recolle | (no subject)

EVENT

Inverted
The city of Recollé...this feels familiar, doesn't it? Everything about your precious city seems to be calm albeit weird, but that's normal for these parts. Is this just how life is now? Or should you be preparing for something else...?

I.

Hopping through dreams seems to be old hat by now. Have any of you experienced a good night sleep this last month? It seems as though it's inevitable to avoid falling into someone else's dreams, but at least the waking hours are safe...

...until the 5th of August. Though you may be awake and able to carry out your every day lives, Retrospec users will soon find that their surroundings will warp around them to reflect dreams they've been experiencing or memories of places they're familiar with. Hallucinations of these places will be solid enough to encompass you and those around you. People from your dreams and memories will exist and actively encourage you to chase after them, digging deeper to understand who you truly are.

Some of you may find it a step further and discover yourself stuck in someone else's memories swapped out for your own, their hallucinations enclosing you and leaving you trapped in a place unfamiliar.

The entire city may disappear right before your eyes as you roam the new landscape of these memories. Objects can be taken from the scene of the dream and pulled back into reality as a catalyst to break the hallucination. Monsters from the scene can be slain or a user can be coerced into forcing themselves to break the illusion themselves by rejecting what they're seeing. The possibilities are endless and mostly harmless.

After all, several of you have experienced this before, haven't you? While the fog from last October isn't infiltrating the city, your hallucinations are as they spread far and wide, even going so far as to notify NPCs of certain changes around them.

Good luck explaining that one.

II.

Dreamshares and hallucinations are quite cumbersome, aren't they? Manageable though they may be, they're nothing but a mild annoyance at this point and it may feel as though you're making some progress in avoiding them.

However, for several users, falling asleep and waking up may have some rather drastic results.

Upon awakening, you may find yourself somewhere you aren't familiar. You might be in someone else's bed, or perhaps you're in an entirely different district than you fell asleep in. Something feels off about yourself and you'll wake up with a slight headache and dizzying sensation. It will pass within the hour, at least.

It's only when you start to look closer that you realize something is incredibly wrong. These hands don't belong to you, nor do these clothes or these walls. Your mind is the same and you remember everything as it should be, but your body belongs to another. You may recognize the person whose body you now inhabit, or perhaps you're incredibly unlucky and you've been swapped with a stranger.

Get out there and find your match, Retrospecters. Swapping back won't be as simple as you may hope. It seems that the ability to swap back to normal is unique to every set of citizens and can range from talking things out, bodily colliding with one another, falling asleep and hoping it fixes itself or other circumstances.

The longer you find yourself in the body of someone else, however, the more you'll find yourself taking on their mannerisms or obtaining their regained memories for yourself. You may even start to believe you are that person now. Careful not to lose yourselves.

III.
Never fear! Despite the bodyswapping that seems to be going on, Retrospec will still recognize users as themselves. Posting to the network will still attach the correct name to the correct users even if they're wearing someone else's face. The trouble, it seems, is that Retrospec itself is starting to fall apart.

Some posts may appear twice due to errors in accepting new posts. Messages will be sent to people you don't mean to send them to, and in some cases your entire name field may be changed to a name you don't recognize. Messages will appear scrambled on occasion, and most importantly while you're posting you may receive strange messages as well.

Small, descriptive blurbs about yourself will appear in your mailbox detailing information about yourself, places you've gone, items you've received and notations about unique properties and abilities you may have. Pictures of you from your current location will be mailed to yourself, and one of two words will appear.

For those who have been on the app for over a year, they will receive: Alpha.
Anyone who has been on the app for less than a year will receive: Beta.

What does that mean? That's a great question. Perhaps you should ask one another.

IV.
So really, you might come to realize that a good solution to escape all of this ridiculousness is to hightail it out of the city and head for one of the four surrounding regions. Nobody needs to stay in Recollé. It's summer vacation! School doesn't start until September and if things don't improve in the city it might be easier to process what's happening outside.

For those who venture to those regions though they'll notice a distinct difference in them from their usual presence. Magatus is still covered in sand instead of snow, and for anyone who enters Bosuma they'll notice that the flowers are beginning to blacken and wither. The water levels around Pesgare are below average as fish begin to struggle to find new places to live, and the temperature in Respatrum has dropped to an unusually chilly 80 degrees fahrenheit.

While natives of Magatus don't seem to be alarmed, the other three regions will be distressed and uncertain of how to change what's happening around them. They will mention that there have been signs of this coming for some time now but that it's unlike anything that's normal for the region.

More importantly, however, they'll pause when they look at you and they'll be hesitant to continue. It seems they'll be more distracted by bright blue Retrospec symbol tattooed on the side of your neck, glowing even through any fabrics you may be wearing. The symbol will disappear and fade once users return to Recollé, but should they venture out again the mark will return with a vengeance.

BONUS.
On the evening of the 5th, every single user will receive an unmarked, unlabeled package addressed to them. Should they choose to open this package they will find several puzzle pieces in monochromatic colors.

As users begin to put together the puzzle, they'll notice that some pieces are missing. These pieces can be found scattered around the city in locations they usually frequent, but the full picture remains blurred no matter how much of the puzzle they complete. It's only when you find the last puzzle piece and slip it into place that the picture comes into focus.

