it must be that old evil spirit

[singmod]

SEPTEMBER 2024 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — PAINFUL REMINDERS: An Aurora briefly connects the Interlopers to their homeworlds, and with it are able to receive items from home — but these ones will bring no comfort to them.

PROMPT TWO — THE ENEMY WITHIN: Strange and familiar occurrences begin in Milton and Lakeside, growing in frequency and danger for the Interlopers. Who can truly be trusted among their numbers?

PROMPT THREE — BAD BLOOD: The Forest Fighters finally come to Milton, and with it: they bring the yawning grave.

PAINFUL REMINDERS

WHEN: 5th - 9th of September.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: potentially upsetting themes; themes of loneliness/isolation.

For many, the sight of the Aurora is now one they have become used to. There have been plenty of them over the year that has passed since the Interlopers first came to the Northern Territories. Often, they have been a sign of great danger, with plenty of unsettling and unnatural things happening when the skies light up. Other times they have been the herald of aid — a link between Interlopers and Enola, gifting them with abilities to help them survive in this world. There is no real knowing what kind of force the Aurora is, truly. And there is a tension that holds amongst the Interlopers as the day turns to night and there is the soft sound that grows louder.

The ethereal, high-pitched chorus of sounds, is difficult to place. Perhaps it sounds like voices, or discordant strings. And with it, the low-drone of electrical buzz — punctuated with the echoing pops and sharp cracks. The sky is alive with sound, and with it comes the swirling streaking of colour against the inky black of night, growing brighter and brighter as time goes on — greens, blues, pinks and purples shifting and dancing across the night. And much like every Aurora before this one, the electricals of the world come to life too. Homes, streetlamps, cars long-stranded in the snow. Man’s world comes alive, buzzing and flickering precariously.

But there are no ghosts like there once was a year ago. No terrible weather, no poisonous fog. If one could call it a ‘normal’ Aurora, that’s what it appears to be. But there is something else in amongst all the light and noise. Snatches of things: whispers of conversations, names called, laughter and tears.

You realise you recognise these voices. They are the voices of home. Perhaps you hear your mother, your siblings or friends. Whoever they are, you can hear them. And although they might not be able to hear you — for one brief night, the Aurora has connected you, bridged the gap between your world and this one. You may sit for a while, simply listening to the voices, relishing in hearing those from back home. If others join you, you will find yourself compelled to speak of them: to share in stories about those from back home — the connections you share with them.

It’s strange, though. These voices do not fill you with comfort or joy. Instead you are left with feelings of sadness, anger, and isolation. The Aurora has connected Interlopers, but now you feel so cut off from home, cut off from friends and loved ones — reminded of everything left behind. Everything you long for. Everything you have lost.

Something strange skips through the sky, a warping of the sound. It’s unsettling. Something feels... wrong, somehow.

It’s not just the voices that will remind you of this. Something else comes through the Aurora after that night. A small token will be brought through. Whatever the item may be, when you go to sleep and next wake, you will find said item. It may be placed on your bedside, on your desk or dining room table.

The item, you will find, will bring you a reminder of pain. Of sadness. Of horror. Perhaps it’s something you haven’t thought of in some time. Maybe it is something that has lingered in the back of your mind. Perhaps it is a part of you, waiting to be uncovered. A sign of something to come. A painful reminder of your past, or an ominous omen of your future.

THE ENEMY WITHIN

WHEN: The month of September.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: kidnapping/attempted kidnapping; attempted murder; murder; vandalism; arson; assault; animal mutilation; corpse mutilation/manipulation/desecration; themes of peril/terror; possible character/npc injuries; possible character/npc death.

It starts with strange happenings at night, things left to be found by the next morning. Those within Lakeside many find themselves unsurprised by it, given their location, but the scenes found in Milton are a foreboding sight.

Mutilated bodies of animals: rabbits, ptarmigans, even deer — mangled and strewn about the streets, blood upon the snow. Some may awaken in the middle of the night to the sounds of their windows breaking, with houses on the Outskirts being targeted more than those in the middle of town. There is… a kind of unrest in the world.

It escalates.

Some may leave their home for the day and return in the evening to find the place trashed: items broken, precious foodstuffs thrown about the place and destroyed. Those within the Outskirts are once again particularly vulnerable, as are those within Lakeside. Fires are started in some of the abandoned buildings of Milton. Something, someone is targeting the Interlopers.

