[CLOSED] YDALIRQUEST

[sticksandbonesmods]

Who: Zoey, Faust, Dipper, Lily, Mizuki, Lavi, Sanemi, Stardust, Ryan, Link, Min-Gi, Genya, Akaza, Mystery, and Ydalir and also your ✨beloved mod Wolfie✨
What: Ydalirquest
When: A point in time that does not interfere with the main event :3
Where: The Leylines themselves, baybee!
Warnings: will be placed in headers/I expect you all to behave regarding this



Alright crew here's how this is gonna work:
- Mod responses will come after every player has tagged in OR after 24 hours have passed. If you do not tag in those 24 hours you will be skipped over.
- OOC communication will be done through the Discord in a thread in RP-Talk-1. You don't have to unmute, but please have your pings on so that if I need to @ everyone, I can. For now we will clusterfuck everyone into one thread; if we need to split into 3 for the groupings we will, just lmk.
- I am going to give you an initial "go play" toplevel somewhere in this as a heads up (this is my contingency for "Wolfie is out/busy or players are out/busy and we still want to play"). I do not recommend hitting the bell on this one, but this is so that all fourteen of you can interact at once. I want you to fuck around and go play in this one. I promise you this one does not need to be mod-guided (but ask me questions if you need to). I sort of put a lot into this setting and I'd feel bad not letting you all do the thing oops.
- PLEASE GOD IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS @ ME IN THE DISCORD chat might move fast and I might not see it. PING ME. I'm begging. I'm on my knees. A ping for Wolfie, please.
- Please hit the bell on your group threads :) and try to maintain some semblance of a tag order. For the initial "all fourteen of you are together" I will not ask for you to maintain tag order and I'm sorry for anyone's inboxes. I will try to get through this in a manner that does not make you want to explode. I was woefully underprepared for 90% of the game to actually want to do this sorry-
- You will get rewards! for participating.
----> You can redeem participation in Ydalirquest for your entire month's AC if you want I don't recommend this bc there are going to be subthreads and breakpoints and you could get like, 5 threads of BAC easily from this but you know it's there if you want
----> Participation in the quest as a whole can count for 2 threads of magic practice, and I'll let you use the threads for other BAC. But please when you do your next magic regain put "participated in ydalirquest" so that I remember. Please.
- ?? ??????? ??? ? ??? any other weird shit i'll put in toplevels or headers thank youuueueuuuuueueuuu for playing :)

Comments

QUEST START!

[sticksandbonesmods]

[Ydalir has gathered you all here for a quest. Into the leylines you will head, as she's explained to you. It takes her about an hour to set up the ritual to take you in there, and in her words, she has "almost no idea what will happen". Still, everyone is thanked for being here — as she meticulously draws out spell runes using her fingertip, leaving trails of glowing mana in her wake — and then she stands, hands on her hips, and assesses the lines and shapes in the magic circle. It's big enough to encompass all fourteen of you, and for now, Ydalir stands on the outside of it. Thinking.]

The goal is to get in there and redirect the leylines... up! The magic will then be used to stitch the wound in the sky closed, I hope? I think. I'm kind of improvising at this point, but I know from trial and error we can't do it from the ground since the leylines are [she leans forward and places a shadowy hand on the ground] here and they really want to sit here. The redirection should be temporary though. I need bodies to help me stabilize the magic since it should flow through us while we're redirecting it, kind of like a conduit.

[She thinks this explanation makes sense, and steps her way into the circle. It immediately begins to slowly strobe between all colours of the rainbow, and she very suddenly claps her hands together and then reaches for the two people nearest to her to hold onto their hands.]

Hold onto each other, please! I don't want you to get separated! Any questions ask them quickly likerightnow!!

[moonwhispers]

[ He was spending the prep time... about as helpfully as he could. He didn't want to get in her way, but he jotted down notes about the components of the rune to ask about later. He's being a proactive little student.

He is a little surprised by being Grabbed, but he tucks the notebook away and extends his free hand to the others. ]

What should we expect while the magic is flowing?

