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

[doctopoda]

You don't know anything about what I've done.

[An actuator slams down against the platform, responding to Otto's sudden flash of anger. He regrets it a moment later. But that's just what he does, isn't it?

...it takes him like, way too long to register the pixies comment. Once he does, though - well, even with the situation being what it is, you can't just let something like that pass unremarked-upon.]

Pixies?

[portolan]

[ Fear. Right. Worst things people have done. He's still reeling from his own encounters. ]

You're right. I don't. And I frankly don't care.

[ The aggression of the actuator startles him, but he's too good a pirate to show it much past a small jump at the sound.

And Balthier may be near useless in combat here, but his wits and his silver tongue are in tact.

When you were in the shop, do you remember the large cauldron with the rather ugly carvings on it? It was apparently housing three pixies with the ability to manifest fears. They've entrapped you; I'm anchored outside it.

[doctopoda]

...of course it was.

[Magic is the fucking worst, why would there not be magic fear pixies? Otto snorts disdainfully, turning to look back up at the machine.]

I was supposed to have died here, you know, months ago. It makes a strange sort of sense, ending up here again.

[portolan]

Yes, well, I was supposed to die in a crashing ship a few months ago. Let's keep up our track record of evading death, shall we?

[ He's making his way through the water toward Otto but going slow as to not make too aggressive of sound. He's not entirely sure what he's going to do when he gets there, but maybe the gesture of being approachable will help with something. ]

[doctopoda]

[A couple of the actuators are openly watching him, but they don't do anything about it in the moment. Otto sighs, rubbing at his temple. His head's killing him; he hasn't slept properly in a few days, and the light in here is awful.

He isn't helping, of course, by looking directly into the Sun anyway.]

No, I mean it. I met some people from my future. Apparently I drowned.

[The actuators do react to that, one of them jerking and snapping at thin air before Otto can focus enough to stop it.]

[portolan]

[ He's talking, at least. That's preferable to yelling or fighting. ]

My understanding of multiple universes is that the moment we leave our world, our path changes. The you who drowned isn't this one.

[ Gentle; he's talked raging powerful beings down from a fight before. ]

Why be a self-fulfilling prophecy, hm? I strongly prefer writing my own path. Damn good at it too, if you need some assistance.

[ Otto doesn't need to know right now that Balthier's own fear manifested as him losing any conviction in the story he's built for himself, entirely losing Balthier and nearly losing the people he cared most about.

But he didn't and Otto isn't going to succumb either. Well, not a second time. ]

[doctopoda]

[That's all true, of course. But it isn't really the predestination of it all that gets to Otto, really. It's that - morally - he should have died.

But then, he knew all that already. He's kept going anyway. For Norman, or maybe even for Peter, if not himself.]

Maybe you're right. I almost wish you weren't.

[Life seems...very empty most of the time, without Rosie.

An actuator curls, looking at Balthier. He can see better through their cameras than his own eyes, right now.]

It never ends well, for people who go out of their way trying to help me. Are you in danger, being here?

[If it's some kind of illusion, he guesses maybe the reactor isn't a threat in and of itself, but that hardly means it's safe.]

[portolan]

Well I’m a leading man and leading men never die nor fail, so let’s pit my patterns against yours.

[ as always, more confident than he feels. He doesn’t know how real this is. He doesn’t know how much he risked coming and maybe that wasn’t fair to David, but he couldn’t lose anyone else. And Otto…Otto didn’t have anyone else coming for him, if Balthier has read that correctly.

And maybe some of it is a desire the world not lose one of the only kind older men he’s ever met. ]

I’m always in danger. Occupational hazard. But I have contacts to handle whatever mess we get into — we just have to get out.

Tell me more; that may help though I know it’s likely unpleasant. Why this place? Why does it haunt you?

cw: suicidal ideation

[doctopoda]

Oh, are you?

[There's a bit of a wry smile in his voice at that. A leading man versus the villain: whose fate will win out? Surely, an encounter like that ought to end in Otto's death either way - but then, he knows Balthier well enough to know he's not exactly your classic hero.

The amusement doesn't last. Of course it couldn't be as easy as simply leaving, could it? If it were, maybe Otto would have already left on his own. Probably not, but maybe.]

This place...

[He looks up, at the empty windowframes above. The sky outside is dark, the glare from the reactor drowning out any sign of stars. He isn't much concerned about himself; dying here only seems natural. But he won't let Balthier stay stuck here any longer than necessary. He's pretty sure the man's understating the danger somewhat.]

It was abandoned. The whole row of them was, no one ever passed through here anymore. [That is not an answer to the question. He's quiet for a long moment before continuing.] I...came here after my Rosie died. There was an accident - no, several accidents. It was my fault, all of it. I thought -

[Well, he didn't think much. The shock, the anesthesia still in his system, no doubt some fresh neurological damage. Otto barely remembers how he got here at all, what he did between this place and the hospital. It had just suddenly been daylight, and he'd been here by the water.]

I intended to drown myself. All of us. I knew, if the water was deep enough, they wouldn't be able to stop me.

