[PLOT IS UNDERWAY]

[directrice]

As of Day 56, night, Reverie's village has given away to the INNER PRISON, another part of the world that has only been seen in glimpses and pieces thus far! Please refer to this document for the new setting information. This setting will remain until September 11, after which the plot will end and characters will be returned to the village.

The new setting does not have a suggestion box, and thus cannot be changed in the same way the village could. However, the new setting will allow for something the village did not: EXPLORATION. Here is how exploration of the new setting will work!

1. Players who are interested in touching something in the setting will fill out this form. Please describe which characters are involved, and also what they intend to do in as much detail as they can! Within a few days I will reply with a tiny little write up of what happens, and you can thread out the scenario at your leisure. This method makes things waaaay easier on me, since I don't have time to run exploradors for 90+ characters r-rofl.

2. Each character can go on two explorations. This is so I am not inundated with exploration requests and die trying to write things up for you, cries. This is also an OOC limit, not an IC one. And to make it clear, this is a character limit, not a player one. So if you have two characters you can do four explorations total, as an example!

3. Characters can do explorations alone; however, I OOCly encourage you to group up with other people, both to lower the amount of requests I get and also because things are more fun in a group! Group requests will likely get more involved responses b/c I'll want to give you all things to thread with, though single requests will still get pertinent things that they can share with the group at large!

4. You will be able to submit exploration requests all the way up until September 5 at mutter mumble time. You have a month to do things, so pace yourselves for sure!

5. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comment below! However, as a note, questions that are "what happens if my character does X" may be best saved for exploration threads, depending on what it is. NOT ALL THINGS WILL COUNT AS EXPLORATIONS; if your character ties to punch a barbed wire fence I can answer that as a mod without it counting as one of your explorations lol. But if your character tries to fix a CCTV, that would be better answered as an exploration. IF THOSE EXAMPLES HELP.

6. Please note that some explorations are going to be dangerous, and characters may be hurt in the midst of same! But no one will die, I can promise you that as a mod. Unless you want to die?? Then you can die. THAT ONE IS UP TO YOU AS A PLAYER.

That's all for explorations, and the last thing I want to say is: all players chosen for Palace Games have been contacted and instructed to keep their participation a secret! Don't worry; they will reveal themselves at least a week or so in advance of Palace Games for sign ups c: Please also note that I am changing the dates of Palace Games due to not realizing I had personal things going on the weekend of September 3 and 4 lol. Palace Games will be running the entire week of September 5 - 11, with each runner scheduling their own time slots during that period. Stay tuned for more information to come!

OKAY. THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. PLEASE HAVE FUN ;w;/ And let me know if there is anything you need from me or if I was really bad at explaining something (I am bad at explaining things), otherwise I'm going to die in my bed now b/c I was up WAY TOO EARLY FOR LIFE.

Thank you as always for being a part of my cute game, and I hope you enjoy some August plotty things!! C:

OH PS: PLACEMENTS WILL BE HAPPENING SOON, and will continue throughout August. New characters will be introduced into the new setting. Give me a bit and I'll get this weekend's placements done asap <3

Comments

[directrice]

OKOK, please assume that if I didn't respond to an action directly, it produced nothing of note!

Malleus burns the flowers, and they go a little. . . crazy?? At being attacked?? They will start to lash out at the group and try to take big bites out of anyone within reach! They are super weak though and can be beaten back into submission. RUDE, MALLEUS.

Rex knocks on the morgue doors as a joke, but-- something knocks back?? Mirroring his knocks precisely. If anyone else tries knocking on the door, the same echoes occur, like whatever is inside is trying to communicate with the group outside. There are no electronic panels or keys that would open the morgue doors, and Rex won't be able to pry open the doors, no matter how hard he tries. Even after Rex stops knocking, whatever is inside the locker starts pounding against the door, the sound growing louder and louder with each passing moment. Zenkichi, as the detective on the lookout for morgue locker clues, will notice a symbol suddenly light up the morgue locker door: it's the same symbol used to mark the Basilisk dorm.

And then Rex shoots the door, and it pops open with a loud BANG, and BURST OF FIERY SMOKE. A sense of death and mourning flows out of the morgue locker, along with a flailing creature who is. . . on fire. And a little berserk. The creature will attack the group instantly due to its berserked state, and it is extremely powerful! Lvl 80 compared to everyone else being lvl 20. It will not be able to be defeated by normal means, and injuries will be moderate, at the least!

