Moon Cycle 20 + Event Plotting Post
❖ MOON CYCLE 20 ❂ 05/13/10 - 05/22/10
Phase: Full; the moon's surface looks as if it's pure white, almost blinding. It's the brightest it has been so far, and all the skies are completely clear of clouds. The stars continue to blink in and out, and if one looked carefully, they may see strange white trails of what could only be assumed to be some kind of gas. But these wispy, white ribbons can be found in various parts of the sky and behave as if they are alive, undulating every now and then and shifting positions.
Weather: Every day is perfect early summer weather. Light breezes, tolerable warm temperatures, comfortable cool nights, soft wispy clouds that cross the sky. No sign of rain anywhere.
Effects: Blast from the Past. The moment your characters wake up, one of two things will happen:
Notes: Because of the nature of this event, we're going to give a lot of details to help everyone out. This list may be updated if future issues arise, so check this place first and feel free to ask any questions regarding to specific details about how things work during this event!
Please remember that the event starts Thursday, May 13. We're just going ahead and posting this as a heads up.
There will be a signal post to start the event. The event tag will be !moon: cycle 20.
Players are more than welcome to use this post for any plotting you may need with your fellow castmates and other characters, or create your own on the OOC community. Just don't spam the comm too much!
If you have any questions or need any kind of clarification, feel free to comment here as well.
Note: There will be two designated threads for questions and those who are interested in having their characters in the research area and would need additional information to feed out. After that, anyone can post wherever they'd like. This is just to help keep things organized. Plotting spam is perfectly fine.
Edit: If we have to extend the event to accommodate those who will be busy with exams during this time period, we will be more than happy to do so. We'll see how it goes up until the near end of the event, but we just wanted to put it out there that extending the event is possible if necessary.
Phase: Full; the moon's surface looks as if it's pure white, almost blinding. It's the brightest it has been so far, and all the skies are completely clear of clouds. The stars continue to blink in and out, and if one looked carefully, they may see strange white trails of what could only be assumed to be some kind of gas. But these wispy, white ribbons can be found in various parts of the sky and behave as if they are alive, undulating every now and then and shifting positions.
Weather: Every day is perfect early summer weather. Light breezes, tolerable warm temperatures, comfortable cool nights, soft wispy clouds that cross the sky. No sign of rain anywhere.
Effects: Blast from the Past. The moment your characters wake up, one of two things will happen:
- They will notice that everything has been restored to Somarium's former glory, with everything operating as if nothing had ever happened. They will otherwise feel completely normal.
- They will have become part of Somarium's population, acting as if they had always lived there all their life with no memory whatsoever of their real life.
Notes: Because of the nature of this event, we're going to give a lot of details to help everyone out. This list may be updated if future issues arise, so check this place first and feel free to ask any questions regarding to specific details about how things work during this event!
- Everything is optional. As mentioned before, it is completely optional to have your character go through the "character transformation".
- Change of character. For those that are participating, characters will wake up the next morning with no memory of their original life and will have "adopted" a different life based on Somarium's world.
For example, Tamaki would act as if he had always attended high school in Somarium while living in a rich family household. Kamina would act as if he had always been head of a rogue, delinquent gang. Javert would be the chief inspector and for once wouldn't have to puzzle over Somarium's technology and have all knowledge on how the law system works. Tifa could be a martial arts teacher.
Their new "persona" does not have to always be a 1-to-1 correlation to what they were back in their original world. So long as the character's personality does not change, they can have whatever job available or just be a normal citizen. So Kurogane and Fay could ICly run the onsen as if they had owned it for years.
If any unaffected character went up to them wondering what the hell was wrong with them, all affected characters would just treat them as if they were the ones who were strange and assume they were either new arrivals or visitors (to be explained further down). - Available "jobs". All jobs and styles of living in Somarium are basically the same as the kind you can find on Earth. It's a modern city, but we also have the village. So it's possible to have traditional blacksmiths in Espoir as well as high-tech engineers in the city. There are also scientific research facilities that are around the city and they mainly study dreams. But there are some limits.
- Limitations. Characters cannot be head CEOs of any company or head supervisor/intendent of the research facilities. They can work there or be heirs, but they can't actually run it. This is just to prevent complicated metagaming and OOC knowledge that would be involved or connected to such high positions. Managers of stores, restaurants, and other small businesses are A-OK, though. It's only the big, high end corporations that have such limitations.
- Researchers. If your character is suitable to work in one of the research facilities, just note that they would only be working in one of the lesser branches where basic study on the dreams and dream energy would take place. If you'd like your character to participate in such activities, contact one of us mods so we can give you the full details of what you'd be working with.
- Unaffected characters are called "new arrivals" or "visitors". Both the NPCs and affected characters will regard unaffected characters as "new arrivals" or "visitors". This indicates that strange people arriving into their world is a common occurrence and in fact deliberate. They will be told that they came through the Dream Gate and it was of their own choosing, which will of course sound odd to them.
- Affected characters can make families among themselves. It is possible for a group of affected characters to believe they had always been related or a family this whole time. For example, Valjean could have been Original!Alice's father. Takuma and Tamaki could really be twins.
This can also work for unaffected characters. For instance, carrying over the Takuma/Tamaki twin example, Takuma may be unaffected, but Tamaki is. Therefore, Tamaki will always act like Takuma is really his twin brother while Takuma will be completely flabbergasted and wonder what is wrong with him.
