sticksandbones | EVENT & TDM 022

EVENT & TDM 022

WAKE UP

Being out in the woods is, for some people, an ordinary day. You may or may not be one of those people — you almost certainly don’t remember going camping, do you? — and yet you emerge from a tent and think to yourself, hm, that’s quite odd! Where is the nearest civilization anyhow? If you’re brave enough, perhaps you set out to seek it, walking toward where you think you hear noise in the far distance. It sounds a bit like cheering. A party? A bonfire? You can’t be certain, not at first.

As you step onto the worn trail, something nearly clocks you right in the head. A nimble dodge to the left and a quick glance at the ground tells you that it’s some kind of tree branch made of… flesh? It’s certainly flesh-textured, though the colour is a deep blue that glows white. It seems to be rapidly rotting into the ground, and as you look up… a giant, several hundred foot tree of a similar eldritch makeup is falling apart before your eyes. Your walk back to civilization will be full of dodging probably-dead flesh tree bits.

Should you make it in one piece, the source of the noise becomes obvious: the people making up this small town are cheering and yelling about something else of eldritch makeup. It seems that some of the creatures who have lived in this civilization’s river for the last year, the Seaborn, have decided to evolve to be capable of flight. Some residents of this town seem extremely enthusiastic with this. Some are wary. Some simply don’t care.

You? Well, that’s for you to decide.

Welcome to the eldritch horror fae woods, dear friend. Enjoy your stay.

A SNAKE IN THE GRASS

While the black fog returns, some paths are left clear, or at least not as impacted as other areas of the woods. Mist fades in and out, and even if you aren’t one for nature, surely exploration can sing its siren song when the size of the town is too small and all the faces look the same. Paths line themselves with daffodils and chamomile flowers, with arctic poppies and clearings of wildflowers- foxglove and lavender especially prominent. They’re lovely, all of them, and bloom far more rapidly than anything else should be this early into spring, this late into winter, but they do.

But something creeps beneath the flowers, and something large digs through the earth, leaving upturned grooves in the dirt and grass, trails of flattened mud and roots with only bushes of camelia on the outskirts left behind. It’s quiet in the forest, not even birds singing. It makes the hiss of tongues all the more noticeable.

If you’re lucky, you might see a purple and grey stone shift in the distance, gone just as quickly as it was there. If you aren’t, you don’t see its much smaller, flower-patterned counterpart strike from the shadows. Snakes are working their way into the Grove, hiding in bushes and under steps, anywhere they can lurk and strike the unsuspecting, and their bite is venomous.

One bite brings excruciating pain, bone-deep cold, an increased frailty of the body and hallucinations. A second bite brings a deep, nightmare-filled sleep. A third bite brings death. All of them scar with a black sun over the bites, a mark of divine wrath — the Fallen Sun sends his regards, and his hate.

Those who perish to the snake bite will awaken in their bed in a few days, feeling nauseous and weakened, but…

'NEATH SERPENT'S GAZE

… This simply isn’t tenable. Between the paranoia and the snake’s stealth, it’s hard to feel safe outside of your home, and maybe inside, despite the fact that once again your homes offer refuge from the forest’s attacks—they hadn’t once upon a red, hot summer, after all. How did they face this last time? It was a flower, wasn’t it? And the new flowers in the forest seem special, if only because of their strong growth compared to the rest of the forest.

But if you go into the woods, two large stone snakes wait, ready to protect the natural gardens. Breaking them does little but slow them down for a time, and their bite is both larger and their venom stronger—the true version, the one that crippled a household in seconds. The severity of the symptoms are worse, murderously so, but survivable if it’s not the third bite.

They block the way, ambush would-be travelers, coil around the flower patches, and will not be stopped. Does this confirm that the flowers could help? Or are they simply protective of their master’s property? Is it play?

Regardless, they wait and watch.

CITIES & BONES

When all the violence of the month ends, and thank goodness for that, you decide to head to bed. For once, you might sleep well — there are no threats of snakes making you wonder if you or your friends might die tomorrow, and the Grove as a whole feels much safer. It’s as if someone or something is guarding over it — different from the Guardian Deities and the Goddesses as a whole.

