There must be something in the water

[maskormods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: Lake Tahoe, the Nevada side
WHEN: May 17 all day
WHAT: Swear-In
WARNINGS: Some violence

Welcome imPorts new and old to the lovely city of Jeopardy! For the five minutes the swear-in is here, anyway. See, there’s been some unusual activity at the (relatively) nearby Lake Tahoe. The Better Believe It Museum of Cryptozology has appealed to the government for help, and the powers that be generously volunteered this Swear-In as a chance for imPorts to be voluntold to help. Of course, you can always skip the swear-in or just decide to kick up your feet at a nice lakeside property in May, but the local natives would really appreciate the assistance. So much so that they’ve rented out a legion of party buses to transport you from Jeopardy to the museum in style. Yes, there’s a bar and snacks (though only juice for the kids). It’s about a three hour drive, try not to get too sloshed on the way over.

Just what is the issue? It seems that Nevada’s most famous cryptid, Tahoe Tessie has...well. Been seen. And, yes, of course, there is that whole museum you are going to at the edge of the lake dedicated to fuzzy, shaky-cam ‘sightings’ of Tessie and other cryptozoological marvels over the years, but this is different. Like, ‘oh no, we actually found her’ different. And by all appearances, Tessie’s pretty pissed at being found. Any boats that attempt to go out into the lake are sunk, divers have vanished to never be seen again (whole, anyway. A few parts have washed up), and police have noted a sharp increase in random, violent attacks around the lake shores.

That’s where you come in.

The museum has requested Tessie be captured and transferred into their crypto-aquarium where she can be studied (and rubbed in the faces of all those ‘real’ scientists that called them crazy over the years). There are other options, though. The police are just fine with you killing the creatures; let the scientists dissect the corpse. And a very well funded individual party is more than willing to pay an exorbitant amount to the imPorts that hand her over to them.

While you ponder about the ethics and money involved, here’s the lay of the land.



First there is the cryptid museum itself. Not the tidiest of places, the museum is three floors of winding narrow aisles between shelves heaped with curiosities and walls covered in fuzzy photographs with plaques explaining what cryptozoological marvel is depicted in them, or poster sized print outs of ‘testimonials’ of alien abductions, bigfoot sightings, etc, along with artists interpretations of events described. There is also, of course, quite an expansive gift shop. Get your BELIEVER t-shirt before supplies run out. Please no powers in the museum, the owner is quite forceful about how everything in there is one of a kind.



For those of you not into monster hunting, or hunters that need to recharge, the cryptid museum is right next to a resort that has thoughtfully opened its doors to imPorts. It’s lingering around 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit at the lake, not exactly swimming weather, but there’s charming outdoor seating, fire pits to gather around, and free drinks and finger foods abound for every one to mingle with. There’s plenty of nice walking paths around the lake, some low-key events like horse shoe tossing or croquet to pass the time with. Just a nice break by the lake to recharge after a rough month.



Then there’s the lake itself. The locals have provided you with canoes, small fishing boats with radar, diving suits and snorkels, fishing nets, pretty much anything they could think of that will help you catch dear old Tessie (if you have a specific request for an unusual item, ask here if it will be provided!). A certain eccentric (the one offering cash money for Tessie to be turned over to them) even provided a one person submarine for use- though it doesn’t have any arms to grab with or much in the way of catching power, the gesture was still nice?

But catching a cryptid isn’t that easy. See, turns out that surge in violent attacks isn’t just dear old Tessie. If you just pressed A and skipped to the lake itself, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. Those that took time to view the museum first, or chatted with the hotel staff about local legends, will have some warning of what is waiting for them. They’ll learn that in addition to cryptids lake Tahoe has a very real monstrous history- it’s a known mob mass graveyard. Through the 1900s, possibly up to today, the lake served as a very convenient spot for mobsters to send people to ‘sleep with the fishes.’ No one knows how many bodies have ended up under those placid waters, but it’s an unpleasant number. Just an interesting historical tidbit until you actually enter the lake. There you’ll see these dead are, somehow, awake. And not that happy about it.



The lake is crawling with revenants. These angry undead will fight tooth and nail anyone that comes into the waters of the lake, trying to pull you down to meet the same watery fate as them. We’re literal on the tooth part, their bites are strong enough to rip out chunks of flesh. They will follow anyone that disturbs them out of the lake, focused on destroying the life they no longer have. These creatures will need to be destroyed or laid to rest for the lake to be safe again. This can be done through sheer physical assault, break enough of the bones or destroy the skull and the creatures will collapse into the muk. Or they can be put to rest one by one with rituals specifically made for putting the dead to rest (from any religion or philosophy). Those that can talk with the dead and have the dedication can talk the spirits into releasing their mortal coil and returning to the void. Just remember their first emotion is rage at the living, and their first instinct will always be to attack. Those going for a more peaceful route may need back-up to keep the creatures at bay until they start seeing results.

