sticksandbones | EVENT & TDM 014

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!

SUBMISSIONS

QUESTIONS
INVESTIGATIONS
PAST-LIFE PLOTTING

(CODE)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That gets another little chuckle out of Loop. Well played.

They think they had an idea of how this conversation might go at some point. They'd say something at just the right time for it to finally click and they'd watch their stardust figure it out in real time, or he'd ask just the right question for them to know, and then maybe they'd have to explain themselves, how they got into this whole mess... they could probably do a whole monologue on the spot, but now the timing just feels wrong. Like they missed their cue, skipped a scene, too late to start over from the top.

Should they even say anything? Is there a point? Siffrin seems like he already knows what's going on. They can tell, the slight shifts in their usual rapport. It's different than how it was.

But not overly different. They can still improvise their lines.]

I was only looking. You would've tried the same thing.

[Loop chuckling should be a good thing, but it only gets narrowed eyes in response from Siffrin.

A chuckle indicates understanding the joke. Loop does know, it's not some kind of crazy memory loss thing, so why are they being so stubborn about playing dumb? It's maddening.]

...I like breathing, so probably not. It's not like I can rely on looping anymore.

[Since, y'know. He escaped the timeloop. A thing Loop knows perfectly well, including all the details of how that came to pass!!]

You sure? I heard people come back to life here, so maybe we could give it a try.

[...]

Kidding. Sorry. Neither of us should do that. [maybe now isn't the time for suicide jokes, actually...

They sigh, letting the silence drag out for just a bit. Loop still isn't sure what to make of Siffrin's weird behaviour earlier, but... at least in this moment, they can appreciate his presence. Something familiar to ground them in an alien sea (literally).]

... Thank you. For caring.

[wow, no sarcastic remark!! that's how you know it's serious.]

[A spiteful part of Siffrin wants to smack that potential olive branch away and be a dick right back at them. Frankly, they'd deserve it. But he's trying to be understanding. He doesn't get why exactly Loop has been acting this way, but...well, if anyone is gonna understand just how messed up Loop is, it's him.

He takes a breath in, and out, still not quite looking at Loop.]

Someone's gotta.

[And somehow, it's easier to care about Loop's well-being than his own. Make it make sense.]

[damn... it's like they're forming a real emotional connection here...]

... not that I needed your kelp! I was trying not to fall in, honest.

[And with that awful line, they're back on their feet—if they dwell on this any longer they're going to start feeling weird, no thanks! Back to the original plan of not thinking about their broader situation and instead focusing on the immediate problems, like whether a star can go diving or not. Something simple and concrete!]

Do you think those breathing-tubes would work if I don't have a mouth? Probably not, right?

[Any kind of emotional connection between these two, whether positive or purely antagonistic, sure is Something. That's a can of worms that would require a therapist with some very strange and specific specialties to handle.

Anyway. Caring or not, Siffrin doesn't wanna give Loop the satisfaction of laughing at that. Even if it's 100% his sense of humor (for obvious reasons). So he ducks his face into his collar to hide the ghost of a smile whilst rolling his eye.]

Where would you even put it?

Somewhere on my face? Not sure if it matters. Maybe all I need to do is spray bubbles at myself and stop thinking about it?

[because it's still up for debate if they even need to breathe or not, but they will at least think about it enough not to try plan A again. for now.]

I guess I could just stay inside... but that's so boooooring~!

Do you even really have a face? I don't think just eyes floating in a ball of light really counts.

[It's not like he's ever touched their "face" to see if there's really any kind of solid face-like surface in there. There again, he has touched their body on more than one occasion and that part is definitely tangible, so...

Huh. Weird to think about.

After a beat, he shrugs that mystery off and gets back to his feet, already unfastening his cloak.]

Just hold on a sec. I'll come with you.

