GUIDELINES.
This is the OOC plotting post for the February 2024 event! Here you can find brief summaries of the various event prompts which may help you engage in plotting with other players. To participate, utilize the code at the bottom of the page. This is not mandatory! Feel free to plot here or in private with other players, or simply wait to be part of the event.
NOTE: This is NOT the event log! The event log will go up on the 19th of this month.
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? THE DARK.
On the morning of February 19, characters will awaken in a room at the newly-opened hotel located in District 5. They may awaken alone, or may awaken with a roommate, either someone they know or someone they don't! Either way, characters will find an envelope (or multiple envelopes, depending on who is in the room) on the nightstand; that envelope contains a card inviting them to a masquerade ball that evening, as well as a dance card with three open slots. These open slots can be filled prior to the masquerade beginning, or will be filled automatically based on the first three people the character dances with when the ball begins.
Characters will also find two outfits in the closet of their hotel room. One is whatever clothes they wore yesterday when they checked in; the other is a set of formalwear, perfect for a masquerade ball, tailored to exactly their measurements and in their preferred colors and styles. There is also a mask that goes perfectly with the formalwear. Characters are of course free to wear whichever of these they want as they explore the rest of the hotel. There is also a key to their room sitting on the desk. Once this key goes into a character's pocket, it cannot be lost or given away; even if it's handed over willingly to another character, it will simply find its way back into the original owner's pocket.
DO YOU LOVE THE NIGHT?
There are plenty of areas in the hotel that can be explored or utilized by guests! As well as the lobby area previously described in the February newsletter, characters are now able to access the hotel's restaurant, its fitness facilities including both a gym and a swimming pool (no tentacle monsters in this one), and a proper reading library with nice leather chairs and individual reading lamps. Characters can also access the maintenance area under the hotel, either by going through the restaurant's back of house area or by entering the staff-only area through a staff door in the changing rooms attached to the fitness facilities. The maintenance halls are labyrinthine (in fact, they are a literal labyrinth), but characters who persist in solving the maze can find their way to an emergency exit, a set of stairs that will take them up to a ground-level exit. This is the mechanism by which players can get their characters out of the hotel if you don't want them to participate in the masquerade.
Those who do choose to stay and explore the hotel will be able to find some additional information at the reception desk that wasn't there before. Namely, they will be able to find a handwritten log of guests with city resident names on it (including their own) in that character's handwriting; further digging into the computer at the reception desk will allow them to find the room numbers associated with each character. Especially keen-eyed characters might note that despite the hotel having nine floors, none of the guests are in rooms on floor nine.
Characters who decide to make a trip to the ninth floor to figure out why that might be will find themselves unable to get there by stairs or elevator, at least during the daylight hours. The elevator will deposit them at the eighth floor no matter how firmly they press the button for the ninth; characters who take the stairs up will find themselves arriving at the landing for the eighth floor repeatedly.
WHAT KEEPS THE BODY FROM OTHER BODIES?
At sunset, the masquerade ball will begin in the hotel's main ballroom. It's a luxuriously appointed ballroom with plenty of space for dancing, but also seating around the edges and a space for refreshments and finger foods at one of the ends, for characters who may not have visited the restaurant beforehand. Once the masquerade ball begins, the emergency exit through the maintenance hallways will no longer be accessible, and characters will be trapped in the hotel until the sun comes up again.
The longer a character spends listening to the music, which can be heard anywhere in the hotel regardless of distance from the ballroom, the more they'll feel like dancing. At a certain point, in fact, the desire to dance will become a compulsion. Characters who are seated at tables will feel themselves pushed up out of the chairs, and characters who are lingering against the walls will feel themselves pushed away toward the dance floor. Once they start dancing, they'll find themselves unable to stop until they've danced with at least three partners, the same number of partners as empty slots on their dance cards. This compulsion will be strong, but not entirely impossible to break if a character is self-aware and strong-willed enough.
