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kaisou2025-02-03 02:19 pm
February Town Log
February City Log
Dominant Element: Fire
Waning Element: Wind
Full Moon: February 11th - 13th
※
With the arrival of February, the worst of winter is finally past. In the sky, the Spirit Vein will take on the colors of fire, blazing across the sky in hues of red and orange. As such, the temperature will begin to warm to much more bearable weather. While it's still winter, as the month moves on it'll step closer and closer to spring with rising temperature and melting snow. Most of the days are sunny and bright, bringing much needed warmth to the town.
Valentine's DayThe season of love is once again here for Kaisou. Throughout the city, stores and streets are decorated in red and pink hearts along with loads of other romantic themed things. Just about everywhere you turn, there's vendors selling chocolates, flowers, jewelry, as well as mundane items that are trying desperately to be marketed as great Valentine's day gifts. If you're hoping to take your date out to eat for the special holiday, you better make reservations well in advanced- as the nicer restaurants will quickly fill up. But don't worry if you didn't plan ahead, because Papa's Omniria is open with a full Valentine's Day special line up that includes strawberries and pomegranate being added to just about everything - even if it's really questionable if it actually works (strawberry and pomegranate sushi?). Just be careful not to be the first customer of the week, unless you prefer to work through the holiday.
Down in Undertown, the merchants there have also gotten into the holiday spirit. Lots of stores are selling enchanted items used to help keep the spirit of love going: aphrodisiacs, enchanted rose petals, and various potions and enchantments that'll help you in the bedroom. The kitsune have also opened up a shop here, peddling beauty products that they claim will definitely attract a date-- but in reality the only date you'll be making is one to the Urgent Care to clear up a heart-shaped rash, or a date to salon to get the hot-pink dye out of your hair.
Looking for a more romantic getaway? The sparrow clan that live in the El Nido realm can also be found in Undertown, promoting their beach resort. For the small price of delicious birdseed, you'll be welcomed to stay at their beach resort paradise in El Nido. During your stay, you'll be given a 5-star treatment from room service, massages, spas, and a high quality restaurant where you can have a romantic dinner as the sunsets over the ocean. It might be a perfect way to spend a romantic holiday- or simply get away from the winter cold.
As usual, whether you're shopping in Undertown or around the city- you'll find an absence of any kind of true love potions. Those are seen as deeply taboo in paranormal circles. Even than less than moral vendors don't want to risk a visit from the Black Order peddling those.
Speaking of the Black Order, just like every year, there's those people out there who use romantic holiday as an excuse to sell much more dangerous potions. Almost like clockwork, they start to hear reports of some dealing selling "love potions". Sure enough, if you look into it, you find victims who are dealing with the typical array of symptoms: obsessive love, disregards of personal well being, and blind devotion. Though there seems to be something a little bit different from this year's batch, as the victims seem ... more detached from reality than normal. They ramble incoherently more, and any victims that happen to be monsters are acting much more bestial, almost as if they've become feral.
Fortunately, there is an antidote. The Black Order headquarters will send batches of a bitter tasting antidote potion. While normally this clears up symptoms right away, this year? It'll still work, but some of the victims seem to experience symptoms similar to withdrawal over the course of the new few days. Luckily the symptoms will pass within a week, leaving the people back to normal. Still... was someone trying to make these love potions addictive?
Investigations of the source of the love potions will lead to an abandoned warehouse in the Warehouse district. It's a small operation, run by drug pushing thugs that just happen to have some supernatural powers. How they will go about dealing with these guys will be up to the Black Order Guardians. However should they investigate the warehouse, they won't find any sign that the love potion was produced there- it was shipped in from somewhere else.
[OOC: As usual, the results of the Black Order mission will be left up to the Black Order team! Characters not part of the black order can also take part in this plot, though the investigation and the fate of the thugs will be left up to TBO players]
Black Order Mission Results
(As discussed between mods and TBO players)
When the team reaches the warehouse, they are able to apprehend the potion sellers. They will interrogate with legal methods, using a good-cop, bad-cop method. Xie Lian will be a good cop but fail to persuade them. Wriothesley and Ayato will take on the role of bad cop and succeed in scaring the crap out of some of the potion sellers.
From this, they will learn that they heard the potion was devised by a person who goes by the name "H". Unfortunately, they won't get much more information than that, as one of the potion sellers will panic will decide it's better to resist than give up information to the Black Order. He will take a clear potion (the love potions are pink) from his coat pocket and chug it. This causes him to go berserk and fully lose himself to his monster side (which unfortunately, is a flame bear that is now much larger than normal). He will attack the Order, and a few other of the potion sellers will see this chaos as a chance to try to escape -- or to try to fight off the guardians.
When the dust settles, several of the potion sellers are now dead. The rest of them are really freaked out and opt to go quietly into custody. The team will decide to take a few samples of the Love potion to send to the order to analyze, before burning the place down.
Red Strings of LoveAt the start of February, those who are connected to the Greek Pantheon (either by being a member or possessed by one), will be treated to a video message from the mysterious number 696-6969. Should you open it, you'll be treated to a full body video of Cupid in all his naked glory. He is completely unfazed by this as he delivers a quick message:
Hey Fam! Heard a bunch of you had moved to Kaisou, so thought I'd say hi. I'd love to drop in and visit for awhile, but as you know I'm totally swamped this time of year. You know, with the whole holiday about me and everything!
So thanks to Aunt Persie and the others in your town, my staff are back to work and more motivated than ever! Thanks so much with that help. Anyway, they wanted to test a new product and felt that Kaisou would be the PERFECT place to do it. So don't be surprised if you see some strings pop up around town- they're totally harmless, swear! You just gotta be emotionally honest if you want them to go away, so if one of you could let people know that if they start panicking- that'd be great.
