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

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( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[agathokakological]

Mine never got so bad. [He considers this, and feels that he's been fairly open about his own feelings... even to his own embarrassment.]

Had a cough, seems to have cleared up.

[deathfindsaway]

Well, it sounds like you're much better at this than the rest of us.

[Either that, or he's a much, much better liar. Kravitz isn't sure, but he knows he thought he was being perfectly honest last time when it still wasn't enough. It's just hard not to carry a lot of it on his shoulders when that's what's familiar.]

I did not intend for it to get to this point either. I simply don't know what it... wants, in terms of confession. I believe I've worked out the issue it fed on the first time it came around, but it's difficult to... have that type of self awareness, I suppose. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself.

[agathokakological]

There's your problem.

[Crowley snaps his fingers.]

I think about myself constantly. What I am. Why I am. Who I want to be, who I want others to think I am...

[deathfindsaway]

[He arches an eyebrow, in absence of other, more physical movements.]

That, frankly, sounds a bit exhausting. I didn't have much in the way of expressing personal identity until... fairly recently, and sometimes the weight of it all is hard to keep up with. Not that, that I don't like who I am, I'm just... content with that, I suppose. It is too complex to otherwise manage how other people feel about me.

[agathokakological]

You can't manage how other people feel. They'll develop opinions whether you'd like them to or not.

[Which is why Crowley was so easily found out as a total fraud once there were actual stakes involved in his job. And why he had an insurance plan for that exact thing happening.]

Self-awareness is rare, I suppose.

[deathfindsaway]

I suppose I just have a difficult time not letting those opinions inform me of... myself. Of keeping my own identity, as it were.

[Thank goodness Crowley's gotten him talking, because now he's interested in the conversation instead of being worried that he's making things weird.]

How do you do it? Stay so confident in yourself?

[agathokakological]

Spent a lot of time emulating the kind of person I want to be until I've become him.

[If Kravitz knew of earth, the highest of all compliments Crowley could receive would be to be compared to a spooky James Bond.]

That, and I genuinely think I'm better than most... well, demons anyway.

[deathfindsaway]

[As someone else with at least an Aesthetic, this he understands. He just never really spent the time trying to be something else. He was the herald of death, he dressed in a manner consistent to his Lady. What else was there?

He hums in response though, obviously thinking about it.]

Well, you seem it as well. My perception of demons is likely different than yours, but you are quite possibly the only full infernal I've ever met that I didn't have to subsequently stop from trying to kill me, so take that as you will.

[But back to the topic at hand.]

I suppose in a certain sense it's fruitless to ask for advice, if this is a decision I should be making myself. I guess I'm having a hard time figuring out what's... right, as silly as that sounds. Concern that I am making the correct choices.

[agathokakological]

Crowley shakes his head to such a concern. "No, no, see-- you've got it all wrong. Doesn't matter if it's right or wrong... all those things are subjective." 

This is a lesson of course that Crowley's learned just before landing on this island. Heaven is a lot like hell, in the end. There really is a joke somewhere about the difference between good and evil, but he can't be assed to make it. He clears his throat. "Do what you feel is right.  What you care to do."

[deathfindsaway]

[His brow furrows a bit, trying to consider the implications of all of that. For a man who has spent his undeath so concerned with justice and making the correct choices, just trusting himself seems dangerous at best, but he's at least trying. It's a minute or so before he does something other than nod and hum, putting words together before they can leave his mouth.]

What I... care to do is not always the right thing. My priorities cannot simply be my own, but-- I suppose it is possible I've swung too hard into making them not a thing at all. That presents its own set of challenges.

[The words feel empty, and he knows they are, even if they're the only ones he can think of. Kravitz sighs, attempting at least to disassemble the barriers that keep him so rigid, even if he feels like without them he'll surely collapse.]

I worry of personal selfishness. Of a lack of priority to the way the world must run. There are some things that shouldn't be changed, and to be dealing entirely in free will opens the door to destroying the entire world.

[agathokakological]

Not always the right thing by whose definition? [Crowley raises his eyebrows in a way to emphasize that point.]

All I'm saying is, the whole sides thing, right and wrong, good and bad, it's all a big cockshow.

[Is Kravitz playing by his own rules a world-breaking offense? That response gives the demon chills, but he squints for a moment, thinking that through. He'd always been one to ask questions, find loopholes, worm his way around the rules. Sure, he didn't know the other man's whole story, but that couldn't be absolute... could it?]

There's always a compromise.

[deathfindsaway]

[They're not, in the end. Kravitz taking one thing for himself is in no way the line toed to the destruction of the world, and he's made exceptions- deals- games of it for years. But without his Lady to ensure his choices are still good, to make sure he does not unbalance the universe-- how does he know he's doing it right? How can he ensure he hasn't broken something?

He'd usually shrug this off, dismiss the conversation, but the circumstances are too dire. He can't afford to let this lie, and Kravitz digs down inside him, tries not to think about how much his decisions just feel like he's convincing himself one way or another.]

There are... exceptions. There have always been exceptions, in extraordinary circumstances.

[He sighs, idly itching at the back of his neck, a palpable reminder as to why he can't stop there.]

I think I am just afraid that I will slip into being the very people I hunt. Those who break the planes and life itself over their knee to save a single life, because it is something I've-- I know it. I know what they always want. But... perhaps I have taken this a bit far when it comes to every decision I make. I don't think they all have quite that much gravitas, but... well, I certainly hope they don't, at least.

[agathokakological]

Fear is normal, isn't it? [Crowley shrugs. He doesn't make a habit of showing his own, but well, he's as afraid and vulnerable as the next guy.]

Look, you can be whoever you want, I'm just the kind of person who doesn't find those sorts of answers so simple. I ask questions. Maybe too many questions, but I can't help it. Why should I just accept things for what they are if I don't agree with them? Why does anyone? Maybe you can, and that's fine, but obviously something is getting to you, otherwise you wouldn't be in the state you're in.

[deathfindsaway]

Well, it-- I suppose that is right.

[He wouldn't be considering other options as options if he was content with the way of things. But his wants aren't more than the universe... and yet, doesn't he deserve something for his accomplishments?

It's all very, very tangled. Maybe he should ask more questions more often. Kravitz nods in response, more emboldened than before, and the flowers dip downward in their trajectory again.]

I would not have stayed in her retinue if she did not trust my judgement. And if I feel my Lady does not make simple errors, then... perhaps I am more capable than I perceive myself to be.

[Look at that! Almost a whole self compliment! What a step ahead.]

[agathokakological]

I can't pretend to understand a word of what you just said. [Crowley says this rather deadpan.]

But it seems like you're getting somewhere-- I mean, you don't have to betray yourself or anyone you don't want to, I just think things shouldn't be so black and white.

[deathfindsaway]

[Kravitz chuckles, moving as if to raise his hand to the back of his neck but not quite making it there. Still, the movement loosens some of the plant matter, and the smile- however small- feels nice on his face.]

No, you're-- you're quite right. I just tend to get caught up in my own head sometimes.

[He looks towards Crowley, a bit lighter than previous. Every step counts.]

Thank you. I know we haven't... talked, much. I appreciate that you're willing to spend this kind of time with a man who is practically a stranger to you.

[agathokakological]

[Crowley's lips turn into an exaggerated frown as Kravitz tries to make a moment out of this.]

It's fine. I needed to make sure this worked. Aziraphale is sick, and I can't seem to get the same results with him.

[Which is Crowley's own hell, in a sense.]