A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk.
The main feature of the tourist center is the interactive kiosk installed dead in the center, right in the middle of a few rows of uncomfortable chairs that fill the small room. It's noticeably in the way of any would-be foot traffic through the tourist center, and something about the technology seems a little more modern than the computer behind the desk or the landline phone on the wall. The kiosk is a tall silver rectangle, about average adult height, and the upper half is a screen welcoming visitors to touch it to activate the kiosk. If you were to touch it, the screen would come to life with simple dialogue inviting visitors to ask it their questions.
However, residents should note that the kiosk is only programmed to assist with exploration within the available areas of the city. It may not be able to answer every question, and tampering with the kiosk may result in unreliable or inaccurate answers!
TO THE SOUTHWEST
The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.
As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.
Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.
TO THE EAST
The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.
A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.
You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.
The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.
As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.
Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.
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I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM.
Have you ever visited the ice cream parlor located in District 2? It's a pretty quirky little joint!
When you walk in, what you'll likely notice first is the colors. Everything is bright, almost oversaturated—the pink of the leather seats, the teal of the walls, the red of the menu sign hanging over the counter. By all rights it seems like these colors shouldn't go together, but somehow they do, or maybe that's just because being in an ice cream parlor puts you in a good mood. It smells like waffle cones, and overhead, there's music pumping through the speakers at just the right volume, providing some nice background noise to your decision-making process.
Wait, music?
There's a jukebox at the far end of the shop, which seems to be where the music is being chosen. As you head over, the song comes to an end and the jukebox machinery shuffles through its options before landing on a new one. The song sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it? And the longer you listen, the more the lyrics really seem to speak to you. It costs money to pick your own song, so if you happen to have some coins on you—or if you're really, really determined—you can choose the next round of tunes.
When you're done at the jukebox, you can go check out the serving area of the shop. Behind the counter you can see milkshake mixers and waffle cone makers; there are ice cream cakes in the freezers that line the wall; and when you approach the main counter you can see the tubs of ice cream in almost any flavor you can imagine.
Pick a flavor, whichever one's your favorite! Do you want it in a cone or in a bowl? There are regular cones and waffle cones, and all kinds of toppings—sprinkles, syrups, gummy candy, mini marshmallows. Decorate your ice cream however you want, the sky's the limit when it comes to choices! You can even come back for seconds if you want, or thirds. Who's going to say anything about it, after all?
But the more of your ice cream you eat, the more you start to feel… strange. Maybe you're starting to get angry, or sad, or giddy—maybe you feel romantic, or feel like you want to tell a secret to a stranger, and you're not really sure why. You also can't quite seem to stop eating your ice cream, and the more you eat, the less worried you feel about whatever's happening to your emotions. After all, why be concerned about that when you have something so delicious in front of you?
| Flavor |
Effect |
| Strawberry |
You find yourself compelled to seek out strangers and tell them a hidden truth about yourself |
| Rocky Road |
You find yourself compelled to seek out strangers and convince them of some egregious lie |
| Vanilla |
You are overwhelmed by a sense of total calm, and can only speak in aphorisms and platitudes |
| Rainbow Sherbert |
You are overwhelmed by amorous feelings towards whoever is near you and try to cuddle or kiss them |
| Chocolate |
You feel suddenly morose about something in your past and cannot stop crying until someone consoles you |
| Bubblegum |
You become uncontrollably giggly and giddy, and can only speak in rhyme |
| Caramel Ribbon |
You become angry and perhaps even violent, trying to attack anyone who comes near |
| Mint Chocolate Chip |
You suddenly have a common but exaggerated phobia (for example, a fear of heights where the step down off the curb is too much) |
When characters first enter the ice cream parlor, they may notice that there's music playing overhead! That's from the jukebox, and the lyrics of the song may sound like they're particularly apt for a character's circumstances. Players are welcome to choose their own jukebox songs for their characters—it doesn't need to have appeared in canon, but characters from modern times are welcome to recognize the music being played. (Players can also feel free not to pick a real song at all, and instead just describe the overall sound of the song and content of the lyrics!)
