apocalypsehowcomm | Event

Event - Fan Service

Fan Service

➥ We're Live

A caucasian woman holds a camera up so that it is covering the bottom half of her face. Her eyes are visible, but her expression is inscrutable.
(cw: Insects/centipedes, body horror, manipulation)

It's 9 PM at night when a message is broadcast across the network. It seems to be from a new account, lovelyren, and it's a video feed. A group of about 20 people are clustered together in what looks like an abandoned warehouse. They're lit up by some high-powered lights on stands that they've clearly brought with them. Everyone is holding some sort of sign that reads things like: 'I believe in magic!' and 'Ghosts are real!', along with 'I <3 Jimmy!' There are other signs proclaiming the titles of various posts that one J. Griffon, a social media persona with a small cult following, has put up over the last several months.

They all wave and smile at the camera until someone else steps in front of it, then quickly backs up to stand at the front of the group. It's a woman who may be disturbingly familiar to those who have been following the the news. It would seem that reports of the death of 'Gen Z's favorite VTuber' have been greatly exaggerated.

"Hi, hi, Jimmy!" Ren Morimoto exclaims. "We are gathered here, at the site of a supernatural happening in the making. We, your die hard fans, just wanted to show you how much we appreciate you showing us how real magic is, how wonderful it can be. Everyone should know about magic, and we are going to make sure that they do."

At the edges of the video the shadows begin to start… squirming. No, not the shadows. There is something dark moving around the edges of the room. Many somethings.

"So, let's begin, shall we? Maybe with a story. There once was a boy who decided to share a secret with the world. Now, this secret was something that many little boys and girls hoped was true, wanted to be true. And he gave them the love they'd been craving all their lives. He gave them a community of people who believed what they did, who saw the things he showed them and truly knew in their hearts that they'd been right all along."

The somethings are moving in, shiny carapaces glinting in the light. One of the women in the group glances off to the side, and startles visibly. "Hey… Luvvie? I think there's, uh… bugs in here. We might wanna set up somewhere-"

'Luvvie' cuts her off, ignoring the woman. "They loved him so much, they were willing to go to any lengths to try to get in contact with him, to find a way to give him a gift." Ren smiles as a centipede squirms out of one of her nostrils and scurries down her cheek and out of sight. "So, that's what this is, Jim, another video for you. Real magic." She steps to the side as the fans shriek and break apart, some of them slapping themselves as they scattered for the various rooms of the buildings.

"Uh oh! I don't think they like my magic." She tsks. "That's okay, though. I have a lot of friends who do." Rather than cutting the feed, Ren picks up her camera and winks at it before flipping it so that she can film the fans as they run and scream. "Why don't you and your friends come and play? I hope you liked my wormy game."

➥ In the Hive

A photo of an abandoned building interior. There are signs of decay, and the room is empty except for a chair in the center and a pair of columns.
(cw: insects/swarms, bites, altered mental states/toxic relationship dynamics, body horror, potential for character death)

Thanks to Tim's quick admission of the situation, ADI has deployed its forces immediately to the abandoned warehouses just west of Essex Bay. Anyone who volunteers to join in this rescue mission will be kitted with night vision goggles, a gas mask, an excessive amount of bug killer, and anything that can be used to protect their body and skin from intrusion.

Volunteers will be dispatched in a few large vans with a unit leader giving them a briefing on the way. There are civilians in that warehouse. Some of them may be dead or infested and need to be mercy-killed. Save the ones you can, but do not bring them into the vans immediately. They have to be checked and all bugs removed. A medical area away from the vans will be set up and survivors can be brought there. Do not engage with Ren Morimoto. This is a search and rescue mission. Along with killing as many fucking bugs as possible.

Inside the warehouses is chaos. Flies and mosquitoes swarm and try to block people's vision or bite them while other creepy crawlies climb up them and try to insinuate themselves into any entry point that they can. They sting, bite, and scratch their victims however they can. Those bitten may experience a momentary mixture of euphoria and terror, along with a desire to latch onto whomever is closest and share the insectoid love in the air. If you're going down, you might as well take someone with you.

But there are people to save beyond yourselves. Maybe you're lucky and you've found one of the survivors who's managed to make it somewhere safe until help has arrived. Maybe you're unlucky and find a half-devoured corpse. Maybe you're unluckier still and find a half-dead, delirious person trying to grab for you, begging for help, begging for you to love them. They're so afraid. They just need someone. Please!

➥ Lights Out

Photo of Christmas lights that are designed so that they appear to be a bearded face. They are uncanny and very creepy with glowing red eyes.
(cw: voyeurism, scopophobia, mind-control/compulsion, potential for humiliation)

The mood at ADI Headquarters is a somber one the next morning. Everyone who helped with the rescue will be treated to decontamination procedures, temporary quarantine, and the tea or coffee of their choice. And once they're released? Well, there's work and life to get back to. The traumatic wheel ever turns.

As it happens, it turns toward more holiday-themed horrors. Reports have come in about holiday decorations causing a series of unusual injuries and even deaths throughout the County. People are being urged to observe appropriate electrical safety, and ADI personnel (or those connected), are sent to investigate these reports. There are a few avenues of investigation and people will be assigned to groups of two or three to track them down:

Visit someone who claims their lights are acting up. They're scattered throughout Gloucester and the surrounding towns. Many of them seem to be dead ends with people who just don't know how to set up lights properly. Some of them are people who seem to be genuinely terrified about something that happened. It may take a few groups sharing information to learn that there's any pattern. But one thing that seems to come up for those who seem to have had a real experience? "Turn out the lights. It sees you in the glow."
Visit a store selling the suspect lights. It will become apparent that there's one brand, in particular, causing problems: Illumination Rite. Questioning shop owners will lead to the discovery that these lights don't actually belong in their store and they're not sure where they came from. But they're selling well, so…
Test out some lights. ADI isn't keen on this, but seeing as there are many strands of the Illumination Rite lights that aren't causing trouble, they're trying to pin down which are and how they're different. Brave souls can step into the light! And spend a very dull time plugging in lights to see if there's an issue with them. When they come to a problem strand, it becomes immediately apparent, though. The lights come on and it feels like there is something right behind you, staring at you, judging you. And in a potential moment of panic, people may find themselves compelled to confess to something horrifying or humiliating that they've done or that has happened to them.

➥ It Sees You

Photo of a plastic Elf peeking over a blanket. Only the elf's eyes and Santa hat are visible.
(cw: voyeurism, scopophobia, living dolls)

As the holidays near, festive preparations are underway…though they're rather lackluster compared to Halloween's preparations. Maybe it's the recent spate of civilian deaths at the hands of Ren Morimoto and her little friends, maybe it's because Pam has been put on leave while she recovers from an emergency amputation, but it's looking like it'll be a blue Christmas at ADI this year. Except….

It seems someone must have taken it upon themselves to inject a little holiday cheer into headquarters. Tinsel and garlands spring up literally overnight, with more decorations appearing each morning as the end of the month draws near. And then the elves start showing up. Smiling plastic faces atop felt bodies can be found lurking amongst the Christmas decorations, posed here and there as though playing, hiding, or committing minor acts of vandalism. It's cute, if that's the kind of thing you're into, but they're everywhere and their numbers only grow as the month wears on. Or are they moving from place to place? It seems nowhere is elf-free; step behind a locked door for a private conversation and you'll catch a glimpse of a plastic gaze out of the corner of your eye. ~~Stealing~~ borrowing from the supply closet? There's an elf behind that box of pens. Heading to the restroom? The less said, the better. And it must be just coincidence, but their faces are always turned in just the right direction to seem to make eye contact. They're watching you. Judging you. Cataloging your every sin.

And then they spread to your homes. They can be found peering in through windows, wedged under apartment doors, hiding in your silverware drawer, your bookshelves, your bed. There's a constant itch of being watched now. What have they seen? What have they overheard? Have you been good this year?

➥ 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. Please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
WE'RE LIVE (16 December) - Characters will have the opportunity to talk to Ren in this prompt. Please respond to the NPC Threads comment below for responses from her. As a note, Tim Drake will be coming forward first with her location, but other characters are welcome to attempt to hack and identify the location she is broadcasting from. ADI NPCs will be scrambling to find out where the signal is coming from and how it got onto their network. Those in the IT Department or with specialized hacking skills will be able to identify that the Hermy the Wormy program was a vessel for Ren to make her way into the network, not only stealing network profile info, but creating an account for herself. Luckily, she doesn't seem to have got past the communications network.
IN THE HIVE (16 December) - This is a voluntary mission. Characters who agree to go will be promised additional pay, and it's going to net them some general good will from ADI's leadership. They will need both people to go into the warehouses and medical staff to help the survivors/any rescuers who are injured. The warehouses are in a swampy, long-abandoned town in an area locally referred to as the Kettle for how hot and humid it gets in the summer. Those who go looking for Ren Morimoto, specifically, will not find her in the house. Just… bugs. So, so many horrible bugs. It seems possible that she might actually be the swarm and killing them will kill her, but ADI personnel will not have a definitive answer on that given how varied avatars and their powers can be. Those who are bitten will experience a compulsion to make someone around them suffer in some way, to vex their rescue efforts, or even try to get them killed by the bugs or the poison in the air.
LIGHTS OUT (17-25 December) - There is no apparent source of the lights and no company that's actually called Illumination Rite. Characters may find cursed strands of light either while specifically testing things or when investigating in other ways. Even after making a terrible confession, there will be a sense of something watching and passing judgment over you. The sense will fade in time, or characters may experience an impulse to force others to confess to terrible things to help ease their own sense of fear. Misery loves company, after all.
IT SEES YOU (20-31 December) - The elves can be destroyed and appear to just be made of felt and plastic if taken apart, but the feeling of being observed by them (and the elves' ability to move about and continue spying) will not abate unless their eyes are completely destroyed. Allowing the elves to remain in place will result in growing feelings of paranoia. They are always found posed, never in motion, but may disappear from one room and reappear in another if left unobserved. Elves will spread most rapidly and enthusiastically into the homes of characters who tested Illumination Rite light strands. On December 26 ADI officials will issue an order for all employees to round up any elves they find and bring them to a holding room on B1, where the elf dolls will undergo testing before being burned. Elves will continue to crop up around ADI and character housing until they have all been found and destroyed.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

"Capitalism?" Please do explain economic constructs to someone from a very long time ago, sir. She shakes her head slightly.

"Brother Earth's a god. Used to be a friend to me, but we had a falling out. That's why I'm with the Spring Tide now."

“Quarantine?” The door is wide open. He just walked in. “It’s not much of one. Want to go home? I’ll walk with you.” He offers his hand.

[Not sleeping is never going to not be odd.]

Met a human here who says he don't sleep neither. Never mentioned trancing, though. Still, I understand. It's... what happens if you don't trance?

[That...was actually kind of what she needed to hear. Just an 'I'm sorry you had to deal with that, and your feelings are okay' from a friend she trusts. Something in her relaxes just a little bit, and she lets out a soft laugh.]

Thanks, man.

[Twisting a string of lights between her hands, she bites at her lower lip and then glances up at him.]

I guess I never realized til that happened that all the stuff that goes on here is really serious, you know? It all seems so much like a creepy story on the internet or whatever that it was a little hard to take seriously until this happened. And then I realized my already fragile little brain is going to have to deal with whole new and unique versions of trauma, and my therapist is super not here.

He's probably lying. Or an insomniac.

[She makes something of a grimace at the mention of not trancing. Boy is she familiar with the answer to that question.]

...Same thing that happens when you don't sleep.

They're having their people killed, though, ain't they?

[Thinking that through a little more now.]

It's not just us. Pam's from here, and she got hurt something awful by that mold. I know folk can decide to sacrifice a few for a plan, just don't seem like the threats are... targeted enough? Or we ain't found a pattern in the victims.

They have a limitless supply now, though, don't they? They say we have options, but see how far you can get with no documentation or money.

[She smiles, tightly.]

I'm not dead set on it being ADI. There's plenty of Do-Gooder organizations back home with the same general mission, though they're usually a bit more pro-active than this. We don't know enough yet. I just know that there's something. That I'd bet my life on.

[Yanked forward, Stephen feels powerless to wrench himself away, even though it would only take a twist of his wrist to call forth his magic, pushing her aside—

But this is like that one time, almost, held mid-air with points as sharp as daggers, as sharp as needlepoints, coming in close to pierce his skin. It feels the same, even though it isn’t; the logical part of his mind says that it must be the lights, the thing in the room with them, but his body is still. He looks at her unwavering, even as her touch hovers around his throat.]

What interest is it of yours? I tried to keep Earth safe, once. Tried to keep half of the universe from blinking out. And that meant enduring capture by an alien race, held up and tortured by someone who thought he was the superior magic wielder, with every nerve in my body screaming as lances pierced into me.

Does it give you pleasure to hear me say that? Don’t pretend to care out of anything like decency.

Ever stop to think that maybe you’re being manipulated? Making you hurt people because you’re being told what you want to hear?

[And yet somehow Stephen thinks this will all land on deaf ears.]

Oh, you’ve gotten his attention as you wanted. If Jim paid you a visit, would all this stop?

You'd be fuckin' surprised what dead people can do.

[Not just because she's known people who were dead temporarily, but like... okay, there's a lot of things. It's complicated and right now she absolutely doesn't trust any of it. But this is supposed to be a rescue mission if possible, so... she should at least try.]

If I get beetles up my butt because of this I'm blaming you.

[But she still extends her staff down to where the hand is, poking it a couple of times so it'll latch on. Once it does, she'll start to pull.]

Pretty sure the 'keep an eye on you' is the entire point of them.

[They're pretty much the most straightforward one, in that respect. It's hard to say why, but she can feel the vibes on it too, and it makes her scowl a bit and stare back at the thing harder. Not gonna intimidate her, suckers.]

'Mm kind of wondering if they work like a rune circle. The more of them there are the more and the places they're in they charge each other sort of deal.

I think it's probably more specifically powered by our fear of them. The dolls weren't immediately this prevalent, but some people were creeped out all the same, then they just started spreading like wildfire.

[Aelwyn grimaces as she presses further into the puppet's head, cutting into the wood. Luckily, she's got a natural resistance to this kind of magic but... it's not an immunity.

The intensity doesn't let up, even as she fully gets through to the other end of the puppets head, and she stares into the eyes and... ah.]

The eyes, specifically. The fuck ugly little glass things. They really aren't subtle, are they?

He very desperately wants to go home. Wants to be anywhere else but here, waiting for the experiments. The maintenance. He looks furtively at the door. "Is it allowed."

Even if a doctor doesn't say it's allowed, if Malcolm says it is, he's. He's going to take Malcolm at his word. Because he very desperately wants to go home.

Wh-- no, no, ohmygosh, that's not what I meant--

[He's immediately putting his hands up defensively, as if she's going to punch him or something and that he'd be worried about that action.]

I thought you meant like, I, I dunno, blowing it up! Or lighting it on fire or something, no, uhm, stealing is-- that's a good idea, actually.

[He's not such a goody two-shoes that he wouldn't say stealing at this point is off limits, so. Sure.]

Do you think we could do it without, uhm... getting caught though?

"It's like we're speaking two different versions of Spanish to each other," he comments, a little amused. What the hell is Spring Tide? Is it the opposite of Yuletide? What the hell is Capitalism? Guess they can do a trade.

"Capitalism is big corporations exploiting their employees and using their labor to make expensive products that they jack up the price on and sell to stupid consumers, and then hoard all the profits for themselves so like one percent of the population is disgustingly wealthy and the rest of us have to work for two hours to be able to afford a cup of coffee from a restaurant that mass-produces coffee. For some reason we all just totally deal with it, and that's how America's economy works." Damn you Starbucks and your alluring espresso. "Who's the Spring Tide?"

Mine isn't either, which is... actually kind of a good thing, because it turns out he was lying to me about the whole I'm dying diagnosis. But I've been going to the counseling center here, they have this guy that looks like he's part cow. He's really awesome. You should check him out sometime. He gives you tea in cat-shaped mugs, and he has pink hair.

( Which are obviously the two most important facets of a therapist. Most guys would probably be more reluctant to admit they're seeing somebody, but honestly, Jack's been going to therapy for so long he can't bring himself to give a shit anymore. Might as well embrace the crazy — or the treatment for the crazy. )

Edited 2022-01-18 08:08 (UTC)

“Yeah,” Malcolm says confidently.

If they want to run more tests, they know where to find him. His mental health is important too.

“I can walk you back to your apartment so you can look after your girls, okay?”

Just because somebody says to, to die and then try to murder a bunch of people with bugs doesn't mean it's the right thing to do!!

[Okay, okay, he just needs to stop and breathe for a moment. If he wants to learn anything from this and be of any help, he needs to calm down at least slightly. So one deep sigh later, he goes back to speaking.]

Look, it-- you don't have to do this. You don't have to be like this, it's-- it's not right. It's cruel.

His girls. Kate and Yelena. He wants to lay eyes on them, too, make sure they're all right. Winter uncoils and gets to his feet, more smoothly than the tension still clearly thrumming through him would suggest, and waits, nearly vibrating, for Malcolm to lead the way.

Blowing up the whole store is a bit much. Blowing up the lights is... a possibility, but perhaps to be avoided. [And a waste of resources. She hates these things, but they... could be useful to her.]

I'm pretty sure we could... it's a department store, not a high security vault. We just need some way to transport them... And for that, I think we're going to have to come back later at night with the proper resources.

Still, we could probably make off with a box of them now, just to provide samples?

Edited 2022-01-19 19:10 (UTC)

[ There's a noticeable pause when the doctor reveals his past exploits, or rather, past suffering that is more fresh in the mind than he would allow it to appear. To show weakness to an oni is usually an opening the monster would be too happy to rip open and to indulge in.

But maybe there's something to what he says; there's something about striving to protect his world even if it meant being in several types of hell and Shuten-Douji, a calamity herself, can recognize that.

Her grip around his collar begins to loosen. Whatever annoying force is in the room trying to push them down, she can endure it. ]

... You're making quite the lovely face, Doctor.

[ Her Master was a child who's been through too much in a short time. It's possible she's simply grasping at straws, but the quality here is similar... ]

Poor thing.

[ He told her not to pretend to care, but there's an (inhuman) sincerity in her voice. Letting go of his shirt, both of her hands hover between his jawline and his neck, not at all a comforting gesture, but it is strangely... Attentive of her. ]

A little pain is fun, but if you're not getting anything out of it... I can see why you're so serious.

[ And somehow, the oni can respect that. ]

Mm. Whatever's in here with us... Well, I don't think I have much to hide or be scared of, but it seems only fair if I...

Yes.

[And yet she still plugged in a strand with Abby holding it, even knowing full well what would happen. Isn't she a delight?]

I wonder if they'll make us say a different thing each time. Want to test that out, too?

They can try that all they want. I beat back.

"That sounds like magic to me," she says critically - but then, so does nearly everything scientific. "You all really are too scared of the idea of anything being magical - but then, nobody ever asks me for my opinion on the subject."

Malcolm gestures for Winter to walk with him as he steps out into the hall, leading the way towards the exits.

“Kate still making you guys delicious baked goods?”

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Page 11 of 16

Event - Fan Service

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