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

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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!

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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.

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Gaia is where you're from? Sounds...well, I'm not sure how it sounds, but it's still a cooler name than Earth."

Earth, which means dirt. Great idea for the name of a planet.

Oh, and here's her sweetheart, and Luz is all doe eyes now.

"They look great on you. I was in the water a little while ago. Honestly, it's...been a rough month."

"No, no. Gaia's the friend. The world I'm from is usually called Hydaelyn, after the goddess."

Well. Sort of. But it's Complicated. He focuses instead on Lexi. It's cute how Luz lights up...

"I'm glad you two could connect. She seems all right now, though I didn't know her before. I gave her a sandwich." He gives Luz a friendly pat, smiling.

And Lexi pretty much glowed, her dark brown eyes warm and happy.

"Thank you for being there when I couldn't be. I--well, saying that she's very important to me is an understatement. And, jeez, I should have thought of her being hungry or staked out the beach or something."

"Oh, oops, sorry."

Luz lowered the blanket a moment. "Actually, both names are pretty nice."

She nodded about the sandwich, giving them a thumbs up.

"It wasn't my plan, believe me! It was just...a compulsion, I guess? I'm thinking it's part of the weirdness that happened this month."

"Yes, that's likely. I've... already noticed that this place keeps throwing things at us."

Last month was... rough... for him. He sighs and rakes up a little mound of sand. "It's not her fault at all. This place is just strange, and I've only been here for a month and a half."

"And five bucks says that what those," idiots, "people tried doing in the ocean didn't help. If I were Mariana, I'd be good and pissed and looking to take it out on anyone possible. Makes sense using insane Pthumerian logic."

Last month had been hard for her, too. This month has been...strange. She'd wanted to keep Luz within eye-shot at all times, but she knew that wasn't healthy and she'd need her time with her other friends. She had enough self-awareness even with everything that was going on to know that.

And, a low, companionable chuckle. "It doesn't get any less strange the longer you're here, trust me. Neither is there any method to the madness. It's like--oh hey! This month, everyone's homicidal! Good luck with that!"

"Oh right, I forgot about that. Tried to keep my nose out of it, for once. Turns out there's some guy who thinks he's a god that tried to overthrow a Pthumerian. But I don't know if that's a Mariana thing so much as it's Reckoning."

Luz was slowly starting to see how each Pthumerian had their own way of bringing their influence into Trench, and how it in turn affected the lives of the Sleepers, but especially if the Sleepers were getting into shenanigans of their own.

Lexi would realize that Luz could get into a LOT of things all on her own.

"A warning would have been nice," Luz croaked from the blanket. "Maybe a helmet."

"I don't really know what they did to the ocean... I do know that it's had me a little out of sorts." His Echo has been going off... flashbacks from other people can be interesting or helpful, but not when it's so sensitive. "I need to do more research on these Pthumerians."

He doesn't know enough, and when he doesn't know, he researches.

"Warnings would be good, though I don't think we're getting any. I'm sure we could find you a helmet if you wanted though, Luz."

"Neither do I, but I did see that guy post on the network saying something about 'yeah, my bad.' If he even took that much responsibility." So much of the more supernatural, Lexi didn't really expose herself to. She was still shaky with her Darkblood abilities and she didn't want to pick a fight she didn't think she had a chance of winning. "You and me, both. There's got to be more than the SparkNotes version we're given of them."

She'd been busy getting her bookstore organized and ready, but. She was also an arcane scholar. Maybe a little more time in the library couldn't hurt?

"Yes. Yes, I want Luz to have a helmet. And full tactical gear, like they have in militias." She smiled fondly at Luz. "I know better to try and keep you out of danger just because, but humor me when it comes to trying to keep you ready?"

"He's someone that says he's a god. You can probably guess his whole deal. They wanted to usurp a Pthumerian to make a name for themselves, failed and probably got a bunch of people killed. That would be enough to want to fight him and be angry with him, but I get the feeling he thrives with people paying attention to him, so I don't want to do that."

It angered her that someone like Bill Cipher was walking around, but it was even more irritating to give people like that fuel.

Luz was with them both on that. Look things up a little more, make sure there was a way to help people if things somehow got worse.

"That was a joke, guys," Luz said, looking disappointed. "Also, I would look horrible in fatigues."

She laughed. "I can count on you to watch my back, mi chiquita!"

Wait, isn't Lexi taller than Luz?

It's fine, Nara'a doesn't understand Spanish at all.

"I see. If he's a god... I might have to keep an eye on him." He has a bone to pick with beings that call themselves gods. He's fought plenty of them. Then again, the gods he's used to are probably very different than others.

"As long as you're both safe and together, that's what matters, right?"

Lexi's studied enough of French and Italian to get a general sense of what's going on but she's not sure she's supposed to, so she generally keeps quiet.

