there's a monster in my closet

[reddosmod]

MAY 2022 EVENT

IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Half man, half goat gazing through the sky in front of mountain.]
[Image Two: Deer-like skeletal creature talking in a forest.]

Prompt Two
[Image One: Bees crawling out of and over a calm man's cheek.]
[Image Two: Humanoid figure with honeycomb skin.]

Prompt Three
[Image One: Skull beside dried flowers.]
[Image Two: Red wilting flowers. ]

[NAVIGATION]

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

[JUMP TO COMMENTS]

SELF EVALUATION

WHEN: May
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Body horror, heavy themes of dysphoria and body dysmorphia, acceptance of self, forced physical transformations.

---

An excerpt from Book of Bausphomette:

"They say you should walk a mile in someone's shoes before casting judgment. The true rhetoric can be applied to Bausphomette's version of 'self-evaluation.' It shouldn't come as a surprise that a Pthumerian would have a very different idea of self-evaluation than the typical person, but here we are and I'm going to give you a heads up: don't freak out about the fur.

Or scales. Really, it could be anything, but when your body starts to change into something you can't recognize, you're not going crazy and you're not turning into a Beast. Or okay, you're turning into a beast but not a Beast with a capital B. You will be yourself, have your normal personality, your normal thoughts, your normal habits...You just...Won't exactly look like yourself. People have been known to turn into minotaurs or sprout ten wings or become half-goat on top and all fish on the bottom. Either way, you're not going to be physically recognizable.

But you will be yourself. You will just have new vocal cords or have to learn a new means of communication. Telling your loved ones about your sudden transformation might be a bit alarming, but I think that's kind of the point. Bausphomette seems to believe the monstrous transformation will allow people to consider different parts of themselves that are usually hindered by social judgments. Are you really happy with yourself enough to not mind being a beast? How does this impact your relationship with your body? Does your body matter to you as much as you believed? Can you adapt to this new body and come to love it?

Granted, not everyone has hated this process. It has made some parts of life especially exciting...If you know what I mean. Thankfully the process doesn't last! The general idea is that once you have accepted something about yourself you will begin to turn back to your usual body! Of course, for more stubborn folks, this has been known to take a few months...Try not to be too stubborn or resistant to the new change! ...It will only make it worse."

QUICK FACTS 1. Your character can have various monstery attributes during May. They should be monsterous - not cute little ears or a non-distracting tail.

2. The lesson the characters learn can vary greatly and depend on what players choose to explore.

3. Feel free to go as heavy-handed with the body horror. Your character can magically just wake up with the body or go through some painful transformation.

4. Characters should NOT have mental alteration during this period. The point is that they are still themselves regardless of their new appearance.

5. Have the size of the beast be appropriate to the setting's size.

6. Temporary powers can be gained through the beast's body for the month. Do not break the setting.

HUMMING IN THE SKIN

WHEN: May
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Increased bouts of mindless violence, optional insect-based horror, insects in skin, honeycomb in skin, bodies as hives for insects, extreme body horror.

---

An old article clipping was gathered from a newspaper that used to run in Trench. It seems like the rest of the article is missing except for the end:

"And, he said, "They will say that I have shed innocent blood. What's blood for, if not for shedding?"

We do not know what this Sleeper's intent was, but we do know the impact lasted. Reports of symptoms include feeling as though your skin is humming, that there's itchiness you can't quite get rid of like something is always crawling over your skin and around inside of you. Some people claim that this remains a mental only terror that keeps them up at night. Some have been known to scratch open holes in their skin and pull themselves apart just to make sure they aren't filled with bugs. We wish we could say that it was only a paranoid curse, but it seems there is some foundation to the concern.

Some who have gotten cuts or other injuries at this time will discover various insects, but especially bees crawling out from exposed wounds. Once you have gotten an injury, the humming seems to get worse. A descent to madness happens swiftly, but all at once, you become calm and content with the situation. Your skin slowly becomes honeycombed, bees moving in and out of you freely. You become a walking, talking hive.

But of course, that's just the worst-case scenario. For the most part, people who are itching mindlessly seem to be driven to bouts of violence, wanting to get rid of the feeling by randomly attacking those nearby. Strangely enough, the bloodshed during these attacks does not seem to contribute to blood pollution.

Instead, blood shed during this time of month seems to be instantaneously soaked up by your immediate surroundings. The bees from these people have been seen flying everywhere, and instead of collecting pollen, they seem to be collecting blood magic. Either to bring it back to their walking hives or using it for other deeds..."

