redstringtheories

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TDM #16

➥ Arrival

Photo of a modern office building from the outside. There is a manicured lawn with several trees and bushes. To the left side of the photo, there is a waterbody with reeds around the fringes. There is a purple gradient filter over everything.
(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.) You might even arrive in a section of building that has been demolished, leaving a pit of rubble open to the sky–hope you're up on your tetanus shots! 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. The one exception is the demolition zone off what used to be one corner of the building: it seems the security teams are keeping a particularly close eye on that area to document new arrivals and bring them in quickly.

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.)

➥ You Are what You Eat

Photo of a roll of toilet paper covered in a thick reddish goop. A set of fair-skinned hands holds a knife and fork as if preparing to cut into the roll.
(cw: pica, eating disorders, altered mental states, rhythmic grating sound in link)

Weird things happen in Dogtown, everyone knows it. And the weird things have been getting worse. Much worse. The rise in dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable or startling phenomena has put an end to ADI's use of Dogtown as a testing ground for new recruits. Under ADI's advisement, the City of Gloucester has officially and indefinitely closed Dogtown to the public, and work is ongoing to construct barriers around the entire park to prevent trespassing. Dogtown's borders are now patrolled by Gloucester law enforcement as well as ADI employees from the Investigations and Security divisions, who document phenomena visible from outside its borders and actively keep people out. New arrivals who volunteer for the work may still find themselves dropped off outside the borders of Dogtown in order to beef up patrols and help document paranormal activity while receiving an introduction to the kind of work ADI does. An employee will give you a GPS device where you need only press a button to alert ADI there is severe danger and someone needs to come help you right away, explicitly instruct you not to actually enter Dogtown, and leave you with another person at the edge of the park. 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 record any paranormal activity visible from outside the park. Those who succeed in documenting anything peculiar will receive a $100 reward to be used as they see fit, but those who are caught entering Dogtown in pursuit of such proof will be reprimanded and receive no reward.

It’s been quiet for some time now, the looming things too easily mistaken for signal towers linger around the edges of town or even brazenly within the city blocks when the night is at its deepest and few people still walk the streets. At least nothing new seems to have slipped the fence recently, but those towers still shift every so often. At least until they go suddenly very still, planted where they’ve stopped for more than a week. Still, it’s quiet.

What breaks the silence starts insidiously low, like it’s not meant to be noticed, but it builds until it feels like it’s all that can be heard, rattling and thrumming through bones and veins in a way that nearly burns until all at once it ends.

For some, the change might be sudden, like a tight, twisting, hunger in the pit of your stomach that no ‘traditional food’ will abate. Perhaps it’s gradual, as the taste of things you love turn gray and ashy in your mouth. Maybe you don’t even realize it, as you find a rogue snack laying out on your counter. Who left this pretzel stick here? Your pretzel stick now, even if it’s tougher than you might expect when you go to bite into it. A pencil snaps within your determined bite and whether you notice the inconsistency then or not, it’s…really not half bad.

For a few days after hearing the signal, food just isn’t the same anymore, or at least not the same definition. Anything inedible can be edible if you try hard enough, never mind the bloody gums or lacerated tongue. Careful not to chip a tooth on your bowl of nuts and bolts…but at least it’s almost as good as cereal!

➥ Pieces of You and Pieces of Me

Photo of miscellaneous doll parts in a wooden box.
(cw: supernaturally induced paranoia and obsession; creepy dolls; unnatural pain; burn injuries; memory loss)

It begins with a scuffed and torn paper package in your mailbox. The label is handwritten, addressed to you personally at your apartment (or at Bonnie's address), the stamps mismatched and the postal mark smudged beyond readability, with no return address to be found. It feels important. It feels like something you should open in private, and the urge to hide it away lest someone take it from you is strong even before it's opened.

Inside is one piece of a disassembled doll. Perhaps it's a delicate ceramic arm, or a dingy plastic head with empty eye sockets. There isn't any rhyme or reason to the type of doll part one receives, but all of them are well worn and look like they're at least a few decades old. There's an immediate feeling of connection, a lizard brain fear of losing the piece. And then the next day there's another package, another piece that clearly belongs to the same toy, a renewed urge to keep the delivery secret and safe…and an urge to begin assembling the toy as more parts arrive over the course of the week.

Those who give in and put their dolls together as the pieces arrive will seem to suffer no harm as the days go by and their doll nears completion, but their thoughts will only grow more obsessive and protective of the toy the closer it becomes to completion. Those who resist the urge to put the parts together will feel a bone-deep ache in each part of their body that corresponds to one of the pieces they've received, like that part of their body is dying. Anyone who destroys, throws away, or surrenders a piece of their toy will feel an immediate, sharp burning like that part of their own body is being seared away. The pain may dull down after a while, but it doesn't go away unless they are able to retrieve the discarded piece and put it together with the others they've received.

Just one week after it all began, the final package arrives. Here it is: the last piece you need, the last piece to complete the doll and make it yours, keep it safe, keep yourself safe from some unknown, dreaded danger. As soon as the last piece pops into place, though, the doll bursts into flames in your hands, rapidly burning away to ashes. With it goes something important, but it's impossible to say what. It was a memory, wasn't it? Some vital piece of knowledge? You knew something before the doll burned that you don't know now and the loss is an aching gap in your psyche.

ADI tries to intervene, of course, after a few people manage to resist the dolls' compulsion and turn in the parts they've received for study and destruction (this is the most physically painful option of all and an incredible act of will). A bulletin goes out advising everyone to turn in any unexpected packages, and offering support for anyone who's already received pieces and is willing to hand them over. But those are all just lies and tricks so they can steal from you and carve you to pieces–best find a way to hide your doll from their prying eyes until you have all of its parts.

➥ The Heart of the Cards

Photo of various tarot cards spread out across as surface
(cw: potential for car accidents, broken bones/injuries, supernatural compulsion/personality alterations)

With Halloween passing this year without a proper celebration or anything horrific happening, HR Woman, Pam Ruan, is on a mission to retake another holiday from the Fears (and her own fear): Thanksgiving. She's coordinated for a grand feast to be held at Hammond Castle with the castle's caretaker, Simone Clark. It seems Simone owes Pam a favor and Pam is ready to collect with a private event registration.

However, she needs assistance with preparations, including scoping out the kitchen, deciding on how to set up in the Great Hall, and finding good places for decorations. Those agreeing to assist will find themselves unleashed upon the castle and advised that it's currently operating as a museum, so please try to be respectful as you do your work.

In addition to the castle's usual fare of interesting 'supernatural artifacts' and medieval weapons and armor, there is an exhibit on the history and practice of tarot readings. Poster-sized cards of the Major Arcana can be found scattered around the museum, and a more concentrated exhibit can be found in one of the side halls. There are informational plaques and diagrams showing how various tarot spreads might be placed and interpreted. There are also some tarot decks scattered around the area with tables that have outlines of different card reading options. Try your hand with a friend! There are helpful booklets providing information on the deeper meaning of each card.

For those less inclined to test out the available decks, there are still those poster-sized versions. Invariably, those who spend any length of time within the castle will find themselves drawn to one of the cards. Perhaps it's the Tower, that harbinger of some sudden change. Perhaps it's the Hermit, a marker for contemplation and a search for something. Whatever the card, those drawn to it will find themselves experiencing… something in the museum or after they leave related to the more dangerous, horrific, or negative aspects of that particular card. Those drawn to the Tower may experience a personal disaster on their way home: struck by a car, tripping and breaking something, losing a large sum of money on a bet. Whatever would be a disaster to them. Those drawn to the Hermit may find themselves feeling increasingly lonely, even when around others. They might feel compelled to act on that, to try to stave off the loneliness as best they can with connection… whether the other person wants them or not. Or perhaps they have a sense that they've lost direction in what they're doing and need assurances or a guide to help them.

