Event - Material Goods

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Material Goods

➥ By Hook or By Crook

(cw: potential for violence, criminal activity, bombs/bomb threats, injury, incarceration, police brutality)

It's not difficult to identify the crates marked for Things of Beauty. They're colorful things, some might even say garish. Whoever chose them has a particular sort of taste, and it seems to be stuck somewhere in the 70s. They're stacked up on one of the docks, waiting to be loaded into delivery trucks by burly dock workers who look alternately annoyed by the hideous crates and disturbed by something about them. Anyone stopping to eavesdrop will hear one of them mention that he heard the crates murmuring. The concerns will be dismissed quickly as they move to load up the trucks, though.

The boat that's brought these over seems… confusingly small, like it's something local, rather than anything international. Getting onto the ship, itself, would be impossible during the day, and it seems to leave after having dropped off the boxes, heading out of port and off to places unknown. Anyone checking the ship's name–The Tarabroo–will quickly find it's not a ship that seems to be appropriately registered. The Tarabroo, as an internet search, does bring up some interesting information about a black hound with two snouts that oozes gasoline and breathes fire. It seems to be a legend associated with the Appalachian region.

There are, of course, many ways to disrupt the supply chain, and while stopping the actual boat that brought things isn't an option, there's slashing tires, incapacitating drivers, and attempting to shift or destroy cargo. However you try to stop things, best be careful not to get caught. There's security on the docks day and night, and they don't take kindly to intruders. You might find yourself boxed, tased, or otherwise incapacitated, if caught, and arrested by the police if a longshoreman doesn't decide to just punt you into the harbor for getting in their way. Enjoy the very icy swim.

Or maybe you're going the more… call in a bomb threat, or a gas leak, or otherwise cause a mess of paperwork route. It's not a simple task, either way. The people dealing with the bureaucracy at the docks seem to be uncannily well-organized and are quick to dismiss obvious lies. There might be more luck with bomb threats and gas leak notices at Things of Beauty, but after one or two, the police are going to catch wise to lies and start looking into exactly who has been making those calls.

For those who are caught, either in the act on the docks or making calls that tie up police resources, you'll find yourself chucked into the city jail for a night, maybe with someone else who was caught. The police seem to have varying degrees of what's considered appropriate use of force against those they catch, especially once they find out they're associated with ADI. You're horning in on their turf and making their lives difficult? How about they leave the lights glaring on you all night while playing some really annoying music and taking away any semblance of comfort? If you got arrested by a particularly angry officer, you might even end up with some bruises or a bloody nose for your trouble, before you're released.

➥ Comfortably Numb

(cw: body horror, injury (hands/arms), bleeding, mouths where there should not be mouths, supernatural drugging/apathy)

Despite best efforts, at least some of the product intended for Things of Beauty do actually make it there. Not many, but a small amount. ADI is tasking volunteers with the mission of acquiring whatever product has made it into the hands of the public… by whatever means necessary. (Which will likely amount to stealing.)

What is the product? Well, it appears to be… phone cases that have the approximate appearance and texture of flesh. Maybe even human flesh. With so much apparently persuasive marketing ahead of time for a product that will “change lives”, the fight to acquire one of these phone cases is intense and people are paying absurdly high prices for them. Those that aren’t able to buy the phone cases from the store itself can be seen offering even more money to those walking away with the precious goods.

Their efforts are all apparently in vain, though. Once someone has their hands on a phone case, they seem to be even more obsessed with it than they were with obtaining it. Any attempts to get them to relinquish the object–either legally or through less honest means–are rebuffed. They also appear to be very reluctant to let the cases physically leave their hands as well.

Even when the cases start growing mouths. Toothy mouths that are employed to bite at their hands. If people notice this disturbing occurrence, they don’t appear to care at all and continue to jealously guard their possession even as it makes a mess of their hands. Victims of these cases can be identified by the blood covering their hands, if they don’t happen to be holding on to the case.

