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[personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-17 06:40 am
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Test Drive 01

ɢᴇᴛ ᴄʟᴜsᴛᴇʀᴇᴅ
A Sense8 AU Sandbox
IN THE BEGINNING


It doesn't happen all at once — the world does not reorient itself and thrust upon you seven other cluster mates. No, it happens in stages. Snatches at a time. Moments, sometimes individually, sometimes in sets of two or three. Maybe you're reading a book, and you notice someone sitting beside you on the couch. Maybe you're surfing, and suddenly there's a second person on the board. Maybe you see them in passing, or maybe you both stand there, face to face, equally confused, wondering how you can both speak the same language when one of you is from Middle Earth and the other is clearly in Tokyo.

There's time to talk. Time to figure it out.

Unless, of course, there isn't. It's entirely possible that your first meeting is not during a calm, cozy, collected moment. Maybe you call on one of your sensates during a time of need. A fight, a chase scene, a moment of public speaking in the spotlight. A time when you're truly out of your depth, and you need someone with a particular, complimentary set of skills that can step in on your behalf.

It's time.
warnings : violence, psychological horror
GETTING STARTED


WELCOME TO THE CLUSTER!



On this TDM, don't worry too much about your official cluster pairing. This is for either workshopping different combinations, or different characters. If, in the end, you find you really like a certain combination, simply be sure to ask to be in the same cluster as the folks you've threaded with! For now, worry instead about playing out first meetings. It could look a little something like this:

  • Tag in with your character name & canon.
  • Set a scene by providing a variety of moments other characters can witness and jump into.
  • If you're going to tag into the same prompt someone else has already tagged into, consider making it a group thread; the premise eof this sandbox revolves highly around multi-person interactions. Don't be shy! These are your cluster mates, after all.


  • Or, if you're feeling especially daring and dramatic (and let's face it, we all are):

  • Set up a scene from an impactful moment around your intended canonpoint.
  • AU it to your heart's content. Maybe things go exactly the same as they did in canon, or maybe with a sensate cluster influencing things, it begins the path that deviates things wildly from the canon we all know and love. It's entirely up to you!

  • NETWORK USAGE
    Communication via text is still very possible!

    Through the magic of the powers of the human mind, that group text across universes still totally exists. Maybe it appears as an actual text chain to you, or maybe it's freshly dried ink on that magical scroll that keeps writing itself the more messages are exchanged.

    Whatever the case, your mind retains the communications written down by your cluster, and all correspondences to one another are visible — unless otherwise stated to be private, of course. Create a prompt on your top level with some inbox action, and do a little lowkey texting!

    Be sure to specify if a thread is private, otherwise you may have a handful of other folks chiming in with their opinion on your back-and-forth exchange at any time!

    ANYTHING ELSE
    Check out the info page for details, or post to the enable me please meme with information about characters you're considering bringing in! If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me below, or on plurk!
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    [personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-13 06:18 am

    IC Inboxes

    Consolidated IC Inboxes

    An Inbox repository, to replace the traditional process of making one on your own journal. This is for threads ranging from text messages to that scroll you sent to the Northern Kingdoms by magical crow or whatever. Anything you'd like to do as quick text-adjacent exchanges.
    • Create a Top Level for your character with their name and canon in the subject.
    • Feel free to include any answering machine greetings or aesthetic gifs you want to exist there forever.
    • Comment to one-another's top-levels, you know what to do! You're welcome to adapt this to suit your needs, it does not have to be uniform. There just needs to be a top-level to hit up.
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    [personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-13 06:01 am
    Entry tags:

    REQUEST TO JOIN / TAKEN LIST

    Application & Taken List



    Unlike a traditional game, there is no real application process. Simply fill out the following form and post it in a comment. If approved, I will unscreen the comment and reply with an approval!

    Read more... )
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    [personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-13 05:58 am
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    OOC PLOTTING

    Ongoing OOC Plotting!

    This is the place you'll organize your monthly plotting plans. Having it all in one place, on one permanent post, will make it easier for other members to browse through everyone's Stuff.
    Here's what to do:

    Make a Top-Level for each character.
    Include the following form in the top-level:



    Reply to that top-level with the Month and Year in the subject line. You will create a new comment each month whenever you feel like planning out some stuff you want to do.
    Include this form in the comment:




    Comment to each other's monthly plotting comments to plan stuff!
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    [personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-13 05:49 am
    Entry tags:

    Enable Me Please

    Enable me, Sensate!

