selfhelp: ([wiccan] brace yourselves.)
William "Billy" Kaplan (Wiccan) ([personal profile] selfhelp) wrote in [community profile] lucetiooc2013-09-13 05:41 pm
Entry tags:

the moment you've all been waiting for

Hey there Luceti, anyone interested in a PLAYER PLOT? There's been some buzz on Plurk for months now, and it's getting close to the time for it, so:

Luceti's House of M!



What Does that Even Mean??

HERE is a tl;dr version of the backstory, which offers a lot more details because I like to ramble. The concept of House of M itself is a Marvel thing, so for those who don't know, the short version is this:

- the Scarlet Witch is a reality bender who was possessed and went crazy for a while
- she killed a bunch of cool people and even after she was caught she was kind of off the deep end
- she remade the world so everyone she considered to be important could live their perfect lives, with her family in control of the world
- this was undone, obviously, but it was definitely a big freaking deal

What I'd like to do is recreate something similar to this in Luceti, as an open plot. Originally it was going to be closed to Billy and Teddy's CR, but hey, the more the merrier |D So it's fair game to anyone. This is absolutely optional to everyone! So if you don't want to be a part of it, you'd only have to pay attention if your CR is affected, basically.


What's Going to Happen?

The build-up has been ongoing: Billy has been gradually be using magic more and more, for no reason, experimenting with more powerful and complex magic as his confidence grows, and while his control improves, his restraint seems to be somewhat lacking. Loki’s player has already volunteered to have Loki come forward about noticing this, ie. suggesting some kind of magic intervention, but by then it’s too late.

There will be a double kidnapping- Teddy and Billy together. Some experimentation goes on. Early on, Billy's powers will be fully accessed in order to open a nexus portal and recreate the Wanda scenario, AKA possess Billy with the Life Force to see what kind of control he'd have over it, and when that fails pretty miserably (as he starts to lose his grip on reality despite Teddy's attempts to help) they decide to take it to the next level.

They fake Teddy's death to see how the magic responds.

Predictably, Billy loses it, and when he starts TRYING to trash things despite their facility's power dampeners, they send him back to Luceti to try and delegate the damage to the enclosure instead, holding on to Teddy while they observe the mess they caused. By then, however, Billy's psyche is reaching past the destruction stage and is slipping right into the "this is not acceptable" stage: the part where Teddy not being alive is an unacceptable state of existence for him. The logic of "he'll be back in a week" can't reach a mind already lost to that madness, so Billy will become fixated on a single idea:

"Teddy can't be dead."

So he recreates his "world". Not all of it, obviously, since this is a contained player plot and would be optional even to his closest CR. The idea is that anyone who wants to be involved could become a part of "Billy's Luceti", AKA a fragmented alternate reality where Luceti is a peaceful place- there is no war, no kidnappings, no experiments. It is as if everyone has been brought into a paradise, and they have no desire to live anywhere but in this perfect, beautiful world where they have everything they could ever want. Their lives can be changed to whatever degree the player wants.

And Billy? He is the quiet, not-quite-there observer of their happiness, accompanied all along by Teddy. Who is not really Teddy. He looks perfect, and he smiles, and he is basically the perfect boyfriend. But the essence of Teddy, his soul, is completely absent. He's a high-functioning doll for a mad man.

And then Teddy returns from his own kidnapping to find that Billy is crazy and that he's been replaced. When he tries to reach out and snap him out of it, Billy will lash out at him, violently against the idea of this old, imperfect, human Teddy ruining his perfect existence. This Teddy is real, which means he can die. But since Teddy can't die in Billy’s reality, then he can't be allowed to be real. Therefore he has to kill the real Teddy so he won't die. It's backwards logic, but he's insane and possessed, so who expects logic to actually work?

Billy will be stopped, obviously- killing Teddy for real would be going past the point of no return. Once this happens, the spell will wear off and everyone still affected will realize what's been going on, though not necessarily who was responsible for it. Billy will remain possessed for a while; not as violently insane anymore, but people can visit him and he’ll try to create another miniaturized “perfect” scenario for them to try and make up for shit he’s caused - for example, Teddy's mother showing up for dinner despite being dead/not in Luceti. This can go in basically any direction and will be really personalized, so it's an option for people who don't want to be altered by the spell itself but still want to experience the effects in some way. It won't affect characters personally, just the scenario around them and Billy, and it'll be very temporary.


What Can Happen in this Perfect Life?

A lot, basically. Those affected by the magic will believe that Luceti is a paradise, and they have no problem with living within it. The world within the barrier has everything they need, and there's no war, kidnappings, or experimentation. Families can be toyed with, altered, created. Whatever would make the affected character happy, chances are it can exist. They could have different personalities, different families, different histories, even powers if they wanted. Whatever their little hearts desire. For example, Cassie could be alive, and her dad could be alive, and she has Jonas or Nate or whoever hanging on her arm. Someone who desperately wants a child could find themselves with a baby. Almost literally anything they want.

