INFO POST - TAKE A LOAD OFF (BETA STORY)

[libraryassistants]

Take a Load Off (Beta Story)
November 14 - December 11
Log 1: 11/14
Log 2: 11/28
Return to the Library: 12/12

It is the year 2019, and for humans, life just… keeps going on. You wake up. You go to work, you work a lot, you come home. You do the tasks needed to keep your house running and yourself functional, you sleep for less time than you should, and you get up and do it again. There are breaks in the routine, days off, vacations for some; but at the core it never changes. As the years go on, the more worn down the average person gets.

Enter the Interstellar Mindfulness & Wellness Group. Normally serving the various species and worlds of the Coalition, a recent survey into the Andromeda Galaxy revealed the planet "Earth" and the alarming state of the “humans” upon it. The state of general wellness, especially in the psychological realm, is concerningly below targets. Technically, the Group are not allowed to do anything about it. Technically, they are not permitted to be the first point of contact in any new civilization. But surely, if no one notices that they’re there, it should be fine, right? There’s no way they can just sit back and watch these creatures work themselves to death!

And so, a small, mostly novice, contingent of the Group takes a ship to Earth. Staffed with professionals of various stripes, with a definitely brilliant idea: bring some humans up to their fully equipped ship, for rest and relaxation and whatever short-term therapies they might require! As well as sending some staff down to the planet disguised as those humans to administer more care on-site, as it were, to the humans left behind.

It’s only after arriving above Woodhurst, a small human settlement, that they realize there are two main flaws in this plan. One, some of the humans seem very resistant to the idea of taking care of themselves, even when it’s explained that all those things they’re worrying about are being taken care of. Two, those staff members sent down to replace them are all horrible at acting and have no idea how to behave like the people they’re meant to be replacing.

It’s clear they can’t stay long, but maybe they can still do some good while they’re here. What’s the worst that could happen?

World Information | Alien Species | Mod Suggested Skills | Suggested Roles | Player Pairs | Optional Signup | Mod Questions

HOW THIS WORKS

Please read the information in the comments below. You will decide if your character is a Reader or Actor in this Story. If they are an Actor, you will build their AU based on the information in the comments. 

 

Actors are fully immersed in the AU. This is their world, and they have been here the whole time. Any powers the Actor has in the Library are absolutely not a thing in the Story. Actors who are Aliens during the Story will have free use of their respective Alien Skills during the Story. After the Story, if you want to keep the skill, you will need to claim it as part of your AC skill redemption. After the Story, characters will remember their time as an Actor; but while they are an Actor, they will have no memory of the Library or their actual selves.

Readers will be dropped into Woodhurst as visitors, some of whom can be picked up onto the ship and others left behind. Readers are aware that they are in a Story and remember the Library and the people in it, including the ones who don't remember them anymore (whoops!). If you don't want to/can't think of an AU, or you just think it would be hilarious to have your character as themselves in this setting, this is the option for you.

Once you've got some thoughts on where you want to go with this, or even if you're just spitballing ideas, put up a comment with your plan! Let others bounce off your ideas and see what comes out of it.

Comments

WORLD INFORMATION

[libraryassistants]

The Coalition is a loose group of affiliated planets and species who have a series of agreements based on peace keeping and ease of trade. A shared unit of currency, work visas to different planets within the Coalition, loose alliances, that sort of thing. Think the European Union but in space. They are spread out over several galaxies. Inclusion in the Coalition means access to faster-than-light transportation so getting between the allied planets is not a big deal. You can’t commute daily from Atori Revan to Kloaxoca, but you can go back and visit your family once or twice a year with no trouble. (Calendar systems and day length have also attempted to be synchronized, but that is a whole other mess.)

The Interstellar Mindfulness & Wellness Group is a wellness and healthcare group funded under the Coalition’s dues as part of a combined effort to increase happiness and general wellbeing among all Coalition participants. They do research on the ways to handle different types of wellness and mental health needs across all species, and their employees reflect. Each species of the Coalition is represented in the Group, though some are more prevalent.
Their main office of operations is located on Delta Leair, but every planet and almost every city has a sub office that caters specifically to the local community. The Group employees of this particular trip are all coming from the main Delta Leair office or other satellite offices on the planet, whether or not they are originally from there. This is due to Delta Leair being the main training center for new employees, and while the Group definitely didn’t sanction this particular aid trip, they also didn’t not sanction it. (More experienced staff may recognize this as a plausible deniability for the Group if this winds up being a huge mistake.)

