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THE WATERS AND THE WILD | TEST DRIVE β 3
When it rains, it pours. That's how some problems come to the Guardians. Certain groups and enemies are quiet and then every magical alarm blares at once, every helpful informant sends them a message, and every child comfortable with talking to them pulls one of them aside and whispers, "I think something is wrong."
The last one is how Jack is tipped off that something is going on and after that, news of other problems come pouring in.
He calls the team together once he's taken stock of the situation.
"Okay, guys, I don't know what is going on, but we've got some fairy problems - not you -" The quick aside is to the mini-tooth fairies, who have been spectacular at doing their jobs while their boss, the Tooth Fairy, is imprisoned by Kuk "- in multiple places at the same time. It's weird, actually."
He shakes his head.
"I'm going to need a lot of people on this. Including possibly some of you new people. I know you just got here, but there are kids in danger. It's your choice - we'd never force anyone into this - but if you're willing, we could really use your help. And you won't be going alone."
Anyone who agrees to help is sent across the world - and to places beyond. After all, the realm of the Fae isn't quite on this plane of existence, is it.
Come away, O human child
a) WE FOOT IT ALL THE NIGHT
It always takes a little time to gear up in the sleigh room. Some leave their weapons there to keep them away from the Elves, who could easily hurt themselves with them, and there is additional helpful equipment to take, like the snow globes that let Guardians teleport back to the Pole.
Besides, some areas need the sleigh to bring them in close so they may need to get a lift soon for the mission.
It's a chance to have a quick pause, useful to anyone that just showed up. Sure, you got the basic explanation spiel, but it was pretty brief.
This is your chance to commiserate in mutual conversation with other new people or to get more information about the place from people who have been on the team longer. Or for more experienced Guardians to reach out to someone that looks new and uncertain about their situation.
Best get it out of the way quickly, soon it'll be time to transform and roll out.
It always takes a little time to gear up in the sleigh room. Some leave their weapons there to keep them away from the Elves, who could easily hurt themselves with them, and there is additional helpful equipment to take, like the snow globes that let Guardians teleport back to the Pole.
Besides, some areas need the sleigh to bring them in close so they may need to get a lift soon for the mission.
It's a chance to have a quick pause, useful to anyone that just showed up. Sure, you got the basic explanation spiel, but it was pretty brief.
This is your chance to commiserate in mutual conversation with other new people or to get more information about the place from people who have been on the team longer. Or for more experienced Guardians to reach out to someone that looks new and uncertain about their situation.
Best get it out of the way quickly, soon it'll be time to transform and roll out.
b) ANXIOUS IN ITS SLEEP
Apparently, after being told by a child that her friend had been acting strange and scary, Jack Frost had a horrifying encounter where that child changed into...something else after the illusion dropped.
The child had been replaced by a fetch, acting as a changeling in his place. In the same town, several other children have been acting strangely as well.
The mission: Confront the fetches and find out which court of fairies kidnapped the children and where they took them.
The hiccup: Upon realizing they've been marked by the Guardians, the fetches frantically run away, escaping to a nearby department store. The store is closed, recently gone out of business. Only empty racks and other hardware line the empty aisles.
There's also the mannequins, left abandoned, to be carted away some other day.
The fetches are good at illusions of human shapes. They're also very good at blending...
The Guardians will find that mannequins they swore were in one position seem to change to another. And before long, they're being hunted through the store, the sound of plastic feet sometimes echoing from the aisles around them.
The fetches are unfortunately much stronger than humans and nearly indestructible due to their magical makeup, since their flimsy mannequin forms are just an illusion. Being caught unawares or swarmed by a group of them could prove disastrous.
And the gang has to do more than just avoid death. Somehow, you need to get the name of the fairy court that has stolen the children, through negotiation, threats, or other methods of coercion. The House of the Silver Fig, of the Seelie Court, is responsible - but only the fetches know that.
Congrats on your sudden genre shift to a survival horror game!
Apparently, after being told by a child that her friend had been acting strange and scary, Jack Frost had a horrifying encounter where that child changed into...something else after the illusion dropped.
The child had been replaced by a fetch, acting as a changeling in his place. In the same town, several other children have been acting strangely as well.
The mission: Confront the fetches and find out which court of fairies kidnapped the children and where they took them.
The hiccup: Upon realizing they've been marked by the Guardians, the fetches frantically run away, escaping to a nearby department store. The store is closed, recently gone out of business. Only empty racks and other hardware line the empty aisles.
There's also the mannequins, left abandoned, to be carted away some other day.
The fetches are good at illusions of human shapes. They're also very good at blending...
The Guardians will find that mannequins they swore were in one position seem to change to another. And before long, they're being hunted through the store, the sound of plastic feet sometimes echoing from the aisles around them.
The fetches are unfortunately much stronger than humans and nearly indestructible due to their magical makeup, since their flimsy mannequin forms are just an illusion. Being caught unawares or swarmed by a group of them could prove disastrous.
And the gang has to do more than just avoid death. Somehow, you need to get the name of the fairy court that has stolen the children, through negotiation, threats, or other methods of coercion. The House of the Silver Fig, of the Seelie Court, is responsible - but only the fetches know that.
