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

[yakyuuman]

"The sun, huh?"

Puzzled, Jyushimatsu looks up to the sky. Stares through the sun for longer than his eyes are supposed to bear, then giggles while continuous flashes of light dance across his vision for the next couple minutes. He's an idiot, Ginko. You're stuck with him now.

"It's a bit warmer than usual today, indeed!" he says obviously. "But that shouldn't dry you up like this!"

[onegreeneye]

This is a nightmare. This is every oblivious pain-in-the-ass client he's struggled with combined, except now he's the one who's sick and this guy is just.... Ginko doesn't know what he's doing. Trying to figure it out might make him pass out right now.

For much the same reason he doesn't try too hard to understand this grown man's sun-staring decisions, Ginko does not say all that. Instead he growls under his breath - barely a growl so much as a low, rumbling sigh, like a big tired dog who happens to be gargling rocks. "Troll problem. Could-- you help?"

He is, admittedly, not hopeful at this point, but he figures he's got a better chance if he asks directly.

[yakyuuman]

Trolls are like that, it seems, and Jyushimatsu doesn't question what issues such populace has to deal with. But Ginko needs help, and fortunately for the incapacitated party, the yellow clad NEET knows what it means to give a hand when there's need for it.

"Well, okay! I've got a bit of time!" Before training, that is, which his buddy here interrupted with his large useless body. It's not his fault, maybe, but still! Blinking the light off his eyes, Jyushimatsu grabs Ginko's arm and lifts it up as if he's holding a ragdoll.

"What do you want me to do?"

[onegreeneye]

"Shade." Somehow. He doesn't really expect Jyushimatsu to be able to drag him to cover, but, you know. Maybe that could be something??

Ginko pulls in a shaky breath and drags his other arm under himself, pushing his hand against the ground with all the force he can muster - which isn't much. It feels like he's trying to lift a weight much greater than that of his own body. "Might-- take a while. Sorry."

[yakyuuman]

"Oh, that's okay," Jyushimatsu replies cheerfully. "I've bench pressed more stuff than you can count!"

Though, he's got to half eat his words back because Ginko really is heavy. Bench pressing him is out of question with the amount of strength that's been sapped from Jyushimatsu after his arrival to the island. Regardless, he achieves the feat of pulling the troll off the ground, draping his arm around the NEET's smaller shoulders.

He huffs, noticing how he's already sweating. This might be good training after all! Time's not being wasted!

"To the shade, huh?" He ponders, looking over the forest until he sees a tall tree with a decent amount of shade underneath. "Alright! Over there!"

The two slowly proceed towards the tree, Jyushimatsu being the main force that manages to carry the both of them to destination. He grits his teeth when he thinks he can't make it, but a boost of his legs as he walks is enough to get him not to give up.

He uncerimoniously dumps Ginko at the feet of the tree, the troll's back pressed against the trunk, and then he crouches down, wheezing and huffing with fatigue. "Phew...! What the hell happened to my strength... I could have normally been able to throw you across the island!"

[onegreeneye]

Maybe it's harder than Jyushimatsu expects, but Ginko is still pretty damn surprised that he can move him as effectively as he does, especially when Ginko can provide so little help himself.

Being dropped against the tree almost knocks out what breath Ginko's got in him, but it's a small price to pay for the immediate wash of cool relief that the shade provides. He can't move around much yet, but it's still a vast improvement, and he takes a moment to close his eye and catch his breath now that he's got any chance of actually managing it.

"It happens. Something about... about this place." That's more than he could talk at a time before, anyway. "Thanks."

[yakyuuman]

"You're welcome! Just avoid whatever situation you got yourself into, next time!"

He stands tall at the shade, wiping sweat off his forehead with a sleeve. It must have been the effort to carry a very heavy troll, but he's already starting to feel the heat as well and it's all sticky and kind of uncomfortable with no water around.

Hmmm. Right. Jyushimatsu turns back to Ginko.

"You need water? I can get water."

[onegreeneye]

Ginko snorts quietly before answering, "'F I can. Not like I picked it."

He guesses he could try and chase off any foxes that come near him, but that doesn't seem like a very efficient solution.

"I'd... appreciate that." He's not sure how much he's sweated out at this point, but it's probably a lot.

[yakyuuman]

"You'll get water then, very soon! Keep guard or something!"

And just like that, he's gone like a flash of lightning. This is pretty good exercise indeed. Won't make up for the time he's wasting that he could have used practicing, but accidents and setbacks happen all the time. Ginko is a fine enough guy to deserve some help, either way.

Jyushimatsu finds water, but it takes him about twenty minutes in-between departure and arrival before he reappears by the tree, a satchel of water in his sleeves.

"Here! Drink away!" He shoves it to Ginko's hands. If the satchel weighs lighter than it should, it's because Jyushimatsu dawned half of the content down on his way back.

[onegreeneye]

"...Got it." It doesn't even really matter that Jyushimatsu is gone by the time he speaks. He's just saying it to say it.

And then he's alone, sitting in the quiet shadows of the forest and waiting. He closes his eye for a while, but this time it's really just for the sake of resting; he's feeling better, moment by moment, even if the progress is slow.

He opens his eye again when he hears Jyushimatsu approaching, and barely reacts in time to take a hold of the satchel. "--Ah. Thanks." Saying that is the only pause he takes before taking a swig. He doesn't really notice or care, honestly, that the weight doesn't match up to the size of the container; as far as he's concerned, if Jyushimatsu needed a drink while making the trip, he'd earned that just by helping Ginko out like this.

[yakyuuman]

With a chuckle, Jyushimatsu settles himself next to Ginko, under the shading tree, watching the guy take swigs at the water and seemingly feeling better. That's what he wanted. Even though he's hardly helpful at times, he did something useful today! He's not really hopeless after all.

"How are you now?" he asks after Ginko is done drinking, nudging him with an elbow.

[onegreeneye]

It doesn't take him long to finish; once Ginko gets started on the water, it hits him how thirsty he really was, and he downs the rest so fast he almost spills it.

He pulls in a sharp breath (and almost starts coughing, jeez, he could have been more careful there) when he finishes the water, and passes Jyushimatsu's satchel back to him. "--Better. Sorry you had to deal with that - I'm usually better at keeping out of the sun."