Woodhurst is a (fictional) village in the UK, far enough from Cambridge to make commuting there a pain but not impossible. The town is small enough that locals recognize each other on sight. There are the various sorts of normal jobs you would need to keep a town going, as well as people who commute to work in other villages or Cambridge. Years ago there was some sort of ‘alien encounter’ in the hills not far off from the village, which has eorked its way into local history; a bit like the towns near Area-51 (but not nearly as intense or government monitored).

ALIEN SPECIES

[libraryassistants]

Leairans: Primary sentient species of Delta Leaira. Leairans are very, very tall and slim humanoid beings, with pointier faces than a human but appearance otherwise reasonably similar. Their internal structure has very little bone, only in their torso and skull to protect their most vital organs; their appendages instead are made of a material that is similar to a bendy wire, meaning they are capable of movements and contortions that look very, very unsettling to most other species within the Coalition. As a culture they generally value organization and personal upkeep.

Skills:
Voice of Reason - Leairans are level-headed and have a meditative cool about them. Their calm and collected aura relaxes those around them, and as long as an instruction is reasonable, the listener is inclined to follow it. Particularly useful for leading yoga sessions, but also has been known to pull the hot wind from someone’s sails when they’re getting a bit too fired up.
Alien form - long and limber, the Leairan form is perhaps one of the most versatile in the galaxy. Although they are tall and lanky, the minimal bones in their structure mean that they can - with some effort - compress and contort themselves however they need to. Strength may not a Leairan’s forte, but they’ve never found a crevice they couldn’t crawl into. (Think squid/cat logic: if a Leairan can fit their largest bone through it, they can squeeze the rest of their body through.)

Kloax: Primary sentient species of Kloaxoca, a place where you can feel the constant thrum of the planet’s core beating against you like a steady, sturdy drum. The Kloax are a grounded species, and in groups, often find themselves speaking or moving to the same beat. There’s a rhythm to their words, a click from their throat that is most often a soothing cadence, mirroring the pulse of their distant home. Kloax who have been away from Kloaxoca for a lengthy time have been known to grow taller than their friends at home, the result of Kloaxoca’s heavy gravity. Not coincidentally, in the lighter gravity that the Leairans and Revanians work at, the Kloax are a physically strong species; able to easily outpace these friends and effortlessly lift what would be considered to be great weights. The rhythm of their home planet beats in the heart of every Kloax, and they often find themselves expressing this through music of their own. When words fail them, the music doesn’t. Some Kloax have even developed the ability to manifest their thoughts and intentions in the melodies they create, allowing the listener precious insight. The most beautiful, and touching, music in the galaxy is created by the Kloax.

Skills:
Kloaxoca Pulse - retain the rhythm of the foreign planet, and the ability to craft expressive melodies that evoke something from the listener.
Alien form - strong and fast. The Kloax have a thick, sturdy exoskeleton with a variety of ridges that are unique to each individual. These can be, and have been, used to play sounds not dissimilar to a xylophone; the tones that are evoked are different for each Kloax. The hollow protrusions along their spine function as amplifiers, functionally allowing the Kloax to be their own portable boom-box.

Revanians: Primary sentient species of Atori Revan. Space elves. These humanoid beings sport pointed ears, with what could be politely termed antennas growing along and extending up from the outer shell. The Revanians are a sensitive species, in tune with the world and creatures around them. Those antennae pick up on the vibrations of others’ thoughts and feelings, and how each Revanian interprets those vibrations is on a very individual level but can be summed up as a group of abilities known as ‘extrasensory perception’.
Because of this ability to tune in to others, Revanians are considered to be particularly good at truly understanding the thoughts and feelings that someone may be struggling to convey. They use this not only to help each-other in matters of the heart, but also to win landslide victories in games of charades and deceptions. Think twice before trying to pull the wool over a Revanian’s eyes.