Finally, there’s Tessie.



While legends have reported, and the cryptid museum lead you to expect, a more serpentine creature, characters are once more in for a surprise. Those that finally get past the undead to Tessie herself will discover she is none other than a legendary lusca: half shark, half squid, all attitude. For those still trying to apply biology to this, Tessie’s front half looks like a bull shark, a species infamous for its ability to swim in both salt and fresh waters. There is a little good news: unlike the revenants, Tessie isn’t looking so hot. Some of her tentacles are rotting off and teeth are falling out. She is mostly working to avoid anyone that wants to bother her, darting to deeper waters and running away from close encounters. Anyone that does get too close will face a fight, but it’s that of an animal in its death throes. While an unlimited number of characters can see Tessie, the final decision of what happens to her will be decided by a poll.

After a long day at the lake, imPorts are bused back to Jeopardy in the same party buses. Hopefully still more or less in one piece.

OOC PLOTTING AND QUESTIONS SHOULD BE DIRECTED HERE!

Comments

Carl Grimes | OTA | Unregistered

[112ounces]

PARTY BUS

After the mess with the moon - honestly, Carl didn't want to go to any more Swear-Ins after that - but with the other nonsense that involve nightmares, he decided to hell with it. If it looked funny, he can just leave. However, it looked like this Swear-In is another trip involved, which was unfortunate to Carl. It's not like he can drive back when he had enough, or he can ask for a ride from Negan. Negan's gone, presumably back to the hellscape they both call home. Carl's was still wary around him, never trusting him, but he was someone that under that unusual circumstances he can rely on him for certain things.

But now Carl is alone now. He's drinking his soda, but the lights and crowded seats is making him wary all over again. Why is he doing this to himself? This sense of disconnect is frustrating him.

Maybe he shouldn't go to these Swear Ins.

Carl got up, trying to go back to where the drinks are to fill up his cup of juice, tripping on people's feet along the way.

RESORT

The place was not that bad, considering. Nice, for one. The museum was weird, but kooky weird like those tourist traps places his parents would take him when he was little.

He grabbed a chair, watching everyone taking their seats or milling around, having talks as he soaked up the heat of the fire. Eventually he got bored with that (whether he had a conversation with anyone or not) and decided to walk around and play a game of horse shoe tossing.

Man, maybe this Swear In won't be crazy after all.

REVENANTS

All Carl wanted was something not crazy. But no, now he's fighting for his life again, and this time, he's not worried at all of risk of sudden decompression. Carl grabbed a tire iron - Where did he found a tire iron? Don't ask, please - and began to start beat the absolute shit out of one these wretched undead. Several hits in, and the one laid prone before him, presumably dead dead.

Carl then moved on, either to save someone from being attacked, or attack another revnant. Either way, he's going to be busy until the undead are back into their murky graves.


wildcard

[ Carl will not be doing the whole Tessie hunt, as he really doesn't care. His main concern will be killing off the undead. ]

PARTY BUS

[nightfallallegro]

Nightfall was a very controlled young lady, having the ability to keep up the act she was trained to against many things that broke the acts played by her peers. She was even used to discomfort on levels that would make most children cry. However, she absolutely could not stand (ugh) being seated in a moving vehicle without breaks for three hours. She was just starting to get to a point where her antsiness might show when she finally decides to say screw it and just stand to walk around.

Her plan had been simple. Stand up, walk around pretending to examine all the interesting things in the area, then sit back down when she had made a round. It was a plan that even a fool, a buffoon, and an imbecile tied together at the ankles would theoretically be able to pull off!

She technically didn't even succeed at step one.

Due to a light causing her to close her eyes at just the wrong moment she didn't notice that she was on a collision course with another young imPort. Everything was made worse by a small bump in the road (which she later prayed was real and not a side effect of her imagination trying to spare her dignity) which meant she couldn't correct her balance in time and she went down.

Oh, but it got worse. Her stupid monkey instincts chose that particular moment to overwhelm her training and she quickly grabbed a hold of the arm closest to her - which she realised a split second later probably belonged to the imPort she'd rammed into.

Ah. Well. At least the trend of imPorts not remembering what happened while they went to another world meant she wouldn't have to write a report on this and get an earful from her handlers when she got back home.

[112ounces]

Carl, well, he's not used to touch by strangers. He jerks back, reflexively, taking a step back. But in a crowded bus and roads that desperately needed an infrastructure bill or two meant that it was easy for Carl to lose his balance and stumble to the floor.

Oh. How embarrassing. Carl ducked his head down, so his hat would hide his embarrassment as he attempts to go back up to his feet. "Sorry," he mumbled, not really looking up at the person who collided with him.

