January Monthly Post - Summer breeze makes me feel fine...

[wearethecrystalmods]

AC Results

The following characters have been swept from the game for failure to respond sufficiently to last month's activity check. Steven Quartz Universe (Steven Universe - Strike) If any of these characters would like to return to play they will have to use the reapp form. If any mistake has been made please don't hesitate to contact one of the mods. Thank you!

WHOA WHAT THE HECK IS THIS

Welcome to Cosmographia's first monthly post! Remember that chatter about Excursions? This is what that turned into, after your mods mulled over what they were meant to accomplish and how best to make that happen. Monthly posts roll together AC results, event previews (if it's an event month), world updates, explorations, and results of the last month's explorations. The first one is nothing new. Event previews are something we've done in the past to give you some time to plan and prepare, usually by having something happen earlier in the month to foreshadow it. We're going to start putting those out at the beginning of the month, complete with summaries of any foreshadowing that will happen. Mingles will still be posted when appropriate. World updates are things like notable weather events, holidays and town events, monster attacks, and other mod-provided things that will happen during the month. Instead of posting frequent mingles to populate Cosmo's world with NPC activity, we'll give a list of dates and world updates on the first day of the month, which players can use as prompts for their own mingles and/or to spice up their characters' lives beyond the bi-monthly events. Explorations are a way less complicated version of the core idea behind excursions. Each month, there'll be a comment header on the monthly post for explorations. That header will take comments like these: While Tiger's Eye is in town, "Alice" is going to ask her if Hawk can whistle the Chocobo theme. "Cooper" thinks the pattern on that mysterious door in the heart room is tacky so he's going to hit it really, really hard with his gem weapon. (Play this out in a thread that's at least 10 comments long, link it here, and something else will happen...) "Bob" knows a little bit about astronomy. If they look at the star charts in the Observatory, will anything weird show up? And those comments will get replies like this: Tiger doesn't know what that is, but she'll complain fondly to "Alice" about a time when Hawk had a song stuck in her head for six months straight and Tiger had to shapeshift her own ears away. It won't break, but the Heart will light up like a disco ball and a bunch of confetti will fall on "Cooper's" head. To a trained eye, a pattern emerges..."Bob" will notice some constellations that spell out "U R STINKYHEAD". ...Paraphrased, of course. Explorations won't replace events where characters thread with NPCs or against the mod account to interact with the setting, but they'll open up NPCs and the setting to players outside of events. In the past, we've gotten questions in private about hidden setting details when characters have explored locations outside of events. We hope that making explorations a feature of the monthly posts will encourage players to use them, as well as make the information turned up in them public for other players to notice and use. To that end, each monthly post will have a summary of the results of the last month's explorations. This will include both information that was uncovered by characters (and whether or not it's likely to have traveled through the Temple grapevine), and changes to NPC behavior, locations, or other aspects of the setting that have come about because of player actions. Players are encouraged to use the rest of the comment space on monthly posts to pitch ideas for threads, player events, mingles, etc to their fellow players. Since not all of our players use Plurk, and keeping an entire game's playerbase on your Plurk friends list just for plotting isn't always feasible, plotting on monthly posts should help you reach more players and stay in touch with what characters will be doing in Cosmo. So, without further ado, here's the scoop on January 2017!

