outofsticks | OOC PLOTTING: MR BONE-JANGLES 2

OOC UPDATES

Hi. We promised a magic system. This did not wind up happening because real life exploded. Sorgy. Please expect it soon!
This is a long post, so buckle in!
Monster transformation event happens in MAY! You have one-ish more month! May is also a TDM month. I (hi this is Wolfie, this whole post is Wolfie) shared some details in the announcements channel in the Discord a while back so people could work on designs and ideas, so here they are again in a more Official place:
- monster transformations:
  - it's whatever you want as long as it's not too massive (i.e. Just don't be big enough to break the setting, not that I think anyone will be a 200ft giant but y'know). And it can't be overly mechanical. Some mechanics are allowed, but no tvs for heads (cybernetics are fine if you wanted to be a cyborg or steampunky or whatever, just don't make it entirely tech)
  - you can't gain impractical powers (i.e. if your character becomes a cyborg they can't suddenly shoot lasers). Basic powers (having wings gives you flight, being a vampire lets you suck blood, etc) are ok tho. if you aren't sure, ask.
  - you can choose to keep your existing powerset or scrap it/parts of it. the only stipulation is that you cannot gain powersets (again exceptions noted above). we will not be doing hard swaps in powersets either, i.e. if you can shoot fire but wanted to have an aquatic design and shoot water instead, that will not happen unfort. you will be aquatic with fire.
  - your design doesn't have to be animal based, if you wanted to be an eldritch horror that's chill. if you're a nonhuman Thingy you could just be a human person, because the real monster was humanity all along etc
  - if your dragon blessing appearance interferes with your design, they can be hidden if you want. you will still retain the blessing powers.
  - if youre corrupted the design Must include the corruption motifs
  - the marks left on you by the gods (suri or the lesbians) will remain
- event mechanics:
  - will involve a consensual (OOC) transformation, which may not be consensual IC (let's just say it'll involve stepping on something in the woods that triggers the transformation) (I can't tell you all my secrets)
  - multiple transformations are allowed in the case of a) ending the monstery shit early or b) wanting to switch to another monster
  - May will be focused largely on being transformed; June & July will have events that simply include the transformations as a background effect
  - we are not noctium/ryslig/route 666/other monster tf games, this is not permanent and your monster forms cannot be "regained" thru BAC in the future
Reminder to do your AC by Monday night (the 31st)!
This event and the May monster event are all handled by Wolfie entirely; please poke Wolfie with specific questions about the mechanics. The other mods have been relegated to Have Fun Mode. :)

SETTING UPDATES

Clive, Joshua, and Mizuki — with the help of Elsword — have freed the children from the manor. Turns out, the magic only made them look like children (spooky) and they’ve been adults for quite some time.
- Evan and Rillian are in “centuries of magical overload” comas. It will be announced when they wake up.
- Audrey, who had died at the game’s beginning, is a ghost haunting the manor/sometimes haunting Elsword since he gave her a funeral when he was just a PC. Characters with supernatural sensitivity may be able to sense either of these things.
- With the kids free, Rusty will spend his time idling by the General Store nowadays.
- The manor will remain locked INDEFINITELY because Suri doesn’t want y’all getting any funny ideas from the magic inside. This is manifested through black briars and thorny vines blacking all entrances.
  - This information will be reflected on our Locations page when our favouritest list mod Lavvy has time to update our pages.
- The magic vibes in the Grove are now off to say the least; without the kids maintaining the spell that kept the barrier up, magic often warps and warbles. Player characters may notice that their native powers may sometimes come out stronger than intended.
  - The barrier is being maintained by a handful of carefully-placed magic circles, an initiative spearheaded by Clive.
The Renard rescue is underway still at the time of writing. I’ll have another post up with any changes that happen to the Grove when he’s rescued. This is technically backdated to March just in case it doesn't resolve by April.
No more winter, winter gone. Moder is back to growing her flowers and mosses on her hide and in her hoofsteps. The flowers everyone planted last spring and summer are starting to return on their own in the areas they were planted.
Callan has returned to the lake finally; that said, his fishtank is no longer in Siffrin’s (old) room and he has been migrated to the cookie house via Pure Vanilla.
- This will be reflected on NPC Contact shortly.

