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EVENT

REVERTED.
"Every moment is a fresh beginning." - T. S. Eliot

Happy July, Retrospecters. Can you believe it's been nearly a year since the city was under attack and several of you were pulled and lost in Unreality? Time sure does fly, doesn't it? But don't fret. It seems as though the city is in for a real vacation this time...rest easy.

THE BEGINNING
Recollé has been fully restored thanks to the effort of the citizens working to paint the city back to life and breaking down the layers separating the city from most of its non-Retrospec users. The sky is painted multiple colors (a permanent fixture, it seems) and some buildings and plants are extraordinary but everything appears to be in solid, functional condition. All buildings are where they should be. The roads are safe. And everyone around you appears to be preparing for one of two celebrations...

THE 4TH OF JULY
With the 4th of July tomorrow, citizens of Recollé are preparing for their own celebration. Much like last year, the city will be preparing with a large gathering at Peach Beach, food trucks aplenty, discounts at several stores in Tisse and Enprise, and of course at 9pm sharp the beautiful and historical fireworks display will begin. Street vendors sell glowsticks and lemonade as everyone gathers to watch the show in the sky.

This year, however, while the fireworks display still shows events of the city's history citizens may recognize a few new scenes added to the show. As they look up into the sky they'll notice scenes depicting several of the events that have happened over the last year ranging from the Retrospec bingo games to the nightmare fog to the mistletoe bats and more. This year will also include scenery and displays from the four regions around the city. Perhaps you recognize these events a little too well. Care to share the tale with your neighbor?

TANABATA
It seems as though this week is a non-stop celebration though. As the 4th of July ends, several members of the city are hard at work in preparation for Tanabata. Celebrated on Saturday, July 7th this year, residents are hard at work decorating areas in Tribunal Terrace and Chata with massive colorful streamers and moving in several bamboo plants. Stalls are set up and prepared and carnival games line the sidewalks for citizens to play.

On the evening of the 7th, all are invited to attend the celebration and try Japanese cuisine, play a few games, and most importantly write a wish on a colored sheet of paper to hang on one of the bamboo trees.

No matter how citizens choose to celebrate at this festival, for anyone who makes a wish and hangs it on the tree they will soon receive a Retrospec ticket in their mailbox. While your wish may take time to be granted, good fortune is upon you and a free gift has been provided.

THE NPCS
NPCs are back in the city and all is well. They are unaware of the layers they were caught between but they are grateful and happy to see you again! Professors will be lenient of students whose finals have been delayed, employers will inquire about your vacation time, and your friends and family may constantly badger you for time and attention. Isn't that nice?

In addition, citizens of the city may now place calls to members outside of the city for up to five minutes. While that pesky growling problem still appears at the tail end of all conversations, citizens will be able to reach out to anyone in the world and speak for that length of time. Let's just hope your loved ones aren't too bothered by the previous radio silence.

THE DREAMS
What was that about resting easy? Perhaps you won't be able to as well as you'd like. Though everything appears to be fine, the moment you close your eyes beginning on July 3rd, you may find yourself plagued by strange, unusual dreams. As you dream you'll find yourself experiencing everything from wild scenarios set in space or on a pirate ship to everyday, mundane interactions. Your dreams will reflect who you are, but...maybe in a different light. Perhaps your siblings aren't related to you in your dreams, or perhaps your hair is a different color. Maybe you find yourself dreaming about a whole different lifestyle than the one you currently possess. Why, you could even be one of the lucky ones and dream about those memories you've been receiving since you've joined the app.

Then again, you'll also find that you aren't dreaming alone. When you look, you may find that someone has joined you. It's easy to move in dreams and intrude on other people's dreams. You may choose to watch the scene play out or find yourself able to change scenarios within these dreams. Some of you will recognize what is and isn't real, but...what is real anymore? Aren't you curious what it all means?

The moment you awake, however, these dreams will fade away and simply be dreams.

