Ouroboros Retrograde week 4 summary/week 5 plotting

[powersthatbe]

Scarstin does his best to bolster hopes and find a solution to the damage the Arcana are causing to Questing Country. Acionario begins to catch up to his future self; meanwhile, Nellarin seeks to learn more about the Arcana. Sayf stirs up a storm in Questing Country - and another back home after Shiro wakes him up. Kentrolite attempts to come to terms with the Travelers who look awfully like his former Bondmates. Asa tries to protect people from the starquake. Yuuki chooses to pin hopes of ending the starquakes on stopping the Arcana’s influence, even though he knows that to be untrue. Allura focuses on preparations for the coming fight in the waking world; the rebellion has some measure of success, but both Allura and Thae fall in battle. Lupa allows the starquake to make him a Harbinger in the hopes of learning more about it.

Wulf takes the spirit companions’ upset with Travelers as an excuse to attack people. Reiko has some concerns, but not about the Travelers, this time. Ace goes looking for answers from the cabochon. Gonzalo loses his hope, but turns his newfound immunity to the starquake into a safety net for others.

Lyall seeks to repair some of the damage done by the cabochon. Hajime takes considerable offense to the fact that the Arcana’s shenanigans hurt Ryo. Kanji and Minako identify a message behind the starquake. Helena has an unusual visitor. Sara, after the rebellion, looks to put Allura’s legacy to good use.

Matthew and Thorne seek out Fool and Judgement to ask them what the hell’s going on; it goes about as well as expected, given the Arcana involved. Death is not amused. Thorne changes Liminal Space. Kanji reports the results of his starquake chasing. Some Travelers and Dreamers seek to disrupt the Arcana’s work in the cabochon, drawing a few of them out for a more direct confrontation.

(A rough timeline of events.)

Next week: In the wake of the Diabolin slave revolt and the confrontation with the Arcana around the Cabochon, some Dreamers have been brought together by grief and determination, while others have united against a common threat. The Arcana have paused their drilling operation, but the Starquakes, which they claim are unrelated, continue.

Dreamers are invited to quest together through the psychedelic and mind-bending depths of Questing Country in search of that source, with one last chance to reconcile their differences and decide: is there something they can do to help the Travelers before the Arcana sweep them away again?

Comments

ADDITIONS

[powersthatare]

Did we miss something? Let us know here!

Re: ADDITIONS

[bigbookofd]

As of the speech Scarstin nudged him into making, Acionario has become more concerned with asking “what does Agency mean and why is it important?” then actively seizing his own, and has gone Dark Oracle with attendant class change to the Arcanist asterisk from Dark Knight.

Re: ADDITIONS

[leftbehindagain]

That is in fact the link we've already got for Acionario!

Re: ADDITIONS

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Well shut my mouth, it is. Wasn't sure what 'caught up to Nellarin' meant.

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

[powersthatare]

Re: WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

[bigbookofd]

Nellarin and Lupa know that Star, the Arcana of Hope, is dead. They also suspect that the dream-drilling is the Arcana’s attempt to resurrect her, which Nellarin would be very happy to help them find a non-destructive way of doing.

Since Nellarin’s plot power is “summon chekhov’s gun,” and he got a shovel two weeks ago, he thinks pulling it from the mantel and digging is a great idea.

Re: WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

[theflyingone]

Altair, to his disappointment, learned that Shacklebreaking a Mark only lasts a week. But during that time, he was severed from all Liminal, Psychic, and Favor skill use and influence.

The Arcana sought the "snake," the Ouroboros Retrograde, to harness its power, without Questing Country's permission. They did not anticipate the drilling would exacerbate damage also caused by another "point of tension" unknown to them.

[claudiometer]

Claudia is definitely helping chase Starmovers. Quakes. Thing.

For once, I'm at loose ends with Naoki, but I'm sure he'll get into something or other.

Shinji still Totally Doesn't Care About Any Of This.

[truerevelation]

Kanji, to no-one's surprise, is on a Starquake hunt. The guy's on a mission, here. He'll pounce anyone who gives the faintest hint of knowing anything about the situation if he hears it.

If anyone wants Kei or Kyan, too, please let me know! I'd like to give them a last hurrah for the Jaunt...

Haru has some more personal things to take care of regarding the wellbeing of her bondmates.

[loyalrebel]

Come grab Sayf, otherwise he's about 95% likely to gatecrash anyway!

