redstringtheories

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!tdm

TDM #2

➥ Arrival

(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.)

➥ Say, Say O Playmate

(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.

➥ Silver Ghost

(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.

➥ A Switchman's Story

(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.

➥ Mod Notes

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.
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(Not even for identification purposes? he wants to quip, decides against it, his smile lingering with considerably less energy for a second. Yeah, this is why it's great to only prioritize his beloved and not think about other things. Thankfully, Izaya says a remark that actually causes him to sincerely laugh a little, shoulders afflicted with a tiny shake. He glances over slyly and rather earnestly.)

But it's true! And anyway, isn't a haunted house much more interesting than a regular house? (He gestures his hands out, like he's offering some helpful explanation.) By the way, if you want to have dinner with me, you don't have to cover it up in facetious remarks. I'll gladly use my first payout here for it.

(Is there a soul in that audience that wouldn't know that, if Shizuo murdered someone, it'd be Izaya Orihara? Either way, no, Izaya brought nothing that isn't his knives and his signature outfit.

He was going to agree, actually, as he leads the way towards the lights, when Shinra runs his goddamn mouth.)

Better your money than mine, wouldn't you say?

(Again, not like it's all he ever wanted? Hot pot with his friend?)

Ah? Why would I say that? (He cants his head and asks in a bit of playful cluelessness. A small roar and flicker of another row of dying flames catches his eye, causing a warm sheen of light over his lenses.)

"Are you ready to be bored?" Saying stuff like that at least makes it feel like we're in a movie, inviting something terrible to happen. ( But nothing terrible will happen, there are no edgy youth being eaten :( )

It was just a way of saying it, but I guess I do have more use for money than you do. Either way, even without a license, I'm sure ADI is going to have plenty of work for you if any of their missions happen to be more dangerous than this.

(Called: Bribing! He's not above it at all, and with money, you can do all sorts of deals. He was pretty wealthy back home with his three safehouses, but here, all he's thinking is how to pull himself back from being absolutely, terribly broke. This is absolutely news to him.)

If you want to be eaten by a creature so much, perhaps I can do an open you up and throw your heart to the crows. Would that quelch your thirst?

Ah, I'd much rather witness it, but would you really give me such a quick death? At least disembowel me and crack open my ribcage so I can be alive while I'm eaten. Besides, crows are a boring option.

(He's taking note of all of this: it's true, he will probably find work very easily. He's been practicing medicine since he was a child, and he doubts any other medical personnel here would have the documentation to prove it. He could make a more "honest" living here— but he prefers helping those who can't quite be helped without questions. It's a good exchange, he won't ask questions, they don't ask questions, he won't report anything, they won't report anything!

Not that he doubts Izaya will work his way up and even get involved in the unsavory to do so.

As they approach the railway, he moves to walk on the center of the tracks, leaving Izaya his room to do whatever balancing or cat-like acts he feels like on them. His eyes stay fixed on the train car ahead. )

Oh, just so you know, I don't want you to be eaten. You're excluded from my fantasies.

But would you be able to go through the pain to actually watch it? Isn't it customary to pass out once your body reaches the threshold? If anything, don't worry - I can take a picture and make it my wallpaper.

(Even if he ever decided to follow through his graduation and take up practice, it's also not like he took his diploma to watch attempted murder. Besides, it wouldn't exactly excite Izaya to just listen to problems all day. He much rather see how his patients deal with things personally, and he'd probably have his license revoked in less than a month.

Good thing he's great at investigating, which seems to be ADI's number one need here.

Shinra knows Izaya too well, because childishly, he hops on the metal with the tip of his toes, almost too gracefully walking alongside the man.)

Ah? Let's look at another possibility then. Let's say there are werewolves hiding in the shadows. If I got bit, what would you do? Mercy murder?

You think I'm selfless enough for that? No, I'd know you want to die, but it's because you're my friend that I'd keep you alive for my sake, even if I had to chain you up. ( Ah, but Izaya isn't the forgiving type like Celty is, he thinks. Or maybe he actually is, in ways Shinra would never know about!)

