taxonmods: (Default)
taxonmods ([personal profile] taxonmods) wrote in [community profile] taxonooc2010-10-01 05:41 am

THE STATE OF THE TAXON STRIKES BACK.

WEATHER
This month, evenings will be chillier and the days cool as autumn marches on! The leaves are changing color and staring to fall, harvest and Halloween themed decorations will be popping up all over the city, and there will be a better chance for breezes and rain. Remember you can check [livejournal.com profile] taxonautumn for up-to-the-minute updates of the weather.

Beware, however: for the second half of the month things are going to get a little spooky. No matter what the forecast feed says, an ominous mist will encroach on the city in the evening, accompanied by a peculiar sense of...dread. You may want to hurry home and lock your doors, just in case :>


REMINDERS
As always, each month we like to gently remind you of things that we have available for you because reminders are awesome.

In addition to our calendar, we now have the activity check roster up for public view! We update it as often as we can, and if you are ever wondering how much you’ve left to do to meet the AC requirements, now that knowledge is only a click away. It’s been added to the footers on most of our information pages as well as that shiny link directory we’ve got set up for you.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, don’t forget about the new permissions meme! Fill it out, leave a link for your fellow players, wreak havoc far and wide. If you don’t fill it out, we might just start pestering you. With lemurs.

Remember, if you’ve got an addition for the calendar let us know so we can put it up lickety-split. And, if you’ve got suggestions or complaints, there’s those posts there for you, too, as well as all of us on AIM, through email, and through LJ PMs whenever you need us.


HMD ANNOUNCEMENT
Thank you to everyone that participated in the Game HMD and the follow up post and poll! The results are in aaaaaaand...

We’re loosening our ties and letting the formats run free!

Not entirely, but pretty close. From now on, you can use brackets in any thread you like, and prose in any thread you like except text, which will remain solely text-y. PLEASE REMEMBER, it is totally okay to mix prose and brackets in a single thread, either because of different modes of communication (text and video) or just because you feel like one or the other. This is about your personal preference and exercising it like a Jane Fonda workout video.

All the appropriate pages like the tablet user guide will be edited to reflect the change ASAP.


FREEBIES
Fall is in full bloom (anti-bloom?), and the leaves are finally falling. In honor of this momentous occasion of seasonal change, all fall supplies will be free for the month of October.

What are fall supplies, you ask? Rakes, bags, leaf blowers, mulches, sweatshirts covered in maple leaves, syrup, possibly also the occasional six-pack of Sam Adams OctoberFest brew. If you think it will supply you for the tasks involving leaves and the managing thereof, it’s free.


PLANETARIUM
Are your characters longing for a little bit of home? Is the fake sky really starting to get to them?The aliens understand, they really do, so to make Taxon a bit cozier they’ve programmed in a planetarium! This beyond state-of-the art facility is capable of reproducing the night sky of any world, so if your character wants to gaze at familiar constellations or brush up on astronomy from galaxies far, far away, they can go right ahead and do that.

The planetarium will be a permanent feature of the city, and yes there will be trippy prog-rock laser shows. Far out!

HALLOWEEN!!!
HEADLESS HORSEMAN
Mind your curfews and don't stay out too late, for as Halloween draws near, a special visitor appears. Starting the 17th and ending at the stroke of midnight on the 31st, the Headless Horseman will be paying a visit to Taxon, tormenting Extras and unwilling residents alike. Heads will roll (quite literally), pumpkins will be thrown and the sound of hoof beats on the wind will follow you wherever you go... We'll have more details on this as the event approaches.

BODYSWAP
So, we heard you want to switch bodies, you crazy kids. This is a pretty self-explanatory kinda glitch, but over-explanation is our drug of choice.

- The glitch starts on the 29th with everyone participating waking up a little stranger than they were the day before, and will continue until the 5th of November. (Backtagging is, of course, encouraged.)
- Characters will switch bodies, like Freaky Friday only without the weird Mother/Daughter limitation.
- No journal trading! No giving out your passwords, not even if you totally super duper trust the other person involved! That leads to the road of accidental LJ suspension and tears. Instead, for those of you who can't get a paid account for the extra icon space, we suggest making a new body-switch journal! Membership to the comms will be open for the duration of the glitch, and you can join with your body-switched accounts and use those. All we ask is that, to avoid heaps of confusion, you put "Character 1 in Character 2's body" in the name field, and you'll be good to go.
- Bodies will retain certain characteristics, to be decided by the player of that character. Say, a human’s mind in a vampire’s body, while in that body, will have access to all the abilities that the vampire has. Things like accents, food cravings, maybe even certain memories or nervous tics are also totally within the realm of “sticking with the body."
- Bodies don’t have to be traded in exclusive pairs. If three of you want to switch your characters around between their three bodies, or even more (!), go for it!
- You can decide things amongst yourselves who goes in which body, OR you can let the mods take the wheel and completely randomize who your character will end up with.

