[1] overview
[2] new players and characters
[3] plotline // the wildcard network // eclipsed
[4] plotline // the wildcard network // taranis
[5] plotline // offline (aeonis)
[6] plotline summary
[7] cerunnos


[1] overview

As usual, we have extensive plotline summaries, and a summary of the summaries. If you just want the barebone gist of things, skip sections three to five and read the plotline summary.

I'd like to encourage everyone to take a look at 'new players and characters'. Especially new characters are announced mainly so people can take a look at them even before they're roleplayed and perhaps link a character idea of their own to them. Go take a look, you might like what you find!


[2] new players and characters

We have three new players I can honestly say I've never seen before. If they've dropped into #dataclaw, I've unfortunately missed them: Mayeyes52, Talaenn and Brenda1997 are new sign-ups since the last newsletter. If any of you are reading this, pop by occasionally! We don't bite. :) (And, of course, if anyone knows any of these players personally, please let me know. I'd love to welcome them properly.)

New characters have been churned out entirely by established players since the last newsletter: Nemesis with Shamia Sokoll, a South African living in Novosibirsk, intended as a tie-in with Dread's plotline; Cerunnos with Adrethyrian, who is not a new character as much as simply having been upgraded from NPC to player; and myself with Jochen Brandt, intended for introduction in Taranis alongside those due for the next batch.


[3] plotline // the wildcard network // eclipsed

In Eclipsed, the Citizens remained split up: Frederick had chosen to speak to and listen to Adrethyrian (as much as the language barrier permitted) and the others continued their trek up in search of a surface.

All but taking up residence in the Dust library, Frederick tried to find any mythological reference to the creation of sunstones or their preservation and/or resurrection. He found a reference to a culture that claimed to have managed to grow sunstones, living in caverns budding off the Star layer. While investigating, he was visited by Adrethyrian. [#036]

The Citizens, on the other hand, continued up through the cavern system, quickly reaching Sun, which prompted Adrethyrian to appear in frantic attempt to stop them. [#038] Across all that, the dying of Sun's primary sunstone was setting quite an apocalyptic mood. That first encounter in Sun had their new guide, Tathun, fall prey to the Demon God. After a day of digging, constantly harrassed by Adrethyrian whenever he had the energy to manifest himself afresh, but fortunately tallying no further casualties, the group broke through. In a simultaneous fight, Joshua Bergström (Byelobog), creator of the genAesis seed, was slain by Adrethyrian. [#039]

The surface, unfortunately, turned out to be a black desert, cold, due to the planet's sun being locked in an eternal eclipse. (Hai, sim name!) Adrethyrian chased the Citizens to a pyramid, where the group ended up taking shelter in, locking him out.

Irritated, Adrethyrian materialised to Frederick [#040], only to drag him up to the others by means of teleportation, hoping that he'd be able to knock sense into the Citizens.

Ironically, it was Frederick that, after being let into the pyramid (despite initial protests from Adrian and Sable [#041]), activated the sequence that destroyed the (natural or artificial) satellite shielding the planet from the sun's rays, since he could actually partly read the instructions on the contained electronics. This triggered a link out.


[4] plotline // the wildcard network // taranis

The Citizens landed in Taranis, leisurely wandering around a section of forest for a while, before they noticed it kept repeating. To determine it without a doubt, on the 27th of April, the group split up, sending an individual each into four distinct directions, aiming to each walk in a straight line as much as the landscape permitted, until they ended back up with the main group. It was while walking his path that Frederick found Adrethyrian had followed them (cast by the sim into a human avatar), prompting him to get existential. [#042] After a brief fight based on Frederick's immediate hand in the apocalyptic end of Eclipsed, friendship was restored on basis of Frederick arguably being the only link Adrethyrian had back to his culture, and moreso, only friend. Frederick's taken Adrethyrian's last sunstone with him, making the 'Demon God' less immediately vulnerable, but it's also given Frederick the power to force Adrethyrian to behave. They agreed to keep Adrethyrian's whereabouts a secret for now.

Shortly after determining that the forest was indeed recurring, the group stumbled across a fairy ring - which, in this simulation, truly pertains to fairies, which shrunk the Citizens down to a certain size and displaced them into a 'Fae mound', where they were welcomed as guests by the fae population and their king, Taranis. They've been introduced to wish magic, which allows them to imagine most of anything they want, excepting avatar changes, wishes pertaining to the conclusion of the sim, or wishes that would override the wishes of their fae hosts (directly or indirectly). The fae also have given them access to a powerful drug dubbed 'Euphoria' - which really does deserve its name. It's technically a powder, but can be added to any food or drink.

Initial theories about the simulation thenceforth revolved around an impending threat that the fae themselves were not aware of, but that has yet to occur. It's been a peaceful and luxurious life in the Fae mound, though of course not everyone trusts the peace. Frederick initially was simply too overwhelmed by the guilt and grief that haunted him pertaining to the end of Eclipsed that he not only did not accept the fae's generosity, but also was bristly and aggressive toward his fellow Citizens [#043], up until deciding to drown himself in Euphoria [#044]. Willoughby, meanwhile, is easily the main dissenter, mistrusting both the kindness of the fae as well as Euphoria itself, believing it to have the potential to fuck people up quite badly.

