deercountry | [March Catch-All Log]

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[March Catch-All Log]

Who: Jinx (

hijinxer) and YOU
What: Arrival, March TDM Prompts, Exploring, Bloodhound Training & April TDM Prompts
When: Throughout March & Early April
Where: Around Darcmouth, Cellar Door

Content warnings: Typical cw’s that follow Jinx are mental illness with symptoms of psychosis, potential for violence, drug mentions. More specific warnings have been added to each individual prompt.

I. Father Shores

[ while jinx has shed her squid form long enough to have acquired most of her belongings back from the trenchies who stole ‘em, the unsettling feeling she’s had in the pit ofh er stomach hasn’t given her a moment of peace. everything about this place feels like it’s meant to be home, but that has to be a lie, right?

all around her, people talk about starting a new life, building a community, finding family and it’s rubbed jinx’s nerves raw. she winds up back at the beach where everything started with pow-pow and fishbones laid down besides her as she narrows her eyes and glares at what appears to be a shining blue marble pinched between her thumb and index.

they tell her the ocean water isn’t safe, and somehow that only reminds her of the poisoned sludge that runs through the undercity. it’s reassuring in a way that it shouldn’t be. in some fucked up way, she thinks silco would have liked this place and its on the nose glorification of drowning and rebirth.

she tosses the blue sphere up into the grey sky, and catches it, closing her fingers around it and yells.

have you had enough?

jinx slams her fist down hard into the warm sand, breathing hard. ]

Do you really think we can just start over?

[ is it that easy? what if she doesn’t want to start over? who she’s speaking to is unclear. it could be the ringing shadow of murmuring voices in her head, one of many new squids starting to acquire a new physical form. it could even be you. ]

II. Moss King’s House

A. Burial - cw: claustrophobia, buried alive
[ there’s absolutely such a thing as exercising better judgment and not doing questionable shit like swallowing random magical pills that appear next to you for seemingly no reason. but no risk, no glory.

unfortunately for jinx though, she happens to have rolled a ‘one’ and no sooner than the screaming agony of being immolated consumes her whole, she finds herself stuck inside a dark, confined space. it’s pitch black and even the tiniest movements of her limbs has her brushing against the walls of her new cage. ]

HEY! [ she yells instinctively, giving the space above her a solid kick. the lid of the coffin barely budges, but it doesn’t stop her from kicking and screaming repeatedly. ] Hey, get me outta here!

B. Discovery
[ now that she’s escaped her premature burial, jinx is out and about and poking around every corner of the moss king’s summer home. she eyes all the various stolen nicknacks from around the multiverse, eyes bright and alive with curiosity. currently holding her interest is a cute scepter with a shiny gem on top that catches the light and refracts it into a multitude of rainbows. if she knew what magical girls were, then she’d know what this is... but alas. she gives it a wave, and it casts pink light like a sparkler and jinx positively coos in delight. ]

Aren’t you a pretty thing ... [ she laughs, twirling the scepter in her hands and laughs as she’s showered in pink shimmering sparks. ]

But what would some stuffy guy calling himself the Moss King want with you, huh?

III. Earworm

A. Party - cw: alcohol
[ of all the places jinx has seen so far, it’s the cellar door area that happens to remind her most strongly of zaun. the high spirits, the loud music, the bars, the seediness of it all manages to take just a little of the edge that’s been boiling away internally.

wanting to forget every troubling thought in her head if only for one night, jinx sits herself down at the bar and downs whatever they have on brew. again, again and again. despite her waif like appearance, the girl’s got sky high tolerance. catch her at the bar where she’ll greet you merrily with: ]

You look way too sober. Drink.

[ or alternatively, catch her on the dancefloor, raving and waving her arms wildly in time to the music. when this song comes on, jinx squeals and grabs the nearest person with an excited: ]

That’s my jam!

B. Afterparty - cw: intoxication, assault, violence
[ it’s late at night by the time jinx leaves the club and she isn’t exactly looking to be the most stable on her feet. she sways from side the side as she walks down the streets, hiccupping and giggling to herself. she’s a small girl, and one that apparently looks like an easy target for a local trenchie to try and pickpocket for valuables.

it is... perhaps not their luckiest day.

jinx’s head may be swimming, but she’s lived in the undercity long enough to know to keep her wits and personal belongings about her and this trenchie is about to be the focal point for her rage. the trenchie shoves her against a wall, holding a knife to her throat.

jinx looks positively feral as her face splits into a wide, toothy grin. ]

Wanna try me?

[ in the next couple of moments, the air is thick with the trenchie’s screaming and the scent of fresh blood as jinx beats the man’s face over and over with the butt of a pistol. she laughs, practically giddy with delight as she straightens up and wipes the blood spatter off her face. the trenchie meanwhile lies barely conscious on the ground. ]

Well, well, well. Think you learned your lesson about stealing from poor, innocent girls? [ she stomps hard on his chest. ] Speak up! i can’t hear ya.

[ another stomp. thoroughly engrossed in this bit of catharsis, jinx doesn't even notice someone else arriving on the scene. when she does? she merely smiles sweet over her shoulder. ]

Whatcha lookin' at there?

IV. Spoils of War - cw: blood blisters, possible blood consumption by blodhounds

[ god, it's been... how many times that she ended up being dragged around in survival mode in either the jungle of the catacombs? don't ask. it'll instantly put her in a bad mood.

instead of being unceremoniously sucked underground, jinx can be seen walking around with a bloodhound on a leash. notably, said bloodhound has got one of its antlers sprayed blue, the other pink. it is also currently sniffing at a very ugly blood blister, licking it and very much being a monster about its next meal.

the way jinx coos to it though? seems more like she's talking to a baby. ]

Sheesh, you eat a lot, Horny. Is that normal for you?

[ because the unfortunately named doggo can obviously answer? as jinx spots you pass by, she waves: ]

Hey, you got any experience with these things?

V. Blessed Are the Curious

A. Rose Tinted Glasses - cw: mind alteration, hallucinations
[ jinx is, in a word, enraptured. the golden moths have transformed dreary old trench into the most beautiful place she's ever seen. the fact that it kind of reminds her of piltover leaves a bitter taste in her mouth, but how exactly is she meant to stay in a foul mood when there are songbirds flittering around the trees?

she croons as she skips down a golden path (in reality nothing more than a dirt road) and proceeds to hold out her hand to see if one of the brightly colored birds wants to land in her hand. there are, of course, no birds, only the golden moths. one does make the mistake of sitting on her palm and jinx immediately aims a fingergun at it and mimes shooting at it. ]

Boom.

[ she laughs, as the "bird" flies away and continues to skip down the road. ]

Heh the life of a real princes, huh?

B. Undoing the Past - cw: deeaging, death, depictions of death by impalement and crush injuries in linked video
[ eventually jinx reaches the archway marked with the "▲" symbol and anyone who happens to be following will find themselves transported to an old factory. it's late at night with only the full moon to illuminate the inside of the worn down cannery.

but all is not quiet. it's this moment. the night of jinx's biggest mistake and the foundations of the cannery are practically shaking with the force of the fighting going on at the other side of the door.

jinx gasps, eyes round as she stands there frozen in place. has she learned anything? is i can fix this truly any better than i can help?, she looks down at the monkeybomb held tight in her hands with the glowing blue orb clasped between the cymbals of the clockwork monkey.

she doesn't even register right away that her perspective is changing by the second. everything around her is getting taller -- or more accurately, she's getting shorter as the years lift away and she begins the process of being unmade.

with an almost manic shriek, she yanks the unrefined hexgem out of the clockwork monkey and takes several deep breaths. on the other side of that door though, vi, clagger, mylo and vander are all in huge trouble and there's a hulking beast high on shimmer and... the man who would eventually take her in as his daughter. heart pounding, she slumps against the door, hyperventilating. ]

I don't know what to do! I have to save them!

Threaded | Flat

[Honestly it's the screaming that catches Ruby's attention and she's quick to round the corner to see what's going on.

She doesn't know exactly what happened but from Jinx's words she can put it together. Her mismatched eyes look from the girl to the battered Trenchie beneath her before Ruby's gaze settles on Jinx.]

Come on. That's enough. You've made your point.

[Sayo has had, frankly speaking, an awful day for several reasons, leaving a pit of bitter loathing frothing inside her ribcage. (Does it still count as getting kicked out if she's the one who moves before anyone has the opportunity to give her the boot, she wonders.) So Sayo's feeling more witch-y than normal—or at least her normal for the past several months—as she prowls the streets of Trench, looking for somewhere to get smashed. She had settled on the bar Jinx had just emerged from when she sees the altercation, and watches it unfold with morbid fascination, an eyebrow slowly creeping up her forehead.]

Admiring the craft of that takedown, mostly. I'm trying to learn some self-offense myself, but it looks like I've still got a long way to go.

Do you want a Beast to show up and start chowing down on this idiot, by the way? With how much blood he's leaking out of his various orifices it's going to attract one sooner or later. [There's no judgment in Sayo's tone, just idle curiosity.] If not, we should probably toss him back inside the bar so somebody can get him cleaned up. If so, you should probably bleed him out a little more so it comes faster, kyahahaha!

[Settling into the witch numbs the pain (agonizing, no matter how much she expected it) ever-so-slightly.]

Edited 2022-03-05 03:48 (UTC)

[ Clarisse is in her usual spot on the beach, looking out at the waves. This is the third month she's come here, and the first time that it hasn't been freezing cold and covered in snow and ice. Weird. Eventually she'll get restless and either start making her way along the shoreline, or head back home, but for now she's content to watch the squids turn into human beings again and hope against hope that she sees somebody familiar.

The girl nearby, the one who's been forcefully taking her stuff back from the Trenchies and now tossing around a marble or something, asks if they can really start over here. It takes Clarisse by surprise, a little, only because she's used to new Sleepers asking more boring questions, like where they are and what they should do next. Shit, when she first washed up, she couldn't even remember the most basic things about herself, much less think to randomly ask strangers profound questions about her purpose, or whatever. ]

Nope. That's all bullshit. [ And yeah, okay, maybe that's a mean answer, but she's not going to sugarcoat it for anybody. ]

"AUGH!"

Look, she was curious, ok?! What was up with the pill, and there was a die so she had satiate her curiosity! Unfortunately, this resulted in her falling from a height she was sure she hadn't expected and had only just enough time to allow herself to grow limp before crashing through the roof and into the attic, and for several minutes, Luz is staring up at the sky in pain, wondering what she'd done to deserve this.

Finally, she manages to lurch herself forward and hobble down the stairs, groaning at each step, sure that she might have broken a few things when she hears some muffled noises down below.

Oh no, what now??

Despite the pain, Luz hurries down and hears the commotion proper: someone's trapped down there, in a coffin.

"Hey, hey! Give me a sec, I'll get you out!"

Luz hurriedly looks around until she finds a crowbar and manages to get at the coffin, trying to pry it open as much as she could.

"Can you give it a kick?"

Edited 2022-03-05 07:47 (UTC)

It depends, doesn't it?

[There's a boy sitting on some rocks, one arm looped casually around a knee as the other dangles just inches above the tide. He was perhaps watching the sea. Or watching the squids show up and try to grasp at some human form.

He looks young, but there's something old in his gaze.]

On what you need to shed to start over.

[ in this case? jinx is speaking to a beached squid. at least, this squid wants this secluded, blue-haired girl to be speaking to it. speaking to her? yes, yes that’s right; she’s a woman. how does she know? she feels it in her soul. wait, do squids have souls? woman; she’s human. thoughts circling the drain as she tries to grasp an identity, the squid musters up her energy and forces her body forward. she gains maybe half an inch with that flop further up the beach.

a wave rolls in then, its reach splashing over the squid’s tentacles and up along her sides. its pull isn’t strong enough to drag her along the sand, but the squid panics at the possibility of being swallowed up by the water again. her new life is here. she’s meant to be here. the water recedes and she flops further with another hard bend of her body.

help. the water touches her again, her wriggling toward dry sand coming faster. she can’t remember just yet, the life that’s now behind her, but something tells her to get closer to this human, perhaps for safety from the water and shelter from this new world she now belongs to. just until she finds her bearings. ]

[ Ever since the realization that they are all squids, they all come from the ocean, and there are still thousands of them out in the ocean waiting for the right moment to come on land, Kaneki has been visiting the beach almost daily. He hopes to find a tiny little eldritch squid who will turn into a familiar face once Kaneki picks it up.

But the ocean also... calls for him. Or rather he calls for it. When he was swimming in that ocean he didn't feel anything; he didn't feel sad, angry, lonely. And that emptiness was scary but also... nice.

He is not stepping in, though. He doesn't want to die a brutal death.

But he ends up noticing other people around, and by chance hears Jinx. Start over? ]

No. Of course not. [ no matter what people say, that's not how this works ]

[Katsuki thought that round two in this fucking pit would go a hell of a lot easier. So far it hasn't gone any worse, but it sure was a sobering moment when he realized that the lay out of the catacombs were completely different this time around. That fact alone has him feeling uncharacteristically--and fucking uncomfortably apprehensive as they press on through the winding tunnels. It means that he has no idea what could be coming around the next corner and the last experience certainly left him with a real sour taste in his mouth. He isn't to thrilled about the idea of having to relive the experience of confessing all of his deep, dark insecurities and regrets out of spine wrenching, inescapable fear ever again.

He isn't really sure what to think of the company he's got this time around, either. On one hand, he knows that she's not stupid--under her stupid fucking comments and even worse nicknames, that is. There are brains there, and some helpful qualities that he isn't about to overlook in this place--Trench and this fucking tomb alike. The other though? Katsuki hasn't forgotten how quickly she turned that launcher on that trenchie, or the tension between them in that moment that was probably palpable to the dumb bastard. But hey... at least there isn't anyone else around to potentially have to save from her crazy ass, not for now anyway, and that's. Something...

Currently, they're crouching and slowly working their way through one small, narrow ass tunnel that they were forced into for a lack of any other paths forward, Katsuki having taken the lead (naturally, he hates following other people) before she could even try. Teeth clenched together tight as he grapples with his newfound hatred of being in tight spaces like this; confined, but otherwise giving nothing away towards that fact. He's definitely glad when his flashlight gives him the first glimpse of an opening, but. Not quite relieved. Once at the end, he's angling the light down and scowling hard at what he sees a couple of feet below them. Water.]

Tch. [He can't tell how deep it is, it's too dark even under the light and throwing anything in isn't going to do anything but cause a splash. He fucking hopes it's water, anyway. It ain't like they have a choice though, they're just going to have to find out if it isn't, even if he's skeptical of just diving right the fuck in.] Guess we're seeing if we're about to go for a swim.

[Without further ado, he pushes himself off of the small ledge and into it. Just below his knees and the splash feels right in the way that it confirms it's water, so he dares to let a slight crooked, satisfied grin crack up briefly before readjusting his expression into a scowl as he looks back at Jinx expectantly.] Let's fuckin' go, Pigtails. Ain't got all day.

[Never mind the way that his head has started to feel like it's in motion very suddenly. Like he's on a fucking boat or something. All the more reason to get the fuck outta dodge quicker. This is fine. He's fucking fine. The cavern wall that he plants one hand against will keep him steady.]

[ powder doesn’t come out the other side, so – of course vi follows. it’s disorientating from that first step. one moment she’s in a sparse landscape of rotted trees and ruined architecture. in the next? can’t be. the smell hits her first. whether it’s actually clogging her lungs or it’s a figment of her imagination is unclear, but she swears it’s there, the unmistakable scent of ocean, worn streets, and industrialized shit buildings. there it is. the cannery. it’s a relic of a past vi’s already spent years agonizing over. she did her time, in more ways than one, so whatever mind fuckery this is? she’s out.

… except she doesn’t turn away. because there’s a light. someone’s inside. ]

… No. [ she mouths the word, barely above a whisper. it wouldn’t be that night. except – fuck, the light flickers from where it spills from two slates, partially blocked by something ( or someone ) moving in front. it’s dark and there’s distance yet but if it’s that night and if all the players are inside except one, then…

she takes off running. it doesn’t take much time at all for her to reach the building, face upturned high to spot powder there, slumped and not looking right at all. smaller? it’s difficult to gauge with stories between them; whatever, doesn’t matter what trick is being played here, because she’s catching the fragments of words that act as her cue to stop hesitating and move. ]

Powder. I’m coming up. Just sit tight. [ she can’t decide if it’s good or not to be drowned out by the sound of metal on metal erupting from inside, followed by a hard hit to bone. is this just a memory? or is she actually in the past? she climbs up the nailed boards, thinking that nothing about this feels right. she needs to get to powder. she needs to get powder away from this.

that plan becomes far more convoluted once she hauls herself up onto the ledge and gets a proper look at powder who is, in fact, smaller. younger. ]

Powder – hey. Shhh, it’s okay. Breathe, just breathe. [ and she’ll reach for a changing powder anyway, wanting to hold her through the panic, all the while ignoring the sound of her younger self going to war inside. ]

[By now as the end of March is nearly upon them, Lance has managed to lower his corruption enough that his left eye is back to some amount of normalcy. He has a scar over it that looks raw and flaking and his iris is glowing an electric crackling blue in the club lighting. The other eye looks normal.

And speaking of blue, it's miss blue hair with the cool boom booms telling him he looks too sober and he smiles a bit crooked, holding his hands up in "surrender".]

Hey, I just got here, gimme a chance to catch up. [And he will gladly knock back a drink in one go. Given all he's been through, he has a bit of a substance abuse problem, truth is he's already got some shit in his system.] Sooo, this is way more fun than the last time we hung out.

Threaded | Flat

III B

iiib

i

II A

i.

i; in which the timeline matters not

1

Catacombs Hellventure

v. b; undoing the past.

iiia