Monthly Plotting Post | September

[pumpkinhollow]

Monthly Plotting Post | September

Happy Labor Day weekend and/or regular Sunday, friends! It's time to get plotting for the month of September! We've got a great spread of events coming up for the month.

We'd also like to note that after a discussion in the Discord server, we're reworking a few things about our schedule. Going forward we will have quarterly TDMs instead of bimonthly, all of which are focused on introducing characters to the setting. We don't really need to keep recruiting new members at our current size, so instead of really trying to sell Pumpkin Hollow to new people, the TDMs are going to be simplified and more interested in making ourselves available to people. We'll still be doing reprints, but we no longer want TDMs to be something existing players feel like they need to get in on. They will focus more on existing monsters and concepts rather than introducing new ones.

Additionally, when it comes to events with dice rolls or tasks that must be completed to advance them, we'll make sure we space for time better. And lastly, going forward our mini events will be more optional in nature. We hope this takes the pressure for speed off folks!

All that said, let's get into this month's events!

GHOSTS OF THE PAST

Mini Event - September 6th

Content Warnings:
Mild manipulation of free will via forced honesty, invasions of privacy.

There is a new structure down the slope leading to the beach, near the threshold where sand and soil begin to blend. No one saw it being constructed, but there it sits, plain as day. There are a pair of identical wooden signs outside each door, one situated on the side toward town, the other facing the beach. Both read "VISITOR'S CENTER."

The Visitor's Center is a spacious building full of tasteful meeting spaces, a recreation area, a cafe, and a second floor containing a small but comfortable hostel-like accommodation space. The receptionists (who may look familiar to attendees of Merrymeet) will happily explain its purpose--- for a few weeks, people from your past will be visiting the island! Living, dead, a past version of yourself, anyone is free game! There's just one catch: they can't speak directly to you. At least not at first. Who do you trust to send in on your behalf? And what will they say when you aren't around?

HOW IT WORKS

The Visitor's Center is a working of Eligos, the Demon King, who presides over the Domain of Betrayal. As such, the situation is designed to sow distrust, albeit subtly. The visitors, also called "ghosts" despite being broadly corporeal, are meant to be individuals from your past who "haunt" you in some way. This can be defined however you like, and they don't necessarily need to be people who have a negative opinion. They can be friends, ex-lovers, current lovers, family members, enemies, past selves, future selves---- anyone who is not currently a player-character here is eligible. They can talk to one or more member of your existing or developing CR. They are aware of generally where they are, that the visit is temporary, and that they are here to speak to someone about or on behalf of you. During their conversations with your people, they will feel subtly compelled to be more honest or forthcoming about their experiences with you, potentially to your detriment. However, they do not have to give any details that they aren't directly asked about and are not being forced to answer--- it's just that if they do answer, they must be truthful to the best of their abilities. After the fact, your friend must decide how they wish to convey to you what they learned, what details to include or omit, etc. They may now know information that violates your privacy or is more than you cared to share with them!

Once a "ghost" has had at least one conversation with someone that isn't you, they may speak to you as well if desired, but they are under no such compulsion to be truthful or forthcoming to the person who they came for. Additionally, ghosts generally cannot leave the visitor's center except to go into the immediate outdoor area. (Though you may be able to obtain special permission for a short excursion from "management" if you ask, they will not be able to stay out overnight.)

OOCly, a couple rules and notes:

You can have one or two ghosts, but no more. By default, they are meant to be played by you, hence the rules regarding talking to someone other than your character. You can play them from your character's existing journal (if you don't have space for an icon for them, please provide an image hyperlinked in a tag) or you can create a custom journal for that character. You may also ask a buddy to play the character, including non-members of the game with mod approval, if you have a partner available. Regardless of these factors, the rules remain the same.

Each ghost can talk to as many of their person's friends as desired. However, please manage thread loads responsibly!

Any character chosen as a ghost must adhere to the same rules as a regular player characters unless otherwise stated. Conversations between your own character and their ghost do not count for AC unless the ghost is being played by a friend (meaning any thread where both characters are your own cannot be used for AC). If your buddy is a non-game member, please reach out for mod approval.

Any non-member joining us for this event must consent to follow the rules of our game while they are here, and failure to do so may result in disciplinary action for the player who invited them, depending on the situation.

Characters used as ghosts are still eligible for long-term play! If the situation is right, they can feasibly be apped in.

Ghosts do not have sending stones, but can be contacted via the phones in the visitor's center.

Ghosts cannot be forced to meet with anyone they don't want to meet. It is not advisable to bring a ghost of a character that would not want to meet with anyone.

That's all! Hope you have fun with this one! It's worth mentioning that this event is extremely optional and not plot relevant, so don't feel bad about it getting backburnered or skipped.

WALTZ OF THE HARLEQUIN

Main Event - September 20th

Content Warnings:
Psychological manipulation, unreality, memory loss or distortion, controlled emotions.

