sticksandbonesmods: (Default)
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!

thebladebringstheflame: (053)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-07-18 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not sitting in front of the hatch where someone coming back in will break their nose on the floor tripping over us.

[It's a weak, breathless argument. Flamebringer isn't necessarily dying — he has a ridiculous level of stamina and constitution, among other things — but it is hard to ignore bloodloss this bad, even for him. At the very least, by now, most of the wounds have stopped bleeding. They'll start again eventually, as Ezell is suturing them together, but not as severely.

His gaze slides toward Ezell, though he keeps his head leaned back. Out of the way.]


It's gonna take more than that to kill me. Just do your thing.
ezellotry: (89)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-07-28 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
Anyone who saw you were hurt like this would've helped you, not found you an inconvenient obstacle. Please, I need you to think about yourself just a bit.

[ And he takes in a breath, suturing the wound carefully once his hand was steady enough to. It's not necessarily hard. He's done this before. It's just that he feels the incredible weight of guilt weighing on him from seeing this wound. One that's his own fault, really.

He doesn't say anything else until he's finished. And even then, he carefully snips the thread off and makes sure to disinfect around the wound again with a disinfectant. The only thing he gives is a very gentle warning that this might sting a bit.

Afterwards, it's bandaged, and... he leans his head against Flamebringer's other shoulder. ]


...Please don't do anything like that again.
thebladebringstheflame: (064)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-07-28 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
[He is specifically leaning away from Ezell so that the Oripathy crystals on his cheeks don't cut him somehow.]

Careful. I don't want you to cut yourself on the Infected side.

[God, he needs to change out of this wetsuit and lay down.

Also no he will not think about himself for a bit.]
ezellotry: (100)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-07-28 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
I'll be careful. It's fine. [ He doesn't try to pull away, even with the shifting. ] ...Do you need help getting to bed?
thebladebringstheflame: (056)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-07-28 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
I've had worse injuries. But I can't change out of this wetsuit if you're leaning on me, can I?

[Nudge (playful) with his elbow... please do not get rocks in you though you're worrying him—]
ezellotry: (71)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-07-28 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
... [ He picks his head up finally. ] Are you gonna insist doing it on your own? I can... help. I cut off the parts around the wound, but...

[ He seems extremely frazzled and he doesn't... really know what to do. He's just too fuckin' guilty about putting Flamebringer in that situation to begin with. ]
thebladebringstheflame: (033)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-07-30 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Are you gonna act like a kicked puppy if I do?

[He is already trying to wiggle out of this, but uh. Stitches. ...yeah fine he'll need help.]
ezellotry: (28)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-07-30 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
…No. I just thought it’d be uncomfortable to stay in this. If you don’t want my help, I get it.

[ He feels so guilty and he’s trying incredibly hard to not let it show. It is not working well. ]
thebladebringstheflame: (109)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-07-30 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
It is. That's why I'm trying to change... [pained noise, okay, fine,] If you wanna help, then help.
ezellotry: (w2)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-08-01 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ezell nods, then very carefully pulls the small scissors from the medical kit to use them to cut the fabric off of Flamebringer. The top half, anyway. Ezell will leave him to deal with the bottom half on his own time - and he can probably take it off one handed versus trying to get the top part off, anyway. Once he's successfully cut away the top part of the wet suit (the scissors are small so it takes longer than expected), he double checks his wound and make sure the stitches are still holding.

...

He'll quickly get up afterwards to find a blanket or something to keep Flamebringer warm. ]


Here. Do you need help getting up?
thebladebringstheflame: (060)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-08-02 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
Nah. I got it.

[Blankets are appreciated... he can change into pants himself though, yeah. Just sweatpants and nothing else for now considering the stitches and how hard it is to move his arm.

Afterwards, he will lay down in the blanket and just stare at the metal ceiling. Ugh. Stupid fish.]
ezellotry: (104)

[personal profile] ezellotry 2024-08-02 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ And Ezell will look away respectfully, waiting for Flamebringer to finish. Once he's laying down, Ezell stands and steps over to the Sarkaz so he can offer his support once more. ]

Let's get you into a bed, at least. Either in the medbay or in the cabins - your choice.

...

Actually, we should go to the cabin so I can watch over you tonight. Make sure everything's alright... [ ............. ] Please... stay with me?
thebladebringstheflame: (008)

[personal profile] thebladebringstheflame 2024-08-02 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
[He's wearing this blanket like a cape, thank you. If people didn't know better they'd probably think he had a cold with the way he looks and that he didn't, y'know, nearly bleed out. That was a lot of blood for a man to be losing!!]

The cabin is fine. [Even though it's all one bigass shared room.] I'm not going anywhere, promise.