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.
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
WHO COUNTS THE MONEY UNDERNEATH THE BAR?
One average night on a normal city block somewhere in the city, spotlights burst to life to light up a windowless, five-story building. Several neon signs adorn the front, some with arrows and some with animated music notes, all proclaiming KARAOKE in their own variety of fonts and colors. For those who venture through the front doors, they'll find themselves transported into a lobby covered floor to ceiling in black-and-white checkers. Down the many hallways, up the stairs, and all around are private rooms with padded velvet doors, each with a porthole window at eye level for anyone interested in watching those who may already be inside.
This isn't your average basement-level dive with sticky floors, nor the common scene of a karaoke machine set up in the corner of a bar on Tuesday night. This is serious karaoke where each room has a wall dedicated to a television and sound system. Other than that one constant, however, every room is different from the last. This place not only specializes in private karaoke rooms, but it also themes each and every one individually. On the wall opposite the karaoke set up is some kind of seating—U-shaped couches, leather armchairs, cinema seats, an outcropping of foam rocks, or maybe chairs sculpted to look like giant hands. There is of course some kind of appropriate mood lighting, like maybe a disco ball or pulsing rainbow strobe lights.
There are themes that one might expect to see, things that are common for birthday parties (or upscale love hotels). One room is painted like the inside of a medieval castle with a turret in each corner and paintings of dragons flying in the sky beyond the walls; another room is is covered floor to ceiling in a jungle mural full of wildlife peeking out from between the leaves, real vines hanging down from the ceiling; one of the larger rooms has a jacuzzi sunken into the floor with detailed coral reef seating sculpted into the walls and an underwater scene swimming across the LED ceiling.
Perhaps most importantly, the music in the extensive catalog is REAL recognizable from a wide variety of worlds! You'll definitely recognize songs you sang as a child, or perhaps as an adult if you were an idol—the sky's the limit here and only here, so get in all that fun nostalgia. There is one problem, however, and that's the fact that you can't find a catalog of available songs…
Of course, it wouldn't be karaoke without alcohol. Back in the lobby and to your right, you'll find a room full of self-serve drink coolers, their clear doors displaying the various wares such as beers, canned cocktails, mini liquor bottles, and a wide range of other non-alcoholic beverages. There are several snack vending machines as well with individual buttons that will serve guests free bags of chips, chocolate bars, gummy candies, and more.
The majority of the rooms in the karaoke building are totally normal and non-threatening, ready for residents to come and have fun on their own or with a group of friends. Any theme can be assumed as long as it isn't based on a specific IP: generic space is fine, but not a specific Star Wars planet with characters pictured, and a topsy-turvy wonderland is fine as long as Alice isn't featured specifically.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
WHO RIDES THE WRECKING BALL INTO OUR GUITARS?
Of course, not all of the rooms are decorated with inviting themes. Perhaps one that you stumble across looks more like a bleak surgery theater than a place to get drunk and belt your heart out. Another room looks like a butcher's shop with cured meats hanging from the ceiling that looks hauntingly realistic, and not all from animals. Still more are perhaps just hauntingly dark rooms straight out of the past with faded photographs hanging askew on peeling wallpaper. These rooms are still stocked with all the right equipment for a night of singing off-key, but the settings are much more… eccentric.
There's one thing we forgot to mention—while there is music from all worlds to be found, not every room is stocked with a catalog of the tracks available. Be it one of the creepy rooms or a totally normal room, you may find yourselves randomly pushing buttons just to find something to sing to. Unfortunately, there's more than pop music and rock ballads available. Eerie chanting in unfamiliar languages may start pouring out of the speakers, or a cacophony of screams and wails in place of music. These ear-splitting tracks will draw someone's attention, and banging on the door won't cease until you open it only to find that the hallway beyond is empty.
Perhaps most terrifying of all, at least for the shy friends who tagged along to be an audience member, is the fact that the doors will remain locked until everyone inside has sung at least one song. No matter how flat or sharp or completely toneless you may be, you've got to sing your heart out in order to get let out.
