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westwhere2023-05-15 05:49 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-05-15 05:49 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arc vi,
- arcane: caitlyn,
- breaking bad: jesse pinkman,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- final fantasy xiv: stephanivien,
- harry potter: hermione granger,
- horizon: aloy,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- mcu: america chavez,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- mcu: natasha romanova,
- mcu: wanda maximoff,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: red,
- outlander: claire fraser,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- test drive,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- umbrella academy: five,
- untamed: lan sizhui,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- warframe: kahl 175,
- zettai karen children: kumoi yuuri
the sunken | part i
Welcome to the first log of Arc VI: the Sunken, which covers 15 May – 2 June and doubles as a test drive meme.
Back/forward date as needed! The calendar date suggestions are indicative.
The TDM is open to everyone! If you decide to apply to the game, you can get an invite from current players or the upcoming enabling meme — or participate in the test drive meme and get in touch @
groundrules to chat things over. We currently have 13 slots available for new players. Test drivers can use this post for logs and network posts — old timers, please make your network posts at
eastbound. LOST AT SEA | TEST DRIVE TOURISTS
You wake, gasping, in a stormy sea, your thoughts slowed to a confused trickle. Skill, floating wood or a kindly stranger — who you can’t understand — help you to reach shore.
Villagers discover you collapsed on sand and provide critical (if rickety) communication and translation devices. They say you are in Sunken Yancai, a fishing village progressively overtaken by waters and cursed by the secretive ‘ladies of the lake’ to transit through time.
- ■ Rescuers group newcomers and supply questionable village couture, warm meals and accommodations in abandoned, half-flooded homes or spare small boats anchored in Yancai’s waterways. Huddle up, recover your strength and don’t think too hard on why your memories are hazy over the next three days.
■ Come morning, you visit village leader Quanze Tsaymien, then the sorceress Karsa — who explains you are otherworlders summoned into Akhuras by undead lords who wish to weaponise you in their battle against humans and one another. Karsa is an associate of the Merchant, who leads otherworlders towards ancient transport beacons east.
■ One such beacon rests dormant in Yancai. The group must infiltrate the village and wait a few weeks until it shifts to a point back in time when the beacon was active.
■ Newcomers are handed passport papers with their new identities in Yancai, where they may be known as a bankrupt merchant, perpetually drunk sailor, whale hunter, raft surveyor, mermaid who has just gained their legs, crab collector... feel free to invent a dutifullyhilariousapt role for their seaside sojourn.
OLD TIMERS | THE DRIFTING
You dragged yourself here in a haze. You arrived long ago, as if in a dream. You were born and bred in this village. In truth, your memories of reaching lively Yancai feel nebulous and alarmingly inconsequential.
Characters are facilitated new identities and dwellings by the Merchant, or believe they have had them all along.
- ■ A weary Karsa warns to say nothing to party members with altered memories, until the sorcery that affects them runs its course.
■ Memory-altered characters progressively regain their memories within three to five days (by 20 May). They have their memories partially or fully back at night ( midnight to 5 a.m.). Throughout the day, memory regains can trigger migraines, eerie confusion and paranoia.
■ Hauntings begin once characters have fully regained their memories.
■ Once everyone is ‘back to normal,’ Karsa explains that Yancai periodically transits through time. The memory alterations are a magical solution endorsed by the village council, which ensures locals mentally weather these shifts. Villagers continue to blithely accept you as part of the community.
(DON'T) HOLD YOUR BREATH
Karsa reunites the existing party and newcomers, issuing first assignments. The Merchants’s information suggests the beacon of Yancai will be online once the village travels in time within weeks. A dubious Karsa asks the party to check on the beacon, located in the former House of Commerce of the largely inundated merchants’ district. Reach it by rowing boat.
- ■ Villagers say the Master of Commerce, a famous musician, took precautions against intruders.
■ All ground and lower floor entryways of the palatial House were boarded to restrict flooding. To enter, pick locks or climb the putrid stairwell towards upper balconies.
■ Inside, the hissing of running water — and, in the lower levels, of thin, slippery leeches whose bite numbs your limbs, while they attempt to feed. You seem to experience pronounced vertigo when entering any decaying rooms covered in black mould.
