ARC VI: THE SUNKEN

[groundrules]

Happy Friday! Curtains are drawing on the Dream a little dream of her... travel arc, with the conclusion one cut away — warning for spoilers, if you're still threading out the mystery

IT WAS ALL A DREAM

As the team has been piecing together, there is something amiss with good Firo, and the numerous suggestions in answer to his ransom offer push M. le Bagade to accuse the renown heroine that she might be... a living dream. The Conductor threatens her expulsion, to the anguish of her sister Lita, who takes full responsibility. Firo, she says, was unaware — Lita, also a living dream, has been secretly feeding her stolen sedative herbs to induce sleep and make Firo think herself a 'normal' person.

Seeing her spouse mired in conflict, Prassenze emerges from where she has been changing appearance in the passenger crowd. A blank slate more than a person, she confesses she is also living dream, forged as a companion to Firo. As the party suspected, she has been using a dream thief to recreate herself on each wedding day and better suit beloved Firo and her companions. Sadly, Prassenze and the dream thief ran out of dream tokens to power their efforts, and Prassenze chose to hide away. Hugo — Natasha has learned, of the Merchant's homeland Ellethia — bashfully admits he is the dream thief, who created the perfect hero (Firo), her stalwart sister (Lita) and the blushing bride (Prassenze).

While the Conductor should remove living dreams from the train, Hugo patiently reminds him of the many years when he and his team allowed dream thieves to continue their work undeterred on the Sandman, for a price. To protect the train's reputation, the Conductor calls the incident closed. The group retires to their compartments — Firo and Prassenze agreeing to talk, Lita a little shattered, and Hugo... telling the Merchant's party that, if he had known what trouble they would cause, he would not have procured their tickets.

Betting results: 40,000 coins to Wei Wuxian and Dean each, 20,000 to Beitang Moran and Lan Sizhui each, 30,000 to Five.

ARC VI

We officially enter Arc VI on 15 May, when the group arrives in sunken village Yancai during a first log event — which doubles as a test drive meme.

■ Yancai location details are now live!

■ Courtesy of the Merchant, characters are assigned false identities/occupations and dwellings while in Yancai. Unrelated to the Merchant, they might be haunted. CTRL+F your character's name to learn their fate. The haunting & atonement are entirely optional — feel free to ignore or tweak.

■ A new NPC inbox will follow shortly.

■ Characters are coming into Arc VI with varying levels of false memories of being native to Yancai. These false memories are temporary and will dispel within days of arrival. During this period, characters can still sense they have a connection with their CR (as deeply or shallowly as you want), even if they have a diffuse sense of how it was formed. Ex: character A might know they love B, even if they don't recall B is their spouse of 50 years. They would (and should) be startled by this discrepancy in their memories.

■ the first Arc VI log will cover: a few days of acclimating to the village (and fully recovering character memories, where applicable), getting optionally haunted, exploring the lakes and and searching sunken territories for clues about the time-warping decay.

■ QUESTIONS

To line up some excellent rural CR, fill out the below and spam to your hearts' content:

<b><small>PLAYER</small>:</b> <b><small>CONTACT INFO</small>:</b> <b><small>CHARACTER | CANON</small>:</b> <b>WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI?</b> ...and how will they cope with it? <b><small>MEMORY STATUS</small>:</b> <b><small>GENERAL PLANS</small>:</b>

Comments

kamala khan | mcu

[cosplayqueen]

PLAYER: Rose
CONTACT INFO: milanobutterly on plurk | PM

CHARACTER | CANON: Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) | MCU

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? Carpenter's apprentice to Chu Wanning! She'll actually love this once she starts to get the hang of it.

She's staying with Natasha Romanoff, Red, Dean Winchester, Nynaeve at the abandoned hideout of a gang of thieves and rogues. Apparently some tough guys do chores sometimes. Kamala thinks this is part of her decision to stay.

MEMORY STATUS: Remembers who she is, but thinks they collectively decided to stay for a while.

GENERAL PLANS:
-Dealing with her haunting. Little kids are being mean to her. :( Talk it out with her, please? In all seriousness, Kamala will be dealing with her regret over the secrets she keeps about her identity and abilities. Anyone who could have a good talk with her about it would be great. She'll actually be crying after every encounter with these ghosts because she is really sensitive about this. :(

-Meeting her roommates.

