reddosmod: (Default)
Deer Country Mod ([personal profile] reddosmod) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-12-08 02:19 am

I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't

DECEMBER 2021 EVENT
Hello! We are trying a new style of event this December with archival-like entries that characters can ICly find in the Archives. This should allow characters to be able to plan against certain events that occur in-game and do research ahead of time, during the event, or after the fact.

The idea is that these prompts will provide you with all the possibilities characters could theoretically face from the prompt. We hope this leaves more open-ended opportunities for people to engage with. Anything mentioned in the excerpts could be an experience characters encounter. You can always ask for clarification on any prompt on the plotting page.

This is a way to keep all event prompts relevant since new characters would be able to "read up" on these events/excerpts by visiting the Archives or other such resources for information about past events and what they can anticipate from the setting.

We hope this new style makes sense and is fun for players to work with! They will rely on players creating more of the atmosphere than the prompts, but we think that the prompts will provide the perfect guidance as to what the atmosphere should feel like. Enjoy!

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

Prompt One
[Image One: Holiday themed antler decoration.]
[Image Two: White stag with perfect, circular antlers with bits of ice attached.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Sculpture of white rabbit with neck caught in a snare. Non-graphic.]
[Image Two: Person in red cloak and wolf mask turning around.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Puppet making bloody snow angel in snow.]
[Image Two: Bloodied hands wrapped in bandages clenching.]

WINTER MOURNING
WHEN: Begins in December and can last until the end of Feb.
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Spoilers for various canons, survival situations, forced memory share


[A passage from Rituals of Trench: Remembering Our Pasts reads the following:]

"A long-standing tradition to celebrate Bone Season is for Deerians to collect antlers and bones salvaged from natural resources and create decorative home accents. These antler-bone decors are known formally as Winter Mournings and can be found in almost every residential home throughout Deer Country. Winter Mournings can be made to look like wreaths, candle holders, or simply an antler with a bow hung up on a wall.

Winter Mournings is seen as a way to honor one's past tribulations and how one has managed to survive and overcome hardships during their life. Winter Mournings serves as a testament to survival and a willingness to keep surviving even when things look bleak and dismal.

Creating Winter Mournings is considered a blessing to the Pthumerians Dorothea, Remina, and Argonaut. You will know if the blessing was accepted once your Winter Mourning begins to glow like the moon. Touch your Winter Mourning and you will be pulled back in time to a memory of a specific time when you or someone else had to survive something physically or mentally challenging. For some, it is merely a memory that cannot hurt, but for others, you may want to proceed with caution as it has been known to pull people physically back to times of war.

One cannot choose which memory they wind up in if it is their own, a friend's, or a complete stranger's. Winter Mournings was designed to create a sense of union and empathy among residents and is meant to open your mind and heart to those who have suffered around you. It is time you explore your past, or someone else's past, with an open mind and see how the other side has lived through hard times. These memories are known to be from adolescence, adulthood, or sometimes even futures that have not yet happened or timelines you have never known. After all, Remina sees all past and all history. That means they see all of your past and history too.

No memory lasts forever though. Once the memory has been concluded, you shall be brought back to the present by the Winter Mourning Stag: a great white beast with a circle of frozen antlers. It will come to you when the time is ready, and you will return to the present like waking from a dazzling dream.

Experiencing Winter Mournings can stabilize one's mood and provide restful sleep after, even if the memories may be difficult to swallow. It truly is a tribute to honor past horrors and traumas. Some memories are painful to remember, but forgetting them will never do anyone any good either. So hang your Winter Mournings and remember what matters.

Survive another day. You are worth it."

FAQ

1. Winter Mournings can produce new memories every time you touch them or the same memory.

2. Characters cannot choose what the memory is.

3. Characters can arrive in each other's memories regardless of if they already know each other. Multiple people can experience the same memory.

4. You can either experience the memory as a memory you can't touch or experience - or you can physically be in the memory and have to survive the situation as well. If you die in memory, your body will die wherever you had been touching the Winter Mourning.

5. Palebloods are capable of altering memories or how they or others experience memories.

6. Characters can be pulled into memories at random - as long as one of the characters in the memory share is touching a Winter Mourning at first.
RUN, RABBIT, RUN
WHEN: Month of December
WHERE: Everywhere/the woods
CONTENT WARNINGS: Themes of hunting, ghosts, curses, attempts at animal violence, hunting people based on blood types.


[An excerpt from Legends of Trench: Curses and Causations reads the following:]

"One of the most notorious legends of Trench is without a doubt the tale of The Huntress and the Hare. Most Trenchies have been told this tale since they were children, but for those unfamiliar, settle in.

This story begins with a mischievous god and an ambitious huntress. The Pthumerian Dorothea loved to play tricks on hunters trying to survive the Bone Season, setting animals free from traps and remaking the traps to catch the hunters instead. One day, a darkblood Huntress was fed up with Dorothea preventing her from catching food for her family and decided to settle the score. The Huntress began to hunt for Dorothea specifically, but it is no small feat hunting the god of trickery and survival.

The Huntress started to rely on her darkblood powers to alter reality to make the perfect traps. Innocuous trees turned into glue traps that anyone would stick to until they were freed by a darkblood or death took their pain from them. Walking through bushes would snag legs and necks, effectively trapping whatever creatures were unfortunate enough to wander for food. Magical snares and beartraps lock around victims with unrelenting force, leaving people and animals to try for help until they cry no more. While this took many innocent lives in the woods, animals, and people alike, it never seemed to work on Dorothea.

Dorothea continued to outwit the Huntress until she eventually drove the Huntress insane. The Huntress died without ever catching Dorothea, but they say her vengeful spirit awakens in winter and begins to set her traps yet again. The Huntress sends her traps and her dead animals after vilebloods and warmbloods to spite Dorothea and hope to maybe catch the god's attention. But Dorothea is no passive god. Dorothea spurs vilebloods and warmbloods to defend themselves against darkbloods and coldbloods.

Infamously, this has created enormous tension between the blood types during December some years, and it is said that the blood lust has caused the types to begin hunting one another regardless of old friendships and alliances. Beware the Huntress's curse. Some believe darkbloods and coldbloods can still hear her haunting commands and cries from the Trenchwood.

They say there is no ease for the tension between the bloodtypes until December has passed, but some believe palebloods may provide relief if they are willing."

FAQ

1. Characters will increasingly feel the urge to actively hunt one another using traps/etc.

2. The Huntress's curse includes undead animals/beasts chasing after warmbloods and vilebloods and magical traps. Players can invent unique traps for their characters.

3. There will be an innate urge to chase/hide from one another.

4. The curse can be broken by paleblood intervention, character death, or a gradual wearing off by the end of the month.
LOCKJOINT
WHEN: All of Bone Season
WHERE: On Sleeper bodies
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mild body horror, blood magic curses, physical curses, cures through blood ministration/blood letting, possible skin removal, injuries, possible death via starvation/exposure.


[An passage from The Sleeper Condition; Chapter 13: Bodily Aches and More. Found exclusively at the Lumenarium:]

"Generally speaking, Sleeper blood allows Sleepers to navigate this world without the fear of illness and disease. However, no organic body is perfect, and Sleeper blood has its own set of ailments to fret over. Blood Ministers have studied the phenomena of Lockjoint for years now and believe that it is linked to the crystalization found in Sleeper death, though the exact connection remains unknown.

Lockjoint tends to begin and last throughout Bone Season. Some Sleepers may never experience it, but for many, it becomes a reoccurring issue to dread each season. This condition forces blood magic to gather at the joints and effectively lock up. Sleepers find it difficult to move their bodies at the bends, fingers, knees, shoulders, etc without some form of discomfort. Minimal lockjoint can be painful and annoyance, but critical lockjoint can be fatal.

The most severe cases of lockjoint documented have shown Sleepers to have crystalization form over their joints, rendering parts of their bodies completely immobile. Some Sleepers have been found dead in this condition, all their joints crystallized, and it is believed most died from natural causes thereafter.

One can determine they are experiencing lockjoint when the coloration around the joints begins to darken in color, typically looking like a bruise. Calcification may occur rapidly the more magic a Sleeper uses or the more they expose themselves to outside elements. It is imperative that Sleepers remain properly clothed during Bone Season, even if they are coldbloods, and to invest in enchanted clothes that can lock in heat.

A known cure for lockjoint is the art of bloodletting. Puncturing the joints with small incisions seems to allow a release of the built-up magic and can provide immediate relief to the Sleeper. Catching lockjoint early is imperative. Alternative methods are soaking in hot springs and salted water.

Those who are in a more severe state will have to carefully have the crystals removed. This will likely remove the skin as well. Local anesthesia is highly recommended for the procedure. This process is known to leave scarring. The crystals can be saved and used as bloodstones from whoever they were harvested from. If you find a Sleeper dead from lockjoint, make sure to harvest the crystals as they are incredibly valuable.

This curse is believed to stem from Sleeper blood magic congealing within the body in contrast with the atmospheric magic of Bone Season. There is no known prevention for lockjoint. Lockjoint can impact all Sleepers regardless of bloodtype or the material their bodies are made from."

FAQ

1. This impacts characters regardless of blood type or their body - meaning it can impact characters with metal/plastic/plant/wood/etc bodies.

2. Players can choose how rapid or severe this gets and how quickly they can be healed.
CODING
entreats: (feel nothing like everyone else)

[personal profile] entreats 2021-12-19 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
What, you only figured that out just now?

[ There's nothing scolding about her tone. In the face of the memory they just witnessed, Ange's tone is instead.. a little more gentle for once. Like there's actually something soft sneaking into it, rather than it being her usual, borderline emotionless tone.

There's even a ghost of a smile on her face as she looks at the girl. It's a slight joke, considering they did talk about something very similar to this topic last time around. ]


We're all stuck in the same situation here. A situation that is.. pretty dumb at times. [ Ange shakes her head. How could this place show something like this to Mebh? She still seems so young, and to witness her mother getting hurt like that all over again.. ] But if we don't help each other with the situation, it's just going to get the better of us all in the end.
entreats: (before the daydreamlike memories)

[personal profile] entreats 2021-12-19 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Is that why the memory seems so odd? It would make sense. If this is based on Shiro's memory, and it's something that even he himself can't remember clearly, then of course it wouldn't be displayed clearly, even though the power of these memory-recalling things. ]

Then maybe this is all there is to it..

[ Ange hopes so, anyway. Not because she's worried about her own safety, but more just because she isn't sure if Shiro's mind could handle it if something more were to happen right here and now.

He seems tense enough as-is. It's what keeps Ange from digging too hard into this memory. She doesn't want to hurt him. ]


I'm.. sorry that you've found yourself in a place that's clearly hurtful to you. [ Ange can figure out that much. Since this place looks like an arena, Shiro fought here. Or maybe had to fight here..? ] But look. We're still safe, aren't we?

[ Her voice is gentle. Usually she would have come a little closer to Shiro for this, but she doesn't want him to freak out, so Ange is instead using that tone in his voice as she keeps standing where she is now. ]
entreats: (and all my bones began to shake)

[personal profile] entreats 2021-12-19 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The behaviour does come across as animalistic to Ange. The teeth, the hissing, the 'won't.' It's like an angry cat that's been driven into a corner. At least Ange can read that much from Paimon's body language.

But then it still just doesn't make sense. What drove him to act this way? Ange tries to think of the effects she's seen on other people this month, but she can't recall anyone acting to her the way Paimon is doing just now. Is something influencing him specifically because he's a demon? Did something happen to Peter that caused this shift in Paimon as well?

It feels like she's only going in circles in her head as she's trying to figure this out, but Ange is sure of one thing.

She can't let the demon stick around here like this. What if someone less experienced with demons approaches Paimon? Ange can only imagine how badly that might end under these circumstances. ]


I can't leave you here like this.

[ Her own body language is the complete opposite of his own. Ange is so calm that it almost seems scary when it's in the face of a bristling demon, a clear danger. Her tone is even, but firm, standing her ground.

And as long as the demon is looking at her, Ange doesn't break eye contact. Not even for a moment.

Playing the witch? Ange isn't so sure if she's very good at that. But she can at least pull this off - this brave, dumbass confidence in the face of danger. She's done it so many times. ]


But I don't want to hurt you either. So at least come with me voluntarily, so we can find out what's wrong with you. What's getting to you. [ Even though Ange is pretty sure they're going to have to do this the hard way. But she at least wants to extend this offer, even with how unlikely it seems that it'll actually be accepted. She doesn't want to hurt Paimon, nor Peter, who was so relatively kind to her at the party. ]
cuddlery: (giggling)

[personal profile] cuddlery 2021-12-19 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good, you should be!"

Scorpia holds her tight and lets out all her appreciation! It gives her something to think about that's not the nightmare of Horde Prime's control.

"I can't deny that. Even if either of us didn't have any powers or magic... We'd still have that, and I think that would go a long way! It's like its own kind of magic."
prodigalhairess: (pic#14033664)

[personal profile] prodigalhairess 2021-12-19 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's no response. No acknowledgement from either dream-Rapunzel or Gothel that there are more people in the room with them. There's only the real Rapunzel; she looks pained now, reaching out to but not quite touching Cassandra just yet.]

Cass...

[She... she gets it. She really does. Her feelings concerning Gothel are complicated, and she hasn't really sorted them out even to herself yet. Sure, she talked big and was blunt to Cassandra when she told her she never loved either of us, but... being confronted with this, with actually seeing Gothel like she so often does in her nightmares... that bluntness seems to just evaporate, and she's left feeling like the girl still in the tower.

But then-

Gothel stops in her pacing, her head seemingly turning towards Cassandra and staring at her dead-on. There's a look of disapproval, and exasperation and a twinge of frustration twist her expression into a pointed frown as she speaks.

"
Why do you keep fighting, dear? You're only going to keep hurting yourself in the process."

- It's a jarring address, but there's still no sort of awareness of this blue-haired woman standing before her. Should Cassandra be able to focus on anything else, she'll notice that, though it seems that way, Gothel isn't speaking to her - it's to the chained up dream-Rapunzel directly behind her, pulling hard enough against the manacles that her wrists are quickly turning red with strain.

The real Rapunzel, meanwhile, speaks up again.]


Cass, please... you don't need to watch this.

[She knows what's going to happen. She can already hear the faintest sound of hoofbeats in the distance. As adamant as she was about trying to get Cassandra to realize what Gothel was really like, She doesn't want her to see what's coming next.]
peripheries: (arrogant shit)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-19 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
When I was a child I pushed to see the limits of my power though I was stopped quickly. But other than that, no. I’ve never used it against another living thing offensively.
peripheries: (we live in a society)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-19 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Hah.

[It starts out as a comment. An aside, but then suddenly, he can’t stop laughing at this statement that is just so… absurd to him.]

I am not a person to them. I am a tool to end and nothing more.
peripheries: (a cursed existence)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-19 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I see.

My purpose was to end all of humanity. To mold them into something more, something better, at the expense of their individuality.

Though, I didn’t care much about what happened to them, the only way to avoid that fate was death.
peripheries: (its only teenage wasteland)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-19 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
That’s right.

That’s the facility where I was raised.
morningstud: (🥃 respect me when i am dying)

[personal profile] morningstud 2021-12-19 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[He still doesn't know a thing about talking to children, let alone demonic children. But he has spent a long time around Chloe, and around Chloe's daughter.]

Calm yourself. Deep breaths. Just focus on breathing.

[Maybe he should be alarmed by how Paimon moves, but he's not.]
peripheries: (long-gay-nus???)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-19 11:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I’m not worried.

[He’s quite confused about all of this. No one has ever shown this level of concern for him before, even when he was actually in pain, and now that he’s not in pain (or at least, not aware of it), it’s hard for him to understand.]

Why are you so concerned? Is it because your instinct as an adult human makes you concerned for those that are children?
peripheries: (me? im just a lil meow meow)

CW: medical

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-20 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
“I didn’t realize it was something that happens in the cold. The world that I live in is nothing but eternal summers. Cold like this is a distant memory.”

He shrugs a little, then raises his hands up out of the water to watch it cascade back down. His arms are covered in bruises from the lockjoint and cold and beyond that, scars from incisions and injection points. Clearly, this boy has not lived the life of a teenager his age.
peripheries: (long-gay-nus???)

[personal profile] peripheries 2021-12-20 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
He betrayed you but you don’t hate him… Why? How can the past not color what you feel about him? How do you come to new understandings?

[Admittedly, he asks for selfish reasons. He and the person he cared for had a complicated relationship to say the least and he struggles understand it with his limited concept of emotions. To peer into someone else’s life is enlightening.

But he also wants to understand people like Diluc, who are kind and ask nothing in return. Did his past shape him into the person he is today? Surely, it must be so.]
jedies: (The Phantom Apprentice)

[personal profile] jedies 2021-12-20 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ he sighs. ]

I didn't think you would, Anakin. I think we're both . . . just a little fragile right now.
shiro2hero: (come over i have star wars)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2021-12-20 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Something about Will's grip is incredibly comforting. Funny, how usually it's the other way around - Will drawing comfort from Shiro. But right now - ]

Yeah. Yeah, let's - get inside somewhere.

[He pauses, looking up at their surroundings.]

I think our house is... closer.
onekindsoul: (And should we)

[personal profile] onekindsoul 2021-12-20 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby just kind of flops and flails in the air as she dangles from the snare.]

Okay so it's kind of an awkward story- I was out picking up some groceries for the house. That's why there are the bags on the ground and strewn about now-

But a can of beans fell out. That one!

[And she sort of contorts herself so she can point to the can she mentioned.]

And when I was on my way to pick it up I would up hanging up like this.
siriusly: (damn manabu who curled ur hair)

[personal profile] siriusly 2021-12-20 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
...

[...............................]

I think you should come with me.

[down this way. away from the engine.] Walk in front of me. Come on.
laminae: (content)

[personal profile] laminae 2021-12-20 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Aw, her laugh makes him grin a little. He's happy he can at least cheer her up, despite the whole awful memory.]

It is. It totally is. Sometimes we gotta drag him out of his lab to get him to sleep.

[There's no way he isn't going to be totally honest with Rapunzel and take the chance to dunk on Varian, though that's said with a whole lot of fondness. Varian wouldn't be Varian if he wasn't stubborn as an ox.]
facultative: (pic#13463226)

[personal profile] facultative 2021-12-20 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
[Fear is the first step to the dark side and Wu is making it reek with it. Anakin now recognises it calling to him, but recognising it helps less than he hoped. Not when he still wants to reach out and and embrace it. He flinches back.]

Stop it.

[He backpedals some more, relinquishing his hold on the rope in favour of gripping his head.]

Stop it!
imaglyphwitch: (wanna be startin somethin)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2021-12-20 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Luz was glad that she was at least able to change this outcome! The idea of Scorpia being under anyone's control except her own was a bothersome one, and she wanted to make sure that her friend had the ability to win this time.

"I think so too! Now granted, I'm not sure exactly how that works in your dimension, or really in mine, but I think it's what allows you and me to really gather our strength and make us super strong. We did it at the farm, and we did it here too!"
siriusly: (no...the meme is dead.)

[personal profile] siriusly 2021-12-20 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
[just apologize and move on, Manabu. picking fights is juvenile, you're older now, things are different! be a man, be--]

You had all that space and had to go about your day, you know! And-- [his boot nudges one of those fallen vegetables, drawing his attention.

he lets out an exasperated sound.]


Great! Now I'll be short! Thanks a lot!
laruetheday: skim milk. which is water that's lying about being milk. (only one thing i hate more than lying.)

[personal profile] laruetheday 2021-12-20 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Clarisse nods, her ego fed enough to satisfy her for now. Besides, it isn't like she's going to try to punch a guy who isn't actually there. Though it does make her wonder if it would be possible to hit a memory hard enough to send it flying right out of Bella's head, permanently. Not that she would do that. She wouldn't! (Probably.)

It takes a minute for Clarisse to realize that this isn't just one singular memory, that there are small differences in the room as each night switches into the next. The one constant is Edward standing in the corner, still and cold as a statue. It's what gets her to finally turn and look at Bella, really look at her. ]


Did you know this was happening? [ Like... she couldn't have, right? There's no way she would have just been okay with that. Right? ]
notimeforfailure: (Pensive)

[personal profile] notimeforfailure 2021-12-20 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
Is it -- the same one you brought to Deerington?

[The memory of Will is rushing for the phone now as the dog barks at the door. She can feel it - the amplified, distorted recollection of his home, usually a safe haven, now too cavernous, too empty, offering no relief.

Something is at the door. She can hear... something.]


Why was no one here?
notimeforfailure: (Surprise)

[personal profile] notimeforfailure 2021-12-20 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
...This is definitely not the way this memory was supposed to go.

[Lysithea stares, somewhat dumbfounded, at this... creature who has momentarily allied itself with her. Considering them a child seems wholly inappropriate. She is not sure, at this moment, if they are actually a human being at all. Given the track record of such things in Deerington and Trench, she is inclined to think not.

Still, they are on her side. Probably.

To reflect this... alteration, the memory seems to flash momentarily sepia as distortions flicker through the air like static. But reality is malleable. One way or another, the outcome of this battle would still be the same. It resumes with a skip - the mage battalion lies dead, true, but behind Lysithea, half of her troops are similarly felled.

They've simply skipped ahead a bit.]


Yes - our path forward is now clear.

Come with me. We're going to take a ballista.
notimeforfailure: (Default)

[personal profile] notimeforfailure 2021-12-20 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
"No. I'm just trying to make myself feel better in the face of unknown adversity," responds Lysithea, who, if not wholly past her need for unnecessary bravado, at least recognizes when she's being unreasonably stubborn.

"I think I will have an urge to hurt specific people, and I should avoid them when possible. But the traps should satiate some part of my lust, and if I can be so bold as to say, I pride myself on my willpower.

"If anyone comes in that I can't handle, though, I might foist them off on you. ...If you don't mind."