EVENT & TDM 020

[sticksandbonesmods]

BITTER WINDS HOWLING

WAKES AND AWAKENINGS

Are you one to find yourself plagued with nightmares? Do you dream at all? Well, worry not, because tonight you find yourself in a somewhat alarming peace. You’re asleep. You’re aware of this. Yet, you feel incredibly lucid, all the same.

You hear the sound of water, like you’re under the ocean waves. You don’t see anything, but it’s almost as if you can feel others around you, despite not touching anything at all. They’re your… family? No. Friends? No. You don’t seem to be able to find a word to describe them. They’re important to you! …You think. Who are they, again?

You think they’re trying to speak to you, but all you can hear is the sound of gentle currents and air bubbles. Or maybe this is what they’re saying to you? You don’t know. Dreams are weird, aren’t they? But then they sing. It’s the prettiest sound you’ve heard. It’s the most haunting sound you’ve heard. It encourages you to move, at last. You didn’t realize you could. There’s a light that filters through the surface of the water…

…and you wake up. You feel strangely refreshed, like that’s the best sleep you’ve gotten in ages! You also feel… distantly sad, like you’ve just remembered something horrible that happened a long time ago.

It’s probably nothing.

For the rest of the month, you find sleep comes easy, and dreams are soothing. How uncharacteristically nice! Maybe don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

A BITTER ARRIVAL

You wake up to bitter cold. It's dark, the winds howling and whipping through the air, snow battering anything not sturdy enough to stand tall against it... and even the trees seem like one more push could knock them over. This isn't a forest you know, yet it seems like home. If you're not prepared for the cold, the warm lights of a small town will guide you, call to you, and your heart yearns for warmth. As you stumble through the heavy snow and harsh winds, something heavy hangs from your neck and the winds begin to form words with your own voice- SACRIFICE... END THIS WINTER WITH SACRIFICE.

As more voices join the wretched wails, your eyes feel heavier. You're almost to the town, though. Is it one of the houses that you wind up knocking on? Or do you manage to get to the inn, big and tall and radiating more warmth than anything you've ever felt? Regardless, you are no longer alone, but the cold still aches and clings, and something with your voice still calls it's omens outside. Only when you melt the heavy snowflake-shaped amulet hanging around your neck in the fires does the cold abate and the foreign copy of your voice fall silent.

A COLD RECEPTION

In the forest of the lost, the worst winter you've ever seen has finally set in full. The lake and river are both frozen over completely, and even the most hardy of beasts have hidden away from the cruel blizzard. The sky is dark, the winds are sharp and the freezing temperatures permeate most buildings, creeping in like a thief ready to steal the breath from your lungs if you aren't careful. Even fires seem to bend to this cold, save for the ever-burning, ever-blinding light of the fireplace in the inn- though she's long since gone, it seems one woman's faith still protects those in the Grove. Shadows haunt the clearing and amongst the winds and even the deafest ears can hear the voices howling alongside the storm, always demanding the same thing: a sacrifice.

When shadows flicker across the window, that is when you know you aren't alone. Ghastly wraiths of frost and ragged sleet fly through the air, and it's hard to tell if they are commanding the winter winds or if they are working in tandem. Regardless, the cold seems to be enhanced by their presence and if they catch you alone outside, they curse you with a frost so deep it pierces the heart and spreads. To some, it may be familiar, like turning to ice from within. To others it may be entirely new. But it spreads slowly and with agony while the wraiths make their demand once more and then vanish. Thankfully, a bit of kindness can melt the ice, but the winter wraiths are always willing to inflict the curse again...

... But you are not powerless. So long as you don't go alone, so long as you have a weapon, you can fend these things off, for a time. But they will be back.

They must have their sacrifice, after all.

BEACONS

Not everyone can fight though. Not everyone should. The only peace that can be found is in the sleep that follows that odd dream... but eventually the large shadow woman known as the Trader, Ydalir, makes her way through the snow to find you. With a warm furry blanket and a cup of tea, she gives you a small kit.

