JULY EVENT: SHATTER AND DECAY

[vestigemods]

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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.
• 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?)

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. ♥

Comments

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[subroutined]

What would happen if an inorganic character were to choose the 'rot' option?

[vestigemods]

RIP, I should've remembered to do a Q about inorganics.

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.