outofsticks | OOC PLOTTING: Once upon a dream...

SETTING UPDATES

That sure was an exciting trip to the beach! And a horrible hotel. Let’s not talk about the horrible hotel.
The Silver Kingdom is as beautiful and serene as ever, shielded under a gentle canopy that makes the realm feel like it’s wrapped in an ethereal night sky and- … wait, Aldric’s Grove?
…
Something is very wrong.

PLOT UPDATES

All this to say that, at some point in the late summer, Lily’s corruption is going to come to a head, with Suri taking over and using her fae powers to trap Aldric’s Grove within a waking dream. Her kingdom which she will rule over upon return to Earthbread has overlaid itself over the Grove, and members of the Grove will believe themselves to be faerie citizens of the kingdom.
Dreaming citizens will also dream up their Ideal Lives, with the caveat that it still falls under “Faerie Citizen of the Faerie Kingdom”. As White Lily Cookie is driven by the desire to make a perfect world, Ideal is the key word here! As such, all dreams are shared as you're a part of Lily's dream.
- For example, Felicity (NPC) has a childhood of abuse, neglect and being a child soldier. Her ideal life would have her be born to a different family with less powerful magic, being able to grow up as a regular child and not who she truly is.
- Another example would be the way that the dream prisons in Twisted Wonderland Chapter 7 have played out (apologies for spoilers); Riddle Rosehearts is the son of two famous mage doctors and has many expectations and rules placed upon him, and while the Waking Riddle loathes it, his true ideal life is being the rebellious child of two ordinary, non magical people with freedom and the ability to break rules as he sees fit.
Characters will exist within the Dream, though some characters will find themselves Waking Up and, while still trapped in the Dream, be lucid and aware of the differences and truths. The first characters to Wake Up will be awoken by White Lily’s own voice, begging them to wake up and help her. To Wake another character up, you can choose logic and memories… or just smacking sense into them, if it’s thematic to the Waker or the Dreaming.
The goal is to Wake Up as many people as possible, free or Wake Up White Lily Cookie, and return to the real world! This will be difficult though, as the dream is tainted with Suri’s magic and he will try to stop you, and some people are very hard to wake up from the Dream and will continue operating on the script.
- As a note: Characters with dream walking abilities or psychic abilities may be able to Wake Up easier… or they may be extra-ensnared. This will be by player choice!
White Lily Cookie herself is available to speak with, but she will always be present in the company of Elder Faerie Cookie, Pure Vanilla Cookie or Dark Cacao Cookie, and will not abide slander of her treasured lovers. And Elder Faerie Cookie will be especially… protective, shielding her from dissidents with fervor.
By the standards of the Dream, she is the beloved Queen Consort of Elder Faerie Cookie, but she is new to the title and while she’s a friend to the Silver Forest, some wonder if she’s truly ready to be queen… And more are willing to accept her as a friend and lover to the king, but an outsider being made Queen is ridiculous.
As a note: It is entirely possible to kill White Lily Cookie in this event. Suri will outright be trying to make this happen, even! This will not permanently kill her and will result in a trip to the Garden, but I do want this laid out on the table. Amity is completely fine with this and would not include it if not.
Characters not caught in the dream will find the center of the Grove engulfed in a giant plant bud, with the Dreaming trapped within. If they do try to engage with the bud, please use the Investigations option! The last thing they’ll remember seeing before the Dream begins is a tidal wave of glowing, pure white butterflies.
The Dream’s duration will depend on player action, especially depending on the state of the Lily. It will end before the next month, however! Should it end early there will be a mini-event about this, and life can proceed as usual.
As per usual, the Guardians will be unaffected by this event. Zahliya is actively trying to break into Lily’s house to fix her- /for legal reasons, this is a joke
- They will be doing their usual activities of “trying to rescue you and failing due to plot conveniences”.
Ydalir will make sure your pets are fine. However, you also have the option of having your animals sucked into the dream with you, where they’ll have their own ideal dreams… whatever that may be.

