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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Please use the following form for investigations. TDM characters are welcome and encouraged to do so as well!

Character(s):
Location:
Action:

Character(s): Stephanie Brown
Location: The archives, library, other places books can be found that I don't know about
Action: Steph is going to take the book she got with her acceptance and compare the writing and pictures to whatever she can find. Her goals are to see if she can translate any of it, find similar books, and find any connections to specific stories or imagery.

Character(s): Mizuki + the ~~snacks~~ snakes
Location: Therapy building (roof)
Action:
[ Mizuki doesn't know if the pendant and the bone ring work together, but he'll try! He's going to attempt to talk to one of the snakes, sitting on the roof. If beaming a "hello, Mister Snake?" into their head doesn't garner a response, he'll attempt something else. ]

Edited 2025-03-07 15:27 (UTC)

( i. wake up )

[ Oscar has grown increasingly familiar with waking up somewhere unfamiliar to him. Usually it's just a case of momentary disorientation—a memory of Ozpin's that fails to click into place quite the way it should. Usually it only takes a second to go away.

But this doesn't go away, and when Oscar crawls forward to push aside the tent flap he finally understands why: he isn't in Vacuo anymore.

That's extremely bad news. Still, it could be worse. He has his clothes. He's not injured. His Aura feels intact. The Long Memory is already in his hands, the cane held like a sword as he steps out of tent. This is a recoverable situation, he thinks. Even so, he doesn't hesitate to nudge against Ozpin in his mind. He could use his expertise right now.

From an outside perspective, Oscar is simply standing there for a moment. Then he frowns. Then something like concern crosses his expression. Concern melts into worry, and then into outright horror, and finally Oscar speaks. ]

Ozpin...?

( ii. snake in the grass )

Be careful.

[ Oscar offers his warning in a calm, steady tone. Despite that, he eyes the flowers lining the path with deep suspicion. His cane taps against the ground as he walks, but his grip on it is turned in such a way that he can easily bring it to bear. ]

There are snakes in the flowers—fast ones.

[ He might not have any idea where he is or how he got here, but he can at least still be helpful. ]

( iii. the serpent's gaze )

[ With the last remnants of winter still clinging to the atmosphere, Oscar had found the enthusiastic growth of the flowers a little strange. Not impossible or even unheard of, but strange enough to catch his attention. It's a little gratifying to know that he's right.

It's less gratifying to go investigating and find himself staring down two giant versions of the snakes that have been lurking in the hedges all week. He stands a respectable distance away from them, cane planted in front of him and his hands folded over the pommel. He... can probably do this, he thinks. Even alone. Even totally alone. But uncertainty pulls at his thoughts, the sort of uncertainty he hasn't felt in a long time.

It's actually a relief when he hears someone else approaching, and he turns to give him an appraising look. ]

I don't suppose you have any experience in giant snakes, do you?

[ His tone is mostly tired but there's little hints of amusement and exasperation in there, as well. No matter what, this is going to suck. ]

Are the snakes so aggressive as to continue biting someone who is no longer threatening them? e.g. someone who passed out already

[It's as though the snakes are everywhere, and no matter where he sets foot there's another. He jumps at the warning, inching away from the spot her pointed at.]

They are fast. I don't know if you'll be able to get them with that.

[Min assumes that's what he's planning on doing with the cane.]

[Dipper lives in the woods, or at least, close enough to it that it isn't strange for him to come across the newcomers. He has been trying to nail down if there's a pattern to it, like there had been in Trench, and came to the conclusion it kiiiinda of ran every two months with some clear exceptions, weird.]

[In any case, hearing a voice out in the woods right when he was thinking it would be that time isn't a surprise.]

[It's that he recognizes it, is, and he feels his heart drop. Despite himself, he follows it to the tent, trying to mentally prepare himself for what he's about to see, forcing himself not to get his hopes up after the mess that was Fern showing up-]

[He see's him and he knows instantly. It takes him a moment to swallow his grief, to try and quell the feeling under his skin that he might begin rattling apart, to try and get his game face back on.]

...Hey. You look lost. Did you just wake up here?

[He doesn't immediately approach but his smile is friendly and he waves a hand to get his attention.]

It's a case by case basis based on player preference, since they're out for blood. If you just want to pass out, they'll skedaddle! If you want death, well, a prime target is right there. This isn't a Garden-warranted death, so you can go without consequences.

So.

She cannot translate it- it is a dead language from before the apocalypse. As a freebie, Dipper has a translator from that era though!

But she can see some of the imagery and pictures referenced in other picture books- they aren't the same, but sometimes a woman in an illustration will be posed in a way that seems... deliberate. Too much to be entirely coincidental.

The nursery rhymes seem to span from Guardians to men and women to faeries to the Gods themselves.

Unfortunately, these little guys are Suri's constructs; they have no voice to speak with, no mind to read, and no desire for peace. Get down from the roof, let them bite you.

♠. Beginner's Luck

[It's a little hard to think with the drummer's beat pounding at the backs of his brow bone, but Aventurine's fairly sure this wasn't where he was last.

Granted, he could be wrong; the thing he does remember is the blinding flash of an Emanator's blade and the eternal gaze of nothing incarnate, after all. Anything and everything at all could have been on the other side of those endless black waters, and it wasn't impossible to think he might have wandered somewhere unintentional while trying to delve into the hidden depths of the sweet dream.

Either that, or he's dead, and this is the afterlife.

The threadbare tent above his head rings almost familiar enough to sell the idea, but the forest beyond the flaps is drastically different from the golden sands he'd expect to see in such circumstances; afterlives were supposed to be recognizable, as far as he was aware. That, and he's willing to wager his head wouldn't be hurting this badly if he was dead.

Probably a good thing. This time around, at least! That would have been embarrassingly anticlimactic of him after putting on such an encore-worthy performance.
The sunglasses on his face help - marginally - with the way the sunlight feels like a repeat of Halovian telepathy prying his mind open like a pistachio shell, but they don't do much in the way of alleviating his other symptoms. Dizziness, nausea, vertigo... He sure was feeling more and more alive by the moment. It's no wonder, then, that when a tree branch comes crashing down to try and slam onto him from above, Aventurine very much does not manage to sidestep out of its path.

...

It still bounces harmlessly off of his shields to flop grotesquely onto the ground while leaving him entirely unharmed, but the encounter weighs a little too close for comfort. He's a lot more careful after that, and his lucky streak of avoiding a maiming continues! At least some odds remain in his favor. By the time he wanders into the Grove proper, he's seen more than he's liked of devil trees and their inner workings, and... Honestly? He's about ready to go lay face-down somewhere safe until the world stops precariously spinning and pirouetting around him.

He doesn't do that either, and instead cautiously approaches the first individual he can find lingering near the tree-line. Cautious, because if this is a new planet he's never been to before, there's no telling what the inhabitants might do upon encountering a stranger. Still, he's all smiles and pleasantries, and his tone is nothing short of friendly.]

'Scuse me, friend! Sorry for interrupting you and your festivities, but I was wondering if you would be open to me stealing a moment of your time. I seem to be a little... Lost?

[The sheepish, self-deprecating grin on his face is only partially fabrication.]

♥. Devil's Game

[Really, he should have learned his lesson the first time around and stayed put in the Grove, but his headache had slowly but surely receded like puddles of rainwater beneath an unforgivingly warm sun. With its absence comes the urge to gain a proper lay of the land, and thus he finds himself ~~back in the fucking building again~~ back in the great outdoors!

...Not too far into the weeds, though. Just in case he needs to run from more tree violence.

Turns out it's not just deadfall that requires hypervigilance, because he unknowingly committed the cardinal sin of stopping to smell the roses. Well, chamomile, if you want to get technical. Bent at the waist, he'd just been about to reach out to tilt one of the buds into better view when a warning hiss causes him to jerk his hand back a fraction of a second before fangs would have sank their way deep into the flesh at his wrist. He loses track of the snake almost immediately, mostly because the interaction has him promptly turning on his heel to head back to the path. That's enough great outdoors for today, actually.]

♦. Croupier

[Later still, long after night has fallen, Aventurine can be found at the inn's lobby. Turns out the afterimages of Nihility really do leave lasting scars upon the psyche, and they're kind of awful! The shattered remnants of his Cornerstone don't seem to be enough to shield him entirely from THEIR corrupting influence, and it's harder than he likes to shake off the grip of the nightmare that had woken him up drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

He'd have gone for a walk in the brisk night air, but stepping on snakes in the dark doesn't exactly sound like a good time. Instead, he's set himself up near a coffee table, cross-legged on the floor as he shuffles a deck of cards with all the flair and expertise of a professional.

It takes him a moment to register the presence of another individual, should he be approached. When he does, the realization comes with a stiffening of his shoulders, and after a hesitant pause he cuts the deck and busies himself by leafing the cards into a riffle shuffle.]

Can't sleep either?

♣. Dealer's Choice

[Feel free to drop anything you want on him if none of the prompts here catch your eye! If you want to plot something a little more in depth, I can also be found at NeoSin <3]

The larger snakes are obviously harder to break, but what of the little ones? What happens if someone were to try to big steppy on one-

This is a case by case basis on account of the snakes all being made of solid stone. If your character can break stone with a big steppy, they can break the snakes! But if not, then at best you can hold them in place, or knock them away.

Lol Till WISHES he could tbh, but alas he is but a puny human. Thank you!

[ Oscar glances down at the cane in question, then gives Min-Gi a faint smile. ]

I manage well enough with it.

[ With enough speed, even a blunt object can hurt like hell. ]

But I'd prefer to avoid them entirely, if I can.

