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sticksandbones2024-03-01 09:09 am
sticksandbonesmods) wrote in sticksandbones2024-03-01 09:09 am
Entry tags:
EVENT & TDM 010
WOULD YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WAS A WORM?
WAKE UP
Nothing ever stays the same in this place. The people who came here before you know that, and have known that, and are used to that. When you and the other new arrivals start to stumble out of the fog wall and the surrounding woods, it’s an expected thing. They see you. They knew you’d be here eventually. Perhaps someone will be kind enough to explain how you got here, and why you have such a splitting headache, and why you feel so paranoid. Perhaps the sudden sense of foreboding and doom is too much to handle. It feels unnatural. It feels like the emotions aren’t your own. And when a butterfly with eyespots almost too realistic lands on your hand, it’s nearly impossible not to scream.
“Don’t touch the fog wall.” That’s what you’re told, and whether it reaches you through the fog-induced paranoid haze or not is left up to your will and your will alone. That sense wears off within half an hour, at least, though there are still more questions than answers in this place.
For instance: What is that in the river, that monstrous crocodile with too many eyes that seems to be stalking everybody who comes too close? “The Behemoth”, they call it, and it only wants as much to do with you as you want to do with it. Come too close, and it backs up to continue watching you from afar. Attack it, and it fights back, unkillable and gargantuan in strength. Offer it meat, and it cautiously takes the food from your hand before diving into the river’s depths.
Alternatively, you might wonder what that stone creature on the church’s roof is, or what the story behind the shadow-people are, or why there’s a two-story tall, many-limbed moose monster wandering around that no one seems bothered by. Where is this?
This is Aldric’s Grove. And for better or for worse, it’s your new home.
“Don’t touch the fog wall.” That’s what you’re told, and whether it reaches you through the fog-induced paranoid haze or not is left up to your will and your will alone. That sense wears off within half an hour, at least, though there are still more questions than answers in this place.
For instance: What is that in the river, that monstrous crocodile with too many eyes that seems to be stalking everybody who comes too close? “The Behemoth”, they call it, and it only wants as much to do with you as you want to do with it. Come too close, and it backs up to continue watching you from afar. Attack it, and it fights back, unkillable and gargantuan in strength. Offer it meat, and it cautiously takes the food from your hand before diving into the river’s depths.
Alternatively, you might wonder what that stone creature on the church’s roof is, or what the story behind the shadow-people are, or why there’s a two-story tall, many-limbed moose monster wandering around that no one seems bothered by. Where is this?
This is Aldric’s Grove. And for better or for worse, it’s your new home.
CAT-TASTROPHE
cw: forced animal transformations
Although time blends together in this place and makes it difficult to tell the exact date, it’s easy enough to tell that it’s early in March when everybody wakes up feeling and looking… different.
You recall going to bed in your usual body. You recall, as you fell asleep, hearing a childish voice whisper in your ear, “I’m booooored. Let’s race!” You almost certainly do not recall being an animal no bigger than a large dog, almost unable to leave your bedroom because door handles are difficult to open with paws or claws or anything else. It’s lucky that the windows are easy enough to nudge open with snouts and beaks so that you can leave your bedroom and see what, exactly, is going on.
You aren’t the only animal. Everyone here is, too, creatures of different shapes and kinds, though all of them hail from Earth itself. The Guardians and shadowy merchant siblings are just as miffed as you are about this. “Here we go again,” they say, just as the last of you arrives at the Grove’s centre — and then it all goes dark. When you next open your eyes, you’re deep within the woods, where colourful flag markers on trees and a winding, long path indicates a race.
A long race. One that will last at least eight hours, assuming you use your time appropriately and don’t take too many naps in the trees along the path. Fret not: To ensure everyone participates in the race as expected, the Creature in the woods has sent an entourage of monsters after you, with too many eyes and gnashing fangs and claws the size of tree trunks. They’ll chase you down and try to eat you if they get their talons on you.
Use your time wisely, unless you want to meet an untimely demise.
Although time blends together in this place and makes it difficult to tell the exact date, it’s easy enough to tell that it’s early in March when everybody wakes up feeling and looking… different.
You recall going to bed in your usual body. You recall, as you fell asleep, hearing a childish voice whisper in your ear, “I’m booooored. Let’s race!” You almost certainly do not recall being an animal no bigger than a large dog, almost unable to leave your bedroom because door handles are difficult to open with paws or claws or anything else. It’s lucky that the windows are easy enough to nudge open with snouts and beaks so that you can leave your bedroom and see what, exactly, is going on.
