Event - Untimely

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Untimely

➥ Reality Check

(cw: hypersomnia, coma, supernaturally induced metaphysical hunger, psychosomatic pain)

"We all dream," the representative from Copernicus explains, directing attention to a powerpoint slide projected onto the wall beside her. The seminar in one of the conference rooms is ADI's latest effort to combat Ava's influence and take the fight to their foe. If she's going to put them all to sleep, then so be it. Let their ranks be ready for battle there. "My boss, Zyrian Steel, is a big dreamer. Copernicus started as one. We-" She pauses as her eyes seem to catch on someone at the back of the room. "But that-that's another presentation! Suffice to say, Mr. Steel heard you were having some sleep troubles around the office and wanted to help.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Luna, and I'm here from Copernicus' Augmenting Reality group to talk to you about lucid dreaming. Now, I see some of us are here in our Halloween outfits." She smiles and poses in her 50's-style poodle skirt. "Some of you have very impressive make-up and prosthetics, I might add. I was told there might be some stiff competition for this mid-Halloween get-together. Glad to see they weren't having a little fun with me." Any non-human in the audience is given an appreciative nod. "I can see we have a few dreams brought to life here, but what about shaping the dreams we have while we're in them?"

"We're going to go through a few exercises today. The key tricks for inducing lucid dreaming include:

"One, assess your reality regularly. Even if you can't remember falling asleep, take a moment every few hours to test your reality. Dreams might look very familiar, but there will always be inconsistencies and distortions you can catch. This should help you to recognize when you're dreaming.

"Second, the MILD method or Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. This is a method where you'll set an alarm for 5 hours after you go to sleep. Once awake, you'll tell yourself, 'The next time I'm dreaming, I will remember that I'm dreaming.' You'll also try to imagine yourself in a lucid dream as you go back to sleep. Silly as it sounds, just having that intentionality can be highly effective.

"Third, tell yourself when you go to sleep that you are going to have a lucid dream, that you will be shaping your reality, even if it seems outside of your control. Convince yourself. Convince others.

"And fourth…" Luna pulls out some high-tech looking eyemasks. "You can try one of our patented Lucidio Eye Masks. These devices help to unlock your mind and provide it with a few extra cues that you're dreaming once you enter REM sleep. We'll be handing out a limited number of samples, courtesy Mr. Steel. That's for the end of our presentation. Now, let's go through the stages of sleep…"

Whether you can stay away for the rest of the presentation, everyone will be chivved awake with increasingly harsh prods if they've fallen asleep during the presentation. There are more seminars throughout the next few days, always similar with Luna offering her guidance on lucid dreaming. Maybe it's enough. Maybe it isn't.

The music doesn't stop. As with last October, the haunting tunes extend their grasp from the graveyards and out toward the rest of Gloucester, ringing through ADI's halls, along with the Flophouse. The music induces intense sleepiness, and you might find your coworkers slumping down while they walk or you might fall victim to the music, yourself.

You awake… somewhere. It might be a place that's familiar, or one that's utterly alien. What you know is that there is something in this place that calls to you, sings in your blood and burns to be away from. And yet, you're terrified. There is something here that wants to consume every part of you, suck the marrow from your bones and leave you a husk of what you once were. You need it. You want it. You are hungry for it. For the fear it both brings and demands. This place seems to be some sort of pocket dimension, a personal hell built just for you and the things that sink their teeth into your bones and claw at the back of your mind. This is a terrifying place.

And you're not alone.

If you've been paying attention to the seminars, perhaps you'll be able to recognize this as a dream, something that isn't real. Sensations that aren't real. A world that isn't real. But with that realization comes a choice. You could try to break free of your personal hell, rip it to shreds, make it less horrific. Or… or there is something that calls to you in this place, a thing that sounds the death of who you once were, perhaps. You could call back, reshape this reality to terrorize the others trapped here with you. They'll never know if you were aware or not, will they? They don't need to know you did this to them consciously.

Just this once, what if you gave in? If someone dies in the dream, it's not like they die in real life. Right?

➥ Knead Help

(cw: blood, unsanitary food, supernaturally-induced existential dread, supernaturally-induced suicidal thoughts, isolation, dissociation)

Deathbed Bread is off the market. Thanks to a timely tip, the Health Department has finally made a slightly less timely visit to Better Loaf than Never, and were forced to shut the storefront down when their inspectors were unable to gain entry to the kitchen. The lights are still on behind the boarded-up windows, though, the smell of sourdough still permeating the air as loaf after loaf is delivered through a slot from the kitchen through the day and night, bread piling up on the counter and floor behind the register. They come at regular intervals, still warm from the oven. ADI has taken over the little storefront now and set up a tiny field office there, the higher-ups having pulled enough strings for law enforcement to look the other way and not ask too many questions about the people coming and going as efforts to break into the kitchen intensify...and as ADI staff truck away loads of Deathbed Bread to incinerate back at headquarters.

