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sticks and bones. ([personal profile] sticksandbonesmods) wrote in [community profile] outofsticks2024-10-25 10:09 am
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OOC PLOTTING: Like Branches on a Tree

OOC UPDATES:
  • Hi, this section goes first this month (SURPRISE!) mostly for the flow of the post.
  • The bonus AC store was updated! The following new things are available:
    • Ydalir now offers intermediate and major magic enchantments. If you want something enchanted and you’re not sure what “tier” it would be, feel free to ask us on the FAQ or the Discord Q&A. We realize these are kind of a vague way to shoehorn things into a category and our examples aren’t perfect.
    • Since all of the Guardians have been assembled/acquired, they’re now offering blessings. These range from 5 to 20 threads total depending on how powerful they are. They’re meant to provide you with either a temporary or permanent boon, depending on the item in question. The effects are detailed on the bonus AC page proper, but the items are:
      • A bottle of Zahliya’s fire
      • A bottle of Sinann’s water
      • A magically enhanced antler from Moder
      • A… mystery organ :) from Callan
      • And a rainbow tailfeather from Aurora.
    • After we see how people react to these new items, we will probably add more things in the future that are going to be cheaper. If anyone has something they super want, feel free to reach out to the mod team.
  • Wolfie will be taking a slight (not full) (but like 50%) mod hiatus during November to recover from burnout. This does not mean that Wolfie’s NPCs will be unavailable entirely, but this does mean that if contacted, responses will be much slower and/or the results of the thread will be handwaved. Unfortunately Wolfie’s brain is at war with Wolfie’s desire to be Doing. The general audience has already noticed this but now it’s ~official~.
    • Wolfie’s NPCs for reference are: All 5 Guardians (Moder/Zahliya/Callan/Sinann/Aurora), Zonari, the Behemoth, Ydalir, Beiwe, Elsword (only for those who wind up in the Garden), & Renard when he's unlocked (untreed).
  • This is a bit in the future, but Wolfie has alluded to doing a monster transformation type of event and the note is being made now because we know having art/designs in place is important to people for these. So far the plans are just “it’s happening” and we don’t want to put any upper limits on what people can and can’t do, but if you’re designing something early: Make it fit in with the setting reasonably. That means no super mechanical designs (mechanics where limbs are missing or existing cybernetics are fine) — no computers for heads! Bonus points if flowers/plants are added, but this is not mandatory at all because it’s not a Corruption event.
    • Also as a question for the audience: With an event like this, would you want it to be extended so people are a bit monster-y for longer than a month? Let the mods know, we’ve never done a super extended event so could be fun!
  • We slightly changed the plotting post template because at this point the old one is, well, old — almost 2 years! — and it’s time to change it to be more robust. Surprise! x2!
SETTING UPDATES:
  • So, speaking of those Guardians: Pure Vanilla & the other Guardians revived Aurora, the Sky Guardian. She is now available to contact freely on the NPCs page. With that comes a number of changes to the Grove itself:
    • The aforementioned blessings become available (others may be added later if you guys decide you really like these).
    • The native birds will often fly out and bring player characters mundane gifts (seeds, flowers, shiny things, a really cool stick, etc) as thanks for saving their patron deity.
    • The barrier keeping people from flying more than 30 feet up has shattered and reformed higher up. The vertical height limit is now 100 feet from the Grove/150 feet when standing on the lower elevated beach off the cliffside. This does remove the… glitch? From Luca’s bar where the entire world stops rendering after you head 30 feet up and look out the window.
    • The sun can occasionally be seen when the weather isn’t bad; it’s no longer almost constantly grey and overcast. One might even say the weather is “normal” and not “sad and depressing”.
  • Speaking of the weather, though: It’s Winter. It’s getting pretty cold. Throughout the month, small snowstorms will kick up, and this means that everyone’s flowers and vegetables will quit growing and die unless they’re in the greenhouse or otherwise indoors. Don’t worry, they’ll be back next spring, you don’t need to regain more seeds.
  • Normally, wintertime means that our friend the Black Sun/Forest/the antagonist guy goes into hibernation, and while that’s true this time, he has left one more small gift for everyone before he trundles off to go nap for 3 months.
PLOT UPDATES:
  • This month is a player plot! Everyone say “thanks Aspen” for the player plot!!
  • As the Black Sun goes to take his yearly nap, new pathways in the forest will open up, visible with or without the Golden Glasses and looking quite strange and inviting. Characters who walk into these pathways will be met with a dead end, where the fog wall will rush in behind them and trap them. A few hours later, they will emerge unscathed…
  • …but the characters themselves will be changed, mentally or physically or both. Other characters will still recognize you as “you” no matter what happens, and there’s the potential that other characters will not realise you’ve undergone changes and see you as “normal” (in the way they know you). You may look into the mirror and realise you’ve changed, or you may see nothing wrong and think you’re normal despite everything.
  • The Grove itself remains unchanged during this event, with only the characters themselves changing in minor to major ways. Memories themselves have been altered, too, with characters being led to believe that something different happened in their pasts. This can range from an early childhood memory being changed, to something within their time in the Grove being altered.
  • To quote Aspen’s provided example using Vash, some memory and therefore character alterations could be:
    • Not following Nai into Tesla's chamber, thus preventing Nai from being able to access the system. The ship never crashed, and they all lived happily ever after.
    • After finding his brother in his teens, the two banded together, with Vash believing that purging the world is a form of kindness and mercy for those that were trapped on No Man's Land. No one lived happily ever after.
    • Vash decided to stay in the Grove after Wolfwood's death. He was never corrupted, and everyone lived happily ever after.
  • These AU memories will last for a month, and it can include multiple memories & physical traits being changed. This is your AU, have fun, go wild. The only thing off the table here is turning into another creature if your canon/CRAU doesn’t align with it — so for example, Ryslig CRAUs could be another monster and that would be fine, but Mizuki can’t turn into a Harpy and start flying. That said, if your physical change includes temporary, 1-month long false Corruption and that’s how you become a creature, that’s fine, just hide from Zahliya, he will not hesitate.
  • With all of that being said, if you re-enter the forest paths, you will come out with a different set of memories/physical changes. This is for all of you who are indecisive and want to play out several AUs, you know who you are.
  • Characters who are too smart to just walk into the forest may find themselves tempted by a voice calling to them, or see an illusion of someone else wandering in, etc etc. And of course, if this event is uninteresting to you, simply do not have your character walk into the woods and the AUing is avoidable.
  • Unrelated to the differing paths, we’re holding a lottery for a prophetic vision below as well! Beiwe and Ourania will contact whoever wins, asking them to tend to a newly re-emerged clutch of dragon eggs on the beach — the coming winter is to be harsh, and the eggs are no longer protected from the weather. This will begin the process of unlocking, well, baby dragons, and also draconic blessings aka dragon features.
  • It feels weird not ending this with the OOC section so OOC section 2: We love you guys, ok thanks.

