#nrpgdrop

NEVER PLOT DROP: The Shadow

“You got a taste for blood when you were licking your own wounds.” 

This plot drop is going to be different. So normally, I give you a narrative bit here that tells you about something new happening on the island. Well since the beasties from the last plot still feel pretty unexplored and fresh and I don’t want to ruin their mystique just yet and since all of us are still reeling from Honesty Week and many are still going through that angst; I asked for our writers to choose whether they wanted their characters to be a part of this drop and, if so, how much they were willing for those characters to potentially be hurt. I used a random generator to decide how harmed each character would become and scaled the generator depending on their writer’s decided threshold. Below the cut you’ll find the results.

Before you check out who has been scarred or maimed, we need to talk about Pan’s Shadow. Not much is known about the shadow as it is a secret that Pan holds close. However, the shadow has always acted a bit strangely when compared to other shadows, seemingly autonomous. A sort of protector to Pan, the shadow holds onto the darker thoughts and feelings that would otherwise overwhelm and bring Pan down. It’s the shadow that causes Pan to sometimes seem unbothered and untethered and other times seem more grounded and capable of feeling every past hurt at once.

Pan’s shadow has been particularity active lately, visiting people around the island at night. Most often it visits while they are fast asleep. I will be reaching out to each person who opted-in to this plot drop so we can discuss what their recent encounter with the shadow looked like. Many will be minor glimpses of the shadow and others will be more significant encounters. A few of the encounters will be shared between two characters. Once we’ve settled on a scenario, it is up to each writer to decide what they’d like to do with this encounter. You could write a drabble, keep the information to yourself to reference later in your threads, or whatever else you might want to do! These encounters will not all have happened in one night, but over the span of several nights.

Like I said, this plot drop is unique and with it I’ll be posting the release of a new skeleton bio shortly. Now go and click the read more if you haven’t skipped ahead and done so already. ;) I know you’re all really here for the pain!

NEVER PLOT DROP: Winter is Dead

“[The Daffodil] turned to the sunlight / And shook her yellow head, / And whispered to her neighbor: / "Winter is dead.” ― A.A. Milne

Lucky for all of the island’s inhabitants, it seems that the ice is finally cracking and melting away to reveal the luscious paradise of Neverland anew. There is no subtlety in the changing of seasons here; the change comes on swiftly. Is it because the land has been encased in shades of blinding white and muted grays for so long or does the island’s flora look even more vibrant than it did before? 

With the warm weather comes a whetted appetite for adventure from many of those within the Lost Boys. The troupe has set out for the beach at the edge of their forest. There, as proclaimed by Peter, of course, they’ll be holding a grand bonfire in celebration of Wendy Darling’s return to the island. It is sure to be extra raucous due to all that pent up energy caused by a long and brutal winter. All that noise is bound to draw the attention of the merfolk in the nearby Lagoon.  

Those more observant inhabitants might catch sight of strange goings-on around the island. The odd shadow may be spotted sliding beneath the surface of Neverland’s waters. The thing is seemingly there one moment and gone the next. Whatever this creature, or perhaps creatures, is — it’s eerily unidentifiable. Even if one manages to sneak a peek directly at it from under the surface of the water, it’s as if you’re looking through a dirty, clouded glass and all that can be perceived are blotches of fleshy pink and inky black. And then it’s gone before your mind can take in any of the details. At first, you might think the other oddity rather innocuous in comparison to these mysterious waterbound shadows. However, it would be foolish to dismiss the sightings of these small creatures. It’d be easy to mistake them for woolly worm caterpillars, which you can find an abundance of now that it’s warm once more. There are so very few of these tiny creatures popping up across the island that the differences between them and woolly worms are easily overlooked at a glance: foreshortened bodies, eight eyes instead of six, fangs, gray where the caterpillars are reddish brown, and four sets of legs.

