TDM #10

[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.)

➥ The Flowers Came Early

(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.

➥ Ctrl + Alt + Delete

(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.

➥ Dawning Realizations

(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.

➥ Mod Notes

• 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.
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Comments

[whisperedone]

[He was going to say something about not knowing what 'Hammersmith' was, but the rest of what he says sweeps any interest in clarification away. He considers the man before him, head tilting slightly as though he might suddenly be able to see him that way.]

No, of course not and I...don't think they believe that either. There's no cure-all for darkness, but little candles can keep it at bay for a little while. If you focus too much on how dark it is, then you will only ever get caught in it.

[jup1t3r]

[ Hammersmith isn't somewhere Rye would write home about anyway, though he does adjust the arms he's got crossed over his chest at that head tilt. It's disconcerting for somebody who prefers to be known very little at all.

Right, well. ]

Maybe somebody needs to stay there - in the dark - to keep an eye on what's brewing.

[ It really has nothing to do with this situation at all and everything to do with both England and Angland. But Rye has no intention of deep diving into how he could have handled both of those things better. And so he's back to relying on an old favourite - dismissive wankery. ]

I haven't had nearly enough alcohol to deal with this much enlightenment. And it's been far too long since I got utterly fucked on something more sophisticated than a prince's approximation of peasant homebrew.

[whisperedone]

You can't be both enlightened and in the dark.

[His tone is dry, but there's a small smile at his lips.
This guy has some....anger issues? Denial issues? One of those types who simply wanted to be angry. Alright.]

There's a few stalls selling beer and wine, but I think there's a bar nearby this park.

[He holds his hand out.]

Do me a favor and lead me out of this festival and I'll return the favor to the bar.

[jup1t3r]

Pfft, never let anybody tell you you can't be both things.

[ Perhaps a slight clue as to Rye's experience somewhere along the timeline of his life thus far. A government cybersecurity expert and an anti-government activist hacker? Absolutely fucking right. Though he would, at a push, concede that the cost is great.

At the request, Rye's bristling has drifted off somewhere in the breeze, not least because despite first appearances he doesn't hold on to things that genuinely aren't worth holding on to.

So there's very little delay between the offer he receives and his taking it up; hand reaching out to snag the stranger's and then tucking it inside his arm, just above his elbow. He holds it there, eyes lifting to look for the cues - literal signposting - that are outside of the other man's reach. ]

I'd say favours are slippery things too, though it seems you know that. I could lead you anywhere, but you're hedging your bets on my wanting something alcoholic. It makes me wonder... [ hopefully the other man's ready to go because Rye's tugging them onward ] maybe you're not hedging your bets at all.

[whisperedone]

[There's very little signage to be had other than some shops on the streets to the South and the East that bracketed the park area, but one might seem slightly more trafficked than the other.]

If you're trying to imply that I am, in fact, not blind I'm afraid that would be incorrect. I can barely tell changes in light through one eye and the other might as well not be in my head for all the good it does me.

[He has no way to guess which way they're going to go, but he adjusts quickly enough once they're moving.]

That said, if you're implying I might be able to tell were you intending to lead me into a ditch, that would be correct.

[Ominous? No, surely not. Vague? Absolutely.]

[jup1t3r]

The latter. Though it wouldn't be the first time a man has used blindness as a ruse.

[ See: Robin Hood, the Disney edition. Yes, he's seen that. Yes, he enjoyed it. Don't @ him.

The vagueness is like a scab that Rye's brain starts picking at until eventually, suddenly-- ]

Well, are you going to explain or is this an ill-advised game of twenty questions?

[ Or... ]

Otherwise I might have to lead you into a ditch and call it an experiment.

[ At least he's honest, right? Despite Rye's snippy greeting, he is genuinely curious and though his tone is sharp in places, he doesn't intend harm to those he doesn't think deserve it. How long that'll last is hard to say since he doesn't have a full enough grasp of his surroundings, or his powers as yet.

With no ditches immediately obvious and his intentions still on the right side of decent, the direction of the bar is where he's pointed them. ]

[whisperedone]

[He smiles. to himself.]

So impatient. I need to demonstrate which means you need to wait a moment.

[Once the bulk of the crowd is behind them and the sounds of the wind and the grass and the cars on the road nearby become more distinct to him, he speaks up.]

The sun is setting and it's at our back, which means you chose East. The grass is growing more sparse as we approach the concrete of the sidewalk which, by the way, has a sizable divot, so don't trip. There's a smell of cooking meat on the air which means the. -ah...barbeque...place is nearby and the nearest bar two doors to our left from it, coming from this direction.

[His smile grows a little more.]

Welcome to my party trick.

[jup1t3r]

[ The problem with looking a decade older than he actually is comes when people expect him to be less of the things associated with youth. Patience might be a virtue, but it's certainly not Rye's forte. And maybe it's a socio-economic thing; something about growing up in London where time is always short, there's always somewhere to be and somebody behind you with somewhere to be, too.

Time is money.

Time is the difference between successfully bypassing a firewall and setting off an alarm.

Time is too short, and there's too much he wants to do with his life to fit it all in.

So when the man's accusing him of impatience there's a tut that accompanies the roll of his eyes. Yes, yes, fine, he's impatient. So what?

The party trick is, admittedly, impressive and privately Rye marvels at it. He even goes so far as to close his own eyes for a prolonged few seconds, as though to ascertain how hard it might be. ]

Oof. Bloody hell--

[ Yeah, that jostling is the divot his boot catches the very edge of and he has to overcompensate very quickly. Alright, walking with eyes closed while trying to absorb the surrounding environment via other input is tricky. ]

That's... [ very impressive, he thinks ] uncanny.

[whisperedone]

[Garner's smile shifts subtly into something of amusement for the jostle of the man tripping. Whatever the reason, he's willing to guess he simply hadn't been listened to. His friends listened to him and took his thoughts at value, but it was something he had learned the more he'd ventured out into the world back home: people discredited those different or odd to them, especially the more they couldn't understand them.

A man with no sight who hasn't yet found himself dead or closed away in a single room to keep it that way was not something most understood, his word going ignored was common enough. It was part of why he simply let Rory or Raleigh do the talking.]

It serves me well enough.

[He pauses at the edge of the street, the sound of a car from their right has him gripping Rye's wrist a little more tightly.]

Adaptability is important, here or anywhere. As long as you have that skill, you can manage the rest.

[jup1t3r]

You don't understand--

[ Censoring himself with a click of his tongue, Rye shakes his head and the grip tightening at his wrist at least pulls him into paying attention to the road. Yes, that's a car they'd be better off not getting in front of. He waits until it's rolled by before turning his head each way once more to check and then setting them on a course to cross the road.

What he'd been about to say is that the other man has no idea how much Rye's had to adapt his whole life. Self-awareness had kicked in before he could finish that statement. A combination of not wanting to give too much away and the fact he's speaking to a blind man, telling him he doesn't understand the level of adaptability needed. Especially now that he's seen the party trick in action.

He purposely picks up the thread of where he'd left off with a different tact. ]

You don't understand how much I need this drink.

[whisperedone]

[Rye starts out and Garner's brows raise in interest for the rest...and the rest of what he gets makes him chuckle.]

Perhaps I don't, but I do know how much my own nerves will appreciate it as well.

[Garner feels along the front of the building for the handle to the door and pulls it open for his companion. He would never drink while in the middle of that mess that was the festival, losing more of his sense was unwise, but now that he was somewhere reasonably safe? The jitter leftover from being so discombobulated would need to be eased.]

[jup1t3r]

[ Well, at least he's not been assailed by a non-drinker. Despite his slightly less than sunny disposition, there may be a hint of Rye's gratitude at having somebody to spend more than a fleeting moment with in passing. He might try his best to keep people at arm's length, but he's not immune to loneliness. It seems to have set in faster than he'd like, here.

So, when the door is pulled open and it's clear that he's going in first, the curves at the corners of his lips are shallow, but they exist. He'll even hang back and avoid heading too far into the bar proper so that if Garner wants his arm again he can have it.

Perhaps they can pass an hour or so with some alcohol and he can learn more about this place and, either way, at the end of their time here Rye will grasp one of Garner's shoulders and squeeze lightly. As close to a thank you as the other man will likely get, if he allows it. An until next time. ]