Bound to the Party

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Bound to the Party</default></title>

<image source="image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <label>First Appearance</label> </infobox> A pretty exclusive puzzle path with multiple lengths, where nominatively determinate animals must be dealt with as they head to a party.

Entry

Setup for Bound to the Party requires a table, several toy animals, of any material, and an equal number of papers. The specific animals will determine the names and natures of the Lost that appear on the Path. The number of animals can vary, six or seven being known options, and may determine the number of sections on the Path. The papers can be pages from stories, invitations, or potentially other things, and further define the conditions of the Path. The table must be flipped or collapsed so all the toy animals hit the ground, ideally at the same time.<ref>“I’ve got an emergency get the hell outta here practice rigged,” Avery said. “But it means one of us, ideally me, has to get to that table, and if I have to flip it, we’re getting hucked straight onto a path. You’d miss dinner with your mom.”
[...]
Avery touched the six wooden animal toys and figures, all old fashioned, painted wood, some with wheels meant to be pulled along on strings, others more like decorations for a house or children’s toys for young kids. A duck, a badger, a rat, an ape, a parrot, and a squirrel. All lined up on the far edge of the table. Each had a paper beneath them with a page from a story. “That’s the path entrance.”

“Which way do you flip it?”

“Either way, but all the toys have to hit the ground. Ideally at the same time.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5</ref><ref>Avery arranged the stuffed animals on the table. Monkey, Duck, Squirrel, Bear, Pig, Yak, Fawn.
[...]
“I hope you’re right. Invitations are taped to the table, stuffed animals set. That’s our entrance. Our equipment, got my bag. You?”
[...]
Avery gently clotheslined her mother, arm at her neck, one hand at the back of her coat, throwing her weight backwards toward the far end of the table. Snowdrop did something similar.

They crashed over and through the card table, animals scattering, and landed roughly on the other side. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>

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. - 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. - 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.”

“But with the right animals…”

“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-”

“Which is problematic,” Verona finished.

“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.”

“That’s the way it goes.”

“You might have to contrive to get a situation to happen. Like with the rat?”

“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.”

“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.”

“Hand over their mouth mid-sentence should work, pushing him over mid-action?”

“Yeah. Sounds like you got it. Leaving the fox and duck as the big potential wrinkles.”

“Can deal, I think. So long as I can practice to avoid the duck getting away. I don’t want to chase. - 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.

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.
[...]
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.’
[...]
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. - 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.”

“I might become a Verona monkey? Ape?”

“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.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5</ref>

Boons

Bound to the Party is useful for travel, as an escape route, or as a place to strand somebody.<ref>“I won’t get into the boons. Running that path is more about escaping a worst-case scenario situation here instead of actually getting any benefits.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5</ref><ref>The last times she’d been here, she’d been playing by different rules. She’d brought Florin Pesch here, and so she’d been exempt from rules, and she’d been exempt from getting rewards. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref> Using Hazel's rule of pursuit for one of the latter lets a Finder avoid rules, but also prevents them from gaining boons.<ref name="pursuit"/> One of several weak boons can be obtained at the Party at the end of the Path. One allows a Finder to ask someone for a non-food item it would be common to have multiple of, such as office or school supplies or ammunition, and they'll likely spare some. Another causes free food to appear near the Finder.<ref name="boon">The box was a foot across on every side, red, and tied with a thick ribbon. Avery opened it, then took out a bullet.
[...]
“It’s a boon, a little bit of magic I get for finishing the Path. Bound to the Party gets walked a fair bit so it’s a bit weak. Most of the easy paths are, just because they’ve been used a lot.”
[...]
“Anyway, means about once a day, I can ask a stranger for something you can have in large numbers and run out of, and they’ll probably have it. Notecards, pen, bullet…”

“Food,” Snowdrop muttered.

