Open Closure [Fantasy Time-Travel Adventure]

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Katpride

Story Collector


Something happened, once, and it was not what you wanted to happen. It was so far from what you wanted to happen that it and your wishes may as well have been on different planets. Or, perhaps, they were separated by only a few centimeters, but the line was crossed in the wrong direction.

The details matter, you’ll see. The details may be the only deciding factor between your success and your failure.

The details matter to you, that is, but they do not matter to me. You would do well to remember that. All that matters to me is that you are here, and that means you must want to change something badly enough to risk changing everything. Everything for you, of course, though it may be nothing to many others.

You’ll want to collect everything you know before beginning this endeavor, and hold tight to it. When you return, your memory may be all that exists to tell you whether your quest was successful. Write it down as completely as you can, memorize it, then burn it and bury the ashes, cast them out to sea, or let the wind take them. Whatever method you’d prefer. Do what feels right. Methods, too, matter much in matters like these.

Each of you will get only one chance to change your past. If you don’t have the means, look to your neighbor. Perhaps they will have the skills you lack.

And dears, do remember this: Whatever you do, things will change. Time does not care whether they are small things or very important ones, but you will.

Be sure.



Hello everyone and welcome to my wacky time-travel RP. Before we get into it, let’s go over some key details:

  • Your character should have one (1) standout event in their past that they desperately want to change. Perhaps a death or disappearance, some unsolved mystery that still haunts them. Or some tragedy they could’ve prevented by being in the right place at the right time.
    • This should be something in their personal life, something that happened to them and not to the world at large.
    • Please write out this event (in whatever manner or point of view you’d like) so that we have “what happened” to reference when things change. You can put this in spoiler text if you’d like, but please include it.
  • We will be leaning heavily into the fantasy vibes rather than sci-fi vibes. This is a world with magic in it, and magic is a living, breathing force that may act in your favor or to your detriment. That said, all characters should be human, with normal human limitations*.
    • *Read the next section for how this gets interesting.
    • This is also set in somewhat old-timey times, definitely before cell-phones and the internet. Think vaguely DnD but without the magic items and other races.
  • I’m limiting this to a total of 5 people including myself. If you want to be considered for this group please say “aye aye, captain” in the replies to show that you read through everything. Submit your CS and I’ll get back to the four chosen people after a few days. If there’s a lot of interest I can run more threads in the same universe in the future, so don’t fret if you aren’t a part of the first run.
    • I’ll want this to be active but not to infringe on anyone’s time, so if you want to join please know I’ll want no more than a week between consecutive posts.



Rosalind Harper is sure. She has never been so sure of anything in her life. When the old woman finishes her speech, she is the first to step forward.

“I am sure.” She keeps her chin held high, looking evenly (if slightly down) at the stoop-backed woman. She keeps her hands at her sides rather than reaching up to touch her own face, the pronounced jowls on the old lady making her question, again, whether she has ones of her own, whether it might be something intrinsic to those in their profession. But no, she has seen her face in mirrors and knows it to be thin-cheeked and sharp, with none of the roundness of youth or the wrinkles of age.

“How did you dispose of the ashes?” The old woman asks.

“I tossed them from my roof on a blustery day,” Harper is not ashamed to admit. It had been a trial to get onto the roof without falling off herself, but it was the only thing that seemed appropriate.

The old woman regards her for a long moment before nodding and turning to the closet behind herself. The handle turns with a small, polite sound, and the heavy clunk of a latch opening. Within - and oh, it is a treat to see within, to know that she will get to keep one of these instead of handing them out to others - is a wide array of cloaks in many different styles. Some are quite colorful, shimmering with iridescence or bright patterns. Most consist of more muted, earthy tones that range from tan to midnight black. The old woman searches for only a moment or two before turning back with a cloak, one that is long enough that she has to drape it over her arm to hold it without it brushing the floor.

It seems plain at first glance, a matte black ream of fabric with only one of its three buttons holding it shut, but when Harper takes it into her arms, it feels slightly textured, some kind of embroidery or trick of the fabric making it feel soft in one direction and reluctant to ruffle in the other.

The old woman lays her hand atop Harper’s, not tenderly but with a heavy purpose. When Harper meets her gaze, she says, “You’ve been waiting for this. Don’t let it disappoint you.”

And then the old woman goes to the next of their guests, to assess them and give them not, perhaps, what they need, but what they can no longer live without.



This is the second part of the deal: you get to travel to the past to change your event, but to do so you must take the form of an animal. You can change back into human form once you’re in the past, and switch between the two freely, but once you’ve returned to the present (upon successful or unsuccessful completion of your mission) you will be unable to access your animal form. There is only one loophole to this clause: you can join someone else's mission as many times as you'd like before attempting your own, provided that they'll let you. The first thread will be Harper's mission, so feel free to think of ideas on how reconnaissance or practice might help your character, and their motivation for joining her.

