(( I'm very interested in where this story could go. Ket's been ICly holed up in her home, due to her bad reaction to the envelope and the later disturbances in Dalaran. Just let me know what's going on and when, you know how to contact me dear))
The Black Envelope [RP Event]
Emma hasn't been feeling well since the incident in Dalaran. Everywhere she looks she is reminded of the images she saw that night. She hasn't been sleeping, she keeps hearing whispers at night that yell and call her monster. Those rare moments that she finds sleep she is tortured with memories of fire and smoke and death. Her lack of sleep is affecting her behavior, her normal stutter is replaced by a harsh cold voice, and her eyes are ringed with dark circles that cause her to look demonic. She's stopped going out, preferring to lock herself in her room. The nights are haunted and the days are not much better. She hears the whispers talking about killing her, poisoning her food and water, turning her minions against her. The normally shy and sweet girl has been completely replaced by a paranoid and angry woman.
Her door is always locked and she sits in the farthest corner everyday and every night. Her mumbles and chants can be heard if one dares venture close.
Through the cloud that the paranoia has covered her in, she still has moments of relative clarity. Moments when she knows she needs to get help, moments when she knows that there is something very wrong, moments that she knows this is the work of that black envelope. But these never last. She once made it to the doorway before she was overcome with panic and fear that those whom she sought for help would instead kill her. But beyond those thoughts, Emma had no idea where she was.Deep in her thoughts one sentence keeps repeating;
"He wouldn't hurt me.."
The thought is buried within the cloud, and just when she can recover it, fear takes over. And so her days repeat in this pattern. Fear and cowering in the corner, and a journey to the door just to end up back in the corner.
Her door is always locked and she sits in the farthest corner everyday and every night. Her mumbles and chants can be heard if one dares venture close.
Through the cloud that the paranoia has covered her in, she still has moments of relative clarity. Moments when she knows she needs to get help, moments when she knows that there is something very wrong, moments that she knows this is the work of that black envelope. But these never last. She once made it to the doorway before she was overcome with panic and fear that those whom she sought for help would instead kill her. But beyond those thoughts, Emma had no idea where she was.Deep in her thoughts one sentence keeps repeating;
"He wouldn't hurt me.."
The thought is buried within the cloud, and just when she can recover it, fear takes over. And so her days repeat in this pattern. Fear and cowering in the corner, and a journey to the door just to end up back in the corner.
((I dunno, I actually have a few reservations with how this is being setup...
First of all, from an in-character perspective, it basically leaves us with nothing to do but be suspicious and get tormented while going about our day-to-day lives. There was only one lead before; the black envelopes themselves, and tracking them. Now they're gone, and the only lead we had from them has led to a complete dead-end with nothing but suspicions that this might not be over. I know you said it's open-ended, but it just feels like there's no way to progress it at this point without direct intervention saying "yes, you found a lead, follow that".
And even from an out-of-character perspective, Oracle seems to be built up to be *TOO* big. *TOO* powerful. So large and high and over-the-top-secret a corporation that it begs one to ask "how are these guys not just ruling the planet", a question to which it's entirely possible to get an answer of "how do you know they're not". They're built up to be essentially all-powerful and untouchable. The way they throw the only lead we have into a complete dead-end with a flick of the wrist and almost no effort makes it almost demoralizing to pursue the plot at all. Between having nothing to go on in-game, and having this big huge untouchable mega-corporation that no one even knows about looming over everything makes it all seem like an exercise in futility.
Tormenting our characters is fun, but only for so long. Once they've been through their torment, they need a chance to either settle down and recuperate, knowing it's over, or they need a solid chance to go after the people responsible, and that dead-end completely kills that second option, while their plan to move forward with their "tests" kills the first option too, unless a player elects to simply exclude themselves from the RP, because a character like Jonathan would almost certainly be one of the "outliers" that would be targeted for continued testing due to his exceptionally strong reaction to the letter.
Tormenting our characters is fun yes, but I don't torment my character just for the sake of tormenting them, Jon especially. It's fun, yes, but in Jon's case, I do it because at this point it's basically what his character is built on. He takes the punishment, the physical and mental tortures he gets put through, and then he takes that and uses it as his motivation to keep going, fuel his desire to keep moving forward, to keep pursuing his enemies and the people who need to be stopped. I do it to develop him as a character, to whatever end that ends up moving him toward. This... doesn't really accomplish anything anymore. It devolves into "let's just keep tormenting them while we wait for a chance to do something", and that stops being fun really fast.
I love how this started, and I love you for putting so much effort into it, but it just feels like there's way too much buildup to an untouchable big bad for a situation that basically leaves us with nothing to do.))