Skills:
Revanian Sensitivity - A psychic ability of the player’s choice; some may be in tune with emotions, others dreams, and others thoughts. Using the psychic ability in the character’s normal form does mean that those nifty lil antennae pop up over their ears, 0 subtlety there.
Alien form - Space elves look cool.

There are other species within the Coalition and the Group, but these are three main ones. You are free to make up your own alien form or just say there's a species within the Coalition that look like giant hedgehogs. They will not be able to take an associated alien skill.

MOD SUGGESTED STORY SKILLS

[libraryassistants]

Alien Form: You are able to turn into an alien form, with the associated differences in perception and abilities.

Alien Skill: See the aliens here for their specific skills, as well as more information about their forms.

Alien Wellness Technology: You gain a piece of futuristic tech that has to do with self-care or another therapeutic purpose.

Home Base teleportation device: A device that connects to the mothership [outside of the Story, this means the Library, specifically the main circulation desk] and allows you to transfer yourself and others back. The fewer people being transported, the faster it is. Transporting yourself and two others may lead to some awkward buffering times, while trying to bring three others along could result in your teleport timing out a few feet off the ground. Even alien tech has bandwidth restrictions, yo. [Note: this is not a 2-way device. Once you’re back on the mothership, you’ve got to get back to where you were through the regular way.] [To claim this skill permanently, you must have a thread demonstrating your character using and keeping the device during the Story.]

Human Form: You are able to turn into a human form, with the associated differences in perception and skills.

Meditation Expert: You become excellent at mediation as a way of calming yourself and centering your focus.

Personal Hologram Device: You gain a device that allows you to cast a hologram over your appearance to make you look like another person. Can be used for an hour before recharging is required.

Yogi: You know yoga now. Being insufferable about it is entirely optional.

Remember, if you think of a different skill that you would feel your character would pick up in this setting, run it by us!

Additionally, please remember that the skills your character can pick up must be something they'd have access to during the Story- if your character is a human in the story, they can't come back with an alien form.

SUGGESTED ROLES

[libraryassistants]

Actors can be an alien as part of the Group, coming out to Earth in order to help with the aid. Most of the ones who decided on this trip are novices, staff who have not been around for any aftermath of first contact and the rigors and difficulties that entails. They are able to travel between Earth and the ship in order to try and help out in both places. On Earth, these aliens will be portraying the characters who have been kidnapped; this can be other players’ characters!

They can also be the humans taken to the ship for Emergency Alien Therapy, or the normal human townfolk left behind, wondering just why their neighbors and partners and family are suddenly acting very weird and oddly insistent on self care.

Readers will be dropped into Woodhurst as visitors, some of whom can be picked up onto the ship and others left behind. Readers are aware that they are in a Story and remember the Library and the people in it, including the ones who don't remember them anymore whoops. If you don't want to/can't think of an AU, or you just think it would be hilarious to have your character as themselves in this setting, this is the option for you! (Non-human Readers will be shifted into a human form in order to not draw an undue amount of suspicion. How much they are changed within that is up to the player.)

Players may also optionally NPC needed characters- for example, if your character is Acting as an alien, you can also portray the human they are impersonating and vice versa. However, only one of these can actually be the player character; they will not have memories of being both an alien and a human for the Story. You can only claim skills for the role your character is Acting in.

PLAYER PAIRINGS

[libraryassistants]

If you would like some more direction than is provided by the main story, please drop a comment of your character name and whether they’re a human or an alien here! We will pair you up with someone and give you a subgoal.

Please note: this option will not always be here for Stories (unless we get feedback otherwise); this is to help people get used to the theming of the game without any Star Actors to stubbornly push forward the plot.

OPTIONAL SIGNUP

[libraryassistants]

Given that we have no Star Actors for this Story, we are taking a few volunteers for “leadership” positions; namely, people characters can go to for some level of direction in the Story if they need a little push. We would like at least one leader for the alien side and the human side; the alien leader could be a more senior Group member, and while the human leader could be the mayor or something it’s probably funnier if they’re just that guy who’s at the pub at 2am and knows a lot about aliens.

