EVENT & TDM 036

[sticksandbonesmods]

WAKE UP

Whatever you were doing, something doesn’t add up. For starters, you were most certainly not in this strange little village with a mishmash of cultures and strange animals everywhere. You might have been holding your weapon, yes, but maybe you weren’t- maybe you don’t even have one, and the heavy wooden beam or old pipe in your hands is foreign entirely. But as you stop to think, you also realize you were mid-swing, and someone stands before you; another fresh face being urged by whispers untraceable to fight? Or one of the villagers, alarmed and primed to defend themselves before your time seemed to stop and your mind awoke?

Even stranger, once you get that sorted out, is that the wildlife- all animals mixed with plants- are all nervous at best, actively frightened by something unseen at worst. Squirrels whose tails resemble hyacinths more than fluff and fur run through the trees chittering and shrieking, foxes and dogs with reeds and leaves and petals gently growing from their haunches bolt from place to place, alert and stanced for an attack before running off again. Getting too close to a warren may lead to something biting down on your feet.

Should you journey the distance to the beach- or use the Ark gate generously provided- even the Emerald Sea churns and roars violently, the cliffside whirlpool practically a hurricane beneath the sea. Something is amiss in Aldric’s Grove, and you are only the latest victims.

A LANTERN IN THE HANGING TREE

There’s something that wasn’t there before, one day. A dark, gnarled tree with a gaping hole in it- except the hole is pitch black, and a barrier stops you from entering despite the opening being large enough to walk into. Hanging from the almost-bare boughs are metal lanterns, all of them unable to be lit. As fog rolls in, so too does poor weather. It’s almost always raining, if not outright storming. Sometimes it lets up, but not for long.

The fog brings something else though. Golden lights wait in the fog, and approaching them sounds… incredible, actually? They do not move or give chase, but you may find them unavoidable regardless. Walking into the lights brings you to a memory, a scene from someone’s life… but not your own.

As it finishes, you might be where you’d just been standing, but there’s a slim chance you now stand before the owner of the memory; as if you’d walked there in a daze while lost in thoughts that aren’t your own.

With each light met by a villager, a lantern in the tree lights.

GUIDING BONDS IN THE DARK

It’s dark. It’s painfully dark even though your eyes are wide open. As you fumble around, hands outstretched for anything at all, your fingers catch on a metal curve. Instinctively, you slip it on your wrist- and as your sight returns, emotions that aren’t yours slip into your heart and mind. You aren’t alone, but maybe you will wish you were. A silver chain connects the bracelet on your wrist with your companion’s own before vanishing again, and if you try to put more than six feet of space between each other an invisible tug between you stops you. Removing the bracelet blinds you again, but if given the opportunity, wearing more than one overwhelms your mind to the point that you may as well be wearing none at all. Your powers are null, your weapons are not with you. The two of you are alone.

You find yourselves in a dark cavern of dirt and root. High above, a silvery blue light shines.You can hear rain hitting leaves and bark, water trickling down roots. Should you try to climb up, the roots shake you off themselves. Behind you is a solid wall. Ahead of you is a path to take, twisting and winding with ever shifting false routes and a chill in the air. There’s only one way forward.

As you traverse the labyrinth it will quickly become clear you aren’t alone. Something trudges through the caverns with heavy feet, stalking everyone within. Unlucky travelers will find themselves cornered by a minotaur looming over them, ready to fight and give chase- but it can be distracted by other travelers, or killed… temporarily, and it will come back with a vengeance.

Even outside of the minotaur there are other threats however. As you go from hall to room to hall, familiar scents and sounds creep in, all meant to invoke something you dread. Soon enough those scents and sounds will take shape, hunting you down just as fervently as the bull. Lingering in any space for too long also incites rising temperaments and lower inhibitions that you may struggle to shake off. Why would you? Smacking your partner for being a coward is so much more enticing. … Not just a smack. After all, about half-way through, when monsters born of your memories start to haunt the labyrinth too, you found your weapons, after all.

Your goal is to get to the center of the maze, while the maze wants to crush you with the minotaur, with memories of fear and regret, with its own rush of root and dirt while your emotions feed into each other, crashing against each other’s minds like ocean waves against a cliff. And should it succeed, should air leave your lungs one last time, you will not awaken in the Garden. This is a game, after all. No, as your companions filter into the center two by two, they will find you just barely breathing, strung up from the root, and the roots strung up in you. Plants grow from your flesh and blood, squeeze your lungs and heart. They may fade in a couple days, or you may well be corrupted by the Fallen Sun’s touch. You frame a single opening in the dreariness, but the sound of rain is louder than ever.

Little by little you make your way through, exiting from the gnarled tree strung in lanterns. The bracelets drop from your wrists and crumble to pieces. You’re free.