As previously mentions, any theme can be found, including the creepy ones. Again, no recognizable media properties will be featured, so go for a generic serial killer room rather than Jason's specifically.
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!
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citylogs2024-02-01 08:42 pm
TDM QUESTIONS.
As a reminder, TDM top-levels should only be posted by potential new characters. Existing characters are encouraged to tag in, but should not top level; however, players may use the TDM prompts for catch-alls in the log comm.
Please include your character's name and character's canon in the subject line of your top level. Happy TDMing!
Jessica Hamby | True Blood
lost your balance on a tightrope
"You are going to be so sorry when I get an eatin' disorder!"
Those were the last words Jessica spoke in a childish fury, denied again to eat properly by Bill. She stood behind the door waiting for the satisfying slam which never came. A blink and she’s sitting on a subway train. She’s still in her blood-orange dress and red shoes, and in her hand is a cell phone. It looked one similar to the one she stole from the limo driver. She hesitated in doing this orientation but what the hell.
After completing it she got off the train and explored the City Hall station. She looked through the various stores, calling out the same names over and over again. “Sookie? Bill!” She checked her phone and saw none of any familiar names.
With no response after several frustrating minutes, Jessica had to face the fact they aren’t here. It didn’t take long for her to realize it was daytime - her body felt like it was getting the crud and worse, her eyes and ears started to bleed out. Gross. She had to find a room to sleep away the day. The stores were filled with food and other things, but no workers. Restaurants were equally empty. Ducking her head to avoid anyone seeing her bloody face, Jessica fled to an empty restaurant and went into bathroom to clean up her face.
these days I haven’t been sleeping
Figuring that it would be stupid for her to talk to anyone while she’s like this - weakening and hungry - maybe she should get into a manager’s office and stay there until it’s dark.
Certain no one had followed her, she slipped out to the bathroom and found an office next to the kitchen. Not noticing the lack of paperwork in the office, Jessica sat down on the floor behind the desk and closed her eyes. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep.
Although should someone enter the office as she slept, they would find not a sleeping girl but a corpse, pale and still.
AFTER DARK (tw; blood, hunger, possible vampire shenanigans, dead bodies, dead body nudity)
in a big city they just dropped me off
The moment the sun died Jessica was quick to leave the subway station. There are people around but for once she was feeling too skittish to really want to reach out. The emptiness of the city spooked her, like she’s trapped in a ghost town. The feeling reminds her of the time she was kidnapped by vampires to be turned, even though it’s completely unrelated.
She didn’t find any Tru Blood in the subway station so Jessica went to a grocery store to find some. Granted she wasn’t expecting any but here they are in the refrigerated food aisle - except it wasn’t in bottles but in blood bags. Some were labeled as disingenuously as “animal” but others labeled “synthetic”. It made her wonder if there’s a store that can give human blood in blood bags, or if she’s just going to have find some poor sucker to feed off of.
Figuring that’s something she can work out another time, she grabbed the bags with synthetic blood. It’ll taste as shitty as TruBlood but it’s something. After dumping the fifth bag into her shopping cart she realized she’s being watched. She looked up and saw someone. “What are you staring at?” Jessica barked before grabbing her shopping cart for a quick getaway.
our song is the slamming screen door
The karaoke sign drawn Jessica like a moth to a lightbulb. She’s hoping for some people here, obviously, but after spending two weeks in a vampire bar she’s more than drawn to the lights, the songs, the dances - god, the dances. She never danced in her life, and now she’s dead…she can do whatever she wanted.
Which was why the first thing she did was go straight for the screens and try to pick a song…Except she couldn’t find the catalog. “What the hell? Where are the songs?”
She let out a frustrated growl and stomped her foot impatiently. “Ugh. This sucks!”
our song is the way he laughs
And of course she had to explore. Had to! Except now she regretted taking in that urge. Open one door and suddenly she’s in a butcher’s shop. At first she thought the bodies were just pigs or cows or whatever…until she noticed a body that’s not skinned and had a pair of big tits that clearly belonged to a wan.
