lightning_war post recap, 29 March-20 April 2009
Game date and time: Thursday evening, 17 September 1942:
Announcements:
* Thanks for your patience. It's late, but this is a huge recap. There have only been 31 posts in 3 weeks, but even in this recap you can't see all of the editing, graphics and coding work we've been doing on the wikis and on the IJs. Soon I will be posting a list of journals that have been edited for 3.0 so you can see changes.
* Things are going very slowly right now because we have not only had to reboot to Lightning War 3.0, we have also had to move our wiki. The new wiki is found at http://wiki.lightningwar.org and is much more powerful than the old one. Soon it will also be just as pretty, but our first priority is correcting all the out of date, bad and missing information.
* There will shortly be a post to help you keep track of things as the names of characters, places and journals change over the next two months. Very little of the actual plot has changed; it's mostly names and places, although the Leffoy-Malaspina backstory is different. Erasing all the serial numbers will be a lengthy process--but when we are done, Lightning War will finally be free of all non-deniable Harry Potter references. (We are not changing common English names that Rowling just happened to use.)
* Reminder: we back up posts to this community and comments made on those posts. Please be aware that if LiveJournal fails permanently, everything will be reposted for the sake of continuity somewhere else, probably IJ. No profit will be made from this.
* Until further notice we are not recruiting new players. It’s not fair to anyone new to expect them to start when we’re in the middle of this.
* You may be reading this on LiveJournal, Dreamwidth or through an RSS feed, but Lightning War is hosted on InsaneJournal; please don’t be surprised when our links take you there!
* If you have friended this community but have not joined it, you are not a member. This means you will miss locked posts. You will be unable to vote in polls. Also, your comments on posts will be screened until a maintainer unscreens them, which makes discussions less lively. Join on LJ. Join on IJ. Join on Dreamwidth.
* If you post on this community, please cross-post (or, if you don’t have an account on all three services, let me know so I can link people to your post. All posts will appear in recaps, but not all posts are public.
* Azalais' backstory fic for Lightning War, World Well Lost, is also being de-Potterised and is being posted in her fic journal, http://azalais.livejournal.com, under friends lock, because she is still editing it and hasn't made any decisions about the copyleft or eventual pro publication. She will friend back anyone she recognises (well, except the trolls). It is likely to be moving to Dreamwidth soon, but under the same conditions.
* We have opened a mirror community on Dreamwidth.
* We’re giving away around 200 LiveJournal basic, ad-free accounts that were formerly used by our characters, some with great names, here. (You must join the LJ community to see this post.)
Completed/Continuing Open Threads:
Not everyone in Michel Rosenthal's sixth-form arithmancy lecture is paying attention to the maths. (Closed and complete.)
Olivia Goulston is disturbed by her readings and even more disturbed by Professor Stuart's reaction to them. So are Dylan Vieira and Colette Saint-Germain. (Closed and complete.)
Alexiel Penrose badly needs a clue. Endymion Dashwood attempts to give him one, but is interrupted by his little brother. (Closed and complete.)
Joachim Piccard isn't dealing well with the memories of the things he did while he was possessed, now that he no longer is. While he's thinking it over, he meets his new co-worker, Agent Linden Hill. (Closed and complete.)
Dracaena Leffoy tells Nicodemo Malaspina how her talk with Kyteler went and asks him to come home via paired-slate. He agrees, and tells her how his talk with Fortune went. (Closed and complete.)
Dracaena Leffoy is having an agony of guilt about her inability to do justice to all her duties as sacred queen, diplomat, administrator and mother. Nicodemo Malaspina comes home and comforts her. (Closed and complete.)
Keresek is upset because his visions seem to contradict each other; his mother Steren helps him sort it out. (Closed and complete.)
Halász Sándor notices that his sister Sharolt's taken a sudden turn for the worse--in a way which implies that there is probably something coming for her. (Closed and complete.)
Arianwen Rosier has decided that she doesn't care any more if she makes an enemy of Leah Lindsey. When Yvon Leffoy, Corinne Allison and Alessio Malaspina show up, she greets Yvon with enthusiasm. Leah Lindsey decides not to put up a fight when Yvon tells her he plans to take over and tells him that she's perfectly willing to let him and Arianwen live with the results of whatever they do. (Closed and complete.)
