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

[Yep. He's a wee bit sheltered. That isn't to say he's completely gullible, but he tends to forgive a lot of things. People aren't all bad.]

Ah, yeah... thanks for pointing that out. [Dante is right. But he can see the end, which is something. He grabs it and carefully, so carefully threads it back through the knot at his knee.]

Man, today's been so weird. This is just the icing on the cake.

[Well, as Sorey's working on his end, Dante's just going to start trying to get himself sorted out. Where's the end...?

This is stupid.]

And here I thought Founder's Day was this crazy every year. You're telling me they don't usually tie strangers together with yarn balls and force color-changing beads on you?

[Is he being sarcastic? Serious? Who knows! His voice sure isn't giving any hints.]

[That's a pretty heavy dose of sarcasm, but Sorey still manages to laugh. He's down to the knot around his ankle, which is a bit more stubborn; he crouches in order to get a better angle.]

Nah, the cheap plastic beads are pretty standard.

[Tug tug tug.]

Feels like I've been caught in this thing for hours. Every time I think I've escaped it, it finds me again.

[He snorts.]

I meant the color-changing ones. I've seen the standard ones often enough, but I can't seem to get rid of these.

[Dante pauses in untangling himself to draw a string of spirograph beads that are somewhere between blue and purple at the moment from his coat pocket. He lifts an eyebrow at them--they've changed colors again--then, once Sorey's seen them, stuffs them back in his pocket.]

Seems like being unable to get away from things is a running theme. First that app, then the beads, now this...

[Seriously. Someone give him some scissors.]

[Sorey's are blue and orange, and they've been that way for a little while now. He hasn't tried to get rid of them-- he thinks they're cute, if not a bit weird with the color changing. It's like mood rings.]

You can't get rid of them? Like they just... keep ending up in your pocket, or...?

[It sounds hard to believe, but after the weirdness with the app, the horses turning into birds, and everything else... he's not ruling it out.]

It sure feels like we're being forced upon.

Yeah. Watch.

[Out come the beads again. Dante balls them up in his hand, then hurls them across the street. They arc into the air, then hit the roof of a car and slip down the windshield.]

They don't disappear if you're looking at them, but once you turn your attention away again...

[He goes back to untangling the string, first slipping a loop of it off his scarf... and then scowling when the loop closes into a knot he'd been working on, tangling it more.

He bites back the frustration, but the beads, when he pulls them back out of his coat pocket, are turning a bit more red.]

See? They're back.

[Sorey blinks as the beads hit someone's car. Lucky they didn't set off the alarm... seeing as neither of them can run and hide right now. He works on his own knots for a minute until Dante pulls the same beads out of his pocket.

That's definitely not a magic trick. That is straight up teleportation.]

Whoa! What the-- that's-- but you threw them!

[Sure enough, they're no longer on the car across the street.]

There has to be a reason they keep ending up in your pocket.

[Dante nods once.]

Exactly.

The symbols stamped on the beads look like the one for that app, too. Have you seen it?

[Sure, there's a possibility that the other boy isn't one of the ~lucky 200~ "chosen" for the network's beta, but with the building in Tisse, he doesn't care if he's met with a blank stare. He's got a fallback for if that's the case.]

Edited 2017-02-07 04:51 (UTC)

-- I thought that symbol looked familiar! [Dante just confirms it.] It's all connected. They make an app that knows everything about us, they make weird stuff and give it to us during the parade... I wouldn't be surprised if they were the ones who brought in the birds, too.

[Have another nod.]

You've got it. There's something shady going on with this company, and I'm gonna find out what it is.

[A-ha. Finally Dante manages to untangle the knot he's been working on, letting the coils of yarn drop to the ground. He's almost freed now, just a couple more loops around his waist and he'll be out of this mess.]

At first I thought it was just a scam to try and skim our personal data. But that doesn't seem to be the case any more. If they're just trying to steal our identities, why bother renting out a building in Tisse? Why the beads? There's something else we've got to be missing.

I've been watching my credit score like a hawk, too. No one's done anything or stolen my identity...

[What a weird company. What the heck are they after, anyway?]

At any rate, I doubt they've tipped their hand yet. [He furiously works to untangle his end. He's almost there.] Feels like we're in some kind of conspiracy movie, doesn't it?

This is real life, not a movie.

[He says, having just thrown out his own conspiracy theory. Is he a hypocrite? Maybe a little bit.]

But I agree, there's got to be more to it than we're seeing so far. The question is, how are we going to find out what that is? Right now they're holding all the cards. I went into their building earlier today and it's completely empty except for a few chairs and potted plants. You can get into the lobby, but all the doors that lead further in are locked.

[He might already be planning on sneaking back in later tonight to try and pick said doors open, but. No need to tell Sorey that.]

Hah, yeah. You're right.

