Pre-Event Announcements!

[bravenewmods]

Pre-Event Announcement time, New Worlders! Lots of things tonight!

Let's get the clerical bit out of the way first and announce that the Wildwoods are now open for exploration! You'd be best advised to stay in the outer region unless you're in the mood for some spooks and scares. As always, please go to our Map Post to request bonding threads. As a reminder, you will not be allowed to do Intensive Searches in this region for two weeks, and we request that players try not to reveal more than two new Pokemon at a time to give everyone a chance.

With the increased danger in the Wildwoods, the Max Level is now 52.

Now here's how things are going to go down. Beginning tonight, the city of Union is going to begin preparation for an annual holiday called the Soulfasting. Courtesy of the imaginative and talented Sheepy, provided is a brief description:

"The Soulfasting is a week-long festival celebrating the union between the living world and the spiritual world. It was said that once, these two were not able to communicate with one another, and because of this, the spirits of those that passed were angry and restless. People did not respect their ancestors, and because of that they rebelled. Spirits and Ghost-type Pokemon alike lashed out at the people, sorrowful and angry that they could not be together.

The first masks were worn by channelers. Carved from a sacred tree, they allowed the channelers to be able to communicate with the dead and to try to quell their anger. A compromise was made: every year, the spirits of the dead and their ghost-type servants would be paid respect.

Early ceremonies for the Soulfasting involved a person dressed in a mask (usually, although not always male), a person in a veil (usually although not always female), and a third person—often a priest/ess or other holy figure. The person in the mask and the person in the veil would be tied together with a cord or rope, to symbolize the tie between both worlds, in living and in death. This is followed by a week of celebration, dance, and spending time with one’s family. Many families would even display an ornamental knotted cord in their homes to show that, even in death, they are still one with their family and friends.

Foods eaten during that time are often full of flavor, and there are offerings left out for those that have passed. These usually consist of sweeter berries and foods, as it is said that the spirits tend to prefer these. Families would often exchange sweet foods with one another to show appreciation for one another, as well as other families’ ancestors.

As time has passed, many of the traditions have fallen to the wayside, but a few things have remained. The masks have become extremely popular of late, and have even given way to costumes. While those that first practiced the tradition only used masks of ghosts, stories have circled around that mischievous spirits like to trick the living during the holiday; because of this, ghost-type and dark-type Pokemon masks, and even entire costumes, have become popular. Celebrating with family and having parties with friends is not entirely uncommon. The spirits’ love of sweets has also translated over, and there has been a small following that has started to give away treats to those that visit them on the final night of the Soulfasting. Usually children are the ones that partake in this (often in masks or some form of costume), although it is not entirely unheard of for some older people to try to snag some sweet treats from others."

Throughout this week, you are welcome to make reference to preparations for this holiday! Union is gearing up for something important, but perhaps there are others outside the city who have their own plans...

Now onto the event.

The event is planned from October 18th to October 31st and will be composed of two parts. The first portion will take up about the first week and will involve the transport of characters into the world of dreams and nightmares. From an OoC standpoint, you are free to have your character pop in and out of this area as you wish during this week, but from an IC standpoint, it is uncontrollable. No signups will be required for this section as this portion will be run by the players. Characters will run their own dream logs for others to explore.

The second part of the event will require signups and will take place the second week. You will be required to choose a world to remain in, after which characters in both worlds will be tasked to complete certain objectives. Signups for this section will go up next week upon event start and there will be a randomization option as usual.

You may use this post as plotting for Soulfasting preparations or plotting for the dream logs as you wish! Thanks!

Comments

Questions

[bravenewmods]

[footprints_on_your_face]

I noticed Inner Wildwoods area's Danger Level is 47. This means the level cap is now 52, right?

[bravenewmods]

Yep, this was edited in right after posting aha sorry.

[actsmagnificent]

As per some of the discussion below, I just want to make sure I understand what's going on with the differences between worlds. When we pick which world our characters are stuck in, are we choosing between "asleep in the real world but creating dreams for others to explore" and "exploring others' dreams" or "awake in the real world" and "asleep in the real world, but exploring dreams created by other people"? If the former, where are the bodies of the people stuck in the dream world?

Basically, what is it going to look like: are a bunch of people in Union discovering that a bunch of their friends won't wake up, or is it the people in Union who can't wake up because they're creating the dreams?

[bravenewmods]

Sorry for the late response on this one.

Essentially, those taken into the Dream World will physically vanish. Those remaining in the real world will, while asleep, have their dreams manifest within the Dream World which those inside can interact with and explore.

