CHAT WE HAVE TO SEAL THE SKY RIFT [YDALIRQUEST SIGN-UPS]

[sticksandbonesmods]

hi. uh.

we're gonna fix some stuff :)

GENERAL PLOT OVERVIEW

• Largely this side chapter is going to be centered around the themes of love, self-appreciation, and self-searching. It will hopefully theoretically feel nice (???) but this depends largely on how you interact with it.
• Goals include "fix the goddamn sky rift" which is how Ydalir will approach all of the sign-ups ICly. This will additionally give Ydalir a physical human body again like with Heimrquest back 2 years ago! Yay! I have decided what human Ydalir looks like over the last few weeks and I fear you will get to know that information when I start the quest :) Someone hold me to drawing her please.
• I will largely save the actual plot for the unveiling of the story as I take you guys through it. Like my usual quests this will be structured a bit like how I run TTRPGs except there will be no fuckin combats because I don't wanna run them, and any "checks" I have you make will be standard skill checks with a die roll in the Discord. That said, quick overview:
  • Ydalir's proposition for closing the rift is that you all must team up to use the setting's natural leylines to do it, since the rift was created by two gods warring with a fucking cosmic horror. That said, we're not just using the leylines - we are physically entering the Plane of Magic that sits within them. Said plane is influenced by what people imagine such a thing would look like, which could be literally anything. You will provide me with those words yourselves on your sign-up comments and I will do the work from there :)
  • Within the Plane of Magic, Ydalir will take on her new appearance (yay). And SO WILL YOU! You will all temporarily gain new appearances based on a reflection of your soul. You can come up with these or I can. (This is partly inspired by Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (a good movie, canon lesbians btw) and Belle (a bad movie, don't get me fucking started or do in hyperfix when you're done here). I'm going to ask you to keep any transformations you take on able to interact with the environment, so things people would do like talking to others, opening doors, holding objects, etc. Don't be a worm.)
  • Player abilities are shut off within the leylines. Instead you will gain new (mod-chosen) powers to play with. I will try to make them not useless but they will NOT be combat-oriented so keep that in mind.
  • I will also be asking you to provide me with some additional keywords or short descriptions for other things :) That will influence the leylines. This is for flavour and fun so I can build the setting out more. And also because this sidestory is largely about "the self" at the end of the day.
• Anything else is a spoiler, but I will note if I get a lot of sign-ups (they are UNCAPPED) I will split you guys into groups and we will do separate threads.

HOW DO QUESTS EVEN WORK

• it's been a long time since we did one lmao and we have new players SO:
• This is going to be one big group thread that (possibly) splits into X amount of groups. I'm sort of aiming for 3 but we'll see what happens. You will want to be able to track the thread with the bell. Considering the notification situation, using Rubie's threadtracker (which is pinned in a thread in General 1 called "If you need tech support and I need tech support then who programmed the plane?") will probably help with tags falling through. Given that the notification situation is ongoing I would ask that all involved players decide on a tag order and stick to it. This also just makes it easier to use Rubie's tracker to know when you should tag next.
• Communication with your peers in the Discord will be required because it's the easiest way to reach the players since everyone is in there. We will make a thread for each group if we have groups. I will be pinging a lot. Make sure you have pings enabled in your notifications.
• Mod tags will come after each involved player has either tagged into the thread, or said OOCly to skip them, or after 24 hours has passed and we need to move the thread along. This may mean if you don't tag it at least once a day you get skipped in the order. I would therefore ask that all players who sign up a) plan to be involved heavily, b) play on a very active muse, and c) don't have anything going on right now that may take away from continuing the quest (obviously situations that happen later that no one can account for are not a strike against you).
• I aim to finish this within the month of May, meaning this will kick off May 1st the same day the event goes up. If that doesn't happen it doesn't happen (I sort of wrote? a lot, oops) but this is the goal. We will see.

DO WE GET ANYTHING FROM DOING THIS

• Who do you take me for? You get the satisfaction that I wrote a really cool narrative obviously.
• Anyway rewards can either be:
  • You can submit Ydalirquest as a whole for your entire May AC for your signed-up character (just link the thread and be like I did Ydalirquest or something), OR
  • Count this as 2 proof of progress threads for your next magic tier up (but please link me and remind me that I said this on the regain) (this thread will only count for proof of progress and NOT! the other 10 threads) since you're physically entering the plane of magic. It's kind of practice.
• Also the entire game will feel like magic comes to them more easily, forever, which is something we will all forget about in a couple months and is just flavour. But it's good flavour okay. It's fancy ramen noodle packet flavour.

CAN I SIGN UP ALREADY

• Fill this out ty. The only limit is you can only play ONE of your blorbos in here so pick carefully, but signups aren't capped.
• Also I need this before May 1st please! Thank you kindly :)

Character:
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Briefly describe a place, no more than 1-2 sentences. Is it a city, is it the ocean, does it contain extraordinary things? Tell me.
Soul appearance: Do you grow cat ears? Did you become an anthro fox? If you need Wolfie to come up with this say "Wolfie help" for this line.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them:
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them:

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>What they think a plane of magic would look like:</strong> <strong>Soul appearance:</strong> <strong>Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them:</strong> <strong>Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them:</strong>

Comments

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE. BUT IS ALSO GENUINELY WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YDALIR.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Character: Ydalir
What they think a plane of magic would look like: A sprawling city filled with all kinds of stores selling magical items
Soul appearance: [okay this one is a quest spoiler I can't put this here but I'm describing a woman. good luck.]
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Ydalir loves seeing people living their lives!!
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Ydalir fears people seeing her for more than she thinks she is :(

THIS IS ALSO AN EXAMPLE BUT HOW MY COMMENTS WILL LOOK TO YOU GUYS

[sticksandbonesmods]

Ydalir's love for people fills the Plane of Magic with people going about their lives, average citygoers with often nothing better to do than stand there and yap or get themselves into trouble.

Ydalir's fear casts effects over her appearance: When she feels as though she's being perceived or looked up to, her appearance will shift to be partly shadowed, as she is in the material plane. When she doesn't stand in the line of sight of others, she will revert back to the form outlined above.

Ydalir's new ability within the Plane of Magic allows her to summon a rideable giant goldfish to ferry people between locations. It's a ranchu, because those are the best goldfish.

QUESTIONS

[sticksandbonesmods]

I FORGOT TO POST A QUESTIONS HEADER I'M A FRAUD

[lupusxylem]

Is ydalirquest happening on may 1st or is that just the deadline for signups?

[sticksandbonesmods]

both :)

[lupusxylem]

NODS ok thank u i have to decide who im throwing at dis

QUASTIONS.

[purifyingwind]

When it comes to the reflection of the soul, does it have to be a metaphorical representation or could it be more surface level? And if it's on a deeper level, is it a requirement to the negative parts of the soul be represented?

Will the newly gifted, temporary powers (assuming they are temporary) be aligned with their Grove magic, or will it be unrelated? And will they be able to utilize these powers innately, or will they have to work towards using them effectively?

[sticksandbonesmods]

It can be literally whatever you want. I hate to be like "do whatever" but you could go off with it or you can be a catgirl. I do not care. The only requirement is that you're able to interact with the setting (i.e. do not be a ball of light with no hands and no mouth who must scream).

Temporary powers will be ?? whatever the fuck I want them to be. Because you'll be in the plane of magic though, they will be very innate to the player characters, weirdly enough.

[lyricistdontmiss]

Character: Zoey
What they think a plane of magic would look like: A fantasy world of towns and forests and castles and dragons, but also with the honmoon overlay because the honmoon is a type of magic, and also everything is very sparkly because clearly magic = sparkles. Think like typical fantasy MMO meets KPDH crossover event? Maybe???
Soul appearance: Girl has big golden retriever energy, but like, Lisa Frank style, so she gets to be a Lisa Frankified anthro dog because I say so.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Zoey loves seeing people being happy! She has a whole playlist of hopecore videos and videos of communities coming together for silly things like watching that dude eat the 10lb Costco chocolate bunny.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Even with all the good that being in Huntr/x and being friends with Rumi and Mira has done for her, she still worries that she can be Too Much and that it'll push people away.

[sticksandbonesmods]

i'd kill for her btw

Zoey's love for people's joy manifests within the Plane of Magic easily. The air feels lighter within it, and people the group encounters always seem willing to help, even if they don't know how they can. When they speak, their emotions manifest in the form of variously coloured wisps of smoke from their mouths.

Zoey's fears manifest thus: When she worries she's being too much around others, her bright colours dim down to shades of grey. NPC people within the leylines will immediately be drawn to ask her if she's alright, leading to more attention on her part — unwanted or not. If and when she learns to accept herself, her colours will stay bright and people will go back to making regular conversation with her.

Zoey's new ability within the Plane of Magic allows her to reach out to touch the hearts of others; when more than twenty feet apart from any one person participating in the quest, she can telepathically connect them to herself and any people immediately next to her to communicate. In so doing, they will all feel each other's emotions.