SOMBER RAINY MORNINGS

It’s been a trying month, and the rain does not stop. The lights do not dim, the lanterns in the tree do not flicker. All you can do is try to cope, in whatever way you can. And when something tugs at your mind again and the scent of dirt floods your nose, something roars in the distance.

The clouds in the sky are cut in half as a serpent made of the cosmos flies above, an iridescent rain falling from its body. Those corrupted in death will find themselves trying to avoid it, for its waters purify the rot in their bodies. Others may simply enjoy the warm beauty as the world seems to settle into a calm. The lantern tree seems to bloom and heal before vanishing into a flurry of petals, leaving only a few broken lanterns behind on the ground. Nene, the girl with flowers growing from her hair picks one up with a far-off gaze before returning to her cottage, leaving the rest behind.

Flowers begin to spring to life, embracing the warmer days of summer in the wake of spring, and gradually the wildlife begins to calm down.

For the first time in weeks, a sunny day awaits and the sky is stained with rainbows.

Spark Notes (Click to Expand)

summary

WAKE UP: New arrivals in Aldric's Grove arrive holding weapons, covered in blood, and most likely pointing them at someone. Surprise! On top of that, all the animals are on edge, and some might attack you if you agitate them or get too close.
A LANTERN IN THE HANGING TREE: A tree appears one day with hanging lanterns. Getting close to a golden light means that memories of others will enter your mind, and with each person who touches a light, a lantern on the tree lights.
GUIDING BONDS IN THE DARK: Within the labyrinth, everyone is connected by a bracelet and are therefore sharing emotions. Getting more than six feet apart will stop you from moving further forward, but without a bracelet, you'll be fully blinded in the maze. Your weapons and magical powers aren't with you, and threats loom around every corner.
SOMBER RAINY MORNINGS: To potentially cure the Corruption that some characters may have endured by dying in the labyrinth, the Cosmic Serpent rises from the sea to spew purifying rains across the Grove. Flowers bloom where the corrupted ground was healed, and you're given a break - for now.

out of character

Happy May! This is a reminder that TDMs are game canon. Current players in the game may redeem TDM AC this month (meaning: if you tag a new player/character and the thread reaches 5 comments from you, your AC is that entire thread for the month if you want). We'll find a better way to clarify this rule in the future and we're sorry for anyone it's confused in the past. Have fun with the event!

updates

Any potential updates, such as characters damaging something important or whatever else, will be put here.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ May Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Comments

[souninind]

[The hand on his shoulder is entirely warranted - as almost as soon as Kyojuro presses down, there will be the resistance from an attempt to get up. He's fine, surely. He's had more brushes with death than he can remember. He's alive now, so what's he doing on the ground when-

When Sanemi is already at the clinic.

When Kyojuro is hovering over him, all reassurances and gentle concern and gentler touch.

He finds himself leaning into that hand all too easily, not even bothering to second guess the stolen moments.]

Yeah, we fucked up...

[Handicap or no, they should have been able to handle it.]

[tempurahair]

You did all that you could, Tengen. I know that to be true.

[He knows the forest all too well, knows what it's capable of throwing at them. Kyojuro has no doubt that it was a hellish experience.]

In a moment, you are going to get up. Gently now, take it steady. [The whole point of keeping Tengen from sitting up in the first place was to keep him from becoming lightheaded. Hopefully, a slower process would help.] Unfortunately, you will have to walk to the clinic. Even with my blessings, I do not think I am strong enough to carry you!

[He tries to smile, but it fades on his face.]

[souninind]

M'sure he told you we were chained by our good hands...

[It's not an argument against the idea that he'd done all he could... and yet it is all the same. Neither of them had been able to act - or react - as they normally might have been. Which was probably intended, surely, but... it still stung.]

Hah... if I could walk home after battling an upper moon, I can walk this off...

[Bravado, lest he allow worry to crash into him. Bravado, to maybe get a bit of that smile back on Kyojuro's face.

...The world spins all the same when he begins to sit up. Maybe this did take more out of him than he'd like to admit.]

Maybe when I've recovered we test those blessings of yours.

[tempurahair]

I am aware.

[Kyojuro does not smile. Some part of him knows that Tengen is trying. Another part tells him to suck it up and smile through the pain. But it has been an exhausting night.

He still hears Sanemi, yowling and spitting in frustration. He feels the blade used to kill innocent in his hand. And he cannot shake the memory of Tengen, unbreathing.

It is all so much to bear. He will do it, but for once he does not try to grit our a smile.]

The clinic first.

[Kyojuro rises to his feet. His hand extends -- at the very least, he should be able to help Tengen up, and then he offers his shoulder to lean on.]

[souninind]

[It's not a quick process, but with Kyojuro's help, Tengen does rise to his feet, though he doesn't immediately take advantage of the offered shoulder. Maybe he should - the world is still spinning a bit, after all - but... the dark voice in the back of his mind telling him if he stays planted he'll be fine is easier to listen to than it ought to be.

