faderifting: (Default)
Fade Rift Mods ([personal profile] faderifting) wrote in [community profile] faderift2020-04-12 04:29 pm

EVENT ↠ THE DRIFTING ROADS

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: A Crossroads Adventure
WHEN: Most of Cloudreach 9:46
WHERE: The Crossroads
NOTES: OOC post!



A team recently discovered a cluster of eluvians, one of which leads into the attic of an occupied home in Minrathous. This could be an extremely useful route if it can be made safely accessible, but that will require careful planning. In the meantime, Riftwatch needs to urgently explore the other eluvians in the cluster to ensure that none of them make the Minrathous route too dangerous to keep open (for instance, if another leads into the center of Val Royeaux or the royal palace in Cumberland, or anywhere else that a party of enemy combatants could quickly cause terrible trouble).

To that end, teams are assigned to explore and (as much as is possible in the Crossroads) map where the others lead and what the paths between them are like so that the danger/usefulness of each can be assessed. Because there are dozens and this needs to be done as quickly as possible, anyone with any time may be ordered to take on an exploration shift. Assignments will be given to small teams or pairs, but never to just one person alone. Some people may be assigned multiple shifts. (These assignments will be made IC, but OOC you're free to choose your own teams.)

The aim of this event is to focus on the Crossroads themselves, so the eluvians investigated will almost all lead to other eluvians and to islands of disconnected pieces of the Crossroads. It may be necessary to travel between and through several successive eluvians to different portions of the Crossroads to ensure there's no access to a vulnerable location.

The portions of the Crossroads teams will be exploring now will come with a variety of frustrating geographical hazards, any number of which your characters may encounter during their travels:
  • RECONCILIATION ROAD: One eluvian will be positioned in the distance on a narrow island of the Crossroads and reachable only by two paths that unfurl ahead of people as they walk and finally converge to reach the island. The paths will slowly angle toward one another if the people walking on each of them discuss a topic of disagreement, coming together to meet at the eluvian if the parties are reasonable and calm during the discussion and make some earnest effort to find common ground along the way. They won't have to wind up in perfect agreement to reach the end, but breaking into fighting or being stubborn or petty will result in the paths diverging instead of coming together. People who already agree about something won't be able to make it work—they'll have to find something to disagree about, even if it's just the best color of flower. A monument at the beginning will explain its purpose (using Veilfire writing that gives mental impressions, rather than requiring knowledge of ancient elven languages): the paths were designed to require people to calmly discuss their differences on their way to reach someone appointed to mediate disputes at the end, rather than allowing them to barge in shouting.
  • IMPULSE AVENUE: An area will be populated by spirits who will act out a form of people's repressed feelings/impulses on their behalf. That might mean a nonverbal wisp or a more distinct verbal spirit. So a wisp who is acting on behalf of Person A might shoot little icicles at Person B because Person A is annoyed with them, or a more substantial spirit might hit on Person B because Person A thinks they're cute, et cetera. The spirits won't volunteer to explain why they're doing this, but the verbal ones could identify Person A as the source of the desire if pressed on the subject, especially if Person A secretly wants it known.
  • INNER CHILD BOULEVARD: Teams may need to pass through a particularly twisty, shifting maze that's only passable with the guidance of spirits—specifically, spirits who, for some unknown reason connected to their original purpose when the Crossroads were a thoroughfare, present as ghostly forms of the people they're guiding as they were when they were children. They'll know that they're spirits and that their purpose is to guide people through the maze, not mistake themselves for "real" people, but they'll behave and speak in the manner of the child they're imitating while doing so. (Like all spirits, they rely on the information available to them from people, so if there's some significant difference between the way a person recalls themselves as a child vs. how they really were, the spirit will only be able to imitate what the person recalls.)
  • SUSPICION CIRCLE: A pack of fear spirits (specific breed: suspicion) has control of a dark, tunnel-y portion of the Crossroads. They're able to rearrange the paths to lead people in circles rather than allowing them to escape, all the while trying to stoke fear and drive wedges between people by whispering to them about any fears they may harbor (or that just seem reasonable) about their companions' motives, loyalty, etc. Resisting the fear will prevent the spirits from feeding and eventually make them unable to keep up with rearranging the paths, allowing people to escape. Otherwise, if people do give into fearing one another and thus feed them, they'll have to be fought or outsmarted some other way.
They may also encounter other minor hazards and irritations, such as:
  • SPIRITS OF VALOR: Bridges or paths may occasionally be occupied by these fierce spirits who will demand that any who wish to pass first best them in single combat. They can also sometimes be passed without a fight, if you manage to out-swagger them.
  • WILD GOOSE SPIRITS: Spirits that will lead anyone who follows them in pointless circles for as long as possible. They may appear offering assistance, claiming they know the way to the party's destination and can lead them to it, or claiming to have been sent by another group that needs their help urgently. On rare occasions the aid they seek will be real, just far too late--they may lead people to scenes of spirits falling to their deaths as paths crumble, crying out for help but unable to be saved.
  • MOOD WISPS: Characters may encounter clusters of small wisps that will follow them about and change color depending on the mood of the person they're hovering near. If that person's emotions are particularly extreme they may also hum a little, annoyingly, in a way that vaguely indicates the relevant feeling.
  • TRUTH PATHS: Paths that will fall away if you tell a lie. It doesn't require active truth-telling to cross, so you can be silent the whole time if you like, but if you lie about something while wandering the path will vanish ahead of you and will not reappear until you correct the lie. They aren't clearly marked.
  • PUZZLES EVERYWHERE: There are puzzles. They're everywhere, and they're frequently required to unlock an eluvian or make a pathway appear. Some of them might require people to play Ancient Elven Symbol Twister. Or Ancient Elven Symbol Hopscotch, if that's more your thing.
This project will be ongoing, in addition to characters' normal duties, until events TBA.

