apocalypsehowcomm | Event

Entry tags:

Event - Heavy

Heavy

➥ Deep

Photo from the inside of a snow/ice cavern. There is a blue light filtering in from a small entrance.
(cw: claustrophobia, existential dread, power loss, victim-blaming, time distortion, supernatural compulsion and hunger)

After the cold snap and plumbing issues comes the calm. For a few days, at least, nothing seems to break. Or break more than normal where the Flophouse is concerned. A heavy snow sweeps through and covers the streets. Not a blizzard, but thick white fluff that forms a blanket overnight. The snowplows aren't prepared and it's simply… quiet. People stay indoors, waiting for the weather to clear a bit. There are light flurries throughout the next few days, topping off the snowfall, and for the most part, the city just shuts down.

Even ADI puts out a notice that employees should stay home. Stay safe, stay cocooned in what warmth you have. Just… stay. Each day the message comes out from a generic work email, help@adi.com:

Shelter in place. No work today. Stay safe. We'll get by without you.

The next day is the same. The snow piles higher overnight, covering windows and freezing doors shut.

Shelter in place. No work today. Stay safe. We're s̴̳͘͠ͅt̶̨͂̍r̵̯̼͊͝ŭ̷͚̳g̶̠͋̓g̴̳̱̔͘l̸̤̻̎i̷̭͑͠ń̵̗͜͝g̷̤͂, but we'll get by.

Day after day. Frost creeps into the corridors of the ADI housing complex and the Flophouse. There is no food or other supplies coming and it feels like the hours are stretching out more and more.

Shelter in place. No work today. S̴̬̓t̸͉̿a̴̫̿ỳ̸͉ ̸̠̉s̸̲͆a̶͙͊f̶̢̏ē̷̤. We can't keep doing this, but we have to.

Attempts to leave the housing areas will be met with walls of snow that appear to be impossibly high. Around the flophouse, especially, it's as though they've been placed into the bottom of an icy hole. The walls stretch up higher than anyone can climb or fly, with only a pinprick of bluish light coming down from the opening above, deeper than anyone can dig through. Not even a magical portal or beam of heat can get through. There's just a wall of snow and/or ice through the portal and more snow beyond the beam. What's more, anyone who has supernatural abilities or is tied to a patron, even those not actively trying to feed that patron, will find themselves feeling increasingly drained, like something is sapping away whatever reserves they have, leaving them hungrier and hungrier, their powers waning by the minute, with a very limited set of options to feed upon.

S̸͉͗ḣ̷̦ȩ̵͒l̷͈̍t̸͎̽e̵̺̓ř̵̠ in place. No work today. S̴̬̓t̸͉̿a̴̫̿ỳ̸͉ ̸̠̉s̸̲͆a̶͙͊f̶̢̏ē̷̤. Why aren't they coming? This is their fault.

S̶͔͆h̸̅ͅȅ̴̮l̵̬̈́t̷̯́e̴̥̐ř̷̙ ̶̳̕ì̷̲n̵͓͌ ̷̮̋p̵̟̈́l̶̢̎a̷̺͠c̷̻̈́ḙ̵̊.̷̦̇ ̴̬̀N̸͕͌o̵͎̊ work today. S̴̬̓t̸͉̿a̴̫̿ỳ̸͉ ̸̠̉s̸̲͆a̶͙͊f̶̢̏ē̷̤. Why aren't ỹ̸̡͐ͅô̷͕̫ù̶̟̣͊ coming? Ḟ̴͓i̷̤͗x̶̨͝ ̴̜͒t̵̯̅h̴͔͛i̸͖̽s̶̱̚!

((ooc: Plain text versions of all messages are located here (LINK). You can also hover your mouse over the distorted text for hover text translations.))

➥ Chasm

Photo with a heavily blurred background showing a city street with people walking during the winter. The foreground has small snowflakes falling.
(cw: warped perceptions, memory-loss, implied trauma, supernaturally-induced feelings of missing out)

You've missed a step.

