lifeaftr | December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

DECEMBER UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: Oh, inverted world...
When: December 3rd to December 20th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: Nothing of note; please mark if anything comes up!

I Wish You Could See the Wicked Truth

The island of Monsun is known for the split down its middle, and how it tends to bring out people's best and worst sides, depending on which side you're on. Some might remember it from previous appearances, but if you've never been, you can read up on the island's details on our Locations page and get yourself caught up to speed! Just like with the previous month, the Water is taking it upon themself to summon the island to the archipelago. And just like with the previous month, this will entail some effects upon the local populace: you.

Given that Monsun hosts the avatar of Balance, don't be surprised if things start to get a little inverted, a little out of balance, a little flipped, a little turned upside down. What do we mean by that, exactly? Well, it can mean all sorts of things. And you get to pick how many of these inversions if any, are going to be affecting you and yours for the duration of the month, at least until Monsun surfaces...and how much each one affects you.

Starting on December 3rd, adventurers may find themselves influenced by any of the effects listed below. You are free to vary the intensity and level of each, as well as how many end up being relevant to you. They can start as a slow build and ramp up gradually through the month, or emerge at full force right out the gate. You can be affected by multiple at once, or one every few days, and so on. The only limit is what you're willing to do!

[ ♆ ] Friendflipped: Do you have someone that you love in your life? Perhaps a best friend, a significant other, a member of your family? They might even be on the island with you. That just makes what's about to happen even more unfortunate, if that's the case, because all of a sudden, you're going to learn that you can't stand the sight of them. That's right: your best friends become your most hated foes. You'll find yourself positively despising those you would ordinarily get along with, all with a vicious, unchecked enthusiasm. Perhaps even more unfortunately, that goes the other way, too: your worst enemies are now your best friends.

[ ♆ ] Casual Obsession: One of the critical aspects of having any sort of hobby or preference is balance. It's always good to not go overboard! Which is why you might find yourself losing all inhibition. Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, desires, and so on will become utterly stripped of any balance the might have had. Do you have a mild sweet tooth? Well, now it's a full on sugar obsession. Do you dislike golf as a sport? Now you hate it with a fiery passion - and all those jerks who play golf, they can go to hell too!

[ ♆ ] One or Nothing: Most people will agree that emotional balance is something we should all strive for. That's about to get a lot more difficult. You might find yourself experiencing only one emotion for an extended amount of time, with only varying degrees of intensity to indicate any actual shift. Alternatively, you find yourself experiencing no emotions at all: a complete, deadened shutoff of any emotional instincts you have.

[ ♆ ] Skill Swap: Hobbies are one thing. But what about your personal skill-sets? Well, those are about to get some serious remodeling. Are you a talented musician? Now you can't read music, much less play it. Are you good in a fight? Not anymore, you're not! Now you can barely throw a punch without bowling yourself over. You'll find that your abilities have become seriously scrambled, to the point where you've lost any natural or trained skill you might have in certain areas. This can extend to magical knowledge, technological know-how, or even basic proclivities like stealth or how light you might be on your feet. The flip side of this is that you might find yourself preternaturally skilled in other areas that you've never so much as touched before. Maybe now you're a pro at climbing, or intensely good with social charisma and persuasion. In general, these swaps will work with a one-to-one ratio; one skill will suffer and another will be boosted as if in compensation, but you're welcome to experiment! Maybe you just want to make your character a completely useless loser for a few weeks. You're certainly free to do just that!

[ ♆ ] Interface Screw: In case it wasn't opposite day enough, you've also got the chance to have your personal orientation of the world completely reversed. By which we mean: left is right, right is left, up is down, down is up, and so on. This might manifest in varying ways. Maybe the sky looks like the sea, and the ground is so far above your head...and you feel like you're walking on thin air, even if to everyone else, the world appears more or less normal. Maybe this isn't even a purely perceptual thing as opposed to a literal one, and to everyone else, you're actually walking upside down. How this manifests is ultimately up to you, but you can interpret it as you like.

These effects will all die down by the time December 20th rolls around. Again, you can choose the rate at which this occurs, and whether it's a slow and steady decrease or a complete shut-off all at once. Either way, by the 20th, you'll all have been restored to whatever passes for your mental and emotional equilibriums, and Monsun will resurface on the archipelago!

But I Settle For a Ghost

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 December's Undercurrent Event, as well as any of the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. You are very, very free to let your dreams about magical mistletoe and snowgoons 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 the Questions header on our Monthly Rundown post!

