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Event - For Sport

For Sport

➥ Breaking It In

(cw: mentions of apparent mutilation of/violence against animals and animal death)

The conference room on the upper floors of ADI HQ is bright, airy, perhaps unnaturally so for the grim tidings that bring people here today. Those who have recently arrived will be ushered to the meeting by ADI employees or by Bonnie. It's not just the newest arrivals, but some other people who seem to be longer-term employees. The room is rather large and arranged like a lecture hall. Bonnie takes up a seat near the back, looking somewhat uncomfortable, but smiling at anyone who greets her.

At 9 AM sharp, a person steps into the room and heads to the front. They have curly hair and are wearing a gray business suit with a dark blue bow-tie. When they address the group at large, they speak in a calm, measured tone. "Good morning. I appreciate some of you may be here more reluctantly than others, but… there are matters of import to all of us to discuss. Some of you may have seen me already. I am Reyes Amador, assistant to Ms. Lehrer, the head of ADI. Earlier this week I sent out a message regarding some unusual activity at Coffin Beach. Thank you to those who investigated."

Their eyes seem to find the people who did, in fact, go looking, whether they found something or not.

"We have determined the creatures are shape-shifters. Some sort of, em... horse thing. In lieu of a term they might give themselves, we are referring to them as kelpies. Given the locations these were found, as well as other information into disappearances and deaths and mutilations of sea mammals in the area, we believe the kelpies are coming from the Essex Bay area to the north.

"For those willing to assist, we are mounting a reconnaissance mission. This is not intended to engage kelpies, just to find out where they are and how we might best approach an attack. All supplies, transportation, and monetary compensation will be provided. We will meet at ADI HQ in main lobby at 6 PM three days from now. Essex Bay is a remote site and conservation area, accessible only by boat, and not without a scientific permit. As you may guess, we will be traveling under cover of nightfall." Reyes smiles.

"I will be accepting questions about further details. I understand this is the first mission away for many of you, and you may have concerns. I will do my best to allay them. Bonnie also has some experience in these missions, if you would like first-hand accounts. Please also feel free to discuss amongst yourselves if this is a mission you think you are ready for. You will not be required to attend, nor penalized in any way if you do not. There is additional work to be done here, both with continuing examinations of the bodies we have and other efforts unrelated."

➥ Move the Goalposts

(cw: kidnapping, violence, sadism)

It happens away from the safety of ADI HQ one evening or so early in the morning, it's still dark, away from the potential for help, maybe. One moment, you (and possibly someone you're with) are walking, and the next, you will find someone has grabbed you and slammed you into the nearest surface. For those unable to fight back, a cloth will be held to their noses and mouths--chloroform, something to knock them out. For those able to fight or even to escape thanks to not actually being corporeal, they'll find that it is a trio of people who have attacked them. They wear jagged smiles and they're all much too sharp around the edges beneath their clothes. Those who saw the kelpies at Coffin Beach may recognize these people as something like them.

"Run, rabbit, run," one of the group says, voice rolling out like a gurgling tide.

Those who run will be chased and, if caught, chloroformed. Perhaps you're lucky, though. Perhaps you can race them back to safety. Or perhaps you'll find help along the way to protect you. Either way, the kelpies are relentless in their pursuit unless one of their number is injured or their prey can make it to ADI. The kelpies seem reluctant to actually enter ADI HQ or their housing, and will break off pursuit there, slinking back to the shadows.

➥ Curveball

(cw: kidnapping, violence/violence and mutilation against apparent animals, sadism, body horror, transformation, potential for claustrophobia)

For those unlucky enough to be caught, they'll find themselves waking amongst mud and bodies. Living, breathing bodies, thankfully. You have been tied up, but not gagged, and left with a group of other captives. A nearby fire casts light over everything, showing a large group of naked people with long, scraggly hair hauling a seal up out of the water. The animal fights them with a cunning that might seem odd, but the kelpies just laugh at it. They get it up near the fire, one raises a knife, and stabs into the seal, dragging the blade down its belly.

The seal bellows and then goes limp, seeming to collapse in on itself. It isn't long before a woman is drawn from the skin, shaking, fighting, wild-eyed with terror as her captors shove her around the fire in their own game. A few others turn their attention to the captives who are just beginning to wake and move about. They approach, one grabbing the skin the woman had come out of, others grabbing more skins from a nearby pile.

"Hush, hush... you'll have your freedom soon... while you can swim." The words come just before the kelpie slices your bonds and throws the skin over you.