It is hard to pin-point who exactly, and it only puts the Interlopers on high alert. Nothing like this has never happened before. This is new, especially in Milton.

As the month progresses, the acts become more serious. Fires may be started in the middle of the night in Interlopers’ homes while they sleep. Some are attacked in the night, others are taken from their beds. Some killed within their very homes. Of the Interlopers that go missing, their mutilated remains may be found days later out in the wilds.

In Milton, soon enough, someone is bold enough to come out from the darkness, out from the gloom of the night. Interlopers may be attacked in broad daylight — by those they may recognise as newer Interlopers of the community, who appeared from the wilds: lost and shivering, with nowhere else to go. Some of them have been within Milton for a few months now.

Those in Lakeside will face something similar: Forest Talkers are making a move, rogue and isolated incidents — done with sabotaging attempts at hunting and taking a more direct approach.

They have no qualms about being captured or killed, only determined to get rid of as many of the Interlopers as they can. They whisper, they scream: “You don’t belong here. You should never have come here. It wants you gone, it wants us all gone. The end is here, it’s too late for any of us. Nature must run its course. The yawning grave has been opened.”

The attack is on two fronts: the first of Forest Talkers in Lakeside amplifying their actions. The second in Milton, enemies within the ranks of the Interlopers, Forest Talkers hiding as Interlopers.

Within Milton, newer Interlopers will likely be met with suspicion as being some of the Forest Fighters as a result of these individual acts of violence. As the numbers of Milton have been infiltrated, and it’s easy to have mistrust amongst those newer to the community. In-fighting is likely, and the entire town is stuck in some terrible, tense state — unsure of who to trust within their own numbers. In the days and weeks that follow, it remains like this. Acts of violence and vandalism — chaos and disorder.

BAD BLOOD

WHEN: The night of 27th - 28th September.
WHERE: Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: attempted murder; murder; vandalism; arson; assault; mentions of blood; themes of peril/terror; possible character/npc injuries; possible character death/npc death; actual NPC death.

Towards the end of the month, the moon is full. They call it the Harvest Moon, but colour seeps into it — oranges and reds: a blood moon, partially eclipsed. The night is calm and cloudless, but there’s an uneasy feeling in the night.

The earth groans, the rumble of another quake that’s plagued the Northern Territories since the beginning of August. It is the only warning Interlopers will get — if they may realise it as a warning. To some, when they look back, it’s a omen, a starting pistol.

They do not come through the Mines. Thanks to the efforts of Interlopers to guard the entrances of the Milton Mines, they know better. They come to town from the south, not the north.
The quakes of August and September have opened a new way from Lakeside to Milton. They are led by their Leader: a man dressed in white, a large deer skull upon his head. And while their numbers are small in comparison, they come armed and with the determination to get rid of the Interlopers once and for all. As they come into town, they launch their attack.

More fires will be set, Interlopers will be attacked with abandon. Shot at, stabbed, beaten. It is a mass execution. They will not stop until the Interlopers, or them, are dead.

Well, the majority of them. There are just under a dozen teenagers and younger people amongst their ranks who have shown hesitance toward violence in the past. Perhaps they can be reasoned with. Perhaps there may be a way to convince them to abandon their cause. There is fear in their eyes. Some of them do not want to die. They fear the yawning grave.

What will do you then, Interloper? Are you willing to fight for your life? Are you willing to take another’s to save your own, or a friends? Will you hide, or run? What choice will you make? The Forest Talkers have long since made their own choice. Now you must make yours.

It is another night of chaos on a town already scarred by the events of June. Interlopers will note two familiar faces in the fray: at some point during the night both Methuselah and Young Bill will arrive. While Methuselah will concentrate on aiding the wounded and trying to shelter Interlopers the best he can, Young Bill will help protect Interlopers from the Forest Talkers with his rifle in hand. But fortunately, it is just for one single night. Ammunition runs out, sides are switched, and people are killed. As dawn approaches, Forest Talker numbers dwindle. Either killed, incapacitated or defected. In the early morning light, bodies lie in the snow both Interloper and Forest Talker alike.

