now that we can finally type it up, the plot reveal!
The plot comes in two parts.
So. Once upon a time, someone said this.
Well, that's what we meant by 'steamy.' (A pun. I know. We're sick.) That's right: you're getting a hot spring episode. For the duration of the experiment, everyone on the Plane will be stuck at a hot spring. The hot spring is on the Plane, which characters will be able to notice because the sky is the same. Unfortunately, they won't be able to notice by looking at their surroundings because they can't look at their surroundings. It's walled in by a palisade, but beyond that? Nothing. Characters who can fly can fly up as far as they want, because the can't actually fly past the wall. Ever been in a video game with an invisible wall? Yeah, that.
And you can't go back home. Sorry, guys. (For those who aren't familiar with onsen, they are this. Wikipedia is God.)
The resort itself is absolutely stunning, with the most high-quality wood in its structure, springs that are somehow the exactly perfect temperature, towels and robes of the best fabric money can buy, the most exquisite food and the finest, freshest supplies in the kitchen, which itself has state of the art supplies... but absolutely no staff. Oh, and don't try to destroy the wood. While you CAN destroy anything except the palisade closing everyone in, anything you destroy will grow back the second you look away from it. Further, there is an unexpected Finnish-style sauna off to the side. Why? I have no idea.
So you may be wondering, 'But where are they staying?' In rooms, of course! Nice rooms, with mats on the floor to sleep on. The rooms are two people to a room, and all the (onsen-appropriate) clothing a person could need will appear automatically in the dresser (which can't be removed from the floor) beside their bed. Characters will be assigned partners at random, and it is in these rooms that they will initially arrive. Nothing stops the characters from moving to different rooms, except, of course, that their dresser absolutely refuses to move and that dresser is the one supplying clothing. Still, that's no real deterrent against having a comfortable stay at the hot springs, right?
We now have a floor plan and visual details courtesy of Christy, whee!
The final, perhaps most important thing about this: hot springs like hijinks. Or at least, this one does. The hot springs will magically warp the fabric of space and time to ensure hijinks. Do you need a banana peel to get you to fall in the arms of the person you have a crush on? Sure, why not! Somehow, you get locked in a room with your worst enemy and can't break out? That's great with the hot spring! Everything will tend towards hijinks. The plot suggestion post had some... enlightening ideas for hijinks. As the hot springs are magical, don't worry about stepping on other people's toes. Just have fun! (The Hijinks Clause is, of course, a facilitator rather than a requirement.)
Slightly related to this, we realizing putting a group of people like this together (particularly with the presents we're giving them) might end in tears. Or at least, lots of blood. Well, while there's nothing an onsen likes more than a good ghost story, unfortunately, no one will be able to kill anyone else unless they can fulfil a very specific requirement: the death has to be funny enough for the hot springs to accept it. You can maim, torture, and psychologically torment to your heart's content, but the hot springs can't allow any death that isn't hilarious.
So have fun with dark comedy if you want someone dead!
Now what you're really wondering is, “Why did you ask that question about traits, then?”
Well, we're not content to merely put characters in a resort and leave them there as the laws of the universe conspire to make hijinks ensue. Instead, your characters get POWER RINGS!!!!!
What are power rings? Power rings are what get in a plot when Kisha has been reading too much Blackest Night. Each power ring takes the form of a ring (duh) and each comes with the standard powers of flight (hell yes) and a protective forcefield (yay!). The rings themselves are nearly indestructible. What can power rings do? A lot, limited by 1) the wielder's mind and 2) the wielder's 'trait' of their ring.
For Willpower, the ring's power is green and has that symbol there on it
-willpower is a costly thing to expend and the more cynical your willpower is, the more exhausting it will be to use
-on the bright side, you can make/manipulate/destroy pretty much anything you want simply by being stubborn enough about it!
-except yellow things. That's right: you have an epic powerful ring which cannot in any way affect anything that is yellow
-and if someone makes you lose your power of will, your ring will accordingly lose power
-on the bright side, you can also take in willpower from the people around you!
