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

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Aziraphale stares, fairly sure that he would recognize the large creature if he had.

But it’s easy to realize what has happened here - unless it’s part of the very strange happenings that have taken over the local residents in the last few days.]

Oh, I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. You see, I’ve arrived here quite recently. But, hum.

[ Still weird. This is still weird. Will it stop being weird?]

I have been told I’ve been here before. Some version of myself, anyway.

[journalname]

...golly. I'm very sorry.

[Asgore sits back on his heels, abandoning the gardening for the moment.]

I have only heard of things like that happening across several worlds, not all in this one. And that was really only one person. [...] Well. My name is Asgore.

[salutosinedelectat]

--Several worlds? [ Aziraphale's attention gets caught in that small detail, causing him to falter, but manners do get the best of him. ]

Oh, well, I'm-- oh, right, you know that already. [ And he offers an awkward smile. ]

You mentioned you've seen that before?

[journalname]

On occasion.

[Well, this is interesting. Even if Asgore really hasn't been snapped out of his current gardening obsession, he's at least distracted; he sets his tools to the side and stands, approaching to have a somewhat more normal conversation.]

Some of us, like myself, came here from worlds similar to this one - not our own, but places where many people were drawn. No one is here from the world I was in, but a friend of mine there...someone else here knew a different version of her.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ He truly thought he had a comprehensive perspective of the world, being an angel. He'd made his mistakes as it was, there, and had already a tough time even beginning to question some things. And then...he ended up here, no rhyme or reason, learning things he never considered possible, which was...a lot.

And now he's hearing about other places like this?

For a second or two, he says nothing, just trying to grasp the concept. He shakes himself out of that daze soon enough, shaking his head and attempting to jump back into the conversation. ]

There are other worlds like this? With people from all different-- realities, you mean?

[ The words 'time knife' come to mind, courtesy of Michael. ]

[journalname]

[Yeah - it's sort of a lot, and a lot to explain while keeping everything straight. Asgore's not even entirely sure he's done it correctly.]

There are. I came from one called Beacon.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ He just incorrectly assumed, as an eons old angel, that he would have more tools to deal with grandiose concepts, but hey, he's never been good at his job, much less this. ]

Was it like this place?

[journalname]

No. Not very much like this at all, aside from that.

[Mmmm. He probably doesn't need to go into all the nasty details.]

There were only thirty of us, for one thing, all brought there deliberately. And...I suppose most of our time there was spent in some sort of computer world. [Asgore doesn't understand the Matrix.]

[salutosinedelectat]

[ That's okay, Asgore. Aziraphale barely understands computers in the first place. ]

A computer world? That sounds...well, quite honestly, I don't know what it sounds like.

[ It's a lot, is what it is. But so many things have been A Lot lately. ]

I had no idea that there were...worlds, places like this.

[ He says so as if he was supposed to know in the first place. But it's within the nature of his life's experience to think he'd have had at least a clue.

He really doesn't know what to do with this information. Probably file it either in the 'I have no idea what to do with this' section, or the 'I guess I just really don't know anything' section. ]

[journalname]

It seemed very much like a real world while we were in it. They said it had something to do with being connected to our brains...although, I am quite sure I do not have one.

[Internal organs and monsters are always kinda iffy. His magic probably could make one if it really wanted, but honestly why?]

I certainly did not either, before I experienced them myself.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ He's a bit lost in thought, just trying to, once again, process some very new, very odd information. That is without counting the one about brains or the lack of one, which simply makes him give Asgore a funny look for a moment (even though, ironically, they could probably relate on that level). ]

If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been in these worlds?

[journalname]

Coming up on three years, now. Most of that here - we were only in Beacon for a few months.

[though DAMN those were some jam-packed months!]

[salutosinedelectat]

Three years... [ The angel repeats, almost cringing at the sound of those words. Normally, three years might as well be three seconds to him, but the thought of being stuck in an entirely different place--dimension- whatever this might be suddenly make that short amount of time seem so very, very long. ]

And you've never found a way back?

[journalname]

Oh, no, we had a way out of Beacon. We had even traveled to a third world on our own already! There were some things we had to take care of there, before we could all go where we liked...

[Though Asgore himself never intended to go home, per se...at least he would have been where he chose.]

But I was brought here before we could finish. My machine did not come with me - and even if it had, I'm sure it would not have still worked. Most machines that are not people seem to break when they get here.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Now there's travelling between worlds. And at this point the angel can't distinguish what's travelling through space and what's travelling through dimensions. Long were the days where such a thing was part of regular angelic daily life- before 'days' were even a thing. ]

That... would explain some things. [ Not that either Aziraphale or his demonic friend carried a lot of technology between them, but that may explain why Aziraphale hadn't been able to fully fix the demon's watch and mobile. ]

It does sound like you've had quite the..."travel", I suppose is one way of putting it.

[journalname]

Yes, it is...a little tiring. I had hoped to settle down somewhere after Beacon, perhaps with some friends.

[The islands are.....hoo boy!]

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Aziraphale has barely had time to settle in, and even he would agree. He answers with an awkward, uncomfortable smile. ]

Well, I...assume there could be worse places than this.

[ He doesn't entirely believe in that assumption, but, you know, might not be incorrect. At least in this personal experience. ]

[journalname]

Oh, certainly! There have only very rarely been murders.

[Which says some things about the last world he visited, probably]

[salutosinedelectat]

Murders?

[ Within such a small population? He knows that's something humans are capable of, unfortunately, but, having to face the concept of mortality now applying to him, the words hit different. ]

[journalname]

We were...pressured to kill one another in Beacon.

[It's easier to talk about so long after the event, when no one ended up dead anyway.]

It did not end with anyone truly dead, because it was in a computer, but...we did not know that while it was happening. And that was not their intent.

[salutosinedelectat]

I...see.

[ Part of him is relieved to know that this was somewhere else and not in the islands they are on now. Not that location really changes the aspects of murder.

Also, he doesn't really know how computers come into the mix. His idea of them is fairly rudimentary. ]

I'm quite sorry to hear you've been through all of that, my good fellow. I can't really say if this is an improvement or not, but I do hope it is.

[journalname]

I suppose it is.

[He sounds a lot less enthusiastic than you'd think, given how that was just. A murder dungeon.]

Thank you.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ It’s understandable. It’s never quite the same as home. Plus this place has its own particular set of dangers.]

Well, hum.

[ He looks at the plants Asgore was in the process of planting in their...yard? It’s a garden now, he guesses. Crowley had had his own bout of obsession and altered states.]

May I ask what you were doing? In the--well, our garden, I suppose you might call it now.

[journalname]

Oh, I was only planting some bluescythes.

[He says, happily and easily, like this is totally normal.]

They are very useful flowers! You can make a tea out of them!

[salutosinedelectat]

[ It seems to be a far more pleasant subject to delve into, even with the strangeness of someone just seemingly randomly rehoming plants around their cottage. But no harm done, he supposes...also he rather likes tea.]

Oh? That is quite— generous of you.