ACTIVITY CHECK: January–March 2025

[faderifting]

ACTIVITY CHECK

This activity check is for JANUARY–MARCH 2025. The deadline to reply is APRIL 30. You can review prior AC posts here if needed. Due to our inconsistency in checking this lately and not wanting to catch anyone too off guard, we're allowing people with zero links to take a strike rather than be required to drop. However, a comment with a recap summarizing what your character has been up to, however handwaved, is required to stay in the game. We're leaving the usual write-up intact below for review as needed because these requirements will be in effect for April–June.

To pass AC you should provide a brief recap of what your character has been up to with at least three RP links per character for the relevant time period. These links can be to posts you created, log threads, rookery/crystal threads, inbox threads, or open top-levels within plot posts. You must also link to reports for any war table assignment your character completed during this period. You can do this in the body of your AC comment by sticking "(report)" after your mention of the mission. If you haven't put up a report yet, now is the time to do it.

You can use multiple threads from within the same post, such as three different logs branching from the same open prompt. You can use threads that started prior to the beginning of AC period as long as a substantial portion of tags occurred during this AC period and you didn't already use that thread as proof for a previous AC period. There is no minimum tag count per thread. (But if you're consistently providing only threads you dropped after a couple of tags, last-minute open posts you don't tag after making AC, etc., we may contact you about that.)

RECAPS

Along with your links, you're providing a quick recap of what your character has been up to. The goal for this is to help everyone keep track of what's been happening, both with their own characters and with everyone else's. Riftwatch is a small enough organization that people are probably going to be aware of what everyone else is working on and any obvious interpersonal drama, so this is our OOC cheat sheet!

Recaps can be very brief. E.g., "Over the last three months, Paul went to Tevinter to assassinate a magister (report), had a fight with his best friend Joe, and learned how to use a crossbow." But you're also welcome to include more detail if you want, as long as you keep it to a couple of paragraphs max.

You can—as always—handwave interpersonal interactions with other characters and note those in your recap if you want a record of them. "Paul has continued to avoid Joe since their fight" with no thread showcasing the avoidance, for example. You could also handwave the whole fight! We don't care.

For work- and plot-related recap claims, however, you can only handwave your character's daily performance of their routine work. In between the more significant things you thread, we assume all characters are doing the Typical Work listed on their division wiki page. So you could say "Paul has been diligent about his work for the Diplomacy Division and met with a few minor nobles visiting Kirkwall to talk up Riftwatch," or "Paul has been distracted and struggling with his work for the Forces Division and stumbled through his routine patrols," etc., without proving that in a thread. No one has to RP paperwork or its equivalent.

What you can't purely handwave is anything significant or cool enough that other people would need to remember that it actually happened for future plot purposes—we'd define this as anything for which we normally require a plot request or a report, which we've previously provided some guidance on where those lines are here—or anything that's a significant achievement for your character rather than just daily grind stuff. Basically: if you want your character to do anything cooler than competently attending to their routine work, you've gotta RP about it somehow. That can mean RPing the actual event, or it can mean RPing discussion or planning or fallout around the event–but you have to RP something about it!

SPECIFIC CHARACTER SITUATIONS

NEW CHARACTERS: Characters who were apped during this AC period need to provide one link for each full month they were in the game. For example, for the AC period of January through March, a character apped in January would need two proofs because they were in the game for the full months of February and March (but it doesn't matter which month the two links were started in), a character apped in February would need one, and a character apped in March wouldn't need any links. Obviously you're welcome to include as many links as you have/want.

IC LEADERS: You're required to provide proof of your character using their job in some way. This can be a war table assignment or player plot, if you chose to run one. But it can also just mean making sure that one of your AC proof links includes your character performing their job duties. E.g., the Head Archivist could link to a crystal announcement asking people to please stop dog-earing the books, a log in which they're reorganizing the library, or an inbox thread where they hound a specific person to stop hoarding library books in their bedroom. This requirement doesn't apply to characters who are new to their jobs as of the current quarter.

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS: Everyone has to provide the required three links for at least one character every AC period. But if you play multiple characters, then each period you can choose up to two to mark as background characters. You can rotate which characters you designate as background each AC period if you want, though characters with leadership roles of any kind cannot be backgrounded. You still need to provide a brief, vague-as-you'd-like recap of what they're doing in the background, so everyone else knows whether they're in the Gallows doing their work or on an assignment abroad or whatever else, but you don't have to provide any links.

