Event - The House That Wolfe Built

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The House That Wolfe Built

"A sense of eeriness pervades all the place. [It is] forsaken and majestically lovely, as if nature had at last formed one spot where she can live for herself alone." - Marsden Hartley, poet and painter, 1931, re: Dogtown, Massachusetts.

The woods are creepy, Dark, and deep within the confines of Dogtown. Whether drawn here by curiosity or compulsion, you find yourself (and perhaps your companions) making your way along a spiraling path to reach a rusted chain link fence. This fence, once fighting to block anything from exiting, has been breached by a variety of clever and sage tactics. You might have been lucky enough to join up with one of the groups that found or made their own keys. Or maybe you're unlucky and stuck going through the acid plant hole or the random violence tunnel. However you make your way inside the fence, you'll notice a marked difference on the other side.

It's quiet. Much too quiet. Even your own footsteps seem to be muffled. Beyond the trees, in a cleared out space, a house is visible. It's a New England mansion with white wood slats for walls and a dark roof that sports two smoking chimneys atop it. From the pitch black windows, it looks to be about three stories high, not including the ground floor, and rises just above the treeline. There's a wrap-around porch on the ground floor that's in questionable repair with a rusty, decayed swing to one side of the front door. Most prominent of all upon the building, though, is an enormous spiral pattern burned into the wood on one side of the house, along with a simple message:

WELCOME :)

➥ Welcome

(cw: sudden violence, rot, swarms, choking, potential for severe injury, thalassophobia, blackmail)

The world beyond the fence in Dogtown is a strange one. The sun flickers and dies, vying with the stars for space in the heavens, as if time is shifting back and forth, fighting to progress or slow. The trees are impossible things. Some of their limbs are burnt, others petrified, others are rotting, and still others resplendent with pollen-filled flowers. All on the same tree. The quiet in this place is oppressive, as well, marred only by sudden bursts of screeching, shrill sounds: a woman screaming, vehicles colliding, a gun going off. There is a dread that hangs heavy in this place and a hunger from the very land itself that seems to be starved in some way.

And all of you make such lovely prey to feed the wretched, starving things that have been trapped in this place for far too long without the strength they need to fight or flee.

The trek to reach the house proves to be a rather hazardous one for those approaching. Bear traps seem to appear from nowhere. Vines hanging from the trees curl around throats. Swarms of insects find you to bite and sting and drive you mad with their persistence. Shadows shift unexpectedly to hide pools of sticky black blood. Even a small splash of it is enough to raise a violent impulse within the most docile person. Or perhaps you're unlucky enough to find a puddle that is so much deeper than any puddle should be. Down and down and down. Something pulls at you, wrenches you into something so much bigger than you ever imagined. Strange, not-quite birds and animals dog your steps and whisper threats, promise they'll scream a secret you want kept if you take one more step toward that house.

And the gauntlet continues with every Entity fighting to keep you from your goal by force or fear. Or… almost every Entity. Nothing that twists or weaves seeks to block your way. In fact, what spiderwebs there are seem to guide you around the more deadly hazards, should you choose to follow them.

What did one of those ghosts say? "Now, it sounds strange, but you need to follow the spiderwebs if you want to find anything on the grounds. They'll never lead you wrong."

➥ Come In

(cw: various, determinant, altered perceptions of reality, strangulation)

The help from the spiderwebs stops at the door. The house that greets you is old. For how long it’s likely been empty, there should be moss and growth and decay, but all that greets you are moisture-warped boards, the creak of which serves as a loud alarm of your approach. To some, it may seem familiar, as though you've been here in your dreams. The grand hallway characters are treated to was clearly once lavish and rich with tapestries and fine carvings. Now, the corners and shadows seem like twisted faces in the wings, watching and waiting. The house itself seems to be holding its breath in anticipation.

As soon as the last person is inside, the front door shuts with a definitive thud and the way is shut. The only thing left to do is explore; although, anyone with any decent sense of direction will soon find it muddied and confused. What should be North feels an awful lot like West and South tastes like Down but has the sound of your footfalls overhead. Still, you must go Down the Up staircase and hope sense returns soon enough.

You and any companions you have with you will find vertigo and confusion abound; even the gift of flight or a handy grappling hook are no balm. You take off or start climbing and suddenly find your center of gravity shifted and turned and spun until figuring out which direction you're moving becomes a nauseating affair. Best take the slow road, even if it's difficult. And maybe mind the objects in the hallway when you walk along it. You may pass by them more than once, but find them ever so slightly shifted. Changed. Perhaps one of them might provide the clue you need on what to do next, which door to choose to escape the endless hallway cycle.

