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Sadly, I’m currently reading that series, and haven’t finished it. About how far should I be in order to beta your mission without spoilers?

Exactly what it says on the tin. I need betas for my first mission. I'd like at least two if possible. Canon is Harry Potter.

Reply to Prompt 1), this one is set in a video game called Grim Dawn, might be bringing this character into the PPC at some point in the future, but am definitely planning to write more on her for NaNoWriMo this year.

Whispers Abound

Nova

Hey guys

Another month down, so three more prompts to have a go at. Original post (with the first lot of prompts) here and last months prompts are here if you want to have a go at either of those instead. Or if you actually want the new ones, then here they are:

1) One of your characters attracts attention

2) "So where is this going?"

3) Trial and Error.

Have fun!

Nova

Edited to add Tag.

Gaia ran his eyes over the room, then pointed to one set of chairs nestled near a little alcove. "If you don't want one of the front row seats, though those're still open, you could try over there? Or you could probably find another place if you wanted." He smiled back at her. "Thanks for coming and watching. And if you do change your mind - not sayin' you have to, or anything, just letting you know - come and talk to me and I can work you in. No pressure if you don't, though."

"I think I'll sit this one out, actually." She examined Gaia and Yavanna with a tilted head. "I don't know how well what I do would work with yours... and I don't know, I might try to do something smaller to start out with. Besides, I haven't gotten to see any performances yet. You guys will do great. She smiled. "I better find someplace quiet to watch things from- wouldn't want to steal the spotlight."

Also apologies this is so late, I kinda forgot to check the Board for a week. Oops.

Nova

"Already?" he asked, after taking a moment to process who he was talking to - how had he missed him coming in? Ah, well, things happened. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I was pretty sure we were gonna get pretty full, but I wasn't expecting people to be in a huge line or anything yet. And as for how I got the word out - I mean, you've got to have heard some of your fans talking about your thing a few days ago, right? Plus, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a lot of guys." He laughed a little at that, apparently amused at himself, which was a most un-godly thing to be.

"Oh, and we've definitely got room for you! There's, well - " he reached into a pocket for the not-quite-a-phone and began messing with it. "I mean, if all of us showed up - I'm pretty sure the one of us I haven't run into yet, the one with the bird symbol who isn't Tash, knows about it too - I've made sure nobody'll have to be left out. And it'd be great to have you, really! Pretty sure there'll be some of your fans in the crowd tonight, and it'll be good to give 'em what they're hoping for."

He let Yavanna handle the bush, figuring it probably wouldn't be a good idea to accidentally shove miracles into each other, but said when he was finished, "You know, I coulda taken care of that for you." He peered curiously at the hazelnuts and asked, "Are those something you've got up your sleeve for the show?"

Ah, thank you! I'll make sure to remember that when it's time. And so am I! I think that the more gods there are and the more ways things can explode, the more fun this will be - I'm hoping to maybe get half of us on board, but, well, life and variable attraction to different subthreads (which is not a condemnation, to be clear to any and all other people listening) is a thing. :P (I definitely wouldn't mind more than half showing up, though. Just trying to set a bar to hope.)

Yavanna strolled in from backstage, tossing a couple of what looked to be hazelnuts from one hand to another. "I don't know how you advertised this gig, but it really worked."

He flicked one of the nuts into a corner and crossed to sit on the edge of the stage beside the other two. "It's almost hard to believe," he said, looking out over the ranks of chairs. "It's only been a week, and we're expecting to fill this... give it two years, and we could-"

He cut off, grimacing, and there was a cracking noise from the direction of the abandoned hazelnut. "Well, anyway," Yavanna said. "I've got a few new ideas, so I'm really looking forward to this - assuming there's room in the program for me?"

There was another crack, and he glanced over to where a small hazel bush was industriously pushing up through the generic surface. "Ah," he said. "Oops. Let me just get that..."

Happy to go first if you don't find anyone else who wants to. And I'm really hoping some of the others show up! :)

hS

Yavanna stared at the flickering blue. "Maybe, maybe it's Suvians, or wraiths, or..." His hand drifted up to touch his crown, recalling the bastion in the Courtyard. "Or one of those other PPC... things," he finished lamely.

