A Hit on All Sixes: Details and Plotting

[rubycitymods]

Event Details:
Stage One: January 20 - 22nd:

The morning of January 20th will dawn like any other - or at least, so it will seem to the once again bewitched citizens of Ruby City. The year is 1921, the first World War has just ended, and everything seems on the rise. For the first three days of the event, nothing could be better, and your characters are encouraged to take advantage of the setting! Dancing, drinking (although Prohibition is in full effect, so do so carefully!), indulging in the arts or simply enjoying life in the busy city - all of it’s encouraged.

Stage Two: January 22nd, evening:

On January 22nd, the speakeasy Black Rabbit (in truth, Hotel Gaia transformed) is having a blowout bash. It's the day before the anniversary of when Prohibition was passed, and what better way to celebrate than with wine, women and song? Located southwest of the city center, the Black Rabbit is the place to be tonight. There's going to be all kinds of revelry, and you'd be a fool to miss it.

The general population aren't the only ones in attendance. At two AM, the police force are going to have a raid. Anyone and everyone in attendance will be arrested, on the general principle they shouldn't have been there anyway, and the commissioner isn't inclined to be kind. Any characters affiliated with the police will be encouraged to use excessive force, and it seems some of their NPC counterparts certainly are. Chaos and panic fill the air, and there's certainly the possibility of your character getting hurt, arrested, or otherwise inconvenienced.

Stage Three: January 23rd - 25th:

And now, the aftermath. Whether locked in prison, terribly injured, having made a getaway or simply guilty over their actions, the city is still reeling from the events of the 22nd. Police raids are no joke, and this one was particularly nasty: very few people escaped the club without any harm. In the wake of the raid, the city is noticeably on edge: the gangs are furious and ready to take revenge, the police are uncertain and covering for it by cracking down hard, and the citizens are caught awfully in the middle. There’s tension in the air, keeping everyone on edge, and it’s likely best if your character just keeps their head down . . .

Role sign-ups: Both the police and the gangs will have role sign-ups! Police slots are limited, but the gang sign-ups are merely there for everyone to coordinate who knows whom and how.

Police: There are five free slots open for police characters! As noted above, police will be in direct conflict with the rest of the citizens of Ruby City, and come the morning of the 23rd, will be forced to confront their actions one way or another.

Gangs: No city is complete without them! There are two rival gangs in Ruby City, commonly known simply by the area of the city they control: East and West. Which is your character a part of? What role do they play there? It's likely both gangs have a hand in supplying the drugs and alcohol for the upcoming event.

Socialites: Young, rich and carefree, most aristocrats and socialites were busy throwing costume parties, freely indulging their every whim, and slumming it downtown as they danced and drank the night away. Everyone knows everyone in this social scene, and it’s likely your families have a history going back ages.

Artists: The Jazz Age was a time for artists of all kinds of flourish. Musicians, dancers, painters, fashion designers . . . all were welcome to try their hand at the new deco style sweeping the nation.

Veterans: World War One is over, but that doesn't mean the aftermath isn't still felt. Those few who made it back are still reeling in shock, stunned by the amount of massacre they witnessed. Whether they throw themselves into the party scene or desperately try to escape it, there's no doubt their actions are fueled by the newfound shell shock.

Other: Of course, people fit into more roles than just these. If you can think of something else your character might be that fits in the setting, go wild!

Technology: New technologies are on the rise, and for the first time, seem affordable and accessible.

Cars: Notably, cars are here for the first time in Ruby City! While your characters won't be able to truly use these cars, they're zipping through the streets. They're hallucinations, and won't remain after this week.

Radio: The radio is all the rage. Each household now has a radio, always cheerfully pumping out tunes.

Movies: A new film is being streamed once a night over at the theater, courtesy of Jean-Pierre Polnareff.

Remember: for the event, Ruby City has been transformed into a proper populated city, teeming with millions. NPCs are there for you to use! In addition, for the duration of this event, we encourage you to fully get in the spirit of the times. Internal narration was a staple of the noir literature of the time, and so we would like to encourage players to use a first-person narration in their tags!

