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!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: YET ANOTHER CEASE & DESIST IN THE MOD TEAM'S INBOX

SETTING UPDATES

The Divine Library has been unlocked! This is a permanent fixture, available through crossing the portal, a doorway standing within the Grove. The Divine Library will always feature a hint of randomness to it when used for explorations and settings on account of it’s very magical and ever-expanding. It’s also run by bibcoons and a mysterious spirit who is reluctant to show themselves.
As Summer hits in full swing, so too does the heat. Residents of the Grove will find it hot, humid and muggy- especially down by the beaches, which are just as pleasant as always. Should you seem like you’re going towards the beaches, the Dragon Hatchlings may bother you to come along.
The mushrooms continue to spread and spore, meaning that the monster transformations remain. This is purely optional, and will continue into July.

PLOT UPDATES

Joshua (Kiryu, not Rosfield), out at Fel's shrine in the forest, has caught glimpses of what's been going on lately with Mr. Bone-Jangles teleporting everyone to a futuristic city and with the efforts made to create a portal to the Library, and… well, let's just say he's intrigued! And inspired to try a bit of magic himself, empowered by his possession of a star shard. So, he tries to reach out to his own world. Naturally, this doesn't go as planned. This means that, surprise! Some of the Grove's residents are kidnapped. Unlike Mr. Bone-Jangles' portal back in April, this kidnapping is entirely random and not isolated to one particular location. Anyone caught in the spell will hear a sound like a staticky tuning radio, and then they disappear.
Meanwhile, throughout the Grove, old oak doors mysteriously begin to appear, some in walls like a door should be and others freestanding. Should a character enter a door, they will hear the same noise as those that have been kidnapped, and also disappear.
Whether they've been picked up by the spell or gone through one of the doors, congratulations! They are now in a small desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while everyone pretends to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale!
Night Vale is a weird place. Like, really weird. It looks like a normal town on the surface, but it's surrounded by an endless desert. If one were to try to walk out of town, they would find themselves walking a while through the desert and looping around and walking right back towards town again. Also, time doesn't work correctly there. In our situation, this translates as sometimes having been in Night Vale for a few days, but back in the Grove it's only been a couple of minutes, or vice versa. Or, time can just work on an even balance! Use this mechanic to your happiness, it's there for fun.
Which leads me to say, you can go back and forth between the Grove and Night Vale! You just need to find an old oak door in Night Vale to get back to the Grove. This is easier said than done, as if/when you enter Night Vale through one, it isn't behind you once you get there. But don't worry! You can find them. Notably, there is always a free-standing door in the Dog Park, but no one is allowed in the Dog Park, not even dogs. It's probably fine.
When entering Night Vale through one of the doors, it will drop you in front of one of several fun locations! This does not mean you are restricted to that location, though. Have fun exploring the town! A map will be provided in the IC log. Deposit locations are as follows:
- The Desert Flower Bowling Alley & Arcade Fun Complex
- The Moonlite All-Nite Diner
- The Hole in the Vacant Lot Out Back of the Ralphs
- THE BROWN STONE SPIRE
- Dark Owl Records
- Big Rico's Pizza
- The Night Vale Public Library
- Gino's Italian Dining Experience & Grill & Bar
- Jackie's Pawn Shop
- Night Vale Community Radio (though, there are no visible doors or windows, so you can't enter)
- The Dog Park
- Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation Area
Also, there are radios everywhere! Both old fashioned and newfangled. They're popping up all over the Grove, too. Most of the time they're quiet, but off and on during the day, a local radio show comes on. Even if a radio is turned off, it will turn on for the broadcast. If a radio is destroyed, a new one will pop up in its place. Apparently, you have to listen to it. And when you do, you might notice a familiar voice. Or don't, I'm not your dad.
If you do notice that familiar voice, though, you might recognize it as Josh! As the instigator of the situation, the world has drawn him in to be the Voice of Night Vale, so he is the voice of each and every broadcast. Which are, like Night Vale, notably weird. He also seems to know what people are doing at any given moment and will openly talk about it on the broadcast, so if you want your character/their behavior to be put on blast on live radio, there will be a submission area for that! I won't be making daily broadcasts ICly though because that's a lot, so the submission area will sort of serve as a collection of things everyone would hear.
There will also be an ultimate conclusion investigation! Because getting Josh out of his new profession is what will trigger the smooth separation of Night Vale from the Grove. Characters will need to break into the Night Vale Community Radio building, which will not be ICly possible until the end of the month, but I'll probably toss the log up for it mid-month or sooner. There are sign ups for this! One character per player, please.

OOC UPDATES

… All this to say, everyone thank Kaed for running this month’s event, a really fun Welcome to Nightvale episode!
Any and all questions and investigations relating to the Nightvale aspect of this event will be handled by Kaed as well.
As mentioned earlier this week, we will be making some minor tweaks to our AC policy:
- Normal AC stays the same (2 threads of 5 comments from you with 2 different characters). However, we're adding something to incentivize helping TDMers. During TDM months, submitting a thread with a new character that reaches app length (5 comments from you, enough for a TDMer to complete their app) will count for your entire AC that month. This is only usable during TDM months, meaning the month the TDM goes up. (During November & December when we don't have TDMs, AC will stay as "check in" like it was last year.)
- Any thread with a TDMed character will count for 2x the threads required for Bonus AC during any month it's redeemed - all you need to do is indicate to the mod team that it's a TDM thread in some way so we can make sure to count it properly.
With summer coming in real life as well, we expect a lot of weather nonsense. Please stay safe and make sure you stay hydrated!

Please use the following form for plotting:

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: MONSTER MASH (GRAVEYARD SMASH??)

SETTING UPDATES:

You guys have had a productive month, despite me trapping you in Cyberpunk 2077! Good job!
- Beiwe’s Church has been moved from the forest to the North Grove, right smack dab in the middle of it. It was initially in ruins, however it has been repaired and is now fully operational. A more detailed summary is on the locations page, but in short:
  - Corrupted or those willingly working with Suri cannot enter it, as they will automatically be blocked by Her will
  - The middle of the church has a pseudo-arena space for battles, because it’s Beiwe
  - The rooms in the back contain a kitchen, dining room, and a room for making pottery including pottery wheels and a kiln
- Luca has resurrected Sehul! Oops! They are currently just walking bones and do not exactly fit in the Grove, the buildings are close together and they are 100ft tall. They will be spending their time on the beach.
  - I have Yet Again bumped up the height limit barrier. It is 200ft. Hold me to this: It will not change again. I keep forgetting how large my creatures are.
  - Sehul also has the original protection circle on the inside of their skull, and their resurrection has significantly strengthened that in tandem with the existing barrier and other hidden circles being quite strong. The turns are tabling!
- Dion has figured out that Suri’s constructs can be poisoned. :) And Shadow Milk found out how to do A Lot Of Damage. These items were shared at the most recent family meeting.
- Renard has been rescued (untreed)! He’s walking around despite the fact he should not, but lives out of the General Store for now. He will probably at some point ask Sesa to borrow the workshop so he can make sickass swords. He has a rat in his shirt pocket named Jennie, and probably knows Too Much about where magical items and artifacts are hidden, considering he came back with at least ten of them.
- The Heimr’s children from the manor are still snzzzing.
- Sinann can take person form now, since they’ve been fully strengthened. They will make this everybody’s problem.
- The fog wall has been strengthened, and Suri’s constructs are no longer able to slip into the Grove, barring super extenuating circumstances such as someone physically going into the forest and forcing them through the barrier (don’t do this). The fog wall is also white again and will not automatically harm you when touched. The Golden Glasses are still needed to traverse its paths properly; I’ve given you guys some leeway in the past with this but we’re going to make this a requirement going forward. No more accidentally stumbling into the plot.
Neo Eden is gone, goodbye Neo Eden. As a reminder you’re allowed to take one (1) item from it, be it clothing, a box set of movies, an espresso machine… as long as an adult can physically carry it without struggle. Again, you cannot have a car.
The mushrooms fruiting in the forest have gotten worse. They have spread beyond the fog barrier and into the accessible woods to you guys, and when stepped on, a spray of spores may have mystical effects…

