Event- Siren

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Siren

➥ The Public Eye

(cw: potential body dysmorphia, loss of control, human-caused pollution, animals in distress/animal cruelty/injury to animals (specifically seabirds for one small portion of this prompt), body horror, uncanny valley)

Like most towns of an appreciable size in America, Gloucester, MA, is graced with something of an overabundance of video cameras. Perhaps even more-so than most small towns given the presence of ADI and the supernatural phenomenon that regularly plague the place. The mechanical eyes gaze silently out at the world, sentinels or sneaks, gathering information. And there is something very, very wrong with them.

It's not every camera. It's not even consistent among cameras, but every so often, perhaps related to whatever hacker has already been causing problems, something shifts. Those walking nearby (or even far from) a video camera will find their consciousness momentarily ripped from their bodies and transported into the camera's viewer. There, they'll be granted the vision of the camera, whether that's grainy black and white, full color, or maybe even night-vision. For those lucky enough to be transported to a camera near their own bodies, they will be able to see themselves twitching, moving irregularly, as if something is trying to gain control.

There seems to be no way to control the camera they're in. It is stationary or perhaps it moves in a set turning motion. Those trapped within have no control for the minute or so they seem to be transported. If they can take a moment to calm themselves and take advantage of this new perspective, of course… there might be rather interesting things to see, including:

• A massive, scaled form moving out in the deep water off of Gloucester's shoreline. With the night-vision capabilities granted by these particular visions, those trapped might even catch sight of strange figures swimming near the impossibly large creature. They throw… something at it and the vast creature thrashes, kicking up enormous waves that rocket toward the coast.
  
  
• Piles of garbage are cast up onto the beaches by some of the rogue waves that seem to be kicking up. Some of them move and almost appear to have a humanoid form before they simply fall apart, becoming a pile of simple rubbish.
  
  
• Unidentifiable figures in dark clothes are moving around the city at night, spray painting eyes in alleyways, across buildings, anywhere they can find that cameras might be able to see. If someone were to catch a glimpse as they were just finishing up their artwork, they might notice that the spray painted eye blinks.
  
  
• A small growth of horrible, lamb-esque plant creatures seems to have cropped up in an alleyway near Things of Beauty, one of the curiosity stores in town. There aren't a lot of them and they seem to be small and young. They're also in an out-of-the way spot that might be difficult to notice for more people.
  
  
• A group of youths appears to have found a weak point in the fencing around Dogtown. As dusk descends, they can be seen traveling into the closed park. It would seem some refuse to be deterred by law enforcement and ADI.
  
  
• Head of ADI Security, Neil Grace, seems to be spending his lunch hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays entering into an unmarked building to do… something. He enters and exits completely alone.
  
  
• Non-native (recently demoted) PR person, Reyes Amador, seems to be in some remote back alley in town some evenings. They have a large fishing hook that may be familiar to anyone who saw the flayed bodies on the beach. They also have a caged seagull with them. There's clear upset on their face as they reach into the cage and manage to plant the hook into the bird before quickly shutting and locking the cage. The bird goes wild within its confines, attempting to attack Reyes as they cover their face and appear to cry to themselves.
  
  

➥ Rogue Wave

(cw: thassalophobia, large creatures, drowning, flooding, (un)natural disasters, human-caused pollution, animals in distress/injury to animals)

rogue wave (n.) a random, enormous ocean wave that sometimes travels at an angle to prevailing seas.

The beaches are closed.

To be fair, the beaches have been closed since bodies started washing up on shore and left ADI's PR department working overtime to keep the grim scene out of national news. Now, though, the problem is rapidly becoming more vast than what horrors the sea dumps ashore: the ocean itself seems to be trying to relocate inland. The first rogue wave to hit the harbor early in the morning on August 16 is devastating enough on its own, battering boats against their docks and drowning one unfortunate fisherman who was swept out with the wave when it retreated. That incident alone would have been a freak occurrence, a tragic and frightening tale but ultimately a mundane one born of the unpredictability of the natural world.

But then the next rogue wave hits, and the next after that, and the next after that. They're not regular or predictable; the waves don't hit in the same place each time or at regular times. One day might be a reprieve of calm, and the next see massive waves battering the coast one after another. Gloucester is taking a beating, and the rest of the region is suffering along with the city. Homes and businesses on waterfront property are left abandoned in the face of unpredictable, uncaring destruction, and flooding extends inland. The air in Gloucester is thick with salt and humidity, the ground increasingly soggy underfoot as one nears the sea. ADI sends out custodial crews to batten down and place sandbags at headquarters and the housing complex. Thanks to ongoing repair efforts, Bonnie's Flophouse is, for once, not flooded, though Bonnie and the Visionary are pessimistically preparing for the eventuality of having to evacuate their basement apartment once again. Neighbors around Gloucester are in similar distress; for the civic-minded there is no end of work for volunteers in water-proofing buildings or helping salvage that which has already flooded.

The why of it all will take some legwork to discover. Within a few days ADI manages to spin up a story about seismological disturbances on the ocean floor, which...actually isn't that far from the truth, as far as anyone can initially tell. The rogue waves all originate from roughly the same patch of open ocean, and the best view from shore is at the far end of Coffin Beach. Investigators are strongly cautioned to have an escape plan to reach high ground at a moment's notice, and anyone known to lack outdoor survival skills will be officially discouraged from going. Observation efforts will be hit or miss; one might strain one's eyes for hours and see nothing but a few erratic ocean swells.

Get lucky enough to see more, and your luck might quickly run out. The creature that appears offshore might be mistaken for a whale breaching in the first few seconds, before one realizes that the shape is wrong, what one mistook for the whale's body resolving into the reptilian head of a serpent whose body goes on and on and on, heralding the realization that it is so much further away than one first thought. The creature is impossibly huge, a leviathan that could swallow a cargo ship whole. Its coils rise from the surface of the ocean before crashing back down with a low, bone-rattling bellow of pain. From this distance the human-sized creatures that surround it and provide the apparent source of its distress are mere specks.