Or perhaps you'll see the People Who Are Not There who seem to populate the house. You spot their silhouettes when at just the right angle. A pillar and a vase make the shape of a man or a woman or a child. Step forward and that form spreads, warps, becomes nothing but a different shape. The People Who Are Not There are seen more and more frequently the longer someone spends roaming the corridors of the house without some forward progress. See enough of them and you might find yourself grabbed by Hands That Do Not Exist, and slowly strangled. It doesn't… hurt, though? Nothing is there, after all. Nothing is trying to hurt you. Nothing. But as it happens again and again, you may find yourself beginning to feel less real. Are You There? Perhaps not. And how do you fight something that Isn't There? Run, hide, think in ways that Make No Sense. Out of the box seems to be the only viable solution to fighting and avoiding them to make your way forward.

Finally, you come to a door…and you can’t be sure there wasn’t another door you passed or if you’ve simply turned right too many times and now find yourself exactly where you need to be… and this is the door you need. You can smell it. Opening it shows an inky, dark, substance and pressing your hand to it is like reaching through thick, chilled, smoke. It’s where you’re being called. Stepping through the doorway, you might find the companion you were traveling with is right there with you, or they might have vanished, or it might be someone else who's replaced them entirely, someone who also came into the house. Regardless, once inside, there is no going back until what lies in wait is faced…and overcome.

Face your fears. Accept your Mark.

➥ Say Hello

(cw: possible gaslighting, possible body horror, various)

Whatever room you’ve found yourself in, whatever effect might be haunting you, there’s something else moving through the house. In nearly every room, any room, there’s a chance a familiar face might appear as well. Milo, a bit more twisted and a bit too long, slides from the shadows and impossible spaces with a smile for any they find…after the clear flicker of confusion as to where they are, anyway. It fades again soon enough. “Hello, friend…might you need some help? Or do you think you have this one?” Whether you take their offer or not, they’re there at least for a moment or two, watching, wandering, and seemingly looking for something. It might as well be a mutually beneficial moment, right?

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Players may encounter non-major NPCs in the house. All non-native individuals will have been drawn to the house, which includes a variety of background NPCs who have lived and/or worked at ADI. Characters are welcome to encounter these people through the house, reference seeing them, or have them be killed in front of their PCs. Go wild! This house is deadly, and if you want your character to see that without having to be killed themselves, please go ahead. You do not need mod permission for this. Please remember that character deaths are permanent (unless you are using this as an opportunity to shift to an Entity alignment) and plan accordingly! At this point, you do not need mod approval for your 'death' and Entity alignment. We just request that you not give your character any game-breaking sorts of abilities. They will not be able to resist the house or escape from it with any new abilities.
  
  
• WELCOME - Time is strange within the fenced-in area of Dogtown. All characters entering the area will find that they seem to have arrived at the same time, in spite of entering hours or even days apart. The land, itself, seems to be fighting you, as well, as you try to make your entry or scout the area. The options listed in the prompt are examples. Players are welcome to invent any additional hazards, especially ones that would induce their character to book it into the house as quickly as possible to try to find refuge there. Once on the porch, any and all supernatural effects will stop and characters will no longer be harried by the Entities in the yard.
  
  Characters who attempt to flee the fenced in area, back out to Dogtown, will find that getting in was difficult, but getting out is impossible. At least for now. On top of the compulsion to stay and enter the house, the fence seems to have repaired itself and tightened its defenses once everyone is in.
  
  The Web and the Spiral are the only Entities that don't seem to be impeding progress into the house. Instead…anyone trying to escape out of the fence will face the full might of the Web and the Spiral. Spiderwebs and twisted metal have blocked your exits and covered our padlocks. There will be no more help here.
  
  
• COME IN - The house will tailor each of the rooms your character goes through to focus on what Fears they have not yet encountered or that hasn’t left enough of a mark on them. This could be one room or thirteen; you’re not required to play all of them out and certainly none that would touch on any OOC limits, but please handwave that your character has gone through those types of rooms. For example, if you have a fear of spiders and/or mind control and have never had your character encounter a Web based incident, they will go through one in the house, but you will not be required to play it out.
  
  This is the last chance to go wild with any ideas you might have! Whether you’d like to deal with bodies sitting up in body bags, the existential horror of space, or experiencing life as an earthworm, all players are encouraged to do what sounds fun as long as it aligns to one or more of the Entities attempting to leave their marks or traumas on your character. Once a room has been finished, ICly, explorers will find themselves faced with another door that will likely lead to a new horror until they’ve experienced every Fear they’ve missed…or if they’re one of the lucky few who finds an item to help them.
  
  
• SAY HELLO - Milo will be poking their head into every room, but whether your character notices them or not or takes them up on their offer is entirely up to you. They will try to help characters through their room as they are most assuredly lost and simply wandering about. Though, there doesn’t seem to be anything impeding their way through the house at large. If you’d like a thread with Milo interacting with your character, please respond to the comment below with a little information or a full set up of what they’re walking into. More than one person in a thread is welcome as well, just note that in the comment, please!
  
  

Comments

(frozen comment) QUESTIONS

[apocalypsehowmods]

Please post questions HERE!

