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!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He is a Good Christian Boy. ]

If you're sure... [ He's not sure how he feels bringing Flamebringer with him out into the deep ocean, but sure, okay. He sighs a bit. ] I mean, I don't really think we have to worry about actually swimming all that much. I saw those little... umm... I think they were called Seaflies? [ Seaglide. ] I'm probably just using one of those.

[...]

Suit yourself. I'll take one too, but you better hope the battery in it doesn't die.

[Flamebringer voice I'm not dragging you back to the base (he will do this). (You know he'll do this.)

With that all said and done... oxygen tanks, rebreathers, diving suits, flippers, uh... seaflies :) and Flamebringer has his sword because of course he fucking does... time to head out! Let's go try not to die.]

...Assuming the batteries aren't ancient, they should work just fine, right? [ What do you mean there are batteries that don't last for like 10+ years?? Hello? ] Ah, wait. Flamebringer? Let me make sure your suit is on correctly before you head out. And we should fasten some latex around the horn holes, too, just in case. Otherwise they might cause problems while we're outside, and...

[ Fuss fuss fuss fuss. You know how Sankta are. You SURE you wanna go with this dweeb? ]

[He will just sit there and let this happen. He feels like if Ezell doesn't fuss over him it Will cause some sort of fight or something, he doesn't know, but sure whatever. He is Very Still.]

Yeah, yeah. Just tell me when you think we're good to go. [...] Does it hurt your head having that mask on? With the halo and all.

[You know Sankta and hats and all that.]

[ Ezell is going to do a once over for the suit, but he's more concerned with the horn holes than anything, so he carefully finds the latex coverings that he can just sort of apply to the helmet like it's cling wrap. The future is neat- ]

Hurt? No. It's a little uncomfortable and sort of gives that... disconnected feeling. You know, when you don't feel like you're all there? But it's fine. I don't mind it as much as a lot of the other Sankta do, it seems. [ Yeah, babe, maybe because you're naturally empathic instead of just Sankta-empathic... ] Besides, my wings and halo are pretty small compared to a lot of others. they don't really get in the way of stuff like this.

[He was told once by someone that it hurts Sankta to have their halos disconnected like that, so it makes sense to hear it. But if Ezell's head doesn't hurt so bad he'll be useless outside, then... that's fine. Whatever.

He didn't ask because he cares obviously he just asked because it would suck to have dead weight haha.]

Must feel weird. My horns are lopsided, but some Sarkaz get theirs broken off. I can't imagine how much that sucks.

[He's trying to compare it. It probably doesn't work.]

...c'mon if you're done. We're burning what little daylight we get down here.

Don't rush me. We'll have underwater lights, I'm not that concerned. Please, just bear with me for a moment, I want to make sure you're secured, Flamebringer...

[ Words he would probably never say back on Terra, but here we are. ]

It feels weird, for sure. Uncomfortable. I would rather be uncomfortable than drown, though, so...

Does it suck? How does that feel? Actually... I'm going to have to touch your horns a moment to secure the the latex. Is that alright?

[But Ezell he wants to go fight the leviathansssssssss :(

He's a head taller than Ezell, so he sort of ducks down to make the job a little easier.]

I've never broken a horn, so I don't know. Mine have always been lopsided. [Which means only One is sticking out of the helmet, the other one... two that is technically one is able to be squashed in there with the rest of his head.] It's fine, yeah. Mind the pointy bits, don't cut yourself.

[Luckily the base of said horn is covered by helmet-hole otherwise there would be Problems :) It's fine though, Ezell just needs to not slice his finger (or the dive suit) open.]

Oh, I see. [ He never would've guessed, honestly. Then again, he was also born with rather unfortunate Sankta features. His halo and wings both look more like shattered glass than any of the beautiful and intricate designs of his fellows. He clears his throat a moment before actually touching the horn itself. ] I won't of course. Though, speaking of... sorry if this sounds rude, but your Oripathy... it kind of blends in with your horns, kinda... There's none actually on your horn, is there?

[ Not that it matters, he supposes. If there was, he'd just have to make sure, again, not to cut himself. Otherwise, he'd be a-okay. ]

If there was, I wouldn't tell you it's okay to touch it.

[(Foreshadowing)

But really, Flamebringer does appreciate being asked. He's himself, there's not a lot of things he cares about, but at the same time he's not about to spread Oripathy around. The people that do that are far worse than he is, and he's quite aware of it. It's one thing to want to die gloriously in battle and live in the moment; it is an entire other form of evil to tell someone "yeah, give yourself Oripathy, have fun". Flamebringer would like to think he's not evil at the end of the day.]

It's all on the left side of my body. [And the horn that Ezell is working with is on the right.] It doesn't go up into my hairline, but the horns on that side are flat and sharp nonetheless.

[So y'know, he's all sharp edges with no softness clearly. At least Ezell won't be able to knock himself against the crystals what with the suit in the way.]

[ Alright, then it's getting covered so there's no holes into Flamebringer's helmet, covering it with the latex to it keeps out the water. He'll probably help take it off when they're back too! Which they'll do so safely and neither one will get hurt. Definitely.

He picks up the oxygen tank to settle on his back once he ensures they're both all set, then leads the way to the magically-keeps-the-water-out-somehow hatch. ] You said you wanted to look for plants, right? Do you know which way might be best to look for those, or are we winging it?

[Why would I, someone who loves to inflict physical torment on my characters, ever injure anybody? :)

Once they're both set:]

Winging it. Normally I'd have good knowledge about this, but I only deal in terrestrial plants and things that can be kept in tanks.

[He nods toward the Hatch That Magically Keeps The Water Out Somehow.]

C'mon.

[And out they go into the horrors of the open ocean! Flamebringer is immediately heading north, where he's pretty sure he sees some glowing plants in the distance. Hell yeah we love bioluminescence.]

[ Cool! Glad neither of them know what they're doing, then. Still, that's all the more reason to explore, right? So they can learn about this place? Ezell follows Flamebringer out the hatch and immediately pulls out his Seaglide. ~~Subnautica multiplayer, fuck yeah.~~

While Flamebringer is gunning for the plants, and Ezell will stay behind him, Ezell more looks out for the wildlife. They pass rabbit rays and the Seaborn that linger outside the base, and that Ghost Leviathan doesn't seem to be too close... he hopes. Then... this should be a somewhat safer trip, right?

As he looks down, it's just... dark. Bottomless, seemingly. He wonders if it's dangerous to just... go? Or... hm. ]

Careful, where there's vegetation, there's bound to be bigger creatures making their homes.

[honestly if Subnautica came packaged with multiplayer I would be less terrified to play it for myself (lying)

Flamebringer can swim, but the Seaglide is admittedly a lot faster. It's easier to use for now, and toward the glowing grasses they head. Flamebringer does not care about how the danger and the way the valley just dips downwards into pitch blackness. He is simply going to explore, it's something to do, blah blah blah.]

Scared?

[Fear would be a reasonable reaction FLAMEBRINGER gosh]

The fact you aren't says more about you than me, dumbass. Just be careful.

[ Ezell is aware fear is a reasonable response. That's why he's chock full of it right now. ]

[Tail wave.]

I'm being careful.

[Really! He swears! He has his eyes peeled for danger, he's watching that leviathan in the distance like a hawk, even as he dives deeper, toward the plants just in front of the mouth of a cave. Underwater caves sure are fucking horrifying if you're literally anyone else.

That said, danger sense basically wears off when he reaches the plants. A good amount of them are growing up the cavern walls, and Flamebringer mindlessly heads deeper inside to check them out. They're a vivid, neon blue sort of colour, and when he drags his hands across the leaves, the glow changes to a deep purple.

Well Now he's fucking excited. Ezell look at this are you looking— looks at Ezell hey—]

[ Ezell is, in fact, not looking, and instead has his eyes anywhere but Flamebringer, desperately trying to keep an eye out for danger. He even has the light of his seaglide off because he doesn't want to attract unwanted attention from anything. ]

There's... lots of these pathfinder fins swimming below. There's more blue glows down there - probably from them? Or maybe more plants. Regardless, we should be on watch. I think it should be safe, though. Glow generally means that this is safe.

Makes sense.

[These people have never heard of the horrors of the open ocean clearly. Flamebringer rarely speaks to any Aegir, and besides that, Aegir from Aegir itself are much rarer. The ones born on land are easier to find. He probably spoke to Thorns like, once in his life, about some kind of alchemical concoction to aid in plant growth. Thorns is not the man you want to see about that but still.

The pathfinder fins are cute, though. Flamebringer nods at Ezell and decides to follow after one of them, seeing where it'll lead. If they're herbivores or... if they eat plankton, he's not sure, they'll probably lead the duo somewhere cool. Of course, one of the pathfinder fins deviates off the path after a bit, but there's another bright blue glow within the deeper parts of the cave that catches Flamebringer's eye amidst the glowing grasses.]

There's some sort of round light in the distance. Think it's an egg for one of these things? Or another plant?

Perhaps. I've heard before that Seaborn would often leave glowing carcasses behind to let their kin know what path was safe to take...

[ He hums a moment, then adjusts the seaglide to face towards that soft glow, taking off towards it with a little wave to Flamebringer. ]

Come on, let's go see. There's probably more plants down there, anyway.

[Mm... morbid! Considering the Seaborn outside the base, though, that's not entirely unplausible. Maybe they came up from here, or maybe they're just... fuck, doing what Seaborn do? What do they do anyway, sing songs? Be a hivemind? Something like that.

Toward the egglike shape they go, creeping closer and closer. It's still impossible to tell what it is even as they get up close to it. Flamebringer squints, trying to make something out in the bioluminescence — a creature, maybe curled up in the egg if it's translucent, or some sort of foliage surrounding it. But it's a bit higher up than everything else, and it's hard to tell if it's on a ledge in the cave, maybe, or—

And then two large, golden eyes open in the gloom. From the light above, it's incredibly easy to see the glint of slimy, wet teeth the size of his torso. They gnash at the spot inches from Flamebringer's ankles as he rapidly backs up, narrowly losing his leg in the process.]

Shit—!

[The anglerfish isn't bothered by the miss, though. It gets up from where it's presumably laying on the seabed directly, fat body swimming toward them faster than Flamebringer would ideally like it to. It opens its jaws and smacks them down again, sending bubbles up into the water around them as it misses again. And again. And again— and on the fifth pass, it gets close enough to where Flamebringer can smell something rotting on its teeth as they make their escape.

So he thinks on his feet. Shouts for Ezell to get out of the way and puts himself between the Sankta and the anglerfish, narrowly grabbing his sword from where it's strapped to his hip in time for teeth to sink into his shoulder.

He doesn't cry out or scream, instead bitterly thinking that he isn't going to die to some stupid fish as he reaches around with that sword and begins blindly hacking at the anglerfish until it realises the prey it caught isn't going to go down so easily and lets go.]

[ It’s hard not to be overly cautious when you’re in a new and unfamiliar place, but if they just stay in the sea base, they’re bound to end up with nothing as a result of being sent here, and really that upsets Ezell more than anything else. Meaningless things. (Like, you know, him—)

So of course, even if Ezell’s shotgun cannot work under the water here, he did not come with nothing. Rather, he conveniently found this thermal blade up for grabs. He’s non-violent to things that have some amount of intelligence, but spooky sea creatures??? Fair game, really.

He hardly has time to even register that he’s being pulled out of the way or what Flamebringer is doing in the moment, all he’s able to register is his pain and that this beast is hostile, so he takes the blade and immediately jams it into the place just above one of its nostrils. Which he manages just before taking Flamebringer’s arm and trying to pull him back. ]

[The anglerfish is baffled by the fact that its prey has sharp bits. It thought "soft and squishy" not "sharp and pointy", and after Ezell gets it good, it's quick to reel back and try to shake the sharp pointies off of it. Flamebringer, of course, isn't going to leave his sword behind, and while he still has use of his arm (he won't when the adrenaline wears off and they make it back to the base) he's quick to sheathe that sword and hang onto his Seaglide with the opposite arm, trying to get both him and Ezell out of there in one piece.

The damage they've done for now seems to be enough to deter the anglerfish momentarily, who chases them out of the cave after it clears the stun away. Stupid as it is, Flamebringer is not going to let this thing get away with taking a bite out of him, so he fully turns around in the water and waits with his sword yet again drawn, waits and waits and then plunges the katana directly into the anglerfish's eye. That's all it takes to kill it; it roars, a sound very unlike that of a fish and more akin to some sort of ancient monster, and collapses on the seabed.

Now they can head home. Flamebringer is well aware of the fact that he's bleeding out as they try to make it back, but the adrenaline is still pumping. Honestly he could go for another fight right now (Ezell will yell at him for this), but...

Once they're in the clear, Flamebringer, now one-handedly clinging to the seaglide because his right arm is starting to give out on him, only comments:]

Good reflexes.

[ What do you MEAN you can go for another fight?! Flamebringer, you are BLEEDING!!!!!!! Ezell lets out a breath he had no idea he was even holding once they've ridden back up to where the pathfinder fins are plentiful, and it's rather safe. He doesn't stop there, of course, focused on getting Flamebringer back to the base now. ]

I-I'm so sorry. I didn't- [ Wait, no, wrong emotion, he's supposed to be mad. ] What were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed! You- Why did you do that????

[They'll get back in one piece! ...eventually! Flamebringer is simply willing his blood to coagulate, but that's hard when they're in the open water and now little blood-sucker fish with tiny razor teeth are following after him like "oooh!".]

I was thinking about saving your ass from becoming fish food, [he grouses,] don't thank me or anything.

[He is rolling his eyes—]

Why would I thank you for putting yourself in danger?? You- you got seriously hurt, Flamebringer!

[ You are literally bleeding! There's literally fish still chasing- ]

You had best hope that sea base has some damn good first aid, else I will yell at you until you pass out from blood loss.

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