Congrats on your sudden genre shift to a survival horror game!
c) FROM FERNS THAT DROP THEIR TEARS
The House of the Silver Fig is throwing a ball, as they so often do. After all, some of the Fae want to show off their precious new pets, the children they've replaced with fetches.
The Guardians are tasked with going undercover and sneaking in, dressed in fairy dress. Since passing as fairies would be much harder, you're to act like the prisoners of the Fae, humans stolen due to their favor. Those of you that aren't human are given magic jewelry to illusion them as looking as such. Fortunately, the Fae don't take enough notice of humans to realize any of you are new, or just assume you belong to another fairy.
"Isn't that one lovely. Are they yours? No? They must be Gwynndolyn's."
The atmosphere at the ball is strange. Reality is fuzzy, time is hard to keep track of, and it's easy to be forgetful. But willingly going on a rescue instead of being captured is making it easier to stay on mission.
Still, it's best you don't take any fairy food or drink or you may forget to go home - or may need to be dragged there by your comrades. You've been warned against it but it looks ever so tempting...
The children are getting far more attention paid to them by the Fae. While adults tend to be kidnapped to keep as pretty servants, stolen human children are doted over, their youth (and it's typical brevity) a marvel.
"They're so darling, aren't they?" says one of the fairies, hands clasped, looking painfully sincere. "You know, we're doing them a favor. They get to enjoy their youth forever now."
The children looked dazed from fairy magic and do what they're told, whether it's simply sitting still while they're admired, playing little games with each other or the Fae, or dancing. In the brief moments between directions, when they notice that the Guardians - adults, not Fae - are there, their expressions are pleading and teary-eyed.
It'll be difficult to extract them when so much attention is on them, but they need you to find a way.
Extra Options
PVP: You're quite unlucky. While they sometimes treat their mortals well, the Fae don't always treat their adult prisoners as if they're as precious as the children they steal.
You're dragged to a fighting ring and expected to duke it out with another mortal.
Better make this look good or they might notice you're not supposed to be here. And you also had better hope this particular match isn't to the death.
New Character Intro: Perhaps you're not as lucky as the newcomers that made contact with the Guardians before anything else happened. After the Man in the Moon's brief explanation, you were snatched away by some of the Fae, a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As the fairy ball is infiltrated and you see other non-fairies, perhaps this is your chance of getting out! Or maybe you and another total newcomer decide to work together to escape through the portal you were dragged through upon entering this realm. In any case, this may be your only chance. You can feel your mind getting dimmer and more confused all the time.
The House of the Silver Fig is throwing a ball, as they so often do. After all, some of the Fae want to show off their precious new pets, the children they've replaced with fetches.
The Guardians are tasked with going undercover and sneaking in, dressed in fairy dress. Since passing as fairies would be much harder, you're to act like the prisoners of the Fae, humans stolen due to their favor. Those of you that aren't human are given magic jewelry to illusion them as looking as such. Fortunately, the Fae don't take enough notice of humans to realize any of you are new, or just assume you belong to another fairy.
"Isn't that one lovely. Are they yours? No? They must be Gwynndolyn's."
The atmosphere at the ball is strange. Reality is fuzzy, time is hard to keep track of, and it's easy to be forgetful. But willingly going on a rescue instead of being captured is making it easier to stay on mission.
Still, it's best you don't take any fairy food or drink or you may forget to go home - or may need to be dragged there by your comrades. You've been warned against it but it looks ever so tempting...
The children are getting far more attention paid to them by the Fae. While adults tend to be kidnapped to keep as pretty servants, stolen human children are doted over, their youth (and it's typical brevity) a marvel.
"They're so darling, aren't they?" says one of the fairies, hands clasped, looking painfully sincere. "You know, we're doing them a favor. They get to enjoy their youth forever now."
The children looked dazed from fairy magic and do what they're told, whether it's simply sitting still while they're admired, playing little games with each other or the Fae, or dancing. In the brief moments between directions, when they notice that the Guardians - adults, not Fae - are there, their expressions are pleading and teary-eyed.
It'll be difficult to extract them when so much attention is on them, but they need you to find a way.
Extra Options
PVP: You're quite unlucky. While they sometimes treat their mortals well, the Fae don't always treat their adult prisoners as if they're as precious as the children they steal.
You're dragged to a fighting ring and expected to duke it out with another mortal.
Better make this look good or they might notice you're not supposed to be here. And you also had better hope this particular match isn't to the death.
New Character Intro: Perhaps you're not as lucky as the newcomers that made contact with the Guardians before anything else happened. After the Man in the Moon's brief explanation, you were snatched away by some of the Fae, a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As the fairy ball is infiltrated and you see other non-fairies, perhaps this is your chance of getting out! Or maybe you and another total newcomer decide to work together to escape through the portal you were dragged through upon entering this realm. In any case, this may be your only chance. You can feel your mind getting dimmer and more confused all the time.
d) THE WORLD'S MORE FULL OF WEEPING
Due to reality thinning, an entire group of fairies got transplanted from their world to the Guardians'. They're still in the same location as home, a rainforest in Australia.
