outofsticks | A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

Entry tags:

!past lives

A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

Once upon a time, in the continent of Ostorn, there was a town called Haven. After a deadly plague had ravaged the lands, a man decided to strike out and pave a new trade route to cities barred by a lack of roads and an abundance of natural blockades...

Welcome to the first past life plotting post of 2025! Sticks and Bones is a setting where player characters are the reincarnations of previous residents of the town that Aldric founded within the woods as a midway stop between cities on his new trade route. The continent of Ostorn and the world of Sticks and Bones is a magical land inspired by the Tales of series, among other games. Below in the comments are some explanations, locations and pre-existing NPCs who can be referenced!

Players with dropped characters are encouraged to include their dropped characters if only for potential backstory purposes for others, but it is not a requirement.

While we don't want to restrict things a lot, we must ask you keep the following in mind!

Although this is a magical setting where plant-animals and beasts like the Guardians exist, characters must be human in their past life, with few exceptions. Please speak to the mods if you feel something else is better for your character.
The level of technology was a bit skewed, but largely it was very basic electricity that just... happened to be magic. Light bulbs, the magic of indoor plumbing.
Speaking of magic, while there are forms of magic such as enchantment and standard RPG mechanics, the Celestial magic that's been included in the game plot is not open to characters in their past lives.
You are more than welcome to include new locations or expand on current ones, though if it is noted to reach out to a specific player about it, please do that. Ostorn is a large continent, and there is an even bigger world out there.
The Goddesses are known, but very distantly as ancient history. Religion depends on the region, but Guardians, being demigod animals, are frequent objects of worship.
Your past life should not be a 1:1 parallel to your current life! Things change, situations change, and the new reincarnations got off very badly actually.

When you're ready, please use this form and then tag out!

Name: it u
Place of Birth: where u from
Reasons for Joining the Grove: why u here
History: whahappun (also how did u die)
Role: what u doin
Looking for: what are you most interested in having for your past life cr?
Wants and Wishes: anything else!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

A small ocean-side town with a semi-populated port, and the starting location of the initial expedition. It invokes the feeling of a starting town in a JRPG, and holds a largely European-adjacent culture. Notably, an enchanter who sold Aldric the Golden Glasses he stocks and some other magic items lived there with his apprentices.

A city on the other side of the forest, and the initial destination for establishing a shorter trade route. Much wealthier, and noted to have much higher quality goods including local medicines that Aldric was especially keen on getting to Haven. This was a very well-to-do city, and people from Roseroot are generally considered to be of a higher class than most folks.

A very nearby territory, though not the home of Haven or Roseroot. Dionira and her late husband, Cyrus, ruled over it while her brother Astarion tended to the family vineyard. Her oldest children vanished one day, with their uncle being the most likely suspect... Despite Dionira's callousness, she was an excellent ruler until her death, leaving the territory without any heir. The Duchy's main import was wines, dyes and perfumes. As this is tied to a former character heavily, please reach out to Amity for any potential major ideas!

A series of islands that make up a crescent shape around a brilliant blue cove. Not much has been revealed about this land, but it's been alluded to be an equivalent to Japan. As players decide more information, we'll add it here!

A sea known for its gem-green waters, wrapped around the peninsula part of the forest rests on. A single lighthouse keeps the rocky shores alight. The sea is inhabited by Sea Monsters of various shapes and sizes and levels of bio-luminescence.

Aldric (founder and leader of the original expedition, a kind merchant who sought to expand trade across the continent to allow the flow of high quality goods and medicines to reach more towns. Father of three, 'mayor' of a sort, and probably unofficially adopted half the grove. If you had a shit dad, he did punch them at least once.)

Olivia (Aldric's sister, co-founder, and probably the most willing to get aggressive of the three- but only when necessary. Otherwise she's commemorated as jolly, gentle and vibrant. Also a huge lebsian. Wooed many women. Maybe even you.)

Renard (Aldric's closest friend, co-founder, and a man for the finer things in life. Despite this, he's no less unwilling to get his hands dirty with hard work.)

Grace (The original and main town doctor, mother of Add and Nene.)

Nene (Grace's adopted daughter, a gardener, the first to be corrupted and the future demise of the town, much to her dismay.)

Helputt (Captain of the town Guard and father to Chung, a former player character. A very good man. Painfully good, even.)

Previous post right here.

