[1] overview
[2] new players and characters
[3] site changes
[4] plotline // wildcard maingroup
[5] plotline // wildcard new zealand group
[6] plotline // offline



[1] overview

Hello, this is your friendly neighbourhood primary gamemaster. Somewhere admidst the bustle of vacation and holidays, the looming release of Tron: Legacy here in Germany, various people getting ill and some people getting surprised by a brick of real life to the face, we have actually managed to get some roleplay in. Expect this to climb steeply in the coming weeks.



[2] new players and characters

Ashdla has gotten around to making her (first?) character, Heather Bonette a/k/a Amithia, who has been introduced into Planetshine - along with Christopher Leordric a/k/a Corinthian, a character who belongs to our newest player, Serice! Welcome!



[3] site changes

I've upgraded our encyclopaedia to the latest mediawiki version. Unfortunately it hasn't entirely played nice and it's quite possibly that parts of it are still broken. If you spot something that isn't working quite right, please let me know!



[4] plotline // wildcard maingroup

In Planetshine, things have been unexciting for most Citizens. Adrethyrian, despite testing the same as the other Citizens, has ended up confined to the infirmary, if fortunately not a prison cell, because his abrupt appearance out of nowhere very much leaves him the least trusted as far as the Wisp is concerned. Frederick had accordingly opted for a job as an assistant assistant medic, simply so he had an excuse to hang out with Adrethyrian, whom he's continually reminded to play along with the rules or risk something like being seen out of the nearest airlock. It's worked to keep things peaceful.

Word has spread that Sethiss has gotten information out of the network through Dread (see #167), though the specifics haven't been shared, and Elizabeth has been acting as a shield at any possibly opportunity to block conversation off Sethiss (unless motioned to allow it) and leave her room to breathe, both in the 'How did you do that?' department and the sheer crushing weight on her shoulders.

Elsewhere in the simulation, two new Citizens appeared, each in different places.

Corinthian had the misfortune of materialising in a mercenary vessel in the research and early terraforming system Epsilon Eridani, promptly getting knocked out, only to get a not-so-nice welcome shackled to the ship's piping and being questioned about his motives and origin, neither of which he could adequately answer within the context of the simulation (obviously). Fortunately, rather than just execute him, he's been labelled insane and carted off in the direction of Helios Cassipeiae after revealing Earth as his home planet [#164].

On the way there, he travelled through Flux Piscii (on the 19th), Ursae Majoris (on the 20th) and ended up what he thought was temporarily stranded in Avani Eridani, while his ride was parked at a space station. The original plan of sending him on a ship en route to Helios failed, however, because he managed to unwittingly get it into the head of a girl he spoke to for company that he's a clone [#166]. Getting nabbed by authorities shortly thereafter revealed the Planetshine necessity of having an ID on you at all times to him. Right now he's in a prison cell on the same station he was just meant to call home for a few hours.

Amithia, meanwhile, ended up on Rin Reticulii, though it's taken two days to actually extract that information. She'd gone as far as to try to access the internet in the tiny settlement she first ended up on, but only found a somewhat immature message left by whoever coded the sim insinuating that such recursion was just utter nonsense [#165]. On the 19th, she was brought to the main settlement, where upon revealing that she's not from the universe the Puppets call their own, she was immediately associated with the main group in the subspace-neighbouring Bhaskar Cygni. The Puppets have negotiated getting her there and to the others, but have kept her to give her a thorough physical first. Of course, that won't yield anything out of the ordinary. She's due for Bhaskar Cygni and The Aspen Wisp in the coming days.



[5] plotline // wildcard new zealand group

Note: The following, struck-out paragraphs pertain to something that was forward-dated by roughly two-thirds of a year, as if this newsletter had spanned 09 AUG 2011 to 13 SEP 2011.
For Zombie Apocalypse, Kor wrote up a recap that I am stealing because she knows her sim better than I do! Note that this retcons the blurb in the last newsletter, if solely for timeline reasons:

"A number of things had delayed the party from setting out on their quest for the mythical human settlement in Daly City. One child had had a fever that proved worrying, another lost her dolly and ran off to go find it (necessitating a 3-day long search), one of the goats injured a limb and there was talk of putting it down before the injury proved to be fairly minor and healed well... then, of course, there was the ever-present question of their dwindling food supply. Travelling south proved to have more food than travelling north, but even less signs of habitation, and there was much bickering between Alex's philosophy of following the food versus Cami's insistance that even that would run out if they couldn't find a safe place to live. One of the little girls tried to help by salvaging and planting a "grow your own tomato" kit, but it soon withered and died under her mismanaged care. And so, eventually, they agreed to stick with the original plan - head north and hope for the best.

Of course, then there was bickering about the route. Even with the new guards, the highway was deemed too risky, and so, the party set out into the relatively mild winter through the hills, trying to keep a low profile. Without a map, this rapidly lead to their becoming hopelessly lost, wandering about hillside, the remnants of some city, and more hillside, before finally discovering their location - a state park. One of the park maps pointed out nearby cities, and they managed to right themselves again, arriving in the outskirts of the city shortly after New Year's.

From there, things merely continued to get worse. They managed to hole up in an abandoned supermarket, one with very few windows; there wasn't much in the way of food, and what there was was mostly expired as the canned goods had been picked clean long ago. Without food, the attitudes of the Puppets grew more and more hopeless and sullen; their shifts on guard duty became longer and longer so that the others could range further and further afield searching for food. Finally, it became clear that the Citizens would have to intervene - not needing food themselves, they could range further from the group without suffering the ill effects of hunger.

The Citizens decided the best hope lay in the center of the city - they'd been skulking around the outskirts, but after all, the hordes of Infected were rather slow and easily overtaken, and they each had superpowers. It should be a simple matter to find the other Survivors, assuming they exist, and beg them for a rescue attempt. Therefore, they muster their courage and head into the belly of the beast."



[6] plotline // offline

As already alluded to in the last newsletter, for Dread things have been marginally unpleasant. Unbeknownst to the people online, as soon as the base detected that he'd had astral contact to two people simultaneously, the right conclusions were drawn and the usual fit was raised, leaving him locked in isolation. Unlike previous recent instances which at most put Dread in there for a solid handful of hours, this lasted one full week despite Gary's pleading efforts. He was only taken out after Gary promised to vouch for him unconditionally. (All this after speaking to Dread [#168] to hear about his side of the story.)

This mellowed Dread slightly and he's honoured Gary's vouch since then - though with Gary's encouragement has restricted that particular rule-adherance to base only (where it can be detected). Since Gary finally got permission to let Dread out of the base occasionally as long as he's with him, that's become a possibility, and was promptly abused during a four day tour, to first check on Tui, then apply another helping of psychic-phoneline, and, on the fourth day, collect the favour Sethiss felt she owed Dread [#169].

Demona, meanwhile, definitely has it better (blurb contributed by Kor because she's awesome like that!):

Thoroughly dissed by Jen, feeling used and rather abruptly discarded, Andrew visits her unexpectedly when she refuses to answer his phone calls. Their fighting reaches new heights as Andrew fights back with uncharacteristic fury; the two soon find themselves having rather angry sex on Jen's couch, and for the first time, she enjoys herself without any sort of BDSM paraphenalia, finding out firsthand the joys of teenage casual sex [#162].

This encounter defines the pacing of the next few weeks; Jen, bored out of her mind and suffering from a lack of creative output thanks to the revocation of her internet privileges, finds herself seeking out fights - and thus, sexual encounters - with Andrew more and more frequently. As a side effect, this leads to their spending more time together in general - and beginning to form an actual friendship. Finally, Jen agrees to let Andrew take photos of her in a variety of costumes and poses as references for upcoming artistic depictions of his "muse" [#170].