recolle | MARCH EVENT LOG

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MARCH EVENT LOG

EVENT

FOUNDER'S DAY
The city of Recollé. With everything that happened in the last month, the townspeople are excited to proceed with their festivities as normal. The Mayor, though a little wary of public appearances now, makes his way through town atop his beloved Chocobo, Seabiscuit, a megaphone in his hand and shouting to everyone he passes.

"Welcome to Founder's Day! Let's do our part and celebrate the city that we love."

I.
At noon sharp, the bands strikes up again as crowds gather around Tribunal Terrace. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the main attraction! That's right, it's time for the annual Founder's Day Parade featuring the city's newly elected royalty: King Yogi Perowna, Queen Kara Lee, Prince Kasen Kaneda, Princess Elizabeth Velveteen , Duke Garfield Logan, and Duchess Charlotte Williams. The marching bands play with gusto as they stride through the streets, the Recollé High and Recollé University cheerleaders right behind them. Beautiful floats follow in their wake, all decorated with flowers and depicting the historical events of the city.

At the head of the parade is the Mayor on Seabiscuit, proudly trotting up front with the head of police, the head of the fire house and the rest of those who had been kidnapped following right after them on another float. Looking no worse for the wear, they're all smiles and grandeur waving and greeting the citizens of the city.

At the end of the parade, the Mayor remains in Tribunal Terrace and steps up to the mic.

"We would like to give a special thanks to those brave enough to venture into the tunnels to rescue us. Our captors have been dealt with and today we will honor our rescue team for their service."

If present at this time, Eleanor Lamb, Yoon-sung Lee, Lucy Takada, Hinata Aoi, Sakura Tohsaka, Frederick Baudin, Tatsuo Kihara, Elizabeth Velveteen, Yukiko Amagi, Tatsuma Hiyuu, Jirou Hirata, Kenta Ooshima, Alexander Von Cumore, Rossiu Adai, and Kurt Wagner will be invited up to the front to receive a medal of honor. It's a shiny golden Chocobo.

Like other Founder's Day celebrations in the past, several shops across the city have discount sales on items in the Towers, coffee drinks at Expressive, a marathon of historical films at Flix and more. Celebrate your home if you'd like. It's a nice break from it all.

II.

But what about those of you who have been city-bound for the whole month? What about those of you who have spent the last month exploring the boundaries outside of the city and helping to build the roads to new destinations? Thanks to the efforts of Retrospec users, several locations have now been stabilized and users may explore these areas to their heart's content. With Pesgare three hours south by boat, Respatrum an hour east and underground, Bosuma two hours west through the Recollé Woods and Magatus seven hours north from the city, visitors may come and go to explore the regions and their points of interest.

The travel may take some time and the scenery will change around you as you go. Those same monsters from before continue to lurk just outside of the city and on the path to these locations and wild flora sprawls over various pathways. Take some time to study them if you'd like.

And speaking of study, along the way you'll find various road signs and warnings along the way including giant man-eating frogs, fire-breathing horses, severe flood warnings and more. In addition you will find large directories in the middle of the road pointing you in the directions of the four locations.

What's going on in these other places though? Well....

III.
Over in Pesgare the fishing village has been saved from the hands of a greedy buyer and the villagers are in the midst of celebration. After the big rainstorm that occurred at the end of February, the seaside village begins setting out wares for sale in their marketplace that buyers may peruse. Items for sale include fish, paintings, clothing, books, handmade jewelry and more.

On occasion though, you may find yourself in the midst of another rain shower as they come periodically in this area. While some of you may be prepared and have an umbrella on hand, others will notice that the rain is an iridescent color that falls and curves in arcs. Getting soaked by the rain may invoke a strange desire to cause a scene and yell dramatically at whoever is close by (and perhaps even belt it out if you're unfortunately unlucky), and so it may be wise to find shelter soon before you say things you'll come to regret.

IV.
Meanwhile in Respatrum the workers continue on down in the forge and begin creating new wares with the gems discovered by the exploration group from the month before. It's hot down here, boiling almost and the fires on all side means the heat's not letting up anytime soon. With caves and walkways and forges to explore, you may find yourself observing the creation of silver platters, swords, furniture and more.

Further down in the region in one of the lower rings, you may hear the sound of loud cheering and applause as you enter into a large stadium. In the center of the ring is a man with a red cape, waving it in front of a burning, burly bull. A final flourish sends the bull back into its pen, raring and ready to go the next round.