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

(frozen comment)

[personal profile] cryopathy 2024-10-25 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
may i pwease sign up wivio and kiewa for da wottery 👉👈

[personal profile] cryopathy 2024-10-25 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
re: monster event, i know stix isn't necessarily a transformation game outside of corruption mechanics but i still think it would be neat if characters could keep some monstery traits for a longer period / potentially permanently
charlastan: Alone You Breathe - Savatage (Could we then reclaim a dream refused?)

(frozen comment)

[personal profile] charlastan 2024-10-25 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Stan for the dragon distribution system prophetic vision lottery please? ♥
charlastan: Satin in a Coffin - Modest Mouse (Since the world is our coffin)

Monster Event Feedback!

[personal profile] charlastan 2024-10-25 04:17 pm (UTC)(link)
re: monster event, I wouldn't mind it lasting longer than a month as long as there's a way to de-monsterify them early if we want to and other things going on than just monster transformations! But I feel like those are things you guys would bake into the event anyway, so sure! I'm all for it!
eidxiety: (c. 186)

WOLFIE! ...is largely hiatusing but you know how it goes

[personal profile] eidxiety 2024-10-25 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
side note no matter how hard i try i doubt i could put ain on hiatus this little shit has my braincell squeezed at all moments, that said i'll (attempt) a hiatus w/ the other 3 but last time i said i was doing this i broke passenger's hiatus almost immediately so like. weeeeeeeeee'll see.

anyway assuming hiatus everyone will be on autopilot and here's a short version of their AUs:
  • Ain (not hiatused) (stupid): Full stop just swapping him from Bluhen route to Opferung route hi bet you thought you'd seen the last of this bitch, more details in his comment below
  • Passenger (please stop squeezing my braincells because I threatened to put you to bed again): His mentor never died, therefore he never got Oripathy and never became a warmonger in search of vengeance, and also was never picked up by Rhodes Island; he's very peaceful and Little Elliot is not in his brain for the time being. Also will stop going by "Passenger" very briefly.
  • Gnosis: He was never forced to flee to Victoria in his youth because Enciodes took him in. His "people issues" and paranoia are 15x worse because the Kjeragi people kept trying to lynch a literal child, but he lacks the abandonment issues that fleeing to Victoria originally gave him.
  • Flamebringer: He was a loyalist for Theresis instead of Theresa, and now wanton slaughter is "just for fun" instead of "having a purpose", and he's very "sarkaz are the superior race" at any one moment.
  • theuniverseleads: fall in love with who you’ll one day be (023)

    (frozen comment) Re: LOTTERY SIGNUPS

    [personal profile] theuniverseleads 2024-10-25 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
    Prophetic vision time.
    leggierissimo: (I'm sexting at the dinner table.)

    (frozen comment)

    [personal profile] leggierissimo 2024-10-25 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
    hi yes I would like to sign up all of my boys pls and thank u

    weasel and the weirdos™

    [personal profile] cryopathy 2024-10-25 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
    quirkynote: (33)

    [personal profile] quirkynote 2024-10-25 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
    Just wanting to +1 on the possible way to keep changes permanently or something. Even if it's just ears or tails or whatever.

    Look, sometimes your friend is a werewolf and you get serious tail envy-
    quirkynote: (64)

    (frozen comment)

    [personal profile] quirkynote 2024-10-25 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
    Please
    eidxiety: (c. 240)

    5 paragraph essay trying to explain elsword lore to people who really do not want to hear about it

    [personal profile] eidxiety 2024-10-25 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
    Character: Ain, typically from the Bluhen Route, this will be explained shortly

    Canon: Elsword

    CR: Haha okay. Buckle up this is an essay.

    If you have paid attention to my ramblings in the Discord at any one moment you probably know some/most of this but: Elsword has a lot of canon-AUs, like, a lot even just for one character. I play Ain from the Bluhen route primarily, which is considered the canon-canon route in the game's main story. Bluhen route is basically "Ain decides he really likes humans and his human friends especially, says 'fuck it' to his mission given to him by God, and agrees to follow them into hell" and also "he's a healer because he loves them so much he wanted to protect them so he became their group doctor".

    Also, he is obviously an angel but I think at this point we have largely covered that too. He is sweet but can be passive-aggressive and generally loves to fuck with people, he has a difficult time grasping emotions often, he has an anxiety disorder, and his definition of friendship is incredibly nebulous. Some of you have already gotten this but Ain very rarely registers negative CR, you can yell at him all you want but he'll sit there like :D we're friends! because his canon group of idiots are always arguing about something and this is just friendship to him. He... has only been around humans for 5 years he doesn't get it, okay.

    Currently for Stix: He part-time works at the clinic alongside PV, but most of the time he can be found at the tailor shop which he runs with Isa. He now lives at the bunny bakery with Ezell & FB too, but his upgraded inn room is still used sometimes for more storage for his plants + his animals use it as their own room sometimes.

    Plans: SO! AU EVENT!! Ain will be horizontally moving to the Opferung route which I will be playing on my Opferung journal [personal profile] andacht hooray! The key differences between Bluhen Ain and Opferung Ain are:
    • He looks completely different wowe
    • He is significantly more unhinged. Basically this route is the one where mom (God) stopped answering his calls, and instead of being like "eh okay I'll just love on humans then" Ain decided to go completely off the deep end and went insane, started blowing up parts of the planet to try to get God to talk to him again because "any attention works", and then started to hate humans instead.
    • That said, he does have a certain uh. Yandere route type of obsessiveness going on. I will have to jiggle him a little bit so he doesn't blow the setting up. Everyone must emotionally prepare for him to be constantly clinging onto one of his typically liked people, which I will carry over from existing CR.
    • This also means he might bite your character but I'll ask first before he starts sinking his teeth in lmao.
    • On the inverse Opferung is very much like "negative CR sticks" so @ Stan I'm so sorry Ain might be aggro @ you for a month

    I think that's it lmao.

    Not Seeking: n/a go nuts

    Anything Else: I keep forgetting this but I have an opt-in for Ain's weird powers pls fill it out if you want him to be a freak @ u thanks

    Recent Posts or Toplevels: N/A please let me rot for the rest of this month

    Past Life Plotting Toplevel: byonk

    Meme:


    EDITS THIS WAIT I SHOULD INCLUDE AN OPFERUNG MEME

    the joke is on the korean server this job is named bigott so there were a lot of "ain is a homophobic homosexual" memes at the time
    Edited 2024-10-25 18:41 (UTC)
    ghostharasser: Art by me! (237)

    (frozen comment)

    [personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-10-25 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
    Sign my nerds up please
    quirkynote: (108)

    [personal profile] quirkynote 2024-10-25 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
    No no, you're spot on. I'm quite the stupid furry.

