EVENT Trick Abound - Fall Equinox Fest Thread

It was that time of year again when the trees shed their verdant foliage in favor of more exotic hues such as yellow, orange, and so on. The entirety of Magnolia town was abuzz with excitement or so it seemed to a certain mad scientist/doctor who went by the name “Dr. Zhāng Faustein” in that quaint little town.

“Ah, the rowdiness factor in the town has increased again, I see…how amusing…”

He let out a deep rumbling chuckle as he opened the doors of his clinic which was part of the ground floor of his mansion that was located just outside of the forest outside Magnolia Town and stepped outside to survey the scene going on there.

“Hmm…so that’s it…it’s the time of the Fall Equinox festival…perhaps I should get in on the fun too…I do have the next few days off after all and need to get out of my lab now and then…”

With that, it was decided that he would mingle with the townsfolk this time since last time he was too busy and also since he could possibly use this as a chance to advertise his clinic some more to the town. So, he started walking down towards the town while stretching and a lazy yawn. As he walked, the cool air swept past his lightly clothed form, causing him to shiver

Spoiler:

“Geez…it sure has gotten cold, and I really should bundle up…but then…it’s too troublesome for me to drag myself all the way back to my house to get my overcoat…ah well, whatever…it’s nothing I can’t handle…”

Thanks to his long legs he reached the heart of Magnolia Town in short order and entered, taking in the sights and sounds of the festival as he walked along. Little did he know he was soon going to be entangled with two rather intriguing individuals.
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Post WC: 310

Total Personal WC: 310/1500

Trophies Collected: 0/3

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OOC:
@MAI, @Sir Leonard  your move now.

Magnolia had always been known for its festivals, something Leo had not been too fond of as his years soured. But there have been turns in his life that kept him busy that made him yearn for a nice peaceful moment in town. He thought this as he looked on through his shack in the outskirts of the festive city as the wind carried autumn leaves. He looked on as they passed by contemplating the turn of the season smirking at how Magnolia would give it significance. He had been to the festival numerous times in his youth, but his daughter, Lina who had just came out from the other room, dressed for such the occasion that the cold might bring. Leo on the other hand was dressed in the same way, complete with his signature cloak as it too could repel the cold.

The little lady smiled at her father which was requited by a gentle smile of his own as he reached out his hand towards her for the daughter to take, leaving their old wooden home hand in hand towards the city.

When they had arrived in Magnolia, Lina's eyes lit up with wonder at tall the pretty lanterns. Her smile growing wider with each festival related item they came across which made Leo chuckle as she pleaded with him to buy all the wonder items the stalls were offering. However, he simply told her that they'll do it later, suggesting they take a look around more, or even try out the rides first.Lina pondered at her father's suggestion and thought it would be fun to try out the rides first and sight see a little more.

They walked down the streets to wonderful array of autumn colors that painted a serene picture of orange and hints of gold. As they walked, they came upon an intriguing sight, a woman landing on the street. As mages, they weren't at all surprised that people just come down from the sky every now and then. But she didn't look familiar at all and must be from out of town. The small woman looked to be somewhat close to Leo's 10 year old daughter, and being the innocent kid that she is, Lina approached the visitor to try and make a friend and make her feel welcome to Magnolia's festival.

Lina let go of her father's hand and casually skipped towards the girl and greeted her cheerfully saying "Hello! Welcome to Magnolia and the autumn festival!" I'm Lina, and this is my dad. Would you want to come with us? I've never been to this festival before, we could be buddies for this!" while Leo slowly followed behind Lina, just in time to be in view when he was introduced.

Post WC: 460
Leo's Total: 460

Zhāng had been wandering through the streets of Magnolia Town whilst enjoying the festive atmosphere, the beautiful lanterns hung everywhere, the various stalls with the people of Magnolia milling about them when he had randomly decided to scan ahead to see if there was anything else entertaining going on. Just then, the crowd that was ahead of him by several paces suddenly started to scatter, so that piqued his curiosity almost immediately, causing him to hurry on over to those coordinates. Thanks to his long legs, he got there in no time at all, but he couldn’t have been prepared for what he saw moments before his arrival. The center of the crowd’s attention was apparently some petite girl, but he knew she was no ordinary girl, for she seemed to have wings and even robotic joints…at least from what he had seen thus far from the time she landed at that location.

So, he pushed his way through the crowd in order to try to get a better view of the girl, but she was already being drawn into conversation with what seemed like an even younger girl, this one seeming to be actually human. As he looked on, he noticed a gruff looking old man who seemed to be the little girl’s guardian. As he watched the interaction going on before him, he was reminded of some legends he had read from ancient texts he had unearthed on his travels.

“So…they really do exist, after all…could the ancient tales about angels be really…about beings like this one?”

He fell silent after murmuring those words and got lost in thought, not realizing that he was actually staring the robot girl openly.

After a while, he began murmuring to himself again, not realizing that this time he was inadvertently just barely loud enough for those standing closest to him to overhear him

“...a gynoid?…and on top of that…an angel type?…how intriguing…how very intriguing indeed…this must be my lucky day…”

As he observed her more, his mind raced with the possibilities of how to approach her, for at the moment, he wanted nothing more than to study such an incredible being to his heart’s content. However, he didn’t want to seem like a creep either, so he was currently at a loss on what to do to resolve his dilemma. Therefore, for the time being, he settled for simply being a passive observer instead.

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Post WC: 404
Personal Total WC: 714/1500
Trophies Collected: 0/3

Leo simply stood behind his daughter, happy to see her making new friends. After all, Leo has already sensed no ill intention from the young looking cyborg woman. He also didn't think someone would actually cause ruckus here right now. After all, it's a festival and Fairy Tail defends these streets once again.

With the crowd dispersing, and everything returning to normal, Lina kept on trying to make the person who came down from the sky her friend. Because she hasn't seen the likes of her before, and being a kid in Fairy Tail which is a guild filled with much older people and men she only ever really been with Arcadia from the guild. Leo on the other hand, knew what she was it wasn't the first time Leo had seen people like her and yes Leo considered them people despite wherever they came from.

Yes this is mostly for Lina's sake and he was happy to be just along for the ride. Now that their guest had dissipated her wings and put on quite a lovely bunny hoodie, Lina can't help but to be more excited to know her. Her eyes shining with joy and excitement as she put her hands together. Their visitor asked why they wanted her to go with them and Lina did most of the talking for it as Leo looked around for other interesting sights and food. However, in his observation, there is but another who had not strayed away from the scene from earlier. Leo had not seen him before but he was intrigued why he showed so much interest at the woman, even so much as murmur to himself at a volume where in other people would hear him.

"Hello." he said greeting the long legged man "Can I help you? You seem to be very interested in the woman. My daughter is too, perhaps you would want to come with us?"

On the other hand, Lina had already been having fun making a new friend "Well it's because it's gonna be fun!" she exclaimed while she was jumping up and down for joy. "Besides, we can all use friends right?" she smiled, her excitement slowly going down as her tone of voice become serious. Indeed Lina would like nothing more than more friends in her age. She still wanted to know more about the world as she had been introduced to, as she was mostly known whatever was inside their ancestral mansion.

All the while, Lina noticed that her father was talking to another person from the crowd. Thinking that maybe Leo had made a friend of his own and apparently thought it a good idea if they all enjoyed the festival together. Although Lina didn't know what they should do, a sign at the corner of her eye that said there was a fun maze they could try out.

Set on doing it, Lina called out to her dad, asking if they can do the maze, all four of them. Leo looked back at Lina and then to their new companions, telling her daughter that it could be a good idea. Thinking that the long legged man would take this as an opportunity to meet the girl, and for Lina to hang out with her new friend. Leo on the other hand would be happy to see his daughter have a great time also thinking that this would be a perfect time for the young girl with robotic features to observe and study humans more. "Alright, let's go." he happily replied.

Post WC: 592
Leo's Total: 1,052

Zhang had been preoccupied with observing the robot girl when he heard the older man next to him remark on his interest in the aforementioned robot girl and then invite him to follow along with the rest of the group, aka the old man, his kid girl, and the robot girl. Thanking his lucky stars for the godsend opportunity, he had nodded to the man with a brief

"Thank you for the kind invite, good sir. I shall take you up on the offer to join your group. Let's go."

With that, the group had set off and along the way, his keen ears had picked up the robot girl's name and now he knew her to be called "MAI". He nooded once, silently commiting that to memory and continued along to the maze that the little girl in the group had apparently noticed and was leading them all to, but to his surprise, Mai had detected some kind of spatial distortion after they had been walking for a while.

