State of the City - AUGUST

[rubycitymods]

STATE OF THE CITY
August 2015

CR MEME AND TEST DRIVE INFO:

August is already upon us, and the test drive and plotting memes are up! Make good use of them, guys, and remember that the game's setting extends beyond the city walls! There's a lot of square footage for exploring, if anyone has a mind to, and if you're unsure of anything please drop the mods a message and we'll do our best to clear it up for you.

For those interested, the locations page can be found here, as well as which creatures might be most commonly encountered there.

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

The Rumor War events have far-reaching consequences that aren't only restricted to the few days or weeks following their conclusions. Each event, and those NPCs whose influence over Ikaros and the city itself as a result, cause permanent alterations to the way that the city functions and its general appearance.

An early win in the first Rumor War event by the Virtue of Charity gave the city rations a boost. Everything from food and gardening supplies, to clothes and weapons were made more plentiful. Charity doesn't discriminate, after all. A later win by Wrath increased the amount of firearms, ammunition and other weaponry available in the city, piggybacking onto Charity's overall effect on the city. Additionally, victories by both Pride and Sloth restored part of the wall around the city and also supplied warmer, softer blankets and better quality materials for clothing (and stuffing pillows), giving an extra edge of comfort to the usual fare.

Most recently, a landslide win by Kindness has temporarily taken the edge off the ferocity of some of the more violent wildlife, as well as boosting the medical supplies in the clinic. For a time, there will also be an increase of stock at the hardware store to help with the rebuilding of the still partly-damaged northern quarter.

While several of the NPCs are still mistrustful of the people residing in the city, some are open to conversation and even questioning, up to a point. Some of those who are are being cooperative are making attempts to persuade others to do the same, with varied results. The benefits of success would, of course, be that the Virtues and Vices holding stronger and more reliable abilities will be more willing to be helpful. NPCs can be contacted using the NPC contact pages, but please be patient! Some of them take longer than others to answer their watches.

GAME FEEDBACK:

The mod team hopes that you enjoyed our Pokémon themed event! The next Rumour War event is scheduled for October and will be horror themed, so hang on to your butts.

If you have any suggestions or feedback for us, please don't hesitate to either PM the mod account or use the suggestions post to let us know! We are always open to ways that we can improve the game experience for all players, so please don't be shy. We don't bite!

EVENT LIST FOR THE MONTH:
A playbook for your PCs

AUGUST 9 - AUGUST 16: AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

This month, someone has got it into their head that the city residents really need to be reminded just how lucky they are to be exactly who they are. Beginning in the early morning on Sunday, August 9th, all those whose players opt them in will wake up either older or younger than their current canon point. Age events are simple, fun, and we know many of you have just been dying to see one, so here it is.

As ever, we revel in providing everyone with options, so here's what your choices are!

* Age Up/Down, no current memory loss: The individual is either older or younger than they were the night before, but their memory remains exactly the same as it was before. This would result in an older person being trapped in the body of their childhood self, or vice versa.

* Age Up/Down, memory loss: For this option, the character wakes up on the morning of the 8th as if they have either never been in the city before (age down) or they have returned after many years spent back in their home universes (age up). The latter may remember as much or as little about the city itself as the player desires.

* Age Up, RC memory: Only available for those who age their characters up, this option would offer the chance to speculate on years of life within Ruby City itself. Feel free to make up any future that you like within reason, since the one that your character's mind has been drawn from may be one of any number of possible time lines that the city could follow.

* Anything Else?: Do you have a suggestion? Any other alternative mix? Let us know and we'll see if we can include it!

On Thursday, August 13th, part way through the event, there will be an option to switch your character to another setting. You do not have to take this option, and you can also use it to either enter the event or stop tormenting your character decide to stop taking part. Please note, however, that if you decide to pull your character out of the event at this point, you will not be able to put them back into it! Make your decision carefully.

On Sunday, August 16th, everyone will be returned to their correct age. Unfortunately, they will remember everything that they did. Even the embarrassing parts.

For the purposes of this event we will not be accepting age-AU accounts into the comms. However, you are free to comment to posts/threads with them. Please use tags as you would normally, with your character name. We will also be providing a mingle log on both the 9th and the 13th, for general use.