After what seems an interminable time, someone is finally able to tunnel through, to get out of the massive snowy prison everyone has been trapped in and-

And the city looks normal. Checking the wall you just came through, it's not actually there. As soon as one person makes it out, the effect collapses for everyone. There's a wintry wonderland of Gloucester beyond, and it seems like things have gone on without everyone. But there is a sense in the air that something has happened, something earth-shattering that everyone missed out on.

People on the streets seem to have a look about them. Haunted? Something happened, but when they're questioned about it, they can't seem to come up with an answer as to what. They just seem… confused, overwhelmed. Yes, something happened. No, they can't tell you what. Weren't you here for it? Didn't you see it? Didn't you feel it? How could you have missed something that big?

That feeling will sit with characters as time passes, dragging down on them. It may even begin to feel like a physical weight for the most affected. You missed it. You could have done something to change things, but you missed it.

➥ Stuck

An African American man with a graying beard is shown in profile. He is hunched over and holding his head, clearly stressed in some way.
(cw: flooding; natural disasters; damage to homes, workplaces, and possessions; references to burial, suffocation, crushing, and murder; supernaturally induced anxiety, responsibility fatigue, and feelings of inadequacy; illness.)

The feeling of having missed something only intensifies back at ADI headquarters. It looks as though the storm itself attacked the building; several exterior doors have been broken off their hinges, ice expanded within the metal past its breaking point, and the expansive water damage and muck ground into the carpets, walls, and battered elevators conjure images of an indoor avalanche…or a glacier pushing its way through, slow but biting cold and utterly inexorable.

There's no time to dwell on what's happened, on the days of hunger and isolation nor whatever disaster occurred here. There's too much to do, too much to fix, one crisis after another. There's the obvious problem: the need to repair the building and proof it against the cold wind that still blows in across the foyer, but no matter one's work area there is more to do than can be done. Endless requests and projects flood in from every quarter, all of them urgent, all of them important. As soon as one thing is finished, three more problems emerge: contracts to manage, investigations to be made into reported phenomena, glitching computers to repair, vandals to repel from the gaping wound that is the lobby entrance in the middle of the night–the list goes on, and on, and on.

Rumors circulate, stories about a prisoner in the depths of the building's secret basements who disappeared into the crushing ice and grit that had filled the cells, disagreements about whether it was a rescue or if the unnamed prisoner was suffocated, snuffed out by some indiscriminately vengeful force. No one seems to know the truth; no one even seems to know the name of the prisoner, who they were, what they had done to end up there. No one has the time to look too deeply into it; even head of security Neil Grace, is caught leaping from task to task, never catching up long enough to turn his attention to the matter in any meaningful capacity.

The struggle to keep up, the futile effort to keep one's head above water, never relents. No matter one's priorities at work or at home, something is always wrong, always in need of attention, the knowledge of things undone needling at the edge of consciousness like a toothache in one's soul. The Flophouse is in a disastrous state worse even than ADI headquarters, a wild-eyed Bonnie all but pouncing on residents with an endless list of tasks to fix it, to make the building livable again. At the ADI apartments, exhausted caretaker Benny Holt seems to traipse up and down the halls at all hours of the day and night with his toolbelt, gaunt and exhausted and tapping at doors in reply to requests to fix plumbing, lighting, and water damage that never seem to stay fixed. Local staff and interdimensional residents alike begin to fall ill, bodies and minds burning out under the strain, but giving yourself time to rest and heal means piling more work on those around you.

There is no time. There is no rest. There is only the work you are failing to complete.

➥ Sink

A sunny day over small beach dunes. There is low-growing vegetation on some of the dunes.
(cw: claustrophobia, suffocation or near-suffocation)

As if that isn’t enough, there’s still investigative work to be done. Once again, it seems as if Coffins Beach is a site of interest, as ADI has been tipped off that there might be something (or things) in the water. Again.

For safety’s sake - and perhaps to make sure that no one collapses out there alone - pairs are sent out to the beach to keep an eye on the water and to see if anything interesting has washed up. Orders are to both watch the water and walk along the beaches and through the dunes nearby.

