deercountry | he ate my heart

he ate my heart

AUGUST 2022 EVENT

EXTRA WARNING:

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: The shore line lit up by some sort of bioluminescent organism. ]
[Image Two: A sunken pirate ship covered in algae, seaweed, and suffering from wood rot. ]

Prompt Two
[Image One: A tentacle wrapping around a persons hand. ]
[Image Two: A close up of someone's shoulder which is turning black and cracked and dripping water. ]

Prompt Three
[Image One: A statue of a human face, split in half, with a golden devil mask between the two halves. ]
[Image Two: A number of golden hands reaching up for a white sphere. ]

[NAVIGATION]

Prompt 1 • Prompt 2 • Prompt 3 • Plotting • Newsletter

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

WE GLOW SO DIM

WHEN: August
WHERE: The Ocean
CONTENT WARNINGS: Deep diving, possible drowning, possible death

Early on in the month, the waves start to have a strange look to them. They seem a little brighter, even at night, and it's then that it hits you: the waves are glowing. It's easy to at first to brush it off as the bioluminescence of certain types of plankton, but the way it moves and sparkles has an other-worldly quality to it that can't be explained by science. Those who look even closer at the glow will notice that it seems to be forming some sort of path into the watery depths.

Those who choose to follow the path despite the angry waves and awful storms that plague the seas this month will find that the ocean seems to be at its calmest along these illuminated, watery roads. Diving down to follow them won't require any equipment, as Sleepers will find that staying within the glowing path allows them to breathe under water when they might normally not have been able to. The pressure changes don't seem to be impacting anyone who follows the light either, allowing them access to deeper depths of the ocean than may have previously been explored.

Continuing to follow the path will lead Sleepers to a series of ship wrecks under the water. These ancient vessels are rotted and covered in seaweed, but anyone who is familiar with the cultures of Earth will notice that they seem to come from all over the world and their styles vary by multiple centuries. But all the ships seem to be covered in this same, strange glow that has brought people here.

Exploring the ships will lead to multiple different discoveries. There are chests filled with ancient artifacts: carvings of squids, statues of various sea creatures that feel a little off somehow, and stones carved with a strange text that is almost impossible to decipher. The artifacts are covered in strange, rust-looking stains that penetrate deep into the materials they're made of. These artifacts can be brought back to shore, and if someone were to try and ask the Trenchies what the writing said, they would only be able to say that these are clearly texts of the Old Ones from long before any recorded history that Trench has in its Archives. When asked about the sea creatures, they'll think it's obvious: these are Mariana's various forms from over the years. The off qualities are her unique takes as a Pthumerian on the creatures of the ocean.

Prolonged exposure to these statues of Mariana will cause people to become more bluntly honest, more open with their emotions, and often much more prone to large outbursts from said emotions, both good and bad. However, Sleepers who keep these statues near them will also find that they are able to keep more control of their blood powers. It's up to each individual if it's a worthy trade off.

If you leave the path, two things can happen: Sleepers will either turn into their squid selves and can continue to swim or they will drown. There will be nothing of interest outside of these paths, just typical ocean creatures, and maybe some of those monsters that have been crawling out of the watery depths as of late.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

MONSTER WITHIN

WHEN: August
WHERE: All over
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body horror, mentions of potential cannibalism/vore, possible death, contagious curse

Soon after people start to explore the ships, a strange occurrence will start to sweep through the city. Locals start to mutter something about a curse, one that seems to only be impacting Sleepers. The early signs that there's something off is an increase in strength and stamina. For example, Sleepers will find that they might go to pick up a chair or a mug and it shatters in their hands. Some people may find that they are incapable of sleeping. Others might find they're able to move quicker and for longer periods than normal.

If they look themselves over, they will start to find small patches of skin that have started to gray and blacken. These patches will be cracked, almost scaley, and will be consistently damp no matter how hard you try to dry them off. As time passes, this odd rash will start to spread, taking over more and more of the body. The torso might start to swell and distort, making Sleepers feel particularly top heavy. And eventually, suckers will start to form on the arms and legs.

