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meadowlarkooc2019-08-12 03:44 pm
EVENT 006
Midway through December 12, no matter where they are or what they're doing, all of the Displaced find themselves transported to another world with only the clothes on their backs. It's not apparent how this happened, or how they got where they are now. When they arrive, grouped up together, they find themselves in a laboratory room with a sign on the wall: Project Spinetail: Arrival Station. White walls, tiled floors, and a hint of familiarity: for anyone who had been present during the Dreamscape Event, they'll find that they're finally in a facility that is like the underwater one from before. Where they are is definitely not underwater, but the similarities are there.
Another thing the characters will quickly notice is that they are picking up on the thoughts of the other Displaced around: The characters have telepathy. This does not make their chests glow. As they become aware of this, they will be able to limit sharing their thoughts until it's voluntary, much like sending a message via text message is when they utilize the neural implant.
Before long, a woman walks into the room. She's holding a clipboard somewhat defensively, nervous, though there is an imposing guard accompanying her.
"I'm sorry for the abrupt arrival, but getting you here was urgent. My name is Angelica Crane, and I'm the lead scientist for Project Spinetail. I know that bringing you here with no warning, against your wills is unfair, but this was the only way to speak with you—and to save you. I confess, we seek salvation for ourselves as well. Our world is new and growing; we don't know how we came to be, but we know we're in danger of disappearing. We have studied the world you've come from, and we know that it's dying. There is no helping that world—but ours has a chance to survive. We believe that you may be the key to that. We want to work with you to harness the energy inside of you and find a way to help this world. We've been watching, and we think that energy will be what saves us. Saves our city, our world, and our families.
We won't force you. We can't force you. But please, there's nothing you can do for that other world, and there is so much good you can do here. You can make this world real. Let us show you our world. After that, we'll make our real pleas. We hope that you'll understand why we went to such extremes."
Then it's time to see the shimmering city of Zerzura. Zerzura is a marvel: all of the buildings are beautiful and made out of limestone. They're tall, scaling high into the sky, just like they do in New Amsterdam, but the architecture is a blend of modern and Greco-Roman in appearance. The city itself seems as if it's ruled by this Project Spinetail. There are flags on lamp posts throughout the city bearing the gray bird with a hint of orange, known as a spinetail. The air outside is temperate: no humidity, and no rain. Air quality right now is perfect, with zero signs of the pollution that ravaged the world that the Displaced traveled from. Zerzura is a beautiful and lively city: as they walk through the city, the Displaced will see happy families, many with multiple children.
The tour ends at these parks, and the Displaced will be left to explore the city at their own liberty. The inhabitants of the city will be respectful, but admiring the Displaced with looks of open wonder.
Before they return to Project Spinetail, the Displaced will see propaganda about their arrival. Already, many large screens on buildings around Zerzura show broadcasts talking about the Displaced. Even if they haven't agreed to help, there is clear pressure to do so. "They will save our world, they will make our world flourish and grow. They will give us a future." Videos play of the Displaced in New Amsterdam: flying toward the pyramid, working in New Tokyo, rescuing people from fallen cars, and working together to fight monsters. Here, the Displaced are the heroes. Perhaps they really can save this world.
Yet utopias are never what they seem to the naked eye. The problem with Zerzura is that much of the life there is very real. There really is perfect air quality and a complete lack of pollution, and they lack any of the fixes in place—like what's outside of this world in New Amsterdam—to make these things possible. Everything about Zerzura is just as it seems. Except for the choice they've been given.
The Displaced have been brought to Zerzura in hopes that they agree to save it, but there is a catch: if they save Zerzura, they will destroy the world outside. Earth as many people know it in Meadowlark isn't doing well, especially after Cassius' destructive EMP and virus. According to the scientists, the world of new Amsterdam is slated toward doom, but does that mean it should be abandoned, and even accelerated, toward its fate?
