Real & Half-Real: Iskierka's Notes | OTA

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Who: Illarion's Omen Iskierka and anyone who happens to stumble across her notes.
What: Receiving messages from hell.
When: March 5 onward, after Sayo's full return to the Waking World.
Where: Throughout Trench and the Levels

Content warnings: All of the following are mentioned or discussed obliquely: magical zombies, mind control, emotional manipulation, war-time violence, murder of family members, drug use, cannibalism, suicide, hallucinations/derealization, existential horror, apocalyptic setting, kidnapping, enslavement.



Iskierka has not been idle while her Sleeper is missing from Trench. Somewhere, he's wandering a hell far removed from the Waking World; somewhere, he rehearses to himself the briefing he might give to any would-be rescuers when they arrive, what is necessary to survive and sufficient for Sayo's ritual. When hoping for rescue pales on him, he dictates his thoughts to the air or an animal or a corpse's patient ear, and she hears it.

She hears every word of it, and she cannot respond; she listens faithfully, and the words fill her head to the point of forgetting. When there's no more room for them, she writes. With whatever comes to hand--beg buy borrow or steal--on whatever surface she can find, she writes--scratches out--rewrites. Notes and letters emerge beneath her pen, and she takes them where she thinks they belong. Some she abandons in significant places and others she brings to significant people, urging them to take this fragment of her lost Sleeper.


It may help, when they go to rescue him. If anyone can.

[[ OOC: Real & Half-Real Plot Write-Up and Interest Check, for those just joining us. Even if you haven't left a comment there you're more than welcome to join in on finding notes!

See comments for how to use this post and tasty tasty plot hooks. ]]

Comments

(frozen comment) OOC | HOW TO USE THIS POST

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Highly recommended that you go read the plot write-up if you're not familiar with it!

All of the notes listed in comments below can be found around Trench or given to Sleepers who interact with Illarion's Omen, Iskierka. The OOC portion at the top of each note details where it can be found, whether there's multiple copies floating around, and any conditions on receiving it from Iskierka. Anyone can find any note out in Trench; the conditions are only on whether or not a given character could be directly handed the note by Illarion's Omen.

Notes left around Trench can be found by ordinary sleuthing or searched out via supernatural means, such as Paleblood visions or psychometry. As a bonus for Sleepers with keen senses of smell, they do have Illarion's scent on them. Many of them will also be easy to simply stumble upon in the open.

Notes labeled "A" -- for "analysis" -- in the header are dry facts of the world. These are generally easier to find. Notes labeled "O" -- for "opinion" -- contain more of Illarion's thoughts and feelings about his subjects. These are harder to find and might be more cryptic.

If you'd like your character to get a note, you've got options:

1. Use the note comment as a top level. If you want Iskierka to deliver it, just put "for Iskierka" in the header and I'll hit you up.
   
2. Comment with a link to another thread where the note is discovered, whether incidentally or as the focus of the thread.
   
3. Just post you're claiming it, with a little description of how that goes down.

All plot-relevant knowledge in the notes can be assumed available by the start of the next phase of the plot, so don't worry about rigidly claiming notes or having to thread for them. This is more of a make-your-own-scavenger-hunt that you can participate in exactly as much as is fun for you.

Feel free to hit me up with any questions or requests via DM or Discord (Plagueheart#0051). And above all, have fun!