ORIGIN - Celebrating Two Years! (+Belated OTMs)

Celebrating Two Years!

February's OTM Winners!

Here are your belated results for February's OTM poll! Congratulations to Kyorai as February's Character of the Month, Mosi + Kin-Kin as Pair of the Month, Zevruu as our Member of the Month, and I can't wait here silent, gotta make a change and make some noise as our Thread of the Month!

Unfortunately, we do not have images for winners are this time.
We do have blurbs this month in the meantime! Check the post below!

Origin's Two Year Anniversary!

On April 28^th, 2015, we celebrated The Grand Opening of Origin. The Gembounds have overcome some great feats since then! The Quest List in the Guidebook has been updated. Here are some of the major quests the Gembounds have completed in the cave:

Shed Some Light — The Gembounds figured out how to power the lights in the cave, destroying the dam diverting the crystal stream, resulting in water returning to the riverbed. This powered the machine there, a generator, but also caused golems to awaken. The lights have turned on, but now there was an abundance of golems roaming Polaris!

The Strangeness of Cetus — A buzzing led the Gembounds to Cetus, prompting the emergence of a massive sea monster named Aquarian. He attacks the Gembounds, only to learn that many years have passed while he slept, and that he had been abandoned by someone. In an act of defiance against his "Creator," Aquarian offers his allegiance to the Gembounds so long as they bring him offerings.

The Carvings — The lichens have filled in the divets in the wall. The carving can now be seen, but there are chunks of rock missing, particularly in the middle. Characters can examine and speculate on the carvings as they please.

The Beast's Best Friend — After returning the lost armor pieces and the serendebite to Beast, another strange Gembound appears: Jupiter. Jupiter and Beast engage in a battle, digging into one anothers' pasts, before the Beast revives the Serendebite, revealing it to be another part of himself. The twin creatures combine, creating Totum, who chases Jupiter away and thanks the Gembounds for helping them. Totum becomes an ally to the Gembounds.

The Fiery Pit — After reigning terror on Polaris for a couple of cycles, Deer Dad is finally able to revive the great ice phoenix Tenzin. With the help of the Gembounds, Deer Dad and Tenzin are able to launch an attack on Raheerah. However, they are no match for the great dragon - until a small sprite appears and leads it up into a hole in the roof, away from the Gembounds. For now.

O Eyes, What Do You See? — After the crystal pools in Eridanus shut their reflections away from the Gembounds, a terrifying shadow began to haunt them. Fleeing Eridanus, the shadow with many eyes enveloped Canis in complete darkness and took the hyena Giggle hostage! The shadow played tricks and mocked the Gembounds as they struggled through Canis to rescue Giggle. It turned out to be a feline figure, corrupted by something, but was defeated anyway and released the hyena; but Giggle was never quite the same. The shadow is now known as the NPC Senka.

Organ Cave — Following an earthquake, a surge of magic brings a group of Gembounds to investigate a feeling they can't shake. They come upon several skeletons, but after defeating those, the Organ Monster hauls itself over the edge of the newly formed crevice the earthquake caused! After an exhausting battle, they extinguish the new life as quickly as it had been born, and its remains fall back into the crevice. The crevice slowly closes back up.

Wharrgarbl — A surge of water has broken through a wall in Tunnel M! When the Gembounds arrive, Totum is there trying to figure out a door-like mechanism the water is coming through. After successfully dodging surges of water and helping Totum with the lever, the Gembounds discover a whole new room: Fornax, "The Great Furnace"!

In Progress — Quest: To-Do List P2

When the lights went out in the cave, the Gembounds went to check out the generator they fixed during Shed Some Light. There they found the cat sprite Nemean. She offered to help! However, the lights have been out in the cave for several cycles now; and though Nemean proposed a way to help the Gembounds with the generator to get the lights back on, she has grown tired of waiting.

She sent the Gembounds to different locations to bring her back different things, but she can only be so patient! While Nemean would have liked the Gembounds to gather the items for her, she has gone to collect the items herself! The sprite sabotaged the generator in the first place, so Nemean has turned the lights back on to try and bring the Gembounds back to her location.

Accelerated Quest Progression. Nemean needs them to fetch one last thing for her, and this is something only the Gembounds can retrieve for her. She knows where to start looking, but it will take the Gembounds to bring it back.

Activity Lull - Still Blazing On!

Our activity is in a slump right now, and it has happened in the past as well. We choose to keep Origin open during these times with some supported admin and mod functionality because it is a specialized forum and sometimes some characters from Origin cannot be ported or translated to other forums easily, so for those people who wish to continue to write and develop their characters on Origin, we encourage your play.

