recolle | (no subject)

EVENT

ENCASED.
"They are unique in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life that they enclose." Marjory Stoneman Douglas

The message on the first was probably not that encouraging, but for the next couple of days it appears as though the city remains the same as it was. The paintbrushes from the previous month don't disappear, and the city remains half-painted into existence and a happenstance of colors. The city's quiet and preparing itself for summer...but on the third somewhere around midnight, every user will receive a mass message in their inbox from Zee Carlisle, a man many have heard of by now but that some may not be as familiar with.

Okay. The reason we don't reply to you guys when we post to you every month isn't because we don't care and we're sinister, it's because we're busy. Not an excuse, I know.
But you're thinking too hard about it. The city itself isn't being hacked, literally. It was a figurative comparison and it's kind of like this.
This city and the world you're currently living in exist. Everything about this world is real, you're real, I'm real, etc.
But the layers exist in another kind of...realm, I guess? It's freely manipulated beyond the base of the world and that's what's being messed with.
Did you know it's hard to trace IPs when they're blocked? Leave that to us. We found a way to break through the blocks on the districts though, but it's up to you guys.
Level one. Ready to start generating and get this place back together?

Well that's not ominous, is it?

THE NPCS
What blocks? What the hell is he talking about? It becomes clear the moment you take your first step and a strange, almost invisible ripple appears around you. This ripple might happen right at midnight, or it might occur before or after the time. But not long after daybreak on the 3rd of June, every Retrospec user will notice a few things.

The only people they'll be able to notice around the city are those who are also on the Retrospec networks. Friends and family members without the app seemingly have disappeared before your very eyes. No matter where you go to look for them, they've vanished. Animals are still around, and items still exist, but it's just the people who are lacking.

The strange thing, however, is that even if you can't see them you can still hear them. Maybe you can hear your parents making dinner in the kitchen, or you can hear your professor lecturing about the importance of showing up for your finals on time. Your annoying co-worker is definitely doing that tapping thing with his fingers against your desk and the worst part is that they can't see or hear you. No matter how hard you try to get their attention, it's as if you aren't there.

Trying to call them is a futile effort. Calls are distorted and disconnected, dropping after a few rings. Calling to those outside of the city, however...works? It works! After months and months of being disconnected from the outside world, calls will go through and last for a grand total of 90 seconds. Toward the end, a low, growling noise will filter through the line and distort the phone call and repeated calls to the same person will grow increasingly hard to understand.

But hey. At least that's one thing fixed.

THE MAINFRAME
As of last month, several Retrospec users repainted most of the city into existence but there are still pieces missing! The brushes haven't gone away and while the task of reviving the city is easier now, everything that's been brought back remains a bit unusual. Purple bushes are bright purple and the orange roads are dusted with dirt and drips of colored paint. A lot of the large buildings such as the hospital, the university and more are back though and will need their interiors re-organized. Take some time out of your day to restructure the world around you. You'll never know when you'll need it.

THE SOUL ENERGY
As you begin to notice the veil that separates you from those not on the app, it becomes quite clear that there are two sides of the same city. Everything you know and love is still in one place, but as you hear the NPCs nearby you'll find that there's no way to get near them. Or is there...?

Not long after the first text message, another message from Zee is sent along.

The fastest and easiest way to change what layer you're existing on is to generate the energy. It's hard to explain in its entirety but working together will produce the energy needed to bring them back to this layer. It's not a drain or anything, but only you guys can do it. You know. Given where you exist right now.

Your energy is staying with you, but the levels will change enough to break down the veil. It's not the same as extracting. We're not doing that here. Pick a district and pick a friend or six. I believe in you guys.

Not long after the text, six different links will pop up in your messages, one for each of the districts in the city. Clicking on the links will bring up a map of each district, and each map will have a list attached to it.

TRIBUNAL TERRACE
Over in Tribunal Terrace, the buildings have mostly been repainted but the NPCs aren't present. With the need to reorganize and bring back the police, the fire department and more, there's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Volunteer with ReVA to create a community event such as a dance, party or other.
-Create decorations and hang them in the children's ward at the hospital.
-Clean up Recollé Square.
-Discuss crimes or wrong-doings you've committed in this life or the past with one other person.
-Solve a mystery.
-Talk to the dead.
-Take care of the firestation dogs.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

APPRASSAGE
Several Retrospec users might be stressing about finals and graduations, but it's hard to worry too much when their teachers and classmates are missing. Though the buildings and landscape might be hit and miss, there's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Help someone study for their finals.
-Teach someone a new skill and learn a new skill in return.
-Tell someone your favorite story.
-Repaint the stars and go stargazing.
-Paint a self-portrait and have someone analyze it.
-Discuss a dark period in your life and create a display based on that.
-Gather the horses and chocobos and have a race.
-Guide a tour through one of the museums.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

