redstringtheories

Entry tags:

!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.
↬ Main Navigation

Threaded | Flat

1. Arrival
One of the goals of Log Horizon and the whole Round Table Conference is to return people home to the real world. It's what Shiroe's been working toward for months, to get people out of the MMORPG they've been trapped in. And yet, when he finds himself in the copy room of a normal office building, he panics.

Part of it is, he's still in his Elder Tale form, slightly taller than his human self and still dressed in a white cloak, holding his Enchanter's staff, a magic bag at his hip. Part of it is, he's one of the (he assumes) few people who was more content in the MMO than he is in real life. And part of it is the weirdness of having the exact mouse he uses on his computer at home in the hand not holding the staff. Worn in all the right places, fitting comfortably in his hand. He finds himself oddly reluctant to put it down.

Hopefully whoever's arrived alongside him speaks Japanese--his immediate questions of "what's going on?" and "who are you?" are in that language.

2. Silver Ghost
It may be nearly midnight when the crash happens, but Shiroe's nowhere near asleep. He's in his room in housing, reviewing his notes on...everything...when the crash jolts his senses. There's no hesitation; he wraps his cloak around his shoulders, grabs his staff, and immediately heads outside to try to figure out what's wrong.

Yes, he looks like a cosplayer who got lost on the way to the convention center. He hopes that this late at night, that won't matter too much. He'd rather have the cloak and staff and not need them than the reverse.

If he sees other ADI employees headed in the same direction, he'll head with them; four eyes are better than two, even if with his glasses he's a four-eyes on his own.

3. Switchman's Story
In the aftermath of the phantasmal crash, Shiroe hits the books hard, to the point where those coming in to search the archives early in the morning may find him asleep, slumped over an old railway map or set of schematics. Once upon a time, he was an engineering student, and he's pushing himself to try and find an answer almost as if he was the one who'd laid out each piece of rails himself.

When he's not in the archive, he might awkwardly ask around for what anyone else at ADI has heard so far--he's interested in what the railway employees have to say, but apparently he hasn't taken the time to head outside and talk to them himself. "I'm not good with people, not like that" is his standard excuse, sheepishly delivered while scratching his head.

X. Wildcard
Roommate shenanigans? Food fight at the canteen? Bug him about what the fuck he's wearing?

Find me on plurk (

darkersolstice) or Discord (darkersolstice#9463) to plot further! Shiroe's taken from the end of Season 1 of the anime.

𝒾. 𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒾𝓋𝒶𝓁

(Last thing Izaya's seen was Ikebukuro from a rooftop as he awaits his destiny in the form of a blonde man in a bartender outfit. He might not come out of this alive, but he hopes much for the opposite to be true - Shizuo would be the one to fall once and for all, after twelve years of attempts and fights, slashes, vending machines thrown, Ikebukuro in chaos as the two wrecked the town as they sought to strike one another.

Which is the reason why to be in an office in broad daylight all of a sudden is very discouraging. Izaya is sure he can taste his heartbeat and he feels much like he truly had been in a fight with Shizuo, a headache that feels like someone cast a traffic sign right at his temples. His hand stretches for a surface to support his twig-ass body, when his eyes fall upon the papers his fingers brushed against.)

Apocalypse Disruption Initiative? Is this some type of joke...?

(Did someone drug him? Is he hallucinating? What? The? Fuck?)

Hey-- did you see a blonde monstrous man in a bartender outfit, can you point in his direction?

(So that Izaya can go on the opposite one. His plan is going to have to be reworked now. Superb. Hallucinating is no condition to fight in.)

𝓲𝓲. 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓰𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓽

(Interdimensional travel is not something Izaya is generally onboard with. There are unfinished businesses back home, and at the same time, does that truly matter? Here's a new day in a brand new place and there are forces that could very much sway his way when it comes to his hobbies.

Said hobbies are very simple: Izaya loves to see the myriad of human reactions, push them in all sorts of directions to see how they break or strengthen, to observe and love humanity as a whole, no matter how ugly or disgusting it proves to be. Every unpredictable reaction is a feast for the man who currently sits in an ADI room, making notes on his phone out of boredom -if there's no way to return home, he should resume activities and start gathering information on his fellow kidnapees soon enough.

He's sure he can find a way to enjoy this vacation from Tokyo while he works on his return - if that's truly what he decides to do at the end of the day.

Who knows! Not him.

That thought gets tossed to the back of his mind when the screeching and shattering reach his ears, Izaya nearly propelling himself to the window to see what was going on - and immediately noticing that the people on the street seem unimpressed, or unaware. Even some of the workers in the building, it feels like? With eyebrows frowned, he turns to you, his voice always a mix of mockery and charm to go along with an unwavering grin.)

Ah, did you get to see that? I think I'll go follow it.

(It'd be nice to have company. If shit hits the fan, he can leave them and make a run for it. Maybe watch from a high place as the souls consume the person who happens to be with him.

Of course, if that's a thing. Who knows? Not him. He loves that.)