Some helpful links for inspiration:

Culture of the Roaring 20s

Prohibition

1920s Fashion

1920s Music

Comments

QUESTIONS

[rubycitymods]

[kidjoy]

Will the radios stay after the event?

ROLE SIGN-UPS

[rubycitymods]

Remember: the only role with limited space is the police, with the slots being first-come first-serve!

Re: ROLE SIGN-UPS

[in_the_book]

I think Harry ought to slide right into the private detective role. Just turn up the noir factor to 11.

[digiorno]

Giorno is gonna be a gangster, natch, in the West Side. Abigail will be a private detective, and Lucy is a socialite.

[risorto]

bruno is a gangster in the west side.
rohan is in an apprenticeship for fashion design.
elena is a journalist.

[arken7]

Julian will be a West Side Gang boy [against his actual house location, but nobody knows he lives there], with a knack for shooting his Colt 1911 (to replace his slightly OP revolver) and an inconspicuous, youthful façade to his street-smart sharp-witted personality.

[bifroster]

Jane is totally going to be an archaeologist/scientist because screw gender roles!

Re: ROLE SIGN-UPS

[kaylinneya]

Kaylin will be a cop if there is still room for her, please! Considering all she's wanted to do since she first arrived in RC was find the law and enforce it... and the fact that she can drink like a fish, this will be all sorts of odd and fun for her!

Nadeshiko and Nagihiko should be socialites, I think. As should Ivy and Grey.

Aqua as a Veteran, because... yeah. She kind of is.

Skuld and Amelia, as much as neither will admit it, are both kids and will probably be sitting this one out, more or less. Skuld will probably be dismantling every radio she can get her grubby little hands on for parts. Amelia might follow some of the artists around....

[raptorcious]

i have mod approval for diego to be mayor of ruby city!

PLOTTING

[rubycitymods]

the mint gang

[heirdisqualification]

togami, in his usual togami-form, is going to be up to something. that Something is a collection of extremely illegal racketeering operations (as opposed to, you know, the legal racketeering operations), including some very faulty bookkeeping. (the joke being that he runs a bookstore in normal ruby city.) he's not very fond of organized crime, though. additionally: people can interact with his sister slash bodyguard slash partner in crime, shinobu, who is generally Done with byakuya's shit.

gyro is going to have his own private detective business! or, rather, it's not his own, it's his family's, but he does most of the work and takes in most of the money. while his father is pretty hellbent on taking cases that he knows are solvable, gyro is fond of real actual Mysteries, like in the books. if anyone has a Mystery they need solving, i'll have a log up for the zeppeli investigations agency during the event :^)

carlos is...around, but idt i'll be doing as much with him this event! if anyone wants him anywhere lmk, though. he's trying to be an actor. he's not very good.

Re: the mint gang

[serenesuccessor]

Picks up piggy bank.

Drops on Gyro's desk.

Help.

PLOT: MUMMY CURSE

[utulien_aure]

The 1920s saw a giant Ancient Egypt craze after Howard Carter opened Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. It also saw a massive revival in stories of the Cursed Egyptian Tomb, particularly as some members of Carter's team died within a few years of the tomb's opening.

And I mean, hey, who doesn't want their eyeballs bitten off by a pissed off dead guy?

What I'm thinking is that a team of archaeologists have stolen brought artifacts from a recently opened tomb to be exhibited by the institution that sponsored the dig, culminating in some kind of Opening Night Exhibition Party for everyone in town. But then accidents start happening to the archaeologists, as well as to the people around them or near the items, and they get progressively worse and worse as time goes on.

