sticksandbones | TDM 001

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TDM 001

INTO THE WOODS

WAKE UP

Whatever you remember last, something interrupts - be it a fight, a test, a walk, or death itself. All you can recall is a childlike voice (or was it voices?) asking, "Do you want to play with me?" before everything stopped. Your eyelids feel heavy, and the surrounding air is chilled. When you wake up, you and the others find yourselves standing in a makeshift plaza on a foggy morning. In the very center is a well. The water within is cold and clear as can be.

Surrounding the clearing is a ring of what looks to be the foundations of buildings never finished, save for two rather large ones and a smaller one. Only the small building has any light shining from the windows. One is labeled as an inn but has no name, and the other is an imposing, large manor with a red dog quietly scratching at the door. Given the indents on the wood, he's been at it for a very long time. Beyond the buildings is the start of a forest, though it quickly fills up with a fog so thick you can't see through it at all.

The smaller building is simply signed as a general store. A thick figure stands in the doorway, layered in brown and dark red cloaks that cover most of his body, save for brown worker's gloves and his pants. Two blue lights shine from the shadows where his face would be, and they shift as they watch you... before he turns around and takes his seat at the counter of the store. It's open, but he doesn't seem too thrilled.

There's a gap in the fog in the south east corner of it all, and you can hear the flow of water if approached. Trying to force your way through the fog lets you move forward four feet before you hit an invisible wall, while trying to go up- be it flight or climbing- sees you thwarted twenty feet above the canopy with a similar experience. Those above will see only the tree tops and a dense, heavy fog, and a cloudy, cold sun-lit sky. Through your explorations, you can find the start of a gate almost opposite across the clearing of the river, with a somehow familiar sign hanging from it:

Welcome to Aldric's Grove.

THE INN

The inn is just as empty as the rest of the grove, save for the shopkeeper. Four rooms on the first floor are locked, and won't budge even under force, and their keys are missing from the clerk's counter. On the bright side, there are remaining keys, free to claim - keys to the store rooms, too. The kitchen is large, as one might expect from an inn, but the kitchenware seems a touch out of date, by anyone's standards. The pantry has enough to feed the lot of you for a time, fresh food and vegetables and dried or cured meats, alongside spices and herbs. One could bake if they were so inclined.

There's a lounge room as well, just before the stairs. All the furniture was pushed to the wall for what can be presumed to be cleaning, if the empty bucket and dry mop is anything to go by. In the center of the far wall is an empty fireplace, but there's no firewood to be found.

Upstairs are more rooms, accessible only with keys. It's not perfect, but it's at least a place to stay. There's a bed for two, a small table by the window, a dresser and closet, a very small stove and a private bathroom to each, but everything seems bare... at a glance.

The worst of it is that you know the layout. You've been here before- or... no, that can't be right. Surely you would remember a place like this. Right?

THE RIVER

"What you take from the river, you must return." That's what the Shopkeeper says, if you stop by the store before going to the river.

The water rushing over rocks can be heard even from the distance of the grove itself, but upon approach it only seems louder. From what can be seen, the fog has only receded enough to grant access to 30 yards of the river and it's matching banks- after that, only fog and unusually thick bramble patches remain and block off passage on land or water. At it's deepest, the water is four feet deep and the current seems gentle. Fish can be seen swimming through the water, and objects glitter beneath the sand and mud.

Along the riverbanks, scales, small bones and teeth and strange coins marked with canines litter the ground. Keen eyes will note that some of the bones and teeth are that of animals, and some are that of humans. Some, however, are impossible to identify.

Stepping into the water feels relaxing. It's cold yet inviting. The fish swirl around your ankles before darting away, and just for a moment, everything seems like it will be okay.

On the other hand, when trying to cut through the brambles, there's a low rumble from the surrounding woods. Persist, and a vine coils around your ankle, dragging you into the water. That feels less relaxing, most likely.

PLAY TIME

At some point, there's an unusual sound- earth moving on it's own, old trees parting from their nesting place and rearranging themselves behind the fog. And as the din dies down, the fog parts, showing a thick tunnel of trees and leaves. It might look like something out of a fairy tale, if not for the sickening noises of the bark and wood creaking and writhing slowly. Whether you want to go or not, however, you will find yourself compelled to walk down the road eventually.