If you’re interested in volunteering for these, please drop us a comment and let us know! This will not count as a Star Actor role for the purposes of future sign ups.

Re: OPTIONAL SIGNUP

[dreamquestion]

Okay so how about this.

That alien landing from years and years ago? Did totally happen. And now the first contact alien went into hiding disguised as a human for his own safety.

And now he's the 2am guy who runs an occult bookstore that opens at all hours collecting sci-fi and occult stories because it's the alien equivalent of reading trashy romance novels and pulp fiction. Y/N

MOD QUESTIONS

[libraryassistants]

Questions about the Story, how this is going to work, or anything else can go here!

[aetherweaver]

Doublechecking, but for our non-human Readers, are we slapping them in human guises or having them Just Deal With It?

[bashasasdemon]

OK. So Kai is going to be one of the few more Senior members of the Group on this trip, and his job is specifically geared towards 'making sure people don't fuck up too much and fixing it if they do.' He is like, 95% sure this entire mission is a terrible idea, but 5% hopeful that it'll turn out alright and they'll do some good.

He probably largely has a more supervisory role, so he'll be popping down to check on the aliens on Earth and was as helping out on the ship. He runs a few meditation courses, mostly the grounded sort about being in touch with your body. He's clearly committed, but much more... practical than a lot of the others might be.

Still deciding what type of alien; leaning Kloax but not sold on it.

WHO WANTS THERAPY??

[bashasasdemon]

So I may live to regret this, but I think it would be Really Funny if Kai (demon made of razor blades and trust issues) spent this story doing some Talk Therapy.

Knowing that that tends to be a popular thing in DWRP, please reply to this comment if you want your character to be subject to that. Depending on interest, I'll pick what I think would be most interesting/RNG it, to a level I think I could reasonably keep up with lol. (Probably somewhere between 3-5 threads, but we'll see.)

[ultimateedgehog]

Shadow (Prime flavoured) will be Acting as a human for this Story. (Based on this design.)

A punkass older teen who is literally always in rollerskates. The kind of asshole who, when he can't wear skates, shows up in Heelys instead.

When asked his age, he'll always respond with something in the 30s despite clearly being no older than 19 (at a stretch). That's because he's a 'medical marvel', an IVF baby whose embryo was frozen and forgotten for a number of years. Don't think too hard about the ethical implications. There was Science at stake. Has no matches on 23&Me, lowkey thinks he's an alien because of it.

Absolutely a conspiracy theorist, definitely thinks the aliens landed in Woodhurst back in the day and never left. Despite being the teenager loitering outside convenience stores at midnight, thinks you're all the weird ones.

He'll be keen to interact with anyone Acting Even More Weird Than Usual, and will be jonesing for a way onto the Mothership. It will be funnier if everyone else gets to go except him.

[angel_of_baal]

I DESPERATELY need CR with Shadow. Sanguinius will likely be a Space Elf if he wants to get in touch with his FEELINGS?

Or anything else. Be a brat to him.

[ugh_emotions]

OKAY SO I figure I got two options for this:

Option 1: SecUnit is Acting as one of the aliens, probably as an invented android species or something. Any version of it would b hilariously ill-suited to giving anyone therapy, so maybe it's working as their Security or something. Which probably means it's the one doing all the actual kidnapping. Or standing around making sure no one escapes leaves therapy.

Option 2: It is a Reader and gets Kidnapped for Therapy, shenanigans ensue. It does need therapy and it knows it, but it's pretty sure it's not supposed to happen like this, wtf

Honestly both options are great, could go either way at this point

[ultimateedgehog]

put that unit in therapy

If you go Option 2, is there also the possibility of SecUnit performing some kidnappings anyway because of how safe and helpful the Group is?

Aphra plotting

[wontforbidtherain]

Leaning towards Actor but trying to decide between:

1. Some sort of human Neopagan Wellness Influencer who gets dragged in via arguments about how the aliens are Doing It Wrong. Very crunchy granola and taking a tiny bit of Aphra's own spirituality but in a context she doesn't recognize.

2. Junior Leairan who is supposed to be in charge of meditation classes, but has been corralled into 'babysitting very unwilling humans on the Mothership'. Does not have the authority to send you home, because she's just an intern. Also does not realize how unsettling her body language can be when she's stressed.

