![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
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…?
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.
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!
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.
Come on Jessica, come on Tori! Let's go to the mall, you won't be sorry!
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.
Roxy Spaulding| Gen13 | OTA
"OH MY GAAAAAAAAWD!"
You would think that Roxy is having a religious experience from the amount of joy that comes forth out of her mouth when she steps inside the giant mall, well I mean, it's pretty close to that. As a self proclaimed Mall Bunny this is one of her favorite places to be and helps her feel almost normal and like she's home.
She's all but bouncing with excitement and should you be nearby you should prepare yourself because this girl knows how to shop and will drag you along with her....
Ⅱ. BLACK FRIDAY:
Not only does Roxy love to shop but she also loves a good deal so when she sees all the massive SALE signs in the department store she can't help herself, she has to pop in. Which turns out to be a horrible mistake when she sees the screaming hordes of eyeless people.
"Holy shit!" She squeaks as the awful crowd surges forward, "What the fuck do we do?"
Ⅳ. MANNEQUIN:
Usually Roxy loves window shopping, it was one of her main sources of entertainment when she was young as she grew up poor but that didn't matter because you didn't ever need money to look at all the new fashion trends.
Looking was always free.
But there's something not quite right about the last few stores she's walked past, for one thing the mannequins are all starting to look the same. Which okay, most times they all look pretty similar but the look that they are all starting to have isn't your normal blank canvas type of look.
They are all suddenly starting to look familiar....
They are all starting to look short, muscular and like her ex-boyfriend.
"Oh shit."
Ⅳ. WILDCARD: Want to do something totally different? Hit Roxy up, also feel free to switch to brackets if prose isn't your style.
Arrival
He hears Roxy yell with excitement not far away and turns to see what that's about.
"You're really into the shopping thing, huh?" he asks. He's teasing, but gentle. He's not going to begrudge someone enjoyment.
no subject
Lots of people but those people are weird in her mind.
"This is especially great because now we can get some good clothes! Don't tell me you've been enjoying wearing whatever you can find off the islands."
no subject
"Dunno. Some people, probably."
He offers her a grin. "But I'm not those people. Hell yeah I want better clothes! Hope we get to keep 'em before we get shipped off to the next place." He ruffles his wing feathers a little and continues, "Though I still have to rip things to make my wings fit, it's better than nothing. This place is pretty big, so it's gotta have something cool, right?"
no subject
She looks at his wings curiously, "Huhn. Yeah I guess you have to literally rip every shirt you get to fit those through. Bummer."
Her face brightens, "But I bet we could find some stuff in here that could work better." She says and then offers him her hand.
"I'm Roxy by the way, hi!"
no subject
"I get my clothes tailored," he says, "But I'm guessing that's not an option here. Rips will have to do." That's what he'd done as a child.
He shakes her hand and says, "I'm Hawks. Is this the first island you've seen or were you on the last one?"
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
I. Arrival
After a moment, they figure they should say something.
"Uh... hello. Where are we going?" Nulo's along for the ride, they just want to know what the ride is, especially since they've never seen or heard of a mall before.
no subject
"There's so much I need to get; clothes, boots, underwear, socks, maybe some accessories...."
no subject
From a person whose needs have always been available to them inside a well. But that's right, humans tend to physically need things. So they suppose this makes sense.
But...
"Why are we coming along?"
no subject
"The islands don't always supply certain things, like I've been wearing these ugly UGG boots since pumpkin spice island and they suck. I want real boots."
no subject
Why not go along for the ride? This could be fun and interesting.
"Sure, let's 'stock up', then," they say with a smile, trying to match her stride.
(no subject)
The Blackest of Fridays (With that Friday song playing on repeat)
Was it murder if they were all eyeless zombie people? It was getting harder and harder for Wade to think of these as real people, or even NPCs, because they were always several degrees to the side of whatever was normal. Also, lots of them liked to fuck with him by, you know, sending him into a bad memory. Sure, the tiny text said they were real people, but were they? Were they???
"Hit 'em with that gravity squish squish! Then buy some sexy lingerie for me to ogle you in!! Not that I was reading your other thread or anything!! And I'm definitely not disappointed that Kyle didn't barf!! He was actually pretty cool, despite the fact that he's nearly died around me multiple times, at least once being almost maybe my fault a little. Not that I would know that. Because I didn't read the thread or anything."
Gotta get down on Friday
"AIR FRYYYYYER!"
Her brows knit together in concentration as she tries to keep all of these mindless things stuck to the ground but it's Black Friday and there's always more, the next wave of shoppers trampling over the ones that Roxy has pulled to the ground and heading straight for her and Wade.
"Uh, little help here, handsome?"
no subject
He watches the gravity powers and applauds. That's the good stuff. Well, almost. They writhing and screaming is more than he anticipated - he'd thought more of the quick death kinda thing. This seemed pretty painful. And then there were the people stampeding over the other people and...
"Aw geez, sure, yeah. I was hoping gravity would be easy mode, but this situation calls for bullets."
And with that, he whips out his Tommy Gun from a few islands ago. "SAY 'ALLO TO MY LEETLE FRIEND!!" He pauses. "Not my penis though. I realize that probably sounds like poor phrasing, oops." And with that, he opens fire on the crowd.
cw: zombie shopper violence, minor injuries
"I might need that later and I don't want it getting ripped off!"