January World Updates

WEATHER All month - The hottest days of summer are upon WB, bringing with them popsicles, ice cream trucks, and a handful of out-of-town beachgoers. NPC ACTIVITY 1st through 7th - The New Year's Festival ends on the 1st, but Bricktown and Waverly Bay are still lively in the days following. Now is the time for last-minute holiday discounts, parties, and griping about all the Valentine's candy that's already on sale. A stall in Waverly Bay will be selling heavily marked-down consumer fireworks. Do not blow up the Temple. 1st through 7th - When the sun shines just the right way through a notch in the hill and into Griffon Village, the griffons know it's time to celebrate another year's passing! A happy griffon new year mostly involves spoiling all the grifflings born in the last year completely rotten. Anyone who visits the island in the week after New Year's Day might find themselves dragged along to fish and gather fruit. But if the griffons suspect you're young enough to be pampered, you might be offered a regurgitated feast instead! 6th - A certain GIANT BIRD reappears!...but it's cool, she's friendly this time. She's wearing a pet-shaming-style sign in Tiger's handwriting that explains she's tame and friendly and please don't attack her. With her gem healed and some quality time spent with her sister, Hawk's Eye has settled down enough to pick up her duties as a defender of Waverly Bay. Hawk can mostly be found flying over the town, roosting on top of the statue, or playing with Griffon outside of town. From the 6th onward, she'll be available for interaction via explorations on this post. 17th through 22th - For a little under a week, the Temple Gems will feel a mysterious presence that comes and goes. It's faint, but resembles the feeling of recognition you get after someone behind you calls your name, and becomes stronger when it's noticed and focused on. In addition, Gems who sleep during this period may have peculiar lucid dreams involving floating in darkness while being surrounded by many voices. The presence can be responded to, and may react to attempts to communicate with it via explorations on this post.

January Event...?

...actually, there won't be one. December was a pretty busy month, between the not-technically-an-event Fourth Wall and the holidays in general; to let everyone unwind and keep an eye on how this monthly-post-and-explorations thing plays out, we're bumping the event schedule a month ahead. There'll be an event as usual in February.

Comments

[nailed_it]

Most of the sound fragments are from her childhood, but there's a few mixed in from her time spent here in Waverly Bay; snippets from her conversation with Blake about being trapped here, how torn she felt over what to do for Pyrrha after she came back and frustrated that there didn't seem to be any way to prevent what was going to happen back home. It's really not fun.

"Wait-...Stop. Stop. I'm trying to help you!"

If she can't actually speak, she'll just think the words as loudly as she can instead because please stop.

[wearethecrystalmods]

There's no reaching the memory(?) of Tiger, or any of Yang's own memories.

But "trying to help you" hits a note, and echoes, unleashing a torrent of...guilt. Old, resigned, weary, aching guilt.

It quickly turns into the feeling of wanting to pull away and mute one's own emotions, to spare others one's problems, but also, in a way, to punish oneself...

As before, the feelings will tap any memories of Yang's through which she could relate to them.

[nailed_it]

Yeah, Yang has a couple decent reference points for that feeling, both personally and from what she's observed in her friends, particularly her partner. She's not as caught off-guard this time by the sudden memory recalls and at least now she's fairly certain she's not somehow talking to the trapped consciousness of her friends, so she'll try to reach out again whichever way she can.

"Okay...okay, hang on. Don't leave...just...Are you...lost? Hurt?"

[wearethecrystalmods]

The question kicks up some anxiety. Are you lost, Yang? That's a very good question.

But it resolves into security after a while, and the sense of wanting to soothe yourself/someone else/??? SUBJECT-OBJECT CONFUSION IS KIND OF A THEME WITH THESE DREAMS.

No, nobody's lost. We're all exactly where we ought to be and everything's going to be fine.

[nailed_it]

Well, somebody doesn't sound very sure of themselves. Or sounds a little too sure of themselves? She'll persist regardless.

"Look, if you're lost, it's okay. It happens. I can come find you."

[wearethecrystalmods]

DO NOT FIND ANYONE.

Just move on.

Live your life.

[nailed_it]

Okay, Dream Voices, if there's one thing she's been practicing at her entire life it's searching for people who don't want to be found.

...And also, on several occasions, just doing stuff people tell her not to do.

So, if you're gonna stick around in her dreams and poke around in her memories, it is only fair she prod back.

"Oh come on, don't give me that broody loner stuff."

[wearethecrystalmods]

THIS IS A BAD IDEA.

Trust yourself/me.

Let it go.

(So thinks the presence.)

[nailed_it]

Sorry, Voices, she is not Elsa. That's Weiss. She's not going to just let this go.

She will, however, make like she can't be bothered to worry about it too much. ...Which is true to some degree.

"Alright, but you're missing out. I don't offer search and rescue services to just anyone."