cozen: (098)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-04-22 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
When the girl shakes her head, the boy gives her a look that isn't angry or even irritated, only confused and a little wounded, the same way it would have been if he'd asked her to play tag or invited her to share a treat and been refused. But the expression vanishes as soon as Laura address him again. He smiles, and his efforts to sit still and straight like his companion begin to slip in favor of knocking his heels lightly against the wall with uneven rhythm.

"Yeah, I know," he says around a sniffle, then, abruptly, "Do you have a bandalore?"

Bastien puts his hand to his forehead and scratches between his eyebrows in a very intentional display of impatient embarrassment—not to telegraph an apology to Laura, so much. It's for the spirit, who glances at him and, eager to please, self-corrects the apparent subject-change.

"I'll tell you for a bandalore. Or some cards—do you have cards?"
Edited 2020-04-22 02:25 (UTC)
justashotaway: (52.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-01 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
"What is a bandalore?" she asks, willing to humor the spirit somewhat more than Bastien (though she has to admit that his expression is strangely amusing--she's not sure how annoyed he actually is). It doesn't hurt that she's never heard of such a thing before.

There's a flicker of curiosity in the other Laura's face, too, there for a moment and then quickly papered over with empty observation. Considering the girl doesn't even know what cards are, the older Laura thinks, the boy's enthusiasm must seem like another language entirely.

But they are not real. She has to remind herself of that much: they are not real, and talking to them has only the purpose of continuing their journey. "I do not think I have one, but I am not sure."
cozen: (086)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-01 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh," the spirit says. He pushes off the wall to land in an uncoordinated but painless crouch in front of her, and he's not even fully straightened up before he launches into it: "It's a wooden thing with a, a line cut into it, and a string, so you wrap the string around it, and then when you throw it it comes back, and—"

The explanation comes with a jumble of gestures. Bastien manages to continue looking unruffled and unbothered, because if you can't prevent someone from having leverage over you altogether the last thing you do is scramble to draw attention to it. He abandons Real Laura to her fate—a stumbling, lengthy explanation of Orlesian yo-yos and the tricks they can do and how it's the thing he wants most in the whole world because it's so boring here—and steps closer to the wall to look up at her younger double.

"If you come down and show us the way," he says to her, "it would be very kind of you, and I won't make you talk to me if you do not want to."
justashotaway: (29.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-05 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
Laura follows it about as well as anyone might--and, admittedly, she finds herself intrigued by the entire concept of a bandalore. She doesn't think she has enough interest to justify purchasing one for her own use, but she would like to see someone else make one spin.

The little girl on the wall looks down at Bastien, her brows furrowing, and takes some silent measure of him. After several moments' consideration, she slides down from where she's sitting. It's a smooth action, landing on her feet in silence, not reaching to steady herself. Without thinking, she ends up standing in something like a straightened-up en garde, staring up at the man who's asked for her help.

Just as the real Laura is saying, "I cannot give you a bandalore, but we do need your help," a much smaller voice asks, "Why?" in Orlesian. Laura's attention jerks back to her younger self, staring in turn. It's not in recognition so much as surprise that the girl spoke at all.
cozen: (004)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-18 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Why?" Bastien echoes, and he's happy to continue in Orlesian: "It would be kind of you because we are very lost, and I am starting to get hungry, and I do not think we can meet that little fellow's demands. And I will not make you talk to me more than you like because I do not want to make you unhappy. It would be a poor way to return your kindness."

Beyond them, the spirit wearing Bastien's young face and young manners is still smiling faintly, but his eyes dart between his adult counterpart and the little girl with a touch of hunger, like he's trying to solve a puzzle—feigning not understanding, surely, because spirits understand everything. But the boy this one is pretending to be wouldn't have known more than a few words.
justashotaway: (33.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-19 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The small Laura thinks about it, wrapping her arms around herself in a thin sort of hug. And then she turns away from Bastien and starts walking away.