This is an ice cream parlor, so of course there's also ice cream to be had. Characters can serve themselves whatever flavor combination they want, but shortly thereafter will find themselves suffering certain emotional effects depending on what flavors they chose. These emotional effects, shown above, will last for roughly an hour before slowly dissipating, and their intensity depends on how much ice cream the character ate and whether they were able to recognize what was happening and stop eating. Not every flavor has an emotional effect, so players can also choose to have their character eat a normal scoop and go about their day.
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-08-02 12:00 am
no subject
The weight of his discovery sinks in moments later and he's just about to turn around and retreat back to the bar when Armand steps out of the shadows like some kind of twink Nosferatu, and Daniel halts before colliding with him. ]
Given up on what, the chasing? You tell me if we've given up on that or not.
[ Daniel takes in the sight before him, yes it really is Armand and yes this really is a place neither of them are familiar with. Daniel isn't even convinced he's still in San Francisco at this point. He might even believe this isn't Earth. Maybe just a really bad trip. ]
You drank from that guy, huh. [ It's not a question, Daniel can see the blood at the corner of Armand's mouth and the flush to his pale cheeks bringing out his light speckling of freckles. ] You took your anger out on him. [ A loss of control, like Armand had felt when he'd been overpowered. And how the sweet fuck, exactly, had Armand been overpowered? And why does the thought of it make Daniel so afraid? ] What's going on with you, how didn't you sense him coming?
no subject
..I did and I don't know. I am not.. I do not have the full range of my usual sensitivity and powers - the parlour was a muddle and I was being single minded. No mortal would usually dare approach me, but it was not a 'usual' situation was it? Neither is this a usual place...
[ He trails off, staring at Daniel, his expression blank but for a strange vulnerability in his eyes, something about the way he holds himself, not the usual easy straight posture, but a little hunched into his jacket, into the bulky hooded sweater beneath.
This is his Daniel, but it is also not his Daniel. His boy was cold and changed and Armand had been resting under the weight of his arm as they rode the subway, he'd closed his eyes for barely a moment, Daniel's chin pressed to the crown of his head, no more than a series of heartbeats and then he had awoken here, alone.
The boy before him however, still burns with equal distrust and resentment to love, still so achingly mortal that it makes Armand feel numbness through his extremities. ]
I do not think we are anywhere we know, nor anywhere near. It is desolate and clinical, like someone made a city from the inside of a lab..
[ Armand purses his lips against saying more, fighting off the desire to bully himself into Daniel's personal space in search of comfort and obey the siren song of the chemicals roiling through his system.]
no subject
Are we still connected? He asks with his mind, like an experiment. ]
I haven't seen anything like this place before. I mean, no, I have. I've seen plenty of places like this, but never this. It's like someone described what an American city looks like and someone else made it, but.. You're right, it's clinical. It's not alive.
[ Daniel has slept in slums and hotels and lingered on back streets and jumped from dive bar to dive bar; Daniel knows what a city should feel like. He's been to enough of them, he's called enough of them home. This isn't one he feels at home in, even if there's some part of him that is desperate to. ]
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Yes-..yes we are. I can hear you, but it is with some amount of effort than it was before.
[ He settles the words into Daniel's mind - his own experiment - studying his lover's face with his usual intensity, as if he's not seen him in months, and for Armand it's true. He's not seen this Daniel - mortal, on edge, frustrated - in long enough that he doesn't really know how to process the situation. That, and the swirl of need through him, is insistent to be close, to touch, but Armand daren't move. In this state, he could hurt Daniel and it's the last thing he wants to do. ]
Have you been here long?
no subject
I.. no, I just got here. I don't remember anything, I don't remember even getting on a train. I was just sitting by the waterfront at Mission Creek.
