ritual 38 - coat of arms

[throughbamboo]

WHO: everyone
WHERE: the pasture
WHEN: Day 98

[oh hey, that big Weed has a knife. He lights a cigarette, hums to himself, and then cuts his hand.

A hand emerges from the blood on the ground, reaching up, up - only to slam against the ground, making the earth shake. A second hand appears to do the same, and a demon slowly begins to push itself upwards. The chest piece it wears is worn and dented, discolored with wear and tear. Pieces of chainmail dangle from it and clink against the metal as it moves.

It turns away for a moment and pulls a large shield out from behind it, then turns back and slams the shield down into the ground in front of it. The front is distorted, the symbols and colors and designs on the shield blurring together into a mess of nothing - or is it? You're not sure.

As the demon leans on the shield, glowing, red eyes regard you . . . assessing. Judging. Look away if you wish, but you will feel those eyes burning into you.

After an uncomfortable amount of time staring, it finally speaks]

A show of strength, perhaps?

[the sky darkens, thunder rumbling in the distance.







. . . and then abruptly returns to what it was]

No.

A display of who you are.

[and then you're whisked away]

Comments

RULES

[throughbamboo]

Get those creative juices flowing because you're gonna be designing a Coat of Arms!

ROUND ONE

You will be given three hours to discuss and create your coats of arms.

Your coat of arms can be anything you want! Want to go hardcore and look up what a coat of arms has and include all of those parts in yours? Go for it! Want it to just be a stick figure holding up a middle finger? I respect it. I'll include some resources below that you can use or ignore.

"Can I draw/photoshop/etc—" That's why y'all got three hours. ♥ THIS IS NOT A REQUIREMENT NOR PART OF SCORING BTW for round two reasons.

Turn ins will be a written description of your design!

In your turn in, if you include your flock's color/flower/priest animal, these will be changed for round two!

Example: if Thistle submits "a fox all curled up in a bunch of thistles", this will be changed to "an animal all curled up in a bunch of flowers".

ROUND TWO

Time to guess which coat of arms belong to which flock/Weeds!

You'll be given one hour to discuss this with your flock and turn in your choices.

Turn ins for this round will go like so: descriptions will be listed out, and flocks/Weeds will pick which flock designed that coat of arms and why.

Example: Number 1 is Thistle, because they drew a stick figure holding a middle finger.

You don't have to give an in depth analysis, just a reason behind why you picked them!

Again, all descriptions will be generalized so as to not give anyone away!

Winners will be based on the top two most correct guesses and MYSTERIOUS THIRD CHOICE.


HELPFUL LINKS if you feel like going hard
heraldic symbolism
even more heraldic symbolism
a beginner's guide to heraldry

ROOMS

[throughbamboo]

Bluebell
Lily
Daffodil
Rose
Clover
Thistle
Weeds

ROUND TWO

[throughbamboo]

1. The background is blue, and the shield is framed in silver. Aspen leaves entwine like vines and encircle a shark curled protectively around a cat (lynx) while colored dahlias bloom from the vines themselves. Tied to the shark's tail is a broken anchor.

2. A fruit, sliced in half so you can see five seeds inside. A dagger is piercing the fruit vertically, and a drop of blood drips from the tip. There's a crown around the dagger's handle. The whole design is framed by a border of thorny vines.

3. A background of a silver chevron against a pasture color backsplash. Acacia branches frame an olive tree that shelters a lion and another animal. The moon rises above it.

4. This coat of arms is in the shape of a shield! the outside border of the shield is silver.

At six equidistant points around the inside of the border are six identically stylized silver flock flowers in profile. each flower is divided in half, with one side being dark and tarnished, and one side being bright.

At the center of the shield is another much larger flock flower in gold, but a top view of it this time. each petal has a dark dividing line most of the way through it, with the effect rather like spokes on a wheel. in the middle of the big central flower is an enigmatic symbol of two rings inside of each other, with a tiny square protrusion from the bottom of the outer ring.

The gold central flower is surrounded in stylized silver smoke or flame. behind it, the base color of the shield is a bright turquoise.

5. The shield has three chevrons pointing up. The first colored chevron has a truck on one side and dice on the other. The second white chevron has an ornate, almost flower-like hat on it. The final gray chevron has two flock flowers pointed inwards.

WINNERS

[throughbamboo]

[when you return to the pasture the demon is looking at his own shield, rumbling in thought; no longer distorted, it shows each coat of arms that was designed by you and each displaying their colors, flowers, and animals as intended.

Once they've all been seen, the demon speaks]

So this is how you choose to represent yourselves. Yes, I think I understand.

Good. Very good.

[and with that, the demon slams his shield into the ground one more time, before sinking back down, the same way it appeared]


YOUR WINNERS ARE: Weeds, Clover, and Bluebell! (Nadeko chose out of those who got all 5 correct)

All teams get memory coins! Weeds get their requisite booze.

Every flock that created a coat of arms will find a pure silver replica of such mounted on the entrance to their barns now. Each is about the size of a large plate/platter. If anyone experiments with them, they'll find they act as a repellent of sorts--for example, the Lady Demon will not go near them. For Weeds, they all get pure silver brass knuckles.

Winners also get cleaned bodies of crows. They taste like chicken, only gamier!

Everyone gets a little charm of their coat of arms.

ENDGAME

[throughbamboo]

Re: ENDGAME

[throughbamboo]

[and ig if you wanna talk to Nue he's still smoking over here]

Re: ENDGAME

[doggonemad]

[ holds out his hand. cig pls. ]

Re: ENDGAME

[throughbamboo]

[offers it over]

Re: ENDGAME

[bloominto]

What prompted this, if I may?

Re: ENDGAME

[throughbamboo]

Just causin' a little trouble, thought I'd be creative 'bout it.

Re: ENDGAME

[endsjustified]

What brought this on?

[despair_to_live]

...Smoking kills, you know.

Re: ENDGAME

[wants_the_phd]

Apparently we can only win games that involve murder.

Should we have done more stabbing? Is that the lesson to take from this?

Re: ENDGAME

[strateelgic]

[Chuckling...]

Re: ENDGAME

[poisonista]

Clearly that seems to be all we're good for.

[debug_mode]

Should we have?

Re: ENDGAME

[rumorradio]

( she just gives the alcohol a miffed look before sighing and looking to see if anyone she knows is around. )

Re: ENDGAME

[endsjustified]

[looking at the little charm in his palm…closes his hand on it after a moment]

Very good.

Re: ENDGAME

[bloominto]

Charon. Were you also alone in all this?

Re: ENDGAME

[poisonista]

[ Sigh. He just folds his arms and tucks the charm away before moving to walk back into the barn. May as well go sing to his moonjellies and get the Rose sheep on their practice. ]

Re: ENDGAME

[rumorradio]

... ( she just gives a little wave. but he seems reasonably upset, so she won't interrupt his exit. )

[despair_to_live]

FUCKING TWO VICTORIES IN A ROW! FUCK YEAH!! HAIL TO THE QUEEN!

Re: ENDGAME

[readytosqueeze]

[ his new silver brass knuckles fit pretty nicely! probably won't help with his preferred way of handling his problems though.

also he likes his charm. something about a shark protecting a cat. hm. ]

Re: ENDGAME

[strateelgic]

The shark? Really?

[Dork.]

Re: ENDGAME

[heavyliesthecrown]

I see that I missed something strange.