First of all, from an in-character perspective, it basically leaves us with nothing to do but be suspicious and get tormented while going about our day-to-day lives. There was only one lead before; the black envelopes themselves, and tracking them. Now they're gone, and the only lead we had from them has led to a complete dead-end with nothing but suspicions that this might not be over. I know you said it's open-ended, but it just feels like there's no way to progress it at this point without direct intervention saying "yes, you found a lead, follow that".
And even from an out-of-character perspective, Oracle seems to be built up to be *TOO* big. *TOO* powerful. So large and high and over-the-top-secret a corporation that it begs one to ask "how are these guys not just ruling the planet", a question to which it's entirely possible to get an answer of "how do you know they're not". They're built up to be essentially all-powerful and untouchable. The way they throw the only lead we have into a complete dead-end with a flick of the wrist and almost no effort makes it almost demoralizing to pursue the plot at all. Between having nothing to go on in-game, and having this big huge untouchable mega-corporation that no one even knows about looming over everything makes it all seem like an exercise in futility.
Tormenting our characters is fun, but only for so long. Once they've been through their torment, they need a chance to either settle down and recuperate, knowing it's over, or they need a solid chance to go after the people responsible, and that dead-end completely kills that second option, while their plan to move forward with their "tests" kills the first option too, unless a player elects to simply exclude themselves from the RP, because a character like Jonathan would almost certainly be one of the "outliers" that would be targeted for continued testing due to his exceptionally strong reaction to the letter.
Tormenting our characters is fun yes, but I don't torment my character just for the sake of tormenting them, Jon especially. It's fun, yes, but in Jon's case, I do it because at this point it's basically what his character is built on. He takes the punishment, the physical and mental tortures he gets put through, and then he takes that and uses it as his motivation to keep going, fuel his desire to keep moving forward, to keep pursuing his enemies and the people who need to be stopped. I do it to develop him as a character, to whatever end that ends up moving him toward. This... doesn't really accomplish anything anymore. It devolves into "let's just keep tormenting them while we wait for a chance to do something", and that stops being fun really fast.
I love how this started, and I love you for putting so much effort into it, but it just feels like there's way too much buildup to an untouchable big bad for a situation that basically leaves us with nothing to do.))
Edited by Harmarth on 9/3/2014 8:28 PM PDT
[ I really appreciate your passionate response, but I'm not sure if I can respond to your satisfaction. In sum, you seem upset that this isn't going where you'd like it to. I can only say that from my perspective, we've hardly even begun and it's too early to say where the story is going, much less how it's going to end. There's actually been very little written in-character about Oracle. If your main concern is that they're impenetrable, I'd urge you to consider the real world implications.
This thread is not here to tell people how to develop their characters. I'm merely dropping snippets of plot devices for folks to play and write off of, in game or on here, should they wish to do so. Relatively little has been written and played out in the game so far. There's always room for more and anyone with the initiative and drive to contribute is welcome. ]
This thread is not here to tell people how to develop their characters. I'm merely dropping snippets of plot devices for folks to play and write off of, in game or on here, should they wish to do so. Relatively little has been written and played out in the game so far. There's always room for more and anyone with the initiative and drive to contribute is welcome. ]
((Don't get me wrong, I still *want* to see this continue. It's just that right now it feels less open-ended and more... dangling. Like I said, at this point it feels like there's nothing left to do but wait for another lead and torment our characters while we wait.))
09/03/2014 08:55 PMPosted by KhromieI can only say that from my perspective, we've hardly even begun and it's too early to say where the story is going, much less how it's going to end. There's actually been very little written in-character about Oracle. If your main concern is that they're impenetrable, I'd urge you to consider the real world implications.
That's kinda what I've been getting from this. I missed the in-game gathering, so I'm not aware of what was revealed or progressed (if anything) but from what's been discussed so far it feels a lot like a plot you'd find in an episode of 90s Batman: The Animated Series. (loved that show)
Some mysterious and dangerous things happen. The hero is confounded and mislead. At the end of the episode, inside the penthouse office of a tall shadowy building, a darkly shadowed bad guy does his grim evil laugh from behind a desktop of monitors, witnessing the failures of the hero.
It all seems rather doom and gloom from the beginning. The next few episodes the hero unveils the villain, but it doesn't help a bit. His predicament is only made worse, establishing the apparent impenetrability of the villain and his/her organization.
The final episodes show things going from way bad to way worse. The hero discovers an unseen fatal flaw which they exploit to save the day and bring down the villain.
As I saw it, we're still at Episode 1: The Phantom Menace *muahahahahaha*
/lightsaber to the knee
[OOC:]The corporation is above the law...
((Only because they're floating. We'll see about that once they set foot on terra firma. *taps his baton in the palm of his hand*))
a darkly shadowed bad guy does his grim evil laugh
You rang?
Edited by Tyvian on 9/5/2014 7:35 PM PDT
((Ooo, I'm very sorry I've missed this with everything else going on outside of the game. I actually like the idea of how this could really mess with Silent's forms.)
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