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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No big deal. Not like I have a lot going on at this hour. [ Heero might object and say that he could be doing more reconnaissance under the cover of dark, but … he’s tired, and information retaining isn’t going to be a thing when he’s this level of exhausted.
Beyond that, he doesn’t want to. ]
A stake out? Yeah. But never in a convenience store before.
Makes it seem pretty laid back by comparison.
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Izuku smiles sheepishly and then grabs a few bags of chips. He offers one to Duo.]
To be honest? It's probably not going to be that exciting tonight... What happened with your stakeout?
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[ Chips? He's always down. Duo will take a bag with a little nod of thanks, settling in between the racks with his ankles crossed to dig in.
The question, though... Duo debates on how to answer. How honest he gets, in this entire conversation, just in case he shocks the other, more innocent young man (he thinks) with something insane. ]
Not a whole lot. Most of them were recognisance more than anything else.
[ Or sniping but... he'll leave that out for now. ]
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Should I assume it had something to do with being in space? Recognizance in space?
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In space? Nah. [ There wasn't much need for it out in the colonies - the bases were well known, and a lot easier to attack with the speed and deadly efficiency of a Gundam not weighted down by gravity. ]
Most if not all recognizance was on Earth. Bases, stuff like that.
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[He's still super intrigued by it all too.]
What did you have to do recognizance for?
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That’s not a bad thing in this case. [ space and earth at war with one another is pretty odd as it stands. In a world with licensed heroes he isn’t quite sure how that would work out anyways.
There’s no need for gundams if that exists, so operation meteor would have looked very different to begin with. ]
It was a war, so… [ Duo makes a hand motion as if implying ‘you know’. ] Information gathering on military installations, mostly.
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[It's never great to hear about a war. Izuku is dealing with his own kind of war in his home world too. Not one that needs giant robots but it would be helpful if there were giant robots.]
Compared to that this kind of stake out might be a bit boring.
[He laughs sheepishly.]
no subject
Ah, s’okay. [ Duo shrugs, one of those easy smiles spreading across his face as he says it. He isn’t getting any sleep anyways, so he might as well put the time to use.
And not by hanging out with his equally grumpy former cohorts. ]
Being at our place right now isn’t a cakewalk right now anyway so.. I’d rather be out and about.
Just easier.
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And Izuku isn't sleepy at all, either. But he is sleepy in a bad insomnia sort of way. He probably wouldn't be able to sleep even if he tried to.]
Is there something happening with you and your friends?
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Ever since the Don Quixote thing we’ve been a little sleep deprived is all … [ Duo shrugs. As a general rule he does not sleep well or for long, little cat naps being his preferred way to dodge nightmares he’s had since childhood, but add a new one on top accompanied by headache?
It’s annoying as hell is what it is. ]
We’re all a little cranky and sleep deprived. And then the whole … bank thing.
I haven’t talked to Heero much since that whole mess. We uh.. definitely butted heads.
no subject
Ahh... That situation. I'm not sure what to think about all of that happening, either. I don't really blame anyone if they're upset about what happened. Involved or not.
[He was of the mind that they shouldn't have tested something like killing someone at all no matter what the results would have been. It's just... Terrible to think about.]
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[ Duo, of course, pauses here to gauge some. Wufei had been directly involved, of course, and Duo had attended in order to keep people from interfering.
The boy who has referred to himself as the God of Death didn’t hesitate for a moment. Now.. it’s just inconvenient to run on even less sleep than usual.
In the end he’s too tired to try to craft something and instead sighs around the truth. ]
I’m not upset about it. I think it’s just one of those things where we’re getting punished for being there, basically.
Waking up every night feeling like I’ve gotten by skull cracked open isn’t too great.
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[That- Izuku didn't know about.]
I mean- I've been having trouble sleeping too but that's because... Well. Of my own reasons, I think.
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Yeah, we did. All of us. [ talk about a punishment. Particularly for a bunch of teens who didn’t sleep much or well anyway, it’s a particularly nasty blow.
Duo is running on less sleep than he has in a long time and it’s not exactly his favorite thing in the world. ]
You too? That’s what’s making the lot of us a lot more cranky … we don’t sleep much or well as a general rule and then add in the dreams that wake you up and it’s that much worse.
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If that's the case, I suppose it isn't so lonely to spend long nights like this one with a friend.
[He's so sorry for you, Duo. They can be sleepy and unable to sleep, together.]
Are the dreams... hard to deal with?
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I wake up with a bitch of a headache, but.. [ Duo shrugs. He's used to pain, discomfort, had been trained to keep on moving right past it all for the most part. Perhaps not as intensely as Heero Yuy or Wufei had been, but.. well. He's a different story, on that front. A street rat who's had to keep moving through injury or hunger doesn't need to be cajoled as much to not show signs of weakness. ]
It's not the worst I've dealt with, basically. I've done a lot more with less sleep and more overall body pain than this, so it's not a big deal.
Besides, here I'm not expected to get up and pilot under all of these extra things.. Hell, I barely do anything here in comparison, so it's kinda just whittling the day away.
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[That's probably not a good or a healthy thing but!!]
At least we can be thankful that this place is peaceful. Erm, for the most part.
[Besides the off-setting hum of all the fluorescent lights above them.]
I honestly hope we find something tonight. But at the same time, I hope we don't too.