collectedlogs | EVENT #2

EVENT #2

AUGUST 15TH - AUGUST 17TH

During the course of last month the mall has been through many changes.. Mostly, physical: windows have been smashed, food destroyed, stores vandalized, with corpses left behind to rot and fester wherever they’ve been laid to rest.

And while things may seem bleak, there’s hope on the horizon. Characters will be able to notice some of the things the doubles destroyed last month is slowly being restored come every day, every morning, in August. It won’t be immediate - some days characters with keen eyes will find a whole storefront restored to the way it originally looked during everyone’s arrival. Other days, it might be a door on the opposite side of the mall back on its hinges. Maybe it’s worth asking your fellow residents if they’ve done it!

Characters were given a cryptic clue on the network by an unknown user, and come the morning of the 15th, the reason why becomes apparent. The playground is a hot spot for strange activity.

A chill that fully encompasses the area surrounding the playground will begin to spread to the other parts of the mall, almost like it’s beckoning for people to come visit. If investigated, nothing will seem immediately out of the ordinary - it’ll just remain as its been: a wood themed, critter filled, mall playground. Only slightly more ominous than usual!

AUGUST 17TH - AUGUST 21ST

Throughout the rest of the week, the playground will begin to grow more active as each hour passes. While not entirely unbearable, the difference in temperature from the rest of the mall to the playground is like night and day. It’s icy, cold to the touch, with temperatures lowering to abysmal levels in the early hours of the morning.

Noticeably enough, come visiting the playground multiple times the layout will begin to change. And these changes aren’t limited by the time of day. Whether it’s noon, morning, or afternoon, if you happen to stroll by - everything will be rearranged, with the forest animals and other play structures having moved to different locations of the pen by an unseen force. While characters could have freely inspected the mall playground's changes before, starting on the 17th, they won't get away scot-free when they enter the playground's walls.

» Should your character enter the playground after the 17th, doing so will cause side effects for indeterminable amounts of time (could be an hour, could be the rest of the week). Side effects include:
» Phasing in and out of tangibility.

» Leaving behind trails of ectoplasm.

» Complete invisibility.

» Flight or floating.

» These side effects are completely involuntary and cannot be controlled by characters. As a result, these side effects may happen at extremely inopportune and dangerous moments - such as phasing through the mall’s floor to the disgusting waters below, or beginning to float to a high height before dropping suddenly. Feel free to mix and match their effects!

» If you're lucky, you may also experience something otherworldly after coming into contact with this haunted playground! For more information on that, skip on over to our NOTES section of this post!

AUGUST 22ND

Come the morning of August 22nd, nothing strange, or mysterious, will continue to happen as a result of the playground’s presence. It’ll simply return back to normal! Feel free to use the slides and sit on the froggy seat, just to prove their innocence. Any side effects characters were ailed from will wear off, and the chill plaguing the playground will slowly stabilize back into a habitable temperature.

NOTES

We’re going to provide some additional notes about the “something otherworldly” portion of the event here:

» During the 17th to the 21st, characters will experience supernatural side effects by coming in contact with the mall's playground. However, some of them will be (un)lucky enough to additionally witness a ghostly apparition that will give them a glimpse into life inside the mall before whatever happened to this world. What that character sees from these spirits of the mall may reveal helpful information about the world and the mall, or the apparition may even lead characters to extremely rare and useful items that have yet to be found.

» As of this log going up, sign ups for these visions are currently closed, but feel free to exchange different memories or information to piece things together! While the ghostly apparitions are only visible to that character, the information isn’t.

For any remaining questions you have about the event - feel free to ask them HERE in the Questions comment.

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i

[ ever since that weird image appeared on their little device, Cinnabar's been skulking around the playground more than they usually do - which is "at all." Like the majority of the things in the mall, they have no clue what this area is supposed to be for; considering they're unable or unwilling to use most of the equipment on account of their weight and poisonous touch, they haven't been able to learn, either. All they know is that it's a weird area full of weirder monuments, and it must mean something, seeing as it showed up earlier.

Up until now, they haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Today, though... ]

... Oi. Wasn't that monster thing [ -- they're gesturing to a cute extra-large rocking horse -- ] over there before...?

[ it's currently in the middle of the play zone, but Cinnabar is gesturing to the corner. It's a rhetorical question. They're actually pretty sure it was somewhere else before. ]

ii.