I gotta run. Happy Valentine's day! Oh, and mom sends her love too- as always, ha. And Uncle D? Love the new arm candy you got, talk about a 10/10, rawr!
Oh oh, and Polly? I heard you sucked at archery again- you're never gonna hit a poor guy in his heel again at this rate. Never knew you had a thing for fishermen though, Uncle Po-Po would be delighted!
Byeeee! Love to you all!
Everyone else in the city will not receive such a message. Which means you have no warning to what's to come... but also you were spared having to stare at Cupid's dick. So, maybe you're the lucky ones after all.
Sure enough, around the city, if you're spending time with someone, you have a chance to have a string appear on your wrists that will tie the two of you together. The color of the string will depend on your relationship with the person: red (romantic), pink (friendship), white (family), orange (rivalry), or candy stripped for the very complicated relationships.
These strings can not be untied or removed by hand. The only way to get rid of them is to be emotionally honest with your feelings towards the other. If both of you manage to vocalize your true feelings for each other, the string will disappear and you'll be free. However if you try to lie or deny? The strings will both tighten and increase - until you two are virtually tied together.
Looks like it's time to open up about your feelings!
The dominant element this month is Fire! Anyone with an affinity to the water element will find themselves boosted throughout the month. This could mean a boost to their power, having more energy, feeling more inspired with creativity, having better luck on different attempts -- the boost can manifest in all sorts of different ways. By contrast, anyone with an affinity for Wind will be experiencing the opposite. Perhaps their powers will be weaker, they have less energy, they're having a creative block or general worse luck - again it can manifest in all sorts of way and players are free to play with this mechanic as they'd like.
The original OOC plotting post for this event can be found here. There will be a second log about the spirit realm event and a midmonth Zodiac posted on the 15th.
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Huh... [ Lapis is quiet a moment as she reaches for the string around her wrist, trying to see if she can tug it loose. Maybe if she can get her fingers under it, using the shadows to form little claws to cut it -
- Nope, it tightens almost in protest. The fabric isn't even frayed either. ]
So the more we tug on it, the shorter it gets. But there has to be a way to get it off.
[ A red string that binds people together... She's pretty sure she's heard about something like this once or twice. ]
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[ maybe it can be cut?? it's just a frail string, after all. If pulling and tugging makes it shorten, then a pair of sharp trimmers should do the trick.
Logically. ]
I was playing with the little one when it just appeared. All I can imagine is its another weird curse from the spirit realm, or someone playing tricks on us again like last year.
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[ She can't walk back over and grab it since she's very stuck to Jinwoo now, and she doesn't want to drag him around either. So she controls a nearby shadow to pick that up for her, the little pair of scissors soon placed in her palm - now she just needs to cut and -
- Nothing. There's no reaction, just a lot more resistance than a little string should have. She tries a few more times but now she's more worried about the blades getting damaged. ]
Cutting it doesn't work either. So we can't brute force it.
[ So what else is there? The lone gear in her head turns faster now, as she examines the string with a frown. ]
... Do you know anything about red strings? I know it's sometimes a talisman to ward off evil but I don't think it's that.
[ ..
...
Now she's remembering her dads insane ramblings about strings and dongs that one morning. That can't be it, right??? ]
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He watches Lapis try to cut it, and it's... kind of amazing, how the ribbon almost seems to *fight* the clippers, and it doesn't budge. Not a millimeter. His eyebrows go way up. ]
청실홍실...
[ he mumbles under his breath, 'cheonghongsil', looking at the string and considering it for a moment. ]
I remember a story in the Korean Drama I once starred in, about the characters meant to be together intertwining red and blue strings together, as they were destined by fate or something like that.
This ... I wonder if it's similar.
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[ She echoes the words back with a tilt of her head; unlike when she first started learning, she's able to repeat it back with little difficulty. But she listens to his explanation, glancing down at the string that still binds them - by now, there's only a mobile phone length between them.
And then she finds herself blinking all the more, stunned eyes glancing up at him. ]
Destined by fate? [ Maybe it could be that? Especially considering the holiday that's approaching...
Though it's a little embarrassing to think about. ]
There's no blue string, so we can't intertwine it with anything, especially since it keeps getting shorter... [ What else, what else. ] Maybe... we have to say it? Or something like that.
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if dad was a seer though, he could relate--he got weird visions in his UI screens all the time and they barely made sense, either. So why would this be any different? it isn't, really. He touches his chin. Destined by fate...
He laughs. ]
Well.
If just saying it is the answer, then it's the easiest answer I've ever gotten for anything.
Admitting my feelings for you comes as easily as the rain does in spring. Saying, aloud, that you are the stars in my skies is something I'd say to you any day, for free; without the need of some silly red string.
[ he tips his head to the side, giving Lapis a cheeky little look. ]
Maybe it's trying to embarrass us.
But whoever cast this spell did it without knowing us, at all.
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There's a moment where she peers at him curiously, wondering what he thinks of the idea. Though then he says that, and she knows she's immediately turning red in response - they've never been shy about their feelings, but it doesn't mean she's not weak to him saying things like that. So after the brief moment of fluster, she lets out a quiet little chuckle as she smiles at him in return. ]
Maybe it is, but I can admit that I really liked hearing that. [ Destined by fate, huh. She finds herself smiling that little bit more. ]
I'll also admit any day that you're my precious shadow, the one place where I've always felt most at ease. That I'm always at my happiest when I'm with you.
[ At this point the length between their wrists is only a scant few inches, but now the string snaps - and she lifts her free hand in quiet triumph. Freedom achieved! ]
Aha, I think that was it.