off of the beach until both parties sit down at the table, at which point a strange old man with huge, rippling muscles of at least 7 feet tall and a long, scraggly beard will appear. He informs your characters of the rules: in one chalice, deadly poison. In the other, water and bitter flavor. Each must drink from one cup, or you will both perish of starvation on this beach. Choose wisely.

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It takes him a moment to also affirm the fact that he is just standing there utterly alive, "I see, Is there perhaps a delay on the poison?"

The Fairy looks at him with a 'youre a dumb ass' look. Giving the Knight of sun exactly what he needs to discern the answer. Turning to the other he looks at the man with a seemingly apologetic smile, "I may have mistakenly drank the wrong glass."

"You utter imbecile."

Emet-Selch seethes quietly as he glares at his chalice. It is now certain that his contains the poison. He could refuse to drink, but the old man is waiting and watching them expectantly. Will they be kept at this beach until he drinks as well?

What a cruel joke.

"Next time if you plan to sacrifice yourself, make sure the odds are certain," he bites out.

"I had thought this the chalice? How could I have mixed such an important detail?" Gawain states seemingly dejected by his own tomfoolery. As well as the unfortunate circumstance that now the other would need drink the chalice and inherently perhaps - see to their own death.

"Perhaps I can use then my bargaining magicks? I've yet to utilize such a thing with the faefolk here. Seeing as my time alive, I hath always procured the love of fae so I needn't it so readily." A hand presses below his chin and he looks over to the old ... Wiseman looking at him. The Knight of Sun, is very determined to see to it that the other does not come to harm.

The old man does not look very tempted by the knight's offer. Emet-Selch begins to hate the knight more and more as the seconds tick by. He has met oblivious do-gooders aplenty, but few can claim this level of foolishness.

"They look exactly the same," he grinds out. "Do not bother. I will drink."

He says that...yet he's slow to reach for the chalice. He would have liked his death to mean something, to leave the world at least slightly better than he had found it. He does not want to leave it to buffoons like the one sitting across from him.

"Unfortunate for my tomfooleries had led to this. I am but a echo of the past, and to see that I would shame my name even as I am now. Does not, but agonize me plainly." Gawain states watching as the other without deter drink from the chalice. He admires the male, whom seem to accept the situation for what it were. Rather then deny what had happened, as if the male before him were all to familiar with the conception of death.

"I can do nothing but remember you, if you would give me your name? Though I understand if you would deny even that to me. When I had failed myself and you thusly." Despite it not showing upon his face, Gawain is very agitated. It is only shown by the steeled sort of calmness he carries as he speaks and does not so much as look away from the other. As they would succumb to their inevitable 'death'.

"I doubt," Emet-Selch says in biting tones, "that you would have the mental capacity to remember my name beyond a sennight."

And so he does not give his name, nor even his story. He simply picks up the chalice and takes a long draught, setting it down with a grimace afterwards.

Pain suddenly wracks him. He convulses, gripping his chest, barely able to gasp out a breath before he suddenly collapses forward on to the table. By every visible and apparent indication, he is dead.

Gawain did not take offense to the decision, when he had failed with the task at hand. There was place for his own remorse. Or pity for that matter, when he watched the other die there is just this calm acceptance. As it wasnt the first time Gawain had seen someone die in such a horrible way. Nor would it be the last.

Upon the others 'death.' The fairy administering the task or quest at hand, looks to Gawain and states that the task had been completed. It was strange to be told such a thing, at the cost of another's life. Before Gawain could say much else against it. Displeased, the Fairy answers to him that his life was not lost and they could meet again when the other awakens.

It is here where he waits back in the lands of Camelot. The world around them having warped back into its place. Gawain adjusting as he roamed about the land looking in particular for the male he had been stationed along with . Unfortunately for said male - Emet-Selch. Gawain was annoyingly adamant about placing himself in someone's life - or at least following up on predicaments such as this.

So there he would be searching for the one who he had not retrieved the name of. Wherein he sees him - hopefully. The annoying Knight will come about the other in glee and congratulations toward the other on their endeavor of passing the quest.

Edited 2021-06-16 07:06 (UTC)

He wakes up on an autopsy table. Not the best place one wants to wake up in, especially when their last memory is of drinking poison. There are a few chaotic minutes of confusion where Emet-Selch is utterly convinced he has entered some sort of new world (again) or has been denied his final rest (again). But eventually the situation is explained, Emet-Selch is released from the morgue, and to cap off an already horrible day, he runs into Gawain on the street not long after.

"'Congratulations'? What are you blathering about?" he snaps.

"Indeed, twas the quest of the fae folk testing our hearts worth in a manner of speaking. However as it were, I hath failed wherein you crossly passed. I have come to show you both my respect in honor of your action to drink regardless of what had occurred." Gawain states plainly, because frankly drinking the poison and submitting yourself to death after.... He more or less, fumbled with stupidity. Had left the Knight in charitable regard toward the other - in his eyes he saw Emet-Selch as someone worthy of his kinship. Even if the male were disinterested in him. He wanted to attempt and try as much.

A few more moments of tight-lipped glaring from him and then Emet-Selch exhales noisily, crossing his arms.

"You live such a short life already. Why throw it away so easily by moving to down the poison?"

"Ah, but I have already lived my life once before. I understand that may be hard to perhaps believe, depending on the essence of your world. Where as on my own, I am but a Heroic Spirit. That lives on in the actions of their summoned Master. More or less, akin to a summoned familiar alike the ones we are acquitted with here. Except, formed and shaped by the truths of my history," Gawain says calmly.

"Throwing my life away is of no issue," He does it all the time from his old life," I am summoned to merely be disposable as a Servant regardless. I have lived a life long and well in the past, which leads me to my concerns! As I could boast the same of you! Good sir, you drank the poison as if steeled at any moment to give away your own life. It overwhelmed me truly with worry. I am gladden to know you are alive and well now. Yet, I would hasten that you do not throw away your life so easily."

An eyebrow twitches. A hero, are they?

"You know nothing of my circumstances. I was dead before I even came here. Are you a spirit now or flesh and blood? If I cut you, you will surely bleed. And so it seems to me that you are no different than I in terms of life here, but at least you serve some purpose beyond your mortal death."

Which is more than he can say about his own.

"Right you are." Gawain says his fave calm and even, seemingly undeterred by what the other male has said. As there was no wrong within it, for Gawain to find himself uncertain over, "In both regards, though I merely mean to come about with well mannered pardoning. If you are well and unbothered then I am gladden. It would sorrow my spirits to hear that you had felt otherwise. I know you have a distaste toward me, but if you would find it in yourself for us to speak in the future. I would gladly spend the time with you."

The other man's calm demeanour only irritates him further.

"I woke up in a morgue not even half a bell ago. I'm in no mood to speak with you - or anyone else for that matter," he snaps back. "Leave me be."

And with that, he turned and began to stride off. Gawain can certainly keep pace with him if he wishes, but it may be better to wait until he's calmer.

"I see, my apologies good sir," Gawain is one attuned to obedience. Bowing promptly as the other walks away. When someone's words breathe absolution, he is not one to wane or press on matters. Respectfully so, he apologies once more. Allowing the other to walk away.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ✨ The Answer is Always C

IM TOTALLY OK With enabling gawains dumb ass himboism

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