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.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
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.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
SO A TURKEY WALKS INTO A BOWLING ALLEY...
There's a bowling alley open in the newly-accessible district, and you're invited to come test your mettle!
Walking into the lobby, you're struck by a peculiar combination of scents—shoe polish, floor wax, pretzels and nachos, and something pungent and a little oily. On the wall behind the desk is a shelf full of pair after pair of shoes, in every size you could possibly imagine, and there's a low rack filled with brightly-colored, heavy bowling balls that are ready for the taking. You can also hear the low hum of machinery and the rattle of pins being reset every time someone knocks them down, the bowling alley a well-oiled machine despite the fact that no one seems to be manning it.
You can bowl alone, start a match play (1-v-1), or bowl as a team, but you'll quickly find that bowling is much more fun (and somehow easier) when you're playing with others. Maybe it's because being around other people raises your spirits, but you feel more confident when you step up to bowl, and you find that when you're playing as part of a team, the bowling ball travels faster and in a straighter line, and you seem to be making strikes and spares with much greater frequency. Teamwork really does make the dream work!
If you occasionally see what you think might be the shadow of someone passing behind the machinery at the far end of the lane, don't worry about it—that's probably just your imagination.
If you stop by the bowling alley at night, you will find the place totally transformed. There's a disco ball hanging from the ceiling and brightly-colored lights flashing and dancing around the floor and walls. Any white parts of your clothing glow a delightful blueish color, and you find that you're illuminated in all kinds of interesting shades by the blacklight bulbs glowing in the ceiling. This is cosmic bowling, truly not for the faint of heart!
When you've finished bowling, you may want to stop by the snack area for a pretzel or hot dog, a soda, or—if you're there for cosmic bowling—maybe even a more adult beverage from the food counter on the far end of the building.
There isn't anything especially spooky about the bowling alley—except, of course, being forced to wear shoes that have been worn by a hundred strangers before. Characters are welcome to find their shoe size, grab a bowling ball, and go to town! Characters who come during the day will encounter a normal bowling alley, but they can always come back at night to get the full cosmic bowling experience. There will always be shoes in their sizes, the pins will reset themselves, and the balls will always be returned. Just be careful, those ball chutes can crush your fingers if you're not careful!
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.
JUMP TO TOP ↑
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citylogs2023-07-01 11:00 am
Zoe | Monster Prom
[ A strange being steps off the train and heads into the station. She resembles a young woman, possibly a high school senior or a college freshman, but... Well, she has tentacles for hair, a tentacle for an arm, a mouth on her leg bearing greenish teeth... And too many eyes...
They all furrow in annoyance when the girl yells at the void. ]
OKAY! I DID YOUR STUPID SURVEY! NOW WHERE THE HELL AM I?!
[ Ah. She's one of the newcomers.
Try not to scream at her when she walks up to you. If anything, she might be a bit confused to see so many humans in one place. ]
Sorry, do you live here? I think I'm lost.
NETWORK
@ eldritchcutiepie
OPENING SPECIAL ART REQUESTS!
I ended up staying in one of those apartments with the weirdly focused photos on the walls. It looked like there should be people in them, so I decided to try and fix that.
[ Insert image of a photograph of a beach scene, but a drawing of a sexy humanoid dragon couple that was cut out of a sketchbook is strategically placed where the people should be. ]
Sorry about the potato quality, but here's two characters from Dragon Heat making this beach scene seem more lively.
Normally I'd charge for what I'm about to offer, but this city doesn't seem to have an economy and I'm kinda bored. So if anyone else wants a sketch to put in your weirdly empty photos, HMU. I'll draw fictional characters, OCs, or real people.
GRAVEYARD
[ Zoe's managed to settle in... Okay? She's exploring, which is probably how she ended up here. You'll find her crouched down at a tombstone trying to read it. ]
Ick... Erm. Icky.... Mich...? Wait, what? [ The eye on her forehead glances around. ] No way... Why would Vicky even have a grave? I thought she was a Frankenstein monster?
[ She is not paying attention to her surroundings. ]
COSMIC BOWLING
[ Okay, this actually kinda rocks!
Zoe is definitely glowing in the dark here (the blacklight brings out her violet skin and many eyes!) but that only adds to her enthusiasm. She has probably challenged you to a game if she hasn't already started a solo game. Despite the lack of music, she seems to be enjoying the atmosphere!
There's just one tiny thing that mars the experience.
