methuselah (
singmod) wrote in
singillppl2026-03-05 05:15 pm
Entry tags:
March 2026 Event Plotting
MARCH 2026 EVENT
PROMPT ONE — MISERY: It is the end of days. Interlopers face a dying world as the Darkwalker begins to close in and experience the Five Stages of Misery.
MISERY
WHEN: The month of March
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: supernatural-induced illness; altered physical states, altered mental states; hallucinations; nightmares/sleep terrors; themes of starvation; themes of disordered eating; emetophobia; suicide ideation.
Into March, the Toxic Fog of Rot subsides, for the most part. It can still be found out in the wilds, if Interlopers delve too far deeply away from Milton. It’s enough to lull people into a false sense of security: not an immediate, seeking threat but one that looms over the heads of Interlopers nevertheless. Interlopers would be prudent to keep up with their protection runes from Enola, just in case. The Darkwalker’s stalking around the edges of Milton isn’t as relentless, either, but it remains. It follows the same pattern: where Interlopers must take care not to venture too far so the Darkwalker can hunt them down. And at the very least, the town of Milton seems spared — the soft iridescent shimmerings remain in place throughout March, too.
But there are more machinations of the being, however. And its methods can be just as insidious as they are direct. The assault is relentless, and it shows no signs of stopping. Interlopers have never faced such a long time in the dark. The sun set over three months ago now, and shows no signs of returning. The green gloom that Interlopers have seen, at the longest amount of some twenty-odd days, now reaches over a month and will surely stretch for another.
It begs the question: where is Enola? Surely she would have come by now, surely she would end the gloom and help restore the sunlight. Enola remains silent, unreachable. It’s hard to know if she may even well be alive, given that silence. But there’s another question: just how much of all of this has she been holding back to keep the Interlopers safe this whole time?
She had told Interlopers she would keep the worst of it back. Could this get worse?
She is still missing, and the Darkwalker persists.
By March, Interlopers are completely void of their Feats. The issues that have persisted through the month of February end up in a full-scale blackout of power. Maybe it is the disconnection from Enola, maybe it’s the Darkwalker’s doing. All but those touched by the being will find that their gifts have gone, and they must face this world as they once were when they arrived: vulnerable, powerless, alone.
Interlopers touched by the Darkwalker will continue to feel a bizarre and exhilarating sense of mania. While other Interlopers settle into a morbid apprehension, those with Darkwalker’s Revenge are out of place with their dispositions: gleeful, thriving and energetic.
But the hunger lingers, more potent than ever. They are tempted by those around them, and the ache to feed upon the very life forces of their fellow Interlopers is an awful kind of madness to endure.
The world is bitter and still. There is no snowfall nor wind, at least. But the cold is biting. Interlopers will continue to find their hunting efforts ruined by the fog that seeks to rot food sources out in the wilds, but even then it is difficult to find wildlife in the first place. The animals continue to become scarce. Interlopers must rely on foodstores and rationing to keep themselves going.
But for how long? The world is wrong, and it is the end of days.
This is the ending of all things.
“She cannot help you now.” the Darkwalker sneers in your ear. ”It could have been so easy. You could have gone so quietly, as it was meant to be. But now… you will know true misery.”
Quietly, you consider: maybe it would have been better to die sooner. The previous attempts of the Darkwalker, surviving through this world was a mercy. Now, the Darkwalker’s attempts to rid the world of Interlopers is far more personal.
And as promised, Misery sets in.
Stage 1: Hardship — Diminished Form: A morbid decay has set in. Your hardiness has failed you. Interlopers will feel themselves physically weak: they will have less energy, stamina and strength and will generally be more vulnerable physically as a whole. Some days, even the smallest of tasks will feel like moving mountains. You find it harder and harder to do more each day, and you cannot ask your body to keep up. Even sometimes in a literal sense, it’s hard for it to keep up — you find yourself slouching more, keeping yourself small, trying to take up as little space as possible.
