dec event overflow.

[crescentviewmods]

prologue

You awake to find yourself in a bed that creaks with your every movement, motes of dust flitting about the sparsely lit room. Whether you wake alone or with another by your side, you exit the worn-down building to find yourself on an old, abandoned farm. It isn’t long before a familiar voice lilts in your ears, carried to you on the breeze—

“Hurry over to the town square. Chop chop!”

Whether you go willingly or find your feet inexplicably compelled to trudge into town makes no difference. Once you arrive, you find yourself surrounded by a small ocean of new faces— some confused, some angered, and others quite chipper. At the center of the crowd is a bright-eyed woman with an otherworldly allure, her white hair tied up neatly in a bun, pamphlets and assorted papers tucked in her grasp.

“Welcome to Crescentview, farmers!”

Spreading her arms out wide — as much as she can without her papers blowing away — she eagerly regales the crowd with some fun facts about the island and the town while also reminding everyone of one very important fact:

“Remember, you’ve been brought here to tend the earth, fall in love, and begin your new lives together. You’re not leaving until you do. It will be quite the experience for you, I’m sure.”

Complain, grouse, or rejoice if you like, but don’t expect the Goddess to budge. Oh, right, there’s that too: she, the Harvest Goddess, is the one presiding over this land. Don’t get on my bad side, she gently warns as she stuffs pamphlets into the hands of Crescentview’s aspiring farmers.

spring breeze

While you’re here, you may as well check out the pamphlet the Goddess insistently pressed into your hands. Within it, you’ll find a handy infographic on each of your neighbors detailing their likes, dislikes, and... ideal dates? Even the Goddess’ profile is there. How invasive! Each farmer’s picture is hand-drawn by crayon into simple stick figures with the only difference being how the hair looks on top of their heads… if it can be called hair with the mess of crayons, that is. Every single stick figure is smiling. In front of each personalized pamphlet, there’s a stick figure on the cover with the same style as the photo. It’s definitely yours with how the hair color seamlessly matches yours. For the ones who have multicolor hair, you might notice the goddess seems a little more huffy with you.

The pamphlet also includes a map of Crescentview and lists the services available in town. There aren’t many on this small, remote island. Learning how to fend for yourself seems like the best course of action. Finally, a hand-printed bingo card has been made up for each new island resident. The Goddess must have spent quite a bit of time making these...

The Goddess gives her new questionably loyal followers a chance to mingle and mix before speaking up with another announcement. A small group of haggard-looking fairies appear at her feet, and clapping her hands, a notice board springs into existence. When the fairies fail to react, she gives one a nudge with her foot, prompting them all to burst into the world’s smallest round of applause. It’s a little... pathetic.

“Ta-da! Behold: the task board. Every season, I’ll give you new tasks to complete, and in exchange, you’ll be richly blessed by me, the Harvest Goddess. Spring is the season of new beginnings, so let’s take a look at what we’ve got cooking, hm?”

task board

The task board is located in Town Square and changes from season to season. In real time, a season is one month long. The following tasks are available from December 1st to January 1st and more tasks may be added mid-month.

Certain rewards are only available through event participation, so please keep this in mind when planning your threads. Multiple tasks may be completed within a single thread, but when turning in, please link to the individual tags in which each task was completed.

Finally, rewards are per character, not per farm, so those with housemates may want to coordinate with one another with regard to what animals you’re bringing home to your farm.

1. Greet your neighbors. For every person you meet, you will be given a random bag of spring seeds. Potato, cabbage, turnip, strawberry, and cucumber seeds are available at this time. Alternatively, random mushroom spores are also available. These include morel, matsutake, and common white mushroom spores. This task can be completed a total of 10 times for rewards. Please specify how much of each you would like when submitting your threads, i.e. “I’d like 5 random spring seed bags and 5 random mushroom bags, please!”

2. Exchange names. Start learning some names and faces: you’ll be seeing a lot of these folks! For each name you learn, you’ll earn a random bag of spring flower seeds. Daffodil, tulip, forget-me-not, primrose, and hyacinth are available this season. This task can be completed a total of 10 times for rewards, and yes, you can cheat the system and introduce yourself to someone you already know, but the Goddess won’t like it.

3. Check out your new farm. Take a look around and settle in! After a bit of wandering, you’ll notice a small cat or dog following you around and looking up at you with them big ol’ eyes. Looks like it wants to stay with you, but will you adopt it? This task can be completed once.

