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redstringtheories2021-09-05 08:32 am
TDM #3
(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: animal death, both human and animal butchery, implied cannibalism, potential for flesh/small limb removal)
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 characters who venture into Dogtown will eventually stumble across what seems to be an abandoned camp. Its usage is fairly obvious: the remains of a hunting camp. And remains really is the operative word, considering that whoever used the camp wasn’t particularly fastidious about cleaning up after themselves. There are bits of various animal carcasses strewn around and by the looks of things the prey of these hunters was quite varied. Not all of them are prey animals either.
Stepping into the camp seems to have an effect: anyone who passes over the threshold to investigate will find themselves powerfully driven to mark themselves - or their partner - with lines that seem to indicate where a butcher might cut. There are black, red, and white paint pens littered around the camp that are perfect for this exercise. As they proceed, they will get the sense that once the lines are completely drawn, something will be coming along to make use of them.
Staying too long after those marks are completed - either through curiosity or through some other force - will result in a sudden unconsciousness. And when you wake up? (If you wake up…) Well. It seems the butcher has returned and taken just a bit more flesh. At least the wound is properly dressed, though. Thank goodness for small mercies.
(cw: altered perceptions and unreality/hallucination, body horror, dissociation, wounds, cancer, stalking)
Something is wrong with the mirrors.
Everywhere around Gloucester - at ADI headquarters, in ADI housing, at Bonnie's Flophouse, even in the bathrooms of mundane businesses (and, presumably, the homes of the innocent and uninvolved), looking in the mirror has become...risky. It's not predictable; it doesn't happen every time and may or may not happen to any given person the same way twice, but look into the reflection and you may see something that should not be there.
Perhaps your own reflection has changed, a face (human or monstrous) you don't recognize looking back at you, eerily in sync as though it has every right to be your true reflection… or un-synced from your movements, smiling knowingly at your distress.
Or maybe you still see your own face, but something about your body is warped, wrong: a growth or a seeping wound you can't find on your own physical form but that exists glaring and insistent in your reflection and feels, somehow, as though it's there in phantom form.
Maybe it's a pair of eyes watching from over your shoulder, hiding in the shadows, peering at you from every mirror you pass. Is it watching you from your reflection in that window, too? Is it growing nearer?
Possibly there's nothing wrong with your reflection at all, but the reflection of the room behind you stretches and twists, a view into an impossible, broken world that leaves you dizzy and wandering, lost down an imagined maze of hallways or following a phantom figure until someone else can snap you out of it.
Something is wrong with the mirrors. Best not to look again, lest you find out what else they have to show you.
(cw: hallucination, hypersomnia, vehicular accidents, potential for injury)
The summer is fading, and businesses around Gloucester have taken note. Fall decorations go up, and even some very early Halloween decor is on sale. The air is crisper in the mornings and evenings, the ocean breeze just a bit stiffer. There also seems to be a new melody floating around the town, one that leaves people feeling fatigued, heavy. Did you hear a snatch of it near the docks? Something that's vaguely familiar to you, nostalgic, almost. Maybe it's more a memory?
That song or memory seems to grow stronger when approaching the graveyards scattered throughout Gloucester. So, too, does the fatigue. Wouldn't it be nice to just sit down and rest? To close your eyes and let every worry that troubles your mind be soothed into the quiet oblivion of sleep?
Those most affected might find themselves passing out, and they always seem to do it when they are putting themselves in the most danger. You might drop while crossing a busy street or while riding a bike or some other wheeled mode of transportation. Those who investigate will find that traffic accidents seem to have seen an uptick recently, associated with the onset of these haunting tunes. They seem to be focused on the graveyards, but there's nothing immediately apparent there that might be causing problems.
Drink lots of coffee, and be careful trying to do anything. Stepping outside could be the last thing you do.
- ARRIVAL (Sep 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.
- THE BUTCHER'S CAMP (Sep 1- 24): Characters will only encounter the camp once. Everyone will feel the compulsion to draw carving lines along their own skin or that of the person they're with. If they stick around for long enough, they will pass out and may not wake up again. Those who do wake up will find that a piece of their flesh is missing and the wound has been bandaged. Whatever is taken will be non-fatal, but it will likely be inconvenient (e.g., some part of their calf or forearm, perhaps a finger or toe). Once ADI is made aware of injuries happening, they will stop sending people to Dogtown for training and only send people with the understanding that this is a potentially dangerous mission. 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. Similarly, injuries will not magically disappear. If your character loses a chunk of themselves, it is gone unless they can find someone who might be able to magically heal them. No one at ADI will offer this service, just mundane medical assistance. Magical healing is reserved for fatal injuries given the price of it!
