(no subject)

[recollecters]

EVENT

Reverted The city of Recollé...have you looked beyond the city lately? It may be time to do so. I. The good news, perhaps, is that everyone is back in their original bodies. The last few weeks may have been trying and embarrassing for several of you, but never fear! You're all in this together. The nice thing about returning to your original body is that everything else seems to disappear along with the unintentional swapping. Your dreams on the evening of the 16th and the 17th are unoccupied and you're blissfully alone. Hallucinations fade away and the city almost feels brighter and cleaner. The messy paint job from May and June slowly flakes off to reveal a sparkling almost-new landscape below. All buildings, landmarks, flora and fauna are back to their original colors. The sky, however, is still painted a strange wash of colors and symbols. The other nice thing about returning to your original body is that it's much easier to feel the sudden, sharp pain on your palm at midnight on the 18th, a needling high-pressure pain that lasts for all of 30 seconds. Upon looking at your hand, however, you'll notice something new. In bright red font there's a new marking that reads: 13 Days:23:59:59. 58. 57. 56... The timer steadily counts down, each second synced with each beat of your heart. As the days pass by the timer will slowly shift from the red to a dark, ominous purple. The glow of the mark becomes harder to ignore, and there doesn't seem to be a way to remove it. Good luck with that. II. The Retrospec app doesn't seem to be much better. The scrambled messages and posting errors seem to have stopped and users are no longer receiving messages and pictures about themselves. In fact, the app seems to be quiet for a while. As users continue to use the app they will find that any post, comment or message that they send via the app will be tagged with a different ID. Instead of their name, all messages will be from Alpha##### or Beta#####. The string of numbers will be unique for each user and cannot be changed at any time. Individual mailboxes will be attached to your name, but the Alpha/Beta ID has made its way there, too. Over the course of the rest of the month, Alphas (those who have had the app for at least a year from August 2017) will find that messages to other Alphas are sent more easily than to Betas (those who have had the app for less than a year from August 2017) and vice versa. Messages to anyone from the opposite "faction" may drop out half-way or appear blank entirely. It might be wise to find a better mode of communication in the meantime. III. Even if you're alone in your dreams, you're not alone in the waking world. No one is free from the timer on their palm, though they may come to find that it impacts some users more than others. Some users will experience a steady pulsating in their hand as the timer counts backwards, each second ticking by. Standing still just long enough will send the pulse out of their hands and through the rest of their body, over their arms and through their feet straight into the ground. The earth begins to shake under these unlucky users, little quakes and trembles that spread out and seek out anyone else nearby. Whether you know this person or not, whether you're alone or several of you are impacted by this earthquake, the ground beneath you splits open and you're pulled straight down into the crevice, falling aimlessly. Instead of finding your own life flashing before your eyes, you'll find yourself witnessing events, faces, and memories that are important to the user the pulses came from. On the outside of things, the user will promptly collapse into a coma-like state no matter where they're at. Inside their mind, however, a scene begins to set itself to welcome you as you land. It isn't a memory and it isn't a hallucination. It's a construct of someone else's innerworkings that have trapped you and blocked you in. As the haze around you dissipates, the puzzle you received earlier this month floats in front of you. Whether you have finished building it or not it is now fully completed and all of the words have faded except for "Gordian Knot." Your cell phones will not work in these dreamscapes, and even Retrospec seems to be disconnected. It's up to you to venture further into someone else's mind and help them untangle