![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsehowmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
redstringtheories2021-08-05 08:25 am
TDM #2
(cw: potential for severe disorientation/vertigo, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, body horror)
It happens in the blink of an eye. You may have been asleep. You may not have. You may have stepped through a door or turned a corner. You may have seen a flicker of something at the corner of your vision and turned to look. Or maybe you didn't.
It doesn't matter. What matters is that you find yourself somewhere entirely new and entirely unfamiliar. The arrival point is not always the same. (If you're lucky, it might be a canteen or an open office. If you're not, well... you aren't claustrophobic, are you? Or arachnophobic. These ducts do seem to be a bit cobwebby.) There is no one waiting for you but you don’t seem to be alone, either. Even in a janitor’s closet or the bathroom, you’ll find at least one person who seems to be just as out of place as you are.
If characters have arrived in a location devoid of NPCs, they may want to work together to figure out what is going on... or to avoid their 'kidnappers.' If you’ve arrived in the middle of the entry foyer or the gym, there may well be a few people who startle a bit at your arrival and try to approach (or discreetly leave the room... where are they going?). Will you cooperate or fight? Do you even understand what they're saying? You might need to find a translator, if you’re not immediately willing to follow a stranger.
After characters follow their new hosts (or are forcibly taken in) there will be a limited tour and the chance to settle in at the ADI-provided housing. (Do you enjoy living with strangers? Well. It's a new situation to navigate, anyway.)
(cw: hallucination, potential mind-control, blood, ritualistic sacrifice, claustrophobia, potential for being buried alive)
Weird things happen in Dogtown, everyone knows it. The Apocalypse Disruption Initiative (ADI) is not above taking advantage of that to test out the waters for its newest arrivals. They're not looking to send anyone to their death, though. That's far too much paperwork, you'd been assured with a wink from the employee who'd directed you to the park trailhead. You've been left with another person. Maybe they're a new arrival, as well, or a more seasoned 'veteran.' Either way, you're together for the next while and you've been asked to find and record any paranormal activity in the park. You have your phones and any other equipment you might have brought with you. Those who succeed in documenting anything peculiar will receive a $100 reward to be used as they see fit.
This month, there seems to be something odd afoot with some playground equipment. ADI has had reports of a few disappearances around town and Dogtown seems to be the locus of them. When characters go investigating, they will invariably stumble across a lone tube slide somewhere out in the woods. Though it seems a little grimy - though less grimy than one might expect from something you’d find in an abandoned settlement - there’s nothing noticeably off about it. (Not unless you find abandoned slides suspicious.)
Nothing, that is, until someone climbs up to the top of the slide and looks down the tube. As soon as they do, they may feel the urge to slide down. (Or perhaps this is just nostalgic and they feel like taking a trip down it anyway!) Either way….anyone who disappears into the tube will be disappeared. Characters who find themselves in this situation will slide for much longer than expected. It might almost seem interminable, with plastic walls closing in around them. The slide does end, though, and characters will find themselves in one of two places when it does: underground in a cramped, winding cave system or in the interior of a stone temple.
The former experience will be disorienting as characters try to find their way out. They may realize that they’ve already passed certain features...or they think they have? Even a level-headed person might be given to panic, to the fear that they might never find their way out or that they might make a wrong turn and be simply stuck. They will have the sense that they are not the only thing down here, that something is lurking just out of sight, following them. However, perseverance will be rewarded, as will reliance on one’s partner. Eventually, they’ll find another plastic tube and if they climb through it, will emerge back where they started.
Characters who find themselves in the temple will discover that they are locked in. There is seemingly no way out, since the tube that they slid through is just too steep to climb back up. But the room is not... empty. No, there is an object suspended above a pit in the ground, held by chains. And there are two stone disks set slightly out from the wall on opposite sides of the room that seem like they could be depressed inwards. Like a button. Pressing them in tandem will lower the object (which seems to be a... great big black garbage back) down into the hole. As they do, the bag starts to... move. Is it living or... is there just something alive within it? Characters will not be able to get the bag open, whatever they try, but they'll notice blood leaking from it
Lowering the bag -- whatever it is, whatever its contents -- will eventually cause two previously hidden doors to open. An unearthly scream comes from one. The other reveals a stone tunnel. How fast can you crawl?
Still. No matter how close those screams follow characters as they crawl and slide their way through the tunnel, they’ll eventually find themselves sliding down...bright plastic. They too will emerge back into the clearing they disappeared from.