- MIRROR, MIRROR (Sep 1- 24): Characters may encounter a mirror effects multiple times, and may experience the same effect each time or different ones. As noted in the prompt, there is no apparent rhyme or reason to when any particular mirror exhibits any particular effect. Within the first week of the effects becoming known, ADI will cover all the mirrors within their headquarters and send out an advisory for characters to do the same in their homes. Characters who experiment and/or interview locals will, after a lot of legwork, be able to ascertain that the effects seem to be most concentrated on the west side of town, nearest the empty fields where the Fenix Down Extravaganza had set up their circus tents last month, with additional concentrations around ADI-affiliated buildings and Bonnie's Flophouse. Mirror effects will gradually grow less frequent over the course of the month and cease to occur after the 24th.
- HAUNTING TUNES (Ongoing Effect): The tunes will be oddly familiar to the character, even if they are not from modern Earth. There are currently no ill effects from the song apart from inducing fatigue in characters. They can fight it off with coffee/caffeine, or other things they'd typically use to wake themselves up, but that tiredness always returns. An examination of the graveyard will not turn up a specific source. It just seems to be something there.
Jester Lavorre | Critical Role
Common, luckily, is a whole lot like English, to the point where Jester could understand most of what she could hear people saying from under her in the vent she appeared in. Mostly just vague day to day conversations about 'catching the show last night' or filing reports. It's context she's missing. Basically all of the context really, since one moment she was on her way to Nicodranas to start an exciting new life as a pirate and the next she was crawling through what felt like one of the weird metal tubes in Aeor, though thankfully far less cold.
She moves for a little while on her hands and knees, stopping to peek through grates and see who she can see. A lot of humans mostly, all in weird clothes, but it doesn't take long for her to find someone who looks a little out of place like herself, even if they're in weird clothes too. Deciding to finally face her predicament head on, Jester pops the grate out of the air duct she's been crawling in and pokes her head out and down into the room upside down.
"Hi! I'm Jester!"
Have fun with an inverted blue girl with curled horns sprouting from the sides of her head suddenly greeting you from the ceiling, friend.
2. The Butcher's Camp
It was hard enough figuring out how much gold was really worth once she'd gone out in the world back home. Now she has to figure out how much this place's paper money is worth too. It seems like its worth a lot less. Maybe like... silver? But there's three kinds of silver coins too, and the smaller one is worth more than the bigger one but the biggest one is worth more than both but the paper is worth...
Whatever. A hundred of anything has to be enough to get some cupcakes.
"So what exactly are we supposed to do with what we find? Just document it, right? I can do drawings, I'm really good at drawing." Of course she has her phone too but it's still not the first thing that comes to mind. Besides, she'll want to document all of this in her sketchbook anyway. She's already made drawings of the weird straight buildings and cars and a stray cat that didn't look anything like Frumpkin but made her think of Frumpkin and Caleb and everyone all the same...
"And what do you think we'll find anyway? Something spooky obviously, but spooky like a ghost or like a zombie or-" She gasps suddenly. "Oooohhh I hope it's not like the the gross flesh people in Cognoza that was so. Gross."
And so very sad. But mostly gross.
3. Mirror, Mirror
The room behind Jester spins slowly, turning as if a spiraled windchime in a gentle breeze but viewed from above, turning at odd angles and twisting in distorted shapes that elongate at one end as if being sucked down a drain. As she stares into her reflection, the corners of her form start to do the same. Stretching, deforming into blurs of color, and she imagines she can feel it too. Pulling at her face and hair, pulling at her clothes, her shoulders, her body. She morphs and twists and her stomach twists too and a moment later she finds herself on the floor with no recollection of how she went from standing to prone.
In the middle of a crowded cafe. In front of the dessert case.
She sits up, hand against her head, and glances again at the reflective surface of the case protecting all of the cakes and pastries and sees nothing out of the ordinary besides her newly charmed disguise of a freckled human girl with dyed blue hair. "W-what...just happened?"
4. Haunting Tunes
Fall in Nicodranas is typically the same as any season in Nicodranas. Growing up where she did, she didn't see a dramatic change in seasonal weather terribly much until getting out into the world with the Nein. She recognizes this as fall, though, and is even more delighted by the smells of cinnamon and confections that seem to come with it in the local culture. Pumpkins everywhere!
