So there was a reason why I didn't put nay pre-plotting plans before the actual post went up—mostly because if I tried to explain it beforehand I'd basically be spoiling everything and look! It's more of a fun surprise to see Ryan, Tom, and Aisling back, right? Right? Their call for help is here for those who missed it! Kid's particular call out for volunteers is here.

Okay, anyway, this post is to help serve as a quick "Who's going/Who's staying" plot post. ICly this sort of stuff needs to be done posthaste, but eh. What is speed anymore, right?

Rescue Team
So first of all who will go out to help our three favorite NPCS? There's been a few IC responses, but for those who may have missed it you still have a chance as it probably would take the group sometime to actually find them. We don't want a huge group for both threading and IC practical reasons, but a few more couldn't hurt.

Those who go out should expect some fighting and having to help the three get back. I've spoken with Kat and those being sent out will be given the Skyrunners (think flying motorcycles) that will help them cross the desert at faster speeds. Once I know who all will be helping, I'll set up a log for everyone to come in and help.


City Defense Team
The greater portion of defense should stay within the city, and they won't be there just twiddling their thumbs. As Tom warned, "they" are coming. Who? That won't be revealed until later. But a large force looking for something will also be making themselves known around the time the rescue team is heading out.

Was it planned? Probably.

Now, Tom hinted that this group is after "something" but no one knows for sure what, not even Tom and the gang. This other group also isn't sure where it is, so they're also hunting. Whether the characters find it before Tom and co. are rescued doesn't matter—at this point it's more likely that the remaining characters will be trying to intercept and just fighting against the group to drive them off.

Finding the item will come later, though attempts to try to find it at the same time is of course doable. At this point it's more of what is actually feasible for both characters and players and I can see it going either way. But rather than bombard everyone with "STUFF!!!" let's take it a step at a time.


Return
Of course, once the rescue team returns with our intrepid NPCs, a lot of questions will be asked, answered, and probably created. What I hope is that all of this can be resolved over the next week or so. Again, I'm calculating our actual game speed for this, but it works out ICly as well. (They were really far out there) The sooner the better, of course, but no pressure if it takes a few days.


Sign...up?
Less of a "Sign-up" process and more of a "Tell me where you'll be at" kind of thing. Just find the subthread and slot yourselves in. Remember, the rescue team can't be too big and we can't have EVERYONE going out there. There will be action in town, too. So think of what would be best for the character and the event. In addition, any of those who want to help rescue will need to hit up Kid in that post just to make it more IC.


If you have any questions, ask away!

NOTE! This list is only for those who signed up to be randomized for partners for potential random CR. You can still participate in the event without signing up. We seemed to have some confusion about this, so hopefully clarifying this.

Here is the list for the upcoming event. For the randomized groups, we just did 2-person partners. However, you are more than welcome to add someone else into it if you'd like. Otherwise, have fun!

Allen - Vekk
Lord Death - Pierce
Kio - Sasuke
Yogi - Liz
Nico - Yuki
Subaru (TRC) - Shining Armor
Natsu - Oswald
Chibiusa - Princess Celestia
Princess Luna - Subaru (TB)
Leo - Jade
Natsuo - Death the Kid
Alvin - Peony
Jude - Mukuro
Sheena - Twilight Sparkle
Sakura (Gate) - Wally
Dino - Saeko
Tachibana - Seiga


If you have any conflicts, let us know and we can fix things up. If you missed the original sign-up, let us know and someone could either volunteer or I'll go through the list to partner you up with someone who mentioned being open for multiple partners.

if you have any other questions or concerns, just comment here.

Hey guys, the next new moon event is going to involve a bit pre-plotting between players so we're going ahead and posting this. It's also going to provide a lot of new CR opportunities, and it also synergizes really well with the upcoming mistletoe event.

Starts: December 9
Ends: December 18

dream melding

The first part of this event is the concept of "dream melding." Those who were here in January of this year may remember it, but if not here is when it was first introduced. But basically the dreams of two (or more) characters merge together to create a mash-up of dream settings. Like all dreams, these can be passive or interactive. But there are two twists to this version.