Who's up next? Why, it's you! Without warning the organizer of the bull fights grabs you by the shoulders and hands you a cape, shoving you straight into the ring with the crowd roaring above you and the bull bursting out of its cage. Think fast! Your life may depend on it.

V.

Out in Bosuma, the color's been restored to several of the flowers and trees and the people of the forest have been returned to their cottages. The creatures of the forest appear to be out and around including rabbits, squirrels, giant woodpeckers and rainbow-colored deer that aren't afraid to approach people. In fact, all of the creatures appear content to welcome these newcomers and show them around the forest.

It's at night when the real show starts. Several large, blooming flowers begin to glow in various neon colors. For those who stick around and walk through the large gardens, they'll notice that colored pollen also appears to be falling from the flowers, leaving a mist over you that sweeps over you like a soft waterfall. Depending on the color though, you may find yourself feeling a little different...will you fight or will you embrace these sudden emotions?

VI.

Meanwhile things in Magatus are snowy and blustery as ever, but the townspeople seem to be in higher spirits now that their wolf problem is alleviated. With their shops open for business and the bright colors in the sky, the area is almost peaceful and perfect just to get away from it all.

On occasion, you may see a black wolf darting in and out of the shadows watching over the town and the people coming to it. The path appears to be clear now and with a little navigating and a bit of a climb, you'll come across the newly up and running ski lodge. Plenty of cozy couches and fireplaces makes this lodge the perfect place to sleep and the rooms the original exploration team went through appear to be outfitted to be sleeping quarters now.

Up on the mountain, however, there will be a fully operating ski lift and several mountain paths for all of you adrenaline junkies wishing to ski, snowboard and more. In fact, several of the locals will even begin teaching lessons and hold competitions for those of you into that kind of thing. Seems pretty safe, right?

But the higher you go, the more you begin to feel like you're floating. In fact, the higher the elevation, the higher you will be lifted off the ground until you cap out floating a foot in the air. How are you going to get back down the mountain? Well, good luck with that.

BONUS.
Several of you may notice that the heart-shaped stone from February still hasn't disappeared. However, as the Founder's Day parade begins all emotional transfer stops.
The heart's color seems to settle and all cracks and fissures are permanent. It's no longer in danger of cracking if you ignore your feelings, but it serves as a reminder that you should take care of yourself.

Later in the day, all Retrospec users will receive a message from Zee.

Assessment passed. We stabilized the four regions and you're no longer in danger of going native if you head out there. Feel free to explore and stuff. There's still a lot out there we don't know about, but it may be best to get a head start. Oh, and the hearts? Also stable for now. It's...if you feel any different or you realize something's missing, come talk to us? We might be able to fix it. The RRI will be taking more volunteers for other assignments as things come up. You'll probably hear from me sooner or later.

The hearts will still project the thing that you love to the front of your mind so long as you hold it, but it's in no danger of shattering. Best of luck, Retrospecters.

Welcome to

recolle's March log! The prompts are simply loose guidelines for you guys to play with and make up your own fun adventures for the entire month! You may also create your own logs or inbox threads based on these prompts.

This will be a fairly lowkey month meant for travel, exploration and recouping from the last month's event! As of 3/3 all groups will ICly be back in the city. The event feedback post will go up on 3/4 along with information about the new world changes that may take place and the upcoming quest board.

Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tastuo doesn't notice Togusa until he sits next to him, too wrapped up in his own thoughts and the drink in his hand. So when he does notice him, he jumps a little.

"Hitori. Hey. Back here already?"

Togusa nods, and the smile fades a little, when he takes in Tatsuo's state. "Yeah. I guess I liked it here too much, I was eager to get back."

He glances out the door, "You wouldn't think a huge storm just hit here a week ago."

"A huge storm, huh? Guess things got cleaned up pretty quick."

At least, Tatsuo hadn't noticed any storm debris anywhere.

"They really knew what they were doing. It was bad, but with everybody working together? All they truly needed out of me was another set of hands and a warm body. Helps you focus in on what's important."

A drink is placed in front of Togusa, but he doesn't touch it immediately. "What brings you out here? I didn't think I sparked your curiosity that much." Concern, but it's tempered, not too obvious.

"Dunno," Tatsuo admits somewhat absently. "I went out for a ride and then somehow ended up here."

He drains his glass and sets it down on the counter, then motions to the bartender for a second one. Maybe if he drinks a couple more of these he'll be able to get that poor boy's face out of his head for a few hours.

