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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.
Neuro | Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
Cramped spaces are far from a challenge for someone as in control of their body as a demon. Wiggling his way through the ducts was an easy task and it takes hardly any time at all for him to find his way to one of the many metal gratings that prevent him from entering a room. For a moment he lingers and watches the person walking below... not because he finds them as a threat, but because he's curious to how they're adjusting to just abruptly ending up somewhere so suddenly.
After a moment he flexes his gloved hand and his fingertip stretches and changes in shape and size until it can not only fit through the thin slits of the metal, but also quickly loosen the screws holding the vent cover in place.
When the cover falls to the floor it's only natural that there is a loud clang, but what may be more shocking to whoever is wandering the room or hall is the large, blue-suit, cobweb wearing man crawling his way out of the too-small vent and crawling toward the ceiling like a monster in some horror movie. "You there... Are you a native?"
⍩ STICKS AND STONES.
Now this was the sort of thing that Neuro liked. The money was a trivial thing that only human beings cared about, but in a way these rocks were mini-mysteries of their own. Low calories in worth yet any meal at the moment was worth his time.
At first, he blatantly ignores whatever companion was unfortunately shoved with him. His eyes focused on taking in his surroundings as his gloved hand taps on his chin. Though it doesn't take particularly long for him to kneel down at one of the particular boulders that they're looking for in the first place.
'You abandoned Hell for your own selfish desires.'
Neuro doesn't look particularly impressed, but he's still smiling his eerie smile all the same as he tilts his head toward his shiny new
meal ticket, scapegoat, unfortunate soulcompanion. "Does it say anything different for you?" Because magically changing scrawled writing depending on who is looking at it certainly seems more interesting than just having his own laundry aired out.⍩ SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE.
Finally something interesting. With only a small snag of requiring a 'tagalong', Neuro could hardly resist the lure of the message encouraging him to go to the beach. Rather than ask around and play nice as he had earlier on during his stay, the demon decides that a more direct approach would be perfect.
Enter the first poor soul he lays his eyes on getting a rather large gloved hand gripping at their head, nostrils, or shoulders---whichever he can get his gloved hand on first--abruptly and charmingly being pulled down toward the beach. All the while wiping the back of his opposite hand against his nearly drooling lip. "$300 is a lot of money, isn't it? We should be sure to look thoroughly!"
sticks and stones.
He hadn't been particularly bothered by the fact that his apparent partner wasn't keen on talking. He's dealt with worse, and while he's no expert on the "paranormal"-- every strange occurrence in his life has always been explainable with science-- recon's recon, no matter the nature of what you're looking for.
It's hard not to want to snap a photo of the guy he's with, though, now that he's looking at that questionable little smile. Talk about the heebie-jeebies.
Still, he's nothing if not willing to cooperate. "Uh..." So Chris looks down at the boulder in question now, flicking the flashlight to his phone on to illuminate the words on it: DEPRESSION DOESN'T MAKE IT OK FOR A MAN IN HIS FORTIES TO HOG THE SWINGS, CHRIS.
And, furrowing his brows, he says, "I don't know. What did it used to say?"
no subject
He even looks pleasant! ... At least when Chris is looking directly at him.
"A strange statement. 'You abandoned Hell for your own selfish desires'... I don't quite understand what it means." And because Neuro admitted his 'truth', Chris's flashlight will catch those very words not far below his own. "Hell isn't exactly a place a human can escape, is it?"
no subject
That first statement, condescending as ever, remains, but the fact this new one appeared out of nowhere... "Depends on what you mean by Hell, I guess." Chris looks back up at Neuro, shrugging. "If we're talking some plane of eternal suffering, it beats me. But there're plenty metaphorical Hells."
He switches to the camera app on his phone, frowning as he tries to get a good angle. "This count as 'paranormal activity', you think?" It's certainly no Ghostbusters-level scenario, but it's still weird. The timing and the fact the rocks perfectly formed what Neuro said couldn't be rigged, not unless Neuro knows more than he lets on.
no subject
Neuro knew better, of course.
He straightens up to a fairly impressive height--about the same as Chris--before pulling out his own device to tap away with his gloved fingers. This was disappointing if it was the extent of it. "For reference, what did the rock say when you looked at it, Mr. Redfield? It would be important to compare our findings." Even if Neuro was more interested in what other things they could find... things like this were important to. Not enough to feed his appetite, but enough to at least peak his interest.
no subject
Which is a... considerably idiotic thing to say about a rock, Chris realises belatedly, but he sticks with his story.
To his credit, at least he quotes it word for word: "'Depression doesn't make it okay for a man in his forties to hog the swings, Chris.'"
The words reconfigure themselves to appear beneath the original message in Neuro's perception. The writing's fairly standard up until the Chris, which-- in its curlier, prettier lettering-- looks as if it's been done in a daintier hand. Honestly, it's more irritating than anything, and Chris doesn't much care for the tone it gives off.
The tone the rock gives off. Jesus.
"For all I know it's another Chris it's referring to, but." He doesn't exactly know how paranormal shit's supposed to work, and "can make your name appear with very specific, embarrassing memories" probably isn't too farfetched.