crescentview | dec event.

dec event.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How is this a break? We're meant to work the land here. Work I am to understand is strenuous and also work I'm not trained in.
[They basically are in a labor camp as he sees it!!!]

Even if I were to try and view it as pleasant, I hardly have earned any sort of relief as you suggest.

Neither am I, but there could be enjoyment in learning something new. Creating and growing something with your own hands as a result of your hardwork—isn't that rewarding in its own way?

[ there's also the bit where they're helping the harvest goddess out but van zieks is still in denial about that!!!! so let's just focus on what's more tangible. ]

And I don't believe that. I think that there must have been something.

[Uta trying to get van Zieks to start up singing What Else Can I Do or something.]

That-
[And then his rational brain catches up.]

It's a very complicated situation I neither care to nor should burden you with. I've already said too much. It's... I suppose because you... remind me of someone.
[Someone who he wishes he could speak freely with. Iris's smiling face, now familiar in an echoed sense, is fresh in his mind, but for how long? What if he never speaks to her again? What if he never earns the right to tell her everything he wants to say?]

[ she'll make a musical out of this, don't test me. ]

I understand, but you don't have to worry about burdening me. If I've asked then that means I'm ready to carry that weight. Having someone else there makes it easier, right?

[ once again i, naru, am looking into the middle distance... however uta doesn't want to push van zieks any further about it since it does seem to be a fresh-ish wound. or, well, something that might take a while to come to terms with. so let's try something different. ]

Would tell me about the person I remind you of, at least?

[Van Zieks giving real "seven foot frame, rats along his back when he calls your name it all fades to black" energy. He looks away, frowning, for a long minute. It's not his policy to share... well, anything, about himself. The Reaper is a powerful and unpopular figure, many people would seize on any weakness. But... He isn't the Reaper here. He isn't a prominent figure at all. Maybe having someone else to share with would help. Maybe? He can't get into the whole sordid story. But her compromise...]

My... my niece, Iris.
[He hesitates to say it, secret as it is, but it doesn't matter here. And maybe knowing that, a small part of him really wanted to say it. Even if only once. For the first time, really.]

She styles her hair much like yours, and is far too mature for her age, trying to support others as if she's not the one who should be supported. Though with how capable she is and how... inconsistent her guardian is, I can hardly blame her.

[ yeah, so what? uta has had experience dealing with people who give off that energy and, honestly, people who cross her father the wrong way might have to deal with a worse kind of energy. not that it matters here since she's just going to patiently wait to see if she'll get an answer from him or not, and when she gets one she'll be pleasantly surprised.

especially considering that he equates her to a member of his family. her hair loops will rise at the mentioning of similar hairstyle because, good taste. ]

Inconsistent guardian?

[ since uta couldn't fit into the box of being "too mature for her age" due to the circumstances of her upbringing. though this is a point that she's curious to see where it goes. ]

As in they are not around very often or is it something else?

[ hopefully this will be something pleasant to talk about? maybe?? ]

[The spectre of Herlock Sholmes passes across van Zieks's mental landscape.]

... Something else. Suffice it to say that calling him eccentric would be an understatement.
[Pinching his brow as if just this much reference to the man is giving him a headache.]

[ rest in pieces. uta has 0 idea about his struggles. ]

I don't think I really understand.

[ she doesn't even know what van zieks is suffering about. you okay? ]

Was he around for your niece or was he absent from her life?

... [He tries to work out how to say this judiciously but then decides he doesn't care.]

He was around. He's just something of a recreational madman, if you ask me. I have no doubt her brilliance is in part due to his influence but I also imagine her self sufficiency is due to his lack of influence as well.

[ hm. did not expect to walk into the realm of daddy problems and uta is going to be objective about it. (as much as she can be.) ]

...but he is around to take care of her. [ her voice trails for a moment before she brightens up. ] Is it wrong for her to want to be self-sufficient to want to take care of her father? It would be something I'd want to do.

Doing what I could to make him happy.

[ sweats. ]

[STOP DON'T CALL IT DADDY PROBLEMS THAT IMPLIES SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. Van Zieks sighs.]

Don't mistake me. I am... grateful for the work he did to raise her. I only recently learned of my relation to her, due to my own failings to resolve matters in a timely fashion.

But that does not change the fact that I personally find him a maddening individual for all he does to complicate and undermine the work of Scotland Yard.

[ DON'T MAKE IT WEIRD?? also don't tell me uta doesn't have daddy issues?? which is fine that they don't talk about it anymore because a lightbulb goes off in her head when van zieks mentions scotland yard again. ]

I see; so work for the Scotland Yard as well.

[ work and personal life interfering with one another?? ]

If you're unhappy with how he's been then there's an easy way to resolve that, you know.

[I WON'T BUT VAN ZIEKS DEFINITELY DOESNT!!!!]

Oh? And pray tell what you think this easy resolution might be?

[ SHE'S KNOW GONNA SAY IT OUTLOUD. that opens a can of worms she is not going to get into with anyone. ]

Spend more time with the both of them. If you don't like what he's doing or not doing then you can be there to teach her otherwise.

[ duh? ]

[He scoffs.]

I hardly see how that's an easy resolution.
[You want him to socialize for a protracted period of time???]

That aside, my issue is not with how she is being raised, she is a perfectly exemplary young woman. My issue is- Well I suppose it is twofold. I do wish to spend more time with her, now that I have been made aware of our relation; however, as I have said I find her guardian intolerable. Additionally, I am also currently not able to disclose the nature of our relationship to her.

[ yeah?? that's exactly what she thinks he should do??

also wow van zieks why must you make things purposefully complicated for no good reason? and just as she was going to mention that, he brings up how he can't disclose their relationship and... huh? ]

Aside from the obvious of us being here—why can't you tell her that you're her uncle?

[He's quiet for a long moment, but what does it matter here? Iris is not here, London society is not here, there is no threat to her reputation. What does it matter? Well, aside from his own reluctance to say the words out loud, to acknowledge the truth he did truly know, but hated for all that it meant.]

Because then she would have to live with the fact that her birth father is a murderer.
[That's what Klint was now, after all. A Murderer.]

[ i see uta has walked right into some van zieks lore which has the awful side effect of triggering some nasty things inside of her that are fresh. stuff that she doesn't want mixed in with the information he shared.

...but it's hard to keep the two separate. so, after a moment for her own consideration of words, she'll ask van zieks very honestly. ]

Do you think it will be better for her to not know that?

[ ... ]

Hiding a secret like that from her... It might be painful later in life, or maybe, it might not matter to her. For me, family are the people that take care of you and love you.

[ and come to your side even after you have done Some Things but that's certainly neither here or there. ]

[van Zieks practically flinches at this, and it's clear from his almost wounded reaction that this is something that has in fact been deeply weighing on him.]

I do not want to nor plan on keeping it from her forever. But she.... She is only ten years old. And she is perfectly happy with the man she currently calls father. [Even if he is, as van Zieks as said, Maddening.]

She has invited me to share in her life, and I will do so. But I would... I would allow her at least a few more years of childhood before broaching such a complex subject. Learning this about my brother, even I am not certain whether I would prefer to have remained in the dark.

[ tragically uta is somewhat lost in her own thoughts with how there are bits and pieces that hit too close to home to be entirely aware of van ziek's reaction. ]

Ten year olds are very aware of the things around them—much more than what adults think. If she has decided who her father is then I doubt it would change.

[ those words uta says with conviction because she knows that for a fact. her father would and always be the man who raised her from when she was just a baby. she was grateful for the man who cared for her for the past twelve years, but he was not her father. ]

And then maybe the two of you can work through that together. The crime that your brother committed and what her father did—maybe she'll surprise you with a way to look at it.

[Part of him is glad for what she says. Yes, no matter what he tells her, Iris will be happy because her father is Sholmes. But another, perhaps smaller part, hates that idea, because even though he's still angry with Klint, for all that happened and all that wasn't said, Iris is his daughter. She's their family, and she was taken from them. From him.

For her own safety. For the best possible outcome. He knows that. But still. Even if he does things now he can't get back what was lost.]

... Perhaps. But ultimately the decision is not solely up to me.
[After all. Her current father gets a say.]

[ despite van zieks' gloom and doom attitude towards it, uta will move beyond her own hang-ups involving this thing or the other and truly focus on van zieks. with her understanding of the situation, it seems like a self-made problem with no trust that things could work in his favor.

clearly there must be a reason for it, but she imagines that some encouragement could both be effective and go a long way with him. ]

I have a feeling that it would not be a negative result. Fathers want the best for their daughters, don't they? [ now whether they succeed or not is another matter entirely. ] Plus you did mention how she invited you into her life.

I don't see how it would be anything but favorable.

...
[He's just like, gee it would be nice to be able to think of it like that, but well. Human brains are wacky. Objectively, he's sure Uta is right. But he can't stop imagining Iris's angry and upset face upon learning the truth, upon learning it was kept from her.

She surely wouldn't push him away, having invited him into her life when she thought he was a stranger, but... but what if? It's only natural to avoid the Reaper.]

You may be right. However, there's nothing to be done about it here.

here caitie

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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idc if this only goes for a few more comments...