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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[gammasystem]

Hulk's face twisted up into a smile, it wasn't the most natural look on his face but it was bright and happy none the less. He gently stroked it's head, tender and content.

"OWL THING TRUST HULK.."

He looked around a bit before huffing and tilting his head towards the Owl Beast.

"HULK NOT SURE WHERE OWL THING IS, WHERE HULK IS..."

He huffed again a bit frustrated at how confusing it was but pat at the owl beast's head to keep calm and distracted. He slowly leaned back and settled into a sitting position, his feet together and knees on the ground, as close to criss-cross as he could get, patting beside himself welcomingly.

"NO DIFFERENCE, HULK HELP BIRD-FRIEND."

[edalyn]

The owl beast just watched him for a moment, but then it settled down in the offered spot. It licked its new friend's hand briefly, with a scratchy sandpaper tongue, like a cat. After that it just rested its head on his lap.

Eda, meanwhile, was a little lost. She'd only seen this landscape once, also in a dream. But at least she didn't really need to know where she was going. She just had to follow the faint red thread she was slowly wrapping around one of her wrists as she traced her way along its path.

[gammasystem]

Hulk didn't mind the texture, in fact he found it.. well, neat. It took a lot to get through his skin, deep pressure felt like a graze, yet here things felt so much stronger. Dreams have a way of getting through like that.

He stayed very still as it rested its head on his lap and he continued to gently pat down its down and feathers.

"REST GOOD.." He spoke as gently as he could, though it still rumbled out of him like quiet thunder. His eyes caught that red string vibrating and shifting and he reached out to it, prodding at it with his finger before trying to carefully tug whatever what was at the other end closer.

[edalyn]

The owl beast's head twitched just a little, at the sound, but then it settled back down again.

There was a quiet moment, but it was soon broken by some muffled swearing in the direction that the string was leading. Eda tripped and just managed to catch herself against a tree, before blinking at the scene not too far from her.

"...Who the heck are you?" She was expecting the owl beast. Maybe whoever that was chasing it in this dream, last time. She had absolutely no idea why there was a big green guy.

[gammasystem]

Hulk's head swivelled to the sound of harsh, angry words spoke in a fluster some distance away. He moved his hand from petting the Owl Beast's head to cross in front of it somewhat, shifting his weight between the approaching stranger and the new friend he'd made.

Hulk's toxic green eyes stared down Eda and his lip curled into a snarl as he shifted his weight again slowly like an animal readying to lunge but in the vague shape of a man with the gait of an ape.

He scoffed and smacked his chest, over the faded stitched Y scar which spanned across his torso.

"HULK IS HULK, AND HULK IS STRONGEST THERE IS!"

He declared gruffly as he slowly moved his arm from in front of Owl Beast to pet at it again slightly, trying to make sure it was ok while he continued to watch Eda.

"OWL THING HULK'S FRIEND," His nose flared with a huff, "HULK NOT LET OWL THING GET HURT BY PUNY STRANGER, NOT LET OWL THING GET HURT BY YOU TOO."

[edalyn]

Eda froze, briefly, at the stranger's reaction. She was well aware this was a dream, but that didn't mean she wanted to get in a fight she wasn't sure she'd win.

But then they talked more and she relaxed, at least a little. Maybe this was all a misunderstanding. It was almost endearing to see someone else being protective over the owl beast. If nothing else it was new.

Eda stepped further into the clearing, but raised her hands in a vaguely placating gesture. "It's alright, uh... kid?" She wasn't sure that she was right, but her first instinct said this might just be a very large child. That happens sometimes.

"The owl beast is my friend too. Isn't that right, big guy?"

The owl beast shifted and raised its head to look at her. There was a pause, because right now its memories of where in its own timeline it was were more than a little jumbled. But then it gave a little nod, much the way it had the first time she'd suggested a truce to it, and settled back down where it was again.

[gammasystem]

Hulk's protruding brows scrunched and furrowed as he watched her get closer, even raise her hands but she seemed to be doing it to- well. Show them, maybe. She didn't seem to be doing anything with them anyways.

Then Hulk looked down at the Owl Beast who gave a nod and he pat it's head very gently before looking to Eda, shifting just a bit to the side out of the way of the Owl Beast, still watching carefully in case it was a fib of some sort.

"FINE." He huffed a bit annoyed but eased onto his knuckles like an ape before sitting down properly himself. His head tilted to the side a bit as he once again looked to the creature at his side. "OWL-BEAST.." He spoke slowly and carefully, trying to memorize the name. He didn't remember names very well but this was a good one, it was words he knew already.

"OWL BEAST SCARED SO HULK CHASED AWAY PUNY STRANGER." He then grunted and looked around them slowly. "NEW PLACE, NOT BAD PLACE... PUNY BANNER'S HEAD NOT LIKE THIS, NOT SO MANY TREES.."

A ways away, one is spurred by the name, getting closer but not quite yet.

[edalyn]

The first part, at least, made sense. She could guess what dream this had been, and apparently they'd stepped in to help. That was nice, if... unexpected. The rest, on the other hand, she didn't really follow.

"Right, well, I've got... no idea who you're talking about," Eda began with a shrug, trying to place if the name rung any bells and coming up empty.

"But you're in my head. Well, it's head, I guess," she corrected herself, glancing once again at the owlbeast. "Same difference."

The owlbeast, meanwhile, appeared to lose interest in the conversation. As it settled back down, it might seem smaller than before.

[gammasystem]

Hulk’s attention moved to the Owl Beast as Eda spoke. He watched the creature shift and settle and start to seem smaller. It was familiar. It didn’t feel too comforting for Hulk but the beast seemed to be relaxed, calmer than before at least.

Closer, the feeling of someone being close though unseen. Faint footsteps through the trees and crunching of leaves though hard to place from which direction. Through the gaps in the trees a shape started to take form and then, as if moving from nothing there was a man. He stood some short distance away, stepping out with a hand on the tree beside him.

He was short and scruffy and clearly confused.

“…Hulk?”

He spoke up, and Hulk’s head swivelled to him before letting out a low grunt. ”BANNER.”

There was one question seemingly answered, but as the mans attention flickered between eda and the owl beast he only seemed more lost. “What- … what exactly is going on here?”

[edalyn]

The owlbeast raised its head again; Eda was familiar, but the newcomer wasn't. It watched him warily.

"Guess we're having an open house," Eda muttered as the man stepped into the clearing. She was getting used to these dreams to a degree, but this was the first one that was starting to feel crowded.

She looked him over, trying to remember why he was vaguely familiar. She was pretty sure she'd seen the guy somewhere, but she couldn't place where yet.

"Well," she began, "if you missed the memo we're dreaming." He'd probably picked up on that, but some times it was harder than others; she also didn't know if he'd been to the class or was wearing one of the little headsets that made it easier.

"My dream to be exact." Well, not technically hers. But she didn't feel like explaining further. She just wanted to establish that it was her head they were both sort of trespassing in.

"Is this kid yours?"

[gammasystem]

The familiarity was also nagging in his head, and he was starting to get the certain feeling this wasn't his head at all, that he was standing in at least. Lucid dreams and wandering headspaces was more common these days but this? This was new.

Suspicions confirmed as she went on to explain a bit, Bruce still looking at Hulk a bit warily, as well as the creature he was patting. He didn't like others in his own head, nor was he too comfortable with being in someone elses.

Then- Then she said that and Bruce slowly looked over to her with a bit of a dumbfounded look. "What did you just- Sorry, no- I mean-" He stopped and sighed while pinching his nose.

Hulk scoffed low and sneered a bit, it wasn't a pretty expression for his face. "PUNY BANNER STUPID AND SLOW." He smacked his chest a bit before settling down again, "HULK IS HULK."

"Yes.. I'm not- I'm not arguing this with you right now.." He spoke softer towards Hulk before looking to Eda. "He's.. Hulk, he's also me- sort of- it's complicated. I should have expected this was a risk with this dreaming thing but I guess it just got away from me in the moment. I'm Bruce, by the ways, Bruce Banner. Probably best to get an introduction out of the way now."

[edalyn]

Eda raised an eyebrow, entirely lost as to what part of what she said got that reaction, or whether she'd been wrong about something. She couldn't tell what it got them arguing about, either.

She listened to his—not especially elucidating—explanation, and gave a slow nod. She had questions, including why Bruce didn't ring any bells for a name associated with this face, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to have a conversation about all this.

She also wasn't sure if she wanted to introduce herself, but... well, as much as she's not interested in sharing, it might be worse to have him bring this up in the real world. After a long moment she sighed.

"Eda Clawthorne," she said, and briefly considered leaving it at that.

"And that's... well I just call it the owlbeast." She glanced over before leaning her forehead against one of her hands for a moment, tired if not exasperated. "Let's just say it's a similar situation. I think."