usir | Event #7 Crowning the Cat & The Celebration of Spring

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🜙 Crowning the Cat: Deception of Aegas

	The Celebration of Spring is being held across Idan, and normally the City of the Free Peoples is at its heart. This year due to the fearful farmers suffering losses in their families and herds to werewolves and the broken city torn between its fears and loyalties, the first sprouts of crops planted during the thaw are significantly less impressive than past years and the hunters bring their hauls back to the cities find themselves facing even more dangerous odds in the wilderness, outwitted and outmatched more often than not. Feasting, dancing, music, staged entertainers of illusion and elemental magic, and heavy drinking still overtake the cities and small outlying villages, putting a temporary halt to any work or other priorities, but there is an air of uncertainty that can't fully be shaken, and an uneasy and unspoken fear of a famine year lies just beneath the lighter festivities. Among the celebrating, people go out of their way to honor the feline constellation deity called Aegas. The youngest of the Constellation Deities, he is known for many things. Aegas' stars are fainter in the skies than most, seen just off the left from the Great Golden Dragon Atromo. In April, Aegas is not honored so much as tributed to keep the fickle feline's wiles and tricks at bay. Children and younger citizens of the cities or those with playful or devious minds play tricks on one another, some harmless pranks and others far more dangerous or deceptive. Despite this uptick of shenanigans, however, for most Aegas' day is a day spent ensuring the secretive trickster cat deity that he has not been forgotten, as well as a celebration of Spring. Openly jealous of Atromo's status and reverence, and long overlooked in favor of the other star gods, the people of Idan learned to show their reverence for Aegas in a ritual known as the Crowning of Aegas. Cat sculptures, paintings, figurines, or idols can be found all across Idan for those who can't make it to one of Aegas' shrines, and offerings of fish, sheep or goat's milk, silver or gold bells, silk, or saucers of water are left out for the many wild, stray, or tame felines of Idan to take at their leisure. Known for being a deity over secrets, pleasure, trickery, and charm, Aegas is a favored god of rogues, assassins, bards, bandits, thieves, and charmers. An enchanted spring illness common in Idan has long been attributed to Aegas not feeling that his charms have earned him the favor of the people. The illness is known as The Aegas Affliction and is actually caused by the pollen of a flower that blooms in April after particularly harsh winters (the Golden Bellflower) Aegas' Affliction causes those who have caught the illness to be easily charmed. Their complexion is often flushed and they give in to their whims with very little self-restraint. The main symptoms are: Susceptibility to personal suggestion (Their own whims, thoughts, and desires), susceptibility to charm-based magic, a tendency to be secretive or deceptive, and a heightened sense of hunger. The illness usually goes away on its own within 1-3 days and has no known cure. It's possible to get infected by Golden Bellflower pollen from April 5th to April 30th anywhere in Idan. Only exposure to a nearby flower is necessary. During the Crowning of Aegas and for the rest of April flocks of lesser winged cats can be seen migrating from their winter homes in the Wavecrest Isles back to the unclaimed lands. Occasionally these flocks of small, canary to bobcat-sized winged cats are accompanied by fiercely protective and dangerous greater winged cat guardians while other flocks travel on their own. The playful smaller felines can be seen frolicking in fields and playing over the rooftops all across Idan while the greater winged cats stay far from the highly populated areas, hunting the wild forests, cliffs, and open lands to stock up food for them and their small flocks of fur and feathered friends.