This curse isn't beasthood in its usual forms; instead, it seems to be some sort of malady in of the magical blood that Sleepers have been granted. If the blood of an infected Sleeper is looked at under a microscope, there will be black patches clinging to the cells, similar to the patches that people see on their skin. If it isn't stopped, the person suffering from the curse will ultimately turn into a monstrous form of their squid-selves: these monster forms are large, aggressive, and able to move on land. They will feel a hunger for destruction and some Sleepers may find in these forms that they are only satisfied if they feed on other, uncursed Sleepers.

There are two ways to lift the curse. One is through a thorough blood transfusion with a blood type that is compatible with your own. This becomes more difficult to do the closer to the monstrous form people get, both due to aggression from the curse, and also due to the fact that the black patches of skin are highly difficult to puncture. Once the blood is completely replaced by fresh blood, the skin patches will disappear over 48 hours and the Sleeper will be left feeling thoroughly exhausted.

The second way to lift the curse is through death. While these monster squid forms are difficult to kill, it is not impossible, and they are particularly susceptible to magic over weapons. Once a Sleeper has died, they can be reborn, and their blood will be completely free of the curse.

The blood malady can be spread outside of those who come into contact with the ship wrecks. People who touch a cursed Sleeper, particularly the scaley patches of skin, will also run the risk of being cursed. It takes roughly a week for the signs of the curse to show, and can spread as slowly or as rapidly as players choose.

[JUMP TO TOP] • [JUMP TO COMMENTS]

LAVISH DESIRES

WHEN: August
WHERE: All over
CONTENT WARNINGS: Personality changes, mental manipulation, hoarding, obsessive anxiety, disassociation, depersonalization

The high waves seem to just be getting higher at the beginning of the month. Rougher and rougher seas start to cause something anyone who's lived around water will be familiar with: flash floods. These floods are large, powerful, and fill the streets of Trench. First-floors of buildings may get extreme damage, though they can be protected with physical and magical barriers if people are smart about it. The floods happen multiple times throughout the month without warning, so it may be good to get that protection built up sooner rather than later.

The after effects of these floods aren't just structural devastation though. People who get caught up in the water, particularly those who end up swallowing it, will have one word echoing in their mind on a regular basis: More.

More of what? That seems to be different for each individual. Maybe one person wants more and more food, anything from an extra slice of cake after dinner, to wanting to stuff themselves until they just might pop. Or maybe they want to hoard all of their favorite objects or pieces of clothing, filling more and more of the space in their homes until they're ready to burst at the seems. Some might find it's their emotions that come in excess, with over the top anger, or irregular excitement that leaves them unable to sleep for days. Anything and everything can come in excess and it certainly seems to be this month. Some people may get these obsessive needs to such a degree that they start to feel disconnected from themselves, fractured by the overabundance that has taken over their lives.

If people ignore these desires, they'll start to find they're plagued by hallucinations. Strong, life-like visions that riddle them with anxiety and leave them petrified of what might happen if they don't partake in this gluttonous behavior. They'll feel shaken to the core and slowly go mad with need and desire for whatever it is they've been craving. This feeling of madness can make them become violent, lashing out at those around them, even killing those who try and help them out of belief that they're trying to force them to give in to their vices.

The impact of the water will wear off either after one week without re-exposure, or by using a Moon Drop to help to cleanse the mind.

[JUMP TO TOP]

CODING

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The floodwaters are problematic and Battler has decided to pitch in where he can as well. It's all a mess, so helping people move things (or themselves), recovering items and getting them dried up, piling sandbags - it's all part of making sure things can proceed smoothly and the place can recover. He's going to be living here, right? So why not help?

He runs into Nara'a during that time. And quite innocently chips in.

"Hey, could you pass me one of those bags? I want to try and make sure the water doesn't creep up this side..."

"Ah, sure." He hefts over a particularly large sandbag before blinking and weighing whether or not the bag is too heavy for Battler before shrugging and handing it over.

"If you need a hand, let me know. There's some others here that aren't so heavy." Or awkward. But he doesn't seem to mind himself. "I've never see defenses like this before." Then again, he's not used to places with flooding. Maybe Limsa Lominsa has places where these are needed?

Battler hefts it with a little 'oof' and then shifts it into position, taking a few steps and then setting down. He dusts his hands and surveys their work so far. Well, it'll have to do. Right?

"Just keep at it. Not like we're moving 'em too far..." He sighs, "...wait, really? You've never seen sandbags? I guess you didn't get a lot of flooding."

It certainly will. They'll see how it holds up in the next flood surge.

"I've seen a lot of different places, but I grew up in... you could call it scrublands? Between a forest and a desert, so while there's places with water it's not exactly the flooding type."

"Japan's a bunch of islands... so you're bound to see flooding there," Battler replies with a smile and a shrug, "But I guess desert doesn't see it a lot unless you get a ton of rain all at once?"

"I've heard the name 'Japan' around here... but I had no idea it was a lot of islands. But no, we don't really get a lot of flooding. We do get rain sometimes, but it's rarer than you see further north. But we get by... most of my family still lives there." His mother and sisters do, at any rate.

"But I've been to a lot of coastal areas in my travels... but I guess the last really bad floods were a while ago, when a huge disaster hit the whole world. Flooding, climate changes, spires of crystal forming... I know at least one town got washed away, and the climate of one area changed from temperate to freezing."

"...that sounds pretty bad, I have to admit," Battle replies with a frown, "...sounds like you guys managed to make it through it, though. Even if everything sounds weird as all get out. What made something like that happen? What could just change a climate overnight?"

Call him curious.

"... So first you have to understand that my world is made up of a substance called aether. It can be elementally aligned, and it has to maintain a certain balance. Great shifts in the aether can cause problems, and if they continue they can cause a disastrous imbalance that sweeps the whole world, called a Calamity. What happened was one of those."

How to explain this to someone who doesn't know the background? "A while ago there was an Empire that invaded, and they wanted to purge the land of those they saw as lesser or undesirable. Their leader brought down the lesser moon onto our region. But it turns out it wasn't a moon at all - it was a prison for a being called a primal. Primals are made of aether, and they can control it to an extent. But the primal had been locked up for five thousand years, so when it was released it caused surges of aether all over - enough to cause a Calamity."

Right. Battler can handle this. It's not as complicated as some of the weird explanations he's had to deal with before. His face screws up a bit in concentration. It sounds... bad, honestly. Complicated. But mostly bad.

"...I have to be honest, that sounds incredibly bad for you and your people."

He's sympathetic, "...but hey, you made it through, it looks like."

"It was. My family was mostly safe - we had different game for a while when they started to migrate out from the more destroyed areas. And the Black Shroud was hit pretty hard... but those of us in places where we were scraping by just continued to do so. At least my family did."

He sighs and moves another sandbag. "There's still a lot of refugees, even years later. We were lucky, in some ways... there's plenty of people who lost family during the battle, or due to sudden changes in environment. It's still bad, but... it's healing. Slowly."

"That's all you can ask for, right? Is to be able to keep the people you love safe and hope you can make the world a little better in the process..." Battler sighs and leans against the little wall of sandbags he's helped build.

"I never had to live through anything like that, fortunately... but my grandfather had to help pick up the pieces after the war, so I guess it was pretty similar back then."

"Pretty much... it's been a long process for everyone, but the world has a lot more hope now than it did before." A lot of it is thanks to him and the other Scions, but he doesn't really like to brag - especially to people he just met.

Instead he nods at Battler, thinking. "Your world had a war? I'm sorry about that. War is... always horrible."

