The Verb It With Noun continuity presents a plot proposal

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Summary: Milliways gets connected to the Darkness until the Door is locked allowing minor Heartless into the grounds outside the bar. Meanwhile several Princesses of Heart of their own canon, hanging out in Milliways - there will be no "Milliways Princess" are kidnapped for unknown reasons and need to be rescued.


Details:
•The plot begins with a post from a verbitwithnoun character that states only This World Has Been Connected.
•Shadow Heartless begin to appear on the grounds only after that. They will not enter the bar or be able to enter the bar. Ditto the stables although people fearing they could attack the horses is perfectly reasonable.
•The day after the world is connected four Princesses, chosen from OOC volunteers, disappear while outside – taken by the Heartless. The Princesses are not a Milliways Princess and there will be an application for the volunteers to describe why their character is a Princess in her own canon. Princesses of Heart are not always princesses in the traditional sense. Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are both Princesses of Heart.
•Axel gives infodumps about what the Heartless are, what the meaning of the Princesses being kidnapped probably is, and states that they must be rescued.
•Four rescuers, chosen from OOC volunteers by the Princess players, will begin an OOM quest to get to Sleeping Beauty's world. This will take them through other Kingdom Hearts-universe worlds.

Princess Edit:
Mandas: Explain to me the Princesses bit... I'm assuming these are literal Princesses, or following KH where it's the pure of heart?
III: KH.
Mandas: Alright, but it's said that there are Princesses of their own canon vs. 'Milliways Princesses'... meaning being captured in their own canon has an influence on their own canon?
III: No, meaning that there won't be someone who is the Milliways Princess of Heart, like Belle is the Beast's Castle Princess, and Kairi is the Radiant Gardens Princess.

OOM Quest:
Demyx and Axel will be the Nobodies guiding the OOM portion of the plot. They will go with the Princess' champions. The champions will basically FORCE the door to go to the KH world, the volunteer Nobodies tagging along. The safest path they can manage, and with their pure intent, is the paths of light. This prevents the Nobodies from being able to give them any 'shortcuts' as they can't manipulate those, only walk them if someone else opens the way. The way of course will not be straightforward, they'll hit roughly three or four worlds before ending up in Sleeping Beauty's world. The Princesses are kept in stasis, safely asleep there. After the rescue, the Princesses will be able to open a path of light together that will take them all right back to Milliways safely.

Milliways Side of the Plot:

Knowing there are more Princesses to be had the Heartless will continue their assault. The Princess-muns will have the option of running some Heartless if they choose to so they aren't completely out of play for however long it takes. Xaldin + Xigbar + Volunteers will lead the fight back at home against the Heartless. People will be told to seek out the Door to Milliways – it will be unmistakable.

The Door will be posted by sliceitwithwind after two weeks of the plot. Anyone can find it, but it will take a Keyblade Master to lock it. That won't make the Heartless vanish, but it will keep more from getting in, this making it a MANAGEABLE problem now. This happens about when the fight with Maleficent does, which is why she chooses to withdraw instead of continuing the fight. When the rescue team gets back they can help fight the Heartless, who will be dealt with by the end of plot.

NO hearts will be taken and NO nobodies will be made without EXTENSIVE talking with verbitwithnoun crew. We don't want anyone to permanently damage their character without realizing it because of us. Much like the Keyblade Master plot point it will take a unanimous vote from the verbitwithnoun muns to allow any character to be even temporarily a Nobody.

Unlike Nobodies, Heartless DO feel, but it is no less unsettling. They feel curiosity when faced with new situations, but other than that all that exists in them is deep consuming loneliness and HUNGER. There is no reasoning with them, there is no soothing them. They seek to drag all hearts into darkness with them.

WHAT IS THE MEASURE OF A HEART?

If your character can feel - AT ALL - they have a heart. it is more metaphysical than physical. A need, a dream, those count as well. Something that gives it sentience. The spark of the Transformers is their heart. Data (star trek) and Daneel (Robot Novels) would also count as having hearts, despite being artificial life. They're still LIFE. Pretty much unless your canon dictates explicitly that you don't have one at all, you do by KH standards. being a bad person or a sociopath is DIFFERENT. That is called a heart being consumed by or lost to darkness. The more darkness in a heart, the more the Heartless will be attracted to it. To a certain extent they might even seem to obey the dark hearts, but it's just a ruse to let your heart grow ever darker and be easier for them to consume it.

Summary v 2.0: Two week long bar-plot temporarily making the outdoors dangerous while volunteers go on an OOM rescue quest.

ETA Oct 16, 1.12am PST: Please vote with only one journal. We've had a couple of people vote with multiple journals and all but one of the votes from that person will be disregarded. One vote per mun, to keep things fair. Count as of this ETA is actually 22 to 11 with adjustment for multiple votes.

Poll is closed due to confusion. Please go here instead.

ETA Questions and Answers:
My character doesn't fight, and I don't understand what I'd get from having the Shadows out there, why can't there be more Princesses/Champions?

Could there be a gradually increasing number of Shadows instead of an initial swarm?

Labyrinth-mun speaks up on the Labyrinth.

Yes you can avoid the Shadows just as easily as you do the demon bunnies.

Keyblades and You: Why you still kick ass and take names and a Keyblade is just a tool.

You are not a Princess of Heart, necessarily; you just play one on TV.

Comments

[miss-yt.livejournal.com]

I would, if possible, like to sign Abe no Seimei (yinyangwizard) up for the rescue mission.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Assuming that it gets approved in this phase (the moderators have asked us to see how many of the people in the bar at large are interested before starting a bar-wide plot) there will be a second post requesting Princess and Champion volunteers.

The players chosen for Princesses will be choosing the volunteers.

[scurlock]

Ditto the stables although people fearing they could attack the horses is perfectly reasonable.

What exactly is a Shadow Heartless? Looking at my pup at the moment, I would see him basically taking up residence in the stables and shooting at anything that tried to even get close that would be considered a threat.

I know there are bar rules and all, but, Doc wouldn't take kindly to the horses being messed with (or the idea/fear being present). I think I would need more info on that before I voted one way or another.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

This is straight from the e-mail we sent the mods:

Shadows:
The Shadows are weak Heartless with yellow eyes which are all black. They can melt into the ground to avoid attack. They drop Munny – which could be collected and used to pay off tabs, and Potions – which can heal damage or be sold to help pay off tabs. When discorporated they drop temporary green orbs which can heal damage. Shadows can ONLY be killed by a Keyblade Master. Other people can discorporate them for a time, but they will respawn eventually. The Heartless, especially the shadows, are pure elemental Darkness. They Obey No One.

[gorgonfondness]

I would totally play in this plot. And would totally sign up Mia to be a Princess of Heart. She kicks so much ass sometimes that it's nice to make her an occasional Damsel in Distress.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

If we get the go-ahead we've got a little blurb that basically boils down to letting people interested in playing a Princess of Heart say why their character counts as one in their own canon. Just because only 4 get stolen doesn't mean that there aren't far more than 4 in Milliways after all.

[leeshajoy.livejournal.com]

I am definitely interested, although I'm not sure who I'd like to sign up for this.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Not a question you'd have to answer now, dude. If enough people (2/3rds of the voters) say yes we'll have another post soliciting volunteers. The Milliways side of it is opt in at any time just by going out and pounding on Shadows, collecting Munny and Potions, and coming back in.

[badninja.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to know why the other KH muns werent included in the plotting of this, or at least given warning? This is coming as a complete and random surprise, especiallty since we had already been setting up a similiar plot, and now we can't run it. It'd have been nice to have a pow-wow and compromise.

[bashitwithearth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for tagging in.

We're happy to chat with anyone about things. Feel free to use either the AIM on this account or gamenotifications @ gmail . com to contact us.