Tracking down and retrieving all the cases will take a few weeks. It also poses a bit of a logistical challenge. Seeing the victims being utterly unaware or uncaring of their mangled hands doesn’t make any sense… until you physically come into contact with one of the cases. Then the reason becomes crystal clear (or will become crystal clear, in hindsight.) Touching them–even with gloved or otherwise protected hands–quickly begins to produce both an obsession with keeping possession of the object and an indifference to pain of all kinds, including emotional. Disposing of them becomes unthinkable, which poses something of a challenge for the mission characters have been given. However, if the cases are taken out of a person’s possession, both the numbing and possessive effects quickly wear off. They can then be destroyed or even just thrown away. Hopefully where no one else will be able to find them again.

➥ Feed Me, Kahlil

(cw: severe emotional distress, emotional blackmail, internalized victim blaming, kidnapping, injury (hands/arms))

Things are not beautiful at Things of Beauty. In the days leading up to the launch the proprietor, Kahlil Nassir, sporadically haunts the place with a wide-eyed, tearful look and bandaged hands he tries to hide under long sleeves, his presence peppering the place with outbursts at complaining customers and his own numb, blank-faced employees alike. Weirder than that, perhaps, is how often he isn't seen around his shop at the height of the new product launch and the days following. ADI's investigations department has been having trouble sniffing out just where he's been going; it appears that he hasn't gone home in at least half a week by the time they finally give up on subtlety.

On the morning of January 18th, Kahlil is hauled kicking and screaming into an interrogation room on floor B1 of ADI headquarters. It seems that a pair of native ADI investigators took it upon themselves to stake out Things of Beauty and caught him pulling into the alley behind the shop several hours before opening time. He was driving a car that wasn't his own and that investigators suspect might be stolen, and at the time they apprehended him they also confiscated several cardboard boxes full of more fleshy phone cases that had been in the car's trunk.

This rather heavy-handed approach has not been immediately fruitful. Kahlil is clearly terrified but has been refusing to answer questions. Tensions are high at ADI; not all staff believe that bringing him in was the correct move, and removing him from the situation doesn't seem likely to have completely cut off the supply chain or sales of the phone cases. He's here now, though, and information is needed. Anyone who thinks they can get him to talk will be allowed to try, though higher ups make it clear that torture is not permitted.

➥ The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

(cw: body horror, uncanny valley, pregnancy imagery, loss of skin, implied animal death, implied human death, unsanitary conditions, self-doubt/body image issues)

The warehouse is virtually silent when people enter. No sounds of industrial machinery, no signs that anyone is there, just the low hum of electric lighting and a heater running. The entryway appears to be utterly unremarkable, and it's not until moving deeper in that people might begin to notice something off. It starts with a smell, the scent of rotten, putrid meat, and the deeper into the heart of the warehouse one travels, the more pronounced that scent grows. The walls, too, take on a moist, unpleasant sheen, turning from an industrial gray to something that looks almost… living, flesh-like. Touching the walls, people will find they feel warm and quiver slightly. It's like touching the inside of a mouth. The doorways, too, seem to be warped, appearing to be more like gullets than anything else. They squeeze inward whenever someone passes through, shrinking just a tiny bit more with each passage. If there are too many people going in, they may find it significantly harder than they expected to leave.

There's a sound in the air, carried faintly through vents, and growing louder as people move toward the center of the warehouse. It's a bleating sound, like there are animals being kept in this place. Finally entering into a large central room, the source of the sound becomes clear: This room is infested floor-to-ceiling with what at first appear to be plants with fuzzy white flowers. They're roughly the size of fists, and in the form of giant puffballs on thick, glistening green stalks. The bleating is louder in this room and seems to be coming from the flowers. Anyone checking closer will find that the flowers are actually malformed lambs, their stalks more like umbilical cords growing out of their stomachs, propping them up.

All around the room, there are scattered evidence of animals being fed to the lambs. Blood and bits of bone are visible in the field of flesh. For the keen-eyed, they might also spot what appears to be some blood-stained clothes and larger bones.

The lambs will nip at anyone reaching for them, and those who manage to pick one up without being bitten will be in for an unpleasant surprise. The lambs split open, once they're 'picked,' sloughing off their skins and transforming into… the phone flesh cases being sold at Things of Beauty. These 'freshly formed' phone cases seem to have a different effect than their packaged and shipped counterparts. Instead of biting, they whisper.

They whisper your deepest insecurity into your mind. They promise they can take that away if you just hold them, if you just feed them. Unfortunately, these early stage phone cases haven't developed a numbing effect, yet, and when they bite, it hurts, but maybe it's worth if for them to be able to take away the thing plaguing you most?

Those not waylaid by the cases will have a tricky time dealing with the plants themselves. They don't seem to respond to being burned with fires fizzling out on their uncomfortably moist bodies and within the warehouse that pulses almost like it's a living thing itself. There are other options, though. Poison maybe? Hacking them to pieces? Eating them? The warehouse has all of the standard safety equipment one might think of. How would you go about murdering a field of fleshy flowers that grows back at a disturbingly rapid pace? The lambs seem to be able to regrow from any part of a live plant.

➥ 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!
  
  
• BY HOOK OR BY CROOK (15-16 January) - Information on the Tarabroo as a cryptid is sparse, but stories seem to tie its appearance to disasters involving mines, particularly anything where a collapse or explosion led to the release of a tailings pond. These ponds hold the poisonous cast offs generated during mining operations and are highly toxic. When they break and run downstream, it can poison a landscape for miles.
  
  Anyone attempting to look into the crates at the docks will get a sneak preview of the flesh phone cases, but not have time to really do much with them.
  
  In terms of the dock disruptions, players are encouraged to get creative! Not every officer will be abusive if your character ends up arrested, but some will be. Characters will be held overnight, then released with a fine ranging from $500-$2,000. No complaints to the police from those who are jailed will be taken seriously, but ADI will help to pay fines... provided you're working with them regularly.
  
  
• COMFORTABLY NUMB (16-31 January) - The effects of the phone cases are not instantaneous, but they do come on quickly enough that characters attempting to steal and dispose of them on their own will have serious difficulties in accomplishing the second part of the task. The phones can be dealt with in any way that destroys them except for the use of fire (thus neutralizing their effect) or brought into ADI for disposal. (Or they just can be thrown away, though that does run the risk of them being rediscovered and is not ADI’s preference.)
  
  
• FEED ME, KAHLIL (18 January) - Characters will have the opportunity to talk to Kahlil in this prompt. Please respond to the NPC Threads comment below for responses from him. Shortly after he's brought in, investigations reveal that the car he was driving belongs to Hakeem Williams, a retired bank teller who was reported missing last week. Legally-minded individuals might realize that a private investigations company like ADI "taking Kahlil into custody" constitutes kidnapping–Kahlil is certainly aware of that fact.
  
  
• THE VEGETABLE LAMB OF TARTARY (18-19 January) - While the vegetable lambs' whispering will mainly focus on body image insecurities, if your character does not have those, they will hear the lambs whispering about other insecurities that plague them. Fire is the only option that will not work to kill the lambs, and they're numerous enough that no one person will be able to wipe them all out, whatever method they're using. Once the lambs are killed, the walls of the factory will revert to normal walls. Until then, they will appear to be uncomfortably close to real flesh and will bleed if cut. The 'blood' that comes out will appear to be putrid, black, and corrosive.

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Comments

beau | ota, will match format!

[lesbeau]

i. [hook or crook] sometimes the silence is fun / sometimes the words taste sweeter on the tip of my tongue

[This mission feels like it was made for her, as soon as she hears it. For as much as she's become a great spy, excellent negotiator, and smart as a whip, you can never really take the petty theft out of Beau. But being on the docks is giving her another sort of idea for gathering information that she hasn't done for quite a while.

