aather_ooc | THE FINAL SUMMARIZING

This post can be used as the master summary post for the larger plot that's been running in Aather between late October-November and mid-January! It includes the events of this last weekend in consumable form for those who did not need all details to participate but would like to catch up. ♥

Reading the following comments alone — or even the top portion of the comments that get a little bit lengthy — should suffice for a broad understanding to enable you to play your character being aware without being involved, though there are a lot of links throughout for reference if you want to go back in and double check details. We do encourage that if you want to do it, especially if you want to dig for extra facets to play with later when handwaving involvement — some of this stuff has been pretty cool!

ON TO THE SUMMARIES:

Foreshadowing: Day 403 (end of October)

The Start: Day 407 (Mid-Nov) through Day 413 (Dec 1)
The Prince's Struggle & Heroes' Plans: Day 415 (early Dec) to Day 420 (end of Dec)
Hope, Beauty's Return, & Preparation: Day 423 & Day 424 (early Jan)

Down the Trails: Dawn, Day 426 (Thursday Jan 15-Saturday Jan 17)
Dreaming With The Dragon: Morning, Day 426 (Saturday, Jan 17 finale)
The Dragon Who Must Be Defeated To Claim Victory: Late Morning, Day 426 (Sunday, Jan 18 finale)

The Return: Noon, Day 426 (Sunday Jan 18, end)
The Result: Afternoon, Day 426 (Monday Jan 19)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While Beauty was gone to prepare, the Prince was still active and aware, struggling to return to Aather. After the success of his first game, he tried three more times to reach out to Aather and gather power to return — but this time the Darkness was watching him, and the attempts didn't go so well. His contact with Aather only gave the Darkness one more avenue to reach Aather, like trying to open a door and letting the snowstorm outside blow in...

Waver Velvet documented much of this portion of events ICly for the benefit of heroes keeping up at the time, for which I for one thank him. Thank you Waver Velvet.
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• The Prince trying to send a letter with helpful quests to perform on it was coopted by the Darkness, and shortly afterwards, anyone who saw the letter had strange freestanding doors open near them. "Someone" behind each door cried out for help in realistic terror and desperation, but heroes who tried to go to these voices found that only Darkness, strange monsters, and bleak and twisted empty landscapes awaited them. Opening the doors for any length of time let Darkness seep out and turn anything that touched it to brittle stone, creating one quite large patch where one hero left the door open for a long time — even just destroying the doors by resisting their temptation left tiny petrified patches as evidence of their natures.

• At this point, the heroes had a community meeting to discuss the creepy doors, at which the Dog revealed their true nature as the Darkness following the Prince in. They resolved to ask for Personae help together and completed a number of quests to further protect the realm.

• This turned out to be fortunate, as the Prince's next attempt to run a game was interrupted by a tidal wave of Darkness which splashed down, infecting many areas of Aather. While the protections put into place by the heroes (especially Snow White's well-attended quest to protect her home) were sufficient to keep most areas safe, the heroes did still need to battle back many small splashes of Darkness. Fortunately, between these efforts and some games (...thanks, Goldie) in the meantime, all of the little petrified patches left over from the previous event were cleared up... except for the extra-large one.

• Whether or not it was conscious, a last attempt seemed to be the Prince's dream of his own experiences being pursued by the Darkness, which was coopted halfway through, plunging the heroes into an even more nightmarish vision of the Darkness's point of view. It became very clear that the Darkness was in fact learning by absorbing and copying the experiences of those it overcame, as had been theorized after some of the Darkness-run games back in Camelot.

• ...In light of this extremely busy week, the heroes met again to discuss next moves. The need for more information and action to gain it rather than just reaction was discussed - this time, the Dog piped in to add that if other parties wanted to head out to investigate the dark part of the Forest more at the same time that Beauty left with those who wanted to help her directly, the Darkness would be far less likely to shift attention off of her quest long enough to notice them. Plans to deal with the remaining petrified Darkness patch in the woods were also discussed, and Snow White offered her help in defending the heroes' part of Woods while (it seemed) a large number of people planned to leave it.