October Plotting: It's Halloweeeeeeeeen

[sticksandbonesmods]

SETTING UPDATES

Mizuki made us a therapy office. Mizuki is in charge of this office. This is already reflected on the locations page and on the Grove map because technically it happened in September. Please see Mizuki for therapy, thank you. As a reminder, players are free to purchase one building per character for the continued expansion of the Grove, which can be anything you want, so long as you don’t mind cryptic plot clues attached. :)

The fog wall is now black. It will cause a highly painful burning sensation to the body when touched, regardless of if you have clothing in the way or not. Think of it like touching one of those fuzzy/spiky caterpillars where there’s no skin damage but everything hurts. In addition to this, touching the black fog will induce a high sense of dread/paranoia/doomsday feelings for half an hour after the contact breaks.

Zahliya is now contactable on the NPC Contact page. Thank you for playing with Wolfie’s dumb OC. Wolfie will continue to spew the dumbest plotlines you’ve ever seen at this game and you will all have to cope.

Moder has been eaten, thank you Mizuki.

As a reward for beating your first Large Game (the Volcano, in case that was unclear), the fog wall has pulled back slightly, north of the Inn! It is still black. Within it… are the burned remains of a town! Yaaaay! The town will be fully explorable in October, and we will have a relevant investigations toplevel there for anyone who wants to investigate it deeply.

PLOT UPDATES

It’s fuckin Halloween y’all, aka the best holiday, the only one that matters ever. We will have two coinciding plots: A Halloween Masquerade and a Pain Share.

MASQUERADE

At the far new north of the Grove, erected in the burned town a week after it is first discovered, is a circus tent. We are not actually going to the circus, but rather, we’re having a masquerade! The masquerade dances will begin every night at 10pm, and last until approximately 6am when the sun comes up, at which point the animated skeleton attendants will forcibly kick you out of the tent.

The dances will be frequented by ghosts that may look like people you knew in the past, dressed in Halloween masquerade attire. They will not be able to interact with player characters and will merely pass right through them, as if unaware they’re present. The skeletons, meanwhile, are literally just animated skeletons. They rattle when they walk and are not capable of speech, but will dance with you and serve you hors d'oeuvres. And also, again, kick you out if you try to stay past closing.

Halloween costumes can be regained free of charge (aka don’t go spend your bonus AC on these) as long as the outfits are non-magical, and I have to say this because one of you definitely has magical clothing somewhere. Yes, the outfit can include a prop, as long as that is also non-magical (and non-deadly!). I.e. if you’re dressing as the grim reaper you may have a scythe but the second that shit shoots magic or cuts a bitch it’s gotta go. I guess you could beat someone to death with a Spirit Halloween plastic scythe (not sponsored btw) but imagine the toll.

Masks are also free of charge. Player characters will have their pick of very cool, neat masks made of wood and other organic materials, ranging from simple to complex. Player’s choice on what these look like. Be careful, because donning these between 10pm-6am means you will be unable to remove them until the dance ends, regardless of where you are in the Grove.

PAIN SHARE

Mysterious marks akin to tattoos will show up on characters at the beginning of the month, starting at midnight on the 1st. These marks will match with at least one other person in the Grove, potentially more depending on player choices. These marks link characters physically and emotionally, but only for physical pain and negative emotions. This means your character will feel everything their partner(s) share, but it will be slightly diluted depending on how many people share the same mark. For example, if six people are sharing a mark and one of those six gets stabbed, the other five will feel the pain at 1/6th the intensity of the first character. Emotions, however, are shared full-force.

Characters can be bound to one person or multiple persons. They do not have to all be bound together unless you want to, i.e. Mizuki could be bound to both BB and Toge, but BB and Toge do not have to be bound to each other. Let me know if this doesn’t make sense.

These marks will persist until at least the end of the month. They could go longer, they could not. We will see how the forest feels about this. :)

Please thank Rubie for the suggestion for this part of the event!

OOC UPDATES

Wolfie is sorry about planning too many events last month :( Wolfie will do better (lying)

There will not be a subsequent mini-event this month. This is because a) Wolfie works in retail marketing and will actually die if one more thing is added to her plate and b) we have Forestquest/Addquest for those who signed up for it. Signups are closed, and we hope to use this as a test-drive for mod-led missions for future endeavours. Please Look Forward To It.

Clarification about AC was put on the AC page. This includes what we count as the AC period (from the 1st of the month to the last day of the month, unless otherwise specified), what we mean by “backtagged threads are allowed for AC”, and the check-in system (characters who just apped only have to check in, but please remember to post to your comment that you’re checking in).

• The mod team checks AC on the last day of the month super late at night / the first day of the proceeding month. The mod team are also two (2) tired Americans, and we will flex to accommodate our not-American friends, i.e. if your timezone is 12 hours ahead of us it might look like you’re starting your AC thread in the prior month so just let us know if one of us hunts you down like “fix ur AC bro” and remind us that you’re not American. If anybody needs help with AC, let the mod team know.

We are trying to expand the bonus AC store with both magical & nonmagical items. We have a few ideas, but if you have something you’d like to see, feel free to ping the mods.

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Status: Who is your character? What did they get up to last month and how is it impacting this month? Did they discover something? Are they harboring a clue? HMM
Seeking: Any CR or plot thread you want to kickstart!
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Meme: you know you have one.

<strong>Character:</strong> <strong>Status:</strong> <strong>Seeking:</strong> <strong>Not Seeking:</strong> <strong>Anything Else:</strong> <strong>Meme:</strong>

Comments

vandal

[shurajodo]

gara ukai 💀 handead anthem

[shurajodo]

Character: Gara Ukai
Status: gara is new! i plan on a catch-all with him pretty soon. i am bringing along friends with castmates for him (yuki minano laststoryteller & genjiro chibana eeeeeto) too, but for gara in particular:

💀 he's not doing well; the past is painful for gara, and what has he been reminded of at every turn in his threads so far? that pain. yeah. we're having fun.
💀 he wants to SING. he's very good at singing and he actually physically needs it. or else.
💀 he DLRs very easily! what does that mean? dead level rising! as a handead, his emotions get very out of whack very fast, to the point that he's screaming or laughing or violent at the drop of a hat. so this is likely for him; yuki can mysteriously calm him down pretty easily, but yuki isn't always present. if you're okay with gara being volatile and/or yuki showing up to reel him in, lmk! my friend jude is apping soon and would be happy to have yuki meddle.

Seeking:

💀 fellow performers/singers.
💀 piercing/tattoo canvases and people to talk shop with him in that regard.
💀 fellow undead? i don't think there are any around, but ...
💀 gara is also not suuuuper romantic so shipping is weird with him; i like shipping with gara but he's 1.) really only got eyes for yuki 2.) doesn't think people could ever want him in that way. that being said, i still will ship with chemistry. :)

💀 masquerade: LET'S PARTY PLEASE LET'S DANCE AND SING AND BITE EACH OTHER
💀 pain share: oh god lmfao are you ready for that ... gara and yuki and gen are going to be linked (in what config, we haven't figured out yet) but i'm game to pile more on my little zombie blorbo.

Not Seeking:

💀 negative CR just for the sake of negative CR.

Anything Else: i can't think of anything? :U feel free to add me on plurk vandalisto or hmu on the discord server!
Meme: there are no memes for this fandom i s2g its like 8 adults and a billy goat :(

[succiduous]

HI i would like to opt into volatility for both my boys, this idiot and simplicitas the other idiot... yuki is also allowed to show up to meddle :3c

So Gnosis and Gara probably don't have much in common but it would be really funny later down the line if Gara somehow convinced this very rigid scientist to get tattoos or piercings. Elsword and Gara do have a few things though, they can sing together! It'll probably be cute! Elsword has -5 emotions but i'm sure that's fine

EXCITED To have you on board!!!!

[shurajodo]

YEEES excellent i'm glad for the volatility opt-in ty ... gara and gnosis could be fun, gara's very good at what he does and he's been doing it for so long lmao he's like "nah you def need a septum piercing"

YESSS singing buddies CR always makes me happiest. i wish to hear singing voices always

and thank you im so glad to be here !! ;_;

Re: gara ukai 💀 handead anthem

[amethystic]

i still gotta tag u back yes but!!! points at gara. also points at rikyo. i am going to Bother

[shurajodo]

no rush! please bother them both at your earliest convenience UwU i await you.

[laststoryteller]

I posit: Gen-san being saddled with Yuki and Gara's emotions and they both get Gen's. Thanks.

Or everyone gets Gara's and they don't know how to handle it.

Actually, I should ask the mods something...

[shurajodo]

You

[mooninthewater]

> fellow undead?
Brook is technically undead! He doesn't seem it, but, uhhh, thumbs up. He's a bit of a grump, though....

Otherwise! I also have an eldritch jellyfish to offer you, if you want him for the masquerade?! He's very sweet on basically everyone, ok, he'll dance w gara

[shurajodo]

WAHOO undead cr ... dream cr ... gara's grumpy too they can be mean at each other

and yes please! i love eldritch horror so much i'm gonna have to read up on your guys ...

[mooninthewater]

Good... bless them. I hope they're snarky and sarcastic.

The tl;dr is Mizuki is a jellyfish who ate some flesh of an eldritch god and is now mildly part of an eldritch hivemind with it, the other eldritch gods, and all the eldritch creatures they command. He has a surprising amount of free will considering the whole hivemind business, tho. This race is heavily Bloodborne-influenced and other cosmic horror stuff so if that's ur cup of tea, he's here. He likes...... video games and cooking food. He is also a cannibal sometimes. dwbi.

Brook works for actual Satan as a grim reaper to kill sinners and such. He died as a human, but has a demon He's enjoying being off the job here in game and is ur stereotypical "broody, grumpy, pouty boy with a secretly really big heart"

[shurajodo]

IS MIZUKI SINGLE no im just kidding but wow i fucking. adore that lore? you have such cool characters im beside myself. def game to write you something specific if you want! i plan on a catch-all real soon ;w;

[mooninthewater]

SAHFKLDSGLK look Mizuki's too yandere for healthy relationships ofc he's single-

I'LL BE ON THE LOOKOUT!!!! I just made one for Mizuki but it doesn't have a ton of prompts right now, I'm working on more when I get off work

[alligatus]

HIIIIIIIII yes i want him and caoimhe TO BOND A LOT OVER SINGING PLEASE!! let them start a whole like music thing!!! idk what else but i am willing to throw down w anything!

[shurajodo]

HELLO YES i love their thread sm i def think garas gonna try to start regular performances cause its good for his brain and also everyone around him cause 1.) they get to hear his voice 2.) he doesnt bite as much

im gonna put up a catch all soon if you want me to write you a starter? ;w;

[alligatus]

absolutely ill eat up all starters!!!

rikyo miyoshi 🌀 handead anthem

[madparade]

Character: rikyo miyoshi
Status: planning on topleveling for him on the new TDM and then apping him after; here's some soft plans.

🌀 rikyo is also a handead like gara; he DLRs too, but it's a lot harder to make him do so. so that's not really an issue.
🌀 he's a singer too (not the full song; a short drama track starts about half-way through the video)!
🌀 he's an ethologist and a genius with a batshit IQ. he's also extremely autistic(-coded, it's not explicitly stated but like come on) and tends to view animals as more understandable than humans and their fickle emotions. you know the type.

Seeking:

🌀 fellow science-minded nerds or just people who Know Their Shit. people with passions he can pick apart. people he can observe.

🌀 masquerade: not really his thing but, like, he'll attend and probably make it weird for at least two people. ask a lot of questions out of left field, y'know, make it real uncomfy.
🌀 pain share: given the detached observer sort of role he takes, rikyo doesn't really get 'em. i want him to face them: either his own or others. let's fuckin' go.

Not Seeking:

🌀 negative CR just for the sake of negative CR.

Anything Else: N/A
Meme: tengai made rikyo this locket himself for rikyo's birthday i think

[mooninthewater]

I also offer!!! my blorbos here okay I am always here for a bombardment of tags and I haven't interacted with vandal yet and this is a fuckin crime ok!!!!!!

Mizuki here has unending eldritch-esque hunger pains if that's something you'd like him to deal with~. He's also, as stated above, a whole jellyfish person........ which could be fun for the whole "animals are better than people" bit. It works, since Mizuki is wildly simplistic in his thought process.

He's also like way into psychology if that's a science-y thing he's interested in? If not, Mizuki is the type to look on with sparkles in his eyes when people talk about nerd stuff he doesn't understand, so--

[madparade]

aww ;_; !! you're so sweet everyone here is so kind i'm in tears ...

rikyo actually has a friend from canon (manato ishigaki) who was stung by a jellyfish that turned him handead so that'll be Extra interesting for rikyo. he'll ask so many questions

psychology isn't necessarily his thing (ko tenjin is the series' psychologist lmao) but hes one of those guys who knows at least a lil bit about a lot.

[mooninthewater]

LOOK LISTEN I AM clinically insane but also I love meeting new people. shakes u.

HELL YEAH!!!! Mizuki's stings are non-lethal but they do make people see hallucinations in a fear response. so, like, the worst fears brought forward, basically. (He's just also a very good boy and wouldn't sting anyone on purpose.)

that's fair, I still foresee Mizuki following him around like a puppy

[succiduous]

the scientists should talk about science... Gnosis specializes more in technological sciences but he knows a bit of medicine and just random esoteric knowledge, I think they'd get along

[madparade]

I AGREE AND AM ALSO INTIMIDATED BY THE THOUGHT i dont feel smart enough to play rikyo but god do i try. they'd def get along for sure