[missinglink]

[Similarly to Faust, Link is being an overachiever and taking notes, both mental and physical. Yes he brought a notebook yes he has a pen don’t worry about how many colored tabs this notebook has he’s so normal.

He will, however, tuck it away into his jacket the moment they’re instructed to hold hands, taking Faust’s hand carefully with his left before extending his right. Atuuda, his golem, hovers around his neck as a precaution, but he’s nice so don’t worry. He will “gwaa” in greeting when the next person takes Link’s hand.]

Hold on tightly. Even the smallest current of energy can be enough to sweep you off your feet.

WELCOME TO THE LEYLINES

[sticksandbonesmods]

[You stand in the centre of a sprawling, Japanese-architecture city, the streets bustling with busybodies all trying to get to where they need to go. Lanterns hang from street lamps, and a glass owl perches atop one of them, hooting contemplatively before flying away into a permanent night sky lit by golden ripples. Each man-made object surrounding you has a natural shimmer to it, as though its components contain mica, and each are covered in chalk circles and runes resembling the leylines you glanced earlier. Perhaps of more interest are the people: all purple-eyed, all cheerful and enthusiastic, all going about their days with digitized wolf ears perked and tails wagging — not to mention how they’re all relatively muscular in build. On occasion, the strange, shadowy, robed person with a floor-length white beard and pointy wizard hat wanders by saying some sort of magic words or perhaps hymns, and as they pass, the townsfolk stop to cheer. “THREE CHEERS FOR THE CURATORS! HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!” As they do, coloured smoke appears from their mouths in a vivid yellow to signal their joy.

From the skies rain the occasional storm — not of rain, but of artifacts and curios that rocket through the atmosphere and come to a sudden slow fall near the ground. Tomes, scrolls, paintings, vases, ancient tools, you name it, are immediately snatched up by the closest person to them with glee. Some people speak of giving it to the National Magic Library & Museum. Some others agree to trade with the people next to them. Others still excitedly display these curios in shop windows, not for sale, but merely to observe. And when artifacts stop raining from the skies, digital objects — controllers, 8-bit ghosts, blocks, cat paws, various pixels — spring up from the ground that isn’t, merely a sheer black mirror that ripples like water when walked across. If you stare into the reflection, you’ll notice that it doesn’t reflect the proper glow of the buildings back to you: what lies in the reflection, perhaps on the other side, is a city in neon.

You turn to look at the person next to you, and find they are different. Wholly changed in appearance, a reflection of the soul made manifest. A different magic, too, wells up within each of you. The power to create, to summon, to locate, or perhaps something entirely different. At your fingertips, it feels as natural to wield as a pen on paper, accessible as pollen to a bee. Still, some of you may find that your newfound appearances come with their own caveats… but that’s for you to discover on your own, isn’t it?

Climb high enough — maybe up on a balcony, maybe up on a light post, maybe on the shoulders of one of the people who offers to lift you up so you can see better — and you can see the edge of a forest in the distance, and something akin to a European castle at the far north of the plane with a single red dragon resting atop it, yawning. Squint enough, and you swear you can make out a neon sign that reads “CASTLE HOTEL: VACANCIES AVAILABLE”. And just nearby to you is the library and museum mentioned earlier, three stories tall and full of books wall to wall, ceiling to floor, and curios from human existence as far as the eye could possibly see — once you’re inside, anyway. And yes, the gift shop does sell a single type of shirt that reads: I SPENT 3 WEEKS AT THE NATIONAL MAGIC LIBRARY & MUSEUM AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS INDESTRUCTIBLE SHIRT.

When you walk forward, the path behind you suddenly closes off. Walk forward again and turn back, and it may just open up again. It seems the city has a mind of its own. When you try a door, someone appears to ask you if you remembered to bring your comically large pixel key with you and offers theirs to you to borrow, at least until you can get the door open. Luckily for you, it seems Comically Large Pixel Keys spawn from the floating digital objects often, and you can just grab one and keep it on your person. It should work for most doors. If not… Mizuki makes doors. He’ll probably figure that out soon.