["They" clearly being the actuators. Otto remains impassive, relating the story almost as if from some great distance, but they writhe uneasily, curling inward as if to shield him from some invisible threat. There's a pressure in the back of his mind - but it's something he can ignore, now. Something he can resist. He forces them away, paying no heed as they click and twist their claws.]

cw: reference to parent death

[portolan]

[ Oh, Otto. Balthier's heart goes out to him. That's so much pain. He doesn't blame him for it, honestly, and he suspects this was something he already weathered, likely alone.

That's not the kind-hearted man he met here, though, and Scions if men like his own father get to have lives, then Otto surely deserves on. The world doesn't need to lose the few good men it has. ]

Otto, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you lost her, and I'm sorry you're feeling like this again. I don't know what we do with the grief. I -- I thought about it too, when my mother died. I don't know that that feeling ever really leaves you, once it's happened.

[ Because the first time, for him had been when his mother left, when he was a child alone with a parent who was cruel and didn't want him, and the parent he'd loved was gone.

Now, he couldn't imagine losing David; adding marriage and years with each other to that, well. He didn't understand, per say, but he could follow. ]

But I'd be very sorry if you were gone.

[doctopoda]

[Balthier's admission of similar feelings gets Otto to turn towards him again, brow creased with concern. It's a symbolic gesture; his natural vision's too washed out now to be of much use. He really shouldn't be looking at the reactor like this. Finding himself here again, it had just been...hard not to.]

Ah. [.....] Well. Thank you for saying so.

[He hesitates for a moment, before the actuators carry him to the edge of the platform, about as close as he can get to Balthier without going into the water. Otto knows it's not that deep, and that he's improved their waterproofing since they were last here, but for once he doesn't force them.]

I'm sorry for how I behaved, the last time we spoke. I don't know what came over me, but it was completely out of line.

[He exchanges a glance with an actuator as he says it, but...he knows it wasn't their fault. This time, it's the other way around; anything they did was because he lost his damn mind.]

[portolan]

[ Balthier comes closer too, soaked and a mess, looking a little more like a regular human than he usually does. Isn't that what they both need, to just get a moment to be a person who's struggling?

At Otto's words, he swallows hard. He has no memories of someone older than him apologizing outside a handful of school teachers. And he hadn't even brought it up -- wasn't planning to -- which meant Otto had reflected on it between then and now. That was -- that was very kind. ]

Thank you, but I don't hold it against you. We were likely already being effected by the spell. But I was out of line, too, for what it's worth, and I'm sorry for that.

[doctopoda]

I should have caught it. I've been through something similar before.

[Not exactly the same, of course: another case of magic versus science. But Otto knows the feeling of control slipping away. He should have caught it the second time, tried harder to keep hold of himself.

He sighs, shaking his head. No matter how he feels, he can see well enough that beating himself up in front of Balthier like that isn't going to help.]

Yes - yes, of course, it's alright. I know how it is. Thank you for coming in here after me, you didn't have to do that.

[portolan]

From my limited experience, it seems like this caught a lot of people it shouldn't have. You don't need to take responsibility for something that you had no power to stop.

[ Well. Maybe the things Fran and David have been trying to tell him about his own life are sinking in a little. ]

I know I didn't have to. That's what friendship is, isn't it?

[ He's relieved Otto is coming back to himself, though it's also starting to worry him; how will they know the cauldron has released its hold? He hadn't thought through that part. ]

[doctopoda]

In all honesty, this is the least of what Otto's been responsible for. But he's still frustrated with himself; hasn't he learned anything?

Still - still. However little he deserves it, there always seem to be people around willing to catch him when it falls. Otto smiles at Balthier, then takes a careful step down into the water.

Hush. [That's irritated again, but plainly not actually directed at Balthier. You know Otto's in a state if he's speaking aloud to them.] Alright. What do we need to do to get out?

[portolan]

[ As Otto steps into the water and poses his question, the scene around them shimmers, like a virtual sim that isn't loading quite right.

In another moment they're back in the shop, both wet but otherwise unharmed. Otto should find himself in whatever state he entered the cauldron in.

Balthier's smile is warm. ] Good to have you back. I have some towels; I'll go get them.

[ He wants to say more. Like thank you for being reasonable. Thank you for listening to me, and valuing my input. Thank you for being willing to apologize to a man younger than you who was absolutely in the wrong. But all of that feels...too big, too sappy. So instead he just gives Otto a towel. ]

I owe you dinner, when all this calms down.

[doctopoda]

[Otto flinches at the sudden transition, actuators briefly circling as if to shield him. His glasses genuinely were lost when he got dragged into the cauldron's world to begin with, and the sudden light of day is not pleasant.

But it's not an unmanageable amount of pain, nowhere near being out in broad daylight. The searing echoes of the Sun are gone, at least; perhaps that makes sense if it was never real at all. He shields his face with a hand and takes direct control of an actuator to see a little better with.]

Thank you.