Rage gets to be red with this symbol
-the more angry you and the people around you are, the more you can do with your ring
-also your blood turns into the power of the red ring. And you can spit it out at people. It will make things corrode
-and your blood is now so hardcore it can burn... IN SPACE! But you feel no ill-effects
-if you hit the constructs of other rings with your blood, it will also cause those constructs to start to corrode, requiring more energy from the other person just to keep those constructs around
-just as Green Rings are weak against Yellow Rings, Red Rings are weak against Blue Rings. Suckitude
-and if someone gives you and the people around you a chill pill, your ring will weaken in power
-unsurprisingly, the more power you put into the red ring, the less rational you're going to be. But that may be less about the red ring and more about the fact that you're getting angrier and angrier
-rage, like love, is the easiest of the rings to lose yourself to
The Greedy get the power of orange (colour, not fruit---though they can have a fruit if they want, as they ARE greedy) and looks like this
-actually, it's called avarice
-for the record, this doesn't want the greed of other people. Just yours
-you can steal people's identities and create duplicates of them
-or yourself! Don't you want more of you?
-actually, you want more of everything, and by wanting more, you can make more
-alas, you can't make new things. Just more of old things
-and there's this fun side-effect where, no matter how much you eat, you'll always be hungry (but you won't die from overeating, so it's okay)
-you're resistant against Green Rings! Blue and Violet? Not so much.
People with Fear have yellow and this symbol.
-the more fear in a room, the stronger a ring
-you can manipulate fear! Accordingly, the constructs you create have a bad habit of spreading fear
-but you can still make non-scary things! In fact, you can do anything a Green Ring can do, except that your constructs run on fear instead of willpower
-the personal side-effect of using this ring is that, well, the fear also exists inside of you
-Blue Rings can steal your power, too. Damn you, Blue Rings! Why do you sap out everyone else's abilities??
Hope people have this symbol and are coloured blue
-your rings run on hope, AWWWWWWWWWW
-sadly you are a bit useless in the sense that you can't do anything but fly and protect yourself if you don't have a green ring by you to run off of. Yup. Hope is useless without Willpower, very literally
-but you can heal any wound, calm down the power of rage rings, drain the ability of fear rings, block the ability-stealing powers of orange rings, and double the power of green rings (again, if you have a green ring with you)
-and you can tap into someone's brain and make illusions based on their hopes!
-and you CAN do pretty much anything with a strong green ring as your buddy and your own hope. You just have to BELIEVE!
-but if your hope is insincere, your ring won't work with you
-the personal side-effect is that people will laugh at you for having a power that can make easy references to 'clap if you believe'
People with Compassion get indigo and this symbol
-you also get FUNKY STAFFS which you can summon (only when you activate your ring, though)
-if you catch a shot from another ring with your staff, you can use it as your own
-and you can combine your power with others to do more powerful things!
-it runs on your compassion, not those of the people around you. Thankfully.
-you, like Hope, get fun healing powers. Way to be the Staff Chick
-but your ring won't be big on creating earthly goods to have
-weirdly, you become oddly zen whenever you use the power. Even if you want to not be zen. This can get to the point where you become removed (though empathetic towards) even yourself and your own identity
Those with Love have violet and that star symbol there
-this ring is powered on your love and the love of those around you
-it's a good thing the love doesn't have to be nice, but nicer love is better
-you can catch people with other rings and convert them to become love-users
-and you can show people their greatest loves
-you, too, can create things!
-like rage, love can really, really get to your head. That's dangerous.
And Dead People sadly can't have the cool symbol as its own ring, but they do get a black circle around the border of their ring.
-dead people get to use black matter when they create things. How cool is that?
-if anyone hurts you, no matter how much they hurts you, your body will restore itself to perfect health. So you can't die again, and people who maim you can maim you as much as they want. ...er.
-and magic won't work on you at all
-also, no one can remove your ring because it is now stuck in your BODY
-Except Indigo Rings. Those bastards
-really, this is just because the universe feels bad about killing you and wants to show you it cares
Rings that are weak against certain other rings don't automatically lose to their rings, depending on the power in question. Think of it this way: fire is weak against water, but if it's a bottle of water vs a flamethrower, fire wins.
The plot will end in one of two ways: a character who has been hit by the power of one of each of the types of rings (except the black ones) will automatically be allowed to leave the hot spring and go home, though they can also go back into the hot springs. This is because emotional balance is important, or something like that. Once you're allowed to leave, your ring goes 'POOF' in a puff of smoke (there will also be an unexpected VISIBLE sound bubble that says 'poof') and you shall have it no more.
Alternately, if your characters goes to one of the hot springs and the finger wearing the ring is cut off and falls into the hot water while they shout “FOR FRODO!!!” they will be released. But they'll have to get someone else to grow their finger back.
After, the hot springs are staying on the Plane, though characters can now freely come and go. Because everyone likes an onsen!
