outofsticks

Hello new friends! I'm Alex and I'm here to bring you Odile, the researcher and a massive troll from In Stars and Time. She is the Adult of a group that consists of three people in their twenties and one preteen. She is 40-something, but that's really no excuse. Come on guys. She hails from the far away country of Not Japan, and she will never tell you what subject she's researching.

She is also very perceptive. I'm canonblind to almost every character here and try very hard not to infomod, but please do tell me if you think I'm toeing the line. She saves most of her personal prying for her friends, but she's going to be very suspicious of anything that seems even slightly off with people in-game.

Feel free to add me on plurk at

flamingchemist or discord at also flamingchemist!

sticksandbonesmods

Hello friends! (Both new and old alike, and I am so sorry to the new people this MIGHT not make that much sense but i will TRY MY HARDEST to make it coherent ok i love you) This is Wolfie! Obviously! Hi! I think you guys know which mod writes like what by now, anyway.

Last month some players (Luca, Kiera, Joshua, Mamika, Dipper, Loop, Siffrin, & Wolfwood who is our only non-magic human dude in this group, please clap for him) and Zahliya, our resident Gargoyle, went into the woods for what was approximately a single day and came back with a woman, two swords (Daybreak and Nightfall), a sun/star/moon shard, and lore! The full quest log lives here, do mind trigger warnings and the log length.

Bullet point summary for people who don't want to read almost 400 comments (valid):

The group headed into the woods, went to the Temple to look for Zahliya's missing swords, aaaand immediately stepped into a timeloop that separated them into two groups of four. The first group was inside of the Temple itself, back in time before it was broken into and the Black Sun (our game antagonist) escaped it, in a timeloop so bad that if they died they'd simply respawn. Obviously, Loop used this for crimes. Here they were able to see the ritual that held the Black Sun inside the Temple for eons, speak to the caravan crew that let him out, and witness/experience horrifying ways to die. While this happened, Beiwe was contacted, and though she isn't a time magic expert, she did manage to yank them from the timeline after several horrific deaths. Yay. :) Some people only died once, Loop had like three, please get Loop some therapy.
Group 2, meanwhile, was outside of the Temple and met Zahliya when he first came to life shortly after the Temple was broken into; he was aggressive and hostile and made many threats, confused about human emotions and why people with empathy do things they do, that whole thing. The group entered the Temple briefly, saw corpses, and backed out; soon after fighting the garg, Beiwe reached her hands down into this timeloop and yoinked everyone away from there.
With everyone reunited, the group got a brief glance into Zahliya's memories when they were accidentally set down into the blast radius of my evil woman: Zonari, who rules over the dominion of memory. Zonari is a construct of the Black Sun made in Zahliya's image to be his antithesis, so she refers to him as "brother" despite the fact they're technically cousins. She was, at the time, sitting on the back of the Warden, another Black Sun construct made entirely of smoke wearing a suit of centaur-shaped armour who was dealt with swiftly. Zonari was out here yoinking memories, including Zahliya's memory of how to use his magic, with the goal here being to strip him of identity and sway him to her side. The memories were given back after a beatdown/threat from Luca/vague "you can't have nice things" from Kiera, and she was brought back to the Grove. She has been here for like a month. Hi, surprise.
- She can Corrupt people with her flames and she is being babysat by Kiera right now. She is not technically a prisoner; she's agreed to be passive to people here and is Passively Observing people from her perch on the barn. While she is not at all domesticated, she will be on top of the barn most of the time, and Zahliya's hackles are raised at her at any one moment. Her loyalties lie with the Black Sun, she wants to destroy the world with him, blah blah blah villain monologue - but she was swayed because she knows that the Black Sun still deeply loves his sister Beiwe, and so she's been incentivised into peace on the stipulation that you guys can make the siblings get along again. She will be on NPC contact as permanently-contactable for the time being, but (zookeeper voice) use caution, this one is feisty, and you will have a very hard time domesticating her.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway: Zahliya can fully cure Corruption now. Your Corruption plotlines can still be played out; this will probably involve hiding from him, which is easy to play off as "the Black Sun in your brain is making you do this". He is NOT set on my ominous aggression path I mentioned so he won't chase you down, however he will loudly criticize you if he catches you lol.
- Players are also free to try making their own Corruption cure too, if they want. I think this lore may have gotten lost with Irene last year when she dropped but: The cure must involve something holy, which is why Zahliya can do it, because his (neon fucking green) fire is considered holy. There are other things that can cure, such as the rains from the Cosmic Serpent. If you want to figure out these mysteries, you are of course welcome to.
Zahliya is also armed with his two swords now, which was part of the original goal; Daybreak is his magic-channelling ass-whooping sword, and Nightfall allows him to briefly blink back in time to avoid attacks and heal injuries. He's still learning how to fully utilize their magic, there is more to discover here, so he will frequently be seen in the middle of the Grove practising.
Sun/Moon/Star shards were discovered; for the newer folks, these are important items that the Black Sun/False God/Forest (proper noun) wants to destroy. Dipper has the sun shard, Loop has the star shard, and Zahliya ate the moon shard. "What do you mean ate" a long time ago Mizuki convinced him to eat a different sun shard and it worked and made his magic much stronger, so on the way back he just ate the moon. You can blame Mizuki putting thoughts in his head. There are more shards to discover elsewhere. :)
Personality-wise, I alluded somewhat ominously on the original plotting post that Zahliya's personality would shift majorly and it would affect endgame, and while this is still true... SOMEHOW my darling 8 players I brought with me managed to keep this man completely balanced up until the last parts of the questline. It also managed to be split in such a way that, instead of being aggressive+confident or passive+undecisive/unsure, Zahliya is now confident+passive. You managed to make a normal human out of him. He's domesticated. I don't know how this happened but good job, the status quo is maintained and the gargoyle will continue to engage in sillymode during peaceful times (and murder of Black Sun creatures/mooks during unsilly time, which you're obviously free to assume he's doing with September's event). Next time I say "this will definitely happen" please continue to prove me wrong.

Anyway here's a meme.

Me to me: Guys we have too many NPCs.
My players to me: We want more NPCs, we're taking the evil woman.

Behind the scenes fun facts:

I had to shorten the questline haha oops... originally the mid-point was going to be people walking through Zahliya's memories thanks to Zonari's magic and seeing a lot more things that happened to him that he wasn't aware of. The vision of Corrupted Moder squishing him was supposed to be one of those that people got stuck in and could potentially fight her. Sorgy this didn't happen.
The group split between Temple Crew and Outside Temple Crew was supposed to be longer. But I shortened it.
Also related: The voices that played as you entered the Temple were supposed to be established to have come from the swords, but ya girl forgot to establish that in the condensing. Beiwe and Ourania don't actually speak there. Magic swords be magic-ing.
If Zonari was killed, there was going to be an option to have Zahliya do it, or let player characters do it, and then her loot table would've included the Shards that you guys got. You were also not supposed to sway her but you're good RPers so >:/
At some point I got tired of typing so I started to describe Zonari's flames as just black instead of purply-black, please assume they are purply-black. I'm sorry I'm like this.
Zahliya was never supposed to eat the shards originally, but then Mizuki convinced him and it worked to strengthen his magic so RIP now he eats them. He does not need more, do not give him more.
This entire questline regarding Zahliya's endpoint and Zonari is a reference to their OG lore from the OCverse they're from (hi, if you didn't know this these two are my OCs I stix-ified for fun because it fit the setting nicely), where they very much never have a good ending. This is also my justification for Zonari referring to Zahliya as her brother despite them technically being cousins here; in the original lore she's the older twin, but in this one she's hundreds of years younger. And they're not legally twins, legally. Hooray!

Okay that's it bye, any questions direct them here or in the discord or idk i'm not your dad

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Zahliyaquest is almost complete. While we don’t have a full breadth of updates for you now because it’s still in the final phase, we’re noting this here for everyone not involved. There will be a summary posted on OOC plotting after it officially concludes, please look forward to it.
The rains have stopped and the plants have returned back to normal. No harm was done to them during their growing-shrinking phase; they’re just as healthy as they originally were.
Autumn is rolling in! That means the leaves are starting to turn yellow and orange and will soon start falling. If you jump into any piles, mind the two-headed mice that live under them.
Nene has a cute cottage in North Aldric’s Grove now, near the pathway into it and close to the Archives/library.

PLOT UPDATES

Characters will wake up one day- or enter the Grove entirely- to Ydalir getting up to some antics! Specifically, she is running around with a cute poofy witch hat atop her head, and flowy wraps and robes, and handing out enchanted items.
These items will include a wide range of options from a wand that summons a (d20) amount of pigeons, to a goldfish that follows you in a bubble to far more! Players are free to come up with their own enchanted items or roll in the Pain-free gacha (as opposed to the latter event’s very painful gacha) for a mod-generated one.
These items will last for the month. Some may have special rules attached, i.e. the pigeon wand may not summon more than the rolled number of pigeons per day. It also may not summon Passenger. Any extraneous rules will be given upon acquisition; if you make up your own, a good rule of thumb is to not make up items that will give you immortality/a way around plot mechanics easily, and to keep it on the side of silly.
Of course, despite Ydalir’s best efforts, something has set the Black Sun off and he has another game for everyone. One that he’ll be taking much more seriously this time.
This portion of the event will consist of trying to hide from and escape three different entities hunting you down in the forest.
- A very large lichen-covered dragon with many, many legs. (14 or higher)
- A rock-like bear. (12 or higher)
- A giant, mossy frog. (10 or higher)
… and a multitude of small fairies wearing masks with only a single eye painted on. (flip a coin to evade being seen)
To avoid capture, one must roll a die and reach a certain number depending on your encounter(s)- freedom means you can (but are not obliged to) encounter another one of the seekers, up until you are finally caught. Their designated safe rolls are also listed above.
- If you very specifically want your character to be caught by, say, the moss frog — you don’t need to fudge rolls, you can just do it. The rolls exist to give you guys options in case you’re unsure what you want.
Unlike the other three, the fairies are not able to capture you- but they CAN rat you out and sound an alarm to draw one of them to you for capture. However, the fairies can also be bribed with food (honey, flowers, small animals) or sufficiently shiny things. If you wish to bribe a fairy into being your friend, let the mods know! Though… who’s to say how long this will actually last.
Upon capture, player characters will be brought to an enormous tree that seems to be withering. As more players are hooked into the tree, it will begin to drain their life force to reinvigorate itself. The goal of the game is to have at least 10 people free at the end of the game, with victory granting a small boon: every participant will be given a free, small, nonmagical item from home, dropped off via biblically accurate deer courier. If you want to try to free someone from the tree, hash it out with the player in question. If you're unsure or want some randomness to it, hit up a mod! We’ll work with you for a daring rescue. … Or a failed rescue. Depends on the dice.
As a warning, encountering the seekers will include potential mauling, other injuries, and being carried in things’ mouths (Very Gross). Death is only a risk with express player permission, and post-game revival will consist of two things: The first being plantlike scars over the areas where wounds were inflicted — these can either be permanent or impermanent, depending on player, but they will last for at least 24 hours either way. They are non-corrupting and simply meant to scare you. The other is that everyone who dies will be afflicted with 24-hour long total amnesia.
- Remember that deaths caused by a Large Game Event™ do not result in trips to the Garden.
… But, he has always rewarded your survival, and he will continue to do so. As you recover from the lingering effects of Hide and Seek, the entire river will come to a pleasant glow. Investigations will reveal… blinding light that is less pleasant up close!
The river water has always been oddly crisp and clear, but somehow it seems even more so now. Even the most unknowing of people can also tell there is a much wider variety of plant life growing in and around the river, alongside an equally wider variety of animal life.
The lining of the river is also graced with more blessings from the guardians! Alongside the apple tree from Sinann for its initial rescuing and Moder’s blackberry bushes, you can now find a peach tree and an orange tree…
And a durian tree, courtesy of Callan.
… There sure are a lot of small ducks around now, too…
Characters can now unearth more things from their medallion/shell/scale/bone scavenging as well- from the depths of the river and it’s banks, you may now uncover jewelry or old wood or stone toys from a civilization long since passed, or other small items!
And perhaps most importantly, with the river’s growth, Sinnan will undergo some changes itself! It will become much larger (though not quite its true size) — about four feet long now. It will also be able to speak to you guys, without you guys needing a bone ring, hooray! In light of this, it will be bumped up to the Contactable section of NPC contact (along with Callan, because Wolfie forgot to do that last month, rip).

OOC UPDATES:

Wolfie mentioned this in the Discord, but so that it’s on record in a more accessible place: The map is still not updated and I (hi, this is Wolfie) am very sorry about this. The TL;DR is that the program that is used for it is no longer shutting down (yay!) but without Patreon access, the program automatically removes custom-uploaded assets (which the Sticks map has tons of) once the map is loaded. My financial situation is a lot better than it was in summer when the shitstorm of computer/medical bills occurred and this issue will be solved, do not give me money, but unfortunately the OMM team is now having issues syncing up Patreon accounts with client logins. Yes it’s bad, yes I hate the dev team. It will be corrected hopefully this month since I can both afford their Patreon tier and they maybe, probably, will correct their weird issues.
The locations page will continue to be updated in the meantime.
This month and October are double-TDM months because we historically do not run them in Nov-Dec due to the holiday season. TDMs will resume in January!

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.

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Thanks to Beat’s final wish/sacrifice, a small handful of stars have returned to the night sky. They are few in number but shine brightly nonetheless. For the first week of the month, upon seeing the stars, songbirds will sing a non-stop tune to the skies.
A rumbling can be felt beneath the earth as the skeleton of the Sky Guardian starts to regain her willpower to return. The rest of this plot hook will be left up to player action.
Callan’s Corruption has been mostly dealt with. While he is still partly Corrupted, his head is clearer, and he will be able to fulfill his duties as Lake Guardian. This does not mean that he is not still an asshole. He is, in fact, still an asshole.
As is the case with most Guardians, when they are free from their eternal prisons/suffering, they give something special to the Grove. In this case, Callan’s gift… is a month-long torrential downpour. This is what you guys want right? Potential flooding?? Yeah, he knows you do. (He’s pretty sure he’s helping.)
- Even though a normal month-long rainstorm would cause plants to die because Too Much Water, everyone’s plants they’ve worked so hard to raise, as well as their regained buildings and the sort, will be perfectly fine. (Unless you want them to not be fine, then that’s your choice.) In fact, the plants may grow to gargantuan size during the storms — think of Stardew Valley’s giant produce, that’s what we’re going for.
- Plants inside the greenhouse/not exposed to the rains will not be affected by this unnatural growth.
The Burned Town has been cleaned up thanks to Enciodes & a handful of player characters (and Moder)! It will henceforth be called “North Aldric’s Grove”. The map will be updated when Wolfie has a second (as will the locations page, naturally). Players are free to now put buildings in that area thanks to the ground being stable. Enciodes has already installed the Archives/library in there as a treat.
Zahliya has eaten the sun shard he was entrusted with. Thank you Mizuki for the idea. As a result, his ability to cure corruption has been enhanced significantly… and will likely be influenced further by his questline happening later in August.

PLOT UPDATES

Within the Grove, it seems as though furniture is going on strike. Tread cautiously, because even the act of sitting down in a chair or laying in bed may result in you being bucked, rolled or thrown off. Dressers are especially moody, and doors? Oh, they will NOT stop creaking.
Breaking the furniture only makes things worse, so act with caution. Unless you want to play Night of the Living Chairs…
In the end however, all they really want is some TLC. Cleaning, upgrading or repairing the furniture will settle them down. Probably.
Aside from this minor bump in the road, things seem quiet for once. Or, they will, until Suri’s newest gifts to the Grove show up. Every character will receive a small bag of gemstones, each of them randomized ICly — and if you wish to randomize it OOCly, you know the mods will be there for you. Every gemstone has a meaning, a healing effect, or both — but upon contact with the gems, they’ll influence the characters with the opposite meaning. For example, rose quartz is the stone of unconditional love… or, it was. Now? All it brings is hate, and player characters will quickly find themselves under this curse.
- Gem meanings can be found with a quick Google search. We the mods do not have predetermined meanings for you. If you choose to gacha it, we will give you meanings when you gacha, otherwise this is up to your choice.
Discarding the gems only seems to amplify the effects as well, and the curse only seems to worsen as time goes on.
To break the curse, characters must hold the afflicted gemstone and perform a true act of what it embodies. Going back to the rose quartz example, this would mean holding it and performing an act of unconditional love. Anything goes with these acts, so be as creative as you like!
On a truly calmer note, as the skies clear up after the downpour, a few stars now dot the night sky, twinkling in the darkness. This is entirely new after centuries of darkness. A soft rosy joy radiates from the moon, and the night feels peaceful and safe.
Whether you stop by Ydalir’s one night, or Heimr’s as the sun sets, both are quietly emotional and urge you all to spend the night out together, watching the skies. They give you blankets to lay on in the clearing, bring teas and cocoas and dim the few lights that do remain in the Grove. The stars dance in the sky, and you are all here together, for better or for worse.

OOC UPDATES

Remember how Summer was supposed to be chiller? That. Did not happen and Amity is very sorry. Amity promises not to sabotage the next beach episode with Plot. (Wolfie makes no such promises though /s)
The plot for Zahliyaquest is in the post linked above; please do relevant plotting for that event over There, but feel free to mention here if your character will be participating. This is just so that Wolfie has an easier time keeping track of participants, questions, etc etc. Thank u :>
As always, we mods take player feedback, plot suggestions, wishlist items, whatever else, extremely seriously. Feel free to reach out to us with whatever you need! Special thanks to Rubie for the suggestions this month.
If we forgot anything important that happened in July, please let us know so we can edit the post!

sticksandbonesmods

Hello Stickbones, welcome to the plotting post for Zahliyaquest…2! “Wait, what happened in the first Zahliyaquest?” “There was a first one?” Yes, all the way back in [mumblemumble last year], Zahliya’s first appearance was marked by an event spanning over a month, where he kept leaving people creepy DMs from beyond the fog wall while trying to escape it. After being pulled into the Grove by the cast at the time and rescued, a Corrupted Moder attacked the Grove! And was summarily eaten by Mizuki because yeah.

Now everyone is okay again! And now that we have 3 Guardians able to watch over the Grove while Zahliya is gone, he feels comfortable enough to step out in pursuit of something he’s needed for a long time: His own strength.

The goal of this quest is twofold: First is to further arm Zahliya with ~secret cool God swords that won’t break on him~ and convince him of his own strength and power so that his ass stops going “but I’m so normal :/ I’m just a guy :/ I’m not special :/”. The second will influence the rest of the game majorly, and will therefore affect endgame whenever we get there. “When is that Wolfie” no idea just putting it out there.

As for that second point — depending on player actions during this quest, Zahliya will have a personality shift. He can therefore either:

Become more aggressive and more confident. He will be less tolerant of Corruption and Corrupted, less forgiving of people who work with Suri/the False God in the future (starting from the point the quest is officially completed and carrying on from there), and much more likely to act on his desires to protect the people of the Grove. If that means killing the heavily Corrupted if they’re at “the point of no return”, setting the whole forest on (green) fire to burn out the Corruption, slaughtering every monster in sight, or what have you, he will attempt it. This is the option to pick if you want More NPC interaction in plotlines, and the option to pick if you want Zahliya to be the final “say” in the Corruption cure.
- Don’t worry, everyone can still engage in Corruption plotlines and Suri-serving behaviour if this option is chosen! Zahliya can only have so many eyes in so many places; the option to sneak around him and hide from him exists and makes for interesting interactions. I as the mod am not going to metagame your plotlines, I will always ask before I do shit.
Become more passive and less decisive. Zahliya will be more willing to tolerate Corruption and Corrupted only if they exist within the people in the Grove as a whole (monsters and other NPCs do not apply, he is still a Guardian after all). He will become more patient and wait for players to figure out their own battles/cures without stepping in at all, unless asked directly, and will occupy himself with killing Suri’s monster armies in the forest instead of focusing his attention in the Grove as a whole. He will not be sure if this is the correct decision, but is willing to leave important choices in the hands of the players. This is the option to pick if you want Less NPC interaction in plotlines, if you don’t want Zahliya to be the final Corruption cure, or if you want to see the forest passively cleaned of its dangers (off-screen, and fairly slowly).
- Note that if this one is chosen, Zahliya will be moved from a Contactable NPC to Semi-Contactable due to his lack of a presence in the Grove, and he will usually not be found on the roof of the church since he’s out in the woods so much. This also means that the Corruption cure will have to be entirely player-owned.

“Hey Wolfie these options suck” you know where the Discord is, ping me and we can hash out something better. Nothing is set in stone, the things I think are cool might not be cool to you, I was playing Dragon Age when I came up with this you know how it is.

The player actions are both obvious (telling Zahliya to “just kill everyone” will make him more aggressive, for example) and not obvious (surprise!) but I will pulse-check midway through to tell people where we’re at with him before there’s a final verdict.

As for what the log involves, sorry this is so long:

Mod tags (from purifier) will come either a) after everyone involved has tagged in or b) after 24 hours have passed since the last mod tag. This means if you are absent for any reason, the thread WILL move on without you, barring circumstances such as “Wolfie died” or “player requested another day to wait because real life got hands”.
Interaction in this log will be redeemable for MAIN AC, not just Bonus AC like most of our NPC threads.
You will probably find some more sun/moon/star shards. What you do with these is up to you; note that if Zahliya is set on the “aggression” path he will want them by the end of the questline, if they haven’t been turned over to him!
There will be funny little timeline shenanigans happening. Depending on the amount of people who sign up, these will either be interactions in small groups or the larger group as a whole, involving past apparitions of Zahliya at key moments in his life so far. More details will come when the post goes up and we get into the weeds, but this will be primarily where the referenced “character influence” comes in. :)
You will fight something, sorry, I love to write battles. It will be short, theoretically, and probably dramatic.

Sign-ups are below. There is no limit, however please only bring one character per player (so no Sesa and Wolfwood!). Sign-ups for this will close August 2nd, the day the event log is posted.

ghostharasser

It happens without ceremony. The dream suddenly shifts, like a hiccup, and then everything around you fades into white. It's completely empty with the exception of ...everyone being there. The whole Grove, or rather, those that also got caught up in the dream, everyone is suddenly in this awkward, endless expanse.

Dipper is there, too. Though something seems a little strange about him. He smiles, but there is something inherently uncanny about it. He does not speak, but you seem to understand the words all the same:

"Time to wake up."

You look down at your hand. Starting with your fingers and toes, your form starts to fade, like a spirit crossing over. As it slowly consumes you, the edges around your vision, too, start to fade out into nothing. Everything whites out until-

You wake up, back at the sea base. And there is no mistaking you're awake, because the heaviness of the waking world clings to you in a way only reality can. You pick yourself up off the floor, table or whatever you might have been near when you fell asleep, and you will find that ...only a few days have passed.

All seems quiet.

Well, that fucking happened, you guess.

OOC: THANK YOU EVERYONE!! This is just the OOC conclusion but continue to play as long as you absolutely want. I had a blast, thank you for letting me do my fun little self indulgent plot!!

myceelium

Bout time I made this BUT HELLO!!! I'm Emi or Pumpkin, take your pick, mix and match~! I am happy to be here and to introduce you all to Jade Leech from Twisted Wonderland!

Jade is essentially Jetsam from Disney's Little Mermaid, but reimagined into an anime boy who goes to a school for magic. Naturally, that means he has a twin brother named Floyd, who is basically Flotsam! However, they're more like... Loosely based off them and not really reincarnations, as the villains and heroes themselves are regarded as historical figures in the game.

As such, Jade is a moray eel merman hailing from the Coral Sea~! He is polite and proper, but there is definitely more to him than meets the eye. He likes remaining mysterious and behind the scenes, which is interesting considering he's the second-in-command of his entire college dorm. Still, he's very dutiful, almost like he's one h-eel of a butler /badum tss.

There have also been heavy-handed hints that he basically belongs to a mermaid mafia family, so. Do with that what you will. But, he's a pretty powerful ally while here, as he knows so much about survival and forest areas/mountains!! He loves to hike, but his big interest lies in mushrooms.

Also he can and will do just about anything for the bit, just because he finds it funny.

Please feel free to message me on discord, and add me on plurk at

sillygourd while you're at it!!!

ezellotry

Hi, hello! Rubie here with another blorbo! I'm adding one whole angel to the sticky bones cast. This one has a halo and wings that are out all the time, too! Yaaaay! He's also, like, the most normal person, tbh? And, uh, has extreme depression! We love to see it.

This is also going to act as my opt in to you all as well. Ezell is implied to be empathic, and I'm going to lean pretty hard into this, and as such if you're cool with Ezell picking up on your character's emotions for whatever reason, you can feel free to let me know here, give me a general vibe check of your character, etc.

Thanks!

theuniverseleads

Hello!!!!! It is I, Lavvy, and I have brought a new star-shaped freak to inflict upon thee aka Loop from the game In Stars And Time. They are the #1 Siffrin Hater and #1 Siffrin Supporter, sorry in advance to everyone else in the game who will have to deal with them (except for Siffrin) (he KNOWS what he did).

As for Loop, they are... a ☆star☆! Cheerful! Friendly! Helpful! The fakest bitch out there!! Add would hate Loop and that says a lot about both of them tbh. They also have ☆trauma☆ and ☆a curse of immortal servitude forced upon them by a deadbeat deity☆! Yay! Siffrin is the only person they've talked to in ?????? An Endless Repetition of Time so they're kind of shy, pls be gentle with them.

They are also also full of Many Spoilers and Content Warnings so have a permissions/opt out post. Obviously I'm gonna try not to surprise ppl with like suicidal thoughts/self-harm shit out of nowhere anyway but YOU KNOW good stuff to be aware of before trying to get close to them sweats. The ISATs are not okay sorry folks.

You can also also also add me on plurk/

BlueFlewFedUQueen if anyone wants to!!!! ok im done now see u in discord bye

start_again

HELLO FRIENDS i am new!! i'm kelly and i come bearing siffrin (he/they), the protagonist of the sisyphean nightmare that is in stars and time. do not be fooled by the cute art style (or the fact that he's like 5'1"), he's in his mid-twenties and is full of ~*trauma*~! and on that note, please check out his opt-out post for any potentially heavy subjects that might come up! also let me know if you'd like me to avoid major game spoilers, as sif is coming from the end of the game after all the big reveals and so spoilery things are quite likely!

as for a quick summary: siffrin is the requisite mysterious/edgy/irreverent rogue of an adventuring party out to save the country from an evil king. upon going to finally confront said king, siffrin found himself stuck in a timeloop because of Reasons and proceeded to relieve the same two days over and over again. they're free of the timeloop now but they are not doing too hot mentally. nevertheless, he remains full of incredibly bad jokes and puns. he's also got a strange antagonism/friendship(?) with that weird star-head person, and everyone in aldrip already got to witness them publicly and embarrassingly bickering via the notebooks. sorry y'all had to see that.

also, he doesn't know what colors are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(pssst feel free to add me on plurk @

tinybro!)

ghostharasser

Hello Stix!! This is Jami here with a player plot that your mods have given the green light. That is right, this is the plotting post for the Dreamwalking event I have been cooking up for a little while. So! Here are the details:

Dipper is going to go on a little sea exploration at some point around July 15th. He’s going to encounter something that is going to spiral his powers out of control and the result is going to plunge most of the Sea Base into a dreamscape.

This means that for however long Dipper is out of commission, reality around the base will be submerged in a dreamlike pocket dimension. A big Deambubble if you will.

As a result, players are welcome to explore other characters' dreams, nightmares, memories, and whatever else. As a dream, reality is dodgy, and operating on Gravity Falls’ dream/mind rules means that if you can think to do it, it is also malleable and manipulatable.

The base will remain in the state until Dipper is recovered from the crazy horror-induced dream coma he’s in. Which means Dipper needs to be rescued in order to stop the nonsense. This can be done in a few ways! You could kill him. He can be woken up, possibly by someone with magic or psychic abilities, or, finally, by recovering Dipper’s green pendant. The pendant contains a strange liquid and if someone thinks to make him drink it, it will wake him right up! Neat!

To get to him at the center of the dream there will be a trail to lead to him. He will be protected by a manifestation of his mind.(it’s Moon Presence. Get ready for a bloodborne boss nerds) getting past that and waking him up is the goal! Good luck!)

In the meantime have fun with your crazy dream/memory/mindscape event!! Of course this is opt-outable. It should only run for a short time, and anyone who doesn’t want to participate can assume their character was either not affected somehow or just asleep the whole time! I will also post a containment log for the event though of course people can interact with it however they like!

Questions can be asked below! Thanks!!

sticksandbonesmods

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Post a comment. (Either one per character or listing the characters you play)
2. Other people will reply to your comment with the appropriate hearts!
3. Make sure to hover over your hearts! People can customize the commentary.
4. Comment to other people with hearts ♥

get the code for the meme!

( HEARTS MEME )

mooninthewater

Hi friends!

Mizuki death incoming and such. Fun stuff, you know.

I'm gonna RNG who finds him, though! This is gonna be back at the Grove, somewhere just... outside. Vaguely around the cookie house, so, y'know, if you could comment below w the character(s) you'd wanna find a lifeless sea jelly corpse with, I'll throw those names in the hat!!!

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES:

The beach is now permanently unlocked! Players may traverse freely between Aldric’s Grove and the seaside at any time via the tipped-over tree, bearing in mind that it’s a 3-day journey. The cabanas can be lived in as well while you’re there. The usual dangers of last month’s log (sirens, leviathans, coconut crabs, high tide) remain.
It’s the hottest point of summer, and temperatures are skyrocketing into the high 90s to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun shines brightly at all hours of the day, even at “night”, where it slightly dips below the horizon line and that’s as much as you get. If you’ve heard of Alaska’s summer solstice causing “two months of daylight”, it’s that.
There is now a tailor shop in the Grove courtesy of Ain, which will pop up about a day or two after everyone returns from the beach. Get your clothes patched up, get something custom-made, whatever you want.
- To avoid making the option to regain entire outfits defunct, requests for full articles through the tailor shop will take an in-game month to complete; if you want something urgently, going through Heimr & Ydalir will be faster (assuming your AC is submitted anyway!). Small requests (stitching up holes, adding embroidery or a patch, whatever) will not be subject to this waiting period.
Enciodes, in tandem with Moder and whoever else has previously volunteered to help, is working on restoring the burned town to a less burned state. While this isn’t completed yet, it will soon be safe to traverse and inhabitable within the coming months.
Mizuki and Livio have contributed to Callan’s corruption cure. At the time of writing, he isn’t quite fixed… but y’all are about 3.5 Guardians saved game-wide right now. The tide turns in your favour.
- The Sky Guardian and Sehul remain dead… for now.

PLOT UPDATES:

At the beginning of July, Moder will have solved the issue with the fog wall and the Creature trapping you all on the beach. The fog wall has yet again been parted like the Red Sea over the cliffside and stretching to the lighthouse, and the tipped-over tree that’s bound with vines is now safe to traverse. Everyone can now go back home! Or they can live at the beach forever, we suppose. The Capybus will reappear briefly to bring everyone back and shorten the usual travel time.
With everything back to normal, life continues as usual… for a period of about two weeks, until the Creature wakes up from its nap and everyone hears a voice in their heads saying, ”Huh… you guys are back already?” and after a string of more complaints about how you all smell like nasty seawater and sand, the world will shift, and suddenly everyone will be underwater in a sea base. A much larger one than that image shows, but a sea base nonetheless. Yes, this is Subnautica. We are aware of the copyright lawsuits in our inbox and we are ignoring them.
The sea base will include food enough for the two weeks you’ll be stuck here (rationed out — so big eaters might need to slow down to ensure survival), uncomfortable beds to sleep on, a handful of indoor planter boxes, and other supplies for survival — equipment to explore the ocean with and the sort. For this event, sea pressure will not be something you have to worry about, you will not be squashed to death while underwater. What you will have to worry about is all of the leviathans and other vicious wildlife that wants to eat you… some of which will happily attack the underwater base in an attempt to get to you.
The goal of this event is simply to survive for two weeks by whatever means characters see fit, whether that means trying to swim back to shore, hanging out in the base and never leaving, or going out to kill the leviathans that attack. The Creature considers this another “game” even though he’s too creeped out by the sea life to check in, and your reward will be another slight area expansion: The Lake will be an accessible location by the end of the month when you all are (yet again) freed from the sea. For those of you who’ve kept up with Callan’s saga, you know this either means something extremely good or extremely bad. :)

OOC UPDATES:

We are Aware that FF14 Dawntrail launches uh (checks notes) tomorrow. For those of you playing: Have fun, mark your spoilers if you talk in the Discord about it… we do expect some slowness while people are gaming so don’t feel rushed with the plot this month, enjoy games as well.
- We have a dedicated thread in the hyperfix channel (the first one) for Dawntrail spoilers. Please review the pinned rules before posting to avoid potentially spoiling anyone who wanders in.
We are currently holding a building in reserve for Enciodes: the archives/library, which will be going in the Burned Town when that’s finished being cleaned up. We make this note so that players don’t try to regain that exact thing since this is Rubie’s specific quest/goal, since we hate saying “no, pick something else” to you guys.
- That said, if other players would like to put a building in reserve, as long as it’s redeemed within a handful of months, we don’t mind working with you.
Starting in August, we will have some plot-heavier months and be going back into the thick of it. There will of course be lulls in between to avoid player burnout. There will also be a side plotline launching in August, which will involve Zahliya. More information will be available as the details are hashed out, but know this will involve limited sign-ups as is the nature of many of our sidequests. If player interest for this is through the roof, however, we will find a solution to make sure everyone can play. :)

mooninthewater

Mizuki's holding an IC session of laser tag at the end of this month. Go ahead and add your character(s) to this list if you want your character to participate as well~! This is so I know how many characters we have and if I can do teams or if it's just every man for themselves.

here's the sheet again!!!

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES:

Summer has arrived! It’s sweltering, the sun is shining brightly, and the flowers are in full bloom. Sometimes, biblically accurate bees bumble from flower to flower. They aren’t dangerous, they are important to the ecosystem, please treat them with respect.
Passenger built a cafe. It’s called the Magic Lamp, and it lies south of the therapy building with a riverside view on the deck. When he isn’t attending to it, the spirit of a capitalist can be seen running it. Like with the ghost in Luca’s bar, this one also isn’t capable of communication with you, but understands basic commands (and also begs for tips).
Elsword’s house is gone! Goodbye house! The eyeball lemon trees he planted remain.
SilverAsh is cleaning up the burned town. In a month or two, perhaps it’ll be stable enough to walk on without risking falling into a sinkhole? We’ll see. :)
Callan remains Corrupted, but some progress has been made to fixing him! Hm hmmm.
The Moon Seance (Seeyonce if you want to have a verbal tic for the next week you’re welcome) went well? Or perhaps saying it simply “went” is more accurate. Characters involved have learnt about Ourania, her condition, and how to get home. A short summary lives in the first two comments on this thread. The actual conversation that was threaded out is this way, if you’d like to peruse more.
Mizuki also made friends with the Cosmic Serpent that lives in the whirlpool in the sea, with Sesa as his cohort in this. The Serpent is in possession of a sun artifact from Terra now. Time will tell what this means, if anything.
Affogato has named the Fallen Sun/False God/Creature “Śuri”... time will tell what this means :). This information is not ICly known unless Affogato chooses to share it with the class, which means Zahliya and Nene don’t know, which means Affogato is spared being strangled by two shorties… for now.

PLOT UPDATES:

Run.
…aka we’re going to the beach! The overall map has been updated accordingly — the three new maps for this event are at the bottom of the usual gallery. How we get there is very silly, but know that it involves Moder permanently altering some of the trees with her forest magic to create a permanent (safe) pathway down that isn’t near the Lighthouse where the Danger is.
Unfortunately, the Creature, who is not fond of the ocean, is now tired of y’all and is trapping you down there with its magic. Stay on the beach and go play in your water you’re all weird ewww — yes, Moder will also be stuck on the beach with you. It will take her the month to break through the Creature’s magic to put you all back, but after this, the beach will be permanently accessible.
Other NPCs will be stuck with you — this will include the usual crop of contactable NPCs. Sinann, Callan, and the Behemoth will not be with you, Sinann is a freshwater Guardian you see. That said, if you harass the Cosmic Serpent enough, they might wake up from slumber to ask you wtf you want and babysit you. Heimr and Ydalir’s regular facilities will be accessible — Ydalir’s tent and giant turtle will be the same as always, and Heimr will be set up with his own beachfront store in an old building that looks like it needs some cleaning up. You can help him with this for dad’s love points.
Heimr will provide everyone one (1) swimsuit and one (1) beach outfit in either surfer or boho style, your choice, for free upon arrival.
As for places to live, fret not: Through a low cave filled with corals and glowing crystals is a pier where cute cabanas are set up for you to live in. There are a limited amount of these, so you might have to room with someone. Each has an attached kitchen and bathroom like the picture so that you guys don’t smell like seawater all month and can, y’know, eat food.
The ocean cave will flood with the high tide at night, so unless you can breathe underwater, traversing the cave isn’t recommended. Better get to bed before it floods! Or don’t, we’re not your parents.
This is going to be a “do whatever you want” beach event, please do whatever you want. Climb things, walk to the lighthouse, throw coconuts at each other, again we aren’t your parents.
Yes, there are horrible Subnautica creatures here. More info to come. You theoretically won’t be attacked by the Sticks version of a reaper leviathan… yet.
Next month will have more ocean surprises, stay tuned. :)

OOC UPDATES:

Happy summer! As stated in prior plotting posts, summer is going to involve fun but theoretically low-stress events. You are welcome to shift the plot around while you’re here despite the fact we the mods consider these events plot-light. We’re here for whatever crimes you commit.
Unhappy summer: The program Wolfie uses to make the maps is shutting down in a couple months, meaning future map updates past… July? August? Who even knows anymore man— may be much slower, which says a lot because they’re already pretty darn slow. Wolfie will be learning how to make maps in RPGMaker to compensate because if we don’t have the coolest map in DWRP, Wolfie will blow up. Thank you for coming (if there are easier programs to use please drop Wolfie a DM she’s trying her best).
As always if we forgot something in the plotting post, please let us know so we can edit!

bloodyopus

Sorry, it turns out that Phantom is going home anyway to Rhodes Island because I have no energy to try to tag around and mingle harder, or to keep up with things properly around here. And I don't want to continue semi-squatting.

ICly, he just walks into the fog with Miss Christine and never returns. I think he'll carry all his stuffs with him.

If anyone ever picks him up after me, please think of his (and my) time here as nonexistent. Goodbye.

selenokinesis

hey guys it's wolfie using my own fucking comm as god intended instead of being increasingly ominous in the discord server what's up

I HAVE ADDED!!! TWO MORE BIRDS TO THIS GAME!!! also elsword is dead

the first one is Harque, who is uh. he died, don't worry about it, he's alive now. he is a healer and time mage and has a Lot of traumatic issues that I recommend reading his permissions post about because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. anyway, harque will be looking to learn better control over magic while he's here because he was kind of not great at it, and then he invented time magic. he's real good at that. he also already has an ominous network post about the flow of time here, thumbs up. harque is a bird because he has caged dove energy so he fits into my bird sphere even though he's just a human technically.

the second one is Ain, who is... okay for many months i've been saying "don't let me bring ain here, don't let him come here he sucks" and then whoops i TDMed him, did like 80 tags, and was like well fuck. so sorry if you didn't want to see this man here he's here now. he will be annoying and come up with nicknames for all of you (i have most of these already logged in my head so good luck guys) and never call you by your real names. anyway he's an angel and he's lying about this, but those who can see souls and/or have supernatural sense will just Know he's not human. you're free to call him out on this if you want. this will eventually become public knowledge somehow. if you've spoken to elsword at all and he's mentioned "his friend ain who's an angel and god's child" lo and behold, here he is, except this is a different version of the ain he knows due to ((((how elsword canon works reasons)))) but don't worry about it. he is also a healer, he is my favourite, i love him so much, but if you want him to shut up go to my permissions post and be like do not Ever tag me with this biblical whore and i will say "okay". he is a bird because angel btw.

thanks for coming to my ted talk, it's midnight i'm going to bed

bloodyopus

(insert 'here we go again' meme)

Hello hello, I'm back! I had to take a little extension because of an issue with my glasses, but I'm back now. I'll get back to things and catch up slowly because I'm going to be busy well until next week, but I'll try my best.

If you'd like to ask me to prioritise something or ask about a particular thread, feel free to do so in the comment below or please PM me! ICly, Phantom's just a hermit as he always was, so please simply consider that he's just parkouring from every social interaction ever during the duration of my hiatus. Getting nerfed a bit in terms of ability-wise wouldn't matter; he's definitely hitting the bricks at the sight of People. Everyone is welcome to assume that this has happened to them at least once during the past month at some point.

Current Mood: hungry

sticksandbonesmods

SETTING UPDATES

Kiera built us a barn. It lives in the north of the Grove, Wolfie will update the map when Wolfie has a second. You can house livestock here, as well as catch random biblically accurate animals and stuff them in here. Since the barn is owned by Kiera/Weasel, please ask Weasel’s permission before you start stuffing your own animals in there, unless Weasel wants to give blanket permission. Do not assume, do communicate, etc.
Heimr’s human now! Or human enough. He’s not sure. The name “Aldric” when referring to him is no longer garbled, but it’s also just not who he is anymore.
The Alpha Mart is gone, and the doors are unscrambled. Mr. Bone-Jangles returns to his cryptid status of only showing up during mod-mandated silly time. We miss you every day king.
? ? ? That’s it, we had a chill month last month and no one broke the setting. If we forgot something though… you know where we’re at, we’re happy to edit.

PLOT UPDATES

Spring is in its heights and flowers are blooming everywhere! Butterflies and bees are everywhere, plantimals have stared sprouting accommodating flowers if they haven’t already, and those who are Corrupted may find their flowers seem more vibrant and lively without their suffering.
The fruit trees and bushes seem more full of life as well, and relatedly, Rusty is taking it upon himself to bring residents of the grove baskets of fruits and berries… though you might have to keep him from eating the spoils of his harvest.
But it’s not Aldric’s Grove without something going… wrong. And come nightfall, every night, a shimmering purple mist wafts into the town. Though it doesn’t come into any buildings, looking at it makes you want to step into it, and stepping into it grants you a lovely vision- a perfect daydream, even! Where everything is as it should be.
In reality, as you move through the dream, you will be waltzing right into danger, only to be pulled from the brink of an imminent death at the last minute, with the dream fading. Maybe a Guardian saved you, or maybe you just managed to avoid stepping into Callan’s lake, but a death you would have happily walked into is only narrowly avoided.
The worst part is, with every venture into the mist, the stronger its pull the next night is. Good luck!
You’ve asked, and we’re answering: this month you’ll have prom! Not that… any of the natives know what Prom is. As what should be the equinox approaches, one night a friendly spirit will enter the grove to escort everyone to a secondary location. Fancy outfits, fresh food, a fountain, and even a dance floor under the most beautiful moonlight will be waiting. We assume you’re going to pick your own prom dates, but if you’re feeling unhinged, matchmaking services are available by pinging us in the mod discord.
If you play hankey pankey at Prom, you will be physically thrown out of the venue by a bunch of spirits. Do not do the horizontal tango on the dance floor, take that to the woods or your houses. Points at our eyes points at yours.
This month also doubles as a TDM month which means ? ? ? TDMers get Prom, congrats!

OOC UPDATES

We still have plothooks waiting for pickup!
As a reminder, summer is going to be full of fairly lowkey months save for player-initiated developments.

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outofsticks

Recent Entries

+1 Researcher of... ???

A SUMMARY OF ZAHILYAQUEST 2 FOR THE AUDIENCE

OOC PLOTTING: A CREEPING FURY SETTING IN

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OOC PLOTTING: Gee Zahliya, how come your mom lets you have TWO quests?

Dreamscaperers Conclusion

+1 Eel

+ 1 Angel (And Empathy Opt In)

+1 ethereal being of infinite starlight

+1 one-eyed pipsqueak

DREAMSCAPE PLAYER PLOT UH PLOTTING

tensions high? time for a heart meme!

Death Plot Ahoy (cw: character death)

JULY PLOTTING: HBOMBERGUY HAS RELEASED A VIDEO ESSAY ON US

Laser Tag Sign-ups

JUNE PLOTTING: LET'S GO TO THE BEACH, BEACH

drop.

+1 time mage & +1 angel

back from hiatus

OOC PLOTTING: IT'S GONNA BE MAY

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