redstringtheories

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TDM #5

➥ Arrival

Photo of a modern office building from the outside. There is a manicured lawn with several trees and bushes. To the left side of the photo, there is a waterbody with reeds around the fringes. There is a purple gradient filter over everything.
(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.)

➥ Both Sides Now

Photo of a large cloud descending on and spreading over a forested area. There is a purple gradient filter over everything.
(cw: nephophobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, potential for a fate worse than death)

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, especially not with recent events that have transpired surrounding Dogtown. An employee gives you a number to call if anything truly dangerous happens and you've been left with another person at the trailhead. 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.

It's a cool and cloudy November day, which, given the season, isn't unusual. The sky's the sort of dark gray that promises rain sooner rather than later, and there's a weight to what's above as pairs move about Dogtown in search of anything unusual. For once, the place seems to be… normal. It's just a walk or hike through the woods depending on the paths you decide to take.

At least until you look up. It's hard to tell there's anything off at first. The clouds loom above, rumbling moodily with thunder and continuing to threaten a cold shower. Perhaps you planned ahead and have brought an umbrella or donned a poncho or raincoat. ADI would be happy to provide such things. But each time you look up, the sky seems to be getting closer.

It's not elevation. There are some hills around Dogtown, but certainly nothing that would make a marked difference on how close the clouds are. No, those are coming down. Slowly, but surely, the sky is lowering itself toward you and even the least supernaturally aware person will likely have the sense that they are being menaced. The sky wants them.

It may be wise to find a lower elevation and get out of Dogtown… if that's even the problem. The gray wall above seems to stretch in every direction without an end. No breaks for blue skies, no lighter spots where the sun might be starting to burn through. It's a uniform and inevitable crush downward. Seemingly. Whether one can overcome the fear or not, that sense of oppression and vastness is inescapable. The sky is coming down and it will crush you, much like the other pressures in your life that come bubbling to the fore. There are so many of them, aren't there? Little things start to seem enormous when they're all stacked up together. Impossibly huge. How could anyone overcome this?

Those who escape the borders of Dogtown will quickly find that it's only the park that's been affected. The broader town is fine. It's a hazy day, but there are spots of sunlight and the clouds are heavy, but far above where they should be.

Those foolish enough to stay and see what happens… well…

Enjoy sky blue. It's where you'll be trapped forever.

➥ Curiosity Shop

Photo of a pizza plate that appears to be a pepperoni and mushroom pizza. There is the relief of a face with the mouth open at the center of the plate. The face appears extremely uncanny in its proportions and the shape of the eyes. There is a purple gradient filter over everything.
(cw: body horror; uncanny valley; organs; items made from body parts; anatomical models)

Also on ADI's radar this month is Things of Beauty, a small antiques and curiosity shop in the heart of the city. It seems the shop has recently made radical changes to its inventory and marketing; seemingly overnight the previously sleepy little shop full of run of the mill antiques is now home to a bizarre assortment of unsettling curios of unspecified origin. A local-born staff member had brought the matter to the attention of ADI's higher-ups after observing the sudden change to what had been a local institution, if a quietly failing one (and an equally sudden influx of curious tourists at the shop), and off-worlders have now been requested to engage in subtle investigations into the matter.

Those who take on the work will be given a small allowance for purchases from Things of Beauty. Their mission is to observe the comings and goings in the shop for anything suspicious, take note of the inventory, and bring back sample items for testing (failing to bring back either the money or an item with a receipt will result in a black mark on one's employee record). You'll also be encouraged to try to get names of other customers, particularly any locals, to enable follow-up investigations in case the shop is distributing cursed objects to the general public. Above all, you are requested not to make a scene, as ADI's purpose in sending multiple off-worlders on separate visits (particularly new arrivals) is to get eyes on the scene without alerting the shop's owner or staff that they're under investigation. As such, you'll generally be dropped off a few blocks from the shop in pairs at various times of the day.

Things of Beauty itself might be described as cozy if only it weren't for the shelves upon shelves of uncomfortably organic-looking or body-themed knickknacks. Selections include beads and small toys carved from bone; half-animal, half-vegetable figurines; squeeze toys with realistic plastic guts that pop out of their mouths; and dolls that double as anatomical models, among others.

The shop is manned most of the time by its owner, Kahlil Nassiri. He's friendly enough but avoids engaging in conversation beyond small talk and won't respond to any questions about the change in inventory--if pressed, he'll find some excuse to go to the back room to deal with some urgent business there instead of continuing the conversation. Best not to take advantage of his absence, though; the shop does have security cameras.

➥ Screen Magic

Photo of a hand holding a smartphone. The logo for the social media app TikTok is on the screen display. There is a purple gradient filter over everything.
(cw: ghosts, compulsion, potential for violence, severe injury, severed limbs)

TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have all been buzzing with the latest meme: Real Magic? Real Magic! Cut together clips of what seems to be stage magic that can be explained followed by seemingly inexplicable 'real magic.' Fire, electricity, phasing through materials, flying… An endless parade of amateur and more expert videos have been popping up.

