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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citylogs2023-07-19 08:45 pm
no subject
“That’s ominous.” He says and hops up to sit on the counter opposite Loki. He doesn’t even want to look for his key yet, he’s not brave enough. “Have you been given a personalised ‘fuck you’ from the city yet?” More people have been appearing since the welcome party that Will escaped early because he needed to wash the chalk off himself so he isn’t sure who arrived when and might have had chance to be seemingly deliberately upset by whoever is controlling the place.
If the man hasn’t it might be a good idea to warn him that it could be either weird or upsetting so he can at least he prepared for it. Will is already considering ignoring it and hoping nothing bad happens if he does but then again maybe if he doesn’t respond there will just be something worse sprung on him as a punishment.
no subject
"It is rather ominous, isn't it? I cannot say I have ever stored anything in a place like this before, so I am uncertain as to why this key was left for me." It's clear from his tone that he's incredibly curious, aided by how he cannot seem to stop looking at the key as he twirls it in his hands.
A thoughtful look crosses his face, his eyebrows furrowing as he considers that. "I am unsure if it was a personal fuck you, as you say, but I did get a rather disconcerting message from the mechanical fortune teller. Is that the sort you speak of?" Loki is unsure why he's talking so openly with the young stranger. Perhaps he is simply tired. He needs a better bed and he's a bit annoyed he cannot simply conjure himself one up. "Or do you mean that just being here has stolen parts of me that I am failing to learn to deal with."
Yup, definitely tired if he's bitching to some kid about everything he's lost by being here. He knows likely everyone has, but Loki is rather selfish and the longer he's here, the longer he's without his magic at full power, the more he's going to pout. "I suppose this place has done something to you as well then?"
no subject
“I don’t even have a bank account,” Will shrugs. “So it’s probably something we don’t want to see or don’t want to think about that they’ve kindly left in there to mess with us.”
He really has to try not to ask why this guy talks like something out of the Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons. Because he does a bit, which isn’t to say he doesn’t find that and the general look of him being some kind of wizard is pretty damn cool, but he feels like it might come across offensive.
“Yeah exactly that. I had a fortune that was… disconcerting and then somehow the washers spewed a bunch of clothing I know I threw away from some… not great moments.” That much he can admit to in front of a stranger, as long as he doesn't have to go into detail about it he won’t freak out much. “Parts of you were stolen? Like what?”
no subject
Why he's hesitating now, he hasn't yet figured out. Perhaps it is the same reasons the child is hesitating. Though nothing truly horrible has happened to him here yet, it felt like no good could come of this.
"I suspect you may be correct about that. I also do not have a bank account, nor have I ever had need of such a place. I know I did not put anything in a box here, so I don't see how it could actually be for me." Still, he was curious and he knew eventually he would give in, but for now he was good to hold out.
Loki nods in understanding. He did not appreciate the message he got from the so-called fortune teller either. "The washers changed your clothing? That is quite peculiar." He thinks of Hob using the machines when they first met and wonders if the same happened to him. He hums slightly, wondering if he should reveal such personal information, but the child seems harmless enough. "My magical abilities have been, shall we say, lacking since my arrival. It has felt akin to losing a limb, I would imagine. Suddenly not being able to do something you have always been able to is a strange feeling at best."
no subject
“Yeah I put a shirt in and then got a load of crap back out,” he also had a panic attack thinking he’d lost Mikes shirt and gained a load of things he didn’t want. It’s all in a bag down the back of the couch now. “Plus the fortunes? Everything this place is giving us is bad and I don’t want to know about it.” Except he does, he really wants to know, but it feels like he’s inviting a full scale breakdown by engaging with whatever games the Cow Overlords are playing so he’s torn.
“They took your magic? That seems to be a thing here, people were talking about how their abilities aren’t working on that network thing.” Will fiddles with his sleeves. “I don’t think that’s going to be in whatever that key opens, but I’m not your mom so I can’t stop you. I think I’d rather leave mine alone.”
no subject
That is the problem though, isn’t it? So far it has been much different. His magic had been tempered before, but not in such a way. Previously it required specific items, like the cuffs Thor placed him in after his attack on New York. But this place? Somehow he is weak simply by being here and it is not something Loki is enjoying in the least.
“I do wonder why that would happen. Did the clothing you received in return have any sort of meaning? Or the shirt you lost?” He frowns slightly as he wonders. If there was meaning, then this place surely knew and did it to him on purpose. If not, it’s still in the realm of ‘random’ in Loki’s mind. Not that it didn’t mean something either way, he just thinks it would give them a bit of insight into exactly how cognizant this place or its overlords might be.
Loki nods a bit solemnly. “Well, not fully. I can still manage a few tricks a day, it seems, but nothing is at fully power. I have spoken with a few others as well. I am unsure if I should feel better or worse that others have been targeted the same way. As for the box, I have not yet decided if I will ever open mine. I cannot see a purpose to it, other than my own curiosity. That, however, has not always lead down a good path. I think you are correct to be wary.”
no subject
Will takes a deep breath and stares at his hands, unsure how much he’s willing to give away to a stranger, but it could be important, it could give them clues and he’s desperate for answers. “It belongs to someone really important to me, and I know it probably sounds really stupid but I need it, like it’s the only piece of them,” carefully neutral because he doesn’t want to say he borrowed a girls shirt or reveal a boy is so important to him he needs the shirt he borrowed, “that I’ve got while I’m stuck here.”
“Maybe they took peoples powers to level the playing field, like we have household things that could be weaponised but now real weapons here too? So if fights happen nobody has a significant advantage unless they’re trained to fight?” But they can’t die either so he’s not sure what the point is.
no subject
Either way, it seems this place has messed with this child in a rather significant way and though he doesn’t know why, it actually bothers Loki. He will not be introspective and realize that in a way, Will reminds him a bit of himself as a child, except much nicer and more relaxed. Still, there is something there, something in his quiet sadness that is familiar.
“That does not sound stupid.” Loki is not someone to typically reassure anyone, but he means what he says here. There have not been many people in his life that he felt he truly cared for or who truly cared about him, but he would give anything to have a reminder of them now.
There is clearly something Will is hiding. One of Loki’s many talents that has nothing to do with his magic is his ability to tell when people are lying or hiding something. Will is definitely hiding something now, and Loki is curious, but he doubts pressing him will result in any answers. “There is no shame in wanting to hold onto objects that remind us of our loved ones. You are lucky to have such an item. I am glad they saw fit to give it back to you.”
“I have considered that, though I haven’t found that people have lost their abilities in battle. That would still put some patrons here up on others, I would assume. I have been wondering if certain powers are simply strong enough that we could have left and they clearly want us here for some reason.” What that reason might be is another story all together.