apocalypsehowcomm | Event

Event - Lullaby

Lullaby

➥ For You Never Shut Your Eye

Photo of a small grassy area within an urban environment. Two men are passed out across the grass and sidewalk. There is a purple gradient filter over the photo.
(cw: supernaturally-induced sleep/fatigue, supernaturally-induced sleep disorders/somniloquy, needles/injections)

The line between waking and sleep is beginning to blur. People will find themselves sleeping far too much, but it never feels like enough. The music is growing more prevalent and persistent throughout town. The effect is still weaker within the building, but as October wears on, more and more people are affected and ADI staff are more intent than ever to find the source and also figure out how to block the effects. Characters will find themselves conscripted (between Halloween Party preparations) into assisting with building or testing anti-music and sleep devices along or with helping to try to track down the source of the music.

For those helping to build and test devices, there is an R&D lab in the basement levels of ADI that will be available. Devices native staff have been able to devise include:

Headphones that play different frequencies to try to cancel out the sound of the singing.
An armband that periodically stabs a small needle into the arm with a small dosage of adrenaline.
Headbands set to a constant low vibration.

The efficacy of all of these devices is… questionable, but perhaps others may have their own expertise to lend to the efforts, attempting something on a broader scale than just personal protection devices.

For those helping to track the source of the music, finding it seems to be impossible, but there is a definite pattern that characters will note as the days pass. The epicenters of the music are moving, migrating out of the graveyards and converging on ADI Headquarters. As this goes on, the building will become less and less of a safe haven, the music penetrating its walls and affecting the staff there more heavily. You might find yourself having to help a neighbor who's fallen asleep while working. Or you might not even be able to fully tell they've fallen asleep as they sleepwalk and talk almost like they're actually still conscious. Even those who have never been prone to sleepwalking and talking may find themselves affected and… far more open with what they say when in the unguarded state of semi-unconsciousness.

➥ Till the Sun Is In the Sky

A caucasian woman is lying on the floor, eyes closed. The room is dark around her with a spotlight shining on her. A secondary image of the woman, semi-transparent and wrapped in white clothes floats just above the woman on the floor. There is a purple gradient filter over the photo.
(cw: supernaturally-induced sleep/fatigue, thanatophobia, character death, death by poisoning, blood, choking, emetophobia, death by crushing)

By the 25th, some people may find waking up to be a challenge in and of itself. But they do manage to wake up. Seemingly. Perhaps the day is much like any other, heading to ADI or out around the city, grabbing coffee and- something is wrong. Something is very wrong. That cup of coffee you just drank had tasted a little different than usual. A touch of almond to it? It hits you that your throat is burning, bile and blood rising up and choking you as you hack and gasp and vomit. Your legs grow weak, you're losing control of everything, falling, dying.

And then you wake up.

Just a nightmare. Just a bizarre and horrible nightmare. You head out and… is this home? You're home! Or maybe… wait, this doesn't seem right. Have you gone somewhere else? Some things might be familiar, memories intertwined and mixing with fantastical elements, some your own, some not. You notice people you recognize, ones who might be as confused as you are. This isn't where they should be and they remember dying, too. Or seeing you die or someone else. It doesn't make sense, but somehow, they remember they had a dream they shared last night. And then something falls from above and nearly crushes you or your partner. Or maybe it does crush them, and you're suddenly looking at a dead body as the world and this nightmare that feels so very real becomes more and more hostile. Maybe something falls on you.

And then you 'wake up.'

➥ When the Blazing Sun Is Gone

Three sheet ghost halloween decorations stand in a line. There is a purple gradient filter over the photo.
(cw: supernaturally-induced sleep/fatigue, thanatophobia, character death, body horror, detailed description of painful physical transformation, description of the loss and regrowth of teeth, violence, mental status alterations, temporary power-loss, spiders)

Even with people dropping left and right thanks to the odd sleep effect taking hold, ADI staff are hellbent that their Halloween party will not be completely ruined. And on the 28th (a little before the actual holiday), everyone wakes up. Or… seems to. For those trapped in dreams, it will seem very much that they've woken up, the music has stopped, and they can actually carry on. For a few days, it even seems like things are normal. The party on the 31st is a blow-out bash. The entire first floor of ADI HQ has been transformed with decorations. The canteen is serving festive food and has set up a dance floor with holiday-appropriate music playing. Some of the offices feature additional activities, including party games like bobbing for apples in a trough that's been brought in, a guess this gross food booth, and more general party games. For a quieter time, there are also areas set up with board games and card games to play. And for some extra fun spooks a mini-haunted maze has been set up with faux spiders and webs, along with other goofy-looking monster creatures.