After all, he's on his feet, he's fine, or will be.

But Kyojuro isn't.

So he puts his hand - his real hand - on that offered shoulder, before dragging it up to his cheek, mirroring the gentle touch he'd woken up to.]

Hey. Let it out.

[His frustration, his pain, his exhaustion all reads plain on his face, but as soon as they return to the settlement, there will be others around, more reason to bottle it up, ignore it.

Right now, it's just them and the trees.]

[tempurahair]

[Kyojuro winces, the moment the attention is turned on him. He might have thought his mask a little tighter, his composure a little stronger.

He'll have to try harder.]

I am fine, Tengen. You are not. [He takes a step forward in an effort to coax the other man onward.] That tree left something beneath your skin that I cannot mend. The clinic will need to assist you, and perhaps reach out to someone else from there. The longer we wait, the worse I fear it will get.

[Duty must be carried out above all. Kyojuro reminds himself of this again and again as he forced his expression to smooth out. He could not crumble when there was more to be done.]

[souninind]

[Most others would have been fooled. Most others would have seen a man who was, rightly so, shaken by what he'd seen, but willing, able, to press onward for the sake of duty. Unflappable. Reliable.

Tengen wasn't most others, and he's risking his own mask by pressing the issue, surely, but... he's alive. He's out of the worst of the danger. His concern is, unfortunately, never himself first.

But he could relent, just a bit. Just this once.]

If I don't argue, will you stay with me in the clinic? You're less fine than you want to be, and I've still got one good shoulder to lean on.

[tempurahair]

[The relief doesn't show on Kyojuro's face, but it certainly washes over him. At the very least, he can kick this argument down the road. Not that he particularly wants to deal with at all.

But he can come up with excuses later. And in any case, he did want to check in on Sanemi, even if he's certain the other man will rankle at his presence.]

It will do well, to have someone to watch over you both.

[Something in the back of Kyojuro's mind reminds him that either man could succumb to their corruption. Thus, it was all the better that he remained close.

Still, he is quick to add, as another out:]

Not for too long. Senjuro will start to worry, given the current state of things.

[souninind]

Kyojuro.

[An excuse is an excuse and Kyojuro has just given him two - someone to watch over them, someone to look after Senjuro. He... can't exactly argue with the latter, he'd hate his own stubbornness to be the cause of Senjuro having to go through something horrifying, and yet his voice holds reproach.]

You're running away.

[tempurahair]

I am not.

[There's a degree of forcefulness within his voice, anger that he hates bubbling beneath his skin. He hates feeling like this, hates when it gets so close to the surface that he begins to sound like his father. Images of the man dance behind his mind, and he flinches visibly.]

With two of our number now meant to recover, there are less of us to protect those of the Grove. We cannot afford to sit back.

[He cannot afford to sit back. Not when his brother, or any of the other children, could just as easily be swept up in this mess.]

Let us begin moving. We have already taken up enough time.

[souninind]

...Right.

[He'll relent... to a point. He'll walk with him, will lean on his shoulder - pointedly with the side less marred by corruption - but will not drop the issue entirely. How could he, when its so incredibly obvious that something is eating him alive from the inside out.]

Will you tell me what's wrong while we walk at least? There's time...

[A huff of a sigh, another small allowance-]

I'll drop whatever it is when we get there if it means you just... talk to me, Kyojuro.

[tempurahair]

[He doesn't want to. His role is one of protection. Burdening others with his woes goes against everything he's been taught to stand for. But even he can see that he will not be getting out of this unscathed. Not without talking about himself.

In the end, he chooses something recent. Something that will surely distract Tengen, and leave him more concerned with someone aside from Kyojuro himself.]

Shinazugawa and I fought. He was most upset that I did not return immediately to find you, even after I insisted that you would be upset if I did not see him to the clinic first.

[souninind]

That sounds like him.

[The distraction is momentary, and his tone in response is affectionate. Tengen can picture how the fight had gone, neither one of the stubborn men he cares for so deeply willing to give an inch.

The reasons running deeper under the fight, though, were of more concern... and not something he had the ability to put to rest. He could help shoulder the pain, surely, but either one of them - or, ideally... laughably, both - would need to open up before he could.]

It's still bothering you? Or... is there something else?

[tempurahair]

[Considering the way their bodies have settled against one another, Tengen will undoubtedly feel the way Kyojuro stiffens. If he were a swearing man, an oath might have escaped his lips. He wants nothing more than to leave this conversation behind them, and focus instead on Tengen's recovery.

He says nothing for a long while, hoping that silence will be enough of an answer. When it only eats at the back of Kyojuro's mind, he instead shakes his head.]

I told you, I do not wish to speak of this right now. [In the distance, through the rain, Kyojuro makes out the clinic.] We are almost there, and I would not wish to upset Sanemi by hashing out the details in his presence.