FINDING THE HEART

[goosemods]

FINDING THE HEART

In a final bid for help, Brother has selected a small number of students that he believes will be willing to help him one last time. Ferdinand Ayers, Calvin Evercreech, Casper Kim, Estella Morales-Tran, Antonia Papadakis, Micah St. Clair and Zachary Zheng are separated from their friends, and find themselves waking up deep underground.

RULES:

• This takes place immediately after everyone has been found safely.


• This was originally intended to be a very interactive adventure, but I simply do not have the time. However, we encourage you to play out exploring the areas below, and the mods WILL MIGHT try to give you responses as you interact with the setting and NPCs!


• To account for time and emergencies, I'm just going to describe to you exactly what happens, offer volunteer slots, and give you all the information you need for your characters going forward.


• The post-event aftermath will be posted on Thursday, July 6, because the mods are way too tired to put it together tonight. Yes, this is the longest night ever. Yes, we're all impatient to get this event over with, so thank you for your patience in sticking this out with us!

The children awake deep underground, in what is clearly an abandoned mine shaft. In their heads, they can hear Brother's voice like creaking branches. This is where the heart will be. He needs their help. He knows they want to protect their home. It burns in them, as it burns in him. Do this one last thing, and he will keep you all safe forever. Hearing something like that say forever sits heavily with you.

His final piece of advice: Remember that no one else you see down there is real.

Antonia Papadakis is the first to agree, and lights their wand to lead the party. As they proceed, they head deep, deep into the mines, facing various obstacles that we don't really need to go into detail about. Zachary Zheng finds an old miner's journal in the wreckage, the ink nearly faded to nothing, and find a readable passage that describes how the miners dug deep enough to break into some raw caves. A timeline, dated to 100 years ago, details a series of unlucky events following the discovery of the caves. They find references to miners acting strangely, and sightings of a shadowy antlered figure.

Their exploration eventually takes them into the depths of the mines, which become the raw caves the miners must have accidentally opened up long ago. Ferdinand Ayers, suffering a strange persistent headache, seems to be especially sensitive to whatever is going on here. However, they somehow find themselves able to lead the group through the caves, based on their "feelings" and "hunches." It turns out they're right.

Grabbing a rusty old shovel, Calvin Evercreech digs a huge glowing stone out of the mud and dirt of a perfectly round pond. It looks like raw moonstone, but it's warm in their hands, and pulses with magic. Holding it in their hands, Calvin gets a vision of the forest as it was—one hundred years ago, two hundred years, three hundred... It's old, older than your mind can grasp, and so is Brother. Suddenly, everyone feels the prickle of eyes on them. There's a clattering noise in the distance.

Illuminated by wands or the heart itself, a perfect replica of Micah St. Clair walks out of the darkness. Its words are mean, and it tells the children they can't take the heart because it found it first. When challenged, it turns to cruel words, mocking the children for their insecurities, using intimate details that no one else knows. It lists these grave character flaws as reasons why the children are undeserving. Undeserving of love or sympathy, and definitely undeserving of the heart.

Assume that from this point forward, everyone in the participating group more or less knows the information in the What do they consider their worst flaws? section of their petition. If you would like to opt out or obscure a detail or two, please respond down here to the OOC Opt-Out comment.

Casper Kim is the first to get ahold of themselves after having their innermost vulnerabilities laid bare, and readies an offensive spell when the thing starts to move in on them. It moves too fast, dodging the attack, and seems about to grab Casper by the throat when a dark antlered figure rises up behind the replica. It must sense the guardian's presence, because its eyes go wide and it backs away from the children. Before Brother has to confront it, it's gone.

Although all the children are staring right at Brother now, they will be hard-pressed to describe him later. Only that he was dark and proud and beautiful, and his presence promised that everything would be alright. Estella Morales-Tran, who has been holding the heart, hands it over to Brother. Their hands brush. He feels cold like fresh snow. You were brave, he says just to her, in a voice like creaking tree branches. Gratitude and relief washes over all the students, so powerful that some may shed tears.

