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

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

Convenient!

[Not that it's a traditional throwing weapon, but that has to help.

Michael takes the scythe and weighs it in his hands easily enough. He's accustomed to weapons, but demons tend more towards things like knives, when they aren't using some hyper-specific torture implement.]

There was a time when we talked about using these on a large scale. They really scared the peasants... [He swings it idly, slowly enough that it's barely a real swing at all.] Does its job quick, though.

[A scythe doesn't exactly lend itself to long, drawn-out pain. There's ways. There's ways to use practically anything for torture. But it's a little unwieldy when you get down to that - better a sickle, if you must have harvesting equipment.]

[deathfindsaway]

[Yeah, tossing this thing is not always the point. But it's very useful if it gets knocked out of his hands or something like that. He watches Michael handle it with some pride on his end, an excitement to share something he's never found someone even remotely interested in.]

Yes, well, a lot of my position is not the judgement part. When you're tracking criminals on the run, you want to end something quite quickly, and the fastest way to kill something will always be a beheading.

[He also just thinks it looks sick as hell. Why brandish a sword at someone when you could step out holding a blade so big all you can imagine is it cutting you in half? It's wicked, that's what it is.]

[eudaimonikos]

Different tools for different jobs.

[Sure, Michael's lopped off a few heads in his time, but it's not as though the humans in their care can die a second time. It's all about hurting them, one way or another. He swings the scythe once or twice more, spins it around in his hand, and then goes to hand it back.]

It's funny - demons are terrible, all of us, but I doubt any of us have ever really killed anything. It's the one form of harm that's completely out of our reach. [Well. Not his, not now.] How on earth are people escaping from your afterlife, anyway?

[deathfindsaway]

[He takes it back gingerly, hands finding familiar handholds without even thinking of it.]

Oh, I'm sure I've caused some pain in my time, even if that wasn't the objective. Or well, not my Lady's objective. If they were being particularly terrible, it was sometimes also mine.

[Never forget when he impersonated a cleric's god to get him infected with virulent crystals to slowly eat his body. And laughed about it. Yup.]

And as for escapees... well, the short answer is necromancy, and the long answer is people keep inventing new ways to do it. It was one thing when you could summon up a ghost or something, minor spirits shifting planes, but-- the last major case I had was a scientist building a soul conduit for a functional robot that sucked up random personhood from other planes. They just, they just keep reinventing necromancy when it does NOT need to be done.

[eudaimonikos]

Necromancy is real where you're from?

[Michael sounds like, at least 50% more delighted by that concept than Kravitz would probably prefer.]

[deathfindsaway]

Oh, so unfortunately yes.

[He sounds so tired.]

Magic is prolific in my world, seeing as it's connected to the primary planar system, so there are always some idiots trying to figure out how to tap into the energies of life and death. Few of them are actively malicious or difficult to dispatch, but they just never learn.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, of course they don't. Humans are so creative!

[He's charmed. As far as Michael is concerned, if a human manages to cheat their way out of death, good for them. God knows the other side doesn't play fair either.]

It's very hard to keep that species down.

[deathfindsaway]

Creative certainly is one word for it.

[Perhaps in worlds with other systems, where the power of the dead can't be harnessed into literal hellfire, the stakes would be a little less high. Even then, he makes exceptions sometimes. Even then, he can be fair.]

Humans I find I have the most frequent trouble with, though it's not often the most severe. Save of course for the, erm, most notable one quite recently that nearly destroyed the world, but that happens every once in a while. That's why this is a delicate process.

[eudaimonikos]

I guess that is bad.

[The world destruction part. He gets going after those people! The others, eh, sounds like a misdemeanor. A probably funny misdemeanor!]

You've got non-human mortals?

[deathfindsaway]

[Sometimes it kind of is. You know how many kids hes had to give the spooky death talk to when they tried to reanimate a dog and accidentally pulled a whole ass person? Mostly he is just Tired.]

Oh yes, quite. Elves, dwarves, tieflings, gnomes, all kinds. There are quite a number of mortal races, though their lifespans vary quite dramatically between a handful of decades to centuries. And of course, there are mixed races among them. Humans just often seem to be the stupidest.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, it's a nerd world.

[COOL GOT IT he actually has a not inaccurate picture of Faerun now]

Do you find that the longer-lived species are more annoying, though?

[deathfindsaway]

I-- it-- nerd world?

[What does that mean, thinks man who is not genre aware even a little. At least he can answer the second bit.]

