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 )

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[ For lack of a reliable heat source, he just opts to cross his arms and squash his hands into his armpits for as much as possible.

The sword makes him a bit antsy, but unless Drifter decides to stab him out of the blue, he's not that afraid for his life. ]

Nope, there's only white and trees and some small animals? But nothing larger than that - just you and me.

[They're not quite sure they believe that.]

[It doesn't seem right. Their senses aren't compromised, are they? They can't be. Everything feels the same, except now everything feels intensely hostile, and there has to be a reason for it. It's like they can see something, constantly, in their periphery, ready to leap out.]

no
there is something else

[There has to be.]

[ A frown. He's not sure whether they've actually found something Jyushimatsu didn't track down with his ears or nose, or they're just being paranoid. Considering the speed with which they drew their blade at him, he might consider the latter possibility as more likely than the former.

However, it's never too painful to be careful in hell island, so for now he'll follow behind Drifter's assumption. ]

If there's something around here spying on us, if we make enough noise and shout them down, they might go away?

or attack

[Their grip on their sword tightens very slightly. Not that they're opposed to engaging in combat, but with a potentially untrained person who might not have any idea how to fight...that's not very wise.]

can fight?

[ He stays silent and immobile for a while three seconds, like the smallest gesture can cause the Drifter to get scared and attack him, but he's actually considering his options. And then he feels the weight of his hatchet strapped behind his back, backed up by his hands not yet frozen from within his sleeves, and confidence flares in him quickly. ]

I can axe them down or punch and kick them! I also know lots of wrestling holds if you just wanna capture them!

[ Because the option of killing them was actually the first that popped in his mind. ]

[They've seen Ichimatsu fight before. Perhaps calling it "fighting" would be charitable - he more or less threw himself at people and then battered them unrelentingly until they gave in or killed him. The last time they had seen him...]

[They're not thinking about the last time they saw him. It is best not to dwell on things that cannot be changed.]

[Jyushimatsu is armed. He is likely...capable? They haven't seen him fight.]

good

[They twitch slightly, their gaze settling on something beyond his shoulder before their eyes flick away again.]

[A powerful gust of something inexplicable tenses their shoulders, and their eyes swivel sharply to meet his. He came armed. Did he come for them? Did he come to fight them? For some reason, it seems more likely.]

cannot win against a drifter

[ His friend really seems jumpy today, as another nothing seems to have stiffened them and next thing he knows there are eyes on him, and the stare is sharp and oddly aggressive in a way that makes Jyushimatsu want to take a step back. He doesn't. There's nothing he did or say just now that would give Drifter the wrong idea, is there?

The text is overly confident, which is something he didn't expect would come out of someone so kind like Drifter, so they get an odd look in response. ]

Really? I never saw you fight! What are your abilities?

[ He's curious now! If there's actually something spying on them he might just sit back and watch them take the enemy down. ]

[The Drifter spins their sword in a complicated little symbol and slams it into the ground in a bold display. He doesn't seem like a threat to them, but not everything seems like a threat at first. They have to make sure that they don't express weakness. They have to make sure that no one thinks them vulnerable. Even Jyushimatsu.]

best swordsmanship in buried time
best marksmanship in buried time
built to be a soldier

[They say "built" because they were, in essence, built - they were fabricated, like all others of their kind.]

[ That's really cool! Jyushimatsu willfully ignores the aggression behind Drifter's gesture, but all of that was so cool it helps him pretend his friend isn't still on edge. ]

You're a supersoldier? Wow! Just like— [ one of those american superheroes... but he doubts Drifter would know about it, and there's a sliiiight feeling they're not in the mood to have a light-hearted discussion of that kind. He trails off instead, chuckling a bit, then restarts his sentence. ]

I'm sure that's gonna help against our enemies!

[ If... there are enemies around here, at this moment... let's be honest... ]

[A supersoldier? They can intuit from the word alone what it might mean, though they're not sure it applies. They glance down at their hands, considering the weakness in their fingers and the strength that their illness has sapped from their bones.]

[No, they're sure that they're not a "super" soldier of any sort. Just a war machine, crafted organically into something meant to destroy.]

[Their mind is rather one-track at the moment, however. Their dark gaze fixes on Jyushimatsu anew.]

what enemies
where

[ Uh shit bad wording-

He flaps both his sleeves in a gesture that says "CALM DOWN I WAS KIDDING PLEASE DON'T STAB ME". ]

I mean that was a theorical thing! There might be enemies later or tomorrow or on another day that isn't this one? I see none right now!

[ How long has it been since he last had to damage control... he's the one usually doing the damage 9 times out of 10... ]

[They regard Jyushimatsu warily. It's perhaps clear from the angle of their head and the tilt of their sword that they're not quite sure they believe him. Or, even if they do, that they're not sure they trust that there won't always be.]

have to be prepared
may be enemies at any moment

[Clearly, they're not all the way assured.]

[ Ugh! He lowers his sleeves, hanging them down like paws. Maybe Drifter won't be convinced no matter what he tells them, but he still thinks he could have done better. Communication is not his strong point. ]

Okay, as long as you don't point that thing at me!

[ His shoulders tense a little, now that he's made hyper aware of the fact someone might be around indeed. ]

[Slowly, very slowly, they lower their weapon. Their gaze is still, in a word, suspicious.]

not safe
never safe

[Thankfully, they intend it as more of a caution than a threat. The fact that they're no longer pointing their weapon at him probably has a little to do with that.]

[ Really, what's gotten into them...

Jyushimatsu sighs, and he even does that carefully, not to rouse a startled reaction from Drifter. ]

Well, how about we take a walk? I think the longer we stay here, the more, uh... stressed we might get, yeah?

[A walk. Relocation would make it harder for adversaries to track them...but also make it harder to maintain their own position of relative strength here. All the same...yes. Perhaps that would allow any prospective tails to lose them. And as long as they maintain an awareness of their surroundings, that might help.]

[Their grip on their blade is tight.]

will protect you

[ Aww. Jyushimatsu reads that, and he quickly turns into a puddle of mush, relieved of a bit of tension and wariness around them. ]

Okay, thanks! I'd like to feel safer and you're a reliable friend, so!

[ So he turns to walk off the area, checking whether Drifter is falling into step with him, leading, or watching his and their own back. Either way, he's off. ]

[They watch him go. And...start to follow, though at a slight distance. They meant what they said. They'll protect him. From...whatever's out there. Whatever's out there - it's hard to say what that might be. They've seen nothing since this inexplicable wariness started to creep upon them, but that doesn't mean they should not still be on guard.]

[And they are. They are, perpetually, on guard, at least until the mistletoe's effects fade.]

[At least now it's been redirected into something potentially less destructive.]

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December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

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