At least I have two of them! [guess who can still wink, bitch!!

they sure could just check that with their own sense of touch, but are they going to do that? after decisively avoiding the topic for like a hundred loops? like they didn't even know what they looked like until Siffrin brought it up? do they really want to know?

guessing feels easier. they can stop at whatever point they want, skip the difficult answers. stop thinking about it so much.]

Aww, stardust! Does that mean you'll be my dashing hero if something goes wrong? How sweet.

You know that's an extra weird thing to say when I know who you are, right?

[Is it still ~dashing heroism~ to save...yourself? Like he said before, it sounds more like self-preservation. Even while recognizing that they're presently two entirely separate entities and that Loop has definitely changed as a result of the much worse path they went down, Siffrin can still see himself in them. Who could he ever sympathize with more? That's probably why he's ultimately still putting up with their shit despite everything.

It's also probably why he feels comfortable enough that, as he approaches the moon pool, Siffrin pauses for a moment, looking at Loop–

–And then just unceremoniously palms their whole face. Well, "face". Might as well solve that mystery right now. And touching is much less intimidating when it's...well, him.]

Hah! Haha! Well at least I have something over you!! [they're not bitter they're not bitter they're not bitter

They are still trying not to think about it (or that, or all the other topics they're avoiding) which turns out to be a mistake when Siffrin pauses in front of them. They, too, pause.]

Stardust, what are you— [hey look new fun fact they can't talk with a HAND IN THEIR FACE

It's a little bit like sinking your hands into sand. Warm, resistant, a little prickly... kinda hot in the middle, maybe? No discernible shapes to speak of in the few seconds of shock Siffrin gets to explore. Anyway, Loop snaps out of it to very firmly (a little too firmly) (they're not sorry) grab Siffrin's wrists.]

What do you think you're doing?

[Huh. That is definitely not what they were expecting. Maybe a solid head hidden in all that light, maybe their hand just passing straight through, but this? Siffrin's eyebrows arch up, and all they can think is Huh.

And if it were anyone else recoiling from his touch so aggressively, it'd probably have sent him spiraling again. But it's Loop, so he can only manage a huff of breath that might be a laugh.]

...Touch exposure therapy?

[He offers Loop a dry smile and wiggles his fingers, hands still caught in Loop's grip.]

[neither solid nor ethereal but a third worse thing(?)

They are glaring beneath the sunny expression, but Siffrin should know that already. Their grip remains tight.]

Touch exposure therapy.

[They liked it better when Siffrin was more cautious. Stars.

They let go, at least.]

The idea is to start small, stardust. Warn me before you do that again.

Yeah, yeah...

[It has the energy of a teenager rolling their eyes at their parent. Their hands released, he rubs at his wrists briefly and hesitates only for a moment before curiosity wins out.]

...So what did that feel like for you?

[Loop folds their arms, still weighing how mad they should be right now. For various reasons.

... but they are also curious, so maybe they can learn to forgive this one.]

It felt...

It felt weird. But not in a bad way. [Their shoulders ease, just a little. It wasn't as bad as they thought it might be. They're real, they're here, and it's been awhile since they've had human touch...]

[Hey, it's a half-step up from just touching oneself, right? Baby steps. They can go back to human contact with other people eventually. Preferably with their friends, after escaping this place. People here seem nice enough, but that's no replacement for their family.]

Yeah, definitely weird. I think my hand kinda...sank in, a little? I wonder what would happen if you shoved some food in there.

[He shrugs and turns back to the moon pool, crouching down to examine the water.]

It was hot, too. I'm surprised sticking your head underwater didn't do anything. What if it had...I don't know, put you out?

Guess it wouldn't have been a bright idea.

[While Siffrin is checking out the water they take another look at the diving equipment. The idea of something "sinking in" sounds way worse than how it felt, actually, but it does make this stupid diving plan sound almost plausible. Put the breathing thing in and maybe it'll just... work?

Only one way to find out.

Diving sure does need a lot of junk tho!! There has GOT to be a better way to do all this with Craft, too bad they wouldn't know.]

