hello and welcome to mystery's planning thread! if you're not (co)leading mystery this session (march 25), please don't read further than this or comment in the thread <3 swc is run on an honor system, and we expect you to abide by it. there won't be any retribution for continuing to scroll, but you'll spoil a lot of the fun surprises we have in store for you this session
to those of you who don't know what swc is, you can find an explanation here! if you're interested in joining, sign-ups are open until February 22nd, midnight UTC, so get your sign-up in!!
this is a closed collaboration, so again, please close out of this instead of reading further.

















If you've remained this far, I'm going to assume that you're (co)leading mystery this session - welcome!! I can't wait to work with you <3 Before we get into anything, here are the latest updates:

what's happening?
✩ Storyline volunteers have received their info! Yippee
✩ Cabin trailer is out! Y'all did an awesome job on your parts <3
✩ WE FINALLY FIXED OUR CABIN THUMB SOBBING (shoutout to Zy for uncronching it)

Okay! First, let's get to know the team - if you haven't introduced yourself already, please do so! I can't wait to get to know you guys better

mystery leaders
@ChueyTheCat ✩ Leader ✩ Chuey ✩ she/her
@BlauHourglass ✩ Co-leader ✩ Blau ✩ she/her
@Alfalfa78 ✩ Co-leader ✩ Bea/Wish ✩ she/her

Second, I've divided our current tasks and their deadlines into lists to hopefully help with organizing <3 these will be updated periodically as we finish tasks or new ones come up, so if you're lost on what to do, just refer to the lists below

cabin art
✩ cabin thumbnail(s) (2/3)
✓ cabin trailer
✓ matching pfps
✩ SPYDER concept art
✓ signatures and/or banners

storyline details
✩ storyline clues 2/3 (we still need to work on the encrypted phrases!)
✩ unlocked file contents
✩ volunteer riddles
✓ storyline roles
✓ storyline volunteers
✓ storyline progression
✩ storyline suspects

cabin projects
✩ cabin aesthetic ordering (0/3) (these don't need to be shared until March 1st)
✩ storyline puzzles (crossword, 3 encrypted phrases in caesar, pigpen, and atbash, and riddle hunt) (these don't need to be shared until they come up in the storyline)
✩ decoded files (it would be a bit much to make campers decode entire paragraphs, so maybe the encrypted phrases are just passwords that unlock the files) (these also don't need to be shared until they're needed)

Third, our storyline summary so far!

Power outages. No service bars. Strange noises. And the world's greatest technological genius has vanished overnight.
Isaac Icarus (placeholder name, we can decide on one later), founder of Icarus Industries, is missing. And that's not all - there were several reports of Icarus tech malfunctioning right before his disappearance, and now it appears that the whole country is glitching. The Internet is only up half the time, devices are refusing to work, and cities are experiencing random blackouts. And after the power goes out, multiple people have claimed to see glowing cobwebs and insectoid eyes in the dark, and hear things scuttling just out of reach. It's up to you to find out why, before life as you know it crashes (literally).

The storyline right now has three mysteries to solve: find out where Isaac Icarus went, what's going on with the weird cobwebs, and who's behind the widespread tech malfunctions. As you may have guessed, the three are, in fact, connected!
My ideas so far are that Isaac was looking for a way to build a new device, one that wasn't meant for the market. A device that was a bit on the shady side, in fact. Icarus Industries rose fast, but now they're floundering, and he's desperate to save his company.
So he invented something new: SPYDERS (another placeholder, but I quite like this one hehe).
The SPYDERS, tiny machines built to look like spiders, were meant to infiltrate rival tech companies, steal their ideas, and report back to him. Icarus Industries would then begin manufacturing the stolen products, leaving their enemies in the dust.
At least, that's how it was supposed to go.
Unfortunately for him, his biggest rival, Solis (you guessed it - placeholder!), caught on. Before the rise of Icarus, Solis was the biggest tech company out there. Now they've been left behind. Solis decided to turn his SPYDERS on him, changing their programs so that they would steal from Icarus instead.
Unfortunately for the world, Solis messed up. The SPYDERS escaped and began doing what they do best: hacking. Into everything. And thanks to Solis, they were better at it than ever. After Solis products began to act up and several attempts to fix the problem failed, they decided to call in the person who knew the most about the SPYDERS. That person happened to be Isaac Icarus. Of course, they couldn't ask him outright to fix it, hence the kidnapping.
My current idea for the roles the (co)leaders and campers will play in the storyline is that the campers will take the role of detectives hired by Icarus to find Isaac, and the (co)leaders are their handlers and will manage the investigation and communications between Icarus and the detectives.