Callista Lovelace writes a letter to her uncle Howard that she won't get to send; she and her brother, and their cousins Martial and Mercuria, discuss Michel Rosenthal's sixth-form seminar, and note the absence of Kathleen Loveday from the Great Hall. (Closed and complete.)
Theo Abbott finds this situation depressingly familiar. Fiammetta Kyteler is wondering what will become of her mundane-born friends when the school is closed. They, also, have noticed that Kathleen Loveday is nowhere about. (Closed and complete.)
New Posts:
Alexiel Penrose is terrified, but trying to be stronger for Tristan Trevelyan. Nerissa Trelawney tries to cheer them up. (Closed and complete.)
Valeria Malaspina is really frustrated that after she went and made Paul Pettigrew recant, Tom Forrester didn't show up for the evacuation and she can't find him anywhere, so maybe Warrington's right and he's hiding in the library after all, and she's not at all happy about that.
James Warrington is really furious that he's been left in charge of all the Avalon boys by himself again and that Tom Forrester appears to have blown off the evacuation. He's got Jeannot and Josiah Trelawney helping him--and he's told them he doesn't care what happens to Tom Forrester.
Austin Parkinson hopes he'll have the strength to tell his grandmother off if he lives through this. He also wonders what Kat Loveday has to do with any of it.
Angelo Bruno wants St Hilda's College to stop singing yesterday. Also, he and his friends are trying to figure out how to impress upon Melly Merriweather's family that she must not be separated from him. (Closed and complete.)
Ximena Saenz thinks that Juliana Leffoy will be betrayed by someone she--Ximena, that is--cares about.
Nerissa Trelawney hopes Gabrielle Thibault, who voted against closing the school, gets caught in the raid. She can't believe her brother is being responsible or that Annie Loveday is trusting Mathers with her sister's welfare. She also wonders why Martial Casaubon and a bunch of firsties are talking to the Canadian kid in St Hilda's.
Tirtzah Mendel is used to hurried evacuations. Also, she seems to think that Elie and Zip are a permanent item, James Warrington is going to be a hero in Palestine, and Juliana Leffoy is going to have seven children. And she's amused that Rachel doesn't believe it's all 100% serious and not something she's saying to make their families accept Liane.
Hypatia Scalara is more suspicious of Professors Mathers and Stuart--and less of Michel Rosenthal--than she was a few hours ago. She hopes Liane is not a double agent, or anything else that might hurt Michel.
Perkin Hawkwood doesn't know whether to hope he dies in the lightning rain or look forward to being killed by his parents when he gets home; he'd hoped not to have to face them until December, since he was at the illegal party in town and mixed up in the pub fire, and they have had to pay his fines.
Paul Pettigrew tries to warn Mary Walsh that there might be rumours about him and Valeria Malaspina and that he's sorry he repeated Perkin's lies, but the way he stumbles over his words, combined with Audrey Erskine's flirtations, make him look worse than saying nothing might have done. Mary is not sure what to think, but at least he's owning up to his misbehaviour this time.
Cassie Campion and Celerity Warrington don't feel like praying. They decide to play cards instead--with her brother and Delia Hawkwood.
Juliana Leffoy makes Michel Rosenthal promise to take her out for dinner--and not at his father's house--if they live through this; then they try to get the orrery working properly and find that it is a little more exhilarating than either of them had expected it to be. Then all hell breaks loose.
The Frealafs prepare to face the lightning. Estrid gets hit.
Lanval Trevelyan comes back from a mission in Armorica but the only person at home is his cousin.
Violette Lausson is depressed because one of her childhood friends is dead, and out of four she's the only one left. She's been summoned to von Thorwald's court and suspects she may well be next; at least it's not slow death from boredom.
Eglantine and Lanval Trevelyan wait out the storm; she fills him in on the latest news of family and friends and discovers that he's met some people she and his younger brother admire.
Llewellyn Rosier is worried about his lover, Bobby Macmillan, and determined not to go home to his parents' house. He's also really furious with Andrew Gresham. Perkin Hawkwood decides to express his opinion of their relationship yet again, and Lew accuses him of being the person who visited Paul Pettigrew's bedroom disguised as Mary Walsh. Nerissa Trelawney and Rajinder Ayyar believe it. Perkin sputters and very nearly gets himself into a duel; Melly Merriweather tells him there's no shame in being involved with a guy--isn't his hero, Superman, involved with Jimmie Olsen? Paul steps in and clears up the confusion by saying that he thinks it was the incubus who came to visit him, and Nerissa Trelawney tells him that he should immediately go to the infirmary, as she is appalled that he thinks he's qualified to judge for himself whether or not the demon damaged him. Paul agrees to go, Rajinder agrees to watch Paul's firsties, and Nicolas Goyle wonders why he always misses the really interesting stuff. (Closed and complete.)
