recolle | JANUARY EVENT LOG

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JANUARY EVENT LOG

EVENT

Auld Lang Syne
The city of Recollé...it's a new year and new changes are around the corner. Are you ready?

I.

The nights are long and cold during the winter months. Residents of the city will notice that the sun sets on January 2nd at its usual time of around 5:30pm as the street lights flicker on. Neon signs illuminate the busiest areas of the city and the evening continues on as usual.

The next morning, however, is a little different. The city is quiet and still, the street lamps dying down around 7am and the sounds of morning traffic filtering in from off the streets. But the sun isn't out. The sun appears to be gone and there's no natural light source visible in the city. Those brave enough to venture outside with a flashlight or other light source will only have to glance at the sky to see a large opaque dome enveloping the entire city, faintly reflective in appearance but blocking the outside world. It still feels warm enough outside. It isn't hard to breathe, and the flora and fauna seem to be responding just as naturally as always. But the city of Recollé is pitch black except for the light citizens shine themselves.

The dome stretches incredibly high over the city, but anyone who can get close enough to it via ground or air will find that they can briefly see themselves in the surface. Upon touching the dome it appears to be smooth and almost rubbery in texture despite a shell-like shield appearance. Soundproof and unable to provide clues to what's happening outside of the city the dome is also harmless for those who wish to touch it and examine it, causing it to bounce a few times under light impact. However, do be careful not to trigger its defense mode! Should anyone attempt to damage the dome itself, it will light up with a bright, sickening blue color for three seconds before delivering a shock to its attacker and rendering them unconscious for an hour. Perhaps you'll get lucky and you'll only deal with the too-hot-to-touch surface that self-activates when the dome is threatened, or the spikes that appear at the source of impact. The dome seems to have a temperament of its own. It may be best to treat it the way you want to be treated.

II.

While NPCs comment on the eclipse-like weather, they seem to be going about their usual business and expect the rest of the city to follow along. Classes for the Recollé school district begin on January 8th and employees across the city's businesses are expected to be at work on time and work through these conditions.

On the other hand, there are some workers who seem to have completed their job and have abandoned their worksite for the time being. Some citizens may remember that the old subway system has been under construction for nearly a year now. Others may remember exploring the tunnels that run below and some may even remember certain facilities underground. With the darkness shrouding the city it's easier than ever for anyone to slip into the tunnels...especially given the soft yellow light that seems to illuminate the entrance leading from the city to the rails underneath.

For those up for a little adventure, or just curious to follow the light (or hell, maybe you ended up down here on accident), the light will guide you for roughly twenty-five feet before it dies down again. You're allowed to turn back, of course. There's nothing stopping you. But as explorers venture further into the tunnels they'll hear the echos of a bustling transportation hub and the sound of subway cars moving along tracks a few tunnels over.

Though the tunnels may be dark and empty, this doesn't mean they're without danger. Similar to another tunnel previously discovered, vines and roots will come to life out of the walls to stop travelers. The red glowing eyes follow, but this time they're accompanied by the forms of large rat-like creatures that rush forward to delay travelers further. Bats echo in the caves even if they can't be seen and while the tracks closest to the city appear battered and broken, they remain whole and stable the further you walk into the dark.

Some citizens may have old blueprints or maps to guide them, but they'll find that after a certain point even these won't help as the rail lines lead off the originally discovered paths. It'll take a good sense of navigation or sheer dumb luck to find your way...but where are you going? Is it worth the journey?

III.
Lucky for you, there are plenty of stops along the way. Or, at least, there are plenty of things to explore down below for anyone brave enough to excursion and get past the defeatable plants and rats. At varying points the main path of the tunnel splits off into other rails and destinations making it difficult to map out exactly where these things are going and where they'll spit you out. On occasion, however, you will find yourself facing an abandoned subway car. The lights of the car and the surrounding area are a washed out yellow glow, eerie in appearance and yet enticing all the same.

For explorers who would begin comparing notes, they will come to find there five cars in total, though some seem to be moving on their own. One car appears to be an abandoned passenger car scattered with the remains of life lost. The luggage of vacationers can be opened and ransacked for clues but the newspapers, clothing and items appear to be personal in nature, dating back at least fifty years ago and mirroring the world news and trends from that time period.

A second car is a sleeper car featuring rows of beds and musty sheets, also scattered with the belongings of people who no longer exist.

A third car appears to be a little more useful. With a full kitchen in the back this dining car has everything you need to dine in luxury...sort of. Some covered platters of spoiled food sit out on tables, but some digging around will reveal food and drinks from the modern era including from new establishments such as Big Bang Burger and Freshens brands. These are safe to eat if you're desperate, but they may come with side effects including dizziness, temporary loss of taste, temporary loss of sight, and sudden transparency. The effects will only last for an hour and will even be in effect if the food is removed from the car itself.

