Event Five.

[awashmods]

So here I’ve stood for forty years In dark and dust and creaky sounds, Waiting for her to say, “Turn around.” This might not be just what she meant, But me – I’m so obedient.

t first, it seems a little too simple for a true test of morals. Don't eat, don't take, don't look? The most basic of requirements. And with guides, it isn't too difficult at all to avoid those obvious pitfalls. At least, until the Town's suddenly far, far too empty, almost eerily so -- until there's nobody there but your fellow reds, or blues or yellows, in a town that is far too big for just a portion of the people there. And that's when the true test starts. Good luck. Welcome to Awash's fifth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. This log can be used for either phase of the event; please just mark clearly when it is happening and which colors can respond to the prompt. Please remember as well to let us know if your character passes or fails these tests! You are welcome to start your own posts or logs for this event as well. If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

Comments

[parodeity]

5/26 (ALL COLORS)

[ dave had just been talking to someone earlier about how requirements this month were easier than the story quest - no triad needed, and now it's all of them and as vague as ever. the birds...

well, he doesn't mind his. the cardinal is permitted to perch on his shoulder and he can even be caught feeding it. there's a wound on its chest that's constantly gushing slow blood out, and it has eyes like fire, but dave tends to have a soft spot for anything that shows him any sort of positive attention. warnings count as that, maybe, especially when they don't come with insults.

still.

anyone he sees around town - and dave can be found in the garden, on his porch in ruga (the house is across from an all might/sbahj mural and is charmingly covered in ivy now), at the well hauling water, or checking out fairy tales in the library - will get a nod. if he recognizes them or even if he doesn't, he'll say: ]

The last time we had some huge everyone all-in quest it got us back the written word. But this one didn't say what all we'd get...? Maybe we'll all be real boys and girls if we're good.

[ because of the jiminy cricket birds. get it? ]

5/27 - 5/28 (ALL COLORS)

[ anyway. items show up around dave. useful items. items that he kind of wants to pick up but doesn't...

but if you're not red, there's nothing stopping you from picking them up, although dave looks mortally offended afterwards. ]

Hey! [ for like. five seconds. ] I mean, fair. Someone should get to use my temptation for some good beyond "nyeh nyeh you can't touch me". Do you think I fail if I live vicariously through you enjoying that?

5/29 (REDS ONLY)

a. searching
[ dave spends most of the 29th searching every single goddamned house for any sign of his non-red friends. and also his bird.

like, he's not having any luck, but. ]

They'll forgive me for breaking and entering when this is over.

[ dave says, before breaking and entering, ]

b. sulking
[ no one not red is anywhere to be found. the birds are gone, too. dave ends up sprawled on the ground by the well, sulking and staring up at the sky. ]

This is stupid and dumb as fuck and I hate it. [ he sounds five. but then he sighs. ] ...But okay, fine, I'll win the stupid asshole game. Goddamnit.

5/30 - 5/31 (REDS ONLY)

a. temptation: turntables
[ the turntables that show up at one point get dave to sulk and cross his arms, staring at them from a distance of ten feet, but like. ]

They're completely fuckin' useless without power.

[ so.

EVEN SO, HE WANTS TO TOUCH THEM, FUCK YOU. ]

b. temptation: camera
[ the obviously more decent than his captcharoid camera that keeps showing up throughout the day - he spends most of it gardening - gets a more annoyed reaction. ]

Oh come on. [ goddamnit. ] No, Dave. Think what Jiminy Cricket would say. Somethin' british and annoying as fuck, no doubt, but also "don't you even dare".

[ it's muttered low-volume. ]

c. temptation: coffee machine
[ ah, homestuck. ]

That stuff doesn't even taste good. [ dave says, as an aside.