Someone has a bright (or maybe desperate) idea: if they can't get in, maybe they can at least stop the bread from coming out. Boarding up the bread slot, by all accounts, works for perhaps an hour or two as those present can still hear more bread piling up on the other side. Then there's a soul-wrenching cry of anguish followed by a violent attack on the barrier from inside the kitchen that ends with an ADI agent injured by flying debris and a cascade of sourdough loaves stained with bloody handprints. It's enough, though. Whatever supernatural seal that made the kitchen blockade impenetrable has broken, and within the day ADI is able to break down the door.

A thick, unnatural fog is all that can be seen inside the doorway. Rather than the cool of an early morning, though, the damp air is hot and cloying; those who venture inside will soon find themselves drenched with a mix of sweat and humidity from the air. They will also soon find themselves alone, regardless of what companions they might have had with them when they entered. Did you have someone with you? You must have; it would be foolish to enter alone, and yet it rapidly becomes difficult to remember their face, their voice, the touch of their hand. Perhaps you imagined them. Perhaps you've always been alone.

Dark shapes in the fog resolve into tombstones as one nears--no, into huge, upright loaves of bread jutting up from where they've been sunk into the soft ground of this strange graveyard, dry and cracked and dead. There are names pressed into them, dates of death spanning the last few weeks…and the next few. Perhaps you'll spot your own name and today's date. And why shouldn't it be today? Everyone dies, and everyone dies alone. Any action other than laying down on the soft dough of your own grave and letting it swallow you up is only delaying the inevitable.

The spell of deathly quiet over this place isn't complete, though. Keep moving, keep trying, keep hanging on to thoughts of those you love and the clear sky beyond this little world, and you might find a friend who needs your help as much as you need theirs. One or both people encountering each other may feel as though they're in a dream, unable to see or hear the other–but with persistence, with feeling, it's possible to reforge the connection. Love and friendship may shine a light on what was invisible–but so will shared anger, joy, or disgust. Any strong, shared emotion beyond the fear and sadness that permeates this place renders would-be ghosts visible, solid, and real to one another, able to move forward or turn back to escape together–or to begin tearing up the tombstones in fierce denial of their portents.

This hellish graveyard is as far as most will go. Somewhere deeper in what was the kitchen, Bryn still labors and the bread still piles up. It will be up to those few lucky (or unfortunate) enough to stumble across him to put a final end to this.

➥ Never Sleep Again

(cw: child death, body horror, violence, potential injury or character death, nightmare dream logic)

Are you dreaming or are you awake? It becomes harder to tell as the music flows through halls and streets, rooms and parks. It’s dangerous out there, people falling asleep where they shouldn’t, or finding themselves face-to-face with what shouldn’t be when their eyes close unknowingly. Perhaps you planned it, your practice made perfect and your mind set to confrontation, maybe this time you sat down with the intention of stopping this. Or maybe it was simply an accident, but you’re here now. What else can you do but fight to survive?

The hellscape of your mind's torment might be familiar or maybe it’s a new flavor, but there’s something different this time. This time, there are seams; the dream around you is sewn together and you hold the scissors. Fight your way or will your way through, and you can pass between the swatches of your dreaming landscape. Maybe you find a friend or maybe you spot the retreating form of a little girl, turning a corner that isn’t there. Except you can see it now, the corridors of this place. You can follow her.

She leads you on a chase, her laugh a ricocheting titter of joy for the game. If you listen closely, however, there’s more to hear. The further you chase her, the more snatches of sound and sensation follow you as well. Grim melodies and snatches of song, searing heat, the taste of ash in your mouth, the sound of screaming that isn’t quite familiar. Your parents? Someone’s parents. Whispered voices. Snatches of words. ‘Amber.’ yelled, called, pleaded. Hide and seek was always fun.‘Ren’ a name that holds fondness, a feeling of a hundred tiny legs across skin- Stop! A command like a pick through your mind filled with anger and fear. Maybe it isn’t just your nightmares in here…

If you catch her, when you catch her, the game is over. Cornered and angry, Ava skitters up the wall, and across the ceiling to hang above you, neck at an impossible angle and clearly broken for it. “What’s wrong? Not having fun?”.

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Bryn and Ava will both be available for NPC interaction and threading. Players who want to talk to ask Luna anything should respond to the Questions section of the OOC post. The mods will provide her answers to specific questions. Characters who die in the dreams will not die in real life, but they will experience severe fatigue and pain, and may retain scarring in the waking world from whatever killed them in the nightmares. Characters who die in real life… well, they're dead. Please bear this in mind as the game does not have an easy resurrection mechanic.
  
  
• REALITY CHECK (16-25 October) - Everyone will be encouraged (but not technically required) to attend the lucid dreaming seminar. There will be a few of them over the course of three days. Characters can also pick up one of the Ludicio Eye Mask devices that will assist them in being able to enter a lucid state while dreaming. They don't always help, of course; they're mainly augmenting someone's abilities, provided they're following the guidance provided about how to enhance your lucid dreaming capabilities. Luna is clearly unaware that any non-humans are actually non-humans. She believes everyone is just really into Halloween around here.
  
  The nightmares this go around seem to be specifically focused on the Entities that your characters fear most and/or the ones they might be drawn to. You are welcome to make up a personalized hellscape for your character with anything you'd like in it. These are dreams! Go wild! Characters will fall randomly in and out of each other's dreams and personalized hellscapes. Those who have mastered lucid dreaming will be able to traverse dreams with more purpose, aiming to go to specific people's dreams or get themselves out of ones they don't want to be in. Lucid dream experts will also be able to shape the dreams that are meant for them. In their own nightmares, characters will feel a definitive pull toward one (or more over different nights) Entity and experience an intense fear of that Entity along with the desire to feed it, even if you want away from it.
  
  Feeding the Entities in the dreams and using the dreams to torment others will not necessarily lead to an Entity alignment… but it can do. Or it can set a character down a particularly destructive path in that vein. We would just ask that players remember that ADI is very anti-magic/Entities and anyone who is caught displaying powers/Entity alignment is liable to be mistrusted, watched, and potentially killed by the NPCs if they make themselves too much of an overt problem.
  
  
• KNEAD HELP (18-25 October) - Characters may find bread gravestones with their own names, the names of people they have lost, and people they fear losing, as well as names of locals who have been confirmed dead due to eating Deathbed Bread. Some gravestones will bear the names and correct dates for people who are actually dead; others will refer to people who are still alive. Gravestone engravings may include characters back home in player characters' worlds, as well as player characters that have been dropped from the game. OOCly, the appearance of a person's bread gravestone is not a reliable indication of whether that person is actually dead or going to die. ICly, characters may or may not realize this fact at players' discretion.
  
  
• NEVER SLEEP AGAIN (20-25 October) - As characters begin to gain control over their dreaming, they will find they can begin to track down Ava the Lullaby Girl. Confrontation can occur within the dream or, with enough willpower, a character can pull a piece of Ava into the waking world to try and kill her. Upon bringing her to the waking world, characters will find themselves faced with a teenaged version of the girl they were following, Ava’s actual body. She's not a little girl at all, but someone who's just entering into adulthood. Fights are likely to result in injuries ranging from mild to severe and can include death, please keep the setting’s death rules in mind for this. Threads with Ava can start in the dreams or already mid-fight in the waking world! It will take a concerted group effort to actually kill Ava. No one person will be able to do it themselves. Only a piece of her is pulled through or fought in the dreams that any person encounters.
  
  The morning after the last pieces are killed, Ava’s mangled corpse will be found on ADI’s grounds shortly after dawn, clutching a bloody, stuffed lamb in one hand.

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Comments

[edalyn]

Eda makes a startled sound and darts back behind the corner. There's something in her that wants to ignore him just on principle, but not when she's scared already.

The owl beast takes the opportunity to get in closer while he seems distracted--it's going to try to land another swipe but on the other hand, it's in Manji's range as well.

Sorry for the delay. The start of this month was rough in RL - not bad, but very busy

[canofmanji]

Manji is quick to bring his attention back to the beast, but he knows it won't be fast enough. He was going to get hit, but if he had to take a blow he was going to make it count. With a shout of anger he moves to stab the beast, wanting to get in a devastating blow even if it costs him a nasty cut.

No worries!!

[edalyn]

The owl beast rakes its claws down Manji's side, but very quickly regrets the choice to get closer. The blow lands in the space between its chest and front leg, not quite hitting any vital organs but still enough that it won't be putting any weight on that leg, and enough to see it switch entirely over to the defensive.

