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
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[Like what is the POINT if there's no MONETARY GAIN.]
It's like the more opens up, the less answers we have. That feels like it should be illegal. [She's being a bit purposefully dramatic here, but at least she swings her legs down off the desk to sit up properly, leaning forward in her chair to lean on the desk]
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Doesn't rule out the theory this is all a game to slowly drive us insane. [ Out of the multiple other theories still around. How fun. But he sighs, exhaling as he figures, okay, let's pretend to have a brain for this stuff: ] I don't know. If it's anything to do with money, it's not gonna have it, we don't need money here. But...maybe there's vaults? Locked files somewhere? Every other place has been empty, but if this isn't just the city being proud it has a bank now...
[ He trails off, not bothering to finish what he's already implied: if there's anything here, it's round the back than the front. And you know what there is? A very large door that screams 'I'm where the goods are'--so Robby will walk, to check it out and see if it's open. ]
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Sounds like something to investigate, anyhow. [She stands up, stretching a little before she follows after at a leisurely pace]
There's some keys hanging in another hall, but I didn't take a close look at them yet. Figured if it was a trap I'd let someone else poke at it first, but I haven't heard anything bad so far, so it's probably alright.
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How about I pick up the keys, and I let you try them out on whatever we find? [ A beat. ] At a distance.
[ Putting keys into locks? Totally not a trap. ]
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[Her tone is slightly mocking, but mostly incredulous. Wow!! But she huffs and waves him off]
Fine, go for it. Find the one with my name then.
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But he'll go to where those keys are, hopefully easy enough to find. ] What's the name?
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Miu. Hinasaki Miu.
[She rests her hands on her hips, examining the vault from the outside as she eases it open to find the safety deposit boxes in the room.
Hm.]
If you find yours' bring it too.
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At least M gives him a place to start, and it turns out no one else has a name close to Miu Hinasaki (not Miyu? Okay). He still manages to find his key before hers, which he does take a moment to stare at, turn in his hand. Wonder if he actually wants to know, but--he's here. Guess he's doing this.
So he'll come into the vault before long with two keys, separated in a hand each. Will glance at the room with some interest, but: ] Hey.
[ If she's not too near, not too far, he'll wait for her to turn and chuck her key to her. Otherwise, he'll pass it over. ]
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Nothing immediately tries to kill her booby-trap style upon entering, which is a relief, honestly.
SHe pokes around until she finds the number that matches with her key and inserts the key. Pauses. Nothing happens.
Turns the key until it clicks unlocked, pauses...and nothing happens.
She repeats again pulling the box out and even opening up, but it all seems almost...disappointingly mundane.]
Well. Lot of drama for nothing. [She declares, turning the box over to get the book inside of it, which she makes a bit of a face at.] Huh.
robby's item won't cause a memory just fyi! also okay with miu's item warnings
Robby searches for a lock and name to match his own key, not serious about waiting on the girl to be bait. What takes time is finding the right place with the multiple options, but finally he finds his name again (fucking creepy), and what delays him again is the same unsettled feeling that did with the keys.
This is stupid. He could literally not be doing this. What the hell does this city want?
He hears the click of a key, and looks over at Miu--apparently, she's managed to get into hers before him. Interest makes him watch her pull out the box, and it's not killed by her own voiced disappointment. ] What is it?
[ He can't see it where he is, but seeing as she's got hers out, he'll do the good thing, and suffer a potential delayed boobytrap too, and get his own key in and unlock the box so it'll show him the box inside. Okay, let's take that out--and hear something shift inside in the process. ]
kk! thanks for letting me know!
I mean, look, there's all sorts of weird crap around here, right? People with weird powers, people that aren't even really human, etc. [She says this as if to preface what she's going to say, waving the book at him a little in emphasis before she tosses it to the table in the middle with a gesture as if to say 'go on.']
It's about a race of people where I'm from.
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Well, he walks over to it, the small packaging in his hand while he does. He sets it down, considers touching the otherwise simply-designed book, but throws out first (vaguely masked as a joke, but more so a genuine and curious guess): ]
So, is this about your family, and it's a big secret?
[ Is that where this is going? ]
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[She sighs a little]
We're extremely rare. I'm probably the only one born in hundreds of years even. We're called Yomiko, or 'Shadowborn.' [She glances at him, then back down to the book] My mother was a normal human woman, though she had a strong sixth sense too. My dad... was a spirit. A ghost.
So I'm half and half. Half-dead, and half-living.
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Oh. [ He makes the sound, more to have some kind of...response, than one he doesn't know how to give. Gaze going down to the book, his lips slightly parting, a level of uncertainty in his voice. ] So I guess... this is whoever's idea of saying they know who you are?
[ They can take that much from it, right? He wonders if he should ask if she's okay (does being half-dead, half-living cause any problems?) in the same instance he looks at his own wrapped item.
Is that all that this is about? ]
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If it thinks that's going to scare or cowl me, it's got another thing coming. I don't care if people know things about me. Its not like I'm afraid of being hated or people being scared of me, I'm a model, I deal with that every day.
[She snorts lightly and rolls her eyes, then nods to his box] What was yours'?
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Robby frowns at the image he sees, staring at it for a good second. ]
It's... a picture. [ But- ] I haven't seen this before. [ He flips the frame in his hand. ] I didn't put it in this.
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What's it a picture of? A girlfriend? Parents?
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They're standing next to a sign that reads 'MIYAGI-DO KARATE', smiling with a similar kind of genuine happiness that shows the whites of their teeth. The older man has a hand on Robby's shoulder, looks more enthused than Robby himself, who still looks pleased. ]
My sensei, [ is Robby's explanation. He doesn't hold the photo in her direction, but he doesn't stop her from seeing it. ] He took it after opening the dojo, then I forgot about it.
[ Didn't ask for his own copy, anyway. ]
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Karate, huh? He seems pretty nice. [And Robby didn't really look like the karate type, but then, Miu wasn't sure that'd matter.]
Did you...like karate?
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[ Because yeah, that sounds sad (cringe), and the sum of humour he lets in his voice isn't blind to that. ]
But I don't know why I got this and you got that. [ The book, which Robby looks over to as he mentions it. ] I mean... is it random?
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Maybe they're just... reminders of the past? I mean. I guess this isn't really past, it's my present and future but... I dunno. 'You can't run from who you are' or 'embrace what you are'?
Maybe you're secretly meant to be a karate master.
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You like those kind of sentiments?
[ Touchy, feely positivity? ]
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Hell no. Most likely it's to torture us with what we can't escape, but what I said before sounds better, doesn't it?
I feel like this place wants to make us feel bad or whatever, so it's better to take everything in the best way, even if it's like, impossible.