As of today, this month's plot has concluded, and the Gardens have begun to return to normal. There will be an NPC post shortly to wrap things up ICly, but in the meantime here is a brief rundown of the way things have wrapped up.

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We're sure many of you have already read the High Priestess's post on the Vine; we encourage characters to work together on trying to puzzle out exactly what she's trying to say, using realistic powers of deduction and observation at their disposal. This here is an OOC heads-up to clarify just what she's talking about.

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All right, ladies and gentlemen. Today marks the beginning of the second phase of this month's plot.

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eta; An additional reminder: there are two days left in the activity check, so if you haven't yet gotten your characters in, please do so!

As of this post, the inhabitants of the Isle of Antikythera have invaded the Gardens. They will be here for the rest of the week, wreaking their mechanical havoc. So what can your characters do about it? They have two different options.

1. Attack and attempt to destroy the robots. This is very possible! They can be damaged beyond repair or dismantled. Some of them will be helpless to defend themselves against such attacks, while others will resist with lethal force. In any case, attacking them will render nearby robots hostile as well.
2. Teach the robots to be less destructive. This is the more complicated option and won't have immediate effects, but as the robots are shown less destructive ways to interact with their surroundings, they will begin to take on those behaviors and spread them to their fellows. Robots will remember those who attempted to reason with them in this way and be friendlier to them: for example, if a character shows a robot how to pluck an apple from a tree instead of felling the tree and slicing all the apples off the branches, the robot will begin to refrain from damaging her things and instead bring her gathered apples as a gift.

By Friday, depending on how the robots have been treated, a pattern of behavior will have spread through the mechanical horde, and they will make a last stand appropriate to their new nature. Until then, players may NPC the robots as necessary within the bounds described above and in the IC post.

From now on, Queen of Hearts will be known as Robot Unicorn Attack: The RP. The Queen has been replaced by the Robot Unicorn. She is, however, female, and we will still only be allowing female characters.

Fine print: tomorrow none of this will have happened. However, if you wish to carry over any CR or other character developments that happen today, your characters may remember them as if they happened in a dream. This event will continue from 12:01 am April 1st to 11:59 pm April 1st Eastern Time. While it's occurring, do whatever weird silly rainbow sparklepony-themed things you want. Abuse memes. Bring vuvuzuelas. Yes, threads and posts from today's event do count for activity.

Today is the last IC day that the Queen will be in the Labyrinth. Tomorrow, she'll be returning to take control of the Gardens once again.

The mods will continue to backtag the log and threads with the incarnae elsewhere. If at any point you feel that the wait is holding you up from RP, feel free to contact a mod and we can work out what happened so that you can get your characters back into play. Similarly, if you have a particular idea you'd like to pursue for your thread, let a mod know!

April's event calendar will be posted shortly; we apologize for not having one for March.

The log for exploring the Labyrinth in search of the Queen is now up here; sorry for the delay! It will be open ICly until next Tuesday, and backtagging can continue at any rate you wish. So, how does it work?

If you're going to throw a character in, comment here letting us know which character, if they'll be going in a group, and whether you're okay with that group being split up (and if so, which characters should absolutely not be separated). ICly, everyone should get a chance to meet the Queen, help her out, and potentially earn some reward...assuming they keep their wits about them and have the courage to make it through the Labyrinth.

Then go ahead and tag the log! You can do it in prose format or in quicklog/action-thread format--whichever you're most comfortable with.

As of the Queen's announcement of her generous offer, several of the incarnae have staged a coup and thrown her into the Labyrinth. What are your characters' options?

1) Do nothing. Maybe they're okay with their new overlords and don't want to go home.
2) Seek out the Queen. For the rest of today, the Labyrinth will remain closed to all attempts at entry; however, tomorrow there will be openings in the vines around the ruins, and characters can slip into it. A log will be posted, and characters can tag it for the rest of the week (through Sunday).
3) Attempt to reason with the rebellious incarnae. They will be replying to posts directed at them.
4) Anything else you can think of! Ask questions here.

The plot will conclude next weekend.

Starting Tuesday, March 1st, a chocolate factory is opening in the Gardens--a bright red, castle-like building covered in hearts. How, in that case, will anyone know it's a chocolate factory? Well, no one ever goes in, and no one ever comes out, but foxes regularly emerge from little gates in the walls bringing boxes of chocolates and strewing them about the Gardens. For the first two days, these will simply be delicious chocolates, and they will have no special effect on anyone who eats them.