[nightfallallegro]

Nightfall only wished that her training would let her look at the floor. Allowing herself to be embarrassed like a normal human being in this moment would have at least felt a little better than keeping her chin up and getting to her knees.

"I'm sorry. Are you alright?" It was remarkably hard to both shout over the music and sound sweetly concerned, but she was pretty sure she pulled it off.

[112ounces]

"Yeah, yeah," he said, getting him back on his knees. "Just trying to get a refill, that's all. Sorry about that."

Somebody got up, so Carl took the opportunity to take their place. "Are you going to Register?"

[nightfallallegro]

"I'm so relieved," she said as she placed a gloved hand over her sternum.

Once he spoke again Nightfall nodded. "I am! Back in my world I'm a registered junior hero, and I hope to be able to help out here as much as I do back home."

This was an easy subject for her. After a few hours of looking at the state of this world's superpowered people, she knew the only real option was to register and be a good influence.

[112ounces]

"Oh. So you are like a superhero, then? Does this mean this world isn't any different from yours?"

Man, Carl's jealous if that's a case. Probably less of a shock in the system for sure. He folds his hands into his lap, after initially attempting to fold his arms and aborting the gesture, not wanting to look standoffish. He's trying not to be like that, though old habits die hard.

[nightfallallegro]

"Yes! A superhero in training!" She gives a delighted laugh. "There are a lot of differences, but it's probably going to be a lot easier to adapt to than the other alternate earths I've been to."

She noticed the aborted gesture, and appreciated it internally. When people were clearly trying to look more welcoming than they might otherwise indicate it was a good sign they were trying. She supported people who tried, in general. But even more so she appreciated when people put to use the same type of control over themselves as she had - even if theirs wasn't mandatory.

[112ounces]

"Alternate earths?" Carl doesn't understand what she means by that. "Like, different earths?"

Yes, Carl, alternate does mean different. "What others did you went on?"

[nightfallallegro]

"There are quite a few, but some interesting ones included a world where sapient birds were the dominant species and a world where the technology was amazing!" She giggled a charming little giggle. "My teammate, LAN, he's a technopath. He loved it there. If it weren't for the fact that the window to get back to our world was closing he would have asked to stay a little longer. Humans lived in peace with sapient AI. Some AI would create other AI when they felt the need to expand beyond their own programming, kind of like how humans have kids!"

She laced her fingers together and her feet kicked back and forth a little. "The medical technology was even better than it is here. And humans had found a way to colonise the majority of the rest of the solar system. It was actually an experimental engine for Faster Than Light travel that pulled most of my team to that world." She places her hand near her mouth to amplify the whisper she would deliver. "I think they still have a few bugs to work out!"

[112ounces]

Carl just let the girl's excitement wash over him, trying to comprehend of just going to different realities likes that. Carl can barely get his act together with this world, let alone able to adapt to others.

He never thought he'd say this, but this kind of talk makes him homesick for his own world, as shit as it is.

"AI. . . are you talking about robots?"

That's all he can grasp, really.

[nightfallallegro]

When she notices he seems confused she decides to slow down and take a different approach. They're all from different realities, and assuming they were all on the same page could prove problematic. She doesn't realise however that the concept of alternate realities in and of itself could be confusing - such information had existed in her world for quite a long time now, even before her powers had come slamming to the top she had learned about several alternate worlds in history class.

"Sort of. Robots are the machinery, but AI are sometimes what moves a machine. Sometimes AI is so advanced that it stops being a mere computer program, and becomes a person."

She hoped that was helpful, at least.

revenants

[irwins]

Well, Shaun thinks to himself, this kid at least seems to be jumping straight in to the whole kill-the-water-zombies thing, and honestly he can appreciate that. Hell, he's fallen back into it too, since that's all he's ever really known. Taking on the thing in close-quarters is the sort of thing Shaun's always been taught as suicide, but you work with what you've got.

Shaun? Has his gun, so Carl will find the buddy of the latest revenant he's bashing falling down into a soggy motionless pile. "Hey kid," Shaun begins cheerfully enough because, well, this is normal for him, "Nice tire iron technique. Not your first zombie rodeo?"

Re: revenants

[112ounces]

Carl cannot get over the fact that people call walkers here zombies. It's honestly bullshit, making it sound so . . . juvenile? It definitely sounds like a made-up word.

"Yeah. I killed walkers before." He's not calling them zombies. That's just stupid.

Carl flick his tire iron, some of the gore come flying off. "Where did they come from?" Usually walkers back home come from every direction, straggling to find the latest sound that would attract their attention. But Carl's certain these aren't the walkers from his world. And it's not like this world is overrun with walkers; so they must be coming from somewhere.