PLOT UPDATES:

Hi. You’ve been waiting for this event for (checks notes) like 4 months. Hope you got your monster-lovin’ bones ready. (Also this month is a TDM!)
Curious characters who wander into the forest and step on a mushroom may be subjected to some monstery transformations. They can either be very painful or completely painless depending on how you want to play it; we just ask you use appropriate CWs as always.
- If it was not incredibly obvious I based the mushroom sporing transformation thing on an episode of Dungeon Meshi, and if you haven’t seen Dungeon Meshi go watch it. Our habits of getting sent Cease & Desists will not abate.
As per the last few posts, we do have rules for how the monstering will operate, outlined below for ease:
- Your monster can be whatever you want as long as it’s not too massive (i.e. don’t be a 200ft giant). Your monster design cannot be overly mechanical; some mechanics like a cyborg are allowed, but no TVs for heads. Keep it within the setting’s typical low-tech constraints.
- Whatever monster design you want does not have to be animal based or plant-based, you can be an eldritch horror if that appeals to you.
- You cannot gain new powers (if you become a cyborg you can’t suddenly shoot lasers if you couldn’t before). Basic powers such as wings that give you flight, being a vampire lets you suck blood, etc, are okay. The ability to shapeshift into a smaller form (i.e. if you decided to make your monster very large) or to change forms (i.e. from merfolk to humanoid) is okay as well, so that you aren’t bared off from buildings.
- You can choose to keep your existing powerset, or scrap it/parts of it. The only stipulation we have is that you cannot gain powersets (exceptions are noted above — if you aren’t sure, ask). We will not be allowing hard swaps in powersets either, i.e. if your original powerset says you can use fire magic but you wanted an aquatic design, you will not be able to waterbend instead.
- Those of you who are dragon-blessed do not have to incorporate your dragon blessings into your design if it would interfere with the ~aesthetique~; you will retain the dragon blessing powers either way.
- Those of you who are Corrupted MUST include the Corruption damage/motifs still, however.
- The marks left on your person by the Gods (Suri or the lesbians) will remain, if you have them.
- Personality changes to match your monster/transformation type are not expected, but allowed and encouraged! Dietary changes to match are fun as well, but again, not required.
- Multiple transformations are allowed, since these are mushrooms in the woods that you step on. This is also the way to reverse the transformation. Story wise this is “random” and not based on your will; OOCly obviously you can do whatever you want.
At max, the transformations will last 3 months — May, June, July, and end at the beginning of August automatically. You can, again, end this early by stepping on a mushroom. You can opt out entirely by Not stepping on a mushroom.
There isn’t going to be much “““““plot””””” this time around. We want this first event to be more sandboxy, while everyone gets used to being a creature. That said, we will throw interactable things into the background for everyone so that we’re not entirely boring you. This will be a Vibes Month since we’ve had so much back to back plot.

OOC UPDATES:

All the now-contactable NPCs will be bumped up on the NPC Contact page. It’s getting pretty long, so we’ll probably look at reorganizing the page again soon. You guys are doing a good job at rescuing people. Aurora’s real name, Freyr, will be included on the page — she will go by either name, she thinks your new name for her is cute.
Related to NPCs, we’ve had pronoun blurbs under each NPC for a while, but we’d like to remind everyone that they’re there. We know we have quite the robust cast all around and would like to help everyone avoid confusion, especially because we don’t expect you to memorize every single character. Let us know if there’s anything more we can do to help with ease of navigation.

Please use the following form for plotting (and please describe your monster transformation to the class while you're at it!):

Character:
Canon:
CR: Who is your character? Any special powers or things they have going on? Any specific CR you want to kickstart?
Plans: What’s on the agenda for this month? Any interactions with the monthly event? Other things you want to do?
Not Seeking: Anything you'd like to avoid.
Anything Else: A permissions post, opt-in for a character-specific power or whatever else.
Recent Posts or Toplevels: For things you posted that you want additional tag-ins on or that might’ve gone missed.
Past Life Plotting Toplevel: From ye olde post.
Meme: Make us laugh.

Entry tags:

!ama

ANNIVERSARY AMA!

Hello and welcome to the second anniversary of Sticks and Bones! It's been a wonderful two years and we can't wait to do more with you. For a celebration, we thought it would be fun to host a small AMA for the whole month with your mods! Here are some small guidelines:

If you have a specific mod that you want to question, put their name in the header.
Behind the scenes and outright spoilers are sort of intertwined, but we'll answer what we can.
And joke about what we can't!
Honestly we love and trust y'all so we know that's really all we need to say. Happy questioning!

Love, Amity, Wolfie and Lavvy.

Entry tags:

!announcement

APRIL STATE OF THE GROVE

Hello beautiful stickbones players, this is Wolfie with a general update! In short, Tal is jiggling the plot around and we love him for it.

With Affogato Cookie's drop and last wishes using the Mystery Organ from Callan, a few things have changed within Aldric's Grove this month:

A small shrine close to the inn has appeared in the Grove. Affogato's spirit is tied there, to a black raven figure carved from smooth stone. His last wishes were for the Grove and the people here to be protected, and therefore:
The spell strengthening the fog wall gets buffed and helps the magic circle that was placed in the Secret Location. This takes some pressure off of Heimr's rescued children, who are still comatose currently, but will ensure that the barrier does not falter.
The fog wall loses its black tint/corrupting qualities from Corrupted Moder's wish back some time in 2023, and is now safe to touch (but is still, you know, a barrier and you still need the golden glasses to find where to get through it).
Sinann gets powered up further and can now shift into a proper Person form to go on land, though largely will still hang out in the river in fish form (its pronouns are still it/its or they/them). It will be able to speak in complete sentences as well.
- This was the last Guardian y'all had to power up so congrats you did it, confetti sparkles etc
Affo being a poison-element cookie means Suri's creations are now weak to poison, and Suri himself is a little bit weak to it but Not Really
- This won't be immediately noticeable until someone tries to poison said creations. We are all looking at Thorns rn I know but he's banned from disseminating plot, figure it out yourselves-
Pearl, Affo's baby dragon, is going to make a brief but terrible rainstorm out of grief :( They are sad :( This will largely not matter to those of you who remain in Neo Eden all month, but should you pop back into the Grove, you will be dunked on. Literally.

