redstringtheories

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!tdm

TDM #3

➥ 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.)

➥ The Butcher's Camp

(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.

➥ Mirror, Mirror

(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.

➥ Haunting Tunes

(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.

➥ Mod Notes

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.
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arrival
After getting patched up and taken care of (and given a new change of clothes because hey, guess who arrived bleeding!), Hickey is set off for the grand tour...which he promptly ditches because he wants to go explore himself.

They never show you the fun parts on the tour anyway. Just the parts where they want you to be, and Cornelius Hickey knows that usually the best place to be is where nobody wants you to be.

Though it's as he explores one of the open office areas, that Mr. I Arrived Here From 1848 is realizing that maybe he should have stayed on the tour. Because some of these things make absolutely no sense to him. Like fax machines. Or computers. Or telephones.

And it's as he looks at a telephone that one rings. And it makes Hickey nearly jump out of his skin. He backs away from the telephone, looking very confused, as he turns to look at the other person in the room (possibly someone who was sent to find this guy who straight up ditched the tour group) as the Englishman asks, "Why's it doing that? What even is that in the first place?"

the butcher's camp
Well isn't this just a kick in the teeth. The moment they come across the butcher's camp, a wry smile appears on Hickey's face, like he's privy to an inside joke nobody else knows about. The more things change, the more they stay the same, isn't it. What had started off as investigating just to get a decent chunk of change, turned into something more.

"Whatever this is, it's not a bear," he says, with absolute certainty. "I've seen a bear attack before. This isn't it."

Though don't mind Hickey as he just immediately makes his way to one of the animal carcasses, bends down, and starts to investigate. He pulls a boat knife from out of his coat pocket as he uses the tip of the blade to push back some of the skin and meat on the carcass.

mirror, mirror
(cw: drowning, blood )
The face that stares back at Hickey is a different face entirely. It's the face of a young man, someone in his early twenties, with the mottled, swollen appearance of someone who's drowned. His hair lies plastered to his head, his face is swollen with water, this is the appearance of a drowned corpse—a drowned corpse that looks nothing like the Cornelius Hickey standing in front of the mirror. But a drowned corpse that Cornelius Hickey 100% recognizes.

There's a scowl on his face as he brings back his fist and just outright punches the mirror, hoping to shatter it. The mirror shatters, but to nobody's surprise, a few shards of glass get embedded in the man's knuckles. There is now quite a lot of swearing.

"Oh goddammit!" Hickey yells, looking down at his bleeding hand. Yeah, he didn't think that one through all that well.

misc.
please check out my opt-out as this dude is trigger warnings central (and the butcher's camp prompt might only exacerbate those trigger warnings)

John is just stepping into the toilets at ADI HQ when he sees a man punch one of the mirrors. He startles slightly as it shatters, fractures, and then he's over quickly.

"What the hell are you doing?" He grabs quickly for some of the paper towels. "Show me your hand. I'm a doctor." Lucky bastard, whoever this is.

Oh. Someone's there. Whoops.

"The face surprised me," Hickey grumbles. Everything about his bearing is giving off big 'cat that doesn't want to go to the vet' vibes. But hesitantly, he reaches his hand out for John to take a look at it.

"Your own face surprised you?" There's a certain level of skepticism in his tone, but his hands are gentle when he takes the other man's to quickly wiping away some of the blood. "Right. Either way, we need to get you down to medical. You need a stitch or two from this big shard. I'm not going to pull anything out until we get you over there. Hold onto this and follow me." He's careful how he wraps the man's hand so that he's not dripping blood as they walk down the hall but also isn't going to jostle one of the shards out.

"The thing I saw in the mirror wasn't my own face," Hickey grumbles, though he lets John take his hands. "It was someone else's. Someone who's dead."

Someone who he's absolutely certain is dead because he killed that man himself.

Still, he'd rather like to end this little visit with his hand patched up and usable again, so he'll follow John down to medical as they walk.

Hallucinations are a little more concerning, and something Jon's not completely unfamiliar with. He lowers his voice as they walk, concern slipping in. "How are you sleeping? It's... not a good sign if you're seeing things in the mirror."

Yeah, he gets that implication. Hickey frowns a little, defensiveness slipping into his voice at John's words.

"I'm sleeping just fine. Might I ask why you'd ask a question like that?"

He knows exactly why John would ask a question like that.

"Because sleep deprivation can lead to hallucinations." It's a flat response because why beat around the bush, honestly? "There are a few other things, as well. Any recent head trauma?" He'll run down the list of likely acute causes until this man tells him hallucinating is common for him. He assumes there would be fewer broken mirrors if they weren't novel.

Technically speaking, yes. Practically speaking...

"Mate, they patched all that up when I first arrived. I wasn't exactly in the best of shape," thanks to the bleeding, open wounds, broken bones thanks to an animal attack, and copious amounts of blunt force trauma, "and I don't really know how they did it, but they got me back on my feet soon enough."

John's frown deepens. "Depending on what they did, you could still be injured. Concussion symptoms can show up well after the initial incident. Weeks sometimes. Has anyone taken a look at your head since you arrived here?"

Maybe this isn't technically his clinic beyond the hand business and some stitches, but he's concerned now, especially if no one is following up with him after what sounds like some sort of severe injury.

Hickey gives John a bit of a look. Well. Perhaps he needs to be a little bit more explicit.

"When I arrived here, my tongue had been torn out of my mouth and my hand had been near bitten off by a bear. I'm fairly certain someone made sure my brain was working when they patched all that up."

The doctor's brows shoot up high. He has yet to see this 'magical healer' ADI's supposedly keeping around. The fact they can do... that is both miraculous and a little alarming. Given what they've learned about the supposed price of these 'supernatural abilities,' what would the cost be there?

"Taking care of immediately fatal injuries usually takes precedence over other things. Unless your skull was caved in or cracked, they might have overlooked it." Trust, but verify. "Humor me, yeah? Let me run a few little tests to check if there might be a concussion at play."

[ harry doesn't like spending much time at ADI, the office atmosphere stuffy and vaguely unsettling, but he was volun-told to help out with orientation today. mainly to patrol around and keep an eye out for wandering stragglers, appearing in the oddest places. he arrived here in a janitor's closet. now he's the janitor.

(if that doesn't make sense, don't worry, neither does he.)

he does spot a guy exploring the open office area, looking out of his wit, and jumping out of his skin when the phone rings. harry approaches ready to help him get back to the group, but the question catches him off-guard. he isn't dressed like the typical ADI employees, with his green blazer and yellow pants, but at least he's wearing an average looking tie today! ]

That? [ he glances down at the phone, then back at the guy. ] That's a phone. It's ringing because someone is calling.

You do know that tells me absolutely nothing, [ Hickey sasses. Which, that's not true. It tells him a little bit of something. But Hickey, at his core, is a bit of a shit and will happily give Harry grief.

But he's looking at the telephone with unabashed curiosity in his eyes. Someone's calling. So what, someone wants to talk to him? Or, more likely, someone wants to talk to whoever's office this actually is—because it very obviously is not Hickey's, considering how he's looking at the phone. ]

Though I'm guessing I've got to pick up that bit, [ he says, as he points to the receiver ] to figure out who exactly is calling.

[ LOGIC [Easy: Success] - He must not know what a phone is. You have been briefed that people may arrive from worlds less technologically advanced than this one. You even come from one of those worlds to most people here. This man is even further back.

HALF-LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - You *could* pick it up and save him the trouble. But that sass? Oh, you heard that sass. Two can play at this game. ]

Yeah, that's how it works. You pick it up, say "hello", and find out who's calling! Better get on that or the ringing won't stop.

[ he says with a grin, a terrible one. the phone is still ringing. ringing. ringing. ]

[ Shitheels recognize shitheels and Hickey recognizes that grin on Harry's face. That's the grin of someone who's spotted a man who's potentially a fellow trouble-maker. So he picks up the phone and says, ]

Hello?