Hope you remember your exit plan. A mere flick of this serpent's tail would be enough to capsize a ship, and this is a full-body thrash of pain. The waves offshore swell as the creature submerges, a wall of dark water heading all too quickly toward the beach, carrying yet more garbage with it.

➥ Thicker Than Water

(cw: thassalophobia, large creatures, claustrophobia, blood, siren sounds in the first link, hallucinated death)

Though few, the towering forms of the signal tower creatures still stalk about the edges of the town, largely still and passive but for the blaring tones they occasionally cause. They could almost be forgotten about, a new and eerie installation to Gloucester's skyline but nothing too distressing as long as you don’t look up, right? At least until the day a new sound issues from some of the phones.

The effect is immediate. The smell of rusted metal and a gentle chirp of electronic equipment mixing with a less than comforting creek of metal on all sides. One second you’re on the city street and the next, you’re in the cramped and stale-aired interior of a submarine. Large pipes line the sides of the sub and two bare-bulbs in metal cages light the interior with a harsh glare. Oxygen and depth meters frame the single porthole window to the outside above an instrument panel that displays coordinates, a compass, and simple controls for piloting the rust-encrusted submarine.

When you look around, the back of the sub is only a few paces away, the space clearly meant for no more than one or two people. At the back is a small, blank, video display surrounded by additional pressure gauges. A large map sits beside it, the topography of it faded and nearly useless, but the lines of the coordinate grid can just be made out. Between the map and the display, is a rectangular button backlit in dull orange. When pressed, the display struggles to life with a whirring sound before finally displaying an image of the empty ocean ahead in black and white.

Luckily, you’re not alone here and you and your new partner can quickly find instructions laying around; though, the edges seem warped and encrusted with a rust-red and flaky substance. It’s an easy task: move to the listed coordinates and angle, snap a picture of the anomaly, move on to the next. Simple. You certainly don’t seem to have much of a choice as any hatches appear to be welded shut and the forward window is covered by a sheet of metal as the sub lurches to life. Though, not before you perhaps notice the ocean outside isn’t a deep blue as you might expect, but an unsettling red.

Probably fine.

Eventually, you reach depth and idle, the submarine now left in your capable hands. Those more willing to explore will find the ocean around them entirely unfamiliar. While rocky outcroppings make maneuvering hazardous, there’s also the odd, sharp plantlife to consider and the occasional tube-like shapes that wave about and knock against the sub like over-eager worms. Those particularly lucky might even catch sight of something else out there. Something unfathomably huge. Whether the pair of you decide to follow instructions or not, in time, the creaking of the metal sharpens and feels as if it presses in on you, like it might just crumble. Seams warp and shift and the bottom of the sub begins to slowly fill with a thick, fresh, blood.

The oxygen meter steadily drops and as you move or don’t, something seems to knock against the outside of the metal walls, surely too thin to protect you from whatever lurks outside. Which will get to you first: whatever lives in blood or the threat of suffocation? Perhaps if you finish your task quickly, you won’t need to find out.

➥ Nereid

(cw: human-caused pollution, animals in peril, potential animal death, potential drowning)
(Additional Note: Thank you to Alexis, Katrina's player, for reviewing and contributing to this prompt.)

It's taken a few days to arrange for the boat and organize their forces, but an expedition out into deeper water is underway, spearheaded by Katrina, to investigate the flayed bodies that have been washing up on shore. Sable, ADI's primary contact at the Docks, has volunteered her small vessel for the task. It might be dangerous, but with the waves lashing Gloucester's banks and infrastructure, it's either help with this or deal with the fact she's not going to have a place to do business in town soon.

With the bodies cropping up at night, volunteers who take to the water are outfitted with night-vision goggles, harpoon spears, knives, and nets. However, the boat heads out during the day for anyone there to freedive. "This is not race for speed or depth," Katrina advises. "Be calm. Do not waste breath or strength. Save both for when you fight. If creatures here are like ones from my home, they are strong, and they fight. Do not swim here if you are afraid. Do not push your body." For weaker swimmers, there's plenty to do on the boat under Sable's watchful eye. Keeping a lookout, prepping the nets in case there's something that needs to be hauled aboard, and spotting and disentangling sea creatures that might need some help with whatever plastic or line that's been caught on them are the primary duties.

The boat sets anchor, keeping an eye out for any rogue waves, and it's into the water for the freedivers. The first thing that becomes abundantly clear is that there is a lot of trash off the coast of Gloucester. Far more than seems reasonable, in fact. It's as though someone tipped a cargo ship containing heaps of the stuff out nearby. The second thing to become clear is that at least some of the trash is alive. The mermaids, if you could call them that, seem to be made of the stuff. Their long fingers are made of hooks and broken bits of metal, their webbing is plastic bags and discarded netting, their hair is fishing line and wires. Whatever has been thrown into the ocean has been pulled together into these merciless beings. Any diver grabbed by one will need to think quickly and fight hard to escape, or they'll find themselves rapidly pulled deeper, limbs entangled.

It's not a completely one-sided fight. The harpoon spears seem to stun them momentarily when pieces are knocked apart or off. But it's getting a net over the mermaids and hauling them up into the open air that seems to kill them. Mermaids raised out of the water for more than a few seconds break apart into lifeless trash. Maybe get some trash skimmers. There's a lot of clean-up to do out here.

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Players are welcome to play background 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! Although, the people of Gloucester seem to be becoming more and more aware of supernatural phenomenon and they are frightened by it. You're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. Also, please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
  
  
• THE PUBLIC EYE (16-31 August) - Characters who do not have actual bodies can still have their consciousness hijacked and pulled into a camera. In those instances, if they can see where their 'body' was, they'll simply be able to see the device that their ghostly form is usually attached to. This seems to be an entirely supernatural phenomenon with no coding or commands being executed to cause this. Cameras that are checked will appear to be completely ordinary to the technological eye. Those who might have some kind of supernatural sense that they are feeding might get some read off of various cameras that indicate they might be about to snag someone's consciousness. The various items that characters observe in cameras are welcome to be followed up on. For prompts that involve unnamed NPCs, players are welcome to assume interactions and take control of those NPCs. Anyone wishing to try to fix something (like the vegetable lamb infestation) will be encouraged to take care of it directly by ADI with another team member. Named NPCs can be found and/or confronted in the NPC Top Level below.
  
  
• ROGUE WAVE (16-31 August) - Characters will have the opportunity to assist locals in a variety of ways; players are welcome to invent their own scenarios for assisting local residents and businesses (as well as shoring up ADI property) and play any unnamed NPCs as desired. Characters who are able to get a better look at the serpent through magical or technological means will see that it has fishhooks and other detritus stabbed into its scales and that the creatures harassing it are the same mermaids seen in the Nereid prompt. The serpent's thrashing and subsequent rogue waves will diminish as the mermaids are killed off following the events of that prompt.
  
  
• THICKER THAN WATER (16-31 August) - No more than two characters will be trapped in the submarine at the same time, players are welcome to come up with alien plant life and structures they might find in the camera, but there will be very little life found beyond the encounters with the leviathan. Bones of impossibly huge creatures, brief snaps of a fin or a scale, huge teeth, and other such oddities may also be spotted at the listed coordinates. Characters can either finish the assignment or simply wait it out, but the pressure will increase, filling the chamber slowly with blood. Before they can drown, however, the sub will be crushed either through pressure or through the jaws of the creature, and characters will find themselves suddenly jolted awake again where they’d been before the siren sounded. No time (or very little time) appears to have passed. They will be unharmed; though, they might find blood still lingering under their nails or trickling from the corner of their mouths or eyes.
  
  
• NEREID (19 August) - Sable's boat, the Minx is a large vessel with plenty of room for as many characters as might like to come on this adventure. Characters do not have to get into the water and will be relatively safe as long as they stay in the boat. Sea creatures tangled with the garbage include things like seabirds, sea turtles, and even a few dolphins, seals, and sharks. Sable will be able to guide characters on how to safely catch creatures to free them or to help them from a safe distance. There's plenty of deck space for if and when characters need to start hauling up mermaids. Once characters provide info on what's going on, ADI will take efforts to start a large-scale clean-up operation with multiple rented vessels to dispose of the mermaids. Players are welcome to have their characters assisting with those endeavors throughout the end of the month.

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(frozen comment) QUESTIONS

[apocalypsehowmods]

Please respond Here

NPC Threads

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Please post here if you would like your character to interact with Neil Grace or Reyes Amador. Please place the relevant NPC name in the subject line.

Neil Grace

[clavesregni]

[Twice now Caitlyn's found herself looking through the cameras dotted around town, and twice she's seen the man she recognizes as ADI's head of security go alone into a building with no signs or other indications of its purpose. It's enough to pique her curiosity, so she plans to follow him and gather more information on the building before she confronts him about something that may be perfectly innocent.

Of course, she's never actually tailed anyone before. She's purchased a hat with a brim long enough to shadow her face – and a picture of red socks sewn on the front for some reason - and a pair of dark tinted glasses, and is keeping a little ways back from Neil. That should, she hopes, make her inconspicuous enough to avoid his notice.]

Reyes Amador

[edalyn]

[Eda's getting fed up with technology lately, first the phones and now the cameras. But she's intrigued by at least one thing she saw. She vaguely recognized the person in the alley, but they haven't interacted much.

On the one hand, it's none of her business. She herself is at least a minor menace to the local wildlife population, so she can't really be one to judge. Something about the hook and the bird raging in the confined space feels... crueler than simply being a predator, but she knows she might just be biased on that.

On the other hand: she's curious. She doesn't really trust the ADI at the best of times, and while she can't say much about not following all the rules, she still wants to know what everyone else is up to.

After spotting them on the cameras, she starts to keep an eye out for Reyes, and when she manages to spot them in person on another night, she does her best to follow them without attracting attention.]

reyes please!

[lowficharm]

[Despite the suspicion Reyes has given them since his arrival, Martin would be remiss not to say that he's been a little bit worried about them lately. In the last year they seem to have been getting more reclusive, moving down from responsibility and avoiding any personal questions. He's not sure they're friends, really, but after he catches the vision of them in the camera he can't just sit by and do nothing. He has to at least try to do something.

So he keeps an eye out for Reyes, waiting for them to head out into a random direction or start ducking around corners, and then step behind them so they (hopefully) can't run off.]

Hey, it-- Reyes! Interesting to, uhm, to see you around here, yeah?

Reyes

[the_archivist]

[The Eye has shown him many things. He hates that being in those cameras even for a brief time had felt... comforting. Given him a taste of the omniscience that he had experienced in his own apocalypse. The power of it, the knowledge.

He might be a little drunk off it, his hunger settling lazy and near sated in the back of his mind. Perhaps that's why he enters the alleyway.]

What is it? Extinction? That's what I'd assume.

Neil

[fightinginfinity]

[ Tony is surprised, but not at all displeased with the new development. He's been trying to commandeer the cameras across town for a while now, but has only been met over and over again with the same fucking 'ghost code' that he's spent far too much time trying to crack since the first day he arrived here. And for someone who can hack the CIA as easily as any kid with WiFi can trace an IP address, this remains quite the strain on his pride as well as a gigantic pain in the ass. Where's Strange when you need him?

But for once the supernatural powers that be seem to be operating in his favor. It's unexpected, jarring and frankly horrifying at first, obviously, but once Tony realizes what's happening he does his best to try and record everything he sees whenever he finds himself suddenly transmuted into a lens. There's a hell of a lot to take in, but one thing that sticks out to Tony in particular is the familiar face of ADI's Head of Security skulking about during his lunch break like a bandit in the night.

No one who does that kind of thing is up to anything good, so before Tony sets out to confront Grace he is sure to arm himself with some of the weaponry he has managed to design in this place while his suit languishes in disrepair. This time it's a far less sleek, significantly downgraded version of his watch gauntlet--which, despite its decreased firepower, should be more than enough to hold Tony over against a single human opponent.