[irwins]

That's the colloquial term for them in Shaun's world, though technically they're the dead or the undead or the infected. Shaun doesn't keep track of what the current official scientific term is -- that's George's department, cut and dry facts.

He does take note of walkers, considers asking if these guys are swimmers, but instead opts for less dumb jokes and more serious answer to the question.

"All the ones I've seen so far aren't fresh, definitely not newly amplified, so I don't think it's an outbreak. ...yet. They're all pretty soggy, so I'm guessing the lake. The folks at the museum said something about the lake being a dumping ground for mob hits, which I'd figured was an urban legend." He shrugs with a sheepish sort of grin. "Maybe it was true after all."

[112ounces]

Carl have totally missed that little nugget from the tour. Probably because he wasn't paying any attention, just looking at all the probable faked skulls and skeletons.

"So...not a virus?" Carl hazards a guess. "Like some magic some imPorts can make?"

[irwins]

"Maybe. I haven't seen anyone go from life to undeath yet. This doesn't play like the virus I know, but that doesn't mean it's not a different one. But if we're lucky, yeah, some bullshit magic instead of this world's version of the Rising."

Shaun has never been one to count on luck, so he's still fully intent on not putting it to the test by getting himself bitten.

"Either way, probably best to put these things down for keeps as quickly as possible." Here he full on smiles, even if there are a few shades of bitterness in it. "Just like home. Mind company in hunting the undead?"

[112ounces]

If the situation hasn't been so serious, Carl would have been thrilled of learning someone actually understands what Carl is talking about.

"I don't mind. You don't have any guns on you, by any chance?"

[irwins]

"Just one." He holds up the handgun and half wincing. "Only one extra clip. I wasn't prepared to wind up out in the field. I didn't think there was a field here." But there is. He apparently can't escape it. Since his ammunition is limited, Shaun also snagged a canoe paddle in his travels.

And since it seems like a good idea, he adds, "I'm Shaun."

[112ounces]

"I didn't bring a gun at all," Carl admits. His first Swear-In was a case of being in space, but this time? Total mistake. He'll never go to a Swear-In unarmed ever again. To hell to what people might think of a kid being armed. It's not like he can defend himself with his Porter powers.

In that moment, another revenant comes out of nowhere, shrieking toward them. "Carl," he said, glad to know to of someone who might know what Carl is experiencing. He braces himself

[irwins]

"We'll make do with what we've got." Because hey, that's the only choice available to them. Shaun has been in the habit of going armed at all times, and he gets the sense that's a habit he should continue here -- given that this is his first main shindig since arriving, and it's gone straight to hell.

He hears the revenant about the same time, stepping two quick steps to the right to keep Carl out of his firing line and squeezing the trigger. The shot strikes, but hits too low, center mass instead of the head. "Shit." A second shot rings out and this one strikes true, a clean head shot that drops the revenant.

Of course, the sound has attracted more attention from the thing's pals, if the vaguely splashy movement in the distance is any indication. This doesn't seem to bother Shaun too much at least, since he's not missing a beat in turning in that direction or continuing the conversation, "Good to meet you, Carl. If we both get out of this still among the living, let's compare notes." He gets the feeling the worlds they come from have a thing or two in common, and he's very curious.

[112ounces]

"Yeah. You too." And that was the most Carl can say, because more revenants are rushing toward them. Carl kept his distance a little away from Shaun's firing range.

Carl raises his tire iron, waiting for one to slip past Shaun so Carl can bash its brains in.

revenants

[honeybadgered]

Gabby's been taking out her share of revenants with the weapons attached her to her fists, but she pauses when she sees a kid going to town on one of the revenants. She lets her claws slip back into her hands and claps slowly.

"Wow. Gonna take a long time to kill all of them like that, but pretty impressive still."

Also while she was watching, a revenant has come up behind her. It lunges and bites her arm. She glances down at it looking more annoyed than anything else. "Ugh, come on."

[112ounces]

Carl can only give a puzzled look to Gabby as she claps at him. Maybe he's gone too deep into survivor mode, but the idea of someone just standing there, clapping, while there's a horde rising from the lake's depths just seems ridiculous to him. So much so that he completely missed the revenant coming up behind her and takes a bite out of her arm.

Without even thinking, Carl charges and rise his tire iron and connects it to the revenant's skull. Like its brother before him, it topples over like a tree. Twirling the tire iron so he using the non-curved end, he slams the pointed end into the eye socket. He turns to Gabby as the revenant falls over, truly dead.

"Are you okay?"

[honeybadgered]

"Wow, that was awesome!"

She claps again, not looking especially concerned about the fact that she just got a bite taken out of her. But then again, her arm looks fine. Sure, there's a lot of blood, but no actual injury.

"You're, like, a total hero!"