FOLLOW UP: what does the group do next in response to the berserked flaming basilisk!

[heartlands]

incredible i love all of this

Hunter is going to try to go into the TV at that point to try to get away, and Rupert is going to follow him, taking the weird snake drawing pieces along. Nobara is going to try to whack the angel with her super strength baton one more time before she follows along as well.

in short

[directrice]

YAAAAY FINALLY A COURTYARD EXPLORE

Also if I don't respond to anything directly, assume the action didn't produce anything of note!

FLOWERS: Ori may, in fact, establish communication with the flowers! She will be able to understand what they are saying, though they are kind of. . . well. Super cranky. They talk a lot about being soooo hungry, about how ever since mother and father left they don't have aaaaaanything to eat, and how father said they aren't supposed to eat the new people who are around, and how much that super sucks!! Because they're just STARVING over here. The flowers are not able to be pacified; no matter what Ori says to them, they will continue to be cranky.

And, quite frankly, if she attempts to steal a few cuttings for Sphinx, they will LOSE THEIR ABSOLUTE SHIT ON THE TEAM. The moment any of the flowers are uprooted is the moment they attack! The vines will lash out at the group and try to drown them in the pond, and the flowers will attempt to take huge bites of flesh out of anyone who gets too close. They are pretty weak, though; they can be beaten back into submission fairly easily. However, everyone in the group is probably getting chewed on a li'l bit.

THRONE: Yanfei can play with the throne like it is her playground. . . the moment she sticks her fingers into the eye sockets of the skulls, however, something nips at her hands. Ouch! The injury won't be severe, and she won't be able to see what it was that was nipping at her fingers, but whatever it was didn't appreciate having their eyes poked out B(

Playing with the throne doesn't produce anything else of note, if only because of what happens with Ori and the faerie!

IN THE POND: Ori and Arthur's faerie can dive into the pond, where they will find that the pond is filled with fish and more pond plant life. It's pretty unremarkable down here, but. . . is there something weirdly? Sparkly and shiny? Buried in the dirt at the very bottom?? However, before Ori and the faerie can get a good look at it, something zips past them in the water! It is a (nsfw warning: minor nudity!) HALF-SNAKE, HALF-WOMAN swimming through the water with easy, and she launches herself at the duo with vicious intent! She will chase Ori and the faerie back to the surface, where she will accuse them of trying to steal her treasure and proceed to attack the group with fire-based attacks. She is extremely powerful-- lvl 80 compared to everyone else's lvl 20-- and cannot be outright defeated.

But perhaps she can be outsmarted??

FOLLOW UP: what does the group do next!

[directrice]

As stated above, Ardbert's shield slows the energy drain effect, but it won't stop it entirely! It does, however, give Chloe, Nikkou, Kanro, and Xiao a change to attack. Between Chloe's temporary paralysis (it only lasts for five seconds on this creature, but five seconds is long enough), and Nikkou, Kanro, and Xiao's physical assaults, the staff is knocked out of Beelzebub's grasp. It falls to the floor and shatters into pieces, which stops the energy sucking effect entirely. Hooray! Something golden also seems to fall out of the broken staff. . . it looks to be a fancy snake ring, and can be swiped by any member of the group, if one so wishes.

The broken staff doesn't nerf Beelzebub's power, and with a roar, he attacks the group again. Now is a great time for Ilphyl to shapeshift and drag everyone out of the canteen, and into relative safety. Beelzebub will not follow!

There doesn't seem to be anything magically special about the ring, but it is awfully pretty. . .

[directrice]

Leo will not be able to control Kali, even if his blood was used to summon her; alas, it seems the demons of this world operate by an entirely different set of rules! Kaine tackling Nel and Leo out of the way also seems like a good idea, because Kali was definitely going for them first, and she winds up shattering the wooden "operating" table with a swipe of her swords when she does so. Just imagine if that table was Nel or Leo, sweats.

Wolf and A2 can hold Kali off while others try to lure her into the iron maiden. One of the above methods works-- you may choose whether it's Seishirou's or Vil's, or Nel's is up to you guys as a team! Either way, once Kali is in the iron maiden, the door slams shut with a disgusting squish, and. . . black blood begins to ooze out of the iron maiden's cracks. Eeeew.

The group is safe! And it seems like one of Kali's swords was left behind when she got locked into the iron maiden, the weapon clattering to the stone ground. But before anyone can think OOH, FREE SWORD, the sword beings to glow a golden color. . . before it dissolves into sparling bits and pieces. It leaves behind a golden snake-shaped scabbard, with no blade attached.