The colors are muted but the image is clear. A backside view of yourself is clearly outlined in the light from the door, but there's a message printed at the bottom of each puzzle in the same Retrospec blue.

"Turn him to any cause of policy, the Gordian Knot of it he will unloose, familiar as his garter."

Welcome to

recolle's August event!

As notated, this is the first event log! The effects of this log will only go until the night of 8/16. After this time, a new log for dream dives and further information and other things in the month will go up on 8/17!

Please note: dream dives have not started yet! They will not be icly in effect until 8/17.

For Prompt I, any items taken from the hallucinations should be small-scale items if they are canon-based. If they're AU-based, please keep them at a reasonable size. Characters should be able to carry items themselves in order to retrieve them from the dream.

As a reminder, if you are planning to keep changes to your AU at the end of this month, please leave us a comment here!

Finally, 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

[ as long as they understood each other. eren appreciates the lack of depth for respect of both intoners. otherwise . . .

he probably would’ve either pushed for a more straightforward answer or hounded her to go home and fix this if she wanted to fix it. ]

Not yet. [ amelia’s probably keeping it cool, getting it together (throwing a pillow at the wall). ] If you can’t go home, at least let me take you somewhere nearby it.

[ he’s got his motorcycle over there, and she’d have to take passenger seat and hope to god kurt didn’t see it and find it funny eren was riding with his mom straddled in his backseat. there’s an extra helmet for the occasion, and enough space to comfortably keep their distance from each other. that’s a road already half trekked for all parties, in fact. ]

No. [ it's firmer this time. Jen doesn't realize she's scowling; it seems so easy to do with this new face of hers. ] I'm not going anywhere near her. I'm sure you can understand why.

[ Jen put her hands on her hips. she wasn't going to budge on this. it didn't matter how convenient things would be, she wasn't going to go anywhere near the apartment as long as Lina was there. plus, if there's another incident, she has her lease to think about. forget about her landlord for two seconds, her mother would absolutely recall her back to Seattle if her home was somehow ruined. it would be the absolute deal-breaker. ]

We'll have to meet somewhere else. If she's not answering she's probably still asleep, or she left my phone behind. She... probably can't get far without my arm, anyway.

[ he gets it. no arguments there and only a nod that follows a pause of thought.

💡 ideas ]

Recollé Woods. That’s where we’d go to train.

[ if she can connect the dots— space, lots of it, and if they ventured deeper there was no one around. trees could be fixed and replanted with powers. if she wanted to feel secure, it’s there. ]

[ the only dots Jen is connecting are between following two people she doesn't know away from the city and people to accomplish God knows what in the name of restoring two of them to their rightful bodies. if that's even something they can control in the first place. again, her experience with Retrospec is fairly limited but things have a habit of needing to run their course unless something is spell out for them. this switch didn't exactly come with any forewarning, and if there's a list of requirements or tasks to complete, she hasn't seen it yet. ]

What? I'm not going all the way out there. Especially not like this. [ gesturing to herself. ] I'll go back to the place where I woke up... wherever that was. She can come to me, or you can go get her. I don't care as long as Lina doesn't get involved.

[ even if the apartment is going to be fairly private, she can at least find some security in staying close to the city. besides, if things got hairy she could always just go Dogzilla again and make a break for it. or break things. ]

And risk another traffic accident? It could be a person instead of a car next time, it doesn’t have to be Lina. You’ll get Amelia in jail.

[ eren sighs a little heavily, and gives himself a minute to breathe— it’s hard to help when your help isn’t good enough. ]

I’m offering to take you, you just need to sit, and Amelia will go to you the minute she gets these messages. [ not only that, but— ] I don’t want to be in the middle of town to restrain you if you need it, either. We’ll tear down buildings.

Hey! I'm totally capable of keeping myself under control. I think.

[ way to undermine your own point, Jen. she doesn't look the least bit pleased but she earnestly thinks she's too tired and sore to fly off the handle again like that. then again. she's also less sore... huh. ]

Look. Take me to her apartment, I'll put on some clothes, then once this lady gets back to you we can figure out the rest. [ best case scenario, Lina has gone to work by then and she can just deal with this in the comfort of her own home. ] Or I'll just wander the streets until I get ticketed for... I don't know. Indecent exposure or jaywalking.

Doubt is reassuring.

[ that’s sarcasm. she’s not giving him any confidence to leave her alone. he knows what happened the first time amelia turned, it was not under control, and neither were the first other few times with him. imagine that in someone else’s inexperienced hands?

augh, this is really hard. he thinks neither of those options are the right ones, but hey. no one said he couldn’t stick around to watch her until amelia arrived. ]

I’ll take you there.

[ but the rest of his intentions, he omits. ]

[ it didn't particularly matter if everyone involved liked the situation. that would just keep them on even footing with Jen who was absolutely loathing all of this. she gestured forward. let's just get this over with? ] Alright, good. Lead the way, dude.

[ oh my god it’s really, really, really weird hearing amelia wagner call him dude. so weird that eren frowns out of confusion for a split second. ]

. . . It’s Eren.

[ he would rather ]

Alright. Eren. [ is he happy now? can they go? look she's in sleepwear in the streets and even if this was her own body and it was just a tank top and shorts it would be more than a little uncomfortable, so she's going to start moving even if he's not. ]