kaisou | February Town Log

February City Log
Dominant Element: Fire
Waning Element: Wind

Full Moon: February 11th - 13th

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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 Day

The 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.

Black Order Mission: Potion Seller

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 Love

At 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!

OOC Notes

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mhm. All they're doing is inconveniencing the couple for a few seconds at most and making themself look like a jackass.

[They tilt their head a bit and hum thoughtfully.]

It's not like I'm opposed to the idea of a relationship with someone, but I can't say it's a particular priority. It's... incidental, to anything else. If it happens, that's great, but I'm not exactly seeking anything out.

Understandable, really. There's no point in pushing something that will or won't happen. I rarely think about that sort of thing.

[ Although, he's fairly sure that much was apparent, given his tendency to not be tuned in to anything around him. ]

Does this city do White's Day?

[Sure, he's lived here a while, but since The Change, he's realized that things were in fact not as normal as he thought and has devolved into questioning what he thought was safe to approach. A holiday was safe, right?]

[A smile tugs at the ends of their mouth, because yes, that is very apparent, but they at least aren't going to be pointing that out.

They hum thoughtfully.]

White Day might just be a J-Town thing. [A beat.] There's other things to worry about in March anyway. Like faeries.

[Wherever his mind was, it came to a screeching halt, Haitham turning his head to look at peer over.]

... Like the what?

Faeries. Or whatever euphemism you want to use to refer to them.

[Thanks, Bailey.]

They tend to be active around these parts during March. Be careful who you give your name to next month. Maybe carry iron just in case.

[Faint memories say 'seelies' but no matter what you call them, being told it was going to become a very real danger was more than he expected.]

Barely two months ago, I would have expected that to be a joke. Now I feel like I need a contingency plan.

Being careful with your name and carrying iron are definitely the easier methods, I feel like. [Bailey pauses, taking another truffle out of the bag.] A fake name probably wouldn't hurt.

[She hums thoughtfully.]

If it helps, any curses seem to be manageable, at least.

So they're real fae like the stories. Does that mean you're familiar with the curses that are placed on people?

[He'd wonder if that means she has a curse on her, but he has more faith in them than that.]

How manageable are they?

Mhm. Mostly transformation-based, as far as I can tell. The only one I'm personally familiar with didn't have any lingering effects.

[There's a pause.]

That one was from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Last September wasn't a great time for several people. [Just to clarify.] Full moons can be a problem as far as I can tell, but I haven't heard many complaints on the app beyond that.

I've only started being able to perceive the things happening here very recently. I also don't make it a habit to linger around places out in the open.

[Unlike now, but he supposes he can't avoid it forever. Mentioning the full moon gets him thinking.]

The next full moon is the day after my birthday, but phenomena induced by the moon have been told all over the world. Although I would usually say there isn't much reason to believe that the events usually stated have any connection to the moon, or it's gravitational pull, I have seen enough recently to come to the conclusion it might be true. Stupid, but true.

What happened Last September?

Mm. Be prepared to reevaluate what you consider real or not every couple of months or so. That was about my experience when I started perceiving the supernatural.

[It doesn't feel like it's been a decade and change, but whether that's because it's felt longer or shorter depends on the day.]

As far as things connected to the full moon go... Werewolves, sure, but creatures other than that... I'm a little baffled, still, but I've stopped questioning it to save myself the headache.

[Anyway.]

You remember that odd collection of absences, right? Some of POKEGO, a group of researchers in town, were on a camping trip in one of the stable gates... and unbeknownst to them, some bored faeries had taken up residence in a part they had yet to explore. The faeries were fascinated by the creatures of that gate and instead of subjecting those creatures to their whims... they captured the POKEGO folks and transformed them. And people who went after them to attempt to help. Those who were transformed were subjected to a number of... competitions that were more or less embarrassing for all involved.

I accompanied Dr. Ratio in the rescue attempt. I'm not sure how much control they had over the forms we were transformed into... Rather than anything that resembled an animal, I was turned into what was effectively an animate sword. [A huff.]

That's far more problematic of a consideration when it starts including my coworkers and how I accept paperwork when it has to be recorded.

[The explanation as to what happened with the mass absences makes him feel as if his soul was leaving his body. He might have liked it better if he continued to think they all escaped to some concert or got deathly ill all at once. Getting transformed into creatures due to the whims of a faerie...]

Veritas--

[Wait. Did he respect Dr. Ratio? Should he refer to the man more formally?]

So that's what Veritas was doing. Since he was the one who largely handled the incident, no one really looked into it too closely. Myself included.

Mm, and the fact that ordinary people think it's bullshit complicates matters.

[As they calmly pop another truffle into their mouth. They offer the bag to Haitham again.]

Honestly, I'm glad nobody looked into it too closely. Considering how embarrassing the incident was...

[He'll take another with a nod of appreciation in return.]

You turned into an animate sword, you say? That wasn't at all what I thought when you said you turned into a creature. That sounds more like the tales of living objects you find in some folklore.

The people you were with remember it, don't they?

It does, doesn't it? But apparently it counted, even if the other people were actually turned into creatures.

[They nod.]

I'm fairly certain they do. The whole incident was overall rather difficult to forget, I feel like. No matter how much we'd like to.

February Town Log

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