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apocalypsehowcomm2022-02-16 05:36 am
- !event,
- bucky barnes (mcu),
- kate cordello (original),
- katrina (siren),
- manji (blade of the immortal),
- martin blackwood (tma),
- mercy graves (original),
- yelena belova (mcu),
- zz_andrew jaeger (original),
- zz_anthony j. crowley (good omens),
- zz_aziraphale (good omens),
- zz_beauregard lionett (critical role),
- zz_bruno madrigal (encanto),
- zz_caduceus clay (critical role),
- zz_callisto (xena: warrior princess),
- zz_donna noble (doctor who),
- zz_garner cinderbrooke (original)
Event - Heavy
(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.))
(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.
(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.
(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.
- 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.
beauregard | ota, will match your format!
[Having been at the Fantasy North Pole before showing up in this place, Beau's no stranger to snow that will literally bury someone. At first, it's really not that bad- the pipes and all the issues in the Flophouse earlier this month were worse. But as the days tick on, something is... wrong. Something is very wrong.
As the days go on, she feels like she's getting sick. It's harder to focus, to balance her mind-- it feels foggy and difficult. There's a gnawing hunger in her that feels insatiable, even though she's been stuck for such a longer time than this without food. It doesn't make sense. She doesn't know what's going on, and she doesn't know how to fix it.
Everyone else, well, you're beginning to get the distinct feeling of being very, very watched. No matter where you might be in the Flophouse, you can suddenly feel like you're being looked at by every bit of air around and in you for just a second until you turn and see-- Beau. Just Beau. She's not even armed, just sort of... leaning on the nearest wall or piece of furniture, giving you a quick but otherwise exhausted wave.]
Hey, uh. Hey. Sorry, I feel like shit, just... trying to do something.
[What is she trying to do?? Who knows. Maybe she'll tell you if you ask.]
ii. [stuck] are you feeling the hot flash? / gonna get hit with the aftermath
[If anyone tries to talk to Beau in the library, no you didn't if you want to live. Anyone in the library or looking for her can find her in an absolute pile of books, heavy bags under her eyes and frown plastered fully on her face. Everyone looks pretty miserable right now, but she's just pissed at this stage. There's multiple notebooks surrounding her, other books open, and if you get close she just snaps her head up and sighs.]
What. Just-- what??
[Her temper seems a bit shorter than normal, right now.]
iii. [sink] we stomp our feet / we make it loud / i'm bearing down
[She's trying to get herself out and not go completely insane by taking the mission at the beach. At least it's just-- walking, right? It's just walking. Maybe she'll get lucky and she can hit something hard enough to get rid of the tension in her everything. Besides, the ocean is it's own kind of calm, and it reminds her of friends she's sorely missing to lean on right now.
Eventually, she'll look towards whoever her partner is, pointing to one of the dunes.]
Hey, I'm gonna sit for a minute. Hang on.
[At which point she will jump towards the top of the dune, and... fucking disappear. All that anyone else will hear is a scream of anger- if you run over to look, Beau has her fists plunged into the side of either wall of the hole, slowing her descent but not... stopping it. It should be stopping it. She looks so mad as she looks up towards the sky.]
I fucking hate this place!
iv. [wildcard] it's my trophy, my battle, my ring / and you're hitting your limit
[ooc: Want a different prompt or to talk something out? Hit me up via DM, at
iii
All this is to say is that she's been like a tiger in a cage during this entire mission trip, stalking up and down the length of the beach, muttering to herself and continually running a harried hand through her hair. She barely looks up when Beau announces her intention to take a rest. She does, however, look up at the scream, and when she sees the collapsed dune, she immediately hustles over.]
Beau!
[Her tone definitely sounds more like anger than concern.]
no subject
One minute, one fucking minute I wanna get some view on the situation and it's the fucking sand! It's the goddamn sand! Everything is so fucked I swear I'm gonna--
[Wait, why is she sinking? Beau tries to grip harder at the sides, putting the pressure to suspend herself between them, but despite it seeming hard packed it's just... not stopping. It's moving like water, no traction, no stopping.]
Something's not-- it's not moving like sand! It's a trap!
no subject
[Callisto guesses immediately, because, well - guess what she has personal experience with. She doesn't have rope, or a whip, or anything else that she could toss down for Beau to grab onto, but she does have... hmmm.
Less than a minute later, one end of a makeshift "rope" will be thrown Beau's way. It's fashioned out of Callisto's coat and snowpants, tied leg-to-arm.]
no subject
Beau goes for the clothes when they're offered, trying to pull her arms out together while her legs are anchored to keep her in place. But, despite all of her safe attempts, the ground seems to morph as she moves; her feet are fine and steady when she takes out her arms, but the moment she grabs on there's suddenly no anchor beneath them. The instant surge of gravity into bare air is too disorienting for her to hold on, and in moments she's dropping again, screaming out a variety of curses as she goes.
At least she does hit the... bottom? It's a tight end of it, but she seems to have finally stopped sinking, even though she's curled in on her ass with her knees to her chest.]
This shit does not act like quicksand! This is magic, this is absolutely fucking magic!
no subject
Can you reach? What's down there, Tartarus?
[Har har! Jokes!]
no subject
There's nothing! It's just-- dirt, sand, nothing!
[She tries to reach up again, but as soon as she does, she can feel a slight tremor in the hole and sand starts to pour in on her head, making her sputter and tilt her chin back down.]
Fuck, and now it's in my mouth. You're probably gonna need to dig, it's not stable!
no subject
[But all the same, she starts to dig - just using her hands, in absence of any tools.]
no subject
[Well that's not the best advice to be giving someone who needs to be saving you, and she knows this. Beau curses again, tucking her head down to her shirt to take a deep breath. She can do this. She's trained to handle worse. She can do this.]
Find somebody who can blow this whole hole out then!
no subject
[She starts to slip, then snarls, digging her fingers into the shifting sand in an effort to gain some sort of traction. It works, but only just. She keeps furiously digging regardless.]
Is this helping?!
no subject
[Everything keeps falling, and there's sand starting to overcome her hips. She's got to keep going or she's fucked.]
Is there anything else on the sand up there? Or is the top clear? I'm gonna-- try going sideways or something!
no subject
[She hisses again as she scrambles backwards, narrowly avoiding being casualty to another cave-in.]
But hurry!
no subject
Fuck!
[She's just going up now, as much as she can, even though she can't see and doesn't feel like she's moving. But Callisto, at least, will see disturbances in the sand a few feet from where Beau fell, suggesting she's not too far from the top even though she doesn't know it.]
no subject
[This is so annoying, so insane, so ridiculous. Callisto shoots out a hand and clamps onto Beau's shoulder - nails digging in, gripping hard, making no attempt to be gentle. But she'll do her best to haul her up and out, shoving at her roughly once her upper body is free, trying to roll her away from the hole.]
no subject
But then there's a hand, and the pain grounds her to grit her teeth and kick up- and once she sees the light she knows she's got this. As Callisto rolls away, Beau all but rolls herself out of the hole, wiggling until she's almost lying down and then traveling with a wider surface area until the ground feels more solid.
Once she's anywhere that isn't trying to eat her, she just ends up on her back, breathing hard. She's absolutely covered in sand, and spits a bit of it out of her mouth.]
That. Fucking. Sucked.
no subject
[Callisto snaps, though it's without any seriously-meant bite. She will verbally blame Beau for this not because she actually holds her at fault, or even because she's angry with her, but because she's essentially always angry on some level or another and Beau is currently a nice, convenient target.
After a moment or two of lying out flat on her back, breathing heavily, she finally pushes herself up on her elbows.]
What now?
no subject
[Same back at you, Callisto. She takes a moment to breathe herself before wiping the back of her hand across some of her clothes, and then across her mouth to make it slightly less grainy.]
I mean. Now for me is getting off all this fucking sand and then telling ADI their reports about the water were stupid and wrong. Probably with some fuck you words in there.
no subject
[It's a bit too deadpan a comment to be properly teasing, but there's no condemnation to it, either. Swear away, Beau. You give ADI a well-deserved what-for.
Callisto bends, filters some sand through her fingers as if to prove to herself that at least this patch of it is normal, and then straightens again, moving to head out.]
Besides, I don't think most of them like me much.
no subject
[She's gonna march into someone's office and shake all the sand from her pants out on their desk. She won't, probably. But like, she might.]
I don't think they like me a lot either, but I get results. So. As long as I actually give them a report it can say fuck as many times as I want it to, and it is gonna say fuck so many times.
[Eventhough she doesn't especially want to, Beau sits up, brushing a bit more sand out of her tits.]
Fucking horror bullshit ruining things I like. Figures. Thanks for not running off, though.
(no subject)
(no subject)
deep
He's hungry in a way he hasn't felt in a while. He tries casting once and regrets it immediately. So he can't help anyone, and he can't help himself, and they're still trapped.
He's trying to find some peace in one of the common rooms, trying to meditate or--something. Trying to feel the Wildmother or his unexpected patron here. But very quickly he feels like someone is watching him in a way that makes it impossible to drop into a quiet state. So he opens his eyes and finds Beau staring at him from the doorway.]
Hey. [He meets her gaze steadily.] What are you trying to do?
i'm so sorry im so late on this jfc
Sorry, I... just. Trying to focus on something. Anything.
[That what she was trying to do, right? Just... hold on to a thought, feel put together, look at someone and really study them to ground herself. But even that feels wrong somehow in a way she can't quite place.]
You feeling it too?
no worries friend
Yeah, [he says after a moment.] Yeah, I'm feeling... something.
[That's barely an answer, but it's not a lie. Beau knows better than anyone how bad he is at that.]
no subject
Do you have any... just any fucking clue what's going on? This is some magic thing, right, it's... gotta be some bullshit.
[If he doesn't move, she'll lean on him, even though they both probably need the support right now.]
no subject
I don't know.
[That's probably not the answer she wants, but it's the one he has. Caduceus lets Beau lean into him and he leans a little on her, too.]
That disguise ADI puts on me whenever I'm out... I feel like it's coming and going? Caught myself in the mirror earlier and I didn't look all that human. How do I look now?
no subject
You look pretty fuzzy to me, dude. Something's breaking out there. Or already broken.
[That's her best guess, at least. She still doesn't know how ADI even does half the stuff it does, but that's the difficult thing in figuring out the line between magic and technology.]
Maybe this place is... like Aeor. Just cursed as hell. Causes... weird stuff to happen.