JUMP TO MONTHLY PROMPT ↓
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, 3, 4, 5, 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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THE POISON'S IN THE DETAILS.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Monthly prompt includes the potential for body horror, including: mold or fungus; spores; and hanahaki-like symptoms. It also includes the potential for violence, mutilation, or death. Please label potentially triggering content in subject headers and interact responsibly with threads!
With the cacophony of the fun fair now gone, packed up and sent away for another year, the southern half of the park is now empty. That doesn't mean that the park itself is without attractions, though: up in the northern corner, sprawling out across the green, is a curious garden full of winding paths and draping trees, and within it, the smaller poison garden, where a variety of different flowers blossom and bloom along the gravel path. From roses to gladiolus, tulips to belladonna, this garden has many flora that residents may recognize from their homes, and some that they most certainly will not. As residents walk along the paths, observing and smelling and—for the brave—touching these plants, they will encounter a long wooden table, stretched out in the midst of fresh cut green grass.
This table has been decorated for a party, though it seems that all the guests must be late. A strange variety of different sized chairs and cushions have been set out along the long length of the table; it seems to fit at least twenty people, maybe even more. Small dishes and porcelain tea cups lay in random design across the off-white table cloth, used flower doilies and half-folded napkins tucked here and there as though someone left in a hurry. Even stranger still, there are six large, ornate pots of tea, scattered about the table, each warm to the touch and, you guessed it: full of tea. You suddenly find yourself craving a cup, and tuck into one of the chairs to pour yourself some...
...but you didn't think that it would be that easy, did you? Once you've swallowed a mouthful, or even your whole cup, your body starts to feel strange. Depending on the color—or flavor—of the tea you're drinking, you're going to experience some side effects:
| Color |
Flavor |
Effect |
| Red |
Hibiscus: This tart and fruity tea is naturally sweet. |
You will begin vomiting blood. The amount is up to your body's reaction. The correct antidote will fix you. |
| Yellow |
Jasmine: This tea has a light, floral note, and is slightly sweet. |
You will hallucinate something terrifying near you, and may lash out and attack those around you. The correct antidote will fix you. |
| Blue |
Pea Flower: This brilliantly-colored tea has a very delicate, woody flavor. |
You will gradually begin losing one of your senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch). The correct antidote will fix you. |
| Black |
English Breakfast: This is a full body tea, with rich undertones and a bold flavor. |
Something very terrible will begin happening to your body: your hair may start falling out, you may become covered in hives, or your skin may start opening into sores. The correct antidote will fix you. |
| Green |
Green: This tea has a very clean, grassy flavor, like the earth. |
You will begin to transform into a terrifying creature or animal of your choosing. The correct antidote will fix you. |
| Orange |
Ginger: This is a tea with a warming, slightly spicy taste. |
After drinking, you will suddenly fall into a death-like coma. A kiss may wake you, or the correct antidote. |
In a panic, you look for something to help you. Just beyond the table, tucked away into a wall of ivy, is an old wooden shelf, the lettering nearly worn all away on it. Little packets of seeds line the tiered shelves; there are no pictures on them, but the packets themselves seem to all be different colors—and you may notice that the colors match the colors of the various teas on the table.
Ripping open the packet that matches the color of your tea, you find it contains actual seeds—will you swallow them and risk a plant growing in your stomach, just to see if it will counteract the effects of the tea? Oh, surely that's the stuff of fairytales, isn't it?
Residents are welcome to explore the various paths around the outside of the garden, observing plants and flowers of their choosing. The tea party is open to all, and the tea will continue to be brewed somehow, no matter how many people drink it. Players can choose the extent of the negative effects on their character, or have their character remain unaffected by the tea entirely. In order to get rid of the negative effects, characters must either find the correct seed packet that matches their tea and eat the seeds, or wait twenty-four hours for the symptoms to subside. The seeds will not do anything but cure the character—though they're welcome to think something awful might happen.
The tea party cannot be destroyed, and items that are moved from the table can only be moved within the perimeter of the poison garden. Characters are unable to steal things from the tea party; they will mysteriously return back to the table if taken beyond the aforementioned border. The tea party will remain there permanently, though the negative effects of the tea will mysteriously disappear after November 1st.
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A DROP OF BLOOD OR A DROP OF EGO.
At the apex of the path that winds around the poison garden is a large greenhouse that looks like it has seen better days. The panels are filthy, covered in dust and dirt and grime, and the doors creak on their hinges when you open them. Inside, the air is hot and musty, but the smell of herbs and spices fill your senses, letting you enjoy the atmosphere. The greenhouse is clearly separated into two different paths: the one to the left has a hanging sign which reads "DEADLY BEAUTIES" and the one to the right has a hanging sign which reads "BEAUTIFUL DEADLIES".
