Ahoy, plotmeisters!

The apparent attempt to start the Express and visit the underground has triggered a couple of events down there, and this is as good a chance as any to go over the developments that will unfortunately be affecting be affecting pretty much everyone funny how that works, isn’t it? :

( The tourist experience! )

they are basically copies of the characters, with one main difference: where Citizens are repressing a weakness, or fear, or negative instinct, the clones have exacerbated it. They are mostly willing to direct their anguish at the Clock, or – once in the City proper – at their ‘originals.’ Some might behave irrationally, some might simply be sad, some might not exhibit any kind of change at all – it’s up to you and how you want to play out your character’s clone representation. NPC the clones at will!

if you decide to have the clones have violent outbursts, we do encourage you to cap their powers even more so than you did those of your characters, so that there’s no huge war going on in the City!

characters can get rid of clones by banishing them – and what this means is entirely up to you. It can be anything from truly, truly wishing them away, to killing them to get the message across most definitively, or helping them overcome the weakness or character flaw that governs their conduct. As the creature said, the point of this whole exercise in this impromptu Citizen boot camp has been for citizens to show evidence of their growth in the City: you can always use the opportunity of their encounter with their own selves at their worst to achieve that!

everyone should have one, but if you’d really rather opt out of the event, it’s perfectly possible that your character’s clone never made it into the City, or that it was eliminated during acts of violence committed by some of the other clones.

play with them however you’d like, but remember to have the clones gone by Thursday night, please!

gravity goes haywire: small (mundane or relevant) items that fall on the ground seem almost drawn to the nearest drains, or holes, disappearing seemingly into thin air. It's entirely up to you whether citizens will be able to discover them in the depths of the underground, should they visit.

at night, residents will be able to hear odd sounds in their walls, as if creatures crawling down through them. Characters that sense auras or energy might be able to tell that the culprits are living entities, but not to determine their nature.

citizens travelling around the underground will find themselves drawn within it. It's up to you whether the thrall will hold only long enough to get them to the entrance, or farther.

following its recent revamp, the underground will greet its visitors with two changes:
o1. the 'sphinx'-hosting stone chamber has redecorated its graffiti gallery, which now prides multiple copies of the word EVIDENCE. The creatures within are somnolent and notably silent, and seem to be biding their time by building castles from sand, mold, and pebbles - then kicking them down.
o2. the City Express is still blocking its tunnel, but it has visibly moved, and access to the train is now possible through its conspicuously open doors. The Express lacks a formal staff, but once inside it, travelers might notice copies of a certain poster.

The GOOD: the Express can be started, and it's an interesting ride for all those willing to chance it.
The BAD: ...blood coin never seems to fall out of favour.
The UGLY: and it will take quite a bit of it to cover the trip.
The SAVING GRACE: it needn't be real blood. Smart citizens can always turn to alternatives: perhaps something in their canon that substitutes blood (be it in magical rites or symbolism), animal blood, chemical compounds - be inventive! (And let us know in the comments if you've figured out a way for your characters to get the Express started).


ACTION TIME: plans and plots in the comment section, go, go, go!

OPTIONAL: the insomnia bouts and phantom pains from former wounds will return, uglier than ever. Characters may notice that the lower they sit, altitude-wise, the easier it is to cope with these issues. (You're welcome to have characters that weren't previously affected by these symptoms develop them; likewise, you're not obliged to have them regain these conditions, if they experienced them in the past. It's all up to you!)

OPTIONAL, PART TWO: dead characters may slowly start decomposing; please keep in mind that if you take this pretty bamf route, there's no going back until the plot is over, so they might be stuck with the problem for a few weeks! Like insomniacs and those who relive the pain of old injuries, the decomposing dead will also find a semblance of relief at low altitudes.

for the following twelve days (May 1-12), the Carousel animals will come to life and go viciously on the loose for exactly one hour between midday / 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. They can't be destroyed, but they can be detained, and they'll be retreating to the Carousel of their own accord, by the end of their one hour of daily freedom. Careful! Careless citizens caught in their way might regret it: while the Carousel animals can chase down, they're not against killing their targets.

! there is no death exemption for citizens killed by Carousel animals right now, but future plot developments will bring a special one-time-only bargain price for life trades >>!

the underground will be 'revamped,' forcibly. The level closer to the ground that hosts most underground businesses should be fine (up to you if you'd like your character's area to have suffered more damage!), but any layers beneath that will have shifted, or collapsed. In particular, characters braving the underground should find that, beyond the business-areas, the only available routes are marked by three still (barely) standing corridors, respectively leading to...

o1. the Keeper's lair
o2. a dead end, with the rest of the tunnel currently blocked by the locomotive of the fashionable Midnight Express train. No, the train isn't functional just yet. Yes, we're sure all its former victims are thrilled to see it back.
o3. a large, humid stone chamber, its walls spelling various quotations from the classical literature of a variety of cultures in mostly neon, or jarringly coloured graffiti. The entrance is narrow, and its wards bar but one citizens in the chamber at a time. The remaining members of a visiting party will find that not only are they not admitted, but they can also neither see, nor hear what goes on inside.