    What Do:
    • Make one separate top-level comment for each character you're considering playing.
    • Fill out the form below for each of them.
    • Due to the nature of the game, characters must be firmly over 18 years old both physically and mentally.
    • Browse other people's pitches, get excited about the prospects, comment to them to shoot the shit, spitball ideas, or just keysmash.




    General tips for filling out the form:

    Skills / Powers: List what your character can bring to the table to use in the cluster! this can be anything from karate to cooking to emotional vulnerability to a street drug connection.

    Flaws: List any flaws you'd like to play around with, to make other characters endure or address.

    Themes / Desires: List some general themes you want to explore; these can be as abstract or as specific as you want. for example: father issues, the concept of humanity as a whole and whether or not it's redeemable, self-improvement, learning to read, getting help through a more social or mature sensate cluster member to improve interpersonal relationship dynamics, killing some specific guy, dream-sharing a recurring nightmare, having a memory-share of x/y/z event in a character's past, either first-person or from a safe distance, and so on...

    Canonpoints To AU: Any ideas for specific moments in your character's canon that you may want to play out — either to replay with exactly the same outcome, or to drastically change the events of your character's canon, the sky is the limit.

    Anything Else?: Include anything noteworthy you think is worth mentioning, or just post a sexy gif to win everyone over.
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    [personal profile] cognitivus2025-10-13 05:32 am
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    ABOUT;

    OOC Logistics

    What is this, exactly? A game?

    Nope! This is a GPSL+ roguelite deckbuilding game- just kidding. It's more or less a sandbox with a little plot. There is no AC, and it isn't moderated so much as enthusiastically organized. My goal is for the overarching plot and mechanics to be a collaboration between everybody that's involved, so everyone gets to have input on story beats that appeal to them. In addition, this method means that I won't burn out trying to craft "events" and entire metaplot things myself the way I would if I were actually trying to mod a game. I'm mostly just planning to help streamline things, and make some discerning judgment calls to make sure things stay on-theme and engaging and somewhat make sense.

    Who is invited?

    Right now, anyone on my timeline is invited, and can invite anyone they personally know if there's somebody they want to bring in. If the number gets too big I might change this.

    What should I do to get involved once I decide to join?

    Whatever you want, I'm not your dad. Just kidding, here's a loose suggestion:
    • Post to the EMP meme with the character(s) you're interested in bringing to the cluster and chat it out with folks to see which ones compliment/contrast others, which have overlapping themes you wanna touch on, etc.
    • Once you decide, post to the 'request to join' page with the relevant journal(s).
    • Once you're approved, comment on the OOC Plotting Post. This is an ongoing place where you can list out what threads you're interested in playing during the current month, and collaborate with everyone else in the cluster to plan it as much or as little as you'd like!
    • Make a top-level in the IC Inbox post, to help make things easier for the rest of us to shamelessly stalk in one central location.
    • Write a top-level to the current month's general fucking-around post, or make your own post, or tag into other people, do the thing!
    • Optional: join the discord server if you wanna communicate with everybody more easily — or don't, if you're discord-shy, it's cool.

    What warnings should I be on the lookout for?
    • As a whole, this sandbox will contain explicit sex at times. It is not a requirement to play this, but the intimacy of sex among a cluster, which transcends both sexuality and personal dynamic, is a big component of Sense8. Players and characters can engage with this as much or as little as they're comfortable with.
    • Aside from that, there will be violence, traumatic histories, mentions of suicide, and probably a murder-villain.
    • Threadjacking is more than just a given, it's practically a necessity. We can start out by communicating this in advance but honestly I hope we all get to a comfort level that lets everyone feel confident slipping a tag cameo or two into others' threads spontaneously, seeing as the cluster is always connected and there is no real privacy among them. Just be cool and considerate about it, and if someone threadjacks something you're not comfortable with, be willing to let them know! Communication is key!

    For individual character warnings, check the OOC Plotting Post.

    What if I want to change characters?