What the scientists do not tell the Displaced is that there is a group called Nautilus who is opposed to their efforts to save Zerzura. According to Nautilus, Zerzura is not a real, naturally formed world, and therefore doesn't deserve to survive. Additionally, sacrificing Zerzura may be the key to saving the world of Meadowlark. The Displaced will need to meet with both the scientists and this opposing force to figure out what they must do.
At the end, there will be one of three outcomes:
> OUTCOME A: END ZERZURA, SAVING THE EARTH OF MEADOWLARK
This is the default ending of the event. This will happen if no one does anything or if all other attempts fail. Nautilus has a plan in motion that will be done within a month's time. It will destroy Zerzura, but there is a good chance of this helping the Earth as the Displaced know it.
> OUTCOME B: SAVE ZERZURA, ENDING THE EARTH OF MEADOWLARK
This ending will be the most difficult to achieve, and will require the PCs intentionally pushing for this outcome. In order to get this ending, they will need to stop Nautilus from ending Zerzura and find a way to maintain Zerzura by working with the scientists to end life outside of it.
> OUTCOME C: SAVE BOTH MEADOWLARK'S EARTH AND ZERZURA
In order to achieve this outcome, the characters will need to find the link between Meadowlark's Earth and Zerzura, tap into it, and work together.
There are two forces working against one another in Zerzura: the scientists representing Project Spinetail and the rebel force called Nautilus, who display some very familiar symbolism that's appeared on the shrines. These individuals will signify their presence in Zerzura via symbols on buildings, giving people clues to how they might be able to find them. These rebels will be very interested in speaking to the Displaced, and won't make finding them difficult.
Project Spinetail is the governing force in Zerzura. Many people in Zerzura work for Spinetail in some way: they lead all construction projects, own all of the businesses, and are behind all of Zerzura's journalistic endeavors. The governor of Zerzura is the actual leader of Project Spinetail: James Henries. He's a charismatic, erratic man. He appears on Zerzura-wide broadcasts regularly: he smiles a lot, but speaks in bold, bombastic terms, seeming as if there may be a few screws that are loose. However, all of the scientists at Spinetail call him a "genius" and a "visionary." He's the one who thought up the plan to bring over the Displaced.
They don't fully understand the blue energy in the Displaced, but they have guessed that it's important in some way. They aren't in the least bit spiritual, believing that the Displaced are likely involved with their world's creation and maintenance in some way. They want to understand this, and encourage the Displaced that staying in Zerzura is what's right for them and the people of Zerzura.
In order to assert their dominance against the upstart Nautilus, they have a force of guards called the Myceneans. The Myceneans are a specialized group that acts as the police force for Zerzura, keeping peace and largely solving petty crimes. They are also dangerous: specially trained, they are a difficult group armed with chemical and biological weapons to act against any members of Nautilus.
Nautilus opposes everything that Project Spinetail represents. These are the fanatic followers of The Blue God, the one who created civilization as they know it in Zerzura. They believe that the Blue God would never want to destroy the outside world. These rebels are deeply self-sacrificial in their fanaticism: they believe that Zerzura needs to die, because it's an unnatural world, and not the true world of the Blue God.
The members of Nautilus exhibit their worship in a number of ways. They have tattoos of unique and now familiar symbols covering their arms, they act against Spinetail to cripple their expansion, and they disseminate information in Zerzura to help the people of that world understand who will be hurt if they try to survive. Much of their dissemination of information is done via postings around the city, pieces of paper stapled to electrical poles so people can know the staggering cost of survival: the death of a world full of billions of people.
Needless to say, this behavior makes Nautilus incredibly unpopular. As it is, they do have a plan to end Zerzura in a month's time. This plan will work unless the Displaced find a means to stop them.
Despite its desire to live, Zerzura isn't a very large world or city: its boundaries make for a perfect rectangle. However, as time passes, Zerzura's lead scientists have discovered that the borders have been steadily expanding, offering the city more space over time. During the time the Displaced are there, they will also see these borders expand into a richer, more complex world.
