CITY EVENT LOG

[recollecters]

EVENT

The New Administration Wait, what? *[ooc: please be sure to read all mod notes at the bottom!] The third is when everything seems to start with a bang. On the third day of February, several crashes and bangs are heard and the sound of creaky metal ripples through the air. Those who look outside will see a sight for sore eyes. The moon and the stars brighten the sky and the dome is nowhere to be seen. Instead, anyone in Tisse will find yet another addition to the wonderful city of Recollé. At the very top of the Towers sits a penthouse with wide windows and an empty office building, soft lights glowing and illuminating the area. The city goes silent after that, but at the top of the hour every single Retrospec user receives a text from a user named Zee Carlisle. Nice city you've got here. They weren't kidding when they said I would fit right in. I've always wanted to live in a city like this. Jo, Maury and the rest of the team have given you a little bit of a breakdown in preparation for our little project, but they recruited me to step in. Seems like a lot of you want a more personal experience here with us at Retrospec. So let's talk. Get to know each other. I'll go first. Zee Carlisle, Hiring Manager. Nice to meet you, etc. I've been watching you for a while, Retrospecters. Kind of a unique group you've got going. I like it. Here's the thing. We've been experiencing some problems out of our control for a while now. The director's been trying to keep things under wraps for the last year, but HR and R&D finally convinced the higher ups that we need help. So. You want the whole story? Here's your story. The storms are getting worse. You might've noticed. Calls are down, mail's down, communication as a whole is down and isolating you into this teensy bubble of a city. It's why the dome went up, had to protect our resources and start isolating the sources. More areas and more people even outside of your little group here are being affected, but you guys are the only people who can help us. Some of you passed your assessments with flying colors and I've already sent messages. You'll leave for your assignments in the morning at 9am, congratulations. As for the rest of you, welllll…consider this an interview. You see...as a Hiring Manager, I'm looking for recruits for our new project. The Recollé Restoration Initiative (going forward known as the RRI) is a project we designed here to not only help us, but to help you help us help you. Make sense? Cool. You may ask, "Why should we trust you?" which is a completely fair question to ask. And hey, you don't have to trust me or trust them. But I think you might be interested to know that you and I have more in common than you think. As a user on the network, you can contact me via text, phone or email. I'll also have some office hours and more resources than you could ever dream of. But enough about me. Here's your first assignment. I. On the morning of the fourth, users going through their assessment period (i.e. those of you who are working inside the city) receive a diagram from Zee. In this diagram, a dot labelled "Recollé" sits in the center and in the four cardinal directions are different labelled dots. To the south is Pesgare. To the north is Magatus. To the east is Respatrum. And to the west is Bosuma. Citizens will find that they are able to leave the city limits now and can explore the open areas leading to these four points. While they will not be able to visit them just yet, they will be instructed that they must work together to begin structuring paths, roads, or forms of transportation between the main city of Recollé and these four locations. Zee may take requests and provide items should users ask, but it's up to you to work together and start brainstorming the best ways to create maps and connect these points together. But the best way to do that is to start exploring, right? Hit the road and grab a friend to begin getting a lay of the land. Southward leads residents to the beach while northward leads them through the forest, east and west giving way to desert and open field areas the further they travel. The expanse of directions seems endless, but eventually citizens will find that they will hit a point where they're unable to enter. An "ACCESS DENIED" notification will pop up on their phone, notifying them that they've reached the entry points of the special assignments volunteers have been sent on. But even with restricted access, there's plenty to be done and plenty to take care of as part of the initiative. Flora in the area needs to be identified and the fauna may be a bit problematic if you aren't careful. Some of these plants and creatures may even look familiar to you, but many of them won't! Off-roading and camping are encouraged and despite the fact it's February the weather seems to be amendable to these ventures. Clear as many of the monsters as possible to make way for the paths, report your findings to your hiring manager, and look out for each other as you start to shape the land. II. It's not just the outskirts of the city and open areas that need help. Some citizens who have lived here for a while may remember that February 3rd is traditionally known as Founder's Day, a holiday set up by the city to celebrate the foundation. In the days leading up to the third, banners, signs and all kinds of advertisements have gone up reminding everyone that this year is the 100th anniversary of the city's foundation. However, as the third approaches, Founder's Day comes and goes without any sort of large celebration. In fact, the annual parade is cancelled and instead citizens gather to discuss a more trying matter. Breaking news hits the airwaves that Mayor Mayer, the entire city council, the head of police, the fire chief and other prominent figures of the city have disappeared overnight. As newscasters record TV footage in front of City Hall and the police station, Retrospec users will receive a new message. Uh. Well, that was unexpected. I wasn't really counting on something like this coming up but let's roll with it and count it as part of your assessment. You want your city to keep running the way it did? Find your mayor and the others. But hey...it's your city. What if you didn't? Under your feet, blue pulses of light run under the streets and the sidewalks, energy thrumming beneath you as all lights lead back to the subway tunnels again. Will you be a hero and follow the lights to rescue these people? Or will you be a face of change and leave them to perish and redesign the city? Those who do enter the tunnels will find that a new route has opened, a mouth to the left of the main entrance from the city. Unlike the other dirt-filled vine-and-rat-infested tunnels, this one is a sterile and bright silver path with floor to ceiling panels on one side of the tracks and