polylogs | Time for a Cinnabon!

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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!

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. ARRIVAL

At this point, Malcolm can't tell if these islands are getting progressively better or worse. Which is scarier? A creepy carnival or a temple dedicated to suburban consumerism? He's not sure.

Speaking of temples, this particular island does not seem to have one. They have everything, including a store that sells only thimbles, but no temple of which to speak. Malcolm purchases an air mattress at a camping store and beds down in a small hallway off of one of the mall's main arteries. It's not that far from a bathroom at least, so that's a bonus.

From the bag that he's carried with him from island to island, Malcolm pulls out a set of hand restraints. He loops them through the curve of a pipe protruding from the wall. This is how he has to sleep so that he doesn't end up hurting himself or someone else. He just hopes that for the four or so hours that he manages to sleep that he doesn't rip the pipe out of the wall during a nightmare.

"Home sweet home," he says to someone near him, someone who is clearly wondering what's up with the restraints. "Nothing like tying yourself to a wall to sleep, right?"

III. UNDERGROUND PARKING

Over the course of his time at the mall, Malcolm has bought himself a few creature comforts. He's trying to stay out of the menswear stores. As much as he would love a full wardrobe of new suits, they would be a pain to have to carry from island to island. Plus, he doesn't even know if they'll come with him to the next place anyway. He's limiting himself to one. Okay, two.

To keep himself from buying more extraneous crap in the stores, Malcolm goes exploring, which is how he finds himself in the underground parking deck. Suffice it to say, he's surprised to end up inside of a car. After searching for keys and finding none, Malcolm tries to get out. The door won't budge.

Panic starts to set in. Malcolm isn't completely claustrophobic, but he doesn't like the idea of being stuck in a small place. He tries throwing all of his weight against the door, banging on the window and even looking for something in the car that might break the window. Nothing.

He's going to have to call for help. Fortunately, the ScryWatch network seems to be working. He types out a quick message.

User: sherlockfreud
SOS - Is anyone reading this?

Malcolm takes a few deep breaths as he waits hopefully for a response.

IV. MANNEQUIN

By now, he's so used to the mall that Malcolm almost knows what all of the mannequins look like. Almost. As he happens to pass a women's clothing shop, the mannequin in the window catches his eye.

Eve?

It looks uncannily like her, with long blonde hair and green eyes. Her smile is a little sad, a look that he saw often on her face. Malcolm stares for a moment and then, creeped out, moves on.

Except here's another mannequin that looks like Eve, posing in a window for a sporting goods store with a tennis racquet. Here's another Eve, wearing a lacy white wedding dress.

All of the mannequins are starting to look like his ex-girlfriend. His deceased ex-girlfriend.

Malcolm feels like he can't breathe. He has to get away. He starts to run, and ends up slamming into someone because he's too distracted by the creepy mannequins.

"S-Sorry..."

V. WILDCARD

I'm always open to wildcard options! Feel free to PM me or message me at sparks_fly.

[The place is big, and Jon is tired of it already. He’s sitting on a wooden bench in a little corridor off to the side of the market. It has little signs that look like people, and the word INFORMATION, although he is sure they cannot give him the kind of information he seeks.

So it is that he’s alone, taking his rest, when the message comes through on the ScryWatch. A strange name to it, but the Travelers come from all sorts of places.]

un: jon.snow My name is not SOS, it is Jon Snow. I will help you if I can, and if you need it.

Edited 2021-11-07 09:47 (UTC)

[ Thank God, a response. Malcolm's heart leaps when the ScryWatch pings. Apparently the person doesn't know what SOS means, but at least he's willing to come help. ]

I'm in the parking garage. Be careful though, or you might get stuck in a car too.

[Well, that explains a little of why sherlockfreud needs help.]

The place where you’re trapped — what does it look like?

A parking lot.

[ Wait. He might need to elaborate on that. ]

A place where they park cars. Or wagons or chariots or space ships or whatever your mode of transportation is back home.

All right. It’s horses and wagons where I come from, and wheelhouses. I’ll ask the way to where you are. What’s your name? Your real name?

[He’s in motion now, trying to find the place.]

Malcolm. Thanks.