There doesn't seem to be anything special about the scabbard, but it's pretty?

[directrice]

The impish child seems to trust Bronzor enough to follow it outside of the morgue! As soon as it steps outside, it is a ball of curiosity, wanting to explore EVERY INCH OF THE PRISON THAT IT CAN. It will eventually run off on its own to explore, and should Bronzor follow, the poor Pokemon will have to keep the impish child out of trouble by preventing it from SWINGING ON LIGHTS or TOUCHING FIRE or GETTING CUT UP BY THE SHRAPNEL IN THE HALLWAYS.

If Bronzor hangs out with the imp, eventually the interaction will end with the imp touching Bronzor's face and giving it. . . a memory? It's a very vague one, but it's a memory of the child being held by a gentle woman, who is smiling down at it as a mother would. Behind the woman is something. . . shimmering and shiny. . . something with scales?

When the memory fades, the child will have disappeared into who knows where. But Bronzor would have had a fun day of babysitting, right??

[directrice]

I'M

FUCK

I THOUGHT YOU'D ALL TRY TO SHOVE THE ANGEL INTO THE TV BUT THIS WORKS TOO

Nobara manages to stun the angel with her SUPRE STRENGTH BATON!! It's enough time for Hunter to lead the crew into one of the televisions, because yes, that's a thing everyone does now, nods. But. . . instead of taking the group to the yellow, foggy stage, it dumps them into an underground subway system. There are sprawling tracks wherever they look; this place is a maze, and they will have to walk quite a ways to find anything of note. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any enemies here for the group to fight, so. . . safe walking!

When the group finally does find something of note, it is at the end of a large tunnel: it's a large black-and-white ringed portal that pulses and moves as though it's alive! The group can traverse through said portal, and when they do, they will find themselves dumped rather unceremoniously into the courtyard pond. But wait. . . they were nowhere near the pond? How are they here again??

[inklongdry]

OH JESUS WE WERE NOT EXPECTING THIS

UM first off they would try to talk her down and truthfully explain that they weren't trying to steal anything, they were just looking for clues about why they were there and maybe how to leave??? They'll offer to keep her treasure a secret or bring her something as a peace offering. (idk does the snake lady want some potato chips?)

If she can't be talked down and outright attacks, Arthur would first try to cast Repose on her (it's a sleep spell) to give them a chance to get away. If THAT doesn't work, he will cast Expedient on the group which just basically makes them run/fly/swim/etc. really fast and gives them a slight defensive buff against oncoming attacks. Ori will shift into a giant owl to scoop the other two up and fly away at super speed! If needed, Arthur's faerie will bravely sacrifice herself by flying in the snake lady's face to cover their retreat.

[flavor]

Pops in to say that Kanro will be snagging the ring before escaping o/

[cultfavorite]

omg beautiful. Bronzor will dutifully babysit this child yes. PROTECT THE WEIRD BABY

[agentgymstudent]

Oooh, fair enough!

[agentgymstudent]

Leo will grab the scabbard.

FOLLOW UP!

[lemiserable]

ALL HECK BREAKING LOOSE also hello thank you for the great stuff!

FOLLOW UP:
Please note that in this reply we made a list of things that they will try in the order they will attempt. The top one is what they will try first, second is if the first doesn't work, etc going down. If one of them is successful, assume they won't be doing the ones after it.

We decided to list them all so that you wouldn't need to keep going back and forth with us as we try a bunch of things (also assume they would happen in rapid succession, so no time to call for help either since that would mean more people and more complications for you so we attempted to keep it as simple as possible).

Also as they try more things, they will get more hurt / damaged from the creature and will for the most part attempt to avoid its gaze.

Upon the appearance of the Basilisk, the team will attempt to (along with strong swearing at the TEENS CAUSING TROUBLE);

ATTEMPT #1: THE CHICKEN LINE
Zenkichi will don his Wolf Phantom Thief outfit right as he senses death and mourning when the locker door is opened. The buffs he can do are going on the entire team, along with a Debilitate on the creature. However, because these are feelings he knows all too well, he will attempt to PACIFY the creature, dodging from its attacks and then drawing a line on the ground/ice, either with his sword or the dust if it is really dusty down there. ( This is why he is trying this, it's the type of dumb knowledge he probably filed away "I will never use this in my life but neat AF" hacks). He will be aid by the others trying to knock it down so it can see the line on the floor.

