I've Been Gone Since :insert date here:. Where Do I Start?

Community General Discussion
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It’s sometimes hard to wrap our heads around just how much has happened in-world since the events of The Monarch Papers came to a close. Between new folks coming in and old friends returning, a table of contents felt like a useful thing to have.

As new threads are added, we’ll do our best to keep things up-to-date.

October 2017 and Earlier:
TMP Volumes 1 & 2 (definitely the most efficient way to get through a year and a half of goings-on). There are now also audiobooks available, in addition to the print and e-books!

January 2018 - April 2019: The Secret Society
(Click the link above to download the adapted novella, or peruse the links below.)

Introduction of Pins

From Saberlane via email:

Orvin Wallace (the executor of the Green estate and expert on all things AGP) and I found a box of pins (seen above) in a storage unit that held documents and materials from the first iteration of Ackerly Green Publishing way back in the 1950s.

At first we thought they were just promotional materials, a golden hippocampus, the company’s mascot.

And then I put one on.

And very strange things started happening:

  • I found myself feeling “called” to wander around the city when I was wearing it. Like when Sullivan Green said Central Park “talked” to him.
  • I also started receiving strange notifications on my phone that would disappear before I could capture them or write them down.

Now, I’m not sure it was the pin making these things happen… but they always happened when I was wearing the pin. It felt like the pin was trying to show me something .

And then one night I was going through old Ackerly Green documents, as I do most nights now, when I found a handwritten note that read, “Share them. Share it all. It’s the only way to put everything together. To keep the truth, and wonder, alive.”

I have absolutely no reason to believe that note was about the pins, but it felt like it answered a question I’d been asking myself.

What we’ve all been asking since we unlocked The Book of Briars…

What now?

So we’re restarting the Ackerly Green Secret Society and we’re sharing the (limited number of) pins with those of you who have joined this strange, wonderful journey. Let’s see if we can “put everything together.”

1 Wonder
2 The Ackerly Green Bookshop
3 A Quick Check-In
4 The Ackerly Green Update - March 2018
5 “I looked across the cold and silver swirling sea.”
6 The Ghost of Ackerly Green Publishing
7 Wet Woolie
8 The Fan Club - Marty Rank
9 Ackerly Green Changes
10 We’ve Done Something
11 Date Night
12 Cellar Door
13 On The Atlantic
14 Saberlane’s Summer
15 The Brooklyn Public Library
16 Moving Office
17 Buzzed
17.5 Spell Discussion and Planning for Woolie
18 Down to City Hall Station
19 The Dreamer
19.5 What We’ve Found So Far
20 Intertwined
20.5 Calling the Corners for Saberlane and Woolie
21 Of Two Minds

March - December 2019: The Search for Magiq
(Click the link above to download the adapted novella, or peruse the links below.)

1 The 30 Day Spell
1.5 Casting The 30 Day Spell
2 The Neithercouriers
3 Cataclysm
3.5 Casting The Cataclysm
4 Peering Arts
4.5 Discover Your Guild Bearing
5 “Elemental Disruption”

2020 (as of October):
Basecamp 34 Update 1/16/20
The Wellspring - Casting Thread
Not sure if this is the right place. A little help?
Basecamp 34 Update 2/06/20
Ilya stumbled through the woods with a bright and beaming smile on her face.
Basecamp 34 update: 3-17-20
Lion’s Heart Dispatch: 4-15-20
Lion’s Heart Dispatch: 4-20-20
Are You There, Mounties? It’s Me, Eaves
A Message for The Mountaineers
Happy Day of Change!

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Excellent work Ash! You actually put that together pretty quick.

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This is so handy thank you!

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Fantastic! Thank you so much!

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Going to need this. :cagsko:

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Wow. Good to see you, Vic!

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This is amazingly helpful, thank you. I’m still lost on one connection (and I hope this is a/the right place to ask): There’s some stuff that happened between the end of TMP and the start of The Secret Society, it seems—pins, etc. I got a little lost there, and would love a pointer to where that gap is filled in.

(And yes, I’m seeing the alert that I need a picture or something in my profile. I’ll get there.)

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Where’ the “laughing until tears roll down your face at your own denseness” emoji?

As soon as I found a link to the Wiki, I’ve been able to fill in most of those gaps. Funny how quickly that appeared, right when I needed it …

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I did some digging and it looks like the full story of how the pins were found came in an email a few years ago and was summarized on the wiki. I added that part (from the email) to a little drop down, so it should all be there now.

Thanks for catching that!

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Always happy when my confusion can be of assistance. :upside_down_face: The post was amazingly helpful with the “I’m still lost” feeling after finishing TMP.

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Thank you for this!! I’ve been gone for gaps between months because life got pretty hectic and rife with change. Spring break has started for us and I’m relieved to have all the key threads in one place so I can do some good reading!

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I feel like I’m missing what actually happened when the Cataclysm was cast. I’ve been reading and I keep seeing references to theories and things that happened at that point that I don’t recognize. Am I missing something?

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Well, when we finished casting the Cataclysm the forum went down for a few hours while the eclipse took place. Most folks’ items that were used to pledge their power toward the spell had some amount of backlash after the fact. Here’s Saberlane’s account of what happened on his end of the spell. The gist of it was we make a big explosion and those looking at the veil from the outside would be able to see what was allowing folks to still find us while we were otherwise cut off from our other magiqal friends.

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That connects a lot of dots, thanks!

Edit: I’m not sure how I missed that post and that whole part of the topic!

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What ever happened to that box with all the drawers??

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We found the aliquary in it, but I don’t think we found anything else in it at the time.

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Just thought I should update. There are now books for the Secret Society and Search for Magiq. These are just transcripts/summaries of the above linked messages, and personally I find them easier to read in book format. There are also audiobooks for TMP.

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And can I tell y’all how thankful I am for those new books? I came in at the very tail end of Search for Magiq & was l-o-s-t LOST. Now I’m getting found.

I think.

The Briarverse is a strange place.

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You beat me to the update, @Mellie! I just updated the post with links to the novellas and audiobooks, which are also here:

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