"Build these lanterns and hang them in the window. Be a light in the dark, loves." Is what she says.

The lanterns consist of wood, paper and a little cup for a candle. They can be in any shape and color, and when you hang them in the window the candle sparks into light. As frost clings on the other side of the window and the snow shrouds the outside world and veils what lies beyond, you can see other lights. Other lanterns, shining brightly. It may not be much, but it is still a sign. A reminder. You are not alone in this blizzard.

Spark Notes

summary

wakes and awakenings will bring you into a strange dream of being with many being, important ones, and a haunting song. Despite the melancholy feeling, it also brings a month of restful sleep no matter what.

a bitter arrival is how our new arrivals find themselves: lost in the woods in the middle of a terrible blizzard with only the faint lights of the Grove to guide you to safety. While you wear the snowflake amulet, the winter wraiths can use a mimicry of your voice to make their demands and curse you with a lingering freeze- only melting the amulets in a fire will set you free and silence the copy of your voice in the cacophony.

a cold reception shows just how bad the winter's gotten, with impenetrable ice freezing both the lake and the river solid. the wraiths curse whoever they see with turning to ice from within, but a genuine act of kindness or love will save their victims. the wraiths can be fought, but only with a companion or two, and definitely not with your bare hands. ... they will return though, again and again.

beacons grants perhaps a bit of hope in this dark winter- ydalir brings people supplies as best she can since the cold doesn't affect her shadowy body and there is nothing for the wraith to freeze, and she also brings a gift- a lantern to craft and hang in the window to show the others in town that you're all still here, cutting through the darkness.

out of character

Welcome to the first TDM of 2025! Regular AC resumes this month and as you can see, we're changing things up a little. TDMers are welcome and encouraged to reach out on our plotting post linked below. We're so excited to start the new year with everyone, and may the horrors stay in writing... because they are resuming now.

updates

❖ AFFOGATO COOKIE has used a magical artifact as a sacrifice. This has resulted in the blizzard lessening but still being present and the wraiths being banished from the grove, but still haunting the forest. There are further effects but they will come in to play during a player plot. ... Get your sacrifices in still though.
❖ MAYOI'S prayer to Ourania the day of the fight with Suri invoked a blessing: an aurora shines through the sky, and anyone in it's lights will be gradually healed and soothed.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ January Plotting (Open to TDMers)
❖ Sacrifices (Plot relevant, open to all)
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

Comments

Shadow Milk Cookie | Cookie Run: Kingdom | Returning player

[jesterlies]

[If you notice me trying to hammer out his voice no you don't. I'm nervous don't fucking look at me. BIG SPOILERS FOR BEAST-YEAST CHAPTER 7-8 ALSO. JIC.]

[Arrival: TMW you find a clown in the woods. Nightmare scenario.]

[Do you know what's wild? Stumbling across a fucking half-dead looking clown laying on the forest floor. He's singed, his clothing's a mess. His hair is ...uh. Writhing. Hair probably shouldn't do that. It also probably shouldn't have eyes. Eyes that suddenly snap open before you get too close.]

[Abruptly, the clown, too, snaps awake and suddenly pushes himself up from the ground.]

...What?

[He says to the ground with a wide, deeply bewildered expression. His hair continues to writhe. Then suddenly it goes rigid.]

Hahahaha ...WHAT!?


[Netbook post.]

[It's very possible you heard an incredibly loud screaming meltdown at some point in the woods. Don't worry about that. Shadow Milk is totally good and not at all a wreck and he is definitely not bitter and angry over what happened in his domain with Pure Vanilla Cookie. He's so fucking cool right now, he's totally still in control, even if the shitty god here cut his claws and took his fangs EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL.]

[Time to make this everyone's problem now and be as insufferable as possible.]

[Opening the netbook on this day greets you with a burst of bright glitter and blue neon writing.]



What a QUAINT little place this is! As hilarious as it's been watching a bunch of fools get constantly trapped by that sentient taffy spreading all over the place, I'm starting to get

So what's the skinny here, folks? What's the HOT GOS? Who's making eyes at the milkman while the husband's away? Who's got their sticky hands in the charity jar? Give me aaaaall the scandal! It doesn't have to be true! In fact! Make it all up! Just make it INTERESTING. I'm really begging here, because if I don't get SOME kind of entertainment soon I'm gonna start making it myself.

Let me give you a little spoiler here, dear audience. YOU REALLY DON'T WANT THAT,


[Goofs and Gaffs.]

[You are out minding your own business when suddenly you come across a box. It's a nice looking box! Maybe a gift box! It's addressed to you! How peculiar! Of course the minute you open the box a shitty clown doll on a spring bursts out of the box with a whole pile of confetti.]

[This is accompanied by a roar of laughter from behind. Floating some distance away is the shitty jester that shares the dolls likeness.]

Ooooooh, you should have seen your FACE! Priiiiiiiiceless!

arrival

[purevanillacookie]

[ He knows what it is that calls him into the woods, though he tries to deny it. That feeling of... completeness. His other half. The thick river of deceit he had been seeping deep into before he was pulled here.

It's familiar and he hates it. Tells himself he's going in to kill it once and for all. Suffer it not to cause troubles here in the grove

Not even the loud what that echoes can stop him, as he steps into the clearing Shadow Milk has found himself in. But it's the sight of the Master of Deceit himself that finally makes him falter, and he stares.

Feels a familiar headache building. ]

You're here.

[jesterlies]

[What a surprising state to find the Master of Deceit in! He's down right fucking bedraggled. But you know what? While he is having a meltdown over whatever might be going on with this crazy (witch? WITCH?) body he's suddenly found himself in, raking nails into his skin, he does finally pick up on the presence that's come to meet him (why didn't he know immediately? Why doesn't he know anything that's going on here? Where is it? Where's the kn-)]

-I'm here.

[And then he sees Truthless standing before him and his reaction is like someone jammed his hand into hot coals.]

YOU!

[purevanillacookie]

[ That is certainly not the reaction Truthless was expecting. The last they had seen each other, they had been on... not good terms, Truthless would never call it that, but Shadow Milk had been-

Not this. Not like Truthless had spat onto one of the more insidious rumors Shadow Milk has concocted. Or insulted his little hat or something.

So he blinks, confused, Shadow Milk getting some of the truest reactions out of him yet. As he always manages.

And the sass. ]

Yes, I see your eyes still work.

1/2

[jesterlies]

[And he would know, wouldn't he? If he can't glean anything from the world around him, he can see into Truthless no matter what, right? Because of who they were. It feels familiar and it feels inviting almost until the part of him that remembers what just happened burns him, and he suddenly riles back up again. The fury practically dripping off of him.]

And I'll pull yours out of your traitorous head!

[No silly quips, no sass, just pure anger. He sweeps his hand out to summon his staff, pulling it out of one of his little dark portals. He raises it above his head and for a moment everything grows dark, energy thrums around them-]

[jesterlies]

[And then it fizzles out with a little pppbbbt.]

...what.

goofs and gaffs!!!

[beathollow]

( mafuyu...

is mildly surprised. like the world's tiniest `:0`. and then she just turns to look at him blankly. ... that sure is a blue clown.

she knows what she must do. )

...

[jesterlies]

[Well, okay, so it wasn't MUCH of a reaction but it was still A reaction. He's really out here in the trenches lately.]

Woweeee it's a tough crowd out here! Nothing? Really?

[While still floating and he leans over to put his face in his hands and kick his feet up like a teen girl at a sleepover.]

You know, to help drive the point home, audience participation is paramount! C'mon, you can give me a gasp, can't you?

[beathollow]

It's not my fault if you didn't hear the first one under your own laughter.

( BLUNT AS A BAT, I SEE. she's just like this. she's not sorry. what she is is extremely quiet, barely above a monotone whisper. )

[jesterlies]

[He bursts into laughter, nice and obnoxious.]

Is that so? Then maaaaaaybe I ought to find out what can make you scream! Maybe something like this?

[He reaches up to grab a fist full of hair and ...pops his head off his shoulders!]

Goofs

[winterfrosting]

[Cacao was finally starting to feel up to going outside thaks to Affogato's medicine and time to process. The touch of Apathy in him taught him that constant mad forward pressure only hurts himself and those around him- the peace of the bao is occasionally needed. So he gave himself that grace to grieve. But it can't last forever, so he gives the Grove a walkabout to observe this strange blue flesh.

That's when he sees the box, picking it up carefully with his remaining hand. For him? Surely a trick of some sort, anyone givng him a gift would-

- when the doll jumps out he curses something quite a bit spicier than 'crumbs!' and crushes the entire thing in one hand]

What- who dares?!

someone about to hee their last hoo

[jesterlies]

[You know. There are people here he probably shouldn't start shit with. People who will kill him without a second thought in his rather, pathetic state. And yet, he simply could not resist. Where is the joy in life if you are not one jape away from having your head on a platter anyway.]

Now that was a fanTASTic reaction, I daresay I will treasure that startled look on your face for some time, Dark Cacao Cookie!

[He's floating a good....safe distance in the air on his staff, leaning forward with a grin. Dark Cacao may not know him right off the bat, but ...well. The soul jam on his ruff is pretty telling, isn't it? Even if it looks strangely dim.]

[winterfrosting]

[ he does not know this blue man why does he know his name what-

-his eyes fall onto the Jam, and the process of realization is obvious. Realization into rage. And under the rage something else. A kind of murderous delight- someone who has worked very hard to accept a reaity he can not change suddenly seeing the answer to all his problems on a silver platter. And for once that answer IS in fact a skilled application of hyper violence.

He pulls his sword from his back, the Jam of Resolution missing a chunk but swirling with intent regardless]

Shadow Milk Cookie.

arrival

[lilyberation]

( it has been a very. very bad month. a bad two months.

a bad winter, even.

and with that pathetic sight before her, she's not sure if it just got worse or better in a cruel way.

she just stands there, watching for a moment. even with ram-like dragon horns and the scarring of magical backlash, the human body, white lily cookie is still white lily cookie. her grip tightens around her staff. )

I should finish you off right here, honestly.

[jesterlies]

[Oh.]


[Amazing. Of all the people to find him, it's this half-a-cookie. He manages to sit back on his knees, feeling deeply unsettled by this body already. Ugh, everything feels pretty disgusting and squishy what the fuck. His body also hurts, remnents from the fight he just had with...with Him and his little tagalongs. Thinking about it makes the fury rise up in him again, he tastes bile in the back of his throat, as something comes over him.]

Wouldn't that make you just the hero of the story?

[He tilts his head, almost at an unnatural angle, and a grin spreads on his face, but there is something ghastly about it. Something empty. Desperate almost.]

I wonder, would that be your repentance for leaving him all alone with me?

[lilyberation]

( if touching him wasn't a guarantee that she would snap his neck, she'd reach out and put his head back upright again. that simmering cold fury only flares at the accusation, but her expression remains the same. )

It would simply be doing my job. Don't think you're so special.

Netbook

[ephemeralflow]

[There is absolutely no mistaking who that is, not even taking into consideration all the timelines she doesn't know about. Hello, Shadow Milk Cookie. Have a flowing yet angular script in metallic dark gold pen, full of little hook serifs that give the impression of clock hands.]

Well, well, well! Speak of the devil and he shall appear!

Apparently, he is also too lazy to spy on people himself! Whatever are all those eyes for if you do not use them? Or have you become too reliant on your little apple and serpent's tongue? I assume they have not followed you here, if you must beg so pathetically for a jester, despite being one yourself.

Welcome to the Grove, Beast of Deceit.

[This is followed by a doodle of a cogwheel smiley face with an eyepatch.]

[jesterlies]

[And of course he knows who this is because while he might been terribly blinded in his omniscience right now, he has backread the netbook already. He already knows who all of you people are.]

[So, to say seeing that font gives him a wicked thrill is an understatement. By the left tit of the horrid witches that locked him up is he going to cause problems on purpose today.]



My, my Miss Director, what a PLEASANT SURPRISE to find you also passing through. Surely it's not that you're stuck here just like me in this delightful little FOREST PRISON. Have you come to collect on my temporal criiiiiimes?

Or perhaps are you hiding from your own? Hahaha!

[ephemeralflow]

Your ego is inflated indeed if you think your simple toying with time is even worth our notice! You are perfectly taken care of in your own timeline, after all - whyever would we need to interfere just to see you leashed right where you belong? Surely you are already aware that Pure Vanilla Cookie is here as well, so it seems you truly cannot escape those bonds. I should hardly need to come punish you myself!

Or are you so desperate for entertainment that you would substitute punishment in its place?

netbook

[theuniverseleads]

I know a few bread jokes, but they're a bit stale.

[jesterlies]

[!!!]

[This is what he is TALKING ABOUT. Finally some good fucking food.]

Good thing the REALLY good ones have the punch lines BAKED IN!

[theuniverseleads]

Ooh, and here I was trying to get a rise out of you! I didn't realize you had such good taste~

Did you hear about the sugar cube that took etiquette classes? Now they're refined.

arrival

[cryptograms]

[ On a scale of one to ten on the weird scale, this is a solid 6. The wiggly hair with eyes gives him a few extra points, but that really just makes him a possible Medusa. Hardly too bizarre.

Still, the shouting is hardly a surprise, and Ford simply lifts his hand in a wave when he hears it. ]

Greetings! This must be your first trip through dimensions.

[jesterlies]

[There's quite a lot going on in his head. Why does he not recognize where he is, where did his followers go since they were just with him in the portal, why is his body like this, and why does it feel like something is wrong with his magic.]

[There is also, you know, the events that just happened, but how about we shove that down into a deep dark little box where he can't think about it. There is someone talking to him, and his first knee-jerk response is to accuse witch because he has not known anyone else to hold a form like this but witches.]

[But this man does not look like a witch to him. His knowledge of witches, while not complete is still far greater than anyone else's, and he feels mostly??? confident that this is true. Oh. That is something else that has become very clear to him suddenly. He does not have access to all the fucking knowledge of everything anymore. His head is. Very quiet.]

[Ford has been given the single most bewildered owlish expression for the solid like silent thirty seconds he's been stared at by this weird clown man.]

--Yes! [And like a toy that's button has been pressed, he springs to life, dragging himself gracelessly to his feet.] Yes, it would appear I'm suddenly very far from home!

[This is an easy part to play. It will get him somewhere he hopes.]

Please forgive me just now, I must have been in terrible shock. Might you tell me what's going on?

[cryptograms]

[ Honestly, witch is a more accurate description for Ford than Shadow Milk might conclude. He has not brought any cookies alive for the sole purpose of eating them, but... well, it's not like his moral compass is that much more robust.

He's helpful, at least. He waits patiently while Shadow Milk processes things; Ford easily occupies himself wondering if his many-eyed hairstyle is physiological, magical, or just some sort of accessory. And when Shadow Milk finally has a question for him, Ford has a prompt answer. ]

Like you said, you're a long way from home. This is the Grove. I'm afraid I don't know its dimensional designation, but—

[ He waves a hand, dismissive. It doesn't really matter until they leave. ]

In any case, you're stuck here indefinitely. You might meet a few other people from your home dimension, or none at all. Some very strange things will happen while you're here, and you should avoid the forest as much as you can.

[ Let's see... ]

Oh. And all of us are supposedly reincarnations of individuals that lived here hundreds of years ago, so you might find perfect strangers strangely familiar.