recolle | May Event Log

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May Event Log

EVENT

RISE AND SHINE
Spring is upon the city of Recollé now. The rainy season is starting to pass and the last of the winter chill has officially shaken off. The weather is perfectly spring-like with flowers blooming all over the city and the local wildlife rousing from their hiding places. People everywhere find themselves awakening to the sound of birds tweeting and the sun shining peacefully on them as they're drawn from the world of dreaming.

Too bad that's about where the peace ends today.

I.
It’s a leisurely morning when you first wake up. The sun’s rising and peeking in through the curtains of your room, birds are chirping happily, and you find yourself drowning in your sheets with the floor much, much further down than you recall.

Wait, what?

You don’t think that you’ve shrunken at all. After all, your clothing still fits perfectly fine. The trouble with it all is that all of your furniture has enlarged several times its usual size and the walls tower over you more than before. Getting ready for your day is going to be a challenge, but the outside world can’t be that bad, can it?

Think again. Buildings skyrocket dozens of stories higher than they originally were. The button for the crosswalk dangles over your head tauntingly. The tires for your school bus are coming dangerously close as you try to cross the street. Be careful out there!

Is there a safe path to avoid further incidents? As the days go on, citizens will find that if they look down a series of lit-up circles appear under their feet. Stepping on one will cause the Retrospec app to open, and a song will begin to play. How long will this go on? Unfortunately, Retrospec seems to be working just fine and will autoloop until your path of lights meets someone new. After all, isn't social media about bringing people together? Best get to exploring and seeing what’s out there…or, maybe, who’s out there.

II.
Speaking of exploring, it's much easier to see the wear and tear of the city at this size. With everything much larger you may notice that everything about your nice city isn't quite so nice. Cracks in the sidewalk present a hazard when walking everywhere and there are fractures in the buildings themselves. You may wish to avoid them entirely for your own safety.

But for the more curious residents (or anyone accidentally finding themselves falling into these cracks) a venture into these spaces will reveal something a little mysterious. Swirls of black float through space, occasionally punctuated by flashes of images and words. Presented almost like a movie, you may not be able to pinpoint what exactly you’re seeing but it seems to be calling your name to draw you further in. At first, the interior space in these cracks seems to expand and the images become clear. It’s…space? No. It’s stars, lots of stars and there’s a rumbling sound that seems to echo through the cracks along with voices becoming more persistent as they cry out for help. The swirls and mist become thicker with each step. Will you turn back? Or will you press on and risk getting lost in the echoes of voices you don't recognize and images you can't identify?

Those who turn back will find themselves on another path of light, resetting their device and urging them onwards to find someone new. Those who continue forward though and wish to seek the truth will find themselves assaulted either with a whirlwind of memories they’ve already obtained since they’ve received the Retrospec app or blacked out by the darkness as the mist becomes impenetrable.

How will you find your way back? It may be wise to work together on this one to retrace your steps.

III.
Despite the fact the city's experiencing some sizing issues, responsibilities are still important and these problems won't stop your boss from demanding you show up to work on time. Did you get lost on your way to school? What a bummer that this is the day your professors spring a pop quiz on you. The challenges of every day life are even more challenging and as per usual, many people don't even realize there's something wrong. Though your pencil may be taller than you are, you won't be allotted extra time to write things down. Even worse, navigating past shopping carts and down grocery aisles is nearly impossible, especially in larger, more crowded places like Freshens.

Outside isn't much better. Beginning on the fifth of May, clouds begin to loom overhead as the rainy season reminds citizens it's not over yet. All around you critters begin to jump into action to prepare for the inevitable storm. From this level of the ground it's easier to see ants hard at work hauling items 30 times their body weight. That caterpillar might be good for hitching a ride back home. Watch out for the furry four-legged beast running your way!

Speaking of beasts...well. Just because you're no longer your original size doesn't mean your furry and feathered friends won't be. Maybe you're lucky enough to have a companion you can hitch a ride with. Or maybe you aren't so lucky after all. Your pets may like you just fine, but other people's pets and even the insects will give in to their animal instincts, prone to chasing and sometimes outright attacking citizens (Retrospec users and non-Retrospec users alike.) Can you fight? Guess you'll have to find out.

Oh, and you better hurry...the rain that begins later in the afternoon is most unforgiving. At this size? It's quite easy to be swept away in a flood.