The cause of these misfortunes may be difficult to pin down as the effects of the tarot cards may not manifest for a few days up to a week. It seems Fate is waiting for the right moment to touch its prey.

➥ Mod Notes

ARRIVAL (November 1 - 30): 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 (or the rubble that used to be part of the building). PC's already in-game are more than welcome to interact with and try to guide new PC's to get them oriented. Please refer to the Arrival page for details regarding the arrival and onboarding process, as well as information about the state of ADI Headquarters.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (November 1-15): The signal can happen randomly and more than once, it’s fed through character’s phones and sometimes even random car radios. Characters will find themselves drawn to eating things that absolutely isn’t food, inanimate objects, dirt, leaves, anything that does not consist of a normal or healthy diet. It is up to players whether this comes with hallucinations of it being proper food or if they know full well what they’re eating and simply can’t stop. Other characters can see the ‘food’ for what it is and try to help. While there is a low-level compulsion to eat things that aren’t typically food, characters can resist the urge, they’ll simply find regular food holds no appeal to them while afflicted.
PIECES OF YOU AND PIECES OF ME (November 1-8): Not all characters will receive packages, and there is no apparent pattern to who does or does not receive doll parts. Everyone will be generally encouraged to speak up if they know someone is hiding doll parts, and characters may be asked to help take doll parts away from a known recipient (whether by diplomacy or by force). Everyone who does receive the packages will receive them over the course of a single week, one part per package, with multiple packages sometimes arriving in the same day. Everyone who receives doll parts will receive all the matching parts they need to assemble a single doll. When the dolls burn they may cause injuries to characters' hands and so forth; the severity of injuries is up to player discretion. ADI's medical department will do their best to treat wounds, but will not authorize the use of any kind of healing magic for non-fatal burns.
THE HEART OF THE CARDS (November 1-21): Characters are welcome to have been cheerfully wrangled for assisting Pam whether they would be the sort to generally assist or not. She is a woman on a mission and will use her Disapproving Grandma face on you if you try to weasel out of helping. For the tarot cards, players may choose whichever Major Arcana card they would like to play with, in terms of effects. It does not necessarily need to be the card you believe represents your character; although, it can be! In terms of interpreting the negative effects of each card, we will leave that up to the players. We simply ask that someone who gets, say, the Tower Card, doesn't have part of ADI HQ suddenly collapse. A restaurant they're in, though? Sure! Go for it. Make everyone around town suffer with you. For those with cards that have more cerebral misfortunes, we encourage folks to think about how those can be used to facilitate CR. E.g., someone who gets the Strength card may experience severe insecurity, leading them to beg others for reassurance. Someone who gets the Empress card may find themselves acting in an overbearing and smothering way toward people, even those they don't know. Someone who gets the Fool may find themselves being especially inconsiderate or starting fights they know they can't win. The tarot card exhibit will disappear after the 21st, off to some other town. The effect on an individual from the tarot cards may be a single instance of something happening or could last up to a few days/a week if the effect is more cerebral/personality-related.
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(OOC: This is really late, but also, these two have to meet for a myriad of reasons that you probably don't know because almost no one in DWRP cares about these games, but that start with her being a not!clone with identity issues and continue with her also being a science fiction familiar equivalent who boosted the abilities of a chosen partner... and later sacrificed herself for that partner.)

Already did, actually.

(What Cortana is holding in her hand is a library book she's planning on returning. She does a double take when she hears a vaguely familiar voice, turning to look at...)

Hunter? I mean, Golden Guard.

(She blinks. Didn't he disappear months ago? She hasn't really seen him since Wolf Pen. Not that she'd really known him all that well before that.)

[That is...not at all what he meant. But that's easily forgotten. He's more interested in how she knows his name. And his old title.]

It's...just Hunter.

(She blinks. So the pretentious title is a no go. Well, he has been gone for a while. Who knows what happened?)