Because that’s not concerning. At all. Togusa’s look shifts to one of alarm, and he looks Tatsuo over more closely, as if that would give him the answer to his questions.

“You want to talk about it, or are we doing anything except talk about it? I’m good for either...” But now he’s not letting Tatsuo out of his sight again, if he can help it.

For a moment, Tatsuo doesn't say anything, just stares down at the fresh glass of watered down whiskey in front of him.

"I don't know how this guy keeps getting murder cases. He's not a homicide detective. And usually 1st Division poaches anything potentially interesting and leaves 2nd Division with the petty thefts and the kittens up a tree."

He's talking about it, really. It's just going to take a while to get there.

There's a joke to be made here, that Tatsuo has to be getting some of Ryuuzaki's memories back if he's got enough to have the Departmental rivalry. Some things just transcend time and location. But Togusa knows to keep a lid on that. Let Tatsuo get to it in his own time.

"You sure he's not chasing after them? Otherwise, add up everything I've heard so far and this guy has some of the worst luck I've heard of."

"As far as I can tell, they more or less fall into his lap."

Tatsuo takes a sip of his drink then continues.

"One of them, 1st division pawned off on 2nd division because at first, they thought it was a suicide. A Mr Nishida, jumped from the roof of a parking garage. The next night, his wife and young daughter are pulled from the harbor after their vehicle goes off a pier. The daughter survives."

Still not murder.

"Only, they didn't have water inside their lungs, because they were already unconscious when the vehicle entered the water."

Togusa honestly can't respond for a few seconds, because he was unprepared for the wave of rage that shoots straight down his spine at those words. It takes a very slow breath in, out, to refocus his thoughts. It's not enough, and a sympathetic anger still taints his reply. "Kill a man, bad enough. What does it take to drag his family into it?"

It's the kind of helpless outrage that they all get from time to time, hearing about the unbelievable on the job. Another breath, and Togusa shakes his head. "God, I'm sorry you had to remember that."

"The company Nishida worked for was a front for the Handa-gumi. They must have been watching his family and thought they told the police something. But they didn't know anything. Turns out, he'd found an arms shipment and started following Takigawa, the local head of the Handa-gumi. He wanted to bring him down."

Tatsuo lets out a hollow laugh. Poor Nishida. He'd been trying to do the right thing. Not many people would be so willing to oppose the yakuza.

"But he got caught. Worse, he'd happened upon Takigawa meeting with a dirty cop. They grabbed him and dropped him off the parking garage. They'd have gotten away with it too, except there was a witness."

The name of the group isn't familiar to Togusa, but he catches on quick. Yakuza. His eyes close in a disappointed look, a man trying to do the right thing, in the wrong place at the wrong time. And throw a dirty cop into the mix? Another spark of anger. But it means there was no way Nishida could win, even if he'd reported what he'd seen.

"Son of a bitch." Now Togusa's the one who needs his drink.

"So it got kicked over to you guys, whatever cop was in on it couldn't say anything different, hoping you'd think it was a suicide and not look too closely," Togusa clarifies. "But it started unraveling."

"Because of the witness, and because someone iced Takigawa."

Tatsuo takes a slow sip of his drink.

"The dirty cop came to Ryuuzaki. Claimed the witness had killed Takigawa in a dispute over drugs. Interdepartmental cooperation. Ryuuzaki didn't buy it. The witness was a petty thief he'd dealt with before. Breaking into cars was more his style than drugs or murder. The kid was harmless. But by accusing him for murder the dirty cop caused the witness to go to ground."

His fingers tighten around the glass.

"But the kid trusted Ryuuzaki. Called him from a pay phone. Said he'd seen the two men who killed Nishida. Swore he hadn't dealt any drugs or killed Takigawa. Ryuuzaki believed him. But the call dropped before he could find out where the kid was."

His voice cracks slightly. Everything about this case, from start to finish, was awful.

"He was found dead a couple hours later, with a note confessing to killing Takigawa."

"Son of a bitch," he can't hide his mutter before he takes a long drink.

The tension seems to transfer over and shoot through Togusa as well, remaining very still on his barstool. Was the accusation just to cast doubt, or was it also a way to get the kid to poke his head up so that they could kill him? Does it matter, if it ended up serving both purposes?

"What's it all for?" A quiet outrage in Togusa's tone. "What the hell kind of information would be worth killing this many people over? Trying to kill more?" He knows. He knows Tatsuo is going to keep trying to learn more, to investigate this case that he isn't even technically involved in. But even Togusa is starting to want to know the truth.

