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The City ([personal profile] citycenter) wrote in [community profile] citylogs2023-11-01 09:00 pm
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TDM: NOVEMBER 2023





TEST DRIVE MEME

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?

▶ 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, 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.

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 center. 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.


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

IT IS THE ULTIMATE SHADOW, THE DEFEAT OF CREATION.
In one section of the newly accessible portion of the city, nestled in among normal looking residential and commercial buildings, is a wide and relatively short and industrial-looking building with no windows and only one grand set of black glass doors set into one side. Above the entrance is a neon sign that plainly states ART. with smaller letters sm added to the front in metallic paint. Hopefully, this simple signage will give passersby the impression that this is an art exhibit of some kind, with a twist.
DO NOT TOUCH THE ART…
Once stepping through the front doors, guests will be greeted with a lobby with walls covered in vertical neon lighting that pulses in a rotating rainbow, and mirrored ceilings that make the space feel surprisingly small. To one side is a bar where various cocktails await pickup. They don't have any special effects, but being a bit tipsy might help enhance the experiences waiting for you beyond. There's also a rack of bottles behind it, stocked with the typical liquors and mixers, if you'd like to play bartender for a while. Thanks to the disorienting amount of colored lighting and dark corners, it may be easy to get lost and turned around in the large building, and guests may be surprised to find that they're unable to locate the exit (or entrance) while alone.


After leaving behind the lobby and stepping into the exhibit proper, you'll find yourself walking through a central winding hallway with large rooms branching off from it in both directions at regular intervals. Some of them are more interactive than others, but all of them are dimly lit except for the "art" that guests will find themselves in the middle of, encouraged to touch and participate in creative collaboration. A few of the simpler rooms include:

  • Hanging ropes that will light up where touched, changing color with the amount of kinetic force applied: purple for a brush of the fingers, red for a crushing grip. These pulses of light will travel out to either end of the ropes the longer touch is applied, and considering that the room is pitch black and seemingly endless thanks to the mirrored walls, you may want to find some help in lighting up the dark.
  • A sunken floor filled to the brim with translucent plastic balls. This ball pit is a literal bath of color with every-changing light shining up from the floor of the ball pit and diffusing through the balls. A wall of cubbies at the room's entrance awaits belongings and shoes that are asked to be removed by a polite sign at the top of the stairs that descend into the ball pit. Be careful, for the pit is deep and it's easy to sink beneath the surface if you sit or lie down; you may see some shadows of people a ways away from you, but if you wade through the balls to their rescue, you won't find anyone tangible there.
  • A small theater of benches all facing the back wall that is a single large screen. The display is a moving series of lines on a black background that give the audience the sensation that the room is moving, or they themselves are traveling through the space. Atmospheric music—mostly heavy bass and noise that's been timed with the movement on the screen—hums through the room and adds to the sense of immersion.
  • ... IT MIGHT TOUCH BACK.
    One of the more interesting rooms is actually divided into three smaller rooms, each with a heavy, sound-dampening door that only has a small square window set into the top of it. Through the window, you can see that there is a red room, a green room, and a blue room. Stepping into any of them will be a different experience where guests will be entirely immersed in the color—even the window is a one-way mirror from the inside, blocking out any sights from beyond. The longer guests stay in these isolating rooms, the more disoriented they'll become, and it's entirely possible that moods will shift from the experience. Be careful stepping back out into the exhibit itself, your eyes and ears may need time to adjust.

    In the green room, guests may feel like they've stepped into a concentrated and unfiltered essence of nature. The speakers play a variety of animal noises layered with leaves rustling and branches creaking as they move as well as wind, rain, and other kinds of weather. Looking at yourself, or your companions if someone stepped inside with you, you see their eyes and teeth pop clearly in the bath of green, somehow more obviously animal than ever.

    In the red room, the temperature is higher than the rest of the exhibit, not uncomfortably so but noticeable all the same. Looking down at your skin, you can see more of the blemishes, the dark spots or pale scar tissue that contrasts much more starkly. From hidden speakers in the ceiling comes a mixture of sounds that are hard to place as they're so layered over one another, but the overall noise is inorganic, discordant, unsettling. It's hard to focus, let alone look at anyone else you might be sharing the room with.

    In the blue room, there is almost an absence of experience. The only sound is a low, steady hum that vibrates through you as you stand and close your eyes almost on instinct. Everything gets erased in the layer of blue that covers everyone and everything in the room, skin looking almost gray from the lack of any other colors that are so often associated with life.