4. Till your field and begin planting. Find the beat up farming tools in your beat up house and begin beating your farmland into submission. Plant some seeds and be rewarded by the Goddess with a single chicken or rabbit to keep in your coop. This task can be completed once.

5. Visit another farm. Pay one of your neighbors a visit to receive a stationary set blessed by the Goddess herself. There are no cell phones or Internet on the island, so get used to sending all your “LOL”s and “XDDDD”s by hand. This task can be completed once.

6. Make a new friend. Isn’t friendship wonderful? For each person you proclaim to be your friend, you will receive two random gacha items. This task can be completed 3 times.

7. Pray to the Goddess. Whether you do so grudgingly or willingly doesn’t matter much to her so long as you’re doing it! Clasp your hands together and bow your head or throw an offering into her pond— she’ll hear you either way. Praying to the Goddess will net you a barn animal of your choosing: a cow, sheep, alpaca, or goat. This task may be completed once.

Caution: throwing certain items into her pond may have consequences. Choose your offerings wisely.

mod notes

⬥ Welcome to the game's opening and our first event!
⬥ A second event post will go up in mid-Dec.
⬥ Please plot over at the Dec Plotting Post.
⬥ As a reminder, please keep all plotting on the OOC post as not everyone has Discord or Plurk.
⬥ Please submit your completed tasks at the top-level below.
⬥ Have fun!

navigation

Comments

[associative]

[ Oh, wow, that sure is a fluffy dog! Gaku doesn't think he's ever seen one quite like that, and it reminds him a bit of the... rabbit... at Takanashi Productions.

He should probably stop the dog with poor Ellis running after it like that, but all he can do is stand there and laugh.

Sorry not sorry. ]

[framestory]

[ Kinako should be offended

Ellis doesn't notice Gaku is here until he gets close enough to the entrance of the field of where Gaku is currently standing. He freezes in place for a second but then the samoyed comes circling back, tackling Ellis to the ground, wagging its tail all the while. Ellis lands face first into the dirt. Ow... ]

[associative]

[ He bites back a laugh when Ellis gets tackled to the ground, thankfully.

Walking over, Gaku holds out a hand to the dog for it to sniff before reaching down to help Ellis up. When his face is in view, he finally asks: ]

You okay?

[framestory]

[ The dog circles Gaku once still with the stretch hogan in its mouth. Play with him!! Ellis stands with Gaku's help, and sighs, brushing the dirt off his face.

He's not sure what to say... ]

[associative]

[ If there's a smudge on his cheek, Gaku licks his thumb before wiping it away. Once it's gone, he motions for the Samoyed to give him the toy so he can throw it. ]

[framestory]

[ Wow, Gaku. What is this. Ellis almost jerks back, but he just stays in place. The samoyed just drops the toy obediently at Gaku's feet. Throw it for him. He's waiting. ]

[associative]

[ Gaku bends down to pick up the toy, throwing it far across the field. ]

That’ll give your dog a chance to burn off some of that energy.

[framestory]

[ His dog? Ellis just looks at Gaku with an awkward smile. It felt like he's been chasing the dog for hours and it still isn't tired yet. Ellis is exhausted.

The cherry blossoms from nearby sakura trees fall and blow with the wind... ]

[associative]

[ Oh. Gaku has seen a few of the petals blowing in the wind today, but he hasn’t seen so many at once. He reaches up to catch a small handful of petals, holding out his hand so Ellis can look at them. ]

Pretty, right?

[framestory]

[ The slight breeze has riddled Ellis's hair full of cherry blossoms but he doesn't notice. Instead, he looks over at the amount on Gaku's hand and nods.

The dog returns with the stretch hogan toy and spits it out near Gaku's feet. The lone sheep in the distance is judging. ]

[associative]

[ Gaku tilts his palm down so the petals tumble off of his hand and to the ground. He picks up the toy and throws it just as far again.

…He needs to go back to the gym soon, though. This is going to stretch his arm in a bad way.

But he doesn’t think on it for long, instead choosing to reach out and pluck one of the blossoms from Ellis’ hair. ]

They’re all over you.

[ He’s actually smiling this time, so it’s not hard to tell what he’s thinking. Or maybe it is. ]

[framestory]

[ There's a small tinge of pink on Ellis's face when Gaku reaches out to pluck a cherry blossom from his hair. This is embarrassing, but there's some sort of intimacy behind this action that he can't ignore.

But now that Ellis finally caught his breath and that his face isn't full of dirt, he gets out his notepad. He's writing his usual communication, but once he seems to "notice" what he's writing, he scribbles it out rather vehemently, making a dent in the notepad with how hard Ellis presses his pen into the paper.

