EVENT & TDM 024

[sticksandbonesmods]

MONSTER MASH

WAKE UP

Where were you last? Do you remember falling asleep, thinking you’d wake up in your own home, your own bed?

When you open your eyes, the room you’re in doesn’t feel like your own. In fact, you’re almost certain you didn’t fall asleep here. You’re given only a short few moments to get your bearings before the door to that room opens, the doorknob jiggling as whoever is on the other side is unlocking it. Is it a library study room you’ve found yourself in, or an inn room that doesn’t belong to you? A home that isn’t yours? A business after-hours?

An unfortunate few of you may find yourself face-to-face with the real owners of these rooms, homes, and businesses — and surely they’re just as confused as you are. The lucky ones might instead find themselves being “rescued” from their sleeping states by a heavily scarred man with dreadlocks and an impossibly sunny demeanour.

“Mornin’, sunshine! Up and at ‘em!” he’ll say, hands on his hips and the door held open in a way that says he expects you to simply come follow him, whoever he is. “You ain’t where you’re supposed to be, but I’ll bail you out before the person who owns this place knocks your teeth out for trespassin’. It’ll be our little secret, ‘kay?”

TRANSPOREMATION

cw: body horror, monster transformations, fungal parasitism

As usual, Aldric’s Grove is something of a hot mess, and that’s especially true lately. Aside from random people popping into existence in various buildings, there’s a bit of a fungus problem lately. A wee little problem with cute little mushrooms. …a major, unignorable, horrendous problem with some very large, purplish-coloured mushrooms, fruiting on still-living trees and the forest floor. They look quite similar to meadow mushrooms, but far, far less harmless. While eating one won’t poison anybody too badly — aside from an episode of horrible stomach pain — stepping on them or touching them at all will cause them to shower you in a spray of spores, all of which suddenly curve around and cling onto you as if they have a mind of their own. Any attempt to remove them, to wash them off, to brush them away from your skin and clothes, only makes the spores cling more stubbornly. Soon, they’ve started to root under your skin, unable to be pulled out.

The resulting transformation is, for what little it’s worth, extremely swift. Perhaps you feel it, perhaps you don’t, but the spores leave you fundamentally changed no matter what.

Your bones lengthen and rearrange, grinding together underneath your muscle tissue. Snapping, creaking, where new joints form over the breaks. Wings rip through your back in a spray of blood and torn flesh, the wounds healing themselves over a short second later. You drop to the ground as your back legs become something foreign and new, toes bursting free of your shoes, claws digging into the soil as you writhe on the ground. Your spine elongates, the muscles in your neck tense and relax as it gets too long. The spores are deciding what to do with you, it seems, as extra eyes rapidly appear and disappear over your body alongside feathers and scales. Within the span of sixty seconds, it seems the mushrooms have come to a decision on what you should be, and the transformations it inflicts on you rapidfire begin evening out.

Whether that leaves you something wolflike, catlike, ghostly, chimeric, or otherwise… that seems to be up to the spores. Regardless, you’re no longer in your own skin. At least you’re still “you”, and at least you haven’t lost much more than your old form… right?

…

Well, not to worry. Try your luck stepping on the mushrooms again! This time, they might be kind enough to revert you back to normal… assuming they don’t turn you into a different type of creature instead.

TIME TREKS ON

For the foreseeable future, many people are “stuck” outside their normal bodies. It doesn’t mean that life in the Grove stops, however, as people flit from building to building — assuming their monster forms didn’t bar them off from entering most of them anyhow — and their daily routines continue. From the Church of the Golden Sun in the north of Aldric’s Grove emanates a lovely, warm light, inviting all who are loyal to the Goddesses within its halls and barring the Corrupted or those loyal to the Fallen Sun from entry. Describing it as a “church” may not entirely be accurate; instead of an altar, there sits a throne that automatically prevents anyone who isn’t the Goddess of the Sun from sitting on it (despite the fact she isn’t currently there). Instead of pews, the first room is a large combat arena, golden weapons hung up on the walls that are free to use if you need to spar. Thankfully, the doors are large enough to accommodate most monsters, though the halls in the back may not be sizeable enough for anyone over eight feet tall.

Within that church, the kilns in the back are fired up, pottery baking while animal spirits resembling lions and dogs mix paint with their paws. It’s difficult, being a little guy — help a critter out? You can paint a selection of finished pottery when you’re done, which they’d tell you if they could speak to you. If they bring you a flower-shaped plate or a vase in the shape of a tulip and a paintbrush, will you figure out what they mean? If you don’t, that’s not a problem, as they’ll nudge you toward the pottery wheels and get you clay to work with. When you make your own thing, they think you’ll be more willing to paint with them. Hope you brought your art hands, assuming you have any at all after those mushrooms got you.

In the opposite wing from the pottery room, the kitchen is going strong, the smells of freshly baked bread wafting down the hall. Here is where Ydalir is, the shadowy woman wearing silks who normally casts magic and sells items, who turns to you and extends a flour-covered palm. Come here! Let’s bake something together — it’s the least she feels she can do, since she can’t exactly eliminate the fungus problem. There’s a host of food sitting in the dining room nearby already, with Heimr and Renard setting the table, Heimr nitpicking the setup while Renard focuses too hard on decorating with garlands and candelabras.

If you can’t fit into the dining room for any reason, one of the three will bring you food. They’d hate to see you go hungry, after all.

IT NEVER ENDS

While the Guardians themselves are immune to the transformations — Moder is, in fact, eating the mushrooms when no one is nearby to get spore’d — it doesn’t mean they’re not enjoying the fact that some of you can now spend more time with them in ways you couldn’t before.

Those of you with wings or flight abilities are invited by Aurora and the newly-resurrected bone dragon Sehul to come flying. Though Sehul won’t land in the Grove (too many buildings too close together for a hundred-foot dragon to feel comfortable, you see), they’ll land on the seaside, and even invite you to race them there. They do have something of a body mass advantage, but when they eventually win, they’ll fairly concede that it doesn’t really count. Aurora, meanwhile, wants desperately to teach you to do a midair flip.

Those of you who find yourselves suddenly aquatic will be literally accosted by Callan, who swims up into the river for once only to wrap his tentacles around you and drag you off toward the lake with a watery laugh. He expects you to do the same to him in return, but the Guardian’s extreme strength might make it difficult. Worry not, because if no one comes to your rescue, Sinann will chide him until he lets go, and show you the nest the baby Seaborn have built at the deepest point in the river. You’re welcome to live with them for a while, if you want. Their pastime is singing, and they’d love to sing with you.

And to the folks with a sudden craving for plants, Moder will gladly show you where the best snacks are — her favourite trees to reach into, the best flowers to eat, a fragrant patch of wild herbs. She’s happy to stroll through the forest with you, calmer than her peers are. If you need a ride on her mossy back, she’ll accommodate, so long as you don’t mind her telling old tales of a world long gone.

The final Guardian, Zahliya, doesn’t seem too keen on playtime, and will simply perch in various locations throughout the Grove to keep watch, as he normally does. Gifts of food given his way are rejected for the time being. He has a job to do; why don’t you go play with everyone?

It’s a beautiful, sunny day. This world isn’t often peaceful and playful. You should take advantage of it before something horrible happens… you and everyone else here know the good mood can’t last too long.

