citylogs | TDM: JULY 2023

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TDM: JULY 2023

TEST DRIVE MEME

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?

▶ YES
▶ 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ cyno lapses into silence again, still reaching for hermanubis, still coming up empty; a chill runs down his spine. being without his vision is uncomfortable as well, he's commanded electro for a very long time, but being without hermanubis is something else entirely. he's known that spirit for as long as he can remember, and being without it feels like missing a limb, like an integral part of himself has been removed. ]

It's hard to tell for certain, but it feels as if it's been.. sealed away somewhere I can't reach.

[ but that isn't what tighnari asked. cyno shifts his weight. of course he's loathe to admit that anything could ever bother him, but.. he trusts tighnari more than he trusts anyone, and that hand on his shoulder eases him. his voice softens. ]

I don't like it. It's uncomfortable.

Sealed away somewhere.

[ It's hard to imagine something that powerful. Then again, it's also hard to imagine something that has the ability to darken Visions too. While Tighnari is ever thankful for the Vision, it's not something that he lives or dies by.

But the thing that dwells within Cyno is something different. It's essentially a part of him. ]

Just where were we sent?

Mmm..

[ gods, he hates the feeling. it feels like losing a limb, or a sense - something critical, something he has always known. that someone could take that away from him, and so easily.. cyno swallows thickly, and puts the thought from his mind. dwelling on it would do them no good.

at last he moves further into the room, toward the large glass windows that overlook the eerie city. ]

Well. We're here, whether we like it or not. I see no reason not to take advantage of empty lodgings.

[ Tighnari just rubs at Cyno's back. He doesn't know what else to do to comfort his closest friend. Really all he can do is stay close to him. Together they can do anything, really. So it's better to stay at each other's side. ]

We absolutely should. The question is, where should we go? Do you want to be here? Or try to find someplace else?

[ Someplace that would make Cyno feel more at ease? ]

[ the hand at his back is a comfort, and tighnari would feel the way cyno's muscles relax beneath his palm. a deep breath, then a slow, exhaled sigh. ]

Mm. It's getting late, we should probably settle here while we can. If it doesn't feel comfortable enough, we can look for something more suitable tomorrow.

[ he has a feeling, however, that nowhere in this place will feel exactly comfortable. ]

[ Oh Tighnari can feel it all right. It's one of the reasons that he is offering it at all. In fact, he would allow for Cyno to grab onto or even pet his tail at this point. Anything that would help to soothe frazzled nerves. ]

All right. Tomorrow, at the very least, we should also gather supplies. At the moment I'm not particularly keen on the idea of us being separated.

Neither am I.

[ he doesn't want tighnari out of his sight for any longer than he needs to be, but he's been known to be a little overprotective of those he cares for. crossing back to the door, cyno ensures that it's properly shut before clicking the locks. ]

Speaking of supplies, are you hungry?

[ Oh Tighnari is more than aware of how protective Cyno can be. The General Mahamatra has fussed over Tighnari for years now. There are moments where it is almost embarrassing, especially when they whisk each other away to speak privately.

But Tighnari also wouldn't have it any other way. His ears twitch as Cyno locks the door. ]

Hmm. Not especially. I don't know about you, but all of this has done little for my appetite.

[ a sigh through his nose. ]

.. I'm not hungry either. Still, we should try to eat, regardless.

[ they'll need to keep up their strength and keep their minds nourished and sharp, even if cyno has no appetite either. he heads toward the small kitchen, which, like everything else, seems fully stocked with all the supplies they'll need to feed themselves. ]

Even if only a small amount.

Yes, I agree.

[ And Tighnari is going to follow Cyno to the kitchen. Or at least sit at the table. This time, he'll allow for the other man to fuss about. Having a task to do might help take his mind off of the silence in his own mind. ]

Something light.

[ something light it is, then.

it only takes cyno a few moments to find some ingredients. it's the technology that's a bit foreign. it takes some trial and error from the both of them to figure out how the stovetop and oven work, but between the two of them they manage it. cyno sets some rice to cook, then tosses some veggies lightly in oil and spices and sets them to roasting in the oven.

while they wait, they gather up plates and utensils, as well as glasses of water, before cyno is leaning back against the counter. ]

Collei.. I'm glad she isn't here.

