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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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!
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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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citylogs2023-07-01 11:00 am
no subject
[Another reply - Vergilius only nods as if to acknowledge it, thoughts drifting off. The amount of money to make such a City like this work...surely it was too much, even for a Wing? No. This is too grand a scale, too much effort, but for what-]
[The shrill whistle (voice) comes and interrupts, making Vergilius unconsciously jerk in place.]
Can you refrain from being so loud? [JESUS CARMEN CHRIST] Ugh. What did I even say...
[He lets out an irritated groan.]
Ah, guess you must be upset they never gave you cash? Hrm. Not like those kebabs I gave you all appeared from thin air. Limbus Company does have money and backers behind it. Maybe no allowance for you was what you agreed to upon signing up.
no subject
after a moment, dante looks over their shoulder.
then they make another whistle. similar to the first, except with a lower, muffled volume.
okay, maybe they haven't grown up all that much.
as vergilius answers, they continue to pick through the other merchandise; truthfully, dante doesn't even know what they would spend money on. there had just been something in the disparity between vergilius and the rest of the Sinners in that moment that had startled them. they remember that rodion had mentioned her hopes that they might help her make a lot of money... but in achieving their goal, not in earning a regular wage. regardless, given it's a souvenir shop and welcome station, there's a little bit of everything. should they take a little bit of everything? or should they just try to replace the items they might have lost?
they are looking at some umbrellas kept in a plastic barrel when something occurs to them. they grab one of the umbrellas and walk back over to vergilius, gesturing at it. they pause, realizing how mystifying that must look, so they instead make a tentative jab, then a small slash with it, pointing and gesturing with their other hand.
his weapon. did he still have it? would they have to find him something else as a replacement? )
no subject
[And being here....and a certain young lady being there....it makes him more irritated and terrified than he can even express. No. He won't let this place be prison to him if he can help it.]
[Vergilius is almost so buried into his thoughts that he misses the gesture, but his eyes flicker up, then down at the umbrella.]
[A pause.]
[And then........another sigh, a poignant reminder of yet another thing he's lost.]
...I don't have it. They probably took it when dumping me on that train. Not to worry, though. I don't exactly need it to function, or anything.
no subject
because that's the default, isn't it? in their City, to live is not a right — survival is fought for, bled for, suffered for, and earned. even if this place doesn't seem as though it might threaten them outright in the same ways, dante doesn't trust it. surely something like that would just be attempting to lull them into a false sense of security.
they set the umbrella down, flipping through their notebook to a page toward the end, where they use it to write down a question that they show to their guide. )
Do you want me to keep an eye out for something that could be used as a replacement?
( they're just trying to find a way to be proactive. it's not like any improvised weapon would be of any use in their hands. )
no subject
[He says, well before the sheet of paper makes an appearance...and it only confirms his observation. Vergilius shakes his head, bangs overshading his eyes.]
You don't need to. [He can already envision them running up to him with whatever sharp implement they can find, and to deal with the hassle of that is already something he does not want to encourage, especially in circumstances like this. He can already envision them scrabbling up some dangerous-looking fence to grab some pipe or whatever and falling onto their back. Its a funny mental image, but annoying all the same..] I'll look on my own.
no subject
< I'm not worried about you! I'm worried about me!! >
( and, just so he can continue to feign his ignorance, they tap themself on the chest several times to illustrate this.
yes, of course, vergilius, you could probably wrestle with an abnormality bare-handed and still come out of it with little more than the beleaguerment of irritation, but dante is going to be out there on their own and they don't believe they have the safety and security of having the Sinners around to watch their back at all times!
they leave it to him, then, even if they do so a little begrudgingly. it's always frustrating when some of the few avenues they can think to do to help are blocked off... even if it might be for their own good.
they write down another question. )
We're not in a District you recognize?
( they had gotten the sense that vergilius wasn't any more familiar with this place than dante is, but they might as well double-check; they've only seen a few of the City's many Districts, after all. )
no subject
[But.....he does see the point, regardless of his blunt jokes. Dante, Dante, Dante. Helpless, weaponless, Dante. It would be easier if the Sinners were here.]
...I will concede your point, Dante. But I don't want you to have to rely on this old guide to bail you out at every turn, either.
[He moves to scratch at the side of his neck, pensive as his eyes flicker over to the question.]
No. Not at all. Some parts of it feel...similar, but nothing recognizable. Wherever this place is, it would be doubtful if we were in the City, proper.
no subject
( they don't press it any further. vergilius has already made it clear that, whatever his motivations or ultimate end goals may be, dante remaining alive and functional to the purpose they have laid out for them is integral to them. as much as it feels kind of gross for them to leverage that, it's all they have. and they will use what little is at their disposal. )
< I will do my best to endanger my life as little as possible. >
( it isn't exactly a question that follows. )
No one ever told me what was beyond the City.
( they had been so busy trying to learn about everything inside of it that it hadn't seemed applicable. the company branches where the Golden Boughs were located were located within city limits, after all. though... hadn't ishmael been on a ship? so they suppose there is an ocean somewhere. )
no subject
[A cruel set of statements, he knows, but its to drive in the point. None of them want Dante dead. if he has to, he'll step in.]
[There's too much riding on their life if he can't help it.]
[Vergilius lets out a disgruntled noise at the continuation.]
You don't want to know. If you thought the City was bad, the Outskirts and beyond are ten times that.
no subject
they pause a moment, and then nod their head with a mute clink of metal. they will do what they can to temper their curiosity with reinforced self-preservation instincts.
dante taps the pen on their notebook as vergilius explains; if he's saying it's that bad then... it must truly be hell. they shiver, as if suddenly feeling an icy chill.
so they're not outside the City, then. not in any place its citizens seem to know about, at least...
they think for a moment before coming to a different conclusion. )
Something like the fathoms of ego we've experienced in the L. Corp branches, then?