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redstringtheories2021-07-04 06:36 pm
TDM #1
(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: 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.
"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.
(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.
- 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.
ren amamiya | persona 5
2. Cooking Classes!
3. Wildcard
Arrival
Something touches her, and she panics, kicking at whatever it is.]
Don't you come no closer, you toady-eyed, scraggly-haired frog-whumper!
[She's speaking English. Middle English. To those who speak more modern tongues, it's something like a low-class Shakespearian dialect with unusual pronunciations, but not indecipherable.]
no subject
Now, speaking is a whole different ordeal, and he can't make up a single sentence in his mind that is coherent enough with the pounding, throbbing headache. In Japanese, he just offers the only thing in his mind.)
Sorry, do you speak Japanese?
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At least it's not overwhelming. She glances over at her new companion to take stock of him. Mercy is a tall young woman in a brown dress with green sleeves, black stockings, and sturdy leather boots. A white cloth is over hair, and she's carrying a haversack, a small dagger held tight in one hand. She purses her lips before sheathing it at her side.]
Right. You. [She points to him.] Me. [Points to herself.] Work together? [She clasps her hands together.]
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(It's probably the result of fluorescent lights, those that can make one's eyeballs want to pop right out. Uncomfortable, to say the least.
Ren is a seventeen-year-old boy, with unruly and wavy dark hair on top of his head and a fairly boring outfit in comparison to what he expected to be wearing in a situation like this. Glases soften what is known to be a very intense pair of eyes, the same that seem to be taking everything around them into consideration. With all gentleness he possesses, he sets his hands on her shoulders to move her out of the way. He'll kick the door down if she does so.)
no subject
Uh... good work!
[Keep it simple. She holds up a thumb for him, hoping that isn't somehow offensive. She throws in a confused smile to help the meaning come through.]
Now we just-just...
[She has never seen a place like this before, and peering out into the hallway, she just gapes.]
Woah... it's like living inside a crystal.
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Underwhelming to him, it's just an office, but he can understand that she's definitely dazzled by it - which is confusing. Not that he can ASK, but he can beckon her to follow him, slowly so both of them take a good look around.
Ren only stops for a second, because he realizes something belatedly. With his index finger pointing to himself, he speaks slowly:)
Ren Amamiya.
no subject
[That's what she hears, anyway. She thinks he's giving her a name. He places a hand over her chest and bows her head slightly.]
Mercy.
[She keeps her dagger at the ready, but everything in the hallway is terribly distracting, especially when they pass a bright red, metallic cylinder of some kind. Ren might recognize it for a fire extinguisher, but Mercy stops and goes over to it, trying to pry off the casing to get at it. It's pretty, and she thinks she can see writing on it.]
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(Look at them, communicating with the little that they know! Ren means lotus, and his surname means rain and Palace - all very symbolic of what he represents. Change, adversity and cleansing through tough places.
"Mercy" is a name he recognizes, but cannot translate into coherence. He does know that she seems to be in awe at things that are just so ordinary that it just happens to be adorable. Maybe they are dead and she died a couple of years behind him.
Or plenty.)
Fire.
(And he'll mimic using it, his fingers wiggling to express the fire going out.)
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That's a mighty small bit of water for such a bit place. [She's seen a building burn. That thing isn't enough to do anything. As that's probably unintelligible, she adds a nod, pointing at it.]
Water.
[As she looks up at him again, she notices someone coming down the corridor toward them. They're looking down at something, and Mercy quickly grabs Ren to pull him to the side behind a tall plant.]
Kidnapper?
[She mimes her best evil bandit face that involved far more clawed fingers than a real bandit has, []before pointing at the stranger.]
no subject
Especially when he hears steps coming close. From his posture, it can be asserted that this hiding is part of his daily life, hunched with all the confidence there is in the world as he takes his knife, prepared to protect her.)
no subject
The footsteps draw closer, closer, and then an older man with a beard passes them. He muttering to himself as he stares down at some paperwork. He glances to the side, sees them, and stops for a doubletake.
'Who-?' he starts to say.
Mercy leaps at him. She grabs for his arm rather than trying to stab him, though. It doesn't actually look like he's armed, which is... strange for a kidnapper.]
cooking
Is the water supposed to be burning like that?
no subject
(Water... Burning? Ren carefully runs his finger against the knife to remove any chopped vegetables that may be clinging to the metal. Patting his hands, he makes his way towards the stove to lower the temperature.)
Put the vegetables in it.
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[ ...yeah. Gojou really doesn't do this. He considers the water before he dumps in all the vegetables at once. Then he considers some more, before reaching for some of the unchopped ones that are left. ]
That doesn't look like enough.
no subject
What doesn't look like enough?
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[ Gojou has an eye bigger than his stomach apparently, or bigger than anyone's really. But when the water starts splashing, he jumps back. ]
Is it supposed to do that?
no subject
(There are plenty of vegetables to be added to the water, some to be steamed, some more to be chopped.)
This is just for a class.
(He doesn't reckon this to be their dinner - or hopefully so. Otherwise, he'll have to gather more ingredients and triple the amount of curry, which is definitely fine! He didn't get the memo, that's all.)
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[ Gojou flashes a cheeky grin, then approaches the pot again, adding in vegetables with more hesitance this time. ]
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(Not every vegetable can be eaten raw, and meat is definitely not supposed to. With his face and a thumbs up, he clearly approves of the more cautious manner of dealing with the food. It's less likely to cause an accident that way.)
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[ He looks pleased at the thumbs up, and then eyes what's not been put in the pot yet. ]
How do we know when to add more?
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(The meat is already cooked, too! It'll be a matter of putting everything into the pot and voilà! They can... Eat? He doesn't quite know.)
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...is this soft enough?
[ He looks perplexed as he pokes at the vegetables. They're still pretty raw. ]
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cooking!
[Kaede takes a seat at the counter and props her chin in her hands with a smile that's perhaps a bit too bright for how dire they keep saying their surroundings have the potential to be. It's not like she's stupid -- she knows how bad things can be. But moping around isn't her style!]
Did someone teach you to cook, or did you teach yourself?
no subject
My legal guardian taught me.