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MISSION [ the sleeper ] + plotting post
A strange sickness has been passing over the country of Kilnan — slowly, its inhabitants have started falling victim to sleep that no one can wake them from. None are dead; they still breathe, but whatever tricks the people have tried, loud noises, smells, shaking them... nothing has worked. The people remain asleep, and more are unable to wake each day.
To make things worse, no one has been able to reach the country’s wizard. The royal wizard, Remi d’Arbes, is called upon whenever anything magical happens on a larger scale, and though the royals in Kilnan have tried contacting him about this, there has been no response. His castle, suspended over the countryside, still stands — but all those who have entered to call upon him have not returned.
As such, the country is on the verge of ruin: if nothing is done, if the wizard is not alerted, the entire country may soon be under the spell of sleep.
The team’s objective is to find the orb. Viveca has traced it to the wizard’s castle, but its specific location there, as well as whether anyone is using it currently, is unknown.
To defend the team against the sleeping sickness, Viveca arms the team with one vial of anti-sleep essence per team member — if used, it can wake up someone from this strange sleep state, but it only works once.
The team will be sent straight to the castle, and will not have access to the country of Kilnan itself.
The castle, commonly known as the Crystalline Palace, is a large, white castle that blends together with the skies on top of the quiet countryside of Kilnan. Inside, it is full of sweeping staircases, tall, floor-to-ceiling windows adorned with stained class, and flowing curtains. There are a myriad of rooms, and long hallways that lead to them, lined with paintings. Many towers rise above the clouds.
But there is something strange about the castle — people say it never quite looks the same, and those who have been in it before say the interior is never the same, either… almost as if the castle and its rooms are not quite normal.
THE WIZARD
The royal wizard, Remi d’Arbes, has been in the country’s service for several generations. An extremely powerful magician, Remi deals with the most dire threats against the country. People describe him as a bit of a recluse — though very kind to children, Remi has a brusque and blunt manner that, along with his great magical power, leaves many citizens slightly afraid of him. In his dealings with the royals of the country, Remi has demonstrated his stance as a pacifist, unwilling to engage with battles or war unless absolutely necessary.
The mission spans the month of November, and characters will return to the station by the start of December. There will be one log for this mission.
The team’s main objective is to find the orb and retrieve it. To do that, they have to find out where exactly it is in the castle, whether it is being used, and if it is, somehow get the current owner to hand it over to them.
The log takes place on two “levels”: the actual castle, and the dreamscape. Characters who fall victim to the sleeping spell enter a dreamscape that shapes itself according to the characters’ memories, and characters may either be stuck in their own dreamscape or leave it to traverse through others’ dreamscapes.
The focus of this mission is on exploration and cooperation, as characters have to find the orb inside the castle, and work together to survive the dreamscapes.
The dreamscapes can vary: some of them take shape based on a character's subconscious, while some may be their memories that they are either stuck witnessing, or reliving without realising it is a memory. Characters may also appear in these dreamscapes as themselves from any point in their lives, so if they are reliving a memory from their childhood, for that dreamscape they would appear as a child. As soon as the dreamscape shifts, or they leave it to cross over to someone else's dreamscape, they would return to their regular age.
Essentially, for the dreamscape, you have three options: a "normal" memory share where the character is an outsider looking in, a memory that the character is reliving and experiencing without realising it is a memory, and traversing through other characters' dreamscapes. A character in a dreamscape can be woken up from the outside by another character in possession of an antidote.
If you want to sign your character up for a thread with the Wizard, please respond HERE by November 6, 6PM GMT. There is only one slot for this. Note that you are expected to be able to tag the thread consistently throughout the start of November.
Characters are encouraged to share information through the network, and a mod-provided voting post will be posted later on in the mission where characters can decide how exactly to get the orb.
The personal goals have been assigned, and can be found here. If you have any questions about your task, please ask us here! In the same comment, there are instructions for what to do if you are unhappy with the task your character has received.
Please use this post to plot for the mission and make your own plotting comments. You can use the form below:
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Character: The Darkling / Kirigan
Personal task:
Ahahaha, /sobs. So, there are very few people (one whole person) he would say he's close to. That might objectively be a lie, but if the goal goes on feelings, he only feels close to Alina.
So, either Alina (something something he'd confess a weakness and she might not even believe him) OR he works on being close with someone else. Anyone want to get to know this man - to everyone who doesn't know canon, he is the villain of Shadow and Bone.
General plans for the mission: A mix of being awake to wake people up (ha, not doing this because he's kind, but because he might need the power in case of an emergency - also, he would only help someone with Small Science / magical powers) and throwing him in to the dreamscapes - he comes from tsarist Russia, but make it fantasy and magical. It's a wartorn world of slavery, persecution and the violent murders of magical people and the one man who tries to make it better. Think Russian Magneto, but very pretty and he controls shadows.
I'm thinking normal dreamshare, with him and someone else watching his memory and also reliving something horrible.
Dreamscape plans: Yes, asleep.
For watching, I am struggling with either violence towards Grisha (burned alive, tortured, hanged, experimented upon, sold in to slavery, that kind of stuff) or His First Friend (also, first physical touch of another human that isn't his mother.)
For reliving, I was thinking about the creation of the Fold or losing Alina (if anyone wanted to know more about these two and the weirdness between them)
ETC: He controls shadows and can amplify the powers in others with physical touch. He is also very ruthless, doesn't really mind killing people to get the job done and he has extensive military training, both combat and strategic as the general of the second army.
He can eventually make these monsters, he just doesn't know it yet.