In both cases, that clearing will be empty, with no sign of the slide.
(cw: large-scale vehicular collision, industrial disaster, fire, harm to animals)
It's nearly midnight when a thunderous crash shakes the buildings of Gloucester. It begins with the shriek of metal on metal, a drawn-out, tormented sound like a great beast screaming out its last dying breath, followed by a terrible concussive blast like a clap of thunder. There's the sound of shattering glass and roaring wind as the buildings that make ADI Headquarters and apartments, as well as Bonnie's Flophouse, shudder on their foundations, and in the moments that follow there come the pitiful cries of the wounded and dying amidst the groans of twisted metal. The air reeks of burnt flesh and the taste of hot metal lays cloying on one's tongue. Somewhere, animals are screaming. Somewhere, flames lick upward, filling the heart of old Gloucester with a sickly, unnatural light.
Except...
Except the people of Gloucester lay sleeping peacefully. Most native guards stand their posts blissfully unaware of anything untoward happening on their watch. There are no alarmed crowds flooding into the streets, and what few people are out on some errand in the night drive on past the flames without so much as a glance. No windows are broken; the buildings stand miraculously undamaged. Those who venture out into the night to investigate or to help will find that the phantoms of destruction flicker back into darkness and silence, though not before the light of the flames leads the way to an abandoned railyard.
(cw: fire, destruction of home, mention of insects, infection, and altered perceptions)
It's hard to say when this railyard ceased to be a major hub of the web of rails that connects Gloucester to other cities up and down the coast. Freight trains still periodically rattle through on a few of the lines, so one best stay aware of one's surroundings, but this is by and large a dead place. The few railway workers here seem perpetually to want to keep moving, and there's the sense of a heavy, oppressive presence that hangs over the place both night and day.
A derelict train car sits rotting on long-unused tracks. The local workers take no notice of that ramshackle hulk of metal and wood, gazes skittering past as though they don't want to see. At first glance it seems there's little to find here but termites and tetanus, but for those brave enough to scramble inside, there's something more. Inside, the train car is almost like the burnt husk of an old house after a fire, with the collapsed remains of bunk beds and a cracked washbasin still recognizable despite signs of an inferno followed by decades, perhaps even a century, of neglect. What looks like peeling wallpaper turns out, on closer inspection, to be a large number of posters pasted to the walls. Many are burned and decayed beyond recognition, but on a few it's still possible to make out the shapes and faded colors of clowns, elephants, and tigers.
Little information seems to be available about the railyard or the crash at ADI headquarters. The more junior staff members of the research department are eager enough to help and will do their best to set new staff up to search online databases for information, but there's an unfortunate lack of a real starting point for research and the overworked senior staff aren't available to help. For now it's a long slog through online journals and newspaper archives with no results in sight.
- ARRIVAL (Aug 1 - 21): Two people will always arrive in the same general location together. Arrivals occur throughout the early month, not all on the same day or in the same place. Arrivals are not naturally fluent in English/other languages immediately upon arrival. Characters may attempt to evade capture, but they will eventually be snagged before they can leave the building. PC's already in-game are more than welcome to interact with and try to guide new PC's to get them oriented. Please refer to the Arrival page for details regarding the arrival and onboarding process.
- SAY, SAY O PLAYMATE (Aug 1- 21): Characters will only encounter the slide once. If they make it out, it will not appear to them again. For those who enter the cave system, the pervasive sense of being observed and followed will not relent, nor will characters be able to find the source of it. The caves are utterly silent save for the noise the characters themselves make. For those who enter the temple, there will be no way to get the bag off the chain or pull it onto stable ground. The pit it hangs over is just too large for that. Both characters will have to press buttons on opposite walls in order to lower the bag and open the way out. Characters who try to stay and face what is chasing them, they will be met with a bubbling, oozing mass of mud. If it washes over characters, they will be buried alive and die in the temple. If characters jump down the pit, they will die in the temple. If characters refuse to lower the bag into the pit, they will be trapped and eventually die in the temple. Please bear in mind that if a character dies in the TDM prompt, they are dead. A different version who doesn't have TDM memories may be apped in their place.
- SILVER GHOST (Aug 21): Characters will find that native NPCs are largely unaware of the apparent crash, both within ADI and without. Any characters who appear at ADI in the minutes before the crash will also be unaware of the sights and sounds. Only characters who have gone through ADI's onboarding process for interdimensional arrivals will have heard or seen the ghostly crash. Some native ADI personnel appear to be aware of it, but not all.