It seems buildings are bigger on the inside, with many more doors. You’d better keep your keys on you. And the people both inside and out would really like you to stay for dinner, or if not dinner some board games, and if neither of those things would you kindly take some of the leftovers from last night so they don’t go to waste, and do you need some money and would you like a discount and where were you from before? Would you tell them? Do you need help by the way? A place to stay and sleep? A tour? Do you like apple pie???

Who is Ydalir? Why are you asking for a Ydalir? They don’t know. They’re sorry your friend is missing. They’ll put the word out, don’t you worry!]


[[this is your fuck around and mingle toplevel. i don't recommend tracking it, but feel free to do subthreads/separate out comments/treat this as an independent toplevel and play in the world you created for a while! we will split out into groups Soon.]]

[ghostharasser]

[A good way to take the fight out of him is to do ...whatever the fuck the leylines did just now. Dipper stands there, startled and considerably more bird-like than he was a moment before.]

[His feathers stand on end, fluffing up and making him look incredibly ridiculous.]

What the fuck just happened.

[galaxyfarer]

[another bird stands nearby, his own feathers ruffling. Stardust has become very owl-like, with wings, long bird legs, lots of feathers. and don't forget the large round glasses perched on his little beak that only seem to fit in nicely with the rest of this whimsical world.

once he notices that everyone else around him looks different from before, Stardust glances down to the claws attached to his wings, that are probably supposed to be his hands, and sighs]

I wish that I knew. We seem to have been transported to a new place. And. Into new bodies.

[his head swivels to look at the rest of the group. hoothoot~]

[moonwhispers]

[ Dipper is not the only one startled by this development. His Leshy form is currently freaking him the fuck out just as much as the city itself. ]

Why am I a tree?

[ to his credit he can only see the bark and vines, and not really the deer skull that forms his head. Even if he could it's a toss up as to if he would recognize it. He's heard tales of leshies, but the appearance varies. ]

[lilyberation]

Symbolic metamorphism.



I hate when this happens.

[bluebasketballed]

[everything happens so much. everything is so... comical? akaza doesn't explicitly know what a cartoon is, but he's seen enough silly doodles, visited enough circuses, and heard enough fairy tales to know how absurd this is. people with colorful breath and dog ears and tails? artifacts raining from the sky and sprouting from the ground? sure, it's fantastical, but...]

... Is this a fucking joke?

[against everything bizarre, he looks out of place in his sudden normalcy. entirely healthy tones of skin, eyes, hair, and only three tattoos on each arm instead of haphazard across his entire body. if anything is odd about him, it's the tiniest little... personal raincloud? forming above his head, not yet precipitating but greying at the very least. hilariously, akaza himself doesn't notice any of this as he looks to whoever has wound up near him in their transport here and... raises a brow.]

This is supposed to make us learn to respect magic?

[ghostharasser]

[Holy shit they unbasketed his ball]

[lilyberation]

It could be... that in embracing this whimsical realm in full, we can learn more about it...?

( hey. its mom. this is probably fine, right?

still, she can't help but look around, taking it all in. a glass sparrow settles on her head. she does not notice, for her hair is very fluffy. )

[namuthing]

H-hey! Get back here! Don't just throw us into -

[But Genya trails off, abruptly dizzy as the world seems to grow around him. Still clinging to Sanemi's hand, he makes to look and shout up at him for whatever dumb trick's he's pulling. Only then does he notice his own palm, and just how much smaller it is. Softer. Pudgier.

Clawed.

For the first time, he lets go of the others and begins backing away. Panic rises up in his throat, and he finds himself turning his head to the sky.]

This is a stupid joke! Get back here and help us! Don't just force us to - to -

[The world grows taller still, as Genya gets smaller. His voice rises in pitch and - ]

OH COME THE FUCK ON!!!