“Oh gross!” Jessica averted her eyes. “That’s so so gross…” Jessica bolted to the door and found it locked. “Fuck!”
WILDCARD
[ Just a wildcard option ;) Just remember your character have to be out at night as Jessica can’t walk in the daylight! ]
lost your balance on a tightrope (vampire, meet werewolf)
There seems to be more emphasis on the name of the latter than the former but he recognizes neither of them. He tails her to make sure she keeps out of trouble, as he is under the distinct impression that she is a new arrival. While Ethan might not know everyone here by name, he is good with faces. He may be a gentleman but her face is not one he would forget.
When she exits the bathroom, he is standing a few feet away with his back turned and an arm extended — with his coat hanging over it — for her to take. The weather is chilly and she has little in the way of protection from it. When he speaks it is quietly in an attempt to reassure her, every word tinged with a southern drawl that clearly compliments his old timey aesthetic. ]
Hey. You alright? I know it’s not as stylish as your dress but it’ll keep you warm.
no subject
Oh! Hi.
Being undead she can’t feel the cold, but she’s touched by consideration all the same. What stops her from taking it is the familiar trickle of blood going out of her ears and the corners of her eyes. Immediately she wipes away the blood away but only succeeds in making a bloody smear. Ugh, so embarrassing, and the man looks handsome too…
Sorry about this, I’m sorry, it’s gross, I know. So dumb.
in the big city
"You," she says, simply. Her accent's noticeably British. "You're new."
no subject
no subject
Presumably it happens less in America because they have such terrible public transport.
no subject
Spoiler alert, Jessica: Texas do have trains.
robin buckley / stranger things
( one minute, slinging pb&j’s at a makeshift crisis shelter. the next, on a train with a weird little device prompting her to take an orientation.
robin would like to say she's used to the bizarre and unexplainable by now but this? this is too much, even for a girl who's dipped her toes into alternate dimensions.
she wants to be cool. she wants to sound confident and tough and like the kind of person who wakes up on a train she definitely doesn't remember boarding and brushes it off as nothing, but she's so, so terrified. anxiety has seeped its way into her bones, puppeteering her every movement. she’s jittery, a little like a caught rabbit just waiting for her captor to make themselves known.
but it can't be vecna, she reminds herself. they'd hurt him. bad. it can't be vecna.
(but it really feels like it could be)
the station is actually pretty normal? which ups the creepy factor, funnily enough. the lack of people doesn’t help. still, she soldiers on, forcing herself to walk until movement up ahead has her ducking into one of the abandoned stores.
think, robin. she needs a weapon, so she grabs the most solid thing within reach — a two-liter bottle of soda. okay. not the most convenient thing, but it'll do.
she clutches it firmly in both hands and ducks behind the nearest shelf. )
Hello?
( people always wonder how long they'd last in a horror movie. robin's seen enough to know that announcing your intentions is the second best route to take if you're looking to die, but she can't stop herself. )
Listen, before you come any closer, I just think you should know that I'm armed and if this thing hurts as much as I think it's going to, you're going to be supremely screwed and seriously wishing you'd walked away. Okay?
( what's the best way to hit someone with a soda? club them? shake it up and spray them in the eyes? she'll figure it out in the next thirty seconds, if she has to. )
cemetery;
( after that initial shock fades a touch, robin goes wandering. there's a lot to see. most of it seems perfectly normal but she can't deny the underlying sense of something deeply unsettling, even if she can't quite put her finger on it.
her exploration eventually brings her to the cemetery. she finds very quickly that she likes it better here than anywhere else she's been so far because it's normal when a graveyard is creepy. nobody walks onto hallowed ground and thinks “gee, it sure is weird i’m getting the heebie-jeebies right now.” she can almost pretend things aren't so messed up here. said heebie-jeebies are justified. welcomed, even.
at least at first. it's not long before a tombstone catches her eye. the name is almost illegible, but what she could've sworn it said gives her chills. it's enough to draw her closer, and she squats to get a better look.