Everyone loves a good birthday party, but very few birthday parties are so well loved and so broadly attended as the annual birthday gala of Dahlia Anastasia Leeds, the wealthiest woman on Marrow Isle. Each year for her special day, the daughter of the founder opens up her lavish home to the public and provides an incredible feast, live music, dancing, drinks, and more. Island residents of all backgrounds are invited to participate in a formal ball without the formal rules, allowing everyone to come as they are and feel fancy for a day--- something Dahlia maintains is her one and only birthday wish.

However, nearly every year this event finds a way to go wrong. Last year it was shapeshifting mosquito vampires from another world and, even worse, interpersonal drama. This year, it will be her uncle's disastrous party planning that does in the event.

Not even an hour into the party, Mendel, the demonic Prince of Fools, will make an appearance and turn the party into a disorienting, dizzying, dangerous dance of destructive proportions--- just after announcing to the entire island that Dahlia has been lying to them this entire time.

HOW IT WORKS

With a snap of his fingers, the Prince of Fools turns Dahlia's birthday gala into a topsy turvy masquerade ball, placing a mask on each face that cannot be removed and turning Leeds Estate from an austere blue aristocratic residence to a sickly yellow labyrinth of sprawling ballrooms and hidden corridors. He and his court members are hiding within, adding to the torment of those within. The masks have a psychological effect on the wearer. Players can pick from the following options:

• Leaky Bucket: deprives the party goer of their short-term memory. They know who they are, and why they're here insofar as understanding it's Dahlia's birthday gala, but all new information tends to leave their mind after a few minutes. (Think Dory from Finding Nemo.)


• Amnesiac's Lament: deprives the individual of long-term memory. All new information is retained, but they have no idea who they are or why they're here. How distressing this is can be at the player's discretion. Perhaps they despair at the memory loss and are trying to find a way to escape the ball, perhaps they don't see anything wrong with their lack of context and are just trying to enjoy this weird party.


• False Friend: the opposite of Zone of Truth, those with this affliction will be unable to tell the truth and can ONLY tell lies. Any fact from the most mundane to the most complex can only be lied about. Whether or not the person is cognizant of their new habit is the player's choice.


• The World Revolving: those afflicted suffer frequent bouts of vertigo which makes the space feel as though it is spinning, sometimes very slowly, sometimes very quickly.


• Dirge of Delusion: this particular curse will cause the mask-wearer to struggle to perceive reality correctly. Objects will appear as other objects, people as different people, rooms as some other place, or even the entire ball as somewhere entirely different. These disorienting visions will come and go at times.
• 
  Feeling Funny: the wearers of these masks will find that their emotions are completely out of control, sometimes bursting into fits of laughter, tears, or abrupt paranoia, before going completely numb for a while.

If you can't decide, roll a D6! But otherwise you're welcome to pick. Anyone who has received an infernal ward from Neil West (which at this point will be all officially-declared Ocularum members) will find the impact of these things effects significantly reduced.

The event will heavily feature Alice Dyer ( closureisformovies ) and Agent Jean ( restingslasherface ) who are tasked with ending the event by killing Prince Mendel. They can include whoever they like in this process! Additionally, I will be looking to stage encounters with Blanche and Seemingly, and would be open to this leading to the death of one of them.

Once Mendel dies, the ball will end and the estate will be returned to normal, masks becoming inert and removeable. However, Dahlia will be quick to chase everyone out. She will be available for questions later!

CURRENT METAPLOT

As of last month, some developments were made in the Leeds Estate break-in by Valdis, CT, and Tarantulas which has been slightly forward-dated to have happened more recently, Jon Sims and John Rambo discovered a strange recording which implies there is a crack in reality on the island, and Alice Dyer made a deal with Prince Aster to provide Jean with weapons that would help them kill Mendel in exchange for demonic immunity.

The primary item on September's docket for the meta plot is going to be the reveal of Dahlia's infernal origins and the defeat of Mendel. Additionally, Father Mulcahy has enlisted the help of Dr. West in talking to Gil Calloway about the Crystallizer of Dreams. Out of a desire to slow down the pacing of the meta plot, I'm not planning to have any other developments occur unless they're pretty minor! But please feel free to plot with me about what sort of sigils you'd like to lick in October.

(CODE)

Comments

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS

[pumpkinhollow]

[abhorrently]

can people fight their own ghosts because i have a feeling more than a few people will want to 1v1 their ghosts outside in the parking lot

[inaurate]

is someone from the visitor's center reaching out to residents to let them know there's someone there for them or does it depend on the character going in themselves

[spaghettification]

Will threading your own character's ghost off someone else be eligible for AC for you? (It feels self-evident that it would be for them).

Re: QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS

[inlieuofadad]

Hello!! I'm Jae, and I'm sliding in a wee bit late to request permission to play a ghost for my friend, who plays Jeff Calhoun in game. This guy here, Gil Arroyo, from Prodigal Son, who knew Jeff in a previous game.