THE QUESTS
If you're looking for a way to pass the time and bring a little adventure to your life, a new feature on the Retrospec app is the quest hotline! By submitting a request, Retrospec will generate a new task for you to accomplish either in the city or around one of the four regions. While Retrospec cannot claim that all tasks will be exciting, all tasks given are important to the functionality of the city.

Or perhaps you're interested in exploring Mementos or Tartarus...? Just what are these new places anyway? Strange.

Happy questing!

THE REGIONS
Travel is available once more for the regions outside of the city, though do watch out for the common monsters that still linger between districts. It will take three hours by boat southward to Pesgare, an hour underground eastward to Respatrum, two hours west via horseback to Bosuma and seven hours via driving north to Magatus. Depending on where you travel though you may find some surprises waiting for you.

Fishing season is at its prime in Pesgare and it's the perfect place for a seaside getaway this summer. The region remains untouched and stable, and the economy is thriving once more thanks to the repairs after their tsunami and the work of Retrospec users.

In Respatrum, the workers in the mines don't seem to mind the heat and continue crafting and creating. Anyone who ventures into these parts will be put to work, but may be rewarded with small tokens and hospitality from the natives of this region.

Bosuma, however, is a little different. The Swamp Witch is nowhere to be found though the forest is alit with bright, blooming flowers, strange multicolored animals and friendly natives from a nearby village in the woods. Monsters lurk the deeper parts of the woods, but one would actively have to go looking for them.

But should one linger in this region for too long, they may soon discover that they'll start to see things...not just things, but people. Vivid, life-like forms of people you've seen in your memories will appear before you even if you're unaware of who they are. They seem to beckon you to come closer, happy to see you and encouraging you to explore the forest further. Some of these forms may engage in combat if the relationship you remember is a hostile one. Should you follow or fight them, however, you will soon find yourself lost in the woods and it may take days to return to the city. Do keep sight of what's real, won't you?

Finally, over in Magatus, for anyone who has ventured there before they may be expecting the snowy mountains and ski lodge. However, it's summer! Snow isn't fit for the summer and as residents approach the region they'll come to find that the ice-capped mountains have been replaced with cliffs, sand dunes and a desert-esque climate. The iced-over lake is now perfect for swimming and further exploration will lead you to a path in the mountains that's the perfect height for cliff-jumping into waters below. This is the perfect region for you outdoorsy, camping types. Just be careful of the scorpions and rattlesnakes out there.

THE CITY
It's summer vacation everywhere. How are you spending your days? Maybe it isn't such a bad idea to listen to Joanne and plan your days with fun and exciting ventures. Parties and meetings and spending time with your friends...it sounds nice, doesn't it? Even if some of you may notice your friends seem...off.

The city is peaceful. Everything seems to be calm and safe, so much that you may not even notice the difference at first. It all begins in mid-July though. One moment you're sitting in a café and the next you realize you're wearing an apron and you feel as though you should be working behind the counter. One moment you're sitting in your bedroom and the next you look up and notice that the items on your wall have changed. These little hallucinations are minimal and only last a few moments, but they will begin to increase as the month goes on and leading straight into August.

But hey. It's probably nothing to worry about.

Welcome to

recolle's July 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.

Regarding Tanabata! If you would like to claim a free 10-20 point item, please head to the regains page and submit as normal! Please indicate that it is a Tanabata freebie.

Characters are free to travel to one of the four regions this month (Pesgare, Respatrum, Bosuma, Magatus), but keep in mind the effects/changes as listed above.

As a reminder, you may qualify for an additional freebie this month by threading out a dream sequence with at least one person experiencing a new AU! This thread must be at least five consecutive comments from you.

Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here. Be sure to review the mods' question thread on the plotting post for important information as well!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Unfortunately, Satsuki being launched like a bat out of hell after the bird only served to startle it more, dashing off well beyond her reach. At least it let go of the paper, finally, but Satsuki couldn't get close enough to grab it, needing to focus on her landing. Which wasn't really that graceful, sort of just slamming back down with a squat, wincing as her knees shook.

"Gotta... get used to landing when I do that, still."

