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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.
Sticks & Stones
Like her partner, she's not sure what she is meant to be documenting. Paranormal means so many different things to many different people. She could have snapped a picture of the ADI base and sarcastically turned it in. The town is spooky enough but Kate figures that they wouldn't appreciate that and that isn't who she is as a person at any rate. Kate will document anything odd in great detail. Along with her camera, that is currently on a long strap around her neck, she also has a note pad to write down any discoveries.
"Neither am I," Kate responds back. "Maybe we should fan out a bit?"
Without waiting for a response, Kate turns to her right where there is a slight decline from the walking trail. She doesn't make it two steps before down she goes! Kate tumbles forward and where normally she would have created a force field to protect herself, here she cannot.
Kate does an almost barrel roll as she topples forward and down before coming to rest on her backside. There are leaves in her hair and spots of dirt on her clothing. Physically she's fine but the same cannot be said of her dignity which is bruised.
What had caused her to trip? A rock, a rock with a message carved onto it.
no subject
With his hands in his pockets and in the midst of telling her that it might be a bad idea to split up in case they get attacked by paranormal whatevers, even with his reflexes he was too slow in pulling out to catch her in time. Cursing under his breath, he hurries over to her, crouching down by her side.
"Jesus lady, are you okay?" he asks, bionic arm whirring quietly as he unfurls and slides cool metal fingers under her elbow.
no subject
Kate looks around surprised at what had just happened. She lifts her head and looks over to Bucky. "I'm okay. Just..." Embarrassed! "A little bit stunned is all. I tripped over a rock."
As if on que, perhaps that paranormal activity that they were meant to be documenting, the football sized rock that she had tripped on, tumbles down the incline as well. It comes to a stop with its mostly flat side facing them. There is a word carved into it.
Enabler.
"Weird." It feels pointedly directed to her.
no subject
If he could have glared a hole through the rock, wrecked it with the sheer intensity of his thinly-veiled anger alone, he would have. If he was alone he might have very well shattered it with his fist. As it is, he tears his gaze away and turns his back partially to the rock, trying to help her get to her feet. They’re better people than to let some stupid stone get the best of them.
“It isn’t true,” he says quietly, in that kind of cold, quiet, calm before the storm sort of even tone.
no subject
Kate is not without sin. It pains her to look at the rock. She knows what it means. Kate is enabler of a system that isn't quite right. She facilitates the imprisonment and indentured servitude of people with truly unique and amazing abilities. Kate doesn't say anything out of fear. She knows that it's wrong and it weights heavy on her soul.
"Of course it's not true," Kate says a little too quickly and dusts herself off. Eventually, however, her gaze returns to the rock. She can't take her eyes off of it. It feels personal. She feels compelled to ask, "Are we seeing the same thing?"
no subject
He's not going to defend himself from accusations laid out by a rock. And if she'd take a stone's judgement of him over what she's seen so far, what she might believe he could be capable of, he'd be fine with parting ways, try and make his own way back.
"It's just another comment nobody wants to say to your face." He's inclined to just roll his shoulders and move on.
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"It's weird though, isn't it? I decide to walk off the path. I trip over a rock, the rock falls down behind me and has a message carved into it." She takes a picture of the rock and pauses for a moment. The rock is in the picture but the message is not. "It's not showing up on camera." She unslings the strap of the camera and extends it towards Bucky.
"Maybe it's something that I am." He might be content to leave it and move on but she is not.
no subject
Leaning over to squint at the camera image she's showing him, he peers over the top of the camera to look at the judgemental rock, and then back at the image.
"Huh." Yeah, that is strange. But he's not sure that you still crave it is something she could be?
"...you're... hungry?" Hey. A man can hope. They don't need to make a big deal out of it. What would be even better is if they don't need to talk about it.
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She doesn't want to say what's on the rock but she feels compelled to. It's a pit of dread in her stomach that feels almost like she's about to vomit. Better out than in, right? "It says enabler on it." Kate shakes her head slightly. No, it is not better out. She still feels sick.
no subject
He places the sole of his shoe against the end of the word and gives it a testing push with his foot. There’s... nothing untoward about the rock. Kinda feels like a rock and everything. Nothing special.
“‘Enabler’ mean something to you?” he asks, not really aware of how personal the question might be. Not really his intention to fly that close to the sun but he’s not sure what they’re up against. Some kind of mindreading stone slab?
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"Yeah. It does." Kate says. It is something that she has been struggling with for well over a year. Then a thought occurs to her. A thought that takes the attention off of Kate and puts it back onto Bucky. "It doesn't explain why you thought I was hungry."
It's not a nice tactic but she hopes that it is one that will work.
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“It says you still crave it,” he half-mumbles while gesturing with a vague wave of his hand in the general direction of the rock’s worded face.
“Maybe you’re hungry for a doughnut or something, I don’t know.” Can he get away with pretending that he’s being taken to task by a stone slab because of some preference for unhealthy snacks?
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"Uh-- yeah," he finishes a little weakly, a little awkwardly. A smooth criminal, Bucky Barnes is not. "I'll-- have a doughnut. If there's any around here."