AUGUST 16 - ?

As an unfortunate side-effect of the age event, a percentage of those who were affected will find their memories in varying states of disarray. It can be difficult to put things into focus when you have recollections of an older version of yourself in a younger body, or memories of a strange and frightening city blended into (perhaps happier) one of your childhood.

Lingering effects of this will be strange, vivid dreams, auditory and visual hallucinations, and an increased propensity to daydream. Talking it out might help, if you're the kind of person who likes to talk about themselves, but all of those mixed up memories are going to need to be sorted out one way or another.

Effects will be strongest immediately after the event for those affected, and will fade slowly over time. However, there is no definite end date, so feel free to draw it out.

STATE OF THE CITY:

Full Weather Report | Threat Report

WEATHER:

Starting out on a high for this month but quickly falling back into the hot, humid and unfortunately wet weather that this year's summer has been plagued with. Opening windows at night offers little relief from the heat, given that the movement of the air outside is at a minimum, but a trip to the beach should offer some temporary relief as the ocean breeze makes it at least seem cooler than it is. Taking a trip down to the river is also an option, and the waterfall lagoon to the north should you wish to make such a journey, but be mindful of the creatures that may already be residing in the water...

The full moon for August is known as the Sturgeon Moon.

ANIMALS AND BESTIARY INFO:

The native fauna is mostly recovered from the shock of leviathan's escape, and with the effects of Kindness' win in the last rumour war event keeping some of the more bloodthirsty ones a little calmer than usual, the patrol teams might actually be able to take stock and rearrange themselves without worrying about the constant threat of attack. Efforts to weed out the wendigo numbers has been successful for now, and it would appear that those remaining have fallen back to their usual haunts in the darker parts of the forests.

Buoyed by the calmed behaviour of those they usually spend so much of their energy hunting, the dryad and elven populations native to the landmass on which Ruby City sits can be found to be more conversational and friendly, as long as one minds their manners properly.

MOD CONTACT:

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

Moderator Plurk: rubycitymods

PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Suggestions Post

Permanent Links
Phoenix Wright’s Records
Patrol Information Post
Spiral Training School Information

Anything to tell us? Let us know under QUESTIONS & COMMENTS below!

CLOSING:

Please remember that the Activity Check will commence on August 5th! Those who have apped into the game over the past month or have been on hiatus for two weeks or more since the start of the last activity check will be considered exempt from the check, but please check the lists given when the post goes up as sometimes people can be missed. We would hate to accidentally sweep somebody who didn't intend to leave.

Unfortunately, due to time restraints, the reshuffling of the death mechanic didn't get the attention that it needs last month, but it is on this month's to-do list as a priority. The playerbase will be updated when it has all been straightened out and clarified, but there will be no major changes to how it operates, so don't worry about any nasty surprises.

We have also been doing some restructuring of our shadow mod team behind the scenes. Things should run much more smoothly from here on out, and we all thank you for your patience while we've been moving a little more slowly than we would have liked.

Finally, the first mini-adventure will be rolled out within the next few days. Suggested by Badge, this will have places for three extra people and will take place in the catacombs. More information soon!

Comments

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS - General

[rubycitymods]

If you have any comments/questions relating to the post itself, NOT the event, please post them here so they don't get missed.

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS - Event

[rubycitymods]

Any questions regarding this month's events should go here. Ask away!

PUTTING THIS IN THE RIGHT SECTION WHOOPS;;

[hallacious]

For characters whose current canonpoint is when they die, so long as they aren't old and crotchety already, would aging up with memory loss still be an option?

[anklegandr]

For Rin here, I was wondering it was possible I could do both RC memories for one part of the event and Grail War memories of home for the other (with memory loss/vague thought of leaving the city)? I plan to canon update her eventually so if this would mess with that possibility I'd like to prevent it.

TLDR will having her affected by this event mess with the possibility of canon updating her?

[mistressurd]

Urd here ages down if she loses her magical power. Can this be in a simular way, r is this a bit different?

[scary_music]

If we age them down with their memories mucked with to match, will their clothes change too? And/or would they perhaps have any items they would have had on their person at the time they were "taken" from like "true" new arrivals do?

