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
Nie Huaisang | Mo Dao Zu Shi
[Nie Huaisang had been resting comfortably in his usual guest quarters at the discussion conference at Golden Carp Tower, at least until Wei Wuxian's late night commotion in Jin Guangyao's rooms had drawn him out to investigaate the ruckus. Of course, he'd known perfectly well what the noise had been about; he'd been the one to ensure that there would be noise, after all.
However, all of that is pretty far from his mind when he finds himself waking up in a strange metallic carriage with an equally strange device blinking a message at him in hand. Thankfully, he managed to make the trip with his trademark fan which he clings to now like a child with a security blanket as he tries the gain his bearing and figure out just what this new spiritual tool is trying to ask of him.]
O-Orientation? I-is this a school? Have I been abducted and taken to a school?
[Because that's the real horror scenario here.]
B. Welcome to the Neighborhood
[This city seems awfully empty yet somehow feels like it's been lived in. Rather than be disturbed by it, however, Nie Huaisang is simply curious. The private residence where the main branch of the Nie Clan resides has been empty for many years, leaving him to his own devices and his birds more often than not, unless one of the elders needs him for something. Most of the time, they'd rather not disturb him and let him go his own way. It's not as if he's ever been useful for anything of value to the Qinghe Nie.
Despite the unfamiliar architecture, there's something about this place that almost feels like home. And just like back at home, Nie Huaisang's out for what appears to be sightseeing or a leisurely stroll.]
Good day. How are you settling in?
[He greets those he encounters with a polite, easy smile as if he belongs here and from the archaic way he's dressed, clearly he doesn't. Does he?]
C. A Wash
Excuse me. Could you explain to me what these are and how they work?
[Nie Huaisang gestures toward the dryers lining the wall with his fan, a puzzled frown on his face.]
You give the spirits offerings and clothing comes out clean? Is that how it works?
[Good luck explaining any of this process to a gentleman from ancient China who doesn't have a basic grasp on electricity much less what appliances even are.]
D. Come One, Come All
[Now the realms of fortunetelling and spirituality are more familiar territory to Nie Huaisang. While he's not familiar with the term "psychic reading", it's easy enough for him to liken it to the practice of Empathy back home. His own people have traditions of fortunetelling as well, even though these cards are something new.]
What beautiful artwork....
[He murmurs the words out loud, admiring one of the tarot decks before venturing further into the shop. The faceless bust of the woman gives him an eerie feeling but the temptation to have his fortune read is great and he greedily seeks out a glimpse of the future that awaits him. It's been a long struggle down a lonely, dark road but surely there's something brighter in the end.
Then he actually gets his fortune, reading it out loud to himself, if only to disturb the quiet. Sometimes even his own voice is easier to bear.]
"You learn from your mistakes. You will learn a lot today."
[For the first time, Nie Huaisang actually feels genuinely uncomfortable in this city.]
H-How ominous...
E. Wildcard
[Feel free to PM me with ideas! Also for disclosure, I'm the same player as
B.
Do you mind if I accompany you for a while?
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Not at all, daozhang. It would be an honor.
[Is he dead? Did he slip up and did Jin Guangyao somehow figure him out and poison his wine at the banquet? He was poisoned and now he's dead and everything's a failture and his brother will never know justice or peace will he. This is terrible.
Yet despite this inner turmoil and suddenly spiraling anxiety, Nie Huaisang's friendly, cordial demeanor doesn't waver. His acting discipline holds firm.]
Have you had a chance to look around -
[He cuts himself off, cursing his bad choice of words.]
Um, explore. Explore at all?
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I've done some exploring, with help since my usual methods seem to unavailable to me here. Have we met before?
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[Nie Huaisang fidgets nervously with his fan, wheels spinning as he tries to think of a way to explain this. It feels awkward and rude somehow to bring up just how many years it's been since the man's dead right out of the gate.]
Nie Mingjue. I'm his little brother.
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You were friends with Wei Wuxian, were you not?
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....Yes, I was. We attended lectures together at Gusu as teenagers.
[That seems the safest, most honest response. After the war, well, not even Nie Huaisang knows for certain if he can say for sure if those boyhood friendships survived the war. They'd both had such drastically different experiences with it and he supposes growing apart would be a natural consequence of that.]
I attended them with Sect Leader Jiang and Jin Zixuan as well.
