EVENT 023

[sticksandbonesmods]

TAKE ME BACK TO NEO EDEN

CHAOS IN PARADISE

The more problems get solved, the more others start to pop up. Sure, some heroes saved the children in the manor — who are no longer children — but those siblings are now comatose, and the manor is on permanent lockdown, black briars blocking every possible entrance and Corrupting anyone who tries to get in. Sure, some sneaky hopefuls hid a magic circle to help maintain the fog barrier (and keep the Forest out) in a secret location, but now the magic in the Grove feels off. Your spells come out more powerful as intended while the world is out of balance, and it seems like they will for some time.

Maybe in your haste to fix all the Grove’s issues, you forgot about a certain skeleton spirit who shows up every April in some attempt to help you cheer up. Perhaps you remembered, and were hoping he’d arrive. Either way, Mr. Bone-Jangles clatters into the Grove in broad daylight, waves hello to those of you lingering in the centre of the Grove, and snaps his phalanges.

Immediately, a magenta-coloured, swirling portal opens up underneath your feet, and your friend’s feet, and that friend’s feet, until most of the centre of the Grove is consumed by it. Those of you on the outside, free of the portal’s reach, may witness it: everyone caught in it gets pulled into the rift, Heimr and Ydalir and Mr. Bone-Jangles included. In the next blink, the portal is closed and they’re gone, leaving behind flowers where each of them fell.

For those of you who got caught in the portal, you’ll find yourself at the entrance of a city, where a sign reads: WELCOME TO NEO EDEN.

4 C0LD W3LC0M3

Trying to turn around and walk outside the city causes your nose to crinkle as you slam facefirst into an invisible barrier. You can see other buildings outside this barrier, natural as a landscape could come, and yet you can’t progress. The skies are a somewhat odd purplish-blue, though you can’t tell if that’s because your eyes are straining against the bright neon of the city lights or not. Underneath the arcing city sign, a police car labelled “NEO EDEN P.D.” passes by, the robotic simulacra of human law enforcement inside giving everyone a friendly wave before it keeps driving, seemingly having come from beyond the barrier and thus warping into the space, as far as your eyes can tell anyway.

Mr. Bone-Jangles helpfully guides you further into the city, past the holograms of normal humans in neon-glowing techwear going about their business. They don’t respond to anything you do or say, seemingly on a set path, living their daily lives. The city is packed enough to be claustrophobic, cars and holograms rushing past, a stark change from the small-town vibes of the Grove. Those of you who fish in your pockets as you wander will find that your magic notebooks have been replaced with cellphones, and all prior notebook correspondences are there, as well as any new ones. The cellphone does nothing other than connect to group chat, but this one is clearly cooler — you can send emojis, stickers, and GIFs without drawing them.

…those on the other side, however, are getting each GIF drawn out frame-by-frame in the notebooks. Please don’t spam GIFs at your friends.

Additionally in your pockets is a small plastic card — a debit card, for those of you who are familiar with them — containing 1,000 Credits, the currency here. You didn’t think your shells would be useful, did you? Simply tapping the card at any facility that takes payment will subtract the necessary amount… but 1,000 Credits isn’t much. It’s enough to buy a thousand candy bars, but unless you’re frugal, it won’t last you the month. Luckily, it looks like every store on the nearby shopping strip is hiring! From restaurants to clothing stores, to empty buildings that you can make your own business out of… surely this capitalistic nightmare will be tenable!

The lack of animals is noticeable as you head further into the city, toward what signage says is called “Mania Square”. The birds, instead of being your typical Grove plantanimals, are robotic. There’s a severe lack of any pests despite the garbage in the alleyway dumpsters — no bugs, no rodents, no raccoons. Mania Square itself contains a fountain big enough to swim in, the centre focal point of the public plaza, but Bone-Jangles hooks a sharp left and leads you to the apartments instead. Up three stories are small studio rooms for each of you, your names written on the door placards in your own handwriting, and the insides are customized to your exact preference already. A notice pinned above your kitchenette tells you rent is due by April 30th… you hope you aren’t here for that long.

