Mokley

Streetlight Dragonflies (surreal modern fantasy)

OOC IS HERE!

Everyplace feels familiar. An old bakery gapes hollow. The post office is shrouded in vines. Inside the arcade, a small forest is quietly illuminated by consoles. Paperbacks litter the street: Peter and Wendy, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Someone moves in the corner of your eye: you couldn't make out a face, but you could swear those were antlers. In a dusty electronics store window, a box television clicks, brightens, and hisses static. A tiger crosses your path.

A stout splintered sign sits battered and faded in the weeds: Welcome to Duskwick.

A Rumor

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Duskwick is a little lakeside town that -- according to reddit, expert bloggers, and several reputable youtube channels -- has recently had an unprecedented number of paranormal reports. Sightings of strange lights, moving objects and electrical anomalies has skyrocketed. Errant cackles of unidentified animals echo in the night, and the dragonflies only come out after sunset. Residents claim to have stumbled sometimes into an alternate reality like a replica of the town from 1980, abandoned and overgrown and inhabited by tigers and deer-people.

Since the first tiger-sighting four months ago, the telephone poles and diner corkboards have been papered in MISSING posters.

A Concept

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Your character has arrived in Duskwick to investigate the paranormal phenomena (ghosts? aliens? fairies? chemicals in the water?) and/or the alarming number of persons who've recently gone missing; or maybe they're here visiting family; or maybe they're just passing through; or maybe they've lived here all their lives.

This is an exploration RP with a deep-rooted plot. Characters are encouraged to look around, but also to touch things and break things and stir up old stories -- the setting is fragile and precarious, and will change depending on the characters' actions. Something Very Wrong is happening here. Maybe only you can set things right ... or hurtle the town of Duskwick into oblivion.

A Small Town

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Duskwick is nestled in the northeast United States, along the shore of Fog Lake. It lies midway between two larger cities and boasts not one but two railway tracks through town: one for people, another for the freight lines that echo deep in the night. Most residents take the train each morning to their city jobs while the rest open restaurants and antique shops and art galleries along Brightwell Avenue, or read magazines and tarot guides at the old brick library, or push out onto the lake in their canoes and fishing boats, or sit outside Charlie's Deli with soda and ice cream to watch the world pass by.

This was the perfect picture of Duskwick before the troubles began -- before the blinds were drawn and the locks clicked and signs in the windows turned CLOSED. Except along the busy and illuminated Brightwell, no one goes outside after dark.

Gameplay

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Characters may be whomever you wish, whether a resident, a visitor from the city or an investigator, professional or otherwise. PCs don't have to stick together -- in fact everyone may eventually become separated -- but we will open with everyone in the same diner. The game will be mostly exploratory, with a focus on the characters themselves. The character sheet will prompt players to create characters with simple and concrete goals and drives; what you get out of this RP will be equal to the character's curiosity and motivation to take action, so keep this in mind when deciding on personality traits. The setting will change and develop as the characters' decisions affect it -- so make decisions often.

This RP probably will not maintain a somber mood; there will be jokes, there will be crazy outlandish weird stuff, there will be ridiculous tropes and nonsensical randomness -- but there will also be a bit of horror, gray-moral conflicts, and imagery for imagery's sake.

In the end, it all revolves around the PCs, their desires, their desperation, their fears and sadness. I'm a reactive GM: I'd rather tailor the setting to your character, not force your character to fit into the setting. Therefore once again I ask for characters who are ready and willing to shape the world around them -- you never know what they'll create.

Set the Mood

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• Twin Peaks and Stranger Things
• Amateur YouTube paranormal videos
• The music of Sia and Of Monsters And Men and every LoFi Hip Hop playlist
• The art of Cassandra Jean and PainDude_

OOC IS HERE!

