November Undercurrent: And We Give Thanks

[lifeaftr_mods]

NOVEMBER UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: Have you told someone you loved them yet?
When: November 3rd to November 20th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: Nothing of note; please mark if anything comes up!

Take Me Back to the Reasons Why
The Water wishes to demonstrate their power to you, as well as just what they mean, when they suggest that they require your cooperation. They are going to bring back the harvest island of Nuidan, a generally fondly remembered island that explorers have encountered in the past. What's more, they're going to require your help to do it.

Starting November 3rd, characters will discover a simple strip of dark leather among their belongings, meant to be worn around the neck or wrist. They can disregard it, of course, but if they attempt to discard or destroy it, it will always find its way back to them, no matter how improbable this might seem. How strange...

Perhaps even stranger is the sudden appearance of a smooth slab of stone, half-submerged in the waters just off of Ensō's coast. It's an altar, and around its edges are a series of deep notches, as though something is meant to be inserted into them. In its center is a pool of water, though it curiously doesn't seem to reflect anything.

The purpose of this will only really become obvious once the month goes on. Characters will find themselves to compelled to be honest with the people around them as to why they care, why they appreciate them as people, or what they like most about them. This compulsion can vary wildly and at the player's discretion, from a gentle mental pressure to an unstoppable force, and anything in between!

The bottom line is that every time one admits to some feeling of gratitude, no matter how small or big, their little plait of leather will receive a crystal from the interaction. All crystals will be roughly the same shape, but they may vary in color, pattern, and texture. Some might be simple sticks of quartz, while others might be comprised of myriad, ever-changing swirls of color. Again, the only limit here is your imagination. Now the presence of that strange, altar-shaped stone in the water might make a bit more sense. Those notches in its sides are the perfect size and shape to fit a crystal smoothly into any one of them. The more grateful interactions one has with others, the more crystals they will gather, and the more they can fit into the altar. As more crystals are fed to the altar, it will start to glow. The pool of water at the altar's top will start to reflect the likeness island of Nuidan in increasing clarity, as though one is peering at its likeness in a snowglobe. What's more is that the number of crystals in the altar will very obviously affect Nuidan's state: very few crystals will make the island look as though it is mostly wilderness only a handful of structures in dire need of repair, while a great deal of crystals will cause the island to look as though it is thriving, in full bloom, and in more need of harvest than maintenance.

But, ultimately, the state in which Nuidan returns to you is up to you...and how far you're willing to go to express a little gratitude. Don't worry if you don't know anyone, either - this marks a great opportunity to start doing nice things for people, even if you don't know them! You've got most of the month to get to know each other, after all.

Don't think you can get away with heaping compliments on your closest friends and companions, however; variety is the name of the game here. While you can collect all sorts of crystals for personal use from repeat interactions, you can only feed one crystal to the altar per person. That is to say, Character A can be as grateful to Character B as they like, but only one crystal from each character can be delivered to the altar. If they want to procure more for the altar's purposes, Character A will have to have a positive interaction with Character C, and so on.

Take Me Back to That Big Sky

Of course, there's a lot going on in the background as well. You're free to use this log as a catch-all for the duration of November's Undercurrent Event, as well as the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. You are very, very free to let your dreams about creepers and baby lorbies become reality, and you are always free to create your own individual logs and posts as needed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them over on our Monthly Rundown post!

November Timeline

[ ♆ ] November 3rd: "And We Give Thanks" begins and lasts until November 20th
[ ♆ ] November 4th: "Aw, Man" begins and lasts until November 12th
[ ♆ ] November 11th: "The Lorblings" begins and lasts until November 25th
[ ♆ ] November 20th: Nuidan returns to the archipelago
[ ♆ ] November 21st: "Return to Your Roots" begins and lasts until November 30th

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[yakyuuman]

[ Poor bird child isn't in luck today, because Jyushimatsu has been in the middle of spacing out in pure bliss about the weird wholesome feelings mentioned above.

The impact occurs right in the middle of his solar plexus, knocking his breath out, eyes popping out of their sockets. ]

BOEH?!?

