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redstringtheories2021-10-01 02:11 pm
TDM #4
(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: creepy toys, possible violence, supernaturally induced emotions)
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 enter the area will eventually stumble upon...a very interesting sight. Take enough confusing, branching paths, and they’ll find a variety of toys abandoned in...a variety of ways.
Some, reminiscent of the happenings of the past month, can be found dangling from branches, or from contraptions of sticks and string staked into the ground. Others might be found arranged in patterns...or simply discarded. Some appear to be tied up. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no evidence of the destruction of these toys. Some may appear to be disintegrating but that’s age, not malice. There are old toys and new toys to be found. Maybe it’s just a prank, or an art installation?
Nothing seems to happen to anyone who ventures to touch the toys. At least...not right away. However, any character who does decide to touch a toy will start to feel like they just don’t have...enough. It might manifest as being particularly possessive over things or people they feel are theirs...or in coveting what they don’t already have (be it material or immaterial). These urges will fade away on their own in time, but who knows what might happen before they do?
(cw: mention of vehicular collisions, supernaturally-induced sleep/fatigue)
There is an ethereal music spreading throughout town. It started in the graveyards last month, but now it's spreading, even as collisions and other accidents continue to pile up. Tourists and locals, alike, will find keeping awake incredibly difficult as October rolls in with a rumble of thunder and a splash of rain. Even caffeine doesn't seem to help much with the problem. The music is only just there, just at the edge of awareness, and it's a song that you know. You can't entirely place it, but it's maddeningly familiar.
The local gangs seem to have taken note of the situation, and have taken to sending out their seemingly more resilient members for some mischief. Specifically, pickpocketing those they might find sleeping or less alert than usual. You might be half-falling asleep on a bus when a hand reaches into your pocket or your bag. You might witness the thief in action, stealing from someone else. Or maybe you're someone keen to take advantage of the situation, yourself. There's money to be made for someone with even moderately light fingers when the target is snoring on a park bench or zoning out while sitting at a cafe.
There doesn't seem to be an even effect to the music. It impacts some people in the same vicinity more than others with seemingly no rhyme or reason. The one constant that does appear for those digging deeply, is that ADI HQ and the ADI housing complex seem to be less affected by the music. It can still sometimes be heard, but it's not nearly as prominent as it is throughout the rest of the city.
(cw: supernaturally-induced sleep/fatigue, mild memory loss)
For as much as everyone seems to be sleeping lately, it does not seem to be restful sleep. In fact, people dozing off regularly will find themselves even more exhausted and irritable than usual. Again, this seems to be far more pronounced for anyone straying too far from ADI's properties for extended periods.
Another feature of this latest round of supernatural irritation is that even those who tend to remember their dreams may have trouble with that. You might remember that the dreams weren't pleasant, but that's about it. The specifics are as elusive as the source of the singing.
Festive planning for the end-of-the-month Halloween Party is in full swing at ADI, and characters may find themselves strong-armed by Pam and other HR personnel, in spite of any grumpiness and exhaustion, into helping with some part of it. Will you be assisting with making decorations? Buying supplies for the kitchens? Helping those who might not understand Halloween to find the perfect costume? Everyone is feeling a little out of sorts, and having trouble focusing, so there's some particular pushing to spread tasks out to everyone possible so it doesn't fall on a single individual. Anyone who helps will be compensated for their time, and they might even get some extra cash to buy their own fancy costume or preferred food for the party.
- ARRIVAL (Oct 1 - 31): 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.
- Toying With You (Oct 1 - 31): Characters who physically interact with abandoned toys will find themselves overwhelmed by feelings of jealousy and/or possessiveness. Depending on how much interaction they have with the toys, these feelings might be stronger or last longer. (Anyone who, for example, removes a toy from Dogtown will probably find themselves helpless NOT to act on the feelings.) Strength of feeling and duration of time is up to player discretion. The source of these feelings could be anything, including the toys themselves. The toys can be destroyed but are not clumped all in one spot. It may take some searching to find them all.
- Pick a Pocket (Oct 1- 25): Characters are welcome to experience, enact, or stop a crime. You may find yourself victim, hero, or perpetrator. The number of people asleep or having trouble staying awake will increase the closer you get to graveyards and seem to decrease the closer you get to ADI-owned buildings. The decrease in sleepiness around ADI buildings does not extend to anyone living at Bonnie's. Characters may find themselves falling asleep in the middle of trivial or important tasks, perhaps even in the middle of conversation. This is a supernatural sleep, but for the moment, it seems easy enough to wake someone up with a loud noise or a shake. Or, if you're feeling particularly vindictive, a splash of water to the face.
