THE THINGS I GAVE YOU.
» THE BANK — INTRODUCTORY NOTES
District 2 is open, bringing with it access to new and interesting locations—including the city's main bank branch. The bank is a large building with a stone exterior, wrought iron grating on the windows, and large, heavy metal doors that take surprisingly little effort to open, their hinges silent and well-oiled.
Early in the day on July 19, characters in the vicinity of the bank will hear first a low, metallic creaking sound from inside the building, like metal straining against metal. This is followed by the sharper noise of locks disengaging, and then the large, heavy doors on the front of the building swing open slightly, enough to let a person through.
Directly inside the doors is the bank lobby, and beyond that is the main banking floor, with elegant marble flooring and dimly lit chandeliers. It would appear that this was once the main commercial bank of the city, although it is now completely empty, with no tellers behind the counters and no cash in any of the drawers.
You may rifle through the tills and filing cabinets to your heart's content, but similar to the files in City Hall, there is no useful information to be found—all the papers are blank, or are empty forms without any personally identifying information. There are no monetary devices to be found either; this is, after all, not a city that operates on a cash system, so there are no coins or paper bills in any of the tills or, indeed, anywhere within the bank.
What you might be able to find, though, is a rack of delicate, burnished brass keys on a wall toward the back of the main banking hall. Each of these keys is attached to a stamped metal keychain bearing a name on one side and a number on the other. Some of these may be names you recognize, and some of them may not, but they are all names belonging to current residents of the city, and each key corresponds to a safety deposit box within the vault at the back of the building. Can you remember what you stored in that box for safekeeping? Maybe you had better go find out.
At the back of the main banking hall is a vault secured with a large circular metal door. The door is currently unlocked and propped open; it can be closed, but cannot be locked (intentionally, anyway) from either the inside or the outside. The vault contains row upon row of safety deposit boxes, each locked. Participating characters who are in possession of a key can open their own safety deposit box, but it is not currently possible to force open any safety deposit box that does not belong to them. After August 1, players will be able to use their safety deposit boxes to store their own belongings, and break-ins will become possible with prior player permission and appropriate consequences.
Below sections detail the safety deposit boxes for both choose-your-own-adventure players and randomized players! Please see the randomized matches for this event HERE.
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IT'S TRUE, PEOPLE TAKE THINGS BUT RARELY.
» SAFETY DEPOSIT BOXES — A SELF-GUIDED TOUR
For some of you, getting into your safety deposit box is quite straightforward.
You take your key from the rack behind the teller's counter and make your way back through the building and into the vault. It's cool inside, the temperature well-regulated and the air dry. On the walls are rows upon rows of safety deposit boxes, and it may take you a moment to find the one that corresponds to the number stamped on your key. Does that number mean anything to you? It may, or it may not.
When you find your box, it takes very little effort to open it. A slide of your key, a quick turn, and the safety deposit box's door springs open to reveal the metal container within. You remove the metal box from the wall and bring it over to the table in the center of the room, clearly placed there for this express purpose. Maybe there are others around, or maybe you're alone. Do you remember yet, what it was you put in here? Well, there's no time like the present to check.
You open the safety deposit box to find—something that shouldn't be there. It's yours, that much you're sure of, but you didn't bring it with you to the city. You reach into the box to pick it up, and the surge of memory is immediate, sending your mind back to your strongest memory associated with the item in your hand.
Then the vault door swings shut, trapping you inside with whoever else has the misfortune of sharing the vault with you right now. No matter what force you try, the door won't open again. There doesn't appear to even be a mechanism that unlocks the door from the inside, and from within several feet of metal and stone, no one on the outside will be able to hear you shout. It seems hopeless—how long can anyone last, trapped in a place like this?
Should you turn back to the open safety deposit box, you might notice a slip of paper resting on the bottom. The paper looks aged, like it's been in the box for quite some time, and in printed text it reads: "Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it."
Maybe it means you should let another hold the item you've retrieved from the box… or maybe it means you should share the weight of memory. Try to interpret the meaning in whatever way you can. But should you decide to unburden yourself, and share with someone else the weight of the item you're holding in your hands, you may find that there's a means of escape after all.
Once you free yourself from the vault, for the next several days you find yourself feeling rather honest, like you may not be able to stop yourself from confessing the truth about the item you now carry…
Characters who wish to participate in the event, but who do not wish to randomize the contents of their safety deposit boxes, can open their safety deposit boxes to find an emotionally significant item belonging to the character—player's choice as to what the item is. The only guidelines are that it should be small enough to fit reasonably in a pocket and may not have any magical or weapon properties. Similarly, players are able to choose the memories associated with the items in the safety deposit boxes. The vault door will remain closed until the characters in the vault explain to each other the significance of their items and the memory associated with them, at which point it the vault mechanisms will disengage and the door will swing open as if it had never closed to begin with. However, for the four days following the event, characters who carry their safety deposit box item on their person will feel oddly compelled to tell other characters about its significance and meaning.
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A CRASH-SITE IS SACRED, WE'RE FAITHFUL.
» SAFETY DEPOSIT BOXES — A JOINT VENTURE
For others of you, the contents of the safety deposit box may be considerably more disconcerting.
You also take your safety deposit box key from the rack behind the bank teller's counter and make your way back through the building and into the vault. It's cool inside, the temperature well-regulated and the air dry. On the walls are rows upon rows of safety deposit boxes, and it may take you a moment to find the one that corresponds to the number stamped on your key. Does that number mean anything to you? It may, or it may not.
When you find your box, it takes very little effort to open it. A slide of your key, a quick turn, and the safety deposit box's door springs open to reveal the metal container within. You remove the metal box from the wall and bring it over to the table in the center of the room, clearly placed there for this express purpose. Maybe there are others around, or maybe you're alone. Do you remember yet, what it was you put in here? Well, there's no time like the present to check.
You open the safety deposit box to find—wait, what is that? It certainly doesn't belong to you. Tucked inside the safety deposit box alongside the item is a slip of paper with another name on it, as well as a cryptic message: "Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it." The item isn't yours, but it does appear to belong to another resident of the city. Maybe your safety deposit boxes somehow got mixed up? It seems like it would be a good idea to find this person and return their property to them.
Whether you encounter the owner of the item in the vault or elsewhere in the city, when it comes time to hand the item over, two things happen. One—the doors are locked tight, refusing to allow either you or the item's owner out until you both understand what the item is and what it means to the other. To unburden your heart is the only way to free yourself.
And two—as the owner of the item explains its significance, you find yourself oddly captivated, resonating strongly with whatever emotion the item's owner most closely associates with it. You may not be able to see the memory that the other person describes, but you can certainly feel the emotions they felt—after all, the easiest way to unburden oneself is to share the load with another. Isn't that right?
Once you free yourself from your enthralled state, and once you have your own belongings returned to you, for the next several days you find yourself feeling rather honest, like you may not be able to stop yourself from confessing the truth about the item you now carry…
Characters who opted to randomize the contents of their safety deposit box during the plotting post, or who plotted a joint experience with another character, will open their safety deposit boxes to find a small, non-magical but emotionally significant item belonging to another player character in the city. They will need to find the owner of that item and return it to them—this can either be inside the bank vault or in another location within the city. Regardless of where the meeting takes place, the character holding the item will find themselves unable to leave until the character who owns the item explains its significance; as they do, the holder of the item will find themselves swept up in the emotional highs and lows of the memories associated with that item, allowing them to share all of the feelings, regrets, joys, griefs, and rages that the owner experiences in the telling. Additionally, for the four days following the event, characters who carry their safety deposit box item on their person will feel oddly compelled to tell other characters about its significance and meaning.
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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.
This month's event headers come from "The Things" and "The Gatherer," two poems by Brendan Constantine. The text of the paper slip comes from Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed.
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citycenter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
citylogs2023-07-19 08:45 pm
art! club! art! club!
