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pareidoliaooc2025-04-30 09:45 pm
May 2025 | Event IV
The month ahead...
By the time the moon cycles, what warmth remains in Zoar is vanishing, little by little. As the sun takes longer to rise each morning, its brumal rays illuminate windows frosted over and roofs glazed in ice. Even indoors, every breath hangs suspended, and the Gathering Hall's hearth burns low and struggling. The forest has gone still. The animals have retreated too far to be reached; the birds have stopped singing. Only the crows are left, clustered still and silent in the trees.
Post any happenings on the appropriate header below. Letting everyone know what your character is doing gets you bonus points!
There will be no IC event post. Please post prompt logs in pareidolialogs with your top levels. Use the following form to post your plotting comment below. Fill out as much or as little of it as you like.
The first sunset brings a biting chill and a fog that seems to grow from the ground itself, swallowing paths and fences buildings and obscuring the world. And out of that fog steps... you.
Or someone wearing your skin.
Their resemblance curdles a horrible uncanny dread in your stomach. They move like you might remember moving in a dream. Their eyes are too dark and too glassy and catch more light than they should even in the dark and starless night. Their skin is too thick and sticks to them like a mask.
They say they know what you really are. What you could be, if you stopped holding yourself back. They tell you to allow yourself to truly be, you must kill someone, and they give you a name as lovingly as a gift.
You must do it, they say. You must grow stronger to survive the coming winter. You must become more than you are now.
If you refuse, they do not leave, and they do not give up. They follow you at night. They wait outside your door, talking without tiring, and the longer you refuse, the more you deny them what they want, the harder they try to persuade you. Within a week, they begin threatening to do it themselves — but if they do, they assure you, it will be no quick death. They'll make it hurt.
Nor is it an idle threat. Stall long enough, and maybe your intended victim shows up hurt — or dead — without you lifting a finger at all.
If a character kills their target(s), they gain a major skill or memory they should not yet have at their canon point, or a skill that they do not have in canon but that could be a reasonable progression of their abilities according to their world-building. For example: pre-canon Katara might gain the skill and understanding of her later healing abilities.
If a character dies because of this prompt, they gain a major, unpleasant memory that they should not have, but is related to them.
{Optional, but highly encouraged} Log any rewards gained due to this prompt on your AC toplevel:
☠ Kill someone and gain access to a skill or memory you shouldn't have.
Outside the herbalary, the garden crops wilt in the cold, leaves curled and drooping as they wilt in the fading sunlight, their stalks going brittle as the food beneath the soil withers and rots.
By the second week, something new begins to grow.
At first, it's barely a shifting of the dirt: a single pale knuckle that breaks through the surface. Then comes another finger. Another nail. Suddenly, almost overnight, the dirt is crowded with a dozen sprouting hands, their fingernails broken and caked in dirt. Some are limp. Some reach for the sky like a plant yearning for sunlight. The hands are frost-bitten in the morning and slick with moisture in the high afternoon hours, and they twitch as the sun sets. The garden smells of sweat and blood, and the roots that anchor the hands to the ground are dark and pulsing veins.
In the farthest corner, one hand hangs low to the ground, clenched around a brown and faded sheet of folded parchment. Prying the page carefully out from its cold fingers reveals a page from a manifest log, damp and smeared and faded, but still legible:
as the fog and clouds were dispelled by the rising sun, we made land peeping above a narrow ledge of clouds. What land it is we know not, yet it appears verdant even at a distance; the cliffs of it are quite lofty, with no sign of a harbor. Some insist it will be the haven we all pray for, and I sorely wish I could agree, but I have my
In the stillness of the coming winter, the forest feels louder than it ever has. Gone are the sounds of nature and life. Instead, each day, Alex's dedication to culling the edges of the forest brings the thudding sound of blows striking wood and the slow, groaning falls of toppled trees.
It's in the course of that work that something new is uncovered: high above the ground, supported between two massive trees and nearly swallowed by the canopy, is a cabin. The trees have grown around it, inosculated branches cradling it and bark encroaching on the planks of its walls.
The way up takes time to find. Thick, twisted vines create something of a step-ladder up the sloping side of the tree.
The cabin is large, easily twice the size of any other in town, and recently inhabited. A cot is pushed against the far wall, piled with furs and blankets, and beside it, a thinner bedroll. A shelf is piled with strange novelty cups, feathers and buttons, bottle caps with faded writing underneath. Tiny, folded paper birds and foxes and turtles hang from string on the ceiling above an upended crate piled with books and dishes. The walls are scattered with scratched tally marks and pinned drawings.
☠ It's been lived in for some time.
QUESTIONS & FEEDBACK
WHO DO I KILL?