Where did the other stuff that was here go? I moved all of the unneeded info somewhere else so we can reference it if needed, but it won't clutter this post.

now that all that's out of the way, it's introduction time! I'm Chuey, a homeschooled Christian with a love for books, art, and tea <3 I've been a co-leader once, and this is my first session as leader. This will be my sixth session of SWC, and I'm really excited to see how it unfolds! I love writing, of course, and have been jotting down ideas and living in imaginary worlds ever since I learned how to write. My dream job is either being a published author, owning a bookstore, or both

Hello, hello ;D. I'll think about the storyline and some possible ideas as I clean, later, but here's my brief opinion for the two need-voting stuff:

Symbol:
☸ | I like this one a lot! I feel like the magnifying class is a bit too…out-there?? for a mystery cabin. Classic, yes, but at the same time, we should be dropping clues and red herrings all throughout the cabin text! Thus, the spider web. It'll beg the question “why is there a spiderweb here?”

Name:
“The Infestation” | I agree- this one rings quite nicely!
“Silence” | Simple and direct, but impactful. Or maybe “Blackout”??

Anything else I'll add later skldjfse- I need to clean xDD.

OH RIGHT, INTRO-

I am Blau, or Binary, and I am an aspiring robotics engineer with AI. I am… I have no words anymore :'DD. Uhh- I am an INTJ-A, female, and I tend to be blunt and straightforward. I am an artist, writer(lol-), developer, and local hopeless romantic! I've co-lead Script last year in July, and I've camped twice in March '24 in Epistolary and in November as a part of Sci-Fi. Pleasure being here ;D.

sounds awesome!! i'll wait for our final co before making a decision on the symbol but it sounds like we might have a winner
i'm going to go ahead and create the cabin studio, i'll shoot off an invite to you

Hello again! I wasn't able to rack my brain for anymore ideas, so I think the storyline is fine so far providing our last teammate is in agreement as well.

What sort of cabin stuff do you want, though? Matching PFPs, siggies, banners, etc? Special storyline equipment or pets or something xDD? Any NPCs :000? Just shooting ideas ^^. A cabin trailer? SWC ad? Hmm… I could go on, haha. I'm more than happy to do art, VA, design, write, absolutely whatever is necessary xDD; I don't have a lot of limitations in terms of what I'm comfortable with LOL (the storyline already clears a lotta stuff sldkjfse). Oh! And I can also image host ^^. Maybe I should've put this all in my intro, my bad xDD- We can wait for our third before we discuss, but I just wanted jog some juicy thoughts beforehand ;D.

Yay! Also, there's been an update posted in the leader thread (which I'll also be adding to the to-do lists) - cabin colors, fonts, and graphics for cabin pages are due February 1st. This isn't quite as urgent as the pre-signups setup, but it's still important. I'll experiment with some colors to see if I can find some I like, and, of course, suggestions are great!
Once the team is complete (depending on how long it takes, we may even need to start discussing before then), we'll want to work on the atmosphere as well. I'd love to wait until we have our final member before deciding on one so that we can take the atmosphere in their app + their opinion into account too, but if our team isn't complete by January 25th, we'll probably have to go ahead and work on that so we get it submitted on time. Same with the symbol; since they're first come, first serve and the deadline is already pretty tight, if our team isn't completed within the next couple of days I'm going to have to go ahead and turn it in </3 HOWEVER!! I'm hoping that we'll have a complete team by then, so it isn't something we'll need to worry about for another few days.

I've listed some possible topics for the early stages of cabin planning and discussion below. Like Blau said, it's probably best to wait for the third member before seriously getting into any of these, but in the meantime we can be thinking about some options for how these might go.