Once a character has danced with three partners, they will feel the compulsion to dance lessening until they're able to leave the dance floor and take a seat once more. Observant characters may get the sense that there are far too many people on the dance floor than there are residents in the city, but because everyone is masked, it would be difficult to tell for sure.
WHAT ELSE WILL SAVE ME?
At any point after sunset, meaning after or even during the masquerade ball, characters may make another, more successful attempt to get up to the ninth floor. This time, provided that they pay careful attention to the elevator number pad (or the signage on the staircase landings, should they go by stairs), they can get themselves up to the ninth floor.
The hallways of the ninth floor are entirely dark except for the light coming from the emergency exit signs and from a number of rooms which have been left open. Characters who make their way down the hall will feel a sensation like they're being watched, and they may see shadows move in the lit rooms (or the unlit ones) as if someone went into the bathroom or moved in the hallway, but should they choose to push open the doors, they'll find that no one is there.
Much like the dorm rooms at the University, the rooms on the ninth floor contain personal belongings. These may belong to a character themselves or may belong to someone they know. Characters can take these items with them, provided that they are small and non-magical. Characters may notice that all of the rooms seem as if they've been unused for a very long time; all of the surfaces of the rooms are dusty, with one exception: a head-shaped indentation in one of the pillows, absent of dust, as if someone was recently laying there and only just now stood up.
YOU WANT TO KNOW IF YOU'RE SAFE.
Characters who don't go to the masquerade at all, who do go to the masquerade but resist the compulsion to dance, or who dance but with too few partners may find their sleep that night interrupted by an extremely persistent knocking in the hallway outside their door. It starts as a tapping at one end of the hall and then slowly moves down the hallway in the direction of the character's room, until finally, whoever or whatever is making the sound reaches their door and pauses… only to begin hammering on the door with such intensity that it should make characters feel as if the door is going to break or the hinges are going to come off. Although the duration of this hammering will feel quite long, in reality it will only last two or three minutes before abruptly ceasing, after which the tapping will continue its way down the hall until it finally fades entirely.
Characters who made an escape from the hotel entirely before the masquerade ball began, by using the maintenance hallways under the hotel to get out the emergency exit, may also find their sleep similarly interrupted even if they go to sleep in their own home or that of a friend.
LONG ENOUGH TO SPLIT THE FIRST ECHO.
Characters who either choose to wander the hotel's hallways instead of going to bed after the masquerade, or who choose to leave their rooms after experiencing the knocking and banging mentioned above, may find themselves coming face to face with… themselves. The doppelganger might look exactly the same, or may have slight differences in hair or scars or fashion, but will otherwise be immediately and obviously identifiable as an alternate version of the same character. (If a canon AU of a character exists, this doppelganger may be that canon AU.)
These doppelgangers are versions of characters from past iterations of the City experiment. They are essentially data ghosts, incapable of holding a coherent conversation or communicating in any significant way. They are vestiges of that iteration's data leaking through into the current iteration. They cannot be reasoned with and cannot be stopped—they will come for your character and will kill them, if your character doesn't kill their doppelganger first. Not all characters will by necessity have a doppelganger! This is by player discretion. However, unlike the ghostly knocking noises, doppelgangers will only appear for characters who are currently located inside the hotel.
It is also possible for a character to hide from their doppelganger long enough to survive by waiting out the night. Once the sun rises, the doppelgangers will disappear and the front doors of the hotel will unlock, allowing characters to make their escape.
CODES.
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
cityooc2024-02-17 09:24 pm
EVENT QUESTIONS.
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1. Do they react to anyone except the person they are a prior iteration of, even incoherently? And if so, how hostile are they to anyone who attempts to interfere with their murder?
2. Do people killed by their doppelgangers have to wake up on the train after a day or will they respawn after an hour or so like the haunted house?
3. Is the doppelganger a one and done thing once it's killed or are there repeats of it?
EDIT: sorry one more: If the doppelganger successfully kills a character does the doppelganger just keep loitering the area/hotel or does it disappear.