■ The beacon is located on a dais in the basement vault room, where water rises near 1 meter. Only a few scattered scrolls and golden decorations remain among decorations, while a large ceiling carving writes, greed deafens man to the cries of his conscience; music sets him free.
■ Some tiles of the marbled floor stand out as you wade — step on one, and all doors abruptly slam shut, while dozens of obscured holes in the wall start to rapidly spill water, threatening to fill the room to the ceiling within the hour. You hear the tinny, waning sound of a village song played from a hidden source.
■ To stop the pouring water and open the doors, sing the song you hear, or find the music box that produces it amid debris on the water-covered floors. Wind it, and it plays its song in reverse, revealing the voice of a laughing elderly man who says, Depressingly, Anurr was right to worry.
■ Don’t forget to check the beacon — and report back to Karsa that it looks structurally untarnished.
THEY SLEEP
After surprising revelations at previous citadels, Karsa tasks you to investigate just how… permanent death is in Yancai. Villagers share that their dead are buried in a strange rite at sea — part of which will take place within days.
- ■ The dead are ‘entombed’ in one-man sarcophagi ships with carved and chained lids that depict their likeness. These burial boats are set at sea on the first day of each season and return three months later.
■ Join the harbours around 22 May, when mourners gather to receive the burial boats. Characters must pretend to be greatly anguished relatives, acquaintances or debt collectors to join the grieving.
■ The boats float towards you, seemingly of their own volition. Gaze afar and spot a boat carrying a man in black — the same who haunts some characters — who observes until the last burial ship has reached the piers, before he disappears.
■ Sailors draw up the boats and unpeel the untouched chains and lids, to reveal… no corpses. Peer closer and find neither biological signs (stench, liquids) of discomposure, nor the magical chillness of spaces where cadavers have lingered long. Scratch marks litter the inside of some boat lids.
■ Mourners seem grateful that the waters have ‘accepted’ the bodies. Some say that their relatives whose boats have yet to return must have been stolen by the ‘ladies of the lake,’ a villainous witch coven. Speak to mourners or sailors for clues.
■ Linger long near opened burial boats, and you feel tempted to throw yourself into the sea, slowly losing consciousness — until someone rescues you.
AMONG US
On 25 May, village leader Quanze Tsaymien drags the chained and half feral mistress Miang-si to households and Yancai’s largest market square.
The young woman, he says, was seduced by the ladies of the lake — the furtive witch coven that condemned Yancai to time travel. Luckily, the village elders have… coaxed Miang-si back onto the righteous path.
- ■ Miang-si is brought door-to-door to point out her 'accomplices.' Ill at ease, villagers whisper of similar witch hunts leading to false accusations and blood-curdling repercussions.
■ Both men and women are suspected and brought before Miang-si. Perhaps she takes an eerie interest in you, getting especially close to catch your scent, touch or remark on (in)visible hurts, or even dotingly kiss you. If you whisper quickly while she’s near, you might be able to ask one question.
■ If you are patient and kind to Miang-si, she briefly squeezes your hand as she withdraws. Within the hour, you find blood writ on your palm that warns, Our fat moon rises red.
■ If you are agitated, or if Quanze rushes her during your visit, Miang-si erupts into sudden, side-splitting cackling — while you find yourself croaking like a toad, or transforming into one and retaining human speech. The spell dissolves after eight hours.
■ Quanze’s long-suffering men say this sorcery breaks faster if you kiss one of the curmudgeonly emerald toads that hide in some of Yancai’s lakes. Catch one such delightful, slime-spitting creature or barter it from merchants at a costly premium.
ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT
A full moon is set to rise within days of Miang-si’s visit, on 27 May — just as Yancai shows signs of time shifting. Villagers are prone to stilling and staring askance, seeming lost or adrift.
The village itself evolves: one moment, the same house appears freshly new, then drowned, while waterways overfill with water, then seem barren. Overall, the village deteriorates.
- ■ That day, the sun suffers a midday eclipse, while droves of black birds circle the woods and village outskirts, attacking those who come close.
■ The waters increasingly thicken and darken, preventing boats from entering certain waterways.
■ An exceedingly bright moon and a diffuse lunar replica rise with nightfall. Come midnight, the village is alive with the sounds of ripping, structural collapse and shrieks. Tar-covered corpses emerge from the waters, clawing on and climbing up piers. They swarm, drawing passers-by into waters to drown them. Help them — and foremost, yourself.
