Event - Connectivity

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Connectivity

➥ Misinformed

(cw: theft, home invasion, paranoia)

The years have gone missing. Something's taking the books and papers from homes and libraries, even shops. Tracking it headed your way. -CP

You might be one of those the cryptic message is delivered to directly if you met and worked with Cindy Parsons, a local newscaster from Wolf Pen, WV. They seem to be making good on a promise to help a select few out after the people of ADI stopped an apocalypse ritual on their doorstep. If you didn't get a direct message, you might hear murmurs of it from various sources around ADI HQ. Gossip has a way of spreading, especially when there's some potential supernatural threat in it.

Sure enough, for intrepid researchers, they'll be able to find news reports of a strange series of threats heading from West Virginia toward Gloucester, starting with Cindy's reporting about a town about 20 miles north of Wolf Pen. Every book and newspaper, whether physical or digital, that was published in the year 2020 seems to have disappeared within certain towns. Local police are flummoxed.

And then it hits Gloucester.

The public library puts out a request for any information on the missing materials as well as a request for donations to replace their books and other printed materials. Who would do this? While replacing digital items is time-consuming and costly, the physical copies of things are even harder to manage, especially with so many libraries in the region being hit by this effect. The year 2020 has been wiped out.

Everyone will find that their own personal libraries/information stores have been picked clean, as well. Homes that seem secure will always have some sort of evidence of potential breaking and entering. However safe you thought you were in your home, however safe your coveted knowledge, it can disappear in an instant.

The library has requested volunteers assist in raising money for them to replace everything as quickly as possible, in the event the knowledge fiends who did this can't be found. Community-minded individuals might defy ADI's guidance and take up their own volunteer efforts, interacting with locals to knock on doors, start a bake sale, or start some kind of money-making activity to assist the library.

Those with more caution in their step will be tasked by ADI with searching Dogtown for the missing materials. They have a hunch about this. Maybe it will prove fruitful.

➥ Misplaced

(cw: cuts, wounds, foreign objects embedded in flesh, supernaturally-induced apathy)

un: gracefully
Everyone, this is Neil Grace, Head of Security. We have a problem on our hands. A field agent recently returned to Gloucester with a cursed artifact that shattered upon entry into town. This field agent failed to inform anyone for several days as they tried to fix the problem themselves. They are being dealt with.

What we know right now is that the artifact was a crystal, something associated with the Lonely. It may be responsible for the recent disappearance of printed materials from around Gloucester and elsewhere in the country. I've attached a location pin that should give you the point for where the crystal shattered. We're getting reports that people living in that area are displaying unusual behavior. Please work in teams of at least two. Be careful, and avoid touching crystal pieces where possible.

- Neil

It's easy enough to find the park where the shattering happened. There's an unnatural quiet and emptiness throughout the park with pockets of sound. Eagle-eyed (or just persistent) individuals will be able to track down shards of crystal that have embedded themselves into trees and along the ground. Given the distance they seem to be from the initial shatter point, it's clear some supernatural force was involved in flinging these things.

Anyone spending a decent amount of time at or around the park will begin to note that it's not just the environment that's off here, but some of the people, too. That guy you spotted on a bench, ostensibly watching some squirrels? He hasn't moved. It's hard to tell if he's even breathing, but approach him, and he'll glance up before looking away again. There's no affect on his face, no real engagement. Trying to talk to him will garner painfully slow and mono-syllabic responses. There's just no life or personality to him. And the longer you talk, the more the cold seeps in. It's getting harder to care about what you were doing. Maybe this guy has it right. Just do nothing. Stop trying.

You might still spot the wound on his neck and the glinting shard of crystal that seems to be embedded there. But do you even want to bother? It's hard to summon the will to do so when the important things stop mattering and thoughts of other people slip away.

➥ Missed Connections

(cw: socioeconomic disaster; scarcity)

There aren't further network communications regarding the state of the search for the crystal shards...because sometime in the afternoon after Neil's message goes out, there simply aren't any more network communications at all. As the day goes on, the initial assumption is that ADI's internet provider is falling down on the job, leaving headquarters, official housing, and ADI-networked devices without access. The same is true over at Bonnie's Flophouse, though, and local staff soon realize and reveal that their own home internet and phone services are no longer working. All internet, cell phone, and landline services are down for the count...making it a little difficult to immediately figure out just how widespread the problem is.

It's treated as a minor inconvenience around ADI for the first few days. Surely things will get back up and running soon, everyone will get a rote apology from their service providers, and it will turn out to be the result of vandals or some accident taking down a major fiber optic cable–it wouldn't be the first time that's happened in the USA. There's a lot of grumbling around the offices thanks to frustration over lack of access to electronic records and the need to tramp all over the building to track down a coworker and speak face to face instead of shooting off a quick message. Around Gloucester, businesses either close their doors or muddle through on a cash-only basis, reluctantly writing off a day or two of profits while they await the internet's return.

Except it simply...doesn't. Days turn into a week, and then two. What struck most as an inconvenience becomes a quiet, ongoing catastrophe. Hospitals and emergency services resort to whatever handheld radios they can get their hands on to deal with what patients they aren't able to reschedule or send out of town, with pharmacies and medical and veterinary offices scrambling to re-establish lines of communication via overworked staff physically relaying written messages across town. The supply chain all but grinds to a halt, so even after most local businesses reopen on a cash-only basis, shelves begin to go bare, leading to a panicked rush on what remains–mainly, over-the-counter medication and non-perishable food get bought up at accelerated rates and become increasingly scarce within Gloucester. Local banks are swarmed by residents attempting to withdraw what limited stores of cash are available, and even trusted customers who are able to access their accounts face days-long waiting periods. What's worse, the outage makes it impossible for ADI's off-worlders to access their salaries within Gloucester: the prepaid debit cards ADI uses to distribute payments can't be accepted by businesses and cash advance services have been toppled by the outage.

The outage includes Gloucester, Dogtown, and the surrounding small towns that rely on Gloucester for most of their services, but outside a certain radius it seems things are business as usual for the rest of the country (aside from national interest in Gloucester's strange ongoing disaster). It's possible to reach an area with internet and phone service within a day's drive in order to get cash and supplies from outside banks and businesses, but within a week the knock-on effects begin, with panic-buying and panic-withdrawals making supplies and cash increasingly hard to come by in the surrounding area. Within a week ADI begins doing their best to provide cash payment to staff in need, but the company and the banks on which it relies simply don't have enough cash on hand to pay out everyone's weekly salaries in full.

There are, indeed, apologies from service providers, their public statements provided both via the internet for the world at large, and via fliers within Gloucester. At first these apologies come alongside promises that services will be restored shortly, though there's a conspicuous lack of a promised timeline. As the outage drags on, though, the apologetic messages become more and more vague about what's being done to fix it, promising only that they are giving the matter their full attention.

There was a time when the world did not rely on the internet to function, and there are worlds where that's still the case. Here and now, though, it's becoming more and more clear how heavily everyone relies on those connections.

➥ Without a Trace

(cw: reality warping, memory loss, potential for gaslighting or misperceptions of self or reality)

Memory is such a delicate thing. It shapes everything from interactions to perception to sense of self, and yet can be malleable to all sorts of things: our conviction, another’s perception, or even injury.

It might not be noticeable at first, when the changes come. It might be little things here and there, barely worth commenting on like a misplaced pen. Maybe you don’t remember that restaurant being there….yet when you step inside, they greet you like you’ve been a regular for months. Maybe that coworker you’ve been chatting with daily is now a stranger. Maybe your best friend slowly fades out of thought and mind. Even if you knew them before arriving here.

Do you even remember the world you came from anymore? Do you truly?

For other people,it might be instantaneous. Waking up one morning reveals things aren’t as they should be, as friends and worlds simply vanish from your thoughts. There’s no rhyme or reason or promise that those who so adamantly claim to know you aren't simply lying. After all, everyone knows how insidious this place can be. Why….you’ve been here longer than most, haven’t you? You’d surely know better.

➥ 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!
  
  
• MISINFORMED (16 January - Ongoing) - The books/newspapers/printed materials are simply gone from Gloucester. No amount of searching will dig them up, unfortunately. It's clearly some supernatural force that's removed them. The evidence of a break-in to their residence/wherever they're keeping their things will vary from very obvious to subtle, depending on what might invoke the most dread in a particular individual. ADI personnel will be particularly on alert at HQ as there seems to be evidence of a break-in there, as well, even if they can't trace the source.
  