That's it, if there are any questions just drop a line here or in the Discord! Pages will be updated after Wolfie is done slaving away at Capitalism. <3

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: MR BONE-JANGLES 2 - LOST IN NEW YORK

OOC UPDATES

Hi. We promised a magic system. This did not wind up happening because real life exploded. Sorgy. Please expect it soon!
This is a long post, so buckle in!
Monster transformation event happens in MAY! You have one-ish more month! May is also a TDM month. I (hi this is Wolfie, this whole post is Wolfie) shared some details in the announcements channel in the Discord a while back so people could work on designs and ideas, so here they are again in a more Official place:
- monster transformations:
  - it's whatever you want as long as it's not too massive (i.e. Just don't be big enough to break the setting, not that I think anyone will be a 200ft giant but y'know). And it can't be overly mechanical. Some mechanics are allowed, but no tvs for heads (cybernetics are fine if you wanted to be a cyborg or steampunky or whatever, just don't make it entirely tech)
  - you can't gain impractical powers (i.e. if your character becomes a cyborg they can't suddenly shoot lasers). Basic powers (having wings gives you flight, being a vampire lets you suck blood, etc) are ok tho. if you aren't sure, ask.
  - you can choose to keep your existing powerset or scrap it/parts of it. the only stipulation is that you cannot gain powersets (again exceptions noted above). we will not be doing hard swaps in powersets either, i.e. if you can shoot fire but wanted to have an aquatic design and shoot water instead, that will not happen unfort. you will be aquatic with fire.
  - your design doesn't have to be animal based, if you wanted to be an eldritch horror that's chill. if you're a nonhuman Thingy you could just be a human person, because the real monster was humanity all along etc
  - if your dragon blessing appearance interferes with your design, they can be hidden if you want. you will still retain the blessing powers.
  - if youre corrupted the design Must include the corruption motifs
  - the marks left on you by the gods (suri or the lesbians) will remain
- event mechanics:
  - will involve a consensual (OOC) transformation, which may not be consensual IC (let's just say it'll involve stepping on something in the woods that triggers the transformation) (I can't tell you all my secrets)
  - multiple transformations are allowed in the case of a) ending the monstery shit early or b) wanting to switch to another monster
  - May will be focused largely on being transformed; June & July will have events that simply include the transformations as a background effect
  - we are not noctium/ryslig/route 666/other monster tf games, this is not permanent and your monster forms cannot be "regained" thru BAC in the future
Reminder to do your AC by Monday night (the 31st)!
This event and the May monster event are all handled by Wolfie entirely; please poke Wolfie with specific questions about the mechanics. The other mods have been relegated to Have Fun Mode. :)

SETTING UPDATES

Clive, Joshua, and Mizuki — with the help of Elsword — have freed the children from the manor. Turns out, the magic only made them look like children (spooky) and they’ve been adults for quite some time.
- Evan and Rillian are in “centuries of magical overload” comas. It will be announced when they wake up.
- Audrey, who had died at the game’s beginning, is a ghost haunting the manor/sometimes haunting Elsword since he gave her a funeral when he was just a PC. Characters with supernatural sensitivity may be able to sense either of these things.
- With the kids free, Rusty will spend his time idling by the General Store nowadays.
- The manor will remain locked INDEFINITELY because Suri doesn’t want y’all getting any funny ideas from the magic inside. This is manifested through black briars and thorny vines blacking all entrances.
  - This information will be reflected on our Locations page when our favouritest list mod Lavvy has time to update our pages.
- The magic vibes in the Grove are now off to say the least; without the kids maintaining the spell that kept the barrier up, magic often warps and warbles. Player characters may notice that their native powers may sometimes come out stronger than intended.
  - The barrier is being maintained by a handful of carefully-placed magic circles, an initiative spearheaded by Clive.
The Renard rescue is underway still at the time of writing. I’ll have another post up with any changes that happen to the Grove when he’s rescued. This is technically backdated to March just in case it doesn't resolve by April.
No more winter, winter gone. Moder is back to growing her flowers and mosses on her hide and in her hoofsteps. The flowers everyone planted last spring and summer are starting to return on their own in the areas they were planted.
Callan has returned to the lake finally; that said, his fishtank is no longer in Siffrin’s (old) room and he has been migrated to the cookie house via Pure Vanilla.
- This will be reflected on NPC Contact shortly.

PLOT UPDATES

I’ve alluded a lot to this event, and if you couldn’t guess my emoji puzzle clue from last night… surprise doesn’t matter because you have the answer right here: We’re going to ~~New York City~~ ~~the game Cyberpunk 2077~~ a secondary location known only as “Neo Eden”.
- I got the idea for this event when I was in a Meow Wolf so this would only be the second event you’ve gotten where I was In A Meow Wolf at the time.
Player characters will yet again be subject to Mr. Bone-jangles attempts to do… something. Try to tell you something, maybe to do with the outside world, maybe with another world entirely. Unfortunately, his attempts at opening a portal under everyone’s feet to plop them into said world is met with some resistance by our token villain, and you’ll instead find yourself in Neo Eden, a fabricated version of what modern life could look like had the Grove not been timebubbled for millennia. Skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and also everything is obnoxiously neon (and capitalist!).
- The portal will open in the middle of the Grove, meaning characters on the outskirts will not fall into it. Static entities (buildings, the well, plants) won't follow.
- A portal back to the Grove can be found in mirrors in your apartment rooms (elaborated on a bit further down the post). Simply stare into them with the intent to return home, and you'll fall forward into it and stumble out of a mirror that was mysteriously placed in your bedroom. To get back to Neo Eden from the Grove, the same route applies.
“What about the NPCs?” The only NPCs following you are Heimr and Ydalir, who will maintain a storefront in the city. This will make all other NPCs uncontactable during April, if you choose to stay in Neo Eden anyway. The Guardians have to guard the Grove.
- Bone-Jangles and his crew of skelemen will be found wandering the city doing work: Most of them take up jobs at the grocery stores and local restaurants, but also act as public transit workers, garbage skelemen, janitors, landlords… they are quite busy.
You are also able to take whatever you want from your usual inventory with you. Weapons, stuffed animals, your dog, whatever you want.
- All players will enter Neo Eden with a debit card in their pockets/hands if you don’t have pockets, and a letter telling them where to seek employment. There are 1,000 Credits on this card. You can ignore this, but money is required for goods and services here, and the stores don’t accept shells…
- Netbooks will magically transform into cellphones with only one function: Group chat. Still no private messaging available, but you do get to send cute stickers and emojis now!
The themes for this event are: Modern, Cyberpunk, Vaporwave, High-Tech, Alien, and Dystopian — which is me giving you blanket permission to make up anything weird enough to fit into those general vibes. Do you want neon body augmentations? Tattoos that move? Your hair and eyes to glow ominously? Robotic police officers and a terrifying state of government surveillance that doesn’t at all make you think of 1984? Go for it!
- The tech-y augmentations will not come back to the Grove with you. Please enjoy them while they last.
Finally, here is a list of Things To See/Other Setting Quirks:
- Neo Eden is empty and has only holograms of people going about their daily lives. All of them are human. None of them respond when interacted with in any capacity.
- You may rent a car from the Rent-A-Ride. You may also drive this car. If you will, you may crash this car and go to the hospital. No one is here to check your lack of driver’s license or your insurance.
- City Park is just a fake forest/”natural” area with a river cutting through it. Any fish you can see are little robots. This also applies to the birds. Other animals simply don’t exist.
- The Mania Square apartment complex borders Central Neo Eden, where a giant fountain big enough to swim in sits in the town square adjacent to a large shopping district. Player characters will have apartments to themselves; each door is marked with their name in what appears to be their own handwriting. Each apartment is a large studio with a kitchenette, bedroom area, and a bathroom. Strangely, each room has already been customized to that player character’s tastes.
- Thrill Point is an amusement park. It has amusement park rides like rollercoasters, drop towers, Ferris wheels, etc etc.
- Arcadia is a nightclub. You can get drunk, you can dance. You cannot do anything NSFW here. Strippers will not be provided. Please behave on the comms.
- Next to Arcadia is a small photo booth that requires two people to operate named "The Swap". If two player characters enter it and hit the two buttons on the photo booth console at the same time, they will be bodyswapped for 12 hours, and the booth will take a nice photo of the two of you and print it as a keepsake. Hooray!
- The law enforcement here are robotic cops. Breaking the law (stealing, littering, dismantling the robot cops ADD) will get you arrested. Luckily, the jail is easy to break out of because no one is watching the prison, if that’s your thing.
At the end of April, Mr. Bone-Jangles will close up the portals and send everyone back to the Grove, making Neo Eden inaccessible from here on. Each player character will receive a hastily-scrawled apology letter that reads “SORY, TRIYD 2 SAV U :(“ afterwards, and he will wander back into the woods with his merry band…
Unlike last year’s April Event, you’re free to take one (1) high-techy cyberpunk item with you when you leave as a memory. THE ITEM HAS TO FIT IN YOUR HANDS IT CANNOT BE A CAR. PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

+1 bird child

Hi! Rubie here with another character! "Stop playing Arknights characters" No!