The skin grapples your body, twisting tight around you, encasing and restraining. Your body is different now, thick and round, ungainly in the mud. Your legs have fused together and your arms have shrunk to thin flippers. This is not your body, you can feel how foreign it is, how you're crammed into the too-small confines of it... but you have instincts to go with it. Water is freedom! Or it's an attempt at freedom. It's either swim for your lives as some mockery of a selkie or stay and see how it feels to be cut open. Luckily for you, you'll find yourself psychically linked to the other selkies around you. Maybe you can do something together? Best think fast because the kelpies are setting their sights on new prey to chase once they've finished with their latest victim.

➥ Below the Belt

(cw: violence/violence and mutilation against apparent animals, body horror, gore)

The journey to Essex Bay isn't a long one, but it's somewhat treacherous as a small group of powerboats make their way into the refuge. The mission is simple: find where the kelpies are and see if there are any strategic points of-

Was that a seal? There are, in fact, many seals that pop up once boats enter the bay. The animals might seem to have an unusual cunning about them. Will they lead you somewhere useful? Perhaps try to flop themselves into your boats? The point is, there are seals accosting you in the middle of the night, and that's weird. Perhaps they have something they want to communicate.

Or was that a horse? A crocodile? There's something that seems to have noticed you, and it's smart enough that it's going to try to tip you and anyone else in your boat into the water rather than trying to engage otherwise. Sit down, you'll rock the boat.

➥ Sticky Wicket

(cw: potential for severe burns/injury, pain)

ADI is engaged in far more than one mission at a time, and for those not dealing with Essex Bay, or even before that, there are pick-ups to handle. Artifacts, you've been told as you're paired with someone else, whether you like it or not. The mission is simple: go to the Docks, collect a package from a locker there, and return with it to ADI. You've been provided an exact location and a code for the combination lock. The section of the Docks you've entered seems to be one with a lot of empty warehouses covered in graffiti, but the locker is there, something heavily reinforced and designed to be virtually impossible to get into. There's evidence that people have tried to gain entry without success.

Your code works, though, and you have your prize! You've been given strict instructions not to open the box the artifact is in… but there's nothing technically stopping you now, and there is a strange pull toward it.

Those who can't help themselves will find they have just picked up… some piece of sports gear! It looks wholly innocuous. Touch even a finger to it, though, and a horrific, searing pain will consume your entire body as 3rd-degree burns bloom across the skin where you've touched your artifact.

Or maybe you have a will of iron and sense enough not to touch strange, supernatural objects. What should be an easy mission is quickly derailed by some young punk darting out of an alleyway to try to steal your package. Or, at the very least, knock it from your hands. The youth is not alone, either. You've found yourself on someone's 'turf,' and they want what you've got. Are you cruel enough to let them have it?

➥ Mod Notes

BREAKING IT IN (21 July): Both Reyes and Bonnie will be available to answer questions that characters might have or listen to their complaints. Please put "NPC Requested" somewhere in your top-level response if you would like a mod response. For characters who can access their supernatural abilities and have some measure of supernatural spidey sense, both Bonnie and Reyes will register as off, but in different ways. Characters are welcome to attempt to use whatever powers they believe will work on the NPCs. There are potential IC consequences for this.
MOVE THE GOALPOSTS (23-24 July): Characters are welcome to capture or kill the kelpies. The only information they will be capable of providing to those who capture them and attempt to compel them for information is that they consider the entirety of the Massachusetts coast as their 'hunting grounds.' Whether that's true or not, it's what they believe.
CURVEBALL (23-24 July): Kidnapped characters will become seals! Sort of. Psychic seals who are extremely ill-fitted to the skins they're in. The only way to escape their current state is to be cut open and pulled out. As soon as they start to flee, the kelpies will chase them. Those who are captured will be cut out, toyed with, and shoved back into a skin again and again to continue the chase until they simply can't go on anymore.
BELOW THE BELT (24 July - night): Characters may encounter their selkie-fied comrades! Unfortunately, while the selkies can communicate with each other psychically, they are incapable of human speech. They are also being actively hunted by the kelpies. Characters may kill any kelpies they come across. Capture will not be possible in this case while they're in their horse forms. If PCs do not eradicate the kelpie threat that night, NPCs who have joined the mission will do so. Unfortunately, reconnaissance has become engagement, whether they like it or not.
STICKY WICKET (21 July - 5 August): You may select any piece of sporting gear you'd like for your character to pick up as long as it can fit in a reasonably-sized box. The pain associated with the burning will last only as long as a character is touching the object. Holding onto it for more than a minute will likely result in coming very close to death. Characters with inorganic appendages will find that the artifact will start to melt that appendage, whatever it is made of and it will still, somehow, hurt while it does it.
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[Trust him Keith, no one would like for this to be totally over than Martin. It sucks so bad. He'd be gritting his teeth if he could figure out exactly where they were right now, but thank god, there's something to be gained from this.

