![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missrecalled_mods posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
missrecalled_oocHello, all!
This event is going to be a little weird, even by Missrecalled standards.
The inspiration for this event is the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Darmok.
For those unfamiliar with the episode, it can be seen on Paramount+ or you can watch an abridged version (for free) here.
The short version is this: The crew finds a species that speaks only in allusions to stories in their cultural history. They wouldn't say "I have failed" they would say "Shaka, when the walls fell." All the sentences are short. There are very few verbs, and very few adjectives. There is nearly always the name of a place or a person.
In this way, very simple sentences can explain and express complex concepts and situations. For example "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" is said to express that in similar danger with a mutual enemy can an alliance or friendship be forged. The larger chain for that, for those curious is as follows:
"Darmok on the ocean. Jalad on the ocean. Tanagra on the ocean. Darmok at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. The beast at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean"
That is the full story as it is told of how Darmok and Jalad each arrived at the island Tanagra separately, together faced a beast, and then left together as friends or at least as companions.
Rarely are more than one sentence be put together this way, however. This made communication with the Enterprise crew... interesting.
But what does this have to do with Missrecalled?
Whelp, something in the translation magic is going to have a biiiiit of a break down starting on February 21st 2025. First is the written word. Poor King Ben is not going to be happy to find that every book in the library has become utterly illegible. All writing of any sort - old, new, in books, in spray paint on a wall, on a page - looks blurred and drippy and utterly unreadable. As though someone changed all the script into a language no one looking at knows and then made all the ink run.
Trying to write, the writing will look like the same running ink as soon as anyone starts.
Speaking... well people can speak. But they will find that what they are trying to say is not what actually comes out of their mouth. Whoops. Someone trying to say "I don't know what is going on" might instead say "Buzz, not a toy."
Because the basis behind all of this is... Pixar films! In place of the grand stories the Tamarians had in Trek, we have Pixar! This includes all animated Pixar movies, as well as the shorts. But not behind the scenes interviews.
Of course, characters know their own stories and those can also be used. For example if someone is trying to express that they will always be there for someone else, they might say "Sora, his Heart open" if they are from Kingdom Hearts. But remember... Just because 2 people know the same story does not mean they feel the same way about it. Someone else might try to express the same thing but say "Sora, his Heart full".
Please avoid any character using their own name or the name of anyone in the conversation. So Lea couldn't say "Lea on the rooftop with three ice creams" to remind Roxas and Xion that they are his friends, but he could say "Sunset with ice cream".
Also, where possible the shorter the sentence, the better. Let's get super creative with this!
There is however an easy mode. For the players only. This is supposed to be really hard on the characters, but to keep this from killing us the players, we have a bit of a hint you can give. Hover text! The hovertext code (With thanks to secret helper mod of secrets) is:
This will let you put the translation in the hovertext so the person you are playing with can hover to see if they don't have the spoons to parse it themselves OOC. Use of hovertext is completely optional, but if you choose not to use it, OOC communication is highly recommended.
This event is going to be a little weird, even by Missrecalled standards.
The inspiration for this event is the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Darmok.
For those unfamiliar with the episode, it can be seen on Paramount+ or you can watch an abridged version (for free) here.
The short version is this: The crew finds a species that speaks only in allusions to stories in their cultural history. They wouldn't say "I have failed" they would say "Shaka, when the walls fell." All the sentences are short. There are very few verbs, and very few adjectives. There is nearly always the name of a place or a person.
In this way, very simple sentences can explain and express complex concepts and situations. For example "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" is said to express that in similar danger with a mutual enemy can an alliance or friendship be forged. The larger chain for that, for those curious is as follows:
"Darmok on the ocean. Jalad on the ocean. Tanagra on the ocean. Darmok at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. The beast at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean"
That is the full story as it is told of how Darmok and Jalad each arrived at the island Tanagra separately, together faced a beast, and then left together as friends or at least as companions.
Rarely are more than one sentence be put together this way, however. This made communication with the Enterprise crew... interesting.
But what does this have to do with Missrecalled?
Whelp, something in the translation magic is going to have a biiiiit of a break down starting on February 21st 2025. First is the written word. Poor King Ben is not going to be happy to find that every book in the library has become utterly illegible. All writing of any sort - old, new, in books, in spray paint on a wall, on a page - looks blurred and drippy and utterly unreadable. As though someone changed all the script into a language no one looking at knows and then made all the ink run.
Trying to write, the writing will look like the same running ink as soon as anyone starts.
Speaking... well people can speak. But they will find that what they are trying to say is not what actually comes out of their mouth. Whoops. Someone trying to say "I don't know what is going on" might instead say "Buzz, not a toy."
Because the basis behind all of this is... Pixar films! In place of the grand stories the Tamarians had in Trek, we have Pixar! This includes all animated Pixar movies, as well as the shorts. But not behind the scenes interviews.
Of course, characters know their own stories and those can also be used. For example if someone is trying to express that they will always be there for someone else, they might say "Sora, his Heart open" if they are from Kingdom Hearts. But remember... Just because 2 people know the same story does not mean they feel the same way about it. Someone else might try to express the same thing but say "Sora, his Heart full".
Please avoid any character using their own name or the name of anyone in the conversation. So Lea couldn't say "Lea on the rooftop with three ice creams" to remind Roxas and Xion that they are his friends, but he could say "Sunset with ice cream".
Also, where possible the shorter the sentence, the better. Let's get super creative with this!
There is however an easy mode. For the players only. This is supposed to be really hard on the characters, but to keep this from killing us the players, we have a bit of a hint you can give. Hover text! The hovertext code (With thanks to secret helper mod of secrets) is:
This will let you put the translation in the hovertext so the person you are playing with can hover to see if they don't have the spoons to parse it themselves OOC. Use of hovertext is completely optional, but if you choose not to use it, OOC communication is highly recommended.
Questions And Answers!
Date: 2025-02-03 06:35 am (UTC)Q. I heard Chicklet-mod will be on hiatus the second half of the month! Will the event still drop on time? What if we have questions at that point?!
A.Yes, Chicklet-mod has major oral surgery coming up and then people visiting from out of town. However, former mod Tanks has kindly agreed to drop the event if Chicklet-mod is still in too much pain to do so on the 21st. If you have questions that you post here and have not gotten an answer by 24 hours after you posted it, please either reach out to Chicklet-mod on Plurk:
Q. Which NPCs are available for this event?
A. Given Chicklet-mod's partial hiatus, there will be minimal NPC interaction this event. If an NPC is needed please post that in this thread and again give Chicklet-mod 24 hours to reply before poking them else wise.
Q. How long will this event last?
A. The event starts IRL on the 21st and goes until March 2nd. But Missrecalled being what it is, so long as your character was in game by March 2nd, you can back tag into the event at any time. ICcly, this headache will last about a week.
Q. My character knows a different version of a story another character knows, how will this translate?
A. Your character will say it based on what they know, and the other person will hear it as it was said. Though what they take from that... For example if one were to say "Maleficent in her castle", well for Mal that could mean a disappointed authority figure looking down on someone. For Ben it could be a villain making the best of their reduced state. For Mallia, however... it could mean someone being mocked in their own home. Context is everything, and in this event context cannot be shared so easily.
Q. But what if our character does not know another character's stories so well?
A. Well there have been a lot of story sharing events in the past several month. If your character was here for them, feel free to backtag into them if the person you are threading with wants to backtag in as well! Otherwise... enjoy the confusion! Sometimes chaos can be fun, yes?
Q. Okay, but... why Pixar?
A. A lot of different bodies of work were considered for this event. The first thought was honestly Shakespeare and Poe... but Chicklet-mod realized that those authors might be well known by some players, but not as much by others. And while they are all available for free being in public domain... Having to read 12th Night or Cask of the Amontillado for a tag might be a bit too much like homework for our pretendy fun times.
The next thought was mainline animated Disney. And it is here admitted that this almost became the official answer. It was so tempting. But thinking about how many movies would have to be excluded because of breaking the mythology rule, and how many would have to be excluded because of plot plans down the line... And then the question of if sequels counted given there are *so many* of them or animated series versions... Pixar just seemed like an easier answer. A smaller body of work for everyone to know, no exclusions needed
(Though do check with the other player for triggers found in movies like Bugs' Life, Wall-E, and Soul. Also please keep inappropriate innuendos out of things, as much as Onward makes it so easy...)
Q. What if my character doesn't know any Pixar stories?
A. Well, that's part of the fun of this event... because when they try to say something, if you are going to use a Pixar reference, they will say it and suddenly as they do... know the story as though they had been told it as a child. So they maybe don't recall exactly every detail, but if someone says "Ember and Wade their hands together" to mean an unlikely pair working out anyway, the character will know Ember and Wade's story well enough to use it again later.
Q. Will this lead to information overload for the characters?
A. That depends, will it be fun for you the player? If so then yes. If not, then no.
Q. What if the character does know Pixar via living the KH version?
A. The same exact fun as KH people, Descendants people, and Sail's crew all knowing a certain dark fairy differently. Have fun with it. And yes, this means if someone apps in Sora in time for the event his references to Buzz and Woody will be very different from, say, Ian's references to them.
Q. My character would know the Pixar movies as movies, what do I do with that?
A. Then they know them as movies, cool. They might be confused how people from other worlds know these stories but short of "Buzz sees a commercial" they might have trouble expressing the question until after the event.
Q. What if the Pixar movie a character references takes knowledge of certain things for granted - like what a television is - but my character doesn't actually know what that thing is?
A. You can either have them just be really confused... or you can have them understand it during the event as if they had always known it, then have it feel like a confusing dream after where those details are once again foggy. Like when someone says hello to you and you know you used to know their name, you're sure you did....
Q. Does the hover text work on mobile?
A. Sadly no. You can post with that code, but you can't actually hover on most mobile devices. Again, OOC communication is highly recommended.
Speaking of mobile, will the Network work?
A. Voice only and it will be glitchy. Anyone attempting to send a video or text message will encounter an odd... glitch...
no subject
Date: 2025-02-05 06:42 am (UTC)1. I may have missed it, but is this affecting both Auradon and the Isle, or just Auradon?
2. What if instead of writing, a character tried to use various objects to spell out a message by arranging them to form letters? Like laying out playing cards to spell out 'HELLO' or something. Would these messages be readable or would it also somehow end up unreadable, at least to others?
no subject
Date: 2025-02-05 09:29 am (UTC)2. Would somehow become unreadable again. Feel free to be creative within reason, breezes keep knocking things akimbo, or falling over.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-06 04:59 am (UTC)Plotting Place
Date: 2025-02-03 07:12 am (UTC)NPC Request
Date: 2025-02-03 07:14 am (UTC)