Mephisto has a whole lot of CWs re: backstory and personality wise, so I do encourage you all to read his Permissions before interacting. If you all have seen the Arknights anime (highly recommend!!), you'll have seen this gremlin going around. I'm taking him roughly a little bit after "season 2", before chapter 8 in the game.

Uhh, Opt-outs and such for interacting are fine, and I understand if he can be a lot !!!! I'm here for a good time tho ok? ok.

LMK if you have any questions or want me to chuck this bird at you!!!

Entry tags:

announcements

Announcement: Character Caps!

Good afternoon, everyone! We have some exciting news to share today. Upon player request and discussion amongst ourselves, we've decided to raise the character cap to 5 characters per person, and our FAQ will update shortly to reflect this. However, this does come with some stipulations:

Players must continually maintain AC for all of their characters.
Players must demonstrate that they are active on all four characters. This means that you do not regularly boomerang at the last minute for AC checks or skirt by on the bare minimum.

We're so delighted with the love you all express for this game and want to return it in any way that we can, and this is just one way to do so.

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: don't step on snek

OOC UPDATES

We’re closer than ever to bringing our magic system to light! We hope to introduce it in a mini-event later in the month. When this occurs, we will also be making an informational announcement on our OOC comms.
- This system is meant to be a reward for player engagement; for now all we can tell you is that the entry fee to unlock Grove magic for a character is 10 threads, and that learning the magic spell in question requires a proof thread, i.e. it cannot be handwaved. More information will be provided mid-month.
Reminder: The Monster Mash/Transformation event will happen in May. Y’all got two more months. The mechanics have been loosely described on our last plotting post.
AC is due today; go do it.

SETTING UPDATES

Winter is fading to spring, perhaps faster than expected. Though it’s still chilly, the snow is melting more and more, leaving white patches of slush and mud around rather than the blanket of snow that had been present.
However, this also means the Fog Wall is coming back, as dangerous as ever. As always, there are patches of clarity that can be used for foraging, hunting, wood gathering and the like, but the fog and its monsters are back.
The beach is more pleasant than it has been, but the chill in the air still hangs heavy.
Large grooves of fresh, upturned or flattened earth can be found, even within the fog, if one uses the Golden Glasses.
Daffodils, chamomile, arctic poppy, foxgloves and lavender can be found growing amongst the flora and in clearings, alongside camellia bushes.
The clinic has largely repaired itself! Some things are still damaged, but it’s now safe to use once again.

PLOT UPDATES

The sun is out again and it's no longer perpetually nighttime.
The giant tree of god flesh, the Caerula Arbor, has disappeared. The Nethersea Brand has cleared up, and you are no longer subject to random bouts of paralysis and/or memory sharing.
- Well, it's mostly cleared up. Where the Arbor once stood is a "scar" on the land where the people-trees are deep in the woods. It's formed of Nethersea Brand and serves as a nest for some new baby Seaborn. They will largely leave you alone, but they will also shoo you off the Brand if you try to touch it. Go on, git.
The baby Seaborn in the river are beginning to grow up. They saw some of you flying with your dragon wings, and saw Aurora as well, and a handful of them have decided that they’d like to evolve. On occasion, you will now see a flying Seaborn. You have no choice.
However, not everything is as peaceful as you may like. Almost overnight, black and purple snakes have worked their way into the grove. They hide in bushes, in tall grass, under anything they can and if they bite, a familiar but weakened venom to those here last summer will take its hold:
- One bite brings an intense pain, full body chills, hallucinations, and ease of bruising increases, alongside a black sun scar forming on the bite.
  - The black sun scars are permanent, as a sign of divine wrath, but can be changed by the Goddesses if asked.
- Two bites brings an agonized sleep, not unlike a coma.
- Three bites brings death.
  - As this is an event-related death, it will not yield trips to the Garden.
Within the woods, two large stone snakes deposit more of the smaller snakes, guarding the paths to the Fallen Sun’s flowers as the non-poisonous ones can be used for easing the venom in medicine. They will restructure immediately upon being broken and will strike back with a vengeance — and should the larger snakes bite you, then you will be hit with the full force of the venom.
Near the end of the month/close to April itself, characters will receive strange visions of a modernized city flashing through their dreams, and hear the distant clatter of dry bones…

like, nya?

i haven't properly been in a game in forever and i haven't done an ooc intro in forever wow hi!!

i'm aster and this is shoka sakurane. she's from the hit sequel to the world ends with you, the same title with neo stuck at the front of it, which wasn't a hit actually, because square enix is very bad at advertising things, but we love it anyways. go buy it on steam rn for like 23 dollars, pls and thank you,

anyways shoka is 16 (and she's been 16 for about 4 years now, don't worry about it) and has a good heart hidden underneath a rough exterior. people can't know she's nice, gosh!! ew!!! she's not helpful she's a big meanie rude girl!!!!! she will call you a loser. she will call you a dummy, a dweeb, a nerd. but its all (affectionate) deep down inside, i prommy.

anyways thats about it ig, glad to be here, looking forward to it!

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: RUBIE IS WRITING THIS ONE /SRS

SETTING UPDATES:

For those that missed it or did not participate, the Attack on Suri concluded… with several little updates that will moderately shake the setting up:
- Characters who were alive at the end of the battle know Suri’s name, which despite us using it all the time, was not actually known by anyone barring Tal’s Cookie Duo™. This includes four of the five Guardians as well. Because of this, Suri gets a power jump — but it’s up to the players if they choose to disseminate this information, or figure out a new way to be disrespectful about it.
- The Temple is destroyed and merely a pile of rubble now.
  - Suri’s next probable location is therefore unknown.
- While not otherwise hostile to the players at this time, Zonari will be moving out for now; dad’s calling and she has to get back to their new home. That said, she will still visit the Grove because she’s weirdly fascinated with all of you (and very fond of the Tomas chicks in the barn) under the excuse that she’s “keeping watch”.
- A new NPC, Callisto, will be available to contact on NPC Contact. In short, she’s the merchant who originally opened the Temple doors and caused the apocalypse, and Suri has spent the last thousand years torturing and resurrecting her in an endless cycle. Mizuki rescued her as he escaped, and she currently lives in the inn and frequents Luca’s bar.
- The NPC Elsword has left the Garden and is now Contactable as well. He lives in the therapy building with Mizuki.
Callan, still frustrated with the winter cold, will remain in Siffrin’s fishtank.
Player sacrifices have been acknowledged. Those of you who didn’t bother to make a sacrifice will have some effects to contend with; those of you who did are spared. Regardless, Winter and the wraiths have moved on into the forest, and springtime will be upon you soon.
The snow, while not fully melted off, will start to do so. The ground will remain snowy, but the river will unfreeze, which allows Sinann and the baby Seaborn (who have grown a lot since they were first introduced) to float up to the surface again and say hi. Yet, the Seaborn population in the river is still much thinner than it was before.

PLOT UPDATES:

February’s log is a player plot written entirely by Rubie. Questions about event mechanics therefore should be directed to Rubie through official channels, meaning: Please ask these in a public location such as the Discord Q&A or the FAQ here or on the main post so that they’re available to anyone who needs to see them. The mods would advise sending Rubie a ping if you use Discord.
The rest of the plotting notes in this section are written by Rubie, so without further ado: < rubiezone >
Several months ago, Mizuki introduced some of his God’s flesh to the Grove. It had been under Pure Vanilla’s watch… but due to some of his unforeseen absences, pieces have escaped and grown.
It now occupies a part of the forest most would do well to avoid – the people trees. Characters this month will notice that massive tree that now stands stories tall above everything else in that part of the forest.
The Nethersea brand is back! Now worse than ever! As a refresher (or introduction to our newer folk), the brand is a web-like, blue, almost flesh-like mass that will continuously grow and cover whatever it can. Touching it gives a numbing sensation that will eventually cause your nervous system to shut down. It’s not instantaneous, but you don’t have long! After some time, you’ll regain feeling again, but if you don’t leave the brand in that time, it’ll happen all over again.
What does all this mean for you? Well, for starters, leaving the brand unchecked will cause it to grow over the Grove. In the past, it stayed contained, but considering it’s stemming from this massive tree – the Caerula Arbor – this time, it will become a problem. And secondly… anyone trapped within the brand, or stuck in the “roots” of the Arbor will have a vague “assimilation” with it. You won’t become Seaborn or anything like that, don’t worry.
“What does that mean?!” Glad you asked! It means that Rubie has the opportunity to give you all a memory share event! The Arbor’s whole thing is about grief, so likely memories will align with that, but I’m not about to police what fun you want to have. Go nuts.
Because the Arbor is assimilating with the people trees as well – characters from everyone’s past lives – y’all will be able to explore past life memories, too! Yaaaay!!! ✨ Again, I’m not about to police any of y’all for this. Please have fun, do what you want, plot away, I’m here for it.
On top of this, I will also be hosting a “stop the Arbor from branding the Grove” that doubles as a Mizuki rescue mission! This will have sign-ups for that below, as this is going to be a quick-paced thread that centers on DnD-esque puzzle-solving and… depending on how y’all handle it, a fight scene?! Who knows. I don’t. I’ve got lots of endings planned, though. 🙂
- Sign-ups are limited to 1 character per person.
Please note, for when you sign up, I, Rubie, may end up in your inbox before the event drops to do some pre-event shenanigans. Nothing major, just some fun flavor~
< /rubiezone >

OOC UPDATES:

For those who were wondering about the monster transformation event we promised and didn’t bring up for another few months (sorry) — we now have officially scheduled it for May. We know art/designs/deep thoughts are important to players for such events, so here is a rough outline of the actual mechanics:
- Multiple transformations will be allowed per month (May will be primarily monster focused; June & July will still have characters transformed if they wish to be, but will have other plot focuses). You can also just stick to one if it please ye. At any point, the transformation can be ended early via the same mechanic that transforms players in the first place — or avoided entirely for the uninterested.
- Dragon blessings do not have to show up on your person if you do not want them to (i.e. if it interferes with your idea) — Corruption however will be present. You will not lose the effects from either of these things while Creatured.
- Any monster is viable, and there is no bestiary provided — however, we ask that you keep in mind our existing size constraints, do not break our game, & do not use overly-mechanical designs as it doesn’t fit our setting. No full robots or TV heads. Steampunk & partial robotic designs, as long as they are mostly flesh, are OK.
We love you guys. <3

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!

Entry tags:

!plotting

January Plotting: Bitter Winds Howling

OOC UPDATES

Regular AC will be resuming in January!
January is also a TDM month, so it’s the best time to think about who you may want to bring in or to enable the people you love who aren’t us.
New characters of preexisting players are welcome on this post, for the record!
A new past life plotting meme will be going up January 1st to ring in the new year as well, and hopefully the new format will make it more engaging.
We are going to set 2024 on fire and I am personally holding 2025 at gunpoint on all our behalf. Otherwise, we have a lot of really fun things planned for the year and we are greatly looking forward to playing things out with everyone together this year!
Also there is an end of year love meme for the game. This winter’s been hard. This year’s been hard. Let’s end it with a bit of love and joy.

SETTING UPDATES

Mayoi has built a shrine to Ourania, which doubles as a new home. It is placed in the formerly burnt town!
The weather is going to reach sub-zero temperatures, with raging snowstorms threatening one’s health if they stray too far from the indoors… though with how bitter cold it is, that may not help as much as you might want it to.
The river and lake are both completely frozen over, and not even Terho’s cabin has any light or presence to it. State of the seaborne and fish and Sinann? Frozen.
By nature of their magic, the fruit trees and blackberry bushes are still perfectly fine. It’s just a matter of getting to them at this point.
As the winter progresses, the cold encroaches further and further into where it should not be. Cups from the cabinets are frigid as ice, and any fires you try to keep burning flicker even as you stoke them and feel as if they could go out at any moment- Irene’s fireplace in the inn seems to be the only one that isn’t affected.

PLOT UPDATES

Characters will experience strange dreams of water and something trying to reach out. What could it mean? Great question!
New arrivals will find themselves struggling to get through the storm to safety, and will find themselves drawn to various buildings within the settlement. Hanging from their necks will be a pendant with a heavy snowflake amulet. While they wear these, the wraiths may use their voice to call for their sacrifice, and the new characters will feel incredibly cold even within the hottest places in town until they melt the amulet in a fire.
On top of the awful cold, the Grove and surrounding forest are once again under siege- though this time it doesn’t actually seem to be the Fallen Sun’s fault. The winter comes beckoned by the call of wraiths of frost and ice, and their presence only makes things worse.
They can be fought off with a partner or more- they’re much too strong to face alone- and for a time their defeat will abate the winds, but the howling blizzards return not long after. Working alone may cause a curse similar to last January to befall characters as well, where they slowly turn to ice unless saved by an act of true love (platonic or otherwise). The buddy system is the way to go!
(Mods will not be handling these fights, NPC the wraiths in battle as desired.)
All the while the wraiths call for a sacrifice. They do not elaborate on what they could possibly want, but “to stop this awful winter, sacrifices must be made”. Player characters must decide on their sacrifices and how they make them. The results will impact the end of the month with a small mini-event.

Please use the following form for plotting.

Character:
Canon:
CR:
Plans:
Not Seeking:
Anything Else:
Recent Posts or Toplevels:
Past Life Plotting Toplevel:
Meme:

Entry tags:

love meme

LOVE ME, LOVE ME, SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME

This year has sure been a year, hasn't it? So lets end the last week of December with some love. Comment with your name and characters below, and then tag out to lovemail everyone! (Memes count. Words are hard. We are tired.) And remember, we love you very much!

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: it crimmus, merry chrysler

OOC UPDATES

Short update, slow month, happy holidays if you celebrate!
Lavvy has joined the mod team as a list mod! Everyone give it up for your newest overlord Lavvy! Yay!
As a result, some things related to how our pages are maintained and look may be getting a slight overhaul. We will point at them all rapidly as they come because we love and appreciate this.
Wolfie will be taking a full (100%) mod hiatus in December because Wolfie is on fire. Any NPC requests through Wolfie’s NPCs will be handwaved for the month of December; ongoing investigations she ran in November will still be tagged/completed.
We have a page about corruption, draconic blessings and a placeholder for the magic system! Please give it a look if you haven’t already.
Casual reminder that November is a check-in month, aaaand so is December! Historically December always is, so enjoy your two free months. Regular AC will resume in January.