OOC UPDATES

Amity is back from Hiatus as of August! I am Amity. Hi. Thank you so much for your patience while I died for a month, and I’m looking forward to continuing to bully everyone’s muses forever. This month and especially the next month we plan on ramping things up before the holidays!
This is an event I’ve been very excited for for months now, and I hope you have a lot of fun with it!
Summer is summering! Really that’s all we have there — the Grove is awfully quiet with at least half of you trapped in a big plant bulb, isn’t it? While you’re gone, more and more deer will settle into the space. Those who are not dreaming may notice hoards of biblically accurate deer starting to move into any space that’s not “in your house/the inn/a shop”. They think y’all up and left, so this is their house now.
Because summer in real life is summering too, we want to remind you to STAY HYDRATED. This is supposed to be one of the hottest summers on record. DRINK WATER. And also we love you. <3

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Character:
Verso

Canon:
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

CR:
Copies this over from last time.

Spoilers ahoy!

Verso is not real! Haha, yay!

The rundown is this: after Verso Dessendre met his fiery end in an arson attack on his family, his mother was stricken by grief. Because they are a family of Painters, people with the ability to enter the realities of their own paintings, Aline Dessendre turned to the only painting Verso ever made and painted her whole family into it, before deciding to live out her days. This Verso is the painted one, given all of the real Verso's memories and meant to act as the loving son of a grieving family. Roughly seven years after his creation (in the painting, time works differently outside of the painting), an event called the Fracture occurred. This was the result of the real Renoir, Aline's husband and Verso's father, entering the world and a cataclysmic fight between two god-like entities breaking out. The result was a nearly destroyed world, with both "Gods" sealed away. Aline remained on the surface, her massive avatar visible from the city of Lumiere. She became known as the Paintress.

Verso was part of the first expedition to discover what had befallen his world, at some point after which he discovered the truth of his existence. For some time, he was content with this life. However, as he grew discontent with watching the people he loved dying, exhausted with his mortal life, and terrified with the knowledge that his "mother" was dying due to her prolonged time within the painted world.

At the same time, a yearly event called the gommage would take the remaining survivors from the world, year by year. The cycle of death was preceded by the Paintress rising up and repainting the number, creating a countdown. The number on the monolith represented the age of those who would die that year (IE: if you're 33 and the number changes to 33, you die. This only happens once a year, so if you turn 33 after the number changes over, you're fine). Because of the Paintress's prominent presence, most believed she was the cause of this. The truth, however, was that the number was a warning. The Paintress used all the power she could to protect a many as possible. Anyone above the number on the monolith was a group of people she could no longer protect.

As a result of this yearly cycle of death, the initial search and rescue expeditions would later become Expeditions to stop the gommage. The name of the expedition was represented by the number on the Monolith. 67 years later, Verso would set out with Expedition 33, puppeteering their movements in the hopes of orchestrating the destruction of the world to save his mother and end his existence. However, his efforts were foiled by Maelle, who would learn of her identity as a Paintress from the real world that had been "painted over" and remade within the Painted world. For sixteen years she lived amongst the painted people, and came to see them as real, living people. Due to this, and her heavy grief as result of her involvement in the incident that claimed her brother's life, she was determined to fight like hell to save the painting, despite Verso's protests otherwise.

It's a lot. It's confusing. Let me know if you have questions!

Plans:
Yeah so, Verso? Is not going by Verso here. He has an entirely different name (still trying to decide on that one), and as far as he knows, no affiliation to the Dessendre family. He's never heard of Maelle, or any of his other family members. He's an only child and works within a library in the kingdom. He is entirely fae.

Unlike his "true" self, this Verso is largely carefree. When he isn't working, he spends his evenings playing piano, often hosting grand galas and or providing entertainment for other festivities. He's carved out something of a relationship with a woman named Julie, but they aren't exclusive at this point.

To some degree, Verso does suspect that something is off. But he has no interest in exploring that strange feeling. He's never been one for adventure in this world, just partaking in the arts. Why would he ever seek out trouble?

Not Seeking:
Likewise with Luca, nothing too conflict heavy. Big feelings are a-go though.

Meme: It's not a meme but look at this french idiot.