⇨ New Location: ATLANTIS

[ringleaders]

PREPARATION↴ There isn't actually a lot of preparation leading up to Atlantis - at least not on the part of any of the workers. The Ringmaster, it would seem, has been preparing for it on her own, and the first anyone will be hearing about it is when they wake up with the carnival inexplicably underwater on the morning of Day 44. Also, they will have magically mutated into having fish parts, mermaid style. Just what kind of fish parts they end up with is infinitely variable, and doesn't even have to stay restricted to fish, technically speaking. Any aquatic creature will suffice, whether that be dolphins, seals, crabs, shrimp, eels, squid, or anything else that would fit beneath the ocean. Even if you choose to base your mutations on a mammal that regularly requires air to survive, they won't need to go above water in this case. Everyone can breathe underwater equally, and so other physical changes will be mostly aesthetic and/or just affect the way they swim. Character cannot ICly pick their mer forms - what they change into and how much they change is entirely an OOC decision. You can go for the full fish tail, or just webbed digits, gills, and a swimmer body. It doesn't really matter, as long as they function in the ocean. Naturally, the suddenness of all this may be quite alarming, and it will seem that the decision to come here was very impulsive on the Ringmaster's part. Even if your character doesn't usually sleep, they will find themselves having drifted off during the transition period between there being water and no water. The Ringmaster will explain to those concerned that everything is safely waterproofed via enchantment, and all of the carnival equipment will work the same as it did before. It's just... underwater now. Huh. SETTING↴ Atlantis is an underwater city within that the Ringmaster has describe as a "primordial ocean realm" that has no surface and no land above the sea. It is apparently connected, in small amounts, to many other oceans across the multiverse, and ships and other ocean vessels have a tendency to sink into it, Bermuda Triangle style, allowing the merfolk there to gather sunken treasure from across all of existence. The city itself is shockingly grand and elaborate for something that was apparently constructed underwater. The Ringmaster has indicated that merfolk are some distant cousin to the fae, and the magic within the place will feel familiar to what exists within the carnival. Along with the merfolk inhabiting it, there is a large variety of other sea creatures and monsters that live in the surrounding areas. It's not clear how far the ocean stretches, but it feels effectively infinite. The carnival has located smack-dab in the middle of a beautiful underwater park within the city, and has physically merged with the local realm as opposed to remaining separate as it usually does. Tall underwater plants have replaced the barrier of trees. PATRONS↴ ► KING TRITON: The powerful king and all around boss of the merfolk and the city of Atlantis, he is apparently the lord of the realm and the most powerful creature within it. That's what the merfolk say, anyway. Apparently he is an old connection of the Ringmaster's, which is why they have permission to come and perform for his people. In this context, Atlantis is fully aware that people from another world are coming to hang out and party, so none of them will be surprised by the visitors, and are in fact looking forward to it. King Triton himself is stern in a fatherly sort of way - which makes sense, given the fact that he has what is probably hundreds of daughters of varying ages. He takes the security of his people very seriously against outside threats, and tolerates the Ringmaster with a mild amount of reluctance. ► MERFOLK: As variable as the carnival worker's potential changes, merfolk encompass most ocean life, aesthetically speaking. While most of them average out with things resembling fish tails, you will also find a great degree of biological diversity that is slightly more rare. In general, merfolk are curious and straight-forward, in contrast to their fae cousins. They enjoy seeing new things, and are as excited to explore new people as they are to explore a freshly sunken wreck. They consider outsiders to be a major curiousity, and in crowded social situations, they may end up competing for a carnival worker's attention - especially those that look most dissimilar to them. DANGERS↴ ► THE SEA WITCH: If there is one thing most merfolk will specifically warn visitors of, it's to avoid the Sea Witch. Known to be a sorceress with particularly devilish abilities, the Witch has been actively antagonistic towards King Triton for thousands of years, with no signs of stopping. The common merfolk will attribute all kinds of wrong doings to her, from stealing souls to ruining this year's kelp harvest. What part of the stories are true will be hard to make out from the stories alone - including the parts that suggest she has the power to grand one's deepest and darkest desires. ► TAMATOA: A beast that is absolutely secondary to the Sea Witch in nastiness, but still gets complained about all the same. Tamatoa is a giant monster and all around shit-crab that makes a point of snatching up anything golden that he can find to adorn his lustrous shell. More of an annoyance than a major threat, he has often scavenged away treasure before the merfolk can get to it, resulting in no shortage of hurt feelings. Also, he will casually eat just about any life-form that can fit into his mouth if they cross him, and sometimes even if they don't. Extremely vain and predictable, he has a horde of magical objects that he's collected over the years but has never used - mostly just because he's a fucking giant crab and what do you expect him to do with them. Note that he is not the exact same rendition as the Tamatoa from Moana, meaning that he still has all of his legs. REWARDS↴ Merfolk love trading, and as such there will be opportunities set up for workers to either spend an allowance given to them by the Ringmaster, or to trade their own belongings in the various markets inside of Atlantis. Also, with the right amount of smarts and caution, it is also theoretically possible to get stuff out of the Sea Witch or Tamatoa if you play your cards right - that is, if you're willing to risk having them eat your body and/or soul. If one gets friendly with the merfolk, there is also good odds that some of the workers will be invited along for some treasure hunting, that could result in some random loot and various shinies as well. CHANGES↴ Characters may optionally keep (decided on an OOC basis) one uncommon or common change related to their mer-form. Essentially, this will just be them leaving Atlantis at the end, and having a certain part of their underwater look stick with them. Changes are also theoretically available as part of random dealings with NPCs, but those will be dealt with as they arise. 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! A mingle log will be posted this weekend.