December Timeline

[ ♆ ] December 1st: "Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snowgoons" begins and lasts until December 31st
[ ♆ ] December 3rd: "Opposing Viewpoints" begins and lasts until December 20th
[ ♆ ] December 10th: "Mistledon't" begins and lasts until December 22nd
[ ♆ ] December 20th: Monsun returns to the archipelago
[ ♆ ] December 21st: "Breath of Cold Air" begins and lasts until December 31st

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(The way she's been behaving has been quite a break from the traditional Yasha-ing; figures that Molly would be the first to notice that about her, try to intervene. Unfortunately for them both, that isn't as helpful a gesture as Molly intends it to be.

One moment Yasha is brooding angrily (or sulking may be a more apt term for it), and the next somebody has draped themselves over her like a blanket, and there's only one person currently inhabiting this island who does that on the regular. Coincidentally, it's the one person in the world she doesn't want to see at the moment.

Yasha doesn't pause to reflect on that sudden thought or wonder why it's odd, even blatantly untrue. She simply elbows Mollymauk off of her without even turning to look at him.)

No. Leave me alone.

[ Molly has known a lot of sides of Yasha. Even the annoyed, brooding ones where she wanted to be alone and told him so. Never like this, though. It was always gentle.

It hurts in more than one way, and he stumbles back with a groan, red eyes wide. ]

Yasha?

[ What the fuck was going on? ]

Are you alright? What happened?

(The only break she feels from the wave of utter revulsion washing over her is when he grunts in pain; she turns, her hands balled into fists.)

You happened. Get away from me.

(And if he doesn't take himself away, she's going to make him, and it isn't going to be pretty. She can barely stand to look at him as it is, and her gaze flickers away after a moment, her jaw clenched.)

Yasha...?

[ Molly's voice turns very, very small. For all the shit they've gone through here, this... this, whatever the fuck it was, hurt the most. Yasha was mad at him, looking at him with disgust in her eyes and it sends a cold chill down his spine.

Yasha is mad at him. ]

Come on now... what did I do? I can fix it, you know I can.

[ He's not going anywhere. ]

What's going on?

(Oh, Yasha is absolutely seething, and his pain and confusion doesn't make a dent in her fury. Is he afraid of her in this moment, as she takes a menacing step towards him? He should be.)

If you don't get out of my sight, I'll fix it myself.

(And the threat of that sentence is made crystal clear by her reaching back to draw the Judge on him, staring him down the length of it. She should slice him into two where he stands for the way he's looking at her right now. She hates it. She hates him.)

Get away from me.

[ He's not afraid of her. He should be, he knows he should be, but he can't be afraid of her. No matter what was going on right now, this was still Yasha.

...then she draws the Judge, and Molly's red eyes widen. No. It had to be this place, his rational mind screams at him, but the other side is crushed that she's threatening him like this.

He should leave before she does something she'll regret later, but he's worried that if he doesn't stop her somehow, then someone else might get hurt instead. ]

Yasha. It's okay, I won't... I won't touch you again. Lets just go back home, okay? I'll stay away from you.

[ Please. ]

You go back home.

(What part of this encounter reads as negotiable to him? Yasha is standing there with her sword in both hands, leveling it at him, and he still hasn't left. What is wrong with him? That loyal streak of his is something she loves, but in her current state it only makes her set her jaw in terrible anger. Rage bubbles up at the back of her throat, behind her teeth.)

I don't want to look at you. Or Beau– (she spits the name out of her mouth like it's something that tastes bad,) or Kiri, or– just get out of my sight!

(Last warning. Is there a rumble of thunder in the distance, or is it just your imagination? Either way, Yasha's eyes are turning black, her shoulders heaving as her wings appear, skeletal and tattered, jet against the darkening sky. The biggest threat display she can muster.)

That's fair. That's... that's fair.

[ She doesn't want to look at him? He'll just pull his hood up over those horns. The hand-me-down ringleader coat from Gustav didn't quite fit over his head, but he could make it work if he had to.

She's really not herself, though. Not when she speaks like Beau is something wicked and horrible, and like Kiri is... nope, he can't leave her like this. She'll do something she'll regret and that's not an option here. She's gone through enough bullshit as it is. ]

Yasha, you have to go back home. You don't want to hurt anyone, I-

[ Molly starts, but then the darkness spreads on his beloved friend's face, her black eyes like voids of hatred. The wings of blackened bone appear - he's seen it before, sure, and even found them beautiful - but this time it's directed at him. Molly's face turns a much lighter shade of lavender, and immediately there's a deep fear clawing inside him, like a trapped animal watch death come near. Run, it tells him. but since when did Mollymauk fucking Tealeaf listen to reason?