There is no limit as to how many melded dreams a character can have.


cross-canon mash-up

First twist is that the dream setting will be a mash-up of the characters' canons. This means that the characters involved must be from different canons. It's also possible for one canon to be more predominant than the other if players find it difficult to come up with a potential setting for the dream. As like all dreams, the characters can either be completely lucid and find the setting strange and bizarre or they can believe that it's completely normal. You could even have one character be lucid and the other one more influenced by the dream.


wake up together

Second twist is that the characters will find themselves waking up in the same location. You could make it as awkward by having them in the same bed or just have the visiting character be on the floor or chair nearby. Regardless, one character will find themselves in the room of the other. (And now you know why this synergizes well with the mistletoe event 8D)

Now, this actually has quite a bit of IC implications because this has never happened before. Even when dreamwalking, the physical body of the character has never moved—only their dream self. So what could this mean...?


randomize me

Now of course players are free to pick and choose their partner. But if you do not know or want to try to meet someone new to spark some interesting new CR, we can run a kind of random CR roulette. As mentioned, there is no limit as to how many dreams can be melded, so you can both choose your own as well as have your character up for randomizing.

So if you'd like to sign-up for randomizing, just comment to this post! We'll pair the characters up and post the list on Sunday, December 8.

You are also free to use this post to plot.

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If you have any questions or concerns, just comment here!

Hey guys, it's Laena with more Defense Force things. As mentioned in my last post, I hope to try out some new things starting this month. But before that, I'd like to once again do a shout out for anyone who would be interested in joining and for current members to reaffirm what they're character is doing.

I have made a spreadsheet for better organization. If you guys just want me to randomly assign things, I can do that :|b But if you have preferences, I'll go with those, too.

If you'll notice in the Patrols section, I have a "Notes" column. This is to put any specific task or "event" that the patrol may encounter. For instance, if they are to stumble upon a monster or maybe a character plot that's happening. Mostly it's for organizational purposes as well as to help springboard anything that might pop up. If players want to find something more overall plot specific, like another research facility or information, that's totally doable! I don't want to limit that sort of thing to the defense patrol, but if that's just how it works out then cool.

In addition I'd like to try an open mingling "Training Log" of sorts for both current members and those who just might be interested in learning generally. I think we have a few players and characters are interested in seeing how their abilities are adapting to the world, so this would be a good catch all chance.

Also for those who have characters who would help but not be an actual part of the force THAT'S COOL, TOO! That's where the "Affiliates" go in and it's just basically for people that come and help for things.

And last but not least, as indicated in Kid's post some facilities were found and need to be investigated! So if anyone would like to take that up, let me know.

After seeing how things progressed ICly, I think I can safely lay out what the former police force now definitely going to be defense force will be doing—or at least things I hope to do! By the way, I am taking offers for a better title for this group. Unless everyone is okay with "Somarium Defense Force" because I got nothing /cough.

As mentioned in my previous post, due to how Somarium is right now, a "police" force wouldn't make much sense, so it's being reorganized as more general defense force instead. This post is laying out a few ideas and tasks that the force will be responsible for:

( Fun things! )

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To help keep things active and not let our members wander around aimlessly, I have a few ideas that I'll try to give players something to actually do, even if only once or twice a month. Of course they will also be free to create their own logs involving their activities, but having some catch all's help, too. These would be monthly, but there is more than one so it will help cover things. To note, most of this stuff would be otherwise assumed to be happening. But the logs help players thread it every once in a while so it feels like something is actually happening.

( Lots of plotting and CR opportunity! )

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All right, I think that covers it! Hopefully this will make things more interesting and fun for those involved. More importantly, I hope it helps create more CR opportunities for everyone. This will definitely boost those part of the defense force, but we don't need to be exclusive. Our members need to create CR with those they're protecting, which is why the mingling logs will also be open for anyone to tag into, whether out of interest, observe, or general bother. Members can also create plots with others as well. Maybe there's a fight brewing and a pair happens to be nearby. Possibilities are endless!

On the other hand, we don't want to be too restrictive either. A defense force is just natural to form, but that doesn't mean we don't want anything bad to happen. We wouldn't be able to do anything if that were the case! And with Somarium as big as it is and the population so small, there are plenty of places for instigators and antagonists to hide. We'll also work out any large scale plots so that everyone can do what they want (yes, even if that means letting the villain escape to torment us another day—but not without a few good punches thrown first!).

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I'm also jotting down the current member roster and hopefully I didn't forget anyone. If I did, kick me. If you'd like to join, just comment here and we'll work out something ICly! Or just comment to Kid's upcoming post, which will mention at least the fundamentals of how the force will work. These are listed in no particular order.

( Current Members )

It's not a bad start, but we can always use more! Current members—if you'd like your character to be part of a certain group or task, just let me know! They can be in more than one, too, so don't feel like you have to choose.

If you have any questions, concerns, or even suggestions and ideas, throw them here!