This is what he's assumed, in the absence of any glitter or glowy showoff-y stuff that matches what he considers Just Magic. How else would the door shut like that! Someone is watching!
So: danger birds. He looks to the side—greetings bestie—and holds his bird doodles up properly flush with the wall, gesturing at them with the hand holding the marker.]
Do these look like birds to you? [he'll get to the purpose of this in a second, but first,] Hey, uh, how far away do you think you could spot these? I figured smaller is subtler is better, so...
ART! CLUB! NOW!
[He'll walk briskly away, at least a good few metres, and look at the doodles very, very seriously.]
...Think I'd need to see 'em on the wall to really get a good idea, but it should at least stand out as something from this far or a little more. And they do look like birds.
Leaving markings to guide your path? Or something more? [At least he's coming back in now to better appraise Junpei's bird skills. Hey, they are identifiable as birds, that's what matters.] Would this count as graffiti? Don't wanna see you in cuffs for livening the place up, heh.
art therapy for cool buds
Oh, uh, good. I'm not an artist or anything, so... [Great! They're birdlike!
He puts the paper down on the nearby counter and taps the back end of his marker on it, thoughtfully, taptaptaptaptap—]
You think I should just hang up a poster instead? That's not technically graffiti, right? [but no he's gonna draw straight on this wall, sooner or later.] It's uh... How much do you know about coal mines? Miners used to use canaries to keep an eye out for danger, so I figured we could do something like that, too.
And that- [a nod at the wall of keys, although obviously he means the vault they're for,] -is what I'd call dangerous.
art club uniform is roy purdy glasses and a cool cap of their choosing. for cool buds.
But the safe option's a poster. And maybe you could colour it yellow if you want it to be like a canary. They're yellow, right?
[mmmmmm...He looks at the bird, and then at the keys. Then at Junpei.] That's pretty clever, especially since the places that are dangerous are very dangerous. I, uh...If you do actually need an extra hand, I'd be happy to help out. It's a good idea.
hat that just says CHILL DUDE on it
[But has he ever competently drawn a picture before... no. He flips the paper over to try and draw a fresh new bird, taking his time on this one to make it, um, super round with a very nice beak, etc. The inconsistency in his own drawings is bugging him, but what can you do.]
But yeah, canaries are yellow. And yellow's a look-for-danger color, at least where I'm from, so that's lucky. [He finishes his new bird and straightens up to look at it, considering. Hmm...mmmmmm......] You uh, really want to help? Sure, take a turn.
[He only brought one marker, but he holds it out and slides the paper over. Bird practice!!]
or this https://images.plurk.com/59q7nQDlHzxC5UAQK06X54.png
[Not like he's seen a real canary in the flesh, but you know. You know. It sings, it's yellowy, it's a fucken bird. And that point Junpei's making about the colours is a super good one, isn't it? Red and yellow and black markers shouldn't be hard to find here, should they...?
He hums in approval, takes the marker. Painstakingly braces the paper with the broad side of his claw, and starts trying to draw a bird. It's. He's doing his best.]
...It'll all look better coloured in, right?
huge. massive even.
Uh, yeah, I think so. For what it's worth, it's definitely a bird. With strong legs.
[Junpei's bouncy ball birds and Greg's leg day birds sure do make an eclectic set!! Hmm.]
Maybe there's someone around who's a professional bird artist.
uniforms that fuck, for art buddies who don't.
[Junpei gets his marker and paper back, accompanied by a wry smirk. Okay, so they're both shit. It gets the point across!]
You think we should make bird posters first, then get the bird thing going? Maybe advertise by showing just how good we are, and how we need all the help we can get--
Well how I do, anyway. I still think you did alright.
brutal but true
[But that's a good idea, he thinks, as he looks over his shoulder at all the keys. It would also be nice to leave this god-awful bank for a bit, to make posters. Hmm.
Okay! Marker capped, bird art rolled up, it's time to party (with art).]
Help me find some big paper? Unless you're going into the, uh... cool and normal vault. [can't let the bank hear him talking shit]