EVENT 007

[sticksandbonesmods]

EBB AND FLOE

A WINTERFUL LIFE

cw: food scarcity

The December snows roll in heavy, and with it, the fear-monsters and little pranksters that harassed you all month disperse into black mist. Whether they were about to kill you, stalking you, or pulling your hair, as soon as the moon hits its zenith, the beasts are gone. The mists float harmlessly into the air, hopefully to never be seen again. Hopefully.

For now, you’re free. The Forest and the Creature within slumber, as the cold seeps into every corner of the confined space you reside in and beyond. No longer will the entities within the woods try to kill you just for putting a toe past the fog wall. No longer does anybody sense a lingering danger. Finally, the Grove is peaceful. You can only hope it’ll last.

Unfortunately, while no mysterious monsters are working to murder you in cold blood, nothing can be done about the river freezing over, cutting off access to fish, and nothing can be done about the General Store running out of meat. The river’s ice cannot be broken nor melted. The grasses and flowers have shrivelled under the extreme cold; the trees are twiggy and leafless. Mysteriously untouched are the gifts from the Guardians — the blackberry bush on the opposite side of the river and the apple tree on the bank near the school continue to fruit throughout the month. Remember to say “thank you” before you feast from what remains.

At the very least, the General Store has plenty of trail mix, vegetables, and crackers. It’ll be a difficult month — but so far, you’ve endured much worse. Surely a little hunger can’t kill you now?

FREEZE THE DAY

During the day, the cold isn’t that bad. Sure, there’s a foot of snow on the ground and more keeps falling, and sure, snowball fights aren’t exactly fun anymore because your fingers get way too chilly way too quickly — but the sun still shines, and sometimes you can stand out in a sunny spot and feel a whole five degrees warmer than you were a moment ago. It’s tolerable. During the night, however, the temperatures dip well below freezing, and the air is so frigid that it dries your skin out on contact. Frostbite threatens to set in within minutes if you aren’t properly dressed.

Fires are harder to light, too, even if they’re indoors. You’ll find that, should you get one lit, it’ll go out within half an hour. None of the buildings stay warm for very long past night, and though they aren’t completely frozen-over, it’s the least bit uncomfortable for those who aren’t cold-faring to cope with. What is there to do, other than grab as many blankets as possible and make a nest or a fort, or maybe even grab a friend and leech their body heat? They don’t need that, right?

While you’re bothered by the weather, the Shopkeeper, Trader, and the two Guardians present within the Grove are entirely unaffected. Rusty, however, is merely a dog. He’ll help himself to cuddling against you whenever he can, including letting himself into your room at night and getting under the covers while you sleep. He will thank you in the mornings by leaving you a simple gift at your feet: A bone he found outside, because he loves you.

…one has to wonder how he broke in in the first place, though.

PARTING IS SUCH SLEET SORROW

Midway through the month, the snowfall begins to pick up. While the Grove hasn’t quite hit blizzard territory yet, the snow is consistent and unending, especially late at night. On occasion, mixed in with the delicate snowflakes, are tiny golden lights. Should they go untouched and unobstructed, they’ll simply fade away when they flutter to the ground. But should you, say, catch one on your tongue with the other flakes, or have one brush your hand, or purposely try to grab one?

It will float through you, into you, and your mind will be transported elsewhere. To the past, as you were when you were here originally. It is a vision of your past life, of memories long lost, of a “you” that isn’t “you” as you are now. Whether the golden light has you spectating as if you’re seeing yourself on a television screen, or acting the part of the old “you”, that matters little to the vision the golden light wanted to show you. It will end when it wants to end, you see. You could get an hour of a memory, or a single minute, or three whole days. It might have even dragged in another with you, someone nearby who was hit with a ball of light themselves or happened to pass by.

For those of you who have avoided this fate, you get to bear witness to those that are affected — they’re standing stone-still wherever they last touched the golden lights, eyes closed, as if asleep while standing up. You can try to rouse them, but they won’t wake until they’ve fully experienced the memory being shown to them. The best thing to do might be to drag them inside so they aren’t icicles when they come back to reality.

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

A WINTERFUL LIFE

The Forest has gone to sleep for the month. Unfortunately, the river is frozen, and it's hard to come across much food, save for what grows upon the Guardians' gift plants by the river. Luckily, the General Store seems to have some sparser amounts of food throughout the month.

FREEZE THE DAY

It's cold outside! Below freezing, actually! And for some reason, heat indoors just doesn't stick. Luckily you can cuddle with friends, in your own nest of blankets, or with Rusty, who is somehow breaking into everybody's bedrooms even if you've locked all your doors and windows. Hello, hi, he loves you and he is cold.

PARTING IS SUCH SLEET SORROW

Golden lights fall amidst the snowflakes. If you come into contact with one, you'll close your eyes and dream of your past life within the Grove. You might even unwillingly pull someone else in with you.

OOC

Y'all how is it already December. If you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. Reminder that AC for the month of December is check-in only, which means that if you're not feelin' it you can simply put in a "hi I still go here" comment and exit for the rest of the month. It's the holiday season, after all, so we don't expect you to give up family time for our silly little game. Regular AC will resume in January, and that will also be when our next TDM occurs. Happy holidays!

UPDATES

❖ None yet!

SUBMISSIONS

QUESTIONS
INVESTIGATIONS
PAST-LIFE PLOTTING
INTEREST CHECK

(CODE)

Comments

[sticksandbonesmods]

It's about five inches at it's thinnest- sturdy enough to support your weight, but the ice won't break regardless.

[sesa]

So Google says “Five inches of new clear ice should be enough to hold a single snowmobile or ATV or about 800 pounds,” so Sesa isn’t going to be making much headway here unless he went at the ice with a saw or something, which isn’t the goal for today. Maybe if they start running too low on food and need to try ice fishing or something.

Before doing anything else, he’s going to look up and down the length of the river from where he’s standing. Does it look like the river has frozen entirely? He’s imagining it was running water at one point, but even waterfalls can freeze when it’s THIS cold.

[sticksandbonesmods]

All parts of the river are, as far as you can tell right now, frozen. This may not be the case further in the forest.

[sesa]

Fascinating. The frozen river is, indeed, frozen.

Sesa is going to step back from the edge of the water and look to Elsword.

"What do you think. Shall we follow the river, or try our limits at the wall first?"

Sesa hasn't gone near the fog wall yet himself. He's heard the warnings, he's not THAT stupid.

[simplicitas]

"I wouldn't touch the fog wall. It makes you hallucinate, and it hurts."

And Elsword is literally like. Black arm, flowers, he's not looking too hot. The fog wall is black, too. He's not touching the fog.

"Let's walk down the river first."

[sesa]

Good call! Sesa trusts Elsword's judgement, seeing as how he's 1) been here longer and 2) has, uh. Obviously been Fucked Up by the forest already, so...

He'll nod and turn back towards the river and start heading down it, following its frozen bank deeper into the woods.

[sticksandbonesmods]

The world is quiet as you walk onwards. Snow gently falls from the dark gray sky, and everything is still. If you're lucky, you see a flash of movement amongst the white- a white mink darting from its shelter to explore.

It's quiet in the forest. It's corruption, aside from your companion, seems nonexistant.

[sesa]

It seems...off, somehow. The forest is quiet and undisturbed beyond the wildlife, which is a far cry from how the world had been teeming with creatures tailor-made for them just last month.

But that false sense of security isn't going to get Sesa to just turn around and go back to the town. He's going to keep pressing forward, following the river as far as possible, assuming the fog wall doesn't stop them.

[sticksandbonesmods]

No fog wall. In fact, nothing is in the air at all. How long do you plan on walking?

[sesa]

...hm.

Hold on he's going to address Elsword again before doing anything else.

"Elsword...is the fog wall being absent from this area normal? I find it strange we haven't come upon it by now."

[simplicitas]

"Not as far as I can remember," but that doesn't say much, it's Elsword. "You normally can't go too far down the river before you get blocked by it. Also, the mink is weird. There's no animals out here, normally."

[sesa]

HM. THAT'S......

"Is it?" he asks, his nose wrinkling. What happened, then?

"Then...perhaps we should keep walking. If this is further than you could go before...there may be something else here that could not be previously accessed."

[simplicitas]

"I hope so."

And that's all he says as they press onwards, but know that he is Armed and Ready to kill if anyone gets in their way. Sesa doesn't have to do any battle because Elsword is a feral animal who will do it for him.

[sesa]

In that case...they're going to keep going. Sesa intends to keep walking until either it seems like there's really nothing ahead for them to see, or they're stopped by something. He'll continue scanning the forest as well, looking for additional signs of life or- barring that- the corruption that seems suspiciously absent.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Well, the mink darts away. The forest grows dark, but not in that oppressive, cruel manner. Dark like the deep sea. ... And the trees slowly get bigger. Thicker. Roots sticking out of the ground are as wide as Mountain himself, even.

[sesa]

As he and Elsword march on, Sesa continues to take note of everything they can see. The way the forest itself seems to grow the further in they get, with the trees becoming incomprehensibly huge. Having grown up in the deserts of Sargon, Sesa isn't particularly used to seeing trees, much less ones this big. Even for him, someone relatively tall in stature, it feels like he's completely dwarfed by these giants. And as their surroundings darken, he begins to wonder if they should have brought some source of light...beyond what little light Elsword naturally emits from his halo, anyway.

He'll pause for a moment beside one of these large trees, examining both it and the others surrounding it. Is there anything unique to note about them, or anything else here?

[sticksandbonesmods]

Yeah.


The animal tracks match in size.

[sesa]

Cool!!!

Sesa shares a brief, more than a little concerned glance with Elsword before he kneels down next to one of the tracks. Can the species be discerned at all? Or guessed at, really? What are we looking at here.

[sticksandbonesmods]

The most immediate track would be moose tracks! If he's the sort who can calculate this sort of thing, the size of the tracks and the distance between them shows that the moose is the size of a whale.

[simplicitas]

He might not be able to, but Elsword sure can. There's a rather immediate, "Those are moose tracks. But they're not like Moder's — they're a lot bigger."

So you know, that bodes well. Where are those tracks going because Elsword wants to follow them sorry Sesa—

[sticksandbonesmods]

They go into the woods, veering from the river. It may be difficult to track them despite their size, just because everything, from the roots to the gaps between them, are humongous.

[sesa]

OKAY COOL WE'RE FOLLOWING THE MOOSE WHALE-

But this seems to be Elsword's forte, so Sesa is content to let him lead for a bit. Though, that is assuming they can continue to follow the tracks for much further than this. It already feels like they've been walking for a while, and given how many warnings about the fog Sesa has heard...it's beginning to grow a bit concerning.

"I'm right behind you, Elsword. Just keep your eyes peeled. We don't know what else might be out here."

[sticksandbonesmods]

Walk on and on, boys- time has always been fake in the grove, and the forest is worse. Eventually, on the forest floor amdist moss that seems too thick and broken sticks that are more akin to logs, little dull stars are scattered on the ground. You may hear something like waves in the far distance.

[sesa]

Strange...it's all so strange. It has this ethereal sense to it, like this isn't real, like it's something they're both dreaming...but at the same time, Sesa is reasonably sure that's not the case. He remembers walking into the woods with Elsword with purpose, after all. This is just a part of it they've never seen.

Again, he comes to a momentary stop so he can take in this new scenery. The waves are enough to set off alarm bells because he had no idea they were anywhere near some kind of ocean, but before he brings that up, he'll crouch to the ground to look at the stars. Does anything happen if he tries to pick up a few? (Can he keep some-)

[sticksandbonesmods]

The stars are small, hollow things, delicate for a man built like Sesa, but he can collect and keep some! Upon contact one or two will flicker with an iridescent light not unlike the jars of stars the Trader keeps in her tent, but they die out quickly once more.