redstringtheories

(NOTE: There will be no TDM or applications in June as we will be running our Arc 2 finale. If you wish to jump into the game, please be sure to app this month!)

➥ 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.)

➥ Look at this Photograph

Missing poster with the words 'MISSING Derry Police Department' and a partial photo of a black young man with close-cropped hair.
(cw: supernaturally-induced anxiety and mistrust; victimization; stalking)

Flyers have appeared throughout Gloucester. Have you seen this person? They're wanted for questioning on suspected supernatural activities. Most of the locals laugh them off as some advertising gimmick, particularly when it seems that every photograph shows someone who works for ADI. It's not just the people actually doing supernatural things, but anyone associated with the place at all. While most take the idea of the supernatural a little more seriously these days, this seems… odd to them.

Maybe you're one of the people thinking it's especially odd when you're confronted with a stalker-esque photograph of yourself plastered along a block. Have you been caught doing something you shouldn't? Are you being accused unfairly? Regardless of the answer, people are seeing this, and they might have their suspicions aroused or their opinions changed by all of this. It's nerve-wracking, isn't it? Thinking you might be cast out of your group to the wolves. Maybe more nerve-wracking than would be normal for you. There's a tick of anxiety that might even feel foreign and out of place, but it is still very much there.

Calling the number on the flier will get you a feminine voice demanding, "Tell me everything you know." Regardless of the answer, the voice will simply respond with, "Noted." The hang-up is abrupt and multiple attempted calls will just result in your number being blocked. Those who ask around about who put up the fliers will get descriptions of a rather fierce and focused woman who claims to have come down from Buffalo. The name 'Jeff' has come up more than once with her for those she's questioned in-person, but her net seems to have been widened from just one person, and she's now on the hunt for more than just one potential 'avatar.' Whatever that means. Most locals assume it's an anime thing and move on. You can't shake the feeling that this person is after you, specifically, though. Maybe your new allies or friends, as well. And can you really trust the people who have their faces on these posters? Maybe you should be a good citizen and start removing all this paper debris… or start doing some asking around yourself.

➥ For They Are but Mere Monsters

Photograph of blood splatters on pavement. Disclaimer: image depicts fake blood from a zombie-themed event.
(cw: spiders, ants, arson, burn injuries, implied danger to families and children, blood, body horror)

Even monsters tend to find a sort of equilibrium in the world at times, perhaps in ways that no one notices until the supernatural ecosystem is suddenly disrupted. In the days after a new Avatar takes up residence in Dogtown, a number of other things come streaming out of Dogtown in numbers that haven't been seen in months.

The first and the most numerous are the spiders. Spiders of all types and descriptions are suddenly everywhere in Gloucester. Most are various house spiders, tiny and generally harmless to humans, but here and there a black widow or brown recluse turns up, or a fat tarantula fails to find a hiding spot for its hairy bulk. There's hardly a place in Gloucester without spiders lurking in the corners of the ceiling, crawling in the walls, draping trees in their webs, or scuttling away in shocking numbers when you move a piece of furniture and happen across a whole nest of them. Everywhere you go there's the phantom sensation of walking through spiderwebs strung across doorways, sidewalks, and paths. Sometimes the cobweb is real and brushing it away sends a little spider fleeing; other times it's hard to say whether that thread you felt brush across your face was really there or if it was all in your imagination.

As for what the spiders are doing, though, the answer appears to be…nothing. Though they're present in fearsome numbers, though some of them have deadly venom, the spiders don't swarm or attack. If anything, they're even more inclined to run and hide than normal spiders, seeming to be keenly focused on survival rather than any sort of specific campaign of action. They learn and adapt quickly, too, should anyone go out of their way to kill them in large numbers. The spiders seem to actually recognize individuals and actively avoid anyone who's particularly prolific in the art of spider-smashing. Though they may not be the most pleasant roommates, it appears the spiders are simply…present.