What this means is if you come to the docks, you might see a... slightly familiar woman chatting up one of the dockworkers. Considering her usual look, it's surprising how absolutely feminine Beau can appear when her usual undercut is let down and she's tied her usual sashes as a skirt and a drape. Meet Tracy, everyone, who is laughing at something a dockworker has just said and is gently touching his face.]

Ohmygod, that is like, so interesting! And this stuff is like, brand new? You couldn't give me a little sneaky peaky?

[If you know Beau, this probably looks hilarious. If you don't, there seems to be someone trying to jones their way into something in one of those boxes. Do you help, laugh, or just watch? The choice is yours.]

ii. [feed me kahlil] they beat the bitter of war where nobody won

[For as much as Beau is doing her own investigations, she's also hanging close to the interrogation room, waiting on anyone to come in or out. Usually she'll give them a little nod on the way in, but when they leave, she'll draw attention her way.]

So. Get anything from him?

[You could just go off without answering her, of course- she's not blocking the hall or anything- but she does make sure to lock eyes with you, ensure she's well seen and not ignored.]

iii. [the vegetable lamb of tartary] we were just casualties / in this casual fight, given up so casually

Oh, come on.

[Beau's seen and been to some fucked up places, but this one is really racking high on the 'what the absolute fuck' scenario. She's looking at the lamb stalks, poking at one with her staff. After a few bleats, she finally decides to just straight-up whack one like a pinata to try and beat it off the wall.]

Does anybody else feel like this is just getting stupid? Or is it just me?

iv. [wildcard] sometimes there isn't the time or the energy

[Want another prompt? Hit me up at cancerously, discord cancerously#6043, or via PM and we can plot something out!]

i

[myfavoritemurder]

[Thanks for the distraction, Beau. While the staff is otherwise occupied, Callisto takes the opportunity to saunter past a row of delivery trucks, sticking her dagger into one of the back tires of every single one. Once that's done, she casually tucks the blade back into the pocket of her winter coat, pats down the side of her snow pants to make sure the outline of her sword isn't visible, and heads over.]

Oh, just give her what she wants.

[She says to the dock worker, wrinkling her nose.]

You two are making me sick.

[lesbeau]

[Thank god someone's doing something while she ends up in this totally weird conversation. The dockworker is still wobbling, but both of them turn to look at Callisto as she comes over. Beau, not yet knowing that this other woman is on her team, is not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.]

See? Even she thinks I should get a little treat. C'mon buddy, just open one of those boxes for... us?

[She curls a little bit of her hair around her finger and sort of looks at Callisto, egging her on in the ruse, even though it seems incredibly unlikely the other woman will participate.]

[myfavoritemurder]

Yes, kind sir; do it for us.

[Callisto is capable of pretending to be normal, but she isn't very good at it, and this right here is about the extent of her skills - and so when she smiles at the dock worker, it doesn't look encouraging or friendly or flirty. It looks menacing.]

And if you do, maybe we'll let you walk out of here alive.

[What was that ADI had told everyone about needing to do this with subtlety? lol, oops.]

[lesbeau]

[Beau fully almost laughs as the conversation takes a turn, because she had no idea what she was expecting but this was so much better than any plan she could've had. The dockworker immediately pales, and this time Callisto is helped along by Beau's stare looking... maybe too unsettling all of a sudden, like she knows all of his sins and is going to publish them in the newspaper. His pupils flit between the both of them, and then he simply turns tail and runs. For a moment, Beau thinks he's going to careen right into the ocean, but at the last moment he veers off and disappears behind some crates.

The moment he's out of eyesight, she just starts laughing, voice dropping from it's previous preppy tone into something lower and more blunt.]

Holy fuck, that was the best. Really thought you might stab him.

[She's already pulling up her hair, revealing the shaved underside, to get it back in her normal messy topknot.]

Hopefully he won't want to move more of those boxes, but sucks he wouldn't pry one up. I swear I heard one of those fuckers snarl at me.

aaa i'm sorry for the delay here, but i love these two already and am up for continuing if you are

[myfavoritemurder]

[Beau's shift in demeanor is a surprise - and a good one. The grin Callisto tosses her isn't exactly friendly either - it never is - but unlike the one she'd given the dock worker, it's as genuine as it is sharp.]

I would have stabbed him.

[She says over her shoulder as she heads for the pile of boxes, shifting the hood of her coat just enough to give Beau a glimpse of the hilt of her sword.]

He saved his skin by running away. And I have a dagger, too, which-- hm. Might come in handy with growling boxes, don't you think?

bro yes I am so down for it, as you can see sometimes i also go to space LMAO

[lesbeau]

[Beau snorts a much uglier sound as she finishes getting her hair out of her face, walking after and keeping a keen eye on the weapon as it's revealed. Good to keep note of how many ways someone could kill you, and it's always more fun when it's another woman she's got her eye on like that.]

You might need the sword, honestly. They're pretty tough. But we also might not have time. Those guys are crawling all over and there's a lot of people around this world that care if you kill somebody.

[She looks like she's from another world where she isn't used to the same kind of cops they have here. It was a learning curve for Beau, too.]

But if we can do some quietly, it'll sure as shit be better than nothing.

mooood

[myfavoritemurder]

I don't care what the people on this world care about.

[Callisto scoffs, though mercy of mercies, the sword stays holstered for now. She stalks closer, winding her way around the boxes, listening for growling.]

And you? Do you care if I kill somebody?

sometimes things Occur

[lesbeau]

[Beau is now sort of giving her that look like 'okay, you absolute nutterbutter' but without much malice behind it. Look, she's all but married to a barbarian at home. Sometimes woman smash and it's good, actually.]

No, not really. It just makes shit harder. ADI can't protect you if you're convicted and then you're never getting out of here whether they figure it out or not.

[She's making a bet that's Callisto's goal, seeing as she's publicly denounced this planet already. It's as much as she's liable to get.]

Trust me, I love a good head cracking, but you gotta be more discreet here. Or save it for Entity stuff.

[myfavoritemurder]

Well, then, good thing this is probably--

[She prods one of the boxes with the tip of her dagger.]

-- "Entity stuff". This one's quiet, though.

[Disappointing. Time to move on to the next.]

[lesbeau]

[Frankly, at that, she just shrugs. Far be it from her to try and reign this girl in, like, fuck it. If they get in trouble she'll deal with it when it happens.]

Yeah, this counts. Basically. Wish I knew more about which boxes to hit though.

[She walks to another, nudges it with her foot.]

If I had more people I'd just steal all of 'em and figure it out later.

[myfavoritemurder]

Where would you put them?

[She wonders, kneeling next to a crate and pressing her ear to it.]

Not in your home, right? Or do you-- oh.

[Hold up a moment.]

This one.

[lesbeau]

No, fuck no, ADI has basements for a reason--

[She stops as soon as Callisto does, ears listening hard for whatever it is she's hearing. The direction to the nearby crate makes it easy, and Beau crouches, pressing her ear to the edge.]

... Might be. Can't tell. Could be packed with other stuff to throw people off.

iii

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Aelwyn's revolver only has a chamber of six bullets in it, and while she's pretty sure she could just light these things on fire, she'd prefer not to waste her magic like that.

They murmur sweet promises into her ear, about being better, just like that, a complete and total alignment change. Or about power. Or about peace. Freedom from the fear in her gut.]

I'm with you on that one.

[She raises her gun and fires a bullet into one of the lamb stalks point blank. She's not that fucking dumb, thank you.] I miss when the monsters just looked fucking normal.

[lesbeau]

I mean, look, normal is like-- normal can be a lot of things. But this is the sort of shit you'd hear out of a cheap fortune teller.

[Beau is also in favor of lighting them on fire, but in the meantime, she'll just keep smacking one as it tries to talk and gets interrupted every two syllables by another thwack.]

We're getting into bog witches curse territory here. What's the point of it?

[aelwyn_aberration]

You know what this is reminding me of? Far Realm bullshit, Aberrations and the like. It's just bizarre and disgusting.

