April Spirit Realm Log

[kaisoumods]

April Spirit Realm Event Log
Dominant Element: Earth
Waning Element: Water

Full Moon: April 11th - 13th

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Spring is in full bloom in the city of Kaisou as it moves into April. The weather is warm and pleasant, while the plants are coming into full bloom. It's easy this month to find a day with ideal weather conditions to enjoy the outdoors, and at night you'll get to see the Spirit Vein be in hues of orange, gold and green with the Earth element into full effect.

The Guardian of Hope

ALERT: SPIRIT REALM GATE DETECTED IN CATHEDRAL HILL
Element Classification: Earth
Danger Level: Medium
Designation: Easter
Zodiac has detected a Spirit Gate at Cathedral Hill. We have been reached out to by a resident of the gate for a request of assistance concerning a complex matter. Please visit the Zodiac offices for more information.

The Zodiac Offices are a flurry of activity when you step inside. The Professor (Barbie)excitedly tells you that the Easter Bunny is here and requesting your help. Perhaps if you're still relatively new to all of this, this might be a surprise to you, but if you've been here long enough, you have come to accept that some mythical holiday figures just exist and it's best not to think about it too hard. And so follow the Zodiac employees to meet the mythical bringer of Easter.

Chances are, you were expecting a cute little bunny rabbit with a wicker basket when you first thought "Easter Bunny" and while he does have a wicker basket, the rest is probably way off what you expected. Standing before you is a six-foot-tall bipedal rabbit, with markings on his fur like tribal tattoos. You probably weren't expecting the boomerangs strapped to his back or the deep, gruff Australian accent either, but there you go. He introduces himself as E. Aster Bunnymund, and that he's having some trouble with someone disrupting his Easter egg production. He mentions that "North" said you'd been a help to him more than once during Christmas time, and he figured you might be the people up to the job to help him. He does note that unlike "that excitable lunatic" he doesn't have a production line of yetis and elves to help him out and he's against a pretty steep deadline, so he won't be fighting you. He doesn't need the ego boost like some people do. Does... does the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus have a friendly rivalry going on? It sure sounds like that. Speaking of, for those with a high level of magic detection (3 points or higher), you'll find despite being a figure linked to an Abrahamic holiday, Bunnymund does not have the same energy signature as Santa (or Shroud, for that matter). That's weird. His magic signature is pretty powerful, though- but it's very unique.

Bunnymund explains that Easter isn't just about finding eggs- he is the "Guardian of Hope" and along with this eggs he brings Spring and hope for the coming year for everyone- though especially "little ankle-biters". The problem is, someone has been disrupting his egg production, and the eggs he has managed to hide thus far have been corrupted. He has a good idea who's done it - Pitch Black has caused him trouble before, after all, spreading fear where there should be hope. Bunny requests they have a two-pronged attack on this issue. He'll need some people to go around Kaisou, hiding fresh eggs and fining and removing the corrupted ones. He'll also need people to come with him to his own realm, to help with egg production and prevent any further corruption from happening there. Should you choose to help with the eggs, he will give you a wicker basket of Easter eggs, and send you off on your way. For those who want to help at his realm, he'll tell you that you can enter one of two ways. You can go through the portal in Cathedral Hill, or if you want to save time and come with him right now, you can come "his way". His way turns out to be a rabbit hole portal he creates by tapping his foot on the ground. Should you go this way, you'll slide down through the dirt at breakneck speeds, before appearing on the other side. It's not exactly dangerous, but it's not for the faint of heart, either.

Egg Hunt

If you decide to help out in the city, you'll be given a colorful easter basket that's filled to the brim with eggs that have been colorfully decorated. It's up to you to hide these eggs in spots for people to find. Hide them anywhere you like in the city. Use your best hide and seek strategy as you plan good places to hide the eggs. Should you try to slack off and not do a good job with hiding them, the eggs will appear right back in the basket and you'll be expected to try again.

Along the way, you might get interrupted by the kitsune from Blue Fish Park. They're wearing fake bunny ears and have their own plastic easter baskets. They insist, while constantly glancing at your egg basket with hungry looks, that they're working for the Easter Bunny! They want to help you out, and thus you should definitely give them your eggs they can put them in places no one would think to hide them! Should you be foolish enough to believe their story, they will proceed to.... run off and eat the eggs, and the Easter Bunny will show up from one of his tunnels and give you an annoyed "seriously mate?" as he hands you another filled easter basket to work on.

Finally, while most of the eggs are normal variations you'd expect to find with Easter Eggs (some real eggs, some chocolate, some fake with treats inside), occasionally you'll find an egg that's different from the rest. These eggs will be hollow, and decorated more elaborately than the other eggs. Not just more elaborately, but the paint job will seem to be stylized to represent another person in the city. Sometimes it's obvious who it is, as it'll be painted a mural depicting them in a happy memory. Other times it'll be more abstract, making it harder to tell. But as you hold these special eggs in your hands, you'll hear a voice that whispers out the hopes and dreams of the person this egg is meant for.