    And I have no shame in that.

    Furry feature pls
    unheiring: (Default)

    [personal profile] unheiring 2024-10-25 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
    can luca make out with ain because he looks vaguely like his ex-boyfriend*

    *contingent on whatever the fuck i do with this idiot.
    eidxiety: (Default)

    [personal profile] eidxiety 2024-10-25 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
    opferung ain probably ACTS like luca's ex boyfriend too

    you don't have to ask to make out with ain the answer is yes, but it's gonna be real awk when this ends and ain reverts back to being fluffy and is like "so do you only like me when i'm trying to stab you :("*


    *contingent upon whatever the fuck you do with luca
    leggierissimo: (He was an 80s hair band warrior.)

    kaed's creachurs

    [personal profile] leggierissimo 2024-10-25 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
    leggierissimo: (There's a stripper pole in my office.)

    jotchua

    [personal profile] leggierissimo 2024-10-25 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
    Character: Joshua
    Canon: The World Ends With You

    CR: Y'all know Joshua. He's suspicious. He's an internet troll. He's a Scorpio. He's a foodie. He's a walking Trivial Pursuit game. He likes the sound of his own voice. He has mental abilities and won't hesitate to trespass into your character's brain.

    As far as CR goes, I always welcome negative CR so if it goes that way, it goes that way! Negative CR is a given for him because his alignment is chaotic asshole and he's gonna step on toes eventually. He does need some friends though, because he has the tendency to isolate and watch from a distance 90% of the time whoops.

    Plans: Okay, AU stuff!

    Josh's AU will be a twist on canon in the form of a role swap: rather than being the Composer right off the bat, he was an officer trying to hunt the Composer down and take them out. Current Composer was a detriment to the safety and stability of the district, and he coerced Hanekoma into teaching him the taboo Noise refinery sigil... which he ended up using on himself. So, now that he's installed himself as the new Composer, the Taboo soul code refining is still sticking around.

    The differences:

    • He has black inkstain-like coloration on one arm from the hand up nearly to the elbow, as well as other tattoo-like markings.
    • He is just as likely to show up looking like a person as he is to look like a Noise. This means he could look like a furry bipedal anthro dragon, or he could just look like a full ass Noise dragon. Both forms are monochrome with a heavy focus on black.
    • The Noise he can summon are now monochrome also.

    Not Seeking: Nothing, bring it on, I can take it.

    Anything Else: Joshua has a Permissions post! If you haven't already replied to it, please do!

    Past Life Plotting Toplevel: Here!

    Meme:
    alphacraft: (Default)

    (frozen comment)

    [personal profile] alphacraft 2024-10-25 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
    ye lottery odile!
    cryopathy: (snerk)

    [personal profile] cryopathy 2024-10-25 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
    Character: kiera
    Canon: original

    CR: a tl;dr that will be necessary to understand the AU's:
    kiera was raised from birth by their home nation of castilla to infiltrate and manipulate the aurelius family, but grew to genuinely love cyrus and luca, and thus turned their back on their birth parents and nation. cyrus was killed in an assassination attempt on luca's life, which was orchestrated in part by the nations of castilla and cataega, as well as augustus caelius of renova. all of this led to luca's bitterness, kiera's detachment, and the siblings' estrangement.

    Plans: so for AU's, i have two different Things i wanna do potentially:
    1. [good end.] cyrus never took the dagger that was meant for luca, so the siblings never lost their dad. renova was more privvy to the other nations' plotting, so international relations are rockier, thus kiera is a bit more proactive in the military. but on the whole, they're far better adjusted with their family still intact.

    2. [bad end.] kiran infiltrated the aurelius family how it was originally intended, and remained loyal to their mother, the castillan empress. they actively helped to orchestrate the intentional assassination of cyrus and managed to pin all, not just part, of the blame on augustus. because the murder was "solved" so readily, luca took up the aurelius council chair, and kiera continues to manipulate him in castilla's favor.

    (please note in this AU that they go by kiran and use he/they/she pronouns, and to not consider this deadnaming or misgendering, as their name and pronouns are, in their canon, determined by their own choices around certain life events.)

    big note for Bad End™: kiran is PLENTY willing to drink blood/drain emotion/use vampiric hypnosis on people, so feel free to sign the fuck up if you wanna get drankt!

    Not Seeking: n/a? :3
    Anything Else: [permissions post/opt-out] ← more info on drinking/feeding/hypnosis
    Recent Posts or Toplevels: just their [fammeet] toplevel i guess
    Past Life Plotting Toplevel: [summary] - [please plot here]
    Meme:

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