Event - Spun Out

[apocalypsehowmods]

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Spun Out

With real ghosts and ghouls haunting Gloucester and the aftermath of parts of the town being destroyed still to address, the people of the city are on edge. Word has been going around that it's Dogtown. Stay away from Dogtown. And maybe prune your bushes as far as they'll take it. Plants have been acting strangely this fall. There's too much new growth when everything ought to be dying.

Effects from Dogtown have begun to spill over the edges of the park, as well. Most acutely around the edges, but stretching out further through the city. They crawl with fingers and vines, shadows and the brush of wind. Even if you wanted to avoid all of this, it seems harder and harder to do so. ADI Headquarters seems to have some protections and more limited effects there. The Hunt looks after its own… somewhat, anyway.

➥ The Prison of Your Mind

(cw: memory loss, compulsion, mystery fluids, sleep paralysis, difficulty breathing, medical gaslighting)

Why are you here? It's not a particularly philosophical question in this moment; it's not a review of life goals or obligations that prompts the question. No, it's more straightforward and more worrying than that: you can't remember why you are here, in this specific place and this specific moment, nor how you arrived. Perhaps you've lost only a few minutes–stepped through a doorway and forgot why, maybe, just a little brainfart that left you more off-kilter than usual. Or perhaps there's a gap of hours or days when you suddenly wake up and realize you have no idea where you've been or what you're doing here and now in this moment. Ask anyone around you and it seems you've behaved perfectly normally up until you started asking. It's as though the memories have been surgically removed from your mind, leaving no pain but a numb wrongness in their absence and in the absence of a reason why.

Or maybe you're one of the unfortunate ones whose behavior has, perhaps, not been quite so ordinary. You don't remember where you've been; there's only the physical evidence of your current location to go by–perhaps you're down an alley or wandering the streets, or perhaps you find yourself emerging from Dogtown itself. You're certain you came this way under your own power, but you don't remember doing it and don't remember why…and your hands, feet, and chin are covered in black, viscous liquid. The taste has faded–it was sweet, you think. Taste it again and you'll lose this moment and those that follow all over again.

Your body is a prison. You awake in the night, if it can be called awakening, your body unresponsive and your chest constricted as though there's a great weight resting upon it. There's not enough air–you can't breathe! There's nothing on top of you, nothing stopping you from moving, from inflating your lungs, and yet you're trapped and every inch of you is so impossibly heavy and you can't so much as cry out for help, let alone save yourself. Agonizing minutes to stretch on into hours as your lungs burn and your paralyzed joints ache, the sun never rising and help never coming.

Sleep paralysis is the official diagnosis if you seek medical attention the morning after the ordeal, after you finally slipped back into unconsciousness only to awaken groggy and listless at dawn. There's nothing so unusual about sleep paralysis–distressing, yes, but not unusual. Not supernatural, surely. Only…ask around, and it starts to sound as if all of Gloucester has been experiencing it lately. Within ADI are you shielded from it on at least some nights; out in the city it seems the entire population has suddenly developed a new sleep disorder. But surely that's just a coincidence.

➥ The Scars You Bear

(cw: burning, darkness, leeches, unnatural elongating of limbs, body horror, physical maiming)

There are hungry things about. There’s barely a sign of them there until they’re upon you. A turn of a faucet causes a hiss to emulate before the water pours out, a little more viscous than it should be…and it burns. Like acid and a thousand tiny mouths, the water seeks to eat at skin and muscle and even bone if not wiped away quickly enough. Even once gone, the afflicted area still tingles, burns, or even bleeds for how thin the skin now is. Perhaps, instead, it is the hunger of the empty spaces and corners of rooms and hallways. Areas that might already be dark or seem dark despite the sun outside, feel yawning and desperate. They call to those who stare too long, aching to wrap a curious soul in black nothingness. Or perhaps it’s the onset of the leeches you notice. Ponds, puddles, swimming pools, cups of water…nothing is safe from a sudden slippery, squelching, rush of razor-mouthed creatures seeking something less metaphysical from you.

Time changes all and those stuck for so long in Gloucester are no exception. Some might have escaped marks or scars over the years, but the park is reaching, grasping, seeking more…and it shows. In the middle of a conversation with a friend, your fingers or limbs begin to itch. Begin to ache. Looking down, the transformation is slow: an elongation of fingers, toes, arms, legs, neck…maybe different body parts, maybe at different rates, but it hurts. And you’re the only one who can see it. For now.

You might also be the observer instead of the observed. You look at someone’s face and it starts steadily to peel. Flake after flake the skin pulls away, cracks, layers again. A papier-mache mask of flesh and bone that surely holds a truth underneath, one you must know…if only the rest of that mask was out of the way.