Anyone interested?

crystal's crew

[anadiplosis]

bruno is a little more up in the air about the other two right now because most stuff will be dependent upon other people. what i can say at this point tho as far as background is that he's the son of immigrants, and so did not grow up with much money + dealt with the anti-Italian sentiment. his father died when bruno was fairly young, so bruno took the streets to get money and take care of his mother. thus he was already involved in the gang (which side is tbd for now!) by the time the war rolled around and so did not participate/enlist. his mother remarried a handful of years ago now, but maintains a close relationship with bruno. bruno's also in a relationship of his own with fellow gangster, jean-pierre polnareff. as far as his participation in the gang is concerned, regardless of where his rank will fall and what the structure is gonna be like, bruno gives back a lot to the community (read: donating to charity, spending time to look after the elderly, etc.) and is someone that people generally feel comfortable with coming to when they have a problem. sometimes that involves murder. feel free to base pre-existing CR with what's here already! i'll update with another comment when i have a few more specifics for him on the gang end of things + the party.

elena is going to be a journalist. while she's stuck primarily writing on fashion and more social type things because sexism sucks, she is highly interested in breaking into more "masculine" topics. thus, she's low-key trying to dig up dirt in whatever way she can about the socialites of the city. she's not overly successful in that her name should necessarily mean anything to anyone, but if there's anyone who might follow her columns, it's chill for them to recognize her name. while i've talked with alex to have her primarily interested in meridiana's dealio, i am 100% open to her pursuing multiple avenues. elena is also a little bit of a small fish in a big pond because she comes from a smaller town. (her brother, although younger, did not particularly like her being on her own, but she's doing just fine tysvm.) however, she's been in the city for a little over year, and has gotten used to most of the hard knocks. she doesn't particularly have an interest in organized crime because she's not stupid and knows that the tensions around this city are probably at a boiling point. the last thing she wants to be is caught in the middle of that. other potential cr may be coworkers, fellow women in "male" occupations, friends from back home, people she's interviewed, neighbors, former or current lover(s), etc.! i don't think she will be arrested, but she'll certainly get a little banged up in the process of the raid.

rohan is an immigrant, and is incredibly frustrated that he's been unable to return home yet as being in the city was meant to be a temporary way of enhancing his abilities in fashion design to match what's in vogue with the youths back home (read: western fashion/culture). however, he generally has a low opinion of the city and its inhabitants at this point because he's been living in abject poverty the majority of the time + the anti-Asian immigrant attitude of the era. he's recently come into having a benefactor (ros) that's made his living situation a little more tolerable, but he'd still rather finish this nonsense, stop having to work odd jobs, and get back home. other potential cr includes neighbors, people he's worked on projects for (not necessarily leading it himself, but he's done measurements, sewn things, etc.), neighbors, the closest approximation to a friend he can have, etc. he will not be attending the shindig unless someone drags him kicking and screaming (which i'm not opposed to, but it'll be hard to convince him). he is available for helping people get out tho if you can deal with him being an ass about it.

ALEX AND CO.

[occultigen]

Okay, so! I really only have plans for Meridiana and Kurama at this point, with some vague stuff relating to Jotaro that's contingent on other people, but here's what we're looking at:

MERIDIANA:

So! Meridiana's life is going to be a bit of a soap opera for this AU, beginning with: she is going to be Giorno's half-sister as related through their mother! Unfortunately, in keeping with some of the attitudes of the times, her mom is Super Religious and also Pretty Socially Conservative™, which is what led to a falling-out that ended up dividing the family. Meridiana ended up not bailing on her mother after that falling-out, however, and consequently she's been bearing the brunt of her mother's overprotective tendencies ever since, including but not limited to: an arranged marriage with an NPC, Guilford Rotterdale, who is here in the city doing some pre-campaigning because he's going to be announcing a run for governor soon! So basically Meridiana exists to be a lovely and well-behaved showpiece to make her statesman fiancé look good for the voters.

Of course, her public life and her private life are two very different things, and when she's not in the public eye, she's going to be having a Whirlwind Forbidden Romance™ with Dave and reviving connections with the mafia and whatnot, and probably getting caught in the raid and going to jail, where she may potentially shiv somebody.

So basically she's a socialite by day, girl trapped in an inescapable unwanted marriage situation by night. Basically, I'd like to have her be a local celebrity/public figure of sorts, for anybody interested in weaving their stories in with that!

