Event & TDM 003

[sticksandbonesmods]

I AM THE WILD

WAKE UP

You open your eyes.

It feels like you’ve been here before, like you’re finally home. Today, the sun shines brightly, brilliantly, on the open forest clearing making up Aldric’s Grove. Vines wrap around old buildings, overgrowth covers ruins of what once were homes and shops, and weeds poke up through the cracks of foundations. Before you stands an inn, a well, and one hundred beautiful flowers peppered throughout the clearing. Be not fooled by their beauty, wanderer; should you stray too close, the flowers are happy to bite.

Fret not, however; should you seek escape from the carnivorous foliage, the inn is plenty safe from attacks. Perhaps you ought to get acquainted with others like you, lounging in the lobby with nowhere to go. Perhaps you should find yourself a room, a place to stay. After all, room and board is completely free of charge! Should you dig through the bedside table of your new room, you’ll find only one thing within: A Polaroid photograph of yourself from years ago. You were younger, then — or, if age doesn’t define you, you were different. Still, you remember posing for this photograph… don’t you?

If the photo is too much for you, a trip to the river might offer respite. The oppressive fog wrapping around the grove and obscuring much of the distant forest some miles out won’t let you wander too far. Luckily, there’s a stretch of river perfect for a round of fishing, playing in, or simply relaxing by. Mushrooms grow along the banks and on the trees, but remember to say “thank you” to the forest if you take them. You wouldn’t like the consequences otherwise.

HEY

cw: madness, hallucinations

You might have had luck avoiding the gnashing fangs of the flowers thus far, but they begin to get restless and aggressive the longer they go without feeding. They can’t quite uproot themselves and chase you down, but they will stretch their stalks as far as they can, unfurl their petals and try to wrap sharp leaves around your legs and anything else within reach. If you aren’t careful, their fangs will pierce your flesh, and they will drink from you until they drain you dry. Shout for help if they latch on. Surely someone will come to your aid.

…just try not to look at them much. The flowers take passive abilities of anyone they feed from, and that means they possess powers of their own. Stare for a moment too long, and you’ll begin to see your nightmares brought to life, feel a crawling down your back like one million insect feet, a grappling at your ankles as something tries to drag you under the metaphorical tides. Black tendrils sweep over your eyes, they grip the facades of buildings, they tear your friends to shreds and eat them whole. Focus. Focus on that voice telling you to snap out of it, on the people around you waving their hands in front of your eyes. It isn’t real. Blink, shake your head, and clear your thoughts.

Or don’t. “Give in,” a sultry voice murmurs, “Let me consume you.”

IT'S ALRIGHT

cw: auditory hallucinations, animal butchery

From the fenced-off, locked-up manor to the northwest of the Grove, a spill of magic begins to leak out from boarded-up windows. It’s gradual at first before it suddenly bursts, and that’s when everything starts to go haywire. The Manor’s heart aches, friend. Something in that house is oh-so-miserable with no way out… and it intends to make you feel its pain.

Every regret you’ve ever had — every word left unspoken, every lie you’ve told, everything you believe you’ve done wrong — those feelings are brought to the surface and magnified. No matter where you look, what you do, or how much you try to distract yourself, those emotions will always bubble to the surface.

You might think wandering into the forest will help you flee from yourself for a time, but as soon as you cross the threshold, the path back to the clearing closes behind you in a rustle of leaves. The only way out is forward, it seems, but the forest won’t play fair. The path will shift unexpectedly, blocking your route, forcing you to backtrack, but never quite allowing escape. All the while, voices fill your mind, chasing after you no matter where you go. They are the murmurs of those you have wronged, the murmurs of a conscience slighted.

Seeking out a companion in the labyrinth will quell them, for a time. Should your heart weigh too heavy, confessing to your labyrinth-partner what you’re grappling with will absolve you of your guilt and leave you feeling clear-headed enough to escape. At that point, the forest, too, seems content to let you solve the maze without interference.