Once the knife is removed, suddenly, there's a shift. Previously Martin was entirely stuck to the seal's proportions, but with the depth of the cut there's suddenly some flexibility, like everything is shifted just a bit off from where it should be. He shifts a shoulder-- yes, that's his shoulder, oh thank God-- and tries to shove to the enterance.

Which means Keith can look in, get a look at what looks like a cut, and then see a very human hand emerge from it instead. It's a real shame Martin isn't a Flesh avatar, because he'd be getting so much for this. He can't actually see where he's going, but it absolutely must look like an arm is coming out of this seal, so Keith should probably get out of the way for the ensuing... movement.

What ends up occuring doesn't look like it should obey the laws of physics or space. The cut on the back of the seal lengthens as an arm stretches out, and then another seems to pull the skin apart. The person who tumbles out looks like they absolutely should not have fit in there, a solid 6 feet or more and certainly not thin who is unfortunately coughing and covered in some kind of blood. He looks deeply disoriented, but... yeah, that's a person alright. He seems to be coughing but most certainly not dead, at least.]

[Unfortunately, Martin gets to find out the hard way that this does in fact hurt. It feels like the knife is in him directly, and his first instinct is to grab at his own stomach, which... works more than he thinks. As the sealskin begins to open, it stops looking like a plump animal and deflates like a balloon, seeming almost to cough up a person underneath. Once the cut is up to the head, the skin all but falls off to the side looking like a couch cushion, and instead is replaced by... just a guy, actually.

He doesn't look like he should have fit in there, by any means- Martin himself is a solid 6 feet and portly to boot, but here he is where the seal decidedly was less than a minute ago. He's splayed out, covered in blood, and looks very, very disoriented, but he's got just about enough wherewithall to adjust his (way too smudged to see though) glasses and look up at Caduceus.]

I'm-- I, t-thank you, I'm--

[He means to say something else-- apologies, or trying to explain, who knows-- but instead devolves into a coughing fit where his body tries to remember what lungs are his. He'll be good to explain more in a moment... probably.]

[Zhao watched with only the slightest of winches at the sight and sound of her thumbs going back into place. He'd definitely heard worse in his day--actually, he'd definitely caused worse in his day, so he couldn't really say much. It was more sympathy than disgust or flinching from pain that drove him to make any face at all.]

Yeah, probably a good idea. [He tilted his head to one side.] That's not going to do you any favors right now. You really should get out of here. Think you need an escort?

This world has legends about kelpies, or you wouldn't be calling these things that. How do people handle them in the legends?

"I wasn't always, but I always will be," mutters Binx darkly. "Now if we could just get this done--"

"What's in the booooox?" interrupts a greasy teenager with a dumb grin, who has probably never even seen Se7en.

"Well, they'll find I'm not easily gotten rid of," says Binx darkly, more convinced than ever that he needs to go along. All these others can be killed. He can't.

Or at least, he believes he can't.

[It's surreal to watch the skin - which had been so full of life - become a shroud falling away. As if it were never more than a cloak in the first place. And the person it reveals doesn't seem like they should have fit in the smaller seal body. Caduceus hovers as the person sort of just sprawls in the bottom of the boat. He sets the knife aside and slowly moves closer so he can help the not-seal sit up. Hopefully that will help ease his coughing.]

Hey, it's okay. Try to take it easy.

[That was a hell of a curse or spell or whatever it was. Caduceus moves, unpreturbed by the blood, to provide some support, and maybe some comfort. That's when he notices the glasses completely smudged with viscera.]

I'm gonna clean these, hang on. [He's gentle as he takes them. He gives the glasses a quick dip in the water and uses a clean bit of his tunic to wipe them off. They aren't perfect, but they should be good to see through.

In his ADI-provided disguise, Caduceus seems... pretty human.]

"That so?" Zhao said curiously. His thoughts wandered to how hard it would(n't) be to kill a cat, not realizing what Binx was and why he thought he was hard to get rid of.

"...you know, I don't know much about talking cats when you bring it up. What've you got nine lives or something?"