[loyalrebel]

Sayf will be ""late"" to Questing Country with Starbucks burn scars and a pallet swap to his Harbinger colored clothes. (Grey vest,teal accents)

He will no longer be referring to himself as a Champion either.


He will be heading face first into the Starquakes in order to give his thanks and probably do something rather foolish but well intentioned.

He's very likely to crash a Starquake-Mover poking party.

[wholeheaded]

Hi Sayf now you have a bb Oracle following you around attempting to guide while also trying to figure his own shit out. There must be a rhythm to all this possibly.

[crouching_sin]

Ace is going to continue being around, poking his nose into whatever he finds because that's just how Ace is. It's also how Casper is, but with less of a filter. Grab him if you need/want someone to run headfirst into things.

Naoya is more of the plotty type this week. He's working with Claudia, Ringabel, and Kanji to transmit a message to whatever's causing the Starquakes with his literal tech magic. If you want in with this please discuss it with me first as it's important this thread moves along at a decent pace and I can only juggle so many people in a thread like that. Besides which, Naoya is hesitant to let people look at what he's done because it's both insane and liable to explode if someone tries to use it incorrectly, in which case he'll probably hate the person forever and attempt to get them killed repeatedly. That's just kind of how he is.

[wholeheaded]

First off: since I didn't even earn a participation trophy last mingle (everything happened so much so fast) I didn't actually get to have Sabrome go Oracle. Does anyone have a thread or notion for a thing which is not on fire which could maybe facilitate that? Something to do with Rhythm and/or taking responsibility?

...I may have just thought of something but just in case that won't work, hmu.

This week: either Starquake things or old timey Harbinger stuff. Or both.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Rubelite or Eitherbel (but probably the Dark Oracle) can sagely advise him on sagely advising?

[capital_risk]

Yukino is doing... things. Whether those things involve Reading perspectives, judicious use of Psychic Synesthesia, punching things with her Persona, or any combination of the above, I don't know. I would like her to learn Dreamcatching, if I can decide on a Dreamcatcher.

Minako I'm also not sure on, although she's got another Sift she can use this week, plus her Champion abilitie (which she probably should use at some point since I want her to keep those) and her Personas.

Reiko is... another question mark, since her primary focus all Jaunt has been figuring out the Arcana and I'm not sure what else she can do on that front. She is concerned about what the Arcana are drilling for and why, and if she can't find out anything more about the Arcana themselves or the mechanisms behind what they do, she might want to turn her attention to that.

[bigbookofd]

Nellarin can hook Reiko into the greater “what are the Arcana after” plot, because he found that out and would like the opinion of the Dreamer best informed about the Arcana.

[capital_risk]

She's not sure how helpful she'll be, but she'll try.

Altair

[theflyingone]

My only plan for Altair, (Dark) Oracle of Sight, is helping Lupa, Oracle of Will, and others track down whatever's causing the Starquakes. Of course, I went into last week with only one plan, and... well.
ETA: In general, a Harbinger could go to the source of the signal in Hamster World very quickly. Lmk if you need a difficult-to-follow "guide".

I maaay do a toplevel of a Harbinger flying slow enough to hitch a ride on. Harbingers don't really care to notice people, and Mandelbrot islands are not pedestrian-friendly.

I could also do a prompt for anyone to roll up and ask Altair, "What the hell, Cabochon?"

If you think he'd trust your character with the knowledge, he might tell them that Shacklebreaker can break Marks... for a week. Marks can be messed with. He thinks it's big news, partly For Science, and mostly because he resents the Arcana for imprisoning him.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Rubernkastel is going to be dispensing advice, probabilities, and Arcana/Cabochon infodumps, while Totally Not Canon Adversary of Shards Bern and Totally Not Canon Champion of Miracles Rika Furude show up to help or "help" people in the tower.

Sara's going to see if Gil is worthy of Sanctionfucker and failing that throw it into a lake to make it Elfscalibur, then do some experimenting with relationship-based propulsion in Hamsterspace and I'll have two possible futures - Pillar of Bliss and Oracle of Anchors - run around.

The Bels will just hang out to dispense advice (to the Adversaries in particular for Dark Oracle Acionario), Arcana details, and a eulogy for Thae, and futurebel will go to help with Starquakes where others need him.

Honestly though at this point I've hogged enough of the spotlight this jaunt and with the possible exception of Bern I intend for my dudes to be on sidekick duty for the remainder of the stay in QC. Do hit me up if you need my characters, though!