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apocalypsehowcomm2022-09-20 09:05 am
apocalypsehowmods) wrote in apocalypsehowcomm2022-09-20 09:05 am
Entry tags:
Headline News #4
Headlines
Like most cities of a certain size, Gloucester gets its daily news from its local paper. Stories concerning local matters are printed side by side with national and international stories aggregated from other sources. For the most part the news is what one would expect in a mundane modern world: business openings, politics, crime, and human interest stories. Every so often, though, something pops up that could be more significant...or might be nothing more than what it appears on the surface.
The following headlines are items of potential interest that appear in the paper throughout September. Summaries represent one or more articles, editorials, press releases, or letters to the editor on a particular subject. Players are encouraged to incorporate these items into their characters' understanding of current events as well as use them for plotting. If you would like your character to perform deeper research or investigations, please pose any questions to the designated mod comment. Players are welcome to use this post for IC discussion and threads related to these news items, or to create their own posts or messages for that purpose.
➥ More Than Just Ships Sinking
(cw: vehicular collisions; sinking/burial in unstable ground)
Commuters have a new road hazard to keep an eye out for. Not only do you need to watch for foreign objects, pedestrians, and your fellow drivers,now drivers in the Midwest are reporting quicksand sinking their roads. One aspiring photographer even caught a picture of a truck as its back half was claimed by the shifting earth and even managed to help save the unfortunate driver. Scientists have given no official word to the cause, but investigations are underway. Luckily, no loss of life has yet been reported.
➥ Happy Haunts Materialize Early
(cw: auditory hallucinations)
Gloucester residents have been hearing curious tunes around the local graveyards. Some call them soothing, others haunting, and still others a right nuisance. Complaints have been flooding into the police department from residents annoyed by the music and the people found sleeping in graveyards. "It's completely disrespectful!" said Greta Thomas of the Gloucester Holy Light Church. "I will be lobbying the city council to pass a law banning sleeping on public property. Our graveyards are sacred places. They're not meant for naps or for people hoping to attract tourists for their tours."
➥ A Surrealist Painter's Unrecognized Legacy
A previously unknown sketch by the famed M.C. Escher has sold in a New York auction for $2.5M to reclusive millionaire Michael Etcher. The sketch will be displayed in Etcher's home in Santa Barbara, CA. The seller is anonymous, but art historians and other experts have verified that this is one of M.C. Escher's previously-unknown works.
➥ Unsung Sands and Another Puncture in the Epic Tale of His Snakeship
(cw: snakes; (un)natural disasters; human-caused pollution; climate change; poisoning; hallucinations)
The Cape Ann region is well-known for its singing sands, but some of our coastline seems to have fallen quiet. Scientists are blaming pollution and debris that has been washing up on beaches all throughout Massachusetts, but most heavily concentrated in the Gloucester area. Residents have also been claiming sightings of the storied sea serpent, His Snakeship, linked with recent flooding in Gloucester, but researcher Dr. Dale Graft has indicated analysis on the debris points to toxic fumes causing hallucinations. More likely, Dr. Graft said, is that we are facing yet another unfortunate side effect of our warming climate. As the atmosphere and oceans warm, the Gulf Stream is beginning to break down and behave in unexpected ways. This has likely caused the recent rogue wave phenomenon observed along the coast, as well as the dredging up of pollutants.
➥ A Little Town with Big Hopes
(cw: wide scale economic hardship)
Wolf Pen, West Virginia, is slowly recovering after a huge blow caused by the collapse of the FYRE mining conglomerate. However, the Copernicus company, run by Zyrian Steel, has stepped in to pick up the slack. A massive paid retraining effort is underway with Copernicus focused on bringing coal miners into the 21st century economy. Copernicus has pleged to build a manufacturing plant in Wolf Pen within the next 5 years, raising hopes for local residents that good times may be just on the horizon.
➥ She's a Barbie Girl in Her Barbie World
(cw: uncanny dolls)
Mattel is set to release 200 life-sized Barbie and Ken dolls as part of their 60+ years of Everything Barbie. The dolls are being deployed to toy shops around the New England area and will be sold after this month's "Barbie and Ken 4ever 2gether" movie premier. The dolls, which stand at 5'9" and 5'10", feature the classic proportions of everyone's favorite toys and will be sold on a lottery basis. Make sure to sign up in your local toy shop for the chance to purchase one! Once they're gone, they're gone.