It lets out an ear-splitting shriek and retreats, backing away unsteadily with one paw held off the ground. It hisses and fluffs up its feathers in attempt to look more threatening, but it suddenly seems... a fair bit smaller than before.

Something twists in Eda's chest. It's the first time--in her conscious memory--that she's realised this thing can lose. That should make her feel safe, shouldn't it? That should make her feel better? That's what she wanted? But if it can lose, maybe it's less of a monster than she thought. Unbeatable nightmare monsters don't bleed, do they? Unbeatable nightmare monsters don't look... scared.

Something isn't right. Because suddenly what felt like a monster feels like a frightened animal. And Eda likes animals, even scary looking ones. She doesn't like seeing them hurt, not if they've stopped attacking. Not if they look like they might back down given the option.

"Wait--!" She hasn't moved from where she is, yet, but the word is out of her mouth before she can rethink it.

[canofmanji]

Wait? That causes Manji a moment of hesitation before he can land the finishing blow. Quickly glancing back at Eda, afraid she might be hurt or in danger, but he sees... nothing? At least no immediate threat? "What the hell, kid?! What do you mean wait?!"

been forgetting these but; cw blood, injuries to people and animals

[edalyn]

This time, instead of taking any opportunity to attack, the owl beast backs away further, unsteady enough that it doesn't get all that far. It looks a bit smaller yet.

Eda flinches at his reaction. She knows she shouldn't have said anything. She knows how ridiculous it sounded. She knows she should feel good about this. So why does she feel so sick to her stomach instead?

Something is wrong--

Her head is spinning. The owl beast is bleeding. She can't see, can't smell this much blood without remembering her father clutching his face in pain and remembering that that was this thing's fault and that should make her want this but it doesn't.

Something isn't right here--

And in a split second she can't help thinking of something else as she watches this man about to stab, to cut--

c u t

My daughter is suffering and I want that thing out. Cut it out if you have to.

All at once the girl darts out from cover to try to grab Manji's sleeve.

"Don't! It--it's scared."

[canofmanji]

Manji had been just about to strike the creature again when Eda doesn't answer him straight away. His heart nearly jumps right out of his chest when she grabs his sleeve and he immediately halts what should have been a fatal strike on the best. He doesn't look at Eda, keeping his eyes on the threat, but his voice is clearly not happy. "What are you doing, kid!? Let go! It SHOULD be scared! Now let me finish it off!"

[edalyn]

Eda’s eyes narrow, just a little, because she doesn’t like feeling yelled at and she doesn’t like being told what to do and she doesn’t like people deciding things for her. Not even when they think they’re helping. Or maybe that’s part of it–because yes, she was scared. She was hiding. She warned him off. But she didn’t ask for his help.

She knows it’s stupid, she knows she’ll probably get herself hurt, and she knows she should be grateful, like she should be grateful to everyone else who’s tried–and none of that stops her from moving to put herself between the man and the owl beast before she can think better of it.

Because this is a dream, the next thing that happens will feel less like a transformation and more like a shift in perspective.

One way or another, there are no longer two separate things in front of him. Perhaps there never were. Or perhaps there still are. But that isn’t what Manji sees.

What’s in front of him is a harpy. One that never exactly existed in real life, not like this, not back then. One with bright red hair and rust orange feathers, gangly and fluffy and young. She’s taller than Eda was moments ago, although much smaller than the version of this form that Manji has met. Still, it’s probably hard to miss the resemblance.

Her eyes are wide and wary, and she clutches an arm against her injured side. She backs up, baring sharp teeth and letting out a panicked hiss.

“Stay… stay back. Leave us alone.”

Her voice shakes and cracks a little, but it has the same layered effect as when she’s been in this form in the waking world–though perhaps with a bit more context now.

[canofmanji]

"GET AWAY FROM IT!" He waves his arm to try and frighten her away. Terrified that the beast will strike out at her, but it doesn't and eventually he notices the little things that had escaped him before. He hadn't thought about looking for someone much younger than the Eda he knows.

He stares dumbly for several long seconds before he can only think to say one thing. "...Eda?" It couldn't be, could it?

[edalyn]

The harpy blinks in surprise, stumbling slightly on her currently-unfamiliar feet, though it's hard to say if she looks less wary or just more confused.

"...How do you know my name?" Her feathers ruffle up a bit as she looks him over again. There's something familiar, on some level, but right now she's pretty sure she doesn't know any humans. Or whatever he is.

