deercountry | Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom

Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom

OCTOBER 2021 EVENT

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Band playing on moving float with people in masks walking behind.]
[Image Two: Woman in gas mask and elaborate ballgown.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Man looking away while creepy corpse-like woman puts hand on window.]
[Image Two: Two contorted girls crawling across floor with blood flowing out.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Headless horseman with jack-o-lantern rearing on horse.]
[Image Two: Annabelle doll rocking on its own in chair.]

[NAVIGATION]

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

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE

WHEN: During the daytime every day of October
WHERE: Throughout the streets of Cellar Door and Willful Machine.
CONTENT WARNINGS: N/A

The Black Parade has begun in Trench. You will begin to see residents painting skulls and monsters onto their faces, even the ones who abide by practical lifestyles. By the first week of October, you won't see a single resident of Trench without facepaint or a mask of some kind obscuring their face.

"It's for the Black Parade," they say, "It's to keep us safe. You should start painting your face too. You should disguise yourself so they can't find you."

Who, you might ask? Anyone dangerous. It's vague and unsettling, but you think maybe they are onto something. Call it intuition or basic common sense. Stalls pop up all around Trench selling cheap masks and costumes. They aren't exactly Halloween costumes. There's less of a focus on becoming something and more of a focus on looking different than you currently do.

Then the Black Parade really takes off. Black and white confetti seem to fall from the sky and you can hear the distant sound of trumpets and drums. You can feel the earth give small tremors and Trenchies begin to flock to Cellar Door and the Willful Machine. They line the streets and you can see why: a literal parade is coming through. Stages are set with talented musicians rocking out, singing into wireless, floating moonlit mics. Incredible, giant puppets walk through the streets guided by a dozen talented Architects. Other people move about in stilted costumes, elaborate gowns. Some performers set up small, stationary areas to perform for smaller crowds. The sky is filled with massive and unusual kites. Find one among the many stalls or make your own!

Stalls hand out candied applies, foil-wrapped candies, and roasted pumpkin seeds by the bundles. Hot ciders are kept in barrels ready to be served up in tin mugs, with or without alcohol. It's a festive atmosphere that seems to go nonstop 24/7 throughout October but exclusively in these areas. It's a good place to go to avoid some of the haunts of October and to have a good time. Why not get involved? Make your own puppet, float, or costumes, and join in the fun. Chunks of the road are reserved for parades, but others have been sectioned off for people to dance and mingle about. You quickly learn that face-paint and masked/concealed faces seem to be a good way of avoiding the attention of beasts, angry Pthumerians, and other unusual creatures in Trench.

It's not a foolproof method, but October largely celebrates the safety of ambiguity and is one of the few times the practical and pleasure factions get along. Get your face painted up or pick out a costume - it's both aesthetic and life-saving! The Black Parade is held annually every October all October long and is considered a significant Trench holiday. Many people refer to the costumes specifically as "Black Parade" costumes and sentiments commonly exchanged at this time include: Have a blessed and safe Blood Moon; May your Seasons pass unseen; Bless the many faces of cleverness; May you go unseen by the blood; Blessed Black Parade.

QUICK FACTS

1. Halloween costumes you can buy at the store won't be available unless a character intentionally makes one. Most of the costumes in Trench are more or less eccentric make-up looks and unusual masks. They look a lot more like Cirque du Soleil costumes than Halloween costumes.

2. Characters can have multiple costume/face-paint/mask changes throughout the month. No one will be forced into these - but it is strongly, culturally encouraged for everyone's safety to dress up!

LONELINESS KILLS: THE CURSE OF CLOVERFIELD

WHEN: October
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Psychological-based curse, feelings of intense loneliness, mental health.

It is said that the Blood Moon reminds Cloverfield of those he has lost over the decades. They say that the howling wind is actually the sound of Cloverfield's cries and there seems to be some truth to that. He can be seen wandering the Farther Shores and watching the moon. If you seek out Cloverfield and offer him comfort and companionship, he will bless you with a worn picture of a loved one or someone you miss desperately or even just a place you miss...Even if it's impossible for such a picture to exist.

Of course, not everyone will visit Cloverfield. Cloverfield's loneliness begins to curse the city of Trench. Sleepers will be impacted the most heavily as their blood will directly react to this curse. Sleepers who have a good sense of relationship may be able to avoid the curse, but those who often feel lonely or homesick will start to feel worse and worse as the days go by.

Eventually, their loneliness begins to manifest as a corpse-like version of themselves or the person they care about most. This corpse follows them around everywhere like a shadow. You won't notice your own Loneliness, but other people might, especially palebloods, Night Walkers, and Disciples. These corpses don't seem to care about anything or anyone and at first don't seem violent...But eventually, this Loneliness becomes consuming.