➥ The Fundamental Forces

(cw: existential dread, extinction, acrophobia, helplessness, potential for severe injury/broken bones)

The stars are moving. It's not the normal turn in the sky they make every night as the Earth rotates upon its axis. Instead, those casting their gaze to the heavens may note that the stars have begun to group in clusters, as if the universe beyond this planet is drawing together, away, leaving bigger and bigger stretches of yawning black between them. Will they be gone all together one night? It seems there are fewer and fewer clusters as the days go on. And ordinary people in Gloucester have taken notice. There are news reports of strange phenomena in the night sky. Experts outside of the Cape Ann region advise that there's nothing wrong with the stars or their placement and light pollution is blamed. But those who gaze up know the truth: The universe is expanding and soon enough, there will be only cold quiet and empty expanses as the light pulls farther and farther away and everything dies… utterly alone.

Gravity has stopped working in places. It doesn't seem to be consistent from location-to-location or day-to-day. One person might be affected while the other right next to them is perfectly fine.

It's like a switch being flipped, though. One moment, you might be walking through Gloucester or in Dogtown, itself, and the next, you're falling into the sky. Some may be lucky enough for a more gradual fall into the yawning blue. Like a ship unmoored, they float into the sky, helpless to stop themselves. Others may find themselves hitting terminal velocity very quickly. Regardless, if no one can grab you before you float away, then what goes down must come up. Some may rise only a few stories. Others may reach up to 2,000 feet before switching again and finding themselves hurtling back toward the ground. There's no convenient supernatural fix going this way, though. Better hope someone or something can help to break your fall or you're likely to be a crater on the ground in short order.

➥ Good Fences

(cw: N/A)

An additional prompt, Good Fences is available below!

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Players are welcome to play background NPCs for themselves when they are needed in a thread. If you need more information on general behavior for these types of NPCs, please feel free to ask! In general, the information provided in the prompts should be sufficient and ordinary people will act like… ordinary people! You're welcome to make up any details for your specific scene. Also, please remember that character deaths are permanent (unless you are using this as an opportunity to shift to an Entity alignment) and plan accordingly!
  
  
• THE PRISON OF YOUR MIND (16 November-Ongoing) - Memory loss can hit anyone, anywhere, though as with all of the other effects it is less likely to happen within ADI property. Characters will be unable to determine the origin or nature of the mystery fluid they appear to have ingested–it seems anyone who becomes aware of its source immediately goes there and ingests it, wanders off, and forgets where it came from or what else they did during that lost time, regardless of whether or not they were acting alone.
  
  
• THE SCARS YOU BEAR (16 November-Ongoing) - Leeches, acid water, and darkness can be escaped/scrubbed away with limited scarring. Those subsumed by the darkness will find themselves waking up alone with large, pitch black claw marks on their bodies or potentially permanently blinded. Those afflicted by elongating limbs or plaster faces will find the effects ending after a few minutes that feel like hours and leave the affected areas aching, broken, or with stretch marks or layers of skin missing at player discretion. Those effects not able to be perceived by another person will often suddenly become visible and at the worst possible moment (i.e. right before the other person’s neck becomes too long to support their head, a bit like watching someone unravel.)
  
  
• THE FUNDAMENTAL FORCES (16 November-Ongoing) - For those seeking to grab or lasso their floating companions, they will find that holding/hauling them back to earth is akin to trying to drag someone up from a normal gravity. It will take effort. Those who are 'falling' will have no control over the upward portion of their fall, even those who may normally have the ability to fly/control their falls. Additionally, this effect will impact objects at random. So, you may have mailboxes or cars falling out of the sky on top of you.
  
  

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(frozen comment) QUESTIONS

[apocalypsehowmods]

Please respond HERE with questions!

Elidibus | Final Fantasy XIV

[wewillwewill]

I. Fundamental Forces - OTA

Gravity. It's an interesting law. One Elidibus had the capacity to manipulate to a degree when the situation required it. Nothing so dramatic or widescale as what is happening in Gloucester. But a 'trick' that could be useful in saving others if he were around. A sudden upward journey may be slowly arrested and the person brought back to the ground some reasonable distance away from the anamoly. Short bursts of teleportation were an option as well. Someone experiencing a sudden violent fall upwards could abruptly find themselves swallowed by a brief cloud of energy and then standing next to the quiet, silver-haired man.

Safety is dubious. Not because of the dangers the man in question may pose, but the nature of these strange shifts in the laws of the world. But for now it's not happening again.

"It seems that way is lost, for now. I could suggest another, if you are willing to tell me where you are heading." Maybe it would be a good idea to go with the guy who can readily counter the effects. Possibly. He can't help the whole town, but at least Elidibus seems willing to aid those in trouble before him. If nothing more his words seem to indicate he can guide someone past the existing pockets which may seem interesting (or useful) enough by itself.

II. Knowing Too Much - Closed to Elias Bouchard

It happened again. The uncomfortable sense of lost time, becoming aware that he is unable to recall how he arrived here from the last place he remembers being. Elidibus is no stranger to the slow and inexorable loss of memories by any means. A pain and burden he had to bear for the sake of his people was the gradual loss of memories about them; friends and kin and world that was alike. He'd gained much and more of those back, through an altruistic act and the clarity of death.

