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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STICKS & STONES

[ whoever his partner is, larus hasn't said much to them since they'd started their trek along the path towards the rocks. if he's being honest, he doesn't particularly care about the reward over what he might find, already accustomed to things being a certain way despite the circumstances. but at least he can see where he's going and avoid a tumble down the side of a hill in the dark. he's lost count of the times he's reached out and steadied the person with him, nudged them back away from a sharp drop or a dangerous looking ledge.

should he bring that up in conversation? honestly, at this point, it probably doesn't even matter.

so, they walk. if the silence is unnerving, he doesn't bother to address it, and once they reach their first stop, larus stares at the words – or word, rather – etched into the stone and blinks once before finally addressing his partner. ]

Do you see that? What's it say?

[ because it's completely possible he's also hallucinating. ]

I WILL SURVIVE

[ he hasn't had to use many survival skills as basic as wilderness training in a very long time. when he'd been a boy, perhaps. even longer than that? larus can't remember, but a few things have continued to stick with him since then—however many years it's been.

crouched down by a pile of sticks, he sorts through the tinder and kindling and frowns at the missing pieces of the puzzle. it would take him a while to actually build a fire like this without the proper equipment, and perhaps that had been the challenge all along? he'd much rather be training with some of the weapons, even if he found most of them pointless to what he could do with his own hands. yet, he's picking his way through each section as best he can with what knowledge he has, and once he gathers some things together, he decides to just circle around some of the other people working on the same thing and observe. perhaps this puts him in a position to really know what he looks like he's doing; even if he does, sort of, it doesn't mean he should give advice. at least until — ]

If you light it like that, you're going to catch yourself on fire.

[ spoken deadpan and unimpressed. but more than that, the wind is blowing in the right direction to make what he says true enough. ]

WILDCARD

[ for quick info, larus is a (young) vampire in his canon. more can be found on his journal! hit me up with other prompts as well. i'm very keen on writing out shifting perspective with anyone interested and would be happy to start! just let me know. will also match style ( prose, brackets ) so hit me with whatever! pm for questions. ]

Larus's help in the dark wild place is necessary and appreciated. Meredith walks with a cane, slower than most people, and uneven ground at night is a particular bane of hers, like trying to navigate while looking into the sun might be for him.

Once they reach the stone (he has to point it out for her), she turns on the flashlight on her phone, pointing it at the text. "I see it. Um. Look, I can explain, really."

To be fair, he really has no idea what he's looking at when she says something like that. Is she explaining it because it really does read the same and she's guilty of the same crime? Or is there something else to all of this – like this entire place – that he just doesn't know about? Rather than dwell on it too much, he figures it's better to be up front about it even as he draws his phone up and snaps a picture of it.

"Just tell me what it says. I don't think we can trust our eyes here." Which is hilarious considering his own better than good vision.

[ Somewhere between arrogant and bored, Iqbal lurks with no contribution to the activities, be it to practice or instruct. People are likely not going to approach him regardless, much less so when he lacks a smile or initiative — and on the few occasions that he does start a conversation, pleasantries — but when there is little else to do, and he doesn't have a pack of cigarettes to burn some time with, entertainment is drawn from observing participants like water from a stone.

Larus happens to be in the way, either cautioning or criticizing an unwitting trainee. Iqbal is only slightly less deadpan and unimpressed when he intervenes. ]

I'm sure they'll be fine.

[ Larus' gaze cuts sharply to the person speaking to him, and for a moment, he freezes. If he had a heartbeat, it would have probably been in his throat, and really, that's not a fair comparison when he knows who he's thinking of isn't the person he's staring at. Maybe it's their hair or the tone of their voice—or every other thing that makes him long to see Casimir. He would hate this place, but that still doesn't mean he can't miss him.

But that thought quickly falls aside when he regards this person a second time, resisting the urge to roll his eyes and somewhat failing. ]

Are you going to put them out if they do? [ Because he certainly isn't going to. ]

[ Unmoved and unsuspecting, Larus gets the same look Iqbal began with, lids relaxed and lips neutral. Had this been many centuries ago, perhaps he wouldn't have been as tolerant, but people wouldn't have been as ignorant, either. He did start it. ]

They might as well learn how to do that, too.

[ That first hesitation didn't go unnoticed. It goes in his back pocket, however, should there be a reason to bring it up later. ]

What's your name?

[ It's a pragmatic response, at least, and Larus can respect that. Or parts of it, anyway. He takes a step back and away, no longer interested in the goings-on of their mandatory survival training and much more keen on whatever this conversation is. Might be, he corrects, still unable to keep himself from staring a little harder than necessary. ]

Larus. [ His accent is a bit thicker, but not so overly noticeable as the rest of what he's said so far. ] What should I call you?

[ An attempt at being friendly since he's never been particularly good at that and he might need an ally or two here. ]

Larus. [ As though he's testing it on his tongue. ] Iqbal is fine.

[ Not his real name, which he hasn't used for a very, very long time, but it's served him well enough. The pronunciation is adapted for simplicity's sake.]

I take it you've been here for a while.

[ He repeats Iqbal's name with a nod before frowning again. Like such a thing is some kind of inconvenience. ]

It depends on your definition of 'a while'. [ He bites back his original retort and continues on. ] I've spoken with a handful of people. Everyone's been here about the same amount of time. Give or take a few hours. I don't know if that's important or not.

[ Knowing the feel of this place though? It probably is. ]

[ He doesn't dismiss Larus' answer. It's as useful as any other piece of information he can gather to navigate the people he's stuck with. ]

And helping people?

[ By pointing out that they're about to set themselves on fire, for example. ]

TDM #1

larus / original

Sticks and Stones

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i will survive

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