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
Lenore Vandernacht | Nevermore
ii. APARTMENTS
iii. WILDCARD
[ Open to pretty much anything! She's not averse to scaling up buildings if it means she can information gather. For the canon blind (which I would safely assume there are many of you) Lenore has a penchant of gathering misfits so if your character is a bit odd that could be a good starting point really ]
I. Graveyard
Years of neglect can do a number on places like graveyards.
[Lucinda is sitting against one of the headstones with her legs crossed. Probably relaxing too much.]
Are you seeing any names? If I look twice, it tends to just run away.
no subject
Not a single one! But that would be why almost anyone would be discomforted by the vague mystery of it all, wouldn't it?
[ She approaches to hold the conversation at a more personable distance; coming to stop and gesture at how relaxed her conversational partner is in sitting in a cemetery. ]
Well, I suppose you seem right at home at least.
no subject
She seems fine with Lenore keeping the conversation at a personable distance.]
I've been told that I do seem to fit the feel of a graveyard. Which is probably not the most outlandish compliment I've been given.
But to be honest, I'd prefer if I was on the road.
no subject
An outlandish compliment is better than a disingenuous one.
[ She states matter-of-fact with a grin. ]
Inclined to travel, are you? I have to know what you make of this city if so. How does it compare?
no subject
My thoughts? Well...
[She feigns a contemplative expression, tapping her fingers between blades of grass.]
It's very quiet.
[Obviously. She explains some more though.]
Well, there are loud people here but I think once the shock and awe wears off what's noticeable is just the lack of life just as there is the lack of death. But if you're asking me about the superficial structures of this city, I'm just hoping to find a boba shop and then I'll feel less disquieted.
no subject
...Boba shop? I'd offer to keep a look out for one but I can't say I'm familiar— do they sell liquor there?
[ Liquid courage? That's a saying isn't it. Certainly it's one way to feel less disquieted. ]
no subject
No, it's not liquor. Boba refers to tea drinks with various toppings and flavors. People of all ages can enjoy it.
no subject
Hold on, toppings? On tea? [ Do the toppings float? ] I'll be taking suggestions on what to try first should a store be found.
no subject
[She really wants boba now, goddamn, this situation calls for it. And so, she'll be standing up.]
So why not? I might hunt down a shop for it.
no subject
[ Should she like to use it Lenore offers a hand out to assist with the standing. ]
I have been meaning to explore outside this gloomy graveyard myself— but we've only just become acquainted. I'd hate to invite myself along unless you'd like company.
no subject
It's the same thing in every building, [ he pipes up. His voice is deep, gentle, with a strong French accent. He taps some of the ash off of his cigarette onto the dirt below. ] Every place where there should be records of who was here before, it's nothing but blank pages. They've been very thorough.
no subject
Nor is there anyone around to interrogate. It's as if everything...
[ There's a uncertainty weaving into her tone; still, it's usually more productive to bounch ideas off of someone else rather than get absorbed by it alone. ]
...Was everything wiped to become a blank slate? Somewhere that's off limits might have some answers.
no subject
You're right on one thing, however: it's not that the place was empty to begin with. It's that it was wiped clean. If you look in the apartments, there's still signs of people having lived there at some point.
no subject
[ Those impromptu plans are dashed if she's inclined to trust his word. Which, in this case, it seems like it wouldn't hurt to. It would be a strange thing to lie about. That being said Lenore doesn't look thrilled to hear there's something "supranatural" either. Not this again! If she has to go toe to toe again with creatures of the spectral persuasion any time soon she's going to be very cross. Her nose wrinkles and her eyes narrow in discontent. ]
...You don't happen to know why it is, do you? You seem very thorough.
no subject
Trust me, I've been tempted to do exactly that. See how high we can go. But I have a funny feeling that it wouldn't end well.
[ It might end with him as a gory splatter against the concrete, is what might happen. He's not willing to take that risk. He still has a healthy regard for his own skin, after all, and a tolerance for pain that doesn't encompass near-fatal injuries. He takes another drag of his cigarette, the tip glowing brightly, then breathes out a cloud of chestnut and tar. ]
But no. I'm afraid I don't know why it is. I've been just thorough enough to come to the conclusion that there's no logical answers for anything in this place.
no subject
I must say? That leaves me at a total loss on what to do next. So I won't think more on it for the time being.
[ Following along with the brief but to-the-point lead up she suspects she knows where he's going with that "it wouldn't end well." She's inclined to agree- it might not end well. With an audible sigh that releases through the nose Lenore watches the smoke tendril's slow dissipation. ]
I assume you were also brought here inexplicably? I'm certain it's nice to make your acquaintance... It would be nicer were it under more pleasant circumstances.
no subject
Yes, I was. Last thing I remember, I had fallen asleep. Next thing, I was here. The graveyard's new, though; we weren't allowed entry here just a week ago. And despite the circumstances, it's nice to meet you, [ he says, extending a gloved hand towards her. Never let it be said that Kim Kitsuragi doesn't have manners. ] My name is Kim Kitsuragi. And yours?
no subject
This, she mutters to herself, having suppressed the urge to pinch herself for good measure. Which means Kim is very real, non-figment of the imagination and another hypothetical sparked by the recollection of his experience is crossed off the list. With a smile tugging at her lips Lenore leans forward to give him a firm handshake. Similarly, she does indeed have good manners... but for those who deserve them- which Kim seems to qualify. ]
Lenore. My name is Lenore. Kim is fine I trust, or do you prefer Mister Kitsuragi?
no subject
I don't think titles amount to much in this place, anyway. Good to meet you, Lenore. And, for the record? I thought this was a dream at first as well. But after a month here, I think I can dispense with that theory. For better or for worse, you're stuck here.
[ He glances around them, the graveyard an eerie sight in the dim light, standing atop graves that Kim sincerely believes must be empty. Have they gotten to the point where someone would be willing to dig it up? It's a thought he's filing away for later, anyhow. It's a bit grim, even for him. ]
Have you figured out lodgings yet?
no subject
[ Nodding minutely, Lenore chuckles under her breath, as in part she might be feeling slightly sheepish at being caught mumbling to herself. Good to find it's a relatable assumption though. Comforting in a way. Commiseration! ]
I know of them... and well, do the lodgings usually give off the feeling of being haunted?
[ It's not the spooky factor, really. It's more that it's terribly bad form to intrude even on ghosts. She holds a hand up horizontally and wiggles it in a vague gesture where the exact meaning is unclear on the outside. It does mirror her ambivalence about the notion well however. It's weirdly coincidental according to... well. Ghosts and being a ghost. Can you haunt the dead? ]
no subject
[ Kim takes a moment to think about it. ]
That depends on how literally you mean haunted. Haunted by the presence of the previous occupants? Yes. Haunted by literal ghosts? [ He doesn't believe in ghosts. Not really. But he doesn't believe in ghosts back home. Here? It's a crap shoot. ] If it is, I haven't seen one yet. Why?
no subject
[ Kim may not believe in the existence of ghosts but you know who clearly does? She makes a vague batting motion at the air to dismiss the notion. The motion is comparable to the one someone does when they are fanning smoke out of their face. ]
Every room looks lived in, is all. I'd hate to be intruding if it turned out to be that someone actually did still live there and they were only absent for a short while. By chance you... haven't heard of that occurring before, have you?
no subject
[ For all that there were clearly personal belongings strewn about, there were no hints. No journals, no telling keepsakes, no photographs, no records. LIved in, but not. Eerie. ]
I'd gladly move if they were to return. But I have a funny feeling that they won't.