TDM #1

[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.)

➥ 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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Monika | DDLC (spoilers for original game, but not plus)

[writetheway]

A; Arrival
[Pain. It hurts so much. She didn't know being deleted hurt. When you think of deleting something on a computer, you think of it being instant; this hurts and it hurts slow. It's disorienting enough that she has no context for where she is, no idea that where she is changed. There's pain, and then there's a flash of blue-green in front of her. It's eye-catching and solid in her crumbling vision. She reaches for it--

And crashes to the ground, newly-made, a perfectly solid ghost made of binary and electricity, clutching a turquoise Switch Lite to her chest like she'll fall apart if she lets go. And only now, as her panicked breathing slows, does she realize she's curled on the ground in some kind of office building. It's dark; it's nighttime, even though that kind of concept shouldn't exist anymore.]

Hello? [Her voice sounds small in the quiet dark. She doesn't like it. She summons up some false confidence.] I hope I didn't scare anyone when I dropped in! It was an accident.

B; I Will Survive
[It's not that she's squeamish. She's probably lost the right to claim anything close to that. But, looking at the weapons, looking at the knives, Monika certainly feels out of place. Self-defense is important, of course! Any young woman knows that. But maybe there's--a bit of a difference between the sort of self-defense she grew up (ha) expecting and the sort of self-defense this place seems to expect of her.

Her hand hovers indecisively over a knife. It looks very practical. Not ornate at all.

She shifts to the tasers.]

This sort of thing shouldn't be too hard to learn, right? [Monika certainly doesn't look like the kind of girl who would be getting into a bare-fisted brawl or stabbing anyone, if nothing else.]

C; Sticks and Stones
[Monika has been ignoring the rocks. She's been ignoring them as hard as she can. But it's like they say: if someone tells you not to think about a white elephant, that's all you're going to think about. You shouldn't be here, the rock says, and Monika can't deny it's true but she doesn't want to see it, doesn't want to acknowledge it. She doesn't want to think about it but it's feeling more and more like if she doesn't say something the truths she sees on the rock will come bursting out all over. It was murder, the next one says, and she just can't stand it.]

Do all these rocks seem weird to you? Ahaha, maybe it's just because there's so many...

D; Wildcard
[If you'd like to hit Monika up elsewhere, she would be found around the ADI HQ and housing getting her bearings, as well as taking a few curious forays into town while trying not to get lost. If you'd like to plot something out, I can be found at maiiau!]

B

[worthallthis]

[The Asset stares down at her, not quite meeting her eyes. There's something in him that finds an eighteen year old girl needing combat training familiar, even comforting. There's also something in him that rebels against even the thought.]

Do you have any combat training at all.

[writetheway]

Ahaha, nope! [Monika smiles, but she looks almost apologetic about her apparently incredibly obvious ineptitude in this particular department. Being this incompetent is never a good feeling, but she reasons with herself that there's no way she could have predicted being dropped into a situation where this sort of thing would have been necessary.] I was just a regular high schooler. So I was thinking, if I use a taser then I can stand back a little more.

[Also, while she's reasonably athletic, she's not melee fight athletic. It's more of a "has no problems with gym class" athletic.]

[worthallthis]

Yes.

[Which is to say, she has a point, but... it could be knocked from her hands. She could be ambushed. She could be knocked down. The person or thing she's fighting might have armoring that makes them resistant or immune to electricity. (Ugh.) She needs to know more than just how to point and press a button.

He can't just let her go out without any training at all. He turns away from the weapons, towards the practice mats.]

Come with me.

[writetheway]

[This guy doesn't seem much for small talk. But he's offering to help her, and she could use help. And talking to so many other people, no matter how little they say, is still amazing, still brilliant. She doesn't want to let the hope grow too much, but it's there regardless. She follows along.]

So, um, I'll do my best! [At whatever, specifically, they'll be doing. Learning some combat.]

[worthallthis]

[He turns back to face her once they're safely in the middle of one of the mats. Then he grabs her wrist, if she doesn't jerk back away, holding up her hand.]

Someone grabs you here. You do this to break the hold.

