Archipelago is a roleplay thread set in the Character Development Thread universe.
Somewhere in the vast ocean lies a small chain of islands little known to most of the world, but well-known to individuals of a more unusual nature. Beyond its outermost "hub" island, the archipelago has never been charted, because there never seems to be the same number of islands in the same places. The laws of reality get a little fuzzy here, and both directed and accidental travel from other worlds and times is easier. On the central and only charted island, where visitors most often arrive, the anomaly appears to prevent any form of intentional or accidental harm from coming to visitors: injuries are always fortuitously avoided in accidents, and attempts at harm simply do not occur.
This has made the hub island something of a designated neutral ground for various strange characters and dimensional travelers. A small cluster of buildings has sprung up near the one natural harbor and its dock: a couple of bars, a couple of casinos, several shops, and even the cheap but comfortable Pax Island Hotel. This is not a tourist trap, though, as much as amenities for the visitors that come here for various reasons. The Hotel's entrance leads out to a central square, with a shamelessly cheesy tiki bar calling itself the Big Kahuna and the Pax Island General Store being the most obvious, though not the only, services.
The thread can be found here
. It started in October 2013, then was abandoned a year later.
Archipelago contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Several early potential plot hooks were never followed up on, while the Nulbarak Island plot died without a resolution due to several key participants dropping out of the thread.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Friedrich does this to Esa:"Why do you make this woman's business your own?"
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The advertisement notice for Castle Boreas.Fighting, attempting to cause property damage, and smoking indoors will be swiftly dealt with.
- Artificial Intelligence: What the metagrams are. How human-like they actually are remains to be seen.
- Culture Clash: Most prominently, Uelane and Vesper cultures don't go together nicely.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: When Adrian Kunstler sits down to have tea with Azatha.
- Eldritch Location: The Pseudo-Turn District that Sam conjured up behind the Red Door. It was briefly explored by the stranger... And then it devoured him/it.
- Forced Transformation: An apparent specialty of Mud's; he turns one of the hotel's clerks into a moth and later turns Jackson into a duck.
- Happy Ending: Unlike many plotlines within both this thread and other CDTs that died without a resolution, the metagram story arc had a conclusive, happy ending with the metagrams being saved from deletion and safely returned to their own universe.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Kevin stores all his weapons, books, even 50 pounds of giant crab meat in his backpack, and can take anything in and out almost instantly.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Iris's and Nathan's eventual response to the weirdness surrounding them.
- Instant Costume Change: Kevin can change his outfit at will. However, only to certain pre-programmed costumes, and he's always wearing his enormous goofy backpack.
- Killed Off for Real: Jarla is killed by Adrian Kunstler, and with Adrian Ramses and Virgil Maro disappearing, Azatha wins the confrontation, preventing her from being resurrected. At least in this thread...
- Lovecraft Lite: What Azatha seems to be - even if she seems to think of herself as a Grade S Eldritch Abomination.
- Mood Whiplash: The conversations in the Big Kahuna were lighthearted... until a heated Culture Clash between Violet and Esa regarding the definition of rape broke out.
- One-Steve Limit: Now averted with Adrian Kunstler and Adrian Ramses, and Iris of Halstant and Iris Brooksley.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: Averted when the stranger tries to cast a mathemagical spell to have gravity be equal to one divided by zero. It doesn't work.
- Silent Antagonist: The stranger — on the rare occasions it "speaks", it is merely repeating overheard spell incantations, poorly.
- Spooky Silent Library: The ruins' library, which somehow maintains its well-kept appearance despite its builders vanishing long ago and is filled with signs that there's more to it than it appears.
- The Trickster: Mud appears to be this. While Jackson has consistently interpreted his actions as malevolent, he actually seems to simply be interested in shaking things up.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Howell, rather than wait for Iris to pick him up in Big Kahuna (or at least catch up with her), decides to go fishing with Claire and Duckie without his sister (or anyone else) knowing. This leads to a long, desperate search for him that lasts almost the entire night...which then leads to a horrible reunion that gets Iris kicked out of George's group after she blows up at her brother. Howell immediately wishes he never did it.
