Earworm

Earworm

Background

In 1992, two aging flamenco singers in Spain who called themselves “Los Del Rio” wrote a horny song about a Brazilian dancer named Magdelena whom they tried to woo. Oblivious to the monster they had unleashed upon the world, they moved on. In February of 1996, after it had simmered through all of Latin America and hit the Tejano clubs of the US-Mexico border region, WKTU in New York added a remix of a cover of that original song, now titled "The Macarena", to its morning mix. Its spread was likened to a pandemic by everyone from Billboard to Oprah.

At scenario start, the Macarena has hit number 1 on the top 40, and is playing everywhere. In New York City, the threat has materialized. It is August 2nd, 1996, and the world slips onto darkness. The masses that push it to its oblivion with their stiff limbed writhing take no notice. Against such madness, L-Cell has been tasked with investigating the potential end of the world.

Briefing

L-Cell is called in by a friendly Medical Examiner, Doctor Richard Mullen, who works in the New York City Morgue. 2 days ago, a body came in from a car wreck that appeared to be suffering from extreme Frontal Lobe Dementia (FTD). The problem is he was 31 and had passed a medical exam for a cab license 4 days prior. Now 2 young clubbers were found unconscious with symptoms of FTD in an alley outside Club USA in Times Square. The friendly is keeping a lid on the discoveries so far but can't keep it under wraps long.

Club USA opens at 8pm and closes at 4am. The Clubbers were found by NYPD at 6:30am, and are confirmed to be dead by 8am. Your case officer has little more than this given the speed at which this is developing, and advises you to contact the friendly.

Handler Info

Miguel "Mr. Midnite" Torres is a cultist of "Standin" who has slipped an audible ritual into his DJ mix to increase the popularity of his music. It will catch the attention of the cult's preferred entity as more people tune in and join the ritual. He played 2 nights for Club USA before the PCs are activated, and made 3 tapes for friends, including the dead cabbie. The cabbie's tape is in his cab which is out of service from the collision. The company wants it fixed and back on the road ASAP, where the tape may again inadvertently infect the populace.

Miguel is in his apartment, dead from listening to his own tainted tracks during mixing and as Club USA DJ. The apartment has leads to the other two friends. Miguel will be found in 4-5 days when the smell starts if the PCs don’t find him first.

Friend 2 works for Yankee Stadium and will use the tape for the Macarena World Record attempt on 08/16/96, when 50 thousand fans will do the Macarena in sync. He has not listened enough to show signs yet, that will change as the scenario progresses. This record attempt is the ticking clock for the scenario.

Friend 3 is a busker doing a street performance to the Macarena, and is spreading the threat actively at start. He will be hospitalized or dead within 1 week from hearing the song repeatedly in his performance. If not stopped within 3 days he begins leading flash mobs of Macarena dancers which grow in size exponentially.

One clubber is a Jane Doe with a fake ID. Eventually she is identified as a college kid by NYPD. Other is a high school friend. Investigation reveals both were partying before classes resume, and were at Club USA both nights Miguel had his set.

Security footage shows both girls were there open to close both nights. They compulsively join in every time the Macarena is played the second night. By nights end they are uncoordinated and barely make it out of the club.

Club USA is a former theatre, with many employees. It is dark and pulses with sound, porn booths are tucked into dark corners and there is a slide from the 3rd story bar to the ground floor which drunks regularly spill out of. It is always packed with a line around the block. The day manager is stressed from so many employees calling in or no-showing including the DJ.

Other clubbers or staff from those nights will be affected to different degrees depending on how long they stayed or whether they worked both nights. It is a race between the dementia and the choreomania for which takes hold first, too many listens too quickly will make the dementia dominant.

The Threat

"Standin" is a noncorporeal entity trying to enter this reality, which must be accomplished by large numbers of worshippers moving to the ritual at once. Its entry has been stymied by the discordant nature of our world. Radio/TV broadcast delays, the Walkman and portable disc players, all make the music discordant even if the music spreads to enough people, because the tainted minds are not “one” until synchronized enough.

The ritual is itself a series of notes, outside the range of human notice but not the physical limits of human hearing. Children may hear some notes but adults cannot. It is the same ritual which caused the Dancing Plagues though information on those events is scant and filtered through the biases and assumptions of Saxon monk historiographers.

Humans hearing the music "sing" along in their mind, whether they mean to or not, and join the "chorus". Listening too many times will put its hooks in a person and cause SAN loss. Continued listening will drag them in until they display choreomania. Those afflicted, when examined, will show symptoms of early onset FTD as the dancer's mind is consumed by the entity. A SAN break will cause PCs, as a 4th option to the regular fight-flight-or-freeze, to dance.

Multiple PCs or NPCs afflicted in close proximity may hum the Macarena together absent-mindedly or show other signs of the unconscious drive toward synchronicity.

A disorder from SAN loss will cause PCs/NPCs to hum without break, find themselves unable to stop/focus on anything other than the music running through their heads. They will get anxious if the song isn't playing. Non-tainted versions of the song will sound off and will not soothe the same way the tainted version will. Dancing may follow as SAN loss grows. The dance itself is not required for the ritual, but the ritual compels people to dance in a spasmodic fashion and synchronized choreography amplifies the effect. The closer to perfectly in sync, the more powerful. Handlers should track how many times PCs/NPCs hear the tainted song.

As PCs approach 08/16/96, news stories and other environmental cues for the record attempt at Yankee Stadium should be prominent. Players will find the link to the Sound guy in Miguel's apartment. The busker and Cabbie tapes lead to Miguel.

In the lead up to that date, PCs notice more people dancing, their dances are slowly moving toward synchronicity. It happens in small groups and slowly larger groups coalesce until they might find spontaneous flash mobs doing the Macarena. NYPD arrests will climb, and they become overwhelmed with mass demonstrations of dancers they can’t control. The first such mob may be an "outlaw party" at a quiet, late-night dining room in a midtown McDonalds, in classic 90s New York fashion. This mass of humanity has coalesced around the busker and his mixtape if PCs have not located him.

Notes

• This is a contagion. PC goals should be:
  • • A. figure out the threat and how it works
    • B. stop the spread of the threat
    • C. keep the music from coming into synchronicity.
• Choreomania is another potential clue into what is going on, especially for historian or occult scholar PCs. Plenty has been written on the “dancing plagues” of Medieval Europe.
• Miguel is center of it all - tie leads back to him and him to the world record attempt.
• Busker and Yankee Stadium sound guy are active threats, first will be more active than the second. Cabbie tape may come back into play if not caught.
• this is the 90s, things take time to research, to sort through. Use that added time pressure to add tension.
• Point out odd synchronicities. Two people on opposite sides of the street performing the same motion in sync without looking. Drive that home as a component of what's going on.
• Replacing tainted copies of the song or tapes with clean dupes prevents synchronicity/spread - those afflicted may burn out or lie dormant as the Handler desires.
• lean into the medical side of FTD and show different stages progressing into each other. Look up symptoms. Be heavy handed, making it clear the ones who spent less time listening to the tainted song are in better shape right now.

Thanks to William Roy, Viking Walrus, JaketheWarlord, Soviet_D_Turtle, PHW, Mykel19XX and Aloewishious for playtesting/editing/soundboarding.

Credits

Earworm was written by The Deputy for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nHH7YzHsfrM47ZK-9Q7hpQgzs0dnz_yBSp4LTrE0aoM/edit