Sunshine OOC

Okay we have had a lot of behind the scenes work going on here. So, with that in mind, it's time to let you all know about our changes! First up, everyone, due to popular demand:

Activity Check!
We've changed several things about the way it's worded, how the requirements are handled, what the failed AC penalty is like, etc, so if there's any confusion please leave us a question about it.

Our FAQ posts got an overhaul, and not just that one, but the Application one too.

Of course, us pulling the character limits in the game means we had to Revise the Rules some as well.

All of this was set off by us deciding you all needed an explanation for How the scroll network really worked.

It also concluded with a Consolidated list of Clans and Bloodlines in the game. Our ultimate goal with this list is to have no links to outside sources, and have a profile page of our own for every clan and bloodline currently there and in game. Edit: Now there is a place to donate information! Please come tell us about your clans! We do not fear your teal-deers!

That said, if there are any unresolved questions or confusions, please, by all means, let us know, and we will do our best to clear up the issue.

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 retrieval B-rank in Bean Jam.

Konoha offered courier C-rank to Jiro Island.

Suna offered courier B-rank in Fields.

Konoha offered escort B-rank to Alnokura in Wind.

Suna offered assassination A-rank in Tea.

Uzushio offered intel C-rank on Land island.

Oto offered assassination B-rank in Lightning.

Ame offered espionage B-rank in Wind.

Kiri offered assassination B-rank in Bears.

Rumors and Intelligence
Many small countries remain nearly impassible with the rare exceptions being Uzushio and the islands. Among those that are hard to travel through, few are non-aggressive in their repelling. Rain is one of the few without hostilities.

Demons seems to be in an uproar, the cause is not clearly identified.

All contact has been lost with the Land of Moon.

The land of Birds is purported to have placed a premium on all livestock they've been buying. They've also been said to be buying quite a few goods from surrounding countries.

The Land of Sand has dramatically raised paper prices in their sales to Wind, and most especially Suna in the last month.

Otogakure is finally publicly known as a hidden village, though several others are still in question, with legitimacy being unverified.

Weather and Goods
Fire has been under a layer of ice most of the month previous, and there seems to be no end in sight. Regular sleeting rains seem to be the agenda now that the original snow has finally mostly melted, the initial storms of which will last the first week of March before tapering off.

Suna is finally getting a respite from the humid weather inspired by the rains, with the temperatures settling to slightly cooler than normal, but drier as the last of the water finally leaves the air before the spring temperatures start to spike, leaving the weather almost pleasant.

Rock's early thaw was deceptive, and led to an unfortunate loss of the first early buds of the season as they were submerged under a fresh three feet of snow late last month. It was only a single storm however, and has almost entirely melted, leaving the country back to nearly prime spring weather.

Water's fog season has finally eased back enough that ships can once again safely navigate the island networks, unfortunately, it also brings extremely high winds and heavy thunderstorms that verge on the edge of hurricane weather. The weather system is moving eastward.

Micro Event!
We hope you weren't worried we'd forgotten about these. After the kidnapping event (The last micro-event we had, where people were jutsu tied together for a week), we had to give our negative faction some time to sort themselves out and decide that maybe being a bit more aggressive with their fiddling was the way to go. They are, after all, still mostly unknown.

Though, this time it's admittedly less aggressive political maneuvering, more testing out a new jutsu to see if they can't make it do exactly what they want. Body swapping is on the table.

Every character set will be a group of two or three. You may have a representative of your unit post below on the comment for all of you, saying who is involved of course, or you may throw your character down on the comment below alone to be randomly paired off with whoever else decides to do the event that way.

What will happen is that in this event, some shinobi will be going around, hitting people with this jutsu and fleeing before they can be confronted. It's a seal so the creator can monitor how fast it degrades even at a distance, and these will be staggered any time between the 4th and the 17th of March as they won't happen at the exact same time, depending how many people are interested. Body swapping will happen instantly as soon as the seal is placed on all parties in the unit.

Players will have to decide between themselves how long the effects last, from one day to eight, and only people who reply to this post saying they're in will be involved in this event.

Have fun everyone!

Edit: VOLUNTEERING FOR THE MICRO-EVENT HAS CLOSED. Sorry guys have to plan the plot.
Plot post

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.