Meta-plotting!

[pumpkinhollow]

If you have any suggestions for meta-plot junk, hit me with 'em here!

Valdis Plotting

[redlightgreenlight]

Ghosts of the Past

I will be bringing Fenrir, though he will introduce himself as Menahem as that is his true name granted to him by the creator. Any questions he answers will be about Valdis's past, so if you have a curious character who desires to know more about who she once was, either as a fledgling or the Queen of Hounds, this is your chance.

I will also be bringing past Valdis in the height of her power as the Queen of Hounds.

Waltz of the Harlequinn

I will 100% inflict the Dirge of Delusion upon Valdis, hopefully this will lead to some tragic and scarring fun times for her (well, me) and the others around her. I would very much like her image to crack a little and for people to realize that she's put on a harmless facade to some extent. If anyone wants to fight her or die let me know, there will be plenty of opportunity to interact in other ways as well. She is an Occularum member so has some immunity for moments of clarity. I'm toying with having her die too, because I can, so that is also on the table, but I will be picky about who for the aftermath drama.

Thank you mods for another wonderful event line up!!!

Do not reply: Valdis Plotting

[redlightgreenlight]

This is a placeholder for me to keep track of things, do not reply.

Ghosts

Valdis will interact with:
Fever's Ghost
Daisy's Ghost
Angel's Ghost
Erik's Ghost
Harvey...

Valdis' Ghosts will interact with:
Max and Past Valdis
Erik and Fenrir

Masquerade
Valdis will give her ward to Max
Valdis will mistake Miles for someone else
Fever will try to help Valdis work with the delusions instead of fighting them

[lordoftheozarks]

I am so down for Erik meeting Fenrir. That conversation is going to be epic.

I also would love for Max to meet the Valdis of the past!

Max will of course want to be helpful to Valdis at the ball, I figure we'll play it by ear as far as how all that goes down. With the ring, he'll be less affected but he might still pop a lie or two in her presence.

Blue | Daisy, Ruby, Alice, Gwen, CT

[closureisformovies]

Gonna put sub-comments under this so I don't have to do all five all at once, lmao.

Alice Dyer

[closureisformovies]

So, Alice is gonna have a bit of a Month™ as you might expect given her involvement in the Mendel murder. She's already got a September open up for anyone who wants to interact with her in the lead-up, but she'll be keeping tight lipped about why she's in such a weird state.

For Ghosts of the Past she doesn't currently have anyone I can actually easily use, on account of being from so early in her show, so I'm probably going to let her off and focus on the others for that.

For Waltz of the Harlequin, Alice is immune to the effects and will be focused on getting the mask and sword Aster gave her to Jean. I'm not sure how much space there'll be around that and probably fielding Sam's questions about why he's immune, but I'm still down to try and get interactions in on the way.

I'm gonna play the aftermath by ear, since it really depends on how things go.

Phoenix | Nimona, Gaeta, Radar

[incomingchoppers]

Breaking this down by event, since I think that'll be easiest!

Ghosts of the Past: Radar won't get a ghost of his own, but will happily chat with any of his friends' ghosts. Mostly the same with Nimona, but she might also spark the arrival of Gloreth. That's heavily dependent on whether I can keep my September thread count manageable, though, so I'm not making any major promises.

HOWEVER. Gaeta will definitely be getting a visit from either Kara "Starbuck" Thrace or Admiral Adama. (I'm probably going to flip a coin to make my final decision, hah.) Whichever one shows up will be NPC'd by the inimitable Batya, and they will have plenty of things to say about good old Felix to his new island friends.

Scratch all of this except the "played by the inimitable Batya" part!! Our dear friend Gaius Baltar, Gaeta's longtime crush/frenemy whom he tried to murder on more than one occasion, will be dropping by the Visitor's Center to say hi.

I'll also be NPCing someone for Batya in turn, but I'll leave that to her to talk about. :D

Waltz of the Harlequin: Nimona and Gaeta will not be in attendance, but Radar absolutely will, since this is his boss's big party and everything. He'll most likely be inflicted with Dirge of Delusion, and I would love it if either this, or the actions of another character, messed with his psychic abilities somehow on top of the more bog-standard hallucinations. Turn up the volume on what he "hears," make him hear things incorrectly, suddenly shut it off altogether so his flying half-blind, etc etc -- I'm game for anything that'd knock his sixth sense off-kilter along with his regular senses, too. (My hope is that this'll get him to realize he really, really can't be going around with uncontrolled psychic powers anymore, so he'll seek out guidance on how to manage them a little better.)

Also, after the big Dahlia reveal, Radar is going to realize: ...wait a second. I knew that already. Because SURPRISE, he figured out Dahlia was the Pine Devil weeks ago and Blanche wiped his memory! So if you think that might be an interesting hook for a thread, I happily dangle it in front of you.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT meeting Gaius could also be fun. Ghost trade: one way to actually get them talking about this stuff afterwards.

Rambo Plotting

[theydrewfirstblood]

Ghosts of the Past

John is gonna get his commander from the war, Colonel Sam Trautman, and Sheriff Will Teasle: the man who arrested him and basically made the movie FIRST BLOOD happen. XD I’m gonna play them both, and I invite literally all of John’s CR to meet them.

Anyone speaking to Trautman will get a more positive and truthful view of John’s past—truthful without the compulsion these ghosts will be under. He’s also fully current to John’s canon point, and knows some things about John’s situation that John does not—namely, that the betrayal that got John “killed” he had no part in, something John believes but isn’t SURE of. He will also share pieces of John’s early life that he knows so anyone dealing with that? CW FOR CHILD ABUSE.

Teasle is a walking talking CW FOR POLICE BRUTALITY. His perspective on John is more limited and restricted to the first movie, but talking to him will give others a better understanding of John’s trauma, self image, and for funsies mislead you into thinking questionable things about our boy and his violent tendencies.

I’ll be playing them both, cause Niche Fandom, but this also means if anyone wants to meet them both at once? I’m down. XD

Waltz of the Harlequin

Amnesiac’s Lament for John. I plan to use this as a mirror for all his CR—not sure what he thinks or feels about you? Come meet him for the first time all over again—without his baggage he’ll be more open to telling you how he really feels or what his opinions truly are. XD

[incomingchoppers]

Oh you know Radar's there re: the ghosts! Definitely with Trautman, possibly Teasle as well if I don't overextend myself thread-wise.

mira | fever, helena

[abhorrently]

Fever:

• Ghosts of the Past: For this, Fever will be visited by her past self, who is in a very poor mood but more than willing to ruin her current self's reputation. She's being kept in check by at least one handler, so she physically can't murder everyone she wants, but she can spill nasty details about the past. The closer you are to current Fever, the more she hates you, and the more she'll want to twist that. This will hopefully lead to some fallout for Fever having to confront how much she's hiding from people in general, and to witness how much she's been changing since her journey started.
• Waltz of the Harlequin: She's going to this event, and is potentially getting the mask of delusion - I haven't decided yet. Ultimately, Fever's goal is going to be centered around shutting this shit down instead of worrying about who or what Dahlia is, and so she'll be ready to fight as well as defend others. She has no wards, but by this point in her life is pretty accustomed to mindfuckery, so I'd actually love if she could help someone else who's having a bad time. Embrace chaos, then kill demons.
• General: Beyond the events, in the aftermath of the Blight, Fever put up a new small shrine in the Temple, and is always up for training either physically or magically. Or whatever else people want to explore with her - hit me with anything!

Helena:

• Ghosts of the Past: This one's going to be hard on her, since I'm bringing in her father as her ghost. This will be less about hurting her reputation, and more him bringing the honesty that Helena is less put together than she seems, but also offering some closure when they actually get to talk again. She's keeping on her recovery arc with this, and he'll also be open to people who maybe just need a more dad-ly presence for a moment. Potentially hugs.
• Waltz of the Harlequin: This will be entirely CR dependent, as she will be highly nervous to attend a large party without companionship, so that's still a "wait-and-see" sort of experience. If she does attend, she'll probably be trying to find and keep a safe zone for others to group up in, if it's possible, going through the Feeling Funny mask.
• General: She's still settling in, but as mentioned a little earlier, is on a path to recovery, and is actually a pretty calm and mellow presence for other people. She's looking to potentially get an apprenticeship somewhere, and has been steadily expanding her circle of places she likes to go - I'm happy to handwave introductions and say she's met people in passing by now!

[redlightgreenlight]

Ghosts: I would love for Valdis to meet past Fever.

Waltz: Valdis is getting the Mask of Delusion and would appreciate Fever's help.

Solstice

[graveling]

Ghosts of the Past
Angel: The ghost of Gabriel Mora is going to be present. Who's that? Why...the man whose body Angel is wearing. Did you ever wonder what sort of man this was, with the tattoos of wings and barbed wire? Did you want to know why he died the way he did? Not all questions about Angel will be answered, but some might.
Cecil: Two words: STEVE CARLSBURG. I'm also considering Abby, Cecil's sister, but only if there's active interest in seeing where he came from.
Degas: Will not have any ghosts, but will visit other people's ghosts to offer fatherly advice, support, and to carry messages. If you want someone to gently insert himself in some ghost drama, I'm your huckleberry.
Siebren: While I'm nervous trying to do her voice, I'm considering Dr. Moira O'Deorain for him. I want people to understand why Sigma's such a fucking mess, and I want someone to punch her in the face.

Pre-Gala
Hi, something I've really wanted for Cerrit is for him to let his team in more explicitly on the fact that he's hiding something and why. For people like Enforcers, militia members he's worked with, etc., I really want on-screen threads talking about his deal with Aster and what he got out of it before everything explodes.

