#Plot Drop 001 north star goes dark

[elistra]

Location: Anchored Heart Tattoo Parlor When: Plot Drop 001 Status: @isidoredelgado​

Whenever a storm threatened Port Vale’s shore, Elistra couldn’t help but remember the one in the Caribbean that had driven her from the ocean waves for good. Even now, the cacophony of thunder and the blinding lightning, the howling winds that sounded like ancient monsters screaming in anger and agony, permeated her mind like a shallow swamp. With each step through town she thought of the oncoming storm and what it would bring. The air was eerily quiet and calm, but Elistra knew better than to mistake it for peace. Something terrible was brewing and she could feel it in the sea salt marrow of her bones. That ominous emerald like a signal of war around the statue’s throat nearly seemed like an afterthought. 

There was a jingle of bells as Elistra opened the door to Anchored Heart Tattoo Parlor so hard it nearly smacked into the wall beside it. It swung shut behind her and Elistra marched up to the front counter, empty except for a binder of template tattoo designs. “Dorey!” she hissed, leaning over the counter to try and catch a glimpse of the back rooms. He could be with a client, but who in their right mind would want to get a tattoo at this moment? 

Elistra looked at the tiny metal call bell on the counter. She slapped her palm down on it in rapid succession, sending a stream of high pitched chimes throughout the building. “Isadore, get out here right now or I swear to the goddess-” The last smack of her palm landed violently, and she felt the fragile metal crumple beneath her hand. With a yelp, she backed away from the desk, looking on in embarrassed horror at the ruined call bell. “Oh no,” she whispered, wide eyed.

[sevenseasbulletin]

PLOT DROP 001 - The North Star Goes Dark?

For days, the storm lingered just on the horizon; as if testing the might & will of the Port Vale locals, to see how long they could withstand the suspense of it’s impending force. When it finally hit, suddenly as if it had held back waiting, there was little warning of it’s approach other than cool winds and low clouds. The ocean had come for Port Vale with a vengeance, the waves reaching for the shore, hungry and greedy.

As suddenly as it had begun, the storm ceased and the clouds rolled out, leaving the town recovering from the damage of it’s rage. Victoria Wolfgang’s task force were busy through the storm, but in the ocean, there were more forces at work trying to protect the town; Reef Lockslan & Lazarus were in their hippocampi form, just out of sight of the humans (and undercover mer) helping from land. It was in the howling worst of the storm that Laz froze, hit with a wave of lost memories, fragments of a dark cave, unfamiliar voices... fuzzy and overpowering. Reef was able to keep him from harm, the ocean aiming it’s strongest tides to Laz, but they both could hear the voice in the water; come back. An argument between sirens Valentina Romanova & Elistra Smith ended as the storm hit, but on the way back to her apartment, a car slid due to the rain and came skidding off of the road, catching Val off-guard and nearly pinning her between it and the wall of The Starbeach Café, causing minor damage to the siren & major damage to the café. Elistra had her hands busy helping Victoria; she’d headed to the chapel to check on those seeking shelter, when she saw Quinn Darcy struggling in the storm. The Kelp Forrest Campsite had flooded, and Q was trying to make it through the knee-deep water when the strong winds pushed debris into him, the ocean greedy to pull him down & away. The siren got him to safety with some struggle, but they both would be sporting bruises & minor injuries in the days following. 

It wasn’t just the town suffering; on the outskirts, Emilia Acosta & Renzie Anand found themselves without shelter in the heavy rain by the castle ruins. The beaten path towards town was covered with water rushing to the cliffs, and Emilia nearly stumbled to her death over the decline of the rocks. As she started to fall, Renzie pulled her back to safety, but not before she saw something odd in the corner of her eyes; heads in the water, swimming expertly despite the powerful waves, as if they were part of the ocean itself... but then they were gone, off in the direction away from town. 

The day after the storm, the town came together with Mayor Xander Blackmore to access the damage to the town & ensure everyone was safe. The biggest news of the hour that morning? 

