recolle | september mini-event log

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september mini-event log

MINI-EVENT

All's Well That Ends Well
Summer's officially drawing to a close in the city of Recollé. Students and faculty alike begin to prepare for classes to resume. Vacations come to a close and stories are shared among co-workers. The amount of beachgoers lessens which each day and the nights start to become a little cooler as the leaves slowly change color. Unreality is kept at bay for now. But that doesn't mean the city's entirely back to normal...

I.
It's a beautiful day and many citizens in the city are embracing their last days of freedom. With a long weekend ahead of them, several people pack up and head back down to the beach to welcome the ocean home and partake in the annual End of Summer party. Much like July's celebration, Peach Beach is the place to be for food, fun and sun. The food trucks are back (and seriously, is this the only action they get?) and the stage is set up for musical and theatrical performances. Soak up some rays and spend the day with your friends, and don't forget to take advantage of the end of summer deals on the boardwalk.

However, the party doesn't get too far before there's the sound of a something soaring through the air. One by one, beachgoers will notice several boats falling straight from the sky and down into the ocean creating huge waves that crash against the shore. Tour boats, sailboats, and even a houseboat will plummet down into the water, miraculously avoiding crushing any swimmers. Make way, everyone: the boats are back and they're making a splash.

II.

Perhaps you're new to the Retrospec network and you've spent the last couple of days trying to remove the persistent app. Or perhaps you've been a part of this group for a while and you're currently filled with dread bracing yourself for whatever will inevitably come this month. It's not a bad assumption to make and though it may seem as though all things are normal for once, it all starts with an innocent text message.

From an unknown number, all users will receive a picture message along with a smiley face. Though there's no name or message attached to it, several users may know exactly where this came from.

Try as you might, replying to the text message won't work. No matter how many messages you send, the last half of these messages are unknowingly sent out to various Retrospec users. Likewise, you may receive other out of context messages from other users experiencing the same weird effects. Well that's inconvenient, isn't it?

III.
You know, texting can be considered overrated. Why text when you can settle for good old-fashioned face to face communication? With several new faces in the city and the autumn season beginning to settle in, there are plenty of places to go and people to see to unplug for a while. Now that all of the monsters are gone things seem to run smoothly as you go about your daily business. While there's some debris left around the city, the buildings are all in one piece and NPCs seem to be as oblivious as always.

It may be unnoticeable at first. After all, how many people look above their own head? Not many. At any given moment unprompted and unannounced, a gray wispy cloud appears overhead displaying any thoughts you may not wish to share with the public. While the thought bubble won't remain at all times, it will pop up on and off throughout the month of September changing messages and even changing color when speaking to someone face to face. Think your professor's talking too much? Want to ask out that cute barista? Good thing they can read all about it!

IV.
Even with the embarrassing texts and thoughts, this appears relatively tame by Recollé standards. Maybe the effects of unreality really did mess things up and the team's too focused on fixing it. Or, perhaps, this month's twist is a small one in comparison to the temporal storm of August.

On the other hand, it wouldn't be Recollé if things weren't a little more physical, now would it? Settling back into everyday life, users will find that things seem more vibrant now. Sights are brighter, smells are more savory, and sound is sharper than ever. Sound has become so loud, in fact, it's almost as if the sound waves have taken on a life of their own. No matter where you go or what you do, sound will make itself present in new and interesting ways. Musical notes will float out of your mouth as you sing along to your favorite song. Glaringly red jagged lines wind themselves around the feet of someone being yelled at. Storm clouds follow and drench someone who's crying. Hearts rise up in the air like bubbles and pop into small showers of confetti with every expression of love. Sound is fluid and expression is free; there seems to be zero limits to what shape the noise will take.

What are you doing today, Retrospecters? You may find yourself dealing with one, two, or all three of these strange phenomenons.

BONUS.
Over in Tisse, the Retrospec building is as sturdy as ever. Several of you know by now that there is more to this building than meets the eye, but even with the map in-hand it's impossible to navigate anywhere the building does not wish for you to explore.

Today, the doors to Retrospec are open to anyone interested in visiting. The lobby appears to be empty as usual and the receptionist desk in the center of the lobby is completely abandoned. Surrounding the desk, however, are several items. In fact, these are all items Retrospec users bought from Jim Halloway's wedding registry during July's bingo game. Several of these items are useful, such as his and her towels or silverware,
but other items seem outlandish or useless such as meme t-shirts, rubber ducks, and other assorted odds and ends. A stack of thank you cards sit on the receptionist's desk but it appears they have not been started yet.

Although none of the rooms are available for entry, underneath the television mounted on the wall sits a DVD clearly labeled "for educational purposes only." Should anyone put on the DVD, they will find a variety of clips from events from the last several months. Strangely there does not appear to be anything from the nine groups that were split between reality and unreality. It's a nice review of the year so far, isn't it? Perhaps it's time to explain to some new users just what this world is truly capable of.

Welcome to

recolle's September mini-event! The prompts are simply loose guidelines for you guys to play with and make up your own fun adventures for the entire month of September! While prompt I is only for the long holiday weekend, the rest of the prompts and the bonus can take place over the course of the month. You may also create your own logs or inbox threads based on these effects. All effects will cease on 10/1 at 9pm EST. Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here.

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Yeah, the local one. I don't know what everyone else heard, but I heard my mom calling me. Which, you know, she's gone. So there's no way I could have been hearing her. But, I swear, it sounded just like her. We think it was the weird glowy flowers.

