recolle | 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

[KASHUU WILL SINGLEHANDEDLY BECOME THE CAT GUARDIAN]

If there's a safehouse, there will have to be guards? But we can't do that to all the animals, they'll fight...

[cats and dogs or something right??

BUT HOW CAN THEY PROTECT THEM]

[HONESTLY, HE WILL. He will fight for cats, don't test him.]

Ugh... Maybe each of them can have their own room or something? But then there would still probably be fights, if they're in tight spaces and all.

[They're moving rapidly to Noah's Arc territory here.]

[take 100 of every animal]

And we'd have to figure out how to feed them, and walk them, and watch over them...

I want to but - can we?

[they probably shouldn't]

...No. There's no way something like that's even remotely possible.

[HE SAYS THAT but also he's dealing with a giant chicken right now and he never thought that'd be possible, either?!]

Well - it's not like they can just keep snatching up animals without someone noticing, right? Someone besides us, I mean. Like, what if someone visits and is all, "hey, where's the Mayor's horse? Why's your cat a weird alien blob?" or whatever?

I want to say so but...

[There's a furrowing of her brows. Most of the city doesn't seem to notice the difference. Rather, it's just the people that Anya considers her friends.]

Mama didn't even notice the difference. There aren't any newspaper headlines about it... I'm confused, to say the least.

[Honestly, being in the apparent minority here with this chocobo tomfoolery is stressing him out... But it's not like he can ignore the Very True Things she's saying, either.]

They can't-- I mean, it's not like they can just be like this forever though, right? I totally remember studying something like this in high school, actually. Mass hysteria or something?

[THERE'S A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION HERE HE'S SURE.]

[ . . . wait.]

Who are the hysterical ones?

Is it us?

[SHE SURE IS FEELING A CONCERN.]

[THAT'S THE REAL QUESTION OF THE HOUR.]

...I was thinking the people who don't think horses are real.

[There's a definite unspoken "but..." at the end of that sentence, though. Save him.]

[Save them.]

... oh.

[Uh. What does.

She say here.]

I'm sorry. I made it more complicated.

[Save them from themselves.]

I guess you kind of have a point, though? Like, if our numbers are smaller, and we don't have anything to prove horses actually existed...

[WHAT IF THEY WERE THE CRAZY ONES ALL ALONG.]

[this is it

this is the horror movie that they were signing up for]

I just didn't want to think that Mama was feeling bad... [HER VERY SIMPLE THOUGHT PROCESS] But doesn't it feel strange? Shouldn't there be some...

Cause, maybe? For the hysteria?

[that's a thing, right]

[He didn't actually want to sign up, he takes it back, HE TAKES IT BACK.]

Maybe it's just stress from all the prep work we've done...? I mean, people have been working super hard this year to get everything together, right?

[YOU CAN'T RETURN THIS.]

That's... true? [A slight furrowing of her brow.] So maybe it's just exhaustion?

[HE NEVER CUT THE TAGS, LET HIM LIVE.]

It might be. Once people have time to rest and stuff, maybe it'll be better.

[This sounds like bullshit even to his own ears.]

[WHERE ARE THE RECEIPTS.

But even though it's bullshit to Kashuu, here's Anya-]

Hmm... Maybe if everyone takes a nap, then we'll be on the same page?

[something like that]

We'll know by tomorrow whether or not sleeping will actually help anything, I guess.

[He says, already sounding and looking somewhat defeated. ANYA DOES HER BEST, Kashuu just struggles.]

[There's a lot of struggling happening.

Anya just nods.]

That's true. Maybe it's still possible to enjoy today without worrying about hysteria then...

[Like.

Maybe.]

I just wanted to come here to see if the horses really were gone, but I'm not going out of my way to look for any more for the rest of the day, that's for sure.

[When in doubt, just ignore the source of the problem...]

I mean, we all worked super hard for this! We should at least be able to get some funnel cakes or watch the parade without worrying about whether or not we're crazy.

[oh Kashuu...

Anya watches him for a moment before laughing softly and reaching out to place a hand on his arm. it'll be ok, peanut!!]

You're right!

So let's go get some funnel cake? Out of sight, out of mind?

[she's too on board with this whole Ignoring the Problem idea]

[WILL IT REALLY BE OKAY!!

Also, this is terrible coping. But terrible coping means Kiyomitsu is 110% down for it.]

Yeah, that sounds good. I'll need like, two or three at this rate.

[To soothe his encroaching headache.]

[the worst coping but Anya just wants to keep her friends happy....]

Okay! As long as you don't get the sugar on your clothes, it'll be okay, right?

[don't think of the calories]

[IT'S BOTH CUTE AND ALARMING.]

Yeah, sure. [Calories? What calories??] We'll just grab some extra napkins and it'll be fine.

[At least they're not eating whole moon cakes.]

[that's something for next year's new year]

Exactly!

[and with that Anya will cheerily hold onto Kiyomitsu's hand as she heads out of the petting zoo and toward the food stalls

this is it

this is how they deal with the oncoming apocalypse

funnel cakes]

FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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