...why does he want it, then. ]

d. temptation: misc.
[ a picture of a girl who looks a lot like john and a girl who looks a lot like dave, and the two of them. that doesn't even exist irl, what the fuck. a fedora he knows john would want. stuff from his dead shit collection. can town.

there's just so much random shit showing up and dave just views it all with a stoic expression that means he isn't really.

more than he wants any of this he wants his goddamned friends back. ]

e. shitposting
[ the network is UNUSABLE.

accordingly, dave is literally fucking writing with his magic red quill pen random bullshit posts and just. hanging them up around places. do you want a daveism? respond for your own custom shitpost or pick from:

• what is even the point of leg warmers just fucking wear pants

• hyphenated isnt hyphenated but non-hypenated is

• who would want to be rescued by a knight in shining armor
like brand new armored knight
how much experience can this guy have????
you got a newblood
though at least maybe one w cash
so that might help a bit if he hires someone more experienced

you can't take away his god-given right to shitpost. he's too bored to allow it. ]

f. missing people
Do you think they're doin' their own version of this bullshit somewhere, or d'you think they're just like, in stasis?

[ he asks it almost randomly, but his voice is too soft to be random. ]

wildcard

[ as usual feel free to pm me here or hit me up at lucylovespluto! i'm happy to roll with random prompts on any of the days, or if you'd like to plot something specific/have me hit you up with a specialized prompt just let me know! ]

5/27 - 5/28

[withwisdom]

[ here is zelda, starving herself, and distracting herself from hunger by looking around town and observing all the new things that have come in... food excluded. she's already hungry but she's being mindful.

and she leans down to pick something up from the pile when she hears dave, turning around and... waiting for him to say something-- oh. ]

Is this part of your task, Dave? My apologies, I didn't mean to upset you. I can get rid of them if you'd like.

[parodeity]

Oh, nah, it's chill. [ he flaps a hand, casual. ] I mean, my task is just "don't steal" basically? Or don't...pick up any of this crap that keeps showing up. I don't see how it'll hurt you to make use of it. At least then it isn't all going to waste, you know? But what've you got to do?

5/26, garden

[buncho]

What's "the written word" even mean...? That's not something you can eat, right? Doesn't seem all that useful to me.

[ Especially compared to some of the more ridiculous rules she's been hearing people having to follow. "Don't eat?" It might as well be "Go die." ]

[parodeity]

Like, books. And text on cans. We basically couldn't read any of it 'cause the ink wasn't there, so it was a fun adventure with canned goods and shit?

[ i.e. what inedible vegetable will be in this can today! open it up and find out. ]

5/27

[good_ideas]

[It's an umbrella that Shiho's picking up, the bird on her shoulder quiet on her shoulder for once.

Dave makes up for its silence, at least? She turns, umbrella in hand.]

Well...I guess it all depends on how much you want it, right? Besides, I'm thinking of giving it to someone else.

I wish you could control what appears though.


...Can you? [Because what she wouldn't do for a proper hair brush.]

[parodeity]

Uh...not so far as I'm aware. It all seems kind of random at the moment. Some if it is shit I could use, but...

[ it's not as targeted as it could be...yet. ]

I've seen a few musical instruments. [ now that he sounds morose about. ]

E

[whichcraft]

[You know, what the hell, someone's got nothing better to do courtesy of ALL THIS MAGICAL BULLSHIT, and she also happens to have an assortment of pens in her backpack, one of which happens to be standard-issue blue because you always carry the same three colors of pens in case of emergencies, black blue and red.

Thusly, let's just leave a note on one of these shitposts and see if the owner comes back to check it.]

Maybe he takes his armor to the car wash regularly, you don't know. Don't judge the knight's life choices until you've walked a mile in his armor.

His shiny, shiny armor.

[parodeity]

[ it's not the right shade of blue. obviously, because everyone still in town is red and he knows the right shade of blue-purple-green he most likes to see, and two of those aren't possible and now neither is the third.

but it's the comforting feel of throwing a dumb post onto the forum and getting a dumb reply, something that soothes the internet-grown kid in him, and dave adds a response the next time he wanders by. ]

hed have to spend at least half of his time on armor upkeep for shiny pure undented armor
or like
hed have to buy a lot of new armor
which thinking about it maybe a hero with a lot of cash from killing stuff could do

why is it in stories heroes are always heroic because of killing things anyway
like in those older stories
what was it about olden days that made killing and the like such a grand thing
the darker fairy tales that they disneyd up to make them more palatable but the little dregs of something else are still there