Less pacifistic are the other creatures that come pouring out of Dogtown in the days that follow. The swarms of spiders might almost be forgotten in the face of the next swarm: one of fire ants. At least, people take to calling them fire ants as shorthand; whether or not these are actually members of the genus Solenopsis is neither known nor particularly relevant to the current problem–namely, that these are fire ants in a very literal sense that speaks to the cruelty of the universe. Their sting causes not just the feeling of being burned but the actual physical consequences of it; someone unfortunate enough to come in contact with the swarm may find an entire arm or leg covered in second or third degree burns. Their tiny bodies are like smoldering coals, and anywhere they nest grows hot and smoky until whatever structure has provided them shelter finally ignites like kindling. The roaming red swarm is, in contrast to the spiders, highly aggressive. The ants seek out victims, drawn especially to family homes and anyone with a lot to lose to the fire.

Whether the creatures that rise from the river of blood in Dogtown are worse still is up for debate. They're less destructive, perhaps, but no less unnerving–and no less dangerous to an unwary individual caught alone at night. From a distance they look almost like creatures made of raw, bloody meat. Up close, it becomes clear that the key word is blood. It's as though the reeking blood of the river itself has congealed into gelatinous creatures, each with the skeleton of some unfortunate animal (or, in a few rare and unsettling instances, human) inside. They thirst for fresh blood straight from the source and will attack with the intent to kill and drain their victims. For any brave individuals willing to hunt the creatures, they're easy enough to track down–they leave glaringly obvious trails of bloody footprints everywhere they go. Somewhat less straightforward is the issue of fighting and killing them, as they're able to reshape themselves and regenerate their jelly-like limbs and bodies so long as they still have enough mass to shape around their bones. Perhaps something more destructive than bludgeoning or shooting them will be more effective?

➥ Terror at 20,000 Feet

Photograph of a plane rising through the mists.
(cw: agoraphobia, monophobia, risk to life and limb; loud alarm sound in the second link)

Roughly ten months ago, the skyline of Gloucester got a little taller. The extra signal towers have made your home their home for quite some time. Yet over the last few days, their numbers seem to be thinning out during the nighttime hours. Maybe they have somewhere to be. Those towering, sinewy, creatures left behind seem content enough to stay. Although, to anyone with a sharp enough eye, they still seem to shift and move around the city every now and then.

It’s not a special or notable day when they intermittently send out a fresh signal around town. Different blocks on different days will hear the signal issued from their phones, car radios, emergency broadcast systems, anything that could have a speaker. It lances through your ears, into your brains and leaves a hash pulse just behind your eyelids.

The next time you blink, the city has vanished.

The rush of wind is violently loud and everything seems bright around you. An attempt to move around finds you stuck. Strapped in and trapped in a tightly enclosed space with wings and a propeller. A small, one-man plane. By the time your eyes adjust, maybe it’ll occur to you to take over the controls and pull yourself out of the free-fall dive your plane had been headed in. Funny how the ground never seems to truly get any closer. Whether you try to land or fly out and away or even up, every sense and sensor tells you you’re moving, yet the scenery never seems to truly change. Just you, your plane, and the wide open nothing around you as far as the eye can see.

Those familiar with the area or maps might be able to pick out a rough estimate of location: the general area of the Northeastern coastline. Forests spread out like an ocean beneath you and an ocean on your right hand side beyond that. Far below, just barely visible or noticeable, keen eyes might spot something familiar: the tall, signal-pad heads of the creatures that have been vanishing from town. They don’t seem to notice you, so far above, but they appear to be moving, their long, rusted, twisted legs carry them with wide strides in various directions away from Gloucester. Where? It’s hard to tell, they blend in so well with the trees, keeping an eye on them is almost impossible for long. Perhaps it’s better to simply focus on your own predicament.

After all, even those caught in the same signal might not find themselves stuck in the air. Instead they blink back the pulsing headache with a small nosebleed and someone nearby jerking and reacting and looking at…nothing, but they sure seem intent on walking. Those not caught in the vision might see a friend or stranger dead-set on walking out of town or down to the ocean, regardless of any hazards or people around them and shouting barely seems to do the trick. It’s hard to hear over all that wind, after all.