Hey guys! Since Yuli is no longer here (sob) and the recent drops of other key police force members, this post is to figure out what our little organization is going to do from here on it, especially with the upcoming changes. I have Kid here as part of the SWAT time so I'm not taking charge ICly, but in terms of OOC handling, I'll take the reins for now until 1) we get a good grasp of where to go and 2) someone volunteers to do so!

Okay, so there's a few parts to this post but I promise will try not to tl;dr too much ha ha ha ha >_>

Member Roll Call + New Recruits
First and foremost, let's figure out who is still in the police force. Just comment to the post stating who you are, what character(s) is(are) in the force, how long they've been in there, and what rank/position they were. Also include anything you'd like to do with said character as well as a way for me to contact you (Plurk or AIM works best for me so laenavesse and AIM: Laenavesse).

If you're interested in joining, comment to this post! We'll figure out an IC way to handle it.

We will also need to figure out who will be in charge of the group now that Edgeworth is gone and we have no NPCs to fall back on.

Let's all handle these OOCly first and then I suggest we have someone gather everyone so that they can discuss it ICly. There's no real big rush, but I think the sooner we figure it out, the better. Otherwise some players may feel uncertain and uncertainty is never good.


Adapting the Force
With the NPC population going away, all that will be left (for a while) is the characters. This actually calls into question how effective the police will be and what it is they will be trying to enforce. I think having some kind of "enforcer" type organization is good to have, but there will be significantly less for them to do in the background (for instance, up until now we could have just assumed there have been case loads with the general populace until a player event hit).

Thus to ensure that those involved with the police have something to do and to fit the upcoming changes, I think that the force should start expanding their horizons and alter a few things. Rather than just plain detective/street cops, perhaps we should look at it more like an old western town Sheriff and deputy. Things from outside of Somarium (bandits, hostiles, monsters) will be more prominent and likely to come into the town and the city has no defenses.

So to put simply, rather than just thinking of it as simply a "police" force, perhaps it should be more like an all around Somarium Defense Force? There could be groups who help patrol certain areas, groups who investigate any incidents that occur, groups who help with general security, groups who are skilled in advanced combat, etc. For instance, Raindow Dash's Sky Patrol being its own special unit.

This will help bring in everyone and (hopefully) seem less exclusive. This can also open up characters who would like to help protect everyone, but maybe not necessarily in the traditional police fashion. Those characters could fit into one of the other groups.

Detainment will also be an issue (it always is) but since everything is more "rogue" in a way, we'll be able to figure out something so that both the good guys and bad guys get the spotlights in any future plots.

That's just my idea, however, and I would really like to hear what others think—both from those inside the force and outside of it.

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That's it for now and...okay I tried to keep it short, I really did >_>;; But just comment to this post so we get this ball rolling!

Hey guys, we've been thinking about the Activity Check and we have been toying the idea of changing how and when the check would run. What we came up with resulted in changing the game schedule entirely, so please read to see how it would work. This is just a proposal, so there is a poll at the bottom.

We are considering running the Activity Check during the first three days of the month, followed by a two day grace period for anyone who missed to get one last chance to post their proofs. All proofs would be dated between the first and last date of the month. No activity dating after the last day of the month would be counted.

The application cycle would shift to be from the first ten days of the month to the last ten days of the month. We are also contemplating shortening the application cycle to seven days, but prefer to keep it at ten.

The New/Full Moon events would shift from the end of the month to roughly around the second week of the month. This also means that the moon cycles would alter a bit so that they would roughly fall around that time period, and we have ideas as to how to do that should this proposal be approved.

So this is an example of how the schedule would look like:

AUGUST
01-07: cycle 3 [7 days] (July AC 1-5)
08-16: cycle 4 [9 days] FULL MOON
17-24: cycle 3 [8 days] (App start 22)
25-31: cycle 1 [7 days] (App end 31)

SEPTEMBER
01-07: cycle 1 [7 days] (August AC 1-5)
08-15: cycle 0 [8 days] NEW MOON
16-23: cycle 1 [8 days] (App start 21)
24-30: cycle 2 [7 days] (App end 30)

The dates can always be fudged, but the time between the end of application rounds and the larger event will be at least a week, which is roughly the same as it is now.

This system would remove any doubt of what dated activity would count, and it would also promote more activity for intro posts. This will also promote players to tag outside and potentially create new CR, even if the original intent was just for activity. You would also still have the whole month to complete your activity.

The AC requirements and rules will remain the same with the "no last day entries allowed" restriction removed. Entries made on the last day of the month would count, though discouraged. The template will look like the reformatted one shown in last week's moon cycle, and could be found here.