5/29 - FOR THE POINTIER STRIDER

[parodeity]

[ the thing about living with john was that it was supposed to keep dave's best friend where he could keep tabs on him. not weirdly stalkery tabs-keeping, but just...being aware that the person he cared about most from home was there, not a statue and not disappeared, not taken by the forest or shadows or fallen into another dimension or whatever john could probably get up to if left alone for too long. dave ignored the part where he was the one who had disappeared in chroma so far, because that didn't matter obviously.

but it was comforting to be able to listen and hear john puttering around and to be able to go okay, cool, john's fine.

suddenly that is not a thing dave can in fact do and he checks their house top to bottom and john isn't there. he checks every fucking house in ruga, he checks john's old house in bluo - a veritable ghost town - and he checks the laptops. his and john's.

the laptops don't boot and he can't even see if john's username is crossed out, or okuyasu's, or izuku's, or minato's - or anyone else who isn't there. so he can't really text dirk and go hey are you alive but dirk had told dave the day he'd arrived where he'd ended up.

so.

while he's taken himself there awkwardly to meet for lunches (he still has no idea what he's doing, but he's trying) dave for the first time goes there because he actually needs dirk outside of some badly cooked meal on one side or the other, knocking rapidly at his door and looking to the trained eye rather stressed even though he's trying to look neutral. ]

[robosmith]

[ the last few days have been a little strange, but nothing too bad. sure, it's annoying to be faced with items he could really use (like a nice whole sword) and it's certainly tempting to reach for them, but he knows self-restraint. picking anything up by accident isn't likely to happen either, not when he's kept meticulous track of his belongings and so it's easy to differentiate between the stuff that he brought in and what doesn't belong.

all in all, the quest hasn't been that difficult. if anything, he's been enjoying the company of the small three-eyed bird that's come along with it. the sound of wing beats in his place reminds him of home and having it look out for him has been nice.

but everything changes that morning when the bird is gone, nowhere to be found, and left in its apparent wake are two large white cubes that dirk knows better than even the back of his own hand. that's when the quest legit becomes difficult and he's more tempted than ever before. sawtooth and squarewave are right there on his coffee table right by his couch(/bed) within arm's reach. all he'd have to do is either touch them or speak the commands to activate them and he would have his rapbots back. even just squarewave will do because that will mean finally having someone around to stand guard again and maybe he could have some proper sleep for the first time since arriving in chroma.

unfortunately, he knows he can't. it would mean failing the quest.

not that it stops him from longingly staring at them from his position on the couch though, lil cal tucked against his side as a reminder not to be greedy when he's already been granted his best plush bud back. he's only snapped out of his listless lounging when there's knocking on his door. there's only a very small number of people who know where he lives and the knocking is frantic enough to immediately clue him in on the fact that something is up. cal is in his strife specibus and he's across the room in a second to open the door.

what he sees cranks up the dread-worry a notch. ]

Dave, what's wrong?

5/26 library

[troubadamsel]

By the gods! Is your poor bird injured?!

[She's supposed to save her staff magic for human injuries, but, poor bird!!! Maribelle's own bird sits perched on her shoulder with a huge, long, fancy tail.]

[parodeity]

I think he comes that way. [ actually...dave's pretty sure he's the reason the bird comes that way. ] They all look a little...different, dependin' on the person they're with, huh?

5/26; porch

[messianic]

[Weird shit is happening! That means it's time to check on his friends, and Dave is one of the ones at the top of his list. Minato's... not pleased with his quest, no, but the implications of just how bad it'll be later haven't really sunk in.

It's...probably fine?

Probably.]

Hey. [Sup.

Also like--]

We're already real boys and girls, so it'll have to be something else. It'd better be something good if the quest is going to be something like this, though.

[parodeity]

You don't know that? I could be a very lifelike marionette. I'm sensitive about it, you know.