NPC Interactions

[apocalypsehowmods]

Post here if you would like to encounter Milo during the Say Hello prompt. Please be sure to set the scene for the room that they will be walking in on for your character.

kicks down the door

[ruevealing]

[This entire last year, anytime that Rue has been forced to wear their glamour, they have avoided looking into any mirror they come across. The feeling of slipping into that second skin is still terrifying enough, but to meet their eyes with the eyes of that delicate, dainty, endlessly beautiful fae might be more than they can take.

So to be trapped within a maze of mirrors, where every reflection is of their glamoured self, it leaves the owlbear nearly paralyzed in fear.

They are themself, but for the first time, it feels like inhabiting a stranger's body. Their hands - paws? - feel too big, their painted nails - talons? - too dangerous. They force themself to push forward, but the dissonance of their massive paw pressed into the mirror, only to see that dainty hand touching back makes them recoil, trembling from head to toe, big eyes squeezing shut.

It is too much. They are not strong enough for this.]

Bestie!

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[It's not a conscious moving through the house, more like a swimming feeling that has them able to slide from room to room with ease. They belonged here...even if they knew they didn't.

Where they slide to next feels more like a yank as they recognize the feeling of the person ahead. When Milo steps out, their reflection is warped. Twisted. Like a fun house mirror, they stretch and spread and yet take up only as much space as they ever have and the house moves to accommodate.

The fingers of their hand are long and have too many joints when they lay it over Rue's taloned and dainty one.]

My darling...don't let the house have you. I might get jealous!

[ruevealing]

[The way that Rue's paws grip at Milo's terrifyingly elongated hands says it all.]

Milo.

[They look twisted in front of Rue, wrong in every way and meant to scare, but Milo has always ignored their own intimidating talons and the sharpness of their beak, so along with a few wet tears, Rue's feathery face just softens in relief.]

I'm trying! I truly am, b-b-but I fear I am not strong enough for this. I am not a fighter, I am no help to anyone here. I feel - [a shuddering tremble runs through them] - so weak.

Say hello! To Raine and Eda :)

[rainestorms]

(CW: implied medical/body horror/death)

Healers had never been a bother for Raine. But the pale stone walls of the office, the normally mundane posters that detailed witch anatomy and health still felt dangerous. even with the chairs, and the exam table moved to cover the doors, and the cabinets cleared for supplies. Even with the "healers" dead, and pushed out of sight with a drapery covering what Raine could have them.

Raine looked over Eda one more time, running fingers over where seams were to double, triple check no digits or limbs would come loose again.

"I think we'll be okay for now. As long as none of those... things try to get inside, but.." Raine glanced up at Eda. "We need to leave soon. To find the others."

[edalyn]

Eda was tired. She'd already been tired, even before getting in the house, even before finding their way through Dogtown. Even before the... rooms in this place.

But now there was no hiding it. She was curled in on herself as Raine checked her over, trying to make herself do anything that wasn't just staring into the middle distance.

They had to go on, though. They didn't have any other options. She finally took a deep breath and nodded vaguely before pushing herself to her feet.

"Let's try and find... anyone real."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Oh, I'm real, sweetest ones."

The crooning voice comes from everywhere and nowhere before a person slips through the wall and steps over where the dead have been piled. Milo's arms and legs and fingers are a little too long. Their eyes glow unnaturally and their smile stretches beyond their lips.

"What has this place done to you?"

Katrina | various Come In prompts | ota

[twicelost]

CORRUPTION - CW bugs, rotting flesh, blood

[ The statues are bleeding. The faces in the paintings have many-legged creatures of the earth coming out of their eyes and nose and every hole in their head. The animals in art of any medium are mangy, chunks of fur and skin seeming to melt off of them. Not painted to appear that way, but actively melting as one looks at them.

Katrina flinches back from a statue she brushes up against. It feels as though her skin burns where it touched the thing. She hisses. She could swear boils are starting to break out in that particular patch of skin. ]

Touch nothing, [ she tells the person with her. And then, when an urgency and fear they've never heard from her before-- ] We must leave this room!


WEB - CW confinement for display and experimentation

House is big. Human houses... too big.

[ Ever expanding beyond their limits, creeping further and further into the domain of the wild, both on land and sea. ]

This feel like cage. Cage with no water. Trap.

[ That's it. Katrina's whole body snaps to face her companion. ]

This is trap. To play game with us. Everything, any clue, must be a trick.

[ Unspoken is, how will we get out of here? ]


??? wildcard

[ I'm good with any Fear except the Buried, unless it's in an underwater context somehow. I'm at punnyinpink for plotting! ]

corruption!

[edalyn]

[Part of Eda is glad to run into someone hopefully real, someone she knows. Another part of her is upset to see that Katrina is also trapped in here.