"I don't think it's you," Bella said, grabbing her brother's hand and squeezing. "You're Yavanna. Dad told us about you: you make things grow."

"Grow..." Yavanna reached into a pocket and produced an acorn. "There's a thought. We could fix this." He tossed the nut from hand to hand, a golden light rising in his eyes. "Ellimist - we could put it right. If something's happened to," he shied away from saying 'us', "to the PPC in the future, we could sort it out!"

That's definitely more of a Tanfin idea than a Yavanna one. Hope Ellimist is able to keep him from monkeying with the timeline!

We've got a lot of blue-themed gods... I vaguely had Lucian in mind, but no reason it can't be Ellimist!

I love the notion of the Ellimist warping HQ itself; we could even appear in such a section after the next jump. As for Jenni... yeah, lampshade it, unless Future Ellimist does something like time-looping her to just get her safely out of the way.

hS

This is just a thread to review your favorite books, movies, games, etc. You know the drill. (A robot could probably make this post and it'd like as not be better than what I could do...)

He didn't much like it, either. "Looks like there was a big fight. Or an explosion? Or both? How come it's blocked off and not fixed?" He didn't expect an answer, but he looked at Yavanna and the girls anyway, worried and annoyed that his brilliant idea of a fun trip to the future wasn't going well. "I don't get it. Everything should be, you know, amazing. When we jumped, I saw that there's a bunch like us. I thought we'd be doing really cool things, not..." He gestured down the hall and waved his hand around to include all the other weird and faintly disturbing stuff, too.

Hmm, Future Ellimist... I kinda wonder if he blocked off the dangerous section here, actually? I used "actinic blue" in reference to him before...

Apart from that, if this is a future where he goes full-on delusions of grandeur, I could see entire sections of HQ reformed to be "better." Like, why can't we have a bit that looks like Hogwarts, or the Enterprise, or anywhere with an actual sky? Heck, if all the gods are pulling similar stunts, maybe after two years the place is so mixed up and twisted it's like what happened with the Time Matrix, except with ~twelve people and a multiverse's worth of ideas in the mix instead of just three.

I'm sure it starts off with well intended efforts to do good and protect people from the others (while also being impressive). Then resentment at anyone suggesting he might be going too far creeps in, and it culminates in "I am a god, and I'll do whatever I want!"

And maybe his mother could stop him, but not without escalating things to an unacceptable level, because that needs lampshading. >.>

~Neshomeh

But as the two gods and their two hangers-on walked through the corridors, they started to notice some things that seemed... out-of-place.

Like: the hallway which looked ordinary, but felt like an ever-steeper uphill slope, until at last they had to turn back.

Like: occasional traces of fur or feathers on the ground, evidence of vicious fights between rabbits and ravens (and apparently pigeons as well) .

Like: a portal hanging open in an empty RC, its blue glow tinged with insidious black.

When they came to the broken corridor, Yavanna brought the group to a halt. Actinic blue light filled the hall from wall to wall, but through it they could see scorch marks, areas of grey that seemed bleached white, and a great twisting crack which seemed to have set the whole hallway askew.

Yavanna poked at the blue glow, hissed in surprise and snatched his hand back. "I don't like this," he said, taking his sisters' hands and holding them tight.

When I do a circle image for this, I think it will include at least one god being dead. Not sure who. :)

Have fun spotting who's been misbehaving!

I didn't put in anything from Future Ellimist, in case you had something in mind.

hS

First at Yavanna, with concern, and then at the living fortress of wood. It was amazing, incredible, exactly the sort of wondrous thing you might expect a god to do...

But it was also bad. He might not be directly tuned in to the trees like Yavanna was, but here, now, with the timeline thrumming over him, he could feel and smell how something was off, like there was an exposed wire somewhere getting hot and starting to smoke. What was that? He couldn't believe Yavanna would do anything to hurt the trees, that didn't make sense, so why was this so wrong?

Well, they wouldn't get answers standing around here, that was for sure. He put a hand on Yavanna's shoulder. "Let's get out of here. Come on, we'll go see what's happening somewhere else."

He led the little group toward the exit.