    The last room of note is completely black and empty except for three massive umbrellas of flowers and other plants that are suspended from the tall ceiling, illuminated by lights shining on them from above. Each umbrella is about as high off the ground as the average human and varying by a few feet or so, so that it's possible to stand or crouch beneath them. Once standing in their shadows below, guests will be able to hear whispers coming from above…

    These whispers tell real secrets of city residents—past, present, and future—though names are never included. The secrets are told in their own voices, though, almost like confessionals to a confidant or their pillow in the dark of night. These secrets can be positive, negative, or simple fact. Some may be shocking revelations of guilt, or shy mutterings of love, or secrets spilled as if the speaker has never thought of this part of themselves before. There is a hush throughout the room, and if guests were to whisper to each other beneath the umbrellas, conversations would not be easily overheard.


    Residents are encouraged to meet up in the bar with friends, grab some drinks, and then head into the art exhibit. It's also a great place to meet someone new as there will be plenty of interactions happening as everyone hopefully discovers a bit of their inner child. There's no right or wrong order to exploring the rooms, but residents will not be able to find the exit without the presence of another with them—even if you came alone, you're leaving with a friend!

    For the Secret Garden whispers, players are encouraged to make up something scandalous to discuss with others or even have their own character's voices whisper to them from the flowers. Please remember to discuss with other players before including any information about existing and potential characters that may affect their gameplay.

    Inspiration for this location includes 9 Lights in 9 Rooms as well as Hopscotch. Title is from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

    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 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!

    JUMP TO TOP ↑



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    chaossealer: (cosmos0553)

    Usagi Tsukino ☾ Sailor Moon

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-10 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
    A. Train Station

    [ Waking up on a train is disorienting, if not downright strange. It’s as though the past few hours of Usagi’s memories are just wiped from her brain, leaving her with absolutely no recollection of how she got here, to begin with. However, that seems to be the least of her worries when the train comes to a screeching halt, and the doors open to reveal a station, seemingly devoid of people. For a moment, she holds her breath and stays on the train for a while before realizing that the train is definitely not going to go anywhere else. As she thought earlier, it’s disorienting, but since it doesn’t seem like she has anywhere else to go, she figures she disembark for now. She won’t be able to pinpoint her location from inside the train, after all.

    It’s not as terrifying as she had thought, as she takes a wary step out from the train and onto the platform. She doesn’t know if the train will just leave now that she’s on the platform, but if it hadn’t left earlier, then maybe it would just stay here until she’s ready to come back. She’s looking between the train compartment and the stairs at the end of the platform—will the train go anywhere? Will she end up back home? She doesn’t know, and it’s not like her friends are here to help her make these decisions. There’s a little voice in the back of her head that prods her onward, telling her that perhaps she’ll find someone else upstairs. Maybe it’s another case of her sleepwalking—except she doesn’t sleepwalk—and the weird mashup between the baddie of the day sending them into another realm to fend for herself. But it’s too quiet to be any of these options, right?

    This is the perfect setting for a horror movie, isn’t it?

    Usagi pushes on, and makes her way towards the end of the platform, where the staircase leads somewhere—she doesn’t know where exactly. It’s dark, it’s heavy, almost, and she almost wishes she were back under her covers filing this entire experience as something from a bad dream of sorts to be jotted down in her dream journal. Did she keep one? Hard to know—maybe she’ll start one after this. This feels way too real.

    The trip up the stairs is long, but once she makes it up to the top, she hears it—the inevitable sound of the train doors closing. Great, she doesn’t even have an exit plan now. It’s frustrating, but she keeps on going. There are shops here, maps on the wall, and, well, a decent variety of necessities that one will probably need. Every shop in the station is open, including a convenience store, which she spotted earlier. On cue, her stomach lets out a rather loud groan, and she huffs loudly at how stubbornly demanding her stomach is. Usagi looks around in her pockets, but aside from the handkerchief that she always has in hand, there’s maybe a dollar's worth of change in her pocket, which is probably not enough to buy the things she needs.

    This is the kind of trouble she gets off to on her own, isn’t it? It almost seems like a no-brainer at this point to see what she can get, but she quickly realizes that there’s no one manning the stores at all. She hates to steal because it’s not exactly moral, but she’s in a pinch, isn’t she? She’ll remind herself that she owes them some sort of compensation as she quickly grabs some snacks on the shelves, keeping count as she does. Curious enough, though, there’s no price tag on these, so maybe…

    …but she’s really hungry.

    So the best course of action is, of course, to leave the change she found in her pocket on the little table where there would normally be someone there to ring up her items. Surely it’s good enough, right? She blames herself for spending all her allowance on cake and ice cream…

    …at least the Castella cake she has in her hand is soothing her anxieties slightly.
    ]


    B. City Park

    [ The walk through the city park is probably peaceful, a stark contrast to the earlier experience in the train station. It’s a quiet area, awfully tranquil compared to the areas surrounding it. She can hear the leaves crunch as she walks around the park, without a clear destination in mind. The earlier unease she felt dissipates slowly the longer she stays, and soon, there’s barely any indication of her earlier worries.

    It’s like the fog is feeding off of her anxiety.

    The feeling reminds her of when she used to stay up during the night, just staring at the moon. It gives her something to think about, as the faint memories of something she can’t seem to remember grazes gently on her mind, giving her glimpses of a past life she might have had once upon a time.

    By the time she realizes where her feet have taken her, she’s already standing in the deeper part of the park, and her surroundings are harder to see. Navigating the denser part of what seems to be a forest-like area becomes something of a chore. It’s easy to just go back to where she came from, but the problem is, it’s hard for her to remember where. The former sensation of ease fades, and in its place, there’s an unsettling feeling. With her heart thumping loudly in her chest, she turns a corner to see a statue, covered in vines.

    She then realizes there are many statues, but each one looks…oddly familiar. It draws her in as she blankly stares at them.

    Has she been staring for too long? She forcibly tears her eyes away from the statues as she shakes her head, trying to get rid of the strange sensation. When she tries to recall what the statues looked like, it’s a blur.

    She really needs to get out of here.

    She needs to leave.
    ]


    C. City Apartments

    [ There are apartment buildings here. It seems normal enough for her, as she spent a lot of time inside Mamoru’s apartment before…this. There is a general familiarity that every city has these, and this one is no different.

    The first door she tries after entering the lobby looks like something out of one of those magazines for interior designers. Clean, and orderly, and not a single item in the room was out of place. It’s eerie how orderly it is—which is not to say that Usagi is unclean or disorderly, but everything seems to have been thoroughly cleaned like the inside of a surgical operation room.

    She gulps and retraces her steps to leave the room, having clearly seen enough of this place already.

    The second door she opens is far more welcoming than the first. It’s much warmer, in this room, as though it’s someone’s living quarters. No one is in the room currently, and despite being taught manners from a young age, she cautiously walks into the living space to admire the decorations.

    But like the park and the train station, she can’t really get used to why this place feels…strange to her, even when the room itself feels undeniably cozy. She can imagine herself living here, with a pet or two and maybe a friend to share the living area with. Saturdays lounging in the living area in front of the television and just existing in her own space—it’s not home, but it’s good enough, right?

    Right—that’s what she’s missing, she realizes. None of the places she’s passed through feels like home. It doesn’t feel like she let her guard down, despite all signs that maybe she could.
    ]


    D.
    [ Wild card. ]
    Edited 2023-11-10 23:06 (UTC)
    beanallright: (02)

    B.

    [personal profile] beanallright 2023-11-11 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
    [ The City Park isn't quite as cozy as the graveyard. It's right there though, so Chesed oftentimes finds himself wandering about in the area. He's called the graveyard his home for now. It's only expected that he'd be getting to know the rest of the neighborhood.

    It's usually empty. Today, there's a girl who looks a little distressed.

    Chesed waves in her direction. ]


    Are you all right over there?

    [ She doesn't look familiar, and given how frazzled she seems... Ah, perhaps she's one of the newcomers? It seems the others were right, that new people seemed to show up in the City once a month. ]
    chaossealer: (cosmos0436)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-11 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
    [ She squeaks really loudly and nearly jumps out of her skin at the sound of another person in the forest with her. She really should be paying more attention to her surroundings, shouldn't she?

    Usagi whirls around to face the owner of the said voice and offers a nervous chuckle.
    ]

    Uh, yeah, I'm okay, I think? [ Then she remembers that, no, she's not exactly all right at the given moment, and then backtracks. ] I mean, no, I'm not okay, but I'm not in danger, if that makes any sense? I'm not sure, it's kind of weird here.