Eudokia Tzitzinia and Rainer Pfeifenberger find themselves caught in turbulence while flying an aeroplane on a dangerous course through extramundane space.
Lukas Andreas does not like sailing on a boat through a sea of blood in what is probably qliphotic space, particularly since that wasn't the route anyone on board was intending to go and all that seems to be keeping them alive is Séverine Leffoy and a big black feather. Especially not when that aeroplane goes right over their heads.
Valeria Malaspina finds Tom Forrester in the library, but before she can blow up at him, he explains to her that the orrery wants him and he's looking for information about it and that he thinks he's special somehow. She tells him that it might be true and shows him how she's special and explains what she knows about how that works, which isn't much. She decides to look for Vikram Ayyar's books on the subject while Tom hunts for the documentation on the orrery, which Tom thinks is a good idea--until she asks a homunculus for help. But instead of reporting that they asked for restricted materials, the homunculus gives her the books she asked for and takes them down underground to get the manuscript Tom wants. It's locked in an iron box, but when the ground shakes, Tom and Valeria decide to go straight to the orrery and not try to break the wards down there. On the way to the orrery, Valeria sees Joachim Piccard outside through a window, and is frightened enough to tell Tom why she's scared of him.
Halász Sándor would probably be more upset that his little sister Sharolt calmly woke up and proceeded to the cockpit to help Fife and Eudokia navigate, despite having been given an industrial-strength dose of sedatives, if it weren't for the fact that he can see teeth and claws in the sky where stars ought to be.
The Ga'ashekelah (Breakers)--demons from the fourth qliphotic sphere--are no longer bored. Halász Sharolt isn't bored any more either, and is having a lot of fun playing chicken with them inside an enchanted aeroplane. They think they're going to have her as an appetiser before moving on to their main course, but Sharolt has other ideas. Fujiwara Kenjiro is very impressed with her game, but Sharolt is a little concerned that she actually is far more powerful and lucid in the qliphotic realms than she is in mundane reality. (Closed and complete.)
Laurent Vigoreux knows something very unpleasant is going on tonight even though he has to put on a happy face and party. He's wearing his favourite trousers, just in case he has to die in them.
Nikola Tesla has decided that even though these people have the disagreeable habit of referring to their activities as 'magic' they are actually doing something, which is disturbing because he may not have actually imagined some of the things he believes he's imagined. Jael Moody is alarmed by Sharolt's maths, because she thinks she's seen something like them before, in a really inventive (read: batshit, but somehow it worked) thesis proposal by a fifteen year old girl genius from Armorica who was considering coming to Salem to do her graduate work. Tesla wants to learn the maths. Jael will be happy to teach him. (Closed and complete.)
Seanan MacAran Bell is unhappy, because having the Sight and being listened to are two different things, and she already knows someone she loves is going to die tonight. She even knows who.
Fujiwara Kenjiro and Halász Sándor are also concerned that Sharolt seems to be stronger in polluted extramundane spaces (which, after all, would seriously injure most people). Kenjiro thinks that Sharolt fights like she's dancing and either already is or is going to be a good martial artist of some sort.
Alexandr Zitek feels guilty that he is going to have to kill at least one and probably two of his sons' friends, not to mention the brother of the girl he is sleeping with, who is younger than his sons and whom he knows he shouldn't be sleeping with. He thinks he should probably stop, because if she gets pregnant the results are likely to be disastrous. (Also, he feels slightly guilty for dumping Andromeda, although it was awfully irritating to hear his thoughts echoed back at him when he didn't like them anyway.) Maria Dashwood wakes up and talks him out of leaving her. Alexandr tries to prepare her for the possibility that her brother Endymion might be in trouble they can't get him out of alive. (Closed and complete.)