Secondly, Ibuki was given kitty transform powers from our local Roman Gulliver. Would she keep this if aged down/memory lost?

[calmbefore]

Before I get to the world's latest plotting, would it be possible to deage a Doctor into a previous incarnation? (I don't see anything that would suggest it wouldn't be possible but I figure best to ask.)

PLOTTING

[rubycitymods]

Event plotting here. Please take care to read all event information.

[takesyoubytheheart]

YAY AGE EVENT.

Will definitely be turning Mickey younger - but I can't decide whether to make him an actual child, or in his musketeer days. Both will have him be really confused that the animals don't talk and also WHAT ARE HUMANS??? But bitty will be... bitty, whereas Musketeer!Mickey might be a bit more defensive.

Not sure what to do with Mikan, or if I'll put her in the event at all. Any and all input on either character is appreciated!

[inafadingcrown]

I've pretty much decided on aging down Galadriel to her teen (equivalent) years. For those who are not familiar with Galadriel's backstory, this will involve several important changes:

-She will not know or respond to the name 'Galadriel.' She will go by either 'Artanis' or 'Nerwen'
-She will not know about/recognize the sun or the moon since neither existed at her time.
-This also goes for humans. She will have heard foretellings of their arrival, but that's it.
-She won't speak Sindarin (more relevant for castmates, obviously)
-She will be a spoiled princess who is a bit of a troublemaker and far too intelligent for her own good, basically.

[seenthefire]

Thranduil will be aged down to roughly 30 years old though appears as a teenager. He will only have the memories of Doriath and Menegroth before Thingol's death. He only speaks Sindarin and has limited experience with humans and absolutely none with Noldor other than what he's been told of them from Thingol and Oropher. To Thranduil, this will be the first time he's ever left Doriath.

Glorfindel is babysitting all you youngling elves and thanking Eru for kiddie leashes. Imagine all the trouble in Arda that could have been saved by kiddie leashes.

Re: PLOTTING

[wright_idea]

Current plans for this event:

Phoenix: Ages down, remembers things, hates his life. Basically, he gets the pleasure of repeating history, and being unable to reach kitchen counters. I COULD vary it up, but I find the idea too amusing to resist.

Hiroshi: Ages up with RC memories. He may end up hinting at upcoming things.

Tojiko: Ages down. Way down. Like, "before she died" down. She's going to be horribly confused at all this strange architecture and stuff. She's also going to be depowered (since she's human) and marginally more tactful about her language.

PLOTTING

[goldeneyeball]

MAURICE is going to be come his smol angry teenage self. He was the school bully for several years and he'll be getting a memory wipe. Hide your glasses, nerds. He will be reacting to his new environment with fear and fear means ANGER!!!!

JW, meanwhile, will revert to better, much hazier days. He'll also come in memory wipe flavor and will be making friends with EVERYBODY. He used to be so nice and chill but he will also eat your food if you aren't keeping an eye on it so there's that.

Enjoy.

plotties?

[scary_music]

Ibuki Mioda will be a small child for this event with memories regressed as well.

This means she won't recognize anybody!!!!!!! But she'll be an attentioned starved child so it won't be... too hard to get her trust.

She's gonna be even more hyper and nonsensical than usual!

[airshipcaptain]

Alright, alright, alright!

Afonso's going to start out the event aged up, feeling as though he's returned to the city after a really long time home. And by really long time I mean he's going to be in his forties. At that point he's an Actual Aiship Captain, as well as a father, so he'll be turning Spiral School into a temporary daycare for any of the kids to come play/stay at. He'll also probably be offering to feed any of them while trying to figure what the hell is going on and taking lots of notes for himself.

On the fourteenth though he miiiihgt end up waking up as a seven year old with no memories. In which case he'll probably start throwing shoes at any poor teenagers/adults and demanding to know where his baby sister is. Maybe. Possibly. I'm not sure.

[fearsnothing]

OH BOY here we go

Alice will be aged down progressively! Which is to say, during the first half of the event she will be returned to her 18 year-old self, battling with her final memories before she's released from Rutledge Asylum. She'll retain her Wonderland appearance for the most part, though younger and a bit less composed than usual. Also, she will have no memories of Ruby City.