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2. Characters who are killed by their doppelgangers will wake up on the train the next day! However, they will not suffer the memory-loss effects of death.
3. There could be more than one doppelganger, but because these are copies with all the same skills and knowledge as the original character, dispatching even one of them won't be an easy task. Most likely there would be no more than three doppelgangers maximum, and each would be from a different iteration.
4. If the doppelganger succeeds in killing the character, the doppelganger will continue hanging around the hotel until sunrise, but will not attack anyone else (except the abovementioned characters who tried to interfere in its attacks). If other characters attack the doppelganger at that point, it will not put up any resistance to being injured or killed.
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i just wanted to confirm rather than make the assumption, the masked extra bodies on the dance floor - if they're talked to or otherwise interacted with, would they just be ignored or would it be similar to trying to talk to the dopplerganger where they can't really have meaningful conversations?
and bouncing a little off of that, are the dopplegangers still able to speak? kind of like a prerecording type deal where you can't really TALK to them, or are they just incomprehensible in general?
oh! and a few more.
for characters that hit their quota in dances, are THEY able to hear the knocking in the hallway or is it purely the ones being punished? like if they're in the same room, would one hear it and one cannot kinda deal?
:) what happens if you open the door :) while the door is being knocked on :)
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2. The doppelgangers can speak, but what they say would be similar to... for example, idle or combat lines in a video game. They have a seemingly preset number of fixed phrases that they repeat depending on the circumstances, but don't diverge from those preset phrases.
3. Rule of fun! Characters who do fill their quota of dances are more likely to hear the knocking, but any character could hear it. However, if it would be more interesting for one character not to hear it while another does, then go for it, we support that.
4. Again rule of fun—maybe nothing is there if they open the door. Maybe they find a startled-looking friend just outside their door. Maybe this is how they meet their doppelganger for the first time, up close and personal. Whichever sounds more interesting!
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When the characters wake up, will it be at daytime? Will the windows be covered? I’m asking as I am thinking of some force making Jessica wake up during the day so that way she can mingle at with people. But if the windows are bare and sunlight is coming in, then she will have to wake up at night as usual.
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NAME: Athuria
CONTACT:
ABOUT YOU: PST timezone, I drink a lot of coffee and own a cat like the majority of the internet. I spent at least 20 minutes picking a meme for this.
IC INFORMATION.
ALHAITHAM
AGE: 26
CANON: Genshin Impact
CANON POINT: Post-Kaveh's Hangout
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: Basically a human-shaped cat: weirdly confident, always watching, only engages in what's interesting to him, never in the place you expect him to be, likes afternoon naps. A language scholar and glorified file clerk that believes in the virtues of logic and rationality. Alhaitham values the freedom to do what he wants (being a giant nerd) when he wants and makes sure his life is otherwise comfortable and simple enough to enable that. Not a people person with even worse manners and thinks being a weirdo is a plus point. Always carries a book around for impromptu reading time (or in the City, writing and recording time). Frankly embarrassing about his boyfriend.
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING: Alhaitham is sir Not Appearing At That Masquerade which means he's gonna have a doppelganger or two running around. Also, uh, Kaveh is going to die protecting him from it so event plans are PRE and POST Kaveh death.
Pre-Kaveh dying:
- He will be searching the hotel for clues/investigating rather than trying to find the exit.
- Which means he'll be around to help other people get away from/kill their doppelgangers. They're all stuck in tight spaces if he runs into a fight he'll participate. He is very much done with this shit so he's going to be pretty aggressive on the Murder The Doppelganger front for characters, uh, maybe less enthusiastic to see a version of themselves get murdered.
- I am open to other people helping him take down his first doppelganger if anyone wants, otherwise only one will spawn because he'll be not all that useful after it kills Kaveh.