Timeless
Degas will be returning to work at the Temple this month, rescuing Angel from his insecurities and offering support. His time off has left him feeling refreshed, and he's gotten a lot of work done at home. There's still a feeling of 'now what', though.

Dance-Dance
Angel: Mask - Dirge of Delusion. Angel is going to get lost and scared and have a Bad Time, everything being too much. I haven't decided what he sees yet, but he's sure going to see it!
Cecil: Mask - Amnesiac's Lament. Your mind a dusty surface, so easily blown clean. There may also be a use of The Weather
Cerrit: Mask - False Friend. Fitting, considering the secret he's been keeping is coming out. Cerrit has a lot of emotions about this.
Siebren: Mask - Feeling Funny. Per discussion with Rose on Discord, Siebren is going to get victory over Blanche. She's going to poke him, and he's going to unleash holy gravitational hell on her. Why? Because fuck you, that's why. It's victory over his own mind, in a backwards way.

I will be making a comment for confirmed plans, please do not reply to that. Reply directly to this comment, please.

DO NOT REPLY - Plans

[graveling]

Plans go here.

César Salazar | Generator Rex

[pineapplesalmon]

Ghost #1, Rex Salazar: César's 16yo baby brother. Earth's only superhero. He can build machines/weapons out of his body and talk to machines, an EVO without human rights but with the Human Rights Campaign logo on his shirt. Snarky, hot-tempered, video-gaming closet weeb, deep sea exploration aficionado, ADHD poster child, is only cool when he's not trying, justice driven, full of heart, loves a good fight. His work at Providence being the only one capable of curing EVOs means he restored hope to the world.

Confident in his abilities but not when it comes to his brother. His amnesia means he had 2-3 months with César again. César didn't fully comprehend the gulf between them and start attempting to bridge it more until it was too late, and Rex was thrown 6 months into the future. Providence got new (awful, power-hungry) leadership, whom César worked under to secretly undermine her/them and save the world. Rex knows what César was doing now, but hasn't had time to process how much it all hurt. Also, Rex doesn't understand he's more alike to his brother than different.

He will need little compulsion to tell people about this once started. Try to tell him César's got a girlfriend; he won't believe you, especially because Magne's way cooler than his bro.


Ghost #2, Violeta Salazar (Mother): César will have a small and very private funeral for his parents somewhere in the Sept 1st-4th timeframe. Both of his parents were scientists, like him, and worked on the same Nanite Project until the Nanite Event stole them from the world. She's very proud of her sons, and Rex canonly takes after her, especially her fiery personality. To César, in his own words, she "meant safety, protection, caring" (partially flower language).

Sometime after both her sons' births, she returned to work. Raphael split the load so she could buck the Mexican and upper class Argentine traditions of becoming a housewife, and César pitched in heavily when Rex came much later as a "surprise baby". Raphael likely took off quite a bit of time as well. She's why César can cook. It's her and Raphael that instilled a deep sense of justice and right from wrong in both of their sons; the reasons César's a mad scientist raised right.

Also, she has something very important she needs you to tell César. (Which, be warned, is an important story beat I want to play out at least to that information is conveyed. It's going to affect César's motivations for the rest of the game.)


The Party: César will suffer from The World Revolving, because his world was left spinning after the ghostly visits. He will fall and/or cling to people for support with many apologies and aghast at how everyone else is being affected. Feel free to be VERY annoyed at him. Punch him at your own peril.

The planning comment

[pineapplesalmon]

Plans here eventually

guildenstern - mulcahy, phil, link

[lovethyneighb_or]

Father Mulcahy:

Ghosts of the Past: Vox has kindly offered to play one of his friends from his previous CRAU: Vickie Reeds. They were close and suffered a lot of shit together, both the ship and the Village, and he's offered for her, an ex-Baptist atheist and one of the Lost. Until he bucks up and actually talks to people about his shit, this will be a good opportunity for his CR to learn about those years besides the disconnected breadcrumbs he's only just started dropping.

Waltz of the Harlequin: He will be there. I'm not sure what mask to give hiim. Dirge of Delusion will send him into a massive breakdown due to CRAU reasons, and while that's crunchy, I don't want to be redundant with the CRAU reveal stuff. If he isn't indisposed, he's going to try to help people.

General: He'll be out and about as usual. As mentioned, he'll also be doing some investigating with Neil. Taking care of the new kitties that have appeared in the Temple since getting a proper confession booth built. kbity. feel free to plot whatever with me!

Phil

Ghosts of the Past: I don't have very strong plans about this for Phil. Ned Ryerson will likely be up for an interview, and that will mostly be a point of contact with people who knew him before all this stupid crazy CRAU stuff. He's one of the people Phil knows and misses from home, that nobody he speaks with now knows.

