Kermie
Roses Are Red, I'm Single And Blue
- Location
- Hell (An Unfinished Google Doc)
- Pronouns
- Any
Me: I'll change my vote later!
Morrow: Now is later.
Me: Ah, shit~
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Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain
- Thread starter Morrowlark
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi Fantasy Horror
Morrow: Now is later.
Me: Ah, shit~
What did Hannah do exactly? No need to explain if it breaks the rules of the site
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I gave up on explaining for that reason, yes. And for matters of taste, frankly. All respect to grindhouse horror; I wish it all success, far away from me.
Also were the intensity of the crimes committed necessary to escape parole? Wouldn't multiple minor crimes or general disobedience have sufficied?
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Neither. Kelly and Otto know why people got Parole and haven't told out of fear and shame; those selected for Parole were those useful for maintaining the manifestation of the Panopticon, or summoning manifested officers such as Orchid saw from SWAT. It wasn't a good fate. All of Doctor Heller's problems, none of the agency; condemned to have a mouth and yet be unable to scream.
So what I'm understanding is whether or not they committed terrible things while in prison wouldn't have mattered, if they were useful they were selected for parole.
So those who still committed crimes misunderstood why people are taken for parole thinking that if they were good they would be chosen and did their crimes to escape being chosen?
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You are indeed understanding the situation correctly. The vast majority of Inmates believed that Parole was awarded for some nebulous "good behavior" and only really knew it by the screaming from Outprocessing. The Warden encouraged this belief; as he briefly expressed to Marie, he was a big believer in the utility of fear.
Thanks for explaining, I was confused why everyone was pretty ready to wipe the state clean despite all they had done.
That being said I'm worried about them since they have already shown they would betray/hurt/kill others in the prison to survive. If exile causes them to pick up banditry for survival there would be blood on our hands
- Location
- [REDACTED]
[x] Maybe the slate can be wiped clean, but it can't rest on the honour of the accused. Ask each of the accused not volunteering to die or leave for an oath not to repeat their crimes and to support their new community, but also ask the crowd for sponsors for each accused. A sponsor swears to keep an eye on their charge for a year and a day, to ensure they keep their oath and become joined with the community, and faces an equal share of punishment if they turn a blind eye to any repeated crimes. Any accused who will not swear, or for whom no sponsor can be found, are exiled.
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And called. Gotta write two fucking updates here...
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
MAN IT WOULD HELP IF I COULD CHECK THE CLOSE VOTE BUTTON HUH. I SWEAR I AM A LITERATE ADULT -
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hrm. Or I might need to go to bed, the wave of lethargy just hit me like I was shit-talking its mother.
That said, since playing coy only gets so fun, let's talk about a thing. The nebulous goal here is, essentially, to change the genre. When Salt Bay City is reasonably no longer "post-apocalyptic", Quest is over, yeah? To that end, starting in the next Arc and ongoing thereafter, we're gonna be getting Communal Effort. This works sort of like Gifts; when we see something going on with the community such as, say, a sudden vitamin C shortage, or a project to build salt works, Communal Effort can be spent to solve it instead of taking a Loss. When you work alongside members of your community, Communal Effort can be spent to draw on and evolve their skills and more-than-normal powers. There will be one pool of this, and it is shared across the entire community.
However.
The plan is to offer up an omake bounty board to generate some here early on. Details on it are to come, see: tired sleepy, but the short version is that I'll offer up some prompts and scenarios. Filling one out will generate a point of Communal Effort; additionally, if it's something I can canonize, I'll also consider it, you know, canon; a problem that's solved in the story has been solved, expertise established as in the community by the story is available, that kind of thing. Keep your eyes peeled.
That said, since playing coy only gets so fun, let's talk about a thing. The nebulous goal here is, essentially, to change the genre. When Salt Bay City is reasonably no longer "post-apocalyptic", Quest is over, yeah? To that end, starting in the next Arc and ongoing thereafter, we're gonna be getting Communal Effort. This works sort of like Gifts; when we see something going on with the community such as, say, a sudden vitamin C shortage, or a project to build salt works, Communal Effort can be spent to solve it instead of taking a Loss. When you work alongside members of your community, Communal Effort can be spent to draw on and evolve their skills and more-than-normal powers. There will be one pool of this, and it is shared across the entire community.