(Aphra will be uncomfortable with either of these things. I'll pitch in as a Reader if it seems like we need more of those.)

Re: Aphra plotting

[angel_of_baal]

i would love some CR with Aphra, of either flavor. Sanguinius is probably going to be Space Elf flavored alien--either scenario might work?

[hellandbackpack]

Charles here will be Acting as a human for this story.

He'll be in his early teens (12-13-ish) and I'll be pulling his general backstory from the show for this, just transplanting it here instead, so he's going to be a little Rude Boy menace about town, sassing the authorities, throwing down with bullies, and Dealing With Some Shit at home. Definitely needs the therapy, will do everything he can to worm out of it and make himself the biggest menace he possibly can.

He'll interact with most anyone and be WILDLY CURIOUS about anyone acting Weird. He's not sure if he buys the alien thing from back in the day- are we sure it wasn't ghosts?- but he's openminded to the idea that aliens could be Among Us. I haven't decided if I want him to have been yoinked to the ship or be kept back, so whichever is more entertaining!

(CW: For those unfamiliar with his canon, his dad is wildly abusive towards him and his mom basically lets it happen, so if that's something you don't wanna see in threads, let me know and I'll keep that element of things out of tags with your character. There's a opt-out on his permissions post here that has comments screened for privacy.)

[ultimateedgehog]

Shadow's going to be a bit of an older edgy teen, given they're both going to be menaces in their own way in this small town - up for plotting out whatever established CR they might have?

(I'm canon-familiar, no need for me to opt out of anything! I'm keeping Shadow's human backstory light in this one, so there shouldn't be any content warnings for his part.)

Mina plotting

[starandhope]

My inclination is to have her be an Actor and a Revanian. With empathy, natch. She is the most well-meaning alien here to help everyone with their relationship problems! While totally ignoring her own!

Who wants to be one of her hapless human patients?

Re: Mina plotting

[extrasaltypotato]

I feel like the potential for awkward post-Story conversations is highest if Mina is one of the ones to help poor young Mitsuko here come to terms with being more of an Akira.

Because that means you get to see Heek's Tragic Backstory before she properly unlocks it. Speedrun strats!

[bestofall]

Festival will be a human Reader dropped into Woodhurst and utterly baffled as to what he's meant to be doing at first. He may be a little offended about having his shape altered against his will, but soon enough he'll tell himself it's just a role to play and lean into it.

General vibe: leaning into it for Festival will mean stoking chaos at every turn. He's going to treat this like improv and live by the rule of yes, and... - and is likely to play both sides of Actors against each other for maximum nonsense. If he can contrive this into a comedy of errors, that will be his goal.

For this to work, I'd really like him to get kidnapped right away so he can find out what the aliens are up to. Otherwise, if he's only seeing that humans are disappearing and acting weird he might end up taking things a bit too seriously even though he's not an Actor. So please...would anyone like to kidnap him and attempt to give him therapy?

Edit: I would also like to offer for Festival to play any Kloax Actors like a xylophone and help them awaken/refine their innate musical powers!

[extrasaltypotato]

I do not have any specific plans for Festival to Make Worse but I am here for this.

About what age bracket will he appear to be?

[extrasaltypotato]

Because it has the best chance of drama and character development for his canonmates it's hilarious, Hikaru is not going to become the human he was on Earth in 2047.

He's going to become the human he was on Earth in 2019, and he was not a happy camper as a young lass of 15.

You didn't misread that: young Mitsuko Tsukuda (光子 佃) was a bitter, sullen teenage girl who buried herself in fantasy, manga and especially science fiction, not even suspecting that she was chafing at her immigrant parents' despair that she'd ever act like a proper girl because of severe gender dysphoria.

Guess what one of the things the alien therapists can recognize on sight is.

So have a sullen, cranky, 'tomboyish' nerd girl who is flirting with bisexuality and her friends in the local anime club, heyoo and thinks she knows all about aliens because she watches Star Trek Ad Terra Per Aspera and Kamen Rider Build Kikaiser Nano (the superior series to 2019's Ex-Aid Arcade, though that has it's moments) and is hilariously, laughably wrong about it.

