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Event - Feeling Faint

Feeling Faint

➥ Flicker

Photo of a wild rooftop garden with a city skyline in the background.
(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?”

➥ Feint

Photo of a forested area around a crimson red river.
(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.

➥ Figment

White billboard with the words This Ad Is Real written in black and red block font.
(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.

➥ 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!
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.

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In an incredibly deft and daring move, Winter appears right out of nowhere, swinging down from the roof all the way to the ground with a grace that even Rue can appreciate. And of course, there is the happy trill within them at seeing their dear friend again, as well as their quickly dawning horror at just what is going on.

There's a murmur through the crowd, not quite full on panic, but shock at the sight of an owlbear suddenly among them.

But then Winter holds out an oversized hoodie to them and Rue delicately plucks it from his hands with their talons and holds it aloft, as if it has personally offended them.

"But it is so... Plain."

"It's the only thing I could find that would fit on short notice," Winter counters. "I will make it fancier for you later if I must. But you need to put it on now."

And perhaps the ridiculousness of arguing about boring clothing with the giant owlbear will put more people at ease. Even if he doesn't, he looks around at the people with them, and says irritably, "I am ten times as dangerous as Rue. And you let me read stories to your children. You got used to me. Rue is a lot less likely to hurt anyone than me. They just look different, that's all." He knows these people, recognizes faces. He's lived here for going on three years now. They used to be afraid of him, but now they aren't.

Surely they can do the same with Rue if they must.

Edited 2023-08-26 06:37 (UTC)

That is all the push they need. Winter turns to dress down the onlookers and Rue pulls the offensive hoodie over their broad shoulders, tugging their wings as best as they can through the sleeves, before their feathery head is peeking out of the hood.

"It is true." Quiet at first, though as they continue to try and tug the sleeves down, Rue takes a gentle step forward. "I do not have the capacity within me to hurt anyone. And I could never hurt a human. I have come to care for far too many of them."

It really doesn't hide that much. A little, maybe, but there's still fluffy legs sticking out the bottom. Ugh.

The people all have different reactions. Some shrink back when Rue steps forward, some look belligerent, but some look merely dubious, and one parent who brings her little boy to the library every week to be read to actually looks a little shamefaced. It's something.

"Let's get you somewhere inside," Winter suggests after a moment of glowering at the whole mess of them. "It's been temporary every time this happened before." Which doesn't mean it will be this time, but he can hope.

The reaction isn't completely uplifting, but it is more or less what Rue was expecting. Winter breaks them free of their thoughts, and they nod immediately, turning to follow him.

"Please, I will go wherever you instruct, my friend. I trust you, completely."

He looks briefly awkward at that, but rouses quickly enough, because there's a job to do. He puts a hand on their elbow to guide them away, keeping close to the nearest building until there's one safe to duck into, a mostly-empty apartment building he's taken panic-attack refuge in before.

"Are you okay," is the first thing he asks. "Nothing feels weird or anything?"

It helps the moment that they are finally out of the public eye, to simply be themself in front of their friend, away from the terrified eyes of the rest of the world. After such a surprise, Rue's feathery shoulders droop beneath that sweatshirt.

"No, not in the slightest. I feel the same as I always have. But then again, I have never cast the glamour that hides me myself, that has always been done by ADI. If there is something wrong, it is there."

"No, it isn't ADI. It's one faerie person they keep in the basement somewhere. Rogers met them and they stole his first name," Winter explains distractedly, looking out the half boarded up windows to make sure nobody followed them. "I don't know why they're doing this, though. If it has something to do with Rogers finding them, or what."

If only Winter could hear the record scratch in their head.

"Faerie? What do you mean faerie?"

"Er. Faerie? From European mythology? Or I guess reality in that universe. I don't know. I didn't meet them. But Rogers brought them a gift and they asked him for his name and he gave it and now nobody can use it anymore," Winter says with an awkward, confused little shrug.

Rue looks immediately panicked.

"He gave his name away? Oh spirits, I can not think, this is all too much! Winter, I am a faerie! They would be from my home world, I may be able to speak to them."

"There could be many worlds with faerie on them," Winter says, blinking at them. "But maybe you could. They spoke to Rogers, anyway, and it seemed to go okay except for the name thing. You'd have to get into where ADI is keeping them, though. Rogers could help, if you really wanted to." Or they could just look for the warehouse with flowers on it, but Winter hasn't seen that yet.

Rue is not so certain. Though there are fey who choose to live elsewhere, it is only through the Feywild that they can be born. The magic there is what awakened Rue as a cub, otherwise they would have been as feral as any other owlbear.

