there'll be oats in the water

[singmod]

JULY 2024 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — THE AURORA: REDUX: A storm finally arrives, and with it — Enola extends her hand to help the Interlopers once more, granting them new abilities.

PROMPT TWO — PENSIVE LOOKOUT: With the Forest Talker efforts focused on sabotaging hunting efforts, Interlopers can attempt to explore the Pensive Lookout Tower, where they can uncover secrets from the diary of Sam Bouchard — the former firewatch worker of the summer of 2014.

PROMPT THREE — A PEEK INSIDE: A group of Interlopers get their hands on one of the Forest Talkers in search of answers — and get a little more than they bargained for.

THE AURORA: REDUX

WHEN: Mid-month, for three days.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural/extreme weather; lightning storms; potentially disturbing dreams; dreams of being trapped in ice; dreams of animal death; dreams of the death of loved ones.


July brings warmer weather. The fog has lifted, and the daylight returned — but an odd kind of pressure lingers in the air, the kind that feels similar with oncoming storms but something still feels off about it all. Measurements and readings are erratic, with them often making little sense. It’s hard to predict just what might be coming, but sure enough something is coming.

Hold on a little longer, Enola told you. A storm is coming.

It comes quickly, the gathering of storm clouds. At first, it looks as if a kind of snowstorm is moving in, but there’s something else at play here. Within the grey, cloudy skies, there is a tell-tale sound of an Aurora mixed within those clouds.

And with it, in amongst the dark, the swirling colours. Greens, pinks and purples weaving through the clouds, almost mesmerising to watch. The air is alive with sound: static noise, cracks and pops: a storm and the Aurora mixed into one. For those who’ve been here long enough, it’s a worrying, unnerving sight. The storm rumbles with the low roar of distant thunder, growing ever closer. The electronics of the world begin to come alive, and in the static of it all — you begin to hear Enola’s voice even clearer than before.

After so much darkness, now there is so much light. A lightning storm — aurora colours mingling with the grey clouds, punctured with crackles of lightning. Something powerful and strange — flash forking across the skies, followed by booms of thunder.

The storm lasts three days, and even though her voice is soft — you hear it over all the noise, nestled gently in your ear.

“You're still here. It means something. This isn’t the end, I refuse to let it be the end. It can’t win. You won’t go into the Dark.” Enola tells you. ”I will make you more than what you are, more than what was stolen from you. This place will not be your end. I have to try. We have to try. Together. I showed some of you, once. I’ll show you again.”

She tells you to sleep. For some, they recognise this and realise what may end up happening. For others it feels like going out on a limb. But you sleep, and perhaps a dream may come to you.

COLD FUSION: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream of a great hall of ice: as if it had been carved into some great ridge of it. You walk through it, marvelling at the beauty of it — a blue gloom, echoing with each of your footsteps. But as you take one particular step, the ground cracks and collapses beneath you, sending you into dark, frozen waters. In seconds, the water freezes around you, encompassing you in thick ice, your entire body trapped within it. The coldness burns you, and you are stuck there — frozen in agony. The pain is immeasurable, your entire body crushed and searing from the ice. There is no escape, no reprieve.

A voice speaks to you, perhaps it is the voice of a stranger, perhaps it is the voice of someone you know: Do you know how you survive the cold?’ They ask you. You do not know, and you wait for the answer: ‘You become colder than it.

Your eyes close. You believe those words, you do. You must become colder than the cold itself. And so you will. Your breathing slows, your heart slows and the cold… it stops hurting, it doesn’t burn. The ice around you begins the crack.

When you awaken the first thing you realise is despite the temperature, you are completely cosy and warmed. You do not feel the slightest chill. It is perhaps only once you are around other than you truly notice the difference to you — you are cold to the touch, lacking the heat you once had. An understanding comes: you are at one with the cold, it will not beat you, it will not cause you agony. Winter is at peace within you: perfect Cold Fusion.