Meanwhile, during the second half of the event she will be aged down to 8 years old, before all kinds of tragedies took place in her life. You might be getting tags from this little child here - twotimestooreckless. Be warned; she pulls a lot of pranks.

Margaretha will be aged down to 11 or so and will lose most of her powers and also her memories of the city. She'll be an acolyte and very much out of her place, but she'll be as friendly as ever!

[bythewaves]

Mags is aging down. RIGHT DOWN. In human terms, he's a child about 3-4 in size, but will talk like a 6-7 year old and if you ask him he'll tell you he's about 25 because #Elves. He won't have his memories~ which means:
- He only speaks Quenya (and will only respond to his Quenya names - Makalaure Kanafinwe, or Kano)
- He has no idea what a human is
- He has no clue what a moon or a sun are, and will insist the world should be lit by trees
- He has, as a highly protected and doted on little princeling in paradise, no concept of war, death, or well... danger in general. Want to kidnap him?

Poor long-suffering Erestor gets to stay adult and help Glorfindel babysit the bitties.

[hallacious]

Ishimaru here is going to be aged up to around his mid-30s for the first half of the event, as if he's coming back to the city after a long time, and is going to be understandably confused and upset for a number of reasons. Without spoiling too much, at that point in his life he would be an up-and-coming young politician in the Japanese House of Representatives, working towards becoming the Chief Cabinet Secretary. He's probably even more super stressed out than usual, if the dark circles under his eyes and the progression of grey hairs will tell you anything. Comes with the addition of glasses!

And then halfway through the event he's going to be brought down to elementary school age, as if he's never been in the city before, where...very little about his demeanor will be changed from his present self, which should probably be concerning. It's basically just an Ishimaru who is a foot shorter and significantly more adorable. Prepare for long talks about how his dad is the best. Fair warning: there's a chance some of his threads will involve implications of neglect, though nothing super direct or outright since he's so young. I'll warn in the thread titles if anything major comes up. Otherwise, he's just a dorky little kid who very much wants some playtime buddies!

also excuse me showing off my icons i may be very very excited about this

Morrigan, Alice (liddell/younger) and Erik

[desertedchateau]

Alice: will be getting a double dose in this event. For the first half, she'll be aged up to roughly her mid-20s, with the RC memory thing in place- she'll fully believe herself to be the epitomy (almost to parody) of a proper lady; who imagined going to Wonderland after reading about it. Expect a LOT of ettiquite commentary and refusal to fight since it's not fitting for a lady. For the second half, she's going to be aged down. Alice will be aged to 8, fresh out of Chapter 7 (The Mad Tea Party) and she'll assume the ciy is an extension of the party. When she finds out that's not true, she'll head off to try to find the quickest route back home or to Wonderland, whichever happens first.

Morrigan: Will be aged down to her late teens/early 20s and wake up thinking she's been ruling her homeworld of Makai for 5 years before being pulled to the city. this will be her life philosophy the entire time. She will freaking drag whoever she can find out to party and generally raise all kinds of Hell while shirking her duties, real or imagined. Let her enlighten your characters to the joy of partying hard. Morrigan wil also be a typical princess archtype.. who happens to love partying. As you do.

Erik: Is aging down to his early 20s. Since the musical handwaves like 99% of his life before the opera house, he'll revert closer to how he is in the book and the start of Act 2. He's going to be moody, cordial only if needed, and withdrawn. He'll also be pranking the city via a "Siren's voice" prank in which he'll be singing anonymously over the network to whoever wants to follow his voice. Whoever does will, at the least, get a bucket of water splashed onto them. (Swerving from the book where he did the same thing but just chose to drown people who came into his underground lake). He'll be keeping his memories of RC for the event, which should add to the fun.

[fearsnothing]

Alice is so not going to enjoy meeting another Alice who's all prim and proper. Inb4 check out the contrast in personalities?

But in the second half of the event they can be bitty kids exploring all around together!

also ERIK DO NOT DARE SHE WILL SLAM THAT BUCKET RIGHT BACK IN YOUR FACE

Margaretha will be a bitty 11-year old acolyte through all of the event, hopefully taking care of Ibuki for at least some time, if any of them want to check up on her!