“Not food. There’s three boxes, each has a set of rewards that they tend to give. There’s a cherry pit pie, and if you eat the slice, you find random food a lot. Random box of cookies sitting by the road, or whatever. Or if you’re stuck in a desert, like, a box will fall off a passing plane. Makes it hard to starve to death.” - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref> Bound to the Party can also transition to one of a few other Paths at the end, such as the Crash Course or Down the Tubes, though the Finder can exit before this.<ref>But the music was too loud for an explanation. Avery took her mom’s arm. She wanted out of here in case the Path tried to move things along to another length. Bound to the Party could connect to the Party Down, which could connect to Down the Tubes, which was best described as going down a child’s slide with a razor blade embedded in it, a fast track down to the Abyss. But the Party Down wasn’t the only option. This place couldbecome the Party Crash, which was a fast and frenetic transition to Crash Course. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>

Residents

• Mr. Ape - imitates as an insincere-sounding form of flattery<ref>A man sitting on stairs stood up as they approached. Big, muscular, wearing a yellow tank top and jeans, a massive belt buckle that looked like a barrel, and he was hairy. He looked like a bouncer, a perpetual ‘watch yourself’ glare on his face, beneath heavy, hairy eyebrows. He was Bald, but making up for it with thick black hair on shoulders, arms, the back of his hands…
  
  Gold Banana on a gold chain at his neck, tattooed letters on his fingers reading ‘ooook’ and ‘ooook’… okay.
  
  “Mr. Monkey? Are you going to the party?”
  
  “Mr. Ape.”
  
  “Oh.”
  
  “Yeah. Oh. Are you going to the party?”
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  “Yeah.” He sighed, like it was the most annoying thing in the world he had company. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Mr. Bear - puts up with a lot<ref>Mr. Bear was a heavyset guy wearing a leather vest over a white tee. Avery put Snowdrop on the task of annoying him.
  [...]
  “Yeah, sure. And Mr. Bear? Are you okay?”
  
  “I can deal, thanks,” the man said, in a low voice. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Duck - wary, tends to go low<ref>Duck was a kid wearing a baseball cap and a shirt with the sleeves torn off, hair flipped up in a weird way at the side and at the back, by the neck.
  [...]
  Duck nodded, glancing around, wary.
  [...]
  Avery sent a signal to Snowdrop, who went after Duck. As Duck went to hurdle the railing at the end of the ramp, Snowdrop intercepted her, bullying her out of the way. Duck went under either, and Avery put out a hand to help them step down. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Fawn - doe-eyed and generous with compliments<ref>“Oh my god, look at you!” a girl cooed, looking down from a balcony-ish space above. Avery looked up just in time to see the girl hopping down. ‘Y’-shaped, truncated antler hairpin, fuzzy coat, short skirt, and boots that were more heel than anything. She used the railing Duck had just gone under to step down, then hopped down the rest of the way. She skipped forward, arms perpetually cocked out to the side. A bit younger than Avery, but just barely. She acted and looked like a teenager sneaking out to go to a club, trying to look older than they were. ‘Bambi’ was in gold on a short necklace that was barely more than a choker. “We almost match! You look so good.”
  [...]
  “You look so good, the tattoos really work for you,” Fawn said, hugging Avery’s arm. “Can we be best friends?”
  
  “I’ve already got a very cool animal companion.”
  
  “Oh. So you do,” Fawn said. She looked at Snowdrop. “You look, uh…”
  
  “You were going to say something nice?”
  
  “I was going to try, yes. Thank you.” - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Mr. Pig - likes to eat<ref>Mr. Pig was eating at a restaurant that was inset into the rows of alley like the balcony-ish areas had been. A big man with an upturned nose, and a lot of scars. He paid for his meal and joined them.
  
  Avery started unloading the extra snacks she’d brought, letting him pig out. She’d gone for volume over quality. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Mr. Rat - tell him a secret, and he won't keep it<ref>Until they met a rat, about ten feet tall, with the front of its skull carved off. There was a sculpted, doll-like face nailed to the part of the head where snout, eyes, mouth and everything had been cut away. The doll face was of a handsome blond man. He wore colorful surfboarder shorts.
  