floor to ceiling mirrors on the other. The path seems to stretch miles and miles under the city and the further you walk, the narrower the path becomes. The sound of wild animals echo through the tunnels from the other sides of the panels, and the mirrors to your left reflect skeletal forms of both people and animals alike. The closer you get to the end though, the louder the sounds grow and the panels to the right slide open to release several chimera-esque creatures who will do everything they can to guard the silver door at the end of the tunnel. These creatures can be defeated by normal means, and they will not hesitate to attack anyone who gets close. Is it worth fighting to save these people? You decide. Those who defeat the creatures and find themselves at the silver door will receive yet another message. Hang tight, I am grouping you with some of the others to finish this thing. III. Later on the fourth, no matter where you are, you may find something heavy resting in your pocket. A small colored stone shaped like a heart appears and even while tucked away safely it burns brightly. Holding it, the heart feels as though it's pulsating and you're flooded with an overwhelming sense of love for something special whether that's a person, an item, or an ideal. All users find themselves in possession of a stone, and soon another text comes through. If you're anything like me, you're probably wondering what's up with the rocks. Had the techs run some tests on these. Don't freak out, but you might want to be careful with them? They're working as fast as they can but bits of your soul energy are tied directly to those stones. You break it or make it lose its shine, well, hard to say WHAT might happen. Users who keep their stones on their person in their pockets or in a bag will find that whatever emotions they're dealing with will transfer to whomever they encounter. Feeling happy that the sun's back? Everyone around you will wear a smile. Stressed out that your loved ones volunteered for a mission and they're out who-knows-where? Everyone around you will pick up that same nervous energy. The stone's color will fade if you ignore these feelings and even worse, fissures may start to form if they continue to be ignored. And though you may not know it yet, shattering the heart is the worst thing you could do: if the stone breaks, the thing that you love disappears from your mind completely. All memories and emotions associated with this heart will vanish without a second thought. IV. What's that smell in the air? Is it love? Close, it's cherry blossoms. It's a sickeningly sweet scent that occasionally blows through with the wind, strongest in the city and more faint the further you travel. However, citizens beware as invisible assailants appear to be on the prowl. Without warning, you may feel the prick of Cupid's arrow from behind. Though the effects only last two hours maximum, they're fairly inconvenient while on assignment. These effects include: -Heart-shaped pupils -A violent whirlwind of rose petals appearing any time you make eye contact with someone new -Your emotions are intensified -Your emotions are flipped. People you have a fondness for may now disgust you, or people you normally argue with may become your best friend Inconvenient, yet manageable, right? On February 14th though things become a bit harder. Yet another message comes through. Hope you've been having an easier time with the residual effects than I am. You know what makes everything easier? Teamwork. And that's what today's assignment is all about. Happy Valentine's Day. The first person that you see on this day may be a friend or a stranger, but soon you will find that a strangely magnetic force binds the two of you together. For the next 24 hours, you and your partner will be stuck together and must work together. Whether this is working on the road construction assignment, the rescue mission or just going about your everyday lives you'll have a built-in companion for the day. Who knows? You may even find yourself stuck with up to two additional people, too. But what if you stray too far from your partner(s)? No worries. A red string will bind your hands together and ensure you're always connected, simply falling away once the 24 hours are up. THE FUTURE. So this is life now, isn't it? A year's gone by since Retrospec's impacted so many lives and it may feel as though you're nowhere closer to answering questions. Perhaps you're just starting your journey with the restoration company. Either way, your help is most appreciated and acknowledged. As you work toward the goals assigned to you, you will be rewarded. For an excellent show of teamwork, at the end of your assessment you will find yourself on the receiving end of a brand new memory or vision of a life lost. Some of you may also receive a ticket in the mail to pick up an item at the Retrospec mailbox by Wiffle-Waffle. A message will be sent not long after. Congrats, you passed. Come to my office in March if you're ready for harder assignments. Welcome to recolle's February event! Please read these notes carefully! Prompt I may be played with however you want! There is really no right or wrong answer, and as mentioned Zee can be reached at his inbox to provide you with any tools your character may ask for to connect the four points to the city. You are free to make up plant names and what effects they have on the eco systems as well and report these back to the NPC if you wish. As of right now, the only monsters roaming the grounds are those in the above bestiary though other earthly wildlife may be found. Prompt II will require some coordination! If you complete a thread with someone in which you defeat the monsters and get to the silver door before 2/16 at 9pm EST, please hit up Zee's inbox! ICly (and oocly) your character will be put in contact with the small group of others who have worked toward this endeavor and given the next step to save these important NPCs. Prompt III will have set consequences! If your character breaks their heart, they will lose memories and feelings associated with something they love. Breaking the stone is entirely optional, and there will possibly be a way to regain these memories later down the line as a reward for the future, but please keep this in mind! The Future will only be applicable once you've met your freebie requirements for this log! Remember, the requirements for one free memory are 15 comments spread across at least two threads (min. 5 consecutive comments each) using these prompts. For the free 10-20 point item, one of these threads must be with a character you haven't threaded with before! A mod-posted Retrospec post may go up if necessary to connect city players with group players, dependent on player action! As always, 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. Happy anniversary, Recollé!