■ Light and fire keep the dead at bay. On some waterways, wildfire now spells, WHAT IS WET WAS WRONGED
■ Weaker alone, fresh corpses climb into your rowing boat, pretending they are innocents who seek shelter. They betray themselves by speaking very slowly, struggling to keep track of the conversation or obliviously peppering it with details of their death. They stubbornly ask questions about you, repeating your answers, and become violent if you say they are dead. Push them into the water at first opportunity.
■ Quanze Tsaymien and other men of the village take arms, urging villagers to barricade in the nearest home, harbour or warehouse and weather the night. They advise to be silent and beware the dead who imitate living voices, warning not to touch any black mould or water that suddenly appear in your home — which alert the dead of your presence within.
■ Some dead try to tear you apart, while others seek to feed you a disgusting, tar-like black mould. A small taste of it makes you sluggish and feeble for two-three hours, while an entire fistful can kill.
■ If the undead infiltrate your house, hold your breath, do not move and keep from screaming. The dead have weak sight and olfactory senses and might pass you by, as long as you stay silent. It can be more efficient to fool than kill the dead.
■ By 5 a.m., houses start to replenish themselves, gaining a new appearance, while water and mould retreat. The dead withdraw into waterways. Outside doors have been marked with blood: vertical lines tell how many living people remain inside; horizontal ones count how many within died overnight.
■ You step to seize a brave new day — while Yancai enters a new time period (further details due in the next plot update).
NOTES
- ■ The game enabling meme goes up on 25 May.
■ Hit up available NPCs here or in their new inbox!
■ QUESTIONS.
Lan Sizhui | The Untamed | old timer
... don't mind him, he'll be up early in the morning - aaaalmost early enough to catch some of his real memories. The headache is absolutely not the best thing he's known, but it also isn't the worst. But it does mean he can't focus or accounts, not yet. Instead, you can find him belowdecks, bailing water.
And he's not even complaining about it.
ii. the drifting - part ii - the haunting.
The young children make Sizhui smile brightly when they first appear, but soon enough their words and tones make his face fall as he slowly walks to the prow, looking at the rapidly approaching shore. By the time they are mooring, anyone on ship or nearby can hear his soft, forlorn, baaaaa!.
He is fine after that. Really.
iii. among us - part i - in person or network
Of course he is kind to Miang-si. Even without what he knows about his haunting, that is just the way he is. He'll even bring her some (good) water and perhaps something to eat, once he realizes she's been brought from person to person without much thought for a break. Can they accuse him of benig an accomplice? Perhaps, but he has a boat to sail away on, right? Even though he knows he is not actually and never was an accountnt.
But still, that is why how later, he finds himself staring at his hand, then activates his network device and murmurs, both aloud and over the communication channel,
"Something might happen because of the moon." He is not sure, but anything written in blood must be investigated, even if it is too late.
iv. among us - part ii
... "Do you need help catching a toad?"
Look, he is not saying you need it, but if you want help, he'll catch them for you!
v. wildcard
ooc: hit him up with something else, he's around
[ Network; audio; un: Ghost General ]
When he does figure out how the device is meant to work he, at the very least, figures out the audio. ]
Do we know what might happen?
un: sizhui, switch to image
Ghost General?
When did--
How--
the connection on Sizhui's end switches to visual, his eyes wide and also excited. ]
Senior Wen?
[ not 'uncle' in public, but the polite address is warmed up by Sizhui's voice a lot. ]
Um-- yeah, we have been here enough to know when the cycles of the moon are.
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Young Master Lan?
[ Neither of them need to be so formal. They could change that once they found another again. ]
How long have you been here?
[ After a moment though... ]
This device is worse than Master Wei's devices.
[ Or better, he isn't sure. ]
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Ah, that... nearly two years, now. We have been trying to find a beacon to bring us all home but usually only a few people get to use it and everyone else remains left behind.
We also have had several devices, and, from what I remember, these are very good in that everyone can see and hear or read the messages sent if they wish to, so if something needs to be told to everyone, it is very easy to do so.
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They did not explain the devices. You will have to show me when I can find you.
[ That? He plans to do. He plans to find Sizhui even if he has to search this whole place. The only thing he'll have to avoid is lakes since he does not have any desire to sink to the bottom. ]
Have you been here alone?
