reddosmod: (Deer 2)
Deer Country Mod ([personal profile] reddosmod) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2022-08-08 09:32 pm

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. ]

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.

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.

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.

CODING
foulhussy: (pic#14390160)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-08-24 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
It's hard enough to trust even somebody you know well to be what you expect them to be. Things can shift beneath you and leave you buried. So she's not going to assume too much about the Pthumerians, especially not one as distant and strange as Mariana.

"Like Corruption? Did you become a Beast?" It's not something she'd normally be inclined to pry about, but she's been feeling a little more open lately. And more pragmatically, she needs to know if a fellow Hunter become unable to perform his duties, or becomes an outright danger.

She nods in response to his own question. "Yeah. Didn't want a bunch of idiots going and getting themselves killed, so I went down with a couple people."
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face oh?)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-08-24 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
Duty shakes his head. Sure his corruption levels fluctuate as much as anyone's. However, the daily procedure to remove that corruption means he's not corrupt very long, and he has not become a threat to people. Not any more than he is on his own.

"Half squid," Duty answers. He motions from his waist down. Swimming through the water is easy with tentacles instead of legs, even with heavy cargo. "First, on accident. Second, on purpose. While diving."

Admittedly, not at will. He'd put himself in danger to trigger it, similar to the first time. Still, it's a step in a curious direction, especially for him.
foulhussy: (pic#6671683)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-08-26 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Kainé tilts her head dubiously. "How'd you do it?"

It doesn't sound like the best idea, risking transformation into a raging monster, but she has no place to judge with how she'd used to a power that had been fated to eventually consume her. It wasn't that much different, and that somehow she'd been freed from that curse eventually didn't matter. So would he.
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face b&w)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-08-26 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Duty's first transformation preceded the markers of disease. Since Mercymorn cured him and gave him a clean bill of health, he has continued to dive to no ill effect. Turning into a squid is not only a curse, it's their natural state as witnessed by their death and rebirth process, as evidenced by their arrival. Only this disease is something more, something akin to beasthood, something in their blood and bodies.

"Spike of adrenaline," he states calmly. "While deep underwater." Out in the ocean, the place he has naturally twice returned to full squiddom without death and once with. He's grown more comfortable with the reality that they are all squids, no matter how they dress themselves up.
foulhussy: (pic#7613912)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-08-28 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
The disease has thankfully managed to elude Kainé so far, and she only received a basic, functional primer on how it works. Enough to get the infected to treatment if she finds them, or subdue them if it becomes necessary. She's willing to take his word— for now. She'll be watching him more closely, though.

"Fighting something out there?" Mariana had sent those monstrosities out onto the shore through the month, and before when John had invoked her ire. "That fucking piece of shit wizard must've really riled her up." No need to say the name of the Pthumerian in question.
martyrofduty: (Default)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-08-28 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"Currents," Duty answers. It doesn't matter whether he was personally targeted or indifferently affected. Mariana rejected Augustine, and Duty's as closely tied to John. Drowning is as much a death as monsters; less polluting for lack of blood loss. Not that he's keen on a second death.

"Controlled, uncorrupted transformation," aka not Beasthood, "would open possibilities." More personally, more urgently for him than most people, he admits. His tone is even, but something in his heart soars. Picked up, it won't be left to molder on a shelf.
foulhussy: (pic#14401108)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-02 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Guess so. But it'd be dependent on whatever shit the Pthumerians decide to throw at us any given month." She's dubious about the whole concept, but it doesn't seem completely implausible. After all, the ways people are effected by their magic depends to vary depending on their own disposition.
martyrofduty: (Default)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-05 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"As is everything else," Duty notes. He's not particularly inclined toward living as a squid unless the flooding becomes so bad they are all literally underwater. However, it's a door not a destination.

"What would you do if you controlled the shape of your body?" Duty asks instead of explaining the idea, instead of letting loose the identity one body cannot fully contain.
foulhussy: (pic#14402237)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-09 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
"...Don't know." She'd spent her whole life wishing that her body wasn't the way that it was. Does that question even matter now? Would she change it, knowing it wouldn't change all of the grief and hatred it had earned her?

"Feels unfair to get the choice now."
martyrofduty: (Default)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-09 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
Most people are used to having whatever body they have. They may train for strength, flexibility, magical prowess, or anything else. Diets can also affect their shape. They carry their scars with them. However, none of that is the same as truly controlling one's form, not the way he thinks may be possible going through a squid.

Admittedly, unlike most people, Duty remembers more than one body.

He looks directly at Kainé, making eye contact if it's met. There are stories behind those seven words. "We cannot change the past," Duty notes. Even if they could, they are still the product of the lives they have lived. Another version of them is not, after all, the same as them.

Trench isn't a fair place. He cannot change the troubles Kainé has had. Should that unfairness prevent them from whatever it is they should have had or wanted to have before? "Most Sleepers have different choices here," he says evenly, "Why is it unfair?"
foulhussy: (pic#7510450)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-12 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
She stares hard at him, recognizing that he knows something about her words that somebody else might not. Not that he understands necessarily, no. But there's something there. She maintains that stare a few seconds, before breaking it off, looking away into the sea.

"No. We can't change it." She will always be what her history made her into. She despairs of that sometimes. What happened to her because of her body can't be undone, even if that body changes.

"Lotta people thought I was a freak. A curse. It... doesn't really matter, now." Her arm slackens at her side, the other hand holding her elbow. "It is what is."
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face b&w)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-12 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
The past is what it is, even when people wash up from it, even if knowledge affects one's understanding of it. What happened hasn't changed. It stands there, mostly unknown the way they are only a tiny speck of the universe (of the universes) in this moment too. What they choose to do with it, about it, that's there. The wounds are there. Duty stands there, at home and comfortable, in the shape of his dead husband, his necromancer, his partner. They carry the past with them.

That's what he sees, not a curse but a wound scabbed over. Not quite a scar. "Those people don't matter," he agrees, "Your well being or lack thereof does."

Though they mostly interact while hunting, partners in a professional sense but not more, Duty doesn't know more than he can read here from her. He might not have said anything another month, but cost of stabilizing his blood is what it is.
foulhussy: (pic#7510450)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-16 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
People talk about time healing all wounds, but Kainé has her doubts. The slightest thing can dredge up those memories, send her heart racing and make bile rise in her throat. It doesn't happen as often, but a few bad days can make it feel like nothing has changed at all. Maybe time heals wounds, but what does it matter if they get ripped back open so easily? What does it matter when the person she is now is a result of those horrors?

"No, they fucking don't." She sucks in a breath, and lets it out. She has known happiness, and love. But it departs from her so easily, while the hate is part of her forever.

"But... like hell I know what to do with it now."
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face srs talk)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-16 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
Those strong negative feelings are all too familiar to him. Duty has enough anger to fuel the wars people fight back home, but he has goals. As much as possible, he channels it into them. He releases much of the rest in combat. Bloodletting of emotion along with beast blood. It's working for now, but he's under no illusion he's moved past it.

"Bad wounds don't heal on their own," Duty says. He looks at Kainé, affected a universe away from whatever these people did to her. She cannot move on by handling them. No point holding out for that.

"You wade into that pain and figure it out, or don't," Duty says bluntly, "Your choice." A pause. A line potentially being crossed. "It doesn't have to be alone."
foulhussy: (pic#14401109)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-19 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
"What," she snaps. "Are you offering to talk me through it? Get real. You don't know the first thing." Would opening up to somebody else really be the worst thing? But her instincts tell her not to— years of being a hated pariah tell her it's safer to close herself off. It is true that some people had broken through, like Emil, and more recently Anna and Sayo... but Emil was gone, Sayo is cocooned, and Anna is... complicated.

"I'm figuring it out. I'm making it work." Kainé had a seemingly endless reservoir of pain and rage, and she taps into it even still when she has need of it. But if she wants to heal, she knows she has to work with it in a different way, one that will take a long time. One she sometimes doubts if she can accomplish.
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face oh?)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-19 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Prod at injuries and people lash out. Duty feels the anger in her words, but that anger doesn't hurt him. He doesn't budge. He raises an eyebrow first at making it work. A touch of doubt.

"To stand beside you," Duty clarifies, "as you figure it out." He looks over at her again. "Takes more than that to offend me."

An offer is all it is. He cares more that Kainé does the work than whether she does it with him.
foulhussy: (pic#14401106)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-23 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
She is making it work. She will. Whatever that might be. It's not as bad as it used to be. She's trying to remind herself that she's a person, and that she can live for herself. But it's so lonely without Anna, and she doesn't know if she's strong enough yet to come home.

"Why? It has nothing to do with you."
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face srs talk)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-23 07:31 am (UTC)(link)
How little kindness Kainé must have received in her life to find his offer so incredible. That is a tragedy unto itself. For all his struggles and time alone, they were not purposeful in the harm they caused. The opposite.

"I've done it," Duty answers, "Alone."

"If you'd rather do it that way," he shrugs. So be it.
foulhussy: (pic#14401111)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-09-27 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
She lets out a long breath, stares at the sea. She doesn't want to be alone. It's not a matter of whether she deserves the warmth that people show her, is it? She's just afraid.

"The people that raised me, they thought I was cursed. I got blamed for all the bad shit that happened. I was just a kid, so I really believed all that stuff."
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face watchful)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-09-27 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
Duty huffs quietly. Blaming a kid, eh? It's classic, to scapegoat someone, to feel that sense of control that comes from a target with which to aim one's hurt and anger. It doesn't work. At worst, they'll become the nightmare they are believed to be. Worst, he thinks, not because of the people they ma harm and kill but because the opportunity to be more was slowly stripped from their soul.

"Makes sense for a kid," Duty agrees. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and offers Kainé one. It's that kind of conversation. He looks at her, ready for whatever comes next.
foulhussy: (pic#14367034)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-10-01 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
She waves the cigarette off, shaking her head. She's not sure how much more she's prepared to say, but she thinks she can trust Duty. At least in a fight, and at least in listening to some of this.

"When Grandma took me in, I finally had a real home... somebody who loved me. It was mostly just us, but... I lost her. No, she was taken from me. The Shades killed her. Nearly killed me, but one of them took my body. Kept me from dying, but fed off of all my hate. I became a weapon. I used the power of a Shade to kill them." She heaves a sigh. No, not much more.

"I could hear their voices. They used to be human. But I never had any mercy for them. I cut them down like fucking animals. The kids too."
Edited 2022-10-01 03:05 (UTC)
martyrofduty: (g1deon!face oh?)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-10-02 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Knowing something of the damage, seeing it here, Duty isn't surprised that this acceptance was short lived and ended poorly. Shades sound something like ghosts, not the spirits summoned shortly after death, but those driven made in the River, those that will tear a person limb from limb. Driven by what they'd become.

"Putting them down sounds humane," Duty comments. No more suffering and pain. Only peace and rest. He lights a cigarette for himself. "How do you see yourself now—still that weapon?" That vessel.
foulhussy: (pic#14312032)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-10-05 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
In some sense, they were more human that what Kainé was. Millions of Replicants made as shells to restore those lost souls to what they once were. Nobody ever counted on them developing identities of their own.

"I don't know. They wanted our bodies. We were just empty shells for them to inhabit. We fought and we killed their leader... I dunno. I think all of us are goners after that. The shades... and us shells too." She laughs bitterly. She doesn't regret it.

"I might be."
martyrofduty: (Default)

[personal profile] martyrofduty 2022-10-06 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
Duty looks at Kainé, so clearly a person with thoughts and feelings, memories and identity, hopes and dreams presumably. She's not simply a weapon or a shell, and good thing she's here.

"So the shades made you to be a vessel and turned you into a weapon. Your fellow shells named you a scapegoat," Duty snorts, "Seems about right you get a turn."
foulhussy: (pic#6671684)

[personal profile] foulhussy 2022-10-08 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Not... exactly. It's complicated shit. Don't feel like saying much more." It's a long story, and one tied intimately to some very personal pain that she carries.

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[personal profile] martyrofduty - 2022-10-08 04:38 (UTC) - Expand