Spark Notes

summary

WAKE UP: Welcome to the Grove! You've found yourself in someone else's home/business/room it seems. Good luck explaining this one, but maybe Renard will be in time to bail you out?
TRANSPOREMATION: The mushrooms in the woods will spray you with spore clouds if you're not careful, and then transform you into something else. After a potentially-painful transformation, you'll find yourself in a new, more monsterlike body for a while.
TIME TREKS ON: Despite the monster mash, Beiwe's church is going strong, providing an opportunity to get creative or cook some dinner. Ydalir, Heimr, and Renard are all happy to see you and invite you to a home-cooked meal. They'd probably appreciate help with the dining room decor, too.
IT NEVER ENDS: Despite the transformations, it seems like the Guardians are all super pumped to spend time with you guys in their own domains. Many of them will invite you and your friends to hang out, some more politely than others. It's peaceful for once, so why not take them up on that?

out of character

Happy May! Here is your usual reminder that TDM threads are game canon. Per our plotting post (linked below) please keep in mind our rules for the monster transformations, and have fun!

updates

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

submissions

❖ NPCs List
❖ Questions
❖ May Plotting
❖ Past Life Plotting (Closed to Game Members)
❖ Investigations
❖ TDM NPC Contact

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Comments

[notsonewbie]

[Meryl doesn't move right away. How could she, when everything feels like it happened so fast. She stares at the now empty space, feeling the sting of where those nails dug in. She's looked death in the eyes before, and now she's done it again. At least Knives had the courtesy of naturally looking terrifying. Instead, the strange figure had been alluring. Like Meryl had wanted to stay.

Well. No matter. Her senses return swiftly enough, and she remembers to make her way to the inn. Her steps are certainly faster, and she keeps watching the corners of her eyes for fear of that wolf tearing back after her.

Thankfully, she makes it without issue. And though she knows she probably shouldn't, she makes her way to a window once she finds a room and opens it all the same. Squinting into the night, she waits for her assailant to appear yet again.]

[cryopathy]

[it's quite a while before the shadows below her window move again -- at least half an hour, possibly longer. time moves strangely in the grove. regardless, the tiny wounds inflicted on meryl have plenty of time to cease bleeding by the time the wolf trots out of the trees. its muzzle and throat drip with red, but rather than lick its chops, it shakes itself, flecks spraying the grass around it.

when meryl next blinks, the person is once again in its place. they lift a hand to wipe some of what remains on their face.]

Animal doesn't quite cut it. [they shoot a bitter smile up at the window, more relaxed than they were earlier in the evening. they can still smell the old blood, but their instinct to not cross the threshold -- to survive -- supercedes their hunger.] I'll answer your questions, but don't look me in the eye. I could compel you to come back down.

[notsonewbie]

[Meryl was... just starting to doze off at her window when she catches sight of movement. One hand dips back from the window, slipping into the pocket with her gun. She... doesn't want to even think about where that blood came from. She hadn't heard any screaming, but that didn't mean that they hadn't just caught someone by surprise. A shiver works its way down her spine before she can suppress it.

All the demands that are made of her really just sound like cliches. They're straight out of the kind of books some of her classmates would read between classes. She can't help but roll her eyes.]

Okay, first question. What's with the dramatics?

[cryopathy]

[kiera is lucky, honestly, that they've never come across "romantic" vampire fiction. it's well within the realm of possibility that their head would spontaneously combust.

to this question, they... shrug.]

I've been turned into a vampire. [could it be any more obvious? ♪] Vampires must abide by certain natural rules, and require human blood to keep their wits. I have... abstained, since turning, so you must understand how difficult you were to resist.

[notsonewbie]

A... vampire? [Considering all the fantastical creatures she's seen by now, it really shouldn't be that surprising. But...] Isn't that a little basic?

[Sorry, she can't help but crack a grin. She props her chin up with a hand, pulling a chair over with her leg so she can at least get comfortable.]

And I'm not sure if that's flattery or a threat.

[cryopathy]

[the grin on their own face widens, sharp and mirthless.]

Our captor has a wretched sense of humor.

[their eyes narrow.] Consider it both.

[notsonewbie]

That thing in the trees, right?

[She's certainly heard rumors.]

Well, I'm not going to say thank you, considering what you're implying. [Her expression softens.] Are you okay?

