recolle | FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Yuri nods, taking off at a sprint into the alley with somewhere in the back of his mind a little warning bell going, "that is a bad plan."

He's not so good at listening to the little warning bells, not with his phone on the line. The chocobo runs onward, slowing down in front of the fence with a distressed and confused kwark. It could leap over, if it took a few steps back and launched into a running start.

As it is, Yuri pulls himself up short, staying just out of what he imagines is the range of the bird's neck, beak, and legs. (Hint: he's wrong about that radius.) He has both his hands up, unsure if he plans to placate the bird or yell at it more. He ends up falling into an awkward middleground. )

Look, drop my phone, and we'll leave you to... run around. Just drop it! Stupid bird!

( The chocobo pulls its head back, phone in its beak sliding around as it changes its hold on the device. Looking between Yuri and Chloe, the bird backs up, crouching down a little and kwarking in general warning. It doesn't seem satisfied; almost on accident, it lowers its head to "drop" the phone, releasing a full throated waark into their faces, digging in and lifting its too small wings in a show of general intimidation. It's feet come dangerously close to smashing Yuri's phone, meaning he has more than one reason to find he feels his heart's lodged somewhere in the vicinity of his throat. )

Calm down! Calm down already!

[There was about to be good news, and bad news. The good news was that the creature stepped forward, fully. Its clawed foot padded a full length forward while its wings reared back in more of that intimdation display. This meant that its claw was no longer precariously positioned mere inches from Yuri's phone, and instead, its padding forward put that out of danger behind the creature.

The bad news was that this put its face right up in front of Yuri, and the thing looked pretty darned upset. It reared back and 'wark' issued before it started to push forward with its beak. The thing was powerful, but it was also not sharp in the same way that a toucan's was. It used the strength of its frame to do its nut breaking, meaning that its pecks were more like bludgeons. It gave him a jostle, clearly wanting the both of them out of its way, as Chloe was coming up behind him.]

I... I believe it wants past. Do we attempt to capture this creature, or do we let it go?

( Yuri isn't sure what rules this bird operates by. Is looking away wise? Is keeping eyes locked with eyes a challenge? Why wasn't this a cat? At least then he'd know generally he was going to probably get mauled.

Yuri sidesteps as the chocobo tries to jostle him again, glancing briefly at his phone. )

Let it go? I just want my phone — no, no, hey, stop — !

( The chocobo stamps backward, again barely missing Yuri's phone, before it surges forward with its wings flapping and a loud, piercing kwark! as it bumrushes them both. Yuri throws his hands up to protect his head, yelping, stumbling back and spinning around to land in a crouch — if he didn't end up smacking straight into Chloe in the process. )

[There was a squawk of a different sort while she landed in a heap right behind and to the side of him. Both of them were putting forearms and hands up to keep their faces defended. When she landed, the bum-rush was doing a great job of basically tearing right past them. The thing 'warked' again, landing behind as they were slammed messily out of the way and kicked backwards at the ground, sending dust back at them to express its annoyance before it started shooting off.

Chloe shakily started to get up and laughed, looking in the direction of where it had dropped his phone before back to make sure it wasn't returning for round two.]

Well that was ... that was something, certainement. Is your phone ok?

( He curses under his breath, then louder, pushing back up to his feet and sweeping shards of ice off his clothes. What did he do to deserve this, universe? Nothing. He's fairly sure his standard activities don't lead to phone theft by giant bird. )

Certainement?

( He parrots the word back, finally glancing over to his companion and registering she's apparently okay. Which is good. He'd have offered to help get her to care if that'd happened, but it's better not to be part of random helpful stranger's being injured. He jogs over toward his phone, crouching down to pick it up and examine the screen for cracks. His case has a few new divots, but its done its work: his phone screen remains intact. Wiping it off on his inner zip-up, he straightens up, sighing out in relief. )

Screen's intact. It's still running.

( Glancing back over his shoulder: )

Like the bird.

( He follows that turn of his head with a turning of his body, shoving his phone into his pocket and straightening out his hoodie under his jacket. Belatedly, it occurs to him to be polite: )

Thanks for helping out with all... ( he makes a vague hand motion ) ... that.