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d!!
a confrontation before yet another statue of a divine woman whose image is more than she appears to be. Jin Guangyao recalls with perfect clarity the sight of that empty coffin where he had expected to find his mother's remains, and his rage whites out his vision.]
What did you do to her?
[his voice his deadly soft. he has curled the fingers of his remaining hand into a tight fist at his side. slowly, he steps towards Huaisang through the dim light of the shop, his dark eyes fixed on the man who ruined his life.]
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He immediately adopts a helpless, submissive posture, one that's much more suitable for an innocent maiden being set upon by some bandits intend to do her harm than the sect leader of the Qinghe Nie. Nie Huaisang reminds himself that this is simply another close call, one that he still has a chance to get himself out of so long as he keeps his wits about him.
But before he can think of a suitable response, he gets distracted by something unexpected. His expression shifts to one of flabbergasted confusion.]
San-ge!? What happened to your arm!? Don't you think we should find you a doctor!?
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What, [he goes on as though Huaisang hasn't spoken at all, continuing his slow, forward advance without taking his eyes off of his face,] did you do with her? [and, just in case Huaisang is as committed to this bit as he suspects he may be, he spells it out for him very clearly.] My mother's remains, Huaisang. What did you do with them?
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But all of that was over now. Too much had happened, too much has gone wrong, leaving bitterness, grief, and hatred in its wake.
Nie Huaisang's mask doesn't waver. That he genuinely has no idea what Jin Guangyao is talking about makes it easier to sell. He's yet to do anything with his mother's remains.]
S-San-ge...? D-Did something happen to her tomb?
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I could have forgiven you anything else, [he snaps, and at last his viciousness rears its head and shatters his tight grip on his composure.] Anything else, Huaisang! My wife, my reputation, my legacy--even my life, which it seems you have been so intent on ruining over all these years. But my mother did nothing to you! She did nothing to anyone! Hasn't she suffered enough shame and humiliation without you adding to it--and for what? For Da-ge? For your revenge?
[without any other outlet for his fury, he seizes one of the jars of preserved mystery item off one of the shelves and hurls it against the floor, shattering the glass and sending the contents spilling messily between them. he doesn't look at the mess he's made; he only has eyes for Huaisang, the rage in his expression a painful counterpoint to the tenderness and affection that used to live there any time he looked at his friend.] You should have just killed me and left her out of it!
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[He isn't, not really. Nie Huaisang has had a long time to prepare for the possibility of discovery and confrontation over his activities for a long time. He still indulges in a little bit performative scrambling away fromt he broken glass, discreetly angling himself toward the exit to make a run for it, if necessary. Until then, he'll go on gathering what information he can on Jin Guangyao.]
W-Why are you saying these things? Da-ge died of a qi deviation, it happens to all of our leaders... Why would I seek revenge over that? Wasn't it just a tragedy?
[Despite Nie Huaisang's outward display of nervousness, an eerie calm and focus has taken over his heart and mind, dulling any emotion or sentiment that might interfere with his ability to work. If Jin Guangyao is here and Xue Yang is dead, it means his sect should be safe from any potential fall out from this and that's more important than his life here, if things don't work out in his favor.]
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c.
This is going to be the blind leading the blind here... ]
Offerings? Do you perhaps mean payment?
From what I gather these are some type of large gadgets that function to wash clothing. Well, the one I am standing in front of does that anyway... but operating it is not something I am familiar with. We don't have these where I am from. I assume it's the same for you.
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That's right. We wash our clothes by hand and hang it up to dry in the sun back home. We don't have many of the things I've seen here so far. It's a little overwhelming, honestly.
[He laughs a bit.]
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Taking in everything a little at a time would help but we are in the middle of all this.
[ He digs out the phone he found on the train and holds it up. ] There are things like this too and while it is a lot, we'll have to manage. Are you looking to freshen up your clothing? Mine haven't been sullied but it's probably best if I learn to properly wash them myself.
From what I gather there are some instructions to follow here. [ He motions towards the face of the washing machine. ]
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My clothing's intact, too, but I prefer to plan ahead when I can. It'd be pretty awful to fumble with it when I need it more. This is the only clothing I have at the moment, though. I'm hesitant to risk it in case I ruin it.
[His outfit is consists of multiple layers, though. He could probably be convinced to sacrifice one as an experiment.]
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With nothing to toss in the washer as a test, he lets out a soft sigh. ]
I can offer up a sock. There would be no problem if we somehow ruin it...