No, he couldn't help the bad joke, forgive him.

Silver bullet? [They raise a hand.] Regular bullets seemed to be killing them on the shore, as well, though.

"Yes. They jumped me as soon as I walked outside. Now are you done playing twenty questions?"

Mr. Caduceus' friend, Mercy decides, is not a very nice person. At least not when he's under pressure. But that's to one side. She whines at the mention of a knife. Her foot still hurts so badly. One more pain... one more pain. She can endure it. She'd heard the people screaming as they'd been cut out of their seal skins by the kelpies, but this she can endure.

Mercy wriggles just a little closer to Caduceus in the boat and tries her best to roll onto her back. There's not a whole lot of room to be maneuvering, though.

He gives a little nod, repeating, "Junior." He'll remember it.

"It's a big change from my life before now," he admits. "I imagine that's true for you, too. And it's a lot for them to ask of us; there's no shame in not going."

Why is there even a child in the room for this briefing, he wonders.

There does seem to be a lot of that going around.

What do you make of ADI?

[Alright. So the seal usually talks to people. To humans. But there's a question...]

Do you normally talk out loud? Like... in spoken language?

Haven't spoken to Bonnie before, so I couldn't say anything about her intentions. As for Reyes, the immpression I got was that they're tired of this whole mess. I know they're probably close to Bonnie but that's about it.

[ which is to say, keith doesn't know a whole lot either. he frowns, considering. ]

But you may be right about neither of them having the complete picture, but I find it hard to believe that they're not complicit with hiding some details. [ a beat. ] But okay. Suppositions aside, saving the mindtricks for when there's a solid lead will probably get us further in the long run.

Do they know about your abilities? Did they ask when you got here?

[ one second keith is leaning in real close to check on how bad that wound is, the next there's a goddamn human hannd covered in blood and gristle that bursts out of the hole like some fucked up whack-a-mole game. there isn't a whole lot that just gets keith to scream outright, but here he is, practically launching himself backwards from off the seal's back, clutching the knife tight.

of course, it doesn't actually just stop at that hand though. noooooooooooo. it has to be a full grown man just bursting through the seal skin, sending keith's blood pressure skyrocketing as he motors back on his butt, knocking the adi agent overboard into the water as he goes. is he sorry? ask later. too busy and preoccupied with this seal zombie standing in the boat looking confused and disoriented.

there's something familiar about the guy though. like, maybe keith's seen him around adi or at one of the meetings??? but that's rational sane person thoughts and right now, keith is full on: ]

What the fuck -- stay back! The hell is going on?

[ well, if binx has any hopes of the cat thing not being brought up.... ]

Huh. That's a cool name for a cat. Did you pick it yourself? Do all the animals talk where you're from?

[ should keith just be asking like this? no. does he have the social skills to know better? ....also no. ]

That's all? There aren't any other legends about them, people in this world just shoot them on sight?

Is it like that with all the demons here?

No. Most legends just end with people dying.

That seems to be the way most of the stories end in this place. It is... unhappy.

The seal arfs quietly at him, slapping her belly again. Mercy tries to use her flipper to point from the knife, down to the other seal. Brother, this is going to be- it will be awful. She doesn't want to have to try to cut the other woman out of her skin. This is going to be hard enough, as it is.

[Mercy can't help pouting, then, grins.]

Well, it can't do much if it's still in the box, right? What if we took it back to ADI and used one of them... them... Checks Rays! I seen them in the medical area. They can look at your bones through them. We could see what's in the box. Maybe ADI need to know afore opening them?

"Just the one that never ends," sighs Binx. "I can't die."

This is, apparently, not something he feels a need to keep secret.

[Binx stares at him for a long moment; his heavy sigh is theatrical but not feigned.]

As far as I know I'm the only one - thankfully. No, I'm human. Or I was human.

Not really, he almost says, but instead replies with a more neutral, "I suppose." Still, he knows he's going. There's nothing about the situation, yet, that makes him feel particularly afraid.

But what could they possibly expect Thackery to do, as he is? Unless there's much more to the cat than meets the eye. At this point, there's no disregarding any possibility.

"What are you going to do?"

He looks between them again, then puts the knife to the seal's chest. After a beat of hesitation and another glance at Mercy, he does as he's somewhat-clearly being instructed and cuts up towards the seal's throat, deep enough to find a jugular if this were actually a seal and not a person inside a magic sealskin.

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Page 44 of 49

Event - For Sport

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cw: even more animal harm and a little body horror

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