[actsmagnificent]

Okay, got it! :)

Will we have the option, if our character stays in the real world, of having a Pokémon's dreams manifest instead of a human's?

Event Plotting

[bravenewmods]

[future_sight]

Nozomi will be staying in the nightmare world for both weeks.
Lux will be in the nightmare world for the first week, but will be back in Union for week 2.
Elly will be in and out week 1, still undecided on week 2.
Cordelia will be in Union both weeks.

Who wants to plan with me?

[cutiepanther]

Nozomi please marry Nico and Maki.

[future_sight]

So are you volunteering for the Soulfasting then?

[cutiepanther]

Yes please. I mean I am, but Maki certainly isn't. Koba agrees too haha.

[celebrity_commentator]

What kind of Persona fan would I be if I didn't stick Rise in the nightmare world?

By the second week she'll hopefully have her wits about her enough to help with navigation and such in the dreamland.

Isabela will probably have some brief dream encounters (someone offer her a boat. She falls for it every time) but end up on the reality side for the second half.

[second_destiny]

I'm open for stuff with Asemu. I can have him end up in the dream world or the real world for the second half of the event. In the first half he'll be sure to spend some time in both.

[healthepot]

Natalia's going to be in and out of the nightmare world for the first week, but in the real world for the second week.

[faithfulflame]

Rei: Will be more or less moving between places during week 1. Week 2 I'm undecided on.

I'd very much like for her to get into people's dreams during Week 1. Or for people to get into HER dreams. She'll be beginning to have stronger Senshi apocalypse feelings, and during some...dramatic event, I want Rei to evolve. So there's that!


Yuuna: Like Rei, will be popping in and out during Week 1. Week 2? I'm leaning more towards having her in the waking world. I'd ideally like to have someone drop into one of her nightmares, one of failure (and possibly filled with frogs).


Yakumo: Union side for both weeks. But willing to help where needed!

[brandnewshoes]

I'll do Estelle in the dream world for week one, in Union for week two!

[crimsonspearit]

Kyoko will be in the nightmare world for both weeks!
Mei will be in the nightmare world for week one, but back in Union for week two.
Tohka will be in Union both weeks, but if someone wants her to help out, she's game.

[underwearfortomorrow]

Eiji Will be in the nightmare world for both weeks probably. And I am up for any plotting! I'd like to do a nightmare thing with him because I love dishing out trauma.

Norman is new and I haven't decided, he'll probably be sticking around Union though. We'll see.

[faithfulflame]

You know what I want.

[biteoutofcrime]

For the event, I think Fuyuhiko will be mostly staying in Union City for both weeks; during the first week he might pop into other people's dreams once or twice if there's something I think he needs to see, but otherwise, I think he'll have more fun staying in the waking world and trying to keep his business in line.

As for the Soulfasting: a week-long celebration of trickery and masks? More like a week-long open invitation to CRIME. Fuyuhiko likely will be too busy to instigate anything himself, but if you are interested in gangster activity, feel free to hit me up at any time, yo.

[somnambulatory]

All of my characters except Hanayo will be in and out of both worlds during the first week, because I like to keep my options open for tagging out to other people. During the second week, I'm thinking this:

Jinxie will be in the nightmare world.
Squid Girl will be in the dream world.
Chie will be in the dream world.
Merrill will be in the nightmare world.
Lenna will be in the nightmare world.

Jinxie's nightmares are likely to feature her being possessed and controlled by various Ghost type Pokemon, with a guaranteed appearance by a large, powerful, and horrifying giant Honchkrow made of pure darkness which she will refer to as Tenma Taro and be utterly terrified of.

Squid Girl's dreams will be comedic and stupid, and most likely feature a smorgasbord of her favorite aquatic Pokemon to eat. So if anybody wants to gorge themselves on dream Clauncher, Corphish, and Kingler, this is the place to be.

Chie's dreams are probably going to be used as a springboard for me finally getting it through her thick skull that she likes the ladies. I haven't decided exactly how yet, but basically Maki get over here.

Merrill's nightmares... will be completely awful. Like, Yamasks in the Coastal Ruins awful. That's because at least one of them will be the one she saw there - a vision of a powerful aquatic Pokemon destroying an entire civilization. That will probably bleed into further nightmares of her own people being enslaved and destroyed throughout history, with her unable to do anything about it.

