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

[What if they had left? Crowley thinks on it a moment, his face still obscured by his arm as his other hand picks at the food in front of him. It's probably for the best that they didn't run. They wouldn't have come across the final prophecy, they wouldn't have saved one another. They may not have needed to, had they run off, but they would have lived in fear. They would have had each other. They have each other now.

Crowley shakes his head, dropping his arm to the table and looking back at the angel expectantly.]

Doesn't matter, does it? That's not how things happened. [He takds a brave bite of a mystery substance on his plate, swallowing back hard.]

Much more important to wonder where we go from here.

[ Questioning the flow of things, at least this openly, is a relatively recent concept. It happened somewhere in his mind, before, but he'd always pushed it back. Although Crowley had a frustratingly effective manner of picking it out of the angel when he wanted to.

The angel watches him for a few more seconds, before picking up his spoon again. ]

I do suppose you're right. [ It's a more productive use of their time, anyway. ] We've certainly been through our fair share of struggles before.

Hopefully it'll serve us in the future. [ Which, while not a lie, is highly improbable. ]

[Crowley is thoroughly disgusted by everything on his plate, which there isn't much of left. He scoops it all up, with the plan to just swallow it all at once and put himself out of his own misery.]

Should, as long as you accept we're a team. [Not that the angel didn't seem to, but it was something Crowley feared Aziraphale hadn't fully accepted. Not yet. Feelings aside.

He shoved the rest of the food in his mouth with a complete lack of eloquence, trying not to gag as he chewed it back.]

[ Eyes back on the demon, he wonders if he's not done enough to show that he does.

He doesn't want to think too deeply into how he would have dealt if he had ended up in this place by himself. Despite all his moaning and fussing at times, he's truly glad that he can count on Crowley's company.]

Of course I do.

I seem to remember something about our side. [ He smiles faintly. ]

[Crowley swallows his food, wincing terribly. He forces a smile hearing Aziraphale's words, wouldn't want to confuse the reaction to the food with that.]

Mn. Yes, well I really believe that. S'always been me and you, hasn't it?

Yes. It has. [ Safe for the few times where it hadn't been, but they don't have to talk about those now.

No point in thinking about What Ifs. Thinking about Whys. They're here now, and they're together, and they'll get through this. Can't be worse than the end of the world. ]

Wouldn't have it any other way. [ Smiling a bit more confidently. ]

November Undercurrent: And We Give Thanks

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