Those trying to hunt down the leader will see him slipping inside an empty cabin, heavily wounded. Following after him, they will find him settling himself down to kneel on the floor. The white of his tactical gear stained red with blood as it blooms from his wounds. Slowly, he removes the deer skull from his head to reveal a clean-shaven man in his late twenties with a shock of white-blond hair. His eyes are blue, calm.

He sets the skull down, panting and sweating. He is dying. He is not afraid.

“My name is Mallory, not that it matters now. We are dead, you and I.” he says softly. “We exist in a dying world.”

He is in much pain from his wounds. He moves again to sit cross-legged on the floor. A hand touches the bloodied fabric of his front and he laughs humourlessly.

“You don’t understand, do you? The end must come. That is the order of things. The end must come so the world can be reborn. That is how it’s always worked. When the world is swallowed, it will grow again from the earth.”

It is a story. The story of the Darkwalker. Some believe it to be the end of the world, but Young Bill had once said there is another telling of the tale. A creation myth. The Darkwalker swallows the world and returns to its slumber within the earth. Within it, everything its swallowed grows again and the world returns.

“We fought against man’s actions to ruin this place, not knowing our true purpose. The Devourer has shown me the truth, and I sought to put that into action.” His head tilts to one side. “The yawning grave is opened. Does new life not grow from the decay? It is a cycle. The grave and the cradle.”

He finds it difficult to breathe, but he presses on.

“You fight to live. You come here and you do not see what you are. You are only delaying the inevitable, perverting the true course. Prolonging the suffering. You are the Interlopers, you are not part of nature’s design. The Darkwalker does not want you here. And where it fails, we have tried to succeed.”

There’s another laugh, something catching in his throat. He coughs, blood bubbling from his lips.

“And failed. For now. The First Cursed cannot hold it forever. She, too, delays the inevitable." Even as he is dying, he still have the energy to sneer. He speaks of Enola. "A woman who plays at being a god. What right does she have? All must go into the Long Dark. ... As will I. Return me to the grave.”

Mallory’s head dips, his body sagging. He inhales once more and then stops.

FAQs

PAINFUL REMINDERS


1. Players must sign up for items. See the toplevel on the plotting post.

2. Items will face the same warps/nerfs as everything else that is brought into the game.

3. Items can be no bigger than something your character can reasonably carry.

4. While items do not have to belong to your character, there has to be a good reason why they’d receive such an item — ie. something related to your character.


THE ENEMY WITHIN

1. The Forest Talkers within Milton are a number of NPCs that have been pre-selected from NPCs who arrived in April and August. Not all of them will show their true intentions as the month goes on but will continue to stay hidden.

2. Two NPCs killed in the June Event were also Forest Talkers. … Good… job?

3. The following NPC Interlopers will out themselves as Forest Talkers at this stage: Devon Busswood; Rita Yee; Realm Lovejoy.


BAD BLOOD

1. Following the events of this prompt, Interlopers now have an additional way into Lakeside. It’s still rather dangerous: it’s through a partially collapsed cave system that ends into abandoned bunker on the Lakeside side. The game map will be marked accordingly in due course.

2. Some Interlopers may recognise a familiar face in the Forest Talker ranks: the man who was kidnapped by Interlopers previously in July has returned. Looks like he made good on his promise. He's come back to cause problems.

3. The following NPC Interlopers will out themselves as Forest Talkers during the attack: Jackie Blackmore; Ross Huguet; Jennifer Kitchen; Daniel Kresco.

4. As a reminder of numbers: around fifty Forest Talkers will show up for the attack.

5. There is an OOC vote on the fate of the remaining Forest Talkers, the link is here.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

[flambeaux]

For a moment they stare at each other like they suddenly turned into little green men in spaceships. Claudia is a sore spot for him on a good day. This is not a good day. This is rather like that day with the fake fire, except without the screams for help. If Claudia is in distress somewhere, Louis can't even tell. What a contrast to the old days when they would hold entire conversations telepathically.

He lowers his eyes and clutches at his jacket pocket where Claudia's journal nestles over his heart.

"No," he whispers softly like he is afraid of blowing out an imaginary candle if he speaks at a proper volume. "You think I haven't looked everywhere I could, and even in places I couldn't?"

His subsequent words have a different cadence to them, and something mixes in and tints his accent, a slight sharpness to the consonants with a throaty breathiness. He is reciting something someone else said: "No trace of her in the woods. Or the mines, or the other side of the mountain, or along the shores of the lake."

