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

[reddosmod]

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

Comments

[possessum]

( The answer is met with an odd feeling of sharp displeasure — one that Peter certainly would never feel towards Will, and one that Paimon in his usual state wouldn't, either. There's always been a certain respect, a trust towards the boy with the wide brown eyes. The one who at times is like an adult presence, calming and soothing, and other times reminds the demon of its previous host: the way Will creates art, his withdrawn nature.

And then of course, there's how the boy's been touched by his own Other, by something vast and cold and alien. The demon king often has conflicting responses to Will Byers, but they're all steeped in familiarity of different kinds.

But in this state, already tipped towards an aggression.... being told I can't by Will in response to his request... angers the demon. That feeling only worsens as the scene shifts and worsens too — and the energy of it all makes Not-Peter's very spirit feel raw and wrong. He's shuddering now: spasms rippling down his frame, giving strange wheezes and guttural grunts as the boy-thing growls against its restraints, as the lights flicker, like some kind of mirror of himself.

Though he doesn't know exactly what's coming next (an exorcism), Paimon can sense that the memory is rising towards something bad, that it's an energy every piece of his spirit would recoil violently from.

And as Will pleads with him, the demon suddenly lashes out with an inhuman quickness, long limbs grabbing the boy. Paimon's snaking his arms around and then inwards, painfully tight, hooking himself into the spaces of the smaller body almost like he's trying to disappear inside Will, hide there. And as he does, he screams, repeating it over and over — )

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP

[deadboywalking]

[As Paimon already knows -- from years and years of experience -- there are few people easier to overpower in this exact way than a traumatized child. Will recoils instinctively, arms going up to protect himself, but there's no way to stop this. Paimon is reacting out of fear and anger and inhuman force, and there's no stopping the sudden invasion of unseen limbs and claws, digging into the very core of Will.

The memory surrounding them suddenly warps and shifts, steering away from the image of the exorcism, from the screaming and burning and violence of it, though that emotion permeates and persists. What shows instead is that stormy, dark, Upside-Down version of the field behind the house, and Will tiny and teary and screaming at the enormous monster to go away, to leave him alone.

It didn't work then. It doesn't work now.

There are old scars all over Will's mind, his soul, footholds for anyone or anything to cling onto, places where the Mind Flayer had gouged out a place for itself, where it's claws had dug in deep and brutal and careless. If Paimon can find them -- and whose to say he can't? -- it's more than enough for him to cling on and hold on and stay.

Even when the memory stops. Even when Will -- the real Will, the one after the monsters and after Deerington, the Will who should be stronger than this, but who gives in almost immediately to the horrifically familiar sensation of his very being invaded by an alien force -- goes silent and still.]

cw: tbh a bunch of possession horror fuckery

[possessum]

( In the moment, in his current, horrible state, something clicks right into place. This feels right, feels like where he's supposed to be. Latched on to what's weak and pliable (vulnerable), what was meant for him to take. Forcing himself in. Something in the demon can feel how Will's been here before, can feel how it had gotten into him back then: through his eyes, ears, mouth, nose; that impossibly cold shadow.

And the horror and rage and upset that the Mind Flayer felt as it was being forced out of the boy's body becomes Paimon's, as the exorcism plays out. He screams louder, enraged; he hooks in tighter, long limbs curling over the small body that's pressed so tightly against his own that there's nothing between them, no ending and no beginning. He doesn't want to go, the people can't make him go; this is his body, his host, HE WON'T GO.

Then it's changing again, to that stormy field where it had actually happened. And he can feel it, those places: marred and singed in Will's body and mind and soul. He knows, immediately, that the boy would be a viable vessel for him, that it would work, that inside of Will is safe. Usually it takes years of prep and ritual and very specific spells, but not with Will. Will's already been made a home by something beyond the limits that existed in Peter's world, beyond the rules. Will's body could accept him.

He's still reeling from this knowledge as the memory ends and he's left hanging onto the real Will who's gone so quiet and motionless. Paimon's buried into him as much as a corporeal body possibly can, and when his fingers finally uncurl from the boy, they're tipped in blood from where they'd been clawing in so deeply.

But he's not finished. No, he can't be finished. )

You ripped us out— ( He snarls, still halfway scrambled up in the Mind Flayer's identity from the memories he'd just witnessed, taking that identity on the way he absorbs and imitates so many others. )

You let them rip us out! ( The people who'd exorcised him. They'd made him too hot, suffocated him, forced him out of the comfortable cold home he'd made for himself. Paimon's suddenly in front of the motionless child, a hand finding his throat, clasping onto it. )

WE WANT BACK IN!

( Enraged, he sends the stunned boy flying backwards with a sweep of supernatural energy. )

cw: possession fuckery, injury of a child, domestic/child abuse (verbal), dissociation

[deadboywalking]

[When Will was little -- littler, four and five and six, tiny for his age, all big eyes and solemnity and silence -- he thought he had a superpower. When things got really bad, when his mom and dad were fighting and screaming in the other room, when even the sound of Jonathan's radio couldn't fully block them out, he'd sit on his bed and stare at a place on the wall and feel himself sort of...slip away. Everything would get far away and foggy, like he was underwater, or wrapped in a blanket that blocked out the noise and the chaos. It was strange, but it was safe, and Will would quietly float there until things got better.