4R3N’T Y0U H4V1NG FUN?

Despite the standard day and night cycle, some of you may notice this place still doesn’t feel quite right, a bit outside of time. That shouldn’t stop you from having fun! And should you need to go back to the Grove — or if you’re someone looking to get into Neo Eden in the first place — you need only to gaze into a mirror placed in each of your bedrooms or apartments and wish to go home… which may lead you to fall catastrophically through it to the other side. Try not to hit your chin on the ground.

Life goes on regardless. In this city, there’s a lot to do. You could go shopping at the strip mall near Mania Square, where Heimr and Ydalir have set up a temporary shop to continue to provide for everyone’s needs. They’ll still take shells, but there’s nothing much they can do if you run out of Credits — both will gently suggest you find work in Neo Eden. You guys own businesses back at the Grove, it can’t be that bad, can it?

The good news is, Mr. Bone-Jangles and his entourage of skeletons who you swear weren’t originally here 12 hours ago are happy to help you get a job, where the interview process involves simply “showing up and asking your holographic boss if you can be employed”. Starting your own business is more difficult — you’ll need a loan from the bank! — but not impossible. Any hologram humans that come in to buy things will ignore you, get what they want, and leave. The only time you can interact with your fellow neon-coloured humans is when they’re making a purchase, at which point their items will digitize and they’ll leave. All very odd, but at least the customers aren’t rude to you… or your skeletal coworkers who have joined you for back-breaking labour.

After work, perhaps you want to head to the amusement park — Thrill Point is an utterly massive one to the far northeast of the city past the river that cuts through the digital roadways. With drop towers, roller coasters, rides for little babies who hate heights and fun, and tons of food stalls to stop at, you could feasibly spend all night here and almost forget that you have to be at your next shift in the morning! If you seek a different thrill, Arcadia is a nightclub southwest of Mania Square, where the music plays all night, the liquor flows freely, and anyone under 21 who enters gets marked with an X on the back of their hand by a harmless laser beam. Just outside Arcadia is a small photo booth named “The Swap”, and if you enter with a partner, both of you hitting the “TAKE PHOTO” button will bodyswap you for 12 hours. It will also print out a funny photo of you as a keepsake. Enjoy being someone else for a while!

Head to the Rent-a-Ride, where you can rent any vehicle on wheels — electric scooters, cars, motorcycles, hoverbikes — as long as you can pay the expensive fee. Speeding will get you a ticket from your local robopolice; breaking standard civilian laws will get you arrested and thrown into the unmanned city jail. And try not to tailgate or crash your ride — not only will you be on the hook for vehicle damages, but you’ll be shafted with a ludicrous hospital fee. Seriously, people live like this?

But, if a calm walk through nature is more your style, City Park and its digital trees to the north may suit your needs. The fish in the river here can be fished up by hopeful anglers, though all are wiggly, inedible robots. Hm.

WELCOME BACK

By April 30th when your rent is technically due, a text message goes out to everyone’s phones… and consequently the notebooks, too, from two different senders:

REMINDER: YOUR RENT IS DUE TODAY! PLEASE PAY 3,000 CREDITS OR FACE EVICTION.

DONT WORY. I WIL RESKYEW U

The messages from the second sender will get slightly more ominous as the day goes on.

GRAB SUMTHING U WANT 2 TAKE WITH U
I WIL REETORN U HOM

HAS ANY1 SEEN MY WIFE
FOWND MY WIFE :)

R U REDY 2 GO?

By evening, hopefully you’ve grabbed something to take back home — something you can feasibly carry without a struggle — because a portal is yet again opening under your feet. In a split second, you’re back in Aldric’s Grove, holding whatever you came with, your cellphones reverted back to notebooks. Mr. Bone-Jangles is nowhere to be seen, but he reappears a few hours later to hand out personal apology notes to everyone reading: “SORY, TRIYD 2 SAV U :(“ before he and his merry band mope back into the woods. He hopes you had fun while you were away.

