At The Gates OOC

It is now the early hours of Day Two: chaos is running riot, London is in a mess and for Librarians, orders are spewing out from Rome like tickets at a good restaurant on a Saturday night. At the Library, confusion is going wild and crazy: the precogs have all simultaneously stopped producing any kind of output (apparently in nightmares of their own) and half the Librarians themselves are experiencing reactions to the magic pouring out from ground zero.

Librarians being dispatched to deal with the gold in Hyde Park

Librarians are being sent to investigate the source of the issue.

Any and all Monitors are being sent to their particular patrols to deal with the fall-out (mind wiping, clear up, etc), any special targets for Monitoring are being checked up on.

Reinforcements from Rome will arrive about midday, including a large number of Praetorians to deal with the massive numbers of demons and beasts that are causing havoc.

Triage centre within the Library in the mess hall: partners are required to keep telepathic tabs on one another at all times to ensure no one is lost in the shuffle.

Tags: !plot: london burning, plot post

HELLO, HEATHENS. So, we have some plot for you, and it is big. As you may have noticed, Morden's 445th birthday is coming up, and he will be having a party!

THINGS TO KNOW:
- Morden is part of the Circus. Morden manipulates reality.
- Joss is part of the Circus. Joss warps dreams/reality.
- Arazia will be attending the party. Arazia amplifies existing magic.

Things are going to spiral out of control. Morden's shindig will be affecting not just party-goers, but all of London -- it will be a hedonistic orgy of chaos, and peoples' fantasies and nightmares will be coming to life. [Technical explanation: Morden will be giving the perception of dreams/nightmares coming to life. If multiple people believe that is reality, Joss's magic makes it so. Arazia causes that to spread across London. If you are aware that you're facing a hallucination/dream, that will weaken it but not necessarily defeat it.] So not only will this be a case of living nightmares causing damage across the city, but demons will be opportunistically wreaking havoc, vampires will be lashing out, Marion's own djinn abilities will potentially kick in for more (localized) confusion, and the Corinthian is going to start killing.

It's going to be bloody. People will be hurt, can very well lose their lives -- PCs and just regular mundanes across London.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU:
- Chaos, chaos everywhere.
- This will be ongoing until the Market comes in and shuts things down by 'powering down' Arazia.
- The angels (JEGUDIEL, PENEMUE, SACHIEL -- I AM LOOKING AT YOU) will be able to wade in and take on demons.
- The Library is going to have so much damage control to perform. Not just trying to put out fires, but a long-lasting mess to clean up after the fact. Rome will doubtless send people in to help. (London Librarians may not like this.)
- ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Again: dreams, fantasies, nightmares. Ghosts could become corporeal. Danny will kick ass in Dumas's name. Jim will have so many superhero opportunities. Go big or go home, basically.

This thing can to escalate to unbelievable proportions, and we really want it to. So! I am posting this tonight in hopes that it gives everyone time to think. Morden's party does not occur until February 9, this coming Thursday. That gives us better part of a week to come up with what our characters will go through, but to further complicate it, we want folks to use this post for plotting purposes. Feel free to ask questions, talk things out -- feedback might give you new ideas and directions to run in! Also, because it will be bloody, we've set up a second post here. We'd like for everybody who's participating to post with a list of their characters -- tell us who's making it through unscathed, who's open to be injured, and who might be up for death. More details are available on the post itself, and comments are screened for the element of surprise.

Edit: For those of you signing up for injury, death or the scale between, we're dice-rolling to find out the severity for each character and then, so it stays secret, emailing you the outcomes. What we suggest you do is confab to find someone who can provide your smackdown or be unfortunate-victim-of-it, but keep the outcome between the two (or three!) of you for now; if you're going to write this up in some way. We're going to be pausing time so a week equates to three IC days, which gives people time to write logs etc, and then at the end, we'll be posting everyone's stats so that everyone has an idea of the outcomes. We suggest keeping it secret until you're done playing, to keep that element of surprise (death is a nasty little gift at the end of the period, etc).

Hello, delightful heathens, and a happy new year to you all. With the holidays officially behind us, we're looking to roll out some plot and shake a few trees in order to get things rolling again. Part of our unofficial new year's mod resolution is to not just throw more crazy happenings into the fray, but also to encourage everybody to step in and get up to their own no-good. We want to ensure that everybody is comfortable here, and especially comfortable enough to strike out with their own plots and storylines -- this game is as much yours as ours, so remember that it is completely okay to throw things out there at your leisure... at least provided that you don't blow up all of London without warning us first. (Such as: Demons doing what they do best. Occultists' spells going wrong. Market Vendors feeling suffocated by their agreement with the Merchants, and subsequently taking a stand.)