SETTING UPDATES

Winter’s bite is worsening, and the animals are beginning to grow scarce again. The lake and river aren’t frozen over completely yet, but if you remember last year… in any case, there will be blizzards throughout the month, and near the end of it, the cold grows bad enough to where even our native snowbirds might find the temperatures unforgiving.
Dark Cacao and his chosen companions have successfully hatched the seven dragons, and early to mid-month will be safe to move to the Grove.
With this, draconic blessings are fully available to the rest of the game as well (see the above linked page). Draconic blessings have no thread cost but you must speak to the hatchlings for it, and it must be threaded. The thread can be short, don’t worry. As a recap, the blessings are permanent and as follows:
- Strength: horns and scales visually, and increased durability.
- Balance: a tail, possibly prehensile.
- Flight: wings, capable of flight.
- Sight: dragon eyes (either straight up lizard or something akin to the unique eyes in Flight Rising, if you need ideas) with enhanced vision.
Those with keen eyes may note that there seem to be less Seaborn in the river. Weird!
There is a heavy feeling of something watching you from all angles, but it is hard to find the source.

PLOT UPDATES

The merchants- Ydalir especially- will be hosting a feast and something of a cultural exchange, including Ydalir just yoinking things out of her mirror from your world to eat and share. With a bit of magic, everyone can partake in whatever they’d like! Yes even you, Loop.
Everyone is invited and while it’s not enforced, you may make a tall shadow woman sad if you don’t stop by for a bite.
As the temperature drops, the guardians seem to grow drowsy. Callan will temporarily stop living in the lake as he finds the temperatures unforgiving, and will primarily be stationed in Siffrin’s fish tank. Sinann will still be active in the river, but will be seen less frequently. Moder will be active enough to conscript Wolfwood into being Saint Nick again, but otherwise will be sleeping. Aurora will transform into a tiny bird and slip in with the Church pigeons. Zahliya remains semi-active and will conduct his regular patrols, but will stay inside the Church rather than on top of it.
On the topic of a certain gargoyle guest, Zonari will largely sleep in the barn and not be seen much. She’s also hibernating.
We have a Christmas gifts thread below, so feel free to put what your character wants for Christmas down! Providing a brief list is fine; note that the mods will only pick one of these things. It can be an item from home that would cost 5 threads or under, so a medium item regain, or something from the usual BAC store for under 5 threads, or something you completely make up for fun (a niche book, a really cool rock, a plushie, idk your life). If physical items aren’t your character’s thing, we can work with that in some way; just write the idea down anyway.
- Note that we will tally up the gifts the day before the event goes live (Dec. 5th), so if you don’t put anything down, you will receive a handwaved generic gift instead of something personalized to your character.
- These will be delivered by Wolfwood yes Chi we’re conscripting him again (you asked for it).

Entry tags:

meme

FUCK NOVEMBER, HEARTS MEME TOO!!

no you don't get BAC for this one these aren't threads.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Copy/Paste the hearts you want to send someone.
The comment text appears twice in the code: once in all-caps and once normal. The all-caps is the screen reader version, the normal one is the one you edit to add flavor text.

"I would kiss you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/YQYVYj1/01-yellow-kiss-you.png" alt="I WOULD KISS YOU." width=15px> "I would kiss you." </span></raw-code>	"I would date you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/6PLHq51/02-orange-date-you.png" alt="I WOULD DATE YOU." width=15px> "I would date you." </span></raw-code>	"I would have sex with you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/D4sh7cM/03-lt-pink-sex-with-you.png" alt="I WOULD HAVE SEX WITH YOU." width=15px>"I would have sex with you."</span></raw-code>
"I would love you romantically." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/B48fMh1/04-red-love-you-romantically.png" alt="I WOULD LOVE YOU ROMANTICALLY." width=15px> "I would love you romantically." </span></raw-code>	"I would love you like family." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/s3RSKhT/05-med-purple-love-like-family.png" alt="I WOULD LOVE YOU LIKE FAMILY." width=15px> "I would love you like family." </span></raw-code>	"I would kill you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/FVL6rKv/06-black-kill-you.png" alt="I WOULD KILL YOU." width=15px> "I would kill you." </span></raw-code>
"I would physically/emotionally hurt you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Qr5ywSq/07-dk-grey-physicall-or-emotionally-hurt-you.png" alt="I WOULD PHYSICALLY/EMOTIONALLY HURT YOU." width=15px> "I would physically/emotionally hurt you." </span></raw-code>	"I would manipulate you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/87hDP39/08-lt-grey-manipulate-you.png" alt="I WOULD MANIPULATE YOU." width=15px> "I would manipulate you." </span></raw-code>	"I dislike you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Xp0kNqY/09-teal-dislike-you.png" alt="I DISLIKE YOU." width=15px> "I dislike you." </span></raw-code>
"I pity you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Xsj8qKk/10-dk-green-pity.png" alt="I PITY YOU." width=15px> "I pity you." </span></raw-code>	"I am indifferent towards you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/zXLLd0d/11-lt-green-indifferent.png" alt="I AM INDIFFERENT TOWARDS YOU." width=15px> "I am indifferent towards you." </span></raw-code>	"You scare/intimidate me." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Dzq9Cy8/12-dk-brown-you-scare-or-intimidate-me.png" alt="YOU SCARE/INTIMIDATE ME." width=15px> "You scare/intimidate me."</span> </raw-code>
"I am unsure about you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/5LD7qTy/13-med-blue-unsure.png" alt="I AM UNSURE ABOUT YOU." width=15px> "I am unsure about you." </span></raw-code>	"I enjoy trolling/making fun of you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/rpF18rb/14-lt-brown-enjoy-trolling.png" alt="I ENJOY TROLLING/MAKING FUN OF YOU." width=15px> "I enjoy trolling/making fun of you." </span></raw-code>	"I would like to get to know you better." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/D1mkX4M/15-dk-purple-get-to-know-you-better.png" alt="I WOULD LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER." width=15px> "I would like to get to know you better." </span></raw-code>
"I would spend time/have fun/be friends with you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/5kWckjc/16-lt-purple-spend-time-have-fun-be-friends.png" alt="I WOULD SPEND TIME/HAVE FUN/BE FRIENDS WITH YOU." width=15px> "I would spend time/have fun/be friends with you." </span></raw-code>	"I respect you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/FHBK7j2/17-lt-blue-respect.png" alt="I RESPECT YOU." width=15px> "I respect you." </span></raw-code>	"I hero worship you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/GTRPy2N/18-fuschia-hero-worship.png" alt="I HERO WORSHIP YOU." width=15px> "I hero worship you." </span></raw-code>
"I would rescue you/fight by your side." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/pPtxDkp/19-dk-blue-rescue-fight-by-your-side.png" alt="I WOULD RESCUE YOU/FIGHT BY YOUR SIDE." width=15px> "I would rescue you/fight by your side." </span></raw-code>	"I would protect you." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/9TkcRT9/20-dk-pink-protect-you.png" alt="I WOULD PROTECT YOU." width=15px> "I would protect you." </span></raw-code>	"I would hug you/hold your hand." <raw-code><span style="width: 200px!important;white-space:pre-line;text-align: center;display: inline-block; font-size: 8pt;padding: 5px;"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Y45YKz9/21-med-green-hug-hold-your-hand.png" alt="I WOULD HUG YOU/HOLD YOUR HAND." width=15px> "I would hug you/hold your hand." </span></raw-code>

Meme by

chriscodes.