Their leader, Krysta, has begged the Guardians for help after a crisis.
"We had to drive him away. He was supposed to be gone. He said he was working with someone named Kuk?"
The "he," the fairies explain, is their ancient enemy, a spirit of pollution, corruption, and destruction. Hexxus. That this horrible being is now working for Kuk is not promising at all.
The forest has been ravaged in his attack, trees and plants devoured and burned, animals killed. The still-smoking wreck is being mourned by the fairies, but they're also already getting to work. They need the group's help, clearing stumps, planting seeds that the fairies can sprout with their magic, and rerouting streams to push toxic sludge into pits, where it can be bagged and taken away by the Guardians.
The yetis of the Pole are helpful as always, handing lots of shovels, trash bags, and other tools through the portals. They're also quick to dispose of any bags of sludgy dirt passed back through, coordinating with volcano spirits for permission for disposal.
It will take time for this section of forest to regrow, but with the Guardians' help, the fairies can at least speed up the process. Time to push up your sleeves and get to work.
And also watch where you step. There are lots of fairies underfoot.
Extra Options
Doppleganger: Unbeknownst to the Guardians, the strange black sludge is currently possessed by something awful. Dark Fae, corrupted into something noxious and made a part of Hexxus, form out of the muck, a trap left behind. They read the minds of their victims - Guardians or the newcomers to this world - and glean enough to take a new shape.
It's someone you know. Perhaps someone from home, or maybe even an ally on the team that's currently elsewhere.
What they do after that depends on their fickle whims. Some use it as an opportunity to attack, gaining trust or taking the form of enemies to intimidate their victims and leave them vulnerable.
Others seem to be trying to earn transport back to the Pole in a way where they're not immediately destroyed by the yetis, to wreak who knows what kind of havoc there. Only subtle tells from the fairy imperfectly imitating the person might give away that something is wrong.
After all, it's always possible a loved one showed up for real, right?
If the fairy attacks they'll try to suffocate you with their ooze, gouge you with sharp claws formed out of sludge, or try to strangle you with the solid form they've taken on. However, their weaknesses are many. Fire can burn them, water can make their sludge evaporate away. Or perhaps there's a chance you can appeal to the corrupted fairy within, coaxing them back to their old form.
If you decide to attack, destroying the ooze fairy will ultimately cause them to melt away into nothing - but can you really attack and kill someone with your friend or loved one's face?
Due to reality thinning, an entire group of fairies got transplanted from their world to the Guardians'. They're still in the same location as home, a rainforest in Australia.
Their leader, Krysta, has begged the Guardians for help after a crisis.
"We had to drive him away. He was supposed to be gone. He said he was working with someone named Kuk?"
The "he," the fairies explain, is their ancient enemy, a spirit of pollution, corruption, and destruction. Hexxus. That this horrible being is now working for Kuk is not promising at all.
The forest has been ravaged in his attack, trees and plants devoured and burned, animals killed. The still-smoking wreck is being mourned by the fairies, but they're also already getting to work. They need the group's help, clearing stumps, planting seeds that the fairies can sprout with their magic, and rerouting streams to push toxic sludge into pits, where it can be bagged and taken away by the Guardians.
The yetis of the Pole are helpful as always, handing lots of shovels, trash bags, and other tools through the portals. They're also quick to dispose of any bags of sludgy dirt passed back through, coordinating with volcano spirits for permission for disposal.
It will take time for this section of forest to regrow, but with the Guardians' help, the fairies can at least speed up the process. Time to push up your sleeves and get to work.
And also watch where you step. There are lots of fairies underfoot.
Extra Options
Doppleganger: Unbeknownst to the Guardians, the strange black sludge is currently possessed by something awful. Dark Fae, corrupted into something noxious and made a part of Hexxus, form out of the muck, a trap left behind. They read the minds of their victims - Guardians or the newcomers to this world - and glean enough to take a new shape.
It's someone you know. Perhaps someone from home, or maybe even an ally on the team that's currently elsewhere.
What they do after that depends on their fickle whims. Some use it as an opportunity to attack, gaining trust or taking the form of enemies to intimidate their victims and leave them vulnerable.
Others seem to be trying to earn transport back to the Pole in a way where they're not immediately destroyed by the yetis, to wreak who knows what kind of havoc there. Only subtle tells from the fairy imperfectly imitating the person might give away that something is wrong.
After all, it's always possible a loved one showed up for real, right?
If the fairy attacks they'll try to suffocate you with their ooze, gouge you with sharp claws formed out of sludge, or try to strangle you with the solid form they've taken on. However, their weaknesses are many. Fire can burn them, water can make their sludge evaporate away. Or perhaps there's a chance you can appeal to the corrupted fairy within, coaxing them back to their old form.
If you decide to attack, destroying the ooze fairy will ultimately cause them to melt away into nothing - but can you really attack and kill someone with your friend or loved one's face?
e) DIM GRAY SANDS WITH LIGHT
Time for a beach episode! The fairies have stolen something important: Father Time's hourglass. They've only stolen it as a prank on a whim, but if it falls into the wrong hands, its ability to manipulate time means terrible things could happen.