Of course, time itself is a unique factor in Zerzura. While it seems to flow in a coherent, forward-moving fashion, the Displaced may come to realize that Zerzura is related to the Dreamscape, and a reflection of some aspects of it brought to life. Project Spinetail will bear an uncanny resemblence to the underwater facility from the Dreamscape. Zerzura itself looks far older than only a few months old. It is a small civilization, but a thriving one full of happy people and life. This world may have manifested out of nothing, but it has a history stretching back decades, though confirming its exact age will be difficult.
◉ Technology in Zerzura is largely on the level of how things are in 2019. There are clean energy initiatives, conservation practices, waste management, and limits on resources and consumption that are mandated by the government, ensuring that they can never fall into the same trappings of the world that's parallel to this one.
◉ Nothing flies, and there is no movement outside of Zerzura. The people of Zerzura respect and understand that their world is a smaller one. All cars are electric, but are completely grounded. There is also an extensive streetcar system that moves through the city, giving its citizens easy access to any other part of town.
◉ There is no wealth disparity in Zerzura. Money is in credits like it is on Meadowlark's Earth. Everyone is economically on the same level, receiving a basic income, except that the scientists have a lot more leverage. It seems that even the rebels started on the same foot. The Displaced will also receive this income.
◉ Everyone in Zerzura is a vegan. All food is developed in highly advanced hydroponic farms that are located on rooftops around the city. There is a large variety of food, and scientists have even developed a means to grow coffee. Enjoy your caffeine!
◉ While in Zerzura, characters will be given rooms in a dormitory that's connected to Project Spinetail's headquarters. There is a cafeteria on the first floor of this dormitory that serves meals three times a day. The food is excellent.
◉ Recreational cannabis is also grown and legal, though only smoked through vapes.
◉ While in Zerzura, characters will have no access to the internet via their neural implant. They will be able to access their photos, but they won't be able to sync up their implants or access them like they would in their normal lives.
◉ Someone can walk from one side of Zerzura to the other side of it in one day. It's not very difficult to scale the entirety of this smaller world, though it will get somewhat bigger as time progresses.
◉ Outside of the humans, there are no animals in Zerzura—yet! It seems that the scientists at Project Spinetail believe that the expansion of their world will eventually include multiple species coming to life.
◉ Despite their fears of losing their world, everyone in Zerzura lives a happy, idyllic life. No one seems to fight or encounter any problems. In fact, the only "problems" appears to be the rather unusual Governor Henries who's rumored to get up to some highly unethical experiments—though there's no real proof of this—and the dangerous rebel group Nautilus. However, Henries has mandated that Nautilus gets as little attention and traction as possible.
◉ This event will take place over a period of a month IC.
It will not be a month for the players, as we want to give people an opportunity to explore the event, but not feel as if they have to play it out for a whole four OOC weeks. Top levels can show the transition of time and playing early/latter scenes in parallel is completely fine. Back in New Amsterdam, time will not move the same way, though the PCs won't know this. We want to give the characters enough time to explore Zerzura and take the actions they need. The primary focus is to let people do all the things they want to do, playing with every aspect of the event.
◉ Everyone's powers will be amplified.
Being in Zerzura will amplify characters' in-game powers. They will level up and branch out, giving someone an opportunity to explore the different lengths their powers may go.
◉ The empathy bond will work as usual.
Characters will still be able to experience each other's emotions when touching.
◉ All of the characters will have telepathy with each other.
Being in Zerzura will also amplify the Displaced's connection to one another. This will take the place of the Morningstar network (IE the network community), since the Morningstar Network will not exist in Zerzura. Basically, the network community is temporarily for telepathy conversations now, so it will retain the same form and function, but no Courier font (unless your character thinks in Courier). Characters can also communicate via telepathy elsewhere, keeping their conversations private and out of the eye of anyone in Zerzura.