The North Star Lighthouse was back in working order, light brighter than ever. And the mysterious emerald pendant? Gone, again. Unknown to the town, Mellora Atoll had staged a break-in at the museum, trusting mermaids from the North Atlantic with the task of returning the artifact... but the storm had overpowered them, too, and the gemstone was now lost into the unforgiving sea. The superstitious locals whisper good riddance, the damn thing was cursed, the damn thing broke our lighthouse, good riddance! In general, the locals were happy to brush the recent events off and return to normal under the cloudless skies, storm in the past - but for those who know better?

It felt like just the beginning. 

[elistra]

Location: Port Vale Harbor  When: A few days into Plot Drop 001 Status: @valentinaromanova​

Three months ago Conch Records took on a new employee during tourist season.  There was nothing strange or out of the ordinary about that. They needed the help, especially with the crowds of tourists and newcomers slowly trickling into Port Vale, enjoying the quaint seaside town and its mermaid myths and memorabilia. But two and a half months ago, Elistra had wandered into Conch Records and felt a chill shoot down her spine at the sight of the woman reorganizing records. 

Elistra had only seen glimpses of the young siren captain of the Mediterranean Sea, not important enough to be privy to the diplomatic relations she might have held with her own captain in the Caribbean, but she’d never forget her face. It was impossible to. 

And yet, when she’d seen the woman on land, she had turned and walked the other way, chest tight and breath coming in shallow gasps. She tried to convince herself that it was merely a human who had an uncanny resemblance to the fearsome captain. Now she knew what a coward she’d been to ever think like that. Elistra had let her own fear of her past cloud her judgment and the town was paying for it. Who else would make such a bold declaration of war other than a siren captain in a hotspot of alleged mermaid activity? Elistra would not just sit by and watch, as Isidore so desperately wanted to do. She would protect Port Vale from any and all threats with everything she had, even if those threats were her own kind. 

She spotted the woman near the harbor, where the waves crashed against the docks, the wood creaking but holding strong against the strain. The boats bobbed in the water, secured and covered long ago. The rain had already started, coming down in freezing droplets from bulbous dark clouds overhead. The storm hadn’t begun in earnest yet, but it would soon. Elistra could feel it like an ache in her bones. 

“No one’s supposed to be out here right now!” Elistra called, walking directly up to the siren captain, her shoulders squared, her eyes blazing despite the rain dripping from her eyelashes. She could do this. She could do anything if it was for the people she cared about. “It’s dangerous, you know.” Her voice was quieter now that she was closer, and now that she could see Valentina up close. “But I guess storms don’t scare you very much, do they, Captain?”

[elistra]

Location: Port Vale Library  When: Plot Drop 001 Status: @steph-anand

There was the ticking of a clock, muted at a distance. There was the sound of sporadic typing, then the occasional frantic turning of pages. There was the clinking sound of a coffee cup being set down, its contents having grown cold hours ago. And then there were the sounds Elistra was making. Wary sighs, the quiet tap of her fingers as she scrolled on her phone. There was a saying that humans used about horses and how they were able to bring them towards water, but how they couldn’t force them to drink. Elistra had a feeling she could relate to the humans who had come up with the phrase. She’d brought Steph food to keep her energy up-- cooked brown rice with a fried egg and sweet potatoes over top-- but so far hadn’t seen her eat even a little bit of it.  

It hadn’t been long since the discovery of the amulet had been made. Elistra still wasn’t sure what to make of it all. She’d never seen a mermaid princess’s jewel before, but something deep in her bones told her that had to be what it was. It would explain all the new faces in town, but why would it be around the mermaid statue’s neck? It was as if someone was trying to deliver a message, a message that the humans in town would have no context for. 

With another sigh from her spot at the adjacent table to where Steph was sitting, Elistra cleared her throat. “Oh, hey it says here in this article that frequent rest, food, and sleep actually help the human brain recognize patterns and make connections it otherwise wouldn’t have. Isn’t that interesting, Steph?” She looked at the woman buried in her laptop and several stacks of books. Elistra picked up a pen from the table and chucked it at Stephanie's arm. “Stephanie Anand, are you listening to me?”

