When magic swarms any one location, it’s inevitable that Something will take notice.
In Soapberry Springs, magical events happen constantly and consistently, across the ranges of witch and fae magic. It’s there in daily routine but it’s also there in sporadic, important moments in the lives of the townsfolk: slowly culminating to saturate all of Soapberry in magical effluvium. And even a magical town has its saturation limits, when it comes to the forces of such eldritch power. Even Soapberry reaches a point where it can’t hold any more and it starts to ... seep.
A hefty surge in power caught Something’s attention, when the entire town got transported into an alternate reality of royalty and murder and the Sunlit Throne
And perhaps again in a moment a werewolf might’ve thought a little too hard about bringing his murdered wife back from the dead - and brought everyone’s ghosts back instead. @rydenbolt
Or the appearance of a supposedly ancient god, seeking his wayward sons. @bumblingbrujo, @lilo-el-lobo, @ianncardero
Then there was the tear in the fabric of space-time, rent by a far darrig greedy for a newborn. @cassiegermaine
Another tear in the time-space, as a witch and an atronach were plunged into world of battle. @thatwhichbindsus, @joeyvoeman
Then there’s the continued spirit happenings in a manor house recently transplanted in Soapberry from another place and time. @aedanthewitch
Or the moment necromancer magic was utilized, in search of a fated child. @faye-savin
An atronach, who brought lightening from the sky to embed into the earth @atronach-author
A witch gaining ascendancy over his demon within, with the use of fairy magic combined with a Cinquefoil artifact. @ephrampettaline, @freddiewatts
What about when a nymph was teleported from a country across the Atlantic, to land in Soapberry? @collettemackenzie
And a key that reveals another key, that reveals strange and dangerous paths. @scarlettxruby, @joeyvoeman
A fairy cop who helped a selkie dig a little too deep and search a little too far, waking something up. @thisdaringdanny, @avitejsharma
That Something tried to warn the people of Soapberry, while also pushing itself into their space. Avi Sharma triggered the awakening of the other side, because of his single-minded drive to find his brother. And when Something woke fully into its devouring single purpose, it pushed Soapberry even harder: capturing the ghosts to feed on, gaining power as it warped a fairy’s dust on a whim (@alessafalling), and leading a witch down a tunnel and into a promise of the town’s utter doom (@mayaparker).
Avi Sharma has disappeared, and SOMETHING has shown up in his stead.
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What this means for your character:
OOC information: A dark-faerie world is trying to ‘eat up’ Soapberry and blanket our Soapberry with its own dark-faerie version. Characters represent the ‘Goodness’ that balances out this dark-faerie world and can combat it to restore Soapberry to its normal self. Fairies and fae species (atronachs and nymphs) can feel the dark-faerie magic, and witches can sense the unfamiliar magic.
Like bursts of blight around Soapberry, pocket-worlds have opened up sporadically, trapping people inside a post-apocalyptic landscape! What this looks like:
These tainted pockets pop up without warning, all over town.
These worlds are populated by violent creatures hellbent on killing.
The various worlds within these pockets can fit any post-apocalyptic world you and your RP partner(s) choose. Examples: Fallout, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, The Stand, Mad Max: Fury Road, I Am Legend/The Omega Man, The 100, The Mist, The Dark Tower, The upsidedown in Stranger Things, etc.
Inside each pocket can be as vast or confined as you like (ie, an entire city, or an abandoned hospital) and time inside them can be measured however you decide (it can be a week in the pocket but only an hour in Soapberry, or it can be a direct ratio of an hour there = a Soapberry hour)
Your character will retain their life/personality as it is in Soapberry. No changes needed.
The plot will last until mid-September. That just means no new plot-related threads after mid-September. Ongoing threads can go as long as you need. Once the plot is over, Soapberry will go back to normal.
Your character's goals can be twofold:
Survival and escape! Doing anything they can to survive the threat of mindless things eager to kill and destroy them. They can escape by the pocket blipping back out of existence.
Find their ghost!* Your character may find their ghost in the hellscape before the pocket blips out of existence. Your character can then have a day or two for closure with their ghost (should they want it) before the ghost returns to whatever afterlife they came from.
* For anyone who doesn’t want to RP any post-apocalyptic threads but still wants their character to find closure with their ghost, you can have the ghost re-appear in Soapberry, now freed from the hellscape they’d been trapped in.
Post-apocalyptic plots can be played out in threads, chatzy, gdocs, etc.
The Main Chatzy will also be set up as a post-apocalyptic wasteland! The pocket-world in Chatzy is a mirrored Soapberry where the buildings/landmarks are present but are warped and corrupted, and the town is permanently blanketed in mist. It will be populated with non-humanoid killer creatures (insectoids, warped beasts, cryptids). Players who want to pop in can then easily have their characters join in on the struggle to survive!
.. Edith Crabtree
Ephram’s maternal great-grandmother, FC Ellen Burstyn
“When did you do that?”
Ephram looked down at the spindly letters beneath his thumb, spelling out E-D-I-T-H. “After you died,” he said, like it was obvious. “I missed you. I missed you so much, Granmaw. Wasn’t nobody who knows me like you do, even though I was only little.” He rubbed his other thumb over the tattoo. “I wish you was there for ... all the things I had to go through. Wouldn’t of stopped it from happening maybe, but would’ve made it easier to deal with.”
“Hmmmm.” Edith smoothed her fingers over Ephram’s tattoo, the feeling like cool air over water droplets on the skin, nothing tangible but still soothing. “You might think different, but Ephram -- you didn’t do bad. Not at all. What you done, what you accomplished?” Edith made sure he was looking at her, understanding. “Not jes anybody could of done that, baby. It wasn’t no happenstance. Ain’t nothin’ you have now that you don’t deserve to have.”
The SBSD has been alerted as to the appearances of messages spelled out in black mold in the houses of Soapberry residents.
We ask that you continue to call in to the station to leave the details as to your messages with our Civilian Administrator, Essie Caird (the contents of the note, location of its appearance, your interactions with the mold) so that we can compile the information as it comes in.
The Department is working on the cause of this mold and what it means. So far, it does not seem physically harmful, and there are indications that it may be tied in to the recent appearance of ghosts in the town. Please remain vigilant; updates will be made on our Twitter feed, @soapycops (also viewable on our website).
He had tried to clean it as best as he could, making sure that there wasn’t a single black spot on the wall that could lead to its regrowth. He also made sure that there was no pipe leakage and his house was properly ventilated so the problem wouldn’t reoccur. But each time he was sure that he had gotten rid of the mold, it reappeared after every two days.
“Oh for –” Tuah took in a deep breath and let it out through his nose, his hands on his hip and jaw’s clenched in annoyance as the mold returned in full force, seeming to grow in size. From a nuisance at the top corner of his study room, now it had covered half of the wall. “You’re very persistent, aren’t you?” he grumbled to himself, heaving another heavy sigh before moving to get the cleaning supplies.
He had to remove the built-in bookshelves in order to clean it, though he was glad that it had yet started to grow on his books. He was annoyed, of course, but there was also a sense of uneasiness settling in his chest that he couldn’t quite place. He had heard that a lot of other townfolks had encountered similar problem as well, and Tuah couldn’t help but wonder if this had something to do with the town’s magic again. Sudden mold manifestation out of nowhere? Right after the ghosts’ disappearance? Couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
Another sigh escaped him. Tuah supposed that perhaps he was a little paranoid after his meeting, albeit briefly, with Alexander’s ghostly manifestation. So much so that he was seeing the thread that was not there. Trying to connect two unrelated things together and trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Trying to rationalise the irrationals. He shook his head.
Or perhaps he’d spoken too seen when he saw the writings scrawled on the wall:
I'll see you soon, pet
Tuah swallowed and took a step back, almost dropping the cleaning supplies. Behind him, perhaps sensing his distress, Nila barked incessantly at the black mold. He ran his fingers through his hair, his curls now a mess. “You just can’t stay dead, can you?” He shook his head, panic rising inside him. “Can’t leave me alone, huh. FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE.”
Nila whined when he screamed at the wall, hiding behind the desk. Tuah ignored her, suddenly feeling so tired. Tuah turned, leaving the room, wearing whatever pair of boots his hand could reach first, then walked out.
At first, Maya doesn’t even notice the ghost. She’d woke at two in the morning for one of her now rare shifts at her old bakery. There isn’t a lot she notices at that time. It’s not until she’s inside the bakery that she notices the woman following her. She’s flipping on a light and catches the woman in her periphery. She turns. There’s something familiar, but unplaceable about the woman. “Sorry, Maya says, “We don’t open for a few more hours.”
This, for a reason Maya can’t yet fathom, makes the woman look almost impossibly sad. “Look, I like an early croissant as much as the next person, but they just aren’t ready yet. Still got to make them and all,” Maya tries to explain.
“You don’t recognize me,” the woman says. Her voice sounds familiar too. Maya frowns trying to place it.
It’s not just the years that have passed since they last saw each other. The woman looks nothing like she did that night. And even now that she has pictures, it’s still that night which is strongest in Maya’s memory. Knowing and yet fearing this fact, the woman snaps her fingers.
Maya’s jaw drops. “Mommy?” she asks, but it’s not really a question. Her voice is small, childlike again in a way it hasn’t been since that night. Her mother’s hair and clothes are matted with blood. There’s a gaping wound from a shotgun in her chest. She looks deathly pale. She’s a spitting image of the night she was murdered. Everything that Maya feels crosses her face in an instant.
Then like a light switch being flipped off, Maya shuts down. Although she isn’t consciously aware of it, her mind goes into survival mode. This part of her knows too well the sting of familial rejection. Her mother, it’s certain, like so many mothers before, and well after, her will be disappointed in who Maya is. And she can’t take that, not from her own mother.
Rosemary sees this, watches the light leave her only daughter’s eyes. She snaps again, quieter this time and returns to her relatively healthy appearance. As she does though, she wonders what happened in the seventeen years since she last saw her baby girl. This is something more than just her and Nate’s death. Plus her baby girl may not have noticed her until a few moments ago, but the scars that littered her daughter’s body hadn’t escaped Rosemary’s notice. She was righteously angry about that at first. But now she’s just sad that she couldn’t protect her baby girl from the world.
“Well, I have to get to work, so, I don’t know, do whatever you have to do.”
black mold plot message: I can still hurt you fool
Rein had noticed how some black thingie had started to grow near his piano, but he hadn’t really paid much attention to it. Not until there suddenly was text on it. The nymph stared at the black stuff on the wall, read the text several times over and the frown on his face only became deeper and deeper.
“Hurt me?” he said aloud shaking his head. “That’s the stupidest bullshit in a while.” And then he just continued his way towards the bathroom, but he stopped by the door and looked at the black mush again. “And you know, there’s a spelling mistake there. There should be comma before ‘fool’.” With that the nymph disappeared in the bathroom and in all honesty after that Rein didn’t really bother his mind with that text. He knew that even if it’d be from Jacob he’d be just bullshitting him and Rein wasn’t going to spend any extra second on thinking that idiot if it was up to him. So if Jacob wanted to go filling his whole apartment with stupid texts so be it. Rein couldn’t give a damn anymore.
As more ghosts are freed from the blighted multi-worlds and citizens are returned to Soapberry, the infection slows. The ghosts were like batteries, powering these rifts; without the ghosts, this blight had less and less power to draw from. The mould disappears completely, once the rifts stop. And the ghosts return to their original afterlife, where ever that may be. The rifts that were initially so prolific and threatened to swallow the town up, become more and more sporadic, until they finally stop altogether.
Coincidentally, on a Friday the 13th, Harvest Moon - which led to celebrations en masse for the Berryites. But of course many were still left with questions: How did this all start? Who brought the ghosts to Soapberry in the first place?
Was there anyone to blame?
If there was, they certainly weren’t coming forward. And given the hypocrisy of finger-pointing, no one rallied to the Mayoral Office or SBSD to hunt down any scapegoat. Instead, people just tried to return back to their normal lives, as if they hadn’t spent weeks trapped for survival in multiple hellscapes.
But this sort of hush can take a toll on a town, even if the hush was well-intentioned.
Life moved forward. The Blight was over.
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OOC info under the cut:
1. No rush to finish up on-going Blight threads! Take as much time as needed. No new rift-related threads should be created, please and thanks!
2. Some characters came away feeling uneasy about how the blight-rifts simply just slowed and disappeared, which is a great outcome. Some endings aren’t with a bang, but with a fade; and there could be a psychological dissatisfaction that comes with an almost anti-climactic end.
If Players want to explore that in-character, please do! What we love about Soapberry is that no plot is ever really ‘over’ for good. There will always be straggling, messy tendrils and threads that loop future ideas and plots together. It’s a beautiful continuity that creates further drama and angst for our characters - and what’s better than drama and angst?
A constant state of happiness? HA! PSH!
Regardless, we’re all creative people, so the Mods encourage Players who want to harvest the faded remains of this Blight plot and upcycle it into something interesting and useful for their characters further development. As always, if you need clarification on anything, message or ask the Main.
There will be no more new game plots in Soapberry for the rest of this year.
There will be events! Focused around upcoming American-date holidays, these will be celebratory and/or fun gathering-style events.
There’s a September Harvest Moon over Soapberry Springs on Friday the 13th! As the town recovers from the horror-multiworlds, this disturbing debacle ends on one of the year’s most fated - and often favoured - day.
No better way for Berryites to bid farewell to the weird rifts than a huge random get-together on Friday the 13th. No one knows who started it, but the Town Square comes alive in the spirit of gathering: by partying, or chilling in intimate groups, or whatever people want to do. A great public release after a collectively harrowing summer.
Creepy, kooky, sometimes a little spooky - but definitely a whole lot of fun for all supernatural species! The Town Chatzy will be available on Friday Sept 13th, for anyone looking to have some Freaky Friday Funtimes.
NOTE: This is not a plot or event, merely a optional opportunity to monopolize a Friday 13th for our wonderful dumb babies.
