EVENT #1

[collectedmods]

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.

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.

JULY 17TH - JULY 21ST

Throughout the rest of the week, characters can be expected to be dealing with a myriad of trouble from these doubles:

» 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.

JULY 22ND

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!


NAVIGATION

Comments

[globs]

i. body retrieval

[ the sight of all the corpses is not a great one, but at least as a non-human (a non-organic, even), it's not as gut-turning as it could be. If anything, Cinnabar finds it more sad than anything. Reclusive as they are, they don't necessarily recognize the bodies that appear; even if they do happen to look familiar, Cinnabar, naturally, doesn't assume that it's some kind of copy. Maybe humans can have twins, too, like Amethyst. More likely, their memory is just wrong.

In any case, it doesn't feel right to leave them there. Cinnabar isn't quite so willing to go out under the scorching sun, but the ones floating on the first floor are easier to reach. Much easier to pull out, too, when you have stone strength. With their long, black gloves pulled up high, they're crouched down at the bottom of the escalator, holding what looks like a piece of bent piece of rebar in one hand and trying to hook a body floating nearby that may or may not be familiar. Maybe it's someone you've met before? Maybe it's you?! If it's not, then maybe one of the two or three bodies on the opposite escalator beside Cinnabar is. Looks like they've been busy. ]

Stay back. It's dangerous, [ they say when they hear someone approaching, not turning around. ]

ii. body double (doppelganger prompt! cinnabar themself will appear later in the thread.)

[ it's hard not to notice the terrible crashing sounds coming from the abandoned Cr*te & B*rrel, and one single look through the glass panes elucidates their source. There's a slight figure inside, one in a black uniform with pale skin and red hair that twinkles like crystal in the flickering lights - and they're holding a full-size standing lamp in their hands, which they're using to repeatedly smash a display of already-mostly-broken kitchenware. Shards of pottery are going everywhere, and there are dark stains and blotches coating the area around them that might be familiar to characters that have seen the effects of Cinnabar's poison.

If that's not alarming enough, when Cinnabar aims their next swing at a sturdy-looking stand mixer, the lamp bends and then snaps in half - and their left hand goes with it, breaking off cleanly at the wrist and falling to the ground below with a crimson sparkle and a heavy clatter. ]

iii. wildcard!!

[ other prompt ideas!!

--> Cinnabar's doppelganger missing a lot of body parts but still dragging itself around the mall in that weird contorted way and trying to destroy things
--> Cinnabar can help with body disposal! Their poison corrodes living things.
--> maybe cinnabar runs into your character's doppelganger?! They don't want to hurt anyone and will be easy to fool!
--> anything else!! PM me or hit me up on plurk...!!! ]