whatever mystery is hidden within themselves. IV. So about that timer. As time begins to run out, more and more people begin to experience dream dives and encounter the knots of others that they must fix. Even inside the dreamscape, the timer glows just as brightly as it had out in the real world and it continues counting down. At least it gives you a sense of time and just how many minutes, hours, or days you've been stuck inside someone's subconscious. You might even realize that the timer is directly tied to just how much time you have to unravel the knots of your friends, loved ones, and strangers. Easy, right? Take caution, citizens. The monsters and demons lurking in the corners of someone else's psyche can manifest to something quite powerful. You will not wake up and be booted out of someone's dream if you are attacked, but your physical body and mind will shut down and remain unconscious for one week. Be careful how you approach these knots, however! Should you change any part of them too much, the host will find themselves rejecting this new information. Too great of a change will result in the loss of an important memory to them and no way to recover it inside the dive. Even with these possible losses divers are responsible for fixing what's gone wrong and relieving the knot wound tightly in the host's mind. Venture forward, explore, and break it apart to awaken then. You will be greatly rewarded for your effort. Failure to break the knot and save the host from this comatose state will result in all parties suffering a loss. At first it may not be obvious, but over time it will be clear an important memory or item has left your possession. Is it just limited to dives though? Some users will feel that even with successful diving they don't quite feel like themselves. It seems as though there's some further self-evaluation they must meet in order to fully recover who they are...or were, as it may be. Tick-tock, Retrospecters. Mind the time. BONUS. Ever since he moved in back in February, the lights have always been on in Zee's office and home at the top of the Towers. Office hours are whenever he feels like making them and he's usually reachable by phone, email, or app. However, beginning on the 18th, messages to his inbox begin to go unanswered. Checking the inbox itself will reveal a change as well. Delta#02018329 is no longer receiving messages. On the 19th, the lights go off permanently. Beginning on the 20th, anyone who ventures to his office will find the building empty and locked, no sign of Zee at all. Reaching out to him receives a bounce-back error message. Any previous correspondences with him will remain, though his name has been replaced with his Delta ID. It's hard to say what's happened, but after some time, all users will finally receive a message from Delta#68422. Stop him. No other messages will be sent or received from this account. Welcome to recolle's August event, part 2! As notated in the plotting post, the dreamdives are now live! Players are in charge of creating their own unique dive experiences for characters to explore and play through. These can be as harmless or as dangerous as you'd like. However, please be sure to let us know here if your character will be failing a dive and what memory/item they will be losing! For Prompt II, characters IDs will be comprised of the following: The date your character first appeared on Retrospec (so in Zee's case, that was 02/01/18) and the last four digits of your character's IC inbox as found in the HTML (in Zee's case, 8329.) These IDs will be more relevant in September, but for ease of playing/making sure no one ICly overlaps please use these numbers! Friendly reminder that if your character will be keeping their new AUs, please reply to this comment on the OOC plot post! As per Prompt IV, characters who are failing to recover their original AUs will begin to notice something is off and will not be able to accomplish what is needed to regain their original AUs. What this is is up to you! As per the plotting post, threading out successful dream dives will earn you a free memory! Qualifying threads must be at least five comments from you and can be from you either hosting a dive or participating in one. Please note that failed dives will not be eligible for freebies. 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!