KURAMA:

Kurama, I won't be doing quite as intricate of a run with, but he will still be a thief who's come to town to steal some shit, and after a brief association with Ros in which he almost certainly tries to steal some of her family jewels, he is going to be planning a bank heist...which will take place during the big raid on the prohibition party, so thanks for the cover, all you people who are going to jail? 8D

JOTARO:

Jotaro is still pretty vague but I've been toying with the idea that he might be involved with organized crime in some fashion — more solid details once I have them!

REIMI:

And just to round things out...I actually have no real plans for Reimi, but if you potentially want her for something or have an idea that might be interesting to have her involved with, let me know!

anne's dudes....

[digiorno]

lucy!! is a socialite, the oldest daughter of the absurdly wealthy pendleton family. or at least they used to be absurdly wealthy . . . recent mob debts led lucy's father to try to pawn her off to the mafia in an attempt to appease them, and things got, you know, kind of complicated when lucy thought that was a garbage idea and then in A Melee gyro killed her dad. the state of things currently is that lucy is a young socialite who doesn't talk about her recent mysterious loss and who is essentially running the pendleton household all on her own. that debt is still following her family though. yikes.

abigail!! more or less ran away from her home in the midwest to pursue: 1) a life in The Big City; 2) more education, eventually, but in the meantime: 3) a job as a private eye! she has started this business in the last couple of years, and while she has legitimately no credentials she does all right as a result of a willingness to take on the weirdest and most grisly cases. she's a little morbid, but focused as hell and has a pretty good solve rate. also worth noting: in order to get business, her agency is under a man's name. the jacob lecter detective agency...... nice. sometimes she pretends to be "jacob lecter" and sometimes she's just herself. she's complicated like that. she hangs out at the speakeasy a lot! not mingling, just people watching. she's weird.

giorno!! is meridiana's half brother who was fairly recently ousted from well-to-do society for telling their mom to eat shit and stop being an asshole. (she did not listen to him.) he's turned to a Life Of Crime in the west side mob in order to build up a position of power for himself so that someday he can remove meridiana from their bullshit family situation and once again request that their mother EAT SHIT AND STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE.

kit's gang

[originallutece]

Rosalind Lutece will be married to an as-yet unnamed NPC, has a kid, and does science on the downlow. Her patents have recently gotten stolen by the NPC Jeremiah Fink, and early in the event Kurama is going to help her steal them back. She'll also be using her husband's money to be funding a few artists, especially those who might have a hard time securing funding otherwise.

Jean-Pierre Polnareff: will be a longtime member of the western gang, involved heavily in the general crime scene, as well as general community protection. He and his boyfriend Bruno work and live together, and have a tendency to let various down on their luck youths stay for a few weeks while they get back on their feet. Polnareff also runs the movie theater, and it's fairly well known if you've got a problem you need solved with illegal means, it's a pretty safe bet to go talk to the owner and he'll help you out. Maybe with murder! Maybe with some illegal money! Who can say? He'll be arrested on the 22nd, and hopefully bailed out by the 23rd or 24th.

Diarmuid & Spiral Speakeasy/Songhouse

[oathshackledbird]

Diarmuid: For the duration, Diarmuid is going to be a veteran. Called a hero by some of his higher ups, Diarmuid tends to scoff at the title since all he ever came away with for being so successful was PTSD and far too many memories of seeing his fellows (more than once the entire squad) dead on the ground when he managed to survive and complete their objective. Once he came back home, he opened Spiral as a Songhouse to give people looking for musical (or acting) careers a place to begin. It is also a way to distract himself from his war memories with one of the great loves in his live. With no visible injuries from the war and a successful business, he's looked at as a model citizan. What more could one ask for?

However, just like he hides the effects of his PTSD, he also hides the fact that he's never forgotten his Irish heritage, and they are going to pry one of the other loves of his life from his cold, dead fingers. When the music doesn't drive away the memories of the war, the liquor does.

