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

ii

[catpiper]

[The yell instantly gets her attention. The island is comfortable, but far from safe and she's not willing to overlook someone's cry when she knows it could be anything. Fusterclucks moving into different territories, some strange monsters, even the water could be creeping up, so-

She hesitates, taking cautious steps towards the source of the noise, ducking down into the bushes to ensure she's hidden in case something funky fresh is happening in these hundred acre jungles when-

It's that shark and-

It's that guy.

She doesn't know whether the shark might come to life again, so she opts to raise her hands from a nearby bush to wave frantically. Look at her!! Come over here!!]

Re: ii

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Good news on the hiding front: due to some previous mind altering effects brought up by wild flora, the cottage is surrounded by a great number of plants and bushes, courtesy of a temporarily obsessed demon. So there's plenty of places to hide, not that Aziraphale would immediately notice, as he's too busy holding a hand to his chest and recuperating from whatever the hell that was.

However, bushes don't usually sprout tiny hands, as far as he knows, so he does a double take and stares for a couple of seconds before he thinks to actually walk over.]

Er--hullo? Who's there?

[catpiper]

[There's a shark on land and this guy doesn't seem even remotely disturbed by the potential of it coming back to life. Ren, on the other hand, sees nothing but danger, so when he gets close-

Her little hands reach up to grab his and she tries to drag him into the bush with her, whispering-]

You have to hide. That's what you do.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Oh he is very much disturbed. Distressed. Disheveled, even. And it really doesn't help to have a small hand grab him and drag him off into the bushes, to which he reacts to with the most ridiculous started noise.

He almost falls into it, but he's quick to recognize the little girl. He hasn't seen her around since he first arrived, and he's pretty sure she's the same he's heard Kravitz talk about...]

I--hum.

[ I mean. Sounds like a good strategy as any. ]

Has this...happened before?

[catpiper]

No.

[This is, thankfully, her first experience with wild ass land sharks and she doesn't plan to ever have a moment with them again.

Sorry, it's a thug forest life for them now.]

But if you hide, the scary stuff won't see you, and then you'll live. That's how it works.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Is he supposed to dispute such a solid strategy? Because he really wants to, honestly. But he’d be somewhat of an hypocrite if he did.

He hesitates.]

Er. Right.

[ Shifting onto a proper crouch, he tries to inconspicuously see through the leaves, checking if the shark is still there.]

It just— appeared. Out of my cup? [ That doesn’t SOUND right, but he saw it with his own two eyes.]

[catpiper]

[It doesn't sound right because it's horrible and she hates it. It's hard to get anything done when stuff is literally popping out of thin air. The safest thing to do on the island used to be drinking water and now even that's off limits.]

They're lost. They're supposed to live in the ocean, but I think they got tired of drinking that weird water. That's why they came here.

[This is not why they came here. At all.]

[salutosinedelectat]

[ That double-take and momentary confused stare he gives the young girl would probably be hilarious if there weren’t randomly appearing ethereal land sharks around.]

I don’t think they’re quite normal sharks. [ Stating the obvious.] 

It wasn’t there to begin with.

[catpiper]

[As far as she's concerned, they live in water and have sharky features, so they're just regular ole sharks.]

They're doing that kind of thing right now.

[Is that helpful?? Not at all.]

You have to be very careful and say 'Don't be mean' to your cup.

[Again, not helpful and this does nothing.]

They'll go away soon. That's what this stuff does.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ None of this is helpful, and he is very, very confused. ]

I... [ Don't question it, Aziraphale. It's not worth it. Save yourself from the madness.

Also from the ghost sharks. ]

"This stuff"? I thought you said this hadn't happened before.

[catpiper]

The sharks haven't come before, but this kind of thing happens a lot. Weird stuff happens and then the Storyteller fixes it and that's how it is.

[They just gotta wait out the land sharks and all will go back to normal.]

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Unless you get eaten by one. If they can eat people. Or eat in general. ]

Right. The Storyteller. [ Which he still hasn't gotten around to talk to. ]

But perhaps we should find a better solution. We can't stay hidden in the bushes forever.

[catpiper]

[That's one plan they can agree on. The bush is good protection for now-until the creature finds them. Food, water-that's all going to be a problem eventually.

So she drops down to the ground, starting to inch her way out from the brush.]

Follow me.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ Aziraphale, for one, does not plan to live in the bushes his entire, hopefully endless life. ]

Where are you going?

[catpiper]

This way. That's the way I'm going.

[Amazing. Incredible. She is definitely a person that will lead him to safer pastures.

She waves a hand towards him so he knows to follow.]

Just crawl behind me. It's not scary this way.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ He should run. Find his own way. But, lord, he is not a smart angel.

He follows her, despite his doubts. ]

But it might still be out there.

[catpiper]

That's why we're going to be very quiet. It's okay. You can follow me and if you hear something scary, you run very fast. That's how it works.

[salutosinedelectat]

I--er, alright. [ He's following a child. Why is he following a child? This is ridiculous. He really does not enjoy this sense of mortality. ]

We should have a better chance if we head inside. I hardly think sharks can open doors.

[catpiper]

Let's crawl to Denny.

[Crawl all the way to Denny, where they will be fully protected from stupid sharks and shark ghosts and any variation of that for the time being.]

[salutosinedelectat]

Denny— that is in an entirely differently island. The cottage is right there.

[ They’re...still in the garden...]

[catpiper]

But Tim's at Denny. He'll know a better place to hide.

[The cottage is lacking [one] spicy boy-that's why it's not ideal. When in doubt, seek Tim out.]

[salutosinedelectat]

Oh. [ He knows Tim. Grumpy fellow, but safe for when he tried to attack Aziraphale, he's pretty alright. ]

Hm, yes, I suppose he might know the best course of action.

[catpiper]

He always knows what to do. He's very smart.

[salutosinedelectat]

[ He would rather go to Crowley, but that's a matter of familiarity. Also he should probably warn the demon about ethereal sharks around their home. ]

Alright. But we have to be careful.

[catpiper]

[Son, she's always careful. Except when she isn't, which is actually like 99% of the time.

Either way, she'll guide him to the Denny with the hope that Tim will be there to take care of him and if not, at least it's a fortified place to hide out.]