The fairies have tucked it away into a magic pocket dimension, which means that fighting them won't accomplish anything. However, they can be convinced to give it up if you beat them at a beach volleyball game. They've gathered up some of their friends, including a few selkies, trolls, and goblins to be on their team.
At the very least, they're going to be fair about this. If the Guardians only have two people that can plan, they'll only send two of their best.
So get your game face on. And maybe have a little fun? While the game will be intense, there will be time to drink fruity drinks and catch a few rays during breaks in the game. This is high stakes, sure, but the fairies are mellow. You can enjoy some sun and sand, and at least nothing is trying to kill you.
Extra Options
Fireside: Something is trying to kill you.
As soon as the game is over, the fairies and their friends leave, the sun sets, and Kuk's fearlings descended on the beach, all deadly claws and mindless homicidal rage. The only refuge is the beach bonfire left behind by the fairies. The fearlings refuse to move into the circle of firelight.
But it's not a normal fire. It talks to you, ebbing and flowing in strength with its words.
ππͺ πππππ₯ π£ππ§ππππ€ π₯π£π¦π₯π. ππππͺ π₯ππ π€π π¨ππ π¨ππππππ π₯π π€π₯πππ πππ£π πππ π¦πππ¦π£πππππ ππͺ ππππ€ πππ π₯πππ π€ππππ₯ππ£ ππ ππͺ πππππ₯. πΈππππ₯ π π₯π£π¦π₯π πππ‘π₯ ππππππ π π£ ππ πππ€π₯ π π¦π₯.
Why did the fairies leave behind a magic, truth-telling fire?
How else do you guarantee someone is telling the truth when playing truth-or-dare? Duh.
The swirling mass of fearlings, a column of complete blackness surrounding the fire, lit only by the beady lights of countless eyes, is somehow interfering with your comm, if you have one. While the Guardians might come for you when a worrying amount of time has passed, help isn't coming right away. And the mass of them is so huge, even myth powers might not be enough to clear them out.
The firelight may be your only chance to last long enough for rescue - and if you recovered the hourglass, it may be the only way to keep it out of Kuk's hands.
That means you have to admit something you might otherwise prefer to keep secret, possibly to a stranger.
Looks like you picked "truth."
Time for a beach episode! The fairies have stolen something important: Father Time's hourglass. They've only stolen it as a prank on a whim, but if it falls into the wrong hands, its ability to manipulate time means terrible things could happen.
The fairies have tucked it away into a magic pocket dimension, which means that fighting them won't accomplish anything. However, they can be convinced to give it up if you beat them at a beach volleyball game. They've gathered up some of their friends, including a few selkies, trolls, and goblins to be on their team.
At the very least, they're going to be fair about this. If the Guardians only have two people that can plan, they'll only send two of their best.
So get your game face on. And maybe have a little fun? While the game will be intense, there will be time to drink fruity drinks and catch a few rays during breaks in the game. This is high stakes, sure, but the fairies are mellow. You can enjoy some sun and sand, and at least nothing is trying to kill you.
Extra Options
Fireside: Something is trying to kill you.
As soon as the game is over, the fairies and their friends leave, the sun sets, and Kuk's fearlings descended on the beach, all deadly claws and mindless homicidal rage. The only refuge is the beach bonfire left behind by the fairies. The fearlings refuse to move into the circle of firelight.
But it's not a normal fire. It talks to you, ebbing and flowing in strength with its words.
ππͺ πππππ₯ π£ππ§ππππ€ π₯π£π¦π₯π. ππππͺ π₯ππ π€π π¨ππ π¨ππππππ π₯π π€π₯πππ πππ£π πππ π¦πππ¦π£πππππ ππͺ ππππ€ πππ π₯πππ π€ππππ₯ππ£ ππ ππͺ πππππ₯. πΈππππ₯ π π₯π£π¦π₯π πππ‘π₯ ππππππ π π£ ππ πππ€π₯ π π¦π₯.
Why did the fairies leave behind a magic, truth-telling fire?
How else do you guarantee someone is telling the truth when playing truth-or-dare? Duh.
The swirling mass of fearlings, a column of complete blackness surrounding the fire, lit only by the beady lights of countless eyes, is somehow interfering with your comm, if you have one. While the Guardians might come for you when a worrying amount of time has passed, help isn't coming right away. And the mass of them is so huge, even myth powers might not be enough to clear them out.
The firelight may be your only chance to last long enough for rescue - and if you recovered the hourglass, it may be the only way to keep it out of Kuk's hands.
That means you have to admit something you might otherwise prefer to keep secret, possibly to a stranger.
Looks like you picked "truth."
f) WITH A FAIRY, HAND IN HAND
A fairy festival is being held in El Dorado, the lone city of mythkind and due to the unusual uptick in fairy-related issues, Jack wants the group to have a presence there, keeping an eye on things.
You can feel free to enjoy yourself a little too, as long as you watch out for possible trouble.
