{ event 7 } A▒ E█SI▓Y ░▒▓25░9.▒░█

[expiationmods]

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

March 11. The sun is shining, streaming in perfect sunbeams through uncovered windows. Birds and animals twitter outside, basking in trees that are verdant green and full of life. Outside, the town begins to wake, stirring to life with the sounds of ordinary everyday happenings. Footsteps, carts rolling down the road, the distant sound of friendly neighbors greeting each other.

And you–you have lived here your whole life. Or maybe you’re a visitor to this fine town. Either way, you’re a neighbor here, too.

Aldrip is having another beautiful day.

i. OUR TOWN

The town square is a bustling place to be for locals, and this week is no exception. Aldrip is a vibrant swell of activity: stores, stalls, and stands all open their doors precisely on time, welcoming the new day. Things are quiet, theoretically, while the local school is in session, but anyone playing hooky won’t get a second glance. Everything is fine! It’s too nice a day to be inside, anyway.

(Just like all the other days before, all too nice to waste.)

That being said, Aldrip is not without its own brand of nuisance. Fairies are rarely seen in town, these days, but this week, they seem to be in fine form. They can be found playing harmless tricks on people: taking things from them and moving them somewhere else, rolling carts when no one is holding onto them, mostly-unscrewing screws that hold together mechanical parts… They avoid magical pranks, for now, but these mundane tricks are such a nuisance! They even pull all of the wares out of a local vendor’s stall: dozens and dozens of colorful, patterned scarves. They had been on “deep discount,” leftovers from some “Day of Devotion” event, but the discount is about to get even deeper, on account of how dirty they are.

ii. TEMPTING FATE

A recent expedition to the Lorentia Caves uncovered a hidden gem–literally. Enterprising rock enthusiasts have brought back wheelbarrows full of round geodes, and have made a game out of cracking them open. Geodes that are green inside will get a lavish prize: a stay at a local spa or a gift card to a fancy restaurant. Purple or red inside will get a free drink at the local coffee shop, or a small gift card to use at a local shop. Brown or clear gems get nothing special–but you get to keep the rocks! They hold no special properties, but can be nice to look at and make great paper weights, and some of them almost seem to

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…

ERROR: MULTIPLE REDUNDANCIES DETECTED
RECALIBRATING
LOADING UPDATES...
PLEASE WAIT

Occasionally, very occasionally, breaking open one of these rocks causes it to crumble, becoming little more than gray ash. Static pops across the surface before it disintegrates.

ERROR: DATA CORRUPTED
PURGING CONTENT

Those who have found these ashen geodes will find that memories of them disappear just as soon as they turn away from what they’ve just seen.

.̸.̷.̵.̴.̷.̸.̸.̶.̴.̴.̸.̷.̵.̵.̷

…

Anyway.

No one quite knows where the pop-up casino came from, but it’s doing a bustling business at night. Now, this establishment is small, nowhere near the size of the one in the past, and is not nearly as expansive. Nonetheless, it helps create a thriving nightlife in town: there’s games, drinking, dancing, and all sorts of fun. Locals are encouraged to participate either by attending or working, or even performing in some way!

It’s a beautiful day in Aldrip. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow. Just like every day s̴h̵o̸u̶l̵d̸ ̶b̸e̵.

iii. LOST AND FOUND

You wake in a maze surrounded by fog. You have no memory of entering the maze. You have no idea which direction you might have come from. You are simply here, and there seems to be no exit above. So. The only way is forward.

You may be alone, or have company. Either way, aside from you and any other characters you may find, the maze seems empty. Without end. Without purpose.

Whatever twists and turns you take, all will eventually find themselves in the center, in their own time. There is nothing here, either, except for an overwhelming sense of aloneness. There is nothing here. There is nothing there.

There is nothing–

ERROR: REDUNDANT PROCESS FOUND
PURGING CONTENT

...

You wake up.

It’s another beautiful day in Aldrip.

Like all the days before and all the days after, your morning proceeds apace. You start your morning, you say hello to friends and neighbors. You…

… you find something unusual in an area you frequent. An item. It’s small, and somehow, it’s something you think you should know. Some will feel compelled to pick these items up. Some will feel a deep sense of unease when looking at them, and refuse to interact. Turning your back on these items will cause them to disappear. You won’t have to worry about that anymore. Not on this beautiful day.

Picking up the items causes a rush of information to flood your mind. Something like a memory plays in your head: the person in this memory looks and sounds like you. But…you don’t remember living that life, or doing those things. So how does it feel so real?

Throughout the rest of the event, these items will continue appearing. Characters are free to interact with them or ignore them as you see fit. Regaining more memories means they may regain their powers, as well, though whether they remember how to control them is another story.

These memories will feature prominently in the event poll that goes up after this, and your choice of how many memories they regain (or don’t) may have a lasting effect on your character. Not filling it out will also have an impact on them. So please make sure to fill out the poll!

iv. MISSING LINKS

As this strange memory phenomenon takes over Aldrip, other odd things begin to happen. It’s small, at first, and barely notable except that it renders Aldrip slightly less idyllic than usual. There are a few clouds in the sky. You may get caught in a passing rain shower, or maybe sleep through your alarm…

It gets worse.

The end of the month crawls ever closer, slow and steady. As it does, things begin to go missing. Small things, at first: personal possessions, the lunch left in the break room, flyers that look like maybe they were torn down in the town square. Is someone thieving? Here? In Aldrip?? You’ve never known Aldrip to have a problem with crime. Everything is so…

…

Pleasant.

