InsaneJournal

Coming Soon: Event 7, Part 2!
Well, this event has certainly started with a bang, hasn't it? Remember, attacks can occur anytime through the 21st. On Saturday, September 22nd, Part 2 begins! Once again, I'm giving you this information now so that you can all begin plotting and planning.

On the 22nd, everyone will be waking up in a strange bedroom. Welcome to La Maison Jeu Ancien!

The initial room assignments are as follows (please be aware that, with the exception of the Master Suite occupancies, bed sizes, clothing storage and the names of the occupants were all determined randomly via dice roll--any further bedroom amenities were given due to special requests):

Room 1: Aphrodite, Astarte, Erato, Lilith, Melpomene, Persephone, and Sif

Room 2: Achilles, Apollo, Dionysus, Hades, Ogma, Poseidon, Seth, and Tyr

*Rooms 1 & 2 comprise the Master Suite. Each one is arranged in the style of a plush European-style dormitory (think Gryffindor Tower upgraded to the quality of a 5-star hotel) with four-poster canopy beds with curtains, fireplaces and large walk-in closets. The two rooms are connected with a large, deluxe Master Bath complete with complete with whirlpool tub that seats up to six, six sinks, waterfall shower, and (of course) toilet.

Room 3: Queen bed, dresser. Assigned to Triton.

Room 4: Cal-King bed, armoire. Assigned to Arthur and Esther.

Room 5: Queen bed, dresser. Assigned to Bres.

Room 6: 1 double bed & 1 queen bed, walk-in closet. Assigned to Urania and Ariadne.

Room 7: Cal-King bed, walk-in closet. Assigned to Sigyn and Asclepius.

Room 8: Cal-King bed, armoire. Also has large window seat. Assigned to Mab and Bastet.

Room 9: King waterbed, walk-in closet. Assigned to Frigg.

Room 10: Twin bed, dresser. Has 1 window with blackout drapes. Assigned to Legion.

Room 11: Queen bed, dresser. Assigned to Kali and Hel.

Room 12: King bed, walk-in closet. Assigned to Athena.

Room 13: Twin bed, closet w/ door. Has extra-large windows and extra-soft bedding. Assigned to Ganymede.

*Keep in mind that these are just the initial room assignments only! Except for waking up there on the 22nd, no one is required to STAY in these arrangements for the entirety of the event. Characters are allowed to move around and sleep wherever they want to otherwise.*

Exploration of the house will reveal the following:

Third Floor
The Master Suite takes up one entire end of the third floor, but it also is home to two additional full baths (each one with two sinks, shower/tub combo, toilet and a little bit of storage space), a communal linen closet, and Bedrooms 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 11.

Between the third and second floors is a marble Da Vinci double spiral staircase (which is technically two separate staircases that twist around each other in such away that, while it appears to be a single staircase, it is entirely possible to see someone on the stairs and never actually cross paths with them).

Second Floor
The middle of the second floor, right near the staircases, contains a large fully-stocked library/reading room (you can find almost any book you could ever want in this library, and there are numerous armchairs scattered about). Beyond the library, the second floor is divided into two wings. Down one wing you will find Bedrooms 6, 7, 10, 12, and 13 as well as a full bath (as described above) and a linen closet. Down the opposite wing, the characters will find each of the following:

- Office/study
- Sewing/craft room
- New Age room (containing anything and everything for the occult dabbler and practitioner)
- Medical supplies cabinet (fully stocked with everything from first aid kits and medicines to surgical tools)
- Sterile exam/operating room with large medical machines (ultrasounds, scanners, EKG, etc.)
- Full laboratory for medical testing and general lab work/experimentation
- Broom/cleaning supplies closet
- Half bath (toilet, sink and minimal storage)

From just outside the library to the first floor are two sweeping marble grand staircases that lead into a large marble foyer with a chandelier and vaulted ceiling lined with Corinthian-style columns.