The streets are lined with stalls selling fairy goods and food. With the gold provided by the Pole, you can get a good deal on things like magic beans, invisibility cloaks, glamours, and seven-league boots. And that's alongside more mundane goods like cloaks of the finest weave imaginable, and jewelry made of otherworldly silver.
The stalls have signs promising, they pinky swear, that they won't do things like steal your given name as payment.
The fairies know they have to be a bit more cautious about hijinks with other myths, due to possible retribution and sometimes having an equal or worse capacity to magically mess them up. In fact, as you walk by, one fairy lectures her younger sister in a stall for trying to sneak their customer's firstborn into a promised payment.
"Do you want to get cursed? Because that's how you get cursed."
Still, customer beware, they can drive a hard bargain.
Extra Options
Spells and curses: So you wind up getting cursed.
It's an accident, really. In most of the stalls it's fine to touch the products a little, and maybe you didn't notice the "no touching" sign or someone else took it down as a prank. Maybe you took a free candy, not realizing that most myths would recognize it as being bespelled and therefore the stall owner thought you would too.
Whatever the case, you had rotten luck and now you're temporarily cursed or otherwise enchanted. The effects can be anything: extreme bad luck, forgetting an important aspect of your past, being drunk or high, being beset with the giggles, it goes on. It seems the Fae have huge imaginations when it comes to possible enchantments.
Fortunately, it will wear off. Eventually. But things are going to get weird for a while
Music festival: The fairies are running a music festival alongside all that shopping. Different venues are having music nights for Faekind. Some of the music is painfully boring, harps and flutes and all that, but not all of it is. The bars catering more to goblins, brownies, and non-High Fae are a bit more lively, with music similar to rock and roll.
In fact, some of the music might even be familiar in general. One bar has some Fae performing what sounds suspiciously like music from ELO, with a fantastic rendition of Strange Magic. Some are apparently even having human karoake nights, due to the fairy fascination with humans. They even occasionally have extremely useful prizes: like a fairy owing a future favor.
It's okay to take a look inside, maybe sing a song or two. After all, there could be something shady going on in the venues as well. It's good to have eyes everywhere.
Tinytown: Some of the Fae are quite small so a well-shielded section of the festival is tucked away inside the walls of some of the buildings. This part of the festival is where the smallest pixies and other tiny fairies have set up shop - but their customer base isn't limited to other tiny people.
You can get temporarily shrunk by magic to go inside, getting to experience a small world where thimbles can be beverage cups and stools are made of bottle caps. And it'd be good to have eyes in here.
There are two problems. One, the spell takes time to wear off and for safety reasons, can only be deactivated outside the mini-market. Two, apparently, someone accidentally released some dangerous animals in the festival. Rats and very large tarantulas, meant to sold to certain discerning myth gourmands, may wind up causing problems among the tiny denizens.
Good thing you have eyes on the place, right?
A fairy festival is being held in El Dorado, the lone city of mythkind and due to the unusual uptick in fairy-related issues, Jack wants the group to have a presence there, keeping an eye on things.
You can feel free to enjoy yourself a little too, as long as you watch out for possible trouble.
The streets are lined with stalls selling fairy goods and food. With the gold provided by the Pole, you can get a good deal on things like magic beans, invisibility cloaks, glamours, and seven-league boots. And that's alongside more mundane goods like cloaks of the finest weave imaginable, and jewelry made of otherworldly silver.
The stalls have signs promising, they pinky swear, that they won't do things like steal your given name as payment.
The fairies know they have to be a bit more cautious about hijinks with other myths, due to possible retribution and sometimes having an equal or worse capacity to magically mess them up. In fact, as you walk by, one fairy lectures her younger sister in a stall for trying to sneak their customer's firstborn into a promised payment.
"Do you want to get cursed? Because that's how you get cursed."
Still, customer beware, they can drive a hard bargain.
Extra Options
Spells and curses: So you wind up getting cursed.
It's an accident, really. In most of the stalls it's fine to touch the products a little, and maybe you didn't notice the "no touching" sign or someone else took it down as a prank. Maybe you took a free candy, not realizing that most myths would recognize it as being bespelled and therefore the stall owner thought you would too.
Whatever the case, you had rotten luck and now you're temporarily cursed or otherwise enchanted. The effects can be anything: extreme bad luck, forgetting an important aspect of your past, being drunk or high, being beset with the giggles, it goes on. It seems the Fae have huge imaginations when it comes to possible enchantments.
Fortunately, it will wear off. Eventually. But things are going to get weird for a while
Music festival: The fairies are running a music festival alongside all that shopping. Different venues are having music nights for Faekind. Some of the music is painfully boring, harps and flutes and all that, but not all of it is. The bars catering more to goblins, brownies, and non-High Fae are a bit more lively, with music similar to rock and roll.
In fact, some of the music might even be familiar in general. One bar has some Fae performing what sounds suspiciously like music from ELO, with a fantastic rendition of Strange Magic. Some are apparently even having human karoake nights, due to the fairy fascination with humans. They even occasionally have extremely useful prizes: like a fairy owing a future favor.