Elidibus was excellent at hiding his emotions and setting them aside for the sake of rational thought and the greater good. But that did not mean he would not be upset. Nor harbor fear for losing what he had regained. It's no less than he had felt before after all.

All that aside, what he experienced now is a different sort of loss. It wasn't an erosion of old memories until scraps remain. It was like... a purposeful deletion of recent activities. The first time it happened he'd been in the ADI headquarters and was able to confirm nothing had seemed unusual. For him, that span of time was simply gone. The nagging, numb feeling... well, it was different than the hollow void he knew before. But they could easily have been cousins. And that hit a little close to home.

Now, he found himself outside of Dogtown. Certain he had journeyed this way for some other matter, but not with Sheppard or Rodney as he had done before and perhaps planned to continue. No, it was... He frowned and couldn't remember. So also existed this strange black fluid. It will be wiped away, not tasted however curious it is. That was certainly new. More importantly, Elidibus could readily see how this might be considered an escalation of what's happening to him. What about to others?

Elidibus had his own means of gaining knowledge of past and present events. At least on his star. 'Reading aether' had seemed to be something he was capable of performing here under the auspice of providing fear to his patron. Yet in recent months, he'd been made aware of a different sort of ability. A way of Knowing. Had it developed? Or was it simply what he'd really been doing all this time and his perceptions have slowly shifted to awareness of it? He didn't know. They still felt different, whatever his native ability really translated to when he used it here. And it felt... easier. Less taxing. Elidibus knew there were dangers to availing himself of this newfound 'talent'. He also knew it was likely no less dangerous than what he did to use his actual gifts and magicks. Yes, there would be benefits and so long as he was already freely using his magic in other ways, it was simply another tool. Knowledge was vital. It was worth the price and thus he reached out in an attempt to Know where his lost time and memories had gone. What they were.

It was a mistake of course. The silver haired man flinched back and let out a muffled sound of pain. It felt like needles had been shot through his skull, his eyes and it seared his senses and lingered with nauseating certainty that it would not end easily or soon. Fade? A little. And fortunately there were places nearby he could sit.

Staggering in the direction he thought they were, Elidibus may be found in the process of rapidly about to drop to the ground or possibly already there, crouched and breathing heavily as if to will the cold air to numb the pain or ease the urge to vomit. Certainly far from his goal of somewhere proper and dignified to rest.

III. Wildcard

[hmu if you want to do anything else. Leeches, other gravity issues, encounter someone else having a memory problem or peeling off face masks, I'm game!]

rip to this man's mind

[hellojon]

Though the compulsion has worn off, the need to know is still there. Dogtown is where all the secrets are. It's where the answer lies. They won't solve anything until they find that damned house and see it through to the end.

Not that Elias particularly wants to solve anything to begin with. He is well aware of how things will end in his world—those little sticky notes told him that much. Dead, his power ripped from him, tossed off the seat of his creation by the Archivist, the person who all of this was made for. He was a disciple of the Eye. He wasn't it's favorite.

But as far as he's concerned? New world, new rules. So he spends his time around Dogtown anyway, tramping around, trying to learn more or see more, when he feels a very familiar sensation in the back of his brain. Someone else is here. Someone else is trying to Know things. Someone else has gotten the attention of the Eye. And, like someone trying to run a marathon on their first day of training, they've overextended themselves.

As Elidibus staggers towards a set of benches, Elias makes his way over there as well. The man looks rough and he reaches over to help steady him. "Breathe," he orders, watching his chest rise and fall as it does. "In and out. Focus on the air in your lungs and get yourself sorted."

I! Have a very tired bard.

[rainestorms]

Exhaustion was nothing new to Raine- and frankly they'd just become accustomed to it between the sleep paralysis, the memory loss.

....

Well, no need to recount their entire history.

At first it's almost as if they don't hear Elidibus- They might just be trying to not think too hard about the fact that the way home was blocked, or they were lost in trying to remember how they'd ended up there in the first place.

"I'm trying to go home... I think." Raine looked to the side. "Where are you trying to go?"

Bucky/Winter | OTA

[worthallthis]

I. Worst Fear Ever - OTA

Winter stops in the middle of the street on one of his many patrols, looking around wildly. He has no idea how he got there. Or what he was doing. Anyone walking with him is treated to the urgent question, "What just happened??"

And it's not the only time. In the middle of washing dishes in the house, or bringing a coffee order back to a table, or stops and shudders all over with real, actual fear.

He starts carrying multiple little notebooks with him, and if he's not doing something else, he's scribbling in it, trying to get down everything that happens to him. If it's written down, he can't lose it. Not forever.


II. Insomnia is a Way of Life - Closed to housemates/close CR, cw flashback/panic attack

Nightmares are a part of Winter's daily life as it is. Worse, lately, since the tiny town incident and the moments of forgetfulness around town, aggravating his usual lower levels of tension and bringing back fears of the Chair, of loss, of returning to the state where he killed without thought.

