#thornewood.update

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Happy Spring!

With the return of warm weather, now’s the best time to stop and smell the roses! To encourage eligible patients outdoors, we’ve set up a flower bouquet station every Tuesday and Thursday. See you there!

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Writers: 

New Year, New(ish) Thornewood!

Please read! Necessary policy changes below!

With it being the start of the new year, we thought it’d be useful to post about a reminder about some of the rules and also instate some new ones to help Thornewood A) run more smoothly, but B) have more fun! 

Here’s our newest rule:

1. All messages regarding mod duties (approving plots, questions about policies, etc.) must be posed in a group chat with the Bee Sisters. 

Lauren and Casey talk every day, so they know what policies were discussed, but it’s easier to have it in a group chat so both sisters can weigh in. Also just helps the sisters streamline their conversations. If you don’t know how to make a group message, don’t worry! We’ll make it for you if we don’t already have one!

Along those same lines: 

2. Please discuss your activity privately with us before messaging the discord. 

This applies more to sudden absences or hiatuses, not “hey I won’t be on today!” kind of stuff. If you’re on a hiatus, please message us first before coming back. There are things we need to discuss (ie: new rules, new policies, when are you coming back? Is it in the middle of an event because then we’re gonna have to tell you to wait, etc.) before you fully integrate into the Discord once more. 

3. Meta-knowledge and God-modding (rule 10)

Your character shouldn’t know anything unless they’re explicitly told. Let’s talk about meta-knowledge first: 

Referencing former threads is very tricky. Unless a character from that thread told you what transpired between themselves and that character, you’re using meta-knowledge. Meta-knowledge sucks all the fun out of roleplaying because if your character just “guesses” about everything that’s actually happened because you’re using what you know as a writer to give your character all the info about Thornewood, there’s no secrets, no news to share, no nothing. Super not fun, you cannot do this. Warnings will be given if we see this behavior starting January 5. 

Here’s an aside about god-modding: You, as a writer, cannot control what another character does/did unless you write them. No ifs, ands, or buts. If Mod Case doesn’t describe her character, Lexus, as “brown haired” please don’t say she is. That’s god-modding. 

Here’s an example of intense god-modding from a past incident with a former member (remember that former member we go off about sometimes? They did this).

If Case didn’t write that Lex was screaming/shrieking/etc., please don’t say she did. Or, message Case and ask “hey, how would Lex respond to [character] (for instance) pushing her?” It says in our rules that god-modding is unacceptable and you’ll be kicked out if you’re caught doing it (more than once). Don’t risk it! 

Honorable mention: don’t meta-disrespect.

THIS IS WAY DIFFERENT THAN META-KNOWLEDGE!

This is by far the rudest thing to do to another writer, and while this hasn’t happened for awhile (remember that evil member who was mean to Hanna? That one, they did this, ya’ll haven’t), it’s always good to reiterate. Don’t ignore a character’s bio. If Keegan is supposed to be smart, he’s smart. If Lexus is supposed to be small, she’s small. Etc., etc. If you don’t feel they’re written that way, it’s not for you to say. You can say someone is being friendly, when they’re typically an intimidating character…but you can’t straight up go, for example, “Cameron wasn’t all that intimidating.” (IE: What the old member did.) If you’re looking to say that, you’d have a better chance wording it like, “Ellie seemed really strong.” Even though Ellie is meant to be a shyer character, you’re not stating she isn’t, you’re just saying your character is perceiving her in another way — which isn’t rude, it’s just how your character is taking her in the moment. It is, however, rude when you straight up go, “nope, they’re dumb/not intimidating/etc.” To reiterate: ya’ll have never done meta-disrespect, ever. You’d get a message immediately. We’d also cry. 

4. If you’re writing “tw: [anything]” in the tags, you need to be putting your photo/text/whatever under a read more. (rule 8)

The whole purpose of a read more is to give a member the option to not see this material. Without a read more, the person still has to experience this triggering content, which really isn’t acceptable or fair. 

To help this: Starting January 5, please don’t put a million tags when creating a read more. We need to allow people who are triggered by the content to see the trigger warning in the tags. IE: So when Mod Case (#exposed) puts AHHH AHH AHH before the trigger warning...Not that helpful. Just keep it simple: thread/chat: [name], tw: [topic]. Or, if there isn’t a trigger warning but you put a read more because you wrote a lot (like four lengthy paragraphs or more) tag it: read more: length. That’s all you need. Feel free to be silly with tags for non-triggering replies. 

5. Mandatory therapy threads (rule 9)

For awhile, many of you didn’t have a therapist so it’s totally fine if you haven’t had a therapy thread. Ever, if that’s the case. However, starting January 5, the mods are going to start encouraging you to have bi-monthly or tri-monthly therapy threads. Obviously, your character will be going to therapy much, much, more often so we don’t feel it’s fair to force you to thread every therapy session. However, to keep with the theme of a mental hospital, therapy threads must occur.

& Don’t forget to maintain a journal! (rule 9)

All patients and staff must maintain a journal. This can either be in the form of a true “dear diary...” entry, or just a tag on your blog. 

