welcome to Midsummer
Welcome to the wilds of Faerie, where deception and intrigue wind through the courts of the fae. Revels overflow with excess, beauty, and betrayal, while the students of the Iris Academy learn to take their place in a world where nothing is ever as it seems. Now, as a blue moon rises, the reigning High Court prepares to make peace with the Undersea, but peace is not something that rises easily from the ashes. Beware wandering into a faerie circle, mortals, and never strike a bargain with the fae; they may not be able to lie, but they are always hiding something.
Midsummer is a character-driven, fae folklore, text-based RPG site, founded 3 September 2023 by admins SeaJem + M. We are a collective of writers from a variety of backgrounds and histories, and we value community, character development, and sharing a love of writing. Feel free to look around and explore—but don’t go too far, or it may be hard to leave.
Site Updates
September 2024 (IC Fall):
Fall is here in Faerie, as the Garden Party and related events continue. Several different plots are beginning as winter creeps in, including the Northern Rebellion, the Viola's Greatest Threat, and the Undersea's Traitor. Information on all of these plots will be released through September and October and all are availiable to all members. The Iris Academy has reopened, and some positions at the High Court have become available, largely those of advisors.
Write your own faerie tale
Midsummer SeaJem + M
Blueprint is a premade Proboards v5 theme designed and built by punki of Adoxography and Pixel Perfect. Midsummer was founded September 3, 2023 by SeaJem + M. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. All images belong to their original owners.
Site Lore
The Faewild is comprised of four Cardinal Courts, plus the ruling High Court and the Undersea. The Seelie Courts, North and South, are slightly more traditional and straightforward (as much as the fae ever are), which their Unseelie counterparts to the East and West are duplicitous and wild.
Farthest south, beneath the waves, lies the Undersea, home to the pearl-encrusted Sunken City. The Undersea fae are a proud people—perhaps too much so, according to some of their counterparts on dry land. All of the Faewild is ruled by the High Court, whose power is personified in the High King and Queen. By wearing this crown, they take on the spirit of the Faewild; their hearts beat with the heart of the land. Beware, and choose your words carefully: the fae are a capricious and tricky people, as fickle as they are cunning, and their rulers are the most of all.
visions i vandalize [jin-hwa]
Jin-Hwa Mei
Undersea Fae
Princess of The Undersea
School of War
SeaJem <3
16
Undersea Fae
You're in the wind, I'm in the water. Nobody's son; nobody's daughter.
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Post by Jin-Hwa Mei on Jun 20, 2024 1:51:44 GMT
[break][break] If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]
Nothing Makes me Feel More alive
[break]
She laughed and her laugh was stolen from her by the wind. Now he saw it. Now he understood. Either you end me or I will. It was what she had said from the beginning. It was a universal truth. They both knew how this would end. At the end of a blade.
[break][break]
And they had both accepted it now. Was this, then, what it felt like to be limitless? She had cut the heart of a dragon and watched it bleed out. She had washed gold blood off of her hands and turned his blood gold with the glimmer of his eyes, but that all had been finite. That all had a set end. This felt like immortality. This felt like staring down death. This was a paradox, and they both knew it. The challenge had been accepted. The game was on.
[break][break] She fought to strike and he did too. She felt the thorns winding around her arms. She could cut them back but they would simply regrow. These thorns were an extension of him. His anger fueled them just as her rage whipped up this storm. No single blade could stand against it. So she would have to fight fire with fire.
[break][break]
She called on all her strength, all her decision, all her willpower. She was unbreakable and unbeatable. She could manage this. There was a way to do it. She felt the thorns wrap around her and fantasized that they were making a statue of her living form. If she survived this, she wouldn’t need it. She would already be legendary.
[break][break]
The winds before had been called to her. Now the winds came from her. Every breath fueled them. She had lowered her sword momentarily, but she did not fear his blade. A thousand tiny thorns cut into her skin, and she hoped her blood was gold. She hoped her wounds looked like armor. If they didn’t now, she would recraft them into it.
[break][break]
The wind swirled around her, faster and faster, whipping up a storm. Her hair was blown out of her eyes. Her face glowed with power. Her cheeks were flushed. She never looked more lovely than when she was angry. The storm tore the thorns away from her, one by one. The branches fell to the ground. They continued to regrow, but these were not winds from far away. These winds were inside her, and they were strong. She would face this test. Free of thorns now, she raised her sword. He could throw anything he wished at her. She would fight, again and again and again, until she won. They both knew the only way this would end. So be it. For once, he had said it all.