Not to mention upset by this room. Decay is a relatively recent fear for Eda. Something she used to consider natural, especially given she used to quite literally live on the corpse of a god.

But recently she'd had to deal with the idea of the Emperor's corruption, the creeping, burning rot he spread, and this reminded her all much of that.]

Yeah--yeah, come on. We'll find a way out. [She doesn't like hearing the siren this shaken, but Eda reaches for her hand to drag her towards whatever direction feels like the best bet.]

[rainestorms]

WELCOME
(tw spiders, swarms)

A)
There are too many things for Raine to keep track of- monsters and horrors that stood in the way of everybody trying to get into the house. Raine was committed to following the spider. At least to get inside.

But first, well, they had to deal with the spiders. Raine had thought it was a smart idea to bring their companions that had made the key inside with them- only to find that they were aggressive now. The bard tried to frantically slap off as many spiders as they could, preoccupied with trying to fend off their assailants.

B)
Now spider-free, Raine made their way to the house. They follow the arrows left by the Web, but they'll stop to offer a hand- or, if needed, the end of a staff- to anyone who needs help.

COME IN:
(tw: extinction, genocide, death, rot)

The first thing one would notice when entering Raine's room was the smell of rot. Not the harsh rot of spoiled food or meat but of the humid, pungently warm rot of fungus. The sickly green growth covered stone floors and walls like moss might; it ate away at tapestries and paintings, and those unfortunate enough to be caught in the rot's spread were long dead.

Among the wreckage, alone in a room, was Raine and their Palisman. They tried to escape, but every new twist and turn or potential exit was blocked. They had seen this already- they knew of this outcome. They knew they were going to fail, but it was so much worse.

Everyone was dead, and the isles were becoming more corruption than they were the isles, and even Raine's fight against keeping the corruption from overcoming them began to fail.

"I'm sorry, Crash," Raine struggled to kick the green fungus off their boots while they held their palisman away from it. "Everything-- it's too much. I can't find a way out, and Eda's gone. I'm sorry."

[Interested in a wildcard? Feel free to throw yourself in, or dm me at rainestorms on Discord!]

COME IN

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

There's a huntbeast at the door.

He sniffs and sneezes at the smell in the air, his snout wrinkling as he hisses softly, not liking this, not liking how dangerous it smelled. He shakes his paws when he touches the sickly green growth, hating the way it would squelch when he stepped on it. Suddenly he's very much missing shoes.

And then there's another scent--a familiar one, even though it's one that Sheppard is very much not happy with at the moment.

Honestly, he's not quite sure if he should just leave Raine there. Or worse. He lifts his chin, looking at them.

"What happened to Eda?"

[rainestorms]

Raine let out a soft gasp at the sound of Sheppard's voice, and Crash- their small, fox palisman those unacquainted- perched on their shoulder to growl at Sheppard. The bard gave him a defeated look.

"We were trying to run and I.. I think he got her. I think all of this. It took her. She's gone. Just like everybody else."

Raine inhaled, slowly, and closed their eyes.

"I did what I could. But I can't...solve this on my own..."

Bucky/Winter | OTA and Closed prompts

[worthallthis]

I. Spider Keys - Rogers and Yelena

Rogers and Winter take ages to finally find the gate and get it unlocked. The key works like a dream, though, and Winter has Rogers hold it open until he can find some rocks to wedge it open, just in case something happens to the key. Or him. He's expecting this will be dangerous.

They don't know where they'll find Yelena, but they know she had her own way in, but Winter is looking for her.


II. Unexpected Arrivals - Rogers, Yelena, and Kate

While prowling around the house, gathering intel and trying to determine the best avenue of attack, so to speak, Winter and company run into someone they don't expect to see... they, after all, spent the time the message went out circling the fence, where phones don't exactly work anymore. None of them saw it.

So turning to make a suggestion to the other two and seeing Kate coming through the half-open gate behind them, Winter stops short and says, "Kate? What's wrong?"

Surely if she came all the way out here, something must have happened.


III. Not a Welcome - OTA

The house is visible in the distance. Winter can see it. But he's having the damndest time getting to it. He and whichever of his people who are prowling with him are going slowly, twitching nervously at the sound of a bone saw or gunshot coming nearly from over his shoulder, testing the ground ahead of them with each step after the first time someone nearly fell into a puddle that was actually a hole.

Winter keeps a knife in one hand, ready to slice through reaching vines and attacking animals, and his other hand grasping onto whoever is walking with him. He doesn't want to lose them.


IV. The House - OTA

Despite Winter's insistence that they stay together, of course the little squad gets separated. One room opens to pitch darkness and they lose each other in the black. Winter spends more time than he should desperately trying to find them before he finds, instead, the door-- then ignores the door in favor of still trying to find his people, until someone else finds him to drag him out or he finally gives up and hopes they got out, too. The Dark doesn't scare him, but Lonely is starting to. He's so attached to his people, he doesn't know what he'll do without them.