- A SWITCHMAN'S STORY (Aug 21-24): If characters talk to any of the railway employees, they'll find that everyone who works at this railyard is a new hire, a recent transfer, or here on temporary assignment. All of them want to transfer away as soon as they can, though none of them can articulate why they don't like this place. None of them have any awareness of the crash the characters heard. Within the relatively brief timeline of the TDM characters will not be able to find historical resources regarding the railyard and rotting train car; characters conducting in-depth research will be able to uncover more information during the in-game event that will take place later in the month.
no subject
Uh-uh, we don't know what's down there yet, so try to walk down these normally so I can keep up!
(Shinra, isn't Izaya supposed to protect you? Well, if there is something nonhuman or supernatural about this, Shinra can imagine Izaya courting its ire more easily than he would.)
no subject
(The Schrödinger Guess? Right and wrong at the same time and the only way to figure it out is taking a leap and doing it even so. By nature, Izaya can see the sideways glances Shinra takes at his body, like he's double-checking to see if everything falls in place as they should. Bold of Shinra to assume Izaya wouldn't notice the slightest changes in his behavior.
Both annoying and confusing.)
What's wrong, Shinra? Something the matter?
(His body is intact because he was waiting for Shizuo to come to him. They haven't engaged in their last showdown just yet, as far as he can remember.)
Don't worry, you're too skinny for monsters to want to eat you -- although I figure you're dismayed by that.
no subject
To be honest, I'm just surprised you're in one piece. And to be even more frank, I'm trying to think of how to keep it that way, because you're terrible at it.
(Shinra never has a problem answering honestly with Izaya, but it depends on him asking the right questions. If he invites the harsher responses, he simply didn't take the proper routes to get any of the good faith or defense or fondness.)
Hah, well, if I had to be eaten by a monster, a tiger or a cannibal, I'd gladly choose the monster! But I'd much rather have it on an examination table squirming.
no subject
(But he halts in his place when Shinra says that he's surprised to see him one piece. What the fuck does that mean, exactly?)
Do you know something I don't?
(The rest of the conversation can wait.)
no subject
To be honest, I'd rather not have this conversation at the moment. I'm a little angry at you, I suppose. (Not for the reasons you think, Izaya! But still—he turns his torso to glance over his shoulder, now that he's walked past Izaya.)
Are you backing out on me? You can face anything, can't you, Izaya?
(He stares up at him with that carefully sustained smile of his, hand not touching the rail. Medical sanitation habits and so on.)
no subject
(While Shinra never ceases his walking, Izaya stays where he is. It's not like he's panicking a little from hearing that Shinra Kishitany is angry at him, not at all. This means they're going to have this conversation - it's much more important than whatever ghost train is assailing the town. He's sure other ADI personnel, or even curious souls amongst the newcomers are on it already.
It can wait.
But Shinra smiles. It's that smile that Izaya can't dissect, break apart and study its meaning. Like per fucking always, Shinra's unreadable to him, and in the face of such information, he hates that momentarily. A hand reaches for Shinra's wrist as to keep him from going any further down and properly regard him.
Motherfucker.)
Come on. Spill it.
no subject
His gaze drops to Izaya's wrist, which is already elevated from his position on the steps, then draws back up to his friend. If he'd once called himself a ghost to Izaya, the other man had all but become one in his life.)
Surely you aren't stupid enough to believe you can beat Shizuo-kun, so I have to wonder some things. But I won't press further.
(He isn't angry about the head— he got what he wanted in the end, was even saved by Celty's loving embrace in that beautiful voided sky that very night.)
no subject
(Izaya's always treated Shinra with the most care aside from when he was being utterly annoying. Hell, he'd gladly stomp on anyone who dared to harm a single hair from his head, and considering Nakura, both know this.
But this? This is... Unexpected. It's too new, and too forward in a way that isn't like Shinra - to actually feel emotion towards him, even if it's an unpleasant one. Even with a knife lodged into his side because of Izaya's own choices, he muttered no words of resentment - even though he most likely should.
It's almost paralyzing if it weren't so frightening to be.)
Is that what you're angry about? That I've tried to murder Shizu-chan? Old news. Aren't you used to it by now?
no subject
We talked about legends once. I hadn't thought you took anything I said to heart. So was that your plan?