He'd do that when his dad was calling him names -- toughen up, god, why're you such a damn crybaby -- or when it was late and Will was supposed to be asleep, but heard his mom on the phone, in that half-angry, half-teary voice -- it's three in the fucking morning, Lonnie, where the fuck are you -- or when kids at school were mean or anytime he just needed to get away. He'd done it right up until, one day, his mom came in to check on him after a really big, bad fight, and found him staring at nothing, not responding to her voice, not snapping out of it until she shook him, her voice pitched with panic.

Don't ever do that again, honey, please, she had begged him, and Will hadn't. Even after the Upside-Down and the Mind Flayer, he hadn't, finding that sliding into the safe, quiet world was so much harder now. Usually he'd just end up in the cold, dark, dangerous world, or back in the shed, tied to a chair and screaming his throat raw.

But then Deerington happened, and Trench, and Will learned to do it again. He learned to step away, to let things happen and not feel them, not let them touch him. The emotions couldn't take hold if he wasn't actually in his body, right?

Now, in a darkened alley of Trench, as the memory fades away, Peter's (not Peter's) fingernails dark with blood, Will tries to slip away, tries to go. But the thing in his head won't let him. He's in the shed, he's in the hospital bed, he's there, he's back, and He's there, curling back into the corners and nooks and crannies of Will's mind, Will's soul and this time He isn't leaving.

When the force pushes him, when Will hits the brick wall, it's hard enough that the breath goes out of him in a sharp, high gasp, hard enough that he's back in his body just in time to feel the pain. There's no escaping from this as he crumples to the ground, as he tries to breathe in and can't, he can't, his lungs seize up and his body isn't his, he can't breathe--

It's old instinct that pushes Will to look up, eyes glassy and wide, face pale, mouth open and gasping. Have to watch, have to see when the next attack is coming, have to get away.]

cw: mention of child death, child abuse, fire, being mean to Will Byers, I h8 myself for this....

[possessum]

ooc — Finally making my way back to these delicious backtags, APOLOGIES for the delay and no worries if you aren't feeling this anymore / prefer to handwave the rest! This could probably end soon anyway, IDK MAYBE WILL JUST FUCKING PASSES OUT OR SOMETHING? Or Paimon can fuck off after screaming @ him

( A human body isn't very strong at all. They're easy to break if you know how, and sometimes even if you don't; accidents happen in the blink of an eye, after all. Peter never knew how to murder a thing, and yet his sister ended up in two pieces.

It's especially easy to break a body as small as this — and perhaps Trench has Altered these humans' bodies in ways, made them just a little bit hardier, but they're not invincible. The demon sends the small body flying backwards and he knows it will hurt from the impact before he ever hears the boy gasp in pain, crumpled to the ground like a little doll.

Good, is the thought in him, a gleeful thought. He wants Will to hurt for what he'd done. Wants to break him open so he can get inside again. Not too much — he needs his body, after all. But there's no thought at all to be gentle with him.

He's still the Mind Flayer for a moment, as the boy looks up with those brown eyes, glassed over and terrified now. Still thinks he's the Mind Flayer, anyway. The identity he'd temporarily absorbed swirls within him, the memory he'd just witnessed filling up every jagged wrong piece of the demon.

But then, just as horrifically suddenly, he changes again. Suddenly, he's not Will's beast anymore, but someone else's. Suddenly, he's speaking in a woman's voice — rising in pitch, higher, shrill in its fury. When he snarls now, it sounds disconcertingly human. )

You little shit!

( This identity is one Paimon isn't explicitly aware of, but it's something that exists in him from his time inside of Peter's mother, and from Peter's memories, and it's Peter's beast now that stares down at Will with raw hatred in his (her) eyes, absolutely livid, feral with that hatred. This entity looks like it wants nothing more than for Will to vanish completely.

For a moment, it might seem as though the demon, or whomever the demon is right now, might hit the boy crumpled on the ground. It's looming towards the boy, over him, nostrils flared and eyes wide and mouth stretched into that snarl. Then he (she) screams again, and flames erupt on either side of Will, not close enough to actually catch him alight, but enough that everything feels too much, too hot, too suffocating. The scream is a woman's scream; she's in his face with it, screaming and screaming. )

cw: it's just a CONTINUED BAD TIME OKAY fire, child injury, fucked up horse being fucked up

[deadboywalking]

[Later, when Will wakes up on the ground, he'll breathe in and immediately feel the effects of slamming into the wall. He'll push himself up, groaning, choking on the scent of singed brick, hands black with ash. He'll wonder, vaguely, why he isn't more injured, why he isn't burned as well, why all that lingers with him are sore ribs and an aching back. Part of it will be that he's a kid, and kids are hardier than their small size would suggest. Part of it will be because, while Peter (not Peter) had irrevocably shattered the trust between them, he hadn't actually hurt Will.

But the main reason is that Will's a Paleblood, and he has a really goddamn weird Omen. The mixture of terror and pain freezes him in place, but the dark shape of Marshmallow materializes out of nowhere, between the boy and the not!Peter. If it were just a regular horse, it'd be one thing -- horses are big, they're intimidating and powerful and can be deadly, and that might be just enough.

Marshmallow is something else, something that Deerington created and Trench was forced to keep, something other, and it hates everyone in the entire world aside from Will Byers. So it plants it's feet and opens it's horrible, dripping, gaping mouth to reveal too-sharp teeth and it screeches right back, the sound like nails on a chalkboard, shrieking and disjointed and horrific. It's eyes are human, it's voice is almost there, but it's entire persona is otherworldly, altered, wrong. And it's intention is clear -- he's not yours. You have your own.

Somewhere in there, Will passes out, which is probably a mercy.]