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
imaglyphwitch: (choked up)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-10-20 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
Luz sighed.

"Ok, well. Pale bloods can see spiritual stuff. So I can see if someone's carrying a corpse with them, for instance. It doesn't have to be someone dead, but a memory that's living with them like a ghost.

You have one, Usagi-chan."
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (What if I fail?)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-21 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
She let out a long breath, finally letting her smile fall away as she looked up. Her gaze locked with Mamoru's and he smiled, tilting his head at her.

"I know," she whispered, her eyes burning. "I know he's there." Her fingers curled a bit and she let go of Luz completely. "Even if he wasn't there, he's always there."
imaglyphwitch: (Kinda maybe)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-10-21 11:19 am (UTC)(link)
"I wasn't trying to bring him up," Luz said softly, looking down. "I know it must be painful to be apart from someone you love. I was hoping that I could give you a really fun day, so you at least feel happy."

She looked over at Mamoru. "I know you shouldn't judge simply by appearances, but he looks like a very sweet and caring guy. Of course you would miss him."

Luz handed Usagi a handkerchief.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Scared to be alone)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-23 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
"You wouldn't be wrong in your judgment," she offered, not really taking her gaze from Mamoru even as she took Luz's handkerchief.

"He is sweet and caring. And one of the most handsome men around. He's smart and good with kids and supportive."

She wiped her eyes.

"But he isn't here. He's never come except in dreams or as visions. And maybe that's a good thing, but he's my other half."
imaglyphwitch: (choked up)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-10-23 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
"I didn't think I was wrong," Luz said, giving a smile. "There's something in his eyes that makes me see how much he cares about you. It's like he adores you, so much."

It was a little overwhelming to see how much he cared for her, and that made Luz all the more sad that Usagi didn't have him there. It was really sad: she'd been in Deerington and Trench, and had never seen him.

"So you'd want him here, but you also wouldn't want him to be there."
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Praying for better days)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-30 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"We're soulmates," she whispered, her fingers curling a bit in the cloth of the handkerchief. "We've promised to find each other no matter how far or long or how many lifetimes it would take."

She wiped her eyes.

"But I'm pretty terrible at being patient. I've only been without him for a year but it feels like too long. I know he could handle this place."
imaglyphwitch: (mimble)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-10-31 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
Luz sighed. "I'm sorry. That sounds awful. I've got no idea what a soulmate is like, but I can at least tell he loves you a lot. I didn't know that you believed in reincarnation though."

That had been a funny way to phrase things, wasn't it, soulmates? Like they'd be living longer than most people somehow.

"I'm sure that he could, if you were around. Have you been coping without him all this time?"
lightthedarkness: (Usagi)(Mamoru) (Are you alright?)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-31 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
Usagi watched Mamoru seem to become... more transparent. Her brows knitted together and she reached out for him, pausing her hand in mid-air before letting it fall to her side.

Mamoru had mirrored her action, smiling a bit more sadly as he didn't let his hand fall down to his side, keeping it in the air as if wanting to reach out and touch her but not daring to.

Usagi didn't bother addressing the reincarnation thing, she had been reincarnated, but she merely looked at the ground, feeling her eyes burn.

"I don't have much of a choice," she lifted her chin and sucked in a deep breath. "I can't have him here. And I can't just wallow in my sadness."
imaglyphwitch: (I do stupid things)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-10-31 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe not," Luz said quietly, gazing in the distance. She still didn't know what feeling like that to someone was like, it was as foreign as alcohol or dying, things that just hadn't happened but she heard about.

"But you're allowed to be sad, to miss him. He'd want to be here with you, and one day, you'll go back to him."

She turned to Usagi, with a smile. "Eyes can tell you a lot of things, Usagi-chan. His dance for you. I hope you find each other again soon."
lightthedarkness: (Serenity)(Mamoru) (Our love is forbidden)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-10-31 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Allowed to be sad? To miss him? She did that in spades. She just didn't share it. When Luz mentioned his eyes, she locked her gaze with them and reached out, holding his cheek and his gloved hand immediately covered hers.

It was cold.

Even through the glove, she could feel the lack of flesh beneath to fill out the fabric. It was bone beneath. He was thinner to the touch, too.

"His eyes are as blue as Earth's ocean, you can dive into them and never want to come up for air." She felt his grip tighten around her hand, the soft click of uncovered bone against bone, the more he spoke, the more translucent he became. "He could make you feel like it was only you and he on the entire planet, he could hold your hand and you would know everything would be alright."

She watched his body fade more and more, his eyes the only thing remaining opaque.
imaglyphwitch: (Not stopping me now)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-11-01 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
That was just...sad. She'd definitely had no idea how Usagi would meet a guy that she fell so heads over heels for (at least with how young she was) that she called him her soul mate, but clearly she meant it. It was funny: sometimes when she looked in Usagi's eyes, she had that same feeling she'd had when she looked into the Doctor's eyes. There was sadness there, but not a current sadness. It was like something old, something that told a tired tale that happened long ago. She couldn't place how it happened or how it related to Usagi, but it was there all the same.

Seeing him start to fade now, Luz swallowed a sob. She knew she hadn't fallen in love herself, not really, but in that moment she could glimpse Usagi's love, and the pain she hid, and it hit her hard. Usagi was her friend, and she'd watched her helping people as much as she could, appreciating it just as she tried to help others. She hadn't realized how deep the pain was, how the person she loved couldn't touch her except in memory.

"U-usagi," Luz said softly. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
lightthedarkness: (Serenity) (Gentle princess)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-11-01 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
And then... he was gone.

Nothing more than a memory.

She was staring at the space Mamoru had occupied, her hand still lingering in the air for a few moments before she let it fall to her side.

It took Luz sobbing out for her to snap out of it and she turned to look at her, going through several emotions all at once. She was surprised, as if remembering Luz was even there. Then she quickly shifted to confusion, wondering why Luz was upset, only to shift to sadness and understanding.

She put on a gentle smile and stepped closer to the younger girl, reaching out and holding Luz's cheek now, feeling the warmth beneath her palm as she wiped away Luz's tears with the offered handkerchief.

"Shhh, shh, it's alright," she carded her fingers through Luz's hair with her other hand. "You didn't know because I didn't want you to. You did nothing wrong. No one has. It simply is. Please don't cry."
imaglyphwitch: (mimble)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-11-01 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
"But it's so sad. You deserve to be happy. You look after people all the time, like I try to do, only you're a little older and better at it. And here's this nugget of pain only you have, and you have to be haunted by his memory because he's not here anymore. It's not right."

Which, when it came down to it? Was the story of Deerington over and over again. You pull someone from another universe, they lose their place and the life they had. Usagi, she knew, chose to come here, but all the while she was still missing her love.

"I haven't had anything close to w-what you have. But seeing him with you, h-holding hands, it's...it hurts, somehow. I wish I could fix it somehow."

Which was dumb! She knew it was dumb! Lux didn't have the power to do that! But seeing people she cared about just seemed to gnaw at her even knowing that.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (It's alright I understand)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-11-01 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
"I am happy," she offered, simply. "Maybe... not in the exact way I'd like it to be, but I'm not miserable, either, Luz-chan. My happiness and sadness can exist at the same time." Which was true. She loved her friends, new and old, she loved those she considered like family. She had the girls here.

Did she have Mamoru, her cat, or her daughter?

No.

But she was not lacking. And there was nothing to be done about fixing it. It was the type of grief that you just had to accept and live with. Some days it would be so great as to encompass the entire day, sometimes she could go weeks without thinking of it.

But it was grief all the same.

"Please don't think the love you've felt is somehow lesser than mine. It is just different. You have so much ahead of you still. Give it time."
imaglyphwitch: (crying troll face)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-11-01 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Yesh, of course you're right," Luz said, taking the handkerchief this time because she almost certainly needed it. Usagi only said it in a few words, but she was both happy and sad, much like how Luz herself was. She didn't have a Soulmate like Usagi of course.

But she did have a parent, one who at least had a Luz back there trying to get back to her. A Luz, she imagined, who might fall in love there with a certain someone, who would one day get to live that part of herself. And there was Eda and King and Hooty and her friends, who she ached for all the time.

Yet, she chose here still. There was still a life here that was worth living, and that was why the both of them were here, wasn't it?

"I think I forgot that well of sadness this place leaves for us are so different, and some can seem so vast. For a moment, I wondered how you could live with yours. I forgot that sometimes its just a thing we have to do, even if it hurts."
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Let's protect this world together)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-11-04 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Usagi didn't quite believe that a different "her" was somehow living the life she was supposed to. More... she thought that this was where she was supposed to go next. So much of her life was... well, pre-destined too.

Why wouldn't this be too? It's why she even chose to do this, she clung onto the idea that she would see the others again in HER world where she brought about world peace and an apparent utopia.

"It is a chasm as deep as the ocean," she said softly, still staring at the place Mamoru had stood.

He was gone now... again.

She turned to look at Luz, smiling.

"But I am not alone and I have people who love me and need me. They cannot be him... but Mamoru cannot be others either."
imaglyphwitch: (we're tops)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-11-05 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
Of course Luz would have no idea what Usagi had been going through, so she was just going to have to imagine that Usagi lived a little more dramatically than she did.

If only she knew. Her friend seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. She managed Deerington and chose this place to continue their strange new life.

Luz watched Usagi describe her chasm, then saw as Mamoru slowly disappeared. Poor guy. Poor Usagi.

"You got that right! Just like no one here on in the house could ever be Eda, but there are still plenty of things to appreciate them for! I think we're both pretty lucky to have friends here, whether they're from our world or we made them ourselves."
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Default)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2021-11-06 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Usagi made sure people didn't know. It was not her way to share her burdens with others, especially someone younger than her. She would carry the weight of the world on her shoulders if people let her.

She took a deep breath and pushed down her sadness at seeing Mamoru leave her side. Even as a corpse, she wanted him near.

But no.

This was just this world. Just this place.

She let out the breath and looked to Luz.

"I believe we were going to get some sweets, yeah?"
imaglyphwitch: (earnest intentions)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-11-06 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The tragedy was, in this way, that Luz was exactly like Usagi, a person that loved helping people but kept her own pain to herself, trying to convince herself that she'd be ok, that she could handle her problems by herself.

It was dumb, but it was a way to function and Luz was more than a little familiar with it since having those times where Deerington had been too much.

Luz however, have Usagi a meaningful look, one that, she hoped, told her I'm always here, and I'll try to help how I can. She knew it was a weird thing for someone as young as her to want to do, but she saw so many of her friends going through things or struggling. How could she not want to help them somehow?

"Right. I think I saw some really good looking spun candy down that way."