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Time for a Cinnabon!

✖ THE MALL

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
You step off the ferry and find there is no beach. No, the concrete wharf opens up to a vast, flat plain of pavement. It goes on, and on, and on. Sodium lights on tall poles are spaced at regular intervals, and as you move forward you notice white lines painted in neat rows.Those of you from a typical earth world might recognise almost immediately that you are, in fact, in a giant parking lot.

Up ahead you can see a vast building, a long rectangle flanked on either end by an even larger square. In the very center there is a large, triangular glass awning hanging over an entranceway composed of several automatic doors. There is neon tubing running along the inside of the awning, lighting up the glass so it is a beacon shining across the expanse of pavement you’re crossing.

That’s right, Travellers. We’re going to The Mall.

The building is huge - it takes a good hour to walk from one anchor store to the other at the opposite end. There are stores selling damn near everything - clothes, housewares, books, kitchen supplies, movies and music, electronics - as well as hair salons, nail salons, and a ton of kiosks. The merchandise being sold seems to be from different decades - anywhere from the 1970s to the late 2000s. You can find almost anything you could want!

The flooring is faux marble, the pillars decorated with brass detailing halfway up their length. Potted palms are set at regular intervals. The mall’s concourse is huge and open, with a glass ceiling criss-crossed with metal supports. A fountain jets water coloured by lights into the air over and over in the center of the concourse.

Escalators and an elevator run up and down to the second floor, where the food court is, which is a heaven, provided you’re too worried about MSG. Food from across every conceivable world exists here - no matter where you’re from, you can find a fast-food version of something you’re familiar with. And there’s an Orange Julius!

Truly, a paradise. Kind of weird that the automatic doors won’t let you out the way you came in, but you have everything you need right here! Just be really careful on those escalators - wouldn’t want to get sucked under. And by the way, what’s that noise…?

Notes:
1. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

2. These prompts are a jumping off point - how they affect your character and their development is up to you.

3. Any food is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities.

4. The people inside the mall are normal humans unless otherwise indicated. Killing them is possible and will affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation.

5. Have fun!

Ⅱ. BLACK FRIDAY
CW: violence, mob mentality
One of the mall anchors is a huge department store that sells everything under the sun. As you walk through the empty aisles, you’ll notice that there are signs hung everywhere that read “SALE!” Indeed, prices seem to have been drastically reduced. The place seems eerily calm, however; you can’t see any shoppers anywhere.

But if you walk close to the exterior entrance on the far side of the store, you will see them if you look outside.

Hundreds upon hundreds of people pressed up against the glass doors. With a start you see that all of them, from children to the elderly, are missing their eyes. Black, empty sockets stare sightlessly ahead. Store employees, recognisable by their red smocks, stand at the ready.

“Alright, let’s open her up!” one of them shouts, and the employees move to unlock the doors. Immediately the crowd surges forward. The employees pull each other out of the way moments before they can be trampled. The mob rushes through the entranceways, stampeding towards… towards…

Oh. You.

The mob lacks any empathy; people push and climb over one another, uncaring if anyone falls to the ground. You’re pretty sure several of them are actually being crushed beneath people’s feet. Oddly, they aren’t screaming in pain. People’s mouths are moving, but only to form certain words:

“FLATSCREEN!”

“INTELLIVISION!”

“TICKLE-ME-ELMO!”

They are only screaming what it is that they want. They are single minded in their purpose, and don’t care who they hurt in their pursuit.

Make your way to the entrance that opens into the mall and you’ll be greeted with a nasty sight: the gates are closed. No matter what you do to them, they won’t budge an inch, impervious to brute strength, magic, superpowers. That means you’ll have to find another way out if you don’t want to join in the bloodshed. Maybe there’s a ventilation system or a loading bay...

There’s a chance you could just hide out until the sale ends - a store this vast has more than enough food and drink to sustain you, and you could probably get a good night’s sleep in a camping display if it isn’t torn apart by rabid consumers. Just be careful, because the longer you spend trapped in the department store the more likely you are to turn into one of them: mindlessly screaming what it is you want as you tear the store apart.

Notes:
1. There may be a few Black Friday shoppers loose in the mall, but primarily they stick to the department store.

2. Your character might find a way into the mall again, or the parking lot outside. However they manage that is up to you!

3. If your character does turn into a consumer drone, they can be changed back by being taken out of the department store. Maybe go chill out by the fountain in the concourse or get some chilli fries in the food court.

Ⅲ. UNDERGROUND PARKING
CW: potential starvation, dehydration

If the two floors of the mall are for eating and shopping, where do the down escalators go? Unsurprisingly they lead to an underground parking lot. More surprisingly, if you choose to enter the lot you’ll find yourself suddenly transported to the inside of a car. What car? Any car! It sure isn’t yours! It’s locked and you can’t get the doors or windows to open. Even trying to break your way out is futile.

