A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty–there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway–it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed–the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the west of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. The kiosk is not currently operational, but you may want to remember its location...
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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A WASH, ANYONE?
The coin laundromat is tucked into the first floor of one of the tall apartment buildings. Soap is complimentary, and while the machines say that they cost a quarter per load, in reality they are fully operational without any money being exchanged at all. If you have any clothes that need a wash, perhaps items that have been dirtied by your explorations (or your travels before arriving in the city), you may want to take this opportunity to wash them for free.
From the soap dispenser, you can retrieve packets of detergent in different strengths. There's plenty of stock of for mild to moderate grime and for heavy-duty stains, but there are also a handful of packets with slightly less obvious purposes. For things remembered, says one. For unhappy accidents, says another. Feel free to use whichever seems most suited to your needs.
When your laundry cycle has ended, the buzzer sounds and the door pops open so the clothing can be retrieved. You grab a laundry basket and reach in to start pulling fabric out of the machine by the handful. But wait a second–the more clothing you retrieve, the less familiar the items seem, and by the time you've retrieved the last bundled sock from the depths of the dryer you're absolutely positive: These clothes don't belong to you.
You're sure that you put your own clothing into the machine, but these are someone else's clothes entirely. Did someone sneak in while you weren't paying attention and swap out your laundry? Or did you accidentally open up the wrong dryer to retrieve the wrong load? Maybe you'd better look around at whoever else is in the laundromat with you and have a go at trying to find the owner of these clothes.
Whether the characters have had their clothing swapped or simply opened the wrong machine to grab someone else's laundry is up to the player's imagination, but one thing's for sure: you have someone else's clothes in your basket. Maybe these are clothes that belong to another character in the laundromat, or maybe they're garments that belong to someone that character knew back home. Players are encouraged to mess around with the premise and use it to get to know other characters!
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COME ONE, COME ALL...
Have you ever noticed that flickering sign hanging in the window of that little building around the corner from the parking lot? The one that says PSYCHIC READINGS in bold neon lettering?
You step inside the shop and immediately smell a powerful combination of aromas: herbs, candles, incense, something spicy and warm underneath. It's a small space, cluttered with objects. A crystal ball covered in velvet sits in the center of a table, and there are tarot card sets and drawers full of dried herbs and flowers. On the shelves are various remedies with labels printed so neatly it's impossible to tell whether they're typed or handwritten. Headaches, or hemophilia, and also irascibility and fits of sighing. There are also jars full of less easily-identifiable contents, but a close examination may show you frog legs, fish eyes, rat tails. For some reason, it feels like sticking your hand in one of these jars might not be the best idea.
Toward the back of the shop is a glass case that holds the bust of a woman. As you approach, your movement triggers a light inside the case to illuminate the woman's face–or where her face would be, if she had one. The normal human features of her face are smoothed out until they barely resemble a face at all, with slightly hollowed divots for eyes and a faintly raised bump for a nose. The closer you get, though, the more strongly you feel that despite the absence of eyes, the woman is indeed watching you.
The lettering at the top of the case states FORTUNE TELLER, and a sign affixed to the front of the glass says, Ask for anything, but be careful what you wish for.
You form a question in your mind, then ask your question out loud. The woman shifts, straightening up, and you hear the faint whirring of clockwork and pneumatics moving inside her. She gathers her hands in front of her, cupping them like she's holding water, and strange light emanates from her palms, casting harsh illumination on the blank space where her face should be. Although she has no mouth with which to speak, you nonetheless hear a vaguely female voice intone, "Your fate has been read."
A paper slip emerges from a slot in the front of the case, your freshly-printed fortune, the ink barely dry.
Although the crystal ball will not actually show the future, characters with any kind of herbal knowledge may clock that the herbs and remedies in the drawers and shelves of the shop are legitimate. Characters can ask anything they want of the fortune teller, or make as many wishes as they like. They'll get as many fortune slips as correspond to the number of questions they ask. Players are encouraged to come up with whatever vaguely-accurate fortunes you think work for your character, but if you're low on ideas, you can always try an online Magic 8 Ball or fortune cookie generator.
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WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
citylogs2023-06-01 12:00 am
millions knives — trigun stampede
cw: violence
PARK
WILDCARD
TRAIN STATION
[ objectively, eddie's having a shit day. it's gotten better, but really the only way is up when you've got demonic, other-dimensional bats trying to tear you limb from limb and eat you alive.
when he'd lost conciousness, he'd thought that was it. the big goodbye? sweet bliss of nothingness.
the train is a surprise.
if hell is a train station with phones you can carry in your pockets, smaller than the giant car phones people who make wayyyyyy more money than eddie's ever seen have. well. fuck. he's glad he's here. and he's got all his limbs. fuck YEAH. this is going pretty good for dying as a wanted criminal in the alternate dimension of a town that hates him.
it's on the up and up until he's walking through that train station, minding his own goddamn business when he's assaulted. it's -- a whole lot like being home. the in your face screaming thing. except jason's not here and the guy's blond, sure, but not anyone that eddie knows from hawkins. nope.
he scrambles against the hold the guy has on him, tries to push off his hand with fingers clawing at his wrist. but eddie's a string-bean; even if he's got some muscle on his arms from jamming on the guitar. unhelpfully, he doesn't know where this is. what he can think of is the name of a place. ] I don't know, man! CHICAGO OR SOMETHING!!!