[She turns her nose up.] We're probably going to need to set them on fire. I don't really want to use my magic if I can help it, but if we could douse them with oil, I could shoot it?

[lesbeau]

Do you think it's gonna burn? With all... this.

[She gestures to the air, but then works to gather her thoughts.]

The water in here, I mean. It's... ugh, it's fucking moist. That shit doesn't take well.

[You know, the old survivalist thing, never light a fire with damp wood. All you get is smoke, and being in an enclosed area like this... well it'd be a shit idea.]

Ugh, I can't even beat this thing off the godd damn wall.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Aelwyn fires another bullet into one of the lambs, turning her nose up in disgust when the blood splatters onto her face.]

I don't know. God, I guess not... Lightning? God, I wish they'd just let us fucking use magic.

We might have to make a retreat and come back better equipped. Fire might not work but explosives will.

[lesbeau]

It would be easier if I could just-- hit-- hit the damn-- fuck!

[Well that's a very impressive whack as she smacks the thing off the wall and stomps it with her boot. But it doesn't seem dead, just... writhing. If anything, that's making her madder than the effort of gettig it off the wall.]

If it's so fuckin' wet, maybe ice is the trick. Freeze 'em and then split it. Bring in a bunch of snow or whatever.

[aelwyn_aberration]

[Beyond that being kind of a stupid plan for any number of reasons that seem obvious to Aelwyn, she does stop and consider... if they're so wet, fire's not the answer. Ice, maybe, but definitely not snow.

But there's something else.]

...Wouldn't electricity work better? Beau, get back. I have an idea.

[lesbeau]

[Listen, she's trying, but she's not a magic person. Most things she can just punch to death. But she doesn't need to be told twice, and takes the steps back to get out of Aelwyn's way.]

That's not going to kill us also with the, uh-- the water and our feet, right?

II

[henchgal]

"Would you believe there's a direct connection between what's going on with Khalil and unfortunate incidents at a coal mine in North Carolina?" A pause, as she remembers Beau's from someplace-not-Earth. "That's a 12-hour car drive southwest of here, maybe a bit more."

Meredith's feeling a wee bit triumphant with what she's been able to pin down, all without doing Khalil any harm. In fact, with any luck, he's probably relieved right now.

[lesbeau]

While Beau has learned the concept of cars, she doesn't actually know distances in terms of how long one would take you, so she has to assume it's a pretty far place that isn't here. It makes the whole thing a bit more confusing, but ultimately interesting that she has some kind of lead. So Beau raises an eyebrow, obviously interested.

"I'd believe anything at this point. What'd you get?"

cw: body horror, uncanny valley, implied animal death, similar to Vegetable Lamb prompt

[henchgal]

Meredith opens the file folder she's carrying with one hand, leaning on the wall and setting her cane against one of her legs while she pulls the facts from within.

"Khalil Nassir, struggling with the shop that originally belonged to his parents, accepted funds from a company called Faulkner, Yuan, Reid and Eames. Yes, the acronym is FYRE--which is only emphasized by the fact that his point of contact was an Ignatius von Brandt. That's almost as obvious a name as Fenix Down, really. Anyway, Brandt sent Nassir a plant. In his words, 'they're like flowers, except they're sheep and they eat meat'. If you pluck them, they fall apart, turn inside out and turn into phone cases."

She looks up at Beau--clearly she's a little proud of how much information she's gotten. "When they started spreading, he moved them from the basement of Things of Beauty to a warehouse; I have the address. He thought ahead enough to keep them as far away from residential areas as possible."

Of course, this doesn't explain the mine connection she mentioned yet, does it?

honestly continuing that cw probably through this thread, also i'm so sorry i disappeared for a bit

[lesbeau]

She takes out her own notebook, looking over what she has and taking notes of names as Meredith speaks and nodding as she goes.

"Alright, and... gonna guess the company owns a mine somewhere? Something we've heard about before?" That's at least what Beau is assuming, even though she still has questions- namely, why are these fire guys on about meat plants anyway? -but she'll wait on that until Meredith finishes.