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

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.]

[NAVIGATION]

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

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

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

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"Midoriya Izuku. Nice to meet you..."

Perhaps he should feel like he's just given his name to a spirit who could curse him with it, but he's too placid for that. Anyway, most people call him Midoriya, his surname. He supposes that will happen here too.

“Nagisa Kaworu. Glad to meet you, Izuku-kun.”

The comparison to a spirit isn’t that far off. Though he’ll more likely bother you than curse you.

"Uh..." He's not used to a stranger being that familiar with him, using his first name and all, but he's too much of a pushover to really object.

"Why come to Japan, then, Nagisa-kun?"

Smalltalk will make that less awkward, right? Midoriya, who is awkward on his good days, makes an attempt.

"The committee sent me there to fulfill the mission I had been raised for since birth."

He responds, a little disappointed at the use of his surname. Shinji did that too. It's odd? He feels that it's easy to become familiar with others. ...Isn't it?

A small, soft "...Eh?" escapes his throat.

That raises so many questions, none of which he wants to ask for fear of upsetting Kaworu. Ironically, some of them might even fulfill Kaworu's wish to be more familiar with him. Midoriya can feel his own shoulders tense. He clears his throat.

"Did... um... Did you go to school?"

Going to school isn't necessarily a sign of a happy childhood, but he's got to start somewhere.

"No. I had instructors assigned to me by the committee. My existence was kept secret from most of the organization."

Of course, he had supposed to have gone to school once he arrived in Japan. Only to get lost in the wreckage and encounter Shinji Ikari, who didn't want to go to school. So then, suddenly, neither did he.

Like Snow White, Kaworu is very frank about his blighted childhood. But unlike Snow's stepmother, the motives of this "committee" are still unknown to Midoriya. Otherwise it'd be easy to ask What were they thinking? and Are you sad? But those questions place the burden of an outrage on someone Midoriya still doesn't know much about. Kaworu's feelings could be very different from the icy pit that drops into Midoriya's stomach despites the hot spring's warmth.

For all his faults, Midoriya has always been drawn foremost to the wellbeing of those who seem to need help, rather than making himself feel good by helping. The latter is just a welcome side effect.

He asks gently, "How did you feel about all that?"

"Feel?" Kaworu's smile twists into something almost like a sneer, though with no venom, it's almost like he finds the question to be hilariously naive. "Humans care so much about feeling. But it was all for the purpose of my destiny. Feeling would change nothing. So there was little point to it at all."

Though perhaps, that's not the entire truth. Perhaps at some point, it simply became easier decide to feel nothing to keep himself safe. And perhaps he doesn't even know.

It's not exactly a conversation starter, particularly with someone he just met. He only asked because Kaworu seemed so open to discussing it. Now they suddenly hit a wall, but that is also telling.

Midoriya knows someone who is not human can definitely have different emotions than what he might expect, but he isn't ready to believe Kaworu has none. Kaworu seems to like the sky and first names. He also seems to like to speak the same language as someone he's talking to, if he can.

"It's because our feelings can end up changing our destinies," he explains, "when we work every day for what we want. It might not always succeed, but it does change things.

"There's no committee that I know of here." At this, he can't disguise a slight frostiness in his tone regarding them. His eyes drift to somewhere on the opposite side of the spring, then move back to Kaworu as his frown clears. "So, what you feel is more important here." The polite warmth directed towards him returns.

"No. There isn't." His tone is hard to prase. "And you are right. Feelings can change some things. All living things have a will in the end. But some fates can't be changed. Though, I don't think you'd ever accept something like that to be true." He can sort of clock that. Most humans say things like that but don't mean it. It's nothing but a platitude but he can feel that Midoriya is sincere. It makes him feel strange like there's something soft inside of him.

When Midoriya looks away, Kaworu's eyes follow his and then move back to the boy, more interested in what he has to say than anything that could be out there. So he's watching when Midoriya looks back. "How... do you know which ones matter?" A question to Midoriya himself and a general "you".

Midoriya is close with his mom, who is kind, strong, and unashamed of sharing emotion with him. So, naturally, he grew up the same way. He picked up her mannerisms. They cry together, profusely. It was only due to being picked on at school that he retreated from others. He forgot how to socialize with people his age. He just went straight home. Starting at UA meant relearning who he was at his core and who he wanted to be. He's been cramming the socialization he should have gotten in junior high into his first year of high school.

He's tempted to ask if that's a trick question, but he knows Kaworu is missing a lot of those experiences.

"Only you know that. Even if something you feel doesn't make sense, or hurts, it still matters. I think they all matter."

He can't possibly know every emotion Kaworu feels. Even if he did, how can he judge some as mattering and not others? Especially in someone else? It's true that sometimes, what Midoriya is feeling isn't exactly relevant to a situation. He remembers feeling fear and doubt. That's normal. But they didn't change what he had to do. Nevertheless, those were worth examining rather than pushing down and trying to forget, only to have them surface later in some insidious way.

"...I see."

That clearly wasn't the answer he wanted by the way his expression grows crestfallen. He curls up closer around himself, pulling his skinny knees to his chest.

The idea of trying to understand all of his emotions, of knowing which ones matter, seem so daunting that it's almost impossible.]