Of course it's hidden well, literally up his sleeve just in case it becomes necessary. It probably won't, but who knows? Tony has no way to feel around the situation ahead of time; he doesn't exactly know this guy beyond a few casual encounters around the office (and, of course, what information Tony has been able to dig up about him in ADI's systems). Regardless of whichever way this ends up going, Tony goes into it as affable as always. ]

Mr. Grace? Tony Stark, from IT. [ Tony grins and gives a little wave, but his entire demeanor has an air of 'I'm on to you'. He slips his hands in his pockets in a faux-casual sort of way, rocking back and forth on his heels as he looks around the area. ] Hell of a spot to have lunch. This place just open up? Bet it's got one of those eclectic menus, I've always hated those. Just gimme a greasy burger from a 24/7 diner and I'm all set, you know?

Katrina | Siren | buncha nereids starters - will match format

[twicelost]

1: before a dive

[ Normally an intense and controlled person, Katrina exudes confidence and focus as she checks her weapons before each dive. (She hates that she needs breaks. She hates how weak she's become since being stuck on land here in order to avoid feeding the things that would see her kind and her world wiped out. But sacrifices must be made.)

But on top of the intensity is a shade of tension. It shows in how she sharpens the point of her spear or the blade of her knife, borderline rushing. People could die here. The creatures in the water might be like her, merely trying to survive. Or maybe she'll die, and then who will help her people?

If she's not too busy with preparing foe a dive, she'll say to anyone who approaches- ]

In the ocean, it is kill or die. Do not die.


2: shortly after a dive

[ On deck, she stares at the horizon almost blankly.

It feels wrong to be in the water in this body, but there's too much at stake to risk feeding the Entities so she can swim in her true form again. Wolf Pen showed her just how bad things could get if the Entities aren't stopped. She won't be the cause of anything like that.

She also thinks about the creatures. These... mermaids with bodies made of trash. They're nothing like her kind. There's no satisfaction in killing them the way they must be killed. Everything feels wrong. ]

This is strange ocean. [ she says, and the fact that she's speaking her mind at all outside of a conversation is perhaps a worrying sign, if whoever hears her knows her. Thinking out loud is a human thing, and human she is not.

Right? ]



3: animals

In my home [ she says as she works to free a turtle or a dolphin or any other animal they've caught ] I would not do this. I would kill and eat this prey.

[ But for all that there's a hint of a predator's hunger in her voice, Katrina does not make any move to feast on their unintentional catches. She just feels like sharing. Possibly because part of her is afraid she's forgetting what it's like to be the apex predator of the ocean. Certainly not because she's assimilating or anxious or anything like that gosh. ]


4: other

[ what did i miss? want something more specific? when she's not diving, she can help haul up trash mermaids. if she gets hungry around all this fresh food she refuses to eat, she'll snack on something on deck, hydrate, maybe warm up in the sun. hmu if you want to plot something out for the nereids prompt or handwave for any of the other prompts! ]

1

[abrightboy]

"I'm not going in there," Malcolm tells her. "But I did come down to see if you needed any other kind of... help."

He heard she was leading an expedition. He couldn't just stay home.

3

[edalyn]

Yeah, well, it's one thing when you're hungry. [Titan knows, Eda isn't one to judge. Especially not these days, especially when a part of her is getting hungry around the animals too. Fortunately, the dolphin she's helping to hold still and untangle netting off of doesn't fall under the sort of prey she's usually interested in.]

Getting eaten's just part of life. But these things don't really deserve... this. [She gives the creature a small pat on the snout.]

Enough garbage washes up in my world I guess I'm not surprised there's this much here. [But at home she's generally content scavenging interesting shiny objects--or occasionally the animals that have adapted to it, which she finds a bit inspirational. This on the other hand is a little more depressing than she expected.]

4

[thedoctorsmate]

"Bloody hell, how many of these things are there?" Donna sees Katrina's form in the water, herding the trash mermaid toward the back of the ship where it's been opened up to make it easier to haul the things onto the deck. She readies a net.

"Coming at you, Katrina!" she calls, when the real and proper, thank you very much, mermaid surfaces for a moment. Donna's going to be tossing the net out. They just need to pen the trash creature in it and get it out. There's already a growing mound of refuse that Sable's trying to manage on the deck, trying to avoid having it become a hazard.

2

[clavesregni]

[Caitlyn was an eager volunteer when the opportunity to further investigate the source of the flayed bodies presented itself. One dive in the ocean, though, and she found herself fixated on the memory of nearly drowning in the canal. She'd been able to spend barely thirty seconds underwater before hauling herself back onto the boat, miserably frustrated with herself for not being of more use.

Thankfully, she thought to bring her camera with her. She's sifting through the trash, taking pictures and hoping to find something, anything, that might shed light on the mermaids' origins or intentions, when she hears Katrina speak.]

Is it? It doesn't seem much stranger than the ocean I live by. Lived by. At home. Apart from the sentient garbage.

3

[citizendetective]

I mean, you could?

[Misty says, looking unconcernedly down at the thrashing dolphin. She hasn't been doing any dives herself - she can swim, but in a "visits the community pool sometimes" way, not a "is capable of free-diving in the ocean and fighting monstrous creatures while doing so" way. Still, there's plenty to do on the boat: she's a particularly good lookout, if she doesn't say so herself.

After a moment's hesitation, she kneels down, helping Katrina cut at the net.]

So what's the matter, no appetite today? Or, I guess it is true that you aren't supposed to swim for an hour after eating...

2

[rainewhispers]

This trek didn't exactly sit well with them. None of this did. The flayed bodies were more than simply unsettling, but everything about this place seemed to contradict what they knew about the human realm. Which wasn't much but.. it was certainly stranger than what little Eda had let on to them.

They're leaning on the rail of the deck, looking out over the ocean as the waves lap at the ship. Someone near them speaks and Raine looks over, seeing the head of this excursion staring out as well.

"I feel like the answer to this question is.. obvious but, what do you mean? Admittedly it's pretty hard to discern what's strange here, some of these things feel normal in the scope of my own realm but.. something about it feels wrong, even in comparison."

2!

[lesbeau]

[Unlike many others here, Beau actually has done some freediving before and gotten into some fist-fights with undead, underwater creatures trying to kill her. Or well, her friends, and her as a consequence. Despite that, she's come to really love the ocean, so she finds herself looking off over it too when Katrina speaks. It makes her lift her head and look over, take in the other woman's features a bit before she responds.]

Sounds like you've seen a lot of oceans then. So far every one I've seen had something try to kill me in it, so... they haven't been that different.

3.

[punched_hitler]

[Steve doesn't have a lot of experience with marine life, but he's smart and capable enough to make himself useful in other ways between dives.

He glances at her, frowning a little as they work to disentangle a particularly feisty dolphin.] Oh yeah? Do they... taste good? I've never had dolphin. I think I'd feel weird eating something this smart, but that's just me.

Marcy Graves | Original | OTA

[graveyounglady]

I. The Public Eye
"I need your help, cousin," she says to whomever she can find within the halls of ADI. New or old, she just needs someone. Being in the camera had been a problem. It had been horrible, claustrophobic, wretched problem. But what she'd seen? That's worse. And it's something that needs seeing to immediately. They really don't have time for this on top of all the flooding she's trying to help fight. "Please."

II. Rogue Wave
"Run."

A single word with so much meaning these days, but especially right now. Mercy latches onto the hand of the person who has accompanied her to the beach and turns tail to flee as the tidal wave-esque wave builds on its way toward shore. She'd been hoping to find out more, to discover the source of the flooding--praise the gods they'd decided to work on the plumbing this month--but this? This isn't something she can do anything about. That's a god out in the water, as far as she can tell, and a right angry, twitchy one, at that.

There are dunes above Coffin beach that she makes for with her companion, dragging them along if she has to. They just need to put up a barrier between themselves and the wall of water, at a minimum. Just to break the force. She want manage getting wet, but not being swept out to sea again. She cannot handle that again.

III. Thicker Than Water - Closed to Martin
At this point, Mercy is very seriously considering chucking her phone in a drawer in the apartment and not taking it out for a few weeks. It might make things a little harder, but she's lived the majority of her life without, and she's happy to go back to that if the thing is going to keep making those ear-splitting noises. Except that the noise is different this time, the signal just slightly off.

Between one blink and the next, she finds herself transported into some sort of machine. There are pipes and valves, things she's come to associate with the exposed plumbing at Bonnie's, but these seem to be bleeding rust at the edges, even more than her pipes are. The space is narrow, low, and she has to stoop slightly to avoid banging her head as she spins around to see-

"Martin?" He's very close... and it doesn't look like there's a great deal of space beyond him.

I

[clavesregni]

'Cousin' is an unusual form of address, and it takes Caitlyn a moment to realize that it's aimed at her. But as soon as she sees how distressed the woman is, she immediately sets aside what she was doing.

"What's the matter, what happened?"

Garner | Original | OTA

[whisperedone]

The Public Eye
It's a disorienting thing to have been without sight for nearly two years and then suddenly being pulled into something where all you can do is see. The first time it happens, he tries to move or speak, but all he seems to be able to do is watch through warped 'eyes' as the city block is surveyed. There's a word for this thing, as it has been described to him, but he's far too distracted to recall it.

For the first time since his arrival at the beginning of the year, he can see Gloucester and all the ways it's similar and vastly different than he might have expected. He doesn't know how long he's 'trapped' like that, but long enough to notice more than one interaction in his field of view. Faces he couldn't recognize, but voices and laughter he knows well. He his best to commit the faces to memory. He might not have another chance.

The second time it happens, he was not walking alone and, this time, he can see himself. Or at least what he thinks he remembers he looks like. His body jerks and twitches as though resisting something and it's surreal and terrible but...detached. He can't feel it, just see his companion left to handle it.


Rogue Wave
He had been politely encouraged not to investigate, that there would be no way for him to help without being able to actually see what was causing the disturbance. A valid point. So he took his phone and another person with him.

The exit strategy was simple: run very quickly, but until or unless they needed it, Garner was in no particular rush heading down Coffin Beach towards where someone had reported being able to see something.

"Do you see anything yet?"


Thicker Than Water
He's very nearly to the point of not bringing his phone with him at all. The sounds sometimes coming from it, seemingly at random, are loud and jarring and disorienting. He's not even entirely sure what's causing it.
The sound that plays now as he's heading down the sidewalk is new and just as alarming. Garner freezes in place, hoping it will pass soon and not leave his sensitive ears ringing this time.

When it does pass, he very nearly thinks it's taken his hearing entirely. It's too quiet compared to the street, but there's a creak and a low hum and- another person? It feels like when he'd first arrived here, the city street sounds suddenly vanished when dropped into one of the office rooms in ADI.

Gods willing it was so kind twice...
Garner reaches out a tentative hand in the attempt to find either another person or a wall, anything to orientate himself.

"Where are we now?"

[[OOC: For the Public Eye prompt, if you want to leave something for Garner to see/notice, feel free to describe something he might notice and some way he might recognize them when he's blind again, he'll come find them about it when he can!]]

Thicker Than Water

[edalyn]

While Eda may have had very little trouble adjusting to the phones in this world, right now she's feeling just about done with them. She seriously contemplates throwing hers into the sea, but it seems like there's enough garbage in there without her help.

Still, she's planning to leave hers at the apartment today, a plan which very nearly works, except that just as she's leaving said apartment she turns out to be within earshot of an absolutely horrible noise. Her ears fold back a bit and she covers them, muttering something about how she's going to throw her phone into the sea after all.

And then a wave of dizziness hits her as she's very suddenly and disorientingly somewhere else. She braces by grabbing the nearest wall and starts to take in her surroundings when she feels a hand brush against her. She jumps slightly and starts to give an irritated growl, but the voice is familiar and so is the man, once she actually turns.

"...Hell if I know." It's not exactly the most helpful answer, but she's wondering much the same.

Caitlyn Kiramman | Arcane | OTA

[clavesregni]

I. Rogue Wave | Exercising One's Civic Duty

[Caitlyn is no stranger to dogs, but the ones she's used to are not quite so small, yippy, and desperate to taste the inside of her nose. But this dog's owner insisted that he be carried because he's too afraid of water to even get his paws wet. So Caitlyn carries him.

She's volunteered to help those with waterfront property move inland until the ocean calms down. She was expecting to carry things, but she wasn't expecting those things to be so alive and squirmy.

She turns to the other volunteer who came with her.]

Would you hold him for a moment?


II. Rogue Wave | Observation Duty

[Those lacking in outdoor survival skills should not attempt to investigate the source of the waves had gone in one ear and out the other. Caitlyn's used to people telling her not to investigate things, and she's not about to start listening to them now.

Her just-in-case back-up plan is to run as fast as possible. She has long legs. There's no reason to think she can't outrun a wave.]

What do you make of that?

[She lowers her binoculars, offering them to her companion and pointing out to sea, where something that vaguely resembles a whale appears to have breached the surface.]


III. Thicker Than Water

[Caitlyn had just been getting used to the phone and now it's started acting up. She's set it aside while she sits quietly in a park eating her lunch, idly scribbling in a notebook, when it starts making yet another odd noise. Annoyed, she reaches for it, but before she can grab it the whole world lurches sideways and she finds herself knocking into a metal wall with a dull clang.

Scowling, she rights herself, only to realize she has to hunch over or risk banging her head on the ceiling. Equally as quickly, she comes to her second realization: she's not alone in this cramped space.

Somewhere between exasperation and trepidation, she asks,]

Have you any idea where we are?


IV. Nereid

[Diving in the ocean has turned out to be more difficult than Caitlyn thought. Apparently nearly drowning has a demoralizing effect. But she's forced herself to go underwater a few times now, because she needs answers. Where did these mermaids come from, and, more importantly, why are they flaying people? How are they choosing their victims? One cannot effectively combat an enemy that one doesn't understand.

There's no guarantee she'll get any answers, of course, but she has to try.

She's smart enough to have brought a harpoon gun, and to go in the company of another person.

The water beneath the boat is in shadow, but she spots something moving down there. A quick gesture to her fellow diver to draw their attention to the movement, and she's swimming down towards it.]

rogue wave, civic duty

[friendsfordinner]

Absolutely not, [ Hickey says, as he looks down at the small dog with an expression of disgust. Someone is obviously not a dog person. ]

The small ones are mean little shits. I'm not going to get bit.

Cornelius Hickey | The Terror | ota

[friendsfordinner]

rogue wave - preparation
You know what you do when you work Facilities for ADI? You get drafted to help pile up sandbags and batten down the hatches. You know who absolutely does not want to work and help pile up sandbags and batten down the hatches? Cornelius Hickey.

The longer you hang out with Hickey, the more obvious it becomes the man is allergic to doing his damn job. He'll move a sandbag every now and then. He'll do work when someone is watching him. But he takes cigarette breaks more often than not and when there's a break in the weather, when the clouds part to reveal some sunlight, he simply leans against a bag of sandbags, sunning himself like a lizard might. This is a man who really doesn't want to do any physical labor.

rogue wave - the actual event
'Anyone known to lack outdoor survival skills will be officially discouraged from going' his ass. There's something out there. Hickey wants to see what it is. So, he scrounges up a waterproof bag from somewhere, brings a flashlight, a little snack, and some binoculars with him and heads out to Coffin Beach.

"That thing better get closer," he muses, looking out at the monster, with a little frown. "It'd be suicide to take a ship out to it right now." And, more than anything else, he wants to see what the hell it is.

thicker than water
Hickey still doesn't know much about phones, but he knows they aren't supposed to make that noise. He goes to check on his phone—

—and then is somewhere else. It takes him a moment to regain his bearings before he looks around the cabin. A compass. Pipes. Meters. Coordinates. Hickey might not know what a submarine is or how it works, but he can recognize nautical coordinates when he sees them.

"I'm on a boat," he muses to himself, before turning around. It's ostensibly to explore the rest of the sub, but in reality he stops when he sees that he isn't by himself. "Oi, what're you doing here?" asks the man who also doesn't know what he's doing here.

Thicker than Water

[cardinalrule]

Hunter doesn't know all that much about phones either, but he's never heard of them being able to teleport anyone before. That ability is reserved for doors, thank you, not weird little communication rectangles.

So suddenly finding himself (and Flapjack) amidst a bunch of rusty pipes is enough to completely throw him off. Instinctively, he grabs for Flapjack, who shifts to his staff form, and Hunter points him at Hickey. "I don't know! Where are we?? What did you do?!" Because obviously, this is Hickey's fault somehow.

Hunter | The Owl House | OTA

[cardinalrule]

Rogue Wave

[Hunter and Flapjack have set up at the far end of Coffin Beach, where the view of the supposed spot the waves are coming from is most visible. ADI has seen fit to supply him with a pair of binoculars, though he hasn't bothered with any other equipment. It's all very... technological, and he isn't the best with technology. Even though he isn't supposed to use it, he'd rather rely on Flapjack's magic.

Besides, he can get a better view than anyone if he flies over the source. He's preparing to do just when he notices something out there in the ocean breaching. Scrambling for his binoculars, his gaze lands on the head of a massive sea serpent.

Well, at least this is familiar territory for him. He lowers his binoculars, raising an eyebrow.]

It's some kind of sea serpent. If we slay it, that should solve the problems with the waves.

Nereid

[This isn't the first time Hunter has been on a boat, though he's never had access to this much equipment before. He's never needed it. Unfortunately for him, he supposes he does this time, since using Flapjack's magic when surrounded by ADI personnel isn't exactly a good idea.

Which is too bad, because he's quite adept at using magic to control water.

At any rate, he'll get ahold of one of those harpoon guns and netting to provide some support on the boat for any freedivers. He's got pretty good aim for a sixteen year old, too.]

Rogue Wave

[edalyn]

[Eda has set up nearby with her own pair of binoculars. She may not always get along with the kid, but she's still been trying to keep an eye on Hunter... and there are worse people to work with. He was competent in Wolf Pen, after the first night at any rate--and as far as she knows they've both stuck to their deal of not ratting each other out for feeding their palismen.

That part is especially important right now, because she's going down a similar train of thought. Watching the water from here is boring, and if he's the only person nearby it's very tempting to fly out for a better look.

At least, that's what she's thinking about until he gets her attention. She looks over and grabs her own binoculars again, just in time to see something huge sink back under the water.]

A sea serpent, you're sure?

[Something about the immediate jump to kill it doesn't sit great with her, and after a second she realises part of the reason for that.]

Hang on--I think I've read about this thing. [She's been spending a possibly surprising amount of time in the library, after all. Some of the local legends stood out, since creatures like this aren't supposed to exist in the human realm. The whole thing has been rekindling her childhood interest in cryptids.] If it's the same one there've been sightings for ages... and he hasn't been doing this.

Eda Clawthorne | The Owl House | OTA

[edalyn]

The Public Eye
Eda is simply going about her day–whether that’s spending time with anyone or having a walk on her own–when, with absolutely no warning, she drops to the ground as suddenly as a puppet that had its strings cut.

While Eda is disorientedly viewing the world from the inside of a camera, her body is laying on the ground. But it doesn’t lay there for long. Instead it scrambles back up… to all fours.

This isn’t the curse taking over–at least, not by the normal means, and so her body doesn’t change. Instead the problem is that there’s only one consciousness in there, and it’s not the one that’s usually in the driver’s seat.

If she happens to be on ADI grounds, it might be noticeable that her eyes are solid black. If she isn’t, there’s just something off about them. Something in the expression that makes it clear that whatever is currently in charge of Eda’s body, it isn’t Eda.

The Owl Beast is disoriented, frightened, and for the first time in around three decades, jarringly alone. It squints against the light, glaring and hissing as it tries to figure out what’s going on. The hiss turns into a low growl and then a bird of prey shriek as it spots whoever happens to be nearest to it. It doesn’t attack, not instantly at least, but it certainly doesn’t seem happy to see them.


Nereid

Eda finds herself spending a fair bit of time on the ship, once that project gets organized. She wants to investigate, and it doesn’t hurt that she likes the siren who set it up pretty well, too.

She doesn’t dive, although she was tempted to try it. Unfortunately, if she had to use magic, the kinds she has available don’t mix well with being underwater. Paper glyphs wouldn’t hold up, and she doubts her flight feathers would be great for swimming. But she still finds plenty of things to do.

A)
Someone has finally given Eda a harpoon gun and… well, at least it turns out there are worse ideas. While she’s very enthusiastic about having one, she has pretty good aim, and for the moment the only things that she’s injured are the mermaids made of trash.

She seems to be enjoying spearing them and dragging them on deck, especially since unlike the various cryptids there’s very little to be conflicted about. She’s trying to figure out exactly what sort of magic is being used to animate the things, but calling them alive would be a stretch.

She’s also enjoying picking apart the piles of trash once they stop fighting. She has a little hoard of shiny or interesting objects near her, growing every time something catches her eye.

B)
“Well… you’re a cute little guy, aren’t you? Remind me of someone I met back home,” Eda says to the small seal she’s trying to keep calm enough to wrestle pieces of fishing net off of. It isn’t happy, but it settles down a little as she pauses to pet it.

She wonders how the baby selkidomus is doing… but that’s a bad train of thought that leads to wondering how her own kids are doing, so she pushes it to the back of her mind.

Perhaps surprisingly, she’s splitting her time pretty evenly between fighting trash creatures and helping the local wildlife. Occasionally she gets hungry around the seagulls, but for the most part she seems genuinely concerned about the animals.

Her own owl is hanging around in animal form, sometimes on her shoulder and sometimes flying around to help spot creatures in the water.

the public eye!

[lesbeau]

Okay, so sure, Beau saw the thing on the network about Eda. And sure, everyone's got some shit going on here, so who is she to judge. But it is still... a Thing to see the woman from afar drop, go still for like three seconds, and then hop back up like something posessed. She comes just a bit closer to get a better look when she-- it-- whoever screams directly at her, and Beau just puts up her hands palms to the front.

"Woah, woah, okay, let's, let's chill out now, uh... you good?" Maybe she understands language? Let's see.

Frederick Cotgrave | The Twisted Ones | OTA

[cotgraveseffigy]

I. The Public Eye

The camera's eye view he caught seems to have been mostly about people with spray paint. Interesting. Surely there's some meaning to that, right?

Frederick wanders about after dark, attempting to find these rogue eye-painters. He pauses in front of one of their works, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Are you going to blink for me, mister eye?" he asks it, though of course he doesn't expect an answer.


II. Thicker Than Water

Frederick peers out the window of the small submarine space he's somehow appeared in. It feels very cramped in here, especially for someone who is, beneath the illusion of the small old man, actually rather bigger than most people, and he would very much like to get some kind of idea of how to get out of here.

"Oh my," he says to his erstwhile companion, his voice very faintly accented, something out of Scotland or Wales. "Have you looked out here? It's rather, er, red. And I don't that's window tinting."


III. Research

Comfortably settling in at his new job in the ADI library, Frederick bustles about, putting away books, looking up books, scanning things for the digital version of the library (what an idea that is!). Since this is within the ADI's sphere of influence, he is, unfortunately, in his true form: a tall skeleton of both deer and human parts, wrapped here and there in deer hide, held together with twine and wire, and with stones dangling within and from his otherwise empty ribcage that rattle when he moves.

That's also how he talks, so he keeps one of the computers up with a word processing program open, so he can communicate with visitors.

Most of his free time here, however, is spent searching through the books and, more ponderously, through online databases for information on that submarine vision he was trapped in, and a red sea. Or lake. Or something of the sort. Also, the giant serpent thing, because he's pretty sure they're related.

Research

[failedpromise]

Perhaps he'll hear the sudden thunk before he sees the blueish purple woman standing there and staring at him, wide eyed and frozen.

It doesn't take Cortana more than a moment to realize that this is probably not a threat-plenty of people look unusual, and he's out in the open at ADI headquarters without causing any alarm-but she struggles to make herself say anything. He doesn't even look like the Flood-oh God there are human parts in there.

