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vestigechat2020-07-15 10:26 pm
vestigemods) wrote in vestigechat2020-07-15 10:26 pm
Entry tags:
JULY EVENT: SHATTER AND DECAY
JULY EVENT: SHATTER & DECAY
JULY 21ST - 27TH
► THE BASICS
- Hey, Veslings! (Vestites? Vestigians? We'll work on it.) Hope you've enjoyed yourselves so far in the spectacular mess this game has already become. Now buckle up, because it's almost time for our very first event!
This month, the keen observations of Geralt of Rivia (and the subsequent 'They bitch when it's dirty, they bitch when it's clean, there's no winning with these people,' in the break room hundreds of yards underfoot) have inspired an event based on that very dichotomy. Suffering this month will follow the themes of glass and rot, with elements of psychological horror and body horror to choose from!
The event will take place from July 21st - 27th, with an event log going up on either the late 19th or early 20th.
There is no specific opt-out, but you can effectively simulate one by choosing exclusively psych horror and making the effects very, very mild. More semantic details on the event as a whole can be found in the 'miscellany' drop-down at the end of the post.
Content warnings include discussion of rotting flesh (body horror) and possible utilitarian self-harm (both horrors).
Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
I KNOW THAT YOU'LL NEVER FEEL LIKE I DO
- Should you choose to go the psych horror route (whether for the duration of the event or as a follow-up to body horror), characters will experience one of two distinct sets of psychological and sensory symptoms.
THE SHATTER. PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR.
- Characters will find that one or more of their senses are sharpening. Sounds are louder, more distinct. Colors are more vivid, lights are brighter. Perhaps they can taste the food cooking in the next room by scent alone. Perhaps every touch to their skin sparks a rainbow of sensation...
...Until it becomes too much. At least one of those senses is enhanced to the point of discomfort. Sounds might be too loud, so loud that they hurt your character's ears. Maybe lights are too bright, even if they squint. Maybe even the brush of clothing on their skin sets their nerves on edge with raw over-stimulation.
On top of the above, some characters will begin to experience ambient telepathic abilities. The thoughts and feelings of those around them filter into your character's thoughts like the clamor of a noisy coffeeshop hosted directly in their mind - and it's not the neat and tidy telepathy that many a superhero comic tries to sell you. Human thoughts are ambling, messy, often a string of sounds and visuals rather than words. Information can be gleaned from this ambient nonsense, but in a very abstract sense. Good luck to anyone trying to hear their own thoughts... Or, god forbid, fall asleep.
THE DECAY. PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR.
- Characters will find that one or more of their senses are dulling. This is fairly straightforward - blurring vision, difficulty discerning words, trouble tasting for lack of ability to properly perceive scent, or even a vaguely tingling sort of numb overtaking their body. Optionally, this could culminate in at least one of those senses being lost altogether.
On top of the above, and much like with 'the shatter', some characters will begin to pick up on a jumble of voices and feelings in their mind. But make no mistake - this is hardly telepathy. Though characters may be able to discern individual identities amongst them, these intrusive presences are neither the people around your character nor any of the other characters in Vestige.
The longer the voices are left unchecked, the darker they seem to become. Characters begin to receive flashes of dark memories, perhaps even deaths, and the emotions leaking through shift from hopeful and warily friendly to a much darker range of melancholy, pain, despair, rage, or even blood-thirst. Occasionally, they just like to scream.
THE CLUE + THE REMEDY.
- Characters with cabins will find a new book on the center of their coffee table (or another conspicuous but fitting place of your choosing). The contents are written in an entirely unknown language with runic script, but it includes a number of diagrams which will certainly be of interest:
Within the first few pages, characters will discover depictions of humans holding their heads as if in distress, jagged chaotic marks emanating from their heads as if to indicate mental distress. Next, a diagram of a handful of individuals drawing blood with knives. Some cut themselves, some cut one another. Next, a picture very similar to the first, but the humans are no longer holding their heads and no jagged distress-marks remain.
What does this mean in practice? It's simple enough. Characters who draw blood from themself or another person will find the intensity of their symptoms lessening distinctly. It is not, however, a cure-all - the amount of relief your character receives is directly proportional to how much blood is drawn, and the relief only lasts as long as the wound continues to bleed. If the wound manages to clot, the effects will return.