➥ Tall Tales or Terrible Turnabout?
(cw: severe danger and injuries to teenagers; victims not being believed)
What started as public outcry from the local youth scene of Gloucester has now turned into an alarming upturn in the number of young people being admitted to doctor's offices and hospitals. What started as innocent demands for attention to the closed space of 'Dogtown' has turned into the stuff of nightmares. What few purported trespassers have come forward in the wake of frightening encounters in Dogtown have offered nothing short of ghost stories to explain very serious injuries. Despite the very real results of these excursions past the park's fences, many claim the stories are nothing but cries for attention from an emotionally volatile and impressionable group.
➥ Resurgence in Flaming Fad Causes Night Life Strife
(cw: death, injury, and property loss from fire)
A string of fires have devastated the East Coast's bar scene. Witnesses state that the mishandling of a resurging trend of 'fire shots' has been the cause for most of the damage and some tragic loss of life. New standards for fire safety are being revisited by Beverage Commision Boards in the affected states and bar owners are encouraging patrons not to add to the dangerous fad request.
➥ Look Who's Loafing Now
(cw: irreverent treatment of grave markers)
The Better Loaf Than Never bakery has come out with a new and morbid product for the season: Deathbed Bread. These loaves are supposedly being baked on old tombstones and come with an imprint of a grave epitaph on them. The bakery owner, Bryn Fletcher, says they're just going back to their roots. This sort of thing was actually common back in the day when bakeries couldn't afford proper slabs for their ovens. They could get tombstones at a discounted price, though. Why not see whose death has left a mark on your next meal?
The following headlines are items of potential interest that appear in the paper throughout September. Summaries represent one or more articles, editorials, press releases, or letters to the editor on a particular subject. Players are encouraged to incorporate these items into their characters' understanding of current events as well as use them for plotting. If you would like your character to perform deeper research or investigations, please pose any questions to the designated mod comment. Players are welcome to use this post for IC discussion and threads related to these news items, or to create their own posts or messages for that purpose.
➥ More Than Just Ships Sinking
(cw: vehicular collisions; sinking/burial in unstable ground)
Commuters have a new road hazard to keep an eye out for. Not only do you need to watch for foreign objects, pedestrians, and your fellow drivers,now drivers in the Midwest are reporting quicksand sinking their roads. One aspiring photographer even caught a picture of a truck as its back half was claimed by the shifting earth and even managed to help save the unfortunate driver. Scientists have given no official word to the cause, but investigations are underway. Luckily, no loss of life has yet been reported.
➥ Happy Haunts Materialize Early
(cw: auditory hallucinations)
Gloucester residents have been hearing curious tunes around the local graveyards. Some call them soothing, others haunting, and still others a right nuisance. Complaints have been flooding into the police department from residents annoyed by the music and the people found sleeping in graveyards. "It's completely disrespectful!" said Greta Thomas of the Gloucester Holy Light Church. "I will be lobbying the city council to pass a law banning sleeping on public property. Our graveyards are sacred places. They're not meant for naps or for people hoping to attract tourists for their tours."
➥ A Surrealist Painter's Unrecognized Legacy
A previously unknown sketch by the famed M.C. Escher has sold in a New York auction for $2.5M to reclusive millionaire Michael Etcher. The sketch will be displayed in Etcher's home in Santa Barbara, CA. The seller is anonymous, but art historians and other experts have verified that this is one of M.C. Escher's previously-unknown works.
➥ Unsung Sands and Another Puncture in the Epic Tale of His Snakeship
(cw: snakes; (un)natural disasters; human-caused pollution; climate change; poisoning; hallucinations)
The Cape Ann region is well-known for its singing sands, but some of our coastline seems to have fallen quiet. Scientists are blaming pollution and debris that has been washing up on beaches all throughout Massachusetts, but most heavily concentrated in the Gloucester area. Residents have also been claiming sightings of the storied sea serpent, His Snakeship, linked with recent flooding in Gloucester, but researcher Dr. Dale Graft has indicated analysis on the debris points to toxic fumes causing hallucinations. More likely, Dr. Graft said, is that we are facing yet another unfortunate side effect of our warming climate. As the atmosphere and oceans warm, the Gulf Stream is beginning to break down and behave in unexpected ways. This has likely caused the recent rogue wave phenomenon observed along the coast, as well as the dredging up of pollutants.