However.
The plan is to offer up an omake bounty board to generate some here early on. Details on it are to come, see: tired sleepy, but the short version is that I'll offer up some prompts and scenarios. Filling one out will generate a point of Communal Effort; additionally, if it's something I can canonize, I'll also consider it, you know, canon; a problem that's solved in the story has been solved, expertise established as in the community by the story is available, that kind of thing. Keep your eyes peeled.
Threshold 3: Perspectives [Orchid V]
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well. It does in fact take all night. Hall's concern over the long-term effects of whatever might be decided here finds more purchase than you were expecting, including with you yourself, and Nattie...well, after you wipe the soup out of her hair and hold her hand for a little bit, she comes around to the idea that it might be important. Maybe. Which then precipitates the great debate to follow, in which the history and divinity students do a lot of not shutting the fuck up. It takes a bit to wrangle them into line - digression, it seems, may be the curse of the academic - but after The Collective You get them off the topic of so-called 'drunk tanks' and other forms of temporary confinement and back onto task, there is a flowering of old legal concepts, religious ones, and many places where a given idea was once both.
Hall is, mind you, still fucking flabbergasted that the accused get to participate in this discussion. You are not sure why that's supposed to be weird.
But, at long last...
"Alright," you rasp; you have talked so fucking much, your throat is shot. The last time you heard anyone's voice sound like this it was something from the porn you took notes on and you are not pleased to learn that you can do this to yourself without having any of the fun the people on video were evidently having. "I think that settles matters. The three who have elected to die will face execution. I'll take care of it - you won't suffer." There is a small chorus of nods from the group of the to-be-dead. "The community will know the choice you've made, and from the sound of it...what was the word again?"
"Sky burial," Diamond supplies; her voice is a bit rough too, husky and tired. "We'll build some towers for sky burials. Internment in the earth is a no-go, feeding them to the crows we use for food is creepy, and we don't wanna use the bay for sea burials, so...sky burial. I can do the rites if they don't have another request...I was studying up to get my license as a minster in advance of...well, my denomination was going to be legalized pretty soon." She rubs her arm, insecure...
It's Prior who speaks up: "It's more priest than I deserve. Thank you, miss."
You try to clear your throat and fail spectacularly; Nattie thumps your back and helps hold you up while you very loudly die in front of fucking everyone. She takes over pretty smoothly. "As for the rest...as for the rest, Sunset and Hannah made some solid points. Grandpa spooky over there also made some solid points. So we're gonna do a bit of a trial period. First off, your oath in the name of the gods that you will not do that shit again and that you'll make all efforts to be a person around people again. Orchid and I...we were Inside too. We're not gonna get on your ass because someone snuck up on you and you punched their lights out by mistake, but the goal is to get to a point where that stops being a fuckin' concern, yeah?" There is a faint mumbled chorus of 'yeah' from the accused, who, and try not to die of shock here, have also been talking a lot. Everyone's throat is shot in this room right now. "You will also need someone who's willing to take responsibility for you. Their job is to help keep you level and to intercede or at least report if you're, y'know, being fucking evil again. If they fail, they go down with you. I understand what we argued up to get to correctly here?"
One of the divinity students raises its hand only for one of the surviving professors to sigh out, "Not you, Kells." The hand goes back down.
"Okay then," Nattie continues. "If you won't give your oath in front of the gods, or you can't secure a sponsor, you will face exile; you'll wear the wolf's head, unbound and unprotected. You'll get three days of supplies and a weapon and then you'll get the fuck out. Any questions?"
You can't groan at 'any questions' but several people are alive enough to do so for you, and there does not, indeed, appear to be any questions. Praise be to the gods.
Sunset ends up being the first to sponsor someone; it takes Hamish aside pretty quickly, and has a quiet word. You think you catch 'speaking pillow' somewhere in there. You don't know everyone else who takes up one of the accused, the prison being what it was, it was hard to really know everyone from other cell blocks, but as people get pulled aside the remainder start looking increasingly desperate.
