Event OOC - A Little Perspective

[apocalypsehowmods]

A Little Perspective - OOC

Welcome to the idyllic seaside town of Gloucester located along Cape Ann in Massachusetts! It's a place haunted by interesting stories and ghoulish tourist attractions, but this month, there's a new item taking center stage. As mentioned in news reports as far back as July, there's been construction underway for a new town square in Gloucester. In the center of this square sits a miniature version of town, an exact, scale duplicate sitting upon a large stone slab measuring 15x15-feet (roughly the size of a master bedroom). The slab raises the tiny town up about 3 feet from the ground.

The ringing of a replica bell hails the hour in the miniature Gloucester, a perfect plastic, foam, wood, and metal recreation. Perhaps you might enjoy the sight on a day out. But should you hear the ringing of the bells at just the wrong hour… you'll find yourself being sucked into the miniature town, itself, to suffer whatever fate awaits you there.

Summaries and content warnings for each prompt in the event are provided below. Please pose questions to the designated mod comment, and plot away!

➥ Small Fears: 16-19 September
➥ Big Fears: 16-19 September
➥ One Fear: 16-30 September

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➥ Small Fears
(cw: Altered perception of reality, existential crisis, possible starvation, isolation)

Seven members of ADI go missing in the wider city, according to everyone else around them. Meanwhile, to those seven people, it’s everyone else who vanishes, leaving them in a faux ghost town haunted by very specific horrors and no way to put things right. Not from their side, at least. The unlucky seven will be chosen randomly from the list of sign ups below, we only ask that those signing up have a real and definable fear. Please also be aware: there is a strong possibility of characters being traumatized or even dying if part of the unlucky seven and death is still permanent as part of the setting. Characters might be injured, starved, crushed, or fall to their own nightmares if not rescued in time.

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➥ Big Fears
(cw: gaslighting, potential for sadism, potential for large-scale destruction and injury/death, body horror, nausea, vertigo, supernaturally induced dread)

While some characters are drawn into the replica town, the rest will be left outside to help where they can. They'll be able to see tiny figures darting around the mini-Gloucester, but these figures are incredibly fast and it's likely going to take more than one person and/or traps to catch them. Or maybe you can find a way to communicate without words! In any case, the goal is to get people out. As soon as you're able to pull them past a certain 'bubble' they will regrow to their full size and suffer some illness as a result of this transformation, along with the sensation that they are much too big for their body.

Rescuing people will be complicated by a few things:

1. Normal citizens of Gloucester and even some native ADI members don't seem to notice the people trapped in the town.

2. Damaging or destroying buildings or other objects in the display seems to destroy the real version of them in Gloucester. This may result in panic, injury, and death for the regular citizenry.

3. Characters will have until the 19th to get people out, and they will feel that impending doom deadline when they see a little countdown clock in the replica city. After that entire town will disappear along with anyone still in it, and it will be like it was never there. No ordinary person in Gloucester will have heard of it or seen it. Even those native members of ADI who couldn't see the tiny figures will be wildly confused by talk of the town. All news stories about it will have vanished along with the town.

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➥ One Fear
(cw: altered mental states; compulsion; painful transformation; dehumanization; being hunted; potential for violence, injury, and death, including gun violence)

Offworlders and staff of ADI find themselves in the role of hunter or hunted. At random, some characters experience small but unmistakable transformations that leave them with a feature associated with a traditional game animal–that is, an animal that has long been hunted by humans. Characters might sprout horns or antlers, animal ears, a tail, feathers, or any other distinctive animal feature; as long as that feature remains, everyone around them will feel the compulsion to hunt them down. What happens after that depends on the character; those particularly deep under the spell of compulsion may try to attack or kill the semi-transformed characters, while others may only trap them, or catch them only to let them go so the chase can resume. The only way to end the effect is to physically remove the animal feature, however painful that may be. Please note that character death remains permanent in the game's setting.

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A Handy Plotting Form

<p><table style="max-width:600px;width:100%"> <div align="left"><span style="font-family:helvetica;font-variant:small-caps;font-weight:bold;font-size:18pt;">➥ CHARACTER NAME</span></div><div style="border: dashed 2px #572f86; width: 600px;"></div><tbody><tr><td width="600px" align="left"><div align=justify> → <b>Canon</b>: → <b>Housing</b>: → <b>What ADI Department(s) Does the Character Work In?</b>: → <b>Permissions</b>: <a href="URL">HERE</a> → <b>SMALL FEARS</b>: → <b>BIG FEARS</b>: → <b>ONE FEAR</b>: </center> </table></center></center><br><br> <center><hr style="border-bottom:0px;border-top:solid;border-color:#572f86;"></center><br>

Comments

QUESTIONS

[apocalypsehowmods]

Re: QUESTIONS

[twicelost]

For characters who are in the model town, will they be able to find food and water? Not necessarily in abundance, but enough to survive.

[apocalypsehowmods]

There are very limited resources in the tiny town. Those trapped will need to get creative, maybe drinking from the dew that collects on the town. Food will be completely absent unless other players step in to leave food out for those trapped in the tiny town. Perhaps this is a way someone could gain the trust of a tiny person!

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

For One Fear, what happens if the prey animal body part is not removed past the end of the event, will the compulsion spell continue?

Are the parts additions or replacements or both? For example, if they’ve gotten bunny ears or nose that have completely replaced their own, are they extra screwed? Or would they get an extra set of ears on the top of the head and are they functional for hearing?

Is it only one feature? For example could someone get deer ears, horns, and a tail?

[apocalypsehowmods]

1. Prey animal parts that stay will continue to have a lingering compulsion for people to chase them; though, it may not be as pronounced.

2. We will leave it up to player discretion if they have full replacements or additions. Please just remember to put appropriate warnings if you are going extra body horror for any animal appendage removal. The appendages can be functional, but they will not be any more sensitive than a human's senses would be.

3. Short of fully transforming, you can give your character as many animal features as you'd like. They might even get elements of different animals! Bunny ears and antlers both, perhaps?

Re: QUESTIONS

[musicdied]

Is it just destruction of pieces of the miniature town that's reflected in the actual town, or would other changes carry over too? Eg. painting the miniature buildings, or moving them?

[lowficharm]

Will characters who have never needed a glamour get one for their new animal traits while they have them, i.e. could they hide outside of ADI from predators? Or will ADI people always see those features even off-property?

Re: QUESTIONS

[wewillwewill]

Soooo I noticed someone got answered about food with the notion that one could leave food in the model. While things done in big Glouchester do not affect little Glouchester, will adding things to the model affect big Glouchester?

I can't lie I'm imagining huge traps and like, floods and uh maybe a massive wheel of Babybel cheese rolling down a main street. c.c

Re: QUESTIONS

[twicelost]

So, say Katrina tries singing a song of healing at the people in the model town. Would they recognize her voice? Would it have any effect? This is an ease-the-aches song that might also calm people down.

What about if someone burns some sort of herbal mix meant to clear the mind and blows the smoke into the model town? (Katrina doesn't know much about herbs, I'm just curious!)

Re: QUESTIONS

[punched_hitler]

Re: Big Fears, does communicating with words just mean spoken words, or will writing not work either? And if not, would drawings work, like if someone were to draw a diagram for the bitty trapped townsfolk?

Re: QUESTIONS

[musicdied]

For people who gain prey traits in the One Fear prompt, if they manage to remove the animal features, will they then be afflicted with the compulsion to hunt anyone who still has them?

[energyfieldgood]

Can deaths in tiny town before the times runs out (in the nightmare rooms etc.) be used for/combined with an Avatar event?

[byeeeeeeeee]

What happens if an animal - say a small bird - enters the tiny town? Anything noteworthy, or would he just be a big bird in a small town?

SMALL FEARS - SIGNUPS

[apocalypsehowmods]

If you would like your character to become trapped in the miniature Gloucester, please reply to this comment and fill out the form below with your character's name and two to four of your character's major fears. Fears listed should be moderately specific people, places, things, or concepts that genuinely frighten your characters and that might appear in, say, a bespoke nightmare realm crafted for their individual torment. Additionally, please fill out the acknowledgement included in the form to indicate that you have read the event's OOC information in full and are aware that this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly to your character if they are selected.

Signups close on Friday, September 15 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Seven characters will be selected from among all signups via RNG.

Finally, we would like to remind all our players to fill out a content warning request if there are any topics or imagery for which you would like the mod team to provide warnings or to completely avoid when engaging with you or your character(s).

<p><table style="max-width:600px;width:100%"> <div align="left"><span style="font-family:helvetica;font-variant:small-caps;font-weight:bold;font-size:18pt;">➥ CHARACTER NAME</span></div><div style="border: dashed 2px #572f86; width: 600px;"></div><tbody><tr><td width="600px" align="left"><div align=justify><b>Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears)</b>: → <b>FEAR</b>: → <b>FEAR</b>: → <b>FEAR</b>: → <b>FEAR</b>: <b>Acknowledgment:</b>: I, <b>PLAYER HANDLE</b>, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting. </center> </table>

[rainestorms]

➥ Raine Whispers

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: Terra Snapdragon. Head of the Plant Coven, and was in charge of making sure Raine didn't step out of line after they were caught helping Witches escape the Day of Unity. She's known them from quite a young age, and will go to lengths to keep them under her control, including trying to brainwash them. → FEAR: Stage fright. Despite being Head Bard, they do still have a vested fear of performing in front of others. → FEAR: Emperor Belos. Belos is terrifying on his own, as the ruler of the Boiling Idles. Thanks to the death stairs, Raine now knows that he has a much more monstrous form. He can/will possess them and use them for his own agenda, only to leave them dead or incapacitated in the corruption that he spreads. → FEAR: Raine’s coven sigil allows those with the power to use them to incapacitate them and any other witch that has one. The coven sigil is also used as a source to drain magic for the Day of Unity. Acknowledgment:: I, rainestorms, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

[edalyn]

➥ Edalyn Clawthorne

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: Beast hunt - One of Eda’s fears is being on the run. In the past she’s been hunted by Emperor’s Coven Guards and, before they made up, by her sister Lilith. Being caught could result in being locked in the Conformatorium prison from her setting, or some other version of being caged like a dangerous animal; more consequences could include the threat of being petrified, a method of execution she has escaped in the past. Canon nightmare of hers for inspiration! → FEAR: Emperor Belos - The ruler of the Boiling Isles, and the witch hunter trying to destroy her home and her people. She’s personally experienced him as a menacing, masked figure. She’s heard about him as a distorted, skeletal antler-bearing monster made of goo and covered in eyes; she hasn’t seen this directly, but that’s always an excuse for her brain to conjure up worse body horror! She’s also heard about the creeping fungus and rot he spreads. → FEAR: Puppet show - This is a new fear as of her canon update. She experienced Raine, among others, being transformed into marionettes and controlled by an entity called the Collector. Options for this could include the other people in the tiny town being transformed and potentially attacking her, or simply fake versions of her loved ones as puppets—or she could be turned into one. This could also include the Collector directly, or be a good place to work in Web imagery given her experiences in Gloucester. Have a puppet clip too. Acknowledgment: I, Ilya, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

[apocalypsehowmods]

Given we've had a limited number of sign-ups, we'll be extending the sign-ups for the Small Fears prompt through the weekend. If you are interested in this prompt, though, please get your sign-up in ASAP! The mods would like to hand out everyone's prompts ASAP for this piece of things.

Please note, you do not have to be ultra-detailed in the fears list. We're just looking for fodder to prepare a prompt.

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

➥ John Sheppard

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: Himself - John's biggest fear is himself and the darkness within him. What he can do, what he's willing to do, how far he's willing to go, and how ruthless he is. This is also tied into a fear of letting people down and failing them. He fears letting his friends down, Rodney dying because of his failures, being responsible for it happening. → FEAR: Acastus Kolya - a Genii commander that John has a lot of history with. He is a terrible man and John loathes him. → FEAR: Iratus bugs - John was bitten and almost killed by an Iratus bug by it draining his life force, and then in a separate, unrelated event, he gets turned into a hybrid Iratus bug creature. So he hates those bugs. → FEAR: Clowns. He hates clowns. Acknowledgment:: I, Indy, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

[energyfieldgood]

➥ Rodney McKay

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: Violence/physical pain. Rodney gets intimidated very easily by show of force. He gets tortured canonically once and lasts exactly one knife wound to the arm. You'll find your heroic enduring elsewhere. → FEAR: Whales. According to Rodney his father read Moby Dick to him over and over again when he was a little child and he's had nightmares about getting eaten by a whale ever since. When they're attacked by a nightmare-inducing alien entity, Rodney is rowing through a storm in the middle of the ocean, getting attacked by a giant underwater creature that is very whale-like. → FEAR: Being trapped underwater and drowning. He got stuck in a spaceship on the ocean floor once and almost did that. Very traumatic experience. Not a fan. → FEAR: Catastrophic failure and people getting hurt because he made a mistake or can't solve a problem fast enough. Acknowledgment:: I, LP, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

[worthallthis]

➥ Winter

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: Doctors and medical paraphernalia. He's experienced a whole lot of medical experimentation/torture and now being exposed to even benign medical professionals and their stuff results in panic, flight, and/or disassociation. Arnim Zola in particular is associated with this fear. → FEAR: Memory loss. He's has his memories wiped again and again and he still doesn't even have most of them back. He's paranoid about losing more, and has taken to somewhat obsessively writing them down. → FEAR: Loss of autonomy through his trigger words, and killing people he loves. The ONLY mind control I can play out is the trigger words, which he does have ability to fight, but only with time and/or with help from people with a strong enough connection to break through them. Alexander Pierce in particular is associated with this fear, though we don't have any evidence Pierce ever used the trigger words. Pierce was just his last handler, and the one he had for the longest. → FEAR: Trains. He won't get on one if he can help it. This is probably pretty limited for this event, but figured I'd mention it. Acknowledgment:: I, Gail, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

[graveyounglady]

➥ Mercy Graves

Major Fears (name and briefly describe two to four major fears): → FEAR: The loss of community, not just from people leaving, but also serious interpersonal conflict. → FEAR: The Dread Watcher, a 'goddess' of nightmares from the mythology of Mercy's world. She has long claws, bone white skin, and is covered in eyes. Her lair has walls woven with spider's silk. The floor is pitch black, and it's absolutely silent. → FEAR: Spiders → FEAR: Being directionless/without something to believe in or the disappointment of her god. Acknowledgment:: I, Terri, acknowledge that I have read the full OOC information for this prompt and the event in which it features. I am aware that if my character is one of the seven selected, this prompt will be traumatizing and potentially deadly for my character, and that character death is permanent within the game's setting.

TOWN DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION

[apocalypsehowmods]

Please give us a shout here if your character is damaging or destroying portions of the tiny town. A link to what they're doing would be fantastic, as well!

Re: TOWN DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION

[punched_hitler]

I'm definitely going to say Steve Rogers elbowed a building by accident early in the event - I mention it here and I'm hoping to get up a toplevel of him actually doing it probably tomorrow, I'll come back and link that when I do!

Re: TOWN DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION

[musicdied]

Per this thread, Yelena is breaking the model train in the tiny town at Winter's request. (Sorry for the late damage report, it came up organically in the thread, so we didn't have it pre-planned.)

Re: TOWN DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION

[byeeeeeeeee]

Raine caused some light destruction here ("windows blown out and shattered, doors off hinges, and perhaps a little structural damage").