Yeah, that—right, okay, she was chasing after a bird, sorry, she'd gotten more than a little distracted by the literal superhuman feat she was watching unfold right in front of her. She winced right with Satsuki on hearing that impact; her knees were probably going to go to shit in a few months if she kept that kind of thing up.

"Retrospec gave you that?" she asked, making what she felt was a pretty solid assumption. "All they gave me was this hair." No need to get immediately bitter about it or anything. No need to be a huge bitch quite yet.

"Y-yeah," Satsuki winced again as she tried to slowly right herself back to a standing position, stumbling a bit as she did so, especially when turning to face Lina again.

"Oh, that's a cute color...," it reminded her of the sea, actually.

A normal, nice person probably would've helped Satsuki out. Lina wasn't either of those, unfortunately, so she just left this girl to stumble back to her feet and then compliment her hair, which, yeah, sure, okay. She could live with that.

"Thanks," she said, trying not to sound too distracted. "So like, can we try something that won't break your body?" A little bit of her actual, non-saccharine demeanor came out at that and she didn't really bother stopping it. Oh well, right? "Don't want to burn a wish hoping you can survive getting hospitalized."

"I think the bird dropped your wish, actually," Satsuki looked back up to the sky, trying in vain to find where it might have dropped from to get an idea of where it landed.

At that, Lina's eyes went wide and she tried her best to keep her cool as she searched the area—and saw the brightly-colored strip of paper she'd written her wish on stuck in the brush of a nearby shrub, and suddenly the most important thing in the world was making damn sure Satsuki didn't see what she wrote down.

She didn't trust her for a second, because she barely trusted anybody as far as she could throw them, so she made a not-so-casual rush for it and nearly tripped face-first. Again. Fucking hell, was she drunk? Maybe she just really didn't want anybody else to know how desperate she was for enough money to live off that she was making wishes to the gods for help.

"Hey hey, easy. I wasn't gonna peak," Satsuki shook her head, reaching to try and help Lina steady herself.

"Friend of Jen's is a friend of mine, always. I wouldn't violate another girl's private thoughts and desires like that."

"Oh." Um. Okay. If Satsuki thought Jen was her friend, then yeah, maybe Lina could, like. Ride this one out? She was being afforded some privacy, and it meant she could just... walk up, like a regular human being, and grab her tanzaku instead.

And she did, and she folded it up and put it in her pocket, and that was that. Jesus, she really did have a habit of making things difficult for herself. "Well, um. Thanks for your help. I appreciate that you... you know, know what privacy is." Yeah, she was good at talking. "So did you fill one of these out?"

"Y-yeah," Satsuki let out a slight, nervous chuckle.

"I did. It was kind of pathetic, though. But who knows, maybe it'll work? Even a pathetic wish can still mean something, I guess. Maybe that's a childish way of thinking, but I figure tonight of all night's a good time to be a little childish."

"Yeah, I mean. The whole thing's mostly for kids anyway," Lina said, trying not to sound like she placed too much stock into this. But in times of turmoil (in times like these), she was willing to take any chance she could get.

"Mine's pretty pathetic, too, so at least we're in good company." That pathos extended beyond just Lina's wish, in her mind, but she was trying to keep this... sort of light? "Who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky?"

"One can only hope. Never hurts to hope! So says the Pirate Queen!" she gave a laugh at her own dorkiness, fully aware of how silly it sounded to speak in character outside the ring.

"The pirate queen," she repeated without any sort of gravity behind it—before she remembered that yeah, that was a name she was supposed to recognize. Oh well. "I didn't know you were supposed to be some kind of shonen hero on top of a wrestler. The Pirate Queen, friend to all children," she teased.

"Trust me, there isn't a whole lot of difference between a pro wrestling hero and a shounen manga hero. The writing is mostly the same. Especially back in Japan," another laugh.

"Oh, I've definitely heard. I don't really follow it, but what is it, uh, NJPW?" She has friends who talk about it, and she wasn't actually expecting it to come up, like, ever? "Isn't there actually a tag team called Golden☆Lovers?" No, she doesn't know how she did that with her mouth. "Wrestling is so wild."

"Oh hell yeah, I went drinking with those guys back in Japan. Kenny and Kota are absolute sweethearts. Total nerds, too," Satsuki giggled. "And if you've heard the rumor that it's not just a name, I'm not gonna confirm or deny anything," but she gave a wink, regardless.

"Holy shit." This is... cool? Like, Lina doesn't want it to be cool because she is, on the inside, very bitter about people who can just casually go to other countries and drink with pro wrestlers. But at the same time, like, celebrity encounters are kind of cool? She guesses. This one that she's hearing about right now is, at least.

"But you just did." She forces a smile, both because she's trying to let herself admit this is kind of cool and because she's about to ask the dumbest, weebiest question she's asked in a while. "So what's Japan like?"

Relax, Lina. She doesn't know how much anime you watch. It's fine.

"Keep in mind, I didn't travel out into the rest of the country that often, but living in Koutou in Tokyo was pretty lively even if I didn't. Me and the other girls would usually party at AgeHa, if you've ever heard of that club. Legendary place. That's where I met a lot of other wrestlers, too!" Satsuki laughed.

"The big thing, and no city in the US compares to this not even Recolle, was just being able to hop on a train and be anywhere else in Tokyo in, like, no time at all. Considering how massive that city is, it took some getting used to."

"It must be so nice being in a city that's actually built around public transportation." No, she's not still bitter about the subway, don't be ridiculous.

"I wish I could afford to go out there one day, even if I don't think I'd be able to handle a club. Especially one with a reputation like that." She's not even familiar with the name, so there's a noticeable blind spot in her research. "But it's thousands of dollars, you know? And if I end up with that kind of money, there's..." Other things she'd take care of. Shit, she's talking too much. She shakes her head like the conversation is an Etch-a-Sketch that she wants to wipe clean.

"It sounds like a lot of fun, is my point."

"I mean, it was fun, but you gotta keep in mind I was there to work, to pursue my career and my dream. I had to suffer poverty while there, early mornings to hit the dojo, late nights in ice baths after training, it wasn't all a good time."

Satsuki hummed. "I don't regret it, but my days there were definitely hard on me, physically."

Edited 2018-07-19 00:26 (UTC)

"Really."

Well, that's news to Lina. She's so used to the idea of people who can afford to go to other places just having everything set. If she had to live in poverty, though, that does change things. Now Lina can just be bitter about how she made it and has actually done something with her life and the fact that she herself fucking hasn't yet and what is she doing wrong. Normal stuff.

"I didn't realize the training was so intense. Were the ice baths on purpose or could you not afford hot water?" Sorry, she's just gonna pry for a little bit. Also she's not sorry.

"Ice baths help when you're being thrown around and whipped into steel cables for twelve hours a day," Satsuki shrugged.

"Oh." Yeah, okay, that does make sense. "Hold on, they're made of steel? And people still... do all those things with them?"

Wow, wrestling sounds dangerous. Good thing it's fake.

"If they weren't, they'd break. And they have to have a lot of tension in them, but not *too* much. Ring set up is complicated. I had to do it for, like, a year, during my time at the dojo," Satsuki nodded.

"It teaches you a lot of respect for everything that goes into creating the magic of the match."

"Holy shit," she says, almost forgetting that she's supposed to be jealous. Like she said, she's never been too into wrestling, but she didn't think it would be... so involved. "I knew the wrestlers worked hard to sell it but I didn't realize the, uh. Techs did so much."

Which, she has to assume, is the idea. Working in the background to make sure everything goes seamlessly and the theatricality is never once disrupted. Shit, she should probably respect techs more. Turns out Lina has a strong opinion on thankless jobs.

"Does the talent actually give a shit about you?"

"In Japan, at least. It was a huge cultural thing to thank the crew before and after every show. The performer's life is in the crew's hands," Satsuki nodded.

"Respect the crew, respect your opponent, respect the audience, and respect the art. The basic rules of working in the pro wrestling world."