Watching the water doesn't seem to yield any results, no matter how long it's observed. Nothing washes ashore either. But then there's the dunes. Sooner or later, it seems like climbing them and walking among them is all there is to do. Anyone who has spent any time at Coffins Beach might notice that they seem a bit larger than they have been in months past. Not inconceivably, but noticeably. There are dunes tall enough to scale the sides up to the top, though some are still no more than little mounds.

It doesn't matter which, when you fall into it. Small hill or gentle mound, one minute you’re walking on the surface. The next minute, as you put your foot down, it begins to sink. It can't be sinking, of course, sand dunes on a beach don't have quicksand. They’re nothing but dense piles of sand. You can't fall into a sand dune.

You are falling into a sand dune. There’s a hole in the sand, just wide enough for your body and you have fallen into it. Perhaps you're a little bit lucky and your partner witnessed it. Maybe you aren't and you suddenly just disappear. It's a long fall, though, down a tube of sand that seems hard-packed around the edges. At first. The drop is just far enough that light can be seen from above, but not the top of the hole itself. Call out. You might be heard. And maybe your partner is already trying to get you out.

But the moment you hit the bottom, it seems like the hole becomes unstable. Especially if someone is above and trying to reach down. Even if they're not, though, sand begins to crumble from the edges and sides of the tunnel, falling down on the body trapped at the bottom of it. A slow trickle, not a burial. Not yet. Still, it could be, if rescue doesn't come, if the person left up above can't dig you out. Meanwhile, the sand falls and falls, pressing down on limbs and creeping up your body. It’s cold and struggling only seems to make the sand fall faster.

Surely you’ll be rescued before it covers you completely. Or soon after. Surely.

➥ 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 prompts should be sufficient and ordinary people will act like… ordinary people! You're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. Please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
DEEP (16-20 February) - Characters will be trapped in their homes for five days, confined to either the Flophouse or the individual apartment buildings within the ADI complex. It will feel like significantly longer, even for characters with fully accurate internal clocks. Travel outside of these bounds will be impossible, even with the use of supernatural abilities. The network will be fully operational; though, not the regular internet or anything beyond the internal ADI network. Characters will also receive periodic messages from help@adi.com begging for help, even as they order everyone to shelter in place.

Characters who are outside their homes when the snow starts will find they're able to get inside just fine, but will not be able to get out again. Characters may be trapped with people who are not their standard roommates/at their usual housing, if they're unlucky (or lucky).
CHASM (21-24 February) - The first character(s) to break through the snow barrier will feel an especially powerful weight fall upon them before there's suddenly just… nothing. The snow walls are gone. Even if another character was in the middle of digging through, the snow is just there one minute, then gone the next. Characters will experience a profound sense that they have missed something. This may dissipate within a day or maintain over several days. Anyone trying to question residents of the city will receive confusion and incredulity, but no answers. There is no indication that anyone seemed to notice the walls of snow. Even some of the natives at ADI will be perplexed. All non-native NPCs and some native NPCs will have experienced the same thing as the PC characters.
STUCK (21-28 February) - The need to be doing more than they can will be ever-present for all NPCs and player characters. Those who would choose to eschew responsibilities at work or try to reprioritize will find that there is always something in need of doing that is important to them, to the point where new problems may seem to arise in impossibly, almost cartoonishly quick succession. Tasks and problems can be mundane matters related to work, building repair, and living spaces; as well as minor supernatural occurrences similar to past Dogtown TDM prompts (players are welcome to make up small supernatural encounters; anything that would affect other characters beyond a single thread should be submitted as a player plot). Characters may find themselves feeling mentally foggy and struggling to focus on core issues in the face of this inundation of needs from the people and environment around them, and may fall sick from overwork. These effects will overlap with both the Chasm and Sink prompts.
SINK (24-28 February) - Characters who find themselves falling into one of the dunes will end up in what appears to be a vertical tunnel that is definitely too high to climb back out of, regardless of how tall the dune actually seemed to be when they were on top of it. The temperature of the sand is very cold and in addition to possible suffocation, characters may find themselves slowly freezing. Struggling or rescue attempts will quickly make the walls of the tunnel unstable. Additionally, the tunnel may not be exactly straight, depositing characters slightly or more than slightly off of their original falling point.

