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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.
Milo
Still, with all the stuff going on and all the panic around the nonhumans possibly being discovered (and taken away and dissected), it makes her angry. No one is going to hurt her friends on her watch.
So she goes looking.
Depending on how similar he is to the myths he seems to be borrowing from and the exact way things are interpreted, it's possible Milo might not like recieving a visitor with steel for her bones.
"Halsey." Cortana does not know she shouldn't be giving her name, but she's on edge, she isn't here to make friends, so the formal approach seems fitting.
She doesn't wonder how the fuck such greenery got to this place, because she's pretty sure it's the same bullshit as always. "Nice view. Though this really isn't the sort of place I'd choose for a garden."
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They tilt their head a moment with a squint of half recognition until it seems to snap back into place. “No…at least, not quite, are you? Perhaps only partially Halsey and entirely a gem that’s lost their shine.”
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"So you need names, then." A stroke of luck that she gave the name she took from her mother, in that case. They're definitely not getting her name now.
She proceeds to stroll around like she's the one in charge of this domain and not Milo, examining the plants with casual curiosity. "Still a gem." The comment might sting, but she doesn't show it. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the little illusion problem affecting this town?"
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“What little illusion problem? Are you having troubles? I thought your Hunt masters took care of that for you.”
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And also apparently the Hunt thing. Does they know because they have inside knowledge, or are all avatars somehow aware of all this. She'll have to ask Cole later, but she suspects it's the former. Call it a hunch.
"Oddly enough, I don't like seeing my friends scared or threatened." Her voice hardens a bit there at the end. "And it seems like a bit too much of a coincidence that something's gone wrong and suddenly you show up."
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The flower, however, does come away from its anchor in the roof. It feels real. Smells real. Breaks real. Whether it would remain so long away from the roof, however, is another question.
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"Reciprocity, huh? Information for information, then?"
It's an offer. Depending on what they want she can probably provide something.
"You're not getting my name." That is one thing she won't share with this guy. It's not the only thing, but it's one of them.
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They look over to her, a brow raised. “I might offer some information for yours. Depends on the quality. For example, you could tell me more of that forest at the edge of town.”
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"I've heard that the land around here is haunted. I'd dismiss it as superstition but..." her eyes roll and she sighs "I hope I don't have to explain to you how ridiculous that would be." Why can't things make sense, just for once? Though she supposes if they did make sense, she'd just assume the entities were hiding their influence.
"Though I guess that wouldn't be a deterrent for you, would it?" Given they're clearly an avatar themself. She doesn't really wait very long for answer-the question was mostly rhetorical anyway-"I know the landmarks, distances to nearby towns, what wildlife you're likely to find..."
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