Hunter then. You've been gone for a while.

(She smiles. To be honest, she was worried people who disappeared were being taken somewhere by the entities. She's glad that's not the case here ...at least, she really hopes that not the case here.)

So I've heard.

[He heaves a sigh and wonders how many times he'll have this conversation. On one hand, good for him for meeting people. On the other hand, if the last him was still the Golden Guard, and...well. He remembers what he was like.]

I don't recall being here previously, so...I'm sorry, I don't know you.

(She blinks.)

So much for my "just wandered off for a while" theory. (She sighs.) I'm Cortana. We didn't actually talk all that much, we were assigned to the same room during an out of town mission. You seemed pretty interested in the rain.

(After a moment, she'll offer her hand to shake. An important note: Cortana has recently chosen to abandon her weird technoghost existence due to the inherent connection to the entities, so the woman he's talking to is not a glowing blue hologram but a cool sci-fi android lady.)

[That would have been his(?) first time in the Human Realm. It makes sense. Belos had told him about the rain here - one thing that wasn't a lie.

He shrugs.] The rain doesn't boil here.

[An android? Like Circuit from Cosmic Frontier? That kind of android? He kind of wants to ask, but he's also kind of sure she wouldn't know what he's talking about.

So he takes her hand.] Nice to meet you. Again, I guess.

I still don't get how you're able to survive a world that's apparently hot enough that most of the water is boiling.

(Yeah, she wouldn't recognize the show or the character, but she's familiar with people being nerds at her.

Anyway, she'll gently shake his hand.)

Yeah. (And now that that's over...) Are you alright? Aside from the memory loss, I mean. (Kids shouldn't gain that many scars in what looks to be such a short timeframe, right? And didn't he used to have a bird with him?)

Oh, well, you don't go in the rain. [Obviously.

He must look different to her, if her experience was with the Golden Guard. More scars, his hair is longer. She also said they didn't talk much, so they probably were not close. Not close enough to delve into what happened to him.

So he tries to casually say,] I'm okay. Nothing to worry about.

Okay, but people also tend to be made mostly of water. (So why isn't an environment that causes water to boil also screwing up their bodies? Unless it only gets like that way up in the sky and beneath the ocean, but that would do some interesting things to climate in general and she's still not sure such a world would support life.

She knows about magic, but also, she only sort of vaguely believes in it, and it took a long time for her to even get that far.)

Okay. (He can probably hear it in her tone that she doesn't fully believe him, but she also doesn't actually know him well enough to press.)

Really? [He lifts an arm and pokes it, and looks are her doubtfully. He knows what components he was made from (unfortunately) and he doesn't remember water being on the list.] I don't think so. Maybe where you're from.

[He can tell she doesn't believe him, but as long as she isn't pressing the matter, he's okay with it.]

You need to drink it to survive, right? Or is that not a thing for your species?

(That water has to go somewhere. It's used to make things like blood, spit, urine...

She sighs.)

Nevermind. The important thing is, I'm glad you're alright.

(He's definitely better off than she was worried the people who went missing might be.)

Of course. Is it a thing for yours?

[Do androids drink water? Can they drink water? Are they made of water!? Dont "nevermind" when there are more important questions to be asked.

Anyway,]

Thank you. I'm sorry I worried you. [Even if he doesn't remember it.]

I'm a robot. Admittedly, some robots are able to drink, but I'm not one of them.

(Look, if he wants to nerd, she's happy to nerd. Given their wildly different understandings of how things work, it might even be fun!)

It's alright. (She's pretty sure he didn't choose to suddenly disappear and lose his memories.

Though depending on the circumstances of his disappearance, it might be better that he doesn't remember.)

So there's more robots? Are they all like you?

[Humans had robots. He and Gus had watched a documentary on them, but found them rather disappointing. They were mostly machines that built things. And the human-looking ones were far from realistic. While they were admittedly cool, they were nothing at all like what he read about in Cosmic Frontier.]