So there's the basic gist but we would like for the playerbase to vote on this issue through the following poll. If it is approved, it will go into affect for July's AC. Application for July would still be from the 1st through the 10th, but the August application cycle would be from the 22nd to the 31st. The July AC would be on August 1-3.



If you have any questions or suggestions, ask them here.

Firstly since the Hulk plot is over, Tony is out of his sleepcoma... as of yesterday actually. Whoops.

Secondly! Some of you might remember that stuff happened a while ago involving a dead villain and the discovery of a dream gate. Some of you might even remember that Tony here was the one who snagged it. There was briefly a scuffle with the Red Skull where he lost possession of it, but he's got it back now so we're all good. For those who are new or have trouble remembering this and this should make things clearer. I'm pretty sure there was another post related to it but I cannot find it...

Anyway, I later had Tony announce his new discovery and then offer the chance for everyone to poke at it. This is basically me asking which characters would be poking around because I figure Tony would know them by now (CR y/y?) and maybe figure out who's discovered what information from it? Otherwise Tony will hog all knowledge and the only one happy about that is him.

If your character is new and you still want to get them involved, Tony's offer is open ended and let's say him having it is public knowledge so it would be totally okay to just have them drop in unannounced or even announced if you want to handwave/log them contacting him and asking (unless you are 616!Tony and then he'll punch you |D). Although I do ask that there not be any more successful attempts at removing it because he's probably beefed up security since he got blackmailed into giving it up last time. Also he has a Hulk and a team of Avengers. Don't make him sic them on you.

If you have a question... you're actually better off directing it to one of the mods, but I can try and answer.

1. Ugh. Sorry for being such a slowcoach with Dahlia and Riku lately. My motivation has been up and down with RP in general, lately so I've been much slower than usual. I was going to tag with Riku in that battle fight but now that it's over, I'm not really sure. I might say he got sick or something and so couldn't go. But, in other words, you could say I unintentionally took an unnanounced slowatus. Sorry guys.


2. As she mentioned in one of her previous posts, Dahlia/Jessica is having a NICE LITTLE TEA PARTY. She's not planning to kill anyone yet but she wants to gain new 'friends' who can unintentionally help her get away with anything. EVERYONE'S INVITED. People who know her real personality are also welcome if they like to IDK spy on her or something (since there are people in her canon who she doesn't know are present in the game and she also doesn't know that a couple of people who've talked to her know who she really is). Does anyone want to plot on that?


I don't know when this party is going to be but perhaps sometime in December when things in Somarium settle down?

3. IMPORTANT TO THE AA CAST: I have created a new plotting community for the AA characters of Somarium. Some of you guys know this already but to those of you who don't, it's called laddervsstepladder. It's especially useful for any AA muns who don't have a Plurk/do have Plurk but are (understandably) very picky about who they friend on there. So please join, guys!

Hey guys! So I believe a couple of players out there (including myself) have tossed around the idea of there being some sort of IC guide for the characters to have of all the information they've learned through the game. Chlor (Anguished One-mun) actually PMed a draft she made that sparked this conversation and I have permission to share as an example! Check it out here.

In the end the guide won't look like that, but it would be a basic info dump of what the characters know and don't know about Somarium.

Since the characters do learn different things in different ways at different times, I think it would be cool if a group came together to share what they have and clarify any discrepancies and misinformation that's gone around. Of course, we know the truth, but they don't, so misinformation being called as "correct" information? Totally acceptable. It's an IC guide, with the stress on the IC.

I already have Kid slated to help participate, but I wanted to know OOCly who would like to throw their characters in on this little project. Older characters would of course be more advantageous, but even those who recently arrived can join in and even pose questions to the team to ask what's what and such. Also, the information has to be ICly: obtained, inferred, and/or reasoned. There has to be some reference to how they got whatever information they had, and I'll be here to make sure that accidental metagame doesn't happen. Like I said, wrong information is A-OK, but information that was never even given out except in OOC pages not OK.

In terms of how this will be done, I'm thinking I could make an IC post asking for volunteers, but OOCly I'll set up a GoogleDoc that those signed up can come and fill in. It can be edited and people could leave comments to make sure it works, but then once we have a "final draft" drafts of sorts, we can format it and it'll be dispersed ICly. This will be done by having it like a downloadable file set on the network that anyone, both old, new, and future characters will have access to. It can also be updated and corrected as time goes on.

So if you're interested, just comment here! You can also go ahead and throw up any content of interest or questions that should probably be addressed in it.