No, really just that. I'm taking it easy this month.

[blackscales]

Wrathion is pro keeping secrets for safety reasons, so he'd happily assure her she did nothing wrong!

He's also not great at comfort or physical affection but he'd awkwardly do his best!

[cosplayqueen]

She will appreciate it. He's always so nice to her :)

[blackscales]

Please don't tell anyone he's nice, he has a reputation to uphold Kamala! TOUGH MAN.

[somebadnews]

Five is not at all comfortable with this housing arrangement, will bully Chu Wanning to give him status updates. Zero chill if he sees the guys cleaning their hideout.

And if there is an excuse for Five to reveal that his superhero name was literally ‘the Boy’ I am taking it. The fame isn’t worth it, Kamala!!

[cosplayqueen]

WOW SHE ONLY KIND OF WANTS THE VALIDATION FAME GIVES HER!! No, this is really needed since she has such a rosy view of things. :(

Kamala would full stop tell Five it's okay the guys are there because she doesn't let them do her laundry. That would be weird!! Not you know weird that they offered.

[somebadnews]

Imagine there was a time when Five was on the cover of teen magazines because their father really wanted to make 'the Umbrella Academy' happen. A name he came up with because he walked by an umbrella one time, and now Five and Allison have to live with those tattoos. It's a Whole Thing, Kamala.

There are so many related problems that have nothing to do with laundry here!! We need to go way overboard on locks to her room.

[valeas]

Kamala ;;

Emilia is here for all the talks but also to feed, come to the hot house for lunches and dinners please.

[cosplayqueen]

Yes, she'll definitely be there for that. She's working hard for a living so please feed her, Emilia. ;;

wanda maximoff | mcu

[westviews]

PLAYER: Fudgey
CONTACT INFO: continuing @ plurk

CHARACTER | CANON: Wanda Maximoff | MCU

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? Governess to the kids of the rich. Great with the kids, side-eye at the rich parents, but hey it pays. Lives in a spooky lighthouse when not working.

MEMORY STATUS: Thinks she's been here alllll along.

GENERAL PLANS:
- haunted by the lumberjack and is gaining a collection of wedding bands, does anyone want one........
- maybe your character is rich and has """"kids""" she's dealt with, it's okay she'll sympathize with the fake kid thing after
- once wanda regains her senses (why is it always migraines) she might talk about her regret with someone (no, really, she should!! volunteers for a sob story welcomed)
- rescue or camaraderie will also be a thing
- deep curiosity about the witches, because.... witches

[nachocheese]

Nacho's also haunted by the lumberjack! :O That might be an interesting point of commonality...

Or! If you need somebody to rescue, he's been rescuing a lot of people lately so maybe it's his turn. o/

[westviews]

Rescue!! That'd work for her, getting back to those Avengers roots... any particular scenario in mind?

[nachocheese]

Yes!! So, I've already had him near the harbors -- I'm thinking he lingers too long by the unopened boats, hurls himself into the ocean, and needs to be brought up to the surface. If that works for you!! If not, I can think of something else.

[somebadnews]

I'd love to use the lighthouse as an excuse to finally bother Wanda. Five is basically the fake kid of a billionaire alien, he's just... different. They'll get along fine.

[westviews]

NO ESCAPE since they live in the same place for the time being >:( she'll be exploring the place because it's kind of creepycool, so maybe they can climb to the top without weirding one another out...

[matermali]

Witches, right? Because...witches.

[westviews]

so late and barely alive but WITCHES ON WITCHES because they cannot be outdone

Jimmy McGill | Better Call Saul

[slippin]

PLAYER: Carolyn
CONTACT INFO: PM/smugfrog @ plurk

CHARACTER | CANON: Jimmy McGill | Better Call Saul

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? /Colin Meloy voice 🎶 he's a moneylenderrrrr 🎶

In some ways the position suits him really well—he gets to interact with all sorts of people, gets the intellectual stimulation of working out various financial angles, and gets to pretend he has some kind of control in this deeply, deeply creepy village. (Also: while his memories are wonky he'll find it much less creepy! And be less skittish about magic as well.)

I'd like for him to feel connected to/fond of the village and the people there, so let me know if you want to figure out backstory about our chars (who have possibly never even met...) being friends for ten years or whatever!