Name: Alice Hohenheim
Place of Birth: Roseroot

Reasons for Joining the Grove: Alice was brought into the Grove as a child by her father, who was looking for somewhere a little less hustle and bustle for his sickly daughter to thrive. It worked, and Alice was able to grow into adulthood until eventually meeting her fate.

History:
Alice was pretty much the opposite of A.B.A personality-wise. Despite it all, she was very happy and friendly, able to do amazing things such as socialize and not scare people off. She also looked much more like A.B.A's earlier appearance, having striking red hair in a shorter cut. People may have a hard time recognizing her in old photos right away, but if you look close enough, they definitely have the same face.

Like mentioned before, Alice was brought into the Grove by her father, who was already interested in going anyway to help its development. He was a man of science and offered to help on the technical front, but also wanted to use this opportunity to study the forest. Her parents separated for reasons unrelated, all that's known is that Alice's mother did not join them.

As Alice grew, she became much more optimistic of her future. She was old enough to get married! She might be able to get a home of her very own! She might make it to old age! Sure, she was weak, some days were spent bedridden inside, but she had no reason to believe her life was going to be cut short. (haha whoops)

Speaking of being inside, though, Alice's father desperately wished she would stay inside more often. It was not uncommon for her to sneak out and explore the Grove. Much like A.B.A, she had a strong sense of curiosity and hated to be contained. Having a bubbly Alice come up to you and see if you needed any help was just a part of life. She wanted to be useful, although some people may have found her bothersome.

The person who would've found her the most bothersome would be the Grove's version of Paracelsus. Did you know Paracelsus has a canon human form, even though it's from a noncanon ending? There you go, there's what he looked like. That's the love of her life. Anyway, a lot of Alice's outside time was used following him around like a lovesick puppy. Since Paracelsus's real name is Flament Nagel, past Paracelsus's name was probably something stupid like Nigel. Much like Paracelsus, Nigel was very tsun about Alice's advances. He acted annoyed, and a lot of times he was, but deep down he liked the attention. He was a scary looking guy, after all. Quiet, shy, people didn't come up to him as much.

Part of what made him so scary was his love for the occult. But unlike someone cool who might join an actual cult, Nigel was just a dork who was interested in demons and monsters, he never stuck his toes into the real deal. Instead, he and Alice would run off to his little hideout in the woods where he would show her his diagrams, skull masks (goat skull in honor of Paracelsus's Moroha mode), and talk about his demonsona. All while Alice stared at him with hearts in her eyes. She thought it was cute when he got excited about the things he liked, since he's normally such a quiet guy. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to marry this man someday.

But it never happened. As well as she was doing, there was no way someone as weak as Alice was getting out of that fire. It's very likely she was an easy victim and didn't get much father than her bedroom door. If anyone tried to get her out of there, it was probably her not-lover, and they died together tragically. Alice died cursing her weakness, wishing she was stronger.

Role: Man, great question. As much as I love to blab about what she did, I really can't think of anything that would make her important. I'm okay with her just being a background character if it comes to it, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm so open. I'd love to have her at least stumble on something.

Looking for: Anything and everything! So far, the only connection she has is with PV and Lily, which I adore. I'd love to know if she had more friends, annoyed anyone, some other third thing.

Wants and Wishes: If I can work dragons into this somehow, I will. Don't test me.

Let's plot here so I can edit the post in case I need to change anything!

previously on sticks and bones...
ain
gnosis
passenger
flamebringer

Name: Mason "Dipper" Pines [Art Ref]
Place of Birth: Haven

Reasons for Joining the Grove: Hilariously, the Pines were in the faewoods before the Grove, and simply got assimilated into the Grove as the town popped up around them.

History: Dipper and his twin sister Mabel originally came to live with their Uncles in the woods after losing their parents and the rest of the family to the plague. Stan and Ford had opted to settle in the Faewoods and build a cabin to help raise the kids. It wasn't long after this that Aldric settled the grove and the Pines simply became neighbors of the settlement.

Though Mabel was a social butterfly, Dipper, eventually going by Mason as he got older, was much more reserved and usually kept to himself. He could be found with a his nose in a mystery novel, or just following Mabel around trying to keep her out of trouble. Mason and Mabel were close, despite how they could be like night and day. Mabel always willing to embrace a brighter side of life while Mason was often more pragmatic in how he approached things. Losing their parents gave both the twins an interesting outlook on life, and Mason's hyper-vigilance and constant need to prove his own maturity could be easily linked back to a strive to grow up as fast as possible.

When things in the Grove started to take their turn, Mason caught on and decided to look into it himself. Having uncovered Alexi's cult, He decided the best way to learn more about the threat it was posing to the Grove was to join under the guise of being tempted by all that tasty dark knowledge and in return, Mason would use the things he's learned and studied from his uncles to help them with their rituals. As it turns out ...it's very hard to leave a cult once you're neck deep in shit, and whatever horrible blood pact Mason had to make with the rest of the followers to prove his loyalty only came back to haunt him when Mabel helped him make a clean break.

Role: Mason sure did help the cult grow to power by helping them with this dark magic and shit! He promised it was all for the purpose of learning what was going on but it sure blew up in his face! Whoops!
Looking for: Honestly I'm open to anything! People his age that he was awkward around, people who were frequenting Stan's outpost shop, people from the cult that helped him make terrible decisions. All sorts of stuff!!
Wants and Wishes: have this comic i made

For discussion!

Name: Ainchase Ishmael

Place of Birth: Roseroot

Reasons for Joining the Grove: :') Mom's fault—

History: He and his mom and brothers were priests! Unfortunately I don't have normal art of his mom but this is his mom :) Probably assume she had the blue hair/face veil but was less monstrous. Very tall tho. Here is a brother, idk assume there are like 6 of these running around. They Probably all look different but the game provides me with One other angel okay :/ Whenever I have modern AUs I call this brother Almeric— so we'll go with that here. I feel like at some point I named the others but I can't find my names now.

Anyhoo, when I say his entire family were priests I mean it in a very Evangelical sense. These were not people you'd want to hang out around. They were from Roseroot and came here to Spread The Word Of God, meaning they were a) very posh and b) very stuck-up, so sorry to anyone who knew Ain between the ages of 10-18 he was very much An Asshole. It did not help that his mom, known by "Lady Ishmael", kept all of her children on a short leash and basically sequestered them in her house constantly (which she was trying?? to turn into a church dwbi). There was a lot of "those people outside are dirty / we don't associate with them / they must be brought to God's Light" type of Evangelical bullshit. Which, you know, a Smol Ain bought into and I'm sorry to say he was the most annoying motherfucker for many years due to this.

Good news is, Smol Ain would later snap out of this because he realised Boys Cute and maybe those people outside their walls aren't so bad. Unfortunately his mom and brothers were the type of people to boot his ass out for this, you may insert other religious homophobia overtones here because I am not writing them down but it was Bad Enough that Ain was very self-hating for quite a while. In the end he wound up couch-surfing and probably had a lot of sordid gay rendezvous behind buildings and in the woods, especially in his twenties.

I'm sure he had a house of his own at some point but he was very much the "I'm trying to avoid my entire family while they try to form a cult" kid. He probably had 300 crushes and this was known about him... near "the end" we'll call it, he picked up music and gardening and finally started to be happier with himself.

As for his death, it was swift and merciless; his freak of a mother thought the sudden apocalypse was Great and had his brothers grab him and offer him as a sacrifice to a monster. It's okay, they died soon after. Ain will have absolutely no PTSD about this when he discovers this memory heyo—

Role: After abandoning being a priest and giving into the sin as mom would call it, he took up singing, and would often be seen gardening. No tailoring for him in this past life, that's for future-Ain to figure out. He wasn't really trying to make it big so much as just find something he loved. ...and then he died before he could figure himself out totally so oops.

Looking for: I'm down for pmuch anything. Bandmates, romance arcs, couches to surf on, people to shake the religion out of him...

Wants and Wishes: idk right now ask me again later (8ball voice)

---

Updates from plotting with folks!
- Ain and Livio were A Thing, they were very cute and soft, Ain tried to serenade him and his guitar kept going out of tune :') also couch surfed at Miss Melanie's often (because Liv Was There)
- He was however also interested in Ezell, and Ezell was one of the ones who would comfort him when his mother was acting, uh, Like That. However, he didn't confess until it was too late, by leaving an ominous note that essentially read, "I feel like my mother's going to do something. I don't know why. But if I die, it's her fault. I love you, I hope I'll see you soon."
- anyway then that didn't happen
- Aside from his mom sacrificing him, Alexi also helped with this, and both of them combined are what wound up with Ain dying in the end.

Edited 2025-01-16 21:53 (UTC)

this is where we plot with ain! plsthank

Name: Gnosis Edelweiss

Place of Birth: Gnosis is from somewhere overseas, remember in summer where the land beyond the sea came up... he's Nebulously That Way.

Reasons for Joining the Grove: His folks showed up here with him as a Youth™. It was one of the first ships out here before the civilization really kickstarted, and he grew up with the Grove itself.

History: Little Gnosis was very much introverted and disinterested in the things everyone else was doing. It took a long time for him to warm up to others, but even as an adult he remains slightly closed-off. He lived with his parents for a long time and in fact didn't actually move out of his childhood home for a while... his parents actually loved him in this timeline, something he has said to Sesa in current timeline freaks him the fuck out because he would prefer the reality where they didn't. Gnosis is very normal.

Gnosis spent fucking Forever pining after Enciodes. It was embarrassing. It was very much teenagers in love but Gnosis kept hiding behind trees, everyone had to be subject to this and watch this happen in real time. He wrote full-ass love letters to this man, and they were in fact recovered from his old house in the North Grove when it existed there. That's old lore but fingerguns.

Otherwise Gnosis grew up fairly well-adjusted and was often forced to babysit, especially babysitting Mizuki, and eventually he got fairly tired of babysitting the Youths because wow y'all are loud. He spent most of his time dedicating himself to the pursuit of being a Historian. He's probably got archives of Things That Happened somewhere stashed away in the archives. He and Enciodes got married at some point and that was gay of them to do. Gnosis has their past-life wedding rings nowadays too.

As for his death, when the fires started to ravage the town, he tried and failed to get his parents out of their home and burned to death with them. Yayyyy :) Sesa already discovered his and his parents' corpses in the Burned Town (former) (RIP burned town) and he doesn't want to talk about it, not because he died but because his parents actually loved him. Go to therapy Gnosis.

Role: Gnosis was a nerd I mean a historian! He was recording history... of like everything, even if it was mundane. Everyday practices, rituals, holidays, things like that.

Looking for: Honestly if folks want to make it a Thing that Gnosis wrote sssssooomething about their characters or a holiday or something and find it in the archives, that would be cute. Even if it's just a family history, or records of weddings or birthdays, or something.

Wants and Wishes: See above

this is where we plot with gnosis! plsthank

Name: Elliot Glover

Place of Birth: this is a great question, get back to me on this one—

Reasons for Joining the Grove: His grandfather Old Isin moved here! And baby Elliot followed of course.

History: Growing up he was definitely a bookish kid who later got super into infrastructure and technology. The man will winterize your electrical wiring, this is a threat. I also wanted him to work a bit in the theatre as a stage hand, where he helped with the electricity and special effects if there were any. Growing up he often tinkered with stuff and sometimes it might have exploded, but it was fine, it's fine. He was raised half by one of the teachers at the school (Thorne), and half by Old Isin, a... side character from his actual canon who was a quack (and also raised him in canon too) but I'm just gonna say Old Isin was his biological grandfather and was normal, if not a little forgetful. Unless there are any Old Isin RPers out there who think differently I guess. He would've been an adult when shit went sideways, and by that point Old Isin was in the fucking ground. Amity can we haunt the Grove with Old Isin's ghost.............

Elliot is just a guy, unlike in canon how his psyche is split down the middle. He was only outgoing as far as work went, and if he wasn't working he wasn't all that talkative, but people would often see him working in the Grove trying to install various things. He probably made rudimentary coal-powered heaters of a type... and then helped to install electricity everywhere. He'd come into your house with schematics and blueprints and fix your stuff up real good.

Also, looks at Chi, he definitely had feelings for Sesa (Sebastian) but fuckin? Elliot was so normal about it this time. He wasn't obsessed, he was actually very sweet. Like, bringing flowers and trying to flirt but failing because the first thing out of his mouth was something something sparks fly nevermind bye Seb. The local electrician is flirting w/u.

Anyway, guess who never got together before they died! Elliot tried to escape the town and head to the sea to sail off when the attack started, leaving a note on Seb's desk that was basically a love confession. He made it pretty far into the woods... and then as he reached the ocean and thought he'd made a getaway, a sea monster dragged him under. RIP.

Role: As established, he was the electrician! He probably helped develop that sort of tech here to make it more easily accessible to everyone else too. Local man invents the breaker box.

Looking for: Anything! Other kids to grow up with who would tolerate his weird grandfather, people to help with electricity stuff, that sort of stuff. Just Friends in general, because he tends to be the loner type and not make them lmao.