Waltz of the Harlequin: His attendance is dependent on his CR. He probably has the good sense to be leery of a big fancy party in a place like this, but he does so love to dress up, and a good social. If he goes, he'll probably get The World Revolving or Feeling Funny. Sorry man!

General: He caught a bad cold/flu/maybe both somewhere near the end of the Blight, so he's going to be still dealing with that going into September. After that he's back to work on the local radio. I don't necessarily have immediate plans for him at the moment, but it would be nice to see him start to break a little bit into the music performance scene, even if he's only a stand-in for when people's pianists get sick. Plot with me!

Link:

Ghosts of the Past: No solid plans for this, but if he gets a ghost it'll likely be one of the Champions, who were his friends, fought alongside him, and all died during the first apocalypse. There's also Master Kogha, the leader of a Ganon-allied group of assassins who have a transparently and cartoonishly skewed idea of who Link is and hate his guts, but I have limited confidence in playing him.

Waltz of the Harlequin: Options include False Friend, in which he will simply Cease Talking (hard to play), or Dirge of Delusion, which is potentially extremely dangerous. Link has extremely limited experience with mind bendy stuff and if he has reason to attack, he will be deeply hard to stop. But with the demons running around, perhaps if someone just pointed him in the right direction...

General: This boy needs CR Bad. I really need to get a post up of him running around in the woods. If you have any ideas, plot with me!

[lovethyneighb_or]

Mulcahy:
- Radar to meet Vickie
- Punch Teasle
- meet Angel's guy
- possibly open up to Gaeta, this month or the next
- Meet Martin
- Thread with Helena
- ???

Link:
- Ghost Mipha
- run around in the woods and meet his fellow blondes in the woods
- celebrate Zelda's birthday
- get him on one of Drake's guys
- meet Elsie
- ???

Phil:
- Phil to meet baby Fever
- Meet Rue
- give Darcy their 18th birthday present
- thread with Hawkeye, time permitting
- speak with Kael
- ???

Bash | Darcy, Hawkeye

[saltwaterlungs]

WHAT'S UP YOU GOURDS AND PUMPKINS the start of this month marks my triumphant return from hiatus so let's get some damn ducks in a row!

General:

I do intend on backtagging whatever old tags I can get to over the month for both Darcy and Hawk. If you're not feeling it and want to drop it or Are feeling it and want to make sure I get to it, hit me up. I will have to be somewhat vicious about what tags I get back to on account of I had a truly unsustainable amount when I hiatus'd and I need some free space for my kids to get back into it and to go a little slowly as I'm getting back into things

Ghosts of the past:

For Darcy, I'll be offering two ghosts. The first is Kael Spruijt, one of Darcy's Krewe from back home. A hardboiled Belgian ex-cop turned supernatural robocop, Kael will offer his thoughts and opinions on Darcy, the Krewe, and wider insights into her world for anyone who's interested.
The other option is Sabine Ricci, one of Darcy's fencing teammates from home, an exuberant and talkative science nerd. She'll have opinions and insights on Darcy prior to her death, and broader thoughts on Darcy's friendship with herself and the team.

For Hawkeye it will heavily depend on interest, but a couple of options I could be persuaded to play are Frank Burns, 10-time winner of worst doctor in the 4077 5 years running, or Tommy Gillis, a dear childhood friend of Hawk's who died from a bullet he heard coming.

Waltz of the Harlequin:

Darcy's attendance will be subject to if any of her CR are attending, and even so I might decide to have her skip it for the sake of thread load. If she does attend, I'll be inflicting Dirge of Delusion onto her. She'd be relying heavily on her CR to help her work out what's real and what isn't, which would be extra spicy if her CR weren't reliable informants.

Hawkeye will be attending for the food and I will be hitting him with Leaky Bucket. Hope you're excited to hear the same joke repeated 20 times! He will be available to assist with anyone who gets injured at the party but uh. How useful he will be will depend on how good the nurse on hand is.

Hoping to get properly back on the horse and get amongst some fun things, as always you can find me on discord, I extremely want people to message and plot, but also tell me how y'all are doing!! I missed you all!!

[do not reply]

[saltwaterlungs]

Plans to go here

Albion | George & Rue

[stonecoldtop]

Ghosts of the Past:

George: he'll have Velvet, another Changeling who was one of his first friends in the modern day and one of the driving forces behind both his joining the Spring court and pursuing his career as a pro-dom. Contemplating also having a pre-Arcadia version of himself, subject to interest.

Rue: Her mother, Ivy. Although Rue Translated with her arrival to pumpkin hollow, her mother won't. Which means that she'll still be what made sense for the world Rue was in last, a large insectoid alien.

Waltz of the Harlequin:

George: False Friend, unless I get a better idea later. He likely won't be aware that he's lying.

Rue: Dirge of Delusion. I'm picturing this manifesting for her as each of the worlds she's been to crashing into eachother, and seeing things as they would be in a different world.

