We're about to encounter some rough air....

[sickjoke]

We're in for a bumpy ride!

Next week, I start college again. (Yeah, I know, hooray college!) I'm looking at a decent load with Latin, Sociology and a Creative Workshop in Nonfiction, as well as working on the lit mag and having a six day work week! Five days at my regular job being an office monkey for a geosciences grant department, and Sunday at the the writing center as a consultant. Yes, you too can do full time work AND full time college and lose your ever loving mind! Ask me how!

Three weeks after the Semester starts? Comic-Con! So, so say the least, the next three weeks are going to be bumpy. This is my last weekend a free woman. So, I'm giving a heads up that my tags will be slowing down and I may have decreased availability, and my stress is about to take a sharp spike as I get back into the swing of school work.

Please bear with me and I'll try not to be a jerk as I adjust to a whole new schedule and a new class load all over again.

Hiatus

[lifewithoutrest]

I've decided to take a bit of a break here for the moment. I've really just been limping along the past several months as it is, and I think I need to step back and see if I can get less overwhelmed. As I won't be completely gone, I'll still poke at my current tags instead of leaving them hanging, but nothing new until next month.

So as of today, we can assume Helen is in the catacombs. She'll be back 'round about the 1st.

- Ashley

[Event] // [New Maps!!]

[rubycitymods]

So, we've kept you waiting on this for far longer than we wanted to, but we finally have everything straightened up and ready. Please read everything in this post so there's no confusion after the switch!

THE PRELUDE

On Monday, August 18th at midday, the clock tower will chime as it always does, but residents may notice that it doesn't sound normal. The noise is oddly hollow, as if it were ringing from inside a cavern.

At 12:01, after the last chime dies off, the city will be plunged into darkness. This will not be something as simple as all the lights going out, but a thick, heavy blackness that descends between one moment and the next as if sight has been robbed from everyone in the city and the lands surrounding it all at once. At the same time, the network will disconnect entirely. Attempts to create light sources using candles or torches will only partially succeed - it isn't that the lights don't work, but it doesn't seem that there's anything for them to fall on.

It will be possible to find other people stumbling around in the dark and to feel your way around familiar areas.

At 12:05, a sudden noise will erupt from every corner of the city and the area beyond. It will sound like a hellish mixture of tearing metal, shifting stone and all manner of other shrieks and bone-shuddering creaking. The floors inside the buildings and the ground outside will shake in addition to the continuing darkness. At this time, the network will flicker on and off with a spotty text service only, if you can see well enough to use it.

At 12:10, the noise will abruptly stop. A few moments later, the lights will flicker back on and, while no one seems to have moved from where they were before, the city itself has certainly changed.

THE SWITCH



So, what's new?

• More houses
• An observatory (in dire need of some fixing up)
• New stores (inc. a bike shop)
• A specific store for home regains (marked with a star on the map), this will be put into proper operation asap
• Space for a greenhouse and an old apothecary store
• The rebuilt Hotel ShinRa
• The stores now stock less ready-made goods and more raw materials (such as ingredients and cloth)

**IMPORTANT** We would appreciate it very much if the people who lived in houses previously would go to the residences page and post a quick note for the location of their home after the shift! Please note that although the page shows the new map, it will not come into effect until Monday! In the meantime, you can locate the previous map here and also in the link provided in the residences which will remain there for a little while after the switch to give a point of reference to anyone who wants to claim a place of residence relative to where they were before.

Also, please let us know if we missed anything!

In addition to this, there is now also a map available on the locations page. The shake-up did much more than just shuffle the city around.

Okay, so what's new here?

• To begin with, the void that previously surrounded the chunk of land on which the city sat has been pushed back to make way for an ocean. The void is still present, but being utilised differently. More information on this can be found in the locations entry here.
• There are two beaches, one well within walking distance of the city.
• The hot springs are now located outside the city walls.
• Travel distances and likely creature encounters are now on each entry, with the former added to the locations outside of the city.
• There are a number of new locations -- we advise that you read the location page entries thoroughly!

Got it, what else?

The shaking up appears to have shaken a few things out of the proverbial rafters to be discovered after everything settles. Underneath one of the pews in the cathedral, an old iron cross pendant can be found with 'U. Vale' etched into the back, as well as an old Bible with notes scrawled in the margin in rough, spidery handwriting.

In the clinic, there are two grey, cardboard files pushed under a cabinet, the corner of one just poking out enough to be seen. They appear to be medical records for an 'L. Barrows' and 'H. Lear'. Both describe the patients as 'subjects' and speak of them using detached, neutral pronouns, as if they weren't people at all. 'L. Barrows' is listed as aged eight, while 'H. Lear' is noted to be of indeterminate age, but presumed in his late twenties.

At the back of the theatre, there are a few pages of sheet music by the composers Chopin, Brahms, and Liszt with 'Landry' written across the top in careful script. These can be found with the rest of the sheet music. The name is written in pink.

We will need a few volunteers to find these things! Please put your character/s forwards under the relevant comment below. If there are a lot of volunteers, we'll use an RNG (or you can organise into groups!). There's no time limit on discovering these titbits, but please bear in mind that they are relevant to the NPCs and, depending on how they are used, the plot of the game as a whole.

Please use the relevant comments below for questions, volunteering and plotting! Thank you c: