Event - Fan Service

[apocalypsehowmods]

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Fan Service

➥ We're Live

(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

(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

(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

(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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Comments

[apocalypsehownpcs]

I never wanted to hurt people. Some of them wanted to hurt me, though. Do you know what it's like to be a famous girl with a vlog? The things people would send to me. Some of the things they wanted from me... But I can give it to them now. I can give them something that'll make sure they're polite to all the girls on the internet they talk to from now on. I'm going to help people. And send myself to all my fans, good or bad.

I really want to meet Jimmy, sure. And this is for him, so... maybe if he visited I'd stop. But I think we're past that, doing you?

cw: insects/centipedes, swarms, body horror, adultery, toxic relationship dynamics, bullying

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Cruel? Do you know these people? Have you ever talked to them?

[She swings the camera around and focuses on a woman who has centipedes trying to force their way into her every orifice on her face.]

This is Katie. Katie's a backstabber. She formed a separate group with me and a few other fans just to trash talk someone she didn't like on Reddit. Or maybe you know Paul. [The camera swings to a man who's trying to climb up and away from the swarm.] Paul is cheating on his wife with one of the other fans. This was their first time meeting, and he decided he wanted a nice good fuck before we started all this. They did it out in the woods the night before we got here.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Mmhmm, and then you lose your good reputation. Reputation's everything on the internet, you know?

[worthallthis]

"My world doesn't have magic," Winter explains. If his world had magic, HYDRA would have taught him how to combat it, because otherwise he wouldn't be as effective. That's his logic, anyway.

He shakes his head a little. "But my world is not this one. Or yours. They operate differently."

[worthallthis]

He walks closer than he normally would, not quite within grabbing range, but almost. He doesn't want anyone to change their mind and haul him back. He doesn't want it.

The question doesn't quite shake him out of his anxious scanning of their surroundings, but it does at least get an answer. "She makes dinner most nights." Which he appreciates a lot, since he still can't really cook except for what she's shown him, to help.

[retisense]

You know, I probably would.

[She had seen zombies at the Halloween party after all. And seen zombie movies, and vampire movies, and other undead creature movies. But those were movies and weird costumes, not bug-infested actual bodies.]

Fine, fine, just don't get beetles up your butt then!

[It's not quite a joke, but she can't help but laugh a little bit, partly because of the joke and partly out of fear and stress. When Beau extends the staff down and hooks herself a not-quite-dead person, she steps forward and closes her hands around the staff to help pull the person along.]

Geeze, how much do these bugs weigh?

cw: discussion of survival cannibalism

[retisense]

What, really? That...that sounds like a hell of a story.

[And hey, it would give her an opportunity to get out of having to talk much more about her own traumas, because right now it's heading into territory she's a little hesitant to get into. Because one trauma leads to another and she likes having Jack as a friend who doesn't know she's eaten people yet.]

Maybe I should go see the guy here then, if he's awesome.

[Abby's in a pretty similar situation regarding therapy at least, there's no shame in it as far as she's concerned.]

[retisense]

[There's something impossibly irritating about this woman. Abby can absolutely tell that she's been provoked into telling her most private secret on purpose.

Scowling a little, Abby tosses the string of lights aside and picks up another one.]

I think it's your turn, actually.

[abrightboy]

"Meredith does that for us. She has more life skills than me and Tim put together," he admits. He looks over at Winter. "Kate's very protective of you. It's nice to have friends you can rely on, isn't it?"

[worthallthis]

"She my team," Winter says, voice lower. It's about as close to "fond" as his tone really goes. "Meredith is good, too. She. She let me help her make brownies once." He is also very fond of brownies.

[demonicmiracle]

Interesting comparison for someone to go to. He's starting to get the idea that most people aren't especially normal. The fact the ADI has to go on and on about not using powers is sign enough.

Crowley shrugs, though, mostly looking amused. "Suppose I can't argue that, s'messy business, murder." It comes across as if it could be a joke, although it isn't, really. Several millennia on Earth will require a murder or several along the way. He doesn't especially enjoy it, but he's a demon, so he does what he needs to. "Is that what they usually have you do?"

He's curious. It's always been a problem.

[lowficharm]

It'd be more than much, especially if we're trying not to get caught.

[He looks a bit over his shoulder back towards the store.]

Do you think they have cameras or anything? I mean, if it's just one box it shouldn't be hard, they're not too big.

[Sure, he could pay for them, but... listen, Martin's nice but not quite a goody two-shoes in that respect.]

Any amount of them out of the public's hands is a win, after all.

[lowficharm]

[Martin swallows hard at the display, vicerally remembering the feeling of digging a worm out of his shoulder with a corkscrew. It makes him grip his fist, because he knows all too well what he's about to say is damn hypocritical.]

That doesn't mean-- that doesn't mean they die for it! Everybody does bad things, you, you can't just decide someone's bad enough to get tortured! I, I don't know any of them, but, I... I know what it feels like to be hurt. To know that people have been cruel to you and there's nothing you can do but the, the bugs are not the answer to that!

[aelwyn_aberration]

[They absolutely could pay for just one box. Will they? Absolutely not.]

I mean, they're bound to. But I don't think they'll get the police involved over some minor shoplifting unless we cause a massive scene. [She hums, consideringly.] I could go distract them while you grab a box?

[sorser]

I think we're past you not hurting people, yeah. Open your eyes and look at what you're really doing. Does it look like you're helping anyone?

But it isn't too late to stop. You don't owe anyone anything, especially not like this.

[myfavoritemurder]

Darling, if anyone's told you that I have a good reputation, they're mixing me up with someone else.

[myfavoritemurder]

[Oh, goodie; it is, isn't it. Callisto grins, delighted by the prospect, and makes grabby hands for the light string.]

Then give it here.

[The plug goes in the wall, and... nothing out of the ordinary happens. She frowns down at the untainted lights, clearly disappointed.]

... Well, I could still tell you, but that would make it lose some of its punch.

and then life ate my brain

[graveyounglady]

I thought he might be, but he seemed real certain. He runs some sort of shop on ground touched by the gods in his world, though. Reckon that might be having an effect on him. All sorts of strange things happen when they're involved. We got burned up to crisps in a dream with one of his gods, and killed by roosters in a dream with one of mine. Wonder if any of that was even a little real, powers reaching through the veil.

[She hums thoughtfully.]

You been getting enough trancing then? Or is there... something anyone could do to help you with it, if you ain't?

[graveyounglady]

What about Bonnie? She's helping folk, right? Maybe we should be focusing on helping her, in turn. The place she's got... it ain't in a good state, is it? Seems like if there're enough of us with time on our hands between missions, we could do something about that. Fix it up. Get something real going outside of ADI.

Not that I'm saying I don't trust them, either. The housing they got for us is real nice. But it just seems like... well... they don't got an eye for strategy sometimes. If they're really looking to solve a problem, there are some tools they ain't using that I think they could without ending the world like they seem to think they're going to.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Hmm, that's possible. Sounds a bit like here, honestly. Though, I don't think you'd want to encounter a lot of the gods from my world either. They're at best horribly dull, at worst extremely volatile and dangerous.

[She wishes the Nightmare King made it so she didn't need to trance. No, it just meant he had free access to her dreams. There's probably other gods who do that, though. She smiles, though, when Mercy offers. She could say something flirtatious here, but she'd feel bad.]

I'll be fine. But if it'll put your mind more at ease, we can keep each-other company some nights?

[aelwyn_aberration]

Hmm. [Throwing their resources in with Bonnie and making her operation more organized is actually... quite an intriguing idea. She's not sure she can fully say she trusts Bonnie either, but at least she seems to be making use of what she does have.] That's an excellent idea, Mercy. She'd probably need both help and funding, but yes, she's at least not bound by their arbitrary rules.

I think ADI's problems largely lie in their deeply black and white thinking, and the... I suppose casual assumptions that come with experience, which just leads them to be stagnant and conservative. From what we've seen so far, they're pretty useless at stopping threats before they've actively started coming for them.

[graveyounglady]

"That don't seem... sensible." It's bizarre and nonsensical, in fact. But maybe it ties into the whole thing she's found where many product here seem to be poorly made, even when they're relatively expensive. Or identical to a different type of the same thing. The clothes are especially confusing.

"As for the Spring Tide, they're another god. Preside over healing and the spring, itself. The order I'm joining's traveling clerics. We go around Amia helping folk who need it. Found out about them from one of their clerics coming through my village and helping with a sickness. You don't got wandering folk like that?"

[worthallthis]

"Not here. Where I come from. Here I don't aim to kill unless it's specifically required. Or they're trying to kill me, first." Or someone needs put out of their misery. He did that, in the bug warehouse. It kind of sucked, actually. He doesn't like killing civilians.

Clearly, Winter doesn't need the curse of these lights to overshare awful things.

Though there still are cursed lights to content with. He finishes with the current string of lights, and leans over to the plug. "This might make us say things," he warns, just in case this is one of the bad ones.

[abrightboy]

"She's a good person to learn from. Very organized. Very good at explaining. Did you enjoy that? Making brownies?" Malcolm asks, watching him sidelong.

[worthallthis]

Winter looks furtively around. They're still in medical, though he can see the door out into the main hall. It's not safe yet. "I don't like or dislike things," he says, voice very careful. Maybe that's a lie, and it's a lie Malcolm could easily see through given the whole pie conversation, but it's a lie that keeps him safe.