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

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Easy to miss indeed. Aziraphale is going about inspecting the books on the shelves and taking note of what needs repairing and those that could do with sturdier covers for longer lifetimes, and doesn't quite notice her until he happens to glance over at the right angle to spot her.

He recognizes that little bird child, doesn't he?

The angel steps over, standing next to the desk for a couple of seconds, before clearing his throat. ]

I do believe you will find it's more comfortable to use the desk.

[She jumps at the noise, a little bonk and an objecting squawk following as she sits up too abruptly. Ducking and rubbing the top of her head, she peers over to spot... oh, the nice old man from the woods. She hadn't stuck around for long, but he'd tried to be helpful, at least.

She does relax somewhat, but she still doesn't move, pointing towards the entry door leading outside. She makes a clicking, growling noise, a mimicry of the sounds that the fully-infected monsters have been making. While she has no idea if anything is still out there, she'd much prefer to hide and wait out whatever in the world is going on.]

Oh- [ He starts, feeling a little bit sorry that he caused her to hit her head.

Her response confuses him at first, as he had mostly spent the last couple of weeks dealing with, er...a more personal experience with the disease that had unfortunately apparently overcome others in unexpected ways. He looks towards the door, and, in a couple of seconds, gets the idea, looking at her again. ]

Oh, you don't need to worry about that. You're perfectly safe here. [ He hopes, anyway. ]

[She glances warily back towards the door, still hesitant, but it's true that it's started to quiet down lately. Finally she nods her head and scoots out from under the desk to stand in front of him, her books clutched to her chest with feathery arms.]

All right.

[ Aziraphale smiles politely as she emerges. He’s still fascinated by the existence of fully sentient non-human creatures, and he never did manage to get a good look at her that other time.]

I’m glad to see you’re fairing better than the first time we met.

I don’t think I ever got your name, though.

[Oh, yes! However could she forget. Though admittedly she'd been very out of sorts when they'd last met... she chirps in what is more or less a friendly manner and sits up a bit straighter.]

I am Kiri! [And then, shifting smoothly into the very different voice of a British man (Ignis),] It's a pleasure to meet you.

[ The sudden change in voice catches Aziraphale by surprise, and it takes him a good couple of seconds to connect the dots between birds and mimicry. He surely didn’t really expect it from an humanoid one, but, you know, it’s really not nearly the strangest thing he’s experienced in the last couple of months.]

Oh, hum- [ He gathers himself quickly and smiles politely again.] Kiri.

My name is Aziraphale. Lovely to meet you.

[ He looks at the book in her arms.]

And what have you got there?

[She looks down at her books for a moment, then turns and lays them out on the desk, since she can't very well tell him. One is a journal of lined paper, with her name scrawled across the front, and the other is a book on simple etiquette, the sort of thing you would give to a child when teaching them the basics of polite conversation.]

[ Hands resting behind his back, Aziraphale leans slightly to take a better look at the book and notebook. He raises his brows slightly in gentle surprise. ]

Oh, I see. It's always good to brush up on your manners. [ Or learn them, as it were. ]

It's quite refreshing to see someone so young giving etiquette its due diligence. [ Well, he assumes she's young. At least she sounds like she is. ]

[Hmm... that's not quite right, but close enough that she can nod her head in agreement. She is indeed young enough that there's a lot to learn.

She opens up the notebook, flipping over a couple of pages, and scrawls out some text before turning back to him and holding it up:]

can only say what I hear
say words for me?

[ The angel doesn't know the first thing when talking about-- well...suppose 'human' doesn't really fit the bill here. But the sentiment is the same.

He reads the note and blinks. ]

--Oh! Oh, I see.

[ He straightens up, looking down at her. ]

Well- hm. What would you like me to say?

[Oh, bless. The relief in her expression is palpable, and she flips through her book again to find a new set of phrases, pointing to them in turn:]

thank you
please
you're welcome
i'm hungry

[ Aziraphale watches, reading the lines under his breath as she points. He smiles, apparently quite a bit charmed.]

Of course. [ He straightens up and clears his throat. He is very... British about this and anunciantes the words rather clearly. ]

Thank you.
Please.
You're welcome.
I'm hungry.

[ He smiles at Kiri again.]

Are there any others you need help with?

[She gives a thoughtful chirp, considering this as she quietly commits his phrases to memory. Very important, after all... oh.

She opens her book and writes down:]

what else is good to say?

Hmm.

[ Aziraphale takes a moment to think. ]

Excuse me and pardon me are quite good in many situations. As well as may I help you, if you see anyone who may be in need.

I guess it all depends on what you already know, but good manners do go a long way.

[ Someone help this child learn more than overly formal English, though. ]

[She nods thoughtfully, then quietly echoes each phrase- in a perfect mimicry of his voice, of course.]

Excuse me. Pardon me. May I help you. [She chirps, delighted, and claps her hands together.] Thank you.

[ It is incredibly strange to listen to his voice coming out of a little feathery creature. But she seems so happy about it, he can't help but to smile, utterly charmed. ]

You're quite welcome. You should be ready for most matter of polite conversation.

But if you'd like any more help, I am here for a few more hours.

[She gives that a moment's consideration, but it doesn't take long for her to nod, setting the etiquette book down and taking his hand, using the other to point towards the bookshelves, taking on the voice of a younger fellow.]

Let's do friend things!

Oh-

[ Aziraphale is pulled along before he knows it, without much of a choice. He mostly meant to offer to help her with other terms of conversation, but... ]

Oh, hum. Very well.

What, exactly?

[What exactly, he asks, like she can exactly tell him anything. She gives him a brief disapproving look, then points more insistently to the books, using Beau's voice.]

Come on, you get it.

[ Pardon him, little bird friend, he has zero experience with this particular kind of condition! The change in voice is still rather startling, too.

He looks at the shelves and back down at her.]

Oh, er, yes, of course.

[ Right. Yes. Books! He can do that. He’s still getting accustomed to the incredibly limited catalogue, but there should be something suitable. He looks through the books.]

What would you like to read? I’m afraid there's not that much.

Perhaps...something about the creatures found in the islands?

[Oh, that is an idea. She chirps and fluffs up her feathers, looking solemn as she nods in agreement.]

There’s lots of creatures around that could hurt.

[It's quite scary out there. Maybe if she learns about them, she'll know which ones are safe and which to avoid.]

There are, aren't there?

[ Dreadful business. He doesn't really go out of his way to engage with such creatures, but he's seen his fair share.

He picks the book off the shelf. Nothing official, of course, as it is most likely written by someone residing in the islands.]

Why don't we take a seat?

[Never has a little bird been so excited to listen. She scampers over to the nearest open seat available, tucks herself into a fluffy ball of feathers and cloak, and leans in, eager and waiting.

He'll have her full attention for as long as he's willing.]

[ That is...incredibly endearing. He can’t help by to smile, stepping over to take the other chair and lay the book on the table in front of them.

He means to reach for his entirely useless glasses, perhaps miracle them on his person, out of habit. But he catches himself and pulls his hand back again.]

Right. Let us see...

[ He flips through the pages and the rudimentary drawings.]

Oh, lorbies. I’ve encountered these creatures before, a couple of times.

Re: iv: library!

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