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sticks and bones. ([personal profile] sticksandbonesmods) wrote in [community profile] sticksandbones2024-07-05 09:23 am

EVENT & TDM 014

THE OCEAN IS ONLY SCARY IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT
WAKE UP
You open your eyes to a peaceful, beautiful forest. Whatever you were dreaming about — be it something happy, something sad, or something nightmarish — seems secondary to the bright wash of greenery and the comforting, cooling breeze that washes over you. It rustles the leaves of the canopy overhead, disturbing a small nest of two-headed birds who chirp as the sticks for their nests are blown away. A hop, hop, hop later, and they return to continue their building, unbothered by your gaze.

As you walk around, you will find that Aldric’s Grove feels… empty. You pop your head into the inn only to find a fine layer of dust on the furniture, and an ever-burning fireplace refusing to be put out. The General Store is unmanned, the door locked, and the lights inside completely out. The house to the south is abandoned, and a building labelled as a clinic sports no patients. The most life you’ll find lies in the church, where the pigeons see you and swarm at your feet, cooing and asking for breadcrumbs.

Flowers bloom, a deer with a halo of horns skips through the clearing, and a small lizard shaped like a leaf climbs the well. You spend several hours alone… and then from the woods to the east comes a giant capybara and a monstrous moose two stories tall. Upon each of them, they carry a hoard of people coming back from what is clearly a summer vacation, if the inner tubes, swimwear, and overwhelming stench of sunscreen are anything to go by.

Maybe the people dismounting the two animals will be nice enough to greet you and tour you around. It’s the least they can do, since you were excluded from the vacation activities.
NOT A MOMENT OF PEACE
It’s still early in the month when a cacophony occurs; an enormous crocodile with too many eyes, known simply as “The Behemoth” suddenly rushes out of the river in a panic as some kind of blue, veinlike latticework covers the surface of it, nearly trapping her within it. It spreads across the entire length of the river from east to west, creeping onto the shoreline up to the church and across the back of the home to the south. When touched, it stings bad enough to paralyse the nervous system, and after making contact for too long while you’re unable to move? Death is imminent, unless someone saves you.

The Behemoth certainly doesn’t try to, too occupied plonking around on land to look for something to do while she can’t go into the water. She won’t attack anyone, but she’s normally searching for a meal, if you don’t mind sharing a snack. As for the other supernatural creatures in the Grove…

Ever since that latticework covered the river, the moose monster — Moder — and the gargoyle that sits on the church’s roof — Zahliya — have only stared and scrutinized. One wrong move, one fight with another resident of the Grove, means either of them are getting up to deal with the problem. It seems that they’re waiting for someone here to show the wrong hand, suspicious of everyone — including those who have been here for over a year at this point. And the second one toe is out of line? Either of them are willing and ready to kill.

Though the suspicion of the Guardians doesn’t wear off and won’t any time soon, the blue gunk covering the river disappears at the end of the first week of July, and it’s anyone’s guess what’ll happen for the rest of the month.
UNDER THE SEA
cw: thalassophobia
What happens is pretty simple if you don’t think about it: Another week passes in peace, and then a disembodied voice somewhere in the woods says, “You guys still smell like seawater and sand, and it’s putting me off of my lunch,” and if you’re new and haven’t gone to the beach yet and have no idea what the voice is talking about… too bad, you’re being lumped in with the crowd. Being lumped in also includes, well… a burst of magic, the sound of fingers snapping, and a loud splash of water. When you next open your eyes…

You’re underwater in some kind of reinforced metal base, one thousand meters under the sea, and something is slamming against the outside of it in an attempt to get in and — presumably — eat you alive. If anyone finds the on-board torpedoes in the command room in time, you might be able to kill the creature before it breaks through the hull and kills everyone inside. And with that hopefully taken care of…

Welcome to your new home for the next two weeks. Your only objective is to survive. There are several rooms here dedicated to underwater research, a bedroom with enough uncomfortable single-person beds for everyone (sadly glued to the floor, too), and a “cafeteria” type room that you can eat in. While the seabase comes equipped with supplies — torpedoes, enough rations to last for everyone but not enough for big eaters to eat big, diving suits and oxygen tanks, and underwater planter boxes growing strange fruits — it may take some effort on your part to ensure that survival is guaranteed. After all, the hungry leviathans know exactly where you are, whether you go outside of the base or not. Water, of course, may pose an issue; there’s no way to filter the seawater here, so the bottled water you have is all you’ll get.

Should you venture out, make sure you’re equipped with the proper gear first. Those of you who cannot swim should probably stay indoors, as there are no fancy vehicles to take you anywhere. Those of you capable of going out may consider braving the danger in search of additional supplies… or perhaps you’re just curious about the ecosystem. You’ll be here for two weeks, after all, there must be something to do. Travel far enough from the base and you’ll find the skeletal remains of something far larger than the Grove itself… and if you’re not careful, a monstrous, snakelike thing who wants you for dinner.

Try not to lead it back to the base for the others to deal with. Who knows how kindly people will take to that?
AN OMINOUS RETURN
As always, when one of the Forest’s “games” ends and you’re returned to the surface when the magic wears off, there’s a reward waiting for you. This reward isn’t as obvious, however. The fog wall is, for the most part, rolled pretty far back. The folks that have been here before may expect to see it revealing more of the trees, or showing off some new area that hasn’t been accessible yet, but the Grove remains quiet upon return. The Guardians, too, have little to say. Normally, they’d be a little more overjoyed at your return… alas.

No, the “reward” for surviving — or blowing up the base immediately and dying, either way — is that the fog wall obscuring the lake ever so slowly rolls back. From within it, something jumps out, a dark black shape, and disappears into the forest.



Perhaps you’ll see whatever it is another time.
SPARK NOTES
CLICK TO EXPAND!
WAKE UP
Welcome to the empty Aldric's Grove! ...oh, here come the people, back from summer vacation! Hey hello.

NOT A MOMENT OF PEACE
The river and shoreline near it are messed up for a week. The Guardians are suspicious of everyone here. The Behemoth is taking big steppies around the Grove asking nicely for food. A week passes, and the Guardians are still suspicious of everyone. Yaaaay.

UNDER THE SEA
And then, everyone was trapped underwater in a seabase, made to survive the horrors of the open deep sea. Watch out for leviathans! And try not to eat and drink all of the rations immediately; that's all you'll get.

AN OMINOUS RETURN
Your reward for playing in yet another of the Forest's games is the fog wall over the lake rolling back. Of course, what jumped out of it and ran off into the woods could either be your greatest boon, or your biggest nuisance. It all depends on you.

OOC
Happy summer! This is a reminder that TDMs are considered game canon. For your threads, feel free to make up your own leviathans/weird fish/whatever you want for spice, or just steal from Subnautica, it's all good. OOC Plotting Lives Here if you'd like to plot anything out!

UPDATES
❖ None yet!

ghostharasser: Art by me! (243)

ii

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-05 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[Is this going to be a terrible dad joke??? And yet his curiosity must be sated.]

Why?
start_again: (sif143)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-05 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Unfortunately...]

Because they're so shellfish.

[But hey, experiment success. And just to make sure the pun is conveyed, because writing doesn't have the benefit of his stupid smirk to telegraph the joke, he draws a little one-eyed smiley face next to it.]
ghostharasser: Art by me! (244)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-05 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[That was awful and Dipper regrets everything. This is exactly the kind of joke his uncle would tell and if it hadn't been for the handwriting he would have said as much.]

Booooooooo!

Anyway whats up?
start_again: (sif119)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-05 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
You don't have to be so crabby about it.

[Let them have this, Dipper. Humor is the only thing staving off a total breakdown right now.]

And I have no idea. What do I have to do to get back where I was?
ghostharasser: <user name =seishirou> (33)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-05 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Sigh. I walked into that one, touche.

[Yes he did just write out "sigh".]

Sorry man, we're working on that. It's probably gonna take a while until we figure it out, but you're not the only one who wants out of here.
start_again: (sif86)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-05 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's not the answer they wanted to hear, but at least it isn't a complete shutdown. There's hope in that. Siffrin clings to it for dear life, because frankly he was not in a great place mentally even before waking up here and he feels only a step away from totally shattering at this point.

A slow breath in, and out. He's okay. "A while" is nothing compared to fucking timeloop hell.]


How many people are stuck here?
ghostharasser: Art by me! (207)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-07 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, he's sure this isn't want anyone wants to hear, but Dipper isn't about to sugarcoat things.]

Hm... Maybe about 20 of us? Give or take.
start_again: (sif1)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-07 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
That's not too bad, I guess. I've saved a country with a way smaller party than that.

[Granted, he probably shouldn't take much credit for that, if any.]
ghostharasser: Art by me! (211)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-07 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
Cool! With more of us working together we should be able to make it work.

Granted, what we are up against is pretty rough, I'm not gonna lie to you.
start_again: (Default)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-07 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
A person I met earlier said it's a "fallen god", but that it can be killed. It could be worse, right? It could have been a god that can't be killed
ghostharasser: <user name =seishirou> (127)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-08 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
You're not wrong. That is definitely true.

Anyway welcome to the Grove. My name's Dipper. If no one's told you, the Inn is free and so is the coffee.
start_again: (sif149)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-08 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I heard about the inn but not the coffee. I guess that's a pretty decent amenity.

Is it actually good coffee?
ghostharasser: <user name =seishirou> (136)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-08 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll be real man, I went like, years without coffee at all, so my ability to gauge if its good or not is not reliable. However, I usually kill a pot of it a day so I mean, it's probably not BAD.

I DO know there is another place that has WAY fancier coffee, and it's the cafe run by Passenger called the Magic Lamp. That stuff is great. The first time I tried it, I chugged it like normal coffee and I think I saw through time and space.
start_again: (sif176)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-08 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Is their coffee also free? I'm kind of broke.

[They only have a single silver coin on them, and who knows if this place even uses the same kind of currency??]
ghostharasser: Art by me! (248)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-09 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
It's not free EXACTLY but getting a hold of the currency here is super easy.

You just need some shells and bones from the river. It's what this place operates on, basically. If you want, though, if you come by, I'll cover you.
start_again: (sif177)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-09 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ ... ]

How is the economy of this place not in shambles??
ghostharasser: Art by me! (175)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-09 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
I dunno, man. Your guess is as good as mine, but it's the way things are done here.
start_again: (sif117)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-09 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so good at picking up and hoarding random junk. I'm gonna be rich, or at least whatever the funky seashell equivalent of rich is.
ghostharasser: <user name =seishirou> (156)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-09 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Best of luck to you, dude. If you stop by the Magic Lamp let me know. I work there!
start_again: (sif131)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-09 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
So that raving about the coffee was just you drying to drum up business?
ghostharasser: (187)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-09 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe. Maybe not.

Guess you'll have to visit and find out, huh?
start_again: (sif143)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-09 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
[How devious.]

Are you the one that makes the coffee?
ghostharasser: (18)

[personal profile] ghostharasser 2024-07-09 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
I'm still in training, but maybe I can offer you a discount if you want to try my test-brews.
start_again: (sif129)

[personal profile] start_again 2024-07-10 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds ominous and potentially life-threatening. But sure. Besides, who am I to turn down a discount (after you already offered to cover me)?