achates | [DAY 0] TDM.

[DAY 0] TDM.

Error in final launch sequence:
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹͚̽𝚡̰̍̂𝟸̠̯̘ͭͧ𝚌̭͉̺͖ͥ𝟿̳̰̒̇ͅ𝟷̦ͣ̉͌̅𝚋͓͎̈̒̀𝟻ͭ̌͂𝟷ͩ̓𝟾̦
Failed to execute MI command:
target remote localhost: 01633
Error message from debugger back end:
Cannot access memory at address 𝟹̖͇͕̃𝚡͉̹̯͇̻̉̓̂𝟸͚̹͈͓̩͚̲̼͒̾𝚌̱̠͙̝̪͇̈̌̂̃̄ͭ𝟿̱̜̪͓̳̹ͤ̊̈́ͦͥ̑𝟷͖̱̝̀̒̇̂̄̈́̓̇ͅ𝚋̥̯͉̹͛͛̊ͤͦͩ𝟻̬̮̈́̋ͯ͛̉̐𝟷̋ͩ̔̔𝟾̼
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Debugger connection lost.
Waiting for debugger connection...
Debugger connected
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Target is not responding, retrying...
Debugger connection lost.
Shutting down...
Rebooting
Download in Progress:
File download complete
Time elapsed during download operation: 00:12:33.131
Rebooting
Launching Demon Summoning Program. . .

You open your eyes to the end of the world, but you do not see it.

Instead what rouses you is screaming and crying, blood and tears: all around you are signs of life. Inside the overturned train, people begin to awaken, sprawled on the ground as if thrown violently from their seats, broken bones and bleeding wounds struggling to rise from the carpet of shattered glass from the windows at their feet. Emerging from the wreck, characters will find themselves at the edge of a dense forest, a towering stone wall at their backs. Bright eyes peer out from the shadows of the foliage, more and more blinking into view like stars in a darkening sky, but despite being drawn to the scent of blood that hangs heavy in the air, nothing steps out of the forest. Not yet.

None of the passengers can recall what happened, what they were doing on a train, where it was going- there's more they can't remember, but overshadowing the gaps of memory are things they have gained in return. A familiar item that is not theirs. A gemstone that feels lighter than it appears, as if hollow inside. And a device that wraps around their wrist (or rests on their head, or hangs around their neck, or however it presents itself to each character) that starts up on its own the moment the character turns their attention to it, as if waiting. Each character's COMP has a "navigator" selected at default, either "A☆L☆A" in bright neon orange, or "K5" in cool slate blue, although the presiding navigator can be freely switched between them.

Heya, boss! My name's Ala, your new navi!

You wanna know something really funny? Go ahead and touch the map on the corner of the screen to enlarge it. See all those little red dots? Those are demons out to kill you. Haha! You're surrounded!

Heya, boss! You can call me Keigo, your navigational AI.

If you touch the map on the corner of the screen, you can enlarge it and see the positions of all your allies. Looks like some of you are already heading out: see those little blue— oh. That one just disappeared. ... Try to stick together.

Along with providing a map with enemy/ally positions, the navigators will walk characters through the demon interaction, recruitment, and summoning processes, with advice varying between the two navigators (click to expand)

Just beat 'em up and force 'em to join! They can't say no if they're dead!

Nobody is immune to bribery, not even demons. What do you even have, though...? No matter what, don't let them get that life stone.

More demons incoming! Ooh, you're screwed. You'd better run! Don't worry, I won't tell.

Let's hide here. We'll wait here until that demon passes, then move!

Look, a body! Are they still alive? Wonder what's in their pockets...?

It's already too late to help. But better them being demon food than you.

Or, you could stay. There is nothing forcing anybody to leave the relative safety of the train. Those who stay behind will find the conductor's cabin empty, save for a small black cat perched on the headrest of the driver's seat that peers out with bright golden eyes at those who enter. Otherwise, there are no signs of a fight or struggle inside the cabin. Elsewhere, there is unclaimed luggage in the overhead compartments with an abundance of clothing and blankets, although characters will not find any of their own clothing except what they're already wearing. The dining cart is still stocked with enough food and beverage to last each passenger at least two days— maybe longer, if people keep leaving/dying... But at the same time, maybe shorter, considering the pervasive hunger that gnaws at the pits of everybody's stomachs, an emptiness that yearns to be filled by something... more.

As minutes stretch into hours, it becomes painfully clear that nobody is coming to help. Everybody only has each other, this town, its inhabitants. The forest is dark and unforgiving, near impossible to navigate even with a map. Strange creatures jump out from the shadows, eyes bright, mouths salivating, hungry. Strong hands claw through the dirt underfoot to grab at people's feet, pulling themselves up, mouths wide open, hungry. Sharp talons swoop down from the skies above, snatching characters up into the air, crushing skulls and snapping spines. Hungry. The demons here seem delighted to see such a feast wandering right into their home; those who are stopped for attempted conversation express surprise that characters are able to see them, but ultimately the hunger wins, and hunger does not listen to reason.

Casualties are inevitable. Blood mist permeates the air, and follows even as characters break out of the forest and across town, all the way to the fraying end of the world. Out in the open, however, the sun rays beat down bright and harsh, and those hungry eyes shy away from the sunlight to remain in the shadows, inside husks of buildings and thickets of overgrown fields. Characters will be able to find refuge in the greenhouse and the church, and some of the standing houses are truly vacant (as opposed to "surprise! there's actually a demon inside!" vacant); the only eyes that follow you are those of photographs hung crooked on the walls, of familiar strangers and forgotten friends. Look, there's a picture of you too.

Other locations require more caution to explore:

The sound of crying can be heard from the upper stories of the school building, thin wails echoing up and down the deserted halls, and human-like shadows peer out from the broken, unboarded windows, as if watching. A barricade inside the front doors makes it difficult to enter from the main entrance, and with most of the windows boarded up, the hallways inside remain dark even during the day. The smell of rot is prominent, heavy and cloying, especially in the auditorium-become-mausoleum that is littered with crushed bones, thin and brittle, every last scrap of flesh already nibbled away. A flock of demons crowd around outside principal's office, where a blizzard blows through the entire hallway, rendering visibility near zero and temperatures below that.

The hospital is also deathly cold, breath visible in puffs of mist that sometimes form into screaming faces, and when all is still and quiet, you look up and see yourself. Shadows form into mirror images of the characters who enter the hospital, silently approaching others and attacking once the person's guard is down. If a demon borrowing your face isn't bad enough, Phantoms go a step further and take the form of people who are close to your character: friends, family, foes. Exploring the hospital may or may not be worth the potential backstabbing, considering the fact that the supplies found are maybe not the most sterile, half the equipment is rusted or corroded, and a lot of the medicine is unlabeled tablets and capsules inside unlabeled bottles (essentially, take at your own risk). Moreover, hordes of all sorts of demon ghosts will bar characters' way down to the basement, gathering in massive numbers anytime somebody tries to descend. Electricity bounces around the top of the stairway down, while bright flames lick the bottom of the stairs; particularly unlucky characters may be hit with a confusion spell, liable to throw themselves headfirst down the stairs to be consumed by the waiting demons below.

Hauntingly beautiful music can be heard from within the concert hall, and listening to their song puts you fast asleep— possibly in the middle of the street if you're not careful— while those who manage to make it past the front doors are immediately frozen in a hunk of ice or electrocuted to a crisp before being kicked to the curb. The concert hall appears to be actively guarded, and it's clear that strangers are Not Welcome. Even the other demons keep clear of this building, drawn to the music but lingering far enough to not be overwhelmed. Characters may have an easier time of initiating conversations with demons from around town or inside the houses nearby the concert hall.

The crackle of electricity can be heard from inside the power plant's upper stories despite the blackout, and the entire building shakes from time to time, as if caught in a thunderstorm, or an earthquake. A slow drip... drip... drip... can be heard throughout the building, of amorphous demons clinging to the walls like mold and leaving puddles of caustic acid Everywhere. Anybody who enters the power plant's front entrance is met with a massive agglomerate of black Ooze that has expanded to fill the entire first floor from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, preventing anybody from going upstairs while it remains. Arms and legs poke out of the demon's body in places, desperately clawing and kicking, weaker, weaker. done.

OOC

Welcome to Day 0! What better meet-and-greet is there than everybody being tossed into the fray to fight for their lives? ('': For convenience, here are the game info, locations, and demon compendium pages; please use these as reference for what more can be found in the setting.

