jan event.

[crescentviewmods]

summer has arrived

As the last of the sakura blossoms fall away and the leaves on the trees grow into ever more vibrant greens, the familiar buzz of cicadas begins to echo all throughout the isle. Summer is quickly approaching and bringing brighter days and blazing temperatures along with it.

Summer also signals the start of the wine production season. Grapes growing on trellises are a common sight on Crescentview during the summer and a notice on the town memo board from the local barkeep encourages farmers to consider growing some varietal grapes of their own.

Temperatures are rising, so put on a comfortable pair of shorts and head to the Town Plaza to see what’s cooking! While you’re at it, take a look at the calendar for Summer 1st through 15th.

This season’s crops are corn, onion, pumpkin, watermelon, and pineapple. Summer’s seasonal flowers are poppy, rose, sunflower, lily, and hydrangea. As for mushrooms, shimeji, trumpet, and common brown spores are available for the summer.

hot! ...or not

Posted prominently at the top of the Memo Board is a cartoonishly-written advertisement for the first annual Hot or Not hosted by the Goddess herself. Contestants will take to the stage while the audience votes on whether they are as hot as the blazing sun or cooler than a dead fish. Leave your egos at the door! ICly, this event takes place on Summer 8th.

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 January 1st to February 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.

---

This month’s tasks are centered around getting to know your fellow neighbors on a deeper level. As such, the Goddess has put together a small human scavenger hunt to encourage people to learn more about the people they are living with — and hopefully falling in love with.

Find someone who...

1. Was born in the summer
2. Pours milk into their bowl before the cereal
3. Plays a musical instrument
4. Has more than 3 siblings
5. Works out 5 times a week or more
6. Doesn’t like animals
7. Would like to date the Harvest Goddess
8. Has traveled around the world
9. Speaks two or more languages
10. Is wearing socks that aren’t black or white

Each submission will earn you two random bags of summer seeds. Specify whether you want crop, flower, or mushroom spores in your submission. This task can be completed a total of 10 times.

---

Many ingredients used in wine production grow in the summer, but so do a variety of tea plants and grains. Grapes, tea shrubs and grains like wheat and barley can all be grown on your farm or in your greenhouse, if you have one.

Complete the following tasks to earn yourself some nice beverage-producing crops for the farm:

1. Take something from last month’s harvest and gift it to a neighbor. You can give it to them directly, cook it into a meal, etc. Alternatively, craft them a bouquet, flower crown, or another gift from the flowers you grew last season. Complete 3 times for a total of 6 grape starters.

2. Share a piece of hot gossip with a neighbor or exchange secrets with them. It doesn’t have to be your secret! Complete 3 times for a total of 6 tea starters.

3. Exercise with someone. Go on a run, swim in the ocean, help them stretch out! Complete 3 times for a total of 6 grain crops. You may choose from wheat, barley, rye, or rice.

---

Summer is the perfect time to hang out on the beach and splash around in the ocean. Participate in some summer fun at the beach and earn more animals for your barn and coop.

1. Swim in the ocean, build a sandcastle, or bury someone in the sand. Do any of the following for one of the following animals: cow, sheep, alpaca, or goat. This task can be completed once.

2. Participate in Hot or Not. It’s an annual tradition! Submit yourself or comment on someone else for a single chicken or rabbit. This task can be completed once.

local happenings

The Crescentview Times newspaper has chronicled the latest happenings around the island. A physical copy of the paper will arrive on your doorstep early in the morning on Summer 1st.

Recently, a group of townspeople have taken it upon themselves to check out the abandoned mine. They’ve made good headway on opening up the path in the hopes that would-be explorers will be able to take to the mines and find some of Crescentview’s fabled gems and minerals buried in its depths. They expect to be done by Summer 15th.

A strange “gurgling whisper” has been reported by some concerned townsfolk living in the mountains. The concerning sounds are coming from one of the lakes at the foot of the mountain. Supposedly, the voice is asking for offerings of... something. The townsfolk have yet to identify what exactly is being asked for.

A hurricane has been brewing off the southern coast of Crescentview. Meteorologists have yet to determine whether the hurricane will make landfall or not, so stay tuned for more updates.

mod notes

⬥ Welcome to our second event! We want to thank you all for participating in our game and contributing your efforts to it. Thank you for playing!
⬥ A second event post will go up in mid-Jan.
⬥ Please plot over at the Jan 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

[esurientabyss]

[ He certainly can't...but with the pointing, that's easy enough to understand. As someone who happens to see beaches often, there is no doubt that he's seen people constructing sand structures before. Does it mean that they will look good?

Maybe, maybe not.

But he begins to walk back over to a spot a decent way from the sea and begins to pile up sand with his hands. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis follows He Xuan. He has absolutely no experience making sand castles, so today will be his first day. He got a plastic toy shovel from the grocery store and uses that to help gather the sand. He stares at the mound and tilts his head... then he looks up at He Xuan as if he's waiting for some secret sand castle making skill that He Xuan can do like some sword skill that can immediately polish the structure to look like a castle. ]

[esurientabyss]

[ He Xuan stares at his pile in consideration, then at Ellis. ]

I've seen some place their hands on the assembled piled-up sand and pat each side. Start there.

[ Sadly he does not have sand-castle creating powers, but he thinks he can eventually get something looking...like an attempt was made? That is what matters.

He will start to construct another pile. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis looks at He Xuan construct another pile and helps him gather some sand for said pile, before getting a stick to draw an arrow towards the second pile on the sand with a question mark. What's this for? ]

[esurientabyss]

To help make the castle bigger.

[ Probably ambitious...but go big or go home, right? He's half-thinking of not a real castle, though, but perhaps his Nether Water Manor. ]

[framestory]

[ Beeg. Ellis nods and wonders what he should do. Hmmm.

He gathers some more sand and points to it. Does He Xuan need it? ]

[esurientabyss]

[ He will nod. ]

Put it nearby the other two piles.

[ He Xuan then summons in some water to creatively help mold the piles a bit so that it looks like something resembling a building's structure. But a lot of it will have to do with shaping it.

So he kneels back down, patting some edges... ]

Almost done. But a castle needs a symbol. Feel free to draw one atop it.

[framestory]

[ Ellis gets the stick again and thinks. He Xuan is basically making the castle with Ellis helping with the material gathering (worded generously), so he thinks this should represent He Xuan in a way more than him, so.

He draws this on the top. ]

[esurientabyss]

The symbol will suffice. This can be called Nether Water Castle.

[ ...that is sure a name choice, but it can always be certainly worse.

Like if he named it Weenie Castle, which he wouldn't. ]

[framestory]

[ It sure can be worse. Ellis has no naming sense whatsoever and Gaku was the name who gave him a selection of names for his dog. Imagine naming something.

But he claps with a grin. They did it! Mostly He Xuan did it, but they did it! But now Ellis has a burning question. ]

Can you part the ocean?

[esurientabyss]

[ Gaku, saving the day with his naming sense on a consistent basis, one day at a time (or one animal at a time, really.) ]

...I could. Why?

[ Not that he goes around doing that unless there's a good reason for it. ]

[framestory]

[ For a moment, Ellis's eyes seem to sparkle as he looks up at He Xuan. His panda ears wiggle too. That's so cool!!!

But He Xuan can decide whether he actually wants to do it or not. ]

[esurientabyss]

The request is written right on your face.

[ But it's amusing, in a way.

Without much moving on his part, he temporarily parts some of the water seen right before their very eyes. Not like...the entirety of the ocean itself because that seems like a waste, but what they can see of it. Though he is careful to put it right where it was right after. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis's excitement levels seem to go off the charts when he actually sees a part of the ocean split before him. He goes to try to stand between them, but steps back just as early, since he wouldn't want He Xuan to use too much of his power. Everyone got nerfed since coming here, after all. The panda ears wiggle a little excitedly when he returns to He Xuan. He very much resembles a kid who goes "did you see that? did you see that?!" despite He Xuan was the one who made it happen. ]

[esurientabyss]

[ Certainly, though He Xuan has no problems with doing a feat like this by now.

Though, he watches the excitement plain on Ellis' face. To him this must truly be remarkable, even if to the ghost king, it is something he can normally do without breaking a sweat. ]

Seems like you enjoyed it.

[ Maybe not a waste of doing a little demonstration in retrospect. ]

You don't know anyone who can do this in your world, do you?

[framestory]

[ Ellis shakes his head no and ponders for a moment before writing down on his notepad: ]

I didn't really know many people--especially like the number of people on this island. It's a lot. There are so many people.

[ If he was in a city, he'd definitely be overwhelmed. ]

But I was meant to be hidden, so that's to be expected.

[esurientabyss]

[ ... ]

Meant to be hidden? Does this mean you were confined to a place before coming here?

[ He Xuan, this time probes with an authentic sense of curiosity. He has to wonder about it, especially with a comment like that. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis makes a so-so gesture. Let him write this down on a notepad after brushing his hands to get the sand off. ]

I was meant to lay low, but I still snuck out. But if you mean right before coming here, it would be something like limbo.

[esurientabyss]

[ At least something about the latter of those things he can easily imagine. Though, the picture of Ellis being in limbo isn't exactly a fun one to put together. ]

...Then, it's better for you to be here than in your 'world' right now.

[framestory]

[ Ellis laughs a little. ]

I don't have a place to go back to, and I like it here.

[esurientabyss]

[ He looks from Ellis back to the sandcastle. He can't say the same, not exactly. Only that barely anything of worth is waiting his return back at his island.

But He Xuan would never want to live here either. He wonders what Ellis will do when this is all over. ]

...As in, mostly the people?

[framestory]

[ Ellis tilts his head, not sure what He Xuan means. ]

When I was in the void limbo, I was kicked out. So there's nothing left for me there anymore.

[esurientabyss]

[ That does give him a bit more context about the limbo, which is how he coincidentally imagined it. Some kind of supernatural limbo between life and death.

But, he does shake his head and decides to clarify. ]

Not that.

You like it here mostly because of the people? That's what I meant to ask about.

[framestory]

[ Oh. That. ]

I actually never liked people to begin with, but being nice to others was a lot easier than earning the wrath of many. It's not really worth it, to scale those things against each other. But as time passed, I learned that not everyone is so bad.

[ Ellis looks up at smiles at He Xuan. His little panda ears wiggle as if they're turning their attention to him too. ]

You're really cool, He Xuan.

[esurientabyss]

[ 'Never liked people', huh. Ellis seems to have changed where that is concerned, but there's a part of himself that would like to entertain that it's still the same. Still, there is evidence to the contrary, with him willingly conversing with certain people.

As he's pondering these things, he's not expecting to be met with that. ]

...So, you've changed.

[ But it isn't like he'll object to being called 'cool'. His eyes lay upon the sand castle, and then back over at Ellis, who's smiling. ]

I doubt I will, but it is not the worst when we talk.