INTRO LOG #1

[collectedmods]

INTRO LOG #1

Welcome to Collected’s first Intro Log! The information we’ve provided about the setting is not exhaustive - feel free to interact with the setting as you see fit. Rather than have specific prompts, our event posts throughout the game will generally have information listed out like this and players may come up with their own prompts.

If you have questions about the setting or the intro log, please ask them HERE in the comment thread! And most of all, have fun, shoppers.

PROMPTS

The first thing anyone does is gasp for air.

It’ll feel like the first breath you’ve taken in years. That’s right; before you can even become aware of your surroundings, the most immediate thing they’ll process is that you’re in water. Foul smelling water - like rotten eggs and decay. It’s pitch black, and you’re swimming in it with only your head above the surface. If the smell doesn’t deter you, the longer you stay in will; the water stings to have on your skin, chemical in nature.

So - you need to get out. This water can’t be okay to stay in. Once you’ve gathered enough about your surroundings, you’ll see that you’re inside a mall, of sorts. There’s a large (non-functioning) escalator in front of you that will lead you to the semi-safe havens of the second floor - but be careful, because everyone’s going to be gunning for that only exit.

» Once on the second floor, exploring will lead you to a few notes of interest: Long windows and tall glass doors show the conditions outside. The sky is a burnt orange, and there is a thick sort of fog on the horizon. Nothing for miles in every direction - just an empty parking lot, completely devoid of life or any sign that anyone has come across this place in many years. Even so, you’ll find the windows and doors unlocked, so getting outside is easy… the problem is what’s out there.

A trip outside will make it instantly clear why you see no life outside the mall’s walls: exposure to the radioactive sun outside causes your skin to bubble with welts, and the thick, toxic air of the outside is impossible to inhale without keeling over. It’s blistering hot, too. Even non-organic creatures would melt or be eroded by the sun’s radioactive qualities. One thing is abundantly obvious: you cannot survive outside. Not now, at least. Those who receive a burn or other damage from the conditions outside will discover that strangely enough, upon returning inside the mall, the wound begins to heal up on its own. Slowly, and extremely painfully, but it’s healing. That’s strange…

» Another thing of note is that there’s a food court on the second floor. There, you’ll find a variety of abandoned restaurants that have varying amounts of non-perishables inside - canned vegetables and preserved meats, as well as dusty old jars of sauces and the like. There are a few walk-in freezers with hefty locks on them, but if the locks are broken or picked, there’s actually some frozen rations, as well! Many of them are not labelled, so the dining experience will be pretty hit or miss. None of the stoves or cooking appliances in the food court work anymore, either, so you’ll have to get creative when it comes to cooking up these ingredients. (Or just, you know, eat them cold.)

» Throughout the mall’s bathrooms, water fountains, and gym showers, you’ll find that all the water in the mall is suspiciously clean. Like, way too clean to be normal in a place as run-down and clearly abandoned as this. You’ll find that toilets flush completely fine, and shower water heats up (eventually). Should you be grateful, or concerned?

» There’s an electronics store on the second floor, as well, along with a internet cafe. Should you try to turn on the computers in the internet cafe, you’ll find that it only opens to the same forum page: a site called Mall Watch. It’ll prompt you to make an account and password if you try posting to it. In the electronics store, you’ll also find that any phone you forage for and try to boot up will also only open up to this forum page. Weird!

» If you’re looking for a place to sleep, the department stores of the mall still have a variety of furniture sets collecting a lot of dust. Then again, no one’s around to tell you where to sleep - and maybe you don’t trust all these new faces you arrived with. If you’re okay sleeping on the floor of a random store, more power to you.

» You’ll probably want to do something about your clothes that were stained by the black water on the first floor.. try foraging for some clothes! Looking around, you’ll find that some clothes stores have some stock left over, though everything’s generally a mess in clothing stores - it’ll take you some time to find anything that’ll fit you. Looking around enough on this second floor, you might end up stumbling across some of your own belongings or clothing, or those of your peers.

More than anything, the longer you explore and scavenge the mall, you’ll recognize how eerily silent it is. If not for you and your peers here, this place would be totally desolate. Clearly, there’s no one around for miles, and as far as you can tell, you’ll only be able to survive here for as long as the supplies here last. No one’s coming to save you - no one even knows you’re here. In every sense of the word, you are alone.