The characters' COMP will turn on only after they notice and focus on it. If they do NOT activate the COMP, they will not be able to see the demons or interact with them in any way other than being killed. Activating the COMP will allow characters to see demons and somewhat understand their language, with an added effect of allowing physical attacks to harm demons, and mitigating the damage taken from demons.

For characters who app and are accepted, please report demon recruitment here. Characters who are just tdming do not have to report. Recruited demons are inclined to listen to their summoner, but are not necessarily friendly at the beginning: if your character shows weakness, the demon may be just as likely to eat them as they are to protect them.

There will be no NPCs in this game other than the two navigators and some key demons. You're on your own for now!

This first event/tdm is open to the public, and can be used for test driving at any time after the game starts. I'll be keeping a pulse on threads for when characters have gotten their bearings and seem to have a general idea of how they want to proceed into the next day, and we'll go from there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ That somebody new who turns the corner stops short at the sudden motion, poised for fight-or-flight with an inclination towards fight, despite the fact that his hands are empty and no demons (friend or foe or otherwise) accompany him.

He could leave... In any case, he does not come any closer, opting instead to just glance around and take stock of what he can see. Pills. capsules. old printers with dried up ink. ]

...Do you need help?

[ She wasn't asking him. but he offers anyways, in exchange for permission to approach. ]

[Despite being the one to ask for help in the first place, Alice almost has to bite her tongue to keep herself from telling Minato that she's fine, thanks.]

Why not. The sooner I can get out of here, the better. I'm starting to get a headache from the flashbang that goes off every time Frankenbun down there casts Trafuri.

[Alice hesitates before actually clarifying what she's looking for. Though she'd never admit it (not even to herself), she's a little embarrassed.]

...I'm looking for teal powder tablets, about this big. [She spreads her index finger and thumb to illustrate.] Most of these bottles are unlabeled, but if you find any that have "estrace" or "estradiol" on them, those fit the bill.

"Estrace"... [ he mumbles the word under his breath, but it sounds more like a magic spell to him than anything else. Estradiol is the upgraded form of Estrace, maybe, and they come in tablet form sort of like the Agilao gems he's more familiar with.

Frankenbun he's not familiar with, but Trafuri he is, and the term has him nodding in approval. it's a spell that's saved him so much walking in the past, he's grateful. Experimentally he holds his music player— his COMP— up in front of some of the pill bottles, but the AI does not analyze anything and does not otherwise help. thanks, ala. ]

...okay. [ no easy way out, then. ] Where've you already looked? I'll start from the other end.

Those two shelves over there. [She gestures at the places she's already ransacked, then huffs.] None of the meds are organized in any kind of logical order. This place must've been Hell to work in even before the demons showed up and killed everyone. [She assumes, anyways.

There are a few moments of silence as Alice continues rummaging, check pill bottles one by one before giving a put-upon, exaggerated sigh and putting them back. Then she realizes, belatedly, that she's forgotten to do something, and with an expression like she's pulling out her own teeth, Alice just barely manages to choke out a quiet,]

...thanks, by the way.

...oh. Yeah.

[ "You're welcome," he means, as unaccustomed to saying it as Alice apparently is for saying thanks. The offer to help doesn't really warrant that much, in his opinion, not unless he can actually produce results, so he ducks his head and resumes his search.

It really would've been nice if things were alphabetized like a normal pharmacy!!!!! but maybe they just call the medication differently, so it might actually be in some sort of order that he just can't tell other than going through things one by one. The "estrace" Alice is looking for might not even say that one it, or have the appearance that she's expecting; he could be holding it in his hand right now (a bottle of small peach tablets, barely a millimeter or two in diameter) and wouldn't know. ]

There's gotta be a better way... [ He leans back and regards the shelves in full. He isn't familiar with pharmacies, but he has been in and out of hospitals more often than he'd like. ] Is it something that'd be on a crash cart? An emergency medication?

[The mental image of orderlies rushing a cart of oral estrogen down the hospital corridors to treat an urgent case of dysphoria is funny enough to almost get a chuckle out of Alice. Almost. She doesn't laugh as a matter of policy... but Minato might see the ghost of a smile on her face for a fleeting moment.]

No, but maybe... [Alice pauses.] You might find it by small boxes of transdermal patches. [It's a start at least.]

...why are you here, anyways? [The question comes out more accusatory than Alice intended, but she's not going to correct herself.]

Edited 2024-09-11 16:46 (UTC)

[ He sees that ghost of a smile, and it prompts the same in him, relief in his eyes that doesn't quite show on his face. ]

Oh. I don't know. [ It's not a flippant answer, but the honest truth. As far as he can tell, nobody has figured out why any of them are here, in this town, to begin with. As for what possessed him to leave the train, to brave the forest, to stand here in the hospital as he is now... he doesn't know. People would normally put more (or any) thought into where they go and why, not just ghost from place to place like he does. ]

Thought I saw someone familiar. In the hospital. I was wrong, though. [ the ghosts got to him, showing him people he yearns to see. and even if he knows better now, he will still fall for it every time. ]

Then I saw you. We haven't met before, have we...?

[That "I don't know" earns Minato a judgmental look. It's one thing to roll into a dangerous situation because of stupid priorities (and Alice will admit that's exactly what she's doing right now), but to aimlessly drift through one town's little apocalypse has to take a particularly empty head.

Alice has a premonition that Minato's going to end up more trouble than he's worth, but she shoves it aside. In this one, specific instance and in absolutely others, she'll take whatever help she can get.] The demons tried to pull that nonsense on me too. Sucks to be them, I don't give a damn about any of the people they imitated. It was cathartic to kick their asses, honestly. [seriously FUCK the jungharts except maybe gene]

Nope. And if I was a phantom, I definitely would've already ambushed your oblivious behind by now. You have been keeping an eye out, right?

Um.

[ He's, um. Hm. Well, you see,,,

He goes back to looking for the medication instead of answering right away. ]

...I know to, now. [ This is what he'll say about the concert hall later too. ] Having friends here would be too good to be true, huh...? I've had to fight them plenty of times before, so... I'll be able to handle it.

[ he won't get tricked again!! (he will) ]

...I'm not going to save your dumb ass if you get jumped, you know, [she says like a lying liar who lies.]

They must be pretty crap friends if you've had to throw down with them that many times. [Alice can't relate because what kind of loser has friends? She sure doesn't,]

[ That would normally be true, but despite that, Minato almost looks like he's about to smile, thinking back on it. fond. ]

Yeah. It really sucked. Trying to get them to snap out of it, trying to prevent it from happening again minutes later...

[ it sucked because they were teammates, and because he chose the strongest for his team, which meant if somebody turns on them then they get their asses kicked all the harder.

The only way to prevent that was to fight on his own from the start. And there were so many nights where he did just that. ]

[A single arched eyebrow as Alice goes to check the last pill bottle on her shelf.]

You must've led a pretty exciting life.

Couldn't be me. Until now, I guess. [Well, "interplanetary runaway" was probably someone's idea of a fun time, but it's so rote to Alice that she spends most of her time bored out of her mind.]

...here it is.

Can't really say you helped, but I suppose the conversation made this slightly less mind-numbing. If only because you're a kook.

Uh. Sure.

[ Crap friends really do make for an exciting life, he can't disagree with that one. Can't disagree with being a kook, either. ]

Can I see it?

[ The pill bottle, he means. ]

...I don't see why you'd be interested unless you also want to grow a pair of tits, but sure, be my guest.

[Underhand toss to Minato! Sure enough, inside are the powdery blue tablets that Alice was after.]

[ If Alice had tossed the bottle any sooner, Minato's sure he would've fumbled with it while hearing those words. Is this really what Alice braved the hospital for? A place full of personal demons and ghosts of the past, a place that wants her dead, full of death on all sides...

He pours a couple of tablets out onto his palm, looking closely at either side. ]

It's important to you, so 'course I'd be interested.

[ He returns the tablets to the bottle, and holds it out to Alice. He might not understand why this was so important to her, but he understands that it is. That's enough. ]

[For once, Alice is at a loss for words. She reaches into her quiver of disdain, barbs, and snark, something to force Minato to keep his distance... but the best idea that she can come up with is just calling him a weirdo, and for some reason, Alice doesn't have the heart to do that.]

...let's scram. Standing around and running our mouths like this will just give away our position to all those ghosts.

[Time to run away from this horrible, awful feeling of being known! Before she does, though, Alice turns and, to her horror, says something that sounds vaguely like encouragement:]

Don't die.

[AND THEN LOOK AT THIS IDIOT NOT FOLLOWING HER ADVICE LITERALLY JUST HOURS LATER]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[DAY 0] TDM.

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social link forged. now we know why alice was willing to stick her neck out for him,