[break][break]
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Gemini Enigma
Admin
"My wings are not broken; I am building them myself, and I intend to ascend under my own power."
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Jun 20, 2024 23:28:46 GMT
Post by Gemini Enigma on Jun 20, 2024 23:28:46 GMT
[attr="class","box1"] The winds were trying to tear him apart. Gemini's scalp pricked as his hair was thrust into wild disarray; the force of the gales pulled at his clothes, at the pearls and jewels around his throat, at his skin. The gusts stung his eyes until they watered. But he summoned his core. He would not let himself be moved. Why did it have to be she who saw him like this, clutching at his own disarray, his elegance stolen? There was too much pressure on his skin to keep up a sly smile. He could barely see, but he knew how he looked now. Why, when his dignity had gone to pieces, must she be all that remained—her and the shambles of his own reflection? Or were those things the same? Would she win for being wilder? No. Jin-hwa blazed bright, but he was colder, crueller. His mind was a diamond, cold and hard and brilliant. He would cut her. That was all that remained to do. The thorns were tightening around her windpipe. Let her try to tear those away. Let her try to break them. Let her try to stanch her wounds. If she wanted to burn, then burn her he would. Gemini feinted right, then lunged—a move entirely uncharacteristic to the way he'd fought so far, with grace and tricks. It was bare and it was brutal. It would seem startlingly honest. But honesty was a wicked little knife; a poisoned sword was the only lie he could tell.
How would it look, when she fell? Would he finally see her eyes dim with fear? Would she cry out or die in silence? Which would be worse? It would give him something to expect. It would be another prophecy. For as she fell, so one day would he. Slain by Gemini Marvel Enigma and his immortal pride and the rare chance he was wrong. [newclass=.box1]margin:0px auto; width:300px; height:425px; background: transparent; overflow:auto; padding:8px;[/newclass][newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar]width:5px;[/newclass][newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]background: #091c3d;[/newclass] |
Word count: 319 Notes: |
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Jin-Hwa Mei
Undersea Fae
Princess of The Undersea
School of War
SeaJem <3
16
Undersea Fae
You're in the wind, I'm in the water. Nobody's son; nobody's daughter.
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Post by Jin-Hwa Mei on Jun 21, 2024 1:12:25 GMT
[break][break] If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]
Nothing Makes me Feel More alive
[break]
Jin-Hwa watched the sword arc towards her like she was watching a vision. She saw the flash of the blade and the glitter of droplets in the air. She knew he was striking for her, but this was different. He was moving like a caged animal. She knew him– she loathed him and she reviled him, but in the end, she knew him too well. He did not move like that. She had summoned a storm. This was his response. She could feel it.
[break][break]
And he feinted left and she should have seen it coming, but she didn’t. And he was striking for her and she half-expected him to aim for her neck and behead her for her foolishness, but he didn’t. He was aiming for her arm. Why? Why would he change his movements just to match her? Why would he respond to her storm with a slight? He didn’t want to equal her. He wanted to destroy her. He wanted to win. How did she know that it was more than just one strike? Because she knew what she would do.
[break][break] She saw the glitter on the blade and she saw it all in her mind. At once, it all made sense. She wanted to say she knew because she knew him. She wanted to say she knew because she guessed. But that would be untrue. She knew because she knew how this would end. She knew because she knew what she would do.
[break][break]
So she reached out with her hand, and more instinctually than anything, she pulled. It was poison. She knew it was poison like she knew her own heartbeat. She had said it already, hadn’t she? He called her a monster so she bared her teeth. She called him a poisoner so he would intoxicate her. They both knew how this would end. But she could tip the scales, here, now. He wasn’t ready for her. She had forced herself to be ready for any earthquake. She could be ready for him too.
[break][break]
There was saltwater in that poison. Or there was liquid in that poison. Or that poison was an expression of his blood, and she could control it because they were the same. She just knew that poison like she knew the sea. She knew that poison like she knew the tides. She controlled it all the same. She pulled it back. She whipped it across the blade. It hung in the air, glittering in the sky. Dimly, she remembered her true name. Idalia. Behold the sun. The sun shone straight through the poison in the air, and the picture it painted had been drawn already. She stopped pulling. She pushed.