FINAL NOTES:
-The plot starts Saturday. A mod will post a post that says something along the lines of, [this is an onsen, and you just found yourself in one of its rooms]. Characters will appear in the room they are assigned to, presumably with the person they're assigned to, and they can do whatever they want from there, whether in that post or starting their own posts of running around and things
-we're putting people into the dice rolls for roommates by their comment on this post. We'll comment with roommate assignments to that post. (After Kisha wakes from a coma, Dero stops being attacked by kitties, and Farrah finishes writing that paper for Canadian Lit due tomorrow.) Accordingly! If you haven't commented, go comment to that now. If you somehow miss both posts until you see the plot start and go 'what the hell,' it's okay! Go back and comment there and we'll partner you up with the next people along who forgot to sign up. Your character may just be a little late to the party
-likewise, characters apped before this plot ends will be dropped into rooms as best paired off as they can be. They just need to swing on back to the trait-post to claim their trait and we'll comment with a roommate assignment
-any character who can't make it out of the hot springs by around the Halloween plot (which should start around the last or second last week of October) will be automatically released, because it's not fair to keep people out of Halloween. That means people who can't make it out won't be stuck for too long.
-also, while this plot is technically mandatory because of its nature, if you don't actually a character in on it, you can a) just leave them in their home realities or b) they can freely come and go from the hot springs, but they don't get a ring or a room
-I only have four white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies left and that makes me sad
Comments, Questions, Concerns, or Coconuts?
Edit: Dead People get one more ability that we completely forgot: they can see, by an 'aura' around a person, what type of ring they're using. As people get hit by more of the various coloured rings, they'll see those colours added to people's auras, which will become clearer and clearer until, when they've been struck by everything and the ring disappears, there is no aura at all.
Edit 2: ALSO!!! Rings can be removed, except the black ones. Also technically you shouldn't remove red ones, as that will cause massive blood loss. But I suppose your character can try. Just you know, you should put it back on. If you take off rings, you will still have the aura, though. Also it won't save you the side-effects (like Greed, you still feel hungry if you take it off, so don't bother trying) but you won't get the actually awesome ring powers. As a general rule, your character will feel much more at ease and comfortable for the duration of this plot with the ring on.
So. Once upon a time, someone said this.
Well, that's what we meant by 'steamy.' (A pun. I know. We're sick.) That's right: you're getting a hot spring episode. For the duration of the experiment, everyone on the Plane will be stuck at a hot spring. The hot spring is on the Plane, which characters will be able to notice because the sky is the same. Unfortunately, they won't be able to notice by looking at their surroundings because they can't look at their surroundings. It's walled in by a palisade, but beyond that? Nothing. Characters who can fly can fly up as far as they want, because the can't actually fly past the wall. Ever been in a video game with an invisible wall? Yeah, that.
And you can't go back home. Sorry, guys. (For those who aren't familiar with onsen, they are this. Wikipedia is God.)
The resort itself is absolutely stunning, with the most high-quality wood in its structure, springs that are somehow the exactly perfect temperature, towels and robes of the best fabric money can buy, the most exquisite food and the finest, freshest supplies in the kitchen, which itself has state of the art supplies... but absolutely no staff. Oh, and don't try to destroy the wood. While you CAN destroy anything except the palisade closing everyone in, anything you destroy will grow back the second you look away from it. Further, there is an unexpected Finnish-style sauna off to the side. Why? I have no idea.
So you may be wondering, 'But where are they staying?' In rooms, of course! Nice rooms, with mats on the floor to sleep on. The rooms are two people to a room, and all the (onsen-appropriate) clothing a person could need will appear automatically in the dresser (which can't be removed from the floor) beside their bed. Characters will be assigned partners at random, and it is in these rooms that they will initially arrive. Nothing stops the characters from moving to different rooms, except, of course, that their dresser absolutely refuses to move and that dresser is the one supplying clothing. Still, that's no real deterrent against having a comfortable stay at the hot springs, right?
We now have a floor plan and visual details courtesy of Christy, whee!
The final, perhaps most important thing about this: hot springs like hijinks. Or at least, this one does. The hot springs will magically warp the fabric of space and time to ensure hijinks. Do you need a banana peel to get you to fall in the arms of the person you have a crush on? Sure, why not! Somehow, you get locked in a room with your worst enemy and can't break out? That's great with the hot spring! Everything will tend towards hijinks. The plot suggestion post had some... enlightening ideas for hijinks. As the hot springs are magical, don't worry about stepping on other people's toes. Just have fun! (The Hijinks Clause is, of course, a facilitator rather than a requirement.)