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( he doesn't recognize the name as a city in no man's land. it unsettles him. if eddie expects his answer to free him, then he will be quickly disappointed. knives' grip on him tighten, his displeasure written clear across his face. he won't be placated by such an irresolute response.
does he take him for a fool? )
Is that your final answer? ( the threat resonates clearly in his tone of his voice, his tolerance frayed at the seams. )
park
Faust.
( Simple, soft spoken… As if that’s the only introduction needed for her. As if it’s supposed to mean something to absolutely anyone. As if she’s not completely obnoxious, or at least as if she doesn’t care even if so.
She doesn’t seem to feel as though she needs to elaborate, either. She moves forward a few steps, closer to the stranger, taking out her phone to make a few notes on it silently.
Once finished with that, she lowers it again and looks over to Knives almost expectantly. She definitely totally introduced herself, so it’s only fair he respond in kind? Right? )
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he doesn't conceal his distaste at the sight of her nor does he bother to process the name she's given him. instead, he watches her as she pulls out her device and types into it. his eyes narrows in suspicion, so when she finally looks back up at him, he directs her with a question rather than the introduction she expects from him. )
What did you just do? ( it's clear what he means by the steadfast set of his gaze on her phone. )
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Faust is taking notes.
( A rare concept for her, but not one she necessarily dislikes, or one she's going to admit is different. )
In an unfamiliar region, gathering data is important even for one who knows all. Are you unfamiliar with the outdated phone placed upon our persons?
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his interest lies solely with the so-called data she's gathering, specifically the one she wrote after chancing upon him. saying knives' trust in humans isn't high would be an understatement. he would sooner eliminate a potential threat to mitigate his suspicion than waste his time guessing motives.
fortunately, enough time has passed for violence to not be his immediate go-to answer. )
What notes did you just take?
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Information on the foliage in the immediate area, such as specific numbers and variation in genus, approximate age and time of year in relation to the cycles of growth, and relative aesthetic pleasantness.
( Why that last one. She looks from her own phone to Knives again. )
Seeing as you hold yourself with at least some relative competency, Faust would not mind sending you this information, should you desire it.
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he doesn't find her pattern of speech irksome. in fact, she may even prove useful. )
Send what you have compiled to me, along with any future discoveries. I'm interested in your findings.
( her data will confirm just how competent and credible she is as well. )
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Park
He has the heart but. But. But. This isn't how it should be. His little brother. Being alive without him, beating his heart without him and breathing without him. It's not right. The silence of the city is too loud. The people are too much. It's all too much, but at least the park is muffled.
Sheltered.
Isolated, for the most part. Sure, he has never seen trees or grass, but even in its unfamiliarity it's better than the streets and trains.
And maybe, just maybe, there is something to eat here. Unlike Knives, he has a constant, greedy hunger that gnaws at him constantly. And so, he is hunting, for any such critter he can sink his teeth into. Anything will do, rotten or not. He needs something.
He startles briefly when he hears Knives's voice and stands up slowly from his crouched permission, frowning seriously at him. ]
There is no name to give... who are you?
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he cares little for names, especially those belonging to a human. they hold neither value nor insight to the individual — a worthless gesture. but in all honesty, even if the man had given him a more elaborate introduction, knives only cares that he has disrupted his respite. )
No business of yours. ( steel blue eyes regard him icily. ) Be on your way. ( a generous pardon. )
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I am hunting. I do not need to listen to you.
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( he sounds amused as he spreads his arms out at their surrounding. )
What is there to hunt? I haven't seen or heard a single creature since I've entered these woods. ( his gaze sharpens then. ) Unless what you seek to hunt isn't a beast but ones who have found themselves within this decrepit city.
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[ Oh, this feels far too familiar. He feels his jaw tighten. ]
This place is large enough. You cannot be sure of what is and is not here.
[ The ones who found themselves here? He has already, essentially, been eating the dead but at least they had no chance of humanity anymore. Here? It's different. ]
I am not that desperate and I do not have a weapon.
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( he tilts his head slightly, his eyes fixed on him. )
Setting up traps, perhaps? ( or does he have something else up his sleeves? )
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train station; wtf bruh calm yoself
Nai... ( the name is spoken out in an almost whisper. his eyes widening in fear at first. no. no, why the hell is he here? why knives of all people? vash might have been looking for him back on their home planet, but not here. he hadn't wanted to find him here. the last thing this place needs is someone looking to destroy it. hasn't knives done enough? will his hatred for humanity never end? )
NAI! ( louder now as anger takes over. ) Let. Them. Go. ( he hasn't got anything to defend himself with. what he has in his pocket is... a bar of chocolate. that's it. but he's not gonna run. he's not gonna turn his back on someone who needs his help, someone who needs his protection. )
no
nai was seconds from killing the man, who has yet to provide him with the answer he seeks. at the sound of his brother's voice, however, knives' attention is pulled away, yet rather than acquiesce to the demand, he simply tightens his hold further.
eyes wide and a grin now gracing his partially concealed features, nai angles his head towards vash, spreading his other arm wide in greeting. )
Vash, I didn't expect you to be here as well. ( how delightful. ) I'm in the middle of something, so our reunion will have to wait.
