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

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Pyrrha considers a few of the last dinners she remembers, mostly, from the Mithraeum. Disasters (fondly). Nico has said nothing about any family members being here, so unlike her, that's not immediately relevant.

"Trust, the kind that is not based simply on people's goodwill, the kind that is earned, is never easy," Pyrrha says. "Words never mean as much as action," a nod to the conversation they are having, "I act as I believe. What people think of me for it, I leave to them." Trench is a new home, not a spy mission. There's no exit. Not even dying.

Nothing good comes when your dad cheated on his first wife with the same woman to give birth to two children, Nico being the second. Deities can hold a grudge, even if he was only a product of it.

"Yeah, it never used to be so difficult." A tired admittance. His ten-year-old self trusted a kid that wasn't much older than him, put too much on him and the fall-out wasn't easy to deal with. "So your act of belief would be to come for me? Why?"

Maybe any other time he'd leave it be, but even now someone is offering their hand as he fights the storm of his heart.

Not even an adult, by the standard of the Nine Houses and multiple other cultures where she's from, by his home's standards too she thinks, and his trust has been so thoroughly broken. It saddens her and pisses her off. Yes the world is like that. It shouldn't be. Pyrrha didn't build the Second House with Gideon to raise children in ignorance. That isn't protection. They learned of the world, but they didn't do so alone. They had each other. They had the House.

Pyrrha adjusts, her muscles ready should something happen. "I help people when I can," Pyrrha answers, "Especially when no one else will." She sighs, old and exhausted, waving one hand briefly to signal she's not entirely finished.

"I'm not trying to be a hero. There've been enough times I haven't been able to, and I've seen what happens," she says. She presses the fingers of one hand into the sand. Ten thousands years of deaths. Kids like Nico give a reason to carry on, instead of laying down to rest.

Nico idolized a twelve-year-old kid, saw him as one of the heroes from a fairytale or legend, like Hercules. But the world is a hard one for demigods, a lesson he learned early. He knows now that Percy couldn't have saved his sister, but it hadn't been able to penetrate his broken eleven-year-old heart back then. Then he'd left the safety where others like him stayed, faced the dangers of the world on his own.

There comes no interruption after her first words, considering them more than waiting for the finishing ones.

"You remind me of... a lot of people I know, actually. And knew," he uncurls a little, relaxing at her way of seeing the world around her. "They're good people. Like you."

Another moment of silence before he speaks again. "I have this friend, Bob. He wasn't always a friend, he tried to kill me and a couple of others first. Then we took all of his memories, so I got him a job. I don't know if the other two ever thought of him again, they never asked me about him. But, just because I talked about one of the others, he jumped down into Hell to risk his life for that guy."

Nico looks over at her. "Those are the kind of people I like the most."

Her smile is bittersweet, a bit sad, a bit at peace because as much as she can, she's lived and died what she believes. She can live with herself. That's all she can require.

"As long as you don't idolize me," Pyrrha says. "I've been around long enough I've done shitty things too. Give me the Bob treatment. Remembering the good and the bad." Not to mention she's forgotten plenty of memories. Not all of them, not permanently. Enough.

"Being a good person isn't a state of being," she says, "It's a choice every time to live by what you believe. I haven't been to Hell literally, only metaphorically, but I would gladly burn for what I believe and what I've done for that." She's no saint by anyone's standards.

Nico wasn't joking when he said she reminded him of a lot of people. Some who have lived and looked upon as heroes, others who have died and remembered fondly.

"No worries about that, I learned my lesson on that," spoken quietly. "I don't think length of time has anything to do with having done shitty things. I'm not looking to see only the good in people, because that's not the only part of them."

He nods at those words, understanding a lot more than she might realize. "There are things I regret, but I can't go back and change them. Just do better going forward."

Pyrrha nods, taking him at his word. It comes out eventually, if you keep knowing someone. Better if it isn't some fall off a pedestal.

"Anyone can do shitty things," Pyrrha agrees, "Time provides you ample opportunity is all." That she's had aplenty. It isn't the time to lay them all out. Many of them about things lifetimes away. "Do better and handle the repercussions." Consequences don't all come immediately. Decisions shape a lot, and how those regrets or mistakes get treated, how the issues that stem from them... well, it says a lot about a person.