You aren’t the only animal. Everyone here is, too, creatures of different shapes and kinds, though all of them hail from Earth itself. The Guardians and shadowy merchant siblings are just as miffed as you are about this. “Here we go again,” they say, just as the last of you arrives at the Grove’s centre — and then it all goes dark. When you next open your eyes, you’re deep within the woods, where colourful flag markers on trees and a winding, long path indicates a race.
A long race. One that will last at least eight hours, assuming you use your time appropriately and don’t take too many naps in the trees along the path. Fret not: To ensure everyone participates in the race as expected, the Creature in the woods has sent an entourage of monsters after you, with too many eyes and gnashing fangs and claws the size of tree trunks. They’ll chase you down and try to eat you if they get their talons on you.
Use your time wisely, unless you want to meet an untimely demise.
BURIAL OF ANCIENTS
The Creature is a big fan of participation awards. Whether you won the race against your peers, came in second or third or fifteenth, or died during the challenge, it matters little when the fog starts to pull back. That’s your reward for being forced to participate in a race you didn’t want to be part of in the first place, aside from the regular reward of going back to your normal body: you get to explore, and you get to explore a lot.
To the east and west where the river bends, the fog is no longer a blockade impeding progress. You can travel far in either direction by river raft, chart unknown territory, and get lost in the woods for as long as you desire. Though it will take three days to travel to the new “end point” in either direction, an offering of shells and fruits can be given to the River Guardian to be granted a travel boon that will decrease your travel time from three days to one. You’ll still have to camp out along the shoreline, but asking for that boon will ensure you aren’t gone too long.
Taking the river to the west leads you through an ever-darkening forest, marked on the banks and trees by blue-glowing mushrooms. The canopy here is so thick that the sun doesn’t shine through, making it twice as difficult to tell how much time has passed — and to see where you’re headed in general. At the end of the journey, the black fog wall comes back into view, as the river begins to widen into the beginnings of a lake. A lake, which you cannot yet reach, as you dock the raft and hop onto the shore.
Following the path leads you to a wide-open clearing with more of those glowing fungi and a strong smell of moss. In the centre of it lies a humungous skeleton half-embedded in the soil, so enormous in stature that one wonders how such a creature ever roamed this land. The inside of its skull alone is enough to build a moderately-sized house within, and have a lovely view of the lake behind the fog wall to go with it.
If you approach the lake’s edge, you can hear a soft song from within, beautiful and hypnotizing. It makes you want to walk into the fog wall. It makes you want to enter the water and drown in its depths. And if you don’t, if you get control of yourself, hundreds of sickly black hands slam into the wall again and again, desperately trying to reach you.
…
The next time you come out this far, all three Guardians are here, arguing with the thing in the lake in a language you can’t comprehend.
To the east and west where the river bends, the fog is no longer a blockade impeding progress. You can travel far in either direction by river raft, chart unknown territory, and get lost in the woods for as long as you desire. Though it will take three days to travel to the new “end point” in either direction, an offering of shells and fruits can be given to the River Guardian to be granted a travel boon that will decrease your travel time from three days to one. You’ll still have to camp out along the shoreline, but asking for that boon will ensure you aren’t gone too long.
Taking the river to the west leads you through an ever-darkening forest, marked on the banks and trees by blue-glowing mushrooms. The canopy here is so thick that the sun doesn’t shine through, making it twice as difficult to tell how much time has passed — and to see where you’re headed in general. At the end of the journey, the black fog wall comes back into view, as the river begins to widen into the beginnings of a lake. A lake, which you cannot yet reach, as you dock the raft and hop onto the shore.
Following the path leads you to a wide-open clearing with more of those glowing fungi and a strong smell of moss. In the centre of it lies a humungous skeleton half-embedded in the soil, so enormous in stature that one wonders how such a creature ever roamed this land. The inside of its skull alone is enough to build a moderately-sized house within, and have a lovely view of the lake behind the fog wall to go with it.
If you approach the lake’s edge, you can hear a soft song from within, beautiful and hypnotizing. It makes you want to walk into the fog wall. It makes you want to enter the water and drown in its depths. And if you don’t, if you get control of yourself, hundreds of sickly black hands slam into the wall again and again, desperately trying to reach you.
…
The next time you come out this far, all three Guardians are here, arguing with the thing in the lake in a language you can’t comprehend.
SHIMMERING COSMOS
To the east, another three days out (or only one if you ask for that boon), is a forest of sequoias that reach into the very heavens, and moose tracks the size of your inn rooms. Out here, there are no glowing fungi to guide your way, only the distant sound of the ocean and the smell of salt. The closer you get, the stronger both of those become.
At the end of the river where the fog wall yet again impedes progress, you hear a waterfall. It’s overwhelmingly loud, nearly impossible to talk over, but if anyone is with you, you’ll have to manage somehow. Behind the fog — only a scant few feet away — is the edge of a cliff, and a sheer drop into the sea. In the far distance looms the silhouette of a lighthouse, unreachable, and in the sea itself just barely visible behind that black wall, within a spiralling whirlpool…
…is the sleeping, peaceful figure of a serpent, scales glittering with stars. It doesn’t respond to if you call out to it. Perhaps it can’t hear you. Perhaps it doesn’t care. It is the stars fallen from the sky and the cosmos you haven’t seen since you’ve been here, immune to your plight, because what is a mortal but an ant to a God?
Even though the Cosmic Serpent can’t be reached, a sense of calm washes over you the longer you stay close to the sea. Before you head back home, why not take a nap against one of those tree trunks? Just be careful you aren’t asleep too long. A “nap” to you might seem like a small coma to everyone waiting for you to come back to the Grove.
At the end of the river where the fog wall yet again impedes progress, you hear a waterfall. It’s overwhelmingly loud, nearly impossible to talk over, but if anyone is with you, you’ll have to manage somehow. Behind the fog — only a scant few feet away — is the edge of a cliff, and a sheer drop into the sea. In the far distance looms the silhouette of a lighthouse, unreachable, and in the sea itself just barely visible behind that black wall, within a spiralling whirlpool…
…is the sleeping, peaceful figure of a serpent, scales glittering with stars. It doesn’t respond to if you call out to it. Perhaps it can’t hear you. Perhaps it doesn’t care. It is the stars fallen from the sky and the cosmos you haven’t seen since you’ve been here, immune to your plight, because what is a mortal but an ant to a God?
Even though the Cosmic Serpent can’t be reached, a sense of calm washes over you the longer you stay close to the sea. Before you head back home, why not take a nap against one of those tree trunks? Just be careful you aren’t asleep too long. A “nap” to you might seem like a small coma to everyone waiting for you to come back to the Grove.
SPARK NOTES
CLICK TO EXPAND!
WAKE UP
Welcome to Aldric's Grove. New arrivals walk out of the fog wall feeling paranoid because they touched the fog wall. There's a biblically-accurate crocodile in the river. Surely this is fine.
CAT-TASTROPHE
Everybody gets transformed into an Earth animal and thrown into a long race in which they'll be chased by monsters the entire time. Sounds fun, right? ...no?
BURIAL OF ANCIENTS
To the west is a dark forest marked with glowing mushrooms. Travel far enough out via river raft and you'll reach the edge of the lake and find the ancient bones of a humongous creature. Getting too close to the lake and listening to the thing behind it singing makes you want to walk into the fog wall and drown in the lake. If you don't do this, hands slam against the fog wall, trying to reach you. Sometimes the Guardians wander out here to shout at the thing in the lake.
SHIMMERING COSMOS
To the east is a forest of sequoias, with moose tracks between the trees the size of an inn room. The further you go, the closer you get to the cliffside, where you can hear a roaring waterfall just beyond the fog wall. Through the fog is the sleeping form of the Cosmic Serpent, and the lighthouse in the far distance.
OOC
Happy March! TDMs are considered game canon. If you'd like to plot with people for this event, head over to OOC plotting. We encourage exploration considering the sheer volume of setting updates this time, so if there's anything you want to explore in more depth, hit up this log's investigations toplevel.
UPDATES
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SUBMISSIONS
no subject
But, um, other than that… um, I'm not so sure? This shrine business isn't exactly something I'm used to — my Church usually communed with our gods through other means.
no subject
[He shifts himself just enough, so that he's seated in a far more reverent position. His hands clasp together, and his head bows just a little. He tries his best to send his thoughts outward, to "think beyond himself" and into the woods. He imagines Nai, barefoot, pissed off, and determined as hell to keep going.
He has to be alive out there. Vash knows it to be true. And since he does know this, he tries to extend all of his love. His willpower. His own determination. Maybe with that little push, it would all be alright.
Eventually he opens his eyes. They sting, and he doesn't realize they've begun to dampen until he's wiped them with the back of his wrist.]
Your Gods... What were they like? 'n' how did you communicate.
[Anything to change the subject.]
no subject
Oh, uhm— [ A question that catches him off guard, whoops. It wouldn't be something he'd be so open to talking about, since he'd been told prior not to, but… it's not like it's a secret anymore. Irene made sure of that much. ] We call them "Firstborns", and there's four of them. And there's really no time We don't communicate with Our kin. We are always present.