Entry tags:

meme

FUCK NOVEMBER, TFLN TIME

you know what to do.

yes these are non-canon, this is just for fun. yes you can use these for bonus AC (not main AC), this is your meme credit™ for the month. these are kinda threads if you don't think about it.

they still have to be BAC length tho don't try to trick us.

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: Like Branches on a Tree

OOC UPDATES:

Hi, this section goes first this month (SURPRISE!) mostly for the flow of the post.
The bonus AC store was updated! The following new things are available:
- Ydalir now offers intermediate and major magic enchantments. If you want something enchanted and you’re not sure what “tier” it would be, feel free to ask us on the FAQ or the Discord Q&A. We realize these are kind of a vague way to shoehorn things into a category and our examples aren’t perfect.
- Since all of the Guardians have been assembled/acquired, they’re now offering blessings. These range from 5 to 20 threads total depending on how powerful they are. They’re meant to provide you with either a temporary or permanent boon, depending on the item in question. The effects are detailed on the bonus AC page proper, but the items are:
  - A bottle of Zahliya’s fire
  - A bottle of Sinann’s water
  - A magically enhanced antler from Moder
  - A… mystery organ :) from Callan
  - And a rainbow tailfeather from Aurora.
- After we see how people react to these new items, we will probably add more things in the future that are going to be cheaper. If anyone has something they super want, feel free to reach out to the mod team.
Wolfie will be taking a slight (not full) (but like 50%) mod hiatus during November to recover from burnout. This does not mean that Wolfie’s NPCs will be unavailable entirely, but this does mean that if contacted, responses will be much slower and/or the results of the thread will be handwaved. Unfortunately Wolfie’s brain is at war with Wolfie’s desire to be Doing. The general audience has already noticed this but now it’s ~official~.
- Wolfie’s NPCs for reference are: All 5 Guardians (Moder/Zahliya/Callan/Sinann/Aurora), Zonari, the Behemoth, Ydalir, Beiwe, Elsword (only for those who wind up in the Garden), & Renard when he's unlocked (untreed).
This is a bit in the future, but Wolfie has alluded to doing a monster transformation type of event and the note is being made now because we know having art/designs in place is important to people for these. So far the plans are just “it’s happening” and we don’t want to put any upper limits on what people can and can’t do, but if you’re designing something early: Make it fit in with the setting reasonably. That means no super mechanical designs (mechanics where limbs are missing or existing cybernetics are fine) — no computers for heads! Bonus points if flowers/plants are added, but this is not mandatory at all because it’s not a Corruption event.
- Also as a question for the audience: With an event like this, would you want it to be extended so people are a bit monster-y for longer than a month? Let the mods know, we’ve never done a super extended event so could be fun!
We slightly changed the plotting post template because at this point the old one is, well, old — almost 2 years! — and it’s time to change it to be more robust. Surprise! x2!

SETTING UPDATES:

So, speaking of those Guardians: Pure Vanilla & the other Guardians revived Aurora, the Sky Guardian. She is now available to contact freely on the NPCs page. With that comes a number of changes to the Grove itself:
- The aforementioned blessings become available (others may be added later if you guys decide you really like these).
- The native birds will often fly out and bring player characters mundane gifts (seeds, flowers, shiny things, a really cool stick, etc) as thanks for saving their patron deity.
- The barrier keeping people from flying more than 30 feet up has shattered and reformed higher up. The vertical height limit is now 100 feet from the Grove/150 feet when standing on the lower elevated beach off the cliffside. This does remove the… glitch? From Luca’s bar where the entire world stops rendering after you head 30 feet up and look out the window.
- The sun can occasionally be seen when the weather isn’t bad; it’s no longer almost constantly grey and overcast. One might even say the weather is “normal” and not “sad and depressing”.
Speaking of the weather, though: It’s Winter. It’s getting pretty cold. Throughout the month, small snowstorms will kick up, and this means that everyone’s flowers and vegetables will quit growing and die unless they’re in the greenhouse or otherwise indoors. Don’t worry, they’ll be back next spring, you don’t need to regain more seeds.
Normally, wintertime means that our friend the Black Sun/Forest/the antagonist guy goes into hibernation, and while that’s true this time, he has left one more small gift for everyone before he trundles off to go nap for 3 months.

PLOT UPDATES:

This month is a player plot! Everyone say “thanks Aspen” for the player plot!!
As the Black Sun goes to take his yearly nap, new pathways in the forest will open up, visible with or without the Golden Glasses and looking quite strange and inviting. Characters who walk into these pathways will be met with a dead end, where the fog wall will rush in behind them and trap them. A few hours later, they will emerge unscathed…
…but the characters themselves will be changed, mentally or physically or both. Other characters will still recognize you as “you” no matter what happens, and there’s the potential that other characters will not realise you’ve undergone changes and see you as “normal” (in the way they know you). You may look into the mirror and realise you’ve changed, or you may see nothing wrong and think you’re normal despite everything.
The Grove itself remains unchanged during this event, with only the characters themselves changing in minor to major ways. Memories themselves have been altered, too, with characters being led to believe that something different happened in their pasts. This can range from an early childhood memory being changed, to something within their time in the Grove being altered.
To quote Aspen’s provided example using Vash, some memory and therefore character alterations could be:
- Not following Nai into Tesla's chamber, thus preventing Nai from being able to access the system. The ship never crashed, and they all lived happily ever after.
- After finding his brother in his teens, the two banded together, with Vash believing that purging the world is a form of kindness and mercy for those that were trapped on No Man's Land. No one lived happily ever after.
- Vash decided to stay in the Grove after Wolfwood's death. He was never corrupted, and everyone lived happily ever after.
These AU memories will last for a month, and it can include multiple memories & physical traits being changed. This is your AU, have fun, go wild. The only thing off the table here is turning into another creature if your canon/CRAU doesn’t align with it — so for example, Ryslig CRAUs could be another monster and that would be fine, but Mizuki can’t turn into a Harpy and start flying. That said, if your physical change includes temporary, 1-month long false Corruption and that’s how you become a creature, that’s fine, just hide from Zahliya, he will not hesitate.
With all of that being said, if you re-enter the forest paths, you will come out with a different set of memories/physical changes. This is for all of you who are indecisive and want to play out several AUs, you know who you are.
Characters who are too smart to just walk into the forest may find themselves tempted by a voice calling to them, or see an illusion of someone else wandering in, etc etc. And of course, if this event is uninteresting to you, simply do not have your character walk into the woods and the AUing is avoidable.
Unrelated to the differing paths, we’re holding a lottery for a prophetic vision below as well! Beiwe and Ourania will contact whoever wins, asking them to tend to a newly re-emerged clutch of dragon eggs on the beach — the coming winter is to be harsh, and the eggs are no longer protected from the weather. This will begin the process of unlocking, well, baby dragons, and also draconic blessings aka dragon features.
It feels weird not ending this with the OOC section so OOC section 2: We love you guys, ok thanks.

sign up today to learn signed language from a bird man (part 2!)

hi stickbones,

I keep forgetting to remind people about this because whoops! Anyway, Gnosis, Acting Nerd And Labrat, has been offering sign language to people basically since he got here last year (since the Toge era for those who were here for that) aaaand then I forgot to make note of that for the new ppl/characters whoops. Anyway!

Older characters who have been here for several months can probably assume (if they want) that Gnosis has already taught them some basic Terran sign language. Newer characters are free to simply trundle on down to the lab and get lessons. This is mooostly for Mizuki's sake these days, but anyone else who might lose their voice later also reaps benefits so yaaaay!