( he's in the middle of choking a bitch out, as one does. 💁♂️ )
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Run! Just get out of here! ( is what he yells out to the person, keeping his hold on knives, his hand finding purchase in that "security blanket" of his, pushing him back to the ground as he manages to sit up, keeping his knee pressed on knives' back, using his weight to keep him down. look, he's at a severe disadvantage here having lost his prosthetic arm. )
You're not hurting anyone else. I won't let you. ( big words for someone who's never been able to save anyone whenever knives is on a murder spree, but he's done being afraid, being weak. not after what happened recently. knives could have just taken the damn plants, but he had to destroy everything. )
Nai... We're somewhere else. This isn't the world we know. Things are different here. You need to stop. ( he's had the opportunity to meet some of the other folks here, and they might not take too kindly to his brother being a piece of shit. plus, a big part of him still cares for knives, still wants to save him somehow, to pull him back from this downward spiral he's been on ever since they were kids. he doesn't get his hatred for humanity. he doesn't understand why he can't see that they all need each other to survive. that the actions of one group of people can't possibly justify the annihilation of the entire human race. )
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slammed onto the ground, anger immediately flares up within him, ignited by yet another jarring sense of betrayal from his own twin. so misguided, so blinded — an utter fool who continuously chooses to defend and protect those who wouldn't hesitate to kill him if it meant their own survival.
it would be far too easy for knives to retaliate right now, to unleash his array of monomolecular blades and meet violence with violence. he could even plunge one straight through that worthless pest who has prompted vash to tackle him. it wouldn't be hard. it might even assuage him a little.
but he doesn't want to fight vash. he has no reason to fight him.
if vash is waiting for nai to lash out, his retaliation never comes. instead, he'll hear a dispassionate voice coming from beneath him, after a significant pause. )
Are you going to keep kneeling on me? He's gone, isn't he?
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but this... the fact he'd managed to subdue his brother for the first time ever has him sorta reeling. vash can't help the small smile that appears on his face because it sure feels like there's... hope? did he get through to him somehow? )
Sorry. ( a mumbled, but sincere apology. he really hadn't wanted anyone to get hurt. not the person he'd saved. not even millions knives. ) Nai. Are you okay? ( he shifts to get back on his knees and he reaches for knives, offering him a hand as he's moving to stand up. the last time he saw his twin, he'd shot at him. that's something else he regrets. something else he wishes he hadn't been forced to do. so, this... seems like an improvement, right? )
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train station
And now his life is being threatened, which isn't very uncommon, but he usually at least expects it coming. ]
Can't sp -- [ How can he speak if he's being choked? Honestly, is this guy an idiot? If Megumi could speak, he would definitely be saying that out loud right about now (which wouldn't work in his favour, but whatever).
Anyway, even if he did know the name of this place, in his pettiness, he doesn't want to dignify Knives' question with a real response. When prying the man's grip on him is futile, he kicks at his chest a few times, and then clasps his own fingers together, making the shadow puppet of a dog for ... no discernable reason. Nothing happens. Of course it wouldn't.
So he relies on that other trick he has up his sleeve. Megumi leans back, and he starts to sink into the shadow behind him, even if it's cast over the concrete wall. It won't free him from Knives, but maybe the man will be spooked enough to let go lest he's also pulled in. ]
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if he's surprised by what happens next, knives doesn't show it. his features, however, harden in disapproval as his prey begins to sink into the shadows. instinctually, his hand clamps down on his neck further as two monomolecular wires emerge from his back. they shoot forward to wrap around the boy's arms, blades sinking into flesh. )
Interesting. ( he may continue to descend into the darkness, yet the slight pull of the metallic tentrils are a silent warning of inevitable resistance. ) I advise you stop what you're doing before you lose your arms.
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Briefly, he considers summoning his wildcard; a being he has no question would destroy this man. However, he can't feel that connection to Mahoraga either, so he doesn't even have that.
Even though fighting back would bring him more satisfaction, the only real choice he has is to yield. He doesn't mind dying, but not in this pointless way.
Sighing, the shadow behind him returns to normal, and Megumi opens his palms, a gesture of surrender. ]
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perhaps fortuitously, his little show of power has intrigued knives enough for him to reconsider outright killing him. he has never encountered anyone who could manipulate shadows. with his coils locking the boy's arms in place, knives finally loosens his grasp on his neck. he gives him a moment to catch his breath. if there are others like him within this city, then it's best he prepares himself for it, especially if they prove to be a threat. )
You have quite the unique ability. How did you come to possess it?
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Making small talk? Your blades are in my arms.
[ They aren't sticking into a vital organ at least, but it still hurts, and he's more offended the older man is trying to chat with him while this is going on. Still, now that his airway isn't blocked, Megumi's rather casual about the situation. ]
I was born with this technique.
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