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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.
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But that's not a detail she feels like sharing with Milo.
"Most of the time," she agrees, tone cheerful and mild. The details of her mental health aren't really something they need, either. But it's not a lie; she wonders, incidentally, if Milo can lie.
"But yeah, I'm a visitor. Who happened to bring some milk and honey that I don't want."
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Eda sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose as she thinks about wording.
"Look," she finally just admits with a snort. "I'm trying to be polite. But I don't exactly know which version of the rules applies here."
With a shrug, she sets the drink down in front of them.
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"I'm wanting... to know if you're alright, I guess. What you're doing out here, why the glamours have been—" Eda gestures vaguely, "flickery."
She dpesn't want to sound accusatory, nor dpes she want to imply that anyone has to stay and work for the ADI, as much as the non-humans need them. But she does want to know what was happening, at the very least.
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"Yeah, I do," Eda agrees, tone fairly matter-of-fact. She sits down nearby, though not too close, and curls her tail over her lap.
"I mean, I don't know you," she continues. She also isn't sure if she likes them, but that's not really the point.
"But I know none of us chose to be here, or to not fit in here. And I can't imagine it's all that fun being in the ADI basement." Even if she really very much would prefer they stay in some capacity.
There's a pause, as she glances across the rooftops.
"The forest is mostly full of stuff that wants to eat us. And spiders. Across the sea... well, I haven't travelled much in this version of the Human Realm." Though she suspects it's a lot like her own, all the same.
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They sigh and lean back on their hands. "It's funny how we desire freedom and choice and yet, granted too much, we flounder and hesitate. How silly."
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She pauses to think about the rest, hoping it's a good thing Milo hasn't made up their mind yet.
"Well," she says, "I can't speak for anyone else but it's not like I'm planning to try and make you go back to the basement. Would they not just... let you live here, like the rest of us?"
The idea that the ADI wouldn't be pleased makes her worried they're considered too dangerous, but she's also not sure if she'd agree with the ADI about what should be considered too dangerous; or how to handle that.
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"A few things have changed around here. Abilities are... more allowed, as long as people are going after the 'right' people," she says, in a tone that makes it unclear how much she agrees with that fully, but it's true all the same and she's glad for the freedom.
"And honestly? Housing isn't exactly hurting for spare rooms right now," she adds, with a tired little snort. She's not happy about how many friends have disappeared lately, but that's another issue.
"I could... talk to the Warden." It's not a promise to, or that it will work, technically she's just stating another fact.
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"Take this to her. It will hold its form for a little while...so she knows you didn't simply sneak into her precious basement with all the things no one's meant to touch." Their lips twitch up into a smile again. "Don't worry...it's a gift. Reciprocity does not stand."
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Eda starts to reach for the flower, but hesitates.
“Good to know,” she says.
But that doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea.
“I’m not sure she’d take it as proof, though. Other than for me talking to you. Or if she’d appreciate me bringing her something that might be…” She decides not to outright say cursed, in case that went over poorly.
“Something that is magical.” Especially after the many artifact incidents.
Maybe she’s being overly cautious. After all, Milo’s already out. If they want to hurt people more actively they can, probably. And their glamours are already far-reaching, however that works exactly.
Still, she can’t help suspecting some trick to it. And that Nia might suspect the same.
“We’ve got a lot more leeway than we used to, but they’re still nervous about this stuff.”
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"Y'know what, I do too," she agree, pushing herself back up to her feet. She really does hope they'll be able to find a compromise that keeps everyone at least somewhat satisfied.