𝒾𝒾𝒾. 𝒶 𝓈𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒸𝒽𝓂𝒶𝓃'𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎

(The greatest advantage of being a master of parkour is how easy it is to climb atop light posts, stairs, and monuments to see where the lights of the flames head.

Izaya descends from his elevated spot, falling on his feet and patting his hands before he motions with his head towards their general direction.)

A railyard, it looks like. Not very well kept, so I'd be careful if I were you. Is it eerie to you? I can go first if that's easier.

(Nevermind that his hand slipped into his pocket, where his switchblade is.)

𝒾𝓋. 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒹𝒸𝒶𝓇𝒹

(Please, feel free to throw anything at me. I'm very easy! Also, feel free to message me at newmeatjb for anything specific if you'd like!)

I. Say, Say O Playmate

[He'd realized what an idiot he was almost immediately after jumping in the slide. William was going to have to blame supernatural forces for that one, because he'd genuinely like to believe he wasn't that stupid. Or maybe he was. Who the fuck knew.

It had been a relief to wind up in the temple, which was at least a place, something he could walk around and inspect. There was no forcing his way out, it seemed, or climbing back out, but at least there was nothing actively attempting to murder him (yet). And there were still the stone circles, and the weird pit -- which were certainly clues, if nothing else.

In the back of his mind, he could practically hear the voice of a long-dead John Kramer: "I want to play a game..."

His head turns when he hears someone else coming out of the slide, and he steps to the side to avoid colliding with whoever might appear. As soon as they land, though, he's stepping forward, checking to see if they're all right.]

You okay?

II. A Switchman's Story

[His flashlight pores over the posters, winding their way over the burnt and charred remains of what must have been a hell of a collection. It isn't until he sees at least a few fragments that he starts to piece together a theme -- the face of a clown, an acrobat's swing, a man in a ringmaster costume.

For a second, he hums the sound of a circus calliope -- da-da dadadada da-da da da -- before turning to his compatriot.]

Wonder if we'll find circus lions or elephants running around next. That'd almost be kind of fun.

Arrival

(It had been a rather unremarkable procedure for the underground Doctor in his "operating room", which happened to be located in his fancy apartment. His fiancée was off taking care of a creeping menace in the city while he was performing his duties, thinking of her safety all the while.

He'd just marked the point of entry and began to arrest the bleeding — all the while merrily chatting a sedated yakuza strongman's ear off about the upcoming Autumnal Equinox Day and his "romantic getaway" plans for it — when he finds himself suddenly in what appears to be a set of ...office space? Right, well, wandering around for a bit.

Kishitani Shinra's hands are still warm under his gloves, blood-soaked at their fingertips, when one lifts up to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he regards a few "workers" with growing confusion.

It isn't like pocket dimensions and liminal spaces aren't an incredibly exciting concept of phenomena for him to study, but he has a job to finish and someone bleeding out on his table, and he has to get paid because he wants to treat the love of his life to a very fancy suite once she's back from her ass-kicking! So, before too much excitement overcomes him in his disorientation, he's acknowledging whoever is nearby while eyeing some files on a nearby desk. So not really looking at the person at all. Doesn't matter if this is an actual workspace or not! This one seems to be...temptingly unattended to. )

I don't mean to bother you. (A pause.) Well, actually I do mean to! Anyway, I was wondering if you could give me a hand here. (In finding any information, or stealing any information, or just whatever. Or telling him which is very much less likely to get them in trouble!)

Silver Ghost

( What a conundrum this is: a trove of exciting and confusing phenomena, or getting back to the love of his life and enjoying their prolonged honeymoon stage. Of course, he doesn't see why he can't have both and refuses this cruel false binary until his beloved can either join him or he can go home, but there are many things to keep him preoccupied.

Like, say, the crushing cacophony of destruction outside that reverberates throughout the entire building and sends the hair on the back of his neck standing up in bewildered excitement. He moves to the nearest window's edge to note the reactions outside, murmurs a simple "huh", and finds himself remarking to the person nearby:)

Seeing as how I am a Doctor... (Not legally.) I should go see if anybody needs help anyway. (After a beat of silence, a slow excitement gleams on his expression.) Hey, have you ever performed surgery? Ah, never mind that, how about first aid? I might need some help, depending on what we're dealing with here.

(Why does he seem gleeful about whatever they might "deal with"--)

A Switchman's Story

( After getting some polite but inadequate replies from railway workers, Shinra will be walking alongside the cars with curiosity, taking in the scent of scorched metal and rust like he's at some sort of michelin star restaurant. His hand, gentle and smooth, traces along the car's outer frame as he walks along to where one of its openings would be.)

So, let's just say that inside, there's a freighthopper. Maybe they're a serial killer, or the shady type that will take your wallet and clothes and tie you up. You know that type, they'll actually keep you, so that wouldn't be too good for us.

