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

[atailoftwoworlds]

[Careful? Of thinking there's a weakness somewhere? Because there's one thing he has to note.]

Power isn't always brute strength or magic, ya know. Anyway, nobody's gonna fight the gods until we know enough about how to get out of here. If it turns out we have to fight 'em, that is.

[suspecteverything]

[Careful trusting people to work with him. The all for one philosophy has a tendency to backfire on the most trusting. His eyes darken and he looks down, some past memory haunting him enough to be visible.]

Power doesn't have anything to do with it.

[In his experience, those with power are usually among the first to feel the sting of betrayal.]

[atailoftwoworlds]

Huh? What do you me-? [Wait so why does he have to be careful? He didn't really say anything else that might have sounded reckless. All he said was that he was going to protect the others and the important thing was to work together....

Zidane then takes into account the way Jules' demeanor changes and he looks down. And then the young thief remembers the words "Watch your back".]

....Oh.

[This guy. Did something happen to him to make him think that? Well, either way, Zidane's not going to ask. He's got no good reason to poke into Jules' business, especially as the guy is a stranger. So he'll say something else instead.]

Well, sure. Not everyone on this island is gonna be trustworthy. But I'd rather have friends here and get stabbed in the back by a couple than have none at all and struggle in this place alone. [And if he did get fucked over by someone he thought as a friend? Sure, it would suck. A lot. But having nobody as a friend in this place when he's so far away from home would be worse for him.]

[suspecteverything]

[Spoken by someone who has never experienced it. You get stabbed hard enough, and by the right person, it makes being alone feel like the most amazing thing in the world. That's a feeling you can't explain to someone who hasn't experienced it though.]

Keep reminding yourself of that.

[Jules isn't going to turn this kid into a paranoid fanatic. That's about the last thing he wants, but he still needed to at least try to protect him.]

[atailoftwoworlds]

[Zidane has not experienced a betrayal from any of his close friends, no. However, even if he did, he can't let that distance him from the close friends who are trustworthy. After, there was one point he tried to fight alone. And if that continued, he probably wouldn't have survived.]

Guess I will. [He shrugs. There's not much else he can say in response. He doesn't know what's happened to this guy to make him say something like this. He just hopes this guy isn't so distrusting of people it'll end badly.]