OOC PLOTTING: we briefly forgot we were a horror game for a few months, sorry!

[sticksandbonesmods]

Hello everyone! Before we get into our standard setup, we wanted to make a small announcement: September and October’s events are going to be linked together heavily, and the October event will focus on a fake rescue from the forest and ‘safety’ within another city on the continent of Ostorn. We wanted to let you all know ahead of time, since that is! Sort of a huge deal, and will involve a lot of false hope. We’re very excited for the plot for these two months though, and we hope that you also enjoy them.

SETTING UPDATES

• The giant flower has been taken down with the combined efforts of Thorns and Sam fucking around and Shadow Milk hosting a coup with some of the most destructive men alive. Hurray! Those who’d been trapped will find themselves feeling lethargic as they recover from the Dream, and will be dealing with injuries from the Fucking Around by player preference. This will mostly involve light burns, but it’s possible to be even more drained than the others as well.
• White Lily Cookie will return from the garden safely as well.
• Autumn chills are starting to set in and the trees are turning, welcoming the change of seasons with grace. Certain plantimals have to start preparing for winter, if you can remove them from your house or business with any success, and the only thing unaffected are the ever-blooming fruit trees and bushes blessed by the Guardians.
• Sehul, our bone dragon friend, has skin now thanks to Livio’s efforts. They now no longer rattle when they walk.
• Despite the start of Autumn making itself known, cyclamen can be seen sprouting and blooming in small patches around the Grove as early as the fall of the flower bulb.
• Eventually the cyclamen will make a path into an offshoot of the woods- even from a distance within the Grove, one may see bright colorful lights through the trees as well.
• Should you follow the path or investigate the lights, you’ll find yourselves treated to the Cyclamen Circus! The entire crew seems to be Slightly Off somehow, but are friendly and eager to perform, though the real show won’t be until the next… …. Full Moon-ish, time is so strange in this forest. And everyone is invited!
• … Though, some of the crew members and performers may be… familiar, somehow. They look like friends. A shame they don’t seem to recognize you, though.
• New arrivals may wake up within the Grove, or find themselves snapping awake sitting in the audience during a show.

PLOT UPDATES

• The night of the grand performance, guests are invited to watch and play. Outside of the main tent are stalls and carnival games, after all. Side show tents will eventually lead to the main tent, so you really have to try if you want to avoid the show… though, this does seem to anger the staff.
• The circus will start as any ordinary show might, but through the night the audience will gradually find themselves in more and more danger- props being flung at people with the intent to hurt, circus animals mundane and magical lashing out and trying to get at the nearest person to maul, clowns and dancers weaving into the stands as they go, uncaring who they hit or stomp on- and you aren’t the only ones at risk, as soon enough the performers no longer care about their own fellow circus folks!
• Eventually you notice that the doors are gone, the flaps of the tent nonexistent, and the Ringmaster is grinning menacingly. The circus performers may strike now, or you may try and escape, but the only way is down a set of stairs that should not be there.
• The further you go, the deeper into a set of maze-like ruins you’ll find yourself, and waiting within the shadows are monsters some might find familiar: monsters made up of your worst fears, waiting to sink their claws and teeth into you. (As a note: while they can certainly coincide, we do mean fears! We’ll get into the traumas next month. ;) )
• Your goal? Survive and escape the Cyclamen Circus!
• For those who don’t wish to go to the circus that night, they might have a lovely night at home. … Or, maybe something from the Circus will go to them, instead.
• Towards the end of the worst circus show ever, however, something will happen: a truck will break through the fog and into the grove, with several researchers and armed guards stepping out, completely shocked that there’s still life here at all.

OOC UPDATES

• If you need help coming up with a monster for your characters’ greatest fears, drop a comment on the relevant toplevel below. Amity will make up something evil for you. :) Since this is a TDM, a relevant toplevel will also be included on the event log proper. Amity does ask you give a general rundown on what your character fears though!
• Some of you may have noticed this, but for dropped characters we’ve started to offer a “they don’t die, they get stolen by the goddesses” option for the deathless 100% speedrun. This option is only available to characters who have been in game long-term; if you app Bob and then drop Bob the next month, Bob is unfortunately going to die in the woods. Not every drop can live with the Goddesses, they don’t have infinite bedrooms.
  • In addition to this, we allow players who have been here long term who drop with tons of unspent BAC to influence the setting if they’d like (the stars coming back, Sehul having skin, beefing up the fog wall, etc etc etc). We ask that you approach the mod team in DMs to hash out details.
  • With that being said, we prefer if you change the setting via your own efforts ingame; please don’t app for a year and drop with 70 threads each time to “cheat” the system.
• As usual, we don’t do TDMs in November and December, which will also be check-in months. Our last TDM of the year will be in October as it was last year, so double-TDMs and therefore double TDM AC (if applicable to you). This year has been rough, so we’d like to round it out by making your lives a little easier for these next four months.

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.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Canon:</strong> <strong>CR:</strong> <strong>Plans:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Recent Posts or Toplevels:</strong> <strong>Past Life Plotting Toplevel:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>