(He smiles a bit more cheerful now, like he's just trying to make conversation, perhaps ease the mood a little. Perhaps he's a little too into this next thing he says, who knows.)

Or, let's say there's some sort of beautiful monster waiting inside. It doesn't matter what it looks like— it can be humanoid and shapely or some sort of entity of noxious gas with a semblance of a face. It could be lonely and just waiting for someone to actually say hello for once rather than scream, or someone who wants to take it apart and see how it works.

(He looks over to whatever unfortunate soul is nearby and curious enough to have to hang around him by proxy.)

Which one are you hoping is inside?

(Why are those your only options. Is this some weird game of "would you rather"?)

Wildcard

(Throw anything at Shinra, even physically, please. You can PM me if you're unsure about anything.)

Edited 2021-08-05 18:43 (UTC)

Arrival (I) - Janitor's Closet

[ waking up in strange places is, at this point, more a recurring joke in the life of harry du bois than a shock. at least this time, luckily so, he has not lost all memory of who he is or of the state of reality. he pushes a hand into his face to rub it, rises slowly to his feet, and stumbles his way in the dark to the outside.

only when he shoves the door he does so roughly, with the weight of his body on it. the door slams open with ease and he tumbles out, landing back to the ground face first with a pained groan. ]

[ PAIN THRESHOLD [Medium: Failure] - The still fresh wound you received in the gun fight two days ago roars and pulsates from your hip and courses through every nerve in your body.

PERCEPTION [Trivial: Success] - Someone is nearby, caught in the periphery of your vision as you fell. ]

[ harry seethes, propping himself up on his arms before he turns his head to see the person in the hallway that noticed his drop. time to think of something clever to say. ]

Ow.

[ nailed it. ]

Arrival (II) - Housing (Bonnie's Flophouse)

[ choosing the flophouse is a no brainer. frankly, no one should have to live with him. he would only be a burden and doing odd jobs beats paying rent. he doesn't have much to do in the room however. soon, the circus in his brain starts to pound away and demand he go out. investigate. crack the case of... whatever this case is. he's still processing a lot of what is happening.

so he goes out to the communal space on the ground floor and sees some people already there. time to approach people. ]

[ SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - Let other people do the talking as you initiate. People will tell you what they want to if you give them the space. Everyone *loves* to talk about themselves, even the ones who act like they don't.

AUTHORITY [Trivial: Success] - And remember, present yourself as the law official you are. Even here, you are representing the RCM! ]

Hello there! [ he gives a short wave as he addresses you. ] My name's Harry. I'm new in town - mind if we talk?

Say, Say O Playmate

[ a spooky abandoned playground is right up harry's alley to investigate. he is thorough as he goes around, checking the rusted jungle gym and the depressed swings that look like the chain may fall apart at any moment. then he starts to climb up to the slide. once he gets up he looks down the tube, not noticing anything odd, and a sudden urge comes to him. ]

[ VOLITION [Trivial: Failure] - You should go down the slide. You always liked slides when you were a young boy. It's a tight fit, but you should be able to make it down in one piece. ]

[ harry grins and looks down from the top to wherever his assigned partner is. he settles in, pushing his legs into the tube and shouts: ]

Hey! Check *this* out!

[ and then he pushes himself down the slide... and doesn't come out the other end. ]

[ ooc: in the first arrival prompt, Harry will be speaking French. if you'd like to avoid lost in translation scenes, the second prompt is better for that! and if you're curious about the colored interjections I have an explanation on it you can check out. ]

Arrival

It happens in the fraction of a second between noise and impact, the boom of a gun and the expectation of searing pain that never comes. One second on the ground in the cold rain, at the feet of a trained killer, and then suddenly, not.

He's sprawled on a set of stairs that could be any office building in the world, concrete against his back and legs and under his hands when he reaches out to support himself. He's a big man, well over six feet, dressed in jeans and a turtleneck that should be soaking wet and muddy but are somehow dry again.

"I need to leave. Now." His rough, raspy voice gives words to his first thoughts. There's no blood, not yet, but it's just a matter of time.

There's always blood, eventually.

➥ Say, Say O Playmate

Jaeger picks his way through the brush with careful uncertainty, the movements a man far better suited to the city than the woods. He's dressed for exploration, at least: jeans, a gray turtleneck, and a good, sensible pair of boots. His dark hair glistens with an odd silvery-black sheen in the light, cut nearly military-short to set off a strong jaw and faded denim-blue eyes.

The hundred dollars is a nice perk, but he's more interested in the disappearances. All sorts of strange things live in the woods, and he's set on finding out just what kind of threats these trees hold.

It's a different world, sort of, but some things are very much the same.

The piece of playground equipment in the middle of nowhere? That definitely counts as strange, and a deep frown creases his features before he reaches for his camera.

"It looks like it hasn't been here long," he observes, walking slowly around the slide to get a better shot. "It doesn't seem like there's much else out here."

