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

[Kashuu's judgin.]

I don't wanna be reading your obituary any time soon, no matter how clickbaity it is.

[He says with a sigh, flopping down on the step once he's finally fully situated... The ants are sort of scuttling around at the sidewalk crack, but since it extends across most of the sidewalk, it isn't long before they get tired of wasting their time on idiots and turn around to leave.]

Ok, but if I die you will make sure it's the most clickbaity thing possible, right. Even if you have to like, rewrite the paper or somethin'.

[ dave will follow flopping-down suit, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. maybe he should avoid decapitating things from now on, he thinks. ]

So does it feel weird to cut things up with the whole soulbond deal?

You know what? For you, sure. I'll give you a real laugh from beyond the grave or whatever.

[True friendship right there.]

It doesn't feel as weird as it probably should, I think. It's... kinda familiar, I guess. [Briefly, he looks discomforted, but then glances over toward Dave. Speaking of weird battle shit--]

What happened back there with you, anyway?

[ TRUE BROS ]

...It all just felt familiar for a second. [ understatement, like he doesn't have a shiny new vivid memory to add to his repertoire. ] You know. Cuttin' things to pieces, whatever. I guess I'm not quite up to "no one can notice a thing" snuff with that.

Some things are harder to pokerface your way through than others.

[HE WOULD KNOW... He's been there, oh has he been there.]

You okay, though?

[ the statement nets an eyebrow raise. ]

You've had not so great stuff, too. [ though dave has admitted to memories of dying, so it's questionable what he'd consider worse than that, that he doesn't immediately clarify. ] I think I'll be fine. I just keep remenberin' stupid stuff, you know? I miss the days I only remembered crazy stuff.

[There's a little sound, maybe of understanding or of sympathy, before he pushes himself semi-upright again. Apparently sitting all the way up is still Too Much Effort.]

Have you been having a hard time with 'em lately?

[Clearly just now he had a bit of a struggle, if anything...]

Eh. It went from the absurd to the serious, I guess, but.

[ dave does not sit up, he's just sprawled and will roll to his feet when standing is a thing kashuu does, okay. ]

...The biggest problem is I suppose that other people wanna know, but I do noooot want them rememberin' this kinda shit.

[Standing does not seem to be on his immediate to-do list, he believes he deserves a nice long rest after Ant Battle Boogaloo.]

Other people who share it, you mean? Or just people who have the same kinda stuff?

[He's been blessed with zero actually traumatic memories and none of the ones Yamato's shared that he was part of has triggered any memories of his own, so he's a lucky bean for now... He still gets the concern, though.]

Mostly people who share it. [ it would help if homestuck involved less RAMPANT CHILD DEATH, at least one of which dave directly caused, but. ] Do you remember killin' anyone?

[ like, just as a random unrelated question that has nothing to do with anything. yeah. ]

[Dave please stop murdering the children... The question does kind of come out of left field though, and he's Immediately Concerned because of course he sees where this is going!!]

Um— Not really someone, no.

[He doesn't count the glowy monsters... He might have killed someone during that hazy memory of a battle in that cramped building?! He definitely remembers Blood N' Guts, but-- Well, it's not like he remembers straight-up strangling someone or something.]

...Same for you?

[He's guessing probably no.]

...Until today I was murder-free, aside from somethings.

[ IMMEDIATELY AFTER: ]

Don't tell anyone, will you? [ specifically do not tell ANYONE HE'S RELATED TO - dave why are you this way ]

[DAVE WHY ARE YOU THIS WAY... Kashuu immediately nods in agreement though because he's probably the best person to tell these things to, as he adamantly believes it's not his place to interfere.]

Yeah, I won't. ...But you should probably talk about it eventually, just saying.

[Don't sit on these things, Dave...]

Um-- I guess I'm here too if you just want someone to listen. Not sure if I can actually do anything to help but those prooobably aren't the kinda memories you should be keeping to yourself. Like, that's totally Snapped material.

I mean, I ain't snapped yet?

[ he is laying here on the ground pretending everything is fine while he's just remembered maybe decapitating his brother possibly so you know. HE CAN HANDLE! THIS! maybe he should talk to dirk, but consider: he never does that.

his hands don't shake, his poker face is perfectly in place, and he's just totally 100% fine. look at all this fine. he could bottle up this fine and sell it above market price, he is that fine.

dave has no idea where that metaphor was going, or if it even counts as a metaphor any longer. so. ]

I'm just. Mildly wonderin' if I should be allowed to be around people sometimes? Or if it would be in their best interests if I did not. A specific subset of people, not people on the whole, I would fail out of hermit school. Do you ever feel that way, like you're just gonna hurt someone more than you're not?

Being totally honest? Probably not the way you're talking about.

[He's felt that way in much less dire situations but nothing that is Literally Life And Death, so as much as he's sympathetic, his ass can't relate.]

Anyway, "not snapped yet" isn't exactly the most reassuring thing to hear, y'know? That just makes it sound like you're counting down the days until you do snap. Not saying I don't get it- [Because Kiyomitsu "if I ignore my problems long enough they'll go away" Kashuu 100% gets it.] -but this is the kinda stuff you have to be careful with. ...Probably. There aren't exactly any guidebooks out there written for traumatic reverse-amnesia but you get what I mean.

Okay, admittedly, it doesn't sound super encouraging when you repeat it back to me?

[ OOPS. ]

But I do got it under control. I talked to someone about some other stuff, I'll figure this out whenever I, like, have time to absorb it. And if I feel like I'm gonna snap I'll give you a heads up so you have advance horror movie warnin'?

I'm not particularly into cat-and-mouse games with horror movie villains, but I'll thank you for the warning anyway. Try not to actually snap though, okay?

[Because he's already worried!! And Dave isn't doing a whole lot to assuage those worries despite his reassurance that things are A-Okay In Daveland.]

[ wow kashuu it's almost like you don't think things are a-okay in daveland? rude? ]

Trust me, I won't. I mean, I've dealt with weirder. I just need a few days to...recalibrate?

[Nothing personal Dave he just doesn't trust these nonexistent coping mechanisms--

Nah okay they're there, but are they good?? (As if his ass can judge.)]

I get it. [He really does, at least. Look, he knows Dave's coping methods are a little questionable because his are very similar...] But let me know if you need help with all that recalibrating, okay?

Will do first off. You too, if you get shit that takes a bit.

[ neither of them is ever going to take the other up on their offer, are they... ]

For now though I guess we should like, maybe stop lazing around waiting for more bugs to go "hey! fresh meat!" or. Whatever they are on about.

[PROBABLY NOT but hey at least it's out there, that's... that's step one or something. Maybe.]

Mm, okay. [At least he sounds grateful, too. It's a nice offer even if they're both dinguses!

THAT SAID--]

I don't really feel like doing any more, y'know... moving in general. [A SIGH...] But I guess you're right.

[And then he's pushing himself upright properly again, albeit with Great Displeasure.]

Honestly, fair. I'd say we should go buy smoothies and do fuck all, but for some reason most people refuse to sell food in like. us-sized portions?

[ WHY IS THE WORLD CRAZY. ]

Maybe we can just steal one of the sample cups the next time they put those out on the counter.

[It'll still be enough to last them like two full meals each but still.]

...I'm in if you're in, actually, that sounds better than my other lunch ideas.

[ "get a cracker????" and also we can say they indeed went and got smoothies if you want to close this out eyes the comment count to this log nervously ]

It's not like I have anything else planned.

[AND AWAY THEY GO to steal some sample smoothies like a couple of bandits in the night, while we escape from the looming threat of captcha...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

May Event Log

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