[And he proceeds to run her through some very, very basic self-defense routines: breaking two common holds, how to bash a heel into someone's instep
to cause the most pain, and how to fall without hurting herself and get back to her feet as quickly as possible. The goal is always get away and get help more than actually taking down an enemy. Most of his instruction is hands-on, demonstration, and gently repositioning her rather than issuing instructions. As she guessed, he is not one for small talk, or talk at all.

When starts looking tired enough to make mistakes, he immediately steps back, out of her personal space.]

[writetheway]

[Monika isn't nearly fast enough to get away--her reflexes pull her back, but far too late to dodge his grab. Alarm pops in her chest even if she knows this is a learning experience. But then he shows her how to get out of it. How to get out of a lot of things. She follows along as best she can, accepting his mostly silent instruction. Her own comments are only occasional, asking if she did it right or expressing some excitement when she succeeds and annoyance when she messes up. Even with just the basics, being in a situation where she might have to actually fight someone off feels a little less overwhelming.

She wants to try and keep going as long as she can, so she doesn't fully appreciate how tired she is until he steps back. Her smile is less uncertain now.]

That was really enlightening! You're a really good teacher. [She's curious how he learned, but there are so many people from so many places here, she's aware she might be stepping into some sort of landmine if she does. If she wants to make friends, she should probably avoid doing that kind of thing.]

[worthallthis]

[He stares at her left ear, expression sliding slightly confused at the compliment. He continues on as if she hadn't said it.]

You will need to practice. Every day. Until it's automatic. I can show you more once you have mastered these.

[That will help her get stronger, too, practicing. But more important than strength is knowing her body will react appropriately without her having to think too hard about it.]

[writetheway]

Okay. [Practice a little every day. Like piano, except not really. Learning muscle memory is the same principle either way, though, right? She can see how he doesn't meet her eyes directly, and she thinks of Yuri in spite of herself. But it's different from that; he certainly doesn't have Yuri's lack of self-confidence. Also, the idea of Yuri physically fighting anyone is--

Hm. Maybe possible, actually, even if it seems silly at first blush. Oh well. There's no point in thinking about that.]

My name's Monika, by the way. Maybe I'll get some muscles to show off later! [But maybe not too defined, she doesn't think that would really look good on her...]

[worthallthis]

Monika. Okay.

[He nods. He'll remember. He does not, tellingly, offer a name back. He's still wrestling with the one he's been told is his. Instead, he suggests,]

You should walk around the room a few times, slow. To cool down.

[writetheway]

[Monika notices the man doesn't give his name, but she doesn't want to be pushy about it. (Sayori would do better at this. No, that's not fair--Monika's sure she's lost the right to go to Sayori for this kind of help.)]

Alright. [She nods, looking decisive even if she's still a little unsure of herself.] Thank you for helping me out. Hopefully after I practice more I can show you I've improved.

[She'll go to walk around the room as instructed.]

[worthallthis]

You can ask me for help, too.

[He's going to be in here every day he's not on duty somewhere. What else is he going to do with his time, anyway? He has no idea how to just relax or have fun, so. Training.

He watches her walk, patient and standing in what she might or might not recognize as a parade rest. Which... might be kind of creepy, sorry Monika.]

[writetheway]

[Monika doesn't know the specifics except to think his pose seems vaguely military--which she might just be imagining. It seems formal, certainly. But actually, if he is or was in the military, then it would explain how he knows all this stuff. She's not sure if it explains his behavior or not. It would be rude to assume, she reminds herself forcefully.]

Alright. [The time spent walking around the room gives her enough time to work up the courage to ask after the thing he'd skipped over before:] Um, so, what's your name? So I know who to ask for if I need help again.

[worthallthis]

[That's... not an easy question. Your name is J-- No. A few plates in the metal arm shift restlessly.]

I was called the Asset.

[It's not a name. He knows it's not. But it's what he has right now.]

[writetheway]

Um... [Monika hesitates. That's not a name, really. It's something people called him, but he didn't say it was his name. The Asset, like he's a thing and not a person. Some traitorous impulse wonders if that means he's not a person and she pushes it away. No. She's going to do better here.]