Waking up and being unable to move and breathe isn't as normal. He's done it before, but not here. Not when he's not strapped to a table and drugged to the gills with a doctor digging into him. The first time it happens, in his and Rogers' bedroom, it throws him straight back into one of those moments, panting in terror and certain he's about to feel the scalpel.

After that, he tries to sleep as little as possible, just enough to stay functional. He happens to be very good at not sleeping. Better, now that coffee actually works on him. He sits up late into the night, writing or doing endless push-ups or reading out loud in a slightly more unsteady voice than usual.


III. Hunting Leeches - OTA

The gross bug things trying to bite people sends Winter out into the streets, weary or not, armed with fire and salt and bug spray, trying each systematically on each batch of the creatures. He has no idea where he got the idea for salt, but his brain insists that he use salt on the things.

He avoids sources of water except to linger around the outside of them, looking for the leeches to get rid of them. Hunting keeps him from looking too closely at anything else.


IV. Flying (and Clinging, and Catching) - OTA

Winter never really considered himself afraid of falling, not even after knowing what happened to him when Rogers thought he'd died. Trains, yeah, sure, but not actually falling from them.

It's pretty scary to fall into the sky, though. It's only rapid flailing and the steel grip of a metal hand catching to a street light that keeps him from falling even further upwards. He clings to that with arms and legs both once he gets them wrapped around the arch of the street light, then when gravity randomly reverses again he's left dangling from it, trying to figure out how to get down without hurting his knees in a jump.

After that, his hunting gear for leeches includes rope with a grappling hook. Better someone get a few cuts than breaking all their bones in a fall from a great height. (Also, it can save himself, too.) He continues his patrols, now looking up as well as down.


V. The Source? - Closed to CR

So far everyone around them has pointed to Dogtown being the big problem here, a house at the center of it. And Winter still has a promise to keep to that faerie person (belated though it is, now). But he doesn't trust that stupid hunt avatar guy to deal with it. Or to go anywhere near him.

So he goes to his people and suggests, "We could all go in. Bring the big guns. And fire. See if it helps."

2 - insomnia

[ruevealing]

[Rue notices almost immediately.]

Darling - [They begin on one of their next coffee dates, a mug curled between their glamoured paws, their gaze tinged with worry.]

Have you been sleeping? Forgive me for prying, you just look quite weary.

II (I'm good with just Rogers/Winter or a three-way thread with Yelena!)

[punched_hitler]

Nightmares aren't new for Rogers, either, and while he tends to sleep without moving around overly much and often comes awake all at once, the paralysis is… new. The first time, it's just disturbing. He eventually falls back asleep and feels shitty for the rest of the day, but he writes it off.

It's not just the first time, though. The next night, it happens again. And this time it comes with a series of dreams that involve waking up trapped in the ice, alone and awake and aware that no one is coming for him for years and years and —

Like his housemates, he doesn't sleep much after that. Clearly it's not just him — not after he'd caught Winter waking up the same way, breath coming in panicked gasp-pants until he'd finally, suddenly, seemed able to break free.

He's taken to wandering the house when he starts to get tired — okay, it's not a big house, but he's not going to walk outside these days, with the sky doing what it's doing, leaving his stomach an empty, cold pit — so he mostly looks like he's pacing, but moving his body helps him stay awake. Tonight, he catches Winter reading in their room, and he pauses in the doorway, just listening for a beat before he leans into the room and says, "I think I'm gonna make some coffee. Want some? We could sit in the kitchen with all the lights on."

IV

[punched_hitler]

It's maybe a good thing Winter is looking up when he does, because Rogers was walking along when his foot had slipped — except it hadn't so much as slipped as stopped obeying the proper laws of gravity, and he's falling upward almost before he realizes what's happened. It's only some shadow of once-enhanced reflexes that have him scrabbling at the flag flying upwards from a particularly tall flagpole, fingers tangling in the red, white, and blue fabric almost at the last second, though not without a terrifying ripping noise.

But it stops — for the moment — and he's trying to work his way up (down?) the flag with his feet dangling in the air without doing any more damage when he spots a dark shape turn a corner not too far away, and — he would know that shape anywhere.

"Winter!" he calls, as loudly as he can. "Winter! Be careful, the gravity's all wrong here!"

He doesn't know how far the effect goes, but while he desperately wants help, he doesn't want Winter to end up flying off into the sky in the process.

No. He desperately doesn't want that.

II - Insomnia

[bossyboiler]

Kate is spending the night at the house. What? It's fine. Her friends love her and she loves them. It's just the weather last night had been unkind to walk in with the rain and icy temperatures. It isn't the first night she's kipped it on the sofa. It won't be her last night either. She already keeps a change of clothes and pajamas there.

So, she dozes on the couch, sleeping deeply and peacefully enough that Winter doesn't wake her... at first. Eventually, it's his reading aloud that wakes her. Normally, she could listen to him narrate for hours. His voice is steady and she has listened to it on on multiple occasions while baking or doing other chores.

However, this time it's different. His voice is uneven and sounds a bit broken in some cases. Slowly, her eyes open and she looks around. It is dark and at first she doesn't see Winter. With a deep yawn she sits up, blinks her eyes willing them to open, and then looks around. She yawns again.