For the next several days after the snakes disappear, your dreams are strange, as if you’re receiving a vision from another world. A modern city, so different from Aldric’s Grove that you’re not entirely convinced it lies in this dimension, blinks in neon lights behind your eyelids. Between the cacophonous sounds of motorized vehicles rushing by, the din of people talking in a language you don’t understand, and the distant electrical humming from the street lights, perceptive dreamers might hear something else:

The soft clacking of dry bones.

Spark Notes

summary

Wake up: You were apparently camping. You don't recall this. As you head out toward the sound of civilization, bits of giant blue flesh-tree nearly hit you in the head. You'll have to dodge the remaining flesh tree bits as it crumbles while you walk back to town.

A Snake In The Grass: Flowers spring up far too early in the season, and the fog wall returns. Purple and grey-coloured stone snakes begin to attack from the bushes and flowers where they're hidden. One bite brings cold and frailty, a second bite brings nightmares, and a third bite brings death. All bites scar with a mark of the Black Sun.

'Neath Serpent's Gaze: You've heard of a flower that can cure the poison, but to get there, you have to face two far larger stone snakes who are guarding over nature here. Whether they want to play or simply kill isn't clear. You're in danger of death either way.

Cities & Bones: While you sleep after the snakes disappear, you'll have strange dreams that feel like visions and feel watched by something safe and kindly. While your dreams are absorbed in that of a cityscape that feels almost too real, you can sometimes hear the clattering of bones.

out of character

Welcome to March's TDM and Event! Spring is springing and we've got a lot of really cool events coming up in the next few months. The magic system should debut this month as well, which we're very excited about. It is a slow process but the rewards should be well worth it.

updates

Any potential updates, such as characters damaging something important or whatever else, will be put here.

submissions

❖ Questions
❖ March Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations

code

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...

[ Mephisto frowns at it. It's almost like... how in video games, when you're not supposed to go to the next area, they just put a barrier like this. Not that Mephisto has ever played a video game, but he at least is roughly familiar with the concept. It doesn't look like it's stopping them necessarily, but reaching out and touching it immediately makes him reel back when he feels something trying to creep in his head. Hate that, thanks. ]

Is it... a dome...? Are we stuck here?

Edited 2025-03-12 04:11 (UTC)

Are you fucking kidding me?! How many of these are there?!

[yeah, we're in the clinic. The shouting comes from deeper in the building, in an office that's mostly just for record-keeping... where Add, in all his genius, has detected a second Nasod signal, and decided that this one must be the real one and the other was obviously a decoy.

Whenever Wolfwood gets over there he'll find Add still hissing out curses and throwing rubber snakes into the hallway. There are just so many of these rubber snakes. MP may not have accomplished much in his little time here, but damn did his pettiest work pay off.

He's about to throw the next (fake) snake directly at Wolfwood when he stops, hand raised, still fuming mad.]

Can I help you? You got something to fucking say??

[ Angel...?? ]

How you like them is fine. What do you mean too early? Did something happen? Are you okay?

[It's getting harder and harder to focus but he has to try, but. there are so many words. just remember the important ones. righthand side hallway, top lefthand side, bottom left side... which door did they come in through? he tries to sit up, but the slightest movement feels like needles and the light makes his skull buzz. too bright. just lay back down, figure it out later...

he's saying... to stay. better than sleeping alone. he's in his boyfriend's bed...? what does that have to...

is. is he offering??]

T-that's fine, I'm not— not interested. Not interested, 've got places to be... don't need any services, keep your hands to yourself...

[... it's a little hard to tell, what with the intense fever of divine wrath and all, but his face is extremely red and he's getting unusually antsy. the only thing keeping him from jumping up and trying to run is the fact that he can barely move.]

i. wake up (not this shit again)

[When Thorns steps back into the Grove after being absent for about a month, he knows where he is, what's going on, and where not to go. Sort of. It's strange to walk out of the forest in a tent he doesn't remember setting up, but he's lost about a month of time since his first arrival, so who even knows at this point.

What is severely uncool is nearly getting clocked in the head with something distantly resembling Nethersea Brand (hey) and what's even uncooler is walking into the Grove to discover the Seaborn are fucking flying.