[ He pauses. The car is starting to get a bit stifling and talking to the other man is at least distracting him. ]

It's basically a giant concrete slab... so, not where you would keep horses. Just to clarify.

[When Jon finds the way to the parking lot, aided by directions and signs, he begins to understand the problem. You wouldn’t want to be trapped in a wagon or wheelhouse to begin with, but if you were, you wouldn’t want it to be in such a vast, ill-lit place. It is a cross between a clean stables and a well-lit crypt.]

All right, I’m here. No way to be sure we came in at the same place [(between, in Jon’s case, a shop that sold nothing but candles and a shop that sold nothing but ladies’ smallclothes)], but how long did you walk about before you found yourself in one of these wagons? Hit the window, if you can. I’ll listen for you.

[ Malcolm does as Jon asks, banging on the window with his open hand. Then he has a better idea. He hits the horn a few times. It's hard to miss that. ]

Did you hear that?

Edited 2021-12-10 01:03 (UTC)

Roxy raises an eyebrow at the strange sleeping set up that he's constructed and offers him a small, sarcastic smirk.

"You know when I mentioned handcuffs in the Tunnel of Love I was mostly joking...."

He blushes a little when he realizes that he's talking to Roxy. After making out with her in the Tunnel of Love on the previous island, he's been shy around her. It's not that he regrets it. It's just that he's awkward when it comes to things like this.

Malcolm gives a nervous laugh. "Yeah, well... turns out you weren't too far off."

Her smirk grows wider and she fluffs her hair a little, "Mmmm. I usually am about stuff like that."

She takes a step closer and peers at his bonds, her body language a bit more closed off compared to the last time they were hanging out. Truthfully she's also feeling a bit awkward around him, but she also can't help be curious.

"But really, what's with the chains? You secretly a werewolf or something?"

"I wish," he says. "That might actually be cool."

Malcolm sighs and shoves his hands in his pockets. "I.. have nightmares. Night terrors, actually. They cause me to move around a lot in my sleep. Thrash, might be the better word." A beat. "I better make sure that those pipes are screwed into the wall well."

He's being more open than he usually is about his restraints, but it's not as if he has any choice. There's nowhere to hide them and Roxy's already seen them. Might as well come clean.

"Those must be some night terrors to lock yourself up like that." She muses, but her eyes are kind, she's experienced some pretty bad nightmares in the past so she can understand some of his concern.

"Do you remember them when you wake up? The nightmares I mean."

"I do," he says with a nod. Malcolm knows what she's going to ask next, and he tries to think about how to temper it. "Some are more vague than others... details can be blurry sometimes. Just.. shapes, face..."

He shrugs. Roxy has seen the restraints, but Malcolm still doesn't want to tell her about the fact that his father is a psychopath who haunts his nightmares.

Roxy nods and sinks slowly down into a seated position on the corner of his air mattress.

"I can never tell if that's a good thing or bad." She says with a wry smile, "For a while I was having nightmares and when I woke up I always remembered them which would keep me awake the rest of the night. I always thought it might be better to forget them but then again that might be more panic inducing because you can't remember what you were scared of."

She chuckles, "Sorry. I'm babbling."

He nods, listening. "You're not," Malcolm replies. "It makes sense. What's more frightening: the known or the unknown? That's debatable."

Picking up one of the cuffs from his restraints, he turns it over in his hand. "I don't have the night terrors every night, but they've put me off sleep, for the most part. They've been going on since I was ten."

Her eyes widen a little and her brows crease together in concern, "Since you were ten? Holy shit! Darlin, I'm so sorry."

She bites at her lower lip, "Have you ever like...seen someone about it? Like not here obviously, but back home? Like a therapist or somethin'?"

"I have a therapist at home," he tells her. "I also take meds. Thankfully they magically came with me and don't seem to run out, otherwise I probably would have lost my mind by now."

Well, that's pleasant. Malcolm's amazed that anyone would want to be friends with him after they find out that he has to strap himself to the wall to sleep and needs pills in order to feel normal.

"Uh, anyway... you probably don't need to hear about all of that."

Malcolm Bright | Prodigal Son | OTA

Underground Parking

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Action! Ish.

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I. ARRIVAL

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I. Arrival

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