On Thursday, March 3rd, the fun begins. That's when the chocolates start having an effect on the characters eating them. The effect may last anywhere from a day to a week, and the magical chocolates will remain around until Thursday, March 10th, after which all effects will be nullified and they will simply be delicious chocolates again.

Without further ado, here is the list of chocolates and what they do. ( Other than taste delicious. )

As dawn approaches on February 15th...the roses are still there. But suddenly, they don't smell as sweet.

Actually, no, that's a lie. They still smell fine, although the mood-altering and song-inducing effects of the day before have worn off. But as of morning EST on the day after Valentine's Day, those flowers which were not taken care of are hungry.

There are fourteen person-sized flowers that were fully ignored. All of these giant roses will become bloodthirsty vampire plants on February 15th, and they will uproot themselves and move throughout the Gardens seeking out sources of sustenance (i.e. blood) and attacking, "biting" with their thorns. If attacked in return, they will regenerate...unless you use fire or poison to defeat them.

The rampage will continue until the 20th. NPCs will be intervening to help characters defeat the wild vampire roses, but ultimately most of the work will be up to you and your characters.

If your character tended to her flower intermittently, it will be less aggressive; it's up to you just how fierce its attacks will be.

Questions? Plans? Suggestions? Comment here!

Finally, your hard work taking care of those flowers has paid off! Or not, if you didn't bother.

In the early morning hours of February 14th, the giant roses will finally bloom. The better they were taken care of, the darker red their petals will be. Regardless of how they were treated, though, all of them will give off a strong, enchanting scent that drifts throughout the Gardens. If a character catches a whiff of it, she will fall into an affectionate, lovey-dovey mood...and feel the urge to sing love songs. It doesn't matter if she doesn't actually know the love songs in question--the lyrics and melody will simply come to her. To whom will she sing? Someone she really does have feelings for, or just the nearest person available? That's up to you. Besides, it won't be easy to tell the difference with the mood sweeping through the Gardens...

What does this plot mean for you, the players?

1. It is optional: you can avoid being hit by the scent of the roses if you want.
2. Its rating scales to your preference: your character can simply be in a fluffy, affectionate mood, or, if it's age-appropriate, be in a more sultry mood.
3. You can have your character sing whatever love song(s) you want, even if it wouldn't be feasible for her to know it in canon. Or you can forego the singing entirely. It's up to you.

The effects will last until the small hours of the morning on February 15th, then fade away...and a new stage of the plot will begin. Watch this space for more updates.

This is an OOC note to say that the next event has officially started! There will be no IC post to kick it off, though there will be a message from the Queen in a few days to give characters more information.

As mentioned here, any characters participating in this event will begin to mutate into monsters. Their appearances are up to the players, but remember, they're not supposed to be pretty. Their transformations might also be painful. Along with these physical changes, characters will develop more irritable attitudes, though again, just how foul these traits are is up to the players.

First things first, let's get this out of the way: the first How's My Driving? at Queen of Hearts will be happening on Friday, January 28th, and the first activity check will be starting February 1st. We skipped December's activity check because of the holidays and the bumps of getting the game started; because of those same things, you'll be allowed to count any activity in both December and January. From then on, however, activity checks will be monthly.

Now for the main event, or rather, the explanation of the event. For the last week of January--from the 24th through the 31st--we'll be having our own twist on Beauty and the Beast here at Queen of Hearts. Why? That will be revealed as the plot unfolds. What's important is the mechanics of the plot.

( Find them under the cut! )

Two reasons for this post!

One: we now have an official policy on how to deal with drops, as stated in the FAQ page. You should comment to the taken characters post with a note of your drop, including both the name and fandom of the character being dropped. Posting in queenofooc using the "!drop" tag is optional but helpful.

Two: The solstice event is now officially over; the blizzard has stopped and the snow is melting (although it will linger peacefully for a few days). However, we know people were busy with holidays, so we'd just like to remind you all that backtagging to finish threads is totally okay. You're also welcome to assume that your character(s) had an encounter with the horrors even if you didn't get a chance to play it out.

Get ready for the New Year, everyone! January's calendar will be posted later today or tomorrow.

So here's a list of match-ups for the event. Any problems, let us know! They can be switched around as much as necessary until posts actually start to go up.