VOICE TEST CHARACTERS: You are not required to do AC for voice test characters until the deadline for them becoming real characters has passed, but you can fill out the form for them anyway if you want to have a record of what they've done for future reference.

STRIKES

Failing to respond to AC at all will result in the character being swept.

If you fail to post any links at all for a character who isn't backgrounded, you'll have to drop them. If you post more than zero but fewer than three, you'll get a strike but can try again next quarter. If you fail to meet the three-link-per-character requirement for two quarters in a row you'll be required to drop as many characters as you failed with. This does technically mean that you could drag your feet for up to six months before dropping a character you've only written a single tag for in that time. We ask that you be kind to your CR and not do that. Again, if you seem to be abusing the system, we'll contact you to talk about it.

FORMS

Please post AC for all of your characters in a single comment! You only need to include the Player field once if you have multiple characters. See the note up top regarding link requirements if you have skipped straight down to the forms.

MOST CHARACTERS <b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Background:</b> Y/N <b>Recap & Links:</b> For characters not in the background, minimum three links to RP occurring sometime in the last three months.

NEW CHARACTERS <b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Background:</b> Y/N <b>Month Joined:</b> <b>Have you replied to the taken list?:</b> Y/N <b>Recap & Links:</b> One link for each full month your character has been in the game so far.

LEADER CHARACTERS <b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Leadership Proof:</b> Just evidence of them actually performing their job/you using it in RP in some way. You can also include this as one of the three links required in your recap. <b>Recap & Links:</b> Minimum three links to RP occurring sometime in the last three months.

Comments

[aberratic]

Player: nina

Character: ness (aberratic)
Leadership Proof: here
Recap & Links: in january wintermarch, tav disappeared, which exacerbated ness's already-heightened fear of her anchor. knowing stephen wouldn't help her if she made a rash decision—and unwilling to attempt an amputation without his help—she waited until guardian to bring it up. after a conversation that was more like a meeting of the speech and debate club than anything, she convinced him that it would be the best way to prevent her anxiety from becoming a barrier to her work, and he agreed to perform the amputation. they would move forward with it in a month, but in the meanwhile, ness had to carry on with her life. for her, that meant reaching out to her nevarran friends for help with her other nevarran friend—she owed vanya dinner and a talk for his help teaching her nevarran. despite her determination that no one should know about the plan for her amputation, she couldn't keep herself from reaching out to viktor about wysteria de foncé's prosthetic. finally, in drakonis, she fabricated an accident in the quartermaster's office and got her anchor arm amputated.

Character: talin (dirthsal)
Background: n
Recap & Links: at the start of the year, talin decided that he had to start trying to make friends or he would look like a weirdo, which got him talking to a few people who aren't astrid—a marked improvement over the last year. in guardian, he went to nevarra with the rest of riftwatch, where he met emmrich and had feelings about elves. you know, the usual!

Character: connor (catathymic)
Background: y
Month Joined: march
Have you replied to the taken list?: y
Recap & Links: he's just a baby!!

k2

[boeric]

Player: k2

Character: Sennara
Leadership Proof: n/a
Recap & Links:

Sennara checked up on an old work frenemy. During the dream plot, she was annoyed by Benedict standing up for himself at an inoppurtune moment. She asked some questions about lyrium, before being stranded with the cave group, where she stole a chunk of Titan. And has more questions about that. Meanwhile, whether or not Gela moves out, we're going to the Container Store.

Character: Lamentation Strand
Leadership Proof: n/a
Recap & Links:

Strand arrived at Riftwatch, and immediately acted like a huge dick in public. Just like old times. He's now doing his actual job, by asking some questions about Sarrux Pass.

Character: Lazar
Leadership Proof: n/a
Recap & Links:

Lazar had a bad few months, beginning by not fucking Vanya's wife, and then dying of the Blight. It got worse: There was a work meeting. He had to beat up a sick friend, and proceeded to almost throw hands with his doctor about that. After journeying to known F-tier country, Nevarra, he was lightly stabbed by some ancient elves. Ouch. He's already back to conducting important research.

Character: Isaac
Leadership Proof: Acquisitions - Artifacts and Shipping (REPORT)
Recap & Links:

Isaac disappeared during a mission (REPORT), temporarily losing parts of his memory. By a group effort of friends and colleagues he was retrieved, and immediately went back to work. The experience did not grow his heart three sizes, and hasn't stop him from scheming and sniping. He is, however, considering anew the value of career redundancy

Character: Cedric Carsus
Leadership Proof: Mediation - About Your Very Public Fight
Recap & Links:

Despite a disruption-filled presentation, Cedric is soldiering on. Having connected some unwelcome dots about his childhood, he's healthily handling his discontent with the Chantry by volunteering, talking about his feelings, and having a rage-fueled panic attack. It's fine. Probably everything was for his own good. Along the way he caught a glimpse of other people's family troubles, other people's coping mechanisms, and tried to dig around the Necropolis. Sometimes literally. But he did get a sick paladin dream or two, and some free food.

Ammmy

[youwonscience]

Player: Ammmy

Character: Cosima Niehaus
Leadership Proof: Keeping an eye on the "rifters removing their shards" situation
Recap & Links:

Never a dull moment for a division head. Cosima kicked off the quarter with an involuntary visit to a Titan's circulatory system, though at least she could try to reassure Ness a bit while they were there. Once back, she had enough leisure to be able to suggest steps for making Riftwatch collectively hotter and to check in on the cool shit from home rifters may be missing. (If she's taking notes about what might be engineerable, well, that's a bonus.) She wrapped up by checking in on Ness post "accident" (see leadership proof above), and is beginning to suspect she might eventually have to weigh in on the anchor amputation thing despite her best efforts not to.

Also: It happened last quarter, but I do want to record for posterity the time she got high and talked with Stephen about relationships, because it was a thing of beauty.


Character: Julius
Leadership Proof: An example of a regular check-in with the staff
Recap & Links:

The previous quarter, Julius took a nostalgic field trip to Kinloch Hold and then got himself forgotten (report). Kicking off the new year, he dabbled with a happily ever after (not his); ended up talked into attempting to deal with the annoyance of Cedric Marquette by making two of his enemies fall in love with each other (report); and having to reveal just how much he knows about making and using phylacteries in the name of finding Isaac after the whole forgetti situation.


Character: Vanya Orlov
Background: N
Recap & Links:

In the aftermath of Sarrux's Pass the previous quarter (report), Vanya resolved to have a quiet start to the new year. He then proceeded somehow to be dissatisfied in a world theoretically designed to make him happy. He spent a visit home chasing thieves out of his parents' house and fighting Venatori. In between all the excitement, he stuck to his regular routine, now including post-language lesson dinners with Ness. During one, he was even gently encouraged to share a bit of his history with the Templar Order as the two of them grow closer.

[mournwitch]

Player: Libby

Character: Gwenaëlle Baudin, captain of the guard
Leadership Proof: i thought i had a leadership proof but it was ~last quarter~, i definitely have one for the next quarter, sorry team i was in irl hell
Recap & Links: Opening the year with a family visit, she found time afterwards to support lyrium detox, meet Orlov’s mum, and take an incredibly strong stance against removing an anchor-shard, impacting her vibe in the infirmary for a short time.


Character: Petrana de Cedoux, chief cryptographer
Leadership Proof: PROOF
Recap & Links: In addition to recording some ancient dwarven glyphs (see above link), Petrana had a markedly different reaction to anchor-shard removal, and expressed a wish for a better class of carriage. She also had a dream about being Empress again, but better this time.

Character: Athénaïs Tavarys, recent arrival
Recap & Links: Preparing for their imminent departure (slash expulsion, in one case) from Nevarra with Professor Volkarin (and effectively one-upping her little sister in the process), she began her career in Riftwatch with a bang. She picked up some home improvement tips and flashed back to the night that began this shift.

[explosion]

Player: Jade.

Character: Wanda Maximoff.

Recap & Links: Before moving out of the Gallows, she legit just laid low and spent time in the library because what's an avoidant meant to do? Socialise? At the end of last year, Wanda helped Herian out when she was being accosted by anti-fabulous witch believers… and made a friend. 🥺 We love this for her.

Wanda spent her time moving into the Gwaren Outpost, learning surface-level stuff about the outpost's history. She spent her time collecting some glowing mushrooms (ooh, shiny) and wanting to help remove debris from underground streams and ponds, and maybe trying to befriend spiders. She's still trying to remain lowkey as she's trying to figure out how to not rely so heavily on her magic, since that's bad here!

