redstringtheories

➥ Arrival

(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.)

➥ Sticks and Stones

(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.

➥ I Will Survive

"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.

➥ Shifting Perspective

(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.

➥ Mod Notes

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.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jamie can't really complain if Mercy's not paying as much attention to their assignment as she should be; he's a little distracted too, considering everything about Earth is new and overwhelming to him. Most of the other people he's seen since he arrived here all seem thoroughly unimpressed by things like squirrels, the smell of freshly-cut grass, and the single moon in the night sky, so it's kind of reassuring to see someone else for whom some of this is strange and exciting.

He catches only a flash of red from the corner of his eye as the bird she'd been admiring flutters into the trees, and then, following her gaze, he sees the rock.

there's something else living in your head, it reads accusingly.

He glances up again to see her horrified stare and scrambles to try and explain himself.]

Look, it - it's not a big deal, I promise.

[Is it not? Mercy's head whips toward Jamie.]

It's... not?

[Maybe it's because he doesn't know who Crys is. What Crys was.]

But- How did that even get there? That don't make sense. This don't make sense.

No! No, I swear it's not. I know it looks kind of, um...weird? and scary? But it's not as bad as it sounds.

[He's holding his hands up placatingly, but slowly lowers them as he looks from Mercy back to the rock with his dirty secret plastered all over it. He's never been particularly ashamed of his piloting alter-ego, but when he thinks about it there is something sort of...wrong about it. He guesses he can't really blame Mercy for looking at him like he's a psycho.]

M-maybe...maybe whoever brought us here has, um, information about us. I mean, that'd make sense, wouldn't it, if they had the ability to bring us all here from so many different places that they'd be able to figure out stuff like that? And now they're just...I dunno, using it to mess with us.

[Why anyone would do this, he doesn't know. He's not a cruel person by nature and can't fathom why anyone would cause this kind of emotional distress on top of ripping a bunch of strangers away from their homes.]

What're you talking about?

[Because Mercy's starting to realize they're not quite syncing up here. Why would he be swearing when that's about her?]

Maybe there's information, but... what are you actually seeing on that rock, friend?

[Jamie starts to speak, pauses, glances from Mercy back over to the rock. The same message is still emblazoned there for the world to see. He frowns, brow furrowing, and is tempted to ask "Well what do you see?" right back, but being defensive probably won't help anything. Whatever Mercy is seeing there she'd been able to read, so it's not as though this is some kind of translation error, like had happened when they'd first arrived and he hadn't been able to understand what anyone was saying. But what is she reacting to, if not the words Jamie's seeing...?

He makes some aimless little gestures with his hands, trying to figure out how to explain.]

I-it - it says that there's something in my head, and it's true. But - [he scrambles to explain before she can heft a rock at him in disgust or something.] - it only happens when I'm, um, c-controlling a machine, back home, and it's never done anything but help! so I don't think it will hurt anything here, if it does decide to, uh. Come out, or anything.

W-what about you? What d'you see? [Fair's fair! He explained his weird secret, now it's Mercy's turn.]

[That's concerning, and it reminds her vaguely of Brother Harley with his tales about 'things' haunting the Abbey grounds.]

Uh... [She lifts a hand. They can get to what she's seeing, but this seems important to address first. Her expression gentles as she looks at him with more concern than anything else.] Right. Um... It's never been a mean voice to you? Threatened you? Or other people?

[It could be he's possessed. Maybe? Can people be possessed by good spirits?]

[He pauses, thinking. Jamie's not really sure how to explain Wild Eagle - he has no idea where it came from or why, let alone what it actually is - but he's pretty sure it's not malevolent. He can feel it in the back of his mind sometimes, even when he's not piloting, but it mostly seems to be silently observing things then. He shrugs one shoulder uncertainly, shakes his head.]

N...o? It's never done anything like that. I mean, it wasn't very nice to the Backdraft, but only because they were threatening us first. I don't think it's dangerous or anything, I dunno if it'll even show up here.

[He adds, apologetically:] I don't really know very much about it. I can't remember anything that happens when it takes over, just what other people have told me about it.

That sounds... scary? [This is still very concerning. She takes a small step toward the boy. He reminds her just a tiny bit of Warwick... something about the eyes, that nervousness.] How'd you even get something like that in your head? Don't seem right.

[Jamie himself isn't particularly concerned about the existence of his other personality, but he fidgets self-consciously in the face of Mercy's obvious worry. He'd never thought about it too deeply as long as it helped keep him in one piece, but maybe it really was sort of freakish.] I guess it is a little? Usually it happens when I'm - uh, in a lot of trouble. [About-to-die kind of trouble, to be precise.]

And I guess it just sorta...happened, one day. I was taking really heavy enemy fire and went into a nosedive and that's all I remember. Can't really tell you any more than that. But like I said, I - I don't think it'll cause any problems. [He says this a little pleadingly, hoping that she'll believe him. No one's ever told him about Wild Eagle doing anything really bad, so he hopes that will hold true here.]

[Another soldier boy. Not Warwick... he's like Hereward. Mercy reaches out this time, placing a hand on Jamie's shoulder, if he'll let her. Her expression softens, as does her tone.]

What you been through, seeing that kind of trouble? That ain't right. I know it happens, but it ain't right. I reckon it's... good you had something there protecting you.

[She looks to the stone and in between blinks, it seems to be his truth and then her own. She should probably be honest with him.]

Your secret, though, that wasn't what I was seeing on that stone. I'm seeing it talking about someone I knew when I was younger, a little girl younger than you named Crystal. I made a mistake, thinking she was playing, telling tall tales about someone chasing her. She wasn't. I was digging her grave the next day. I try to be better about listening these days.

You tell me this thing in your head isn't dangerous, I'm gonna believe you, but you tell me if that changes, all right?

Edited 2021-07-22 19:25 (UTC)

TDM #1

Sticks and Stones

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/shakes fist at HTML

it is the bane of us all

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cw: mention of child death