[purifyingwind]

[ God, if he could stop getting tossed into ridiculous fucking reality-warping locations he thinks it would be purely blissful. He is so fucking sick of being teleported or turned upside down or being forced to grapple with rapidly changing settings.

And this was just – overwhelming. He can hardly even begin to parse what he's looking at, let alone start to compile the details in his mind. Not to mention that they had all abruptly… changed shape? He curses as he goes to close his mouth – which had been gaping in furious disbelief – and nicks his bottom lip with his. Unexpectedly long incisors.

He hasn’t changed nearly so much as others in their merry retinue, but he has changed. His sclera are a startling blood red, lending itself to his usual wide-eyed stare. When he turns to look at the others, his gaze is a piercing golden. A disdainful click of his tongue at the sight of gilded scars nearly cuts said tongue open, given he abruptly has fangs.

Oops, demon time. Irritably, his hand drops to his sword and… his eyes boggle when the sword starts to drift upward, relieved of its gravity. He snatches it before it can float too far. ]

Fuck this already.

[chickenchoicejudy]

[Once again they are safe, and once again they've been placed somewhere weird to learn life lessons in a new outfit with new denizens everywhere. It would be a stretch to call it a relief but...they've done this, sort of.

Out of habit Ryan pulls back to see if they have glowing numbers to mark their progress, but where he expects green there's actually solid red. Ryan's been cast in red light from head to toe, painting every piece of him a different shade. He's been spared the jumpsuit this time, but he's still gotten a wardrobe change. Most noticeably though, he has two sets of ears now. One's a human pair with mismatched dangling earrings with stars, suns, and lightning flashes with chains between some of them - at least two more piercings than he has in the Grove. The other is...more noticeable. On top of his head he has a pair of cat ears - they stick out of his messy hair and twitch with curiosity as he's taking everything in. The fur matches his brown hair (or, well. Red-brown, now.)

Naturally Min-Gi's everything is blue. Without bothering to say what he's doing out loud, Ryan reaches out to touch him on the arm and sure enough, red and blue makes purple.]

Woah...

[He pulls his hand back, and then touches again. And then again. And again and as many times as Min will let him stay stuck in this loop of fascination.]

[outofsynth]

[The city almost feels like one of the cars on they might have encountered on the train. Friendlier, though, and not even because what Min-Gi had been expecting until she had spoken was death. In a way the task they've been given is a lot like being back on the train. It's a test.

Min-Gi's learned by now that not all tests are exactly as they seem, especially in a place like this, but it's still a relief. He understands what's expected of him even if he doesn't have the solution yet.

He explores the nearby parts of the city, never straying too far from Ryan, but once he recovers from the initial shock of appearing here he appears oddly calm. He's polite to the people he speaks to despite their inability to help him and their insistence on talking far beyond his initial inquiries about Ydalir. Before long he's weighed down with gifts of food he hasn't been allowed to refuse up until he's gifted a large bag a kindly old man foists upon him to "make sure his arms don't get too tired."

He's still waving as Min-Gi makes his escape to one of his fellow quest goers.]

People are friendly here, huh?

[He looks embarrassed. And, of course, rather different from his usual self. He's still recognizably Min-Gi, but he's blue with a light glow around him. When they'd first arrived he'd been so transparent he'd been almost invisible, though that seems to have passed and now his form appears as solid as it had turned out to still be. Besides his colour the only other deviation from his usual appearance is the waxing moon that hovers over the lower part of his ribs.]

[lilyberation]

( lily is... different. a mix of her normal self and an almost burnt husk, chaos and death staining her on all levels. she holds out a hand to see the red and black on her wrappings and immediately pulls herself back, like she's trying to make herself small. )

... All things considered... this is not what I expected.

[missinglink]

[Link is...

He's standing nearby to where he was before, decidedly different as everyone else is. He has four arms now, but that's not the more alarming part, to him at least.

He's a marionette. His skin is hard and made of smooth porcelain, and when he tries to look at the person next to him, his eyes become lazy, one rolling upwards while the other stays in place. He quickly reaches up to cover his eye, but his movements are jerky and uneven, like someone else is controlling him.