Lenna's nightmares will all involve the disappearance and death of her father, Alexander Tycoon, who has been missing in action since just before the Caldera event. Lots of 'no, daddy, don't leave me' type stuff with her chasing after a spectral form of her father that she never seems to catch up to. And possibly scenes of him being killed by Pokemon or soldiers from Gigas, depending on how badly I want to screw with her.

Hanayo will be in Union the entire time, because I generally don't like to intro new characters into something this weird and potentially traumatic. So anyone on that side can feel free to tag with her!

Anyway, I welcome any and all plotting for all six of my guys. :)

[realmenknitplushies]

Obviously Chie's dreams need to involve a giant version of her with lily petals around and giant Venus symbols.

[footprints_on_your_face]

It would give me an excuse to use all these Shadow icons on her journal...

[realmenknitplushies]

"You sayin' I like chicks?"

...I'll stop making the obvious jokes now. XD

[footprints_on_your_face]

Man, I might actually do this.

[realmenknitplushies]

Which probably means I should stick Kanji in a castle. XD (I really have no idea what I'm going to do with him haha.)

[footprints_on_your_face]

I'll probably tone down the Shadow taunting type stuff and not turn it into an actual boss fight, though, since this will be going down in dreamland and not nightmaretown. And this is more something that Chie's ignorant of rather than something she's actively repressing anyway. But it could be fun to draw a few parallels to canon.

[realmenknitplushies]

Hehe, definitely. :)

[future_sight]

Just to clarify, the nightmare world means that people are living in other characters' nightmares, not creating them themselves.

[somnambulatory]

So the characters don't experience their own nightmares? They'll exclusively be visiting other peoples'? I just want to make sure I'm understanding everything correctly.

[a_gentle_boy]

OK, so it looks like you confused the 'two worlds' with 'dream world' and 'nightmare world'. The two worlds are the real world and the dream/nightmare world.

When you're in the real world and your character falls asleep at night, they will create dreams for characters in the dream/nightmare world to explore. Does that make sense? So if you're in the dream/nightmare world, you can explore other character's dreams. If you're in the real world, you're making dreams for other characters to explore.

[somnambulatory]

Yeah, Sheepy cleared it up for me on Plurk. I didn't have any ideas that didn't involve my characters also being present, but since it's fine for them to also be dreaming of themselves, I'm basically still on track even though I misinterpreted a few things.

[a_gentle_boy]

OK good! I'll just leave the explanation here in case anyone's reading through and gets confused then.

Re: Event Plotting

[bejustorbedead]

I want to toss Ky between Dream and Nightmare world and Union, not sure in what order yet.

[isreallyasun]

Sho is really new but he'll be in dreamland for the first week and in Union for the second week. His dream/nightmare won't be anything terribly dramatic.

Event Plotting

[kickboards]

I don't really have much figured out yet, but I figure that Rei will be popping in and out of both worlds for at least the first week. I'm undecided on the second.

Harima will similarly be popping in and out for the first week, because why not? For the second one he'll be firmly grounded in Union with Yakumo though...not that he'd be unwilling to help if it was needed.

[toxicrevenger]

Pamela will be in and out of the nightmare world for the first week. I'm undecided for week 2, and some of my decision will depend on game balance. If there are a lot more characters on one side than the other, I'll put her in the opposite world.

If anyone wants to hop into one of her nightmares, it'll probably involve the mass destruction of plant life and Pokemon habitats where she can't do anything to save them.

[niepokonany]

Feliks - Will be in and out of Dream/Nightmare World for the first week. I'll run a log for his dreams, which will be silly and fluffy and really, don't expect anything serious at all to happen in it.

Also, during week 1, since he's trying to help his family's reputation to stay in his grandparents' good books and recruit people to his Rapidash-based cavalry idea, people who know the Łukasiewicz family will be receiving fairly lavish presents of high-end sweets. He'll also be wandering around in a rather inauthentic, ridiculous, somewhat revealing costume trying to gather sweets of his own, because he looks young enough, sort of. (He's a Purrloin. Duh.)

In week 2, he's going to be in nightmare world.

Anyone want to plot?

[makeitquick]

Melaka will probably be in and out of the dream world during the first week. Because I kind of want her to explore other dreams, but I also really want her to have her dreams out there for people to see. Touch on the dead brother and/or her complicated family situation thing. Maybe even imply Harth's a vampire/some equivalent for this AU even if I don't want to commit to that on the off chance I get one


She'll be in Union for week 2. And probably fretting about both the dreams she had before and about how she should probably do something for her stupid older sister for the soulfasting thing.

[celebrity_commentator]

I'm sorry I just need to use my character's icons to express my feelings about this.