AWASH

• 25 comments over a minimum of two threads and a maximum of five threads
  OR
  
• One post AND a minimum of one additional thread and a maximum of two threads adding to 10 comments

• 12 comments over a minimum of two threads and a maximum of five threads
  OR
  
• One post and one additional thread of five comments

• You may use a maximum of 1 inbox thread for AC.
  
• You may use a maximum of 1 thread with castmates for AC.
  
• You may not use threads with the same characters as you used for the previous AC.
  
• A toplevel and all of its subthreads counts as a single thread.

• First off, AC has completed and has been processed. AC is now open for February. February's AC Post can be found here.
  
  
• Characters removed via AC this month:
  
  ken amada (stophamatime)
  lin xianming (fluent)
  michael mell (retrobeats)
  rakan (stickbow)
  ryuunosuke tsunashi (awamori)
  
  
  
• We've had a few mishaps with people misunderstanding the AC requirements, so we'd like to explain them again. A toplevel counts as a single thread, all of its subthreads included. If you are going to use it as an AC proof, you need an additional thread outside of that toplevel to pass AC. This is outlined in the AC guide, but we thought we'd explain it again just in case!
  
  
• The TDM for next month's app round will be up February 22nd, to hopefully allow everyone time to try out new characters and get samples for March's app round, which will open March 1st.

• So something's changed in the Town this month. It might take the characters some time to notice, though things will definitely feel a little ominous, and a little uncanny as characters progress into the new month. It'll feel almost like they're being watched, and almost like something very dangerous is not too far away.
  
  It's the trees, of course.
  
  It seems as though the woods suddenly encroached on the north of the Town, as if overnight. What was once open, clear Town is now overrun with trees from the woods, looming ominously. Roots have overgrown some of the pathways, branches have covered some of the buildings...
  
  It's only a matter of a few feet into the Town proper, but nonetheless, any character who looks at it will have a very, very strong sense of foreboding.
  
  
• Other things of note with the trees advancing: characters who have a strong sense for the supernatural/magic/darkness/etc will definitely be plagued with headaches and nausea the closer they get, though it's nothing crippling.
  
  
• Characters may also notice that the parts of the Town the trees touch, towards the middle and end of the month, will lose all color that they had before, even if it was restored properly by the characters. If you're living in one of the houses the trees are encroaching on, you might want to think fast and either move or come up with a solution!

• Quests for February are now up! The OOC breakdown of said quests can be found below, as with last month. All quests have been posted ICly to the Quest Forum Post. Only quests for this month can be turned in for a reward.
  
  
• The Quest Reporting comment can be found here. As ever, please respond to that comment once the quest itself has been completed. When reporting the quest, please state what quest it is in the subject line; we've realized that that helps us a lot with keeping track over the past few months!
  
  
• Please be aware that Quests must be reported by the end of the month; this is because we use what quests are completed to keep track of what colors are restored for the next month!

This month’s color changes are as follows (color changes can be tracked at the Color Timeline):

Color Gains:

• For completing all of the quests last month, and because so much of the sky has been restored via the characters' hard work, the color of the sky entirely has now been restored. There is not a single shred of the sky that will not have color, no matter what time it is or what weather the Town is having. Maybe next month, the Town's color restorations will now move on to something else...?
  
  
• If your character has a color log thread from the month of January, please respond at this comment to choose what color you would like to restore for the month. This month, there aren't any restrictions; you can choose any color you would like to restore!

Color Losses:

• From drops: library inner walls, red beans, oysters, swans, herons, woodpeckers, fall leaves, maple syrup, purple paint, papayas, strawberries, ivy, salamanders, apple cider, milk, bluebirds, swallows, doors, town hall floor, poinsettias, blue corn, dandelions, great tits, bread rolls

• New characters must submit half-AC.
  
• Those requirements, as well as the AC post, can be found here.
  
• Please be sure to also read the general AC guidelines, here! It is very important that you do, as we will not be granting AC exemptions due to the capped nature of the game.

• Character housing, now that the application round is over, can be found here! This is where characters can find their laptops, though they are by no means required to stay there; they can move at will, and their laptop will function in whatever new home they pick. The spreadsheet is editable, so please feel free to move your characters around!
  
• Quests can be done by incoming players at any point once they have been introed. Quests can ICly be found here. OOCly, further information can be found here! Please be aware that only quests of the current month can be completed for a reward. Past quests can be done if you would like to, but will receive no reward.
  
• A list of current restored colors can be found here; please be aware that no colors have been restored for new characters yet. That means that their text color will be black, and their homes, unless shared with a current character, will have no color.
  
• The OOC meet and greet can be found here.
  
• The Calendar has also been updated with the current weather!

• A mingle log will go up tomorrow, January 8th at 9 PM EST, to provide a general introduction to the game. Due to the sizes of the current app rounds in the game, the intro logs also serve as mini-events, with a bit more to play with.

• After this log, new characters will be welcome to create logs and posts as you please! Please be sure to read over the FAQ once more before you begin playing.

• First off, AC has completed and has been processed. AC is now open for January. January's AC Post can be found here. Because December's AC was a check-in AC, you can submit threads with any character for January's AC, but otherwise the requirements are back to normal!
  
