Exploration Event: Neverwere

[lifeaftr_mods]

EXPLORATION EVENT: NEVERWERE

By now, the news of the strange vines that frequent the island of Ziziphus will have doubtless begun to circulate in earnest. What initially may have seemed to be ordinary flora that one would expect to frequent a vegetation-rich island like this one will turn out to be something...rather different.

As you'll soon learn.

The Answer Lies With You

Come May 15th, the purpose of these vines will rapidly and unexpectedly become clear. Their examination of the travelers upon their turf will cease, and the forests and hills of Ziziphus will abruptly come alive. Countless vines will writhe free of the soil and grass, of the bracken and undergrowth. They are, simply put, everywhere - a veritable network of rootlike appendages wound throughout every inch of the island itself - and today they're making their move. They seek to ensnare and coil around anyone and everyone in their path, winding around their arms and legs and pinioning them with remarkable alacrity. Those who are particularly agile may be able to fight their way free...but it's equally likely that they'll be overwhelmed by sheer, incredible numbers. For every vine that's lopped off, burned, or otherwise destroyed, three more spring forth in its place. Everyone on Ziziphus at the time of the 15th will be targeted.

They won't stop until they've wrapped around you entirely. And then...and then...?

Then, you'll start to feel incredibly, peculiarly drowsy. You can't seem to keep yourself from closing your eyes...

And All Your Dreams Are Still As New

Eventually, you wake, and when you do, it is to the most perfect world imaginable. Perhaps it's the world you belong to, having reached a point of peace, no matter how unrealistic. The changes can be as vast and all-encompassing as necessary, or as small as on one, key absence. The villain never existed in the first place. A character never died. A war never occurred, allowing the kingdom to flourish and thrive. Maybe it's a different world entirely - a blissful, ideal paradise, that white-picket fence you always dreamed about, a perfectly suburban house with two-point-five kids and a couple big dogs, just for kicks. No matter the world you're envisioning, there's only one limitation:

This is a world in which your character is earnestly and completely happy, no matter what shifts must take place in order to achieve it. This is a world in which your character has nothing to worry about, a perfect fantasy taken to its logical extreme. They are as successful as they want to be, with the home and family they always imagined.

When coming up with your character's ideal world, consider the following points:

[ ♆ ] If based on their canon, this world may be considered an AU. Conflicts have either already been triumphed over, or never occurred, leaving your character to reap the benefits of peace that come afterwards. What changes need to be made to ensure this blissful peace are entirely up to you. Ideally, your character has achieved everything that they wished to achieve. If they wanted to be a leader, find a cure for an illness, or stop a world destroying event, they have done so.

[ ♆ ] While these fantasy worlds can be based on your character's canon, they do not have to be. The only stipulation is that they must be something your character would feasibly consider their perfect world.

[ ♆ ] Other characters within LifeAftr will most certainly drop into your character's dream world at some point. For close CR, what is their role now? Are you a family? How do others fit in?

[ ♆ ] The mods have worked on a template to help people compose their world, with examples down below!

Of course, characters are hardly restricted to their own dreams. Much the same as the dreams characters would be exposed to during a normal sleep cycle, dreams that seem to expand over years can take place in a fraction of a second. Entire histories can be compounded down to mere minutes.

Additionally, the characters are connected through the very vines that have induced this fantasy, and will allow them to traverse each other's dreams. This crossing over may be purely accidental, or it may be a willful desire to see someone you know. The bottom line is that the more dreams your character takes part in, the more aware they may become that everything is not quite as it seems.

As the event progresses, those who are not on Ziziphus will not be immune. The dreamworld of Mu, bolstered by the intricate network of self-contained fantasies that have abruptly taken up residence in its landscapes, will seek to pull in anyone who falls asleep and trap them under the same spell. Hope you have some coffee on hand, or some other method of stimulating yourself so that you don't doze off, because you very well may not wake if you do.

And Happiness Is What You Need So Bad As mentioned above, characters' best chances of escaping the vines is to regain awareness that what they’re seeing (and living) is false. There are multiple things that characters may pick up indicating this falsehood, and we encourage people to be creative!

For those who would like a few ideas, discrepancies may show themselves in the following manner:

[ ♆ ] The more dreams your character partakes in, the more confused their roles and identities in these worlds may become. They may assume the role of a soldier in a world that has no need for such things, or identify someone as family in a dream that they are not.

[ ♆ ] While the composer of a dream may have memories of someone close in their canon residing in this world, characters from LifeAftr cannot have memories of someone they've never met before. A large discrepancy could occur if, for example, a close family member does not recognize the name of your character’s life partner.

[ ♆ ] Clocks and numbers. One of the largest indications of dreams is often the inability to read time and numbers. Your character may have a watch, or attempt to read a train timetable, only to find they cannot.

