Previously On Battle Fantasia
Previously On Battle Fantasia is a special event that started on Battle Fantasia on 11/11/18.
The five years of Battle Fantasia MUSH roleplay have established a miraculous and tragic timeline...
...but it wasn't the first timeline.
Contents
The Wayback Machine
It is September 20, 2013.
The height of fall. Tokyo is golden and beautiful, afternoons still warm with the memory of summer; beginning to be crisp, in the early morning, with the promise of winter.
It is the second year of the Sister Schools program, which is still new enough to be exciting and also a little uncomfortable. Juuban Public School is about to host the joint sports festival, brushing up their fields. Infinity Institute and Ohtori Academy anticipate shoddiness, but are going to find sportsmanship instead.
But some students suddenly find themselves having to balance the challenge of finding the right partner for the three-legged race with a new life -- a double life -- a secret life.
That's because two weeks ago the demonic army of Dark Fall swept into the heart of the magic worlds, the Fairy Realms, and dislodged their masters. They possessed ancient artifacts and used them to explode fairy castles, and they sealed fairy queens away in teacups. They shattered souls, and remade worlds in their own dark image. And so the cries for help went out -- all of them, drawn by an unseen force, to the same blue ball in Space.
And so it is that today, on Earth, the consequences of centuries, millennia, of planning and battles have come to fruit, as Dark Fall and Ends of the World alike descend not as one, but at once. The greedy fingers of corporate masters tear the dreams out of children's chests in the hunt for the miracle-granting Embryo. A coterie of Belkan Knights root in the shadows for the Linker Cores of the innocent - leaving them half dead and bereft of magic. Orphans stir on Southern Cross Island, finding victims to feed on, as their master's mark blazes in the sky. Underground, the Order of the Glittering Crux seeks to release the seals that will allow them to summon their magitechnological wonders into the real world, and seize it for their own. Witches throng in the shadows, their attention called by the despair of those who see how bleak the world is, their Kiss drawing still more into that trap. Above, the Castle Where Eternity Dwells silently waits to see whose heart will next be savaged by the Duels it oversees. And in the North, Queen Beryl's empire rises again, to finally and absolutely conquer the Earth and therefore the crown jewel of the universe...
But the guardians of Earth are rising. Tokyo is where that battle will be fought; as Pretty Cures are found by the refugees of the Fairy Worlds, and HiME once more flock to the Land of Fuuka, now called Southern Cross Island, and the Silver Millennium's Sailor Senshi stir at last from their millennia-long slumber. The darkness is deep; but once, a great queen wished for a light to outshine any darkness.
She will not be disappointed.
She has you.
---
Welcome to 'PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA', our game's next major plot. Starting immediately, we're taking a trip back in time to our world as it was in September 2013: a more innocent time, with more innocent characters. New transfer students are new once again. Virtually everyone is a freshly recruited magical girl, taking their first steps into the world of fighting evil by moonlight -- youma are scary and their masters mysterious and unknown. Balancing normal and magical life is not old hat but an often-overwhelming act of frantic rushing around and the occasional guilty lie.
And beautiful friendships are about to be born.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Frankly, the game has been in a very dark place for a very long time, and everyone needs a break. PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA will occasionally tackle some heavy truths, but overwhelmingly its tone is intended to be lighthearted and fun -- or at least not oppressively, inescapably awful. It is an opportunity for everyone to get a fresh take on their characters, exploring, in a backwards way, exactly how far they've come.
It is also, frankly, an opportunity for some fan service, and the staff is taking requests on 'alternate timeline' plot points you'd like to see worked into the story. Please email your ideas to battlefantasiastaff@gmail.com or join the brainstorming shared document here!
IS EVERYTHING THE SAME?
No, and we will get into the differences between the first timeline and the final timeline (our regular game) below.
Obviously, one major difference is that themes and characters that joined the game after September 2013 will have joined it earlier and younger: take a look at your 'school' entries, you'll see you've been sent back two grades! (If you are one of these characters, the staff wants to work out the details of your earlier arrival with you -- please contact Pink Moon Stick for a brainstorming session!)
Characters from later SEASONS of certain themes who weren't around at game start (here's looking at you, Chibi-Usa-chan) will not be present in September 2013, but can rejoin us as the timeline catches back up with them.
WAIT, TIMELINES PLURAL?
Yes. We are going to do several, one at a time, and in so doing tell a story, as a game, about the MANY ways things have changed from everyone's original destiny to their current one (not just the hairstyle of Homura Akemi). In each timeline we will be skipping around through the intervening year and a half between past and present to hit various highlight events from the old days that some of our players missed out on, and others would enjoy revisiting.
If you want to remind yourself and come up with a possible wishlist, http://battlefantasia.pinksugarheartattack.net/Timeline is hideously out of date, but it's the earlier stuff we're especially eager to do, so in that sense it's still a useful resource!
BUT I WANT TO KEEP DOING 2015 ROLEPLAY!
That's completely fine. All 'Previously On' logs are going to be labeled as such; you are welcome to roleplay in the 'current' timeline privately if you like, especially to give yourself a little denouement after certain major events, if you don't want to wait. We stopped at the end of the IC night of May 27, 2015, and will be picking back up on May 28, 2015 eventually; for various spooky plot reasons, please keep your roleplay within the next two days, May 28-29, 2015.
