welcome to aries season, everyone! as you’ll remember from a previous horoscope, power-ups happen approximately every six months; once at the beginning of aries season, and once at the beginning of libra season. characters may suddenly find their powers stronger and wilder, or may find a new aspect to their power they didn’t know existed. as you decide how your character’s power manifests at the start of this new chapter, please keep the following in mind:

powers and sub-powers should be at least tangentially related. if your character has the power of ice manipulation, subpowers of water manipulation or ice mimicry would make sense, super strength probably would not.

if your character already has a subpower, they should not be getting an entirely new subpower at this time. for example, if your character already has the power of visual illusion projection with a subpower of sensory manipulation, it would make sense for their hallucinations/manipulations to get stronger or more out of control, but they shouldn’t also develop a new subpower of minor transfiguration.

if your character does not already have a new subpower, they are still free to develop one at this time, but they do not have to.

remember that with enough practice, your characters can use magic to do things outside of their powers- they’ll be naturally more gifted with magic related to their power, but they could try to learn just about anything. for example, a character who doesn’t have powers related to flying might use magic to be able to hover a few inches above the ground.

please get in touch if you have any questions!

as a bonus, i’ve included an explanation of why the power-ups happen under the cut. this information is in the book, so if you want your character to know it, you can say they do, but it’s not super important to the story for them to know. just bonus material ^^

the main has been updated to reflect our newly-opened skeletons for aries and capricorn.

all skeleton graphics have been updated to match the rest of the new graphics on the main

the specialty powers page has been updated with the current horoscope’s latest developments

for those of you who don’t know, cleo fairchild has updated her url to @wherescleo 

hiatuses have been updated

that’s all the updating i have for you tonight; i'll be around to answer messages for a little while longer!

our next major plot drop is coming up soon!

this one’s going to be a game-changer and you don’t want to miss it! 

we are still looking for our aquarius & libra, so any lurkers who have yet to apply... now is your chance! this is the perfect time to jump into the story!

Once upon a time…

students at a prestigious university decided to give back to their community. and thus, the durham university fall festival was born- a time to celebrate the autumnal equinox and raise money for various charities in the area.

every year at the dawn of libra season, the student associations and clubs of durham band together to put on a massive celebration, featuring everything from craft booths to hay bale mazes. this festival is a big deal! your character has almost definitely participated every fall they’ve been at durham. there’s a big, ridiculous competition on opening night between the school’s student groups which students and alumni care about wayyyyy too much. it’ll be a busy, busy weekend, but it’s all for a good cause!

THE DURHAM UNIVERSITY FALL FESTIVAL

the festival will take place on the durham uni grounds, with markets, games, and events happening around the clock. daytime events will be mostly oriented toward young kids and their parents (think apple bobbing for kiddos and wine tastings for their parents, etc). there will be plenty of booths selling food, art, jewelry, crafts, and all kinds of souvenirs, as well as performances by musicians, artists, theater groups, and storytellers from the school. there will even be some very early halloween festivities, including a haunted house. nighttime events will be more oriented toward the college crowd, including pub crawls, club nights, and other good times.

all characters will either volunteer (or be volun-told by a member of some student group they’re a part of) to work at least one or two things for the weekend- so, for example, your character could serve apple cider for a few hours on friday and be a ghost in the haunted house on sunday. any time your character isn’t working, they’re welcome to wander the campus as a guest and participate in any activities.

there are a few events for which all characters will be present- you do not have to write about these events, just know that your character was there, whether by their own will or by being forced:

thursday, all day (21/9) - SET UP - while there will be lots of setting up all week leading up to the event, thursday will be all-hands-on-deck, with organizers scrambling to make /sure all the last-minute disasters are taken care of. in addition to things like setting up tents and hay bales and putting up decorations, this includes last-minute tests of rides, equipment, and other complicated elements, as well as final rehearsals for performers, and last minute cooking and baking for concessions.

thursday night (21/9) - OPENING CEREMONIES - a competition between student groups to kick off the event and establish a “monarchy”. this is an old tradition at the school and people take it way too seriously. A post will be coming soon to explain what our characters will be up to!

friday morning (22/9) through sunday afternoon (24/9) - THE FESTIVAL - characters will be volunteering for their various booths for a while and visiting other peoples’ booths the rest of the time. this part of the event is very open to interpretation- for volunteering, is your character playing a set on one of the performance stages? did they get volunteered for the kissing booth? did they get stuck picking up litter off the grass? perhaps they’re selling their homemade art? when they’re not volunteering, are they brave enough to step into the haunted house? do they discover their friends’ hidden talents by visiting their stands? it’s all up to you!

sunday afternoon (24/9) - TEAR DOWN - when the public starts leaving around noon on sunday, students will spring into action to put campus back in order.

sunday night (24/9) - CLOSING CEREMONIES - buses will come to shuttle students to newcastle, the nearby town where students go for an actual nightlife. to celebrate the end of a crazy weekend, there will be a mixer held in a newcastle ballroom. there will be music, dancing, food, and a cash bar. the end of the mixer is when the monarchy’s reign officially ends (the game post will explain the monarchy, don’t worry), so traditionally they go all out, turning up in plastic crowns/tiaras and giving really ridiculous orders to the other students. traditionally, teachers excuse all monday absences.

the event itself will be a dashboard event, for ten days all activity should be based around the event. you may have threads from any day/evening during this event, but please make it clear when each thread or starter especially is taking place. please do not reply to non-event threads until after this time period, we’re aware that it is a long time to go between replies without losing muse, so you may wish to wrap up threads before it starts or wait to start new ones. you’re welcome to do shorter chats than usual if you think that writing a tonne of paras is going to be a bit much for you! make sure you still stick to our rules, include everyone in everything, etc.

SO the dashboard will be all about the event from

- Wednesday, 20/9 TO Wednesday, 30/9 -

hopefully this gives everyone the chance to participate.

please tag all starters with #12signsfallfestival. outfit posts are welcome, as are anything leading up to the evening, texts about being ready, etc. all excitement around the subject is highly encouraged!

today we kick off our second event and i’m pleased to introduce to you all, a brand new drinking game invented with the help of elaina!

the game of paranoia is a simple one. you are asked a question, you pick a person as your answer and if they want to know what the question is, they have to drink.  

so, how it’ll work in terms of our roleplay. as you can see, the first pairing in our list for round one is SUM asks DES. we’re going to use them as an example to explain the rules. (NOTE: elaina wrote all these examples and they’re entirely made up! nobody actually said any of this, haha, so keep in mind that it’s not canon.)

SUM asks DES - sum “whispers” a question to des by sending it to des’s inbox. the question needs to be worded so des can answer with the name of someone in the group. (i.e. “who here has the best hair?”)

 des does NOT PUBLISH THE ASK! this is important! instead, he writes a new post on the dash in which he considers the question and then says his answer out loud for everyone to hear. (i.e. ‘des mulls the question over, looking around the circle, comparing. “sorry mates, it’s vera.”’) this post can be as long or as short as is appropriate for the character involved, but it should NOT REVEAL THE QUESTION. (”des mulls the question over, looking around the circle, comparing everyone’s hairstyles” would be the wrong way to answer this, because it gives away the question.)

vera gets to decide if she wants to know why she was called out. if she wants to know, she takes a shot; if she doesn’t want to know or just doesn’t want to drink, she can pass. either way she writes a reply to des’s post. (i.e. 'vera thought about it a moment and then smiled. “why not?” she downed her shot and waited for an answer.’ OR 'vera shrugs. “it’s des, whatever it is can’t be that bad.” she pushes her shot glass away from herself, leaving the question unknown.’) again, the length of the post is entirely up to the character. des should tag vera in the post to make sure she sees it.

if vera passes, that’s it! the thread can be done! if vera drinks, however, she should tag sum. sum then gets to reply and tell everyone what the question was.if that explanation is a bit confusing, here’s a video of some people playing paranoia (warning- the dialogue is NSFW), except in the video they’re flipping a sandal instead of taking shots to determine if the secret is revealed. in brighton, there will be no sandal flipping- just drinking or not drinking. 

laura and elaina are also both on hand to help if anything gets confusing. 

A COUPLE Of NOTES:please save copies of the questions your character asks, just in case tumblr eats one. we want to make sure everyone who wants to play gets to play!

questions can be as silly, serious, dramatic, targeted, embarassing, stupid etc. as you like, and as makes sense in character. however, if someone sends you a question you’re not comfortable writing about, you are not required to answer and you can ask for a new one. if your partner isn’t comfortable with your question, please be kind and provide a new one. if you’re having trouble thinking of questions, feel free to ask laura or elaina for help! for some ideas, try questions like:

“who would you want to ____ with?”

“who is the most ____?” 

“who would you never ____?” 

“who is the worst ___?”

“who is most likely to _______?”

feel free to use the game to inspire other threads! while technically the whole point of a drinking game is to get drunk and have a laugh, we all know the OTHER point of drinking games is to cause drama and start trouble~

- if you are confused or have any questions at all, please get in touch with laura or elaina!

so, here are the pairings:

everyone is sitting in a circle. each person asks the person on their right a question.

ROUND 1

SUM asks DES

DES asks DANE

DANE asks FAYE

FAYE asks IMOGEN

IMOGEN asks KELLY

KELLY asks NOLA

NOLA asks JUDE

JUDE asks SAM

SAM asks JUSTICE

JUSTICE asks VERA

VERA asks SOLO

SOLO asks SUM

after the first round, everyone has to get up and change seats; nobody can sit next to someone they’ve already sat by.

ROUND 2

SUM asks SAM

SAM asks IMOGEN

IMOGEN asks SOLO

SOLO asks FAYE

FAYE asks NOLA

NOLA asks DANE

DANE asks JUSTICE

JUSTICE asks KELLY

KELLY asks DES

DES asks VERA

VERA asks JUDE

JUDE asks SUM

between this and the other event prompts, each person should have some sort of suggested interaction with most other members of the rp- here are the remaining 3-4 your characters haven’t been paired up with, just in case anyone’s wondering who else to plot with:

faye: justice, sam, kelly, jude

justice: faye, des, solo

solo: justice, kelly, nola

nola: solo, des, sum

sum: nola, dane, kelly, vera

kelly: faye, solo, sum

vera: sum, imogen, dane, sam

dane: sum, vera, imogen, sam

des: justice, nola, jude

sam: faye, vera, dane, jude

jude: faye, solo, sum, imogen

Once upon a time…

two rich kids decided to drag ten of their friends to Brighton for a week during summer vacation. des beaumont’s uncle has graciously granted permission for the twelve of them to stay in his currently-empty Brighton home for the week, so long as they clean up when they’re done.

as for why they’re going? imogen song (des’s co-conspirator) will tell you it’s just for the fun of it. as she’s still in denial about anything relating to these supposed ~magic powers~, she’s treating this like nothing more than a trip with friends. des has his own ideas, however- he wants to get the whole group together, away from the distractions of school. because of this, des has taken care of most of the invitations.

THE SUMMER TRIP TO BRIGHTON

the whole group will board the train from Durham to Brighton on Tuesday, July 11 at 10:40 AM, and will return on Tuesday, July 18. des and imogen will buy all twelve tickets in a bundle so everyone can sit in the same car. those who can afford to purchase their own tickets can give their money directly to des or imogen (cost will be around £57 each); however, imogen and des have agreed to cover all costs of anyone who can’t afford to go, so no one will be left out.

the train ride will last around five hours. imogen handed out the tickets without checking seat numbers, so seatmates have been assigned randomly:des & isa

des & faye

sum & imogen

solo & dane

sam & kelly

vera & nola

jude & justice

once they arrived in brighton, imogen wrote everyone’s names down and drew them out of a hat to decide who got which rooms:

master bedroom: imogen & nola & justice

second bedroom: dane & jude

guest room: vera & kelly

screened-in porch: sam & des & solo

game room/basement: sum & faye

the kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallways are all common areas. the master bedroom and second bedroom each have a private bathroom. there one common bathroom per floor.

most of the time they are in brighton, everyone will be free to come and go as they please with whomever they please, but a few things will happen as a group:

on the first night (tuesday, july 11), the entire group will go out for pizza together.

on wednesday (july 12), everyone will spend the afternoon/evening at brighton pier, though they do not all have to be together for this.

on thursday (july 13), everyone will stay at the house for a pool party. there will be a rp wide game based upon the drinking game classic paranoia tied to this evening, rules will be announced closer to the time.

on friday and saturday (july 14 and 15), some of the group will go out pubcrawling/clubbing.

on the last night (monday, july 17), the entire group will go for ice cream in town.

on the last day (tuesday, july 18), everyone is responsible to help clean up des’s uncle’s house and make sure it’s as nice as he left it.

lastly, the train for durham will leave at 1:00PM on tuesday, july 18; seating will be:

des & imogen

sam & nola

dane & kelly

solo & jude

vera & faye

sum & justice

no one is required to write about any specific events from the schedule, just know that your character would be present for them.

the event itself will be a dashboard event, for two full weeks all activity should be based around the event. you may have threads from any day/evening during these two weeks, but please make it clear when each thread or starter especially is taking place. please do not reply to non-event threads until after this time period, we’re aware that it is a long time to go between replies without losing muse, so you may wish to wrap up threads before it starts or wait to start new ones. you’re welcome to do shorter chats than usual if you think that writing a tonne of paras is going to be a bit much for you! make sure you still stick to our rules, include everyone in everything, etc. 

SO the dashboard will be all about the event from

- Saturday - 8/07 TO Saturday - 22/07 -

hopefully this gives everyone the chance to participate.

please tag all starters with #12signsbrighton. outfit posts are welcome, as are anything leading up to the evening, texts about being ready, etc. all excitement around the subject is highly encouraged!

if you have any questions feel free to contact us!