"Winter?"

slides in deeply late for 2 if you're still wanting to thread :V i'm sorry I'm a fool

[lowficharm]

The thing is, Martin is very very good at noticing when people are tiring themselves out and not resting. Considering how often Jon did it and how much he's still actively trained to be worried about everyone around him, he just starts to hover when things are a problem until he can hopefully fix it. So all he can do is try and help, sliding up one late night with a tray and some tea, making his footsteps loud on purpose so he can be heard approaching.

"Er... Winter? How... How are you doing? It's, uhm, p-pretty late."

[graveyounglady]

I. The Prison of Your Mind
Exhaustion dogs Mercy as another night comes and goes with her body tensed, unable to move, and her mind on fire with horrors. Gods, she wishes it was on fire with actual fire at this point, but even kisses and Aelwyn's warm arms curled around her can't bring relief. She's working on her fourth night of barely any sleep when she stumbles very suddenly into someone in the halls of ADI HQ.

"Oh! Sorry. Sorry, I ain't... sorry." Her words trail off as she leans herself against a wall. She needs to wake up. She needs... "Coffee. Sorry. You know which way the nearest breakroom is?" She's so turned around and discombobulated right now, it's hard to tell.

II. The Scars You Bear
"Let me see your hands." They're the first harried words out of Mercy's mouth as another person steps into the busy infirmary. "Acid from the faucet? Over there. Fingers and anything else going funny, that's the counseling department. Leeches stuck to you, come with me." She beckons her new patient with her over to bed where she has some equipment for picking the leeches off and bandaging the injuries that are left behind.

"This is getting well outta hand. Blood-sucking pustules is what these things are. Never did like 'em, even for the healing."

III. The Fundamental Forces (for Yelena)
It's another foray into Dogtown, this time with Yelena, and Mercy's equipped with Garner's glaive and a small map that she's copied from the message that went out from the Visionary. It includes her own notes, as well. "This is where Mr. Elias and I saw a chain link fence inside Dogtown. He thinks it's gotta be what we're looking for. The house beyond it, anyway. Reckon it's connected to them Wolfes. Since wolves is the running theme around here." The last part is a bit more of a mutter to herself.

"We'll wanna walk the long way 'round here, though, avoid the field of flowers that's got fire running through your mind and burning things out."

IV. The Fundamental Forces (for Eda)
One person Mercy can handle trying to catch and hold to keep them from being flung up into the sky. Three people all at once is well beyond her ability to help. Especially when two rise at such an alarming rate she can't even begin to react. "Help! I need help!"

She bursts into the main lobby of the ADI HQ building and looks around. Several people freeze in surprise, but then her eyes settle on one owl lady. Mercy rushes over to Eda to take one of her hands. "Eda, we got people falling into the sky. I managed to lasso one, but I ain't got no more rope and they're too high. I don't know when- We need to catch them 'fore they come down. They won't survive it."

III

[musicdied]

Yelena grimaces slightly, and rolls her shoulders against the straps of her pack. It's not quite as well-loaded as it might once have been, but she has the essentials, chalk and hazard markers and bandages and climbing gear and multiple sources of light, electric and otherwise.

And food and water, of course. Only a fool goes hiking without snacks.

"Yes," she says. "I don't need any more holes in my head. Maybe we can steal a few tanker trucks of herbicide, if this is the Wolfe house beyond the fence, and leave ourselves a clearer exit."

IV

[edalyn]

Eda's surprised as Mercy runs up to her, but she doesn't object as the young woman grabs her hand.

"Wait, falling into the sky? Is it that time of year already?" This... might be a joke, but given everything else Eda's ever said about the Boiling Isles, it's probably not much of a stretch to think it might not be one.

"Alright, show me where they're floating off to," she adds, "I'll see what I can do." She's been feeding more again, since the incidents in tiny Gloucester. Maybe that will turn out to be for the best, at the moment.

Good Fences (please respond by 11/30)

[apocalypsehownpcs]

There once were Wolfes within these woods
Who Hunted with their kin.
Their game was not four-legged sorts,
But Strange and fright'ning men.
And so the townsfolk built a fence,
A tall and noble thing,
A structure that would keep them in;
Remove the fear they bring.
It took them years to build the fence,
Long nights of toil and labor,
But all Dogtowners know this truth:
Good fences make good neighbors.

A fence has been found in Dogtown. A fence that at least one person has had visions of and others may have heard about from ghosts of Gloucester's past. There is a fence within the woods. It stands between you and the center of Dogtown, the heart of everything, according to one spirit, in particular. This spirit, Bryn Fletcher, shared revelations that the center of Dogtown, the Wolfe House that somehow sits there after centuries when it shouldn't, is a twisting thing of death that wants to devour everyone.

