Seam 2.99: Almost-Home
"Stay a while, you’ve been away for too long, honey. Supper’s almost done…"
ARCHIVAL SYNOPSIS
Seam 2.99’s familiar, and pretty. A really, really pretty trap. At first glance, you may think you’re back home, or someplace docile and stable for once; a safe place. You might see flat suburbs, or pop-out buildings with nice people waving at you. You will see the golden sunlight obscured by things you can’t see, and paved roads always well-kept, holding the smell of barbecue smoke. You will feel relieved. Do not feel relief. That is how the Almost-Home hunts and entraps others.
The Almost-Home is an asymptotic reality, it gets extremely close to being real, but misses the mark by a sliver of a percent. Most commonly, if not semi-permanently, it will look like a sprawling neighborhood frozen forever in a golden hour, its architecture shifting subtly to match whatever is given too much thought in your mind. It’ll try to get you to move in by convincing you that you already have.
Seam Groups
There is only one notable Group in this Seam, and they are deemed fairly dangerous.
- The Nearly-Settled: a group of former Surveyors and Skippers / Dealers of the WSG, along with other non-related wanderers who got lost or decided to stay in the Seam; they gave into the illusion. They live in the houses, and truly believe they made it home, with some telling others that they’re “just about settled in”. The Nearly-Settled can be found within the Cul-de-sacs of Denial. They will try to convince you to stay, getting aggressive about their happiness when questioned. Some might even try to physically drag you and/or your group into a house to “have dinner” with some of the “family” that’s over to visit, subconsciously mimicking the voices of those you personally love to prove their point.
Do not trust them. Not because they’re bad people, but because they cannot help that they won’t be people at all anymore soon; they’re starting to look like the Nighbares.
Seam Items
There’s a few Items we found in this Seam, both found in abundance.
- Welcome Basket (I1-2.99): a wicker basket found on the doorstep of every house in eyesight, but never at any house boarded up, being worked on, dead, out of eyesight, or not occupied. It has some fruit in it that never rots and a card that says “Welcome Home, Lemen” (but for you or anyone reading this, it’ll say your name instead). The card ink’s always fresh, and the fruit rejuvenates you instantly, but makes you seriously sick if you leave the Seam within the same hour.
- Garden Hose (I2-2.99): a green water hose coiled in some yards, but when touched, it springs to “life” and tries to constrict around the nearest limb and shove its upper part down the esophagus of the restrained. Afterwards, it’ll turn itself on and pump what looks like water into the victim, but instead of filling them up, the liquid hollows them out until they wrinkle. Letting this happen for long enough will turn them into another hose.
If you manage to evade the initial constriction, or straighten it back out, it can actually be used as a weapon, as the water output is like a firetruck’s, with far more precise pressure capable of cutting rock. But seriously, do not mess with the hoses unless you have to.
FIELD RECONNAISSANCE
The Land
Y’know those weird parallax drawings that show up in plays and games and such? I think there was one on the Gameboy… What was the game? That thing, if you know what I’m talking about, then great. If you don’t… it’s hard to explain. Like with most flat places, it’s hard to turn your head if you don’t know what to look for. Well, it sort of snaps, your head that is, from left to right, as if there ain’t a “middle” position. While you walk, like I said everything moves like a parallax with some depth.
Everything here looks like a real old, but nice neighborhood. The kind you might see a grandmama and your pops live in in their youth. We saw some cul-de-sacs that loop back into each other in some real weird ways, and the parallax effect or whatever is weird too. I passed the same mailbox six times while walking north. Grass’ all manicured but feels like astroturf-mixed mud. Soil underneath’s just… grey static, like the place’s trying to stitch itself into Baseline.
The Sea
No oceans, but the water table’s odd. Every storm drain and backyard swimming pool is connected. Only the drains and backyard pools, nothing else. Gotta make that clear. Someone might be able to crawl through a drain and end up in a pool, like quick travel. Might be useful. The liquid is clear, smells like chlorine, and is far too viscous. It moves like syrup, just don't drink it like I did. It’ll make you REAL sick every three minutes or so. We left the place and I STILL feel sick.
The Sky & Weather
A perfect, cloudless gradient of orange and purple. It looks painted. There’s no sun, but there IS light. Like an old school lightbox. It was one of the only things that really tipped us off that we weren’t in Baseline but real damn close to it.
