ringleaders: (Default)
Lost Carnival Mods ([personal profile] ringleaders) wrote in [community profile] livinglot2018-04-16 02:29 pm

⇨ New Location: THE ATHENAEUM

PREPARATION
On Day 47, the carnival will find itself merged with the new location, the grounds moved from their usually dimension right into the middle of the Athenaeum. This mean everyone will be waking up to a carnival surrounded by bookshelves instead of trees - the major things being left behind are the forest, lake, and menagerie, which can be accessed through a convenient tree portal made by the Ringmaster. Otherwise, it's book time now, welcome to book city.

SETTING

The Athenaeum is a city sized library realm comprised of absolutely nothing but hall after hall of books. Some rooms are well organized, vast and carefully categorized, while others are simply enormous piles of tomes with no rhyme or reason to their contents. Many cannot be read at all. The ones you can read, however, are a sampling of literature and history from all over the multiverse, in quantities beyond your comprehension. The catch? The only true way to find what you're looking for is to trust in fate. Literally.

The books are cared for by a pair of celestial beings called the Curator and the Scribe. The Curator focuses on collecting and sorting books, both fiction and non-fiction, from all over the multiverse. Their idea of organization is esoteric to say the least, so finding your way around can be more than difficult. The Scribe, in contrast, is primarily a writer - they have penned millions of volumes of true stories from the multiverse, covering a random array of subjects from the beginning of time to the daily anecdotes of mortals in backwater galaxies. In fact, there are almost certain a few stories about you.

The real challenge is finding them. You could spend and eternity here without finding what you are looking for. Magic meant to find specific items is non-functional, and brute forcing the process is impossible. All you can do is follow the whimsy of the Athenaeum's stores and find what you were meant to find.

PATRONS

► THE CURATOR: The more serious and reasonable of the beings, and prides themself on the idea of having the most expansive collection in the multiverse. They don't normally have a physical form, but they will occasionally take one for the convenience of visitors. Despite being willing to allow select groups to tour the Athenaeum, the Curator does not actually give away or lend out books without receiving something in return. Trying to take or destroy anything without permission will get you in a boat load of trouble. Thankfully, though, the Curator is open to trades - they are always interested in acquiring new or unique books, including stories written by your characters, and will sometimes trade them for volumes of other things they see as being easier to reacquire. They have to actually be some sort of quality, though - the Curator has standards.

► THE SCRIBE: The 'creative type' of the pair, the Scribe is gifted with spontaneous visions of events taking place all over the multiverse. These visions can be of the past, present, and even occasionally the future - the Scribe considers them all to be of great import, and diligently records all of them as they arrive, filling what is probably billions of manuscripts with stories and illustrations. These manuscripts have no real order or narrative purpose - each fragment of story can range from a single sentence to a few pages in length. While trading away these original manuscripts is unthinkable by the Scribe, they are happy to allow visitors to browse and record copies of their works. They may even remember you from one of their stories! They won't, however, remember where they put the book you feature in.

► FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: The nature of the Athenaeum's realm is such that sometimes the being and things from inside of the stories it contains come to life. This can include fictional characters from the Curator's vast collection, or even spectral copies of real people from the Scribe's manuscripts. None of these beings truly have a will outside of role in their own story's structure, but they can be convincing doppelgangers at first glance. These book ghosts are the creatures that the carnival will be performing for - the Scribe is under the impression that visitors make the books happy. In exchange, the carnival may have access to the Athenaeum's resources.

DANGERS

► FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: While many of the specters are perfectly innocuous, there is nothing dividing them from the evil and dangerous things in fiction, and within the Scribe's recorded history. It's entirely possible that certain characters or imagined beings may threaten carnival visitors - the best way to fight back against them is to improvise a story back at them, and to play by their stories rules while turning events so that you come out as the winner. Suffice to say, it will be difficult if you aren't a creative type.

► NON-FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: You'll have to wait to see which ones.

REWARDS
So, it's pretty obvious that the bulk of what you're going to find here is information - which is good, because it's exactly what the Ringmaster chose this location for! If anywhere would have a record of the Queen's Miracles, it'd be this place... the only trouble is actually finding it. Characters will be able to help search for relevant metaplot information and also personal gain, with key information being dealt out based on RNG sign ups. The only catch is that if you sign up for metaplot clues, your character must be willing to share. Sitting on or hiding important plot info won't be allowed long term.

Characters will also be able to find Scribe-written stories about the past or future of their own canon, as well as other people's canons, but only with the permission of everyone involved. All Scribe stories will be written as if they are a fairy tale or legend, meaning they will not have much in the way of character introspection or details. The Scribes writing is more like a collection of disjointed fables than anything with a coherent narrative structure - in fact, many of the events they describe have no real point or context in the format they are written. They are all true, however, though the wording may be unintentionally confusing or misleading. Some are accompanied by drawings. You do not need mod permission to play around with information about your own character, but you can't find info about other characters or canons without getting their approval.