The first task is to actually reach the house, though, and that requires getting through the fence. Try to climb it or fly over it, and it grows and grows and grows to an impossible height to match. Try to dig under it and it seems to extend forever to the depths. Try to snip it and your implements with rot or rust away to nothing. Try to bomb it with ordinary devices, and it seems to withstand it without issue. It seems some very creative options will need to be implemented to overcome the fence. Or perhaps someone can find the actual gate?

((ooc: Please respond here with your character's actions to try to get through the fence. Normal Dogtown search rules are not in effect. You can have your character wander the edges of the known fence area, but they may encounter dangers around the edges. There is no one solution to getting through/past the fence. The mods would just request creative problem-solving solutions! Supernatural abilities are NOT necessary to get through the fence. Ordinary people could manage it, as well. We'd just like to see some out of the box ideas for getting through. Not everything needs to be brute force! And anyone who has picked up a supernatural object along the way or seen things in various squares for Dogtown Search Requests is welcome to make use of the things found to try to get the fence open. Use Dogtown against itself, if you can!

Please get in at least initial responses by 11/30, before the start of the new month.))

cw: spiders, blood

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Sheppard is going to try the usual without getting very far—climbing, digging, seeing that the fence keeps extending, bringing a saw to the metal and seeing that it just rusts or rots away. If he can find any sort of ordinance from ADI, if ADI would provide it, he would try to see if exploding it would work.

And once those options fail, Sheppard would attempt to do the following—but if these need to be singular requests instead of all at once just let me know and I can do them one at a time! :)

1. Collecting some of the blood from the blood river in the south of Dogtown in a small glass container, and seeing if it had any effect on the fence by pouring it on the metal.

2. Collecting spiders from the spider bridge in a small glass container, then bringing them out and shaking the container onto the fence and seeing if they’ll form any sort of webbing.

3. Licking the fence in his Huntbeast form…I’m sorry.

Re: Good Fences (please respond by 11/30)

[musicdied]

So, since there's this whole highly concentrated acid replacing water problem, Yelena's going to take advantage of it to collect some in some nice, non-reactive flasks, and use it to try to corrode away the attachment points between fence and posts for a section - hopefully enough for either the weight to pull the section down, or enough to pull it up and leave a gap at the bottom.

If that doesn't work, or only works partially, she'll transplant some wildly overgrowing plants and hope that in the absence of tech, they'll chew on regular old metal.

[worthallthis]

Winter's first attempt is, as always, grenades. Lobbed from a fair distance away.

If that comes to naught, he'll try throwing his web pyramid at it. The thing will probably come back to him even if it doesn't work, after all, and hey, why not give it a shot in case it does eat the pyramid? Then he's rid of it and maybe there will be a hole in the fence.

CW: spiders

[rainestorms]

Raine followed Sheppard, along with several others to the fence post. While there's certainly a group effort in trying to find a way in, Raine is going to both observe Shep, and try to do their own searching with the assistance of Elidibus.

-Raine is going to use their now freed palisman to scout around the fence and try and scout out visible weaknesses, or the gate. They'll even try digging with Crash to see if he can find his own way under.

-They are also going to try and use their bard magic from whistling to destroy the fence post, since it can destroy matter.
-Raine is also going to use their violin to try and knock cut through the fence with their ability to use sound waves to generate force/cut through matter.

-In an effort to find a way past the gate, if none of their other options work, they're going to attempt to lean further into their connection with the Web. See if they can't use it to find a way through.

The spiders are friends of the web, and they seem to be making something for Shep. Raine would like to use the spiders for themself- and they're going to use their palisman staff to stay out of Shep's way.

Mmm Fences

[wewillwewill]

Elidibus is part of the gang both looking for Sheppard (aka Shep Search) and also going to be working with Raine on fence efforts.

He is also an observer and will begin with trying to find weaknesses or trying to puzzle through magic/spoopy supernatural nature of the fence's existence (e.g. the 'laws' and fabric of its fundamental existence as a spoopy supernatural fence). Carefully mind you. He's had enough headache/blindness/feedback to last him a while so if he tentatively reaches out and finds that pressure threatening to hand out a nope of denial, he will stop. Or try to. If it doesn't trick him into trying to look closer.

Whether Shep's moleshark is dead or alive, Elidibus would also observe both it and the ground it churned up. Did it leave a burrow, does it just swim through the ground like it's water and leave no damage? Did it seem like it came from the other side of the fence? Could it possibly be used to get under or through?

For actual fence efforts:

1. He will attempt to support Raine's efforts to use magic on the fence. This is largely an amplifying effect to whatever Raine's efforts toward fence breaking are but he is no stranger to alteration or destruction magic. If not outright bolstering Raine's bard magic/violin sound attack directly, then striving to weaken the fence's susceptibility to them.

2. He would try to teleport something small and inanimate (a branch if it must be something specific) to the other side of the fence to see if teleportation is possible.

3. If he is able to get any knowledge of how the 'laws' of the fence work, he will attempt to transform a part of it to a gate. This is provided Raine's efforts to make a hole don't work, OR to maybe stabilize an effort should it try to stretch over any destroyed bits.

