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

i. don't let go, jack.

[ one minute he's sprawled out on a random bed in a random room in enbarr, bone weary and exhausted from the combination of being wrung out on two days of adrenaline, of five years of just fighting to survive and just surviving to fight. the last thing he remembers is the bottle of wine he'd shared with ingrid and then with felix after everyone had finally collapsed into bed, the taste made sweeter with victory, with the fact that they're still alive. and everything else, all the so what are you going to do now? and the when are you heading back home? can wait until morning, when he can finally wake up after the sun rises on a new day.

instead, he wakes up to pitch black.

it's cold and dark, reeks of something foul that's been left to rot and a raw sound is ripped from his throat—something between a choke and a gasp because the body still remembers what the mind has long since buried: him looking down into the dark void of the old well seconds before miklan had shoved him in, left him down there for dead without even a backwards glance. it was cold and cramped and sylvain had lost track of time as he'd sat there at the bottom, staring up at the circle of light that slowly dimmed over time, clothes soaked through and shivering hard the later it got. no, that's not it, he thinks dimly, as he struggles to stay afloat, reaches out blindly for something to grab onto. don't let go. he'd gotten out, didn't he? he was lucky the maids had found him in time, they'd told him afterwards. lucky they thought to look in the well, despite it having been in disuse for so long; lucky to be born with a crest—

moments later, there's a redhead pulling himself up out of the dark water, pale and sickly and looking like he's seen a ghost or something horrible or both. his armor is dulled, starting to rust in certain places, but he isn't paying attention to that. at the moment, he's crouched on the floor right in front of the broken escalator with his head stuck between his knees as he takes deep, heaving breaths, shoulders shaking from the effort.

is he having a bit of a meltdown? kind of. he's also trying desperately not to spill whatever is left in his stomach onto the ground so, just give him a second and he'll get out of the way. ]

ii. ask your grandpa, can i have his hand-me-downs?

[ so anyway, the armor is kind of a bust, but this is fine because sylvain has discovered:

a. the gym and subsequently, the working showers. he may or may not have spent like a few minutes just staring at the weird looking lever knob thing, and it probably took him a few tries to get the water running at the right pressure and at the right temperature. so there's this scene to walk in on: some tall and broad twenty-something year old guy, ass naked and covered in scars just turning the faucet on and off again. fascinating.

b. and later: modern fashion by way of the abercrombie and fitch store. despite the fact that the blown up photos suggest that he can, in fact, walk around in some fitted denim without a shirt on and it'd be appropriate, he has deigned to find a shirt that's likely a size or two too small. whatever, beggars can't be choosers, alright. currently, he's poking at the myriad of perfume bottles that have been left behind, spraying them onto the little sample papers and sniffing them afterward. unfortunately, they all smell pretty awful. he also may or may not have gotten a little too enthusiastic and sprayed himself in the eye, so that's fun. oops. ]

iii. one man's trash, that's another man's come up.

[ ah yes, finally, the food court. sylvain joins everyone else raiding the freezers and storerooms armed with a crate that looks like it's two seconds away from falling apart, but it somehow stays intact while he throws whatever he can get his hands on into it. which includes, but is not limited to:

- 2 cans of creamed corn
- 1 flashlight
- 3 boxes of hot pockets (ham & cheese, pepperoni, steak & cheddar)
- 2 packets of frozen veggies
- 1 box of waffles
- 2 bottles of water

sylvain is down to barter if you're interested in these awful wares, but he will be less inclined to part with the steak & cheddar hot pockets because he knows a particular someone who would probably like that shit and he's saving that for him. he's a good best friend like that. ]

iv. wildcard

[ feel free to bump into him anywhere, tbh. he'll spend a lot of time down in the food court literally just poking around at everything he finds. eventually, he'll try and attempt (?) to cook something at the stove and upon realizing none of them work, he'll just improvise with a handy fire spell. there's a large chance something will likely go wrong. hit me up at wooloos if you want something specific, or just lay it on me and i'll roll with it! ]

Edited 2020-07-02 09:14 (UTC)

[ for the record, sylvain only knows as much as he does about swords because he is friends with a sword enthusiast to put all sword enthusiasts to shame. which means, when he happens upon one very fancy looking dagger, he's immediately drawn to it and all his self-preservation instincts immediately gets thrown out the window as he goes to pick it up.

and oh—it's not actually real? huh. he's unfortunately seen and held enough bladed objects in his life to know that this is a very convincing replica; he tests the edge against his thumb and it's as dull as he expects, but the detail is exquisite, though. felix would probably nut if he saw it, really. anyway, he tosses it up and catches it by the hilt a few times, and it isn't until he hears someone approaching that he fumbles, nearly dropping it before he catches it by the blade again. good thing it isn't actually a real weapon, huh? ]

Ah, [ haha... you didn't see that. ] Hey, there.

[ ren about misses every one of the cool-looking tosses he does in favor of the single one he witnesses. it happens all in a split-second: ren knows his dagger when he sees it, and he catches sight of it in mid-air as the man tosses it. with the trajectory of the spin and fall, he can about guess that he won't catch the dagger by the hilt, but rather— ]

Wait—! [ he reaches out, but the man catches it by the blade and— nothing happens? so he stands there, hand still stretched out and a little awkward, before setting back to his side.

they'll both pretend that didn't happen. ]

Hey. [ he offers a wave of his hand. ] Pretty cool dagger you have there. [ it's ren's, but he doesn't need to know that, yet. ] Yours?

[ that's just how it is, right? the one time he fumbles is the one this guy sees, but sylvain isn't upset about it, really. let it be known that he'll never pass up the opportunity to make an ass out of himself, especially in front of other people.

anyway, nothing to see here, just two guys standing around with him holding the model dagger by the blade. sylvain glances down at it briefly and shakes his head, the little awkward smile from before smoothing out into something more friendly. ]

Nah, I just found it. [ he flips the dagger around his fingers and offers it to ren hilt first. ] Look familiar to you?

[ a part of ren was curious if the man would claim the dagger as his own, considering he'd been toying around with it. but maybe it's because he's an adult that he doesn't want to be seen playing with a model dagger, no matter how detailed it looks. ]

Actually, yeah. [ he takes it, weighing it on his hand. then, delivered in complete deadpan: ] Believe it or not, it does some pretty sick damage.

[ she's hunted around for clothes in the women's showers, but there was nothing to find except a few old towels. even if her costume is cleaner now, it's still absolutely drenched, and in an unfamiliar place like this, she'd prefer creature comforts like something dry to wear.

most of the enormous building has been abandoned, so she figures it'll be fine if she creeps into the men's showers. she uses her hip to push open the door, one hand to the towel wrapped around her hair and the other at the one around her body, her damp clothes hanging off the crook of her elbow. she thinks she's alone for a few seconds - long enough to set those clothes down and start snooping around.

then she hears the faucet turn on. she knows she should leave - head out as silently as she came in - but her head whips around to the source of the sound first, and she sees enough of the person standing under the showers to say- ]

Sylvain? Is that you?

Excuse me! You there!

[ Misa waves a little in Sylvain's direction, her smile gentle and easy. She seems quite chipper for someone just kidnapped to this horrible mall, just nearly drowned in disgusting water, and now having to trade and barter for way, way below par food. But nonetheless - she's seeming very friendly. ]

Is there any way you'd trade for that? [ She's pointing out those veggies!! ] I've kind of only found sweets so far...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

INTRO LOG #1

(very mild cw in prompt i for past child abuse)

paradise found (ren)

no subject

no subject

no subject

ii-a let me know if this is okay!

iii!