Time for a Cinnabon!

[polymods]

✖ 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!

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

[mewnifestos]

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.

[unkindled_madness]

[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.

[mewnifestos]

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.

[unkindled_madness]

[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?

[mewnifestos]

[ 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.

[unkindled_madness]

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."

[mewnifestos]

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?

[unkindled_madness]

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.

[mewnifestos]

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.

[unkindled_madness]

[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?

[mewnifestos]

[ 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?

[unkindled_madness]

[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?

[mewnifestos]

[ Oh good, not talking about feelings is one of Anders' favorite things. Clearly they should discuss things that are not remotely adjacent to anyone's emotional health at all whatsoever more often. ]

Well, spirits and the like aren't actually born, exactly - but more or less, as I know it. Mages being the exception, of course. We're just like everyone else, sans the magic.

[unkindled_madness]

You've said before that you were born with magic. Is there a particular circumstance to it, or is it simply... chance?

[mewnifestos]

A little of this, a little of that. Sometimes it runs in a bloodline, and others it just sort of pops up out of nowhere.

Like, say, with me. Not a drop of magic in my family lineage, at least as far back as I ever knew. Then, poof! There I am. Ruining the whole streak.

[unkindled_madness]

I see.

Then there really is no way of knowing for certain unless you should manifest the ability.

[mewnifestos]

Pretty much. I mean, we don't fall out of the womb hurling fireballs. Lucky for our mothers, eh?

[ He chuckles at this, though it's more joking to cover his own discomfort with the memories tacked onto the ideas they're circling, now. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[If he wanted to avoid discomfort for the both of them, that was absolutely not the right joke to make. Sephiroth's posture stiffens slightly.]

...I believe childbirth has enough risks already, yes.

[mewnifestos]

[ Well, that's not an angle Anders is all that uncomfortable with, personally. Healing isn't all broken bones and bloody head injuries, after all. ]

You don't have to tell me that, I've seen plenty enough of them firsthand. Babies are always a messy business. Give me wounded soldiers over screaming infants any day.

[unkindled_madness]

Mm.

[He isn't squeamish. Sephiroth believes it's the reason he never knew his mother, so it's a touchy subject. Which is why all Anders gets in response is a vague noise of agreement before Sephiroth reaches to pull some other book off the shelves. He doesn't recognize it, but it looks promising, potentially a book on magic from some other world entirely.]

[mewnifestos]

[ Well, his talkative streak had to come to an end, eventually. Anders isn't deterred, but he can take a hint. Magic was a more interesting topic, anyway. ]

...In any case, most mages learn they're mages when they're children. Young, if they're fortunate, so they won't remember much of the world outside the Circle.

[unkindled_madness]

[That doesn't sound fortunate to Sephiroth, but he's going to leave that remark alone.]

But some learn when they're adults?

[mewnifestos]

[ Like most things Anders would flippantly classify as fortunate, no, it really, really is not. ]

I suppose it's possible, but I've never heard of anyone coming into their magic more than a decade or so on.

[ Like, say, he did. And twelve was exceptionally late, already, compared to his peers. ]

Such a late bloomer would have to have exceptional control without even realizing it. Over both their magic and their emotions.

[unkindled_madness]

[Like maybe someone who was trained from a young age to use a different sort of magic? He shakes his head.]

Hm. But then, that's how things work in your world.

[It would make more sense, as a possibility, if Anders' method of magic simply wasn't available to him on his Planet. Maybe it could be here.]

[mewnifestos]

Well, I can't exactly speak to how they work in anyone else's!

[ Anders might make his fair share of assumptions, but that's a bit too far. Especially considering he barely understands anybody else's worlds, out here. ]

Anything's possible here, though. I think we can all agree on that.