Comments

[drydrown]

Do you want to save those people or not? We don't have time for hesitation like this, if that's still what you're intending to do.

[You can hear the fucking heart.]

[onemillion]

[We don't even know for sure that they're here he wants to say, but if Cumore's right and this passageway wasn't here the last time, then doesn't that mean that they have to be here? The lights led down this way and there are these creatures guarding the door, so it's pretty much a guarantee that they're here.

He doesn't exactly want to be a hero, but we've come this far and it really would be stupid to turn back now when they're this close.]

...I'll take the lighter.

[He sounds defeated when he says it, but he's got his shoulders squared; he'll do it. He won't like it, but he won't back down.]

[drydrown]

Good boy.

[...Honestly, it's a good thing that we've come to a decision on this, because those other chimeras in this hallway are closing in; they seem wary given all the fire - as well they should, seeing as the source of it is, you know, one of them having been set ablaze.

Cumore is quick to pass what he's got over to Rossiu - he could tell him to get out his own, but that's going to take entirely too long and too much thought when he can just hand the things over and go - before returning to the wall and picking the sword up again; honestly, it's for the better to stab it than it is to bludgeon it anyway, most likely, there's less margin for error with stabbing. And if they're already on fire, they'll be disoriented - thrashing, of course, but at least it's less likely for them to dodge entirely and for him to miss.