In the halls he feels the eyes on him. Paranoid and alone, he throws knives and fire bullets at the sources, only to find he's jumping at shadows, shattering oddly shaped vases, and punching stains on the wall. They can't tempt him to stay; nothing can tempt him to stay until he finds his people. But he can keep swinging at them to try and warn them off, for all the good it does.


V. End's Say - Rogers, Yelena, and Kate

Winter finally corrals his people again, and this time they stay together for what feels like the last room. They're all alive, all mostly in one piece, maybe a little more in one piece than they should be given the whole... entity goo thing. But they're together.

And this is certainly the last room. It's bare, boring even, nothing scary at all. Just a table in the middle of the room and no door, not even the one they came though. On the table is a small vial.

Winter doesn't trust it.

V

[musicdied]

A room, a table, a vial. No apparent signs of a trap, no places where the stone flooring might have been pried up for pressure plates, no too-deep shadows where monsters could be lurking. The sparseness is almost unnerving in and of itself. Yelena rolls her shoulders, wincing a little as the motion tugs at skin blistered and burnt from her passage through the fence, and strides over to the table. Her fingers close carefully around the vial - no pressure plate there, either - and she picks it up, turning it in her hand. No label, no instructions, nothing.

"I was not expecting Alice in Wonderland," she says, desert dry - because the door isn't too small to pass through. There just isn't a door at all.

[bossyboiler]

Where has the door gone? The door that they had just walked through, the door used to get into this room, that door. Where is it?

"No no no no." Kate turns her back to them as she moves to where the door had just been. It's not better for the claustrophobic Kate that there are other people with her. It's just another small space that they're all trapped in together with.

Her dirty fingertips press into the wall and she starts to feel around. She is looking for any sign of a door, a crack in the wall, something. When she doesn't find it she screams, "LET US OUT!" She hits the wall a few times before turning around.

"We have to get out."

[punched_hitler]

The strange room with no exit, the lack of a pressing, immediate threat - it could almost be a reprieve, except for the way it's really, really not. Nothing here is. It's all building, and not to something good.

"We will," Rogers says, reaching out, taking Kate gently by the wrist with his own not-exactly-clean hands so that she can't turn around and hit the wall again. It won't do any good, but he knows she knows that. Maybe a little touch will help ground her. His grip is solid but not tight, and she can shake him off easily if she wants. Then he glances from Yelena, vial in hand, to Winter.

"It's been a while since I read that one, but it feels awfully appropriate."

The way everything's twisted, upside-down, wrong in a way that's less whimsical and more terrifying. "I don't know that drinking that is the best idea, though."

II

[bossyboiler]

She had found the hole that Yelena had made to get in. And she's had nothing but grief ever since then!

There is a scream and then there is the sound of a small explosion, gunshots, and then another boom before Kate is ever seen. An explosion that sounds familiar enough to those experienced with grenades. You know who isn't experienced with grenades? Kate. Did that fact stop her from throwing two at the landshark chasing her? No, it had not.

There is boom number one after Kate had pulled the pin and had thrown it wildly behind her. She missed. She fired her handgun at it to no avail. The creature continued to pursue her no matter how fast she ran. She stops and throws a second grenade but didn't make it far enough not to be effected from the blast herself. It gets the landshark but the shockwave throws her to the ground. Ouch. Bits of the landshark land on her back and backpack along with dirt and debris. Gross.

The wind gets knocked out of her and she is down for a entire count before she even lifts her face off of the ground. Oh, her head.

[worthallthis]

Yeah, there's definitely something wrong. That was some explosion. Winter hurries to her side, crouching down to touch her head, then her face when she lifts it. "Nobody ever trained you with grenades," he says, half scolding but half relieved.

Sheppard | OTA

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

A. Come In -

[He's free and he's just a little bit annoyed at all that's happened to him within the last few hours -- like getting followed by half of ADI and not realizing it, some Hunt Avatar he is, for one thing -- and he finally made it into the house.

The House.

John is still in Huntbeast form, a roughly seven-foot lynx creature, and the first ventures into the house are disastrous. Encountering the Up is Down staircase, wandering down the Wrong hallways...

Okay, so his sense of direction was never really that great but this is ridiculous. And then there's his Hunting sense...it's distracting, he can feel there are so Many Things to Hunt but he knows they're in this house for a reason, right? Wasn't there a big group of them trying to get in the House? The People Who Are Not There tease him, sending him chasing his own tail up and down the hallways, until he finds a door that's interesting enough to catch his attention.

He might be with you, or he might be alone. Either way, he goes in.]