[bigbaddy]

".. Fuck, man."

Regardless of Bigby's specific opinions of Louis, those words sound very genuine. Like his best friend just told him their kid was missing, or something along those lines. Maybe it's just that they don't often get news like that here. Friends going missing-- sure, that happens all the time here, unfortunately.

But someone's son or daughter - that's another matter entirely. Especially when Bigby can understand it so well at this point. It goes beyond this being Louis.

Maybe it's why he doesn't say anything else right away. Words would likely just ruin it - and he doesn't know how to express what he's feeling in any other way.

Just fuck, man. Because it's fucked, the way this place separates families, giving Louis no idea of what might've happened to his kid.

[flambeaux]

Louis bows his head into his forearms. If they could swallow him into the earth, that would be fine.

"If you look for her, do it for her and not for me."

It's no secret he and Bigby don't like each other, but Claudia shouldn't have to suffer for it.

"All I ever wanted to do was protect her. I... In doin' that, I did wrong by her. How did it go so wrong? I was only dead weight, but she came back for me anyway. She was supposed to fly free."

What is time to a vampire? A few disjointed moments cut from previous years and pasted into a grotesque pastiche. No wonder it's so hard to maintain a connection to humanity, and anything a vampire says might not make a lick of sense.

[bigbaddy]

Bigby definitely tells himself he will look for her. It helps that he can go pretty far now with both of his Aurora Feats combined, so if she is still anywhere in this place as they know it, he's sure he will find her.

But he also knows the chance that he doesn't is big. Usually when someone disappears from town-- It just doesn't end well. Hence the fuck.

He sucks in a breath as he listens to Louis' words. It's not easy for him to talk about these topics, especially not with the other of all people, but Bigby refuses to abandon someone who's clearly grieving. Even when said someone can be a right asshole at times.

"If she came back for you, it's because she cared about you." Even if Bigby may not have any context whatsoever here - he knows that much. After all, he never came back for his own shitty dad. He abandoned that man as soon as he was able to, cutting him right out of his life.

[flambeaux]

"I'm older than I look, you know? And... she is too. The years are takin' their toll on us. We're trapped in our bodies. We don't age. Give it a century, we'll probably forget what it's like to interact with other people in any normal fashion."

He feels he can tell Bigby this at least, one non-human to another. He doesn't have to particularly like him to feel a weird sort of kinship. He feels closer to him than, say, those illustrated batlike horrors in storybooks.

"I catch myself wonderin' if it's just because she always had me, got used to havin' me around. She changed so much... I stayed the same."

[bigbaddy]

It's saying something about how bad Bigby feels for Louis right now that he's biting down all sorts of sarcastic remarks here. Like - for example - he obviously knows Louis has got to be older than he looks, given what he is and all.

It's not the point right now. Bigby isn't here to argue with the other.

.. even though he isn't fully sure what Louis is here to do. Maybe Louis himself doesn't know either, judging by everything the man is saying.

"Are there no others of your kind to stay around? Back home?" He instead asks - a little more helpfully.

Because all he has to mirror this situation is his own. He'd probably also go crazy if he had to interact with Mundies, or with the same Fables all the time. Anyone would. That's exactly why they all live together as a community in the first place. (Aside from other, more practical reasons, anyway.)

[flambeaux]

"Just us." He leaves who "us" is up to interpretation. He did mention his daughter. Once upon a time, he and his daughter were the age they appeared. This is no longer true, and the people they knew in life started whispering about their unchanging neighbors

"Well... There are others, but I don't know where they are. Truth be told, I'd be afraid to meet one. Curious, but afraid. You saw how I reacted when I realized you weren't human."

He thought Bigby was going to kill him.

[bigbaddy]

.. that is true.

Even if Bigby hadn't really thought that much about it, his mind having been more preoccupied with other things about that time they talked, he does realize it as he thinks back on it. Louis had looked scared, much like people always used to when he came around.

Much like they sometimes still do sometimes, back home. Not so much in this place.

"Are people of your kind violent towards each other?"

It wouldn't really surprise Bigby. Even if some Fables are somewhat decent, Bigby gets into fights with far too many of them to not think that most groups tend to be at least somewhat violent towards each other, no matter how isolated their community is.

"Is that why you're scared of the others? You wanted to protect your kid?"

[flambeaux]

Louis doesn't like to bring up moments of weakness, and it would be easy to just dismiss all this talk, but Bigby is one of the few people here he can talk about this with.

"And myself. She wasn't here when I met you. I suppose I still have some self-preservation left in me. 'Your kind, my kind'... Even humans are dangerous to us. Especially humans, in some ways. There are far more of them."

He laces his fingers together thoughtfully. He doesn't dare name his other weaknesses.

[bigbaddy]

"So you're also hiding in plain sight," Bigby points out.

Which might have been obvious to Louis, but-- well, it's not like Bigby knows a whole lot about vampire communities, or the lack thereof. Even among Fables there aren't really that many vampires. At least, not ones he regularly deals with. If there are some, they likely stayed behind somewhere in the Homelands.

So he didn't even stop to think how much of Louis' deal was the same as Bigby's own. Living among humans. Pretending like you're one of them, because Louis is right that they can be dangerous. In large numbers, anyway.

"Do you think anyone here is a threat to you?"

Do you think anyone here did something to her?, Bigby thinks, but he can't voice that one out loud. It feels too fresh of a wound to press on like that, even if it's to find out more information to try and find Louis' daughter. Bigby still isn't good at being a gentle cop, but he's at least trying to be better.

[flambeaux]

Louis always thought Bigby was doing what was normal, hiding among humans. A wolf among the sheep, maybe. For more reasons than just being a vampire, Louis has always had to hide. Even Lestat has to hide, for all his extra privileges.

Louis's eyes flick up towards Bigby, a piercing gaze far more direct than he has been. His fingers are tense. He isn't sure if Bigby is angling for him or against him.

"I think... given knowledge, means, and a good excuse, yes. It would not be the first time someone's found me out. There's more than one way to be marked as an outsider."

[bigbaddy]

The man is quiet for a moment, taking in those words.

And - more importantly - thinking about something. Something that he isn't sure he wants to say. He's weighing the benefits and downsides of it in his mind, along with the possibility that Louis - stubborn guy that he is - will just dismiss it anyway, which would make this incredibly humiliating.

But he's been taught sometimes you have to get over yourself. Which he isn't good at, hence the reluctance here. But he tries, he tries, speaking up with: "You misunderstood me back then."

That's not the hard part to say, obviously. No, that's the next part, the part that makes Bigby look increasingly more awkward as he's standing there, suddenly not looking so big or bad at all. ".. which was also partially my fault." Pause. "Maybe mostly."

Ugh!!!

Look, Louis, he doesn't like saying any of this, but he's trying to get over himself. (You push someone into a corner in the dark while interrogating them once--) Because he did mean what he has always said - he wants people to feel safe here. Louis included. Especially when Bigby does feel a tad of kinship, given that neither of them are normal humans, that they are people who have lived pretending to be human just to get by.

"But I didn't lie. I want you to be okay here. I want to be your kid to be alright too. So if she's still somewhere out there, I'm going to find her, no matter how long it takes."

[flambeaux]

He slowly rises. As he approaches Bigby, his hardened face softens. A desperate look reveals itself in his eyes. He is no longer the vampire Du Lac, he is just Louis—husband, father. He nearly encircles Bigby's hand with both his own, but he restrains himself.

"I don't know if it'll mean as much to her as it does to me, but if you find her... tell her that this diary is here. It's hers, and she can have it back if she wants it. And... and tell her that if she doesn't want to be with me, I can let her go."

He can't. It's a lie. But he will do anything to know she's safe.

cw: (very slight) mention of self harm

[bigbaddy]

".. I'll tell her."

At least the first thing. Bigby isn't so sure about the second thing yet, but maybe if he does find Claudia alive - god, if only, he really is hoping for it but the chances feel so slim at this point - maybe he'll get a little bit more of a feeling for what their father-daughter bond is actually like. Just enough to figure out whether to add the second part or not.

He's already turning, as if he's ready to leave and get searching, but he turns his head back around to Louis first.

"I'm coming back with news." Whether she's alive or dead-- Or just gone entirely. "So don't do anything stupid in the meantime."

Not stupid by the way he usually means it, Bigby thinks. The thing he's much more worried about right now, with the way Louis is looking, is that he'll do something terrible to himself.