Comments

⇨ QUESTIONS

[ringleaders]

Got any questions about this location? Let us know here!

[dorkypantsuit]

How dangerous exactly will the merfolk make Tamatoa seem and how much will they talk up his collection of magical crap?

If someone's character were interested in raiding his collection how would that be handled? A IC log or just OOC discussion?

[ringleaders]

They talk about him as if he is dangerous enough that none of them are going to bother trying to take back the stuff he took, despite merfolk having plenty of their own magical capabilities. Several merfolk have been eaten by him in recent history, so, you know. It's not something to fuck around with.

The merfolk don't exactly know what he has in his collection because Tamatoa scavenged it before they could get a look. It could be a bunch of useless shit or it could be full of godly powerful swords, who the hell knows. Tamatoa hasn't really played with most of them because all he cares about is the fact they are pretty.

It would probably be a mix of both - an OOC discussion about how they are approaching it, and then a log from the point where Tamatoa would become aware of what they are doing.

[destiny_key]

Just based on the fact that Sora has been to The Little Mermaid world multiple times;

How similar IS Atlantis to TLM? Obviously there's some big aesthetic differences, but would Sora recognize anything? Or should I just handwave it as being different enough that it's an entirely new world?

[ringleaders]

He's recognize that the king has the same name, and that this king also has lots of daughters, and that the Sea Witch has a lot of similarities to Ursula. Besides that, it's pretty much its own city with its own culture. It's kind of like its a distant retelling of the same story, like movies based on mythology and the like.

[destiny_key]

I see! So it's kind of a case of 'this is kinda familiar' without actually being the same.

This helps a lot! Thank you! <3

[mirrortide]

SO. Someone here, not naming names, would be a completely overpowered jerk under the water.

Is any amount of nerfing said trash fire necessary or is she free to perhaps accidentally fuck up some ecosystems by accident...

look i don't know what she's going to do yet but its lapis so something bad will probably happen

[ringleaders]

No nerfing exactly, since her nerfing already covered generally not being a planet ruining dick. She couldn't destroy the city by herself, and would still be basically restricted to a carnage range of a couple city blocks, as is the case with everyone. However, her water abilities obviously have a lot of fine control type uses in this context that would still make her rather threatening.

She can fuck up ecosystems but she will also probably get called out on that and then potentially get thrown in mermaid jail, so its just the standard IC action = IC consequences jazz.

[mirrortide]

perfect

i mean i don't think she'd destroy a city BUT mermaid jail mermaid jail

[periphrasing]

So the most important question is

Tamatoa likes gold, sure... but how does he feel about gems

[ringleaders]

I was honestly just thinking about this on the way home today, about how he would be like YES ME LIKEY about these magical glowing gem people.

I mean in canon he is arguable mostly interested in gold, but in this world I would have to say he deeply enjoys all shinies. Especially rare and valuable kinds.

Watch yourself, Peridot.

[periphrasing]

Welp Peridot's about to have a v. bad time here

I wonder if her metal powers work on gold....?

[ringleaders]

I'm... not sure?? Frequently metal powers are based on things being magnetic, but I don't think that's actually the case with Peridot's. Not specifically anyway.

So, yeah, I imagine it'd work on gold to some degree. It's as much metal at anything.

[periphrasing]

Socks him in the eye with his own treasure hoard

Eat shit, crab man

+1

[sunflowerfields]

Holy crabp please do this

Mer Inspiration!