If entertainment is more your speed, you may wish to try and find the fourth car filled with old instruments, records, audio equipment, and a strange silver screen at the front of the interior. Stay on the car long enough and the doors will suddenly slam shut, a song playing on the speakers overhead in a crackled, muffled tune. The car begins to move along the tracks and you (and whoever you're with) are along for the ride. When the song ends, the screen may be of interest to you. It flickers to life even without being plugged into anything and a scene begins to play out. ...what is this? It looks like something you've seen before. One of your already regained memories is on display for the entire car to see, and despite being with few other people you may hear the reactions of unseen company. There are the sounds of laughter echoing through the car if the memory is particularly funny, or the sounds of sniffles and sobs if it's a real tearjerker. How are you going to explain that one to your companion?

Oh well. Maybe you won't have to. Maybe you took another route and came face to face with the last car down below. Unlike the other four cars, this one is completely empty. It's a skeleton of a car, lights blinking and broken and the interior ripped to shreds. You can get closer to examine it if you wish! There's nothing to be found inside. But this particular car doesn't like to be touched; the moment anyone lays a hand on it, the engine whirrs to life and the lights focus, headlights narrowing like eyes as the train begins to move right toward you, two metal appendage-like features springing out from the sides acting as its arms. The arms will make an attempt to grab anyone close by, but even if you dodge the train will prepare itself for combat.

You can try to fight the car if you think you can! It can be taken out with enough damage so long as you can get enough hits in before the train charges again. But you may be better off trying to outrun it and disappearing into another tunnel even as it gives chase and follows for a while.

IV.
It's been a long arduous journey for most of you who have ventured this far. You've fought some things, faced some others, and maybe even made some friends along the way. Fear not. The reward may be worth it if you consider a source of light a reward. No matter which tunnel you find yourself stumbling out of or which car you're on they all meet in the center at a grand central hub. The lights are bright down here and though there are no signs of other people there's plenty to look at.

Moving past the trains and the tunnels reveals the beginnings of an underground shopping mall with pop-up shops, vending machines and other fancy kiosks. Some shops appear to be older than others with clothes, toys and goods dating from the 50s all the way through the 80s and 90s. Modern shops appear to be on the rise, too, and you may even find items from Tanaka's Shopping Channel or the Moogle Shop down here with a little looking.

Most importantly, however, there's a shop at the very end of the mall with a blue hue surrounding it and the Retrospec symbol stamped on the sign above the door. The inside gives the appearance of a travel agency or a real estate office stocked with blueprints upon blueprints of the current buildings in Recollé. There are miniature travel guides as well, though some are more faded than others. "Welcome to Rapture", "Welcome to Tokyo", "Welcome to Gaia", "Welcome to New York", "Welcome to Egypt", the list goes on and on. Some of the guides are blank, but those who have regained several of their memories will find that their home guides will have information that corresponds with their memories and nothing more, landmarks they may find familiar and other facts they know to be true. There will be no new information found in these guides that travelers do not already have.

Lastly, there's a large book on the table: "Welcome to Recollé." Flipping through this book details the history of the city and the story of how the four founders traveled far to settle on Earth to create this city decades ago. The city was originally to be a safe haven, a central hub much like this subway station, until the Retrospec project could reform everything. However, the city became a home to the founders, the founding families, and others that were rescued throughout the galaxy who'd lost their planets. The book goes on to explain how Retrospec created their original headquarters in a bunker in the woods hidden from prying eyes so they could do their job with utmost secrecy. Retrospec was never to be looked into by ordinary people and the original company had less than 10 employees working for it.

This subway station, it says, used to be the way that travelers from other worlds would arrive to the city of Recollé and a way that they could leave to explore other parts of the planet at their leisure until the system was shut down sometime in the 1970s due to the collapsing of several tunnels.

There are several pages at the end of the book, too, but the text is illegible. Instead, in bold letters written in sharpie are the words "LET'S REWRITE HISTORY" and dated 2007.

The guides can be taken out of the office, but the book is bolted down to the table. Photos can be taken of the information though.

At the end of the day, 6pm sharp, a loud electronic recording will echo through the mall: the last train is now boarding. Please make your way to the station to return to the city of Recollé. Returning to the station at 6pm (and only at 6pm), you'll find a brand new subway car fitted with modern accommodations and fixtures. The train will depart at 6:30pm and return all travelers to the start by 7pm. When the last passenger is off of the train, it will begin to move backwards and take off to return to its start point.

Weird.

BONUS.
Meanwhile out in the city it's just as dark as ever. The dome blocks out light for days on end with little sign of letting up and leaving citizens to figure out their own methods to shed some light on the situation. Several shops begin to provide discount pricing on flashlights and candles. For those brave enough to enter the woods there are plenty of dead branches to carry back and start fires around the city and in fireplaces.

No matter which way you accomplish it, however, all new sources of light produce a prism effect. The colorful lights won't appear with street lamps or storefronts but the more creative the light source the brighter the colors will be. On the other hand as soon as those lights turn out again the rainbow disappears. With enough teamwork, citizens may just be able to generate enough light to brighten the inside of the dome with colors but it will take a little extra thinking and a few extra hands.

Welcome to

recolle's January's event!

The prompts are simply loose guidelines for you guys to play with and make up your own fun adventures for the entire month of January! You may also create your own logs or inbox threads based on these prompts. Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The bow, wrapped and obscured on Minato's back, is getting more comfortable to use every time he gets to practice with it, but he isn't unfamiliar with the weight of a knife he takes in his hands either— he keeps a pocket knife in his work bag, left at home for today because he needs to travel light and doesn't need it hitting his leg at every other step, although the knife's seen its fair use against vines and fruit and not so much living breathing creatures, or ghosts it would be completely ineffective against inside the forest. ]

In the book, aliens. The people in the town could not find a way to break out of the dome, and they all end up killing each other.

[ He did bring up the book for a reason, although he doesn't automatically assume life will play out as it did in the book. If the subways are a way out, great; if not, someone's got to figure out how the dome works. ]

Aha...

[Aliens. That might not be so bad, compared to some strange, horrible things that could be done by their fellow humans. Such as this killing each other business.]

That sounds dumb. Why would they do that? Unless you're trying to make me take my knife back.

[How pacifistic are you, Arisu...]

You could probably kill me with that rifle of yours before I get the chance to swing the knife.

[ He's only a pacifist to a certain degree, but if they're following what happens in the book, pacifism wouldn't have saved the town. There was very little the townspeople could do, with no way to get out, no idea of how to save themselves; it was a very futile situation that he hopes isn't the case with this barrier around Recollé. ]

But no... It's because the dome separated the town from the outside world. Completely. Inside, resources were limited. It wasn't just food, but the very air itself... In the end, many people suffocated to death.

Not with it on my back... I haven't even been hunting in a couple years.

[He's not some kind of weaponsmaster, dude.]

Oh. That makes sense, then.

[...ALRIGHT]

[ Minato's standing right there next to him; he's sure Lalli can't miss him at point-blank range. Anyways, they're in the forest where there's slightly more oxygen than in the rest of the city, so they don't need to fight it out to the death just yet. ]

Anyways... That's sort of what I wanted to see about the dome. If air can get through. If there's anybody on the other side.

[He still has to get it and aim!!! But yeah, not happening.]

How will you tell if air goes through?

[ They could wait and see if people start suffocating, but that'd take too long. It's a good question, though, and he has to think about it a little. Ideally, the dome would feel like some sort of fabric or mesh that just looks solid because they're still so far away, but there are still a couple of ways to go about it. ]

If I had a cup and a match, I could see if the flame dies out.

[ He has neither of those things on him, though. ]

I just want to see it for today, though. I'll come back later.

[A cup and a match........ weird.]

...Not by yourself.

[This isn't a question, it's a command. Behave.]

[ He's been wandering around by himself for what feels like his entire life, so a buddy system bring to mind being protected by his grandparents, why he left, and a conscious reminder that even so, a forest isn't a place where anybody should wander around alone. It wasn't even monsters or ghosts, it's the nature of the place itself: thick trees, not even the moon or the stars out to guide them anymore. ]

...Mm...

[ It's not a promise, but he'll probably keep it anyways. ]

How well do you know the forest? We're on a hiking trail right now, but it'll loop back to the city soon. We can't stay on it if we want to reach the dome.

[Well, there is a sun on his back. That helps in a pinch.]

Yeah. [this isn't an answer to "how well do you x" but it's what he's going with, fight him.] I know this part fine. It won't be a problem.

...Alright.

[ The sun on Minato's back is a great beacon, but he still wishes there were a real sun up in the sky that would make navigation easier. He'll trust that "yeah," whatever that means, and steps off the path once it's clear that it's starting to curve back around. Off the path, it's a little harder to push through the undergrowth while maintaining the straight route, but they'll manage. He's not an outdoors person. He's wearing plain sneakers and pushes the bramble aside with his hands instead of cutting through them with the knife, but. They'll manage. ]

[Minato, who lets you go anywhere on your own... Lalli taps him on his shoulder to bring him to a stop.]

It's not just for goblins, stupid. [#romance

anyway.] Don't worry about keeping it simple, I'll get us back. If you need an easier way, pick that one.

[But even with all his confidence, he stays in step behind Minato, for now. Getting to the dome is his quest, not Lalli's. Lalli's quest is bring them back home.]

But if you get cut up for no reason, that's dumb.

[ There was a reason why he tried to climb over the hedge maze back in that game and it's that he doesn't trust his sense of direction at all, attempting the same thing here and receiving scratched up hands for his efforts. ]

Sure would've been easier with a map...

[ But okay. If there's no map, there's nobody to rely on except themselves, and if Minato's still leading the way, then he's sure he can make it work. He steps back from the thicket, giving it a little squint as if to say "you won... this time..." and then turns to follow it until there's a clearer opening to pass through. Keep going... keep going... ... It's never-ending. ]

[How many times does he have to tell him not to worry... After another few minutes, Lalli grabs him by the wrist to get him to stop and takes his knife back. Stop being such a disaster, boy. He examines the thickets closer, finding tangles easily undone and thinner obstructions, then slicing through with his blade and confidence,

...He's just holding Minato's hand for more efficient direction purposes. Really.]

[ He likes doing things by himself! He's used to it, and being taken by the hand and led through through this path that's magically being opened up before him just reminds him of how Minako would do the same for him as they weave through crowds at whatever community event their parents were spearheading and he had to go. He couldn't navigate his way through those either, despite four walls and an enclosed space.

It's frustrating but it's safe, and he doesn't talk, focusing on the ground so that his footfalls overlap with Lalli's instead of risking tripping over a wayward root or something. ]

[It's very different, Minako didn't have a knife. Hopefully.

Silence isn't exactly an odd thing between them, and since he's concentrating on finding a path and mentally mapping it back, Lalli certainly doesn't mind it. It's not until they can see the dome that he acknowledges Minato is still there, outside of holding his hand. Which. He has no excuse to do, now. It's rough, having tactile stimulation issues but also being so incredibly touch-starved.

Reluctantly, he lets go, then offers out the knife again.]

I'll keep watch, I guess? I don't have any idea what you do with a dome.

[ He has no idea either, approaching the dome and standing near enough that he sees his face reflected back at him within the black, mirroring the slight frown on his face. With his bow in hand, he taps the tip of it lightly against the surface, hoping to hear something hollow or solid or anything that might help him distinguish what it might be made of, and is surprised to see that springs back, like a balloon. ]

...Good news. We're not going to suffocate.

[ Probably. He can't tell what the dome is, but if it isn't solid, then air should be able to get through whenever the surface bends and creates space. ]

[He's removed the rifle from his back and gone through a quick check before looking around the area and letting Minato do his thing. Already there's progress!]

That is good. [Not that he thought they would... He's under the assumption that Retrospec put it in place to protect them from an unreality twist, so having them suffocate in the meantime didn't make a ton of sense.

...Hnn. Some voices are getting louder. What a pain.] Do you see or hear anything...?

[ Retrospec doesn't make a lot of sense and it feels a lot as if they're inconvenienced and put into danger in the same breath that they are helped, sometimes.

The dome is still black, though, and Minato gingerly presses his ear up against the surface of it. ]

...No?

[This is true, but Lalli believes in Joanne. And that people have jumped on Retrospec employees for their word choice not conveying the message people wanted, which he...gets...]

Mmn. No outside help, then. Or not-dome aliens that can attack us.

[But if Minato's not reacting, that also means...] I hear something. Probably spirits.

Could be too thick to hear the help from outside...

[ That's how it was in the book too, except that dome was transparent and allowed both sides to see each other, though the purpose was mockery rather than to provide hope.

He studies Lalli's expression, trying to figure out whether the spirits are something to be worried about, but he can't tell and this is outside of his area of expertise. ]

Can you hear what they're saying? Should I cover the light or keep it out?

[ Does it matter? ~magic~ things don't follow physical rules, probably. ]

[Honestly, Lalli's not so sure, either. He'd gone hunting for ghosts with Prompto, sure, but not even that was enough for him to really get a feel for these beings as a whole. His uncertainty will be clear in his hesitant tone even to Minato.]

It doesn't...sound like anything interesting? Just usual ghost stuff... They might just leave us alone. A lot of them do that.

[ Is usual ghost stuff rattling chains and wailing warnings, or floating around indistinguishable from the breeze to normal people such as Minato who definitely is not magic anything, as far as he knows. ]

I hope so... We can follow the dome out of the forest if they give us trouble.

[ A sounder plan to him than running through the forest and getting lost under two seconds. ]

[Floating around and talking sadly to themselves, mostly. Bunch of whiners. Scary whiners, because he never knows when he's going to hear something that sets him on edge, or when they're going to stop being so aimless and actually focus on him. It was bound to happen one day.]

...Ghosts don't always care about walls and stuff.

[With this, he shuffles closer to the dome to glance between it and Minato. There's no guarantee it would work, but...whatcha think...]

[ ... ]

Could you maybe... talk to a ghost and ask it to go through the wall, and report back what's on the other side?

[ Is this the plan? Enlisting the help of a ghost? Because he is 100% behind it if Lalli thinks it's possible. ]

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