ximilian: (Default)
ximilia mods ([personal profile] ximilian) wrote in [community profile] ximiliugh2021-11-04 08:01 pm

MISSION [ the sleeper ] + plotting post

OVERVIEWOBJECTIVELOCATIONSPERSONS OF INTERESTOOC NOTES


OVERVIEW

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.

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OBJECTIVE

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.

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LOCATIONS

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.

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PERSONS OF INTEREST

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.

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OOC NOTES

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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▶ NAV

peasant: (pic#15057205)

[personal profile] peasant 2021-11-04 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Name: ellie
Character: alina starkov
Personal task:
BETRAYAL • Betray the trust of a friend.


sweats... whomst wants to be betrayed. alina's going to have a lot of guilt around this to the point of almost not going through with it BUT ultimately, will try to commit to it. with that said! i have a few ideas for how this could go down: alina leaving someone trapped in a terrible dreamscape when she could otherwise help them, or using a secret she learns in their dreamscape against them (most likely by blabbing about something they wouldn't want known, potentially milking them for info by keeping them talking, etc).

even if your character would forgive her or not, i live for the drama!! so i'd like this to carry some chaos or consequences from it, at least, in the aftermath — but i'm flexible on how it goes down, so long as it doesn't involve killing/injuring her friends.

General plans for the mission:
exploring the castle, mostly. alina will be investigating the rumors that the castle shifts by putting her cartographer's skills to good use to make maps and compare them, so anyone that wants to tag along or compare notes is welcomed!

otherwise, she'll also be falling asleep — probably early on in the mission, so she'll be available to wake up others later on.


Dreamscape plans:
as a general cw warning, alina's dreamscapes below are likely to include any of the follow: fantasy-flavored racism and xenophobia directed toward her, manipulaton/gaslighting, canon-typical violence, and body horror. she comes from ravka, which is the equivalent of tsarist russia, in a country that's divided by the fold — a wall of darkness/sea of sand that contains monsters. for a few ideas i had:

— alina's general mindscape where she can be found. it's not a pleasant place to look at!! think a very glamorous bedroom suite with barred windows and doors, and covered in gory viscera with bloody antlers pierced through alina's chest, with a bright and unreachable meadow just outside its windows.

alina will most likely not recognize most characters and will be wary of them, making it more difficult to pull her out of that dreamscape. others will include memories, like:

— her time at the orphanage with her best friend mal, avoiding grisha examiners that came to take her as a child, and just generally being a sick kid due to repressing her power
— her time in the first army, getting into fights with bullies and dealing with being an outsider
— venturing into the fold if someone wants to see some gross monsters and her entire army unit get killed
— training her new powers in the little palace
— finding a mythical stag that would later be slaughtered in front of her
— being enslaved by having that stag's antlers forced through her skin, and/or her time being used as a weapon to get a whole bunch of people killed

i'm more interested in exploring memories that will coax alina into discussing things that she might otherwise refuse to open up about, or ... for her to get really cagey about what characters have seen, but give them a glimpse into her memories and head for building up CR.


ETC: alina is just a big glorified sun so i'm not sure her sun summoning will come in handy this time around!
Edited 2021-11-04 19:44 (UTC)
droide: (134 comic)

[personal profile] droide 2021-11-04 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi there I'm canon blind to Alina but L3-37 will also be trying to make maps so maybe they can partner up and/or compare notes!
peasant: (Default)

[personal profile] peasant 2021-11-09 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
hello! sorry this took so long, i wanted to get a top-level up first so i could toss it at you! it's over here. i really love L3 and would love CR, with the two of them teaming up and/or comparing notes! whatever suits your fancy. i don't mind canon blindness, either. c:
morethan084: (Default)

[personal profile] morethan084 2021-11-05 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
Would love for Daisy to see Alina's map skills in action and try to figure this out together! <3
peasant: (Default)

[personal profile] peasant 2021-11-09 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
that would be great! i have a top-level over here now. c: sorry it took me forever to get to this!
morethan084: (Default)

[personal profile] morethan084 2021-11-09 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! <3