Stanifly

Adventure is Out There!: An Amazing Digital Circus RP

IT LIVES! I shall endeavour to get off the fence in regards to picking an OC or CC. decisions, decisions...

@silver21 btw it might be good to put the char sheet template in one of the beginning posts in the ooc tab as well! ppl usually look for it there. you can hider it if you don't want it chunking up the info post.

here's my pitch for an adventure: overcooked, but the ingredients are also trying to eat you :P

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

OYUNA

Somewhere on the ocean bottom, there slept a village known to its residents as Gabung. They were a people who had built homes out of the graveyard of fish, coral and mud the seas had left behind. They had lived simply, milling around the odd god relic sticking out of the ground with odd symbols and odd lights. Then came a day where the sun grew up, and the winds grew strong, and a bunch of seeds got blown into their waste pile, and they feasted on the rot so they could also grow up and put the entire village to sleep.

I did not say that the sun grew up, said the rock. Don’t be rude about gods. Do you want them to ruin you?

‘I am already ruined by the actions of a god, so I don’t think it matters.’ With a heavy sigh, Oyuna, who was already squatting to listen to this rock, shifted to sit cross-legged by her tablets. ‘Thank you for telling me, Obstinacy.’

It is Patron of Obstinacy, huffed the rock with no lungs to huff with. What are you doing?

‘If I am to rot away in slumber until I die, then I will spend my final days completing my life’s work.’ Oyuna traced the stiff grooves in the soft clay, painstakingly etched with the pointed, spiral shells that littered the sea floor. ‘I refuse to let this all be for nothing. I refuse.’

The sun shone brightly. The distant murmur of people at work and play continued. It was unfair how nothing seemed out of place in this dream world.

It does not have to be.

‘I do not wish to make a pact with you either. Do you think I have not heard the stories? Deals with your kind rarely have a happy ending.’

And is a happy ending what you want? Will you be satisfied with the live you lived, never knowing of what could have been? Ignorant of the truth that you failed to understand? Her tablets vanished, replaced by the towering golem that haunted her even in her dreams. Oyuna’s protest died in her throat as the inscriptions on its surface lit up with an otherworldly light. You are a persistent mortal who slaved away most of your life for a goal that no one around you believed in.

‘You do not have to gloat.’

I speak only truth. I told you of what has befallen your tribe and you thought not of your loved ones, or your life, but of the golem which has yielded nothing to you in spite of your efforts. You have spirit, Oyuna Erdene, and I do not think you will throw this chance away for a reason as unimaginative as fear.

The golem’s light shone all the while. So close, and yet still out of reach. The rock did not say anymore. The Patron must have known that it did not need to. Oyuna placed a hand on the surface of the golem.

‘What would you have me do?’

~

Somewhere on the ocean bottom, a woman roused from a deep slumber. She moved slowly, carefully, as she stretched her limbs. Rolled her neck. Rubbed her eyes. She found herself taken by a fervent hunger, so the first thing she did was fetch herself some water and scrounge for any food that hadn’t gone bad in the days past. The sun, the real sun, shone merrily overhead.

First, I would help you wake.

The second thing she did was find the mushrooms.

Just as the Patron had said, they were clustered all over the community refuse pile, bright spots of gold carpeting the rotting rubbish they grew on. Spores, waves of dust-like dots, drifted off them in waves.

Setting fire to the pile had never felt so satifying.

Once you have recovered your form, you may wake your fellow mortals.

Then she went around the tribe grounds and began shaking everyone awake. Her parents, her brother, her aunts and uncles, and everyone else. They awoke weak, with stiff joints and ravenous hunger, but they awoke still and that was what was important. A fear that the woman hadn’t known melted away from her heart, replaced by a great relief. They had lost time, but that was a far sight better than losing lives.

Slowly, but surely, the tribe recovered. Picked themselves up off the ground and continued to mill about their lives. The woman who had awoken them, however, introduced something new to the tribe. Those strange, silly markings that they had known her to obsess over actually held meaning! There were lines to indicate the things they spoke of, to remind themselves of matters that needed remembering. There were other smaller lines too, to cover the more complicated sounds they made. It was a concept the elders struggled with, but the younger ones picked it up with enthusiasm, picking out shells with long, narrow spires to keep instead of burn. Some broke off the stem of thin reeds that insisted on growing out of the muddy, moist ground. They shaped clay into firmer, blocky shapes, set the tips of their shells or stems to soft clay.