Tatsuko Kurita is annoyed that she's missed out on seeing both Viresh Ayyar and Michel Rosenthal get into what look like serious relationships, since she never thought it would happen, and wishes she knew where Vince Rosenthal ran off to, because Dr Taverner is going to want to know. Also, they've recovered the body of an agent named Delany and Surya Ayyar is expected to interrogate it. Allegra Toussaint stops in to tell her that the gates in Hibernia have all gone down, stays to exchange some gossip, and then they decide that after they tell Taverner what's going on they'll need to tell Surya that her cousins might be in trouble and the only family around them is her brother Viresh. (Closed and complete.)
Anjali Ayyar isn't happy that she doesn't know what to say to her friends Callista and Mercuria, who have lost family respectively to rioting in India, because she believes her country should be free, but she doesn't believe they deserved to lose their family, and she isn't sure if they blame her or not. She also isn't happy to be stuck in the castle during a lightning rain and she doesn't know where she and her brother are going to end up afterward; their cousin Viresh is outside, but he's too busy helping save them all to talk about it.
Claudien de Kernoël knows his friends think his faith in Rosenthal and Liane is a little nuts, but he's got nothing else. He just wishes he knew why Bobby Macmillan is so much more upset than most other people are.
Character Moves:
Elias Argyropolous moved from egregoroi to gamchicoth.
Evangeline Charteris moved from voci-umbrarum to septenary.
Niccolò Ficino moved from egregoroi to gamchicoth.
Eustacia Gardiner moved from eustacia (which was renamed/recycled) to practicalmagick.
Ga’ashekelah (formerly Tychaioi) moved from tychaioi (which was deleted) to gamchicoth.
Eva Jovanović moved from egregoroi to gamchicoth.
Natalia Kreuz moved from egregoroi to gamchicoth.
Violette Lausson moved from voci-umbrarum to ash_of_violets.
Maya Lockhart moved to egregoroi to gamchicoth.
Rebecca Potter moved from voci-umbrarum to practicalmagick.
Cariadoc Rosier moved from cariadoc (which was deleted) to voci-umbrarum.
Carrington Travers moved from androcles (which was deleted) to egregoroi.
Lanval Trevelyan moved from voci-umbrarum to trevelyans.
Laurent Vigoreux moved from alison-lw-npcs to betterwithapen.
New Graphics:
Please note that while all graphics that might appear on a friends page or profile page are free of explicitly sexual nudity, not all graphics, particularly icons intended for use in comment threads, are work-safe in all workplaces.
Priscilla Chattox-Kyteler, Dracaena Leffoy and Juliana Leffoy have new banners.
Bobby Macmillan has a new PB, Jackson Rathbone.
Nerissa Trelawney has a new PB, Kristen Stewart. (Please note that there are no plans to ship her with Edmund Bradbury, even if he is completely mad to get married as soon as humanly possible. It’ll have to be to someone else.)
Llewellyn Rosier does not have a new PB. He is still John Amedori. It’s the same guy. However, as he, Nicolas Goyle, Bobby Macmillan and Nerissa Trelawney were aged up a bit for 3.0, he has all new userpics and boy does he look different, but it’s the same guy, I swear.
The following characters in individual journals have new userpics:
Anjali Ayyar, Viresh Ayyar, Báthory Zsuzsanna, Alvaro Benedetto, Angelo Bruno, Priscilla Chattox-Kyteler, Gloriana Dee, Julian Delgardie, Esteban García, Halász Sándor, Cordélia Hawkwood, Christina Howe, Kafziel, Király Ilóna, Edward Kyteler, Hadrian Kyteler, Violette Lausson, Charis Leffoy, Dracaena Leffoy, Juliana Leffoy, David Locke, Chandra Lockhart, Alessio Malaspina, Ercole Malaspina, Valeria Malaspina, Jael Moody, Naszvadi Lili, Joachim Piccard, Jenica Popescu, Joscelin van Rensselaer, Arianwen Rosier, Ximena Saenz, Colette Saint-Germain, St John Saunders, Teresa Silveira, Lilias Wilkes Taverner, Gregor von Thorwald, Dylan Vieira, Laurent Vigoreux, Celerity Warrington, Marlene Watkins, Rachel Zeller, Alexandr Zitek and Stepán Zitek.
