lifeaftr | January Undercurrent: Growing Pains

January Undercurrent: Growing Pains

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

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. [germination] i don't say too much / cuz' I don't wanna say the wrong thing

[At first, it just seems like a tiredness that seeks into his bones. Kravitz knows he's been pushing himself too hard lately, but it's the only thing to stave off how empty his camp feels at night, how he's largely only been talking to his bird for company. But he still forces himself up and goes to the library, even if that means he's leaning over on the desk more, taking a breather in a chair more than he's working. He's fine, he tells himself. He's fine.

Or well, he'd like to believe that, but he's nearly asleep on the desk when you enter, causing him to jerk up with a small cough.]

Uhm, hello, I-- do you need something? I... wasn't sleeping.

[Great.]

ii. [budding] you don't care too much / a confession isn't your style

[It doesn't progress the way he thinks it will. While Kravitz is expecting the red, delicate flowers that spread from his back in vines up his veins, the delicate blooms that do emerge are much different this time. At first they're tiny, dotted flowers, but they quickly swell into thick blooms from the point at which they emerge. Unlike the last instances, these flower mostly from the back of his head among his dreads, over his left shoulder almost like a cloak, inching towards his heart.

He wonders if that means something. It probably does, but he doesn't quite have the energy to have that kind of introspection.

At this point, he's abandoned the library in favor of trying to find people. Unlike others who know what's going on and are ready to die again, Kravitz is fairly determined to not go out this time. The problem, though, is the same as it was the first time the Overgrowth came around- he doesn't know exactly what he's supposed to be confessing about. Kravitz thinks he's been pretty straightforward, but he doesn't have the comfort of his family at the start to avoid others and cure it this time around. So he's out, trying to seek out people who look otherwise affected-- or just possibly bored.]

Uhm, hello-- sorry to bother, but. I do know how we can cure this, if you're willing to have an honest discussion.

iii. [wildcard] i stay awake at night / i make believe that i'm not alone

[Have something else you want to do or want to discuss another prompt? Hit me up via PM or at

cancerously and we can plot!]

[Tim's picking away at the little buds of snowdrops creeping up the lengths of his arms, trying not to think about anything in particular. When he sees him...well, that's not a fucking surprise, is it? He called it, more or less. It's not even remotely a surprise at this point.]

Well, that's a step up from last time, huh?

[His tone is flat. Naturally, he doesn't seem the least bit shocked.]

[He sighs, as if he was expecting a response like that.]

I could say the same for you, as well. Very few of our number made it through last time, and many for lack of trying.

[Kravitz eyes Tim, giving him a look partially of understanding and partially of hope that he's more in his own senses this time.]

I am trying to do my part.

[Bold of him to assume Tim won't be going the same route as before.]

That makes one of us. [He doesn't even pretend that he doesn't expect to fail. He's accepted this, though. What choice does he have? The only other choice isn't really a choice at all.]

Anything you wanna get off your chest?

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ii; lmk if this works

yes this is gr8!!

hell yeah HELL YEAH