APRIL 2018 EVENT LOG

[recollecters]

EVENT

THE WIND RISES The city of Recollé. By now, several of you have probably heard of the regions just beyond the city and some of you may even plan to travel! With the world at your fingertips, there's nothing stopping you from exploring and learning about the world around you. On the other hand...well. When it rains, it pours. I. Pesgare is known for its rainy seasons and even while it storms the markets are ripe with wares, the townspeople are friendly and the little village remains profitable. However, as April continues onward the rain doesn't let up. In the early part of the month disaster strikes in the form of a tsunami. The waves crash and pull the whole city underwater, disrupting the lives of the villagers and the area at least 300 miles out including all fishing boats, islands and more. Strangely, you won't notice until you cross the appropriate nautical points, dragging you straight into the water. Upon entering this region you'll find yourself unable to breathe at first, struggling until an air bubble fits itself over your head. The need to breathe is no longer a pressing issue and it allows you to get a clear view of the village. The village itself is mostly intact and the citizens of the village have their own bubble-esque helmets helping them navigate the waters. Delighted by your presence, they'll ask for help with Pesgare's restoration process of rebuilding shops, fixing their wares and even breaking apart a dam a few miles out from the village to drain the water. Though draining will help, it will still take time for the village to dry out. However, the longer you stay under water helping out or enjoying your stay, the stranger you may begin to feel. Your might find yourself gasping for air every now and then while being in the bubble. Perhaps your throat will remain dry and parched no matter how much water you drink. Or, perhaps, you'll look down and notice the bright shiny scales popping up in patches across your skin. Do you continue to help or do you abandon ship? You may want to make your decision quickly. The more fish-like you become, the louder the sound of the sea becomes as it calls you home to drag you further into the abyss below. II. It starts out innocently enough. One day you're out in the city going about your day, and the next the earth begins to rumble and the ground near the subway splits. The tunnels underground collapse in on themselves as a large region made of chasms, caves and forges uproots itself and begins to float higher and higher into the sky right above Recollé. Anyone nearby can watch as Respatrum floats upward and they'll be able to catch the glimpses of the small fire spirits escaping their hearths, cackling all the way as they race through other parts of Respatrum and even down into Recollé. These creatures will begin to inhabit large statues of varying kinds, aircraft, and appliances such as stoves, microwaves, televisions and more. The residents of Respatrum will extend a large bronze ladder down from the region in the sky to the city to allow citizens the chance to visit and return the spirits to their rightful hearths, but that's not always easy! While the fire won't burn your hands, the spirits are mischievous and having the time of their lives. Even if you manage to coax them out of their current hiding places, they'll be more than happy to hide inside of you instead. Those possessed by fire spirits will feel warm and suddenly overconfident, brash and unruly as they do things they may not have felt brave enough to do before. The longer the spirits reside in you, however, the more likely it will be that they make themselves too comfortable. A change of heart alters your personality entirely to be more reckless and dark feathers begin to sprout as large raven-like wings appear. Though the wings will help you fly, the longer you're possessed the harder it will be purge the spirits and bring Respatrum back underground where it belongs. Items from Respatrum cannot be brought to the city of Recollé and will immediately be possessed by fire spirits to jump back up into the sky. While it's easy to bribe the spirits with games, objects and promises, purging the spirits from these objects will take work and may require you to bring all items (or yourself) to the people of Respatrum to remove the pesky creatures. III. For those of you who want to get away from it all and take a vacation to Bosuma, you're in luck! The forest is bright and luminous as usual and the weird night pollen seems to have worn off. Your emotional state seems to be free from influence and you're able to enjoy a nice relaxing stroll through nature. Strangely though when you try to leave you'll find yourself on a path you know you did not take on your way in. Your feet seem to be on autopilot as you wander further and further into the woods, away from bright flowers and happy animals and deeper into thickets of vines and marshy wetlands. Trying to backtrack leads you on a continuous loop deeper and deeper into the woods as you soon come across a bubbly swamp, lush greenery and a small stone house. As you approach the house (or even as you try to leave), you'll find yourself confused about how you got there and you may not even recognize the people you're with. Who are they? And better question, who are you? Your own name? How could you have possibly forgotten something such as that? Fear not. While you ponder your name and your mere existence, the door to the house will open and a young woman will step out. Taking pity on you, she'll give you a glance and bestow a new name on you. It may be one with some significance to you or it may be one you've never heard of before. However, with a new name and a new identity comes a price. The witch has waited quite some time for new souls to enter this part of the woods. Memories are tricky, aren't they? Surely you want your memories of your life back and not just memories of another life you may have lived. The witch is kind and benevolent enough to take you by the hand and make you a deal. Complete one task for her in three days' time and you'll return to who you once were. If not…well. You'll find out. Tasks may range from something as simple as being kind to a stranger, performing on stage, collecting half-priced Easter candy or anything that will challenge you. The witch knows your greatest fears and will push you into tasks that conflict with your comfort zones. You're free to return to the city, of course, but the countdown begins as soon as the witch seals the deal. If the task is not completed in three days time, no matter where you are in the world, you'll find yourself pulled right back to the woods to take on a new appearance. Others will have to find you in the woods and identify you, giving your true identity back and helping you reclaim your rightful memories lest you lose yourself forever. IV. Perhaps you're feeling particularly brave and take a trip to Magatus. Known for its bright, colorful lights in the sky and its wintery atmosphere, it may surprise you to find that setting foot into the region sends you straight into total darkness. A dizzying sensation hits faster than you can blink and you'll find yourself knocked unconscious. Minutes later (or perhaps hours, or maybe even days), you'll awaken thanks to the howl of a wolf nearby and find yourself in a hidden cave not far from the main town. The sky appears to be its same beautiful colors and no injuries are present. Upon closer examination, a new mark appears on your skin and seems to glow an eerie color not unlike the heart stones from February. The color may even be the same. This mark cannot be rubbed off and it glows even through layers of clothing. Asking around the village will render little answers as the townspeople acknowledge it's a mark and think nothing of it. After some time though perhaps you'll get lucky and receive the answer you're looking for. "A curse", they say, and they gesture to the forest at the base of the mountains and surrounding the town. Wandering into the forest seeking an answer, you'll find yourself growing weak and fatigued, energy fading and the mark glowing even brighter as you hear the whispers of several voices around you. Coming from the trees, you'll hear them discussing your personal failures and things you regret, things you've been running away from or things you harbor guilt over. Maybe it's a lie you told your parents, or maybe it's something much, much larger. Even when you return to the city the mark stays though it doesn't glow as bright. As you ignore the mark, or even as you puzzle out how to remove it, the mark will begin to spread over your skin as more time passes. Without breaking the curse the mark will begin to sting and act as a constant reminder that it's there, bringing forth physical ailments as well. Those who are cursed will begin to feel feverish and delirious, chills running through them and something akin to a particularly nasty case of the flu plaguing them. Nightmares begin to haunt them as well any time they close their eyes, the mark manifesting their failures into their dream-like state. Whether by word of mouth, trial and error or simply talking it out, it becomes clear that the only way to break this curse is by admitting the failures the trees have brought forth and receiving forgiveness whether that's from who you've wronged, another party involved, or yourself. As the curse is broken, the mark simply dies down and all signs disappear into your skin, leaving you free to return to Magatus without fear of infection again. V. But what about those of you who decide to stay home this month? April is the beginning of spring and that includes Spring Break for all Recollé schools. Now seems like the perfect time to kick back and relax, right? Think again. At least once a week from April 3rd until April 30th, citizens of Recollé will hear the sudden flurry of papers and impact of boxes as piles and piles of undelivered mail falls straight from the sky (missing Respatrum, somehow) and into the streets below. There are letters and care packages, orders from Amazon.com and important documents and even some "FRAGILE, PLEASE DO NOT DROP" boxes that appear in these piles. As the wind picks up, the packages begin to dance through the street and scatter around the city and you may find yourself slapped in the face by a letter addressed to a friend. A stranger's package might appear on your doorstep. As citizens begin to sort through the mail it becomes clear that these are packages sent from all over the world from outside of the city to those living in Recollé, a backlog of undelivered mail from several months ago until now. While there are no signs that the outside world is aware mail hasn't come through, the packages themselves are a bit…unusual. Seemingly normal on the outside, as you approach to pick something up some packages may take on a life of their own and transform. Envelopes will open up and reveal razorsharp teeth, shouting the contents of the letter to whomever it is addressed to. Packages will sprout legs and begin to run away to engage you in a game of tag. That pesky wind continues to be a nuisance as it blows heavily and creates a whirlwind of color and letters that trap you in place. Good luck with your spring cleaning, Recollé! You're going to need it. BONUS. While all of this is going on, the cherry blossoms are blooming, the birds are singing, and sometime on April 4th, all Retrospec users will receive a message from Zee. Jo already gave you the heads up, but we're working with some weird effects that are sweeping in as residual from other places. Kind of makes it hard to gauge just what's happening out there, but hey. At least Maury took a vacation finally. The city itself is mostly fine, but if you're heading out stay in touch as much as you can. That's the only advice I have for you at this point while we're working on tempering the storm and clearing out the effects. The RRI will be taking more volunteers for other assignments as things come up, but that's always the case. That's always going to be the case if this keeps up. Anyway…best of luck, Retrospecters. Citizens will also find as spring rolls in, small rabbit-like creatures begin popping up...and multiplying...and will be more than content to follow Retrospec users around. They love being fed and exploring, but do take care not to follow them too much! They don't always notice where they're going and could very well lead characters right out of the city and toward one of the other regions. Welcome to recolle's April's 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. For prompt 3: please do not give your characters their canonical name as their new fake name! If they do not already remember their canonical name, we ask that you come up with something else. Other characters who do not venture into the swamp will remember your character's name but they will be unable to speak it for the first three days, or until characters complete their tasks. Characters who fail and lose their identities will still have mannerisms of their former selves but will need to be identified by others to regain their true selves. For prompt 4: the curse mark can be located anywhere and spread anywhere, and it can be any sort of failure your character would personally be affected by! You are also free to play with physical ailments and nightmares as much or as little as you'd like. For prompt 5: this is only mail coming from the outside and addressed to characters in-game! This is not mail that is outgoing and after this mail will resume its usual "cannot be delivered" status. At this time, phone calls out are still unavailable. FINALLY: Each prompt is eligible for one free memory! That is to say you are able to earn up to five extra free memories if you thread all five of these prompts. For freebies to qualify, we ask that the thread that you turn in working toward each objective is a minimum of 5 comments from you and shows clear intent to work toward each prompt's goal (i.e. helping in Pesgare, rounding up fire spirits in Respatrum, regaining your name/doing your task for Bosuma, breaking your curse in Magatus, and delivering mail in Recollé). Please note that we will not accept multiple threads for multiple freebies on the same prompt. Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