In shared journals, Jerome Device, Alexiel Penrose, Tristan Trevelyan and Kiran Zeller have new userpics at alison-lw-npcs; Josefa Kreuz, Seanan MacAran, Antonetta Sforza have new userpics at egregoroi; Rebecca Potter has new userpics at practicalmagick; Eglantine Trevelyan has new userpics at trevelyans; Hypatia Scalara, Ethan Vieira and Melissa Vieira have new userpics at sabedoria; Evangeline Charteris, Linden Hill, Octavian St James and Allegra Toussaint have new userpics at septenary and Zachary Crabtree, Camille DeVries, Audrey Erskine, Nicolas Goyle, Alanna Kyteler, Bessie Mahoney, Parsival Mathers, Pyramus Mathers, Tirtzah Mendel, Miriam Moon, Mavis Trevelyan, Mary Walsh and Victorina Wurfel have new userpics (mostly from stock photos in order to free PBs who were tied up with characters that are seldom played) at voci-umbrarum.
Userpics for Priscilla Chattox-Kyteler, Bartholomew Cross, Graffius Dee, Tom Forrester, Eliezer Frankel, Ailise Kyteler, Alastor Mablin, Jennie Mablin, Parsival Mathers, Aoife Rochford, Brigid Rochford, Cíaran Rochford, Cillian Rochford, St John Saunders, Hypatia Scalara, Septimus Starn, Jehanne-Marie Stuart, Gabrielle Thibault, Ethan Vieira, and Marlene Watkins have been replaced in the 2.0 archive journal, lightningyears.
New Journals:
ash_of_violets: Violette Lausson has been living in the countryside of Gallia while her father and sister curry favour with the occupation in Armorica, but that’s about to change. She was once part of a close-knit group of ambitious girls at Académie de Ker-Ys, which included Juliana Leffoy, Dahut Morvran (now dead, apparently) and Colette Saint-Germain. (PB: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz)
betterwithapen: Laurent Vigoreux, a notorious poet and musician, who is secretly involved with the Armorican Resistance due to his failed love affair with Séverine Leffoy, got his own journal. (PB: Pete Wentz)
gamchicoth: We moved the really evil demons and b’nai-Azazel NPCs out of the egregoroi journal and into one of their own. (The egregoroi journal still has some morally grey people in it, but no-one who is morally infrared.)
trevelyans: The Trevelyan family now has its own shared journal. This journal is being shared by Cador, Augustina, Lanval and Eglantine Trevelyan. Madoc Trevelyan may also be found there until such time as he acquires a player.
New NPCs:
Nicolas Goyle (PB Kellan Lutz) is not a new NPC; he is Jadis Goyle’s son-who was frequently mentioned in passing by Jennie Mablin, who doesn’t like him, and Llewellyn Rosier and Nerissa Trelawney, who do. He’s been aged up to match them. He’s currently living in voci-umbrarum.
Seanan MacAran Bell (PB Ashley Greene) is the older sister of Angus MacAran, and was married off at an early age by their father because she had frequent and incapacitating visions and it was thought that the Sight would be less troubling and powerful for her after the loss of her virginity (this has generally proven not to be true). She is married to a cousin of the Macmillans who has more money than blood and who enriched her father’s coffers. They are not terribly well-matched and he spends most of his time away at war. She’s currently living in egregoroi.
Tirtzah Mendel (stock photo used in icon) is the fiancée of Daniel Zeller, and a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe. She's also given to moments of prophecy, but hers usually come in dreams. She’s currently living in voci-umbrarum.
Antonetta Sforza (PB Kristen Bell) is Valeria Malaspina’s best childhood friend. And she is a little crazy. She is liable to be staying in Italy. She’s currently living in egregoroi.
Octavian St James (PB Lance Reddick) is an operative of the Septenary Bureau. He’s currently living in septenary.
Allegra Toussaint (PB Jasika Nicole) is an operative of the Septenary Bureau. She’s currently living in septenary.
Eglantine Trevelyan (PB Kelly Osbourne) is the cousin of Madoc, Lanval and Tristan Trevelyan, but her parents died and she lives with her aunt Augustina and uncle Cador on Lyonesse. She left Avalon College just last spring, so current Avalon upperclassmen should remember her. She’s currently living in trevelyans.
Renamed Journals:
burning_time was renamed septenary. This journal is still the home of the Septenary Bureau (formerly known as the Department of Mysteries).
Under New Management:
We will be accepting new applications once we are done rebooting. At that time, you should check out the Adoptable Characters page for descriptions of the kinds of adoptions that are open and lists of characters available for each. Right now we are still not sure who all is going to be dead at the end of the lightning rain.
Fun and Games:
Nothing this time.