Post-Kaveh dying:
- He is engaging in Very Healthy Coping Mechanisms which involve taking Kaveh's body to one of the rooms and shutting himself in there to wait for the corpse to disappear. Because he needs to see the reset/resurrection he can't just trust this place not to change the rules.
- This won't have any open prompts it is 100% a "tell me if you want your character to bother him" he is not moving from that spot until morning when Kaveh's body is gone and Alhaitham is going to go to the station.
OTHER PLANS:
- I'm interested in doing something with the videos showing things of other iterations, more specifically where characters are seeing prior relations between them in earlier iterations.
- Also open to backdated silly candy hearts nonsense, I meant to get an open log up where they keep ending up in his pockets and he just starts tossing/passing them out. He doesn't want this chalky shit.
CONTENT WARNING: None for canon, for the event just the expected CW of "people being murdered" and not at all taking that well.
ANYTHING ELSE:
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scaramouche | samurai jack
NAME: Grace (she/her)
CONTACT: PM or
ABOUT YOU: AEDT/GMT+11 (Australia East Coast). I have been SUPER sick for the past month, but I'm finally recovering and I'm so jazzed about this event!!
IC INFORMATION.
Scaramouche
AGE: Unknown (mentally an adult)
CANON: Samurai Jack (the 2017 adult swim season)
CANON POINT: S5E01 "XCII", right before Jack finds him at the village ruins.
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: Stupidly tall robot assassin, big idiot jerk who's big into himself, says "babe" a lot. Ya like jazz?
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING: Man, PLEASE, I want to do everything.
❖ Exploration- Checking out as much of the hotel as he can. Goofing off a bit on the side, maybe? He'll get bored fast (during the day, at least).
❖ Masquerade- He's going to feel the compulsion to dance with 3 partners and he'll just ride it out until it passes over him. He may be a skilled swordsman, but a good dancer he is not!
❖ Doppelganger- He won't want to return to his room after the masquerade, so this is happening!
If anyone wants in on any of these things please lemme know, I am so game. 👌👀
OTHER PLANS: Besides his minor involvement in the Stress Test plot, none so far, but open to ideas!
CONTENT WARNING: Please refer to his permissions page for warnings!
ANYTHING ELSE:
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NAME: Lex
CONTACT: PM this journal. Discord available for CR
ABOUT YOU: In the briefest of briefs, I work in TV, am obsessed with all kinds of media (but mostly tv and movies). I’m in eastern time. Typically I write in prose past tense, but I’ve been feeling present tense lately so that’s what I’ve been doing here. I tend to use brackets mostly for network stuff, but will always match your style. I just go with whatever the style is of who wrote the starter.
IC INFORMATION.
Loki Odinson
AGE: 1000+
CANON: MCU
CANON POINT: Beginning of Infinity War
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: Loki is a talented mage, mostly dealing with illusions and conjuration, but he has some abilities to do things like hypnosis. In addition, he is actually a frost giant and has some natural abilities in creating ice. Of course, all of this has been nerfed by the city so he’s a tame Norse God currently. He’s the God of Mischief and would like to play pranks on anyone, and can be rather mean if in a bad mood. If he likes you though, he can be quite loyal.
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING:
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? THE DARK.
Loki will definitely wake up in the hotel and want to attend the masquerade. Everyone would know by now that he loves a party. If you’re interested in filling out his dance card ahead of time, let me know. Otherwise he’ll likely try dancing with Hob and his few friends first. But he’ll dance with them anyway, so if you want to sneak one in, we can definitely work something out.
DO YOU LOVE THE NIGHT?
You won’t be able to stop Loki from exploring the hotel, and he’ll be very annoyed that he can’t immediately access the 9th floor. Since he’s planning on attending the masquerade, he’s not looking for the exit, but if you’re really nice to him, or he already likes you, he’ll help you find a way out, if you want. Otherwise, he will be finding the guest check in and will find his name in there from previous iterations. Let me know if you want to join him.