    [ Where is here, exactly? ]

    Although I'm kind of lost, actually, I have no clue how I got here. Also, what's up with those weird statues over there?
    beanallright: (06)

    [personal profile] beanallright 2023-11-11 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
    Haha, well, I've learned that "weird" things happen pretty frequently here. In that case, I suppose that would make the weird quite "normal."

    [ And though Chesed speaks quite comfortably about their surroundings, it's not like he's been here much longer than this newcomer. After all, it's been barely a month since he'd stepped off that train.

    He points at one of the statues. ]


    Those? Oh, they're like that all the time. Don't worry too much about it~

    [ He tilts his head a bit at the girl. Yep. Definitely new. Even though he knows the answer already, he asks his follow-up question anyways. ]

    You must be new here. Arrived here on a strange train with a phone in your pocket?
    chaossealer: (UAqxAsr)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-11 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
    [ So, strange is the new normal, huh? Where has she heard that one before? Luna turning her life upside down probably counts, for one. Regardless, she nods, looks like she'll have to adapt to this place, too, right? ]

    So, expect the unexpected, right? I guess I can live with that...

    [ One thing she can definitely say is that she's no longer the same girl she used to be at 14, tripping over her own feet and crying when times are tough. She's come too far to regress into her former self, so she'll have to tough it out here and find a way to survive like she always has. It will be hard without her friends, but better that she's the one who has to experience this rather than her friends, right?

    Anyway, the man's answer does throw her off slightly.
    ]

    They're always like that, as in, they're always super creepy? [ This place just screams horror movie tropes. ] Is there anywhere that isn't creepy, though?

    [ She has a feeling she'll like it there a lot more. But in the meantime... ]

    Oh, yeah, I did. The whole walk here was really unsettling. Is it always like that? There's no one around—you know, except you. And me. It's just so— [ She's just about to comment on how strange it all is until she remembers that strange is the new normal. Right. ] —new to me.
    beanallright: (13)

    [personal profile] beanallright 2023-11-11 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
    As they say, the "unexpected" is the spice of life. But yes, it's always like this over here.

    [ Or... however that quote went. Close enough. ]

    I suppose they can be a little unsettling. Most people walk through here as fast as they can with their eyes on their feet.

    [ The vibes are a little spooky in this place, no thanks to all the overgrown ivy. The earthy smell of dirt is almost overpowering here, and the plant life is overbearing. Certainly, it's understandable why this girl would feel unsettled.

    He gestures for her to follow him. ]


    If we follow this path, we'll find someplace a little better. Oh, and where are my manners. You can call me Chesed.
    chaossealer: (ouphSb4)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-11 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
    [ That is a very accurate way of looking at things, indeed—especially given her own history. But at the same time, weird things will never not surprise her, because she knows there's probably far more she hasn't experienced yet. But they're not talking about her right now. At least not exclusively. ]

    I guess I should just look forward to more surprising things, huh? Something about, uh, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, is that right? Or was it strike while the iron is hot? [ ...maybe she should leave those idioms alone. ]

    I—what? Most people—are there more people aside from us? [ She should have seen this one coming. She doesn't know why she didn't.

    She's about to ask even more questions but stops when he motions for her to follow him. Maybe he'll show her, instead?
    ]

    Oh—thanks, I thought I was going to be spending the night here by the looks of things. [ And then: ] Oh! Sorry, I hadn't realized to ask for your name or offer you mine. Hello Chesed, I'm Usagi Tsukino. You can just call me Usagi!
    Edited (my brain is so sdfasd) 2023-11-11 04:44 (UTC)
    beanallright: (12)

    [personal profile] beanallright 2023-11-11 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
    [ When in Rome, do as the what? Chesed doesn't know who these "Romans" are, but based on the grammar of that idiom, yes, that does seem correct. When in a new place, do as the people there do. ]

    Yes, it seems more newcomers arrive here each month, though it seems the original residents of the City are nowhere to be found.

    [ Chesed nods when the girl offers him a name. ]

    No need to worry, Usagi. It's a little jarring, I understand. After all, I've only been here for about a month.

    [ And then he's off, walking along the path and trusting that Usagi will follow after him. Get out of spooky statue garden first, talk second. ]
    chaossealer: (cosmos0001)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-11 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ Original residents, huh? Like a city that's been abandoned. She had an inkling that was what happened, given the vibe of the place. It's appearing more and more like she's stepped foot into some sort of apocalyptical city of sorts. Like a city built upon the remnants of a nuclear fallout or something—there was a book like that she read once, wasn't there? Or was that the movie that Minako roped her into watching that one night? Or maybe it's the folklore told by Rei during one of their sleepovers?

