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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.
no subject
Is that part of the Wildmother's rules?
[She may be getting distracted from the fire again.]
no subject
[He's not judgmental if other people eat meat and enjoy it. There are a lot of things out there that are obligate carnivores. He's just not one of them.]
One of her commandments is to respect the savage nature of the world, and to exist in harmony with it. Death is a part of life, no matter how something dies. If someone's going to eat it, that's fine with me.
no subject
There comes a point when death ain't quite so natural as it usually is, though. When the balance goes off and you got to do something about righting it. With... with stopping deaths that come too soon for too many. There's sometimes when nature ain't playing part in it at all.
[What does the Wildmother have to say about that?]
no subject
Yeah, we have that, too. Part of my calling through her is to put down abominations: dark mockeries of nature.
[It doesn't seem to bother him to talk about it. He looks at Sister Mercy, eyes bright and warm.]
I'm what they call a grave cleric. We quiet restless spirits, destroy the undead, and ease the suffering of the dying. We also don't take well to anyone desecrating the dead's rest.
no subject
[Forget about the hotdogs and fire and everything else. This beautiful man has her full and undivided attention.]
That sounds... well, I mean... I heard Grannie tell stories from back when we was in the homeland, before Leigland rescued folk like us from backwards ways. [So she's been taught.] Everyone there used to worship Brother Earth, the One Below Who Feeds Above, the Root of All Life. My family still does in our own way... Their own way. Most folk think that sort of thing's creepy, though.
Are there other grave clerics?
no subject
[Caduceus tips his head when Mercy says she's been told she's backwards.]
I like the sound of Brother Earth. Like a sibling to the Wildmother.
[Paying homage to the earth they will all someday return to? He can see nothing wrong or backwards about that. He can't help a quiet chuckle and a smile appears.]
Yeah, the more time I spent out in the world, the more I realize people think we're kind of creepy, too. But death is part of life. Ignoring that won't change it. Seems kind of disrespectful, really. Especially when most cultures I've run into have pretty firm ideas regarding how to treat the dead and what to do with them.
[Caduceus shifts to get more comfortable as his leg starts falling asleep. He's quiet a beat, then asks,] How does your family worship Brother Earth?
no subject
We tend the graves for the Abbey and see they're kept as he'd want them for his children 'neath the ground. Me and my brother were marked with the dark earth when we was born, too, a smudge across the forehead to mark us as kin to him. And every spring, we bless the soil with what we been saving up through the rest of the year with scraps and bits to make sure it's rich and fulsome for him. All things in balance, that which dies gives new life. Oh! And on his sacred day in autumn, we visit the oldest stones in the graveyard, the ones that've worn away with time, and we name them that lie there, welcome them to the picnic we spread above for them. Papa always made sure we had plenty of crumbs to spread out for the ants. He said they're helpers for them below, bringing them food from above.
no subject
He especially likes the tradition of saying the names of the dead when their stones have worn beyond reading. His expression softens at that.]
Yeah, I know the names of everyone in the Blooming Grove. Family names, especially, but I have a pretty good handle on the individuals, too.
[Caduceus tucks his hair back behind a long ear and gives Mercy a small smile.]
Well, I don't think any of your beliefs or rituals are backwards. Thanks for telling me about them, Sister Mercy. I'm very glad we've met.
no subject
[She finally looks back to her little fire.] Though, it don't say much about cooking. Reckon I should get back to that. [Mercy's smile goes lopsided and apologetic.] I been jawing enough. Thanks for listening.