Camilla Hect is told to kill Alec and/or Ademnet
Palamedes Sextus is told to kill Camilla Hect and/or Kaz Brekker
Fidelio Magnus is told to kill Ademnet and/or Alex
Xiao Xingchen is told to kill Alex and/or Mirnatius
Ademnet is told to kill Kyubey and/or Xiao Xingchen
Nova is told to kill Klonoa and/or Camilla Hect
Riot is told to kill Mirnatius and/or Klonoa
Rownan is told to kill Xiao Xingchen and/or Alec
Alex is told to kill Kaz Brekker and/or Palamedes Sextus
Kyubey is told to kill Nova and/or Fidelio Magnus
Ms. Casey is told to kill Palamedes Sextus and/or Kyubey
Kaz Brekker is told to kill Riot and/or Ms. Casey
Mirnatius is told to kill Ms. Casey and/or Rownan
Alec is told to kill Rownan and/or Nova
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What would happen if Pal tried to take one of the hands?
Is there any psychometric sign of any of the spooky locals in the cabin? What about anyone else? Anything surprising or interesting about the age of the cabin or anything in it that he might pick up on?
body horror
hi mods its me ya boy
2. Can the doubles be restrained? Tied to a tree, for example.
3. If a double dies, does it return?
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just wondering
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Re: QUESTIONS & FEEDBACK
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MAY HAPPENINGS
cw: cannibalism
When: early in the month, in the dead of night
What: When it's late, very late, the sounds of battle unmistakably echo out from the forest. the churning of rock, the breaking of trees, the clashing of blades, and finally, the distinct indignation of the crows, near identical to their ire from last month. anyone who happens to be in the area would see two figures, humanoid but utterly monstrous; covered head to toe in chitin so dark as to blend in with the shadows of the night, and whose appendages flow from one abominable form to another, precision tooled for death. At the end of their dance, with one monster laying broken at the feet of the other, the victor unravels and consumes the loser, this action being what prompts the crows to disperse. the worksite is utterly ruined.
Kaz Brekker | Six of Crows
When: at no time in the month (all month??)
What: very notably, this is the first month that Kaz does not call a Crow meeting. If asked about it, he'll delicately dodge the question.
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When: Early in the month, before the first week is through.
What: There's a noise like a bomb, and then a very wide stretch of town gets covered in crows, in the kind of flurry they work themselves into when someone has died. Klonoa is missing for two days after this happens.
Re: MAY HAPPENINGS
When: early in the month, coincidentally exactly when Klonoa exploded
What: Nova has a leg injury, she’s limping a bit now and slightly slowed down until it heals. Wow, wonder how that happened.
Re: MAY HAPPENINGS
When: About a week into the month.
What: Kaz vanishes again, for two days this time. He comes back like nothing happens after and hopes no one will notice. He’s got some bruising around his neck that doesn’t seem to be fading.
Re: MAY HAPPENINGS
When: near the end of the month
What: Kaz slips each Crow a note near the end of the month calling for an end to the cabin-stakeouts, and expressing that they can speak to him if they have further questions about its inhabitant. Ademnet likely receives this direction in person.
Kaz Brekker | Six of Crows
Pronouns: she/they
Contact: memegod420 on discord
Character Name: Kaz Brekker
CR Preferences: anything goes!
Permissions: here
General Plans: Kaz is still having a bad time this month, as always. He'll want to have a conversation with Ms. Casey about meeting her outie and what he gathered from that ASAP, he'll also probably still be trying to recruit Alex to the Crows because he thinks he's really close there.
Event Plans:
Seeing Double - Kaz will not be killing Ms. Casey, but he will not hesitate to try and kill Riot. He'll likely attempt to break into his cabin at night and strangle him in his sleep or something. He'll fuck around and find out. I am more than fine with him being murdered but he won't go down without a fight.
Brown Thumbs - too many goddamn corpses in this goddamn town. Kaz will see what the other Crows think about this development, but he will certainly not be going anywhere near them at all. he actually will immediately assume Palamedes is behind it, considering the skeleton gardeners.
The Lookout - Kaz intends to stake out the treehouse, if anyone would like to join him for this endeavor. If it looks like someone is living there, he wants to find out who.
Anything Else: let me simmer about it
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In any case! As I mentioned on Discord, Pal will not be killing Kaz, and even plans to warn Kaz about his double. He'll also offer to ward Kaz's cabin against intruders. If you're up for it, I'd love to do a thread, since I'm sure Kaz will enjoy the situation. :D
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Alexander J. Mercer | [PROTOTYPE] (cw: cannibalism mention)
Pronouns: he/him
Contact: scream at me on discord
Character Name: alexander j. mercer
CR Preferences: give me your all
Permissions: click on my journal
General Plans: nothing much that wasn't already in the works! the logging project is going strong, and the smokehouse will probably be up and running towards the end of the month
Event Plans: alex is going to be eating the hands. finally, some good fucking food. and, he's absolutely going to have a deathmatch with his double. and be insufferably smug that his logging project revealed something.
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ms. casey | severance
Pronouns: she/they
Contact: plurk @ moonlanding; discord @ yuriofabscence
Character Name: Ms. Casey
CR Preferences: Up for anything!
Permissions: ta da
General Plans: Ms. Casey's outie, Gemma, showed up at the mingle last month! Ms. Casey will be reeling from that experience, since she was starting to assume that she couldn't switch in-game. She'll want to get the lowdown on Gemma from anyone who spoke to her. Ms. Casey also spoke to the dead woman by the river, and is happy to
gushtrade information about what she learned as well.Event Plans:
Seeing double: Listen I know that killing Ms. Casey is like kicking a puppy but I promise to make the drama of it all worth your while. Ms. Casey herself will be trying to call her double's bluff and will not kill anyone until her double starts actively hurting people. At that point, she will try to euthanize whoever her double has managed to hurt. @ Becca and Maya, lmk if this is something you'd be interested in, otherwise I'm happy to work something else out! This will also be Ms. Casey's first time killing and she'll be pretty shocked/upset by it, so I'd love for her to debrief with someone who is uh. A little more experienced in this regard. I might also do a prompt with the evil clone being evil, so lmk if you are interested in evil clone cr as well!
Brown thumbs: What the fuck. This is so sad. Ms. Casey will try and see if they can plant some potatoes in the herbalry greenhouse instead. She wouldn't think to do this on her own, but I personally would love to see what happens if someone tries to harvest the hands, and I'm happy to have her tag along as moral support for that!
Lookout: Ms. Casey will be shaking her head while she stakes out the new cabin to make sure everyone knows she does not approve of deforestation. That said she'll be up for either an investigation or a stakeout of the place! Hey do you think her new best friend the lady they all buried used to live there wouldn't that be nice if we learned some facts about the lady they all buried
Anything Else: motivational poster for these trying times:
Re: ms. casey | severance
2. I'm checking with Nat, but I assume that Pal is going to be pretty difficult to harm or kill because anyone who tries will have to go through Cam first. But regardless, it could be fun to have the double try, and/or for Ms. Casey to come looking for Pal. What do you think?
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Re: ms. casey | severance
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Re: ms. casey | severance
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Pronouns: she/her
Contact: historein on discord or plurk
Character Name: Palamedes Sextus
CR Preferences: Anything and everything!
Permissions: Here
General Plans: Pal is continuing to explore the general area and gather as much information as he can to help them figure out what is going on! This month’s events will definitely distract him from his larger efforts, but he’s still determined to keep poking around.
Event Plans:
Seeing Double - Pal is definitely not killing anybody. No one can tell him what to do, and certainly not his creepy doppelgänger. Once he and Cam figure out what’s going on, they will be even more attached at the hip than usual, and together they will most likely be able to fight off anyone who comes for them. I’m here to play out as much or as little of that as possible! Pal and Cam will also be killing their own doubles, which is going to be all kinds of fun.
Pal will also offer to help other people protect themselves, largely by warding their cabins, which should stop any intruders from entering. lmk if your character would take him up on it!
Brown thumbs- Palamedes Sextus resents this necromancy slander, thank you. But he will be digging up a hand or two in order to figure out what it is. He won’t learn much, but it sure will be gross!
Lookout- Because he’s endlessly nosy, Pal will, of course, be exploring the cabin. Come poke around with him!
Anything Else:
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Ademnet | OC
Pronouns: she/her
Contact: @/tzviaariella on Discord or Plurk
Character Name: Ademnet
CR Preferences: fuck it we ball
Permissions: Here
General Plans: I kind of dropped the ball with Ademnet last month, so I will be doing some backtagging to make up for it. For this month, now that being a little farmer boy is no longer possible and the stream is back to running clear, he's going to throw himself into Alex's logging and civic improvements as his new dawn-to-dusk occupation to keep his mind off All The Bullshit. He's not overworking himself. Please don't put in the papers that he's overworking himself.
Event Plans: If asked to help stake out or try to break into the newfound cabin, Ademnet would be happy to help, especially if the other Crows are also doing it. He's also going to privately suspect that the garden is probably the fault of Pal's skeleton gardeners somehow, which he may (hesitantly) ask Pal about.
The moment Ademnet's double starts threatening to kill the named victims itself, Ademnet is going to make a very determined effort to murder Kyubey to protect Xingchen. He won't feel particularly guilty about it, either. I'm indifferent to whether he succeeds at this or not, but I do think it would be fun for the rest of town (the Crows especially) to see his more brutal, desperate side come out.
As far as being on the receiving end of the murder prompt, he's a pretty soft target compared to most of town. I'd be down for him to get got by Camilla or Fidelio. Alternately, I offer him up as a potential killed-by-doubles victim to prove to the town (and to him, once he gets back) that the doubles aren't lying about their intentions...which would in turn give him more reason to fully, recklessly commit to Kyubeycide.
Anything Else: I can't decide if it would be funnier to give him "literacy" or "knows he's going to end up a lord" as his later-in-canon skill/memory reward if he successfully pulls off a murder. Vote now on your phones.
Re: Ademnet | OC
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Tsar Mirnatius | Spinning Silver
Pronouns: she/her
Contact: @/tzviaariella on Discord and Plurk
Character Name: Mirnatius
CR Preferences: Alexa, play "I Don't Care" by Fall Out Boy
Permissions: Here
General Plans: Now that they're seemingly stuck with what food has already been gathered, Mirnatius will upgrade hunting from a pastime to a more serious focus--without success, but still. Expect to see him out in the woods a lot, getting increasingly frustrated as the month goes on.
Event Plans: Mirnatius had himself a nice little chat while trapped in the communal nightmare last month, so he's got a pretty good idea who the new cabin belongs to. He's not going to tell anybody, though, nor will he pry into it. Not his business.
Mirnatius is by no means stupid enough to try to kill Rownan, especially given that Rownan is going to be right there supervising him when his double arrives. He won't want to kill Ms. Casey, either--though the demon will think it's a fantastic idea, naturally--and will be horrified when his double tries to do it for him.
This will lead him to ask Riot to help him take his double out, which will (a) allow him to discover that his double is demon-free, and (b) allow him to discover that his demon can eat the doubles, and they don't come back once they die. He will then offer to anyone whose double is still alive that he can solve their double problems for them, because keeping the demon happy for a while and earning a bit of credit with the rest of town in the process is a win-win.
Anything Else: My brain is empty, goodbye.
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Riot | OC
Pronouns: they/them
Contact: @/mangobot on Discord
Character Name: Riot
CR Preferences: Everything. I love mess
Permissions: Here
General Plans: Riot is still guarding Mirnatius's cabin at night. He's found a kindred spirit in Nova, unfortunately, so he's also going to be keeping tabs on her and making sure nobody is trying to hurt her, even though he's confident in her ability to protect herself.
Event Plans: Having someone scratch at the bloodlust that is naturally inherent to him and is literally right beneath the surface of his skin at all times is a recipe for danger that even Riot can recognize. Due to this, he'll be keeping an eye on his double— might have no time to go exploring the cabin in case the fucker goes berserk while he's away. At some point, he'll kill his own double himself.
And of course, he'll go through the garden and reposition each hand to be doing one finger salutes and lewd gestures.
Anything Else: Wouldn't it be fucked up if instead of vein roots the hands had feet? Anyway.
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Pronouns: they/them
Contact: crow47 @ plurk
Character Name: Rownan
CR Preferences: up for anything but shipping
Permissions: here
General Plans: Rownan's just remaining on her kill-the-demon kick. If Trouble were here, she probably would not even think this place was particularly bad.
Event Plans:
Anything Else: brain empty <3
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Pronouns: they/them
Contact: crow47 @ plurk
Character Name: Camilla Hect
CR Preferences: up for anything! she's unromancable. sorry riot
Permissions: here
General Plans: If Pal thought Cam was beginning to ease off on being stuck at his side, it is all over for him. The Cam glue is back on. Extra strength.
Event Plans:
Anything Else:
Nova | OC
Pronouns: she/they
Contact: memegod420 on discord
Character Name: Nova
CR Preferences: anything and everything!
Permissions: on the profile
General Plans: Nova still wants to make friends this month, and be helpful in any way she can. Kyubey is going to teach her about healing so she's hoping that will make her appear like an Asset to others, but she'll also be spending a lot of time just practicing magic or trying to get stronger in various ways.
Event Plans:
Seeing double - oh yeah, she loves killing. She's totally going after both of her targets, will likely set both of them on fire. Light that furry up (sorry Klonoa). She's not worried about any of the doubles because she's confident she can take literally anyone in this place in a fight.
Brown thumbs - she will not be eating the hands, but she WILL be taking the hands and stringing some of them up around the glade like decorations.
The lookout - she doesn't have any plans to stake out the house or anything but if someone she likes enough is doing it she may follow them around like a little lost puppy
Anything Else: i am but a plastic bag floating in the wind wanting to start again, so no.
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