As for what We are like, it really depends…? Each of the Firstborn hold an ideal that they're meant to uphold. Survival, Reproduction, Migration and Growth. We're supposed to be a collective and have those ideals intertwined with one another, but… We argue about the meaning of that. "My" Firstborn [ Heavy quotations here, as if to suggest that it's not that simple, but he's not trying to make this more complicated for someone who's not part of the Seaborn hivemind. ] is named The Caerula Arbor, representing Growth. …Technically, the Arbor is functionally "dead", but I can still hear its voice sometimes.
no subject
Not many people get to see this kind of smile.]
Thanks, buddy. Really.
[Mizuki's words do seem to jog Vash's memory. In his defense, that night he had been presented with liquor and confronted his emotions in a very stupid way. Some of the details that had preceded it had gotten a little muddled.]
You keep saying "We." Are you all... [He furrows his brows. His theory would sound ridiculous, if not for the fact that he's intimately familiar with hiveminds. Mostly because he'd been swallowed by one. You know how it is.] Connected together or something?
[He taps his head like that's supposed to mean something.]
no subject
Seaborn are a collective. If it's easier to think about it, the Firstborns are like… vital organs, which is probably why sometimes they fight. Like how people sometimes say their brain and their gut have different feelings? And then the rest of the Seaborn are… the body? The nerves, the limbs, the skin, you know. That sort of thing.
Realistically, most Seaborn don't have much in the way of free will, but even that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if a Seaborn dies, they'll forever be a part of the collective, and live on through it. It's kinda nice, I think. And… [ He puts the plaque down to lace his fingers together. ] It's kinda nice to never really be alone? Uh, but, that's just what I think…
…
Ehe, but I guess that's just a long winded way to say We're always together, since "I" am just as much a part of the collective as it is of "me". Though, I would say that… the Arbor does not always agree with the rest of the collective, and that's what's… important to "me", I guess?
no subject
[He doesn't know if he agrees with not having free will. Honestly, if he thinks too hard on it, he doesn't like how similar it all feels. He can't say if his Sisters all have a collective consciousness, but they certainly lack the ability to think for themselves. He can't help but wonder what Mizuki might think of all that.
... Not that he's planning on broaching the subject. Especially when Mizuki gives him plenty else to think about.]
You want to act on the Arbor's wishes, even when your people don't?
no subject
Not… exactly? Um… those who followed it and either weren't fully Seaborn or the few who still held their own will wanted to, but the rest of Our kin have to follow the will of whatever the majority decides for the Firstborn. Irene probably said something about the Profound Silence? Rather, when We attacked her home and destroyed their civilization as they knew it?
The Arbor… didn't want to do any of that. It believed in renewal and regrowth — unsurprising, as the god of Growth itself. But, moreover, it believed that coexistence was key to peace, and that violence only begets more violence.
The god of Reproduction was indifferent, and the other two gods of Migration and Survival wanted them to pay, so the majority won. It was then that the Arbor fell into an immense amount of grief witnessing the war that its kind had waged, and the death from both sides, and felt all the pain of Our kin. It died in its grief, allowing for its corpse to become food for the newly birthed Seaborn and weaker, injured kin, and leaving an echo of eternal grief to be felt through our connection to the gods.
It still lives on through us, but it doesn't speak anymore. We only feel its grief… It's why I want to figure out how to make it happy again, and I want to do the things it wanted to the best of my ability. The probably being that I… I don't really know how to do that. If it wants peace and happiness and for us to be kind to one another, then I need to learn how to do that, but… it's hard to understand how to do that.
no subject
I'm sorry if this is insensitive but... if it's dead, can it ever be happy again?
no subject
Mizuki just sits in silence for a long time, staring at the plaque without moving for a moment. It's possible Vash is right, but Seaborn aren't like that. Once you're a part of them, you're there forever. They have millennia of memories and thoughts and ideas of Seaborn long gone. Why would the Arbor be different? But, to make it happy is something We Many haven't had to do before. No Firstborn had ever died from grief itself, after all.
When next he opens his mouth, his tone is a little different than his normal one. Not aggressive, not sad, or anything like that. Just different. ]
We don't know.
no subject
Right. [And after a pause.] I'm sorry for pressing.
no subject
If We found discomfort, I would’ve asked to change the subject by now. [ Best. ] You’re very kind, Mister Vash, but I think you worry a little too much about things outside of your control.
no subject
[Nai's somewhere out there, beyond his help. If he dwells on that for too long, Vash is likely to break.]