    Not that it matters now.
    ]

    That sounds...sad. Do you know where they went, or is it just a mystery as everything else in this city?

    [ She's contemplating on her own answer like a build-your-own-stories kind of explanation when he tells her that he, too, had only arrived a month prior. He seems to be doing well for himself, with all things considered, and she offers him an apologetic smile in return. ]

    I don't know if my words will mean anything but you seem to be adapted well, at least it seems like that to me, I think that's already pretty impressive.

    [ Maybe she will, too. But that's a thought for another time as she follows him, very eager to leave this eerie part of the park behind.

    Thank goodness.
    ]

    (no subject)

    [personal profile] beanallright - 2023-11-13 04:06 (UTC) - Expand

    (no subject)

    [personal profile] chaossealer - 2023-11-13 15:04 (UTC) - Expand
    saudadist: dnt (Chillin' like a villain)

    A

    [personal profile] saudadist 2023-11-12 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ It's the perfect setting for a horror movie indeed. And in a horror movie, who better to sneak up behind you than a doppelganger of the most infamous movie ghost in Japan? Albeit, with pink hair as opposed to pitch black.

    Because Lucy sure does skulk out from behind a row of shelves looking like the specter of death in the flesh. What with the pale skin, her hair over her face, and such. ]


    Where did you find the cake?
    chaossealer: (cosmos0440)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-12 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ Usagi's just minding her own business, aimlessly walking around, trying to find something that seems to resemble her own world when someone comes up behind her, causing her to screech extremely loudly. In fact, she's so completely caught off guard that she drops her Castella cake, It falls through her hands and drops to the ground, cake side first. ]

    My cake! [ Her lips wobble at the sight of her now-deceased cake and she mourns the loss of the delicious treat. A true tragedy, indeed. She whips her head in the direction of the voice and pouts. ]

    Hey, what gives!!

    [ Thankfully, she had the foresight to grab two extra cakes earlier, so at least she has something to eat, still, but it's such a waste of good food. The other girl's question, unfortunately, remains unanswered. ]
    saudadist: (mega concern)

    [personal profile] saudadist 2023-11-13 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
    [ To say she's stunned by the sight before her is an understatement. She hadn't thought she was walking that quietly. Did she really scare this girl that badly? She's equally baffled to see her looking so angry, close to tears, at having dropped one. ]

    Calm down. [ Maybe she should've just kept quiet to begin with. Searching the store without this girl around might've been easier than dealing with this. ] I'm just asking where you found it.
    chaossealer: (inquisitive; more concern)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-13 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
    [ She really should stop crying over spilled milk—which is to say that she should probably stop making a big fuss out of every misfortune she experiences. ]

    O, oh. [ With the initial frustration slowly dissipating with the realization that the girl in front of her had actually asked a question, she realizes that she had probably overreacted. ] Um, I found over in the convenience store two doors to the right.

    [ She points in the direction opposite of where the pink-haired girl is standing. ]

    It's the one with the white racks on the outside of the store. There's a section in the far back of the store that holds food and snacks, and I think there are cookies, Castella cakes, and granola bars there, too.

    [ She pauses for a moment. ] Hold on, I can show you...

    [ And she starts in the direction she was pointing to just earlier, gesturing for the other girl to follow. ]
    saudadist: (Not now)

    [personal profile] saudadist 2023-11-13 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
    [ Lucy nods numbly. She falls into step behind Usagi, but she purposely stays will out of arm's reach of her. There's really no reason not to trust her, but instinct has her maintaining her distance from experience. As long as she's within two meters, she can handle anything she might throw at her all of a sudden. If she does...

    This line of thinking is exhausting. So, she opts to turn her attention to something else. Namely, the empty city around them. ]


    Is this place hell or something?

    [ Not that she's sure this girl would know. She looks about as lost as she does. ]
    chaossealer: (cosmos0433)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-13 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
    [ Usagi pauses mid-step, and for a brief moment, the question catches her off guard. She, does, however, resume walking, although slower, now, and it's apparent she's more preoccupied than before.

    It's a good question. She's never thought to ask herself this question upon her arrival, and despite her own history with the topic, she's never once given it much consideration. She wants to say no, but she can't really tell.
    ]

    Uh, let's not think too negatively— [ It's unsettling for sure, but... ] —maybe it's just abandoned... city...[ Like that's any better.

    Either way, she's standing right in front of the store, now. It's very plain and unassuming. Just...awfully normal-looking.
    ]

    This is the place, Unfortunately, there's no one manning the counter, so...I don't even know when the owner is going to be back...
    saudadist: (So what?)

    [personal profile] saudadist 2023-11-13 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
    [ Sorry Usagi. Thinking negatively is her default. She can't exactly turn it off.

    What she does do is look up at the store curiously. How did she miss this during her earlier walk? She could've sworn she came by this way. She must be misremembering, or perhaps the other her came by here and she missed it. ]


    I...don't think they'll be back. They're all missing.
    chaossealer: (Frustration; unsuccessful)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-13 03:10 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ Usagi could almost feel the goosebumps forming along her arms as the other girl spoke. It almost feels like an undeniable fact, considering how quiet this place is. Not a single soul out there, aside from the two of them. It's like everyone got up and left simultaneously. ]

    Then...these things will just sit on the shelves to...rot? Isn't that such a big waste of food and materials? [ Okay, maybe it's a good thing that she took so many cakes earlier, wouldn't want the food to go bad. ]

    Ugh, I even left some change on the counter, too, I wonder if it will be of any use...

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    miyagimagic: (030)

    A

    [personal profile] miyagimagic 2023-11-12 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ Daniel is pretty used to knowing around what time the new people tend to show up here in the city - and considering he knows that much, he can't help but go to check out the train station, wanting to make sure that there aren't any hurt or very upset newcomers there. His diner is close enough to the station that walking over there is hardly a problem, after all.

    That's how he manages to spot the girl there. A sole teenage girl, standing there eating a Castella cake - and not exactly looking too happy about it.

    Not that Daniel can blame her. He remembers what he looked like when he first arrived, and it sure wasn't much better than that. If anything, it was worse.

    It's why he slowly approaches her, trying to give her - what he hopes is - a friendly smile. ]


    .. hey. You must be new here, right?
    chaossealer: (special; freak out)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-12 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ She's just casually stuffing her face with the cake when she hears someone else approach, and when she looks up at the person in question, she's surprised to see someone who looks, well, friendly enough. Maybe he's one of those people who live here? Well, at least she's not alone, that's for sure. She swallows the cake before speaking. ]

    Yeah! I, uh, just got off the train earlier, it's so weird... [ She pauses, stares down at the Castella cake in her hand then back up at him, and a sudden realization comes to her. Did he know that she just took the cake from one of the open stores over there? Is he the owner? He looks so friendly that maybe he'll listen to her side of the story, or maybe he's just here to tell her that, no, a dollar's worth of change is not enough to cover the cakes she took... ]

    I, I'm sorry I took the cakes without permission, I didn't mean to—well, I did but I was really hungry! I know a dollar isn't enough to cover the cost but I have no other money with me, please forgive me, I swear I'll pay you back!!

    [ Maybe her panicked ramblings will be enough for him to take pity on her...or something. ]
    miyagimagic: (123)

    [personal profile] miyagimagic 2023-11-15 07:31 am (UTC)(link)
    [ Oh, geez. Daniel sure didn't mean to instil this sort of reaction in the girl after approaching her. It makes him look momentarily guilty, but the emotion doesn't last long.

    Not when the amusement is much stronger than that emotion, steadily gaining terrain until it truly shows on his face as he looks at her, the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Nothing can warm Daniel's heart the way teenage antics can. Isn't that why he became a teacher? ]


    Hey, hey, it's fine!

    [ He holds up his hands in front of him, like a gesture of peace. Or, you know, a gesture of not being here to arrest Usagi for her cake crimes. ]

    First of all, that's not my cake, so you're fine. And secondly--

    [ He looks like he's about to say more, but then the man stops instead, shaking his head. ]

    You know, I figure you probably have a lot of questions. If you're really that hungry, my diner's right outside the station. We can sit down there, and I can at least get you something to drink with that cake. [ And it feels a little more cosy to talk there than in this kind of ominous empty train station, he figures. ]
    chaossealer: (Dht7rpT)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-15 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ ...what. Not his cake? Okay, so she pretty much embarrassed herself for no reason, great going, Usagi!! She attempts to take her little panicked ramblings and sweep them under the rug...ever...so...slowly. Let's forget it ever happened... ]

    Thank you...

