recolle | cause the world might do me in [open]

cause the world might do me in [open]

WHO: Ami and OPEN!
WHERE: various locations around Tribunal Terrace and Apprassage
WHEN: Sunday, July 16, beginning at 8 pm
WHAT: Ami and several others embark on a ghost tour in and around downtown; some ghosts also make an appearance.
WARNINGS: spoopy stories could do u a frighten!

Revenants of Recollé is the longest-running ghost tour in town, and was recently voted the best for the fifth year in a row. The tour begins at their downtown office in Tribunal Terrace, a well-weathered building just a few blocks from City Hall.

Your guide for the evening is Edwin, a man at the upper end of middle age, sporting an impressive beard, dressed in period costume (although what period, precisely, is a little ambiguous), and carrying an old-fashioned glass lantern.

At 8:00, Edwin briefly goes over the rules of the tour - please remain with the group, don't touch anything, no alcohol or Ouija boards, and so on. Then he outlines the general route they'll be taking: past City Hall and the courthouse, through the Recollé Cemetery, looping around 9th Avenue to the Abernathy Hotel, and finally up into Apprassage, concluding at the Old Museum. (Obviously there are more stops than just those three, but those are the most interesting ones.)

By 8:15, the walk has begun. No turning back now!*

*I mean, you could turn back, but then you'd miss out on all the spoops.

((note: Ami did post a thing on the network earlier announcing this, but no signup is required!))

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[So you know that whole bingo card thing? That didn't suddenly stop being a thing going on, or anything. Ami's middle square was to dress like the opposite of a goth for a full week, and she started on the 10th... but it seems she miscalculated, and the 16th is too early to stop! So as embarrassing as it is, she's having to go on her favorite ghost tour in a light summery dress and understated makeup of the style a normal, non-gothy person would wear. (She looks almost nothing like her profile picture, basically.)

Even so, she's decided to play it off like nothing's unusual at all, so she'll go around to anybody she recognizes from Retrospec, if there's time.]

Hey! Glad you could make it!

[The cemetery isn't the first stop on the tour, but it's the first with real ambience. Edwin leads the group into the graveyard itself, along a stone footpath (which he asks them please not to leave, out of respect for the deceased). By now it's getting dark, and the trees along the path rustle ominously as the group goes by... even though, one might notice, there's no wind tonight.

The group pauses at the foot of an ornate mausoleum, where they can sit down as Edwin relates a few stories about the people buried in the yard.]

"This cemetery was established shortly after the Great War, during the height of the Spanish Flu..."

[But strange things begin to happen as the story goes on. Perhaps there's the sound of a twig breaking, or perhaps a pebble skids across the stones... but who could have kicked it? Or perhaps you feel a chill close by, or suddenly, someone's breath on your hair... but when you turn, there's nothing there.

... Unless, of course, you're able to see the ghosts. Somewhere between five or ten specters are out tonight, apparently from several different eras, playing these little pranks on the visitors. (A few more can be seen dimly in the distance, deliberately ignoring the goings-on of the living.) Unfortunately, they don't have much to say. If they notice someone watching them, they may simply shoosh that person so they can go on with their pranks... or they may focus their efforts on you!]

[The Abernathy Hotel, located downtown, was supposedly built before Recollé was a city; that said, however, it's been remodeled so many times over the years that you'd be hard-pressed to find any original construction. It's still operating as a hotel, so the tour group is asked not to disturb the guests, please.

The tour does go inside the building, passing through the opulent ground floor atrium and stopping near the grand staircase. Edwin's stories here are particularly tragic - one a heart-wrenching tale of a woman murdered a hundred years ago by a jealous lover, one detailing a fire that broke out on Christmas Eve, 1924 and killed over 80 people, and so on...

But nothing particularly spooky happens here, and any mediums present will notice no spiritual activity. It seems, for all its history and reputation, the Abernathy is just a regular hotel.

As they leave through a side exit, Ami seems rather disappointed, especially after all the hubbub at the cemetery.]

And this was my second favorite stop, too...

[After something like two hours, the tour concludes at the Old Museum. This is where the Recollé History Museum used to be located, up until a couple of decades ago, and it's only about half the size of the current museum. Even from outside and across the yard, it's clear that the place has fallen into serious disrepair, and Edwin is quick to mention that for your own safety, no one is allowed past the chain-link fence.

It seems they've saved the best for last. The story Edwin conjures is a harrowing tale of archaeology gone wrong. Many years ago, the museum obtained a relic of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, but after the mysterious deaths of everyone involved in its discovery, it was left in the basement and forgotten. Then, thirty years ago, it was rediscovered and put on display, but its curse continued. People began to see a shadowy, inhuman figure in dark corners of the museum. Nothing seemed to get rid of it, not even hiding it in the basement again, not even calling in an exorcist. Over the years the entity grew bolder and bolder. Horrible screams would be heard from the room where they'd displayed it. Employees would find bloody scratches on their bodies and not know how they got there. It culminated in an incident where the director of the Egypt exhibit was pushed from a balcony and broke both her legs. Shortly after that, they moved the museum to where it is now, but no one's been allowed inside since, and it's said that the pharaoh's curse still lingers, along with all the souls it's claimed...

... Anyway! That's the end of the tour. There's a shuttle van that can take you back downtown if you're done. But Ami sticks around, squinting through the fence at the darkened windows. What's she looking at? Well, she'll tell you.]

There's somebody in there. Can you see them?

[But there's no one there... except a ghostly figure, if you can see those.]

((ooc: this is the part for sneaking into the museum! it'll be like a mini adventure; they'll need to sneak past one guard and find a way inside, but neither task will be difficult.))

[After some shenanigans, the trespassers have gained access to the old museum. It looks even worse inside than out - based on what you can see with your flashlights, anyway, since it's otherwise pitch black. Time, neglect, and exposure have not been kind to the place. Paint is peeling off the walls, there's debris and garbage all over the floors, and the stairs, while still usable for now, feel soft and unstable. This is not a good place to be if you have mold allergies. But at least the smell isn't too bad - mostly it's just years of dust and grime.

Most of the building was emptied out, but there are a few things that didn't make it. The biggest of these is a full-scale diorama representing Recollé's Main Street at some point in the past (though nothing directly indicates the year); it couldn't be moved because it's built directly into the walls. One of the remaining plaques indicates there were once mockups of daily life behind the facades, but any furniture is long gone, and all that's left are matte paintings of the interiors.

The American History exhibit is similarly bare, except for a large reproduction of Mount Rushmore that's missing half of Lincoln's face. Is that scratching noise coming from... inside it?

There's a few other places that might be worth checking out as well. Dare you brave the foot-and-a-half of stagnant water in the basement? What about that side room, where a cold breeze blows into the hall?

The mediums, meanwhile, may notice a few isolated spirits wandering around, especially on Main Street... but there's nothing shadowy about them, and they're not at all hostile. In fact, they seem... sad.]

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BEFORE THE TOUR

RECOLLÉ CEMETERY

ABERNATHY HOTEL

OLD MUSEUM - EXTERIOR

OLD MUSEUM - INTERIOR