[elistra]

Location: Star Struck Bouquets  When: Plot drop 001 Status: @porcelainreef

With the winter months quickly approaching, and not to mention the storm on the horizon, it was probably too late in the year to cultivate any plant growth in the little box garden Cecil had recently gotten for her window. She’d researched what soil to buy, and what flowers would thrive best in a seaside town like Port Vale, but she was hesitant to start. She’d never tended to anything that grew from the earth before. 

Buying seeds was a good first step though. She’d read they lasted for quite a while, so she could always wait until spring to start planting them. Surely she would be able to bolster her confidence by then. 

Entering Star Struck Bouquets, Elistra smiled at the young man tending to the arrangements. A fairly new resident to the town, but a kind one, if a little shy. She always tried to treat him gently and be as friendly as possible with him, like Cecil and Clara had done for her when she’d first gotten here. “Hello, Reef!” she called, wandering over to him while she examined the bouquets. 

“I always love coming in here,” she commented. “It smells like another world entirely. Makes me forget that there’s a gray sky outside and a bunch of thunder and lightning on the way.” Of course, this wasn’t really the truth. The storm had been on her mind constantly these past few days. This one just seemed different from the others in a way she couldn’t quite name.

[elistra]

Location: the Mermaid Inn When: Plot drop 001 Status: @lazarusthelost​

“-and there’s a flashlight in that kit for if the power goes out. The town does have a backup generator but it might take a while to get it up and running, so please be sure to take every precaution, alright?” She gave a curt nod and turned away from the closing door, checking something off on a clipboard before moving on to the next door. 

Elistra had been going through every occupied room in the Mermaid Inn, offering supplies to anyone who needed a few essential items and responded to her persistent knocking. Most tourists who had been staying in Port Vale, when they heard the news of the storm, had quietly abandoned the place, but some people who were staying long term in town had opted to hunker down with the rest of the residents. Renzie had seemed busy with his own preparations about town, and she admired his vigilance in checking her kits despite being so overwhelmed even if she found little else to admire about him. 

She knocked on the next door, three short, sharp wraps and tucked the clipboard underneath her arm. “Hello, sorry to disturb you but this is Elistra with Beacon Chapel.” That was the end of the conversation for some people. For some reason, a lot of humans were very apprehensive about opening doors for her when she mentioned the chapel, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. “I wanted to make sure you were all set up for the storm. I have some supplies here if you need any!”

[elistra]

Location: Castle of the Isle  When: Sometime during Plot Drop 001 Status: @luciafrost​

Mist and condensation clung to the insides of Elistra’s lungs as she climbed the steep hills towards the ruined castle of the isle. For decades upon decades the skeletal frame had remained, outliving those that had built it and watching as the humans flocked towards more residential homes as mother nature reclaimed it for its own. It reminded Elistra of a whale’s carcass at the ocean floor, the rib cage and spine providing shelter for the small schools of fish and bottom feeders. Reams and ribbons of life sprouting forth from the inevitable death all things great and miniscule faced. Moss and vines crawled up the weathered stone walls, seeping beneath the cracks, making their home there. 

Elistra tugged her raincoat tighter against her small frame as the wind howled and pulled at her hair. She didn’t really know why her legs had carried her here, only that there had been an itch in the back of her mind to check on this place as she’d gone through her list of tasks to fulfill before the storm hit land. She climbed the crumbling steps and ducked under a low hanging archway dripping with cobwebs. The spiders would surely retreat soon until next summer. 

As she walked her booted food hit an empty, crumpled beer can and sent it skittering towards a pile of rubble. The place was in need of a good clean-up, but she doubted that would be anywhere on the list of priorities for Mayor Blackmore. Elistra followed the path of the can towards a corner of the ruins, bending down to pick it up and carry it back with her to town to feed to a recycling bin. But then a strip of black material caught her eye, hidden beneath rubble and fallen leaves. Instead of reaching for the can, she crouched down low and swept away the leaves and moved the broken stone aside to reveal what looked to be a relatively new looking gym bag.  