Next time anyone heads out into the woods, all seems normal… minus the amount of fungi that have started to sprout in absolute droves across the forest floor, unwilling to be torn up from their roots or killed in a way that matters.

Spark Notes

summary

Chaos in Paradise: Mr. Bone-Jangles is back and here to kidnap you to a new location. This is a cyberpunk-esque city known as Neo Eden. No, he does not ask if he can do this first.
4 C0LD W3LC0M3: Further in Neo Eden are your apartments at Mania Square, where rent is due by the 30th. Your notebooks have been turned into cellphones, and you have a debit card with 1,000 credits on it for your shopping expenses. Seems like you'll be here a while.
4R3N’T Y0U H4V1NG FUN?: If you need to move to and from the Grove, there's a portal accessible in everyone's bedrooms via a mirror. Here, you have the freedom to do whatever you want: Rent a car, ride a roller coaster, get a job, start a business - the city is your oyster!
WELCOME BACK: And then all of a sudden, the neon paradise is ripped away from you as you're transported home. You can take back an item with you to remember your time here, if you want. The forest itself has started to grow mushrooms in droves, ones that can't be pulled up or killed. Hm!

out of character

It's already April! What the heck! We hope everyone enjoys this event; please feel free to make up businesses/buildings/things to do, you aren't constrained to what's been written in the post.

updates

- A small shrine close to the inn has appeared in the Grove. Affogato's spirit is tied there, to a black raven figure carved from smooth stone.
- The spell strengthening the Grove's fog wall is buffed.
- Sinann has been powered up, and therefore can enter its human form and go on land. It will largely still be by the river.
- Suri's creations are now and forever weak to poison.
- Pearl has made a terrible rainstorm back in the Grove.
- In Neo Eden, Add has enhanced the jail and made Jail2, which has far more security measures and functions as an escape room of sorts. Please see Add's toplevel below for further details.
- Jail2 has partly collapsed due to White Lily Cookie.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ April Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Comments

[psychokinesia]

[He's already resigned himself to bringing Wolfwood back to life with mad science when the man suddenly moves—Add yelps and pulls back in surprise, then has a second thought and nearly reaches to stop him.] Hey, you shouldn't be—

[... but he's also reaching for something. A vial? Medicine? Add hesitates, unsure if he should interfere. His attention is drawn instead to one of the vials on the floor, rolling lazily through the pool of blood... a dynamo floats down to investigate. Hmm.

It's a risk, but he decides to let this play out. Wolfwood is going to have five dynamos up in his business whenever he breaks out of the near-death haze, while Add merely watches with a curious expression. Maybe a little nervous, too, until the man starts to stabilize himself, but once the immediate danger has passed it's all very fascinating.]

... impressive for a potion. High energy readings, but I'm not familiar with this chemical structure... [he's picked up the second vial by now, twirling it between his fingers to stare at the liquid inside.]

[lupusxylem]

[Despite the serum working as intended, albeit much slower than it would back home, make no mistake: Wolfwood is writhing in pain right now. The only reason he’s still conscious is the fact that his pain tolerance is obnoxiously high due to the fact he used to get shot point blank on the regular. He’s still got burn scars on his hands from when he touched scorching hot metal to stop the out of control sand steamer, this man has no lengths he won’t go to at this point.

Of course, he made a promise to himself and those that care about him that he wouldn’t overdo the serums anymore. Take more than one and you run the risk of exploding your heart. He’s specifically been engineered for the vials to work on him, so he doesn’t like to think about what would happen if a normal person tried to use one. They’d just get poisoned and die horribly, he imagines.]

Ain’t…a potion.

[Wolfwood finally manages to rasp, eyes glassy as he looks at Add with his gaze unfocused, not yet coherent enough to try to push Dynamo out of his face. Right before Add’s eyes as the seconds tick by, more steam billows up from Wolfwood’s body as his body repairs itself, the worst of the wounds sealing over completely in a matter of a few minutes. The only evidence he was ever hurt is all of the blood he lost, along with a scar that will remain there since the serum isn’t as effective in this world.

Yet, even though he’s laying there in a sea of his own blood, he can’t help but feel a sort of grim satisfaction over seeing Add fuck up for once. Mr. Perfect isn’t quite so Perfect all the time, Wolfwood thought as he was literally dying-]

[psychokinesia]

In what way? Ingested substance that induces healing, that's all a potion is really. Is it only effective under specific conditions?

[He probably shouldn't be acting so calm, but he is curious, and he can relax now that Wolfwood isn't bleeding out in front of him. And if Wolfwood was hoping Add might be apologetic for almost killing him he's gonna be disappointed. It's science time now.

There are two dynamos huddling around his new scar and another uncomfortably close to his neck. At least the other two will offer him help getting back up, if he needs it.]

Vitals are stabilized... I have to admit, it's impressive. Even Ain couldn't heal a wound like that so quickly. Just what are you...?

[lupusxylem]

[Add you are asking him questions he lacks the blood transfusion to answer right now, ough. Though Dynamo could help him up, he isn’t actually getting up get, simply laying flat on his back in all of that blood with his eyes half closed to wait for the room to stop spinning so violently. Add is probably the last person he can’t to reveal his sordid past to, but he’s so…disoriented that he answers anyway, basically to get him to stop asking questions:]

It only works on me.

[So! You know, more questions than answers, honestly.]

I’m a freak of nature, and you’re…damn lucky I am, too. That’s all you need t’know.

[psychokinesia]

[... stabilized, but still in bad shape. He files that little tidbit of information away regardless, slipping the two vials into his pocket while Wolfwood is still disoriented.

But also, uhhh it's probably a bad idea to lay down on the ground while there is an active fire in the room over and explosion damage all around...? Where are the robofirefighters, this city is going to fall apart. Add just sighs, standing up.]

Freak of nature, but still susceptible to damage. Kukuku, careful if you ever decide to cross me. Now that I know what your physical limits are...

[Despite that ominous threat, Dynamo converges around his body to gently wedge themselves underneath Wolfwood—hello, you are going to be air-lifted out of here. It probably feels weird as hell, but despite their size Dynamo is fully capable of lifting him effortlessly. Following behind Add as he steps over the rubble and heads down a hallway that isn't full of smoke...]

Try not to struggle too much, unless you want to drag yourself out of here on your hands and knees.

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood isn’t so proud as to stop Dynamo from helping get him out of here, mainly because he doesn’t trust this place to not explode a second time. God knows what kind of volatile shit Add’s stuffed in these walls.

But anyway, he kindof…sighs, staring up at the ceiling with blood still swimming in his eyes as the pain dulls more and more the longer the serum stays in his system, though he knows he’s going to have a miserable headache later because that’s just the fucking way of it.]

You might wanna watch your mouth. If you ever try to pull this kind of shit on me again, I won’t be holdin’ back for Ain’s sake anymore.

[psychokinesia]

So you've been holding back on me? Guess I'll need to try harder after all, kekekekekeke...! [sorry ww he cannot be normal

They make it through the end of the hallway, and... Add stops, clicking his tongue. Instead of another normal hallway or an open space, there is a split path. He pulls down a holoscreen.]

Are you... ugh, this is broken, too?! How many systems did that damage... [and swapping his holoscreen over to a map because yeah, they're in the fucking labyrinth. If Wolfwood thought Add was being merciful by trying to give him another way out of the escape room he obviously didn't know Add has a labyrinth installed outside.] This is going to take at least a week to repair... take out some of the weapons for calibration...

[there is a 50/50 chance something still explodes better get out of there soon]

[lupusxylem]

[By the time Dynamo carts his sorry ass all the way out to here, Wolfwood’s stabilized enough to- what else- shift to slide himself off of it and try to stand. He should NOT be doing this but here he is anyway, staggering until he has to use the nearby wall for support. His prosthetic leg is mercifully undamaged after all of that, which makes sense given that Gnosis built it out of some pretty sturdy materials from what he understands. Would be kindof fucked if he’d lost it back there, then he really would just have to be carried out.]

Are you seriously worried…about that now? We need to fuckin’ get out of here before this whole place goes up in flames.