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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.
Jacob Stone | The Librarians
This is not where he's supposed to be.
There is a loud yell and a vicious string of curses in no less than three dead languages when Jake falls face-first into a nest of mops and buckets. Some of the buckets are full of...some unfortunate-hued liquid and in his frantic flailing in goes his shoe into one of the buckets.
"Great! Just great! Who broke the door this time? Ezekiel? Cassie!? I bet it was you, Ezekiel!"
Because obviously this is just a broom closet in the Library and the Door had simply deposited him in the wrong spot.
Sticks and Stones
Jake has fluctuated between wild anger and seething grumpiness, which the nature of this mission isn't helping. Because it's just like the missions back home, and he should be going home to the Library and not here. He just wants to get this over with. He's glad to be out here and doing something familiar.
Except what promises to be an interesting mission has now turned unfortunately, quite personal.
Jacob Stone is a genius.
Something that he's hidden for a long time, something he was just as embarrassed as proud about, something he's hid for forty years. He looks at his companion, his eyes wide.
"I...can explain."
I Will Survive
Jake is in the gym on the "fighting-section" side. He's got experience in brawling--messy, wild, untrained fighting, but he's also got a few years of Baird teaching him the professional basics plus the martial arts that the Monkey King taught him in Shangri-La.
It's clear that he enjoys fighting, as he throws a few punches in the the air for practice.
"You wanna spar?" he asks the next person that walks up. "I could show you a few moves."
I will survive
Cassie makes a face at him. A pretty scrunched up face. A I-just-bit-the-lemon face. And you're it. You're the lemon, Stone.
"I think we should focus on finding out more about this place instead."
She quickly looks left and right before lowering her voice.
"Maybe try and get a Door working."
no subject
It's more gentle teasing now. Why does he have to be the lemon?
Except she has an excellent point there and he lowers his hands, taking a look around them before moving in closer, too.
"How are we gonna get a message back home?"
no subject
But asking for a mirror during survival training seems kind of suspicious so she picks up one of the weapons rather awkwardly.
"You know, this is what I always imagined DOSA headquarters to look like..."
no subject
There's a scoff and a pained laugh.
"I ain't so sure this isn't actually DOSA and they're just messin' with us, givin' us some weird test."
He picks up one of the weapons too, pursing his lips.
"Whatever's out there though? It's bad, if they're givin' us weapons."
no subject
Is that a sore spot for her? Absolutely. The bathroom sounds like a plan, however, and she nods, clumsily swinging the staff she picked up.
"I wonder if Jenkins knows about this organization. He's never mentioned an ADI."
Then again, there were so many things Jenkins conveniently didn't mention only to then bring them up with absolute casualness, as if he couldn't fathom that there was no way they could have known about them.
"He'd probably say Oh dear right about now."
no subject
He brings his staff up to meet hers, but doesn't knock into it just yet.
"Dunno, haven't heard of it from him, either." Wish they could call him right up and ask, though.
That gets a wry smirk and a shake of his head.
"Oh dear in that tone of voice that says we're screwed."
no subject
So there.
She whacks against his staff. If a pout had a sound this would probably come close.
"Plus, you just agreed to a Door and trying a mirror. Which is magic. No take-backsies!"
So there.
no subject
He points a finger and sputters for a moment, trying to think of a good comeback that won't make him sound like a hypocrite. There's not very many.
"That--that doesn't count!"
He huffs.
"But we should research it, you're right. Just--every time we use new magic it makes things worse! Like-like at the ice cave!"
no subject
Wow, of all the arguments!
"And you're just cherry-picking the bad stuff. How many times has magic helped us, huh? We used it to cure Ezekiel. To heal Baird. To save Eve and Flynn through time..."
Is she starting to tick off her fingers, oh absolutely.
"To trap Prospero, to stop Apep, to save Christmas - twice - to trick DOSA..."
no subject
"Yeah, and guess what?!"
He throws a hand out, waving the staff with the other.
"All of the problems that were the reason for that stuff? All caused by magic!"
no subject
Her voice is getting more and more high-pitched in indignation.
Jabbing the staff? Jabbing the staff.
"I don't see you giving up on TV or laptops or fridges or the internet either!"
Jabbing the staff more.
"Or, you know. Violence being used to mug or conquer or kill people. You were really eager to throw some punches here! Are you an evil mugger? Do you mug people? With your mug punches? Huh!?"
no subject
He starts trying to hit her staff with his staff repeatedly.
"Wow! You can't even--you can't even compare the two!"
When she starts going on about violence it looks like he's experiencing the human version of a glitching computer about to overheat.
"You--you just--you did not just call me an evil mugger! I'm not an evil mugger! If I'm an evil mugger then you're--you're an evil sorceress! Cause you use magic!"
I Will Survive
"Sure." Galliard has a few moves up his sleeve, but he'll keep those to himself for now. "What've you got?"
no subject
"Well, first off, a little background of what you're gonna get from me. I'm primarily a brawler--or was, anyway. But then I learned a lot about boxing, and I trained a little bit in Kung Fu. So we could do somethin' easy, or a little more difficult."
He does a few quick boxing jabs in the air to demonstrate.
no subject
"I know boxing. Come at me with it."
no subject
"Uhhh. I feel like I would die."
no subject
Does that sound a little too harsh? She's just a kid. But it's important to protect yourself against monsters!
"Cause you never know when a monster is around the corner and just--" he makes a motion like his arm is getting grabbed by some invisible beast and makes noises like he's getting dragged away. "--and it happens a lot more often than you think. Like, at least 11 times a month."