We are always around to do general maintenance so if you ever have questions, concerns, or general curiosities about Origin, please feel free to contact Game Master CJ. She can answer herself or forward the message to/ask Origin creator Madison. Otherwise, our mods Moonlit Dream (Kin-Kin) and Fira are around the most right now to help!

What Lies Beyond?

An activity lull does not mean we are sitting back and doing nothing! Surely, something ~~big~~ is planned as a reward for helping Nemean...? Such an Enchanting Mystery!! What does it all mean!?

Reminders

As usual, we'd like to remind you guys about a few things...

Vote for Origin!
At the bottom of the index in our affiliates section we have a button for Animus Top 50. If you'd like to help out raising awareness about Origin, you can click that button and vote for us! Of course this isn't necessary, only a small favor to Origin should you choose to do it.

Thread Sweep
All threads that have not been posted in since February 1st have been archived.

The Cave Report

Whether 'tis nobler to suffer
After a long meditation, Astaroth calls out for anyone in the vicinity. His initial search is for the cat, Bartos, but instead he finds the wolf Cuanakrys. The introduce themselves: Astaroth asks if the red wolf has seen Bartos. Cuanakrys notes that she goes by Cuan for short and that she has not seen a cat by the name of Bartos.

Eyes Filled With Stars (Hatching!)
Solani's hatching thread! She's in love with glittering ceiling of Orion. The carrion crow chick is found by Equinox after failing an attempt at climbing down the cliff, now stuck with an injured leg. Equinox offers to bring Solani to someone that can help, and Solani takes comfort in the dragon's swaying movements as they walk. Their goal is Tukluk in Eridanus, but Solani is hungry! Will Tukluk have food? Equinox asks Solani what she wants to eat, but Solani isn't sure, she just hatched after all!

into the woods
Otis hatches into a thick fog and darkness, laying for a moment and taking in the surroundings. Kin-Kin is nearby and hears the sound of his cracking chrysalis, knowing the sound all-too-well by now. Following the sound to the source, she uses Gem Summon to create a path to Otis. He is struggling to stand but his cries are hushed as he is awed by the crystal path, listening to Kin-Kin's voice. He spots her and is finally able to stand, confirming he is alright vocally and visually. Kin-Kin is glad he could do it on his own, then asks his name.

If something interesting is happening in your thread, send a PM to the Origin Cave account or alert the staff in the cbox. We'd love to cover it in the current or next issue of The Cave Report!

February OTM Blurbs!

Here are your blurbs for February OTMs! Images will be delayed (unless we have volunteers to make them), sorry! (Shout-out to Briar for writing the blurbs for February, and Arkrael for helping!)

Character of the Month — Kyorai!
February’s character of the month is a sweet pup by the name of Kyorai! This pooch started off as an inquisitive young fellow intent on adventure but don’t let that sweet face fool you! He has a tongue as sharp as his cuteness! Kyorai has met many gembounds since his emergence and, not only that, but after retreating to his chrysalis due to an eye issue he reemerged and began his quest for adventure anew! He’s still learning all he can from his elders such as the secrets of the caves, hunting, fighting, and a plethora of other things. In following Kyorai there will never be a shortage of “awws”, laughs, and surprises!

Pair of the Month — Mosi + Kin-Kin!
A self-proclaimed god and demigod of light, who would have thought that the madness could have spread? In their thread, “You’re Welcome”, Mosi and Kin-Kin meet and it is quickly discovered that the Nassain’yo sees a bit of his sister in the Magickal Champion of the Caves! He is quick to tell her about fate and about how she’s a mortal with godly powers to which Kin-Kin is all too happy to accept. There’s no doubt that with these two the caves should watch out because who knows what sort of trouble the pair could get into?

Member of the Month — Zevruu!
If there’s one person who’s around the site most of the time it is Zevruu! Whether he’s lurking on the cbox and ready to give a kind greeting or plotting out and threading great scenes between his characters he’s usually around to help spice things up. Zevruu’s one of the most active and dedicated members of the site and has been that way for over a year. A few of his more well-known characters are Aaliyah, Imperia, Kallista, Nassir, and Xin but that’s not all of them and you should go give them all a good read as they are all very interesting! We appreciate your kindness, your activity, and everything you bring to Origin Zevruu!

Thread of the Month — I can't wait here silent, gotta make a change and make some noise!
It was only a matter of time before it happened and in “I can't wait here silent, gotta make a change and make some noise” it finally did! Aaliyah, the gembound that Imperia brought back from a puma that she killed, finally broke away from Imperia’s hold and decided to go off on her own. However, she didn’t just quietly walk away. After refusing to harm the quiet Kallista she turned on Imperia and fought to earn her freedom which in the end she does! Go give this thread a read! It’s bound to have you cheering for her victory.