![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsehowmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
redstringtheories2021-09-05 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.
beauregard lionett | sorry it's more critical role oops
[All things considered, Beau's pretty fuckin' used to waking up places she doesn't remember falling asleep. It's been much less since she started traveling with the Nein, but that doesn't mean that it won't take her a few seconds to rouse with a mumbled 'what the fuck' before she does.
This time, though, there's no other bodies around her to remind her of what's going on, and that's surprising. In fact, she's not boxed in just about anywhere. It looks like she's just lying in the middle of the hallway and went from lying flat as a board to upright and on her feet in about 3 seconds. Sorry if you happened to be in said hallway to notice this, especially because she's very muscular and is approaching you at top speed.]
Hey! Where the hell is this and what did you do to get me here!
[Oh no, her hands are fists already. Better get some words fast.]
ii. butcher's camp
[Now this is something Beau is far more used to. People might have questions seeing someone in the common day walking around with a staff strapped to her back, but walking into Dogtown must mean she knows what she's doing... or look like it, at minimum. Her eyes are sharp as she looks over the camp, nudging one of the carcasses with her boot.]
Looks like a bear ran through here. Or a dragon. Ugh.
[Ew, it's gross. She turns, one hand still on her staff as if something's going to jump out at her immediately.]
Are we sure this isn't just a trap?
iii. mirror, mirror
(cw: blood, glass injuries, body horror mention)
[This isn't the first time that something's been watching her through unseen eyes. Beau has spent a significant amount of time feeling incredibly watched before she even came here, but it's becoming much stronger these days, a lot more harrowing. Beau finds herself checking places there used to be prying eyes on her very body, scratching at the back of her hand, feeling for her shoulder. They're not there, not anymore, but she can still feel them just under her skin.
It's when she finally does catch a glimpse of her reflection and sees it lit up with eyes, bulging like Cree did before she transformed, it's the quickest reaction in the world to shove her fist right into the center and shatter it.
Her hand is bleeding immediately, bits of jagged mirror splitting out in places, but other than holding the wrist of her injured limb she still seems focused on the remains of the mirror, using her boot to grind a fragment on the ground into smaller pieces.]
Damnit.
iv. haunting tunes
[If you happen to find yourself drawn to the graveyard by any of these spooky sounds, you might find a girl there who looks a little... no, pretty insane at the moment. She's got some kind of paper shoved into her ears, is crouching like a gargoyle on a particularly crumbled grave, and still seems to be nodding off as both of those things are happening. A few moments later, her resolve seems to fail and she starts to tilt towards the ground, only to hit it, become a tangled mess of flailing limbs, and then be up on her feet again with bloodshot eyes.]
I WASN'T SLEEPING!
[She probably doesn't even know you're there, nor could she likely hear you very well even if she did. That just seems to be words to the universe, for some reason. Who knows who she's trying to convince.]
[OOC: Hit me up via PM or through Plurk at
butcher's camp
And to be fair, she's got every right to be nervous considering all this. ]
Um, I don't know much about this sort of thing, but if you think something's a trap, isn't that a good sign that it's actually a trap? Maybe?
[ There's a little hesitation in her voice as she talks. ]
no subject
Could be. 'Mm just saying, this looks like someone's trying to get a big animal to come here and have a snack.
[And uhhh, she doesn't want to be that animal snack, and this kid probably shouldn't either. She takes her staff off her back, using it to poke and turn over another meaty something on the ground.]
You see anything? Around or coming, I'm not picky.
no subject
Nothing, [ she admits, with a small frown. ] Um, there's another body in the distance but I don't...it doesn't look like it's moving.
no subject
Beau sighs, continuing to look around the ground.]
Well, then it's probably not coming.
[She takes another step and feels something underfoot, reaching down and picking up a paint pen... which to her looks like nothing she recognizes.]
The hell is this?
Mirror Mirror
[Both seeing things in the mirrors and lashing out against what they see. Meredith steps closer, gesturing to Beau.]
Let me see your hand?
no subject
What're you going to do? They said no healing magic here.
[She's already picking out little bits of glass with her other hand, because she's felt worse pain than this and at this point she's so covered in scars this might as well just be another Tuesday.]
no subject
[Beat.]
Mess up a hand, I mean. Pardon my language.
no subject
Use the right words to describe the situation. It's pretty fucked up.
[She looks back down at her glass-filled hand with a gaze that's more disappointment than it is pain or fear.]
If you know how to do that, go at it, I guess. Otherwise I can take care of it.
no subject
There's a lot that's fucked up here, I'm afraid. I'm not sure if saying 'you get used to it' is really reassuring, when you examine it. Here, can you wiggle your fingers for me, one at a time?
no subject
[After you've fought an entire planet made of flesh your tolerance for what counts as 'fucked up shit' is... eh, let's just say 'it is'. She does as Meredith asks, moving her fingers one-by-one as best she can. Her hands are already full of little nicks and scars, so any new wounds don't seem to be out of place.]