Should you escape fairly, without harming the labyrinth, you’ll be rewarded: A freshly-hunted game animal from your homeland is dropped at your feet just as you step back into the clearing. Enjoy it, for you will not have the opportunity to get another. The forest only allows one round per person.

I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU

The residents of Aldric’s Grove have had a rough time here, but not everything has to be bad. On the night of the new moon, the Shopkeeper leaves his store for the night, and alongside the Trader — who normally sits outside the inn by her stall and her giant turtle — he constructs a bonfire some distance from the carnivorous plants. Nearby to it are tables with a feast set upon them, free for everyone to enjoy. There’s music playing from… somewhere. Don’t think about it too hard. The wispy, sentient shadows that comprise the Shopkeeper and Trader are happy to dance with you, too, if you ask.

Enjoy your night, friends. You’ve made it to the end of the month, and you deserve a break.

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

WAKE UP

Welcome to Aldric's Grove! Watch out for the carnivorous flowers. There's a photograph of you in the inn, by the way. Don't worry about it.

HEY

The carnivorous flowers are now causing visual hallucinations and madness. Try not to look at them too long. Maybe buddy up for the time being, to make sure that the forest's whispering voice doesn't drag you too far down.

IT'S ALRIGHT

A flood of magic hits the Grove. Characters will be subject to reliving and re-experiencing all of their regrets, and should they wander into the forest to escape, they'll be made to play in the forest's maze game. The forest won't play fair, but seems to relent when you confess to a companion what's on your mind. And hey, that makes your heart weigh less heavy, too. At the end of the line, you'll get a reward of fresh meat as long as you didn't try to cheat!

I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU

The Shopkeeper and Trader are throwing a lighthearted bonfire party. Dance the night away and eat your heart out!

OOC

Welcome to the third TDM & Event Log of Sticks and Bones! This log is game canon. The prompts are meant for all players, current and future, so have fun! Our applications operate on a rolling basis, so applications are open with no end date unless we suddenly cap players. If there are any questions, please direct them to the "questions" header below.

UPDATES

❖ For those who enter the inn in the morning, a breakfast spread of scrambled eggs, bacon, smoked fish, roasted tomatoes on the vine and assorted fruits wait for you.
❖ Several patches of the murderous flowers seem to have been electrocuted, lit on fire or cut.

TDM TOPLEVELS!

TDMS

❖ Shalem (Arknights)
❖ Toge Inumaki (Jujutsu Kaisen)
❖ Jade Leech (Twisted Wonderland)
❖ BB (Fate/ Grand Order
❖ Akki (Original)
❖ Nikaidou Eisuke (Tsurune)
❖ Arthur Pendragon (Saber) (Fate/ Grand Order)

(CODE)

Comments

Gnosis | Arknights | Oldbie

[succiduous]

I.

[The mysteriously-appearing photo in his bedside table is troubling enough. Gnosis does not care for it; it's creepy and odd, to have a photo of himself from over twenty years ago in his hands, from before his head-feathers properly grew in. He is aware that similar photographs exist of others, based on chatter he's heard around the inn, and that only lends to the creep-factor.

He has no explanation for it. Gnosis is not a private investigator, but he'll make a solid attempt at piecing all of this together if he can, first by collecting other photographs that people may not want and will entrust to him. He thinks, if he can see similarities in the background, in structures around them, he can formulate something of a history of this place.

It's a long shot. But he approaches you anyway, because he does not shy away from the impossible. Not really.]

Excuse me. Did you also receive a strange photograph recently? Could I have a look, if you don't mind?

II.

[Gnosis Edelweiss does not harbour regrets and, more importantly, does not linger on them. He does not. The forest insists he does ("Monch, don't you remember Monch? What you did to Monch? How you betrayed her trust, how she left you?") but it seems, compared to everyone else, he has comparatively few things to linger on.

("Aren't you tired of running away? Of leaving people behind?")

Still, the yammering of the voices in his ear aren't entirely conducive to getting out of this maze. They're providing ample distraction, which aligns perfectly with the forest's goals so far — to mess with everyone here, he's ascertained — and why he thought it was a good idea to leave the Grove in the first place is beyond him. (It was the carnivorous plants and the constant search for answers. That's what it was. Scientific curiosity; damn his scientific curiosity.)

He rounds a corner in the maze and almost walks into you, so distracted is he. Whoops.]

Apologies. [...] Would you be interested in a team-up?

III. wildcard

[hello pls hit me up! or poke me @ wolfchan]

II.

[devilishkouhai]

For a an actual cross over event only yearned by the very souls of our fans!!!!

[ BB Mocks, having not looked approachable but seeing as the man overlooked the meaning watch she fed him, and pushed to speak to her. She humor'd him. ]

Ab-so-lut-LEY~✰!!!! What do you need from little ol' Me?

[succiduous]

[Gnosis' first thought is: Oh god, she's a gamer. That's gamer-speak. Help, he's like 35.]

An excellent first step might be trying to get out of this maze without going insane. Have any leads?

[devilishkouhai]

I have all the leads in the world!!!

[ BB giggles, twirling a lock of her purple hair between fingertips. ]

Wouldn't you like to know? Eh? For the right price I will tell you~?

[succiduous]

[Ah, a businesswoman and gamer. Were Gnosis not in the realm of exchange himself, he might be outclassed.

He crosses his arms.]

How do I ensure you hold up your end of the bargain? It isn't as though I have a contract for you to sign, nor legal recourse were you to break said contract. Verbal agreements themselves won't cut it.

[devilishkouhai]

You are not wrong~✰! [ BB retorts in a cool mocking tone. ] You're a smart man - aren't you? Isn't it better to hear what I have to say, as opposed to walking around like a chicken with your head cut off?

[ She leans into it, because you know hes a bird and all. ]

I

[mooninthewater]

[ Just the mention of the photograph makes him fidget slightly from discomfort, but he doesn't seem all that intense. Thus, he just nods. ]

I did. Is it… important to see it? [ He thinks… maybe… no one should, but… ] You're pretty smart, Mr. Gnosis. Did you have an idea?

[succiduous]

I wanted to piece together the backgrounds of the photographs and see if there are any similarities. Mine certainly wasn't taken in Kjerag, nor Victoria.

[From what he can see, anyway. The foliage doesn't quite match up. Then again, he could've been in his family's garden in Victoria...? Similar climates. Hm. He pockets that for later.]

I also don't recall it being taken, but the moment my mother bought her first camera, she... [...ah, he's reminiscing. Stop that. The Grove is clearly affecting him.] Nevermind. It could all be conspiracy, but I'd like to piece together what I can anyway.

cw: blood and such—

[mooninthewater]

She… excitedly took a bunch of pictures with it? My mother was the same way. She had scrapbooks of my town…

But I don't think my picture was one anyone took. [ And that much is apparent when Mizuki hands over the polaroid. He doesn't seem incredibly fussed to do so — at the end of the day, this is something he accepted to have happened. A picture of a young Mizuki, looking much smaller than he already is, but overall pretty much the same. His skin is just a little bit paler, but maybe that's because of all the blood spattered out from a rather lethal looking cut on his neck. For what it's worth, it looks like a fairly clean cut — one swipe with a very sharp blade. But maybe it's hard to tell what with, you know, the gore—

Mizuki doesn't seem ashamed or traumatized, for what it's worth. Just a little embarrassed? In a very "mom, stop showing pictures of me as a kid in the bathtub" sort of way. If he could cut that part out so just the background were there for Gnosis, he would've done so… ]

Umm, I don't know how helpful it is, but I hope you can figure something out from it, at least…

[succiduous]

[By Kjeragandr what the fuck—

Gnosis is about to say yes, his mother was very fond of the camera; yes, all she did was take pictures after everything calmed down for their family; yes, when Enciodes saw fit to attend university in Victoria with him, she yet again whipped out the camera and Gnosis could only groan into his hands about his mother's proclivities for scrapbooking. Mizuki's photo completely derails any thoughts he might've had. RIP backstory.]

That's the hope.