[silveraspen]

My concern with this plot as presented is that having the grounds in general become a dangerous issue with Walking (er, drifting? whatever it is that Shadows do) NPC Threats both limits outdoor activity for non-plot-participating characters and sets a precedent for having (multiple) attacking NPCs wandering around the Milliways environs and context, which is supposed to be Very Neutral Ground. (If I remember correctly -- that sort of idea was shot down before in the context of a dragonslaying plot, or some such.)

As I see it, the difference between a canon-based NPC and a canon-based PC in the bar setting is whether or not there's a player. After all, both would qualify to be apped into the bar setting-- it's just that one has, and one hasn't. And, due to the canonical nature of the NPCs, it's different from threatening Milliways-created or spawned things such as tofu or "bread" dough creatures.

However. As a possible alternative -- what about making use of the Labyrinth as the setting, instead of the grounds in general?

[vaultedthewall.livejournal.com]

I don't believe we were going to have characters get attacked if their muns didn't want them to get attacked. That'd just be uncool.

[misslucyjane]

One of my characters is planning to live on the mountain. I'm not wild about him having to give up his home for two weeks.

[the_croupier]

I'm all in favor of events like this happening in the bar. I don't know who I would throw at the plot just now, but if nothing else, I'll look forward to reading what people do.

[notascreensaver]

Interesting idea, I definitely approve. Don't know how much I'll be able participate in, depending how busy I get.

[vaultedthewall.livejournal.com]

...Now I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed that there isn't a computer version of Kingdom Hearts.

[superplumber.livejournal.com]

If I didn't fail at plot, Mario would be all over this like white on rice.

[moofoot.livejournal.com]

Mario vs. Shadow Heartless things?

[wakeupnew]

Question: would there be any leeway for princesses helping to rescue themselves? I might be interested in throwing someone into consideration, but she wouldn't take kindly to being entirely a damsel in distress and I wouldn't have as much fun with that; could the princesses help their rescuers out?

In general, though, I think this sounds like a neat idea! I always wish there was more bar-wide stuff.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Canonically the princesses are held in stasis. This doesn't in the slightest stop them from beating things up as soon as they get taken out of stasis but they wouldn't be able to fight while effectively frozen.

[theforerunner.livejournal.com]

eeeee.

okay I'll be quiet now.

eeee

[ashen_key]

Just curious as I weigh things up and see if I have any questions (seven hour shift in fast food + being ill + uni, it may take a couple days), how long is this poll open for?

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

The mods haven't told us. At least a couple of days.

[ostro_goth]

Teja will get used to the fact that every so often, there are things that make him fight his way to forge, and keep the cats in; and he's definitely going to work his way through a few Shadow Heartless in any case.

Yes, I'm all for it, and I'm already getting the first plot bunnies for it; if the plot does get voted in favour of, then I'll run some by you. Basically, I'd like to be involved as much as I can, time zones permitting.-

[chanter1944]

Oops, say sorry. I thiiiink I voted as Sariel an hour or two ago. That was my goof. I'll just call that my one vote, unless you'd rather that one was deleted and I voted with this journal instead? *is easygoing*

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

As long as you only use one journal we don't care which one it is.

[watchmakers_son]

I'm really torn about this. On the one hand, it would make sense for Sylar to participate, and the idea of him going after some Heartless (or, well, vice-versa) makes me cackle kind of gleefully. But...I admit I'm also very uncomfortable with the way this would limit other people's gameplay for two weeks, especially considering how past plots have usually gone to great lengths to give non-participating players an out.

If there's a way to modify the plot so it gives more flexibility to those who don't want to participate, I'll say yes. For now, though, I'm afraid my vote's gonna have to be no.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

I think that we're taking votes for it as-is now rather than attempting to modify it. If it doesn't pass we will be doing a rewrite of the entire plot, most probably without any Milliways side to it.

We thought that the bonus of being able to collect munny (KH money) and Potions (healing items) would be enough of a bonus to make people more willing to struggle with very low-level monsters in order to have an IC "pay off the tab" situation.

Thank you for taking the time to comment with your concerns.

[alt-hulk.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. Realized I hadn't commented yet. Excellent idea, and I'm really excited for this! And for all those that think that it's too stifling, potentially--as with previous plots, I'm pretty sure it won't be a big deal if you just pretend it's not there, since it's only outside. I mean, reading back through memories, I'm pretty sure the Silent Hill and of Leaves, and even the Armageddon Clock plots were pretty big things. And the latter was even in-bar, so this seems to be a fairly low-impact plot?

[bcgphoenix]

Just to clarify really quickly, as the mun who ran the House of Leaves plot --

The main difference between that plot and this one was that the vast majority of the action took place outside of Milliways, with a group of muns who had signed up in advance, and nothing overtly dangerous happened inside the bar itself -- one door appeared, there were a few weird noises that seemed to come from inside the walls, and that was it. (It also only lasted for one night as opposed to two weeks.) Silent Milliways was pretty much the same, as I recall: the only so-called "dangerous" element in Milliways proper was a girl who wasn't overtly attacking anyone, didn't look much different from any of the other bar patrons, etc. Meanwhile, the Armageddon Clock plot stirred up an OOC furor about as big as this one for exactly the same reason: it couldn't be ignored by those who would have preferred to ignore it.

This is why I like the idea of the KH plot (and I do! It sounds cool! I've got pups I'd love to throw in!), but would be far, far more comfortable with it if some kind of ignorability compromise could be reached beyond "don't use the lake area for two weeks."

[slidingjennifer]

Austin's been thinking for a while now that I'm actually the Trinity Universe's Princess of Heart, which is why my death marked the moment when Aberrant canon started going irrevocably to shit.

[winding_path]

I'd feel better about this if it seemed more play-around-able? Tying up the entire grounds (save the stables) makes me . . . nervous, I guess, because it seems to have the potential to be so disruptive to other players and their stories. I don't know that I would be bothered if it affected a PART of the grounds, especially if that were kept slighly vague, i.e, "in a part of the woods" or some such. But making the whole outside "dangerous" for two weeks? Phrased like that, I have to vote no.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

We will understand if you continue to choose to vote no and this is less a comment meant to be persuasive than one meant to be informative. That said.

Shadows are the weakest monster in the game. Ariel, from The Little Mermaid, takes them out by head-butting them. Even at the lowest level Sora is able to take them out quite easily. As stated here (http://community.livejournal.com/ways_back_room/3812986.html?thread=39525754#t39525754) the major benefit to having the Shadows around is that they drop munny which could be used on tabs.

[notapoodle.livejournal.com]

This has probably been answered elsewhere or no doubt in the main post somewhere but I am failing to make my brain work so.. What actually happens if someone were to come in contact with one of these Shadow Heartless? And like, what actual danger would they cause? Because after seeing the image posted up, I have to say, those things are absolutely adorable. :P

[bluespells.livejournal.com]

They eat your hearts out, dude. Literally.

(but they're oh so cute.)

[candied-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's what bothers me about this one: I don't see why this needs to be a Bar-wide plot. I like Bar-wide plots, but this one just seems to make the outside dangerous, without giving the average Millipup much to play around with.

For those pups who don't get to be one of the eight volunteers/Princesses, all this plot does is make the outside dangerous for a nice stretch of time. For pups like mine, who aren't combat-oriented, that pretty much leaves the choice of either having them ignore it and miss all of the plot that applies to them or having them go bumbling outside and get attacked, which, at least if they knew of the dangers, would be hard to make IC.

I'm not sure why this couldn't be much more restricted, in scale. Making the Heartless keep to the Labyrinth or one part of the grounds, as suggested above, sounds like a concession that wouldn't limit the plot much. Failing that, the number of Princesses and volunteers could at least be tweaked upwards, so that more than eight people could be involved in the actual meat of the plot.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

What isn't clear and will be edited into the post above is that when Shadows are discorporated they leave behind munny and items. So a character going outside would be able to gather things to help pay off their tab. Shadows are very weak - enough so that in Atlantica, in canon, Ariel headbutts them to kill them.