These are Hope Eggs, and they're the most precious of all. Should you receive one for another person, it's up to you to hide it in a place where the intended person will be able to find it. And should you find your own hope egg, holding it will give you a renewed warm sense of hope towards whatever it is you're striving for.

[Mod Note: Please get player permission before getting another player's hope egg!]

Nightmare Eggs

It's not enough to just hide the eggs from the Easter Bunny. There's still the misfortune eggs out there, that are lying in wait to cause problems to unsuspecting victims. In between finding good hiding places for the other eggs, keep an eye peel for any eggs that give you a bad vibe or don't seem quite right. These misfortune chocolate eggs will need to be collected if we want Easter to go smoothly.

Not only that, but it seems there's been a level up in the evil egg industry. Once and awhile, you'll come across an egg that is more elaborately painted to represent someone in the city. However unlike the Hope Eggs that depict positive things, these eggs are decorated much more sinister and seem to represent various fears of the person the egg is intended for. These are Nightmare Eggs, a new creation by the bogeyman. Holding one in your hand will reveal the fears of the egg that the person is meant for, depicted by alarmingly vivid illusions. If the fear is particularly strong, it may even lure in a Nightmare Horse - a monster made of corrupted dream sand that is attracted to fears. While the illusions are fake, the Nightmare Horses are very much real and can provide a real threat.

Unfortunately, Nightmare Eggs can't be destroyed by another person. The only way to diffuse their power is to bring them to the person the egg is meant for. It's only by helping that person face that fear will the Nightmare Egg's power diminish. Afterwards, holding the egg will only give you a sense of unease and whisper out the fears of the intended person. The intended person can choose to destroy the egg, or keep it- you know, if they got some masochistic reason to do so.

[Mod Note: Like with the hope eggs, please get player permission before getting another player's nightmare egg!]

The Warren

For those who chose to help the Easter Bunny in his own realm, you're in for a treat. Whichever portal you chose to use, you will find yourself in a lush forested area. It's very peaceful and beautiful, flowers of all colours grow around the natural pathways, and it's continually sunny. Bunnymund welcomes you to "The Warren", where he lives and makes his eggs. You will find tunnels leading to every continent on the planet. These are guarded by huge egg-shaped stone golems. Their heads turn to show their changing moods, from happy, to frightened, to angry- dependent on what is going near them.

And so, you get to the important job of egg production. Eggs with little eggs grow from various flowers around The Warren. For those who have been in Kaisou for Easters past, you might recognize these little guys! Bunny affectionately calls them his "Googies" and explains he needs you to help him decorate and herd them to the tunnels. Decorating them is as simple as leading them through flowers and the pink river running through the realm, this paints them various colors. Bunnymund hands you a paintbrush in case you want to have more elaborate markings on them- he encourages you to be creative as possible.

You might be tempted to eat one of the eggs you're herding, they're right here after all and there's so many of them! That. turns out to be a bad idea, because either one of the stone golems will find you, or worse, Bunnymund himself. Eating the eggs will have you immediately turfed out through the nearest portal - and if that portal doesn't happen to land in Kaisou and is instead on the other side of the planet? Well, that's a You Problem. You'll have to figure out a way home yourself. Don't steal from the Easter Bunny! If you're good and help out, soon there will be plenty of eggs ready to be distributed all over the world! Bunnymund thanks you for the help, and set to getting those eggs hidden for children to find.

Fear Itself

Saving Easter seems to be going smoothly, thanks to the efforts of the Libra app users. But you aren't out of the woods yet! On the night before Easter, a pair of intruders will break into the Warren - the ones behind this whole mess. Their presence alone darkens the colorful warren, with Nightmare Horses arriving behind them.

One of them is a tall, gaunt man in black - Pitch Black, or the Bogeyman himself as most people know him as. With a malicious sneer and a silky smooth voice, he'll begin speaking about how he's back to take back what's rightfully his- to destroy hope and make people fear once more---

Except his great speech is interrupted by the other intruder, a large yellow rabbit in blue overalls named Zipper. It's the same rabbit that a few people have been insisting they've seen, only now everyone can see him. He jumps in front of the bogeyman and points accusingly at the Easter Bunny, yelling that he's destroying Easter because the Easter Bunny destroyed his life first. He then goes into a tragic backstory how he used to be a human named Brian, but one day after getting caught in a misunderstanding that wasn't HIS fault, a cloaked figure with rabbit ears appeared and cursed him to be a rabbit! Since that terrible day, he's spent his life wandering the world- ostracized due to his rabbit form and being constantly mistaken for the Easter Bunny. And because of all that, he's finally had enough and has teamed up the Bogeyman, convinced that if he destroys Easter, he'll return to his true form.