It's around 9 PM when the music and lights suddenly cut out. There's nothing for several seconds. Then, a voice begins to sing, filling the halls of ADI. It's a young girl's voice.

"Bye-bye, bye-bye,
Quickly you will die,
On the morning will be frost,
And you’ll go to the graveyard, the graveyard.

Grandfather will come there, too,
And he will bring the coffin.
Grandmother will come along,
Her tears, they will not soften.
Mama sings the prayer song, then,
And falls down on her knees.
Daddy takes you to the grave,
No one can hear his pleas.

Bye-bye, bye-bye,
Quickly you will die,
On the morning will be frost,
And you’ll go to the graveyard, the graveyard.

As the last notes of the song fade away, all hell breaks loose. Those who had been wearing particular sorts of costumes, ones that are more monstrous in nature, may find themselves transforming, growing, twisting, shifting. It's not a clean change, but a violent, agonizing one that cracks bones, tears and reshapes muscles and tendons, pushes out teeth to make room for new ones. Those transformed will find themselves compelled to chase, to hunt, to kill anyone they can get their claws, teeth, or other appendages on.

For those who stay themselves, it's not just their transformed friends who pose a danger, but the decorations they've set up, as well. Those fake giant spiders and webs? They're no longer fake. Neither are any of the other demonic little creatures. The goal of everything in ADI and even outside for those who manage to make it out the doors, is to remind you how very, very mortal you are. Those typically possessed of fantastic abilities will find that they have been sapped away. There's no calling on magic or innate abilities. You are mortal and you are going to die like everything mortal does.

In the chaos, characters will catch glimpses of a young girl flitting amongst the chaos, seeming unperturbed by it all. Trying to catch up to her or speak to her is fruitless, but she's there, and she's humming that song from before.

➥ When He Nothing Shines Upon

A caucasian woman has just woken up and stares grumpily at her phone. There is a purple gradient filter over the photo.
(cw: supernaturally-induced fatigue/malaise, thanatophobia)

Those who are killed at the party will find themselves waking up wherever they actually fell asleep a few hours or even days ago. If your character was one of the lucky few who somehow managed to escape the effect, you'll notice people waking up all over ADI HQ and elsewhere. There are no signs of damage on the bodies, but those who died in the dreams will find themselves feeling incredibly weak and generally ill for several hours to several days after the experience.

The music has actually stopped, and this time, it would seem you've actually woken up. Depending on how long you were passed out for, that may be a more unpleasant experience for some than others. There's a message posted from a random ADI employee's phone a few days later to the network:

Mr. S was right. This was fun! I'll have to come back next year to play with you. - Ava, the Lullaby Girl

P.S. Sorry for stealing your phone, horsegirl67. But I wanted to say, hi. C:

Unfortunately, there are no further messages and attempts to respond to the message will receive no reply for now.

But... fortunately…? All of the Halloween preparations are still up, and there's a festive party to attend if anyone actually feels keen on trying it in real life. Pam Ruan, the main organizer is bloody-minded about it now and will have her God damn Halloween party, but those who work themselves up to attend out of festive spirit or morbid curiosity will find it a distinctly muted affair that breaks early in the evening.

Happy Halloween, Gloucester!