He opens his mouth to speak, but his lips don't work the same way they once did, his mouth instead snapping open and shut like a puppet's, yet the words leave him regardless of the face he has no lips or tongue to speak with.]

This feels...like a punishment.

[inkandhammer]

[Japan.

Edo.

Being here, even in a version he's not quite familiar with, still hits him like a punch in the gut. And it looks almost as if it were a dream with the glimmer and shine; it gives it an almost glass-like quality to a country no longer there at home—quite literally glassed. A culture and its people gone in a flash of light, in a war they knew nothing about. The items springing up/falling down don't help with the dream-esque feel, either.

The purple-eyed people tug at his memories, he almost starts searching, but none of them have the glasses and long, silvery hair like the previous Junior. Lavi scoffs at himself for even thinking of looking, he's not gonna be here. Still, slightly disappointed he looks down at the ground, then freezes as he catches sight of his arms. Blue lines race up and down them almost like cracks and he's much paler than before. Anyone looking at him will note that his former six-foot frame has grown another two feet in height, leaving him towering over most—if not all—of them. And there are rabbit ears (and tail) that seem to reflect the stars, just as the expanse that takes up the majority of his chest. V-shaped, it even covers his face, obscuring his expressions. Even with the void of stars, you can tell there's a space you could reach into his chest cavity. Why would you want to is unknown, but the option is there—if you can reach it.

For the Bookman, the most striking change is the threads he can see branching off from himself towards others in various colors. The same branching from them back his way and to others. It's a dizzying, tangled mess yet he can still pick out and follow each thread clearly. He makes a choked noise as he realizes these are bonds, ones that go deeper than surface level. Hands of the others dropped, probably ages ago now, he lifts his hand to cover where his right eye would have normally been, yet the vision doesn't cease.]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Zoey... is not used to being thrown from one location to another! Not even across the room. She's not that familiar with Mystery's teleportation just yet. So suddenly going from standing on a giant being to standing in a place that looks a little bit like the older parts of Seoul is understandably a little disorienting. She makes a face that indicates brief discomfort and perhaps the slight unsettling of her stomach - which probably looks odd, considering she now looks like someone's colorful fursona come to life. (With clothes on, of course.)

Not that she notices this. Once she's done letting the feeling wash over her, she's looking to the sky, because something there has caught her eye. ]

Oh my god, is that the honmoon? Is it golden?!

HEART: LILY, RYAN, MIN-GI, SANEMI, MYSTERY

[sticksandbonesmods]

[As the five of you venture through the city and talk amongst yourselves, figuring things out within the strange plane that is the leylines, Lily will start to hear whispers in the back of her mind. It sounds distantly like Ydalir's voice, and she can automatically tell that Ydalir is... quite far away.]

Can anyone hear me? Ugh, I'm stuck over here... okay, Ydalir, think: how do you usually get yourself out of situations?

[It doesn't sound as though she's reaching out to Lily directly, of course. It seems more like idle thoughts. Hm!

Meanwhile, around you, the people of this plane don't hear anything. Neither do the rest of the party, that only applies to Lily, but still. A crowd surges and squeezes between the rest of you as they chase after another rain of artifacts from the sky, separating the five of you from the rest of the group by mere crowdsurge alone. Whoops! Someone accidentally whacks Ryan in the head with a heavy tome as they're trying to catch something and spin around too quickly, apologises and offers food to him, and thanks to his passive magic they just...

Start glowing and floating into the atmosphere.

Goodbye?

Anyway, you have some time to get your bearings. What would you like to do first? There's the obvious quest and then there's the part where Ryan just got beaned, so y'know, lots of options.]

Re: HEART: LILY, RYAN, MIN-GI, SANEMI, MYSTERY

[lilyberation]

( lily is always on the outskirts of things, having trouble with groups- it what makes ydalir's sudden presence all the more stark. she whips around, eyes wide before she realizes just how distant it all is...

and then the wave of very kind, buff wolf people happens and she's mostly just overwhelmed. please give your lily about three minutes to recover from large groups. )

Is... everyone okay?