[ ... is the only thing he can state out loud before he's sent flying backwards, in a dramatic slow motion, and lands on the dirt below. ]

[mockiri]

[ACK! HER BEAK! She squawks and stumbles backwards, because she weighs like five pounds and isn't the most balanced of people, both hands lifted to rub at her beak. That hurt! Though it might have hurt this poor fellow more. Most people's faces don't end in a point.]

Don’t stab humans, don’t eat humans, okay?

[Oh dear, no one's taught her how to apologize yet.]

[yakyuuman]

[ Nice, it's a talking bird. He would be excited if he wasn't half-conscious and trying to recover from the impact. Jyushimatsu coughs a few times, patting the sore spot. It's going to bruise for sure, but at least he's used to get much worse injuries. At worst, he'll lay there for a bit longer. ]

I've never stabbed or eaten humans, I'm not Hannibal the Cannibal...

[ He blurts that out without really thinking. ]

[mockiri]

[Okay, that combination of words is just too delightful not to steal. She lowers her hands and claps them together with a little pap, then speaks in his voice,]

Hannibal the Cannibal...

[....!! Yep, delightful! She has no idea what it means but it sounds silly, so she digs it.]

Hannibal the Cannibal.

[yakyuuman]

[ Rubbing his sternum, he looks at the bird with some degree of puzzlement as she repeats what he says... in his voice. It's kinda creepy. He likes it a bit. ]

You don't look like a cockatoo. How can you do that?

[mockiri]

[That makes her frown and shake her head. She has no audible response to his question, so instead she pulls her bag off her back, digging through and pulling out a notebook. She flips a page in and holds it out to him, revealing a childish scrawl of words:]

kenku
can only say what I hear

[yakyuuman]

[ Ohhh, that explains a lot? The name itself doesn't, but the explanation below sheds a bit of light. Jyushimatsu nods slowly, and as the pain fades off his smile also reappears. ]

I see! Well, that sucks! 'Cause you can't say things on your own?

[ If he understood it right. Otherwise he's an idiot. ]

[mockiri]

[She nods. He could still be an idiot but in this case, he's nailed it.]

Come on, you get it.

[She tucks the book under her arm, pointing at herself, then him.]

I am Kiri!

[yakyuuman]

[ Nice! Got it right. Still sucks that she's like this, but it's not a problem, he can adapt to the situation.

He pats his chest, winces at the leftover pain, but smiles nonetheless. ]

I'm Jyushimatsu! I like seeing people who are not just human around here!

[ Well, unless they're those long furby disasters, in that case he'd run as fast as possible. ]

[mockiri]

[She is a bird that mimics sound, so she is a little bit of a furby. But hopefully not a disaster, or terribly annoying besides. She chirps agreeably at his assessment. There's lots of strange folk around, so she fits in here just fine.]

Yes, I’m very sweet.

[yakyuuman]

Mhm! I guess you are!

[ Like, they've just met and she basically speared him by accident - but if she says she's sweet that it must be true! Even though he's just learned of her speech problems...

Either way, hopefully she accepts headpats because he's going to give her one! ]

[mockiri]

[Oh! That's new. She chirps in surprise, feathers poofing out a little, but she doesn't pull away. Consider the headpat accepted.]

[yakyuuman]

[ Hope she enjoys the floppy chunk of clothing he brings down along with the pat, since he wears a pretty oversized hoodie that's a bit too long on the sleeves.

But he withdraws after a bit, beaming. ]

You're a nice little girl! Let's be friends!

[mockiri]

[Eh, she's probably had worse. Her feathers settle back down, and she nods eagerly. Friends! She likes new friends. Especially ones who don't mind a pointy beak. She responds in an accented man's hushed voice,]

This means we are friends.

[yakyuuman]

[ Quite a peculiar voice was used there, but he's okay with it, the context is what matters and Jyushimatsu is overjoyed. ]

Yeah! We're friends now! From now on let's do friend things!

[ What sort of friend things, he won't specify. ]

[mockiri]

[It's okay, it's not like she can ask. The world is their oyster either way! At least until one of her guardians comes to reclaim her from whatever those shenanigans might entail.]

Let's do friend things!

[yakyuuman]

Mhm! Friend things! Like... rolling in the mud!

[ Yeah, what a good start of a friendship. ]