He keeps talking to Rossiu as he gets it; now is not the time for a moral dilemma, child.]

Just hold the flame in the spray, I'm sure you know how it works. You've actually got about twenty feet of range on it if you need it. Even if you don't hit them, try to keep them off of you; I'd quite prefer you not dying on me, all right?

[He'll bring the sword over to the one they've already lit up; he only hesitates briefly before doing anything, because...well. It's kind of an awkward moment to realize that he's actually never killed anything before.

But you know what, he doesn't want to die here, and if they run and those things give chase, they're going to die.

The first strike is a clumsy one, catching it nearer to the abdomen than the head or chest, though it gets the creature to drop; it's fairly evident that Cumore doesn't really know what he's doing and he's going to make up for it with overkill - he doesn't need finesse so much as he just requires the pointy end to go into the thing, and it takes a few stabs but you know what, he manages.

Not...precisely rocket science, as he'd said. Not graceful or terribly effective, but not rocket science.]

[onemillion]

[Rossiu takes the lighter and tries to prepare himself as best he can. It's absolutely cruel to set them on fire, but Cumore is right. It's not like they have a choice. Even if they could walk back down the hallway without these things giving chase, they'd still be leaving the city's authority figures in danger. They've come all this way, there's no going back now.

So when Cumore turns him loose on the chimeras he doesn't hesitate, he sets them on fire. He doesn't want to watch Cumore kill them, but he ends up looking over out of curiosity anyway. He immediately regrets it. It's definitely not graceful and Cumore needs more hits to kill it than Rossiu would really like to witness, but it's not like the lawyer knows how to use the fucking broadsword.

His shoulders are shaking by the time they're done, but he doesn't say anything.]

[drydrown]

[In some ways, this is easier as he goes; it isn't difficult to work out where his strikes are going to do more damage than others, how to hold the damn sword so the act of landing hits isn't a complete clusterfuck, how not to hesitate because really, they're only monsters, it isn't as though he needs to hold them against his conscience any.

But there's also the fact that he's not really cut out for this - because again, he's a skinny-ass lawyer from the DA's office, he doesn't fight and isn't built for long periods of exertion, and honestly he's acutely aware that if Rossiu weren't wearing these things down with fire there's literally no way he'd be able to handle this on his own. He eventually takes to the general habit of violently kicking them over once they're disoriented and trying not to get his clothes set on fire in the process, then bringing the sword up and letting gravity do the rest; it's easier on him than a straight repetitive stabbing motion, though as Rossiu's noted, it still takes more hits than is particularly comfortable to watch.

Eventually, though, the tunnel is, uh, charred, and there's more blood on Cumore's clothes than he'd really like there to be and that's disgusting, but at least the chimeras are down; he can't immediately hear any more, and as such he's going to take that as his cue to just...press his back up against some of those mirrors and let himself sink slowly to the floor, letting the sword drop haphazardly next to him - he can still grab it if he needs to, but god help him, he'd better not need to for the next several minutes.

He's breathing pretty hard, and for now he's content to just...stay there; he'll glance over to check on Rossiu, though - you okay over there, dude, or.]

[onemillion]

[He watches Cumore finish them off, though he wishes he could tear his eyes away from the scene. It's only when Cumore gets to the last one that he finally can bring himself to look away (because that should kill it just like the others) and he finds his hands shaking. He's careful with the lighter, because the last thing he wants to do is set Cumore on fire, and once he's shut that off he can focus on... well, everything else.

They've done a number on the tunnel and the room; between the scorch marks and the blood, this place is a wreck. But they did it, they successfully defeated the monsters guarding the end room and now...

That's about when he gets the text. Rossiu digs his phone out of his backpack when the happy little chime goes off and once he's done he just sort of sinks to the floor and stays there. When did he get so tired?