And they wrote.

Continue your work. Witness where it leads you.

The woman, weeks later, found herself seated before her prized tablets, the ones that had much of the golem’s inscriptions copied onto their surface. She brushed loose sand off their surface. Pressed her fingers against etched stone.

Next to her, a rock rose through the ground, pushing through mud and dirt.

‘That’s all?’
That is all.

The tablets were still incomprehensible to her. Script – because that was what they were called – with loops, and hard angles, and swerves, and strokes that spelled nothing but gibberish. The script that Gabung had picked up had borrowed select symbols from the golem’s script, but it was simply how her tribe had interpreted these symbols, not a true understanding of what they really were.

‘So you are real,’ said Oyuna.

And you are stubborn.

It was jarring to receive Obstinacy’s thoughts here, outside of the Dreamscape. No longer did they echo in the surroundings. They felt more like impressions pressed against her head; feelings more than words.

You should have accepted my offer. You will not find Patrons who handle their mortals so gently as I.

Gabung had signs now. Words that they inscribed into the walls of their homes. Names. Oyuna felt a little swell of pride whenever she saw them. She had started this. She had figured it out. Had it not been for that sole compromise, the Gabung tribe might have wasted away in their slumber by now.

Still, obstinacy is why I sought you out. I cannot condemn you for indulging in my domain. It is right as it is frustrating.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Oyuna. ‘There are still plenty of opportunities for you to convince me into becoming your thrall. Between the Great Drain and the Frigid Eclipse, I am sure the gods are far from finished with bumbling around our land.’

Amusement wafted off Obstinacy.

How right you are, child.

In the outskirts of the tribe grounds, in slow and steady movements, sand shifted.

---

---

ᦓ꠸᥅ꪀꪖ

Somewhere within the Dreamscape, Sirna... did not sneeze, for they had neither nose nor face to do so, but they did experience a brief surge of water splashing out of their waterfall.

Hm. Must be the weather.

~

ACTION LOG

OYUNA:
• The Patron of Obstinacy attempts to convince Oyuna to enter a pact with it: it would break her out of her lullaby shroom-induced slumber and she would be basically eternally obligated to do whatever it wants her to do (leaving out any mention of eternally, of course). Oyuna is not convinced.

• Oyuna manages to wake herself up by realising that she doesn't have to understand the golem to discover something new; she can just cobble together something understandable from its inscriptions instead! The epiphany is enough to wake her up. She removes the shrooms, wakes everyone else up, and introduces script writing.

• The Gabung [ɢabuŋ] tribe now has a writing system.
• The eclipse happens. The Gabung tribe has since been very interested in the moon(s).

• SIRNA: Sirna has the abstract godly version of a sneeze. Someone out there must be thinking strongly about them.

Conviction Balance: 7

Image reference for Gabung script

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

aww thank you :) he truly does stretch my "okay what would I NOT do in this situation?" mental muscles. just characterisation things 😌🌸

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@DaftJive ty he's def fun to write even if his pretentious pointy butt gives me secondhand embarrassment sometimes LOL

I'm gonna have to think on it... it'd be an interesting way to break into his Catharsis

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

.......... should I turn Vicis into a human as part of his Catharsis 🤔🤔 take that drama queen down a peg or two

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Vicis’ Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@DaftJive

With a jab of his mandibles, Vicis tossed up his remaining cut of cherub cheek and swallowed it whole.

‘Silas,’ he said, with a good deal more sibilance than the name required. ‘Well, go on, then.’

He raised himself to his full height, blinking down at the human.

‘I discovered this lovely establishment on my way to a dinner that, against all odds, pales in comparison to the cuisine served here. Damien here rose from the depths of Hell to sample their beverages.’ He tilted his head. ‘And you? What led you to this merry little circle of monsters?’

━━━━━━ ◈ ━━━━━━

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@DaftJive

In This Catharsis

• Pretty much all of Vicis' power moves become moot since he's perceived by Silas as just a human LOL. Blinking his vertical eye slits is seen as normal blinking, tossing back his entire cut of meat is seen as... swallowing the whole thing somehow?
• Since Silas seems quite empathetic (being able to pick up on Sirpa etc), I'll leave it up to @DaftJive what he perceives to be human or not. I'm A-okay with anything happening.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

@BaronOBeefDip damn hopefully the doc can do smtg if it does persist. joint pain's never a fun experience. also, a belated congrats on the new addition to the fam!

