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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.
no subject
"Don't you wanna know what's doing this? Something must have set it off. And you know this place, it's like... Remember that toxic garden? You had to DO something to set it right."
He looks again at the mannequins. "What the hell are they supposed to mean?" And back to Kyle. "Orrrr... ok yeah we can just go if you're that skeeved out by it."
no subject
He tugs at Quentin's hand, stomping away... only to have the next display feature the same mannequins again. He groans softly.
"I feel weird," he says softly. "Like. Guilty. I think they're making me feel guilty."
no subject
"Hey," he tucks his arm around Kyle. As long as these things aren't coming for them he's in no hurry here. "It's ok. It's probably not, you ok? But like a product of whatever's doing this. Just... keep talking about it maybe? Guilty how? About what?"
no subject
He sighs, eyeing the dummies.
"I dunno, just... guilty. We never treated Butters very well, you know? And he was a nice guy, just a little dumb. He didn't deserve how we treated him. I mean, with Cartman it was his own fault for always doing what he told him, a little... Well. Maybe."
He shrugs, uncomfortable. "You could get Butters to go along with almost anything. So. We did."
no subject
"You? Were a bully," he smiles a little. It's genuinely a difficult thing to imagine on the man he knows Kyle to be. Someone so obsessed with fairness. "It's ok, I'm not judging. I've been on both sides of that social dividing line," he shrugs. "Did you ever like... tell him that? Not that he was dumb, but that you know you maybe didn't treat him great."
no subject
"I was not!" Kyle protests at once. "I just. Uhm. Kinda. Went along with it." The excuse sounds feeble to his own ears.
He sighs. "...no. No, I never did."
no subject
He rubs Kyle's back a little when he hears the boy sigh. "So... tell him?" he suggests, nodding towards on of those mannequins. "I mean, it'll feel fucking stupid, talking to a mannequin, I'm sure, but it's probably easier than saying it to the real guy, right?"
no subject
Kyle nods. "I. Yeah. I asked Cartman once why he couldn't just leave Butters alone and he told me that Butters was SO stupid that he needed someone to tell him what to do."
Kyle chews his lip and then nods. He steps toward the mannequin, which just stares ahead with a vacant expression.
"I'm. Sorry, Butters. I'm sorry we took advantage of you. It wasn't right, you were a person with feelings and we always treated you shitty. Uhm. And I'm especially sorry about the time we put your eye out and refused to take you to the doctor."
A weight lifts off of his chest and he exhales. "Dude. That helped."
no subject
He winces a little to that explanation. It says a few things about a Butters for sure but maybe something about Cartman too that Quentin has yet to realize until now. "Oh God, yeah. Ok, I'm no bio-truther and I hate to side with this Cartman dude, but I know exactly what he means. Some people are just happier to follow!"
Quentin smiles a little when he can actually feel Kyle unclench a bit. "Hey, see. There you go. Maybe that's the the trick here. Easy peasy. Now tell me about what happened to his eye, please."
no subject
Kyle shakes his head. "I mean... yes. Yes, they are. But still." Still what he's not certain, he just feels he has to defend poor Butters somehow. Or at least not agree with Cartman.
"Well... okay. There was this guy at this public market who was selling weapons, and you had to have an adult present, right? So we told him we were orphans, and we got like, throwing stars and nunchuks and shit. So we were playing ninja, and Kenny uh. Threw a shuriken in Butters' eye."
He looks at the mannequin again, feeling guilt of a more regular type now. "He needed medical attention, but dude my mom would have KILLED me, so... we. Uhm. Dressed him like a dog and took him to the vet."
no subject
From what he knows about Cartman, Quentin's not sure he should be finding reasons to agree with the guy either, but here we are.
He starts out wincing at that story but by the end his cheeks are puffed and his lips pinned shut as he tries not to laugh. An effort that fails as soon as Kyle utters the word vet. "BAHAaha ah hah ah oh that's awful. I mean. Poor kid. But that's also some Mike Judge level comedy I was not prepared for."
no subject
Kyle's lips twitch. "It's... yeah, okay, it's fucking absurd. Poor Butters."
no subject
Flinging an arm around Kyle he leans his weight on his boyfriend and tries to pin down that laugh of his again, but it's a poor attempt.
"Hey, you can regret something and find it funny. Human emotions are complex and interconnected in ways that don't always make sense," he says in their defence.
He looks up at that mannequin. "Sorry Butters. I hope you're not still mad about the vet thing. I know my boyfriend, and he's full of guilt for things he did and things he didn't do. He means it when he says he's sorry."
no subject
He punches Quentin's arm lightly, smiling until his eyes fall on the other mannequin.
"Now if I can just figure out what I did to her," he sighs.
no subject
"Oh yeaaaah. Heidi...." he looks at Kyle expectantly. "What DID you do to her?"
no subject
Kyle studies the mannequin for a while, quiet. She had been such a sweet girl at the start. He'd really liked her.
Hadn't he?
"I. I wish," he starts slowly, "I wish I'd known her outside of Cartman. Because I liked her. I'm pretty sure I really liked her. But it became a whole THING, because of how Cartman and I were. And because of how I was about being compared to my mom... I put a lot on her. Not that she ever knew, but still."
no subject
"What do you mean, how you were about being compared to your mom?" he asks. It's not exactly related to Heidi, he knows, but mannequins aside it seems like one of those things he wants to know about Kyle.
no subject
"But it's true, I WAS acting just like my mom. And I feel like I was using Heidi as another prop in my endless fucking war with Cartman."
no subject
He squeezes Kyle a little closer with the arm he's slung around him. "And did you ever tell her that?" he asks knowingly. "Oh fuck I think I just got it!" he says his eyes going wide. "Like a prop you said!" he gestures aggressively as the lifelike mannequin. "A PROP. Duh. Fuck. Don't tell anyone it took us that long to get there."
no subject
His eyes widen at Quentin's words and he groans. "Oh my GOD, dude! You're so right. That's exactly what it is - people I treated like fucking extras in the movie of my life. If that!"
He looks at the mannequins again. "Heidi, I'm sorry," he says softly. "I'm sorry I let it become more about Cartman than you. You deserved better from him AND from me."
The sense of oppressive paranoia and guilt lifts the moment he stops talking.
"It worked. Q, you really are a genius."
no subject
"I'm getting good at these moralistic little puzzles," he smiles. "Now uh... let's maybe get out of here before it's my turn. I can't imagine the number of people I'd have to... We could be here all night."
no subject
He takes Quentin's hand and tugs, walking quickly, cheeks red as he realises what he's just said.
no subject
"Hm. No. yeah. There's definitely some who I don't even know if I ever asked their names... I'm not sure how I'd ever even pass this particular test. Go, go, go. We'll recon over a soft pretzel."
no subject
Once they're back in the mall concourse he heaves a deep sigh of relief.
"Pretzel sounds good," he says belatedly. "And, hey. We should like... find a comfy display bed tonight."
no subject
The next step he takes he leans up on his toes and steals a kiss. "I think I saw a CB2 on the mall map," he grins and his voice drops to a whisper, "they have the biggest beds."
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cw: nsfw talk
cw: nsfw talk
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cw: nsfw sexual content all the way down
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cw: nsfw talk
cw: nsfw talk
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