[Who the fuck is taking these photos of them? Or rather, who took them ten, twenty years ago and simply left them here to be found? Gnosis squints at the background; the camera is focused on the subject, so the foliage and what he thinks is water behind Mizuki is blurred. Hm.]

You didn't see anyone slipping photos into anyone's rooms, did you? [Mizuki's stalker tendencies... would make that easy to find out, he hopes.]

[mooninthewater]

[ RIP backstory... it's fine, Mizuki needs at six hearts and to figure out what Gnosis' "loved" gift is to unlock that event, anyway. It's like you've never played Stardew Valley before... ]

Well, so long as I can be of some use, that'd make me happy. But, no, I didn't see anyone going into anyone's room to put them there. Must've been while I was sleeping? Or, perhaps, they had been there all along, just invisible? There's a lot of things that could've happened now that I think about it...

II

[mooninthewater]

Mr. Gnosis!

[ Did he almost run into Mizuki, or is this a convenient excuse to be hugged? Excitable jellyfish embrace, ahoy! ]

I thought I wasn't gonna find anyone! I get lost so easily in places like this — I don't have torches or nothing to mark the left walls. [ This isn't Minecraft, Mizuki. ] We can absolutely team-up! You just tell me what to do, I'll do whatever you need.

[succiduous]

[—ah, he's being squeezed. This is incredibly unfamiliar and a bit suffocating to him, please release him he is not for squish.]

I've heard several others speaking within the labyrinth, but you're the only one I've had luck reaching.

[As he says this, the maze closes behind him, and a branch snaps out and shoves them both forward. Gnosis only barely manages not to trip over a root jutting from the ground. Oy.]

We should try to stick together as much as possible. Hugging the rightmost walls of the maze is ineffective since it cuts us off, but perhaps there's a way to—

[("Oh, now you want to stick with somebody and not abandon your post?")

Gnosis breathes a heavy, exhausted sigh.]

—a way to find our way out through sheer luck alone, not that I enjoy relying on such.

[mooninthewater]

[ Mizuki isn't exactly the easiest to force over. For being a scrawny nerd, he's got pretty good balance, and and even better strength. How strange that he's able to make sure they both stay upright with his little noodle arms. Regardless, once he's sure they're both alright, he does uncoil his arms from Gnosis, if only just to hold his hand so they could both walk easier. ]

Of course, we shouldn't lose each other like this. I'll be sure to stay by you. [ Mizuki is also a nice little light source in the darker patches of the woods. One glowy jellyfish, at your service—

It's nice to have someone around. All the noise in his head seems to have settled, for now. Well, no, that's not entirely true. He still hears the voice of We Many, but it's not like that ever goes away. Besides, that "voice" just sounds like his own, so it's not like he can discern a difference between his own thoughts and Theirs. Not unless it's abundantly apparent. ]

I don't think it'll be luck. This place thinks and feels like us, I believe. Maybe it'll guide us, or maybe we need to give it something. I would say "we can figure it out," but I'm not even a quarter as smart as you, Mr. Gnosis.

[succiduous]

[Fine. Okay. Hand-holding. He's heard rumours of Mizuki's childish tendencies, but goodness.

Also, he had no idea Mizuki was a glowstick, but he supposes... Aegir. Makes sense. Do they all light up?

His head hurts. Too many thoughts, between his normal overactive brain and the voice yapping in his ear.]

I'm sure you're more than capable of assisting me with solving the puzzle regardless. [Doctor Kal'tsit seems to like him well enough, after all, and Gnosis knows her as a woman who is stone-cold serious and has no room for fucking around. It means, to him, that Mizuki has to harbour some level of intelligence.] The forest displays some level of sentience. If it thinks like us, we need to outsmart it.

[nope,]

[mooninthewater]

[ "we need to outsmart it," he says, and Mizuki just stares at Gnosis for a while. With how much the voice seems to be fighting for dominance in his head, he doubts that, actually. But Gnosis is really smart? So maybe he knows better than Mizuki. Mizuki's not a very smart person, after all, no matter what anyone else might say—

…

But- ] I don't think it thinks like you at all, Mister Gnosis. [ He does have at least that much input. ] How do you think we can do that if it seems to be in our heads, anyway?

i

[amethystic]

( almost immediately, she flicks up a photo between two fingers. a man with black hair and golden eyes and the same beauty mark under his eye is gleefully carrying a tiny pink haired girl. they look happy.



she looks disgusted. )

Take it.

[succiduous]

My, I didn't mean to give offence at all.

[...but he understands why she might be. Not because of the contents of the photograph, but more due to the disconcerting nature of it all.]

If you don't want it, I'm happy to keep it. I'm attempting to piece all of this together, and these photographs are the only lead I have thus far.

[amethystic]

... Not you. You did nothing wrong. But that bullshit's downright offensive-

( she inhales sharply and seems to be bristling like an angered cat before she slowly exhales. )

Right... we were able to recover some things from the manor, recently. Including a group photograph. A few of us were in it- and some of the people who vanished before you arrived. More, yet.

[succiduous]

I see.

[He'll have to go talk to the photograph's owner, the other character I play,]

Rest assured, Felicity, I mean no harm in doing this. I'm trying to piece together the puzzle. [And then... because she was nice enough to hand hers over, he'll fish in his pockets and hand over his own. Baby Gnosis pics on main.] My thought was, if I could find differences and similarities between the photos, I might be able to come up with a theory. For instance... the ones I've gathered so far seem to be of everyone here as a child. Isn't that odd?

[amethystic]

( ... then he'll need some of the context. felicity inhales, but when she speaks it is with great difficulty. )

... Mine is of me and my brother. The thing is- my family... didn't... want me. I was abandoned in a different country where no one even heard of them. He was no exception.

... Like I said. Offensive.

( but she kept it anyway. )

I

[cursedwords]

[ It's a bit weird to be asked about a photograph he'd seen recently out of the blue. Toge nods in response. ] Salmon.

[ Before Gnosis can get confused or parse out what kind of answer that is, he reaches across his hip to his left pocket and struggles a little bit to pull it out. He wasn't expecting to need it. He holds it out.

Toge is much younger, maybe four or five. Anyone who knows Japanese history will think he's dressed in some very traditional attire, a full yukata. There's a piece of fabric tied around his face to hide half of it, this one has several strange symbols stitched into it. He's sitting on a bench under an umbrella, in front of a traditional looking home.

Either he's from an ancient time, is ancient himself, or is just a member of a stupidly traditional clan that could not care less how archaic everything is. ]

[succiduous]

[Haha no actually he is not a salmon but a black-necked crane, thank you— (It is at this point that Gnosis figures Toge must have a verbal tic or something of the sort.)

He takes the photograph politely, not wanting to crease it, and observes. The ancientness of everything goes over his head — Gnosis is from Kjerag, a historically untechnological place that has only recently learned of such feats like "electricity" and "centralized heating units in homes". To Gnosis, he looks as though he's from Higashi... hm.]

Thank you. Your photograph has the same contents as mine — that is, a photo of you as a child, though the background is rather different. It makes sense. Do you remember this being taken?

[cursedwords]

[ The background, generic that it is in his world, is familiar enough to him he hasn't questioned it, but did he remember his picture being taken? That's a good question.

He taps his finger idly on his hip as he considers it and then shakes his head. ]

Fish flakes. [ He doesn't. There's not a lot of pictures of him growing up, for good reason, just those that are required. ]

[succiduous]

[Hm. Were it not for the shake of the head, Gnosis would've been further baffled by the response. Thank Kjeragandr for emotive people (which Gnosis is not; he is stone-faced and barely affords to look like he has emotions most of the time).]

That seems to be the case for everyone who received one so far. I have a few more people I need to speak with about it. [He clears his throat, then figures introductions are in order; maybe asking a guy "hey give me your invasive photograph real quick" before even knowing his name is a bit backwards in practice.] Gnosis Edelweiss — I apologise for the brusqueness of my approach.