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

[trample]

...Injuries are injuries. Of course they're dangerous.

[ Why they wouldn't be - or why, to this person, they wouldn't be does intrigue Eren to some degree, but not nearly enough to take his attention away from the body in front of him for more than a few seconds. Despite being well aware how useless it is at this point, Eren gives her enough slight shake of the shoulder; there is, of course, no response.

In the lull that follows, with little else to do, Eren decides to continue the conversation he had otherwise preferred to avoid; he's kept from talking to others for the most part up until now, so perhaps changing that might benefit him, if not simply help pass the time. ]

I'm not going to die from this. I thought she might - I thought she had - but she's recovering. [ His glare softens as he goes to stroke some hair from her face, only to grimace when he sees what's left of it. Eren turns his head back up at the one beside the trash can. ] ...Slowly. I'm not leaving her here.

[globs]

[ so he's not going to die from that. They don't have any metric to measure these things by; the only living things on their world are insects and jellyfish, and humans are nothing like either of those, despite ostensibly being closer to them than to Cinnabar's kind. ]

If you say so...

[ they, too, thought she was dead -- apparently not. Clearly, there's a lot they have left to learn about the way these creatures live. Maybe they should start here. It should be safe enough. He's the one who kept talking to them, right? ]

How can you tell? She's not moving.

[trample]

[ Nothing else terrifies Eren as much as the thought that the girl in front of him is dead, or as good as dead. Whether it's his refusal to accept it as a fact just yet, or the possibility that she really can recover from this, his explanation as to why he believes her to still be alive is given in a short and simple motion.

He raises a hand, and hers with it. ]

I've been holding her hand for a while now. Every so often, her fingers twitch.

[ When he brings his arm back down, the body shivers gently - even Eren seems surprised by this, his expression becoming darkly enamored by that slight bit of movement. After ruminating on it, he looks back up. ]

...Do you know anywhere I can take her? I want her to wake up somewhere nice - somewhere better than this.

[ Again, he gives her shoulder a nudge. Again, there isn't any response. ]

[globs]

[ that's actually a good reason, as far as being one that a rock can understand goes. Cinnabar nods in understanding. It's true that they've seen insects continue to to twitch long after they've died, too, but -- well, even they aren't so cruel that they'll mention that to him. It's obvious he's concerned. In fact, they feel a little bit guilty for intervening, even if their intentions had been good. ]

Somewhere nice... There's nowhere like that in this place. [ everything is gray and broken. But, after a moment, they continue. ] ... There's a room with a lot of soft toys in it down that way... There's a big pile of fluffy fibers there, too. It's probably more comfortable than the floor.

[ they ruined a lot of the stuffing by resting in it, themself, and getting their toxin on it, but there's still plenty left that's untainted. It's all they can think of. ]

[trample]

...Oh. [ For once, there's an expression on his face: honest to God surprise. ] I know that place. Up a floor and down that way, right?

[ His head's tilted towards the store in question, but once he's finished talking he averts his eyes back down. There's an awkward shuffle as he tries to throw one of her arms around his neck and begins to carry the girl in the direction of the nearest staircase. He doesn't get very far, however, before stopping and turning his head. ]

You coming?

[globs]

[ it's their turn to look surprised, briefly, before their expression turns to something closer to shame. Being somewhere with people who know nothing about them is both a blessing and a curse. ]

... Do you need help carrying her? [ a beat. ] I don't want to make things worse. You're both already injured.

[ that must be what he's asking about, right? It looks like she's kind of heavy for him. For a gem, her weight would be nothing - but Cinnabar's more concerned about accidentally poisoning one or both of them. ]

[trample]

No - she's always been easy for me to carry. And now that I'm moving, I don't feel like stopping. Not until she's safe.

[ The way he says it is telling; the two of them must have known each other before waking up here, and they had to have been close. That much he's comfortable with letting on, as it had to come out eventually. But anything beyond that is between him and the girl he's carrying.

Eren, despite his wounds, grits his teeth and moves on, often peeking over his shoulder at the redhead who follows after. ]

I'm Eren. This is…Historia. [ One such peek happens right then and there. ] Who should I tell her to thank when she wakes up?

[globs]

[ Oh. He's expecting them to come, isn't he? They weren't going to come - they know well enough that their presence is more likely to hinder than anything, even if this human doesn't know about them. That warning was too vague, after all; their attempt to preserve some dignity is only going to make things more difficult in a few moments. But he's been kind enough, and he and his friend are in a vulnerable position. It would be worse to reject the offer, at this point. After an owlish blink or two, they start following after him, though they stay a generous distance behind. ]

Um... Cinnabar. You really don't need to thank me. [ they didn't do anything, really. It feels weird, to be thanked. Even now. When he looks back, their crystalline eyes dart away nervously. ] ... You know her from before this?

[ it's hard not to notice, from the way he speaks about her to the fact he went and rescued her at all - they don't think most people would go so far for someone they just met here. ]