Her arms are loaded with bags brimming with pastries and candy, as well as candles and lotions that smell as if they could pass for either as she heads back to ADI in order to drop off her bounty when something else catches her ear. Music here has been strange too. Interesting, to be sure, but the use of what she's found to be called 'electric' instruments gives much of what's on the tv or radio an alien feel. The music that catches her ears now is different. Familiar in a haunting way as it evokes the floating gems of the Opal Archways and banners flying on feast days. It calls her not just in ear, but in heart.
A creature of impulse, Jester turns her feet and follows the sound, dreamily tracing the melody towards the sea. As she walks down the lane, arms laden and eyes directly forward with a glassy look, she doesn't really pay much attention to where she's going. After all, cars and busses are the trappings of another world, one far away from Wildemount and Lavish Chateau.
Even the frantic, rapid honking of an oncoming truck doesn't snap her out of her daze.
5. Wildcard
[ Come at me, bro! I'm new to playing Jester but I'm v. excited to have threads! Jester's disguise as given to her by the ADI is basically the same as her tiefling appearance physically only human, with freckles and skin on the darker side. She retains her blue hair, though it looks as if she's dyed it. ]
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And then he hears the sound of something up above him. The doctor's eyes track to the ceiling, then a suspiciously large grate, just before something pops out of it. John whips his gun out and levels it at the horned... girl? Vent-based cosplayer.]
What are you doing up there, Jester?
[He keeps his weapon fixed on her, expression blank. What the actual bloody hell is happening here? Is this- has she been kidnapped, as well?]
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[ She eyes the gun briefly but with unfamiliarity. She maybe knows with it is - Veth has something like it - but mostly it just looks like a hunk of metal with a hole in it. ]
I'm going to get down now, okay?
[ With that small warning, she starts to try and wriggle around to get her feet out first. Instead, she ends up dropping unceremoniously to the floor in a tangle of skirts and limbs; limbs which include a tail tipped in a spade shape. ]
Oww!! You should have caught me, you know! But I'll forgive you.
[ She rubs her shoulder, righting herself to at least be sitting in front of him instead of in a heap. ]
So are you from here? What's your name?
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Dr. Watson. Not from here. You'll want to keep your voice down. Reckon we've been kidnapped.
[He gives her another long look.]
Are you hurt at all? What's the last thing you remember?
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[ Since he's not going to help her up she sighs and just gets up herself, dusting off her skirts. ]
If we're kidnapped, they did a pretty bad job since we can just walk around and stuff. Kidnapped usually means you've been tied up and gagged or whatever.
[ She should know. ]
The last thing I remember is walking down the dock in Nicodranas and when I went through the door to the lower deck on the Nein Heroez I was in that weird spider tube instead. I'm not hurt though. Are you? I can heal you if you are. Though I guess you might have already if you're a doctor.
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Yeah, that did cross my mind. Not hurt, just getting my bearings. You stay here. I'm going to take a look outside the room. See what sort of layout we're dealing-
Wait. You've been crawling around in the vents. Were you able to see anything?
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A bunch of people in different boring rooms talking about something called tv or other boring stuff. Everything in here is grey and boring.
[ She waves her arms. ]
I don't think they look much like slavers or pirates or anything though. None of them even had any tattoos that I could see. Just a bunch of papers.
[ She grins, her tail swishing conspiratorially. ]
I think one of the rooms was kind of an office? I could see a desk anyway. We could go there and steal the papers since papers always have some kind of information, right?
[ This is why she and Nott - Veth - are the best detectives. They definitely have big wrinkled brains. But man, Veth the Best Detective Agency doesn't have the same ring to it as Nott does in the same name. Boo... Oh well. ]
If you give me a boost I can pull you up in the tube after me. I'm pretty strong.
[ She pulls up one sleeve and flexes to show him a surprisingly defined bicep. ]
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Yeah, well, I'm guessing it's an office building. That's just... how they look. And we can take a glance over the documents, but it might not be a good idea to steal them, depending. I've got my phone if we need to document anything.
[And then she's asking to be boosted up and this seems like a terrible idea, squeezing through vents, but it might be the safer option just until they have more information. John sighs and holsters his gun in the back of his waistband. Whatever they do, they can't stay in this closet forever. He'd rather pick where he's coming out than have to deal with this one spot.
He goes down on one knee and laces his fingers, ready to accept her foot when she steps up onto his thigh.]
