paradisaooc | PARADISA FAMILY REUNION

PARADISA FAMILY REUNION
Running Monday (7/23/12) - Friday (7/27/12)
Starting after midnight on Sunday the 22nd, ending midnight the 27th

What's this about?

We look at Paradisa's residents like one big, happy family sometimes. Maybe the castle does too, because for five days this summer, the residents are really going to be behaving like a family – they'll believe they really are related, and are all part of a huge, far-flung extended family meeting at Blind Buffalo Lake for five days of barbecues, horseback riding, canoeing, swimming, small town life, and family fun!

(There are some really wealthy people in this family, okay).

This post will also be used as a plotting post where you can decide on your characters' families, or put them up to be randomized for family assignment. Keep in mind that nontraditional family composition is just fine! Given the character composition of Paradisa, it might even be necessary. Maybe your character is in a family with two daddies or mommies, and a bunch of adopted kids! Maybe your character is in a family with an adopted dad or mom! Maybe your character is part of a family where one adult has taken in some younger kids or teenagers to facilitate them becoming well-adjusted young adults, and the connection to this huge extended family is to that one grown up. Think Cross the harried single dad or Reno collecting foster children, things like that.

What about nonhuman characters?

A few choices! Nonhumans can be humanized like usual if you wish. Or, if your character is HUMANOID already, you may leave them as they are and they will simply be “exchange students.” Attending the family reunion. Because they are now part of the family! Characters may also live in the woods, or in the case of equines, in the stables (sorry to any of those who end up there!). It's up to you whether they retain sentience and memories there, or not.

What about characters who are immortal or way older than they look?

We're kind of AU-ing it up for this plot, so: you are as old as you look! That said, immortal characters are allowed to be child prodigies who have done a ridiculous amount of amazing things even in their short lives already.

What about powered characters?

No powers for this plot. Sorry!

What about weird pets?

Normalify them! Pokémon will be changed into real-world analogues for the duration of this plot if possible - for instance, Rin's Arcanine Tadaharu will just be a regular dog. Korra's Polarbear-dog Naga could be a toy poodle. Or your could become other objects the characters' possession, like phone charms, figurines, and so on. It's also possible they just disappear for the duration of the plot and reunite with their owners upon termination of plot.

What about opt outs?

This plot is meant to be played more humorous than for angst, so! Opt outs are as follows: you may leave your character with their Paradisa memories, and knowledge that all of the people around them are living in a magical castle together and aren't related at all!!! for the most part. These characters will wake up as people working in town or as resort employees! Think stable assistants, people who'll lead riding tours, receptionists at check in / check out, maids and servers, baristas, canoe guides... be creative! The characters whose memories have been adjusted will be expecting them to do their jobs and you're free to do open posts with them, or whatever you like, using their place of employment as a springboard. Of course other characters can use these locations too, but there can still be stuff for you to do.

Otherwise, if you'd rather opt out of the plot entirely, characters can spend the week on a five-day Galapagos cruise. Hope you like marine iguanas! (If a group chooses to go this route, I'll leave it up to them if they'd like to do open posts on the Galapagos cruise boat or not.)

What about the journals?

Wow, it seems this world is quite technologically advanced! EVERYBODY in this world (or almost everybody) uses the iJournal, developed by Paratech Industries and easy and accessible for everybody to use. It's not an uncommon sight to see a person talking into a journal at all!

That said, it seems like most of the people in this town aren't using the same network provider as our characters, so they can't talk on the journal with each other. Paratech Industries and its affiliates get really particular sometimes. However, there are a few townspeople who use the same provider. However however, they are all unfortunately a little off the wall and think the dear family is from some magical castle called Paradisa and none of them are related at all... rude!

What is there to do?

Posts to tag into will be going up each day throughout the plot. Other than that, there are some things to do around the resort itself and locations that can be used.

Ice cream & Coffee Shoppe - think: Reference 1, Reference 2.
Old-style diner - Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3
Local Grocery - Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3.
Various antique stores, a used bookstore, and other low-key shops within walking distance of the resort - Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3 whatever you want! Keep it small-towny.

Resort cabins - Where your characters will be living for the duration of the plot! They're a little rustic and not huge. The only thing they're big on is the CHARM! (There's only like two double beds for cabin. Have fun fighting out sleeping arrangements, and hope you brought sleeping bags). Think: Ref 1, Ref 2, Ref 3. They all include: a bathroom, two bedrooms, and a small kitchen area/sitting room with a couch.

Canoeing, Swimming and Paddleboating are available at the resort itself. There's a rope swing around the lake somewhere, go canoing to find it! There might even be old abandoned buildings set back from the shore, cabins where somebody homesteaded, or old treehouses... feel free to make up interesting stuff to find.
Horseback riding - this place is that fancy! There apparently is a stable affiliated with the resort, which keeps some horses for guests to use. Their temperament varies.
Trekking through the forest/around the lake - the landscape is lovely. Watch out for ticks in the long grass! But if you get lucky, you might see some deer.

Finalized Family Relations - once you know what your character is doing for their family, let me know here. Last minute edits are of course a-okay! However, planning should go in the bulk of the post.
Questions
Suggest me - if you need inspiration, but don't want to randomize your character's family.
Randomize my family! - comment here if you'd rather be assigned to a random group of characters to family with!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Regarding opt-outs: I'll be opting Zack out from the plot entirely because my family vacation starts before it and ends after it, so I won't be around. The plan had been to Dead Zone him for the week-and-change; is that going to translate to the cruise mentioned above? Otherwise I'll just figure something else out to explain his absence.

During world changes, characters generally seem to be pulled back into the castle grounds! So, yeah, he'll be on the cruise, though I don't see why you couldn't do something else if you wanted.

Yeah, I won't be around at all so it's mostly needing to know afterward what to say he was doing. I'll see who's working what and go from there, but thank you for the answer. :3

♥ I don't want to be a stickler, whatever you prefer/are comfortable with doing, in short. Have a good time on your trip!

Is it possible to put the plot dates into this post? I know it's in the calendar, but having to dig it up to find out when it is running might not come to mind for everyone.

That way also if this is a 11:59:59PM Sunday start to an 11:59:59PM Friday end or if it's starting at different times we could make sure we're all on the same page.

Oh jeez!!! You're absolutely right, I'll get right on that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Arya's direwolf. Just to be clear, can I make her a normal wolf or would I have to change her into a dog?

Compromise with a wolf-dog hybrid, maybe? Or an especially large and wolfish dog?

I can do hybrid. :>

eeeeeeeeeexcellent, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeexcellent.

re: the journals

Characters on the cruise are they cut off completely from the people at the reunion/retreat or do they get to eavesdrop, tell them they are crazy if only they were there, etc. etc?

Characters on the cruise will be cut off for the duration from the people at the reunion/retreat just to minimize confusion in this aspect of the plot, haha

I understand wanting to maintain the illusion of the family, but a lot of characters that chose the cruise did that so that they would not be upset by the insane families and forgetting of their old CR.

Also, people who are staying in the retreat (I have two) but are not losing their castle memories will still be able to poke at the residents via action.

Is there a way that people on the cruise can be given a manifest of the residents at the "island" or some way for them to be aware that those people are safe? It's hard to enjoy a cruise when you are worried that 3/4 of the castle is missing. Even if the journal is just one-way so that people on the cruise can hear what is going on, that would be something to assure people on the cruise that it's just a castle thing and they are lucky that they haven't been tangled up into all of that.

A suggestion that was just made is that the people on the cruise will be able to "Tune Into" the rebroadcast of the Reunion, like a televised soap opera type show.

That way people can know they are safe and also see how lucky they are to be on the cruise. It's also a good way for people who don't want to know what's going on to actually just "miss out" on the broadcasted episodes.

We could even have an ooc post where people could sum up what happened on their "Day 1" and then Day 1 would broadcast on Day 2 for the cruise people, Day 2 of Retreat would broadcast on Day 3 and then by the end of it, Day 5 of the retreat could air in the castle so that all the people on the plot could see what the rest of the people on the ship saw.

Just an idea.

Edited 2012-07-23 16:56 (UTC)

I think this would be a great compromise. Just speaking for myself Elektra remembers vividly how the last boat trip went. She'll spend it worrying someone else is getting nearly killed or kidnapped unless she gets some confirmation otherwise.

Plus let's face it this plot is basically a soap opera. I think we should just take it all the way already.

HAHA good point on the soap opera part. Anyway, I'm totally cool with running it that way if it's your preference.

This sounds like a lot of fun, and it would be an interesting way of keeping people apprised of things.

I'm cool with running it that way if it's what you guys would rather!

That sounds perfectly all right to me if you guys would prefer to compromise that way!

I think it could be cool! Of course, idk how the actual family reunion people would feel about it. Maybe you could ask in the "plot start post" to see if they're okay with something like that?

Also a cruise question!

Will cruise-goers be humanized? (I am assuming yes but didn't want to jump to conclusions.)

TIA!

I was thinking humanized but man if you want to make him a dove on the cruise and have him sweet talk all those beautiful blue footed booby ladies or something that is also pretty great.

Oh my goodness all of the lady-birds to seduce...

This might be too wonderful of an opportunity to resist.

go get those exotic foreign women!

PARADISA FAMILY REUNION

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