Also if you have any languages to teach Gnosis in return he likes those ok thanks goodbye

+1 FIGHTER

stumbles in here, hello everyone!! my name is Zetsu and I'm bringing you a big ball of warm sunshine Isabeau from In Stars and Time. adding yet another to the pile... Isa here has got an incredibly good heart, often very loud and here to support you with a helping hand!! as an ex-defender he's all about aiding people and protecting those that need it.

you can find me over at

burners so feel free to add me! i'll be sliding into the discord server soon enough hehe. i'm looking forward to playing with you all!

Entry tags:

!plotting

OOC PLOTTING: IT'S US

Hi players, this post is going to be long because of how Involved™ this event is, please drink water as you read this. Thanks.

SETTING UPDATES:

Happy autumn! Pumpkins are growing out of the ground in completely random spots, and some out of your buildings/houses. Whoops. It’s fine, they won’t damage the buildings thaaaat much, and they can be harvested for pumpkin pie or a snack. Weirdly, some of them contain assorted candy instead of pumpkin guts. Don’t think about it too hard.
Flamebringer has set up a tattoo/piercing shop in the North Grove. That’s it, that’s the update, have fun getting inked by a guy with questionable morals.
Ezell has set up a bunny bakery as well this month. It's a bakery, but there are bunnies running around that you can pick up and love on. 10/10.
We are aware that the Guardians have been up to… many things since our last update, so we thought we’d consolidate recent updates, especially for the new folks:
- Moder is still Moder-ing. With the arrival of autumn, she no longer grows pretty mosses and flowers along her back. Instead, she is sporting a permanent blanket of orange and yellow leaves, but is still about 85% fleshy. She, notably, has started avoiding the barn…
- …because Zonari is sitting on top of it these days. Zonari will mostly continue to file her nails and watch you guys do things, and won’t actively interfere in things. You’re welcome to continue trying to domesticate her. Zonari is not a Guardian, she is The Creature/The Forest/The False God/Suri’s construct; the Zahliyaquest Recap has the whole explanation of her there.
- Zahliya, however, who is a Guardian and is legally her cousin who she calls “brother”, is Not Fucking Happy about her presence here, but he’s learnt to go along with what you guys say. He will be seen on the Church roof, peacocking and raising his wings in a threat display, especially if further monsters happen. (And they will! :) )
- Callan moves between the lake and Siffrin’s room, where he has a fishtank (his “mobile home” he calls it). He is otherwise completely unbothered by Zonari.
- Sinann is, as stated last month, larger and able to talk to people normally without the bone ring. It is happy to have conversation, but still has to keep to the relative region of the river.
- Aurora is still dead. She stirred a bit ago, but she has not yet come back to life. Having a name and Beat’s wish have helped her, though.
Sometimes, players may be lovingly accosted by a group of wandering, sentient skeletons holding trumpets and drums and other band kid instruments. The leader of them is, of course, Mr. Bone-Jangles, who has reappeared several times before (last October and April) and is trying his damn best to spread more joy around because you kids are depressed and he wishes for you to have joy.

PLOT UPDATES:

Unfortunately for Mr. Bonejangles, the depression continues! :) This month’s event is also completely experimental so please bear with us mods, we don’t usually do these.
This month’s event and therefore this month’s cease and desist letter in our inbox is based on a few IPs: Jordan Peele’s “Us”, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Phasmophobia. Mostly the first and last. There will be signups for certain aspects of this event, so please check out those comments if you want to be raffled in for some fun. Also if you haven’t seen “Us” and you want to, close this post and go watch it real quick and come back in 2 hours when you’re done, because there are going to be spoilers for the general ideas, surprise.
At the beginning of the month, your “Others” will appear. They look like you, they act like you, and they talk like you, and they are, as far as you’re aware, “just like you”. Except for the fact they want to murder you and take your place. For the month, characters will have to avoid getting murked by their Others, but the good news is, the Others can be killed! They’ll be difficult to kill off, like all things here are, but that’s a small boon. Your Others are perfectly content to kill others, too, provided they can get them somewhere alone, because their goal…
…is to replace you. Take your life, your identity, and be “you” for the rest of time. Characters who are killed and replaced by their Others will not immediately return to life. Though they won’t suffer death consequences in the Garden, they will temporarily go to A Secondary Location™: A creepy wooden mansion that mysteriously appears somewhere in the middle of the woods. Their spirits will be trapped here, haunting these halls until they’re rescued.
- Some characters will be automatically start the month doppelgangered. Aka, they were killed or captured (depending on player preference, since we don’t want to Force death on anyone) quietly in the night and brought to/woke up in the wooden mansion, unable to leave, where they will haunt the halls. The Others will take their place in the Grove and, preferably, act natural but “slightly off”. Perhaps they don’t remember someone’s birthday, or their relationship with someone, or a fact from the past. We are asking you to play what you think your character’s doppelganger would be!
  - This is based on signups and has an RNG component to it. We’re estimating 3-5 characters that start as their Others this month, but that depends on signups. We will contract the people who get selected to be doppelgangers privately, but please let us know your preferred contact method (and if you prefer Plurk & the mods aren’t on your plurklist, we recommend adding us at wolfchan & amity_rose ASAP).
  - You may sign up as many characters as you want, i.e. Aspen can sign up both Vash and Luca — but unless player engagement is super low for this, only ONE of your characters will be selected. This is so that the odds aren’t stacked against people who play one character. (We will RNG based on player, not character; characters will be RNG’ed afterwards if we land on a winner that has multiple signups.) Signups close Oct. 2nd, at which point we will RNG people.
- We want players who sign up for this to keep the fact that they’re doppelgangered or not secret from the rest of the players! We’d like this information to come out organically through your threads and be discovered ICly through hard work, investigations, or funny slip-ups.
- If you aren’t selected to start the month doppelgangered, you’re still free to be replaced later on in the month, but in the interest of not mucking up the mod-RNG’ed characters, please try to include the doppelganger mention in any toplevels/threads you write. This is our attempt on keeping it fair on all sides, we are welcome to feedback if anyone has a better idea.
As for the rescue, that’s where the second half of the event comes in. Players who sign up for our second round of signups and are not doppelgangers will get to go to the Spooky Mansion to rescue the spirits and return those characters from kidnapping/spirit jail. Of course, that’s easier said than done, considering your own Others might just follow you inside to try killing you off.
- This exploration will be partially mod-guided and will be done in a separate post about mid-month. Characters who are haunting the mansion will feel a burst of ghostly silliness toward the living — you could try to kill them even though they’re here to rescue you, or you could try to jumpscare them, or maybe just throw canned soup at their heads. Other “NPC” spirits filled in by the mod team might be either silly or hostile.
- We encourage toplevelling and tagging on that new post. We want our ghosts to tag our living and vice versa. And, to reiterate: Unless you are our beginning-of-month doppelganger victims OR you decide to doppelganger yourself before we get the post up, your slot in the rescue is guaranteed.
The rescue will take place over the course of… five nights. :) Please laugh.
Spirits will be rescued by finding The Thing Keeping Them Tethered There. More details will be provided on the secondary event log.
This event is very involved and we’re aware of that, so a recap of the “rules” will be posted in a comment below to avoid scrolling. This is our first time trying something like this and we hope it’s fun. If you guys hate it though please let us know, we can handle it.

OOC UPDATES:

This is our last TDM of the year! November and December will not be TDMs, so the next will be in January. In November, we will be running a player plot, and December will be relatively calm to account for the holidays.
The TDM portion is the first log; the rescue log is NOT a TDM and is locked to only active characters/players.
Yes, Wolfie (hi this is Wolfie) is aware that the map is still a mess, please just refer to the Locations page for now and ignore the map until I can get it fixed. I am so sorry.
Any questions/feedback/complaints/suggestions/egg-throwing can be directed to the mods as always!

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.