6. Reading the announcements 

Unspoken rule, obviously, but please read these announcements fully! The temptation to skim is intense, we know, but these announcements are really important for world-building, policy changes/updates and protecting our OOC community. Therefore, so we know you’ve seen them, please like the announcements upon reading them. If you forget, we won’t ask you to, so please just take this as a suggestion. 

We really hope this reminder of old policies (and the announcement of some new policies!) will help maintain this super awesome atmosphere of amazing writers! If you have any questions, please message Casey and Lauren on discord or send us a message on the main blog!

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Happy opening day!

Quick world building stuff now that we’re open: 

Roommates: As you know, green and yellow patients have roommates. We figured we’d sort out the rooming situation now. Keep in mind there are 5 patients, 3 of which are red. And two yellow patients, Markus & Remi, (no green yet, but there’s time!) And as we don’t allow males and females to room together, they will both have seperate rooms, but there are still duplicates of everything. 2 beds, 2 desks, etc. This will change next yellow application we get!

So far as therapy: Sofia Verrat is our only therapist so far. Therefore, since there are 5 patients (Cameron, Lexus, Hanabi, Remi and Markus), Laurel has graciously agreed to be the therapist for all five patients. As the amount of characters increase, the amount of therapists and patients will as well so this is subject to change. We’ll talk to both writers of the therapist and the patient before switching the patient to a different therapist (just in case you guys have a super awesome plot going with that therapist x patient dynamic). 

Remember that patients must attend therapy. How do they do that? By having a thread with their therapist! That means that Markus, Remi and Hanabi should respond to Sofia’s closed therapy starters when they are posted. Closed paras means that this thread isn’t open to staff. That doesn’t mean that the staff can’t interact with Sofia, that just means they can’t do so in that particular thread. 

The first Monday staff meeting: All staff will have a mandatory staff meeting on the first Monday of every month. The first Monday of this month is June 3rd. On that day, we’ll post an announcement for a “Thornewood Event” specifically about the staff meeting. There are three staff members: Sofia, Camille and Felicity. So, since we have the rule about “respond to 2 starters before posting one”, that’s kinda hard here, with just three people. We think that it might be easier to just have you work out between yourselves who would like to post the starter and who would rather respond than post. Soooo, Laurel (aka Sofia’s writer) and Hanna (aka Camille’s writer) should talk, Laurel and Lauren (aka Cam and Felicity’s writer) should talk and Hanna and Lauren should talk. Therefore, to accommodate for this communication, we’ll post an introduction to the event on Sunday morning and have the event begin Monday morning. We promise, once we get more staff, there won’t have to be so much fore-thought and ya’ll can just jump right in. We appreciate your patience! 

If you have any questions, please message the main! 

Enjoy writing together! 

The Bees

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Good evening, team!

So the roommate list has been created and updated, as the members come in, this will regularly be added to so make sure you’re checking back to it occasionally. The page can be found in the navigation page, under the “Plot” subsection.

Patient rooms

Green Floor Room 1- Yellow Floor Room 6- Marceau Clermont & Markus Jensen Room 7- Hanabi Pavathi & Red Floor Room 12- Lexus Hale Room 13- Re

For the time being, these are the patients’ rooms. This is subject to change as more patients are accepted into (or leave) Thornewood. Writers, please utilize this opportunity for another potential connection with other characters. This could be a good starting point for a potential plot! Roommates can be a blessing, or a curse!

Happy writing,

The Bee Sisters! 🐝

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Writers, 

We’re deeply saddened to report the death of Chadwick Boseman after unfortunately losing his battle with cancer. 

As a result, Chadwick Boseman can no longer be used as a FC in our roleplay and, as such, all blogs containing his image will be deleted. Our hearts are with his family and all his fans. 

Best,

The Bee Sisters

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Hi writers, 

Quick update: we are revoking our new starter policy and reinstating our previous starter policy. We appreciate those of you that posted starters during our “no previous replying to other starters necessary” policy, but the policy seems (woefully long winded and...) to be infective. 

Therefore, you must reply to at least two open starters prior to you posting one of your own. Please keep in mind, you should prioritize responding to an open starter before posting any starter, including a closed starter. While we thank you for remaining an open and inclusive group, we hope reinstating our former rule will lead to less pressure to post a starter of your own. It seems open starters remain daunting, and it’s our job as mods to respect your wishes. As such, the mods will post open starters at the beginning of every month and should you want to post your own, you absolutely can (and should, if the mood strikes) but it will not be a requirement. 

Please like this post as acknowledgement that you read it, and thank you for your cooperation. 

Happy writing, 

The Bee Sisters

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

Hello everyone,

After the discussion that took place in the OOC regarding trigger warnings (TWs), we have decided to use readmores and trigger warnings (specifically relating to alcohol) in the following ways:  

Mention of alcohol: No trigger warnings or readmore required.

Drinking (the act of simply drinking, not quite overindulging): TWs and readmore

Intoxication (overindulgence in alcohol): requires TWs and readmore

Please know we appreciate everybody’s feedback and value your desire to influence our policies. We’ll continue to reach out to you in the future as we continue to ensure our writers are comfortable with the portrayal of potentially triggering subject matter appearing in threads.

[thornewoodhospitalblog]

The following writers will be on a semi-hiatus until June 2:

KB (Noah Brinrose)

Please message the mods with any questions.