ATTEMPT #2: GET BACK, YOU MONSTER
Rex will attempt to stuff it back to its locker, and probably try shooting it (teenagers)

ATTEMPT #3: REVERIE: BREATH OF THE WILDFLOWERS
Gaius will attempt to lead it to the flowers (with the help of others) to see if flowers vs basilisk will cause a Zelda: Breath of the Wild situation where they just attack each other as the group watches

ATTEMPT #4: ICE ICE BABY
If that doesn't work, there would be a desperate attempt to push it with Malleus' gale force winds / everyone's attacks into the ice throne to see if that doesn't cool it off / calm it down somehow (Chicken king?)

ATTEMPT #4.5: JUST SET IT MORE ON FIRE (HOW BAD COULD IT BE??)
Malleus might try to set it even more on fire, that would work right?

ATTEMPT #5: RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
If all else fails, they will all attempt to run. By that time they are all pretty hurt, and Wolf will leave his sword into the morgue's door to keep the creature inside as they make a run for it and warn others.

[copyrewriter]

- attempt to wiggle free from the vines
- also gently pester the cat for information, including: name, reason for capture, why the dog hates it, what exactly it plans to to, is there anything she can trade for release (if she can't escape herself)?

(a2 has no reply atm)

Re: EXPLORATIONS

[alienation]

Who: JUST LOTOR
When: I will say Day 61 or 62 depending on the timeline... I am pretty flexible with this timeline.
What:
HE IS GENUINELY JUST DOING THE SCANNING THING HERE ON THE MOON (if there is a moon) THAT HE DID IN NORMAL PRISON. THE EXACT SAME THING. You can tell me if anything comes up in the sky or past the barbed wire, or nothing comes up, etc. He'd probably be outside in the yard at night sometime.

I just went to go ask if there was a moon in the new prison and realized I could use his last explore like this so....

[redheaded_menace]

1. After the nip, he leaves the plants alone. He's seen enough of carnivorous plants in his lifetime thankyouverymuch.

2. He loses interest in the gate.

3. He glances around for Ei, and backtracks a bit, but doesn't see her at all. He assumes she took a different path and doesn't worry too much. He hopes she is safe but he knows she can hold her own, too.

The giggling and maniacal laughter intrigues him and he follows it...

4. Oh, this is delightful! Lechter thinks the jokes are perfect in their corniness and laughs along with the act. It seems it would be something he would do, just to annoy certain people Claire back home, too. The worse the joke, the more he laughs. "Bravo! Encore!"

[directrice]

The vines are too strong to merely wiggle free from, and the cat doesn't seem inclined to answer many questions. It will introduce itself as the NEKO SHOGUN and wave it's little cat-shaped fan thing at Suyeong "menacingly" (it's not very menacing). In response to the reason the dog hates it, well-- cats and dogs don't get along, right?

It does seem to perk up with Suyeong asks it about a trade ("Aha! I knew there was a reason I captured you!!!"), but at that point something. . . glitches out on the television. The screen flashes, and the NOODLE DOG seems to fall right out of the television screen, JUST LIKE SADAKO!! It immediately bolts for the cat, who hisses and shrieks and falls off the desk, in a flurry of paws and fur. The noodle dog bites through the vines of Suyeong's trap, freeing her and opening up a small miniboss fight with the Neko Shogun!

Unlike most Shadows, the cat is. . . pretty weak. It attacks with physical attacks and sometimes whips out a giant fish to smack people around with. It can be knocked around pretty easily and eventually will turn tail and run, leaving behind. . . a tiny little dagger with a stylized-snake handle.

Noodle dog seems pleased by this victory, and it will paw at some of the papers that A2 and Suyeong have gathered. If they give it one, it will place its paw on the paper, leaving behind a pawprint marking on the back. . . and when they pick the paper up, they will miraculous find that they can read the words! They say:

"Strength was ██████ in all that ██ did ████ strong god ███. From █████ grew a hundred █████, a ████ dragon, with dark ███████ tongues, and from under the brows ███████ in ████ marvelous heads █████████ fire burned from ███████."

[directrice]

Zenkichi's buffs + debilitated do a little bit to put the group on even footing with the monster, which means they may not get quite as injured as they would otherwise! The line trick doesn't seem to work on this monster either-- is it too berserk to be pacified, or perhaps it being only half-chicken prevents the use of such mental tricks? WHO KNOWS. Either way, it doesn't matter. . . because after a good fight, Rex will succeed in shoving the monster back in the locker. It will tumble back into the depths of the locker with a pained shriek, the door slamming shut behind it. . . the basilisk symbol will reappear on the door, which will also glow red hot for a few moments before it just kind of. . .

