HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT. It's August and August means selling junk outside of your house in hopes of getting a couple extra bucks for those shoes you never wore and the sweaters your grandma thinks you love.

A mile or so from the Hold, a civilian apartment building will be doing just that. See, it was at first just a pair of roommates who enlisted into the Initiative hoping to sell off the stuff they couldn't take with them, but the old lady next door heard about it, who told the couple upstairs about it, who asked the landlord about it and...well. Now it's all the residents of that building.

For three days (Aug 21-23 SHH I CAN READ CALENDARS), these people will be trying to sell off their junk. It will start just after the morning bus line to the Hold and just before the evening one, which gives them a clear street to roam since traffic is low in that section save for the work bus. Enclosed is a list of the kinds of things you can find for dirt cheap (or at least cheaper than retail):

( but alas there are no cute custom outfits for your lawn ornament geese )

There will be an open log for the purpose of perusing, running into each other perusing, and all that sort of stuff on Monday morning (like stupid-early EST so there's a good chance to get things rolling) for your CR-ing pleasure! I expect a bloodthirsty fight over that toaster or the stupid robot dog.

Please enjoy!

The event's log post is up! Feel free to create a thread for your character's memories and invade each other's threads! If you don't feel like setting up a character's memory, handwaving that it happened is perfectly fine. If you want to write it out but don't feel like threading in it, just mark it as "closed" in the subject header. "Open" isn't necessary, that will just be assumed!

You may notice a surprise guest showing up in our log. 8] There's a mystery NPC hanging out in a memory between all other memories, and as characters pass from one to the next, they'll glimpse his world. Their stay there will only be a few seconds, but characters are free to do whatever they like while they're there. Ask him questions, attack him — whatever! Checking into that thread isn't required, it's perfectly fine to assume they either didn't stay long enough to see or do anything of note, or didn't take the opportunity to interact.

Note: there are plot-clues to be had here, but not all threads will include them. We'll be using a RNG to decide which threads get hints, so if characters want to find out more about it, they'll have to talk amongst themselves and compare experiences.

As a final note, the last day of this event is Wednesday the 8th, at 12:00 AM PST. Characters will find themselves snapping back to reality at this time whereever they fell out of it (or maybe in a bed somewhere, if they have non-PCs that actually like them or they were found by a good Samaritan). But as always, backtagging is welcome and encouraged!

Questions and comments are welcome as always! Now GO FORTH AND REMEMBER STUFF, EXSILIUM.

Dear Exsilium, here is your Lizplotmod on behalf of Elle and Liz, blasting in with some PLOT STUFF.

Next Tuesday (Aug 7th), the Initiative's VR Training Project is scheduled to go live. This is a network connected via character's sentient weapons and intended to bring the users into a virtual reality for the purpose of simulating combat and train with them. It's all really totally cool and high-tech, in case anyone was starting to forget that this is the future.

BUT. Despite all Initiative reassurances, something is going to go wrong. ( Okay really, who's surprised? CLICK FOR MORE, Y'ALL. )

tl;dr:

•There will shortly be an IC Initiative post announcing the impending release of a VR Training Program.
•Said VR Training Program is released 3 days early, on Sunday, August 5th.
•Characters relive one memory, and have the ability to enter one another's memories.
•Memory NPCs go nutso and turn into default video game baddies.
•After 3 days of these shenanigans (on Tuesday, August 8th), everything is back to normal, including any wounds inflicted.
•Consider this your plotting post!

No plotting is required — if you want, you can jump straight into the log without having said a word to anyone else. But if you'd prefer to advertise just what kind of memory we can expect from your characters, that's fine too! Mix, mingle, talk it out! And of course, all questions/comments are welcome.

NO IT'S OKAY THIS ISN'T MOD-RELATED I SWEAR.

But it has plot potential!

( clickyclick )

WHAT UP, RECRUITS.

This is that post-thing what's going to help us plotmods pick a few more tweaks and additions to the soon-changing Exsilium landscape, based on what you, as players, done did!