As she's standing there, lining up her next shot, her forehead eye glances up in time to see the shadowy figure at the other end of the lane. ]
Huh? [ She looks up, but the shadow's already gone. Blink, blink. ]
Uh... Did... Anyone else see that? [ She points at the end of the lane with her free... Tentacle. ]
arrival
He does have to take a moment to consider the question, though. ]
Yes. [ Another pause. ] But only recently. If you came in on the train, I did too.
[ If there are new people coming in again that...probably means something, but Kai is not going to be the person who figures it out. He does shrug a little, though. ]
We're stuck here, if you're wondering.
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Sure, she knows what humans look like (if that is a human she's looking at), but they don't usually show up in the Monster Realm unless they die and come back as some undead monster. So unless she ended up in the human realm somehow-
Oh. Wait. This guy's in the same boat as her. Huh. This place just keeps getting weirder. ]
Oh... Kay? How long have you been stuck here?
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[ He doesn't sound terribly concerned about it, but he tends not to be bothered by a lot of things. After a while you learn to just roll with it when shit gets weird, and Kai's had a fair bit of time in general to practice. ]
Everyone here has been. No one was here before we came in.
[ And he does mean that very literally. That part, at least, feels uncomfortable. Places like this should have life in them. It's better now, but it still prickles at him sometimes. ]
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[ Zoe can roll with a lot of things, but this is getting weird. ]
Then how did I end up on that train, and where did the weird survey come from?
no subject
[ But he can at least tell when he's being excessively unhelpful, and she's already looking kind of stressed. Kai gets it, but there also isn't a ton to be done about it. Still, he can at least try to be a little sympathetic. Probably. ]
People are trying to figure it out, I guess.
[ Nailed it. ]
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arrival
His hands definitely coming up as if ready for a fight, a contrast to the confusion and question she gives. And yeah, Robby looks confused, too, if also utterly bewildered and with his eyes looking at her all over.
It takes him a good second to answer. ]
N-no? [ how exactly to ask this-- ] --Where the hell did you come from?
[ A-are they from some amusement park?? They have to be. This is what's going on. ]
no subject
[ She kind of expected the human to look at her funny, but seriously? ]
Why, you've never seen an eldritch cutie pie before?
no subject
I'm not from around here.
[ Words said hurriedly, to make this very unreal thing happening right now....stop happening even quicker, thanks. ]
no subject
But anyway... She does realize he's getting freaked out, so... ]
Uh... Look, before you start running away, I'm not here to hurt you. I just woke up on that empty train back there, [ She gestures to the direction of the train with her hand. ] I have no idea where I am now, and I would really like to go back home before the local humans start chasing me around with torches and pitchforks. Think you can help me out here?
robby might walk away but we could have them bump into each other again later if you're into that??
If that's what's happening. Unfortunately, Robby is still very much cemented in 'what the fuck is going on here', that would be going down a lot better if all of this...thing's (rude, Robby) multiple limbs weren't noticeably slither-y and...mobile. Even if they happen to be mostly staying in place, it's how real everything is that's getting to him.
Why the hell can't she say she's in costume? He'll take that. Not sounding like she's playing the part of some otherworldly monster, thanks. Which means her attempt at diplomacy gets a--scoff, at least bewildered in sound, Robby's expression no less incredulous. ]
You want me to help you? Go back to some-- [ hold on, no, stop--take a breath. ] You're from some show, and I'm not talking to someone who thinks they're a demon right now.
[ His hands go up, and he's definitely taking more steps back. Robby might be a dead end for help for now....
Some humans would like to live in ignorance. ]
arrival!
But it sure feels real. The pain of himself is certainly real, mostly centered in his face, which is a complete mess: nose covered in a huge bandage, bloodied and bruised. One eye's almost completely red for how bloodshot it is, and his pupils are blown out, too big, making his eyes strange and black. He looks like a zombie, mouth held tipped open, eyes wet.
The boy haunts the train station for some time, sitting alone through his own periodic convulsive shudders, chilled to the bone and sick from the inside out. But his own restless spirit has him moving around some too, listlessly following a few people, mindless. He doesn't at first register the person who approaches him, eyes half-lidded, hazy. It's only when the boy's slowly lifting his head to stare at her that....
...he screams. Oh, does he scream. With a rising shriek, Peter's yanked out of his unfeeling numb state into terror, heart immediately pounding. He stumbles back, all six feet of his lanky frame in danger of tripping over itself. ]
No....! No no no!
