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

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael bristles a little. Geez, he knows how demons are and all, but if you're gonna ditch Hell anyway, you don't have to be so hostile.]

I was senior staff, before I left. Helming a whole new torture initiative and everything. But that doesn't matter, no one goes to Earth.

[agathokakological]

Ahh, torture staff. That makes sense. The latter doesn't though, how else are you supposed to tempt humans into committing unforgivable acts if we don't go to Earth at least once and a while? 

[Then again, in Crowley's experience, they need little help.]

[eudaimonikos]

[Tempt...what is he, a cartoon devil?]

That's not our job. That's not anybody's job. Our job's just to torture the humans we get. It doesn't matter what they do or don't do - none of them have gotten into Heaven since the 16th century anyway, the whole system's a mess.

[agathokakological]

That's my job, mate. [A scoff. Crowley's the king of those.]

Sixteenth-- That seems incorrect.

[eudaimonikos]

We're obviously not from the same dimension!

[Not everything is about you, god damn.]

It's correct. Got it from Accounting myself.

[agathokakological]

I don't know anything about multiple dimensions! 

What's the point in that, then? It's like they've given up the fight.

[eudaimonikos]

Do you not have the Time Knife?

[Like, sure it's different over there, but by definition the Time Knife's probably visible from a lot of place-times!]

It's not their fault! The requirements are unreasonable. Nobody can do anything without accidentally benefiting some corrupt billionaire somewhere, and it's impossible to offset all that point loss. If there's anybody to blame, it's the angels and all their ridiculous standards!

[agathokakological]

[Crowley looks on dumbfounded.] Am I supposed to know what the fuck a time knife is?

[He chuckles a bit over the next part.] That's what I meant! Heaven and hell are supposed to be fighting over the world's souls or something like that, the more they refuse the more of a win it is for hell. Oi--have you had an apocalypse yet?

[eudaimonikos]

Apparently not.

[Look, if you don't have the Time Knife, it's really not worth his while to explain the Time Knife.]

No. I think the humans might get there soon, but no. It's never been about numbers for us - well, maybe for us, but the angels just want the best of the best. They're all about quality, not quantity. Or maybe they're just too spineless. I met a few once, weird people.

[agathokakological]

Sure, whatever. I don't know if spineless is the word I'd use to describe any of them. "Best" seems a bit subjective, though.

[eudaimonikos]

Well, yeah. Obviously my humans are the best.

[It's one of those things that he says like a joke, because it sort of isn't. But either way, he agrees. That's sort of the point, isn't it?]

[agathokakological]

Your humans. Like pets? [He gives Michael A Look.]

You're so weird.

[eudaimonikos]

My friends! Don't make it weird, man!

[As far as he's concerned, this is absolutely not on him!]

[agathokakological]

You can't tell me not to make it weird and expect me to do anything other than make it weird.

[He motions again to the confessional sign.]

Is this how you expected this to go?

[eudaimonikos]

I'm not sure I had a lot of expectations. A lot of weird secrets, maybe. Humans are very ashamed of a lot of silly things.

[Maybe some of it's really worth all the flower drama, but it's hard to imagine it all is.]

[agathokakological]

Afraid I don't have very many of those, myself. [Just about everything he lied about with home office he's at the very least told to Aziraphale.]

[eudaimonikos]

Can't say I do either. Although none of my friends from home are here...

[Maybe it doesn't count?]

[agathokakological]

You can always tell me. From one bad demon to another. I won't judge you.

[Crowley waves his hands.]

Well, I mean, I'll judge you, but I don't really care.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, it's nothing you'd find shocking. Very standard stuff.

[Michael waves a hand vaguely. It's humans who find all the torture shocking; to another demon, it's not even a confession.]

Torture, maiming, you know.

[agathokakological]

I don't know.

[He waves his hands again.]

I mean, I know, but I don't know. Never a hobby of mine.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, I don't know if - well, it was a job.

[Not a hobby, they're never allowed hobbies. But implying that it'd just been a matter of work, and never personal enjoyment...that wouldn't be true.]

All the jobs we have are torture-related. Not all hands-on, of course, there's all the bureaucratic stuff. But that's the, uh...you've got more advancement opportunities if you are.

[agathokakological]

[This prompts a chuckle.]

Our hells have that in common, at least.

[eudaimonikos]

I bet I still would have tried to get an Earth posting eventually, if that was a thing we had. Sounds a lot more fun.

[Tempting them to Hell is pretty ehhhh, at this point, but being among humans! All the time!]

[agathokakological]

A breeze. Humans do all the work for you. Barely have to lift a finger.

[eudaimonikos]

I actually spent a year on Earth, once, kinda doing the opposite thing. It was a lot of work. Lots of air travel.

[Though apparently, getting them into Heaven was impossible anyway.]