Instead he sweetens his forked tongue.]

Yasha! We're friends!

[ It's low, he knows, to reach out with his infernal blood to try to charm her - but he's desperate to get through to her. The question is if his innate spell will break through whatever the fuck this was, though. He's too affected by her shroud to get any closer, limbs shaking in unnatural fear. ]

I don't have a home.

(Yasha's still half-shouting at him, lacing her words with malice as necrotic energy ripples off of her, hissing into the wind and away in dark little tendrils. She's been stalled in her rising anger; his trick with the coat actually has worked. She stops moving toward him, content to hold him in terrified check at the edge of her shroud.

And then his charm hits her successfully, and she stops completely, her head lifting slowly to meet his hidden gaze. Friends. They're friends. This man is her friend, and she– she almost–

her grip loosens on the Judge automatically and she drops it, and it thuds when it hits the ground. Yasha for her part seems utterly stunned, and after a few blinks, the black clears from her eyes and her wings fade.)

We're... friends?

[ I don't have a home. she says, and Molly's heart breaks a little more. He's not sure what is true or not coming from her right now, but she has a home, Here with him, and there with the Mighty Nein.

She would never be forced to be alone. No matter what she was feeling right now.

When his magic settles in her, Molly is relieved. Sure, he didn't have many qualms about using his powers on people, but on her? It just felt tarnished. Dirty. ]

Yeah. We're friends. Everything's okay, Yash. We'll just go home, okay?

[ It would only last an hour, after all, and then she would know he hit her with a spell. Hopefully by then, she'd be back to normal... or at least not murdering him. ]

I'm sorry.

(Her tone is genuinely anguished; sincere. To think that she was going to attack him... she feels terrible about it now, her head drooping as she steps over her discarded sword to get to him.)

I didn't– know that, I... was angry, I think. I'm not sure what came over me.

(It must have been something very bad, to cause her to turn such blind fury on a friend. She'll do whatever he asks of her, just to amend her previous actions (though, only for the hour that the spell remains, of course). She stands beside him, hilariously docile considering how ready she had been to rend him in two only seconds before.)

We can go home.

It's okay. It's fine, love.

[ He wants to kiss her forehead so badly and tell her so many more things, but Charm Person only gives you just the barest of friendship - not the soulmates they were supposed to be as two people cursed and undying. They were joined as polar opposites and so very complimenting each other. Loud and quiet. Brash and gentle. Colorful and muted. (Devil and angel.)

Molly sighs and takes her hand, so he can lead her home. ]

Come on now. Everything's alright.

(Is it fine? Yasha feels a little nervous about it, even as he takes her hand to try to reassure her. After a moment of hesitation, she bends down to fetch her sword, taking her hand back so she can carefully wipe the mud on the blade off on the long sleeve of her shirt, and sheath it at her back once more.)

Okay.

(She offers her hand again, so he can take her back.)

[ Molly's brain is running a mile a minute, trying to figure out a way to keep this together after his charm ends. He holds her hand tightly, making sure she's with him as they head back home. Once there, he sits down on his bed.

There's nothing he can do to stop her if she wants to leave. He can just hope it will pass quickly. ]

We should get really drunk and have a nap.

[ Maybe that would help? get her drunk enough to sleep this off while they're still 'friends'. He's grasping at straws, here. ]

Okay.

(Yasha doesn't feel like she has to do anything other than be agreeable, go along with what Molly says. It's a terrible approximation of their true relationship, but that's all the fault of the spell.

Or at least, she doesn't have anything to say until he's seated on his bed in front of her. Then, she notices the wrinkle in his brow enough to say something about it.)

... You look upset.

I'm not upset. [ He lies, like a liar. ] Just worried for you.

[ He can't think of a way to explain this to her that doesn't sound like he's some evil mastermind that's trying to control her brain as soon as she snaps out of his little spell and knows what he did. ]

I still don't have anything better than fruit wine.

Why?

(She's fine. She's here with a friend, and they're sitting down. Well- he's sitting down, so Yasha joins him after a moment, toeing off her shoes, pulling her legs up to criss-cross apple sauce on top of his sheets. They're sitting together and he's offering her fruit wine.

Yasha's nose wrinkles. There is never any ale, and life is terrible.)

... Fruit wine gives me a headache. (But alcohol is alcohol, so. Hand it over.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

uh oh

no subject

no subject

no subject

dont :(

my heaaart

mollyyyy

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject