{ event 7 } A▒ E█SI▓Y ░▒▓25░9.▒░█

[expiationmods]

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

March 11. The sun is shining, streaming in perfect sunbeams through uncovered windows. Birds and animals twitter outside, basking in trees that are verdant green and full of life. Outside, the town begins to wake, stirring to life with the sounds of ordinary everyday happenings. Footsteps, carts rolling down the road, the distant sound of friendly neighbors greeting each other.

And you–you have lived here your whole life. Or maybe you’re a visitor to this fine town. Either way, you’re a neighbor here, too.

Aldrip is having another beautiful day.

i. OUR TOWN

The town square is a bustling place to be for locals, and this week is no exception. Aldrip is a vibrant swell of activity: stores, stalls, and stands all open their doors precisely on time, welcoming the new day. Things are quiet, theoretically, while the local school is in session, but anyone playing hooky won’t get a second glance. Everything is fine! It’s too nice a day to be inside, anyway.

(Just like all the other days before, all too nice to waste.)

That being said, Aldrip is not without its own brand of nuisance. Fairies are rarely seen in town, these days, but this week, they seem to be in fine form. They can be found playing harmless tricks on people: taking things from them and moving them somewhere else, rolling carts when no one is holding onto them, mostly-unscrewing screws that hold together mechanical parts… They avoid magical pranks, for now, but these mundane tricks are such a nuisance! They even pull all of the wares out of a local vendor’s stall: dozens and dozens of colorful, patterned scarves. They had been on “deep discount,” leftovers from some “Day of Devotion” event, but the discount is about to get even deeper, on account of how dirty they are.

ii. TEMPTING FATE

A recent expedition to the Lorentia Caves uncovered a hidden gem–literally. Enterprising rock enthusiasts have brought back wheelbarrows full of round geodes, and have made a game out of cracking them open. Geodes that are green inside will get a lavish prize: a stay at a local spa or a gift card to a fancy restaurant. Purple or red inside will get a free drink at the local coffee shop, or a small gift card to use at a local shop. Brown or clear gems get nothing special–but you get to keep the rocks! They hold no special properties, but can be nice to look at and make great paper weights, and some of them almost seem to

g̵l̶o̶w̷

i̵̗̐n̷̯̉ ̶̞̒t̷̝̃h̵͙̆e̸̩̍ ̸̢̌d̷͕̀a̷̬̕ŗ̵̐k̷̼͝n̴̨̍ȅ̶͎ş̵̈s̷̟̽

…

ERROR: MULTIPLE REDUNDANCIES DETECTED
RECALIBRATING
LOADING UPDATES...
PLEASE WAIT

Occasionally, very occasionally, breaking open one of these rocks causes it to crumble, becoming little more than gray ash. Static pops across the surface before it disintegrates.

ERROR: DATA CORRUPTED
PURGING CONTENT

Those who have found these ashen geodes will find that memories of them disappear just as soon as they turn away from what they’ve just seen.

.̸.̷.̵.̴.̷.̸.̸.̶.̴.̴.̸.̷.̵.̵.̷

…

Anyway.

No one quite knows where the pop-up casino came from, but it’s doing a bustling business at night. Now, this establishment is small, nowhere near the size of the one in the past, and is not nearly as expansive. Nonetheless, it helps create a thriving nightlife in town: there’s games, drinking, dancing, and all sorts of fun. Locals are encouraged to participate either by attending or working, or even performing in some way!

It’s a beautiful day in Aldrip. Just like yesterday. Just like tomorrow. Just like every day s̴h̵o̸u̶l̵d̸ ̶b̸e̵.

iii. LOST AND FOUND

You wake in a maze surrounded by fog. You have no memory of entering the maze. You have no idea which direction you might have come from. You are simply here, and there seems to be no exit above. So. The only way is forward.

You may be alone, or have company. Either way, aside from you and any other characters you may find, the maze seems empty. Without end. Without purpose.

Whatever twists and turns you take, all will eventually find themselves in the center, in their own time. There is nothing here, either, except for an overwhelming sense of aloneness. There is nothing here. There is nothing there.

There is nothing–

ERROR: REDUNDANT PROCESS FOUND
PURGING CONTENT

...

You wake up.

It’s another beautiful day in Aldrip.

Like all the days before and all the days after, your morning proceeds apace. You start your morning, you say hello to friends and neighbors. You…

… you find something unusual in an area you frequent. An item. It’s small, and somehow, it’s something you think you should know. Some will feel compelled to pick these items up. Some will feel a deep sense of unease when looking at them, and refuse to interact. Turning your back on these items will cause them to disappear. You won’t have to worry about that anymore. Not on this beautiful day.

Picking up the items causes a rush of information to flood your mind. Something like a memory plays in your head: the person in this memory looks and sounds like you. But…you don’t remember living that life, or doing those things. So how does it feel so real?

Throughout the rest of the event, these items will continue appearing. Characters are free to interact with them or ignore them as you see fit. Regaining more memories means they may regain their powers, as well, though whether they remember how to control them is another story.

These memories will feature prominently in the event poll that goes up after this, and your choice of how many memories they regain (or don’t) may have a lasting effect on your character. Not filling it out will also have an impact on them. So please make sure to fill out the poll!

iv. MISSING LINKS

As this strange memory phenomenon takes over Aldrip, other odd things begin to happen. It’s small, at first, and barely notable except that it renders Aldrip slightly less idyllic than usual. There are a few clouds in the sky. You may get caught in a passing rain shower, or maybe sleep through your alarm…

It gets worse.

The end of the month crawls ever closer, slow and steady. As it does, things begin to go missing. Small things, at first: personal possessions, the lunch left in the break room, flyers that look like maybe they were torn down in the town square. Is someone thieving? Here? In Aldrip?? You’ve never known Aldrip to have a problem with crime. Everything is so…

…

Pleasant.

Everyone becomes a suspect. It could have been your neighbor who took your wallet, or a coworker. Maybe your friend took that bracelet from the counter while you weren’t looking. But close to the end of the month, this starts getting bigger. What happened to that tree along the path you walk every day? Wasn’t there a butcher shop on the corner there? Where have all the birds gone?

ERROR: DATA LOST

Things go missing.

They keep going missing.

Why have they disappeared?

And…where have they gone?

v. THE COUNTDOWN

Sunday, March 31.

It’s raining.

It never rains like this in Aldrip.

Characters wake in the morning to anxiety twisting in the pit of their stomach, inexplicable and impossible to trace. As the day wears on, this sense of foreboding ramps up. Characters may even see significant numbers throughout the day that seem to count…down.

Twelve. Morning. How funny, to see these recurrences. Odd.

Eight. Seven. Around noon. This must be a coincidence, and yet, you cannot help but wonder if it is meaningful.

Four. Late afternoon. Wonder and curiosity are replaced by dread. Whatever is at the end of this countdown–it feels like a finality. Terrifying and unknown.

Two. Night. Those going to bed will find their sleep restless and filled with bad dreams.

UPDATES INSTALLED
RESTARTING…

One. Midnight. The clock strikes twelve, and whatever your character is doing–sleeping, waking, etc–the whole of existence seems to blink out.

(Info about what happens after this will be forthcoming in the event poll results and April’s SOTG.)

vi. WILDCARD

Go wild! We know that you all have plotted extensively for this event, so go ahead and do what you'd like with it!

♡

Comments

[ae10d1f]

[ Ryuki opens his mouth to retort defensively, but ultimately it settles in a pout as he finds he can't a way to prove his innocence (but he's not admitting that snide comeback is the truth, either).

And the truth doesn't just end there; it would be a lie to say he doesn't resonate with the sensation the other is describing. But he's found the more he mulls over the subject, the more frequently he finds himself plagued by flashes of distant memories, none of which are supposedly his own. Both in his dreams and while awake.

His eyes fall to the forsaken drink for a brooding moment as he tries to work out a way to change the subject. ]

The only weird thing I see here are the things you're saying. Really, what's gotten into you? Don't tell me you got rejected again...

[ That last accusation might just be a byproduct of one of those times he was too wasted to remember anything concrete about their conversation. ]

[bonobos]

[ damn! that one sears! sha-ming's glass thumps against the bar counter, a brow raising as his gaze intermingles with ryuki's. ]

Come onnnnnn, man! [ you didn't have to do him like that! ] If you keep talkin' like that, you better be prepared to be my rebound. We gotta stick together or else we're cooked.

[ but that was, undeniably, not the point of this conversation. sha-ming breathes out through his nose, fingers pinching at the crease between his brows. he looks to ryuki again, features more severe, the lines of his face hardening in ways that they usually wouldn't. ]

I mean it, though. I'm a lot of things -- but... I ain't crazy. [ then comes a long, forlorn sip of his drink. ] You hate it here, don'tcha? ...No reason to be drinking this much if you didn't.

[ misery loves company. he knows that in the end, that's why he's here. ]

[ae10d1f]

The latter option sounds more appealing, to be honest.

[ A hint of playfulness colors Ryuki's rebuttal, punctuated by a small sigh. Despite Sha-Ming's claims of sanity, his theatrical, over the top reactions often makes him insanely hard to get an accurate read on. Surely he's not serious about that threat... right?

"Hate it here"? Quite the opposite, actually. Ryuki can't begin to imagine how miserable his life would be, were it anything like the one in those weird visions he gets...

He breaks eye contact, features hardening into a frown. As if burned by his own thoughts just now, he reflexively reaches for his drink and takes a long sip, savoring as the thought dissolves into the scorching liquid just as it travels down his throat. Even though he knows he really shouldn't— ]

I hate the criminal that killed my parents, but that's about it. I'm thankful for the life I'm living here.

[ Or so he tries to convince himself. Because the thought of losing this lif̵̭͂̈e is equally horrifying and liberating at the same time. ]

[bonobos]

Damn, you out to break my heart or somethin'?

[ there's an edge of slapstick comedy to his reaction, as if he's not quite taking it seriously -- for all of his flaws, his ego was practically nonexistent. but then ryuki sits there, entrenched in his own thoughts, and sha-ming notices the way he reaches for that drink, the way he downs it so eagerly--

and he watches, head resting against the palm of his hand. his features are feather light, not at all taut with judgement, but there is something discerning in his gaze, like he's figuring him out. ]

There's something on your mind, and you're tryin' to drink it away. I dunno what popped in there just now, but you don't gotta hide it, yanno. [ he remarks. ] And yeah, that makes two of us. I always get this feeling that--

It could be worse. A whole lot worse. I've got people here. I've got things that matter to me. That's better than nothing, ain't it? And yet...

I dunno. [ then comes a sip of his drink. ] I can't explain it... the shit I've been seeing in the back of my head recently. It's like...another world, you feel?