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apocalypsehowcomm2023-08-01 07:12 am
NPC Interactions - August 2023
Please note the following:
- To interact, simply place the name of NPC you wish to thread with in the subject line and provide a starter. These do not need to be complex in their set-up and NPCs can be found anywhere one might reasonably find them. In the office or around Gloucester.
- Each player will be limited to one NPC thread on this post per month. This is to keep things manageable for the mods and to encourage players to share whatever their characters might learn in these interactions with the broader group.
- These NPC threads can be used for AC, but if players are using them exclusively to meet AC requirements across multiple months, the mods reserve the right to request additional non-NPC proofs.
- Interaction with NPCs is not required to participate in the plot of the game. This is simply an additional, optional venue for engagement.
The Warden (i.e., head) of the Apocalypse Disruption Initiative/Apex Detectives, Inc., and a very busy woman. She is short, serious, and direct, but can turn on the charm when she needs to. She is the public face of the business and directs strategy for the organization. She is also an avatar of the Hunt… or working her way there from an alignment. Her status as an avatar came as a surprise, but she has decided to at least partially embrace it, the better to fight the monsters. Nia has indicated she intends to find a way to get Player Characters home or stop them arriving in her universe and then find a way to stop herself from becoming one of the monsters ADI is sworn to fight. She places the mission and practicality first and has been shown to have the ability to smell Entity affiliation on others, as well as know strategically useful information. Nia is most likely to be found at ADI Headquarters.
This month, she seems to be following up on a potential Situation with the government that a conversation with one of the non-native members of ADI raised. Early in the month, she will be away on a trip in Washington. She will be available via email and phone text only. In the latter part of the month, her agitation and paranoia from the previous month is in full gear, as that sense of someone following her grows.
Formerly Nia's assistant, currently working in PR for ADI. They have a close, personal connection with Bonnie. When they're not at ADI Headquarters, they might be found out on the town with Bonnie or dropping in to visit her at the Flophouse. They are average height, polite, and eminently calm. They also seem to have a knack for reading other people.
This month, they are absent for increasingly long stretches of times in Dogtown. They return from these excursions bearing more and more injuries. Word on the street is that they're heavily invested in investigating Dogtown. And it seems to be getting more perilous. They are still engaged with their duties, of course. The work to cover up Wolf Trap is ongoing, even now, with so many people who were affected by it.
HR for New Arrivals at ADI. She is a motherly, older woman who is typically patient, but also has a passive-aggressive snap to her if someone tests that to the breaking point. She is responsible for acclimating new arrivals and for those with a keen eye, she always carries a pistol in a shoulder holster, hidden beneath her cardigans. Due to an event incident, Pam is missing her left hand; she simply covers the stump with a pinned cardigan sleeve when wearing long sleeves or a pretty, fluffy cuff when wearing short sleeves. She's most often found at ADI Headquarters.
This month, she has been worrying after the visibly non-human members of ADI, in particular. She's been wanting to check in on them, make certain they're doing all right. When she hears about the black vans (and sees them) patrolling Gloucester, she'll encourage people to stay in their homes or ADI HQ and offer to run errands outside for them with an increasingly paranoid and desperate energy.
Proprietor of the Flophouse. Bonnie is a tall, red-headed woman from another world, one of the first to find herself dragged into this new reality more than a year ago. She's a Bohemian sort with a lot of manic energy. She also places much greater emphasis on retaining one's humanity over being strictly human. Bonnie has a close, personal relationship with Reyes Amador, and will keep the people in the flophouse apprised of anything important ADI is doing so that they can help, if they wish to do so. She's most often found at the Flophouse or out on the town with Reyes.
This month she has been more absent than usual at the Flophouse. When asking other, non-ADI residents about her, the story seems to be that she's been going on long walks, often with Reyes. Maybe rekindling their romance? Hard to say. But Bonnie is around sometimes, trying to get her Etsy Sticker Shop off the ground. It's... still going poorly. Some of it might be her lackluster design skills.
A young person living in the flophouse as Bonnie's roommate. They are a native to this reality and read a cursed book called The Long Road Ahead around the same time that Bonnie arrived. They now feed on cherished memories to give horrific visions of a potential future to those who wish to avail themselves of the exchange. They are rail thin, sickly, and always keep a blindfold over their eyes. They can sometimes be found in the common area in the flophouse with a white walking cane to guide them. (This NPC provides an IC conduit for OOC 'canon updates.')
This month, as is usual for her, the Visionary is holed up in their room and reluctant to take visitors... though, with Bonnie gone more often, they seem to be coming out a little more in search of things from the kitchen. And maybe even the tiniest bit of company.
A young man living in one of the flophouse's unused rooms. He is native to this reality and was originally part of a Desolation-based circus called the Fenix Down Extravaganza. He was called away from the circus on "family business," just before PCs murdered all Desolation avatars of the circus. Formerly known as Pyre, Cole was subsequently known to be lurking around Wolf Pen, WV during the events of Appalachia before he starting lighting fires on his way toward revenge against ADI for the circus and for their murder of his father, Carl Watts, in Wolf Pen. In his search for revenge, Cole attacked a Gloucester Eye cult, thinking it was associated with ADI and was turned from a man made of wax to one made of viscous eye jelly. He has lost cohesion as a being in many ways, along with access to much of his Desolation-based abilities, and is currently trapped in the form of a melted, mostly faceless flesh-blob monster. He lurks in the Flophouse, avoiding contact with people where he can. This NPC was spared by players from death and hidden at the Flophouse as part of a poll that took place in December 2022. As of June 2023, Cole has repaid some of the kindness shown to him by developing a truly private network app just for off-worlders.
This month, Cole remains holed up in his room as he has been since moving into the Flophouse, but he's always up for a chat over his network. After the kindness shown to him recently, he might even open his door for an in-person visit…if you can stomach his blob monster appearance. He's heard about Bonnie's Etsy shop and has been trying to contribute ideas. A lot of them involve fire.
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"Hang on, do you mean share it now or if you y'know—" she just kind of gestures vaguely, "do go and disappear on us?"
All things considered, sooner rather than later might be the best option.
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"It is in Bonnie's room. I will fetch it for you to take a photo once we get inside, hmm? Only guesses at the Entities and I've... not added the Desolation, yet."
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"Well, if it's more progress than we had... at least it's somewhere to start."
And they need some progress. Maybe it's just the medallion weighing on her, but it feels like things are getting worse by the day and they're still not getting any answers.
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"These are only rough areas, of course. The spiders seem, from what I can see, to dominate the north. And the End? I found myself very suddenly buried alive from one blink to the next. An... unpleasant experience. I found a way to travel from on end of Dogtown to the other, though." They tap the red 'X's on the map. "There are shacks in these places. Draw an eye on your person and descend the steps. You will come up the other one even though you continue to go down?"
There's a mild note of confused distress in their tone.
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She takes the map, lays it on the table and looks it over as she listens curiously. There are a few comments she considers making, but that last part catches her attention; although not because she actually finds the directional aspect all that strange.
"How'd you figure that out? The eye part."
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She looks over the map again, trying to think what lines up with what she's seen, and what other people have posted.
"I've run into the memory loss, I think." Even if she doesn't know what she forgot. "Meat?"
cw: body horror, flesh
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"Wait, is that it? It doesn't drink your blood or steal your memories or whatever?" She looks a little confused, whether she's playing that up for effect or not is hard to say.
"Ooh boy, you'd hate the Boiling Isles, huh?" She says, with a snort.
"Might stop there for a picnic if I have to go in."
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"In any case, this is what I have thus far. I was trying to make my way to the west side where I know another lake once stood. Thinking there may be some clues there. I do not know, though. The Web may be the better path to walk, but in spite of my... affiliations, I cannot claim a love for it and its servants."
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"I... wasn't just joking, though," she adds. Being obnoxious yes, but there was an actual thought there too.
"If there's enough parts that just scare people that might be a good path for me." And maybe for Raine, or even some of the others that are from places that would terrify the locals here.
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"If you will allow me some dramatics."
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After all, for all that they've explored Dogtown they haven't gotten many answers; maybe no concrete ones, if she's honest.
"Even if it's just something they want us to see... at least there's probably a reason." She hopes, at any rate. If they learn anything from it, that has to be worth something.
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As much as she doesn't want it to just end in more people getting hurt, she's really not convinced them continuing to go alone is the best idea.
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