[ He shakes his head, feeling like a headache is coming on. Too much thought, too much uncertainty, too much. But Daniel can't deny that touching Armand's arms is slightly grounding. He feels like he should mention the elephant in the room and that he hasn't spoken to Armand for months at this point, but he's reluctant to ruin the moment. ]
no subject
I was.. on the subway, with you. Then, here.
[ Armand sways closer, drawn by the scent of Daniel's blood, by the burning in his own, by the immense comfort of not having to experience this vulnerability alone. The desire to kiss his lover is like a prickle across his mouth, but Daniel is animate with hesitation, with nerves - clearly something beyond this place making him uncomfortable.
..Oh. It's him. The thought strikes him as if from a great distance, that Armand is the source of that discomfort, but he can't bring himself to react at the moment, head tilted up and gazing at Daniel - expectant as he's ever been when they draw closer together. ]
no subject
[ Daniel frowns then, trying to put two and two together without getting eight. If Armand remembers being with him on some subway somewhere, then this can't be the same Armand from his.. universe? Shit, that's a big word to use in a hypothetical. His Armand was lounging around the Miami villa or wherever the fuck his inspiration had taken him to haunt lately. His Armand was not on a subway with him somewhere. Unless.... ]
I don't.. understand. Did I pass out or something, and you found me on the subway? Is that... is that what happened? Why I woke up on a train?
[ It sounds too muddled to be true, but the alternative is accepting that he and this Armand are out of time, and Daniel has seen enough sci-fi movies at this point to understand the concept but know fucking damn sure that it can't be possible. It can't be! Right??? ]
no subject
[ He can hear the swirl of Daniels thoughts, strains to focus and sift through the muddle of his lover snapping between points of interest in mere moments, analytical mind making connections so quickly and so astutely that it's enough to make Armand want to swoon a little, that he gets to watch this up close once more and not just track Daniels expressions.
Ah and there it is, the conclusion Armand came to immediately, simply because of one key detail, one difference that Daniel is not privy to. Now to decide if he should rip the veil away or keep his boy in the dark...strange, how the latter seems like anathema now in his own time. The truth then. ]
I dozed off on a subway car, sitting at your side in 1987, beloved. You are correct, we appear to be outside of time to each other.
[ He smiles, a little dreamy, a little proud, the kind of expression that sits more often on his features now, made even softer by the strange affect of the ice cream and damn the warmth of it but Armand still can't stop letting his gaze drop to Daniels mouth. ]
no subject
The fact that Armand pulls a detail like that out would have normally pissed him off even more, but it's such a surprising thing to hear from Armand that Daniel is momentarily caught by his own surprise.
Then, it breaks like a dam. He laughs. ]
You're fucking with me, aren't you? Slimy bastard, it's not funny, you know. How can you be two years in the future? I've never heard of a vampire having powers like that!
no subject
And you never will. This is no power of the Dark Gift, but it does not change the fact of my last memories or the date from my perspective. You were so quick to jump to the conclusion in your own mind, but to hear the same words from my mouth suddenly makes such a possibility false?
Really Daniel..
[ His brows draw together in distress, at once trying to clear his mind and also revel in the heady feeling of desire, so much more preferable than this brewing conflict. Oh to be held by his boy instead of being kept quite literally at arms length. ]
no subject
A weight of anxiety suddenly drops in Daniel's stomach. Does something happen to them in the two years they're apart? Something Armand doesn't like, something he regrets? ]
... Alright, sorry.
[ He concedes, running a hand back through his hair in embarrassment. It feels great to argue with Armand right up until when it doesn't. He feels confident in his arguments and rightful in his resentment, and then he feels terrible for being such an asshole. It's the way things work between them now, the typical cycle... Daniel doesn't feel any better for the familiarity, though.
He reaches out, hand faltering before it allows him to brush back Armand's hair, and instead falls to the hem of his sweater. He gives it a tug. ]
... Still stealing my clothes in the future, huh?
no subject
Armand offers a small smile, looks down at the soft sweater and back up at Daniel through his lashes. ]
Indeed.. you like seeing me wear them though, like how this one in particular sits on me.
