lifeaftr | November Undercurrent: And We Give Thanks

November Undercurrent: And We Give Thanks

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'll come find you, alright?" It's a stupid idea, and yet it's far from the dumbest thing he's ever done. He's not a wilderness guy, he's a city skeleton. He needs street signs and pavement.

Still. What's the worst that can happen? He'll get lost, tired, and frustrated, but he won't starve or die of thirst. "Just stay where you are. Or... oh, I don't know. Stay by the stream?"

"You don't have to do that." Probably shouldn't, actually. Nobody needs to see him like this, Hector included. Talking to him is most likely bad enough.

But of course Hector would want to. He cares too damn much for his own good - and, as soon as that thought enters his mind, Ginko has to grit his teeth to keep from saying it. Don't.

"You did for me." Would he have said that unaltered? Probably, he's like that. And not worth the effort, but Ginko did. He deserves the same done for him.

He's already on the move, the clacking of bone can be heard through the stone. "So... can you tell me which direction you went from the mana pool?"

He doesn't really have an answer to that - not one he can let himself say out loud, anyway. Of course he went to help Hector, but this isn't the same; Hector deserves better than to waste his own time like this.

Evidently, though, he's not going to be dissuaded. Ginko lets out a breath - trying and only partly succeeding to keep his voice steady - as he thinks over what path he took. "Northwest. From the pool by the Storyteller's temple."

Waste his time, as if he does anything important with it. He's not exactly one of the more vital people in their little community. Card games. Jokes. Some cooking. Sandcastles and squirt guns. He's a shitty adult, he's a six foot child.

"Alright, that helps a lot." He can work out basic directions, at least. Not bad for a guy without a compass. He can't get the worry out of his voice. "Do you want me to bring you anything? Food?"

They're all trapped on an interplanar island with no idea of how or when to escape, constantly being accosted by whatever new horrors the archipelago reveals. Ginko would argue that, in fact, finding chances to make people comfortable and happy is incredibly important.

Certainly more important than whatever the hell Ginko has accomplished lately. He's not even doing much good at the clinic, seeing as how nobody ever shows up.

"No." Another flat, one-word reply. And then: "You really don't need to bother with this."

One of these days he'll get it through Ginko's thick skull that he's people too. One day. For better or for worse, Ginko is apparently not getting rid of his personal goofball.

"Then maybe you should come down and stop me, because I'm going to." Shaky, breathy attempt at a joke?? He's still walking, still rattling these bones.

Ginko's shoulders hunch, his free hand adjusting to clutch his leg. Hector shouldn't be trying to make a hike like this; he can already here how it's wearing on him, and a guilty ringing in the back of his mind tells him he should go find him, keep him from making his way all the way up here--

But he can't. The thought of going to find Hector, tracking him down himself, makes the shame weighing in his chest press even harder. He can barely imagine moving at all, let alone climbing back down the mountainside to find someone who shouldn't be trying to talk to him to begin with.

"I'm not going to go find you to tell you not to find me." There's that slight creep of irritation that Hector may have heard a couple times - dulled though it may be by how exhausted he sounds. "I shouldn't have to."

It's worry more than anything taking away his breath. He's been in this state so long it seems like he was never any different, sometimes, and damned if he'll let his shoddy bones stop him. Persistence. It's no worse than the explorations he used to go on before Nastrandir and the sirens.

The silence lasts a little longer before his voice comes through the stone again. "Did something happen today...?"

The pause before Hector speaks again barely feels like anything from Ginko's end; his head is still buzzing, and without the effort of answering Hector's questions, several seconds' wait is indistinguishable from an instant.

Of course, when Hector does speak again, he has to boot himself into processing it, and... then he just lets out a quiet, empty snort of laughter. Today? "Not in particular."

Well, that rules out someone else vanishing... or worse, dying. Ed, Epsilon, Bag-head, any of Ginko's friends. So...

"What's on your mind then?" Another pause. "Nobody's going to hear but me, I'm alone now. I'm on my way."

There's a long, long pause before Ginko answers. Hector wouldn't know it, of course, but on the other end, he's just staring at his stone in silence, struggling with what to say-- if anything at all. He doesn't want to even try to explain, frankly - not to Hector or to anyone else. It's not fair to waste his time with that, when the problem really just comes down to Ginko himself.

And yet he's asking. When Ginko does speak, it's probably pretty clearly not actually an answer to Hector's question; he lets out a quiet, harsh breath, his voice muffled as he rubs at his face with one hand.

"You're too damn nice."

Edited 2019-11-10 00:55 (UTC)

It's going to be a while before he makes it up an entire damn mountain, rocks and foliage and all this general nature nonsense slowing him down. Yeah. City life is better, he tells himself every day. How the heck do living people do this?! But it has to be done.