First Floor
Aside from the grand entrance foyer, just past it, in the center directly beneath the library is a grand ballroom, not unlike the one found in L'Hôtel Jeu Ancien. To one side of the foyer is a formal parlor, complete with a baby grand piano. The parlor opens into a formal dining room with enough space to seat all the godlings at once and also connects directly to the ballroom. French doors separate the formal dining area from the less formal dinette, which opens into a state-of-the-art kitchen complete with both espresso machine and standard coffee-maker and a fully-stocked liquor cabinet (and, yes, the cupboards and fridge contain plenty of chocolate milk and Pop-Tarts). The kitchen also opens toward a large sun deck with a full outdoor kitchen as well. There is a half-bath just off to the side from the kitchen, and not much past that, down a short hallway, there is a mudroom connecting to the back entrance. Opposite the parlor is a solarium which leads into a more casual living room area with its own entertainment set-up and a real fireplace. A hall connects the living area to the kitchen along which is the afore-mentioned half-bath, but also branches down toward a sports area with a full-sized basketball court opposite an aquatics area complete with an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool and an "endless" pool, separated from a sauna and hot tub with capacity to seat 12 with a saltwater aquarium. There are also two full baths (as described above) next to the sports areas, along with a linen closet for towels and a pool supplies room. The front entrance opens onto a stone veranda that wraps mostly around the house and is complete with a porch swing. A staircase just off to the side of the kitchen leads directly into the wine cellar in the basement.

Basement
The wine cellar is separated from the rest of the basement area via a short tunnel lined with mosaics and murals depicting heroic events in each pantheon, including the Trojan War. It connects directly to the so-called "man-cave" which is complete with a state-of-the-art home theatre room with surround-sound stereo system, 90” plasma HDTV, DVD/Blu-Ray player, X-Box, PS3, Wii, variety of games, large fully-stocked bar, and opens through a pair of curtained French doors to game room with dart boards, foosball table, air hockey table, billiards table, pinball machine, arcade games, CDs and vinyl records (yes, including the entire discography for The Cure and a variety of Latin music). Also in the basement the godlings can find each of the following:

- Indoor shooting range
- Music room with a wide variety of instruments, sheet music and recording equipment/recording room
- Weight/stationary machine room, also equipped with punching bag
- LAN party room with two dozen desktop machines
- Ball pit with slides (that is completely clean with no horrible things hidden in it)
- On-site laundry room
- 1 full bath
- 1 half bath
- Furnace and water heater

Other things the godlings will find in the house are an elevator that opens near the weight room –> near the basketball court –> near the lab -> near the master suite. There is also a dumbwaiter system that directly connects the kitchen to the basement bar as well as near the study on the second floor and just outside Room 9 on the third floor. There is a landline phone with answering machine just outside the kitchen on the first floor, and there are other electronics (desktop computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones, mp3 players, etc.) scattered around the house. Other necessities like toiletries, grooming items, groceries, prescribed medicines, etc. will all be readily available in the appropriate places you would expect to find them. Clothing will appear in the storage furnishings mentioned for each bedroom, and will offer a variety to suit whoever actually opened it for whatever tasks they need.

Outdoors and Estate Grounds
The outdoor area is expansive, with large plush lawns and walkways that wind around the many gardens (including a formal English rose garden, a vegetable garden and a fruit tree orchard, among others), fountains, a reflecting pool and statuary (and, yes, Achilles, there is a slightly-larger-than-life statue of you). There is a hedge maze dotted with little fountains, benches and such, a fully-stocked fish pond, and a circle of all the ogham trees. A number of plants also grow wild in various places on the estate grounds (including some cannabis plants just for you, Legion). They will also find just past the sun deck both a sand volleyball pit and a tennis/badminton court. Dotting the grounds are also a gardening shed, freestanding greenhouse, freestanding observatory tower and a freestanding workshop/tool shed. There is a mailbox, but no driveway. The estate boundaries are marked with very large trees and dense underbrush. YOU CANNOT CROSS IT, GODLINGS. You will either find it impassible, or get an insistent sense that it is not worth it. Weather will remain relative constant, averaging between 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit during the daytime hours and between 50 and 65 degrees after sundown. Daytime skies will be partly-cloudy at most, but there will periodically be nighttime rain showers and thunderstorms. Moon phases will mirror those in the outside world.