Are you okay with that...?

[worthallthis]

[He looks maybe a shade confused by the question.]

That doesn't matter.

[It's not like he's going to pick a new name, just for the hell of it.]

[writetheway]

[That's a strange way to reply to that question--he could have just said yes, but he didn't. Monika feels like there's some thread to tug on here, but she has no idea where it goes or what the implications of it being there are. She can't exactly peak into the code for spoilers here.]

Why wouldn't it matter? Like--you should be called something you like to be called, I think.

[worthallthis]

[Now the look he gives her shades... maybe it's skeptical. Maybe it's wary. It's hard to tell, his expression is very subtle.]

I do not like or not like things.

[writetheway]

[Well, that's an unsettling thing to say!]

Um... I guess it'd be weird to come up with a different name for you, huh...? [That's something Sayori might do. Monika is just thinking of all the ways that could go wrong: picking something he doesn't like (even if he just said he doesn't not like things), picking something people think are weird...]

B; simon laurent, infinity train

[incelligent]

[Monika will find herself near a pale-haired and even paler-faced young man, seemingly not much older than her. He rifles through the weapons as if he's seen things like this before, eyes narrowing as he observes each one, seemingly weighing the pros and cons in his mind. He looks incredibly irritated, nose scrunched up with a red, poorly drawn sine wave over it, clad in ripped pants and a white sweatshirt with sleeves too short for it to conceivably be the right size.]

God, they've got me in here with a buncha rookies? Just let me back on the train already!

[Simon is furious at the moment, but he's had his anxiety attack and done his crying. He's ready to get even now. It's the only thing he can afford to think about, because anything else regarding this situation would cause him to shut down in a split second. His long blond hair is pulled back into the shortest of ponytails, though strands of it are strewn about his face, indicating that he's definitely having an off day.]

If you're not careful you'll slice off a finger.

You should just quit while you're ahead. Or, I dunno, find a buddy or somethin'.

[writetheway]

[Monika isn't the greatest at direct confrontation, and she holds her hands up in a placating gesture.] Well, that's why I wasn't going to use the knives. The ADI seems really insistent about us all learning things here, though...

[Monika doesn't know what she's doing when it comes to all this survival stuff, but she doesn't want to be useless for whatever exactly they're going to be doing. She's not sure if they'll make her participate in everything, but if she isn't helping, she can't imagine they'd let her stay in the apartments...]

[incelligent]

[He doesn't look at her just yet, though the softness of her voice and lack of vitriol in response does a lot to soothe him. Sure, he experiences a pang of guilt which often goes hand in hand with his miserable behavior, although there's more of it now since his palm and arm no longer glow sinister green digits. There's nothing to validate his frustratingly selfish escapism anymore, and without it, he feels lost. Still, he ignores that voice, the one telling him to do the right thing, because in his mind he has to be right already.

Simon's anger gives way, briefly, to the real emotion that has been the driving force behind his behavior since that fateful day when he was a child- Fear.]

Do you actually think we can trust them?

[He sounds hurt, like there's a very particular memory he's ruminating on in silence.]

[writetheway]

[Monika doesn't have any idea. She wants to trust them, because she wants to trust that this place is real. They haven't tried to hurt her. They gave her (one third of) an apartment.]

They have to trust us at least a little if they'd let us try out all this stuff, right? [She motions to indicate all the weapons. Well, that or they trust that they're capable of taking out anyone in the room.]

B

[bigporkenergy]

[This girl is so far out of her element it's not even funny. It's almost sad, that they brought someone so ill-prepared.]

Yeah, guns aren't too hard. You ever shoot one before?

[Galliard isn't holding anything, and he gestures to the tasers/guns.]

I can show you how to hold it.

[writetheway]

[Monika smiles, grateful for some solid instruction but embarrassed at looking so out of place at the same time. If this is the real world (please), it involves a lot more of her maybe needing to use weapons than she expected.]

That'd be great. I don't want to hurt anyone trying to figure this out on my own.