Timelines
For log titles, please label which timeline you're roleplaying in with the prefix: TIMELINE #:. So, a scene set in the first timeline might have the title TIMELINE 1: Welcome To Tokyo!
Each timeline has a game-wide theme designed to help guide the overarching plot of Previously On Battle Fantasia across timelines. There is also a list of differences from the 'final' timeline (regular BF) to help people keep things straight and create prompts for interesting scene opportunities.
Please add to the bullet point list beneath the current timeline to document significant differences as they appear. We will be adding later timelines to this page gradually, along with their notable changes from the previous timeline required to get the roleplay a'rolling.
Timeline One
THEME: FRIENDSHIP. Everyone is meeting each other for the very first time. Friendships are born, and they are beautiful. Over the course of the first timeline, the innocence and passion of the magical girl community will be powerful enough to forge a grand alliance, in some respects the opposite of the final timeline. A good opportunity for bitter enemies to become dear friends. That doesn’t mean there is no tension among magical girls, but rivalries tend to be less painful and more hopeful.
- IC Starting Date: September 2013
- Starting Plots: Sister Schools Athletics Festival, Hosted By Juuban Public School; Fusion
- Madoka Kaname is a newly Contracted Puella Magi and Homura Akemi is a normal girl.
- Themes/characters that joined at game start are rolled back to... game start.
- Later themes/characters' integration deals will need to be explained here, please add them in brief after discussing your plan with the staff.
- Miraculous Ladybug is pretty much the same except that Hawk Moth began his plot in September 2013 instead of later on. Everyone received their Miraculouses as normal, only they're a little bit younger and cuter.
- Steven Universe arrived in Tokyo a little earlier and a little younger, with his powers almost completely unexplored and untested (eg, early season one), because Beach City decided to make their move in 2013 instead of 2015.
- Kasagami Araki arrived much earlier and younger in this timeline, as a middle schooler in 9th grade. She notably lacks her cynicism about the world and people in general, being overall more positive and utterly new to her powers as a Duelist.
- The New Transfer Student List, September 2013:
- Homura Akemi
- Kasagami Araki
- Utena Tenjou
- Mai Tokiha
- Mikoto Minagi
- Makoto Kino
- Lera Camry
- After an eventful transfer to Ohtori - a car was cut in half on the boat ride over - Mai is bowled over by a strange girl who moves to attack her, only to run away instead. Mai finds her fainted in a hedge, and realising how hungry she is, brings her home to make some ramen. This is apparently the best thing which has ever or will ever happen, and the girl, Mikoto, attaches to her immediately.
- 'Buki, amidst trying to get Ohtori students to join her Animal Care Club in the days before the festival, realises that a strange girl is trying to get at the birds in the greenhouse, and meets Mikoto and the cat she's trying to help get a snack. Luckily, she always comes prepared, and she has some canned food Mikoto can offer to her friend instead. Mikoto proceeds to... help... Inori try and get club members, and in the process volunteers herself to help out, instead.
- Mikoto and Endo meet as the two last entrants to a broom racing contest, and despite the strange match-up, they sweep the competition.
- After rampaging into the pool, Mikoto is taken to the sports festival's first aid tent, where she is restored by a caring civilian named Yumi Ohzora. She teaches her important facts about money and ownership.
- Homura Akemi flees the sports festival that occurs on her second day of school, feeling depressed. Madoka, Mami and Eri (a Puella Magi trio, and already fast friends) go to look for her. They find her in a labyrinth, about to be taken by a Witch, and rescue her just in time.
- Homura, Sayaka, and Hitomi are among the civilians given MIRACLE LIGHTS by the fairy mascots, in order to give the magical girls the power to defeat Fusion. Most of them don't remember this event clearly afterwards, though Homura does.
- Eri and Mikoto separately come upon a stray cat and start to care for her. When she gives birth, their paths collide. They recruit Madoka, Nori and Homura to help take care of the kittens, which initially are hidden in the Garden Club shed at Ohtori, and eventually are moved to the Kaname household when everyone has to get on a train to go to Hokkaido.
- Winter 2013 Plot: Hokkaido and the Star Shards
- After distracting a bear from Niramo when the two of them wander away from the lodge, Mikoto becomes worried about that bear not hibernating like all the students say bears are supposed to. Dismissive explanations lead her to investigate on her own, where she runs into Eas, instead. They briefly clash, and Eas immediately exploits the upper hand as she realises that Mikoto is holding back. Luckily, she's willing to talk, if only to make demands, and after Mikoto explains that she really just is out here to investigate the bears, Eas lets her go. Mysteriously, the bear problem is solved.
- In December 2013, Steven Universe awakens his magical powers on Hokkaido, in the midst of a dire wish to end Christmas; filled with its spirit by his friends and classmates, he manifests his shield for the first time. The resonance of his first Rose Shield tears the wish apart, returning the world to normal.
- The Moon Princess appears very early (compared to the original timeline), on Hokkaido, after the Maiden of Nightmares sends a lethal attack at Sailor Moon which is taken by Madoka Kaname instead. The Princess wields the Ginzuishou, and a miracle occurs on Christmas Eve.
- The Maiden is redeemed by the unlikely forgiveness of her assumed enemies.
- Spring 2014 Plot: White Day and Queen Beryl
- Sailor Moon and friends go to the Moon on the night of March 12, while everyone else suffers a disturbing silvery nightmare, so Madoka calls for a sleepover on White Day, March 14 so they can face the night with the support of one another.