"Aside from the arms shipment Nishida found? Drugs. It wasn't the witness selling drugs, it was the dirty cop. He was taking confiscated drugs and selling them for Takigawa. So he was worried that if his involvement with Takigawa and Nishida's death came to light, his drug dealing would also come to light, and his carefully constructed house of cards would collapse. And collapse it did."

Tatsuo struggles to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"There was just one question left. If the witness didn't kill Takigawa, who did?"

Was. Because he recently learned the answer.

If it was possible for Togusa's face to turn even more unimpressed, it just did. Arms shipments, drug shipments. Money. "Here to serve the damn public trust." Togusa isn't even bothering to temper his own bitterness. "Disgusting."

His teeth grit, but he looks back at Tatsuo. "My guess would be only one person at this point. The so-called officer has gone this far to protect his secret, what's a life to him?"

"And you would be wrong. He feared Takigawa just enough to not bite the hand that feeds him."

Tatsuo knocks back the rest of his drink.

"It was Ryuuzaki."

There is an incredibly long pause as Togusa just stares at Tatsuo, borderline gawking, with zero idea of how to respond. Even his thoughts feel like they've stopped.

"You...lost me somewhere. No. I get it that he killed him. But why? Given what you've said so far it makes no sense?" How- how can it be true?

And that's the million dollar question. Tatsuo has a small piece of the answer though, at least, he thinks he does. For a moment, he looks down at his glass, wondering if he should order a third. He holds off for now.

"I think it was the little girl, Nishida's daughter. Everything that happened to her just... got to him. The fact Takigawa tried to kill a little girl and took her family away from her."

For an instant, Togusa can see it all clearly. The confusion flies away in the face of a certain need for revenge, at least to make a man see what the impact of his actions could have been. Would that have been enough for Ryuuzaki to take action?

"Yeah..."

Togusa finally looks away. "So. Ryuuzaki goes outside of the law, takes it into his own hands, and the witness gets killed as an unintended side effect? Or did he plan that part out?"

"It was unintended."

Tatsuo stares down at his empty glass, remembering the horror and rage and guilt that had washed over Ryuuzaki at the sight of Sawatari's body.

"But he knew it was his fault. Killing Takigawa spooked the partner, caused him to start acting rashly. If he'd done the investigation properly, the kid might not have gotten murdered."

Togusa closes his eyes and he nods. God, he can see the shape of it all now, can't he? A deep breath through his nose, before he reaches out, finally, a hand onto Tatsuo's shoulder.

"It's hard to ignore the guilt off of memories like this. I know. You're feeling what he's feeling, but my god, you are not going to turn into him. Take some more time, get some more distance from it. I'm not going anywhere, so long as you need somebody to remind you that you're still you, Tatsuo." Again, invoking the name, the fastest way he knows to ground Tatsuo back into what's real.

When Togusa first puts his hand on Tatsuo's shoulder, it's tense. He's wound so tightly it's a miracle he hasn't shattered a glass. After a moment though, the tension starts to bleed away and his body language gradually starts to relax.

Tatsuo rubs the fingers of one hand across his forehead. Technically, he understands what Togusa is saying. Because that's how he feels himself about the whole thing. Ryuuzaki isn't him, and he isn't Ryuuzaki. And for the most part, it's easy to maintain that distance.

But these particular memories, and their associated emotions, are really doing a number on him right now. He's seen crime scenes before, he's worked crime scenes before. But for whatever reason he's having trouble getting Sawatari's face out of his head.

"Thanks. I'll be okay. I just... need a little time to put the kid to rest in my head."

"Then take the time," Togusa says as kindly as he can. "If I'm allowed to ask anything of you, it's what I would."

"The deaths, the memories that we're seeing, even if they happened to another person, another lifetime ago, the feelings behind them are still fresh, open wounds. Treat it like any other loss. Right now, your heart doesn't know the difference." Or your ghost. So to speak.

Togusa finally lets his hand fall away, back to his drink.

"Thanks. I'm just glad I only got a handful of memories last month. December and January were pretty dense."

What with getting 'shot' in January and the avalanche of related memories that brought on.

"It just makes me apprehensive, you know? About what else I'm going to end up remembering about him."

[ooc: come back in a month and ask him about the NINE memories he got in march l m a o]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MARCH EVENT LOG

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sorry I'm a lazy fuck hi!

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