Slightly related to this, we realizing putting a group of people like this together (particularly with the presents we're giving them) might end in tears. Or at least, lots of blood. Well, while there's nothing an onsen likes more than a good ghost story, unfortunately, no one will be able to kill anyone else unless they can fulfil a very specific requirement: the death has to be funny enough for the hot springs to accept it. You can maim, torture, and psychologically torment to your heart's content, but the hot springs can't allow any death that isn't hilarious.
So have fun with dark comedy if you want someone dead!
Now what you're really wondering is, “Why did you ask that question about traits, then?”
Well, we're not content to merely put characters in a resort and leave them there as the laws of the universe conspire to make hijinks ensue. Instead, your characters get POWER RINGS!!!!!
What are power rings? Power rings are what get in a plot when Kisha has been reading too much Blackest Night. Each power ring takes the form of a ring (duh) and each comes with the standard powers of flight (hell yes) and a protective forcefield (yay!). The rings themselves are nearly indestructible. What can power rings do? A lot, limited by 1) the wielder's mind and 2) the wielder's 'trait' of their ring.
For Willpower, the ring's power is green and has that symbol there on it
-willpower is a costly thing to expend and the more cynical your willpower is, the more exhausting it will be to use
-on the bright side, you can make/manipulate/destroy pretty much anything you want simply by being stubborn enough about it!
-except yellow things. That's right: you have an epic powerful ring which cannot in any way affect anything that is yellow
-and if someone makes you lose your power of will, your ring will accordingly lose power
-on the bright side, you can also take in willpower from the people around you!
Rage gets to be red with this symbol
-the more angry you and the people around you are, the more you can do with your ring
-also your blood turns into the power of the red ring. And you can spit it out at people. It will make things corrode
-and your blood is now so hardcore it can burn... IN SPACE! But you feel no ill-effects
-if you hit the constructs of other rings with your blood, it will also cause those constructs to start to corrode, requiring more energy from the other person just to keep those constructs around
-just as Green Rings are weak against Yellow Rings, Red Rings are weak against Blue Rings. Suckitude
-and if someone gives you and the people around you a chill pill, your ring will weaken in power
-unsurprisingly, the more power you put into the red ring, the less rational you're going to be. But that may be less about the red ring and more about the fact that you're getting angrier and angrier
-rage, like love, is the easiest of the rings to lose yourself to
The Greedy get the power of orange (colour, not fruit---though they can have a fruit if they want, as they ARE greedy) and looks like this
-actually, it's called avarice
-for the record, this doesn't want the greed of other people. Just yours
-you can steal people's identities and create duplicates of them
-or yourself! Don't you want more of you?
-actually, you want more of everything, and by wanting more, you can make more
-alas, you can't make new things. Just more of old things
-and there's this fun side-effect where, no matter how much you eat, you'll always be hungry (but you won't die from overeating, so it's okay)
-you're resistant against Green Rings! Blue and Violet? Not so much.
People with Fear have yellow and this symbol.
-the more fear in a room, the stronger a ring
-you can manipulate fear! Accordingly, the constructs you create have a bad habit of spreading fear
-but you can still make non-scary things! In fact, you can do anything a Green Ring can do, except that your constructs run on fear instead of willpower
-the personal side-effect of using this ring is that, well, the fear also exists inside of you
-Blue Rings can steal your power, too. Damn you, Blue Rings! Why do you sap out everyone else's abilities??
Hope people have this symbol and are coloured blue
-your rings run on hope, AWWWWWWWWWW
-sadly you are a bit useless in the sense that you can't do anything but fly and protect yourself if you don't have a green ring by you to run off of. Yup. Hope is useless without Willpower, very literally
-but you can heal any wound, calm down the power of rage rings, drain the ability of fear rings, block the ability-stealing powers of orange rings, and double the power of green rings (again, if you have a green ring with you)
-and you can tap into someone's brain and make illusions based on their hopes!
-and you CAN do pretty much anything with a strong green ring as your buddy and your own hope. You just have to BELIEVE!
-but if your hope is insincere, your ring won't work with you
-the personal side-effect is that people will laugh at you for having a power that can make easy references to 'clap if you believe'
People with Compassion get indigo and this symbol
-you also get FUNKY STAFFS which you can summon (only when you activate your ring, though)
-if you catch a shot from another ring with your staff, you can use it as your own
-and you can combine your power with others to do more powerful things!