If your character chose to bury the ashes of their memories, they will be a terrestrial animal. If they gave them to the sea, they will be an aquatic animal. If they tossed them into the wind, they will be an aerial animal.

Regardless of the type, they will receive a cloak with three buttons, its fabric the color and pattern of their animal. The fabric shifts from a normal fabric to something closer to the animal’s pelt depending on how many of the buttons are fastened.

Your character must be wearing their cloak with all three buttons fastened in order to fully become their animal and gain the ability to travel into their past. If they only have one or two active, they will only partially shift, gaining some of the more distinctive traits of their animal but being unable to access their full potential. Having more buttoned will also make them more sensitive to the magic around them, so it can be a boon or a detriment depending on if they've dabbled in magic before and how the ambient magic reacts to them.



Include in Your Character Sheet:

  • Name
  • Pronouns
  • Number of Previous Ventures
  • Occupation/Skillset
  • Physical Description/Defining Characteristics
  • Animal Form
  • Past Event

Please pick a (readable) font for your character to use! If you're unsure how to do that, look at this snippet of code:
Code:
[style]
@import url(LINK_FROM_GOOGLE_FONTS_HERE);
[/style]

[font=YOUR_FONT_NAME]
words words words
[/font]
 
Name: Aiona Desalle

Pronouns: She/Her

Number of Previous Ventures: 1. It could have gone better.

Occupation / Skillset: Occupation: Social climber / Skillset: Identity theft and forgery.

Physical Description / Defining Characteristics: Brightly colored hair, usually some variant of rainbow-hued, clothing that is equally brightly hued and always in aesthetic combination with her hair. Cute shoes, cute accessories, cute style, because gosh, who, me? Tasteful and expensive attire. The taste is all hers, the expense is usually someone else's.

Animal Form: Nudibranch! Flamboyant, adorable, brightly colored... and, y'know, just a wee bit toxic.

Past Event: Ah... Well. I was the younger sister, you see. My older sister was set for life, getting ready to marry a young gentleman - very cute, really. They'd never met, of course, but it all looked very good on paper, and our parents were all for it. I was sixteen and bored out of my mind with waiting, so... I decided to meet him instead, and told him I was my sister, and things went from there. I don't regret what I did, only that I did it to my sister. I should have done it to my cousin instead, she was a complete harridan, and her husband's even richer.
 
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Rosalind Harper.png Name: Rosalind Harper ("Harper", she/her)

Number of Previous Ventures: 0. Harper has assisted with many ventures, but has never traveled to the past herself. She doesn't want to risk Time deciding that she has done her quest until the time is right. She believes it is best to prioritize her own venture, and has spent many years working with the old woman in exchange for getting to gather intel from other travelers.

Occupation/Skillset: Harper is a potion-maker. She has learned through her time with the old woman how to make the elixirs that are used in the creation of Cloaks. She often sends her own experiments along on other people's quests, to test how viable and effective they are after the Traveling. After years of doing so, she has found that only the more simple brews survive the journey, and anything too complex risks getting scrambled. Ingredients are more stable, but preparing them while in the past would require hunting down the supplies to do so.

Physical Description / Defining Characteristics: She is a tall, thin woman with a sharp nose and jaw. She dresses very modestly, tending towards long skirts and long sleeves. As she nears the transformation her straight dark brown hair begins to fluff with feathers and the tip of her nose, her fingers, and her toes darken in color.

Animal Form: Raven - can fly and carry small creatures.



The Baron killed Harper's parents, and for so many years he has been allowed to get away with it. If it were as simple as killing him, Harper would have done so long ago and washed her hands of the whole affair, but she doesn't want to kill him. She wants her parents back, and she wants him to suffer.

Over the years, she has monitored the growth of his pride and joy; the gardens surrounding his mansion. He takes great pains to maintain the expansive, lush landscape, with a team of vetted gardener-guards working around the clock to keep it safe. Rumor has it that he even eats from his own vegetable garden, though he has no need to. This is where she plans to hit him.

Hers is a mission of scorched earth; she has developed an elixir that will poison his plants, but she needs a task force to discreetly plant the poison within the water and ground while they infiltrate the estate. The true mission is this: in order to save her parents she must sneak into the Baron's study and destroy whatever blackmail he has that keeps them working for him.

 
Name: Aurora Demiscura

Pronouns: She/Her

Number of Previous Ventures: 0

Occupation/Skillset: Princess turned spy.
Aurora used to care about art, working on costumes for plays or sowing dresses for her friends and sister. She liked working on make up to help bring others ideas to life. She even had tried her hand at acting a little. She now hopes to master these skills for her own venture.

In addition to this she knows at least some on how to play politician. This wasn't something she took a liking to but there was no choice in the factor. Her brother taught her some fencing but the rusty skills from a prince always allowed to win aren't much to right home about.

Physical Description/Defining Characteristics: Fair skinned she stands at five foot four and is rather skinny. She had some muscle from dance and performing but that figures lost to trying to survive on the streets. Her hair is golden and fair, eye an enchanting green she's got a patch over the left eye however.

Animal Form: A deer, a rare sort to still have antlers even as a woman. She likes to think them regal looking even. Its also rather healthy and strong. However how useful turning into a deer is she's unsure. Idea of goring her traitorous sister isn't one she jumps to usually.

Personality: Aurora was to nice, to trusting, and passionate. Now she tries to stay up beat but she struggles to trust others. Something about the whole sister doing murder and carving out her eye thing.

Past Event:
Aurora was supposed to become a queen in time. They recently had set for an arranged marriage and the prince was at least a decent sort easy to look at. Aurora was more interested in the play she was working on with the castle staff she didn't realize her sister was growing jealous. Nights spent working on the script. Days spent working on costume designs. Evenings went on trying to get the make up effects down, in the second act they wanted it to look like the leading man took an arrow to the eye. Aurora was so much more excited to work on the play then get to know her planned husband.

Her sister Anora knew this, the eighteen year old princess looked to use this to help her with a ploy against her older sister. It was only a two year difference. Anora was only a inch taller than her sister, with blue eyes instead. They weren't identical but it was enough to assist in deception. Aurora and Anora were the only ones who knew Anora was a witch. She could hypnotize others, induce hallucinations and cast illusions. She didn't want to out herself she was nothing grand. She was however good enough to make the castle see her as Aurora. Two weeks of planning, two weeks of set up. Then she took action.

Her mother saw Aurora butcher the king hallucinating a crime that gave her a heart attack in its brutality. Her brother rushing to screaming king's aid found he stumbled every time he lashed out at her. He took Anora's left eye but hypnosis made him unable to do the job proper. With a frightened to death mother and a stabbed to death father, he failed as a knight and as a prince allowing Anora to escape. An illusion allowed her to run past the guards to enter the room of her sister. Aurora simply dead asleep from another long day working on a play and costumes than being a princess.

With a dagger ripping out Aurora's eye she woke up to facing herself. It became clear, a kingdom taken by a witch and Aurora the scape goat. Told to run away. The princess has been on the run ever sense. A tragedy sure but in the end to most Anora simply inherited the future meant for Aurora. One kingdom of many going through the motions. Leaving Aurora to run away, for a year she'd been a wanted criminal trying to hide but clutching onto her past all the same. The script she had been working on, a simple play. Until with nothing else that night she tossed this script to keep a fire going. Ashes of her past they became, ashes to become buried in a fire pit.

Which leads to now. She wants to become better at performing and playing a part. To hopefully make her way back home and change things. To be ready to lie, hide and manage subterfuge better than her sister.
 

Name: Otis Dorm

Pronouns: He/him

Number of Previous Ventures: 4, of which two were successful. He partially blames himself for the others.

Occupation / Skillset: Otis works in a bakery near the old woman's manor, creating various sweets, breads, and pastries. He found that the most common customers that would come in would be dressed in interesting cloaks, often regardless of the weather. It was from these customers that he heard about the old lady, and when she eventually came to the bakery herself, that was when Otis learned about what the cloaks could do. Beyond his baking skills, Otis also has a knack for herbology, able to identify many plants along with their uses.

Physical Description / Defining Characteristics: Otis strikes a rather warm and welcoming figure, contrasting sharply with his friend, Harper. He is a shorter, slightly pudgy man who clearly enjoys sampling his own work. He has a warm smile, kind blue eyes, a round nose, and a head full of thick, curly brown hair. He tends to wear practical clothing, with longer pants and shorter sleeves. He's almost never seen without his apron and a pair of thick leather gloves tucked into his belt, which he uses as both oven mitts and gardening gloves. As he nears his transformation, his frame appears to widen and his hair grows longer and more unkempt.

Animal Form: Otis can take the form of a grizzly bear, usually putting himself between danger and his fellow travelers. He's not an empty threat, either, despite his good nature while in human form. His claws have drawn blood, and he won't hesitate to make them do so again.



Jann and I grew up together. We were always out in the woods exploring and adventuring, tearing our clothes on thorns and getting covered in dirt. We were inseparable. So when Father died and left me the cottage, it seemed only natural that he moved in. There was more than enough space, and it just felt right to have him closer. Things remained unchanged, for the most part. Each night I would bring home leftovers from the bakery and we'd pack a little basket. We'd head out to a small clearing we'd discovered in the woods and tell each other about our day, enjoying the food and inspecting the wild plants around for anything interesting.

One night I was just tired. It had been a rough day at the bakery, I hadn't slept well, and I just wanted to go to bed. I told Jann I wasn't up for going to the clearing tonight, and he simply smiled at me. He said he'd go and check out the plants and then come back to me, and we could still catch up on our days together.

We never caught up.

He never came back to me.

I checked the clearing the next morning and found nothing. Jann had simply disappeared. Nobody could find hide nor hair of him. I know it's a lot, trying to save someone who at best disappeared and at worst died. But I'll settle for just finding out what happened to him.
 
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