06-27-2016, 10:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-27-2016, 08:23 PM by Grumblesnakes.)
Life has not been kind to the one-time Fairy Godfather. After the Nerissa Incident a dozen years ago or so, he was unceremoniously fired, stripped in an instant of his Godfatherly status and his dream of helping sad little boys and girls find joy in the bleakness of their existence. No criminal charge were brought against him, but only because no one had died. Still, it broke something in him, turning in the shiny little gold crown he'd so proudly pinned to his lapel on the day he'd graduated Fairy Godparent University.
Things have only gone downhill since then. Oh, everyone loves a Fairy Godfather; they are among the celebrities of the fairy world. But one who has been stripped of his title and his tiny gold badge and ostracized by the institution that made him so beloved in the first place? No one has any use for a disgraced former Godfather. Grumblesnakes couldn't get past an interview at any respectable job; the instant his history came up, the interviewers' eyes always went cold and distant, and the meeting ended quickly thereafter with polite formality and assurances that they would be in touch if he got the job. But he never did.
He soon began spending most of his time and money at a local dive bar, drinking more and more absinthe to drown the hopelessness of his existence. Ah, and that green fairy was the only one who had any love left for poor Grumbles. Well, except for his old friend Stumbleduck, who was happy enough to join him in drinking himself into the ground on a regular basis. Still, with no source of income, his money eventually ran out. Once a golden boy of Fairyland, he found himself turning magic tricks on the corner, cheap street magic that left him feeling empty inside and earned him just enough to keep dancing with the green fairy.
Unsurprisingly, he was in another drunken stupor when Stumbleduck found him this afternoon. “What the hell are you doing here?” his old friend asked in a harsh whisper. Good old Duck grabbed his arm and trying to drag him off his bar stool, all the while frantically scanning the bar. Grumbles just waved his shiny green drink and hiccupped. “Yeah, well now's hardly the damn time, is it?” Duck asked, tugging Grumbles to his feet.
“Whutryu talk'nbout?” Grumbles slurred, wobbling as he left his nice, sturdy seat behind.
He lifted his glass to his lips, but Duck took it out of his hands. “Sorry, friend, I think you've had about enough of that for tonight—gods above, never thought I'd be the one saying that, huh? Focus, Duck, now's not the time. Ugh, here.” Muttering under his breath, Duck waggled his fingers at his friend's face, sighing with relief as Grumbles instantly sobered up.
“The hell?”
“You learn a trick or two about playing with blood alcohol levels when you drink as much as I do, friend. Now let's get ou of here.” Duck dragged him out the back door into the alley behind the bar before bothering to explain himself. “Grumbles, word's all over the street! How have you not heard yet?”
“Been in the bar since it opened.” Duck nodded and shrugged, acknowledging the obviousness of that answer. “Heard what?”
“Oh, Grumbly. Buddy. You remember—of course you remember, it's not exactly a thing you forget—okay. So. I've got to tell you something, and it's bad. Just. Take a deep breath, alright? So. Nerissa.”
Grumblesnakes's blood ran cold the instant he heard the name that had haunted his existence for well over a decade. “Why the fuck would you bring her up? What about her?”
Duck winced, took a deep breath of his own, and said, “Grumbles, she...I'm sorry, man, but you remember the girl who was living at her—stupid question. Lena. Of course you remember Lena.” Grumblesnakes just stared, dread slowly filling his stomach. “Right. Well. Buddy, I'm sorry, but uh. Nerissa...she found her. And you know how crazy that little bitch was, yeah? She—Grumbly, she...you know, blamed her for how everything went down, for losing you, for being blacklisted by the University and never getting another Godparent, for getting locked up in a psych ward after she set fire to the place Lena and her mom moved to and almost killed them both—right. You know. Of course you know. Well. She, uh. She was released a while back, yeah?” Grumblesnakes just nodded numbly, waiting for Duck to say the words he already knew were coming.
