Realistic or Modern Suburban Jungle

[Squad141]

If you're driving on the main highway in the forested plains that make up the heart of Indiana, you'll come across some odd sights. You might come across hedge mazes, or old ruins, hot spring motels.
Or you might turn onto the biggest road in the small town of Crewdson, Indiana. You won't stay long, of course. You have places to be, and besides some local eateries and small-time entertainment, what else was there to be done?

______________________________________________________________________​

It's a surprisingly nice summer late afternoon and evening. By nice, that means the wind is blowing, but the heat hasn't subsided to the ranges of an early autumn or late spring. The night sky has shrouded the skies above as the sun has nearly set, and most of the traffic from the busy hours has disappeared. People are visiting the local diners and pizza parlors, ShowBizz is starting its last party of the day, a few middle-aged moms and dads leave the grocery store, and another summer gathering happens in another suburb somewhere else. Crewdson, like on any other summer evening, buzzes with its quiet nightlife away from the streets of the offices and stores.

Somewhere in the Henderson Woods, past a nondescript patch of trees and a grove of twin lakes, a building sits like a waiting lion beneath the shade of the canopy. Occasionally, lights flash. Noises occur. A voice may even be heard. But the grove and building share but one characteristic of the evening: something is coming.

______________________________________________________________________​

Five teenagers live in Crewdson, Indiana. Despite the strange lights and ominous flashes, this story is not about whatever is happening inside of that building. This story is about those five teenagers, and what they experienced in the summer of '89. Something they would never quite forget...

 

[GamerKitty205]

> Minutes in the past, but not many

A young man stands in his attic room. Today marks a week since the start of SUMMER BREAK, a most momentous occasion for every teen trapped in the clutches of the PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. However, this particular student has yet to truly capitalize on his new wealth of freetime. Well, other than re-playing HARLEQUIN^2.

> Nerd: Introduce Yourself

This youth would be more than happy to introduce himself, or even let you be him... Provided you can figure out his name. Which should be a simple manner, as it is written on the front of the teen’s notebook.

> Inspect Notebook

Correction, it would be a simple manner if not for the boy’s habit of writing almost everything in some kind of code. On the cover of the small notebook is a string of numbers that can barely be considered a name. “Eagnmjr Hjrvpzr” is written on the notebook in neat script.

> Decode

Vztmnqi Sqiekai

Okay, that is even less of a name than it was previously. Try again.

> Ezekiel Abilene

Correct!

==>

You are Ezekiel Abilene, but almost everyone you know calls you Ezi.

While you are a fairly knowledgeable person, befitting your reputation as a nerd, you do have a few areas of expertise. One of these, as shown earlier, is CRYPTOGRAPHY, the study of codes and ciphers. This has led to your aforementioned habit of writing in code and a skill at MORSE CODE that surpasses that of anyone else in town! Not that there are many other morse code fanatics in town... You’ve also taken a liking to CONSPIRACY THEORIES, mostly due to the sheer amount of them you’ve been exposed to by your aunt, DOC. Do you believe a single one of them? Hell no! But some of them are so wild, it’s just so fun to examine them and the people who believe in them. For example, your favorite is the FLAT EARTH conspiracy. Fairly harmless, and just buckwild! When a spherical earth is being considered less reasonable than a giant unseeable ice wall, you know you’re in for some ridiculous stuff!

You also spend a decent time playing around with ^CAKE, Skaianet’s open source coding software. You’d call yourself pretty good at it, though you haven’t done an awful lot. Your current project is coding a program that can do frequency analysis on encrypted messages, but you have a long way to go before that’s finished. You’re also something of a GAMER and have been spending a decent amount of your summer break playing HARLEQUIN^2 and analyzing it for differences between it and the original. The little things, obviously! Any real Harlequin fan would be able to notice the variety of added features and plotlines.

But that’s enough about you! Time to do something interesting.

> Leave Room

You will in a second, but it’s probably best you first check the various STICKY NOTES posted on your door. You often lose track of important things, so you make it a habit to leave around little reminders for yourself! It’s also an excellent excuse to practice your secret codes!
​

Spoiler: Sticky Note Log

Almost the anniversary of turtle’s flight! Watch out, Hawk’s going to be crazy

Passerine is back!! Don’t forget
They brought -- ..- ..-. ..-. .. -. ...

Damnit, if you leave you’re going to have to go out the window. You suppose you could try and ask your sister, but you’d rather not subject Em to that. If Doc’s bad normally, she’s horrible around this time of year. Which unfortunately means you won’t be eating those muffins anytime soon, you don’t feel like sneaking down there today. You look and see a third sticky note, one you managed to dismiss despite the bright red marker it was written in.