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Or we can do dreamscape stuff, with Sabriel learning that there are worlds where being a magic user means nonmagical people hunting you down, or the Darkling getting to see teenage mages go to school with non mages, and use their magic without fear.
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They could work on getting closer? Peter is making him the googles so he can use them for the mission, btw.
I'd love for Peter to see one of the Darkling's memories that don't involve Alina. Both for the drama and because him not making the connection is way funnier.
Peter will ve all 'these shadow monsters look kick ass! :D' ...ignorance truly is bliss.
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Sweet or horrible memory, because he has both. It could be a random day with his wife, Luda - that's pretty much as happy as he gets? Also, it would explain why he's being cagey about love. Or, we can go all out terrible and Peter can see how Grisha are treated in Ravka (torture, medical experiments, burned alive- men, women and children). Or, Luda dying? That's more of a personal tragedy
If he figures out how to make them ingame, he's pretty much irredeemable. But, here's hoping!
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Oh man...why not both. both are good. Perhaps he first seen him with Luda and then the dream shifts to show how the poor Grisha are treated? If Peter sees Luda dying he will feel so bad for them all, he's been there ;;
In that case, let's...not.
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Ahahahaha!
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<3
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What flavor do you want her to see, burned alive? Torture? The bodies recovered from the medical experiments in Shu Han? Being hunted and watching others die around him? The life of one of the saints he might have known, and how they died?
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Let’s go with the bodies being recovered and maybe one of the saints he might’ve known and how they died? Or just one of those if that’s easier for you.
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I'll think something up for Daisy!
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Oooooh I love either of those but I think Daisy would be more drawn to Sankt Demyan.
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The story of Sankt Demyan is a sad one (spoiler, they're all so sad) and she will get to see it! Yay!
Sankta Anastasia was a healer, who could cure anything with her blood. A plague ravaged her village and she bled for them all. The surrounding villages wanted in on it, and so did her own village - they captured her, and they drained her dry, killing her by exsanguination. She is the patron saint of the sick, and people pray to her for good health and healing in trying times.
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honestly, i think it might be interesting to mix his personal goal with alina witnessing his memories of his first "friends" and how they tried to turn on him for being an amplifier. i definitely don't think she understands the nuances of being a human amplifier and how that can empower him and other grisha, but how the cost of it is the weakness of everyone wanting to hunt you down / isolating yourself from others / being an even bigger target, so they could talk about that and shed some light on how aleksander's childhood was! (and what it was like for grisha, way back before she was ever born.) it might lead to a nuanced conversation that isn't outrightly hostile with these two, which could be another fun (fun for us, and potentially confusing for both of them) layer to their CR?
just a tl;dr thought! no pressure if you wanted to fulfill his goal in another way or with someone else c:
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Oh! Oh yes, dream-share! Alina can see the Demon in the Woods and maybe allow that to explain him just a tiny bit. His gloves, for one thing, but also his distance, his distrust and his super weird way of trying to be a person. I want this so much!
I can do both, let her see that but also, him trying to fulfill it some other way because he wouldn't think that by her seeing that, he's revealing a weakness.
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"so kirigan the weather is nice today, don't you think?"
"they bind our hands as grisha so we can't use our powers this AND MAKE IT EASIER TO KILL US"
".......... are you ok"
ANYWAY 👀 i'm very much game for this! both of them, if he does end up approaching her at the end of the mission too to really make sure he's shared something that might count; i'm always okay with multiple threads because i'm greedy. and i think the dreamscape will be a little insightful and poignant, compared to just alina hearing stories so it'll be fun! awkward and uninvited bonding(??? sort of) is a go. she will actually get sympathetically emotional and angry about it (not at him, for once) because she's marshmallow-soft at heart.
and this way he doesn't have to go MY GREATEST WEAKNESS IS YOUUUUU while alina stands there wondering what the fuck is happening
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Peter; And then my girlfriend Gamora said-
Darkling; Being Grisha means it's harder to kill us, that's why they burn us at the stake! Fire is everyone's weakness, but also, I can't do shit with my hands tied!
Peter;... dude...
Ahahaha, he's going to be thirteen and tiny! Voice all high and stick-thin, trying to look intimidating and just looking like an angry kitten. He will hate that Alina knows this about him, because he made a HUGE mistake and no one should ever know that he can mess up that hard and be that weak.
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it's almost like it really sucks to be innocently naive and lonely and to trust someone who has been nice to you only to have them turn on you to use your power for themselves HMMMMMMMM...... this mistake of aleks' ALMOST sounds super familiar to alina.
okay but on a completely serious note, feral children getting bullied is way more relatable to alina 😔 she'll feel worse for young aleksander/tiny "eryk" because we all know how alina feels about bullies and threatening them with letter openers, even if aleksander hates her witnessing it. i don't think she'll see his mistake as a mistake, because she can forgive and excuse someone else for trusting the wrong person but not forgive herself for doing the same thing LMAO so their different interpretations of it are gonna be fun
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"What? I can't hear you la-la-la"
ALMOST! It's almost as if he's been waiting forever for someone to tell him he's not alone and then it happens, and someone was a lying liar who lied! It's almost as if he'd do anything to keep that person! Wow, this got deep
Oh, I' sure they're going to see it differently, where Aleksander thinks she'll see his weakness for human contact a mile wide, his desperate need to belong so great that he put himself and others in danger because of it. That she will see him, Aleksander, and not the powerful man he made himself become.
Alina sees a kid standing up for a friend and get betrayed for it in the most horrible way. Also, Baghra in her prime, all beautiful and ruthless
This also means that I finally got around to reading the demon in the woods! Yay, but now I want to know more about little Aleks.
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