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[1] overview [2] new players and characters [3] plotline // network // rapture [4] plotline // network // mer [5] plotline // everything else [1] overview pinkgothic finished Planetshine and then there was Rapture, and for a long time she lived in the blissful void of not caring to write a newsletter. Then came Mer and it occurred to her that it's probably a good idea to collect the gaggle of information the characters have been confronted with in one place other than the encyclopaedia. And for some reason she thought it a good idea to do this all in third person, too. This is also going to be the world's least chronologically ordered newsletter and quite possibly the most rushed one. [2] new players and characters Well, will you look at that, we have characters. Paul Greyhound is the new character of Kor's make a profile for Cami from the Zombie Apocalypse sim, the moment it was clear that the Puppet is actually autonomous and not simbound as previously imagined. Cali is a new player outright, who's brought in Israel as her currently only character, a curious, brightly cheerful Osprey of ambiguous Citizen/Puppet status. Also signed up on the site is Jenn with the character Winnia Curtis, but unfortunately she vanished again after having lurked in #dataclaw for three days. At least I don't recall seeing her on since late on the 19th, anyway. [3] plotline // network // rapture Planetshine ended as, born of the efforts of Project Escher, knowledge of how to seal jump nodes came about and was put to use. Helios Cassiopeia and Avani Eridani were lost, but the Rain could be stopped from reaching the other systems. The solution, while perhaps feeling a bit like a loss rather than triumph, ended the sim and dumped all Citizens in it into Rapture [#195]. In Rapture the plane they show up in is semi-obviously hijacked and guided down to the platform in the ocean it was intended to land at. After filling out immigration forms, they're filed into apartments by a man called Leonard Spigots. A few days later, Miridia stumbles across the group, an unusually smooth transition bringing her from an MMORPG she plays into the Wildcard network, where her brother Mandalore also happens to be (though she doesn't know it initially) [#197]. She's initially kept separate of the other Citizens by chance, but that's soon rectified. Another Citizen is later granted a considerably less pleasant entry, materialising amidst a brawl Lenny only ends up prying him to safety out of by chance: Paul Greyhound. [#200] Dumped into the network by Nechku after she caught him snooping around (he's been investigating the network quite fervently), he's fiercely bitter at his entrapment [#201], but his outlook also drives him to try and crack the simulation puzzle, playing his 'role' straight [#203]. Unfortunately, his poking around attracts Leonard's attention the wrong way as Paul severely underestimates the vitriol the two political camps have for each other [#204, #208, #209]. Meanwhile, Dread hears about [#205] and subsequently pursues his dumbly consensual 'new toy', Elizabeth. After an ordeal involving Frederick in fringes, Elizabeth is released, only to timidly head to Sethiss after temporarily falling out with Frederick, hoping to sleep on her couch [#206]. While it only takes until the next morning for the best-friends-forevers to lovingly reunite, they maintain their physical distance out of practical Dread considerations, and so Elizabeth stays with Sethiss [#210]. A final addition to the Citizen's team (though at this point Paul has been absent a dangerously long time, written off by some Citizens as presumably dead for reasons they cannot grasp but are wary of) is then Israel, who's entered the network a while ago and refers to CR-3X as 'Pappa', evidently on amicable terms with him. She's convinced she's a Puppet, but everyone else apparently has their doubts (including 'Pappa', which is what tips most of them off) [#213]. Unfortunately, no progress is made. Instead, as Israel returns to the apartment block with Frederick (who was the first to meet her in the city outskirts), they're caught in an alarm along with all the others: Apparently a spy is presumed within the building. Israel's unannounced appearance nearly gets her in trouble, but fortunately the Puppets of the sim have low attention spans [#214]. While everyone is locked up in a crowd prison cell, Israel takes a liking to speaking to Lenny, though and explains the nature of Puppets to him, trying to helpfully make it clear to him what his purpose in the world at large may be [#215]. This makes Leonard plan to follow the Citizens to the next world to escape his boss, Frank Fontaine [#216]. He busts the Citizens out of their cell soon after, and after rescuing Paul (and revealing that he's been keeping him and torturing him, though is apparently sorry about it) and hurrying to the surface in one of the bathyspheres, the simulation fades out of existence, to everyone's collective chagrin not leaving Lenny behind as was expected of a shallow simbound Puppet [#217]. The Magical Power Of Hope? [4] plotline // network // mer The end of Rapture (for the Leonard camp of Citizens) spills everyone into Mer, where they, ironically, find themselves partly jailed. The unjailed half proceeds to plot helping the jailed half out, while within Leonard's fate is discussed now that he's come along, with unusual vehemence and aggression. Across all that, two jailed NPCs make themselves known as Azur and Sawdust, former a human, latter a severely slender, griffin-like creature. As Azur tells them where to find the key to the jails but requests to be left there, he also requests they please give him a trinket openly lying on the table, clearly nervous about it. It gets the Citizens predictably musing, somewhat unusually thinking aloud, much to Azur's disorientation; and after a while, they decided that rather than bring the trinket to Azur, they'd rather bring Azur to the trinket, and despite his protests break him out [#217]. In the aftermath, things escalate awkwardly, and before the NPCs can adequately object, a ship has been stolen and they've left the port. Leonard is stuffed into a room serving as a make-shift jail