“She...she snapped, buddy. I didn't hear everything, I don't know what triggered it, but there were My Little Pony toys involved and anyhow what I do know is she found Lena. I don't know how, but she found her, and she...Grumbly, she killed her. They found the girl's body, ponies melted onto her skin like a casing, like a plastic shell, the words My Little Lena painted across her side and a creepy-ass grinning clown face as her...what's it called, the like, tramp stamp all those weird plastic things have...”
Duck kept talking, but Grumblesnakes didn't hear him anymore after that. No. No, the only reason he hadn't been thrown in prison over the Nerissa Incident was that nobody had died. They were going to come for him. They'd slap shackles on his wrists that devoured his magic as it generated, stealing away his very identity and leaving him utterly defenseless. They'd throw him in the dungeon beneath Fairy Godparent University and he'd never see the light of day again.
No.
He'd run. He'd hide. There had to be someplace safe he could go, somewhere they'd never find him, somewhere they'd never look. Somewhere anyone who knew anything about his past would swear he'd never go—oh. Ohhhh he could go back to—could he? And what, exactly, would he do in Beqanna? Make a damn army of scary-ass magic ponies and use them as cannon fodder against the FGU bastards who must already be gunning for him or why would Duck have sounded so frantic?
Yes. Oh hell yes, that was exactly what he would do. He grabbed onto Duck's shoulder, closed his eyes, and thought desperately of Elsewhere, and when he opened his eyes, he was in Beqanna once again. Ignoring Duck's flustered protestations, he looked around at the deserted corner of the world he'd brought them to. A huge lake, untouched for decades, and there was something about it that made Grumbles breathe easier, made him feel...serene, somehow.
Still, there was work to be done. He reached toward the lake and raised his hand, drawing an island up out of the center. Duck in tow, he flew out to the island, coaxing plants to grow on the newly-exposed bare earth. He built a fortification on the island, made of stone and magic, and laid a cloak around the whole thing to keep it invisible to anyone who didn't know it was there. Home. It needed to feel like home, because they were going to be here for a long goddamn while.
Stumbleduck caught his eye and nodded, getting on board as quickly as ever, and then flew off into the fort to make it a place of beauty. Leaving Duck in charge of decorating meant the place would be dripping luxury, rich colors and fabrics and squishy places to sit and to sleep. One never lacked the physical comforts while Duck was around. But that was hardly the only concern.
More important, at least to Grumblesnakes, was the question of defense. And this, my friends, is where you come in. Because once again our dear Grumbles took to the skies of Beqanna, stealing innocent ponies out of their everyday lives and dragging them home with him to his new digs. He took the traitless, the defenseless, those whose potential was the most malleable. Oh, though he would perhaps make an exception for a few old friends if he happened across them. And when he had rounded up as many as he could carry (and he could carry quite a few!), he flew them back to their new home in the middle of the Lake of Serenity to make them into his guardians.
~*~*~
Well. You heard the fairy. He'll come around all invisible-like and snatch you out of your normal everyday life. He'll take you home to his new fort, down to the dungeon for now. One stall for each of you, as it happens. For round one, give us a glimpse into your normal life before Grumblesnakes pretty much magically chloroforms you and steals you away. You'll wake in the dungeon-turned-stable, with hay and water and a bit of grain to keep your belly full 'til he gets to you. (And should you run out, they'll refill themselves. Isn't that nice?) Which will take a day or two, because forging guardians out of normal horses takes some doing, after all. There's no interacting with one another just now (and probably not for the whole quest, though I make no promises at this point), so feel free to invent neigh-bors for yourself or freak out/react to your kidnapping in solitude. We wouldn't want you getting bored, after all, now would we? There will be a healthy dose of tortured screams as background noise—being forged is painful and difficult work. And when Grumbles finally comes for you, he'll immobilize you—just a precaution, you know—so please do end your post with your pony frozen in place and the stall door opening. You have until 8 PM CST on Wednesday to reply.
Entry requirements:
Other things you should know:
Questions!
Are shapeshifting wings okay?
Yes. Still wings, as lovely as they may be. By all means.
What about kingdom-granted traits?
Excellent question. Those don't count, I suppose. But consider them deactivated during the quest.
Can we enter ponies with defects?
Absolutely. They may lose the defect for the duration of the quest, however, depending on how it impacts their ability to be an effective guardian. We'll see.
Um, so defects. How likely are we talking, exactly?
If you miss a deadline or don't reply, expect a defect. Otherwise it's pretty unlikely. Well, maybe some scarring, I can't swear to that part. But actual defects? Not so likely outside of missed deadlines.
Can my pony and someone else's notice each other across the way? Not like, interact or anything, but for angst later.
Ohhhh. Yes. Absolutely, I am all for that idea. Just no interacting, at least not right now. There may or may not be opportunities for that later, we'll see.
Ummm...so there's a holiday weekend coming up. How's the timing working for that?
Well hell. I didn't think of that. Normally I wouldn't give this much advance notice, but since I failed to catch that, here's the plan for the weekend. Realistically speaking, if this round ends Wednesday night, the next one will be posted on Friday and due either Sunday or Monday. That's as far ahead as I'm going at this point, but keep that in mind when deciding whether to enter or not, I guess.
Things have only gone downhill since then. Oh, everyone loves a Fairy Godfather; they are among the celebrities of the fairy world. But one who has been stripped of his title and his tiny gold badge and ostracized by the institution that made him so beloved in the first place? No one has any use for a disgraced former Godfather. Grumblesnakes couldn't get past an interview at any respectable job; the instant his history came up, the interviewers' eyes always went cold and distant, and the meeting ended quickly thereafter with polite formality and assurances that they would be in touch if he got the job. But he never did.
He soon began spending most of his time and money at a local dive bar, drinking more and more absinthe to drown the hopelessness of his existence. Ah, and that green fairy was the only one who had any love left for poor Grumbles. Well, except for his old friend Stumbleduck, who was happy enough to join him in drinking himself into the ground on a regular basis. Still, with no source of income, his money eventually ran out. Once a golden boy of Fairyland, he found himself turning magic tricks on the corner, cheap street magic that left him feeling empty inside and earned him just enough to keep dancing with the green fairy.
Unsurprisingly, he was in another drunken stupor when Stumbleduck found him this afternoon. “What the hell are you doing here?” his old friend asked in a harsh whisper. Good old Duck grabbed his arm and trying to drag him off his bar stool, all the while frantically scanning the bar. Grumbles just waved his shiny green drink and hiccupped. “Yeah, well now's hardly the damn time, is it?” Duck asked, tugging Grumbles to his feet.
“Whutryu talk'nbout?” Grumbles slurred, wobbling as he left his nice, sturdy seat behind.
He lifted his glass to his lips, but Duck took it out of his hands. “Sorry, friend, I think you've had about enough of that for tonight—gods above, never thought I'd be the one saying that, huh? Focus, Duck, now's not the time. Ugh, here.” Muttering under his breath, Duck waggled his fingers at his friend's face, sighing with relief as Grumbles instantly sobered up.
“The hell?”
“You learn a trick or two about playing with blood alcohol levels when you drink as much as I do, friend. Now let's get ou of here.” Duck dragged him out the back door into the alley behind the bar before bothering to explain himself. “Grumbles, word's all over the street! How have you not heard yet?”
“Been in the bar since it opened.” Duck nodded and shrugged, acknowledging the obviousness of that answer. “Heard what?”
“Oh, Grumbly. Buddy. You remember—of course you remember, it's not exactly a thing you forget—okay. So. I've got to tell you something, and it's bad. Just. Take a deep breath, alright? So. Nerissa.”
Grumblesnakes's blood ran cold the instant he heard the name that had haunted his existence for well over a decade. “Why the fuck would you bring her up? What about her?”
Duck winced, took a deep breath of his own, and said, “Grumbles, she...I'm sorry, man, but you remember the girl who was living at her—stupid question. Lena. Of course you remember Lena.” Grumblesnakes just stared, dread slowly filling his stomach. “Right. Well. Buddy, I'm sorry, but uh. Nerissa...she found her. And you know how crazy that little bitch was, yeah? She—Grumbly, she...you know, blamed her for how everything went down, for losing you, for being blacklisted by the University and never getting another Godparent, for getting locked up in a psych ward after she set fire to the place Lena and her mom moved to and almost killed them both—right. You know. Of course you know. Well. She, uh. She was released a while back, yeah?” Grumblesnakes just nodded numbly, waiting for Duck to say the words he already knew were coming.
“She...she snapped, buddy. I didn't hear everything, I don't know what triggered it, but there were My Little Pony toys involved and anyhow what I do know is she found Lena. I don't know how, but she found her, and she...Grumbly, she killed her. They found the girl's body, ponies melted onto her skin like a casing, like a plastic shell, the words My Little Lena painted across her side and a creepy-ass grinning clown face as her...what's it called, the like, tramp stamp all those weird plastic things have...”
Duck kept talking, but Grumblesnakes didn't hear him anymore after that. No. No, the only reason he hadn't been thrown in prison over the Nerissa Incident was that nobody had died. They were going to come for him. They'd slap shackles on his wrists that devoured his magic as it generated, stealing away his very identity and leaving him utterly defenseless. They'd throw him in the dungeon beneath Fairy Godparent University and he'd never see the light of day again.
No.
He'd run. He'd hide. There had to be someplace safe he could go, somewhere they'd never find him, somewhere they'd never look. Somewhere anyone who knew anything about his past would swear he'd never go—oh. Ohhhh he could go back to—could he? And what, exactly, would he do in Beqanna? Make a damn army of scary-ass magic ponies and use them as cannon fodder against the FGU bastards who must already be gunning for him or why would Duck have sounded so frantic?
Yes. Oh hell yes, that was exactly what he would do. He grabbed onto Duck's shoulder, closed his eyes, and thought desperately of Elsewhere, and when he opened his eyes, he was in Beqanna once again. Ignoring Duck's flustered protestations, he looked around at the deserted corner of the world he'd brought them to. A huge lake, untouched for decades, and there was something about it that made Grumbles breathe easier, made him feel...serene, somehow.
Still, there was work to be done. He reached toward the lake and raised his hand, drawing an island up out of the center. Duck in tow, he flew out to the island, coaxing plants to grow on the newly-exposed bare earth. He built a fortification on the island, made of stone and magic, and laid a cloak around the whole thing to keep it invisible to anyone who didn't know it was there. Home. It needed to feel like home, because they were going to be here for a long goddamn while.
Stumbleduck caught his eye and nodded, getting on board as quickly as ever, and then flew off into the fort to make it a place of beauty. Leaving Duck in charge of decorating meant the place would be dripping luxury, rich colors and fabrics and squishy places to sit and to sleep. One never lacked the physical comforts while Duck was around. But that was hardly the only concern.
More important, at least to Grumblesnakes, was the question of defense. And this, my friends, is where you come in. Because once again our dear Grumbles took to the skies of Beqanna, stealing innocent ponies out of their everyday lives and dragging them home with him to his new digs. He took the traitless, the defenseless, those whose potential was the most malleable. Oh, though he would perhaps make an exception for a few old friends if he happened across them. And when he had rounded up as many as he could carry (and he could carry quite a few!), he flew them back to their new home in the middle of the Lake of Serenity to make them into his guardians.