Thomas Bright, whose voice is fine because he hasn't said a word, opens his mouth and a thin sound escapes from it. He clears his throat, openly fumbling for speech. He spent a lot of time in solitary. But, at long last, he finds the part of him that uses language, and in a bare whisper he says: "People used to tell me, I can't stop being me. You can stop being a fascist any time. I did my time." His voice cracks. "...Please."
Diamond approaches him, head tilted. Sizes the man up. "...Some of your old comrades-in-arms are threatening girls like me. Right now. Not even all that far from here, actually. It's gonna come down to shooting, Bright. You willing to let that happen?"
"...Don't leave me alone again," the man pleads. Diamond nods, just once.
And she tells you: "He's mine," and does not elaborate further.
In the end, those left without sponsors are Yasmine Lore, Jasper Sorrow (who seems unlikely to get one, given the nature of his crimes), the Vole, Kayleigh Wright, Lisa Blessings, and Ashley Wells (who also seems unlikely to get one given how sadistic her own crimes were). Velma, of all people, is approached by Sasha, decked, and then asked for her oath.
After a long moment, Nattie approaches Yasmine, and starts talking to her. She'd been telling you that she might hand Yasmine over to the Captain, simply remove the problem of trying to keep her in the same place as her victim, if Yasmine agrees. This is probably her warning the accused that the Captain is likely to just shoot her the moment something sketch goes down and asking if she's willing to work under those conditions. Officially it'd be exile, but...
...Well, but.
Choose 1
[ ] Approach [NAME HERE] and sound them out
[ ] Do not sponsor one of the remaining Inmates
Hall is, mind you, still fucking flabbergasted that the accused get to participate in this discussion. You are not sure why that's supposed to be weird.
But, at long last...
"Alright," you rasp; you have talked so fucking much, your throat is shot. The last time you heard anyone's voice sound like this it was something from the porn you took notes on and you are not pleased to learn that you can do this to yourself without having any of the fun the people on video were evidently having. "I think that settles matters. The three who have elected to die will face execution. I'll take care of it - you won't suffer." There is a small chorus of nods from the group of the to-be-dead. "The community will know the choice you've made, and from the sound of it...what was the word again?"
"Sky burial," Diamond supplies; her voice is a bit rough too, husky and tired. "We'll build some towers for sky burials. Internment in the earth is a no-go, feeding them to the crows we use for food is creepy, and we don't wanna use the bay for sea burials, so...sky burial. I can do the rites if they don't have another request...I was studying up to get my license as a minster in advance of...well, my denomination was going to be legalized pretty soon." She rubs her arm, insecure...
It's Prior who speaks up: "It's more priest than I deserve. Thank you, miss."
You try to clear your throat and fail spectacularly; Nattie thumps your back and helps hold you up while you very loudly die in front of fucking everyone. She takes over pretty smoothly. "As for the rest...as for the rest, Sunset and Hannah made some solid points. Grandpa spooky over there also made some solid points. So we're gonna do a bit of a trial period. First off, your oath in the name of the gods that you will not do that shit again and that you'll make all efforts to be a person around people again. Orchid and I...we were Inside too. We're not gonna get on your ass because someone snuck up on you and you punched their lights out by mistake, but the goal is to get to a point where that stops being a fuckin' concern, yeah?" There is a faint mumbled chorus of 'yeah' from the accused, who, and try not to die of shock here, have also been talking a lot. Everyone's throat is shot in this room right now. "You will also need someone who's willing to take responsibility for you. Their job is to help keep you level and to intercede or at least report if you're, y'know, being fucking evil again. If they fail, they go down with you. I understand what we argued up to get to correctly here?"
One of the divinity students raises its hand only for one of the surviving professors to sigh out, "Not you, Kells." The hand goes back down.
"Okay then," Nattie continues. "If you won't give your oath in front of the gods, or you can't secure a sponsor, you will face exile; you'll wear the wolf's head, unbound and unprotected. You'll get three days of supplies and a weapon and then you'll get the fuck out. Any questions?"
