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

Hardly one to mince words, I take it? [ Not that he minds the silence. ] Tell me when you need a breather!

[ Or else they'll be at this all day... anyways, here goes! What follows is a solid hour of this monotony: Childe stabbing the ground until he hits pay dirt, then lifting the shovel to give Ellis ample room to grab the clams from their hidey-holes. Over and over again, repeatedly, really driving home the utter ridiculousness of his request. There's also a large bucket nearby— battered, missing a handle— for him to deposit them in, if he so chooses.

Either way, it won't even be half-full before Childe's shovel breaks on him, leaving him holding only the shaft. So nice of it to grant Ellis some reprieve from sand hell... ]

... Ahaha— seems that's it for today! [ Like he didn't just decimate part of the beach... ] Doing okay down there?

[ The thing about Ellis is that he's pretty fragile. He's skinny, barely any muscle, gets bruises easily, etc. But his hobby is exploration, so he has decent stamina. desipte that, he barely manages to keep up with Childe's pace towards the end until the shovel breaks. When he finally lifts his head to see Childe's face and his surroundings, he feels even more exhausted--so much of the beach has holes now. He sighs and slumps back, weakly smiling at Childe. He did it!! He nods, but it's pretty clear that he's tired. ]

[ WHOOPS ]

Oh, hey, I got you! [ He'll go ahead and wait for Ellis to catch his breath before extending his hand out to him. No pressure. Take it or leave it, he'll still be fairly concerned. ] I must've lost track of the time. Are you sure you're alright?

[ In fact, Childe's not particularly winded, even if he's sweating quite a bit, courtesy of being out on the beach for hours (sunburn may come for him yet). But he's also kind of a maniac, so that tracks. ]

[ Ellis takes Childe's hand without hesitation and musters the strength to stand. He nods again to the question and brushes the sand off his clothes... or at least the stuff he can get off anyway. He finds a stick nearby and picks it up to write (neatly) on the sand around the holes: ]

You're so strong.

[ He even draws a sparkle at the end of the sentence. ]

Edited 2022-12-06 22:46 (UTC)

[ Oh, no! Now his heart feels full... unlike this hole-y beach... ]

High praise! You flatter me. [ Before picking up the mess (both halves of the shovel, the bucket), Childe scrawls another sparkle next to the first one. Look, two sparkles! ✨ One for them both. ] I was just as impressed by you.

[ Really, it's not everyday he meets someone willing to go the distance. Pointing to the nearby bar: ]

Allow me to treat you. It's only proper, right? Anyone who can smile after a workout like that is someone I'd like to call a friend.

[ It's okay if they lack the funds for proper sustenance, they can haggle with clams. Childe knows his way around a conversation, besides. ]

[ Good thing Childe does, because Ellis doesn't have the confidence in negotiation. It's fine though, since Ellis realized that he doesn't have to pay for anything at the grocery store as long as he doesn't go overboard with it.

While the bar option is nice, he feels like he needs a shower. There's sand all over his clothes and there's only so much brushing it off with his equally dirty hands can do. He nods to the bar idea, but also gestures at his own dirty clothes.

He holds up three fingers and a fist. Meet at the bar in 30 minutes? ]

You... ? [ And then it clicks! ] Ah, I can see why that'd be an issue. [ As if it slipped his mind... but he's gonna go ahead and nod a couple times, just for emphasis. ] Alright, I'll meet you there.

[ Catch you on the flip-side, stranger! Come thirty or so minutes later, Childe can be found at the bar. He still smells vaguely oceanic, but he's no longer some sand-encrusted wreck. The bucket's no longer with him, either. Seems he was able to strike a deal with the bartender? Anyways, he's here, just glancing over the menu all by his lonesome. ]

[ Ellis does his best to get cleaned quickly back home and runs over to the bar. He's out of breath by the time he gets there, but tries to make it seem like he didn't run so hard. It's fine, it's fine. After spotting Childe, Ellis goes to sit next to him and waves cheerfully.

Hm.

He smells like the ocean... ]

[ He's also waving back? A very amicable wave, at that! ]

Hey! Glad you could make it. [ As if this is a reunion several months in the making and not, like, thirty minutes ago? Okay then. ] Pick whatever you'd like. I'll pay for it. Oh, but... we haven't exchanged names yet, have we?

[ Better now than later! ]

Childe. I'm also known as Tartaglia. [ Pulling out his pamphlet, now: ] By any chance, are you on here as well? Can you point yourself out?

[ Oh! He remembers now, since he thought it was weird to see someone named "Childe" when he was going through the pamphlets earlier. Thanks to Childe, Ellis doesn't have to pull out his own pamphlet like he usually does and flips several pages until it gets to his own. He points to the terribly drawn stick figure with a blank head and a smile because the goddess doesn't know how to draw white hair. He's just "Ellis". ]

Ellis it is! I hope I said that right. [ No wonder he couldn't tell who it was, this stick figure is bald? ] Your smile's even better in person.

[ Might be a good idea to encourage the goddess to improve her doodles some. ]

So, what're you feeling? I was thinking of... [ A slight pause as he flips the menu open to some strange, eclectic-sounding dish. ] ... getting this, personally.

[ Childe's the adventurous sort. The weirder the dish, the better. ]

[ He nods, though he can only tell by how he reads his lips. But wait. His smile is complimented on? His face turns a bit pink with a grin. Honestly, Ellis is also a pretty adventurous sort when it comes to these sorts of things, so he also opens the menu to a random page to select his meal for the day. ]

[ Give it a few minutes and out their orders come. Childe ordered some very fishy platter, and he's already cutting into it with utensils, although he hasn't yet relented to take a bite. ]

Why don't we learn a little bit more each other? [ More sawing and sawing with this cutlery. Neat, precise movements, like he's intimately familiar with the best way to hold a knife. ] I was working at a bank until pretty recently. Debt collection.

[ That's a very, very generous way to describe Mora exhortation from those in Liyue who failed to pay off their loans. ]

But I quit a while ago, and I've been traveling around since. I was due to take a ship home in a few days, but... then I wound up here, of all places. [ Despite the inconvenience, he's still as amicable as ever. ] How about you?

[ Ellis gets a sandwich--a fried oyster sandwich. He's never had any opinions on oysters before, but he munches anyway while looking at Childe say all his stuff. He gets out his notepad and starts writing after Childe finishes talking--his handwriting is really neat. ]

I was just a student in a school, studying accounting. There's not really anything interesting about me.

[ Well. At least that he wants to divulge to a person he just met today. ]

Do you have any funny stories to share?

For someone who kept up with me all day, you're awfully quick to downplay yourself.

[ Pondering the matter, Childe finishes off his next bite of cod. ]

Let's see... I was associates with someone who was fooled into believing "cocogoats" were real. You know, for coconut milk. [ Without further context, it's probably not that hilarious. ] He's also listed in the pamphlet. Mr. Zhongli. Feel free to ask him about it sometime.

[ It's fine. The Traveler and Paimon were just as duped by the ramblings of a small child, it was clearly a collaborative effort. ]

... Surely you have some stories of your own to share, though. I'm all ears.

[ Or all eyes, as it were. He'll watch that notebook very intently. ]

[ Cocogoats... goats that produce coconut milk? Perhaps they exist in other places, but that sounds fascinating to Ellis for a second until Childe says that Ellis should have stories of his own.

But he'll keep the cocogoats in mind when he speaks to Zhongli next time. ]

Keeping up with you doesn't really mean that I need to have an exciting life, right? Even my power is boring.

[ Cocogoats, the legendary adeptibeasts, aren't real, Ellis. The five solid minutes Childe spent laughing about it were, though. ]

So you have been holding out on me. [ This is the biggest understatement of the year. Any reminder of the Traveler— no Vision, but so much potential— is killing all of the subtlety in him. ] Power isn't what I'd call boring. Whatever it is, it's still yours.

[ And he's dying with curiosity to know what it could be. ]

[ Hm. Well. Childe seems like a perfectly safe person to tell him about his powers. He plans to make it public eventually anyway. ]

I can stabilize things to what I think is the standard. If I stabilize an angry person, they'll turn calm, but not like a dead sort of calm. If something is hot, I can turn it to room temperature. Things like that.

[ Ask him if he's a bad guy, Ellis. ]

That's neat. [ Admiration's shining in him. If it's true— and he'd rather believe, given the precedent already set thus far in his life— then it's quite a handy ability. ] What would it do to flowing water? Freeze it in place?

[ Just wait for it. ]

[ No way that Childe is a bad guy. No way. :)

Ellis thinks about it a little and then shakes his head. ]

It's like stabilizing a status of something? If the river is cold, I can make it lukewarm. Freezing it in place would require temperature control of the ice variety.

[ Imagine Childe was actually a good guy with noble intentions. Spine-chilling stuff. ]

Oh, so you can't stop it in place? I wonder... [ Childe flicks his hand and a palm-sized fish comes pops out of thin air to encircle Ellis, swimming in slow and steady circles. It kind of looks like this, albeit it isn't in Childe's mouth. ] ... would your power work on this little guy?

[ Very impromptu of him. Enjoy the complete absence of any explanation on his end, by the way. ]

[ That depends on what he wants to stabilize, but Ellis honestly hasn't had much experience with this power. He thinks the little water whale looks cool though.

After poking it and all, Ellis hovers his hand near it. There's no glow or anything, but now Childe's mini whale's temperature is room temperature. No more cold.

It seems like a rather mundane power, but it could probably be used for heinous things. ]

... Huh. That's—

[ Manipulating water with the use of his Vision leaves anything it touches a little colder and damp for it, but passing his hand through the hydro construct, it's utterly lukewarm. Only for a moment longer does the form retain its shape before bursting in on itself, but Childe's hyperaware of the temperature soaking through his glove. So it was true. ]

—an impressive skill you have. If you don't mind my asking, were you born with this talent?

[ Or is it possible to learn it? ]

[ Ellis is surprised that Childe finds it impressive at all because Ellis has mostly used it for mundane things like keeping himself comfortable in extreme weather and he nods. He sure was born with it! Whatever that means! ]

[ So many applications for this ability. His mind is reeling, but he should probably wrap back around to the point. ]

Powers aside, you really are an interesting guy. You could've easily hidden it away. [ Not like he'd know any better. ] For deciding against that, why wouldn't I respect you?

[ Imagine Ellis hiding anything potentially alarming... who could conceive of that? No one. Not Childe, at least. ]

It takes courage to be that honest.

dec event.

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