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

[deathfindsaway]

... Oh. Uh.

[He really thought this one was gonna be easier. They had the cure now! Just say your feelings and you're golden. But of course, things are always more complicated, and Kravitz hums as he tries to put his thoughts together.]

Well, uhm, you-- you will still need to express your emotions somehow, or that certainly won't go away. Do you know another, er, a nonverbal language, or just... movements?

[He pauses for a moment while he thinks, scratching lightly on his jaw just to have something to do with his hands.]

I suppose I could use a small mind link, if you aren't opposed.

[demonpuppy]

[Well, they were about to mime writing something out, but then Kravitz had to go an insinuate that he's a god damn esper.]

[Chip's expression goes from meekly nervous to star-struck in an instant, and they completely forget their whole throat flowers issue and 'blurt out'...well, something that mostly comes out as a wheeze. But if Kravitz is any good at reading lips he might catch:]

["You're a psychic?!"]

[deathfindsaway]

[He blinks a bit owlishly, trying to center back in after their exuberance catches him off guard. Kravitz clears his throat, even though there's literally no point to doing so because he's absolutely not about to use his mouth, and swaps to sending his thoughts. It's a bit different than he could outside of Lifeaftr, where he would simply project his voice into anyone he wanted, but now that he has a form he's a little more tethered to distance. Still, it comes through clear in Chip's head.]

Psychic would not be the correct word. It's simply a residual of my abilities. When you don't always have a body or even a mouth, it's helpful to be able to communicate.

[He does offer them a little smile, albeit tinged with nervousness considering the last time they tried this they almost got stabbed.]

[demonpuppy]

[If it were physically possible, there would be stars appearing in Chip's eyes right now. Their mental voice is much 'louder' than it needs to be, mostly because of their excitement, and what they have to say is rattled off nearly too fast to follow.]

Ohmigosh this is so COOL you're an esper it's really real can you lift up stuff with your brain what other powers do you have why don't you have a body can you possess stuff how'd you learn to do that can you teach me--

[Nearly.]

[deathfindsaway]

[Kravitz makes a little face with the words, like the physical representation of a !!! as he catches his bearings. Well, this is significantly less morose than he was expecting from this conversation, or at least thus far, and he's happy to oblige the questioning.]

Uhm-- well, it's. Yes, I can lift things with my mind, I have a body mostly because I'm stuck here, but could manifest one like this before that, and, I don't think I can teach it, these powers were a gift from my Lady. Was... was that everything?

[demonpuppy]

[They're like, ten, okay. You show them a cool trick and they're gonna lose their shit.]

Who's your lady? Is she an alien? Can she teach me too?

[deathfindsaway]

[He only ever deals with children in trauma situations or Ren. There's just no middle ground.]

She-- she is my Goddess. These abilities come as a boon for serving her. I don't think they can quite be... taught, though there are similar things one could learn in other ways.

[demonpuppy]

What kind of ways? Can you teach me?

[Do you see this face, Kravitz? Can you say no to hope and joy like this?]

[deathfindsaway]

[hhhHHHHHHHHHH HE'S GONNA DIE]

I-- uhm--

Well, I might be able to, I. I haven't really tried, to be honest. Usually crossing disciplines like that is a bit complicated.

[Kravitz you don't know how to do this why are you THIS WAY]

[demonpuppy]

[rip in pepperonis, bud]

But you could try, right? I'll try really hard, I promise I'll listen and do everything you say!!

[deathfindsaway]

[Okay he needs to get a handle on this before he lies outright and these flowers choke him to death. He clears his throat needlessly, which at least just looks like he's sick, and spreads his palms towards Chip.]

I-- yes, I could try, but I cannot promise any kind of result at this time. I, I don't want to disappoint you, so... please, keep reasonable expectations on the whole thing. But I could, possibly, as long as you don't uhm-- well, don't die here of course.