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

[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.

[framestory]

I have a feeling that you like how quiet things can be. Is that one reason why?

[ Because he can't talk He Xuan's ears off... ]

[esurientabyss]

[ He Xuan is a bit too difficult for something like that indeed. As for the question, he's thinking about it...perhaps it didn't quite occur to him, but he nods. Ellis isn't loud, so he thinks it factors into it. ]

You'd be right in that it is at least one.

[ ... ]

What made you originally dislike people?

[framestory]

[ The panda ears wiggle a little as he thinks. The answer is easy, but it's the possible follow-up questions that make it difficult to say. ]

I was made that way.

[esurientabyss]

[ Possibly so, depending on what they are. Though a comment like that does beg the follow up of the next question: ]

What do you mean by 'made'?

[framestory]

[ Ellis has been getting used to telling people about what he is, and his expectations are... well, he wants to believe that he won't be met with a specific type of rebuttal. ]

I'm a character from a story. A character is made by a writer.

[esurientabyss]

[ ...That's not entirely what he expected. But, even though he's kind of surprised to hear that, he barely knows what to do with it. Except just be himself about it. ]

...And now you're here.

[ Does this mean Ellis was aware before being pulled here? A thousand questions float in his head, but he only has the desire to ask a couple. If he were a scholar still, he'd been asking one thousand of them all at once. ]

Have you always known this? Or was it only when you arrived here, that you realized?

[framestory]

[ Ellis nods and holds up one finger.

He's always known that he was a character, that he's fictional. It's his entire ongoing existential crisis. He writes the following in the sand: ]

I know I'm not a real person.

[esurientabyss]

[ He Xuan tilts his head, and then looks back out at the sea. He's not the type of person to shout to the heavens something like, "but you're real!" Or unload some kind of inspiring speech. He's incapable of putting smiles on people's faces...most of them, or otherwise. ]

...I don't disbelieve your origins.

[ There are things about Ellis he still does not know. So how can he still, right now say that the one he sees in front of him is 'real'? It's a factual answer indeed, but he thinks the one given is also a belief despite manifesting into this world.

He then turns back away from the sea, and kneels down in the sand. Next, he's drawing a circle with a dot, and then a curly line through it. Then, he stands up and stomps on it, dragging his foot down in the sand, disrupting the symbol. ]

In my world, gods fade away as if they never existed, should they lose followers. If they die as mortals, it is the same as if they have never existed. Someone new comes to replace them.

It's the same for demons and ghosts. Even beings who exist because someone believed they did, who may as well have created them by a single thought. Some leaders too. Their places are taken when they pass, as if the predecessors never existed. Yet, someone remembers that they were real. That they existed.

So, regardless of what you are, because we met, I'll remember the same of you.

[ That he existed as a real person. Even if originally, that is not what Ellis is.

He Xuan inclines his head slightly as if to say 'until next time', and then begins to turn to leave because he doesn't know what else to say, absolutely prepared to leave on that note. ]

[framestory]

[ Ellis believes the intentions are very similar, but for someone who claimed who couldn't make anyone smile, He Xuan is... pretty good at making others smile? After the shock wears off on Ellis's face, he finds himself smiling, even if just a little after He Xuan has turned around. He won't stop him from leaving. That was touching, in a way. Ellis liked it.

Later that night, He Xuan will find Ellis's samoyed dog, Fluffy, at his door with some bunny apples in the bucket inside a clear bag. ]