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sticksandbones2024-08-02 09:35 am
sticksandbonesmods) wrote in sticksandbones2024-08-02 09:35 am
EVENT 015
BUY MORE CRYSTALS
COME RAIN OR EVEN MORE RAIN
Today, progress has been made in the Grove. The sun shines brightly on the cleaned-up remains of what used to be the “Burned Town”, now lovingly just called “north” for lack of a better term. At night, a small handful of stars finally shine in skies that have been empty for millennia, and birds sing loudly throughout, overjoyed now that they’ve felt the stirring of the long-dead Sky Guardian. All is peaceful. All is right with the world.
…and then there’s the sound of familiar, watery laughter from the Lake Guardian himself, having returned to the Grove for whatever reason he could possibly have, standing by the well and performing a jaunty dance on his scrawny legs. He spins around the well once, twice… and then the skies darken and the clouds swell, and suddenly it’s raining buckets, soaking you and everyone else to the bone immediately.
“It’s a gift for freeing me!!” Callan shouts joyously, unaware of the fact that gifts are usually nice things and not biblical floods. “Enjoy it!!”
Well, it seems like this will be the rest of your month. The rains don’t abate at all, but they do come with one gift that actually seems worthwhile: Any plant that stays out in the rain for long enough will suddenly spring out of the earth at gargantuan size. Enjoy your giant crops — they’re still edible! — and your flowers the size of pillows, everyone.
…and then there’s the sound of familiar, watery laughter from the Lake Guardian himself, having returned to the Grove for whatever reason he could possibly have, standing by the well and performing a jaunty dance on his scrawny legs. He spins around the well once, twice… and then the skies darken and the clouds swell, and suddenly it’s raining buckets, soaking you and everyone else to the bone immediately.
“It’s a gift for freeing me!!” Callan shouts joyously, unaware of the fact that gifts are usually nice things and not biblical floods. “Enjoy it!!”
Well, it seems like this will be the rest of your month. The rains don’t abate at all, but they do come with one gift that actually seems worthwhile: Any plant that stays out in the rain for long enough will suddenly spring out of the earth at gargantuan size. Enjoy your giant crops — they’re still edible! — and your flowers the size of pillows, everyone.
FURNITURE STRIKES BACK
If staying out in the rain isn’t exactly your thing (who could blame you, really?), you might consider heading back inside and spending some nights in. It’s been a while since everyone had a break without being exposed to water for way too long, and what better way to spend a night than curled up in bed in a nest of blankets?
As you drift off to sleep to the serene sounds of the river flooding, there’s a sudden loud bang, like someone slammed a door. You open your eyes and don’t see a thing… so back to bed you go, only to hear it again. This time, as you lurch out of bed and desperately try to figure out who the hell is slamming doors this late, you’ll see your door opening and slamming itself. Opening again, and slamming. Soon after, the windows follow, and as you rub your eyes, your bed suddenly bucks and throws you to the floor.
Cool. Phenomenal. What just happened?
Perhaps you go to the inn couch to try sleeping there, but alas, the old couch has had enough of you and will summarily flip you back onto the floor, losing its cushions in the process. If you turn your anger toward the furniture, it will — strangely — attack you right back, chasing you down on bizarrely-animated legs that furniture simply should not have. The coffee table might bite, or the cabinets might start flinging cups at you.
If you are patient, however, and if you clean the furniture off — wash the pillows, scrub that mustard stain out of the cushions, sew up a hole your dog chewed into the mattress — it will stop throwing a tantrum. Finally, you can use furniture for its intended purpose.
As you drift off to sleep to the serene sounds of the river flooding, there’s a sudden loud bang, like someone slammed a door. You open your eyes and don’t see a thing… so back to bed you go, only to hear it again. This time, as you lurch out of bed and desperately try to figure out who the hell is slamming doors this late, you’ll see your door opening and slamming itself. Opening again, and slamming. Soon after, the windows follow, and as you rub your eyes, your bed suddenly bucks and throws you to the floor.
Cool. Phenomenal. What just happened?
Perhaps you go to the inn couch to try sleeping there, but alas, the old couch has had enough of you and will summarily flip you back onto the floor, losing its cushions in the process. If you turn your anger toward the furniture, it will — strangely — attack you right back, chasing you down on bizarrely-animated legs that furniture simply should not have. The coffee table might bite, or the cabinets might start flinging cups at you.
