(event) TWISTS AND BLOODY TURNS

[vestigemods]

MARCH EVENT: TWISTS & BLOODY TURNS

MARCH 18TH - 23RD

► INTO THE MAZE

The sky is a crisp, clear blue on the morning of March 18th. The breeze brings the pleasant aroma of flowering topiary, and the early spring sun warms your skin rather pleasantly as you wake.

Which is kind of a shame, since none of it should be possible if you're still in your bed where you fell asleep.

You aren't, as it turns out. In fact, you aren't anywhere recognizable at all - you lie on a well-trod layer of grass, framed to your left and right by hedge walls tall enough that it's truly a wonder the sun managed to filter down to you at all. With minimal investigation, you discover that though the hedge corridor you've awoken in does indeed end in a bend, turning it does little more than present yet another corridor just the same. The good news is, you're not alone! Others, too, are waking or soon to wake in this very same labyrinth, perhaps even nearby. With luck, they'll be even angrier and more confused than you are. Nothing like being the rational one in a crisis to boost your self-esteem a bit.

► AMIDST THE MAZE

The bad news is that you are not alone. Beasts roam this maze, some massive and others deceptively innocuous in size, and none are quite what you see on the surface (unless what you see is 'a goddamn problem'). Worse yet, they all seem quite interested in you. It seems like it's been a while since they've had-... no, 'prey' sounds terribly alarming. Let's say 'esteemed dinner guests'. That's not so terrible, right?

Well, at least there's a way out! A nice little courtyard sits at the center of the maze, one lined with benches but otherwise quite clearly designed to hold a little stone building with a barrier-protected archway. And beside that archway, an engraved plaque-... What? No plaque? Forgive me, it seems that because "we're already over budget, Conrad, stop being so fucking aesthetic all the time", the 'engraved plaque' bit has been replaced by a pair of carefully-laminated notices pinned to the archway. They make it pretty clear that the only way out is through that barrier and the only way through that barrier is to kill a fellow maze abductee - and yes, you sissies, a mercy kill does count, so maybe consider not trying to save your buddy just this once.

If you need a little more incentive, the beasts seem to be getting bolder as each day goes on. Bolder and closer until not even the courtyard sanctuary is truly safe anymore. All the while you're getting thirstier, hungrier, increasingly angry that you skipped dinner the night of the 17th because ~it's fine, you'll eat a big breakfast~. Y'know what's great for venting anger? Murder. Just something to think about.

► SAY GOODBYE TO THE MAZE

On the morning of the 23rd - day six of this godforsaken foliage hell, if anyone's counting - those still trapped inside will find that the labyrinth itself seems to be collapsing around them. Crumbling right to the ground, falling segments of shrub-covered brick and everything, in a terrible ruckus that kicks up enough dust to burn at your watering eyes and to make you choke and cough.

But when the dust settles, things make even less sense than they did when you were still trapped. Around you is the totally ordinary statue garden, with entirely mundane normal-sized hedges forming what very much seems like a joke of a maze at this point.

One thing seems for certain: The ordeal is over, at least for now. It's time to haul yourselves home, have a good meal, and sleep off this nightmare.

► MOD NOTES

• This is a catch-all log for top-levels pertaining to March's Twists & Bloody Turns event. Go ahead and utilize vestigenet for any event-related network posts you'd like to make.


• This event takes place between the IC dates March 18th and March 23rd.


• All event information can be found on the Twists & Bloody Turns Infopost! The logs are largely flavor-text to supplement the information offered in the infopost.


• Please take care to label your top-levels with identifying information like the IC date and location (e.g. inside the maze? in the courtyard? scouting around the outside of the statue garden?), so that others can see at a glance if their character can hop in!


• Those who begin the event outside of the maze can enter the maze later on - consult the above-linked infopost for more on that!


• A reminder that phone service does work and those inside the maze can communicate with the outside, though signal is scratchy for audio/video messages.


• Any questions can be directed to this top-level or, for a quicker response, to Trace on discord/plurk.

Comments

Renfri

[thelesserevil]

18th, waking up somewhere in the maze, OTA

[ Renfri is not having a good time.

Waking up in a place that is distinctly not where you went to bed is bad enough, but this place... It is giving her the creeps, and her first inspection of the hedges points towards it being some kind of elaborate trap.

Still, she gives slashing the hedge another try, though at this point she can't even say if she is slashing her way further inward or outward. ]

Please be the outer wall [ she can be heard muttering as she hacks away at the foliage. ] Don't be something that a monster is hiding behind...

[ Yet as she digs her sword deeper, all she hits is solid brick and she freezes, her face going tense, eyes hunted.

Yes, it's a cage indeed... ]


20th, near the outer walls of the maze, for Daemon

[ She has tried. She has really tried to be good, to keep focused on fighting the things that hunt them and protect those who can't protect themselves. But Renfri is hungry and thirsty and tired, and her panic has long since crossed the point where she can honestly make herself care about others - a skill she doesn't have in spades even at the best of times.

But there is an escape...

And so now she finds herself hunting, bloodied sword in hand, her clothes and hair a mess from days of battle. For monsters, yes, but also... Well, if she runs into another person. People at home do say she is a monster, too. ]

The End of the Hunt is Nigh~

[singularwidower]

[Daemon has been in worse straits, certainly, but the current situation is deeply familiar and not at all welcome. The monstrous little creatures that keep nibbling on his fractured memories of the other hedge mage he'd been hunted through are almost a blessing. Almost. Not enough that he is willing to let them continue to pry into thoughts and eat what they please, however.

He drops the bloodied corpse of the memory-eating creature and flexes his hands. With the well of his power far shallower here than in his home world, days of being trapped without rest have drained him more severely than is comfortable. The faint light within the large black stone on its chain around his neck pulses sluggishly.

His senses have yet to dull, however, and the sound (and psychic presence) of an approaching individual calls his attention. He does not bother to move from his kill. He stands over it in full view at the center of the lane between hedges, casually cleaning his hands with a probably now-irreparably stained pocket square, and waits with a predatory patience for his neighbor's presence to come within view. He's been to the center of the maze, after all, and knows the conditions for the exit door—taking advantage of it is not off the table quite yet.]