( For... details... click... me... ellipses... )

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone exceedingly upset that our harpy friends have officially left the building, but sadly, not all seems to be well. The ticking hasn’t returned, and in addition to it, these next few days...

some of the medium-sized underground beasts will be coming to surface and slowly making their way to the forest. Unfortunately, this means they will be travelling across the City, mostly in groups and at night. This will be done gradually (so everyone should not be suddenly seeing them everywhere!) Most of the monsters won’t go out of their way to pick on citizens, but they will respond aggressively, if they are interfered with – as would most migrating animals. Be as inventive as you want with monster looks, or behaviours! There are some pictures here, if you need visual inspiration!

one of the relocating monsters will be this glorious creature, who will be hereon holding loving performances in Xanadu. Bless your ears, Citizens.

sadly, all the monster fuss means that the City subway will definitely be cutting down on its reliable rides.

likewise, electricity lines and network devices will be subject to short periods of eljay-like poor, or inexistent service. It’s not just Frank who likes nibbling on wires. Messages reaching others with lags, glitches, or not at all – or worse, failing to translate to another language, or getting to the wrong person. Have fun with this!

underground business owners will be receiving ( either by post, or stuck on the main entrance door of their fine establishment) a note from the City administration, warning them about the collapsing walls and corridors in the underground, as well as the roaming beasts. It’s up to the owners whether they pay the matter any mind (and up to you whether their businesses suffer any damage), but they’ve been served notice.

on that note, visitors daring the underground will find it increasingly difficult to make their way through it, even in areas with which they’d been previously familiar. They’ll find some of the underground corridors are shifting, suddenly closed off, or crumbling down.

Citizens will find themselves randomly assaulted by the same persistent message – IECENVDE – on every reflective surface: whether as an engraving on their steaming mirrors, a random wave conjunction in previously still water, cuts on a polished silver surface, or an accumulation of letters in their alphabet soup – anything you can think of! (If you figure it out OOCly, please don’t spoil it in the comments to this post!)

in some good news, finally a bit of rest for the wicked ! Citizens recently affected with insomnia, or ghost pains, as part of the initial omens plot will find some relief these days (if they haven’t already).

ghost pains, wherever they have been heavily or lethally wounded; these pains can be as slight, memorable, and often as you like.

intense feelings of being followed and watched. Items in characters' households can end up either mysteriously moved from their regular places, or they can outright disappear (sadly, if you choose to have an item disappear, it will not be returned!)

bouts of insomnia, to the point of being unable to sleep nearly at all;

symbolic, or blatant dreams or short visions of destruction. Characters can even be aware that the visions aren't real, but they might be trapped too well in their dreams to wake up on their own.

for dead characters (whether City!dead, or having arrived dead) that traded to have their lives returned: you have the option of choosing whether their heartbeat will also disappear. Have no fear, their bodies will still work as well as ever at this time!

the infamous Clock beat will start getting fainter; the longer you've been in the City, the weaker and weaker you'll hear it. Newcomers excepted, Citizens should find themselves unable to hear it by the beginning of April.

bibliophiles will find themselves in mourning, as pages, or entire volumes of some of the older books in the Library will suddenly catch fire, or rot away in their hands.

small animals will start migrating towards the forest; you are welcome to include your characters' pets into the category of critters suddenly abandoning ship the City!

after March 27, some of the lesser, harmless underground creatures (think worms, bats, rodents and other treats* ) will also be coming to surface, scavenging a little, and making their way to the forest.
! investigating the animals should reveal that those that have been revived at any point (among which, a small percentage of the wildlife) also lack a heart beat.

”The decorators called.”

the entire tower, including the observation, maintenance and administration office levels - it's all made of sand; this makes it quite delicate, so there’s always the risk of a wall, or part of the ceiling coming down!

the unfortunate NPCs that attended on the tower will be found as statues. Likewise, their furniture, papers, food will turn up fossilized.

the air within the tower will be particularly stuffy, with the entire structure reeking of decay.

...the longer characters stay inside the tower, the more they’ll come to feel stiff and lethargic, with the Clock’s intensified beating lulling them to sleep. If they fall asleep within the tower... well, the NPCs might not be the only ones reduced to stone. Note: there is no death exemption for this!

the verses of this fine song will be written in multiple versions on the sand floor of the ground level; if characters step on it, it will not recreate itself, so multiple search parties might have to be careful about that!

→ previously docile pets or wild animals will become flimsy and skittish; animals prone to digging will start making holes in the ground quite frequently
→ supernaturally attuned, or generally perceptive characters can get progressively worse sensations of something... intruding in their territory. Something a little like the odd feeling when someone's gone through your room in your absence, or touched one of your things, and while there's nothing visibly out of place, you can still tell - an all around "otherness."
→ every so often, Citizens will be able to barely make out the sound (but not words) of people talking, arguing, etc, for very short periods of time, and from no explicit source.
→ characters can find themselves unintentionally witnessing or causing either traditional, or canon-relevant bad omens; for example: a black bird will circle their house, or they can be doodling casually, look down and notice they've been writing 'death' in a foreign language. Be creative!