I like this being stop one of two. I figure they'll look around a bit, go "jeez, this is weird," and decide they need to see how it all turns out in the end. ^_^

~Neshomeh

Farah pulled out her phone. "Here's some photos from the concert," she said, showing Tequilla both the picture from before the performance started and a few from while the song was going on.

"I'd give you some line about how, 'Oh, you know, it's not just me performing, I want to make sure there's extra room just in case,' that sort of thing, but I've heard people talking about Yavanna's concert and I know a lot of them want more, so they'll show up to get another chance to hear him if he comes, or just for some more divine music, and they have partners and friends and everything, and I know a couple of people who know a lot of people, so yeah - I don't think there's gonna be that much trouble filling this place up." He shifted a bit, making sure he could keep an eye on the doors so he'd see when anybody else walked through them. "And if you do decide you'd like to give it a go tonight, just let me know - I've made sure we've got room for a couple of surprises without going over, and I don't think anyone's going to complain if we do, anyways. While I'm thinkin' about it, don't worry about instruments or anything like that, either - there's gotta be something you can work with in the back. I saw a piano-sorta thing made specifically for a toucan. Not just any bird, specifically a toucan. With instructions on where to find the same kind of thing for other birds. There'll be something you can use back there. Not that I want to make you, or anything, just figure I should mention, since I get where you're coming from and figure you might also be worried about add-ons."

He shifted a bit in place, and Stone could probably tell that, even though most of the excess energy had been channeled into planning and talking and building and practicing, he was positively buzzing with excitement. "The luck is appreciated - it means a lot from a god, and I bet everyone else'll like it, too. And as for watching, of course you can! I made sure to reserve enough front row seats for all of us and our partners and then some, 'cause I know some of us will probably have families who want to be here and everything. We'll all be able to be up here -" he pointed to the floor right in front of the stage, "- for any of us with really intense stuff, too. Sure, there might be a bit of bumping and stuff, but I'm gonna make sure we've got the best spots to watch from, whatever I've gotta do to make that happen."

and dipped her head in greeting, the stone on her head winking in the light. "Ambitious, are we?" she said with a grin. "I should've guessed, you seem a happy-natured sort. I'm glad of it." She smiled and stretched out on the stage, as if the spotlight were a sunbeam. "I haven't performed yet, myself... you know how it is, I'm sure. Not wanting to take someone's spot, and everything. And, well..." she trailed off. When the silence stretched on further, she closed her eyes for a moment. "But enough about me! I came to wish you luck. And to watch, if that's alright."

Timefix: August 17th

(ie, well after the gods go public, but before their really big concert.)

El-Ahrairah had suggested the DAS-SQUEE Totally-Not-A-Botany-Lab; Yavanna had countered with the Courtyard; Ananke had proposed New Caledonia. Yavanna had suggested the Tparc Pterry (lots of trees), El-Ahrairah had countered with the Parc Tolkien (no trees, lots of grass), and Ananke had shown a surprising knowledge of the New Cal city and proposed the Arboretum.

So Yavanna sat on a bench outside the glass-domed buildings, tossing an Araucaria pine-cone from hand to hand. Most passers-by gave him a wide berth, though one teenaged agent did ask for his autograph. Apart from that, he just fumed quietly to himself, waiting for the other god to arrive.

So here we are! I have no idea what Yavanna's grudge against El-Ahrairah is - the two ideas that spring to mind are the dramatic ('your dad is harassing me and you're not doing anything about it') and the ridiculous ('your rabbit ate my sapling'), but it could be anything. :) Scape, if you've got an idea, stick it in.

An idea I didn't slot into this opening is that the regular Monday market in the Parc Tolkien (it's a grassy area just off the town square) has been moved to the square, because the field has been taken over for Party in the Parc prep. I'll work it in later if an opportunity presents itself.

hS

"Stars!" he gasped. "What in the Void?"

"Tanfin?" Bella grabbed at his arm. "Um, Yavanna, I mean. What's wrong?"

Jasmine, meanwhile, was looking around with a critical eye. "Is this the future?" she asked. "It's a bit of a mess. What's that?"

Yavanna straightened up, shaking off Bella's hands, and tried to focus. "It's screaming," he said, his voice ragged. "They're screaming."

It had been woodland before their trip to the future: a small copse of copper and silver birch, the sort of place birds might nest.

