Places, places, everyone
There is always a tension that lingers over the town when there’s been a long period of peace. A cursed island never truly is peaceful, of course. Horrors will always lurk in hidden corners, hiding in the darkness, waiting for easy prey. But it’s been too long since something truly dreadful has happened. The fae circus hardly counts --- with its games and treats and displays of wonder, having a few wicked frights and cruel illusions was just balance. No, the eerie silence from the Infernal Realm since the fall of Efrain cannot mean anything good. Soon, something will have to give.
And at last, one day, it does.
{ Canonically, this event is four weeks long, with a new part launching each Saturday. Each will have separate rules and content warnings. Please consider your thread count appropriately and read each rule set carefully. }
{ Stay safe out there. }
Thank You, Places
It’d be hard to notice, at first. Little brass pieces of clockwork mechanisms appear throughout the town, lying on the cobblestone in the summer sun. Sometimes they clink along the pavement as they roll, subtly at first, towards the center of Pumpkin Hollow. Then they begin to skitter, as if pulled by invisible strings. Maybe you can even see them, if you tilt your head and squint…
They gather, at last, in the center of town. From broken fragments, they assemble themselves, erecting a large mechanism in the center of town. Something round, on a rotating plate, like a carousel but tiny, as if it is only intended for two.
An aggressor, and its prey.
Finally, the device is assembled. Large metal plates melt their way out of the ground and fold upwards to close up the decorative outer shell. Five panels and a dome top in reddish brown, painted with uncanny cherubs and golden filigree. Four of them have keyholes. The fifth has a center of clear glass, and several rotating rings within with metal decorations attached, to create a diorama. At the forefront, a golden mask, shaped into a harsh frown, surrounded by rays of gilded sunlight. It begins to play a little music box tune and tick softly, and the rings rotate along with it, extremely slowly. Upon closer examination, one might be able to spot the sliver of another mask waiting in the wings.
Despite its ominous presence, the curious music box seems to do little else, and experimentation will reveal that the music box is quite indestructible. This leaves the denizens of the town with little choice but to go about their day. They regard it with suspicion, feeling a sense of dread quietly begin to rise…
Hey, does it feel like it’s getting hotter out?
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Seemingly, a member of the now-fallen Court of Fools, is one of the demon nobles that once served under Prince Mendel and who escaped after his death last September. For those unfamiliar, Seemingly is a clockwork doll with a rotating head that bears four masks (pictured above). Because Seemingly represents (in part) the concept of disguise and false identity, each of these masks has its own name, voice, pronouns, and mood. They are as follows:
- WRATH | pictured on the left, enraged and violent, distorted androgynous voice, they/them
- TWIST | pictured in the center, coy and teasing, low feminine voice, she/her
- GLEE | pictured on right, giddy and joyfully malicious, high masculine voice, he/him
- HOLLOW |
pictured held in hands, cold and detached, harsh whispering voice, it/its
Each week, a new prompt will be added to this post, with a weather event modeled after one of these four masks. Every new installment will include terrifying surprises--- the natural disasters all feature supernatural additions based on the tenants of the Court of Fools. Trickery, madness, unreality, and deception.
Seemingly has longstanding beef with Jonathan Sims, one of our long-time player characters. Jon also has the ability to see through illusions, making him the perfect candidate to lead the charge! Check out Harvey's plotting post toplevel to get involved with the efforts to defeat this demon menace! This will involve finding the four keys that unlock the panels on the music box.
We recommend that, in order to keep things organized as the event updates, you post a blank header TL and then add new prompts beneath it each time a new part becomes available. However, you can do it however you'd like. Backdating, as always, is perfectly fine and encouraged. Please label questions with the part of the event they pertain to. Have fun!
Burning Wrath
August 9th - August 15th | Content Warnings: extreme body horror, exposed organs, delirium and difficulty perceiving reality
Warm summer days are no surprise to Marrow Isle, nor the greater Emerald Isles; the blazing sun above warms the earth below, drying out any of the dampness in the land from the stormy seasons just before and driving Hollowites down the sandy shores and to their local beaches.
Since the arrival of the strange music box, however, the sunshine bearing down upon the island seems to have become... relentless.
The temperatures continue to rise without any sign of stopping. The sound of thermometers snapping and popping as they reach their limits only becomes more and more common as the first round of oppressive heat chokes the air of Pumpkin Hollow; the crunching of dried, dead grass beneath shoes quickly joins the chorus of ceaseless drought. Dust, no longer tethered to the ground with moisture, kicks off the ground at the slightest disturbance. The forest grows brittle, and animals begin to hide away, in hopes that dark holes in the earth will make the heat even a bit more bearable. Wide, sprawling, cloudless skies stretch on, and no meaningful breezes carry through the town, offering no temporary respite from the sun's wrath.
