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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.
jonathan sims | the magnus archives
[There is something very, very odd about thinking you're not going to wake up, and then doing exactly that. The vacuous feel of space is somehow not as foreign to him as he'd like, and the brush of death similarly so; it's hard to say he would know when it's finally over.
Of course, it only makes sense that it would never be over. Not for him, no. It would only be a kindness if he actually was able to call his own shot.
Instead, he finds himself coming to with a sharp pain, a fogged mind, and... oh, that's quite a lot of blood, actually. Turns out there happens to still be a knife somewhere in his chest, and despite all he has been through his hands still shake when he looks at it, when he starts to move to touch it and then stops. Probably best that stays where it is, if he is indeed still... somewhere.
He doesn't look up quite yet, doesn't survey his surroundings. Instead, he just speaks a few quivery words.]
... Martin? B.. Basira? Did t--
[Oh, standing up is going to be a no go for the moment, and he groans and stays on his knees.]
ii. sticks and stones
[This, at least, feels almost normal. If he closes his eyes and thinks as hard as he can, he might find himself back in the Institute before the everything, comparing notes on a case with Tim, asking Sasha where she kept her notes. There was so much before the Archive, before everything that stacked itself into its neat little path that he was forced-- no, chose to walk. He chose it, in the end, and he needs to remember that.
In the meantime, he's far past the point of heavy denial on just about anything, and is intending on doing the job he was sent here for despite it all. He's not sure how all of this might tie in or make sense, but-- well, some of it just doesn't. It's all a statement, all the same.
If he listens hard enough, he can hear the click just before his eyes lay on a nearby stone.
This is the fault of your cowardice.
Jon simply sighs.]
Did we get any information about exactly what we're looking for here? Or are we simply stumbling about blind?
iii. shifting perspective
I really wouldn't go near that, if I were you.
[There have been many times Jon has been accused of simply Knowing something in his life, but this? He doesn't need any kind of supernatural knowledge to know that 'strange crying' and 'things that only appear in the dark' is practically bait. Admittedly he's been in his own head about all this very much, but he feels as though-- no, he should help them, of course. If he still believed in karma or some kind of justice, he'd imagine it was that. Instead, he does what he can... which at this time is whatever small ability he has to convince someone not to go running into the surf to their likely death.]
It's a bit... predictable to be any kind of safe bet.
arrival
he lifts a hand, one bony finger pointing to the knife. ] Need some help with that?
[ if he hasn't died yet with it jammed in his chest like that, maybe it's safe to take out. hiram has no idea, honestly: humans are fragile and die easily. this guy is scarred to hell, though, and feels fucking weird, so maybe he's tougher than most. ]
no subject
All of this is to say that he stares a moment of processing at the person in front of him, and then puts his attention back on the knife.]
I'm... not sure if taking it out would make it worse.
[Is this just another place where the Eye will heal him right up? Seems debatable, considering his most recent actions, but if he was afraid of death by now he certainly wouldn't have made it this far.]
I-- yes, I think I do.
no subject
he reaches with both hands, reaching for jon's shirt, plucking lightly at it and then beginning to pull it up, careful around the knife. ]
Take this off. We're going to hold it against the wound after the knife comes out. [ will it help? will it keep him from dying? he has no idea. but the shirt's ruined anyway, and it may help keep him from going any further into shock if he has something to focus on that isn't, you know, a knife in his chest. ]
no subject
I'm-- not a child.
[That's the only thing he has in his power to correct, so that's what he's correcting. He lets the shirt come off, revealing only more scars in various places- another stab wound to the torso further down towards the stomach, those small exactly circular holes trailing down off his neck, and... something odd around his bottom left rib that just doesn't look quite right. It's all fairly inconsequential for the time being, but he gets it around and balls it up in his hands tight.
He just needs to focus. That connection is-- it's tenuous, but not severed. He's not human. Not yet. Maybe not ever again. Right now, that may save his life, whether he likes it or not.]
