An annual occurrence in either December or January, the Auction of Oddities is a collaboration between several importers to offload a few of their more interesting pieces (and by interesting, we mean unvetted by the Ministry and possibly cursed). This year's auction will occur on the afternoon of December 16th. Held in an upscale London auction house, it is technically open to anyone, but in practice you will be given the stink-eye and strong-armed to the door if you don't look like you have money to spend (unless you're connected to one of the vendors/suppliers, or bidding on behalf of your employer). Although there are a dozen other items up for bid, there are five "big" items for auction which have been heavily advertised ahead of time and which are each expected to draw a crowd of bidders.

Each item is unique — confirmed or suspected to be one-of-a-kind — and billed as a prestigious thing to own, even if you have no intention of using it. There is a standard disclaimer for all items pointing out that the auction house and the suppliers have not tested any of the magics involved and the new owners are solely responsible for a) unexpected side effects; b) crimes committed; c) injury, illness, et cetera resulting in use of the items.

Use this thread to express your characters' interest in any of the items below, outbid each other, and determine a winner! You can also use this thread to coordinate in characters threads like bidding wars or chances to meet each other and observe the items before the auction properly opens (and maybe steal or sabotage one? idk).

The Items For Auction

The Amato Circlet

A timeless bracelet which is rumored to give the wearer the powers of an animagus, with none of the hard work! This claim has not been verified and what is known for certain is that once the bracelet is clasped on to your wrist, it won't come off until you either die or have a cursebreaker intervene and render it inert (and thus worthless). So be sure you're sure before you buy! Fortunately, the simple gold band is stylish enough that you'll never need to take it off, and it will always be perfectly fitted to your wrist even if you gain weight in your old age.

'Doorway,' oil on canvas, date unknown

This near life-sized painting showcases a door, opened just slightly onto an urban street. What's special about this piece is not the painting itself, but rather the frame, which allows one or two people at a time to climb through and traverse the world of portraits and paintings! Please note, painted figures are unable to come through as they lack dimensionality required to exist in our world.

The Fantoma Orb

Visually similar to a crystal ball, this unique artifact actually holds a much different purpose: observing the memories of those long since passed on. Place a bit of organic matter from the deceased in the center of the orb and focus on the exterior in order to begin seeing visions of days long since past! Why read autobiographies when you could experience it for yourself?

Journal Riscritta

A leather bound tome with inlaid gold leaf on the cover. When the journal is used to write a version of real events, anyone who subsequently reads from its pages only remembers that version of events. Haunted by bad memories? Put in a bid to rewrite them! (There are no reported magical impacts of using the journal to write fiction).

The Mirror of Elorelato

Aside from being a grand addition to any parlor or dressing room, this mirror has added function: stand in front of it, close your eyes, and say the name of an object you have misplaced or are seeking, and when you open your eyes you will see yourself holding the object in the mirror — and, handily, the background of the mirror will display the scene where you may currently find it.

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All of these items come with a twist, that would not be known to the characters when they buy it. I highly encourage your characters to bid on items based on the information above only but for your plotting preferences, feel free to take a look at the 'catch' for each item in the spoiler below:

Show

The Amato Circlet:
- as specified above, it's impossible to take off unless you die or you break the spell (and it's a difficult one to break).
- you can initially control when you transform AND which animal you transform into. The longer you wear it, the more likely it is that you'll "slip" in either of these categories - ending up as a fish when you meant to be a bird, changing into a rabbit when you didn't mean to do anything at all, etc.
- if you wear it long enough there is an increasing likelihood that you'll get stuck as one of these animals for an extended period of time

'Doorway':
- if you're injured (or even killed) in a painting, you retain that injury in real life — with some added potential for complications, like having paint embedded in your broken bones.
- it's possible for an inexperienced traveler to lose their way and be trapped in paintings — there's no signal to guide you back to the doorway. This is especially likely if the painting was moved to a new location while you were inside.
- prolonged or extensive use can make existing in three dimensions a bit uncomfortable. Breathing, particularly, can become labored after even the smallest degree of effort, and limbs can often fall victim to 'pins and needles' sensations.

The Fantoma Orb:
- whatever organic matter is inserted into the orb is destroyed by the process of using it
- it's difficult to control what memory you're thrown into (focusing on it helps, but you need really strong will to make it work well). You're usually thrown into particularly vivid memories, like the time they violently died. Or sex. Did we mention it's a first person perspective? awkward.
- it's possible for you to act contrary to the actual events in these retellings. This won't actually change history, but it might... make things go a bit funny. The Department of Mysteries might come knocking on your door asking you to stop trying to break time, thanks.

Journal Riscritta:
- your "new" memories after reading it are only as detailed as the account written in the book, so it might feel difficult to remember specifics (or might even have inconsistencies and plot holes, based on the skill of the author)
- prolonged or intense use of the journal can cause the memories 'nearby' the target memory to go a bit... fuzzy. This means if you're using it often (especially around the same topic/theme) or if you're using it to rewrite a very significant memory and trying to change it a lot, it might be difficult to remember other things that happened around a similar time or were thematically related to the memory in question. It can also take more effort to remember these 'fuzzy' memories.
- extensive use of the journal (reading, not writing) can actually cause memory problems. If someone in this state stops using the journal, they should eventually be able to make new memories without trouble but will probably never fully recover the "corrupted" ones.

Mirror of Eloralato:
- a shimmery 'ghost' of your visage will appear momentarily near the object (or person...) that you've tried to locate, so if you're using this to track someone or something down without trying to alert them... they're probably going to know.
- if you use the mirror to locate the same item too many times in short succession, it may spontaneously combust. (this is unlikely to happen with people, but in similar circumstances they might begin to feel the effects of the magic in other ways - dizziness, headaches, pins and needles sensations, sudden fainting, etc).
- if you drop or break something you're seeing in the mirror, something unfortunately might happen to it in real life
- damage to the mirror/frame itself, even minor damage, might cause it to sort of... explode

  

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Set by Lady!

Ned would bid on the Journal Riscritta because (weird books yay!) but would not fight the rich folks for it that hard ;P

  

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Set by Lady ♡

Cornelius would bid on any of these for academic purposes and to add to the Flint Institute, but I think on the surface, the most interesting ones to him are The Amato Circlet and The Fantoma Orb.

The following 1 user Likes Cornelius Flint's post:1 user Likes Cornelius Flint's post
   Merida Greyback

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Beautiful Set by MJ!

Cornelius would bid on any of these for academic purposes and to add to the Flint Institute, but I think on the surface, the most interesting ones to him are The Amato Circlet and The Fantoma Orb.

Elliot would bid a few rounds on the Fantoma Orb!

The following 1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post:1 user Likes Elliot Carmichael's post
   Jessamine Parkinson

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avs by Bee!

Cornelius would bid on any of these for academic purposes and to add to the Flint Institute, but I think on the surface, the most interesting ones to him are The Amato Circlet and The Fantoma Orb.

Beatrice is also interested in the circlet!

The following 1 user Likes Beatrice Daphnel's post:1 user Likes Beatrice Daphnel's post
   Jessamine Parkinson

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MJ is truly magic!!

If anyone wins any of these artifacts and are interested in sharing their findings after trying them, Cornelius would be very appreciative of any academic research he can get from them even if he's not the one who owns them.

  

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Verity Swann (who is coming back in the december AC!) would bid aggressively on the mirror

  

Jules is very interested in the Amato Circlet conceptually - not sure if she wants to actually own/use it but she'd definitely be poking around at it prior to the auction. If either Cornelius Flint or Beatrice Daphnel want a thread along the lines of "...but what are you going to do with it?? Nevermind why I'm interested in it..." I'd love that!

/or others who are interested in it, I would just enjoy a thread where Jules has to skirt around her actual purposes (actual purposes being that this has some commonalities with certain myths about the origins of lycanthropy).

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Depending on when the auction takes place...

Amarantha could get her father to go a couple of rounds for The Fantoma Orb and the Journal Riscritta.

Dorian will be trying to win pretty much anything, mostly because he can. But he thinks that The Amato Circlet will make a lovely gift for Elisabeth if he manages that.

Given his profession, Nataliya's Uncle Sasha will be bidding on everything and hoping he gets one of them, though the Journal Riscritta would be the most useful to use on Nataliya.

In the background, Heather is trying to convince her father to bid on The Amato Circlet as a graduation gift for Jessamine. She doesn't think he'll go for it, but she certainly tried.

  

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Beautiful Set by Athena ♡ !

Thad is bidding on everything - and has an open here
https://charmingrp.com/showthread.php?tid=14341&pid=125332#pid125332

  

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