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!

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Comments

[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.

[sesa]

Sesa does have giant meat hands, its true. But!! He will very delicately draw a few of them into his palms with the very ends of his claws so he doesn't risk breaking them, brows raising at the way they flicker with light. He'll place a couple of them into his pockets for safekeeping, glancing up at Elsword from the ground.

"Elsword! Come look. Aren't they beautiful?"

They could also be deadly poison or cursed and Sesa would just be cursed now, he's stupid.

[simplicitas]

Elsword does, indeed, come look, poking his head over Sesa's shoulder.

"They're cute. Mizuki would like these, I think."

Amity......... tell me Elboy's arm don't start actin up over these

[sticksandbonesmods]

It doesn't. What would the forest want with dead stars? There's nothing to gain from these corpses.

[simplicitas]

Phenomenal,

Elsword immediately begins putting these in his pockets. Yayyyy things :) He's going to turn them into a necklace for Add—

[sesa]

Once the both of them have filled their pockets with the floor stars, Sesa stands back up and regards the massive trees towering over them once more. Now, they seem to be really deep. He's not even sure how long they've been walking for, having long since lost track of time.

Yet, there is something that compels him to continue. To see just how much further they may be able to trek before they are forced to turn back...to then hopefully find their way home.

"Should we keep going?"

[simplicitas]

"Yeah. There's no point in turning back now, right?"

Buddy there's literally so many fucking reasons to turn back now WHAT ARE YOU DOING— he's leading the way is what he's doing.

[sticksandbonesmods]

As they continue walking, following the moose tracks, the gap between the trees grows some. Light peaks through the curtains of giant leaves, and the sound of waves crashing against something grows louder.

Soon enough, they see one of the moose. It towers above all else, large like a whale with moss and seagrass both dangling from its fur. It doesn't seem to notice the two of you, not that it would be especially bothered by such little things, but you can see it standing on a cliff face.

And then it leaps off of the cliff entirely. Did you know moose like to swim and go diving? Even in the ocean? You do now.

There's also an unusual glow that you can see from below. If you're careful, you can go investigate.

[simplicitas]

Blank fucking staring at all of this before Elsword just— "I thought we were several days from the ocean? Is the map wrong? How far did we walk?" and this is what he's going to mutter to himself for the next while. Fuck this place honestly.

Anyway have at the glowing Sesa, Elsword will follow along with the wings out in case they need to fly down.

[sesa]

You don't simply "see" a moose this size. This is more of an experience, one that's so startling that if he hadn't been prepared by Elsword's analysis of the tracks, he would have been a lot more startled than he is already. Like, damn, that's a big moose!!

Elsword's reaction is a lot more subdued than Sesa's, who looks ready to start running if that moose decides to course correct and start plodding in their direction. It could easily flatten them both and have no clue they were ever there.

And then...!! It jumps! Into the water!! Sesa is still so captivated by all this he almost misses what Elsword says, but...of course he's going to continue down toward the glow, they can't turn back after coming this far.

"Several days? We've only been walking for at most a few hours, haven't we?"

[sticksandbonesmods]

The cliff hangs over the Emerald Sea- and it lives up to it's name in hue, the water a deep green that shines like a gem. But directly before the cliff is a whirlpool- even up from their height they can see it's enormous. And how it shines! How it glows! Not unlike the sun and the moon, not unlike Ydalir's stars, it shines. The moose surfaces briefly, antlers breaching the water before the rest of it does, and it goes unmarred by the glow. But if they watch long enough, they can see something moving with the water, just as radiant as the whirlpool itself.

...

It's probably fine.

[sesa]

Sesa has seen the sea, of course. Being from a land that is mostly desert, it wasn't something he grew up with, but now working with Rhodes it's almost a necessity. But there's something about this particular ocean that just feels unnatural, not to mention the massive whirlpool at the bottom. It's so bright it's difficult to see, and there the moose is still, swimming in the water as if nothing is wrong.

...and there is something else too. Something there.

"...are you seeing the same thing I am?" Sesa asks Elsword, once more coming to a stop now that they can't seem to progress further than this cliff face.

[simplicitas]

Elsword's reaction is subdued because he has God in his brain scrangling his emotions but know were this any other iteration of him he would've already leapt into the whirlpool.

Anyway, maybe it's a good thing this one is only slightly less impulsive.

"The glow? Yeah. ...wanna get closer?"

dude—

[sesa]

Sesa nods. For better or worse...he wants to see what's down there. It may give them as a clue they could have missed otherwise. Anything to know more.

So! We are going to examine the glow, please and thank you.

[simplicitas]

Great, well, Sesa will finally get to see Elsword's rumoured "Sankta wings" as they unfurl from that ring at his back, no longer two tiny ones sticking out from a golden artifact, but rather six massive ones, feathery and glowing in the gloom.

Then, Elsword pivots on his heels, crouches down, and scoops Sesa into a bridal carry before bounding off the cliff and flying lower to look at the lights and the moose who's having a great time. Sesa weighs a lot but that's fine Elsword has carried heavier things before (Raven when he's unconscious) so he won't be dropping the Vouivre into the sea, at least!

[sticksandbonesmods]

How did I not expect this.

The light is radiant. It's as gentle as moonlight, as warm as sunlight, as joyful as the stars. Elsword... Elsword will feel his mind and heart settle at peace for the first time in many months, some of the flowers withering within the light of the whirlpool.

Something moves beneath the water. Many somethings. The moose goes unbothered, enjoying it's swim.

The two of you can see moon dust-silver schools of fish, swirling along the currents. sharks that glow like daylight, and how schools break apart for them. All the while, a giant serpent rests in the center, deep beneath the surface yet visible due to the whirlpool. It is as if a nebula was given form. From its head and fins, tendrils like shooting stars dangle. It coils as if it was the center of the universe. And to this patch of the ocean, it may as well be. It slumbers, unbothered by the moose that leapt from the cliff, by the life warped by magic, by the two intruders floating above it.

It is a radiant rainbow of color, a symphony of life and magic, surrounded similarly by the water tainted by something that it was never supposed to have- tainted and adapted beautifully. And to this orchestra of marine life? You are nothing.

[sesa]

Oh boy there is a lot happening for Sesa to process, please hold-

He was not expecting Elsword to just SCOOP HIM, but he has been scooped. He's never once in his life been bridal carried so that is also a first, and he sort of just curls up reflexively in Elsword's arms just as he leaps off the cliff and oh this is a bad time to wonder if he has a fear of heights-

Vouivre cannot fly, despite being dragons (Wyvern specifically), and as such this is something Sesa has never reasonably experienced. He finds himself clutching Elsword where appropriate, though he does fear crushing the flowers on his body...which ends up not mattering as many of them wither away in the presence of that otherworldly light regardless. Yet despite all of this, he looks down...

And he sees the slumbering beast beneath them, for once at a loss for words. There is something equally awe inspiring, yet uniquely incorrect about the visual they've been presented with, and he can't quite put a finger on it. That the corruption that taints Elsword would withdraw at such light...

Well. It's up to Elsword how close or not they go, he is just the passenger (lol).