[break][break] She forced it back, back along his blade, back up his arm, back over his skin. She had no idea what it would do to him. Maybe it would kill him. Maybe she would have to. Your pride will be the death of you. And if it is not, I will. Perhaps she had broken the prophecy. If this killed him, it would be both.
[break][break]
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Gemini Enigma
Admin
"My wings are not broken; I am building them myself, and I intend to ascend under my own power."
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Post by Gemini Enigma on Jun 21, 2024 1:30:39 GMT
[attr="class","box1"]Gemini's wings were burning. The poison had been Guinivere's gift to him. She had made it and entrusted him with it, with the promise that if need be it would be his freedom. By eliminating any threat, it would ensure his ascent. He was a fool and he was falling blind. Was this what it was like to lose? All her promises. The prophecies. The abandonment of every parentage he'd ever had to his name. The stars would watch, impassive, tonight as he was returned to the same soil he never had any chance to inherit. Not yet.
His skin hissed as it burned, and as he hit the earth the sky filled his view. His sword was still in his hand. Had he cried out? He couldn't remember. He hadn't heard. He had to know if she would die silent or screaming. He had to know if she would laugh. Not yet.
The thorns were falling as he fell. If even his inherited kingdom was weak, Gemini did not need it. He rolled onto his front and the acid clawed at his arm, at his back. His skin screamed. He was burning but he had no further to fall. Not yet.
He abandoned the sword and began to crawl, pushing himself to his feet, staggering like something risen snarling from its grave. He could hear the wildflowers dissolving. He had only ever needed himself. He needed no soil spots or grass stains on his legacy. That was a constellation the earth would never touch until it ended. Not yet. He was reaching for her. He was bleeding. He could feel its heat on his clothes; he could feel them sticking and drying to his wounds. He seized her arms with a rigor mortis grip. Not like this, the mantra said, different but hungrier in spirit. There was too much he had not done. Too much purpose. Too much potential. Too much unread. Too much he hadn't accomplished or offered this sorry world. He was not born a genius to die a fool. And Jin-hwa Mei would never be the one to take it from him. She was the only one who could. "You do not want it like this," he gasped, "and neither do I. Is this the monster? Who would poison the poisoner's prince?" He gasped and barely was able to prevent himself from writhing as the pain burrowed deeper, as darkness threatened the edges of his vision. All he could see was her face. He would not die looking into her eyes today. But he could not say that wasn't how it would end. All he could vow was not yet, not like this. "Who would stab me with a glass shard of my own shattered mirror. You cannot let me die."The darkness wanted him, the starless night. But if the stars had forewritten him to die here, he would never call them home. "Save me or die trying," he ground out, clasping her wrists as if to crush the bones, as if to prove she could break. His breath was coming shallow now. He was no longer standing. He was dragging her down. "I will haunt you, Jin-hwa Mei."That should teach her how to make a vow, he thought as he began to lose his fight against the haze. Make one you know you will keep.[newclass=.box1]margin:0px auto; width:300px; height:425px; background: transparent; overflow:auto; padding:8px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar]width:5px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]background: #091c3d;[/newclass] |
Word count: 562 Notes: |
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Jin-Hwa Mei
Undersea Fae
Princess of The Undersea
School of War
SeaJem <3
16
Undersea Fae
You're in the wind, I'm in the water. Nobody's son; nobody's daughter.
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Jun 22, 2024 22:10:09 GMT
Post by Jin-Hwa Mei on Jun 22, 2024 22:10:09 GMT
[break][break] If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]
Nothing Makes me Feel More alive
[break]
Jin-Hwa smiled, a wicked smile, an awfully-timed smile. “Did you inherit your mortal mother’s lying tongue after all? I will cut it out of your throat.” She must look deranged, now, her sword held limply at her side, captivated by her own destruction. “I want this in any way I might have it.”
[break][break] She wanted this like she wanted oxygen. He had doubted her, all along, but she was out for blood, and now she had it. She felt like she was watching an art piece. She was transfixed by the sight of his blood on the ground. It was the most fascinating thing she had seen.
[break][break] She had learned, when she was small, that everyone bled differently. Her mother never seemed to. Her servants pretended not to. Her brother tended to his wounds silently. Jin-Hwa seethed and broke things. They all suffered differently. He suffered like nothing she had ever witnessed. She was amazed. Still spiteful, still self-indulgent, as though even this was an indignity he did not deserve. He had asked for it, and still his pride was offended. His audacity was near-miraculous. [break][break]
“Who? Who would poison the poisoner’s prince?” She started to move towards him now, not like a predator, but like a victor. Like a queen. “Who would dare it? I would. You may be audacious, but I am something better. I have won.”