If all goes well, with help from the visiting alien therapists, she'll come out the other end as the much happier and far more well adjusted Akira Tsukuda (光 佃) who went on to become the winged potato you all know. For all I'm joking about it here, I am going to treat his transition with respect because, well, you know why.

His rampant nerdery and pedantry, however, is fair game to point and laugh at.

[ultimateedgehog]

If this sullen, bullied 15 year old is inclined to gravitate towards sullen, broody older teenagers - would you like to consider joining the Troubled Teenage Troupe?

Activities so far include:
- Loitering.
- Companionship in silence.
- Get off the roof guys, seriously, someone's going to get hurt.
- Debating aliens vs ghosts. (Shadow is very easy to rile up on the topic. He would absolutely, and very sincerely, debate/argue Mitsuko's theories.)

The Bride Plotting

[monstrous_bride]

So going to toss her headlong into an Human AU - though I'm hoping the only changes to her appearance will be cosmetic.

Behold, Doctor Lanchester. Doctor E. Lanchester. (Yes, I know, obvious reference, but it makes me happy.) The Bride, but in labcoat, glasses that do nothing (not that she knows it), skirt and heels. Classic movie scientist trope!

She's new in town, living in a remote cottage, and her astronomical instruments are telling her something is wrong, but she just doesn't know what. And nobody believes her when she suggests things are extraterrestrial in origin. Why, more people find her conduct to be suspicious than anything else...

Happy to play around with this as much as possible, and with everyone!

[ultimateedgehog]

a complete serious and yet non-serious suggestion.

After he catches wind that there's a scientist in town investigating the extraterrestrial, this IVF baby who thinks he's an alien (he is Not) shows up to demand testing. He will not leave until she complies. Even if she determines he's not an alien, he will not let up and will demand further testing.

finally there's someone who believes her, but at what cost.

[flantastic]

Rakia is going to be a Reader because he has a pretty solid human disguise as long as his shirt stays on and...he also has experience in kidnapping humans for nefarious purposes no one has leveled up in friendship enough to unlock the regrets of his backstory. He is prepared to judge any aliens taking humans or aliens doing crap jobs of posing as humans so hard. He will try to pass as an alien or a human depending on whatever will make his current situation easiest, surely nothing can go wrong.

[holiestlove]

Hello, would you like another reader to come across Rakia while the story is going down? I don't have a lot planned, but I feel like this could be fun.

Shadow | Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount)

[thelightshines]

So, I have two options that I'm still undecided which way to go.

Option 1: A Reader who will assume the same human appearance as Prime!Shadow, for the silly and poking fun at the other later. Allows him to investigate the workings of these "stories" and collect information for his own reference later. After the initial confusion, he'd try to blend into what the story is trying to tell easily enough, as he's not one who likes to stand out. Pretty much leaving him open to play whatever role, kidnapped, bystander, w/e w/e

Option 2: Taking the Actor route, I'm considering that he be a Revanian. He'd have the ability to sense what others are feeling, something I think would make his own development interesting if he had that after the story. Still would assume Prime!Shadow's human appearance, be it the one now pretending to be his AU human self after Prime is kidnapped, or some funny plot twist that it turns out they are related. He only takes on the mission because he wants to understand what humanity is. Indifferent if they can be saved or not.

[ultimateedgehog]

Transplanting that Plurk pitch over here for the sake of anyone who wants to piggyback --

The thought: If you go Actor Revanian route, the two Shadows should swap places Parent Trap-style. Movie can give Prime a disguise device and a home base teleportation device, Prime can give Movie a pair of skates and a crash course at the local park. Then adios, good luck taking over each-other's lives, neither of them has any idea what they've just signed on for.

The old man that Prime lives with is secretly a Kloax and the teens he's accumulated are alien/ghost obsessed, so they might not be the best measure of humanity--

Also I do lowkey think it's hilarious if that Unethical Science background Prime has does actually have some shared alien DNA in it so that they are technically related. Just not enough for Prime to actually be an alien.

[terraboo]

Laina will be a Reader - a teenage visitor to our poor town, confused by all that is happening and trained on highly incorrect high school tropes that may get her confused for one of the aliens! It's not HER fault the American school system is in such a state.