🜙 The Bloom

	Among the celebrating the dangers of spring are temporarily forgotten. Not all threats come with fangs, talons, and claws. Creeping vines and sprouting plants lurk in the tall grasses of the plains and the dense forests. Some of the more dangerous varieties bloom and thrive in the earliest month of spring. Viperlily. A small free-roaming flowering vine with two thorns that protrude from the middle of its flower. The vine slithers along the ground in the grass toward sources of movement or sound and sinks its thorns into the feet or lower limbs of any living thing it encounters. The vine subsists on blood rather than water and uses the gathered blood to provide itself with the nutrients it needs to keep moving. It injects its victim with a venom that causes them to become weak, sluggish, and unable to use their magic so it can continue to drain blood. Most Viperlilys are too small to cause much permanent damage to their victim, but being left vulnerable in the wilderness does lead to many post-bite deaths, especially with the smell of blood in the air. Bloodthorn. A dying Viperlily that has gone dormant and taken root. Small Viperlily seeds grow all over its vines, each one prepared to drop off and grow into a new Viperlily. A thorn protrudes from the bloody sap-filled bulb of this vine. It points up toward the sun with a thorn as sharp and dangerous as a needle dagger. Those unfortunate enough to be stabbed by its thorn are injected with a modified Viperlily poison that causes victims to become feverish and reckless, encouraging them to remain nearby and engage anything near the Bloodthorn aggressively. The bloodshed caused by its victims or the Bloodthorn's own destruction causes the dozens of Viperlily seeds to sprout and take off to find their first meals. Creeping Dragontrap. A member of the carnivorous plant family, the Creeping Dragontrap is a fully mobile creeping vine with one to four heads that each have thorn-filled 'mouths' they snap down on the prey they find. The acidic toxins inside their mouths prevent their prey from being able to fight free on their own. An antitoxin is produced by the sap within their vines, but a victim captured by one of these plants will need help getting free and provided with the antitoxin before the vine escapes in a speedy retreat into the wilderness or ground. Rogue's Blush. The dense cover of this flowering ground vine is a network of sensitive thin vines can sense vibrations in the ground. The night-flowering vine is covered in dormant flowers that open in the darkness. They release pollen into the air when vibrations are sensed nearby. This pollen is collected and used in a common rogue tool: Flash Dust because eye contact with the pollen results in a blinding white flash that causes temporary blindness for 24 hours. Bramble Mimic can shape its vines into any form it has collected a template of. The thorny brambles rest in the form of a dense bush, usually settling itself partially into worn paths made by creatures or people. It uses the blood it collects from creatures or people that bump into it as a template to rearrange itself into their form, though its size is dependent on how large the original mimic has grown. It then uses its new form to hunt for food to sustain itself, holding a natural preference for predators, carnivores, and herbivores. The most common forms are those of predatory forest or swamp creatures such as jaguars, bears, wolves, and alligators.

🜙 A Mod Note

	A "Network log" will be going up the week of the 19th that will be paired with the next event log. The network log will contain courier messages from Queen Adira, King Ardis, King Sitka, Self-Crowned King Koroc, Resistance and Rebel Leader Lorna, Former Defenders Captain Lykos, and Former Defenders Lieutenant Alice. Player characters will be able to ask these leaders questions and attempt to communicate with them personally if they wish.

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Shura half-expected this when Aconite decided to make noise in Alistair's direction, so she isn't surprised. It's probably a good thing that he's willing to try and make the jump.

"He's fine," Shura says, carefully stroking him with her free hand. So long as a tussle didn't break out, they should be fine. Aconite doesn't seem interested in starting anything, only giving Alistair the same sniff treatment. She's much more cautious than before, but she still reaches out with a clawed hand to touch his snout. This time, it's mostly to keep track of where he is rather than to hold him still.

"He's gotten bigger." Of course he was bigger, but Shura's just looking for something to say after what they just talked about.

"He has," Strange admits. Though Aconite and Alistair seem fine, Strange is keeping a close watch on the two, ready to jump in should anything go wrong. Fortunately...everything's looking fine? When Aconite touches his snout, Alistair just blinks a little before he resumes nudging Aconite.

"I can only hope he's gotten smarter as well. I read to him and give him lessons every day but he hasn't shown any signs of speaking or understanding yet."

When she's sniffed to her satisfaction, Aconite will just settle in beside Alistair. It's exciting enough for the moment to just be close to a friend, no roughhousing for her right now.

"Dragon or not, he's still just a baby." He's not even a month old, yet! Even Shura knows better than to expect that from a baby. But it makes her wonder if she should be doing more education-wise for Aconite. Sure, letting her practice hunting with crickets was probably a good thing, but reading... Ugh, just one more thing to consider. "If you can get him to focus on somethin' for long enough to have a lesson, I'm impressed."

Alistair's a little hesitant, mostly because he's a weeny and expects some roughhousing. When none comes, he settles in besides Aconite, making a small little satisfied chirp in the process.

"He'll pay attention to the lesson but loses attention halfway through. That's when I bribe him with food." Strange just straight up admits that, what do you mean bribing with food might be a terrible parenting choice, Strange thinks it's an awesome parenting choice.

"I will give him credit, though. He'll sit and listen to me whenever I talk about the history of dragons. He's interested in his species."

