PLOT AND MONSTERS OH MY
Hello everyone, this is Kytha, coming in to bring you a bit of Mod-ApprovedTM plot!
Starting this week, there will be a new monster making an appearance in the Darkness. As yet unnamed, there isn’t a lot of information about it yet, what it looks like or where it came from. All that’s known of it is that it leaves its victims as shapeless, bloody messes smeared onto the train tracks and tunnels all around the city.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the monster’s victims seem to be turning into Darkness monsters themselves. Dubbed "Viscera," these monsters roam the Darkness, indiscriminately killing whatever they run across.
People who are familiar with Baccano! might vaguely recognize these monsters as fitting the description of the Rail Tracer, an urban legend about a monster who "eats" train passengers. As the body count piles up and more details about the deaths crop up, the deaths will eventually be pinned on vinovidivici, the "real" Rail Tracer. But is he really the one responsible? And if he isn't, then who -- or what -- actually is?
Figuring that out is where the fun comes in (and yes there is actually stuff to find out, I swear)! Updates and details will be released as the plot rolls along, both here on the OOC comm and ICly through news feed articles and character posts, but this is mostly to get the party started.
If you have a hard time imagining how your character might be involved in this, here are just a few of the possible ways!
That’s only a few of the general roles characters can fall into, though-- if you have any questions, or ideas for how your character can get involved, don’t hesitate to speak up!
For anyone interested in what the Viscera look and act like:
Viscera
Appearance: In the Darkness, these look a lot like the 8-Hour Death-- their eyes glow, but unless you’re looking carefully, they might seem just like another stain on the floor. In better light they’re dark red like old blood, and sometimes (assuming it’s held still long enough for you to look at it and hasn’t attacked you yet) you can see the shadows of bits and pieces of bodies and organs churning around inside it. In case you run across the blood trail it leaves behind, try to get somewhere Darkness-proof as soon as you can: it means there’s a Viscus on the hunt. Some people have reported seeing these monsters adopt a humanoid shape, though no one seems to know what triggers it.
Speed: When they’re mimicking a puddle or just rolling around the ground, Viscera are slow, and easy to outrun. If you’re unlucky enough to run into one in humanoid form, run: these guys are fast, and they don’t tire easily.
Traits/Powers: Viscera don’t just look like they’re made of blood, they actually are, and it takes a lot of work to keep that up. If they can’t find a human to squeeze blood out of, they’ll even attack other Darkness monsters. Like other ooze monsters, it’ll generally dump out what it can’t use or digest; this usually means corpses with crushed and broken bones like they’ve been put through a meat grinder or a juicer. Seeing one take a victim isn’t pretty. They ‘eat’ by engulfing you with their own bodies; make the mistake of sticking an arm in ‘em and you can probably expect your arm to be broken in less than a second.
The worst thing about these guys, though, is how powers don’t work on them. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen: as if the Darkness wasn’t dangerous enough, now there’s a monster with Null powers out there. The good news is that it only seems to be able to null powers within a four-meter radius. But if you’ve managed to get that far from it already, you should probably be running the hell away.
Location: They travel via the sewers and the subway. Some night-time subway operators have reported seeing them oozing along the ceilings of the tunnels, but they haven’t attacked any actual trains yet.
This plot is tentatively set to run for approximately a month (definitely ending before Christmas, ideally). This isn’t going to be a very linear plot once it gets going (and how it turns out will depend on what characters decide to do), and more than anything else, I want it to encourage cross-canon and new CR. I’d love to see characters teaming up and getting ready to take on this together! Feel free to use this as a discussion post. c: Feel free to contact me through PLURK as well!
ETA:
DEATHS
Pickles - NPC Death (Nov ??)
Tyrell - Death (Nov ??)
Raven/b> - Death (Nov 30)
Kevin Ford - Death (??)
Claire Bennet - Death (Dec ??)
Veser Amaker Hatch - Death (Dec ??)
Joe Fieldman - NPC Death (Dec ??)
INJURIES
Helen - Injury (??)
Dick Grayson - Injury/Death (??)
John Watson - Injury (??)
Byakuya Kuchiki - Injury (??)
Maya Fey - Injury (??)
Yako Katsuragi - Injured (Dec 8th)
Starting this week, there will be a new monster making an appearance in the Darkness. As yet unnamed, there isn’t a lot of information about it yet, what it looks like or where it came from. All that’s known of it is that it leaves its victims as shapeless, bloody messes smeared onto the train tracks and tunnels all around the city.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the monster’s victims seem to be turning into Darkness monsters themselves. Dubbed "Viscera," these monsters roam the Darkness, indiscriminately killing whatever they run across.
People who are familiar with Baccano! might vaguely recognize these monsters as fitting the description of the Rail Tracer, an urban legend about a monster who "eats" train passengers. As the body count piles up and more details about the deaths crop up, the deaths will eventually be pinned on vinovidivici, the "real" Rail Tracer. But is he really the one responsible? And if he isn't, then who -- or what -- actually is?