-it runs on your compassion, not those of the people around you. Thankfully.
-you, like Hope, get fun healing powers. Way to be the Staff Chick
-but your ring won't be big on creating earthly goods to have
-weirdly, you become oddly zen whenever you use the power. Even if you want to not be zen. This can get to the point where you become removed (though empathetic towards) even yourself and your own identity
Those with Love have violet and that star symbol there
-this ring is powered on your love and the love of those around you
-it's a good thing the love doesn't have to be nice, but nicer love is better
-you can catch people with other rings and convert them to become love-users
-and you can show people their greatest loves
-you, too, can create things!
-like rage, love can really, really get to your head. That's dangerous.
And Dead People sadly can't have the cool symbol as its own ring, but they do get a black circle around the border of their ring.
-dead people get to use black matter when they create things. How cool is that?
-if anyone hurts you, no matter how much they hurts you, your body will restore itself to perfect health. So you can't die again, and people who maim you can maim you as much as they want. ...er.
-and magic won't work on you at all
-also, no one can remove your ring because it is now stuck in your BODY
-Except Indigo Rings. Those bastards
-really, this is just because the universe feels bad about killing you and wants to show you it cares
Rings that are weak against certain other rings don't automatically lose to their rings, depending on the power in question. Think of it this way: fire is weak against water, but if it's a bottle of water vs a flamethrower, fire wins.
The plot will end in one of two ways: a character who has been hit by the power of one of each of the types of rings (except the black ones) will automatically be allowed to leave the hot spring and go home, though they can also go back into the hot springs. This is because emotional balance is important, or something like that. Once you're allowed to leave, your ring goes 'POOF' in a puff of smoke (there will also be an unexpected VISIBLE sound bubble that says 'poof') and you shall have it no more.
Alternately, if your characters goes to one of the hot springs and the finger wearing the ring is cut off and falls into the hot water while they shout “FOR FRODO!!!” they will be released. But they'll have to get someone else to grow their finger back.
After, the hot springs are staying on the Plane, though characters can now freely come and go. Because everyone likes an onsen!
FINAL NOTES:
-The plot starts Saturday. A mod will post a post that says something along the lines of, [this is an onsen, and you just found yourself in one of its rooms]. Characters will appear in the room they are assigned to, presumably with the person they're assigned to, and they can do whatever they want from there, whether in that post or starting their own posts of running around and things
-we're putting people into the dice rolls for roommates by their comment on this post. We'll comment with roommate assignments to that post. (After Kisha wakes from a coma, Dero stops being attacked by kitties, and Farrah finishes writing that paper for Canadian Lit due tomorrow.) Accordingly! If you haven't commented, go comment to that now. If you somehow miss both posts until you see the plot start and go 'what the hell,' it's okay! Go back and comment there and we'll partner you up with the next people along who forgot to sign up. Your character may just be a little late to the party
-likewise, characters apped before this plot ends will be dropped into rooms as best paired off as they can be. They just need to swing on back to the trait-post to claim their trait and we'll comment with a roommate assignment
-any character who can't make it out of the hot springs by around the Halloween plot (which should start around the last or second last week of October) will be automatically released, because it's not fair to keep people out of Halloween. That means people who can't make it out won't be stuck for too long.
-also, while this plot is technically mandatory because of its nature, if you don't actually a character in on it, you can a) just leave them in their home realities or b) they can freely come and go from the hot springs, but they don't get a ring or a room
-I only have four white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies left and that makes me sad
Comments, Questions, Concerns, or Coconuts?
Edit: Dead People get one more ability that we completely forgot: they can see, by an 'aura' around a person, what type of ring they're using. As people get hit by more of the various coloured rings, they'll see those colours added to people's auras, which will become clearer and clearer until, when they've been struck by everything and the ring disappears, there is no aura at all.
Edit 2: ALSO!!! Rings can be removed, except the black ones. Also technically you shouldn't remove red ones, as that will cause massive blood loss. But I suppose your character can try. Just you know, you should put it back on. If you take off rings, you will still have the aura, though. Also it won't save you the side-effects (like Greed, you still feel hungry if you take it off, so don't bother trying) but you won't get the actually awesome ring powers. As a general rule, your character will feel much more at ease and comfortable for the duration of this plot with the ring on.