![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semilethal) wrote2025-01-25 01:30 am
(no subject)
Donatello has been working on a method to send people back to their home dimensions for the last two years (previous game & current game experience). He thinks he's finally figured it out (he hasn't). He needs data and he's decided not to ask permission to obtain it. He's going to try regardless, come hell or high water (and that will become everybody else's problem).
Star Children meeting certain criteria will be kidnapped and held in an underground lab for some (probably) harmless data collection. The lab itself will be heavily protected and fortified, and when the procedure for which that data is collected is finally executed, its effects will be felt far further than just the labs.
NOTE: The Memory Traps section is for general player involvement as desired, and doesn't require any coordination/sign-ups/etc. as it is a side-effect of what will occur during the player plot.
On January 31st, Donatello will post an anonymous network post asking questions about going home and interdimensional travel. Characters who respond confirming they've traveled to other dimensions before (whether it be their canon or CRAU from other games), or if a character has ever discussed having traveled between dimensions on an open network post, they will likely be on Donnie's list of people to kidnap, hold, and run a mostly harmless experiment on. If your character does not reply, and/or if you would like to handwave dimension-talk on the network to make them eligible, please just state in the sign-ups below!
A day or so after the Anon post goes up, your character may suddenly feel a sting on the back of their neck when they're walking around at night or somewhere deserted. Or perhaps they live alone, and they smell something sweet that makes them feel woozy. Maybe even your character is immune to sedatives or other knock-out drugs; maybe a quick, semi-harmless tazing will do! Whatever works to knock a character out with as little physical damage as possible, a drone will do its best to accomplish before bundling the character up in tarp and ropes and hauling it unsteadily off towards the farmlands in Willow.
Characters will awaken in holding cells lined up in Donnie's underground lab. They won't be particularly spacious but they're clean and reinforced for considerable above-human strength (but not indestructible). All sides save one of the cells are extremely thick and durable metal; the entryway is made up of hexagonal panels of purple light that seem almost more resilient than the metal walls.
Kidnapped characters will be held in relative comfort, with soft bedding and obfuscated sanitation facilities in each cell, fed and watered with reliable frequency by little purple drones seemingly made out of light (that easily shatter if assaulted), but otherwise don't have much interaction with their kidnapper. Occasionally one of the cameras in the corner of their cell will whir and occasionally a speaker in a cell wall will crackle to life in response to demands for answers, but characters are largely left alone to stew.
Except for the experiment. A procedure that Donnie doesn't anticipate causing lasting damage, but is likely uncomfortable, given that one-by-one characters will first be knocked out and then brought to a staging area where they'll be restrained in a chair next to a large metal structure that strongly resembles a Stargate (yes, that Stargate).
A construct made of bright purple light that looks like a robotic Donatello will be in the lab as well and will begin attaching various sensors. Nothing invasive; no insertion or pain, but a lot of connections to the forehead, base of the skull, and chest. The construct is capable of speech and will respond to questions; it sounds exactly like Donatello, and is extremely forthcoming with information. Maybe it even is Donatello, in some way.
Once the construct engages whatever machinery its fiddling with out of sight of the chair, a low, vibrating hum will engage and characters, depending on how they react to anything that probes or alters the soul may feel anything from a mild spiritual itching/discomfort to a pervasive, scratching ache. Think of it like the gradation of pain getting a tattoo; characters who are more spiritually powerful and/or are not spiritually inclined may hardly feel anything, whereas someone with a previously shattered soul might feel as if sharp claws are being dragged across their skin. The construct doesn't have the best bedside manner, but it clearly isn't there to bring characters any lasting harm and may stop the procedure if intense pain occurs (or is sufficiently faked).
Once the procedure is completed, characters will again be knocked out and will be returned to their cells for the duration of the event.
Escape is possible. There are ventilation shafts that lead outside, though they're too small for anything larger than a common housecat to fit in. Teleportation spells and like powers will work, but too much teleportation risks detection via energy signatures. There are dozens of purple light drones, purple light Donnie constructs, and physical purple turtle-like robots with various armaments patrolling every corner of the labs, including the vents. Constructs and robots will attempt to stop escapees with force, but will not use lethal force if escapees cannot be subdued.
If return escapees or any other characters try to break into the lab from the outside, however, all bets are off and lethal force is permitted.
IN SUMMARY:
⚛ Characters will be kidnapped according to sign-ups/IC details
⚛ Characters will be held in isolated cells for up to a week. Characters can talk to adjacent cells and are able to escape with planning/specific powers
⚛ Re-entry into the labs after escape will be exceedingly difficult
⚛ The Soul Data copying procedure is anywhere from mildly annoying to moderately painful
⚛ Robots, drones, and constructs will not use lethal force for escapees, but will use lethal force for trespassers/returning escapees
⚛ Donatello's voice will be delivered by various constructs and drones, but his original body cannot be found by either prisoners or escapees
At some point after one of the following occurs, a huge dome of purple light will appear around the entirety of the land under which Donatello's lab sits:
- An escapee manages to leave
- Someone posts or mentions anywhere on the Network that they might think Donnie is responsible for any kidnapping(s)
- Someone tries to break into the lab
- February 8th comes to pass without any of the above taking place
The dome will be very noticable to anybody near Willow. The structure will act like the concept of 'hard light' structures in various sci-fi; it's like a near-transparent wall made out of purple light that is extremely difficult to break by conventional means. Powers that disrupt photonic light and extreme force can probably eliminate enough panels to allow people to enter.