WHAT KEEPS THE BODY FROM OTHER BODIES?
Look, Loki loves to dance, okay? He’ll be showing up in a finely tailored dark green and black tux with a gold and green mask. I can’t see it being difficult for him to fill out his dance card, but if you have an empty slot, he’ll be more than willing to help others out. Dancing is one of the few things he’ll do with pretty much anyone.
WHAT ELSE WILL SAVE ME?
That being said, he’ll also be concerned/annoyed that he can’t leave so after a lot of dancing, he’s going to attempt the 9th floor again. Loki is nothing if not curious and he’ll likely have noticed that strange things happen and places open up here after dark, so he will be investigating again. I want him to find a personal item, I just haven’t figured out exactly what that is yet.
LONG ENOUGH TO SPLIT THE FIRST ECHO.
You better believe Loki is running into his doppleganger! Want to help him fight himself off? Or want him to help him fight off yours? He does have his daggers now and is more than willing to get into a brawl, especially for his CR, but if he happens across a fight, he can jump in… provided he knows which one is the real you. dun dun duuuuun
OTHER PLANS: Nothing comes to mind, but if you want Loki for anything wildcard-ish, please feel free to contact me. I’m always open to do more.
CONTENT WARNING: Nah, Loki is pretty tame at this point. Guess that’s what love does to a trickster god!
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NAME: sky
CONTACT:
ABOUT YOU: Hellllooo I'm terrible at this actually I am very boring and I draw! Sometimes??? Currently very into Genshin...
IC INFORMATION.
WANDERER
AGE: 450+
CANON: Genshin Impact
CANON POINT: Up until 4.0, including limited time events.
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: The Wanderer is a (not-actually) nameless drifter who has a bit of an attitude, but is quite easy to get along with if you ignore literally everything he says. He's a big tsundere, cares quite a bit, and wants to be helpful to people. So long as you're friendly, he will generally respond positively! (Again, ignore his rude mouth.) He's also a divine puppet, not a human, but he doesn't usually advertise that.
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox
EVENT PLOTTING: For the masquerade, he intends only on dancing with Altria if she wants to, but can be easily convinced to dance with others if they're insistent! But otherwise he plans on defying the experiment where possible.
His doppelganger though, phew. He'll have one, and it's going to be the Balladeer, the version of him that was the most hateful, most vicious and most powerful. Because of that, he'll be unable to actually kill his doppelganger and will spend most of his time trying to dodge it so he doesn't get killed. He'll warn people off from interfering but feel free to interfere anyway! :D
OTHER PLANS: There's a forge up and running now at Kaveh's studio, run entirely by the Wanderer! Anyone who approaches the studio during this month will clearly be able to hear the sound of a blacksmith at work in there! Anyone sufficiently close enough to the Wanderer or Kaveh can request him make them something, or alternatively they can poke their head in to see what the noise is! I don't plan on starting an open log for this unless someone expresses interest, so if you want to do something with this, let me know!
Also, of course, the Wanderer will be participating in the rebellion/demolition plot :D Probably creating corn starch bombs to damage buildings and/or blow out windows.
CONTENT WARNING: None that I can think of besides the event appropriate warnings...
ANYTHING ELSE: I'm fairly busy for the next few weeks so my tagging speed will be very slow ;;
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NAME: Artemis
CONTACT:
ABOUT YOU: HELLO I'm still alive post one hiatus followed swiftly by the worst timing of a respiratory virus and ready to jump right back into things.
IC INFORMATION.
EDDIE MUNSON
AGE: 20 if you count his December bday :)
CANON: Stranger Things
CANON POINT: S4Ep09 "The Piggyback" after the fight with the demobats when Dustin comes upon him in the aftermath..
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: A metalhead straight out of the '80's who also happens to be a gigantic nerd. He looks scary, but he's a big ol' sweetheart deep down.