[ At this point, Hickey's able to quickly figure out where the speaker is. He puts his head to the phone, still smiling that shit-eating grin all the while as he listens to the conversation for a bit. ]

You've got the wrong place, mate. This isn't the ADI.

[ He absolutely knows it's the ADI. There's another pause before the person on the other end just hangs up. ]

And we had potential for such a lovely conversation, [ he points out, moving the phone away from his ear so that he doesn't have to hear the dial tone anymore. ]

[ game recognize game. harry rolls his eyes, not in the least perturbed, and shrugs. ]

Smart move not giving them your name. [ here's hoping that wasn't an emergency or anything! whatever, problems for potential futures. ] Now then, did you wander off from that tour? Because you really shouldn't have if you want to have a clue about what's going on.

I'm good at figuring things out for myself, [ Hickey says, with a little shrug. This is despite the fact that he had no fucking clue what a phone was but hey, he's ignoring that for the moment! ]

Besides, the tour only shows you half of what you need to see. All the good places are inevitably hidden away.

The good places are the most well hidden, on that we can agree. But, you should also know about the regular places and the tour helps you with that.

[ ...god, he's starting to sound like kim. not the worst person to emulate but not really his style. ]

Look, if you don't know what a phone is, then you must not know a lot of other things. I can relate. How about I help you out?

I'm not foolish enough to turn away help, [ he says, with a nod. He doesn't know this man from Adam but if he's going to help Hickey out? And going to help him out in a way that's probably less bullshit than the actual tour? He'll take it. ]

Call me Cornelius Hickey, by the way.

Harry Du Bois.

[ he still thinks the guy should have stuck with the tour, but that's not his problem. for now he'll just help the guy out.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - You understand what it's like to wake up in a strange reality, and to be introduced to brand new concepts that seem basic to everyone else around you. It's the least you can do to help. ]

Ok... so we are in the town of Gloucester, in the state of Mass-a-chu-setts, one of fifty in the country named the United States of America, which is part of the overall continent of North America. Does *any* of that make sense to you?

[ because none of that rang any bells when he woke up, so he's just making sure here! ]

"No shit." There's a dry, husky laugh to Danny's voice as he brings up the rear, this time wearing the janitorial jumpsuit that was so graciously given to (stolen by) him by the ADI, alongside what equipment he's been able to pull together for this particular venture. At the moment he's much more concerned with the place itself than he is with Hickey himself, though Danny's own humor over this is much more teenager-coping-with-a-horror-scene than...whatever Hickey's got going on here. He's seen blood before, seen maulings and been personally responsible for a few, but never anything quite like this, even from the First.

His attention drifts to the markers strewn about, a thought slithering into his mind. He tries to put it aside, though he'll idly pick one of them up as he continues with the investigation. "You think whoever's responsible is still around?"

Normally he wouldn't have to ask. But normally he doesn't have the stench of viscera clogging his nose.

"Probably not."

Hickey's attentions are focused solely on the carcass. He nudges some of the organs out of the way with his knife, wrinkling his nose a little at the smile. It's when he digs down deep enough to see some of the bones that he lets out a small little laugh. It's a self-satisfied laugh, not the laugh of someone who finds the whole thing humorous.

"Knife marks on the bones," he explains. "This was human butchery. And based on the carcass, they weren't too picky about what they cut out."

After all, there's still some perfectly good meat left on here.

"Great. Awesome." Danny pockets the pen and decides to start walking the perimeter, one hand still fidgeting with said pen as he thinks and tries to catch any signs of someone nearby.

"Think it was recent?"

He pauses to drop into a squat and examine some of the many shoe and boot prints left around here. Danny doesn't know the first thing about tracking people or learning stuff just traces like these, but maybe he can catch a scent...?

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TDM #3

Cornelius Hickey | The Terror (AMC) | ota!

mirror, mirror

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cw: gore, violence, animal attack

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arrival

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Dogs, huh? (butcher's camp, no opt-outs)

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