I guess if you got really mad at me, I'd work tirelessly on a suppressant for you, and it would let me examine you. You'd be pretty unhappy otherwise!

(He'd also be very attractive, this doesn't even need to be said for monsterfucker here. How terrible...for Izaya, not Shinra. Shinra's happiness comes first. :)

He glances down at the steps he takes on each track, wider strides to have his foot meet the rusted steel, walking over the spaces between. )

Edited 2021-08-08 02:46 (UTC)

You know I'd hate you, don't you? If I become anything other than human in this strange new world, I'm a goner. I might be terrified of death more than anything, but if I'm something other than myself, I'm technically already gone either way.

(Which might be truly enlightening to Shinra's own situation. Saika might be something out of Izaya's knowledge right now, but it undoubtedly will make Izaya try as he might return Shinra to his mere human state.

It's too much for him that Shinra is a monsterfucker. He doesn't need to be one himself.)

You'd better do it quick, it's all I'm saying - unless, it changes me forever? Aren't you afraid of that?

(And finally, in the railyard they are. It's clear how the workers avert their eyes towards a railcar in specific, tension building, maybe a corpse is inside?)

Stay here.

So you see it as a ship of Theseus situation, then? If parts of someone are replaced, is it the same person? Then wouldn't someone who merely changes from a traumatic event or gets severe brain trauma also be gone by your standards, even if they're still human?

(Shinra has already been thinking about this—would he lose his only friend here if he found out what's in his possession and being kept away inside of him? Possibly. What does the thought of that make him feel? Hm. He's not going to answer that last question yet, he will annoy him with an answer like, in the middle of the night in fourteen days from now or something.)

Not that I don't appreciate it, but I think I should come with you.

(He's annoying, did you know that, so he's trying to follow right on his heel. :) )

That depends on the person and the severity of the situation, doesn't it? Don't forget, we're talking about me, who is absolutely averse to the supernatural, turning into one, hypothetically. Those two are hardly the same idea.

(No way in Hell, though? Izaya places a hand against Shinra's chest to keep him in an acceptable distance from the railcar, knife on his other hand... Suspense builds and then it flattens once enters and lays eyes upon... Well, nothing truly as they'd hoped.

The Shinra Leash arm drops and he steps into the place, scrunching his nose at the smell.)

It was a bust.

(If Celty were to turn into a human, would he still love her? Would she still be the same Celty? Well, what if she couldn't help it? Shinra can barely handle the thought, and likewise, the idea of Izaya being in a position he'd hate so much would probably totally destroy him. Then again, isn't he kind of always on a trajectory to destroy himself in most ways? Rather, he's like a cockroach that will survive just about anything, though that isn't as much of a given anymore.

He will just be a bit silent for once, motormouth stopping to be actually thoughtful about the situation. No, he still wouldn't mercy kill him! But...

Well, Shinra peers over Izaya's shoulder with that inch he has on him, into the darkness, light illuminating him from behind. He glances behind them to make sure this isn't some setup, then takes a step forward.)

It smells a bit like my stepmother's cooking. (He folds his arms, not bothering to hide his disappointment.)

You know, I guess we can bring some samples back anyway... (He sounds as if he's trying not to laugh! Terrible at it.)

(Look at Shinra, reading Izaya so well. Perhaps the idea of Celty becoming human and Izaya becoming less than are the same intensity to each of the boys - although Izaya wouldn't truly consider Celty human, no matter what.

Oh, well. Put a pin on that conversation, because Izaya is more interested in those posters. The tip of the knife lifts part of one out of the way so he can see the full picture, humming at the sight.)

Perhaps... A Carnival? A ghost carnival? Foreshadowing?

Foreshadowing? (Shinra laughs a little, and it echoes through the cart a bit eerily. Or, well, it should be eerie but it's rather uneventful instead! Disappointing.)

Well, are they hiring for clowns or knife-throwers? Didn't you say you needed a job, Orihara-kun?

(These motherfuckers have seen worse. All Izaya does is to snap a few pictures, flash included, before he hops off the rail with confidence.)

Only if you can be on the spinning wheel while I throw them.

(Good thing Izaya has a spectacular aim.)

(Shinra also hops off after him, though not with the same light-footed grace.)

Haha, if it helps give you confidence to follow your dream, I don't mind supporting my friend in that way.

(He dusts off his coat a bit, the perils of wearing white! And takes off his glasses to begin wiping them with his sleeve.)

So even if you'd be fascinating to study, I would find a way to turn you back into a human for your sake. I thought about it and I hope you can accept my answer.

(Shinra, honey, you're the one who's dreaming weird shit. Izaya would not join a circus, thank you so much?

He thought they had dropped their hypothetical flirting for a second, but Shinra... Shinra looks so genuine in his offer that it stops Izaya on his tracks, eyebrows raised from the unexpected promise. Shinra...? Would have his back?)

... Thanks.

(But he can't dwell on it for too long before the ghosts of his mind start murmuring too loudly, so he's guiding them back to ADI.)

(:) Happily grabs his hand. But it's the one holding the poster so it just crinkles and crumbles the poster.) Oh, whoops.

(He's moving to the other side of Izaya now!)

(What has bitten Shinra? Is his lack of Celty that frightening that it makes him that desperate for contact? He's taken Izaya's hand not once, but twice.

As he walks out of the railyard, his eyes focus on the workers. Ignoring the car, avoiding it, moving past it quickly like they refuse to truly acknowledge it. It's suspicious, and perhaps it's more story-based than what they've seen.

Izaya holds Shinra's hand a little stronger for a second, as to call his attention before he can gesticulate with his head.)

(Yes he hates everything without her and cannot survive without her or a way to go "to" her, there is no Ireland to just chase after in the case of their previous threatened separation, and this is the worst thing imaginable. It isn't even like when he had her to go back to during his long, agonizing hours at school.

A good friend, one that suddenly needs a friend much more when he can't have the object of his obsession right in front of him, what an asshole.)

Did you want to talk to them?

(Too bad for you, dude. Izaya feels a total of zero sympathy towards it, just desperation and joy. If Shinra doesn't have his object of obsession, will his interest change? Will he take more part in the human experience, or will he just obsess about the newest supernatural thing he sees?

To be continued.

Izaya releases Shinra's hand for a second to address a worker, only to have get scraps of information that barely paint a picture. Then the next one. Then the next one. After a good while of this, Izaya sighs heavily and drops his shoulders.)

I think I'll have to take a look at the web for this.

(That's okay, you're stuck dealing with his selfishness and get a front row seat to see how it pans out, Izaya.

He smiles at the scene, fondly, knowing Izaya to be the only person from home as curious and proactive about it as he is, though the feelings and emotions they have involved couldn't be more opposite. He expected the disappointment, and really, this is just a way to check in on Izaya's more tempered state now. He might have been taken from a time where he was willing to commit murder or take a last stand, but he seems cautious and even calm. No Shizuo for now, none of that here.)

Oh well, we gave it our best shot, it can't be helped. (He grabs Izaya by the shoulders, turns him in the direction back toward headquarters, and begins pushing along his back.)

Izaya, those people didn't seem like they were in a trance, right? Or hiding anything? Are they really just ignorant? I guess it's no different than home.

(Yeah, but Shinra isn't another human. Shinra's a person. It's not like Izaya would like to just put him in the middle of somewhere dangerous to see if he calls for Celty or for him.

Not Shinra, at least.

Shinra's touchy, isn't he? He feels like he's been transported back to middle school with how he's moving around, but alas, back to the headquarters it is.)

I think they're avoidant. Didn't see any signs of manipulation.

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TDM #2

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cw suicide mention

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