[ ♆ ] A total lack of conflict, no matter how unrealistic, may give away the false nature of these worlds. For example, even little things like running out of food or needing to do an undesirable chore will never come to pass...ever.

The more your character can decouple themself from this false reality, the lesser the hold of the vines that keep them entrapped. As more gaps in the fabricated narrative appear, the fantasy world will start to decay - perhaps in a very visceral, physical sense, or perhaps in a more abstract sense - and flickers of reality will begin to creep in: the strong stench of rot, the sensation of being bound up in vines, the heavy sense of fatigue that weighs you into the ground. If you can rouse yourself from this dream utterly, the vines will not fight to keep you. You can claw yourself free without any barrier, save the extreme lethargy that will accompany waking.

It seems that the vines didn't expect you to be able to wake at all.

What Fun It All Would Be

Naturally, there's more at stake than some fun little dreams where no one wants for anything. As circumstances would have it, the vines that keep your characters trapped in their fantastical delusions are slowly sapping them of life, as evidenced by the incredible exhaustion that sets in, should you free yourself. The instant the vines put you under, they have begun to feed upon you, and your capacity to sustain them can only last so long. Likewise, those who are caught in Mu's pull will risk death the longer they are under - if not by malnutrition and dehydration, then by being slowly drained of life by whatever has commandeered the land of Mu. Once trapped, characters have four days to free themselves through their own skill and cunning, or to be freed by an intervening party that forcibly wakes them or cuts them out of the vines' thrall. During that period, they will grow progressively weaker. For example, a character freed on the first day may only need a couple hours of recovery time. A character freed on the very last day may need a full day to shake off the soporific effects of the vines.

Those who die in the grip of those fantasy realms without being woken will suffer a death, and will need to submit the occurrence to our Deaths page. Their death penalties will not be reduced and must be endured for the entire period.

What Next?

On the third day of this onslaught, the Storyteller will attempt to contact those that are still conscious and free of the vines' influence - it will take them some time to reach those still awake without risking them being sucked into the fantastical vortex that has been made of Mu.

From there, questions will be answered...and a solution will be presented for those still awake to exact it.

Lastly, we would like to thank Michelle, player of our resident Mira, Akechi, and Noctis, for proposing this plot!

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] May 15th: The vines make their move, ensnaring characters in ideal fantasy worlds
[ ♆ ] May 17th: The Storyteller will make contact with those they can, as well as issue information and a potential solution
[ ♆ ] May 18th: Those that have not freed themselves from the vines or from Mu will suffer a death

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

[lifeaftr_mods]

[crosslaced]

does fire work on the vines? also, what about companion animals on Ziziphus?

[flyfisher]

if someone steps into the dream and becomes a part of it, can this alter their appearance? i.e. since there are no humans in myia's world, would humans become bugs or whatever to fit in with myia's dream? because the existence of humans would kinda sour her dream world a bit (sorry for myias speciesism)

[promiselisting]

Just to clarify, it mentions that characters can't have memories of someone they never met, how would that work for characters who know of someone but haven't met them? Would they just not recognize them? Or would that just be a good opportunity for clash of actual reality versus dream reality???

i.e. for Aster, she's told plenty of people about her adoptive dad, Reno, but obviously nobody's ever met him. Would they

Sorry I'm tired hgalkjdf

[byhalves]

This is in the same vein as Javid's, but would characters be able to gain powers in someone else's dream? In Shouto's about 80% of the world has quirks so he'd default assume everyone in his ideal world would have them as well.

AU TEMPLATE

[lifeaftr_mods]

While this is optional, it may be helpful for event plotting!

Character name:
Character canon:
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Whether it's an idealized AU or a different world entirely, feel free to expand on the idea behind it here!
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Are they a content ruler? A cheerful everyman? A solitary hermit? The only limitation is that this is something that makes them genuinely happy.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: If you're considering giving your character a family or friends, but you're not sure which characters might be involved, it's a good idea to add a comment below that you can edit to add in characters and their roles as plotting continues!
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Does your character have a significant other that wouldn't recognize another character as a friend? Is there a jarring disparity between one's role in canon and one's role in this newly imagined universe that may hint that things are not as they should be? Get creative!

<b>Character name:</b> <b>Character canon:</b> <b>Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed?</b> Whether it's an idealized AU or a different world entirely, feel free to expand on the idea behind it here! <b>Briefly explain your character's role in this world:</b> Are they a content ruler? A cheerful everyman? A solitary hermit? The only limitation is that this is something that makes them genuinely happy. <b>Other roles characters might assume in this world:</b> If you're considering giving your character a family or friends, but you're not sure which characters might be involved, it's a good idea to add a comment below that you can edit to add in characters and their roles as plotting continues! <b>Potential discrepancies others may pick up:</b> Does your character have a significant other that wouldn't recognize another character as a friend? Is there a jarring disparity between one's role in canon and one's role in this newly imagined universe that may hint that things are not as they should be? Get creative!