It's okay to take a look inside, maybe sing a song or two. After all, there could be something shady going on in the venues as well. It's good to have eyes everywhere.
Tinytown: Some of the Fae are quite small so a well-shielded section of the festival is tucked away inside the walls of some of the buildings. This part of the festival is where the smallest pixies and other tiny fairies have set up shop - but their customer base isn't limited to other tiny people.
You can get temporarily shrunk by magic to go inside, getting to experience a small world where thimbles can be beverage cups and stools are made of bottle caps. And it'd be good to have eyes in here.
There are two problems. One, the spell takes time to wear off and for safety reasons, can only be deactivated outside the mini-market. Two, apparently, someone accidentally released some dangerous animals in the festival. Rats and very large tarantulas, meant to sold to certain discerning myth gourmands, may wind up causing problems among the tiny denizens.
Good thing you have eyes on the place, right?
g) WILDCARD
Have a scenario idea that doesn't fit under the others? For a new character, do you want to set a more general intro before the fairy chaos? Go crazy! Do whatever you want.
Have a scenario idea that doesn't fit under the others? For a new character, do you want to set a more general intro before the fairy chaos? Go crazy! Do whatever you want.
Arrival/Welcome | Reserves | Apps
For new characters, you can handwave your character has gotten introduced to the the Guardians and Santa's Workshop at the North Pole and been asked if they're willing to go out on a mission, or write your character as appearing for the first time during a prompt, with only the brief introduction by the Man in the Moon before they found themselves in the situation.
You can also try different introductions for each prompt, trying out different versions of your character's entrance. If you app to the game, you can choose which to make game canon, or start over fresh.
Since new players especially may be uncomfortable handwaving the introduction to the Pole, please feel free to treat any prompt as a situation where a new character can wander in completely cold carrying a pizza while everything is on fire.
β Starters TDMs in game are also in-game plots, being treated as game canon unless a new player requests a thread not count. Therefore this plot is open to anyone to create starters, both new players and current players. Characters who are already in game can use the event like a normal plot (and also tag it with character tags). It counts towards AC.
If a new character isn't apped, it'll simply be treated like their temporary presence was the world's magic drawing more people in to help, after which they were sent away again.
In cases where a character isn't apped, or a new player doesn't want to count the thread as canon, and the other player would like to keep it, they can handwave that it happened with some random other character that came and was sent home.
β NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc any character they need for threads, like generic Fae or the fetches.
β Jack Frost: Jack Frost will be handwaved as directing everyone to their tasks but leave how they pull them off up to them. A comment will be provided below, however, if people have questions as to how something will be handwaved with Jack or how he'd answer something.
β Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. If you want to escape the fairy court with an improvised molotov cocktail, go crazy.
β Threading: I'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs tagging a new character and so on. Also, if you're a current player, please clearly mark OTA prompts so players of new characters know what's open.
β TDM Info: New players, in the subject of your starter please list NEW CHARACTER: Character Name | Character Canon. Since plots and tdms merge here, we'd like to make sure new characters are highlighted for people to look for.
Also, you can opt to keep threads as game canon when you app, or handwave them as not-canon and start fresh. If you decide to app in, please just let threadmates know what specific threads you want to keep as game canon.
β Invite Info: The game is invite-only, but there is an option to request an invite from the mods by noting it in the invite section of your app. In this case, it is required to give your plurk and player handle, but if you want to keep it private from public eyes, you can tell the mods in the mod contact. Players are also allowed to tdm characters even if they don't know anyone in game if they just would like a place to RP.
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The last thing he's planning to do is get involved in a fight, but Little Cato's yowls are hard to miss, and he ends up trudging his way over with a preemptive sigh, preparing himself for whatever nonsense he's about to have to handle.
His first thought, upon a quick once over of the scene, is that they're going to have to replant all those damn saplings. His second thought is that this is a lot of violence for two creatures that small.
"Oi! What on Earth is going on here?" It's harshly snapped, as he strides across trampled saplings, not really expecting either to actually stop, since they seem pretty intent on fighting.
But he knows Little Cato, so his primary attention is on the green thing, and once he's close, he's going to attempt to grab the creature by the back of it's collar and haul it out of clawing distance. He could try magic, but he might as well start with the easy option.
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Is he...breaking it up? Are they getting the it that's happening broken up? For real?
What is he going to do, put Lord Commander in a time out corner??
"Either kill him or let me do it!" Little Cato shrieks. There is desperation on his bloodied face. Desperation and fear and raw hatred, the kind of hatred most children are never driven to feel.
"Oh, you've made quite the mistake," says the creature in a breezy tone. Then Lord Commander's voice changes to something darker and growlier and unnatural, like several voices layered over one another. "I was in the middle of something."
He acts the way Lord Commander really would, which is to twist in Crowley's grip and go right for the throat, trying to reach up and slash at Crowley with ooze-ey black claws and rip his entire throat out.
cw immolation
But that isn't why Crowley does what he does. There's enough time for brief eye contact with Little Cato before the attack comes, enough time for a quick nod of understanding, before his hand is wreathed in fire, flames spreading quickly over Lord Commander, before he tosses the creature on the ground to burn.
