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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citylogs2023-06-01 12:00 am
Kalim Al-Asim | Twisted Wonderland
🐫 Restaurant
[The pleasant smells — something savory, aromatic — lead Kalim over to a restaurant. He follows his nose inside, which is curiously devoid of workers. He waits at the counter for a while before wandering inside the kitchen, and there on the stove… a nice steaming bowl of fried rice! Kalim licks his lips, but it must be for someone else. And besides, it wasn’t made by him or someone he knows, so it might be poisoned.
He wanders back out into the front room where he sighs and declares, quite sadly…]
I’m hungry!
🦚 Apartments
[It’s been a long day of wandering the city and Kalim still isn’t any closer to finding answers about where he is, or why. Where is he supposed to sleep? He’s at an apartment building now, but they must belong to other people. Back home, he wouldn’t have to worry about any of this: someone else would always make sure he was fed and clothed and housed.
It’s been less than a day but it’s lonely, really. He’s determined to find somewhere to sleep, but it’d be so much better if he had a friend.
Then he spots someone slinking out of one of the apartments, and…]
Hi! [He waves his arms energetically.] Is that your place?
🐒 Laundry
[Kalim has, admittedly, never really done laundry by himself before. Back home, he always had someone whose job it was to do it for him. Someone might’ve tried showing him how to do it, but washing machines are weird. They have all these confusing buttons and knobs.
He does manage to get the machine running, though. Kalim watches the clothes tumble and roll, and once they’re clean and dried and finally ready to come out… well, the clothes are pretty neat, but they aren’t his.
Kalim turns to the person next to him.]
Are you missing some clothes? Are these your socks? Oh, or maybe these?
🐘 Wildcard
[Absolutely anything. Throw anything at him and Kalim will probably stumble and it will be beautiful.]
apartment
being called out makes her jump a little and pivot on her heel to the young man, looking not far above his own age at least visibly, and she surveys his odd wear before waving energetically back. ]
Nay! 'Tis not mine, though I hath been told that we may make any own domain! However, this has been already spoken for, and so thou mustn't enter.
[ she will not let an innocent become a trespasser by accident. ]
Doth thou search for one, or hath thee found one already?
no subject
[Kalim has to ponder her words for a moment. The way she speaks reminds him of some of the books they’d read in history class back home, but he doesn’t remember them too well. It’ll be like a game!
If someone told her to make themselves at home, though, then there must be some structure to this odd city. Clearly Kalim merely missed the memo, as he is wont to do. He was just so excited to explore. It’s a relief that the apartments are apparently a free for all. Kalim thought he might have to ask to stay with someone. A total stranger, yes, but surely a fun stranger.]
I am looking for a place to stay, yeah! [Kalim tilts his head in thought.] How do we know which apartments are already taken, though?
[Back home, Kalim was used to bursting into whatever room he wished to occupy. Usually bugging his best friend at night when he couldn’t sleep.]
no subject
[ ... or they could knock. if no one answers, chances are it's not taken. ]
laundry
These? Are you stupid? As if I would ever wear something so distasteful. Go bother someone else!
[She swats the socks away and turns back to her own machine as a ding announces the finished cycle. However, she is soon to discover a similar conundrum. Rifling through the wet clothes, she gets increasingly agitated as items seem less and less familiar. Exhausted, she tosses aside her current armful and twirls on Kalim still loitering nearby, seething.]
Is this a joke? What have you done with my clothes?! What are you, some kind of pervert? Say something!
no subject
[But then the girl is swatting at him, which confuses Kalim for a moment until he thinks: Maybe she likes them so much it embarrasses her! This is understandable. His best friend is the sort of guy who might be shy about admitting that he likes cute things too, especially in public. But there’s no one else in the laundromat, so...]
A pervert? [Kalim stares at her in surprise.] N-no, of course not! Are your clothes missing, too?
[Kalim would never! He glances around the otherwise empty laundromat, as if the culprit might be lurking in the shadows. But as far as he can tell, they really are alone.]
If it’s socks you’re missing, though, I still have these!
[He waves the manatee socks at her.]
cw: underwear
Still gonna play stupid, huh? Hmph, or maybe you really are just an airhead.
[Nanako's thoughts briefly wander to the other big airhead dominating her life recently. She'd definitely like socks like these, they were much more her style. I wonder if...
Flustered, she realized she was spacing out at an inopportune time, forcing thoughts of Kae from her mind with only a mild blush. She prays this stranger doesn't notice.]
A-anyway! What other stuff have you been stealing out of other people's machines? Panties, I bet! I'm stopping this right here!
