riverviewlogs | exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ A fair and reasonable point of concern. Finn can provide an answer without hesitation. ]

He's good. [ Well. ] As good as he ever is. Not hurt. Doesn't look like they've been sitting on more than one location, either.

[ He gives her another quick looking-over. Just to be safe. Everyone in one piece, that's kind of the dream, right? ]

This whole thing might actually be over with.

[ She makes a little huff of noise, agreement over John. He thinks he hides himself so well, sometimes, but hey both know him too well for that at this point. ]

Good.

[ She looks at across the cavern, and her eyes seize on the first corpse she spots.

She looks away, but there's another.

Another.

She swallows.

This wasn't a massacre. There was no wholesale slaughter. She didn't walk in here and blast anyone who stood in her way. They did the right thing.

She's seen bodies before. She's seen way more bodies before.

Chyler shifts her weapon in her arms and feels the sudden weight of it, like someone suddenly decided to hang ten pound weights from each end. ]

Good. Do we kn... [ She clears her throat. ] Do we know what our casualties are?

Still working on that.

[ It's a big organizational undertaking. A whole thing. ]

But I've got a good feeling about it.

[ About the captives and rescuers end, at least. And he believes that. And it's nice to believe that. He watches her face. The minute turns in her expression. Feels his fingers twitch. ]

Let's get some fresh air. They'll be fine without us for a few minutes.

[ She wants to say she's fine. To tell him that it isn't necessary, but the smell of this place is starting to get to her, too. All of it, suddenly, feels like too much. ]

If you need to. [ There, it's not because of her. It's not her fault, it's not pity on his part. ]

Honestly? Yeah. I think I could use it.

[ The fresh air game plan is almost entirely designed for Chyler's benefit. Finn's not above admitting it would be nice for him, too. Get out and reboot. Recenter. Especially if it makes it easier to get Chyler to go for it. ]

Come on.

[ He places a hand on her upper arm and starts heading for the nearest exit point. ]

[ Chyler also wants to tell him that the hand on her arm isn't really necessary, but she knows perfectly well by now that that's just Finn. And she's grateful for it, if she's honest. It's steadying, something to focus on other than the corpses they walk past.

What does it say about her, that this bothers her less than fireworks?

She has to close her eyes for a moment when they make it far enough for the sun to hit her face.

The air tastes clean, or cleaner than it did down there. It smells like unwashed bodies, yes, but that can't really be helped when so many of the kidnapping victims are spread around the immediate area. It smells like antiseptic and that distinct fuzzy smell of medical gauze. It's better than the smell of death. It's the smell of people being alive.

She opens her eyes, looking at the rescued. Looking at the reason they fought. That's as novel an experience as killing real sentient beings.

She clears her throat, attempting a smile and managing only the teasing edge of one. ]

We saved them.

[ He's never one to complain about people accepting, even welcoming, some of the breadth of his Extraness.

Outside is better than inside. Easier to breathe. Less claustrophobic in every sense. He has no delusions that their problems are identical, somehow directly transcribed onto each other, that they even necessarily stem from the same sources in a lot of cases. But at least this really is helpful for both of them somehow.

It's not often he gets to see both ends of an aftermath. Back home least of all. It was a habit of seeing all the destruction or all that was left coming out through it. A slaughtered village. A handful of people awkwardly wedged into corners of a ship older than most of the people on it.

Outside is better. People are better than objectives. They did some good. And he's glad to be here. He can take a second to be glad to be here. ]

We did. [ Good to take victories where you can. ] Sort of the point, right?

[ There's a revelatory thought. She's always talked about protecting people, but it's always been in the context of killing. Kill Insurrectionists, and by the very nature of the act you're protecting the people. Battle, death itself, was objectively a good thing because of the deaths it would prevent in the future.

She never thought about it from the other direction. Fight to protect, not to subdue. Fight to save, not to kill.

The world blurs, and she realizes with surprise that she's about to cry. She clears her throat, blinks, but it doesn't help. ]

[ Finn may be a person who has as of yet failed to cry since his earliest years, but he's sure not about to judge.

It's a powerful thing. He knows that much. Another one of those similarities. Getting brought up to fight, to follow orders, and maybe not genuinely having something you're fighting for at the end of the day. He met Rey and it changed. And Poe, and Rose. A lot of people, now.

As long as he's here, they're his. It means something. It's worth doing. It doesn't get the option not to be.

(Rose, he thinks, kind in some of the simplest and strangest ways he's ever known, would love Chyler. It's moments like these where he thinks of her most. Maybe he hasn't completely caught onto what she was trying to tell him, maybe he'd still rather throw himself into the fire than have to watch another person burn, and he still thinks it would be the better call.

But he thinks of her regardless.

She would absolutely love Chyler. She would probably also fit on the list of people better at these moments than he is.)

Finn slides his hands into one of hers, gives it a careful, encouraging squeeze.

Nothing wrong with being human. ]

exploration mingle: CAPTIVITY

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