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

[obeir]

"—Oh. Yes. Hamantaschen. Or my attempt at them." In his alarm, the purpose of his trip had already been put out of mind to focus on more important matters. Thus reminded, he retrieves the plate of cookies and instead hands them off to Kyle while tugging on his arm.

"Come on, get away from the wild plants," he says, guiding Kyle toward his home. "And I think we should probably get them off of you too. They're embedded in your skin?"

[kyley_b]

"Dude. That's so sweet." Kyle's wings all perk up a little as he takes the plate.

"Oh. Okay." He wobbles a little as K steers him into the hall and up the stairs to his little apartment. He gets stick in the front door for a second because he forgets to tuck in his wings.

"They're like, growing on me, yeah. The roots must be under the skin. But aren't they pretty?" He wobbles over to the couch and sits, still holding the plate.

"K? Am I pretty?" Kyle asks with the sincerity of the very drunk. "I am, aren't I?"

[obeir]

"You're very pretty, Kyle," K deadpans as he perches beside him on the couch, pulling one of Kyle's arms over into his lap so he can get a better look at the flower situation. He runs a finger against where one of the stems merges with Kyle's flesh, trying to determine if there's a seam. Cutting off the flowers probably won't do much if the roots remain inside. The question is, just how deep do they go...

"How'd you become an angel, anyway? You mostly seem like yourself mentally," drunkenness aside, "so I don't think it's corruption...?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle sighs, sounding like K just told him that someone died instead of giving him compliment.

"I don't know," he says miserably. "I just woke up all... all winged and eyeballed and beautiful. I hate it."

[obeir]

Having run a pub for several years, K certainly has experience handling people in all states of drunkenness. But the dejected reaction catches him a bit off guard and makes him amend his prior statement.

"You're normally handsome," he offers, more sincerely. "And now you're..." Searching for a word. "Ethereal." Literally. All those eyes, though. Shudder. He continues examining the strange flesh flowers. "Can you actually fly?"

[kyley_b]

"No, I'm not," Kyle says. "YOU'RE handsome. That space dad guy, he's handsome. Dirk, Dirk is fucking gorgeous. I'm just Kyle. But that's okay. I was okay with that. I got OVER that." He frowns at his flesh flowers, then looks up at K. His wings all lift.

"I can! So that part is cool. I just... don't want to be this. It's not ME."

[obeir]

"Attractiveness is subjective. You don't decide who I find handsome, only who you do. I also notice you didn't mention your own boyfriend," K lightly teases, though something about Kyle's protest has him giving the whole seraph transformation more serious thought. Is it somehow related to how Kyle views himself, like a physical manifestation of something psychological? That does seem to happen frequently in Trench. But Kyle's saying he was okay with his normal appearance...

"This might feel weird," he says as he curls his fingers around a stem. "Tell me if it hurts too much." With that, he begins to slowly generate ice around the stem, wondering if maybe he can freeze them off. Ideally without giving Kyle frostbite in the process.

[kyley_b]

Kyle sighs. "You've said that before, I know you like skinny redheads and stuff, but I'm just saying there is a scientific basis for what humans find most appealing. I'm not being all... I was fine. It was fine. And Karkat's beautiful but he's not human, he'll always get judged differently by people."

Kyle stills, watching with all his eyes as the bloom freezes. He winces as the flesh it is embedded in aches in that deep way he associates with being out dangerously long in Colorado winters. The flower does freeze, though, and can be removed. Some skin goes with it, but oh well.

[obeir]

"My only 'type' is someone I have an emotional connection with," K points out with a slight smile. Not just nerdy redheads in general. Not even Dirk would've received a second look without that emotional component developing as it had. "But I get your point. You know more about human attraction than I ever could; I can't argue that. And you were... fine," he repeats. Was he really though?

...Kyle's skin coming off with it definitely isn't good, but at least the flower could be removed. K crushes it in his hand with a frown, still trying to think of a better way. He'd really rather not skin Kyle here.

"How do you feel about yourself, normally?" he asks after a moment. "If I may ask." Maybe the drunkenness will work to his advantage in making Kyle more honest than he'd usually be.

[kyley_b]

Kyle actually stops to consider that and nods. "Yeah," he says. "Me too. But, yeah. I'm being objective." Or so he thinks.

He sits and watches K with the flowers, mind wandering. "Hm? Oh. Fine." He smiles to show how fine he is. "I'm smart, and I'm a good person. I always try to look out for people, and I think I'm a good boyfriend."

[obeir]

Something to loosen the roots of the flowers and make extraction easier would be ideal. Exfoliation? Maybe he's going about this the wrong way, using ice.

"With how things usually go here, I'm just surprised if your transformation has nothing to do with some innate desire or fear," K admits. "Seems odd if this is... completely indiscriminate. But stranger things have happened, I suppose. It's good you're normally so secure about yourself and comfortable in your own skin." He means that sincerely.

"In the mood for a bath?" he asks a moment later.

[kyley_b]

Kyle shrugs. The wings rustle. "Oh, I'm not secure about how I look, I'm just like... I've come to accept it. And now THIS. And I don't like having shit done to my body against my will. That's fucked up."

He blinks his many eyes at K.

"...uhm. I think Karkat would be mad? I dunno how Dirk would feel about us getting all cozy either..."

[obeir]

...Oh. Huh. So the angel transformation might very well have something to do with Kyle's insecurities about his appearance, as K originally suspected. But he isn't sure what to do with this information quite yet.

"While I appreciate you letting me down easy, I'm not suggesting I join you. Trying to think of ways to loosen these," he lightly tugs on one of the remaining fleshy flowers, "up. Like by exfoliation. Maybe petroleum jelly? I know it can be used for suffocating skin parasites..."

But they may not have that kind of time. Pulling out his Omni, he quickly starts checking around in case others have reported similar ailments to the network.

[kyley_b]

"Oh," Kyle says, sounding flustered. "I'm sorry. Of course. Salt scrubbing!"

He wobbles away a few steps. "Let's do it. It sounds right. Uhm. Will you be there? Scrubbing me?"

His face is so concerned.

[obeir]

"Do you want me to help?" K offers without looking up from his Omni for a moment — what little information that's available suggests this might work, so that's promising. "If you're done rejecting me," he adds in a teasing tone, now getting up to follow Kyle and offering an arm for him to hold onto if he needs it.

Cw: body dysmorphia

[kyley_b]

Kyle latches onto K immediately. He needs the support - walking is exhausting.

"Please," he says quite seriously. "I don't feel good. And I wasn't. You're wonderful."

Once he's in the bathroom Kyle starts undressing, but then he pauses. "...I look different," he says. "Uhm. Like. Down there. So. Don't look?"

Cw: body dysmorphia

[obeir]

The relatively small space of Kyle's bathroom works to their benefit, as he can help Kyle maintain his balance while also reaching to turn on the faucets.

"I've been inside the internet before. Literally." In more ways than one, considering TB himself was a manifestation of the internet... not that Kyle needs to know about this double entendre. "I don't think anything can shock me now." Pause. "But I wasn't planning on watching you undress." All the while he's been pointedly looking anywhere but at Kyle to afford him a little privacy. He doesn't want to make this any weirder than it has to be.

Except Kyle just had to mention angel junk. And now he can't help wondering.

"...Do biblically accurate angels even have reproductive organs?"

Re: Cw: body dysmorphia

[kyley_b]

Kyle shrugs, and all of his wings tense up.

"Not like I'm used to," he laments.

Unclothed, his wings wrap around him and keep him hidden.

"...what are we doing? Will Dirk be mad?" He's having a hard time focusing now.

[obeir]

"You're getting into the bath and I'm getting some salt," K says, still very much not looking at Kyle. "Where do you keep it?"

The latter question has his brow furrowing as he considers it. He's pretty sure Dirk wouldn't be mad about him helping a friend who's in need (probably all he'd care about is knowing what biblically accurate angel genitalia looks like?), but does Kyle know something he doesn't about Dirk...? It isn't the first time he's felt this way, like he might be out of the loop on something. Of course, Kyle is also apparently flower-drunk and might just be befuddled.