"No such thing as 'too nice', you know. You're worth looking for."

Ginko should probably be happy to hear Hector say that, he guesses - but, instead, his hand curls against his face, claws digging into his skin, and shame seizes his chest again.

It's not like this is the first time this has happened - and he guesses, to those expressing this kind of thing, it must seem natural. He's helped them, he's gotten close to them - probably too close, actually. So they end up feeling like they've got to return that.

"I'm... sorry."

"...Why are you sorry?" The fear's crept back into his voice. Sorry could mean so many things, sorry could mean something terrible is about to be done... he has to ask, he can't keep his mouth shut. They can sit together in silence when he's there, but until then...

"Can you keep talking to me, Ginko?" It'll probably be hours before he's found the guy. Too damn long.

He might feel bad about having scared him again, but... it's hard to tell, at this point. Too much guilt stacked up and weighing him down, to the point that one more weight doesn't mean much.

But the least he can do, he guesses, is to honor his request to keep talking - as likely as it may be that Hector won't like what he hears.

"I think... I may have given you the wrong idea. About myself."

"Why do you say that?"

Interesting how different he sounds when he's dropped the careless and happy fellow persona, isn't it? He could be another person entirely. Which one is the real him? Who knows?

Even if Ginko were in any state to notice that, he certainly wouldn't be in a position to question it. He's got his own facades for when he needs them, after all - and most have some truth to them.

But, of course, there's the problem. Bits of truth, honest advice given out of honest concern, can build up and piece together and somehow - somehow - create an impression of someone better than he has ever truly been.

And, somewhere along the way, it's bound to collapse.

"You said I was worth looking for." Saying it out loud doesn't actually help the sickening coiling in his gut. It just reminds him of old conversations, old arguments, trying and struggling and failing to explain what he is and what he isn't in a way that won't just hurt his conversation partner more.

But he's not sure that's possible.

"You don't have to bother with this. And you shouldn't."

"We're friends." Goes without saying, which never stops him saying it. But it hasn't seemed to sink it. Will it ever, he wonders. If it doesn't, at least he did everything he could.

"I want to, and I have time. Plenty of it. So why shouldn't I?"

He knows that much. He knows that they're friends, that Hector wants to be around him for some reason. Knowing it isn't really the problem.

"You could do anything else with that time." He pauses again, swallowing down another miserable swell of what feels like terror in his chest. What is wrong with him? "I can't-- stop you from coming up here, but I didn't leave for nothing."

He's in no state for conversation - Hector can probably tell that much just over the stone. Nobody should have to deal with this, and Ginko isn't sure he wants to deal with them.

"It's not a waste. You're no lost cause, you're one of my favorite people around."

Keep talking like that, Ginko, he has plenty of material with or without the damn compelling leather loop. It may not help, it may be making things worse, but he can't keep it inside.

"I promise, I'm not lying when I say that. I can't lie to save my life, you know that."

His answer comes out before he can rethink it. "There are much better people around than me."

The fact that Hector considers him a friend isn't really new information (as bizarre as it might be), but that sure is. Ginko pulls his limbs in closer, and his grip on his leg tightens until it stings.

"I know you're not lying. I know you mean it, because you're... that's what I meant, about you being too nice. You're too good not to mean it."

Nothing's said for a moment, though the stone is still sending the sounds of footsteps and bones clicking against each other. He couldn't sneak up on anyone to save his life either!

He's not silent for too terribly long. "Maybe so. Who cares? You don't have to be perfect or earn it and you haven't done anything wrong. Far as that goes, I'm not better than you either. I don't know where you get that idea from, I've made more mistakes than I've done good. I'm not some saint." Another pause. "We're just two guys stuck on an island, and... I want to spend time with you."

It doesn't matter whether Hector is a 'saint' or what; he's seen him with the kids here, how he lifts people's spirits. Unless he's secretly a murderer or something - which Ginko finds pretty damn hard to believe - that seems most important right now.

Of course, that isn't the only problem. You haven't done anything wrong-- yeah, right. He's always doing things wrong, here and in Ryslig and long before, driving people away or worse.

"I've been an awful friend. Especially lately." Irritable, useless, no matter how much he tries to channel that miserable apathy into something that might be worthwhile. "And that's just here. Not even counting before."

Hector may know some of who he was before. He may know about his traveling, his loneliness - but that doesn't mean he knows the extent of why things had to be that way, how much Ginko simply isn't suited to staying among people like this.

Would he go that far, given the choice between someone's life and the chance to see his daughter for one last day? No, probably not, but he would certainly be tempted. And what does that say about him?

"This place would wear anyone down, it did me and you know that, you were there. Can't get rid of me that easily, you have no idea how many people've tried."

Heaps and heaps of people! He's smiling for just a moment, unseen.

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