But the next quarter, she'll be pulling her head out of her ass and so will I! She is still kind of avoiding Stephen Strange because he smells and working with him to repel rage demons has given her a lot to repress and avoid.

I will need to take a strike, please. (What I thought I had started in December.) Thanks for offering it. ♥

julie

[portalling]

Player: Julie

Character: Strange
Leadership Proof: supervising lyrium detox
Recap & Links: Stephen kicked off the year by traveling to visit the in-laws Gwenaëlle’s aunt and uncle for Firstday, then having a no-good very-bad time stuck in the dreaming where he kept getting Looney Tunes killed by the Fade spirit whenever he figured out the dream world, or else noping out of Vanya’s happy landscape himself.

It’s been a miserable time for him professionally, needing to cut Barrow’s lyrium detox short for the man’s own safety, then supervising Ness’ amputation ‘accident’ only to need Isaac’s help to save her life. Their Orlesian friend at the university can’t invent penicillin fast enough.

He and Gwenaëlle had a nice time debating when their one-year anniversary actually was, and then a much worse time having their first real fight about the amputation.

Character: Astrid
Background: N
Recap & Links: Astrid’s subconscious spun up Rifthold, a very nice dream world mashing up the Gallows and an Avvar mountain, where she got to snuggle wolves and handsome men and babysit Gwenaëlle’s nonexistent daughter. Later in the year, she visited Barrow in the infirmary, trolled noblemen with Teren in Nevarra, then get super spooked in the mountain depths seeing her first titan’s heart and having a whole religious crisis about it. Reuniting with idk her bff Lazar was a huge relief in comparison.

Cadence!

[armd]

Player: Cadence

Character: Abby Anderson
Background: N
Recap & Links: Breaking: Abby Anderson has a girlfriend. She's really only been winning this quarter: she got her only hair elastic repaired, received hurt/comfort after running into a brick wall, met Barrow's hot sister and fully saved Lazar's life. You're welcome.

Character: Lady Vega Arany of Vyrantium
Background: N
Recap & Links: Had opinions in public, was a contrarian (also in public) and is absolutely not chopping her arm off if, for some reason, that ends up becoming a trend

Character: Gela Baynrac
Leadership Proof: Moving in to her new office!
Recap & Links: Ok so Gela: participated in a great love heist, met a hot gurl, shared family recipes and will be allowed to name a griffon in future which is exciting. also just pointing out to anybody who may read this she NEVER GOT AN ANSWER

[altusimperius]

Player: Cami

Character: Benedict Artemaeus
Leadership Proof: diplo chat with the Seneschal
Recap & Links: Played welcome wagon (with more people than this, including the Tavaryses and Verminius, but I'm lazy), went looking for Isaac with Clarisse and Abby and succumbed to the world's worst sleepover, attended a drag night in which he and Bastien were bitches at each other, and hung out with his best pal Talin. And some other stuff no doubt.

Character: Barrow
Leadership Proof: asked Jayce to take care of the training yard/siege equipment during his recovery
Recap & Links: The Great Lyrium Detox Experiment, which failed miserably on several levels. At least he and Lazar got to beat the fuck out of each other, and on the brighter side, his relationship with Dr. Strange is even weirder now.

Character: Teren von Skraedder
Background: N
Recap & Links: Became best buds with Emmrich, made people nervous for no reason, and gently bullied Cedric.

Character: Fifi
Background: Y
Recap & Links: just hung around :-)

dylan

[wardwitch]

Player: dylan

Character: argent tavarys
Background: n
Month Joined: march
Have you replied to the taken list?: yes!
Recap & Links: This will be vague and linkless because my April was insane, but Argent started to put out feelers for ways to contribute, familiarized herself with the infirmary and the day to day work of being part of the Forces Division and in a separate capacity that won't count for AC, visited the alienage. Where things have not improved since she was last there. She made a few social connections too, which I handwaveily say included her sister, but most of this going to end up counting for next AC period anyway. v

[pathlit]

Player: Mini

Character: Jayce Talis
Background: N
Recap & Links: Jayce requested aid in challenging the integrity of a lyrium-based barrier system he's been working on since late 9:50, in response to the attack on the Gallows by the Venatori in early 9:50. He spent some down time with Clarisse and Viktor, and was tasked with the temporary maintenance of the Gallows' defenses, weaponry and training yard while Barrow handled A Personal Health Issue. Off-screen, he and Viktor visited Orzammar, report pending.

