apocalypsehowcomm | Event

Entry tags:

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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Breaking It In

Binx spends the briefing perched on one of the long conference tables rather than seated in a chair, watching and listening intently as Reyes gives out what information is available. If a cat could frown, he'd be frowning--he's encountered magic and he's definitely encountered evil, but it seems to him that a whole world of terrible things has opened up to him, with these...'kelpies'...representing something quite new to him.

He settles into loaf mode and remains where he is at the end of the briefing, watching people file out or clump up around Reyes or Bonnie to ask questions, tail thoughtfully flicking back and forth.

Move the Goalposts

It happens when he's walking 'home' from ADI headquarters late one evening. He's just turning his head in response to some sound or scent that doesn't belong when a previously unseen assailant all but trips over him. Their grab for the illusory human Binx misses, obviously, the boy appearing to duck out of the way with incredible alacrity. That doesn't seem to bother the kelpies, two laughing at the one who tried and missed, whooping as they encourage Binx to run. It's just a game to them, and Binx does run, taking off through a nearby park, scrambling through bushes and over stone walls. His illusion appears to dive and leap and crawl with astonishing ease for a human.

All the same, they, too, are animal-quick. Pack hunters, the three of them fan out and Binx finds himself darting away from one only to find another looming before him or leaping out from the trees. Each time, though, they grab for a boy who isn't really there, though he's afraid it will only be a matter of time before they realize their error and try something more effective.

The sight of a fellow recent arrival is not a welcome one--Binx may be able to duck and dodge and weave, but they'll surely catch a human. "Run!" he shouts. "Get out of here!"

Below the Belt

Thackery is a brave soul, or perhaps he simply deprioritizes his own safety. Either way, he's certain enough he'll be useful on a reconnaissance mission to come along. And, initially, it seems he's right--he's able to see a great distance further into the night than many of his more human counterparts.

But then come the creatures in the water, seals at first, and then monstrous things chasing them. One of the kelpies knocks hard into the boat from underneath, jolting it up into the air to land hard with a splash, and Binx is dislodged from his spot in the prow, tumbling into the dark water.

"Cat overboard!" he yelps, clawing at the side of the boat. The same displacement of his illusion that protected him from the kelpies before (and may protect him briefly now) is now a curse; it'll be guesswork to grab onto the cat himself under the larger image of a flailing teenage boy.

Junior's spent the entirety of the meeting sitting quietly in a corner, listening intently. As many approach the meeting facilitators with questions, he means simply to leave the room...but that's before he notices the cat sitting comfortably on one of the tables.

Back home, he never really had the luxury to sit around and interact with animals. Even now, in a setting meant for briefing, his teachings tell him to pay the cat no mind and keep focus on the mission.

But Junior isn't home right now, and fully-fledged monsters isn't in his wheelhouse, and he's perhaps a little overwhelmed. So, maybe he wants to take a moment to do something a child would actually do, and live with the guilt, after. It's not like there's anyone from home here to judge him. Before he's really fully committed to the idea, he's approached Thackery instead of leaving the conference room. Junior stares, unsure, and makes no actual move to touch without permission.

Not that he expects he's going to be given permission. It's mostly that he feels he might get scratched or bitten if he acts impulsively, and so finds himself posing the question:

"May I pet you?"

Thackery catches him staring and turns his head to meet the child's gaze. And that is a child - he sucks in a breath when he realizes just how young. And then, at the question, he stands and walks closer along the table, presenting himself for scritches.

"Of course."

He's asking because he knows Binx is a person, right? Right?

To Junior's credit, he doesn't jolt in his surprise, but the way his eyes widen give him away. He absolutely just thought this was a normal cat, sorry Thackery. Still, he sort of stammers a polite, "Thank you very much," before tentatively reaching out to run his hand over the sleek fur from neck to tail.

"I've never spoken with a cat, before."

"Most people haven't," Thackery points out gently, arching into the touch. He might be making a little bit of a show of it for Junior's benefit, wanting to make it clear that anything that doesn't involve pulling on his ears or tail is welcome. But, well, he also enjoys being petted, and has made his peace with that over the centuries.

"My name is Thackery Binx. What's yours?"

Although his expression remains overall stoic, Thackery might pick up on the shine in his eyes. It's hard not to be delighted at the display! It's as much soothing as it is informational, and he'll remember just what seems appropriate for any future cat-handling he may get up to.

"Junior."

And, clearly, that's all.

"What do you make of all of this, Mr. Binx? I find it all a touch overwhelming, myself."

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.

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?"

"I'm going to go," says Thackery without hesitation. "I can see a great deal farther in the dark than many of the others here, and I'll be safe enough."

It's spoken with such conviction that it takes Junior a little bit by surprise. "You're right, that is an incredibly useful asset." A cat as an agent...not a bad idea, when you really think about it. Especially when they have the ability to speak.

"I'd like to try and help, too. Hopefully, I'll be useful."

If what he saw at the beach was any indication, the creatures at least aren't bullet proof. Still, with his powers dampened, here, it's hard for him to say how much more dangerous the mission will be.

"You shouldn't," says Thackery decisively. Of course a child shouldn't go into a kelpie-infested swamp. "And you shouldn't feel as though you must. Those creatures are dangerous enough for those of us who are older. You can help by keeping yourself safe here at headquarters."

Edited 2021-09-07 21:13 (UTC)

Junior jumping into the thick of the violence is not a question; he doesn't plan on doing anything less than what he knows he's capable of. But what others will expect of him is a different story; he knows that's part of what makes him a good agent: he's easily underestimated due to his age and appearance.

"Wouldn't that simply make me useless?" He can't help the crestfallen expression that overcomes him. The idea that he'll only get in the way of others makes him feel lost and powerless.

Thackery twitches his head to look at Junior in surprise, taken aback by the question.

"Anyone who'd tell you that you're useless for not getting yourself killed will have to answer to me," he says very firmly.

Junior himself seems to be a little taken aback at the conviction in Thackery's response, and his cheeks go pink. "Thank you," he says reflexively, not quite sure how else to respond to the sentiment.

"I'm not very good at sitting around. What do you think I could do within the headquarters? Perhaps there's somewhere I could try and look to find information..."

"They have a library," Thackery points out as he butts his head encouragingly against Junior's hand, though he's equally dubious about the helpfulness of it.

"Yes," Junior agrees, though before he can help himself, seeing as by now they're well enough alone in the room, he adds as he gently rubs the fur between Thackery's ears:

"I wonder how hard it would be to break into their offices."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event - For Sport

Thackery Binx | Hocus Pocus | OTA

breaking it in

/trots in with starbucks

same mood

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