General:

I've been pretty slow recently, but I'm hoping to expand both of their cr this month

do not reply

[stonecoldtop]

[placeholder for forgotten additions + plans]

jeff plotting

[cacophonish]

Ghosts of the Past
Okay, so one of Jeff's ghosts is going to be Gil Arroyo (inlieuofadad) from Prodigal Son, who was something of a surrogate father to him in his CRAU. If you want to know what happened to turn Jeff into the cheerful rock n roll monster you see today, Gil's got the details. Come chat him up to learn about Jeff's slow, spiraling descent, his death (and the mysterious crime scene left in his wake), and the murder he may or may not have committed along the way!

Jeff's second ghost is currently up in the air; it'll either be somebody from his future, or his own future self (bardish), who can offer some insights (colored with a ton of guilt and self loathing, oops) into the parts of himself that he usually avoids talking about. Either way, Ghost #2 will be able to provide a glimpse at a happy, fulfilling future path that's now been totally derailed by, you know, the whole dying and becoming an avatar thing.

Waltz of the Harlequin
Jeff's going to be hit with Amnesiac's Lament, and since he'll be forgetting everything, that means the only thing he does know is what he might instinctively be aware of as a Spiral avatar. So, all of the ties keeping his humanity tethered to him will be forgotten, and he's going to let his bad self run wild. HONESTLY he might even get confused and just assume he's a member of Mendel's court or something, because like, he's an amnesiac agent of hysteria, gaslighting, and delusions, where else would he belong? That being said, not every interaction with him has to be horrors; he can also simply be playful and out to have a good (if mildly menacing) time.

Ideally, this is going to lead to Jeff sloughing off some more of his defined, human form, as Sheogorath has been planting the seeds of metamorphosis in his head, and that will remain even while his memories are absent. I'm not, uh, 100% sure how this is going to manifest, but if you want in on this, lmk

[mindflayed]

Offering up one (1) squid for the spiral terrors. He'll be getting Delusion so who knows how that will manifest together. :)

Meghan's Chaos Gremlins, Erik, Max, Crichton + Elsie

[lordoftheozarks]

Each of my gremlins are getting their own sub header:

Lord Erik Osborne

[lordoftheozarks]

GHOSTS OF THE PAST: Erik will have one visitor because one is intense enough. His Ex-Girlfriend, Ophelia Delacroix, is an extremely evil and human-hating vampire. CW's for casual racism(specism?) against humans, abuse/manipulation, and possible mentions of incestual relationships in the past. (I can absolutely leave that last one out on request, but it does exist as a part of Erik's history since the suggestion of the act was why they broke up. Big hard no for him.) Also, Erik is going to want to have less than nothing to do with her, so speaking her name to him is going to get an intense reaction.
-For my sanity, I think I'd like to limit it to no more than 4 takers, but I'm open to three-way threads if y'all wanna gang up on her.

WALTZ OF THE HARLEQUIN: It's a fancy party for his fancy friend, of course he's going. At the moment he's plotted to go with River and Mairi as double dates, but he'll be roaming freely to dance and cavort with others. I think it would be really fun to give him the Amnesiac's Lament mask. Who is he? Where is he? What is he? Help a vampire out. (Don't worry, he won't be struggling with his thirst at all, he's fed recently enough that it won't be a dangerous issue.)

Kai | Claude, Muriel

[inaurate]

ghosts of the past: per plotting with my fellow fremblems, claude will just have one ghost in his half-brother Shahid. he sucks and claude will not be happy to see him but also dying to know why he's here and what he wants!! so yeah.

i'm trying to get back into doing stuff with muriel so he'll have two ghosts, Lucio and Asra. Lucio sucks big time, and Asra is his childhood bestie who he definitely doesn't have Feelings for.

waltz of the harlequin

you KNOW claude's gonna be at the party. for my own amusement and to stymie his recent efforts to be more honest and forthcoming with his CR, he will be afflicted with False Friend. at some point in the night he will become aware of the effect and try to find ways around it, so we can have it both ways depending on when during the night he speaks with anyone lol

muriel...... honestly would need to be dragged there to begin with and would be like 'i knew it i knew this was a terrible idea' the moment the shenanigans start. the guy has Masquerade Ball Trauma, this is not a good time for him. that said i'm not opposed to him ending up there anyway! maybe amnesiac's lament for him? maybe he'll actually enjoy the party for a bit if he forgets he thinks he's supposed to be miserable all the time lmao

[redlightgreenlight]

I would love some more Claude in Valdis' life, maybe at the party?

Nimbus | Sheogorath, Drelasa

[blindwatchersees]

Ghosts of the Past

I’m a little stumped on this one. My first thoughts for Sheogorath are Haskill and Jyggalag, but there’s also the option of bringing in the previous Sheogorath (which I guess is a different flavor of bringing in the current Jyggalag). I guess what I’m wondering is what the ghosts could speak about that Sheogorath doesn’t already allude to in riddles.

