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nightmods ([personal profile] nightmods) wrote in [community profile] nightlogs2024-10-05 07:12 pm
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❅ SHITTY LITTLE TOWN ❅ PART 3

SHITTY LITTLE TOWN ❅ PART 3



The cracks are starting to show. People have been reforging connections. Rebuilding their senses of self.

Digging into things that are potentially sinister, their curiosity dangerously piqued. Now, too many truths are coming back to the surface for everything to stay suppressed.

Somewhere deep in the MineCorp mines, a wire snaps. Then another, and another.

PROMPTS

a)  A CRACK IN THE DAM

A feeling of déjà vu is commonplace, and people’s dreams start to contain more and more imagery that doesn’t align with the lives they know here in this shitty little town – fantastical sleighs, huge golden globes, fae and monsters. Some people stop automatically responding when their name is called, because the name they’re being called feels wrong. Others discover they have talents at skills they don’t remember ever trying before.

But it remains out of reach until they do something that affirms their true self, an act that goes down to the core of who they are. It might be true love’s kiss, or placing a hand on their signature weapon, or invoking certain words when speaking truth to power. One way or another, once that final requirement is met...it all comes flooding back.


b)  PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

Your character remembers who they are, but their powers haven’t returned! The nefarious makers of the spell suppressing powers must be defeated. But who are the nefarious makers of the spell?

Several people have several parts of the puzzle. Time to put them together, anonymously, on the network. Skye has taken it upon herself to facilitate a discussion forum online with all accounts highly anonymized and access granted only by a password; details are being spread by word of mouth, friend to friend, always with the warning that just because the accounts are anonymous doesn’t mean that Goluboy or his people couldn’t try to sleuth people’s identities from context clues.

Skye sets a time for when the discussion forum will go live, and at midnight that evening, a website goes live with a simple comment post function and a message that all data will be deleted within 24 hours.

NETWORK LINK

The jig is up!

The source of the curse – and other mischief – is traced to Kyan Goluboy, and Noire Cygne. Confrontation with each of them will trigger counter-attacks and defenses.


c)  CONFRONTING CYGNE

As soon as Cygne is confronted, or receives word from Goluboy that the jig is up, wilis pour into town. Normally, these undead jilted brides will dance to death whoever they get their hands on, but in a hurry they’ll resort to tearing their prey apart. Any person who the wilis get their hands on will be overwhelmed by an empathetic sense of their grief, shame, and hatred, and control of their body will be taken over as they are swept into the deadly dance.

The wilis are strong against physical violence, but can be burned by sunlight, or artificial growlights. People dancing with wilis can be pulled out of their embrace and pulled to safety, but only those with formal dance training stand a chance of changing the course of the deadly waltz, once touched.

The sheriff’s department forms the final level of defense around Noire Cygne’s mansion and person. Get past the chaos of the wilis throughout town, and Sheriff Mallard and her deputies stand between your heroes and the town matriarch.


d)  CONFRONTING GOLUBOY

Destroying the torture machine hidden hidden in MineCorp will end the curse and restore all powers. Too bad everyone will have to sneak past mine workers and security guards who’ve been promised a big fat bonus for bringing your characters alive and restrained to Goluboy’s office. As the man himself would say, nothing makes a person work harder than money. Some of the wilis have made their way into the mines as well...


e)  AFTERMATH

The villains have been defeated!

What will your heroes do with them? Can any of their past victims still be saved? It’s time to convene and pass judgement on your captors, and check that every I is dotted and every T is crossed.


OOC DETAILS

Event Length: This part of the plot will last until 10/15, and the situation with the npcs are meant to be resolved by then, though general CR threads can continue to be backtagged after that.
bringinghopewithme: (311 - remember find your center)

a) IT'S ALL COMING BACK, IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW [closed to Dan]

[personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-10-06 02:21 am (UTC)(link)
Aster has gotten into a habit of taking an afternoon break around the time Dan usually wakes up to get to work, of making a little sandwich for himself and because he's already making one, making another for Dan, and because he's taking a break anyway, making some coffee and getting out all the sugar and cream for Dan to make his the way he likes it. Call it perks of the job, he supposes, as he sits on the porch with his sandwich and a cup of tea and mulls over what to do about the monsters in the woods, about this town they can't get out of.

"Coffee's ready," he says with a nod, when he hears Dan coming onto the porch where he's posted up in a rocking chair with his half-sandwich.
divasmio: (pic#17059974)

[E-MAIL] (attachment) Sent to Loki, CC to Boimler, Miguel, and Brigid

[personal profile] divasmio 2024-10-06 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ there is no subject, and a single line of text ]

fuck him up

[ The attachments are all photographs.

There are photos of a computer screen, each one detailing an e-mail exchange between Pallett and Callahan

The next photos are all of paper documents, detailing:

  • Dossiers detailing how certain townsfolk won't be missed
  • Evidence of the Occult - Texts written in strange languages, with little cloth bags of herbs and dead insects, among other things
  • Evidence that Goluboy and Cygne are working together. Her name and number are very clear on the documents and printed e-mails from her, with a list of names of people in town
  • Evidence that Cygne is aware people can't just walk out of town and that she's the only person who seems to be able to bring goods into town. ]
  • boldboimler: (Default)

    Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
    If people try to leave town do they wind up just back in town again? Like if they go by the roads?
    bringinghopewithme: (Default)

    Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

    [personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-10-06 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
    No, their vehicle breaks down about 20 miles out and then the wilis try to get them. They have to make their way back to town, but the geography will go nutty and reroute them back into town faster than they expected, unless they have one of the growlights that work against the wilis (as Aster and Dan discovered in the last plot post) to hold off the monsters and the mist. Even then the next town over is about 20 more miles.
    Edited 2024-10-06 03:13 (UTC)
    boldboimler: (Default)

    Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
    If they rolled their broken down car back in the direction they came, would it start up again as long as they were heading back to town?
    hallelujahjunction: (Basic - Resting Head)

    IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW [closed to Dan]

    [personal profile] hallelujahjunction 2024-10-06 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
    The last few days have gone alright. Dan’s drinking less; usually, a good humiliation will curb his excess for a few weeks, at least around other people. Now that he and Aster have had that hard conversation, Dan’s finding himself more at ease, less tense, glad to feel supported even if he knows he can’t be totally understood.

    Working feels good, and his health’s continued to improve as they settle into their routines. Aster wakes Dan up with breakfast and coffee. Dan leaves the kitchen spotless and with some pan-fried veggies in the fridge for Aster to incorporate into his omelette in the morning. But Dan’s started saving the money he earns with a goal in mind, and today he decides it’s time to make his move.

    “I love you,” Dan says in that casual way someone would say to any friend who brings them food. It feels so easy to say it to Aster. He takes his sandwich and reclines in one of the patio chairs, soaking up the sun with his shirt off.

    “So, I wanted to talk to you about something. I just bought a car off Wade and I’m walking into town to pick it up today.” He takes a sip of coffee. “Don’t think it’s because I don’t love working here, but would you might help me with some job applications?”
    bringinghopewithme: (203 - I am lost)

    [personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-10-06 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
    "Ah, good for you," says Aster, thinking that if it wouldn't have been weird he would have just given Dan one of the unused cars in his garage, mind a little stuck on I love you and if he imagined it, it's awfully easy to imagine hearing it in Dans awful steel wool voice, but his face falls as Dan asks -

    "You - you want to work somewhere else?"

    He must look devastated. He feels devastated. He thinks is the pay not enough, am I being a bad boss, is it something I did or said - and manages to say, "yeah, uh, of course I - I'll help with the forms, but," His voice breaks a little. "Is it something I did? Do you - did you need more money, or -"

    This house is going to go back to being so quiet and empty, the fields are going to go back to being so quiet and empty, and he's going to go on being chained to it.