NEVER PLOT DROP: A Game of Battle

The rock of the Battle arena was smooth and white, veined with grey, and this rock was different from the rest of the mountains. It was one of the reasons why Peter had declared it special and important. No matter how many times we fought there, or how much blood was spilled, the rock remained white and smooth. It was like the island swallowed up that blood and pushed it out again as magic, magic that kept us boys forever. It was a fanciful thought, but no more fanciful than that of the pirates thinking we drank from some magic spring for eternal youth.  — Lost Boy by Christina Henry

The sound of crowing rang out to draw the attention of the Lost Boys as they crowded into the arena: who would be fighting who was announced, rules reminded without much care. This was a Battle for fun, just a game. It was practice for promises of even greater fun. The first to bleed would lose and be out of the game. The game would continue until there was only one Lost Boy who hadn’t shed a single drop. The game wouldn’t end until they had their Battle Champion. 

Below the cut you’ll find the results of the game. Writers are encouraged to explore this plot drop through any means they’d like: drabbles, edits, threads, asks, etc. Gloat, lick your wounds, plot your revenge, question your life choices in whatever fashion you please! As always, if you have questions or are seeking more of that sweet, sweet lore, feel free ask for clarification or details!

Perhaps, one day, Charlie could rest at a reasonable hour. Perhaps one day, he might lay his head down and sleep would find him not in hours but in minutes. He usually walked the deck when this happened, but he was comfortable enough to lay awake, eyes closed and breathing even while his mind spun uselessly in a pattern only it knew when he waited to sleep away and pass the rest of the night.

At first, it didn't seem like anything was wrong. His mind was not the kindest place to live all the time, and more besides, the first couple times the idea or... Well. Charlie didn't like the idea that they were words. He didn't like the idea that someone had managed to come in to the ship so easily. But regardless of that, it hadn't seemed strange at first.

See, Charlie knew he was antithetical to a happy family. That any group he cared for, any group that considered him one of their own would eventually splinter, fragment and cascade thanks to a catastrophe that would leave them sad and him somehow still alive, still whole, but undeniably and perpetually alone. It had happened twice before. Charlie assumed it would happen at least one more time. And so when he was told that there had been a place for him on the island, that if he hadn't been so ungrateful and selfish, that he and Peter and Hook Jamie, no, it would have been Jamie still if it wasn't for Charlie, could have been a family, well. Charlie knew that. He'd known it ever since he was old enough to know what he had cost the boy he now saw as a father, a brother, his best hope.

It had cost Peter too. It was obvious now how much the other boy had treasured the Jamie that had once ran the trees with him and who else was to blame for that loss other than Charlie? There was no other option. If he had just been a better friend, brother, follower, person, none of this would have happened. The island would never have fractured like it. What was the loss of someone like Charlie to an old truce when it meant someone like Jamie got to stay at home, got to stay safe and whole and unchallenged every other week?

At this point, Charlie and the voice agreed on most things about the situation and Charlie knew with iron certainty it was his fault. It was always his fault. He broke Neverland. He was the reason the island was like this now and there was no way back, no sacrifice he could make to make it better.

Consider this post our ribbon cutting ceremony, NEVER RPG is officially open!! Feel free to start flooding the dash with memes and threads! Remember to tag all open starters with #nrpgstart. This mini plot drop is a way to set the tone; however, you’re welcome to do interactions in the past before these events would be taking place.

The Beginning of the End to a Harsh Winter

Nothing is so dangerous in Neverland as when the soft muds harden, the greenery wilts away into nothingness, and the crystal waters surrounding our island turn frigid and inky black. Pan is volatile, exploding at imagined slights or disappearing altogether. Wildlife becomes confused, changing their behavioral patterns and becoming more predatory as a panic for survival sets in; so too do the more sentient inhabitants of Neverland. While the pirates and Lost Boys call a temporary and unofficial truce, keeping to themselves to conserve their own resources — the mer- and small- folk turn feral. No one is ever certain for how long a Neverland Winter will endure.

This particular Winter is the first several of the Lost Boys and a few aboard the Jolly Roger have ever experienced. Some have already been claimed by frostbite, some to malnutrition due to the scarcity of food. Lucky for the survivors, it seems that the ice is finally beginning to crack and melt away, soon to reveal the luscious paradise anew.