metalogs | Fear and Loathing in Excelsior

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Fear and Loathing in Excelsior

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ffamran is trying extremely hard to sort through the conflicting reactions that text elicits.

David went through his things? Hadn’t they fought about that?

What ring?

There was a princess in the story. Was that…? ]

Why did you want to read it, if you are so tired of me? Why are you still talking to me? [ Ffamran was discerning and sharp-witted too, and so the spell hasn’t taken that ]

Does the when matter?

[Clearly after that night, because he'd sworn up and down that he hadn't read it.]

And because it's easier to do this than to ignore the messages and then get a whining call from you, or worse, have you show up like that brat child Loki did. Saying something about a spell. I'm not spelled at all. I'm just too busy for all these useless sentimental concerns you all seem to be overflowing with. They are below me.

[ It's a little longer before his next text because he's struggling with how much it hurts to be talked to like he's nothing, even as he agrees with it.

But something is wrong with David. None of his other memories here are this altered, so he feels fairly certain of that. A spell? Loki had said something similar when they talked. And Ripley. And Otto was off too--

He'd let David go, of course. That still seemed like the only reasonable choice. But he wasn't going to leave him under something like this. Maybe Ffamran was a coward, but he'd been Balthier for a few months, gotten David out of other things. He could do that one more time. Owed it to his lo--

To the other man. ]

Why don't you come get the rest of your things, then, and be done with me? I'll pull them together for you.

[Finally, someone with a logical response to things.]

Alright. I'll be over directly. Get my things together. Not like I was ever welcomed in your place anyway.

[ he doesn’t gather anything except his thoughts. That last comment is enough to convince him that whatever this is, David isn’t well.

But the fear that some of this will still be there when whatever this spell is breaks only seeds itself in his gut. And that’s assuming he can break it. Ffamran has never done anything like that. He has to trust some of Balthier has lingered.

So when David arrives, he will try to hide the shake in his voice. He knows the house is a mess, knows he looks terrible, but what can he do? ]

It’s upstairs.

[Can distant be a fashion statement? Because I'm the moment David is absolutely that. He's clad in slacks and a yellow turtleneck, lacks his ring or any other accessories but his glasses, and he looks unimpressed by Balthier'a presence.

And his skin looks just a little ashen. That happens when the blood isn't really pumping. There is no joy, no anger, no emotion at all on his face as he steps in.]

You should bring it down for me.

[His eyes rove over the state of the place and maybe an eyebrow lifts in curiosity. But there is no change beyond that.]

[ he wasn’t expecting David to be wearing the ring but he’s so used to seeing it on him that it still hurts. So does that coldness.

But Ffamran is a liar if nothing else. And there’s nothing left to lose. ]

You look terrible. Whatever addled my memory must have addled my taste too.

[ his heart hurts to say it, but his heart hurts anyway ]

[Really? Balthier was calling him unattractive? Somehow he doubts that.]

It's often the behavior of those who have no confidence in themselves or their role in a relationship that belittle it when it has come to its natural conclusion.

[ there’s an acting technique to envision a color and embody it. He does that now, pulling on the gold he associates with Balthier the sky pirate, the untouchable rogue who terrorized Ivalice. It sits a little more awkwardly on Ffamran, but his voice is still firm as he crosses his arms. ]

Is that why you’ve been behaving like such a prick? I knew you were insecure but this is extreme.

I'm not insecure. And you're definitely failing to live up to the in and out promise you offered.

[He crosses his arms over his chest, looking unimpressed.]

'I'm not insecure' is the mantra of the defensive.

The David Alleyne I know -- that his friends know -- isn't a coward or this heartless.

[A coward? David rolls his eyes at that.]

And there you are quite mistaken, Balthier. I have always been this man. Getting myself bogged down in emotional entanglements is a nice dalliance, but it is not who I am. I'm far too important, too meant for bigger things for things like romance.

So you're perfectly happy to have no close relationships and be completely alone?

[ David also has to be pressed to express arrogance in anything but his work.

how is he going to break this? keeping David talking is something. ]

[This is tiring. Boring. Worthless. David heads for the stairs.]

It's how I'm meant to be. It's better for my work

[ Ffamran blocks him. David's obviously stronger, but it's a speed bump at least. ]

So, what, you work indefinitely and...become the foremost genius in the world? Then what?

[This is getting annoying. And yet there is still no expression on David's face.]

I'm already the foremost genius in the world if I want to be. Been there, done that. I have the potential. And my intention is to fix things. Put them the way they should be.

[Send people home. Maybe stay here himself, the additional powers are far too useful to relinquish. He could go far with them. Further than even his previous wildest dreams. Imagine the power. Imagine the change.]

[ an image of David shaking after the expo, so rattled at this very thing, comes to mind.

well, he has a few things he can try.

thinking of that gold, of what Balthier would do, he grabs David's wrists, forcing a kiss on him. He's not sure the kiss is doing anything, but the hair on the back of his neck rises. David's skin is...cold. ]

[Cold, complete cold. And, if Balthier had grabbed his wrists properly (which he hadn't), there would be no pulse. Dead inside. That's what he was. Which was why it was easy enough for him to lean back out of the kiss. For him there was no emotion there.]

Someone should tell you about how you give mixed signals.

[ no emotion. no real consistency in his motivation either. it reminds him of the single-mindedness of Filter's spells, though he preferred the affection of that to the coldness of this

he doesn't let go of David's arms, even if he hasn't detected the issue in pulse ]

David, this isn't you. I think -- I think you've become what you're afraid of.

[ it does not even occur to him that the same thing could be happening to him. ]

And what do you presume I'm afraid of?

[Because he doesn't think it's as simple as that.]

I'm more productive now than I've been in months.

And...what? No one has questioned your genius.

You were so afraid of becoming Thunderclap. Of becoming someone who was all calculations and no heart.

You were here a week ago melting down that you'd been heartless to someone you loved. You were...you were worried about hurting me. [ that's hard to say. he doesn't know that he deserves it, and he desperately wants to. but it is relevant ]

Do you really want to be efficient and alone?

[He had been heartless. And he was still so. David just looks at him, clearly unimpressed.]

Better than a man who won't even respect that I chose to be with him.

[ is that what this is about? ]

I'm sorry, alright?

When I was seventeen I fell in love with a man who promised me he loved me. And then he chose everyone above me. Cheated on me over and over. When I called him out, he called me needy. So I apologized and let him continue to hurt me and lie. And then I ended up in my father's prison, watching the love of my life -- at least at the time -- go back to the arms of someone he told me wasn't a threat.

I should have dealt with that by now. I haven't. I'm used to being left. I know I'm broken. I know I'm hypocritical. I know I should have trusted you better, or told you more, or trusted you.

But I'm not letting you do this.

[ and his hands curl tightly around David's, and it finally occurs to him...no pulse. ]

Something's wrong David. You're like a wraith.

[He's not impressed by the sharing. Which is a problem because it's a level of honesty he had needed. What's more, it's something grounding and Balthier that the man who thinks himself Ffamran needs to process for himself.]

I love only myself and the power I can gain. The authority. That's what I want. What did you expect? Face it, you're interested in men who are like your father.

[But he's not a wraith.]

Fine. Yes. I am. I like men who are brilliant and innovative, who can make deals with beings beyond human ability, who have the opportunity to influence the fate of man.

But I'm interested in men who feel the weight of that. Who worry about it. Which you do. I don't know why you've forgotten.

[ He doesn't think about it, but his hand goes to David's face. Which is so weirdly cold. ]

My moon, where have you gone?

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