[He takes the towel and starts to dry off, squinting. He should say more. This makes the second time he's been saved from himself without quite deserving it. The stakes are lower; he didn't try to murder Balthier, or even force things to a physical fight in the end. But that doesn't mean it means any less. There's an old familiar knot of shame lodged in his chest, yet again it wars with warmth.

All he says, though, is:]

Oh no, you don't. I'll pay for dinner.

[portolan]

[ He notices Otto's glasses are still missing now that they're out. Well, that's unfortunate, but at least fairly easy to resolve in the aggregate. Doesn't even require magic.

He does chuckle at Otto's counteroffer, though, masking the smile it brings in his purported amusement. ]

Are we about to find ourselves in a gentlemen's stand off? Tell you what, let me help you get home -- I'm assuming that's going to be harder without your glasses -- and I'll let you pay for dinner next time I see you.

[doctopoda]

[An actuator swivels about to look out the front windows. Yep, it's sunny out! Otto sighs.]

They aren't prescription - they're just for the light. I can still see through the cameras in the actuators...

[But his head's already pounding, and the visual feeds can be overwhelming at times. The entire way he perceives the world has shifted. He sees in 360 degrees; he's even starting to dream that way, and he knows his brain wasn't designed to process that much. It feels inhuman.

Besides, that reflexive stubbornness, the instinct to pull away and stand on his own no matter what...it's not exactly the best in him.]

No, you know what? You have a deal. Last time I had to make it home in daylight without glasses, the migraine took me out for days. The quicker we can go, the better.

[portolan]

Ah - David gets migraines too. [ And, the first time Balthier tried using a cure spell, he accidentally took that migraine on himself and ended up in bed for three days. It has, at least, given him some sense of what helps. He disappears again and returns with a clearly vintage broad-rimmed hat. ]

Forgive me that it looks a little silly; I suspect it will help.

Would it be rude to ask how long you've had them? The actuators, yes? Is that new to this world?

[doctopoda]

Thank you, that does help.

[Otto takes the hat with visible relief. That hat he got for the bank robbery had done him good; he should've tried harder to hang onto it, even if that and the coat were incredibly conspicuous.

Putting it on, he tilts his head to let it shade his face better as he continues to squint at Balthier. Closing his eyes entirely would be better, but it just feels unnatural to speak to someone while looking at them through a camera.]

No - no, it's fine. It happened two or three months before I arrived here. I built them as tools to help me with my work. They were never intended to be...permanent additions.

[portolan]

[ Otto looks a tad absurd in the old hat and squinting, but it's extremely endearing. His own father would never deign to look anything less than impeccable, and he certainly wouldn't accept assistance from his son if it weren't some performance for political gain.

Balthier offers his arm. Touch is easier to be guided by when vision is failing. Even if Otto has the cameras, he's clearly disoriented, and Balthier doesn't have a firm grasp on how all that works. ]

Not much time to adjust then -- I relate to that. I think my mind is finally starting to work on things from home. Keeps getting interrupted by all this.

[doctopoda]

That's very true.

[Otto accepts the arm, after a moment of hesitation. The hat didn't really phase him, but he is a little embarrassed by this. But he's also exhausted and in pain - if he isn't careful, he's liable to snap, and he absolutely refuses to do that to Balthier again.]

I wasn't...able to adjust at all until I got here, I think. Everything happened too quickly to process. I feel as if I'm only now slowing down enough to catch up.

[It's a twinned statement. He hadn't been able to process everything that happened because things moved so fast, Peter and the Goblin and all that awful fighting. He hadn't been able to process at all before that, because he'd simply lost the ability to think of anything other than work. Either way, now that he's settled into stable housing and employment here...

He shoots Balthier something of a small, pained smile.]

I'll tell you about all of that some other time. I don't know if I'm up for it today.

[It's hardly a secret when half the city knows him as the notorious Doctor Octopus. He should just explain it himself. Later, after he's had some time to lay down in a pitch black room.]

[portolan]

[ Yes, well, if he'd thought about it he'd probably remember offering arms is atypical here; he's tired and not remotely trying to be patronizing. ]

The same for me, though I didn't have the physical change. I -- upheaved my entire lifestyle in the months right before I came here. I'm still not sure the dust has settled on the number of beliefs I shattered.

[ He pauses. It's not a day to get into specifics, but he does want to offer Otto some show of vulnerability or trust. ]

I had to kill my father, just days before. I found out gods existed. I realized I wasn't happy keeping to the sidelines after years of running. I don't think I adequately appreciated just how much all of that would shake me.

[ Otto's thin smile and suggestion of savings pains for another day catches him. He smiles and nods back. There's no need to do this today. ] We'll have riveting dinner conversation at some point, I'm sure. And you can tell me more about Earth books you like. I'm still trying to expand my familiarity.

[doctopoda]

Good god, Balthier, I'm sorry.

[He shifts his hand from Balthier's arm to his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Otto doesn't know what his relationship to his father was like; certainly, he knows how fathers can be. But even in the worst case, it still can't be a simple or easy thing to kill the man.

They're both right, though. Today has already been enough.]

Yes - yes, some other time. [He claps his shoulder.] I'll see if I can't get together some books to loan you.