The road seems like a brief fifteen minute hike and a near three hour trek at the same time, but when you come to the end, you find yourself still in the woods, still circled by fog, but not the same as the grove. Once enough people are there, the path closes behind you. Keen eyes may spot hollowed out logs, trees with holes beneath the roots or high up above the branches, and large patches of very tall grass. Within the center is a cage with a pinecone shaped button on two opposing sides. Before you can finish taking it all in, however, a soft, cheerful whisper of a voice speaks:

"Let's play! If you win, I'll give you something special. Promise! Here, I'll explain the rules:"

1. Robbers must hide within the arena, and not get caught. Upon being found by the jailer, they have the opportunity to flee. But if they get caught, they get brought to jail.

2. Prisoners cannot free themselves, but free players can by pushing both of the buttons on the cage. This will give everyone a three minute immunity to run and hide again.

3. Players must move every five minutes, or they get caught immediately.

"The game will end if everyone gets caught or if at least one person stays free at the end of the hour."

The voice doesn't elaborate what happens if everyone gets caught- if you lose. Instead, it's jailer steps forward from the shadows, staring at everyone with a featureless face. It resembles a moose-faced centaur made of rusted metal and wood, yet what should be creaky, slow steps are light and agile. You have five minutes to hide. But when it bursts into a run, searching forcefully through grass, leaving cracks in the earth beneath its hooves as it starts to run, there's an unsettling feeling in your stomach: what happens if you get caught at all?

In order to win as a group, 10 threads featuring a successful escape- be it from the monster or from the cage- must be submitted by the end of the month. You may only submit one thread per character, but two characters can use the same thread. If you want to get caught and suffer consequences, or try to fight the monster, please use the "FIGHT OR FLIGHT" comment beneath the submission toplevel. Should the characters win the game, they will get a prize after all submissions have been accounted for!

SPARK NOTES

CLICK TO EXPAND!

WAKE UP

A general welcome to Aldric's Grove! The shopkeeper has witnessed your arrival and seems... resigned. Rusty is trying very hard to get inside the manor. Otherwise, everything seems eerily still.

THE INN

A cursory glance at the inn! It's bare, barely furnished yet stocked enough to provide shelter and food. Several doors are locked and won't budge. But you know it. You know this place.

THE RIVER

The river is only barely accesible, though opportnity to try and explore anyways is possible. Bone fragments, scales and teeth from all sorts of species, including humans, litter the banks alongside canine-decorated medalions, and something glitters beneath the sand in the river itself. While in the water, there's an unnaturally soothing feeling.

PLAY TIME

The forest opens up a path through the fog to invite people to play with it. Once they reach the next clearing, the path closes behind everyone and a disembodied voice announces that we're playing cops and robbers. The cop is a large moose-faced centaur statue made of rusty metal and wood, and it packs one hell of a punch. Don't get caught!

OOC

Welcome to the very first TDM and Event of Sticks and Bones! This TDM is game canon. Questions may be asked below or on the faq, and everything may be revisted with bonus ac items as time goes on. Applications are now open, and all TDM threads will count for AC and Bonus AC.

UPDATES

❖ Rusty has a bed to lay on on the porch! Izuku should be so proud of himself.
❖ A portion of the arena of the game- alongside the hiding spots in that area- are on fire, or destroyed by fire. Kjell forgot they were in the forest when fleeing the jailer.
❖ One of the cutting boards in the inn kitchen is cleaved in half, and the counter has deep gouges in it. Yor was cutting bread.

SUBMISSIONS

QUESTIONS & INVESTIGATIONS ⚘ NPC CONTACT ⚘ PLAY TIME ⚘ FIGHT OR FLIGHT

(CODE)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1. Wake up.

[ So. So...Yor has no idea what is actually going on here. Like, at all. This isn't a really unusual thing for her. She's often a little bit lost as to what's happening around her and she's often playing catch-up or just following the lead of people around her...but that doesn't seem to be an immediate option here. That is to say, no one she's used to following the lead of has shown up yet and so she's like ??? at the situation and the people. Trying to decide what happened very quickly has her mind going down completely random and unrelated paths, so she just Gives The Fuck Up on understanding what's up. Someone else can figure that out!

So instead she's poking around. Looking for anyone she does know, yes, but also just kind of trying to see what there is to see. While she has no idea what happened that doesn't mean she can't get the lay of the land! Though the fog wall is ??? getting her even more obviously confused. She'll actually come careening out of the fog like she ricocheted off of it because that's what happened: she tried to kick it down. So she slids back through the dirt, eyes narrowed with a little frown on her face...she's, uh, not dressed the part of someone who should be trying to kick down anything, by the way. Yor is in "adorable housewife mode" although as she stands up her expression is more "somewhat intimidating mode". ]

That didn't work... [ She felt? An upper limit too? But couldn't punch through it?????? Why do all her plans involve punching things...anyway. She spots someone else, so! ] What if I give you a boost? [ Let her throw you at the fog wall. :) It's probably safe. :) ]

2. Inn.

A. Kitchen.
[ Quick, someone stop her. Yor is in the kitchen, and getting out...a little bit of everything? Because, well, she wants to make something delicious, so putting in anything that looks delicious should do it! Which is to say she's a Lethal Chef and if you want to survive and not waste ingredients perhaps you should stop her? Though she looks happy about it, humming as she pulls things out. And she...seems like she thinks she knows what she's doing, until you realize how much she's pulling out and how little anything goes together. Whoops. ]

B. Tea.
[ A much safer thing to accept from Yor is...tea. She bought two tins from the shop because she has Priorities (her priorities are...likely different from anyone else's but it's fine, maybe) and now she can happily offer: ]

Would you like some tea? I have black and chamomile. [ She feels very useful when offering to make tea, okay. ]

C. Cleaning.
[ She'll transform the empty bucket into a full bucket through the awe-inspiring magic of walking outside with it and hauling water from the well. After that amazing feat, Yor takes the mop and begins to clean the inn to her standards. Top to bottom. This means she might burst into your room in cleaning mode, though she looks flustered at intruding. ]

Oh, sorry! I'm doing a full clean...do you mind if I do in here too? [ If you say no she will politely go away. It's fine. ]

D. Rooms.
[ Yor takes a key for her own, having some issues finding the correct room before finally hitting upon it...but when it comes to sharing, it's a bit difficult. If another woman comes by she's happy to let them set up shop and will offer a friendly: "Oh, the bed can definitely fit two!". But if it's a man... ]

Sorry, I'm a married woman. It wouldn't be right to share a room with you. [ It's a fake marriage but she takes it extremely seriously. ]

3. River.

A. Fishing.
[ She doesn't have a fishing rod but this isn't even a distant concern to Yor? She's doing that thing where you stand in the water - she did take her heeled boots off, and they're sitting neatly on the shore - and then dart out your hands to just...grab a fish out of the water. Only she's grabbing more than one fish at once. Without missing. Apparently she's far too into it...though hopefully someone else will do the cooking of these? ]

B. Vines.
[ Yor is too fast on her feet to get caught up by a vine, but if she sees anyone else having trouble with it...she'll POUNCE like some demon cat woman and sever the vine with her fingers in one quick jab???? You know. Like a normal wife would do, or something. This is sadly her trying to be normal. ]

Got it! [ ...Should she explain it beyond that? Uh. ]

4. Play Time.

A. Playing.
Robbers...are we robbing something? [ Yor whispers to someone nearby as the rules are explained, getting a little bit confused but hey, she's got some kind of spirit. ] I've been getting a lot better at team games of late!

[ That may be an overstatement but she sure will try. You can find Yor running around as a distraction, jumping around the trees, potentially freeing people from the cages with teamwork, or, uh, swinging down out of a branch to snag your character and toss them up. ]

You're almost at the time mark! [ Move, move, move! She's at least taking it very seriously? ]

B. Eye spy.
[ Following an intense distraction battle, Yor is fighting without the benefit of much of her eyesight. Which...doesn't seem to be slowing her down too much. She's just, you know, got a very big grimace on and she doesn't seem to be having a good time focusing on stuff. Eventually she actually pulls her headband down over her eyes and tries to focus on other things.

If you don't want this during the game, she can be found post game drinking some tea downstairs at the inn... ]

5. Wild.

[ If you want to throw something else at me feel free. If you'd like to do an investigation together, pm me and we can discuss! ]

[ As the door bursts open, Yor will find Noctis just in the middle of emerging from the closet, which he'd been checking out. He does look a little startled to have someone barge in, but hey, at least this makes him realize he forgot to lock his door... so now maybe he'll actually remember to do it at night while he's sleeping. Thanks, Yor, you're a lifesaver without knowing.