[ They are two highly intelligent people. It doesn't take much to figure out what the dials are for. If anything, Tighnari comments on the convenience of it all. No need to make sure that the fires are at the right temperature. No babysitting! What a novelty.

And the entire time Tighnari stays close. One would think that Cyno would prefer not to have people in his personal space like this. But Tighnari knows better. At least Cyno seems to always appreciate the fox lingering close when things are this tense and stressful. ]

Hmm. Me too. Though we should at least have some kind of plan in place just in case she does appear.

[ tighnari's assumption is, of course, right on the mora. his closeness is a balm, a comfort, he doesn't mind that tighnari lingers so close when they're in a strange and unfamiliar place. it puts him at ease. ]

Mm. She's grown quite a bit, no doubt she'd be all right on her own, but..

[ but cyno, at least, is definitely a helicopter dad. ]

[ Tighnari chuckles. Nudges Cyno with a shoulder. ]

If she did come here, there'd be no shortage of friends she could make.

[ Leave it to Tighnari to try to find a more positive spin on something that would make both of them worry. ]

[ of course tighnari sees it that way, when cyno sees only the threats, only the harm that could come to her. something in him softens a bit, as he locates and brings down two bowls. ]

Well.. I suppose you're right about that.

[ and make friends she would. collei might not be great with strangers, but.. she's so warm, and kind, surely it would attract people to her. ]

We'll have to keep an eye out.

I'm sure that we'd be the first people she seeks out, Cyno.

[ His tail swishes a little behind him. Cyno is such a worrier. So far there's been nothing to indicate that they are in immediate danger here. Not yet, anyway. Now that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be alert or prepared, but treating it like this immediately.., ]

She also doesn't have her illness to slow her down.

[ no, there's no indication of imminent danger, but cyno is an incredibly cautious man. there's a strange, unnerving aura about this place, and who or whatever brought them here was powerful enough to put a lock on hermanubis. he can't help but jump to nefarious conclusions.

especially when it comes to the people he's close to. ]

Mm. I suppose so. [ he mutters. ] I suppose there's no reason to waste energy worrying about it now.

[ Tighnari does understand, just like he realize that Cyno needs this right now. Needs something to do with his hands. Something to take care of. So that's why Tighnari isn't putting up a fight about the other man's fussing. ]

We can talk more about what we are going to do after we rest. Tomorrow, maybe. There's time to come up with a plan.

[ a quick nod. ]

Mm, you're right. It'll be easier to think with a rested mind.

[ and a well-fed stomach! cyno scoops rice into their bowls now, then a generous amount of vegetables on top. ]

Here, it isn't much but, hope you like it.

[ If you're going to give him veggies... It should at least be mushrooms. Seeing what food is available here is going to be on Tighnari's "must do" list for tomorrow. That on top of actually trying to hunt down supplies so he can run some tests.

He'll take the bowl and meander to the table proper. ]

You too. Come here and sit down. No jokes at the table.

[ As if Cyno could right now. Still, it is... Just to try to get some sense of normalcy between them. ]

[ don't worry, there are mushrooms in there as well!! picky fox.

taking up his own bowl, however, cyno follows tighnari to the table, sliding into a seat across from him, stirring his meal to help release the steam. he knows what tighnari is trying to do, and he.. appreciates it. ]

Not even a small one?

[ Maybe he is a picky fox! He can't help the fact that he likes mushrooms so much.

And there it is. A small, very small, glimpse of Cyno's more personable side coming out. The one that Tighnari knows can grate on his nerves but at the same time savors. One that brings a faint smile to his features. ]

And risk my wrath?

[ that smile warms him. cyno's shoulders begin to relax as he digs into his meal. ]

I like your wrath.

[ Well there's light at the end of the tunnel at least. Cyno is allowing for Tighnari's words and demeanor to at least soothe some of that paranoia. ]

More than a few people we both know would wonder about you for that one.

Since when has that ever bothered me?

[ cyno is terrifying, yes, but also a perpetual weirdo. ]

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