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.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
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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citylogs2023-08-02 12:00 am
Chrissy Cunningham | Stranger Things
The train and the platform were certainly odd enough, but now that she's emerged into the station itself, Chrissy finds herself even more confused. She'd been hoping for answers and, as of yet, that doesn't seem to be likely.
The north entrance leads her out into the sunlight, which makes Chrissy happy. That happiness is pretty short-lived, however, when she realizes that the only thing of note in this area is a couple of boring looking buildings. Naturally, she decides to poke her head inside in an attempt to see what she can see.
Explanations continue to elude her following her short detour through the city hall and tourist info buildings. The longer she spends here, the more questions she's able to add to the list.
To the southwest, she finds a city park, and Chrissy decides that this might be her favorite place thus far. At first glance, it feels like the sort of peaceful outdoor space she might read about in one of her favorite books. The lack of signs of any animal life is a bit odd, but she's willing to overlook that for the time being.
Eventually, she does make her way to the graveyard, another beautiful location that makes Chrissy wish she had a camera with her. It might not be her first choice of places to spend her time, though even she can't deny that there's a certain peaceful atmosphere that she has to appreciate.
I scream, You Scream
The ice cream parlor feels like a breath of fresh air, a safe haven in a wholly unfamiliar city. And though she's never been here before in her life, it certainly feels like home.
The music playing is upbeat and oddly relevant to her current circumstances- Chrissy is just going to file that away to overthink at a later date. For now, though, she has a more important decision to make.
"Mint chocolate chip or strawberry? Oh, they also have rainbow sherbert..." Her query isn't directed at anyone in particular, though she might not say no if someone feels like weighing in.
Choose Your Own
The obligatory wildcard option. Chrissy can probably be found anywhere in the city that newbies are allowed to go, as she's the nosy sort. You can also find me at
I scream, you scream~
"Never had rainbow sherbet, but I am used to the choices of the women I live with. But I am sure whatever you choose will be delightful." Doc wants to tip his hat, but as he continues to not have any hat, it is impossible. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss. The name's John Henry, but you can call me Doc."
no subject
"It's nice to meet you too, Doc. My name is Chrissy Cunningham." She's not entirely sure how to feel about referring to this man by what she's assuming is a nickname, but he had been the one to suggest it and she doesn't want to be rude to someone who can help her.
"Are you a doctor?"
no subject
"A lovely name, to be sure." Even if her initials remind him of one Stone
BitchWitch. That's not her fault. There's a smile at the question, though."I was once a dentist, but it has been quite some time since I have been one. I wager the practice has gone past my understanding of it in these modern times."
no subject
"Thank you! Yours is nice too." Is it odd to respond to a compliment with a compliment? Maybe. She's not terribly used to receiving them from anyone aside from Jason, so she's not quite sure how to react.
"Did you enjoy being a dentist?" It's not something she'd ever consider for herself, but Chrissy can see why other people might be interested. This is, of course, disregarding the way her mother sometimes liked to joke about how people mainly wanted to become dentists because they wanted to make others suffer.
no subject
Doc will not question it. "My momma thought well and hard over it, I am certain." There's a hint of a smile at that before he looks around to find a seat.
er
"I am not sure one enjoys being a dentist, but it is what I desired when I did it." There is a shrug. "You would be surprised how many people do not care for their teeth." Or perhaps she's not. Though, he is pleased to see how much better dental care products in this new era.
no subject
"I'm sure she did." There's no way for her to know for certain one way or the other, but it's as nice a name as any other she could think of.
Ice cream in hand, Chrissy turns to follow him to sit. "That's fair." She knows a thing or two about having to do things she doesn't particularly enjoy, so she can relate. "I'm almost afraid to ask how many."
no subject
He smiles as she sits down and makes himself comfortable before taking a bite of the ice cream. "Well, I do not know people of this time as well as those of my own, but it is almost certainly still just as many. Though, I am told that it is more complicated to get dental care. Which seems rather unhelpful."
Graveyard
“Are you from Hawkins in Indiana?” He asks drawing a little closer. He’s aware he looks like garbage, he hasn’t really been sleeping and he’s avoided his Hawkins neighbours so they don’t ask him what’s going on (the answer is a lot.)
no subject
"I am, yes. Sorry! I just... I wasn't expecting to find anyone else here that's from there," she admits. She's also just a little confused about how she'd ended up here in the first place, considering the last thing she remembers doing back home.
no subject
“I think this place likes us,” Will jokes with a small laugh, “there’s a few of us around so far.” He neglects to mention exactly who or how many there are of them because it’s complicated.
“Did you just arrive?”
no subject
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Chrissy genuinely has no idea. "Really? Maybe this place heard about how spooky Hawkins is." What are the odds of that happening? Chrissy's still not sure how she ended up here in the first place.
"Yea, I just got here. Kind of confused about, well... everything."
no subject
A bit of both, but he’s not about to rat Henry out to anyone, no matter what else and even if it feels a bit like lying, he’s never been that close to Steve on account of his history with Jonathan, met Eddie a grand total of once unless you count passing in the hall and he doesn’t know Chrissy yet so it’s less difficult to do it anyway than if one of the party showed up. “Good I guess, feels a bit safer with Steve around even if we’re not that close really.”