SOUL: FAUST, DIPPER, LAVI, GENYA

[sticksandbonesmods]

[The four of you just happen to be close enough to be the target of a teenage girl's attention. She runs up to you in her golden sundress, digital tail wagging back and forth, and grabs onto Dipper's arm to tug him along. The rest of you HOPEFULLY think "we should stick together" and follow him, but I'm not your dad.

Regardless, the girl has bright eyes like she knows something, and although she still hasn't let go of Dipper and is dragging him into a twisting alleyway that's ever-changing and ever-complicated. She seems to have no trouble navigating this space.]

You said you were looking for someone, right? Okay, so, I don't know who you were looking for, but my friend said she saw someone strange on the islands far from here! Or maybe not strange, but — she said she saw a pretty old lady with lovely hair holding a weapon. Is that your person? Or is that some other person? It could be another person, actually, I guess, I shouldn't have grabbed you. I'm sorry. Oh, do you want some candy?

[It seems she's just going to keep talking unless you stop her. Or maybe run. Or leave somehow. I'm still not your dad.]

[moonwhispers]

[ Being that this place is hopelessly huge, Faust naturally feels a little threatened by someone just grabbing one of their groupmates and running off. While this fear is somewhat curbed knowing he may be able to locate them, he also has been a little suspicious of how friendly and accommodating they've been. As such Dipper is grabbed and Faust is immediately in hot pursuit.

At least she does eventually stop and let him go. His vinelike tail lashes irritably. ]

Don't just grab someone like that.

[ pretty old lady does sound about right, though. He looks to the others, positioning himself as a barrier... out of habit more than anything. They could easily handle themselves. ]

It may be. Where are the islands?

[ far from here is not very descriptive and this place is built like a maze. ]

LOGIC: MIZUKI, ZOEY, STARDUST, LINK, AKAZA

[sticksandbonesmods]

[Mysteriously, the rest of the people you all showed up with start to disappear slowly. Perhaps it was due to a surge in the crowd when people went crazy for artifacts. Perhaps it was while you were distracted figuring out your powers, or when you blinked and got lost in the twisting city, or when people went to the museumlibrary to buy shirts. Either way, it seems it's just the five of you in this city, and you haven't heard anything about finding Ydalir or been given a hint yet.

Below you, through the rippling glass floor, you can see people walking — the bottoms of their feet, mostly, as they walk in time with your steps and stop when you stop, despite not matching your reflections or builds at all. They appear to be within that other city being reflected back at you.

If you stop walking and look down at them, they're waving at you, those friendly digital werewolf people. Bent at the waist, tapping the glass as though you're a fish in an aquarium. You can't hear them, but you can certainly see their lips moving. They're clearly trying to talk to you, and one of them is waving at you with "come hither" motions. But how are you supposed to come hither? Hmm.

They keep waving. Come here. Come here come in here, this way, yoohoo! They're jumping. Do you see them?]

[lyricistdontmiss]

[ Well hey! Where the heck did everyone go. Obviously there are still others here with her, but most of the rest of them have just... disappeared somewhere. That's probably not good! Not after what happened to Ydalir! Oh, she does not like where this is going...

But Zoey can indeed see the digital werewolves trying to get her attention through the floor, after she finally stops looking around and looks down. It still takes a second, considering that she, too, is a big purple bipedal canine-like thing, but! She's pretty sure she isn't waving and bending over, so! ]

Uh. Are you guys seeing this, too?

[ It's glass, bro. Or something. If they're standing right on it, how are they supposed to go through it? And it's not like they can talk, considering she can't hear a dang thing.

So, Zoey does the only thing she can think of. She pulls out her phone, sticks the tip of her tongue out as she tries to navigate her apps menu with paw padded fingers, and eventually types something up. After a moment, she turns her phone around, aiming the screen at the floor to show the werewolves the message she typed in her notes app:

hiiiiii :D how do we get through?