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redstringtheories2021-11-25 10:22 pm
apocalypsehowmods) wrote in redstringtheories2021-11-25 10:22 pm
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You Are What You Eat Meme
THE ENTITIES
A meme for brainstorming how your character feeds their patron Entity in the world of Apocalypse How. Or for thinking about how they might feed a patron. Feeding a patron is a unique experience for anyone tied to an Entity. Some people may have similar ways to evoke the fear their patron wants, while others may have wholly unique methods. Some of the examples below may overlap, but that's okay! The Entities are more of a spectrum of colors, bleeding into each other at the edges. Two people with different patrons might feed those patrons in similar ways.
Post below with your character's name and their patron in the subject line. Discuss some ways they might feed. Offer ideas for other folks on their characters!
Post below with your character's name and their patron in the subject line. Discuss some ways they might feed. Offer ideas for other folks on their characters!
THE BURIED
Associated fears include claustrophobia, suffocating, drowning, being buried alive, being stifled or crushed in non-literal ways (e.g., poverty or debt). Some potential ways a character might feed the Buried include:- Physically trapping people.
- Sending them fake bills/making them feel financially burdened.
- Being physically or emotionally controlling.
- Pretending to drown someone.
- Injuring someone to the point that they are cannot physically move.
THE CORRUPTION
Associated fears include rot/decay, disease, filth, germs, and insects (particularly infestations), obsessive or unhealthy love and relationships, as well as xenophobia and political corruption. Some potential ways a character might feed the Corruption include:- Creating a gross environment.
- Forcing emotionally draining unhealthy relationships on others.
- Creating a toxic work environment.
- Being an emotional vampire, constantly sucking the joy out of every conversation.
- Unleashing insects on people.
- Stoking conspiracy theories about corruption in the resident authority, or making efforts to actually cause it, such as by bribing politicians to do terrible things or enact purposefully hateful/bad policies.
THE DARK
Associated fears include a fear of the dark itself, as well as what might be hiding in it and what lies beyond what we cannot see, not having enough information or being kept 'in the dark.' Some potential ways a character might feed the Dark include:- Cutting off someone's sense of sight.
- Being a conspiracy theorist, making people feel like they're being misinformed/not informed.
- Removing someone's access to light, such as by causing power outages.
- Stoking fears about the unknown/what may be out in the dark, such as by creating frightening sounds/effects where someone can't see the source.
THE DESOLATION
Associated fears include pain, loss, fire/burning, and especially the senseless/mindless destruction of something, destroying people or things that have unrealized potential or something to look forward to. Some potential ways a character might feed the Desolation include:- Deliberately setting fires (small or large).
- Taking and destroying precious items.
- Making and breaking relationships, causing emotional chaos and turmoil.
- Killing people or small animals, particularly those with close connections.
- Creating an environment that inspires fear of explosive anger and associated violence or emotional trauma.
THE END
Associated fears include death and dying, the demise of the self and decay into nothingness, with a strong focus on the inevitability of death. Some potential ways a character might feed the End include:- Making someone afraid that they're going to die imminently.
- Describing the physical process of death to wig someone out.
- Inspiring existential dread in people.
THE EXTINCTION
Associated fears include the fear of catastrophic change, destruction of nature, destruction of human skin and tissue, the destruction of humanity itself and its replacement by something different. It is especially linked to humanity's own contribution to the eventuality of these things. Some potential ways a character might feed the Extinction include:- Fearmongering about a variety of potential apocalypses, possibly offering fixes, knowing full well they won't work. I.e., being a televangelist.
- Creating existential dread about how life is eventually going to end, and what horrible things may come after (e.g., doomsday prophesizing via social media, designing posts to go viral).
- Creating existential dread about the possibility of other life/extra-terrestrials will end life on Earth (e.g., posing as aliens contacting someone online).
- Contributing to causes that people fear will bring about catastrophic change (e.g., supporting Big Oil and encouraging others to do so).
THE EYE
Associated fears include having secrets exposed, being watched, being known, or being followed, knowing too much and finding the one piece of knowledge that may destroy you or someone you know. Some potential ways a character might feed the Eye include:- Watching/stalking people to the point they feel threatened.
- Blackmailing/extorting others with vital pieces of information they want to keep hidden.
- Publishing people's secrets or otherwise outing them in some way, possibly on the internet (e.g., encouraging a doxxing campaign or filming people and posting them online).
- Forcing people to tell you things they don't want to, either through emotional or physical coercion.
THE FLESH
Associated fears include the sense (or fear) of one's body being animated meat and bones, mutilation of the flesh or having your body changed or destroyed, insecurity and self-hatred connected to one's body image. Some potential ways a character might feed the Flesh include:- Cyber or real-life bullying about someone's body type.
- Engaging in cannibalism or forcing others to do so, informing them after of what they're doing.
- Mutilating people, physically violating their flesh in some way.
- Creating unsettling displays that may include human flesh or evoke them and putting them into public view.
- Systematic killing and dissection of animals/animal experimentation.
THE HUNT
Associated fears include being chased or hunted, obsession with pursuing a goal, chasing after something that can never be reached, and destroying yourself and everything you know and love in the process. The Hunt can be associated with pack-mentality and the fear of being othered and targeted by an in-group you were once a part of. Some potential ways a character might feed the Hunt include:- Hunting/chasing people, making them fear that they are being hunted/chased.
- Developing a toxic culture within social groups with the expectation that anyone who goes against the group will be ousted and punished. This can be done in-person or online.
- Creating an unattainable goal/objective and forcing others to engage in the pursuit of it (e.g., creating a program/app that is designed to drain someone's financial resources by getting them addicted and requiring in-app purchases).
THE LONELY
Associated fears include being cut off from other people, being isolated in some way, or being alone (physically or metaphorically), being unnoticed or unacknowledged for one's accomplishments, losing one's memories and, as a result, one's friends, family, and self. Some potential ways a character might feed the Lonely include:- Inducing memory loss.
- Physically and/or emotionally isolating someone for long periods of time.
- Downplaying someone's accomplishments, belittling them, and generally making them feel like their actions and efforts are of little consequence.
- Manipulating people to encourage them to cut ties with others/remove their other relationships.
THE SLAUGHTER
Associated fears include random or unmotivated - but unavoidable - violence or pain, violence you know is coming but don't know exactly when or how to prevent. Some potential ways a character might feed the Slaughter include:- Causing unprovoked physical violence, either directly or by inducing others toward it (e.g., starting a violent barfight and doing whatever you can to escalate it).
- Fearmongering about war and its inevitability.
- Stoking existing fears about violence that may come to people's loved ones and encouragement toward violent acts or acts that may provoke violence.
THE SPRIAL
Associated fears include madness, of the world you know being wrong or your perception of it being wrong, being lied to or deceived, either by other people or by yourself. Some potential ways a character might feed the Spiral include:- Inducing a sense of unreality in a person, whether by drugs or other means, stoking their fear that what they're experiencing isn't real (i.e., gaslighting people).
- Being an online conspiracy theorist, stoking people's fears about everything, from the veracity of the moon landing to the idea that the Earth is round.
- Causing people to fear others and what they might be saying about them, if they can trust the people they've come to know. Can we really KNOW anyone else?
THE STRANGER
Associated fears include the Uncanny Valley, the unknown, the unfamiliar or the not quite familiar, beings that are almost but not exactly human, things that are not quite right, losing oneself and one's identity, and of being replaceable. Some potential ways a character might feed the Stranger include:- Taking familiar objects and turning them into something grotesque or not quite right, designing unsettling things and unleashing them on the unsuspecting populace to wig them out.
- Acting in a mechanical or otherwise inhuman way that triggers people's anxiety due to the uncertainty inherent in such an interaction.
- Catfish, posing as other people on the Internet, and acting in unusual or uncanny ways.
- Altering one's appearance to appear uncanny, rigid, and/or unnatural in some manner. On a slightly lighter note, one could get some very minor juice by, say, posing as a store mannequin, and then pranking people by moving and momentarily freaking them out. This would not amount to much fear, but it could be a first taster to get someone hooked.
THE VAST
Associated fears include heights, falling, and wide open spaces (such as space, the sea, or the sky) and/or losing oneself in that space, ones own insignificance in the face of an enormous universe, the forces of nature, and/or society and humanity, as a whole. Some potential ways a character might feed the Vast include:- Pushing/throwing someone from a height.