For anyone brave enough to venture outside, to try to continue their daily motions in spite of the scorching temperatures, skin burns quickly, and metal becomes untouchable just as fast.
If only the town could be so lucky as simply enduring that much; the Infernal never do allow these things to be too easy to ride out.
With the addition of dreadful humidity that clings to one's skin those who venture outside will feel like they're practically wading through the air around them -- yet the worsening stickiness will seem like the least of their worries as delirium sets in. With so much focus having to go into remembering how to move one foot in front of the other, to recall where they're going, flesh and muscle slipping away from bones, melting like wax down a forgotten candle, becomes a trivial matter.
Even when the heat-afflicted are left as nothing but ambling skeletons--- their hearts standing alone in their pursuit to keep their owners alive, arteries magically inclined to tangle bones together and propel them along like muscles--- all they may be aware of is that they aren't feeling well, and that something is very, very wrong.
Delirous from the heat and only really aware that they're feeling under the weather, the shambling skeletal remains of your neighbors may try to find their way into familiar places; shared homes, local businesses, anywhere they might find loved ones, all with the intention of reaching out to find a helping hand. Should they continue to trudge through the blazing heat for too long, their hearts are no safer from the heat than the rest of their bodies were, and will easily cook and cease being able to propel them along, leaving their bones to bleach in the sun. If they are able to find their way inside to get "help", this is no more survivable - but it will grant them a short time to be reassured by (or to traumatize) those they've managed to find in their death throes. However, slender veins were never meant to hold a person together, and eventually the lingering terrible magic runs its course. What remains of the victim will begin to collapse, dropping limb by limb until at last their cursed heart gives up as well. Additionally, the bones do not vanish when unsupervised as they normally would, which can only mean that something, somewhere, is still watching.
Pumpkin Hollow's non-organic denizens are not spared from the cruelty of the burning heat, either - bolts, screws, connective wire, and other materials will begin to melt away first, causing machinery to collapse and fall apart. The invisible inferno seeks to consume what it can, and even if the approach differs from drawing organic material into the ground, it will find any weak point it can get to burn away those in the heat, bit by bit.
There are small mercies, however - though the heat bleeds through buildings, the danger of melting seems to fade in the darkness and shade of slightly-more-tolerable temperatures. The basements of homes, so often colder than might be pleasant, offer a wonderful respite from the uncomfortable outdoors. Additionally, the heat doesn't bear down consistently; one may find a break in the suffocation to be more like standard-fare summer temperatures, and may find a good opportunity to seek cooling activities, or even just a brief splash in Jack's Marina to take the edge off.
Be mindful, though. All it takes is a moment just a bit too far from home, just enough off guard, for the heatwave to see its opportunity to strike once more.
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Over the course of the week, the heatwave will have a range of temperatures from a standardly-hot 85F/29C to an unbearable 215F/102C, with intermittent periods of both humid and dry heat. While it's impossible to count exact minutes in a thread (and we wouldn't expect you to try to!), here's some vague approximations for tolerance to the extreme heat before the melting process begins:
Standard time before melting (organic beings): 30-45 minutes
Standard time before melting (inorganic beings): 45 minutes - 1 hour
Faster time due to weakness to heat (ice resistance, poor temperature control, etc): 10-15 minutes
Slower time due to resistance to heat (fire resistance, immortality, etc): 1 hour 30 minutes - 2 hours
General melting time from start to finish: approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour for the standard human. Resistances to heat/fire would slow this process. Survivability of melting depends on progress.
Those indoors or in shaded areas, even if miserably hot, are fully immune to any effects of melting.
Any organic beings who made it inside in the midst of the process of melting (such as being ushered in by someone they're with) will suffer mortal wounds as well, due to the failure of half-melted organs and irreversible damage. Any non-organic beings who had bolts or fastenings melt can survive this, and will simply need to be rebuilt/have their fastenings fixed!
Bones left outside of those who succumb to the sun do not disappear for the duration of Seemingly's Revenge, and have a waxy residue left on them. The heart will eventually be reduced to ash, and cannot be kept intact. (Theoretically you could gather the ashes, but they, too, would disappear after the event ends.)
