humiliatious | Cursed Night Market

Entry tags:

event,
night market

Cursed Night Market

Welcome

You’re not sure how you got here, but you don’t seem to mind. You feel a pervasive sense of calm with regard to your environment. You have entered what appears to be a night market. Perhaps the concept is familiar to you, or perhaps it isn’t. Colorful stalls, glowing with lantern light, line the path before you. You know what you need to do to return to where you came from. Investigate the various stalls - buy and sell what you have, until you’re able to purchase a path back. The merchants will take any currency that you have on hand. If you don’t have any, you will find some coins of an ambiguous nature in your pocket.

Rare Items

The first stall that you encounter boasts that you can buy and sell rare items. After trading a coin, the merchant hands you something - insists you take it. You don’t recognize the item, but the person behind you does. It is something extremely dear to them. If they check their person, they will find the item missing. If you attempt to return the item to them, you will find that you are unable to. Helpfully, the merchant offers that the person the item belongs to must tell the buyer a story about the item before it can be returned.

Fortunes

The second stall you encounter claims to buy and sell fortunes. Trading a coin, the merchant will relay to you a fortune, but, as you listen, you realize that it isn’t your fortune at all. With a cackle, the merchant explains that you must deliver the fortune with the person behind you. Neither of you can leave the booth until you have revealed to them their future.

Memories

The third stall you encounter claims to buy and sell memories. You can choose to sell the merchant a memory you would like to forget, or you can ask to buy someone else’s memory. Selling your memory will transfer it to the person behind you. In return, you will gain one of their memories. Buying a random memory will instead cause you to forget one of the people most important to you. In some instances, you might feel a great urgency to find someone, although you don't know who it is.

Dreams

The fourth stall you encounter claims to buy and sell dreams. Trading a coin at this stall will cause you and the person behind you to be transported into a shared dream. The dream may be about the highest point in your life or the lowest. It may also be about a close friend, there or gone. It may reveal your greatest desire or your greatest insecurity. Or any number of other things!

OOC notes

Suggestions on prompts: if you’re going to write one where someone will be seeing/receiving something from your character, it’s helpful to describe it in detail in the brackets in your TL. I know some of these prompts are probably a little confusing, but, I mean…it’s roleplay. Just fuck around. No one’s gonna police how you do things here.

Please feel free to top-level, tag in, and share this meme wherever you’d like - it is open to anyone. The four stalls mentioned are prompt suggestions, but you can go crazy and have any stall do basically anything you want. Please see/use subject line CWs. This musebox doesn’t have a dedicated rule list because it’s just for my personal shit, but please be kind, follow standard RP rules - just be nice! Do the right thing! If you have any questions, hit me up here.

code by Flyleaf ❖ inspired by event code by 10billionghosts ❖ background via unsplash

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

hi i cant read what did all of this say

NO MUKIS

[up for anything ~~i need samples~~! let me know if you want to share memories or fortunes. prose or brackets are fine, i will match!]

[hmu with whatever or an idea - i'm happy to write starters.]

i have a question

rare items; cw: blood, gore

a.) [The item that is handed to the person in front of Armin is, quite simply, a conch shell; however, the person holding it will find that it's covered in blood, clumps of hair stuck under dried scabs. Armin's face pales with recognition; he's not eager to claim it as his own, though...

[It would be impossible to let go of, now that he's seen it.]

Sorry. [Genuine enough.] I believe that's meant for me.

b.) [The item that is handed to the person in front of Armin is, quite simply, a book. He looks stunned to see it, hand beginning a reach, though...he pulls it back.]

Sorry, I...I recognize that book. I think...it belonged to me once.

memories; cw: violence

[There are any number of memories Armin would like to forget, though he doesn't choose any of them. one comes to mind. It's not the first - not the worst, either - but it comes to mind, as he's standing there at the merchant's booth. He considers buying a memory instead, then decides it should only be a last resort, if other booths don't work. He turns to leave, not realizing the memory has been transfered.]

dreams; cw: threads will include unreality

[For his part of the dream, it is, as always, the sea. Armin stands knee-deep in the water, pantlegs rolled up, but still soaking. He doesn't seem to notice anyone there, at first. He barely remembers the night market, or the booth where he sold this dream, or bought it, or...however it works.

[The ocean stretches on in every direction. The beach is large, too, though, even as it disappears over the horizon, more waves can just barely be seen. It's a world of water.]

wildcard;

[You also might find him snacking on some good food, wandering around - eavesdropping, even. Maybe he's coming up to chat - looks a little too friendly. Hit me with anything!]

what

WHOA!!! 👯👯👯 I ordered WAYYY too many TITANS from doTITANRRA!! 😲🤗🙈 But MY mistake is YOUR GAIN!! First 49 people to DM me will receive an additional FREE gift of mascara with their order of 9 nutritional supplementss!! It's not a pyramid scheme -- those are illegal!! 🚫🙅hurry while supplies last!!!🤗 I used to be like you!! I thought i couldn't become a boss babe 😍 but THEN i found out about this incredible company called Metaverseplex!! You WON'T be sorry you tried nutritional supplements from the Metaverse!! 👯😍😍😍 it could totally empower your life!! 👯👯👯 AND 🤗 How would you like to EARN seriously REAL MONEY while working from home?? 🤗 I can SHOW you how!!! 🤗🤗🤗😮 Two days in and the money is FLOWING IN!🤩🙌 hurry while supplies last!!!

DM ME NOW TO SAVE YOUR SPOT!!! 🔫

BITING BITING BITING BITING BITING BITING

that's not a dm u didn't follow the instructions

u lost ur legging privvys

good luck getting TITAN SIZED leggings in these CUTE CUTE DESIGNS somewhere else

[A conch shell would make an attractive decoration in any home, but this one is covered in blood and hair. Saelfen recoils slightly in disgust, but he manages to hide his surprise with annoyance.

Why, by Lolth's malice, would he want something as heinous as this? The drow can't help but look at the merchant with disdain. He was about to curse the vendor and their ancestors when another approached.

He gives the blonde a wary look before quickly ushering the bloody conch towards them.]

What great evil plagues you to warrant such an item?

Edited 2024-08-08 00:01 (UTC)

can a character set up their own stall?

[If Saelfen is offering the item, then Armin will take it - perhaps a bit too quickly, even. It is a repulsive thing. He knows.

[The question is massive. Armin doesn't know how to begin to answer. How is one meant to acknowledge the evil in their own hearts? That's what this conch shell represents.

[Armin doesn't look distressed nor disturbed - perhaps appropriately self-aware that what they're discussing is unattractive, but that's all. He puts a small smile on, inclining his head toward Saelfen.

[All good lies contain an element of the truth. Sometimes the best lie is almost the truth in its entirety. Sometimes its only withholding some of the details. And Armin doesn't have to tell him anything he doesn't want to.]

I can't say that I want it. It isn't that at all. [True.] I recognize it, is all.

It's a relic. Left over from a war. [Lie. It's a stain leftover from hope.]

yes please do! go crazy!

sweet

[ there are normal?? stands manned by normal people.

and there's a stall manned by a man in a bunny suit. with a sign that says MAGICAL MALLETS FOR SALE.

come buy his goods. ]

[Rare Items]

[To whoever picks up an ornate blue ring, a young boy, no older than thirteen (probably looks younger to those from a modern setting), appears next to them and holding out his hand very accusingly, and his tone isn't much better.]

I do beg your pardon, but that ring is mine, and I can assure you that I did not sell it. If you would be so kind as to return it...

[And here he is, five-foot nothing and looks like he could be toppled over by a spring breeze, throwing out demands like he owns the place.]

[Memories]

[While most of these stalls were easy to ignore, it was only this one that posed a temptation. What if he could just... forget it all? He wouldn't. He couldn't. He had to enact hold those accountable for what they did, and then after... well, there would be no after for him...

But... if he got rid of them would the nightmares stop?

So anyone could find him standing there looking conflicted.]

[Dreams-CW: Human Trafficking/Child Abuse/gore/death + Spoilers for chapter 130+]

[Well, he thought he'd found the solution to his earlier moment of weakness. Keep the memories, get rid of the dreams? Perfect right?

Well apparently not, because in a blink he found himself right back in the stupid dream he was trying to be rid of.

As once again, he found himself standing over his twin brother's corpse, though now he was older. The boy on the table was maybe ten at most. He knew a gruesome task was ahead of him as he pulled the knife from the chest of his late brother. Even though the entire room was awash with the bloodied corpses of those responsible for the atrocity... it did not make him feel better. It did not bring his brother back, it did not undo all that they had suffered..

But now he held the knife that had killed his brother in his hands. If he was to assume his position as Earl... he needed the ring his brother had swallowed to mark him as the heir.

He raised it over his brother's stomach, unaware anyone else was there with him. This nightmare was a recurring one after all.

Feel free to stop him any time.]

[ It's–

Just a glove.

Maruki listens to the man with genuine curiosity and doesn't hesitate before turning to Akechi. He's never supposed to stand behind him anymore, and that rule naturally has to get shoved aside when it comes to things like lines for dubious merchants – but maybe it will only prove why they should hold fast to it under all circumstances.

A singular glove. Black, right handed. Otherwise unremarkable. He holds it out in his palm. ]

Well?

[Weird how both Akechi's gloved hands cross over his chest.

The glove in Maruki's hand a memory of declaration made in under the dimming neon lights of a city that never truly goes silent.

It's his. He wants it. That 'Well' is fucking annoying, like they're really going to listen to that shitty merchant? A thief doesn't get to decide the terms by which the owner gets the stolen item back.]

I refuse to play their shitty game. Hand it over.

[The merchant grows livid, as his hand shoots free from being wrapped around his own chest. 'It can't be returned without a story and-']

I bought it with a credit card at a store at some indiscernible time. There.

rare items;

[The merchant hands the person ahead of Oda in line a book. It's the third volume in a series (what good is that?), and upon closer inspection, the final pages seem to have been torn out. Oda recognizes it when he sees it, a subtle but discernible look of shock on his face. It couldn't be another copy, right? Oda had never been able to find one...

[After a few moments, his expression evens back out into calm. He's not quite smiling, but when he speaks, his voice is lighter than one might expect.]

It's a good story - a great one, but...if you want to know the ending, you'll have to write it yourself.

memories; cw: child death (multiple)

[Everyone has memories that they'd like to forget. Oda knows better than to trust the merchants of a black market, though the difference is, when he was alive, he had something to lose.

[He's made of unpleasant memories. He wouldn't sell most of them. There's no point in trying to erase the past - he's never been that sort of person. You learn from it.

[Still, he finds himself trading the coin for one reason - just one memory he'd throw away if he could.

[It's why he is where he is - here, dead, wherever. It's why - part of why, at least - he chose what he chose. Still, he'd like to forget; their faces, their pleas - he'd like to forget.]

wildcard;
((ooc: let's do stuff! I'm down for literally anything - voicetesting so idk what I'm doing YAHOO! hit me up pm or

pantheraliam to plot or w/e!))

(ooc: Slapdash info in journal. Let me know if you’re ok with endgame spoilers; I’ll default to a pre-end canonpoint otherwise.)

rare items, precious memories
[Basil’s hands wring as he stands behind you, and you are given a very precious book. He watches it intensely, and when the vendor reveals the stipulation, some tension cracks with a small, shaky sigh.]

Ah, that’s easy… I-if you look inside, you can pick a story for me to tell you!

[Within are polaroids upon polaroids, captions written in green ink alongside each. It might be good, happy fun—or, alternatively, an ominous black. If you open to the latter version, several pictures are missing.

[Either way, Basil appears none the wiser.]

fortunes, (un)fortunately
[This time, Basil’s in front of you. Whether the fortune he received was promising or ominous, tragic or hopeful, he turns back to you with a small, possibly-forced smile.]

Are… you ready to hear it…?

[He’s not much for bearing bad news.]

memories…
[Basil’s not standing in line for this one. Instead, when the merchant is occupied, the boy claws through what he assumes is the memory box, full of pictures from all sorts of places. He’s paying no attention to his surroundings whatsoever; the search is feverish. Is he looking for someone…?]

wildcard?
(Toss me anything without preamble! Pull Basil into your dream. Swap line placement wherever. Give him another memory; it’s okay, he can probably take another. Or maybe you just find him wandering about like a drowned stray.
(I also play a bunch of other disaster people, who I’m not topleveling for now; see members of this community for a full lineup. Feel free to request whoever may strike your interest. Happy to whip up custom starters, for Basil or anyone else~)

((ooc: lmk if you want to do something with this guy, and we can probably come up with something! I'm down for canon, AU, CRAU - any of it; let me know if you want pre-timeskip eren instead - that's fine too - and just hmu pm or

pantheraliam if u need to))

[Reality is a mutable thing; memory endures, despite. These are the principles that provide the foundation of Maruki and Eren's friendship.

[It's more than that, though. It's more than anyone else can understand. Two would-be, could-be, will-be gods with the ability to create anything, to manipulate anything, to do anything - to heal, to save, to destroy, to ruin.

[He knew him in one reality, then another; more, probably.

[Here. Now. It's been four years, or only a few months - maybe only a few minutes, for all Eren knows. Maruki is there, just like he always is. He's a bleeding werewolf hunter in a dead-leaved forest, or a counselor in a familiar office; a familiar face on a family farm, or, maybe, come to think of it, that Marleyian doctor who was kinder than all of the others. What did he look like again?

[And who is Eren? Eren is Eren is Eren, as always, as ever Eren. They are two who exist outside of time, logic, sense. He knows his friend will remember him. He doesn't doubt for a moment.

[He approaches Maruki, older than he was the last time he saw him, or maybe the same age. Maybe Seven was yesterday, or maybe Somnius will be tomorrow.

[Right now, they're here. Eren Jaeger inclines his head toward his old friend.]

I thought I might run into you.

Edited 2024-08-08 04:29 (UTC)

[Hello, small, frail-looking boy. The person in front of you is another small, frail-looking boy—older, but not much taller.

[Ciel is already far more assertive, at any rate. Face pinched in gentle worry, Basil offers a small nod, and simply hands over—

[Well. He lets go, and the ring simply will not drop from his hand to Ciel’s.
[Oh dear.]

U-um… [Basil bobs his hand up and down, as if that might make the ring drop properly. It doesn’t. It’s as if some invisible magnet is embedded under the skin of his fingertips, forcing the ring to stick.] I-I’m sorry, it won’t… drop....

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 14

Cursed Night Market

QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

no subject

Nyaa Hashimoto || Osomatsu-san || ota

goro akechi - persona 5 royal - prince/third sem/laby flavor

no subject

Armin Arlert | Attack on Titan | ota (please see CWs in journal)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

rare items

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

ravio | loz: link between worlds

Ciel Phantomhive | Black Butler (please check for CWs!)

> laby / rare item !!

no subject

Oda Sakunosuke | Bungo Stray Dogs | ota (voicetesting)

Basil | OMORI

Eren Jaeger | Attack on Titan | closed prompts

closed to placatioN WITH NO S

no subject