"I'm an atheist and I want to have a word with god about all of this. Not necessarily the white haired, white bearded cisgender white guy out of Judeo-Christian mythology, but the actual god. The one who impregnated Mary the same way Zeus did. The one who killed no one knows how many people to get a do-over."

But she leans against Luz. "Yeah. That's what matters, absolutely. I really can't thank you enough for helping her."

It was just a cute nickname, relax guys.

"Be careful then. I feel like he's one of those guys that has charisma but no regard for actual life, especially if we can be brought back how we are. He could be pretty dangerous."

Until he directly tried to hurt her friends, Luz was going to try and stay out of things.

"I don't know if that's the god that he is, but he sure seems like a pretty bad one in general. We should probably keep an eye on him."

She smiled, hugging her girlfriend. "Yup! Thanks for bring me mi preciosa!"

He has... no idea what Lexi's talking about. He vaguely understands the word atheist in theory though not in practice. The stuff about Judeo-Christian whatever... she's lost him. But he just nods politely and makes a note to go look up what she's talking about later.

"Yes... he sounds it. I'll watch out for him. But you two together... that's all the sweetness I'm going to need for the day." He laughs a little, shaking his head. "You two seem very happy together. I'm glad."

After all, it'd be terrible to send someone back to a relationship where they weren't loved.

She continually forgets that she's working with multiple belief systems. She's getting better at not to, but not to doesn't mean not at all, so she ends up blathering about subjects entirely foreign to her fellow conversationalists.

And she sounds pleased at that. "Really? Well...we are very happy together. And we'll both do our best to keep it that way."

Well, even if the L-word hadn't been used yet, it was a matter of time.

Luz, meanwhile, knows a little better than to indulge in specific Earth things when the person she'd talking to seems to be from another world. She knew Lexi might find it hard to do that at first, because reminding yourself Earth is not the default was difficult.

"He might not be the only one that needs watching," Luz added darkly, noting how things had started to sound way more dangerous lately on the network. "But thanks, for the help again. If you ever want to visit, I'm in Cassandra, the house with the tower sticking out of it!"

She smiled, taking Lexi's hand. "Yup, even if we make everyone sick doing it!"

They're creeping toward it, very slowly.

"I'm out in Feed, past the lanterns a bit - but if you're ever in the area you're welcome to come by and visit. It's light brick with a red roof... there's usually some construction materials in the yard as well, we're fixing the place up."

It's cute, either way. "And if either of you ever need help with anything, don't hesitate to ask. I'm usually around more in the night, but you don't have to worry about waking me up or anything." He's not D, he's not a vampire - even if he doesn't really know what that word means.

"My house is in Gaze. It's almost literally impossible to miss it, it's bright yellow with pink trim. And I was going to ask for help with flower beds, but there was that month that the flowers were mimicked, so that was the end of that."

She gave Luz's hand a squeeze and leaned in a little more. "We will. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you helped Luz, I, well. I should have been there."

"Ooh, sounds nice! Pretty easy to spot too! I haven't been in Feed too much, now I have a reason to seek it out more! Who else are you with though, you mentioned a 'we.' I'm up all hours, so that shouldn't be a problem!"

She was curious, of course!

Luz turned to her girlfriend, a bright smile on her face. "Hey, you're here now, and that's what matters. I couldn't think of a more perfect way for this cursed month top start to end. I meet a new friend, and they help me reunite with my girlfriend. I'm in good company!"

"Oh, I live with Gaia and also sometimes D, when he comes around." He doesn't mind letting her know. It's not like it's a secret, of course.

He nods and smiles at Luz, reaching out to gently muss her hair. He can't help it - she's young and cute.

"I'm glad. We should probably get you home soon, though - now that you're all dried off and full of food."

Lexi grins. "That must be nice. I keep wondering if I should advertise for roommates, I have two perfectly good bedrooms in my house going unused."

Luz is adorable! And cute and pretty and all manner of superlatives.

"Yeah, that should be good. I'll walk Luz to her house, try to help her fend people off if they get too nosy. This is...kind of a really personal thing."

Boy, people really were tousling her hair this month! She'd be frustrated by that if she didn't like it so much, and yes, Luz certainly liked feeling young and cute, even if she was still trying to be taken seriously too!

"I'll look you up then!"

Luz looked over at Lexi, beaming a little.

"You mean I have to compete for your attention? Sounds like a fun challenge!"

Though a part of her definitely wanted to be sure that Lexi was taken care of even if she wasn't there.

Luz nodded, leaning on her girlfriend a little here. "I'm sure they'll give me space. People are pretty understanding."

Still, it did feel a little nice to have someone fussing over her like this.

"Sounds good to me." He smiles again and helps Luz out of the blanket/towel. He sighs and starts organizing his things a little bit.

"You seem like you should probably go lie down or something. Recover from all of this with your girlfriend. Go have fun."

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