Be careful. I don't want you cutting your hands on the edge of the vent.
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[ She winks at him to show its a joke and steps where he's ready for her. She might not have needed to push a bit on his head as she pulled herself up the rest of the way, but she does that too. For fun. Once in the vent though, she encounters a small problem. ]
Uhh... you're going to have to grab my foot, I don't think I can turn around in here.
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Just... move.
[He looks to a nearby shelf of supplies, then proceeds to scale it.]
Go on. I'll catch up with you.
[After reaching to catch the edge of the vent and haul himself up. It's more physical activity than he's done in a little while, and he'll be paying for it later, but there's something about this that gets his blood thumping right. Like it's just been sludge in his veins for weeks and now it's finally thawing out.]
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rolled a dirty 20 for her stealth lol
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Most of her attention is on the wooded area around them, on scanning the shadows for movement or the glint of eyes or weaponry, but she shoots Jester a sidelong look and asks after a moment, "Aren't most people made of flesh?"
Do you come from a robot world, strange new partner?
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To distract herself, Jester pulls her sketchbook from the bright pink backpack she insisted on bringing with her. Along with it comes out a stick of charcoal. She brandishes them to Yelena as if it will solve everything. "There, all prepared for whatever we find."
She tucks the book under one arm and regards her partner for a moment. There's a tenseness to her, something like Beau and her constant readiness. It's comforting just as much as it's curious. "You seem like you've done stuff like this before. Like... you're prepared for anything."
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Out loud, she says, "So you're not from a robot world. I think I might be disappointed. That would be much cooler than flesh cities." There's an almost teasing note to her voice, and she offers a friendly smile, as though there isn't a part of her writhing with morbid curiosity.
It isn't relevant to the task at hand. She won't pry. Not now, anyways - if they're all stranded here indefinitely, there will be future opportunities.
"I'm prepared for many things. This place...it likes to hide dangers as harmless things. That's probably why ADI likes to use it as a testing ground so much."
cw: gore
Honestly there's something about Yelena that Jester finds comforting. Maybe it is that feeling of readiness, one she's used to traveling with the Nein. Most of the others always had their head on a swivel, eyes and ears alert for danger. She's tried to do her part too, of course, and she does contribute, but its still a relief to have more than just her two eyes alert.
"They said it wouldn't be too dangerous though. And the money is good... right?" It seems like it might be? She's so bad with that...
The sudden and overpowering stench of blood and viscera stops Jester in her tracks and she makes a retching noise, immediately bringing her sketch book to cover her face. "That's disgusting! Do you smell that?"
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"I think we've found our trouble," she says grimly, throat working as she shallows her breathing, trying hard to ignore the fact that she can almost taste the foulness on the air. "Do you have any chalk in your bag, or only the charcoal?"
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Huh. Wild. She smiles brightly and gives a coy little wave.] Our very first tiefling. Welcome to earth, dear.
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[ Jester disappears for a moment back into the tube and then comes out feet first. She hits the floor with one foot before the other and stumbles but manages ultimately to stay upright. ]
You're the first person I've seen who's not a human too, so that's exciting! What's your name?
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[Aelwyn steps forward to help her when she sees her stumbling but lowers her hands with a approving hum when she sees her manage it by herself.]
There's a couple of us here. Not many, but a few. One of us is a cat and I think we've got a god that's just sort of sitting around?
I'm Aelwyn. Aelwyn Abernant. [She offers a hand for a handshake.] It's delightful to meet you.
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[ She can just planeshift home, right? ]
How are they shady if they're trying to do good stuff like disrupt the apocalypse? That sounds like a good thing to do.
[ A cat. Maybe like Frumpkin? ]
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[She's not even sure if planeshift would work, to be honest. Aelwyn's never tried because she's never cared to leave.]
Oh, the mission's very noble. It's just we don't know much about their actual intentions and involvement with us arriving here. Generally when you get kidnapped out of your world and wind up in a strange office building, you're gonna suspect them right?
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That makes sense. Only it's kind of weird to kidnap people and then just let them walk around, right? Shouldn't they like... I don't know, lock us up, if they're doing it on purpose? And why an office?
[ Many questions... ]
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All I'd say is keep your wits about you.
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[ Jester grins and presses a finger to her lower lip. ]
Sooo... what do you do for this shady-but-benevolent organization?
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[Don't... don't ask.]
They give you a free apartment, though, so I can't complain.
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He's about to continue looking until he catches Jester's second sentence. "...flesh people?"