His request must be her mission, the real Laura supposes. Objective: assistance, accomplishing mission: wayfinding. She's quick to start following the girl, gesturing both Bastien and his spirit double to come with. It's only the real Bastien she looks at, though, in that moment--trying to glean just what he might think of any of this.
cozen: (052)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-20 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
"It seems you were a much more helpful child than I was."

That might not be all of what Bastien thinks, but it's what he says as he falls into step with her, pleasant but quiet and out of the side of his mouth as if to keep it a secret, even though the spirits will likely be able to hear anyway. If they even need to hear to know what he's saying. He doesn't know.

The spirit trails behind them for a few steps, but then the steps turn into a shuffling, scrabbling noise. Bastien looks back half expecting the spirit to have transformed into something horrifying—he doesn't know—but the ghost of a boy still only has four limbs and one head, and the scrabbling sounds are from his clumsy attempt to scale the wall again.

Bastien shakes his head with a little exasperation while he looks back ahead at the one that's actually guiding them. It's more than fine with him if they leave his double behind.

"But so serious," he adds, tone picking up from before as if he hadn't paused. It's a joke—a warm one, like a gentle nudge. She's still serious. He's not really surprised. A little sad, maybe, but would it really be better to discover she'd been a bubbly little girl?
justashotaway: (28.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-20 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
"She is following orders," Laura says quietly, her mouth pursing. It isn't helpfulness, she doesn't think, but obedience--he asked her to do something, and his request aligns with her apparent mission. And yet, she'd like to think there might be some spark of choice involved. Perhaps she really did consider and come to a conclusion of her own. Perhaps she decided to do something good, knowing it would be helpful.

It's hard to say, and though it feels like it matters, Laura tells herself it doesn't. The girl isn't real, after all.

When Bastien glances back, so too does Laura; she's mildly disappointed, she realizes after a moment, not to listen to the boy continue to chatter. So she asks the other, older Bastien the thing she's starting to wonder: "Did you learn to use a bandalore?"
cozen: (102)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-20 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah, no," Bastien says, without much regret. He does remember wanting one. It was one of dozens of passing desires, some more feasible than others, and he got over them all. "But I learned to juggle and to do coin tricks. I will teach you sometime, if you want. If you do not already know how."
justashotaway: (14.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-20 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"I do not." But the idea of coin tricks is undeniably appealing--she could demonstrate them to Matthias, and possibly teach him after. And she isn't entirely sure what juggling is, so she'll have to find that much out, at least.

The other Laura stops at a fork, her spirit heels on the edge of the stone path. She looks at Bastien without wasting a moment's glance for the real Laura. There's a long, expectant pause, staring at him from narrowed brows. Again in Orlesian, she asks, "Who are you?"
cozen: (016)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-20 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Bastien's mouth had been opening to tell Laura more about the exciting world of coin tricks and juggling, so it stays that way when the spirit turns on them, turning up at the corners in a faintly puzzled smile.

"I am Bastien, and this is Laura," he says, with a gesture toward her, because he doesn't want to be impolite even if the whole situation is very strange. "We are part of a group called Riftwatch. And who are you?"
justashotaway: (25.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-20 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Laura feels herself cringing away from the question, shoulders hunching, without entirely knowing why or how to stop it. The little girl's expression goes studiously blank for a moment, and it's hard for Laura to be sure why--is this confusion, or is it some kind of fear? Or is it something else?--but she's remembering instinctively that earlier desire to avoid the girl's gaze.

It disappears, that look, replaced with the quiet seriousness that the other Laura had worn before. "X-23," she says, and turns away in favour of one of the paths. The real Laura follows, staring hard ahead at some point beyond their guide.
cozen: (032)

[personal profile] cozen 2020-05-21 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
There's no visible relief on his face or in his posture, but Bastien relieved. He'd worried for a moment it might be some sort of test, like the paths people have reported cutting out ahead of them when they tell a lie. Not that his name is a lie. It's not less his name just because he chose it for himself. That might make it more his name. But that isn't really a debate he wants to have with a spirit, at all, or especially in front of someone else.

"I'm sorry," he says to the real Laura, quiet and in Trade, while he trails after the guide. "I wouldn't have asked if I thought..."

Obviously.

Somewhere in the increasing distance behind them there's a yelp—the other spirit falling off the wall he'd climbed, judging by the sound and the faint I'm fine! Bastien sighs a little, in an embarrassed way, then smiles for Laura's sake.

"Laura is a good name. Did you choose it?"
justashotaway: (74.)

[personal profile] justashotaway 2020-05-21 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
Laura shrugs, her eyes on what passes for a horizon in this place. It's starting to make her feel off-kilter again, even though the stones and scrubby plants haven't changed around them. She tries to look past all of it, and she feels faintly nauseous, and they walk.

The small Bastien's shout makes her glance over her shoulder, though, mildly disappointed that he didn't join them on their journey. His talkativeness would be beneficial right now. Bastien, the real Bastien, fills in the gaps, and Laura makes a pale attempt at responding.

"No." She chose to keep it, to use it, which might be the same thing, but she hadn't come up with it.