reddosmod: (Default)
Deer Country Mod ([personal profile] reddosmod) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-10-08 06:14 pm

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 β€’ Prompt 2 β€’ Prompt 3 β€’ Plotting β€’ 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
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Can't be helped)

what the eye that sees me sees

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-11 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Break is doing his damnedest to avoid the bulk of the festivities this month, and spending an awful lot of time trying to fight off his homesickness on top of that. Still, life won't wait and he has plans, so sooner or later the errands must be run and the shopping must be dealt with. This afternoon, he's exhausted enough from his most recent magical corpse situation that the big black borzoi of an omen who serves as his eyes sits on his foot and leans heavily against him when he isn't in motion, which is often. That makes him easy to catch up to as he pauses on the street to get his bearings, and decide whether he's up for another stop or would be better off popping home for a nap.

Neither of them jump even a little bit when the air next to them suddenly starts talking. If anything, Break just looks baffled for a second, before he realizes why this voice not being a ghost would be relevant and his mouth spreads into a wry smile.

Invisible, huh.]


Goodness. Well, I'd never have known if you hadn't told me. I'm blind.

[He used to hide this fact about himself, when his eyesight first began to fade on him. These days he doesn't bother. Although he masks it well, it's a fact of life, and for a situation like this having everyone on the same page will be more helpful than letting this person figure it out for himself.]

What is it that you need...?
possessum: (πŸŽπŸπŸ’)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-12 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
( As nervous of approaching strangers that Peter is, this one had something that immediately stuck out to Peter β€” making the person that bit more approachable.

He has a dog.

Big and a bit spooky (perhaps not an ordinary creature at all...) but a beautiful dog nonetheless. Peter, who is still dealing with the loss of his own dog not showing up here with him from Deerington, finds that he can't help himself. He is careful, though β€” as careful as is humanly possible when one is invisible β€” approaching very slowly. He's fully expecting to take the person by surprise, so he finds himself surprised when the guy just gives that smile. )


Ohβ€” ( And then in the next beat, it's said: the other man is blind. Peter breathes out a nervous little exhale, like pent-up energy. ) Sorry to bother you. I justβ€” I kind of need to buy a couple things, but I don't know how well it'll go over if I.... seem like a ghost right now.

( Accidentally scaring people would be bad enough, but he might actually land himself in some... danger, if people think he's some kind of a threat. )

So I thought I could uh, ask someone to get them for me. I have stuff to use for tradingβ€” but I can ask someone else if you want. It's totally okay. ( He finishes rambling. )
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: It's not up to you)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-10-15 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Definitely not an ordinary creature -- and not even a "real dog" by omen standards, but a churchyard grim and proud of it. The white glow to the omen's eyes give him away as decidedly spectral, when he turns towards Peter's voice. But Baltus's treasured duty in life is to take care of Xerxes Break, which often means playing the part of a real dog to bring him closer to other people. If his doggy presence alone makes Break more approachable, that is very pleasing indeed.

To that end Baltus moves like a dog, and reacts to the nervousness in Peter's voice be unfolding his long, leggy self and sidling closer, quite as though he were simply a dog having a curious sniff. His tail gives a few reassuring swishes, and Break likewise gives a careless shrug. Of course it's troublesome, but such a simple request to solve such a dumb problem as "accidentally became a ghost while shopping" -- even in his own stressed out state, Break can't actually find it annoying.]


Sure, sure. Something like that, it's easy enough. The merchants here are very kind to me, so -- if you'll point me to where and what, I can handle it no problem.
possessum: (πŸŽπŸ’πŸ—)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-23 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
( Those eyes are definitely... a sight. Fortunately, Peter's seen quite a few strange and unusual things through his two years in Deerington, so he isn't Having A Panic the way he would have in the past. (That isn't to say other things might not still send him into it... He's forever a nervous, quite-literally-haunted fellow.)

But as surprising as the dog's visage is, he's so beautiful and so doglike as much as he seems like some ethereal thing, that Peter's all the more charmed by that tail-wagging, unable to help slowly offering a hand outwards, fingers enclosed in his knuckle so the creature can sniff it he likes. )


Are you sureβ€”? I totally don't mind finding someone else. ( He doesn't want to put the guy out or make him awkward or anything. Though he seems enough at ease with the request, so the teen adds onβ€” )

β€”It's nothing crazy or anything, just some bread. It'sβ€” I think they're selling it over here. Uhβ€” ( Peter hesitates, before moving a little closer to the other man. He's never helped someone who's blind before (or been helped by them), so his awkwardness carries over a little. ) Should I give you my hand, or do you want to just follow my voice?
payingfordeliverance: (Smile: Ever so fondly)

[personal profile] payingfordeliverance 2021-11-04 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
Don't worry, don't worry. It's fine.

[Baltus can't actually see the boy in his current state either, but he moves forward slowly until boop -- his nose hits Peter's hand. Aha! Here is a person. Further curious snuffling ensues. Investigate, investigate. Look, he is very cute, being a doggy here. Let's not worry about Break.

Meanwhile, Break himself is still smiling a little. It's weird still to be asked the best way for people to help him, as he hasn't actually been blind all that long, but he appreciates it. That this kid would think to start with that ingratiates Break to him even more.]


I can follow your voice. Baltus here is a wonderful guide for me, and -- if we're to make a proper stealth mission of this, it wouldn't do for people to see me being led about by a mysterious ghost, isn't that so?
possessum: 𝐩π₯𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬 πŸ‘‘ (Default)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-11-27 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Outrageously late backtag here, if you like! But no worries at all if you prefer to let this go!