December Undercurrent: Opposing Viewpoints

[lifeaftr_mods]

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 )

Comments

[journalname]

Thank you.

[Asgore takes the torch gingerly, because it is indeed quite tiny in his massive paw. He'll make some half-hearted swipes at the snowgoons while Tim works. They're meant to keep them back, and pretty unlikely to connect even if the creatures are bad at dodging. Given his long reach, though, the snowgoons aren't going to get close to Tim, either.

The whole thing still lodges unpleasantly in his gut. He should be better than this. More useful, at the very least.]

[postictal]

[Heat keeps them at bay. Tim's nothing is not adept at his work, however. He deftly rips up some rags into strips, winds them around a long stave of wood from the ground, and soaks them in rubbing alcohol. From there, it's the work of the moment to flick on his lighter and set the entire mess on fire, and then offer the makeshift torch to Asgore.]

Here. Probably more your size.

[journalname]

Thank you.

[Asgore takes the torch carefully, and hands the smaller one back to Tim just as gingerly. There we are, no one burnt. He's not nervous about fire himself, being quite accustomed to it, but he does get anxious about handling it around others.]

Perhaps it will go back to normal when I return to Enso. I hope it does.

[postictal]

Yeah, same here. You have any idea when this started?

[Most things here are, at least, temporary. Thank god that Tim's arsonist tendencies are still intact. He's fully capable of lighting shit on fire and doing a damn good job of it. Here's the one instance in which that'll be useful.]

[journalname]

It must have been sometime after I left my home.

[His fire worked well enough this morning, after all. But Asgore can't pinpoint any particular moment in time where he felt different.]

It's very strange...a monster's magic is a reflection of their soul, and it makes up their body. But I do not feel any different.

[postictal]

It could be like things were back in...what was it? June?

[People getting powers outta nowhere? Sure, Tim's not spouting blue fire all the fuck over the place, a fact for which he is extremely grateful, but it could be something similar.]

Like your powers have gotten all scrambled?

[journalname]

Golly, I hope not.

[That was...SOMETHING. This time doesn't seem quite so bad, though.]

But even if I do not quite know how to use it, it is still under my control. I will simply be careful when I test it.

[postictal]

So something to try when we're not being attacked by abominable snowmen, basically.

[At least the fire's pretty good at keeping them at bay. None of them seem to want to get very close to it, which is why Tim can stand to be calm enough to have this kinda conversation. Then again, he's calm most of the time. It takes a lot to rattle him at this point.]

[journalname]

Combat is not the best time for learning new magic.

[Sure, it happens - he's known monsters to discover new abilities under duress. But that's never been Asgore's style. He prefers to take things carefully.

He continues to wave his torch at the snow creatures, attempting to make a gap through which they can head back to the nearest mana pool. That's the quickest way out of here, and Asgore at least has no particular desire to stick around now. He'll come back another time.]

I was lucky that I did not have to fight at all when I had lost it. Monsters...well, I suppose you may know already why we prefer to keep our distance in a fight.

[He has no idea how much Chara or Frisk might have shared, but that...was relevant to the latter, at least. Really, it would take some pretty specific information for Asgore to get suspicious of Tim's actual knowledge.]

[postictal]

Yeah. I do.

[He knows. In...a lot of ways he doesn't want to get into, because he knows and that's the important thing, the bottom line. Asgore doesn't need to know how he knows it.]

I haven't had any new...weird things happening to me yet, but you could always ask around. Maybe other people are getting fucked up too.

[journalname]

I suppose things have been far too peaceful of late.

[He can say it with a sort of wry resignation. At some point, you just gotta try to have a little humor about it.]

[postictal]

For a certain value of "peaceful," sure.

[Tim doesn't sound as pleased about it. Can you blame him? He hasn't had a quiet moment since this all started. He hasn't had a quiet moment in years.]

[journalname]

[Asgore shrugs, wordlessly conceding the point.]

That is probably as much as we can hope for.

[He was Inspiring to others, never himself.]

[postictal]

[Tim's quiet for a second, sweeping his torch in a wide arc to keep some of the snowgoons at bay. There's probably not much he can do here like this. He could always come back with a big bonfire, though.]

C'mon. I bet it's gonna be more peaceful once we get outta all of this snow.