Prompto

[want_to_belong]

Character name: Prompto
Character canon: FFXV
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Prompto's ideal world is very simple. Their team went from Galdin Quay to Altissia without ever meeting Ardyn. Noctis and Luna got married. Somewhere along the way he married Cindy. They have kids and he's still hanging out with Noct like normal.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Noct's friend and one of the Crownsguard, Prompto is more of an everyman than anything else. He's just happy to have his buddy and be married. Also, everyone is alive, which is awesome.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Cindy exists but isn't on the island. Any kids involved with him or Noct don't exist and would be vaguely defined. His world would be relatively normal life with more interactions with other Crownsguard and more time in the palace. Otherwise, he'd be living a pretty average but comfortable life in Insomnia, and the city is full of all kinds of people.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: They kids just sort of 'exist' without any particularly defining traits or names. Dead characters are alive again. There's no Ardyn and the Empire has been defeated, somehow. Prompto doesn't have his barcode. Chocobos are now a thing inside of Insomnia. (Also, Iggy can see!)

REN

[catpiper]

Character name: Ren
Character canon: Fragile Dreams
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed?
MAIN POINTS
+ Isn't sick or dying
+ Literally Enso With More Flowers and Cats
+ Like, there are so many cats. Seriously.
+ Her ideal world is the one she's living right now, right down to the tent in the woods, there won't be much variation in the setting.
+ There's a school by the Storyteller's temple and people play baseball there-that's it.
+ She knows m a g i c.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: THIS SIMPLE GIRL. HER SIMPLE DESIRE IS TO have things stay the way they are, but she's definitely cooking more in this reality.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: U CAN CONFIRM WHETHER OR NOT U WANT YOUR PEOPLE TO BE A PART OF THIS. This is just sorta tentative since Ren's ideal world is big family, together forever.
+ Seto (best friend)
+ Lup/Taako (aunt/uncle for realsies)
+ Magnus (uncle??) Krav (uncle??)
+ Guzma (Brother) Luna (sister) ??
+ Chara (friend?? Sibling??)
+ Drifter (friend)
+ Tim (friend)
+ Ichimatsu (pet)
+ MAYBE. MORE.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: She Should Not Know Magic, also cooking?? That's wrong, there are no ghosts/monsters/anything dangerous ever, food never rots, water's always clean, I'm still thinking of things for this let me live i'm so tired.

[scourgingstars]

Character name: Ardyn Izunia
Character canon: Final Fantasy XV
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? The kingdom of Lucis is a prosperous and flourishing nation, with its capital of Insomnia a magnificent city--but not the Insomnia some might recognize. A technological marvel of magitek, the kingdom's subjects live in relative peace without the threat of daemons manifesting after sunset. Though some political tension does loom on the horizon with Niflheim to the west, the people look to their king and his court to protect them, regarding their monarch as one with the interests of the Lucian populace at heart.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: The ruler of this nation that flourishes beneath the light of the sun is Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a kind and noble king beloved by his subjects and possessing powerful magic. He can often be found outside the tall spires of the Citadel, walking among the people as their equal.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: If asked, he'll acknowledge Gilgamesh as his Shield/bodyguard, but will believe himself an only child with no siblings. If anybody wants to sneak in as a presumed Solheim!Insomnia native or anything else, by all means feel free.
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: i mean the fact that he's not psychotic and is also in charge of the place is kind of a moderate red flag. Also the drastically different Insomnia and aforementioned lack of a brother anywhere in the picture.

tl;dr someone's going to have to physically drag him the hell out of this because he's not going anywhere

Edward Elric

[solperierat]

Character name: Edward Elric
Character canon: Fullmetal Alchemist
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Edward's ideal world is simple: his Mom never died, so he and Al never needed to perform human transmutation, and Dante isn't around making the country suck literal ass. The military is a vague thing that exists without ever needing to interfere with anything, and death never comes to haunt anyone in his hometown. He is still able to study alchemy thanks to his father's library left behind, which somehow manages to be a rival to those found in Central despite being the size of a typical office--the right book is simply always on the shelf when you look for it.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Ed lives with his mother and brother, and the three of them live peacefully together.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: Anyone Ed knows would fall into two categories: travelers that pass through town from time to time, or other residents of Risembul. It's a small village, the main livelihood of which is raising sheep for wool--there might be a few farmers with crops, but the village is close enough to a large desert that the soil isn't the most fertile. It's a very calm town, with the most exciting thing being strangers coming through the train station and whatever gossip might be floating around that week.
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Trisha Elric and Alphonse Elric, Ed's mother and younger brother, will likely not be recognized. Other strangers that are particularly close to Edward are Winry and Pinako Rockbell, family friends who run an automail shop--the existence of which might be confusing to anyone that hasn't met Edward not from Ryslig. Edward himself is much happier and relaxed, and very human--his mood is mellowed out into a pretty typical young man with little to worry about in his life, though he is still very much an over-intelligent snob about certain subjects. He's still recognizably himself, but with all the trauma stripped away.

TIM WRIGHT

[postictal]

Character name: Tim Wright (postictal)
Character canon: Marble Hornets

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Very simple. It's an ideal set-up in rural Alabama, minus the Operator's everything.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Tim is...normal. Really, that's it. Any mental health difficulties he might still have are well within manageable limits. He still talks to his mom. He never grew up in a hospital. He has an ordinary day job he's under no risk of being fired from for disappearing for weeks on end. He doesn't have coughing fits, he doesn't get hours-long headaches, and he doesn't black out for long periods of time. He still attends college with his best friend Brian, and is actively majoring in music theory.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Honestly, I'm wide open. He can have friends, family, coworkers, people he visits. Maybe he has adopted several small children, or visits them semi-regularly. Maybe he's in like, a fucking band or something, like a fucking dork.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: The most important and noticeable one is that Tim is happy. He smiles and laughs easier, he's more relaxed, he's significantly more clean-shaven, and his rampant paranoia and prickly spike-balls of defense mechanisms are all but absent. He's more open, too: he talks frankly about his problems and his past, devoid of his typical resentment and blunted jabs. With no Operator to exacerbate his problems, he's learned to manage them, and doesn't deal with any of that associated guilt or built-up sense of self-loathing. He hasn't repressed any of his interests - he loves music, pursues it in his spare time, and considers making a career out of it later in life (ha ha).

Donn

[venesection]

Character name: Donn
Character canon: Original
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Donn's ideal world is built upon a contradiction: he is still the Apostle, but every last one of the kids who came before him were allowed to live instead of being sacrificed. Rather than changing the time of his birth to 30 years previous, Donn's ideal world simply brings all those children and young teenagers back to life.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: He's still the Apostle, a human-turned-faun that plays host to the forest spirits and who serves as a guardian-healer figure for his community. The only major difference is that he's treated much more warmly by his former neighbors (and family) than in canon; they stand close to him, speak to him as an equal and friend, touch him (chastely) without reservation, and overall lavish him with the sort of platonic affection you might show to a sibling or a close friend.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: Donn's village is quite rustic and secluded, populated mostly by farmers, hunters, fishermen, the occasional blacksmith, a village elder or two, and the like. There's also a looot of kids and young teenagers. The village is surrounded by a rather dense, heavy forest that goes on for miles.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: There are WAY TOO MANY KIDS + YOUNG TEENS in the isolated, vaguely!Middle Ages-era village of Donn's dream world, far more than should be realistically possible even after accounting for a lack of birth control or a cultural preference for large families — the numbers just don't add up! Several of these non-adults are well-defined, with distinguishing traits and names, who give every impression of being actualized people; but to borrow an excellent idea from Prompto-mun above me, many, many more simply "exist" and seem more like hazy figments. Also, everyone seems to alternate between calling the goatboy "Donn" and "Donnchadh"; while these are both Actual Real Names that sound similar, something about the way they're spoken will give the impression of belonging to completely different people.

for forever, but it's real instead of a pile of lies

[yourattention]

Character name: Connor Murphy
Character canon: Dear Evan Hansen

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Are you ready for Dear Evan Hansen, But Now All Of Evan's Lies Are Real?

If you aren't familiar enough to know what that means: Dear Evan Hansen is about Evan constructing a false friendship between himself and Connor after Connor's death. In this au, that friendship is real and when Connor attempted suicide? Evan panicked and called 911 on him, saving his life. Everything else, however, is pretty much exactly the same. So basically this.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Connor is a high school senior who struggles with trying to pass his classes. It's incredibly boring and normal.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Friends and teachers, mainly, but if one of y'all wants a character to get roped into Connor's dream as his boyfriend let me know. It'll be fucking hilarious, I promise.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: It's mainly in the small details! For example, there's a lot more emotion in Connor's voice and he deflects less. He looks like he actually sleeps regularly, his fingers are regularly stained weird colors because of his art. The most important thing to catch, however, is that his nails aren't painted. People who know more about his relationship to Evan (or anyone who was around for memory sharing in December), will catch that he places a kind of weird stress on the fact that Evan is his friend and he's dating Zoe. Oh! And one last weird tick: anybody who refers to Connor by a nickname calls him Con instead of CJ.

au where auguste isn't dead

[dedamastai]

Character name: Damianos
Character canon: Captive Prince

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? There is actually a canon answer for this!

"[Damen] imagined himself nineteen again, knowing then what he knew now, and he wondered if he would have let that long-ago battle fall to the Veretians - let Auguste live. If he would have ignored his father's call to arms altogether, and instead found his way to the Veretian tents and sought out Auguste to find some common ground. Laurent would have been thirteen, but in Damen's mind's eye he would have found him a little older, sixteen or seventeen, old enough that Damen's nineteen-year-old self could have begun, with all the exuberence of youth, to court him."