➥ Mod Notes

ARRIVAL (May 1-31): Two people will almost 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.
LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH (May 1-15): You may find photos of your own character or others at ADI while out on the streets. The whole town has been plastered with many of them. Trying to track the source of the phone number to be called seems to be strangely impossible, even for those with supernatural abilities in that arena. The woman people have seen will not be available for interaction during this TDM, but she will be available at a later point. Characters trying to investigate her will have very little to go on apart from the fact that she claims to have come down from Buffalo and seems to have it out for everyone even a little enmeshed with the supernatural happenings of Gloucester. The posters induce either a sense of anxiety about your own situation or some mistrust about the people you're seeing on the posters.
FOR THEY ARE BUT MERE MONSTERS (May 1-15): To sum up, three types of creatures have come swarming out of Dogtown: spiders, which don't appear to be taking any kind of aggressive action; fire ants, which are lighting things on fire; and blood jelly creatures, which are attacking individuals to kill them and drain their blood. The fire ants are susceptible to being crushed like ants or snuffed out like a fire, and the blood creatures are susceptible to being burned (though the smell will be horrendous). The spiders are susceptible to anything that normally kills spiders.
TERROR AT 20,000 FEET (May 1-15): Anyone can be caught in the signal’s radius, it only last a few seconds, but the visions will last until a physical action is taken upon someone effect (i.e. a slap or shake or hit by a car) and the person will be moving their hands and head like they’re seeing or reacting to something that isn’t there. Those not affected by visions, will suffer a migraine the rest of the day and a nosebleed for nearly a minute after the sounds end, but see nothing of what someone else might see. At least for that day. Characters might see the visions on another day if they’re caught in the signal more than once.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ So what she said, pretty much. She resists the urge to roll her eyes. ]

That has nothing to do with it.

What's your plan now, then?

Investigate the source of the noise and put a stop to it as soon as possible. Investigate ADI from sources that aren't just their mouthpieces.

[Doesn't trust them, and it's not only because he's too stubborn to admit he might have been hasty in beating them up. He made the rational choice and he'll prove it eventually for the sole reason of winning this argument that they're not even having.]

The police seem to have a uniquely passive aggressive relationship with them. I'd say that's worth looking into.

[ She resists the urge to sigh. Again. ]

Right. Then you look into the police, I'll look into ADI, and we both keep an eye on Tim in case they've brainwashed him.

[ Also: Tim is here. ]

[He takes a moment to react to this. Huh. Tim is here.

Of course, at his point in the timeline he and Tim are... fine. Seeing him in his uniform stung, but he'd be a hypocrite if he made a fuss over it given he'd already told Tim to stop asking for permission. And then there was the argument they had before Alfred... well.

He would have preferred Dick. Or Cass. Or Barbara. But Tim's reliable. He doesn't need to be worried about him.

Of course, because it's Tim, he can't resist saying...]

He would get brainwashed by an office building.

[As a cult survivor, he's an expert.]

He's more likely to listen to you than me. [He assumes. He's never actually been around both of them together while they were on speaking terms. They probably trust eachother enough not to make secret kill lists about one another.] But I'll check in with him too.

[...]

Are you still on a break?

[Sorry, Steph.]

[ Steph can only shrug and nod her head to the side in silent agreement. It's very Tim. Of course, it might mean nothing, but she finds it odd that he said he was working for ADI so easily without mentioning anything about how suspicious it is that there's a huge organization based where people keep showing up. Or why they haven't made any apparent effort to repair the upper floors so people don't get tetanus when they show up.

That could very easily be because Tim never tells her anything. Is he more likely to listen to Steph than Damian? Maybe. But only by a little. ]

Break from what?

[Fitting with Damian's lack of knowledge about Tim's romantic and personal failures, it doesn't really cross his mind that he's not the only person on the receiving end of his special brand of trust issues. He's reasonably certain that Tim loves Stephanie. So that should probably mean he trusts her too. His Titans trusted him. Loved him in a way that they never even liked Damian, both Tim's team and Damian's own. It's not as if Tim is their shared father, he's too perfect.