[sorry Matt, you're just going to keep hearing about all kind of weird stuff]

Auditory hallucinations caused by glowing flowers. Not the strangest thing mentioned.

Speaking of the local woods, one of the young men who went to the basement here mentioned seeing a map of the forest up on a wall down there.

Hah, it does rank pretty low compared to other things that have happened. Though, people who got caught by the hallucinations would wander into the forest, which wasn't a good thing when you're less than six inches tall.

[there's a slight twinge of embarrassment to Tatsuo's voice, because he totally got reeled in]

A map of the woods though? Did he say whether he took a photo of it?

He said nothing about photographing it, he only described it vaguely for me. You'd have to ask him about that. His name was... Izuku, I believe. Mary knows him from school.

[ Onward to the next crazy video taped event! (?) ]

Izuku. Right, Togusa probably knows who he is. I think he was also in the Retrospec basement last month.

Oh, hey, speaking of Togusa, there he is helping me make a monster movie. This was back in July. Jim sent us BINGO cards to fill out and one of mine was to film a monster movie on the beach destroying sandcastles. At first I was working on a sandcastle taller than me, but then he happened along with Daisuke and who doesn't want to make a monster movie of a little dog crushing sand castles?

[of course, there is more discussion between the two about Retrospec and memories and personal histories than monster movies...]

Sounds adorable. I don't know, is it really a monster movie if the monster is so charming?

[ He can hear the ocean noise from the television and the sound of the dog moving. ]

What reason did Jim have to make you play BINGO? Was it a requirement?

Well, once I got the video shot, I went back in with some video editing software and added audio from a classic Godzilla movie and velociraptor cries from Jurassic Park.

[Daisuke does make a rather adorable monster though]

Huuuuuuuuuuuh, there was sort of a convoluted reason. Jim implied we would be able to get memories back by participating, but also, if you got a bingo, you'd get a QR code. And then you could redeem those QR codes at the convention at the end of the month. Which, if I'm not mistaken, might be responsible for the sudden powers people manifested at the start of the monster invasion.

[ Matt shakes his head. ] I can't believe games like bingo were being played to win superpowers. It's better than getting powers through some terrifying or traumatizing means but it's uh... well it's something.

Just in time for the monster invasion. That makes one start to wonder if that was coordinated.

That's Togusa's theory--

[Togusa has a lot of theories]

--that Jim has been trying to help and warn us, in his own passive-aggressive way.

We knew the QR codes might be handy, as there were some found in the old subway system a few months back, but we were unable to scan them.

And then there was the scanning booth at the convention.

Wait- Now there are QR codes even in old abandoned structures? [ He pinches at the space between his eyebrows. It just keeps coming! ] Of course someone could have put them there recently but that doesn't explain why.

Nobody tried scanning a photograph of the subway QR codes at the convention booth?

[This is why Tatsuo laughs whenever some newbie to the app accuses them of sitting on their asses doing nothing.]

Oh yeah, Togusa went down there with some others when we were all shrunk. Made it easier to get inside. They might have scanned the QR code at the con book. We can always ask them.

Alright then... [ Matt leans back in the chair and taps the armrest. Dare he ask more? Better get this over with. ]

Any other games or major events you can think of? [ Actually now that he thinks about it... ] Remind me, how long now has Retrospec existed?

Not off the top of my head.

[there were plenty of bingo shenanigans, but does he reallllly need to tell Matt about the time him and Fynn papered Togusa's desk with cat memes?]

Okay, that is an important question. The earliest anyone remembers being added to the app is February of this year. But the building has certainly existed for longer than that. Exactly how long, is still being looked into.

[Look, he knows Jim and Co can probably hear him wherever he talks about this, but talking about their investigations into Retrospec inside the very building just seems... unwise and vaguely rude.]

[ Matt hums in acknowledgement and his gaze drops down as he runs his fingers over the edges of the armrests as if he could get information out of the furniture. ]

That... would make sense. This is one of the larger buildings in the city isn't it? We'd hear about the construction project during the past year if it was brand new. Unless that's just a perception trick- again.

[ He could add that last sentence to the end of every conversation about Retrospec couldn't he? ]

[yes, yes he could]

I still don't understand how everyone else can miss a building of this size right in the middle of Tissue, but then again they're completely oblivious to the chocobo/horse thing as well. Does not help that there are no obvious public records of the building.

[by which he implies there were some not so public records]

[ Perception trick. Perception trick. ]

It's awfully big building for just the handful of employees known to exist. [ He raises his voice and his head like he's calling to someone across the room. ] Makes one start to wonder why you need so much space, Jim! [ He gives Tatsuo a crooked grin and chuckles. Really, who knew when they were getting eavesdropped on. Matt shakes his head as his laughter dies down. ]

Anything else important on the video you think? Or shall we go visit a business that actually interacts with its customers?

[Always. The answer is they're always being eavesdropped on.]

Naaaah, just more dickery from the Bingo in July.

[because what's playing is footage of him and Fynn papering Togusa's desk with cat memes :|]

Want to grab some lunch? There's a Vietnamese bakery nearby with the best banh mi.

Yeah! Let's get out of here.

[ He stands and unfolds his cane with a quick flicking motion and a snap. ]

Lead the way.

Hope to talk to you later Jim! I'd especially like to meet the people from the legal department!

[Tatsuo chuckles.]

Come on, Counselor. Don't taunt the mysteriously empty building.

[ooc: a good place to wrap, i think?]

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september mini-event log

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