4. He would also be interested in where the spiders would appear to be going with their web arrow effort. After dealing with Shep and if nothing else seems to be effective, he would suggest the group (following Raine's lead) might benefit from sticking together and finding out what it leads to (whether this is following Raine a little latter or simply going with at the time Raine leaves).

5. Not really a fence effort. More fence adjacent. There will be words for Shep getting his tongue stuck to the fence. So many words, from his therapist.

/sliiiiiiiides in under the wire? ;;

[punched_hitler]

Rogers probably figures out very quickly that the usual brute force methods don't work. (Disappointing, but what isn't, these days.)

Maybe he can do some reconnaissance, instead? He has a very sharp artist's eye and a sketchbook and pen. So, he's going to attempt to chart the entire fence's perimeter, even if it takes several trips, making note of anywhere it appears damaged, worn, or just plain different. Said inspection also includes the environment around the fence - trees that might overhang it (or almost overhang it, or appear cut off where they would overhang it), places where the ground might look worn or disturbed like someone's come and gone from inside, etc.

He's aiming to find some indication of a gate, though admittedly not particularly hopeful that it will turn up with a close visual inspection.

Re: Good Fences (please respond by 11/30)

[edalyn]

1. Invisibility - does the fence response to where people are if they can't be seen by normal means? i.e. would it do any good for Eda to try to fly over the fence after making herself invisible.

2. Earth manipulation - we've seen glyph magic used to summon awful muddy/fleshy arms from the ground. She might try doing that, and see if it does any good to try to turn the dogtown landscape against itself, using the hands to attempt breaking or digging under the fence. If nothing works on the fence situation directly, she might also try to use them to corral the moleshark into burrowing where they want it to.

3. Plants - Eda might use glyph magic to grow vines into/inside the lock, trying to shape them to pick it from the inside.

Good Fences - Shep Search: The Story So Far...

[wewillwewill]

[OOC: An overall top level for a group effort's individual threads so they can be found in one place. Content Warnings will be placed in each thread's beginning. Participant tags will be assigned also per thread. The group is nominally Eda, Raine, Hunter, Emet-Selch, Elidibus, Sheppard and Rodney. ]

There's been talk of fences. Warnings from ghostly figures. Hints and teases, signs and clues found over months of work. Something is brewing in Dogtown. Something big.

And it's connected to a house somewhere in its depths. That house has a fence.

There has been a lot of concern over the obvious signs of Sheppard's manifestation of traits, if not outright implications of being, a burgeoning Avatar of the Hunt.

Raine has known about the existence of the house and certain Entities' influences surrounding it since their investigations which uncovered the existence of Milo. They had spoken to Elidibus, and there was a mutually agreed upon idea of forming a small group, intending to include Sheppard in some fashion. If not stop the Hunt aligned man, at least use those keen senses. Particularly while Sheppard seemed to be holding on to some measure of his identity.

Of course, then Sheppard goes and runs on ahead, going missing. After a visit to check and see if Rodney McKay had any word of the missing Sheppard and to invite him to come along on the search for both the missing man and the house, Elidibus and Rodney met up with Raine, Eda and Emet-Selch to the inevitable arrival in Dogtown.

Where, given all signs, Sheppard most undoubtedly was. Thanks to the Hunt Avatar's focus on his target, the group was able to find signs and track him to the environs surrounding the fence.

This is where a great deal of many things occur.

Sheppard - Open to Raine, Elidibus, Emet-Selch, Hunter, Eda, and Rodney

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

cw: blood, animal attack, animal violence/animals getting hurt, violence, spiders, body horror, compulsion, degenerative vision loss

Sheppard is on a mission. He knows he should have brought Rodney but he also can't quite figure out why he didn't. It's almost a compulsion he can't resist, he just has to find the house, and he doesn't have time to get Rodney. He doesn't have time to do anything. He has to find it now.

It doesn't take too long to find the fence, most of the way he knew already. Honestly, he's finding this place by scent just as much as sight, his sight has gotten so bad lately that even his glasses aren't helping much. He'd gone to the blood river the day previous to collect some blood and some spiders (as one does) in case they could be useful, and has them in in containers in his vest. He approaches the fence, trying the usual ways just to make sure none of them work--climbing, digging, bringing a saw to the metal and seeing that it just rusts or rots away. He sets off a large firecracker (more of a mortar, really) but it does nothing.

So out comes the container of blood, and he pours it on the fence. It's a little difficult, a little awkward, but it slides down the metal, coating it red.

And then he smells it.

Cloying, thick. His mind goes reeling and it gets in his head.

And all he can think about his Hunting.

All he can think about is violence.

He'd been wearing his tac vest, a black shirt and gray cargo pants, but he only has a few seconds to throw the tac vest and glasses (they are expensive, okay) to a branch of a nearby tree before he uncontrollably transforms into his Huntbeast form, technomagic arm and all. It's a swift, almost instant change--but probably for the best as the ground starts to shudder.

And then a massive, scarred dorsal fin erupts out of the ground.

Sheppard's feline eyes widen.