So! There's that. For whatever reason, Damen's version of events is likely to go completely off the rails from Laurent's after that point. For some reason, Auguste is not king of Vere and Laurent is? They jointly rule the two kingdoms from a neutral zone between the two. It's fine, don't worry about the logistics of that.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Damen is ruler of Akielos! You know, like he is anyway.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: It's pretty wide open! Your character can be a noble of Vere (fake France) or Akielos (fake Greece), they can be a bodyguard, hell you can be Damen's family and he will not bat a single eyelash.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Anyone who was around in December for, uh. Memory share? Yeah, Kastor is nice. You know, like Damen actually thinks he is instead of like a person who stabbed Damen twice. Also nobody should recognize Auguste, who is just. Here? He's not dead or anything, he's just not king - which is a weird flag in and of itself, because Auguste is clearly older than Laurent. All in all, though, Damen's dream is pretty fucking difficult to detect discrepancies in.

THE DRIFTER

[hyperlit]

Character name: The Drifter
Character canon: Hyper Light Drifter

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Their world isn't being poisoned by an Immortal Cell, and therefore none of the enemies in the north, south, east, or west ever rose to power. The civilizations present in Buried Time are peaceful and happy. The Drifter's race isn't subject to any fantasy racism. The Titans never emerged to ravage the world, and thus their bodies were never salvaged and used in the labs of the south.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: The Drifter lives in Central with the Guardian. They suffer no terminal illness. They never lost use of their voice, though they're still largely nonverbal and prefer to communicate via text or sign language. They're less prone to fatigue, regularly engaging in recreational games of things like soccer purely for the fun and thrill of it.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Other people who live in Central! This means NPCs fellow villagers - swordmasters, dashmasters, techmasters, gunsmiths, vendors for food and potions, busking musicians, merchants, gardeners, and so on. Maybe you LIVE with the Drifter too!! There's also a kid that plays soccer, whom the Drifter loves going toe to toe with c:

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Perhaps the biggest one is the fact that the Drifter is still the Drifter, but they don't...drift. Without the hunt for a cure or fragments of a long-dead history to retrieve, their purpose has been rendered obsolete. The wanderlust and need to search for something still nags at them, but it's seemingly sourceless and they can't say why. Their pious nature seems strangely out of place, too, seeing as they've never embarked on a mission on any god's behalf. Most of the people in Central are...animal-type people in design (they resemble otters, raccoons, lizards, etc.) so anyone who looks distinctly...not like that will probably strike the Drifter as odd. The lack of disdain and cruelty for the blue-skinned people, for anyone familiar with that part of the Drifter's history, will be equally bizarre.

Keith

[thermalwind]

Character name: Keith Kogane
Character canon: Voltron
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Keith's ideal world is a universe at peace. The threat of the Galra empire is over, their dependence on quintessence ended. Voltron is still needed but only for emergencies and to maintain that peace.

The dual Black Paladins from Voltron lead their team neither taking the full weight of decisions but sharing in the burdens as equals. New Altea is home to refugees and some small scattering of Alteans that were discovered and the homebase of Voltron.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: As co-Black Paladin he and Shiro together discuss objectives and ideas on what way to best help their universe. He's confidence, sure of himself, and mostly...calm.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Coran exist but have never been on the island. His father is vaguely defined but present.
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Completed missions all have numbers by them that should be dates and times, they're actually a coded sos. Shiro is no longer missing an arm and his hair is all black. Keith is in his red paladin gear. Pidge, Hunk, and Allura will never speak. They're just present. The Galra are peacefully a nation that lacks the Victory or Death motto.

The Lions move their heads only when Keith passes. Plants on new Altea mirror plants on Zizyphus.

[crosslaced]

Character name: Laurent
Character canon: Captive Prince
NOTE: Laurent will go under at the very start of the event and will claw himself out in a few hours - half a day, so his dreamscape is available for only a very short time! I'll probably not be toplevelling, let me know if you want your character to dreamhop into this series, or alternatively look for his husband Damianos who will be running a very similar dreamscape.

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Laurent has not allowed himself to fantasise much so the dream has a lot of wobbly details: but the main points are he's back home and his brother Auguste is King of Vere. He helps his brother in some kind of political work, it is unsure, also he is sometimes a librarian? The royal library is His Turf? I guess.

They're hecking engaged in real life but here Damen is courting him, because Laurent hasn't until recently considered marriage and is mostly interested in going on cute gay dates. Auguste (the King) has given his blessing. Auguste (the King) is proud of his little brother, this is supremely important.

Á̯̜͓̘u̯g̲̲̗̥͈̣̹ų̢͔̬̦̦͢ś̵̯̲̱t͚̼͡ͅe͉̱̳͚̣̘-̠̩͍͍͜͟

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: mentioned above!

