#plot:darningshears

[soapberryspringsrpg]

The Darning Shears of Fate: Finale

Soapberry Springs had always been odd, but this odd? People were starting to take notice. People were starting to worry. People were asking questions that made the Council and the Mayor’s Office very unsettled. “This is some bull-grade horse shit right here,” Mayor Hormel declared about the entire affair, and nobody could really say otherwise.

“What are we going to do what are we going to do.” Chloe was repeating this chorus to herself and had been for the past ten minutes to the tune of three hundred and fifty one times. Attie had tuned out by the twenty-third repetition and was more concerned with dragging Chloe along by the hand with her.

“We aren’t going to do anything, we can’t do anything.” Attie stated, matter-of-fact and far too calm by Chloe’s standards. “That’s why I called in...” Attie drew in a breath, swelling out her cheeks, then popped it out in a gust, “...someone to help.”

“No! No, you didn’t call them did you?“ Chloe yanked her hand out of Attie’s grip, leaving her curly haired friend to gawk at her. ”Tell me you didn’t call them, they’re going to be so pissed! They’ll poof us out of existence.”

“No I didn’t call them! I called a fixer, she’s-” Attie never got to finish her explanation.

In a conflux of dramatic timing, because fate seemed to have a sense of style as well as humor, a car squealed to a stop loud and close enough to drown out anything Attie’d been about to say. Tire marks burned into the pavement, halting just shy of where Attie and Chloe stood gawping and frozen still. A tense hush fell over the scene after all that excitement, broken only when the doors flung open, the click of the latch and high heels on concrete louder than anything.

“So hey dummies, heard you got yourselves into trouble.” Lacey poured out of the car, sporting a fresh Costa Rican tan, far more Costa Rican freckles, and facial features that were similar enough to Attie’s to be familial. The scent of her bubblegum accompanied every word.

“Lacey!” Chloe and Attie squealed in tandem, then began the complex ritual of female friends greeting each other after a long time apart: hugging, petting, exclaiming, scolding. Attie and Chloe were more demonstrative than they otherwise would have been, considering how their trip had turned out so far, in the hubbub Lacey’s boyfriend quietly slipped out of the car and waited with slouched shoulders and a watchful look.

Finally Lacey stepped back, golden brown leg extended, louchely commanding as she chewed her gum. “So you guys actually did it? You actually tried to mess with fate with only two of you here? Sooooo...are you crazy?”

“Why is that bad?” Chloe asked tentatively, and Attie at her side had to resist elbowing her in the gut because clearly it had been, obviously.

“Yeah! Clearly! Obviously!” Lacey threw up her hands, giving voice to all of Attie’s concerns.  “So have you two not been paying attention to anything we learned? Because if you had then you’d remember you need more than two--” she helpfully held up two fingers in a V and flipped them back and forth, fuchsia fingernails bright, “--to actually have some control over those wiry magical little shits.”

“Ohhhhhhhh,” said both Attie and Lacey at once. As soon as Lacey had explained the issue realization dawned. Attie grimaced, showing all her teeth, and Chloe grimaced, her closed mouth showing none.

“You know how to fix it though, right? Whatever happened?” Lacey’s boyfriend suddenly piped up, unsurely. All three of the interns turned to glower at him before facing each other again and continuing on as if he’d never spoken.

“So the good news is we don’t need to fix it!” Lacey was grinning, feverishly chewing her gum and sending out gusts of its sweet scent. “I mean, so yeah it needs to be fixed, duh, but it’s not just us that wants to set things right. Can you feel it? Reality keeps the impression of the form it wants. Like once you bend metal you can’t get it back right again?”

“Except with magic.” Attie chimed in, a little smugly.

“Are you doing the Star Trek metaphor thing?” Chloe chimed hopefully, speaking over her friend. All three of them glanced at each other before moving on.

