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

I wouldn't ever change Dirk, because then I would not be making a sidecar for the kitty cats with him.

[ priorities, jade.

hm. about dave, though. ] Dave's my best friend! I'm not mad at him. [ .......JUST CONFUSED? ] He is just kind of oblivious and has dumb bad taste sometimes. It's a dumb Strider thing, that's all.

[He is kind of amazed at the life Jade leads.]

Oblivious and bad taste is definitely a Strider boy thing. [He can't help sounding a little sulky about the former.] Dave probably got it from Dirk.

[ oh, so that definitely means jake's upset. jade smiles lightly. ]

Whatever it is, I bet Dirk did not mean to do it. Dave is dumb, but he always apologizes to me. I bet Dirk is the same way. Oblivious and bad taste doesn't mean they're bad people or don't deserve another chance, Jake!

[ how many chances have they given the striders, though.
how many. ]

[The Striders somehow latched onto the two people who will give them infinite forgiveness.]

I know, I know. I never really get mad at him or anything! He's really quite sweet. Just an idiot sometimes.

And the idiot part really sucks! [ is she pouting? she's pouting. at this point, is there's really any doubt this conversation is about the fact they both have crushes on the strider boys? is there. ]

But I don't think even that is so bad. It's kind of endearing how oblivious they can be. Sort of like a cat!

[Wow they're clearly really subtle about this since neither boy actually noticed?]

They are so like cats? Dirk sometimes stretches out like a cat. It's kind of cute.

[ dirk and dave shared a bedroom for years and for a good portion of jade's adventures^(TM), which means that yes, dirk stretches like a cat and jade is vaguely aware of this. but also, ]

That's true! Dirk is like one of those tabby cats. I guess Dave is more like an alley cat? [ ...she means that nicely. ] Maybe you should give him a treat and he'll be nicer! He likes oranges a whoooole lot.

[He can't help laughing. They're comparing them to cats.....]

I bring him presents all the time! I get him food and books and I got him a necklace once...

[ oh. ohhhh? ]

Woah! Really? What kind of necklace? [ jade has probably seen this necklace if dirk wears it at all, but like. she wants to knoooooow. ]

Oh, um, it's just this... it's kind of dumb, I got it for him as a lucky charm when he was struggling with school. He put it in his pocket. It's a little box pendant with a lucky stone in it.

[ with a gasp: ] Oh, Jake, that is not dumb at all! It was very nice of you to do that for him! I bet Dirk really believes in it, even if you think it is a little silly of you. [ dirk's a good guy. jade believes in that lucky charm with all her heart? ] Little gestures like that... well, I believe they can be the most important things for us.

I don't think he believes in it... He told me luck is a state of randomness or something like that. [Then he smiles a little.] But he said he wanted to keep it when I asked if he wanted me to return it, so that's what matters to me.

[ jade hums again, but this time, it's longer. she's thinking harder. ]

I'm just his baby brother's friend, but... Well, my opinion is Dirk is not the sort to keep things unless they mean something to him. [ there's a shrug, but jake can't see it. ] He's pretty cool that way!

Yeah, he's always acting cool and ironic. I know he's actually a big teddy bear but... [He sighs.] Sometimes it's pretty hard to tell what he really means.

[ well. yes. that is the strider curse, isn't it? dirk seems to embrace it more than dave, though. ]

Heeeeey, buck up! I bet Dirk will figure it out if you're a little more obvious. Or maybe just tell him? What did he do, forget to wash the dishes? [ he seems like the type? ]

[Jake clears is throat. Yeah. Totally that.]

Well, uh, something like that? It's nothing I can... actually talk to him about though. I mean not yet. Maybe someday...?

[ jake. that sure does sound familiar? ]

Well... I guess you know your situation best, Jake. And yourself! Everyone moves at a different pace, and that is pretty ok, I believe.

[ some of us move at a snail's pace via waiting ten years apparently? ]

[It's totally not what she thinks wow!!]

Yeah! Sure, I mean, it's fine. [Pause.] Uh, do you... ever have things you want to tell Dave but you hold back on?

[ DOXXED IN ONE SENTENCE. ]

Well... Iiiiiiiii try not to tell him things that would probably just stress him out! [ jade realizes how that sounds pretty quickly, though, so she continues explaining. she could have left it at that, but that's too easy to read into. ] Like when I skip breakfast before school, or if I actually need more money for car gas after he offered. [ a shrug. ] Best friend stuff.

Oh! [Well that makes sense. And is typical Jade being sweet.] Yeah, me too. I meant like, you know, sometimes even though he's your best friend, like... maybe there are things you're still nervous about telling him? That's normal, right?

[ jaaaaaaaaaaaaake ]

I think it's plenty normal to have things you are not ready to talk about! But that doesn't mean they are not worth talking about when you are ready, too. Umm, that is to say, it is okay to set the pace with your own comfort, I guess!

Huh, yeah, makes sense. [Excellent, he heard, "so I never have to talk about it ever" good.] You've really got your shit together, huh Jade?

[ just wait a few more hours, jake. her life will be in...shambles... ]

I do not really know about that? [ with a laugh ] I don't think it's about having your shit together so much as doing what you have to do for yourself, Jake.

FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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