( No, he doesn't think it's a good idea for one of his only friends two kill the other. No, that isn't exactly what this is about, and he doesn't like Izaya playing dumb. He knows him. And keeps an unreadable expression anyway, like his gaze is lancing right through Izaya and somewhere past him instead. He's not trying to scold— quite frankly, he had accepted when Izaya couldn't be around Shizuo or Celty that he fit quite oddly into his life, but still fit regardless. A square peg in a round hole, a puzzle piece he set aside, mismatched, some error from the factory.)
But it's true, isn't it? You aren't stupid enough to believe you could kill him without dying yourself, right? So I'm walking around with someone who was planning to die on me. That isn't useful to me, since I plan to be safe and live, so change that plan of yours quickly.
no subject
Izaya had every ounce of reason in what he's been saying for twelve years if anyone ever bothered to listen.
Shinra's gaze set off a couple of emotions bubbling in Izaya's brain, ranging from the extreme fright of where this conversation could lead to the dismay of not being able to grasp it in its meaning... And ah, the joy of making Shinra feel something. The hardships of wanting a psychopath's attention all to oneself.
And repelling that very thought with every breath that enters his lungs.
Izaya's cornered, isn't he? And much like any wild, feral animal, he has no other choice but to back away a little bit, releasing the wrist still firm against his palm, and hiss.)
And you care since when, exactly? Last time I've checked, you didn't exactly give a fuck about my well-being, you dickhead. You got what you wanted, most likely, haven't you? Why do you even--
no subject
You're Orihara Izaya, aren't you? (Shinra cuts him off on the tail end of his words, which threatened to trail off anyhow. Izaya was getting overwhelmed, even if he was trying to hide it, and Shinra could see. He was trying to measure his reactions, yet felt entrapped by them.
And it might have been the world's most inevitable fate, but if anyone had the ability to somehow stop it— there isn't a point in even thinking about it. He felt that when watching the explosion from their fight from his balcony, saika's whispers becoming more fervent and hot at his ear just for that moment. He was stuck with these two bonds, wasn't he? He could keep them outside of the realm of his priority, wouldn't orbit around them, but they were there. The one in front of him was the most difficult, the most incendiary, the one that couldn't just be left on the periphery of assumed, well, anything.
Much like their biology club plants, even the most predatory and carnivorous of them will die if they are not tended to and sustained. If that was how friendship was, he wonders why he still feels the way he does about him.
He drops his hand to his side when his wrist is finally released.)
Since that day in middle school, I knew what kind of life it meant to be around you. If someone wants a normal life, they should stay away from you. But some people must be happy around you, and I'm not normal and have never cared for it.
( He turns to take another step down the stairs, wondering if Izaya even feels like following anymore, his expression no longer visible. There's the distance Izaya wants, both physical and from the subject at hand, veering slightly to different territory. He says his next words with an almost magnanimous ease, lower, around a kinder sigh, less of that chipper asshole shit. He still is one, of course. Always.) You can continue to be angry at me for that day you called, and I got my comeuppance, didn't I? If you need to see more of it, then you don't need to be kind enough to come with me.
(He won't say it yet, not today, maybe not ever to Izaya, but he knows he deserved it for being a bad friend. He doesn't understand basic feelings of guilt, please give him some mercy, okay!)
I don't think anyone's hurt out there. (He admits!!!) But it would be best to be around if you end up breaking every bone in your body.
no subject
He had a passing illusion that maybe, just maybe, he'd earned that tiny scrap of attention. Izaya wasn't even expecting much, just to hear a familiar voice for a while, keep his sanity intact while he waited for a possible death - that well, did come, didn't it?
Ah, what a fool he was to expect something out of Shinra... Except that he's showing things that Izaya isn't quite sure how to deal with, how to perceive, and how to store it - if Shinra actually gave a shit, he had a funny way of showing it.
Izaya doesn't follow. He's processing, trying to comprehend it, coming up with nothing, and then returning to his loop as he watches Shinra leave, step-by-step, down the staircase. Izaya is Izaya, so of course, he recognizes that Shinra means that the state of his body turned out from his attack to be karma knocking right on his door. What-- What is going on with Shinra?
It goes out before he can even control the words that leave his lips.)