He lives in the very recently closed Peeling Petals brothel with Tess Servopoulos, Pietro Maximoff, Licyn Mansbane, and Claire Fraser.

MEMORY STATUS: Knows who he is, but thinks he arrived in the village and decided to stay a long time ago.

GENERAL PLANS:

- I'd like to milk the couple days of memory confusion for all they're worth—would love to work out shared backstories, especially since it might be a good way to get him to let his guard down around chars who freak him out otherwise (anyone even vaguely intimidating).
- On that note, moneylender backstory ideas: you owe him $$$ (a classic, we could play out him coming to collect), you need to borrow $$$ (maybe it's for a business, maybe an important life milestone like a wedding or new sword fish...hook!), you owe him so much money he's the reason you're still in the village (whoops, he'll feel guilty about this later...would be down for BEING INTENSE ENEMIES BC HE RUINED YOUR CHAR'S LIFE until five days later when we realize this isn't real), maybe he even helped you out in a tight spot!
- Or maybe your char had a, ahem, connection to the erstwhile brothel he now lives in. Knock on his door expecting someone totally different!

POST-MINDFUCKERY

- He's going to be haunted by the Man in Black, who croons at him in his dead brother's voice. While shaving him with a knife.
- Since this haunting occurs while he shaves, may attempt to grow the world's worst beard. Problem-solving!
- Getting him to talk about it will be the hardest of hard modes (HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE TO MENTION HIS BROTHER EXIST...ED), but I'd love for that to happen! If your char is also being haunted (esp if it's by MIB) and would mention it, that might be a good in.
- DO YOU NEED HELP FINANCING [insert reckless behavior here]???? well look no further, though you might get side-eyed!


OTHER

- I love toads 🥰 bring me your toad plots 😘🐸

[nachocheese]

Render unto Cesar that which is Cesar's, Jimmy.

[slippin]

dives into one of the 5 convenient lakes

BUT SERIOUSLY their relationship could probably go however you want (since Jimmy's only vaguely going to know who Nacho actually is for the first few days)...there could be persistent tax fraud happening, or they could be working together.

[nachocheese]

LMAO

That's very true! Do you have a preference? I think both could be fun in different ways. Them getting along without complications would be really fun, buuuut lmao @ Jimmy committing persistent tax fraud and Nacho having a suspicion of what he's doing but being unable to prove it so he's just >:(

OH. OR. Something I just thought of. Maybe Nacho unexpectedly bails out an especially vulnerable client of Jimmy's by paying off their debt for them. They meet (and possibly start working together?) that way.

[matermali]

Shared backstory could be interesting. And who doesn't visit the local laundress/seamstress who sleep in the weird religious cave? Even moneylenders wear clothes (I assume...)

God forbid she ever borrowed money, though.

[slippin]

Clothes...the magic word...how talented is she/how willing to be complicit in colorful affronts to the senses? Because I could see them having a fairly close relationship (or her at least being aware of when business is good or bad just based on how often he's visiting).

hermione granger (harry potter)

[reparo]

PLAYER: Cella
CONTACT INFO: shortitude @ plurk but I mostly lurk?

CHARACTER | CANON: Hermione Granger (HP)

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? Retired author of a leading books on manners and hospitality. The women of the village gather around constantly, requesting behaviour lessons.

How will she cope? Pretty well, it's basically lecturing people about not chewing with their mouths open and stuff. Hermione's a very good lecturer. During the wonky memory bit: she will take it seriously. After the recovery of her memory: it will be one of her least annoying "roles" that Karsa's given her. Thanks, bae.

MEMORY STATUS: 2. She thinks she has been there longer during the day, remembers stuff at night - but this will last a short period of time, so she can get haunted. Yay!

GENERAL PLANS:

1. Get kissed by Miang-Si and have a bisexual awakening moment? Girls lips nice? Why? How come? High chances of some ridiculous network shenanigans for this as well.
2. Can help with investigating the House of Commerce... Apparition is handy
3. Will be getting haunted by visions of her parents and may need to...do something...about that (or I'll just let her suffer longer)
4. She can swim and she can still swing spells in water so recruit her for your party

Honestly, beyond the #BiRightsForHermione side-arc, I'm flexible with plans and incredibly yoinkable. Yoink me your way.

[nachocheese]

Investigating the House of Commerce might be fun! Nacho's a tax collector (supposedly), so he's got an "in!"