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...a girl, a witch, a stray. The work of her curse a wet knot, tightening with each pull of their adverse, amateurish incompetence. He feels a boy, dwarfed by the opaque impossibility of the task before him: half whim, half torture, all stink of arrogance, smug pride. He has attempted every word, every ward, every scrupulous process of orthodox practice, ruthless exorcism and private ingenuity he could muster, only to leave a drove of their companions reduced to bleating croaks and distorted forms, begging succor —
While Lan Wangji takes his son for his shadow and hunts down the old, ancient enemy: a well-fattened toad. Here, locals say, the creatures oft gathered: in this lake, where the midday sun has starched the waters silvered. The wind slaps pier pillars with gusts, each of Wangji's steps tickling frail wood, teasing its erosion. To fall in, or not to fall in — that is the question.
He does not betray himself. Does not sink. Only reaches the end of the pier, watching the constellation of imperious toads spattering the waters at distance ahead of them, content and confident on the empire of their lotus leaves. This... will require swimming towards the creatures. No. Talismans, first. Silk deserves better than this swill-spillage.
"We must procure a triad." Given the number of their alliance afflicted by this — condition, any fewer would make mockery of their rescue operation. The grit of his teeth is a thinning line, gravel.
"...your senior Wei boasted a binding talisman." Fish like a cultivator.
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He doesn't have that talisman ready, but he can learn to make it. But between the two of them, three toads might be a chore to bring back in their hands.
And yes, he is aware his father is not very pleased, but being on an outing together with him, even for something that would be unpleasant, is a treat. Always.
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For a moment, he finds himself watchful, staring — appreciating, with rare fondness, the gladness of the boy before him, the wondrous incandescence of his innocence.
"Three," he concedes, edge of awe silvering his voice, not at the feat that Sizhui proposes, but at his jovial disposition. And from whence did he learn it? Not from Lan Wangji, melancholy. Not from Uncle, pragmatic. Perhaps from Xichen, though his brother hides a meticulously crafted blade's edge beneath his velvets and brocade.
Then again, blood will tell, and there is sun in Sizhui, red and black and laughter. The stiffness of Cloud Recesses is not his heirloom.
"You attempt the impossible," he offers, unaccusing. Yunmeng and his father's work, through and through. Carefully, unbidden, Lan Wangji peels out his qiankun purse to offer four spare pieces of parchment, scantly used.
"Use freely. Your senior Wei," ignore the tight roll of his eyes, "prefers blood."
A bad habit long perpetuated.
no subject
He's just not thinking too hard about the magicked people having to kiss said toads because he is still not thinking that much about kissing.
"I will ask him, Hanguang-jun! And get a basket!"
He won't run exactly, but he does walk briskly.
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...it is a good and wondrous and most appropriate thing for a young man, well past Lan Wangji's own maturity when he first entertained such notions, to think nothing of kissing. What can do for him, to him? Nothing, to no advantage. Withdraw yourself, young turnip, from every petty or sprawling consideration of erotic thought.
Ponder, much better, the enlightenment of toads — one yowling grotesquely far on, as if it spills out the tragedy of its lone existence to the heavens. Lan Wangji shudders, then — politely, as if doing them both a kindness — silences it.
By the time of Lan Sizhui's return, an entire parade of long-suffering toads has gathered on stretches of lotus, gazing petulantly at Lan Wangji as if he has personally and irrevocably wounded one and all. Mute, but riotous.
He sighs, but acknowledges Sizhui with a nod, waves him close. There, young disciple. The enemy.
"They come as legion."
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among us -- In Person
Which is how she comes upon Sizhui again, thinking vaguely that he reminds her of Lan Xichen, who she'd met upon waking.
"It's always the moon," she says evenly, tilting her head as she looks at him. "What's going to happen?"
weh
"Well. Sometimes it's just that more information is revealed. Sometimes it can be an attack, or the local people change."
But his mouth twists just a little as he shrugs.
"But if the message appears written in blood, it is not unlikely that it will be unpleasant or scary or exhausting, depending on what one is used to."
He cups his hands at her, bowing a little. "Lan Yuan, courtesy name Sizhui."
no subject
"Oh... Lan?" She tilts her head in recognition before she bows a little as well. "I'm Minazuki Ruka. Do you have a preference for what I use...?"