Spiral Speakeasy Songhouse: Hidden behind the facade of music and creativity, Diarmuid runs a speakeasy. Most of Spiral is an open room where acts can come to preform and the audience can buy perfectly legal drinks and food to enjoy during the performances. There are even side rooms for private gatherings if one would rather a smaller stage and close friends. A couple of the rooms are always closed, 'rented' only to those who know the proper 'booking' password to get them in. Here is where the good, and highly illegal stuff is found.

In keeping with Spiral's neutral ground role in the 'normal' world, in the event, the Songhouse/Speakeasy has become known as the same thing. Anyone is welcome, no matter gang affiliation etc. However, the moment someone causes trouble or if word gets to Diarmuid that one of the patrons has been harassed because of information gleaned at Spiral, they are going to find out exactly what skills allowed him to survive the war as well as he did.

I am leaning toward Diarmuid being at the event party and having the raid trigger his PTSD which leads to him getting hurt, but managing to escape thanks to those battle skills.

I am also thinking pretty hard about is having an open log for things to go down at Spiral be it meetings, performances, or people just causing trouble. If you are interested, let me know! :-D

Cat's bunch

[airshipcaptain]

Afonso is a veteran who - while never exactly a talkative sort - has seemingly withdrawn more into himself since he was discharged after being injured in battle. Somehow he seems to have ended up staying at the Spiral Speakeasy Songhouse, helping Diarmuid out where he can and getting drunk just about every night in his own attempt to deal with nightmares. Though how he's ended up there is unclear.

He will NOT be at the event party, however afterward he will be at Spiral patching up and taking care of anyone who has come by. He's gonna try real hard to pull himself together and keep others safe.

Fun Ghoul is going to be a bootlegger. He has no gang affiliations, willing to sell to anyone, anywhere. Ghoul likes to think that his crew are the best smugglers in all of Ruby City, and takes a lot of pride in the fact that they seem to be doing pretty well in the business. Outside of the smuggling business he's the son of an immigrant family who ran away from home at a young age and has formed a new family with his crew. He's never been one to shy away from telling the police to suck it, so he already has a few misdemeanors. He'll be partying it up on the 22nd and getting beat up and arrest afterwards. Someone bail/break his sorry butt out of jail.

Naomi is the daughter of a middle-class family originally from a small town outside of the city but came to the city with her family when her father was given a job opportunity. She likes to think of herself as a singer, though she's still learning, and more recently an investigator.

This is because of the recent disappearance of her older brother - Kou. As the police seem to be more preoccupied with other things than one missing teenager Naomi has taken it upon herself to start looking into her brothers' disappearance. So during the course of the event she'll be seeking out people who might be witnesses even though it's pretty clear that her brother just went poof. Could he have been in a gang? Or pissed off the wrong person? Or just ran away? The world may never know.

She'll a bit roughed at the raid. Since she'll be too scared to actually go home she might be hiding out in various places like some bushes or between buildings.

Let's plot up some fun stuff!

Dave! Because. Dave is all I have here.

[callbacks]

Dave Strider is one half of the Strider Brothers' aspiring animation studio, currently an indie thing running out of someone's back office. They don't really have any money yet. They're about ready to release their first film which is VERY EXCITING, HOT DAMN. Jean-Pierre Polnareff will be premiering it...sometime. I don't know, I'm sick.

Dave is also a war veteran; he lied about his age to get to the front, lived through everyone around him dying in the trenches, and then caught the flu (pandemics get bad during wars) and didn't see battle for the rest of the war. He's a little hecked up! He won't admit it! Whee!

He's also madly in love with young socialite Meridiana Everett, soon to be Meridiana Rotterdale unless someone takes DRASTIC ACTION.

I am not sure about party plans because I don't think I want to get Dave arrested. If someone wants to get him out of there--which he won't be happy to do, since Meridiana will be there--I'm here to hash out details.

