FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

[recollecters]

EVENT

FOUNDER'S DAY It's finally here. This is the day the city has been waiting for. It's a day like no other when every resident of Recollé can be found buzzing with energy and excitement. Shops open early. The Recollé High School and University marching bands begin to play, and over in Tribunal Terrace Mayor Mayer strides up to the microphone atop his beloved giant chicken, Seabiscuit. --wait, giant chicken? You're sure the Mayor has something important to say, but all you can do is focus on the fact that Seabiscuit didn't have bright red feathers the day before. The rest of the Mayor's speech may not get through to you, but it's his last sentence that makes everything official. "Welcome to Founder's Day! Let's do our part and celebrate the city that we love." I. All of the hard work from the days prior has paid off. The weather is slightly brisk with no chance of snowfall until well into the evening and businesses are booming. Shopkeepers and employees working today will have their hands full taking orders from customers and keeping up with demands. Maybe that 50% off deal on wool-knit scarves wasn't such a great idea. On the other hand, residents that aren't working today will find the streets pleasantly busy. Chata has plenty of sidewalk sales to peruse. Music and the scent of cinnamon-sweet coffee will surely lure some people to the businesses in Tisse. School is closed for the day but an open campus tour runs a few times a day at the university, and the Founder's Day play is performed once in the morning and once in the evening at the Atrium. Are you enjoying a day with your friends? Or are you stuck behind a register wishing you were? Wherever you may be, the spirit of Founder's Day is all around you. II. At noon sharp, the bands strikes up again as crowds gather around Tribunal Terrace. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the main attraction! That's right, it's time for the annual Founder's Day Parade featuring the city's newly elected royalty: King Kurt Wagner, Queen Maya Aimoto, Prince Ryoji Mochizuki, Princess Rose Strider, Duke Viktor Nikiforov, and Duchess Arlene Sinclair. The marching bands play with gusto as they stride through the streets, the Recollé High and Recollé University cheerleaders right behind them. Beautiful floats follow in their wake, all decorated with flowers and depicting the historical events of the city. One thing that's different this year, however, is the addition of beads from the King and Queen's float at the end of the parade. The Recollé Royalty's float-helpers sit on the edge of the float tossing colored strands of beads and candy to the audience below. Most residents may not notice, but the beads seem to be shaped like a new logo some residents are quickly becoming familiar with. Residents will find that wearing the beads will produce some interesting results though. Are you on a romantic date? Your beads might slowly turn red with passion. Are you nervous about one of those floats suddenly veering off and rolling down the hill? Your beads might turn pitch black. No matter what district you're in after the parade these beads will respond to your current mood, and even if you take them off they seem to mysteriously turn back up in your pocket. If you take them off and try to get rid of them often enough, they might just appear around your neck, and you won't be able to remove them for the rest of the day. Then again, this doesn't seem to be a rule so much as a pattern. Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to ditch the beads to your pocket instead of having them prominently displayed no matter how many times you do away with them. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve. What's up with that? The beads may not be everyone's first priority. After all, once the parade's said and done someone has to be on clean-up duty. Will you volunteer? III. Later, back at Tribunal Terrace, residents who passed by a large metal truck earlier in the week will quickly see what all of the fuss was about as Mayor Mayer walks Seabiscuit down the street, monitoring over a small, gated pen for Chocobo-back rides. You know the Mayor used to own a horse. Seabiscuit has always been a beautiful Palamino with a shimmering coat. Asking most of the other residents, however, will earn you a concerned look. Recollé has always been home to Chocobos. What's a horse? Nearby there's a petting zoo that has been set up by the same company. Thankfully, those animals look familiar. Goats, sheep, bunnies and other small animals reside in the petting zoo. Are you the type to feed them? Or are you stuck on pooper-scooper duty? Gross. The Chocobos themselves seem friendly enough, though the little ones are prone to nipping at hair and fingers. Are you brave enough to get closer to take a better look at these mysterious creatures? Do try to be careful...especially since some of them are prone to running away and relocating themselves in other parts of the city. Seems like even the Chocobos want the Founder's Day special from Expressive. IV. Mayor Mayer, as good and true as he is, isn't one of the most careful people in the city of Recollé. It would make sense to keep Seabiscuit away from the city's pride and joy, the world's largest ball of red string. If you've been in Recollé for any length of time, you'll immediately recognize the ball. Large enough to see from any district, the ball has been wound and displayed near City Hall for years. Too bad Seabiscuit isn't one for tradition and this creature does startle easily. It's hard to say what caused the poor thing to become so scared that it kicked the ball right off of its pedestal, but once it starts rolling there's no stopping it. The red ball of string picks up pace, rolling down the streets and unraveling to tangle up anyone in its path. The string winds its way around the city and all districts, seemingly pulling people in and tying them up with at least one other person. It seems that the only way to undo this mayhem is to find your other half and work together to unravel yourselves. BONUS. You don't remember that building in Tisse being there. Was it there before? Perhaps it was empty in the days prior to Founder's Day, but today a small neon sign illuminates the front of the building with the name of its current business. Retrospec. Huh. Isn't that the name of that app that installed itself on your mobile device? As you've noticed by now, all aspects of the app are available to use. But there's still something ominous about that building. If you're brave enough to go inside, you'll find… …nothing. The building appears to be empty save for a few chairs in a waiting room-type area and a large fake potted plant in the corner. There appears to be several doors and even an elevator, but it seems no matter how hard you try you can't access any of those. What a waste of time. (And why isn't there a staircase?) There's really no point in staying here when the festival's outside waiting for you. When you try to open the front door to exit though it appears to have locked behind you. Are you alone? Hopefully you aren't alone, that would be quite dreadful. Of course, you can try a few things to break out. You can try ramming down the door for example. That won't work, but you may certainly try. Though the city is full of creative people with undoubtedly interesting methods of breaking free, residents locked inside Retrospec will find that the only way to open the door is by using the Retrospec app to post a status update, comment to someone else's status, or post a picture from their Founder's Day adventures. Is there a right or wrong way to do this? That's for you to find out. Time to get creative and maybe make a few new friends! Welcome to recolle's February event! As a reminder, all characters will be begin in-game AU'd as Recollé residents. As with our TDM, 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 a note, the effects from the beads in the second prompt can last throughout the month if you would like, but will fade as soon as February is over. Additionally, you may post Retrospec updates in your top-levels on this log for the bonus prompt if you wish to keep everything in one place. As another note, by participating in this log in a thread with five or more comments from you, you are eligible for one free memory regain! This means you can claim a memory without a trigger required. Please see our monthly plotting post for more details. Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

Comments

[katsudonfatale]

[ Yuri had probably missed most of the experience, by the point he finds Yuuri, but the truth is he had been staring at this particular chocobo for something like fifteen minutes now. It started of as a "casual" glance from afar, but the more Yuuri tried to ignore this for the sake of his own sanity, the closer he found himself standing to the beast.

By the time Yuri finds him, he's close enough to the chocobo that he can reach out and touch it. In fact, that's exactly what he's in the process of doing when Yuri calls out. ]

W-Wha?!

[ Yuuri's hand lands on the chocobo's neck a little rougher than intended, which in turn makes the chocobo let out a confused "WARK!", which then makes Yuuri yelp loudly. ]

I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean t—! H-Hey, no! That's my hair, not food!!

[catsudon]

( He can't help it. Oh, he probably could, but the sight of one of his dance instructors yelping and grabbing on to Big Bird, then likewise getting his hair groomed? It's too good. Yuri's phone is out and he's taking a snapshot while he's laughing harder than he has for most the day, wiping the back of his wrist against his eyes and shoving his phone into his jacket after making sure he has a decent shot.

This is too good. )

I think it likes you!

( He can relent a little, since the chocobo is primarily focused on Yuuri. His own experiences so far today were far more, ah, energetic than getting a sudden confused sort of grooming, or. Preening? Is that the word when birds do it?

It's definitely what's happening to Yuuri right now. Still grinning, Yuri eyes the big bird, debating on what's a halfway decent means of helping. If he needs to, really. As it is, he's in touching distance, but his hands are simply on his hips as he snickers. )

Have you ever considered owning a giant chicken-horse before? Looks like he thinks you're part of the family.

( Please understand both the word chicken and horse. Please let this be consistent. )

[katsudonfatale]

[ Yuuri can tell Yuri just got what may possibly be one of the worst pictures of him in existence, but he's too busy trying to escape the bird's "attentions" to complain about that. It takes a bit of struggling, but eventually he manages to push the chocobo's beak away from his head (sadly, not without losing a few strands of hair in the process, ow). He rapidly steps away from it just for good measure. ]

W-Well, I appreciate the sentiment, but I can't even own a dog as is! Something like this is entirely out of the question!

[ A beat. ]

Wait, does that mean you can see it too?

[catsudon]

( Count yourself as lucky, Yuuri, that Yuri's primary purpose in having these kinds of photos is his own amusement and low-key blackmail in case it's ever somehow relevant.

Yuri takes a step back and whirls out of the way, not wanting to invite the chocobo into eating his miraculously still intact flower crown at this point in the day. It's that thought, more than anything else, that has him finally paying attention to the treat around Yuuri's wrist — a familiar kind of flower, but one that has also escaped eager chocobo beaks. )

Big bird? Yeah, I see him. Or her.

( He has no familiarity with sex differences between the birds. He does assume they come in at least two varieties. Don't most birds? )

They're supposed to be horses. Or horses got replaced with them. Chocobos or something like that? ( He steps closer, trying to get a clear look at the flower bracelet he's wearing. Yuuri himself might notice that the unlikely flower crown Yuri is wearing is likewise made of lilies. (Anya has had a busy day.) )

What's around your wrist?

( He feels he Knows the answer to this, even as he's squinting, starting to frown... which, for Yuri, isn't an unusual expression in the first place. )

[katsudonfatale]

[ Luckily for both of them, the chocobo doesn't seem too interested in getting close to Yuuri again. Instead, it chooses to start preening itself.

And when Yuri confirms that he can see the bird too, Yuuri's expression brightens up with a mix of genuine joy and relief. ]

Yes! Yes, that's right! Horses are nothing like this! But everyone I talked to before said these birds had always been here and they had no idea what I was talking about! Ahh... I'm so glad, I thought I was going crazy.

[ Oh, but Yuri asked something else too, that's right. He holds up his wrist, an obvious afterthought. ]

This? It's a gift from Anya. She got you one too, huh?

[catsudon]

( He already knew Yuuri was on the social media app that's been messing with their tech since the start of the month; prior to that, he'd only known Dave and Anya to have it on device, and he wasn't going to make too much of it when he didn't have a social network to check in with and see how far it went.

Then the first had happened.

Now it's the third, and things are getting even more fricked up. Yuuri brightens; Yuri frowns. )

Only as crazy as anyone else with that freaking app... so far we're the only ones who seem to think horses even exist.

( Present tense. It's too overwhelming a reality to think they've been completely written out of existing. That's a frightening notion for anyone to try and wrestle with, even if so far he has no way to prove it hasn't happened.

Easier to focus on simple, tangible realities, like that bracelet of flowers. His frown doesn't waver; instead he draws his lips back from his teeth and smiles in a not too kind way. )

Of course it would be. Remember what I said about my gratitude, Jazzercise? ( Making a cutting motion in front of his chest, stamping down with his foot at the same time, he ducks down to stare straight up at the taller guy and announce: ) Consider it revoked.

( Certainly, Anya could just be doing it because she's Anya, and she likes giving people things. All kinds of things, sensible or not; but he remembers the debacle from the other day, and he knows Anya is right on that cusp of gullibility and guilt that makes it all too real that this was partly in apology. That still ticks him off, for her sake; not that Anya even minds in the slightest. )

[katsudonfatale]

[ It isn't until Yuri mentions the app that everything clicks into place. Sort of. Yuuri had been too busy trying not to think of it and too distracted with the entirety of Founder's Day to connect the two, but if it turns out the only people who remember horses are the people who were presumably chosen to be part of Retrospec...

He feels stupid for not thinking of it sooner (if Viktor knew he'd probably scold him). ]

Is that true? Only the people with the app?

[ Again, he'd been doing his best to ignore said thing, so when Yuri talks about his gratitude being revoked it takes him a second to catch on to what he means.

Oh.

He smiles, wryly. This shouldn't be such a big deal, but he knows how close Yuri and Anya are, so he doesn't make light of it for fear of making the situation worse. ]

Ahh... yeah, yeah. You did warn me.

[catsudon]

( Yuri, however, has been low key wondering if this will transmit weird stuff to his grandpa or mess with his connections to the part of his family he cares most about; he learned his lesson day one about how dangerous sharing anything was. (It was his own fault; thankfully, a kind lesson, just personally embarrassing.) )

Mm. From what I've been able to figure out.

( He's been Talking to people today, and it's been an effort to assuage the worries he's otherwise been shoving off. His shoulders hunch up when Yuuri smiles; what he says ends up allowing Yuri to snort, harsh, then look away. He breathes in, lips pressed into a thin line.

Then he breathes out, not quite a sigh. )

Listen next time.

( Which is hilarious coming from him, when one of the things most people would presume is Yuri himself rarely listens to others. (Not true, but certainly, it's hard to tell when he's paying attention if it's not tied into dance.) Time to immediately drop that subject in favour of another that is....... actually a result of different snowballed joking. )

So Vitya said you could start teaching Zumba, huh?

[katsudonfatale]

[ Yuuri decides to file that information away for the time being, along with the whole beads phenomenon. He has a lot of questions about... well, everything, but currently Yuri is willfully leading their conversation towards an interesting place, so... ]

I will, I've learned my lesson.

And yeah, I'm hoping to see you there every Saturday, since this was your idea and all.

[ He can't help but smirk a little. Surely Yuri couldn't have suggested this to Anya expecting the whole thing to become a reality, right? ]

[catsudon]

( It's the smirk that gets under his skin; with a huff of a scoff (at least I'm not the one too thick to see that idiot Vitya's mooning over me), he shifts back, moving into position before his arms are brought up and he rolls into a basic reggaeton, keeping tempo to some half remembered song in his head.

Yuri absolutely hadn't suggested this thinking it'd actually manifest as a reality. it was, in fact, just a leveling up on Jazzercise as a nickname (that no one asked for) into something Anya had brought up: why jazzercise? why not zumba?

but even as Yuri shifts into another step, arm up and out to the side as he rolls his hips and brings his foot back down with a stamp and a toss of his head and flower-crown bound hair, flashing Yuuri a challenging look, he metes out his own "little" smirk. bring it. he's not going to be the first to back down. (there's more than one person who could stand to learn a lesson here...) )

It's a date. ( ten thousand percent metaphorically, considering it's a reoccurring commitment that until, say, a week ago, Yuri wouldn't have bothered even semi-seriously considering. ) Wouldn't miss it for the world, Yuuri.

( s m i l e ? )

[katsudonfatale]

[ Well.

That is definitely not the response he was expecting and it shows in his face; eyes wide and eyebrows arched up as far as they can go.

Yuuri had already committed to the idea of teaching this class, started to look into the basics of Zumba, how to become a certified instructor and all, but this?

This 100% sells the deal. ]

... Good. [ He manages, after a longer pause than he would have liked. Still smiling, but now a lot more serious (pumped, one might even say). ] I'm really looking forward to it.

[ Especially after what he just saw. ]

[catsudon]

( The sad part will be the moment Yuri has fun doing this without realising it; but right now, he's mostly throwing teenaged attitude and feeling like somehow, obscurely, he's winning the challenge that he just tossed down only nothing has actually been challenged.

Except he can see Yuuri, after that pause, is at least taking it seriously.

And that might be one more step toward getting him to take actual dance seriously. It's that thought which has him straightening up; if there's anywhere he'd actually like to challenge Yuuri, it would be in showcasing the skills hidden away as a teacher at their dance studio. Why does it even matter so much to him?

For the same reason it irks him that Anya and Dave don't really take this seriously. They have the potential. How can anyone choose not to live up to it, to see where it will take them? Why would anyway back away from proving their own skill, to themselves, to their audience, to the world? )

Of course you are.

( It's a self assured, not quite smug, but definitely veering toward smug statement. Also paired with a flick of Yuri's eyes over Yuuri's shoulder; he lifts a hand to waggle his fingers, wrinkling his nose. )

Your new best friend's about to clock you again.

( The chocobo is back, this time with strings of beads in its beak that its pulled out of the bush it'd investigate when the shine had drawn its eyes. It's also definitely trying to preen Yuuri's hair again. He is, apparently, just that irresistible. )