➥ Mod Notes

GENERAL - Players are welcome to play 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 prompt should be sufficient and you're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. The Lullaby Girl (Ava) can be seen throughout character dreams, but they will not be able to interact with her during this event. They will either wake up or simply find that the physics of the dream are warped and she cannot be reached or there's a sheet of glass between her and the character or whatnot.
FOR YOU NEVER SHUT YOUR EYE (15-24 October) - Characters are welcome to develop their own devices for attempting to stop the music. Characters will have modern day technology available to them along with a few slightly more advanced electronics and tools. Please do not go too out there. This isn't Tony Stark's array of tools and the like. But characters can create additional devices to test within reason. Some of them may be more or less effective, but with how sporadic the effect is, it might be difficult to tell what's actually working or not. There can also be negative side-effects from devices, if you'd like to play those out. Characters with the appropriate magical charge may also attempt to supernaturally block the music, but this will not be condoned or facilitated by ADI. Characters searching for the source of the music will not be able to find it, just discover that it is moving. For characters who are sleep-talking, they may find themselves unusually honest. They may or may not recall conversations with other characters and all that they told them.
TILL THE SUN IS IN THE SKY (25-27 October) - Characters will experience repeated nightmares of dying in a shared dreamscape. They will remember every time that they die in the dreams. Feel free to get as creative and gruesome with this as you would like. These are dreams and fantastical situations that might not actually happen (e.g., a robot showing up and shooting a laser through your character) may occur. Players are welcome to introduce elements of their memories into the nightmares and mix those memories around between characters who might wind up in a dream together. Please ensure all top-levels are appropriately tagged for any and all content warnings. Add content warnings as you go along, if needed. Dying in the dreams will trigger the sense of waking up. This can be a fake wake-up or characters might actually wake for a short while and find others passed out around them.
WHEN THE BLAZING SUN IS GONE (28-31 October) - Again, this will be a shared dreamscape where characters will be under the illusion (at first) that all has returned to normal. For those who investigate, everything seems to be real, nothing too off, excepting the night of the Halloween party. Once the Lullaby Girl finishes her song, characters who are dressed in costumes that depict animals or other monstrous creatures may find themselves transformed into their costumes. Transformed characters may gain powers for the duration of this prompt/event related to their monstrous forms without mod approval. Go wild, kill your friends and neighbors, and generally trash everything around you. The decorations that come to life will be attempting to murder all characters, transformed or not. If characters escape into the city, they will find all of the festive decorations out there have come to life and want to kill them, as well. Death is unavoidable for this particular prompt, but it can be something swift and painless or something drawn out and horrible at player discretion. It is the only way to actually wake a character fully. Players also have the option of keeping their characters awake. They will not experience the shared dreamscape and will just be stuck with a lot of unconscious people around them for the duration of this portion of the event.
WHEN HE NOTHING SHINES UPON (31 October) - Ava, the Lullaby Girl, cannot be contacted or immediately located, but she will be available in future plots for interactions with characters. There is no immediate information regarding who Mr. S. is. Players may have the general sleep/death malaise last for a minimum of two hours and a maximum of three days. Regular medications for the flu can ameliorate some of the symptoms, but they will ultimately clear up on their own. Characters may wake up in whatever state players would like. Feel free to play out the effects of them having been slumped in a corridor for three days without food or water. It's going to be a bad time all around. Those who attend the real Halloween party will be thanked profusely by Pam and showered with candy. At least they'll get a few HR brownie points?

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Jaeger gives a vague look up and down the hall, before re-focusing on Mercy. This place, it's all wrong, and her being here sends a thrill of sheer, gut-wrenching terror through him in a way he can't express.

He's used to being frozen in dreams, and it feels like that now. Every movement feels like lead, vast and immovable, the shadows at the ends of the halls full of a menace that he knows is coming. Any second now. They don't have much time, and it might already be too late.

The sharpness of the first words fades into something closer to pleading. "Ellie, please. You need to go, it's not safe here for you."

Not safe for him, either, but it's his job to face danger. To look after her, no matter how different she looks from how he remembers.

Mercy glances back just to check there isn't some serious confusion about whom he's talking to, but there's no one else. He seems to be mistaking her for someone else, which... has been happening a lot lately. He looks so tired. Maybe she should get him into a bed? Yes, yes that would probably be for the best. There are some beds in the medical area that should be able to help.

"Ah, well... you'd know best. It was this way out, wasn't it? You wanna come with me just to be sure?" She offers her hand to him, intent to lead him when he grabs hold.

It only takes him a second to make a decision, even in his haze, when she offers her hand to him, offers a way out.

He's responsible for looking after her and he never should have left. They're both in danger, which reasons that they both need a way out. They both should go, and while Jaeger doesn't want her to see what he's become, what he's capable of...he'll live with those consequences if it means keeping her safe.

"Just to be sure." The hand that takes hers is big and calloused, holding lightly for all the strength there. As if she's fragile, and he's afraid of her breaking apart on him.

"God, you've gotten so big."

"That's what happens to little'uns, sir," she says, tone still gentle as she subtly guides him toward the elevator. "They grow up. How long's it been?" It must be a very long time, indeed for him since he was Ellie.

Why, though? Perhaps he'd got lost from her? Or he'd gone away to war? That can take mothers and fathers away for years at a time. If they ever come back from it.

