Event - Becoming

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Becoming

The message below goes out to all devices on the ADI network on March 16th.

un: n.lehrer

To All Staff,

We have received a tip from a former client and have conducted follow-up investigation into an art and science exhibit located in Buffalo, New York. There have been sightings of unusual animals in the Buffalo area and several people have gone missing after visiting the exhibit.

Anyone wishing to aid in the investigation should report to Pam Ruan to arrange for group travel to and from Buffalo. Austin Yeats, whom some of you may be familiar with from our mission in Wolf Pen last year, will be your contact for this work in the field. I will be joining at the end of the week if this issue has not been resolved.

To be explicit: As with all of ADI's assignments outside of Gloucester, participation here is voluntary. We have other work close to home that always needs addressing. Dogtown continues to show troubling anomalies. Be safe as you can, folks, and always travels in groups. We all need that reminder sometimes. ADI isn't a place well-suited for lone wolves.

- Nia Lehrer, Warden

➥ Exhibiting Odd Behaviors

(cw: thalassophobia, uncanny valley, scopophobia, mannequin-like creatures, potential for limb loss)

You’ve been on a bus before. Probably. Maybe. Well, if you volunteered to go check out the touring Art Exhibit in Buffalo, you’re about to be well acquainted with them. The nine hour drive on the ADI-provided bus is…fine. For a bus. Uneventful, assuming you and your neighbor get along. There’s an economy hotel ready and waiting for weary travelers to bunk up (two to a room,) get some rest, and then head out the next day for the exhibit to open its doors.

The Buffalo Museum of Science itself is a decent size, two stories with wide halls all painted a neutral gray-beige to better lend focus to the art installations it hosts. There’s plenty to see here, the usual offerings of the museum from traditional art pieces, to massive dinosaur skeletons, to intricate sculptures on dais. The wing housing the traveling exhibit and the point of the trip is its own sight to see. Dynamic lighting around a large square opening creates the visual effect of the frame twisting and warping in place. Just outside, an effusive sign declaring “Seeing the Unseeable: Where Science Meets Art” stands, seeming to melt and reform on its supports while welcoming visitors of all ages.

Inside the exhibit is a decently sized array of art from canvas pieces that offer twisting perspectives and looping images to displays of light that guests can interact with to warp their reality. Step into a plastic dome to make it seem all the color has been leached from your skin, walk through a tunnel that seems like the walls reach in to squeeze you and the floor rises to meet you without either moving.

A few exhibits are even more…lively. A medium-sized sculpture of what look like stick-figure men made of twisted iron all climb over each other, with the tallest one reaching towards the light that shines above it. At least it does for a moment. There’s an odd creaking and tapping as you pass it by. Turn back to look and that top-most figure is missing along with a few friends. The tapping of little metal feet carries the figures off and around the corner. Be mindful if you try to chase after it, there’s no running allowed in the building!

A hall-staged exhibit that warps sound to turn a whisper to a shout and vice-versa sits near an unassuming set of five portraits, each lovingly rendered down to the smallest, perfect, detail. A heart rests on a bush like a berry and those who venture nearby can hear the gentle, steady, beat of it, despite its stillness. A portrait of a richly brown eye stares out over the room. Except for when it’s staring at you. Is it always staring at you? Surely not. The hand seems innocuous enough, though pass by it and the sensation of someone grazing past your arm passes too. The one of a foot is perfectly innocent, even if an odd smell permeates the area. The last portrait is one of a mouth in every wrinkled and lined detail it has to offer. It boasts a sign that simply says “Do not touch. Do not feed.”

One of the largest pieces on offer takes up the entire end of a hallway, the lights leading up to the expanse of deep blue on canvas growing more and more dim as the sounds of the museum drift away. It’s nearly peaceful, if a bit chilly off in this corner. Isolating. Distant. Stand there long enough, and a sharp eye might notice the canvas ripple at the edges like the edges of a pond. A low gurgle and pop of bubbles highlights the deep, muffled, quality of the acoustics as though far beneath the surface of the sea. Movement at the corner of your eye might catch your attention and there, in the distance of the gloom, is a black speck…and it’s growing larger. Closer and closer the blotch looms until it begins to take an eel-like shape. It moves too quickly in the gloom to see much more, but the massive reflection of an eye fills the floor-to-ceiling canvas as the subject of the piece seems to pass you by.