REMINDER: We are still in plot-mode re: people missing in time and the city losing its bananas. But that's going to be over when we reveal the changes, and y'all will get the chance to oogle and explore freely! So new meat? Please feel free to either assume you're sucked into the city's rioting mess (June 23-25), or hold onto your hats for the upcoming changes (to be revealed no later than Tuesday, July 3).

The cutoff for data input is MONDAY, July 2, somewhere around 6 p.m. EST. After that, we're going to take what we get and roll with it. Not everything may be used, but the more we have, the more opportunities we get to expand or alter things in a distinct way. And, of course, some effects may be long in coming, where others are more immediate. And not all are very obvious!

Time shenanigans, man.

So, what are we looking for?

Literally and almost anything. Did your character throw a rock in frustration at someone? That counts. Did you knock down a tree or a building in some civilized area? That counts, too. Did you convince someone to pursue a career as a professional triangle-player? Let us know. Did you hum a catchy, cheesy song within earshot of strangers? That absolutely counts.

These don't have to be things that are legit spelled out in your playing so far, as these kinds of logs are slow-burning. These can be the implied antics that you and your group mates thought about doing or are planning to get to!

This also includes those fighting during the riots: Did you kill somebody? Did you kill a lot of somebodies? Did you administer first aid to someone/lots of someones? Did you administer structural damage to something/somethings? Those sorts of things apply, too.


GIVE US WHAT YOU GOT, GUYS, AND WE WILL BE THE FINE JEWELERS WHO SET YOUR PRECIOUS GEMS OF ACTION INTO THE COMPLETE COMPOSITION THAT IS THE EVER-TO-BE-CHANGING EXSILIUM LANDSCAPE.



Follow more-or-less this format:

CHARACTER NAME
ROLE IN THE PLOT (be it a time-travel group or in the riots)
WHAT THEY DID (in however form you want list/summaries/etc)

DARKOVIN' IT UP BECAUSE PAID ACCOUNTS MAKE POLLS

HI GUYS. It's Elle, on behalf of Liz and myself on behalf of this crazy time-travel-and-angry-citizens-all-up-in-the-everywhere plot.

As previously mentioned in the last mod post, we are still ICly working under the notion that things are still sixteen flavors of crazy and many are still lost in time. OOCly, of course, it's already a day since the end! But since tagging/organizing can take a lot of time...yeah! Y'know how it goes.

But we'd like to get your opinion on when you'd like to start depositing your information for the end of the plot. As in, we'll have another post up where everyone relates some key/trivial-but-not-really things they did over the course of the event; people they've spoken to (anything of interest?), hurt, killed...places they've left some kind of mark on. That sort of thing. It'll give us as plot mods more ammo to tweak future plots, tailored to way you, as players, impacted the plots preceding!

NOTE: NEW CHARACTERS THIS WEEK: You are more than welcome to work under the impression your character was zapped in the midst of the big city riot and participate in the log! Otherwise, you can wait for the post-plot reveal of things changing in Exsilium. It's your call!

So, without any further ado—



TL;DR CLARIFICATION: We will need to make a wrap-up post to finalize what things will change in Exsilium due to everyone's antics during the plot! That poll is to determine when we'll do so.


Please only vote ONCE, or you will make me sad. :(

We're also interested to know your thoughts on time/spacing things out for big plots like this that involve lots of people and lots of different tagrates. In order to ensure we can get the most out of future plots, it'll help to know what the general vibe folks want for our pacing! Do you think starting a big plot in advance of the IC date is good, or starting on time and backtagging what passes the date? Or something else? Let us know!

Thanks so much for sticking with us, everyone, and getting involved! We're going to keep working hard to constantly improve and bring you more and more fun things to toy around with!

ALL PLOT-RELATED LOG POSTS ARE NOW ACTIVE AND READY TO BE TACKLED.

HANDY LINKS:

• CITY RIOT
• GROUP 1
• GROUP 2
• GROUP 3
• GROUP 4

I need everyone not in the time travel groups who has not done so already to check into this post somewhere so we know who to expect in each section!