    Follow your heart. We can either retcon them or we can implement a mechanic of some kind to explain it, like 'when a sensate dies the cluster replaces them with another sibling', or we can make them an offshoot of cluster parents, who birth other sensates and pass on some of their memories/feelings/thoughts for the replacement character to experience, so characters are never Truly left behind, and you get to retain some CR.

    Will there be events?

    Sort of! My idea right now is for us to chat about an overarching metaplot, maybe slip in a few surprises Tabletop D&D style for you guys because I can't resist, and then maybe making a once a month general 'this is what's going on' log post you guys can tag on directly. It'll have some highlights about noteworthy events or themes outside of whatever canon-adjacent ones you're currently playing out together.

    What's the status of privacy on the community?

    The EMP meme will be set to public so you can post to it with a bunch of journals. Any posts containing sex should be set to members only. Other posts, be it monthly logs or personal logs, can be set to whatever you guys feel comfortable with.

    IC Logistics



    What is the premise?

    We're repurposing the overarching concept of Sense8, but reworking some of the mechanics to better suit our needs. In essence, characters will slowly begin to experience their first, earliest ventures into waking up as Sensates. They will begin to slowly meet the other members of their cluster, and eventually learn to take over for one another, experience one another's memories, share each other's dreams at times, general psychological fuckery like that.

    But how active should I actually be?

    As active as you want, man. This is just a fancy GPSL, it's meant to be low-effort, low-commitment, low-stress, no expectation. If you go an entire month without having the energy to tag, fine — just give a shout if you have any multi-person threads going that should carry on without you or if there's something important you want to handwave. It's literally so chill, dude.

    On the flip side, conversely, please do not feel left behind or overwhelmed if you notice a few people following their dopamine trail and boomeranging 500 comments. It just be like that sometimes.

    How do mechanics differ from the show?

    Location: Most of the characters are all in separate universes, to begin with. One or two are welcome to originate from the same place if the canon setting is similar enough (ie vanilla 21st century basic bitch earth) and you're feeling froggy. Otherwise, unless they're from the same canon, universes will be distinctly separate at first.

    Time: Being in different universes means that time may pass at different rates for everyone. Six weeks to one character could be a decade later for another character. Mechanically, this is so everyone can play out AU versions of canon plot points they want to rewrite with Sensate Stuff without being restricted to the same 1:1 timescale as their thread partners.

    Powers: characters with superpower type shit can channel it through whoever they're sensating into at the time. I will leave it up to ya'll how that manifests, how hard it is to accomplish, whether it's something everyone has learn like a skill that must be practiced or what. Just do whatever's the most fun for you!

    Can I play a second character?

    If we have enough interest and participation, we can have multiple clusters! I'm totally cool with it. As a general practice it's probably a good idea to have your characters be in separate clusters to avoid having to write against yourself.

    What's the deal with NPCs and canon relationships?

    Supported and encouraged! I'm willing to NPC canonmates for anybody whose canon I am familiar with, and I hope other people are also willing to do the same. This can be as big and frequent or as rare and infrequent as you want. Thread an entire relationship arc with Cluster-Blorbo and their non-cluster Will-They-Won't-They Best Friend, this is only good news for us, because it means we all get to weigh in on it.

    Love in all forms is an extremely important theme in Sense8. The cluster will never break up a canon ship, if anything they're likely to begin loving that person as much as their canon-mate does. Cluster orgies also aren't considered cheating; in a transcendental way, it's not eight separate people, it's one person with seven other selves. Clusters transcend labels and definitions and barriers; there can be members of the cluster with absolutely no sexual interest in another member personally, but by the nature of cluster intimacy, that's irrelevant. Sexuality is also largely irrelevant.

    In other words, you can bring the NPCs to the orgy.

    Are the characters ever going to actually meet in the same place?

    Yeah! I have loose plans to work out with ya'll involving a "part two" of this whole thing, where they get dragged to a jamjar style universe (setting tbd) with perhaps the thought being it's a world specifically pulling in sensate clusters for Some Reason. We can work more of that out later.

    Who is the villain? Is there more than one villain?

    Depends on which characters we get! I was thinking of repurposing canon antagonists for this, possibly ones who are doing a similar cluster-thing to connect to other canon characters' antagonists. Unless we come up with something better, possibly Chuck (the asshole Christian God from Supernatural) with maybe a sprinkling of Hannibal or something.