deercountry | magic, madness, heaven, sin

magic, madness, heaven, sin

JULY 2022 EVENT

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: A statue of Lady Justice with her sword against a man's throat. ]
[Image Two: A pair of hands covered in blood. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Two people trying to reach one another being pulled back by multiple, disembodied hands. ]
[Image Two: A feminine figure lying on a boardwalk above the ocean. ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A pair of black scales held by a statue. ]
[Image Two: A single hand reaching up from the water, implying drowning. ]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

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GOOD AND EVIL

WHEN: July
WHERE: All over
CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, revenge, possible torture, possible death, mental manipulation

An excerpt from the book Thus Comes the Reckoning:

Are we inherently good or evil? Are we hard-wired for empathy? Or is violent behavior our innate reaction when the world has done us wrong? This is something that has been debated for centuries, even in the times Before Sodder. Have we evolved since the Dreamless World? Since the Nightmare? Have the Pthumerians and their blessings made us more peaceful and understanding?

While it is true that our world is more generous and caring than the ones we have read about in the Dreamless World, where in spite of our shortages, we want for nothing that we truly need, the very existence of corruption and beasthood should speak of our true natures and of the true natures of Sleepers. There is no time that this is more prominent in our world than in the month of July, when the Reckoning holds sway.

It is unclear if it is the unbearable heat, the Pthumerian's influence, or perhaps just our true selves coming forth, but each July is the prelude to chaos. The pleasantries die off, the generosity wanes, and we forget the lessons of our more kind and gentle benefactors. Fist fights over minor disagreements, people attacking one another with weapons when they don't get their way or wait too long in line, and murders over the loss of a game. Does the summer make monsters of us all? Or does the Beast Moon simply encourage what is already inside of us?

Sleepers will find themselves encouraged towards violence. Many will be drawn to do evil. They will feel a pull to hurt others, particularly those who have hurt them first. Anger will seem like a natural state and many will find that they have lost all ability to reason when they become even minorly frustrated. Vigilante justice will seem like a great idea. Did someone hurt your loved one? Then tear them apart! Did a person borrow something from you and never return it? End them. Criminal activity will skyrocket, particularly violent criminal activity, throughout the month of July. People will feel more inclined to steal, to damage property, to kill, and to get revenge. Torturing others will seem like a perfectly reasonable idea. It is the month to do so and it might even feel good to hurt other people.

Sleepers will also feel violently protective of those they love. They will want to make sure that the violent crimes happening to other people doesn't happen to their people and they might go to such extremes as locking their loved ones up so that nothing can get to them. It's an obsessive need to protect and not let go. Someone might even feel so inclined as to kill their friends just to make sure that no one else can hurt them.

On the flip side, those who manage to resist the violent urges will be more inclined to help those who are violent. Even if you are someone who has never wanted to help another person, you will be drawn to do good. It's not impossible to talk others down, to sway them to being better people and to remembering who they are. It's just a lot of work. But still, those who are impacted by the good will feel that same need to protect others; only for them, it doesn't have to necessarily be someone they know. They want to do the right thing, to protect people from themselves. Unlike the evil, they will know there are limits, and they will not hurt others in their attempt to protect them. But they may end up being willing to, possibly uncharacteristically, sacrifice themselves to do so.

QUICK FACTS: 1. You can only be impacted by The Good or The Evil at one time. Someone who is Good can be corrupted into becoming Evil. If someone is talked down from being Evil, they can either go back to being their normal selves, or they can become impacted by The Good instead. This can happen as many times in the month as possible, but they can only be Good or Evil at one time. You can not be both at once.

2. Characters who can usually heal demons/possessions/etc. can cure Evil in people. Their powers will work the same as they would in their canon/from their blood powers. Game based items that would normally cure corruption however will NOT work to cure Evil. They will still work to cure corruption/beasthood.

3. The Reckoning can still punish you. Just because you're being influenced by outside forces won't matter to her. If she catches you doing something bad and it isn't for revenge purposes, she will punish you as she sees fit. This is left up to player interpretation.

