redstringtheories

➥ 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.)

➥ Sticks and Stones

(cw: hallucination, potential mind-control)

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. That's far too much paperwork, you'd been assured with a wink from the employee who'd directed you to the park trailhead. You've been left with another person. 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, there seems to be something odd afoot with the stones around the park. Instead of the questionably useful advice they offer, there is, instead, something embarrassingly or horrifically true about you carved into the stone. Trying to show your companion or gauge their reaction will net nothing; they will simply see their own truth. It's only when you admit to what's on the stone that it seems to become visible to others or any camera in your possession.

Take a picture. The least you deserve for the trouble is some money.

➥ I Will Survive

"We'll have others with you, but all of you will be out on your own for missions, so to speak," the ADI employee who had led you down to the underground training facility explained. "You'll need to have some basic skills. Even if you're not going out soon or ever… it's safer to know these things."

Basic skills, in this case, appear to mean survival and weapons training. The room you've been brought to on Floor B3 below ADI Headquarters is a massive, underground gym, and there are sections set up for various skills practice. One side of the gym is dedicated to fighting: bare-knuckles, wrestling, knives, and tasers are all out on display. There are also a few guns, but those are reserved for people who can prove they can manage the other weapons first. The other side has areas for fire-making, building a shelter, navigating without a phone, supply preparation, cooking, and basic first-aid. Through a side door, there's also a small pool where people are being taught the basics of swimming.

Any or all of these skills would be useful in a dangerous situation, and there aren't enough native ADI employees to cover training for all of them. If you show that you're proficient with something, you'll be asked to man one of the areas to assist in training others. If you're at a loss and looking lost, you will be pushed toward whatever skills practice area is physically closest to you, whether you wanted to learn anything about that or not. Best make the most of it… and try not to kill anyone or burn anything down.

Even those who have refused ADI Housing and taken themselves to Bonnie's Flophouse will find that they're welcome for this training under the strict understanding that no supernatural abilities will be used. Bonnie will have informed them of it and helped them get to ADI to ensure they learn some of the things they might need to survive... and also just to bond with the people they'll be working with for the foreseeable future.

➥ Shifting Perspective

(cw: body horror, implication of near-drowning, violence, potential for blood, gore, drowning, death)

The beaches around Gloucester are numerous and varied with reported supernatural activity at many, if not most of them. For those working with ADI, they'll receive the direction in a mass email from Reyes Amador, the assistant to the Head of ADI. For those not technically working at ADI, Bonnie will provide the same information.

All,

We have received reports of strange noises and sightings at Coffin Beach. Please take at least one other person and investigate. A $300 bonus will be offered to those who bring back evidence of the source of these reports.

Take Care of Yourselves,
Reyes

Those who head to Coffin Beach will find that the sand beneath their feet squeaks softly with each step, like the faint sound of a poorly-maintained hinge protesting their movements. It makes stealth especially difficult, and those who wish to maintain their cover would do well to stay farther up into the vegetation and off the beach, itself. There aren't any houses out this way, just coastal marshes, the beach, and some higher ground with low-growing shrubs, tall grasses, and thin trees.

For the patient, those who wait for night to fall, they will be rewarded when they hear the sound of someone crying. Searching the beach, they will be able to spot a young person who appears to have washed up in a kayak on the beach. The young person is visibly injured in some way with blood coming out of them. Those who approach cautiously may get the sense that there is something not quite right about this person. Man or woman, their face is too long, their angles too sharp.

There is something wrong. It's not the injury.

There is something very wrong with what this person is.

They will not respond to any calls or move from where they lie, half-submerged in the surf. Anyone who approaches within a few feet will discover they're not nearly as helpless as they seem to be, though. The person will burst from the water with a powerful thrust, attempting to tackle anyone nearby and bite them. The person's face transforms into a long, fanged maw, trying to rip and tear and drag their prey into the ocean with them, away from any safety.

➥ Mod Notes

ARRIVAL: 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. Please refer to the Arrival page for details regarding the arrival and onboarding process.
STICKS AND STONES: If so desired, to facilitate CR, characters may feel themselves compelled to ask about the stones when they see their truth written on it. Resisting the compulsion will become more and more difficult as time goes on.
I WILL SURVIVE: Characters may be students or trainers in this scenario. They might be able to get away with small displays of supernatural abilities if they want to risk it and if they find themselves with the necessary reserves of power. Anything significant will have them immediately removed and asked not to return to ADI for a few days.
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE: Characters may fight off, capture, or kill the creature. If they successfully capture it and bring it back to ADI (or call for someone to come and do that for them), they will receive a significant monetary bonus beyond the promised $300 for their work. If characters successfully kill and document the kill, they will also receive the bonus and instructions to push the body out to sea. If a character is taken by the creature, they will be killed. Please bear in mind that if a character dies in the TDM prompt, they are dead. A different version who doesn't have TDM memories may be apped in their place.
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The admonishment earns a hiss in reply, ears back and teeth bared. Binx doesn't make any more forward or back, his spine arched and fur fluffed.

