Hungry Choir

The Hungry Choir or Devouring Song is a Ritual Incarnate based out of Kennet.

Nature

The Hungry Choir are a living ritual, a self-organizing pattern of rules spread out over a wide area, not defined by any of their physical manifestations.

Origins

Unknown, but speculated to be created by an Incarnation seeking to spread their concept and power, like most Ritual Incarnates.

The Ritual

You sign your full name up to the website. No matter what time it is, you are now in the ritual world and it is midnight.

You must then follow the singing to the ritual site, and join the other eight participants in singing the Devouring Song. Part-way through, an animal will appear; you have to eat some of it before the song ends.

On completing the ritual, you gain a tattoo corresponding to the phase of the moon, and any injuries gained during the ritual magically become healed-over injuries you had since birth. If you complete the ritual eight times for the eight phases of the moon, you will be forever satisfied - no need to eat or drink, no negative effects on your body from overindulging, and fate will arrange for you to have endless supplies of whatever food, drink, or drugs you desire.

Rules

The rules governing Hungry Choir participants are drawn from the wording of the song:

• "Have no knife" - no weapons. Sufficiently armoured clothing risks breaking this rule.
• "Not miss a single word" - no speaking, even single-syllable cries, that isn't part of the song.
• "Not miss a single beat" - once the song starts, failure to sing along is punished.
• "Shan't fail to take a bite" - you must eat some of the sacrificial animal before the song ends. This is required to complete the ritual.

These rules are enforced by the Waifs, which will attack anyone breaking them.

Manifestations

Waifs

Small children with horrible teeth and bloody mouths. Immune to injury. Anyone who fails the ritual is doomed to be devoured by them, and have their remains become another Waif.

Observers

People with mouths for faces. Appear only in the ritual-world, corresponding to people in the real world. Don't do anything but look creepy.

Flyers

The Hungry Choir spreads itself with magical flyers that manifest and seek out victims, generally people with issues around food, self-image, or addiction. Those who are not susceptible can't read them. They look like a misprinted combination of an ad for a buffet and for a musical show, with a lengthy nonsensical URL at the bottom.

Website

An impossible website detailing the ritual, the same pink-grey colour as the flyer, with a sign-up page. The website never appears in your browser history, it's source code is nonsense and cannot be copied.

Universe

During the ritual, the participants are transported to a distorted version of the universe. All clocks and similar displays show a distorted countdown to "dawn" and the end of the ritual. TVs show a mess of distorted images; websites and apps are gibberish; photos show the Observers where normal people should be. Geography and layout is altered. The moon in the sky flickers between different positions.== References ==

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