Other roles characters might assume in this world: anything conceivably within a medieval court structure! Laurent's kingdom Vere is fake French, Damen's Akielos is fake Greek.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: tbh if they share a dream the moment Damen mentions who the king is Laurent is gonna overthink and wake up. ANYWAY

-Auguste’s features are indistinct.
-many details are probably inconsistent as Laurent has no template for this, and Damen's idea will be used to patch things over and things won't match.

Aster (Xion)

[attheclocktower]

Character name: Aster (Xion)
Character canon: Kingdom Hearts
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Aster is finally home again. The Organization is no longer a problem. Sora is awake and everyone is alive. And most importantly, Aster has found a way to modify dark corridors to bridge the gap between realities so all of her friends and family from other ones are able to be in one place. That's the big part, more than anything else: everyone is there.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: She's just... herself. And honestly that's like a huge deal? That she doesn't have all this pressure on her anymore to try to fix things. She can just be a normal(ish????) kid.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: Honestly? Most characters will probably pop up as "friends from other realities/canons/etc." Her dreams are simultaneously really simple and incredibly ambitious
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: The biggest, simplest one is going to be that Aster has had a lot of CR from different games that won't be recognized. The big ones will likely be her adoptive parents Reno and Elena (both from FFVII), her boyfriend Yu Narukami (P4), Suna (her retrieval unit from Animus), other close family Diarmuid and AU Waver (Fate/ [also fingerguns at Neko and Nao]), friends including Zelda (LoZ:OoT) Sheba (Golden Sun) and... okay this is getting long. Also pretty much all her canonmates, especially Roxas, Axel, Sora, and Riku.

Another big thing is all of the details on this dream will be really vague and not hold up much to poking or prodding. How was the Organization dealt with? who knows. How is Sora awake without her going back? no explanation. The hows aren't really important. All that matters is that everyone is here and everyone is happy and everything is fine.

Those'll probably be enough to do it by themselves but all the same I'll add more as I think about them.

Lance

[thegoofball]

Character name: Lancey Lance
Character canon: Voltron
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? It's a world where Lance was never a Paladin - Earth's space travel is exceptionally advanced and they made contact with aliens long before the Kerberos Mission. The Galra aren't trying to kill everything, and Altea was never destroyed. Voltron still exists as a nebulous guardian figure, with Keith as the Red Paladin and Allura as Blue.
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: He's just The Support Guy who kind of...exists in the shadow of Voltron. He was top of his class in the Garrison, but asides from that he doesn't stand out much. He's mostly here to make sure everyone else is doing okay, which of course they are b/c nobody needs to save the universe.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: I'll slap down a comment below but the main categories would probably fall into Family, Friends, and Alien Ambassadors. Or maybe even all of the above!!
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: His family is there, but seem completely oblivious to the fact that aliens are real and are actually right there within line of sight? Voltron and everything related to it are something every human is completely unaware of as well. The weather is always Perfect. The Castle of Lions is always out in the distance, parked on a beach, no matter where you are or where you're looking from.

shouto

[byhalves]

Character name: Shouto Todoroki
Character canon: My Hero Academia
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? It's similar to the world he came from before, and the largest difference for Shouto is that his father never had the overwhelming desire to be the number one hero. Endeavor is the farthest thing from a household name, and he and his wife had a loving relationship. They have three boys and one girl, Shouto's mother was never hospitalized, he was never isolated from his brothers and sister during his childhood. Any training prior to enrollment to UA was much simpler and fitting for his age. Villains still exist, but they're more petty criminals who get up to wacky hijinks. (Think Saturday morning cartoon levels of harmless danger and OTT schemes.)
Briefly explain your character's role in this world: He's still a student at UA, and still one of the top students in his class. He's on good terms with everyone, and he passed his provisional license exam. He has an internship and is well on his way to having a successful career despite only being a first year. Nobody expects him to live up to his father's legacy, though, because Endeavor never pushed himself to the top position.
Other roles characters might assume in this world: I'll add a comment in, and it'll depend on mod verdict re: powers, but younger characters could be classmates, adult characters can be pro heroes and teachers.
Potential discrepancies others may pick up: The big one is Shouto would no longer have the scar on his face, and his hair is pure white. Everyone living in the world (his teachers, 1-A classmates, etc.) assumes anyone who enters the dream has a "quirk" and might ask characters about what theirs is, but won't clarify what they're asking for if questioned. Crime and villainy are treated by everyone as just a minor inconvenience, and any injury is never as severe as it should be.