After the dome erects around the lab, there will be even more patrols of light constructs, drones, and robots, and they will have no qualms with using lethal force. Constructs have all the abilities of the regular Donatello and will engage verbally with trespassers but are easier to destroy, and robots have intense firepower and durability but cannot be reasoned with.
Various bulkheads will also trap trespassers in singular rooms, which may or may not contain lethal traps such as poisonous gas, or even a good old-fashioned fire trap or descending/ascending spike walls.
The holding cells are far into the lab near the old manufacturing section. Cells are enclosed on all but one side by thick metal walls, with the entry blocked by light panels similar to the dome around the exterior of the lab. Enough concentrated force to a panel from both the interior and exterior simultaneously will cause it and the other panels to fail and will release the occupant.
Characters that manage to fight their way through all of the opposition both outside and inside of the labs, don't get caught and killed by traps or otherwise expelled by guards, and aren't waylaid by rescuing and releasing prisoners, might make their way to the staging area with the large ring structure sunk into a raised platform in the floor. The ring itself is obviously a massive and complex piece of technology, but nothing else in the room stands out. The platform beneath the ring hums with a near-constant buzz that almost feels like static.
The instant one or more characters make it into the staging area and near the ring, they will feel a tingle across their bodies that precludes a massive discharge of electricity, not unlike the hairs on one's arm raising before a lightning strike. Digits made out of purple light starting at 30 will appear within the ring's structure as the humming grows so loud it seems as if one's own insides are vibrating. The digits will begin counting down per second.
Characters who do not make it out of the room and seal the door shut before the countdown reaches 00 will instantly die. Maybe, just before they pass, they'll notice the gate is now pulsing a bright, brilliant white.
IN SUMMARY:
⚛ Pending specific criteria, a giant dome of light will appear over farmland in Willow
⚛ Inside the dome, any Star Children that have been kidnapped are being held captive
⚛ There are security measures in place both outside and inside the lab to prevent entry. Some of these measures are lethal (robots, Donatello constructs, traps)
⚛ The cells are the second deepest area in the lab
⚛ Past the cells is a curious gate, which will execute its final program the moment the room is breached
Perhaps you were minding your business, talking a walk through Gram. Maybe you're enjoying a cup of hot chocolate in Wintermute, cozy by the fire in one of their welcoming taverns. It could even be that you're under the sea in Tides, somehow roped into modeling for another painting, again. You could've known about the kidnappings, about the strange dome that appeared in Willow, and you could've decided that it wasn't any of your business. Or maybe it was just the Fox again, up to her usual tricks and Trials, and you wanted no part of it. But maybe instead you're in the lab, bloodying your knuckles on panels made of light to try and reach one of your friends before the guards catch up to you-
Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, something suddenly makes the hairs on your arms and the back of your neck stand on end.
And then, for some of you, no matter where you are, you're suddenly somewhere else.
Throughout Folkmore, as soon as the gate engages, pocket dimensions will tear open around Star Children reminiscent of Trial 18's escape rooms, only there's no trick to leaving and no instructions. These pocket dimensions were opened by Lavender, but as a means to contain the ill effects enacted upon Star Children by Donatello's gate rather than a test.
Within the pockets is an entire world generated by the memories of the host Star Child. It could be an exact duplicate of an entire city or a re-enactment of a months'-long journey, or it could be a kaleidoscope of the feelings associated with those feelings in a fever dream setting. Memories as they are associated with the soul are more malleable than those strictly from the mind, and can alter their surroundings within these pockets depending on how they affected the owner. The only caveat is that whatever the world, setting, or event must have already occurred to the host Star Child.
Nearby Star Children that are sucked into these pockets are not provided any instructions on how to get out...because they can't. Outside of the pockets, only a few seconds will pass, but within the pockets time moves differently. Star Children can feel as if they've been within the pockets for minutes, hours, days, even weeks with each other. Multiple different occurrences of the same or different events with different people take place, compartmentalized within these pockets in their infinite space and time.
It's up to the individual Star Child whether or not they realize that what they're experiencing isn't real...or at least, isn't lasting. Star Children who come to the conclusion that this is some sort of Trial or hallucination will find themselves returned to their bodies hale and whole, with nary a scratch. Other Star Children might not be so lucky; high-tension situations have a way of sticking to the most skeptical victims, after all. All this to say, essentially, wounds and deaths that occur within the pocket dimensions may be inflicted upon Star Children after they emerge. It's up to player discretion.
IN SUMMARY:
⚛ Lavender will open pocket dimensions around Folkmore to contain the gate's effects
⚛ The effects are, specifically, the creation of worlds/events that Star Children have already experienced; these worlds/events can be as accurate as the player likes, or can be exaggerated/muted in accordance with how it affected the Star Child in question
⚛ Each pocket dimension will form around a host Star Child, and nearby Star Children will be pulled in against their will
⚛ There is no specific goal in order to escape. Up to player discretion
⚛ Time moves differently within the pockets; it could be a loop of thirty seconds or several weeks
⚛ Wounds and lasting affects on Star Children after emerging from the pockets is up to player discretion
In the immediate aftermath of the gate engaging for those few seconds and the events of Memory Traps, all of the Donnie constructs and any other structures made up of the purple light will disappear. The lab will go silent, the robots will freeze in place before shutting down, and anyone still alive inside will be free to leave.