The Easter Bunny responds by.... appearing as dumbfounded as the rest of you. Instead of the horrifying realization that Zipper is hoping for, the Easter Bunny instead appears genuinely confused by all this. He's never met this guy in his life, he insists. And why would he turn anyone into a rabbit? It seems whoever is responsible for Zipper's fate? Wasn't the Easter Bunny, but another rabbit.

Zipper, after years of building resentment towards Easter, takes this about as well as you'd expect. Before Pitch (who also looks stunned) can get in a single word in, Zipper gets riled up and accuses the Easter Bunny of lying. He then goes on the attack, lunging at anything near him- whether it be a person or an easter egg. The Nightmares horses also respond to this sudden aggressive, deciding to begin their own assault on the Warren. It'll be up to the Libra App users to fight off the Nightmares, as well as help subdue the raging Zipper T. Bunny. Powered by madness and fear, he hits surprisingly hard and cane take quite a beating. Sometimes he'll even throw out Nightmare Eggs at people, causing them to get stunned by their own nightmares.

However, with teamwork and bravery, eventually the Nightmares will be defeated and Zipper will flop over on the ground, defeated.

The Truth

Even though his companion and his Nightmares are defeated, Pitch isn't ready to give up just yet. He steps forward menacingly, ready to start a round two of his monologue. But before he could get another sentence out, he's interrupted, again, but another intruder coming into the Warren. Everyone will turn to see a hooded figure with bunny ears- just like the one that Zipper described. She'll pull down her hood, revealing herself as a female anthropomorphic rabbit- a very irritated one at that.

"Seriously Brian?! THIS is your plan to break the curse?!? Did you not listen to a word I said??"

The female rabbit then launches into her own exposition. Apparently she was an immortal sorceress that'd been tasked with trying to get Brian's family line to better themselves. Unfortunately, every normal method of encouraging self-improvement never seemed to work. And so, she decided to take a page out of the fae's book and curse members of that family to become rabbits if they did terrible things. As for Zipper's case? Yeah those "misunderstandings" he touted were actually a long laundry list of scams and asshole moves that he definitely did. Thus, the curse took effect.

However, Bianca insists, unlike the Fae there is a cure to this curse. But it's not destroying Easter, it's actually becoming a better person- something she has explained to Zipper before. "Just be less of a jerk, and you'll turn back into a human!" she says before she storms off, running out of the Warren.

But if she was hoping Zipper would learn from this.... she'll be sorely mistaken. As Zipper gets up, having not heard a word she said, and instead focusing on the fact that's definitely the rabbit the cursed him. When she runs off, he yells for her to come back here, and proceeds to run after her- both of them heading off to who knows where, but completely ditching the plan to destroy Easter.

As for the rest of you.... you're left with answers to questions you never really wanted answered. Pitch, reaching true frustration at the situation, gives up- muttering that this is why he hates rabbits before he disappears in a puff of black smoke. Seems he'll have to try to spread fears another day.

Easter...saved?

Aftermath

With the attack on Easter halted, the rest of the holiday will go on as expected. Children will delight in hunting for Easter eggs, families will gather and share a delicious meal, and there will be a sense of hope and new beginnings in the air. Bunnymund will be grateful for your help, even if he seems overly agitaed that his holiday was interrupted in the first place (it's CHRISTMAS that always needs saving, not Easter).

And now that the trouble is done... he still doesn't seem interested in fighting you. Damn. That said, if you're really hellbent on picking a fight with the Easter Bunny, you can. Just annoy him enough, and eventually you'll win his aggro. Unfortunately.... he hits nearly as strong as Santa, and unlike the jolly big guy? He will not stop until you're about an inch away from death and in need of medical care. Rabbits, man. But really, you brought it on yourself.

But, assuming you avoided a bunny-induced trip to the hospital - enjoy the rest of the month!

OOC Notes

The dominant element this month is Earth! Anyone with an affinity to the earth 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 Water 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.

Comments

[thewarriorqueen]

That just earned a deadpan look.

"I trust the nerds to know their stuff."

She was even good friends with one of them! Though she just sighed at the question.

"So a year or so ago there was this spirit realm, where everyone who went there got turned into some kind of animal people while we were there. Yes, it was really weird."

[doublethumbsup]

And they wiggle their fingers again. Several times.

"But what iiiiif~!"

They're just goofing, now. For sure. Judging from the way they can't keep a straight face, anyway.

"Oh. That uh. Was it bad?"

[thewarriorqueen]

"Nah, just weird."

A beat.

"Well, maybe some people thought it was bad, I couldn't say, but mostly it was just weird. Everyone changed back as soon as they left, anyway."