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 ↑
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-07-01 11:00 am
a - ii
Maybe Robby will wait on snacking. Just keep trying to find the delicious treat of 'where the fuck am I' that might come from looking for magazines that tell as much.
No such luck.
But you know what there is? A dog.
A dog that's just...wandering around, that no one else seems to be taking ownership of. But he'd caught sight of a name tag, and maybe there'll be something with a wandering dog to help. Like, someone with a better clue? He'd even take an apartment to head for.
And that's how a Dog might have the interest of a young man while she's exploring the kiosks and station herself. Or does she notice the smell first? Robby knows the way to a dog's heart is via food, and he's grabbed some jerky, stuffed the packet in a pocket and tears the dried meat between his fingers. And he's looking for a moment she might turn, or even whistles first to grab her attention--
And then show the food, kneel if she doesn't seem to immediately keep wandering. Heeere, doggy, doggy, doggy... ]
no subject
The way to the Dog's heart is through food. Heck, the way to get the Dog to do most things could be argued to be through food. Not baths, unless there was a massive amount of food as they are horrible things and she washes regularly enough in puddles or swamps or ponds.
Her path does alter, ears perked up until small pricks. Her nose does catch the scent of meat and she doesn't have any fear. She is a master wiggler if the situation calls for it and can squirm her way out of most scenarios. So she comes, stopping before the male, and taking a seated position. Like a pointer, her focus is on the jerky in his grasp, although she is polite enough to not just snap if from his gasp.]
no subject
Hey, you from around here or the train? Here-- [ The piece now in half, Robby offers it out, free to grab without nipping his fingers. ] Hungry?
[ Let's make friends before we try looking at that collar, now. No need to rush when we have a Good Girl on our hands. ]
no subject
Her nose gives a little wiggle as she sniffs, before glancing back to him. Perhaps it is a gleam of intelligence in her eyes that gives her away. Perhaps not. She does offer a paw though.]
I'm the Dog, unless you prefer to get technically about it. I wouldn't decline the other piece. [As her eyes slink a little toward where the other half remains.]
no subject
That gets swapped from resting on his knee to startling himself onto his ass, the other piece of jerky now dropped on the ground. Eyes wide, he's staring at the dog--and he does scoot a little bit back. ]
What? [ Was that--seriously, was that really from the dog? He's darting looks left and right, behind, trying not to take too long to return the Dog into view. He's being fucked with, right?
He's got to be getting fucked with here. ]
no subject
If you were saving it for later, you just had to say so.
no subject
....a dog is talking to him? ]
Are you-- no, [ no, Robby's decided, and he's sitting himself upright so he's leaning less back, ] is there a mic? You're an animatronic.
[ That makes sense, right? This has to make sense. Nevermind how real this dog looks. ]
no subject
Her ears shift a little, debating over the word he has used. It sounds a little like a word that Sameth would use. He'd been interested in his gadgets imbued with Charter magic.]
I can neither confirm or deny, although that's because I don't know what that is.
no subject
Sure, showing up in this place without a single face around he knows and everything that comes with it is one thing. This too? A little too much. ]
I mean--you're not a talking dog. Or something's making you talk. [ But despite that, it makes it easy for Robby to say what he's thinking, nonsensical as it is. But where's the sense here anyway? ] Dogs don't talk.
[ He says to the talking dog. ]
no subject
[Although she neither confirms or denies herself. She'd only once sheepishly admitted what her mistress had always thought, but her statement also isn't wrong. She is a dog. A female dog. And she is talking.
She just doesn't mention all the other things that she also is.
Her paw slowly reaches out towards the jerky, seemingly almost an impossible reach, and yet her nail hooks into it and she slowly drags it back towards herself.]
Anyway, just because you've never met one doesn't mean they don't exist.
no subject
Somehow, this line of reasoning triggers something far more disbelieving in Robby, and he lets out an incredulous sound before: ]
No one's keeping talking dogs secret! [ Please! ] What, I wake up on some train and now there's talking dogs in the world? There's more talking dogs here? Why am I in some town with talking dogs?
[ Really, it's said with the disbelief of how does a guy like me end up in a place like this? (that has talking dogs) ]
no subject
[Matter of factly as she finishes bringing the jerky close enough that she can reach down and pick up the rest of it. This time she does take a moment to chew it a little, savouring the taste, before swallowing. Her paw rises, as it it were a hand and she is waving it in a offhand manner.]
And I think that is singular. I haven't met another dog here, let alone a talking dog.
no subject
But also, he wouldn't have expected to find that out from the dog itself, so nothing's going quite right here.
Still, there's something to be said about the...calmer approach this dog is taking all this. Robby is listening, even if he would rather it wasn't an option--but it is, and so he's having to accept it. Sort of. Kind of.
Sat, with his hands flat either side of him on the ground, blinking at the creature. ]
...Where're you from?
[ That's...a question to ask a talking dog, right? At least he's asking it calmer than he was a moment ago. ]
no subject
[Which is a surprisingly honest answer, but again, completely unhelpful. She could argue that she has many origins, depending on who they were specifically addressing. She tilts her head a little to give it some further thought.]
Do you mean in the beginning or just recently? I was splashing around, minding my own business, waiting for the next adventure. Not quite what I'd thought it would be, but it seems it will be a distraction.
no subject
I guess dogs don't need to think about where they are. [ Or were. Or so Robby's choosing to take about that answer, even if this interaction sure is...a thing. ]
I think this is the time I wonder if I'm dreaming. Talking to dogs? [ He shrugs his shoulders lightly. ] Showing up here on that train was one thing, but now I don't have a clue what's going on. But, uh, stories where a bunch of people show up in one place mysteriously like this? They don't turn out well, from what I watched.
[ But hell, what does he know? Giving a talking dog a warning about some half-hearted worry he's been having about this place turning into some kind of Battle Royale set-up. ]
no subject
[It's offered as it she is being generous in the suggestion. She has been known to do so. Lirael tends to be the target when she gets into her funk.
Or Mogget... That is a bit less pleasant and kind in nature. Arguably he had chosen right the second time, but he should have chosen right the first time. Then there wouldn't have been a second time.
Her ears give a perk upwards.]
Do you usually dream of speaking to animals?
no subject
[ Do dogs know what that mean? Hopefully this one does. But as for that other question: ]
I don't usually end up on trains that don't let me out 'til I do their orientation. [ ...not a direct answer, but maybe it can be found in what he does give. But he's now thinking about that, how long it took him to give a shit about that phone and it's questions, and the fact the doors only opened after he had given in and done it--
He squints a little at the Dog. ]
...Did you get a phone too?
no subject
His answer seems to bring an amused expression and she give a nod of acceptance.]
They weren't too fond of me hitting no.
[Not that it had stopped her from doing so.
Her head gives a little shift, and the device is there, wedged in on her collar.]
Is that what it is called?
no subject
Even a dog gets a phone. Even a dog needs a phone. It keeps the furrowed, hard thinking look on Robby's face, a frown pinching his lips. ]
You use them to talk to people, across distances. Uh-- that's usually... [ Usually how it goes, but Robby doesn't want to get too deep into the details. Mainly for the obvious (update, he's still talking to a dog), and because he can't help but worry about the motive behind the phones. Especially when he thinks about their uses. ]
People can track you with them--they give off signals. Whoever gave them... [ His voice goes mumbly, like he doesn't want to commit to what he's saying--some paranoid shit, and maybe he's putting too much thought to this? But despite it wavering, with his gaze on the Dog too-- ] They can find you if they want. I dunno if anything's going on like that with the ones we got, but.
[ But we showed up on a train with them, there's a lot fucking wrong going on here.
Robby will be pinching his lips again, and keeping that thought to himself. ]
no subject
[It's said casually. It doesn't actually bother her, as she had actually put it there to carry it. She supposes that she could carry it around in her mouth, but she might accidentally drop it or chew it or drool on it or swallow it... It doesn't exactly smell that good for most of those things though.]
Odd. They had telephones at the Perimeter, but it looked nothing like these things.
[Attached by a string to a wall, where it was hung up. Without power, it didn't work. Her ears give a little twitch, circling in one direction than other. She isn't too certain if she actually likes that. The Dog likes to be sneaky and creep about. She considers it part of her charm.]
It has... a magical beacon like aspect to it? So if I leave it buried, I cannot be traced?
no subject
No phone, no tracking. [ He even pulls out his own, sitting in the pocket of his trousers, flips it in his hand. ] They can't reach us either. Whoever left them.
[ But, all things considered, looking at the Dog. ]
You care?
[ Does he care, even? He doesn't think he does. ]
no subject
And is it a bad thing if they cannot have us clicking yes or no?
[They'd been much like her. Wiley and non-answering. Honestly, it's a little frustrating when she is on the receiving end of it.]
Care about... being reached?
no subject
If someone's got a problem we ditched them, they can come tell us.
[ And then Robby can shout at someone. And a dog can bite someone? Robby totally would, if he were a talking dog. ]
no subject
[Not that she doesn't stop to think about it a little more.]
But I also love running, so taking them for a journey might be fun.
[Who or what they are, who is behind all this, the Dog would indeed give them a merry little chase if they decided to track her down. In fact, it might be fun.]
no subject
[ At all of this. And they're not human, so Robby isn't exactly going to judge them under the same standards. He happens to see the jerky he'd drop before though, that the Dog hadn't gone for, and picks up the piece, twists it to break it in half. ]
What do you think you're gonna do? They got you once. They could be planning anything.
[ He doesn't speak it with a foreboding. There's a slight listless, the tone of someone who doesn't know the answer himself. So, you know, why not ask a dog? ]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)