collectedmods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
collectedmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
collectedlogs2020-07-15 05:33 pm
collectedmods) wrote in collectedlogs2020-07-15 05:33 pm
Entry tags:
EVENT #1
EVENT #1
JULY 15TH - JULY 17TH
Time in the mall thus far has been ripe with tension - between the silence, the lack of resources, and the worrying conditions outside, it’s normal for morale to be less than high. But on the early morning of the 15th, things will truly take a turn for the wicked.JULY 17TH - JULY 21ST
Starting on July 15th, and continuing on until the following Wednesday, characters will find that there are doppelgangers of them in the mall.
The first sign of this will come on the first day they even appear: in the early morning of the 15th, just as the radioactive sun is starting to rise and characters begin to stir from slumber, they’ll find a smoking heap of… bodies of mall residents with matching clothes to boot outside the mall’s front doors, cooking in the radioactive sun. And with them? Most of what was left of the frozen rations from the food court’s freezers. No more philly steak and cheese hot pockets!
On the First Floor, much of the remaining furniture that had not been in immediate use by characters has been torn apart and thrown into the toxic waters below. Floating amongst these dismantled furniture pieces are what appear to be drowned bodies of mall residents.
Doppelgangers found on the first day of this event are more likely to resemble characters whom have survival experience, or have adapted well to the mall thus far. Inspecting any of these first bodies discovered will reveal that they are identical to mall residents down to the fingerprints. Characters may retrieve the bodies from the First Floor and even the outside (if they work quickly enough) for inspection.
Throughout the rest of the week, characters can be expected to be dealing with a myriad of trouble from these doubles:JULY 22ND» Witnessing doppelgangers sabotaging survival efforts. Most commonly, doppelgangers will be doing things throughout the week like destroying food, cutting power lines, ruining water piping - you name it. They are difficult to catch, as they flee whenever seen, and can contort into impossible shapes to evade capture. If captured, they will either continue struggling until they escape or are killed, or they will try to convince their captor that they are the original - and if threatened, will begin to beg for their life (convincingly.) See below for more information about the doppelgangers themselves.
» Hearing screams for help identical to the mall residents' voices. Doppelgangers will be extremely convincing actors, and will attempt to lure away and confuse resident characters by any means necessary.
» The doppelgangers become more similar to their “originals” as the week goes on. Doppelgangers will be able to act increasingly in likeness to their originals towards the end of the week. Each day they continue living, they become smarter, more convincing, more advanced at impersonating their originals. This means that if they are witnessed apart from their “original” in the latter parts of the week, they may be capable of carrying on simple conversations and acting as their “original” in order to create confusion and plant seeds of doubt over who is the “real” one.
Almost as abruptly as they’d come, the doppelgangers will meet their end on the following Wednesday: those who had not already been killed by characters present in the mall will be found dead on the morning of the 22nd.
Corpses will be in every inch of the mall, and killed in a bunch of different ways: some look to be freshly killed, as though they had been ambushed by surprise (throat slit from behind, pushed from a high area, etc.) Others seem as though they have been dead for days - and are beginning to rot. These corpses will not disappear, and will need to be cleaned up or disposed of by the characters, unless they’d like the mall to start smelling a whole lot worse. Get to work, shoppers!
More than anything, their sudden appearance and equally sudden demise does beg the question - can you trust the ones around you?
NOTES
Welcome to Collected’s first main event! We’re going to provide some additional notes about the doppelgangers here, so everyone will know what they’re dealing with:
» Doppelgangers are identical physically to their originals.
» Doppelgangers DO NOT have the magical or supernatural abilities of their originals. They will retain only the skills and abilities related to their physiology (like physical strength), as they are biological duplicates (or mechanical, in the case of androids).
» Doppelgangers will be wearing clothes identical to the ones characters arrived in.
» There is only ONE copy of each character in the mall. This means that if you would like to have your character among the first ones discovered by characters, they won’t find another copy of their doppelganger doing things throughout the mall for the remainder of the event.
» Doppelgangers can be killed - they are not immortal and will not heal the same way characters do in the setting. However, they are extremely difficult to capture, and will flee if they are witnessed participating in sabotage, or if they are caught impersonating their original. Of note is the fact that they are strangely able to contort into impossible shapes to evade capture - bending limbs the other way, folding in half, that kind of deal.
» You are free to NPC your own doppelganger (so long as you’re not solely tagging as your double the entire event). If you’d like to handwave other characters witnessing your doppelganger doing things throughout the week, or handwave your doppelganger successfully interacting with your CR while impersonating your character, that is fine as well!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask them HERE. Have fun, shoppers!
⏪ HAYMITCH
So he'd done a bit of exploring. Using Moody Blues could trigger another thing like it had with Schuldig, so he's trying to more cautious. Never know if that asshole is nearby, and he doesn't want to trigger another migraine in him or someone else. So, instead, he looks in the old-fashioned way.
And what better way to begin than the first floor?
It seems like starting from the bottom was the way to go. But it's not seeing the food thrown around and now tainted that bothers him. It's seeing a few bodies in the water.
The first one that really catches his eye is someone familiar. Still, eyes vacant and lacking movement. Abbacchio approaches hesitantly.]
Haymitch?
[There's no response. Why the hell would there be? Numbly, Abbacchio wades into the water, gritting his teeth at the uncomfortable feeling of it burning into his skin like it's still full of chemicals. It doesn't really matter, not to him.
He presses his fingers against the body's neck, trying and hoping for a pulse.
There's nothing.
Steeling himself, he hauls Haymitch's body toward the escalator, just enough to get him out of the water. There, he lets the body rest against the stairs, and he reaches out to force the eyelids to close.
Abbacchio sits and wrings his hands. He'll try to figure out what happened in a minute, but right now... he can't express the bit of sadness that sinks into his heart. He'd been almost relieved knowing there was someone else reliable here. Not that the kids weren't reliable, but-- an adult that wasn't fucking Schuldig or the mad scientist named Eggman.
He runs his fingers through his hair and lets out an uneasy sigh.]
Dipshit. Would've been nice if you were alive longer.
no subject
It's more shocking that anyone might take even a moment to take care of his body, never mind mourn him, even a bit.
It's incredibly disturbing to see one's corpse, by the way. Absolutely he does not care for that. But though it's sickening, that kind of fuckery isn't something impossible where he's from, so. He does his best to avoid looking at his corpse as he stares down at the hunched figure on the stairs.]
That's a hell of an elegy.
[(Later, when he's less caught on the sight of his own dead body, he really will be quite touched Abbacchio gave any kind of damn at all).]
Careful what you wish for, though, huh.
no subject
Anyway. He's relieved. Just fucking confused.]
I'm not the poetic type.
[There's a pause, then he asks:] You didn't happen to have a secret identical twin up til now, huh?
no subject
[He offers a brief half-smile, thin and unamused, and waits at the second level for Abbacchio.]
But bodies aren't so hard to make. 'Specially if they've had a few weeks to study us. Seems like a pretty good copy, though. But--
[He nods down at it.]
Doesn't seem like it died of anything obvious, huh?
no subject
[Bodies aren't hard to make? By whose standards? But there's enough weird shit going on that he can't even think to ask. It's honestly the least of his problems right now.]
No. Not from what I could tell. I assume that he-- it? Drowned. But I haven't checked yet.
no subject
[He ought to examine it, he knows, but . . . mm, not yet. Just because he's used to this kind of thing doesn't mean he's rip-raring-ready to go look at himself dead, like, god, what a nightmare.]
. . . c'mon. Give me a hand.
[On the other hand: waiting won't help. And those chemicals are going to eat through that copy's skin sooner rather than later.]
no subject
[So it's actually kind of a good point.
Fuck. This is fucked up.]
Yeah. No problem.
[With a grunt, he slings the corpse's arm around his own shoulders so he can work to haul it more out of the water.]
What do you think we should be looking for?