[ or, well. he's sensitive about puppets. ]

What's up, dude?

wildcard time

[swordfucker]

[When he first realizes everyone is back, the first thing he has to do is take a nap, honestly. But once he's done with that, his conscience won't let him laze around for much longer. He's off to find Dave first. Around each district, at his house, wherever he can look...

But once he finds him, whether by knocking on his door or literally spotting him on the street, he speaks.]

Dave. [Well, he sort of speaks. More words will take time. First, he just wants to take in how he's doing.]

[parodeity]

[ dave, at least, is easily found in his place. it's across from the dumbass mural now, the house with all the ivy.

he answers the door quickly and yeah, he should have been out looking for people already. instead he was being clingy with his housemate and insisting that john eat food. ]

Guren. [ there's some relief - he hasn't slept in a while but that isn't unusual for dave so it isn't exactly clear. ] You showed up here after the whole...

/tags in finally!! better nate than lever?

[lonered]

[Keith recognizes Dave's color at this point. And.

This is the saddest... and cutest... thing he's ever seen in his life.

Also it's kind of a relief that even with so much of everyone else missing (which he is quietly freaking out about) Dave is still around.

So. Keith is going to respond with his own sign with his own magic quill pen. Look at that quest reward coming in handy.]

You've put a lot of thought into this. what if the knight just takes good care of his armor. You have to clean armor, you know.

Maybe he's just meticulous. I think that's a good quality in a rescuer.

Also. You okay, man?

[Except. You know. He shows up at Dave's door to deliver it. So. Good pretense for talking? That's his plan.]

[parodeity]

[ oh my god???

dave opens the door and he looks sort of neutral even for dave - but then keith holds up the paper and he cracks an actual smile.

holds up a finger and GETS PAPER TO WRITE STUFF ON WHY IS HE THIS WAY ]

its an important issue
and yeah
im ok
been better but im ok
you?
hunk was yellow right

5/26, well and also late

[nyahilistic]

[Ichimatsu, for one, has given up on getting his bird to leave him the fuck alone-- the bluebird is small and has a dark splash across its face that makes it look like it's wearing sunglasses, and sometimes it glitters in the light. He still swats it occasionally, but most often after it seems to make a sound that isn't a chirp at all, it sounds more like a grown man saying HEH. He's listening to it, either way, because it seems to be the most willing to keep quiet when he does, but that doesn't mean it's not still aggravating beyond reason.]

[He slows when he sees Dave hauling water out of the well, and his face pinches in something that's somewhere between disgust and confusion.]

...I'm gonna really hope that you aren't planning to drink that, given the amount of people that were down there a week or so ago.

[parodeity]

Ehhh. It'll be fine boiled, you know? The well's one of the only sources of water-like water that we got.

[ dave is fussy about some things. what he consumes is not one of those things, since he's used to kind of making do. ]

5/27 - 5/28

[cutcrease]

Of course! Definitely. [ She agrees far too easily as she bends down to inspect the objects surrounding Dave. The one she picked up, the brush, is already set down in favor of sorting through everything else.

Junko's own bird isn't fairing all too well-- he doesn't even have to pretend to look close to see it. It looks rather sickly perched on her shoulder, outside of its extra appendages. ]

But it only counts if it's something you really want from this pile. It can't be just anything, y'know?

[parodeity]

[ that's...sort of sad, with the bird. there's a fair frown, but dave listens to the question and looks around at the pile of stuff. ]

I guess the musical crap is the most tempting.

[ dubiously; a keyboard that he can't touch, although there's a perfectly serviceable piano in his home. ]

Most of it's just like - the kind of stuff that would be nice but that I can live without. I bet it'll ramp up.

5/30/31 a

[heartsteals]

[ look at us, two reds stuck in redtown. Lupin left his house to try and get away from all the tempting things popping up everywhere - as a famous thief, it is really hard for him to not just take stuff he wants, especially since no one else is using it - but it turns out that isn't keeping them away one bit. So he's here trying to distract himself. ]

... What are those, exactly?

[ some kind of machine...? ]

[parodeity]

Turntables. They make music. [ it's a super simplistic explanation but...

steampunk dude ]

They're my instrument of choice, when I have a choice.