- Sleeper's Paradox (Oct 1-25): Characters are welcome to take part in whatever party planning they wish to for ADI's Halloween party. Everyone affected by the drowsiness that's taken over the city will find that they cannot remember the specific nature of their dreams; although, they will have the sense that they did have them, and they were unpleasant. The effects of the fatigue may affect other memories or result in increased irritability, and decreased focus and reaction times. Characters may find themselves more prone to error than usual, even those who are typically known for being on-point at all times.
ty for the edit <3
She cocks her head, blinking at the stranger. Slowly her feathers begin to smooth over. ] You speak nothing that I can understand. I... am very far from home.
[ All she gets, unfortunately, are the sounds and syllables of Kuro's own tongue. ]
1/2 i have 1 braincell and ty for your patience
All the more important for body language to convey things properly, then! With a sigh, her expression falls a bit and she slumps her shoulders more exaggeratedly, but hopefully all that expressed "it can't be helped" well enough. There really won't be any ways to communicate... At least, not right now.]
no subject
There's nothing we can do about the language barrier, but I can help you find a staff member who will streamline for you the arrival process. Can you come with me, please? [Her tone is mild and easy, and while she knows she's essentially talking to herself, with any luck, the pitch and sound may still reassure in some measure?]
no subject
Kuro straightens up as much as she can in such a restricted space, looking about to get a good look at the place, including a couple complete 180 turns of the head. It’s the first time she’s actually bothered to take in where she’s ended up.
And it’s … eerie. She comes from forest and vast wild wood; to suddenly end up in a space like this with perfect, featureless, geometric walls and some weird kind-of-soft-but-mostly-just-scratchy floor… she’s never seen anything like this. She can’t even place what any of this is made out of. Some kind of uncomfortable, thick, dried moss, maybe… and a weird kind of cured dirt wall, but she wouldn’t place any bets on that. Even the advanced structures of the Gumon were easily identifiable as metal, crystal, wood, and stone. This isn’t anything.
Something feels off about her eyesight and hearing too. And she can’t seem to place any of that, either.
Kuro’s out of her depth. She has no choice, really.
She tucks in her wings and follows. ]
no subject
With a small nod and smile, she begins leading the way to the elevator, hands innocuously folded at her back in the owl's direct line of sight to emphasize openness with the lack of opportunity for suspicious action. She was fortunately already fluent in English when she first got here herself, making her own arrival process as smooth as it could be considering the circumstances. But this... Hm.
She stops and presses the ▼ button once they're in front of several sets of metal doors; it won't be long now, before at least one arrives. ...Now how is she going to convince a giant owl to step into an elevator, considering that they ought to only look like some sort of big closed off metal box on the inside? They need to get to B1, that's where orientation starts...]
no subject
She inspects it curiously, going ahead and prodding at the elevator button plate and the doors with her beak, poking into all the corners and details. Not that there's much of either. ]
no subject
...
With a faint chime, the left side door opens: another featureless metal box that probably looks similar to the corridors and everything else so far, alas. Ducking her head briefly while keeping her sight trailed on her company, she steps into the elevator first to park herself in front of the control panel: gotta hit B1 and hold the button to keep the door open, for starters. There should be enough room to fit? The owl may need to duck a bit too...]
Can you please step in? Please watch your head, too. We have to go down, so...!
[At least a bit of sound makes the silence less awkward?]
sorry for the pause! college is getting to me
That featureless box isn't the most inviting thing in the world, but they're asking her to follow. There's a low, suspicious sort of growling sound (how does an owl even growl?) as she pokes her head in slowly, testing various parts of the lift by poking at it with her beak.
The thing that bothers her more than this elevator, though? When she tries to take a good listen and scout out the sounds around them, everything's... muted. Dull. Nothing feels as sharp as it's supposed to be. She wonders if something's just weird with this place's acoustics or if she's actually having ear problems all of a sudden. She hopes it's the former; otherwise she has no idea how she's supposed to hunt, nevermind all the other issues of hearing loss.
It takes a long time, but... slowly, not taking her eyes off her company, Kuro steps in. For all of her bulk, she's extremely light. The car barely shifts at all. ]
don't sweat it, it's chill here and everyone's got their RL/pace!
Nothing for this human to do but sheepishly wait until the owl is completely in; it'll be between ADI staff and the majestic fowl, whether it will be allowed to fly around its premise or not for the days to come.]
It won't be long, please hang in there just a little while longer...
[Unless the elevator decides to jam or something, and the odds for that have to be extremely low, right? So--!
Releasing her press on the button once her company is also tucked in, the metallic doors proceed to quietly shuffle close moments after. A faint whirring sound can be heard following, before the contraption seamlessly shifts down in altitude that... Aren't really perceivable by ordinary human senses, but maybe it's different for really large owls?
In any case, if the descent of roughly a dozen seconds is permitted to land without incident, a faint chime will eventually accompany the stilling of the elevator. The door opens once more, this time to an underground level without any window giving line of sight to daylight outside. There's enough open space to move about though, one can quite literally stretch their wings a little if they so fancy too.]
We're on the right floor now! Do you think you can get out first?