Now, it was a fortress.

The trees had grown enormous, their once-slender trunks several feet wide. Their roots and boughs had woven together, forging an impenetrable wall which gleamed with near-metallic light. A single staircase, flanked by branches curled into claws, led up to a circular summit, and what could only be described as a throne of living wood, .

Yavanna reached up and touched his crown. The bastion's design was almost identical. "But it can't be," he murmured, "I wouldn't... can't you hear them screaming?"

This could be his or Gaia's work, or potentially the Raven Queen sending Yavanna a message.

D'you reckon this should be the only stop for the Magic School Bus, or should we go on to 2 years later as well? I'm happy to drop a full 'gods gone wild' future right here, but can also make it 'gods gone a bit hubris' and save the properly crazy stuff for later. :)

hS

"My first thought on anything is 'how does this affect the generators?'." Tequila shrugged one shoulder. "Or possibly 'how am I going to get sarcasm'd at for this when Cal finds out?'. Swings and roundabouts. But as long as she stays away from Tolkien's linkup, we should be fine."

She paused, frowned at Farah. "But wait - you said he?"

"Like, either that or someone with some serious power is impersonating a god. I didn't get a CAD scan or anything. He did say something about a pantheon and a recurrence, so maybe there'll be more like him."

"What's all this got to do with the generators?"

Timefix: August 7th (4 days after Yavanna's concert; 5 days after the Council of the Gods; 2 days after the beginning of Rumors)

There were a truly surprising number of auditoriums in HQ. Sure, everybody knew about the Large Auditorium, the Small Auditorium, and the Really Very Tiny Auditorium, but there had to be at least half a dozen more. Gaia wasn't sure how many people had known about the Who Do You Think You Are, Apollo? Auditorium before this, but he was pretty sure it'd be all over HQ by the time they were done with it.

He walked over the truly impressive stage again, making sure it would be able to stand up to or recover from anything the new gods could throw at it. ... Well, anything they could throw at it accidentally, anyways. They could probably break anything if they tried hard enough. He then slipped into the backstage area, which somehow managed to be even more impressive than the stage. It was so well-stocked that he wouldn't be surprised if somebody could live in the rooms back here - or several somebodies, really. And as for performance gear, well... there were at least fifty different guitars, more drum sets than he could count, enough microphones for a modern World One army, pianos, violins, flutes, tubas, and - well, he could be there for at least an hour listing off the instruments there that weren't barely-known oddities from an oft-forgotten corner of a canon maybe three people knew. And the storage room for those was so big he was surprised he hadn't found some sort of instrument dragon hiding away there. ... Though that did give him an idea for later.

Not that musical equipment was all of it, oh no - costumes of all sorts, for anything from a boyband to a Shakespearean production (though how much difference was there, really?), props and set pieces for plays, magic equipment - not that he really thought any of them would be bothering with that, but hey, someone might be into it - puppets of various sorts, and some really odd stuff - he thought he might have seen the equipment to record a movie buried in one of those rooms. Honestly, he hadn't had time really get into everything - maybe he'd ask the Ellimist to retroactively tell him before anybody else got here, or something, but he didn't think it'd be that big a deal. He had checked the quality on everything here, and was pretty sure it'd all meet the standards of the other gods. And if it didn't, well, he was pretty sure they'd find a way to whip up anything needed.

Back out to the front again, this time to survey where the audience would be. This auditorium was definitely larger than the Large Auditorium, but how much, he couldn't say. Honestly, there might only be a hundred or so extra chairs relative to that one, and he might not notice, but the large, empty space, which would probably end up serving as a dance floor tonight unless literally all the gods chose something you couldn't really dance to, between the stage and the seats meant this auditorium could probably seat at least two thousand with the extra chairs that were stored there. He grinned, imagining what would come. Some might call it hubris. Some would reply that hubris is a concept for people who aren't gods. Some would say to that that, given the fluctuating numbers of PPC employees, how could he be sure there were two thousand or more people who could even attend? Some would answer by saying that anything is possible when you believe, and are also, you know, a god. Some would question how that answered anything. Some would ignore that question and continue fantasizing about the huge numbers their concert was going to pull. They were gods, after all - by the end of tonight, this room would be packed, he was certain of it.