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She looks up at the sky, sighing a bit. It feels off, somehow, though she doesn't really know how to explain it.
network during among us part ii
( he asks, sounding perfectly normal, because he is Perfectly Normal.
for a man transformed into a toad against his will, who has tucked himself into a proper corner after escaping his own robes, and managed to drag the immensity of his pendant along with him. pray no one goes looking in this section of holy cave. )
Sizhui, Sizhui, ask away! This old man is practically expiring waiting to know what wisdom you seek! Or what silliness, you can afford to be silly still, ah? You should be, before everyone remembers you're two and twenty and tries putting you through Lan Finishing School under your father's watchful eye.
( he mostly teases, though it is indeed approaching about that time. polishing, where no Lan disciple truly needs it, but the tradition could be here and now, too, in a renewed and revisited world. lan zhan might like it. maybe. wei wuxian was apathetic, given the debates that mattered to him had been part of his knelt reflections and joy of ants, so endlessly industrious. oh, and that cold pool, and the cave that'd swallowed him and lan zhan whole, and — ah, but he took all the lessons he did from gusu lan and none of them were in the precocious preciousness of their precepts.
because each one that mattered was already indelibly inscribed into his bones. )
sotehua I was going to tag in... and this also works
Senior Wei! [ and perfectly normally cheerful and affectionate and excited reply. ] Hanguang-jun said you know a binding talisman, that should make catching toads easier! I am on my way to get a basket or something else to hold them in but also if you can show me how it looks, I can attempt to draw it!
... Hanguang-jun warned that it might need to be drawn in blood.
[ ... he's prepared for that, too. ]
look son sometimes we don't tell anyone we're frogged because of that quanwhatever guy
Maybe I can describe it to you!
( he meets cheer with cheer, look, hahaha, it's a challenge, a willing test, or something of that kind — )
He what?
( and then he does laugh, full throated and full bellied. )
If he means the technique I never named, there's no such need, that one requires no talismans! If he means the one that gave him pause when we both stayed in Gusu at around your age, in what world does he think that requires blood? Nothing I do needs that, but lacking cinnabar or other ready ink, I've made do with what I can. Worth keeping in mind, ah, Sizhui? Not that it's a preference, but a man without a plenitude of options is still presented with choices, and blood will channel your qi more readily than mud. You're fighting with two energies then, one that resists the intrusion of your own, unless you... huh, I wonder if weaving with spiritual grasses could have a similar effect?
( he's off topic, but that did get him thinking. too bad there aren't spiritual grasses in this world as far as he's found. )
sometimes!
I thought that unless you were binding something much bigger, blood would be unnecessary, but I was prepared anyway!
Can you describe it, or hold it in your mind's eye, then I try to draw one and you correct me?
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( such a chipper statement yet again )
We won't know until we try!
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ii
In the end, after a moment of hesitation, he approaches.
"Don't be so stupid as to listen to nonsense."
...which is not the kindest way to word that, perhaps. But Chu Wanning is just like that.
baaaw
He is aware that compulsion on the whole is likely a rather bad thing, when it comes to a cultivator, but this time it really took him unawares. It will not happen again. He'll make sure of it.
"I suppose at this time, after the confusion, it should not be surprising that something very powerful is at play, but I will be better prepared!"
Unkind? Sizhui doesn't think the words so.
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Because, while yes, one shouldn't listen to something telling you to baaa like a sheep, he also meant....not listening to voices calling you useless and stupid things like that.
Especially when he didn't feel it was true.
But he wasn't sure how to convey that. Or even if he should. He's so bad at conversations and he's even worse with people. What if he's wrong? What if he offers direct encouragement and it wasn't necessary? That would be embarrassing for Sizhui, surely. (It would be devastatingly embarrassing for himself.)
So he turned his head instead.
"See that you are." He says it in a way that many who knew of him may assume was haughty. Especially when he follows up with. "Jiuge is a powerful spiritual weapon."
Which is such a non-sequitur.
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A powerful spiritual weapon cannot be used by just anyone.
On the heals of the small but insistent voices, the statement almost brings tears to his eyes. He cups his hands, and bows low towards the older cultivator.
"Thank you, Senior Chu. This junior appreciates the reminder." A small pause. "I walk in the steps of great people, it is easy to believe myself lesser."
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