It was the look on Little Cato's face that drives his choice. He's seen that look on kids before, and in all cases, he knows the person who inspired that much fear and hatred was destined for Hell. It's the same reason he didn't bother thinking up some clever remark to say to Lord Commander. Now isn't the time for that sort of thing.
Crowley just steps back, keeping a close eye on Lord Commander to make sure the fire does its job.
cw: child murder
Adults don't do this.
Okay, some adults do. The good ones. The special ones. But he's known far more adults that did awful things to kids or looked the other way. Lord Commander, Viro, Lord Commander's other guards. Every single adult that saw him in his cell on Tera Con Prime and didn't do a thing about it.
Lord Commander's generals - so fanatical they killed their own children to show their loyalty when commanded. (He watched them, kneeling and crying, in the killing field. Until many different blasters fired and the crying stopped, blood watering the barren ground in place of their tears.)
It's the speed that's confusing. And the lack of some kind of previous connection, like Gary watching out for him because of being friends with Avocato and wanting to grant his dying wish.
But he did this in the space of a breath, without any need for convincing. It's something he's going to remember.
His eyes move from Crowley to watching a dying Lord Commander in agony in the center of the flames. He doesn't smile but there is still satisfaction on his face. And something imperious and proud, a silent "I survived you."
But then Lord Commander changes, bubbling flesh turning into black ooze in the center of the flames, writhing, tendrils lashing out as it tries and fails to escape the flames. The screams change to something else, more unnatural, almost animal-like.
"What...?"
He looks to the left and sees one of the ooze puddles. It's...it's the ooze. It's made of the weird ooze. It burns until it's a mostly carbonized mass with a few bubbling patch.
"It's the ooze?" He pulls on his ears. "No. Nonono. It's not him? It's not him?!"
For just a second, Lord Commander was mortal again. And then dying. But now he's alive out there, somewhere, and a Titan, a possible problem again in the future.
No, not "possible." He will be back.
Little Cato stands there, seething, and then turns and punches the remains of a tree, letting out a yell of frustration, anger, and grief. Then he turns away from both the tree and Crowley and drops to his knees, his body shaking with tension and an anger that can't touch the person who earned it.
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And then it abruptly gets worse.
He thinks it ought to be relief, that the actual villain in Little Cato's story isn't here, but he supposes he might feel the same, if some fake version of Gabriel was destroyed. Having hope snatched away at the last second.
"Hey," A bit softer, and he leaves the remnants of the ooze behind to approach Little Cato again. There's a brief pause of indecision, before he kneels down beside him, reaching out to rest a hand on Little Cato's shoulder. If the touch doesn't seem welcome, he'll ease back. "Who was that supposed to be?"
This might not be the right approach, but humans are big on things like 'talking about it', so maybe it'll help a little bit.
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As for talking about Lord Commander, the good thing here, the saving grace is that even though he has been traumatized, mistreated, locked away, he has also been loved.
And that means he's felt emotionally safe enough at times to process at least some of it. That means he doesn't shut down entirely. That means he's been able to talk about things a little bit. Maybe not in depth, maybe not going deep down in his feelings, but a recitation of events? Yeah, that he can do. He and the crew have to talk pragmatically about stuff like this all the time.
"Someone who needs to stay dead for once," he says bitterly. But... he breathes through it and it stills the way he's shaking with frustration and anger just a little. "He's the Lord Commander. Short version: uh, genocidal dictator and general pain in the universe's whole butt. Whole worlds have died because of him and he kept trying to open a door to a nightmare dimension to let giant nightmare monsters in that want to wreck the entire universe."
He briefly looks up, knowing that even if Crowley can turn into a snake and might not be human despite his human looks, that he at least knows about an Earth. They're on it right now. They're trying to save it and everything else beyond it.
They're here right now, in this barren wasteland, trying to repair damage to it and make life grow again.
"He helped destroy the Earth that way. My crew tried to save it but..." he just breaks off into a sad shake of his head. "And he hurt...most of my crew somehow. Took people from us. Tortured some of the others."
Poor Mooncake got it worst of all.
"I grew up on the station he ruled his empire from." Which says a lot. A lot, a lot. What says more is the way he looks away.
"And the guy who raised me made a lot of little uh ohs. Like, say, working for a monster and thinking-" he bobs his head back and forth, in a mock casual attitude, "'Boy, it'll never come back and bite me in the tail to keep my kid around a total psycho.'"
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He exhales audibly, not quite an oof but a close cousin to it, conveying understanding and sympathy without going over the top on it. An unspoken that's rough, buddy.
"Well, if it had actually been him, I'd've had no regrets setting the bastard on fire." The nice thing about being retired is that he doesn't have to pretend that he's perfectly fine with things like genocide. "M'not sure exactly how it'll all work out, but once we're down with this Kuk nonsense, Jack and his lot might be able to offer some help back in your world."
There's nothing that he can say to really improve the situation, or to take away any of the past hurt, but maybe a little bit of hope might help Little Cato move past this.
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And there are implications to it. To what'll happen to himself and his crew the second he goes back. And possibly even worse implications about what else might happen after.
