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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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-07-01 11:00 am
the purple kush of the 19th century
There's concern that he may have been cut by something poisonous. While she may have a few basic supplies in her bag, she doesn't exactly have her apothecary collection on her person. Still reluctant to 'take' anything from this world, for that could doom her to the underworld to the Master's delight, Vanessa decides to only assess the blood. If he should need stitches, she hasn't those supplies on her either. ]
She may prefer it here.
[ Vanessa does have a scarf in her bag; a sacrifice is made while she wraps it around his hand with a tight bind, the thumb of her other hand pressing first against the wound to keep the cut as pinched as possible before it's covered. It may hurt, but such is the way of things. While her gaze is cast on her work, the cigarette (joint, it's a joint okay) hangs from its loose perch between her thin lips. ]
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INLAND EMPIRE: She's right about the woman trapped in ivy. Don't look at her anymore. Vanquish her from your thoughts, less you become trapped in ivy along with her.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Agreed. Pay closer attention to the flesh and blood woman instead. Also, ask for a smoke of that joint. For medical purposes, of course. ]
Thank you for the help. ...Can I steal a drag? Medical reasons only.
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Mm.
[ A sound of affirmation while she finishes tying the embroidered scarf, quite skilled with her knots. He might have a time undoing the knot when it comes to properly wash the wound.
With that done, the cherry lights up as she allows herself one firm pull before offering him the cigarette. Had she any idea she wouldn't be able to find more later, she might be more reluctant to share, but for now there's still a bit more in the tin case her pocket holds. ]
A gift. No thieving necessary. Perhaps it will assist in keeping her taunts at bay, hm?
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ELECTROCHEMISTRY: The smoke that enters your lungs makes a warm home, like a return you have been waiting ages for. Then it leaves in a drawn out exhale. You miss it already.
VOLITION: One is enough. Sit yourself up and hand it back to her.
Harry does as the voices in his head command, slowly lifting up to sit on the ground and then offering her joint back. ]
Thanks a lot. Real life saver. [ You need what you can get in this merciless world. ] I'm Harry. You?
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What of the inner worlds, though? What of the worlds between worlds? Can he hear them too, or is he simply mad?
As she stares far longer than necessary, the remaining ice sharpening her gaze melts, and Vanessa refuses the return of his 'medicinal boost' with a small, half smile before she reaches for her bag and stands back up. As she said, it was a gift. ]
Vanessa. Miss Ives, if you prefer.
[ Once again she offers her hand, ready to try and pull him to his feet despite the fact that she appears as though she may fall over if she tried.
Appearances can be deceiving. ]
Come. Let us go where the siren's song is not so persistent.
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Harry takes her hand, only needing an anchor to get up on his feet. Sometimes all someone needs is a helping hand. He's trying to be less dependent on others... it isn't going great so far. ]
I don't even remember how I got here. To this statue, I mean. I was just wandering around and then she drew me in. She seemed so sad.
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Releasing his hand once he seems balanced, Vanessa does him the courtesy of waiting a moment before moving on. ]
Sad souls cannot help but be drawn to one another.
[ An observation made by another sad soul. ]
A bewitchment of sorts. It is why there is poetry and art.
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INLAND EMPIRE - Sadness begets sadness. A void looks to be filled and yet is often met with another void.
CONCEPTUALIZATION - The best art is often made by the most miserably depressed people. It's kind of like a superpower. ]
You can make great art when you're sad and miserable. Statistically, some of the best art has been made by people who then went on to commit suicide!
[ VISUAL CALCULUS - You have absolutely no statistics to back that up with, but sure. ]
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The frankness of his statement gets a curious draw of her brow, but instead of questioning such a statement, she muses allowed while gazing ahead: ]
By our own spirits are we deified. We poets in our youth begin in gladness; but thereof come in the end despondency and madness.
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INLAND EMPIRE - Otherworldly words.
RHETORIC - Surely you can craft as eloquent a response. Speak from the heart. Say something true and real, you coward.
1. (Nod) Smoke weed every day.
2. That's the way of the world...
3. They've been spending most their lives, living in a pastime paradise...
4. Futures, made of, virtual insanity... ]
Futures made of virtual insanity. Now always, seem to, be governed by this love we have for useless, twisting, all the new technology. Oh now there is no sound, for we all live underground.
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Vanessa is giving the excerpt more consideration than she perhaps ought to, but how is she to know? ]
Not Wordsworth. Who wrote it?