- Inspiring existential dread by describing in detail just how small someone is relative to the Earth, or even to the universe at large.
- Inspiring existential dread by reminding someone that their contributions do not matter to society in the grand scheme of things and that they are simply late capitalism cog that has no true agency.
- Fearmongering about the power of nature and how puny humans are in the face of it.
THE WEB
Associated fears include spiders, being manipulated (with or without your knowledge, but especially without), being trapped by something or someone, and addiction. Some potential ways a character might feed the Vast include:- Unleashing spiders on someone.
- Manipulating someone into a bad situation and doing nothing to help them out of it.
- Mind-controlling or otherwise coercing someone to do something they might not want to do.
- Being emotionally and/or physically controlling in a relationship.
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Patron: The Extinction
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Y…es, in small and subtle ways. Stephen is trying to go the “store up enough magical energy” route in case of a big, singular emergency. He is doing his best to not use magic for this exact reason; saving it up for later, though it’s probably a slow process.
How They Might Feed: Leaning hard into informing others about just how easy it is to achieve “the destruction of human skin and tissue”. Thanks, med school! Also can probably spin some oddly specific tales about aliens’ ability to end life on Earth. Thanks, MCU!! Overall, he’s in a good position to instill existential dread simply because of his multiversal knowledge and awareness of all the dangers that lurk in it. Stephen also managed to gain some fear points courtesy of getting snapped (in his dreams) along with a few people around him during the nightmare event.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes please! A lot of it centers around existential dread which can be a little ambiguous, so any ideas are always welcome.
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Patron: The Flesh
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Too new and fresh to try so yet and she's mostly sitting back to see what everyday life is like before shit hits the fan metaphorically. Boredom is kind of threatening her though...
How They Might Feed: Shuten is in a position where she is very clearly a monster who eats humans, doesn't bother to hide it outside of the ADI, and makes it clear, that she will do what she feels like. BUT she is aware that makes a big target on herself so she won't directly be messing with humans just to feed her patron (yet), lest others around her make it inconvenient and try to take her out early on.
SO the long and short of it is, she'll start with animals. Easy to get a hold of, she would absolutely have no qualms about making a cruel display out of it. Humans, she'll be mildly careful with depending on how things go. That being said, violating human flesh? Yeah, she's got more than enough experience with that, especially regarding her second Noble Phantasm, Bone Collector... But that'll be up to plotting with other people and such! If anything, she may also go for casually threatening or describing how she would eat a person.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes! I think with this character, I would like to be involved w/ the other party to make sure everyone's consenting and such. Shuten isn't above hurting people if it does serve her means, but she's taking a rational route for the time being. But if she does like someone, hm. We'll see!
Bucky/Winter | Stranger
Patron: The Stranger
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Kind of? His brain is still pretty heavily compartmentalized, and he doesn't quite register he actually is a human being with powers, so he doesn't entirely realize it's what he's doing. He's gotten some clues fairly recently, though, that he's chewing on.
How They Might Feed: Whenever he's got his full mask on and prowls around town, he's basically feeding the Stranger. However, this isn't going to work forever, because the town is not that big and once people realize he's not actually going to hurt anyone he's going to start getting written off like "oh that masked weirdo who rescued my son's cat and brought back my cousin's purse is out again".
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Go for it! Because his go-to method isn't going to work forever. I'd prefer things he can do without having to really communicate directly with people, because he's... bad at that. (Which, hell, might well help feed the Stranger in and of itself??) He's not really looking for anything big; his serum probably doesn't require much to keep active enough to give him an edge and, you know, keep his metal arm from hurting him all the time.
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Patron: The Lonely
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Not quite yet
How They Might Feed: Eric is literally the opposite of what his Patron needs, he's encouraging and kind and wants people to be together. However his first feeding(s) will be completely accidental until he realizes that he's getting power juice by doing so. He'll first start off by telling people about his life and loneliness and isolation, and that'll get a tiny amount of fear from whatever poor person that feels sorry for him and vaguely wonders about their own life and loneliness.