    More than ever, he wishes they'd made it to Costa Rica.
    hallelujahjunction: (Default)

    Re: PLOT RUNNER QUESTIONS

    [personal profile] hallelujahjunction 2024-10-06 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
    Probably not - the car does actually break down and would need to be repaired.
    hallelujahjunction: (Surprised - ??)

    [personal profile] hallelujahjunction 2024-10-06 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
    Dan looks crestfallen as he sees how Aster interprets it, and he realizes he may have been considering Aster’s actions to be helping him get on his feet and not intended to be a permanent situation. Was this supposed to be permanent? Dan hasn’t countenanced that possibility because it would disappoint him if it weren’t, so he may as well not tease himself. Now he considers that he misjudged.

    “What? No, weren’t nothing you did, I just…” He takes a bite of his sandwich, trying to use chewing to buy himself time, but his cheeks are already getting flushed. “I didn’t want to make it awkward for you when I said I like you. I didn’t want to keep blurring the lines of you being professional just because I want more than that.”

    He bites his lip, waiting for Aster’s response.
    bestbrotherever: (smirk)

    [to everyone]

    [personal profile] bestbrotherever 2024-10-06 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
    Well then. What shall we do with this? Playing the two great powers against each other will clearly not work.
    divasmio: (pic#17059974)

    automatic reply to all

    [personal profile] divasmio 2024-10-06 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
    Message Undeliverable

    [ this is specifically from Paul's e-mail, everyone else will still be able to communicate ]
    Edited 2024-10-06 04:15 (UTC)
    worstverine: (078)

    Locked to npcs - cw: alcohol abuse

    [personal profile] worstverine 2024-10-06 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
    Logan stumbles out of the bar thoroughly drunk - like he does most nights. He finally got cut off, which means he'll either hit the liquor store on the way home or stumble his way to another bar that'll serve him.

    He tells himself it doesn't really matter which.

    He tells himself there's no difference between being drunk alone at home or being drunk in a place that at least has human voices. He tells himself he doesn't prefer the latter.

    The bars are all clustered near each other, eking out a pitiful existence in competition with each other, thriving off the misery of the town. He stumbles along towards the next bar, stuck in the rolling cogs of his numb and repetitive existence.

    But after everything he lost...what else is there?

    What else is there for him?
    boldboimler: (LA - 007)

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
    [No. No, he told him Goluboy was bad news, that he should try to extricate himself, that there were better things he could be doing with his life.]

    [Was he partly responsible for nudging him towards this? Towards whistleblowing?]

    I'm going to his apartment and seeing if anything got left behind.

    In the meantime, can any of you even make sense of this? Some of it tracks - lots of people suspected Goluboy and Cygne had some kind of cooperation with each other. And I'm not surprised they have a hit list of people they consider undesirables.

    But what does this stuff mentioning the supernatural even mean? Are they part of some kind of cult that believes in this stuff? And they're acting on it somehow?
    bestbrotherever: (sneer)

    [personal profile] bestbrotherever 2024-10-06 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
    Do you wish to join him? Do not go alone!

    I have circumstantial evidence that Cygne does not only target undesirables. The recipients of her scholarships seem to go missing as well. Not on paper, but their correspondence with their parents is very impersonal. Likely written by someone else.

    We can work out the meaning of the supernatural later. First, we must keep ourselves and their targets safe.

    Speaking of their targets, has anyone seen the boy Cato since Cygne's ball?
    boldboimler: (012)

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
    I'll go with someone if they're fast enough to meet me there.

    [He drops the address. He...doesn't explain how he has it.]

    [He's going. It's up to the other people in the email chain if any want to join him in time.]

    Do you mean Cato Goodspeed? The kid that was all over the news a few years back?

    [It'd been a fairly big local news story. (The town loved the sensational.) A ten-year-old missing, with clear signs of a fight. His father, murdered by his kidnapper. Then, after two years of the town thinking he was dead in a ditch somewhere, he showed up alive again, after killing his kidnapper and escaping some dank, hidden dungeon, sub-basement hellhole.]
    bringinghopewithme: (313 - find your center)

    [personal profile] bringinghopewithme 2024-10-06 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
    "Oh- oh."

    Aster didn't know his mood could change this fast.

    Immediately, he laughs, blushing, tickled absolutely pink.

    "Well that's real convenient. You, uh. You got anything lined up? Because I can't kiss an employee, but I don't want to start this out by firing you."
    shittylittlenpcs: (goluboy)

    [personal profile] shittylittlenpcs 2024-10-06 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
    Here's one thing for him - a bag over his head.

    Two people have him in a frog-march, and someone behind them speaks in a voice Logan will only recognize if he's met Kyan Goluboy in person before.

    "Hurry the fuck up, the thing's hungry."

    Logan's lifted off the ground and thrown in the back of a van. The two guys pounce on him again, and attempt to bind his hands as the van peels out.
    ninjavampire: fanart <user name=kyaptainkiddo site=twitter.com> (pic#16520567)

    re: all

    [personal profile] ninjavampire 2024-10-06 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
    The supernatural may play a bigger role here than you think.

    [ attached is video footage from what appears to be a drone. Despite the fog, the camera quality is clear.

    It shows the initial venture into the forest, the 'glitching' of the road repeating itself over and over, and the glimpse of the ghostly dancers inhabiting the forest.
    ]
    Edited 2024-10-06 05:53 (UTC)
    worstverine: (008)

    [personal profile] worstverine 2024-10-06 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
    He doesn't bother with words at first. There's just a vicious snarl as he lashes out, first reaching for the bag but then after they bodily shove him in the van, trying to get his hands free to take a swing at whoever's behind this. They've got them fairly well pinned though, so he kicks his legs, trying to aim for whatever's within distance, writhing in place as he fights.

    But he's drunk (like he always is.) And despite the fact he's got some wiry strength from working in the slaughterhouse, he's shaky and uncoordinated.

    They successfully bind him. He's out of options.

    "Who the fuck are you?!" he roars. "Where are you taking me?"
    bestbrotherever: (frown)

    [personal profile] bestbrotherever 2024-10-06 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
    [Lowell curses. Stupid heroes rushing into danger despite warnings, making him have to rush his own preparations! How many times over the years has he done this?

    [Wait. How many times has he done it as a corrupt politician? And yet the motions come naturally to him, even more so than any plotting about how to use this information against his rivals.

    [Because- because he is not Lowell Keyes, disgraced scion of a political family. He is Loki, God of Mischief. Disgraced scion of the gods, and yet he is still doing what he did before his fall from grace: do the thinking and the saving when the more heroic types fail at the former.

    [He reaches for his magic, to retrieve his dagger from Lokispace, but- there's nothing. No sense of power. He curses again, then tears through the apartment, seizing anything dagger-like or otherwise useful as a weapon and throwing them all in a bag.

    [He fires off a quick email response as he heads for his car:]

    i will meet you there
    Edited 2024-10-06 06:00 (UTC)
    boldboimler: (006)

    Re: all

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
    What the french toast

    That can't be real. That has to be vfx
    ninjavampire: concept art <user name=AmiThompson_h site=twitter.com> (pic#16512963)

    [personal profile] ninjavampire 2024-10-06 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
    I'm an engineer, I didn't want to believe it either.

    Examine the footage as much as you want. It's real.
    boldboimler: (LA - 006)

    --> action

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
    [It's dangerous, he knows. Goluboy's people might be watching who comes by. But it's also easy to excuse them digging around because they're just worried about a friend. They don't know he managed to send anything.]

    [Lowell gets there just in time.]

    I know which place is his.
    boldboimler: (LA - 005)

    [personal profile] boldboimler 2024-10-06 06:08 am (UTC)(link)
    How did you get it?

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