Some of them have been catching ADI's eyes as they seem like they might be legitimate. Particularly the ones with IP addresses that indicate they're relatively local. It's not the high production-value ones that ADI seems to be most concerned with, but rather, the ones where there's unusual blurring, distortion, or warping associated with the videos. For the most part, these are the ones that are, in fact, being roundly trounced on social media as being poor fakes.

ADI doesn't think so.

Given the sheer volume of these, they're farming out investigations to staff. Everyone will find themselves partnered up with another person and given a video or someone's account to investigate. The videos being investigated have all come from relatively local IP addresses, and ADI is requesting people track down the creators of the videos or the sites where the filming is occurring. More veteran off-worlders might well recognize one of the locations within the video. Or the tech savvy may be able to pinpoint a more specific location.

By and large, characters will discover that the videos are, in fact, fakes. But perhaps you'll get lucky. Perhaps you'll find someone who's got wrapped up with a cursed object or you'll find a location where something truly supernatural is going on. Strange toys that seem to move when you're not watching are especially prevalent around Dogtown, and ghostly figures linger in town, particularly in the remote graveyards and railyard just after sunset.

If the toys manage to reach you, you'll find yourself with an impulsive desire to stab someone. Just… one stab. Just a little violence. The spectral figures have a similarly vicious streak attached to them. Those who get too close to try to communicate will hear strange music, and find themselves compelled to inflict violence on the next person they come across. Violence that might coincide with whatever injuries appear to be present on the ghosts. A stab, a severed limb, maybe something else… Just the attempt at inflicting this violence seems to sate the bloodlust. For now.

➥ Mod Notes

ARRIVAL (Nov 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.
BOTH SIDES NOW (Nov 1 - 31): The descending clouds will cause characters to experience anxiety over the sheer number and size of problems in their lives. Even minor concerns will become mountainous, seemingly insurmountable in the face of everything else. Leaving Dogtown will stop the effects immediately. If a character remains in Dogtown to see the clouds come down all the way, they will be taken by an Entity to suffer a fate worse than death. Please bear in mind that if a character comes to this in the TDM prompt, they are gone. A different version who doesn't have TDM memories may be apped in their place.
CURIOSITY SHOP (Nov 1-31): As Kahlil will not be available as a mod-played NPC for this prompt, players are requested to assume he generally avoids conversation. If you have any questions about how he or any unnamed NPCs would react to particular situations, please use the mod questions thread below. Characters who look into the shop's background will find that until very recently it was a completely ordinary antiques shop originally run by Kahlil's parents before he inherited it around ten years ago, and that the shop and its owner have been struggling financially. Items obtained from the shop will have no apparent supernatural effects whatsoever.
SCREEN MAGIC (Nov 1-31): The videos your characters are investigating may be anything with a seemingly supernatural component. If you find an NPC making them, they will be an ordinary person (usually on the younger side) who has simply stumbled across something extraordinary. More likely, they're someone who's just faked what was on the screen and will be very upset that you're harshing their meme groove. It's just TikTok! It's just IG! They're doing it for the views! Toys in this prompt will vanish once they get close to your character or if a character destroys them. They cannot be collected. Ghosts will similarly vanish if characters get too close. Trying to communicate with them via ordinary or supernatural means will result in characters hearing strange music and feeling an overwhelming compulsion to go and inflict violence on the next person they see.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

CW: Mentions of consumption of bodies, mild gore, lots of alcohol and some sexual innuendo in further tags.

i. Arrival — Canteen

[ Waking up in an unknown location is not an entirely strange thing for the Assassin Servant, Shuten-Douji. Her limbs feel a little loose as if a particularly strong drink had finally incapacitated her and while the fog clears in her mind, the oni is more than aware that her strength is not at the level it should be. She decides to wait it out and get a lay of the land as these 'ADI' individuals quickly usher new arrivals from the foyer into the elevator. When offered a coat by a cautious employee, Shuten simply smiles, showing off her sharp teeth, and calls the man a dear for being so considerate — but he and the others are more than welcome to keep looking.

They leave her alone after that and throughout orientation.

When all is said and done, Shuten finds herself immediately bored. The Apocalypse Disruption Initiative was similar to Chaldea; save the world, prevent the disaster that would spell the end of all living things in some manner.

Well, she can ponder over all these things over a drink and a snack. That is if she can find anything worth munching on. There were a lot of humans around, but it's not within Shuten's habit to just rip off the limbs of the closest person out of nowhere.

Not yet anyway.

For now, she'll settle on raiding the fridge in the Canteen much to the chagrin of the other ADI employees currently taking their lunch. Anyone who has just arrived or have settled in will see a small woman with horns casually tossing out plastic lunchboxes and other containers as she searches for a certain something to pass the time. ]

Goodness. Do you people have impending apocalypses every other week and not a drop to drink? How do you function I wonder?

ii. Curiosity Shop

[ It was a shame that the shopkeeper was avoiding his customers so adamantly. The given mission from ADI to investigate the Things of Beauty shop would be a cakewalk if she could get him in one place and lower his defenses. Ah, well, a shop of curiosities is bound to have something interesting right? Certainly nothing beautiful, unfortunately.