But. It would feel worse to pretend to be comforted by that thought. And he knows he's going to have to tell these people about this. About what it might mean.
"Jack told me time freezes back home and they think someday we'll go back to the moment we left," he says quietly. "The moment I left..."
He struggles to find the words again. "We went into the dimension of the - the bad stuff. To try to fight them and help the only good Titan get there since he had a chance of beating them."
His jaw sets. Bolo had been their friend.
"He's dead." He looks up at Crowley with wide eyes, with eyes that have seen things normal people aren't meant to see. Like an all-seeing eye made of darkness, bound by a prison of black holes. "And...they all broke through."
Their Kuk and Its minions succeeded. Which meant - which meant he was probably going back someday to die with his crew to the shape that had loomed out of the rift, as his dad choked out, "My God...what have we done?"
It's something he's already accepted. He just wants to be there with them.
"I don't know if they can get anywhere else. They broke out of one dimension, I don't -" He breaks off the sentence and his ears flatten against his head. "Hopefully they can't. Hopefully it'll just be us. I know I need to tell Jack. And I will. But I have to tell him they already broke down the door."
Which is...an infinitely worse scenario than stopping them before they get in, like they're trying with Kuk.
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There isn't much that Crowley can do about any of this, but he can give Little Cato his full attention while he talks about the full horror of the situation that he's been forced to deal with, back home. He's really not good at this, but he can keep his expression sympathetic as he listens.
His hand stays on Little Cato's shoulder, and he's quiet for a moment after he finishes, weighing up how to respond. The last thing he wants is to sound dismissive, like he doesn't take the threat or despair seriously, but he also doesn't want to snuff out any chance of hope.
"Back home, the world was supposed to end. The universe was supposed to end. Torn up and consumed by a war that'd been brewing for millennia." He'd wanted to run to Alpha Centauri, but he knows it would've only bought them time. It wouldn't have saved them, in the end. "Only it didn't end, 'cause some eleven year old and his mates decided to stand up to beings that could've unraveled them molecule by molecule."
Sure, Adam had power, but it wasn't the power that saved the world. It was being human.
Crowley exhales roughly, gives Little Cato's shoulder a squeeze. "M'not saying it doesn't sound bloody awful, what's going on in your universe, 'cause that'd be a lie, but β sometimes things work out alright, if you've got the right people around."
Part of him wishes Aziraphale was around to help with this Emotions Situationβ’οΈbut honestly, he's not sure if Aziraphale would be any better at handling it, so maybe this is the best that Little Cato gets.
"And if you're not ready for that conversation with Jack, I can have a word with him." Obviously he won't be able to rely the whole situation, but he can give Jack the summary that he was just given, to take some pressure of Little Cato having to do it himself.
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And then the Titans and Invictus got free.
It only ever gets worse, never better.
So when Crowley talks about some kids saving the world somehow - saving the universe - finding some kind of way, his eyebrows raise and his ears unflatten just a little. Just kids. That's, like, not even the same as having some grown ups on your team too, right? It's harder for kids.
"I've got the right people back home. And... a lot of people seem good here." And maybe some will help his crew. Maybe they'll be able to - and will choose to - fight a threat in his world, too, if they know how big it is and how it might affect other worlds. Maybe. "I can tell Jack. I just need a little time - plus, the guy seems, like, mega stressed out. I should probably pace it."
Jack just lost friends after all.
Crowley's really not good at this (he thinks), yet a child is comforted. He's really not good at this (he thinks), yet a child is a little more hopeful. He's really not good at this (he thinks), and yet he made a child feel safe.
"Also, thank you for instantly setting Lord Commander on fire. You didn't even ask what was going on; you just saw I was freaking out." A pause. "There are special ones sometimes, like the ones in my crew, but usually grown ups back home aren't like that. Where they just try to help right away."
Not in his experience.
"It wasn't really him, but if it had been him, you'd have made it so I never would've had to deal with him again. No hesitation."
He holds up his hand in a fist.
"That calls for at least a fistbump, man."
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"Oh, he's stressed out of his mind. Waiting won't hurt, I reckon." Maybe he'll still have a quick word with Jack, just to let him know that there's a lot going on in Little Cato's world, without dropping too much details. Jack being forewarned might make it easier for him to be reassuring about their prospects of actually helping.
He's less good at hiding his reaction at gratitude and apparently being lumped in with grown ups who are considered special, but it's the sort of mild discomfort that comes from needing to act a certain way to survive.
And he can manage a fistbump, at least, with an amused little scoff. "I already knew you weren't the bad guy, figures that he must have been." That's a simple way to put it, without needing to point out that he could tell from the look of fear and hatred on Little Cato's face. "You want a hand with those scratches? I can..."
He sort of wiggles his fingers at Little Cato, as if this somehow communicates that he can magically heal him.
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Sitting still and letting a power be used on him isn't something he'd trust just anyone to do, but he nods.
"That'd be okay."
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A snap of his fingers not only heals all Little Cato's wounds, but also cleans and repairs his fur and clothing. Aziraphale trained him well, on that front.
"There we are, much better."