polylogs | Time for a Cinnabon!

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…?

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

She looks at him with those violet eyes of hers, there's no fear in them even after all the details he's just shared with her about his mental state, just warm curiosity.

"I don't mind." She says and pats the spot next to her on the air mattress. "It's good that your meds came with you though and that you get refills."

There's a pause and she offers him a little smile, "So how are you? Enjoying the mall so far?"

Her eyes really are pretty. Fortunately, Malcolm sees no judgement in them. He sinks down on the air mattress with a whoosh of air.

"It's a temple to consumerism, but it's okay." He shrugs. "Before we leave, I plan on stocking up on supplies. And suits."

Because even he has his vices.

Roxy laughs, the sound of it light and musical.

"It's amazing! I've been dying to get some better clothes ever since I arrived on pumpkin spice island!"

She raises an eyebrow, "Suits hrmm? Is that your preferred attire?"

"It is," he admits. "I used to wear them every day for work." Malcolm could analyze why he likes wearing well-tailored suits. Freud would probably say it makes him feel sexually empowered, but everything was sexual with Freud. It's not that far off though. A suit is kind of like a modern suit of armor. Malcolm wore them every day so that he could be taken seriously as a professional when he went to put killers away.

"Did you find some clothes that you like?"

"Well you know what they say, a man in a good suit is like lingerie to a straight woman." She says with a smile and then gestures towards her pile of shopping bags. Because oh yes, she found things she liked.

If he is to peek inside he'll find out that she and him could not have more polar opposite styles if they tried, while he finds comfort in the modern day suit of armor she's most comfortable in things like mini skirts, crop tops, short shorts, and club wear.
So basically the less amount of fabric the better.

"I found lots of good stuff, I'm trying to think ahead and not just get skimpy stuff but it's hard!"

"Is it?" he asks with a quirk of a smile. "To some women, I suppose."

Roxy does have an abundance of shopping bags, and Malcolm is, admittedly curious. He peeks into one of them and is surprised to see such skimpy clothing.

"Do you usually dress like that at home?" he asks, tone neutral. Malcolm isn't judging, but he's curious why she dresses that way. Perhaps it's normal where she comes from?

"Huhn?" She says and then notices that he's peeking at her clothes and nods. If he is to peek further he'll get a good look at the type of lingerie and underwear she's bought which is almost all brightly colored, strappy and thongs.

"Oh yeah, of course! Why?"

Once he starts seeing lacy things, he stops looking. Malcolm doesn't need to invade her privacy like that.

"Just curious," he replies. Roxy's young. Like most young women, she's going to dress however she feels and she's free to do that. "What did you used to do back home? Work? Go to school?"

She laughs and shakes her head. "School? Naaah, I'm basically a high-school dropout remember? I mentioned it in the tunnel, but maybe you were distracted..."

She nudges his shoulder with hers, trying to show him that she's just teasing him a little before continuing. "Back home...and this is going to sound so dumb, I was a superhero."

"I might have been," he admits, hiding a smile. To his credit, his cheeks only turn a little bit pink. Honestly, something had come over him when they were in the tunnel. Malcolm has no idea what it was, but he doesn't usually make out with someone so soon after meeting them.

"Were you?" It might sound dumb if they were back home, but he's learned that anything's possible here. "Do you have any super powers?"

She giggles and nudges him again, "Awwww you're a blusher! That's real cute."

When he asks about superpowers she nods and motions towards a garbage can about ten feet away from them, she wiggles her fingers and suddenly the trash can floats up off the ground, hovers in the air for a moment and then floats back down slowly.

"Gravity manipulation." She says, "My Dad was part of some weird government program where they did gross genetic testing on them and when he had kids it got passed on and became stronger. So bam, I got superpowers."

He gives a playful eye roll. His embarrassment is, well... embarrassing.

Malcolm watches with surprise as the garbage can raises and floats towards them. No doubt, unless there's an invisible string somewhere, she has super powers.

"MKULTRA?" he asks. Maybe, if she comes from the same timeline that he does. As far as he knows, MKULTRA never produced any results like this. Roxy speaks about it really casually, though it sounds like her father went through something awful. "Does the government know about you?"

Roxy bursts out laughing when he asks if the government knows about her, it might seem rude but it's funny to her.

