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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
arclightning: (smile | quiet | sweet)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-21 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
'S what I thought.

[ Wu looks kind of cute like this, all big-eyed and huffy, and Mako leans down for a moment to kiss him, tasting the cider on his breath. His own face feels warm and flushed for once, a consequence of the alcohol, and when he pulls away, he's grinning, lets his nose bump a little bit into Wu's before he retreats entirely. ]

C'mon. I'll teach you how to order.
royalfling: (huh | eyebrow | what)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-21 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu follows after that kiss, but then gets distracted by the promise of food. ]

Oh, yes! Okay. Wait, why do I have to learn? Is it hard?

[ He keeps a hold on Mako's arm as they weave toward the smell of food. ]
arclightning: (smiling | we're with you)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
If there's a line, yeah. Gotta be prepared.

[ Trust him, Wu, he's going to teach you how to order noodles like a pro. Sure enough, there is a line, and worse yet a line with no clear end. Mako, of course, just muscles their way in and holds his spot, scanning the little menu. ]

Step one: look at the menu, decide what you want way before you get up there.
royalfling: (look | huh | fist)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, okay. That doesn't sound so hard...

[ Or it doesn't until he looks at the menu: it doesn't have many options, but what you can do with those options is a lot. There's a spicy level and a type of noodle and what you put on the noodles and he doesn't know what's good. ]

Um... what should I order? What are you going to order? You know what I like!

[ Yeah, he's trying to get out of this, holding tight to Mako's arm ]
arclightning: (grinning | found myself)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Mako snorts, letting a thumb run over Wu's wrist as he watches his boyfriend mildly panic. ]

You know who else knows what you like?
royalfling: (pout | concerned | look | huh)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu opens his mouth to ask "who?" and then realizes what Mako means. He pouts up at Mako and lets out a huff. ]

Fine. Fine! I will decide for myself.

[ Which means, probably panic at the last moment about what he wants ]
arclightning: (hug | wu | i got you)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It does, doesn't it? Mako knows this, somewhere in his buzzed brain, and Wu looks so huffy and cute—

Well, he can help, right? He tugs Wu against his side, swaying a little.
]

These places always go heavy on the spice, so don't get the hottest one. And you like those thin noodles I use.
royalfling: (idea | explain | excited | talk | look)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[ Said haughtily as his eyes scan the list. Okay, medium spicy with thin noodles aaand.... chicken seems safe. Right? Not monster meat, no thanks. ]

You really think this place is like the ones in Republic City?
arclightning: (talking | let's wait and see)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Dunno.

[ Said so much more casually than he usually would. Mako's even sort of leaning on Wu, pushing absent kisses into his hair. The buzz of cider and brandy has sanded away some of his hard edges, softening him just a little. Even Zuko is feeling it: she's in the air above them, doing silly little loops to amuse herself.

Mako hums quietly and shoves an elbow into the side of someone trying to muscle in ahead of them like it's no big deal.
]

It is a little. The festivals in the city were just as chaotic as this and all the cheap vendors had these crazy lines. Bolin and I had this grift with him lookin' sad and starved and like, hangin' out by the side of the cart until they took pity on us. If that didn't work we'd just hustle people with Pabu 'til we got enough yuan for some noodles.
royalfling: (huh | talk | concern)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Mako!

[ Is he yelping at the elbowing someone, or the story, or both? We shall never know. He clings tighter to Mako's arm anyway ]

If he looked sad and starved what did you do? Can't you look sad too?
arclightning: (awkward | thinking twice)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
What?

[ Obviously not, Wu, come on. ]

No, nobody thought I was cute. I stayed outta the way and let Bo take point. He had to learn somehow.
royalfling: (annoyed | talk | pout)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
What? You are cute.

[ Don't argue with him on this, Mako, you aren't going to win. ]

You are very cute and can look very sad and I bet it would have worked just fine if you'd done it.

[ Is this the hill you want to die on, Wu??? ]
arclightning: (pouting | whatever | ugh)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
You've seen Bolin. He has the...

[ Words are hard right now, so Mako just waves a hand at Wu's entire... face.... like that explains anything. ]

Believe me. I was too dirty'n angry.
royalfling: (pout | annoyed)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I think you're cute.

[ The waving is not appreciated and Wu wrinkles his nose, waving back at Mako's hand. They're moving up in the line, but still too far away. He's just realizing how hungry he is which, after what Mako just told him, should make him feel kind of bad but hey, he still needs food even if he has a ready supply! ]
arclightning: (confused | sitting)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
You weren't the one making noodles, so you don't count.

[ Mako just snorts and catches at his fingers, squeezing them for a second before letting them go. The air is thick with the scent of garlic and spices, some familiar, some absolutely not, and there are a couple kids hanging around near the front of the line, looking hopefully at the menu. That's exactly where he used to station Bolin, who was just as dirty as Mako, really, but much cuter, and he didn't mind using it to his advantage.

Mako was a scrawny, angry-eyed thing, smeared with dirt and incapable of smiling, always worried they'd get caught or yelled at or accused of something. Even if it was fair, because usually they were up to something, Bolin was the charming one. Mako was there to play lookout and look tough and intimidating (as tough as a scrawny 11-year-old could look, anyway) to keep the other kids away from their hustle. He had to play charming every once in a while, but there was a reason they worked as a team.

All of this, of course, streams into Wu's head against Mako's will: he doesn't even really realize he's lost in the kind of memory that's easily shared.
]
royalfling: (look | huh | interested)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu isn't used to this, exactly. It's only been a few months, and he's gotten better at controlling the power, keeping his thoughts to himself. He's only really seen memories from Ryan, but maybe it's because he and Mako are so close, because their guards are down, that he sees this now.

He grips Mako's hand tighter, seeing tiny Bolin through Mako's eyes. He looks so small, so dirty, and pretty sad. It tugs at Wu's heart, making him want to reach out and help him, but... he can't. He can't change the past, can't change how Mako and Bolin had to grow up. All he can do is make sure that they're happy, now. That Mako will let him help, now that he can
]

He is pretty cute.

[ That seems so unsatisfactory for what he went through, but what can he do? They're adults now, and that was so long ago, and Mako will probably get mad at him for feeling bad about it. ]
arclightning: (confused | concerned)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu's radiating a kind of weird guilt, and it takes Mako a second to realize Wu probably saw that. His head is sluggish, disconnected, and so while usually there would be a surge of something, now he just... stares for a second, then shakes his head. ]

Yeah, see what I mean? Way more effective.
royalfling: (neutral | look | soft)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-22 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I still think you're cute.

[ Not the takeaway, but he doesn't want to ruin their fun by dwelling on this right now.

Instead, he steps up to the front of the line, steeling himself
]

Okay. Okay! This is it. Right, big guy?
arclightning: (smile | quiet | sweet)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-22 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Mako spares Wu a grateful smile for not pushing it, squeezing him against his side for a moment as they step up amid the chaos to order. ]

I'll order first.

[ But he sure as hell isn't gonna order for Wu, so get ready, because Mako fires off his own order fast and confident as ever, smiling politely at the vendor the whole time. ]
royalfling: (huh | scared | oh no)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-23 02:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu watches, listens, and tries very hard not to feel intimidated by this. He's a king! He can totally do this!

And he manages, but he stumbles over his words a bit and gets the wrong type of noodles and changes the spice level three times and hides his face in Mako's shoulder as he pays with some of their shells
]

No.....
arclightning: (laughing | happy)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-24 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ Does it help Wu at all that Mako is just... quietly losing it? His shoulders are shaking with laughter he is really not doing a good job at keeping quiet, and his free hand is pressed up to his mouth to keep it in and that's not really working either. ]
royalfling: (annoyed | talk | pout)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-27 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
[ Wu bats him in the arm with a pout. There isn't any strength to it, but he is showing his displeasure at being laughed at ]

You set me up! You totally set me up! Mako, that's so mean.
arclightning: (laughing | smiling | warm)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-28 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
Hey, you did it, didn't you? Said I was gonna teach you.

[ Mako wraps an arm around him, uses that to pull Wu up into a kiss. ]

You learned. Mission accomplished.
royalfling: (annoyed | talk | pout)

[personal profile] royalfling 2021-10-28 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wu whines against his lips, but the kiss does mollify him a bit and he leans into Mako's chest ]

Ugh, fine. I learned. And now I'm hungry.
arclightning: (soft smile | quiet | affection)

[personal profile] arclightning 2021-10-29 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
You're gonna get noodles in a second and they're gonna be fine. You did fine.

[ Mako's still snickering a little, loose from the alcohol and the, frankly, extremely funny sight of Wu failing to order noodles. ]

Wouldn't'a lasted more'n a few minutes with me and Bo back then, though.

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