MOON TOUCHED: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape. You dream of running through the silent woods at night. The moon is full above you, the air is calm and still. Hunger draws you forward, everything is so sharp and vivid in your senses, even in this dreamscape. You hear the crispness of the snow beneath your feet, smell the scent of the pines on the air, feel how warm you are against the coldness around you.

The snuffling of a rabbit catches your attention, and you swiftly leap after it, jaws opening and closing around its neck as you capture it. You bite down hard, feeling the crunch of its bones as they break, the sweet coppery taste of blood filling your mouth and nose. You lift your head towards the stars, blood on your tongue. You realise you are not a person at all, but a beast on all fours: a wolf, content and filling your belly with meat.

You wonder, for a brief moment: were you ever a person at all?

You do not know the answer to the question. You do not seem to worry about such a thing but there’s a flash of warning on the air. Something you cannot quite place, but you know that you should not forget it.

When you awaken, you feel… different, somehow. Everything seems a little sharper, as if the world around you had been dull, or behind some pane of frosted glass. With it comes a strange balance of calmness and chaos, tameness and wildness, fear and bravery. You find yourself looking for the moon in the skies and when you finally find it, it hits you — this is what it means to be Moon Touched.

INTERLOPER’S SACRIFICE: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape and then fade into nothing. You dream of kneeling in a darkened, charred wood. You are not alone. In this dreamscape, you dream of a loss, or a time you have never felt more helpless in your life. Perhaps it is when someone you knew died before you, or you stood as someone was sick and injured and you were unable to do a thing. As you kneel, they are there with you: sick or dying or even dead in your arms. You cannot do anything but hold them, and the helplessness is overwhelming.

You look up and a woman in furs stands before you, her expression solemn. Enola herself. There are tears in her eyes, as if she shares the very pain you do: the loss, the grief, the hopelessness, the powerlessness. She approaches you and lowers herself to kneel in front of you and your companion, bracing your shoulders for a long, lingering moment. There are no words, none from neither of you.

Enola shifts slightly, leans forwards. She kisses your forehead, much like when a parent kisses their child: sweet and tender.

And then you feel it, as if you are set alight: an agonising pain that encompasses you whole — so painful you cannot even open your mouth to scream. You feel yourself growing weak, the corners of your vision blurring into black. It feels as if you might die from the pain, and you want for it to stop but it doesn’t.

Enola pulls away and you gasp, slumping in exhaustion, but still alive, somehow. You stare at her, sweating and clamouring for breath, and she offers you a sad smile. Never again. you feel the words inside of you. This time, it will be different. Better.

When you awaken, you can still feel the kiss upon your forehead — enough to make your fingers reach up to touch it, your entire body tingling a little. A small voice in the back of your mind whispers, reminding you as you find yourself looking down at your hands: never again. Never again, you tell yourself and the comprehension comes to you: you have chosen. This is what it means to be: this is your sacrifice. The Interloper’s Sacrifice.

NOTHING: The colours of the Aurora dance around you in your dreamscape, but only for a moment. The edges of your vision begin the blur with black, slowly closing in until everything goes dark and you fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. You awaken, and although you feel rested, as if the dreamless darkness has helped you feel a little more ready to take on the day — nothing else about you has changed.

PENSIVE LOOKOUT

WHEN: The month of July.
WHERE: Pensive Lookout Tower, Lakeside.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of survival; possible fall injuries/treacherous climbs; themes of terror; themes of diminished sanity; themes of starvation.

The Old Hunting Lodge is located in the southern-most area of Lakeside, and its surrounding area is generally considered no-go territory with the presence of the Forest Talkers. As June turned into July, the Forest Talker’s presence in the wilds of Lakeside has begun to grow again — but their efforts appear to be focused on sabotaging the efforts of Interlopers, Methuselah and Young Bill in hunting fresh game. If anything, it could mean that with attentions drawn away — perhaps the braver sorts of the Interlopers can explore the area a little more fully.