B. Fear Room I - The Flesh + The Corruption + The Web-
cw: body horror, fungal body horror, dismemberment, mind control/manipulation

[The room seems large, but it feels damp. Like a basement, like it's several stories underground. There are lights but they are dim, recessed somewhere in the ceiling, which is difficult to make out, with the size of the room. There's other sources of light, which are also difficult to make out, until one can see that the room is filled with different kinds of mushrooms, some of them bioluminescent. It's like a garden of brightly colored fungi, some of them incredibly large, the size of a tree, some of them small and regular-sized, some large flat mats of some kind of fungus or mold on parts of the floor (ground?). There's a path through the giant mushrooms, and any person who enters the room will feel compelled to take it, bringing them away from the walls and to get lose in a mushroom maze.

But that's not the least of one's worries.

Because there's spores. Some of them visible, glinting in the air prettily like glitter or fireflies. Some of them land on skin, and within moments, something like a globby mass, pretty and glowing blue takes root. It digs into skin but it's not painful, in fact, things start to get a little dreamy, a little pleasant.

That's probably another bad sign.

John is unlucky enough to get infected pretty quickly. Due to the effects of the room, it takes him a second to realize his prosthetic, technomagic arm is gone. Where the heck did it--when the heck did it leave? But the fungus that had attached to the stub at his shoulder seems to be growing in tendrils, looping together, merging together to form...something like that.

A giant lumpy tendril isn't really an arm, but...]

Crap. This isn't good.

[John tries to make his way back through the path but it looks like there were a couple of people from ADI who had gotten here earlier than him...and weren't so lucky.]

Oh, God.

[They're...still alive. But that's probably a bad thing.

They're vaguely human-shaped, more like lumps covered in varying fungi, arms and limbs subsumed under mats and fuzz and mushrooms and strange, coral-like shapes. They're part of the room now, bodies melded and merged with it all.]

Join...us...

[Comes a muffled sound from a hole in what was probably once a head. Fungal tendrils reach out and wrap around his feet, dragging him into the fungal mats, forcing him down against them. He can feel his feet and legs melding into them, fungus rapidly growing around them, becoming them.

...he's stuck. And trapped. And he will never eat mushrooms again. This isn't looking good. And he's starting to feel drifty, dreamy. He's starting to not want to fight back...why should he? It's much more comfortable to just lie down here and...

Wait a second--the hag stone! It's in his pocket, if he can just reach it...fungus is wrapping around his arm, dragging it to the ground, and he struggles against it, against his own mind...]

C. Fear Room II - The Stranger + The Web + The Lonely -
cw: body horror, mind control/manipulation, PTSD, potential suicidal ideation

[This room is...small. Ordinary. Looking like someone's library or office, a nice oak desk in the back, the walls covered in either fine wallpaper or cabinets with books.

It looks a lot like his dad's old office.

There's a man sitting at the desk. For a second he thinks it is his dad, somehow, come back from the dead which at this point, he would have not been surprised. Literally, what else could happen? The man's wearing an expensive suit (Armani? Sheppard never cared for such things but 18 years of a certain upbringing left stubborn nuggets of knowledge behind) and he comes up to him. His face is...difficult to see. Almost blank, but in a way that's unfocused, like he knows the man but his brain just doesn't want to accept it.

And then the man's features come into view. It's himself. An arrogant, smarmy-looking version of himself with a flattened haircut, like, honestly, what version of him would ever...]

You know who I am. [The other him has a smirk he wants to wipe off his face. The other him looks him up and down (and Sheppard, being in Huntbeast form, isn't remotely human at the moment) and shakes his head.]

I know who you are. [Sheppard's ears flatten against his skull.

It's himself, the way his father wanted to be. In charge of the company, having gone to the finest schools, married to Nancy (he sees the ring on his finger), being the perfect little (whatever his first name was) Sheppard.

Being the guy who didn't wake the Wraith and mess up things in the Pegasus galaxy.]

You can have all this again, you know. [Does his voice really sound that arrogant and smarmy?] Riches beyond your wildest dreams, security, safety. Your own private plane to fly whenever you want. You can turn back the clock, you have the power here to do so. I mean, look at you. Look at what you've become! [There's a bitter, scoffing laugh.] You've destroyed yourself. All you've ever done is ruin things. Hurt people.

[Rodney.]

People who you're supposed to care about. Do you really want to end up alone?

Abandoned?

[Sheppard hisses. This guy knew right where he lives, how to get to him.]

And you've never done anything. [Sheppard paces and snarls back.] Safety and security? You--

[His other self lifts his chin.]

Charlie would still be alive. Elizabeth. Rodney would still be human. One little choice and you would undo everything.

[It stops Sheppard cold. He doesn't say anything for a moment, he can't, his jaw opens and closes and the world feels like it's spinning.]

You're the problem, you know it. But if you take yourself out of the equation, you don't have to be.

[The doppelgänger puts his hand on Sheppard's shoulder where his arm would be (if his technomagic arm hadn't run off earlier) and another arm appears, a human one. His huntbeast form melts away, leaving him perfectly human and ordinary once again.]