  “Hello, Mr. Rat.”- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.8</ref>
• Mr. Snipe - will shoot without warning, though may have once just been verbally abusive<ref>“Mr. Snipe’s armed. Call out around the noodle shop.”
  
  “No kidding? I thought he would make nasty comments.”
  
  “Terminology catches up and takes over.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.8</ref>
• Squirrel - picks things up and hides them away<ref>Squirrel was a nervous, mousy girl with frayed clothes and a bandage taped over one eye, which fit because the old stuffed animal had been missing one inset eye.
  [...]
  She looked at Squirrel, hands on her hips.
  
  “What?” Squirrel asked.
  
  Avery used her Sight, tracking connections. She was free and clear of anything trailing between herself and something Squirrel was carrying, but…
  
  She reached over, Squirrel grabbing her before she could grab Squirrel, fighting back-
  [...]
  Avery reached into a pocket, pulling out some receipts and… a gold wedding band.
  
  She passed it to her mom, then gave Squirrel a light push toward the club. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Mrs. Yak - chatterbox<ref>Mrs. Yak was a tall, heavyset middle-aged woman with short, dense, curly hair and horn-rimmed glasses, and she talked a mile a minute, punctuating statements with heavy smacks of a mitt of a hand into the other.
  [...]
  “Let’s just go. Mrs. Yak, you were saying?”
  
  Mrs. Yak resumed going on about types of grass. - Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.14</ref>
• Badger, Parrot, Fox, and Weasel are all mentioned as potential options<ref>“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-”
  [...]
  “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.”
  [...]
  “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.”
  
  “Hand over their mouth mid-sentence should work, pushing him over mid-action?”
  
  “Yeah. Sounds like you got it. Leaving the fox and duck as the big potential wrinkles.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5</ref>

History

Avery Kelly set up an entry to Bound to the Party as a potential escape route while unbinding Lost in Thunder Bay with Verona Hayward. She later used the Path to strand Florin Pesch,<ref>It hit the back of the folded table, then landed on the lower half that was resting more or less on the surface of the roof. Glamour broke and the contents of the bracelet tumbled down. Stuffed animals.

“It’s an Avery Kelly move!” she called out, and she stomped three times to activate her shoe, and used the boost to break free of the hands that gripped her, hurling herself at Florin, arm out.

Clotheslining him.

Driving him back and at the table.

The two of them tumbled onto that ping pong table, her on top of Florin, the both of them going over the edge.

And landing on sidewalk. - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.8</ref> thwarting his attempt to challenge Thunder Bay's Lordship, and demonstrating Hazel's rule of pursuit.<ref name="pursuit">“I suppose I should tell you a secret, to get it out of the way?”

“No,” Mr. Rat told her. “You don’t need to.”

“Hazel’s rule of pursuit?”

Mr. Rat nodded.
[...]
“No boon if you do this, you know.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.8</ref> Bound to the Party was briefly considered as an option for the Founding of Kennet.<ref>“Bound to the Party?” It was the path she’d left Florin on. Animals, people in animal masks or other representatives, all carrying on very literal roles.

“A possibility. Social, event-focused. It could map easily to Kennet.”

“Would it map easily to you?” Avery asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t believe so.” - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.5</ref> Avery also walked the Path with Kelsey Kelly to travel to the Musser family home.

Bound to the Party was apparently found by the Garrick family and kept fairly exclusive.<ref>“It’s a pretty exclusive Path. Found by colleagues of mine, sold only to me and two others.” - Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.8</ref> However, by the time Avery Kelly walked it with her mother, it had been traveled enough for the boons to have become weak.<ref name="boon"/> This may be because Florin's stranding and rescue compromised the secrecy of it, causing other Finder groups to exploit it, or because the Garricks themselves had exhausted it in the course of exploring it.

References

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