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.]

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
possessum: (fire as this can never burn us)

2.

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-11 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Peter's languidly following the parade, a tall shadow of a person drifting along, hands shoved in the front pockets of his hoodie. Dressed in skinny jeans with the knees ripped out and scuffed-up Converse, he's hardly the picture of Trench fashion. Though he has, at least, assimilated in one way: sporting a werewolfish paintjob on his scuffy face. Better safe than sorry — and Peter will always play it safe, heeding the warnings to cover his face up.

Though he's perpetually nervous, the young man is actually enjoying himself. The crisp October air is nice, and the festivities have been pleasant so far — even if he's only been watching, not really participating. With a stomach full of sweets (and forever having room for more), he's just kind of mulling around when someone calls out to him from one of the nearby homes and he looks that way, wolfish eyebrows lifting.

"Oh— Me?" Almost comically, Peter points to himself, looking unsure as he takes in the sight of the masked woman sat there, a photograph in her lap. It reminds him of something one might see at a fair back home, except those... weren't real. Here? He doesn't doubt that the sign saying "free fortunes" could be a legit thing, and the thought makes him a little nervous. Peter hesitates, but turns to face her. Despite being a solid six-feet-tall and frighteningly demonically possessed, Peter has all the mannerism of a frightened, timid animal.

"Can you really... sense my soul?"
onerthes: (01)

[personal profile] onerthes 2021-10-11 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
She laughed at that response, gesturing to a spot next to her chair. Another was set on the patio, clearly available if he wished to have a seat. There were plenty of pumpkin seeds for everyone after all. Her voice was amused and she pointed up to that third eye at the top of her mask, letting it wink once.

"It sees many things, but oh no. That little line is just for appearances purposes. I can't see your soul, but perhaps I could tell your fortune if you wish it!"
possessum: (they all turned their heads)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-12 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Peter follows the woman's gesture up to the eye at her forehead — what he'd initially thought to be painted — but suddenly it blinks and the boy blinks in response, clearly startled.

However, (thankfully), while still so easily spooked... Peter is less apt to freak out over such things these days, after two years in Deerington, and after coming to terms that he has some "oddities" of his own. So he just kind of quietly ogles her for a moment before he gives an almost apologetic little smile and drifts closer to where she sits. Shyly, he sits down as gestured, turning to the woman.

"I've never had my fortune told before." Peter hesitates, hands held in his lap. "What do you have to do?"
onerthes: (03)

[personal profile] onerthes 2021-10-12 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's not too terribly tricky. I've studied a few methods. It sort of depends on the question that you want asked. Reading your palm, the cards or we could go in so I could use a crystal ball. they're all ways to focus my sight." Really, they were generally window dressing since it was her third eye that saw the future, though they did give her useful tools for approaching the information.

"What might you wish me to look at?"

(OOC: Feel free to pick something of your choice. It's usually just a tool to say what we're already planning to have happen in the near future after all.)
possessum: (my longing took a desperate turn)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-21 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
The thought is, admittedly, starting to stir up an uneasy feeling in his gut — a tight anxiety. His fortune... Peter can't help feeling like anything regarding that concept won't exactly be great.

After all, certain words still whisper in him regarding himself, and one is always the loudest, the most persistent — damned. Whatever this place has offered for them all, whether a second chance or a new beginning altogether, Peter can't help feeling that it hasn't cured what's festering inside of him.

The boy shifts, nervous. The other thing inside of him watches the woman with an intense focus — so aware of her, so curious. Before he was broken and mutilated, Paimon was once capable of providing guidance into the future for others, too. His summoners often came to him for that purpose.

"Maybe..... a palm reading? I'm kind of nervous about my future showing up in a crystal ball," Peter admits, letting some of his nerves out in form of a soft laugh. He won't hide the fact he doesn't have high hopes for his fortunes...

( ooc: Something alluding to "ancient power" could be fun! Considering Peter's spooky demon powers are on the rise, but right now he has no idea the actual extent of just how powerful they're going to become, bahaha. If you need any specifics I can provide that, but I'm also cool with it being cryptic / vague, too! )
onerthes: (Commission: Pls Ask first) (25)

[personal profile] onerthes 2021-10-21 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"A palm reading I can do," she said. she honestly preferred palms and tarot cards over crystal balls. The truth was that it was her third eye was doing all of the heavy lifting. The palmistry was merely an avenue to describe it, one that she'd read for the purposes of making her usual work more plausible.

She reached out one hand and motioned for him to put his down, palm up. "Let's have a look see, mmm? Perhaps I'll find something interesting for the two of us to talk about," she said, even as her third eye seemed to glitter a little, almost like it was seeing through him, through the sun line and the broken fate line on the palm.
possessum: (𝟎𝟔𝟗)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-10-26 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
Still a bit nervous, Peter scoots forwards a little in his chair and gently offers his hand, palm facing upwards, for the woman. He can't help glancing upwards at the eye peering out from her forehead, and he feels something shift in him — a hitch, like there's a breath being held somewhere inside.

...The demon's watching, Peter realises. Of course he would be. But it startles him all the same, and he hopes the entity won't see her as some kind of threat, won't become aggressive the way it sometimes does....

....but there's nothing of that sort. Paimon only seems very curious, though Peter's shoulders stay tense. "I'm uh— I'm sorry if you see anything.... weird." He doesn't know exactly what she might detect, here.
onerthes: (Commission: Pls Ask first) (29)

[personal profile] onerthes 2021-10-26 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Visions, power, old power, lack of control, difficulty realizing true power and stability, a broken path forward. It matched well enough and she tapped the two lines that went from the knuckles down the center of his hand before speaking. the feeling she was being watched was only vague, the kind of thing that made the hackles of one's hair stand on end, but didn't translate to anything.

"You are one with great strength, old strength. It's something beyond what most would assume you should have. You had potential once," she said, tracing the first part of the fate line. "But then it is broken, and there is new potential there. Greater, but I imagine you have a lot of trouble truly mastering it. I'm not quite sure what that power is, but I cannot see the past directly, save through psychometry."
possessum: (𝟎𝟒𝟔)

[personal profile] possessum 2021-11-10 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
Peter tenses instinctively — not against the woman's touch, just tensing inwardly, as though holding a breath so deeply that not a single part of him moves at all. For a brief moment he wishes he hadn't done this, afraid of what she might see. Flashes of his own nightmares dart across his mind, reminding him of every fear: a future where he doesn't exist at all anymore. Where he's taken over completely, where there's no more Peter. Deerington had shown him a future like that once.

It might be his. His fate.

And yet he can't move away from it, staying right where he is. When the mysterious woman (is she a human? Or something else entirely) begins to speak, the young man's eyes widen at once. Great strength... old strength. It certainly sounds like the ancient entity trapped beneath his skin. And he knows that Paimon is listening intently too, absolutely fixated on this.

Peter's staring so widely it almost hurts, and then— exhales a shuddery breath. He's visibly shaken, and something strange stirs in his eyes. She might catch it, a flicker of gold across the dark brown pools. His eyelids flutter a little, and Peter sways slightly where he's sitting, his other hand moving up to catch at his forehead, leaning against it.

"Sorry.... I— Just a little dizzy... Is that normal?"
onerthes: (01)

[personal profile] onerthes 2021-11-14 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
"That's likely more the experience hitting you a little bit. Or something you ate around here," she said with a wink, pointing at her eye and smiling over at him. "I can't quite make anyone have vertigo during a vision just yet. But I assure you that you look just fine."

Had she seen the glimmer? Perhaps, but she didn't let on. He wasn't the first with power who might have had trouble with control that she'd ever met. She wasn't one to sniff out spiritual entities, so she didn't pry any further into him, instead tapping her lips.

"So tell me, Peter. Does it feel as if you are one of great potential sometimes, but you're not quite sure how to tap it?"