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Player-generated matches can continue to be made for as long as the event is in action, so long as the characters involved haven't already posted being alone or a part of a different match.

We're holding off on announcing the matchups until as many applications as possible have been accepted; to that end, contrary to what it says in the comment, this thread is still available for commenting to if you'd like your character to be paired up by the mods.

This post, however, is for more details.

TIMELINE
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THE ENEMY
The horrors are semi-substantial, vaguely humanoid constructs that come in two varieties: shadows and lights.

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PLOT INFORMATION!
On December 22, when the sun rises, you'll be in a plain stone building consisting of one medium-sized room and one small room. The latter is a bathroom. The former has nothing in it except one sleeping bag. The sleeping bag is exactly big enough for you and whoever else you're sharing the building with. Because you're not alone. There's probably one person with you, but there might be two.

The building has windows and a door, but outside the wind howls and snow flies, building into great drifts and rendering visibility almost nil. The door isn't locked, though, and at least some of you might consider this a good thing, since nobody seems to be providing you with food.

So there's your choice. Stay inside, share a sleeping bag, and try to wait the storm out, or go out, investigate, and attempt to find sustenance. Either one is a perfectly valid option. It depends on what you feel like playing.

If you feel like going out? Beware. You have more than the snow to worry about. Dark shadows and glowing lights alike roam the snow-blasted landscape, each bound into the rough shape of a person. They're looking for you, and if they catch up with you, they'll try to hold onto you. What will that feel like? Well...it won't be pleasant. Better hope you didn't go out there alone...

SO ABOUT ALL THAT...
More posts about this plot will be forthcoming, including descriptions of the horrors and how they can be fought and a timeline of events. This post, however, is both an introduction and a place for organization. If you want to take a chance, comment in the indicated place below and the mods will arrange where and with whom your character ends up during the event. If you want to arrange it for yourself, though, make your own thread asking for a partner or two! Make sure to indicate what kind of RP you're looking for (staying in the sleeping bag and snuggling? Going out to hunt monsters? Fighting over the sleeping bag? Some combination of all three?) and if there are particular sorts of characters you're looking to interact with.

This post will remain open for questions and matchmaking until 11:59 EST on Monday, December 20th. After that a new post will be put up listing the matches that have been made (both those arranged by the players and those arranged by the mods), detailing the nature of the horrors, and giving a timeline. The event itself will last from sunrise on December 22nd to sunset on December 26th.

If you would like to opt out of the player-interaction-based part of this plot entirely, you can choose to have your character wake up alone in a sleeping bag of her own, but you're encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities for CR.

Two notes on the setting as it is now:

1) A new area has been added, specifically a library. Read about it here.
2) There are no unmistakable Christmas decorations, but many of the necessities have more lights than usual (even strings of them outside, on the more modern ones), and as the holiday approaches, it becomes much easier to wander into a snowy or icy part of the Gardens. More lights can be seen on trees, and the jingling of bells can be heard in the distance. Silver and gold stars perch atop evergreens, and the Vine has sprouted holly leaves and berries.

'Tis the season, but the Queen of Hearts doesn't celebrate the same Christmas as most people.

Last night, the Queen filled the sky with stars. Too many stars. Tonight, the Damsel announced a way to fix the problem. She's telling the truth, at least to the best of her ability.

Starting the night of the third and continuing until the night of the seventh, a star will fall from the sky for each wish a character makes. When it reaches the ground, it will be a star-shaped silver capsule anywhere from a few inches to several feet in height. Inside will be...whatever the character wished for. Or rather, a somewhat eccentric approximation of it in the form of an object.

If a character wishes to go home, she may receive a star capsule containing some picture or object that reminds her of home. If she wishes for a person to come to the Gardens, she'll receive something that reminds her of that person--perhaps an article of clothing or some other memento. Wishes for small- to medium-sized, harmless items are the only ones that will be granted intact. Wishes for intangible things will generally result in some item reminiscent of the intangible being wished for. The one exception is if a character wishes for a way to escape: then her star capsule will be filled with flower petals and ribbons.

Unfortunately, bringing down a single star per wish won't return the sky to a sane level of stars any time soon, so others will be falling as well. These won't be turning into capsules, though. When they reach the ground, they'll be either meteorites, small showers of glitter, or shurikens. Handle with care, and try to dodge the latter.

Any questions, bring them here.