If you are patient, however, and if you clean the furniture off — wash the pillows, scrub that mustard stain out of the cushions, sew up a hole your dog chewed into the mattress — it will stop throwing a tantrum. Finally, you can use furniture for its intended purpose.
GET (GEM)STONED
A bit of raw chaos in Aldric’s Grove is not uncommon; perhaps furniture unionizing and non-stop downpours are the least of your concerns in quite some time. After all, you’re not trapped anywhere. You aren’t underwater, you aren’t playing in some twisted life-or-death game, no one is making the passage of time here any worse than usual…
Of course, if chaos is preferable to true horror, you can always have more of it. On your bedside table or under your pillow, you’ll find a drawstring bag containing a small handful of polished gemstones. As you hold them in your palm or between your fingers and inspect them under the light, you’ll feel something within you stirring.
Perhaps you’re holding rose quartz, the gemstone that symbolizes unconditional love, and you suddenly feel empty and loveless. Perhaps it’s amethyst, the gemstone attributed to calm emotions, and yet you’re feeling the most anxious you’ve ever felt in your entire life. Whatever the gem may be, its meaning is now inverted, and you get to suffer the effects of it.
Luckily, this curse — a gift from, who else, the Fallen Sun — can be broken quite easily. Simply clutch the gemstone in your palm and perform an act that embodies its true meaning, and everything will be back to normal. You’ll be holding a mundane rock to do whatever you want with, including throw it into the forest in hopes that it hits the Fallen Sun in his big, stupid head.
Of course, if chaos is preferable to true horror, you can always have more of it. On your bedside table or under your pillow, you’ll find a drawstring bag containing a small handful of polished gemstones. As you hold them in your palm or between your fingers and inspect them under the light, you’ll feel something within you stirring.
Perhaps you’re holding rose quartz, the gemstone that symbolizes unconditional love, and you suddenly feel empty and loveless. Perhaps it’s amethyst, the gemstone attributed to calm emotions, and yet you’re feeling the most anxious you’ve ever felt in your entire life. Whatever the gem may be, its meaning is now inverted, and you get to suffer the effects of it.
Luckily, this curse — a gift from, who else, the Fallen Sun — can be broken quite easily. Simply clutch the gemstone in your palm and perform an act that embodies its true meaning, and everything will be back to normal. You’ll be holding a mundane rock to do whatever you want with, including throw it into the forest in hopes that it hits the Fallen Sun in his big, stupid head.
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
When the rains stop at the month’s end, the clear skies yet again show the stars, and it’s a beautiful sight to behold. It’s no galaxy, even with every light in the Grove off so you can see them all — but it’s special nonetheless, especially to those who have been here under an empty sky for so long. The moon itself feels like it casts joy down upon everyone, and a sense of overwhelming peace settles like a blanket over the entire settlement.
Should you visit Ydalir or Heimr at all, they will both encourage you to spend a night camping out, providing you blankets to lie out in the grass with. While it isn’t much, Ydalir has pulled an old telescope from her mirror for those of you who want to nerd out a bit. Snacks, tea, and hot chocolate will be provided to anyone staying out for the night, too. For better or for worse, you’re all here together, so why not bask in a moment of peace?
Should you visit Ydalir or Heimr at all, they will both encourage you to spend a night camping out, providing you blankets to lie out in the grass with. While it isn’t much, Ydalir has pulled an old telescope from her mirror for those of you who want to nerd out a bit. Snacks, tea, and hot chocolate will be provided to anyone staying out for the night, too. For better or for worse, you’re all here together, so why not bask in a moment of peace?
SPARK NOTES
CLICK TO EXPAND!
COME RAIN OR EVEN MORE RAIN
Callan is giving gifts as all Guardians do. His gift... is a whole tempest. Luckily, the plants will get massive from this. Enjoy your giant produce and flowers!
FURNITURE STRIKES BACK
What could go wrong if the furniture went on strike? Surely it won't toss you out of bed or buck you onto the floor or try to bite you. ...oh, well, if that's the case, you might want to give it some TLC so that it stops.