There will be a place where players can submit pre-written tales based on their character that are open to be found by anyone who wants to, or you can just plan private discoveries among your CR.

CHANGES
Changes may possibly result from getting wound up in the reality of certain legends and stories. The specifics of this will vary from case to case, however, and will be explained in more depth later.


Beyond that, this is a PLOTTING POST, which means you can use it to make plans! The game chat is also a great place to discuss plots, so we welcome you to pop on in if you haven't already! The calendar has been updated with event timing.
kingsroads: (this won't end well)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-18 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
welcome to the magical protag club, there's too many of us here.

I'm definitely interested in Strange learning more about Syrlya's fun hero life as well as Yuya's zarc thing. I think Strange doesn't know that much about Zarc so that could be a fun 'why does your world keep getting more weird the more I learn about it' sort of talk.
betheman: (AWWWWWWWWWWYEA>8D)

[personal profile] betheman 2018-04-18 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
it's time for a story and that story is the wolf who didn't eat for like

A While

ANYWAY I am so here for getting Gongenzaka involved in dramatic stories especially since with Marishi around I can kick the part of him that would be Extra Into It (-gestures vaguely to THE DEMON TRAIN tbh-) into overdrive hyehehehhe

gosh if he tells her there were unicorns in the summerlands she's going to just wonder how many things she missed in that place oh... (More seriously tho I'm gonna be using the cast plurk to beta the stories so -fingerguns-)
kingsroads: (well why don't we do this?)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-18 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
by their powers combined, they're 3/4 of a functional person.
hippocarnival: (✮ 014 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2018-04-18 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
Yes to both of these! Strange hasn't heard any of the Zarc stuff yet afaik so, surprise, it's because Yuya's the center and half the cause of all that weirdness. Also he's, uh, an ex-world destroyer.

It might be interesting for Strange to get to see some of his earlier life before the harsh weight of reality crushed his wonder, also they can dig for magic books together.
hippocarnival: (✮ 007 ✮)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2018-04-18 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
So you mean Yuya gets to find out the actual details. Time to dig out your skeletons Gongenzaka.

She missed a LOT of Yuya will regal her with the miracles and stuff, and maybe they'll get to visit again before her contract is up.
worldlyafflictions: (ch004pg13p4)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-04-18 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Previous CR
I got the Ok from LA for Shima to come across some stories/descriptions of Shima's first go through the Carnival. If anyone who knew/interacted with him before would like to potentially have Shima come poking around to bother your characters during/afterwards, let me know! I'm probably going to hit any big story beats I find, and like... a selection of stupid stuff he got up to.

Live Readings
Since there's going to be interactive elements in the form of book ghosts, Shima will probably be taking a bigger interest in looking around (beyond doing acquisitions work)! I don't know yet if I'll let him be lucky enough to find like... a literal harem, but I do want to do something with this! Also seems like a fun way to do another form of mem-sharing, especially for characters not doing too much active reading.

Adult Section
lol i might do this too.
Edited 2018-04-18 02:58 (UTC)
hippocarnival: (Default)

[personal profile] hippocarnival 2018-04-18 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
Are the book ghosts just specters of people or does it ever form objects/scenery? Like, is the storytelling immersive, I guess, or is it pantomime and talking back at the book?
spaghettimonster: (THE ARTISTE TURNS HIS BACK ON A BAD PATH)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2018-04-18 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
Papyrus will be helping search for Metaplot, because if they're doing RM's plan they should do it right and prepare all they can, and where else to start searching for info than in a big library? Perfect! He hardly could have planned it better himself! He may try trading the book he got back in the Manor, or write some stories of his own, in hopes of getting something useful.

Unfortunately, he's going to spend a lot of that searching time complaining about the lack of organization in this place. How does anybody find anything!?

He can probably get by in the story combat stuff, he's at least imaginative and assertive enough about whimsical things for it, but hopefully internal coherency isn't necessary in those narratives.

In terms of story fragments, the UT cast is in agreement - there's Scribe versions of various timelines available for finding. A version of the first human's fall, along the lines of the game's opening video, is pretty on point. I plan to write a couple of mixed mood things, with the importance of kindness and the risks of carelessness, about a few things in the game.
Edited (holey broken italics tag batman) 2018-04-18 07:18 (UTC)
soft_focus: (.w.)

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-04-18 01:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Reira's gonna be so '!!!!' bc she even slept in the summerlands the whole time she spent there

She just stares at her summerlands dress is there a miracle inside

ANYWAY Gosh, Gongenzaka's skeletons are gettin dug out here I guess!!! I'm amused bc there we were talking about how long it would be, before Yuuya realized 'hmm'

'hmmm my stable pillar appears to in fact, be made of sand. frozen wet sand that was slowly m e l t i n g'

And here we are-
soft_focus: (extra 06)

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-04-18 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
THIS IS NOT GONGENZAKA'S ACCOUNT but during the time the last Shima was around, the Vampire Hell Rescue occurred...annnnnd during that time, Shima ran into VampireGon

This is something filed in a catalog of 'Dumb Things' so tl;dr if you want to re-create a weird fable version of awkwardly asking what being a vampire is like then -poses here, I guess-

(It was quite amusing to say the least, Gon's reply was basically 'I CAN HEAR EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF BLOOD COURSING IN YOUR VEINS' 'OH, OKAY...............' )

Gon's time as a vampire is probably gonna be one of the things I have as a story for him for that matter so I GUESS that window is there as well laughs.
shearmadness: (ta da~~~!)

[personal profile] shearmadness 2018-04-19 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
Team abandonment would be interesting! Especially since Nui was a Star Guardian in the short term, but she's never been a big team player sort.
shearmadness: (dismay)

[personal profile] shearmadness 2018-04-19 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Adding to our above plotting comment - maybe Nui catching a glimpse of Jinx's past could result in a fight? Nui won't hold a grudge over Jinx lashing out at her, especially if they have a fun fight.
everybodypanic: (Default)

[personal profile] everybodypanic 2018-04-19 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Canon is a little light on the details aside from what we've gotten out of Star Guardian, but I'm sure she can catch something juicy. Whether it's Jinx raising some hell or arguing with her teammates. A fun fight would be good, too. I doubt she'd hold a grudge, too.

Unless she lost.

But either way.
atouts: (016; la maison dieu)

[personal profile] atouts 2018-04-19 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
Childermass... is from a canon all about books. Magic books, mostly, but really just a whole lot of books, even if he's not actually the biggest nerd England has to offer (looking at u, strange). So he's going to spending a lot of time searching the stacks. His goals are basically: anything about the Queen's Miracles, anything about lifting Summer Court fae curses, and anything related to Shadowspeak or whatever shadow elementals talk in (since he previously said he would try and help Carly with that one book of hers). There'll be a heck of a lot of shadow crow constructs scattered as he tries to use those to search at a faster pace.

If I do any story encounters, they'll likely be already heavily fictionalized Raven King stories. Either that or dealing with something really dumb. Chances are he'll have a harder time out-storying the specters, so it might be fun to have someone more wildly creative help him out with that.

ACQUISITIONS TEAM will not be asked to steal anything this location. Instead, they'll be asked to please refrain from stealing. They will, however, be on-duty to search for information relating to the Miracles. Whether they do that or not is up to you. There's no actual negative consequence to skipping work and doing something else entirely.
Edited 2018-04-19 02:39 (UTC)
kingsroads: (this won't end well)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-19 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
tbf, norrell outnerds them both
kingsroads: (maybe we can talk about other things?)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-19 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
it really is truth at the carnival that all of the seemingly normal people have some amazingly bonkers backstory.

But yesss, I'm all for Strange & Syr being nerds and searching the library together + discovering people's smushed idealism. I'm canonblind as shit to gw2 (and yu-gi-oh as well, come to think of it) so whatever you think is interesting, I'd be up for!
atouts: (046; bird form)

[personal profile] atouts 2018-04-19 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
well yes but he isn't here. you could probably stick a powdered wig on rita and pretend, tho.
kingsroads: (well why don't we do this?)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-19 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
So I love Jinx and Cole's odd little friendship. Cole also won't be all that interested in books, so maybe they can prowl around together while trying to find something else to do/both inevitably get caught up in the same nonsense.
worldlyafflictions: (ch011pg21p7)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-04-19 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Piggybacking this question! Are the specters and other book-apparitions solid or incorporeal? Or does it just vary by what we feel like playing with?
kingsroads: (maybe we can talk about other things?)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-19 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
she's definitely tiny enough.

ANYWHO, I imagine these two nerds are going to compare notes at certain points partly because of shared interests, partly because again, big huge nerd. probably gonna get some bitching in about how this library is disorganized af as well before plot kicks up and a different level of dumb happens.

as for my other dude, let's be real here, Cole won't find shit. sorry boss
everybodypanic: (Default)

[personal profile] everybodypanic 2018-04-20 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
Nonsense is just another word shenanigans. And who doesn't love themselves a good couple of those.

I SURE DO.

So basically, sign me up.
atouts: (013; l'arcane sans nom)

[personal profile] atouts 2018-04-20 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
An immortal doesn't need to worry about organizing. They have forever to look for something. Too bad that's going to suck majorly for these totally mortal magicians... Maybe all the shadow birds will turn something up for them! Or maybe Childermass will pass out because he tried too hard. Who knows.

and it's okay, Cole. his hopes weren't very high to begin with.
kingsroads: (small cheeky little smile)

[personal profile] kingsroads 2018-04-20 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
I'm up for accidental slumber parties as people forget they need to sleep. I don't think there'd be much that could be gotten from memories as thanks canonmates, they're both vaguely aware of each other's shit but I don't mind Childermass finding something dumb or serious if there's any blanks ya want filled (something like black tower curse nonsense for srs, Strange's complete inability to hold a job for dumb)

though semi-jokingly, the bad end route of how Strange figures out relationship drama: purple prose rpf

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