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
searingwing: (An empty mirror)

cw: assisted suicide mention

[personal profile] searingwing 2021-10-16 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
No. It was all coming to an end because you can't hold someone dying to life for too long. Even higher beings. But desperate people do terrible things in their grief.

[He looks at the Willful Machine district looming ahead of them. Their time is coming to a close. He finds himself slowing a bit more. He continues but there's no hiding the haunted light in his eyes. What happened in the dream hurt him. He carries the scars on more than his flesh.]

We were drawn in to serve as another tie to life. Our suffering for countless years and countless threads of our timelines was a web holding it all together. But because of it, we got to choose what came next.

[Something inside him cracks. The corpse's chains wrap around one of his arms then abruptly draw back as he looks away from Kaeya. He says softly,] When we learned how badly Cynthia was suffering I was going to kill her myself. It was her only way out. Childe stopped me. He said that is not the kind of person I am. He did it, instead.

[And he couldn't fathom that. He struggles with it still. He does what is necessary. Mercy killing included. He isn't aware of how badly doing such a thing breaks something inside him. Over and over again.]
unmelting: (kaeya080)

[personal profile] unmelting 2021-10-18 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
That is true isn't it? Grief can be a strange thing.

[Not that he's speaking from really clear and painful experience. Sometimes grief makes you spill the biggest secret of your life at the absolutely worst time to the most important person in your life and breaking everything.

As one does.

Not the time to think about that though. Nope. Other things to focus on.]


Is that so? There's certainly more to him than appears at first sight then. [Which is even more interesting, honestly. Is it strange to be grateful to someone for killing someone he's never met? But even if Diluc doesn't see it, Kaeya knows how heavy the cost of something like that can be, especially for someone like Diluc Ragnvindr.]
searingwing: (to my continued success)

[personal profile] searingwing 2021-10-18 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[Diluc doesn’t answer. His mind is stuck on Kaeya’s words.

Grief can be a strange thing.

His corpse ghost folds in half, clutching his own chest as the darkness pours out of him. It loops threads around Diluc’s arms. Yes, grief can make a man walk entirely alone.

He closes his eyes for a moment. He could answer that. Break his years long not talking about it. Instead he swallows it back. More threads of shadow wrapping around then back of his hair, up under his coat.

He looks directly at Kaeya.]
I’ve come to wonder if some of how he appears to others is intentional. Putting on a facade does help in work such as ours.

[He longs to reach out and set a hand on Kaeya’s arm. Ask him to come with him. To talk. But those days are gone and longing for them is childish. There is no going back.]

Doubtless it will serve us here as well.
unmelting: (Default)

[personal profile] unmelting 2021-10-19 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
[Kaeya's corpse only steps closer to Kaeya. All that grief buried so deep, a chasm torn between him and so much around him. How would he even begin to reach past it?

Kaeya doesn't know, so the silence remains.]


That it does. I'm certain it must be. A friendly smile can open doors much faster than a raised blade.

[Kaeya has certainly made use of this as well, so it's not like he can fault Childe for it.]

Doubtless. [Ah but speaking of here,] How goes your plan for a bar?
searingwing: (All the work to impress)

[personal profile] searingwing 2021-10-19 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[The question catches him utterly off guard. It’s familiar safe ground that puts a divide between them. More darkness wraps around him. He speaks easily, this isn’t personal territory.]

It goes well. The tables, chairs, and glassware have all been secured. I’m narrowing down agreements for supplies and studying where would be a good space for a brewery. It is large enough to house a small one aside from the tavern itself.

I don’t need as much production as I did before. I’ve written down all the recipes for Dawn winery wine. There are experiments to be done on the small scale. There was something called Sangrias I wish to attempt.

[It isn’t personal and yet it’s something they share. Some of the darkness breaks away, as he steps a little closer.] It can apparently be home brewed easily as long as you have the ingredients.
unmelting: (kaeya132)

[personal profile] unmelting 2021-10-21 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Kaeya listens, thoughtfully, nodding.]

It certainly sounds like you're near to being ready. Well, I'm happy to hear it. No doubt Venti will be pleased as well.

[Two barflies for your tavern, Diluc, ready and willing. And now Kaeya is curious about this Sangria thing too.]

Given your distaste for alcohol, I'd be happy to offer my services as taste tester and quality assurance.

[Because he's a generous man. The topic is a safe one, impersonal, but it also brings to mind evenings in Angel's Share, drinking dandelion wine and wondering if there ever would be a way to bridge the distance between him and the man behind the counter.]
searingwing: (pic#14902151)

[personal profile] searingwing 2021-10-21 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I can handle a taste of it. [He says with a bit of force in his words. He doesn't like how it feels in his mouth. His work is far too important to allow himself to indulge in things like wine. Then he sighs,] But you and Venti's help as taste testers and feedback would be appreciated.

I will not tell you what I'm aiming for until we've sampled it to ensure an unbias taste testing.

[Willful Machine is only a little ways away. He closes his eyes for a moment.] Sangrias seems to be using an existing wine, white or red then adding to it. I'll message you the recipes I was told.
unmelting: (kaeya148)

[personal profile] unmelting 2021-10-24 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kaeya just chuckles at that. He can handle a taste, yes, Kaeya will give him that. But Kaeya and Venti are old pros at the drinking thing, clearly.]

Perfect. Nothing to sway our opinions one way or another.

[Sounds like an enjoyable time. Bit by bit the corpse wandering behind him seems to heave eased up at least somewhat as the conversation has continued.]

It's something to look forward to.
searingwing: (to my continued success)

[personal profile] searingwing 2021-10-25 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[They arrive at the opening gate between the districts. Darkness twists around his fingers, unseen by him. The talk helped push it back a little. He lingers when he normally would have just walked away and cut their conversation here. He turns to Kaeya and nods once.]

Until then. I'll contact you with whatever I find out about these mysterious whispers. Whatever it is, if you hear more, send me a message.

[He lingers a little more than he walks away, into the district. And visible to Kaeya is how closely his shadow walks in his wake, a hand reaching for his shoulder and almost reaching it.]
unmelting: (kaeya154)

[personal profile] unmelting 2021-10-25 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
[Kaeya lingers too, like he's not entirely sure how to simply let the contact end. But it has to end. No pretext or reason to prolong it at this point, is there?]

Until then.

[He echoes with a nod.] I'll be sure to.

[He watches Diluc leave, one hand half lifting as if instinct is to call out to the other man. But Kaeya doesn't, hand dropping once more, even as he watches Diluc and his ominous shadow continue on.

His own corpse shifts in closer too, the darkness that seems to seep from it growing thicker as Kaeya steps back, turning to head back to his own errands.]