October Event Log (HORROR PLOT)

[kaisoumods]

OCTOBER EVENT
Dominant Element: Earth
Waning Element: Water

Full Moon: 6th - 8th October

※
The fall weather continues as October begins. Kaisou's weather is perfect for the fall; the air is crisp and cool, and the trees are dressed in brilliant autumn hues. As they fall, they leave you with perfect crunchy leaves to kick through. The weather is cooler, but you can still go out with only a light jacket. The spirit vein is alive with browns and dark oranges, heralding an Earth dominant month .

TRIGGER WARNING: This event features heavy use of mental manipulation and gaslighting, strained relationships between CR, characters acting out of norm due to external factors, hallucinations/illusions, physical injury, and death. Please proceed with caution.

The Carnival's In Town

ALERT: SPIRIT REALM ANOMALY DETECTED
Element Classification: Earth
Danger Level: Medium - high
Designation: Omatsuri Carnival
Zodiac has detected a Spirit Gate at El Nido. We have noticed flyers attracting people to this area. Please visit the Zodiac offices for more information.

The Zodiac offices are not their usual bustling selves this month. Oh, sure, there's Halloween decorations up, it's clear that people are trying their best to enjoy the holiday, but something's off. Some staff members look worried, some look annoyed, buried under huge piles of paperwork. Luckily, Professor Barbie is soon on hand to shed some light on the situation.

She asks if you have seen the flyers going around town, advertising the Omatsuri Carnival - she then explains that a team of Zodiac workers when to the carnival as a team building experience. The strain to her smile tells you that this is the sort of corporate enforced fun office managers like to drop onto their staff from time to time. The problem is, the team went two days ago and they haven't come back. They have managed to get in touch with one of the team, but he only sent one message "staying on the beach, this is worse than the time you made us go bowling" and then stopped responding to any more messages. She knows Jarry doesn't like answering his phone to colleagues, but they're worried!

Barbie isn't quite sure what is going on - but she does say the earth elemental energy in this place is through the roof. There are readings for earth elemental energy like she's never seen before - even if this is an earth dominant month, this place is powerfully earth aligned. There's either a lot of earth energy spikes here, or there's something big. There's only one real way to find out!

A Little Slice of Paradise

Regardless of if you went through the El Nido gate to help Zodiac out, or if you simply woke up there as if some invisible force pulled you into the gate, the first things you'll notice is the spirit gate slamming shut behind you. It turns out people can come into the gate, but they cannot leave it. The beach looks pretty normal, thankfully, with a few people milling around, complaining to the bird staff attempting to run it - as if they have any control over the gate. You will also find a familiar face, lounging on a beach chair with a cocktail in his hand - it's everyone's favourite Zodiac employee, Jarry! He looks about as pleased to see you as he always does (which is not at all) and confirms Barbie's message, that they went here for a team building exercise. But the second Jarry saw the pathway to the carnival, he knew it was blatantly cursed and wouldn't go near it- the rest of the group went in, and he hasn't seen them since. He can't leave El Nido, so he decided he was just gonna wait it out on the beach until "you altruistic idiots went in and fixed it like you always do." Great, thanks Jarry. As you turn to the path he mentioned, you can see little twinkling lights and the far-off sounds of wurlitzer carousels and roller coaster tracks. Nothing unusual there- but those who have a sense evil power will find the vibes coming from this place are rancid. But you can't fix the problem by standing out on the beach - so off down the path you go.

A you walk along the jungle path, you find the air has a strange scent to it. It's like the heavy-pollen scent of a field of flowers on a summer's day. The more of it you breathe in, the more you forget about what you were here to do, or the desire to go back to the safety of the beach. By the time you pass through the jungle and into the clearing, you don't want to leave at all. And why would you? The carnival in the clearing is a beautiful place. Lights are strung up around the palm trees and classic carnival rides can be dotted around everywhere. A carousel with horses - paint still gleaming, turns round and round, a roller coaster races around a track to the delighted screams of the people inside the cars, a mighty ferris wheel rises up above them all - giving stunning views of the island. There are food stalls serving up delicious looking carnival fool - the smell of which wafts around, tempting you to partake. Beach cabins line a quieter space to the side - providing a place for people to sleep if they so wish - after all, why would you want to leave and go home to do that when you can do it here! Finally, there are games upon games upon games - it's clear this is the main focal point of the carnival. Ring toss, hook a duck, water pistols, milk cartons - there's just about every game you can think of and all are set up to encourage people to play with their friends, with notices saying the game can only begin if two or more people are playing.

The evil sense has not gone away, but the pollen in the air has made you feel less bothered about that with each passing minute. For those with an affinity to sense elemental powers, they will notice that this place is lousy with earth elemental power, even more so than you would expect in an earth dominant month, just like Barbie had said. This can be dismissed by the carnie staff running around, as they are all some form of plant people. They look vaguely human shaped, but have roots for arms, or sprouts growing up on the top of their heads. They all seem pretty cheerful, if not with that usual sense of suspicion that you're being scammed that come with all carnie workers. They greet everyone happily, enticing you to partake in all the carnival has to offer. Then an imposing figure with a flower on his shoulder appears. The flower has a happy smile and while it doesn't talk, it's clearly listening to everything around it. The man introduces himself as Baron Omatsuri, the owner of this carnival. He tells you that so long as you are attending with friends and loved ones then everything in his carnival is free. Personal bonds matter a great deal to him, he explains, and he wants his carnival to be an experience that people go through together, one that they will never forget! He encourages you to enjoy his carnival as a group, have a great time, and if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask his dear friends and staff and they will see to getting that done for you! If you question him about the disappearances, he waves you off, saying he's already looking into the matter, all you should have to worry about is enjoying the carnival. Another lungful of the pollen laced air, and you can't help but agree with him.

Breaking The Bonds That You've Made

It starts innocuously at first. Perhaps you won a game against a friend and they took the loss harder than usual, perhaps you crowed about your victory more than you normally would. Perhaps your brother stole your delicious sugar covered donut and crammed the whole thing in his mouth before you could protest and that really got under your skin. Maybe your friend was too short to ride the roller coaster and you decided to make a few ill-timed short jokes that genuinely upset them. No matter how it starts, the bonds you have with your loved ones feel more frayed the longer you stay here. Personality traits in your friends you normally grin and bear because you love them become unbearable. Suddenly that weird nervous tongue click your friend does is the most annoying sound on earth. You snap at each other far easier than usual and start to struggle enjoying being in one another's company.

It steadily gets worse, the exaggerated personalities you have been showing become more prevalent the longer you're in the carnival- your worst traits brought to the light to act as direct attacks on the people who you are with. If that wasn't enough, the pollen starts to make you hallucinate. You might hear voices in your head - perhaps they sound like the person next to you, making you think it came from them, saying something hateful, dredging something from your past aimed to hurt you badly. Perhaps you see someone else from your own past, pointing out what a danger your companion is to you - how you absolutely should be removing them from your life... Immediately. Maybe you see a hallucination of your friend doing something terrible, and feel the need to intervene in this behavior. Auditory or visual, the hallucinations feel so very real, and combined with the almost suffocating feeling of distrust, anger and betrayal you're feeling towards your companions, it isn't hard to lean into it. To push them away or straight up attack them. If that attacks end up with someone badly injured (or worse, a fatality) the plant people in the carnival quickly show up to take the person away - assuring you they will be taken care of. Considering how angry you feel about that person right now, you don't much care.

However it happens, some of you might get sick of this - of the screaming and the fighting and want to get yourself as far away from these people you thought you knew and trusted as quickly as possible. That, it turns out, is exactly what the residents of the carnival want. As you walk your way further into the jungle, away from the carnival, you start to realise that someone is following you. If you try to run, try to fight, it's as if the whole jungle itself is working against you. Vines reach out to grab you, roots rise up from the ground to trip you. When you're eventually cornered, some of the plant people show up from the darkness, they're quick to tie you up, holding you at spear point, pushing or even carrying you further into the jungle. If you struggle too much, the plants on top of their heads release a pollen which knocks you out. Either way, you're going where they want you.

All For The Love Of You

"Where they want you" ends up being the top of a hill in the jungle, where a strange, almost apple stem-like construct is sitting. They drag you up the spiral of the stem, to the pure white tip. You can see strange, black shapes laying on top of it- slowly sinking into the stem. After a moment, you start to realise with horror that those are people - people being slowly absorbed by the stem- those captured before you, the injured and the dead from fights, anyone who got separated from their groups. And they clearly plan for you to join them. No matter how you try to struggle, the plant people make sure that you can't fight back, can't escape, and casually push you onto the pure white surface. It's like being stuck to it by glue- and you can feel your whole self sinking into it. If you're lucky enough, you might have been unconscious for the entire process. If not? Well, you certainly get to feel your life essence slowly ebb away, into the stem. You can scream and beg for help, but you have abandoned your friends. There's no one left to help you.

If you have not been captured, you likely noticed your friends missing - even if you no longer see them as such at this point. If you're smart, you go looking for them in groups - you will not be hunted if you stay together. You'll find parts of the jungle where fights clearly broke out - where your (ex?) friends were fighting for their lives. Go further in and you'll find the spot they were last. While your companion's body is gone, what is left is a perfect replica, made of plant matter, just laying there - open eyed, staring in horror at something. It's very clear something is killing you all, one by one.

The entire time this has been happening, Baron Omatsuri has been mingling around you, watching the breaking bonds with a smile on his face. Notably, as people start to go missing, the flower on his shoulder is continually chewing something. When he's finally confronted about the missing people, he'll try to brush it off by telling you that they abandoned you, so they're not true friends, are they? If you push him enough, eventually he snaps. He tells you they're better off where they are and you're better off without them. You likely didn't want a sob story now he's told you that your loved ones are dead, but you get it anyway. He tells you that he was a pirate captain, and the plant people you see dotted around are his crew. A horrific storm wrecked his ship and killed his crew, leaving him with no one. The island he washed up on had a sentient flower- the Lily Carnation. It brought his crew back as plant simulacrums - but he had to keep feeding it with other people to keep them functioning. As he fully believes all friendships do end painfully, he has taken it upon himself to destroy friendships - the pollen from his plant sows discord and well, all those lost people might as well be food for the plant, right? To keep the carnival and the inhabitants of it alive and running.

So now there it to do is fight the baron - you might not be able to get your friends back, but it's clear if you don't fight him, you will not survive this experience. With the charade well and truly up, the baron's plant changes. It grows large and sinuous, like a thick vine, and within the vine? You can see the bodies of those killed by the plant, pressed up against the green "skin" of the plant. They scream and moan as if they're still alive, though they're definitely not. The ones of you left will need to band together to fight the baron and the giant, snapping Lily Carnation on his shoulder. It's clear you cannot do this fight alone, he is quite literally a two-in-one battle. Teamwork really does make the dream work though, and once you have beat him down, the plant on his shoulder shrieks in rage as it dies- the baron dying with it.

Aftermath

With the baron and the Lily Carnation dead, all the plant people die with it. The carnival shows itself to be an illusion. What was once a shinning, beautiful space is instead shown to be a rotted, abandoned space, covered in plant growth and fungus. Those who had been devoured by the plant wake up on the beach, largely unharmed. Except for the trauma. That's definitely there. The denizens of El Nido are grateful, happy to be able to get back to the rest of their realm. Jarry looks less thrilled to have his coworkers back, but them's the breaks sometimes. You can now leave the El Nido gate, to return to Kaisou and try to mend the relationships the experience has damaged.

OOC plotting post can be found here.

Comments

[aslowburn]

[ This is an amicable idea, and far better than standing around and waiting for disaster to strike. She feels better if she can be doing something about this. But shifts are wise too. Just in case. ]

I agree. That seems the most sensible way of handling this. We don't want him to realise he's being watched. Normally, I would prefer a more direct approach, but this feels like it could use more... discretion.

[ Not a skill Persephone has, really, but at least she's aware of it. ]

Me either. Something has been happening to people here, and we need to discover what. The cowards can have their beach.

[ Eat shit, Jarry!]

[loupmorque]

Hahaa.

Maybe once this is all over, we can ask the poor birds who run this place if they'll rename this stretch as 'Coward's Beach' in certain peoples' honour.

[ is this a little mean? yes. but hey thats what happens when you're too afraid to go save your friends and coworkers from possible evil. couldn't be them, jarry!! ]

Well.
No time like the present.

Let's get going.

[aslowburn]

[ That pulls a genuine laugh out of her, low but still mirthful.]

You know what, I think I would petition for that, too. To have the event memorialised.

[ Don't worry, Persephone. Everyone is gonna remember what happened here.

She nods, starting off ahead into the... everything. ]

Let's see where this leads us, my friend.