Figuring that out is where the fun comes in (and yes there is actually stuff to find out, I swear)! Updates and details will be released as the plot rolls along, both here on the OOC comm and ICly through news feed articles and character posts, but this is mostly to get the party started.
If you have a hard time imagining how your character might be involved in this, here are just a few of the possible ways!
- Being a Victim: We’re looking to have anywhere from 5-15 people getting killed or injured, spread out over approximately the next three weeks or so (23rd November to the 13th of December). It doesn’t even have to be your character-- you could choose to offer up an NPC whose death or injury your character would react to, if that’s what you’d prefer. You can choose to play out or handwave your character running into the monster!
If your character is killed, you have the option of playing them as one of the monsters for a night (or uh, however long you want to, really)! They’ll naturally be drawn to their friends and the places they usually frequented when they were alive. So if the option of playing a creepy bloody monster banging on their BFFs window is something that appeals to you, this might be something to look into.
The victims which player-controlled Viscera kill or injure is left up to invidividual players to decide on! We’re only looking for victims for the initial monster, and only victims of that monster have a chance of turning into Viscera-- mostly for the sake of keeping things easier to keep track of OOCly. - Being an Investigator: Is Claire Stanfield the real killer, or is there something else behind these violent murders? For characters who aren’t combat-oriented (or just happen to like snooping around into corporate business) this might be the preferable option to take: trying to chase down Claire is only part of the fun.
For the research and science-oriented, there are the monsters themselves to look into: exactly how do they work? What created them? What can be used to defeat them, if the usual powers don’t work? Maybe you decide to try and develop something that can be used against the monsters or simply try and figure out what exactly they’re composed of. Whether you choose to share the fruits of your research or keep it to yourself is up to you. - Being a Badass: Whether or not your character cares about who or what is behind the monsters appearing and people dying, maybe they’re just reckless enough to go out and see what the fuss is about. Or maybe they’ve decided someone needs to be watching out for the people in the Darkness and making sure no one gets hurt. Either way, they don’t have any problems getting up close and ugly with these things, and maybe they could figure out a thing or two about them along the way...
That’s only a few of the general roles characters can fall into, though-- if you have any questions, or ideas for how your character can get involved, don’t hesitate to speak up!
For anyone interested in what the Viscera look and act like:
Viscera
Appearance: In the Darkness, these look a lot like the 8-Hour Death-- their eyes glow, but unless you’re looking carefully, they might seem just like another stain on the floor. In better light they’re dark red like old blood, and sometimes (assuming it’s held still long enough for you to look at it and hasn’t attacked you yet) you can see the shadows of bits and pieces of bodies and organs churning around inside it. In case you run across the blood trail it leaves behind, try to get somewhere Darkness-proof as soon as you can: it means there’s a Viscus on the hunt. Some people have reported seeing these monsters adopt a humanoid shape, though no one seems to know what triggers it.
Speed: When they’re mimicking a puddle or just rolling around the ground, Viscera are slow, and easy to outrun. If you’re unlucky enough to run into one in humanoid form, run: these guys are fast, and they don’t tire easily.
Traits/Powers: Viscera don’t just look like they’re made of blood, they actually are, and it takes a lot of work to keep that up. If they can’t find a human to squeeze blood out of, they’ll even attack other Darkness monsters. Like other ooze monsters, it’ll generally dump out what it can’t use or digest; this usually means corpses with crushed and broken bones like they’ve been put through a meat grinder or a juicer. Seeing one take a victim isn’t pretty. They ‘eat’ by engulfing you with their own bodies; make the mistake of sticking an arm in ‘em and you can probably expect your arm to be broken in less than a second.
The worst thing about these guys, though, is how powers don’t work on them. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen: as if the Darkness wasn’t dangerous enough, now there’s a monster with Null powers out there. The good news is that it only seems to be able to null powers within a four-meter radius. But if you’ve managed to get that far from it already, you should probably be running the hell away.
Location: They travel via the sewers and the subway. Some night-time subway operators have reported seeing them oozing along the ceilings of the tunnels, but they haven’t attacked any actual trains yet.
This plot is tentatively set to run for approximately a month (definitely ending before Christmas, ideally). This isn’t going to be a very linear plot once it gets going (and how it turns out will depend on what characters decide to do), and more than anything else, I want it to encourage cross-canon and new CR. I’d love to see characters teaming up and getting ready to take on this together! Feel free to use this as a discussion post. c: Feel free to contact me through PLURK as well!
ETA:
DEATHS
Pickles - NPC Death (Nov ??)
Tyrell - Death (Nov ??)
Raven/b> - Death (Nov 30)
Kevin Ford - Death (??)
Claire Bennet - Death (Dec ??)
Veser Amaker Hatch - Death (Dec ??)
Joe Fieldman - NPC Death (Dec ??)
INJURIES
Helen - Injury (??)
Dick Grayson - Injury/Death (??)
John Watson - Injury (??)
Byakuya Kuchiki - Injury (??)
Maya Fey - Injury (??)
Yako Katsuragi - Injured (Dec 8th)