Well, except maybe this neat shiny skull and the toys fashioned out of animal bone. How quaint. Shuten is admiring said skull, turning it in her hands. ]

How fascinating! A bit of a waste of a good skull, but it's not like the contents beneath or above are real anyways. I could have melted it down to make a nice brew...

iii. Screen Magic — Make Your Own Fun

[ One can hear a child scream from one of the local streets. Said child will run right past anyone who happens to be in the area. Follow their trail and a dropped phone with a cracked screen can be seen laying on the street. The smell of sake grows stronger and stronger until you reach a tree where Shuten is lazily sitting on a branch, back against the trunk and drinking from her sake cup. ]

Hm?

[ She glances down at the person investigating and in the direction of where the child ran off. ]

I just told the brat to stop playing around with those flat screens with those silly videos that seem to be causing a fuss. A bit of a scare does them good you know?

[ She takes another sip of her sake. ]

I hope you'll be more fun to converse with than some child... Things only adults can do.

v. Wildcard

[ OOC: Feel free to hit me up via DMs or on

maiscribbles if you want an exclusive prompt or want to hash out an idea for a top level! ]

Edited 2021-11-01 21:25 (UTC)

[The man glancing up at Shuten looks normal, or at least as normal as one might define a sorcerer named Strange. Perhaps more accurate is the notion that he’s dressed normally, any indication of oddness merely resting snug against his fingers — the gold glint of a sling ring.

It shines a little as he gestures up at her, clearly unamused.]

‘A bit of a scare’ doesn’t do anyone any good around here. Maybe you should come down from up high and stop giving innocent kids a cardiac event without any reason whatsoever.

[Nothing can come from someone who lounges so casually in a tree, much less who drinks sake so strong and almost-saccharine that it nearly makes his nose wrinkle. This woman’s trouble, he thinks, and maybe that’s unfair based on a passing first impression alone.

But he doesn’t think so.]

[ Well.

Shuten is very inconspicuous when she observes other people and her surroundings. Her violet eyes narrow at Stephen in bemusement. ]

Considering our purpose in being here, I'm just doing my due diligence young man.

[ Her voice is sweet and playful, unaffected by his gaze and manner. She has to give him credit though; there's something to be said about a human who can obviously tell she's trouble, but not back down from her dangerous appearance. ]

Come now, you don't think I'm going spend all day keeping my eyes out for children to inflict heart attacks on are you? None of these rascals stir my appetite.

Edited 2021-11-02 00:00 (UTC)

[“Young man”? A phrase that isn’t taken incredulously so much as Stephen chooses to interpret it as proof to bolster his initial impression. Far be it from him to get into a back-and-forth about age based on appearances alone, especially given his experiences and the situation in this world.

He smiles up at her. It’s thin and doesn’t reach his eyes. Stephen crosses his arms, scarred hands pressing into the sleeves of his shirt.]

Oh, I don’t know. There’s something about the powerful always wanting to inflict unpleasantness on those weaker than themselves. How about you pick on someone your own size?

[Does that stir her “appetite”? Good lord, what worrisome phrasing.]

Oh, I'm far past sticking with my weight class. As for you...

[ Shuten stretches her arms and then stands up dusting off sleeves. Her balance on the branch is impeccable for someone who just had a strong drink as she leans forward to peer at Stephen. ]

Mm. Not exactly handsome, but not a pretty boy type either.

[He quirks a brow right back up at her, arms still crossed, feet planted right where they are in the grass.

“Not exactly handsome”. Touché.]

Maybe all that day drinking’s warped your vision. Just a tad.

[Quite a sense balance she has there.]

It reeks, you know.

[That sake.]

I'm not saying you haven't got anything going for you.

[ She switches to squatting, still assessing this human who's speaking so impudently to her. It's fun in its own way though, so she'll entertain him for the time being. Shuten ignores his remark about the sake, but as if mocking him, she pours herself yet another drink, balancing her sake vessel on her fingers as she swirls its contents around. ]

What I'm thinking currently is that if you're going to gaze at me so strongly, I might get the wrong idea.

[She’s finally flung a comment at him that causes Stephen to break his gaze, but only with enough clearance to roll his eyes.]

Far be it from me to give a complete and utter stranger the wrong idea, especially one so questionable.

[He gestures to the ground before him.]

Are you coming down or am I going to have to talk up to you the whole time?

[ Shuten clicks her tongue and takes a big gulp of her drink before replying. ]

Well, give me a reason and I might budge. This little investigation the ADI has sent people out on has been proving rather fruitless and the view from up here isn't too bad to drink to.

[ wow, lazy ]

Tell me boy, how long have you been in this city?

Shuten-Douji | Fate/Grand Order

iii

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i. come to me........ hello,

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1/2

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