To start it all off, we wanted to put this post up with intent of open plotting. Comment with your character(s), and tell us what you want for them. Not just unfilled roles like 'I'd really like to see my characters's x relative here', but your goals for them, the storylets you'd love to write, but perhaps aren't yet sure how to put in play. People can then respond with ideas, or volunteer their own characters, and perhaps along the way we'll stumble across a few new dynamics which can be built out.

Hi guys - trying something out.

It is Market week - from the 6th November to the 16th, there are ten days of the Market proper relocating to London, settling in and selling like a fiend. An open thread will go up in the comm proper so either you can tag in with an open log for someone else to stumble across or, if you're already planning a Market-set scene, you can link it in via a tag to the main thread.

What we're also trying is news-blasts from the Market (ty catwo for the inspiration) for Market-based characters to use as background information and so on, to run with.

News from the Market

The Merchants are being shits. This is not news, but the level of shittery has hit surprising new levels. Security round the joint - both the Market site and headquarters - has increased (and there are vague rumours, until the security bod responsible for both rumours and the source in question is killed, that the reason for increased security is one of the Merchants themselves, Arazia Santoro.)

This means stall-owners are getting hassled. A lot. Make free with this. The Market has also shut part of itself off for re-warding (or selling the more insalubrious items, take your pick as to which you believe) and is refusing to open this for Monitoring as they refuse to give up their ~magical secrets on wards and so on.

After the hellhounds-for-sale thing, Vendor wares are being scrutinized. Someone had their entire stock tossed out, and the natives, they are getting restless.

hey-o all - BACKDATED FESTIVITIES AHOY. a week before halloween, all the gem clientele in good standing (and the particularly amusing/interesting ones in poor standing, of course) received invitations (exceedingly tasteful with just a hint of excess reined in, of course: paper with weight to it, script neither too fancy nor quite plain) to the annual masquerade. said shindig is a yearly party of the most indulgent overdone sort, held at the gem a week after halloween so as to interfere with any business/familiar obligations the gainfully employed/actually married might have. which means it was last weekend, and i will be posting either another ic/ooc post or an open log (preferences?) tomorrow. because i said so (orrrr because i actually have most of the day free, that might be it).

ALSO GEM LADIES: voting on the theme took place before the invites went out, sometime after this entry. the winning theme was marie antoinette and her court, since i'm going by the journal comments - the invite would have noted this, and though the customers aren't required to arrive in costume or anything so silly (they'll be fitted with masks at the door) the ladies will be in full costume. there were fittings involved. they do take their pleasures as seriously as their business, after all.

HI NEW FRIENDS. This is possibly redundant/minor, but I come bearing plot. Iain here is going to shake off these brief vacation days (he doesn't know how holidays work, anyway) and settle back into Librarian work in London with a vengeance. As a part of the Monitoring department, and as the veritable king of the Library's ghost-spy network, you can imagine Iain has his eyes in a lot of pies, if you can forgive the mixed metaphor. So, that in mind:

Does anyone want their character caught in the act? Spied on for the long-term? Perhaps you simply have an undiscovered non-Mundane who could use their honorary journal and a talking-to about setting things on fire with undying flame? I'm your girl! Or rather, he's your man, while he's not off tamping down zombie uprisings. Let me tinker, tailor, soldier, and spy you, baby.

Hi mein lieblings, Lis here & I bring you plot. Character-driven but oh, it leads to delightfully messy game-wide arcs, so jump in and splash around.

Joss here -- reality-warper and dreamwalker Joss, who runs with the demon-infested Circus -- is not sleeping well which means the magic running through her is playing merry hell with dreams encountered. What this means is: I offer up having a small young-thing wandering through your characters' dreams and messing them up. Changing them dramatically, providing commentary, even tangling two people's dreams together. This could be log-form, it could be remarked upon in journal entries or exchanges with others, it could be the aftermath of some really, really trippy sleep. As things get more potent over the next couple of weeks, there will be more from this quarter. The way I semi-suggest this works is: comment if you have a character you want dream-walked in on or if you're offering them up to have shared a mutual dream with someone else. If someone else has offered a mutual dream, hit that hard. Discuss it OOC or just jump in and write it IC and enjoy the wonders of fuckery magic can create in Gates-land.