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING:
OTHER PLANS: I would love to mess around with TDM stuff. I had every intention of getting a log up for karaoke shenanigans and then I got really sick, but I'm still interested in playing around with it!
CONTENT WARNING: Canon-typical violence, 80's typical homophobia (sometimes self-deprecating, sometimes referring to past experiences), gore (see: the spoiler-ed canon point).
ANYTHING ELSE:
I don't remember all the memes I've posted oops
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midnight | arknights
NAME: Kanna
CONTACT: PM please!
ABOUT YOU: hi i'm alive!! now what that means for the global economy has yet to be seen
IC INFORMATION.
MIDNIGHT
AGE: 37-ish
CANON: Arknights
CANON POINT: Chapter 12-ish of the main story quest? Kind of? It doesn't matter, he doesn't know anything and he isn't important
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: vampire!! slut!! now a bar owner!! oh god i truly have been Gone, i'm sorry
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING: Honestly, I think I'll need to have Midnight just escape for this plot!! This is me looking into the future and knowing that I need to focus on trying to aim for endgame while making some IRL life changes that will affect my activity even more for like another month or so :'). THAT BEING SAID, if anyone would like for him to stay at the hotel for some traumabonding, please do let me know! While I can't promise open prompts, I'll be sure to hop on any closed prompts anyone would like him for.
OTHER PLANS: Honestly we're chilling? Midnight's host club is open, he will be staying through the closing of the game, and I'm looking to wrap up character arcs or fulfill wishlist items for anyone looking for them :) Hit me up pleaaase
CONTENT WARNING: Interacting with Midnight is a pretty chill experience to be honest?? Please know that anything deeper than a casual friendship will definitely deal with alcohol. Anything further than that can be found in his content warnings. take care of yourself babes
ANYTHING ELSE: I have been dealing with a lot of health issues, but I should be back starting next week! IMPORTANT: I will be dropping the majority of my threads, but I will strive to either reach out to start something new or be looking out for previous CR like a hawk for open prompts! I'm extremely sorry about my spotty activity, but by next week I should be a lot more free to hit up this event. Let me know!
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would you be interested in doing smth with shinji's doppleganger? the mods said dopple!shinji could have castor and i was looking to have it go on a lil rampage
i'm also interested in continuing our old thread if you're up for it!
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NAME: Devi
CONTACT: PM this journal!
ABOUT YOU: Central Time Zone! My tagging speeds varies tho, alas.
IC INFORMATION.
JESSICA HAMBY
AGE: 17, but post turning Jessica is two weeks old
CANON: True Blood (TV series)
CANON POINT: Season 2, Episode 5
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER: Jessica is a “baby vampire”, which means she’s been freshly turned and has no experience in controlling her hunger. She’s also a spoiled homeschooled teenager, so she’s not only bloodthirsty but also extremely annoying. Sorry everyone.
USEFUL LINKS: Permissions / Inbox / Application
EVENT PLOTTING: Jessica will be compelled to dance, of course. However, she will be up during the day due to some kind of force compelling her awake, so I’m assuming she won’t have trouble with windows. As a result, she will get “the bleeds”, which is bleeding occurring in the ears and tear ducts. It’s mostly harmless but Jessica will be feeling weak.
After sundown she will follow people to the ninth floor. I haven’t made up my mind in finding which belongings, but it will likely be some of Sookie Stackhouse’s clothes and maybe Bill Compton’s family pictures.
I will want Jessica to meet her doppelgänger as well! Since it’s a vampire, staking it will be the only thing that will kill it. (And it can be any piece of wood, not just a wooden stake). Anyone who will want to help in killing it will be free to join.
OTHER PLANS: She will want to find a willing person to feed on, as synthetic blood taste unbearable to her.
CONTENT WARNING: Jessica is all about curbing her hunger, so there is some eating disorder-adjacent talk involved. There is also religious, emotional, and physical abuse from her life as a human but I don’t think I will mention it too much.
ANYTHING ELSE:
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