    [ He doesn't seem too put off by her behaviour earlier so she's going to assume he's not one of the store owners here, but before she can voice her thoughts, he's already indicated that he does, in fact, own a diner nearby. Not in the station, thank goodness, but the whole thing is a still little strange! ]

    Wait, you own a diner? Is there anything else I can eat— [ Usagi then realizes that he did say that he owned a diner, which means yes, there's food. ] —I mean, yes, please! It's so kind of you to offer...

    ...wait, do I owe you anything? I know I'm not supposed to dine and dash, but I really don't know how anything works around here and there's pretty much no one around...

    [ And then: ] Oh, sorry, I'm Usagi Tsukino, thank you again for your help...
    miyagimagic: (077)

    [personal profile] miyagimagic 2023-11-19 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
    You won't owe me a thing, Usagi. [ He smiles as he says it - hoping it comes across as friendly and sincere enough that she might be able to feel a little bit more at ease.

    Instead he gestures, like he's asking for her to follow him, and then starts walking. First out of the train station building, onto the square the exit leads out onto. There's already a kind of diner-like place visible on one side of the square, and it does seem to be the one Daniel was talking about, since he starts leading her in that direction. ]


    My name is Daniel, Daniel LaRusso. [ Hey, she offered her name, so offering his own in turn is the least he could do, right? ] I was in your position a few months ago, so-- trust me, I get that it's all kind of confusing and overwhelming at first.
    chaossealer: (determination; fierce)

    Can I take this as canon for when I have Usagi drop by the Welcome Diner later?

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-20 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
    [ She scratches the back of her neck sheepishly—he's so kind, almost like Makoto. Both of them are great chefs as a bonus feature! ]

    Aww, that's so sweet, thank you! [ And with that, she goes along with him, following behind Daniel. It's better than going off on her own and perhaps walking around the same block twice... ]

    Oh, nice to meet you, Mr. Daniel! And ugh, I guess everyone goes through the same thing, huh? But I think with you here as a guide, I don't think people who come to this city will have any issues—I mean, with you helping out the newcomers, that is!

    [ It's here that she decides that she likes to do what he does, helping others—although she'll steer clear of the kitchen. ]

    You know, I want to do what you do—not cooking, I'm terrible at it, but I want to make sure others are okay and give them assurance that they're not alone!
    miyagimagic: (043)

    oh, yes, absolutely!! i'm okay with it! c:

    [personal profile] miyagimagic 2023-11-24 03:57 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ He laughs a little bit as they walk. Nothing bad, and certainly not in the sort of way where he's laughing at her or anything. It's just.. Usagi seems like such an earnest and kind kid, it's a good thing to see.

    Maybe slightly less so because it means a kind kid like her is trapped in this awful place, but unfortunately there's very little to be done about that at this point. Daniel is well aware of it. ]


    Ah, really? You're awfully sweet, if you've only just showed up here and you're already thinking about that. [ It's a compliment, honest! Just don't mind the way the man still looks a little amused, Usagi's just got a great attitude. ] You should probably focus first on settling in here yourself, but if you end up wanting to help out at the diner, I absolutely don't mind. We've got quite a big group of volunteers who come in from time to time to help out the new people.

    [ And she sure seems enthusiastic already. ]
    chaossealer: (ucyAT7I)

    [personal profile] chaossealer 2023-11-30 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
    [ Being brought to a new place is hard, whether or not the adaptation is immediate or not. Usagi knows that there's always some sort of period where people struggle to come to terms with something new, whether it be newfound knowledge, new surroundings, or new memories. Sometimes it can be difficult to embrace change, she thinks, but it definitely does help if one has some sort of help along the way. Everyone deserves someone there to help them, and if she can be that person, then she thinks it's all worth it.

    She giggles and speeds up a little to walk alongside him.
    ]

    Well, not everyone adapts the same way, but I think everyone deserves someone to be there for them, right? It will be pretty sad otherwise, right? [ After all, she enjoys seeing others happy. ] Either way, you're right, I should probably get myself situated and then go to help others—I can't give them the help they need if I can't even help myself, right?

    [ She gives him a thumbs up. ] I'll most definitely come by to volunteer once I get used to the place, it won't be too good for newcomers if I can't even give him proper directions, right?

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