lifeaftr | 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 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...?

[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.

...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?

Well, it was-- it wasn't a thing, when we met. I was on a hunt for a bounty, a, a stolen soul as it were. He was there performing another request to find an item of great magical power so that his organization could destroy it. Along the way, our goals... aligned. And due to the nature of our work, we found ourselves intersecting again.

[That makes it sound a lot better than "he assaulted me with tentacles" and "had me drink a lot of wine while discussing the fate of his soul". Sometimes, things happen. Sometimes it's just like this.]

He... surprised me. In a way I didn't know I could be surprised. It was nice.

Ah.

[Michael still doesn't quite understand how any of that leads to participation in human mating rituals, but the feelings before all that? Yes, yes, those he understands perfectly.]

Mortals will do that, won't they? I spent centuries studying mine, and I still can't tell what they're going to do half the time.

[He's left out a lot of key details, like all the hand touching and the making out with him against the door of Taako's apartment. That can just be private.]

I can never predict him. I've tracked mortals for centuries myself, and most of them fall quite cleanly into types or lines. But he... doesn't. He treats me like anyone else, not-- not the Grim Reaper, you know?

[Boy, you're not afraid of me at all, he'd told them when they met. He didn't know then how important it would become.]

He is... unique. And I feel so lucky to have him.

[Yeah you know Michael doesn't wanna hear about that anyway]

That's nice.

[He smiles, a little wistful.]

I think things would be a lot better if every immortal had some mortal friends. Or boyfriends! [Same difference!] Even the angels in my world don't seem to really care about any of them, and it's their purpose to be kind to humans. I'm not sure they've ever talked to one personally.

Honestly, I agree. There's so many gods who never interact with mortals, never even look. Everyone needs a champion, of course, but... I think friends would do them all some good.

[Maybe it's odd for anyone who deals in death to be speaking this fondly of living, but it just proves Michael's point, to him. They are all still people, even if it can hurt to remember that.]

I'm glad you have those you love, as well.

Mmmm.

[Michael looks down, smiling. It is good. Better than he could have even imagined, once upon a time.]

Yeah, it's good to have friends. We don't make them among ourselves, really, never have.

[He has a moment more of pause, before Kravitz reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder.]

I am sorry, then. For the time you spent alone. And I am glad that you have people now, those who give your life meaning. I hope you have them always.

[Oh. That's like, 50% more sentimental than Michael really knows how to react to.]

Thanks. [okay now say something good] Right back at'cha.

[GOD DAMN IT]

[Kravitz chuckles despite himself, even if this was some serious thing that's been tossed out the window. Maybe it just feels more natural to have the jokes with the people he's used to spending his time around. Who knows.]

I.. will remember that.

[close enough,]

November Undercurrent: And We Give Thanks

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