Mid-Month Announcement: July

[simpathis]

— MID-MONTHLY MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: JULY —

This is the month of parties, clearly. Quick heads up that the HMD meme will go up tomorrow and it will be formatted the exact same way as last time.


» CALENDAR

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The calendar hasn't changed much since the last post, but here is the link as reference: Game Calendar. These are the dates you should know for the rest of the month.

• 7/14: HMD Meme
  
• 7/18: Test Drive
  
• 7/25: Activity Check starts; Reservations open.
  
• 7/27-31: EVENT: Light of Helisium
  
• 7/31: Activity Check ends.
  
• 8/01: Applications Open

This is what we have so far, but anything could pop up, either from us or from players.


» EMOTION TRACKER UPDATE

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As always, it's kind of early to tell where the Emotion Tracker is going. But so far it's pretty even with Daimonia getting a lot of pull and the giant floating crystal in the sky is shining almost more brilliantly than the sun.

As a reminder, this is just a "mid-month" check to give everyone an idea of where the Emotion Tracker stands. If you haven't had a chance to submit your threads, don't worry! You can still submit and have it count for the final tally at the end of the month.

The following is a tally of the numbers for the month so far. The formula is TOTAL = RAW + (ALI-I * ALI-C) - APA. This includes both the emotions from the festival and the ones listed prior to it.

AREHTEI	RAW	ALI-I	ALI-C	APA	TOTAL	+/-
Aiada	1	0	0	0	1	+
Daimonia	13	7	1	0	20	+
Elios	2	2	2	0	4	+
Peromei	7	2	2	1	10	+-
Piphron	3	0	0	1	2	-
Sosyne	5	2	1	0	7	-
Thras	1	0	0	0	1	-
[ Apathy ]	2	0	0	0	2

» MESSAGES FROM AREHTEI

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Just a quick reminder that characters have the opportunity to receive a message from their "patron" (or "matron") Arehtei. Refer to the previous mod post and sign-up thread.


» CRYSTALS

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Just going to put it on the modly record that those who need replacement crystals can find them in the cavern lake found in the temple ruins. Might have to swim a little, but areas are clearly marked for those who need them. Just touch one and boom, new crystal will form.


» GLORY IN BATTLE

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We have an interesting event that will be held later next month (August) and may or may not lead into something else. Maybe. In any case, a flyer will be posted later this week announcing a battle tournament of sorts. All the specifics and details will be posted closer to the date since this is still a ways yet. We are also holding off sign-ups until later. But this is just a little heads up about it.


» LIGHT OF HELISIUM

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There are a lot of parties going on right now, and while normally we'd cut back, this is one festival that cannot be ignored. As mentioned in the previous mod post, Light of Helisium is a local event that is similar to celebrating the summer solstice. Incidentally, it was because of last year's festival that the characters first arrived onto the island. Will something happen again? That giant rock in the sky is awfully bright and golden right now...

Of course there will be the usual fanfare and it might seem rather similar to the Zephyras Flower Festival. However, it will still have its own unique twist, a few that won't be revealed until closer to date (maybe not even until the day of). Here are some of the things we can tell you about.

• Schedule. ICly, the festival lasts 3 days, from July 29 through the 31st. OOCly, it begins that Monday, July 27. Now, we realize that Otakon is during that weekend (July 24-26), which is why we're not starting it during the weekend like we normally do. Hopefully this schedule will work as a compromise and will be enough time for folks.
  
  
• Tribute to Elios. Elios is the Arehtei of love. Light of Helisium has a lot of tradition in marriage and love generally. Including the more...mature kind. After his last appearance, Elios has won a lot of favor in the "love" department so you can bet there are going to be a number of products made in his image. Edea's and Sanae's chocolates have nothing on what some of the products will induce, so consumers beware.
  
  
• Masquerade. Get ready to be blasted with a lot of bright colors, and maybe a lot of feathers. Again, Elios is putting in a lot of influence here. But there will be all sorts of costumes and masks going around, as this year's festival is going to have a masquerade theme to it. Some masks may even resemble the Arehtei! Well, the ones that have been seen so far. Perhaps the costumes may even be emotionally influenced.
  
  
• Standard activities. Games, food, music, dancing. Everyone knows the drill.
  
  
• Lots of water. Of course, while people can be all fancy with their costumes, it is the hottest time of the season. Expect various means to "cool off" be made available for everyone.

This should be enough for people to start thinking about what they'd like to do for the event. Hopefully nothing bad happens to turning everything, but who knows.


» PLAYER PLOTS & EVENTS

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We'll close this announcement with a few plots and mingling opportunities created by players.

• Rituals for Peromei. Continuing from last month, Sanae is performing rituals to keep the hope flowing.
  
  
• Place for performers? Kokoro is asking where the best place to hold performances would be.
  
  
• Tanabata! Alvin, Fractured Milla, and Sanae are hosting a Tanabata party and everyone is invited!
  
  
• Not-so-wild jellyfish. Trip is trying to train one of his Pokémon, but it's not being very cooperative.
  
  
• Missing Person Report. Have you seen this person? Neptune is asking for any help. (Spoilers: she's not actually missing.)
  
