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
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (I can't trust you)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2022-01-08 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her eyes were hard when she watched the whole thing. She may well kill this man if he ever stepped foot on that beach.]

It's... easy to blame yourself for something like this. You tell yourself all the ways you should have stopped it from ever happening, from ever putting yourself in such a situation. [Her fingers curl and her eyes burn, a different memory playing in her own mind.]

But at the end of the day... You are not to blame. [She turns to Bella.] This is not your fault, no matter what.
Edited 2022-01-08 22:19 (UTC)
littlelesshelpless: ([neutral] taking it all in)

[personal profile] littlelesshelpless 2022-01-09 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
[Bella tilts her head to one side, seeing the hardness in Usagi's eyes, the steel in her voice. She reaches out, hesitantly, touches her friend's shoulder, her own face twisting in concern.]

Are you okay?
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Unreadable)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2022-01-09 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
[She let out a slow breath.]

I... yeah... I'm okay... Just... remembering something.
littlelesshelpless: (Default)

[personal profile] littlelesshelpless 2022-01-10 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Do you, um...want to talk about it? [She says it gently, not wanting to put a ton of pressure on Usagi to open up about something that's clearly painful.]
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Until we meet again)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2022-01-10 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
Just... he... [She gestured to Edward.] Isn't too different from my own... stalker. [She let out a long breath.] But I guess they're all pretty similar creeps.
littlelesshelpless: ([neutral] taking it all in)

[personal profile] littlelesshelpless 2022-01-11 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
-- oh. [Bella shoots a brief, murderous look towards the memory of Edward, less about him and more about this unspoken stalker of Usagi's. The memory fades fully, then, leaving her and Usagi in the living room of Bella's house -- her Trench house. Her real house.

Sitting down on the couch, Bella gently pats the cushion.
] C'mon, sit. You can...tell me about him, uh. If you want to.
lightthedarkness: (Usagi) (Oh... it'll tear me apart)

CW: Kidnapping and sexual assault

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2022-01-17 08:55 am (UTC)(link)
[Usagi moved to sit next to Bella, taking her hand and linking their fingers. She let out a long breath, staring at the floor.]

It... I mean, I'm fine now... he's dead now. [She let out a long breath.] When I was fifteen... this... prince, he was... obsessed with me. Had a hologram of me in his bedroom that he could look at whenever he wanted, on a pedestal. [She scowled, remembering now how perfectly you could see the hologram of Neo-Queen Serenity from his bed.]

After attacking me and my loved ones, he kidnapped me, knocking me unconscious. [Not... the exact truth but not a lie either. She pressed her lips together, her hands would be trembling if she weren't holding Bella's hand. She took another deep breath.] I woke up in his bed... in a completely different outfit than the one I had been wearing when he kidnapped me. And I know, looking back at it, I know he was the one to have changed my clothes.

[She let out a long breath.] He looked at me... the same way that guy, Edward, looked at you.

He didn't give me a choice when he kissed me, and when I rejected him, slapped him, he laughed and told me all about how I would die in his palace.

[She let out another long breath.]

So I know that look, the look Edward had. We are not to blame for their obsession.
littlelesshelpless: ([down] don't MESS with me)

[personal profile] littlelesshelpless 2022-01-18 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Bella is quiet throughout this, deathly quiet. She knows it's not quite the same -- Edward had approached differently, had used different tactics, but the cruelty had been there. The obsession.

She squeezes Usagi's hand, as tight as she dares, feeling a spike of rage through her, fiery hot and ferocious.
] I'm glad he's dead. I'm glad he's gone. I'm...so sorry, Usagi.
lightthedarkness: (Serenity) (I can hear it call to me)

[personal profile] lightthedarkness 2022-01-22 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
[She squeezes Bella's hand back just as tight. She hadn't meant to make this about herself. But the look on Edward's face, it made her skin crawl. It made her stomach sink with dread and she had been 15 and kidnapped all over again.

She let out a long breath.
] I'm glad he's dead too. Sometimes I wish I had been the one to do it. But most times I just never want to think about him. I can literally make everything he stood for and everything he tried to do to me and my loved ones a mockery by living happily with my life and not even giving his memory an ounce of time. He wanted nothing MORE than to make me only gaze at him, only ever think, and focus on him. And I refuse to do that. I won't give him that pleasure.