Everyone becomes a suspect. It could have been your neighbor who took your wallet, or a coworker. Maybe your friend took that bracelet from the counter while you weren’t looking. But close to the end of the month, this starts getting bigger. What happened to that tree along the path you walk every day? Wasn’t there a butcher shop on the corner there? Where have all the birds gone?

ERROR: DATA LOST

Things go missing.

They keep going missing.

Why have they disappeared?

And…where have they gone?

v. THE COUNTDOWN

Sunday, March 31.

It’s raining.

It never rains like this in Aldrip.

Characters wake in the morning to anxiety twisting in the pit of their stomach, inexplicable and impossible to trace. As the day wears on, this sense of foreboding ramps up. Characters may even see significant numbers throughout the day that seem to count…down.

Twelve. Morning. How funny, to see these recurrences. Odd.

Eight. Seven. Around noon. This must be a coincidence, and yet, you cannot help but wonder if it is meaningful.

Four. Late afternoon. Wonder and curiosity are replaced by dread. Whatever is at the end of this countdown–it feels like a finality. Terrifying and unknown.

Two. Night. Those going to bed will find their sleep restless and filled with bad dreams.

UPDATES INSTALLED
RESTARTING…

One. Midnight. The clock strikes twelve, and whatever your character is doing–sleeping, waking, etc–the whole of existence seems to blink out.

(Info about what happens after this will be forthcoming in the event poll results and April’s SOTG.)

vi. WILDCARD

Go wild! We know that you all have plotted extensively for this event, so go ahead and do what you'd like with it!

♡

Comments

[scythedance]

[Oh, that makes something in his stomach absolutely drop. He isn't sure how to parse her words, and to be quite frank, he figures this has something to do with her faith. Astralin biting down hard on his tongue, and holding back the urge to say something that could possibly shake her, but he was never one to judge. Never one to interfere, unless it was absolutely drastic. Either way, he didn't like it, and it becomes even more apparent that he was right when she she says the head priestess of this cult is.

Going to be her teacher.

Great. Just great. Astralin knows far too well not to make a face, and luckily with his tragic past, it made it easy for him to hide his emotions. And instead, he just forces a smile to appear on the corner of his lips instead.]

I see... Well, that is all well and good. However, we should... See you home first. It is getting late.

[He wants to glare so badly at the head priestess but not now. Or ever, really.]

Hrist and Rivoix are gone for the week, so if anything happens, you are free to come and stay with me.

[snowslip]

[ Marianne's so elated, she doesn't register Astralin's carefully neutral response. It has been a wish of hers to become a priestess, and now she'll be able to realize her dreams under the tutelage of a woman she most respects. Today is a most joyous day, and her steps are light as her heart feels as they walk home. ]

I'll come by for tea. I can't stay over though. All the priestesses in training live on the holy grounds. My schedule will be busier from now on, too...

[ It's not that she doesn't want to see Astralin, but there are strict rules imposed on the pupils. Long hours of prayers during the day, an austere lifestyle, and limited contact with the outside as they immerse themselves in their studies. Because that's how cults get you. ]

[scythedance]

[He's so unimpressed by this cult, that he tries not to show it in his expression. He's always been a neutral man, and he's happy that she seems to have found a place to belong, but none the less, his big brother senses were tingling, and it made him feel uneasy. Uneasy in a way that he wasn't sure what they would have her do, and that made him scared for her.]

Very well. But should you need anything, you do know that you can call on me at any time, right?

[He doesn't like that they're making her isolate herself... He has a bad feeling about all of this, and he bites down on his tongue to hold back how sharp he can get if he wants to. It just left a bad taste in his mouth, but he takes a deep breath in to calm down. His hand resting in his pockets as they walk, which...

He can't help but stare over at something for a moment. In the shadows. His head tilting to the side momentarily, but he turns his head away.

Just his imagination. All is well in Aldrip. Right?]

... Hm.

[snowslip]

Of course. You've always been there for me, and I'm grateful.

[ Astralin's always been so kind. She's known him for a long time now, long enough to pick up on his mannerisms and realize that he seems distracted. She had thought, in his own quiet way, he would be overjoyed to receive the news, but that isn't what she is sensing. Moreover, Marianne sees him glance to the side. Her gaze follows, but she can see nothing amiss. ]

Astralin? Is something the matter?

[scythedance]

[Some part of him wants to go over and touch one of the bushes in his path. His eyes glancing over in that general direction for just a little while longer, before Marianne's voice captures his attention again. His fingers brushing back some of his hair, as he manages a soft smile despite everything.

Has... Marianne always been his sister? There's a thought in his mind that lingers for a moment, but it passes and he too, ignores it in place of showing her just a bit more affection. His hand reaching out toward his head, and patting her head gently again with an unnerving smile that doesn't seem too off.]

No... I thought I just saw something in the shadows is all. Is it getting late, though, and we should depart quickly. However... Since you said you will not have much free time, please do have dinner with me. I would like to see you for a bit longer. I do not get to see my little sister as often as I'd like.

[snowslip]

Ah, alright...

[ Marianne thinks back to the priestess' words today. The... disturbances around Aldrip hadn't escaped the woman's keen notice, but she preached that so long as they held steady to their faith, the gods would protect them. There was no need to worry, and Marianne believes her. She will pray tonight as she does every night for the peace and prosperity of the village. ]

I fear I'll always be a child in your eyes. [ Marianne blushes when he reaches over to pat her head. She feels too old to be receiving such gestures, but it nevertheless warms her heart. ] I cherish our time together, Astralin. There's no need to fret. Even if I become a priestess, I'll always be your little sister.

[ Nothing will change. These blissful days will go on. They must. She'll pray with all her heart. ]