He swears to God he's about to start causing problems on purpose. There's a second where his metal arm ripples like he's about to cast something, but luckily... luckily a little creature hopping along after him bites his leg and makes him stop in his tracks.]

When did you get here?

[The little creature bounces on his foot.

Thorns: Distracted.
Thorns: Also having to chase Baby around as it flops across the grass and runs ("runs") off.

This, too, is parenting.]

ii. grabbing snakes

[So, the snakes! The snakes. They're easy enough to kill, Thorns finds — or perhaps "crush into little shards" is a more apt description — but they're ridiculously problematic when he's off trying to harvest plants for his neurotoxins. He nearly gets bit on several occasions, and were it not for his reflexes, he might've actually been poisoned himself.

At a certain point, Thorns gets tired of these damn things trying to bite him, and after asking around, it seems like there's no cure for their toxins... which he thinks he should be able to handle, actually, if he can safely extract the toxin from them.

...

So, mid-afternoon, Thorns walks by you with a stone snake absolutely gripped in his fist, plops himself down in the open field near the well, and jams its fangs into a vial.

????

Buddy you are Going to die, do not do this.]

iii. on a boat

[The last time Thorns was here, he barely got a chance to check out the abandoned ship at the docks — what remains of it, anyway, as it's pretty run-down. Last time, it was too cold to do anything, what with his metal arm freezing solid whenever he stepped outside. This time, though. This time...

He thinks he's going to fully explore it.

Except it's really too run down to explore much of, but that's fine! It's fine.

If you're on the beach at all near the docks, you'll probably watch a crate or two go flying out of the ship while Thorns... sorts, apparently. They're quite waterlogged, so maybe it's a stuff-related rescue mission instead? What could be in those that's so interesting anyway?]

iv. wildcard

[you know where i live etc]

[...

Okay. You know. Ain should be nice here, Add is clearly suffering from poison and fatigue and probably shell-shocked about the location change and the lack of party members. He should not tease Add! It would be mean! Anyway Ain is not thinking any of this.

He continues to draw little circles into his good pal/worstie's leg, leaning back against the couch and smirking.]

Mr. Ancient, if I wanted to give you head, don't you think I would've been a little more forward by now?

[He is NOT beating the town whore allegations.]

Haha, your face is red~. Don't worry, I won't put my hands on you unless you ask nicely and say "please", okay?

[ Mephisto is feeding treats to Rusty (hot dogs with calcium powder for his teeth) when he catches Thorns. He doesn't think too much of him, really, just opting to stand and try to convince Rusty to follow him somewhere else, until the dog starts to go over to Thorns and growl at the snake in his hands.

Hhhh what the fuck- ]

Oh dear, just what do you think you're doing? [ Said without a hint of concern. He sounds mostly amused, actually, and starts to limp over to Thorns. ] Those pests are quite dangerous, you know. Not that it's any of my business, you can carelessly handle things as you please, but my companion here would like it if you didn't end up getting bit in the middle of the Grove. I'm certainly not going to move your corpse. Too much of a hassle.

If you're going to die, can you do it closer to the forest~? Thank you.

[He's halfway into a panic, convinced he's been picked up by some strange prostitute(???) that may or may not be hitting on him while he's bedridden and feverish, but Mr. Ancient snaps some thoughts back into their proper places. No, that's... that's Ain, only Ain calls him that. He was talking to Ain, and... Ain is hitting on him...??

... snake bite. Something about a snake bite, and... and he passed out? Yeah, that part makes sense. He was bitten by something, and he's been hearing crazy shit all day. A dream makes a hell of a lot more sense than this.

And now he's thinking about Ain, and... he is not immediately opposed to this direction.

...

Not that he's interested. He's definitely not interested, because there's no way Ain feels that way about him. Yeah.]

... wouldn't say that. Jackass. Don't... don't fuck with me. [if this is one of the dream demons messing with him he's gonna be pissed]

[buddy Ain has two (2) plushies of you ~~and also the rest of the party but let's focus on the important bits here~~ what do You think.]