They're not in the mines anymore, but the old ruins of a town. The sun is starting to rise, and in the distance is Brother. Following him are about a dozen children and a couple adults. Some of them look familiar, but they aren't your classmates. They look to Brother, and he holds a hand out to them, for the first time in his long, long existence. A small girl, bruised and carrying a leather satchel, accepts his hand. A white moose waits beyond them, in the trees.

And then they wake up.

» ENTRANCE: Brother has just told you what he needs you to do. Do you agree to help?

» THE MINES: The children explore the mines and uncover strange secrets.

» THE DEPTHS: They find the heart, and realize that something's been watching them.

» OOC - OPT-OUT: If for any reason you'd not like your character's dirty laundry aired to the group by some creepy monster thing, please let us know!

» OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS & CONCERNS

Comments

ENTRANCE

[goosemods]

THE MINES

[goosemods]

THE DEPTHS

[goosemods]

OOC - OPT-OUT

[goosemods]

OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

GENERAL AFTERMATH IC/OOC WILL BE POSTED THURSDAY

[goosemods]

We want to give everyone some room to breathe and process this, soooo the IC/OOC where everyone reacts, reunites, and goes home will be Thursday, 7/6. Thanks you guys! ♥

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

ok no offense meggie but i crossed out "WILL" and put in "MIGHT" because... we need to catch up on our sleep

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

I AM SO DEEPLY, DEEPLY OUT OF IT YOU GUYS

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[casperkim]

Omg this is wonderful and exciting~ These poor kids. What a day they're having. ♥

Casper for Character F? :O

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

CALLED IT i knew you'd take that one

You got it!

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[heyitsnia]

This whole event was phenomenal. I had so much fun ghosting for people and being ghosted by people and getting spoops and solving puzzles and reading everyone's AMAZING scenes. EVERYONE is SO GOOD. And Meggie and Marin holy shit this was amazing it came together so well you are both so talented and your dedication to this game and willingness to put up with all this craziness is amazing. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

And, also, um, while I'm here, let's go with Character A for Trash Bag Papadakis

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

Thank you thank you thank you!!! NPC mods like you really made this memorable, and wow do we have some wonderful, wonderful players in this game. It was all worth it ;3;

And you've got it ♥

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[casperkim]

I'm so excited that Nia and Casper get to share this horrible experience. :')

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[browbeats]

Some of my favorite scenes in this entire game came from this event and I can't handle how much I love it. Thank you moms you are the bests.

u deserve this

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[ulixes]

yeah you people are good at ideas and words and shit

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[quinning]

i can't smash words together well enough tonight to convey as much but i'd like to echo all of jenny's sentiments, this has been a phenomenal event and i'm so grateful i got to participate. thank you, m&m!!! 💜

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[quinning]

i didn't cry at the end okay

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[ferdie]

Pearl :(

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[quinning]

p. s. i'm so glad that brother exceeded expectations in like a million ways

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[ferdie]

This week has been one of the most fulfilling writing experience I have ever, ever had, and I don't know how I will ever stop saying thank you for this event.

Except to maybe request character C.
Because Ferdie needs to suffer more for his head boy position next year ♥

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[magitechnically]

I am also going to echo that I've had SO MUCH fun this week and it's been amazing and thank you for making this such a memorable year. I loved all the ghosts and the adventures and ahhhh. Just.. thank you so much for all of the hard work.

As for slots... Essie is unlikely to grab a shovel, so either of the other remaining slots are good for her. Whichever you guys think is good. ♥

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[readingrainbows]

hello darkness my old friend
it's almost 5am again
spending time with ghosts a-creeping
instead of doing things like sleeping
and the trauma
that was planted in my brain
still remains

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[insightfulness]

This is so perfect

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[orangepip]

I swear I've felt more emotions in the last ten days than I have in my entire LIFE. This whole thing has been amazing from start to finish, and I don't have the words to express how grateful and impressed I am. Thank you Meggie and Marin for putting this together and going like... WAY beyond anything I could have imagined we'd get for the endgame event. (The puzzles! The codes! alskfj you have no idea how happy those made me.) And thank you to all the NPC mods too!! All the scares have been DELIGHTFUL.

♥♥♥

Re: OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

[duelled]

ding dong hello i'm very tired and this gave me a feeling