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[When his companion's been looking around for a test article of clothing, he's been reading the instructions on the machine and doing his best to understand the terminology used in them. It could be going better than it is but it's the first step to mastering this contraption.]
...I don't suppose you know what a 'wash cycle' is? Or what it means to set one. I suppose the detergent is the type of soap we're supposed to use and 'fabric softener' is what it sounds like.
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C. I'd apologize for Ms grumpy pants, but she wouldn't be caught dead in pants
[There's blatant disgust on Xayah's face, her feathers ruffling. Being around human creations tends to unsettle her mood, but human things she doesn't understand? That's even worse. But part of her disgust is at what he's asked, mixed with a bit of disbelief.]
Do humans use spirits for such mundane things where you're from? Like some sort of paltry servant?
[She takes a deep breath, reminding herself that she'd promised not to stab the humans needlessly. Though this one was starting to feel like she'd have a viable excuse should Rakan ask.]
Not that it matters here, everything's dead. What magic? What spirits? This land is hollow. Void.
[Xayah has a lot of feelings about this strange place, but none of them are positive.]
hahaha, she's beautiful
[Despite his defensive backpedaling and shrinking at being scold, Nie Huaisang takes it in stride. His eyes widen a little with surprise at her appearance before his pupils constract with sudden interest and curiosity. He's never met a yaoguai before but he's always loved birds. Hunting and capturing them and keeping them as pets to dote has been a hobby all his life. Not that he's in the practice of doing that to actual people.]
If it's not magic or spiritual energy running this place, what else can it be?
[Now that she mentions it, Nie Huaisang hasn't been able to sense anything either but he's not exactly a bastion of spiritual energy or knowledge.]
I just couldn't resist tagging NHS with a bird person considering
[It's still a curse word in her mouth. Rakan is the diplomatic one, the one with the pretty words and smoother temper. She's always been jagged edges and sharp words with the species that have hounded her people to the brink. Knows no other way. Even here, where the humans couldn't possibly have anything to do with it. They're still human and they're probably just as bad. Laundry spirits. Hmph.]
No spirit would turn mu'takl for the joy of doing a human's washing. Only a human would think another being would want to spend their existence serving them.
[Golden eyes watch him narrowly, primed for him to try something, anything. Though his body language certainly didn't scream aggression. And it's not like he had much magic, the faintest of tingling perhaps to mark him as something different. But it was weak. Not a threat. If anything he seems more curious than anything, despite the way he shrinks back from her. Good. So long as he knew his place and where he fit in the pecking order. It's fine.]
You keep asking questions like I'm supposed to know! [She huffs out a puff of air, blowing her bangs out of her face.] Some alternative made by humans who couldn't use the natural magic of the land perhaps. That's usually how it starts.
[Xayah, meanwhile, is a being that runs largely on magic in a place that seems to have none. It's not a comfortable feeling.]
it's a fun choice!
[Now Nie Huaisang's huffing, too, though his body language remains passive and compliant and he continues to show no sign of any kind of retaliation aside from words. In the end, it's all he really has to hold on to until he get a better sense of just what mess he's gotten himself into.]
You sound like you know a lot about magic. Why don't you use it for something helpful? Surely, there's something useful you can do here!
So is NHS! Love him.
[Yes, get huffy with her human. Show a little backbone, maybe she can grow at least a little respect for you. But also, maybe not. Still a human and those are gross. Though honestly, they're both just kind of airing their frustrations with this whole situation out on each other. Because it's not like she can do that to Rakan, not really. At least... not in a way that can get casually namedropped without some nsfw warnings anyway.]
Vastaya might be creatures of magic, but this is a place with none. It's not like I can just tap into the magic here and get answers.
[There's a glint to her golden eyes as she pulls a feather, shaping it into a dagger in the span of a heartbeat. Not really threatening him with it, but also not not threatening him at the same time considering what she says next.]
Oh, there's plenty I could do with my magic, human, but I don't think you'd find it helpful or useful.
Always good to meet more fans! He's a fun little mess
All I asked was if you knew how these things worked.
[He might not be nearly as intimidated by the implied threat as he probably should be but at least, the display gets him to circle back the question that kicked off both tirades to begin with. At least, he seems to be satisfied with quiet grumbling rather fhan full scale arguing now.]
He is! And my second fave after LSZ ... and yet I play WWX go figure
LSZ and WWX! Good taste on both~
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