I think it's just me and Nick, actually.

(When it comes to actually sapient robots, at least.

But machines capable of eating and drinking have been around a lot longer than sapient robots.)

We both got brought here from other worlds - the Humans here aren't able to make sapient AI, robotic or otherwise.

[There's at least two of them! He wonders if "Nick" is here too.

He sighs.] I noticed. [He looks a bit put-out by that.] Humans have been to the stars! Is making a lifelike robot really more difficult than space travel?

Spacetravel requires making an airtight container that can go really fast without breaking apart or hurting the people inside. Consciousness is a bit more complex than that, yes. We still don't actually know how the mind works - even I'm based off an already existing brain.

(Which isn't a thing she discusses much, but it is true. Though don't expect her to tell anything about whose brain - even if it weren't horrifying and unethical, her mother can be a bit of a sore topic.)

Also, the entities limit technology in the same way they limit everything else.

[He's going to save asking how anyone can breathe in an airtight container for later - the books he read didn't say anything about that! Instead, he gives her a wide-eyed look.]

What happened to the old brain?

[He has a vague idea of how he was created, and that it involved a piece of the original. Was it the same for brains? Or was the other brain copied, like making copies of a book? (Is that even possible?)]

Why would they do that? Isn't learning new things good for everyone?

It was destroyed in the process - typically, eligible individuals agree to have their brains donated to the AI program after they die.

...You're really interested in AI, aren't you?

(It's common knowledge, nothing restricted or top secret. And yet, this is getting a little uncomfortable.

Maybe it's the reminder that the being her brain was taken from was very much alive when it was harvested. Or maybe it's that the brain used to make her is just one of several clone brains and making another Cortana is as simple as fetching one from storage.

The laugh she lets out is bitter, holding little amusement.)

I doubt they care about what's good for us.

Edited 2022-12-01 00:47 (UTC)

[Ah. So it's a volunteer thing. It would be really awful if they were taking people's brains while they were still alive.]

Oh, uh...There's this book series I really like, and one of the characters is an android, which I didn't really understand at first, so I did some research - and he's not even my favorite character - but I thought it was really cool.

[And he'll stop there before he starts rambling about backstories and plot points.

He makes a distasteful face.] It was like that back home too.

(Awww. She grins.)

So it's like seeing fiction come to life, basically. I take it witches don't have robotics?

(She'd sort of already realized that heavily magical worlds seemed to have no concept of robots, and she also knows Eda, so has a pretty good idea of the answer to this question, but might as well confirm.)

Things not as good as you thought they were?

(She remembers that conversation they had, and his extreme defensiveness over an emporer she had privately thought sounded a lot like a Covenant prophet. In the lying religious asshole sense, not the alien sense.)

[He shakes his head.] Not like that. There are abomatons. They're like robots powered by abominations, but they aren't intelligent and they just look like abominations wearing armor.

[Right. She knew him as the Golden Guard. If what Eda said was true, that version of him had no idea his entire worldview was on the brink of being shattered.]

No. A lot has changed.

...I'm going to spare you any questioning on those changes. (She has enough understanding to know whatever happened probably wasn't fun, and also probably isn't anything he wants to discuss with someone who's practically a stranger.) I've heard abominations mentioned before. You gonna tell me about them?

[His expression is all kinds of grateful. Even if she were not a stranger, it's not a comfortable subject. He's happy to move on to something else.]

Oh, sure! [And if that something else is rattling off his knowledge of something, even better.] They're made from re-animated matter and usually serve as labor. But a strong abomination witch can utilize them for combat or turn their abomination matter into weapons or shields. It can even be used for teleportation.

(She smiles at him. She knows the feeling, buddy.)

Re-animated? (She makes a face at that. Please don't tell her they're talking about zombies, she hates zombies.

...Wait, teleportation?) Okay, I gotta know how the teleportation works.

TDM #16

You are what you eat

Cortana <3

It's the first time Cortana has got that reaction, lol

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