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apocalypsehowcomm2023-08-16 07:43 am
Event - Feeling Faint
(cw: Alterations in reality and perception, chance for violence or injury, potential chance of loss of name or other pieces of a character’s identity, depending on conversations with NPC)
Somewhere, deep in ADI’s basement, there’s a meadow in a metal room. That room has a door that always stays locked. Yet, after a couple visitors come by to talk to the inhabitant of that room, that door is unlocked and the meadow vanishes along with the inhabitant.
It isn’t a quick thing, no light switch is flicked announcing the change in the status quo, it’s an irregular thing. One day everything is as it should be and then, for an hour, all of the illusions and glamours making every non-human seem human simply vanishes. Then it’s two hours. Then a whole day. Then it’s only flickers now and then or only portions of a body left unchanged, all interspersed with days where nothing seems to happen at all. Like someone’s playing a game. Something that leaves the locals on edge as ‘monster’ sightings increase and send a ripple of fear and doubt through town. Fear and doubt that is sometimes answered in unkindness at best and violence and fear at worse.
Though, who the sadistic someone is might be difficult to pinpoint for those outside of the know. Anyone who goes looking or has ways of sensing where the fluctuations are coming from might come across a handsome stranger perched atop one of the now-vacant warehouses once used by Oculus where a rich carpet of grass and tumbling ivy now overtakes the roof and spills down the sides.
For the brave or curious or angry at heart, the stranger will turn to their visitor with a small, knowing smile from where they’re sat in their meadow, a flower crown in hand and held out like an offering. “Hello, who do we have here, then?”
(cw: extreme distress, hallucinations, supernaturally heightened emotions, blood, monstrous creatures, potential for violence and death)
"Please! Please"--your name, someone is shouting your name--"I need- please! Help!" The voice is a familiar one, someone you care for, or at least have no negative feelings about. They might be someone you've met here in Gloucester, or they could be someone from home. They're distressed, they're in Dogtown. You only hear them as you travel around the edges of the park. And there are even glimpses of them. Flashes of a face that seems to belong to the person who's shouting.
Even if you're wary, sensibly so, the pitch, the distress, puts some sort of feeling into you. Fear, perhaps, for the 'person' in danger? Anger that someone would try to impersonate someone you love? Hopelessness that you can't actually do anything to help? The emotion fills your belly, wells up like a tide and crashes through the mind. It's not impossible to resist going into Dogtown, but it's certainly difficult.
Those who get any substantial distance, will note that they seem to be drawn deeper and deeper into the wood and that the ground grows moist and ruddy. The scent of iron fills the nose and senses. Those who have a sense of Dogtown as it is now may be able to tell that they're being drawn toward the blood river in the southern reaches of the park. Getting closer, you'll be able to see a creature shambling along sideways on clawed and webbed feet. It swings a lantern from its head that flashes to look like the person you know now and again. The false form shouts in fear and terror, crying out.
Should the creature spot you spotting it… be prepared. It will attack immediately, and it doesn't seem to pull its bites or slashes. While ordinary means are enough to bring it down, there is definitely more than one creature. Perhaps a brood has recently hatched in the river.
(cw: hallucination, altered mental states, gaslighting)
There's a face that keeps turning up around town, but it's not really clear who it is. It's a Caucasian, mustachioed gentleman who seems to be in books where he doesn't belong, in the background of photographs, both old and new, and even on advertisements. You might notice him only in a few things at first, but once you clock him… he's everywhere.
Inquiries into his identity net a mixed response from locals. He's just… some man. Nice mustache, though! Does he look a little like Matthew McConaughey? He just looks like another New Englander, maybe some founder for Gloucester? A reverse image search yields much the same results. There are actors and models who look vaguely like this man, but no one that definitively matches him.
The strange thing is that as you see him more and more, there's the feeling of a hand gently touching your shoulder. A large, masculine hand, as far as anyone with particularly acute senses can tell. It only lasts a moment, and then it's gone. You can never turn fast enough to see anyone, and they don't appear in any mirrors; though… there's a mild distortion in the air if you manage to glimpse a reflection somehow.
Those touched by the hand of the mustachioed man will find themselves feeling more and more inclined toward mischief. Have you seen the mustachioed man? No, no, you haven't. When shown photos including him, you might be inclined to lie and say you see someone else entirely. It's just a little mean. With things in Gloucester spinning out of control, perhaps you ought to grasp control where you can. Making someone doubt themselves and their reality? That's one of the most powerful forms of control out there.
- 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!
- FLICKER (16 August - Potentially Onward) - Players are welcome to control their own NPC interactions. Some might be understanding or come to their defense while others might turn a blind or turn to violence. These moments of violence shouldn’t be outright mobs so much as small groups close to a mugging that only happen once and a while, not a certainty. Characters will have the chance to talk to Milo and either convince them to continue the illusions or drop them entirely, what happens with the illusions from an IC standpoint will depend entirely on these interactions, so if you tag into Milo’s interaction, please make sure that thread is prioritized.
- FEINT (16-23 August) - The monstrous creatures can be killed with enough bullets or other normally lethal methods. The figures they mimic will be perfect copies of characters who will elicit strong emotions in your characters. The only limit on who these can be would be for characters already in games. Please just get the other player's permission. If two characters are together, the creature will only mimic one important person. The mimicked individual will provide reasonable (if terrified) responses to questions that are shouted at them.
- FIGMENT (16-31 August) - Characters will be able to find plenty of people who look vaguely like the mustachioed man, but efforts to track them down will lead to dead ends. They seem to be ordinary actors, models, and people who have had their photos show up on an image search. Characters trying to investigate the strange happenings in Gloucester and the surrounding area, particularly Dogtown, will find themselves seeing the man more often than others. They'll also suffer the effects of the man's 'touch.' Characters who feel compelled to gaslight and deceive others will be affected until they take out that impulse on someone. It doesn't need to be anyone they care about; though, that makes it feel better somehow. Individuals aligned with the Spiral may find themselves feeling particularly well fed for the month of August on fear juice.
Flicker, for Milo - cw: PTSD, mild body horror, disassociation, cosmic horror
John has had enough and he starts searching for something, anything that can explain the unusual goings-on. He just gets lucky when he finds the warehouse and the suspicious person sitting on top of all that vegetation.
John's wearing a long dark trenchcoat which has a larger modified sleeve to cover any accidental crab arm sightings (and even then it's a tough fit), with a hood to cover his head just in case he doesn't have great control today.
It's one of those days.
"I dunno, I was about to ask the same thing about you," he calls up at them when they speak to him after he approaches.
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"You seem to be having certain issues of the Flesh. I'm Steve and this is my meadow. How about you? "
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John is a little skeptical, but unfortunately for him he has watched a lot more sci-fi than fantasy.
“I’m John,” he says. “Nice meadow.”
He takes a look up and down, still wary, but maybe here’s a chance to get answers.
“How does that work? Did you just grow it?”
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And then it’s gone from him, like a word you can’t quite remember. It certainly isn’t Shepard’s name any more.
It’s Theirs. But nevermind that.
“I did! A bit of home for myself while I decide what to do. Fresh air is a sweet thing to enjoy.
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And very wrong.
He frowns, rubbing the back of his head, confused. What was that?
"Oh, really? It looks...very pretty." How about some flattery? "Where's home, by the way?"
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Sheppard tilts his head, unsure of what to say. How much he should say…though it’s obvious they are not a government plant, so. Other Avatars probably all knew about ADI’s business so there’s little reason to keep secrets.
“Well, I probably just got lucky here but I’ve been looking around town for unusual things, maybe something that can explain the reason why certain illusions that me and my friends use out here are not illusioning properly. You know anything about that?”
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Their smile stretches past the limits of their face and then falls again when they sigh.
“Honestly, I just don’t feel like it! I’ve been stuck here doing the same thing over and over and over and why? Why should I bother with these petty illusions when life is long and I could be doing so much else? Besides, I was curious.”
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There's a lot of ways this could go, most of them bad, so he has to be real diplomatic about it, he knows. Maybe he can try to start from the beginning.
"Well, how'd they get you to do the illusions in the first place?"
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“They offered me safety and sustenance and an area all my own…so long as I did what they asked, I never had to ‘find myself in trouble.’ I simply also couldn’t leave. And why would I, anyway? A world I don’t know with inhabitants I don’t understand, it seemed a fair deal back then.”
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It's not even fake sympathy, he really does feel for their situation.
"And now you're free." However that happened, maybe it doesn't even matter.
"I guess the question is what would it take for you to keep helping us out?"
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“Make me a new deal…a better one. I’ll at least consider it.”
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"All right, then. But I think I'm gonna need to know a little bit more about you to figure out what you might want."
He's not sure what it might be. Freedom, probably. A life that wasn't boring. He could go in for threats, but then again he doesn't know the extent of Steve's powers. If he plays this too aggressively, he might lose the deal. But he'll try a carrot before the stick. And he could get more information, too. He tilts his head.
"So tell me about yourself, buddy."
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“I want what most want: safety, security, to know where my next meal is coming from…I’d appreciate more movement than a single room, but I might be flexible. I might also ask for an elephant or someone to enjoy my solitude with for eternity, you’re not apt at negotiating, are you? What do you think I want?”
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There's a faint, nostalgic smile at that.
But what does Steve want? Freedom, obviously, needs met, fresh air, exploring, living life, seeing the world, maybe. Things they could already get. What did they value? Maybe the value was the deal.
He lifts his chin, and takes off his hood for dramatic value.
"I'm offering you a favor. My help, for whatever you want, no questions asked. And to show you I'm serious, I'll let you in on a little secret, if you didn't already know." Cause Steve seems like one of those people who just knows, but at this point he was already all-in on the dramatic reveal. "I'm an Avatar of the Hunt."
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"I know...you've a...bite to you. A favor is a powerful thing. I wonder...would you bite the hand that feeds you, Hunter?" The air around the roof suddenly seems thinner, the air like walls crowding in around them as they smile wide. "What if I asked you or the Warden's head?"
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“Yes. Without question.”
There’s no wavering, no doubt in his eyes. It’s the conviction of a man that would sell his soul, that would do anything to save and protect his friends, no matter the cost to his own morals and soul.
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"How interesting...I'll keep that in mind."
And then it breathes again and they're several steps back once more. "I'll think about it. If she's gone, perhaps the next person reinstates my old deal...but if she's gone, perhaps the new person decides I'm not worth keeping around anymore at all. Maybe you can help me with something else, then..."
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Yeah, this is unnerving and he’s gonna gently package all this up and deal with being afraid later.
“I could give you my resume…or help you move if you throw in some pizza,” Sheppard says dryly.
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"There's plenty of room in the ADI apartments, or you could stick around at Bonnie's."
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