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!

[twicelost]

Wonderful, thank you!

[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?

[apocalypsehowmods]

These other changes would take on the town, as well. Moving the buildings would, inevitably, damage them, though. All of the utilities plugged into that building will not move with it.

[musicdied]

Does it work in the other direction? If someone broke a window, for example, or left some graffiti on a wall in the actual town, would it appear in the miniature town?

[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?

[apocalypsehowmods]

During the event, the glamours will not be available unless someone makes a direct personal appeal to Milo. ADI will work on getting everyone covered by the glamours as the month moves on and people are affected by it. IN THE MEANWHILE... characters will have to deal with being hunted everywhere. Once the glamours are established, post-event, characters will be able to hide outside of ADI HQ/housing. However, ADI personnel will always have a vague sense of who prey are. They might not act on that sense and may not be able to pinpoint the source, but they will feel like there's prey nearby. Those touched particularly by the Hunt will have that sense much more keenly.

[lowficharm]

oh that's even worse, thank you!!

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

[apocalypsehowmods]

While an amusing image, alas, no! It doesn't seem like you can add new things to the model to get them to show up in big Gloucester.

[wewillwewill]

Okay and as an addendum when food is added would it remain the same size or shrink down on the model?

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!)

[apocalypsehowmods]

While her close CR who have heard it before would not recognize her voice or the words, they might well recognize the melody of the song itself given time. It would have the same effect it would ordinarily provided she has the fear reservoir to power it!

Blowing smoke through the model town would be like shunting smoke from a wildfire into people's faces. It may choke them, even if there are some marginal benefits.

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?

[apocalypsehowmods]

The intention for that prompt was that spoken and written language will not work for communication. Drawing could definitely work as an alternative, though!

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?

[apocalypsehowmods]

Yes! People will feel like prey or predators for this prompt. If someone were to remove their prey features, the urge to hunt others with prey features would hit them, as well.

[energyfieldgood]

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

[apocalypsehowmods]

Yes, they can!

[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?

[apocalypsehowmods]

Big bird, tiny problems! The tiny people would see the bird as an enormous, shadowy monster. Much like human counterparts, this would be something likely terrifying, but nothing would happen to the bird!