What will prompt him to start actively feeding though, is when he realizes that he can use his psychic ability/magic to help save people here. As much as he'd hate to do it, he's also secretly clever--much to people's surprise--and will think of active ways to isolate people (as nicely as possible.) For example, chasing them into an alley and blocking off their only escape route (for a few hours), trapping someone in a room or closet, etc. He'll think it's too mean to actually separate them from their friends and family emotionally, but if he gets corrupted from starting this he'd actually be really good at it. He's got the potential to be an awful mastermind if his empathy is blocked in any way.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes! I would love suggestions!
Jeff | The Spiral
Patron: The Spiral
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Frequently, fairly publicly, and uhhhh very deliberately. He knows what he's doing, and he tells himself it's okay because he's not doing any "real"/lasting harm to people.
(He really wants the Spiral's 'attention')
How They Might Feed: Magic! One of his favorite spells to cast is, essentially, empathic manipulation / intoxication. Since he's a bard, it basically means that certain songs he'll sing or perform can induce a state of uncontrollable/heightened emotions, mania, hysteria, etc in anyone who happens to hear it, which can last up to about 30 minutes. When he's being "subtle," the effects are more like... suddenly feeling emotions that are incongruous to the situation (ex: sudden sorrow in the middle of a GREAT day, wanting to laugh uncontrollably after passing the scene of an accident, etc). The knowledge that something's wrong with their emotions and that they're not in control and can't trust their own heads, etc. is what brings the fear.
So when Jeff's busking, he'll slip one of these spells into his set, usually at random (like on an impulse) and mess with people. Then he'll go right back to his normal performance.
If he sets off on a darker path, his feedings are going to escalate. In the future, he may start "befriending" non-ADI people (tourists, townies, fellow Youths, etc) and luring them to weird places to get fucked up on drugs and party, then mind whammy and ditch them. It can't possibly go wrong!
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: PLEASE YES, I'm all ears.
(Also I'm open to others realizing he's doing this, and any fallout/consequences that might happen as a result)
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Patron: The Eye
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Yuri probably is super reluctant to, but realizes that in order to help she'd have to...
How They Might Feed: Part of Yuri's abilities lends itself to this. When she touches people she can read their hearts (their thoughts and feelings), and see a vision of their most traumatic moment--which makes the other person relive it as well. All the person's sins, their secrets, their thoughts--all of them are open to her. And the other person knows it too. While she'd be very reluctant to actually do anything with this information, she'd at least try to get confessions and let people know She Knows.
Or something like that. She'd feel incredibly guilty about it all and would likely cry if she were capable of it lmao. She'd probably tell herself it's helping, because her ability is supposed to be about sharing pain with others and lessening the burden, but it's still a big invasion of privacy and Yuri normally tries NOT to use it...
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yep!
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I read through the locations page and would it be okay to assume there's a pet shop of sorts? Not that she would raid it too brazenly at the beginning.
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Patron: The Lonely
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: No. Binx hasn't consciously realized he even has a Patron yet (his immortality is literally a curse, so he doesn't view it as a power), and he's adamantly against anyone charging and using powers in this world.
How They Might Feed: Belittling the accomplishments of others and sabotaging relationships (possibly by screwing up the social gatherings characters tend to set up) seem the most likely. He probably already has moments where he wants to tear people down but chalks it up to simply disliking a lot of people around ADI.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes please! I'm trying to rev back up with Thackery, and one of the ideas I've toyed with is having him discover that he's no longer immortal and make the hypocritical decision to start feeding his Patron so he can stay alive and do good in this world.
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Patron: The Eye
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: It was the one time! She feels guilt for doing it and bad for getting caught doing it.
How They Might Feed: Displaying people in an invisible box where others can watch them while said person is terrified of what's going on. Basically, making them afraid in public. I may have thought about it too abstractly.
Kate has/had a quickened healing factor. Kate is capable generating force fields around herself that have a slight translucent blue-green cast to them. She can also manipulate them as well.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes, please. I need help.
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Patron: The Eye
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Yep! Jon is a full avatar and beyond the point of being able to ignore it.