Well. You heard the fairy. He'll come around all invisible-like and snatch you out of your normal everyday life. He'll take you home to his new fort, down to the dungeon for now. One stall for each of you, as it happens. For round one, give us a glimpse into your normal life before Grumblesnakes pretty much magically chloroforms you and steals you away. You'll wake in the dungeon-turned-stable, with hay and water and a bit of grain to keep your belly full 'til he gets to you. (And should you run out, they'll refill themselves. Isn't that nice?) Which will take a day or two, because forging guardians out of normal horses takes some doing, after all. There's no interacting with one another just now (and probably not for the whole quest, though I make no promises at this point), so feel free to invent neigh-bors for yourself or freak out/react to your kidnapping in solitude. We wouldn't want you getting bored, after all, now would we? There will be a healthy dose of tortured screams as background noise—being forged is painful and difficult work. And when Grumbles finally comes for you, he'll immobilize you—just a precaution, you know—so please do end your post with your pony frozen in place and the stall door opening. You have until 8 PM CST on Wednesday to reply.
Entry requirements:
- All characters entering must be actually born already, sorry to the babies due in a few days. Aside from that, there are no age constraints.
- Characters must be untraited or minimally traited – wings, horn, immortality are fine, but the more you have, the harder it'll be for Grumblesnakes to mold you into one of his army of pretties. He will, however, make an exception for anyone who was in his previous quest. Because he's generous and nostalgic like that. That said, if you played one of the entrants from that lot and want to throw in someone else, you are absolutely welcome to do so. This is just a clause keeping things open for the sake of fun story continuation. No advantage or disadvantage will be given to characters who were involved in the Fairy Godfather quest.
- There are no activity requirements. It doesn't matter if your character has been posted.
- There is no limit on the number of entries, aside from the fact that each player may enter only one character.
Other things you should know:
- No editing – once your post is up, it's up.
- There will be no extensions.
- This will be quick and dirty, and there are absolutely possibilities for defects. If you miss a deadline or don't reply, expect one (and an automatic elimination). Heads up, not replying is worse. If you have to drop out, that is totally understandable; just post saying so and it won't count as a late/no response.
- This is a writing quest, obviously. I'm sure you guessed that part already. It will therefore be judged based on writing, on the story you tell, on your creativity, on how you respond to the prompt. It will not be judged based on how fast you respond. Speed is irrelevant as long as you reply by the deadline. Which will typically be in the 48 hour range, with a similar turn-around time on my end. I'll give you a heads up if it's going to take me an extra day or whatever, and I might occasionally give you an extra day. When the round is posted, that is. I won't change deadlines once they're posted.
- If you have any questions, contact me via PM, in the cbox, or on the OOC board. You guys always come up with excellent questions, so if any come up I'll add a Q&A here.
- Quest rewards will be genetic.
Questions!
Are shapeshifting wings okay?
Yes. Still wings, as lovely as they may be. By all means.
What about kingdom-granted traits?
Excellent question. Those don't count, I suppose. But consider them deactivated during the quest.
Can we enter ponies with defects?
Absolutely. They may lose the defect for the duration of the quest, however, depending on how it impacts their ability to be an effective guardian. We'll see.
Um, so defects. How likely are we talking, exactly?
If you miss a deadline or don't reply, expect a defect. Otherwise it's pretty unlikely. Well, maybe some scarring, I can't swear to that part. But actual defects? Not so likely outside of missed deadlines.
Can my pony and someone else's notice each other across the way? Not like, interact or anything, but for angst later.
Ohhhh. Yes. Absolutely, I am all for that idea. Just no interacting, at least not right now. There may or may not be opportunities for that later, we'll see.
Ummm...so there's a holiday weekend coming up. How's the timing working for that?
Well hell. I didn't think of that. Normally I wouldn't give this much advance notice, but since I failed to catch that, here's the plan for the weekend. Realistically speaking, if this round ends Wednesday night, the next one will be posted on Friday and due either Sunday or Monday. That's as far ahead as I'm going at this point, but keep that in mind when deciding whether to enter or not, I guess.