  
• No characters were removed via AC this round.
  
  
• Applications are currently open! There are currently 9 open slots for new players.
  
  
• As always with applications rounds, there will be two events this month: an event geared towards welcoming the newcomers while still providing things for the current players to play with, and a meatier event towards the end of the month.
  
  
• The pages have been a bit cleaned up, and the layout tweaked, to hopefully make them a bit easier to read while on mobile!
  
  
• The locations page has been updated to reflect the current state of the game with the addition of current landmarks. Additionally, if your character has impacted the Town in any way that you would like other players to know about (such as adding locations that would be useful to the game at large), please let us know here so that we can add them to the page!

• Quests for January are now up! The OOC breakdown of said quests can be found below, as with last month. All quests have been posted ICly to the Quest Forum Post. Only quests for this month can be turned in for a reward.
  
  
• The Quest Reporting comment can be found here. As ever, please respond to that comment once the quest itself has been completed. When reporting the quest, please state what quest it is in the subject line; we've realized that that helps us a lot with keeping track over the past few months!
  
  
• Please be aware that Quests must be reported by the end of the month; this is because we use what quests are completed to keep track of what colors are restored for the next month! Because of the holidays last month, quests could be turned in while incomplete; however, that was only for the month of December, so please have your quests completed before submitting them.

This month’s color changes are as follows (color changes can be tracked at the Color Timeline):

Color Gains:

• For completing all of the quests last month, for all of the current characters in Awash, their houses are now fully colored -- in other words, anything that didn't have color yet now does. The roof, the walls, the floor, the items within the house... for each character, their houses are now bright and colorful and probably a little blinding, if you're used to the floors being a colorless grey. Enjoy!
  
  
• Please also see this comment for special color changes your characters have brought about via their bonds last month!

Color Losses:

• From drops: Sunset purple, green ink, kingfisher birds, grapefruit peels, crows, bananas, squash, glass, locks, the floor of the library, lobster, lilies, dark leather, yarn, pigeons, flannel, library roof, butterflies, curtains in Bluo, blue potatoes, mice, cranberries, owls, lavender plants, the outer walls of the church, red snapper, playing cards, the inner walls of the town hall, blood oranges, and granola

• The townspeople very rarely venture outside of their own districts. Yellows will remain in Flavo sans when they really have to go to Bluo for some sort of errand, for instance.
  
• The changes that have been made in the Town, such as broken down bridges, won't register for the shades; they will walk right over the empty air where a bridge used to be, or will go into buildings that may have since collapsed.
  
• All of the townspeople stay far, far away from the woods, except for some of the shades of the children, who venture over that way as if daring each other, or something like that.

1. Becoming incorporeal for a few moments. This means they might simply drop what they were holding for a moment, they might be able to phase through walls, or they might go totally invisible when someone was looking for them.
2. Gaining the ability to float, whether they want it or not. One second, they're on the ground, the next? They're floating slowly away... you might want to hold onto something. Generally, the maximum height seems to be a few feet above the ground, but it can grow from spending too long chilling with the shades!
3. Gaining very, very basic telekinesis -- think being able to lift small objects with your mind and chucking them a minor distance. Of course, it will generally be very, very accidental.

• Here's a fun fact: the majority of the curers in the last event were yellow! With that in mind, there's been a bit of a change in the Town. In Flavo, there is now a frozen lake, plopped right in the middle of the district. It's not too terribly large; it would take about ten minutes to walk around the entirety of it. But no matter how warm it gets, the lake will remain frozen over, year-round.
  
  This lake will allow any characters who peer into it to see a brief vision of something happening back home. It can be mundane, or life-shattering; we'll leave that up to you. Just keep in mind that it's very brief (no more than thirty seconds at most), and will often be very disjointed!
  
  The locations page has been updated to reflect this.
  
  
• Along that note, please be sure to respond here if you haven't already if your character was cured during the event and by whom!
  
  
• Becaaaause -- all of the characters who weren't cured will be receiving customized requirements to restore their hair/eye colors, which we will start handing out later this evening and into tomorrow.

• There's no Snow Queen. The throne is empty, the halls are quiet. Where is she...? It's a mystery, honestly. But no character will be able to find or encounter her during this event.
  
• It's possible to leave the castle, but you'll be walking out into a barren, snowy waste. You can walk and walk and walk for the entirety of the week and never see any other civilization.
  
• It's not entirely correct to say the castle is completely empty: there are snowflake knights wandering the palace, prepared to try to subdue anyone and shove them into the frigid dungeons. They can be defeated and killed (they will burst into a pile of snow!) but their weapons are also very real and very sharp.

• Character aligned with a light element/sun powers/similar such things
  
• Characters that have never killed another person (note: not necessarily another human, but explicitly another person-like being that has a similar level of sentience)
  
• Characters that pretty consistently have good intentions for the people around them
  
• Characters that are virgins
  
• Characters that are princes or princesses
  
• Characters that are martyrs, have a great deal of self-sacrificial tendencies, or have acted in a self-sacrificial manner