Thank goodness you have a way to call for help: your ScryWatch! Although you can still access the public network, your ScryWatch will also now function as a private one-to-one device like a phone or a walkie talkie. You can ask a friend to come and help you!

The second person entering the lot won’t be magicked away, but a friendly mall employee will stop you and hand you a set of keys. Clearly they go to a car… but which one? Better start pressing that alarm button, huh?

The parking lot is massive. The party in the car would be wise to describe what they can see to their seeker. After all, teamwork makes the dream work! You sure don’t want to be stuck in a warm car for a couple of days!

Notes:
1. Your character can post/call the network or text/call an individual - in the latter case nobody else can read or hear the conversation.

2. The car might have some goldfish crackers or something in the glove box, or maybe an old gatorade bottle on the floor, but there’s not going to be enough to survive on for any length of time.

Ⅳ. MANNEQUIN
CW: automatonophobia

As you walk through the mall, you’ll see plenty of window displays. Gleaming cookware turning on pedestals under mellow lights, toys going round and round in fake wonderlands, personalised miniature license plates - although they’re all out of Borts - and of course plenty of stylish clothes draped over countless mannequins.

It’s always fun to window shop, isn’t it? Which is how you will come to notice that some of the mannequins look awfully familiar.

Everyone has, at some point in their life, treated someone like they weren’t real outside of what you wanted them to be. The romantic interest you put on a pedestal, the friend you only called when you needed them, or the poor bastard in the office who never did anything to you but who you hated on because it made you feel better. The mannequins greatly resemble that person or persons.

No matter which window you pass, they’re there. It looks like they’re watching you. But that’s silly, isn’t it?

With every mannequin you pass, the more your unease grows. Eventually the feeling of being watched is so great that it’s overwhelming. A sense of guilt grows alongside your paranoia, gnawing at your guts until you feel physically ill. Maybe if you apologise to the dummies for treating them like objects?

Or maybe if you just break all of them into pieces.

Notes:
1. Stating how you have wronged the person the mannequin resembles and apologising will cause the guilt and paranoia to vanish. But then, so will breaking them.

2. Could the mannequins sneak up on you? Move when you’re not looking? Sure! the floor, but there’s not going to be enough to survive on for any length of time.

Come on Jessica, come on Tori! Let's go to the mall, you won't be sorry!

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[Sephiroth does need more hobbies, anyway.

At the question, he pauses. Would it hurt anything to say? He hasn't precisely been making a secret of his search.]

...anything by Gast Faremis. A notable scientist of my world.

[ They're already up to books and burning things, but a few more couldn't hurt.

Anders should be asking how that's spelled, with the intention of actually helping - but something else grabs his immediate attention, before he can think it through. ]

There are books from your world here?

It seems there may be. I recognized one in the history section.

[And, he's read enough that he can identify another name here, even if it's not the one he's looking for. He doesn't call attention to it.]

Do you see any from yours?

No. Or, I mean, I haven't.

[ He wasn't looking specifically, though, and - well. There's another problem with that, isn't there? ]

Where do you suppose they'd keep books on magic, if they had them?

[Now that gets his attention. Here he was operating on emotion, looking for a book by the one person he can acknowledge caring about, when he may have access to things of an extremely practical value.

He's been reluctant to ask any one person to do it, but if he could attempt to learn magic on his own, in private?]

...I suppose that depends on how the people here view magic. Is it fictional, or educational? [He hasn't moved away from the shelf, but his eyes have lifted to skim for the signs he can see from here.]

Fictional? I should hope not.

[ How insulting that would be. And given the island itself, no less - no one around here could claim that this place operates sans magic without having more than a few screws loose.

Anders turns and peers down between the aisles again, disappearing around the corner a second later. ]

But they should be easy to spot, either way. They're all written by First Enchanter this or Senior Enchanter so-and-so. Apostates don't tend to see a lot of their works widely printed, funnily enough.

[Sephiroth hesitates, but if he hasn't found any of Gast's work here, it's possible that may be in another section as well.

He moves on, searching out promising labels for either. Perhaps "Education and Reference"?]

I'm afraid I'm not really familiar with your hierarchy.

Not mine, the Chantry's.

[ Anders flaps a hand dismissively, as he pokes his head between shelves, looking for something familiar. Luckily, most of these books are printed in bizarrely smooth jackets, the lettering on them strangely uniform and colorful - nothing like Thedosian practice. ]

They're all arbitrary titles, anyway. Survive enough torment, grovel convincingly enough, and they'll make you sound more important than the rest of the rabble. Give you a few extra inches of leash.

[ He's moving along at a decent pace, until a darkly colorful alcove catches his eye, nearly hidden behind another row of shelves. Magic and the Occult. Charming. ]

Oh, look here - we have a whole nook!

Hm.

I suppose a leash is still a leash.

[At Anders' discovery, Sephiroth follows him to the "nook."]