Aww, but we always mess with each other~.

[That's their MO! Well, more recently they've been relatively normal — more often than not it's usually Elsword and Add fighting — but still. They would not be Them without the occasional playful banter.

That blanket is still a heap on him, though. Dachie is not a very good nurse. Worry not, Ain will take the opportunity to actually unfurl it and properly lay it over Add, leaning over into his space to pull it up to his shoulders for him. There. This is what you do for sick humans right??]

I'm not messing with you, though. You're poisoned, and I promise I'm not gonna do anything, so try to calm down. Even someone like you is capable of that, right?

[is he tho... Is he.]

More seriously, I don't want anything worse to happen to you while you're stuck here. Let me take care of you, okay?

[fucking luca. there's no planet on which kiera doesn't sense something amiss, doesn't catch luca trying to set the entire damn barn on fire. they were only waiting until they had a clear shot to dispatch the wretched thing, only now luca's foot is directly on it, and it's -- biting him after he's already been out of sorts in the clinic from multiple bites!

they were trying so goddamn hard not to get him caught in the crossfire, but now they have no choice. they freeze the air in every possible crack in its stone, ice expanding until the horrid beast shatters. luca's leg won't escape without shards of ice and rock, nevermind the damn bite. before he has a chance to crumple, though, they're upon him, grabbing him under the arm and around the back.]

Phoenix's fiery fucking breath, Luca, what in the light were you thinking?! [it's rare for kiera to use castillan curses, much less mix them with renovan. it's likely also been many years since luca saw so much panic on her face.]

[Mephisto makes a frustratingly good point. Sesa won't kill him, and the boy likely knows that. Meanwhile, Sesa's too good of a person to just let an enemy of Rhodes run rampant in the Grove, now that he knows this person is a threat of some sort. Because...if they're an enemy of Rhodes, they're an enemy of everyone. The Doctor has a habit of picking fights with some pretty bad folks.

So! He's at an impasse and upset about it. He wishes Elliot were here.]

You could start by showing yourself.

[ Mephisto stares at Sesa through the mist, intentionally obscuring himself so Sesa cannot do the same. He considers for just a moment... This person doesn't seem near as violent as Ch'en or even how Flamebringer used to be. If Mephisto turns on this guy and actually takes his crutch to his kneecaps, he might just let it happen.

A pushover in Rhodes is a breath of fresh air, actually. Mephisto gives an exaggerated sigh, but after a moment he allows the mist to dissipate. Once it's gone, there's Mephisto, standing there with his crutch and a very sweet (sources needed) smile and a wave. ]

Привет~!

A regular patron, chiefly. Depending on whether or not the proprietor proves just as intriguing in future interactions. Or, at the very least, just as open to the concept of future wagers.

[The sleeve for his cards is retrieved from within his coat, and once they're securely back in their proper place he slides it back into the same inner pocket. From there, he adjusts the lay of his clothes, brushes his hands down his chest, and exhales a soft breath.]

Allow me to introduce myself properly, now that we two are rather well acquainted. [With the statement comes the offering of an outstretched gloved hand, adorned as it is with various golden rings that glint and glitter in the lowlight.] Aventurine, at your disposal. Should you choose to make use of me, I am sure our partnership will grow to be fruitful indeed.

Haha, okay, I'll play with you.

[He likes human games! They're fun! He has no idea what most of them are about but he likes them.]

Go easy on me, though~. I probably won't be that good at first.

[Sneef sneef snorf...

Her nose twitches against Till's hand. It's very soft and velvety!

Licks his hand. Do you have food? No? Okay... sneef snorf.]

[The good news is that the ice not only hits the snake, it helps to freeze Luca's leg as well. It should slow the venom for a time. Whether or not it proves to be a painful delay in his demise remains to be seen. Not that Luca has let himself believe he's dying. Despite Pure Vanilla's warnings, never mind the Phoenix's own murmurings, he hasn't let himself believe that he could die. He's never been able to before, why should he hope for it now.

He doesn't quite pitch into her, not right away. It takes a handful of seconds for the dizziness to hit, and even then he does his best to remain stubbornly on his feet. The only reason he doesn't push her away is because he doesn't want to offend her.