hallo poppets! since i am horrific with group threads and suchlike i snagged modly permission to handle this the lazy man's way: to all wedding crashers, please to be considerng this post the spot to tell the rest of us what your character got up to so that we can plot out the course of the night's shenanigans. for i am sure there were shenanigans aplenty.

re: attendees! if i didn't have your character on that entry lock but they should be considered a cass-bro, please comment as if i had remembered to include them in the lock. if your character isn't on the lock and cass doesn't know them but you'd a) like them to come play and b) can figure out a tie to any person who is included on the lock, then just figure out how to get your character dragged along (or don't, i promise at no point will anyone go BUT WHY IS SO AND SO EVEN THERE) and jump right on in please and thank you.

whatever goes as far as figuring out what went on. mini-rp, ooc, whatever you've got.

invent all the npc interaction you want, be it positive or negative. pavlo and cass had a semi-huge mob of magic and mundane and ambiguous assembled, all as artsy and eccentric as might be expected. the wedding guests were about a third of that cloth but trying to disguise it for the sake of the occasion and expectations, and about two thirds staid and stolid and altogether boring. pavlo got the caterers in on the scheme somehow (cass stopped asking how and why years ago. pavlo has his own sort of mojo working for him), so not only was the bar open but the invasion took place through several service entries simultaneously.

basically this.

Hello, heathens. We wanted to take a moment to address everyone game-wide, as there has been discussion between a few of us re: Gates, its in-game location, and the London riots which are currently occurring IRL. While there's obvious opportunity to be had from a storytelling standpoint, we've decided to keep the riots separate from Gates out of respect for what is currently happening. There are people going through a lot of tumultuous shit at the moment, and in the name of good taste, that's not something which we want to capitalize on.

So with that in mind -- and because Dora is currently being eaten alive by work, and has not yet finished her Official List O' Challenges -- we wanted to touch base with you fine delinquents and see what you'd like to do. Is there a particularly clever plot or angle you'd like to take out for a spin? We have some small game-wide plots sitting on the back-burner and simmering away (with more to come), but there's ever room for added chaos. You can always ping the mods via e-mail, but for the sake of creative confab, we'd love to hear what you lot may have in mind. Thoughts?

So, like Dominic's been mumbling in his last couple entries, he wants to throw a barbeque at Haven for the fact that its two-headed leadership both celebrated birthdays in the past month. I would've done this earlier but I have been a fail again :[

So either way, let's say that TODAY, Sunday June 12th, he finally got his shindig off the ground! It's a potluck, so presumably there's like. Crisps and soda and potato salad and normal salad and casseroles. Dom dragged in a grill somehow and will be sizzling up the hamburgers/sausages.

Pretend that he's been running around and passing on the news by word-of-mouth. Dominic demands that residents (Leo, Em, Vaughn, Ophelia) attend, and their friends attend. But in the interests of being as OOCly open as possible, feel free to come up with your own reasons to end up here if you like -- just as long as your character's good or neutral, because anything else won't be able to get through the doors.

So, it has come to my attention that there is not enough motherfucking evil in this game!

Olivia would like v. v. much to have some new toys. This could consist of anything and everything -- consorts, victims, easily manipulable youngin's, and maybe even someone who is interested in learning more about the darker sides of magic.

Things to keep in mind: Olivia can be kind of one-track-minded, she is actually approaching 60, and she can do Very Bad Things.

I as a player share only with her the tendency to be one-track-minded -- so feel free to throw anything and everything out there at me and I will probably not shoot you down. Mostly, as a player, this is me...and I am 100% ok with that. The more deviant I sound, the better.

As always, you can reach me by commenting here, hitting me up on AIM (Lettie347) or emailing me (lettie347@gmail.com).

ETA: You can also sign up for a thread-dibs here!

Okay, real life is under control now and I'm looking to actually start, you know, a real plot for Cole instead of have him sit around and eat crisps or whatever. The lazy basard. So this is like a re-introduction for his character in hopes someone will want to play. So, the facts:

1: Cole Clay is about 400 years old.

2: He was born in Ireland.

3: He's made of magic dirt... by which I mean he's a golem fashioned after the myth of the Golem of Prague. This means his personality is kind of messed up because it's basically bits and peices of magic and a dead-dude's soul... and hoodoo. Whatever. No one's sure exactly, but he's basically a rock and kinda hard to kill.

4: Cole has magical abilities but his real power is what he was made for: he can double the magical power of anyone he works with. Any spell channeled through Cole will be twice as strong. He's designed to be a weapon... and not necessarily one with freewill. Others are free to try to take it from him.

5: Cole is a jackass who hates humanity. He will take any chance to cause havoc for them and any characters who want to cause havoc he will gladly help.

So that's Cole Clay and I'm hoping to get something going for him. My AIM SN is my email obscurecrazy@yahoo.com so feel free to IM or email me. I'm looking for whatever trouble anyone wants to start. <3

-Stark

Magic users in London today:

There is a slight problem the Library is having, in Vauxhall. It doesn't matter if you aren't in Vauxhall because said 'slight problem' is a little bigger than just Vauxhall. A demon, one insidious with a thing for possession has just driven a mundane with newly-bought Market magic (thanks, Market) into making a spectacular scene -- coloured light show, smoke, noise kind of spectacle -- outside the tube-station in the middle of the street. Traffic has shut down. The tube is not running. And there is a feeling of electricity in the air for anyone who understands what magic is and how it works -- sort of like perpetual humming in the background. This is a Big Damn Deal, you can see Praetorian Librarians everywhere in London if you know what you're looking for and the atmosphere is tense. The mundane, is of course, dead -- but there are currently news-reports, the Librarians scrambling to get into gear and cover this shit up from the general public. (The news incidentally, is blaming either a gas explosion & a recent mental patient or the Royal Wedding, it's a pick of choice between stations)

Forthcoming in the immediate future -- discuss amongst yourselves in comments, as potential suggestions for logs! Librarians meeting with Vendors and Merchants both, hunting down who sold what to cause that and fury. Inspection of all magical businesses in the capital, by Merchants and Librarians alike (you do not cause embarrassment for the Market without the Market causing problems for you) and eeeveryone twitchy. And when we say all magical businesses -- aaaanyone in connection to magic who runs a business. Which means, all pubs, bars, clubs, eating places, happy hookah smoking joints -- surprise! Mid-year inspection. Which means paperwork, my lovelies, for all employees everywhere. Feel free to bitch.

Go forth! Discuss! Log! Who was standing next to whom when the magic nuclear bomb hit? (it would feel a little like hearing a bomb might sensationally -- hum and whine of magic being used, hair on the back of the neck, a little shellshock) Who saw it? Who is pissed off the Library just killed yet another innocent bystander? (News shortly forthcoming from the Library itself) If you were in openly-magic parts of London, did you see someone get carted off by Librarians? (People did: suspects and the like) Did you know the person who sold the whatsit? There are rumours and stupidity running rife all over the journals, various places are being shut-down and London (real London) is in an utter shite-storm. Demons! Cause HAVOC.

In the interests of getting things going (yes, yes, I know I'm on hiatus. I know I ought be writing 3500 words on the Kurdish nationalist failure to acquire a state, shush) and helping people out who might be quiet about it -- this is one of your mod team bringing you a plot party post. This is where one, in the tradition of Madam & the Gem, whores oneself and one's characters out for plot. Thinking you're a little skimpy on stuff to do? Can't remember what you plotted with people before life exploded? A little shy about approaching people on AIM/email? Fear no more, this is what this is for. Comment with your character's name in the title, give some idea of what you're looking for, maybe toss out what you're thinking of doing/remind people of what plot-ideas you had with that character, and then go forth and comment to other people's posts to generate some CR (this is the important part -- if you've got some potential awesome, share it out!). Awesome things happen.

Hopefully, we'll get some stuff going as well as the upcoming plot begun by Cat (thank you Cat!) and the upcoming fun that's going to happen game-wide as well as Catwo's beasties (thank you Catwo!) So, let the fun commence!

So guys, we've got news for you. As this world is gritty and dark and 'orrible, and the Library is committed to balance rather than everything sweetness-and-light, there are going to be those nastier beasties about who are perhaps going to do their dirty deeds, contribute to balance and make everyone's lives that much more difficult -- either will result in people getting terrorised/incidents that perhaps stimulate discussion and plot, or a Librarian clean-up being needed.