Comments

[blondferret]

I. There's a countdown on my hand

Anyone else have this freaky ass number count down on their hand? Red numbers?

III. Dream Dive: Help Derek find his Missing Memories!

Level 1: Sorting Hat- Welcome to Hogwarts!

When you enter Derek's psyche, you will first notice that everything is black. Something is covering your eyes. You are sitting on a small stool and you hear quiet whispering of teenagers. Before you can even move to do anything a voice starts talking in your head.

"Hmmm, very interesting. Well, better be... SLYTHERIN!"

Something is pulled off of your head and you discover you are in a large hall with four long tables filled with young teenagers. They are all dressed in uniforms with black robes. Welcome to Hogwarts! The lady behind you prompts you to go and join your fellow Slytherins. She indicates to a table that is cheering and whose students are wearing green neckties. You will notice that what was on your head was a very old witch hat... and it has a face and mouth. Go join your fellow classmates and get to know them. There is one surrounded by many classmates talking and laughing with him. His platinum blond hair sticks out from the crowd. The seat across from him is empty. If you choose to sit down, he will look at you for a moment, as if he was studying you, wondering if you really belonged.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. Who are you?"

Level 2: English Literature Classroom

Those who make it past a young Draco Malfoy will find themselves transported to an Freshman English Literature class at Recolle University. In the seat next to you is a nineteen year old Derek, talking to a girl to his right. She is very beautiful, with very curly brown hair. She laughs at something he says and then waves good-bye leaving the classroom. Derek's eyes follow her every movement until she exits. Once gone, Derek slumps in his chair, his face slightly pink and just looking down at his hands in his lap. You should probably see what's up with him.

Level 3: Doors

Before you are two doors. One says "Recolle Crime Lab," the other is a very large, steel door with a huge lock on it. If you try to open it, your attempts will be futile. You need to find the key. You'll have a better chance if you explore the crime lab first. Perhaps you'll find something to open it with.

If your patient enough, you'll find a desk with the name plate, "Derek Matthews." Perhaps there is something here that will help you.

Level 4: Open the Door- Unlock the Memories

Now that you have the key, will you use it to open the door? When you open the door, you will see a small garden behind a two story English house. A young 3 year old Derek runs around giggling being chased by his two parents, his birth parents.

"Mummy is going to catch you Damien!"

Little Derek giggles with glee... or is it Damien???

[ooc: All levels are required to find the real Derek. Let me know if you want me to throw monsters at you at any point in the dream dive.

Contact me at beianzhen]

Dreamdive

[toobigtohandle]

[Kenta has... literally no idea of what he's doing here, especially surrounded by little kids. He feels very out of place, but he can recognize that this is probably a school from the uniform. That at least is relatively familiar. The kids are separated in groups, and for now Kenta just goes to sit in the empty seat. The boy sitting in front of him looks familiar...

He introduces himself and Kenta frowns.]

Have you changed names again, Derek? This is starting to get confusing.

Re: Dreamdive

[blondferret]

[Draco narrows his eyes and frowns.]

Change my name? I just told you my name you dolt. I'm Draco Malfoy. Are you saying you've never heard of me? How can you have been sorted into Slytherin and you've never heard the Malfoy name? What's your family name?

[Just as Draco finishes his string of question, the table is magically filled with platters and platter of food. Chicken legs, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pasties, pumpkin juice, Yorkshire puddings, and just about everything imaginable you'd think would be an a huge English feast.

Draco instantly starts filling his plate.]

[toobigtohandle]

Oh, and your last name too. Of course. No, I've never heard the name Malfoy.

[Kenta just... stares at the food that just appeared. he thinks he probably looks like a ten-year-old right now, but he just can't bring himself to act like one just to see how things get. Besides, he was an odd kid himself, so even if he acted like himself at ten, he'd stick out like a sore thumb.]

My name is Ooshima. It hasn't changed.

[blondferret]

[Kenta, you stick out like a sore thumb anyway to Draco.]

Never? Our parents must run in different circles. Ooshima right? I've never heard of your family. What do they do?

[toobigtohandle]

They're Yakuza. Crime syndicate.

[Technically, he's told Derek that before... but this child version named Draco probably won't remember.]

But I don't think you've heard of that before.

dreamdive

[thisloveisjustice]

Ah. Slytherin. This is that school Derek is remembering. Tatsuo looks down at himself and sees he's wearing a uniform similar to the one Derek had recently gotten from the mailbox. And judging by the size of his hands... he's child-sized himself. About ten or eleven.

Making his way over to the green decked table, Tatsuo notices a boy who looks very much what he'd imagine an eleven year old Derek to look like. Just... more closed off somehow...

"Hello," Tatsuo says as he sits down across from Draco. "I'm Tatsuo Kihara. Nice to meet you Draco."

He hopes. Derek had said this other-him was a bit of a brat.

Re: dreamdive

[blondferret]

[Draco's eyebrows raise at Tatsuo's last name.]

Kihara was it? I've never heard of your family. What do they do?

Re: dreamdive

[thisloveisjustice]

[Shit. What kind of response is he supposed to give. He doesn't know anything about wizards past what he knows through Derek. They wave little sticks and cast spells. And go to a school where students have to be worried about 'horrors' within 'secret chambers.' Clearly, he's going to have to make something up.]

My parents and I only moved to the UK last year. The rest of our family is still in Japan. They're in agriculture. My father cultivates rare species of trees.

[bonsai, his father grows bonsai, but try explaining that to a British boy going to a wizarding school]

Re: dreamdive

[blondferret]

[The "rare species of trees" piques Draco's interest.]

What are the trees used for? Does he cultivate them for potion ingredients? Did your father move to the UK, to expand his business?

[As Draco is asking many questions to Tatsuo, food starts to magically appear on the table. Chicken and turkey legs, mashed and sweet potatoes, rolls and Yorkshire puddings, and a variety of vegetables. Goblets are filled to the brim with pumpkin juice. Draco's eyes light up and he grabs a turkey leg. He pushes the plate an inch or so closer to Tatsuo.]

Re: dreamdive

[thisloveisjustice]

Potion ingredients? No, they are purely ornamental. But yes, he's hoping to find a market in the UK for them.

[Tatsuo is surprised, to say the least, when the food starts appearing. He tries the pumpkin juice and finds it odd, but refreshing, and when Draco nudges the platter of turkey legs a little closer, Tatsuo helps himself to one.]

dreamdive

[promisedyou]

[ Interesting, huh? Well, she doesn't really know what this 'Slytherin' thing is all about, but it looks like she'll just have to play along. Although the scrutiny that seems to come from him is rather annoying so she might as well put on some airs of confidence as she takes her seat, straightening herself out.

It's kind of hilarious, really, considering that she probably sticks out like a sore thumb as well when you keep into consideration her bright green hair and aquamarine eyes. Almost as if she suited the colors of the Slytherin house.

Debating on what name she should use, she decides to eventually go with, speaking sternly: ]

I'm Sonozaki. Sonozaki Mion. I didn't happen to bother you, did I?

Re: dreamdive

[blondferret]

[Draco look at the girl in front of him, analyzing her up and down, which is pretty impressive for an 11 year old really. Her attitude toward him was... different. Respectful? No. But confident? Yes. And that piqued his interest.]

Not really. The seat was empty anyway. It's not like I was saving if for anyone. Not that I care. The feast will be starting soon.

[As soon as he mentioned the fast, the food magically appeared on the table. Chicken and turkey legs, mashed and sweet potatoes, rolls and Yorkshire puddings. If you starved it was going to be your own fault.

Draco picks up a bowl containing some Yorkshire puddings and offers it to Mio.]

Would you like some?

[promisedyou]

[ Mio honestly tended not to be respectful towards others unless they deserved it. While she might be going by the name that she went by in her past life instead of her current name, she honestly didn't think that it would really matter that much.

Although honestly, his phrasing... what a brat. Maybe if she was a little younger she'd find it a bit cute and endearing, but as she is now? Not a huge fan. She doesn't dare ask about the feast but she does, however, get a little surprised at the magical food.

... Okay, she immediately likes this dream a lot more than some of the other ones she's been into. ]

Don't mind if I do. Thank you. [ She can at least be polite when necessary, at least. ]

[blondferret]

[Pleased that Mio takes the food he offered, Draco continues to fill his plate.]

So... Sonozaki. I'm not familiar with that name. Is your family new to the English wizarding community? What does your family do?

[promisedyou]

[ Wizarding, huh. And English-- must mean Britain. Well, at least Mio has a good grasp on things now by the hints she's given with those words, so she can at least come up with a pretty easy backstory on the spot while utilizing her knowledge from both of her lives. ]

Yes, So-no-za-ki. I'm from Japan, actually, so I suppose you could say that you're correct. My father is really huge over there, as he's one of the top members of the yakuza, so he's rather influential and deals with a lot of people, so a lot of people think he's scary, but that isn't necessarily the case. He's just the kind of guy that you don't want to mess with. And I'm the heiress of that company. My father said that if you wanted to become more influential than he was, I would have to reach outside of Japan. Which landed me here.

