2nd Event: Choices We Make

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Arrival


Not all characters (known as Wickie, singular or Wickies, plural) arrive at the same time, surprisingly enough! That’s life for you. Some Wickies find their way to the island at a pivotal (or very mundane) point in their life, or even after or during their death.

Wickies who were standing or walking often find themselves entering the town South Sister, located on Lighthouse Isle, through an open doorway. Those that were laying down, or sleeping, tend to be found lying prone in beds, bathtubs, showers, couches, and similar places within the cottages on Cottage Row. There’s no rhyme or reason to it all! To Wickies familiar with the era, they will realize that everything looks as if it’s come from the ‘90s.

The house which a Wickie finds themselves within could already be occupied. This includes walking into a fellow Wicke, waking up in the same location, or accidentally scaring a room full of people with their sudden appearance.

Oops.

C-C-Changes

Thankfully the fog has gone down to what it was before, a slow creeping crawl over the ground. And too, the monsters of before are gone, leaving the town much like it was before. Well...close to what it was before.

For now the season's have changed, from a lingering summer to a cooler fall.

There’s new foods to try, even if some things like lattes cause people to slip into warm boots and tie up their hair, and soups make people curl up under blankets on the couch. And it also means decorations of all sorts, made of the leaves from the forest, orange, yellow and red things and...we can not forget...

Pumpkin overflow

Pumpkins! They're everywhere. Wickies will find pumpkins infused into all sorts of things, like coffee, ice cream, even spaghetti options! It's wild.

There’s also many jack o'lanterns. They have been placed everywhere in town, outside homes, and even small ones have been made into table decorations. The Jack o lanterns have very cheerful faces, and seem to watch Wickies every single move.

That is, until a Wickie bashes or otherwise abuses a pumpkin. That's when it changes- there seem to be more of them. Their expressions change to that of anger, sadness and disgust. None of them attack- yet. But their faces become more and more horrifying, as they follow the Wickie more and more- outside of the bathroom perhaps, or found on top of them as the Wickie wakes up in the middle of the night.

It shouldn't matter right? They're only pumpkins.

What a ride

Funny enough, with the pumpkin invasion, there also comes a dull colored horse wandering about the island. Its head is drooped, and it looks depressed and lonely. The horse is tame on approach and will accept pats and treats, even from those who are obviously not human.

But it also wants something, for all that it seems to be begging for attention. It wants someone to ride them, seems to even be begging for it with its big eyes. The horse will help Wickies to figure out how to mount; it will even stand beside the Town Center benches, rocks, or even go down in order to make it possible for the Wickie to get onto the horse’s back.

That’s when it changes. The Wickie is immediately wrapped in chains from their barrel to the Wickie’s waist. The horse turns a coal black and the Wickie’s clothing changes into that of a soldier's uniform, with a hand either holding a whip modeled after a human spine, or a jack o'lantern.

The Wickie cannot get off the horse on their own, no matter how much they struggle. As the horse moves throughout the town, they will go anywhere from a walk to a full canter, seemingly impervious to any magic or physical attacks. The same cannot be said for their unfortunate rider.

If the rider is hit, or simply in pain, the Wickie will feel an impulse that grows and grows until they scream a name of someone in town, someone they know.

And the named will drop, paralyzed. Paralyzed wickie are likely to die within minutes, more so if they are too close to horse and rider. The horse will happily trample anyone on the ground to death.

Even without the impulse, should the Wickie rider use anyone’s name, that person will drop, paralyzed, and unable to breathe.

There is only one way to possibly save the rider: scatter golden objects in their path. The horse will shriek, and promptly buck the rider off, before running away. Just make sure to catch the rider, or at least cushion their fall: they have no way of saving themselves until they hit the ground.

Heart game: confession

Current residents of the island may remember this particular beeping alert, and how it doesn’t go away, no matter what they do! That is, unless they open up the Heart Game, and answer the question.

Welcome back everyone! It’s so good to see you again! Now let’s play that game, Confession! And the question isssssss…

How do you celebrate the changing seasons! Don't be shy!

Comments

[aviici]

[Ah.]

...and is that what you wished for?

[sealeted]

No, I wished to end the Grail War. And as the last Master standing out of the thousand or so original candidates, I was selected to be the Moon Cell’s Sovereign, and my Servants and I have been doing our best to build up a good society there for the Servants and NPCs and human refugees from Earth, since then.

[You know. Normal moon shit.]