You'd still have an arm. You'd still be yourself. [He brushes off Sheppard's shoulders.] You might even still have your name.

[He offers his hand, a smile that's a little too wide and a little too sharp.]

How about it?

D. Wildcard - Anything goes!

Elidibus | OTA + Specific + Semi-closed

[wewillwewill]

[OOC: For this finale I wrote a lot. About the rooms, about the situations. But if there's any questions bop them to me in a PM or make a comment attached to THIS part. The rooms and the prompts for those rooms will be in their own individual comments attached to this. ]

I. Say Your Name (The Eye vs The Lonely)

[wewillwewill]

cw: doubts, fear of self, loss of self, nothingness

The Room

Elidibus will be trapped in a room where the Eye and the Lonely are having a slap fight colliding over the desire for their victims’ fear. The room will cause one to lose their identity and inciting fear over learning the truth about it. The more the person tries to hide, the weight of becoming nothing slowly creeps in, causing them to fade. And Elidibus may seem collected most of the time but he has fears of returning to a state he’d thought he’d escaped, inasmuch as he could. Objects scattered around the room will regale memories to the victim who will be under a compulsion to share them in some way to others. There’s a couple ways to escape the room or be rescued from it and if no one steps in he’s likely to lean more into the Eye’s influence and push through the fear. But anyone’s welcome to try and help him out or stop by for a chat.

Escape Methods

The Eye is creating the items that inspire the memories/knowledge.
The Lonely is creating the excessive bric-a-brac to hide in.

Everyone can free a person by convincing them to face their self and accept it. They'll have to feed the Eye to do so but they can actually leave the room once they've overcome that fear. The better acquainted, the easier it is to help.

Getting the person out is difficult without facing the fear or use of a hag stone. Other options are welcome!

Lingering too long after the spell is broken will risk getting trapped. Try not to be the one that exits last, especially if you were not the one already fed on! Because of the Lonely's presence it's designed to trap/focus around one person at a time so anyone entering while it's already occupied will only feel a vague haze rather than the full identity crisis.

I. Actual Tag (OTA, setting under the details dropdown)

[wewillwewill]

The Feel Of The Room

It was a room that would make the most avid of collectors of knick knacks and bric-a-brac proud. Tables and shelves and curio cabinets festooned with an array of items and books and oddities. Walls with small and large mirrors, wreaths and portraits and paintings. Cozy lighting from a variety of sources. The mind is assailed with a sense of comfy clutter and a narrative of interior design that always seems just shy of being a hoarder nightmare.

Here, when a person enters the room when it’s empty, they become the focus of two Entities, both vying for the charge of fear they can wring out of their victim. Here, that person will forget their name, their identity. Oh, some memories remain. Other peoples’ names are fine though… hazy. Familiarity but without the foundation of how they relate to that person, everything seems so… uncertain.

Here, that person can be filled with a sense of fear that their identity, that person who they are which hides behind the facade of social norms and propriety. Do they truly want to know who they are? The knowledge is here, for among the many items of no particular interest are some which are most particular. Maybe it’s a trinket. Perhaps it’s a painting or a portrait, impossibly here, for there should be no way it exists on this world. It triggers a memory. Something the victim is compelled to speak of aloud if others are present, no matter how much they’d rather not. It is knowledge and one step closer to understanding who they are, what they are capable of.

And yet, so much clutter and nonsense around, one can simply… hide from these items, right? Try to force your eyes away and avoid the mirrors that cause unease. Avoid others, hide from everything, even yourself.

But is there comfort in being nobody? A hollowness would form, a sense of unraveling perhaps. Fading. It becomes harder to remember anything. For a person who is no one at all has no connections. And it is so very lonely, fading. Those knick knacks of memory more jarring if spotted. Harder to pick up. Harder to find.

Which is more feared? Knowing who exactly you are, or the idea that you were no one at all?

To most here, he should be known as Elidibus. Whether by acquaintance or in passing on the network, or maybe an old memo about his therapy services that was posted at Bonnie’s and sent out to employees of the ADI. It wouldn’t be unheard of to see him dressed this way, in a white robe, with a simply designed red mask hanging near his chest.

His expression is puzzled and thoughtful. These too are normal. But there lies a pensive tension that may seem out of sorts; subtle creases at his brow or the occasional moment where his hand clenches tightly into a fist because his thoughts are unpleasant. There is a name for it.

He could claim it as reluctance perhaps. Except that’d be a lie. Distress. Even panic, and yes, fear. Is he able to hold back from showing how much because of formidable experience in hiding his emotions? Or is it simply something so horribly familiar that hiding his distress over it is simply second nature?

“Ah, I’m glad you have passed by,” he says, looking up with a pleasant expression and possibly a touch of relief. “If I may trouble you a moment, I seem to have misplaced something.”

Admitting weakness is risky, particularly here. And yet…

“Do you happen to know who I am?”