Stage 2: Sorrow — Haunted Mind: You experience an endless inner turmoil. In Misery, there is not even the promised safety of sleep — a brief respite from the horrors and difficulties of waking life. Over time, sleep begins to evade you, and you find yourself awake more often than not. As sleep deprivation kicks in, you begin to lose your mind to the endless night. Interlopers will begin to experience hallucinations from the lack of sleep, and will be tormented by past regrets. When sleep does come, on rare moments, you are haunted by nightmares — violent, horror-filled and bloody: your own demise, the end of the world. Interlopers may also sleepwalk, or find themselves acting out their dreams — putting themselves and others in danger.
Stage 3: Despair — Sour Stomach: Your questionable diet has caught up with you. You cannot eat as much before you feel full, and each mouthful feels like a burden. You feel no joy when eating, take no comfort from a hot meal, or drink. It is mere sustenance, but even then it comes with a price. Interlopers will find themselves prone to bouts of nausea and vomiting, or even contracting food poisoning, no matter how well-cooked the food is. Dehydration can creep in quickly if Interlopers don’t take care, and with it comes instances of dizziness, muscle cramps and shallow breathing — and can prove fatal before the end stage has been reached.
Stage 4: Torment — Rheumatic Joints: A painful inflammation has taken hold. To move is agony, as if your joints are filled with glass. Stiffness and swelling is common in the mornings, or long periods without activity. Your hands shake uncontrollably at times, making it difficult to aim weapons. It is harder to warm up, as if the chill has settled in your very bones — which prolongs the pain. You become clumsy and accident-prone. In some cases, Interlopers can experience chest pains.
Stage 5: Ruin — Broken Body: Your body carries the weight of a dying world. In the final stage of Misery, you feel close to the end. You are prone to melancholy and suicidal thoughts. Death would be kinder. Wounds will take longer to heal, illness will take longer to recover from. You bleed more freely. You begin to experience hallucinations of loved ones, from home or here in the Northern Territories. Although they speak to you kindly, or behave just as you remember them, they speak to you only about the end of the world. They encourage you to find your end, try to convince you to give up — by whatever means. Whether it be out of love, or anger, or grief. Dying would be better, dying would be a kindness.
Once the final stage of Misery is reached, it is only a matter of time. Your body gives out, or you choose your own end. You are dying. You will go into the Long Dark.
Or maybe you hang on, just a little while longer. Maybe your stubbornness, or your selfishness keeps you going. Maybe your selflessness does.
Or maybe you remember the voice of a woman dressed in furs, who asked you once to keep holding on.
FAQs
1. Misery marks the beginning of Endgame, and marked a special event of one single prompt compared to the previous three-prompt format. The three-prompt format will return for April's Event.
2. This Event is heavily inspired by the difficulty mode Misery in The Long Dark. You can find more information about this mode on The Long Dark's Wikia.
3. All Feats barring Darkwalker's Revenge are disabled for the month of March.
4. Prompts from February's TDM can be used throughout March, with the exception of the 'Winter Of Our Youth' prompt, as the Forest Talkers have all died by the end of February. February's Test Drive Meme is here.
5. While Interlopers experience all Five Stages of Misery, players do not have to play each stage out and can choose to focus on particular stages instead.

QUESTIONS
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NPC DEATHS
Interloper Masterlist is Here.
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Let's go with Nicholas Pearson.
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Ari Tayrey | Original
Player Contact: PM or
Pacing: I'll say slow to be safe but I plan to focus on this game for the next couple of months so I honestly don't know.
OOC Limits: Check my permissions but they're unlikely to come up here.
Character Name: Lt. Ari Tayrey
Canon: Original
Aurora Feat: Old Bear's Blessing and right now it is not working and she just feels weak.
Wanted CR: Anything really! Romance isn't really an option for her but hookups are, and I love all kinds of platonic connections. She likes talking to anyone with military, space or corporate connections as they're easier for her to build trust with, but I'm up for threads with anyone. Eager to keep developing existing CR too!
Unwanted CR: Typical romance, murdering her, negativity without good reason (but negative CR is welcome if we plan for it!)
Event Ideas: I have ideas for the first 2 stages that I'll probably write starters for, beyond that I'll be looking to tag out so she can comfort others in their suffering!
STAGE 1: Tayrey will not want to admit defeat here. Since Randvi has gone she is even more focused on her 'trade route' to the coast. This will result in her trying to make the journey, ignoring her physical weakness because she needs to be better than that (read: she's a stubborn workaholic whose self-worth is tied to her productivity and never 'breaking contract'). Result? She collapses a little way outside Milton while trying to pull a sled full of 'trade goods'. Looking for someone to discover her and hopefully tell her to stop it in a way she'll listen to.
STAGE 2: [cw: suicide - could also get into talk of kidnapping and slavery if there's a conversation about pirates] A combination of severe sleep deprivation, microsleeping, sleepwalking nightmare and just general mental horror situation leads to Tayrey perceiving the world around her as her starship, under attack by pirates. In the starter she's going to shoot a harmless NPC, then rush to another character to inform them that the ship has been boarded and everything is a disaster, thinking that they're the captain. Tayrey's suggestion is to destroy the 'ship' so pirates can't have it, even if that means she dies. Practically it means she'll start setting things on fire. Talk her down? Talk to her about questionable organisational policies once she's lucid?
If neither scenario appeals but you'd like a thread, tell me and I'll see if I can tag her into one of yours <3
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Just an idea, although no worries if you're no longer interested in that ofc!
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I think the best way to make it happen might be to set up a thread where they talk about relationships? Tayrey could tell him about the hookup culture that's common where she's from, and as long as his reaction isn't outright disapproving she can ask if he wants one. She's very direct about it! If that would work for you, have you got an open post where I could start it up? (Happy to go with a different idea if this doesn't work for you though!) It would need to be backdated a bit so they have the energy and motivation for it ;)
I'd also love a stage 2 thread with him because I think his reaction to Tayrey insisting he *is* a starship captain could be fun - but we can hold that until we know what their post-hookup status is going to be if needed (avoidance might get a different reaction than courtship attempts, but either is good to work with!)
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And I'd love doing the stage 2 thread as well! Happy to wait and see how things go with the other one first if we feel like it could be necessary, although ftr I'm definitely not expecting his reaction to be avoidant mainly because it feels too late in the game for that to really make much sense as a CR direction haha. OTOH, if it seems like it might be a fun hurdle to throw at them (or at least during the initial aftermath?), we can always just handwave that part and assume he's come around by the next thread / in the time since, or is shocked enough by her stage 2 confusion into snapping out of it to deal with the situation?
But tbh I'm pretty flexible overall and open to almost anything that seems fun to explore and would make interesting character development, so lmk whatever works best for you! :)
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I'll post both a starter for the hookup thread and my event TL later today and you can definitely tag the TL for stage 2 if you like - there he'll just have seen her shoot someone and then start talking nonsense about pirates boarding a ship to him, so how he feels about her might not be his first priority! I'm happy to write the threads concurrently if you are. Looking forward to this :D
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cheryl | team blondie
Player Contact:
Pacing: Slow, generally. With spurts of activity here and there. Sometimes I can grab a few hours to boom here and there, particularly at weekends.
OOC Limits: Character death is off the table for the time being. I'm also not interested in maiming Kieren, for the lad cannot heal.
kate | baby blondie
Canon: Life Is Strange
Aurora Feat: Messiah Complex — Aurora Call, Interloper's Sacrifice, Lightbringer.
Event Ideas:
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kieren | zombie blondie
Canon: In The Flesh
Aurora Feat: Free Runner + Cold Fusion
Event Ideas:
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george | navy blondie
Canon: The Terror
Aurora Feat: Old Bear's Blessing + Efficient Machine.
Event Ideas:
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Ruby Rose | RWBY
Player Contact: jjabarrett on plurk or discord
Pacing: Just came off moving and getting settled into a new job. Should be fairly consistent from here on out!
OOC Limits: N/A.
Character Name: Ruby Rose.
Canon: RWBY.
Wanted CR: Any and all! Ruby is a bundle of sunshine mixed with redbull! Pretty easy to get along with! But also stubborn as all heck when it comes to her beliefs.
Unwanted CR: N/A
Event Ideas:
MISERY
Well jeez. What a time for Ruby to come back, huh?
So she'll be looking to reconnect with anyone she used to know from the first time around. Things definitely went from bad to worse since she's gone. So she'll likely power through trying to keep things together more for the people around her. She's lucked out in being absent so clearly everyone else here matters a little more than little old her?
Most interested in playing around with the first two aspects of misery for her. She's a bundle of sunshine whose just come off her own dark spot, so falling back into that is not out of the question at all her for her.
She may be overly dramatic with her own diminished form part though.
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Ned'll be both horrified and glad to see Ruby back. He might be going crazy right now and try to eat her life force but it should be fine!
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Jhey's Collection of Oddities
Player Contact:
Pacing: Due to my work schedule, I'm sporadically fluctuating between busy and available. Generally I think I'll be able to keep a steady pace this month, with time for boomeranging on the weekends! I'd love to actually be able to dedicate energy to completing threads, so I'm probably going to be mindful about how many I take on from now until endgame, and plan things out / stick to tag-ins instead of doing open toplevels.
OOC Limits: N/A, except that I won't be killing mine off right now. Other than that? Fuck em up
I also have some more thoughts on development & endgame plans here on the cr meme
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Character Name: Edward Little
Event Ideas: Ned's got a lot going on, with his Darkwalker's Revenge fuckery in full force right now. I'll probably stick to focusing on Stage 5: Ruin — Broken Body for him, as its themes of suicidal ideation have been recurring in him for a long time now. Being visited by the ghosts of the past, his lost crew, and especially his former Captain would be neat. He also definitely needs a Jopson Jumpscare, lmao. I'm not sure how exactly to play that out in a way that'd be fun for others though, so I might have to do some thinking. I'm also interested in bouncing him off things that other characters are going through, but as mentioned, he's kind of gone off the deep end lately so that would be a factor to contend with. He's hungry for your soul~~~
Character Name: Konstantin Veshnyakov
Event Ideas: I'm down to clown with pretty much any of the misery prompts for him, though thinking I might put focus on Stage 2: Sorrow — Haunted Mind and let him get up to some nightmares & sleepwalking. He'll be acting out those bad dreams, which will probably largely involve his experience as a lab rat.... He'll be trying to escape and fighting his way through, and this may or may not also include Violent Vicious Alien Things. Like with Ned, I'm also just as interested in bouncing him off of what other characters are going through!
Character Name: Miss Huang
Event Ideas: I really just want to break her down lmao so I'm open to playing with any of the misery prompts! I think my main interests for her are Stage 1: Hardship — Diminished Form & Stage 3: Despair — Sour Stomach; someone please Mom or Dad this child, she needs to be wrapped up and taken care of... She'll also try to help others with their miseries but she won't be capable of doing much.
Levi Ackerman // Attack On Titan
Player Contact: ping @ game discord, PM,
Pacing: Slow with semi-random bursts of activity around weekends.
OOC Limits: Probably not killing or limb-loss-ing my guy but other than that...
Character Name: Levi Ackerman
Canon: Attack On Titan
Aurora Feat: Interloper's Sacrifice + Old Bear's Blessing + Lightbringer (Cauterisation build). Lightbringer is the newest for him and he did not have full control over it yet before all the feats went poof.
Wanted CR: Honestly anything? For some ideas:
- He's often out hunting/fishing/gathering, and obviously he's going to keep trying even with diminishing returns if anybody wants to tag along!
- He could use more friends! He tends to get along with fellow military and/or (ex-)thug/con types, people from poor and/or working class backgrounds, also has a soft spot for scientists/nerds, kids and kind people. He's pretty pragmatic but does subscribe to certain ideals.
- I also don't mind him taking up a mentor/caretaker role for someone!
- Negative CR is also cool, he's grumpy and rude and might rub some people the wrong way.
Unwanted CR:
- Excessive negative CR (characters want to outright kill each other) that doesn't lead anywhere.
- Not looking for casual hookups.
Event Ideas:
1) So, Levi is basically the king of Keeping His Shit Together in extremely stressful situations (like when everybody is about to die), and will likely manage to do so for the bigger part of the month. If your character is having some sort of a crash out and you would like someone to slap and/or threaten some sense into them, he's your guy!
2) He'll also be working at keeping up Enola's sigils and trying to help keep Community Center running the best he can. This may include guarding what's left of their rations, which could lead do confrontations over it OR him protecting your character from someone else trying to take their food.
HOWEVER! I'm also interested in playing with the other side of the coin. Most notably; ((cw: suicidality, sort of ))
3) his body ultimately betraying him is something he'll have to grapple with at the end of his series (his canonpoint is before that) so I'm interested in touching upon that and he isn't going to take it well right now -- he's used to being strong and "useful" and him losing that is going to make his self value plummet into absolute hell, not to mention that he Still Has Things To Do!
4) All of this along with his loved ones asking him to join them might just be enough for him, and there's a non-negligible chance that at some point he might try to just Walk Out into the wilderness to die. Someone please stop him!
Let me know if you're interested in either or!
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Tim Gutterson | Justified
Player Contact:
Pacing: Slow to medium mostly, though hoping to be more active with end game on the horizon.
OOC Limits: None
Character Name: Tim Gutterson
Canon: Justified
Aurora Feat: Lightbringer and Interloper's Sacrifice
Wanted CR: Open to anything that feels genuine and unforced! Anything is on the table besides lovers since he's spoken for. He tends to click especially well with outdoorsy types, former or current military, and sarcastic little shits.
Unwanted CR: Romance
Event Ideas: For Stage 1 Tim will not know when to quit, so he will probably be able to be found around town close to passing out at some point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ For Stage 3 and Stage 5 he will be secluding himself indoors most likely, so good luck getting to him unless you're close CR.
S2 Haunted Mind-- Tim has chronic PTSD related nightmares from his near decade as a Ranger with the Army that he mostly self-medicates with alcohol, so this will be a prime situation for triggering A Full Blown Episode with hallucinations. I'm considering having him kill off an NPC during this, and since he most definitely won't be in his right mind, it'll likely be something along the lines of a point blank execution in the middle of the street. I'm open to plotting for someone stopping him, witnessing it, or coming across it afterwards! Or if you'd like to have your character threatened/assaulted by him, I'm open to that too!
S4 Rheumatic Joints-- I'd also be interested in doing something for this stage. The pain will be manageable for him, but the shakiness will not be. Tim has a lot of confidence and pride in his ability to always shoot what he's aiming at, and not being able to do that will definitely fuck with him. I was also toying with the idea of having him accidentally kill an NPC here instead due to missing his shot for the first time in his life.
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Frodo Baggins // Lord of the Rings
Player Contact:
Pacing: I don't even know anymore. Depends on the current workload (I'm a teacher and sometimes lots of grading must happen) but I try to tag at least every few days. I also usually try to focus on newer threads to get to the important bits.
OOC Limits: Nah.
Character Name: Frodo Baggins
Canon: Lord of the Rings
Aurora Feat: Old Bear's Blessing, Aurora Call, Interloper's Sacrifice. He's gonna be real mad they're offline because GESTURES.
Wanted CR: Everything.
Unwanted CR: Romance is unlikely to happen at this point lmao. Otherwise N/A.
Event Ideas: Not enjoying food is a rough time for a hobbit! So I may top level with some despair about that. He's also inclined to be cynical when he feels bad so if there are more optimistic people around, he could use a pick-me-up.
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