introductory mingle: FEAST OF THE DYING

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Feast of the Dying
when: Feast of the Dying from October 1st-8th; various other prompts over the whole month of October.
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

feast of the dying

In the days leading up to October 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: the Feast of the Dying. There is an old, widely-known, and widely-believed superstition or proverb in Riverview Quarantine: 'The greater your fear of death, the easier it is for death to find you.' This is a cornerstone belief of a lot of the residents of the Quarantine, most of whom have survived intensely difficult and violent pasts on their own worlds and who are still willing and eager to throw themselves into exploring and settling new worlds, starting their lives fresh. To honor this spirit, the Feast of the Dying is a celebration of the transition between life and death, an opportunity to face death both figuratively and literally, and come out on top.

celebrating the transition from life to death

During the month of October, a particular natural phenomenon on the moon weakens the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead, allowing for the crossover of those dead into the world of the living, with ghosts from the pasts of both the residents and the Quarantine itself to take corporeal form. The festivities during this time feature tests of courage in highly haunted places, escape rooms both virtual and physical with varying levels of danger, and the week-long Feast of the Dying itself, between October 1st and 8th this year.

i. ghosts from the past

During the 10th month of every year on the moon, due to a complex series of chemical, electromagnetic, and magical forces that no one has ever exactly distinguished or completely understands, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are weakened almost to the point of nonexistence. During this time, residents of the moon are able to see and interact with the dead - ghosts, manifesting in ways that run the gamut from being a strange sense of being watched or being visible or audible all the way to more corporeal spirits that can affect the world around them. The barriers are weaker in some parts of the city than they are in others, with some areas experiencing little to no ghost activity, while others are so populated with these ghosts that residents can barely go a few feet without running into one. The ghosts are generally the unsettled dead, people who died violently, or who were lost, seeking a place to call home, and their behavior is as varied as it was while they were alive. Some ghosts are angry and vengeful, some are simply lonely and lost.

While some people tend to interact with the ghosts only a little and as necessary, others avoid them as completely as possible, and yet others actively seek out souls who are suffering and try to ease that so they can stop coming back year after year. There are other people who have found that ghosts from their home worlds have come through with them, following them through the portal when they arrived, even if they did not die on the moon...

Whether facing death or making peace with those who have died, this is a time to reflect.

A Few OOC Guidelines:
● Characters may see or interact with ghosts from the Quarantine's past. These people will be as varied as the NPCs, from a multitude of different worlds, and characters are welcome to either engage or avoid, as players wish.
● Most Quarantine-based ghosts will have died in either the Great War with the neighboring reality or in the Pandemic that wiped out the population of the Abandoned City years ago.
● Characters may also see or interact with ghosts from their own or other characters' canons, providing the character in question is dead in canon and is not currently being played in the game.
● Canon-based ghosts should not be simply transplanted into the game as they were in canon - they are ghosts, and therefore 'not quite right,' and should not be used as an excuse to NPC a canonmate for a month. These ghosts are there to be used as plot devices to open up new avenues of CR, to create angst, to help a character make peace with their past, or other similar reasons.
● Ghosts should not be complete corporeal physical presences indistinguishable from living people, but barring this, how strongly the ghosts manifest and how much they can interact with the world around them is up to player discretion. Ghosts shouldn't be present the whole month straight, but can disappear and reappear at random times.

● Mod questions and plotting regarding this prompt can be found here.

ii. the feast of the dying

The month's holiday is named after a long-standing tradition in the Quarantine - the Feast of the Dying - that starts at sundown on the first day of the month and continues until sunrise on the ninth day. The Feast of the Dying is a costumed masquerade-style party that is continuously available for the entire week. Set up by volunteers specializing in both magic and science, the Feast of the Dying is hosted in a large conference center that has been decorated and magically altered to provide a very formal, intensely creepy atmosphere. The decor can run the gamut from fancy and classy decorations featuring iconic skeletons or ghosts to incredibly realistic catacombs or any other frightening settings that you can think of. Rooms often become more and more foggy the more people enter them to mingle, and in many rooms the air pressure will be slightly played with to make the atmosphere seem more oppressive and spooky. Costumes and masks are required, and anything from a Halloween-style costume to a formal outfit with mask is acceptable.

Players can feel free to go wild with ideas for decor at the Feast, including linking to inspiration images in their posts - it is, essentially, like having a Masquerade ball inside a disturbingly realistic haunted house.

