stalledrevolution | interest check

INTEREST CHECK

Do you know? Do you know? Did you hear the news?

The Dramaturge is inviting a whole new Troupe to the school!

The Méliès Conservatoire of Performing Arts, host to showbiz aspirants of all ages! Bright-eyed and young; bitter and croney! All it takes to get invited to be a Troupe member is to have a desire.

But not just any desire! A desire to rewrite their story. Anyone who's gone, "Ahh~ I wish my life were different~ I wish the world would change~ I wish I could change~!" gets to qualify!

They're just walking around and then, bam! A letter from the Dramaturge shows up in their hand!

And as long as they don't make Father angry, they'll be revolutionizing themselves in no time at all! Probably.

But~ I wonder~ is it really that easy to rewrite your story?

I wonder? I wonder? Is any shortcut as easy as it seems?

Best of luck to our soon-to-be intrepid heroes, unlucky victims, and secretive plotters! For three whole weeks, you'll be the stars of our show's latest run! Because once you get an invitation, you're coming to perform— whether you like it or not!

PREMISE

🌹 Theatre Paradis is a direct invite-only, 3 week murder game, planned to accommodate roughly ~25 characters. If you have an invite from Juliet, Limon Basil, or Fyre, you're guaranteed a slot once you reserve! There's no plan for +1's at this time.

🌹 Game Contents: Theatre Paradis is plot-zero, flavor-heavy, and CR-focused. While this game follows the aesthetics of and takes inspiration from the themes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, this game does not require knowledge of the series, nor will we follow its plot.

🌹 Letter & Arrival: Characters will receive a letter (which may be on their desk, in their pack, in their hand when they aren't looking, etc.) featuring a wax seal rose signet. The letter will introduce the sender as a ghost lingering in purgatory who has been damned to grant people what they themself failed to accomplish in life: rewriting their story— in other words, grant a wish. The condition is that these wishes must be won, and that a price must be paid for entry. The letter does not explain what this condition is (spoilers: it's murder!) or what the price is (spoilers: it's a secret of theirs— see the "secret swap" stuff below!).

The letter will also come with a ring featuring that same rose signet and a 90's-era flip phone that doesn't power on until the characters arrive to the game and a color-coded, dorm-labeled, brass key. The letter will inform the character that this ring represents an engagement (to whom?) and defines them as a member of the current Troupe. None of these things are elaborated upon.

Regardless, the next doorway, frame, or vaguely archway-ish thing a character walks through will take the character directly into a subway car; behind them, they'll see a set of rose-patterned elevator doors closing behind them, and that ring firmly on their finger, unable to be removed (for now).

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OVERVIEW

🌹 Game Schedule:

❥ Reserves & Applications OPEN: August 2nd, 1PM EST
❥ Reserves & Applications CLOSE: August 14th, 1PM EST
❥ Game START: August 16th, 1PM EST
❥ Game Finale START: September 7th, 1PM EST

🌹 Weekly Schedule:

❥ Weekly Mingles: Monday, 1PM EST
❥ Event: Wednesday, 1PM EST
❥ Investigation Block 1: Friday, 1PM EST - 3PM EST
❥ Investigation Block 2: Friday, 10PM EST - 12AM EST
❥ Trial: Saturday, 1-8PM EST
❥ Execution: Sunday, 1PM EST

On the third week, the final execution will be a mod execution and take place directly after trial's end. The final Sunday will contain the finale, followed by an epilogue.

🌹 Themes & Aesthetics: While Utena is infamously known as "that vintage lesbian anime," it's better defined as a thesis on Why The Patriarchy Hurts Us All, Actually (Women, Children, And Minorities The Most). As a plot-zero game, the PCs will not be forced to deal with the hard-hitting implications of the societal institution of gender roles and sexism, though there will be evidence of it in the setting. The game will primarily focus on CR-building, partnering up to complete weekly tasks, gossip and rumors and silly nonsense, recovering who you are while surrounded by a student population sees you through only your Trope, and discovering what assigned prince or princess of yours has been given a dear piece of yourself— and recognizing you might or might not want to be yourself again, if it means being alone.

Aesthetically, the game will invoke dreamy themes of fairytales - primarily, the role of princes and princesses (and, often, princes and brides) - as well as themes related to cathedrals and all that associated religious baggage. The game takes place in an inverted, underground tower of MC Escher, surrealist architecture built in the style of a cathedral. This tower hosts a joint high school and college, populated by faceless Extras who comprise the student and teacher population. The buildings and stairways are in constant shift and flux, the weather lovely, somehow, despite the school grounds being indoors.

🌹 Wait, go back to that partners thing,: God said Adam and Eve, right? Find your prince (or princess) and live happily ever after! :)

Utena is a series about how our relationships define and, at times, inhibit us— and how we define ourselves, despite these tangles, and despite how we may be falsely perceived (or how we fail to grow and keep to what's unhealthy and false but comfortable!). On your app, you will be asked for a secret that is foundational to your PC, something that has defined their character and/or beliefs, that they do not want anyone to know or would not share easily. This will be your character's admission price for the opportunity to rewrite their destiny— characters will forget the primary contents of the secret, which may affect their personality (at players' discretion), but they can recall events leading up to the memory associated with this secret, and the events following. In its place, they will find another person's secret lodged awkwardly in the hole in their chest, one that they know is not theirs but makes them feel close to whole, and one they will find an impulse to hold fast to, and whose owner they do want to know. In short, secrets/memories are swapped in pairs (EG, if Alice has Bob's secret, then Bob also has Alice's secret).

To regain your character's secret and make themself whole again, they'll need to sleuth around through all those CR-building exercises and figure out who has it. However, upon discovering their partner, they may discover a codependent impulse—whether founded in love or disgust—that may cause them to desire to close up the walls around them and their partner instead of becoming independent once more... (More info in the FAQ, under "secret swapping".)

🌹 Scapegoats & Death: The game will be scapegoat style with private conversations (PCs) and a network. PCs who die during the course of the game will remain in play— but they won't be quite the same. Stay tuned!

🌹 Suitability: The minimum age for this game is 15. Powers will be off, minus biological differences like vampirism. There is a combined franchise/canon cap of three.

🌹 Proposals: Murders will run off a proposal system, based on an overarching IC incentive for character to kill. If needed, the killer/victim preference on applications will be used to facilitate murder, along with RNG.

🌹 Organization: Game discussion and organization will take place exclusively on Discord. Mod contact will be handled through Discord, using the Ticket bot.

🌹 Investigation Blocks: We'll be trying out something different this game in the form of investigation blocks.

Investigations will run in two time-limited blocks; all discovered evidence will be automatically transported to trial. Additionally, the amount of evidence for each case will be gently reigned in to ensure that most pertinent evidence can be discovered during the allotted time. More info about investigation blocks can be found in FAQ.

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