[canofmanji]

"Because-- I'm not really sure how to say this, kid, I think I might be from your future? Or you've deaged? I know you when you're older." He can't help and smirks a little at her. "Good news, you grow up to be a badass."

[edalyn]

Eda tilts her head to the side, downy ears twitching as she tries to make sense of anything he just said. Although she supposes the last part made sense. It's hard to fully believe right now... not that she'd admit that.

"Yeah, I'm Lord Calamity of course I grow up to be a badass," she says, doing her best to sound flippant and confident.

"Did you... did you go through a time pool...?" It's the only explanation she can think of, off the top of her head.

[canofmanji]

"HA! Lord Calamity certainly sounds right!" He agrees with a laugh. "So it's a good thing I didn't end up murdering you." He probably shouldn't sound so chipper about that part.

"And I dunno-- maybe? I honestly can't remember how I got here."

[edalyn]

It does get a faint little snort, because her sense of humour has also always been questionable.

But then she tries to take a cautious step closer and stumbles, before leaning on the closest tree. "Might've managed after all..." she grumbles, though she doesn't seem that close to actually dying. She folds a wing around herself protectively.

[canofmanji]

"Oh shit!" He had forgotten that she in the creature had become one means she also now shares it's injuries. He rushes to her side. "Put pressure on it. That-- that's about the extent of my knowledge when it comes to healing." Not for the first time he wished there was someway to temporarily share his curse with someone.

[edalyn]

She's startled, when he rushes over, but she doesn't really shy away. She's not sure she believes him about knowing her in the future, but at least it's pretty clear he isn't try to hurt her... it... them?

Probably not the time to unpack that, right now. Instead she nods vaguely and presses a hand to her side. "I think--I think that's right." Normally she'd probably know, but she's not exactly focused right now.

[canofmanji]

"Everyone around here's gone?" He asks. "There's not like... I dunno, a vet or someone who could help?"

[edalyn]

"A vet?" It's hard to tell if she's mildly insulted by the idea or if she just doesn't know the term.

Either way, she doubts it. "There's noone. There's... never anyone," except, sometimes, her parents--but mostly in the form of feeling like her mother would be there, if she went inside.

"Until now. This isn't... right." Eda puts a hand to one of her temples, confusion setting in as the logic of the dream stretches further.

[canofmanji]

"I don't know?! I've never taken care of a bird before, let alone an owl human hybrid!" And thus why he's now panicking a little.

"What? What is it?" He growls while still holding pressure onto the injury. Although his anger is all towards his inability to do more than this to help. "What's not right?!"

[edalyn]

Eda's feathers ruffle up anxiously at his tone, but she doesn't pull away.

"It's... the beast isn't a separate thing," she says, realisation starting to set in.

"When I don't change it's just--it's just in my head."

Her bright yellow eyes widen a bit. "We're in my head."

[canofmanji]

"EH!? I don't remember crawling into your noggin!" Although that's not exactly the weirdest thing he's probably ever heard. Such as waking up in a new city in a new time period. "Any idea how we get out!? Shit, I didn't just-- cut you brain or something did I?"

[edalyn]

This reaction actually gets a startled little laugh. Eda seems a little calmer, telling herself that it only *feels* like she's bleeding--

"That's... not how that works," she points out, managing an obnoxious little smirk briefly.

"It's not my brain it's my, you know, inner self. Or... its. Both of our... I don't know what this means," she admits as she trails off again. She looks down at herself, at her hands, stops worrying about keeping pressure on her injury and instead just turns them over, taking in her feathers and her claws.

[canofmanji]

"Nothing like has this every happened to me before." He thought his life was complicated enough and then he came to this place. "I don't even know how to begin. I'd say I should try going back the way I came, but I have no idea how I got here."

[edalyn]

Eda looks at herself a moment longer before taking a deep breath and turning her attention back to the--as far as she remembers right now--stranger.

"What's--what is the last thing you remember?" she asks. Maybe that's somewhere to start. She's trying to answer that question for herself, and it's coming up foggy.

[canofmanji]

"I remember..." He thinks about it for a bit. "I went to bed. Going to sleep is the last thing I remember."

[edalyn]

Well, that's not very helpful. Unless maybe it is?

"Are you... dreaming? Am I dreaming?" She sounds more like she's wondering aloud more than like she actually expects the man to have an answer. It didn't explain much, but maybe it was something.

"Maybe we can just wake up." It wouldn't answer all the questions she had, but she wasn't sure she wanted to stay in here, either. Or to have someone else stay in here with her. Even one who claimed to be a friend.