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

[bitch4bitch]

Now, hang on, if we're so similar what does that mean you think of me? [Not that she should be surprised after the whole toesies thing.

She passes the bottle back over to him and lets out a sharp laugh.] Ooh, man, I bet! I've only seen her in action a couple times, but shit, man.

[Given that she's talking to a guy who just called Beau his little sister, she probably shouldn't sound so ready for Beau to break her spine. Blame the magic leather, probably.]

I dunno that I've met Yasha yet, but she sounds fuckin' adorable.

[devilstongue]

Oh, you're growing on me just like she did. [ He says sweetly, before adding with a grin; ] Like mold.

[ He takes a deep sip from the bottle and then gestures with it as he speaks. ]

She's one hell of a fighter, I fully admit. Saved my ass many a-time.

[ Oh, he does not care... and to be fair, Beau sounds like that with any mildly scary lady. Girl's a bottom, that's for sure. ]

There's no more adorable woman in this world, I assure you. I love her dearly.

[bitch4bitch]

Hey, listen, I am extremely charming. [FAR too charming to be mold!!]

I'll have to keep an eye out in case I run into her, then. Sounds like we both got pretty lucky, ending up here with super adorable people from home. [After all, if you're going to be stranded on a shitty hell island, might as well be stranded with someone absolutely precious, whether they're just an unusually adorable adult or a cute as hell kid.]

[devilstongue]

We certainly did! I don't know what I would do without them.

[ No, really, He's pretty sure he would have had a mental breakdown by now and thrown himself into the sea if he was all alone in this place.

New friends aside, that is. ]

[bitch4bitch]

It's a goddamn mystery, man.

[She may not feel like she has any idea how to approach looking after a child, even now, but... in the end, that learning curve was probably better than if Chip weren't here.

She starts to gesture for the bottle again but hesitates.] ...What are the chances that alcohol is just gonna make the whole embarrassing-lack-of-filter thing worse?

[Like, ACTIVELY so. For all she knows there's some super-compounding effect.

Apparently she's still not quite letting go of that.]

[devilstongue]

[ Molly gives the bottle a look suspiciously, but then he takes another big swig. ]

Better to be drunk and blame it on that. Easier to explain, and you don't need to be sober.

[ That's his whole reasoning, so he's going to keep drinking even more and hope anything he says is just seen as drunk talk. ]

[bitch4bitch]

In the sense that it's quicker to say "I was drunk" than "I was being magically influenced", sure. But I'm pretty sure plenty of people know being drunk makes you more honest. Seems like kind of a lateral move from magic honesty, y'know?

[Not worse, mind you, except if it does make the honesty thing worse than it logically should.]