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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.
Tomas Ortega | The Exorcist
[ The task seems simple enough in theory. Tomas is still not an expert in the supernatural but his eyes have gotten sharper when looking for signs of the unholy and unnatural. And, truthfully, he wants to see more of this place he's ended up in. Even the strange places, the ones written off in one way or another.
Honestly, in the afternoon sunlight it hardly seems like a place of unnatural things. Alongside his hiking partner, Tomas tries to keep up a pleasant stream of small talk. As the stones come into sight he slows his step and looks over. ]
Shall we see what the fuss is all about?
I Will Survive
[ Tomas has never been much of a physical fighter, that was never the life that had been planned out for him. He imagines it must be a sight, a man in the clothes of a priest carefully removing his collar and rolling up his sleeves as he waits for his turn with the instructor. ]
Shifting Perspectives
[ Curiosity about the email from the ADI led Tomas to find a companion and visit the strange little beach near dusk. He has seen horrors in his time as an exorcist and now he finds himself seeking them out to see what might be waiting. Arriving, he settles in to sit on a grassy dune with a decent view of the beach below, inviting his partner in this to join him as the sun sets and the stars begin to emerge from the dark.
If there's one thing his work with Marcus has taught him, it's the value of a stake out.
The sound still catches him by surprise. How did they miss the moment the figure washed ashore? Tomas rises, looking back and holding out a hand in caution. ]
Stay here, I want to get a closer look. [ Alright, so he knows the value of a stake out but he hasn't always been the best at waiting. ]
Wildcard
[ If none of these prompts appeal feel free to come up with something else, I'm down for just about anything! ]
Sticks and Stones
Sure, better to just get this over with, I guess.
no subject
[ He takes the lead in approaching the stones, partly because he is curious about them and also to give Sidney a chance to steel her nerves. He doesn't blame her for being anxious. Being dragged into another world, one plagued by monsters that prey upon fear is a lot.
But as he approaches the stones he finds himself stumbling to a halt as he looks upon the first rock and the message emblazoned upon it: What kind of priest commits adultery?. ]
What...?
no subject
What? What is it?
[ When she catches up, her own sins are splayed across it, in dark, bold letters. YOU LET YOUR ANGER GET THE BETTER OF YOU. She swallows, going quiet. ]
no subject
I can explain, it was a mistake that I made-
no subject
[ They did in her case, anyway. ]
I struggle with it too.
[ It was pretty easy to assume that the rock was referring to the both of them. A placid priest hiding a secret anger was tropey enough that there had to be some truth to it. She put her faith more in tropes than god, after all, after that night. Jesus couldn't protect her from what a decade of slashers had predicted, acted out in grainy pictures, as script for them and survival guide for herself. C'mon, Sid, keep it together. ]
I sort of punched a reporter's lights out one time because of it, on live TV. Not exactly my proudest moment, either.
Sticks and Stones-ish
Something.
She's a little worse for wear herself, with a black eye, a split lip, and scrapes on one side of her face. None of it seems to bother her though.
Anyway, when she sees a guy who seems to be waiting around for someone to show up, she heads his way. It takes a second to register the outfit, the collar, and when she does she stops dead.]
You've got to be kidding me.
no subject
He’s almost ready to give up and start up the trail when he hears footsteps behind and turns to see a girl who-
His heart skips a beat, the resemblance to Verity almost uncanny before the differences tell him the truth of the situation. Similar but not the same. And this girl has clearly been injured which overrides every other priority. He puts on a kind face, a gentle smile he’s worn for parishioners on many occasions as he takes a step towards her. ]
No jokes, I promise. Are you alright?
Shifting Perspectives
She starts to regret the choice when he suddenly approaches the entity. Instinctively, she reaches out to grab his wrist.]
Don’t, [she warns, then turns her gaze to the entity.] That thing… I know it looks like us, but it ain’t normal. We don’t know what it can do.
no subject
I know it may be a trap, but- If they are a person in need, truly, then I have to help. That person may be bait, someone used by something worse and I don’t want to leave them to suffer.
no subject
...Alright. You're right. They might need the help. [She lets go of his wrist.] Just—just have a weapon ready.
[Heeding her own advice, she pulls a knife from her pocket.]
no subject
[ Tomas looks incredulous as Zoe pulls a knife out as easily as breathing. He looks down at himself and then back at her. ]
I didn't bring anything like that, I didn't think it was necessary.
no subject
[So she sighs and looks at Tomas again, now apologetic.] Sorry... I'm paranoid, I guess. I'll cover us if somethin' goes wrong, God forbid, but hopefully it's fine. Let's go see if they're okay.
no subject
No, I'm sorry. That was unfair of me.
[ He picks a path to the beach, wincing as each step announces their presence to the world. Raising his voice he slows as they close the distance between them and the figure. ]
Are you alright? We are here to help, my name is Father Tomas and this is Zoe.