He mellows out pretty quickly at her question though, if a little... confused... because why would anyone do that? ]

Uh, sure. Have you just been doing it by yourself?

[ Sorry, he's trying to wrap his brain around it but it's a lot to take in. Doing chores willingly is more unrealistic than this entire weird forest. ]

[ Hi Noct don't mind her - Yor's going to start AGGRESSIVELY cleaning that floor then! With the mop. She seems like she knows what she's doing here? Not in this place here but in this...cleaning things up here sense. Yeah. ]

I have been! No one else was doing it at the time, and one of my skills is keeping things clean. [ The other skill is murder. ]

[ Yeah, you can color him impressed. He couldn't do half of this in even ten times as long as it seems to take her, not even if you don't count that a lack of trying would be the main issue. He's going to... politely make room for her by moving aside and partly backing into the closet. ]

One of them? What are the others?

[ Because of course he has to ask. ]

[ MURDER -

Normal people don't say killing people. Uhhhhhhhhhhh. ]

I'm confident in my strength?! [ She can kick a moving car to stop it, she's...very strong. Yor seems a bit awkward, but honestly, that's par for the course for her whenever she's trying to figure out how to be Normal(tm) a task which needs her full concentration and even then she still kinda sucks at it...

At least cleaning is easy! Noct will have the cleanest floor when she's done. ]

That so?

[ Why's she being so hesitant about it...? Is it because she's a woman? It's true there were people even back home who might get weird about it, Noctis thinks, but he's used to seeing a bunch of capable ladies in the Glaives and the Crownsguard, he doesn't really think twice about it.

How to encourage her, though... ]

Maybe we can spar or train, then. Sometimes. Gotta keep in shape.

[ Nailed it. ]

Oh! I'd be happy to. I often train with my daughter?

[ She taught her daughter how to punch the hell out of bullies...whoops............

Yor doesn't mind being strong - though she has trouble modulating her strength - but as to what else she has to offer...she personally doesn't think she has a lot beyond being strong. ]

[ Listen... Noctis would say that's not a bad lesson, even though he probably shouldn't because princes have to encourage diplomacy over violence. It's just sometimes punching is the only thing that solves problems. And some people deserve it.

Luckily, he's also used to training with someone physically strong for the most part, so it works out. He won't be too taken aback or out of his element when they do. Although, speaking of... ]

Your daughter... I'm guessing she's not here either.

[ Just going off the fact that his friends also aren't. ]

No...no one I know is. But I'm rather glad Anya isn't here...? She's only six.

[ YOR WOULD BE CONCERNED - granted, she'd be even more concerned if Loid showed up and Anya was alone. ]

[ ...Okay, yeah. He can see why this is better now, when she puts it that way -- and well, he thinks even if the daughter wasn't that young, the answer might still not have changed. Because for a second, he can just imagine it: his dad in this place, probably making peace with it so long as he knew Noctis was free out there. Just like how he was content to let him leave Insomnia with a smile on his face, even though he knew. Parents are like that.

It isn't fair. But it's also not Yor's problem, so. The only thing he can do is hope it turns out better for them. ]

Six, huh... don't think I saw any kids that young, but I can keep an eye out just in case. Is Anya her name? What's yours?

Yor Forger! And her name is Anya...she has pink hair and buns like this - [ She makes like. Devil horns with her fingers. Lol. ]

What's your name? Should I keep an eye out for anyone for you?

[ So she'll introduce herself with her full name, huh...? Even in a mess like this. That's unexpectedly proper of her, and it almost makes Noctis smile. ]

Got it. I'll remember it if I see her.

[ He folds his arms as he ponders her question. Being in this weird forest with people from all sorts of places, he probably doesn't have to worry about his identity much, but still... his full name's a mouthful. ]

I'm Noctis. [ That'll do. ] Uh. I think I'm good. If anyone I know were here, they'd probably be looking for me all over...

[ Is that a complaint? Who knows. ]

Oh, are you popular?

[ Picturing Noctis as the big man on campus now...

With a football, or something. ]

Yor Forger | Spy x Family

2C!

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my brain: u need all ur icons done before more tags...but now i have done it

you are so valid and powerful

i try

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2.a

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