January Undercurrent: Growing Pains

[lifeaftr_mods]

JANUARY UNDERCURRENT

Who: Everyone!
What: Hey bud, how's it growing?
When: January 3rd to January 20th
Where: Everywhere!
Warnings: This event has a potential for body horror and character death; please mark anything as it comes up!

A Notion Growing Inside Me

Those of you who weren't with us the last time Umui entered the archipelago didn't have to contend with the lethal illness known as the Overgrowth personally, but anyone who remembers it probably doesn't remember it fondly. Fortunately, this isn't quite the same strain of the illness that you had to contend with the last time. It's not unrelentingly and uncompromisingly fatal, for one! That's always nice.

For those that need a primer on the Overgrowth, it is best described as a sickness that overcomes you with floral growth both inside and outside your body that can only be cured by expressions of emotional honesty. Expressions of truths, affections, and admissions of things that you have hidden from yourselves or from others were critical in dispensing of the illness. These could be as simple as admissions of past sins or the revealing of secrets, or as grandiose and overt as confessions of guilt or love. That general idea will remain more or less the key means of curing this strain as well, though the stakes fortunately aren't as high this go around! Which is to say, if you fail to have any grand emotional epiphanies by the time this event ends, you aren't doomed to suffer a character death; symptoms will simply dissipate come January 20th.

So what's this sickness going to be like in this particular instance, then? We're so glad you asked! You can go the standard route, of course. Adventurers' first brush with the illness saw the following afflicted upon them:

[ ♆ ] Stage One: Germination. Initial symptoms involve fever, coughing fits, numbness to nerves and extremities, and general joint stiffness. Difficulty breathing or performing other basic functions will often occur. Fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and intense weakness or dizzy spells are also liable to occur as the flowers begin to harvest nutrients from the body. This will also generate extreme thirst and periods of intense nausea. Tremors and the sensation of something "itching" from inside are also common. The end of Stage One is usually marked by the act of vomiting or coughing up flower petals or spores, along with a not-insignificant amount of blood.

[ ♆ ] Stage Two: Budding. The floral growths spread more completely inside the body, and begin to grow on the skin or exterior. Difficulty performing basic functions will increase as, for example, airways become obstructed and flowers grow around joints and pinch them still. The site of affliction also yields rashes, blisters, and blood sores as the flowers sprout from the skin. The rate of vomiting or coughing up floral growths will increase dramatically. Flowers often bloom quickly, and very painfully. Numbness in affected areas will increase, oftentimes rendering parts of the body completely inert - a pair of legs claimed completely by blooms, for example, will no longer work.

This was followed by Stage Three: Bloom, which resulted in character death. However, this strain will not advance to this style of Stage Three. All symptoms will disperse by the time Umui resurfaces.

This strain is also rather more erratic, which can make emotional repression more of an inconvenience than a horrifying circumstance. For those who would rather not play around with intense sickness (or who have already endured this once before), you have the option to go that route if you like! With this variant of the Overgrowth, one can become, for example, so embarrassed that they hiccup up a flower. A vicious denial of their feelings may cause them to spontaneously erupt into a rash of dandelion puffballs, seemingly immediately. You might end up walking around with a bouquet for an arm for a few hours. Perhaps mortifying, but certainly not fatal! Isn't that nice?

Unless, of course, you want it to be...

I Can't Fight It Much Longer

Now, while the Bloom Stage isn't present in this strain, it has mutated its progression into a rather nasty end stage. Those of you who succumb a little too readily to this illness, who don't fight off the emotional repression quickly, who don't admit those difficult truths to yourself or confess to whatever you're bottling up, you'll be faced with a potentially horrifying transformation. Potentially, because it is your choice whether or not you see fit to commit your character to that fate - as stated above, this option might simply skip over your character entirely, and the worst they'll have to deal with are cartoonishly over-the-top effects that disperse in due time.

But maybe not all of you will be so lucky. Some of you might discover for yourselves how this particular variant of the Overgrowth has mutated.

We call this mutation Stage Three: Outbreak. In this final Stage, those beautiful blooms wither and harden into a fungus-like carapace as the illness grows into the victim's brain and shuts down virtually all higher functions. This can sometimes render them almost wholly recognizable, but not always - oftentimes, it's very obvious who this person once was. The victim is reduced to a carrier of the virus, which causes them to act the way you'd expect most viruses to act: becoming intent on spreading. Advanced brain functions such as speech, rational thought, and so on tend to shut off and become wholly inaccessible.

Now that the victim's body is no longer fighting the Overgrowth, the illness lends them increased speed, strength, and durability, making them dangerous foes indeed. They will usually seek to infect others by whatever means necessary - usually via biting or exuding breathable spores - but in some cases, they will simply reduce to base instincts, and just outright attempt to attack and kill whoever is closest.

Unfortunately, at this point, there is no hope of a cure; it's hard to make someone be emotionally honest when they're capable of little more than blunt, animal instinct. At this point, you can either wait for the Stage Three symptoms to disperse come Umui's return, or take manners into your own hands. You can probably guess what that might entail.

