bragnificent: (💁🏽‍♂️ ⦄ 307)
REGGIE⭐️MANTLE ([personal profile] bragnificent) wrote in [community profile] maskormenacelogs2018-06-20 11:57 pm

I feel it in my blood, in the fire and the flood

WHO: BAPHOMET, HIS ENTOURAGE (REGGIE MANTLE & NICO MINORU), and YOU.
WHERE: Maurtia Falls, in the woods.
WHEN: June 21st
WHAT: Baphomet's concert debut!
WARNINGS: Possible drinking, drug use, fire hazards, and/or Wicked + the Divine spoilers; anything else, please mark your threads as necessary!




Although promoted across all four cities -- mostly via ominous posters and graffiti displaying a simple symbol and the date, June 21st -- directions to the concert are a little more obscure to come by, although those who want to find it will find their way. Part of it is via word-of-mouth, yes, but there's also a sort of... strange draw in the air, one that will just instinctively guide those who truly belong at the show, or are at least open to hearing it.

But however they find their way, it becomes much more obvious the closer you get. Reach a particular Maurtia Falls forest and one might start to notice that same symbol painted on some of the trees and nearby power poles, accompanied by arrows guiding attendees deeper into the woods.


The destination itself is obvious once you arrive to it: a large clearing in the woods, illuminated by a number of eerie floating red and gold lanterns and (what would appear to be) faerie lights. There is fog and, somehow, a cloak of dusk surrounding the area even before the sun really begins to set, and the ground is dark and illuminated by cuts of flame as if there were just a fire here. Visual effects courtesy of Nico Minoru's magic, no doubt. There's streaks of red paint smeared across several trees, the ground, and the props meant to look like blood, too, but it's probably not actually. One thing is for sure, which is that from a distance, from the outside looking in, it will certainly look as if there's a fire blazing within the woods the entire night.

The stage itself is made of wood and metal, elevated just a bit from the ground so it gives off the appearance as a dilapidated bridge, splintered and rusted, and is backed with black and orange curtains. Far from the stage is a merchandise table, which includes black t-shirts sporting Baphomet's insignia in white or red, as well as posters of the same design (some of which include also Baphomet's name, or flaming eyes below the symbol), various takes on the goat-skull, blades, and spikes theme via metal rings and necklaces, a Goatman plushie with burning red eyes, and then finally, shirts and encouraged donations promoting Linda Belcher's Lind-a-Care foundation. On the opposite side of the stage is a broad table with refreshments, sporting an enormous golden claw-footed punch bowl in the center which compartments a few different varieties of red-colored drinks (which Reggie Mantle will be happy to spike alcoholically, using his powers, should anyone want or ask) within itself, BAPHOMEAT (lamb kebabs), a broad spread of sandwich fixings and bread, elaborate fruit-and-cheese plates, a selection of fireball whisky, and of course, bottles of water.

Once it begins to get dark, the sun setting in earnest now... let the show begin.



( For a more individualized read on your character's reactions to Baphomet's godsong, please comment to THIS. )

The solstice sun burns low in the sky, descending quickly as dusk chases it, as stars speckle a darkening sky, when those red circles materialize. They glow into being in the field before the stage, neon yet ethereal, inviting yet taunting. And that metal stage-- there's a shimmer, like the atmosphere is melting. The stage becomes the opening to a cave, the audience situated in the "cave". You're in the cave, a lion in its lair. The outline of a neon red door appears, and you can feel the warmth from it on your face. It's like the hot high noon sun, it's like rage and war. It gets into your blood, this heat.

Baphomet steps through the door, onto the raise of stone that remained reminiscent of a performance stage. He raises both his arms above his head. He points to you, index finger out and thumb up.

One,
two,

three,

four.

The sound pours out of his mouth and it burns. You feel it under your skin, you feel it spreading -- infectious, you know it's viral. You know it is contagion. He screams a riot, incomprehensible yet intimate, he roars for you. He sings every surrender you've regretted, he sings your fists ripping at your own chains, of your searing and bloodied triumph. His eyes are catlike slits, his fangs displayed in predatory snarl.

Your veins glow with inspired revolution. You can break free, you can escape a hell of your own making. You can become your own plague, and lay waste those who would ever again hurt you.



It's also one of Baphomet's talents, to create what he calls image golems. They are illusions, mirages, a plague set upon your heart and your mind. They aren't real, but they seem real, they'll talk to you and react and provoke. Sometimes they give to chase. You may see it lurking, its blinkless stare looking back at you through thinning foliage. You may hear the twigs snap beneath its hooves. He will beckon to you, his all-too-human hand nearly normal, with only some fingers seemingly melded together. He walks with mostly a man's body, but he wears the head of a goat. Welcome to the sideshow.

If you approach him, he will speak with a voice familiar to you. The voice of someone not here, someone back home. Someone you miss. Everyone within earshot will hear.

"It's been too long. I miss you."

Something along those lines come out of his mouth.

And then he'll flee. You can either:
A. Give chase to him, catch him, and NPC him from there.
B. Take comfort in your company, who would have also heard a love one from the goatman's tongue.
C. Give chase to him, catch him, and kill him. An image golem of his nature will not hurt you. He will but dissolve.
yol8: <user name=vendingmachine> (pic#12135306)

[personal profile] yol8 2018-07-02 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, doing this on my own. I figured he's got enough to worry about right now, and it seemed like a thing that needed doing.

[She seems still spooked...]

You doing okay?
Edited 2018-07-02 01:42 (UTC)
sanguinespell: (03)

[personal profile] sanguinespell 2018-07-03 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah. [no] Yeah, I just... god, I knew he was doing this, we talked about it like three times when we were planning the show, but I didn't... [she shakes her head.]

I heard my sister.
yol8: <user name=vendingmachine> (Little Planet)

[personal profile] yol8 2018-07-04 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
You helped plan this with Baph?

[But even further-]

Your sister?

[...Which probably shouldn't be a problem, unless there was... issues related to said sister. But given what he's been hearing all night, about people experiencing things they feared or felt guilty about in the forest... it most likely wasn't just a happy memory.]
sanguinespell: (81)

[personal profile] sanguinespell 2018-07-06 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[nico just nods at the first part, they can circle back to that.]

Yeah, uh... she died a couple of years ago. Hearing her voice like that, I guess it just... [deeeeeep breath. she almost absently collapses her staff back into its shorter inactive form, as the lingering illusions around--the fog, floating lanterns, fairy lights, smoldering flames--finally start to fade out, all at once.]

Shit, sorry, Dio. [a habit from talking to baph, tbh] We don't even know each other, I shouldn't be unloading my stuff on you like that.
yol8: <user name=vendingmachine> (Who Is There)

[personal profile] yol8 2018-07-14 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
Nah, it's fine, I asked. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know.

[But that's rough, buddy.]

But being in this forest probably isn't going to help you get a clear head. Mind if we grab some coffee?