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

[ venti doesn't delay, taking the kite from nehan as quickly and carefully as possible, not wanting to hurt the man. ]

Sorry, sorry. I have it.

[ holding it in front of himself, the bard hums in thought. ]

There doesn't seem to be a strong enough wind to fly it...

[nehan sighs in relief when his arm is finally allowed to drop. he's not going to be using it again for a while, he thinks. he can barely feel it on a good day, but right now he can feel it trembling, and nehan tucks it into his coat to hide it from other people. no one needs to see his shame.]

There may not be wind, but the other kites are still staying up somehow. [he leans heavily on his crutch.] I'll leave you to figure it out.

[ should be easy for him. ]

... just means I have to make my own.

[ with the kite still in his hands, venti focuses on the ground in front of them. a pillar of wind gathers there, visible and bright. as he lets go of it, the toy practically stays afloat in the accumulation of anemo energy. ]

Like this.

[nehan's ears stand straight up when he first feels the wind, then he quickly ducks down into his coat and hangs onto his scarf the moment he realizes what's happening. he refuses to let his clothing flap and get sucked into the vortex of wind magic.

he only peeks out from under his collar when the wind stops blowing so strongly, ears twitching, brow furrowed.]

A warning would have been nice.

Sorry, sorry. I forget how strong those winds can be, ehe...

[ he's a little embarrassed by it. yet, the archon is left with the feeling that what he did might be the extent of his powers at this time? enough to disturb and float some things, but not carry someone up into the sky... or even himself.

it's enough to take the kite up above them, toward a sky that venti has become a little more familiar with. ]

There. It's something!

[ holding onto the string, venti is certainly pleased with himself. ]

What do you think?

[nehan squints up at the sky to look at the kite rising as high as the man holding onto it will allow.]

Well, using wind magic is one way... [but given he's not overly familiar with the element, he doesn't know much about how it works.]

Are you just using magic to hold it up there?

I am. I don't have to maintain my focus after the wind starts to blow, though.

[ but they do subside after some time and as the kite continues to hover in the air, venti can feel those vestiges of wind start to subside... ]

It's not the same as running with it, but it's still fun to watch. To be freely drifting in the breeze, being taken wherever the wind goes...

[ the ends of his braids glow, just for a moment, before he lets go of a sigh. ]

So. Why aren't you running with it? [it's not like nehan would mind being left behind by someone playing.]

Good question!

[ and venti shrugs, as the kite slowly drifts back down to earth, back into the bard's hands. ]

Because I don't have to, and I rather give people company. I'm still trying to get my feet underneath me around here.

[nehan takes that to mean that this small person would rather be around nehan, than play by himself. a notion he doesn't understand yet, when they're strangers.]

I... see. [then his ears flick when he keeps an eye on the kite, and how it's not being tossed up in the air.] With how you're acting... you seem to want to play with it with someone else. Otherwise, you wouldn't have let it come down.

But there is only one other person here aside from you-- me, to be exact. You want to play?

Edited 2021-10-16 05:18 (UTC)

Mmm, I think I'm a little too old for playing with kites...

[ with a polite laugh, he gestures towards some of other people running with them, the kites taking off. rising and falling, with or without the wind. ]

I rather sing a song about them. Maybe drink while watching? Or just do what I can to keep them afloat.

[a little too old-- nehan almost comments on how much more youthful the man is compared to the erune, before deciding to hold his tongue. he remembers that the crew has a number of primals, and all of them look much younger than nehan himself. including the primal who built the ship in the first place. that primal and this person look like they could be peers.]

Then we just have to pass the kite on. [because a drink sounds good right about now. he may have no sense of taste, but he can still feel thirst, after all.]

Give it to a child, and I'll look for cider.

Edited 2021-10-18 05:20 (UTC)

[ venti nods and makes a small happy noise at the sound of cider. it's been a godsend being here, surrounded by the one food and drink that comes from the fruit that he loves the most... it probably won't be a permanent thing, but if he can help it? his home will be full of them. only apples, only cider. nothing else.

but he is quick to find someone without a kite and pass it off, though he doesn't do it by hand. gently flicking his wrist, the toy simply floats off to them as venti follows after nehan with a bounce in his step. ]

Wait for me!

[nehan sighs, and pauses in his walk for the man to catch up. one of the good things about being roughly the same height however is that nehan doesn't have to strain his neck in order to see him.]

Did you just throw it at someone? Are you that excited for cider?

No, I sent it to them! Slowly and carefully.

[ because the last thing he wants to do is legit give some random person a random concussion from a kite smacking them upside the head, if that's even possible. ]

And of course I am. I'm still looking for the best drink around here!

[nehan squints at him, eye narrowing.]

Is that all you've been doing, drinking? [don't tell him... he's in the presence of an alcoholic? there's really only one way to find out.] Alcoholic cider or non-alcoholic?

Both, of course!

[ already venti can taste that sweet amber liquid on his lips... he dreams of it, sometimes. ]

Though I definitely appreciate the slow burn, apples are my favorite fruit. The best! The only kind in my heart.

[that makes a lot of sense already, when he's seen the power one's favorite food holds over them. and he has to sigh again.]

Then I guess we'll have to get you apples and cider. You have two hands and bags.

[then he points to a row of stalls with his crutch.] Over there.

[ venti's smile widens a little more before he tilts his head. ]

What about you? Is there anything that you particularly like? I know a few people around here who probably know how to get whatever you might want!

[ helps having people who are a little more familiar with where they are than him...! ]

Nothing in particular. [an immediate response, one he's accustomed to giving. but nehan realizes that perhaps he shouldn't let the man down so much, when he looks so enthusiastic about drinks.

another person to not mention his issues with taste around.]

But I could do with some hot apple cider as well, to keep me warm.

[when they reach the stall, he raises his right hand from his crutch and flashes two fingers, signifying that he wants two.]

[ his eyes continue to sparkle as he graciously accepts the steaming cup when it's placed in front of him, and venti is also quick to grab the other one as well. ]

Let's go somewhere... I think I saw a bench around that we should be able to sit on.

[ and now it's his turn to lead, making sure to evenly match nehan as they make their way over. ]

Did someone hurt you here?

[for once, nehan isn't leading and that's fine by him. if someone else has ideas, it just means less work for him in the end.

of course, it seems like he cant completely give his brain a break, with that question. he should be used to it by now, but just thinking of the last person who asked him that... well, it irks him. nehan isn't annoyed by this man, but he'll have to use straightforward language just so he doesn't get incessant questions about it, and repititions of what he just said.]

I was injured in my home world, and I've been using this crutch and eyepatch even then. My arrival aggravated my injuries, but I expect to be back to the same state that I was back then soon enough.

It's nothing to worry about. The crutch and patch may stay forever, but I wont be so weak for that long.

Oh... I'm sorry to hear.

[ perhaps his excitement has gotten the best of him? how venti's exuberance, his energy and liveliness... there is a world where being so bright can sometimes be to his disadvantage. to be so capable when others can't be. it's unfortunate; a freedom that he may no longer have due to his injuries. even temporary, it makes venti pause. ]

Well! When you're able, perhaps I could create a wind strong enough to help carry you somewhere? Gliding in the air is one of the most exhilarating things one can do back home. And here, I am sure I could make it happen.

[ maybe something nehan could look forward to, other than the warmth of a nice hot drink--- which surely awaits them both. ]

Me, fly? [nehan's eye narrows in wariness. sure, he's flown before-- but only in airships. but this.... it sounds much like a controlled freefall and he's not sure what to think about it other than that it's a potentially bad idea.]

With your wind magic?

Mhm!

[ another spin so that he could face nehan as they walk toward their shared destination. ]

It's easier than you think, especially with a wind glider. Though I don't know many who carry those around here other than those from my home, I'm sure there are plenty of craftsmen here who could make them.

[ even ones that can work with someone who may need more assistance than others. ]

I wonder how safe the skies are here...

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