"I think you are right. I will speak to him. ...Though, perhaps after I am safely home. Thank you again for your help, Winter. I can not imagine what I would have done without your quick reflexes."

"Probably stayed out there and tried to talk them into liking you," Winter suggests, only about half grouchy about that fact. "Hell. Maybe it would have worked. I don't know. You're much more likeable than me."

"Oh, hush now. You are one of my favorites here, do you know that? I shall hear nothing bad about one of my dearest friends."

Finally, Rue is able to catch their breath, turning a gentle smile at Winter, as their paw moves to rest carefully at his forearm.

"And truly, beyond all of that, it fills my heart to see you face-fo-face again. You look well."

Winter sighs a little, but it's a slightly fond sort of smile. Rue never saw him at the beginning, when he didn't even try to be a person. "I'm a lot better than I used to be," he admits. "So maybe I'm more likeable now than when I started."

He pats their arm gently, in return. "I'm all right. Stressed out, with these illusions breaking, but all right."

"Truth be told, the same could be said of me. I do not know how much of a person I was before I took on my true form. But I am grateful to have been able to know the true you. And to show you who I am in turn."

It may not always be easy, but having lived as themself, Rue would never go back.

"I agree. It is quite stressful, but hopefully it is just a brief annoyance and it fixes itself."

"If it doesn't," Winter says, "I can get you back to ADI once night falls, without attracting attention." Which means they might have a while to wait, if the illusion doesn't fix itself.

He considers Rue a moment, then asks, a little tentatively, "You did not think of yourself as a person? Before?" He's never met anyone who wasn't a person.

"It is complicated, as I'm certain you know." Certainly not for the same reasons, but if anyone understands, Rue thinks it may be Winter.

"I was kidnapped by the fey as a cub, taken from my family and stolen away to the fey realm. And so I grew up among the faeries, first as their pet, but then as their magic awakened me, as a fellow fey. But still, they viewed me as a beast among them, someone who would give into my baser instincts and turn feral eventually.

So I became someone else. I changed my name and wore an elven glamour for thousands of years, and I grew to such high status among them that I was admired from afar because I became completely untouchable. I had no friends, no close companions, no drive outside of fulfilling my one singular duty. It is not quite the same, but I do not know who that distant, lonely person was."

No, it's not the same. But there are definitely parallels. He nods after a moment, looking away again, but in a thoughtful way rather than an uncomfortable way. "How much have I told you about where I came from." His memory is good, now that he's no longer being zapped every other day, but no longer serum-perfect, and it blurs together sometimes who all he's given his full backstory.

"You have not, I don't believe." Rue's head tips to the side, owlishly, watching him. "Would you tell me?"

Winter is silent a moment, then he says, "I was a person. A pretty normal person, I guess. So Stevie says. I don't remember much about that. A group captured me during a big war, experimented on me, took my memory, gave me the arm, made me into their assassin. I remember more of that, but not everything."

He hitches his right shoulder, the one that doesn't ache all the time, the one HYDRA didn't fuck up. "I. Wasn't a person. I didn't feel things or want things or. Make decisions outside of tactical mission ones. I didn't have a name. It wasn't allowed."

"Oh, my dear Winter..."

To have his memory tampered with, to be forced into murdering against his will - Rue had no idea his history was so terrible considering how gentle and generous and sweet they have always known him to be.

"I had no idea." They reach out to rest a paw at his arm, their heart-shaped face pinched with sorrow. "They did this to you on purpose? To turn you into a weapon for them to use? I did not know humans could be so cruel."

"Yeah. They can." And worse. Winter remembers a lot of horrors from that time. He doesn't know how many of them are real, but if they're in his brain, it's probably likely they're at least mostly real. He doesn't think he's that imaginative.

He pats their paw on his arm a couple times, slowly. "I'm okay. I'm. Better. A lot better. I'm a person now." Mostly. Most of the time. "I'm trying to be a person now, when I didn't really try before. I have people who would be sad if I wasn't. You know?"

And worse, he says, and the owlbear's whole face drops.

"The fact you have overcame such horrors and not just survived, but thrived! It makes me so proud to know you and call you friend. And truly, my dear, just in the short time that I have known you, I feel as if I have seen you blossom. You are doing such a marvelous job. Just the fact you have walked away from ADI, you are taking your own life into your hands."

Event - Feeling Faint

i have never been more sorry about rue until this moment

Rue you are a treasure

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so sorry for the delay! month-end close kicked my butt

you are golden!! <3

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