[ Especially when Armand is wearing just this, how it falls to barely the tops of his thighs and how Daniel always tracks his progress around their apartment when he does.
God this poison needs to leave his system sooner than later if he's going to hold together any sort of proper conversation from here on out. ]
no subject
Hah.. alright, tiger. Down, boy.
[ He replies, a flush rising up his throat and to his ears, his eyes looking nervously to the side even though there's literally not a single soul anywhere around them. ]
no subject
Maybe he just needs to give in, Daniel seemed to calm down after his outburst, releasing the valve of anger brought on by the frozen dessert. if he were thinking logically, Armand would make the connection between the barely two mouthfuls Daniel consumed and the duration, but for him, with a body full of several portions, he's really anything but logical as it really takes hold of him.
Daniel has been hesitant around him, angry, but are they not still lovers? Can the point in time to him be so very different to his own? Surely he'll forgive Armand this, just a small thing..
Finally, Armand let's the poison roll through him and takes the last step into Daniel's personal space, up onto his tip toes to push their mouths together. It's no small peck, it's a full kiss, blood still staining his lips and teeth and hands still grasping the front of Daniel's shirt.
Beloved... ]
no subject
He kisses back, because of course he does. Suddenly he couldn't care less about those around them, opening his mouth to Armand's insistence and pushing their kiss a touch deeper.
It feels like hours later when he finally has to pull back to wrench in a breath, and he looks at Armand kind of dazed, forgetting completely what he'd been so worried and angry about earlier. ]
no subject
That..that man, the ice cream...
[ He trails off, trying to put his thoughts together. Kissing had helped, but he's also feeling more sideswiped than before and probably will until whatever was in the frozen treat has run it's course or dawn puts him to sleep. ]
no subject
And then he clocks what he said, and lets out a stupid noise. ]
The ice cream, the.. I got so mad, that's what it was? The ice cream is... drugged?
no subject
Yes - anger, that man's amorous intent - I could feel all the mortals emotions too clearly, too large in that place.
[ Talking is too much effort and he catches Daniels thoughts, a mirror of his own. He remembers those months away a little too keenly, the feeling of holding his breath the entire time - was this it? would he lose him to distance and death finally away from his grasp? - unable to reach out, ill equipped, even now to express himself beyond the passions of the body, of the blood.
Daniel, please...
He's not even sure what he's asking for - please understand me, perhaps, please read me the way you've always done. ]
no subject
That's when he hears his voice again, and Daniel exhales a slow breath, his feelings jumbling up into something muddy and undefined.
He looks around, furtively, as if he'll find a sign that reads 'no making out with your vampire lover at risk of death', then looks back to Armand. ]
Okay, but.. not here. We need to find somewhere to go.
no subject
[ Petulant sounding, frown pinching his brows, hands grasping at Daniel's neck, his face now, pushing their bodies together, even pressing his hips into Daniel's like a mortal boy, playing on his own desires.
Kiss me again, beloved - please, there's no one here..
Any space, any dark alley, what does it matter? ]
no subject
... Armand, c'mon..
[ The hips against his, he knows, are more for his benefit than for Armand's, but automatically he lets out a grunt of encouragement, going completely against his insistence that they find somewhere to hide themselves away. Even more so, when he bends to Armand's will and kisses him again. ]
no subject
As soon as his back hits the stonework, Armand runs one hand down Daniel's chest to untuck his shirt, worming his hand up against all the mortal warmth of him and petting over his stomach and side. ]
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He gasps a little against Armand's mouth but never once inches away. He's been in a situation like this with Armand before and knows exactly how it ended, and he's trying to pull away to stave off them repeating the steps of that particular dance, but.. his reluctance is so weak... ]
no subject
...Pull away. You want to pull away?
[ His voice sounds small, drunk - the last thing he wants to do is stop - but that word again in his mind, 'minion' and the time frame Daniel remembers - two years isn't a long time to a Vampire, but to them, their relationship, it may as well be ten. ]
no subject