“So okay, whatever, what I mean is people, strong people, are fighting back and getting their fates back on track. Someone as tough as steel who doesn’t want to bend, someone wanting to get their blooming romance back on track or to go back to being morally sound, someone who’s had a rough time of it but managed to survive it all despite that, a daughter and a father bound by something stronger than blood needing those bonds again, someone’s who’s lost something important and will do anything to get it back, maybe a woman who’s haunted by the idea of something she never did and needs relief again, and who knows how many countless more! All of them! So we can use all that psychic energy to our advantage!” Lacey gripped the two girls’ hands excitedly. “This whole messed up town is going to help us find the artifacts and fix what we need!”

Chloe blanched. “Okay, Lacey, you were starting to get me really pumped right there but then you got like weirdly specific as if these are all actual scenarios and-”

“Chloe shut up! She’s right! We can do this.” Attie had been entirely won over by Lacey’s fix, and tentatively, Chloe threw her lot in with the plan. They could do this.

And so they could, and so they did. Fate worked quickly when it had to.

Not a moment too soon, either: the Mayor’s Office and the Council of Soapberry Representatives were closing in on the source of all this unrest.

Epilogue:

“Holy shit that was crazy.” Attie relaxed in the back of the cab on the way to the airport.

“You’re telling me. I am never, never going to try and freelance again.” Chloe held the items in her fanny pack in a death grip. Not risking buckling it around her waist, she clutched it tight, unwilling to let go.

“So I’m surprised you guys even came to this nutsville place.” Lacey sat on the other side of Chloe, her and Attie squishing the most anxious intern in the middle seat. “It’s like janky and bougie at the same time, too, as if that wasn’t bad enough.” The boyfriend sat quietly in the front, mostly forgotten, making cautious small talk with the cabbie about a muffin he’d once eaten and enjoyed.

“Soapberry Springs?” Attie widened her eyes at Lacey’s comment. “Why? It’s just some hipster-slash-lumberjack town full of supernaturals…” Attie squished into Chloe just a little more so she could look at Lacey.

Lacey gave a long whistle. “Damn, you girls really haven’t been doing your homework.” She touched a fingertip to her tongue to take out her bubblegum and flick it out the window. “So hang on, just a sec…” 

With a zip and an ominous rustling of fabric when she reached in, Lacey extracted a half-finished tapestry from her huge gold maille purse, rolling it out over their laps. The boyfriend risked a look back, turning again when he saw only plain muslin; all three of the girls stared, entranced, Attie and Chloe’s mouths dropping open in dumbfounded astonishment.

“Oh my god.”

“I had no idea. All of this? Really? So soon? Holy shit -- we are damn lucky we’re leaving now.”

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR CHARACTER!

Congratulations, you all survived our first multi-installment plot drop! Following its resolution, your characters will retain any physical changes that they went through; in regards to their mental states, they have a number of options:

They will not remember anything that happened and will think the whole month had gone as usual

They will have hints of a memory, like deja vu, but never grip something clear

They will have no memory during the day, but flashes of different lives as they sleep

They’ve acquired some memento they have no knowledge of but bears some feeling of importance

Otherwise everything has gone back to normal

WHAT THIS ALSO MEANS

Congratulations to our winners of the mini-meta game!

Henna

Beth

Lori

Kcat

Kay

Scully

Liv

Your character icon prizes will be posted to the dash shortly! I hope everyone who participated had fun with it and for those wondering where the locations were the key is as follows:

The loom was on the main’s header image

The spool was placed on the moderators couch on the meet the mod’s page

The scissors were left lying on a table on The Horned God’s location picture.

(Eagle-eyed observers who’ve been here a while will notice the location pictures had been changed for the plot the day of the first drop.)

Good job all those who found all three, and much thanks to anyone who looked for them at all!! Give us your feedback on what you thought of the mini-game and we might include more of these in the future.

[soapberryspringsrpg]

The Darning Shears of Fate:Part3

Things are not well in Soapberry Springs. What should be the winding down of winter going out like a lamb is roaring wild like a lion. What makes things worse is that amidst all this chaos no one seemed to notice anything was wrong, yet.

“What the fuck Attie? What the actual fuck is going on?” Chloe yanked her fellow intern into an alley. She wasn’t concerned with the force she sent Attie flying after what she’d been observing in horror: people all twisted up in stories, personalities, and pasts that weren’t their own. It was like watching hordes of strangers walk by in socks with crocs, but somehow worse.

“Hey- Chloe!” Attie was jerked round, standing face to face with Chloe at the angriest she’d ever seen her. “Just calm down okay? It’s our first time, like a rough draft. First times are gonna go a little wrong, baby, but nothing we can’t fix! Egg shells, omelets, slice up some avocado on it, call it rustic and bab-boom, gastropub.”

“This isn’t a cracked egg, Attie!” Chloe’s voice cracked on her fear and fury. “These are people’s lives, as in people are actually killing other people! What. The. Hell. Killing people? That aren’t supposed to die!?!” Chloe was shouting, eventually having to quiet herself so their argument could be appropriately quiet and clandestine for the dark alley. “How does that happen?”

Attie screwed her mouth to the side. “Okay, yes.” She held up a finger. “I hear what you are saying, and that definitely was an unforeseen consequence.” She stopped, pleased with herself for being so professional.

“Un! Foreseen! Consequence!” Chloe was working herself up into a hysteria; nothing about this was going right, if unexpected people were dying off left and right. “Do you hear what you’re saying?! How are we going to fix this, Attieeee???” Her voice slid up the scale, ending on a dog-whistle whine.

“Okay,” Attie said, “okay, things are really really bad. But you need to chill your beans right now. We’ll just go back and make it like nothing ever happened. Snip snip, sew sew, bam we’re done. I mean, who are we? We just need to get out our tools!” Attie clapped her hands together, smiling at Chloe to relieve the tension. She held out those same hands to her friend and waited a beat. “So, when are you going to break out the stuff?”

Chloe blinked, her eyes starting to get that look where they’d spin in concentric circles. Always a bad sign. “Break out the stuff? Break out WHAT stuff? The stuff you used last, is that the stuff breaking out that you mean?” 

“Well, yeah...you’re the one who kept them in your funky little fanny pack of magic.” Attie’s voice was getting thin and whiny meaning she was suddenly and overwhelmingly worried. “I thought you put them back in there!”

“Are you kidding me Attie? Are you really kidding me right now?” She punctuated each word with a stomp of her foot until she was doing a dance of agonized despair. “We lost the tools! The shears! The spool! The mother fucking loom!” Chloe’s hands pressed to her face, she could feel herself hyperventilating. “We left them in the rented car!”

Attie gave a weird, rolling shrug, trying to seem nonchalant but overdoing it awkwardly. “So? We just call the car back, they have to have like a lost and found or something.”

“No, they won’t Attie. You know they won’t because they're stupid horrible magical artifacts imbued with centuries of power. They’re not going to stay in one place! They could be anywhere in town! And the whole time they’re lost everything is just going to get worse and worse!” Chloe was pacing down the alley, practically pulling out her hair, and Attie knew they weren’t going to get out of this one easily.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU OOC:

Things are going to get a whole lot worse.

Things that seemed so clear to your characters before are now going to get very muddled.

Your characters will question what they know, facts and memories conflict and overlap. All of this may affect different characters differently.

Your character can have an identity crisis with overlapping memories, unsure who is the real them

Your character may get splitting headaches, dizzy spells, and/or other side effects from the changes

Your character may have trouble remembering anything at all. Real and false memories wiped away with amnesia, or have a truncated attention span with the inability to form new memories

Your character may get a brand new memories, heaps of them, that have nothing to do with your character, from strangers or alternate realities

Your character could have a persistent unshakeable feeling of paranoia, resentfulness, or having lost something important

Your character may have reappearing images of sharp blades, binding ropes, snapping wooden constructions as terrifying visions or dreams.

WHAT THIS ALSO MEANS!

Hello Berries, let’s prepare for our first ever meta-game! The one time where meta-gaming (in certain parameters) is encouraged.

Fate’s interns Attie and Chloe have lost certain objects of power: the shears, the spool, and the loom.

These objects (as shown above) have been hidden in pictures around the main blog.

We invite players to look through the main’s pages in search of these objects. It’s a hidden object game that’s just a fun little extra. Just send in what they are and what page they’re found:

eg: Loom, Otto’s picture on the masterlist

People are in no way obligated to play but those who find the pictures and send in the correct locations will get a super special* icon in commemoration of the event and a job well done!

*Disclaimer: all icons are going to be made by Mod Mary and while their special-ness is guaranteed there is no promise of quality.

[soapberryspringsrpg]

The Darning Shears of Fate:Part2

Things have changed in Soapberry Springs, but they had been minor almost imperceptible changes. This was soon not to be the case for most residents.

Chloe and Attie were making their rounds all over Soapberry Springs. They even decided to hire a chauffeured car out so the two young women could stick their heads out the window. Taking stock of all the changes, their intensely awesome handiwork.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe we did it but we did it!” Attie pulled in, her curly hair wild and her smile wide as she panted happily.

“Of course we did it boo! I told you we would.” Chloe was riding high and triumphant that her plan had worked, with relatively little snares. “You just got to listen to me more! I got you!” The two girls  paused to high five each other a few times, till their fingers interlaced and they just sat in the back of the car smiling at each other.

“Okay so what now?” Attie piped up after what she felt was an appropriate silence to bask in their triumph.

“What do you mean, what now?”

“Um, what do you mean, ‘what do I mean’. I mean what now?” Attie made a face at her friend Chloe, scoffing and shaking her head. “I mean what should we do next. We’ve done your boring snip-snips here and there, but I want to really do something. You know do something. I want to weave tales! C’mon we’re ready! You saw how easy we managed this.”

“Yeah we managed, but barely. I mean we barely escaped detection! People are going to wonder if we change anything big.”

“But what if the people,” Attie held both her hands in front of her, palms a few inches apart, “--are part of the changes?” She moved her hands to the right to indicate a shift, and then twisted one of her arms over and under the other to attempt to put her hand in between. “They can’t see it, if they’re in it.”  Attie waggled her eyebrows, in what she hoped was a persuasive way, arms still pretzeled.

“No! No. No, Attie.”  Chloe’s eyes narrowed at her friend, growing serious and dire as she shifted her grip to her friend’s knee. “Attie, you have to promise me. We can’t mess with actual people’s lives. It’s fate!”

“Um, have you seen people’s lives?” Attie unwound her arms to be able to wave them around. “Have you seen what’s going on, like right now as we talk? You don’t think that we can do better?”

Chloe made a strangled ‘huhnn’ noise in the back of her throat as she was struggling to disagree; she knew that she should, but she was finding it difficult.

“I mean look at that dude! Or how about that one!” Attie was pointing out the windows at random passersby. “You can’t tell me that that dude’s life wouldn’t be made better if we put someone way more interesting in his path! C’mon, people are lost, lonely, sad, boring! They’re stuck in ruts and making themselves miserable. We can help them!”

Chloe pinched her lips and made another noise in her throat, shaking her head, but Attie was just smiling at her. She knew it would only take a few more questions and her friend would cave from nonverbal disagreement to begrudging agreement, then further. Attie had already won her case, and things were about to get a whole lot more interesting in Soapberry Springs thanks to the two of them.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU OOC:

Those who have asked for pairs have received them and the list is as follows.

Dani x Lilo = Lovers

Dani x Lina = Assassins

Bellamy x Shivonne = Lovers

Bellamy x Freddie = Master/Servant

Freddie x Alia = Professional Partners

Elizabeth x Cassie =  Professional Partners

Elizabeth x Thema = Killers

Elizabeth x Rein = Lovers

Elizabeth x Malus = Concepts

Malus x Rein = Family

Alia x Nessa = Lovers

Elijah x Cassie = Lovers

Elijah x Teddy = Killers

Tuah x Riss = Family

Tuah x Ephram = Enemies

Tuah x Attis =  Master/Servant

Sofia x Faye =  Master/Servant

Iddy x Lina =  Master/Servant

Iddy x Otto = Family

Shivonne x Ephram =  Master/Servant

Otto x Jen = Killers

Perl x Charlie = Family

Lilo x Faye = Family

Teddy x Charlie =  Professional Partners

Al x Ruby = Concepts

Nessa x Iann = Enemies

Iann x Thema = Lovers

Ruby x Attis = Killers

Peri x Malus = Lovers

Peri x Tuah = Killers

As far as the characters are concerned, their fated pairs are already established; there’s no need to go through setting up the connections. 

You are welcome to :

start threads interacting with people who aren’t aware of your character’s fated pair dynamics

make pairings of your own, if you’d like more or if you didn’t sign up but want one

Each person who signed up will have received a submission detailing a bit of the framework for their new relationship with this character. These relationships have been forged by Attie and Chloe messing with fate.

Each submission is a suggestion of the relationship; you are welcome to build on the suggestions, or otherwise configure your fated pair in a way that works for you!

If anyone would like some help with this, message the main and we would be happy to pitch in with suggestions and brainstorming.

[soapberryspringsrpg]

The Darning Shears of Fate:Part 1

It was around that time in Soapberry Springs: the air was chill, the nagas were sluggish, and the students at Soapberry Springs University were preparing for their work-studies and internships. With everybody concentrating on gearing themselves up for a new year, nobody paid much attention to the two extra people loitering about wondering what to do with themselves. 

“What are we doing here?” The frizzy-haired girl sat on the hood of a beat up chevy, unwrapping the foil of her gyro and trying (and failing) to eat it without dripping tzatziki sauce all over herself. “I’m serious, Chloe, we have like only a few weeks before we have to ship out to the Cave of Horrors and work out the rest of our internship with those awf--”

“We are here.” Chloe interrupted this diatribe, “because I’m a genius, and because we’re both tired of skeevy greasy dudes on vespas hitting on us.” Chloe rooted through the trunk of their compact car. She had to shout to be heard -- Attie just shouted regardless -- but neither of them much cared who overheard their conversation.

“That’s why we’re not there. What I asked was what are we--” The girl’s eyes narrowed as she chewed and swallowed “--doing here. Lacey is in Costa Rica! Costa Rica! Where are we? We’re--” She waved a hand around her, unimpressed. “Here.”

Chloe poked her head around the side of the open trunk, dark hair swinging heavily with the movement. “Well, Attie, we’re here getting fresh air and pine scent and ocean views, and all Lacey is going to get is taken, like in the Liam Neeson movie. Those Liam Neeson movies. How many times did she get taken so far?”

“Boo! Racist!” Attie called out between bites.

“How is that racist? They were in Par- You know what, never mind, because Lacey is also with her mope boyfriend who is a dick.”

“True! That mope-ass knucklefucker squash-face dick.”

“And weed is legal here.”

“Ohh, very true!”

“And! The piece of resistance!”

“Piece of-- what? That’s not how that-” Attie never got a chance to correct her friend because Chloe came scampering excitedly over and posed, arms held wide, with the items that she’d been rooting in the trunk for clutched tightly in her hands. Attie was just reaching out to grab one when Chloe hastily stuffed the objects into her ironic fannypack and zipped it shut.

Hopping off the car, Attie let the remains of her gyro smack wetly onto the hood, past caring in light of this new exciting thing. “Holy shit! Chloes! How did you manage to get those?”

“Well duh, it was super easy because They’re basically blind.” Chloe sounded smug, but Attie was sure if she kept going she could convince the other girl to start doubting herself.

“That’s not what I mean,” she said, in aid of that goal. “I mean what are you even going to do with them. We could get in real trouble.”

Chloe made an incredulous (and badass, she hoped) face at that. “Trouble? Are you serious? You’re forever getting us in trouble and also we’re supposed to be using these eventually anyhow!”

“Yah, eventually being the key word there.”

“Ch’yeah and eventually will never come if we don’t get a chance to practice using them.”

Attie snorted, unconvinced, although she’d forgotten her intent was to shake Chloe’s bizarre confidence in this whacked-out plan. “Okay, so I am for sure sure that ‘practicing’ like you euphemistically want to call it is super dangerous, and we will, in turn, get super caught. People will notice weird things happening and it’ll all end up going back to the boss -- the bosses. Before you can say snip snip.”

“Okay, yeah, I hear you, but what if -- and stay with me now -- what if the weird things happening are just … strange things, that start happening in an already strange place full of strange people,  where no one would actually think they were weird?”  Chloe raised her brows and dropped her mouth to smile expectantly at Attie, waiting.

And when the other girl’s puzzled frown smoothed over abruptly, her mouth and eyes opening wide and happy, Chloe knew Attie was in.

OOC What this means for you. Please read the important message below and like this post when you do!

Your characters may notice strange things are different in Soapberry Springs, things have changed but none of the changes look very new. Some residents will even swear things have been like that forever. Small changes akin to the fabled Mandela effect.

What could this mean in posts?

A route your character took every day suddenly changes which means they could

Trip on a stair that wasn’t there before or when they’re expecting one

Run into a wall or other kind of obstacle (statue, hedge etc.)

Run a red light/stop sign that wasn’t there and crash

Things in their house have changed (wallpaper, windows, furniture, etc)

If your character lives alone this may make them paranoid

If your character(s) share a home perhaps one of them remembers the change and the other notices nothing out of the ordinary

A public place has changed noticeably

Your character can publicly call attention to this change

Your character can hear someone publicly say something has changed when clearly it’s always been that way. Clarifications and arguments ensue

What you need to do

**IMPORTANT:** This plot drop marks the very beginning of a bigger one later on that involves pair matching. If you want your characters involved you must message the main and let us know what your preferred thread would be.

Fated Enemies

Fated Lovers  (star-crossed, true love, purely sexual) 

Fated Family

Fated Professional Partners

Fated Killers (spree, exterminators, assassins, critics)

Fated Paired Concepts (yin/yang, madonna/whore, etc.)

Fated Master/Servant (professional, sexual, antagonistic)

And be sure to rate them like in the following example:

Rate them based on your preference. 1 being your first preference and 5 being your least preferred.  Specify which types when appropriate. 

**IF YOU WANT YOUR CHARACTERS TO BE INVOLVED IN ONE OR MORE PAIRS SEND THE MAIN AN ASK BY NEXT FRIDAY 1/27/17.**

[soapberryspringsrpg]

Will the plot drop be random pairings (of participating characters) chosen by the lovely mods, or are we able to plot with other characters before hand for a particular thread choice? Either way, it's going to be exciting!

The pairings will indeed be chosen by the mods! 

Feel free to come up with variations on the theme once you’re paired (like if you’re paired with somebody else who wants enemies, you can choose the ‘flavour’ – reluctant enemies, bitter enemies, friends-turned-enemies etc.).

Contact the main anytime if you’ve got more questions!

[soapberryspringsrpg]

Hello lovely admins I have a question about wanting to have multiple pairs in the upcoming plot. does this means we send the same ask twice or we can change the order for the second time? Thanks in advance!

You just have to send in one ask per character. If you’re open to more mod-matched pairs let us know in your message to the main (or an extra message for those of you on the ball and already sending your lists in! :) ) We may have to use a character more than once depending on the number of people interested in the plot.

(If there is a lot of interest in multiple pairs we’ll see if we can match up a few more characters once we establish everyone’s primary pair. I can only promise one though!)

[soapberryspringsrpg]

If we're considering joining with a second character - or for people who might join in the next week before the 27th - could the new characters still be part of the pairing match up?

Good question! Especially for all the lurkers out there thinking of applying. ;)

 Because all the connections are going to be created for the sake of the plot they don’t need to be in the game before then. There shouldn’t be a problem if you get your preferences for pairing in by 12am PST on the 27th because after that we’ll be pushing forward to get the next drop ready.

[soapberryspringsrpg]

i sent in my pairing thingies, but if we're okay with multiple pairings do we need to send in more or can we just say we're okay with them?

All you have to do is send in or message the main that you would prefer more than one pairing! You don’t need to add more preferences if you’ve already sent yours in.

[soapberryspringsrpg]

Should we list just the pairs that we want to do in order of how we'd like them or all of the pairs that are listed in the plot drop?

Yup! Just message the pairs that you’d like to do! But do please give us a choice of 5 or more so we have more wiggle room when pairing up people with something they’d like doing. We’ll assume any you’ve left off are no-go’s