He pulled out his... well, phone was the closest word, and checked the clock, then nodded to himself. He'd gotten it right this time - it was just about time for the other gods to show up. He'd arranged it so they'd get at least a bit of time to themselves, hopefully, to get ready for everything, clear up any problems, make sure that everything would run smoothly, and unless some of Yavanna's audience from last time were especially eager, they'd have the run of the place for a while. ... Or, well, that, or unless someone stumbled across the giant, multicolored jade construct he'd attached to the entryway to make sure nobody missed the place. That could also happen. But really, he was sure it'd be fine - now, it was just time to wait for the rest to arrive.

So, looks like I'll give this a go! As is probably obvious but I figure I'll say it anyways, this is intended to be a performance by several of the gods - and if everyone is interested in sliding in, I'd honestly be thrilled. As it stands, I'm thinking I'll leave this for at least a day or two, to make sure everybody's gotten a chance to have their god show up and mark their place, before the show properly starts.

I'm somewhat tentatively setting the date to August 7th - I think that ought to work as a relatively early point in the month, and is early enough that it's possible that nobody else has performed yet, though I'm definitely not definitively positioning this as everyone but Yavanna's first performance, and gives it enough time after Yavanna's concert for word to have really spread, and enough time after the Council for everyone who heard about it there to have time to design their performances.

For performance order... well, I'm open to suggestions if this doesn't sound like it will work, but otherwise, I'm going to say, for at least an idea of how we'll kick things off, that I'd appreciate it if everyone could say if they'd rather perform towards the beginning, middle, or end. When things properly kick off, I'll randomly pick someone who's interested in performing towards the beginning to start us off, which will be in this section under the actual beginning. If you're willing to be in that pool, please make sure you can have a decent expectation of posting a performance within twenty-four hours of the kick-off going up. If you're pretty sure you'll be able to do that and something changes, just send me a message (preferably over Discord, though I'll try and check my email) or edit your post - I'll double-check everyone's preferences before the kick-off to make sure I've got a good idea of when everyone wants to go. Once the kick-off is up, if you've got a specific spot you'd like, feel free to message me if there's a specific slot you'd like, though that will be first-come, first-served.

As another note, if anybody has any ideas for interesting things they'd like to go down during their performances, go ahead and swing those by each other and/or me - as long as however it's done doesn't start to slow down the train, I certainly have no objections. And while I'm thinking about the substance of the performances, consider the technology sufficiently advanced enough and the magic dramatic enough that you can include whatever special effects you want, and it can easily be assumed that any preparations were done during the shifts between gods.

And speaking of the shifts! This RP is also open to anybody who isn't playing a god. There will be enough time between performances for conversations to happen and such, which for the moment I'm thinking will happen in sub-sub-threads. It's also definitely possible for the gods to wander through the crowd when they're not on stage - Gaia almost certainly will be, when he's not making sure everything's running smoothly!

Alright. That's all the notes I can think of for now, so let's see what happens from here!

He bent down to pick it up, thereby missing Kord striding around a corner, and Meridia turning into the corridor he stood in. He examined it curiously, then blinked when he heard someone speaking. That... wasn't Kord's voice. He looked up and saw what appeared to be a small child in a stance that... actually was pretty dramatic. Maybe her parents were actors? "Um... a god, basically?" he said, idly tossing the ball in the air a few times. "It's more complicated than that, but that'll work for now. Who are you? And, uh, is this yours?"

Meridia stepped around the corner after it, muttering unhappy things under her breath as she did so. She froze the moment she saw where it had ended up, her eyes slowly tracking up as she took in the figure before her. She felt something on the edge of her consciousness and frowned in Gaia's direction.

She puffed up her chest and assumed the most dramatic and formal stance she could while wearing wellingtons and a flower robe. "What are you, Sir?"

~~

Throwing a bit of divine drama into this party.

I am definitely up for that. It's kinda sorta by accident, but El-Ahrairah accidentally scummed his way into being one of the more dangerous physical combatants in the present pantheon; I'd like a chance to prove that against a deity whose tiering would conventionally be a lot higher. Generally speaking, elf goddess of the natural world >>>>>>> overconfident rabbit.