Some things to note/observe/follow:

• The format/structure of threads/subthreads in each of the time travel logs is entirely up to the players in each...go at it how you will!
• Please, no fresh comments outside of the ones already prepared in the city riot! All threads and subthreads need to stay within the bounds of each section they relate to.
• On that note, SUBTHREAD TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT. Get as much CR as you want! Cross-pollinate! Spontaneity makes these kinds of things even better.
• Network posts during the riots are absolutely welcome But remember, time travelers have no access to the network at this time)!
• Liz and I will be NPCing all over the riot post to keep you on your toes; DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY FROM THE ACTION SO EASILY.

IMPORTANT: Though this event is slated to wrap up icly 6/25, the results of this will not be revealed until later on in the week/possibly near the end of it. We want to give everyone as much time as we can to enjoy this mess! So hold off on any after-the-fact posts, because it won't officially be after until Exsilium has undergone some interesting facelifts!

Liz and I really hope you have a lot of fun with this; we look forward to seeing what your characters make of it all!

GREETINGS, RECRUITS!! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME CRAZY PLOT HAPPENINGS? BECAUSE THEY'RE HAPPENING.

( CLICKY ME AND LIVE FOREVER )

HAPPY SUNDAY, EXSILIUM. I'M HERE BRINGING YOU VERY IMPORTANT PLOT-RELATED HAPPENINGS THAT YOU WILL WANT TO READ OR AT LEAST BE AWARE OF, SO PLEASE TO BE BRINGING YOUR EYEBALLS HERE:

( CLICK ME HURRY QUICK )

NOTICE: Civilians are going to be showing similar signs of affliction many characters currently have; there will be semi-transparent people, fainting people, people looking downright agonized, overgrown hair/nails/grandparents way younger than grandkids, etc.

Tension is reaching a boiling point, needless to say. As of this posting, please acknowledge this heightened state of distress from the general public. People will lash out at you for help or harm if hysterical enough. Many people blame you, recruits, for causing these problems.

You may even find a vendor/employee here or there within the Hold unwilling to accommodate you. Maybe the janitor spits on your shoes as you pass by. These will not be as frequent as the average civilians themselves, as Initiative employees ought to know better (you'd THINK...).

Watch your backs out there. Shit is painfully close to the fan blades at this point.

As always, questions/concerns/reaction gifs are welcome here or via Liz and my primary modes of contact listed on initiatesnpc's profile.

HELLO AGAIN, RECRUITS. Elle here, on behalf of Liz and myself, to update you on ONGOING SHENANIGANS.

As you go about your days this week, a general sense of unrest will become more and more apparent. You may catch snippets of civilian discussion of possible interest (“...swear I’m not making this up, but they were just not there!”; “--rything was so slow and I was so scared, you have no idea.”; “--y hair is just out of control, oh my gosh! It’s so much longer now, see? I just had this cut!”), though context will be hard to find! Approaching anyone will not get any further answers; they’ll cut off and leave. (Most of these folks are scared of you weirdo recruits)

No big deal, right? SURE!

But yeah. That’s the thing going on. Expect an in-game announcement from an Initiative rep around midweek. Until then, there will be no further responses from them except generic “WE ARE LOOKING INTO THINGS THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE” replies to those directly inquiring. Please assume that response if characters ask and I miss a post (or just pm me and be like THIS IS A THING).

Any questions/concerns/gifs/etc. are welcome here! PLEASE TO BE ENJOYING.

aka THIS IS THE WORST ROADTRIP EVER
aka THIS IS ACTUALLY A PLOTTING POST I CAN'T ACCOUNT FOR HOW BAD SAID ROADTRIP COULD POSSIBLY BE


Holla out to the folks who're all about jumpin' town during this time of grand exposures! There is a truckSEDAN and expressed interest to book it. So I'd like to propose a fat mess of a log of this little venture, spanning the next couple days? It can prove to have some yummy CR across the board, including those legit leaving and those going WOW YOU GUYS ARE WUSSES DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT

From what I've been told, confirmed are:

• Will Metzger (who is driving this radio)
• Artika
• Fiona
• Martin Darkov
• Shaun
• Mina
• Vitali

And anyone else who's up for a little ~*adventure*~ should holla over here! You can reference this post for the general invite and such.

WANNA DO THIS THING Y/N


UPDATE: HERE IS THE LOG GET IN IT IF YOU LIKE (IT IS OPEN FOR THE FIRST THREAD)

GUESS WHAT? Now you know why your brain feels like a mushy, crazy mess in a propaganda commercial!

NITTY-GRITTY: ( it's in here )

MINI-PLOT: there's something in the water

Hello everyone! I'm bringing to you our non-mission but important-to-central-development-mini-plot! This plot will be taking place from Thursday, May 10th until Thursday, May 24th!

As you'll have seen by Anora's IC announcement here and OOC post here, it's becoming more and more clear that the Initiative is… well, not as organized, up front, and thoughtful of their transports as they should be.

This is totally okay for your characters to pick up on! In fact, it's encouraged! In the future, we've got some big plans -- and part of those plans will need characters to pick up on the shadyness and ineffectual direction of the Initiative organization! Anora's actions, as it were, are incredibly helpful for kickstarting this. Which brings me to the main point of this post… our mini-plot!

There is going to be something in the water and the food. The water in the Housing apartments, and the food supplied by and sold in the Initiative Hold, is going to be tainted with a hallucinatory substance that will cause your characters to have very vivid, anti-United Earth and pro-Initiative dreams! These hallucinations will affect your characters only in their dreams -- UNLESS -- your character is chipped.

THAT'S RIGHT, THOSE CHIPS. If your character is chipped, this substance is going to be much stronger on them. They may even see hallucinations during the day, when they're not asleep. The hallucinations and the intense subjects of the dream will be embellished upon by your character's mind. The general message will be the same for everyone affected: UNITED EARTH = BAD, INITIATIVE = GOOD, but the nature of the dreams (what exactly they see, what exactly they hear) will be tailored specifically for their own minds.

It's perfectly alright for your characters to pick up on this! It's expected. It's going to be a subliminal messaging job, but it's not going to be the best of the best. Your characters will be able to notice that something weird is up -- and that they're not the only ones with this happening to them.

If you don't wish for your character to be affected, that is perfectly fine too! They don't have to have had the food from the Hold, or they don't have to have drank the water and they won't feel the effects of the substance.

As always, questions, comments, concerns, and ideas are all welcome here on this post!

In light of the comments registered here, and of course in light of the end of our first mission, I would like to open up this post here as a discussion post for our first mission plot! It was very much a test run of what I'd like to try out in the future, but I'm interested to know about any suggestions, ideas, or feedback that you guys as players might have on the missions for the future.

I would love for us to be able to come together to improve the overall enjoyment of the missions in-game, as well as find a good way to roll them out for everyone in an open setting. I'm all ears here and I would love to hear your thoughts!

I've done my best to ensure that IP logging is turned off and anonymous commenting is enabled here, so that if you would prefer to register your ideas anonymously that is okay too! A few things that I have put on the table to do for next time:

➦ Better opportunities for players to add in their own plots during the overall missions post; making the mission open for player plots and ideas.
➦ Saving the outcome of the mission (victory / non-victory / etc) for the debriefing log (instead of during the main mission log).
➦ Utilising player and character involvement in the outcome of the mission, so that even if the victory or non-victory is known ahead of time by the mods, it may be affected by player involvement in a big way.

Any and all suggestions, ideas and concerns are welcome here and I look forward to your feedback. Thank you, everyone!

Okay so a lot of you were interested in helping Jason with his DIPLOMACY plan...but it seems due to timing that it's not exactly...going to work since they are arriving 30 minutes before the battle even takes place. Oops.

It's a little late for my brain to think, but, suffice to say Jason will be trying to come up with a new plan |D even in the heat of battle. If nothing else expect him to either a) be playing PROTECT THE VILLAGE and fighting defensively or b) stopping others from killing Romans

If interested in playing out option B. Let me know.

An in-character announcement has been made in the main community by the Initiative here!

What this means is, yes, the Masked and the government of the United Earth plan to purge alternate worlds of their resources to use for their own -- since they've been greedy, and they've used up everything on their own and are sitting on only a few more decades' worth of supplies. Plants, animals, natural elements, fuels, power -- you name it, they're going into other worlds to mercilessly search for it.

If you have any questions about it at all or would like more information (provided that it is information that I'm able to give out, but I will let you know if it's secret for more metaplot situations), go ahead and ask here!

Thank you everyone!

Hello everyone! I come to you with some casual information about our next, upcoming plot! This is going to be our first mission, so it's going to be an easy one while we throw everyone back in time for the first time. Missions will become increasingly difficult after this.
So that everyone knows, this is how things are gonna go down when we go on missions, here in the beginning:

( OH GOD HALEY TALKS FOREVER )

As always, we welcome all of your ideas and input and questions and concerns and -- everything!! Hopefully this gives you guys a good idea of what's going on. :D

Thanks everyone!

If your character is going to be chipped during the occupation and remain that way, please leave a comment here letting us know for future reference!

FROM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH until SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH Exsilium is going to be actively occupied by The Masked. They have caught wind that something unusual is going on and that the population of exiles has suddenly and rapidly boomed, and they will be coming in to forcibly microchip the transports with tracking devices. What does this mean? The following:

WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING:

The Masked will be stationing themselves in every available public location. They will wait beside doors, they will guard the front entrances to the apartments, and they will be making themselves a presence within the shopping area of the Initiative Hold. When your character ventures out into any public space (though they will be encouraged to hide), they will be confronted by two or more of The Masked, who will then use blunt force to hold your character in place and -- using a small installation gun -- they will seat a tracking microchip into your character's back, between their shoulder blades.

Being 'chipped' during this plot is 100% optional. It will not affect your character immediately and will instead have unfortunate repercussions in the future, none of which will directly harm your character but will remain private for the time for plot reasons. Most notably, The Masked will be able to track your characters movements should they leave the island and venture into the United Earth -- but there will be more in the future.

Your character may also be chipped and have that chip removed! However, know that it is in a difficult location to reach for them alone and that in 99% of cases they will probably have to have a friend dig it out of their back with a knife like a true bro.

WHO ARE THE MASKED:

[ Glossary info here. ]

The Masked are the Government-sanctioned, militarized police force of the United Earth (all of the continents and land that is outside Exsilium’s borders). They wear all black, skintight suits, and have large masks that cover all of their face except for their mouths. There is a large visor that comes down over their eyes to allow them to use computer equipment to track and enhance their own abilities. The Masked are humans who have been both bio-engineered to be stronger and more efficient than a standard human being, and are also aided almost entirely by their suit. Their suits are powered by their own energy using a cable that follows their spine and links up into the back of their helmet from behind.

Aesthetic details aside, they are powerful. They have immense and incredible speed and marksmanship skills. They are proficient in almost every weapon, as they can pick one from the ground and know how to use it with the aid of their computerized suits. Essentially, they’re what the Government of the United Earth spends every single dime on -- their most prized investment. They’re pretty damn efficient.

CAN WE FIGHT THEM:

By all means! You can fight them, but keep in mind that they are currently at their most powerful. They are god-mode. Your character can distract and weaken them enough to escape from their clutches without being chipped if your character is appropriately powered for that sort of feat. In the end for most characters, their final options will be to run away, be killed, or to accept their tracking chip... and then run away.

CAN WE WIN:

Not at this point. There is a reason for this -- as the game progresses, The Masked are going to be one of the focal points of change that occurs from the success of missions. As more and more missions are completed, The Masked will become weaker and weaker (their tech will become more limited by changes made in the past, for example) and their initial occupation is to demonstrate their power to the exiles and transports in Exsilium. At this point in time you may fight them, but you are not going to win.

ALL OF THIS BEGINS ON MONDAY and will be signaled when William Laurence (bottlegreen) and Big Boss (survivalism) come back into the city proper after a lovely and telling expedition to the borders with the warning of a sweeping police force’s excursion into Exsilium.

As always, if you have any questions/concerns/comments, please leave them here! Additionally, if you have any suggestions/ideas, those are also encouraged & may be left on this post!

Thank you for your time everyone!