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apocalypsehowcomm2021-07-21 02:54 pm
- !event,
- !mod,
- !npc,
- aelwyn abernant (d20 fantasy high),
- bucky barnes (mcu),
- kate cordello (original),
- martin blackwood (tma),
- mercy graves (original),
- zz_angelo sauper (gundam unicorn),
- zz_archie jensen (zombies run),
- zz_caduceus clay (critical role),
- zz_cassandra cillian (the librarians),
- zz_chris redfield (resident evil),
- zz_full frontal (gundam unicorn),
- zz_gil arroyo (prodigal son),
- zz_goro akechi (persona 5),
- zz_jacob stone (the librarians),
- zz_jeff calhoun (original),
- zz_junior (read or die),
- zz_keith (voltron),
- zz_meredith idlewild (original),
- zz_monika (ddlc),
- zz_porco galliard (attack on titan),
- zz_ren amamiya (persona 5),
- zz_satoru gojou (jujutsu kaisen),
- zz_takashi shirogane (voltron),
- zz_thackery binx (hocus pocus),
- zz_toji fushiguro (jujutsu kaisen),
- zz_yuri egin (blue exorcist),
- zz_zhao tianyou (yakuza)
Event - For Sport
(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."
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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?
- 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.
for ~marmoron
[ That said, it'd be a pretty convincing dead body if not for how familiar Chris has become with the long, gaunt shape of a kelpie's human-esque face. It's only barely seen under the dim light of Gloucester at night, but its cheekbones are razor sharp and its arms are a bit too long to be normal (the tips of its French-tipped fingers reach mid-calve). Chris imagines if he came close enough, Keith might be able to smell the sea from it. ]
I'll fire if it comes after you, but stay sharp. You might be able to get it through the skull if it can't tell you know what it is.
no subject
though this reality's earth is proving to be different enough that keith's been drawing comparisons with uch less frequency these days. kelpies -- it ought to be funny, except it isn't, and that's where the brunt of his focus sticks. he listens to chris's steady voice, pausing just before the indicated turn. despite ADI's insistence on maintaining as low of a profile as possible, keith's wearing his red paladin armor for extra protection. it's a far cry from camo or tactical gear, but he's not risking another encounter with those vicious monsters without extra gear, thanks. ]
Copy that.
[ his reply comes back equally steady through the radio. he's charged into worse headfirst without backup before, so if anything he's fairly calm for the moment. ]
I'll try and keep it alive so we can figure out what the hell these things are after, but if not. [... [ lethal force it is, though he'll leave that much unsaid. reaching for his bayard with his right hand, he flattens himself against the wall to get a glimpse at the "corpse." ]
Nothing else in the perimeter?
no subject
Not that I can see from here. Let's just hope it doesn't call for back-up.
[ It doesn't comfort him in the least, but at least high alert is a familiar enough state.
What isn't familiar is the concept of incapacitating a monster instead of getting it dead. For all intents and purposes kelpies fit the "hostile enemy" profile that usually means Chris should be shooting to kill, but he supposes Keith has a point. If the research folks at the ADI could figure out more about the kelpies and discover a better weak point than "repetitive shots to the head", then Chris'd use way less ammo.
So instead, he asks: ] How're you gonna knock it out? [ At least, Chris is assuming Keith's going to knock it out. ]
You need me to do anything?
no subject
Wasn't gonna try for anything fancy. Just keep it from moving around too much. While it's down, try and sever the spinal cord. [ a beat. ] Take off a limb or two if necessary. These things don't die easily, so.
[ painting a real grisly picture here, but neither of them are civilians. ]
If I can't get it to stop flailing in half a minute, I'll get out the way so you can shoot it in the head. That sound reasonable to you or you think that's not worth trying?
no subject
Point is, I've never opened one up before. [ He's certainly blown one's head off (several times), but it's not like Chris has ever looked inside the holes he leaves behind. It's funny, the things you regret even after surviving. ]
Half a minute's a lot of time for it to start screaming. [ Which means it'll call for back-up, and Chris doesn't much like the thought of Keith having to fend off multiples on his own. ] If it calls within that window, I'm taking it out regardless.
Deal?
cw: violence, near decapitation
[ the fact that these things die when shot repeatedly in the head doesn't necessarily have to mean its central nervous system is in its skull -- simply that the damage isn't anything the kelpies can heal off before going into shock. keith still thinks his assumption holds water considering these shapeshifters seem to be stuck mimicking vertebrates, but yeah -- gotta admit that he knows fuckall about monster anatomy and physiology. best to keep that in perspective before rushing in without a back up plan of his own.
he straightens up, holding his bayard tight. they'll be going on that recon mission in a couple of days. there's no point in taking unnecessary risks here in taking captives if ADI is that certain of the accuracy of their current intel.
but that's just the thing -- just because ADI trusts their findings, doesn't mean keith does -- at least not 100%. an organization whose job it is to keep the existence of apocalypse causing entities hush-hush from the public is, by definition, untrustworthy. the thought is almost all-consuming, spreading like neurotoxin before keith pulls it together enough to respond to chris. ]
We'll stick to the original plan. No need to take any unnecessary risks.
[ the kelpies have already kidnaped a bunch of people -- fellow otherworlders and god knows how nany locals. better focus on the actual threat for now, rather than the one keith is possibly inventing. ]
Stand by.
[ and taking a deep breath, keith focuses on the task at hand. sword ready in hand, he stays quick and light on his feet, rounding the corner in one -- two quick steps to sprint and drive his blade straight through the back of the creatures neck. sluggish on the reaction, the kelpie does little more than writhe unnaturally, thrashing as keith drags the sharp edge of his bayard clean through half of its neck.
as if they needed further proof that these things aren't remotely human, the kelpie doesn't fucking die -- at least not right away. it arches up, head sagging on torn snew, foaming viscous blood as it opens its mouth to scream.
keith yanks his bayard free, leaping back as the kelpie staggers. ]
Chris, you got a clear shot?
cw: violence, decapitation, blood
Christ, though, if the thing isn't an ugly motherfucker. Instead of saying that aloud, however, Chris only says a quick "yeah" at Keith's question and fires a bullet into the bits of muscle and flesh that keeps the kelpie's head connected. It lands wetly into the blood at its feet, and for a moment its body goes haywire: its nails turn into claws and pull back, its left foot lengthens and stays that way, its right leg grows and hair like a horse's mane seems to burst from the base of its neck down along a fraction of its spine. All the while, its pseudo-human skin ripples and bubbles before the body finally collapses.
The head had kept its mouth open all the while, and though a lack of vocal chords keeps it from screaming, the wideness of its inhuman eyes and the bloodshot colour of its sclera gives its panic away. ]
It's still alive-- [ Then, louder: ] Keith, roll!
[ Because if he fails to, another one of those bastards-- a tall, lanky manthing with fingers like straws-- won't just run at Keith from behind, but will throw its whole weight into a tackle. Even Chris' shot to knock it back won't do enough work; while it tears through a knee and gushes blood in its wake, the creature's still got enough strength in its other leg to go jumping. ]
I'm so sorry for the late, I never got a notif for this ;;
whatever happens if it finds it, keith doesn't want to fucking know. the lopped off mass at the center of an expanding pool of blood isn't something keith looks at with any amount of scrutiny -- he doesn't need the goddamn nightmares from looking into its blank eyes, but he gives it a solid kick to send rolling into the side of the dumpster where it its the metal with a wet thwak.
breathing hard, keith takes another step away from the kelpie on the ground to get out of range from hands that can't decide if they wan to be humanoid or hooves when chris' instruction comes through on his earpiece.
no questions asked, keith rolls immediately on the ground as the shot goes off and the kelpie behind him lets out a disconcertingly human scream as it lunges at the space where keith was standing. ]
Fucking -- [ the rest of his cursing gets cut off as keith gets right back up on his feet, sword at the ready. conversation later. thanks to chris's shot, the kelpie is unbalanced and limping, and keith doesn't hesitate to take that three second opening he gets before the monster can turn around and try for another grab. blood pounding in his arteries, keith raises his sword, and stabs straight through the creatures back, right through where its heart -- if it even has one of those -- ought to be.
the kelpie screams as keith kicks it in the back to dislodge his bayard and just as quickly, keith runs his sword straight through it again, shifting to a two handed grip to cleave from it's stomach down to its hip. slippery bits of viscera and entrails leak out of the wound. ]
Chris -- are any more coming? I can take this one out, but I'm gonna have to think of an exit strategy if there are a horde of these things coming to help it.