[moonwhispers]

Character: Sasha "Faust"
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Dark and starry with no real ground and lots of glowy floating things
Soul appearance: pick for me i am curious. help pls.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: He loves kindness. He loves the kindness he sees in those around him and it's the one way to make him soften even after everything that's happened to him. He knows that people are capable of such kindness that it makes the horrible parts strike him harder.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: He hates his inability to communicate properly. He holds onto a belief that he somehow always ruins his relationships or makes things worse by existing within them. He also hates how the world can twist people into such horrible versions of themselves somehow.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Faust's soul appearance is that of a Leshy, a protective spirit in Russian folklore. He will be moderately larger than he is outside of the Plane of Magic, roughly about 6 feet tall.

Faust's love of kindness and softness manifests in the plane as a warm, protective feeling cast over everyone within it. When walking through the streets, Faust will see people lending their homes to those without, food being given to those who cannot afford it, and those with the means to render other aid doing so with smiles on their faces. All of the party's needs will additionally be met this way.

Faust's hatred becomes palpable: when he is frustrated with himself and his perceived inability to communicate, his Leshy form grows larger and more terrifying, and his ability to speak gradually becomes more animalistic. He will shrink down and find himself able to speak clearly after calming down again. When frustrated with another person, their appearance will shift to his perceptions and only his perceptions, in which they will gradually start to look like a Bes, a Slavic demon whose name literally means "anger". Again, as his issues are resolved, the person in question will no longer look quite as evil to him.

Faust's temporary ability has to do with direction. When he extends a hand and focuses, a small bird spirit will appear from his palm and guide him to what he is looking for without fail, be it a person, item, or a location.

[ghostharasser]

Character: Dipper
What they think a plane of magic would look like: A long sprawling library, filled wall to wall with books, relics and curios, with the smell of paper and ink strong in the air.
Soul appearance: Do you guys remember Alcaid? The little mothman creature that's a part of his soul? Like that but more actually birdlike and feathered. There are about four red eyes on the right side of his face and a mysterious kind of smoke coming off him, don't worry about it. He's a little eldritch.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Dipper loves the inherent curiosity of the world itself. He loves how every world he's ever been to is different and yet similar in fascinating ways. He loves to discover this time and again and he thinks his rapt curiosity for the unknown is one of his better traits.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Dipper knows he has a vengeful streak a mile wide and can be brought to violence if a loved one is threatened. He always lives in fear of going too far and becoming what he hates most (Bill Cipher). This is nice and fresh thanks to the Till incident ahahahaha

[sticksandbonesmods]

i would never forget alcaid

Dipper's love for curiosity and also the fact he is from gravity falls renders unto the world a love of learning. Wherever the party goes, he will encounter someone who's fascinated with something to a degree that smacks of having a PhD on the topic. This does mean that, sometimes, historical artifacts and books may rain from the skies and be quickly snatched up by the first person to reach them in time. For research!!

Dipper's fear of his own vengeance manifests in the form of a ring of long blades pointed at himself whenever he feels threatened, scared, or like he'll go too far. They prevent him from moving by inching closer until they're nearly about to stab him. When he manages to calm his emotions, he will find that he passes harmlessly through them, and that they disappear.

Dipper's temporary ability is that of knowledge; when he seeks to explain something to someone else, he can freely conjure illusions of any size and shape to use as a demonstration, and any book he's read can be summoned with a wave of his hand.

cw internalized ableism

[lilyberation]

Character: White Lily Cookie
What they think a plane of magic would look like: an endless expanse of a starry sky, like walking on water reflecting the clear night sky above. the moon is especially vibrant and vital, and sometimes flowering vines or powerful trees appear, sometimes a fire or breeze guides your way.
Soul appearance: fucked up. :) an amalgamation of of her split, fragmented soul, her skin/dough burnt and everything about her warping and twisted- a painful reminder that she is dead, death and undying! yay!!!!
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: lily does not like anything about herself. but she loves the world around her; she loves peoples' kindness, the vibrancy of life, how weak and fragile things are beautiful. she loves the endless discovery, the gentleness people show that which they cherish. there's so much she loves about the world, its impossible to put it into simple words. even the cycle of life and death enchants and endears her.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: lily thinks she's a dangerous, unlovable wretch who will only hurt the ones she loves and be hurt by them! in her defense. her evil fragment killed thousands, commit genocide, and more, and then everyone she's ever loved has hurt her in some way. she hates her own selfishness and how she'll disregard others to satisfy her own hunger for knowledge. she hates her poison-laced hands and overwhelming scent that's so strong it can taint the flavor of things around her. she hates her weak body, and how fragile cookies are. she hates the helplessness that comes to being beholden to physical gods. cookies are notoriously weak to getting wet or damage to their dough, and she cannot stand how easily they crumble. she also dislikes when people are mean :((((

[sticksandbonesmods]

Lily's love for the vibrancy and fragility of life manifests in the form of plants and animals made of glass, growing and/or frolicking (respectively) along pathways and in natural areas. They intermingle with the far sturdier regular creatures, of course. In addition, the love of life and death itself makes people willing to go out of their way to protect nature, including the glass flora and fauna, even despite how easily they break.

Lily's hatred of herself renders her a brittle glass statue filled with a poisonous miasma during moments of true self-loathing. Although if broken, she will reform (no death in my vaguely feeling-nice event), the miasma may cause damage to the things around her. If she clears her head and remembers her life is worth living, she will find her body is her own again, and any released miasma will instead become a soothing healing rain.

Lily's temporary ability within the Plane of Magic allows her to hear the whispers of those that need her; when someone (NPC, plant, animal, or PC or otherwise) wishes for aid, wishes for help or guidance in some form, those whispers will travel on the wind to reach her and draw her to exactly where she's needed. Despite everything she believes, she is needed, she is wanted, and they will be sure to let her know this.

[mooninthewater]

Character: Mizuki
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Vastness of color, infinite “void” of lights and pulsing life, chaos.
Soul appearance: Probably like Izu’mik but if you have something better fuck me up
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Trick question Mizuki loves everything. But if he had to pick something specific it would be a toss up between being damn good at video games and the uniqueness of how people think.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: He fears the weight of choice for himself, and he fears the stifling of choice of those around him.

[inkandhammer]

Character: Lavi
What they think a plane of magic would look like: My first go-to response is just a void of white, because weh, magic. But considering how much of his current life at home is steeped in it... The white void would be something more silvery, with lines of items just slightly detailed in greys, like a light pencil outline you're going to erase soon but the lines are smooth. And sunflowers.
Soul appearance: Bnuy Lavi the first Surprise/help me! :'D and then i find this in my millions of folders...
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: He loves the sibling bond between Komui and Lenalee, the dependance and strength they have for one another. He loves Kanda's determination, Allen's forever going forward, Johnny's optimism. He loves the bonds that humans can so easily make with one another, how strong they end up being.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: War being everywhere. War making him lose those that he cares about. War that causes loss for everyone and him stuck somewhere on the other side of a glass wall unable to break through to help.

[purifyingwind]

Character: Sanemi Shinazugawa
What they think a plane of magic would look like: An incredibly green, verdant forest. Above the treeline is an endless expanse of open sky, cloudless and blue as far as the eye could see, with an ever-present, gentle warmth and a faint breeze.
Soul appearance: I'm making this fucked up because I can — Sanemi gets to look like a demon! He'll boast all the standard quirks of a more generic demon including the clawed nails, fangs, and pointed ears, but both eyes will be reminiscent of Upper Moon One (eye horror).
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: It may be a little strong to call it love, but Sanemi certainly appreciates his own physical strength. When it comes to the world around them, he is appreciative of people's resilience.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Maybe ironic, but Sanemi has suffered a heap of personal loss and has come to believe that people are inherently incredibly fragile. He has kept people at a considerable distance as a result, largely through abrasive, unpleasant, or sometimes violent behavior. This backfired terribly in the end when he lost his entire family, so he hates himself for that!

[galaxyfarer]

Character: Stardust Cookie
What they think a plane of magic would look like: a black void filled with stars. the “floor” is just a neon grid and there are outlines of buildings in the distance, but they are unreachable. the “buildings” are also in neon colors, pinks, yellows, a cyberpunk feel. nothing is solid, the floor and buildings are grids like computer programming.
Soul appearance: you pick! :) I’m trusting you with my life :) (I am not being serious)
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Stardust Cookie loves learning about the world around him. he’s genuinely interested in making friends, and traveling to new places just to see what they are like. he enjoys his freedom, since he spent a lot of time harboring anger towards his creators.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Stardust fears his own temper. he is worried he will hurt more people. he worries about letting down people he loves, and he also fears eternal loneliness. he is filled with sorrow…

[chickenchoicejudy]

Character: Ryan Akagi
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Ryan isn't from a particularly magical world other than the other isekai experience he had, so when he thinks of planes of magic he thinks about swirling wormholes in doorways.
Soul appearance: He's going to be matching with Min-Gi in that his soul is entirely shades of red with a faint glow to it. If he and Min touch that glow becomes purple but that's more about how colors work than magic exactly? His soul has a pair of cat ears because of course it does, but he still has his regular human ears and those have all of the piercings he's secretly planned but hasn't done yet (and fun dangly earrings). His full outfit is to be determined, but the important part that says something about his soul is he's going to get pants along these lines that also look like a skirt.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: He loves when people are able to really freely be who they are and be passionate about the things they make. He comes from a world where that's not always possible - sometimes you have to hide yourself to be safe. Being able to do the thing he loves or a living is deeply important to him, but not everyone is able to do that so he always loves to see someone really shine when they can just...be, and exist the way they want to without being weighed down. To quote his own song, "must be nice to feel as light as air!"
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Ryan feels like people wouldn't want to be around him if they knew what he was really like, because he struggles with intrusive thoughts, ADHD, and depression. He knows his brain doesn't work the way "everyone else's" does and gets frustrated with himself about it. He's been told all his life that if he just tried harder and applied himself more he could be better, and that since he hasn't he's a terrible shitty person. He's garbage! When he references this it's always as though it's a fact that he has to live with, and not an opinion that can be changed. He doesn't have a relationship with his family anymore and he's cycled through a lot of relationships that ended poorly, so pretty much every human connection he's ever had has eventually ended with someone realizing the "truth" about him. Even his connection to Min-Gi was almost wrecked by it. They've done a lot of work to repair things and get to where they are now, but secretly he still kind of thinks it was mostly his fault and over-corrects out of fear.

[missinglink]

Character: Howard Link
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Link would envision just the biggest, most elaborate library you've ever seen. Think like, the library from Beauty and the Beast that the Beast shows Belle. Books from wall to ceiling that need a ladder to reach, tables and chairs and a big fireplace to read beside with big glass windows to let natural light in.
Soul appearance: I want Wolfie to pick :)
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: Despite the fact that his world is currently trapped in a Holy War, he loves that the people in it still find ways to be kind to one another, keeping the community standing even outside of the efforts of the Executors.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Link has the weight of so many expectations on him and he feels like he's constantly failing in some way. He dislikes his inability to always be on top of everything 100% even when that's not physically possible, causing him to put unreasonable expectations on himself.

[outofsynth]

Character: Min-Gi Park
What they think a plane of magic would look like: Tiny, largely medieval islands that feel like a hybrid of every Western fantasy novel that was big in the 70s/80s. Fantasy creatures like dragons and unicorns are a normal part of the ecosystem, and mysterious robed figures with long beards and pointy hats wander from town to town.
Soul appearance: Min-Gi is blue and glowy in this form, the blue shifting into purple whenever he and Ryan touch. When he is happier/more confident his soul appears more solid, much like any other person. If he is upset or worried then it's more transparent, like a spirit. A waxing moon glows just in front of his clothing, directly over the lower part of his ribcage.
Something your character loves about either themself or the world around them: This will sound odd when we come to his fear, but! Min loves how much is out there. He grew up in a small town with a small family, always dreaming of seeing the world outside of Powell Lake. He rarely goes against his parents wishes, but consistently shows favour for his mini-synth despite their disapproval. It's something different and exciting. Something likely inspired by his and Ryan's childhood idol, David Bowie, and someone he probably saw as being different and exciting himself. He's actively excited about their future as musicians in New York City in his youth, when the dream is still far enough away not to be too daunting. He craves the adventure that conquering the big city has to offer, and wants to see the variety of the places they'll see along the way. See below for the big problem with this.
Something your character fears/dislikes about either themself or the world around them: Min-Gi fears the unknown. One of his biggest pitfalls is following the established path even if it goes directly against the things he really wants. He runs from his and Ryan's first and second performance. He stays behind when Ryan leaves Powell Lake the first time. He gets a job he hates because it's the safe option, and plans to go to uni to study a topic he doesn't care about but knows will land him a safe job. It's hard for him to see a world where he could be a successful rock star, and if not for Ryan's patience and support he would never have dared to take the chances he has.

It's an ongoing struggle even now. The Grove is a scary place with all the constantly changing threats. He doesn't believe he'll ever feel truly safe and often hides away when things get bad. If he ever makes it back home there are things he's afraid to face there too, not knowing how they can make them turn out well.