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]

⟪ And just as she read him, he is counting her down, and he's hitting home – and hitting home hard.

In fact, he's asking a pretty good question, without asking it at all: has she killed before? The Avatar was a close call. Intent, deed done, still lived. Her brother is in limbo. If she doesn't knock down his peasant friend, he'll be on his feet again. And if she does? Then, well, then she has killed for sure.

Good chance 'no answer' is answer enough.

This is, of course, ignoring some of the orders she gave. ⟫

I'm fourteen. ⟪ That? That is the thing she chooses to make a point of? ⟫ I have taken over a kingdom and I'll be the youngest Fire Lord in history.

⟪ How's that for touchy subjects? ⟫

And my name is Azula. ⟪ She's trying to get herself back under control, and to get him out from under her skin. Deep breath – the fire joins in.

She looks at Haymitch like he might lunge forward and bite. But she's also intrigued, so that's an interesting mix. Doesn't want him for an enemy, doesn't know how to make an ally. ⟫ You don't like the ruling class much, I guess?

[oraculi]

[One eyebrow ticks up as he takes that all in, but he doesn't take the easy bait. Why rile her up just yet? There's little purpose.]

Can't say as I'm fond of em, no. Too much time focusing on shit that didn't matter, and to hell with the rest of us.

[He doesn't outright say anything. But there's an amused sort of glint in his eye, egging her on, asking if perhaps she's just the same. He assumes she is, honestly, if only because absolute power corrupts absolutely, so on and so forth.]

But I guess we're all equal now, huh.

[firelords]

⟪ There is something off about the way she laughs at that: it comes on too suddenly and lasts too long, and her eyes are too wide for the whole of it. ⟫

You're hilarious. ⟪ And not even all that wrong, really. ⟫ Yes, we're all very equal, but that changes nothing. I bet you have thought about killing me as often as everyone else in the palace has by now.

⟪ Yikes. She sets down her can of food, and then, as if some string of her unwinding mind has been pulled, she announces: ⟫ I need something to eat this with. I'll look for chopsticks.

⟪ You know, so he doesn't take her standing up as an open threat, because she really doesn't want to have to avoid a knifing right now. There's plenty of drawers and compartments in the room, and enough of them are situated in a way that lets her keep an eye on him as she rifles through them. ⟫

[oraculi]

[What the fuck is a chopstick . . .

But that's her problem, not his. His problem is that laughter, just a little too on edge to be natural. He's heard laughter like that before. It never heralded anything good. But she's fourteen, and though she's got that fire on her side, Haymitch is simply bigger and stronger. He's pretty confident he can take her.]

You that unpopular a ruler?

[firelords]

No. They worship my father.

⟪ Not untrue, especially not in the Nation's Capital. Within the palace, it's more fear than anything else – but that's a good thing, at least where Azula is concerned. ⟫

And they will bow to me just the same. They always have.

⟪ Fairly confident here. Her chopstick-search, meanwhile, sounds as if it's going quite badly.

She settles for a metallic little forked thing. She's pretty sure she has seen that used before? Maybe? Honestly, she's too hungry to give this much thought. After some hesitation, she picks one out for him as well. Return to her spot, offers it to him pointy-bits first. ⟫

But no one can be trusted, least of all the people around you every single day. Even blood is risky.

⟪ Look at her brother! Her mother! Traitorous lot. ⟫

Why did you join your Hunger Games?

⟪ The idea that he was forced doesn't immediately come to her, but the other option reeks a little of "watching twenty-three other kids die seemed fun at the time". So motivations might be a lifesaver in the not-so-long run. ⟫

[oraculi]

I was picked. Lottery system. Me and three others that year.

[He'd call her paranoid, but sometimes people really are out to get you. Far be it for him to question such a thing; frankly, it sounds as if it's warranted.]

Question for a question. Who tried to get one over on you? A sibling or a parent?

[Not her father, clearly, if she speaks of him so casually. Her mother? Maybe.]

[firelords]

⟪ A question for a question. She nods at that one: seems like a fair system, and besides, most of this will be history anyway, if she's won the Agni Kai. If she hasn't, well, that will be history, too, it'll just end worse for her.

The thought has her heart sink. As far as she's concerned, her father will return victorious for certain. Facing him in the event that she might not have killed Zuko... What would happen then? ⟫

Both. My mother has always been a traitor, and my brother is no better. Maybe they have been conspiring. ⟪ How? When? She can't say, but it feels true. ⟫ He wanted to challenge me for the crown, you know.

⟪ But that's fine, everything is fine, and she's absolutely glad it's her turn at the questioning. ⟫

So. The Games are annual, then. ⟪ That's a lot of children. Not very virable – the place he comes from must have had a long period of peace to not worry about killing its own children. Or is it an enemy country pulling the strings? He's said there are twenty-four 'participants', and they picked four per... island? Town? ⟫

Where did the other twenty come from?

[oraculi]

Ah: I was a special year. I was one of fifty. Usually it's twenty-four kids, two from each district. But yeah, they're annual.

[Mother and brother, huh? He can't say as he's ever known royals, but on the other hand, those in power regardless are always the same. Either they're lazy and content in their decadence, or they're like that: hungry for power and control, no matter what form it takes.]

What makes your mother a traitor? And your brother.

[That's technically two questions.]

[firelords]

She vanished the night Fire Lord Azulon died. Granted, it meant father could ascent to the throne, but the implications are obvious. She is a threat to anyone of royal blood.

⟪ Technically two questions, and she is tempted to point that out –– or she could answer, and get two answers of her own. Maybe there's a negotiator lost on her after all. ⟫ And Zuko... the time he was banished, he had spoken out of turn. ⟪ A grave and obvious sin. ⟫ But that was fixed, until he decided to become a deserter. ⟪ She shrugs. ⟫ Father doesn't believe in banishment anymore, he's made sure of that.

⟪ Deep breath, bright eyes, she's doing the math on the answers Haymitch has given her. A land divided by Districts, each of which is forced to sacrifice two of their children per year, tallying up to twenty-four, unless they decide to alter the rules. Twelve Districts, then.

Forty-seven kids dead in his year alone. A full platoon, good enough for bait and all, but... she can't say the math isn't staggering. Especially when there is no war and no obvious gain. ⟫

Why? What is the point? Not to diminish your victory – ⟪ Agni, she would not want him for an enemy ⟫ – but who decides that? The districts?