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 drone curves closer to one of the sunken boats. Sea life that Murderbot doesn't know the names of clearly occupy it. Plants or animals cover the hull. Something moves inside. This particular ship has definitely been there a while, like the girl said. The drone moves to another ship and another, each with similar basic situations. Sunken a long time. No matter the differences between the boats (again, they are outside Murderbot's purview, and these boats don't resemble the boats it has been on, though thankfully the boats it was on floated).

"Do you know anything about how long it takes all that stuff to move on/into sunken boats?" Murderbot asks without much expectation of an answer. Probably neither of them are the ideal person to study this kind of thing. It's used to working with scientists. It never had to be the scientist.

It exhales as they see another long sunken ship. "I don't think this is a way home," it says.

It's true that Chizuru doesn't exactly have much experience with sunken ships and sealife. Read: pretty much nothing. On the other hand, she does have experience with growing plants. And while she can't be sure if that functions the same way on land as it does under the sea, she figures that it's got to be at least a little bit similar.

It's why she bites her lower lip for a moment before replying with: "Probably years.."

At the very least. Especially with just how much these ships seem to be covered - it could be much longer.

But then again, it's hard to make an exact judgement when Chizuru definitely is not a scientist.

What she will agree on, though, is its assessment as to what these ships aren't. Chizuru nods, slightly in defeat, but she does try to not show it too much. She's already left enough of a bad impression on the other so far, she thinks. The least she can do is not seem like a disappointed child here.

Instead she should keep thinking. After all-- "There has to be a reason why this place wanted to show us these though."

The water glowing can't have been a coincidence. It must have been a sign. A call, a request to investigate.

"There can't be anyone left on these ships to save if they've been down there for so long, so there has to be something else about them that's important. Some reason we had to see them." For what it's worth - the girl does sound a little more sure about that. Like she truly believes it.

The basic facts are in agreement between them. That's a starting point. Patience is easier that way. It's still the ocean, the same ocean that spat so many monsters at Murderbot that it became fishfood repeatedly before it ever hit the shore. Mariana's something. Perhaps ill will isn't the right word (Murderbot lacks enough information for a meaningful guess), but she's dangerous. It respects that.

It looks at the painfully optimistic girl, reminded of other optimists it knows, ones now an ocean away. "I agree there has to be a reason why this place wanted to show us these," it says, "I won't go so far as to say we had to see them." That's a step too far. A step too optimistic. A step asking for trouble. Murderbot thinks sometimes things that are too good to be true are just that.

"What are you proposing?" Murderbot asks. It sets the drone to mapping and imaging one of the ships. That's well within the drone's wheelhouse. However, as an intelligent drone, it cannot readily bring any physical objects to the surface. That fact causes a sinking sensation.

"Well.."

It's here that Chizuru falters again for a moment. She's not quite used to responsibility being thrust into her hands like this, after all. For as good as a listener and follower as Chizuru is, she's never really been a leader.

On the other hand, it's not like she fully gives up either. Even if she isn't used to calling shots, or giving ideas, she at least tries. There's a thoughtful frown on the girl's face, seeming to consider this.

"If we can't tell much from the outside of the ships, maybe there is someone on the inside we should see." Or take a look at, at least.

(As long as it's not a monster.. hopefully..)

"Can your little.." 'friend', she almost says, because it's hard to think of something that moves like that as someone that isn't alive, but then again.. the other didn't seem to treat the drone like a companion, right? "Um, your little.. thingy.. maybe see if there's a way to enter the ships..? If they sunk and landed on the bottom of the sea, there might be a hole to enter the ships through."

Murderbot nods at the suggestion. It's heard far worse from people before. The girl is ahead of the curve on that front, which is more a sad reflection on humanity than it is high praise. Murderbot appreciates it nonetheless. Avoiding the most basic problems is commendable.

"It's currently mapping the outside of one boat," Murderbot explains. It switches the view on the omni from the camera to the three dimensional shape the drone constructs from its scans. They can see the curve of the boat including a decent amount of texture. It starts interacting with the display, marking parts of it as sea life/organic matter instead of the ship proper. Again, it's the wrong drone to clear that all off.

"Once it finishes that, it can start doing the same inside," it agrees. Assuming of course it finds a way in. The human has a point, and the drone only needs a small entrance.

"What are boats like where you're from?" it asks to pass the time.

Thankfully this is an explanation that Chizuru can mostly understand. If not just because she can see the process in front of her own eyes, with the model of the ship appearing like that. It would have been a whole lot harder to understand without the visual guide, but now she can just assume that little thing has some sort of power that can observe something and then create a picture of it.

Hopefully something unusual will be caught on the pictures then, she thinks. Whether it's on the outside or the inside of the boat.

In the meantime her gaze is pulled away from the model and over at the other when it asks that question. It's not a difficult question, really, but Chizuru does look a tad bashful as she answers.

"Ah, I think they mostly look like this too." That's not the part she's looking bashful about, mind you. That comes when she adds: "But I haven't seen many.. I'm more used to traveling across land, and I also never really went away from my house until only a little while ago.."

Yes, as in basically being a shut-in. Though not of her own will, really. But she still gets that it's out of the ordinary, hence why she looks like that as she confesses as much to it.

"So a whole lot of things have been new to me. I come from Edo, though, if that tells you anything.. And the past while I've spent in Kyoto before showing up here instead. That's all in Japan." Hey, it's not like she knows whether or not those cities even exist where the other comes from, so Chizuru figures it's probably better to give too much information than too little.

Murderbot is glad that the safety and well being of... generic people, it'll say since its people aren't here, don't depend on it and this human knowing about boats. They'd probably all die. Something about standing on a beach inspecting a sunken boat with someone else who manages to know less about boats than it does strikes Murderbot as comical.

"None of those locations mean anything to me," it admits. That isn't anything new. It's been here such a short time, and no one has named a single location that it recognizes. It's far far far out the other end of some wormhole without a bearing.

"Have you heard of the Corporation Rim?" it asks. Few people have heard of Preservation unless they've watched the recent news. To get that, they already have to know about the Corporation Rim. It's a reasonable starting point. If that's a no, the rest isn't going to mean anything.

"I'm used to traveling across space," Murderbot adds. "We're a long way from home."

She slowly shakes her head. No, that name sounds completely foreign to her - though it's not very surprising to her, with how small her own knowledge of even her own world is. Just like how the fact that it doesn't recognize any of the places Chizuru is talking about isn't really surprising either. It's been a common thing for her to hear, every time she's started talking about her own world.

.. it makes Chizuru glance at the image of the ship that's still forming, thinking. It shows up on her face too - as anything and everything does with this girl - in the form of a thoughtful small frown, before she seems to think of something.

That makes her glance back to it, her eyes wider now. "Um.. You know!"

There's a bit more pep in her voice too now. Like the realisation is giving her energy.

"I may not know about it, or have heard of it, but.. if you want to talk about it, or anything from your world, I'll listen!" Even if she may not understand much, given that the idea of space travel is-- well, it's a lot for someone who's hardly even left the city she was born in. "I'm not sure how you feel about it, but sometimes it feels a little lonely to me when it seems like no one else knows about stuff from my world.. So if you think it might be nice to have someone around who knows about at least some stuff from yours, I'll gladly listen!"

Is it kind of a weird service to provide? Maybe.

But she only met this person today, and it has been relatively kind to her, if not a tiny bit intimidating - but Chizuru is well aware she thinks the latter about a lot of people.

She just wants to be able to do something in return. To help people here, even if it's just through listening to them and being there for them. To ensure that no one is feeling all alone in a strange land.

No surprise there. Murderbot hasn't met anyone here who is from the same 'world' so to speak (which is more than time and location in space but whole alternate and independent universes). The good news is that it means they aren't familiar with SecUnits, and it's harder for them to rightfully take it for the BotHumanConstruct it is.

"It's hard to explain everything you've ever known," Murderbot says, "There's so many things to take for granted that it can easily confuse another person." Plus talking at length about it—which parts are important? which aren't? there's too much information—is more awkward than enlightening. Thankfully, it has another solution.

"I like media," Murderbot says, "I'm working on opening a place in Cellar Door where people can come and watch things, read things, listen to things, play things, etc. I'll be sharing all the media I arrived here with from my world. They aren't accurate. I mean, I doubt stories where you're from are accurate histories of your world. Mine aren't either. Behind all that, though, it's a decent introduction. Watch it, read it, whatever. Then I can fill in any gaps or correct things as needed."

Starting with common ground. It makes a note to make it harder to find the stuff with SecUnits. It's so wrong and so personally relevant that... well, it could go badly if people learn what it is.

Thankfully for the other, Chizuru indeed has absolutely not an inkling of what the other is. She's just assuming that she's standing here and speaking to a person who's just as normal as her - or rather, even more normal than Chizuru herself is, since she's hiding her true nature as well.

It's not what the girl is thinking about at all in this moment. Instead she's thinking about its proposal. A good one, really, since it might help her get a better grip on what is normal to it and what isn't.

But it also makes her wonder--

"Watch things..? Do you happen to have.. um, some of those things people call 'movies'..?"

Judging by the way she says that word, she's definitely not familiar with them beyond hearsay. Even seeing moving images of people over the Omnis was already wild to Chizuru, so this concept is even more wild.

Murderbot feels itself die inside. It counts to a hundred (about a second) and stares at the internal structure of the ship its drone is starting to build.

"Yes," it says, "I have movies, serials, and recordings of plays. You can watch any of them." Preservation might become more famous than the Corporation Rim here in Trench. What a delight that would be.

"There's one story that is so popular where I was, I have more versions of stories about it than most people probably care to watch. Seeing multiple of them, though, might give you a better idea of what happened or... how people can make stories about history." That's all history is—stories that people claim are non-fictional. It's always fiction. It's never the same as what happened. Even watching records of what happened isn't the same as what happened.

"Ah.. I actually know quite a bit about that.."

Chizuru's expression is a little awkward as she says it, though she tries to smile. It's just the nature of living through some pretty major historical events - you can see history being written and immediately re-written where you stand. It's always written by the victors, after all.

And Chizuru certainly isn't on the winning side, which is why it's so awkward in the first place.

"Are all those movies about stories from where you come from..? Or do you have stories from other places as well?" After the question leaves her, Chizuru realises that it might not quite understand where specifically she's going, so she tries to be honest and open here, adding: "Um, to be specific, I suppose.. I was wondering if you had anything that has stories about the Shinsengumi."

Probably not, Chizuru figures. Why would it have stories about the Shinsengumi in any of the movies or those other things when it didn't even recognize the places in Japan she was talking about?

But maybe there's just a little bit of hope in the girl's heart.

So the girl is/was living through history in the making (yes, everyone is living through history in the making, but no one keeps stories of Dave the Miner unless Dave the Miner gets involved in some big ass or weirdly intriguing shit). No matter her role, the girl is witnessing it at least and aware of what's going on.

"I have a large supply of my own media," Murderbot answers, "I already had it, and it's mostly sorted and labeled." Obviously, a system for other people is different than a system for it. Who knows, maybe the people who like stupid naked stuff will appreciate the time markers for the start and stop of those scenes. Murderbot uses them to skip over.

"I am supplementing that with additional media," it says, a slightly more encouraging note. "That's... slower going." Not that it strictly needs to, but Murderbot changes the display from its omni to a search window in DeerNet. Wirelessly it runs the vocal recording of the girl saying Shinsengumi through a speech to text function on DeerNet since that isn't a language it has in its archive. That spelling is dumped into its displayed searchbar, and Murderbot forces itself to look through some of the results at a painfully slow crawl.

"Some of these leads may be promising," Murderbot says slowly, again at an algorithm-determined human rate, "Do you have any preferences for the Shinsengumi media? Type of media, tone, themes, et cetera."

Guess who has two thumbs and is utterly baffled by what's going on here.

This girl over here, of course. She's imagining it must be some sort of technology mage or something like that to be able to do this with its omni. That device is already enough of a mystery to Chizuru on good days, but all this stuff it is able to do with the device is utterly mindblowing to Chizuru.

It's definitely like witnessing magic in real time as the screen keeps changing. That awe and confusion mixed together is what causes a faint delay before the girl speaks up, stammering her answer once she realises it was asking her a question.

"O-Oh! As long as it has the Shinsengumi in it, I'm fine with anything.."

She's not too picky. Just very, very desperate for anything that has to do with the men she cares so much about, yet hasn't seen in about half a year or so now.

".. I guess it'd be nice to have something that's a little happier, but I don't imagine most stories about them would be.." It's not even that she knows how things will end with the Shinsengumi - considering that Chizuru was pulled away from it all.

But considering the way things were looking before she ended up in Trench? She can't imagine things end too well with them in history. She can only hope that their honour is portrayed well for people in the future to hear of.

Everything in the searches for Shinsengumi speak of it in the past tense, something that happened and a while ago at that. There's generations of media that references and build off each other, adaptations of adaptations. It's historical, all of it, based on a group in history. Except with everything weird about this place, Murderbot suddenly bets it isn't history at all.

It's real life. Her real life.

Murderbot hasn't found anything about the Corporation Rim on DeerNet. It's far more focused on 'Earth.' However, with all the variation here...

"It's fiction," Murderbot says, "It won't be entirely accurate. More than that, it might not be based on your Shinsengumi, not exactly." That isn't to say Murderbot thinks real life goes better where she's from than the records in Trench provide, but the specifics may vary in a meaningful way for someone who knows those involved.

".. that's okay. I think they'd like it better too if everything wasn't entirely accurate.."

Granted, that's still a guess on her part. Chizuru had been an outsider who was brought in under special circumstances. She wouldn't dare fully count herself one of them, let alone know exactly what they were thinking at any given moment.

But what she does know is that the men of the Shinsengumi certainly wouldn't want the entire world to know about all their secrets.

"It's just.." For a moment her voice trails off, but then she shakes her head.

If it is kind enough to want to help her here, then she owes it the truth. She straightens up a little, standing firm. It is a little scary to say this, especially since she was worried before about it judging her, and clearly it could do the same in the face of her saying this.

But, even so--

"I miss them." The truth, plain as day. "I've been away from them for months now, when I'm used to spending each and every single day around them back home. I know that it might seem a little pathetic, but.. even if it's not really them, even just seeing something that might have to do with them might make that feeling a little bit easier to bear, I think."

Murderbot gets that. It prefers unrealistic media, the right kind of unrealistic. It doesn't know what the real Shinsengumi would consider the 'right' kind of unrealistic or whether they'd hate all the media about them or what. It hasn't even met them, and it can only really predict the taste of people whose tastes it has already been exposed to. It's not really prediction so much as an extension of known fact at that point.

This revelation, this idea that they are her crew, her people, possibly even her friends or family, isn't that shocking by this point.

Murderbot nods. Once more it changes the display on the Omni. This time, it shows a video, but not much happens in it. Everyone is crouched around displays or otherwise working on reports. Some mutter under their breath. It's not a good angle to see what they're working on, but it doesn't matter. That's not the point. "Those are my crew," Murderbot says, "I miss them, even with video footage like this."

Basically, it gets it. It understands.

"I'll see what I can do."

Chizuru slowly lowers her head, like it's a kind of mini-bow - but with the same level of respect in it as an actual bow would have.

".. thank you."

She already owes it a lot now, doesn't she? For helping with the matter of looking underwater, and now this.. It makes the girl shift a little uncomfortably, trying to think of what she could do for the other in return.

Otherwise it just wouldn't feel fair.

After considering the matter for a moment, Chizuru lightly chews on her lower lip before speaking up again. "Are they.. all not here?"

She gestures with her head in the direction of the clip, like she means to say 'your crew.'

"Are you the only one here..?"

Murderbot stares at the image of PreservationAux. "You're welcome," it says because it likes being treated like a person. It has an algorithm controlling its breathing, so there are no extra sighs or cues. It misses them all the same. "Just me."

In its whole universe it seems.

It drops the image and pulls back up the scan of the ship, the interior now complete. "This doesn't tell me much, but I can send it to you," it offers. It no longer wants to be wet standing on the beach. It wants to be safe in The Entertainment Feed watching Sanctuary Moon.

"Are you on DeerNet?" it asks, finishing out this social obligation first, one lonely being to another.

There's a slow blink, like it takes a moment to register in Chizuru's mind what DeerNet is.. not that she never uses it, it's just that she never really thinks about it as having a name.

"Oh, yes! Um, my name on there is.. lookingforshinsengumi."

It feels weird to say it out loud like this, but it's just the truth.

"Just as one word."

That's easy enough to remember. Talk about obvious signposting. Anyone who arrives in Trench with any connection to the Shinsengumi, for or against, will recognize that connection. Hopefully the fictional aspect provides her some cover from any of their enemies.

"Mine's ~rin," Murderbot says, "Also one word. Also my name." It's a name Murderbot's had at least. Its name is private. "Look for something from me soon."

It looks at the ocean and back toward town. "I need to go. Please do not go into the water," Murderbot says. After an affirmative, it leaves for the safety and privacy this conversation dredges up the need for.

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