[DROP] [SE] twinkle, twinkle

Random Event Like the end of a Hitchcock movie, a little dark and a lot confusing You awaken in the boughs of a great tree. How has this happened? Is it a dream? You don't know. You can't tell. But you're here, cradled in the branches, and around you others are blinking themselves awake too. Above you, almost completely obscured, is a profound and warm glow - it's impossible to see what it might be from here, but you get the impression that it's important. No, you get the impression that it's something you really, really want. And there's only one way to reach it. Time to climb. Welcome to the Seasonal Event drop! As this drop is open to everyone in the SE, it has been placed in IC Communications to prevent conflicts with exploration. Please post your character arriving and starting to climb the tree to participate! PLEASE NOTE: The prize from this is directly related to the SE, so please only participate if you intend to complete the SE. You have 48 hours!

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Once again, Arialla arrived in unfamiliar surroundings with no idea how she'd gotten there. For a moment panic bubbled up within her, a fear that she'd once again flashed into a new world and a new life -- that she would lose Caido, too, just when she was starting to consider it home.

Then she looked around and realized there were other people around, just as confused, and she recognized a couple of them. If she'd disappeared into a new world again, at least she wasn't alone. And surely she'd be more ready for the experience this time.

The thought of where she was receded to the background as she looked up and realized that she needed to be higher up in this tree, now. And while others might have to clamber through the branches, she had a better idea.

Taking her eagle form, she spread her wings and took off. She'd loop around the tree if the branches were too thick for her to go directly up, but she didn't imagine she'd have much trouble getting to the top.

---

Arialla changes into an eagle and tries to fly upwards!

Arialla

Freedom. Flight. Grace. Keen-sight.

"Golden Eagle - Mongolia" by carfull...from Wyoming is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Was this a dream? How else could Theo explain appearing here like this? Well, stranger things had happened in Caido. Overall, he wasn't inclined to question the circumstances, not once he realized that there was something valuable on offer -- at least, so his instincts told him. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he didn't question it too much. Never one to miss out on a score, Theo.

But it looked like the only way to get whatever it was would be to climb ... and to compete with all the other climbers, Theo suspected. He glanced with envy at a stranger who became a bird, giving her a very unfair advantage; then he got to work scrambling through the branches. Too bad he didn't have any unfair advantages of his own, though he did employ his telekinesis a little bit to push some of the smaller branches out of his way. At least he seemed to be getting a bit of a head start.

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Theo starts climbing, using his telekinesis to move small branches out of his way.

Theo

"Poker" by ND Strupler is licensed with CC BY 2.0.

MABEL

She awakened.

A peculiar thing, to find herself in a tree. Maybe it was a dream – except she didn’t dream anymore. Not like before, when there’d been tendrils of wonder and hues beyond her eyes. Not like before, when she could nearly imagine a piece of perfection, a farm blooming and bursting with crops, a family careening along their house with success in their veins.

It did no good to dwell on that.

Instead, there was something else pulling her along – an intrepid, needing, aching feeling in the back of her mind, and she stretched out her arms – gazing along other boughs, to find others in the same bizarre positions.

And what if they got to it first?

Ambition and unease stoked together in a fierce frenzy, and she quickly gained her balance, clinging to the rest of the wood, hands lined for the timber, intending to assail further and further, to beat them all.

--

Mabel climbs!

The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)

If you dig under my feet
You will find things that you don't want to see

Another new place, this one even stranger than the Spire, but after that first transition, Cam found it easy enough to accept this one. For a moment they lingered in their cradle of branches, because who hadn't dreamed as a kid of living in a tree, in perfect harmony with nature? Or maybe that was just them. Then they looked up into the hazy light and realized that they needed to get up there. Why? They didn't know. But they definitely needed to.

Climbing trees wasn't Cam's strong suit, and they were quite afraid of falling. They kind of hoped this was a dream, so falling wouldn't hurt. They carefully, carefully moved to vertical and reached for a higher branch to pull themself up with, bracing their foot against the tree trunk -- yes, that seemed like it worked. And then, the next branch ...

They wouldn't win any awards for speed or grace, but Cameron was on their way up the tree.

---

Cam starts climbing.

cameron ?