These changes have to be acceptable within game rules, obviously, so I'll have an official sign-up, and people can use this post to plot what'll happen. If there's any conflicts in what's okay or not, I'll let you guys know. Additionally, characters can be involved in the same perfect life together, if they both agree to being affected in ways that mesh. For example, if Aang and Katara wanted to be together and happily married, they would both have to sign up with that reality in mind. Aang can't just believe that they're married while Katara remains unaffected and confused. The perfect world is more or less limited to those who are a part of it, and those outside the spell's influence won't be dragged in unwillingly.

These effects will be available for roughly one week; they can wear off early or last the entire time, whatever the individual players want to do. If the effects wear off early, the characters will be disoriented and confused about what happened, but otherwise free in every way. They can remember both lives or forget the alternate to whatever degree is desired.

I'll have a thread below for questions, too.


What We Need from You

At the moment we need a few things from people who want to take part in this.

1) Who's going to be involved in Billy's magic intervention, and when would be a good time for it? He'll have to do something between now and then to make it happen, mind, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

2) Who wants to find crazy!Billy and accidentally trigger the spell? (His CR is preferable for this bit, as they'll probably need to specifically mention Teddy in some way.)

3) Who wants to be affected by the House of M's changed reality? Sign-up! Discuss! Ask questions! Plot together and indulge in your perfect lives whee.

4) Who's going to take Billy out? (Natasha Romanov has been volunteered for this previously, so if she's still game for that, then we're good here!)

5) Since Wanda required Professor Xavier in order to give everyone exactly what they wanted, I have to play around a little bit more with this part. In lieu of lacking an actual telepath, Jessie has kindly offered her empath dude, Hisoka, and with that as well as Billy’s powers and his knowledge of the characters involved, we can still roll with the “whatever you want” scenario.


When is this Happening!?

Tentatively, the first week of October is when it'll start. From the 1st to the 7th would be the duration of the spell, the confrontation would be on the 8th, which would mean Billy is out of commission when I go on my hiatus. If these dates conflict with enough people, it can probably be bumped around, but that's what works best for me.


That's pretty much the gist of it! Sign-ups and questions below! If I missed anything or need to add/amend details, I'll do so.
handing: (looking to the sky)

Re: Sign-ups

[personal profile] handing 2013-09-13 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Player: Tad
Character affected: Pepper Potts
Character Canon: MCU/Iron Man 3
How has their reality been changed? First off, Extremis won't be an issue. Basically the events of Iron Man 3 will either have not happened (most likely) or have been negated (also possible).

Additionally, Pepper and Tony (to be confirmed by Bayley) will have a 5-year-old daughter. She is the entire world to her parents, and they both absolutely adores her. She's lively and precocious, every bit the scientist/princess you'd expect considering she's a Potts-Stark. She's got red hair like her mother, and big brown eyes like her father.

And there will no doubt be more details eventually.

Bonus Edit: Pepper's also going to find out she's pregnant again. :)

Anything else? Open for plotting and ideas!
Edited 2013-09-29 15:27 (UTC)
complicatedliar: (thumbs up!)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-13 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
So, yes, Loki is happy to go to Billy's nearest and dearest and let them know that he Has Concerns. Big Concerns That Require Capitalization. We just need to get together and come up with some big enough magical thing to get him worried enough to admit he can't handle it himself. Which I'm sure will involve some kind of horrific argument because they haven't had one of those in a while. 8D (Hey, at least for once it's not Billy telling Loki to pull his head out of his ass amirite?)

I'd be happy to have him set off crazy Billy as well since he's sure going to be worried about his magic bro, but I totally understand if you'd rather spread the awfulness around. (Same for the taking him out. Basically, please give me all the brain-breaking awfulness you like, I just don't want to be an awfulness hog.)

<3
cynicism: (67; mental overload)

[personal profile] cynicism 2013-09-13 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
SUP LADY okay I know we decided Hisoka was going to be the general reader-of-minds for this scenario, but I'm still a little unclear about his role once things get rolling. I'm not very familiar with OG House of M, but wasn't "WE HAVE TO FIND THE PROFESSOR" a subplot? So would Billy need to have him stay somewhere just like. Reading wishes all day? Because that's totally what's gone down in my head but I never asked you before.

THIS KID. WHERE DOES HE NEED TO BE.
complicatedliar: (giggley)

Re: Sign-ups

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-13 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Player: Katsu
Character affected: Loki
Character Canon: MCU
How has their reality been changed? Loki and Rogue will have an utterly adorable little six-month-old kid, with curly red hair and green eyes. (This is entirely Shira's fault, for the record.)