[break][break] Now she was before him. He was sprawled in the dirt, and for once, finally, he had come undone. She had pulled him apart and he had shattered. She was so close. She could taste it. “I would shatter the mirror. You are a fool who did not see it sooner.” She bent, not to grieve, but to set her knee on his chest. She leaned over him, the other foot brushing the dirt, her hair falling out of its restraints. It was like her, now. Wild. Unburdened.
[break][break]
She set one hand on the hilt of her sword and the other near the tip, and held it out flat. She could see his pulse now, thready and weak. Perhaps she would strangle him with her bare hands. Perhaps she would sit here and watch him die. Perhaps she would slit his throat or cut out his heart. Her smile widened. “You see, I do not fear you living. How much less should I fear your specter. No, I think I won’t. I think,” She set the blade against his throat. “I will decide how I want you to die.”
[break][break]
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Gemini Enigma
Admin
"My wings are not broken; I am building them myself, and I intend to ascend under my own power."
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Jun 24, 2024 16:51:19 GMT
Post by Gemini Enigma on Jun 24, 2024 16:51:19 GMT
[attr="class","box1"] Even with Gemini's vast vocabulary, the pain was unspeakable. It was as if his flesh was corroding. Perhaps, he thought dazedly, it would burn away the solid, mortal parts of him. Perhaps all that remained would be a true prince of the air. He might even fly at last. But to his core, he knew these thoughts were lies that could never pass his lips. His wings had already burned. This was the fall. This was the landing. This was the sea, the tidal wave in Jin-hwa's eyes, waiting to swallow him in a crash of black depthlessness. He wondered if his pupils were as dilated as hers as she bent over him, her hair falling in curtains around them and drowning out the rest of the world. She looked drunk on triumph and he wanted to crush her throat. And what if he could? What if he was just a bit more solid, just strong enough? He felt a bit drunk himself. The world was a mosaic of pain and light and her eyes, seeming to grow larger and deeper every second. "Do you remember," he panted, "when we met at the Blue Moon revel? Do you remember when you told me you would never be like me? Who is it, then, the fool who did not see the mirror?" Gemini arched his head back as she set her sword to the ridges of his throat. It was as cold as the first blush of madness, like a shock awake. Staring death in its blazing golden eyes, Gemini remembered why he had always suffered to be underestimated; he kept all of his gifts on arrogant display with the single exception of his strength of will. That was a reserve that he kept like a wine cellar, and only now did he plumb it. Only now did he feel as if the storm she'd summoned had entered his blood and charged his veins with lightning. Adrenaline, he realized. A force so base, so human. The strength in mothers lifting fallen tons off their children and soldiers missing limbs rising up for a last blaze of gunfire. A run for survival. A chase, a hunt. It was all he had. It was all he needed. "You will not decide. The stars require something more than a willingness to take them." He was smiling. He felt expansive with pain turned potential. Perhaps he didn't have to land. Perhaps he could change the ending after all. Perhaps the strength of a half-mortal boy, the chemical survival of lowly flesh, was enough to survive the fall. "You will not have it at all." He thrust both palms upwards and felt himself cry out as the edge of her sword cut into them, but didn't stop, just inhaled the pain and exhaled purpose as he jerked upwards with some reservoir of desperation and threw Jin-hwa off. His breath tore through his chest with ragged gasps. The world seemed to have slowed. All he could see now was the glint of his sword as he grabbed it with his left hand, blood trickling down his forearm, the right too mangled to make use of. He was crawling now, covered in soil and his own blood, a nick across his throat bleeding sluggishly, but he had a weapon in his hand and if he could pull his balance back into order he could get on his feet. Gemini thought he might have been laughing more than gasping. He staggered to his feet, one arm hanging uselessly at his side. She wanted to try her hand at madness? He had it in his blood, in all that she'd shed today. It was the one destiny he had any certainty of, the one fate the stars had already sung. He grinned at her, eyes as pale as a winter sky. "Take it," he laughed, sword sloppily extended. "Have it as you said you would." He might have been shaking. He might have been dying. But he had never felt stronger than this. "Hurt me again, Jin-hwa Mei. Hurt me again."[newclass=.box1]margin:0px auto; width:300px; height:425px; background: transparent; overflow:auto; padding:8px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar]width:5px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]background: #091c3d;[/newclass] |
Word count: 688 Notes: |
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Guinivere Marcel
Admin
high queen of faerie
Assassin
SeaJem
24
Mortal
Fear will be your enemy and death its consequence
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Post by Guinivere Marcel on Jul 27, 2024 3:28:25 GMT
[break][break] I looked around in a bloodsoaked gown [break]
And I saw something they won't take away
[break][break]
Later, and it would be later, would Guinivere think about the implications of what she did that day. Later, she would think about the consequences. [break][break]
Guinivere had never had a mother. Guinivere had never had such a figure to look up to. Guinivere had never had an example. But she understood what mothers were meant to be, what they were meant to do. She was meant to protect Gemini. And with Gemini, she was learning that meant protecting him from himself as much as anything else. [break][break]
He did make it terribly difficult. [break][break]
It would have been easier to choose an heir who wanted the role in name only. It would have been easier to choose someone who saw her as a stepping stone to power, rather than a threat. She did not choose the easy thing. She had made the offer to him in the courtyard of this very palace, and he had taken it. She wondered, sometimes, if that was all that it took to make a dynasty. Just one agreement. [break][break]
And a crown. A crown helped. [break][break]
If it had been anyone else– if Gemini had fought anyone else– Guinivere would not have been worried by reports of his dueling on the lawns. He never precisely practiced swordplay, but he was determined to master nearly everything. If it had been anyone else, she would not have been afraid. But when his guards told her who it was, she had gathered her skirts. [break][break]
“I will go,” she had said. She knew she was the only one who might address whatever this was. She knew that his pride would not allow anyone else to stop him. She knew that girl might kill him. [break][break]
Whatever dark thing that lingered in Jin-Hwa Mei would not escape today. Guinevere did not know precisely what drew Gemini to her. That was another thing that would not be revealed today. He needed to be alive. For her dynasty. For her deals. For her sanity.
This would not be more blood on her hands. Not his. Not like this. [break][break]
She walked down the pathways towards the outer fields with more determination than had fueled her in a long while. Her guards were following her, but not closely. That was fine. She didn’t need witnesses. Part of her was uncomfortable being watched. Part of her didn’t want others to witness how far she’d go. Part of her still felt more suited to the shadows. [break][break]
She rounded the corner, and sure enough, there he was. It was not just him. It was him and Jin-Hwa Mei, striking silver against silver. Guinevere was too far for them to see her, too far for them to hear her, and even she was taken aback. The intensity of this fight. The viciousness– this was worse than even she feared. This was personal. [break][break]
Gemini threw up his sword. Something metallic and liquid glinted against the blade. Guinevere moved faster. Thorns were curling around Mei’s arms. She wanted to stop him. She wanted to grab him. Do not kill her, she screamed silently. You will regret it all your days. [break][break]
But, of course, she was not close enough now. Perhaps she had finally mastered being a mother, always watching, never there when it mattered. [break][break]
Mei threw up her hand. The liquid twisted. The thorns withered. Gemini fell. Guinevere thought she heard him scream. She stopped trying to walk. She was running, now, running up the hill. She ascended the hill. Gemini was standing. He did not look well. His arm was burned. His arm was singed. Mei’s hair had come loose. Her eyes glittered like lightning. There was so much animosity in the air it felt chemical.
[break][break]
Hurt me again, he said. He had not dropped his sword nor had he dropped his pride. Guinevere could not be pleased, not now. He was Lucifer, falling from heaven in a col column of smoke. He was a meteor. He would burn himself out if not stopped. She would stop him. [break][break]
“Stop.” she said, slowing her run to a fast walk. She threw a hand up, throwing all of her focus with it. The roots that had been burned back were not for her to access. It was no matter. Teeming amounts of wildflowers burst up, twisting around the pair, dragging their swords and themselves to the ground. Guinivere grit her teeth and the wildflowers pulled tighter until both were kneeling. She had grown entirely too used to speaking to those figuratively and literally beneath her. The crown was growing on her. One day she may forget how to remove it.
[break][break]
This day, it served her well. This day, she did not think about the implications. “Cease. Drop your weapons. I, Guinivere Marcel, lady protector of the realm and most excellent of the gentry, keeper of the high court and compass of the four seasons. High Queen of Faerie. I command you to stop.”
[break][break]
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