None of this is like you, you know.
no subject
He was, and is, a terrible person to attach to. Except that neutrality of sight helps him understand the person he's slowly descending away from, and that it doesn't matter what "good" traits he lacks in possession, or how he chooses to express his "love" for humans. He never means to hurt anyone with it, and mostly doesn't want to hurt his own self. He didn't need to be a "good" person to be cared for.
He slows his steps once again at that, waving a hand over his shoulder.
It's been like two goddamn years since he's seen this rotten, terribly fragile person.)
Well, what do you think, Orihara-kun? I'm either being insincere with you though I have no reason to be, or you don't understand everything about me. Most importantly, I'm a ghost drifting through this world, so you have to be very alive, because that's how we are.
(As long as he's here. When they're back home, Izaya can do whatever he wants, he always will. Of course he wants him to show up at his door one day with that annoying smile on his face, and he wants Celty to get flustered in trying to be polite to him for Shinra's sake, and he'd like for them all to eat dinner together! But it's nonsense to think it will happen the more time passes, and he'll accept whatever decision his friend makes. The only decision he can't respect is the one they won't really talk about, because Izaya doesn't want to talk much about it!)
no subject
But Shinra's right on one account: Izaya doesn't fully know the other, while himself lays like an open book for the other to read at any given time. Clearly, he doesn't know Shinra the way he would like, it's rather complicated to understand something that lives in an entirely different plane as you do. As if he only watches from above, as Izaya wishes he could, too.
The sigh that leaves him is heavy, pained, and he shoves his hands inside his pocket, still refusing to take a step forward.)
I'm going to our room.
no subject
And then, just as he did in middle school, he presses the palms of his hands together in a pleading position, holding almost all of the same youthful brightness, though something a bit more openly selfish.)
Please come with me! There's something strange that happened, and there are all kinds of unexpected things that could happen to interest you. If I have to, I'll get persistent.
no subject
Good thing he can be two things at the same time.)
Aren't you "a little angry" at me? Why would I go with someone who is holding such ill feelings towards me at the moment?
no subject
Really, Izaya is such a brittle person, Shinra can't believe it. He ducks his head just a little behind those pleading hands, closing one eye briefly at the "rejection.")
But those aren't the kind of angry feelings that are ill feelings. I'm a Doctor, so I'd know.
no subject
God, Shinra's such a pain in his ass. Asshole. Shithead. Motherfucker. Monsterfucker. Literally every bad word in the book could be used to describe Shinra right now - and really, always, isn't that right?
Why does Shinra always get what he wants? Izaya's hand falls on his head, messing up the already messy hair before he leaves a dramatic sigh.)
Last time I checked, the one with a psychology degree was me.
no subject
Shinra walks up a couple of steps now, dropping his hands and outstretching them a little bit, as if there weren't plenty of steps between them now, as if Izaya was somehow going to jump into his arms or something.)
Oh yeah. (Like he forgot he didn't go to university! Other than hanging around Izaya between his classes like an annoying prick.)
Well, then surely you know people can hold a lot of feelings inside about a person or a situation. Please come with me, I pretended to care about any injured people just to talk with you again. (Seriously, he doesn't trust your ability not to be a moth to any fucking flames here.) If you'd like, I can go back to our room with you.
no subject
Ugh, fine. He planned to check it out later, when things had subsided a little and once he got to understand the full picture of the situation, but fine. He'll go, which means that Izaya pulls on the hoodie on his head to mask his expression a little before he walks past Shinra's open arms.)
How long has it been since we talked? It can't be more than a few months.
no subject
You mean since the phone call? Right, well, here is a peculiar thing: I think ...we're from different times. I don't understand why the—ADI— would do that, or what issues it will cause, but I guess it doesn't matter in the face of the alternative.
no subject
(This makes absolutely zero sense, and yet, it does explain why Shinra is acting a little strange. What has Izaya done in the future and he doesn't even remember? Surely he can't be faulted for something he hasn't done.)
no subject
no subject
Sometimes, you know, Celty has nothing to do with something.
At least Izaya can still be a gentleman, opening the door for Shinra to go out first.)
... I see. Last I remember, you were completely beaten up. So how long has that been?
no subject
He walks out first, smile dropping just a bit in thought.)
Umm, let's see. A little under two years, actually. As you can see, my arm and leg have completely healed since then, which is great, because it made surgeries a bit difficult to perform for a while. Not that I mind a challenge.
(He glances back at Izaya, like he's expecting something more from him.)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
cw violence
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
cw suicide mention
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)