[ He's panicking, nerves already worn completely raw by what just happened to him back home. ]
no subject
[ She steps back, all eyes wide in shock. This sure is a human all right! A human who looks like he got bashed in the head by a spike bat or something...
And it doesn't take long for her to realize why he's screaming at her. ]
Hey! Calm down, don't panic. I'm not here to eat your soul or sanity or anything... I promise.
[ She sounds completely sincere right now. The way this guy's acting right now sure is reminding her of all those victims she mercilessly tore apart as Z'Gord, but those days are behind her now.
So here she is, not chasing him, holding her hand to her chest like she doesn't know whether to hold it up or keep it still. ]
... Were you on that train, too?
no subject
But this? This takes the cake, probably. He isn't sure what he's looking at, exactly, eyes roaming all over the visage of the— person? Person-shaped. Something with eyes (too many) and colours that aren't natural for a person (where he comes from, at least).
Monster is the thought that sends his pulse into over-drive. It's hard to breathe, and he's placing one hand up near his throat, fingertips pressing against it.
But there's words. The thing, it sounds like a person. It.... sounds very much like a person. And through Peter's whirlwind panic is the thought that maybe he's fucking hallucinating. Maybe the problem is him; he knows there's something wrong with him. ]
Yes— [ He stumbles through the words, launches into rambling, upset rising within him. ]
I don't— I don't know if this is real. I'm sorry, I don't know if I'm— I don't know what's real.
[ That last line feels like a confession, and his voice cracks like a fissure, crumbles in on itself. ]
no subject
It's okay, dude. Just calm down... Uh, take some deep breaths. Breathe in... Breathe out...
[ This calms humans down after they lose sanity, right??? ]
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Words he knows. Things he thinks he's heard his dad talk about regarding his patients — how to help someone who's tipping too fast into panic. And Peter knows what that's like these days, even before this place, remembers it very sharply. Being unable to breathe all of a sudden, watching the frightened faces of his friends as he begged one of them to take his hand.
Peter's torso tips forwards a little, and he presses one hand to his chest, eyes shut for a moment. Breathe... breathe... He can't fall into that place where it's impossible to. He's giving soft gasps, head dizzy. ]
Sorry... I'm sorry.... I think— I think there's something wrong with me.
network; @deku
Dragon Heat?
That's actually a great idea to offer. I wouldn't mind something on the walls of the apartment I'm sleeping in being a little less... uncanny. If that makes sense? At least art made by someone here is actually real.
Have you ever heard of the hero All Might? Could you draw him?
no subject
Anyway, that's what I was going for~! I haven't heard of All Might, but I can work off a reference.
no subject
Ahh, I don't have any references on me so if I get a list of details together would that work?
no subject
(You don't have to commission NSFW of All Might if you don't want that fyi)
A description can be doable. I can send you preview WIPs and you can tell me if I need to fix anything later.
no subject
But NSFW art of All Might...? His absolute favorite pro hero of all time? Izuku's mind goes through two emotions.]
Ahh. Sure. Okay. Maybe I could try reading some...? If it's not too graphic??
I think I can do that. I'll just need a little time to write everything out.
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Bowling
Okay, so maybe he is not entirely immune being unable to back out of those. That's why he's sitting there, glaring. ]
This entire city's strange and you're spooked at a shadow?
[ Meaning he sure did see it too! ]
Are you gonna go or not?
no subject
[ The eye on her leg glances at him first. Then she turns her head to retort. ]
I'm not spooked! I just... Thought I was seeing things for a moment.
[ Whatever, she's just gonna go on and roll the ball down the lane. It veers off course and knocks out some pins between an end piece and the center. ]
Damn it! That shadow guy threw me off.
no subject
[ He sure as hell has. Pissed him right the fuck off too. How dare people taunt him like that.
But otherwise, he's just going to watch the strange tentacle girl - thing? - roll the ball down the alley.
And snort. ]
Good thing you get another roll then, hah?
arrival
This is not how he expected his day to go.
Hiyori doesn't scream, but he does take a startled step back when he first lays on her, but that's just as easily attributed to the fact that she came out screaming at the top of her lungs as her appearance. He can only be grateful that he's already run into so many oddities and moreso that he's so mindful of appearances, as by time she approaches he's already trained his expression back into something more pleasant - polite and faintly concerned.
He's watching closely though, trying to take in her appearance and get a read on her. She looks like Medusa's long lost cousin. ]
Yes, I do... You're in the city... "The city" being what it's called; the person who named it wasn't very creative, you see.