{ 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

[izanagis]

There's a note of fondness in Yu's expression when he sees Avalon, even with circumstances being what they are. Still, his mouth is set in a thoughtful line as his eyes scan the area again.

"I agree," he says after a moment, hands on his hips. "No witnesses, no evidence of vandalism..."

It bothers him in a way he can't quite put a finger on just yet. He's not glad that things are going missing, but he is glad he's not the only one who's noticed.

"You said smaller things-- like what? Anything we should be looking for?"

[driving_from_the_backseat]

Avalon smiles a little, but the expression fades quickly. “Then it must have just vanished.” The warmth that had flooded their chest when they saw Yu is pierced by a sense of unease, strong but fleeting.

“A vase at the inn, and a patron’s wallet,” they answer. “I guess someone could have stolen both, but if the sign is simply gone I expect those things could be, too.”

[izanagis]

Vanished... The sense of unease Yu is feeling begins to increase. Something within him deeply, deeply refuses to accept that as an answer. He can't say why; usually, he's pretty open-minded about strange things. It was fairly easy for him to accept--

... Accept what? Something was on the tip of his tongue, but-- it's gone immediately.

"Things can't just...vanish," he asserts, and then after a pause adds, "...can they? They have to be somewhere."

[driving_from_the_backseat]

“Everything seems odd, almost as if reality were glitching.” They think of the journal that they had picked up earlier that day, how it had shown them a glimpse of someone who could not possibly be them. Somehow, part of them is certain that the creature in the vision was them.

[izanagis]

"'Glitching,'" Yu repeats, but the incredulity in his tone is almost entirely eclipsed by a feeling of worry that comes with the idea. And yet...it would explain things, wouldn't it? Things going missing, and...everything else.

Speaking of that...

He worries his bottom lip for a moment, trying to work out how he wants to ask what he wants to ask. No one wants their partner to think they're a lunatic, after all.

"You haven't been having any...weird dreams, have you? Things that seem more like memories?"

[driving_from_the_backseat]

So others have been experiencing this, too.

“Yes, I have,” they say. “The people in them look nothing like me, but … part of me is certain that I am those people.”

[izanagis]

Somehow, it brings Yu little joy to have it confirmed that it's happening to Avalon, too. He frowns a bit at the particulars, though.

"You've been dreaming about being different people?"

They sound too certain about it for that to be a mistake...maybe Claude is right -- maybe they're seeing past lives.

[driving_from_the_backseat]

Avalon rests their hand on their bracelet, tucking the final bead into the top row. If the visions were real, it would be part of their body.

“Not exactly. The people in my dreams do not look like they could be me, but instinct tells me that they are.”

[izanagis]

Instinct... There is something about the use of that word that Yu resonates with, almost alarmingly so, and he didn't realize it until he heard Avalon say as much. The creatures he's seen in his own dreams, the people he regarded as friends...

I am thou. Thou art I.

Is it the same type of instinct, calling him to regard that voice that keeps ringing in his head...?

"I think I understand," he says after a moment. "... As much as I can understand any of this, anyway. None of it really makes sense, does it? All of these things we've been seeing..." A frown. How to word it...? "They seem too fantastical to be real."

[driving_from_the_backseat]

Instinct is telling them to believe in the existence of a dark, endless place that is penetrated by emotions. Instinct is telling them to believe that they can transform into anything that they can visualize, that their bracelet is a record of everyone they have killed.

“Everything that happens in the visions should be impossible, but it all feels like it could be real.” They reach for Yu’s hand automatically, looking for comfort, looking for stability. The beads curling up their arm suddenly feel much heavier than they really are. What would Yu think if he knew what the other version of them has done? Could they have killed that many people?

Avalon looks down, unable to meet Yu’s eyes. “The creature in my visions is … not like me. I’m not sure if I want them to be real.”