WHAT DOES A COST BRING?

[sticksandbonesmods]

Who: The Grove
What: The result of your sacrifices
When: Late Winter
Where: The Grove
Warnings: Ritual sacrifice, mentioned animal sacrifice


The blizzard stills, one morning. With the howling winds and the wraiths' calls, the sudden silence is stark. Waiting between the goddess's statues is a giant stag, grey and white and silver with heavy icicles hanging from it's antlers. Even Moder seems a bit smaller compared to it. Dry wood and bare branches cling to it's legs, and one would be forgiven for thinking it seems a bit... gaunt, for such a beast.

It does not bring violence. Sacrifices have been made, though it seems to be staring hard at Affogato Cookie. Even the sacrifice of it's kin, the cursed deer of the fae woods, satisfies. The wraiths seem to shift from their ghastly forms to white wisps who share the food between them as they climb and sit upon Winter's antlers. The rest of the sacrifices seem to flicker into a white flame, smoke imbibing the air before it becomes part of the deer.

Your sacrifice is noted. But your pride is seen as well. For those who could not find it in themselves to give, there are repercussions.

It's a clear, crisp voice that echoes through the woods, through Aldric's Grove, through your own minds and hearts. Those who did not give sacrifices will find a silvery mark upon them- antlers, gleaming like ice and glass. It would be beautiful, if it didn't mark them with unbearable chills as well. As time passes, they will find themselves falling ill. The illness will pass by player preference, but must last at least a week. It is a punishment, after all.

...

And then Winter and it's harbingers turn, and vanish into the winter day, as if they were never there to begin with. The rest of the winter will be gentle, pleasant and even warm, with the snow beginning to melt mid-February and staying gone.

Comments

[submittome]

[ Don't give him that look you frosty cow, he was trying to help. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

( you thought you could best winter itself with a lake. )

[quirkynote]

[Of course A.B.A didn't sacrifice anything, there isn't anything she despises more than having her belongings taken from her. She isn't a homunculus with many things, after all, and she's already lost so much.

So an incredibly ill, incredibly weak A.B.A can be found dragging herself all around cookie house, because she's a stubborn thing. A trip to the kitchen shouldn't be too frowned upon...right? Even she still needs SOME nutrients, and she recalls that soup is the traditional remedy.


...she's just boiling a pot of water. Boiling it a little too much. .....She's sitting against the kitchen wall, head against her knees as she's burning water.]

[purevanillacookie]

[ What a perfect time for A.B.A. to meet her broken Dad. Of course Truthless is going to investigate the sound of water boiling. And boiling. And boiling...

When he spots it's A.B.A. he stops in the kitchen doorway. He's ill himself, Pure Vanilla refused to give anything to Winter's demands, and thus he suffers. But you wouldn't tell by looking at his expressionless gaze. ]

If you continue to boil it, you will have nothing left.

[quirkynote]

[Even without knowing what happened to Pure Vanilla, A.B.A is still quite upset with him. It's just as she told him before he left, she wouldn't forgive him if he died in that stupid, worthless battle. He's so lucky she has no strength, because there isn't anything she wants more than to throw him across the room just for thinking he can even talk to her again. If he likes dying so much, she'll gladly keep offering death to him.

But she can't, not yet. All she can do is growl like an injured animal as she sits on the floor.]

Just like everything else in my life.

[purevanillacookie]

Dramatic. Do not burn the house down while being so.

[ He steps over to the oven to turn it down at least, staring down at the water. He has no idea what she was even attempting to make, there are no ingredients left out. And if he's upset at her being upset at him, he doesn't show it.

He doesn't show much of anything. ]

[lilyberation]

( lily is... also sick! it's not great. but there's things to do, people in need of care, and she's one of the best to do it. lily walks into the kitchen, shivering... but. hm.

...

she switches the stove off, before sitting beside a.b.a and gently wrapping her arms- and her cloak- around her. )

[quirkynote]

[Oh...a soft embrace. A.B.A would cry, but she can't seem to find the energy to. Instead, she simply surrenders to how badly she needs this and rests her head against Lily with zero resistance. Maybe they can keep each other warm this way... Yeah, that's it... This is only logical.]

I want to fly...

[Her mind goes to the bird pendant she found in that strange, abandoned home from an investigation I totally forgot to get back to aaaahhhhhh. She wasn't sure before, why it stirred such powerful feelings in her... But... she thinks she knows now.]

I want to fly as far away as I can and never come back... I'm so tired...

[lilyberation]

( that's something she understands. deep down, lily has always wanted to go further, far, far away. but... )

... I would miss you terribly, if you did.

[aneikonic]

[ Who came first, the elements or the Gods. Is this an Eikon or something more like Ultima? Either way, Clive is not impressed. He may have sacrificed with Will and Joshua, but the idea of repercussions for those who didn't rankles him.

He hates Gods so much. Sorry, Winter, he's feisty. ]

Pride? Or the exhaustion over being used by those who would take. Your "reward" for those who would bow to your demands is to simply stop what you had begun in the first place.

[ Why are Gods all the same. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Winter does not respond. But Clive should understand that Winter is not a giving season in general- it takes, and it takes, and it takes so that Spring may give. But if it calls, it will have it's dues.

That is the way of nature.

[leggierissimo]

[ Wow hello rude he died? Is that not sacrifice enough? He has a scar now. He has a scar now and you're marking him. ]

[sticksandbonesmods]

( was your mortal folly an intended sacrfice?



no. no it was not.

winter's mark will at least fade once he's well again. )

[timidheart]

[Mayoi came to meet this commotion as part of his duty, mostly. It would not do for him to cower when it seems the rest of the Grove is being called to attention. The deer is big, but not as big as the dragons, and so he finds it unnerving sure, but not as frightening as it could be.]

[It's the use of "Pride" that sets him off. As if refusing to sacrifice had been an act of selfishness. There are a great many things that would make Mayoi bow his head and simply accept punishment, but calling his act of survival and caution an act of pride is what does him in.]

"Pride." Pride!

[His own volume almost surprises him, but he can feel it rise up in his blood. Anger and fear and frustration. Bitterness drips off his words.]

I have spent countless times being tormented and manipulated by forces beyond my understanding, demanding sacrifice, demanding tribute while expecting me to hand over something precious blindly, in return only to be given the blood and death of my loved ones!

You come here demanding much the same with little explanation, tormenting us, cornering us with fear and threatening us with violence, and have the audacity to call it pride when I do not wish to comply?!

Curse me, and I will die cursed, but you'll receive nothing from me!

[beathollow]

( mayoi is a quiet man, even with his panic- so this is... this is. new. not unjustified, but- mafuyu can't help but worry, and it twists her heart and stomach alike.

after a moment, she just tucks into him, hugging him around the chest. )

Mayoi... I- ... you can feel what you need to. I'll take care of you.

[timidheart]

[He might have kept going, getting truly worked up for the first time in a while, but the moment Mafuyu comes and hugs him, he feels a majority of that fight leave his body. It's exhausting being angry, he doesn't like it very much.]

[He starts to settle down in her arms, spent. He finally puts his around her.]

... I grow tired of this, Mafuyu-san. [Of being the playthings of Gods.]

[goldenambition]

[Will might be safe from the sickness curse thanks to his sacrifice, but he knows exactly who this is. She might be in a different form. A different world. But anyone from Eidolon would know a Season when they see Them.

Saying he hits his knees is an understatement- he practically collapses, face down and eye averted, ears back and tail so tightly tucked between his legs it almost vanishes. The beastkin is shivering more violently then the cold ever made him, even when he was fleeing the wraiths into this damned village. Soft whimpers escape his chest, and his terror and awe are too great to even feel shame for it.

Winter. Help him, why did it have to be Winter? Even knowing from It's words he is safe, irrationally he's is convinced that She has come for what She was owed. That he is going to die, right here, in the cold. Alone.]

[beckonsbliss]

( whatever thoughts tingyun might have on winter, a season given form, but it's out the fucking window when she sees will like that- almost immediately, she's crouched beside him, one arm across his back while the other hand's gently holding his shoulder. )

Will...?

[goldenambition]

[He doesn't uncoil at all, if anything he tucks in tighter]

It'sfineI'mfine-

[he slurs the words together even more then he normally does, the sounds a mush of consonants and sub-vocal noises]

[lilyberation]

( gods just kill her now. this has been too much and now she's cursed with a divine illness, and she is so tired. she's cried every day for weeks now. she's suffered the winter's touch as a floral cookie. and now this. )

[poaceae]

[ Fern is very sad and very sick. He basically hides away in his new room in the inn and never comes out.

But wait, he does come out! To get food! Once a day, maybe less, he drags his pathetic sniffling body downstairs to grab whatever is easiest and take it back to his room with him.

It's usually bread. ]

[ephemeralflow]

[Hey TK, how's "pfft, sacrifices? I'm too proud, I don't have to do that, someone else will do it anyway" working out for you? Not very good it doesn't seem.

Someone will be mysteriously absent from her usual cafe hangouts for a week or so. She can survive on tea and what few food items she actually has at the tower for a bit, it's fine. It's fine.

Continuum Cog doesn't think it's fine. Why are you like this, Timekeeper. If no one comes looking for her after a few days, it'll be found floating around the town, trying to get someone's attention. Its bobbing isn't urgent, however - more resigned and annoyed than anything, really. Whoever it finds, it might circle their head a few times, then start towards the tower once their attention is caught, repeatedly glancing back to see if they're following. Please come make its idiot soup or something.]

[myceelium]

[ You'd think that the vice-warden of a school dorm based on benevolence and helping others would sacrifice something... But he doesn't. Whether it's due to the winter chill utterly putting him out of commission for some time, or some underlying feelings about it all, Jade has been AWOL.

Partly because he's been hiding up in his room. It's... Certainly out of character for him, but then again, his circumstances are less than ideal at the moment. This cold is unlike one he's ever felt, especially for a deep sea merman who makes his home in the Northern Deep.

Still, as the beantlered, ill moray stumbles to the inn's kitchen to try and make himself tea, he offers a small smile to whoever happens to be nearby. ]

[goldenambition]

[ will managed to avoid the sick curse, but Winter spooked him enough he's been hidng out in the inn almost as much as the sick. Still, he looks outright chipper in comparison]

Oh... mate you look 'bout to fall over dead.

[myceelium]

Ah... Is that so?

[ Don't mind as he subtly leans against things to try and prove Will wrong. He can totally stand for a while, it's fine!!! He's doing his best with only slightly shaky hands. ]

Apologies for my appearance- I'm normally a bit more put together. I'm sure once I drink something I'll feel a little better.