"I missed you." It's tentative. She's not sure quite how much to play into this, but it can't hurt to give him some comfort.

"Six years. You were still so small." He wants to believe that she's real so, so badly. She might be older than he remembers, older than that six years would account for, but time is doing strange things in his mind. It feels like he's been wandering these halls forever, even though he remembers being awake- the sour taste of bad coffee and the ache in his bones reminding him what his body wants so badly.

"I didn't want to leave you, but it was the only right thing to do. I made some mistakes." 'Gone off to war' isn't so far from the truth, though it was a choice he never wanted to make. It had just been the only option, if he wanted to keep his wife and daughter out of the nightmare that his life would become.

They deserved better.

He feels like the floor is thick and liquid, grabbing at his boots and slowing him down as the corridors stretch forever. Her hand in his is the only clear, real focal point, no longer the tiny, chubby toddler paw that he remembers so well but that of a young woman now. Even the elevator, when it appears, is a strange and nebulous thing, a door to nowhere that's just suddenly there.

"I've never stopped thinking about you. I only wanted you to be safe."

Mercy steps them in when the elevator arrives and punches to button to send them down toward the medical facilities. There should be beds. Just for a little nap. The poor man really seems to need it.

"Everybody makes mistakes," she assures him, squeezing his hand. "Important thing is you know you made them, and you try to set them right. Sometimes... sometimes leaving's a way to do that, much as it hurts. I know you did what you thought you had to. It's all right."

Perhaps they're words she wishes someone could have said to her.

A nap feels like a good idea. Part of Jaeger remembers the small shocks of adrenaline going off every so often from his armband, but it's been a while since he's felt that heart-jolting artificial spike. Instead, everything seems stretched paper-thin and brittle with exhaustion, distortion that keeps shifting at the boundaries of his perception. Coffee won't help, but maybe, just maybe, if he closes his eyes for a minute things will make sense again.

Except they have to leave, and quickly. As much as he wants to stay and talk, to tell her all the things that he wants to say, leaving is more important.

In this version of the world, Jordan isn't dead yet. He's here somewhere, an immediate and threatening presence around every corner, behind every door. There's no alert and the halls are quiet, but the menace is thick in the silence and Mercy's hand feels so small and fragile in his.

"Sometimes the right thing to do hurts," he says softly. "But I've tried to make it right. To make sure no one would hurt you because of me."

Jaeger pauses at the elevator as the car arrives and the doors slide open, one arm out to shield Mercy from whatever's on the other side. But nothing happens except the soft whirr and hush of the space, and after a moment he steps in carefully. Not entirely trusting it to really be here, but it is.

"I'm sorry. I'm very tired," he says then. The motion of the elevator feels like a head rush, his body standing still but his senses somewhere else entirely. He takes a deep breath, the way he's always trained himself to do. The air tastes bitter, sterile, an edge of metallic tang like fluorescent lights and thin razors of broken glass.

"'Course. I got a way out where we can rest, don't you worry none," she says, smiling at the man. "I trust you and you trust me. We'll make it out of here safe together. No one's gonna hurt me. Why would they even want to?"

Maybe she shouldn't ask that sort of thing, but she is curious.

Apprehension is still cold and heavy as a cinderblock in his gut, but he wants to believe so, so badly that he can just lay down for a minute and forget everything. The humming of the elevator seems to imply a far greater machine than a simple lift, a massive monstrosity of wheels and pulleys. Distortion following him from the weirdly shifting halls to this closed little box, morphing as it goes.

"Because of me," he says quietly. "Leverage, because of things I know that they want." There's another apology on his lips, but he doesn't give voice to it. There's only so many times he can say it, no matter how much he means it.

"And you deserved a better life than that. You deserved to grow up safe."

"I did. Because of you." She hopes that's true for his daughter. Will be true. Mercy gives the man's hand another squeeze and leans a little against him as they descend. "Whoever's after us is bad people, I reckon, but I grew up and learned a thing or two. Thought it might come in handy one day. Once we get down to the floor here, we can head toward the last room on the left. It leads into a room that we can lock down, hide from any folk who might be following. Then, the room across has got a secret exit. We can run across to there.

"We'll do this without getting caught."

The soothing lies come easily enough. Mercy tries to be an honest person, but she's a little sister and someone who'd made a nuisance of herself more than once in her younger years. Learning to spin a yarn had been a necessity for the safety of her backside from Papa's belt and Mama's switch.