There’s little in terms of buildings of interest in this area. The wilderness is thick and deep here. Perhaps the odd ransacked cabin once belonging to a local may be stumbled across — its contents picked clean, presumably by the Forest Talkers. Many of these buildings will be completely inhabitable due to the damage done — with some cabins being razed to the ground.

However, on higher ground, with a good hike to access it, stands a watch tower.

These lookout towers could mean a number of things: a chance to access supplies that may have otherwise been forgotten about due to the hike to get up there, a better view of the surrounding area, and the possibility of a radio — given the sign of a radio transmitter that can be found blinking a feeble red on Aurora nights.

With the snow on the ground it’s a little more treacherous, but given the circumstances, anything’s worth a shot, right? Those who attempt the hike may fall foul to slips and trips along the steep slow to reach the tower, and should take care in the ascent. Even with the warmth of July, it’s difficult. One might hope this might make the place a decent outpost, if you think about it. Somewhere hard to reach, and with such a vantage point.

Reaching the tower and climbing it to its interior will it largely intact but a mess. Someone has lived here for some time. Interlopers will find no food here, but some useful tools that belonged to the lookout: binoculars, maps, a compass, an alidade. There is even a radio sat upon a desk, and with it — a journal.

The journal, Interlopers will find, belonged to a man named Sam Bouchard — the firewatcher for the season during the previous year, detailing the months of his arrival and ending in November last year. It is unknown what happened to Sam, but his journal will perhaps offer some insight and even some information.

A PEEK INSIDE

WHEN: The month of July.
WHERE: The Gas Station, Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of kidnapping; imprisonment; self-starvation; blood/minor injuries; psychological torment, supernatural abilities.

The Forest Talkers have a long history in the Northern Territories, long before Interlopers started arriving in Milton. Champions of nature, they have sought to put an end to the industries and tourism-related expansions in the Lakeside area, first peacefully and then… not-so-peacefully. But with the events known as the ‘The Flare’ last year, Forest Talkers have been… acting peculiarly, disturbingly, aggressively.

There are plenty of questions to be asked. But the Forest Talkers are difficult to communicate with. Previous attempts have ended up in aggression or being ignored entirely. And now, even with the events of the previous month coming to an end — game remains difficult to find, and Forest Talkers are keen on sabotaging any attempts of hunting made by Interlopers, Young Bill or Methuselah. And more importantly: what is the yawning grave?

It starts as mutterings between tired and disgruntled Interlopers. They need answers, and there’s got to be a way in trying to get some. They’re hungry and exhausted and so many of their numbers are now dead. Those mutterings grow, and soon enough a plan is put into place. A small group of Interlopers embark into Lakeside and wait.

Soon enough, it bears fruit. A man is captured, bound and blindfolded — quietly and secretly brought back to Milton to be held up in the unused Gas Station to be questioned. It is not the leader, but surely one of them is better than no one at all. He is injured, but not enough to kill him. It will prove challenging in trying to get answers out of him, but soon enough the Interlopers will get him to talk.

News of the Forest Talker in their midst will inevitably spread, as most things do in small communities. Secrets are hard to guard. It won’t be just those behind the kidnapping who might end up coming across the man being held in the Gas Station.

Anyone who goes to investigate will find the man sat on the floor in quiet contemplation. Attempts of conversation will be met with long, silent stares — holding your gaze for an uncomfortably long time. He will spurn any gestures of kindness: spit on the floor at Interloper’s feet, refuse any food offered — as if the man has chosen to starve himself in protest. He says nothing, at first.

But after some time, he will look into an Interloper’s eyes and utter something. A word. A phrase. It may be a name, or a place. It may be a specific thing an Interloper has read, or been spoken to by someone. Something that holds meaning to the Interloper. It may be the name of a loved one from home, or the last words ever spoken to you by a friend. Something the man shouldn’t know.

Whatever it is that he speaks to you, it is not something that will fill you with hope or fondness to remember — but quite the opposite. A reminder of something painful, of a loss, or some other thing that caused you misery. As if he had reached right inside your mind and plucked some painful part of your past from you and spoken it to the wind.

