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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Oh, Brother! Shouldn't he stay in the boat? Mercy's not sure. It's a little ways to 'nest' for the kelpies and she's worried about her new friend getting hurt along the way. Although, he had dispatched that kelpie handily...

To show she's with him, Mercy does move to press close to him and try to sort of... nuzzle one of his legs while trying to curl a flipper around it. She will protect you on the journey!

But Mercy, staying in the boat risks other people, and also potentially getting capsized again. This is better. He starts wading away from the boat, but splashes aside in startled confusion when she... nuzzles him? The fuck? Was she trying to bite or guide or what? Look, he's unfamiliar with seal behavior... or affection...

He stares down at her with brows lowered in obvious confusion. What do you want, magic seal?

Mercy startles, in turn, when he jerks away, thinking there's something else nearby. She lets out a surprised and frightened bark before ducking back under the water to try to look around. There's... nothing but swirling mud, as far as she can tell. What's wrong? Maybe he just thought he saw something.

She approaches more cautiously, floating just in front of him and looking up at the man with big dark eyes. How can she communicate? Hmm... after a moment, she lifts a flipper and tries to point to his hand before pulling it back against her own body. This body that is wrong and isn't her. Can she get him to touch her and hold on? She can be a better guide if he just has to touch instead of watch where to go, right?

There's a part of her that's also just craving contact when she's alone and scared.

Contact with humans is a thing to be avoided. Contact with humans means violence, often pain.

Contact with seals has nothing associated with except maybe "weird". So he shifts his rifle into his left hand and, hesitant in case it's not what she's getting at, puts the right one on her head.

Contact with seals soothes the soul. Or at least it soothes Mercy. She takes a breath through her nose, tries to find some semblance of balance in skin that is very much not her own, and swims slowly forward. It's a slog, slow-going through the silty muck and the marsh grasses and reeds. After several minutes, the channel narrows further and Mercy pauses. She gives her best impression of a 'shoosh' as a seal before pointing to the side.

There are several large boulders and the sound of a fire crackling on the other side of it along with raised voices. Someone screams with fear and there are vicious caws of laughter in response. It's simple cruelty, and Mercy feels her heart quicken thinking of what those things are, who they might be hurting. One of the people she'd been trapped with? Brother, she hopes not.

She gets a single little pet on the top of the head before he follows along, tentative like he's not quite sure what he's doing. But then it's back to business and he lets her lead him, ears sharp for the sound of splashing or growls or voices.

He stops as soon as she does, and goes very still at the sound of the scream. Then he swings his rifle down into position on his shoulder, finds the sights, and starts again, much more slowly. Ready to let loose a volley of bullets to take out anything standing taller than a seal.

Mercy follows along after him, hear heart racing. She wants to swim away, but she's led him here, and he might end up dead if the kelpies can somehow get him fully underwater. Will his guns work there? She doesn't thinks so, but best not to leave him alone in case the worst should happen.

As they round the boulders, the sight of five kelpies dragging a seal up onto a muddy spit of land comes into view. One of them is already raising a knife to stab the animal.

Mercy can't help it. She give an alarmed bark to try to distract them.

The bark startles them, but the gunshots into their midst-- too high to hit the seal, too low for them to avoid by ducking-- scatter them with angry cries. One is staggering, bleeding heavily from a throat wound, and likely won't last much longer. One is dead. Two down, three to go.

One of them is charging straight for them, splashing noisily and making a high, furious trumpeting sort of sound. He just fires on it again, point blank, sending it stumbling to its knees.

Two to go. And where did those two run to?

Away is where they've run, hurrying around the side of the boulder to use it as cover. The gunshots are as startling as ever, but Mercy tries to keep some semblance of her cool as she swims over to the seal in the mud, calling out with her mind. There's an answer, weak as it might be, gratitude. There's not much she can say to Bucky, but she can at least talk to this other woman, trapped in the skin, reassure her that she and her friend are here to help.

As she's doing that, there's the sound of something large splashing from behind the man. It's not a creature, though. At least not crashing out of the water to attack. No, no, instead one of the kelpies leaps down from the top of the boulders, trying to tackle Bucky into the water. The splash had just been a diversion.

He's listening for more than splashes, and there's no sound of breathing and scales on stone or ripples from an approach behind him. He turns his head just enough to catch nothing behind him in his peripheral vision, so he catches the kelpie and spins around with its momentum rather than going down, hurling it head-first into the nearest tree.

That's a good time for another kelpie to try to attack, maybe, unless Mercy wants to get in one's path and trip it up...

Mister!

The seal bellows as another kelpie lunges from the side toward Bucky. Mercy's not sure there's terribly much she can do here, but she does what she can. While the man deals with the second kelpie, she's going to try to keep the first occupied and away from him, urging the other seal to help. They're both frightened, but with the man on their side...

A pair of seals rocket into the first kelpie when it staggers into the water next to the tree, knocking it face-first into the mud.

He continues his spin to catch and grapple with the second attacker, getting the metal arm between its teeth so it can't actually make him bleed, though its range is greater than his with the blunt claws and that's not comfortable.

Still, letting it rake at his vest's leather straps gives him the second he needs to free his flesh arm and grab the gun from its chest harness, and fire close-range into the side of the kelpie's head.

The blood spray gets fucking everywhere. Ugh.

Mercy is busy biting the kelpie they have down on its haunch. The creature screeches and starts transforming to a more equine form, bucking its leg and catching the second seal in the side hard enough to send her flopping wetly across the surface of the shallows. There's not much Mercy can do except to mentally yell for the other seal to get to the man. He will protect her.

She focuses on maintaining her own pressure. This is terrifying. The moment the monster can whip around, it's going to slit her open and probably not stop at the seal skin. Still, she has to do something. Has to help. She lets go, aims, and chomps hard onto its ass near its growing tail. The monster bellows and bucks, thrashing as it tries to shake Mercy off.

If it weren't such a tense situation, it might well look comical.

He doesn't... directly protect her; he splashes noisily past her, instead, throwing the now mostly-headless corpse into the water beyond them all. Protection is taking care of the next kelpie from this batch. He advances on Mercy and her "victim", pistol up and taking aim.

He only fires when he's at an angle that the bullet won't hit Mercy if it goes through the creature's throat instead of lodging into it. That takes two steps. It might be enough time to throw Mercy off, but not enough time for it to trample her, too.

Mercy does, indeed, go flailing through the air with an angry, "Arf!" before splashing down in the water and missing whatever happens next. When she pops up again, the kelpie is falling over dead in the water. Mercy looks around for the other woman in the seal skin and spots her pulled up where the kelpies and been originally toying with her. There's a blade amongst the possessions, and she grabs it in her mouth swimming over to Bucky to offer it to him.

If Bucky takes it, the other woman will roll onto her back nearby him in the water and use her flippers to slap at her round stomach. Mercy just watches on in mild horror.

Though he holsters the pistol again, shoulders the rifle more properly, and accepts the knife, he frowns at the seals each in turn. Confused. He approaches the slapping seal and... inspects her belly for a wound, assuming that's what the problem is, first.

He'll catch on quick enough, just give him a minute and maybe a question....

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.

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.

There's a cry of pain, distress, and then there's flailing as arms come out of the seal's chest followed by a woman's terrified face. She sobs before trying to throw herself at Bucky's waist and wrap him in her arms. Mercy blows out a breath, then barks once before nodding to Bucky. He can help this woman, get her back to the boat. In the meanwhile... unless he tries to stop her, Mercy the Seal will be off in search of more souls who need rescuing.

She wants out of this skin, as well. It feels horrible and wrong... but there are so many out in the bay who still need to be saved.

The thing that is very much not James Buchanan Barnes in that moment freezes, panicked, trapped-- then hastily eels away from the rescued woman, only barely managing not to actively throw her into the water in the process. Jesus Christ, don't do that.

It's enough of a distraction for Mercy to get away, if that's what she wants.

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Event - For Sport

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cw: sadism, animal abuse

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cw: reference to assisted self-harm/animal injury

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