"Do you think we're doing anything that would warrant that reaction? I'm trying to help you."

[kyley_b]

"Kitchen cabinet above the sink, left side."

Kyle shakes his head.

"No. I just don't want to get you in trouble. I like you both a lot. I want you to both be really happy." Yeah, he is a sentimental drunk.

"I'll wait here?"

[obeir]

"That's sweet." K can't help smiling at that. He's too sentimental for his own good, even sober. "If it comes up, I could tell him you couldn't stop talking about how gorgeous he is while rejecting me? You'll wait here," K confirms before going to fetch the salt.

Some of which he pours into a big bowl so the whole container won't be contaminated, and also takes the liberty of hunting around for the closest approximation of olive oil like the recipe on the network described. On his way back to the bathroom, he begins mixing it all together until it has the consistency of a thick, grainy paste.

[kyley_b]

Kyle snorts. "No, don't do that, his ego is swole enough."

He waits as the cold water fills the tub, watching it intensely. He turns it off once he judges it's deep enough, then turns back to K as he comes back with the salt scrub. "Okay, let's do this," he says. He steps into the tub and immediately makes a bunch of 'ah!' noises because it really is freezing.

Without warning he just sits down, which gets water all over the floor because <>wings and then he's standing again, shivering.

"Cold! Cold, cold! Gah! Okay, scrub me!" Which necessitates opening his wings. The eyeballs on them are wide with shock.

Aside from the wings and the fact that he has no nipples and Barbie crotch, Kyle looks more or less the same: skinny, pale. But the wet feathers and his expression make him look laughably pathetic.

cw: parasites, blood, all that fun stuff

[obeir]

Doing his level best to ignore the multitude of staring eyes and any bizarre angel anatomy, K gets to work applying the grainy mixture everywhere the flowers are growing on Kyle, making sure to really work it into his skin around every stem.

Eventually some of the parasitic flowers begin trying to burrow into the exposed skin of K's forearms, but by this point it's mostly futile. Weakened by the frigid water, they're easily pulled off like leeches and crushed with every attempt to jump ship — which has the unfortunate side effect of squirting glittery blood everywhere. The ones that remain stubbornly clinging to Kyle may just take a bit more elbow grease to get rid of.

"Don't blame you for being worried," he says conversationally while scrubbing away and ignoring the blood dripping down his face, "because this is definitely my idea of a romantic date. It'd be easy to get the wrong idea here."

The banter is mainly for Kyle's benefit, so he has something to focus on other than how dreadful and invasive it all probably feels.

cw: parasites, blood, all that fun stuff

[kyley_b]

The freezing water in the tub now looks like someone used a particularly glittery bathbomb. Shivering, Kyle tries to help with the scrubbing but he feels so weak that he mostly gives up.

"Dude, I date a troll. Bloody dates don't phase me," he mutters. His head hangs, his hair mostly obscuring his face.

"This feels awful," he admits. "But it's working." Dead flowers float on the glittering surface of the bath.

"Thank you." His wing!eyes roll to look at K even as Kyle's face is hidden.

cw: parasites, blood+discussion of bloodplay, all that fun stuff

[obeir]

Please control your eldritch eyeballs, Kyle.

That bit of information gets a raised eyebrow. "Like... bloodplay?" K wonders despite himself. It still fascinates him; he'd enjoyed exploring it with TB all that time ago. In Trench it seems considerably more risky, what with blood pollution being a significant problem. Which they're probably contributing to right now, spilling blood like this, but it is what it is. These flowers have got to go.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find a more pleasant way to do this. At least it isn't peeling off your skin." Well. Not too much of it, anyway, compared to his prior attempt with the ice. But there is the matter of the wounds left behind by the removed flower parasites... that are probably full of salt now.

"I'm letting go for a second, don't fall," he warns before grabbing the nearest washcloth and wetting it with fresh water from the faucet. Then he's back to helping support Kyle with one arm while giving the wounds a quick rinse with the cloth, inbetween continuing to scrub out the remaining flowers.