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

As previously discussed, there were 3 separate paths the heroes could follow here, which they all started down at the same IC time! While this was happening, several heroes hung back to guard the entrances of the trails to make sure that nothing snuck up behind their friends or back into Aather. Since these runs were all at different OOC times, they are divided up by those times below in their explanation.

While the paths were very different, they all had one thing in common: disturbing remnants of familiar Personae long gone and taken by the Darkness.

The handwaved rear guard went only a very little way up any of the paths and scouted back and forth around the entrances to the trails instead, so that if the other heroes needed that way back they would have had it available. After a while, regardless of what path they followed, they started to see visions of Scary Things, demons and terrors, accompanied by a Darkness shadow of a small girl. If they successfully stood up to these visions and overcame their fear, whether through combat or just standing firm, all the visions vanished, leaving them a memory of her name and identity before the Darkness made her a statue and started using this shoddy copy of her story — the Persona, Jacobi. There was a sense that through defying the Darknessed version of her story they had each done a small piece to free her.

Here.

Once they'd stepped onto the beginning of the trail, characters chose one of three paths, with each path reflecting the Darkness-tainted symbolism of one of three Personae: Old Joe (bones and runes), Captain Hook (ticking clocks and boats), or Pandora (clay and breaking). There were also flashes of a laughing deer running ahead... when the characters found the clearing at the end of the paths, they discovered a number of retired Personae who had been taken by the darkness, resting as statues there. The list, predictably, was: Brother Deer, Old Joe, Captain Hook, Pandora, and Mother Goose, whose book had been found corrupted by darkness in the foreshadowing 3 IC weeks before. The heroes found a memory of Brother Deer's attempt to escape the darkness, and his apology for not being able to do more for the heroes, in his collar, which they were able to take with them to share the memory. They used a hope seed to destroy the Darknessed statues of the Personae and seemed to provide them with rest in another sort of form in that way.

Here.

Before splitting up on the trail, the characters saw a highly-discomfitting rip in the air appear and disappear before it could be investigated further. After this, they could choose one of three paths, with each path reflecting the Darkness-tainted symbolism of one of three Personae: Odile (feathers and jewels), Narcissus (mirrors and reflections), and Rumpelstiltskin (parchment and names). They discovered more rips in the air at the end of these paths, similar to ones that had previously appeared in Wonderland and other realms to reveal other worlds: it became clear through memories that the retired Personae were trying to escape from the Darkness chasing them through these rips, but were unable to do so because of their lack of bonds and help — and that even if they had, the rips only led to further Darkness-devastated worlds. Each group confronted and dispelled a Darkness projection of the Persona it had absorbed on their path. When they met back up at the ends of the paths, they were able to use their bonds to further dispell the pool of darkness in the clearing there and plant the hope seeds that revealed to bring some kind of peace to the Personae there.

Here.

This was Beauty's group to find the Prince, and the Dog led the whole group through some discomfiting territory littered with scraps of paper from many stories featuring Princes before the trail abruptly ran out. It had been muddled by the Darkness - and hidden underneath a Darkness statue of a retired Persona, the Netted Lion. There was some consternation at the Lion's presence before the group discovered a starving and apparently unDarknessed fragment of story in the form of a very weak mouse hidden with the statue - when they fed it a hope seed, it streaked on ahead, reestablishing their trail. It also revealed to them a memory of the Lion's self-defeating story and attempt to sell Aather out to the Darkness long ago at the end of Three's realm, with the knowledge that this attempt was unsuccessful, as it was consumed by the Darkness instead. The hope seed grew into a bush that destroyed the statue, and the Lion seemed to be left to some kind of peace.

The party continued past more ominous paper scraps and past a conflict wherein monstrous crow-things attempted to imitate their loved ones, to the crumbling gates of a garden that had once issued a challenge that only princes could pass. Once inside the garden, they found the remains of a beautiful garden with a giant dragon with marks of battle on its hide that dated back to its previous appearance attacking over the walls in the Siege of Camelot coiled around an enormous tree. After the dragon woke up, it revealed that the Prince was its prisoner.

THE FINAL SUMMARIZING

Down the Trails: Dawn, Day 426

A Scary Little Girl (handwaved rearguard run, offscreen)

Familiar But Lost (Thursday Jan 15 run)

Rips And Ruin (Friday Jan 16 run)

Villians Unlamented (Saturday Jan 17 run)