Is there a full remedy? Yes, but it's not pretty. In order to cure the effects altogether, the wound inflicted needs to be severe enough to lose a potentially dangerous amount of blood quite rapidly. This essentially drives the effects from your character's head, at cost of enough blood to leave someone dizzy, weak, tired, and possibly even confused. It doesn't have to be fatal! But if too little blood is shed in one fell swoop, it will only dull the effects, not get rid of them entirely.
EFFECT SEVERITY.
- You're welcome to take a number of different liberties with severity of these effects, including but not limited to:
- Whether they come after the body horror segment or skip the body horror altogether.
- How many senses are tampered with and to what severity.
- (Shatter.) Whether any of the effects start off abjectly positive, e.g. the potential rainbow of sensation.
- (Shatter.) How many senses become uncomfortable + to what degree. (Decay.) How many senses are deadened entirely.
- The intensity of the telepathy/voices - is it irritating but manageable, or severe and impossible to ignore?
- (Decay.) How troubling the voices/emotions/imagery actually become, if left unchecked.
- How long it takes your character to figure out the remedy, or to at least make it manageable.
As mentioned in the intro, the simplest way to opt out of this event would be via this psych horror side of things. Aim for shatter effects and give them one single uncomfortable-but-manageable sensory issue + no telepathy.
WHEN I BREAK INTO PIECES RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU
- Should you choose to go the body horror route (whether for the duration of the event or as a prelude to psych horror), characters will experience one of two distinct physical effects.
THE SHATTER + THE DECAY. BODY HORROR.
- Beginning at one or more of their extremities, characters who experience body horror effects will find that their skin (and everything beneath it) is beginning to either turn to glass or necrotize.
- By the end of the first day, the limb(s) will be affected up to just past the wrist/ankle.
- By the end of the second day, it reaches just above the elbow/knee.
- By the end of the third day, it reaches the hip/shoulder.
- If not cured by the end of the fourth day, it spreads across the skin and outer layers of torso flesh.
- Throughout the fourth night, it works its way inward to the organs and begins to wreak havoc on vital functions.
- Characters who have not remedied the condition by the end of the fourth night will likely be dead by noon of the fifth day. (On the plus side, those who turn to glass make pretty neat statues?)
Body parts which have turned to glass feel no pain beyond perhaps a phantom ache, but are now immobile and liable to crack or shatter under any impact or pressure that might have that effect on regular glass of similar shape and size.
Body parts which have necrotized, however, hurt quite a bit, and they hurt well beyond the point of visible necrosis. They are also very hot - the host is likely a bit feverish, but the affected limb is even more so - and there's a distinct chance that they reek. (Y'all are encouraged to go full rotting zombie limb with this as God intended, but you can also totally have the necrotization linger under the skin, only manifesting as the occasional angry blister.)
The spread of the condition is uniform across both shatter and decay.
THE CLUE + THE REMEDY.
- Remember the sketchy indecipherable book from the psych horror side? That same book has a second series of diagrams a bit later. The first depicts a similar set of humans, each gripping a discolored arm or leg in distress. The second is nearly identical to the second image in the first set of diagrams, but in this case, all of the humans are drawing blood from one another - never themselves. The third image depicts what looks like the liberal slathering of blood onto the discolored limb. The last image depicts the same humans happy and with all limbs intact and unaffected.
In practice, this means that the application of someone else's blood to the affected area (think: lotion) is the remedy. Doing so will show immediate results, the glass receding down to the end of the limb and disappearing altogether, the necrotization healing slowly but steadily back to normal flesh. Beware: The blood does have to cover the entire affected area or the glass/decay will spread once again from whatever bit of skin is missed. Otherwise, a limb healed this way with no spots missed will remain healed and intact.
EFFECT SEVERITY.
- This doesn't have quite the same range of possible severity as the psych horror half of the event, but a few things can vary the level of fuckery your character experiences.
With either option, you're able to choose whether your character experiences just one affected limb or more than one at once. You're also able to choose whether healing one limb (assuming only one is affected) will end the experience for your character, whether it will reappear on a different limb, or whether they will then begin to experience the psych horror side of things.
With glass effects, there isn't much variation here - though you do get to decide if they have to deal with the fuckery of having an affected limb crack or shatter into pieces. (As a note, all shattered limbs reappear intact on the morning of the 28th, unless you're really balls-out for having them deal with the loss until they die and respawn with the limb intact.)