PLOT UPDATES

I’ve alluded a lot to this event, and if you couldn’t guess my emoji puzzle clue from last night… surprise doesn’t matter because you have the answer right here: We’re going to ~~New York City~~ ~~the game Cyberpunk 2077~~ a secondary location known only as “Neo Eden”.
- I got the idea for this event when I was in a Meow Wolf so this would only be the second event you’ve gotten where I was In A Meow Wolf at the time.
Player characters will yet again be subject to Mr. Bone-jangles attempts to do… something. Try to tell you something, maybe to do with the outside world, maybe with another world entirely. Unfortunately, his attempts at opening a portal under everyone’s feet to plop them into said world is met with some resistance by our token villain, and you’ll instead find yourself in Neo Eden, a fabricated version of what modern life could look like had the Grove not been timebubbled for millennia. Skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and also everything is obnoxiously neon (and capitalist!).
- The portal will open in the middle of the Grove, meaning characters on the outskirts will not fall into it. Static entities (buildings, the well, plants) won't follow.
- A portal back to the Grove can be found in mirrors in your apartment rooms (elaborated on a bit further down the post). Simply stare into them with the intent to return home, and you'll fall forward into it and stumble out of a mirror that was mysteriously placed in your bedroom. To get back to Neo Eden from the Grove, the same route applies.
“What about the NPCs?” The only NPCs following you are Heimr and Ydalir, who will maintain a storefront in the city. This will make all other NPCs uncontactable during April, if you choose to stay in Neo Eden anyway. The Guardians have to guard the Grove.
- Bone-Jangles and his crew of skelemen will be found wandering the city doing work: Most of them take up jobs at the grocery stores and local restaurants, but also act as public transit workers, garbage skelemen, janitors, landlords… they are quite busy.
You are also able to take whatever you want from your usual inventory with you. Weapons, stuffed animals, your dog, whatever you want.
- All players will enter Neo Eden with a debit card in their pockets/hands if you don’t have pockets, and a letter telling them where to seek employment. There are 1,000 Credits on this card. You can ignore this, but money is required for goods and services here, and the stores don’t accept shells…
- Netbooks will magically transform into cellphones with only one function: Group chat. Still no private messaging available, but you do get to send cute stickers and emojis now!
The themes for this event are: Modern, Cyberpunk, Vaporwave, High-Tech, Alien, and Dystopian — which is me giving you blanket permission to make up anything weird enough to fit into those general vibes. Do you want neon body augmentations? Tattoos that move? Your hair and eyes to glow ominously? Robotic police officers and a terrifying state of government surveillance that doesn’t at all make you think of 1984? Go for it!
- The tech-y augmentations will not come back to the Grove with you. Please enjoy them while they last.
Finally, here is a list of Things To See/Other Setting Quirks:
- Neo Eden is empty and has only holograms of people going about their daily lives. All of them are human. None of them respond when interacted with in any capacity.
- You may rent a car from the Rent-A-Ride. You may also drive this car. If you will, you may crash this car and go to the hospital. No one is here to check your lack of driver’s license or your insurance.
- City Park is just a fake forest/”natural” area with a river cutting through it. Any fish you can see are little robots. This also applies to the birds. Other animals simply don’t exist.
- The Mania Square apartment complex borders Central Neo Eden, where a giant fountain big enough to swim in sits in the town square adjacent to a large shopping district. Player characters will have apartments to themselves; each door is marked with their name in what appears to be their own handwriting. Each apartment is a large studio with a kitchenette, bedroom area, and a bathroom. Strangely, each room has already been customized to that player character’s tastes.
- Thrill Point is an amusement park. It has amusement park rides like rollercoasters, drop towers, Ferris wheels, etc etc.
- Arcadia is a nightclub. You can get drunk, you can dance. You cannot do anything NSFW here. Strippers will not be provided. Please behave on the comms.
- Next to Arcadia is a small photo booth that requires two people to operate named "The Swap". If two player characters enter it and hit the two buttons on the photo booth console at the same time, they will be bodyswapped for 12 hours, and the booth will take a nice photo of the two of you and print it as a keepsake. Hooray!
- The law enforcement here are robotic cops. Breaking the law (stealing, littering, dismantling the robot cops ADD) will get you arrested. Luckily, the jail is easy to break out of because no one is watching the prison, if that’s your thing.
At the end of April, Mr. Bone-Jangles will close up the portals and send everyone back to the Grove, making Neo Eden inaccessible from here on. Each player character will receive a hastily-scrawled apology letter that reads “SORY, TRIYD 2 SAV U :(“ afterwards, and he will wander back into the woods with his merry band…
Unlike last year’s April Event, you’re free to take one (1) high-techy cyberpunk item with you when you leave as a memory. THE ITEM HAS TO FIT IN YOUR HANDS IT CANNOT BE A CAR. PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

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.

OOC PLOTTING: MR BONE-JANGLES 2 - LOST IN NEW YORK

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