Comments

[compendiem]

[ Minato already said his sorry, so he just sort of shrugs without thinking about whether or not that'd be taken rudely. ]

Keep your toes spread, and it might miss.

[ But still hit his shoe. ANYWAYS. ]

That's yours, right? What you're chasing after? [ That package that's getting away the longer Christian sits there. ]

[axeswing]

Hm... makes sense. [ HE STILL TAKES THE ADVICE. ]

My girlfriend's actu— Oh, yeah! [ He's scrambling to his feet as quickly as possible, rushing towards the package as it has now gotten some distance from him. ] I'll corner 'em, so make sure you keep up!

[compendiem]

Got it.

[ Minato doesn't have to keep up, exactly; he just needs to keep Christian and the mail in sight, which is exactly what he does, trusting Christian to lead it down one of the alleyways or somebody's backyard or something. Minato's not as quick on his feet, but he's getting to know the city a lot better now, compared to when he first moved here, so he's confident there are places to trap the thing— and if not, Minato will split off from Christian and head the mail off, hoping to get a second shot in before it can slip past. ]

[axeswing]

[ Christian honestly wants to avoid treading onto someone else's property, but this package has a mind of its own and doesn't care where it goes. However luck is on their side and it seems to go left—after putting two and two together, he comes to the conclusion that after chasing this thing for a solid five or so minutes that they've been going in a complete circle.

Fortunately there was an alleyway that stretches from their side of the street to the next. Predicting that's exactly the package was heading, Christian waves Minato down that way. ]

I'll keep changing it down and you catch it on the other side!

[compendiem]

[ With a nod, Minato digs his heels into the ground and pushes off down a different street, disappearing around the corner.

He gets an arrow out and bow half drawn so that all he'll have to do is pull it back and let the arrow fly the moment the package is in sight: if he can approach it head on, there's no aiming, no calculating trajectories-- he just has to shoot the arrow with as much force as he can get behind it, and it will hit dead on. ]

[axeswing]

[ The package turns the corner just as predicted, and again to complete it's cycle only to meet Minato on the other side. Christian is at least smart enough to not to step within the general area in case the arrow flies elsewhere, but after hearing an audible thunk and peeking from around the corner he's met with the glee of the box finally defeated. ]

Nice aim! This thing has been running me ragged forever, I thought I was gonna lose my mind. [ He's not even concerned of what's inside and if it's damaged. It has finally stopped moving and that's all he cares about. ] Thanks, man, I would have been seeing gray hairs tonight if it wasn't for you.

[compendiem]

[ Thank goodness it hit, because Minato isn't sure he can keep up for much longer, legs sore and lungs painfully tight in his chest. He slows to a trot while he bridges the gap in between the two of them, and stares down at the package, feeling slightly like he'd just shot a bird or something out of the air. It's a little bit of a sick feeling, not helped by the fact that his throat burns every time he tries to catch his breath. ]

Glad we managed to stop it. We've been spoiled getting our mail delivered right to our front doors...

[axeswing]

[ Vane picks up the box, pulling the arrow from it and handing it to Minato with a beaming smile. ]

Well a package shouldn't be moving on its own to begin with! They should sit down and relax after having the amazing of journey of going one place to another.

[compendiem]

[ He remembered about Minato wanting to collect his arrows, thank you! He takes it back gratefully, tapping the tip of his finger on the arrowhead to see whether it's blunted enough to retire, or it still has a couple more shots in it. ]

That's... sure a way of looking at things. It's from your girlfriend?

[axeswing]

It's actually for her. We live together.

[ And it suddenly hits him... that an arrow going through whatever Mia has ordered could be bad. Very bad.

He offers the package a quick glance, shaking it gently as if it'll determine whether or not what's inside got damaged. ]

You don't think anything is broken, do you?

[compendiem]

Uh.

[ He doesn't want to guarantee anything, especially after having put all his strength into that shot meant to tear monsters apart. ]

Maybe you can open it, and if it's broken, we can fix it and she doesn't have to know.

[axeswing]

...

[ Reluctantly, Christian places the box back on the ground. Examining the hole that was made due to the arrow he can't seem to guess what's inside, and thus slowly peels off the tape before he stops. ]

Hey... come open this with me...

[ --so you don't run off. ]

And just... pick a god and pray that nothing in here is torn up!

[compendiem]

[ His escape route is cut off before he could even think to have one. Obediently, Minato kneels down next to Christian and bows his head. ]

Yatogami—- [ He stops. He had promised himself he wouldn't rely on Yato as much anymore, wouldn't place that burden on him anymore. So he shakes his head and chooses another. ] Please give us your divine protection, Tokoyono-naganaki-dori.

[axeswing]

[ Following suit, Christian bows his head and murmurs a small prayer. His grip tightens as he inhales deeply and steels himself; a small drip of sweat drops from the side of his face.

It's do or die. ]

On three, ready? One... two... three!

[ He pulls the box back, opening it and revealing...

Makeup.

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

By now he knows that one is setting spray and it has an obvious hole in it, leaking on everything else within the box. Every ounce of color in his face is drained out of him immediately, heart dropping into the lowest chambers of his heart, and Christian can honestly feel the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. ] She's... gonna kill me.

[compendiem]

[ Is it that bad...? Minato can't tell, never really having dealt with makeup or care products like this. They can be replaced? Although, everything will have to be replaced, all the packages sticky with hair spray, hard powder cracked where an arrow head had hit the container, something thick and black leaking from something at the bottom of the package. ]

Maybe we can blame it on the mailman... [ Is that too impossible... ]

The labels are still legible. Can this stuff be bought around the city? The Towers, maybe. I'll pitch in to replace them.

[axeswing]

[ Is that mascara or eyeliner? God, Christian can't even tell. ]

If we can somehow make a lie about the mailman using it as target practice, sure. [ But that's impossible, and he also can't even imagine lying to Mia let alone the disappointment in her face when she sees her belongings are ruined. ]

I... I think so? I'm pretty sure I've seen these once or twice from all the times she's had me following her around the store.

[compendiem]

[ Minato doesn't like lying if he can help it, but this situation comes pretty close to tempting him into laying blame on the mailman. ]

Let's check out the stores before anything else... If that fails, I'll take the blame. I'm the one who shot it, and I'm a stranger, so it's fine if she gets mad at me.

[axeswing]

No, no, you don't gotta take the blame for all this. [ He honestly feels bad for pressuring the poor guy... so, out of habit, Christian reaches out and gives him a comforting pat on the shoulder. Perhaps with a little too much strength, but evidently not done with malicious intent as he's smiling from ear to ear. ]

We'll check out the stores, as you said, and if all hope is lost well... I'll just have to make her her favorite meal! And then help her around the house!

[ Like he doesn't already do that but ANYWAY. ]

[compendiem]

[ Ouch, yeah, he doesn't have a secure enough footing to withstand the pats, but he will take it as an opportunity to head towards the Towers- it's large enough that it's got to have something they need to replace. ]

Cooking, then cleaning... sounds like a slippery slope for her to ask anything she wants from you. [ He might know nothing about how to use makeup, but one thing he knows is that they're expensive. The demands might never end. ] And in that case, I can't help out, can I? That's not fair.