[aviici]

The moon cell...I'm vaguely familiar. [Alter Egos. There was also a situation involving Kiara, but she wasn't around at the time and quite frankly she doesn't care.] No, never mind. This became complicated enough that I'm not that interested.

[She doesn't wanna chat about boring things.]

So you're here without a servant to be seen, then?

[sealeted]

[That entire kettle of yandere fish is actually one that she doesn’t remember as anything more than the faint impression of an old dream, so... at least there’s that?]

As far as I can tell, yes. Nobody’s drawing on my mana or messaging me, at least. Have you seen any others, besides yourself?

[aviici]

Not a single one. There's no sign of my own Master, either...really, it's a pleasant surprise.

[Guda is actually too good for this demon king, but it doesn't change the fact she isn't interested in having a Master or staying around Chaldea. It really was just out of necessity for her.]

[sealeted]

Well, if you need healing while you’re here, I’m more than used to playing a support role. At the very least, I still have my Code Casts.

[Though she’s seriously wishing she could still call up a squad of Aggressors...]

[aviici]

Is that so? How kind you are. [She doesn't sound very grateful.] Do you always offer your services to strange wandering servants you find?

[sealeted]

Assuming they're not the subset of strange wandering Servants that try to conquer my cities and territories? Yes. ...though, that category generally ended up as temporary allies when the next threat reared its head.

[The reign of Hakuno Kishinami is a strange one indeed, but it's worked so far.]

I technically administrate the grail that tethers us all there, after all. If nothing else, I've learned that a common problem tends to make strange bedfellows. So.

[She gestures between them.]

If something more substantial than pumpkins rears its head here, I'm laying the offer out now.

[aviici]

I see. You sound an awful lot like someone I know.

[Whether or not that's a good thing is left unsaid, but given her tendency to always voice her dissatisfaction, that's probably a good sign..............]

Very well. Should I find myself in need of you-[Maou reaches out, to stroke her thumb down Hakuno's cheek. It is an extremely brief gesture and her thumb does not linger.]-I'll be sure to take everything I need.

Your name then, administrator?

[sealeted]

Well, hopefully that counts for me, rather than against me.

[A Heroic Spirit knows a lot of people in a lot of positions, after all.]

I’m Hakuno Kishinami.

[Ignore the way her cheeks go red, she has a wide range of tastes and dangerous and domineering women hit a lot of them.]

[aviici]

Kishinami. [She enunciates each syllable, as if testing the name out on her tongue.] Very well. Call me...Hajun.

[The pause, only as brief as the blink of an eye, makes the given name just a bit suspect. Then again, standard servant fare really.]

You'll be looking for that runt of yours from here, then?

[sealeted]

Thank you for your time, Hajun.

[She doesn’t bat an eye. One of her Servants goes by Nameless and one literally asked her to call him Charlie. She’ll puzzle over the historical implications of the pseudonym later, on her own time.]

Yes. Any of the others from home are the type to make a massive ruckus, so either they’ll find me first or I’ll hear them before I see them. ...except for Arjuna, actually.

[Her gaze turns fond, thinking of that reliable man.]

If you see him here, please let him know I’m around.

[aviici]

Arjuna, too?

[None of them are servants she's quite close to - there isn't anyone she is all that close to, barring maybe Chacha given some lingering familial bond. But they're still familiar and servants she'd call allies, given her circumstances.]

No, indulge me a moment longer. Just how many servants do you know?

[sealeted]

Know period, or have fought alongside?

[Those circles don’t perfectly overlap.

Yet.

[aviici]

[You know what?

Fair.]

The ones you're looking for, then. Ones you'd be glad to stumble upon here.

[sealeted]

Um, let’s see... I’ll be generous with ‘glad,’ so...

[She starts ticking off fingers.]

Nero and Tamamo, of course, Arjuna, Altera, my Nameless Archer, Cu Chulainn, Gawain, Li Shuwen, Karna, Elizabeth, Lü Bu, Medusa... probably Gilgamesh if he’s in good spirits, definitely Jeanne d'Arc, maybe Iskandar if he’s not in an invading mood, probably Artoria, Archimedes would be a big help finding our way home, it’s unlikely but I’d love to see Charlemagne, I could negotiate with Francis Drake, I’d be happy to see Astolfo, Scáthach would be a relief to have on my side... maybe Lancelot too. Big if on that one, but he ought to pay back all the times he tried to kidnap me.