↬ Main Navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The restless energy of his roommate was almost as bad as the restlessness in himself. Usually, he could be patient, calm, but not...the last few days had been difficult. So when Manji (rough, deep voice, confident gait) throws open the window to start trying to clear the way out, Garner only has one question.

"What in Exa- what are you using to dig?" It's much more confused than judgmental, but the thing sounded...flat and metal, but not sturdy? Sturdy enough, he supposes. For his part, Garner doesn't hesitate to take up his glaive to help out.

It only takes a moment of feeling out the edges of the window before his blade joins in the digging at the ice. At least he was confident he had the endurance to keep this up for a while.

Edited 2022-02-17 21:09 (UTC)

"I dunno." Manji admits, holding out the baking tray and giving it a shake. "Couldn't find a real shovel and I only have so many swords in this place with no good weapon smith in town to fix 'em in I break or chip 'em." He grunts, slamming the tray back into the packed snow before dragging a bunch of it out onto the floor. That poor tray really isn't going to last very long.

He nods his head towards the glaive with appreciation. "Sure you want to be using that? Might dull it doing this sort of work."

He pauses in his work. “Huh…good point.” He hadn’t really thought about it.

“I’m not used to towns without even a whetstone at hand.” He flips the weapon over and covers the blades end with his leather-wrapped palm. “This will have to do unless there’s something in here to light on fire.”

They’d need kindling and flint, but it wasn’t like they had fire magic available. At least, he didn’t.

“Don’t suppose you have fire magic.”

"This place." He scoffs at the topic they were speaking about, but also grateful to have someone else who understands. "For all the advancements they seem to talk about here they lack so many basics!" Or at least as far as Manji sees it and what he deems to be the basics.

Although that mention of magic has something gnawing at the back of his mind once again. "No, no real magic to my name." Just holy worms that make him immortal. "What about you? Do you have magic of any kind?" How do you feed it? Is the question dancing on his tongue that he dare not ask right away.

He couldn't even claim to have noticed how many basics it lacked when he couldn't see them, but a lot of what he'd asked after had been met with awkward assurances the 'shouldn't need that here' or 'we'll see what we can do.' It was...confusing. At least he wasn't the only one.

"Some. Most of it won't help here and, in fact, one ability of mine would likely only make more ice, so I think it best we don't try that." Even beyond the warnings not to use his abilities except in the most dire of circumstances lest he...feed something. He was still turning that part over for himself. Still, this felt somewhat dire.

"I can hurt things with light and cold, I can make things with blood bloat up and hurt themselves, and I can shake the earth near me...the rest applies even less, so I think we're leftwith mundane options."

"Can I ask you something, then? Have you-- you know? Tried to feed the thing that makes your powers work here?" Even with the question asked Manji can feel that familiar claw at his stomach and mind. He stops shovelling for a bit; suddenly feeling a tired as he waits for an answer. "And if you haven't; do you think you will?"

Garner stills as he considers the question. The answer was easy in both cases, but he thought it over all the same. There was no way to soften it.

"I don't know. I don't believe so, not intentionally." He turns to start in at the ice again with the slightly pointed butt of the glaive. "But...yes. I will if I need to. I imagine I will, in time."

He'd taken up his abilities as a means to an end and while that end wasn't here, they were still his tools and there was still a job to be done here. He wouldn't discard a useful tool simply because it might be viewed as bad.

"Why?"

"You know what you gotta do to feed it, right?" Manji returns to digging. Scraping out as much snow as he can with each pull. "You have to scare someone. Give them nightmares that will last forever." Okay, so now he's mostly just being dramatic. "You really going to be able to do something like that to someone?"

He's quiet as he works, letting the rhythmic thunk of their excavation fill the space of his thoughts.

"Yes." He finally breaks the work-filled silence. "If it means being able to help here, being able to be useful to find the things hurting people, I will do what I must."

