collectedlogs | INTRO LOG #1

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He turns to view who’s speaking to him, and— well, she looks just as out of place in this store as the coffin does. Eichi can’t help but smile at that, stepping to angle his body so that the coffin is in plain view, a hand touching to his own chest. ]

I’m afraid not. Rather, it’s that I recognize the owner immediately. Rather than any coffin meant for the dead, this is a bed.

If you step a little closer, you’ll be able to feel the cool air of internal air conditioning. Fufu, isn’t that interesting? I suppose I’ll have to watch over this until the owner appears. [ Hmmm. ]

After all, I have no interest in crawling into a coffin.

( one eyebrow arches at that explanation. after giving eichi a withering, "no sudden moves" sort of look, she takes a few cautious paces forward, slipping a glove from one of her hands so she could feel for herself. sure enough, she can feel the brush of a cool draft coming from within the coffin, chill against her still-faintly-damp fingers. she withdraws her hand, looking thoughtful as she puts her glove back on. )

It would have to do with the company, wouldn't it? ( she says it almost off-offhandedly, in the kind of way one does when their mind is preoccupied with a different thought. one might mistake it for humour, but she's actually serious as the grave — this coming from a girl who had had the errant thought a dozen or two times throughout the last eight or so years, of climbing into a frigid tomb for nothing but the company to keep. )

Its owner is an eccentric, I take. ( says a pot charred as black as her clothing. )

One of five, in fact. Or should I say three? Well, by now, it hardly matters.

[After saying something so completely out of what a stranger would understand, he has a soft little laugh to himself like he's the funniest guy around. Ah, good times.]

Ah, but you could say that, really. He goes around acting like a vampire, so you'll recognize him immediately from that description. Though, honestly, the two of you standing side by side wouldn't exactly surprise me?

[He tilts his head as if to consider this, then looks back to the coffin.]

Unfortunately, though I know the owner, I'd like to organize this shop as a base of sorts, and this eyesore is in the way. Well, I don't mind watching over it, but I wonder if I should knock it properly to the ground.

( she had meant it purely for the adjective it described, though apparently she had hit upon something different — a proper noun? either that, or the stranger was wrangling some word-play that was slightly beyond her ken. harrow decides not to pay it too much mind, merely thinking it obvious enough that anyone who decided to have an air-conditioned coffin be commissioned for their somnolent pleasure was one to be called "eccentric" by most.

and this was coming from a bone adept of the Ninth, who were considered eccentrics of nine different houses of space necromancers.

her expression is flat. ) This is no act. ( how she presents herself is only attribute to herself in as far as that it is customary and traditional of her House, her sect, her title, her inheritance.

she examines the coffin, roughly estimating the weight, and then she studies eichi once more, roughly estimating the quality of the meat stretched out upon his bones. comparing the data she infers from this gives a very simple answer: ) That would go poorly. ( not that she'd stop him, if he was really dead-set on it... though he might end up just "dead" if things went especially badly. )

If necessary, I could get it down.

( her tone implies a very obvious catch. )

It's not that I implied you were acting, though? Unless that's an admittance, of sorts.

[Haha. He's having fun already, but he smiles from her to the coffin, considering it.]

I wonder, though. You seem smart enough to ask for something in return, and it's not as if I have much to my name, stuck here in a mall like this. "All the money you could dream of, as soon as we're out of here" doesn't do much good, does it? I hardly think it's worth that, either.

Ah, but I can't manage on my own. Then again, if I could wait for Wataru...

It was a clarification.

( to clear up any doubt he might have, since she's beginning to get the feeling that no one around here has any idea what a necromancer is, let alone one of the Ninth House.

he seems smart enough as well, being able to discern as much from a meeting that had scarcely lasted three minutes by this point. a thin, mirthless smile shifts into place beneath the veneer of alabaster face paint; her black eyes are watchful, appraising. ) Money is of little interest to me, regardless. ( not universally true, but she gets the sense that whatever money he might have access to wouldn't mean anything to her — what, was she going to rejuvenate her House with a mountain of pre-war funds? the paper they were printed on would probably be worth more than the bills themselves.

she sighs through her nose, squinting at the coffin once again. ) Scarcity of material is an issue that I have heretofore never had to contend with. As it stands, I cannot in good faith use what little I have for no gain.

( she glances back to him, pausing for a long moment before continuing, ) Is this Wataru of similar stature to yourself?

( she's getting a mental image of two scrawny teenage boys getting squashed like bugs beneath this thing.

it's just too bad gideon is unfashionably absent. if there's one thing a cavalier is good for, it's manual labor. )

He's only a centimeter taller than me, but he's stronger than I am, and can perform impossible tricks. I'd like to imagine that he'd say something like "Oh my! Please direct your eyes here as I perform a trick unlike any other!" and after a burst of doves flying from his jacket, would have the coffin set neatly against the side of this shop already.

[He's very confident in him, you see.]

Ah, but he already pulled me from the water, so I'd hate to trouble him with that as well, no matter how much he seems to enjoy it.

Are you much stronger yourself? Are you content to simply receive an I.O.U.?

( her expression grows rapidly darker and more dubious the further he elaborates, and at the end she replies with a dry and brittle, ) That sounds horrific.

( says the literal necromancer. but for harrow, the real horror would be how disgustingly kitsch it sounds.

she crosses her arms in front of the molded rib cage she wears clasped around her own, giving eichi a wordless, hard look, as if she didn't even need to dignify that with a direct answer. no, it's clear enough to anyone with eyes that she is not ... necessarily ... physically impressive ("your arms are like fucking noodles," gideon might say), but a necromancer isn't meant to be. that's what cavaliers are for, after all! )

I know the extents of my abilities. If I say I can do something, I can do it.

( for him to owe her, though... hm. it's probably the only thing one could offer her at this point in time, in this place in space. she has little interest in anything here that isn't that or useful knowledge. ) Would you be content to be indebted to me?

I'm not certain that the task at hand would be worth it.

[For someone witty minded like her, he can already tell, it could become a problem. Eichi is certain more help would turn around that he could convince without the risk, so there's no rush. Unless she's dying to do it for free, instead?

He's playing the hard game over something as simple as moving furniture.]

I appreciate your offer, however. You seem like someone who has a good head on her shoulders. ♪ If I ever want to become indebted to you, I'll have to let you know.

INTRO LOG #1

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