As such, Catwo has volunteered to write up new things-going-bump-in-the-night mini narrative posts that can be adapted as people claim 'em -- if you want something nasty happening to your character, a brush with something not-nice, for example, you can comment in and ask it be adapted for your character in particular. If no one claims a particular incident, then it has happened to an NPC and in discussion amongst IC, you can have a character claim it happened to someone they know. For larger scale stuff, of course, Librarians can make murmurings about clean up duty, for smaller stuff, this is the kind of situation vigilante justice arises around -- so you'll have contacts who can help you out, offer protection (might want to go to the Market and buy some amulets and charms!) and there are those who specialize in hunting down rogue elements in the community that pass beyond the Library interest.

We hope this provides you guys with some stimulus for interaction/journal posts, gets some stuff going and of course, let us know if you have any problems at all. And thanks to Catwo, for the idea ♥

Okay guys and gals! We have a crack-mini-plot for Valentine's Day especially for you all and if you'd like to participate, this is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and do something silly, toy with sides of your character not yet seen.

At midnight on Sunday night (early morning Monday) there is going to be a magical effect in the region of the Market (and just beyond, so those not allowed on Market property can still be part of this) that is the result of a bad mix of magics gone horribly wrong. As a result, there's an odd smoke initially, all pink and for a while after it lingers, even after the colour is gone. It has various effects on people if they breathe it in, because it is a mix of several different potions and spells. You may either

(i) fall madly-desperately in love with the first person you see
(ii) fall madly-desperately in love with your worst enemy
(iii) fall terribly, horribly jealous of the first person you see (they have the affections of your love!)
(iv) become terribly suggestible/suggestive and all the repercussions thereof
(v) turn into a frog. (some people, Valentine's Day is not a joke at all)

All effects will last until midnight Monday-Tuesday! Then it'll all wear off, everything goes back to normal, everyone can be very ashamed of themselves xD The Market/Library may want to deal with this in their own way, the problem being is smoke is difficult to contain in a breeze. However, how they want to handle 'someone went boom in the Market' is up to participant players xD

How this works: There will be an open thread in the logs community. Please tag in with your characters as threads -- then go around and jump in to tag other people. You may decide either to write which reaction the starter character is having into your thread -- or leave it open for the responder to choose, up to you. You can do this for as many characters as you like, as much as you like. The thread will remain open, so you don't have to cram in all play in one twenty-four hour period (God knows, I have class. And work. And a life xD) but the object is, at midnight, it's all over. You can post mop-up logs dealing with the aftermath, or tie it up in the thread, it's all very adaptable.

Now go have fun xD

Hey, guys! Here to spout some nonsense at you while I've got a few minutes. We realize most of the group has been dealing with exams, work, etc., but things seem to be calming down a bit. With that in mind, I wanted to propose the following and get some feedback:

A tournament. Specifically, a gambling tournament where the payoff can effectively be your heart's desire -- win, and what you ask for is yours. Of course, this is run by a demon (Erynn's own Tony, to be exact), so lose and the price is your soul. Think of it as the most high-stakes game out there, particularly suited to high-rollers but open to all and sundry. Any takers? There's definite opportunity on deck: riches, power, life and death at your hands, love if that's your thing; really, the sky's the limit. Of course, since this is a game run by an enterprising demon, players are more likely to lose than win.

I don't want that to scare anyone off, because to be honest, losing one's soul sounds pretty awesome -- you then have a custom-built character storyline where you can seek to win it back; beg, borrow, steal, whatever. Let me know what you guys think, because now that life seems to be settling down for most of us, we'd love to give everyone something fun to play with. (And if anybody just wants to drum up story stuff, let us know! We do encourage player-driven stories, so no hesitating!)

RHYS REQUIRES ASSISTANCE.

He's looking for something, market-wise, and he doesn't know where to find it. And so he's prepared to bumble around until he finds it, which could takes months/years/the rest of his life.

Any takers to corrupthelp a poor little bookworm navigate the big bad world of magical things he doesn't really know about?

HELLO KIDS.

Right, seeing as I spontaneously appear and disappear, and as Lis seems intent on pimping me out if I do not plot hunt myself, consider this my plea for plot of any kind. Niamh is morally lacking, intrinsically charming, works at a bar and has a tendency to get herself into trouble.

Got plot? Contact me at thetricktolifex on aim, I'm on a lot, or drop me an email at dinosaurheels@gmail.com

WOW I HAVEN'T BEEN HERE IN A REALLY LONG TIME sorry about that guys.
School MOBBED and then Christmas and then IDEK. I died. But I'm back now?

ANYWAY I still have Ren and Rhys around to be played with, and they would lurve to be played with. IDEAS? Shoot 'em here.