Heading to the left, you decide to observe the various plants there. Shelf upon shelf of various potted plants watch you as you go past; some of them snap at the air, veiny teeth grasping for the delicious meat of fruit flies and ants, and some of them threaten to touch you, with vines that roll and curl outward for just a shivering touch. Overhead, tangles of vined plants and spiked ivy mix together, an oppressive shadow that makes you feel as though you're trapped in this place as you walk through. Be careful: these carnivorous plants might be beautiful, but they won't hesitate to get a little too friendly with you. The floor is caked with dirt, but some of those brown stains might not just be from mud and dust, smeared by shoe heels and work boots. These plants might want a taste of blood.
Heading to the right, you find yourself in a beautiful space, the flowers so large they seem almost overwhelming. Have the plants gotten bigger, or have you simply gotten smaller? Gorgeous purple blossoms, pink petals, bright blue flowers and speckled white flowers cower and bend to cast you under them, like a flower-patterned umbrella sheltering you from the rain. The further you walk under them, however, the more you get the feeling that they're not just there to watch over you: they're there to explore you. At first, it's just a few gossipy whispers, so quiet you might not think they're real; then it's full-blown voices, the flowers bending and twisting as though to speak to each other in harsh, judgmental tones. What are they talking about? Well, they're talking about you—your secrets, your opinions, the things you don't want anyone else to know. These flowers are spilling your tea, and anyone walking along with you is going to hear it.
The back of the greenhouse—if you make it there—has the same doors as the front. They open back out onto the winding, circular path of the poison garden, where you can head back home...or experience the whole thing over again.
The greenhouse is rather large, and characters are welcome to walk through it along any path they wish. The carnivorous plants will possibly nip and bite at your characters, or try to restrain them, but they aren't very strong and can easily be broken away from. Feel free to imagine as much of a struggle as you wish, but they will not inflict any kind of mortal wounds on characters.
The giant, oversized flowers will tell your character's secrets or their deepest darkest opinions—this is open to player choice. The flowers cannot be attacked or hurt, and the only way to get them to be quiet is for someone OTHER than the character they're talking about to scold them or tell them to be quiet. Alternatively, if you can walk the path hand in hand with another character, this will also cause them to go quiet.
Plants cannot be taken from the greenhouse or killed, and they cannot be dug up from their pots. The greenhouse itself also cannot be destroyed, and any fire lit in the greenhouse will be immediately extinguished by an overhead sprinkler system. This place is meant for enjoyment and admiration, not crime!
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There are even some places that other residents have created! 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. We highly recommend checking out the Character-Run Locations as well - they might be great places for new characters to get started!
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-10-01 08:38 pm
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Sit.
[ He's serious, an edge to his tone that won't (or at least, is trying not to) take no for an answer. ]
"We" won't be able to do anything in the state you're in.
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He remains standing, even as his hands shake. ]
Whose fault is that, do you think?
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[ His frustration boils over--perhaps better that than more pity; better that than more guilt--as he nods towards the bench again. ]
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His attempts finally realized, Holland acquiesces and sits. Though he makes sure to sit carefully, and sits up straight even as he deposits himself on the bench. He's not about to show any weakness if he can help it. ]
There. I'm sitting.
cw: more blood magic/harm
[ Kell pulls out his knife again, but this time he doesn't hesitate. He cuts into himself and he focuses on every tiny piece of magic he can find, pleading it to gather for him. And then he reaches over to grab Holland. ]
As hasari.
[ He's depowered, but he's not powerless. With 20% of his power, he can at least stabilize Holland a little more. He cannot make him whole, he cannot heal every part of his wounds. But he can give him something. ]
no subject
He doesn't feel like he'll fall over within the next minute or so, at least. But he can tell just how diminished their magic is, with how little his own magic responds. ]
You're wasting your magic.
[ It's as close to thanks as Kell will get. Holland knows Kell is naive, too kind, and foolish, so he can't say he's surprised by his choice. But it doesn't mean he has to like it. And Holland certainly can't return the favor, with the state he's in.
Still, he unwraps his hand to reveal the smooth skin. It's hardly equal, considering the cost. ]
Good job. [ It's spoken sarcastically, though Holland tears another strip off his cloak, holding it out for Kell. ] Here. Don't do that again.
no subject
[ Kell is insistent, but his voice is ragged. He accepts the cloth and sits down, too. The spell always takes so much out of him, but it feels worse, now, with his magic so weak. It feels so much harder to get results.