That was just a one off. That's fine. He tries again, but it happens again.

What the hell. He's getting visibly frustrated. ]

[associative]

[ He can see just how hard Ellis is pressing into the paper just from the way the pen moves, even though he can’t see what’s being written. When it happens again, though, he frowns.

What’s Ellis so frustrated over? Gaku puts a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to get his attention. ]

Hey. What is it?

[framestory]

[ Ellis almost jumps out of his skin when Gaku puts a hand on his shoulder as if he got caught doing something he shouldn't be doing. He even jerks the notepad towards himself as if to say that Gaku can't look. Ellis just shakes his head and resumes trying-- ]

[associative]

[ He’ll let Ellis try a couple more times, but if he keeps getting frustrated, Gaku attempts to take the notepad out of his hands. ]

What’s going on?

[ He doesn’t make an attempt to read what Ellis wrote, but he does glance down at it… ]

[framestory]

[ The current and past several pages are rather unnerving. There are so many messages that are furiously scratched out with so much ink. It's a simple sentence, but so much of it is gone with intense black scribbles laid over them.

But the current page has one of the lines clearly visible, with only two lines stricken through it because Ellis clearly wasn't done blotching it out of existence: ]

I'm not a real person.

[ Ellis tries to take the notepad back. ]

[associative]

[ Gaku stares down at the scratched out text, brows furrowed as he tries to make sense of what little he can read. His confusion means Ellis can easily take the notepad back, however, and Gaku turns his gaze back to him. ]

What is that about?

[framestory]

[ Ellis just shakes his head. Whatever color that was on his face drained completely and he takes a step back. He's about to turn around to make a run for it, but Gaku is free to stop him. ]

[associative]

[ He sure is being stopped! Gaku isn’t letting Ellis run away this time, not when he gave him a few days to himself before.

So, Gaku grabs onto his wrist, his grip solid but not right enough to really hurt. ]

[framestory]

[ He tries tugging his wrist away, but he's not strong at all. Ellis eventually gives up, but doesn't press on the topic. It's very clear that he doesn't want to talk about it.

He wonders if he's being punished by the goddess, with how he kept being compelled to write his biggest secret. His mind is racing as he tries to continuously look for an escape route, but Gaku's hold on him is solid. Thanks for nothing, aggressive survival instincts. ]

[associative]

[ Keeping a hold on his wrist, Gaku steps in front of Ellis and bends down so that Ellis can see his face. ]

Whatever that means, you’re a real person to me. I’m holding onto you, aren’t I?

[ That’s physical evidence in his mind. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis wishes he could calm down and just calmly write out a reply to Gaku after glancing down at his hand. However, bitterness wells up inside him--if only it was that easy. He was already full of bitterness before, but for once, he wants to express it in front of someone else. He knows that's a bad idea and the logical part restrains himself.

With a hung head, he just collapses onto the ground as he sits on his legs with his wrist still in Gaku's hold. He doesn't want to look up. ]

[associative]

…

[ He’s not sure what he can do. Ellis clearly doesn’t seem to be in the right space to write out a reply or anything of that sort. Hm.

It’s easier to have someone by your side in these moments, isn’t it? That’s what Gaku thinks, so he plops himself down right next to Ellis, tugging on his wrist so that he’s leaning against his shoulder. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis is surprised by how Gaku tugs on his wrist so that he can lean against Gaku's shoulder. It feels surreal, having someone who knows his secret, but probably not understanding it. He doesn't like this feeling, but Gaku is warm and that provides some comfort to what feels like being stuck in the void. Surely, if he can feel scared, there are other things he can genuinely feel too. The notepad and pen are on the floor, held out open to one of the intensely scribbled out pages. The dog is playing with the sheep in the distance. The cherry blossoms continue to blow in the wind as if it'll thinly veil them from everything else in the world for a moment.

Really, the only thing that's saving Ellis from a complete breakdown was how firm Gaku seemed to be when he said that he was real. ]

[associative]

[ Gaku eventually lets go of his wrist in favor of putting an arm around him instead. He really doesn’t understand what’s going on or what that statement fully means, even as his eyes wander to the opened pages of the notebook.

There’s a lot he wants to ask, but he knows that he probably shouldn’t. This probably goes much deeper than Gaku’s own understanding about magic—which was none before he got here.

So, he figures he’ll let Ellis stay like this as long as he wants, or until the dog comes back. ]