[April] State of the City

[rubycitymods]

STATE OF THE CITY
April 2016

GENERAL OOC INFO:

Hey all, here we are in April! If you're wondering where the year is going, I ate it :')

Everything is lagging a little behind at the moment as Fii-mod has unfortunately been ill with a chest infection and various cold bugs for almost six weeks solid. She sends her apologies, and will accept any offerings of home made chicken soup and tea. As of today most things are up to date - anything else will be seen to asap.

The General CR Meme and April Test Drive are currently up for use. Please read down to the closing statement for an update on last month's announcements. We also still have mod applications open until April 8th!

GAME INFO:
So what's going on with the city as a whole?

THIS SECTION HAS BEEN BACKBENCHED FOR OVERHAUL.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR SETS.

EVENT LIST FOR THE MONTH:

APRIL 10 - APRIL 17 Living a Fairy Tale

Ever wondered what it might be like to live the life of a fairytale princess or dashing hero straight out of a story book? Maybe you haven't. Maybe that's a life you're already living, but a little change is never a bad thing, either. This event can pull from any fairy tale-type story in existence, even ones which are themselves grounded in a fictional canon. The effects that they can cause are as follows;

Mental Changes
Maybe a few confusing or even conflicting memories are adopted that at first don't quite seem to align with your recollection of your real life. A memory of a trip you took into an odd fairy world, accessed through a hole in the base of a tree that can't possibly have happened... right? Eventually, they might block your real life out entirely, leaving you simply unable to remember a time when you were anything else. How dare someone tell you that your father didn't die when you were a child, leaving you in the hands of your wicked, evil stepmother?

Or, maybe you were the wicked stepmother...

Physical Changes
Physical alterations do not only need to happen within the bounds of the form you already have, for the most part. For example, someone taking on the tale of Rapunzel might find that their hair grows to unreasonable lengths no matter how often it's cut. This type of change also applies to the gaining of any magical abilities, though not the knowledge of how to use them. Tales are not restricted by gender, but will not necessarily alter the gender of the person they affect.

Other examples of purely physical alterations may be changes in size, colour, entire species, and even such things as beginning to change into wood (Pinocchio, anyone?).

World-Related Changes
Even the city will not stay the same through this powerful event. The buildings themselves will alter to reflect the stories of the people around them, often in clashing and conficting ways. Every home - occupied or unoccupied - will find itself altered in one way or another by the blend of fairy tales descending on the city. Some characters will directly affect their environment simply by virtue of who they have become - for instance, Sleeping Beauty may cause thorns to grow around every building she falls asleep in.

Story Clash
Many fairy tales are stand alone and were never meant to meet. What might have happened if the Little Match Girl met a kind and good person to rescue her from the streets? What would the Wicked Queen do, surrounded by the beauty of a dozen fae-folk and gentle-hearted individuals? How would everyone cope with an evil fairy who can turn into a dragon? Multiple interpretations of the same character are also permitted (for example, the original Little Mermaid of the Hans Christian Andersen tale may be used, as well as the Disney character of the same name).

This event runs until Sunday, April 17th after which the physical and mental effects on the city residents will begin to wear off. What the event has done to the buildings may stick a little longer, but everything should be back to normal by April 21st. We do not recommend eating any of the buildings, even if they do look, smell and taste very much like gingerbread.

In fact, especially then.

APRIL 27 - APRIL 30 You Can't Handle the Truth

You didn't need to touch anything, eat anything, drink anything or even consciously breathe anything in for this to happen, but suddenly you're finding yourself struggling to tell simple lies. From the morning of April 27th to the evening of April 30th, it will become very difficult, if not impossible for many of the city residents to knowingly utter anything that is untrue.

Stage One
An almost blanket inability to lie, even by omission. You can choose to say nothing, but once everyone knows what's going on that may be just as bad as holding up a flashing neon sign...

Stage Two
Actively blurting out truthful statements is the next step - you just can't keep it in when someone asks you a question! No matter how much you might want to lie, you simply can't do it.

Stage Three
The truth will out! As well as being able to tell a single lie for yourself, you also can't keep from pointing out when other people are lying, even going so far as to try and force them into telling the truth. It's what's better for everyone, isn't it? To hell with anyone who thinks you're taking it too far! If they won't tell the truth, you'll do it for them.

STATE OF THE CITY:

Weekly Weather Report

WEATHER:

So much for summer! The weather looks to be on a backslide, with rain and even snow falling on most days at the start of the month. It seems set to be chilly, slushy and icy over most mornings, so be sure to watch your step - particularly if walking by the river. The water nymphs may not be in time to help you should you happen to fall prey to something more sinister.

This unsettled weather may also be a foreshadow of something even more unsettling to come. Didn't Chassie seem terribly upset over something in her last message? For the normally bright and cheerful little girl, that is very odd indeed...

ANIMALS AND BESTIARY INFO:

Much like the weather, the local and far-flung wildlife seems unable to settle. Lesser seen creatures may become easier to spot, though still difficult to catch, and beings/animals which would normally show no fear are obviously ill at ease.

It could be nothing? Or, it could be something worth questioning.

STORES AND SUPPLIES:

IMPORTANT: stocks in most stores have reduced to next to nothing save the bare staples of a basic diet, and not very much of those. Perhaps more alarmingly, they do not seem to be restocking as the month goes by...

MOD CONTACT:

Fiona hardtostarboard || AIM@LittleBritTeacup
Kitten GrimmKitty || AIM@SilverCrusnik

Moderator Plurk: rubycitymods

PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Suggestions Post

Permanent Links
Phoenix Wright’s Records
Spiral Training School Information
Clinic Volunteers (TBA)

Anything to tell us? Let us know below!

CLOSING STATEMENT:

The plans laid out in last month's SotC did, quite obviously, not come to fruition in the way that Fii-mod would have hoped. Unfortunately she has spent the six weeks in various states of ill-health, thus the lateness of this post and a myriad of other things.

However, things seem to now be on the mend and almost everything is set to be laid out to yourselves. In the interests of not posting too much at once, this will be done at the coming weekend. What we can tell you is that there will be some alteration in a few game processes, a reduction in NPCs and several tweaks which should ideally make the game both easier to run and far more appealing to play in. We understand that things have become very messy over the past year or so, and it is long past time to work all the knots out. Thank you for bearing with us. <3

In the meantime, please do the mod team a favour and check that all your information is up to date and present in the correct places. Do not post any issues here, please note them down in a comment on the page where the information is wrong/missing. This would be a massive help to us.

The Activity Check is one of those things which is currently running late, but this should be with you before the end of today. We hope that with the addition of one or two more mods, everything should fall into place much more easily.