it could say henry creel. it could also say hubert cramp, or maybe holly something. she squints, tracing her fingers over the faint lettering. now that she's really looking at it, that might not be an “h” at all.
before she can decide, footsteps from somewhere behind her snap her out of her focus but she doesn't dare look. not just yet. )
I really hope you're the cryptic old groundskeeper here to impart your wisdom, ( she says, projecting the cool confidence she'd been unable to find back at the station. she balls her hands into fists but otherwise doesn't move. ) Otherwise it's totally not cool sneaking up on someone in a cemetery.
( only then does she risk a peek over her shoulder. )
karaoke (the normal-ish version);
( there’s something frankly dystopian about going to something as mundane as karaoke in the middle of a city that seems empty apart from a collection of kidnapping victims but curiosity draws robin in. she’s never done anything like this before. she’s too young to have been to any of the karaoke nights at the local bars back home and hawkins, indiana isn’t exactly the kind of town to have a fancy karaoke joint like this one.
at least she’s not alone in here. exploration feels marginally less intimidating when you have a friend-slash-stranger-whatever with you.
poking around is almost more fun than the prospect of singing. this place is undeniably cool, with each room more fantastic than the last. disco balls, dinosaurs, a victorian sitting room… robin wants to dive headfirst into each and every one of them. eventually she stumbles upon a room that looks like it's straight from every fantasy she’d ever had – the ones where she runs away from hawkins and goes backpacking through europe, sees the world, lives off croissants and orangina, the whole nine yards.
she spins around to face her companion with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. )
Okay, so, objectively? I know that karaoke is among the last things anyone should be doing in a traumatic situation but – ( she can't help but grin as she jerks her thumb over her shoulder ) – the room behind me looks like it was pulled straight out of a seedy dive bar in Paris and I'm pretty sure I hear Madonna so… what do you say?
karaoke (the creepy version);
( but apparently even something this innocuous can get real weird real quick here.
robin would be lying if she said she wasn’t drawn into this room precisely because of the cheesy haunted house vibes emanating from it. the thing is, she’d been expecting, like, some silly munsters-themed karaoke extravaganza or something. once in the room the atmosphere turns considerably more creepy. those sound effects are starting to sound a lot less like a halloween tape and a lot more like recordings of actual screams, and the spooky decor is feeling a little like it was never intended to be for fun.
but no big deal, right? she and whoever was unlucky enough to follow her in here can just leave, right?
… right?
wrong. robin jiggles the doorknob.
nothing.
she tries again.
still nothing.
it’s locked.
….
so they’re stuck. this is fine.
she spins around, and slumps so her back is pressed against the door, shooting her companion a worried smile. )
Please tell me you’re hiding a key to this place somewhere because if you’re not I’m going to have to be the bearer of some monumentally terrible news and I really, really don’t want to be.
wildcard;
( wanna do something else? just lmk! you can hit me up here or on plurk at
a kind of wildcardish version of normal karaoke
there's one room that looks like a standard medieval tavern that eddie almost wanders into until he sees a flash of a person shuffle past his peripheral vision, and suddenly, eddie is hit with the genuine feeling of recognition. no, it couldn't be...could it?
this place has used people against him before. eddie knows very well that if he follows this blur of a human and it's not her, he will be left with nothing but hollow disappointment. the curiosity is too much to bear, though, so against his better judgment, he keeps his distance until he stumbles across her destination. she doesn't seem to have noticed it's eddie yet, only that there's another presence with her, and eddie holds his breath because god, she sounds so fucking real and he knows steve is going to flip the fuck out. )
No offense, Buckley, but there is no way you are getting me anywhere near a Madonna song.
( when robin spins around, she'll see eddie just as she might remember him before stumbling across dustin crying over his body. his injuries have healed about as much as they're going to, though other than the scar on his cheek, most are hidden below a couple layers of clothing, most notably his trusty leather jacket. )
no subject
see, if it is she'll have to try to rationalize how he's standing there, alive. she'll have to contend with the fact that she might be dead, too, or perhaps worse: it might be vecna after all.
the grief is still so raw — obviously, it's only been a few days since he'd died —and it could just be that this place is playing tricks on her. she'd heard her parents say before that losing someone could do that to you, make you hear things that aren't there, that sort of stuff. if she comes face-to-face with nothing at all and this little flicker of hope-slash-dread is snuffed out as quickly as it had ignited she doesn't know what she'll do.
eddie was one of the weird kids, just like her, and he deserved so, so much more than what he was given in his short life. she wants it to really be him, more than anything, but that isn't really how death works, is it?
or maybe it is, because when she finally turns to face him, slow and deliberate, she almost can't believe her eyes. that's eddie munson. he looks a little worse for wear, yeah, but there's no doubt in robin's mind that it's him. )
Eddie. ( his name comes out as a funny sort of half-gasp, half-sob as her voice breaks. ) You're... you.
( there should be alarm bells. she should backing up, putting space between them, trying to determine if it's really, really eddie or a weird copy or a hallucination or whatever else. (he's healed more than he should be after so few days. that's weird, right?) she should have her guard up so high an onlooker wouldn't be able to tell if she'd even ever met the guy before. instead, she's throwing her arms around him before she can stop herself. )
no subject
he doesn't want to think of that possibility. he kind of had a feeling that ending up here probably meant he didn't make it. instead of fixating on his likely untimely demise, he wraps his arms around robin, letting himself relax while simultaneously squeezing her tight. outside of will and steve, he can't say he expected to see anyone else from hawkins, but out of everyone else, that could have possibly ended up here? he's selfishly glad it's robin and not one of the kids. and even more selfishly, she's not nancy. )
Yes, I'm me, ( he jokes, making light of the whole situation. ) Bet you're real glad you got stuck here now, eh?
no subject
Jessica is starting to freak out a little. It’s why she nearly jumped out of her skin when a girl close to her age starts threatening her with a two-liter soda bottle. She jerks back in surprise. ]
Holy shit!
[ Then she realizes what is going on. ]
Did you just threaten me with a soda bottle?
[ Hang on. ]
Wait. Did you come out of the train too?
cemetery (because why not)
[ At the second statement he raises both hands in a show of both surrender and to let Robin know he is unarmed — which is not entirely true, he has a set of knives hidden in his coat, but they certainly are not for her. ]
Tell me about it, someone snuck up on me when I first arrived and I nearly attacked them for it. Someone lingering in a graveyard though, did I really sneak up on you if I was unaware you were here?
[ Ethan looks like he was plucked right out of an old Wild West flick, right down to the southern accent and empty gun belt resting at his hips, and a few careful steps take him close enough for him to take a gander at the headstone she is observing. Mindful of those balled up fists, he keeps some distance between them. ]
As for the wisdom bit, maybe, I’ve been here for about five months. The name is one you recognize, right? On the grave.
normal-ish karaoke adjacent
He decides to take a look by himself first, knowing that coming with Eddie would be distracting and that it's better to scope out places in this city rather than run in wide-eyed and gullible. Already he can hear a few people singing different songs when he's just inside the lobby, disjointed but faint thanks to some soundproofing. ]
This place looks like a nightmare. [ Mumbling to himself as he takes in the garish decor and freaky themes of the rooms he passes, Steve keeps an eye out for something... welcoming? Was that too much to ask for? Maybe all of the rooms with friendlier themes were those already occupied, leaving behind only those decorated with what he hopes is just a lot of red paint rather than the alternative.
Just as he's getting ready to leave, he hears a familiar song begin in an even more familiar voice. Whipping his head around, he starts running in the direction of the room and doesn't even bother knocking before he flings the door open and looks around wildly. ]
Robin?
Tsugaru Shinuchi | Undead Murder Farce
[While Shinuchi certainly spent an above average time wandering around in the train station, once he's out, he's on the hunt for information, and certainly a building emblazoned with the words TOURIST CENTER is a safe bet? However unwittingly, he certainly could be described as a tourist.
Of course, once inside, all provided information is incredibly lacking. Tsugaru flips through the woefully nondescript pamphlets, even taking a picture or two with his newly acquired phone. If he notices someone else has entered the room, he'll offer them a hapless grin.]
Ah, do you have any idea what's going on here? I'm afraid I'm not too good at mystery solving without my Master. This strange little device is pretty useful for gathering clues, at least!
[He's got what could almost be described as Golden Retriever energy, but there's just something ever so slightly off about it.]
Finding Familiar Food in an Unfamiliar Place
[After a fair shake at figuring out the problem at hand, surely he's earned a rest? Certainly neither Aya or Shizuku are here to tell him otherwise. Would one become hungrier after the frustration of encountering a complete lack of leads, or would making progress whet the appetite? Difficult to say. Of course Shinuchi is unsurprised to see the first restaurant he walks into empty as everywhere else, but if no one is here, surely they won't mind a bit of pilfering? If there's anything left to pilfer.
Of course, once he heads into the back, he discovers something unexpected;]
Ah- Gyudon! That's gyudon, isn't it!? In a Western looking city like this, even!
[He dashes over to the food, complete with pickled ginger and scallions, steam from the rice bowl wafting up temptingly. Even a simple meal like this felt like treasure when he hadn't seen Japanese style cooking in over a year. But he pauses.]
Isn't there a story from somewhere about getting trapped somewhere after eating the food? If I eat this Gyudon am I going to be stuck here forever? If I'm going to do that it should at least be something a bit more upmarket, I think.
[He'll only sell his soul for some rich people food.]
I'm Rating this Karaoke Bar 0 Stars on Yelp
[While he predates the concept of Karaoke, once Shinuchi had worked out what it entails, he was all for it. It may not be Rakugo, but singing is a performance just as well, and far be it from the Headliner himself to shy away from such a thing! So he's heading into the experience gung ho and ready to expand his repertoire, but wouldn't you know it, his luck ran out when he walked into the spooky surgery suite themed room!
He's locked into place, feeling the cool press of shackles against his limbs, fluorescent glare of the overhead light, back stiff against the operating table-]
The door-
[He mumbles, fumbling for the handle as his arms feel like the belong to someone else for all the control he has over their movements. He doesn't even seem to have clocked that there's anyone else in the room. As the lock holds fast, he sinks to his knees, breathing with the cadence of someone only barely staving off a panic attack.]
Wildcard
[Feel free to reach out to me on Plurk at
Finding Familiar Food in an Unfamiliar Place
Of the few that appeared, he chose to follow this individual from a distance, mostly just to see what kind of personality the man had. He didn't really have any intention to greet the newcomers, but this one—his enthusiasm for food is familiar, but his caution draws out amusement. At least one has some brains. ]
That's right. You'll be trapped here for eternity like the rest of us and made to play pretend at a happy little community. Not interested?
[ The Wanderer has settled against the wall by the door to the back. It's clear by the tone of his voice and expression that he's being partially sarcastic. ]
aaah sorry I genuinely thought I'd tagged this back already!!
There's certainly plenty of things here that I couldn't even dream of back home! Plenty of reasons to want to stay, surely. But even if I was the type to skip out on a deal, I could hardly leave my work with my Master unfinished! So really, I'd rather be able to return home, if you'd please, sir.
[As if this twink is the one in charge.]
Npnp :D
The Wanderer raises an eyebrow at the man. ]
Do I look like the one in charge here? I'm as stuck as you are. There's no way back, as far as anyone knows.
Karaoke bar let's goooo
[He's not the only one in this room - he had wandered in here, earlier, and wouldn't you happen to have it, this guy walked in, too. And it looks like they've been locked in.]
[Vergilius sighs - he almost looks like a haggard decoration, a pale corpse of a man with blazing red eyes.]
[His voice is hoarse as he draws closer.]
Calm down. There should be a way out of here.