#icy halloweek

[newmoonau]

[EVENT] The Haunting of New Moon Agency: Embracing the Spirits of the Dead | Summary at the end

Prepare yourselves, for within the eerie halls of the New Moon Agency, a bone-chilling tradition known as "The Halloweek" looms on the horizon. It is an unholy celebration that beckons employees to abandon their mundane appearances and don the macabre attire of the deceased. Why, you ask? For this is the time when the spirits of the dead draw near, and New Moon Agency seeks to honor their presence in the most frightful manner.

This year, however, the agency has taken their terrifying festivities to a whole new level. In addition to the customary week-long costume extravaganza, a spine-tingling adventure awaits the courageous souls who dare to partake. A ghastly trip, chosen by the employees themselves, shall become the setting for their hauntingly unforgettable experience.

Three ominous locations have been proposed, each cloaked in its own sinister legend. The Ghost House, whispered to be cursed by vengeful spirits; the Haunted School, echoing with the tormented screams of lost souls; and the Abandoned Apartment building, where darkness and despair reign supreme. The employees must cast their votes, sealing their fate within the chosen destination's icy grip.

But that's not all. The employees must also indicate the day of the week they are free to partake in this nightmarish excursion. Whether it be any day of a week, the chosen day shall serve as a gateway into a realm where the living and the dead intertwine.

As the shadows lengthen and the moon casts an ominous glow, New Moon Agency prepares to embark on this unholy journey. The chilling laughter of the departed echoes through the halls, as the spirits eagerly await the arrival of their mortal companions.

Enter if you dare, for the Halloweek at New Moon Agency is not for the faint of heart. It is a time of terror, camaraderie, and a twisted celebration that merges the worlds of the living and the dead.

----------------------

For this event, employees must

- vote 1 location among Ghost House, Haunted School and Abandoned Apartment Building.

- state the day(s) in a week that they are free. We will host the event on the day that almost, if lucky all, everyone is free.

** This event will be a live plot, you can relate to Mafia game experiences.

Happy plotting!

[wayslidecool]

This is Dracusquid! Dracusquid is a Complien sort of meant to be a “literal vampire squid,” the main reason I selected its purple-red-white color scheme, gave it sharp teeth to suck blood with, and had the webbing between its tentacles flare outwards like a cape! As the grown form of last year’s Bludsquid, I mostly tried to play up all its most notable features while making it a bit more menacing. I had a few earlier designs of Dracusquid I was okay with, but I felt they distanced themselves a bit much from the first form!

Dracusquids are the head of their pack, consisting of themselves and twelve Bludsquids, making for thirteen total. They scavenge the deep sea, looking for whatever prey they can find and ensnaring it in their seven tentacles. Their wide, light-sensitive eyes allow them to easily spot prey, even where sunlight is scarce, though their favorite prey is Lumigae and Maringel, two Compliens with nutritious pods in their heads. While their spikes allow them to easily tear through their skin, however, the bright lights emitted by these two Compliens often can temporarily blind a Dracusquid, or at least briefly send them away.

You can read more about Dracusquid here, and keep checking back all week long for brand new Compliens!

[lapinlunaire-games]

Halloweek Day 1: Lantern | Halloweek Prompts

The blurry orange halo resolves itself into a lantern, struggling valiantly against the wind and rain, as it flickers over A's dishevelled, soaking wet body.

tw: mild shock gore

You're nearly to the door when Gordon's voice breaks the silence, the sound of your name from their lips more sombre than you've heard it in a long time.

They aren't looking at you when you turn around, focused instead on the fog roiling outside the windowpanes. Two fingers worry the brocaded edge of their waistcoat, and if you didn't know them so well, you would have missed the barest pursing of their lip before A adds, "Sleep well."

At your hesitation, they press the edges of their mouth up into something so close to a smile you nearly believe it — but you know them too well. There's something A isn't telling you. And because you know them so well, you can read the resolution written behind the set of their brow and in their jaw just as clearly: that particular secret is buried too deep for you to coax out of them. For now, at least. 

A crack of lightning jolts you awake, your eyes snapping open just in time to be blinded by the brilliant white flash of the storm. In that instant of flat, incandescent illumination, you notice two things: the window is ajar, and there is a pale, severed hand lying limp across the sill.

Darkness floods the room and your head spins in the lurid afterimage imprinted on your eyes, dizziness made no better as you scramble out of bed and stumble to the window. Rain lashes at you with all the ferocity of a feral cat as you dodge the shutter before it can bang into your skull, snatch the severed hand, and squint out into the storm. 

Your plan is immediately disrupted by the feeling of wet skin crumpling in your grip: a wordless yell escapes you as you drop the hand in shock; it falls to the floor with a pathetic plop, dripping rainwater into the polished floorboards. Another flash of lightning, this one farther off in the distance, illuminates the room and reveals the hand's true nature: a fawn-coloured leather glove slumps before you, two of the fingertips torn and a jagged tear running from the bottom of the thumb across the palm. 

The window slams shut — you yank your fingers back just in time to save them —, the crack of the shutter augmented by a crashing round of thunder that rattles in your bones. You turn back to the window and immediately press your face against the glass, eyes narrowing in disbelief: out on the moor, bobbing wildly, is a mote of flickering orange light, growing steadily larger and stronger — approaching the manor.

The realisation comes with a twin spiral of curiosity and apprehension — the Veil remains still at the edges of your vision, making no move to gloss over the light. What Mundane force would be out in a storm of this magnitude — and what could have possessed it to do so at all? 

With another suspicious glance at the ripped glove, you stare back out the window. It takes a few moments through the torrential rain, but you lock back onto the orange dot — some kind of torch, or a lantern. It's much larger now, though you can't tell how much the illusion of closing distance is aided by the downpour blurring the edges of the flame. The storm howls and the window breaks free once again; icy rain lashes your face, driving down into the gap between your collar and skin with a fury. 

When you lean out to yank the window shut again, the dot pauses before resuming its journey, jerking frenetically as it grows nearer. Taken aback, you ignore the pelting rain to stare at it; at this pace and through the colourless blur of rain, it resembles nothing more than a puppet steered by a small, frustrated child. It occurs to you that perhaps Gordon could provide you with the context whose absence seems ever more pressing; with a last check to ensure the window is securely latched, you step carefully over the sopping glove and make your way down the hall to their room.

The first sign of something wrong is how much louder the rain sounds as you approach; the second is the cold, damp air creeping from the door — the third, you note with no small amount of alarm, is that the door is fully open. Lightning strikes again with a bout of roaring thunder, conveniently illuminating the rumpled sheets and thrown-back covers of A's empty bed. 

Propriety cast aside, you rush in, eyes darting over granular shapes in the darkness as you curse and try to find signs of A in the seconds of light afforded to you by the storm. There's no blood, no signs of a struggle.

Sharp, freezing liquid strikes your back like a whip and you whirl around to the window — it's thrown open, panel caught firmly in the thick curtain. Whether intentionally or not, you can't tell, but it's clear that A's window has been in this state for a while: the curtain is dark with liquid and the floor is slick. A's dressing gown is slung over a chair opposite the bed, looking rather forlorn. You stare around the room again, trying to piece everything together.

A shriek pierces the air, followed by a familiar voice, and your body moves instinctively; you're leaping down the stairs before you realise it, shouting Gordon's name. Mrs. Starrish appears with a candle, wild-eyed and frazzled, as you round the stairs, but the only response you can give to her alarmed questions is an urgent "Fetch bandages!"

Silvery threads follow you as you burst out the front doors and into the manor grounds, and your concern boils over into panic. A is Mundane and so is everyone else at Tamerisk — if the Veil is at work here, something is very, very wrong. The orange dot is nowhere to be seen, but you can hear someone sobbing, between your own roars of A's name — the Veil writhes into a circle in the corner of your eye, ringing a faint torch.

There's a curious burn in your lungs as you break into a full run; your legs are too cold and wet to feel the fire building in the muscle or the squelch of mud underfoot, but something is blazing in your veins, setting your limbs trembling as you race towards the light. The blurry orange halo resolves itself into a lantern, struggling valiantly against the wind and rain, as it flickers over A's dishevelled, soaking wet body.

They turn to you, eyes wide and bloodshot, as you skid to a stop and grasp at them. "He was here!" A shouts, gesturing wildly with the lantern; they don't seem to notice the chatter of their teeth or the way their frame shakes with exertion from the mere act of holding up the lantern. "He—let go, I have to find him!"

They yank their arm away, but you catch it again before they can take off in any of the directions their gaze is roving over. "Who?!"

For a moment, you think the crashing of the storm has erased your demand, but then A's eyes land on you again, aghast. "Don't make me say it! Not you, too!"

A makes to rip their arm from your grasp again, but you see them tense before they move; the solid weight of their body writhes furiously against your grip, every step back towards the manor a struggle as you haul them across the muddy grass. The lantern crashes to the ground, the shattering of the panes drowned out completely by the rain and A's shouts. You pause and glance down in trepidation, taking an elbow to the gut for your pains, but the rain extinguishes the flame before it can spread, leaving only the lightning to glitter off the broken glass underfoot. 

When you manage to get A back into the house, their mother is waiting, imperious as ever despite the curling rags wound in her hair. Lady Gordon sniffs suspiciously at A's shivering body and offers you a partially-thawed glare. A ignores her, staring into the crackling fire with a haunted pallor staining their face.

"The matter of your behaviour will be discussed in the morning," Lady Gordon glowers. "I encourage you not to find yourself unwell, A. Or accompanied." And with that, she sweeps out of the room with a pointed glance at you.

Slowly, you rise as well, unsure if A echoes their mother's sentiments — a pale, rosy-knuckled hand shoots out and seizes yours, gripping so tightly you flex your fingers in involuntary protest. A looks up, lips parting, and stammers, "I—please."

Their eyes dart around the room, mouth working silently before crumpling. "Don't go," A whispers, eyes locked onto yours. "I can't tell you why, but I can't...if he comes back, I'll see him and I can't. He's in this house, he's in my blood, he's in my head..." 

“Who?” you ask again, already fearing the silence you can see pooling like spilled ink over A’s face.

They swallow and shake their head silently, fingers tightening on yours. You fall asleep with the image of a single, flickering candle flame imprinted on your eyelids. Somewhere in the listless state between sleep and dream, its shape twists into that of a man. He turns his gaze upon you, and when you wake, you cannot recall his face.

[wayslidecool]

I think there was a holiday starting today. What was it again? Ch... chr... chri....

That’s right! Icy Halloweek starts today! How could I forget? That means another batch of Compliens all week long, starting with Atracandli here! Atracandli is the grown form of Atraigni, a Complien designed by another artist over seven years ago (I’ve been doing this for a long time.) I also have not seen that artist in seven years, but I did see their DeviantArt page once, where they were making fun of us for being bad artists. Jerk. I was ten at the time! I didn’t know any better!

But now I kind of know better and drew this and it looks okay, aside from some maybe sloppy linework. I got Smash today, how was I supposed to focus? If you’re wondering, Atracandlis form their nests in forests, which they subsequently burn down, since they feed on the charcoal that forms from the burnt trees! The charcoal helps their flames burn brighter, though this only makes them more dangerous when they decide to migrate. Some people are hired to protect forests, and try to divert Atracandlis onto other paths. It usually works, unless the ranger has an encounter with a particularly stubborn Atracandli...

You can read more about Atracandli here, and keep on tuning in for brand new Compliens all week long!

[wayslidecool]

This is Antlure! While meant to be a reindeer or some other type of cervid, their face is kind of reptillian and their body is shaped almost like some sort of weird dog. While this sort of stems from my inability to draw mammalian quadrupeds, I’m also kind of fine with it. It gives the impression that this is a cervoid monster, rather than an actual cervid.

Utilizing their large, bioluminescent antlers, they attract prey in the dead of night, allowing them to quickly sink in with their sharp teeth. Their impressive upper body strength, large antlers, and sharp teeth allow them to take out much larger targets, and while usually lone hunters, occasionally they will attack in groups to take out opponents of a massive size. In fall and winter of every year, hunters may take time to hunt Antlures, as their large antlers are often prized, but they must take several precautions beforehand.

Read more about Antlure here, and keep coming back for new Compliens all week long!

[wayslidecool]

This is Jawcracker, the fifth Icy Halloweek Complien this year! So I think we can all agree that nutcrackers are at least a little uncanny, at least the usual designs we use for them, and with that idea in fresh memory, it got me thinking, what would a nutcracker Complien look like? I eventually designed something with this weird face and a vaguely slug-like foot, but that doesn’t matter very much.

What matters is what Jawcracker does! Jawcrackers are coastal Compliens, scanning the shores for whatever prey they can find. Unfortunately sluggish, they typically have to resist eating the least mobile Compliens they can find, which are usually the Compliens with the hardest shells. Fortunately for the Jawcracker, and less fortunately for their prey, they have some of the strongest jaws of any Complien, allowing them to apply intense force to crack through even the strongest shells.

You can read more about Jawcracker here, and keep coming back for new Compliens for the rest of the week!

[wayslidecool]

And with the addition of Phasmaiana, Halloweek 2018 is complete! If you missed any of the Compliens I released during this week, do not worry, as links to all their pages are available here!

Intrusioneer

Biorupt

Eeror

Paraonette

Thinkblot

Blazar

Phasmaiana

Thank you for the support during this week, and look forwards to more monster designs in the coming months, including Icy Halloweek in December!

[wayslidecool]

Happy Icy Halloweek!

[wayslidecool]

Happy Icy Halloween everybody! It’s nice that this sort of holiday is right at the end of the year, what better to end a year than with a spooktacular surprise? And what better a spooktacular surprise than a guillotine?! Are we looking at a New Year’s Resolution, or a New Year’s Revolution? Eh, eh?

For those of you who have been keeping up with the blog, you probably recognize this as the grown form of Eeror from a couple months back! Illutines exist as the head of any pack of Eerors, and whenever any member of the pack is disturbed, they’ll typically take the perpetrator to Illutine to have their head severed. You can’t hurt an Illutine again if you’re already dead. That being said, Illutines are non-aggressive, usually, and only resort to their punishment provided they are disturbed first. If one chooses not to disturb an Illutine, they’ll probably be entirely okay.

You can read more about Illutine here, and thank you for tuning in to Icy Halloweek 2018! I hope you have an excellent Icy Halloween, and an excellent New Year’s as well!

[wayslidecool]

So as someone from West Virginia who loves Funny Monsters, predictably, I know a fair bit about Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster, including the most likely explanation for both being that they were likely just barn owls. Perhaps that’s a little bit of a shame, but I also then liked the idea of there being just one, really big barn owl that terrorized West Virginia for two decades straight that is probably just as impressive as any other cryptid might be.

While Whomongous is not a singular barn owl, but rather a species of massive barn-owl-like Compliens, at two and a half meters, their height is nothing to scoff at. Some of the largest aerial predators known, Whomongouses typically hunt in forests at night, using their impressive vision and quick speed to hunt small, mammalian Compliens. That being said, despite having some impressive abilities of their own, their large eyes and ambiguous silhouette lead to them, more often than not, being mistaken for rare or even undiscovered Compliens.

You can read more about Whomongous here, and come back tomorrow for the Icy Halloweek 2018 finale!

[wayslidecool]

Here’s the second Complien for Icy Halloweek 2018! I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with the colors, but I settled on shades of blue, because that usually looks good. Part of me feels it should be more saturated, but ah well.

Loosely based on the bryozoa, or moss animals, Bryzzimilates are Compliens that mostly exist to cover large areas of land, spreading out and gradually forming more eerily humanoid faces. They consume whatever organic material is in their path, usually just plant life, but occasionally they are known to take in another Complien as well. Occasionally the face of a Complien they take in can be seen in their body the next day. Usually, they are harmless, as they don’t have much means of fighting back, and they can be prevented from covering too much space by trimming away at their faces. They experience no pain when this happens, but occasionally an ear-splitting scream can be heard.

You can read more about Bryzzimilate here, and keep coming back for new Compliens all week long!