IV.
Do you hear that? Everything seems to be amplified now and with the rain pounding down around you for the next five days the echoes are even louder. This time, however, the words are much more distinguishable. Above the din of a hauntingly beautiful song, you may find yourself being coaxed to come out into the Apprassage Woods, whispered promises of your most sacred desire filling your ears. Perhaps it's irrational, like scoring well on college entrance exams. Perhaps it's something much bigger like seeing a loved one again long after their passing. Whatever it may be, the song is almost overpowering and tempting.

Along the way, bright, towering flowers serve as a guiding light deeper and deeper into the woods. The further you travel, the louder they echo those desires back at you, even louder than the song itself. Strangely, for those who have been gifted with a supernatural sense or the ability to see ghosts, you may find that there are figments flickering through the trees encouraging you onward. You want their help, don't you?

There are ways to break out of the song's trance, but it will take teamwork and effort to ground each other back to reality. It seems as though the rain itself may very well be the culprit. Will you seek to find shelter? Maybe you're lucky and happen to have a pair of ear plugs in your pocket. Do your best to guide each other home. The woods aren't very friendly after dark even with the fluorescent glow of the flowers.

BONUS.
The nice thing about being pint-sized is that it's much easier to go where you probably shouldn't. Should you find yourself back in Tisse and in front of the Retrospec building, you may notice it's much easier to slip under the cracks of the front door. Several of you may have been in this lobby before. Like usual, the lights are on. At this size, however, it's easier to hear the echoes of footsteps somewhere above you.

But don't worry about them. Being this size means that it's more possible now to enter some the previously locked rooms. Some rooms don't have enough space to crawl under, of course, but the two rooms that do will reveal something quite interesting. There isn't much in the way of furniture in these two rooms, but every inch of the walls and ceiling remains covered in maps. Not all of these maps are blank. Some of them appear to have small splashes of color varying in size and shape, like an incomplete picture. Some of them also appear to have images on them, such as a Chocobo, or an apple with a smileyface, or a strange die. Furthermore, after the fifth of May, citizens may notice one of the maps now has a picture of those strange glowing flowers from the woods.

Should anyone be ambitious enough to count in these two rooms (though really, that will certainly take time), they will come to find that there are roughly 110 maps in all. And with a little digging, they can explore and attempt to open drawers and closets in these rooms. Together, they will discover there are an additional 30 maps, including one with a picture of a strange-looking doll.

So you want to learn more about these maps, huh? For anyone who tries to draw or write on the maps, they will find that whatever they deface the maps with stays there! However, the moment you exit the room anything you drew on the map will appear on any surface of your skin that's available. Tearing the maps doesn't seem to work either. The maps can only be removed from the wall in one whole piece.

If one were to take a map from the rooms, they would only be able to get to the doorway before it dissolves into ash and creates a miniature dust storm for everyone nearby. Strangely, the map will reappear on the wall and the cycle will repeat itself for days on end.

The maps really, really don't like being touched.

What does this all mean? What a great question.

Welcome to

recolle's May event! All characters will be begin in-game AU'd as Recollé residents. You may use any of the above prompts for ideas or make up your own depicting your Recollé AU! Prompts do not have to be set in the districts listed above. You can review our list of locations for what's available and be as creative as you'd like.

As another note, by participating in this log in a thread with five or more comments from you with a character you have not tagged previously, you are eligible for one free memory regain! This means you can claim a memory without a trigger required; we ask that it be low-impact for newer characters, while characters who have been here longer can scale upwards. However please be sure to submit this regain to the regains page and just specify "May Freebie" in the explanation portion of the form. Please see our monthly plotting post for more details.

If you would like to explore parts of the city in their enlarged state, please contact the mod team so we can get you a write-up of what your characters may or may not find! This also goes for if your character has regained any supernatural sensing and you'd like for them to interact with the figments in the woods!

Starting on 5/5, the Echo Flower from Undertale will act as your newest world change! Once the event wraps 5/10, the echoing of desires will stop and they will return to providing white noise and echoing the last thing they heard. These flowers will only remain in the woods.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, dumbass. I wanted to go home.

[He wanted to be with Roxy and Dave and Rose. He wanted to see their mom, if in miniature. He wanted to know that his siblings were okay. He wanted home, and Dirk likes Evie, Dirk is pretty sure he has made the mistake of falling in love with Jake, but home is over two decades of smells and sounds that tell him he belongs and he wants that.

When the gems confused Dirk, back in the Retrospec building, for a moment his mind was confused, because feelings are never simple like that, but quickly it focused and had him asking to go back to the home he had shared with his siblings.

He reaches for Dave's hand again, like a child. Right one with his left, so Dave's sword arm is free, if that's what he wants.]

I kept my back to the way we came in. [It may not help but he knew better than to turn around and get himself messed up.]

You can't just kidnap someone else's dog. I'll at least walk you back, though.

[ he should say something else. a week ago a month ago half a year ago - what the hell would he have said? it's harder to sort himself out and remember after remembering all the things he's remembered, all at once. probably let's go, then or ice cream first or something completely stupid to try to get dirk's mind off of things.

he probably would have still objected to the dogknapping, though.

dave turns his hand over when dirk grabs it, since it's his right hand and not his left, and allows dirk to tug him towards where he'd come from. ]

Jake's in class.

[He leads them carefully. He thinks he has the sense of it, not relying on sight, leaning instead on memory of where he's been. He always had a good direction and now it feels like swimming.]

Sometimes I went swimming in the dark, which is exactly as reckless and stupid as it sounds. I didn't especially care, that was part of the challenge, and it wasn't like anyone was there to stop me. It would get hard to tell the depths from the surface so I worked out a sense for how not to get lost when I got turned around.

Mm. Well, you pick which place to walk to. Doesn't matter to me.

[ he doesn't exactly plan to stick around after, but roxy's not in class and he knows rose isn't, either. that's half of why he's out and about, anyway.

there's two impulses at the continued story, about the ocean. the first wants to say i almost called you yesterday, but i couldn't and trade a memory for a memory. the second says don't and stay quiet, don't and change the topic and try to lighten the mood.

he's not sure how to combine them, so dave just says the first thing to come to mind. ]

So that's why. This feels like that, so you remembered. At least that halfway follows the pattern.

Yeah.

[It's the first time a memory has felt like this. Like being submerged in another life for longer than a few minutes, a couple hours at most: like having such a vast experience. Fragments of other memories had been like this, but this is as deep and overwhelming as the ocean. He holds Dave's hand because it isn't the emptiness of a deep blue sea.]

I'm sorry.

For what? [ it's almost wary, because he doesn't think dirk is apologizing for yesterday, because he didn't even seen dirk yesterday. but without the visual clues it can kind of pass as casual. ]

I don't think you actually did anythin' worth an apology, dude, unless you really did steal my red converse when I was in fifth grade. Still unsure you didn't.

Why would I steal 'em if I couldn't even wear 'em without being caught out?

[The default response.]

You've been distant-veering-into-avoidant lately. I guess I haven't really understood what it's like to remember being someone else, a person who's still you but isn't.

To spite me.

[ obviously. even though he's...aware...that's not a thing dirk would do...he was mostly trying to joke. ]

I've been busy, not distant. There's a difference, dude. You'd be busy, too, if the world decided to go all [ hand gesture dirk can't even see ] the Borrowers durin' finals. Do you have any idea how hard it is to fill in a test right now with a pencil. Those things have not shrunk at all. It's a legitimate workout to handle a pop quiz, not to mention an actual exam with essay questions.

[ ...legitimate complaints, though. ]

You're sayin' you're about to go distant-avoidant, though?

We both know you're lyin', but whatever. I'm sayin' I'm sorry that I didn't understand better what you came to me with.

[Maybe it's the ocean that's getting to him. He has felt alone, sometimes, he's felt depressed, he's felt so bad he didn't want to leave bed for days. But he's never felt that alone.

[ he's me, though or i am him or i've stopped telling you all about most of the memories, anyway aren't helpful, even if they're true to varying degrees. ]

I didn't need you to understand [ or maybe he did, who knows, but what he'd wanted back then was for everything to just stop and not be happening ] or anythin', you did what you had to. I'm...sorry you feel like that, though. You shouldn't need to. Or you just - shouldn't.

[ it'd help, dave thinks, if all his memories were about singing or skating like anya and yuri seem to have locked themselves into. ]

Sorry I made you tell me about the thing, the first time.

[Dirk's grip gets tight and then he makes it loosen. He's half not breathing in the dark.]

Whatever else is happenin', you're still my brother, and I'm not going to miss the coded memo deliberately set on fire so I'd never see it that you aren't okay.

It's not a big deal.

No. [ he hadn't asked, really - dirk had offered it up, but still - he never should have told in the first place, maybe. ] No, it was, and I shouldn't've started it off.

[ he's not even being clear, probably, because he means back when he told dirk he remembered dying and dirk remembered too. more and more dave simply does not want anyone to remember the things he's remembering. ]

I think maybe we got turned around. [ he still can't see a way out, even over the tops of his shades. ]

We both did it, Dave.

[Dirk, for his part, keeps leading Dave forward. He still has his shades off, bright orange eyes in a nothing darkness.] This is the right way.

[ dave's shades are still on. he actually doesn't take them off much recently, even at home with the folks and his sisters or in the company of people who know what's up.

he veers to the side conversationally. ]

So I joined a gang the other day.

And didn't invite your big bro? I have a bike. I was born to be in a gang. Tell me what I'm missin' out on.

[Dirk was not, in fact, born to be a gang. The comment is an invitation for Dave to continue.]

You wouldn't make the cut. You have to take a test of coolness. Also, the group ain't really your speed.

[ it is basically him and a random teenage girl he agreed to help in trig, and maybe two baseball players? dave agrees to the dumbest shit to distract himself.

it's an absurd story to pass the time and save him from responding to anything else. ]

We're called the "Fallen Angels". I get a street name?

Coolness can't be tested. That's its true measure. [He hasn't let go of Dave's hand, seeking the return. He thinks they're almost there.

In some ways, he wishes they weren't. At least drowning here, Dave will stay with him.]

What's your street name?

Nah, she gave me a multiple choice test and everything. Definitely testable.

[ at least talking to someone is currently helping to ignore the voices he'd come in here following. ]

Haven't decided yet. Hero of Rhyme ain't really street nameish.

Sounds badass though. I like it.

What about my street name? I definitely deserve one.

It's off by a hair. [ says dave, who remembers claiming to be a hero of time. says dave, who has over thirty memories, and has only told dirk maybe half of them. ]

But I think you'll have to start up your own street gang to get a street name. Evie can be your muscle. I'm apparently gonna be the muscle for the gang I'm in, if I understood right.

Why would I wanna be in a street gang without you?

[It's a ridiculous idea, made more ridiculous to Dirk by what feels like an ocean empty and vast. He was so alone. Why would he ever let himself be that lonely if he could help it? Why would he ever let himself be without his siblings if he could help it? They need to be in every part of his life. He needs not to be alone.]

What would make it not off?

[He isn't used to this. He has a mind for puzzles but Dave hasn't ever really been one to him. Now he's holding the piece and hoping they won't get ripped away.]

To get a street name, obviously. [ keep up, dirk. dave's tone is the lighter, casual kind of voice he uses when he's discussing nothing in particular. when he's saying things that don't matter, or maybe sometimes things that do but he's not thinking of it, when he's talking simply to hear his own voice. ] It's nearing twenty.

[ minutes. he refrains from giving the exact time. ]

As to the rest, just...let me know if and when you know what would make it right.

[ he's officially hit the point of pure mortal terror he might make other people remember shit, which he's done on purpose before, even knowing something terrible awaited?

but how many deaths, exactly, does anyone need to know about? there seem to be too many littered around, and too many uncomfortable truths, and dave's kept a lot to himself even if he flat out admitted to some random guy on the network the other day he has over thirty memories rattling around his head. ]

NO point to a street name I don't get from my bro or my sisters. What if I don't ever know?

[What if he never, ever gets those memories? What if he's left alone and disconnected from his brother?]

Roxy would totally help you start a street gang.

[ he doesn't answer the other part until he sees daylight, and they're out of the mist. dave doesn't drop dirk's hand because he doesn't think dirk's quite there yet, even if he's about to try to ditch his brother after walking him to one location or the other.

he looks over at dirk and is grateful for the thousandth time for the shades. they make it nearly impossible to tell where, exactly, his gaze falls. he thinks if you don't ever, then thank fuck for that. ]

It's not a huge deal. You wanted to focus on this life, anyway, right? Pretty much everyone keeps sayin' the same.

[Dirk can't see his eyes, but Dirk's are open and visible. Dirk does not look away from his brother.]

I think it's a mistake to think that we can just focus on this life and go around undisturbed by the memories. I also think it's a mistake to decide that the other life is the 'real' one and that it will totally usurp the one we have. The more probable outcome is some kind of amalgamation. It takes deliberately suppressing one or the other.

My priority is the people I care about.

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