[cryopathy]

That's the one.

[their eyes widen at the next question, and they're silent for a time. eventually, they shake their head and laugh. it's a softer, airier sound than the hisses and snarls thus far.]

You're an odd one. Who meets a monster that wants to hurt them and then asks whether it is alright?

[notsonewbie]

[Meryl can only outright grin. She leans just a little further out the window, now with both hands braced under her head. She'd look outright impish considering the gleam in her eyes. Not that she's meeting Kiera's or anything.]

Depends. What kind of monster tried to fend off a human they could so easily eat, huh?

[cryopathy]

[kiera, at least, is forcing themself not to look directly at meryl. as "relaxed" of a situation as this currently is, they don't want to tempt their instincts. they are still impossibly thirsty, and every hour that passes without blood will only make it more difficult.]

I suppose I've just never been into eating people! Like I said -- absolute garbage sense of humor.

[notsonewbie]

[Okay, well that catches her attention. Her gaze does actually flick toward Kiera's eyes for a moment, then away once more.]

You say that like humans are regularly part of your menu options.

[cryopathy]

[hm. kiera couldn't say whether she's having an episode, or subconsciously trying to work meryl for pity in a long con to get her within reach once more. either way, they don't stop themself.]

They are. But normally, I have a choice.

[notsonewbie]

And you think you don't now? [Her head cocks just a little.] Because it sure looks like you made a choice earlier. A good one, since it saved my life.

But that's just my opinion.

[cryopathy]

[... how idealistic. kiera could speak the truth: that every time they make that choice, it becomes all the more difficult to continue doing so. but sharing that might prevent them from eventually getting that meal.]

Have you had much opportunity to sympathize with monsters in your homeworld, miss?

[notsonewbie]

[A shrug. She may or may not be hiding a smirk.]

I did happen to find out that the multi-million double dollar bounty carrying baddie everyone was so afraid of was actually framed so, I guess you could say that.

[She sobers up a touch, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.]

But I have met monsters. The superpowered kind, and the totally human kind. You don't really strike me as either.

[cryopathy]

Had you come a few weeks earlier, you would have surely mistaken me for the latter. As for the former -- I can still prove you wrong, you know. What will you do tomorrow night, and the next, and the next, when you need to venture outside for food and supplies? Do you expect me to be so gracious each time?

[notsonewbie]

Maybe not. But do you expect me to be entirely unarmed? It sounds like there are bullets to be found. All it takes is a few questions and a trip in the daylight to have an actually worthwhile weapon.

[cryopathy]

[... ah, shit. this backfired.

time to shoot meryl a wide, friendly smile! it's very pointy.]

Well, this just proves you're as much intelligent as you are compassionate!

Did you know the average human body can lose over a pint of blood without adverse effects? [asking for a friend!]

[notsonewbie]

[Oop, she's squinting at Kiera.]

And what does that have to do with anything?

[cryopathy]

Well -- you've been so kind to me this far, but... perhaps I shouldn't take your generosity for granted...?

[notsonewbie]

Seriously? You're just... asking for my blood? Just like that?

[There goes that nervous laughter, all over again.]

[cryopathy]

[the toothy grin widens.]

Doesn't being polite about it count for anything?

[notsonewbie]

So, what, I just saunter on down there like you just told me not to. Or do I...

[She looks inside, toward an arrangement of mugs.]

I mean... I do have, uh. Cups?

[cryopathy]

[shruuug!]

You could just invite me up!

[aaand a little grimace.]

Oh, don't do that. If you cut the wrong place, you could bleed out, and that would be such a waste of a lovely person.

[notsonewbie]

Excuse you? [A defensive huff.] You don't learn how to defend yourself on No Man's Land without knowing what bleeds and doesn't bleed badly.

Besides, what happened to insisting I stay inside and not come out. It sounds like coming outside would be the reason I bled out.