This Sunday (October 3rd), we’ll be putting up a sign-up post with more details on the rules and permissions y’all will need to know for the duration of the glitch. Everyone that’s going to have a character participate, whether you’re leaving it up to the mods to pair you off, deciding yourself, or want to decide yourself but haven’t figured it out yet, needs to reply to that post and fill out our super-tiny little form. It will include a question about what traits your character’s body will retain with a new person inside it and, more importantly, permissions about what the other player is allowed to do with your character’s body for the duration of the glitch.

On the 15th, we’ll make another post with all the finalized assignments on our randomizing end. This post will be up for plotting with your newly randomized buddies, making any changes to your assignments, asking any questions you need answered, and plotting like the dickenses you are.

Then, from the 29th to the 5th, y’all just have a ball with the chaos as usual!


MEME PROPER
Y’all know the drill. Fill out the handy form below for each of your characters to let us know what they've done, who they've done, why they've done it, and what's in store for the coming month Tag around, bounce ideas off one another, and let the good times roooooll CR flow!

syncopath: (DON'T YOU SEEEEEEEEE?)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-02 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
Mmm, see where you see problems, I see interesting plot twists. I'm not sure if the Master could project a false aura-- although I'm sure he could work on perception filters that would likely make Lorne more readily ignore any aura he sensed... of course, he'd have to know to do this beforehand.

But I also do like the idea of the Master getting up to sing and Lorne just being horrified.

What would Lorne do, exactly, if the Master struck him as suspicious?

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-02 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I mean, Lorne was around when the other Master was here, so the Master's already Bad News as far as he's concerned - he tortured his dear friend Cordelia.
syncopath: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
So chances are he wouldn't let the Master in in the first place?

[identity profile] joking.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
No, except that there is a spell on Caritas that prevents demon violence. If either the spell was extended so that the Master couldn't hurt anyone, or Lorne believed that the spell prevented him from hurting anyone, then he might allow it.
syncopath: (man on the street)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, see, the wiki says it's publicly accessible with no caveats so I never imagined the Master was barred from it. Good to know before I had him show up there for anything...

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, sorry about that. I made that page in the time before the previous Master tortured Cordelia and haven't updated it since. I... should get on that.
syncopath: (how the $@#% does this thing work)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I probably should have guessed, but it's been a while and I didn't want to assume anything!

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm, but if Lorne catches the Master singing over the tablets on some occasion - which could happen, knowing the Master - that might be interesting.
syncopath: (bad time lord)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, and that's really important information to know too. Because when I filled out the permissions meme I said that I didn't want people who could read auras knowing the Master was a bad guy right off the bat... but then again, of course Lorne already suspects that, right?

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Again, given the Master's telepathic prowess, there's no guarantee that Lorne would read him accurately. It's been shown in canon that powerful beings can disguise their true nature from Lorne despite his empathy.
syncopath: (how the $@#% does this thing work)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
And it would be over the tablets, in that scenario, which could also serve to distort some things.

But again, if Lorne's already to the point he's barring the Master from Caritas I'm not sure I see the issue? Are you envisioning the Master trying to change his mind? Or others asking Lorne to read him?

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Both, perhaps. There is the theory (which Wesley and Tara have considered, I think?) that this Master isn't the same as the previous, and Lorne could be a test of that. Plus the element of trying to fool him - could make for good drama.
syncopath: (omg wait a sec)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahhhh, I see. Did Lorne previously read him during the whole musical outbursts event thing?

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. Due to telepathic shielding, all he was able to pick up was that the Master is crazy. Which he could probably have figured out anyway :P But the craziness combined with the torture has him in an uncharitable state of mind, and Lorne isn't sophisticated enough to quickly grok the idea that this Master could be from a different timeline and thus not really the same person.
syncopath: (cool story bro)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm, so if it was shielded before, wouldn't he just pick up that the Master is crazy again?

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Unless the Master knew in advance that there was a chance he might be mind-read, in which case he might take precautions so Lorne gets something different.
syncopath: (wtf)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, what was the telepathic shielding for before, if not to give Lorne something different? Was it some kind of funky side effect when its real intent was to hide something else from someone else? /confused again

[identity profile] greenballadeer.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
The Master didn't know he was being read. The reason only the craziness got through was because he had his normal telepathic shields up (on the assumption, I suppose, that someone as latently telepathic as a Time Lord would keep some kind of shielding up at all times.) With foreknowledge and preparation, presumably the Master could prepare a more sophisticated shielding and deception.
syncopath: (omg wait a sec)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, foreknowledge such as a certain Andalite unwittingly stumbling upon a planning meeting?

[identity profile] tailblade.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I like the way you think, sir(/ma'am/honorific of choice)!
syncopath: (cool story bro)

[personal profile] syncopath 2010-10-04 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
S'ma'am?

I'm thinking we should try to do some sort of... email/IM planning with the appropriate parties as far as this spying thing because lj ooc stuff doesn't seem to work so far... but it all sounds great to me!