[ That is some bullshit backstory, Mio... ]

[megatechbody]

[Mariko obediently follows the older witch's instructions - not bothering to parse the world beyond 'That School That Derek Mentioned'. And sure enough she sees a minature little Derek, complete with appraising glance and an awful poker face. It's so much like returning to school, returning to Japan, returning back to America - peers who try to get the shape of her from something so shallow as a glance. It's not hard to slip into old habits practiced away at the urging of a father consumed by grief and a family highly concerned with propriety.

He asks his question and Mariko doesn't bother trying to hide the up-down appraisal she gives him right back. Brown eyes fearlessly meet green as she sits in the seat across from him. ]

Aramaki Mariko. Nice to meet you.

[Her accent is faint, but it makes sense to the part of her mind processing her place in the dream. A new school year means she's fresh off of a visit to her grandparents. Right now, she's hoping that Derek's Other is less of a brat than he made himself out to be.]

[blondferret]

[Draco's eyes narrow in confusion.]

If your family name Aramaki or Mariko? I'm not familiar with either of those family names.

[megatechbody]

It's Aramaki.

[Something about his confusion makes Mariko smile. She's always liked it when she could catch someone off-guard and this, apparently, was no exception.]

Unless you travel, you wouldn't. I'm not from here.

[blondferret]

I travel plenty.

[Draco's face flushes pink at Mariko's accusation that he doesn't travel.]

Aramaki, huh?

[Draco would have stared at Mariko a bit longer if it hadn't have been for the feast magically appearing. Chicken and turkey legs, mashed and sweet potatoes, roll and Yorkshire puddings, and a variety of fruit and vegetable dishes. Goblets were filled to the brim with pumpkin juice. Draco starts to instantly load his plate. He continues to eye Mariko before asking his next question.]

If your not from the UK, how did you get to be a student at Hogwarts then?

[megatechbody]

[Mariko begins to load her plate, a fair bit more delicately than Draco does. She suppresses as smile at his embarrassment but it quickly evaporates.It's getting dangerously close to something she hates talking about.]

I was born here, but I grew up with my father's family.

[She takes her goblet in hand, not quite glaring at him over it.]

Does your family own the school or something?

Dreamdive

[aintjustaweapon]

Lillian didn't know why she had an intense feeling of disappointment as the hat was pulled from her head, but she did. Still, the feeling faded as she found herself blinking away the darkness to stare out at an entire room full of other people...her own age? Because...because this was school. Right. Okay. She reached up to fix her silver-green ponytail as she stood and moved out into the crowd.

She was halfway to the table she'd been pointed towards before her brain managed to point out that nothing about that actually made sense and why had that hat been talking? But the thoughts were pushed aside, for the most part, as she sank down into an empty seat at the long table.

She offered the boy across the table a bit of a grin when he spoke to her. "...Lillian Aust. Hey." Her accent was even more distinct than usual, probably from being surrounded by all these British people. "Wait. Ya said Draco? That ain't right." She didn't know why, but that was not the name her brain was shouting at for him. What did THAT mean?

Re: Dreamdive

[blondferret]

[Draco frowns a bit at her response to his name. At first he thought she was kind of pretty but her last comment just ruined that mental image.]

What do you mean it's not right? That's my name! Draco Malfoy! Do you think my name's funny or something?

[His cheeks start to flush a bit in annoyance.]

[aintjustaweapon]

[Lillian huffed faintly, caught in her own bit of embarrassment for just blurting that out.]

Nah that ain't what I...I mean, maybe a little? Draco kinda sounds like half a dragon.

[Stupid brain. She didn't grin at herself, at least.]

But I mean like...like...that ain't your name? [She probably looked very confused as she said this, trying to latch onto something that was just...]

...Derek. That's it.

[blondferret]

[Draco just stares at this girl with silvery green hair in front of him with a strange accent. How else can he be more clear that his name is what it is?]

What? Derek? No.

[He shakes his head.]

It's Draco Malfoy. D-did you eat something on the train that made you incapable of learning someones name or something? Crap... did I eat it? It was a pumpkin pastie or a cauldron cake wasn't it?

[Lillian, you're creeping little Draco out a bit.]