cell and guarded by Adrethyrian [#223]. That leaves Azur, Sawdust and Firfrey to get acquainted with their new travel companions. With Azur having told them a little about the quest, the Dark Water that plagues the planet and how the Treasures of Rule supposedly might cure it according to legend, and that the trinket, the Compass of Rule, will help him find it, he still finds himself sharing deeper aspects (such as the benefits and horrors of Dark Water to Israel [#220]) - and occasionally getting them shared, such as Sirena informing him that she is Actually Dead [TM], which unnerves him slightly [#218]. Firfrey meanwhile explains the bigger picture to Corinthian, responding to best of her abilities to his questions [#237]. Sethiss meanwhile finds herself unnerved by her willingness to consider Leonard's life distinctly inferior [interlude 'Changes']. Dread takes it upon himself to talk to her about it, trying to make her confront the issue, encouraging her to speak to Leonard [#230], which she then does, though quickly considers a waste of her time [#232]. Israel's curiosity knows no bounds. She speaks to whomever she can get her proverbial paws on, bonding with Frederick, as well as notably talking to MekkaByte about the actual nature of Citizens [#219]. The most curious thing to happen to her, though, is when Dread finds her, proving by proxy that she's a Citizen (though since she hasn't told anyone else about it, no one knows) - and what he does find surprisingly disturbs him greatly [#233]. Azur's quest for the Treasures of Rule progresses nicely. Well, no. 'Nicely' is not really descriptive. It progresses, though. The first Treasure is reasonably simply retrieved by sending a few fliers out to where the Compass points, which is into the churning nautical death trap that is the Dragon's Maw [#224]. The second Treasure leads them to a Dark Water destroyed Andorus, Azur's home island that he seems entirely in two minds about now that it's effectively gone [#228]. Seeking the Treasure leads them into the Dark Water flooded caverns below Andorus, and they find it stuck in the root of the Hometree, which it was partly preserving from the Dark Water. In running from the world around them subsequently coming apart, they find out that the Treasures burn Dark Water, making it let go of its prey [#231]. Having witnessed some stray magic from Azur that he mistook for an electrical jolt, something Leonard had done to him back when he was in the group prison cell in Rapture, Mandalore lividly attacks Azur once they're back on the boat, demanding to know what his business is, and finding out interesting things. Apparently, Azur is an ecomancer who takes his power from Dark Water rather than soil or wind, which only prompts an angry Mandalore to ask why they are really seeking these supposedly Dark Water destroyed Treasures. Azur frantically tries to explain his sincerity, and is finally let off the hook [#234]. Sirena visits Azur a few days later after the news of the assault reaches her and apologises for Mandalore's behaviour, but it seems Azur is already dealing with it quietly, citing Mandalore's usefulness as a captain at his navigational instruction, and not wishing to stress that bond further [#235]. The conversation sidetracks and he ends up explaining the medical properties of Dark Water to Sirena, namely that it's nature's most effective pain killer, a trait he's hoping to preserve even in burnt Dark Water, but seems not to quite come to fruition. The issue of Leonard also persists. While he's fed and given water, he's not given much else. Paul, deliberately allowing himself a bottomless loathing for the Puppet, visits him to ask about whether Lenny was manipulated by Nechku, but the Puppet cannot confirm - which puts no real dent into Paul's theory, but also doesn't matter as far as Leonard's fate is concerned, as Paul reveals [#236]. Sethiss, Frederick, Paul and Teiresia then discuss the matter - and decide that Leonard should die [#239]. After assessing their situation to be a bit short on rations and considering collecting rain water, learning to fish at Israel's instruction and collecting fruit from uninhabited islands to avoid hitting a port with their stolen vessel [#238], the Citizens follow the lead of the third Treasure, which leads them to Nado, much to Azur's infinite chagrin, who dissolves in panic and locks himself into the room with Leonard, instructing the others not to mention him to the inhabitants [session in progress]. [5] plotline // everything else Note: The following paragraphs pertain to sessions that were forward-dated by about two-thirds of a year. You can treat them as accurate for the timespan from 12 OCT 2011 to 04 DEC 2011. ...ending the sim and dumping the group into Rapture (albeit not into Lenny's camp) [#207]. To everyone's surprise, chiefly her own, Cami has come along, fiercely disoriented by the unexpected change. Stuff in Demona's life as well as in Jaesan/Jaenelle's also happens, though I'd rather Kor recap it as I'm marginally out of the loop. Suffice to say, former involved fake-eloping [#196] to Las Vegas [#211] and an inevitable drunk Elvis marriage [#212] - and latter the bumpy road between two lovers trying to undo a break-up: Much alcohol [#221], post-firing attempts to soothe [#222] and a movie night (where Marcus makes an appearance) [#225] seem to initially smooth things over, until Jaenelle reveals that she's not only genderqueer (as previously revealed), but also a Puppet [#226]. It's too much for Elizabeth, and they effectively break up again. Marcus, partially by intent and partially by accident, ends up involving himself hoping to patch things up between the two again after calling Jaenelle since s/he hasn't shown up to work for a while [#227]. Convincing Elizabeth that Jaenelle was not created to spy on her, or that virtual reality has as much a right to be called 'reality' as the world of flesh and blood turns out to be a herculean task, however [#229]. Despite the rushed brevity of that recap, by the way, hear me: I strongly recommend reading the Jaesan/Jaenelle plot, it is one of the best things happening in Wildcard! It's an absolute psychological and philosophical treat. Big thanks to Kor and Kaelas for coming up with it! |