IMPOSTERS

WHEN: May-June
WHERE: Outside where flowers can be found
CONTENT WARNINGS: Demonic, violent, blood thirsty flowers?? Parasite style monsters.

---

From Plantlife and You: Trench Edition:

"This is a tricky subject as it does not technically have to do with actual plantlife but rather the nefarious imitation of plantlife.

As spring begins be cautious of the plants around you. It might be lovely to see tulips popping open and other spring delights coming to light. We all like to see the splashes of color pop up around Trench, especially after such cold, long months...But be wary.

Among these flowers are insidious imposters. Telling them apart from the original flowers is almost impossible. You can only do your best to be careful around any plantlife you interact with. They look like flowers, but these creatures are demonic beasts who have perfectly cultivated a flawless mimic. Instead of sunlight and water, they soak in the blood of Trench up through their roots. If you pick the wrong flower, blood will squirt out from the roots and vines.

The bees from Sleeper bodies seem intent on pollinating these exact flowers with blood, leaving little bloody streaks in their wake, but the bees jump between normal flowers and the imposters, making it difficult to properly figure out which is which.

I know what you're thinking: okay, so what? They eat blood, big deal, they are just flowers...

Ha! Did you really think it would be that simple? No, no, these imposters will invade your gardens and your homes. Their little vines will wrap around your foot when you're in the garden or taking a walk. It's not evident at first, but it doesn't take much for a flower to grow on your body. Harmless, painless, but they will suck your blood dry. They have been known as silent killers, parasitic, draining you of life and energy and magic slowly but surely.

And the catch is once you have one flower growing on you, more will come, and it can distort your personality and make you feel or act as though you are drunk. Things won't make sense and you won't exactly know how to ask for help. Your only luck is that someone else will notice. Taking the flowers off requires an icy bath or shower and some serious salt scrub. To prevent this in general, you will want to keep your skin covered thoroughly and not allow pollen to brush against you since that's all it takes. Good luck!"

CODING

Comments

weird o'clock wake up service, A-adjacent

[megatheorem]

Palamedes is, unfortunately, not as considerate when entering the lab as his other half. He only means to swing by on his way out to Lumenwood and the blood ministers, hence coming to the lab at such an ungodly hour of the morning to maximize Productivity Time. The plan is to stop in, put a few things down and pick a few other ones up, and zip out to do the morning's blood work.

So he does not helpfully announce his entry, nor is he a particularly loud person in general: the key in the lock and the door opening make noise, of course, but all else is the soft shfff of his cloak hem over the floor and the light tap of footsteps. He's hooded, and so profoundly focused on doing his one singular task that he doesn't notice the big wacky horse thing in the corner until he reaches for something— and the big boggling eyeball bulging off the back of his wrist notices the other, ah, person in the room.

It still takes Palamedes a moment to stop and turn - the Other Eyes don't have the luxury of sharing his glasses, so that something registers as a living being at all does take a moment - and when he does, there are more... eyes. He's dotted with them in seemingly no discernible pattern, and they aren't even all the same size; a few small ones creep visibly up the side of his neck like scales, if scales could look at you, with a few more surrounding his face. These, he has managed to control enough to keep shut, but they are there.

The big ones are on his hands and arms, mercifully mostly covered by sleeves. From somewhere under his hood there are feathers sticking out, mercifully contained... under there. Don't worry about those, there are other things to worry about.

He blinks, a weird rippling affair, and puts a blood vial down to... wave. A little. Viktor has surely mentioned a visitor, but then eyeballs appeared all over him and he had other concerns, and is this horse a visitor? He'll proceed accordingly.

"I don't think we've been introduced. Hi."

[terribibble]

Lotta bulging eyes in this room all of a sudden.

Fiddleford is very much not asleep when Palamedes enters, despite the late (early?) hour. Insomnia is already something he's prone to and a radical shift in his biology has only compounded the issue. Besides, he isn't sure he can fully shut his eyes? Even when he's tried to doze they remain open just a little, faintly-glowing blue slits visible in the dark. Now of course they're fully-open and flickering fitfully as he peers at this unknown visitor from his corner of the room.

The greeting is fine. Polite. The eyes everywhere, less fine. They set a very unpleasant prickle crawling up his neck that is wholly distinct from the tingling of the electricity he hasn't figured out how to control yet. He doesn't know why, and he knows there's a reason he doesn't know why. He looks very very hard at them for a long moment before turning his head away.

"Can't say we have, no, uh." Calm down. There's no obvious threat here. You're a big gross electrified horse, you can't judge someone else for having too many eyeballs. He wants to judge somebody else for having too many eyeballs. He just doesn't like it. But if this guy can get in without breaking a window clearly he's supposed to be here. He's just. You know. Here at a very weird time, with all his eyes, and that's not inherently a bad thing probably.

"Fff... Fiddleford. McGucket. Viktor maybe said...?"

[megatheorem]

Oh, that's a voice coming out of that horse, isn't it. Palamedes blinks again, trying to recall a name that he definitely would not have forgotten, given what it is, and ah— he snaps his fingers, a gesture that unfortunately exposes more eyes when he moves his arm.

"Right— the guest." The guest, like it deserves a capital G. Idly he tugs at the ends of his sleeves to re-hide some of those eyes, because he is overtly bothering Fiddleford the Horse Guy. Personally, Palamedes does not mind being covered in eyeballs; it is what it is? He's been counting them to kill time. It's the weird feathers coming out of the back of his neck that are actually a bother, instead.

Still. He is aware people don't really vibe with the eyes. It happens.

"He mentioned someone staying on the cot," he goes on, and glances at said cot, wondering if a big horse guy can still fit on that. Why does every academic besides himself always want to hole up in some weird hovel with a shitty cot? Good god. But okay, "I'm Palamedes; I don't know what he might have told you, for context, but I do have a key, and I'm not going to hurt you."

That last part is added as an only semiserious reassurance, because he feels like - he shouldn't need to say it, but then again, he didn't expect Viktor's guest to be huddled in a corner looking nervous about it.

[terribibble]

Did Viktor tell him anything? He feels like Viktor must have but it's all gone out of his head. Could just be the stress. He can't imagine he erased it accidentally when he erased whatever got him from normal human to grotesque equine, there's so little overlap in subject matter. Anyway he's always careful to specify very clearly what he wants to delete. It can't be that.

He's been quiet for too long.

"That's good. Palamedes." Boy does that sound weird between his accent and the horrific scratchy quality his voice has right now. "I'm liable to forget it a few times, you're gonna have to forgive me. Do you come round often?"

And always in the middle of the night? he doesn't add. It's implied.

[megatheorem]

Palamedes shrugs, to both of those things; people tend to do poorly with the name, he's found, so that's a nonissue, and - well, again, the key. He holds it up to wiggle it significantly, so he doesn't have to repeat himself. Key! Got one! But alright, yes: this is a weird time to just turn up.

"I'm getting an early start," he says, like that makes it totally normal. "And in my defense, you're a new addition here."

It's been a weird couple days covered in eyes, he hasn't been thinking about Viktor's lab visitor. Showing up in the middle of the night is, in fact, nothing personal. He picks the blood vial up again, to have something to do with his hands that isn't, er, blink at the horse man. With his hand eyeballs.

"D'you need—" obviously he needs help, the anxiety is practically tangible in here, "Can I get you anything? From outside?"

[terribibble]

Listen, having a key is no indication of how often it gets used, or when. He's no stranger to being up at odd hours, obviously. A normal sleep schedule is for other people.

"I, uh..." Does he need anything? He has no idea what he could even ask for to alleviate this. He's been led to believe being in his right mind ought to prevent turning into a horrible mangled monstrosity, but here he is, horrible and mangled and no less sane than he usually is.

"Bein' honest what I want most is a stiff drink but I can't imagine that'd help all that much."

[megatheorem]

"I don't know what's open at this hour, anyway." He shrugs; it is the weird hour of too late to still be open and too early to be opening for the day? He doesn't know that much about bars. Or other places that sell alcohol.

Spoiling any hope Fiddleford might have had that he would just mind his business and go, Palamedes drags a stool over to the table with the blood vials and takes a seat, politely not staring at him over in the corner.

Well, some of the eyes on the side of his head might boggle, but they can't see that well, so it's probably fine. He frowns after a few seconds, and they close again.

"So, you're new in town, and it keeps getting worse, I'm gathering. Most of the time, these things go away on their own. Sometimes they like to drill meaningful personal themes into our heads, first. I'm hoping this one is the former, or..."

Well. Or what lesson of personal growth could either of them learn from turning into a horse or sprouting lots of eyes; he turns to give Fiddleford an exasperated look to express this. Trench, have mercy.