➥ Silver Ghost

Jaeger is a light sleeper under the best of circumstances, and this is not those. So he's only vaguely dozing in unfamiliar surroundings when the crash catapults him out of bed immediately, rushing to the window to find the source of the chaos.

Flames light the sky, flickering fitfully, though there's no crowd. Not yet. Jaeger is fully expecting the yard to fill with onlookers before long, but it's still early, the first stages of shocked awakening.

Not that there's any question, of course he's going to go check it out. Pulling on his clothes quickly, reaching for his pistol and holster, wondering what kind of disaster it's going to be when he gets there.

Surely someone else has heard the noise, seen the fire. Surely he won't be the only one out there, as he prepares what little gear he has to respond.

➥ A Switchman's Story

Research is part of the job, is part of most jobs that Jaeger has held in his varied careers. He is a scholar at heart, and it's familiar ground for him, so...start at the beginning, with the books and other resources available.

He could get used to this, having a place to go to get his information in order. Archives of the past and present, records of all the strangeness that goes on here. It's almost comforting in its familiarity, the logic and routine that his analytical mind appreciates so much.

Eventually he will have to check out the site itself, this time in the light of day. But that will come a little later- a quiet giant of a man carefully picking over every trace of the empty railway car, taking pictures with cool, professional eyes.

"What are you seeing?" He offers after a minute or two, gazing around at the scant handful of people still scurrying around the railyard.

((OOC: Feel free to PM me or brimstonemuse for plotting, questions, or ideas, or Wildcard! I'm open to pretty much everything.))

i. arrival

[One moment he's in the restroom, washing his face. His hands lingering, covering his eyes, letting the cool water seep in while he tries to get rid of a rush of fatigue.

When his head comes up again, the restroom has changed. The layout, the colors, where the stalls are located, it has all shifted into a completely new room and the sensation is so dizzying he holds on to the sink for a couple of moments. What...?

Carter steps outside into the hallway, a bewildered look on his face as he turns left and right, white coat flying as he does so. Okay. Okay, think. What's the most logical explanation? a) He is asleep. Likelihood: extremely high, though he isn't prone to lucid dreaming. Then again, he feels really disoriented and weird, so maybe he went back to the lounge and lay down? b) Sleepwalking, flashbacks or losing time. He's experienced the latter before but never to such an extent. c) Something else. That one is even worse. He doesn't like the cramping, unpredictable feeling of something else.

There is an almost visceral reaction to the loss of his bearings and the loss of control that comes with it.

Okay. Deep breaths. There has to be an explanation. He'll just play it cool, not make a scene and sort it all out once he's out of here.]

Um. Excuse me? Hi. You work here, right? I'm looking for the exit, must have gotten turned around...

ii. say, say o playmate

Great. A slide. What's next, an evil seesaw?

[Mutter, mutter. Mutter. So he's a bit grumpy, hands in his pockets while he stomps around on the playground. It's not that he's not taking this seriously, really, he is. It's just that this feels like... low-tier stuff. Now Carter is not an expert on documenting the supernatural, and he recognizes that, but he can't help but feel that this is the apocalyptic equivalent of collecting urine samples or transcribing dictations.

Not that he wants to fight monsters! He doesn't! But! Experience or not, it's the ingrained need to elbow his way up and taking pictures just doesn't seem very rewarding. His ambition is tickled, to say the least.]

Do you think they'll still, you know, recognize our efforts if we prove that there's nothing here?

[Probably not. In fact, they'd probably send them on more baby errands like this one if they come back empty-handed. He turns around in a half-circle, suddenly worried that's what they have to do, and nods upwards at the slide.]

Tell you what, why don't I go up there and look like I see something really spooky in the tube and you take a picture of it?

iii. silver ghost

[The noise is ear-shattering and Carter is moving before he can even think, before he's fully awake. He's rushing out there, spurned on by the pained cries, his eyes darting left and right, categorizing, trying to prioritize, to spot the worst injuries, the ones he needs to get to first - but when he makes his choice and hurries over to help it all just slowly... fades away.

It takes a while for the adrenaline to settle. He's walking around outside, a little frantic, sometimes glancing over to the flames leading the way and wondering if he should follow them or not. There's a disturbed look in his eyes, one hand rubbing the tob of his head.]

Did you hear that? Tell me you heard that. Saw that. I--

[He beckons at the flames still lighting the way.]

You see that, right?

iv. a switchman's story

So... we're all thinking it, aren't we? I mean, nobody's saying it, but...

[Carter shifts his weight to climb forward and into the next section of the wagon, looking for anything worthwhile to pick up and investigate further. Now that the nightly terrors have faded, he's simmered down again and looks a lot more recollected. Or maybe he's just coping.]

Ghost Train. Every choo could be your last.

[His hands come up, wiggling dramatically before he quickly reaches out to steady himself on the wall when he almost stumbles over some rubble.]

A terrible accident once derailed this heavy machine and the spirits of its victims haunt the railyard to this day...

