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

[the_horror]

He settled back in his seat, head tipped a bit to rest more on his shoulder. He looked and felt tired, but still, here he was.

"At least Tahoe is one of the clearest lakes around? Or so I'm told. Should make things easier. Then again easier always ends up messy anyhow." He snorted, rubbing at his jaw and watching her as s he said she could communicate with animals. "Does that include creatures under water? Will they be able to hear you?" And if she's on shore, will she even be in reach?

[by_candlelight]

"It's not technically speech," she says, laughing a little. "It's emotions and stuff. Kinda? I don't know if 'I'm hungry' is an emotion, or 'I have food for you', but I can both send and receive feeling that translate that way." She pulls a bottle of water from her bag and takes a quick sip.

"I have mixed success with creatures that like the water. Most of what I get from fish just doesn't make sense, but with the amphibians I've ran into it does? The amphibians were just much more simple than something like a cat or a dog. The most complex thought they had was 'big' when I put my hand out to hold them."

[the_horror]

"Huh. That's kind of cool." he said as she explained her power to him. His head tilted, and as much as he wanted to smile about it, the smile wasn't coming. Not after that fight with Klaus last night. He was way too tired for that. "I wonder what Tessie is going to sound like to you."

And after a moment he added. "I like that frogs are just kind of simple creatures. Something about that is heart warming."

[by_candlelight]

That comment didn't even have to fight to get a soft smile out of her. "While it's a big change from a lot of other animals, it is really wholesome. Sure they also have the general 'gotta mate, gotta eat, gotta get away from danger' things that most animals do, even if presented in a less complex way. But aside from that they're just out there, living their lives. Doing what frogs do."

She takes a moment to laugh.

"They can get really high strung at times though."

[the_horror]

the smiles just weren't coming. Not like before. But it was fine. "Most humans have those same thoughts. 'Gotta mate, gotta eat, gotta get away from danger'. It's normal, I think, but forgs are pretty cute. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I see one." Simple creatures. He liked frogs.

"Keep with a soothing voice or something. But that's cute."

[by_candlelight]

Ruby was none the wiser to the fact that it was odd for him to not smile. Going to the moon for fun and going to a lake to deal with a lake monster were two different situations, after all. She snickers a little. "I can't read the minds of humans, but you really don't need to when you spent a lot of time surrounded by people going through puberty in a far less graceful way than you were." Says someone who very much looks like she could qualify as pre-pubescent.

"But yeah, frogs seem to react well to soothing, once they realise they aren't in danger. I mean, I had the advantage there, but one of the other kids, they could catch and soothe a frog in the time it took me to convince it I wasn't going to eat it." There's a small smile on her face, though there's a hint of sadness to it.

[the_horror]

It's for the better. It's true, the moon would make anyone smile.

"Honestly, I think the gift is you can't read the minds of humans. That'd get messy." He honestly felt that reading the minds of anyone could get messy, but humans? There are so many complex parts to a human that things can be taken the wrong way far too easy.

"That's an interesting power though. Talking to animals. Or at least understanding them. I bet it comes in handy in jobs like this."

[by_candlelight]

She laughs at the comment about human minds. "Oh you're right about that, but I won't pretend it wouldn't have helped me out a lot back in my world. Though, I wouldn't trade my current ability for it. I like animals, and they're a lot easier to deal with than people are."

She stretches her arms out in front of her, first lacing her fingers with her palms facing each other and then inverting things so that her palms faced out. "It is. And it's a lot more useful than people would think. Animals are perfectly fine with working as lookout for me. Almost any animal that's social will be fine with helping anything they can understand as much or more than their own. Even asocial animals will help if you bribe them with food."

[the_horror]

"It might have helped, it might not have. I hear reading others thoughts can be a double edged sword sorta deal. if it was me, I'd want to pass on it." he said with a faint nod.

He leaned back in his own seat, head tilted, watching her as she stretched and talked. "So do they understand you as well? Like, you can talk to them and they get what you're saying? Because that would be mighty handy, yeah."

He'd like to know what his cat Star was thinking once in a while. Then again, maybe not.

[by_candlelight]

"That's true. And it wouldn't have done anything for my paranoia when I was even younger." She gives a small laugh, thinking about how jumpy she'd been around those of her father's men who hadn't been explicitly left in charge of her, and how much worse it would have been if she'd had more than mere reason to believe they wanted to hurt her.

"They do. It's a two way thing. There's kind of a limit to how complicated you can get, and it varies based on both species, and each individual of that species. While in general, crows are amazing and smart, you occasionally get really stupid crows once in a while." There's a long sigh. "Okay, buddy, sure you can take on that bear. Suuuure. And then, Bam! The bear swipes and it's dumb luck the crow survives, and the next thing you know you're spending the rest of the summer with a healing bird on your shoulder while you train a bunch of other children how to do an obstacle course properly."

For what it was worth, she absolutely enjoyed having the crow on her shoulder, making her look more intimidating, and maybe a little mystical. It definitely made the newer kids look at her with expressions of awe.

[the_horror]

"See? I think that'd be a terrible power. Reading the minds of humans. My brother recently learned he can do it and if he wasn't already messed up with his powers, now he's really going through hell." Reading the minds of humans is the worst idea.

"But, see... talking to animals, that sounds nice. At least the way you describe it seems reasonable. Even the dumb crows." He chuckled at that. She did paint a lovely picture though. "Must have been fun though, to have a shoulder crow as almost a pet for a while."

[by_candlelight]

Ruby nods at his comment about his brother. "The powers can be difficult to handle. I mean, I don't even have powers, I'm just observant and eventually memorise how people respond to things, and the conclusions I came to with that... Well, if I had the things beamed into my head, maybe it would be maddening on its own. But with a power that already had me stressed? That would break something."

She takes another sip of her water. "Honestly? I think something would be missing if I lost the power to talk to animals. Sometimes it can be scary - there's a difference between feeling that something wants to hurt you and knowing that it wants to hurt you - but for the most part it's pleasant. It's a lot easier than communicating with humans, as long as you don't get frustrated too easily that you can't explain super complex ideas to them. And," she pauses and grins at him, "the shoulder crow made me look totally badass. Some of the newer kids, and kids that showed up that summer, well they thought I was awesome for that, as well as for my helping to train them."

It was a warm memory, even if the situation had been terrible. It was memories like that which occasionally made her question if the cult had really been all that bad, before she remembered the rest of it. But even still, she could look back and remember how pleased she was.