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[ A silly answer maybe, but honest. It just came to him from the depths of his vast, vast soul. Should he make mention of his memory? Would it worry her? Then again, when has worrying anyone stopped him from sharing unnecessary details? ]
This might be a good moment to mention that I have amnesia, as of a week ago.
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Would it help this man, as well? No doubt he should encourage her quest for the Devil's comeuppance. ]
From...here? Or before?
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[ Those two may be among the most important things he has learned! Building blocks of living in society. ]
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She dare not ask. Nor does she offer pity.
Vanessa is one for new experiences. What must it be like to be him, when every experience is just that? Brilliant? Terrifying? ]
Well, I— I cannot speak for the other, but I suspect our usual currency is of no value here.
[ There's an argument that any who take from here are going to be trading something else. ]
Is your name not the most important? What of your family name?
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CONCEPTUALIZATION - It was meant to keep you safe.
HALF LIGHT - It failed. ]
I am a man of many names. My family name though... it has no meaning. I have no family after all. That much I know.
[ Well, he doesn't *know* but he knows. It's intuition, a feeling in the bones, shivers up the skin. His mother is dead and his father disappeared long before that. There is nothing tying him to the world in blood. ]
Have you ever felt trapped by a name? That's how it feels.
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She could say she has no more family, and they are buried because of her, but what of her friends? New family. And yet, her given name and family name mean something. Not because it was bestowed by her parents, but because it is the one she chooses to keep. ]
Yes.
[ Amunet. There is no one around to call the name, but Vanessa dares think it, and so the cobra in her soul stirs. There's a tickle in her ear from its kiss.
Again it sleeps. ]
But you are the only one who can free yourself from such confinement. Your name is not your master, but your power.
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ENDURANCE - Icebreaker.
INLAND EMPIRE - Firewalker.
CONCEPTUALIZATION - Tequila Sunset. ]
Then I have as many powers as I do names! Perfect.
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[ Though the rasp in her tone softens in a tease, there is a sincerity joining aside. For all this man has lost, he can surely find a way to anchor himself back to his world. That is, should he be free of this one. That is her goal at any cost, but laying such a heavy claim on a man who barely remembers anything might be overmuch.
With slow steps, she'll continue into the 'friendlier' part of the park, hoping that the more serene atmosphere will keep him soothed. For how clear it is that they come from different worlds, it is uncanny how familiar some of his behavior is.
Is he cursed or merely unlucky? Or simply mad? Vanessa has been called all three. ]
Forgive me if I overstep, but what is the first thing you recall upon awakening one week ago? Is it clear to you?
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A collision with another carriage?
[ That might certainly explain a loss of memory, if it was a serious enough accident. He doesn't look...too terribly off, though, all things considered. ]
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Um. Er, well, yes, but also no. It was a collision with the ice... that's not why I lost my memory though! At least, not the entire reason. [ He scratches the back of his head, ruffling his greasy locks, trying not to have a nervous breakdown. An admirable effort he thinks! ] I kind of... drank my memories away.
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As they leave the park, she keeps her eye out for some place of business they might sit away from prying eyes. A restaurant or café will do, though she has no plan to eat or drink. She simply does not like to be exposed for too very long, in large part due to the constant terrorizing she has undergone in the months before her arrival.
His mention of alcohol draws no judgment from her; how could it? Everyone has their vices. Vanessa has been one of the lucky ones to not become lost to them. She is only sorry that it now torments him in a way that he cannot even address as any person should. How does one know themselves without any memories? Her heart is heavy for him. Vanessa has had...lapses in her own memory when her fits have overtaken her.
She knows they are still there; only she cannot bear to dig them free. ]
Surely your memories cannot have gone away. You do still have them, for they are yours and no one else's. You have merely forgotten where you have hidden them.
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I think I know where they are. But... I don't think I want to open them. Or at least not all of them. [ He smiles with pain in his eyes. ] Some things are better left in the past, don't you think?
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Do you believe the past can return? ]
Our past is who we are. [ Is this an unkind thing to say to someone with total amnesia? She would be loathe to lie; nor would she dismiss Sembene's words of wisdom. Even he knew they hurt her, and she loves him for it. ] It will never leave you.
[ Perhaps it could be seen as encouragement instead, but for Vanessa it is always a warning. ]
But it need not control you. Whether or not you remember old sins or virtues, how you act going forward is the burden of choice that most matters. That, and the name that bears your conduct.