You can't groan at 'any questions' but several people are alive enough to do so for you, and there does not, indeed, appear to be any questions. Praise be to the gods.
Sunset ends up being the first to sponsor someone; it takes Hamish aside pretty quickly, and has a quiet word. You think you catch 'speaking pillow' somewhere in there. You don't know everyone else who takes up one of the accused, the prison being what it was, it was hard to really know everyone from other cell blocks, but as people get pulled aside the remainder start looking increasingly desperate.
Thomas Bright, whose voice is fine because he hasn't said a word, opens his mouth and a thin sound escapes from it. He clears his throat, openly fumbling for speech. He spent a lot of time in solitary. But, at long last, he finds the part of him that uses language, and in a bare whisper he says: "People used to tell me, I can't stop being me. You can stop being a fascist any time. I did my time." His voice cracks. "...Please."
Diamond approaches him, head tilted. Sizes the man up. "...Some of your old comrades-in-arms are threatening girls like me. Right now. Not even all that far from here, actually. It's gonna come down to shooting, Bright. You willing to let that happen?"
"...Don't leave me alone again," the man pleads. Diamond nods, just once.
And she tells you: "He's mine," and does not elaborate further.
In the end, those left without sponsors are Yasmine Lore, Jasper Sorrow (who seems unlikely to get one, given the nature of his crimes), the Vole, Kayleigh Wright, Lisa Blessings, and Ashley Wells (who also seems unlikely to get one given how sadistic her own crimes were). Velma, of all people, is approached by Sasha, decked, and then asked for her oath.
After a long moment, Nattie approaches Yasmine, and starts talking to her. She'd been telling you that she might hand Yasmine over to the Captain, simply remove the problem of trying to keep her in the same place as her victim, if Yasmine agrees. This is probably her warning the accused that the Captain is likely to just shoot her the moment something sketch goes down and asking if she's willing to work under those conditions. Officially it'd be exile, but...
...Well, but.
Choose 1
[ ] Approach [NAME HERE] and sound them out
[ ] Do not sponsor one of the remaining Inmates
That feel when I was like, I can wrap this here, and then we get kitten time, only to get writing and realize no we fucking can't. One last vote on this topic, party people.
Jasper Sorrow is off the table.
Jasper Sorrow is off the table.
Fortuna
Graceful Topiary Artist
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A reminder of the unsponsored, for anyone who, like me, can't quite keep all the names straight.
[x] Approach Lisa Blessings and sound her out
I feel like, given Marie's request and all Orchid's been through tonight, it can maybe appreciate how a person can come to make a decision like that.
[x] Approach Lisa Blessings and sound her out
I feel like, given Marie's request and all Orchid's been through tonight, it can maybe appreciate how a person can come to make a decision like that.
Kermie
Roses Are Red, I'm Single And Blue
- Location
- Hell (An Unfinished Google Doc)
- Pronouns
- Any
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
Just a bit longer until kitten time. Just a bit longer until kitten time.
Oh, and I loved the Jasper and Diamond section. Very intense byplay between the two, and he seems… not nice, but willing to atone. That's good enough.
Just a bit longer until kitten time. Just a bit longer until kitten time.
Oh, and I loved the Jasper and Diamond section. Very intense byplay between the two, and he seems… not nice, but willing to atone. That's good enough.
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Bright and Diamond. Jasper is definitely not that guy.
Clueless777
The Mirror is faulty: It's beaming out Light
[x] Approach Lisa Blessings and sound her out
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
I'm curious about both of them.
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
I'm curious about both of them.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Only one, my friend. My apologies.
[x] Approach Lisa Blessings and sound her out
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out
Potentially the least bad to my own mind, and it really depends on the Why and How for where I would go after talking. Marie listed her, but with just 'Cannibal' to go off, and how much Marie was suffering under? We need to know more
Potentially the least bad to my own mind, and it really depends on the Why and How for where I would go after talking. Marie listed her, but with just 'Cannibal' to go off, and how much Marie was suffering under? We need to know more
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- Pronouns
- She
[x] Approach Kayleigh Wright and sound her out