[So focused on her holy quest that she all but forgets her similar predicament, she nudges him aside (with limited success considering her small size) enough to access his laundry-basket. Most of it is harmless drivel, clearly decoys. But then, at the very bottom of the basket, her face darkens as she finds this.]
W-w-what!?! You! You really are a pervert! S-someone!
[She looks around to realize too late that it is just them two in the laundromat. Taking a slow step back, she braces herself for some inane tangent, a mixture of fear and disgust clouding her features.]
no subject
[Kalim would never steal someone else’s clothes. Especially not those of a stranger! He’s not even sure where he would keep them. Does he seem like the kind of guy to just grab someone’s clothes and shove them in his pockets? Perhaps a collector of fine socks?
He’s still holding up the pair of manatee socks like a trophy — they are quite adorable — so Kalim supposes he might be giving off the wrong impression.]
Really, I didn’t take anything. I’ll help you look. Your stuff must be around here somewhere.
[Clothes can’t just disappear, after all. Unless there’s magic afoot — perhaps the washing machine itself is magic?
Kalim watches, eyes wide, as the girl rifles through his laundry basket. Really, there won’t be anything of interest in there — but then, oddly, there is: a pair of leopard-printed underwear.]
W-what? I don’t know how those got there!
[They do look like something Leona back home might wear. Being a lion man and all. The thought is both amusing and horrifying because this girl really thinks Kalim stole these.]
Honest! My clothes are getting mixed up, and yours are getting mixed up, so — [Kalim gestures to the washing machine] — the machine must be magic! It’s taking our clothes.
[Why? Kalim hasn’t the faintest idea.]
no subject
[Nanako is so taken back by this string of nonsense that she stumbles over her words, trying to make sense of this strange individual's blathering. She begins to doubt any insult she can fling will phase him. Does he even think at all?
She braces herself against a nearby dryer and takes a deep breath, considering her next move:
The target was clearly deranged, but docile. She was unsure if she could prevail in the event of a fight, considering the close quarters, and without her equipment, so best not to provoke him. On the other hand, if she went along with his ramblings, what did she stand to gain? In the event he took a liking to her, the prospect of him tagging along with her was unnerving, and she'd rather avoid that.
Still, that's not a solution. She sighed again, measuring him up. Perhaps he really was harmless? Not conventionally unattractive, unlike her creator. Ugh. Perhaps that's where her aversion to creeps came from...
Oh, rats, she was spacing again! Wondrously, he still seemed bedazzled waving around his weird socks, but best not to let him time to make a move. Time to make a call, and pray it was the right one.]
Y-yes, magic. I suppose that would explain all sorts of things around here. But who would set up such a device, and why? Is there something worth taking from us? A weapon, perhaps?
[Nanako tried to conceal a smirk. She could use his loose tongue in her favor to divulge his employer's intentions, perhaps even their capabilities and armaments. Yes. It was all coming together.]
no subject
I’m not sure who’d set something like this up. [He crosses his arms in thought.] It’s not very nice of them, but at least they aren’t hurting anyone.
[But then Kalim stares at the girl. Mouth agape.]
It wasn’t anything really important to you, was it? The clothes that disappeared?
[Maybe one of the articles of clothing the presumed magical washing machine took was of particular importance. A gift, perhaps: from family, a friend, a lover.]
I’ll get it back for you. We’ll get it back!
[Kalim slips past her to the washing machine in question, opens the door, and leans down to peer inside. It’s dark. Perhaps deeper than Kalim thought a washing machine might be, but he’s never done his own laundry before. Washing machines could be endless, for all he knows.]
Maybe if we ask nicely. [Since this seems more like a prank rather than an attempt to really hurt them. If the washing machine is magic, it might have an arsenal of spells up its sleeve.] I have a magic carpet back home and it is very receptive to positive reinforcement!
[Kalim dips his head inside the still-damp machine, his hands on the rim as he leans in deeper.]
no subject
[Nanako put her head in her hands. There was really no end to his stupidity.
Why? Why was she the only one always stuck dealing with these types?
It was silly to think this person could speak to anyone's agenda. He probably didn't have a plan upon entering this very room, let alone upon embarking on this latest escapade.]
T-that's enough, thank you. Geez, do they not have washing machines where you're from?
[Kalim appears to remain motionless, still groping about inside the machine, assumedly for the remnants of his disjointed sanity, Nanako thinks bemusingly. He certainly won't find it there.