"Very bad people," he confirms wearily. He doesn't want to talk about the horrors. He shouldn't talk about the horrors, not in front of his little girl, so that will have to cover it. But there's an ocean of meaning in those three words, the infinite weight of truly monstrous deeds.

Like being willing to harm a child to get to her father.

Everything Mercy promises is a haze, but she sounds like she knows what she's doing. God, he's so tired. He thinks if he closes his eyes right here he could pass out standing up, but he can't afford to do that, so he nods slowly, mechanically.

"That sounds...nice." No, not nice. There's better words floating just out of reach. He just can't quite find them and it's getting hard to remember what he was afraid of. The menace is still there, a low background hum of dread, but they're moving, and that's important. Soon they'll be out and that's what matters.

"You were always too smart for your own good."

That comment pulls a wry smile from Mercy. "I been told as much more than once." And she hadn't learned a damned thing from it. The elevator dings and they step into the cool air of one of the basement levels. Mercy takes a firm hold on Jaeger, worried he might tip over before they can get to the room that's been set up as a sleep observation area.

"Reckon I get it honest, though. A man don't get to have people like that after him without being too smart."

"Too smart, but not nearly as smart as I thought I was."

Underground, somewhere. Jaeger rouses a bit at the change in air, gripping Mercy's hand as if it's an anchor. Which it is, in more ways than one. Quick eyes take in the new hall, as weirdly foreign as it is to him. Is it the same building? He's not entirely sure, with the dreamy lack of continuity in his exhausted mind.

It's been a while since he's noticed a jolt of adrenaline, which seems important. He'll get to it later, he's sure, but right now he can't quite make the connection. Maybe it's not that important after all?

"But it's what they are. What they do. Smile in one hand and knife in the other." It almost makes sense, but not quite. He's tired and things are blurring again. They're further down the hall than he remembered, the pattern on the walls subtly shifting as his eyes try to focus.

"People rarely are, but it don't change that you got something taking up space between your ears. Here." She guides him toward one of the doors, opening it to show a room of six small medical beds with curtains around them. If she can get him inside, she'll move to lock the door.

"We can rest in here. I'll keep first watch. You lie down and we can switch off in an hour or two." Or... never. "Only knife here is the one I'm carrying, so I got us covered." She pats the dagger sheathed at her side.

"I've lived this long, I suppose I'm doing something right." He can't quite bring himself to laugh about it, because there's the faintest fluttering of black wings in the corner of his vision, the sense of something that is laughing, as it watches.

But it's fleeting, gone in a heartbeat, and Jaeger can't be sure that it was even there at all.

Jaeger hesitates briefly at going into a closed room, instinct warring with fatigue and growing confusion. But then he lets himself be led through the door, to the quiet inside, and the click of the lock engaging is reassuring enough.

The beds might not be luxury, but Jaeger's bones ache with weariness, and the too-small cot might as well be Heaven's own clouds to his exhausted body.

"An hour," he echoes faintly, trying to make sense of that particular time measurement. An hour. It's not long, but he can close his eyes for that long, at least?

And, she has a knife, which is more comforting than it should be. Somehow in the vague logic of dreams it makes sense.

"An hour," she agrees, smile gentle. Once he lays down, though, and Mercy can see his breathing level out, she breathes a sigh of relief and goes to fetch another few blankets for the big man. "You just rest, sir," she whispers as she removes the armband he's wearing and tucks the blankets around him.

He seems to have had some very hard times in his life, and Mercy lingers to brush her fingers gently through his hair and hum a song her mother had sung to her when she'd woken from a nightmare. But she can't stay forever, and there are other people who may be in similarly difficult positions wandering around ADI. She should get to work finding them, as well.

"Rest well, Papa. Hope your little girl comes back to you."

It's been a very long time since anyone's done anything so kind for Jaeger, even as small as making him comfortable like this. Indigo's people had treated him gently enough at times, but there was still a cold professionalism there that precluded such quietly intimate gestures.

A quiet song, gentle hands. He's stopped trying to make sense of things by now, and just floats along in the current of half-dream, half-waking stupor. An hour. He can have that.

His breath comes out in a sigh. It occurs to him briefly that the armband hasn't gone off in a while now, at least that he's aware of, but then it's gone and it doesn't matter.

It winds up being much, much longer than an hour.

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Event - Lullaby

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cw: mention of corporal punishment

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