Also, Loki and Tony will no longer hate each other's faces. There may be a barbecue involved, we shall see.

I also realized that in his perfect world, Loki is King of Asgard, everyone there thinks he's awesome. So he's just on vacation in Luceti or something. Oh, and daddy loves him better than Thor. (HAHAHA) I don't expect this to really come up, but felt I should note it.

Anything else? Pleased to entertain any other plotting ideas! Particularly if anyone else who really hates Loki's face would like to have a Kumbaya moment with him that will make them cringe forever once it's done. (Since if there's no war in perfect world, Loki will have to forgo living out his fantasies of stabbing everyone he even mildly dislikes in the face.)
Edited 2013-10-01 05:08 (UTC)
stillplaying: (Default)

[personal profile] stillplaying 2013-09-13 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Kate Bishop ([personal profile] tryit) will be involved in accidentally triggering the spell. (Question #2)

If you also want her in the intervention - if it winds up being a group thing or something, I'm also down for that!
complicatedliar: (Default)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-13 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. You know what might work even better? If Billy talks to Loki about it first, Loki is like "...I don't think that's a good idea considering what happened last time, let's do some research" and then Billy is like SCREW YOUR RESEARCH GRANDDAD and goes solo. Then brags to Loki about it later perhaps?

That would sure piss Loki off, then worry him a lot. Particularly if we can say OH THERE WAS LIKE A 99% CHANCE IT COULD HAVE BLOWN UP. Or something. Maybe? Thoughts?
precipitous: (Default)

[personal profile] precipitous 2013-09-13 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
OKAY QUESTION. So what are characters going to understand as their situation being in Luceti? Is there going to be some kind of general consensus for why these characters aren't in their worlds anymore but are in this big melting pot? Oooor will they just not question how they got there/miss home because they're just so happy?
complicatedliar: (Default)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-13 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent. Let's keep thinking and see if we can come up with something worse, but that could do nicely.
cynicism: (85; empty stare / triggered)

[personal profile] cynicism 2013-09-14 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
IDK I'm really enamored by the idea of him being kept in this small windowless room that doesn't have anything in it because he shouldn't be distracted from maintaining everyone's happiness.

I don't know that we need to arrange a formal rescue. XD I mean, it's sweet and everything but he just lives downstairs. >> He'll probably be pretty seriously pissed off at Billy afterwards though. But they were never really destined to have longterm CR so..! :D
complicatedliar: (Default)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-14 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
Honestly, it would have to be something where if it failed, it would hurt Billy, I think. Because Loki is such an awful person. Or I guess if it could like blow up the whole village, that would count too since there are a couple people there Loki cares about (including Rogue).

I think the factors that would get Loki to go tell other people he thinks there is a problem would be things like:
a) Billy going behind his back to do something (because he's never done that before and that seems very uncharacteristic)

and/or

b) Billy doing something that could have potentially hurt a lot of people and then acting like it's not big deal (because Loki would find that uncharacteristic of Billy, not necessarily because Loki would give much of a shit if 95% of people in the village got hurt)

and/or

c) Billy basically saying he doesn't need Loki any more because he's way too awesome for that (mostly because Loki would be so fucking butt hurt about that it can not even be expressed in words)

...if that makes sense.

So more like changes in attitude that tell Loki that Billy is getting a bit power crazy, particularly since Loki knows his control is still not the greatest even if he's been working on it. And if he feels like Billy isn't going to listen to him any more, that would be major motivation since he doesn't want to get magically turned inside out just because Billy thought of a cool thing he could try and thinks it can't backfire.
cynicism: (57; caged)

[personal profile] cynicism 2013-09-14 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
I WASN'T EVEN TAPPING INTO TERRIBLENESS I mean I could think of something terrible if we wanted BUT REALLY I was thinking of like. You know that cell that Magneto's put in at the end of the first X-Men movie? Where everything's white and sterile and he's got this chessboard and nothing else? Like that.

White spaces are amazing shut up.
complicatedliar: (Default)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-14 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
The a+b combination would definitely get him worried enough to talk to people. I'm figuring at this point it'd probably be Teddy and Tony since they're the friends of Billy's that he knows the best.
cynicism: (38; he and i are the same)

[personal profile] cynicism 2013-09-14 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
THAT IS EXACTLY EVERYTHING I'VE HOPED FOR yes please.

also what the hell Billy why are you creating alternate dimensions that's weird.
complicatedliar: (Default)

[personal profile] complicatedliar 2013-09-14 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
LOKI IS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS BILLY. >:[ The only reason he's going to drag Tony into it is because he doesn't know Teddy all that well. He's just like I WILL DUMP THIS IN YOUR LAPS YOU FIGURE IT OUT. It will be seven million kinds of awkward, I'm sure.

And that's perfect timing. Let's do it!

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