Are you coming or not, stardust? You can't lecture me on safety and then go out like that. [get your scrawny ass in a suit they're having an ☆adventure☆]

[Despite everything, the pun drags a laugh out of him, and they shake their head.]

Alright, I'm going, hold on...

[Siffrin and straightens and goes to put on a suit, pausing only to take his knife out. If they end up needing it, it'd be bad for it to be stuck inside the suit with him.

He returns to the moon pool with an awkward waddle, unused to wearing anything like this.]

Ready?

[loop now forced to think about "have I been walking around naked this whole time" but you know what they're going to process that one later. for now,

Diving time. They feel slow and vulnerable bogged down by all this gear, but surely it'll be better once they're in the water... assuming the whole breathing thing works out, anyway. Drowning remains a possibility, but they find themselves unafraid. Which might be a bad thing! Like their survival instincts are broken!! But maybe it's because Siffrin is with them? That answer feels safer to admit to, so sure, they'll go with that.

They inhale, then slowly exhale.]

Ready.

[tempting to lighten the mood(?) by shoving Siffrin in first but maybe let's be a little responsible. They jump in, lighting up the sea floor as they tread water. Best not to wander too far until they're like, PRETTY sure they won't start drowning tho.]

[Siffrin slips into the water with a shiver and immediately misses the always perfect warmth of his cloak. But he doesn't feel like trying to dry it out later, especially down here at the bottom of the ocean with no warm sun to lay it out in.

Maybe Loop's head will warm the water. Who knows?

It's kind of funny how said head eliminates the need for any kind of light source down here. Tragically, it's hard to laugh underwater. Still, the faint worry about their breathing situation remains, so Siffrin hovers close, squinting at the star for any sign of distress. After a minute or so, he gives a questioning thumbs up. You good?]

[One star isn't going to warm up the whole ocean, but the water might be a little warmer next to them... it's not something Loop would notice, since they're the one causing it. The deep ocean still feels cold to them.

Anyway, everything seems fine so far? The possibility of drowning is still on their mind, but after some time to hype themselves up they try taking a deep breath in and out. Surely that would make everything go wrong immediately if this plan wasn't working, right?

And it's still fine. Nothing bad happens. They're actually, really, truly fine.

Loop gives an enthusiastic thumbs up back.]

[A small, localized warm spot in the water is probably weirder. It's a little too reminiscent of someone peeing in a pool. Siffrin chooses not to voice that thought, but Loop has seemed capable of reading his mind at times and he's still not entirely sure what's star powers and what's just knowing him really well for obvious reasons.

Anyway. All seems well, so Siffrin turns to swim downwards towards the ocean floor. If there's anything of interest down here, it'll probably have sunk to the bottom, right? There's a quick gesture for Loop to follow, since a light source becomes a lot less useful when it's behind you so you're just casting a shadow on everything you're trying to look at.]

[Their anxiety melts away in the wake of novelty. They're not drowning! They're underwater! When was the last time either of them saw anything deeper than a stream? It's a good thing they remember how to swim. They do feel lighter in the water, and it's not so bad, they can still move around even if they feel a bit rusty at it...

Siffrin waves them over, so they dive. Their starlight easily dispels the darkness, caverns and coral stretching ever deeper below. There are creatures down here, too, some that scatter and hide while others swim closer... Loop has to gently swat a small eel away before it can slap them in the face. Like moths to a flame, but fish to a lamp, or something.

... now that they're actually down here, what are they looking for again? Just... stuff? Interesting stuff? Clues? Suspicious artifacts? Edible fish? Hm.

They swim ahead a bit, to cast a better light on everything and also start poking around at things. They will NOT go back empty handed!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT & TDM 014

hell yeah. play ISAT so you can legally read this thread, losers

no subject

in retrospect this should also be cw: suicide talk sorry they will continue to be this way

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject