Thread

Thread is a surrealistic simulation hosted on CR-3X. It has a custom avatar rule:

Avatar Rule

Picture that inspired Thread.

Every Citizen is a plushie version of their usual avatar. Sizes are adjusted to be roughly comparable - so Liska's life-sized dragonfly avatar would turn to a plushie about as large as Sethiss's monitor lizard avatar.

Avatar abilities are reduced to basics. Flight is about the only special ability that will remain, though at much greater effort than in other simulations.

Benefits

Pain-free existence. At most, plushies can feel discomfort. Warning: There is no limit on the degree of discomfort, do not underestimate the potential effects of this. Log #106 is a good indicator of how potent this can be.
No respiratory system. Don't have to breathe!
No circulatory system. In other words, plushies are fairly unbothered by stabbings (short of distress), since they have no blood to lose.

Note that the lack of respiratory and circulatory system does not mean that the plushies cannot 'feel their heart hammering in their chest', gasp, sigh, or otherwise make a breathing noise, nor that the subconscious urge to 'breathe' is non-existent. For a Citizen, it's easier to imagine themselves simply capable of breathing all substances (submerged into water, anyone?) and otherwise in a normal biological avatar, just without the nasty effect of bleeding all over the place when cut.

Handicaps

Movement is a bit more sluggish than usual.
Jumping is practically impossible (hops are pathetic little things).
No sharp bits (claws, teeth, et cetera), must be compensated for with items / weapons, which in turn are added baggage.
Depending on filling (e.g. beanie rather than stuffing), innards may be pretty damn easy to lose out of a wound, requiring meticulous outside care and help to fix.

Plushie 'anatomy'

As determined by Jonathan in Log #106, every plushie contains a locus taking the form of an amber-coloured gem filled with a lazily swirling glow. From the locus, lines of control like an eccentic puppeteer's strings run out to the limbs, essentially giving a plushie who's locus is removed the sense (before winking out) that their skeletal structure is being torn from them.

The locus contains not only life-giving powers (which is obvious given that the plushies lose their animation when it is removed), but the personality of the Citizen who's plushie-avatar it came from. It can be transferred from plushie to plushie and to similar items, but loses more of its control the more an item deviates from the plushie concept. Jonathan at one point tried to insert Adrian's locus into a glass/metal giraffe, but had only limited success, and the event has etched itself into Adrian's memory as a blurred smear of a dream.

Description

The world of Thread seems quite comparable with the real world - to the point where, were it not for the plushie avatars being a dead give-away, one might be fooled into thinking it a shred of offline.

The majority of Thread takes place in the house of Jonathan, a magician aiding the linked in Citizens in their supposed quest to return to their true bodies.

NPCs

Jess

See also: Jess' session history

Jess is an employee at the toy store the plushies work in. Her attitude toward the animated plushies is entirely practical - certainly full of surprise, but given their negligible size, at no point afraid of them.

Since the world is very much akin to the offline one, magic is essentially unheard of, though, and Jess is very concerned about the source of the animating force behind the plushies.

Her interaction with the Citizens is largely focussed on getting them to a safe place (e.g. her home) and finding someone that's more likely to help them. Since she only knows of a New Age store co-run by a friend, however, that's not the most trivial task.

Warning: Jess also owns a cat, which just so happens to be completely fascinated in feline ways with the animated plushies.

Jess learnt to lock the cat into a separate room while letting the plushies out to move at will, though.

Jonathan

See also: Jonathan's session history

Jonathan is a magic enthusiast with an eccentric personality. He genuinely wants to help the Citizens, but frequently takes their inability to feel pain in their plushie forms as an excuse to nudge his explorative experiments slightly... south of ethical.

Nonetheless, he is firmly an ally - and without a doubt the Citizens' best chance at getting out of the simulation in a ten-thousand mile radius.

Spirit

...

People

No one has entered the network via Thread.

Name knowledge

Thread's name is not known to any Citizen.

Node

The Citizens entered Thread through Darkscape and exited into Planetshine.

Activity

Newsletters and recaps

Sessions

main group's first visit category: #097, #098, #099, #100, #101, #104, #106, #109, #111, #112, #113, #114, #115, #117, #124, #125 and #130

Interludes

Debates

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