Figures how, he wonders, and who would they be? Is this person in league with his kidnappers? A low, panicky growl rises from his throat despite the demand for quiet.

"Kitty, shhhh!" Galliard glances at the cat, but makes no move to touch him. He'd rather not get bit if he doesn't have to.

And because that's just a cat, and definitely not a person in a cat body or anything of the like, Galliard starts crawling away from it, feeling his way along the vents. There has to be a way out of here, right?

So far Binx has no reason to believe this man isn't somehow in league with his kidnapper, though he's baffled as to the who and how and why of it. Which is why he finally loses his patience and snaps, "You hush!"

The cat... the cat just talked.

Galliard freezes, then slowly turns his head to look back over his shoulder. Yep, still just a cat, and yet there's no one else around who could have told him to hush.

"You're... no. No, cats don't talk."

"Oh, my bad," says Binx sarcastically. He doesn't move to follow, not particularly wanting to be within arm's reach. "Who's they? Where are we?"

"You're talking."

All right, so... a talking cat. This is new. Galliard turns around as best he can in the tight vent, so he's facing the cat. Should he just... answer it?

"I... don't know. I was fighting, it was a mess, and then I woke up here. With you." He gestures at the cat. "With a talking cat. Do all the cats talk here?"

"I certainly hope not, but how would I know? I was asleep at--among friends--and now I'm here." Wryly, he adds, "With a talking human."

"People are supposed to talk." But okay, so they're both strangers here. Galliard starts inching forward in the vent again. "Are you coming? Or do you want to find your own way out of here?"

Binx gives him a disgusted look. People being used as a word that excludes him stings a little too deep for him to even feel right disputing it.

"Lay on, MacDuff," he mutters. "Clearly you know what you're doing."

"I'm Galliard, not MacDuff."

Is Galliard classy enough to recognise that Macbeth reference? No, he absolutely is not.

"What's your name?" Hey, if he's in some ducts with a talking cat, he might as well know his name.

"You're an airhead, that's what you are," mutters Binx. Louder, he answers, "Thackery Binx."

A cat and a nerd? Jesus wept.

Fortunately, Galliard doesn't hear himself get called an airhead, as he's found a vent cover and is wrenching on it with both hands.

"Thackery, huh?" That's a pretty cool name, no lie, and he glances back over his shoulder at him. "I like it. Does it mean anything?"

Thackery sits up straighter, a little surprised by the question. "An old family name," he replies. "After a thatcher, I believe."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Is it weird that Galliard kind of wants to pet Thackery now? "I think Galliard used to be a type of dance."

"That's exactly what it is," Thackery confirms. "One of those courtly dances they would do in Europe."

"Wait, you actually know the dance?" As best he can, Galliard turns around in the vent so he's facing Thackery. "Have you ever seen one? What does it look like?"

He just knows that it was a dance, one that was banned a long time ago in Marley. He has no idea what it would actually look like.

Thackery pauses in his steps, managing to look regretful as he gives a little shake of his head. "We didn't have those kinds of dances in Salem. Men and women dancing together was...not done. I only heard about it from my father."

Who'd told him all about the wickedness of large parties with alcoholic spirits and mixed dancing. If his father could only see the people of Salem today, Binx is sure the man would have a conniption.

"Oh." Galliard is weirdly disappointed by this, but he completely accepts Thackery's answer. Sounds like Thackery is from the same kind of place he is, where everything is restricted and no one is allowed to have any fun.

And also has talking cats.

"Hey, this grate has some loose screws..." Galliard starts fiddling with one, cursing under his breath when he can't get a good grip on it. "Dammit!"

"Careful, don't drop it--" says Binx, not immediately getting what the problem is until he squeezes in alongside Galliard. "Can you turn any of them?"

He doesn't even try to do it himself. No thumbs.

Galliard jumps a little at the warm fur brushing against him, but he scoots over so Thackery can see what he's doing.

"I can get the bottom ones, but the top ones are rusted shut." It takes a few minutes, but Galliard manages to get the bottom half of the grate loosened. He considers trying to just transform his fingernails into his titan's claws so he can just slash through everything, but he's never been any good at only transforming part of himself. It's all or nothing, and if he went to his full titan size, he'd be stuck, and he'd squish Thackery.

"Here..." He manages to hook his fingers under the lip of the grate and pull it forward, leaving a narrow gap. "Can you fit through there?"

"Maybe..."

Binx eyes it, but there's little hesitation in him before he presses himself into the gap. His head fits through, so he lets out a covert, "Got it!" as he works his shoulders through next to drop into whatever room the vent lets out into.

As soon as Thackery has wiggled through, Galliard releases the vent and yanks his hands back. He's a little too slow, though, and scrapes his fingers against the metal edge.

"Can you go find someone else to let me out?"

Binx gazes back up at him, hesitating a moment. "I'll see what I can do," he says rather than making any promises - and rather than waiting for any objections, he quickly slinks off in search of...someone. Whether or not he'll decide it's wise to alert them to his presence is another matter.

TDM #1

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that icon is the perfect expression of feline disdain

look he's old and tired

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we could handwave from here that Binx finds/is found by ADI and leads them back to Galliard?