Falls off.

But fortunately!! The fiery basilisk seems to be done, leaving nothing but the smoldering locker door behind. Before the team can do anything about it, the door glows gold and disintegrates into tiny little sparkles. . . leaving behind an iron shied with the basilisk team symbol on the front.

The shield seems like a normal shield, but it's a pretty cool memento, right??

[directrice]

Fortunately for the group, the snake woman seems reasonable!! When the group explains that they weren't there for her treasure, she calms down significantly and stops attacking. She'll coil around herself on the water's edge, watching everyone warily. She doesn't know why they are in the prison, nor how they can leave, but she does know that things got reeeeeally loud when the prisoners arrived. . . and that right before, some weirdo lady shouted over the intercom that her rehabilitation wasn't proceeding fast enough, and that she needed more power to make it happen, like. MUCH sooner!! Like right now!! Not ten months from now!! The snake lady has no idea what any of that means but it sounds, like, totally not her business, so whatever.

Anyway, after saying that, the snake lady will in fact accept the potato chips and give the group. . . pieces of dried seaweed as a trade, because that's what people do, right?? Though the seaweed doesn't seem like normal seaweed. . . consuming the seaweed will give the character one animal power of their choosing for a brief period of time. This can be wings, like a bird! Or the ability to breathe under water like a fish! Or the ability to camouflage like a chameleon, etc etc. The seaweed can only be used to gain an ability this way once, and the ability will last for one IC hour.

After that, the snake woman will dive back into the pond and leave the group to do as they wish! So long as they leave her treasure alone B[

[directrice]

The remote will not react on random objects throughout the prison; however, it seems to react with the common area television just fine. It will allow him to change the channel from the B-rated horror movies to a channel that basically shows a glowing blue butterfly fluttering against the black background. This song plays gently and calmingly through the speakers. Naoya may recognize it.

. . . after a few seconds on this channel, a female voice that sounds like the Warden's but. . . gentler. . . echoes in Stoat and Naoya's heads.

You do not know me, though you may believe that you do. My time is short, and as such this message shall be too. Your bonds. . . are what will carry you through. The power of those bonds will allow you to free yourselves. . . and me.

As for the broadcast itself, it's impossible to tell where it's coming from. It seems pretty contained, like it just. . . exists?? Without being connected to any sort of antennae or radio tower? Weird!

[directrice]

WHAT GOOD RESPONSIBLE POKEMON AND I LOVE THEM

As before, Chandelure will definitely sense spiritual activity like. . . kind of all over the courtyard, actually! It's within the flowers, it's within the pond, and it's strongest concentrated around the throne. Wait-- is the spiritual feeling from the throne getting stronger, bit by bit by bit?? PREPARE YOURSELVES, POKEMON, FOR FROM BEHIND THE THRONE EMERGES--

. . . a cute li'l flower sprite. She seems more shy than she does dangerous, and she is absolutely intrigued by Chandelure and Archeops's existence. She'll be a bit too timid to approach at first, but eventually she'll crawl out from behind the throne and tip toe towards them. She is also holding what appears to be a tiny li'l Grecian urn, the patterns on same obscured by her tiny arms.

FOLLOW UP: would the pokemon take any particular actions with the flower sprite?

[directrice]

LOTOR YOU'RE KILLING ME

There is a moon! It feels much the same as the one in the village. Does he believe it's real? Then it's real! Does he think it's fake? Inconclusive results. . . it's a very weird feeling, and is all based on his perception.

Something does come up when he scans past the barbed wire, too! It feels. . . familiar. He's picking up on the remnants of the village; he can tell that it exists way out there in the fog, somewhere currently out of reach. It's not gone, not entirely, but the powers that keep the village afloat are weak and fragile, and he'll be able to sense at too.

And most importantly: he'll be able to sense that something seems to be siphoning away the powers that keep the village alive. Something is stealing that power, and using it for itself. He can't tell what that something is, nor can he really tell where the power is going, but. It is actively being stolen! Uh oh!

[alienation]

im not a cool magic man ok

tysm!!

[derailer]

Chandelure and Archeops might also be wary at first, but they would see this is not a hostile creature and would mostly just try to greet it in a friendly manner! They would be curious about the urn but not pushy about making her show it to them.

They would try to communicate and introduce themselves but presumably the sprite does not speak Pokemon.