Cumore probably received the same text as well, but Rossiu forces himself to speak up about it anyway, because he's a little worried if he doesn't say something, he won't be able to get himself to speak again.]

...Apparently they're going to group us with some others to finish this.

[He doesn't really like the sound of that, but it's not like things can get any worse, right? ...Right?

His hands are still shaking.]

[drydrown]

[He definitely did receive the same text; that sounds...promising? Maybe?]

Are you going to be able to manage beyond here?

[On the one hand, he understands that that was a lot, and he likewise understands not wanting it to have been for nothing.

On the other, there's no guarantee that it won't be more of this beyond that door, nor is there one that there won't be something worse.]

[onemillion]

[It takes him a moment to nod, but when he does it's decisive.]

I will.

[Some part of him isn't sure this is the best idea he's ever had, but he's come this far. He doesn't want to stop until these people are safe. Surely he can handle whatever comes next, especially if they're in a larger group.]

...Thank you for asking, though.

[drydrown]

Of course.

[He'll turn back to his phone, then, busying himself with - ...okay because apparently he's not done being tacky that appears to be a selfie he's taking with all the carnage and also you in the background, I'm really sorry about him.

He's also texting Zee, don't worry. Just had to get that out of the way first.]

If you were going to turn back, now would be the time to do it... It's good that you aren't, though. At least in my opinion.

[onemillion]

[Did. Did you just take a selfie. Right now. After all of this.

O...kay you know what, he's not going to question it. He's just not going to address it.]

I want to see this through to the end. I've already come this far.

[Thanks for handling the texting, he's not entirely sure he could manage anything that wasn't "WE MURDERED SOME CHIMERAS PLEASE SEND HELP" so uh. Thanks, Cumore? But seriously why did you feel the need to take a selfie here. What the fuck.]

[drydrown]

[so he can send it to zee along with the text, naturally! ...and also jaeger probably, this seems like the sort of thing he would appreciate.]

That was my reaction last time I came down here, if it's any help to you. It wasn't pleasant then, either.

[onemillion]

[it absolutely is.]

What did you run into down here? More chimeras?

[If it was chimeras YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST WARNED HIM, GODDAMN.]

[drydrown]

Nothing of the sort. Just something that felt the need to traumatize the person I was with, and then later we were dealing with some mechanical thing that we had no chance of killing.

[onemillion]

Oh. That sounds terrible.

[understatement of the year, thanks rossiu.]

At least you made it out.

[drydrown]

Thankfully he has more fighting experience than I do. He's out on one of those assignments now, apparently.

[onemillion]

Do you think the people outside of the city are doing okay?

[drydrown]

I imagine we would have heard from someone by now if they weren't; it isn't as though we can do much about it either way.

I'm just trying to focus on what's happening here, for the most part. Doing what I can, and not dying to something stupid. Or dying at all, preferably.

[onemillion]

Right. It's a bit pointless to get worked up about them when we've got plenty of problems here to worry about.

[Like the missing authority figures and the fact that there are chimeras living in our subway tunnels. Apparently.]

[drydrown]

Exactly.

[...]

Hopefully whatever we face beyond here won't be quite as bad.

[onemillion]

That's what I'm hoping too. It should be at least a little easier with other people here.

[But he really hopes he doesn't have to kill anything else.]

[drydrown]

...You are going to be all right...?

[He isn't altogether sure how to approach it or ask directly, but like. You seemed kind of screwed up by all of that?]

[onemillion]

[Rossiu's quiet for a moment before shaking his head a bit.]

It was... very unpleasant, to put it lightly. I'm sure I'll be okay, though.

[Eventually... at some point... probably....]

[drydrown]

...I see.

Well, take time to recover yourself, I suppose, and we'll see what's there when we do.

[And he'll just...be focusing on his phone for the next while, then.]