So, he hurried his pace just a bit so he was walking in step with the rest of the group members so as to avoid getting lost. After a while, he figured he would introduce himself to the rest, in his baritone but mellifluous voice and with a polite smile on his thin lips

"My apologies for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Zhang Faustein. You may call me Zhang if you'd like. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Then, he fell silent while waiting for any remarks or replies from them and also made sure to keep a watchful eye out for any possible trouble so that he could alert his new companions before anything truly bad overtook them all.  After what seemed like a long while and a rather uneventful procession, suddenly, he noticed the beginnings of what seemed to be flames on the ground a few paces ahead of the group. So he decided to. raise the alarm while dodging back a few paces just in case

"Watch out, everyone!  There seems to be some. trouble ahead!"

No sooner than he had said that, sure enough, the embers that had been burning on the ground seemed to erupt violently, forming a giant wall of flames that blocked their path.

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Post WC: 385

Personal Total WC: 1099/1500

Trophies Collected: 0/3

The spontaneity of recent events proved to be interesting and fun at the same time with fun mostly being in it for Lina. Her choice of activity was indeed unique as Leo had never seen it before despite being living in Magnolia for most his life. Perhaps it was a new annual attraction they had come up with during his absence making him more than eager to walk through some sort of gateway to a pocket dimension that felt slightly similar to his pocket space for storing his weapons. He moved his head about observing his overall surroundings with contentment and intrigue, eager to face this new challenge because he had tried all the stalls. Yes, over the years of his existence Leo had tried and won every new challenge in these festivals every year and was determined to make this year, the year of his return, no different than the rest. Lina was simply in awe of the place her jaw dropped speechless as they held each others hand so that neither of them will get lost in the impressively huge maze, making sense for it to take place in a pocket dimension. Now strangely Leo did not exercise caution when he had stepped in, perhaps confident that the are is indeed safe and that any potential danger the maze might possess are not at all dangerous because this festival is all in good fun, celebration, and still the belief that any who dared crash this will die immediately. Furthermore, he can sense no alarming presence within as he closed his eyes while silent, contemplating the properties of the dimension they are in, and Lina being all too familiar with this simply stood by her father in silence as well as she continued to scan the area in wonder.

Meanwhile, their new companions have already started to try and solve the puzzle as they listened to them intently. Lina nodded at her new friend Mai's proposal to stick to the right wall which made the little girl walk over it and touch it as she moved along. Leo on the other hand, turned around and opened his left hand, turning it so as his palm would face forward as well. Afterwards, he lifted his hand up to the level of his face slowly the form of his weapon, the Fissure, taking shape out of thin black energy as his head went up. Now the weapon floats in front of him with its head pointing towards the ground. He turned around to face the maze once more and walked with his group into solving the maze with the hammer floating right behind him making small pillars of earth protrude from the ground with every inch of land they covered so as to make sure they weren't running around in circles.

The first few feet of land they covered was uneventful enough to merit some small talk within their new friends that started with Mai and then the long legged man whose name was Zhang. Leo nodded and smiled at them both in reply to a lovely greeting while Lina took her turn in introducing both of them. "Nice to meet both of you too! I'm Lina Lightbringer! And this is my dad, named Leo." she replied politely while Leo bowed his head to both of them. Of course, Leo's last name was omitted purposefully by his daughter so as not to give away who he really was. The trek went on afterwards with not much going on.

That is until, they came across a cautionary path they were made aware of by Zhang. A wall of fire blocked their progress forward with no alternative route. Perhaps this was a challenge, seeing as there is no other way around and Leo was confident that this was the right way per Mai's instructions earlier. No, perhaps there is more to this wall than it seems and Leo was discern it with narrowed eyes as he approached it. As he did, the flames lashed out quickly at Leo, forming a demon's head that was quickly dispersed by a quick movement that appeared subtle, ending with Leo holding on to one of his weapons, the Atlanna in his right hand. Recognizing the ease of their little detour and the apparent absence of scorching as he neared the flames, he finally made the conclusion that this wall just an illusion meant to trick the less persistent and observant into turning back and going the wrong way as he held his left hand to it.

Perhaps he thought it was safe and tried by going through the fire, emerging from the other side with no damage whatsoever. He stuck his head back through along with his left arm gesturing to come through, which his daughter immediately followed after which they continued to follow Mai's instructions to follow the right wall until told otherwise.

