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

I know that they are... I know that they're lies, cheap promises... I know it deep down, Karkat, but they aren't playing fair.

[She clenched her fists at her side and looked over at him quietly for a moment, the confusion there, but a lot of anger and bitterness bubbling under the surface, right at the edge of her gaze.]

They know this is ruining my relationships with those I love. The phone call I had with home, sitting there with my lamp the size of a skyscraper, and her eyes saying nothing was wrong, everything was normal. She ... she's making me furious, and they know it. I want it to be the way it was, her to be the way she was. And sometimes, I wish...

[Sometimes she wishes that it was Kirika, not her actual girlfriend, and today, she was struggling with both sets of whispers.]

[ this is definitely something that he can't really understand. he has had visions that highly implied he had crushes on people, one of them actually being one of his classmates here, which was weird, but karkat decide to pay them no mind. and it's easy for him, since he isn't in a relationship. the feelings that occurred in those visions those greatly clash any feelings in real life. ]

Your girlfriend. What's she like?

[And, unfortunately for Chloe, the feelings she had for the two girls were both nearly identical, and nowadays equally conflicted. They were similar in a lot of important ways despite not being the same person, which meant it probably wasn't an entirely healthy relationship to begin with. So, hearing the two being bandied at her from different flowers, whispered together, disturbing.]

She... is a lot like the girl in my halluci... damn that word, without being her. Friendly, but emotionally unavailable and distant, hard to get to know and the work of patience to get close to. She is the sort of person who could smile at you, have a talk with you every day for years, and not think of you once the day after your funeral.

She has a beautiful spirit, but she's ... always very alone. I think it's why our relationship works so far away. It does not demand much of her while she figures her life out. But my stress, it has been demanding more out of her with every passing month. I can't hide it, especially because she never seems to notice any of this.

[ absolutely nothing chloe has just said sounded even a little bit appealing to karkat, and he almost says that, but manages to hold back. if this was completely canon karkat he definitely would have talked shit though. ]

Do you think she'd... ever notice? [ his frown deepens. ] With most social media apps, you can talk to people all over the world. But Retrospec is just centered on our city, right? So if she's not in Recolle, doesn't that mean she might never get the app?

[It was a strange relationship, to be sure, and the girl's habits didn't make it anymore emotionally supportive right now, which was part of the real problem. That said, Chloe had a thing for people with an 'edgy personality,' and her other side loved dangerous women. So, she wasn't exactly prone to good choices in the whole relationship department.]

No, I am almost certain that, unless she comes here she will never remember or notice any of this. Retrospec is only here, so she will probably never understand, and she hasn't reacted well to my suggestions that she come out here.

And, either way, more and more I feel like an ipad ... hallucinations they are not enough. I want... [Well, she didn't want to admit it, but there was a part of her that wanted to demand this from her girlfriend, even if that would never go well. Nice as she seemed, there was a very intensely possessive side to her she didn't like to show people, one that was a lot more similar to the other Chloe than she was comfortable with. The whispers weren't doing her favors right now.]

What? You want them to be real or something?

[ he really has no idea what she wants.

karkat, admittedly, has not tried very hard to understand chloe during their entire time of knowing each other. this is probably the most he has actually attempted to hear what she thinks about anything really... important. ]

[Her response was rapid-fire, almost fast enough to be a blur. It just started spilling out of her like a verbal torrent that had been held back by the dam of her mouth for a while.] I want her! And I don't know which her I want, and I am almost certain I am going to lose one, and that the either one never belonged to me. She's in love with that cheap blond Parisian tart that pulled a gun on me, and I am losing the girl I have because every time I try to talk to her about what is going on in my life, she wants nothing to do with what is happening here, and it hurts more and more each time because I can see we're drifting apart.

And if I could make her mine, I would, but you can't make someone yours. It doesn't work that way! [She gripped her head and actually screamed in frustration.] It's been years like this and it is finally almost too much for me and these flowers, they are throwing it in my face!

[ oh my god

there are a lot of feelings getting thrown at karkat and he is not prepared to deal with any of them. a part of him is wondering if he can just like, pretend he left the oven on and get the fuck out because seriously how the hell. do you deal with this. ]

Wow. That sounds like a rat's ball sack.

[ HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO DISTRESS HOLY SHIT ]

I... I would do anything, to have her, to have it be the way it is supposed to be. This is now how it is supposed to b...b... [Those eyes, they were the eyes of someone who really would do anything. She clutched at him for a moment, quivering before she seemed to realize something and her eyes widened, lips quivering.

It wasn't a memory coming back to her, so much as it was the recollection of the way that 'she' had looked at that girl, Kirika. How she would do anything to be with her, to have her. And the thought of it terrified her. She let go and shook her head.]

It is much more than a ...whatever you called it. We have to get out of here. These flowers are not healthy. They are dangerous! [She grabbed for his sleeve, and looked like she wanted to run the fuck away from this place.]

[ he is really not equipped for this and he wonders if he should try calling someone for help here, but then he realizes he honestly has no idea who chloe's friends are. he remembers she mentioned someone named arlene, but karkat doesn't know who that is. ]

Oh my god, fine, we can go. Let go of me?

[ normally he would yank himself loose but he doesn't now since she's freaking out so much. karkat starts walking. ]

See? We're leaving, come on.