Just popping in to see how everyone is doing.

doing okay, I think! savouring my last breath of freedom before the semester starts really laying into me 😔😔😔 but I will fight for my life to keep on replying here. Teresa can't run from her problems forever >:) muahahah

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Teresa’s Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@JJ Doe

Jay took her hand.

The amount of relief the simple action sent through Teresa was, maybe, a little silly. That did nothing to stop her from offering Jay a small smile, before she turned and led her back to the circle of chairs.

She let Jay go once they were near enough, and Sirpa tried again with her question. And perhaps that would be alright, if it weren’t for the floating silver globe floating in the middle of the circle of chairs. Teresa, once she’d caught sight of it, couldn’t bring herself to look away.

It was small. Would probably fit snug into her palm if she took hold of it. It was still, too, with a surface so unmoving it seemed like metal. It didn’t reflect anything, though. It didn’t shine at all. In fact, the longer she looked at it, its colour seemed more a dull grey than real silver.

It did not speak. It did not move. And for all the nothing it was doing, Teresa did not think it was just an object.

It was alive, and waiting.

Teresa forcefully returned her attention to the people who needed her now.

━━━━━━ ◈ ━━━━━━

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@JJ Doe

In This Catharsis

• The globe of silver is not visible to anyone else. 😊

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Vicis’ Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@DaftJive

Vicis blew out a huff. How typical of humans to assume that names were optional for the likes of them!

‘“Do we have names,” he asks. Of course we have names!’ His mandibles click. ‘I am Vicis.’

Not that he deserved to know it! It was only in an effort to maintain the cheer of his good meal that Vicis refrained from leaning down and swallowing the human whole. Instead, he turned his attention back to his meal as Damien presumably introduced himself next. That light creature would likely be displeased if he caused a scene.

...He never did get its name, did he? He should ask the next time it came by. Perhaps it would enlighten him on how it had managed to build a place like this, where humans and elder wyrms sat next to each other in the same booth without slaughtering each other. Vicis reached down to flick his tongue through peppercorn cream – and then paused.

They were sitting in a booth, now. Perfectly sized boulders taller than him stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a slanted arc around them. The seats were carved out of more stone, cushioned by a thick layer of soft moss.

His memory was excellent. So it was clear to him what had happened: they had been sitting at the bar moments ago, and now they were sitting in a booth they did not choose. Damien’s drink was still in his possession; his own meal was on the round granite table before them.

The light could have simply asked if it had wanted them elsewhere. Perhaps Vicis wouldn’t bother getting to know it, after all.

━━━━━━ ◈ ━━━━━━

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@DaftJive

In This Catharsis

• As Vicis lowers his head to continue his meal, Silas perceives a man lifting his spoon instead.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Vicis’ Catharsis

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@spiral origin@DaftJive

Ah! So Damien was capable of magic too. Although, Vicis had expected infernal magic to have more fanfare accompanying it. Perhaps it would for less mundane purposes.

Now, Vicis was hardly religious – some might argue that his very existence was blasphemy – but still, he was aware of a few religious concepts. Like cherubim! Those small, plump, winged infants that the humans seemed so insistent on painting. It was hard to believe that they were beings of angelic power. And so, it wasn’t until Damien mentioned them that Vicis connected one concept with another.

Well. That made these cheeks all the more delicious.

‘Hm. Not quite. There aren’t many fine dining options for us creatures.’ Vicis chittered. ‘I daresay the humans would grow nervous if we bothered to coordinate enough to arrange a picnic.’

He was of a mind to question Damien further about the cherubim. Were angelic beings a common sight down in the pits of Hell? Did baphomets have access to Heaven? It seemed strange to think about angels and demons together without the context of mortal creatures in the picture. What did they even do, wondered Vicis, when they weren’t busy guiding mortal souls?

It was a line of questioning that he would have to pursue later, it seemed. The light had returned with a human in tow. How positively adorable.

‘Not at all,’ replied Vicis, smoothly. ‘It isn’t every day I get to engage in cordiality with a human.’

As the words left him, the sounds flickered and changed before they reached the human. Vicis heard exactly what he said; the human heard something a little different.

━━━━━━ ◈ ━━━━━━

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@DaftJive

In This Catharsis

• Silas hears this from Vicis instead: ‘It isn’t every day I get to engage in cordiality with someone new.’
• Damien hears Vicis' words as they are.