EVENT & TDM 022

[sticksandbonesmods]

THE SERPENT UNDERNEATH

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

Comments

Nicholas D. Wolfwood | Trigun Stampede | Current Player

[lupusxylem]

A) A Snake in the Grass | The Grove, more the outskirts though | OPEN

[Hey what's Wolfwood up to?

...

Why are there gunshots echoing through the Grove, what is he doing-

Why, it's target practice time, of course! Stone snakes or no, Wolfwood can feel himself becoming...a bit rusty, if that's possible, with his aim. The last time he even shot his Punisher it was 1) completely ineffective (because it was Suri) and 2) now it's broken. So!!

He has Livio's twin Fangs which are currently under his care until such time that he can get his Punisher repaired, which is currently happening off-screen thanks to some mutual CR eyelash batting at Sesa. The two don't like each other, but Sesa is a good guy and willing to help out even people who are assholes to him. Said Fangs are the object of his target practice today, with the subject being those little stone snakes in the grass. Sure, gunshots won't blow them up necessarily, but he's seeking to do a bit of damage.

If he happens to see someone out of the corner of his eye, he'll work his cigarette over to the other side of his mouth that he's smoking while he does this.]

Don't get too close. Don't wanna get caught in the crossfire.

B) Cities & Bones | The Inn | OPEN

[Wolfwood is awake...way earlier than he'd like to be, mostly because the ~visions~ have woken him up. He's not sure entirely what to make of them, but coming from an industrialized world with weird future tech means that it doesn't really bother him so much as he's just kindof like "huh" about it and moves on.

He's not sure what's gotten into him this morning, though, but he's hungry. So he decides he'll make breakfast, and though normally he'd just do so at home, he's feeling...nostalgic, and a bit somber. He woke up thinking about those times when he was still a kid back at the orphanage, and when a meal was made, everyone who was old enough to know how would pitch in to help.

That's why he'll be making breakfast at the Inn so that anyone present and awake at like 8AM can come enjoy it. It's kindof basic, your normal eggs and toast kind of deal, maybe pancakes if he's feeling fancy...but he's actually not bad at it, people might be surprised to notice as he flips eggs at the stove.

And if he notices you peeping, he'll ask without turning around, his tail flicking behind him:]

How you like yer eggs?

[OOC: Plotting here!]

A. :)

[thebladebringstheflame]

[It is too early in the morning for fucking GUNSHOTS!! Who's getting themself into trouble this early in the fucking morning!!!! ...grouses Flamebringer as he gets dressed and grabs both swords to go help, only to arrive and realise he doesn't need to help because it's Wolfwood and the little snakes are far too easy to deal with.

RIP. He was hoping for a real battle.]

You still got that little pistol? Pass it this way.

:)))

[lupusxylem]

[Oh hey HUSBAND-

Wolfwood feels the hair rise on the back of his neck as Flamebringer materializes seemingly out of nowhere, but he does manage to do a good job of being Normal at least.

He will pull the pistol from the holster at his hip and toss it his way though, holding up the right Fang before popping another fleeing snake.]

Can't break 'em up much with bullets, but they make good target practice.

[thebladebringstheflame]

[Hey husband who owned chickens with him and had like five or six kids and was apparently the defacto top (Flamebringer has gone to bed for the past few nights SEETHING about this).

He loads the gun, clicks the barrel into place, and takes aim. Apparently he knows how to use a gun, which is a terrible fucking thing... but his aim isn't exactly splendid, and he misses about 1/3rd of the shots he takes.

Stupid blind eye.]

Tch.

[If this were a Terran gun, he'd have made those bullets explode.]

If my left eye wasn't fucked...

[Not gonna touch the husband thing. Yet.]

[lupusxylem]

[Guess who ALSO hasn't brought it up (yet)!! Wolfwood is too busy continuing to take shots at the snakes, and for every shot Flamebringer misses, Wolfwood hits his dead-on pretty much every time. Like, he maybe misses a single shot the entire time, and that's because the shadow of another fleeing snake obscured his vision.]

Didn't know you knew how t'use a gun.

[thebladebringstheflame]

Nothing like that big fuckoff cross you have. When I was in this anarchist group called Reunion something like five years ago now, W — her name's just W — and I used to fuck around with her bombs sometimes, and whatever guns either of us could get our hands on.

[Ines is going to go grey at like 30 because of you two, FYI.]

I have nothing to show for it now. I was never good at aiming with them in the first place, but my left eye's so goddamn fucked now that I can't see what I'm hitting for shit.

A

[oleaeuropaea]

[Seeing Nick without his Punisher evokes an... odd sort of feeling within his chest. So much has changed over the course of just a few weeks. It also serves as a reminder that Vash hadn't been there when Wolfwood might have needed him. He's already gone over and over in his head how useless he would have been in that moment, but still. The regret sits heavy in his gut.

Stranger still is the fact that he has Livio's guns. It does little to help the lament in Vash's soul, knowing that the reason the other man hasn't been able to handle his weapons is likely tied to the fact that Vash sent him to his grave. All in all, it's two bad reminders of things Vash had failed in.

And yet... despite the fact that he feels the vestiges of despair, he doesn't let it weigh his shoulders down. He knows what both of his lovers would say, and knows that his moping won't do anything productive for any of them. If it continues to eat away at him, maybe he'll say something.

For now, he simply approaches and offers a little wave. He'll try keeping his mind off it in the meantime.]

You look like you're having some fun. How do they feel?

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood, oblivious- though perhaps not entirely- to Vash's internal struggle, glances over when he hears his familiar voice come from behind, prompting him to offer a crooked smile as he hefts both guns a little before letting his arms lower at his sides for a moment so they can talk.]

Pretty damn good, actually. Not really used to wieldin' two, though. Feels like I'd be pretty clunky in a real skirmish, but they're okay for takin' potshots right now.

[oleaeuropaea]

I'm sure you'll get there!

[He makes his way over, hand gliding over the span of one of Wolfwood's arms. He adjusts the position just a little, before humming his approval.]

Bet if you moved a bit more like this, you'd have an easier time. But it'll take practice. They don't quite have the kick of the Punisher, so you can't exactly stand your ground like before.

[lupusxylem]

Mmm, yeah?

[Wolfwood is still, allowing Vash to guide his hand. Vash is an expert at wielding one-handed guns, so he trusts his judgement here. He rolls his shoulder just a little, looking down at his feet to readjust them.]

Guess you're right. Didn't think about that. Thing is, I ain't sure I wanna practice like you practice...your methods are crazy.

[Like how Vash trains in his room, he's seen it okay.]

[oleaeuropaea]

[The good news is that Vash only laughs at that. He knows full well that his methods are crazy. They have to be if they're going to match his equally crazy outlook on life. You don't survive as a pacifist on No Man's Land without being willing to do something stupid, time and time again.]

Naw, it's not that bad is it? I only stink up the place every now and again.

[He steps around to the opposite side of Wolfwood and nudges him once more, before stepping back. With his chin nestled between his thumb and forefinger, he gives a scrutinizing look before offering a thumbs up.]

Looks good, babe!

B) Cities & Bones | The Inn

[nitrotempered]

[ Bakugo on the other hand - is up. Slept a bit in. Yeah, I'm still unsure what to make of this place. The dream had him unsettled - he didn't understand what it was. The blonde becomes even more uncomfortable when he walks down the stairs, spotting someone in the kitchen. He steps into it, catching the eyes of someone looking over at him.

Bakugo is wearing only a black T-shirt and his pro uniform pants. Having buckled on his boots, not want to walk around without shoes. Considering the weird snake shit going on - ]

Are you the town cook or something? [ He notes the tail, okay, well Bakugo doesn't think that's strange considering whats there on his universe. ]

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood snorts at that, the pan in front of him sizzling as he tilts it a bit to make sure the eggs he's cooking right now don't stick. Not only does he have a tail, but a pair of horns with the right one broken off...and if Bakugo is very perceptive, he may notice the peeking glint of metal at his left ankle. A prosthetic.]

