exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: exploration mingle: rescue mission!
when: June 15 - August 15
where: The River Structure
warnings: violence and/or torture; please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

captivity

One of the major and most highly-valued cultural concepts in Riverview is that of exploration, expansion. Especially now that, with the recent influx of new arrivals, as the portal kicks into high gear for reasons not entirely known, the Inhabited City, already comfortably full, is rapidly becoming overpopulated. With all the refugees from other worlds pouring in from day to day, the city's safe space and resources are being taxed to their breaking point.

Right now, exploration and expansion is key, and each month, the government has decided to focus on a particular objective, in order to unite citizens in expanding, securing, and supplying the city for everyone's benefit.

the story so far

Exploration & Expansion Progress Report ● The Guardians of the Deep ● What Lies Beneath ● Plotting & Questions

After some serious flooding at the banks of the river, the cause was discovered to be the Guardians of the Deep, creatures protecting a circular labyrinthine structure underneath the river. Residents of the city explored and mapped the structure, and dealt with a good portion of the traps and other dangers, until they found a little piece of history in the Central Chamber of the structure, revealing that it was inhabited by the first people to live on the moon.

While this news has been exciting scholars and historians in the city, something a little more pressing has been bothering the average citizen - an ever-increasing number of missing persons. People have simply been disappearing all over the city, and only now are residents starting to realize why...

how it works

● Phases: Each prompt is a different phase of the operation. Characters may partake in whichever part of the operation they choose, whether it is a large and prominent part, or a more of a backseat or support role. Characters may participate in as many phases as they wish.

● Completion: When next month's exploration mingle goes up, the mission featured on this exploration mingle will be considered complete, and game canon, providing the entry has 200+ comments on it.

● Entry Reward: The reward for completion of this month's exploration objective will be...well, the safe return of everyone who was kidnapped. And some sweet hurt/comfort.

● IMPORTANT NOTE: Having observed how the pacing of exploration mingles has been going and how they are tagged, I have noticed that posting one exploration mingle each month has been a little hectic, both plotwise and for me as a mod (writing three mingles a month has been tough!). I have decided to space them out a bit further, and post an exploration mingle once every two months, starting with this one - the next exploration mingle will be posted in August!

phase i: the abducted

People don't simply go missing, they don't disappear into thin air, they have to be somewhere. And while those who are missing people keep frantically searching, those who have been kidnapped are the only ones besides the kidnappers who do know where they are.

Abducted by a group who have taken up residence in the structure under the city after last month's exploration died down, the missing are trapped in the Central Chamber, in fear of the kidnappers. Their abductors are a group of people that is starting to slowly take on cultist tendencies, believing that the remaining spirits of the First People still live in the structure, that it is a temple, and that those First People need offerings of host bodies to inhabit so they can return and bring their wisdom and magic back to the moon. Things are getting a little hairy - there's no agreement among the kidnappers as to how 'intact' the host bodies have to be and whether or not the sacrifice is in the form of alive or dead captives. Even worse, some of the kidnappers are only with the group to enjoy having power over others and using it to hurt them.

Captives are held in the Central Chamber of the structure, with next to no amenities. Blankets, food, water, and other necessities are in short supply, and they are kept huddled together, constantly guarded and either restrained, wearing or in the presence of a power suppressor to keep them subdued. But the captives haven't lost hope - they are working on getting a message out, finding a way to contact the outside world so their loved ones can rescue them...

This prompt is to play out interactions among the captives before they are rescued, and may include violence or other character suffering. It is also to enact plotted plans for the abductees to find connections with the outside world to summon help.

phase ii: distraction and infiltration

Once would-be rescuers become aware of where the captives are being held, they start making plans to rescue them - whether someone they love has been taken, they're just a good person, or they just want to feel like a big damn hero, there are lots of people willing to take the plunge and jump into the rescue. But the cult group has been in control of the structure for a while now, they definitely have the home team advantage. They know the lay of the land and where the traps are, and have used some of them to their own advantage.

It's not going to be as easy as storming the castle.

There are two parts to this phase of the rescue: a distraction and an infiltration. Distractions are planned to draw as many of the kidnappers away from the hostages being held in the Central Chamber as possible, while those who are stealthily infiltrating will try to find another entrance into the chamber so they can surprise and surround the remaining kidnappers.

This prompt is to play out any plans for distraction and infiltration. If you have plotted something out on the plotting post, feel free to post up a header for specific groups for threading rather than an individual character top-level.

phase iii: the brawl and after

Distractions only last so long, unfortunately, and so eventually the whole thing is going to break down into a big fight. Rescuers versus kidnappers, on the kidnappers' home turf, and surrounded by traps left over from the First People, while pieces of stationary tech throw out auras and waves of power suppression. It's going to be a doozy of a fight, so prepare for an epic throwdown!

And once the dust settles, there's going to be a lot of injuries to tend to, a lot of people traumatized and hurt and frightened. A lot of hungry, suffering people will need to be transported out, given medical care, and brought supplies.

This prompt is to play out the final fight between the kidnapping cult and the rescuers, as well as anything in the aftermath of the fight.

phase iv: wildcard

Have an idea for a mission-adjacent plot, or want to make up an unexpected plot twist or problem and solve it with your character? Just write up a starter, and don't forget to give yourself props by submitting it for the Progress Report.

navigation
[Asterion - Environment Art: Ariadne's Forest by Nicolas Mendoza]

Comments

[bardish]

[ He could play casual and shrug the whole thing off, insist that, nah, even if he was scared, it was so long ago he doesn't even remember. Time, distance, maturity, and all that, making it into a distant memory. Normally, Jeff does, because if he talks about that whole ordeal at all, he'd rather downplay it. And because it's true, to a degree, that the trauma's dulled enough by now that he can go weeks, months, without being reminded of it. He's had over twenty years to work it out.

He'll never forget his near-brush with possession, but he's found a way to coexist with it. Normally. Until now. Thanks, you kidnapper assholes.

So Jeff laughs, short and without much humor. ]

Oh yeah, I was scared shitless. But I was also 21, so I tried to take care of it on my own at first. [ It was obvious well before the demon even started chit-chatting with him that something was deeply wrong. And even when that otherworldly asshole started whispering in his head, he still tried handling it on his own, thinking denial and drugs would take care of it. Because he was young and invincible, and who the fuck gets semi-possessed by a demon, anyway? ]

Eventually I went to rehab. Sort of. [ Ninety days' worth of intensive inpatient treatment with other fuckups who magicked their way into this calamity or that. ] Officially, there's no such thing as demons. Just like there's no such thing as magic or wizards or anything. Just Gifted people, using their particular Talents, and having the occasional Complication. [ The way he says those words, as if they merit particular emphasis, probably makes it clear that it's just a bunch of bullshit euphemisms. Standards-- Blanks, magically-bereft, non-Gifted, whatever you want to call them-- the people without a Gift still don't really feel all that comfortable acknowledging it for what it is: good, old fashioned witchcraft. So they dress it up in more comfortable terms.

The humor finds its way back into his voice for a moment: ] Anyway, the doctors sorted me out with a medical exorcism [ No, that's not really what it's called, but hey, if the shoe fits. ] and loads of therapy. But god... [ He sighs. ] I think it took me at least a year before I could look in a mirror without expecting to see that thing from the corner of my eye.

[ Every once in a blue moon, he still gets that feeling. It's rare now, but never gone forever. Probably gonna get worse after this shit's over. (And they will get out of this alive, he tells himself. Dying, without ever seeing his daughter again, is not an option.)

Jeff makes a bit of a face, as if finally realizing just how much he's said. ] Rambling. Sorry. I haven't talked about this with anyone in years.

[ Going off on a tangent was a nice distraction from the current predicament, but it doesn't exactly make for good conversation. He'd only even started because she mentioned Pythagorean scales and that apocalyptic song, then went way off into his own head. Back to the matter at hand: ]

What happened with that cult in your world?

[11calls]

[If there was something to be glad about given Alex's whole ordeal with the show (and honestly, at least one amazing thing had come from it) but it would be that she was for the most part an adult when things started going badly. Impulse control was always something that Alex had struggled with, even now, but the idea of trying to deal with it when she was twenty-one made her pulse run cold. Alex had reached the point in her thirties that twenty-one was still a baby, and the idea of a baby trying to deal with a full blown possession of his own made her cringe.

So, Alex reached out and she gave his arm a little squeeze, letting him know that she was there and she was listening while he went on and kept talking. No small part of Alex wanted to go into reporter mode, and she was biting her lip so that she didn't launch into a thousand questions. Not doing it went against everything that Alex was, especially when she was listening to something like this, so needless to say it didn't last anywhere near as long as she would have liked it too.]

Medical exorcism? Really? Also it's so weird to have magic be an accepted thing in your world but people aren't open to the full spectrum of it.

[Of course Alex's world was the same with what Simon called "the world beneath the world." Strand could deny it all he wanted, but there was definitely things underfoot at home, and she was expecting him more than a little to try and do the psychic thing that he'd tried with Coralee all those years ago in order to find to find Alex.

Catching her attention, with the question, Alex just sighed softly, and she leaned forward and planted her chin in the crux of her knees while she considered how to answer the question.]

We're still working on it. Kinda. Things got... Well, they got personal in a lot of ways towards the end. Well, if it is the end anyway. If nothing else the two of us ended up here instead of making the choice back home. It's... kind of a long story but my partner, he's supposed to be the one who is going to open the door to the demons, and Warren [All the dislike is in that name. All of it. She might as well have spit it.] well, he's willing to do whatever in order to make it happen. He's actually in charge of both the Order of the Ceonophus and the Cult of Tiamat. So, he recorded me in my bedroom with a demon present and then much worse... [Alex wouldn't have told him this if Jeff hadn't been so forthright with everything that he'd been through. Working on respecting Richard's privacy was something new that Alex was trying, but she was actually trying.]

My partner's father who was allegedly dead for twenty-five years who had been working for Warren all along called and told Richard that he was alive, and not only was he alive, but the wife who had faked her death and been a double agent for Warren before she'd fallen for him... [Alex gave a hopeless little smile, because she knew how it all sounded. But.] Well, both of them were being held by Warren in Geneva where the Axis Mundae had the door had been sort of moved too, I guess.

[bardish]

[ He offers a brief smile at the gesture. Comfort's not necessary for him-- the whole affair's long-past-- but it's probably nice for that boy he used to be, stupid and shortsighted though the kid was. ]

I mean, they didn't call it that. But in practice? [ He shrugs, looking a little chagrined. YEAH. A doctor-mandated exorcism. ] Magic was kind of a huge secret until, ah... my grandparents' time? [ Or his parents', technically, but they're sliiiightly too young to remember the worldwide magical coming out. Jeff makes a short, wry note of amusement. ] So we're still kinda figuring things out. Coexistence.

[ And judging by how things tend to go, historically, they'll be 'figuring things out' for decades-- centuries?-- to come.

He goes quiet, listening to Alex tell her own story of demon shenanigans. The whole part with the recording makes his skin fucking crawl, little pinpricks of discomfort going straight up his spine. ]

That's... [ THAT'S WHAT? He inhales, considering his words, then just goes with: ] So fucked, man!

[ Really, what else can you say about demons, their worshippers, and their crazy schemes? ]

That just-- God. I'm sorry. It... It didn't hurt you, did it?

[ A question on his mind, that he won't ask just yet, is: does that mean in coming here, they diverted the apocalypse? It's such an odd thing to consider, how this portal might have saved some version of Earth... ]

[11calls]

[Alex just nods along with what he's saying about figuring out how things coexist, and she hates how her brain gives her the analogy of how people have had a problem with civil rights and rights for queer people, and she wishes that people changed more quickly than they did. She also knows how a lot of people respond to magic, so she can't even imagine how bad something like the religious right might be when it came to this.

But Alex just laughs in a bitter tone when he says that it's so fucked, because it is. The whole thing, all of it is so fucked and even though Alex wouldn't go back in time and undo making those eleven calls to Strand's office, she wished that she'd prepared a little better for the clusterfuck that it turned into. Because honestly, that's what it was. So bad that the two of them were considering saying fuck it and just leaving it all behind. Well, Strand was considering it. Alex was giving him the choice to make, when he didn't have the chance to make barely any in his life. After all, she was at the center of this with him, but it wasn't because she was supposed to be or anything like that.

She just shakes her head quickly.]

No, it didn't hurt me. I mean, it's probably a warning but to do or not do what is all up for debate. I already didn't sleep so it shouldn't be a warning about doing that. I think it might have been that they were proving that they could get to me too before they sent the message from Howard about him and Coralee.