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

It'll probably be like stabbing a bear? A very... very disgusting bear.

[ karkat thinks he'd prefer to fight the bear? ]

I mean... he listed some of the time, which is better than nothing?

A bear that gets nasty diseases all over the place, yeah.

[Do bears carry diseases?? He's not sure, now that he thinks about it, but at least they're not known for being carriers like rats are. He doesn't want the plague, okay.]

—Are you sure he actually listened those times, though? Or was it just like, cat-whims guiding him?

[ he pauses at the question, and all faith he had in his cat suddenly vanishes and you can tell it by his expression. ]

Shit. It was definitely cat-whims.

[ motherfucker

wait. ]

I think there's a grasshopper coming our way. Do those eat people?

[A KNOWING LOOK. It's always cat-whims...

But he'll look around with some fair concern at the mention of a grasshopper, who's just bounding down the sidewalk doing its little bug thing.]

Well... I think most people are bug food when we're this size, but grasshoppers probably aren't as assholish as mantises at least? [FUCK THOSE GUYS.] Get ready just in case.

[He's already got his sword out, why must so much stabbing happen.]

[ karkat has yet to do battle against a grasshopper so he's not sure what to expect here. stab at its grossly long legs? he would suggest crossing the street but he would prefer to avoid the roads. there are tiny people driving gigantic vehicles and they are going to DIE if they attempt that.

he does hold his sickle out, waiting for it to apprAND A BIRD JUST LANDED AND ATE THE GRASSHOPPER. ]

Hey. Uh. I think we need to run before that thing sees us because we are not going to kill a fucking bird.

Ah.

[WELL THERE'S A TWIST. And here he'd been kind of hoping they could befriend the grasshopper and maybe catch a ride somewhere on it, but alas... He sure ain't about to try wrangling a bird for a ride in any case, especially since anything that lifts him more than an inch off the ground seems like an awful idea right now.]

Yeeeah, let's just get outta here. Like, stat.

[Because the bird is crunching through its grasshopper snack at LIGHTSPEED and looking around with its little beady bird eyes.

Kashuu gestures toward a little overhang with some potted plants nearby.]

I don't think it'll be able to divebomb there even if it does see us.

[ that is a good idea and he does not have to tell karkat twice?? he's immediately going over there, glancing over at his shoulder back at the bird who just ate their would-be friend. ]

This would be the perfect time to have a fucking cat around.

[AND AWAY KASHUU GOES following after, glancing over his shoulder repeatedly to make sure their bird friend isn't following along. It seems pretty content to peck at the sidewalk crack for now... Maybe someone else is having a terrifying time being stuck down there with a bird ominously hovering overhead.]

That just means one definitely won't show up... But it's fine, it's fine! That grasshopper was probably enough, right? Birds don't have big stomachs.

They don't? I've never had one, birds creep me out.

[ with their beady little eyes and weird beak mouths and like, feathers and shit.

once they are out of the bird's line of sight, he just sighs. ]

How long do you think we're going to be stuck like this?

I don't think they do? I mean, there's that whole exploding stomach myth with the wedding rice and all...

[WAVING A HAND VAGUELY does he ever have any idea what he's talking about, no, no he does not.]

—That's a good question, though. I mean, chocobos are still around and so are those dancing fruit.

[Which means this could be permanent...]

[ oh my god. he has to pause, trying to imagine living the rest of his life at this size. ]

I goddamn refuse to be tiny forever. That is one inconvenience too fucking many. You can't even take a shit without almost drowning in a toilet like this.

[CRUDE but he has to stifle a little laugh anyway...]

Adapting to life like this would definitely take way more time than just learning to ignore that your fruit smiles at you when you cut into it. But people could seriously die like this too, y'know? Easily. They wouldn't go that far.

[He says while managing to look incredibly uncertain at the same time...]

I... hope not?

[ if someone actually died from these shenanigans then that would turn all of this from an inconvenience and distressing to something a lot more serious. ]

Do you think they'd care? If someone died?

I— [...] Probably? [?!?!] I mean, Jim's an asshole, but "I don't care if people die because of me" is kinda next level...

[He still doesn't sound greatly convinced by his own words, even so. He does not trust Jim and he'll trust Jim even less when he becomes an ASSHOLE ABOUT THE COLORS HE STOLE.]

Jim's not the only one though... He's just the only person we know from the company. If he's some low level dickbag then what are the people above him like?

[ even if no one dies, there is the very real potential someone could get seriously injured. especially when people suddenly have powers one day and have no idea how to use them. ]

[A VERY GOOD POINT... He finds his gaze drifting upward again, as if Retrospec is some ominous deity peering down from the cloud cover, laughing while all of them skitter around panicking and having bad days.]

Yeah... I mean, I dunno about you, but I'm more worried about Janet than Jim, personally. She's probably got more power since she doesn't even have to talk to us directly, and she's been way better about keeping things on lock than Jim.

No, you're right. It doesn't really make sense for someone who's higher up in the ranks to waste their time talking to us if they have others to do that for them.

[ he folds his arms over his chest. ]

Honestly... I'm not even sure if that marriage proposal was real? All it did was make everyone think Jim's an idiot, but what if that was the point?

I definitely think Jim's still a huge idiot.

[Because he has the distinct feeling that Jim enjoyed the hell out of making that video even if it was part of some weird elaborate scheme...]

But I also think he's way smarter than people give him credit for. I mean, he is still part of this company and this company's still one big question mark that we know nothing about even though it affects us every day.

Basically. I highly doubt that they would hire some dumbass who might potentially ruin their own schemes.

[ which... a lot of people were under the impression of when they were first introduced to jim, karkat included. ]

I remember when the app first appeared. Everyone thought it was just some incompetent asswipes who accidentally shat out an app.

[To be fair, so was Kashuu. THAT WAS A RIDICULOUS INTRODUCTION... But the more overtly malicious Jim gets, the more he goes, ah, this asshole is probably real smart.]

Ugh, don't remind me. I bet they were having a great time laughing at all of us just going around thinking it was some weird spam thing or an idiot developer who couldn't figure out netiquette.

I think that's what pisses me off the most actually? The fact that they're probably making fun of us as they watch us try to figure everything out.

[ look, karkat can't argue with someone if they are laughing at him behind his back?? he loves fighting with people but he can't fight retrospec if they won't show up in the parking lot at 3 o'clock. ]

[CONCURRED he's ready with his glove to throw down for an old-fashioned duel but instead he just has to settle with the imagined echoes of laughter surely ringing through the halls of Retrospec's real headquarters... wherever they are.]

Jim definitely is, even if the rest of 'em aren't. That guy probably gets off on how smart he looks compared to all of us tripping around trying to figure stuff out, but it's not like we're at a huuuge disadvantage or anything!

[JIM!!!!!]

I'm pretty sure he won't be that smug if any of us ever find him out in the open.

[ he... pauses, frowning. ]

Actually... we have no idea what the fuck he looks like. We might honestly walk by him all the time or something and we wouldn't even know.

Oh my god, right?! I talked to someone on the network about that earlier! Like, what if you just get stuck in an elevator with Jim one day but you don't even know it's him? That'd be creepy! And a waste of a chance to totally kick him in the shins until they break.

[THAT'S A LITTLE VIOLENT.]

How are we supposed to shit on him if we don't know who he is? It's bullshit that our faces get plastered all over the app but his doesn't?

[ PROBABLY FOR THIS VERY REASON. ]

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i love that icon so much

ME TOO

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