{ 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

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…

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

[memori3s]

[ And Aerith's right; Minato does recall there's never been a fee for crashing on Aerith's couch. He doesn't actually mind, but the fact that Aerith's pointing out that he's been acting a little odd does make him frown. She's cornering him, albeit playfully. He's familiar with that tactic of hers, but he plays along anyways. ]

I... kept seeing things around town. I don't remember any of them, but it's like I've seen them in a dream before.

[ There's a brief pause as he collects his thoughts, as though using a pair of fragile tweezers to arrange them into place. ]

Seeing them made me feel like something terrible was going to happen. ...and then I had a bad dream, that's all.

[ His gaze is distant, clouded, as he tries to recall the details. ]

I was on a rooftop, but I don't... remember why, or what I was doing there.

[ It's probably the most sentences he's said at once to Aerith. He's trying to remember, trying to really remember because Aerith's the one asking. The details are all hazy though, like shadows blending into each other.

He raises a hand, brushing his fingertips against his right temple. ]

My head hurt here all day too. ...it's gone now though.

[ Another pause. ]

You're not going to tell Sha-Ming, are you?

[ He knows how much his brother worries about him. ]

[everblooms]

You know he's going to get hurt if he finds out I knew before him. [ it's the most gentle chastising she can offer him, but it isn't her saying she won't. rather, it's confirmation: his secret's safe with her, and they'll both have t weather his temper. such a crybaby, that man. all he ever wants is to be held. ]

I had a vision, too. [ this is an easier topic, somehow, than sha-ming. guilt is a fickle, selfish thing. ] I thought it was just me, but now I'm not so sure... Did you feel like— you were protecting something...? Or someone?

[ so she won't tell sha-ming. but she certainly can't not tell minato this much. the wind rustles her hair, a breeze welcomed in from the open double doors just beyond the pair. it does not help the warm, needling sensation at the base of her spine that eggs her on, tells her to hurry up. ]

[memori3s]

[ ...yeah, Sha-Ming will definitely feel wounded if he finds out. Clearly, the solution is for him to never discover their little secret.

And as Aerith shares that she's had her own set of visions, Minato can only blink. Did it feel like he was protecting something or someone? His lips part with surprise. ]

...how did you know?

[ It's a confession, a confirmation. ]

I think there was someone on that rooftop. I don't know who it was, but -- yeah.

[ And that same feeling came up in other instances too. He's on a rooftop again, different from the one in his dream, but the feeling remains the same. ]

[everblooms]

Really? [ Incredulity filters into her voice like sunlight through a window, illuminating her confusion. Not aimed at him, no. ] That's weird, [ Aerith offers softly, thoughtfully, looking away, and into the pews as she considers this image. ]

I can't remember anything like a rooftop or images, actually. Just a feeling. Really... an overwhelming sense of trying to protect people. [ A pause falls over her now, before her gaze slips back to him, through the corner of her eye. She feels bad, suddenly, laying her own problem at his feet.

Then again, it is Minato. ]

Did you save them?

[memori3s]

[ It sure is pretty weird. Minato's not about to deny that. But it seems like they've definitely experienced different things, given Aerith defining the feeling as an overwhelming sense of trying to protect others. He'd felt that too, but there'd been something else trying to devour him too.

Fear. He remembers feeling terrified, backed into a corner despite his desire to save others. ]

I don't know.

[ He can't recall. Not exactly, anyways. ]

I don't think it was the only time though. I think there were other times too, so... maybe I did.

[ Minato glances back at Aerith, head canted a bit with a pensive frown. She probably won't tell Sha-Ming about that bizarre feeling, he thinks. And if that's the case, that makes two of them, doesn't it? ]

[everblooms]

[ It takes two to tango, and it's undeniable that Minato and Aerith are locked in some kind of dance. Whatever it is, three's a crowd, and burdening someone else with the steps would be an unkindness. Perhaps it speaks to their characters more than anything, this unwillingness to share the weight of a hallucination.

Then again, neither of them are normal enough to assume that's all it is. ]

Yeah... I don't think that the only time I felt like that. Somehow... [ An inherent feeling? The whisper of something more? She's not sure. She just knows it like she knows her prayer book. ] It'll be okay, though. You know that much, right?

[memori3s]

[ He doesn't know that for sure. He doesn't know if it'll be okay. But somehow, Minato gets the sense that it has to be okay, and if it's not, he'll find a way to make it so.

So he nods. ]

Yeah. It'll be okay.

[ And that's why there's no need to share with Sha-Ming. It'll be okay, but even if it wasn't, it doesn't feel like either of them would share that with Sha-Ming either.

They can't burden him with that.

Minato glances out over the empty pews, a quiet smile taking shape on his features. ]

Tomorrow will happen, and it'll be okay.

[ Life goes on, with or without them. ]