The Forest Talker smiles, and will say nothing else. The damage has already been done.

FAQs

THE AURORA: REDUX

1. The next three Aurora Feats are unlocked! Please see the following page for more information.

2. Aurora Feats are completely optional.

3. Interlopers will only receive ONE Aurora Feat. The only time this is available is this month. After July, players will have to wait for the next Feat round for another chance at an Aurora Feat.

4. This Aurora/storm will last a full three days, darkening the skies almost to night.

PENSIVE LOOKOUT

1. Interlopers who dwell in the lookout for the next Aurora will find the radio works, albeit poorly. They will be able to pick up the same broken morse code message.

2. There are no signs of blood/injury that befell Sam in the lookout. It appears he made good on what he wrote on in his journal and attempted to leave to get to Silverpoint.

A PEEK INSIDE

1. While only a small number was involved in the kidnapping itself, anyone can discover the fact there's a Forest Talker being held in Milton.

2. In terms of appearance, the Forest Talker is very much your typical average white guy. Bearded, weathered by the cold, someone who's lived several years without much in the way of comforts or luxuries.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

[bigbaddy]

God, of course this dumb situation had to get even worse. Clearly no one learned from what happened last month or from the town meeting at all, huh. Don't they know that this is the kind of shit you first talk over with everyone, and then do it? Did they really imagine no one in town was going to figure out that Forest Talker was here when it's right in the gas station?

Bigby forces himself to suck in a deep breath and slowly exhale, if not just to keep his rage over this dumb issue at bay. He doesn't want to find himself taking it out on Randvi. She doesn't deserve it. Hell - she's worked up enough herself as-is.

"How did he read your thoughts?" He instead asks, trying to focus on the facts at hand. First he needs to get all the information before acting. "Was he able to tell what you were thinking in the moment? Tell me what happened when you saw him."

[meadqueen]

Randvi is worked up, and Bigby should be too!

“I was searching to see if there was any preserved food remaining there that we had missed, and I saw him restrained in the main area. He wouldn't speak to me at all, spat at my feet… but when I started to walk away, he began quoting a letter I received several years ago from my sister. Word for word!”

How else could he have known that?

[bigbaddy]

...

"Do you have that letter here?"

Bigby frowns. It's clear that this is concerning news to him too - or at least something he has to think about for a bit - but he's also trying to figure out the general shape of this. Trying to see if it is some sort of power, and if so, what exactly its nature is. There's so many options still on the table while he has only the little information he's getting from her now.

"Or is that still somewhere back home?"

[meadqueen]

“No.” Randvi shakes her head. “I destroyed it before I left Norway.”

She had been afraid that Sigurd might see it.

“Even if I did, it was not addressed to me by name, and he could not have known who I am regardless.”

[bigbaddy]

Great, so it's not even just ordinary snooping. That'd also suck, knowing that the other group managed to learn so much about them, even down to very specific intimate things like Randvi's letter, but it'd be.. relatively manageable compared to the implications of this, Bigby thinks.

"So he was reading your mind."

That's got to be it, right? Seems like the most logical answer as to what is going on here to a guy like Bigby, who is entirely used to supernatural things happening. If the letter isn't here, and if it's in fact destroyed, it only exists in Randvi's mind. That guy must have pulled it out of there.

"That's annoying as all hell." To put it mildly, but-- look, he's still processing this. And the fact there's a Forest Talker here in town at all, which sucks even worse. He's trying to deal with one realization at a time.

[meadqueen]

“I think he must have been.” How else could he have known? “Some of our people have a power that lets them share their thoughts. These people may have the opposite.”

It would make sense, wouldn't it? Why should they be the only ones affected by the aurora?

[bigbaddy]

"Sure is great to know that they also have powers to fuck with us, aside from just having the ability to shoot us up," Bigby responds, dryly.

But he knows better than to linger on that in front of Randvi. She might just start panicking all over again. So he keeps his whining to himself for now, instead inhaling as he forces himself to think.