Will laughs a little, “most of us still feel that way, even if it’s been weeks.”
no subject
Chrissy nods at that, for a moment she's not sure how to feel about Steve being here. She's spoken to him maybe a handful of times but they were never particularly close. He was on the basketball team for a bit too, though she'd never really made a point of chatting much with the guys on the team so all she really knew about him was that he was on the team for a bit and seemed too nice to be hanging around with Jason and his friends. "I haven't seen him yet. I hope he's doing okay."
Maybe she'll see him around later. Who knows. "How long has it been for you?"
no subject
“I haven’t seen him in a few days, but I think he’d probably let me know if something was wrong.” Will has been avoiding him because the worse he feels the less he wants Steve to see him and notice and ask questions he doesn’t want to answer.
“Eight weeks or there abouts…” Will keeps losing count due to his atrocious sleep schedule and general lack of filling his days doing anything meaningful.
no subject
"I hope so." She doesn't know enough about Steve to guess one way or the other. But if he and Will have been here for that long already, she'd like to believe that Steve would at least tell someone if there was something wrong.
"That's a long time." He's probably already realized that, but the words come tumbling out before she can really stop them. "Is there anything else I should know?"
the park;
The bank opening last month brought trauma to the surface and Eddie's sure that the city isn't all it seems. How else could it bring Chrissy Cunningham's pom-pom into his hands. He's hidden the thing in the apartment he's claimed for himself, on a shelf in the back of the closet so he doesn't have to think about it again and see the Chrissy floating up from the floor of his trailer toward the ceiling each time he closes his eyes.
It seems whatever has brought them here has another idea though because as he takes a very slow stroll through the park, cigarette in hand, there she is. Eddie stops in his tracks on the path, drops the cigarette he's holding on to the concrete path (there's no need to set a fire!) and balks.
"C--Chrissy?" he stumbles over her name. Is he hallucinating now? Can this place even do that? Christ. Jesus H. Christ.
no subject
Still, the fact that he's somehow here already, and seems fairly alarmed to see her, isn't terribly comforting. Unfortunately, running into the last friendly face she'd seen at home only raises more questions. How long has he been here? Why does he look so surprised to see her? How did she end up here?
"Are you okay?"
park!!
Henry steps out from beside one onto the path as she walks by, nearly running into Chrissy. He doesn’t mean to startle her if he does, but he doesn’t seem to care terribly, either.
He’s probably legally obligated to jumpscare her, let’s be real.Instead, his eyebrows hitch all the way up.“Careful now.”
oh good!!
"Have you been out here for very long?" The park is pretty expansive, so Chrissy imagines that it's probably fairly easy to get lost in such a place, particularly if one isn't paying close enough attention to where they're going. He doesn't really strike her as the type to go wandering and get lost, but she's known him for all of a couple minutes so there's really no way for her to know for sure.
this will be fine!!!
"It's fine. It's easy to be distracted by all the statues here, isn't it?"
For how unnerving they can be, vines crawling across their forms, but faces that occasionally appear familiar to the passerby. And while it's hardly enough to perturb a man like Henry Creel, who wanders this way with casual ease, that's not necessarily a merit to his character.
"Just for about fifteen minutes or so. There's been an influx of new faces as of late, and you can always find a couple of them stumbling around here," he says, lightly humored, even if it sounds a bit like a backhanded compliment all the same. He's good at that.
All at once, his eyes sweep over this young woman's manner of dress. That sure looks like a cheerleader's uniform, and the lettering across the front is certainly noted, a little needling curiosity kept at the back of his mind-
"Seems our mysterious hosts stole you away at a particularly inconvenient time."
of course! and sorry for the delay!
"They are very distracting."
Maybe not so distracting that they demand all of her attention, but she can't deny the fact that they're fascinating. The vines and the vaguely familiar faces are certainly something to think about.
"Not too long, then. Were you hoping to find some of those new faces?" If so, he's succeeded. Chrissy can't say for sure how long she's been out here, but it doesn't feel like it's been that long. Maybe he's come out here to intercept some of those new people before they can get lost.
The seemingly off-handed comment earns him a confused look, until realization dawns. She glances down at her uniform for a moment and then back up at him.
"I'm not sure there's ever a convenient time for being stolen away, but at least they waited until after the game." It hasn't actually occurred to her that he might not even know what she's talking about. And once again, she finds herself wondering why she hadn't taken a couple of extra minutes to change before going to meet Eddie that night.
no worries at all!
"But, to be honest? There's someone here from my world, apparently, and I can't help but wonder if there could be more on the way."
And thus, his interest in the initials woven onto the front of her uniform: HHS.
"Where are you from, exactly?"
no subject
It's hard to gauge how he feels about someone from his own world being here, and she's not entirely sure how she feels about Eddie and Will being here, so she decides not to ask about it for now.
"I'm from Hawkins, Indiana."
no subject
"You're not the first, then."
No, the last young man who claimed to be from Hawkins, Indiana, spun quite a tale for him. Henry wonders, exactly, where she might fit into that -- though he cannot imagine how, unless he happens to know-
"Do you know a young man named Will, by chance?"
(no subject)