TDM #6

[apocalypsehowmods]

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➥ 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.)

➥ Widowmaker

(cw: body horror; existential horror; animal death; potential for severe injury; being eaten; skin loss)

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.

This month the forest seems to press in on the trails that run through it. Looming. Waiting. Ravenous. Tree branches snag at passersby or fall suddenly across the path to block the way and force hikers off the trail and into the woods. The undergrowth has grown thick, the gnarled branches of trees and bushes so much more alive than they should be this time of year, leaf-bare limbs all but thrumming with energy and anticipation. Peek through the snare of bark and wood and you might spot the carcass of an animal on the forest floor, fur and skin eaten away to reveal the raw, naked, bloody truth of the meat that lies within all the pitiful creatures of this world that ever dared think themselves to be more.

Step off the path and step out of your place at the top of the food chain; it wants you. This is something so much bigger than you and it will swallow you down. The ground is soft muck into which your feet sink and the trees are waiting to drop heavy branches that will pin you down, stop you from running. Fairy rings have sprung up all over these woods, too, and stepping into one invites mushrooms that quickly spread over your feet and up your legs, eating away at shoes and flesh, digesting whatever they can reach. Eating you.

You are fertilizer. It was hubris to think otherwise.

➥ Hermy the Wormy

(cw: worms, decay, altered mental states/compulsion, emotional corruption, potential for violence, theft)

un: pamoramicview
Hi, everyone! If we haven't spoken just yet, my name is Pam. I'm here to help off-worlders however I can at ADI. And one thing I'd really like to do more of is some icebreakers for our newest arrivals.

Now, I've uploaded a new app to everyone's device. It's this cute little game I found called Hermy the Wormy. Do you know the song?

"Sitting on a fence post, chewing my bubblegum! Chomp, chomp, chomp!
Playing with my yo-yo! Woo woo!
When along came Hermy the Wormy, and he was This Big!"

It's something to help little ones learn to count and how eating makes you grow bigger. My kids loved it when they were toddlers. I think it's just a modified version of Snake, if anyone remembers that. But we can set up a company-based league. Try it out and see if you can make the high score. The top three at the end of the week are getting a gift basket of Halloween and Thanksgiving treats.

Seeing as my Halloween gift baskets didn't get much use.

For reasons.

But I'll make sure to make our Holiday Party in December the best you've ever seen! We will have a good holiday party. I will make this happen!!!

- Pam

Anyone who checks their ADI-issued devices will find that a snake-type game has, in fact, been added to their phones. It's a worm this time instead of a snake, though, and he's eating colorful pieces of fruit that seem to become more and more decayed as the game goes on. It is, in fact, hard to resist opening the app, most will find. Almost as if there's something compelling you toward clicking on it. And once you're in? Well, you have to at least try once.

Those who begin playing will find themselves getting sucked into the game, deeply invested in winning to the point that maybe… maybe it would be a good idea to start sabotaging the competition. Just little things. Stealing a phone here. Surprising them while they're playing. Breaking a few fingers… Little things.

The (overly-)competitive spirit sweeps the halls of ADI and Bonnie's Flophouse, and once you score high, well, time to let everyone know. They should be aware of who you are, shouldn't they? You need to be acknowledged, appreciated, loved. Don't you deserve that?

➥ Writhe and Squirmy

(cw: altered mental states/compulsion, emotional corruption, toxic relationships, body horror, mold, potential for amputation)

The next mass network message goes out several days later and is from Reyes Amador, the person in charge of managing the visitors from other worlds.

un: sunreyes
¡¡¡HIGH PRIORITY!!!

All ADI personnel will uninstall the Hermy the Wormy application from their communications devices immediately or surrender these devices to the ADI IT team so that we can do this manually or destroy your device and replace it.

Do not play this game. Do not look at this game.

Check all parts of the body for a purple, fuzzy mold. If found on the body, report to medical immediately for removal. Amputations may be required if mold has spread. DO NOT WAIT.

- Reyes Amador

Unfortunately, at this point, the Hermy the Wormy 'virus,' as it were, has already spread. Even those who did not play the game may find themselves affected. People will find themselves compelled to begin acting upon their worst impulses. Perhaps they decide that now is the time to admit a crush and make that person they fancy love them. Or make that friend they want spend time with them. Why heed these new orders when you're perfectly fine? Everyone else might be acting strange, but not you. You're as you should be… aren't you?

Those infected will find that they have a patch of fuzzy purple mold on them somewhere. Whether it's somewhere easy to see or completely obscured, it's there. It starts out very small, just the size of a freckle, but it has the chance to grow and spread to others if accidentally touched. Those who go to medical, as ordered, and have the mold removed will find that their minds return to them. Removal may be as simple as scraping it off like it's a scab, or require full amputation of affected areas. Those who don't report… will find their negative impulses only growing stronger as the mold takes a deeper root in them, corrupting them from the inside out. Anyone who hasn't reported to medical or had friends drag them there by the 13th will be forcibly rounded up by ADI's Security Team and taken to Medical to be cured.

➥ Mod Notes

• ARRIVAL (Dec 1 - 16): 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.
  
  
• Widowmaker (Dec 1 - 31): While characters will not feel compelled to leave the trails, the forest will seem to do everything in its power to get them off the trail and ensnare them so they can be digested. The mushrooms will quickly digest shoes, clothing, and flesh; characters will need to escape (or be helped to escape!) quickly to avoid injury and death. Any major injuries, including limb loss, will be relatively permanent: ADI medical will do their best to heal characters, but will not be able to help characters regenerate lost toes or limbs (they can get characters advanced prosthetics if needed). Please note that any character killed and eaten by the forest is permanently dead. A different version who doesn't have TDM memories may be apped in their place.
  
  
• Hermy the Wormy (Dec 1 - 7): Characters will feel compelled to play the Hermy the Wormy game, but it's possible to resist that impulse. Those who play will find themselves overtaken by a sense of competition and may find themselves acting in ways they wouldn't normally. Becoming irritable or obsessive about their ranking, checking the leader board and wanting to confront those who may have a higher score than them in the game. Shouting matches or physical altercations may ensue. It's not just PCs affected by all of this, either. Characters might see NPCs at ADI fighting with each other, even people who seemed to be close friends.
  
  
• Writhe and Squirmy (Dec 8 - 10): Characters will feel compelled to act on negative impulses to a greater or lesser degree, whatever that might mean for them. They will also experience a need for attention and love/praise, whatever the cost of those things. If your character did not play the game and has not touched someone affected by the mold, they might escape from any effects from it and just be able to assist in getting people to Medical to have the mold removed. You may have as much or as little mold on your character, as you'd like. Please note that amputations will be relatively permanent. ADI can get characters advanced prosthetics if the amputation is significant enough, but limbs will not be regrown/replaced by NPCs. Characters may also work to remove the mold themselves. Once the mold is off, the mental effects will cease completely. Playing the Hermy the Wormy game may cause additional infections.
  
  Those on the ADI IT team will be asked to go through the code for the game application, and while it will all seem fairly standard, they will find one bit of code that doesn't actually do anything except to generate a binary code when clipped and run separately. If they do that, they will decode the following message:
  
  hi jim
  i am a big fan
  i have a special film for you
  it is real
  promise promise
  more to come
  =:)ocoocoocooc
  
  griffmejim69
  
  Further investigation for this particular plotline will be available during the December game event.
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Comments

arrival :V

[lowficharm]

[Martin's beginning to get the distinct feeling whatever being is calling them into this world, it finds a lot of humor in stuffing decently big guys in air ducts. He had to fumble his way out of those, once, and he really very much did not like it. On top of that, he's almost getting so accustomed to the sound of something banging in there he doesn't recognize it's probably a person for the first, oh, three seconds.

Then there's a scream, and maybe thirty seconds later, a man coming tumbling out of the fucking wall. As one would expect, this cues another, similar scream from one (1) Martin Blackwood, who was simply in one of the lounges trying to have a simple cup of tea. He's skittered backwards from the chair he was in, but starts approaching one or two cautious steps when he can tell yes, it's a person.]

Uhm... are you alright, there?