[edwardian_adventuress]

Okay, now that I'm no longer out of town, time to plot!

Charley is aging down! Way down! Okay, not too far down, but she'll be five years old again.

Also, she's losing her memory, so not only is she five, to her it's 1917. WWI is still going on and...she should be at home in her family's country house, not in a strange city without her mama, papa or sisters.

Still, according to canon, she was a rather wild (well, according to the standards of little girl behavior in the day) and independent child, so once someone convinces her that she'll see her family again soon, she'll probably relax and go find a tree to climb in. XD

Now I finally know what I'm doing...

[rule_britannia]

England is going to be aged down with memory loss, because last time this happened he shot someone in the knee with an arrow and I feel like it needs to happen again. Also, he's a brat.

Dirk is also going to be aged down and he's the only one who actually has his own account, because I happened to have it lying around. He's not going to have any of his memories either, so be prepared for a socially inept eleven year old who has never seen or spoken to another living human in his life.

The Dolorosa is going to be aged down, with memories intact. This is not going to stop her from having a heck of a lot of fun. If that pic looks a lot like Porrim Maryam to you.. that's because it is, but it's close enough and all I have to work with for her as a 'teenager'.

Twilight is going to be aged down, also. No memories for her, at least not for the first half of the week, so there are going to be a lot of magical hiccups coming from this little filly. For those familiar with canon she's going to be taken from before Princess Celestia took her on as her student.

Remus, finally, is also going down! Still a werewolf. He might actually be more worried about that than the fact he's stuck in a strange city with a load of other children and apparently a lot of magical creatures too.


Sooooooo... anyone wanna jump in? :v

[victoriantype]

Omd baby Serenity. Would you like to have Erik and Aurora meet? (Apologies in advance for the vinegar he'll probably splash onto her).

[shwarm_after]

LATE TO THE PARTY. Sorry I haven't been around much. Life's pulled a bit of a Fresh Prince on me and flip turned upside down.

Alrighty, so Tony is going to be deaged and a tiny little stupid thing. He's going to be around 10/11 and not have his memories of being here. So he'll still be a genius and a bit of a jerk but slightly less of a jerk than usual. He's also going to be a massive Captain America Fanboy, so there's that. He's also going to be ridiculously curious if anybody has any tech better than than what you get in the early 80's.

He might be a little nicer than usual so there might be a chance at positive cr with this guy. Holy crap.

Also potentially blowing up things? Maybe.

THERE'S ALSO THE BEGINNINGS OF DADDY ISSUES HERE BUT LIKE. I don't think there's reason to bring those up unless someone finds a reason. Stark Men are made of iron /sob

PLOT HERE, BROS.

YES PLOTTING

[flyfishing]

Also late to the party! Got distracted by other things. xD

ANYWAY, let's see here... Fly will be aged up to his late teenage years, somewhere between 18 and 19. Since he's so new, he will not have any memory loss.

For those who had their characters aged down to children/infants, Fly is a good caretaker to turn to. Though he may be confused and overwhelmed at first depending on how many kids he, more or less fosters.

For the characters who are aged up around his age who may... Crush on him (pls do ;V), he's still got the brain of a 13 year old so he'll be clueless (and uncomfortable) to flirting BUT it'd be fun to see what would happen between him and someone who is a bit more blunt about it.
To avoid really awkward situations in the future, I wouldn't recommend flirting with him if your (adult) character has been aged down. They can become friends with him though! ... Or ENEMIES. -eyebrow wiggle-

UhhMMM... I don't know THROW IDEAS AT ME. We can plot together!

If you wanna know what this dork looks like as a 18-19 year old (at least as far as my headcanons go), cliiiiick these:
1, 2, 3, 4

[snakesroarquietly]

Also late to the party...

For the first half of the event, Regulus is going to be 11 years old and an ickle little 1st year Slytherin and very unamused that there are other icky Gryffindorks around but none of his cousins or his mummy or big brother or Kreacher SO MUCH UPSET!

He is back to believing that Muggles have cooties. So much for progress... Have fun with that.

For the second half of the event, he might be aged up with RC memories, though I still haven't decided what I want to do with that exactly. So I might just keep him tiny for the entire event.