He frowns a little. He believes what he himself said, but he doesn't like that it still troubles Kaworu, the short, thin boy who folds himself even smaller by putting his knees to his chest. It makes Midoriya feel less sure of himself too. He slouches and idly fidgets with his fingers.

"Is it hard for you to tell? The people who raised you, did they never answer that question for you?" For better or worse...

"Those who raised me told me that I wasn't capable of such emotions. Or not like humans were. What I felt was a facsimile and nothing more."

He glances over at Midoriya, a smile on his face that's a little rueful.

"So that's what I don't know."

"But..." he protests--not what Kaworu is saying, he's not questioning his story, but--the assertion made by those people.

"But they're true. They don't have to be human emotions to be true."

Not true as in truth, the opposite of lies, but true as in genuine, real, important. The core that lies behind a person's mask. The way Kaworu curls up or ponders something he's not sure of, it's all there to see. It should be obvious to see. Midoriya knows he is talking to a person. How can anyone see anything else?

"You don't think so? Doesn't that just make the truth harder to find?"

Kaworu watches, curious. He feels like there's more to what the other boy has to say. There must be a reason for such an empathic response to come from him. And maybe that's why he's pushing back, to understand why.

"Only because you were raised by humans, and they didn't even bother. There are plenty of non-humans here, and they feel all kinds of things. They're people. We're all people."

He feels like a child insisting on a simple, naïve concept. Well, why can't something true and good be simple? One simple thing in a sea of grays.

"I'm sure if you meet a lot of people, what you feel, whether it's the same or different than them, will be clearer. You care about this kind of stuff. So, at least we know you're social like humans. We don't do so well when we're completely alone."

Even Midoriya, who does many things alone, thrives better when he actually has friends.

"No, you don't. Humans fear the pain that comes from being with others but they also fear the pain of loneliness more. Is that part of being "people"? What does that define?"

Normally, he'd scoff at words like that. The world is too complicated for something like that to be true. Yet, when the other boy says it, he can almost believe it is true. It's impressive.

"I don't fit in well with humans," He's thought this but never admitted it outloud before. He has to finish the sentence before looking up. "I say the wrong thing and I don't know why it's wrong. It's so confusing."

"It's possible there's people out there who do better on their own," he concedes with a small shrug. He can't speak for the various non-humans he's met in Trench.

"A person, to me, is someone who has a right to be treated a certain way. ...It's easier to describe how they don't deserve to be treated," he admits. "It doesn't seem like this committee treated you like a person." To put it politely.

"So it's no wonder you find it hard to talk to humans. But you know... humans who have been alone also have that problem. You might be more like a human than you think."

"No, I was merely a tool to them." His tone is even, like how someone might talk about the sky being blue; something that simply is and there's no reason to question it.

Then Kaworu exhales and goes quiet, considering Midoriya's words. There are humans that avoid contact with others, he knows that. But avoiding it and being unable to have it are different things. He hadn't considered there would be humans like him. He examines his hand under the water before looking up at the other boy. "What do those humans do? The ones who have been alone. How do they learn?"

A tool. As he thought. It still hurts to hear, in every blunt iteration, in every subtle slip.

Midoriya blinks a little. He's in this picture, and he doesn't like it. It's nothing compared to Kaworu's experiences, but Midoriya really was talking about himself when he said some humans have trouble talking to others. He didn't have friends in middle school. He was made fun of, and no one stood up for him. He went home alone instead of hanging out with anyone. It was lonely.

"I um... Well, observation helps. And wanting to build others up? Uh, doing your best... people see that. People who want to help you, they... they matter a lot."

He smiles fondly at some distant rocks, thinking of all the people at home he's missing and how he wouldn't be where he is today if it wasn't for them.

"How do you know what your best is? I can do the things I was made for and people were happy with that. But I know that's not what you mean."

He huffs. Midoriya makes it sound easy but his voice is also gentle, like he doesn't expect Kaworu to know these things and doesn't blame him for not. It's nice. It feels like he doesn't have to pretend or be uncaring.

"...Have you ever been lonely?"

He pauses, trying to think of how to explain a concept most people learn when they're very little.

"It usually takes effort... Even if not right then, time spent preparing. Anyway, there's a difference between someone who's happy you do things for them, and someone who appreciates that you even would. Someone who appreciates you, whether you could do those things or not."

Midoriya thinks of his mom. He suddenly wishes, fervently, that Kaworu had had someone like her in his own life. A thought occurs to him. He puts a pin in it while he answers Kaworu's next question.

"...Yes. I didn't think about it much at the time though."

"I didn't either. Perhaps it was easier just to not think about it. But now I've met people and come here and I think about it even though I never used to."

He looks over Midoriya as if trying to draw out some understand of how he used to be lonely. The other boy seems so easy to talk to and so aware of what it's like to be with others.

"I see. Appreciation."

He resists the urge to say something like "Welcome to high school." It's not quite as drastic as being put into a new world, but it is like that experience of meeting new people in a short amount of time in a new place.

"It's kind of hard to see what you're missing when you've been without it for a long time. Um... I've been taking English and looking for people to practice with. There's an American I talk to. She's really nice. She reminds me of my mom. I think it would be good for you to talk with her too."

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