With decay effects, you obviously have the choice of rotting zombie limb .vs. mostly subdermal effects. You also can vary the general grossness however you see fit. Additionally, you're welcome to have your characters experience the illness-type symptoms of necrotic infection - fever, increased heartbeat, sweating, nausea - or just skip those altogether.
QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, & MISCELLANY
Q: DOES THE EVENT KICK IN FOR EVERYONE AT ONCE?
- All event effects begin to kick in on the 21st/early 22nd. If you'd like to shorten the duration of time in which your character is stuck with whatever effects you've inflicted upon them, consider utilizing the remedies listed in the above drop-downs!
Q: DOES IT MATTER WHETHER MY CHARACTER RECEIVES THE 'GLASS' OR 'ROT' EFFECTS?
- In the grand scheme of things: No, you're totally free to go with whichever one calls to you. However, the Technicians are huge slut for the poetic side of horror when possible, so they do actively try to distribute glass or rot to match some facet of the character in some way.
For example, are they rotting (literally or figuratively) because they're full of self-loathing, or perhaps because someone important has told them they're wasting their life away? Are they turning to glass (literally or figuratively) because they or those around them think too highly of their mental clarity or general purity, or perhaps because they strive for transparency in their everyday life?
Q: CAN THEY EXPERIENCE BOTH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BODY-HORROR EFFECTS? WHAT ABOUT BOTH GLASS AND ROT?
- Yes, a character can experience both psych and body horror. In such a case the body horror tends to manifest first and then the psych horror kicks in once the body horror is remedied.
However, your character can only experience glass or rot effects. So if you do both psych and body horror, they'd get rot for both or glass for both, not mix and match.
Q: WHY SO MUCH BLOOD??
- This is the Technicians' first go at this and they don't trust less potent horror methods - emotional suffering, etc - to appease the elder gods quite like blood and (crossing their fingers) death. If everyone bleeds a little, it makes up for the fact that very few people are actually going to bleed a lot. Efficiency, right?
- That's it, folks! If you have any questions, toss them into the top-level below. You're free to use this post for plotting purposes, though I also recommend linking it on the discord/modplurk for those who may not check the comments! I hope you enjoy our first event. ♥
MOD QUESTIONS
Re: MOD QUESTIONS
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Assuming you specifically mean the body horror part - It depends on what sort of inorganic, I think! If they have something that simulates skin, you're welcome to have them exhibit similar rot-like aesthetic effects while corrosion occurs within. Otherwise, feel free to replace 'rot' with 'rust/corrosion' in general as applicable.
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If so:
- Using his telepathy directly into someone's mind would probably turn the other telepathic presences down to a very low ambient volume as long as it's active.
- Using the probing would probably have a weird almost reverb-like distortion effect for him, since he'd be skimming a mind already full of telepathic presences. Too much of it could potentially lead to a pretty bad headache.
Just my thoughts, feel free to offer up your own ideas if you have any!
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To add a smol mechanic interaction: People without powers in his canon can't really take being psychic'd at directly b/c of...why they're all psychic (semi-sentient cosmic entity providing go-juice), and I kind of like the idea that he's gotta be careful or he can do some damage. But he also has a ‘shielding’ mechanic that can be physical, aural, sight, or psychic, so instead of talking at them, shielding them might have the same behavior of muting the thing briefly?
I was thinking I’d have his own natural mental shields break down unless he’s actively doing a thing, too, b/c that would be super horrifying for him. And I love the reverb thing, that’s spooky as hell.
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Glad you like. ♥
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When you say "their senses are sharpening," are we limited to the five traditional senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) or can we branch out into more nontraditional senses (pain, position, balance,
humor)?no subject
Which is to say: I'd like to stick with the five senses but you can basically turn those into almost anything if you're creative. :') Like, as far as I know Klaus is losing his 'sense of speech' in the form of swallowing a chip wrong and irritating his throat + having his sense of touch intensify to the point where speaking with that irritation is agony.
I did say it was cool for folks like androids to consider any additional sensory capabilities as a 'sense' as long as it has the same approximate impact as an organic having regular sensory trouble, so there's also that.
lalli + wei wuxian
Lalli will probably be on the 'glass' side of things, and I think I'm sticking to psych horror for him for the sensory fuckery (he was so relieved to have his mage senses back!! and now they betray him) and the prevailing frustration of ambient telepathy inflicted on a very private gremlin. He will probably be snapping at people for having activity above the brain stem, so I'm sorry.