Deadpool's bullets slam into the second wave of zombie shoppers who don't seem to feel it at all but thankfully enough of them drop dead onto the first wave, covering them and pinning them down, which means she can let up on her powers. And it's lucky that she does because somehow there's a third wave that is coming out from the kitchenware section next to them, she utters a little surprised squawk and distorts the gravity around them so that they go flying up into the air and away from them.
"Fuuuuck why are there so many?" She growls and suddenly feels something grab her ankles, she looks down and sees a pair of twin eyeless girls. She opens her mouth in surprise and that's when a huge corpulent man, possibly their father, grabs her from behind and shoves her to the ground. She lands hard, her chin banging onto the linoleum floor and she feels her teeth clack together over her tongue, filling her mouth with the taste of blood. The man, single minded in his purpose to get at those wonderful sales steps onto her lower back and Roxy cries out in pain.
cw: zombie shopper violence, murderdeathkill
In the middle of zombie shopper violence, Deadpool has a moment. At first it's a moment of staring at her in surprise, and then he has warm fuzzies. Sure, he'd had a good idea she was happy after last time, but he also knew what he was. He was a fling, especially if you were drunk enough to overlook his ghoulish features. He definitely was not relationship material. So someone like Roxy, who he'd become somewhat attached to himself, suggesting she might want more than the one time in the love tunnel meant something.
Unfortunately, the zombies did not have a warm fuzzy, and kept on advancing. In fact, they manage to shove Roxy to the ground and..and step on her?!?. Deadpool's eyes narrow, which in true comics fashion mean that the eyeholes of his mask also narrow, and he feels a cold sense of fury filling him. Before, he hadn't really been shooting to kill in case these were real people under some kind of spell. But now...
He puts a bullet in each girl's head, then up the large man's ass at such an angle as it hits the heart and stops him dead immediately. Then he proceeds to murder everyone in a ten foot radius of Roxy with equal precision, dropping bodies to the floor left and right until he runs out of bullets.
"Side note to self, take advantage of black friday sales to stock up on bullets."
Then he whips out his arm-katana from the very first story prompt he did on this community. For those not in the know, he ripped his own arm off, breaking it in such a way as to have the arm bone come to a sharp point. Naturally, he's since worked on sharpening it further and peeling away the flesh. Whoo boy, if Maleficent was still here to see it, she might fangirl him for how dark and necromantic it is. Once his makeshift sword is ready (do they sell swords in malls? he might have to get legit hardware if so), he goes to work slicing and dicing and keeping a perimeter around Roxy. His little bracelet was probably gonna go so very red after this, but it wasn't like he cared what color it was.
cw: zombie shopper violence, murderdeathkill
cw: zombie shopper violence, murderdeathkill
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
I
Molly's yell is in chorus with Roxy's. Startled by someone sharing her exact level of enthusiasm for a mall, Molly glances over and sees the other woman. She looks her up and down and offers her a big grin.
"It's a MALL!!! I totally thought these things were dying out with the Boomers, but here one is!! Do you think they have a cool food court? What kinda stores do you think are here? HEY WHAT'S THAT?!?" She pauses in her gushing to point at CD store. "It says it's a music store but how? You just, like, buy music on your phone. Are those fancy concert tickets in those little square plastic boxes? That's a lot of plastic waste if so...I mean, just sell the paper tickets and save the sea turtles, right?"
no subject
"Omg finally someone else who gets how amazing this is! Malls are the best! And they better have a good food court, if they don't have an Orange Julius I'll riot!" She says and motions towards one of those standing mall directories.
"Let's see what stores we've got...." She says as she eyes it, "You are here. That's for telling us...."
When Molly asks her about the music store she laughs, "Those are CDs darlin. They mostly contain old people music."
no subject
Molly blinks. CDs? It might be weird that she's never heard of them, but she hasn't gone to much school, when she had parents they were pretty well off and technologically sophisticated, and her friends have always been both very poor and very, very, very tech and magic savvy. CDs just weren't on her radar, especially in her 12 years of experience on this earth.
"Huh. Do old people not know how the internet works? Look, they're 30% off! But who buys music when you can just stream it?"
no subject
Roxy looks at the directory again and taps a few spots eagerly, "OMG they have so many good clothing stores. I NEED more clothes, I've been wearing the same thing since pumpkin spice island and I HATE it. Do you need clothes? I also need shoes. And underwear because OMG why don't these islands give us more than like three pairs??"
no subject
It was a great piece of wisdom from a 12 year old.
"ME TOO!!! I like to look cute and I haven't been able to find a lot! Do you know where we're supposed to wash our underwear because uh. I've just been cycling through mine and it feels gross." She frowns a little. "I'm not very good at adulting."
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
Ⅳ.
"Lost in menswear, darlin'? Me too..." he mutters.
no subject
"I...no...." She says, trailing off for a second before shaking her head and trying again. "Sorry, the mannequins looked weird to me for a second."
no subject
"Weird?" he looks at them again. They do all look the same. But they are mannequins. "Weird how?"
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
cw: emotional abuse
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)