The Girl

[kidjoy]

The Girl will be assisting the other Killjoys with their bootlegging business as little lookout/miniature distraction. As she's still a child she'll mostly be functioning as a ragamuffin civilian and truant; skipping school, playing stick ball in alleys, making the elderly shake their fists and talk about those 'kids these days', ect. She's part of the lower class, often dresses in boys clothes while working, generally can be found running around with other kids causing mischief and observant folks might notice her trying to steal sweets.

Julian/Julius/Jules/Julio/July

[arken7]

Julian Asher Arken: not a war vet (somehow), but a West Side Gangster with his father's Colt 1911 Commander [mid-length barrel] and a good friend with a lot of people. He's been living in these parts for years, knows the streets like the back of his hand and is a quick-witted calm guy with a more extroverted exterior to him. When he's not making good use of his hand cannon, he's a pianist and singer at Spiral Songhouse, which is also his main method of earning any money.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING PUDDING

[unholey]

Do you have a character who is a detective?? Do you want to solve some mysteries?? Then here is a little mini-plot for you!

Pannacotta Fugo, Panni to people who know him personally, is a very well-known classical concert pianist and grandson of the equally well-known banker and businessman Michele Fugo... who has recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances after the death of his grandmother, Rosa, and on the eve of his grandfather's new bank--Ruby City Trust Company, which has been promoted as being completely safe and protected by the latest in security measures. Pannacotta was supposed to give a concert on the night of the bank's opening, which went on as planned a three months ago despite Rosa's passing just a few days earlier.

While rumors briefly circled that Pannacotta had taken ill like his grandmother, Michele eventually went public with a story that claims his grandson was kidnapped and he believes it's for a ransom. He's hired several detectives to find him and there's a handsome reward for anyone who can bring him safely back home. The truth is that Pannacotta ran away from home after a very nasty falling out with his grandfather and is hiding out with some of his West Side gangster friends, but Michele is trying to save face and get his grandson back before the police find him and Pannacotta spills his connections to the seedier side of the city and the East Side gang.

If you're interested in investigating, let me know! Here are some general facts about Pannacotta and the Fugos that are free for anyone to learn and if you're interested in playing it out, I'd be happy to provide more investigation info for detectives:

• Michele and his household (Rosa and Pannacotta) have been in the city for five years; they're immigrants from Italy. He's spent those five years building up capital and a reputation so he can get some investors/partners for his bank. Back in Italy, he has a son (Pannacotta's father), a daughter-in-law, and two sons, but they honestly don't get talked about much.
• Rosa spoke very poor English and was therefore not out and about very much. Michele claimed she was often ill, but this was only the case the few months leading up to before he died.
• Pannacotta has never attended school in Ruby City, but he's had a plethora of tutors. He's known for being shy, standoffish/cold, and being literally a genius, but doesn't have many personal friends.
• Michele has a reputation of being very respectable, conservative, and traditional. Super squeaky clean. Like, suspiciously squeaky clean.
• Despite said squeaky clean reputation and Pannacotta's purported shyness, really invested detectives will find that a young man matching his description (who pointedly never gave his name to other patrons) has been spotted multiple times fumbling through jazz pieces in various speakeasies. Witnesses will say that when said young man wasn't playing the piano, he spent a lot of time talking with one Giorno Giovanna.
• High society people to talk to: Rosalind was one of his tutors and Lucy is one of the few people who can honestly claim to be his friend.

My plan for the event is to post a log with various prompts for people, so please let me know if you'd like to do something! I'd be more than happy to write a starter. o7

LUPIN'S CREW

[bifroster]

JANE is going to be an archaeologist/scientist, who has decided to screw traditional gender roles. Wearing pants? Yes! Able to hold her whiskey? You bet! Making friends with any and everyone? Of course. She's no snob. Getting into trouble when she is not scandalizing academia with her wild ideas about outer space? What else is a girl to do on a Friday night?

YUUTA is a recent immigrant who has decided to try his luck in a new city world culture etc you get the idea. He's the odd duck of Ruby City, holding onto his traditions and culture while trying to assimilate and carve out a place for himself. Maybe the little girl he has come to call his sister (Amelia) and any new friends he makes can help him with that.