The Legend of Gobbledygook

@Astarael42 No problemo, have fun!! :D

LANTERN (redux)

@Cairo@drewccapp@Virgil@Girlie1Bomba@WittyReference@c3p-0h@baraquiel

Mod post is up! :D

Virgil & baraquiel: below is a modified map to show where the dock is:

Hider

If you choose to climb up over the rocks earlier, you'll see the mushroom field and Woondaly's lights and spires. From this angle you'll also be able to see the trees and hills of Echo, and the green light. If you don't climb over the rocks and head straight toward the dock, all you'll see for a few hours is rocks and sand and water. :D

LANTERN (redux)

"What!" Gale barked in surprise, her arm disabled by Izzy's hold. She swung her head back, an expression of rage and alarm on her face. Their scythe whirred and screeched as she flung them around for another turn. "Let go, you idiot!"

Elliot would see the change in his peripheral, haunting in the light of the obelisk: each of the children, in a moment, dissipated into an ethereal, reflective shimmer -- the light passed through them, as if they had never been there. In their place, huge and ghostly figures rapidly took shape.

"Mates on the shore, 'tis I, Ms. Isabellia!! Away from whence ya came, for more monstrosities arrive! Worry not! We will --"

Izzy's proclamation was cut off when the scythe was very suddenly yanked out from under them. She might catch a glimpse of huge blue eyes and translucent, ripping fangs before she was flung off into the open air.

The little girl among the frothy rocks, moments ago, had pulled down her fox-head hood. She had quickly transformed herself into a great and monstrous ghost-fox -- translucent and shimmering in the light -- that towered over Elliot. Though the fox appeared incorporeal, its jaws proved quite the opposite when it leaped into the air and sank its teeth into Gale's scythe. With a great fling of its head it tossed the scythe and its two riders like ragdolls into the deep of the cold sea.

Izzy hit the water with a painful crash. Cold water enveloped her, fizzing with the impact, and for a few moments it was unclear which way was up. Water filled her mouth, her nostrils, her lungs --

-- and yet, she could breathe.

The boy, meanwhile, had become a ghostly, enormous eagle. With a gleaming wingspan the eagle rushed to the griffin's rescue; it caught the second scythe from behind and, with a mighty aerial maneuver, flung it away from the shore.

Meanwhile, the longer Elliot pressed his hands to the obelisk, the brighter it became -- until the light forced him to close his eyes.

The fox and the eagle both landed neatly on the rocks; they were children again, shielding their pale faces from the light.

The light was suddenly gone -- but the expected gust never came.

When Elliot next opened his eyes, he would find his hands were pressed against the armored chest of a man, who stood just at Elliot's height -- if not slightly shorter. His muscled arms were folded stiffly, his yellow hair was spiked and shimmering, and he glared at Elliot with such a scowl of hatred that Elliot might be sure he was about to die for his assumptions.

The obelisk was gone.

The little Kith girl gave a shriek of alarm, and with a few leaps the ghostly fox returned and raced across the stones toward the shore -- where the Hollows swarmed hungrily around the trapped griffin.

Meanwhile...

As Ifor ran along the sand under the starlit sky, the shouts and shrieks and howls faded behind them. Soon enough, there was nothing to be heard but the calming rush of the breaking waves, the hiss of the foam on the beach. The ambling Hollows seemed to have stopped their chase -- they had been distracted by easier prey.

The narrow strip of beach seemed to stretch ahead for miles. Far in the distance, a bright green light shone like a beacon.

To the left were dunes and a rocky wall slick with moonlit algae. At places, the wall seemed to be lower or gentler in its slope, allowing a glimpse of the flat field of mushrooms above.

All was quiet and dark.

Should Ifor and Golde decide to continue forward for a few hours, the rock wall would become higher and more formidable. Eventually they might spot something in the water ahead: a low pile of boulders that extended out into the ocean. The waves were forced to break against the stones, so the water nearest to the beach remained calm and still. Gulls squawked overhead, floated on the water, pecked at the shells on the beach.

A long wooden dock extended into the still water, protected by the rocks. Tethered to the dock were a few modest fishing boats, some filled with tackle and rods, and a couple sailing boats with furled sails. At the very end of the dock, the figure of a man sat hunched with a fishing rod.

From the beach, opposite the nearest end of the dock, a wide cavern entrance had been carved neatly into the cliff face. Inside, more boats were stored on racks, illuminated dimly by glass bottles filled with a blue gelatinous liquid much like the jellyfish residue that had got on Ifor's boot. The cavern extended deep into a tunnel within the rock.