[hassaran]

Player: Cass

Character: Yseult
Leadership Proof: Assisted Clarisse in locating Isaac.
Recap & Links: Quietly went about her business for the most part, including fielding questions at the all-hands meeting, then made the mistake of joining Riftwatch's latest always ill-fated trip to the Grand Necropolis and spent a while ignoring how much she dislikes being stuck in the dark underground (not to mention inside some giant living thing) after getting trapped in a titan, and made a rare effort to engage more casually with her division by being mildly cryptic about her knowledge of sword-swallowing.

Character: Nell
Background: Y
Recap: Continued to do Forces work, signing up for basically any combat mission she can find and seeking out opportunities for more, particularly patrolling for enemy raiding parties in the Marches or hopping on a griffon to chase after a skirmish or help Marcher forces get revenge on an enemy camp. Prefers to avoid hanging around the Gallows or doing more than minimum desk-work if she can manage it, but will do her paperwork more or less on time when she can't. Trains in the training yards semi-religiously. Hangs out in the city in spare time, drinking and gambling with Kostos as always.

Character: Evelyn
Background: Y
Recap: Researching! She's particularly interested in the findings from the temple(s) under the Necropolis and the artifacts found there, and has been hunting for information related to the site and to other potential sites or artifacts connecting elvhen gods and old gods. Not finding anything of note just yet, so also pitching in with various other artifact-related hunts and special acquisitions missions. Missing her pals now that Xio has taken off for a bit. Keeping temporary custody of Caballero the bear in the meantime.

[cozen]

Player: MJ

Character: Bastien
Leadership Proof: Here
Recap & Links: Bastien tried to keep Barrow's spirits up via banter, tried to keep Benedict's spirits down via being a little bitch, kept everyone abreast of progress in Riftwatch's reputation, and otherwise had a pretty chill season on account of my OOC brain problems. ✌️

Character: Kostos Averesch
Background: Y
Recap & Links: Kostos visited the Necropolis for the mod plot but did not have a nice time. Made a nuisance of himself on the network as usual. I have three links somewhere but I don't want to go find them.

[corpsestuff]

Player: Kel

Character: Emmrich
Background: N
Month Joined: February
Have you replied to the taken list?: Y
Recap & Links: Emmrich set off with company (aka Athenais) to join up with the Riftwatch. Things promptly went complicated. He's moved in to a creepy residence and is hoping to figure out how to make Manfred more popular.

shhh this isn't late

[laruetheday]

Player: Lor

Character: Clarisse
Leadership Proof: boop
Recap & Links: Clarisse made things official with Abby, helped find Isaac, got knocked out during Barrow's attempt to get off lyrium, and watched Astrid fall off a cliff ahhhh

[grindset]

Player: a ghost

Character: Viktor
Background: N
Recap & Links: After that bizarre dream he had in late Haring, Viktor has been in full cryptid mode, making very little time for anything outside of his work. In late Guardian he and Jayce embarked on a long field trip to Orzammar to pursue some enchantment contacts and catch up with Wysteria.

[bouchonne]

Player: Hope

Character: Byerly Rutyer
Background: N
Recap & Links: Byerly has been taking it easy and spending time down in Gwaren with his sister. This is definitely a real thing that’s been happening and not an excuse I’m making for being super absent. He did perform a few duties - went to the necropolis, maybe did a little bit of mischief, and also helped out Barrow when he was detoxing. But most importantly: drag night baybeeee!

[luaithre]

Player: Brooklyn

Character: Marcus
Leadership Proof: Listen, it's gonna be May.
Recap & Links: Dedicatedly running things quietly behind the scenes, and has recently departed Kirkwall for some military-time diplomacy with the frontlines of the Exalted March in southern Tevinter. But it's gonna be May so time to come home.

rock

[verminius]

Player: Rock

Character: Vandren
Background: N
Month Joined: Jan
Have you replied to the taken list?: Y
Recap & Links: I think by these rules I must take a strike but Vandren arrived in January and was cruelly interrogated by Benedict, asked to fill out paperwork by a demon from New York, and reunited with an old frenemy in the yard. Emphasis on old, de-emphasis on the fr in frenemy. Past that I think he has been doing a lot of standing around and usefully holding things out of the line of fire and hasn't actually been pressed into serious or dramatic service yet. Hopefully I get around to this very soon.

Thank you for your patience and the final reminder announcement on plurk thank you thank you.