Alright, it-- I know how this works.
no subject
Looks like you do, [ he agrees with a huff of laughter, and reaches with both long-fingered hands. one curls over jon's shoulder to brace him, the other wrapping around the handle of the knife. ] Okay, here we go. Try not to die, yeah? [ he pauses for a moment as he observes the wound and the angle of the knife, not wanting to cause more damage than necessary when pulling it out. but then he just moves, no warning, pulling it free in one smooth motion.
immediately after, he sets the knife aside, calm and collected, and nudges bloodied fingers beneath jon's hands to help push the balled-up shirt against the injury. ]
no subject
He stays mostly quiet even as the knife is removed, just something that sounds like it could almost be a huff if it wasn't apparent what was happening to him. Instead it's just that and a hiss through his teeth as he presses the shirt towards himself, thinking.
He can feel it. It's not-- it's not gone. And if the Eye is still here, he figures his chances of dying are pretty slim... but it also means he may have failed. Jon collects himself just enough to speak.]
Thank you.
[And now he can concentrate just a little bit on wherever the fuck he actually is.]
Where... is this?
(no subject)
(no subject)
Arrival
[Well, if you're being very generous, it's singing. "Someone is atonally half-humming to themself" would be more accurate. Whoever this is couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.]
[Mercifully, as the footsteps get closer the noise abruptly cuts off with an oddly excited-sounding little:] Oh!
[The person crouching down beside Jon appears to be an entirely ordinary teenage girl, wearing what looks like a uniform for some kind of fancy private school. But even though there's no extra limbs or dripping fangs in sight, there is something faintly off about her attitude- instead of being alarmed by the sight of a man with a major knife wound in his chest, including knife, she just seems briskly cheerful about the whole thing.]
Well, that looks like a problem! [She holds out a hand towards him, reaching but not touching yet.] Want me to fix that for you? I'm very good with injuries.
no subject
But it seems... innocent enough. For now, at least. Not that her demeanor is putting him at ease or anything.]
While I'm aware... you know the saying on beggars and choosers I'm sure, but I'd like it if you were to elaborate.
[He's not expecting much, but it's in his nature to do his due diligence. Maybe this will just finally kill him. That would be appropriate.]
no subject
I'm going to touch you, which will let me use my power to heal you. [She seems very matter-of-fact about the whole concept, as though superhuman abilities are something totally normal.] Also, I want to pull out the knife first, because if your body heals up around it then we'll just have to yank it back out again eventually.
I won't do anything else without asking permission first, though! Patient consent is very important.
no subject
I-- yes, I understand how the knife would need to be removed. That said, it's not every day someone of the Flesh would want to help without something in return.
[Well he's just assuming a lot. Jon knows he doesn't Know any affiliation, but things are weird and distorted and that's one part the Eye being far from him and one part blood loss. Ah, the perils of existing in a canon where you still have to just be human enough to suffer.]
What's your price?
no subject
[Brightly:] I promise not to bill you if you promise not to tell anyone I'm practicing medicine without a license again!
[Listen, she'll have that degree in like another five months, tops, it's fiiiiine. So what if she's getting a little bit of a head start on that whole "being a doctor" thing? It's not like she hasn't been cutting people open for years already.]
But if you want to pay me back, I do have a lot of questions about how I got here! Knowledge is power, right? [Uncomfortably literally so, in his case. Not that she knows that.]
(no subject)
Let me know if this works for you, I'll change it if not.
nah you're good, you're good <3
(no subject)
sticks and stones
[Cassandra holds up her phone for some air quotes. She, too, doesn't exactly appreciate being sent out here without having more time or opportunity to study the potential threats of this world but oh well. Maybe this trip would give her a better feel for the magic of this place.]
Those, for example, are very rude stones.
[She approaches them, a small frown on her face as she reads the writings.]
First of all, they're terrible ice breakers. And I think they could at least give you some, too.
no subject
[Which comment was he replying to? Possibly all of them. His eyes drift over to the rocks again, quirking an eyebrow just slightly at her comment.]
I don't think I would call them conversation topics, no, but-- rude wouldn't be the thought that comes to mind.