Canonically the Heartless are pervasive and limiting them more than bar/stable is bending canon far more than we're comfortable with. If the plot doesn't go forward then, well, that's a shame and we'd be sad about it.

As for upping the number of Princesses and Champions - It only takes 7 Princesses to open Kingdom Hearts. So a maximum of 6 could be taken at the outside. We wanted to keep a group small enough that regardless of the time zones we could still be finished in two weeks without emergency killing of half the plot because life got in the way. If IX and VIII felt up to having multiple Champions then they could say that. The main reason for the number being low is that IX has volunteered to run that section of the plot and she works 40 hours a week, every week, and has never run a plot like this before.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

Interesting ideas! I can think of a few of my pup's who will get themselves involved, whether in the main plot or in protecting outside bar I can't say at this point.

I know Ben Grimm (ever_lovin) will get himself involved somehow.

H.E.R.B.I.E. (nanny_bot) comes to mind, though I wonder if the Heartless would register on his sensors at first. That could lead to an interesting side plot of him developing technology to allow him to sense the Heartless or other things perhaps.

Artemus Gordon (wildwld_gadgets) and Capt Jane Roland (excidiumequitis) are possible pups but I do find myself wondering what trouble Loki (seid_shifter) would make from it. Of course, from your description of the Heartless, she would be a big target for them wouldn't she?

I do agree with the idea of limiting the Heartless and the Door to the Labyrinth, or the like. However, instead of keeping them there, how about as the weeks progress the situation worsens and the pups involved in the plot have a harder time keeping them contained. Still have the threat of being over run, just not right away.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

The player in charge of the Labyrinth will be explaining why it won't work herself.

As for a gradually increasing number of Shadows that could very well be done. We'll see if the plot gets to go forward.

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

I vote hell yes! (And have done in the other post, too.)

It's made me all nostalgic about the other times that Milliways has become overtly less that safe. :D Hooray for doom!

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Yay! This is the kind of comment we love to see here!

A Note on the Labyrinth

[seaweedbrain.livejournal.com]

Since I kind of answered this on a comment and it'll probably get swallowed, I'm just going to put the point here :)

Part of the way the Labyrinth works is that it is connected all the places that Milliways is connected to. The Heartless getting into the Labyrinth would, in fact, spread them FARTHER, into other people's worlds, which I'm thinking NO ONE WANTS.

The Labyrinth is a fully moddable dungeon crawl, yes, but the way it's set up makes it very very unsuitable for this plot. But I am really glad people would like to use it for stuff! People totally should!

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

Okay, so here's my thing.

I'm not a terribly active player and I'm new enough that I've never really been part of a bar-wide plot.

That being said -- to me, there is no benefit for my characters to get involved in this. I would love to see a barwide plot that could help me get more interaction and I don't see it in this. Neither of them would qualify as a princess, neither of them has the need of "munny" and neither of them is really a fighter (though Robin might try to shoot the Heartless).

In my opinion/experiences - game wide plots should have something for everyone and I don't feel like this plot does. And from a purely outsider perspective, it bothers me to see that this plot was proposed without the approval of all the players from the canon.

[bluespells.livejournal.com]

Sorry, sorry, 'scuz me, butting in. I'm good like that.

To have a plot in Milliways that involved/interested/was applicable to everyone would be IMPOSSIBLE because we have everyone from Mary to Chthulhu. It just ain't happenin'. But you don't have to participate, which is something people don't seem to be getting. Two weeks, real time, of EPing your pup in the bar rather than out by the lake. People did it during jungle time. That's all it means to you.

Outside issues are outside issues, but it's not really fair to penalize the itwith players (and, okay, yeah, this plot is hella important to me, too...) for one or two comments from the other KH muns when there are in fact circumstances that you may not be aware of.

Thank you for you input and your vote!