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FORTUNE'S FOOL

WHEN: July
WHERE: All over
CONTENT WARNINGS: Star-Crossed lovers, encouraged suicidal ideation, possible death

Love. A complicated feeling that puts people into complicated circumstances. And yet, people will find themselves focused on this emotion more so than usual this month. For someone who is already in love, the emotions will become even stronger, almost overwhelming, wanting to burst out of them like a song. For those who were not in love before, they may find themselves suddenly easily falling for others. Maybe they will love multiple people or maybe just one, but love will be an all consuming emotion to those who fall victim to it.

The only problem is that love isn't always accepted. People who are deeply in love will suddenly start to feel persecuted and judged from those around them. They will feel as though their love is unallowed, that the person that means the most to them is being rejected by their family, their friends, by society itself. It doesn't matter if that's the truth: there's just something inside of people that makes them thoroughly convinced that their love is not meant to be. Star-Crossed. Unattainable.

There will be an increased urge to solidify that love as being real and unbreakable. Maybe this is done through fighting back against those who are saying no. Maybe it comes in the form of secretly saying vows and loved ones spiritually tying themselves together forever. Or maybe in the end, the only true way that lovers feel they can truly be together... is in death. All of these will seem like reasonable options— or maybe even the only option. Love is never ending, after all, even if life is.

QUICK FACTS: 1. Anyone can fall in love with anyone else. It doesn't have to be the character that you're already shipping with if all players agree! You can fall in love with someone you know, someone you've just met, or even a total stranger. Love is a gift to everyone, right??? Who needs pesky things like introductions.

2. You do not have to commit suicide. You can, of course, and many will definitely feel drawn to it with the basis of the prompt, but it is not required. Please make sure to mark all threads accordingly!

3. The persecution against your relationship does not have to be real. You can, however, tie this into the first prompt, and have even the smallest slights be reason to think that your love is persecuted. Similarly, people who are impacted by the first prompt may be more likely to actually shun those who are in love. Feel free to work with it however you see fit!

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OUR OWN PRISONS

WHEN: July
WHERE: All over, but particularly by the ocean.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Self-hatred, judgement, suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, possible drowning.

Everyone has personal flaws. Things about themselves they don't like, reactions they wish they didn't have, habits that they want to break. Sometimes the awareness of flaws can outweigh the awareness of our strengths as well. It's easy to get caught up in the feeling that we're less then perfect, that we'll never be able to fix ourselves no matter what we do.

This month, those feelings seem to be amplified. Sleepers will see flaws everywhere; in the people they love, in the Trenchies, and most heavily in themselves. Feelings of self-hatred and judgement will be amplified and even those who are usually confident in themselves will find that they're suffering from it. Sometimes these feelings may manifest as a simple bout of anger and depression; but for others, it can become more severe quickly.

Those who find themselves suffering heaviest from these feelings will feel called to the ocean. Maybe it's a desire to go back to a squid form, a place that's simpler and more straight forward. Or maybe it's the unbearable heat that's putting these thoughts in someone's head and they'll feel like going for a swim would cure it. But there's something inside everyone that knows that if they go into the ocean, they might not come back out again.

Sleepers will feel like the ultimate judgement is waiting for them out there. If they are seeing flaws more in themselves, being by the ocean will amplify feelings of suicide. If they're seeing flaws in everyone else, they might feel compelled to bring those people down to the ocean to drown them. The ocean, associated so heavily with rebirth, could be the very thing to cleanse people of their imperfections, after all. Maybe it would be a favor to everyone if someone just gave in and tried to fix themselves and others. For the good of Trench.

QUICK FACTS: 1. These feelings can cause people to become more corrupt. The longer they are exposed to these feelings, the closer they will get to high levels of corruption, and eventual beasthood.

2. Because these feelings can cause corruption, they can also be relieved through the same methods as corruption. Talking, touching, Moon Drops, get some therapy, whatever the player chooses.

3. People who do not address their feelings and/or who spend too much time by the ocean will inevitably deal with feelings of suicide and/or homicide. Please be sure to handle these topics appropriately and content warn your threads.

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CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good and Evil OTA

She could feel the rising in her head, and her head was awash with voices that were hard to ignore. Everywhere she went, she could feel her irritation getting stronger, that urge to just hit something, to give into her feelings and let that part of herself go.