[It's worth a shot right, while she puts herself on button hold duty once more? She can otherwise get stared at some more and then come up with another way to convince the owl to get off, but then she'd have tried asking nicely first, at least. Once they get off, however, it shouldn't be much harder to flag down the proper staff to get the introductory process started in earnest. Just a bit more...]
no subject
It doesn't take long to figure out that with every passing second she's starting to hate this more and more. One glance around the austere, enclosed space, and she decides that while this officially sucks, she doesn't actually have reason to start wreaking havoc yet, and she's not a completely unreasonable creature. And she can probably work the elevator to get out if she has to.
Kuro spends a long moment to poke her head out and survey the landscape suspiciously. Then she leans in towards Ceil and hisses quietly in that weird barn-owl way, stepping out into the hall carefully with her talons clacking on whatever hard thing the floor is made from. She doesn't move far from the elevator. ]
no subject
Please give a minute, I'll be right back with you!
[She holds out one raised index finger towards her company, and then turns to face the approaching employee while taking a few steps forward of her own. ...No more than three, however; it wouldn't do to stray too far.]
Excuse me! I found a new arrival on the upper floors. [In a closet, but surely that sort of detail can be glossed over - for now, anyway.] They can't speak or understand any human language that I know of, can you please walk them through the... usual process?
"--Oh, sure. Yeah, I'll handle it from here, thanks... for finding them". [He then lowers his voice, not-so-subtly still glancing at Kuro.] "Does it bite or scratch? Ugh, those types usually always make things harder..."
...Ahaha. Birds can peck at you if they're irritated, but I wouldn't call that biting. I did find them first and I'm with security, so please do allow me to accompany you both as far as I can go? You can no doubt handle this yourself, sir, but it wouldn't hurt to have an extra pair of helping hands.
[The man gives the bird and the girl another Tired glance each, but ultimately ends up nodding.]
"Sure, knock yourself out. We just need to get'em to the room first, this way."
[That much settled, the man waits for them both to catch up before turning on his back to guide the way. Ciel's returned to the owl in the meanwhile, with an apologetic but encouraging smile on her face once more:]
We have to go with him. Almost there, just a bit more!
[They'll be ushered to a room not too far away from the main corridor, but only Kuro will be allowed in. At least once that piece of paper comes within sight and is touched, the rest should sort itself out? Hopefully, only one way to find out...]
no subject
There's some weird shuffling and tapping noises after the door shuts behind Kuro, but all the rest comes swiftly enough. A startled chitter, a voice over the intercom giving out its typical arrival spiel through a speaker, and over it is that voice again--this time shaping itself over English. ]
What--what is all this--?
[ This round of orientation takes longer than usual, in large part because a lot of baseline knowledge humans have of their society needs some explaining done for the giant owl who has been unceremoniously dropped in the middle of it. But eventually, she reemerges (with some futzing with the door-handle; it's hard considering she's only got her talons to work with and it's very far off the ground, but her height helps make up the difference, now that she's in a maneuverable space bigger than a closet).
She looks at Ciel curiously. ]
... Hello.
1/2
Ciel's not one to do things halfway, however, and she did promise to stay with the newcomer even if they couldn't understand each other. That particular issue should be getting solved momentarily at least, and wherever her head's gone during however long it took for the giant owl to get the 101, it will very much find the blue-haired girl still waiting, by the time it's finally freed from the introductory spiel and successfully operated a doorknob for perhaps the first time ever in its existence (it's a lever type, thankfully; office standard, as they would have it).]
no subject
Good day! Thank you so much for your patience and following me all the way, it understandably must have been really quite difficult. I can relate a bit, I've been here for... about 14 days, myself. [Do owls have or understand the concept of weeks? ...Let's stick with basic days, just to be sure.] My name is Ciel.
[One step at a time, everything back in that room must've been plenty overwhelming as is. They can start with questions or introductions, she'll let the owl decide on the direction of the conversation.]
no subject
She shuts her eyes as if to stave off a headache. She takes in a long, measured breath, and exhales just as slowly. ]
I am Kuro.
[ A pause. ]
... Thank you for being very patient with me. I know I did not make this process... easy, but... [ Ugh. Taken from a different world... ] ... this is all very unfamiliar. I have only known great woods. I have never seen the buildings of humankind. I could not even tell what your walls are made of.
[ She still doesn't really get it, honestly. ]
But you are a stranger, like me. What is the difference for you?
no subject
["Stranger"... Well, can't deny that they're both "outsiders". "Outworlders", even.]
Yes, I'm not from this world either. The difference is most likely not as drastic as it is for you, however, I am only displaced in time and region. The way how things work and the state of civilization here are very similar where I'm from, so it was only a matter of adapting to a more modern human society. [She is considering her words as they go, actively attempting to make things less confusing for Kuro than they must already be.]
Are you familiar with the planet "Earth", by the way? A good number of outsiders who arrive here are from some alternate version of it, myself included. Others come from elsewhere entirely, but we won't know until we try cross referencing time periods and countries of significance that we personally know of.