The venue the Feast is held in includes several large rooms intended for dancing with different themes and decorations that can change off and on throughout the week, two large dining rooms where feasts will be held at mealtimes and snacks or drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) will be promptly served to anyone who sits at one of the tables, and a plethora of rooms meant for mingling and relaxing. Additionally, there are a large number of smaller lockable rooms set up for sleeping or private encounters.

iii. escape rooms

One of the fun and more commercialized aspects of the season are the many Escape Rooms that pop up throughout the Quarantine. Residents are encouraged to test their survival skills by grouping up with friends or strangers to escape difficult and scary situations together by solving a series of puzzles.

Escape Rooms can be either physical, set up inside buildings with realistic decorations, or they can be Virtual Reality, where the players don VR masks and cooperate in a virtual world. While the former can be more challenging and realistic, the latter provides for higher stakes. Physical Escape Rooms are generally set up to avoid any kind of physical harm to participants, but the Virtual Reality Escape Rooms can simulate pain and injury quite handily, and therefore can put participants in more dangerous situations.

While players can make up an Escape Room that uses whatever theme they like, some prompts are below:

● Zombie Attack
● Torture Machines or Traps
● Cannibal Warlock
● Wrongly Convicted: Escape from Prison
● Escape from Sewer Monsters
● Mad Scientist Experiments

iv. tests of courage

As mentioned before, there are certain parts of the city where the ghost activity is much stronger than elsewhere. These are places where terrible things have happened - hospitals that treated the ill during the Pandemic, insane asylums or prisons where inmates were mistreated, homes where terrible murders happened, places exposed to dark magic, and other similar places. Every year during October, these places are shut down or vacated (unless they were already sitting empty) and entrance is allowed to people wishing to partake in a traditional Test of Courage - to enter these deeply haunted and dangerous places, and stay there as long as possible, sometimes even overnight.

In these particularly vulnerable and terrifying places, ghost activity is intense and almost constant. Characters will encounter strange sounds, smells, and visions; will encounter ghosts that are capable of throwing items or people; and most of all, they will experience powerful and realistic hallucinations due to the sheer lack of boundary between the worlds of the living and dead in these areas. Whether the hallucinations are manifestations of their own worst fears, the ghosts retelling their own tortured stories, or any other kind of terrifying vision, they feel very real. While characters will not be injured by the hallucinations, the sensations of pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, or other sensations will be almost impossible to tell from the real thing until the hallucination subsides at daylight.

While the haunted locations are highly unlikely to kill characters, whether or not they experience serious injury due to physical actions they do while under the influence of a hallucination (eg. falling down a flight of stairs) or attacks from ghosts (eg. an angry ghost throws books at a character) is up to player discretion.

v. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to meet new roommates, for the purpose of getting to know each other, or hit up the mod-posted prompt to create a Communal Housing floor mingle. Or, if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during the Feast of the Dying, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view; images may contain disturbing themes


Credit: image i: Olivier Le Gall; image ii: John Watkiss; image iii: unknown (wallpapersfan); image iv: signed (pinterest); images v and vi: unknown (pinterest)

navigation

Comments

Stephen Strange | Marvel 616 | OTA

[suckstobestrange]

i. And god will never rest my soul

[It wasn't always obvious.

Sometimes it would just be Stephen alone, the only hint at something off the tension in the set of his shoulders as he walked. Nothing was wrong, everything was fine. His breaths didn't come in small puffs of cold, the people he passed didn't shiver as they crossed in his wake.

The sound of splashing water where there was none to be found, or the scent of burning rubber, the squeal of brakes nowhere near a street that made the sorcerer flinch to hear.

Other moments though it was plain. Especially when there were reflections to catch the sorcerer's eye, or a turn to let him catch a glimpse in his perephrial vison no matter how he was trying to ignore them, the teenage girl in a striped swimsuit and shorts, bare feet leaving wet footprints for all she was not even solid, and the one barely into manhood both if one was observant holding resemblance to each other as well as the sorcerer they stubbornly trailed after, hand in hand. All he could do was ignore them. Ignore the dark-eyed stares, ignore the soft bone-dry rustle of whispers that at times the spirits almost seemed to be chasing him with.

how could you-

help me-

your doing-

why-

This was one festival Stephen could very much do without.]


v. Down in this Iowa dirt so cold

[Anyone who wants something else with Stephen feel free to drop a starter! Hit me up if you'd like me to write one out or if you'd like to plot something out!]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki catches Stephen's shoulders as the man nearly collides into him with a frown. The stench of magic was everywhere and he knew his mother would be close on his heels, but for now, Loki was himself, unchained by regret and pain. ]

Stephen.

[suckstobestrange]

[The physical touch startled Stephen, as much as he'd been focusing to try and shut out the knowledge of the presence of the spirits at his back, the twin burn of their stares, it seemed he wasn't paying nearly as much attention to anything else as well. Gaze skipping up to see who he'd almost run over with a shaky huff.]

Loki. Sorry about that, I... [A grimace and an aimless gesture with a trembling hand as he focused on Loki instead of the ghosts, steadfastly not looking back at them.] clearly should pay more attention to where I'm going.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki frowns, not sure if he likes the idea of an apology for a gesture so banal. ]

Is the Sanctum not safe from such visions?

[suckstobestrange]

Apparently not these ones.

[Other ghosts were left at the door without issue, but these? They were stubborn. They followed him in without hesitation.]

I can only assume it's because they're known to me.

[You said you'd help-

Stephen-

It's so cold-]

[dothelokimotion]

It would not be an incorrect assumption

[ He is not well equipped to deal with people's feelings, much less their guilt. Still. Loki squeezes Stephen's shoulders briefly before letting go. ]

Perhaps company would help.

[suckstobestrange]

...It couldn't hurt to give it a shot.

[He couldn't help but feel a bit of gratitude at the offer, nodding slowly.]

So, where were you off to before I tried to run you over?

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki shrugs. His motto this month is going to be "fake it until you make it and then cry into his pillow". ]

My apartment. I had finished up in Gramarye earlier.

[suckstobestrange]

Come on. We can raid the liquor cabinet and see if we can't think of a way to keep even these stubborn brats out.

[Stephen is entirely on the 'pretend it's all okay until you can't deal anymore' train, tickets for two please!]

[dothelokimotion]

[ He inclines his head slightly to let Stephen walk ahead so that Loki can walk behind. It's a quiet kindness because Loki is fond of Stephen. ]

How large of a cabinet is this?

[suckstobestrange]

[It's definitely appreciated when Stephen notices how Loki's presence seems to quiet the ghosts, at least for the moment.

Not entirely, there's still the muffled rush of water, the muted smell of burning rubber, but neither was yet speaking again, peering at Loki as if trying to decide how to handle the interjection.]

Not as big as I'm used to, but getting respectable again.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki's nose scrunches up. ]

I never pictured you as a drinker.

[suckstobestrange]

Not always- inebriation and spellwork don't tend to mix well. But sometimes a situation just calls for drinks.

[This is definitely one of those situations, without a doubt.]

[wingedman]

[Sam hasn't asked Stephen about the ghosts. He's seen them once or twice, caught the edge of wet footprints in a hall, the whiff of burning rubber as he leans over the sorcerer. He's noticed the family resemblance, and he hasn't asked. Stephen doesn't talk about his childhood, doesn't talk about his family, and Sam imagines he's got a damn good reason for it.

Today is a good day, one where he's been able to ease a little of the tension out of Stephen's shoulders, where the ghosts have been blessedly absent. Sam's trying his best to get Stephen to actually get some sleep while the ghosts are gone, which, not coincidentally, involves wearing him out (like that takes much, with the state he's in). They're in bed together, limbs tangled lazily, the blanket pulled up over them-

And then a ghost he hasn't seen before appears. One with the same lean, long-limbed frame as Stephen, his hair grey. Sam can guess who this probably is, and he just sighs.]

Ignore him, Stephen. Nothing else you can do about it.

[suckstobestrange]

[Stephen appreciated it. That Sam didn't pry, that even without knowing the whole story he was willing to try and help get his mind off of things. Not that it always worked, his nightmares seemed to feature his siblings more often than usual, which of course meant that he avoided sleep altogether when he could get away with it.

They'd been gone for long enough though today that he was willing to let Sam try and push him towards sleep. Starting to relax finally, loose limbs and warmth starting to draw him into that pre-sleep doze. At least until there was the shift of movement and the unsettlingly familiar weight of a gaze he'd thought he'd left behind a long damn time ago.

'Honestly Stephen?' The voice was just as quiet as the voices the other ghosts had, for all it was dripping with disapproval in a way that just had the tension drawing his shoulders tight again, jaw working noiselessly as any bit of relaxation or ease was banished as quickly as a candle's flame was snuffed.]

...Right.

[wingedman]

[Sam just lifts an arm out from under the blankets and gives Stephen's ghostly father the middle finger, not even bothering to look at him. Of course, it's easy for someone without any sort of emotional baggage to dismiss.]

You keep any holy water around here? Or is that kinda thing just some bs the church made up?

[He'll sit here and exorcise ghosts all night if he has to.]

I already looked in the book you gave me, and I didn't see anything about banishing ghosts. [Probably because it's not the sort of magic anyone needs that often.]

[suckstobestrange]

Holy water works on evil or demonic presences. Ghosts tend not to fall under that.

['Do you even hear yourself? I thought you dropped all the magic nonsense years ago.'

It was an interesting thing; usually if someone were to challenge him or voice that sort of skepticism Stephen was more than willing to push back. Hell half of his friendship with Tony was predicated on them fighting about magic. But faced with his father's criticism he instead seemed to be almost retreating, shutting down like he always had when he was younger for all he never really noticed it consciously.

'Always a disappointment when I was alive, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised it's any different after death.']

I don't know if it's that they're tied to me or just the nature of spirits here but so far I haven't found anything that effectively sends them on.

[wingedman]

Yeah, I guess ignorance technically doesn't qualify as evil. Most of the time, anyway. Can't do anything about assholes while they're alive, can't do it when they're dead, either. This is a real shitty festival.

[Sam could argue with Stephen's father, but honestly? He knows that refusing to acknowledge his claims does more than arguing could. Arguing lends credibility, shows that it affects him. If he just dismisses the whole thing, then there's just some ghost asshole making noise.

At least, that's his reasoning. Whether or not it actually works on ghosts is another thing entirely.]

I hope it's not the kind of thing that's supposed to teach you a lesson. That's always a pain in the ass.

[suckstobestrange]

Might be better if my family history wasn't as shitty as it is.

[It might not work on his father's spirit, but Stephen feels at least a bit better for Sam's refusal to acknowledge the ghost or his words. It made it easier at least a bit, to try and ignore it himself for all he was finding it difficult.]

You'd think I would get a pass on the life lessons at this point.

[wingedman]

Can't argue with that.

[None of Sam's deceased relatives have shown up, after all; he hopes that means they're all perfectly happy wherever they are. It's Stephen's that are proving to be the problem, and there's absolutely nothing he can do except drape an arm over his chest and draw him closer.]

For the record, my parents always love meeting my friends. Though if you ever come over, you'll have to take one of your potions first so you can eat my mom's cooking.

[Not that he's ever introduced a friend of that particular sort before, but Sam gets his friendliness and his chill from his parents.]

Yeah, well, you're never too old to get bitchslapped by life, I guess.

[suckstobestrange]

I'm guessing you inherited the cooking skills from her then?

[Stephen managed a small amused huff as he shifted in against Sam willingly, for once seeking out the comfort of an embrace for all he wouldn't actually admit it if he was called on it. And if the shift had the added bonus of making it a bit harder to see his father's ghost, well that was just an added perk.]

You'd think it's arm would get tired with all the backhanding I seem to be getting lately.

[wingedman]

Combination of inheriting and just being stuck helping in the kitchen from the time I could reach the stove. She always had something going for a potluck or to give to someone who was sick or a family that needed it, and I ended up helping. To keep me out of trouble, she said. And neighborhood like ours, there was plenty of trouble to get into.

[Sam drags a hand over his back, gently rubbing his shoulderblades. Stephen rarely seeks out physical contact - that's usually what Sam does - and he's not going to call him out on it when he does. Not right now, anyway.]

I think that feeling seems to be pretty common with everyone in your world. Maybe it has a vibranium arm.

[suckstobestrange]

Sounds like a sweet woman. Came by your helper nature honestly there.

[It was a good thing Sam was good at reading a room, because Stephen absolutely wouldn't take being poked about his coping attempts at this point. Just shifting to try and let himself relax again under the smooth of the other's touch over his back with a low hum.]

A vibranium arm for every individual person so everyone gets their fair share.

[wingedman]

Yeah, well, when your dad's a preacher, you don't have much of a choice.

[Not that Sam's complaining about the way he is. Judging by the example he's got in front of him, things could've been a lot worse.

(Just wait for the rest of the month, Sam.)]

But at least you aren't from the world where Hulk eats people, so you got that going for you.

[suckstobestrange]

Nah, face it you're one of those good guys.

[Sam absolutely had the better end of the family deal, no doubt about that, especially with the lurking ghost in all his disgruntled glory.]

Wow, yes my world definitely has that going for it. Yikes.