"Alright, so they have powers like us-- But then why the hell did this one get here? Who in town would even get such a fucking terrible idea into their head?" And, maybe more importantly.. what is Bigby going to do about it when he finds out who did this?

[meadqueen]

“Is it truly a surprise? Why should the radio woman be the only one to grant powers?” This is a very strange world indeed.

“That boy Damian wanted to kidnap some of them, but I'm not certain he’d do it alone after we had voted it down. Others as well, the elder Levi, that new young man with the hair…” she means Senku, “Lestat, Francis’s companion and one other that I recall.” The last one is no longer present and thus unlikely to be the culprit. “Would any of them do this? Why are we voting if this happens anyway?”

They can't protect themselves, Bigby! No one is safe!

[bigbaddy]

Give him a moment to think, Randvi. Bigby is pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes for a moment as he goes through all of those people in his head.

"I can't say I know all of them personally." Most of them he's only talked to in passing, in fact. Maybe that says something about them, Bigby thinks, since there are plenty of people in town he talks to plenty. It could be that list just happens to be the people who are less social, or-- "It could be that they don't consider themselves part of the community."

Considering his talk with Damian? He'd believe that when it comes to him. Maybe some of the others too, though he's spoken to them less.

"That's the entire problem here, Randvi. If those people don't see themselves as part of our group, then they're gonna think they can do whatever they want and not think of the consequences it's going to have for the rest of them." Don't worry - Bigby seems pretty annoyed about it too as he says it. This is why they put effort into community building back home, as a group of otherworldly people in the middle of a large city. It's too easy for things to escalate without it.

[meadqueen]

Randvi makes a little irritated sound, like a cat that's been awoken against its will. "I know! Where I am from, the Jarl's word is law. No one in Ravensthorpe would act this way."

... well, Dag might, but he's excessively ambitious and no one would imitate him. He could not get away with those things if he hadn't been childhood friends with Sigurd.

[bigbaddy]

"Well, we don't exactly have anyone's word being law here."

Though they were kind of hoping for democracy, right. Isn't that why they voted in the first place? To show that they all want to work together towards a solution, rather than allow random individuals to pull shit like this.

And yet it's happened anyway. Maybe he should have seen that coming.

"But we can't change that either. God knows some people here hate me for what I am back home, and I haven't even assumed a similar position of authority here." Bigby can only imagine the kind of shitshow that would be summoned into existence the moment he'd even try to make a decision for everyone or make some sort of order. He really doesn't feel like dealing with that, even though it'd sure be easier if some people here listened to him..

[meadqueen]

It really is too bad that she has to be so against killing other interlopers in this place, otherwise Randvi is certain that she could easily take over by herself.

“Do you truly think that we can go on this way?”

[bigbaddy]

Bigby sighs.

It's likely enough of an answer even without him adding 'yes' or 'no' to that. Especially when there's such clear fatigue in his sigh in the first place.

"What's the alternative?"

That's the entire problem, isn't it? It doesn't matter whether or not they can go on like this when it might just be the only option they have in the first place.

[meadqueen]

“I don't know.” It's frightening, but it's frustrating too. “If we had a way to enforce group decisions things might be more manageable.”

Unfortunately, it's not likely that everyone would agree on methods for something like that.

[bigbaddy]

"The only thing we got for that is a sense of community."

Because enforcement sure seems to be a term that some people in this place are highly allergic to. Which would be manageable when it's only one person, but Bigby has met a handful of people like that. Too many to really do anything about. Trying to enforce things the way he had to back home seems like it'd only cause more trouble here.

"That's all we can do, Randvi. Make sure that everyone here understands we're part of a community, and that the well-being of that community affects their own well-being." Even if that's more easily said than done.

But surely people must understand that kidnapping fucking Forest Talkers is going to bring them trouble even as a person, right. How did they not get that was a bad idea!!