Well, it honestly depends. They're less of a frequent problem and more something to keep an eye on. Humans can brute force their way through quite a bit, but when you have five hundred years and you're just pushing your mid-life crisis? The illusion of the time they have can be quite powerful. It's also simply a long time to learn a trade, therefore you're dealing with a stronger enemy. By the time it's my problem they're often unstable liches.

[eudaimonikos]

I would think they'd just be annoying as people.

[He wasn't even thinking of the necromancy thing. Mostly, Michael suspects that a vast majority of immortals sort of suck, and maybe longer-lived mortals living among humans would also?]

What is a lich?

[deathfindsaway]

Well, that varies.

[Not that the twins are good examples, because they're just... like that. Besides, considering he's usually the stuffier of the two, it's kind of hard to say if he doesn't fall into the category of 'weird immortal' either. He's taken off this very quickly by the prospect of bitching about liches though, and he scoffs.]

Liches are those who have bound their souls to pure magic in an attempt to make themselves immortal. It's-- it just ends badly, all things considered. I have met very, very few who have managed to handle themselves, and even that is... dubious. Typically they are power-hungry madmen who seek only their own gain.

[He sighs, a little bit self satisfied.]

See, this is what I like about our talks. You have such a refreshing perspective.

[eudaimonikos]

Hhhhhuh.

[Michael can't really draw a parallel from that to anything similar in his own world. Where he's from, something like that would be impossible on several levels. 
...also, is that a backhanded compliment, or.]

Well, you definitely have a lot more excitement than we do. Thousands of years, there's only ever been four humans to duck out of the system - and that really wasn't their fault. Just totally normal people in weird circumstances.  

[deathfindsaway]

[Somehow, it isn't. Kravitz is just piss poor at giving compliments and also making sense about it. He likes someone who wants to hear what he has to say, which probably doesn't happen enough in his life.]

Still, it must have been quite momentous to cause such an occasion. Especially if you've been there since the start. How did it take that long to make strange enough circumstances to slip?

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael's sure of the correct answer to that question: it just took that long for any immortal to take any real interest. Angels, the Judge - they act like they care, sure. But they don't do anything. He doesn't think that counts as good.

But of course, that gets very into his personal involvement as a human smuggler.]

I guess the system was just pretty airtight!

[deathfindsaway]

[Look, he's not immune, the man bets souls on card games because he's the most stereotypical asshole ever made. It just Happens.]

Hm. Well, I suppose-- I mean, with that many agents, it is possible.

[He just shrugs. Kravitz figures many less souls would get out if there was more than just him, after all.]

I'm just glad I didn't get to make an actual go at adding you to them.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael hisses in a breath through his teeth. Yeah, that would've...that would've been bad.]

You probably would've been crushed. My natural form is...larger. Than this.

[deathfindsaway]

Really?

[Well that's just fascinating. Kravitz tilts his head slightly to the left, obviously intrigued.]

Do you prefer to appear like this, or has that been a forced result of these islands? I personally find this to be my default, though I do often shed it in favor of simply projecting my soul in my realm.

[eudaimonikos]

This is a skinsuit, actually! We make them back home for people who work directly with humans - mostly so they can learn how best to torture one.

[It's really not for the humans' benefit at all.]

But I do prefer it. All my friends are this shape and size.

[deathfindsaway]

Fascinating. I, I do understand wanting to match, though. Whenever I'm with Taako I want to be compatible, you know. Outside of this place it does take a bit of magic to hold this form, but here I don't need to think on it.

[Because he's like, a solid boy now. It's still a little weird, even two years later.]

It is... nice, to have someone who understands this aspect of it all. The disconnect of working with people in this way. I, I appreciate it, that we can have talks about it all.

[He's not usually this complimentary, but something about it just feels right in this moment. Go figure as to why.]

[eudaimonikos]

I understand. I haven't been able to talk to any other immortals since everything started - and even before that, demons are all dicks. Can't have a real conversation with any of them! So it is nice to have someone else around.

[Michael tends to be fairly free with compliments, at least; this doesn't feel unusual to him.]

Taako's a friend of yours...?

[deathfindsaway]

[He smiles, an actual soft sort of look, but the Taako comment takes him off guard. His dark skin flushes with more color, and he supresses the goofy grin he instinctually wants to put on whenever the elf is mentioned.]

He-- well, yes, but he's also... my boyfriend. He's uhm, quite remarkable. An incredible chef and talented wizard. We, uhm, met out on a job actually.

[eudaimonikos]

...huh.

[Well, there's a couple odd things in there! Michael has never even contemplated immortals dating; he always just figured that was some human thing.]

How'd that happen?