![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Fear and Loathing in Excelsior
Who: Balthier ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW —
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!
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.
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.
AFTERMATH —
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
no subject
[ Spock cannot see the danger of a single being truly outclassing some of the things he's faced. ]
no subject
except the way he's looked all his life is the plaster. a good plaster over the bad. shame is much more complicated than fear. ]
If I touched you in this form, you would die. Even Gods succumb to it.
[ a beat. ]
It's not just fear of myself or for you. It's — being seen as something you never want to be seen as.
no subject
[ And truly he does on some level. Perhaps not in appearance, but he can still hear the taunts in his head from when he was a child. He can remember how his mixed heritage had put his family in danger, too. ]
In that case, I will take care not to touch you, but I do not see you any differently than I did before now. I admit I do not understand the significance of your appearance now, but I have experienced my own times of being perceived as something less-than-ideal.
[ He speaks carefully, choosing words that he hopes will bring understanding rather than offense. ]
no subject
[ but loki stitches himself together. fear will not defeat him today. it has not defeated him yet. ]
Frost Giants were reviled on Asgard. Hated. And I didn't know what I was. By the time I found out, it was too late. The damage had been done.
no subject
[ Michael pushing him away. It doesn't matter that he understands why. It doesn't heal the pain of rejection that had stung him so deeply as a boy. How could it? ]
I am half human. There were some on Vulcan who felt that my father should not have taken a human mate and that I was an abomination to exist at all. It put a target on our family for extremists who felt that outside influence was negative for the development of our people. My father is also not particularly happy with the way I... turned out.
no subject
Fathers never are, it seems. Even when they're responsible for it.
no subject
Some things may remain private as you choose, but they are still you.
no subject
But all it takes is something like this to hurt.
no subject
My people have a teaching, kaiidth. It means What is, is.
You cannot change your genetics or your past. You were raised to hate something that you are. I was looked down upon for my own genetics as well. Neither of us are able to undo these things, but I do not believe that genetics make us who we are. It is our choices and the lives we choose to live that make us who we are.
no subject
I believe in my agency, I just . . . What good can come of this?
[ what good can come out of me. ]
no subject
The mind is a powerful thing and you do not strike me as someone who lacks mental fortitude. Where is the logic in harming yourself when you can instead use that focus to regain control of your body?
no subject
no subject
no subject
[ it feels a lot to hinge on logic itself. ]
It's not as though you have any other data on me. It's limited.
no subject
[ He shifts his stance, shoulders a little straighter as he rests his hands behind his back. ]
You value the arts. You enjoy indulgences and you sought to share them with me. You are from a world whose values may not align with your own where race is concerned. You have a disappointed father. You do not wish to hurt me and are in fact concerned I may be hurt by accident if I come too close to you. You are concerned with how others will perceive you but you filter your expectations through your own narrow point of view on what you are.
I do not believe you mean me harm, Loki. It is not for me to judge your every word or action. I know only the man you have presented me with and I have no reason to believe you have been duplicitous towards me.
no subject
he's been depressed for too long. loki straightens himself. ]
I am trying my best.
. . . Thank you. It's far kinder than I deserve.
no subject
You are welcome. Identity is... something that people like you and I will often find complication with. Where others have a word, we may have paragraphs of contradiction. We may have to work more to find where we fit in the universe.
no subject
[ undying fidelity. so much for that. ]
A lot of things have. But I cannot let them defeat me.