Editing Bound to the Party (section)

==Description==
Like most Paths, the specific appearance of the Path varies dramatically between runs.<ref>It was an urban street, but it wasn’t an Earthly urban street.  Graffiti painted most surfaces, with bright animal images and forest scenes. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/01/08/left-in-the-dust-16-8/ Excerpt] from [[Left in the Dust 16.8]]</ref><ref>The alleyways were covered in graffiti, none of the buildings looked accessible, with the few doors and nooks she could see being boarded up or rusted shut.  Half the time she could barely tell a door was there due to the density of graffiti, which went up two stories on just about every surface around them.  On the second and third floors, there were homes, all in a style that made her think of apartments in a Chinatown style district, except it wasn’t China.  The balconies weren’t really balconies in the sense that they stuck out, but most of the apartments above had a short ‘outside hallway’ with a railing, inset into the building.  Balcony-ish. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/crossed-with-silver-19-14/ Excerpt] from [[Crossed with Silver 19.14]]</ref> Notably, the appearance of the inhabitants of the Path, Finder and Lost, also change each time, and all share a coherent theme. Both Finders and Lost can appear as humans with animal themed clothing, human-animal hybrids, or actual animals. The Lost residents of Bound to the Party also seem to be specific to the Path; it's unknown if they can venture to other Paths or if non native Lost can appear, but there will always be a certain number of Lost named after an animal whose name can also act as a verb, who correspond to the specific toy animals used for entry. If the Path is entered without specifying animals, they will be random. The Lost will behave in a way indicated by their name, possibly further specified by the papers, and the Finder will need to engage with each Lost as they meet them on the Path in order to progress, either preventing or enabling their specific behavior.<ref>“They’re only ‘animals’ in the sense of the theme.  Might be people in clothes that evoke the animal, could be people with animal masks, or t-shirts like Snow wears.  Could be there are literal animals.  Whatever they are, you change to match.  Anyway, if someone ends up on the Bound to the Party or if they don’t pick the animals carefully, for whatever language they use on the papers, the animals and their issues are random.  It’s chaos.”<br><br>“But with the right animals…”<br><br>“You know what to expect.  The squirrel will hide something away, the fox will try to fox you, trick you, in other words.  The badger will badger you, the ape will copy your actions, the parrot will repeat what you say, the rat will betray your confidence, the duck will try to escape, or duck out of the situation-”<br><br>“Which is problematic,” Verona finished.<br><br>“Time consuming.  Sucks but it was the easiest one to find.  I found five different wooden duck toys before I found a good badger.  We needed six and there weren’t any weasels or snipes.”<br><br>“That’s the way it goes.”<br><br>“You might have to contrive to get a situation to happen.  Like with the rat?”<br><br>“I’ll tell him about that time I was little and peed in the kiddie pool and ask him to keep it a secret.  He can betray my secret.”<br><br>“Sounds good.  Means you have to mostly shut up the badger, get the ape to stop copying you, get the parrot to not repeat you.”<br><br>“Hand over their mouth mid-sentence should work, pushing him over mid-action?”<br><br>“Yeah.  Sounds like you got it.  Leaving the fox and duck as the big potential wrinkles.”<br><br>“Can deal, I think.  So long as I can practice to avoid the duck getting away.  I don’t want to chase. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/11/13/playing-a-part-15-5/ Excerpt] from [[Playing a Part 15.5]]</ref><ref>Avery checked herself over.  She’d heard a story about someone doing Bound to the Party, getting transformed into a horse as part of the conceit, and then breaking their legs because they didn’t know how to walk.  They’d never walked right again, even after turning human.
Her shirt had changed.  So had the coat with the antlers that Verona had made for her.  The shirt was patterned after a deer, the coat had turned black with the antlers in tan, the ruff more exaggerated.<br><br>Avery’s eyes widened as she saw her mom.  Heavy makeup, the side of her head was shaved where it wasn’t tightly braided, jewelry fixing hair close to one side of her head.  Her mom’s clothes had changed too.  She wore a shirt that said ‘Bambi’s mom has got it going on’, with a doe framing the words.  And she had tattoos, Avery noticed.  An antler tattoo across the side of her face, a tattoo saying ‘just doe it’ at her neck, and doe hoofprints on her palms.  She had a gold necklace, a gold bangle at her wrist, and about six rings across ten fingers.<br>[...]<br>Avery paused for a moment to admire her tattoos, pushing the collected bracelets and things up her arm to see some of them better.  Deer silhouettes formed a flowing pattern from shoulder to fingertip where they twisted in air, and the voids between the dark deer shapes were women.  On the inside of her arm, running from armpit to the paler, less freckled part of her wrist, there was a lengthy bit of script, that was kind of awkward to read.  ‘Spring forth, wayward children.  Prance and the world prances with you.  Fall, and you fall alone.’<br>[...]<br>Avery was getting the pattern – everyone looked a bit like some exaggerated gang member, or someone who could hold their own in cartoon gangland.  It was a cool aesthetic, even if it made all of this a bit more intense, visually. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/crossed-with-silver-19-14/ Excerpt] from [[Crossed with Silver 19.14]]</ref> For example, one named Mr. Crow might yell or brag, and the Finder might need to encourage the gloating or keep the Lost quiet. If the Finder fails to engage with all the Lost correctly by the time they reach the party, there will be potentially deadly consequences, such as permanently transforming the Finder or turning the Lost hostile. Backtracking is also a bad idea, and will aggro the Lost.<ref>“Well, it’s a puzzle path.  Seven lengths, each length has a different feel and aesthetic, punctuated by animals.  All the animals are going to a party.  If you can’t deal with an animal by the time you arrive, you might turn into that animal.  For good.  Or they kill you and mount you on the wall as a side activity for the party, turn you into a pinata, or decide today’s a fine day for a hunt and get their hunting gear and rifles, while you run.  Ideally.”<br><br>“I might become a Verona monkey?  Ape?”<br><br>“Yeah,” Avery said.  “So if you run into an issue, stay put.  No backtracking- you won’t get anywhere, and it changes things to be more negative and hostile.  Try too long and the animals will all turn into fancy little Lost murderers.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/11/13/playing-a-part-15-5/ Excerpt] from [[Playing a Part 15.5]]</ref>