[She did let go, thankfully not being so confused or distraught to not listen to him, but she was hustling to get away from the flowers, casting fitful glances back at them, almost as if she were thinking of going back that way again sometimes. The desires she had were already so well ingrained and powerful, not to mention confused, that this had not been easy for her.

But, as they were a distance away, the whispers now far duller, and a bush shielding them from any rain that came, she leaned against the wood and rubbed her forehead.]

I... am sorry for that, Karkat. They are hitting below the belt, too many times... it isn't fair. Are you alright? [She almost asked again, almost, though she was willing to bet 'we can take those horns away' was probably one of his whispers.]

I'm fine.

[ he shrugs, clearly uncomfortable about going into any detail. in any case, chloe very clearly has a lot on her plate at the moment and karkat is not going to add his own dumb shit on top of that.

he still has no idea how to properly react to everything she said. ]

You know not to go back there, right? Who the fuck knows what might have happened if someone wasn't around to make sure you left.

I know not to go anywhere near there, if it can be helped, yes. And I am grateful to you that you were there. I can't imagine it was a good experience for you either.

[The longer she stood there, the more she seemed to calm, though internally she was still roiling because the whole experience was simply a reminder that what she wanted, what either of 'her' wanted, it was likely not possible in the long run.]

You should avoid the flowers too, even if it was not as bad. It might get worse deeper in, you know. [she sighed.] Thank you, though. You're a good friend.

We're not friends. [ it's his usual, automatic response.

he glances back towards the way they came from, back to where the flowers are. ]

I wonder why there's so much happening at once? You'd think just the shrinking would be enough, but now we have this and those weird cracks too.

You will admit the truth one day...

[It was her usual, automatic reply to his defense mechanisms, though it had the hollow feeling of something you just said because you were used to saying it. She did think of him as a friend, in her own odd little way. But the flowers were much more on her mind.

Looking in the direction he did, she frowned, visibly perturbed.]

I am willing to believe that the cracks simply come with the change in size, that what we are seeing there is a symptom of something bigger. The flowers, though... I do not know. Perhaps they are making things stronger to phase us.

I will need to steel myself better.

Jim did mock us the other day. If Retrospec is the one doing this, they would have known this was coming at that time then.

[ he says if, because karkat isn't 100% convinced that retrospec are the ones actually causing the weird things that are happening, just that they're involved with it somehow. ]

It is a big if, but it is still an 'if.' We do not know for sure what is going on, and that grows more ranklesome every day. I am thinking of taking a foolish step sometime soon.

Just to know something, instead of constantly dancing to their tune. We are not simply puppets for them to play with. [She sounded legitimately mad right now, but after what had just happened, that felt the natural response.]

[ karkat wonders if he should ask her what that foolish step is, because the last time he asked her something she got hysterical about her two girlfriends and he does not want to do that again. so there's probably an awkward moment of silence where he is internally debating just casually (it won't be casual at this point) sidestepping that topic or asking or just leaving. ]

What foolish step?

[ goddammit ]

Sneaking into somewhere that might have information instead of the Retrospec building. At our size, I think I can do it.

[Good news! It wasn't anything world-shattering. It was 'breaking into a place through a ventilation shaft to take pictures,' not 'stab everyone with a retrospec uniform she could find.']

Unless you want to join in, I think perhaps it is best if that is all you know, yes?

You're right, I don't.

[ he kind of does, but he still isn't completely sure of chloe's mental state at the moment and he doesn't want to be around if she gets upset again. he should probably feel bad about that, but he does not. sorry chloe. ]

Just try not to get stepped on.

Well, everyone else is small, so... I'll try not to fall to my death? Yes, I think that is more appropriate. But still, I know this might be a tall order after [she waved a hand back where they came from.] this, but I will not let anyone get hurt. No truly dangerous stunts.

[She raked her hand through her hair and dropped it unless he asked further.] Are you ok, though, Karkat? They whispered to you too, so... you aren't having any more problems lately, are you? [Don't say anything about the horns, Chloe. Don't say anything about the horns, Chloe. Don't say anything about the horns, Chloe.]

You know, [Motion to forehead] up here. [well, she didn't say it?]

[ well, the animals aren't small.

he doesn't point that out though, because she continue to talk. and she gets the exact reaction that she probably expected. ]

Whatever problems I may or may not be having are none of your business. [ STOP MENTIONING THE HORNS they are the easiest way to make him annoyed. ] And stop making wild guesses as to what the flowers allegedly said to me. That's also above your pay grade.

[She thought about it for a moment and then nodded.] No, you're right. I'm sorry to pry, Karkat. Thank you, though, for helping me. If I can repay it sometime, let me know.

[It was probably a sign of the fact that she was pretty disturbed that she was pretty easy to push off like that. She usually liked to use this as an excuse to keep teasing.]

[ he definitely notices that and is about to call her out on it, but stops himself because it would come off as him inviting her to tease him. ]

Do you think those flowers thing will only last as long as the tiny thing?

[ he is assuming it'll wear off eventually even though there is no proof that is how it's going to happen. ]

[Yep. Good call, Karkat. Further teasing successfully averted! ... for now.]

I do not know. Maybe they will only be this bad while they are our size. Perhaps it is something alien in the pollen. I sincerely hope it does not last. It's very ... potent.

It is better inside town, though, by far. So if they continue, I can avoid this area.

May Event Log

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