And then she thought of Lexi, and that feeling, that urge, just got all that much smaller in her, and that led her to think of her home, of the people that helped her keep going, so she would manage a smile, she would bear the people pushing at her, throwing a curse in her direction, taking one hit after another. Sure, it was much harder than she expected, and she had hoped her return to Trench's every day would be less of a hassle, but that was not exactly what she signed up for, was it? So Luz endured, and was hoping she'd be able to help out anyone that was getting affected by this.

There's a Place for Us [Closed to Lexi Howard]

Luz had gotten the letter from Korra, so she knew the girl was gone. After a lot of crying (and there was a LOT), Luz finally pinged Lexi to come and meet her at her place. Once the girl arrived, she'd see Luz dressed in the outfit that Ochako had picked out for her to wear. Luz couldn't help herself: she was feeling low, but she also wanted to make an impression on her girlfriend as she showed her what had been left for her.

"Hey Lexi. Thanks for coming. I have something I want to show you!"

Our Own Prisons OTA

It had been a long month.

Luz had dealt with as much as she could, and honestly? It was a lot, even for her. While she was never one for the idea that she should ever commit suicide (she knew enough that the road to thinking like THAT was dark and meant losing out on life) there was still a lingering sad space in her heart right now, where she lost so many people in the last few months, and coming out this month had gotten her a fair share of bruises and some strange happenings that even she hadn't expected, things she couldn't help but wonder if she was becoming a burden.

She sure felt like one. Or at least, she felt like her attempts to cheer up, to try and make things better, had definitely fell on deaf ears this month. She started to wonder if being happy, something she hadn't felt for a time, had impacted her ability to be open to those that weren't feeling that way. Suddenly she started to remember ALL her failings, from Usagi to Midoriya to even Willow this month, and recall how she'd frustrated her own housemates enough that she'd caused them to be frustrated with her. Now here she was, with a girlfriend and a second HOUSE, and she had the nerve to try and tell other people to try and be happy, to resist the rage?

Who did she think she was?

So Luz walked away and had found herself where it all started, or at least where she started HERE: the waters, where all the squids came to become the Sleepers, and she looked around her, closing her eyes, slowly just...wandering in.

What would happen if she got too deep? Would she become a squid again? See all of her fellow Sleepers that left her? Would she be cleansed? Find relief?

Would anyone care?

Nara'a enjoys the beach, more than some might think. It's less the feeling of the sand between his toes and more the feeling of connection, of the world touching the same ocean that he's looking at. He wanders along the beach for a bit before he spots a young girl wading into the water.

Curiosity compels him to take a closer look, raising a hand as he calls out to her. "Hey there. Are you all right? You look a little sad." And no one should be sad at the beach. The beach is a place for fun! Even this beach.

Luz looked up. It was a...guy. With wolf ears. Huh.

This would have been something that would immediately have had Luz's attention were she not feeling so out of sync right now. The water was supposed to be calming, but all she could see in it was how it reclaimed all of her friends. How she kept being left behind, how she wanted that feeling to STOP.

"I've felt better," Luz said simply, looking at the water and trying to will away the numbing. "I thought it would be a rough month, but man. That was something else."

Cat ears, but he's not going to argue the point. His tail wiggles around, the brush on the end skimming the water's surface.

"I'm sorry." And he sounds like he means it. "That's really awful. Do you want to talk about it? Or we could talk about something else. I'm still pretty new here... my name's Nara'a, by the way. What's yours?"

But they looked like such big ears! That was, of course, not what Luz was thinking about, and did her best not to notice the tail wiggling either. She was sad, darn it.

"Luz Noceda." Luz seemed to sink into the water a little bit. "Oh, you know. Got myself bonded to a friend while I have a great girlfriend already. Got attacked by a friend whose a witch...again. Failed to help someone even despite my intentions. One bad thing after another, and then my friends are gone. They always seem to leave at times when things get really bad for me.

Sometimes I wonder if I should just join them in that great big sea."

Luz Noceda | The Owl House

Our Own Prisons

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There's a Place for Us

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