If you decide to put your Overgrown friends out of their misery, this will count as a character death. If it comes to that, be sure to let us know on the Deaths page! Death penalties, however, will not be reduced for this event.

Try to Get Through It

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 January's Undercurrent Event, as well as any of the other minor events listed on our Monthly Rundown post. And, of course, 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 Rundown post!

January Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 1st: "This Sucks" begins and lasts until January 10th
[ ♆ ] January 3rd: "Growing Pains" begins and lasts until January 20th
[ ♆ ] January 11th: "No Water is Safe" begins and lasts until January 19th
[ ♆ ] January 20th: Umui returns to the archipelago
[ ♆ ] January 21st: "Impawsible Geometries" begins and lasts until January 31st

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

Jan 7 - forest

[thermalwind]

[It’s the blood that draws him in. He had went out to scout and get some air. All of the things he said to people...

Once he finds the first bit of blue glowing blood, he tracks it to the source. He makes his approach known when he gets close. Coughing, blood. Overgrowth.

Keith steps out into the open, faintly yellow eyes taking in the blood and flowers. He takes one look at Yukio and says,] Cutting the flowers out doesn’t slow it down.

Might make it worse. [He taps fingers that end in claws against the side of a tree adding,] How much you know about the sickness?

[reflash]

[He freezes, claws just having snipped off yet another flower from his wrist. The metal third eye in his forehead swivels up to study the stranger even though Yukio doesn't quite make real eye contact for a second.

He does look up, after a short moment. He can do this.]

Thank you for the advice. [His smile is forced, and his voice is harsh from the illness, but Yukio is always nothing if not polite. His hand drops to the ground instead of just clawing his skin off to get at the itch building underneath, and he pushes himself to his knees, then stands to his feet. He braces himself against the tree he was leaning on.]

I have heard enough information [he can't get through a sentence without taking a gasping, raspy breath] about it. I work in the clinic.

[thermalwind]

[He doesn’t know him and can’t read his smile but he has enough perception to recognize a key detail. Keith nods and leans against a tree, tugging lightly at the bandages wrapped around his right hand.

He doesn’t smile back. There’s concern in his eyes but one close of his eyes and a resigned sigh and that too is gone, replaced by a quiet calm. Heard enough sounds too much like, ‘I have made my decision.’]

I’m not by there much so, I miss who is working there at any given time. I patch myself. [He taps his bandages, scratching a claw over the back of his own hand.] I’m Keith, been here since we first saw Monsun.

[He pauses, glancing towards the way he’d come and then back to Yukio. In the moment he weighs what to say. What to do about this. Keith sighs, shoulders falling faintly. Then he says,] Little further south is a better spot to hide. There’s a bit of water there that will mask some of the blood. That’s how I found you.

There was enough blood to track that even a half Galra like me could smell it clearly.

[reflash]

I'm sorry. [He doesn't address the initial accusation, the idea that he was trying to hide. Like some kind of wounded animal.]

I didn't mean to make anyone worry.

[thermalwind]

[Keith shakes his head slowly and spreads his hands. He winces as his right hand, covered in bandages moves very stiffly. One breath in. One out.] That’s...

[He starts to raise his right hand to shove his hair back out of his face and winces. Keith lets it fall back against his side.] That’s not on you.

I’m hard wired to check out anything odd. It was my job to do that back home. [He is petal free after admitting to far too many things to people but he still glances down at his hip as if expecting more petals to drop from his person. He looks back up as he says,] I’ll deal with that.

If you want me to go. I’ll go.

[reflash]

[What does he want? He doesn't know what he wants. He has to be able to answer.

But he can't think clearly. He feels sick, his head is spinning and there are flowers growing under his skin and tearing through his lungs. He can't think clearly, let alone clearly enough to deal with phrasing this all correctly.]

It isn't your job here. [That's too much, that's too sharp, he needs to tone it down and pull back. He can't.]

But thank you for your concern.

[thermalwind]

It isn’t. It’s the only way I know how to be. [He weathers the sharp tone with only a slight sharpening of his gaze. Everyone is sick. And while he is mostly okay, he knows better than to think he is cured or escaped.

He pushes away from the tree and catches himself before he can stumble by digging his claws into the trunk of the tree.]

And I’ve bothered you enough. [He knows a dismissal when he’s heard it.]

Thanks for humoring me. [He moves to go.]

[reflash]

[Oh. That was easy. After the other people he's met here, for someone to just accept refusal and turn away is a relief.

Yukio would say something, but it's cut off by a coughing fit as the stranger turns to leave.]

[thermalwind]

[He drops in mid step and his brows come down, the edge of a sharp fang visible as he grits his teeth. This man made it clear he doesn’t want help. He has always respected what people wish.

Because few had cared about his wishes for a while. He leans against the tree again and waits. Once the coughing is over he says,] If you choose the other way. You can reach me through the stone. I’ll answer.

If you don’t. See you when you get back. [His tone is casual as if he has this conversation many times. His violet eyes are dark, the only sign that being bothered by having to say it still hits true every time. He holds his left hand up in a small wave and turns away again.]

[reflash]

Thank you. [He won't call. But he'll remember this, later, when he's thinking more clearly.]