Opt In/Opt Out (Come Sail Away Specific)

[tempingainteasy]

OPT OUT: Weird Faces

Some of April's icons may involve the absence of facial features that should be there, or features that shouldn't be there, or are other wise distorted (think thatcher effect, excessive eye imagery etc). If seeing that at even a 100x100 resolution is uncomfortable for you, please let me know here and I'll post with her more normal icons when threading with you!

OPT OUT: Besties

April's best friend and coworker yourexoduslaughing is now on the ship, and may or may not jump into threads with April if the timing is right. Let us know if that's something you'd like to avoid!

OPT IN: Get Haunted!

Part of April's deal is that she is basically a living creepypasta image. Part of how she sustains herself is by taking 'cursed images' or making them cursed by being in them.

The result ranges from:
- I saw this creepy picture/video too late at night and it's been a week and I still think about it when I close my eyes
- something is wrong about this picture of me but I can't think of what it is and it's destroying my self image
- I saw this image once and screamed and don't ever send it to me again
- This face is showing up in my nightmares and I'm legit having trouble sleeping
- normally photoshops don't affect me but what the FUCK
- Okay so there definitely wasn't an extra person there when the picture was taken, I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for awhile.

- Visually, think the 'identifying an alternate' segment in the mandela catalogues or the emotions advert on blue channel.

The idea is that it lingers in a person's mind in an upsetting way, those spooky image edits you've seen that mentally scar you a little bit.

So! with that said, let me know here if you want your characters running into that with April!

EDIT It turns out writing horrible things for someone else's character completely blind is hard, so if you'd be so kind as to fill out the following:
<u><i>What scares your character?</i></u> <b>Image distortions:</b> (i.e., scribbled out eyes, grin too big, feeling like the eyes in the picture are looking at you, etc) <b>Superstitions:</b> (i.e. Particular ghosts, urban legends, unlucky images they'd be creeped out by) <b>Self-image:</b> (i.e. is there a role your character feels pressured to fill, an image they feel they can't perfect? or is there something they're afraid of becoming?) <b>Unwelcome Guests:</b> (i.e. Anyone they would be troubled to see in the background of a photo? Dead or alive? Behaving normally, or is there a way they'd emote/appear that would upset your character?) <b>HARD NO:</b> what YOU THE PLAYER don't want to see/play out a reaction to, ever.
Thanks!

How much her images affect your character and what your character does about it is entirely up to your discretion, too. You know your character's constitution best!

(Consider this a volunteer sign-up sheet for pursuing this sort of story with them, or permission to have your characters mention being unusually disturbed by a picture they saw, this isn't an immunity check!)

But my character can't see these pictures!

April:


Then this especially does not apply to you at all! Enjoy your cruise and the company of your absolutely normal cruise friend, April!

Comments

[takethatnature]

What scares your character? Animate shadows, the idea that some things are truly unknowable and unquantifiable, big aggressive dogs or wolves especially if they're twisted into a not-quite-doglike shape, losing his mind permanently, some of the more dangerous animals and monsters from the Constant like spider monkeys, depths worms, Clockwork Bishops or the Dragonfly - also the tactile sensation of being immobilised, grabbed or picked up, but it'd be challenging to incorporate that one into a photo. He doesn't like spiders either, but it has to be either a huge swarm of them or one spider as big as a horse to really scare him these days.
Image distortions: Black scleras, his eyes reflecting light in the dark, a full set of pointy teeth, clawed fingers, his hair forming into shadowy grasping hands or flamelike shapes, dark stains down his fingers and arms if they're exposed (dealer's choice of smooth gradient or concentrated along the veins), black markings on his face, distorted proportions and his body appearing to merge with his clothes. These are all things to stick on Wilson's image specifically, you can just generally go nuts with the creepy faces on other people in the picture.
Superstitions: He doesn't adhere to any specific superstitions, though he's nowhere near as perfectly rational as he thinks he is.
Self-image: His idea of himself as a brilliant scientist is poorly substantiated and he's really insecure about it beneath a veneer of confidence. Also, unrelatedly, he doesn't want to turn into Maxwell 2.0 and become an evil shadow sorcerer.
Unwelcome Guests: Glowing white eyes in the darkness, any of these guys, the rest of the monsters I singled out in the first section
HARD NO: idk, child abuse I suppose?

[tempingainteasy]

Merry Belated Christmas, Wilson! We recommend you don't look too closely in the shadows of the pictures from the winter resort, especially if you hung out near a fireplace at any point. Sure, it's likely that it's just a bundle of pine needles casting that shadow and not the hair of a Shadow Watcher or anything like that. It's just the poor lighting or inexplicable use of flash that's made the shadows of the curtains in the background take the shape of Mr. Skitts. And the little pale flecks in those shadows are probably just damage on the photo itself! weird that it happens in pairs, though. None of the shadows are blatantly, magically dark, they're about as dark or dim as you'd expect normal shadows to be, it's just the shape that seems a little odd.

It's really funny, isn't it, how quickly human minds latch onto patterns, whether or not they're really there. Looking too closely at the picture doesn't make it any clearer whether those are real or just misinterpretation... So that's probably the latter then, right? Yeah.

[takethatnature]

Haha, yeah, probably!

[tempingainteasy]

Nothing to worry about! (seriously though use these whenever feel appropriate for whatever you're up to with Wilson, i just finally got around to this today lol)

[takethatnature]

😎👍