Louder, she reiterates:]
OKAY! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, YOU CAN RETURN TO BASE NOW! HELLOOOO-
[Aggravated at his disregard, whether intentional or not, Nanako tugs on Kalim's waist, who, caught unawares, collapses onto her, pinning her to the floor.]
Guh! What'd you eat for breakfast, a ton of bricks? Though knowing you, it was a ton of socks! Just get off me already, you crazy sock freak!
no subject
[But then the girl tugs him out of the washer, cutting his venture short, and he falls atop her.]
Oops! I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t in any danger, though! [He doesn’t think he was, anyway.] You didn’t have to pull me out. But, oh, I found these!
[Kalim triumphantly holds up a pair of socks with red pandas printed on them. So many socks! It might be the washing machine who loves them.]
Are these what you were looking for?
Restaurant
If you're hungry, why don't you eat something? [He pokes his head into the kitchen and grins at the sight of a steaming bowl of hot spicy soup, left on the counter next to a plate of fried rice.]
Come on. [He beckons to the young man, giving him a friendly smile.] There's some ready to eat food in here, we shouldn't let it go to waste.
no subject
[Kalim doesn't mean to sound ungrateful for whoever cooked the food and conveniently left it atop the counter. It looks delicious, really. And it smells yummy, too. His stomach growls.]
I don't know who made it, so it might be poisoned. People back home were always trying to poison me, so I couldn't eat anything unless it was made by my best friend.
[Kalim crosses his arms in thought.]
And I'm usually not allowed to cook for myself.
[He supposes there's no one to stop him here, though...]
At least not without supervision. Knives are dangerous! But, oh, you should go ahead and eat.
no subject
[Wow, that's pretty bleak.]
That's really too bad. Let me see what I can do... [A moment's search turns up a clean spoon, which Shen Yuan uses to scoop up some of the fried rice and bring it closer to his nose.] Hm...I don't smell any poison... [He pops the spoon into his mouth, eyes widening slightly at the delicious taste.]
Doesn't taste like poison, either. [He smiles, and sets the spoon down on the counter.] But why don't we sit and chat for a few minutes, just to make sure? Don't worry, I'm a martial artist. Even if there is any poison, it won't hurt me.
no subject
Still, the man seems fine so far. And he said the food didn’t smell or taste like poison, so maybe he’s familiar with poison, too. And he’s still alive, at least!]
Oh, yes! [Kalim nods excitably.] Let’s go sit down.
[He heads out into the main room to sit in one of the booth seats, glancing back at the man.]
My name is Kalim, by the way!
no subject
Pleased to meet you, Kalim. My name is Shen Yuan.
[As they sit down together Shen Yuan studies the young man carefully, a gentle smile on his face while he tries to make a couple guesses about Kalim's age, social class, and degree of learned helplessness. Is he very sheltered or kind of a dumbass? Or maybe both?]
Where is it you're from, anyway?
no subject
I’m from the Scalding Sands! It’s mostly desert, but there are a lot of nice cities and towns. Where are you from?
[His smile fades a bit as he looks at Shen Yuan. He glances toward the food.]
And you’re still feeling all right? After eating?
no subject
I'm from a country called China, though I also lived on a mountain called Cang Qiong for several years. And yes --
[He gently pushes the plate of fried rice a little closer to Kalim.]
Would you like to try it now? It's really delicious, but I want to try this nice soup too and I don't think I can eat both.
(no subject)
(no subject)
laundry
she's swinging her legs while seated atop one of the non-working washers, going through the contents of her phone, only wearing a white shirt and her long socks. her clothes are in another washer, still in the middle of the cycle.
at the question, she looks up. ]
Nope!
[ or at least, she's pretty sure she's not missing anything. ]
Aren't they yours if you've put them in the washer?
no subject
[Kalim holds up the pair of socks with manatees printed on them.]
But they're pretty cute, aren't they?
[He puts the socks on his hands and makes his now-socked hand talk to the girl.]
I think the washing machine might be magic!
restaurant
Luffy was just passing by but he couldn't help but feel that pain. He was always hungry, always.
omg it’s Monkey D Luffy, the legend
[Perhaps this man is a local…!]
it is indeed he, chaos incarante but fun chaos lmao
That... sounds mildly concerning but he doesn't seem to find this strange at all.
What kind of food do you like? I'm sure we can find something! I like everything but Sanji's cooking is definitely the best.
no subject
[How convenient. It seems promising, but Kalim isn’t sure. Not yet.]
Hmm, I like a lot! Anything with coconut. Coconut rice, coconut chicken…
[His stomach rumbles.]
Not curry, though.