Static. No wind. No rain. No nothing. Just that heavy, warm stillness that happens right before a tornado, but the tornado never comes. You get what I’m saying? It’s calm, but too calm, like the entire world’s holding its breath, waiting for something real nasty to pop out. It made me real anxious all the time.
Time doesn't seem to do shit here; it is always late afternoon on a summer Friday. I’m not complaining, it feels nice, but the longer you stay in the light, the warmer you feel. After a few hours I started to call Jax "sweetie", but snapped out of it when we took a breather in the shade. Beware the sky.
Unique Properties
I’m the first to experience it, right? So I get to name it, right? I’m calling it “Memory Molding”. This place reads your mind, but I don’t think it’s actually sentient. Figure of speech, a little: if you think about your childhood bike, you'll find it leaning against a fence. If you think about your mom, you'll hear her voice coming from an open window. But it never changes so much that it breaks the setting.
If you ignore too much of the Memory Molding, your brain will literally start to mold, like it’s punishing you for denying it something it desperately wants.
Guess it’s real worth mentioning this weird ass thing that happens after a few hours, or maybe a few minutes. It was hard to track, but often, everything will just… fold on itself. It’s not dangerous I don’t think, but hell is it disorienting. The entire neighborhood will fold, it’ll be like it just duplicated itself to the other side of you. A mirror effect, so whatever house you were looking at will be behind you, but upside down and inverted (except for the furniture and people).
RISK ASSESSMENT & SUBJECTS
Seam Subjects
The Subjects here could be considered a swarm when hostile, and they can be very hostile.
- Nighbares (Subject 1-2.99): the natural denizens of this fine Seam, they are the apex predators here, as well as one another’s neighbor. We chose this name for them because when provoked, they attempt to strip their victims bare of anything that isn’t like them, from flesh to secrets, and it is nigh-impossible to escape a swarm of them without some serious firepower. Do all you can to ignore the Nighbares, as if you wave back at them, they freeze, and stare at you. If you then approach one, their jaws will unhinge and their skin will peel like an orange to reveal something Abyssal in nature.
May noted that one of them looked like her lost husband. The illusion is strong. Do not let sentimentality get you killed. They aim for the eyes and outer skin first before consuming your face to replace later. After the assault, they will go back to being polite.
- Baring Paperboy (Subject 2-2.99): a small boy on a bicycle that rides down the street at a set interval. He shares an appearance with the Nighbares, and can sometimes be seen off his bike when no Nighbares are nearby waving. He ignores you completely unless you block his path, and I do advise against it unless you enjoy having your eardrums shattered like glass. Buying some of his newspapers will befriend him to you (you specifically, not your group)! Afterwards, he becomes open to trading with you and may even lead you deeper into the Seam.
Update: May took one with us. We changed his clothes to a nice outfit of black and gold so he is easily noticeable (he is considered Subject 2.1-2.99 now). To any that run into him, he is now officially a Dealer. Unsanctioned extraction, but House Voidseed approved it retroactively.
Gateways
I’m a woman of honor, so I will admit that getting stuck in this place was… slightly my fault. If you ask Jax, it was supposed to be “simple shit”, an easy skip from where we were back to Baseline, but I convinced him to use a new skeleton key I made.
It WAS supposed to be simple shit! She used a prototype! The door didn’t open out, it opened INWARD, smacked us in the face, and we woke up on a lawn. Don't let her downplay it.
Speaking of left, we did so by finding a dead home, for lack of better word, after around three days. A house completely empty and worn down as if it were being repaired. We went in, the front door was unlocked, and we returned back to Baseline. However… a small part of me wishes we never found that exit, or at least, I did not open it for them. It was only found after we all stopped wishing we were home.
Dealer Legal Advice
When opening a gateway or providing the means to get to this place, please tell your group or clients to not enter any house, even if the door is open! I’m not sure what happens if you do, but we did see someone enter and never come out, however we could see them through the window.
Acknowledging the Nighbares is another no-no, but feel free to acknowledge the fact that they do not exist, even if we both know they do. Try your best and focus on something unfamiliar, hateful, or distasteful, like a messy breakup… or a lost husband. Anger and resentment keeps things stable. Nostalgia destabilizes everything.