Coming off a few meters from their first challenge, they came across a large wide area, perfect place for a fight in Leo's eyes lifting his left arm so slightly to his side signaling to Lina to stand back and stay close. Slowly, Leo took few more steps forward and suddenly numerous small mud golems emerged from the ground, three of which were immediately destroyed by a single swing from Leo's water saber leaving seven left alive. Turning his head to his side, he looked for his friends and awaited their presence in battle eager to see what it is they do as they have seen his requip magic be displayed the moment they stepped through into the maze.

Post WC: 948
Leo's total:2,000

Thankfully, his new acquaintances, namely Leo and his daughter along with the robot girl, Mai, heeded his alarm and went on alert to respond to the flames. Thankfully though, it was soon revealed by Leo’s actions that the wall of flames was nothing more than an illusion, possibly set up by whoever created the pocket dimension and maze challenge they were in currently. So, following Leo and Mai’s lead, Zhāng walked right through the fiery curtain all the while heeding Mai’s advice to trace a path across the surface of the right side maze wall with his hand to keep from getting lost. After a while of more walking, another challenge presented itself to them, this one being some sort of pre programmed battle scenario, judging from how it had activated automatically the moment he and his companions had set foot in the new area of the maze.

“So…golems, huh? Hehe, how amusing…but then, I suppose since this is a festival, these are meant to be more for fun than anything else.”

While he was lost in his thoughts and muttering to himself thus as he observed the golems attack his companions, Zhāng made sure to search for the one biggest weak point of any golem, aka the word “EMETH” which was always supposed to be etched into their forehead. Sure enough, after a while of observing the golems as some of them were easily mowed down first by Leo who used some sort of water blade and a few moments after by Mai,, he found it. He knew what to do to handle said golems, so he had decided to hang back and watch Mai and Leo very closely as they made short work of all but a couple of the golems in the group’s path.

“I see…so Leo seems to be some sort of weapon user…maybe re-quip?…judging from how he pulled out that sword out of thin air when we first entered the maze…and Mai…she seems to have some more secrets of her own, but wow, serrated blade edged limbs, how intriguing…”

While he was mulling over this information silently in his mind-scape, his keen eyes alerted him to the sight of the two remaining golems charging right at him with the distance between them and him shrinking rapidly. So, he snapped out of his thoughts immediately, and with the ghost of a smug smirk playing upon his thin lips and his sharp eyes glinting as the moonlight reflected off them, he prepared to face them. However, since his companions seemed to want to keep the bulk of their main abilities under wraps, he decided he would too. To that end, he crouched low and tensed his lower limbs while crossing his upper limbs with their sharp nails. Then, he sprung forward at almost the same speed that Mai had earlier, seemingly charging straight at the two golems without any plan. However, at the same moment he met the golems, he performed a swift whiplash like maneuver at blinding speed, aimed at the golem’s foreheads and in the next instant, he was several paces away from them, near Leo and Mai.

At first glance, his attack didn’t seem to do anything as the two golems turned around as if ready to attack the group again. However, a moment later, the E etched onto the forehead of each golem was sliced cleanly off, converting the word, “EMETH”, to the word, “METH” instead. A split second later, the two golems crumbled to dust and so ended the short battle sequence. After that, Zhāng gave Leo, his daughter and Mai a small smile and then led the group toward the exit of the maze where a pair of individuals who looked like festival staff were waiting for them all. Once he and the other got there, they were congratulated for finishing the maze challenge while also not destroying anything or harming the attendants manning the challenge dimension. As per the rules, each of them was then given 3 shiny gold trophies to commemorate their successful completion of the challenge. With their trophies in hand, Zhāng led the group out of the maze dimension which then caused them to appear back on the festival grounds at the exact spot where they had encountered the challenge earlier that evening. He thanked Leo, his daughter, and Mai for letting him join them

“You have my gratitude for being kind enough to allow me to join all of you on this quaint little adventure, my friends. I had a great deal of fun this evening thanks to all of you and hope that we can meet again someday. Till then, fare thee well.”

After he said that farewell, he gave them all a brief bow and after excusing himself as well as wishing them a fun rest of the evening, he headed back home to enjoy a nice rest.

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Post WC: 815

Personal Total: 1914/1500

Trophies Collected: 3/3