That is...apparently, some kind of...mole. Shark.

Because that's just a thing that can happen here.

And it's lunging for him.

Sheppard yowls, trying to scramble out of the way, as the moleshark is hot on his heels. He just barely gets scratched by it, jumping out of the way, throwing himself to the side, and maybe he's just pissed off, maybe it's the hunt-and-violence compulsion from the blood, but he is tired of this place always kicking his ass. He leaps at the moleshark, twisting himself to avoid the chomping maw and digs his teeth and claws into its back leg. It makes a horrible bellowing noise of pain, trying to shake him off, but he clings to the leg, tearing into it, ripping it to shreds.

Eventually the bucking grows to be too much and he's flung off. He hits the dirt, rolling on his back, to see the monster dashing towards him again.

It looks...pretty pissed.

At least it's enough to make him fight past his compulsion for a little bit, in self-preservation, as he dashes towards the nearest sturdy tree.

The moleshark lets out a bellow, but eventually leaves.

After he's sure that it's not coming back (which may take a few minutes or so), Sheppard drops down to the ground warily again, and finds his tac vest and glasses. He picks them up in his mouth and scurries down the fence, far away from his battle with the moleshark. The glasses go safely in a tac vest pocket.

He remembers the spiders and quickly lets them out of their container onto the fence, thankfully his paws are dexterous enough that he can open it.

The spiders are displeased.

They crawl right off the fence--great--and into the trees. He's a little dejected, and notices that they're creating an odd web. It looks kinda like an arrow? He think about it for a second, then tries one last thing--

--licking the fence.

His tongue is stuck.

...

He is so stuck.

So now there is a very bloody (thankfully not his own blood, save for a few scratches on his back) giant, lynx-looking creature with his tongue stuck to the fence, trying to pull it off.

This day sucks.

Eda | fence attempts | open

[edalyn]

i.

Finding the fence had been easy. If you could call following someone finding it, at least. One way or another, the plan to track Shepard had worked. They just needed to get in.

Getting in was proving harder. Eda was getting frustrated. She’d tried climbing, tried flying, tried flying while invisible in case the darn thing could see her… and she’d tried various approaches to damaging it.

Nothing was making a dent, though anyone who happened to get close enough might notice some remnants of failed attempts; one section of the fence had vines wrapped around it, and another was covered in slowly melting ice crystals.

Now Eda was muttering to herself, using a sharp stick to draw a circular pattern on the ground near the barrier. “How did this one go again..?”

ii. cw: eventual animal harm

“Easy there, big guy–”

Whatever Eda was talking to was visible only by the cracked earth as it burrowed under the soil, leaving what would look like a mole trail… except much, much bigger. Now and then a pointed fin could be seen poking up from the ground before disappearing again.

Eda finished tracing another pattern of the ground and tapped it sharply, before the soil she’d been drawing on twisted into a muddy, fleshy hand. It dug into the ground, blocking the path of the burrowing creature and forcing it to turn back towards the fence.

Nothing from outside Dogtown seemed to be able to break through… but she was hoping she’d have better luck with something from inside. Maybe the rules wouldn’t apply to turning the place against itself.

Or maybe she was just harassing a poor monster. But she was running out of ideas.

Raine | OTA to fence approachers and observers :)

[rainestorms]

Using All Of Your Eight Legs

(CW: spiders, magical control/influenced)

Following Sheppard had been an excellent idea. It seemed that his time as an animal had, somehow, dulled his ability to, well. Detect people like one would normally. That worked out for the bard though, as they had other plans. Plans that didn't involve Sheppard, but rather the spiders he tried to use with little success.

What it did involve was Raine following the spiders, of playing music for the spiders as they tried to connect with the web and find their way to the locked gate. The dancing spiders to any onlooker may have seemed cute, if it weren't for their venomousness. Or, the fact that they seemingly were being controlled by the bard.


To Build A Web

(CW: spiders, swarms, magical control/influence)

a)

There’s a certain thrill to the fact that their plan worked. The charm of their spider friends dancing to their music, spinning web into a key had a novel sense to it, and Raine couldn't help but marvel at their newfound spider friends. Though they were hesitant, their fondness for the small little creatures grew when they pulled the key out of the lock, and it stayed. The key was stickier than they'd thought it would be, but they supposed that’s only par the course when it's made out of spider web.

But, how could they complain? All they had to do was change the key’s matter to a solid, and open the lock. Spiders skittered around them as they tried to unstick the sticky key from their hand.

b)

“I wasn't expecting my idea to be successful. Most of the things I could do at home don't work here,” Raine regarded their friend(s) warmly. “But perhaps the most helpful creatures here were the spiders after all. Sheppard got me- got us>/i>- to the fence. But they're helping us get inside.”

Raine’s staff returned to their unoccupied hand, and the spiders skittered around Raine, towards legs, and up them if reactions weren't fast enough- and even then, spiders do have webs. Spiders can climb up trees, and fence posts.

“I think they could help us in other ways too. I think they could help you.”