"What do you see in me?" Pyrrha asks. A hard question, but she wonders.

He put someone on a pedestal immediately after meeting them, and it was the worst fall of his life. It's prevented him from doing it with anyone else, maybe to the extreme opposite. Nico has been working on balancing it a little better.

"Yeah, I know," spoken with a sigh. Nico hadn't need multiple lifetimes to do a shitty thing or two. He hasn't even needed a dozen for that. "Working on it." Change doesn't come immediately, either. It took him a few years after leaving to give people an actual chance. Years and some stubborn people.

"You're nice, to me. Dedicated and seem to have plenty of experience and knowledge when it comes to our spars. Standing next to the people you want to and willing to face danger for them. Caring enough to not walk by me, strong enough to not leave when you saw and felt something I want to forget." There's a bit of silence.

"You remind me of Jason, of Reyna. They both saw the worst of me and didn't run away."

Edited (had to change a word that gave it a whole different meaning) 2022-08-13 01:21 (UTC)

Ten thousand years of consequences. So far past the initial events that Pyrrha isn't sure how well the Ninth here can understand them. They don't have an obligation to. Ortus would probably listen. Duty puts him in enough of a hard spot as it is. More than the handful of people she knows likely affects things that long. They simply aren't there to face it. To live with it every long step of the way. A blessing.

Focus, however, returns to the situation at hand. Not a bad take on her. The qualifications, the understanding of the limits of his understanding also mark how early on it is. The wariness she can respect. "That's a lot of me what matters to me," Pyrrha says. Not everything, but that's to be expected.

She pauses. "Sharing the memory," Pyrrha recognizes gently, "is that an ability of yours or one more element of life in Trench?" It's funny actually that she cannot immediately tell. The place is that strange and the people that diverse.

There's a lot he's still coming to understand about that reality, that version of the world. Most of it through Palamedes, but Pyrrha tells him too. Maybe not in words, but the way she fights. The way their weapons meet is a different kind of talking that not everyone understands.

Nico is well-aware that all of those might apply to their relationship, but doesn't automatically extend to everyone else. Sometimes there are just people that are different from the rest. "Me too." Also, not all of it, but it gives them a start.

Her words bring the slightest of tensing, but it eases pretty quickly. "Mine. It happens when I'm upset, the worse I am, the worst it is." Pyrrha's presence did help, making it better than it could have been. "I've been working with D on better control over... all that and what else can come with it. Just my luck that this hits me on my first month here."

"Hmm," Pyrrha acknowledges immediately. She's listening and thinking and pondering the meaning from his words. The connection to upset and its correlating lack of control has its problems. Duty trusts D knows what he's doing. There's plenty Duty knows if it's needed or wanted, but no reason for too many chefs in the kitchen.

"If you need to let it out, you're welcome to come find me," he says, "or send a message, and I'll come find you." He can take it, implied. True. "As I understand it, our emotions are often influenced to one end or another. Connection, sharing, is supposed to help."

He smiles. "You're not the only one of us feeling lonely," Duty says. Other days, other months, being at the shore probably feels different. The ache and loneliness, the uncertainty whether Gideon is out there, bites.

It's something he needs to work on, and not knowing what this place will throw at him, Nico jumped on the opportunity to learn from someone who knew what it was like. Someone he couldn't really hurt.

"Things tend to die when I let it out." Sitting on the sand, it was hard to see that. Nico liked Pyrrha enough to not accidentally kill her. So even though there's the implied words, he doesn't know how well she'd stand up to that.

Once upon a time, being alone was what he strived for. Never sticking around people to get attached, to grieve when they died. "Who are you waiting for?"

Pyrrha smiles with a bit of an edge. Death doesn't scare her the way it does others. No, she's not going out of her way to die as many times as possible. If it happens, it happens. She's still waiting to see if The Reckoning comes for her.

"Dying isn't new to me," she says simply. Pyrrha's hard to kill, but people have killed John. She certainly can die. No illusion there. The guilt Nico might feel is what bothers her the most. She could talk with John, let him know it could happen. That it's nothing to take action over besides keeping her squid safe.

She turns back toward the ocean and the unspoken promises it holds. "My partner," Pyrrha answers, "Known each other my whole life before... recently." Not quite the moment she landed on the beach, but in the timescale she's lived more or less the case. Only the pain lets her know it's more.

Another thing she has in common with some of his friends. Some of them aren't afraid of dying, face it on the regular and do whatever they can to prevent it. It doesn't mean Nico wants to hurt the people who are trying to close to him.

"Doesn't mean I want to inflict that on you." He thinks back to Bryce, how the other demigod threatened him, his friends. Nico lost his sense of self, wasn't aware of what he was doing even after he came back to himself. His friends had to tell him.

Dark eyes focus out on the water, sure it holds unspoken promises but also potential heartbreak. "If you could find them and drag them here, would you?"

She inclines her head slightly in recognition of the point. How much has she done so as not to force someone to inflict that on her? So that he doesn't feel that pain? He's dead. She's the sole occupant of her body. That particular pain no longer risks happening.

Nico's question prods at that loss and that injury, at everything learning the truth would inflict upon him. Pyrrha could say Let it be his choice. If he knew she were here and alive, Pyrrha would not have to drag him out of the ocean. He would swim, crawl, and drag himself to her. He would be here, she's certain of it. Either he's making his way here past all that would stop him or he doesn't know she's here. What is free will?

Not knowing about her, what would he choose? Pyrrha is not sure. Gideon was tired, so tired and worn, frayed. So is she. They bleed together sometimes, so many long years. For a moment, everything slips. Duty sits on the beach considering the question. He too feels the exhaustion and pull of the sea. He knows the feeling of being dragged through the ocean and spit out onto the beach. Did he appreciate it? No. Knowing, would he leave? Would he wish he hadn't come here? No.

So it would be for Gideon the First, Saint of Duty.

In a heartbeat she thinks. Never she thinks. Pyrrha sits on the beach again, exhausted. Her soul is threadbare. Though it hurts her, though it ignores duty in this small fragmented way (if she had such power; the decision not truly existing changes things, yes, but as ever, she's sure of herself in this, in it being the same), though it is selfish in its own way, she says simply,

"No."

A piece of her heart breaks, but one peace rolls gently in the waves, free of any burden. Pyrrha can bear the rest for the both of them.

When she goes quiet at his question, Nico doesn't push for answer. Let's her work through it and even choose not to say anything in return. He'd respect that.

Instead, the demigod sits there quietly the way she has for him since they met on this beach. As he worked through all of his own troubles and hardships, the voice in the back of his head pulling him down while he struggled to stay afloat. For her, Nico just allows himself to hopefully be a grounding presence. The way she had been for him.

Her answer comes, and Nico considers it. Not the validity of the single word, but whether he could answer the same when it came down to it.

"The difficult answer." He says it so knowingly.

Pyrrha gives a small nod in acknowledgment. She leans back farther on the sand so that her gaze floats above the water, rather than looking beneath. Whenever she thinks of him, she will wonder, and a part of her will long for him. That is not easily changed. The decision has been made, and Pyrrha can stand by it.

She endured long lonely years for him before. Pyrrha can carry on in his absence.

"The fairest," Pyrrha says, empty and aching. "The healthiest."

Though she loves the wound for the love that wounded her, it isn't the answer. She hates that, but she hates lying to herself more. The palpable longing pulling it out of her. It would be so much worse without Nico's company, without anyone at all.

"I do it for them."

Nico knows what it's like to have the temptation laid out before him, the ability to be able to bring his loved ones back to him when he shouldn't. Even after he thought he let go, it still clung to him, a part of his heart never giving up on the possibility. Here, he wishes for it - hopes to see them again.

Though, he tries to not dwell on it. To dwell on the fact that he could see his mother and sister again, to open the fresh wound of his first friend. Today, it's harder. So maybe Nico was wondering if others felt the same, and hence why the question came bubbling up.

"Wish I picked the healthiest more often." A quiet admittance.

It has him wondering where Pyrrha's strength comes from. He's tested her physical strength, but that inner strength - he knows it's something he's lacking still.

"I've been... trying. It's hard." To respect their wishes, to honor their sacrifices.

Pyrrha turns the hand closer to Nico face up, an offer of comfort to take or to leave. The loss, each loss, always hurts. For most people, for most places Pyrrha has known of, besides a handful of moments for which a spirit may be called back, what's gone is gone. She's no necromancer, so she could not call someone before her even if their soul was within reach. Trench changes what is possible, no matter the previous limits. That can throw acceptance out the window, despite the fact that they don't control who comes back as squids. It reopens wounds.

"It is," Pyrrha agrees. How much pain and suffering stems from people unable to let people go? To let wounds heal? To let time move forward? "It costs a lot to let them go. It costs more, in the end, not to."

He's clearly debating that movement, on whether to touch or take that hand offered up to him. In the end, Nico places his hand in it, not holding on but simply resting it there. Touch is still difficult for him, and hand-holding is usually reserved for his boyfriend or shadow travel. It's much easier when they're sparring.

Silence spreads between them for a moment, only broken by the sound of the ocean. "I wanted to, I had the power to bring her back. Tried to summon her ghost so many times." A quiet admittance.

"I was blinded by my grief, by my anger." Something he can openly say now. "I wouldn't mind, if she came here. But it would all over again to see and feel her go."

Pyrrha lets her hand rest there and makes no move to clasp his hand, accepting what he's willing to do and to accept.

A small hum leaves her throat in recognition. It's an issue she's thought of time and again from every angle that she could imagine. Her friend, her king, at one point her god is best known for that miracle, for the Resurrection. It brought her back to life the first time. It's hard to forget that. What could he do. What would he do. What should he do. Round and round over the course of a myriad, seeing companions fall, seeing everything that happens and everyone that's lost.

She's not sure he's found the right answer yet.

Why then should Nico have wisdom he lacks? He's been through his own pain. No one's life is devoid of grief, not even the happiest and most carefree.

"There's never a guarantee," Pyrrha says. Any of them could die or disappear. No Sleepers can change that fact, not down at its core. Not even those with power over life and death.

Eventually, they may graduate to arm around shoulder type of touches, for now, this is enough for him. Maybe it will be enough for her, too.

The moral dilemma when one finds they have the ability to bring people back to life. Nico isn't untouched by temptation, though it's more of a struggle for the people closest to him. He wants the chance to say goodbye, because he isn't good at letting go yet.

A lesson he has learned is that death cannot be stopped, shouldn't be stopped. Not always. There hadn't been any urge to stop that other demigod from launching himself into the sky as a fireball, but he hadn't been attached either.

"No, but it's a hope I have." To see his sister and friend again. To have a proper chance to say goodbye or have one last moment with them. He knows that it will hurt, but that's just proof that he's still alive.

Pyrrha refuses to drag her person here, and she hopes that decision gives him rest. Should he come anyway, she will not spurn him. How could she? She understands. The hope for things they cannot control and cannot influence. Would the universe listen to those hopeless wishes? It has never listened to hers, but Pyrrha's at least twice dead. Perhaps it will be kinder to the living.

"As long as that hope doesn't drown you," Pyrrha says. Hope can work either way. It's not about whether you get what you hope for. Hope affects you directly before that comes into it. Even after your hope comes true. Losing it the same. This will not be the end of her. This absence, this choice not to hope.

Maybe if the people he wished to see had lived as long as Pyrrha's, or even a full life, Nico wouldn't struggle as much. Except, his sister had died at thirteen and Jason at sixteen. While Bianca has decided to try again, to be reborn again and try for the best afterlife she can get, he still wishes to see her once more.

"There are people to drag me out if I do," Nico directs his gaze at her as he says it, the smallest smile on his face. It's not as if he intends to drown in the hope, sitting out here every day and willing the ocean to give him those people. But the demigod does know there are people that care about him enough to help.

Pyrrha matches his smile. No one in Trench makes up for those she misses. They're good in their own right, and she's here for them. Whatever the Pthumerians bring. Whoever crawls out of the ocean.

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magic, madness, heaven, sin

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