How They Might Feed: Jon as the Archivist mostly feeds by reading statements people have made about their encounters by the entities - he has been scouring ADI research for similar items. However this is akin to eating stale and unsatisfying food. It'll keep him going, but it isn't satisfying, and using his powers tends to push him to more active feeding.
For this, he takes live statements - gets people to speak to him and tell him their story. They will also re-experience what happened to them, and it will basically make the trauma an open wound once again, no matter how much healing and recovery they'd been through.
They also get added to his trauma dream zoo which helps to feed him - people who've given live statements end up reliving aspects in their dreams, and the Archivist will be there, watching it.
In the apocalypse, he was able to just feed off the ambient terror of the world.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Go ahead, although Jon is fairly set!
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Patron: The Hunt
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: Not yet, but once he starts making the connection that he can, he will. Kurapika has a strong moral compass, but it gets pushed aside when it comes to the pursuit of his goals (in the case here, not dying and going home so he can get back to his actual self-destructive pursuit). He will do things he hates and be very upset, but he won't think twice about doing it. So, as soon as he realizes the connection, he'll actively feed The Hunt in order to have his powers, as they're incredibly useful!
How They Might Feed: Quite frankly, I don't know. I'm still figuring out the specifics. Going to hunt people on the streets is a little too close to what Ren's already doing, so I'd rather not have that overlap, so I'm still trying to feed my brainworms on that one.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yes. Absolutely. I'd be forever grateful!
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Patron: The Hunt
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: The first time he did, it was because he was confused from the Funhouse and mistaking Meredith for a blood mage. He feels terrible about it, but given he's been hunting blood mages for six years now in often brutal ways, he's probably able to justify using his powers against someone he perceives to be awful. I'm pretty sure he could also justify "just" scaring someone as better than actually harming them. It's a slippery slope, but after some of the things he's lived through, he's got a really deep vindictive streak and a bit of self-righteousness when it comes to "necessity". He got the name Jaeger for a reason...
How They Might Feed:
* Chasing and stalking victims while letting them know he's there. Startling them in dark places or odd times of day or night. Sometimes he can get a small kick out of just looming someplace dark and letting people run into him.
* Injuring a target and taking his time to finish them off, like a bored cat with a mouse
* Using his magic to puppet someone's mind and body while leaving them aware that they're being controlled by a hostile outside force
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Absolutely!
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Or freak people out over just how much surveillance there is around ADI facilities.
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Patron: The Desolation
Do They Actively Feed Their Patron?: She Sure Does. So far she's mostly been sticking to torturing monsters, but she can't actually live without her magic since it's so fundamental to her identity and self esteem so like.
How They Might Feed: So, Aelwyn's trying to find a middle ground right now where she can feed without actually killing anyone important or undeserving and becoming a threat, but as these things go she will probably eventually expand into more dangerous territory. I'll split this into three tiers in order of how dangerous they are.
Lite:
-Random property damage such as damaging cars or buildings. Things that are expensive, specifically. She won't ruin them but she will crack expensive windows or key a car door on a ferrari.
-Spilling people's cups of coffee onto their lap and burning them.
-Ringing fire alarms and creating illusions of fire in beloved locations.
Moderate (Still in the realm of holding back and keeping to a moral standard but like... not by a lot):
-Targetting rich elitist academics and ruining their futures.
-Intentionally fucking with other people's relationships by flirting with or seducing one of them. (Generally the girl.)
-Catfishing people and stealing their bank details, stealing a considerable amount of money from them. If they want an in person meeting, she'll send one of her elementals disguised as the girl she's been using to catfish and leave some nasty scars.
-Killing or torturing monsters in more excessive ways than necessary.
-Terrorizing the thugs on the docks with threats of extreme violence if they come near her or her friends again.
Extreme (Unrestrained despair feeding. Off-limits... for now):
-Killing people, particularly famous people who are convinced they're untouchable and (optionally) have legions of fans to defend them.
-Actually burning beloved locations down. Particularly universities and elite high schools. She is full of hate and that hate is only growing.
-Developing magic to remotely access people's bank accounts and gradually rob them of everything without any way to trace it back to her.
Open to Other Feeding Suggestions: Yep!
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Person: *jumps, flails, shrieks*
Jaeger: *gets charged* Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. *wink wink, nudge nudge*
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