Wants and Wishes: Nothing pressing I'll take whatever

this is where we plot with passenger! plsthank

yet again i must say: all of this is me supremely banking on the fact that i'm never getting these specific castmates lol

Name: Asher Kariv ~~arknights is going to one day drop his real name in front of me and i'll have to retcon this (coping for fb lore in tyool 2025)~~

Place of Birth: Overseas™ is what I wrote last time, I'm glad I'm soooo good at plotting this out lmfao.

Reasons for Joining the Grove: Life sucked and he needed to simply get away from it.

History: Asher moved across the sea to the Grove to get the fuuuuuck away from home, which was pretty bad all things considered. He was an adult when he showed up, and arrived with a handful of children between the ages of 9-16, which in order of youngest to oldest were Popukar, Shamare, Lisa, and Podenco. His four daughters :') all adopted of course, and man he arrived fucking exhausted because of the journey overseas. It was here that he met Lena, another castmate I am banking on never getting, and they bonded over a love of gardening. He wound up moving in with her, and they're jointly raising the kids in a QPP situation.

Eventually Asher would decide to lean into the artsy side since things are calm here (haha), which is where his tattooing/piercing business comes into play, when he isn't helping the other flower-lovers raise the flowers and such anyway. He keeps himself busy. Unlike his current life where he's a merc, he's not doing that here, he is literally raising his kids and watering his flowers and drawing on people.

Eventually he adopted Mayoi too, so now he's got four daughters and one son. He will steal Mafuyu too if her mom sucks enough watch out—

This does not mean he wasn't something of a punk-ass bitch though. Due to how he was raised and his shitty hometown, he's got big "street thug" energy despite trying to be generally pretty calm. If anyone wolf-whistled at Lena he'd deck them, and he's prompted several fights with the town guards because he doesn't know when to not stick his foot in his mouth. Aside from his family in his home, he was pretty aloof and didn't make friends easily, but at the same time you'd see this man climbing trees to rescue cats and then falling out of them after the cat was safe, or climbing the side of a building because the ivy must be trimmed right at the top here, etc etc. He usually had some sort of injury going on.

He has a dumb little crush on Ezell and honestly the fact that Ezell would stop to look after him made his reckless climbing-shit-and-getting-injured behaviour worse. Like oh nooo look he got in a fistfight with the town guards do you think he's hot can you clean the cut on his cheek etc. It was gross and embarrassing. Please make fun of him.

These two ALSO never hooked up. Unfortunately the death came first! During the big monster throwdown, Asher took a hit meant for Ezell to save his life, and as he was dying, confessed to him. Yaaaaaaay :)

Role: Local florist/tattoo guy/piercing guy/punk ass bitch/he has four kids so he's a "single father"

Looking for: 18 more children... but also more gardening pals. Friends? People to fistfight with? If you were ever in the town guard you know he had it out for you at some point.

Wants and Wishes: N/A hit me with whatever

---

Updates from plotting with folks!
- Asher and Wolfwood were Married (and now they hate each other in their current lives) (whoops)
- Asher regularly tried to flirt with Ezell and drag him into said marriage too
- When The End came, he and Ww tried to escape with their kids and kids from the orphanage, but Asher realised Ezell and his daughter Cecelia were missing and turned back to get them. This is what led to his ultimate demise where he jumped in front of Ezell, and confessed as he died in his arms. And there was probably a "tell Nicholas what happened" in there :')
- rip

Edited 2025-01-16 21:21 (UTC)

this is where we plot with flamebringer! plsthank

smooshing them together like barbie dolls. (for gardening and/or kissing tryst purposes. whatever floats your stoat. [ftr livio was in fact An Adult by the apocalypse])

also he was totally welcome to crash on "livio's" couch at any point bc miss melanie was THE couch crashing lady. fuck dude livio still felt like he was crashing even though she fucking told him he could live there

past TL's for (mostly my own) reference: jan 2024 // june 2024

STAY TUNED FOR RETURNING APPEARANCES MAYBE??? :000

Edited (i canNOT fucking type today) 2025-01-03 16:35 (UTC)

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Page 1 of 6

A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

LOCATIONS

HAVEN

ROSEROOT

THE MORAIS DUCHY

THE CRESCENT ISLANDS

THE EMERALD SEA

MAJOR PLAYERS

QUESTIONS

Merlot and co

A.B.A

A.B.A Plotting

Jami's freaks

Wolfie's funky motherfuckers

Dipper Pines

Dipper Plotting

it's ain! cw: religious homophobia n such

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gnosis hours!!

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passenger! he is doing!

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flamebringer! what a tool

no subject

no subject

guess who's back (back again) (it's weasel)