He narrows his eyes at her and tilts his head slightly.]

A break from your career as a world famous tapdancing duo, obviously.

I meant your relationship. [A break is what Tim called it when they last had an actual proper conversation, which was about eight months ago. Is it a break at that point? He's not sure, he's fourteen and his only expertise in subjects of romance is watching Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne screw every attempt at reaching it up and reading shoujo slice of life romance manga.]

[ Steph just stares at him for a long moment, trying to process that statement and the question associated with it. Yes, they've tapdanced around each other quite a bit. But how much does Damian even know about that? And why does he care? They haven't been a couple since long before he came onto the scene. ]

Um. "Break" is definitely not the word I would use. "Break up" maybe. I mean, technically nobody ever said the words, but I'm pretty sure our relationship ended when I was declared dead.

What? But, wait a minute... that was - [Give him a moment to keep track of timelines, god, that was before the Flashpoint screwed with everything. They all remember now, but they didn't for so long. Is there a linear way to even count that? He's... not sure. Maybe for Barry Allen but he doesn't think he's ever spoken with Barry Allen in his life.

He stares at her, the gears turning as he slowly connects the dots. This isn't the Stephanie he knows, or, well, it's the one he remembers but it's...

Is she different? A different person? Was he a different person when he was Grayson's partner?]

...Roughly six years ago.

[He decides to keep that to himself for now. For... a myriad of reasons, mostly for her sake.]

Well, you just broke up again when I left Gotham.

Well, that explains a lot.

[ Like his height. And now she doesn't have to risk stabbing by asking why he's acting so... human.

She can't say she's surprised to hear that she and Tim get back together, but she's not exactly pleased about it either. They keep repeating this same pattern, over and over, each time hoping it will be different. Well, she does, at least. She wishes she could just turn off giving a crap about Tim Drake.

She huffs. ]

You don't have to worry about things getting awkward or anything. They've been that way for years.

You can probably do better anyway. [A beat.] Marginally.

[Is this a testament for his high opinion of Stephanie or his low opinion of Tim? It's one of the two. Mostly he just has to slip in some casual disrespect whenever talking to Tim or about him, it's how their relationship works.]

Things getting awkward because of your love life is about the lowest entry on my list of priorities, believe it or not. I'm asking in case of a conflict of interest.

[He was also just curious.]

Just stay on guard. If they've really gotten into his head, I don't think I need to explain to you how dangerous that could be. [It's what he would do if it was one of them, after-all. That lesson in distrust and disregard was one of the few things Tim taught him directly, and it was a sharp reminder of how weak he still is, that it hurt him so much.

It wasn't until later that he saw exactly who he got it from.]

[ Yeah, Damian has never liked Tim. But it's so much the right thing to say in that moment that she can't help but think maybe he's actually trying to be nice. She'll take it. She agrees with him anyway. ]

There's not really much difference between personal and professional with Tim and me. [ In case he didn't know. For a very long time she never saw him without the mask. ] And it's chock full of conflict. So you probably can't rely on me to judge whether he's being mind-controlled or not.

He's kinda like you-know-who that way. If he's made plans to take us out, he might have turned evil, or it might just be Tuesday.

[He probably shouldn't laugh. He does anyway. It's a rare expression on him.]

Well. You're not wrong. [It's arguably true for most of the family but Tim most of all. And his father. For Jason it's less "plans" to take them out and more, you know, some half-baked plan to take over Gotham.] Although, you weren't on his hitlist when I saw it, so you're probably safe.

Still, you do know his usual behavior best. I'll come to my own conclusion and we can compare our observations.

[ She made Damian Wayne laugh. And not at her! She can't help a goofy grin. This is nearly as big as making Batman smile. ]

Sounds like a fair compromise.

And, uh... I'd be careful. [ That sounds like very strange advice coming from her, she knows. ]

I don't know what kind of surveillance they have here, but they've got some kind of magic. We can probably assume they've got eyes everywhere.

TDM #22

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