Huh... it says, “Zone Marco, brunch” and has today’s date and a time a bit less than half an hour from now. That’s a bit late for bru—

==>

Fuck! You totally forgot you were supposed to be meeting up with your friends right now! Or, not right now. In a couple of minutes! You grab your backpack, tossing in a folder and a set of dice before rushing over to the attic window.

> Descend

You climb out onto the roof and scramble over to the large tree growing near your house. While you would not consider yourself athletic by any metric, you’ve been scaling this tree for years. It’s a simple feat. You land on the ground and run over to your bike. You hope you’re not late.

> In the Present

The door flies open as you enter the diner. You apologize to the patron closest to the door and hurry over to where a couple of your friends are assembled. Your arrival could be considered ‘fashionably late’ but honestly you aren’t sure fashionable is an adjective to attribute to you in any circumstances. You slide onto a seat, waving at your friends.
​

Spoiler: Dialogue

EZI: Sorry! I totally forgot we were meeting up today...
EZI: Hope I didn’t hold you guys up or anything!

 

[Orikanyo]

>Be the dude

You are now the dude, broski.

A dude who was slumped in a comfortable diner chair at the head of a rectangular booth, well, kinda, you had a corner booth that practically nobody used due to the darker lighting and really you liked it that way. You were a regular here, and the folks here knew you guys were good for your business... Not to mention the crap tons of milkshakes you emptied out yourself...

So really who were you?

....

........

Oh yea intros dude.

You are Willbart Eggsly.

....

And...?

Oh shoot, uh, people usually called you Will, but jerks usually call you Egghead.

....

.........

Anything else?

....

Your a forever gm?

Good enough.

> React to Ezi's appearance.

In your slumped state, in a chair dragged over so your friends can graciously take the booth seats, you give Ezi one of the laguid nods.

​

Will: Nah bro just chillin.
Will: Like a villain.
Will: Heh.

​

>Do the GM thing

You let your foreboding laugh linger abit, giving them all that knowingly evil look you've mastered over the year...s? Who knows, but you know when they see it their in trouble, likely often before they pull a dumb move and you get free reign to maim them.

You didn't need to worry about that with your unlucky friend, she had that happen herself often enough.

You had your beanie off, tevealing a smattering of blond locks, with one that stuck up like a true rebel, without a cause or reason naturally.

You wait paitently for the others... Someone may be curious about your intro post structure, but if they wanted to know about you.

They should read your character sheet.

>​

 

[SpectrumCrow]

> Be anxious

What sort of prompt is that? There's lots of anxious people in the world. Fortunately, there's a very specific girl in Crewdson who is, in fact, anxious.

> Be her

You are now the young girl.

Your name is April Mallory and you are running just a tad late. Not by much, thankfully. You've learned to take small victories as they come.

You've gotten used to walking to the diner you go to with your friends, but it still takes time. And what are you gonna do? Ride your bike over? Hah. Funny.

It's not that you don't own one or don't know how to ride it, but that you're more concerned for the safety of you and those around you.

For as long as you can remember, luck has never been on your side. You would describe your day to day life as a series of unfortunate events, and it doesn’t just affect you. Sometimes your bad luck spreads or affects things around you.

But enough about that, you’re heading to the diner to hang out with your friends! No time to focus on that! You’re determined to have fun tonight.

Unbeknownst to you, the patrons of the diner can hear a glass drop in the back just before you enter. Gently pushing the doors open, your eyes scan the room for the group. It takes you a moment, expecting more to have arrived, but luckily it seems you aren't the only one running behind.

You jog over to Eziekiel and Willbart, slipping your backpack from your shoulders to set on a seat. You offer quiet apologies to both of them before taking a seat. Grabbing a notebook from your backpack, you flip through the pages searching for the sheets you made. No, not here… not here…

This may take a while.

Why don’t we check in with someone else?​

 

[Eidolon Astronaut]

> Be kind, rewind.

You are now approximately 45 MINUTES into the past, across town, and also a different person entirely.

> Introduce yourself.

As your NOTICE OF TERMINATION from last year that you use as bedding for your pet would say: you are named Julietta Castro, though the few people who know you call you JULES. You are standing in the middle of your room getting READY.

Today is the first inaugural session of the new campaign, or rather just the setup to introduce your characters. This is the first time you've been able to be a PLAYER in a very long time, since your friend Will offered to temporarily ease you of the pain of being the FOREVER DM. If you were some kind of meta nerd or omniscient observer, you'd make a joke about how that is exactly what is happening RIGHT NOW. But you aren't, so you won't.

You're meeting at Mel's soon, and you have to arrive earlier than most because you are the one who actually OWNS the game supplies. You've already handed some of them over to Will, including the DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE and MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM, but you've got other stuff to bring.

You turn to your desk, atop which lies a cardboard box, and a large CAGE. Inside is the best character in this story, your closest companion: GEDDY; The king among rats and a true champion of friendship, Geddy is best boy. You place a BABY CARROT inside his cage and grab the cardboard box loosely filled with your DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS supplies before heading out the door.

===>

You walk through the quiet trailer with ease. Your dad is working today so there isn't any potential to be hassled for any silly old parental reason. Once outside, you load the box into the front basket of your BICYCLE. When you got it as a child, it was bright pink with streamers, but you think the modifications you made greatly improve it. Black with blue flames? Hell yes. You even have a playing card in the spokes to make it sound like a real motorcycle. Yeah, you're cool alright.

You begin the long ride to MEL'S DINER.

> Fast forward.

Having already arrived a while ago, you return from the bathroom and see that Ezi and April are here now too. You hop back into the booth and retrieve the box of D&D SUPPLIES from under the seat, putting it on the table. It contains mostly EXTRA BLANK CHARACTER SHEETS and PENCILS, just in case anybody forgot anything, along with the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK and some DICE.
​

Spoiler: Show Dialogue

JULES: hey ezi
JULES: hey april

And then there was one...

> Be the last one.​

 

[SerbianMounted]

> Be the last one

You are now the last one in the queue. This occasions is so momentous it deserves a shift in narrative perspective.

A cane tapped gently against the asphalt ground outside of Mel's. Each step was a hard won shuffle of legs and cane as a young woman made her way through the parked cars and loitering customers to the diner. Her right leg pointed notably askew from her left, and slung over her shoulder was a satchel filled with her own contributions to the first session of a new campaign. Despite their meeting place being a diner, Zora felt it only necessary she give what she could to make a good first impression. And thus a tin filled with chocolate chip cookies and a separate tin filled with cinnamon coated snickerdoodles clinked with each side-shuffling step inside her bag. The sound was muffled however as some dense fabric separated the tins from each other, nestled inside of which was a drawstring burgundy red dice bag. It was to be her trump card for her first good impression at the table.

Her expression was a muted one, her eyes half hooded and her face in a state of perpetual disinterest and neutrality. She seemed deeply drawn to her own thoughts and inner monologue. And her expression drew a fine line between herself and the people around her.

She opened to door to a low din of conversation from various booths and tables, and turned her attention to the booth at the far end of the restaurant where sat the other members of her party. She turned her eyes, and gave a nod to each before she shuffled over. She rested her cane against the end of the booth, and placed the cookie tins on the table before the rest. She greeted no one in particular, but made a point not to look at Jules. Her mood suddenly brightened, and she seemed far more personable and excited than she had mere moments before, like a curtain was lifting.

ZORA: Hello everyone!
ZORA: I'm so pleased we all found the time to get together today, sorry for the lateness but the limp seems to never fail in adding a good fifteen minutes to my walk.
ZORA: But, c'est la vie! Are we ready to get started?​

 

[Squad141]

An Observer.
A Dreamer.
A Jinxed.
A Musician.
A Rebel.

These are the centerpieces of our story.
Perhaps you are confused. Perhaps you are screaming to return to the intrigue of the scenes earlier, that these five teenagers don't matter. Perhaps you believe that if anything strange did occur, these five teenagers would be none the wiser, and might even mess things up for the real main characters.

Perhaps you are correct.

But even if things are to go south, even if someone in Crewdson, Indiana has a cooler introduction, or more interesting adventure, these five teenagers experienced the strangest things that they would claim to have ever encountered. These five teenagers would make an impact Crewdson would never forget.

And it would all start at Mel's Diner. As the five settled, as the five mingled, as the five jostled with eachother as friends, an event occured thousands of miles above them.

If NASA were working in the deep midwest, they would tell you that an anomaly of space-time had occurred. That something had appeared from nothing.
But NASA is in Washington.

And a spray of shooting stars began falling over Crewdson.

 

[Orikanyo]

>Be with the group

> Be will


The stars... This had meaning, possibly, many things one would learn in time, but yet, not in this present. Perhaps a momentus occasion was coming by...

Perhaps something was happening.

For now, you had a game to dm...

But it wasn't... Everyday you got a Star shower on the session zero to free your forever dm from their cage.

No... Best you make a note of it.

You hold up a hand, and point to the stars.

You quickly grab a piece of paper and rip it into pieces, you hand them out.