[pipers_son]

For those who need a little help thinking of what kind of merperson to make their character, I've made a plurk compiling a bunch of merpeople images! My plurk is public as well, so you don't have to worry about being a friend of me on there (although I welcome everyone in the game).

There is some nudity because mermaid titties, and some are bit more on the side of "spooky body horror" merpeople, but there should be something for everyone! And of course, if you have pictures of merpeople you want to dump, by all means.


Follow here for fish butt

SWIM LESSONS!

[destiny_key]

Yooooo would anyone be interested in having Sora teach them how to swim as a mermaid? He's not an expert or anything, but this is far from the first time he's been a mer-person, and he'd be happy to help anyone who needs it!

[waitingforplayer2]

SCREAMS YES although since she's turning into a ray her technique might need to be slightly different?? But she's not a swimmer so any help is appreciated!!

[destiny_key]

He'll still be happy to help! The technique can't be -that- different, right?

anyway he can keep you from dying so there's that.

[musicinmotion]

Sora..Sora please teach Yuuri because he's going to have no goddamn clue what to do.

[destiny_key]

DON'T WORRY YUURI, SORA WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO NOT DIE IN WATER!

[musicinmotion]

THANK YOU IT'S APPRECIATED! c:

GONGENZAKA & CARLY

[otoko]

IT'S FISH TIME.

In the interest of finally pushing these two over the line from 'patches of X' to 'skin entirely replaced/covered in x', Gon and Carly are gonna be looking Very Fishy. Unfortunately work has been slamming me around something fierce these days, so the most you get are 5 second sketches.

Of Gon and of Carly, of course.

...Well.

That and ~IMAGES~

Gongenzaka will be a rather odd mash of himself and The MANTIS SHRIMP (That's a video by the way, the image is Here). Already some sort of taur-type creature, the clubs of the shrimp have been replaced with his fore legs. Fortunately, he appears to swim just fine, though he's not sure what to think about being covered with carapace and Odd Shrimp Fluff.

Carly however goes TOTALLY DARK. TRANSLUCENT. BOTH.

Carly is a JELLYFISH. Complete with a 'cover' hood of sorts, her wings, lower body...even her arms to an extent, are long and stringy. If her markings were to die down, it'd be pretty hard to find her, too. Oops.

Giant Treasure Crab Raid

[pipers_son]

That is to say, who'd be interested in going to see if they can steal treasure from Tamatoa?

Joker is definitely interested, but 1) he knows better than to go alone and 2) he knows better than to let other people who are almost DEFINITELY going to go anyway go alone, so after inevitably hearing about Tamatoa from the various merfolk, he'd start asking around for other interested parties.

This is an interest check, and also plotting post! Basically respond here if your character would be interested in getting in on this, and feel free to throw out ideas on how to successfully steal from Tamatoa without everyone getting fucked up.

[kingsroads]

it is reckless and dangerous and possibly a bad idea so you know Strange is 100% up for bothering a giant crab.

as for how to steal from Tamatoa, Strange can definitely use some spells to help restrain him while others grab the good stuff. however, Tamatoa is a bigass crab so he's definitely gonna need some help in the 'keeping the crab still' department.

[drrdrrdrr]

amethyst wants to get in on this but has no ideas for how to do it effectively she just wants to have a good time

[drrdrrdrr]

CRAB CLAWS CAN BE BOLASED RIGHT ??

ITS FINE

[peridork]

I don't know for certain how to tie this in, but I was planning on having Peridot get into some kind of trouble with Tamatoa bc apparently he's interested in kidnapping shiny gem people.

Also, she has metal powers that she can use to nab some gold and/or hit Tamatoa in the face with his own loot.

[periphrasing]

Accidentally responds w/ the wrong Peri account WHOOPS

[osteothropy]

sans doesn't want to come and also posits that you're all dumb

Re: Giant Treasure Crab Raid

[amusicaladventure]

Ash will song battle him.

Straight up.

Re: Giant Treasure Crab Raid

[thevictoriandetective]

Sherlock's a slight kleptomaniac and a hoarder so yes. Yes he'll be doing this.

[sunflowerfields]

I wanna do this so I'm gonna say Hinawa is going along to make sure you crazy kids stay out of trouble.

[pullingamiko]

thanks for linking this on plurk tbh because it reminded me that miko is 110% here for this

she is small and speedy (though possibly less so at the moment??) and those are mostly her only relevant skills here since punching giant treasure crab may not be a GREAT idea, especially not underwater