The "occult," is it? [Well, it's a better classification than myth. He tilts his head, looking over the titles to see if anything stands out. Something... introductory, perhaps. He'll contain his interest while Anders is there.]

I think we want the magic side, actually.

[ Not that there's any delineation. But he's only a little offended by this classification, and the colorful, almost childish décor adorning the crowded alcove of books.

Here it's a little harder to discern real leather-bound from faux, but after a short while perusing, Anders plucks something from a lower shelf. ] A-ha!

[ But - oh. His expression falls, but only slightly. It's something from home, or at least a viable facsimile, and that's worth some excitement. Despite his criticism for the tome on offer. ]

Wenselus? What am I, a child?

[Sephiroth isn't expecting to find anything familiar here himself. Of course magic exists in his world, but anything written by true magic users is lost to time or language barriers. Writing on practical materia use isn't widely published, and it's useless here anyway.]

Something for beginners, I take it?

[He isn't interested. Not at all. Let him just make particular note of the author and the appearance of the cover.]

Mm. Most of these lectures are on the basic principles of magic, the kind of thing they drill into your head before they let you conjure so much as a spark.

[ Still, he flips through the pages, pausing on familiar diagrams and passages just for the nostalgia of it. ]

Though there is some interesting research on rifts, as well. And a simmering resentment for certain aspects of the Circle's religious teachings that I always found rather endearing.

There is something to be said for basic principles. There are too many in my world who attempt to use magic without understanding the first thing about it.

[He watches the pages turning. Casual observation.]

What are rifts?

We don't really have a choice, in mine.

[ And if asked, Anders is still not sure he wouldn't have preferred to have to stumble through learning on his own, simply to have avoided the tragedy of his life.

Instead of lamenting further, though, he simply continues flipping pages, eventually coming upon the topic at hand and pausing on the page. ]

Tears in the Veil. Thin spots between the mortal world and the Fade, more or less, where demons occasionally leak through.

[Sephiroth is not going to ask follow-up questions on that one.

Just about how Anders' world works.]

Your world exists parallel to some sort of supernatural one?

We don't have demons, in mine.

The Fade and our world are separated, but they aren't truly separate. If they were, there wouldn't be any magic at all, nor dreams.

[ A statement that likely only raises more questions, but one thing at a time. ]

The Veil is more a concept than it is to be taken literally. A barrier between two interwoven worlds.

[Yeah, that does raise a lot of questions. At the top of Sephiroth's list is:]

You mean to say that the Fade enables your magic, and yet you still have it here, on another world entirely?

[ Anders shrugs, closing the book but not putting it back - perhaps he'll hang on to this one, even if he knows it all by heart, by now. ]

If you're expecting me to explain that, I'm at a loss as much as you are. Perhaps there's some link to the Fade here? It certainly would explain all this rampant, unrestrained magic.

...And the way these islands all seem to want to pull us apart, one piece at a time.

I suppose it might be evidence of some unifying principle. Magic in my world draws from the Lifestream, a feature shared by any planet which supports life, at least according to theory. That would include this one. Your Fade is clearly different, but perhaps you utilize it in a similar manner...

[So perhaps Anders is tapping into this planet's Lifestream, or analagous energy source?]

But I don't know what connection you draw between your Fade and the islands wanting to "pull us apart."

The Fade is a dangerous place, and not only because of the demons that inhabit it. No law of nature applies. Just a thought, a bad feeling can conjure the most vicious of nightmares.

[ He gestures vaguely with his free hand. ]

...You know, sort of like what happens here, whenever things start to go horribly wrong for us? And in awfully personal ways, wouldn't you say?

I see your point.

However, there is a difference in intent. The traps here are typically triggered in specific locations and by specific actions. They have been pre-arranged for us.

All of which is easily enough explained by the presence of the Ancient and its many minions!

[ Anders appears to be enjoying himself, as if in spirited debate. But this is as close as he's gotten to discussing magical theory with anyone in - well. More than four months, certainly. ]

Some denizens of the Fade are powerful enough to control whole portions of it, creating illusions within illusions, entire realms just waiting for the unwary to stumble upon only to find themselves trapped inside.

[And do you see how many consecutive sentences you're getting out of Sephiroth? He's into it.]

Then you might posit that this place is some sort of Fade. Or perhaps that whatever barrier is meant to exist between that and the "mortal" realm is especially thin here?

[ Tricking Sephiroth into willingly engaging in conversation is pretty fun, too, honestly. ]

I would, if I were looking to explain all this. Though it's clearly not the Fade I know, too many pieces fit for it to not at least be something adjacent. Perhaps the Fade I know is merely an off-shoot of this larger realm, even?

[He's not categorically against conversation! He just gets turned off to it when people start asking him about feelings.]

It's an intriguing theory.

The ability to control the Fade-- can that be acquired, or must one have been born in that realm?

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