citycenter: (Default)
The City ([personal profile] citycenter) wrote in [community profile] citylogs2023-07-19 08:45 pm

EVENT: That Stuff Never Winds Up in a Pocket, Honest (July 2023)





THAT STUFF NEVER WINDS UP IN A POCKET, HONEST.

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.

JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS

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.

JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS

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.

JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS

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.

JUMP TO TOP ↑



» navigation » network » logs » ooc » mod contact
gradenine: (pic#16527806)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-07-30 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ you know, just in case she gets pissed again for being asked such a personal question... ]

Yeah... Shoulda figured it was her. [ binah... ] Still, I'm sure you put up a fight till the very end, right? An Arbiter may not fuck around, but the Red Mist was still the strongest Fixer around.

[ and she still is in roland's eyes, okay. ]
bemist: (You can't take me for a ride)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-07-30 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She huffs a little, amused. ]

I took out two of the Claws and the Abnormalities she released, as much as someone can "take out" an Abnormality, before I even fought her.

But yeah. I wasn't someone who'd be taken down without a fight. I'm still not. So she wasn't exactly in the best shape after she killed me, let's just say that.
gradenine: (pic#16527826)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-07-31 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
You took down two of the Claws and some Abnormalities...?!

[ see!!! see this is why the red mist is, as the modern kids in less violent worlds would say, goated. roland tries really hard to hide the awe in his voice because this really isn't the time, but... come on. ]

Still can't believe that Ayin guy even got to Binah, but he must've captured her when she's all but spent. Sheesh.

[ he gives himself a minute to think about how it played out, but even his mind can't wrap his mind around it. even colors and arbiters have their limits, it seems. ]

So... What exactly did you get from your box?
bemist: (I'm trouble)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-01 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ In the most blasé voice ever, looking completely bored by her own answer-- ]

The eye she cut out of my face.

[ Yeah!!! ]
gradenine: (pic#16527826)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-01 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ record scratch, freeze frame. ]

Wh-What...

[ huh??? ]

How's that possible? How did this place even get their hands on it? Was it... you know. Damaged or whatever when you got it?
bemist: (But I knew all along)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-06 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
No idea, no idea, no it was perfectly fine.

Which definitely was not the case when I lost it, but I know enough about eyes and my own eyes to say it's definitely my eye.

[ Again, it's said a bit flatly. ]
gradenine: (pic#16527801)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-06 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
...You're taking this way too well for someone who just got back their perfectly normal eye.
bemist: (I'm trouble)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-07 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ Said to someone who's stress-smoking right now-- ]

I've dealt with worse. [ Understatement. ]

I'm more pissed by the fact that I feel like I want to talk about it, when I know I don't.
gradenine: (pic#16598077)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-07 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ tbf gebura's always smoking so he couldn't really tell if she's doing too much... ]

Yeah... You probably have. The old L Corp may be just as horrid, but it ain't like the previous one's any good either.

[ all wings are bad, there!! ]

But, well. You can vent to me if you want. I lent my ear to the other Librarians plenty of times before, so you could say that I'm getting good at that.
bemist: (With diamonds and gold)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-08 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
I already threw someone into a ballpit, that helped.

[ Poor Midnight. ]

I'm just getting tired of feeling like someone's toy or puppet, which shouldn't be all that new to me at this point, given how often I haven't had a choice lately, but...

[ She huffs, irritably. ]

What's the point of this trick? Forced bonding? Making us relive things we'd rather not?
gradenine: (pic#16478099)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-08 12:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, you actually spared their life somehow. Lucky guy.

[ poor midnight.

he leans his head back on the bench, staring at the empty night sky above. ]


Judging from what we can gather so far, they're probably watching our reactions and jotting them down somewhere. But yeah, there's nothing new to this. We're simply victims of another social experiment. And the fact that they even dared to get someone like you in this mess implies that we aren't from the City we know to begin with.

[ colors like her are supposed to be untouchable, despite her being retired from all that. it only proves that it doesn't matter what rank they are - their power is simply meaningless when it comes to the authority at large.

nothing has changed, in other words. in fact, they're doubling down on the people who just want to see another day. ]
bemist: (I'm trouble)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-10 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
Didn't feel like losing any memories or something equally stupid. Maybe I'd end up trapped in the ballpit with the guy.

[ Which is probably a fate worse than death. ]

Also, I think just realizing we lost not only our weapons but certain abilities would have proven we weren't in the City anymore. Wherever this is, seems like they're more like the Head with being fine just watching for now until something pulls 'em out of their safe and snug little nest.
gradenine: (pic#16536262)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-10 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
Eh, it could've been a lot worse. Depends on the person involved. Maybe that Midnight guy?

[ come on......... roland's totally on board with what they have going on.... ]

Anyway, you're right. Doesn't really matter if the Head's involved or not, it's still mass kidnapping turned up to eleven. Like, who even thinks of bringing people from different universes in the first place? And how'd they even got our stuff? [ SIGHS. ] Wish we could book whoever's doing this to us.
bemist: (And my fingers are bejeweled)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-11 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Roland, the man flirts with anything with a pulse. Gebura rewards him with a sharp look. ]

If he said anything, I should have buried him under the concrete.

[ Gebura, no. ]

I don't plan on just sitting and frowning over the unfairness of it all, but I can't say I like having to wait for more things to open up either way. We're still dealing with things at their pace, not ours.
gradenine: (pic#16527801)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-12 10:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ he hums in agreement. they both already know how helpless they are in this situation - not that it's their first time as fixers and as citizens of their city - so instead he's going to focus a bit more on that other thing: ]

Wait, he's the one who found your eye?
bemist: (But I knew all along)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-13 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[ It's said shortly and curtly and dismissively and all the adverbs that mean "do not read anything into this." ]
gradenine: (pic#16598075)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-14 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
I see.

[ too late, he's reading into it. like, what are the odds? roland's trying his best to look his most neutral but there's that knowing twinkle in his normally dull eyes. ]

How did he react...?
bemist: (You can't take me for a ride)

[personal profile] bemist 2023-08-14 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Why does it matter?

[ Where's a ballpit so she can chuck Roland in it too, he clearly deserves to be dunked in it like the heathen he is. ]
Edited 2023-08-14 02:47 (UTC)
gradenine: (pic#16527826)

[personal profile] gradenine 2023-08-14 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
I-I mean, it's just...

[ yeah he needs to get dunked on so bad ]

You know. Talking with people who aren't from our City in general. It's gotta be hard to lay it out without knowing the context on how things work there. It's been exhausting, knowing that this isn't how things would go in most worlds.