  
• Venting via gunfire. Jane is feeling a little down and can be found at the shooting range.
  
  
• Chest pains. Maleficent is wondering why she's experiencing strange chest pains. Perhaps it's more of emotion than health...?

There are still a few open logs and discussion posts, so be sure to check back yourself! We try to keep up, but if you'd like to be listed let us know. If you'd like to throw your own event or plot, comment here.

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And that's about it. If you have any questions, concerns, or want things clarified, please comment to the post!

Comments

[wrongeye]

Yeah, I've got a question! Though it might be a bit too early to ask concerning the Glory in Battle event coming up, I was wondering.

I'm thinking that if the prize seemed appealing enough to him, Redcloak would use his necromancy to raise and enter into the competition an undead warrior. Fully disguised, of course.

Would he be able to do that?

[simpathis]

The flyer that will be posted later this week will have more details about it (and then we'll dump even more specifics about it in a later OOC post), but I can go ahead and say with confidence that yep. That's doable.

[killtheempire]

Just double checking before I post about it, is the information about the festival all ICly available?

[simpathis]

For the basic stuff we've listed, especially about the costumes and it having a masquerade and Elios theme, yes. There will be advertisements going around, including advertisements for some of those new "products," however those won't go into full effect until the actual time of the festival. So for the products, it's more like, "Watch for our new products made available only during the festival! We're sure you, and your partner, will love them." with not much more than that.

[tough_love]

Now that the flyer's been posted, I...do have a question. Namely, which arena Looma'd be able to enter into.

Since while she doesn't really have any "supernatural" ability, the "no more than one surpassing ability" part of the first ring gives me pause. As far as Tetramands go, she's baseline (no extraordinary abilities), but I would imagine what counts as "surpassing" would be determined by the locals' standards, not hers. At which point her natural ridiculous strength and armor-like hide (which makes her the equivalent of a large, four-armed tank) sound like they might be enough to disqualify her. Since it's not like she can just turn one or the other off, it's purely biological.

Does this mean she would have to enter into the second arena, or would she be permitted in the first (in which case, I can safely assume she wouldn't be permitted to use the beam cannon in her warhammer, because that's straight up overkill).

[simpathis]

Hmm... This is actually a good question. The first group is mainly for those who are pretty much very skilled in terms of weapons and martial arts, including super strength, speed, and other physical skills. Flying, for instance, could go into the first group so long as they also don't blast magic or summon minions (so that is to say, the ability to fly would just count as a movement skill). The second group is for those who can do everything and anything.

I think for Looma, she could fall into either, so the better question is—is it possible for someone who can only wield a weapon be able to defeat her in some capacity? OR is her strength and defense so strong that only those who are using enhanced abilities such as magic or other equipment would have a fairer battle?

Keep in mind that a lot of the characters in the game are considered "strong," and even those without magic could have strength or skill to take down large groups of people single-handedly because they're "that good" (quotes because well—anime/manga/movie exaggeration of skills and such). The group composition may also vary depending on who enters where. For instance, if we had a lot "brute force" characters in the first group, then it might not be so strange for Looma to be there.

But if I were you and I had to choose, I would think about her abilities, mentally imagine her going against a few people on our Taken roster, and see how much of a difference in combat skill there is. If you find that she would easily cream a master swordsman despite their own tactical skills and strength, then I'd stick her in the second group. If you think that despite her strength/defense she would still find challenge and could reasonably be defeated with enough skill, then first group might still be doable.

[tough_love]

Yeah, she's...in that awkward middle-ground area. Where some regular dude with a sword would be in trouble, but somebody with access to a bunch of magic spells would have her at a severe disadvantage. Though the actual nature of the tournament could also throw things either way (if there are boundaries that disqualify you if you get knocked past them or step outside them, for example) and make it significantly more balanced for the first group. Since an expert of hand to hand combat could always knock her off balance during a strike or throw her, at which point they don't need to beat her, just get a ring out.

I will take a look at the taken roster and start catching up on profiles, and just decide when the time comes though! Is there a list anywhere of people who have already signed up by chance, or will that be coming in August?

[simpathis]

Sign-ups aren't until August! We're waiting until then because the tournament itself won't be until late August, and that's a really long time to hold a sign-up, especially with the AC at the end of this month.

Plus, it will allow new players to join in!

[young_oldman]

Hi mods! Due to Lu Meng and Roy's discussion here, Lu Meng's going to be asking some questions about the tournament to try and find out more about it. He'd ask a mix of the Pro-Otherworlder locals, the librarians, maybe some of the farmers he's helped out through the Farmer's Union, and some of the other local Enforcers too. The questions are:

1. Who are the organizers of this tournament? Is it the Council?
2. Does the city have a history of holding tournaments? Has anything bad ever happened in any of them?
3. What's the reason for holding the tournament? Is there a festival dedicated to bravery, fighting and warriors that it's being held in conjunction with?

Would he be able to get any answers to the questions above? Thanks!

[simpathis]

As of now, no one has any idea. These flyers just started circulating. There is no real history of large-scale tournaments and this isn't an official event approved or even discussed by the government.

In short, it is a very big mystery as of now.