Elidibus might have just asked if you’d seen his house keys in how casual the query seems. But immediately after, the tension increases, as if he fears what the response might be. But surely not because someone might be able to tell him who he is?

II. Waiting For Nobody (The Lonely)

[wewillwewill]

cw: abandonment, manipulation, loneliness

Events

Elidibus will stop in a particular room to wait and see if anyone else from his allies stop by. But the longer he waits the more his memories of who he’s waiting for get mixed up between the present collective of friends and allies and those of twelve thousand years ago. Stop by, speak to him! Try to convince him he’s not the one left behind and alone for eternity.

Honestly, you will probably need to knock him down and drag him out of it. Or otherwise force him out. Or well, hag stone. Don't stay too long or you'll get swept up in the waiting. It's a little easier to resist the more that are present though.

Hopefully you don’t stop by near the end, with a certain stone in hand or after he’s gotten one in his possession. He might just try to MAKE you into the friends he so desperately wants to come.

Note: This is not something Elidibus would ever do on his own and will only do this IF he is under the control of the Entity trying to use him to cause fear in others. Once he is free of this area, he will only be under ordinary desires to regain these lost mementos.

The Room's Aesthetic

The room is fairly plain. There are benches, a few plants. An ordinary rug. A grandfather clock that ticks the passage of time. Some pictures on the walls, all of which seem to be local or near local places over the decades. Ports for passenger boats, train station platforms, bus station stops.

Always depicting one person, waiting. Despite shops or houses or ticket windows there’s no signs of life outside of that single person who stands or sits of otherwise waits, whether animal or human. There is never a train or a boat or a bus or any other transportation waiting to be boarded. Sometimes there is luggage, other times not. The person waiting to be picked up, waiting for the arrival of others. But always alone.

The room itself holds that same sense of terminal expectancy.

The clock sometimes seems to stop ticking, but pay attention to the sudden silence and it’s going as if nothing happened at all.

Even if people arrive, there is always the impression that it’s never the one you’re actually waiting for- unless someone can overcome and break the purpose of the room.

II. Actual Tag (OTA/ Some Semi-Closed Prompts)

[wewillwewill]

Elidibus had arrived a bit ago. Though the room itself was suspect, it seemed enough of a crossroads. People had come and gone, though not yet the group he’d come with. So it’d seemed a good place to wait for a moment, recuperate from what he’d gone through before and hope to see one of the allies and friends he’d arrived with and been separated from.

Before coming through the fence, he’d set aside the backpack he normally carried around, having changed the normal, ordinary clothes of this world for that which he’d arrived in; white robes and a red mask which is comfortably hanging near his chest as if ready to put on.

He’d become frustrated at this house’s ability to twist his senses and keep him from reaching the thing he Knows will aid them. Compounded is the loss of all but one of the stones that represented himself and his allies. He suspected when, but couldn’t recall. It was not like him to be so unaware. He must find them. Some… have been returned. Perhaps he found them. Maybe others had met him in passing and he’d recovered the stones in other, safer places. But not all of them. And the collection of memories were not enough.

Or was he waiting for them to arrive? …His… friends. No, they had gone before, hadn’t they?

Elidibus had become uncomfortably certain this House is eating into every defense, every bit of his will that allows him to separate and keep his emotional state in check.

…Unresolved, for the most part. But it was often his duty to set aside his needs for others. When he was the therapist, who was there for him to turn to for unburdening?

Save one perhaps, but he is somewhere else in this misbegotten dwelling.

The longer he waited, the less satisfied he was when people came and went through. No, not these, nor those. Perhaps not even the ones he’d started out waiting for.

• a. For those he’d come with to find Sheppard and investigate the fence, Elidibus does seem pleased to see them. Mostly. Other than one particular soul, it might be noticed there is just a fleeting disappointment, a moment’s confusion and then a clearing of these both. “So you still live. Have you discovered aught of the Spiral’s intentions? Have you found a means to procure what it does not wish us to have?”
  
  Though they will be offered assistance if they look beleaguered.



• b. For others, he might smile politely, though look to the door as if hoping to see those who’d he’d hoped for. Still Elidibus is not rude by any means beyond that and focuses on the newest arrival. “Have you any news of what lies in the center of this maze?” Might be said. Or if they seem shaken or troubled - or indeed injured - he would move forward to render assistance.
  
  “Perhaps you should rest a time.” ….He means it. But also… even the company he did not wish was better than no company at all.



• c. For Emet-Selch alone there would be a sense of surprise that borders on relief and… a twinge of pain. Because Emet-Selch had gone before, but came… back? Not for him though, no. Came back and helped their enemy and then left again and it had been painful. Elidibus’s hand seems to tremble at his side before he clenches it into a fist to still the physical reaction.
  
  “You’ve returned? No, wait…” A frown, fingers brought to his temple as if a sort through a confusion. “....Something is amiss. How are you here? And yet, I feel this is as it should be.”