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

belatedly (captain holt voice) BONEEEEEE

[acerejective]

[ it's true that akechi had found a human bone -- like, honestly, most normal people would have gotten rid of it by now, or never picked it up in the first place, but he's not exactly a normal human being. ]

[ he's kind of weirdly fascinated with it, actually. thus, he's holding it in one of his gloved hands -- examining it, when he hears the voice. he smiles a little grimly. ]

Your possession, is it? Why would you have something like this in your possession? Are you a serial killer, by any chance?

[ he's not handing it over quite yet, he wants to see what she says. ]

how dare you detective diaz

[skeletonize]

( necromantic theory proclaimed that there were two primary and opposite forces which constituted a cycle of death and life: thanergy, an energy produced by what was dead and dying, and thalergy, which was generated in what was alive. any child born with a seed of necromantic ability and who decided to hone that talent developed a sense of these signatures; after all, they would need to know where they existed and in what quantities, as they were the left and right hand of what was known as modern necromancy.

as a bone adept of the Ninth, harrow was far more attuned to thanergy: long-dead bones stored it up within them the same way they had calcified in life. she had never thought it would be such a scavenger hunt to track down what she required as the materials for her magic, but it has been. hours of searching has netted her only one so far, though now it seems she is going to double that number.

even if she is used to literally being surrounded by as much passable oss as she could feasibly animate with her mortal ability. it is truly a downgrade.

looking at the bone held in the stranger's gloved hands, she knows almost immediately that it is a human rib, fourth of the left side — a rib that protected the beating human heart. or it had, once upon a time. her eyes flicker up to lock upon his at his question, a flicker of annoyance crossing her painted expression. ) Would it encourage you to relinquish it to me sooner if I said yes?

( she's not. not by her own hand, anyway. harrow is, by the nature of who she is and what she is, a walking grave — two hundred souls released of their mortal coil simply to grant her life, then another three dead from her own decisions. but hers had never been the active hand in any of these instances.

she truly hates to, but she supplies him with what she believes is an answer: ) I am a necromancer. ( and she says it as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. )