The Hunter

[meredream]

Character name: The Hunter (meredream)
Character canon: Bloodborne

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? That he never contracted whatever disease that lead the Hunter to going to Yharnam to find a vague cure and signing up to join on the Hunt.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: A nameless man wandering a a long path. No seriously. The Hunter's dream is incredibly basic because his happiest dream is a mere idle fantasy. He won't have any of his equipment/Hunter's outfit/ect, however.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: As the Hunter does not yet have much cross-canon CR in LifeAfter, anyone who wanders into the Hunter's dream will simply be someone else who's waking the same path as he is. Characters from Bloodborne itself can be found in worn graves lining the road.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: The biggest discrepancy is how starkly simple this dream is, almost as if it was born of an idle fantasy rather then any deep longing on the Hunter's part. It's literally just a path - a straight line with a moon in the sky. There is also a path beside the one the Hunter himself is walking on - one that's covered with thick trees and bushes but if someone squints hard enough, they'll see a few friends watching and waiting.

Plotting comment

[meredream]

don't reply here please!

Seto

[buryyourfriends]

Character name: Seto (buryyourfriends)
Character canon: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins Of The Moon

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Seto's dream will be taking place inside the dream he shared with Ren in canon - a normal, everyday high school. There's no apocalypse, no crazy AI guy trying to kill him, nothing. Seto's friends are still alive (Crow, Ren, PF and Sai), although they're conveniently "away" unless Crow or Ren tag in.

...bar one situation.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Seto's just a normal kid living his best life as a high school student. He has parents in this dream, but they're vaguely defined and, for those he's talked to about his Grandpa, have traits of the older man split between the two.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Characters from Seto's canon are all sorted into 'students' as per the school dream from the manga. As for everyone from LifeAftr, they'll be split between teachers and students, but in a weird way. Seto defines age by height, so if you're tall enjoy being a teacher regardless of your age and shorter characters may wind up as students.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up:
All the people that aren't characters Seto knows from canon/met on LifeAftr are blank-faced "insert background character" kind of pod people. They will respond if spoken too, however, and those with CR with Seto may find some of the student's personalities...familiar. Almost as if something copy and pasted their personalities onto the students. Also it's impossible to leave the school itself despite anything stating otherwise and it's always nighttime outside.

Finally there is a desk beside Seto's that has a white flower in a vase on top of it. Disturbing this flower is a bad idea.

Plotting comment

[buryyourfriends]

hold off on replying here please!

MERLE HIGHCHURCH

[thornyonmain]

Character name: Merle Highchurch
Character canon: The Adventure Zone

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Well, if you weren't living on island time already, you're definitely living on island time now. It's essentially Enso, but with a lot more quaint beachfront property. Ever heard James W. Buffett's hit tune "Margaritaville"? That's basically what you're living right now. All margaritas all night long. Virgin ones for the kids. Lots of music and dancing every night. Hawaiian shirts for everybody. The music in the background is mainly a hit list of Kenney Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, and (inexplicably) Kesha.

The living vines make a feature appearance as everyone's favorite sitcom character -- you know, the one that gets cheers every time they enter the room -- that is just such a rascal! They're mischievous, playing pranks and such, and almost... flirtatious? Oh god.

Also there's just lots of the Arboreali around. Merle loves those things. Damn.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Merle is a stay at home dad who can party with his kids without it being weird. Also, he's filthy rich. Basically, Merle can just chill twenty-four-sev and use some of those 1,999 Party Points for good.

Also we don't talk about his relationship with the vines.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Well, the whole IPRE are there Already, and they're a big happy family and they all love each other and no one ever fights and it's great. In this house, we love and support Lucretia. Also, I guess everyone's aware Merle's a dad now, because Mavis and Mookie are making appearances as loving children who don't actually need that much looking after. Even Mookie, who is somehow managing not to poison himself instantly despite being in a tropical island.

Other characters can show up and chill, Merle honestly doesn't give a shit who or what you are as long as you adhere to rule no. 1: "No bummers". It's on one of these signboards posted on the island. The rest of the rules in that picture are on there too hell why not. Come party with him. The most important thing is everyone loves each other and has fun.

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: When entering this dream, you will start to genuinely enjoy Kenny Chesney. You will think "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" is a jam.

That is just unsustainable.

Also everyone's favorite dimension voring artist John Hunger will appear, only he'll be totally chill. This is pretty weird to anyone who knows about the Hunger. He'll be looking pretty opalescent for a human also, but it's fine. He gives motivational seminars at the beach that feature such hits as "You've gotta dance every day" and "Ball till you fall and then get back up and ball some more" and "Socks with sandals are in".

The motivational speaking isn't that great, honestly, and will start to get more and more repetitive as the dream goes on.

[catpiper]

God sign her up. Merle's reality is so good, give her a virgin mai tai and let's call it a day.

MYIA

[flyfisher]

Character name: Myia
Character canon: Original

Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? So some people might look at Myia's canon and be like, "The best way to make this a utopia is to get rid of the cannibalism and the capitalism and dismantle the harvester state". And you wouldn't be wrong. But you would also completely miss the mark of what Myia thinks would make it a utopia.

