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redstringtheories2022-04-01 07:15 am
TDM #10
(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: existential dread, altered perceptions, apocalypse, tsunamis, wildfires, meteor strikes, potential for botulism/food-based illnesses)
Weird things happen in Dogtown, everyone knows it. And the weird things have been getting worse. The Apocalypse Disruption Initiative (ADI) is not above taking advantage of that to test out the waters for its newest arrivals, but they're far more conscientious about it than early days. They're not looking to send anyone to their death, especially not with recent events that have transpired surrounding Dogtown and in Gloucester proper. An employee gives you a GPS device where you need only press a button to alert ADI there is severe danger and someone needs to come help you right away, 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, flowers are finally starting to bloom throughout the city and into the park. Bright blues, purples, pinks, and deep crimson. There's one set of flowers that seem to have formed suspiciously consistent patterns, though. The golden daffodils only seem to be growing in select spots. They're not quite in rings. More… rectangular? Something like that. In any case, those who observe the daffodils may note they're exceptionally fragrant, the sort of thing to draw one in…
Stepping foot into the middle of the daffodils causes a sudden, but brief, plunge. Congratulations, you've found a cellar, one of the old ones left behind and covered over by time and nature. Investigations will lead to mostly-collapsed root cellars, the sort of thing someone interested in local history might be fascinated by. The occasional tin or jar can be found, as well, which might net a healthy sum for collectors of Colonial Era foodstuffs. Those foolish enough to try to eat what's inside will likely find themselves exceptionally sick. Please Do Not.
Whatever adventures characters get up to in the cellars, there doesn't appear to be anything actively dangerous down there beyond the place collapsing and self-inflicted botulism. Stepping back out, though? There is nothing. Dogtown is a barren wasteland, and in the distance, in the direction of Gloucester, there are only the ruined remains of a city long-since lost, itself, to some horrible catastrophe. Different pairs might see different kinds of catastrophes. Perhaps it looks like an enormous tsunami swept through, pushing the town out before dragging pieces of it back into the sea. Perhaps it looks like there was some sort of wildfire with only the burned out husks of buildings left. Perhaps there are no signs, at all, just a crater where the town used to be, wiped out by something that fell from space. Whatever might be their worst visions of a decaying future, empty of life, this is it. They've emerged and-
And it's normal again. Just Dogtown, just Gloucester. Characters who fell prey to the daffodils will find that any time they get a whiff of the flowers in Dogtown or elsewhere, they will have brief, recurring visions of being in that desolate landscape, of the horrors that await in some future they haven't reached, yet.
(cw: potential for mild public humiliation, paranoia, altered perceptions, insects, claustrophobia/choking/suffocating, body horror/tooth horror)
After a certain AI's foray into the world of stealing account passwords, on top of other instances of cyber security lapses by new arrivals, ADI has decided to implement mandatory cyber security classes. It's not enough to prove you can use a modern phone and computer, everyone who arrives will be asked to attend at least one course put on by the Staff Development and Information Technology departments. Or perhaps you've proved your mettle already and are one of the ones actually teaching these courses. The topics covered are wide ranging, but some seminar highlights for this month include:
Cyber Security Awareness - What makes a good password? Why do we have those? What even is two-factor authentication. This course is your basic introduction to cyber security and teaches things like don't give everyone your password on the public network. Don't download anything that hasn't been pre-approved by IT - devices are locked to prevent this, but don't get wily. And if you see something, say something in terms of any oddities in your devices. IT would rather tell you there's nothing wrong than deal with something worse getting through.
Brute Forcing It - An interactive class where participants will create passwords and have a paired participant attempt to brute force hack it. Pairs are allowed to ask each other questions, but nothing will be compelling honesty. Better get sly if you want to hack your compatriot's login. If you manage it, you'll receive a congratulations and gift card to a local coffee shop. If you're the one whose password was successfully hacked… you get nothing apart from a stern lecture about picking a better password. Get to know your fellows and see if you can rise above them on the field of cyber battle.
Spooky Threats - A rundown of potential supernatural threats that have entered into this digital age. Worried someone is spying on you through a camera lens, even when your device is off? It's very possible. There are some Eye-based avatars with that sort of technopathy available to them. Worried you might have a bug in the machine? Have you considered that this is literally the case? The Corruption has a strong foothold, particularly in the social media space. Digital tech also tends to interact in strange ways with the supernatural. Participants will be able to take photos with their phones of a few different artifacts brought up from the lower levels and kept in a display case. They'll be able to see the strange warping and static effects associated with the photos as a first step to identifying supernatural phenomenon.
The artifacts brought up aren't the most dangerous in ADI's catalog, thankfully, but there will be reprimands and getting kicked out of the class for those who can't keep their hands to themselves. The objects include:
- A flute that induces severe migraines and temporary synesthesia when touched;
- A doodlebug pen that makes it feel like there's something crawling up your back for several minutes after touching it;
- A ticket stub for a car parking lot that looks perpetually damp. There is the scent of gasoline and a tightening in your throat the longer it's held;
- A wax apple that makes you want to bite into it, to consume it, to smile as your teeth turn to wax.
(cw: references to violence and death; scopophilia)
April's dawn has come to the seemingly endless nights of March as nightmares fade and the monster howling at the door goes silent. The days are growing longer, but they feel longer still than they are when the night no longer holds so many dangers.
The peace feels uncertain at first, but as the days and nights go on the shadow woman does not make her reappearance. A few at ADI voice the hope that she might actually be dead following the destruction of multiple shades. Others are more doubtful, claiming that they saw her as recently as the night of April 1st and that not all of the shades were caught and killed. The official word from the top is that she's all too likely to still be alive and field agents are on the watch for her to re-emerge in Gloucester or some other, easier target. Investigations around town in search of bolt holes and places she'd been spotted turn up nothing but the occasional drift of black sand…and, in a few too many places to be easily dismissed as coincidence, wax dripped on the ground or intermingled with the sand. Some characters may have suspicions about what this is, others may simply have questions.
Whatever ADI's lingering misgivings, the city of Gloucester is grateful for the reprieve, and more openly grateful for the help of ADI than ever before. Officially, the spring festival thrown in a city park near ADI headquarters is a show of gratitude for ADI's assistance during the blackouts that recently plagued the city and inspired an unprecedented crime wave. Unofficially, ADI quite suddenly has the city council's logistical support as well as its ear, and the festival is a thank you for quite a bit more than providing a few backup generators to local businesses.
Eat! Drink! Celebrate! There's live music as well as jugglers, stage magicians, and basically any entertainers that could be brought in on short notice on the promise of tips–that is to say, an effort was made but this is not exactly Las Vegas. There are homemade carnival games that have clearly made the rounds of a few community festivals and elementary school carnivals: bean bag toss, plinko, mini golf, and more. Try your skill at musical chairs or run an egg relay race with your friends. Get your face painted, jump in the bouncy castle, or volunteer for the dunk tank–no one will judge you (probably).
On the more sedate side of things, there are local crafters selling their wares. There's also food and beer from local businesses, with ADI staff receiving a generous handful of tokens to exchange for each. Or you might just want to take a stroll among the spring flowers further from the hubbub of the festival proper; they're coming in nicely now (including the daffodils). And if the spots on that one flower looked like eyes for a moment, or if you feel like you're being watched in the gardens–that's just nonsense. It's a beautiful sunny day, and you deserve to relax and enjoy yourself.
- ARRIVAL (Apr 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.
- THE FLOWERS CAME EARLY (Apr 1 - 31): Characters are welcome to find the odd relic from the 1800s tucked away in the cellar. ADI's IT department will be happy to help with listing it on places like eBay or Facebook Marketplace to sell to potential collectors. They'll also offer to just buy it for a few hundred dollars to avoid the hassle and then gift it to a relevant museum for the tax write-off. Players can come up with any catastrophic scenario they would like for this prompt. We would just ask that you pay particular mind to listing content warnings as they arise. Pressing the GPS Device's button while in the 'other' place will result in the device making a crackling error sound. It will work as soon as the vision stops. The recurring visions will last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes and will be all-encompassing. Whatever the character is doing, wherever they are, they will feel like they're in this destroyed world. These recurring visions can carry past the April timeframe, should players want that.
- CTRL + ALT + DELETE (Apr 1 - 31): All characters will be asked to attend at least one cyber security lesson, whether they're a new arrival or someone old hat. If your character has the skills to actually teach these classes, you may handwave that they are an instructor, rather than a participant. For the Spooky Threats option, anyone who touches the artifacts (and is caught by the instructor) will be verbally rebuked in front of the entire class before being sent out. Characters will receive explicit instructions not to touch the artifacts when they're first brought in, and will be informed they're things that ADI is still trying to figure out how to destroy as they're surprisingly resilient to the usual flamethrower/incineration method.
- DAWNING REALIZATIONS (Apr 8 - 11): As far as anyone can tell, Katie Dunn is no longer in Gloucester and no immediate threat has arrived to replace her. Characters who killed or injured one or more of her shades have been commended with an internal announcement, a bonus to their pay, and a gift card for frozen yogurt. And yes, the flowers do occasionally have eyes, but it's probably fine. If examined in detail, the wax is high-quality and scented to smell just a little bit like a campfire.
Jean Tannen - The Gentleman Bastards Series
Jean is no stranger to strangeness, not unfamiliar with unfamiliarity, but a modern office building is entirely outside his understanding. A tall, broad-shouldered man with spectacles and dressed not entirely unlike he got lost on the way to the Renaissance Faire, he spends his first few minutes after stepping out of a restroom looking for his partner in crime.
"Locke? Locke!" His voice is a harsh, hissed whisper as he searches. But as he begins to come to the conclusion he's on his own, his blood runs cold; he's never been the mastermind of any scheme on his own. Figuring out how to navigate the situation, what lies to tell about himself...that's going to be rather tricky.
And even more unfortunately for him, his time has run out: here comes a stranger, old or new to ADI themself.
2. The Flowers Came Early
While he's definitely concerned about Dogtown's reported oddities, Jean knows he's useful as a strongman, backing up someone who's more clever and less buff. So he asks to be paired with someone who might need a proper bodyguard on this expedition. He's made some allowances to modern fashion, wearing a button-down shirt and jeans under the green velvet coat he'd arrived in, his wire spectacles still perched on his nose. The coat, after all, was constructed with leather loops on the inside that hold his weapons of choice.
As he meets his partner at the trailhead, there's a discerning up-and-down look as he sizes them up, before he offers a smile. "Are you prepared for whatever's to come?"
3. Dawning Realizations
a. Working the Crowd
A carnival is nothing if not temptation to a trained thief and conman, and those in the crowd may find themselves surprised to be separated from wallets, jewelry and other valuables by a deft-handed pickpocket. Really, who would suspect that a brick shithouse of a man has the dainty fingers of a lacemaking granny and the larcenous heart of a sworn initiate of the god of thieves?
He's not perfect, though, and the particularly sharp-eyed may catch on to exactly what he's doing.
b. Games Without Frontiers
When he's not working the crowd, he shows interest in the games at the festival. The games that draw him most are anything that involves thrown accuracy. Bean bag toss? Darts? He's clearly very good at judging weight, distance and aerodynamics, and amasses a small collection of prize tchotchkes.
c. Carnival Wildcard
I'm up for other shenaniganery, too--want to introduce the gentleman from a fantasy novel to things like deep-fried twinkies and modern innovations in beer? Convince him to get his face painted? Walk through the craft booths with him while he marvels over merchandise? Please, be my guest!
3A CHEESE IT, IT'S A COP
Well, well, well. Somebody thinks he's slick. And he is, really, weighing that physical size of his against unexpectedly tricky fingers. Back home, most fellas with that kind of brawn just shove people over and rob them, or tip them upside down and shake out their pockets.
And back home, Nick at least has the synth thing to lean on, when it comes to confronting miscreants. Here, he's just a slender, middle-aged man in an unusually sharp manner of dress. Time to find out how that works out for him.
"Hey, pal." Nick steps up to the pickpocket in between incidents, plucking the cigarette from between his lips. "How 'bout you keep those hands to yourself?"
WELP!
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"You wanna go return it, or you want me to do it for you?"
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Well. What to do about it? Probably best to let the nice observant fellow hand the wallet back and slip into the crowd to lose him again. Right?
“Here, I suppose you’re right. Best you return it, probably.”
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"Folks are out here tryin' to have a nice time with their families. Whatever you need cash for, you can get it without raining on everybody's parade. Now knock it off."
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Instead he just hands over the wallet and nods.
"Yes, sir. Of course, sir. Won't happen again, sir."
At least. Not at the festival.
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"Good," he says pleasantly. "Now, c'mon. I'm gonna hand this back and say I found it on the grass. And then, you're gonna go for a walk with me."
That, or the guy's gonna run screaming at the very idea.
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Jean tenses. Considers whether he'd rather run or cause a scene here. No, no, too much attention, too many people. But still, this is a wholly uncomfortable situation.
"Why would you want to walk with me?"
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b. Games Without Frontiers
It causes her to stare and observe. So far, she hasn't seen anything odd leaking from the bags. They simply pop when hit. Despite the safeness of it, Kate can't quite bring herself to try.
She admires it when someone wins and this person has seemingly won a lot. "You're really good at that."
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“What sort of sewing do you usually find yourself doing? I’ve been known to do a little tailoring. Not everyone makes coats to fit men of my stature, so sometimes I need to add side-panels. Or inner pockets, or the like.”
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"Right now, I'm trying to restore a cute dress I found. It's a little old but the cut suits me but I do a little bit of it all." She smiles again. She appreciates someone having useful skills. She appreciates having someone to talk to about sewing. Kate nods her head when he mentions adding pockets. "Don't get me started on pockets. I keep having to add them to every pair of trousers that I buy."
She gives him a once-over and can sympathize with him needing clothes to fit his frame. "I can see what you mean. If you need help tailoring something, I'd be happy to assist. I mean I'm more of a seamstress than tailor but we all have to make do here." She adjusts the bear to be held by her left arm before offering her right hand. "I'm Kate by the way."
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When she offers her hand, he takes it and bows over it to chastely kiss the air right above her knuckles. Clearly, he's not really used to shaking hands like a modern man.
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"You'll have to pardon me. I forget that not everyone who arrives in Gloucester is not from this general um... time." She is slightly embarrassed that she had immediately assumed he would know what a battery is. "A battery is a small device that powers other bigger devices. If I had an accessible one I'd show you so you really must come by Staff Development."
"Oh." He may not be used to shaking hands like a modern man but that's okay. Kate finds herself charmed at his approach to an introduction.
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2...
1...
"Shit!"
There's a yelp, and a girl comes crashing down from the ventilation duct, right in front of Jean. Or, well, that's where she would've landed, if she hadn't managed to catch herself on the edge of the vent hole, just as the grille gave out from under her.
And now she's stuck, legs dangling, trying to peek down to gauge how far a drop it is to the ground.
Man. She's so not cut out to be a super spy.
"Hey... Anyone down there? I'm not a cat burglar or anything, I just got lost." A beat. "It's bring your daughter to work day."
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"Okay," she says, though there's a dubious edge to her voice. "Just don't fuck with me, okay? I'm a really good kicker. I played soccer and everything."
That's a lie. There's not an athletic bone in her body. (Or, rather, there's a distinct lack of team spirit, which has to date prevented her from joining any team-based competitive sport, thus stifling her athletic potential--)
Mel takes in a breath. She closes her eyes. She breathes again.
And then she lets go.
(It's not a very far drop, but it sure feels like it.)
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"There you are."
cw spiders
"Thanks," she says, after she finds her feet and remembers what solid ground feels like. It's said just a bit grudgingly, in that adolescent 'I totally could've gotten out of this by myself, but your help was cool, I guess,' way, but there's a sincerity there, too. She does appreciate it, despite the teenage posturing.
Mel huffs and tugs at a cobweb that got in her hair. A little spider skitters over her fingers, and she carefully moves her hand over to a desk, to set it free. Then she looks over the man, studying him for a moment.
"I like your jacket." She holds up a hand: high five, bro. "I'm Mel."
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"Call me Jovano."
No, that's not his name, but until he's certain this isn't the work of Bondsmagi, he won't give his actual name to anyone.
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Jovano looks as out of place here as she does. A high school student and a refugee from the Ren Faire.
"So... This your first day here?" she asks, totally casual, as if trying to suss out how cagey he's likely to be in return. Is he going to play along and act like he belongs here, or admit he's as lost as she is?
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In this case, when she notices someone else noticing Mr Stickyfingers Shithouse she strolls behind said person, humming cheerfully--and using her magic to tweak the guy's mood toward temperamental. It gives her goosebumps, a weird rush, but also leaves her feeling tired in a way she's not used to.
Then she bumps him.
When he rounds on her instead of Stickyfingers, she makes a fight out of it.
Verbal! Someone steps in before it gets past that!
As soon as she's free of the argument she goes hunting for the thief, falling in next to him with a feral smile. She's not close enough for him to grab her, but she's definitely keeping pace.
"Hey, you owe me a cut."
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"If you want to work the crowd with me, though, we can coordinate. That clearly wasn't your first time doing that." In fact, her getting into that fight reminded him of Locke when they were kids. Glib, quick-witted, glad to make himself obnoxious to help cover for another member of the gang.