"Come on, lets go outside. Take a pencil and wish something on the paper, any wish just gotta make the most of this dudes."

You almost sounded as if you were in a rush, mixed with a degree of mysterious mysticality... Punctuated with a skaterbro attitude by the end. But you stand up from your chair with suprising swiftness from your usual languidity, you motion to the others to follow.

"Fucken stars bro, get those wishes and shit.

I'll grant your wish if its game related just don't wish for levels thats baby shit. Stay in character if yea want."​

 

[SpectrumCrow]

> Be April

It takes you a moment to register what Will says to the group, taking the paper scrap from him before you realize what he said. Looking down at the empty space, you wonder what you could wish for that wouldn't be a monkey's paw type of wish.

You think for a moment, staring blankly as you run through a few ideas. However, you quickly realize you're overthinking it. You should wish for something simple.

Carefully writing it down, hiding it so the others can't see, you fold the paper and hold it in your hands. Then, you stand to follow Will outside.

The stars were breathtaking, each one more beautiful than the last as they all danced to a rhythm only the heavens would know. Holding the paper scrap in both hands, fingers laced together, you close your eyes and repeat your wish in your mind.

"I wish to always be with my friends"

 

[GamerKitty205]

> Ezi: Look

You look at the window and out to the brilliant display it’s showing. You turn away, back to the game, but it seems your friends have different ideas. You grab a piece of paper and follow Will and April outside.

The shower is pretty, but it’s a natural phenomena. Nothing more than a spectacle, and certainly no real magic. Your brain summons up a myriad of outlandish stories and theories about comets and shooting stars but you push them all away.

“Can I wish for a vorpal sword?”

You punctuate your words with a laugh and a shake of your head. It wasn’t levels, but it was definitely too strong to just be given to the party.

You look down at the piece of paper in your hand. Should you wish for something? Of course it doesn’t mean anything, but you don’t have a reason not to. Maybe for this to be the perfect summer? Nah, that just means if anything goes wrong you’ll feel like you jinxed it.

> Wish

You decide to stop overthinking it. You pull a pen out of your coat, and with a careful series of flicks you write out your wish. In morse code of course. Everyone does say sharing your wish ruins your chances of coming true.

I want this summer to be fun and peaceful.

You look down at the piece of paper, and crumple it in your hands. That’s not too unreasonable. Right? Just a nice fun summer with your friends with not too much trouble. It’s all you could ask for.​

 

[Eidolon Astronaut]

> Jules: Follow suit.

Even at the pre-game stage you are way more invested in the game at hand, but as your party diverts their attention to the admittedly cool sky show going on outside, you decide to follow along.

You grab the piece of paper and think for a good long while. You don't really have any wishes, none you can think of off the top of your head at least. What *did* you want?

You put pencil to paper for a convincing amount of time and then pocket the BLANK PAGE. You'll fill it out later when you can think of something. That's how wishes work, right?

You join your friends in watching the spectacle above.
​

Spoiler: Show Dialoguelog

JULES: can i also wish for ezi to have a vorpal sword
JULES: its important to his backstory

You do a comedy, like humans do.​

 

[Squad141]

In the barrage of wishing stones, far above, in the black pocket of space that the shooting stars are being ejected from, something else emerges. Something that only those equipped with certain equipment could view, something that those same people were prepared.

A shooting star much larger than the rest. If one were to wish upon it, they may get what they wished and more. Of course, this shooting star fails to make it into the sights of Crewdson. It falls further behind into the woods, hidden by the other stars and the trees of the Henderson Woods. As it arcs towards the ground, a large hole appears in the ground.

The shooting star reaches it's unlikely destination.

The power goes out in Crewdson.

 

[GamerKitty205]

> Be Ezi

Before you can reply to Jules’ comment, the diner’s light flickers for a moment before shutting off completely.

Damn, there goes your night. You peer into the distance and you think the whole town’s lost power. The only lights you can spy are headlights in the distance. Huh, between this and the meteor shower it’s almost like the world doesn’t want y’all to play.

> Retrieve Light Source

You rummage around in the pockets of your long coat. You pull out a pencil almost sharpened down to the metal bit, a small magnifying glass, some spare change... Okay, you keep rummaging and retrieving but you don’t seem to have a flashlight buried in your coat.

You find a mostly empty lighter, but in lieu of any candles to light that won’t really help. Then again the candles probably wouldn’t help much either. There's a reason lightbulbs were invented.

> Turn to Your Friends

You stuff the random trinkets back in your coat and decide to look to your friends for answers.

“So what’s the plan now? Playing by starlight sounds atmospheric, but I don’t need to strain my eyes anymore than I already have.”​