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
lightthedarkness: (Serenity) (A playful goddess)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-12 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Usagi offered a curtsy, rather gracefully at that, since she's such a massive klutz. She grins as soon as she hears Luke's voice and takes his hand.

"A pleasure, my lord," she gently guided him to the middle of the dance. "Are you fond of dancing?"
faithfulson: (You be more careful)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-10-13 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Luke let himself be pulled out to the middle of the floor, careful to avoid the other dancers on the way. He paused once she found a spot, reaching his hands out -- one gloved, the other bare -- letting her determine where she was comfortable with where his hands went.

"I haven't had enough of a chance to do so to form an opinion," he replied, doing his best to keep up with the over exaggerated formal speech. There was only so much a former farmboy could manage when it came to that sort of thing.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (I've got this okay?)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-16 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
"We'll have to make it more often, then," she grinned, placing one hand on her waist and the other gave his other hand a gentle squeeze in reassurance.

She leaned in close to whisper in his ear.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall." If there was one thing Usagi was very good at, it was making sure her dance partner looked good.
faithfulson: (The cute farmboy peek)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-10-16 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
The hand Usagi squeezed was harder than a normal hand; where normally one would gave given slightly under the pressure, Luke's hand just didn't, despite the glove over it.

At least, she gets to see him blush faintly as she leans in to whisper in his ear, and by the time she pulled away, even his ears were a faint pink.

"I-I appreciate that," he mumbled.
lightthedarkness: (Serenity) (A playful goddess)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-17 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
She's honestly used to prosthetic pieces, Varian had a missing leg, Maul had an entire missing lower half, Eddie had a missing arm, Dipper and Ruby both had missing eyes, Glitch had a missing hand, and the list just went on and on.

He was cute when he blushed. She couldn't help but grin.

"Would you like me to lead?"
faithfulson: (Whatever you say)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-10-18 01:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Luke's face turned a deeper shade of pink at the offer -- not quite red yet, but certainly flirting with it.

"Sure," he replied, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, as if making sure she knew his response was sincere.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi)(Mamoru) (Dance with me?)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-20 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
She smiled and nodded, shifting since Luke was taller than her but used to leading taller people since... well... being 4'11" meant almost everyone was taller than you.

She waited for the next count and then began to lead Luke around in the dance.

"Just look at me, not your feet, and feel the music."
faithfulson: (Why are you breathing my air?)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-10-21 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course, as soon as she said that, he immediately looked down at his feet. His face flushed all over again when he realized what he was doing, snapping his head up sheepishly.

Luke mouthed an "oops", letting his feet follow hers.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Let's protect this world together)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-26 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
"It's alright," she assured him as she continued to lead. "I should have mentioned it earlier, honestly. But trust in your partner. That's what dancing is all about, faith in another person to read your movements and go where you go."
faithfulson: (Oh hell yes!)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-10-30 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Hmm... sounds like something else I know," he replied vaguely, not that it was hard to figure out what he was talking about. He lost track of how many times he was told to trust in the Force to guide him during his training. This was clearly much the same, and... well, he quickly proved he wasn't going to have issues with reading Usagi's movements once they got started for real.
lightthedarkness: (Serenity) (A princess to die for)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-31 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Does it?" she smiled as she moved Luke along the make-shift dance space. While in most every other circumstance she was an uncoordinated klutz, the place where Usagi shined with grace and elegance (outside of being Serenity) was in dancing.

She was shorter than Luke, to be sure, but she was able to lead just fine.

"I love to dance, hopefully you'll come to like it too, maybe then we can dance more later."
faithfulson: (Oh hell yes!)

[personal profile] faithfulson 2021-11-13 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
He smiled faintly, able to pick up on how much she was enjoying herself easily, and he could not help but feel the same way. Her enthusiasm was a little bit infectious, and... well, it was nice to have, after so long.

"I think I could get used to this," he replied, flashing her a grin.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (What a great idea!)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-11-14 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
Usagi was grinning bright and wide as she saw Luke smile in return, glad to see he was getting into the spirit.

"We'll have to teach you some more dances! I know plenty of them! And you're a very fast learner, you'll be a pro in no time."
Edited 2021-11-14 01:45 (UTC)