Ah, yes. Sorry. It means 'certainly.' Sometimes I catch myself using French. But, I am glad that your phone is undamaged.

[She finished dusting herself off and walked in his directly, smiling as she offered her hand to shake. Well, if they were going to go chasing around like that, she might as well introduce herself, right? It was only polite after all.]

I am Chloe. It's nice to meet you, even under such strange circumstances.

( He glances at her hand, taking it a second later and giving hers a firm shake. It's not the usual way he says hello to random people, but he knows his manners, and there's no point in giving less than a firm handshake. )

Yuri. It's fine, I'm used to random French.

( When ballet is a mainstay of your dancing... he drops her hand quickly enough, glancing down the alley and hunching his shoulders. A moment later he pulls his hood back over the top of his head. )

Can't believe that replaced horses.

[She watched him pull the hoodie over and leaned to look at his face for a moment, curiosity there. The diffidence of the act was sort of cute and made her need to stifle a giggle. Eventually, her gaze followed his and she sighed.]

They are not so bad on their own, when they are not causing such a ruckus... but I do not understand why one would replace a horse. It is fine as what it is, no?

And, you say that you are used to French? Where are you from, if I may ask?

Me? Outside the city. That's not where the French is from — I've taken a lot of ballet.

( Shrugging it all off, even the discomfort of the horses-gone-birds. His phone stays cradled in his pocket as he steps back onto the sidewalk proper, leaving the alleyway behind. The chocobo has run across the street, kwarking at a tent and the people huddled underneath it. He grimaces, shaking his head. )

Wait — you remember horses?

Ah, but of course. There is a certain love of the ballet in the mainland. I haven't seen much of it myself, but I'm from the provincial parts in the south.

[She followed before nodding to his question. Her eyes were on the Chocobo as it ran off, bemused but a little sad at the same time. She glanced over at him when she spoke up, shrugging.]

Of course. I take it you've been trying and people are looking at you as if you have lobsters crawling out of your ears? It is what they have done to me, so I stopped mentioning it, but ... I had a feeling. You seem less used to them than everyone else.

( he waves off his own talk about ballet, let alone her statement on it; yeah, yeah, she's right, but that's not what has his attention right now. )

That's because until today, I'd never seen one of those things. You — have you had anything else weird happen lately? Like, say, apps downloading themselves, or... something like that?

All of these things, yes. [She sighed and leaned against a wall and looked down, rubbing her forehead.] All of these things that you mention and more. I... remembered a trip to Corsica earlier today, even. It was lovely, but at the same time...

[She sighed.] Until I came to this country from home, I never traveled. I have never been there, and yet it was so vivid.

( he blinks, surprised by this; it's something new that he hasn't heard from his friends, or the handful of... not friends but people he knows who've also turned up as part of the Retrospec Social Experiment. )

What do you mean by "remembered?" You remembered something you never did. Usually that's not called remembering.

Had a vision... remembered, I do not know. I cannot tell you what truly happened. I recall my expression in the mirror. I was dressed oddly, and my hair color was wrong, but it was me. I remember old Roman ruins, street signs, eating their food...

[She struggled with it a bit, looking at her hands. She hadn't really had a chance to deal with that issue.]

It happened when I visited their office. I wonder if it is just coincidence or not. It was a harmless thing, not bad at all, but I ... I never went there.

Okay, back up. Visited whose office?

( Retrospec's? He isn't tracking the leap, so he's trying to piece it back together, tuning in to this conversation at last. )

Retrospec's. I apologize for not being clearer. [She honestly was getting too used to people just only talking about them these days.] I went inside with another girl, and while we were inside I saw this place.

Did she see something weird too?

( Restrospec has an office? Okay, he needs to track that place down too. He should ask about that after he figures out if it was the place tripping this young woman up, or something else. )

No, I don't think so. I told her about it, but I think she had enough on her mind, what with our trying to get out of that place. It was very unusual, as you might expect.

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FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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