For Drelasa, I was considering Dagoth Ur, but I’m not sure. I was kind of thinking about maybe having him flip-flop between Dagoth Ur and Saint Voryn, so you either get a deranged god or a contrite mer.

I’m open to suggestions!


Waltz of the Harlequinn

Drelasa- Dirge of Delusion. My plan is to have this mask magically restore her sight, but very little of what she actually sees is true. The world she experiences at any given time is either lavish or decaying, and, given her prior experiences, she isn’t sure which version to trust. I’m planning on her seeing her friends and acquaintances in both forms.

Sheogorath- Feeling Funny. Any filter he has is gone. Any semblance of restraint will evaporate. Blood will be spilled, spells will be flung, cheese will be cheesed. This is the Madgod with his empathy muffled (though not absent) and his impulsiveness dialed up to 11.

Please let me know if you want to do an interaction with either or both, and what you want the nature of the interaction to be.

[mindflayed]

Delusion buddies! Imbros and Drelasa should meet up, and hopefully she gets to see him in his fancy outfit with the cape. He'll be feeling real awkward about that, but at least he looks good.

Batya | Zivia, Edgar, Cassandra

[not_the_last]

OKAY LET'S DO THIS. Going by plot:

Ghosts of the Past

• Showing up from Zivia's past will be her late husband, Yonatan "Yoni" Birnbaum. Possibly also her late Uncle Asher, who was involved with the broader supernatural communities of New York while he was alive and who introduced Zivia to them after his death.
  
• From Edgar's past, we will have one Curtis Everett (played by our own delightful Phoenix), and there may be an additional ghost depending on interest and capacity.
  
• From Cassandra's past ... honestly I haven't decided yet! She's got a lot of dead family members and neighbors, plus two enemies who knew her considerably more recently. Currently leaning toward your foe and mine Delilah Briarwood, with some thoughts about a dead de Rolo parent or sibling.

Waltz of the Harlequin

• Zivia might not attend the festivities, unless anyone particularly wants her there. I'm open to suggestions!
  
• Edgar, if he goes, I am considering hitting with either The World Revolving or Dirge of Delusion.
  
• Cassandra will get hit with False Friend, will almost immediately become aware of what's happening, and will attempt to communicate this to anyone she interacts with. She's read enough stories of the Feywild to have an idea of how to circumvent magical puzzles; will it work?

I've got some personal plot items going on as well but if I delay long enough to write them out, this post won't go up until who knows when, so here goes --

DO NOT REPLY - plan tracking post

[not_the_last]

Ghosts of the Past

To post:
* Baltar for Gaeta [DONE]
* Yoni for Zivia [DONE]
* Asher for Zivia [DONE]
* Delilah for Cassandra [DONE]
* A de Rolo parent or older sibling for Cassandra?

To reply to:
* Teasle with Edgar [DONE]
* Frank Burns with Zivia [DONE]
* Ophelia with Cass [DONE], possibly also with Edgar
* Harvey with Zivia [DONE]
* Jack Crichton with Cass [DONE]
* Helena's father with Cass [DONE]
* No. 6 with Zivia [DONE], possibly also with Cass
* One of CT's ghosts with Cass?
* Ari with Cass [DONE]
* Ari with Zivia
* Patricia with Cass [DONE], possibly also Dimitri after?
* ... many many others if time and space permit

Special Guest Ari

[astrogator]

Hi PH, here's Ari Tayrey back for a special appearance! Thought I'd drop a comment here in case it makes plotting easier.

Ari is arriving as a ghost with her previous Sail and PH history, plus some years back at home! She's in her mid-twenties, further advanced in her career, and a lot more stable and past all the trauma she'd been through.

She is here to talk about Erik, who is someone in PH she confided in and who helped her along her journey of healing. (She was also his client, although she'll veto any questioning in that direction if it gets too personal!) In general she's around to tell people what a good and understanding person he was in her time of need, so if anyone wants to hear positive things about Erik, here she is.

Her starter also has an option for chatting to her without an appointment if you would like your character to get an Ari Update but they don't have the needed Erik CR.

Open to anyone who is interested and would like some sort of closure on Ari's story! I know I'm late and people already have lots of plans so I'll say that later tag-ins are very welcome! Let me know if you're thinking 'yes but not yet' so I have an idea of the interest level. Plans/questions here, or just tag her and we'll see what happens.

ETA: apparently ghosts can interact with each other! I'd love for her to meet some of yours if your character had CR with her, tell me if it's okay for me to tag in <3

[yournewsidekick]

wrong account but AAAAAAAH HI WELCOME BACK(ish)

Honestly I would love for Ari to meet Baltar, but since I know that has a good chance of blowing up her CR with Gaeta, I'll leave it up to you whether you want to tag him! And I'll definitely be sending Gaeta her way a bit later once I get some older threads wrapped.