Haunted mirrors and fear gods aren't new. Even if it sucks.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
iv. haunting tunes
[ Truth be told, Jester was kind of waiting for Beau to fall asleep so she could draw on her face. Then she would definitely wake her up since this can't be safe at all, sleeping in graveyards. Except the Blooming Grove. But is that a graveyard or a cemetery? Caduceus told them once but she doesn't remember what he said.
Her attention back to what's going on, she laughs a little from her position on the ground next to her friend. Her form is maybe a bit unfamiliar; a deeply tan, be-freckled human. At least she gets to keep her blue hair since the humans here dye it like Caduceus does. Or maybe not like him, since they don't use cool moss to do it, but close enough.
She laughs a little at the state Beau has put herself in. ]
Man, you look so crazy right now.
hell yeah hell yeah
Not as crazy as you. Can't believe they wouldn't let you look like Fiona Fancypants.
[She sighs as she crosses her legs, taking the paper out of her ears and trying to get comfortable on the ground-- but not too comfortable, lest she pass out.]
Well that didn't work. Must be some kind of psychic thing.
no subject
[ She digs around in her pockets for a moment and produces a crumpled but clean paper napkin with 'Dunkin' Donuts' emblazoned on it. ]
Here, you have dirt all over your face. And I think it's like that too, since only one person seems to hear it at a time, right? Cause I heard it yesterday and it made me really sleepy but I'm okay today.
[ As if on cue, she stifles a yawn. ]
...Mostly.
no subject
[As if her mom would've done that, ha ha, ect ect ect. She still lets Jester smush her face with the napkin without further complaint though, snickering at the yawn.]
Sounds like you don't need a song in your head to sleep. Meanwhile I feel like I haven't slept in days or something.
[She yawns back inadvertantly after seeing Jester, and frowns.]
See, look, you're spreading it!
no subject
[ With little preamble, Jester grabs for Beau's hand and tugs as she stands, trying to get the monk to come with her. ]
Getting all gross with grave dirt isn't going to help you solve anything, anyway.
[ Besides, she misses rooming with Beau, especially in the ADI building where everything is still weird and different. ]
no subject
Maybe that's what it wants. It wants me to dig myself into the ground and take a dirt nap. And if so they picked the wrong one, call Caduceus, for fuck's sake.
[She's just kind of yelling vaguely at the sky, as if that's going to do much of anything.]
What if the dirt starts talking. That'd be weird.
i. arrival
Abby had been on her way over to kneel down and ask the woman if she was okay, about when she'd seen her wake up and mumble. She knows how disorienting it is to wake up in this place after her unfortunate experiences in the air ducts, and how weak and awful a person feels.
Maybe the passed out woman is just used to this sort of thing, because she's up on her feet in about two seconds and lunging toward Abby with her fists clenched faster than Abby can take a step backward and lift both hands to show she's unarmed.
"I had nothing to do with it, I swear, I just got here myself about ten minutes ago!"
no subject
"Alright, fine. But if you take a swing at me I'm sending you into the wall." An appropriate threat made, she turns her head one way and then the other, trying to take stock of if this place looks familiar. "Figured out anything so far?"
no subject
At least the woman put her arms down, but Abby can still see those clenched fists, so she stays a little bit wary. There's just a moment where the two women are sizing each other up, or at least that's what she thinks they're doing. It's not like Abby gets into a lot of fights. Or even almost-fights.
"Um, not much. They need to clean the air ducts, that's for sure. Pretty sure I've still got spiderwebs in my hair."
no subject
"Huh. Well I bet those don't get cleaned... often." Nailed it. But the rest of this is really unfamiliar, and her frown only grows. "What the hell is this place, anyway? Looks like a dungeon but... shitty."
iv
Y'know you're just gonna hit the sack again if you keep standing still like that, yeah?
no subject
I was meditating. You don't always fall asleep that way it's-- it's for calming your mind.
[Says the girl who fell asleep while meditating so many times in her life. Figures.]
What do you care?
no subject
[Then she shrugs, sitting on a grave nearby.] Aside from the fact that you catchin' some Z's at a graveyard in the middle of the night'll probably get you good and killed? I don't care. I'm five by five, hot stuff.
no subject
Hot stuff, huh? Sounds like you might care a little bit.
[Is this really the time, Beau. Really.]
Maybe I just think I can handle whatever it is that shows up here in my sleep. I've fought some real dangerous things before, whatever turns up can't be that bad.