Activity Check

[sunshinemods]

Activity check is here! If you for some reason didn't make it, please contact a mod so we know. If you don't, we'll have to assume you decided the game was not for you and left us. Don't worry though, there will be a warning list so you have some time, but please be sure to talk to us!

If you don't contact us, or get your check in, by the 7th, it will be late and we will try to contact you.

Activity will consist of one (1) current post, and ten (10) comments from your character in no more than two threads OR fifteen (15) comments from your character in no more than three threads. If the multiple thread option us used, each thread must have at least five (5) comments from your character. You may also use ten (10)/fifteen (15) comments from your character in a post.

Acceptable activity:
Posts can be logs, voice, missives, (or a combined post of these) so long as they are for the current activity month.

Current, in this instance, means between the first and last day of the activity month only. This means that once it becomes the 1st and the Activity Check starts, it's considered tags and posts for the next activity month!

Threads may be on the post being used for AC.
Threads may be on posts from previous months so long as the comments are from the current month.
Threads may be on a test drive post so long as both characters are currently in game and the comments are for the current month.
Threads may be on an activity meme post so long as the comments are for the current month.
Threads may be in inbox/contact posts so long as the comments are from the current month.
Threads may be posted in log format to the community from another source, as long as they were posted in the current activity month in the manner detailed by the rules, and have the appropriate number of comments defined within. They can be used as a post.

A post with ten/fifteen current month comments, from you, may be used as your comments. Please note that the post in question does not have to be yours, but it will have to have all your comments if this method is chosen.

Half Activity is either a post or ten comments for the month! Please keep this in mind if you hiatused or are new!

Anyone who was new this last month only has to have half activity.

Penalties! Yes, we're afraid that not making Activity has a few consequences, but fear not! It's not so bad.

The first penalty is an IC consequence. Your character will have been found to have done something wrong and is confined to their current location. This can be a village in the middle of nowhere, a village not theirs, or maybe even jail, but you will be stuck there until next Activity check concludes.

The second missed Activity Check in a row means that we'll sadly have to take you off the lists and let you go.

Please keep in mind that you can always apply back in if you lose your character this way! It's also wholly avoidable if you contact the mods and let us know what's going on though. We want to work with you, and we really don't want to see anyone lose their characters to something like this.

Without further rambling, the AC form:
<b>Player Name:</b> <b>Character:</b> Name | <i>Series</i> | <user name=""> <b>Activity:</b> <a href="">Post</a>, <a href="">Thread</a>, <a href="">Thread</a> If the character is new, please put 'New' by their activity. Alternately if you were on Hiatus two weeks or more put 'hiatus'.

A Bit of News

[sunshinemods]

If you wish to volunteer for any missions listed, please simply contact a mod or comment here, we'll post a comment to use for mission sign ups, and we'll contact you with your secret missioney details. Any incoming players are more than welcome to comment to this after their acceptance as well! Feel free to jump straight into the event or missions. In fact, we encourage it.

Missions
Kiri offered a B-rank courier mission to Tea.

Suna offered a C-rank escort mission to Keys.

Kiri offered a B-rank escort mission to Rivers.

Kiri offered a C-rank courier mission in Grass.

Konoha offered a C-rank information gathering mission in Demons.

Konoha offered an A-rank assassination in Bears.

Suna offered a B-rank escort mission in Swamps.

Oto offered a B-rank information mission in Earth.

Ame offered a C-rank escort mission in Fire.

Rumors and Intelligence
Kiri has ended up being besieged with courier and transport requests so that their seals can be used for trade due to the increased shipwreck risks.

Non-Kage countries, that aren't allied specifically with a country, have come to be nearly impassible, involving hours of delays and hostile defenses with any attempts to bypass them.

Due to the weather situation, all countries in the Southeast segment of the continent seem to have a decline in activity recently.

Ame has returned nearly to stonewalling levels of the pre-alliance to visitors.

Weather and Goods
Fire's intense cold has turned from just being unprecedented temperatures, to being one of the most intense storm systems the country has dealt with in several years. Over Konoha especially, the storm will be leaving the area with no less than a foot of snow, which is combined with unfortunate layers of ice as it alternates between sleeting and snow over the course of a day in the first week of the month. There were also very high chances of damage due to lightning strikes from the unusual lightning system that accompanied the cold weather.

Wind seems to have been suffering the side effects of the storm system to the East, and had a dramatic temperature spike before they had the first snow storm over the Eastmost side of the country since the forming of the Hidden Villages. It seems to be of similar nature to the one in Fire, and intensified over Suna, lingering several days longer in one of the longest rainstorms the area has seen in over a decade.

Rock has the best weather in all of the Elemental Nations this month, with clear skies, unhindered trade, and springtime weather. They're bewildered by the early thaw.

Lightning is comfortably settled in their icy rain, though otherwise it seems to be business as usual throughout the country.

Water's Fog situation has spread to the point that shipwrecks on the islands have hit record highs this year, and it has made trade incredibly difficult in the process.

Local Holiday!
Winter Reminder!
General Information
This is a Konoha holiday when you give some kind of present, almost always food, to someone you care about to show you’re thinking of them. It’s rarely celebrated with any festivals, but parties are known to be held on one of the three days of the tradition, February 13th, 14th, and 15th, and candy is by far the most popular gift because of the story behind it.

It’s a widely accepted practice to exchange gifts on these three days, with the progression going as such: The first day is for men to give gifts, the second day is for women to give gifts, and the last day is for couples and families to spend together.

Holiday History
This holiday began with the Akimichi, and they brought it to Konoha with them when they joined the village. It’s based on a story from early in the clan as to how they first created the pills that they use to fuel their jutsu, and spread quickly to the other villagers as a cheerful event to show affection after other clans witnessed the Akimichi doing it.

Story of the Holiday
One day, long ago, there was a couple. They were a happy pair, and had been wed just the autumn before a long, harsh winter. Hunting had been hard in that time, but the husband, young and strong, had still managed to bring home game for meals, no matter how long it took him. Still, his wife, a beautiful woman with deft hands in the kitchen, often worried when he was gone for days.

This time he was gone for nearly a week, and she couldn’t wait any longer to go find him. Packing up a thermos with hot soup, she had a pocket full of the candies she’d made in expectation of him coming home. If nothing else, she could offer them as an apology for not having faith in his hunting skills if all was well. This was her thought, and thus with her scarf securely covering her face against the biting wind, she set out to find her man.

And find him she did, after a day of searching, only to be horrified that he’d been trapped in an avalanche while she sat warm at home, and breaths barely left him any longer. His lips were blue and his skin washed out, with only the condensation of his breath reassuring her that half buried or not, he was definitely alive.

It was probably the dead game tucked around him that saved him, she was sure, and she promised herself that she’d do something special for him as soon as she got him home. First, however, she had to get him home, and she was a small woman who wouldn’t be able to carry him on her own.

First, she tried shaking him, after carefully unburying him, but it did nothing. Next, she tried to lend him the warmth of the soup she’d carried with her, but it was frozen solid inside the thermos. It was useless. Last, and finally, she considered the candies, which she knew tended to invigorate him when she fed them to him in the past, though this was a new recipe...

So she fed him one of the candies, and it worked! He woke! She was so happy, and they made their way back home, though he was understandably chilled through and needed to lean on her heavily, and stayed put until the thaw.

Suffice to say, they celebrated her excellent instincts and the anniversary of his survival every year after.