[extrasaltypotato]

And so the errors introduced to american high school manga by Mike Pondsmith's seminal Teenagers From Outer Space: The Lum Urusai Yatsura Comedy Anime RPG come full circle

[fearinahandfulof]

Cassandra is going to be a a Reader, although I'm not yet sure if I'm going to have her kidnapped by wellness aliens. She may need some help blending in, though, because she's from a vaguely medieval-ish canon and will probably not understand any of the technology... which will probably get her mistaken for an alien, if her resembling an adult Midwich cuckoo doesn't.

Randolph Carter

[dreamquestion]

Regardless of whether or not Randolph is secretly an alien he is definitely a Reader in charge of an occult/sci-fi/magic bookstore that is open at absurd hours, usually all night, and he's still some fifty-to-sixty-year-old Local Weirdo who's been allegedly fifty or sixty for as long as anyone can remember. The bookstore is called Dream Palace, which gets a hilariously large audience of tourists and aliens who are both deeply disappointed that it's not a smutty massage parlour and instead just stuffed with old books (while there is a very small section about massage and relaxation techniques, largely the tiny shop is a monument to obscure books, cryptozoology, alien conspiracies and a surprisingly hefty section of xenophilia.

Shadow can be frequently seen here, to the point where does that kid ever go home? Plays random music at obscene hours at ungodly volume.

[hellandbackpack]

Consider with me the concept that aside from the fact that Charles will be in there All The Damn Time to interrogate Randolph about every supernatural thing that he can think of, while secretly holding the theory that he's a vampire or something? What if Randolph also takes that time to help this disaster child with his homework, so he can keep his grades to the point that he can keep playing on the cricket team and maybe get a scholarship later because that's about the only way he's getting out of this town in the future.

[aetherweaver]

Nara'a is probably going to be a Reader, because someone needs to kidnap him and make him relax. He's basically going to be the same just no ears or tail he's going to hate it he will feel so muffled and unbalanced.

Open to people trying to help him, especially people with empathy or who are just familiar with burnout.

[bashasasdemon]

FAMILIAR WITH BURNOUT YOU SAY-- yeah I don't think I'm giving Kai empathy, but clearly need to through Kai acting at him anyway for Confusion.

[ice_rose]

Scarlet will be a Reader playing the role of a Leairan, a young one who's very much here to help these poor people. After all, Learian is definitely the vibe she gives off most of the time; no wonder she got cast in that role and helping people? She's all for it. So she'll be offering ass-kicking classes-

AHEM, tai chi classes. Right. Yes. No violence here. Absolutely violence here. She will have the brilliant idea of instructing others in her own method of self-care: the Way of the Righteous Fist, taught to her by her beloved tutor as a child. I am sorry in advance.

[scienceofthearcane]

Since I have worked out with the Mods that the aliens are able to give Viktor some sort of tech thingy that can turn back on the mutation that was turned off in canon, the Wellness Aliens, who initially take Viktor up to their mothership could totally be Scarlet.

[holiestlove]

Jonathan is going to be a reader for this first event. He may try to get one of his current CR who are actors to recognize him before giving up on it in favor of exploring Woodhurst. Given how modern everything would be, I think it would be a lot of fun to toss the Victorian around a city in 2019.

I am also completely willing to have him taken for therapy if anyone is interested in that!

I intend to hit up more of the people he has not interacted with yet for this first event. Please let me know if you want anything certain!

[defyingreality]

X here is going to be an Actor but he is going to be The Worst. As in he is a young Revanian that is so chill about this whole thing that he just is wandering around being not hiding at all, and being so very amused by everyone freaking out about 'aliens'. He's basically going to be that one alien who - upon seeing all the displays about aliens and supernatural and such - be cheering on the humans.

Like maybe he originally looks like a Shaggy hippie and just as the event continues on, he gets more and more 'alien' looking. Just chilling and not being so hyped as the rest of the aliens.

[bashasasdemon]

X you are going to give your supervisor, who is here to EXPLICITLY MAKE SURE THIS STAYS ON THE RAILS, an alien aneurysm. an alieneurysm.