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thecrossingooc2025-04-12 06:56 pm
CROSSING PLANNING #2: A STORM BREWING
Here we go again! We've made it to our second Crossing event. The toll has come due, and it's time to choose.
The event log will go up a little earlier than planned, at 10AM ET on Saturday, April 19th. This is to give everyone plenty of time to thread out their Crossing trials before the next setting changeover.
Some of you have been here before. You felt it once in the Cavern, and the same feelings begin to creep up on you again, here in the Desert: first a pull, seemingly on your soul itself, drawing you towards The River; then discomforts, irritations, and pain returning to your body in ways that you might not have noticed were gone before.
This time around, though, those aren't the only portents that something is coming. There have been storms across the Desert ever since you arrived here, largely dry lightning storms that are intense but short-lived. What appears to be brewing out on the Dunes now is different: it is a wide, ominous darkening of the sky, and it's approaching fast.
As before, The Ferryman sends a call out to everyone, instructing anyone who wishes to travel with them to gather at The Lantern, by the edge of The River. As before, the charge is to follow the flow of The River: for those traveling with The Ferryman, this means walking on The River itself; for those going it alone, this means crossing the Dunes.
At the same time, almost to the moment, the storm arrives in your corner of the Desert.
It's a powerful storm, complete with lightning, high winds, and heavy rain. The loose, sandy soil of the Desert isn't built to handle this much water at once, and flash floods sweep across the sands. The salt crust of The River begins to melt, and the mud beneath becomes even more treacherous as it soaks through with more water than it's used to handling.
As before, characters will be separated into two groups from this point forward, only able to communicate via their devices — though that may be difficult, with the weather. Fortunately, it seems the water, at least, can't ruin your devices: books won't soak through, and electronics won't short-circuit.
The Ferryman said they would guide you, and there are at least a few souls here who've made the journey once before. Are you ready to make it again? Or is this your first time giving up a piece of yourself?
Here are the IC parameters for the toll, as a refresher:
from the desert to ǝɹǝɥʍǝsʅǝ
envision a place of comfort and safety
a haven from the wants and ills of life
be it for a moment or for a lifetime
offer it to The Ferryman
and let go
As before, we're leaving the interpretation of this largely open to player discretion. Here are the OOC guidelines:
- The offered memory must fit with the theme of the toll. In this case:
- There must be a physical location associated with the memory, and
- It must have generally positive emotions associated with it, like peace, safety, comfort, fun, etc.
- The memory must be offered willingly. The Ferryman will not take anything beyond the exact cost of the toll. Characters might not fully appreciate the consequences of losing this memory, which is completely fine, but nothing "extra" or "unexpected" will be taken.
- This also means that The Ferryman will not take more than what's asked for. Characters can't wipe everything out at once; stay on topic!
- Remember to update the memory bank with whatever it is you've chosen. If you can do this in advance of the log going live, it's helpful for us, but not the end of the world if you need some more time to decide!
All wraiths will be repelled from anyone under The Ferryman's protection, no matter how far they might straggle behind, and no physical harm can come to them, from any source. You should probably still try not to fall too far behind, though... Because as before, there is a trial. Paying the toll ensures your protection, but it isn't a free pass from doing the work.
Characters journeying with The Ferryman will get periodic reprieves from the storm within the locations given up to the toll, including muted versions of the emotions associated with that location such as calm, comfort, joy, etc.
Don't get too comfortable, though — the group needs to keep moving, and the spots you stop in are just mirages. If you linger too long, the mud of the melting River might start to suck you down again.
As a reminder, the chosen memory is fully lost at the conclusion of The Crossing; in other words, characters will still recognize one of the places they visit during the trial.
The rest of you will have to brave the elements... and the wraiths.
Refer back to our previous Crossing info post for more details on the wraiths during this time (which we will eventually get around to moving over into the FAQ...). As a refresher: The Crossing affects the wraiths' corporeality as much as it does the characters', and they become solid, monstrous, and very, very angry.
There's more to deal with this time around, too... As you might recall, the wraiths aren't the only creatures populating the Desert. While the wildlife does not become as single-mindedly aggressive as the wraiths do, they do become extremely agitated and panicked during the storm. And you know what they say about a cornered animal...
As before, characters traveling on their own will have the incessant pull of The Crossing to guide them, but they will not have the benefit of The Ferryman's guidance or protection.
Again, the scope of consequences here is largely up to player discretion, but a quick refresh of our OOC guidelines as guardrails:
- The longer a character has spent outside the protective bubble of The Lantern the more aggressive the wraiths will be during The Crossing.
- If a character has spent a fair amount of time outside The Lantern's bubble, some wraiths will have taken a particular liking to them; they would have followed them around for longer periods of time than other wraiths, and sought your character out again the next time they ventured beyond The Lantern's Light. These wraiths will be the most aggressive toward your character in particular during The Crossing.
- Characters traveling without The Ferryman's protection are susceptible to all types of physical harm during The Crossing, which will translate to memory loss when The Crossing is complete. You can see the FAQ for more detail on how this works, but in general losing memories this way is unwilling, uneven, and unpredictable. You are not constrained by the parameters of the toll in this case; this type of memory loss can be whatever you like.
- You can plot out how your character fares during The Crossing yourself, or if you'd prefer you can comment here & the mods will roll severity for you and give you a prompt to start with.
- As above, remember to update the memory bank with whatever losses you decide on!
Lastly, we want to welcome our newest players from the most recent app round! They can use this post to introduce themselves -- and everyone can use it to start planning for the event! Here's a form to get you started, but feel free to tweak as necessary for your particular needs.
🕱 OOC INFO 🕱
NAME / PRONOUNS:
CONTACT:
ETC?:
🕱 IC INFO 🕱
CHARACTER NAME:
CANON & CANON POINT:
FIRST TOLL:
CROSSING HOW?:
CR WISHES:
CR OFFERS:
ETC?:
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🕱 IC INFO 🕱
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Need doesn't actually think she can feel love, because she doesn't really feel grief or loss anymore.
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Grief is part of love and proportional to it! The greater the love, the more the pain, Need believes. She feels affection that may well be very strong, but when someone dies or moves on, if it's not something to get angry about she just feels a vague wistfulness. It's just as well.
...admittedly that's just part of how her author writes. Most characters part from close friends long term companions etc without a hiccup and don't try to stay in contact or miss them at all. That seems so sad and strange to me that I'm turning it into a specific character trait and the result of being a sword ghost for an absurd timespan.
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Nagito has a very weird approach to grief because he's had to deal with it so often, given one way his luck works is to kill people who get close to him for various reasons oops. He's pretty good at not externally reacting by now but internally is a different story
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this crossing will make her look rather stranger than she's come off as so far I'm sure
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Darkwind went through a lot in this book before Need got to him and she says "Oh, youngling. You’ve had more heartbreak than anyone should ever face in a lifetime, and that much I can’t Heal. But I’ll do my best for you" and some of that energy is what I want to bring with the memory - sympathy for the pain and effort, maybe a little background unrest at certain choices, and that love.
Definitely gonna have Need seem stranger lol.
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Also he's going to have no clue how to react to Sakuya and I can only imagine it turning into chaos
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lmao. Celehar is one of the more fancily-dressed characters here, maybe he knows how to tie a tie.
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They don't make mention of any in canon but I 100% have to believe that elvish society is desperately fond of the cravat. Just look at them.
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They love tea and waistcoats and elaborate braids! Surely, surely...
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