“Your lessons are too long if he’s losing focus . Your old students said you talked too much, didn’t they? And they were grown. This guy’s just a kid, he ain’t gonna be able to pay attention for too long, and Bribing him ain’t gonna work in the long run.” Shura, simultaneously the best and worst teacher. And just because Strange mentioned giving him treats, Shura’s just going to casually pet Alistair and check to see if he feels a little pudgy under that hair.

“Those stories are probably more exciting, so that might be a better reward for him.”

Alistair isn't full heckin' chonker level of dragon, but he isn't as slim or muscular as some of the other dragons might be. He also is very pleased to receive pets and happily chirps when Shura starts petting him.

Strange can't help but look a little guilty as Shura points out the truth: yep, his old students did say he talked too much. Maybe if Alistair could talk, he would say the same thing.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," he admits. But time to change the conversation away from him a little bit. "What about yours?" Strange asks, out of genuine curiosity. "What have you been teaching Aconite?"

It could be worse, but if it kept on like this, then he would have trouble flying. Maybe Strange just assumed a chubby baby was good, no matter the extra weight? Well, whatever. Aconite will promptly chirp and nuzzle closer to Alistair, and Shura feels vaguely compelled to pet both of them equally for a moment.

“I haven’t really been teachin’ her much.” Lesson plans, what are those? “It really hasn’t been something I thought about. I let her watch if I’m doin’ something—that’s what she was supposed to be doing when I was gathering the pollen, but that was prolly pretty boring. Otherwise, I just let her play.”

So Aconite is learning stuff, but compared to Strange, Shura can’t help but wonder if she shouldn’t be doing more.

Let her watch if Shura's doing something? That's smart. And Shura does go out and about and does more things than Strange does. Alistair's mostly watched him move and research. And the little dragon does need some fresh air...

"I've got a proposition. Why don't we work together with teaching these two? I can teach Aconite about magic and history, you can teach Alistair how not to die in the wild."

If Strange wasn't so damn straightforward, Shura might think that this little proposition of his was a proposal in disguise. But Strange isn't so conniving, though he might sometimes think himself entirely too clever for his own good.

"'How not to die in the wild' is a pretty broad thing, Strange."

It isn't a bad idea, though. But there was the entire problem of her sticking close to the City while he was settling in Didymos.

"It's a pretty broad thing that you're more experienced at than I am. My survivalist period ended up with me dead on a battlefield." And also he was bugfuck crazy during the woods hobo period but Shura doesn't need to know that right at the moment.

"Even something as simple as how to hunt or how to identify poisonous plants would be useful."

Shura wants to point out that her survival skills didn't stop her from getting stabbed in the back on a battlefield, but that isn't the point and Strange doesn't need to know about her time as a spy in Thalassa.

But it isn't the worst idea. If nothing else, it might help prevent Alistair from gaining even more weight.

"Start giving him crickets to chase. Even if I'm not here, that will keep him active and help him figure out how to hunt." And then, because Shura knows Strange works in Yes or No, and in spite of her reservations about Strange educating her dragon in magic, he might be better qualified to teach her about history. "We'll figure out the arrangements, I guess. I'm stuck in the City until things settle out a bit more."

"It's optimistic to think that things will settle out to begin with." Is he being a little pessimistic about this? Yep. But this whole kerfuffle with the City seems like it won't shake out until someone dies somehow and someone else's forces attack in retaliation and things continue until the City's nothing but ashes.

"You don't have to stay in the City," Strange points out. "You could always stay in Didymos."

There's an unspoken 'with me' in there.

“With you.” Shura has no problem filling in the blank for Strange. And because she knows that barring the razing of the City, the only reason she would choose to move to Didymos would be Strange, she’ll dodge answering that directly. “We’ll talk about it when that’s closer.”

For Shura, it’s a quiet admission, and she’ll just scritch behind Alistair’s jaw instead of clarifying what she means. “I can’t just bail on him at this point. It’d be troublesome to leave a loose end like that.”

So they'll still talk about it at some point. Strange doesn't exactly know what Shura means by 'when that's closer' (when the chaos of the City gets closer to settling down?) but it's an admission that they'll talk about it at some point so he will grasp onto that admission and cling to it with his life.

"Troublesome but understandable. I don't think anyone would blame you for doing something that kept you safe. This is Lykos's problem, not yours." It's obvious that Strange is still placing a lot of his blame on the Defenders and on Lykos's insistence that he keep things a secret in the first place.