Meaning the world revolves around Myia. Instead of capitalism we're now in feudalism. There's a giant golden castle in a quaint little village of majority-bug people. Everything is Myia-themed. All love Myia.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Myia is a queen sitting on her throne in Bugtown while her loyal forager-type harvesters collect fruit and plant people for her to eat. She eats lingonberry crepes every day and plant steak every night.

Sapre is her best friend rather than her enemy, and Emet has confessed their undying love for her. Maybel steals beautiful golden and gem encrusted jewelry for her from, like, wherever, where Myia keeps it all in a treasury akin to the Cave of Wonders. Carmine is her butler and follows her every word.

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Myia needs loyal subjects to worship the ground she walks on and foragers to??? kill plant people for her to feast on. Can you fucking believe Myia is not an antagonist in her story jesus fuck

Alsoooooooo anyone getting in on this has the option to be not human, if you are. In other words some kind of animal, mammalian or otherwise. You can be a weird mermaid or something and be a fish, it'll be great. This includes plants so like get weird with it.

Examples:
1 (from left to right, top to bottom: fruit fly, namaqua rain frog, crow, venus flytrap, flesh fly)
2 (better view of the frog)
3 (better view of the venus flytrap)
4 (red paper wasp)

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: Yeah there is no way anyone could possibly look at this world where everyone worships and loves Myia the stinkbug and be like, "Yeah, that seems normal." It's eerie how everyone just goes along with what she says, even as she insults people??? She'll call Carmine hideous and Carmine will just be like "sounds fair, good judgment queen myia". Basically the glaring weak point in this is Myia's awful personality horribly clashing with the dream world.

Also, if your character has been transformed for the dream, this might cause?? confusion. Was I always a weird bug? Similarly, if a human character slips through unaltered, Myia will be like "wtf" because she's a big speciesist. About this species she just discovered recently. Rude.

Shion

[savedbyasong]

Character name: Shion
Character canon: No.6
Briefly explain what their ideal world is like - how has it changed? Shion's world involves a lot of country side and plants. There is an ocean and expansive forests, a meadow and a city. The city is quite large and at a high level of technology but seems to be in harmony with all the nature. There are a lot of libraries. Like a unreasonable amount of libraries. And everyone living there is content with the fact that no one is controling them. They are in this world of their own choice, no one made them come here, there are no gods, no one that can control their thoughts, actions or bodies. There's pleanty of food and everyone lives in equilibrium with each other, no one is higher than anyone else and everyone helps each other. There are a lot of animals, cats, dogs, mice and they are everywhere but they are not strays as such, they are just... communal pets. Everyone looks after them.

Briefly explain your character's role in this world: Shion is married to Rat and they live in a house that is full of books, they both work at one of the many libraries and Rat is happy and at peace. Shion's mum lives in the city too, Safu is alive and planning a marriage. Her grandma lives nearby. Dog keeper lives in some kind of dog palace that is always warm. Aster lives there having solved all her own worlds issues and is dating Yu and they are super happy. Reno and Elena live there, same with Diarmuid and Waver (again after retiring from sorting out Waver's world), Xue'Kol and sweet thang as do other people Shion knows both from the tower and the islands. They have all chosen to come to this world after resolving things in their own worlds. Shion is really happy and at peace. He is just... getting on with life and being around all his friends and family and basking in the fact that nothing bad will ever happen to them here

Other roles characters might assume in this world: Anyone can live here! People that will definitely crop up are those who Shion knows or assumes have rubbish home worlds/deserve better. So Connor, Tim, Seto and Ren, Dagger. I'm probably forgetting people but literally Shion's perfect world is some safe haven for lost souls so anything goes!

Potential discrepancies others may pick up: The most obvious one is how much this world does not make sense. How did they get there? How is the tech level so high but there seems to be no negative effects like polution etc? Where did the technology come from anyways? Is there a government? What about law control? Apparantly everyone just behaves themselves on some kind of honour basis that is not really realistic.

A lot of the details are vague, non specific people like Safu's boyfriend are very... generic. No actual traits at all past they are all really nice

Rat's eyes have no defined colour, most the time you can't look into his eyes at all, your mind automatically fixes somewhere else

None of the No.6 canon people (Rat, Karen-mum, Dogkeeper, Safu) will recognise any of Shion's extended friends and family including his sister Aster and his adopted dad and adopted step-mum Reno and Elena despite Shion and Rat being married and everyone having lived here for a while

Anyone who visits Aster's world and Shion's world will get some serious de-ja-vu in characters. Some will be different but many will be the same despite their worlds being different

[savedbyasong]

Don't reply to this so I can edit with plans!

So far my plans are that Shion is going to wake reasonably quickly because he barely believes the actual... world is real never mind this. Also he is quite observant and will pick up on descrepencies quickly. Then try and rescue as many people as possible however that ends up being done! So if you want a save please let me know!

I know he is definitely saving Aster!