CHATA
Even with everything a total mess, there's always time to be kind and try to better humanity. Not sure where to start? Don't worry, there's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Help someone with their grocery shopping.
-Donate items to the orphanage.
-Attend to the animals at the animal shelter and hold an adoption drive.
-Steal from the rich and give to the poor.
-Start a food fight.
-Reorganize Freshens and move items to different levels of the store.
-Create a Kickstarter for a new business and pitch your ideas to people.
-Start a petition about something you're passionate about, collect several signatures.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

VIEA VILLAGE
Home is where the heart is, but what is it that you love and value? There's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Plant flowers in front of someone's house.
-Create and organize a game day in Hollingberry Field.
-Set up a stall at the Farmer's Market and sell your goods.
-Do yardwork for a neighbor.
-Egg someone's house.
-Talk about your family and why you love them with someone.
-Do something nice for your neighbor like give them flowers or bake them cookies.
-Tell someone about a family secret you've been keeping.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

ENPRISE
Businesses and empires, items and wares. Enprise's important for those with big goals and big dreams. While those dreams may be on hold, there's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Host a fashion show.
-Return wild animals to their cages in the zoo.
-Swim with the sharks.
-Volunteer to deliver packages around the city for the day.
-Rent/buy paintball equipment and start a city-wide game, tagging buildings as you go.
-Analyze your dreams/nightmares with at least one other person.
-Engage in a duel of your choice with someone.
-Pamper someone. Anyone. Any way you can think of.
-Have a public debate with someone.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

TISSE
Entertainment makes the world go round and there's plenty of entertainment to be found in Tisse. Even if it's just you in the city now, there's a list of tasks assigned as written by Zee.

-Complete the Big Bang Burger challenge (or try, anyway.)
-Buy a dozen cupcakes from the Confectionary and hand them out to strangers.
-Teach a dance lesson at Dancinerate...any kind of dance.
-Beat someone at a video game at the Hubbub Hub Arcade.
-Steal someone's coffee from the pick-up counter at a coffee shop.
-Write a poem about your feelings and share it with someone.
-Create a work of art using whatever you can find.
-Create a large game of crack the whip at the Stardust, skating and convincing people to skate with you.
-Buy someone a drink...anyone...they can even be underaged. (Not that we're condoning that, but trust me, it'll work.)
-Host a performance of any kind at the Atrium.
-Perform one embarrassing stunt in public.

Suggestions, mostly. Leaving this up to you what any of this means, but go forward with good intentions to accomplish them.

What do "suggestions" mean here? It means that while these are ideas, things that push and challenge you and encourage building bonds will work the best. But never fret. There are things outside to do, too.

OUTSIDE
The paint-thinner monsters from last month begin to phase out throughout the month, but several of the creatures around the perimeters of the city begin to move inward, starting to appear around the places that aren't quite filled in yet. Areas that aren't fully painted or areas where tasks aren't being attended to are more prone to being infested with monsters that will need to be defeated.

The roads to Pesgare, Respatrum, Bosuma and Magatus seem to have vanished and any attempts to leave will reroute citizens into the woods or into the ocean. The subway tunnels underground are empty and silent, the sound of trains running echoing through them but no trains come.

Working together to clear out these areas and ensure that certain areas are receiving high enough energy readings is just as important as completing the above tasks.

But then what..?

ZEE

I know, doing tasks for us is getting old, but given your connection to the world you're the only ones with the right kind of souls to generate the energy field needed to wear down the blocks. Work together. Get to know each other. Make this city your own. And report to me as you cross off tasks so I can track the readings of the district. We'll bring them back. Promise.

Welcome to

recolle's June log! The information above provides loose guidelines of things occurring this month, so please feel free to make your own prompts based on these. You are also free to create your own logs and inbox threads.

Characters will not be able to travel to places outside of the city at this time!

As you do these tasks or tasks similar to these, please report them to the correct headers on the JUNE OBJECTIVE REPORTING post in the mod journal! This will help us track what's being done and how it will impact the city for June and July.

As a reminder, you may qualify for a memory freebie in June by threading out one district-objective with at least one person you haven't threaded with before. This thread will qualify when there are at least five consecutive comments from you.

Finally, if you turn in six threads (one for each district) with your character performing an objective, you will qualify for a memory freebie! The threads must be at least 5 consecutive comments long and at least two of them should be with people you have not threaded with before.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yours are bad?

[It's a guess, based on what seem to be pretty harsh words. He actually stops in his work to glance over Yuu's way.]

Y-yeah. Basically. Vampires, a virus that kills off most of humanity. Demons.

[In a nutshell of sorts. Not the most pleasant of memories to get back. Ones he would rather forget. Let alone knowing he will have to deal with fighting for control of his own body from his own demon, and the seraph gene on top of that.]

[Oh.

Well.]

...Tokyo got destroyed in mine. I'm... still not sure why, but...

I think we failed.

[It's not exactly the same - he has no idea what the state of the rest of the world is. But he can definitely sympathize.]

Failed what? To stop something happening to destroy it?

[In Yuu's case, the buildings were fine? More or less, if in varying states of repair and maintenance, with the cities being obviously more populated in comparison. It was more the people that were killed and suffered in the aftermath of the virus. Humanity was close to wiped out, not literally destroyed like Tatsuma is saying here.]

[He nods, still painting even if his gaze isn't totally focused on his work anymore.]

Yeah. I remember people talking about it when I was looking at... what was left.

[And about Yashiro, and about himself - whoever Yashiro was. His memories don't really extend that far, either.]

What was left.

[What exactly had happened? But this....was probably painful. So Yuu isn't sure he should ask. At least not so directly. Instead, he swallows, trying to keep focusing on his own task of painting.]

A lot of the buildings were knocked over.

[What was left.]

We... were probably going to keep fighting, but I don't remember past that.

Knocked over from what? I remember...the buildings back home were fine? Or they seemed to be, more or less. It was just that the people, a lot of them had died from that virus is all.

[So some buildings were older and in more need of maintenance or repair perhaps but. There were obviously some areas in the cities that were better off, more defended and populated in comparison.]

What were you fighting? Do you remember?

[He shakes his head.]

I remember fighting other things, but not whatever caused that.

Oh. That's...probably a good thing? What else did you need to fight? I mean, with what you already got back....

[The strength or whatever. Must have been something pretty difficult to deal with to get to that point? Or for all he knew that sort of thing was just normal back for this guy, in his version of Japan.]

Oni.

[...Or, well.]

...People who were turned into oni.

[His memories are, in general... not great.]

Into oni? Demons.....?

[People turning into demons. Yeah, that didn't sound the best. It was even something Yuu himself could relate to. Considering his own memories of the other him dealing with Ashuramaru trying to take over his body and the seraph on top of that.]

We didn't know why, but... there were people who started attacking and killing others with powers like that. Some of them changed... physically, too.

[Definitely unpleasant.]

I don't know if that's what destroyed everything, or... if it was just one problem out of many.

[There's a lot of mysteries like that, things he doesn't know if he'll ever have an answer to.]

Changed physically how?

[Because. He remembers changing. The wings, his eyes. And that destructive ability and power he had in that one fight he remembers.]

I get that though. My home had issues too.

[He commiserates, as he reaches to paint another star in the darkness above.]

There was a girl who started to grow... hornet wings.

Hornets grew inside of her, too.

[That was by far the most striking change he can recall thus far.]

What about yours?

Mine? Ah.....I think I had wings too. Or, I mean. It was...complicated. Like I was part demon and part seraph or something. From what I remember. There were these drugs to try control it or something.

[But it still seemed like he had trouble with it. At least sometimes, when fighting. Considering what he recalled of that battle in Nagoya against the fellow seraph experiment. Mirai Kimizuki. Yuu bites his lip then, gaze lowering for a moment as his hand pauses in his painting.]

Part seraph?

[That gets him curious, even if it's a cautious sort with that kind of reaction, a gentle prodding. He doesn't remember anything about seraph (and never will), but...]

Hm. Part...angel, I guess. Most would say. I don't think this was the traditional sort of angels though.

[Judging from what he remembered at least. When the seraph took over and what he did then at Nagoya. Not that Yuu had been religious and read the bible to pick up on more about angels, but still. From what he does vaguely know and the pictures he is used to seeing. Feathery white wings and all. That seemed more similar to what that girl had, and even then it was....something was wrong.]

...Like how?

[He sounds extra confused, which is still sort of low-key because it's him, but also he's not terribly religious either.]

Can angels normally use trumpets and monsters and uh......turn things into salt?

[Because that was a Thing. That he remembers. And Yuu himself isn't necessarily religious in the least either to be all that well read about religion and angels. Let alone when he thinks on his wings there. Black and decidedly not feathered like the girl's ones. Like what he was used to seeing in art of angels.]

[Turn things into salt, huh...]

Sometimes they paint them with trumpets, don't they?

Maybe? I'm not exactly all that religious myself.

[Aside from being vaguely aware of some stories of various religions given his travels with his foster father's job once he was adopted. That's varied, especially in a place like America with people from all over. But he is vaguely aware of Christianity and those traditional angels, to some basic knowledge.]