The City (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
citycenter) wrote2023-10-31 09:47 pm
citycenter) wrote2023-10-31 09:47 pm
THE STORY SO FAR.
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THE STORY SO FAR |
INTRODUCTION This page is intended as an OOC summary of the plot of the City so far, either as revealed to characters through monthly events or as discovered through player plots. Each sub-section contains information about the locations that were revealed during that month, a brief summary of the event that took place, and details about any plot-relevant information that was made available to characters during the course of the event.CHARACTER INFORMATION LINKS JUNE 2023 — WELCOME TO THE CITY.» DISTRICT 1 — CITY HALL TDM location: Laundromat, psychic shopJune was the City's first month accepting new residents, and a block party was hosted to celebrate new arrivals. Characters were able to enjoy various block party fixtures, such as hamburgers and hot dogs, ice pops, sidewalk chalk, and bubble wands. Inside, where tables were set up with glitter and balloons all over, characters could help themselves to more adult beverages containing alcohol and even hit the dance floor if so inclined. JULY 2023 — THAT STUFF NEVER WINDS UP IN A POCKET, HONEST.» DISTRICT 2 — THE BANK TDM location: Bowling alleyBeginning on July 19, characters were able to find safety deposit box keys hanging on a wall rack within the bank. These keys were engraved with the character's name and corresponded to a safety deposit box within the bank's vault. Characters who chose to open their safety deposit box were able to retrieve a small, emotionally significant item from home (non-magical, non-weapon). The items in their safety deposit boxes were accompanied by a small slip of paper with text reading: "Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it." Upon touching the item in the safety deposit box, characters began to feel compelled to share their memories associated with the item, and those listening felt themselves experiencing the same emotions alongside the owner of the item. This location is still available and newly-arriving characters are also able to find their own safety deposit box key with an item inside. AUGUST 2023 — TELL ME HOW ONE KEEPS SECRETS FOR SO LONG.» DISTRICT 2 — THE MALL TDM location: Ice cream parlorFor a six-day duration, residents who entered the shopping mall had a chance to find themselves stuck inside a totally dark, powered-down mall. At first, this mall seemed dark and empty, but otherwise harmless; characters could explore the hallways and stores, as well as check out the security booth, electrical room, and mechanical room down an employees-only hallway. There was graffiti along the wall that read: RUN. DON'T STOP. SAFETY IN NUMBERS. After spending some time in the mall, characters became aware that they were being pursued by people from their past. This led to a game of hide-and-seek where, upon the hider being found by the seeker, the seeker and everyone in their immediate vicinity experienced a gruesome, vivid "memory" of either the seeker's death at the hands of the hider or vice versa. These visions could be experienced repeatedly until, at last, the figment of the character's past turned into a mannequin and ceased moving altogether. The mall location is still open, but characters who enter it will no longer suffer hallucinations. It is essentially a normal mall. SEPTEMBER 2023 — THE NIGHTS WERE HUMID, STILL.» DISTRICT 3 — THE PARK TDM location: Swimming poolToward the end of September, a fun fair came for a brief stop in the southern part of the District 3 park. The carnival, which was available to residents from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM City time, was full of bright lights and loud music, carnival popcorn and hot dogs, and rides and games to characters' hearts galore. This included a merry-go-round, mirror fun house, bumper cars, tunnel of love, and other booth games such as ring toss, dart throw, and shooting range. While there was nothing overtly dangerous about the carnival, there was something unsettling about it; characters found that listening to the music too hard might make them dizzy, that the carnival food was easy to gorge on, and a number of the fun fair mascot prizes all looked like something was deeply wrong with them. This location is no longer open, as the fun fair departed the city after its closure on September 30. OCTOBER 2023 — RIPPLES IN ALL DIRECTIONS.» DISTRICT 3 — THE UNIVERSITY TDM location: Poison gardenAt the beginning of the month, characters received a City Newsletter that advertised a Halloween party as well as some open office hours with a professor of sociology at the City University. Copied onto the back of the newsletter, almost like a memo that was printed on the reverse and not removed before photocopying, was a memo informing the professor that their requested files could be found on the desk of office 312 in the Department of Social Sciences building. Characters who visited the office were able to find files with information about social and scientific experiences from Earth as well as from their own homeworlds and others, as well as an experiment brief that detailed a study that had previously taken place in a university dorm building. Toward the end of the month, characters began to experience mild symptoms of paranormal activity, including the discovery of a dorm room key on their person. Additionally, two characters put together plans for a Halloween party of their own, with the intention of thwarting whatever plan the City had for them this month. When the University haunted house and Halloween party opened, it was located in a three-story dorm building on the western side of campus. Characters who attended the Halloween party willingly found a first floor comprised of mostly animatronics and cheesy scares, but a second floor comprised of real ghosts that would fight to the death, as well as occasionally "scare actors" played by fellow characters who were somehow compelled to attack other residents. Those characters who made it through the haunted house in groups of two or more were able to retrieve letterman jackets with their names embroidered on them, which provide mild status buffs against damage when worn. NOVEMBER 2023 — ALWAYS FEEL ASTONISHED.» DISTRICT 4 — THE MEDIA STORE TDM location: Art InstallationOn November 19 at around 2:00 PM City time, characters received a text message notification indicating that they had received a package at their dorm room. The number of the dorm room corresponded with the number on the key that everyone received during the October event. The dorm room is a permanent mechanic, so future new characters will also receive a dorm key and room once they arrive in the City. In the dorm room, characters found an elegant-looking, untitled book lying atop the bed in their dorm room. They felt strongly compelled to open the book, and once they did so, they were transported into a particular scene in a random story, where they had to either behave in a way typical of the story's genre or complete a specific task in order to be set free from the story. Once the story hopping was complete, whether it took one trip or seventeen, characters found themselves standing in the middle of the media store. However, characters did not have to participate in this part of the event in order to access the media store. The newly-opened media store has just about any kind of media imaginable, and characters are able to take from the store with no consequences. There are books, magazines, TV shows, movies, CDs, etc. There is also adult media, like pornographic DVDs and magazines, but these can only be taken out of the store by adult characters; characters under the age of 18 will get home with their finds only to realize that the pages are completely blank and the recording is all static. There are no items in the store that would enable breaking of the fourth wall, so characters will not be able to, for example, play Resident Evil or read Interview with a Vampire. There may, however, be media in the store that is fiction-within-fiction, meaning a work of fiction that doesn't actually exist, but is referenced within a piece of real media. The media store is permanently open. DECEMBER 2023 — THE MOUTH WAITING, PATIENTLY WAITING.» DISTRICT 4 — THE SCIENCE DISCOVERY CENTER TDM location: Art MuseumAt dawn on December 19, the devices of all residents buzzed and lit up not with the usual friendly notification, but a white screen likely to blind those awoken by the sudden noise. The nearly blank page was similar to the one that welcomed residents on the train their first day in the city. There are no questions, just one bold phrase—STAND THE TEST OF TIME. Beneath it, the only option was to click the "OK" button; turning it off and on again has no effect, that same message was waiting until accepted. Residents found their way into the Science Discovery Center either willingly, or by waking up inside of the many empty displays throughout the wings of the large building. There are three main sections of the combination science-and-history museum. Hidden in the back of one room in the museum there is a staff door that opens easily with a twist of the knob. This door leads to a nondescript white hallway where your footsteps echo off the blank walls that twist and descend with a series of stairs. Eventually, a door appears at the end of the hallway, unlabeled but also unlocked. Welcome to the animal science lab, a large and sterile-looking space sectioned off into smaller rooms via plexiglass walls and translucent plastic curtains. Some rooms are taken up by bulky machines that look similar to a loom, but far more technologically advanced and oddly dimensional. A few of these machines appear to have stopped halfway through running—the front end of a horse stands halfway out of the mouth of one machine, the wings of a raven spread out on the platform of another. For anyone brave enough, or skilled enough, to turn on one of these machines, they'll be greeted with a catalog of animals and a simple question: PRINT? The printing of one animal per resident is a permanent mechanic. JANUARY 2024 — WHO DO THESE BELONG TO?» DISTRICT 5 — THE CONVENTION CENTER TDM location: District Five DinerBetween Friday, January 19 and Monday, January 22, characters felt oddly compelled to pay a visit to the media convention being hosted at the city's convention center over the weekend. The convention center itself is a modern-looking building of glass and metal, letting in plenty of natural light for a warm and inviting atmosphere. Inside, the hallways are wide and carpeted, and all of the panel rooms are kept clean and tidy. Many of the panel rooms were dark and empty, since there was just the one convention taking place. The convention center is a permanent location. Upon arrival, characters were put into cosplay (either by force or by choice), and had the option to explore the artist's alley, dealer's hall, and the panel rooms around the convention center that played host to panels on various topics. The cosplay could have been an outfit from their own home, an outfit of a friend or enemy from home, an outfit of another current or former City resident, or could have been something silly. The longer a character wore a costume, the more they began to take on some of the traits of the character whose costume they were wearing. The Dealer's Hall and Artist's Alley were what one might expect from a smallish-sized convention: a variety of items available for "sale," from figurines to keychains to art prints and everything in between. Some of the merchandise featured the same mascot characters that were available as prizes at the carnival, while others featured either animals/monsters from character canons or recognizable characters either here in the City or from back home. FEBRUARY 2024 — A MOON WITHOUT A SKY TO HOLD IT IN.» DISTRICT 5 — THE HOTEL TDM location: Karaoke RoomsOn the morning of February 19, characters woke up in a room at the newly-opened hotel located in District 5. They could awaken alone or with a roommate. Characters found an envelope (or multiple envelopes) with a card inviting them to the masquerade ball that same evening, as well as a dance card with three open slots. They also found two different outfits in the closet of their hotel room: one was their outfit from the previous day, and hte other was a set of formalwear. As well as the lobby area, characters were able to access the hotel's restaurant, its fitness facilities including both a gym and a swimming pool (no tentacle monsters in this one), and a proper reading library with nice leather chairs and individual reading lamps. Characters could also access the maintenance area under the hotel, either by going through the restaurant's back of house area or by entering the staff-only area through a staff door in the changing rooms attached to the fitness facilities. None of the guests were in rooms on floor nine--characters who decided to make a trip to the ninth floor to figure out why that might be found themselves unable to get there by stairs or elevator, at least during the daylight hours. At sunset, the masquerade ball began in the hotel's main ballroom. The longer a character spent listening to the music, which could be heard anywhere in the hotel regardless of distance from the ballroom, the more they felt like dancing until it became a compulsion. Characters had to dance with at least three partners to lose that compulsion. At any point after sunset, characters were finally able to access the ninth floor. The ninth floor was entirely dark and contained personal belongings in the rooms, similar to the University. Characters who wandered the hotel's hallways after the masquerade came face to face with doppelganger versions of characters from past iterations of the City experiment. Once the sun rose, the doppelgangers disappeared and the front doors of the hotel unlocked to allow characters to leave. |
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