Her books lie on the floor where she dropped them.

Bucky/Winter | MCU

[worthallthis]

I. The Public Eye - OTA

Winter is on his way home from ADI one evening-- or he's on his way out to town for a patrol around the Dogtown fence-- or he's standing in the grocery store with a list someone made for him of things to buy-- when he's caught on camera. Generally, his instinct and training is to avoid cameras, but in public these days, the best he can do is keep his face turned away from them so while his body might be recorded, his face never is.

But suddenly he can see himself, twitching and dropping whatever he was carrying, for several long seconds before he's dumped back in his body, and right into the middle of a panic attack. He wedges himself into the nearest available corner for a few minutes, after that, until he can get himself back under control.


II. The Public Eye, part 2 - Closed to Yelena

One of those awful out-of-body camera experiences? Showed him the lamb-plants behind Things of Beauty.

That is not going to stand. He is not going to allow those to exist again on his turf.

He collects a machete from ADI's weapon stores, some gasoline and a lighter, and Yelena, and they go out to clean that shit up.


III. Nereid

While Winter can swim with his metal arm and metal bones and general chronic pain... it's not easy, without the serum giving him both increased strength and stamina, and also the ability to hold his breath longer. So he stays on the boat, covering for those diving with a harpoon gun (that is very cool and he kind of wants to keep forever), using hooks and baskets to fish garbage and animals out of the mess, and helping haul people out of the water when they need a little leverage.

He'll also happily stomp trash mermaids when they're tossed on board. He has very heavy boots that are good for stomping.

II

[musicdied]

Yelena's own shopping list for the expedition is nearly as short, and one third of it matches - she, too, is quick to grab a machete, the heavy blade a comfort against the memory of the small, nibbling horrors. To that, she adds a pair of metal mesh gloves and some high-test herbicide. The heavy leathers, she already owns, and while they quickly become uncomfortable in the late summer heat, it's better by far than the lambs' bite.

"Do you think we missed some?" she asks. "Or is someone being stupid again?"

Does someone have to die, is the subtext there.

Tony Stark ⌬ MCU

[fightinginfinity]

➥ THICKER THAN WATER

(( cw: anxiety, panic, prescription drug mention ))

[ Look, Tony is a tech guy, from his brain to heart to his flesh and bones. He works in electricity. He thinks and breathes and lives electricity. His heart used to literally run on electricity.

Now all together kids:

What is the worst possible thing to mix with electricity?

This is not where Tony wants to be. This is fundamentally the opposite of where Tony should be. Honestly if he hadn't been convinced by now that he isn't on the other end of his own demise, he'd be certain at this point that he'd crashed that spaceship from one version of his own personal hell to another.

Despite this, thanks to a winning combination of benzodiazepines and the most severe exposure therapy possible (namely: being shot up into space, coming face-to-face with and nearly dying by the hand of the literal embodiment of his space-related trauma, then getting stranded in, you guessed it, space), Tony hasn't had one of his really debilitating panic attacks in quite a while and therefore isn't likely to relapse anytime soon.

He thinks. He hopes.

Anxiety doesn't just go away though, and Tony is...admittedly pretty defenseless right now. All he's got is his big ol' brain, which has gotten him out of most bad situations before, so hopefully that'll be enough. Unless some Cthulhu-like monstrosity shows up, in which case they're screwed.

Oh, that's right. They. Someone else is there, and Tony has just thought all of this in the one-second span of time in which it took him to notice that. Seriously, F1 race cars don't move as quickly as a genius brain with anxiety. ]

Okay. Time to learn how to helm a submarine. Gimme like, two minutes. [ Seriously. Not even Ferraris. ]

➥ NEREID

(( cw: PTSD related to torture ))

[ Okay, Tony isn't a weak swimmer, thanks. He just...really doesn't like being submerged in water. Being waterboarded will do that to you. So that's why he declines to do any diving, electing instead to stay on the boat and help out from a safe, dry, not-horribly-triggering distance. Okay? Okay.

Tony doubts he'll be of much use with a harpoon, but he doesn't need one anyway. He's Tony Stark, goddamnit; even suit-less he can still find ways to kick ass. So although the gauntlet he's wielding isn't nearly as intuitive or powerful as its predecessor, it still serves its purpose well enough as Tony fires off a flare that should stun the creatures as well as the harpoons seem to do.

It's hauling these things up out of the water that's proving much more difficult for Tony's frustratingly small self, and he finds himself thinking longingly of the enhanced strength his suit provides him as he tries to yank on one of the nets all by his lonesome.

Maybe it's overconfidence. Maybe it's stupidity. Maybe it's a desire to prove that he's doing fine without the suit and that he always has been fine without the suit and that he doesn't need to be making deals with Eldritch beings to get it back and 'if you're nothing without the suit you shouldn't have it'--but he hangs on to the net, even as he is tugged bodily across the deck and dangerously close to where the waves are sloshing up in every direction.

All right...maybe he should yell for help. Except fuck yelling for help. He's got this. It's just a stupid trash monster. He went toe-to-toe with Thanos for Christ's sake. He's got this.

At least he thinks he's got this. But then a sudden jerk of the boat to one side has Tony slipping, sliding, and falling straight into the water. And then he's tugged straight under by the trash mermaid a second later.

Okay, hypothesis disproven. He doesn't got this. ]


(( ooc; For a quick rundown of what my goals are for Tony for this event and why I just chucked him overboard, check out my plotting comment here. Basically I'm trying to push him toward doing the Entity thing to get his suit back. So there's a reason I'm being so mean to him, I promise, lol. ))

Nereid

[worthallthis]

[This is what Winter is even on the boat for, since swimming for long periods of time is not a thing he can really do. He aims his harpoon gun at the trash mermaid, makes sure Tony isn't going to flail into his line of sight, and fires-- freeing Tony's ankle, at least, as the creature explodes into pieces of free-floating garbage.

That's step one. Think you can flail your way back to the surface, Tony, or does Winter need to find a way to get you where he can haul you back up?]