[Is he slipping a bit into a trailer guy voice? Maybe.]

i. Arrival;
[ Falling asleep anywhere he can is more of a survival trait than anything else for Evan, but for once he had been in a relatively comfortable position before waking up somewhere completely unknown to him. K had been curled up in the crook of his arm on the ratty Chimeron common room couch. The problem is that, instead of being nudged awake by his partner for falling asleep during whatever they were binging on their phone, he finds himself awake and in some sort of stairwell.

He hates that it's semi-familiar.

Evan squints up at the fluorescent lights, dimly aware that he's somewhere far more modern--more familiar--than Gowpenny Academy for Arcane Arts. The panic sinks in almost immediately after, looking behind him, gaze snapping and head moving to look at the floor in an attempt to try to catch a glimpse of something. He's momentarily circling himself, ridiculously reminiscent of a dog chasing its tail. It would be far more comical if he didn't look so alarmed, brow furrowing under long, unruly black hair, face paler than usual.

His shadow is still there, still safely on the floor. Evan exhales shakily at the realization before tentatively calling out. ]

Hello? [ His voice echoes in the stairway, bouncing off of concrete as he balls his hands into fists. He's a lanky teen, hunched and constantly slouching but clearly over six feet. The wizard robes look completely out of place in his current environment but it's something that barely registers with Evan as he passes one quick glance at his surroundings, takes a deep breath, and begins to move up the stairs, muttering softly to himself. ]

Please just be normal, please just be normal, please just be normal...

ii. Say, Say O Playmate;
[ Evan is currently occupied with staring at the colourful slide as he toes at the ground with cheap, chunky, off brand sneakers. The lanky teen's decidedly against whimsy due to a rather insane school year prior, and a child's playground is full of just that: whimsy but also wonder. Even abandoned, playgrounds hold the promise of anything and everything so long as you have imagination. He's actively against that sort of shit at the moment, truth be told, but hey, what can you do?

The 100 bucks will hopefully be worth it. Evan almost never turns down cash out of sheer necessity. He's uneasy about casting magic on the best of days, but with what he's been told and how he's feeling particularly jittery about his voices and their whispers returning to him, he opts for playing it straight. His stare turns into a squint as he continues to look at slide he and the person who's with him has found seemingly in the thick of the woods. ]

Did you know--uuuh, yeah--the earliest playground slide, at least in the United States, is from the early 1900s?

[ An interesting fact that has no relevance to absolutely anything. He glances over at the person who accompanied him, dark eyes flicking between them and the slide. Should one of them go check it out? ]

iii. Wildcard;
[ If you want a personalized starter or want to plot, go ahead and PM me! Otherwise, feel free to bump into an incredibly creepy-looking 18 year old wherever you desire. ]

A. Arrival - Janitor's Closet -

There's really nothing a person can do to prepare oneself for opening the door to one room and finding oneself completely in another.

It's been a long shift, and honestly, she wasn't really paying much attention to anything at the moment other than her current mission to scrounge up more supplies. She pushed past the door and out of one of the Exam rooms in the ER with the intention of turning down the hall to grab some of the supplies but she doesn't end up in the hall.

No, she's in another room.

What can only be a janitor's closet, from how tiny and cramped it is, and how much it smelled like cleaning materials.

"What the hell!?"

Maybe she really wasn't paying attention and had simply walked into the janitor's closet, even though this doesn't exactly look like their janitor's closet. She must be really tired, okay, that's a sign she needs to finish out her shift and get home, but then as she opens the door to the closet, she finds herself in a hallway.

In an office building.

...that's not the hospital.

"...okay."

It's not okay. She goes back into the janitor's closet again, closes the door, and opens it again.

Still the office building.

"...right. So this is...happening."

B. Silver Ghost -

Abby goes running out into the night. She's an emergency nurse, she knows she can help, this is what she's trained for--her heart is beating rapidly but she thrives in these situations, as terrifying as they were. Being able to help people, to save lives, and--

--and she's halfway into the street when she realizes that it's not real, or at least, not real to guards or something.

"You didn't hear that?" She turns around to the next person nearest her, running her hand across her forehead, utterly baffled. There's nobody running into the streets or anything...was she dreaming? There's no way she was dreaming...

C. A Switchman's Story -

Abby's sitting at a desk drinking probably her fifth cup of coffee that morning. Yeah, so she didn't get any sleep and none of the railway employees are helpful. The only thing she can do is research what ADI has to offer, and that means...newspapers. Lots and lots of newspapers.

If anyone approaches, she'll look up with a wry grin and shrug.

"I'm not really that great with computers. This is easier for me. Yeah, I'm from the ancient stone ages of the early millennium, so sue me."

[ ooc: note that satoko is coming from the anime higurashi no naku koro ni gou, and this top-level contains major spoilers for both higurashi gou and higurashi sotsu! if you want to avoid being tagged/avoid spoilers for higurashi gou/sotsu in general, i have an opt out post you can find here! ]

ARRIVAL

[ How troublesome.

Of course, this situation is a lot more than just troublesome. When Satoko had first realized she hadn’t known where she was, and that she wasn’t in Hinamizawa anymore... at first, she’d felt something close to panic. It was the first time she’s felt that sensation in over a hundred years… and the feeling of losing control isn’t a feeling she particularly wants to experience ever again.

But it’s fine. Because Satoko won’t let a small setback like this get in the way of her goal. After all, the moment she had declared that she would certainly win… was the moment when her victory had been decided.

She doesn’t think that this is just a regular kidnapping. After all, in a hundred years of experiencing all that Hinamizawa has to offer, this has never happened before. It’s even possible that she’s even been pulled into another world entirely… and because of that, she has to be careful. She doesn’t know whether she’s retained the ability to loop in this new place, and because of that, things aren’t as simple as they should be.

It’s been a long time since she’s had only one life… but Satoko isn’t worried. She’s been preparing for a long time in order to get what she wants, and anxiety is an emotion that would only get in her way. Now...

The moment she spots the person with her in this room – some kind of kitchen, it seems, though a small one – she makes a split-second decision. This person might be the one who brought her here, but judging by the confused look they’re making, they’re probably not – unless they happen to be playing dumb. In that case, Satoko will also play her part. Acting as the innocent young girl that she used to be… will probably be the best way to make people underestimate her, and besides – Rika might be here, too. And she can’t have Rika catching onto her too soon, can she? In that case- ]

Umm… [ She starts, her voice sounding just a little timid – though she can feel the weight of the gun hidden comfortably underneath her skirt. ]

W-where is this place? Do you know what's going on?

SAY, SAY O PLAYMATE

[ It’s hard to say what happened, or why she did it. Everything had been normal… Satoko had been investigating the playground, and in the process had climbed to the top of the slide, and… suddenly, the slide had just seemed so… nostalgic? Almost as if it were inviting her in. Just to slide down once couldn’t hurt, could it? It’d just be like old times…

Or so she'd thought, somewhat in a daze. But then the slide went on. And on, and on, and on, and just as her heart had begun to tighten in her chest as the walls closed in on her… she’d finally reached the bottom.

Of course, no matter how much she wondered through the underground complex, it seemed that she couldn’t find an exit at all. She made sure to follow the left side of the maze, knowing that she’d have to find the exit eventually if she did, but as time passed, she could’ve sworn she’d passed that wall already, and… somehow, Satoko began to feel her stomach beginning to twist. Her breathing began to quicken, and every noise she heard began to sound as if it were amplified… as the tendrils of something like fear started to wrap themselves around her.

But it’s fine. Satoko isn’t scared. Even if something is down here with her, and even if she’s hopelessly lost… even if she can’t afford to die anymore - Satoko knows that being afraid won’t help her. So she’s not scared. She’ll find a way out eventually, she just needs to be patient…

And if there’s one thing Satoko is good at, it’s being patient.

…Yet none of that stops her whole body from tensing up as she finally spots another person. ]

Who are you? [ There’s a coldness to her voice as she glares at them suspiciously. Could they know something about what’s going on?

Or if it's someone she recognizes, her eyes widen, and she calls out their name in a tone of disbelief. ]

WILDCARD

[ Feel free to throw anything at Satoko here! I'm also available to plot over at

Rivenix. ]

I. Arrival
One moment, the corridor is relatively quiet, but for the hum of electricity and the low murmur of voices behind an office door. The next moment, there is a low thump that sends dust sifting down from the ceiling, followed by a filthy curse. It's almost as though someone has just been deposited inside the ventilation system from another dimension, and has slammed one or more body parts against the shaft's side in their initial startlement.

Strange, that.

Perhaps you're unfortunate enough to have also been dropped unceremoniously into one of the less-seen portions of the buiding's climate control system, in which case there is a petite woman abruptly too close. The hair spilling over her eyes is of some pale shade, rendered indeterminate by the gloom. It does nothing to soften her scowl as she hisses, "Is this yours?"

Your air duct? Your idea? Your fault? She probably means one of those.

Or perhaps you're passing by, in which case there's a new offworlder to coax down from the ventilation system like a particularly recalcitrant and well-armed feral cat. Good luck?

II. Say, Say O Playmate
The clearing is invisible until they stumble upon it, breaking through a screen of leaves and vines into sudden late-afternoon sunlight. It's empty but for the tube slide, cheap plywood and lurid yellow plastic entirely out of place surrounded by trees. It's not nearly weathered and rotten enough to have been left here to decay along with the rest of the abandoned town - at the very least, it ought to have become a climbing trellis for particularly ambitious vines.

Yelena cocks her head slightly to one side, eyeing what seems, in the moment, to very much be an artifact of her own brief childhood, and slants a gaze towards her partner as though to ask, are you seeing this?

She doesn't wait for an answer, however, before prowling a wide circle around the misplaced monument to free-ranged youth, searching for any sign of a path or other, more overgrown playground equipment. Nothing. Finally, she raps on the side of the slide, brow furrowing. "How old were the missing people, do you remember?"