  Characters will need to reacquire things if they lost them from their personal library, and the Gloucester (and ADI) libraries being short on materials from 2020 will be an ongoing issue for the foreseeable future as replacements are tracked down. Characters who wish to volunteer are free to create whatever money-making endeavors they see fit. ADI leadership will be disapproving due to the potential danger associated with community outreach like that, but they're not going to actively stop anyone. Players are welcome to say their efforts are successful, but they should not be raising tens of thousands of dollars here. The locals of Gloucester are middle class for the most part, but they don't have that kind of spending money. Those who wish to investigate Dogtown, instead, are encouraged to submit search requests on the Dogtown Search page.
  
  
• MISPLACED (17-31 January) - The shards have been flung improbably far afield with characters able to find them all over the park. It's not just people in the park at the moment who seem to have been hit with the shards, either. Teams might find themselves knocking on doors after spotting shattered windows or the like, only to find people who can't seem to be bothered to do anything about the damage or their situation. The apathy effect vanishes once the shard is removed from a person, but holding it will produce a lower grade apathy as well as a sense of emptiness in the person holding it. Smashing the crystals into smaller pieces will just scatter low-grade apathy across the ground for anyone to track into their homes.
  
  
• MISSED CONNECTIONS (17-31 January) - Any access to internet or phone services during this period will require a long drive out of town to reach an area beyond the spread of the outage. There's no physical cause for the outage to be found–anyone who travels out to find out what's happening with the effects to restore the internet will find the service providers just as baffled and frustrated as anyone else.
  
  
• WITHOUT A TRACE (17-31 January) - Any memory can be lost, from the details of a person’s world, to their friends and family, or even lovers. How quickly the changes take is up to player discretion, but the changes can be reversed through reminders of attachments to other people, places, or things. Help from those close to people is encouraged! On the other hand, players are welcome to keep any memory losses they would like; however, any formative memories that are lost that would drastically change a character's personality from their canon presentation will be returned at the conclusion of the event. Permanent losses can be important memories, but please refer to Rule #4 in Apocalypse How's ruleset. "Characterization must be consistent with canon/the original story the character is from, when taking into account in-game developments. Characters should be recognizable as the character throughout their tenure in the game."
  
  

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Comments

[energyfieldgood]

Could have fooled me.

[Urge to nudge him with foot rising.]

What's going on with you?

[semilethal]

[Donnie could not even judge Rodney if he did because he would do the same thing. Logical response.]

I don't know. [Barely rolls grass-stained face to squint up at Rodney.] More specifically, I do not care. [Usually he thinks he might care. He enjoys knowing things, but like...he's tired? Or something. It doesn't matter.]

[energyfieldgood]

You don't know and you don't care.

[He echoes the sentiment, bewildered, disbelieving, staring at him. Huh.

Is he overreacting? Is that maybe just something turtles did? Some weird hibernation thingy? Or is there something really wrong with Donnie?

... Well, there is one thing to find out for sure.]

So you wouldn't mind if I took this.

[He nods towards his battle shell. Maybe even reaches out like he's about to grab it.]

Maybe took it apart a little.

[semilethal]

[Rodney correctly guessed the one thing that could get Donatello to move in this state...though not far. Donnie manages to roll over and grab Rodney's wrist to stop him, a sharp movement with both fear and upset in his eyes, before his grip slides and he flops back onto the ground as if the energy washed out of him like a watered down paint.] Ugh.

Whatever. I...guess. I'll just build a new one. Or I won't.

[energyfieldgood]

[... That's what he thought. Rodney sobers at the look on Donnie's face, when he realizes that this is serious. He watches his hand going limp and squats down to look him over.]

Something is affecting you.

[That much is painfully clear.]

You were fine the last time we talked. What did you do today? Did you encounter anything? Handle any artifacts? Ventured into Dogtown?

[semilethal]

[The peppered questions are annoying, though not enough to get Donnie to leave or otherwise chase Rodney away. Maybe if he answers one of them, he'll leave Donnie to lay here on the cold ground until he stops feeling things entirely?

His hand fumbles about (hey his fingers kinda don't wanna close, how long has he been out here?) until he finds the glass bottle with a collection of glowing shards rattling inside. He pushes the bottle in Rodney's direction before rolling back over to give him his back, curling up into himself. There. That's what he was doing. Go away.]

[energyfieldgood]

[Rodney just gapes when there's suddenly a glass bottle full of evilly glowing shards before he throws his hands up.]

Oh, come on.

[Yeah, he figures that will do it? When he thought about potential artifacts he didn't quite expect them to be that much in your face!

He's also not going away, sorry, Donnie.

He'll just. For the lack of better equipment take the longest stick he can find to shove the glass bottle far far away from them for now and rake some dead leaves over them. Let some foot soldier from ADI pick it up later and make sure it's safe before he takes a look at it in the lab. Until then, he's not gonna get potentially affected and freeze his ass off in the dirt, thank you.

Speaking of which.

That looks really cold.

But the kid's a turtle, he should be fine with the cold, right? It's probably normal that hand doesn't close effectively. There's no need for Rodney to... to do anything about it. It's fine. It's not like he cares.

Mmmh.

Mmmmmmmmmhh.

Ugh, fine. He shrugs off his jacket, draping it over Donnie for now while he waits to see if getting the shards away from him does the trick. If not they'll probably have to contain or destroy them and that's probably gonna take hours and he's getting cold already, that's just great...]

That better be it and that better wear off soon. It's freezing! And I'm not carrying you back.

[semilethal]

[Look!!!! He would've gone to get some lead paint or something to coat the bottle but he didn't have time!! Everybody would've gotten all the shards already and then how would he prove that he is so capable and great!

The fact that those thoughts are even happening at all means something's changed, though Donnie comes to the realization far more sluggishly than normal. Is that because of the cold, or because of...whatever? Wait, he's cold. Holy shit he's cold.

Rodney stands over him silently for a minute, practically radiating agitation, when suddenly something soft and very warm falls over Donnie's side. He blinks sleepily down at it, then back up at Rodney as he complains, rubbing his arms to keep himself warm.

His jacket.

While Donnie is here, on the ground, having rolled around on it a few times. It's dirty, and this is Rodney's jacket. It's cold, and that's his jacket. His jacket- it's going to get dirty. Rodney hates dirt and filth. Rodney also complains about everything, such as being cold or hungry or his ass falling asleep when he sits too long. He complains about Donnie moving things around on his workstations (even if Donnie does it because his way is obviously more efficient), he complains about how Donnie is always using the same piece of equipment he wants to be using. Donnie can't really say anything about it because he complains as well, but their relationship thus far can be described as professional roommates. Maybe a slight degree of affection borne from understanding most of each other's idiosyncrasies, having shared them. They're very alike. So they manage to stay both civil and emotionally distant. It's an excellent arrangement. Nobody gets attached, and nobody gets offended.

...but Rodney's jacket is on Donnie, and Donnie's on the ground. It's going to get dirty.

Donnie grips the jacket tight around him as he pushes himself up on an elbow, realizing distantly that he's only now shivering, which is a bad sign. He should have a hoodie somewh- oh. He dropped it in a mud puddle when he'd taken it off. Nice. Going to just leave that there forever.]

-I can walk, [Donnie mumbles. He clutches at Rodney's jacket as if it's a cape. He can't put his arms in it because that would get it dirtier, but he's just not willing to return it just yet. Because it's so cold.]

[energyfieldgood]

[I can walk.

That's-- that works on so many levels because a) there is a response that isn't apathy, b) physical action, lizard boy is actively getting up, c) finally an acknowledgement of the current temperature. All of it convinces Rodney that removing the shards improved the situation quite a bit and it brings a semblance of relief.]

Good. That's good. You should-- uh, we should do that. Walk. As in, back to the apartment.

[Where it's warm. Where people who stupidly lay on the cold ground for too long can warm up and they can find safe and logical explanations how it got to this in the first place.]

Do you want me to--

[He clears his throat.]

I'll. I'll get this.

[He beckons for the shell because he's not going to leave that here. Because he knows Donnie would not leave that here. And that knowledge comes with a certain obligation? It just does? And if Donnie wants to fight him over touching it? Great. Even less apathy, he'll take it.

If not, Rodney can always argue that this falls under their no sharing tech with anyone outside the apartment clause. Because technically by securing it and bringing it back with them he can do something about that right now? Yeah.

He might pick up the hoodie, too. There's mud, yes, but... but washing machines are a thing and so are potential attachments to personal garments - Rodney has some of those he's quite attached to - and he'll have to take a shower either way. So it's fine. This is fine. It's all fine.]

How long have you been out here?

[semilethal]

[It takes most of his energy and care to get to his feet, so Rodney reaching for his battle shell earns him maybe a lingering side-glance at the most. He pulls Rodney's jacket close and hunches into it, marveling at how it still has some warmth lingering. Mammals emit so much god damn heat.

Rodney fishing his hoodie out of the puddle is also a surprise, and far more of a kindness than he'd ever expected (he hadn't really expected anything to begin with). It makes him feel something, which is in and of itself uncomfortable on a normal day and moreso when he's coming out of some weird...fugue state devoid of all passion and emotion. Donnie watches this with a pinched expression, as if waiting for the rug to be pulled from beneath his feet. Perhaps for Rodney to take his jacket back and give Donnie his things to carry, which would be reasonable to ask.

-ah. Oh. A question, he's being asked a question. Donnie ignores a great shiver that shudders through him and checks the mission timer he'd set for himself on his wrist computer.] -seven hours, fifteen minutes. Not that long on the ground. I don't...I didn't mark the time when I laid down.

[energyfieldgood]

Seven--!?

[That leaves a possible window from one to several hours, considering how cold Donnie seems to be, and every variable in that equation comes back to too long. Rodney scowls, displeased by the answer because that is now a problem. Which means, it needs fixing.

Okay. Fixing this now.]

Right. Uh. First things first, we should probably get you warmed up. Have someone from medical take a look at you. ... Can turtles become hypothermic? Biology never held much of an appeal to me. It's too messy, too unpredictable, too citric acid cycle here and hemostasis there, and then all those diseases...

[All those messy those bodily functions and everything that can go wrong with them. No, no, no.

It's all very rapid talking because he's worried and he has to take care of this and he needs to be first responder and part of him realizes he should probably say something nice but he can't think of anything nice for the life of him and this is stressing him out.]

Have you eaten? You need food. Like, you're probably hypoglycaemic at this point...

[That's you, Rodney. Don't project.]

What do you eat? Is it worms? Flies? Do I have to dig for anything?

[He probably saw him eating so many times but never actively paid attention to his diet.]

[semilethal]

[God that is. So much external stimuli. Donnie flinches at the barrage of questions, pulling the jacket around him so tight it's like he's trying to restrain himself. He gets the jacket closed with one fist in order to lift the other hand and press it over the ear closest to Rodney.

He's trying to help. He is helping. Do not snap just because you're confused. He's being very kind.] -medical, [Donnie manages, and turns in the direction of the tent, plodding thatta way. Hopefully Rodney follows. Hopefully Rodney's not mega pissed that Donnie appears to be brushing him off. Hopefully Rodney doesn't drop his battle shell and hoodie back into a puddle of icy mud. Even if he is, like whatev- no, he. Does care if he's upset Rodney.

He'll deal with it later.]

[energyfieldgood]

[Worry not! There is a clear lack of upset as... well as a lack of understanding that he's being insufferable. In fact, the talking will just continue somewhere behind Donnie while Rodney follows, pausing only when he realizes where they're going.]

Huh? ... Oh, right, the tents. Much closer, good thinking.

[Except he also hates getting so close to Dogtown and the last time he was in that tent, he was an incoherent, bleeding mess, literally going insane. At least it stops the talking and he grows a little quieter. Small, trauma-induced blessings.

He steps inside, quickly ushering the people on shift over to relay what happened.]

[semilethal]

[Keeps that hand over his ear until it seems like Rodney is done speaking, for whatever reason, and finds a cot to go climb clumsily onto while he waits to be seen. He watches Rodney though, keeps his eyes on either his shoes or his shoulders, watching him discuss enthralling topics such as 'might need to eat' and 'hibernates? I don't know' with the medics there.

-ah, Rue's left. Their shift must have ended. That's...unfortunate.

Rodney does something with his phone and comes back over as the nearest medic gives him a blanket. Donnie wraps it sluggishly around Rodney's jacket over his shoulders, drawing up his legs. Mgh. He's not really generating a lot of his own heat. Something about his brother.

-his brother? Donnie clears his throat, and if it seems like Rodney's about to leave he'll reach out to grab at his shirt and keep him from going anywhere, as he asks,] You told Leo...?