[Technically, Ain does not need sleep. He likes to do it (it's fun, he gets to place his head directly on a man's chest, blankets warm, etc) but it's not a requirement. Sometimes, his own stress levels prevent him from sleeping even for fun... so here he is.]

Haha... you could say that. You're new here. Shame~.

That'd be better.

[He sounds confident, but he seems young. Min doesn't want to be partially responsible for him getting himself bitten. He looks around for a less flowery area, sighing with relief when he spies one. It's not perfect, but it's definitely less likely to be obscuring snakes than their current spot.]

Here. There's less places for them to hide over here.

[There’s an intrigued tilt to his head as he peers up at Ain for a moment, rolling the reply around in his head a few times to examine it from all angles. Like a rock tumbler.]

That I’m new? Or that I made you wait so long?

[He settles for matching the playful approach, because it offers assistance in distancing himself from the fading feelings of his nightmares.]

Character(s): Clive, Will, Wolfwood, and Livio
Location: The Forest + Beiwe's church
Action: Time to go scout Beiwe's church out with Will and Wolfwood in the lead (since Wolfwood knows where it is and Will is a tracker) and Clive and Livio following to be the muscle in case something threatens their respective twinks/twunks. Also to clear it from any of Suri's influence if possible, so it's safe to relocate via magic back to the Grove.

Clive will let Wolfwood take point on this and he'll make sure the four of them are sufficiently geared up. Bring anything they think is important to bring. He will also warn them there might be beasts there at the church, which is why they're scouting first before they make an attack plan.

But they probably will be attacking in the end so-

[He is rolling his eyes (playfully), and sitting down on the couch nearby. Not too close, of course — the overly-long tail from his dragon blessings takes up quite the amount of space, not to mention the fact that it's a social sin to sit thigh-to-thigh with a perfect stranger — but close enough to converse and watch the way those cards get shuffled.]

This is a terrible place to be "new" to, and a terrible place to have stayed for a long time too. Haha, bad luck... the people here are good, though, I promise.

[ Someone speaks and Oscar whips his head around, visibly tense. It only takes him a moment to take stock of Dipper. A young man right around Oscar's age, a little taller and a little stockier; blind in one eye; facial scars; armed. Probably too young to be an actual Huntsman, but perhaps a student at a primary combat academy, and definitely someone that's seen his share of trouble.

There is, ultimately, no hint of recognition in Oscar's expression.

It occurs to Oscar that he is standing here holding his cane like a sword, while this stranger has been kind enough to leave his own weapon holstered. He forces himself to relax and lets one hand fall to his side. He shifts his grip on the Long Memory and, with a neat little flourish (that Dipper might recognize as a distinctly Ozpin-like gesture), flips it around so that he can rest the tip against the ground. ]

Sorry. You're right, I just woke up here.

[ Pause. ]

And... I'm not entirely certain where here is.

cocks my mod gun at all of you and holds you hostage for 5 hours unskippable (/no)

The journey to the church itself is easy enough — Wolfwood remembers the way, and all four of you are experienced enough to avoid getting chewed on by snakes and various other creatures. While they are on the route, we'll handwave the murder of various angry Suribeasts. You did it, yay ✨

The church itself is incredibly run down. So far there's nothing lurking around it (that will change eventually, you think, as you feel like you're being watched), but it's decrepit. Missing entire walls, with the bell tower destroyed. Wolfwood will recall the long-fallen bell that nearly broke his ribs when it fell on him, surely.

If you chose to relocate it now, you'd be relocating what is essentially a pile of rubble. Not a bad thing! But it's definitely looking worse than it did even last year.

[There's no hint of recognition, and it further cements it. That this Oscar has no idea who he is. He must be fresh from Remnant. He remembers the last time Oscar had come from Remnant, and that he was black and blue with injuries from Salem. He remembered pulling him into their livingroom in Deerington and forcing him to sit while he cleaned him up, tried to coax out of him the story, and finding all the ways Oscar kept himself guarded.]

[He remembered thinking not so long ago how worried he had been if he ever went back. If the Oscar that returned once more would still be Oscar.]

[Oscar changes his grip on the Long Memory and Dipper swallows.]

This is called the Grove. It's- I'll be real, man. It's a long story, but you're really far from home.

[He pauses, awkward for a moment.]

Town is this way, you don't want to stay in the woods too long. I'll show you the Inn.

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Page 1 of 58

EVENT & TDM 022

QUESTIONS

INVESTIGATIONS

Re: INVESTIGATIONS

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Oscar Pine | RWBY | New Character

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ii.

i 1/2

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Aventurine ♠ Honkai Star Rail ♠ TDM!

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♦. Croupier // puts you in my jaws and shakes you like a dog

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I said I was gonna go take a nap and then I saw ain and the peacock braincell won

into suri's forest we go

boy go take the Sleep

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