[Deserving, maybe, or is that his own guilt? Probably both! It's a fun little package of his own personal hell.]
Wait, what-- what do you mean by give me something? They're rocks. Or... supposed to be.
no subject
[She frowns and makes an uncomfortable gesture at the stone nearest to them.]
This one's clearly for me? It has my name on it.
... And you know, if this is some team building ritual by the ADI they're not doing it right because it's really demoralizing. Plus, you know, the awkwardness of actually having to talk about it and explain the situations they pertain to... Not that we have to do that. We could. Might?
[Or they could not! That would be great!]
no subject
None of these rocks appear to have names. If anything, they appear directed towards me... which tells me this may have been the thing we're looking for, in a roundabout way concerning looking.
[Wow, that was a lot of fancy words to not explain much of anything.]
I, uhm-- what I mean to say is I don't believe we're seeing the same words carved into these stones.
iii
She wasn't going to go running, not when it's so obviously dangerous. But she is going to get closer, slowly approaching across the squeaking sand.
She keeps up a quiet conversation with the man next to her.]
Do you have kelpies where you're from?
no subject
I'm-- there are legends about them, yes. I--
[Wait, no, he catches himself just in time. He doesn't know if they exist back in his home, or if they ever did. Not anymore.]
I'm familiar with the concept. But you're suggesting this might be one intending to drag us to the depths and devour our flesh, which would be all the more reason not to go any closer.
no subject
I don't know if it's really some kind of kelpie, but that's my best guess.
no subject
[Said with a heavy, heavy dose of skepticism at the usefulness of such a role.]
And pray tell, what exactly does an exorcist do where you're from...?
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
[Jon's companion is a Japanese teen in a sweatervest and khakis, and the wry smile he offers the older man doesn't quite reach his eyes before his gaze drifts back to the stone. He brings a leather-gloved hand to his lips in thought and hums quietly before taking a few quick, decisive steps forward to crouch beside it.
MURDERER
UNWANTED CHILD]
Rather cruel messages, no? Still, I wouldn't say there's anything "paranormal" about them, and those so-called "detectives" did give us that one stipulation.
[He's careful to keep his voice just on the more polite side of neutral, though the set of his eyes conveys more irritation than he tries to let on.]
no subject
Jon keeps his eyes moving, drifting between the other man's face, the rocks, and the surroundings.]
I'm not certain cruel would cover it, but-- pointed, yes.
[His voice carries it's own string of stress, the underline of being just on the edge of fear.]
Would you think it's some sort of prank those, er... detectives may be playing on us?
no subject
This is too much work for a simple hazing, I think. Certainly, ADI seems to have the resources to replace the maps and guidebooks, [he pulls out one of the hiking brochures he'd picked up at the entrance to the hiking trail,] and trump up a story about some rich eccentric carving "pep talks" into the stones decades ago, when in actuality they're rather hurtful instead. It wouldn't even be difficult to surmise generalizations that are both significant enough to feel pointed, yet general enough to apply to many people at once.
But what, exactly, would be the point? These aren't recently carved. The expense of printing guides showing photographs of one thing when the reality is something else seems prohibitive when compared to- what? The pleasure of laughing at us foreign fools who take them at face value?
[Akechi pushes himself to his feet and claps his gloved hands together to rid them of any dirt from touching the stone.]
Best to take a picture of it anyway, I think. If it isn't what they're looking for, then I'm happy to waste their time in exchange for their own lack of direction. After all, it does rather seem like something that might be seen in a horror film, no? A heavy-handed ploy to garner sympathy from the audience. The protagonist enters the woods, pauses and sees a stone that accuses them of being an unwanted child.
[He flicks a hand dismissively and reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone.]
no subject
An accusatory nature is correct, but I'm afraid I didn't see any wording referring to unwanted children. It was, to be frank, more addressing my personal fears or harsh truths.
[Now he's looking over the rocks much more carefully, trying to find the seam where the supernatural takes over, where there's something hiding in the bits of the world around them.]
Perhaps these carvings were not made recently because they were not made at all. Rather... manifested by our presence and perception to cause unease.