Perhaps the oddest thing of all about this exhibit is the fact plenty of people seem to pass by or look at the same exhibits as you pause briefly, and then move on as though nothing at all of note was seen.

➥ A Puzzling Evolution

(cw: body horror, transformation, uncanny valley, mention of tooth-loss)

Can you figure out which path leads to human evolution?

The sign is prominently featured in front of multiple displays around the museum, each with an interactive screen. At the start, it shows a microorganism floating in an ocean. Those interacting with the display will be given two choices: EAT MORE or HIDE BETTER. Questions continue in this vein as the organism grows more complex and takes its leave of the ocean… and possibly returns. GROW MORE LEGS or GROW WINGS? SPECIALIZE or EAT EVERYTHING? The majority of the choice paths lead to the extinction of the evolving species, sadly, while every other path that provides a final evolved form seems to lead to either a weasel or a crab. How do you get to a human via evolution? It may yet remain a mystery, unless you look through the rest of the exhibit, perhaps!

You may have considered the interactive display a frustrating (and potentially inaccurate) annoyance, or perhaps you enjoyed the game you played that led you to a photo of a cute crab or weasel, and didn't think anything else of it as the whole evolution sequence can take rather a long time to get through. In either case, it's at least an hour later before you start to notice that something is… off. Your neck is starting to feel oddly stiff, like you've been craning it. Or there's a spot of hard skin on the back of your hand that's starting to itch. When did that turn up? Are you allergic to something? Maybe it's not a physical change, but rather, something that's more in your head. You're starting to feel an urge to find a nice, dark place to hide. It might be better if it were a bit moist. Or perhaps something earthy, just so long as it's somewhere you can watch from.

The changes will become more rapidly apparent over the next several hours as people's necks, bodies, and faces elongate, whiskers pop out of their faces, tails from their backsides, and their human teeth begin to fall out, replaced by tiny fangs. Others might find sections of their skin turning to a caparace-like consistency as the hair falls out. Their bodies becoming armored and segmenting themselves in odd ways as new limbs push forth. It would seem that this is how 'human' evolution happens. It's a potentially excruciating process for some, while others might experience milder pain or discomfort as their bodies shift and warp. Or their minds trend toward a more animalistic mindset.

What's worse is that the transformation effects are almost difficult to spot at first thanks to the enforced glamour that everyone who is part of ADI has placed on them. That seems to struggle with the rapid changes occurring, though, and might even break down completely for some before reestablishing itself. The monsters are out and about in the museum, it would seem.

Everyone will need to work together to locate and destroy the interactive displays before they find themselves becoming the animals they've learned about in the museum. Work quickly now, and the changes might not be permanent… for some.

Probably also best to do that and leave quickly, the police being what they are. ADI will happily provide rapid transport away from the museum and Buffalo once work has been completed. The lead field agent, Austin, will just have to deal with the locals, himself, in the ensuing fallout. It's probably fine. And those live weasels and crabs that have apparently been found around the museum grounds? That's also probably fine. Curious that ADI personnel don't appear to have transformed nearly as quickly as those who aren't part of ADI. You had a fighting chance, at least!

➥ For All Your Burning Questions

(cw: references to chronic pain and body horror; likely references to domestic abuse)

26M ex-desolation avatar, GBBO fan, part petroleum jelly now ig, AMA

The message appears on the network shortly after the volunteers depart for Buffalo, conveniently timed to provide entertainment for their bus ride as well as a distraction for those who stayed back in Gloucester. Screened to make it private for only ADI's off-worlders, the text message originates from the account of Bonnie Gale of Bonnie's Flophouse fame. This is unusual both because Bonnie rarely, if ever, makes an appearance on the network (who knew she still had an account?)...and because it's not sent by Bonnie at all.

Hey ADI offworlders, as the title says I'm your resident circus boy retired from lighting stuff on fire now (thanks for not killing me btw). Every waking moment is agony but what goes around comes around i guess. This is Pyre for everyone I met before and if I didn't meet you before it's a long story? It turns out my dad wanted to end the world and the guy I thought was like a dad was just making me into a monster to help him do that, and they're both dead now and I get why you killed them but I'm not going to say it doesn't suck.

Anyway sorry for setting all that stuff on fire around town, I was going through some things and I'm working on myself now. I'm an open book, ask me anything. No pictures tho.

For at least a few days, the private post flies under the radar and Pyre will be available to bounce back answers to questions about his life pre- and post-avatarhood, his attempts at the apocalypse, his attack on Gloucester, his passion for the Great British Bake Off, his current jelly-like state of being, and anything else people care to ask him.

➥ Hush, Hush

(cw: spiders, swarms, webs, massive creatures, blood, body horror, mention of skin-based horror, loss of control, cosmic horror)

Those who rode on Gus the Bus will notice that they've begun to have strange nightmares of late. Even those who should not be able to dream. It's not every night. In fact, it doesn't even seem to happen consistently. Not every dream is precisely the same, either, but there's a definite… theme.

Something too massive to fully see or comprehend looms over and all around you as you find yourself waking in a cobweb-infested forest. Dogtown? Possibly. It seems like the right species of trees. You're left to wander for a bit- there's always this moment of calm where you can take in your surroundings. The sky is a pitch black and looks… close. It's not the night sky, really. It feels more like it's a thing above you. There is some manner of ambient light, though, because you can see.

The wandering cannot last, though, and something speaks, the sound vibrating through you to your teeth. What it says you cannot know. You're not even sure there are words so much as impressions. Things that move beyond the veil of this world, that press in at its edges but cannot tear through. Not yet. But whatever veil is there is thin and thinning more in one particular spot. The sharp tang and smell of blood fills your mouth and nose as you bleed for the 'listening.' A long, enormous leg, big enough to impale you and hundreds of others reaches down through the trees and gently caresses your hair.

It's after this that the dream changes. Once, perhaps, you'll find that the forest disgorges thousands of tiny spiders that swarm toward you, fit themselves into your mouth, your nose, your ears, any place they can find an inroad. You are being filled up with spiders. Another time, you find your body already writhing with something. Looking down, you'll find there are spiders squirming out from the sack of your skin, hollowing you out as all that was you simply skitters away. Yet another time, you might find that your limbs have been wrapped in strings and you'll be puppeted about.

And when you wake from these nightmares, it is not always in your bed. Instead, you might find that you've already started breakfast, you're already taking a shower, or you might even have fully dressed and seen yourself off to work. You can remember nothing about what came before waking, but for those who might encounter sleepers, they'll see someone going about a self-care morning routine, whatever that might mean for you.

It's helpful! Don't worry about something else taking control for a little while. You probably didn't do anything sinister. Right?

➥ 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! You're welcome to make up any details for your specific scene. Also, please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
  
  
• EXHIBITING ODD BEHAVIORS (16-20 March) - Characters may sit with whoever they’d like for the trip to Buffalo and back, roommates for the hotel can either be chosen or randomized, as you prefer and while a museum buddy isn’t required (you’re mostly adults here) it is encouraged. Players are more than welcome to come up with whatever technology, light, or art-based exhibits they like as long as it fits the general theme of an altered reality, most of the displays are perfectly harmless, if a strain to the mind.
  
  For the ‘lively’ displays, the iron stick men can be caught and returned to the display, they will make a game of escaping and stay when returned for a little while, at least. (And they make rusty iron hinge sounds when caught!) All of the displays are marked with the traditional ‘do not touch’ warning, but anyone who ignores that advice for the body part portraits will find they feel…alarmingly realistic. Plus, the mouth will, in fact, bite and chew anything it is fed.
  
  Please note that while the Buffalo Museum of Science is a real museum and players are welcome to draw on information available online to supplement their understanding of its layout and exhibits, the version of the museum presented here is fictionalized, much like our setting of Gloucester and the surrounding region in general.
  
  
• A PUZZLING EVOLUTION (20 March) - Only characters who followed the game path all the way to a weasel or crab outcome will be affected by the display. Players are welcome to visit whatever grotesque changes they would like upon their characters provided that they follow the theme of weasels or crabs. Your character might even be the unlucky one who tried for all of the possible endings in that game and winds up as a weasel-crab hybrid. The transformations should be uncomfortable in some way for characters, and may be excruciatingly painful at player discretion. They cannot result in any advantages to characters that would be impossible to replicate without a patron Entity. E.g., 'Armored' skin is fine, but it's not going to stop bullets. Gills are fine, but they will not allow characters to sustain themselves underwater for longer than what could be achieved by a human in peak physical condition.
  
  The glamour effect on everyone will waver throughout this ordeal, so nonhuman characters and those undergoing transformation will be intermittently, VISIBLY nonhuman. Please assume that NPCs will act accordingly. Either double-taking if the nonhuman characteristics are visible for only a moment or running scared for a security officer if the changes last. Characters CAN be arrested. ADI will work to get them released, but they may lose valuable time if this happens. Changes can also be limited to wholly mental effects. The changes that occur can either be permanent or something that vanishes once all of the displays are destroyed. Characters who attempt a more technologically-based approach to looking into the code of the computers or trying to hack it will find nothing apparently supernatural. This is something that science cannot explain, oddly enough.
  
  
• FOR ALL YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS (16-31 March) - It seems the network admins have their hands full, as the private post will fly under the radar…unless, of course, someone chooses to inform them. As a reminder, Pyre was spared from death by player vote in December 2022 and hidden at Bonnie's Flophouse. After a few weeks Pyre's attention span will peter out and he'll lose interest in the post. In the meantime, however, he will do his best to answer any and all questions, but will be unwilling to show what remains of his face in person or in photographs.
  
  
• HUSH, HUSH (16 March - Ongoing) - Only characters with the spiderweb tattoos from Gus will experience the nightmares. These can happen as frequently or as infrequently as players would like. There are no patterns to be found either in individuals or a group as to when they occur, only that they are occurring as a result of the encounter with Gus. Those who witness sleepers while they're dreaming will likely not be able to tell that the people are asleep. They don't speak, but their eyes are open and they seem to respond in some way that would be expected. If you would like your character to have got up to mischief while they're sleepwalking, that is more than welcome. Generally, the spider dreams will lead to a simple self-care morning, but they might occasionally lead to characters committing small acts of vandalism and terror that they will have no memory of.
  
  

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Comments

my bestie turned into a neasel, ama

[ruevealing]

With Hickey's help - a phrase Rue never imagined even thinking before - the semi-transformed owlbear has managed to find a safe, unoccupied corner of the museum to collect themself in.

But they have barely begun to calm their breathing - Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale - when a tiny weasel comes barreling around the corner at them. In their distress, Rue completely missed the familiar ring rolling right between their taloned feet, though it would be impossible to miss the tiny creature squaring up against them now, squeaking and bristling and looking ready to fight.

"Excuse you!" The sight is so ridiculous that even Rue can help but huff out at the tiny creature, even if they are a touch offended to be so aggressively danced at. "I was standing here first!"

Hfjdjd

[conning]

The voice is Big, but it’s also Familiar, which gives him a moment’s pause, derailing his war dance and making him stand very still, peering up at the owlbear. The distraction is almost enough to make him forget his purpose, but not quite. He gives a little stamp, then bobs his head, because yes Rue was there “first” but the circle went there anyway and he needs it. It’s not his fault the circle is rude.

[ruevealing]

Well! At least the little creature seems less furious than a moment ago, though that stamp certainly has a lot of attitude behind it!

Rue's beak opens, about to reprimand the tiny weasel again, before the strangeness of this particular coincidence hits them. Their own partial transformation, John's own weird shift, they both have taken on such weasel-ish characteristics during their stay here at the museum, what's the probability that one of their friends has become a full on weasel?

Their big eyes narrow slightly, inspecting the face, the markings, the whiskers of the little mammal, looking for even the slightest familiar feature on it, but there's absolutely nothing identifying about them.

"You're someone that I know, aren't you?"

[conning]

The voice is still Big and Familiar, the syllables just as Big in a mind that's having a harder and harder time finding linguistic patterns beyond tone and volume.

Someone The Big Familiar knows?

He rocks back onto his hind paws, standing up and peering at Rue's face with all the focus he can muster. The shape is wrong, the markings are different, but the smell, the smell, he knows a much quieter version of the smell--

Rue. Rue! Rue! He darts in a quick, victorious circle at the recollection and then beelines for the circle--the ring--because Rue isn't going to hurt him.

[ruevealing]

"Oh!"

The little thing darts between Rue's legs and they very carefully step out of the way, extra cautious of accidentally stepping on that long, winding tail. It's only as it runs after something left behind on the ground - what is that? Rue peers down, some kind of strange metal trash? Oh no, it's a ring - that it clicks that if this is indeed someone Rue knows, there is an easy way to remedy that.

Their eyes dart from left to right, just to be certain no one is watching, before casting Speak with Animals.

"Can you understand me, little one?"

[conning]

He stops short and backs up fast, not scared this time so much as startled and curious. Neal--the internal label suddenly remembered--looks up at Rue, the ring held very gently in his teeth. Silver is soft enough that he could leave a scratch if he's not careful.

Slowly, he sets the ring down, putting one paw on top of it so it can't get away before he goes back to craning a look up at the Big Famil--at Rue.

"Yes. Can you understand me?"

[ruevealing]

Ah, now that Rue can get a better look at the ring the little Weasel is keeping close, the shine of it does ring quite familiar.

"Yes, I can! Neal, my dear, is that you? Have you - well, have you been completely transformed into a weasel?"

[conning]

He stares at Rue in confusion for several long seconds, a small animal trying to process at a level its brain wasn't given enough wrinkles to handle.

"I'm Neal," he confirms. But the rest of it, the completely transformed into a weasel, doesn't make sense to him. He is what he is, what he's always been, isn't he? He's Neal. Tiny voice obviously confused, he says, "I'm Neal, not a weasel."

He doesn't know what a weasel is, except that he's not it.

[ruevealing]

Rue's large, dark owl eyes blink slowly as they consider Neal's words. They do not look very convinced.

"Neal, my dear, I do hate to be the one to tell you this, but you are, ah -" It's a rustling of feathers and fabric as the owlbear kneels down closer to Neal's current level, holding a paw up just beside his head, showing the very short distance to the floor. "You're much smaller than normal. Have you not noticed?"

[conning]

He keeps staring, breathing quickening into a tiny pant. He's small, he's too small, he shouldn't be this small, Rue is right, and Rue is large and looming over him and could kill him because he is very small, he is too small, he's a weasel, what's a weasel, why can't he remember what a weasel is--

"I'm. I'm. I needed to... keep the circle. Keep the ring. I need to keep the ring because if I keep the ring then I'll be okay." He's not meant to be so still, but now he feels like he can't move, like if he moves that's the end. "I'm not... I'm not... I'm not a weasel."

He focuses very hard on Rue and on trying to remember them from another angle. It only sort of works. “Your neck is too long.”

[ruevealing]

Oh.

It's only due to a millennia worth of keeping their composure during absolutely anything that Rue's feathery brow manages to not furrow in worry. Something is very wrong - besides the physically obvious, of course - Neal's very mind seems to be suffering from the transformation, either his memory or his very human mind, but both are beyond worrying.

They reach a paw down to the floor, right beside Neal, huffing out a mirthless laugh. "It is. Much too long. But I suppose we match, don't we?"

Rue can only hope there's a way to reverse this, for both of their sakes.

"Here, hop into my hand. Bring the ring along. I shall keep you both safe."

[conning]

He hesitates, but only for a moment. Rue = safe. He remembers that. He knows it, in the same way he knows the ring is important and he has to hold onto it. Neal climbs onto Rue's hand, ring gripped in his paws once he settles.

"What's happening?" For a second he has enough clarity to be terrifyingly confused.

And where is-- "Malcolm. Malcolm, the ring is Malcolm, where's Malcolm?"

[ruevealing]

"I'm afraid that I do not know. Only that everyone is changing in terrifying ways, but why, I have not a clue."

For all that Neal does not remember, it is a true relief that he knows Malcolm and the importance of that ring.

"I don't know where is, but we shall find him. Here, you can sit at my shoulder." Their paw raises up to a feathery shoulder, for the weasel to hop off. "I only - I need a moment to calm myself and we can look for him."

[conning]

Neal climbs carefully onto Rue’s shoulder, poking his paw through the ring and pushing it up with his nose until it stays on his fore…arm? Foreleg? For a moment he’s confused by the relevance of the different words, his brief grasp of something broader collapsing again into animal concerns.

Concern: Rue is upset.

Solution: attempt to comfort-groom the owlbear’s neck feathers.

[ruevealing]

Oh. Oh no.

It's so silly, but the gentle grooming of their feathers does help to calm them down, some of Rue's earlier panting and high adrenaline finally beginning to ease under the tiny weasel's affectionate touch.

They suck in a deep breath and let it out softly, just to shake the very last of their nerves off of them, before Rue casts their own glamour upon themself.

It's more than a little terrifying to do this for the first time in months, the glamour that ADI provided had been so automatic that Rue didn't even need to consider it. But this time it is their own choice to fall behind that mask again, to step into a skin that feels more familiar than they'd like to admit, and masquerade as someone else all over again.

But they must, if they are to navigate around this museum, to locate Hob and Malcolm. To save Neal. So Rue tosses their reservations aside and their form changes, at least the illusion of it does, back to their more human-like disguise.

"There." A gentle, shaky breath before they are finally pushing away from the shadowy corner. "Let us find your Malcolm."

[conning]

Neal makes a purely animal noise of surprise, a squeak and brief withdrawal from grooming Rue as they shift, become a shape that he knows. One that he's briefly jealous of for reasons he can't place.

The jealousy vanishes as quickly as everything else, and Neal instinctively drapes himself around Rue's neck, tucking his head under one of their ears. "My Malcolm?"

There's a hopeful noise in the little voice, because remember Malcolm though he does, he doesn't remember what Malcolm is.

[ruevealing]

"Yes," Rue reaches up a disguised paw to briefly run down Neal's long neck as he drapes against them, already peering around the corner to see if they can spy Malcolm somewhere among the crowd.

"Your Malcolm! He is your beloved. That ring is a symbol of your love and commitment!"

[conning]

He arches into the contact a little, comforted by the gentleness. His Malcolm. His beloved. His beloved what?

"Love and commitment," he says, wistful and a little confused. "I can't remember where I got it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm rushes into the room, though his voice gets there first, shouting Neal’s name. Once he comes into view, he’s scanning the floor frantically and calling for Neal.

[ruevealing]

"Oh! Malcolm!" Rue is all too happy to wave the man over to them. "Please, you must come here immediately! I'm afraid that Neal has - well..."

Just look for yourself.

[abrightboy]

At Rue’s call, he spots Neal on their shoulder.

“There you are!” He lifts Neal off of Rue and looks at them apologetically. “We were walking along and he just started changing. I think it might have something to do with the game he was playing, but he just ran off…”

[conning]

The sound of Malcolm's voice puts Neal on alert, even if he doesn't fully recognize his own name in the sound. Neal practically climbs into Malcolm's hands as the man reaches for him, Neal's ring still shoved up on one weasely arm. He squirms, trying to get into position to lick Malcolm's face, listening to the exchange of sounds between Malcolm and Rue without understanding Malcolm's side.

He pauses the greeting groom to look at Rue. "I don't know his words."

It sounds like this.

[ruevealing]

Dear Neal, if only you knew how cute you sound.

And maybe it looks strange, to see the tiny creature chirping and growling out at the owlbear as they nod along intently, following along with every strange noise. But then Rue's expression softens considerably as they look at Malcolm, a tiny worried pinch between their brows.

"Oh Neal, I nearly forgot. Malcolm, we must find some way to reverse this. He can not understand your words. And his human memory of everything appears to be fading."

[abrightboy]

"How do we even begin to know how to do that?" Malcolm asks in something of a panic. "His memory of everything? How long do we have?"

[ruevealing]

"Oh." Perhaps Rue should not have said anything, but they would have hated to keep such vital information from the man.

"I'm sorry, Malcolm, but I do not know. It's only that he could not remember his name, or mine, or who you were or why he was so drawn to the ring. Something is happening, maybe, the longer someone is transformed, the more animalistic they become, but I can not say for certain. I only know we must find a way and quickly."