➥ A Little Town with Big Hopes
(cw: wide scale economic hardship)
Wolf Pen, West Virginia, is slowly recovering after a huge blow caused by the collapse of the FYRE mining conglomerate. However, the Copernicus company, run by Zyrian Steel, has stepped in to pick up the slack. A massive paid retraining effort is underway with Copernicus focused on bringing coal miners into the 21st century economy. Copernicus has pleged to build a manufacturing plant in Wolf Pen within the next 5 years, raising hopes for local residents that good times may be just on the horizon.
➥ She's a Barbie Girl in Her Barbie World
(cw: uncanny dolls)
Mattel is set to release 200 life-sized Barbie and Ken dolls as part of their 60+ years of Everything Barbie. The dolls are being deployed to toy shops around the New England area and will be sold after this month's "Barbie and Ken 4ever 2gether" movie premier. The dolls, which stand at 5'9" and 5'10", feature the classic proportions of everyone's favorite toys and will be sold on a lottery basis. Make sure to sign up in your local toy shop for the chance to purchase one! Once they're gone, they're gone.
➥ Tall Tales or Terrible Turnabout?
(cw: severe danger and injuries to teenagers; victims not being believed)
What started as public outcry from the local youth scene of Gloucester has now turned into an alarming upturn in the number of young people being admitted to doctor's offices and hospitals. What started as innocent demands for attention to the closed space of 'Dogtown' has turned into the stuff of nightmares. What few purported trespassers have come forward in the wake of frightening encounters in Dogtown have offered nothing short of ghost stories to explain very serious injuries. Despite the very real results of these excursions past the park's fences, many claim the stories are nothing but cries for attention from an emotionally volatile and impressionable group.
➥ Resurgence in Flaming Fad Causes Night Life Strife
(cw: death, injury, and property loss from fire)
A string of fires have devastated the East Coast's bar scene. Witnesses state that the mishandling of a resurging trend of 'fire shots' has been the cause for most of the damage and some tragic loss of life. New standards for fire safety are being revisited by Beverage Commision Boards in the affected states and bar owners are encouraging patrons not to add to the dangerous fad request.
➥ Look Who's Loafing Now
(cw: irreverent treatment of grave markers)
The Better Loaf Than Never bakery has come out with a new and morbid product for the season: Deathbed Bread. These loaves are supposedly being baked on old tombstones and come with an imprint of a grave epitaph on them. The bakery owner, Bryn Fletcher, says they're just going back to their roots. This sort of thing was actually common back in the day when bakeries couldn't afford proper slabs for their ovens. They could get tombstones at a discounted price, though. Why not see whose death has left a mark on your next meal?
no subject
Regarding the Lullaby Girl incidents, where did the first report occur, and are there any reports in the area in, say, the 6 months prior of accidental or intentional deaths or comas involving a girl who would fit Ava's description, between the rough ages of 6 and 12? (Yelena is not great with determining children's ages in the middle of absolute chaos and doesn't know if Avatars grow up, so she'd be casting a wider net in an attempt not to miss anything.)
no subject
In the interest of transparency for the church, characters are welcome to snoop around, but there will be very limited information that can be found beyond what’s already been shared in regards to it at the present. However, there will be a chance to dig more into the odd atmosphere there as we move toward November and December! In the meantime, a sharp eye will uncover the tie the church has to local happenings in the form of Greta Thomas and her push to make sleeping in public illegal.
no subject
And that's fine, Yelena will use the time to burrow in and acquaint herself with the congregation, try to soak up gossip and get a solid read on people. She's good at patient. And at pretending she doesn't want to shove some horrible nimby types down a hole.
no subject
no subject
Is it possible to dig up a picture of Amber, and/or her parents?
no subject