[That's okay. Sorey wants to get to the truth of things, so they're in agreement.]

So the lobby's open, but nothing else is... There wasn't anyone at the front desk?

[Oh!! He's free! He lets out a whoop of victory and carefully, so carefully, steps away from the rest of the yarn.]

Edited 2017-02-08 19:47 (UTC)

[He shakes his head, easing the last loop over his hips so he can drop it to the ground. FREEDOM AT LAST.]

Not a single person.

I suppose it's possible that they took the day off for the festival, but in that case, why leave the front doors unlocked?

[Dante frowns again, remembering the detail he'd omitted before. He wasn't able to get out of the building for a long time. He'd tried everything he could think of save for using a chair to break the door open to get out, but it wasn't until he'd logged in to the network in question, resigning himself to asking for either Luke or Dirk to help him out, that the doors suddenly worked again.

He's still not sure exactly what unlocked them. Sure, he'd glanced at what was going on, commenting on Dirk's shitty horse drawing, but he would have thought he'd hear the door unlocking...

Still, it's not something he plans on mentioning to Sorey. The last thing he needs is for the other boy to think he's dumb enough to get himself trapped in an abandoned building.]

[Sorey is silent for a long moment. Now that they're both free, it's easier to concentrate on the world at large.]

... What if they wanted you to walk in?

[Dante actually doesn't seem too put off by this possibility. He shrugs.]

Could be. There were cameras aimed at the doors, but I know I'm not the only one that's gone in and out today.

[He'll be more careful when he sneaks back in to pick the locks later tonight.]

But why would they want that?

[He folds his arms, thinking.]

Same reason they gave us that weird app. They want to see what we do with it.

[He tilts his head a little, eyes drifting closed. Viewed in that light... all of the suspect things seem to be for--]

-- an experiment?

[Dante considers it, folding his arms as he thinks through the possibilities.]

Could be. We'll never know by staying still.

[If they want to find out anything about this company (can he even call it a company?), they'll have to take the initiative and find out themselves. He's not the sort of person to wait for answers to find him. Not that he really likes the implication that he's done exactly what they'd wanted, but...]

Who knows? Maybe they did want people to come in and take a look around. But if it means finding out what's going on, it'll be worth it.

Yeah, you're right. [He picks off a stray bit of string from his jacket. Yarn is still yarn, and that stuff will stick to anything.] I know I'm not gonna give up. Even if stuff doesn't make even a lick of sense.

[His expression hardens a little, his lips pressing into a thin line.]

I just hope it doesn't get dangerous. I have a... bad feeling, like this is going to be way bigger than we thought. [He drags his hands through his hair.] I guess I'm worried about what'll happen to us if people don't understand or believe us.

Do you always put this much stock in your feelings?

[He might be being sarcastic, but Dante actually agrees with him. It feels like they're climbing a small mountain with everything that's happened over the past few days, and there's something niggling at the back of his mind almost as though warning him that what looks like a tiny mountain now is just the tip of a metaphorical iceberg.]

I'm betting that things will get dangerous. Maybe not now, but at some point. This can't just be happening for no reason. And when we find out that reason...

Well, a secret that big is sure to draw lines. I just hope that, whatever it is, we don't wind up all fighting each other.

I do. [His gut is rarely ever wrong, except in the case of test answers.] I don't think my concerns are totally invalid, here.

[It looks like they're on the same page, at least. Dante might not be the friendliest guy in class, but he's got a good head on his shoulders, it seems.]

-- Someone's going to get mad, you mean. [He bites his bottom lip as he studies the ground.] If the government gets involved, they could do some serious damage to us, to our lives. I doubt it'll come to that. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. The mayor's always been pretty reasonable.

[Being friendly invites emotions. He's better off without those, thanks.

But Dante snorts at Sorey's concerns, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.]

The government can be bought. Pay them enough money and they'll look the other way--or, pay them enough money and they'll look for reasons to come after us. Even if the mayor's all right, what happens if everyone under him's trying to push an agenda they're being paid for?

[If it sounds like he's got firsthand experience with this, it's because he does. A little bit. Oops.]

[And with this Retrospec sneaking its way into everything...

He has a feeling Dante is talking from personal experience. That's why Sorey doesn't dismiss him. If someone says or does something that surprises him, he tries to look into their reasoning for it. That's just the kind of person he is.]

... If they push us, we push back.

[He was a good kid, a star student, a man who gives back to his community. But he's also protective.]

Until we get more information, though, it's all hypothetical.

[A nod.]

That's right.

Maybe it's all hypothetical right now, but that doesn't mean we can afford to ignore the possibility. We might be playing this game without knowing all the rules, but we've got time to gather as much information as we can before the stakes get raised.

It's like I said. We'll always be behind unless we go out there and find out first.

So even if right now it all seems harmless, that doesn't mean we can sit back and relax.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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