He applies pressure to to the wound to get it to stop bleeding and he looks at it instead of at Holland, as if acknowledging what he just did was too much. ]
no subject
You would sooner bleed yourself dry than kill me, wouldn't you?
[ Guilt will do that to a person. Killing is bad enough, at least it had been the first few times. Kell's probably killed a few people, if Holland had to guess, but he wouldn't be surprised if Holland had been the first time he had to kill someone he knew.
Holland doesn't pity him, but he can't watch him kill himself, either. ]
Don't. I don't want to owe you my life a second time.
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[ Kell shakes his head, looking away from the wound and out to the park. It's still the only thing here that feels even remotely like anywhere he's ever been. The rest of the City was too modern, too stifling, too different. ]
We have more chance of getting home if we work together. It's that simple.
no subject
[ Don't say he never did anything for you, Kell! Holland wouldn't have enjoyed owing him, but for all that Kell killed him, he also seems to have set him free from Athos. But that's not a conversation they will ever have. ]
I suppose so.
[ Everything is too different. Holland doesn't have time to worry about any of that though. He will survive. It's what he does. And perhaps, if Kell doesn't end up dead, they might both survive a little better than they would alone. Much as he doesn't like it, it's just common sense. Kell is right.
Well, no use dwelling on it. ]
We'll want to find shelter, then. Now that you're drained and I'm still on the mend.
no subject
[ It would have felt weird to take one without paying regardless, but it's truly uncanny how they seem.
Still, it's not like they have much of a choice. It's that or sleep out here. ]
All of this is impossible. A place like this shouldn't exist--or at the very least, shouldn't be accessible.
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Don't bother trying to make sense of it. Whatever this is, we're here now.
[ They can waste time later thinking about the logistics or the reasons why the magic of this place could be so strange, or how they got here. ]
The apartments, are they far?
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[ He looks over at Holland, taking stock of his appearance. Determining whether he looks like he can walk there yet.
Yeah, no, they're sitting on this bench. ]
Give me a moment. I'm still drained from the spell.
no subject
Fine. We have nowhere else to be.
[ Words spoken coldly, though not aimed directly at Kell for once. It speaks more to their situation, and the simple fact that none of it makes any sense. Holland is allowed to be frustrated about that too, much as he tries to hide it. ]
no subject
[ The truth is he doesn't like being idle, either. He has the luxury of doing so, far more than Holland does, but it leaves him with his thoughts which--as evidenced by the flowers earlier--contain nothing good.
He reaches for the cords at his neck and finds his coins still there, which is a relief. ]
Once we figure out how to tap into the magic here, we can go home.
no subject
Holland doesn't have much hope. He isn't an idealist like Kell. Whatever is wrong with the magic here, they're going to need to learn more before they can compel it to take them home. ]
Assuming it will listen.
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[ Kell doesn't sound like he's certain. He sounds like he's pleading with it, that it has to, that he can't be stuck wherever this was. ]
We'll figure it out. It still healed you. It can let us open a door.
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It's pathetic is what it is. But Holland knows he couldn't do any better, considering how little the magic here seems to want to bend. ]
We'll see. Considering how dampened our magic is here, one of us might need to die to get a door open.
[ He levels Kell a look, like, is that what you want? even though he knows it surely isn't. Kell is too soft to sacrifice someone. And Kell is more useful to Holland alive than dead. At least for now. ]
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[ There's a hard edge to his voice as he says it. He can't do this a second time.
They'll figure something out. They have to. Otherwise, it will surely break him. ]
We have time. We can find a better solution.
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Not that he respects him too much. ]
Perhaps.
[ With how awful everything feels, and the magic how it is, it's probably lucky Holland found Kell. He's working off some serious bloodloss, for all that he keeps trying to keep it from showing. ]
If being here doesn't kill us, anyway.
no subject
If you could survive all of that, being in an abandoned city won't kill us.
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Presumably. That was before whatever is dampening our magic took hold, though. Considering how long it took my cut to heal earlier, we may need to be cautious, here.
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[ Literally they have to, because Kell cannot imagine his life without magic. Being Antari is his entire existence. ]
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[ Holland hums, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. They'll need to figure it out, of course, but it'll be what it is. For Holland, magic is part of him, but it's a part he controls and a part he has mastered. It is power, but he knows what it's like to feel powerless, for all that Antari are supposed to be without equal.
Being Antari didn't save him from Athos. It won't save them from whatever is happening here. ]
I think that's enough.
[ He stands, and manages to hold his feet steady. He'll be fine. He must be. He puts one foot in front of the other, and starts to walk. ]
I'm not sleeping in a park.
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Do you even know which way you're going?
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