Hesitating for only a moment, fearing only that she’d find stashed away beer or drugs that some local teens had hidden up here instead of in their parents’ homes, she went to unzip the bag. As the bag sprang open though, it was not bottles of cheap vodka that she found waiting inside, but sharpened steel. Weapons big and small lay inside, immaculately kept and unaffected by Elistra’s shock and surprise upon seeing them.  “Oh, I don’t understand teens at all,” she said to herself, reaching inside to take out a small, sharp object that looked like a four-pointed star. “What were they even planning to do with all this?”

[sevenseasbulletin]

PLOT DROP 001 - The North Star Goes Dark?

              A THICK MIST HAS ROLLED INTO TOWN...

Another storm is brewing. As the Port Vale locals begin to wake up on Sunday, September 12th, exactly one week from the Starry Seas Lantern Festival, it doesn’t take long from them to realize that something unusual had occurred during the night. Moray Blackmore, the lightkeeper, had been working through the night to try and relight the North Star Lighthouse, but despite his efforts, the lighthouse remained dark. 

“UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE... All Harbor Activities Have Been Suspended.”

Xander Blackmore, Port Vale’s mayor, addresses the town as concern begins to grow among the residents. There had never been a time in known Port Vale history that their precious lighthouse had remained dark for so long; and with Moray insisting that nothing seemed to be wrong with it, Xander decided to enlist the help of a fancy technician from the city. Many locals were hesitant to allow a stranger come and tinker with their precious historical relic, including the Lightkeeper himself, who took it upon himself to closely watch the technician as he made his own attempt to relight the beacon. He was joined in his babysitting by Renzie Anand, who could not in good conscious allow something so drastic to take place in his beloved town without adding his own supervision to the mix, and got away with his snooping by offering free lunch to those working on the North Star. 

The storm would be hitting soon. 

MEANWHILE... A Discovery Is Made

On the historical mermaid statue in front of Port’s Point City Centre, Kyree Abraham notices an interesting pendant now hanging from the bronze creature. It looked old, and intriguing, with an ancient language engraved on the back of an emerald medallion. She turns it into the City Centre, and the mayor hunts down Mellora Atoll, insisting that she display this new-found relic in the museum. 

But to her horror, she recognized the pendant. Despite her extra caution to protect the gemstone which Atla, the former princess of her North Atlantic Ocean, was born from; it had ended up here... in Port Vale. Stolen? By Whom? And worse yet, now on display for the whole town to gawk at. 

Stephanie Anand is asked to investigate the origins of the pendant, and it’s so... oddly familiar to her, as if she’d seen it (or something similar) drawn on an old paper somewhere in her stacks of research. She isn’t the only one with a mystery to solve; Lucia Frost notices that a few dead fish had washed up on the far side of the beach, seemingly to have been affected by a sickness she had never seen in the water before. 

The Storm Is Coming. 

After hours of work, the fancy city technician leaves Port Vale defeated; the lighthouse remains dark, and questions remain unanswered. All the employees who work at the dock are put on temporary leave, and the mayor puts restrictions on all boating, fishing, and swimming until the lighthouse is repaired. He promises this is temporary, and urges the town to focus on preparing for the storm... enough wrecks happen at the town’s rocky shore with the lighthouse in action. 

Talk is spreading fast through the town, and already the locals are wondering if the ancient pendant that had been found had something to do with the lighthouse’s unexplainable darkness. To the mermaids, they know what that pendant is, and they want to catch the thief who snatched it from the North Atlantic. Their eyes are turned to the sirens for this crime, but the sirens feel the mermaids are the ones responsible for this. As for the humans...?

Victoria Wolfgang decides to set up a temporary task force to babysit the sea from land as night begins to fall, ready to rescue anyone who finds themselves lost in the darkness of the waves. Tension is high, windows are shuttered, and all eyes are towards the lighthouse, hoping it would magically relight and put an end to the confusion. The storm will come and it will pass, as they always do, but the hippocampi can feel something stirring in the air.

Something is coming, and this won’t be the beginning of what Port Vale will face unless questions get answers soon.