[meadqueen]

“Bringing one of them here - keeping him here - affects everyone’s well-being and we might never have known about it until they attacked us!” If she hadn't stumbled upon him would they have ever found out?

“What can we do, Bigby? We cannot let him go.”

[bigbaddy]

There's so much they have to do, he realizes. Dealing with the Forest Talker is priority number one, but even when they've got that out of the way, Bigby has to know who in town even did this in the first place. This isn't the sort of thing they can let people get away with, or everyone is going to think they can pull this shit, but-- well, that just makes them end right back up at the idea of punishment and the impossibility of it, huh.

What a fucking headache.

"Letting him go is a shitty option, but it might be the best one." Sorry, Randvi. As usually, his mind is somewhere else entirely compared to your own.. "I don't like the idea of it either, but do you realize what happens if we kill him? That will start war, Randvi."

And he knows she doesn't want that either. Not while they're in this state. They're no army, they don't have fortifications for that sort of thing.

[meadqueen]

“This is an act of war! In all things with these people, we have struck first! How much farther can we push them before they decide they need to drive us out?” Where can they even go if they're invaded? There are people here who can’t fight!

“What he knows about me is petty, but what could he know about others? About what we have here? That man could destroy us. He may already have done it.”

[bigbaddy]

"Alright, Randvi, then how about you think of a solution, huh?"

He is raising his voice a little. It's not his usual outright anger, since he likes Randvi too much, but he is getting a little agitated too here, this situation getting the better of him. Especially when it's the umpteenth thing he's dealing with in a row.

"We kill the guy, then what? You really think that's not gonna make shit worse? What are you going to do when they come storming this place?"

[meadqueen]

“I don't know!” Sorry Bigby, there are some big feelings happening. “I say I am a leader, but I'm not: I'm an advisor and I don't know what to do.”

There's a reason she had been looking for help. Also as she recalls it she had suggested a solution that would have prevented this and no one liked it.

“Killing him is risky, but so is letting him go, and he cannot stay here. We should not be in this position!”

randvi CANNOT let the mines thing go!!!!

[bigbaddy]

Well, he can agree with that last point, even if it doesn't solve jack shit. It's true, they shouldn't be in this position - but they are now, so they have to deal with it.

"Look, I'll go talk to some of the people in town with level heads about this." He can already think of some. Randvi is also one of them, but.. well, maybe a little less level headed than most of the others he's imagining, especially given her reaction right now. "I'll see what they say, then I'll work out some solution. It's probably better if you don't think too much of it right now. You look like you're about to give yourself an aneurysm."

He means that in the most loving way possible, okay.

.. even though it's Bigby, so it's still said in a gruff tone.

"Let me handle it. You trust me, yeah?"

she will NEVER let it go!!! One day you will all see!!!

[meadqueen]

Randvi has no idea what an aneurysm is, but she can guess what he means. She does feel like she's about to faint, heart and mind racing.

“I do trust you, Bigby. Thank you.”

[bigbaddy]

She isn't looking too great, it's true. So while Bigby is kind of happy with her answer, rather than her protesting more, he does do something he doesn't do all that often with most people - make physical contact. He reaches out, briefly clasping her shoulder with his hand, giving it a small yet reassuring squeeze.

"I'll see what I can do to fix it." Likely not much, but he's going to try, dammit. He always has to at least try. "You take care of yourself in the meantime."

[meadqueen]

In her current mindset the comforting weight of Bigby’s hand reminds Randvi of her father’s. Somehow her heart aches and calms at the same time.

“I’ll try. I feel as if something terrible will happen.”

[bigbaddy]

"I know."

There's something in that tone, in the tired breathing at its edges, that indicates he really gets it. When Bigby says it like that, it kind of sounds like he's got the entire world balancing on his back. (And honestly? Sometimes it feels like it.)

"Go spend some time with someone you care about." Just so Randvi won't be stuck alone with her spiraling thoughts - both for her own sake, since it sucks to deal with those - and for the sake of the community. You know, so she won't do something impulsive on her own.