III. Silver Ghost
Yelena snaps awake at the spine-shuddering shriek of metal, and for the first few moments, she's operating almost on autopilot. Gear, clothing, the little money she's managed to squirrel away. Out of the bedroom, out of the apartment, rushing past any roommates who might have poked their heads out to see what's going on. Once she's reached a relatively safe height on the stairs, she vaults the railing, letting gravity carry her to the ground floor faster than her legs will take her. She's off running almost as soon as she hits the ground, alert enough to at least not collide with anyone else.

It's only once she's outside, feet crunching on slightly-dry summer grass, that it hits her. The stink of heated metal and seared flesh, the groans of the injured, those are familiar, those are correct for - not an explosion, she's witnessed just enough of those to know that the sounds were wrong, occurred in the wrong order - a disaster. But there's something missing. Despite the glow of the streetlights to show the power's still on, the town beyond the ADI compound is not lighting up like a beacon. There are no wailing sirens drowning out the wailing people.

"Something's wrong," she says quietly, and though she's almost certainly speaking to herself, it's loud enough to hear.

IV. A Switchman's Story
The something wrong is, apparently, that the - crash? it was probably a crash. The crash occurred long before any of them got here. After the third repetition of "I just started here", Yelena abandons questioning to those less physically adventurous in favour of inspecting the rusting tracks and decaying train car. She slips in through the half-fused door, the beam of her heavily-weighted flashlight bobbing as she scrambles over detritus best left unidentified, and struggles not to cough at the haze of dust and ash in the air. That the burnt-out hulk is ancient is clear enough. So too is the fact that it was once a sleeper car, and she supposes it's fortunate that some long-ago rescue crew has already removed the bodies, even if no one's bothered to haul the car away.

(Or would it not have been here yesterday, if anyone had taken it into their heads to explore the railyard, she can't help but wonder.)

She runs a finger carefully along the lip of the washbasin, then turns her attention to the walls, squinting at the ruined posters. After a moment, she pulls her phone out of her pocket, and starts recording. Most of posters and playbills are destroyed beyond any use, but some few might yield more information on closer inspection, somewhere that feels less like a tomb and doesn't force her to take shallow breaths.

It doesn't take long for the theme to become apparent even in the few posters that remain.

"It's like a bad joke," she says, glancing back over her shoulder towards some fellow explorer. "Or Bradbury."

a. arrival.
[ Life's a funny thing, really. One second you're playing the waiting game in a lifeless white room, and the next you're in what is clearly some big wig's executive suite. It's disorientating, and it takes several seconds for his eyes to adjust to the comparatively dim lighting.

This isn't the room he was in. No, more than that, he's never seen this room at all. Rio knows every nook and cranny and hidden passage and trap and lifeless office in the facility. This isn't one of them. He frowns behind the cheerful expression card that hides his face. That doesn't make sense, though. People don't simply teleport from one room to another, much less to an entirely different facility.

The Dressup Doll, looking as though he's taken pieces from several very different sets to create his current outfit, turns to where his Vice Floor Master should be standing on the other side of the room across from here. ]

Hey, Safalin, what--

[ --and stops abruptly when he realizes that it's another person entirely. Rio blinks, increasingly perplexed. ]

Whoops. Wrong person... Uh, which one are you again? You bastards all blend together after awhile.

[ A lie, of course. He knows each and every one of the participates, and it'd just be idiotic to not even know your coworkers. But he's not quite ready to say that outright. ]

b. say, say o playmate.
[ An underground passage. It reminds him of some of the games that had been set up. There's something there too, he's sure of it - just out of the corner of his eye, just outside of his vision, but he has the distinct feeling that his efforts would be repaid if he tried hard enough to find it.

Well, suffice to say the doll isn't interested in. No, he may not be well-versed in the supernatural, but he's not a fool. ]

Hmm. I guess just crushing anyone stupid enough to slide down would be kind of boring, huh? Walls closing in is pretty overdone.

[ He muses, taking another turn. When he notices his companion, he'll add: ]

It's way more fun if the person thinks they can escape. Don'tchya think?

[ Which, despite the light tone, he's shaken to his core by the possibility that he might not. ]

c. a switchman's story
[ After wasting so much time talking to workers who were largely (and by all means, rightfully,) focused on their job, it was an fairly simple decision to take the matter of investigation into his own hands. There's no particular reason, it's just how these things go. Besides, he's curious. For a doll who never truly seen the world, yet had been imparted with every necessary piece of knowledge, every experience is at once old and new. It's exciting and a little scary.

Now if only there weren't so many annoying humans around, it'd be about perfect.

As it is, he takes stock of the inside of the train car - looking as though someone had just lit the entire place flame and left it burning until everything in it was razed. Curious, given the lack of external damage. ]

Yeesh! What a mess.

[ His free hand, not holding his expression card up, rubs at the back of his head, speaking to no none in particular: ]

Looks like somebody took a blowtorch to the joint.

Edited 2021-08-09 23:45 (UTC)

💫 Arrival
(cw: reference to eating people)

Denji had been moping around his apartment, having just recently finished consuming the meat of the Control Devil. The taste is still in his mouth, he's barely had time to do anything else to move on from this event. But suddenly, it's like a hole has sucked him up and he's - somewhere else? A very stuffy, closed space of somewhere else. He seems to have arrived in a dusty closet. It's obvious that nobody's been here in quite awhile. His nose itches as he looks around, reaching his hand underneath his shirt to pull the cord, but then he spots someone else. They're too up close and personal, considering the space allotted in here, and he makes a big deal of backing up against the wall.

"Hey, give me some breathing room, yeah? Why are you so close?"

He acts as if it's either of their choices to be there.

💫 Say, Say O Playmate
(cw: reference to blood drinking)

Denji had been very excited to find a slide. That was, until he acted entered it with a whooping sound - because it ended up being a long, plastic tunnel that he couldn't get out of. And now this business with landing in a temple? No, that wouldn't do at all.

First thing he needs to work on is retrieving that bag, drinking the blood and powering up to get out. Except it seems to be impossible to get to it? It's too large a pit. Still, he stands on the edge of it, trying to reach over. Might be good to stop him.

💫 Silver Ghost
(cw: reference to honorary fratricide)

The screams are reminiscent of those that came from the Gun Devil's rampage. Denji doesn't like this at all - he doesn't want to remember killing someone that was like his brother. So he swallows the nausea of the memories and hurries out of the ADI. This in itself is a bit anxiety raising, as he's barely left since he arrived. Especially not since he ended up in that temple. He can't imagine good things coming from leaving this time, either, but he can't just leave it alone.

But everything seems to be fine outside? So he just stands there in the street, looking utterly dumbfounded.

"Can you believe the tricks this place plays...?"

Edited 2021-08-10 00:22 (UTC)

arrival.

[ Not long after escaping death's clutches, Ramuda finds himself waking up in a place completely unfamiliar to him. He blinks blearily as he gets up from the ground into a sitting position. He looks absolutely exhausted, but it is not enough to hide the confusion on his face as he tries to make sense of what's going on. It looks like he's in some kind of fancy building with a receptionist desk directly in front of him? Huh. Weird.

Before he can get a word in, though, he's immediately grabbed by a group of total strangers who, in English, insist on him going with them to receive medical care. Ramuda, however, yells in Japanese: ]

Tch -- what are you doing?! Let go of me!

[ His voice is quite deep, considering that he has the appearance of a young boy. Weird. It's obvious he's not having any of this, but he also looks very unwell. Hopefully there's someone around who can calm him down. ]

silver ghost.

[ There's no way that the crash goes unheard. It's loud, thunderous -- Ramuda's eyes shoot open when it happens, and he's immediately intrigued. It's about time something like this happened in a place like this, after all.

He walks outside, looking perhaps a little too intrigued and not concerned enough. Ramuda pops what appears to be a small lollipop into his mouth and exits the housing area. He taps his chin with his index finger and looks up at whoever's also heading towards the scene, voice childlike and curious: ]

Hey, what do you think happened just now? That sounded pretty scary, didn't it?

[ His voice is notably higher than it was when he first arrived. He's also looking a hell of a lot better after getting some medical attention.

More importantly, though: The scene before them, he's realizing, is unusual. It's like nobody else has noticed anything, which is pretty eerie in itself. Life is going on as usual, but not as it should. ]

Hmmm. It looks like nobody really seems to care, though! Or maybe they just haven't noticed... What do you think~?

a switchman's story.

[ Ramuda isn't particularly interested in solving the mysteries of this particular situation, but he would like to learn more about the circumstances surrounding his arrival as well as the world they're in. He feels a little aimless here and doesn't know what to do with himself, so he may as well try to make himself feel a little useful, too.

He decides to talk to some of the railway employees to see what they have to say in regards to the crash. They don't seem to know a thing, nor do any of them seem to want to work here. They're new to this location and already want to leave, hm? Interesting. It's a shame he can't really get a reason out of them, though.

Anyone passing by may see him waving excitedly at one of the employees as he starts walking away, wearing a bright smile on his face. After he gains some distance away from the employee, though, his smile immediately curves into a frown. He stuffs one hand into a jacket pocket and lets the other one lightly twirl the stick of the lollipop in his mouth. He mumbles something to himself: ]

Damnit. There's a lot that isn't right about this place... I can't figure any of it out.

[ He has that deep voice of his on again, too. ]

wildcard.

[ Feel free to toss anything else at me! Also, Ramuda looks very young but he's actually 24! ]

Threaded | Flat

QUESTIONS

Shiroe | Log Horizon

Izaya Orihara / Durarara!!

Det. William Schenk | Spiral: From the Book of Saw | OTA

Kishitani Shinra / Durarara!!