Aside from largely - but not artificially - being tended to as individuals, rather than as a group, the Citizens have been given little reason to mistrust the fae. The only aspect of Taranis' court that invites to criticism is that the fae are keeping a slave race to do their bidding, but all inquiries to that matter have only yielded dismissive answers, both from the fae and supervised slaves (brownies) that they allegedly love to serve. It seems to be nearly impossible to catch one of the brownies by themselves, though, so unbiased comments have yet to be heard.

Frederick has since estranged himself further from the Citizens, to the point where most of them - likely excepting Willoughby and Sirena to at least passive degree - don't care about what he does. He's been going out of their way. His day consisted of doses of Euphoria. Arguably, even if food was not optional, he'd be eschewing it. He's reduced his life to the maintenance of his high.

Adrethyrian had entered the fae mound, too, on simple desire to stick close to Frederick, given being bound to him by the sun stone. Outside of the knowledge of the other Citizens, both Frederick and Adrethyrian have been incarcerated - Frederick because his behaviour has come with undesirable side-effects, now forcibly off Euphoria (which threatened for about a day to drive him insane); Adrethyrian because he entered the fae mound via the proverbial back door, making him an intruder, treated as a spy despite the obvious language barrier.

The two are in adjacent cells.

Meanwhile, just today, the other Citizens have found small fragments of some kind of coppery disc on them that seem to have been on them since they entered the sim, quite by coincidence (and then chain reaction). Some attempts have been made to piece them together, but the purpose of them are unclear to the Citizens. Of course, in light of this, Frederick ought to be found so his piece, should he have one (which seems likely), can be added to the pile. Currently, Sirena, elected by the group as the one with most integrity, keeps the fragments thus far collected on her.


[5] plotline // offline (aeonis)

On the 24th of April, an Aeonis employee responsible for staffing, Abbey Drummond, received an eMail from a concerned citizen going by the name of Lysette Skeates. Lysette asked to speak to Abbey pertaining to Joshua Bergström. A meeting was set up for the 26th, on which Lysette revealed that "the death of Joshua Bergström was an accident, not intent". When it was revealed to her that the company didn't even know of Joshua's whereabouts, she seemed to get increasingly nervous, but nonetheless consented to speaking to Teo Escarrà and one of his helpers after it became clear Joshua had been trapped online.

Unfortunately, questioning her has yielded almost nothing beyond that apology - not even the source of it, other than that she's been adamant that she not be mistaken as such. In attempt not to scare her away entirely, Teo's left many questions unstated, but encouraged her to stay in touch with the team if she knew anything. He's stressed, but with the kindest possible voice, that human lives might depend on her revealing what she knows.

Based on the meeting, Teo has struck out the theory that the phenomena may be a simple technical error prompted by a power surge or otherwise purely technical, and shifted attention to two further theories:

Either, a group of people is abusing the internet for social experiments or terrorism, or they are, in fact, dealing with a-lifes, latter which is further enforced by that bizarrely out of place apology for Joshua's death.

Joshua's death has since (on the 2nd of May) been confirmed by company research, though it took much hard work to get there. A (company-internal) minute of silence is scheduled for the coming Friday (8th of May), in memory of Byelobog.


[6] plotline summary

Eclipsed

Eclipsed ended after Adrethyrian dragged Frederick up from the depths of the cavern system - where he had been researching on the sunstone problem in Dust's library - to the pyramid that the Citizens had locked him out of on the barren surface of the planet that they'd finally broken out to.

Frederick, having put some effort into learning the Demon God's language, was able to decipher the text on the device and activate it (destroying what was shielding the black desert outside from the sun's rays), triggering the appearance of a link.

Taranis

In Taranis, inspecting of the original forest yielded a fairy ring to the Citizens (and knowledge that Adrethyrian had linked in with them to Frederick, which he's been keeping a secret). The resident fairies shrunk the Citizens down to their size and brought them to their fae mount, the court of Taranis, where they have been luxuriously treated as guests. The fairies have a drug called Euphoria the Citizens are welcome to use. A slave race of brownies serves the fae - so far all inquiry on the matter has yielded that it is voluntary, but unbiased opinion has yet to be heard.

Frederick's behaviour has many of the Citizens puzzled - he fell into an aggressive depression, starting fights, only to drown himself in the drug Euphoria and stop eating (though food intake is not necessary in VR). Willoughby knows that it's because of his sense of guilt pertaining to the (likely) deaths of the Puppets back in Eclipsed. Ultimately, Frederick ended up cutting himself off from the Citizens.

Upset with Frederick's behaviour for some reason, the fae have incarcerated him - as well as Adrethyrian, who entered the court by himself rather than by invitation. None of the Citizens know the two are imprisoned (of course also nor that Adrethyrian is in the sim).

The Citizens have, though, found fragments of a coppery disc on themselves that they've pooled together for now. Sirena guards them. It's now a question of finding Frederick for his piece.

Aeonis

A lady called Lysette Skeates has turned up at Aeonis to apologise for the death of Joshua Bergström, which has made the company aware of his whereabouts and death, confirmed. It's also shifted the attention of the entrapment phenomenom team away from purely technical theories and toward deliberate, driven ones.


[7] cerunnos

Due to things outside of his control, Cerunnos (known to some of you as Moons, though he has since changed his name away from that; and to others as "Neike's boytwin whom she fawns over ridiculously"), gamemaster of Taranis, is currently without internet - and, in fact, without much of a stable place to stay. He's doing well and has announced likely being back within about a week of wait, but it does mean that gamemastering Taranis has shifted to me.

I'll try not to break it too hard!