aurorastation | ANNOUNCEMENTS + PLACEMENTS

Hello everyone!

Mods here with the usual stuff! This one's a little long so please bear with us.

First, we've hit another community goal! The IC suggestions gathering will go up sometime this coming week, and the actual poll a week after that. Then another week and we'll post the new facility and purification unlock!

However, related to the above, we have a few reminders about sparks/the collective sheet. Some of this is stuff we had said on discord but hadn't put on the posts, some is clarification of stuff from the pages, some is entirely new! Either way, no one needs to adjust their sparks for anything from before this announcement, but from here on out these rules will be enforced. All of this has been added to the sparks page notes. Please be aware!

The payout for a bond is 200 sparks for initiating or participating in a teammate's, and 100 sparks for participating in an off-team bond. All bonds must have an initiator. This means that, regardless of whether it's a general or team bond type, the only characters to get 200 sparks are the character who started it and any teammates who replied. If two characters on different teams cuddle for sparks, only one of them gets the bigger payout. This also counts the public bond bonus: you only get the bonus for number of participants if you're the one who started the bond.

Sparks are only given out when characters deliberately intend to make a bond. In other words, your character doesn't get paid unless they are aware that what they're doing should get them paid. Thinking about it is the trigger for it being "official".

You can do multiple types of bonds in a thread, but can only count the same kind once for sparks! You can also only get the initiator/team bonus once. For example, if your character begins a thread by giving a gift, they get 200 sparks for that, but will get 100 for every other type of bond in the thread, and will get 0 for further gifts given/received. If your character was the gift recipient, they get 100 sparks for that, and nothing for a return gift, but they can get 200 if they respond with a hug!

Also, each bond can only be counted once! If your gift is to an entire team, you get the base 200 + the participation bonus, not 200 per thread.

When you make a bond post to the comm, please tag it with the !bonds tag. When you make a bond within a thread, please put [bond] in the subject line! If you skip this you can still count it on your own points sheet, but only tagged bonds will be counted for collective sparks, which means only tagged bonds will progress purification and move the plot along. The mods deeply appreciate your help in keeping track of this!

Second, we're belatedly including those monthly prompts! These are background things you can use in any post/thread throughout the month. They'll change over when placements are posted in July.

The jungle is entering a rainy season! For the next few OOC weeks, it'll be raining or storming pretty much constantly. Clear skies will be a rare, brief treat, and the temperatures are warm and humid.

With the rain also comes a flood of frogs. Tiny frogs, no bigger than the last joint of an adult's thumb, are out in abundance. Their singing is a constant, but is notably louder at dusk and dawn. Near the train, in the purified parts of the island, the frogs are grey or green and completely harmless. If you wander closer to the corrupt areas, however, you may find bright yellow specimens. These are poisonous -- touching them causes dizziness and a slowly increasing weakness. At higher doses it may cause hallucinations or, at extremes, death. Good thing you have those healing pods!

Now, upcoming events!

There is currently an intro event here, including an NPC appearance. All characters are entitle to one question for Cardamom, so feel free to get your share!

Next weekend, there will be a small exploradora event. It'll have some monsters and potential for trauma, and might give some information about what life was like on this star before Malice! Exact run times are tbd, but we'll have at least two or three opportunities to play on different days.

Finally, we've approved and implemented all requested carriage upgrades. Please check out the team page for that information!

And now for your new teammates:

Jasmine
Sophie Dimas (CRAU: A Forest Dark)

Clover
Erasmus Dimas
Lissa
Robin Hood

If you have any questions/concerns, let us know via the q&a. Thank you for apping and happy playing!