[ later in the week...

if someone wanders in at precisely the right time, they might notice something unusual: a blackish, metallic substance dripping from the ceiling. Considering everything else going on, one might guess that it's ectoplasm. It isn't. It's a mercury compound, and if your character makes the unfortunate mistake of touching it, they'll feel their skin burning followed by some intense sickness later. However, if they look up at the source, instead, they'll see a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Just kidding, they'll see Cinnabar, currently pinned to the ceiling by some otherworldly force, clutching an entire froggy statue in their arms - they must have tried to grab onto it and hold on for dear life when they started floating, but their heavier build won out. So now they're just stuck up there, with a big frog, nervously leaking mercury from their hands and eyes. ]

D-don't just stare!!

[ what are you supposed to do though ]

( harrow monitors the network, certainly, but she rarely replies or reaches out to anyone — she finds the method gauche, brutishly bypassing the formality of a properly-written missive in which one can be rightfully introduced and their meaning explained in length. regardless, once she had seen the image, she had set to cross-referencing her notes and wandering through the halls of the mall. eventually her search yielded some results: what was in truth a playground, and perhaps she understood what it was in some rudimentary fashion. but the more familiar she grew with the garish, stylized monoliths, the more she came to think of it as some sort of graveyard (a typical Ninth thought), though one of a people completely devoid of dignity or grace.

the first time she had come here, she had noted the cold. she had compared the sight of the place to the image on the network; she had sketched out a rough layout on a page of her journal. and she had moved on. but that was just one data point having been gathered — when she stops by some time later, only to find she isn't alone in investigating the place, it is her sixth time there.

at first, harrow doesn't pay much attention to cinnabar (deciding to focus her attention on one thing at a time). she has pulled out her journal once again and is scratching in it with what looks like a long metal needle. she glances up to the stranger at the question, catching the thread of its rhetorical nature, but answering regardless. )

Yes. It moved at an undetermined point between four and eight hours ago.

( she steps forward, near complete monochrome and swallowed up in her vestments against the chill, lowering her journal but keeping it held against her forearm with one hand, indicating points of interest with the needle with the other. ) In addition, this, ( pointing at a medium-sized climbable frog, ) has rotated roughly sixty degrees clockwise, and that, ( a giant snail with a hole in the shell, which one could crawl through, ) has moved three times, subtracting any variance I was unable to record.

( the visible page of the journal is crowded with layouts of this area, time-stamps, and annotated changes between. an extended effort in futility, she imagines, but if she does not apply herself to something here, she will likely go mad. )

Whether they are being moved or moving themselves, however, I have not ascertained.

[ she looks noticeably different from most of the other humans here, but not enough for Cinnabar to assume she's anything else - the humans as a race seemed to be far more diverse in appearance than gems, coloration aside, so they leave it aside. They're more interested in what she has to say, anyway. As always, they keep a very healthy distance between themself and her, the outer wall of the play area providing a short barrier between them in addition to the distance; they can't really make out any what it says in her journal, but the way she talks about the situation alone makes it obvious she's been taking notes. ]

... That's in-depth. [ a cool observation. ] If those details mean anything.

[ is there any worth in knowing the frog rotated a certain amount rather than just knowing it moved? They find no obvious meaning behind the numbers, or any link between them. But if she knows that much, maybe she can explain the area itself to them. ]

What is this place supposed to be in the first place...?

H-huh? I mean...do you need me to help you out?

[ Ruby, at least, hasn't started floating. She'll probably be hit with another side effect shortly...or she's already been hit with one that's less immediately apparent as she wanders in, looking up. ]

I can get you down, but you're gonna have to be willing to let go and trust me!

[ great question. do they?!? they probably do. If they fall from this height as things are, they'll definitely smash into a hundred pieces with no one around to put them back together - and while it may be selfish of them, they're not quite willing to go out in such a useless manner. ]

What? [ they sound bewildered, then even more fearful as they continue: ] Y-you can't catch me! Just - get something soft I can land on!

I can get to you before you fall!

[ And she's managed to carry a robot before, so it should be fine...right? ]

Just let go when I get there, okay?!

[ "Getting there" means turning into a blur of red and rosepetals - and more or less slamming into Cinnabar.

It's okay, though! It'll feel mostly like being carried back down, just...

VERY FAST. ]

EVENT #2

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ii.

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