"Cameras" by Ennev is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

there's always a glimmer in those

This wasn’t the first time she’d awakened within the branches of a tree. It’d been a place of safety and security many moments over; a sanctuary from those who would never dare to look up – either monster or human or both. It’d been a place to survey the world around her, to gauge dimensions, to seize opportunities, to hurl weapons and armaments and insults.

A place now, of confusion.

Her gilded gaze caught sight of the world around her, somewhat unrecognizable and familiar all at once. A shrug of her shoulders rippled, legs dangling over the side, catching her bearings when and where she could. There were others moving about, in other denizens of this terrain, and she blinked rapidly, once or twice, before the twitch of something else caught her. Snared her. Trapped her.

Something she wanted. Something she craved.

And the only way was up.

The honeybee had no shifts, no magic, but gods, that’d never stopped her before. Used to the cycle of climbing and clambering, the girl’s hands rested on the trunk, before pushing off with her legs, before reaching with her hands, intending to scale, to snag, to catch.

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Melita climbs!

who have been through the dark

MELITA

SUNJATA

the flood

i lost all the air in my lungs to the screamin'
i lost all the love in my heart to the demons

A dream, perhaps, or perhaps it wasn’t? It was hard for the Flood to tell nowadays. What he does know, however, is that he wakes to familiar faces, to a tree sprouted from the earth that goes high up into the clouds, and this overwhelming urge to climb. He spends a few moments dusting off his shirt, debating internally which shift would work best to get him up there (gods know that Sunjata would refuse to climb by hand unless absolutely necessary, the idea of it already makes his leg throb with the thought).

So he settles on the bat shift at first, pulling himself through the branches and flying up where he could, a small little fuzzy black shape among the rest of those that climbed by hand, doing his best to not be noticed.

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Sunjata shifts to his flying fox shift and climbs/flies up through the branches!

i lost all the things that i used to believe in
i lost everything for no goddamn reason

Midas is king and he holds me so tight

Turns out there's many confusing ways to wake up. Aamu's blue eyes open among the boughs, just one bird hatching out of many, unfurling his limbs and finding that he can still not fly.

Above is a glow: warm, beckoning. It fills the space where his heart should've been.

And they're all coming for it—

There's others around him. He spots Mabel along the way, climbing with that feral determination he has come to cherish, and he finds himself torn: on one hand, whatever it is, he wants to give to her. On the other, he really fucking wants it himself.

So he starts to climb, limber and elegant, cat-like and vicious. Should someone (well, someone he doesn't know or care about, so out of those climbing so far only Mabel and Sunjata are safe) come close enough above him... Aamu would try to tear them down, and anything's fair game. How 'bout he swings to the side, and then gives a little tickle of his wristblade to their foothold? But best be careful to not be in the way if they come crashing down; he doesn't want to join them in their fall.

But mostly, he focuses on climbing. He wants to get up there, and won't go out of his way to get someone else out of it.

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Aamu's willing to play dirty and try to get others to fall if he's given the chance, exceptions being like.. Mabel lol maybe a couple other Ascended (Nate and Azrael chiefly but what is brains), Henry or Sunjata, idk but mostly he just climbs like the basic bitch he is

Also he's a lucky HG citizen! The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)

and turns me to gold in the sunlight

Aamu

WESSEX

Go
deep throat
a cactus

Oh so now she sleeps. This must be real, because Ascended don’t dream.

Or do they?

Does it matter? No. No it does not. She’s been in Caido long enough to know what’s expected of her in these decisions. Make a choice, try to win - or help others. Something like that, variations upon a theme, with a reward in their futures (and oh, how she is suddenly struck by the very real desire for that reward).

Using pure brute strength and speed, Wessex begins to climb up the tree, launching herself upward while trying to dodge various people. The warm glow makes her think this may not be the kind of thing that takes kindly to destruction of either tree or person, so she does her best to be fast without hurting well, anything.

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Wessex uses her strength and speed to haul ass up the tree.

The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)

born with salt on my skin

Something startles Raza awake; perhaps the nosies of the others or the feeling of being about to fall off a bough. She reaches out for the edges of her hammock and find nothing but air - and more unbalance. It takes a moment, but she finds herself steadied and then is able to take a moment to assess the situation. There are other people here too - no one familiar, unfortunately - but that doesn’t mean they aren’t around.

Something draws her gaze upwards and not only is Hoa there, on the branch above her, but there’s a lovely little light creating a sort of halo above him. The Torcher tries to peer through the boughs of the trees to find the source. It strikes her as something very pretty. Very valuable. Something she should fight for. It sets her bare feet to the bough and her arms around the trunk, reaching - reaching - for the next limb. And the next, and the next. Hoa, being at home in high, wooden places, goes with her in an attempt to scare others off.

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Raza climbs and Hoa tries to scare folks off. Cause who wouldn’t be worried about a python in a tree?

and the sea in my blood

RAZA

This town will never change, People come and go, it's all the same

Henry's trying to figure out how the hell he got here, looking around in puzzled wariness. After he finds his bearings, literally and mentally, he takes the time to look around at who's all here. There are several faces he knows, to his relief, and none of them appear to be worried. So maybe he shouldn't be either, and maybe he should try to get whatever's at the top...

Of course, Henry's not so quick to trip over how to be the first there. Why they couldn't all share in a sweet victory is a concept beyond him, simple man that he is. So he doesn't dive into his shift, which would not be particularly adept at climbing anyway, and he certainly doesn't start trying to knife people in the ankles or use a snake to scare them.

So Henry deliberates over the hazard of these... more intense competitors. He'll start his ascent slow and steady, taking up a position at the bottom of this... tree hierarchy. For now. But he is climbing up, in spite of the notion that he might get stabbed or bitten by a snake. "Hey uh, ya know," He calls up, eyeing Aamu and Raza, "we could help each other, instead of... ah, fuck it- never mind!" He shakes his head.

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Henry climbs and tries to stay out of Raza and Aamu's way (and anyone else that wants to be aggro)!

& he has the audacity to not tear others down while he's at it! :')

Citizenship Ability! Activate!
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)

HENRY

letting people down is my thing, baby, find yourself a new gig

He’s not asleep, obviously. But he’s not awake either. At this point, Nate is so numbed to strange things happening that he simply swallows this with barely a second thought, his gaze roaming around, taking in familiar faces, less than familiar faces, then moving up.

Oh, up is good. For reasons other than the bat flapping there, as familiar as it is terrible, but not many.

Nate starts climbing, not a thought paid to the others around him, except perhaps a laugh thrown in the direction of the voice suggesting they work together. He has an ace up his sleeve, if he really needs it, but for the moment he simply relies on the strength of his body, and the muscle memory built up from years of climbing up trees and other things he really shouldn’t have.

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Nate starts clambering up, trying to follow after Sunjata specifically

NATE

humanity is unbecoming of those who are becoming

Peter does not question sleep, nor the dreaming. He’s come back from the dead., has nowhere near enough experience with ascension and living again to know if this is anything other than normal.

What he does know though, is that there is something he wants above him, and there are others reaching their greedy hands out to try and get it.

There’s not many things Pet would claim hes skilled in, but climbing is all but second nature to him, a way of moving that he very nearly prefers to walking. Without another thought spared to the others, or to the situation in general, he’s off, hauling himself up the tree as quickly as he possibly can.

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Pet starts climbing and ignores everyone else

PETER

it's the road that leads to nowhere

Aurelia blinks her eyes open and, for a moment, she thinks she's back home. Like, home home. It would be devastating to her mind, after finally accepting that she'll never get back, if that were the case. Upon looking around, she realizes there are a bunch of other people here from Caido.

Ah... this is another one of those not-dreams, isn't it?

In spite of knowing some of the people present, she makes no attempt at reaching out to them. Instead, she follows their lead - after all, there's something at the top. At the very least, she'd like to know what it is, maybe even get it. That thought, whether it's her own or not, ignites sparks of determination within her.

Climbing trees is nothing new to her. There were many situations where she had to travel by them. She has no special talents or items that might aid her in this but, as always, she does have her hunter's knife at her hip. But, rather than run the risk of having to use it for self-defense, she has a mind to just plain avoid everyone else for now.

She quickly plots out an upward path that takes her in a direction that's clear of anyone else. She sticks to branches that are thicker, testing them for weaknesses before putting her trust into them. She makes sure to keep both of her hands and at least one foot connected to the branches at all times. After all, there is nothing to anchor her to the tree except herself.

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Aurelia climbs up on sturdier branches & tries her best to avoid falling! She also steers clear of everyone else, as much as she can.

(She does have her hunter's knife with her.)

but all I wanna do is go there

Aurelia

code credits go to Skylark!<3