apocalypsehownpcs: (Milo | A Friend)
Apocalypse How NPCs ([personal profile] apocalypsehownpcs) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2023-08-01 07:39 am

Into the Wyldwoods

Who: Milo [personal profile] apocalypsehownpcs, Raine Whispers [personal profile] rainestorms, Steve Rogers [personal profile] punched_hitler
When: August 15th
Where: The Wyldwoods
Summary: Raine and Steve have taken it upon themselves to uncover more information about the lower levels of ADI and the illusion that disguises the non-humans at ADI. They encounter Milo, a Perfectly Ordinary Person, who has some information to share.
Warnings: Gaslighting, manipulation, illusions, uncanny valley, potential for loss of name, sense of self, and memory or memory modification

It's not easy getting to the very lowest level of ADI Headquarters. Asking around will indicate that it's where ADI once kept an avatar of the Dark named Katie Dunn. No other prisoners are being kept on that level, but access is severely restricted. By ill-got means or some very serious persuasion, though, two people have managed to gain access to it.

There was also a cryptic bit of guidance found or obtained to 'bring milk and honey,' which may or may not have been listened to.

The elevator door opens to a small, metal room with two sturdy doors leading off from it. The one to the left is labeled Containment. The one to the right is labeled Wyldwoods. Both require keycodes to access, but the infiltrators have acquired those by their various means. Containment is a small cell block with only three cells. There's nothing and no one in here. It seems ADI was telling the truth about Katie Dunn being their only prisoner.

Wyldwoods is a different story, the door opens and the one entering will find themselves immediately hit with the scent of loam and pine. It is pleasantly warm with a blue, partly cloudy sky, and there's the sound of birdsong and wind rustling leaves. It looks to be a full pine forest in the middle of a lovely summer's day. Moving into the room, they'll find themselves stepping out of a door that's appeared in the trunk of a tree. Said door closes and vanishes immediately behind them.

Beyond the trees is a meadow filled with flowers. Sitting in the field is a young and beautiful-looking person. They seem to be lounging and plucking flowers for a chain that they're weaving together. There's a slight frown on their face, though. Approaching, it might become apparent that some of the meadow beyond them isn't meadow at all. It's just metal, much like the walls out in the entry room. The patches flicker and flowers and grass grow back, but more patches appear in other spots, instead.

Raine Whispers (first to arrive and leave)
The person turns to look toward Raine when they approach, whether directly or with stealth. "Ah, hello? You're someone new."

Steve Rogers (second to arrive and leave)
"Two new visitors in one day!" It doesn't matter if Steve is approaching with stealth or not, the person seems to know where he is and looks over at him or whatever hiding spot he's chosen. "I feel very lucky, indeed. Hello? May I have your name?"

(Warning for Both Players: Providing a full name to this character at any point in the conversation will result in negative consequences for Raine and/or Steve.

Additional Information for Raine: In their general exploration and investigation, Raine would have turned up the following information.

1. ADI has not found a way to send people home. Arrivals and disappearances continue to be at random from all paperwork and other documentation that is available. There seems to have been a slow down in recent months, which is concerning to ADI in a different way. Possibly it signals that whatever is doing this has collected what it wants?

2. Artifacts contained by ADI are anything seen in the Dogged event that has not been destroyed or hampered by PCs.

3. Oculus seems to have been a cult that was active several decades ago, particularly in the 1990s. They attempted a ritual in Oracle, AZ that involved the Biosphere 2 experiment. ADI wasn't actually all that involved in disrupting that initiative. They had looked at it and deemed it doomed to failure. And it was. After the failure of that ritual, members of Oculus splintered and there was a lot of in-fighting that ADI watched from afar. Current records indicate that the larger cult is dead with some minor pockets here and there. The largest pocket was dealt with in Gloucester recently. The only other notable grouping of Oculus seems to be out in Arizona where they're trying to get funding for Biosphere 3.

Dogtown has grown increasingly strange since the arrival of the first offworld NPCs. It was always a threat, but it seemed to have Hunt and Dark as the primary Entities lurking within it. 'Primordial' ones, ADI's information calls these. The Wolfe House at the center of Dogtown is a documented site for significant hauntings, but ADI has always dealt with those in the past without too much incident.

Hammond Castle is the only other location of interest. Notes indicate that ADI has a Special Relationship with the castle given the Hammonds' interest in the occult. In the past, ADI has used the castle as a front for acquiring cursed artifacts.)
punched_hitler: [ta] (i'm not so sure about this)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-03 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
Steve is moving slowly - wary, curious, but not trying to be stealthy. He's both thinking of Wanda, remembering what she was capable of, and wondering if he's actually found what he's looking for. It... seems like he might have.

There's also something tugging at the back of his brain - old, old memories, half-forgotten and partly remembered in a haze of sickness. But that's the easiest of his feelings to shove down when he needs to pay attention to what's happening now.

He frowns, and maybe (probably) he's biased, but he's thinking that this person here is likely a victim, and it's really not a good look for ADI.

"I'm Steve," he says, because despite whatever old memories might try to ping around in his brain, he's not trying to hide and doesn't see how giving a prisoner his name can do any harm. "I'm - I think I've been looking for you."

And then, "Two visitors?" he asks.
rainestorms: (pic#16325748)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-03 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
Raine was startled that the person sitting in front of them could see them. They stood their ground, but looked around for a moment at the forest in what seems to be a metal box. A cell. A containment room of sorts. They were unsettled to be in a place that looked similar to the woods at home, with a stranger, where the door disappeared into a tree. Raine had known Katie as the ADI’s only prisoner, but between the voice telling them to bring something, and the mere existence of the door…

They’d perhaps stumbled across a secret that the ADI was trying very hard to hide.

Raine’s attention returned to Milo, however, and they regarded the human (or, rather perhaps, human-looking being) with a guarded curiosity.

“You can see me?” They asked, quietly. “That means you can hear me too, doesn’t it.”

Raine took another moment to study the stranger, before they continued. They’d come equipped with their violin and a small bag, which they unzipped and produced a thermos- the milk and honey. They’d taken the prompt literally, but had even warmed it up for good measure. Maybe the unsettling secret basement stranger would be appreciative.

“I brought this.” They stepped forward, placed it down a few feet from Milo, before they returned to where they’d been standing. “For whoever would like it.”
punched_hitler: [ta] (at the gym)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-04 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"Except when someone's saying it all exasperated," Steve says, because his default even in tense situations is a little bit of humor, when he can manage it.

"I have," he confirms, crouching down a little where he is, because he doesn't like looming over people - least of all, people who might be prisoners.

He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a little palm-sized packet: a fitness bar made with milk and honey, because he wasn't entirely sure how serious said information he'd found was, but everyone can use some extra food, right?

He holds it up as if to ask if the other would like it, even as he says, "I've been trying to find out how ADI helps nonhuman members to, ah, look more like the general populace."

It's not quite a question, either, but it's a little bit of one.
rainestorms: (Raine_smallsmile)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-05 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Raine couldn't exactly say that Milo being able to just grab the thermos scared them. Eda could lose her limbs and reattach them with ease because of her curse. The Boiling Isles was full of creatures doing all sorts of things with their surroundings and their bodies that anybody human might find strange.

Here, in this context however, it made the bard feel... Uneasy.

Or rather, this place made them feel uneasy. Milo was just apart of the uneasiness. The icing on the cake. Normal human realm people weren't supposed to have powers. But, they'd already guessed correctly that Milo was no normal human realm human.

Raine tried not to show their worry on their face, and smiled at their newfound acquaintance.

"I'm glad you're pleased with it," They responded, but their attention snagged on The Old Rules.

There's a degree of hesitation as they mused over how similar it sounded to long forgotten beings from the Boiling Isles. Beings long lost to myth and destruction, that abided by their own codes of conduct and interaction with those outside of their group. But information from the Savage Ages, or, they'd rather known them as the before times, was scarce. So for now, they'd treat these rules as unfamiliar.

"The Old Rules?" Raine quietly inquired, but don't ask anything further when Milo inquired in return about their name.

"My name is..." They hesitated. Giving their name could be dangerous for multiple reasons. Namely, the ADI very much did not know Raine had found wherever they both were.

"It's never been very important."
punched_hitler: (Default)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-06 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Steve frowns, shaking his head and immediately moving forward to hand off the bar, crouching down again once he's close enough to do it.

"No, I - this food was never contingent on me getting answers," he says, because he needs that to be clear. "But I am looking for answers, if you've got them."

Frankly, he doesn't care if the secrets are this fellow's or not to tell. Steve's kind of done with ADI's secrets.
punched_hitler: ([tws] what is this)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-09 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
"I was hoping for answers," Steve confirms, "but I didn't know what I would find. Or who."

But, it seems, he has found someone who might be able to help him. And he has several questions. But first and foremost is: "Is ADI forcing you to make the nonhumans that arrive here appear human?"
punched_hitler: ([cw] beat up 2 (serious))

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-11 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
Okay. Okay, that's good.

Probably.

It does lead naturally into the next question, though. "Are you doing it for them willingly?"
rainestorms: (Raine_smallsmile)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-11 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, you haven't exactly told me your name either," Raine pointed out, matter of factly. "Friends usually introduce themselves to each other. But, you can call me..

There was a brief moment as they tried to conjure up one of the various nicknames people had given them. Raincloud, Rainestorm, Songbird, Sprout. Eda's nicknames felt too close to their own, and if anybody called Raine Sprout ever again they'd maybe subject the person to one or two horrors.

"Songbird. It comes from my music."

They decided to sit down to get more comfortable.

"And I do have questions. But I didn't want to come in and immediately ask them. That's rude."
punched_hitler: ([tws] what is this)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-11 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
Steve watches them pull apart the packaging, mind both racing and calm, all at the same time.

"I had thought it was a machine, at first," he admits. "Some kind of, you know. Technology. But the more I looked, the more it seemed like it was a someone."

You.

"If you're doing it because you want to, then - " He looks around the room, such as it is. "You aren't trapped here, are you?"


punched_hitler: ([tws] a balanced breakfast)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-11 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
Steve laughs a little at that, feeling like he should feel unsettled but oddly not sure if he does. He's learned to be wary of ADI, of course, but his natural inclination is to trust, where he can. To hope. Even when he maybe shouldn't.

"I don't know if it's normal, exactly, but it's - convenient. Easy to carry."

But that's not the point. "Well, it's a relief this doesn't have to be a jailbreak," he admits. "But I - " Now he pauses, thinks. He's not sure exactly how to ask the question, despite the fact that it's been on his mind a while, now.

So it's not really a question, this time: "What you do. To change people's appearances. I don't like the fact that the nonhumans who end up here are tied to ADI to get that kind of help."
rainestorms: (Raine_smallsmile)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-14 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thank you. And it's nice to meet you, Milo," Raine fidgeted with their bag, admittedly not sure how to posture themself across from their strange new...

Raine wouldn't necessarily call Milo a friend. They'd just met, after all. Raine wanted to be friendly to them but... the ADI had worn their trust in others thin as of late.

"Well, I have questions, and not a lot of time, which I'm sure was obvious but... I'd like to know about you. And why the ADI put you down here."

They paused, and looked around, before they added:

"Did you make this forest? It's very pretty."
punched_hitler: ([cw] at the window)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2023-08-15 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
Steve's smile goes a little wry, settling a little more in his crouch. "I know it's not a very long time, in the grand scheme of things," he acknowledges. "But it can feel like a long time, especially to be away from home."

But as for the actual answer to the question: "This world seems pretty like my own. People aren't used to seeing, uh, nonhumans walking around. It scares them, and when people are scared, they can be dangerous. The nonhumans can't be easily accepted into society - so they're forced to hide to stay safe. To live their lives. ADI offers them that option - your services, I guess - in return for loyalty and work. I know it might seem fair, but it's not. Not when the alternative is persecution."
rainestorms: (Default)

[personal profile] rainestorms 2023-08-15 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Is this part of why the ADI put you here, then? Because you can create things?"

They paused, before they added:

"What all can you create? Besides forests."

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