Hardly. If you want somethin' from me, kid, better get it now, cause I don't do this every day.

[nitrotempered]

[ Perceives, though, he is looking for scars that are telling him if this guy is a fighter or not. ]

What, you turning over a new leaf for the day old man? Sounds lame, [ Says the teen, in the most punk ass way ever. Shoving his hands into his pockets and stepping into the kitchen with a slight punk ass slouch. ] but you better be a good cook if you're trying to show up for something.

[lupusxylem]

Oi, watch who you're callin' old man, you lil' shit. S'like you don't want breakfast.

[Now Wolfwood turns to look at Bakugo...and this man sure is fucking scarred!! He has a massive burn scar over his right eye, one that disappears down his neck into his collar. That's one of the new ones too, not even scratching the surface of all of the many other scars that litter his body.]

[nitrotempered]

[ Damn, fine, Bakugo gives him some street cred. ]

EHHH? [ Loud and annoying - hopefully, he didn't wake up anyone with that noise. ] You actin' like I'm a helpless little boy who can't find his way around a kitchen - well news to you, OLD MAN, this guy [ He means himself... ] can cook better than you could!

b

[parhellia]

[ Ala's not typically an early riser, but the moment there's even a hint of the smell of breakfast in the air, she makes her way into the kitchen, leaning on the counter and watching closely like a cat just waiting for the chance to stick their paw into something the moment your back is turned. she'll keep her paws to herself for now, though. for now. ]

Umm. Crunchy?

[lupusxylem]

Crunchy, huh...so pretty fried, pretty done.

[He'll flip the egg he's already working on then, since this isn't a sunny-side-up situation. Then he goes silent for a moment or two, like he isn't going to say anything else, until:]

Don't recognize your voice. [He hasn't turned around yet] You new?

[parhellia]

With an ooey gooey middle!

[ but crispy whites is where it's at, if only because crispy makes things fun to eat. what else is in the kitchen they can fry up... ]

New? Yes, no. [ depends on what he means. ] I'm new to town if that's what you mean! D'you know if the snakes are edible?

[lupusxylem]

[Okay new to town, yes. Wolfwood turns the heat down on the eggs a little, since the edges are crisping up pretty fast and he doesn't want the middle to get overdone.]

..uh. No, they ain't. They're made of stone, first of all, but even if they weren't: don't eat snakes.

B

[ezellotry]

Ah... sorry, I didn't mean to be spying on you or anything. I just... was surprised to see you here, that's all.

...

You know, if you wanted to cook in a bigger kitchen, you're always welcome to use the one at the bakery? [ Ezell isn't answering his question about the eggs, though. He doesn't think he's actually offering. ]

[lupusxylem]

[Wolfwood's attention is piqued when he hears a voice he recognizes, prompting him to actually look over his shoulder at where Ezell stands.]

I'll take you up on that offer next time. Can't exactly make breakfast for the others in the Grove if I do it from the bakery though, can I? Unless ya'll're willin' to advertise that sorta thing regularly.

Now c'mon, tell me how you like these before I overcook 'em.

[ezellotry]

O-oh, I didn't think you'd actually... I'm not picky. Whatever is easiest for you to make, I'd be happy.

Of course we're more than happy to advertise breakfast. That's the best time to make pastries, anyway. Also... you can always bring them to the inn, or other places. I did that when the snowstorm happened...?

[lupusxylem]

I mean, I am already makin' eggs, angel. Do you like 'em any specific kind of way, or should I just make 'em how I like 'em if you can't decide?

[Like Ezell please]

You can do that sorta thing if you planned ahead, yeah. But I didn't do that. I just woke up too early and decided I was gonna fry a fuckin' egg.

[Tail flick]

[ezellotry]

[ Angel...?? ]

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