Fear and Loathing in Excelsior

[portolan]

Who: Balthier portolan and anyone else!
What: A mysterious object leads to a horrific week of fear and misery
When: May 21
Where: Excelsior
Content Warnings: death, violence, phobias, memories of characters worst traumas – this is fear based; please tag specifics for your threads.

CWs: death, violence, phobias, memories of characters worst traumas – this is fear based; please tag specifics for your threads.

OPT OUT OPTIONS: Don’t be in Excelsior or don’t be hit by a spell yourself. Players may also limit to smaller scale fears, or avoid specific fear topics they don’t want to play out.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN EXCELSIOR

An ancient artifact releases three pixies intent on spreading as much fear and chaos as possible. When they hit someone with their spell, their fears manifest, with effects worsening the longer the pixies are free. To escape the spell, characters must face their fears or be trapped in the fear cauldron. Once the pixies are captured, the captured souls will be released and the manifestations will fade, though the damage caused will remain.

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW —

Downtown Excelsior may seem like an odd location to open an antiques store. One wouldn’t think that the chic youth of today would be interested in dusty relics of the past. Yet ask anyone and they will tell you this shop has been around for decades. Rue Moore once reported that it's particularly beloved by the Society and that was how it was able to stay afloat through the changing times, speculating that they use it to move black market goods.

Step inside the high end building and find yourself disoriented by the clash of differing time periods. French Rococo chandeliers, a pristine settee owned by John Adams, an honest-to-god suit of medieval armor, and a few framed sketches by Rembrandt and the like. There’s an electric thrill, as if you could reach out and touch history - though some of that may be the high number of protection magicks being employed.

Whatever you touch is probably worth more than your annual salary. You break it, you buy it.

Balthier is standing at an antique desk plucking away at a laptop as the first few volunteers arrive. He gestures for them to head to the classy bar tucked in the corner. You’re free to enjoy a glass of rich wine and high end appetizers, chatting amongst yourselves about the task at hand while the host finishes his work. As the crowd gathers he shuts his computer and ushers them into the back room, where even more antiques are carefully stacked. Among them are the offenders from the network post and a stack of additional concerning items.

A Little Bit Of Pixie Dust

The biggest puzzle of the night is a medieval cauldron. Intricate carvings depict great tales of monsters and magic. The most notable carving of all is three human faces engraved next to three creatures: a fae, a shade, and a troll.

Search as they might, there’s no record of this object in any database. At the end of the day this one is the only one left identified. As the last remaining investigation team members turn away to pack their things, they miss three small lights slowly rising from the carving’s open mouths. As the door shuts behind them, they may miss the sound of giggling. Or the soft swish of a tricky spell hitting you squarely in the back.

Pixie Magic is unfortunately difficult to detect, after all.

But the first spell cast is a sign these fickle spirits are picking up an old game. Who can create the most chaos? They're powered by human suffering. All fear that they collect returns to their cauldron, making them stronger and increasing the distance they can travel from it.

They are not discriminating and their targets are random. Anyone hit by their spells will become the victims of their fear manifestation spells. Each pixie specializes in a different kind of fear.

The first specializes in internal conflict. Think you have a face like a horse? Well now you might be Bojack Horseman. Worried you’re annoying? Well now you can’t stop doing every annoying habit you’ve ever had. Terrified you might be stone-cold and heartless? Congrats! You're turning into a statue.

Afraid of being ignored? Day 1 you might notice more people are ignoring you. As the spell progresses, no one is returning your calls or texts, people are avoiding you, and you are having trouble being served at coffee shops. By the end of the week, congratulations, you are no one can see or hear you!

These fear spells may be defeated by the character facing their fear or someone where someone helping them see they are still wanted or safe despite their flaws.

---

The Second Pixie specializes in interpersonal conflict. Maybe your love life explodes. Maybe your worst nemesis returns to harass and humiliate you. Whatever it is, you’re having trouble with others.

EXAMPLES: One day 1, you might be increasingly aware of your significant other's flaws or the health of the relationship. By midweek, you may find yourselves hitting each others buttons and fighting constantly. By the end of the week, you both may be compulsively playing out every flaw the other person perceives you to have.

If you have a nemesis from your past who haunts you, you may find yourself having more memories and dreams of them on Day 1. By Day 3 you might start seeing their face or signs of their work around town, or impacts of their presence. By the end of the week, they may full-on appear in this world, with all their powers, threatening to repeat that terrible memory if you don’t stop them.

These fear spells may be defeated by literally defeating the other person, or by reconciling with them. They could also be defeated by accepting reconciliation is not possible but removing the person's access to you (or to destroying the city, RIP).

---

The Third Pixie specializes in person versus environment conflict: packs of angry chihuahuas. The weather. The sidewalk opening up to swallow your ankles. Awakening dormant magical creatures. A super volcano going off.

EXAMPLES: You hate the cold and can't shake a chill. By midweek, the temperature around you is literally 10 degrees colder than everywhere else. By the end of the week, you are the eye of a blizzard.

These fear spells may be defeated by overcoming the physical obstacle through whatever means necessary.

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter...

Perhaps you failed to overcome this challenge. Just as you succumb to your worst fears, your eyes open and you find yourself standing in an empty space. Others are there with you, looking equally as forlorn and lost.

And then it transforms.

You and your fellow victims are now trapped in a HELLISH LIMBO. You’re living out one fear after another – whether it’s yours, or that of one of the others who failed to overcome their fear in the world outside.

In this hell your very worst fears are realized. And there’s no way out. The pixie’s magic brings things in, but it doesn’t let them out.

Those who have not succumbed to their fears may be drawn to the back room of the antique shop, finding the cauldron abandoned but overflowing with power. The magically inclined may be able to find the seam on this pocket dimension and ATTEMPT A RESCUE.

But more concerningly, the carvings on the cauldron appear to be glowing. What was once a fanciful depiction of ancient battles now appears to be a warning that the worst is yet to come.

These powerful creatures need to be defeated and returned to the cauldron. They have fanned out across the city and will be encountered separately, so teams may wish to form. They cannot be killed, but wounding them will bleed out their power until they can be re-sealed on the cauldron.

The only trouble is you need to find them.

Transformation

As the pixies amass more and more power from the fear they’re generating, the range they can travel from the cauldron increases. The further they can travel, the more fear they can inflict. And where better to feast than a city built upon consumerism, where fear isn’t dealt with but bought off. Perhaps you may spot the flickering light of a pixie out of the corner of your eye, but it’s gone in a flash.

Eventually though, they trade speed for power. As their power crescendos the pixies begin to change shape. By the seventh day, all three of them have shape shifted into much larger and more imposing forms.

The first pixie will become a beautiful and terrifying fae. They make themselves at home in the city’s enormous man-made park and offer fae bargains to those foolhardy enough to trust them. Strength won’t overcome them, but a quick thinking mind might.

The second becomes nothing but a shade. It slides under cars and along walls, hiding in people’s shadows and whispers their darkest fears. This entity can’t be held down or stopped with physical force, but it recoils from the light.

The third rampages throughout the business center in the form of an enormous troll. Like the other two, this entity cannot be stopped with force. Excelsior’s artificial weather systems may be needed to slow this beast down.

AFTERMATH —

Once the pixies are restored to the cauldron, their fears in the city fade away and trapped characters are released, physically unharmed but mentally shaken. The damage any fear manifestations did to the city remain, but any people or objects they conjured fade away within the day.

The cauldron cannot be destroyed, so something will need to be done to keep it from wreaking havoc again.

IN SUMMARY...

• Balthier asks for help identifying magical objects. Characters interacting with one object in particular awakens sleeping magic inside.


• When the pixies first awaken, they must stay close to the cauldron to sustain their power.


• Each pixie's fear spell works on a different kind of conflict (though characters can be affected by more than one, or cured and then affected by another). As the week goes on, the manifested fears will worsen.


• Characters can defeat the fear spells by facing their fears or by someone else helping/interfering.


• The pixies must be defeated and returned to the cauldron.


• Comment HERE if you'd like to be involved in taking out the pixies!

Comments

Eddie Brock + Venom | OTA

[frenchkissed]

(A)LONE.
cw: abandonment, self-deprecation, toxic relationships

( so venom is giving him the silent treatment. that's new. usually his method for pissing eddie off is to talk nonstop, so this is a fresh, funky direction for him.

early on, eddie says he can get used to it, the way the usually incessant chatter in his mind becomes less and less frequent as the day goes on. asking questions gets him little more than a grunt or a shiver in response, and trying to win venom over with his favorite activities is just as fruitless. it doesn't help that eddie isn't sure why venom is mad at him this time, and venom isn't even willing to tell him, the asshole.

by the third day, not only is he unable to hear venom, but he realizes he's losing the ability to feel venom as well.

all at once, it's clear that venom is leaving him. he's gotten tired of him. all of that talk about eddie being a loser, eddie being nothing without him, eddie being lucky venom chose him in the first place — venom's finally seen how true it was, and he's leaving for it.

Don't do this to me, man. Whatever I did, I'm sorry.
So, so sorry.

leaving him, like anne did, like his father did, like his mother did (that wasn't her fault, he knows, but eddie's thoughts are spiraling, here). without venom, eddie has no one left. he is no one. it was only a matter of time before venom caught on, but—

But you can't leave me here... Please. Don't.

radio silence is all he gets in response. deafening. terrifying. which is why it's with wet eyes and shaking hands that he desperately flags down the nearest person to him on the sidewalk. )

Hey, uh... do you want to, like, grab a coffee? Or something? I just really, really need someone to talk to...

...Please.

A(B)SOLVE.

You were gone!

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DISAPPEARED, EDDIE!
I SEARCHED, BUT I COULD NOT FIND YOU.
PERHAPS YOU WERE TOO BUSY COMBING YOUR HAIR SO YOU COULD BE THE PRETTIEST GIRL AT THE PARTY!

Dude, what? Don't bring TikTok into this.

IT IS A QUOTE FROM THE POWERPUFF GIRLS.
WHICH YOU WOULD KNOW IF YOU VALUED MY INTERESTS!

( good news: venom's back! bad news: those pesky pixies have them bringing out the worst in each other. rather than rejoice over their reunion, the influence of the second pixie leaves them unable to talk without raising their voices on the streets of excelsior.

par for the course with them, really. )

Interests like eating people? Newsflash, asshole: that's not an interest. That's just murder.

ENJOYING 'MY FAVORITE MURDER' CAN BE AN INTEREST, BUT WHEN I WISH TO DINE UPON THE FLESH OF OUR ENEMIES, IT IS A PROBLEM?

Yes?????

YOU ARE NARROW-MINDED!

And you're a menace! A menace who left me!

IT IS YOU WHO LEFT ME!!

( oh my god, someone put them both in time out. )

AC(C)END.
cw: acrophobia

( you know what? this one's on eddie. he can't even blame venom for this — god, why does eddie have so many fears? and why are these pixies so hellbent on exploiting them all?

a question for another time.

right now, he needs help getting the fuck down.

for a while now, it seemed like each step he took lifted him higher and higher into the air, but that's ridiculous, not to mention impossible. but sure enough, he finds himself carefully counting his steps to make sure he stays firmly on the ground. because heights are the worst, and he would rather die than be more than a pogo-stick's distance off the ground.

this time, one too many steps catapults him straight up into the air, with nothing to grab onto and nothing beneath his feet. he's suspended there, where he refuses to open his eyes refuses to look down. this is just going to be his life now, hovering six stories over the streets of excelsior with no chance of finding his way back to ground. )

H... Help...

A(D)RENALINE.
cw: potential allusions to physical abuse, underage drinking, emotional trauma, and child death

( eddie wakes up in hell surrounded by fellow demons. and then he wakes up again handcuffed to a table. the room is cold and steely, a single table and a single chair — a makeshift interrogation room at the back of the station. he's younger now, he knows, whether or not this is reflected in this hellish reality is beyond him. how many times has he replayed this moment — the day he became a monster?

the only difference now is that he isn't alone.

...how is that possible?

he doesn't stop to consider it, just yanks the handcuff against the table as he does his best to urge this person away. )

You have to get out of here! Go! It's not safe for you here!

( alone )

[exasperation]

[ ripley likes coffee. and cafes. they always feel weirdly safe, despite the number of people in. probably because no one really cares who you are, they're just here for the caffeine. and thanks to his power, ripley knew all the best coffee spots in town.

so he seems startled at being asked, but his expression softens in compassion. ]

Uh, sure. You okay there?

[frenchkissed]

( nope, nope, eddie is objectively not okay.

but... he does seem to realize himself upon being spoken to. this might be the first person he's talked to all day, outside of his failed attempts with venom. it reaffirms that he's here and present, which is grounding. but it also means he needs to get his shit together, because someone is being kind enough to take charity on him and he can't afford to mess this up, too. )

Rough morning. Rough day... ( i have no one; i'm a cancer. ) You like espresso? Shouldn't be hard to find a place. My treat.

( which would be about the point where venom would chide him for being so generous to a stranger, but he says nothing. and that hurts. )

[exasperation]

[ probably dangerous but . . . ripley can get himself out of it if he needs to. plus, this guy looks wrecked and ripley is concerned. ]

I'm good with expresso. I know a nice cafe just down the block? Has a nice key lime pie.

[frenchkissed]

...

They have key lime here?

( good, healthy conversation. a little vapid, but anything to get his mind off the empty spaces within his body. wherever this man leads, eddie will follow, feeling a need to be tethered to something.

congrats, riley. )

( accend )

[tosavethisworld]

[Six stories up? Might be difficult, but Aloy figures she can climb that high. The man's too far up for her ropecaster to reach from the ground, but if she can get up there and get in range, maybe she can shoot a rope at him and pull him back down.]

Hey! I'm coming up to get you! [She calls this up to him, then takes a running leap towards a wall and grabs on to a handhold, tapping her Focus and watching her environment light up around her. Okay, the path up is going to be a little tricky, but that's fine.

Her biggest concern is distracting this guy from how high up he is, so:]

What's your name, by the way?

[frenchkissed]

( you know what comes along with heights? falling. being up high is just disaster waiting to happen—disaster in the form of plummeting to death, jesus, he's gonna die here, if he looks down, he's gonna die—

oh, thank god. someone's seeing his struggles and coming to the rescue. now that's what being a hero is all about. he doesn't even mind that he's the damsel in distress in this situation; he just wants to be able to touch the ground again. )

...Eddie... ( he's shaking like a leaf and his voice comes out small and distant. can she even hear him? ) I'm Eddie! ...Are you good?

[tosavethisworld]

[This probably might’ve been easier if she’d just taken the stairs, but welp, too late now. Aloy clambers up the building like someone who’s been doing it all her life, making it up to a convenient rope.

Below her, some window-washer goes, Oh, come on!]

I’m Aloy, and I’m good, thanks! [Right, this part’s going to be tricky. There’s no handholds leading upward left on this side of the building, but she can swing over to that one over there, make her way over to the side and then up she goes.]

How’d you even get up here anyway, Eddie?

[frenchkissed]

( she's calm. she's kind. it's doing wonders for eddie right now, as he feels neither calm nor particularly kind right now.

he's feeling like he wants to scream, and when he kicks his feet, there's nothing beneath them, which makes his insides crumble. it's like he's swimming in midair, but staying still. he only knows that he isn't moving because there's no whoosh of air whistling past his ears, but he's still not willing to open his eyes and check. )

Aloy... Aloy... Alloy, like— like metals... combination of different metals, blended together... it's a cool name...

( he's grasping around in his head for things to say, stringing words together and hanging on to them for dear life. he could faint. he could really faint right now. oh god, he might. he might— )

Hey, uh, Aloy.... I don't think I'm gonna... gonna pass out... can't... can't feel my hands...

adrenaline—

[hiyakai]

( well, kai has no idea why he's suddenly in an interrogation room, but aside from feeling a little baffled by it, he doesn't appear to be too concerned — even as the kid handcuffed to the table starts shouting at him to leave.

he ignores him as he scans the room. it wouldn't be hard for him to break out of here, but he's kinda curious, you know? so instead, he pulls out the chair on the opposite side of the table, flips it around and sits down on it, resting his arms on top of it. )

What am I not safe from exactly? Because between the both of us, I'm not the one in handcuffs right now. Just saying.

[frenchkissed]

( oh... he's right, isn't he? eddie looks down at his hands then looks up the person currently getting comfortable across from him. is he a cop? is this the start of the good cop/bad cop routine? )

Me.

You're not safe from me. I'm... a monster.

( the part of eddie that comes from the present knows that there are bigger dangers coming down the line, but right now eddie is sixteen and teary-eyed. )

[hiyakai]

A monster. That's a loaded word to call yourself.

( he rests his chin on top of his folded arms as he meets his eyes. )

What makes you such a monster?

[frenchkissed]

( eddie probably shouldn't be speaking without a lawyer present, but that's not going to do much for him. he's guilty. anyone can see it. so he leans in closer across the table, like he's whispering a secret. )

I killed that kid... I'm sorry, mister. I'm so, so sorry.

AC(C)END.

[arrowsguy]

( most of the time, clint doesn't spend his time looking up since it just leaves him open to running right into someone or, even worse, into the street and getting hit by a car.

so, almost completely misses someone calling for help. he stops, looks around and when he sees no one who needs anything, he finds himself glancing up and that's — )

Eddie?

( clint's brow furrows and he turns in a circle, gaze still up on eddie just...floating there. )

Hey, can you move at all?

[frenchkissed]

( it's eddie, all right. in all his frightened, sweaty glory. he's only been hoisted into the air by magical ghost-strings for all of three seconds, but he's already broken out into a cold sweat and forgotten how to breathe. if the height doesn't kill him, the lack of breathing surely will. )

...Y-Yeah?

( who is that? eddie could looks down and see, but that require looking down, and that sounds a lot like dying on the spot. )

Uh, no... think I'm gonna... gonna pass out...

[arrowsguy]

Yeah, that's....not surprising.

( he's just hanging there, almost like he started to fly and got stuck. there's literally nothing around him that clint can see he might have climbed up or anything.

he makes a face. )

Breathe slowly. Don't look down. Can you do that?

[frenchkissed]

( he can do one of those two things. not looking down comes easily, because looking down means facing the reality that he really is stuck in the middle of the air without venom to do some crazy goo shit and save them both. no venom, just air. alone. stuck. high up. so high. forever. forever. oh, god, he's not gonna make it—

some of that he probably mumbled aloud, but who's going to notice? he's a million miles away from civilization. no one can hear his screams.

yeah, no, he's hyperventilating, which is like the opposite of slow, deep breaths. it isn't helping with the feeling of lightheadedness. he even forgets clint for a second, lost in his own despair. )

alone;

[forasecond]

Five is... not great. He keeps catching glimpses of bodies at the edges of his visions. Bodies he knows will belong to any one of his siblings if he turns to look. At least, on the occasions, they're still there when he looks. Sometimes, it's nothing. Trick of the light, right?

He doesn't remember this guy– wait, Eddie, the reporter guy– coming up to him. Too distracted. Dangerous. He has to pay more attention. But hey, he said the magic word. "Coffee. Yeah, sure." he's still distracted, still looks a little too paranoid for someone as young as he looks.

[frenchkissed]

Cool, so Eddie's in good company. Because Eddie is also not great. Clearly he isn't great if he's latching onto this literal child as if he's Eddie's last remaining tether to humanity. Which he shouldn't be, but Eddie isn't sure what he is without Venom anymore, and he's not exactly ready to face that reality.

So, coffee.

Coffee it is.

Except—

"Wait, should you even be drinking coffee? Doesn't coffee, like, stunt your growth? ...We could grab some nice ice cream instead, bud. How's that sound?"

And for as jumpy as this kid is looking, maybe caffeine isn't the best idea.

[forasecond]

"Do not talk to me like a child." he practically growls. "I know–" he snaps, gesturing vaguely at himself. "how it looks. I'm fifty-eight." He'll either believe him because he's been here long enough, or his world is weird enough, that it's believable or he'll think he's crazy. Five doesn't care which.

He doesn't bother waiting on Eddie, heading in the direction of the coffee shop down the street. "I'm getting coffee with or without you."

[frenchkissed]

Look. Eddie's been here a while, too. He's seen giant robots, fellow aliens, gods from other dimensions.. So an adult in the body of a child really shouldn't be all that surprising, but it throws him for a loop.

He's going to follow him because he wants his coffee and having a mystery to focus on is so, so much better than focusing on the echoing silence in his mind.

"Fifty-eight? What happened to you?"

ii. absolve

[soulmakingsound]

(ooc: before I tag I just wanted to let you know what River is a telepath/empath. Her powers are a bit scattershot unless she makes a lot of effort, but she would likely be able to tell there is more than one person in Eddie's brain. She can't hear their conversations, but she could get a general idea of there being two of them.

I just wanted to check all this with you before I jumped into things!)

[frenchkissed]

( 1000% here for this!! )

[soulmakingsound]

River watches the man argue with himself a little while longer, curious as to where the other conversationalist is. But as the man gets closer to her, it becomes more clear. Images of something black, like ink, poured into the crevices of his brain.

"Are you arguing with the ink?" she asks, head tilted curiously.

a(c)cend

[tinglesense]

[ Peter is already up high when he sees Eddie come pogoing along. And what the hell! He's not expecting it.

He's got his own problems, of course, with a concerningly large army of spider-drones that seem to be following him around. They haven't hurt him or anyone else yet, but you never know, right? They're not particularly dangerous just when there's one. He thinks. He hopes. But there's not just one. There's…a bunch, hovering in a cloud above the skyscraper.

Peter — as Spider-Man, obviously — clings to the side of the building as easy as thought and calls out to Eddie. ]

Hey, um…do you need a ride back to the ground? That doesn't look safe.