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

[lotusflower]

[It's so easy to fall into the same patterns that he did when they were kids. At least the more affectionate ones. Alma was always the crybaby between the two of them, and it was always Kanda's role to either throw punches or say words he wasn't supposed to be saying at his big age of Little, but whenever Alma got too upset about something, Kanda would be the one to call him dumb and wipe the tears away.

And, yeah, that's easy to do here, too. In the end, he never really grew up, not in the way that a normal kid does, and so he plaps his hands on either of Alma's cheeks and wipes the tears away with his thumbs.]

You're so dumb, [and then he bonks their foreheads together.] ...I missed you. Every day of my life, I missed you.

[karmicwomb]

[Alma hiccups, a few more tears spilling past Kanda's thumbs. He can't help the bubbly laugh that escapes him, nor that bright smile that easily splits his face in half.

That's really all he's ever wanted to hear from Kanda. Well, he can't say that it's all he's ever wanted from him. But it's what he wants right now.

After everything they had been through, he... he just wants to be with Kanda.

Maybe this was heaven after all. Maybe God's not so bad after all.]

I think that's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me, Yu.

[lotusflower]

Stop.

[And then he clonks his hand on top of Alma's head and shoves him down slightly. Sorry, sweet moment ruined!]

Glad to know you're still a brat. [Pot meet kettle.] Nothing ever changes, does it?

[karmicwomb]

[Kanda gets a little oof! from Alma. He sat back so he wasn't crowding Kanda again, and at this point the coat had fallen half off his shoulders.

Not that he seemed to mind or notice.]

Well, some things do. [He looks down at his hands, closing them slowly and opening them again.] But not you. You're still the same.

[And then he beams Kanda with a :D! ]

[lotusflower]

[Alright, he's going to have to zip the coat up all the way before Alma starts showing the world more titty. Jesus Christ.]

I'm a little different, [he protests half-jokingly, pulling Alma to his feet after he's zipped and modest.] But I won't tell you in what ways.

[Alma is so easy to joke around with. It's so much lighter with him around. Alas, he's being dragged off to the store to get clothes before they inevitably start wrestling in the mud like Kanda is prone to doing with boys he likes. No, he doesn't know why his love language is violence and at this point he won't ask.]

Come on. You need clothing before you start flashing people.

[karmicwomb]

[He absolutely does not fight Kanda in the slightest. Instead, once the cost was zipped up, he wrapped his arm around Kanda's.]

There's other people here?

[Heaven was weird!]

[lotusflower]

Yeah, and I guarantee you half of them have seen your ass.

[Just like when they were both born :') except worse because they're adult men now. Anyway, Alma is being dragged off into the General Store. They can... contend with Ain at a later date for something more fitting.]

You still didn't let me explain what was going on.

[karmicwomb]

[Alma follows next to Kanda wherever he's leading them to. His fingers curl a bit into Kanda's arm, but he doesn't look back up towards him. Instead, he makes it a point to look around, taking in the sights.

Anywhere but at Kanda.]

What's there to explain? [He's dead and God or the Devil or whatever has given him his own little Yu to spend the rest of his ??? dead??? life??? with!] Besides... We aren't in a rush anymore, right?

[He is very much holding onto some sort of shred of hope that this wasn't a dream.]

[lotusflower]

A lot. We're not in a rush, I guess, but still.

[Alma is going to encounter someone like fucking... he doesn't know, Akaza or Mizuki or, fuck, Ain, and just be baffled and worse for it. Kanda will not let this happen. Maybe he's a bit overprotective but he just got Alma back, okay, there are things to explain.

Lots of things.

He'll start while he's shoving basic clothing into a basket and leading Alma through the sparse amount of generics that Heimr has.]

I know you're probably thinking this is Heaven or Hell, but it's neither of those things. It's called Aldric's Grove. Sometimes it pulls in the living, and sometimes... it pulls in the dead. And no one really understands why.