He'll be fine. He can already see the flame of the Phoenix licking away at the ice on his leg. He doesn't think about how it will surely encourage the venom to speed up. Clearly it's working to neutralize it first.]

I'm the Phoenix. [He says it with a bitter smile.] Remember what that means?

Sure. The bar and its many fights.

[There hasn't been more than a brief scuffle at the bar, and Luca had been the one to both start and finish it. No, something isn't right about that.]

The work... less well than they should. Slower, I suppose. Less effective.

I can imagine that the proprietor has certainly had his interest piqued. Though whether or not you can maintain that interest depends on your actions. And your wagers, I suppose.

[Luca watches the man move. The flair of his outfit is noted, right down to the bright and bombastic colors. He certainly sticks out, though in Luca's book he knows not if that's a good thing. Wearing such an array of jewelry on his hand, for example, would surely make Aventurine a target in Luca's world, at least depending on where he wound up.

So. Either Aventurine was a fool, or a tactician. Luca isn't sure which yet. But he hadn't been lying when he'd said he was intrigued by the man's efforts. He holds out his hand with little hesitation, wrapping his fingers around Aventurine's own and giving it a shake.]

It remains to be seen how I might make use of you, though consider me interested in the prospect all the same.

[Another affronted squawk. They're going to attract an entire horde of snakes at this rate.]

Crimes?! My precious darling angel baby would never commit a crime.

[She has committed many. Namely piss crimes and destruction of stuffed property, but Vash will never admit to it!]

[Vash doesn't really have time to insist. Nor does he have any decent backing as to why the young man should abandon him. Talented with his gun as he is, it would do Vash little good when trying to go against pure stone. He could be quick and probably lose them easily enough, but it'd be risky. And he doesn't exactly have the breath to explain all of that in the moment.

Even if the kid has protested vehemently, Vash is still surprised to see him in action. He watches the way the boy leaps onto the sneak fearlessly. He can't even bring himself to protest — Vash himself has probably done stupider. All that's left is to go with whatever he has planned.

He doubles back, avoiding the first snake and trying to taunt the second. He puts his hands to his head and sticks out his tongue.]

Heyyyooo, look at me!

[The snake turns its head, while Vash turns his body. He runs forward, straight at both Oscar and the snake alike.]

Get ready to jump!

[He's going to try and get the snakes to knock out themselves.]

I can't promise to let you win, but I promise the odds will be fair.

[With a snap of his left hand and a glittering shower of sparkling gold, the once clear table is now home to ten standard sized six-sided dice, alongside a pair of two wooden cups. They'll only be here for either as long as they play or until Aventurine stops paying attention to them.]

Have you ever heard of Liar's Dice?

A dome...a wall. It's the same no matter what you call it.

[And he doesn't have to explain what happens when you try to brute force through it. Mephisto just now felt it for himself, he could tell by the way he flinched back the moment his fingertips made contact with the black fog.]

We can't go anywhere. At least not this way.

[Till...doesn't scream, but he makes a noise? Like an aeugughg kind of noise.]

It licked me!

Oh, I don't want you to let me win, I just want you to go a little slow so I know how to play properly.

[Letting him win isn't fun! A newbie cinching victory, however, very much is. This probably will not happen because he's Ain but let him dream.

The ability to summon dice and cups is pretty neat, though. Ain audibly "oohs" at it, the tip of his tail wagging, and he leans forward with his hands resting on his knees.]

I haven't. Haha, do I have to lie a lot? [turns out. he's pretty good at this, when he wants to be.]

She was giving you a kiss! [no she was seeing if he had food, but close enough.] Harts are herbivores, don't worry. She wasn't going to eat you. Do you want to feed her?

[Ain has treats in his pocket for his creatures, so he pulls one out. This one is a sugar cube, which he sets in Till's hand.

Magnolia will wait patiently for 25 turns for that sugar cube.]

Technically, sugar cubes aren't super great for them, but that's why it's a treat~. She has her normal meals daily.

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EVENT & TDM 022

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Thorns | Arknights | Current Player, New-ish Character

breathes a sigh. no one read this tag.

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