Once it does, you too will contort, and you and your Loneliness will soon be crawling about on all fours, blood floating out of you in thin streams. You'll be lost to your feelings of loneliness, stalking the streets with your Loneliness, looking for companionship. Of course, you're completely corrupt at this point, so your version of finding companionship most likely involves accidentally suffocating someone or other violent actions. Some people may never become violent once they are in the Final Stage, but the blood constantly flowing from them will create heavy blood pollution and may draw in far more dangerous creatures. You really don't want Lonely People walking around!

Better start some conversations - even if these Lonely People are creepy as hell. But, then again, they are just lonely. Hopefully, you will find peace of mind and find your people. Hopefully, you will banish loneliness...For the time being.

QUICK FACTS

1. This curse will impact people who are more isolated than others. Interaction with other people or animals will alleviate the curse and may completely stop it for some.

2. You can stop the curse at the corpse stage by confronting a Sleeper and opening up an emotional conversation about their loneliness. This may not always work, but the more the conversation works for the Sleeper, the more effective. The corpse will fleck away once the curse has been reversed.

3. Curses can continue to come back throughout October, but once you've experienced it once, it's less likely to occur again.

4. The Final Stage of the curse is the hardest to stop and most of the time, it's easiest to just kill the Cursed. It's easier to kill them than talk them out of their loneliness, but it is not impossible to talk them out of it. It requires dedication, patience, and some serious cleverness on how to survive a monster trying to kill you at the same time.

5. Loneliness can be widely interpreted once in the Final Stage. People should generally still look like themselves. How people act in this stage can vary from character to character and should be centric to how characters deal with their loneliness in general. If they're prone to shutting people out, then maybe their Loneliness is aloof and distant. If they're prone to clinging to toxic people, then maybe their Loneliness is accidentally violent. It's open to interpretation.

LEGENDS OF TRENCH

WHEN: All October
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Ghosts, Themes of death.

Unfortunately, not everyone can gain control of their loneliness. As blood is spilled throughout Trench over loneliness, this blood pollution festers and begins to claim poor souls. Corruption leads way to beasthood and people lost to this find themselves transforming into familiar, legendary ghost stories of old-world lore. These Legendary Ghosts come out primarily at night. As the Black Parade established, anyone who keeps their faces disguised with make-up or masks will be completely safe from the Legendary Ghosts. Though if you go after a Legendary Ghost in a costume, you'll only be safe until you attack them. It's not a bad move for a sneak attack though!

...But those who forgot to dress up or felt like such superstitions wouldn't work...

Congratulations, you might come across the path of a Dullahan: a headless horseman carrying a whip made from a spinal cord, ready to throw basins of blood on you and draw in other beasts. Or maybe you encounter a far more subtle Legendary Ghost. Maybe you see a hitchhiker on the side of the road and decide to give them a ride, but when you look in your rearview mirror, they are no longer in your backseat. While most of these Legendary Ghosts are intending to harm you and spread more blood pollution, some just seem to be genuinely lost souls, lost to corruption, lost to their own failures and loneliness. In some cases, freeing them is protecting yourself and others, but in other cases, freeing them is just simple kindness.

You may meet a ghost bride who is waiting eternally for her wedding by one of the shrines in Cassandra. Maybe you meet a ghostly scholar at the Archives in Gaze. The spirits range widely and seem to haunt every corner of Trench - including your own homes. The only real way to deter a Legendary Ghost from your home is by heavily decorating your home with things like jack-o-lanterns, fake blood splatters, fake gravestones, and various other death-centric decor. This seems to repel Legendary Ghosts as they see it as a reminder of their own fate. Some are angered by the decorations while others are terrified by them and seem incapable of telling the difference between real blood and fake blood.

QUICK FACTS

1. These corrupt souls can be saved through blood rituals/magic/ghost banishings relying on blood artifacts. This will usually put the soul to rest - it will not bring people "back to life."

2. While it is mostly Trenchies turning into these beings, Sleepers can also be transformed into Legendary Ghosts. We provide a general outline, but the idea is that people are turning into legendary ghost stories so you can play with your own ideas/canons.

While Trenchies cannot be saved, we leave it up to you if a Sleeper could be brought back to themselves or if they will have to "die" to be cured of their Legendary Ghost status.

3. You can use famous Legendary Ghosts from around the world. We gave a few examples, but have fun with this! The Legendary Ghost-like creature you go with should generally be "ghost-like" / have to do with death specifically. They do not need to be exclusively evil/violent spirits, but many are.

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

UNWILLING PARTY
[Melius has been dragged, unwillingly, into the Black Parade. The sudden appearance of people has him shouting, scared. It doesn't help that he ends up with a literal ton of face paint. He doesn't even look like himself. On the other hand, he's the only Argonian in town. He's also very loudly protesting the parade.]

[And, you know, trying to get away. Only to get swept up again and again, in the crowd. If he sees a familiar face, he'll start waving. A bit frantically.]

[Please help him.]

THAT OCTOBER FEEL
[There is a tent on the beach. Near the boardwalk. Where there is small fire burning. You can smell soup. Mushroom soup. And something far more pungent. Approaching the little camp reveals a lizard, hunkered down in front of an alchemy table. His hands fluttering over the various apparatuses, while a little soup pot bubbles away. It's a very cozy scene.]

[If not for the way Melius' head keeps whipping around. Hunkering smaller and smaller at every single sound. There's a very real little dragon chewing on a seashell near the fire, and she seems completely unconcerned with whatever it is he's hearing.]

[Someone approaching earns a full-bodied jump, with his hands grasping for a nearby mace. Eyes wide. Oops.]

THE LONELINESS
[Why are you in the woods. Trenchwood to be specific. Seriously, why are you there.]

[But why ever you're out here, you're not alone. Something is skulking in the trees. Something moving far too quietly. Two somethings, to be precise. It's hard to see for the mist, and the trees. If it isn't moving, it's almost invisible. Creeping. Stalking.]

[And then there is a screech. A warning cry. Something small, bright red, darts out of the trees, flying at you and trying to drive you away. Wow, it's a dragon. A dragon omen. And it wants you to get out of dodge, now.]

[Break and his own omen are out on the beaches often -- Baltus is not a real dog by any means, but being shaped as he is his speed is incredible all the same, and when they are feeling energetic the long stretches of uninterrupted sand are without a doubt the best place to run. Neither of them are feeling energetic now. Break had yet another incident with one of those awful corpse things yesterday evening, and they've come here instead for solitude and to escape the Black Parade entirely. Arguably Break shouldn't be by himself, given that his homesickness is causing him such insistent problems and he keeps needing other people to intervene. But that fact alone is a wretched blow to his pride, and he does need time to process everything he's forced to talk about, too.]

-- ah, someone is cooking...?

[Given the festival, he hadn't really expected to run into anyone out here today. But, he supposes, he can't possibly be the only person in town who largely prefers quiet and a decided lack of crowds. Baltus has been attached to his hip, but when Break pauses curiously, the omen splits off to trot towards this new stranger's alchemy table and investigate. He, too, pauses when Melius dives for his mace, sending a single word to Break: Weapon.]

...he won't harm you. [And Melius likewise won't be able to harm a creature that can poof into shadows as it suits him, but Break lifts his voice to call out anyway. The last thing he wants just this second is a fight somehow escalating in his direction.] He is my omen.

[The anxious Argonian clocks a couple things in the time it takes Break to say those words. Like how this is a dog. Or a very stretchy, weird looking long dog. And how there's a human casually strolling with it. And, of course, the fact he's being told it's just an omen.]

[He drops the mace pretty much right away. And holds both his hands up. Empty hands.]

Sorry! I'm sorry! Sorry.

[There's a longer stream of apologies, but we'll cut it off there. Melius' omen has apparently none of the qualms of her person, and thus lands right in front of the dog, sniffing at him. Despite being a dragon, she's not large - maybe the size of a housecat, and with all the attitude of one.]

[That...hm. That is an awful lot of apologizing for simply being jumpy. Break tilts his head to one side, like a pug. When it doesn't seem like it's going to trail off, he just cuts in.]

Ah? There's no need to fuss, right? [Break shrugs, and remains where he is.] In the end, there's no harm done.

[Baltus, for his part, always enjoys meeting other omens. Tail wagging, he politely drops his front half down, putting himself more on her level, and sniffs back. He enjoys being what he is, and therefore, other omens must also be fun and interesting.]

Um... Okay. Okay.

[Yet, Melius stays sort of hunched up. In front of his little fire, on the sand. There are probably three people in town he knows how to talk to. This guy is new. How does he handle this?]

I - I have. Soup?

[Oh buddy. You tried. His Omen seems to be doing somewhat better than he is, though, arching her neck up to sniff at Baltus. And then taking flight to zoom around him in loops. Play!]

[Baltus doesn't have the energy he usually does today, but being invited to play at all is a warm and happy thing, and it pleases him to run off after the little dragon and echo her loops on the ground. Break can't see it, but he can feel his omen's pleasure, and it brings a tired smile to his face. He enjoys eavesdropping on that feeling while he considers this new person, and the weirdly familiar experience of listening to him speak. It's difficult to place, being unable to read Melius's body language -- Break was able to see in the not so distant past, and moments like this are often like being handed a tiny puzzle piece of memory and being told to slot it into place without knowing what big picture he's even looking for. But the nervous energy behind that voice, the way the person wielding it just doesn't seem to know what to do, it's just so familliar somehow, and...

Ah. Gilbert, of course. Not the confident, stalwart young man he had ultimately become in the end, but rather, the frightened child who'd just lost everything that Break pulled out of the woods one day. His smile turns decidedly tender.]

...it smells really lovely.

[Gil hadn't been quite so skittish as this person already seems to be here in this first half a minute, but -- on the other hand, Break really hadn't been able to be as gentle back then as he can't help being now. But that's something that can happen in this weird new life he never asked for, isn't it? There's no quest, no larger story, nothing to be ruthless about save for taking care of his kids. Gilbert is not here and arguably shouldn't be, and so Break isn't ever going to get the chance to really get to know the man who surprised him by becoming so strong and sure just when he was needed the most. But he can stand here with his heart hurting and be unabashedly patient with someone who seems to be suffering from terrible nerves, and that feels important to the memory of the boy that man used to be.]

I wonder if...you might be so kind as to tell me how you've made it...? I'm trying to -- learn such things, now.

Edited 2021-10-13 07:11 (UTC)

[Melius is ... trying not to sit there like a nervous wreck. He's trying very hard to stay still and look like a normal Argonian on a beach, with an alchemy table and a dragon. His tail is what betrays him, twitching around madly in the sand like some kind of large snake. He doesn't seem to know what to do with his hands.]

[His omen, meanwhile, is having the time of her life whirling around for Baltus. Zooming up and down the beach for him to chase. Her friendliness, boldness, apparently makes up for the fact that Melius himself is an absolute wreck.]

[It's no one's fault. No one here. He'd always been a bit nervy, and all his time in the woods of Tamriel and Skyrim just made his social tolerance worse. Though, honestly, he does seem to perk up when the subject turns to something he's actually good at. The nervous fidgeting stops, and he nods.]

[Granted, he nods like seven times, but oh well.]

Um. It's just. Mushrooms. Salt. There's um. Onion and potato, too. And they just... cook.

In the pot.

[... you tried, buddy.]

[...hm.]

Is it really so simple as all that? I've peeled a potato in my time, but the rest, I really -- know nothing.

[He has eaten fantastic soup and also mediocre soup and while mediocre soup is better than no soup the fact that there is such a difference to be had implies that there is some sort of witchcraft involved in the good stuff. This is what Break thinks.]

D-do you um. Use salt? Some um, some herbs are good. Too. Carrot and onion... together.

[It seems simple to him. Incredibly simple. You just dump things in a pot, add water, and put it over the fire.]

[He lifts a hand, picking at his own scales.]

I um. I can... show you...

[Varian thinks Melius' alchemy table is still the coolest thing ever and if anyone disagrees, they're just deeply incorrect about everything ever. He wanders over as quietly as he can, taking note of the dragon and raising his hands in mock surrender when his friend inevitably jumps out of his own skin.]

It's okay, just me. [He nods at the little dragon.] You got a dragon.

Oh! Um - sorry! Sorry...

[He drops his weapon so fast it goes clunk in the sand. And stays there. Laying in its own perfect divot.]

Oh she um. I think. It's a she?

[Great work, Meli, so impressive. Varian ignores it in favour of crouching to look at the dragon.]

She's lovely! I've only ever seen one dragon before and that was... well, that was here and I don't think it really counts because it was a Sleeper. [Who ate his leg.] Is she your omen? What's her name?

[She looks like she's about to hiss, or puff up further, but this is someone her Person knows. So she settles, preening instead. Why yes, she is incredible thank you.]

I um. I think? So? That's... that's what it means when they look... look like smoke? Right?

[As for a name, he shrugs slightly.] She uh. She hasn't... told me yet.

That's the one! Ruddiger became mine...somehow. He thinks it's hilarious.

[Because Ruddiger is an asshole. He smiles, glancing Melius' way.]

Well, I'm sure she'll tell you when she's ready. Maybe she wants to make it a production or something. She might be fancy.

O-oh, I... I liked him. He um. He helped get you letters.

[Way back in Deerington, because letter writing was easier than sending texts.]

Dragons... they usually are. They are... they're um. 'Made to dominate'. Think they're uh. Stronger, better. Than mortal people.

He did! I had to bribe him a lot to do that, but it was nice that he helped with that- packages too.

[Who needs super-fast text when you can semi-rely on a shitty, fat raccoon to do the work for you?]

Ahhh, she definitely wants to make it a big thing, then. Dragons in my world are so rare and so avoidant of people there's very little known about them. It's pretty neat to be able to meet any kind of dragon.

I like him. He... he was very helpful.

[You don't see many raccoons where Melius comes from.]

It... You're. You're lucky. That there aren't dragons. Or - or what you said.

Melius Senyan {The Dragonborn} | Skyrim | Deerington CRAU

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