"So a hurting some to save more situation?" He mumbles thoughtfully. Could he---? No, it wouldn't be the same for him. No one here would benefit from his immortality except for himself.

"Your abilities are that useful then?" It's not said in an accusing sort of way. Simply casual and curious. His curse is the closest to real magic he's ever come across. What his new roommate can do sounds much more impressive.

He pauses, his breathing still largely even despite the exertion, but he gives that it's due consideration. "I don't need them, I'm quite physically strong and I know the worth of my mind, but to refuse to use all of my abilities when they could prove necessary is to hobble myself and those around me unnecessarily. I am sorry for the people I will likely hurt, but if it takes us closer to our goal, then I must accept it is worth it."

He turns his face in Manji's direction, clouded eyes not quite looking at him. "Would you disagree? I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on the matter. An opinion is a useless thing on it's own."

"I don't know." Manji hums. Taking a moment to pile some of the snow onto the baking tray so he can dump it into the sink. Eventually returning to the dig. "I wouldn't have anything that could be useful to others. So I'd just be scaring people for my own benefit. That doesn't really seem worth it." He's still debating on if he believes this person's altruistic intentions. In his lifetime he's never found anyone who actually did things for the good of others over themselves.

"Hm...that is good reasoning. I suppose we will see, life takes odd turns sometimes." He turns back to the work at hand as he continues. "Like being spirited off to another plane in the middle of the day."

At least he had a decent idea now that his roommate was a good man. He sounded broad and possibly imposing in form, but that was rarely a sign of anything beyond the obvious stature. This was something measurable.

He pauses as he makes his next strike, a thought occurring to him. "Ah...the bed sheets. If we could generate a spark, we could wrap a set around the end of my glaive and set them ablaze to try and weaken the ice?"

Manji likes to think that he's an awful person. It's easier to excuse the awful things he's done if he just thinks of himself as evil, but deep down he does care about trying to do the right thing. "It does. Although, honestly, I'm not even sure how I'd try to scare someone. I know how to be intimidating, but that's different."

Setting the baking sheet aside, Manji nods his head. "Yeah, that could work. Hang on. I'll go grab the blankets. I'm sure I could start a fire."

Garner nods and sets the glaive aside to stretch his hands instead. While his companion is gone, he unwraps the long strip of leather from around his left hand and forearm to better stretch the muscles there before setting to rewrap it before he can hear Manji's return. No use in what he's sure is an off-putting sight, though perhaps he was in decent company, he could hear the stilted way the other man moved, like he favored or had no use of one of his arms.

A conversation for another time, surely. When Manji is back, Garner takes up his glaive by the sharp side once more and offers the end for the sheets. "Shall we try it? I will likely need your eyes to ensure the flame is only near the ice and not touching, I suspect the fabric becoming damp would do similar to our efforts."

"Got nothin' else to lose." He moves about, eventually lighting a small flame. "Alright, move it forward. I'll tell you when to stop."

Garner nods, but does as he's told, moving the glaive out slowly until he hears word from Manji. At least he can hold his arms up in the same position a while.

"If this does nothing, I suppose we'll be back to square one. I'm hopeful it will at least make the job easier."

"There, stop. Hold it there for a bit." He peers down the hole they've made so far. "Might take a couple days to get through all this snow. I haven't seen this sort of pile up in... well, I'm not sure I've ever seen it snow this crazily before."

He stops when he's told and waits, shifting his stance a bit to lock in his muscles. It doesn't stop him from smiling.

"Really? It looks about standard to me."

That earns a hearty laugh out of Manji. One that last for several seconds instead of his gruff huff that he usually makes when he hears something amusing. "Yeah! I guess it would look that way to you, huh?! HA!"

Manji's laugh causes Garner to grin. He was most definitely pleased with himself, but more pleased to make the other man laugh. It was half the reason he said such things: levity.

"I have a unique perspective, it's true." And his new friend sounded like he had a nice smile. Good.

And thus they work on digging/melting their way out of the snow? Unless there is something more you'd like them to talk about?

And thus they eventually get through with stubborn creativity!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event - Heavy

Deep

Re: Deep

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject