Mission: So Familiar a Gleam Ongoing

[voidtreckermods]

The next part of the missions is here. Since characters are beginning to break out of their AUs and beginning to try and solve the problem they have found themselves in here is another plotting post! The other one was pretty crowded!

Please continue to ask any questions here and if there are any shenanigans you want to run past mods in terms of investigating let us know here

Happy plotting!

Details of the environment going forward:

For those who can read energy/see through illusions, they will find borders between the different sections of the city. They will be able to gauge it looks more like this.

They will see people 'trapped' in these border parts - specifically, those walking by foot to another section of the city, or those taking air taxis. They can be taken out, but would need to be done so by people who won't be pulled into the strength of the illusion/hypnotism.

While most areas are starting to fall apart, the political/educational sector (the centre of the city) is doing better. People may be taken around there in spare buildings.

Food: It will still be around, but some people will realise - who can see through illusions - that everything has a viscous quality. Shaped to be what it's mimicking, watery if it's a drink. This will become more obvious to everyone by Day 8. It's safe to consume.

Comments

[wewillwewill]

Voidtrecker Elidibus: Elidibus will be continuing his machinations from day one. By Day 4, his face and Jinnjar-based backstory (Elidibus Pitchiner) are posted on the news as Wanted For Questioning Involving Voidtrecker Activity. Those that share his face (AU Elidibus/Elliot Stiller and Ardbert firstbump) may come under scrutiny. Sorry Ardbert. :(

Elidibus has temporary tucked himself into the body of one 'Olivia Curtis' and has been moving under this precept. Senku, Gen, Masumi, Roland Crane and Tidus will be aware of this change, feel free to handwave it. If anyone else wishes to handwave knowing Elidibus can jump into peoples' bodies for future CR/etc, let's work that out.

For those who have encountered Elidibus or might have been given a boost of information that woke them out of the illusion and got back in touch with him, Elidibus will serve as a connection to the abovementioned people (and anyone else that gets networked through him). He can also provide information from his investigations into the illusion's structure and 'attack points'. Please let me know if you have exchanged information with him! Because obviously he would be asking questions back. He will also look for people who are good at magic/analysis/think tanking to help try and analyse the spells and illusions involved.

A few salient points would come up: All the people are real and not illusionary. Congress has dangerously strong mental influence! Using 'superpowers' too much can cause you to fall back into the sway of the illusion. (Anyone's normal abilities are just fine. Probably.) If you ask about the food, he would say not to worry overmuch about it. You won't starve if you eat it and that's the important part. (Sorry guys, it's all nutri-paste after all.)

You can read more on the investigative questions and shennanigans here, here, here and here. Any further stuff will be listed in my comments to this thread.

He is going to be very keen to talk to Anan when he learns about her so will be attending a table at Moondust Cafe with one group or another (again likely with those mentioned above!)

When nightmare beasts and the world starts to crumble he will be switching from a near-purely machination/investigative stance to stepping in and aiding in fight and protection. It will be a significant change that some people might notice. Getting involved in scenes with either VT or 4th Wall Elidibus will possibly involve unavoidable spoilers from the Shadowbringers expac of FFXIV so you have been pre-warned! (Will be doing my best to keep a lid on them when jumping into other peoples' TLs though!)


AU Elidibus/Elliot Stiller: 'Elliot" is hard in the grip of the illusion. People might mistake him for VT Elidibus given their identical appearance. With the belief that the world is becoming more agressively under attack from the Voidtreckers, being recognized as one will be definitely dangerous around him. First and foremost he will be aiming to protect his family ('Albert/Ardbert' and 'Kelly/Q'uila') but he will also be doing his best to aid and protect the city at large and its populace.

Once the city starts crumbling and twisted creatures emerge, AU Elidibus will be snapped out of the illusion. Once again, pre-warning that there may be unavoidable Shadowbringers-related spoilers. (Will be doing my best to keep a lid on them when jumping into other peoples' TLs!)

[dyingpro]

Still want to meet up with your "family"? Maybe hop into Zag's body if you need a quick getaway?

[wewillwewill]

Damn skippy I have been waiting for the fam post! I know you guys are busy though so no worries!


As far as hopping into Zag's body goes, honestly his soul probably rates as 'too dense' if you know what I mean, when it comes to possession. I will speak more to you on Discord about it.

[blitzcheer]

'eyyy confirming Tidus will be down for helping! His dispel magic can help with getting people's minds right, but otherwise he's not good for smart magic talk - he learnt magic on the road and only knows dispel thanks to a cute summoner('s sphere grid he sneaked into the end of). Thanks Yuna.

Tidus's mindframe will be that they need to help get people out of being brainwashed and then try and find a way to take on the entity and getting it to stop. How?? He doesn't know!! But increasing their numbers of 'non-mind foggled people' would be helpful. Especially if they could do it over a large spread. Especially close to where the D-Force operate.

[wewillwewill]

Elidibus would be pleased to discover if things like Esuna and Dispel can help some folk out of their mind-fog. He would absolutely help Tidus find targets to approach (You are absolutely welcome to handwave this if it helps as a hook for CR!) Specifically Elidibus would be able to help pinpoint people who were wearing their SCAs at the time of the mission start. He also has the roster memorized, though he hasn't met a lot of people face to face.

Elidibus would also give Tidus a rundown of places that are 'hotspots' or high risk for falling back under the illusion's sway. (and you can safely say that the info Elidibus learns Tidus can have had explained to him). He would, however, be hesitant to encourage people to charge at the entity, though he is willing to admit that he has not had the same experiences others have.

Our friendly resident Ascian would however, be more inclined to guide Tidus toward freeing people and keeping them safe while they find a way out of the illusion, back to the train and/or a safe place for all the captive people. Who aren't illusions. Especially as things start to crumble apart.

(Elidibus will absolutely appreciate Tidus' physical backup when nightmare monsters and crumbling city days come into effect.)

[blitzcheer]

Tidus will be good with faces, and he does know a good chunk of actual passengers, so he can help with that, and possibly even knowing what they can do talents-wise!

Tidus won't immediately go after the entity and at least there doesn't have any plans, but knows they need to find a way to stop them, whoever they are. But that's better to plan when they have more people on their side.

We can do a thread either with info sharing of the sort, and/or even with other people! I would say 'Dispel' would be better for helping with the mind illusions more than Esuna btw, just from an event mod standpoint. But the stronger one's magic ability is, the better it works. (So Elidibus would have an easier time than Tidus!)

Player-side though, he would wonder if there's a way they could start getting chunks of minds unaltered again with such spells. If you'd like an actual thread for discussing ideas! I'm being a bit slow but anything important like that I will prioritise. And am happy to have others in such a thread. :)

[wewillwewill]

I agree when it comes to Esuna vs Dispel. That Elidibus might be able to unravel the illusion's effects from someone (after some study of it etc) because of his standing as a mage++ is something I have not questioned after because he's already doing a lot of things. He would have a lot of reason to leave a lot of people IN the illusion's grip more than free them. (You know how it goes. Too much mass panic from a lot of people suddenly realizing they're in an illusion etc etc). So other than efforts of studying the illusion's construction and composition, he's not actually doing a lot toward direct effort at freeing people, relatively speaking. But he would explain this too if asked why he's not.

I think I like your idea and I will start a thread in case there's others who are looking to consolidate their ideas! Elidibus might not be keen to free everyone right now but EVENTUALLY they'll need to be restored. Is it normal to make it in the OOC comm?

[blitzcheer]

Hmm, you can! Are you in the discord? You can always make a plotting comment about it and it can be linked out. If you can manage an IC way of holding a discussion too, that's an option. Both can be made due to time restraints.

ICly - and even OOCly to a degree - the question of arranging a meeting of people, or a form of discussion, is the issue. Since I know that the phones aren't trusted by everyone.

[wewillwewill]

I am there! Also for the record, you're welcome to nab my discord name from the player contact list and reach out to me if you have quick questions or such to make. Generally speaking I have this journal and discord for contact but sometimes if I'm out and about it's easier for me to respond through discord.

Since we thread a lot I figured I'd mention that! :D

[blitzcheer]

Done so! I'm set to offline but if you ever need to drop a question too, I'll get back to it when I can.

[adregem]

Roland's eager to take their current Start log thread to the next level for Ongoing and actually attempt an infiltration into the congress offices with Elidibus to find out why this part of the city is so infused with energy! o7

(Depending on how it goes down, we may need to link the thread to mods for NPC/plot confirmation & involvement if it's cool with you!)

[wewillwewill]

Elidibus has A Plan! I actually have a thing that I can rope Roland in on in the works with Mods on standby. It was one of those things where Elidibus might be more inclined to do alone but if Roland ends up hitting the right high notes, he might be brought in on it.

Nominally Elidibus is going to simply go talk to the entity. Since this would tie into investigations of the energies in Congress, I think I can wiggle in a bit of joint participation if the mod's fine with it!

[adregem]

Yessssssssssss, he's game for it! I'm all for teaming up, since Roland's main goal upon waking from the illusion was to get to the bottom of the congress building. It just so happened his amnesiac cover gave him the opening right in the nick of time. Let me know how you'd like to go about it, or feel free to connect/chat on Discord :)

[weifinder]

Tidus will have been alerting Wei Wuxian about 'Olivia Curtis' Elidibus and so he'd been keeping an eye out for getting in touch, as someone else who has been investigating the illusion-construction from the energy and emotion side of things. He'd be able to confirm the people are real from his standpoint, and that it's energy shaping everything in that literal and not "through bonds between molecules" fashion, and what the emotional tones tied into the energies are (I can nab the link later, it's one of the question threads on the OOC post I had), and how they did clearly intensify as one ended up in the "centre" of everything.

He'd be game for communication attempts too, from that angle, though a bit better informed after the meetings people are having with Anan--having one's home destroyed, searching out a new one, and ... and i have to go to work right now but ENDS ON THAT CLIFFNOTE HANGER

[wewillwewill]

Cue dramatic cliffhanger notes!

With Tidus facilitating the connection it'll be easy enough to get in contact with Elidi-Olivia. (Elidibus wouldn't go out of his way to point out that he is possessing a person but he also isn't hiding it either and it'll be easy to confirm, especially as Olivia doesn't match anyone on the train roster BUT does have an SCA. Also like, tons of people can say 'yup that's possession'.)

I'm sure there would be some basic exchange on how aether work in the FFXIV canon sense (if you need a basic rundown of this OOCly let me know) and would be pleased to exchange notes with someone who has some basic idea of how to sense/see/etc its equivalent in some interpretation.

The communication effort thread will be happening post Moonlight Cafe (Well Elidibus, Masumi, Roland visit anyway) but prior to Senku's effort to rouse an assault effort. The caveat here is that Elidibus will not be at all mentioning that this is an attempt to communicate with the entity. But looping Wei Wuxian in to a group 'investigation' team is still viable at this point. Just waiting to make sure the other two involved are kosher with the notion. But Wei's insight would certainly make him a good candidate.

Elidibus probably also remembers the man's efforts at organizing teachers who can cast illusions to help people train. He was busy with other stuff at the time and didn't comment but he did notice it! :D ...wait that was you wasn't it? I'm fairly sure it was the you-Wei Wuxian. Sorry, so many Wei!

[weifinder]

You've got the right Wuxian, yes! Also thumbsing up here though we're chatting on discord now lmf, and yeah, Wei Wuxian has mixed feelings on possession but not to a point of doing anything here about it, the circumstances are beyond... the ones he's familiar with, and also. He's the guy who was accused of possessing someone else lkasjdf recently, and ouch? No bro he did not!

I could use a brush up on FFXIV aether because my FFXIV is not in depth (stares at my one lalafell and my crippling blah with dungeons) but that can certainly be at your leisure! He'd get it either way, his likewise explanation would be about energies that everything has (not strictly spirit, but... also spirit) and if you want me to do a rundown of how Untamed's cultivation seems to shake out, lmk!