"Omg, sorry. Yeah, they know. I got suckered into this government thing called the Gen-project when I was like sixteen and had no idea about my Dad or my powers. They basically tortured me in order to make my powers manifest so they could try and make me be a super soldier for the government. Obviously I didn't go in for that shit and I wound up escaping. Been on the run ever since with some of my friends from the same project."

The laughter does take him by surprise. Either it's not as big of a deal as he thinks it is, or she's using humor to downplay the seriousness of it.

He's wondering if it's the latter. What's she's so casually describing sounds traumatic.

"Did any of your friends end up here with you?"

Roxy? Use laughter as a way to downplay serious trauma?
~~Always!~~
Never!

"No, which is kind of weird because we were all together right before I came here...." She starts to say and then tapers off, her brows knitting together in confusion. "We were....looking for something and then..."

She visibly shudders and then shakes her head, not liking the cold finger of fear that is suddenly running down her spine.

"Never mind. It's not important."

Hey, it's not like Malcolm hasn't done the exact same thing. If you can't find humor in the fact that your father is a notorious serial killer then what can you find humor in, right?

He senses it, that sudden fear. It's a sharp change in her expression. Malcolm gets the impression that whatever it was, it was actually very important.

"But they weren't with you when you arrived here?"

Roxy shakes her head, "No I came here all by my lonesome."

Her expression is a bit sad but then it brightens, "Which kind of sucked at first but then I started meeting some cool people. Yourself included. I mean some of the shit that happens on these islands is kind of weird but so far it's not any more bizarre than some of the stuff that used to happen to me as a superhero."

"I don't know anyone else here either," he says, smiling wryly when she calls him cool. He's very uncool, but it's nice of her to think that he is. "Superheroes don't even exist where I come from, but I've had some very bizarre things happen to me."

Malcolm turns to her, seeking out her violet eyes. "Do you really hate cops?"

"Bizarre things that happened to you before you came here? Like what?"

Her violet eyes meet his and she bites her lower lip nervously, "I....yeah. Most of them anyways. I grew up getting hassled by cops because they thought I was trailer trash and somehow that meant they could try to bust me on shit I didn't even do. Or try to get handsy...
And then later, being in that government place with all the shitty guards who were basically like bad cops but with bigger guns...."

He opens his mouth and then closes it again. Is he ready to tell someone here about his father?

Maybe, but he wants to address the other issue first.

"Hearing your experience, I can understand why. I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope that you don't hate me, at least. If it helps, I'm technically not a cop. The FBI fired me."

That's not something that he likes to admit either.

She offers him a warm smile and shakes her head, "I don't hate you Malcolm. I might not like cops or government types but I'm not so much of an asshole that I'm gonna hold it against you, especially after getting to know you."

"I am curious now though, why did the FBI fire you?"

He's glad to hear that she doesn't hate him. It's hard to hate someone just on principle, without getting to know them. The only people that he hates on principle are killers, particularly serial killers. People who are cold and have no regard for anyone else. He knows that's not Roxy.

"I punched a sheriff after he shot the serial killer that we caught instead of letting me take him in so that I could question him." Malcolm sighs. "That was kind of the last straw though. The Bureau and I weren't really seeing eye to eye. My methods can be... unconventional. I think they saw me as a liability."

That particularly hurts to admit. Being an FBI agent was all he wanted to do for years and years and he blew it with his erratic behavior.

Roxy can't help the short bark of laughter that escapes her mouth when he says that he punched a sheriff.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at that. That sucks that he acted like an asshole and you couldn't question the serial killer guy." She says and then tilts her head to one side, looking at him with curious eyes.

"What do you mean by unconventional methods though?"

It is kind of funny in hindsight, so Malcolm doesn't blame her for laughing. He was pretty pissed at the time though. If a serial killer is dead, they can't help add to what is known about serial killers in order to help catch others in the future.

"Um. I tend to put myself in situations." He gives a sheepish laugh. "Dangerous situations sometimes. I don't always call for backup."

He's a liability. They got tired of that.

Roxy smirks and gives him a playful nudge with her shoulder, "Ohhhh so you're one of those types of FBI guys huhn?"

"But really, spill. What kind of dangerous situations? I like details."

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