Wei Wuxian is almost definitely gonna have some kind of rotting arm situation going on, which he will absolutely hide until it at least goes up past the elbow because he's focused on Other People's Problems and is very bad at dealing with his own. I might also do some psych horror stuff, but it would also be shit he'd hide well enough (loss of physical feeling, possible voices like the ones he... sometimes already has). If anyone wants some blood he's definitely ready to dish out some blood for basically anyone he has even passably spoken to.
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How about no to being a giant blood bag.
luke.
it is mostly contigent on whether a good samaritan will help him Not Die, so hit me up if you would like to assist a random man in a crisis. as luke might have a hard time actively pursuing help, i imagine if not proactive outreach, then random encounter.
once he goes through that, he will proactively want to help others, so equally, hit me up if you need a blood donation or generalised kindness. they can have met or be complete strangers!
or whatever! let's play.
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Vanya + Ed Jr.
This is all bad. BUT she is more than willing to bleed to help others if that's what's necessary.... especially if her powers going off the rails causes someone else to get hurt/shattered.Edward on the other hand is going to start losing a leg to rot that won't be immediately visible on the surface. Something something good intentions while working for the company and the corrupting influence of his father.... Bonus, what better way to make friends than to bleed on each other?
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Naminé
The ambient telepathy aspect will definitely also be a thing, which... isn't that far off of what she can already do but will be quite concerning to her due to its involuntary nature. (Especially because she can break people's brains with her already existing powers if she isn't careful.) I'm also considering whether or not to do physical symptoms, but that'd be dependent on if anyone is considerate enough to volunteer to help so that she doesn't end up a glass sculpture in the first month.
wrong journal but!!
i will accept u regardless of what usernames are involved!!!!
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I however am down for her to have some friend-ly supervision, so we can handwave something for it if you want her to stay with them right off the bat. Otherwise I'm also okay with her starting out on her own and then ending up moving in with them later on at some point, cause that might be fun. WHATEVER WORKS. /gestures vaguely
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also - points to eyes, points to your event top-level, lalli's not doing one so make sure you link me when yours goes up
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YES I will have one of those!! I am planning for it now atm but unfortunately I am most likely working all 7 days this week cause it's crunch time at work so tags are a bit spaced out. I'm gonna try and get a toplevel set up potentially over the weekend anyway and I will 9001% link you as soon as possible.
Daemon & Jingyi
I'ma send Daemon through the glass route, and he's going to glass right up to his shoulder where it starts to spread across his chest before he breaks his hand off and starts seeking solutions with the info from the book in his cabin. And by 'seeking solutions' I mean he will hunt someone down and get persuasive. He will super reciprocate! He will absolutely bleed all over anything you want! But if you're the type to like...suffer in silence and needs to be coaxed he will try to be very convincing?
His telepathy is going to go fucky for him and he does not handle that well. But! He finds out that if he actively shields/speaks to someone else, he can ease the very worst of their symptoms for a little bit. So if you have someone who doesn't have a bad case and you don't really want them to bleed, Daemon might be able to help them ride stuff out a little?
Otherwise, and this applies to both parts, he is zero percent disturbed by bloodletting. He will stab upon request. He will even monitor to make sure you don't die from bloodletting, if you want. His canon uses blood for everything, so he's fairly well-versed in the limits of the human body.
ALSO! I desperately need someone to introduce him to his smartphone!
Jingyi
Jingyi gets rot! He is going to hate it and he will not be quiet about hating it. Him and his zombie legs are gonna need help, but once that's fixed, I'ma send him slowly deaf as it's taken over by 'ghostly' whispers. It won't get bad-bad for him, but it will make him suuuuper paranoid because ghosts are not his friends and he is afeared of them. So he'll be wanting to be in company and not left alone for pretty much the duration (waking or sleeping) because just no. So if you want a Jingyi at an inconvenient point in time, refusing to leave, I would love to throw him into a thread.
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And Graham for zombie legs, because Dad.
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- before helping jc, he'll be plagued with head ghosts and will have lost his sense of feeling entirely (which is really conducive to bleeding for others, gotta say), and will mostly still be in help-other-people mode
- after helping jc + being helped by sizhui as much as poor sizhui can, he'll be in much worse physical state (artemis and i aren't yet sure if he'll get to help jc altogether but even if not, he's already potentially ending up with broken ribs and zidian whip slices) and will be reeling from the knowledge that sizhui is a-yuan, so there's. that.
i'm good with this happening either on either side of that particular incident. he's in a better general state beforehand (plus we could start the thread without waiting to see how it plays out with jc) but afterward he'll be a lot more receptive to worry-helping.