For now.



NAVIGATION

Comments

[firelords]

⟪ He takes a step forward, so soft and slow as if he is approaching some type of wounded, dangerous animal. She whips around, checking behind herself – but there's nothing, just the food court.

And she's turned her back to the enemy.

Back around, eyes narrowing on him again, but she's still not gearing up to fight, and he's still talking. And that's the tricky thing with Zuko: he's not a liar. He's resistant to even the concept of learning how to lie, just like he didn't have the nerves to eavesdrop on their father or search for secret rooms and passages in the palace when they were children. His refusal to practice these base survival strategies are, yes, marks of all kinds of idiocy, but they also mean... he's probably telling the truth.

Azula shifts, visibly agitated. Mother had vanished when she'd broken the mirror. Zuko is moving awfully comfortably for someone who took a lightning bolt to the chest, even if someone had treated the wound. ⟫

Prove it. Prove you're here.

[fireglowup]

[Zuko purses his lips, both in contemplation of how he's meant to meet this request and because how far gone is she that she's even asking?

He keeps stepping forward slowly, hands up, eye contact constant. His face isn't concerned, but wary. Azula's right that he's seeing her as a wounded animal. When he gets close enough that they can meet hands through the distance between them, he gently turns his right hand over and extends it to her, palm up.

He's still coiled tight, ready to run or retaliate at the slightest twitch, but he keeps his hand there, steady. His eyes never stray from hers. It's an invitation; he waits.]

[firelords]

⟪ She is in a fugue state, her mind somehow both racing and at an absolute standstill. The ball is in her court, firmly placed there by him: she can reach out, cross the distance he'd already shrunk down, find the truth for herself. Or she can run.

If she touches him and he's gone, she's lost her mind. If she touches him and he is real, she will have to kill him. She can't kill him here: too many people in the mall, no way to get rid of the body. He told her they had never thought, what if she carries out a sentence that only exists in her mind?

If she kills him, all her problems will be solved, of course. Father will return and hold her high again, the throne is hers, her mother gone, and she will be feared, of course, but that's where best safety lies.

And what if she kills him and nothing changes except he's dead and she's living with it?

She reaches out. A few days ago, she'd reached forward and aimed her lightning straight for his friend, and there had been so much power to it her fingers had tingled with numbness afterwards. Had she just imagined that?

There's no electricity to her touch now, not even heat, not even the threat of a wicked little burn. Her fingers are almost a little cold when they brush against the skin of his palm. ⟫

You're here.

⟪ Real or not, he is here.

Bad, very bad. Worse now that he made it seem as if he cares even though she told him no lies that would force him to act that way.

Something – a smallish object – hits him square in the chest and then she's cleared out, speed enhanced by her blue flames. Apparently, this is the extend to which she wants to deal with him today.

But hey: at least he's got his knife back, safely stored in its sheath. ⟫

[fireglowup]

[Zuko can hardly believe it when Azula reaches out instead of attacks, touches him gently rather than try to hurt him. He'd hoped, of course, but he'd never really expected it--it's a rare thing when his own blood doesn't throw his trust right back in his face.

He's almost dizzy with disbelief and relief all in one, and he reaches out further to--he doesn't know what. Surely not embrace her. They haven't done that since years before Ozai cleaved them apart for good. It doesn't matter, because all he gets in return is a blow to the chest. It surprises him enough that it takes him a moment to recover, and by then Azula is long gone.

He stares in despair at the place where she was for several long seconds. Then he looks down at the thing in his fist, the thing she'd thrown at him and that he caught on instinct.

Zuko's mind blanks out all over again. Comprehension takes a while to fuzz into existence: it's his knife. The knife. Hands shaking, he slowly unsheathes it, pure muscle memory turning it around to the right inscription the first time.

There it is, the words that feel like they've been engraved on the inside of his skull from repetition: Never give up without a fight. He doesn't know what it means, that this is here and now with him of all places, but there is something he knows for sure:

Azula had found it first. She'd kept it. And she'd given it back to him.]