Things notably absent include Nigel. He is nowhere to be found on the estate. Aside from the fish in the aquarium and the pond, there are no animals either, with ONE exception: Ganymede's kitten, Lethe. She will come with him. Also, there are no clocks. Anything that includes a clock function (microwave, computers, etc.) will have them inexplicably stuck at midnight. They cannot be reset--any attempts to set the clocks will result in them reverting to midnight within 60 seconds. There is also no live TV--although all of them have an endless capacity for DVRing any shows they may want to watch, which will be available the day after they air. Yes, the godlings will have internet access, however, they will not be able to send any outgoing messages or post anything on any website aside from the Godling Forum--attempts to do so will result in an error message. They can still READ anything anyone else posts and receive incoming messages from the outside world, however. Anyone who stargazes might note something is slightly off about what they see, making it impossible to pinpoint a time beyond the calendar date or a place beyond Somewhere in North America. Attempting to connect to any servers on MMORPGs will only show other godlings present--no humans. Same thing with attempting to phone or text an outside number: they will receive error messages or recordings informing them the call cannot be completed (they can still receive messages and voicemails from the outside, but will not be able to respond to them). THEY CANNOT CONTACT THE OUTSIDE WORLD. PERIOD. The only possible exception would be if someone on the outside stumbled across the godling forums.

The godlings CAN, however, easily send messages to each other and amongst themselves. Being in relatively tight quarters, though, this is probably not necessary. Thus, for the event, I will open up the Metempsychosis board to Action Threads.

How do action threads work? Pretty much how you'd expect that they would. Mark the actions themselves in brackets (e.g. [Character X walks over to a chair and sits down]) and anything not bracketed is assumed to be spoken aloud and can be heard by anyone within earshot. Once the action portion begins, just be sure to note it on the post (subject line works great, or else just before the first action is taken) with "[Action]."

So, of course, the big questions are why are they there, and how do they get out? They are there because the Powers (read: Gaia and Corruption) are alarmed at the danger the godlings are in and have spirited them all to this very nice pocket dimension to keep them safe. The only way they can leave is once they have developed a thorough plan of both defense and offense to keep themselves from being attacked again--and they CANNOT leave until they do so, whether that takes a few days, a few weeks, or even months. Therefore, the time spent in the Maison is ENTIRELY up to YOU. Please note that this will be playing out in real time. That means there is NO GLOSS FOR THIS EVENT. The day they get the plan set is the day they go home and they will have entirely missed any days in between that and September 22nd. So, if you want to get home, you will all need to BE ACTIVE AND BE ENGAGED! As for the people back home? Their jobs? Their pets? Don't worry--the less a person knows about a godling's true identity, although their absences won't go unnoticed, per se, there will be a distinct sense that things are Taken Care Of: Shifts will be inexplicably covered, work will be completed, pets will be fed, etc. You won't lose anything from this event. However, people who know the truth of who they are (kids, close friends and family, etc.)? They will be much more aware of their absences and wondering where the godlings are, and may try to send messages or calls asking where they are.

To aid you in this endeavor, you should all be pleased to know that your work in gathering the Stage 2 artifacts will now pay off as of the 22nd! The pieces the godlings gathered will be in their united form in the solarium, and the combined artifact grants all the godlings a PERMANENT boost in power and abilities that is effective immediately upon arriving at the estate. This can manifest in one of two ways: 1) their currently existing powers will become significantly stronger and easier to execute but otherwise remain unchanged, or 2) they may gain ONE ADDITIONAL ASPECT of their full powers along with a considerably more modest boost to their existing abilities. If they so choose, characters may also take on a single cosmetic attribute related to their abilities/divine identities. The difference between an ABILITY and an ATTRIBUTE is that the aspect doesn't actually give them any real advantage, but might earn them looks of surprise from strangers. For example, Sif's hair turning to actual gold affords her very little benefit, so that would be an attribute. Triton gaining a set of gills that enables him to breathe underwater, however? That would be a new ability. And, of course, the increased powers also means much stronger synergies that can be felt over the entirety of the estate (though it waxes and wanes somewhat depending on how close to each other they actually are, say, all in one room vs. scattered around the grounds). Some you might want to be aware of include Aphrodite/Lilith/Erato/Ganymede/Dionysus, Urania/Ariadne/Ogma/Athena, Sif/Dionysus, etc. I strongly suggest reviewing the Powers Database to see what other synergetic combinations are possible. Meanwhile, I need to know how the increased powers for each character will manifest before the 22nd (comment below)!

Any questions? Concerns? Other stuff? Just let me know! ^_^