InsaneJournal

We promised you a plot, so you're getting a plot! We know it's been a hard few weeks for a lot of us, and we're hoping that this plot will give everyone a springboard to really get back into things or to make up for any lack of activity you've got going on at the moment.

This plot is going to start on Sunday, July 21st and end on Sunday, July 28th. Laura's going to have a bit of a power hiccup or an accident (it's all up to Danika!) and cast a spell over the school and anyone who regularly lives there that will make them burst into song until the spell fades. Since it's relatively harmless and they'll know right out of the gate that it's Laura having an accident, we're not anticipating a big panic over the whole thing.

As usual, you can basically start this plot at your own pace. If you want someone to stand in the middle of the cafeteria and scream Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" on the 21st because they just have a lot of feelings about the early 00s and a raging hard on for skateboards, then go for it. If you want to have characters humming to themselves on Sunday and having Hairspray-like group numbers by Wednesday, go for it. You guys are good at self-regulating, so we're not too concerned. We just want you to have fun with it.

Now, we know that some characters aren't actually at the school, but we're going to give you some bullshitty handwaving explanation as to why everyone is affected. Good? Good.


So how is this plot going to work?
Think Buffy's "Once More, with Feeling" or... all of Glee. When people have intense emotions (or... just when you have an appropriate song or think it's funny), you have the option of letting your character burst into song. We're going full on movie musical with this; your character and anyone listening to them will hear the appropriate music in the background and react as if they were in the musical/in a music video/etc. Unless the players are in on the joke, we just don't want any parade peeing by having a bunch of characters going "this is stupid, stop singing, you sound like a moron" unless everyone's cool with it.

This might be best brought out in logs, but since not everyone has the time to get logs done fast enough to really make it an effective part of the plot, we're going to say that this spell also counts for the network. It's magic, just roll with it.

How will people know what songs I'm using?
You tell them! For logs, we encourage you to post links to the song or songs used. For network posts, putting a link to the song in the initial post (if you lead with lyrics) or into the comment where your character bursts into "song". Actually letting people listen to the music before interacting with your character will just help the situation in general; if someone starts singing The Origin of Love and you've never heard it before, they'll sound like a nut instead of someone trying to tell someone else that they're soulmates. (I also highly recommend listening to the Hedwig soundtrack in general, but that's just me.)

My character isn't at the school. Can they still participate?
Yep! We're saying that everyone who takes up residence at the school is affected because... oh, I don't know, voo doo magic. Also because we don't want to leave anyone out. Just go with it.

Does my character have to participate?
Of course not! As with just about all of our plots, you can opt out and say your character remains unaffected for one reason or another.

Is EVERYTHING in song?
Nope! They burst into song when you want them to. Characters will still be capable of having totally tuneless conversations.

Didn't the mod email say it would start on the 20th?
It did, but Jen forgot that she'd made a commitment to a thing on the 20th. Kait and Jen will both be gone all evening (which is when most people are around) because Kait is reviewing two (two!) stage shows and won't be back until super late, which realistically means the official "go do plot" post won't crop up until after midnight on the 21st.