"Well, there's always wars... but it was a really big one. Wrecked the country. And we ended up occupied for a while. I don't know, it was all when my grandfather was young..."

He shakes his head, "Point is, we've recovered by now. Or at least our country has. Things are pretty good, honestly. So there's always hope."

"I'm sorry. That sounds awful." Occupied... he's been in places where the Empire has occupied them for years. It's never good, and he frowns a little at the thought.

Still, at least it sounds positive now... "I'm glad that your country is back on its feet. And there's always hope, no matter how bad it gets. You've got to hold out for that, no matter what."

"I mean... I don't remember a lot of it. It all happened before I was born," Battler admits with a shrug and a sheepish smile, " And we're friends with the Americans now, so there's that. We do a lot of business with them. My folks... well, we had some stuff over there, anyway."

He clears his throat and tries to move on. His family is a bit of an awkward subject right now.

"You're right about that, though. You can't give up on that kind of stuff. You've gotta keep moving. Hope... hope is what pulls you through, in the end."

"That's fair." He doesn't bother asking what an American is - clearly some other country? He's really got to read up on more geography... there's a lot of people who have mentioned Japan, at least.

The clear need to move on doesn't bother him. "Hope can pull you out of the deepest darkness. And I mean that quite literally. Hope can be the thing that keeps you alive when everything else seems to want the opposite."

Battler claps him on the shoulder with a grin and a firm nod, "You got that right. Sometimes that hope and belief is all you got left. And you gotta draw on it until you can find something else to grab onto. Anything, really. Feel like you've seen your fair share of weird stuff, buddy..."

He doesn't seem to mind the contact and grins. "Yeah, I... you could definitely say that I have." Even by his world's standards. "But you've got to find something to ground you even in all of that weirdness... and friends definitely help with that."

"Oh yeah. And family..." His smile turns a bit sad, but it's still there. He's got a lot to be thankful for, honestly. Even if there's a lot that still hurts after all this time.

"So, if this is rude, stop me - but does everyone where you're from have the ears and everything? Call me curious."

"Yeah... I didn't want to mention that in case you didn't have a good relationship with your family. I know not everyone does." His own is... fine? If a bit cold.

The question has a chuckle escape him and his tail twitches in amusement. "No, but there's more races than there are here. Many more. From Roegadyns that are close to double my height to Lalafell that are half of it... there's plenty of Au Ra adventurers nowadays - they have scales and horns instead of fur - and the Viera have long rabbit-like ears. There's Hyur like you of course, but most races have at least two subspecies as well. And those can look vastly different too."

"Whoa! Really? Most people where I'm from are just, you know... uh. Hyur? People like you are mostly in stories, so this is kind of new for me."

In a way. He's not sure he wants to bring up the whole "furniture" thing.

"It's kind of exciting, though."

"Meanwhile to me it seems awfully boring to just have a single race over your entire world. There's so many cultures that you can interact with... there's even more when you consider the various tribes of what most people call 'beastmen'. They're more than just beasts, though..."

But the whole 'civilized versus not' debate is a very charged thing, so he'll set it aside for now.

"It's exciting being here too... there's so many different kinds of people. I like learning about people... a lot."

"There's a lot of uh, hyur cultures. Or human, is what we call ourselves back home," he smiles, "And yeah - finding out new things, exploring new places - it's fun! If you ever have more time, I'd love to hear more about your world."

"I've heard the term 'human' before... it seems a lot of people refer to themselves like that. 'Hume' is the other term I know for your species, but that's from another world."

He nods and smiles, reaching up to pat the wall of sandbags, making sure they're not going to topple over. "I'd love to tell you. I'm a bit of a nerd, so a lot of it might be dry or academic... though there's plenty of adventures I've had, as well."

"Adventures! Those I gotta hear about. Quests and stuff? Really fantasy kinda things? What have you gotten up to? I'll bet it's been exciting!"

He is nothing if not enthusiastic.

Lavish Desires

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