"I don't care about what people think, Strange. But you have to look at the big picture. Even if Lykos came out about the curse earlier, there's no telling what someone like Koroc would have done to get him out of the way. That cult has probably been waiting for a moment to get someone like Koroc on their side. It was only a matter of time before things went south, and once the City's overrun with cultists, it would be impossible to keep things from spilling out into Didymos. This affects us whether we like it or not."

Idan wasn't really Shura's concern. But she was stuck there, so she might as well do something. It wasn't like she was going to roll back into her shallow grave any time soon. If protecting the little life she was trying to build meant fighting for the City, then fine, she'd do it.

He shakes his head a little as he talks. "Even if things spilled out in Didymos, we should let Queen Adria and King Ardis take care of it. As rulers, it's their job to keep their people safe and protect them. We've got other things we need to keep safe."

As he talks, Strange gestures to the dragons. Seeing his buddy point at him, Alistair makes a happy little chirping noise, before he goes right back to snuggling Aconite and getting pets from Shura.

Other things to keep safe, he says, like they're suddenly parents. And Shura knows that this is pretty close to having a kid, and that's only mildly terrifying. At least the twins had been old enough to get their own food.

"If this was just a territorial scuffle, it wouldn't be a big deal. But bigger things are going on, and you know it. Leavin' it to someone else--" Would be something she would have tried to do before, when she was just passing time by and doing as she pleased. Now...

"Keeping them safe means keepin' the rest of this place in one piece. That's all this is."

"Keeping them safe means keeping them safe. The dragons will survive even if the world around them goes to hell. They just need to grow up to be able to survive in the first place."

But he suspects that they're not going to see eye to eye on this point. Strange knows that his focus has always been on the dragons, damn everything else. Others think differently.

But thinking about the dragons makes Strange want to be with his. He makes an awkward kissy noise as he gestures at Alistair. The dragon looks at Strange, whines a little, then goes back to snuggling Aconite. "What a stubborn thing," Strange can't help but remark, as he shakes his head at the little dragon. "Takes after his father, I suspect."

Shura is experiencing a strange feeling right now. It's the same feeling she had back when Strange was baby talking Bell at the tavern a couple months ago. That knowledge and understanding that she wasn't refusing this guy when she probably should, except it's even worse now that she knows that she basically admitted that she's willing to move in with him.

"Don't tell me you're going to make him call you daddy." Please don't be that weird, Strange. Aconite lifts her head to peer towards Strange, but she doesn't know if she wants to get up or not, never mind the fact that Strange wasn't calling for her.

Strange can't help but laugh a little, repressing a small giggle as he shakes his head. The idea of Alistair calling him daddy is a little silly, especially when the younger dragon grows up. Something the size of a cart shouldn't be calling things daddy in the first place.

"Fortunately, no. I'll ask him to call me Jonathan," Strange explains. There's a pause before he continues. "Of course, you can call me Jonathan as well."

"Strange is shorter." As is Windbag. Shura says this as if that's a perfectly reasonable reaction, not her trying to dodge having to say his given name. But even though he's trying to offer her more intimacy than she's ready to accept, Shura's going to feel just a bit relieved that he isn't nutty enough to think about having the dragon call him anything weird.

Yeah it's shorter, but it's not his first name, isn't it? Strange can't hide the fact that he's a little disappointed Shura's sticking with his last name. But then again, he really shouldn't have thought otherwise.

"If shortness is what matters, you would have given me an adorable nickname by now. More wine?"

Because Strange wants to get slightly drunk, Shura probably does as well.

“Windbag is still longer than Strange.” There’s his adorable nickname, hope he chokes on it. Calling him by his first name isn’t about to happen any time soon. And that’s just saying it in private. But if he wants to set his expectations for intimacies high, he’ll have to get used being disappointed.

But more wine is totally okay with Shura, and she’ll down what’s left of her glass before handing it to Strange for a refill.

"Windbag is your adorable nickname?" He gives Shura a slightly skeptical look. There's nothing adorable about it! She could at least come up with something cuter for him!

He'll refill her glass, though, giving Shura a hefty portion of the remaining wine.

"Most people pick something less insulting for a pet name." Still, though Strange is whining about this, there's no real malice or annoyance behind his words. He's whining mostly to whine.

"If you wanna be called somethin' cute, then you oughta act cute, nya!" Like Shura and the way she just so casually tacks on that little nya on the her sentence and winks at him.. Or absolutely not like Shura, since Strange picking up Shura's mannerisms would be rather terrifying.

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