◉ Zerzura will alter characters' identities over time to make them feel as if they were born as native OCs to this world.
The longer the characters are in Zerzura, the more they will begin to lose parts of themselves to the setting. This alteration will be a large part of why the event is taking place over an IC month as we want to give players the opportunity to play with this aspect of the plot. These altered identities will make them like native OCs to Zerzura, changing their perception of the world and each other. These identities will reflect some aspect of the characters' ideal outcome for themselves, and the world will mesh these identities with one another, creating character relationships. The Displaced all know one another, and as thus, it makes sense that they would be linked up to one another. Think of it as the Mirror of Erised or Marvel's alternate reality in House of M, allowing the characters to live out their fantasies. This alteration is meant to be a temptation to stay and save this world, potentially giving them something better than they had before. How long this takes is up to the player of the character, as we don't want to lock anyone into a hard transition. Some characters may be more susceptible than others.
While being absorbed by Zerzura, the characters may fade in and out, coming to and realizing what's happening to them before they're subsumed once more. In addition, some characters will be able to deny this fantasy entirely, which will act as an opt-out for anyone who's not interested in that aspect of the event. Native Zerzurans will also respond to any Displaced under the effect as if they were natives.
◉ Releasing the characters from the fantasy.
At some point, your character may become completely lost in the fantasy of Zerzura, losing touch with their former identity, and they will need to be brought back to themself by another PC. Much like in the rage sickness event, PCs can free them by touching them and can discover that it works similarly here. When a PC touches an affected character, an object will begin to protrude from the afflicted character's glowing chest, and the PC can then pull the object out. The object itself can be anything, but should symbolize something significant to the character being saved.
By holding another character's object, PCs will feel the essence and borrow the in-game power of the afflicted character. Once the object is manifested, handing it back to the afflicted character will return their identity and they will be permanently released from the fantasy.
These objects cannot be particularly technologically advanced. No guns or lightsabers! They should also be the size of something easily held in one hand.
◉ Work together on fantasies and personal chest objects.
Fill out the form below and make up your AUs together. We encourage you to use this opportunity to be creative with CR since relationships in the AU do not have to mirror the characters' lives outside of Zerzura. Also, you can develop plans for how to save one another, or even have corroborating objects. These objects will be accessible for everyone all throughout the event and also after this event, though characters will not be able to manifest their own chest objects without assistance yet.
◉ The form.
Please fill out this form and reply below! We encourage you to plan and discuss your AU backgrounds together, especially in order to develop new CR!
Once again, this event will take place over a period of an IC month, but that will eventually equate to three days on Meadowlark's Earth if they choose to return to it afterward. While the characters are in Zerzura, they will be missing from Meadowlark's Earth.
This event will run from in-game December 12 and, depending on IC action, end on in-game December 15.
Characters will not have access to the network throughout this event, but they will have access to telepathy and the ability to post to the network community for mass telepathy conversations.
There is one power level up available for this event, earned by turning in a thread of at least 5 log/action comments involving the object from someone's chest. They will either need to have the object pulled from their chest, or they will need to pull an object from someone else's chest. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by September 23 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.
When the event is over, we will post an aftermath log in addition to the aftermath post so characters can deal with the consequences.
You'll notice that we have not given an OOC end date for this event. We designed this event as our one-year anniversary event for Meadowlark, and we want to give our players enough time to really dig into it. Our "planned" end date is August 31, but we want that to be flexible for an extension if more time is needed or wanted.
Finally, please ask any questions, propose any plots, and come up with any ideas about how you would like to proceed in the Questions Header below. We want to ensure that our log has all of the information you need to get to playing when it goes live on August 24. Don't hold back—while we have a very specific problem for the characters to approach and solve, we want you to be able to stretch your legs and enjoy both the AU side of this event and the morally complicated dilemma.
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