If you go this route, always talk with the other players first! Do not assume a character is related in some way with another without discussing the other players. - Dream gate. There is a new device that can be found by the fountain in Espoir. In short, it looks like a teleportation gate, but there's an "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" sign in front of it. Characters are more than welcome to inspect it and if asked what it is, they will be told it's how they got there of course. Usually people can enter and leave freely but for some reason it's acting strange and not letting people leave. They can still enter, though, so it's currently under repairs.
- Currency: Dream Card. Yes, there is a type of currency in Somarium at this point in time. Though instead of dollar notes or coins, everyone just has a simple Dream Card. It basically acts like a credit card and everyone has their own bank account. It essentially works the same way the old Dream Credit system did, only with less maintenance and more handwaving. Throughout the event, characters will have enough money in their account to live comfortably. Unless they designated themselves under a rich family, of course, or deliberately stayed as a lower class resident. They will have to pay for everything and anyone running stores will also gain money. Those who have jobs will have an income. But again, any monetary transaction is all assumed and can be handwaved.
As for what is actually being charged, it's Dream Energy. - Dreamberry functions. The Dreamberries will work just like it normally does. Dreams can still be broadcasted. For characters that are affected, dreams related to their real lives are perfectly acceptable. They would just believe it to be some kind of fantasy and might feel a hint of deja vu. Characters can also still call one another, both unaffected and affected. Affected characters will just behave like this is normal as everyone, including NPCs have Dreamberry devices.
- No floating mountain. Unaffected characters may notice something to be missing, and that would be the floating mountain. For this event, it will have completely vanished without a trace.
- NPCs work like normal. The transformation of the ghost NPCs to normal humans has already completed by the end of the last moon phase and they will retain that human form. They will also behave more like normal people. This includes any rogue delinquents and thieves. They will vary in all ages, from babies to the elderly. This is vastly different from before as only young adults and middle-aged NPCs were previously available, so unaffected characters may notice that as well. Characters are of course welcome to godmod them for whatever purpose necessary, such as using them as employees.
The only exception is making romantic relationships and creating families. While it is possible for characters to move into families, for instance any of the teenager characters, it is not possible for a character to suddenly have a spouse or children. - Crimes are allowed. Somarium is effectively working like a normal, modern day city now, so there can be crimes both small and large. It is also possible for the NPCs to be killed. However, just remember that IC actions will have IC consequences, so if you plan to have your character try to be a serial killer, give everyone a heads up and expect people to respond.
- Limited abilities. Both affected and unaffected characters will have all of their supernatural abilities sealed, making them more like a "normal" human being. By supernatural we mean magic and any unnatural super powers. Characters who have natural talents such as high physical strength or hyper perception will still be able to use those skills. Any spiritual skills will also be retained.
However, any knowledge of weapon use can be carried over. For instance Cloud would still be able to wield a sword and Snake would know how to use a firearms. This is of course optional and it's also possible for them to have no knowledge on how to use weaponry.
This will also affect non-human characters, such as the vampires, cannibals, and others. They will no longer have those characteristics or tendencies, and will also behave like a normal person. - Animal characters retain their form with slight limitations. Refer to this thread. In short, though, all animal-like creatures will essentially stay the same. Any mythical creatures like unicorns and dragons will retain their powers. Power limitations may be a case-by-case situation, so feel free to ask for any specifics!
- Housing. Unless certain affected characters would need to be moved -- such as into a family -- characters should be able to stay in their current residence.
- Schools. It's technically the US system, but since it's near summer anyway, it might not matter. However, like in the US, schools end at different times, so it's possible to have your characters cramming for exams if you want.
- Barrier and Desert. The barrier is still up and characters can still freely travel through it. However, they may be stopped by some NPC guards to just check through. The desert is still dangerous.
- Cards are disabled. During this event, cards will become unusable. Anyone who is currently under the effects of a card, however, can still stay under those effects if the player so desires. They won't have to stay under the effects the whole time, we're just letting any affected characters to stay until the natural time limit.
- Information about Somarium. There will be more information about Somarium and how it worked scattered throughout this event. If anyone wants to help "spread" the information around through their affected characters, just contact us and we can work something out. Otherwise there will be some various posts that will pop up every now and then on the main community, so keep a look out for those.
- Retain memories afterward. Affected characters will retain all memories of the time they were affected. However, any NPC relationships will not remain.
Please remember that the event starts Thursday, May 13. We're just going ahead and posting this as a heads up.
There will be a signal post to start the event. The event tag will be !moon: cycle 20.
Players are more than welcome to use this post for any plotting you may need with your fellow castmates and other characters, or create your own on the OOC community. Just don't spam the comm too much!
If you have any questions or need any kind of clarification, feel free to comment here as well.
Note: There will be two designated threads for questions and those who are interested in having their characters in the research area and would need additional information to feed out. After that, anyone can post wherever they'd like. This is just to help keep things organized. Plotting spam is perfectly fine.
Edit: If we have to extend the event to accommodate those who will be busy with exams during this time period, we will be more than happy to do so. We'll see how it goes up until the near end of the event, but we just wanted to put it out there that extending the event is possible if necessary.