cabin ideas
✩ storyline clues
this is a pretty big one, and also not one that's urgent at the moment, but since it'll probably take a while to get it set up I'd like to get started on it as soon as we clear the most pressing deadlines. if the other co agrees to the current storyline, we'll need to decide how we're going to set up the mystery. how will we introduce the case? how will we point the campers towards the right clues, or plant red herrings? what are those clues and red herrings? assuming that we keep the current storyline, coming into mystery, campers will be presented with what looks like three mysteries: the kidnapping, the tech malfunctions, and the glowing cobwebs. since there are conveniently about four weeks in march, perhaps campers can work on solving a case a week, learning that they're all connected the final week. or perhaps we'll do something else - it's really up in the air right now.
✩ storyline roles
this is a little less big, but still important. my ideas so far for the roles people will play in mystery have the campers acting as detectives hired by icarus, and the (co)leaders as their handlers. however, we can go deeper than that. what if one of the (co)leaders is secretly the mole for solis and the one who discovered the SPYDERS? what if it's someone else entirely, such as a storyline volunteer (assuming we have those)? that brings me to my next point, by the way.
✩ storyline volunteers
do we want to have these? we'll most likely want to wait until we've hashed out more of the storyline before deciding on this, but I thought I'd go ahead and toss it out there.
✩ in-cabin prizes
I've called them prizes for lack of a better word, but I mean basically all the stuff blau mentioned. I'd love to have matching pfps, a cabin trailer, and all that fun stuff, but we'll need to decide how to split this up, as well as how much we want to do. she listed out stuff way better than I did so refer to her post for a complete list lol.

again, I'm just putting this out there to refer back to once the team is complete, so don't worry too much about making choices for any of these. we have a whole month to get everything set up, after all!

Couple of other updates! First, Bea has accepted the offer to co-lead Mystery, and our team is complete!! Very excited to be working with you guys
Second, Myth has asked if we'd like to be allies <3 I'm good with it - is everyone else okay with it too? If so, I'll get back to them telling them yes As a continuation of that, we should probably start thinking about cabin relationships! I'll list out all the cabins as well as some potential relationships in a bit, and of course we may get more offers for relationships from others as well.

Edit: Fan-Fi has offered to be enemies! Again, I'm cool with it as long as everyone else is

*slides in* Hi! I suppose I'll introduce myself? I'm Bea (or Wish, no preference!) I am in the wonderful timezone of EST! I've been in five sessions, and this will be my sixth! I am usually quiet, though it isn't unusual for me to have random chaotic outbursts. And I am very, very excited to work with you guys!

Anyways, onto planning stuff.

Name and Symbol
I think the Infestation sounds really cool, it's a little bit eerie and dramatic, and definitely intriguing! I also agree with ☸ as a symbol. ☼ could work too!

Cabin Relations
I'm good with Myth being our ally and Fan-Fi being our enemy!

Storyline
The storyline sounds awesome already

sorry for not being super chatty i'm still in shock and i'm also tired asdfkjldf

Hi Bea! It looks like everyone's good with ☸ as our symbol and it hasn't been claimed yet, so I'll go ahead and get that to Robin! <3 We can also start discussing our cabin atmosphere as soon as I finish getting that set up lol.

sorry for not being super chatty i'm still in shock and i'm also tired asdfkjldf

don't worry about it!! take as much time as you need to recover/rest - nothing too exciting setup-wise is happening right now anyway XD we're just working on basic setup at the moment

hello again! sorry for double-posting so many times but I wanted to get this out there before I forgot TwT
anyways two things again (assuming I haven't forgotten anything else LOL)! first up, we still need a cabin atmosphere, so I've pulled together our collective app atmospheres as well as a potential cabin atmosphere

app atmospheres
Chuey ✩ “Friendly, cozy, and welcoming, with a focus on community, personal goals, and friendly competition - somewhere you can take things at your own pace while making new friends and memories <3” (188 characters)
Blau ✩ “Relaxed and comfortable, open to new campers. Uses the storyline as a gentle way to get campers to write more words in a fun and engaging manner.” (145 characters)
Bea ✩ “A calm, friendly cabin, with a fun, interactive storyline. Perhaps a little bit of competition sprinkled in there as well!” (122 characters)

I've pulled together one possibility for our cabin atmosphere below, but if you have any, suggestions and edits would be amazing!

cabin atmosphere??
“Blackouts. Cobwebs. A kidnapping. Take a crack at solving the case in Mystery, where you'll have the chance to participate in an interactive storyline while engaging with a friendly, welcoming community and achieving personal goals <3” (199 characters)

I've done my best to incorporate bits and pieces of each of our atmospheres, as well as tidbits of Mystery's storyline - however, if you have them, suggestions and edits would be amazing!! I want to make sure everyone has an equal say in the atmosphere <3
I've also put this in the first post for easy reference if this gets buried so you don't have to hunt through the thread to find it XD

Second, cabin colors!! Here's a palette I liked; I loosely based it off a cityscape at night since that's kind of the general vibe I was going for. Please let me know what you think of these, and if you have any other ideas!
#031120, #23364d, #3d79690, #8bcfef, #f0b96c, and #f49049
(I know it can be hard to see the colors just from the text, so I've also uploaded them to an old project here)

HELLO! Sorry, haha. I was spending some time with family and couldn't get a chance to reply until now. All of that sounds great! Bea, welcome ^^. Glad to have you onboard. The cabin atmosphere is good- You did fine with compiling all of ours and the storyline in a cohesive form ;D.

Now the cabin colors :00. I do love the darker, colder route you took with a dash of warmth to signify the sun, I'm assuming LOL. My only possible suggestion, feel free to use, tweak, or ignore, would be to make the last orange a bright yellow? I feel like the pastel orange already has the …orange… help I need another name for orange color down, and we don't want to overuse the shade…??? Does that make any sense xDD? Or add in a red instead of the darker orange. Sorta for…computer error syntax, spider eyes (thank you, Minecraft ^^), and a hint of something darker, like blood. After all, who knows what happened to Icarus when he was kidnapped? Just my two cents, haha. They look awesome otherwise ;DD.

Edit: Small thing, but how do cabin relationships work? Can you just ask another leader to be sibling cabins xDD?

Cabin atmosphere sounds good to me! I agree with Blau, I think it's a good mix of everything.

Also, yeah! I think yellow or red would be a good splash of color, maybe even green? I vaguely associate green with coding/hacking or error codes. I dunno, mostly just throwing out ideas. But it looks good!

Just a heads up, I'm probably going to be going on a trip leaving on Thursday. I'll still have access to my devices and scratch, but I'm unsure about internet. I might be a little slow next week, just so you know! <3

cabin atmosphere
Awesome! I've submitted that to Robin, so all of our pre-signups setup should be complete

cabin palette
ooh ok! i've added some more options to the same project (here) and I've also broken down which parts of the (first) palette could represent what, at least in the thumbnail:
#031120 = night sky or buildings
#23364d = night sky or buildings
#3d79690 = city lights
#8bcfef = cobwebs
#f0b96c = city lights
#f49049 = city lights
I considered doing a blackout palette, but I figured the colors would be really dim and hard to see without any highlights, which is why I opted for some brighter ones
as always, suggestions are welcome!!
and speaking of thumbnails, once we have the palette finalized we should probably start talking about dividing up cabin art! is everyone ok with doing art? if not, that's fine! I'm just trying to get a sense of how we want to divide stuff

Cabin Pallete

I think that the original, and the second red, and second green palletes all look really good. I'm not super decisive oops-

But, yeah! I'm up for doing art!

cabin relationships
separate post for this question since I also want to discuss what relationships we want!
first, to answer your question blau, that's exactly how it works! it's nothing fancy, just a request along the lines of “hey wanna be allies/enemies/etc with __cabin?”

second, here's a list of all the cabins and potential relationships <3

Action – no relationship (allies or siblings?) +
Adventure – no relationship (friendly neutrals?) +
Bizarro Fiction – no relationship (hostile neutrals?) -
Dystopian – no relationship (allies?) +
Fairy Tales (TCTWNW) – no relationship (enemies?) -
Fanfiction – pending relationship: enemies -
Fantasy – no relationship (enemies?) -
Illustrated Fiction – no relationship (allies or siblings?) +
Journalism – no relationship (friendly neutrals?) +
Mythology – pending relationship: allies +
Science Fiction – no relationship (enemies?) -
Thriller – no relationship (hostile neutrals?) -

if everyone is good with this relationship list, I can go ahead and start sending out requests, as well as accepting requests that we've received <3

Cabin Relationships

Sounds good to me! <3

I like the palette with red. Thanks for being so flexible, haha xD.

And for the cabins relationships: I see! Hm… My only request would be being siblings with Dystopian, if at all possible :'DD.

BlauHourglass wrote:

And for the cabins relationships: I see! Hm… My only request would be being siblings with Dystopian, if at all possible :'DD.

Yeah sure thing!! I'll go ahead and start sending out requests/accepting requests then

Also, is everyone okay with #031120, #23364d, #3d79690, #8bcfef, #f0b96c, and apparently this number is “unsuitable language” so have some colored words instead as our palette? bea said she liked the second red and blau also said she liked red, although I wasn't sure which one - anyways, let me know if this works!

I'm updating our to-do lists, so be sure to take a look at those if you get a chance

I'm good with it!

edit: “it” being the pallete- I need to be more specific oops