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Simon uh... I think I'll have him go the rot route. Physically. Just rots from the inside out. He'll probably be dying cause of it. Just all his insides rusting and rotting and yummy fun. We love a dead android. He's good at being dead in his canon so. It works.
lynn's cabal of very tall dudes ...........and north
Either way he's ultimately most available to give blood, which he will do for more or less anyone; he's a big dude and views himself as having more to spare than, say, all you slender youths.
ELIOT: Debilitating vision and hearing loss, which, because everyone I play is fucking difficult, he will also not share with anyone save his pseudo-twin. Obviously I have to check this with Libby first but I imagine the two of them to be co-joined at the hip, constantly bleeding on one another's behalf. It would be awesome to have someone tell one or both of them that is a terrible idea! You'd think Eliot would be pretty pressed to hide what's going on with him, and you would be absolutely correct, so. Uh. Also awesome would be someone calling him out like you need help, you self-loathing jackass.
NORTH: sensory sharpening pr...obably?? Maybe? I am the absolute worst at making her suffer because she's like. Been through enough, lbr, but there's really no way to do this event without screwing with her sense of bodily autonomy. As such I am torn between hoooooooly shit I CAN SEE EVERYTHING AND THE ANGLES ARE ALL WRONG and telepathy mild enough that it's more an inconvenience than anything else. It'll be hard to get her to donate thirium unless ur an android, but if someone appears to be really in trouble, UGH, FINE, she'll do it, fuck you.
This would be a great opportunity for her to acquire more than surface CR with someone she might otherwise totally give a miss. Yay!
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First, he is going to be hit by the rot. He will definitely have one leg affected. I'm undecided still if I want to focus on the body horror of watching himself decay or on the necrotic infection symptoms. I don't really have ideas yet what to do with the rot in an RP sense since he'd hide it and have his breakdown quietly by himself. If it's the latter I will have several limbs affected at once so I can make him very sick quickly though you might not see much of it on the surface, and he'd need someone to nurse him and keep him company until they figure out what has him sick. While he will be in denial at first, it won't go far enough for him to die (still looking for someone to donate blood, btw.)
He can't die since the body horror is just the warm-up, it's the following psych horror that will hit him really hard. He's going to go blind, which is bad enough by itself, but he will be suffering the most from the mental side effects. He's going to be reliving terrible memories as well as suffering from waking nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and unbearable screaming. His mood will swing from despondent to violent without warning. He's going to spend his days desperately bleeding himself to get at least precious minutes of relief.
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................also he canonically has night terrors so alternatively, maybe they could meet at some insane hour of the morning both trying to deal with that?
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I feel like an early morning meeting would work really well for them. Who doesn't watch the sun rise over the lake, they are absolutely there for the aesthetic and not because they were in too much torment to sleep...
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emil vasterstrom: ya boy will be physically rotting which he will REALLY FUCKING HATE!!! HE REALLY ISN'T INTO ROTTING!!! both of his hands/arms will be effected. he'll also be experiencing some sensory decay in the form of deafness, and that will also be really inconvenient for him.
jiang yanli: she will be turning to glass. this is something that she'll try to hide as it's only happening to one hand, but will be unavoidable to keep from anyone by the third day. she's going to be keeping busy rebuilding the stand in lotus pier and worrying about her other affected castmates. once she knows someone will have to bleed for her, she'll want nothing to do with the the healing process.
wight: will also be necrotizing, which people probably won't know until he's dragging himself apart and crawling out of his shed in the woods. this is really traumatic for him; he's a zombie and basically under the assumption that whatever was keeping him alive just...stopped...so he deserves to rot as just an expectation.
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lalli will bleed on emil, it's okay.
and wei ying will bleed on yanli!! shijie please
i'm also down for wight things but like we have a ton going on already so that's entirely up to you
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and then yanli will be Horrified at this turn of events and if she knows a-xian is rotting, will also be more than willing to bleed onto her baby brother
wight i'm just gonna put up a top level for; it's def a 'take it or leave it' kind of thing, i'm not pressed