GET (GEM)STONED
The Fallen Sun's "gift" to the residents is a lovingly-customized bag of rocks. Each stone represents some kind of meaning, but that meaning will be inverted and make you feel the opposite effect from it. To break the curse, all you need to do is clutch the gemstone and perform an act that it originally embodies.
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
Finally, the rains clear up, and Heimr and Ydalir are encouraging everyone to stare at the night sky. It's beautiful with those few stars in it, isn't it?
OOC
How is it already August?? We don't know either. OOC Plotting Lives Here if you'd like to plot anything out! If you need rocks randomly assigned to you for the gemstone portion, head there and drop us a comment, we will give you rocks.
UPDATES
❖ None yet!
SUBMISSIONS
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Ain sits perfectly still for the little blue cottonballs. What the fuck. They're soooo cute.]
It reminds me of when Dachie was a baby, [he whispers, because what if he talks and the babies hate him,] he was this small and shaped like a blob, too.
[Gives babies scritches.]
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Oh yeah? He wasn't always shaped like a sausage?
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[To be fair, you literally picked her up and put her in there, Ain. She would not have started doing this had you not scooped her.]
Um... oh, have you seen a hamster before? They're little round rodents with tiny legs. He was shaped like that, but with a beak and tiny tailfeathers. And he liked to jump on everything he could possibly get on top of, haha!
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[......does he mean a hedgehog. Like those weird fuckin' things Elsword used to talk about-]
I ain't seen one, no, but I've seen plenty of rodents so I can imagine it. Does he get any bigger than this, then?
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Yeah, he was about as big as these babies. Then he got, um... corgi shaped? Those are those little butt dogs, right? [Lmfao] And then he grew legs! Now he's long and he has my wings, haha.
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[Wolfwood has probably never seen a corgi in the flesh, either. Someone fix this man.
The babies, speaking of, are still here. One of them has started to fall asleep.]
These guys will grow big enough to ride on, eventually. Tall as a horse, really.
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Haha, really? But they're so tiny...
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Yeah, if you can believe it. They're what we use t'get around the desert. 'Specially folks who can't afford a car.
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Dachie trots over to the hay and just Looks at this scene, extremely jealous, and then huffs and climbs into Wolfwood's lap instead, where he makes a show of doing several circles before he plops down. He is by no means a lapdog, though, because he's the size of a fucking greyhound.
Good luck!]
A car? [Hm...] Those are the things on rollercoasters, right? They can go off the rails?
[The only high-tech stuff he's seen has been in the Demon Realm sorry.]
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Though...it's not like Wolfwood isn't used to this. Angelina is no puppy anymore, and she loves sprawling across his lap. So he just sighs and accepts it, letting one arm rest across Dachie's back.]
...what's a rollercoaster?
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Um... it's got a kitty shaped compartment with things to grab onto so you don't fall out, and it's attached to a big rail that's held in the sky with support poles. When the person running the kitty car turns it on, it follows that rail very quickly around the amusement park and goes in loops and tight turns. I think it's supposed to be fun? Ms. Mirror Friend had a great time. Mr. Ancient kept crashing into me because it was hard to stabilize yourself in it, though. There aren't any safety features or anything, so you can fall out!
It's a device demons made. We don't have them in Elrios itself.
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Kindof sounds like a giant death trap to me.
[Looks at the sand steamers, looks away]
Did you have fun on it?
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Haha, well, I can already float around, so I guess it wasn't too much difference. But... it was still fun, even if it was dangerous and Ms. Magician had to cling onto Elsword the entire time before she went flying.
[Standard rollercoasters come with safety features. But not if you're a Dream Demon.]
I'm not a fan of most demons. But the amusement park and the rollercoaster were fun, once everything calmed down anyway. It's a long story, but we didn't all get along at first. Supposedly, the Dream Demons running the place really liked us and wanted us to stay forever.
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[You know. Not great!!
Also one of the little blue chicks is snoring now. Making a soft "peeep" in its sleep every time it takes a breath.]
Every time I hear about your world it just sounds wilder than the last.
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[He scritches the sleepy chick with a finger. Baby...]
Elrios and the Demon Realm are separate, though. They're connected by Henir, which is that void I told you I got stuck in, but you can skip over Henir with a portal. Historically, demons invaded Elrios, which is how a lot of this started. Finding out that... that not all demons are evil and want everyone to die was a lot for me. I still don't really trust them despite that.
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Hm...you kinda come across that with anything. Demons, humans...not all of 'em are bad. Just most of 'em are.
[Like, he won't even try to deny that.]
Glad you didn't get stuck in that void a second time, though. I woulda' just vetoed the trip if there weren't a way around it.
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[Y'know, Laby.]
Most people get heavily changed by it. We were fine... but others will mutate if they're exposed to Henir energy. It's dangerous.
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[Ain...really has been through a lot. Not just in terms of adventures, or going to different worlds and shit, but just. Everything. You wouldn't know that just on the outside looking in, because he makes a damn good job of hiding it.
All by design, he supposes.]
Is...that the last thing you remember, Ain? Bein' in that demon realm with your friends before comin' here, I mean.
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Yeah, but after all the stuff I'm explaining now. We were going to Ms. Demon's home to try to reclaim it for her, since she lost it in a coup d'état. We had to do a lot of battles in between. I won't bore you with the details...
[Though he'll stop to tell the story of how Raven got a new boyfriend, Ain is convinced of this fact, midway through because yeah. I'm not typing this you know that lore Chi, but know that Ain is telling Wolfwood aaaaaaaall about Raven's gay boy dreams and Ricardo latching on and becoming their friend now.]
We got to the Steel Wall, and the group was split up. Mr. Ancient met someone who knew him and was messing with him. Shocking him and torturing him and stuff when he ran off — I've never seen Elsword so mad before, other than that time when Mr. Ancient killed me very briefly. [Haha, what] But we dealt with it. The guy ran off, and we met up with the rest of the group. We were about to head further in... and then I woke up here.
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Wolfwood understandably looks briefly stunned- baffled, even- as Ain just drops that and keeps going as if he didn't say "oh I died lol but I got better" or something. He at least has the entire history of Raven's romantic tryst with a demon boy though, he'll have that covered if the guy ever shows up.]
Wait, back up. What happened? He killed you?
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Maybe... "killed" isn't the right word? It was an accident. He opened a portal to get us out of danger before it was fully ready, and it sapped my energy as a battery and threw me into a coma. I didn't decorporialize, but I wasn't really... living, either. Does that make sense? Apparently, the group had to take me back to the El Lady to restore some of my El Energy.
[AND THEY STILL DIDN'T FIGURE OUT THIS MAN IS AN ANGEL]
Don't be mad at Mr. Ancient, he's stupid but he choked out an apology for being stupid.
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[That he's stupid. Because that was stupid. Wolfwood is retroactively angry at this idiot, what the fuck.]
And you're okay now, so...you didn't die die.
[Or at least die in a way that mattered-]
You're a lot more forgivin' than I woulda' been.
wrangling the ainadd shipper in me back like-
...we didn't used to get along. He knew too much about me, or had sussed it out anyway, and I didn't want him to blab. I know too much about him, because angels can sense weird stuff like who isn't a human and who's from another timeline and all that, so I called him out. And we spent a long time arguing and bickering.
I don't think we get along now, but it's better. The banter is more playful and less hurtful than it was. I guess I can be forgiving because of that...? Because I care about him and the rest of the El Search Party. I wouldn't be mad dying for them, I think.
:))
[Kindof reminds him of his relationship with Vash, at least when they first met. They didn't have any dirt on one another- it was more Wolfwood being the liar between them- but they certainly didn't exactly get along, nor see eye-to-eye. Hell, they still don't. But over time, after they got to know one another...things changed. Maybe they changed.
Especially with the way Ain admits to being willing to die for the El Search Party. It's the same kind of sentiment Vash has about all of humanity, even to the point where his own brother can't fathom it.]
That's good, then. Maybe the two of you just needed t'find more common ground.
I can't say I knew the version of him that was here all that well, but...other than bein' a mad scientist doctor guy, he seemed alright. Like he cared, in his own way.
stop. don't look at me.
[Elsword said it best once upon a time: "A traitor wouldn't have fought together with us for years." Then, tiredly, because he's about to take a Human Nap in the hay here:]
It's been a long journey either way.
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