LANTERN (redux)

Hmm ok! :D It's after midnight now though, but I'll put this on my list for tomorrow!

The Legend of Gobbledygook

@ShwiggityShwah@Nieszka@Moon@The Mad Hatter@13org@OppositionJ@Astarael42@Girlie1Bomba

Look who finally posted! :D :D

Again, there is no right answer, so feel free to pursue your wildest leads. I do have an idea if no conclusion can be agreed upon, but hopefully we won't have to use it. ;)

The Helium Frightful

@Vaelin150 Whenever you find time to do so (and you feel confident and ready!) would be fantastic! :3 I'm still debating whether to continue with the current track or shift to adventure mode, haha.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

A flurry of dark feathers glistened down, spinning, into the succulent patch at their feet.

Crow peeked out from behind the trunk of his tree, where he'd been hiding since the surprise arrival of a many-legged monster from the sky. His eyes had narrowed to bright slits; his talons emerged and tapped a nervous rhythm on the bark.

At Ozzy's crash site, several flowering and bulbous succulents had cracked and broken, their tiny barbs caught with bits of fuzz and yarn; their brilliant purple sap oozed and dripped and stained Ozzy's dropped knittings. Gobbledygook would be horrified, thought Crow.

He did not notice that a few of the crushed succulents -- those which grew directly in front of the frozen Gobbledygook -- had not at all been touched by Ozzy or his fall. Their sap had already dried and crusted, the broken edges browned and the flowers wilted. There was a little hole dug among them, as round as a silver dollar, that led down into a snaking little tunnel through the soil and roots. But surely not a one of them would notice something as inconspicuous as this. Crow himself did not notice it at all, for he was far too busy gnashing at Ozzy for his carelessness.

Crow opened his toothy mouth with the intention of spitting some insult or another at the many-legged atrocity -- but he changed his mind at the fashionable basket-hat, which suited Gobbledygook very well if he had to admit. Perhaps he might withhold his judgment for now.

ECG might feel something within the rock begin to hum in reaction to the hat. It was a small emotion of sadness and hope -- but no true communication could be possible. It was, at least, a very definite reaction within the stone to something that had happened outside it.

A fangy grin spread on Crow's dark face. Feathers spun to the ground.

"The heart of Gobbledygook has been stolen," he reiterated the notice on the flyers that had been stuck in every doorjamb and mail slot in the Tangle. "The mystery is completely unsolved. I'll tell you, then," he turned to Leaza and gave her a deep bow, "Your Magnificence, I'll tell you what I've deduced so far -- I who know this forest best." He cleared his throat and clambered a few paces along the branch; the leaves rustled and shook.

"The guards are always buzzing high and low -- they guard the Cobwebs as well as the ground and everything between. Nothing gets past their watch, and this is the only entrance. But if you look closely at their statues, none of them seem alarmed. None of them had drawn their weapons. Isn't this curious, if people began turning to stone after the heart was stolen?"

He perched again on a branch that was a bit more precarious, and he scanned their faces as if he expected one of them to look away guiltily. "Gobbledygook is known to sleep soundly throughout the night -- but she was certainly awake at the time of the theft. You can see plainly that she was looking up ... at what, or whom? If nothing amiss can get through the entrance without alarming the guards, and the whole of the Tangle was asleep, what could she have been looking at? Why didn't she run or fight? She is far more powerful than even the ancients." He offered another bow to Leaza, which caused the branch to waver. He caught his balance quickly.

"Of all the people -- besides myself and the King -- who are permitted to enter the forest at night, only two have not turned to stone: they are the Blue Hare and Jackdaw the custodian. But surely they could have nothing to do with this fiendish act."

The grin remained.

LANTERN (redux)

@Virgil Heya dude, I'm gonna go ahead and do a post unless you're mostly finished with one? I don't want you to have to scrap what you're working on! :(

The Helium Frightful

@Scrub Mage@Vaelin150@Girlie1Bomba@vide@Eventua

Heya guys! Long time no see. Apologies for my absence -- I don't have much of an excuse, just been rather crazy lately.

You guys good? :D