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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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"That is quite an offering to suggest. And it would be foolish to offer so much about the resources at my disposal. Yet I will offer a one to make up for my rudeness of arriving empty-handed."
The sea breeze is nice. For a moment as if distracted by it, Elidibus looks toward the direction of the ocean.
"I've made the acquaintance of an artificial intelligence. She is manifest in an automaton which by accounts was constructed to give her a corporeal form. I am uncertain what her full capacity would be in her native reality. But her adaptability is on par with mortal man and thus in many ways exceeds the potential of common processing machines."
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As if Milo's question may be close to questions he's had to ask himself or at least give answer to from time to time.
"It is an irony, is it not? That such may be in the realm of possibility." His eyes open again and Elidibus focuses on Milo, but the small smile doesn't quite vanish. "Though I would rather not risk something of such importance on one lone factor."
He tilts his head slightly, allowing curiosity to manifest. "I would be interested to hear why you call her a gem. Particularly one of yours."
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"Many would think their craftsmanship would forever mark a gem shaped by their hand. In some abstract way, it would still be their own, regardless were one to cut or refine it in some way. But not you."
Perhaps Elidibus did see something to gain from the answer after all. He moves on from the matter.
"How came you to be the source of the myriad glamour my colleagues oft make use of?"
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"I fell through a hole that wasn't there and landed in a place that didn't seem real. Except now it is real and where I am from doesn't exist...so when someone makes you an offer of survival for the paltry use of your power, why would you turn it down? The glamours were....new."
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"New to your experience and ability, in how your power was wielded or perhaps another way?"
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"It is not surprising to hear more was asked beyond the bonds of the bargain."
Indeed there are no signs of shock at the suggestion that the ADI, those related to it or Wardens themselves twisted every profit out of a bargain. If not outright lied or misled or blackmailed.
"Would you be willing to explain the exact nature of this original bargain and how it was used to illicit more from you? If indeed it was not simply that you gained something from the use of glamour as well."
Clearly Milo speaks as if he had been coerced into giving it for free but perhaps there is more to understand.
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It has a ring of truth. This is not an attempt to outright cajole, but instead a statement born of his outlook and philosophy.
"Though it is also true that questions without limit can easily cloud a matter as if none were asked at all. What price would you have, for my earlier question to be answered with full honesty and as much detail as you are allowed to give, then?"
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Polite when he answers, there is an air of finality to it, to Elidibus's being that implies this will never be on the table. Ever. Yet the words are courteous and oddly... accept that it is merely Milo's nature that compelled them to ask. They are not at all to be blamed for doing so.
"While I have had many names I could rightfully call my own, I fear they would not be as palatable as you desire," he explains.
So kind of him to be considerate of these matters, though the silver-haired man does seem to allow there would be some pleasant 'taste' to the ones he considers of less import. It's possible, no? But for the one his presence holds such finality about....
"I will not apologize for my steadfast refusal of such a request. Yet I pray you will understand. Surrendering my name would unravel all that I am and all I have done."
There is a moment's pause as if there was something to consider. An interesting side thought perhaps. Yet he smiles and carries on while refocusing on Milo.
"Perhaps I would endure, given the particulars of our circumstance. Yet especially on this distant star, I would be loath to discover whether I would be unmade. Nor would I wish to be so foolish as to leave myself vulnerable to such options as my patron may lay at my feet, should such thing truly threaten to undo me."
But simply speaking, the offered knowledge he could gain in exchange for the cost of his name is, to his paradigm such an insignificant speck that it's clear The Eye's temptation does not even register on a measurable scale.
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"It would be impolite of me to expect that you change your nature," the silver-haired man acknowledges. "Though if there is aught else than names which might interest you pray speak of it. Or seek me out later to see if we can come to agree on mutual terms. At the very least, I would find it interesting to know what else suits your tastes."
To treat with the Fae- or some being so similar in nature to them- is a risk. And Milo is certainly toward the more powerful brand while Elidibus is far removed from his own true nature. Of course what Milo is and how they fit in the laws and mythos of this particular reality is something their visitor would like to learn more about. But maybe there will be other ways to do so.
Either way, Elidibus is inclined to keep options open. Surely Milo isn't just interested in names when it comes to bargains? Time may tell even if he will have to keep listening for signs of others who fall prey to Milo's wiles.
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