Twisting Wind
August 16th - August 22nd | Content Warnings: tornadoes, dust storms, home loss, hypnosis
Throughout the hottest week in Pumpkin Hollow on record, the angry golden mask has ticked slowly, slowly out of the glass panel on the front of the music box. Slowly, slowly, a new mask comes into view. This one is half white, half gold, as if the mask itself is wearing a mask of its own, lips painted into a ghost of a wry smile. Along with it, the rays of sunlight framing the first mask are replaced by coiling silver lines that look like gusts of air.
Finally, on the eighth day, the new mask clicks into place. And the heat breaks. Overnight, the grueling temperatures fade to a comfortable range, even reaching a point that one might ostensibly call “cool” for mid-August. The relief is palpable. Most people in Pumpkin Hollow sleep better than they have all week, maybe in months, the night the heatwave finally dies. But it is far too soon to rejoice.
At first, the wind is just a little bit strong. Enough to bluster you around while you walk, trying to return to your business. It can almost be explained. A sudden drop in temperature would surely cause air currents to act strangely, right? But the music box is still there, still playing, and its tune has changed. Something terrible is brewing.
Soon, cloud cover bathes the entire island in a strange, yellow-green light, and the wind begins to howl mightily through the streets of town. Dust from the sun-baked earth picks up in some places, shifting the landscape of the town or caking structures in dirt, as small dust storms kick up in places without foliage or grass to pin it down.
There are many times when it isn’t too bad, where a person can walk from place to place and, with a bit of effort, get from one place to another without getting a mouthful of dust or a hunk of debris to the head. But there’s always a risk, isn’t there? Always a risk that any moment, the weather might grow just a bit more foul. Unlike the heat, not even the night offers any salvation. And in the distance, it sometimes feels like the wind is calling to you… Maybe if you listen, you can make out what it says. Even from indoors.
Every so often, the clouds above will begin to churn, and the wind will turn from a howl to a roar. Look above! The hungry sky stirs like some brew in a witch’s cauldron. The hairs on your arms begin to stand on end as you can feel that something is changing, something awe-inspiring and terrible, something that sinks your gut into your shoes as just the finest little funnel, like spun sugar forming little threads on a paper cone, reaches for the ground.
It’s growing. It’s hunting. It’s singing. It sings of deliverance, of freedom, of calling your soul up into the sky. You almost can’t hear it roar like a speeding train over the beautiful song.
Will you sing too?
And all the while, the music box stands stalwart, ticking away, a new scene slowly inching its way into the frame.
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This week, there will be strong winds ranging from roughly 50MPH to a whopping 200MPH. Compared to the heatwave, this week’s weather will be much less consistently dangerous, but will be more prone to turning abruptly destructive and deadly at a moment’s notice. And, as before, it will feature some delightfully maddening paranormal aspects!
On a mundane level, the wind will be capable of causing minor to severe structural damage. This will not create a financial expense for characters to repair on an OOC level, just a task, so feel free to have your shit get wrecked if you’d like to for the drama or if you’d like a half-price full home reno after the event! (This is only available to characters whose homes faced extreme destruction.) Dust storms, flying debris, and other hazards are also available to encounter.
However, you will also be able to hear voices in the wind, including from indoors. These voices may belong to strangers, friends, locals, or people from your homeworld. They will whisper intrusive thoughts, guilty consciences, or dark secrets (which may be false), or they may simply attempt to lure you into danger. Full-sized tornadoes, in addition to all the mundane dangers of a proper tornado, will also call out to you in a chorus of voices, hypnotically offering you freedom, paradise, unconditional love, and salvation, if only you join them. (Get it? Tornado sirens. Haha.) However, contrary to what the tornado claims, this will certainly kill you.
Safest locations are going to be basements and other underground, as before. Leeds Estate is particularly protected due to elevation and will continue to serve as an opt out, but Dahlia herself will be less available for rescue because it’s hard to fly like this. Baker Ranch’s protection from demonic forces via Serranai will also make it safe from damage, but challenging to reach due to its location in open farmland. Neil will also be leading efforts to reach Paradesium, which is completely wind-proof and still has Action Park.
Good luck, everybody!
Gleeful Tidings
August 23rd - August 29th | Content Warnings: TBA
Coming soon!
Hollow Chill
August 30th - September 5th | Content Warnings: TBA
Coming soon!
Aftermath
September 6th and onward
Will feature a short blurb wrapping up the event! See you then!
[ Each piece will become available for viewing on the date it ICly begins! ]
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ph_logs2025-08-17 02:39 pm
