OCTOBER EVENT + TDM 02

[ride_technicians]

↞NAVIGATION

event | ƨγɒbiloʜ γqqɒʜ

Curfew lifts on 10/06 as thunder booms overhead, the dark clouds writhing as they roil and twist with unshed waters. Over the past few days, no rain has fallen from the turbid skies, but the threat of downpour remains ever present.

It’s on such a dark and stormy day that the doors to the Gift Shop are propped open by two wooden crates, full to the brim with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. Inside the shop itself, a stack of pumpkin carving kits sits on the checkout counter, alongside a row of colored candles. The masked individual that works as the shopkeeper is as silent as ever, though through the act of gesticulation it manages to convey that the carving kits and the candles are complimentary, and are given for free alongside the purchase of a pumpkin from the bin outside.

You could definitely try to steal one, sure. But the signs above the bin state that each pumpkin is only priced at one Park Token, so it’s not too much of a net loss overall.

Characters will find that after they’ve made their choice of one (1) pumpkin and one (1) of the colored candles, they are not permitted to try and return for another one of either. If more grand theft pumpkin is attempted, no matter how strong the character is they will be unable to lift the second choice up from the bin, almost as if it carries the weight of the whole world within that orange rind. You are only allowed one pumpkin, so be sure that you consider your options carefully.

Of the candles themselves, the following colors are available to choose from: red, blue, white, black, purple, green, and yellow. Each candle will cause a different event to happen, but the side effects of lighting each candle are not advertised anywhere in the shop. Please note which candle your character chooses in the mod comment below, so that you can be informed of what your character has inadvertently unleashed upon the park.

Strangely enough, despite not being provided with a lighter or a match of any kind, the candles flare to life regardless the moment they are placed within one of the carved pumpkins.

You are free to do whatever you deem fit with the pumpkin innards. Go ham.

event | wolɘd

It starts as a glimmer, a flicker of illumination that can be briefly spotted below the surface of the lake. It's quick, something that could easily be excused away as your eyes playing tricks on you, nothing more. That would be the case, at least... If it didn't keep happening. And if the lights didn't get brighter with time.

The flashes are almost rhythmic, a pattern without explanation. Gold and white, brightly shimmering beneath the waters before going dark once more. Over and over again, almost as if controlled by something sentient. Almost as if the lake is beckoning you in to investigate it. Should you give in to the urge, however... Well. Whether you attempt to find the source by either swimming in or renting one of the swan boats, the end result is the same; blackened hands grab at your limbs, clawing at your ankles and dragging you down below the surface. Down... down... down... Until fighting your way back up to the open air would be challenging. Difficult, but not impossible. Then the hands retreat, and you're left alone.

Down here, there are no lights. It's impossibly dark, and something is moving.

tdm intro prompt | !woʜƨ ɘʜT oT ɘmoɔlɘw

You open your eyes to the burn of salt in your lungs, panic clawing up the sides of your throat and settling in your pulse. There is black water all around you, frigid in a way that cuts like a blade and seeps into your very bones. It’s then that you become aware of a minimum of two things:

You’re floating suspended within what could either be a lake or an ocean, roughly twenty or so feet below the surface.

There’s something moving in the blackness beneath you.

You can’t see the bottom, and you can’t see whatever is down there, but you can feel its presence as it disturbs the water below you. Whatever it is, it’s big. And it’s coming closer. You can practically hear it now, a quiet hum that rumbles and resonates at such a frequency that it seems to rattle your teeth in your skull. Silent, yet at the same time somehow impossibly loud. It builds and builds, until you can't seem to focus on anything other than the noise. It crowds your senses, dulling your reactions and dimming the drive to flee.

Suddenly, the hum stops. Several feet away, a massive amber eye blinks closed; you can't remember ever seeing it open in the first place. The water around you shifts, displaced as the thing begins to move away.

Might be a good idea to start swimming for the surface.

Crawling your way to the shore of a lake only to find an amusement park waiting for you isn’t the strangest thing to happen to you after all, is it?

ooc

Feel free to have your character wander about the various park attractions as you see fit! Everywhere listed on the locations page is currently available, with the difference being that the temporal displacement within It'z Quite The Large World has been soothed, causing the ride itself to function in entirely normal ways with no spooky secrets hidden anywhere. TDMers may also participate in the carving of pumpkins.

Comments

[arsenist]

[That light dims. The reality of the ride is a sharp reminder - it's not the time to seek thrills, because Akira is in the land of creatures lying under the surface of the water.

It's seeming less and less like a Palace, and that's worrying enough in and of itself.]

"Something" happened to her... Do you know what it was? Or notice anything different when she came back?

[He needs to ask about that "song" too - it's such a specific way of wording it, isn't it? But he'd rather not overwhelm a girl he just met with a bunch of questions.]

[songsearching]

[ She shakes her head. ]

I don't think it was anything external. But... I didn't want to ask Mafuyu for specifics. She's my friend after all. I didn't want to hurt her more than she had already been hurt.

[arsenist]

[A sympathetic frown pulls at his face as he nods.]

...I understand. It's better that you didn't, in that case.

[He does. If it was his friends, he wouldn't want to make them relive whatever they'd gone through either.]

You said something about "her song" before, right? Can I ask what that means?

[songsearching]

... I did. Apparently Mafuyu had been singing to the mannequins in that ride after hearing them desperately ask for help before she was taken. I knew she had disappeared at the time, but I wasn't sure where she was. But I was able to tell, because I heard the mannequins sing her music.

The two of us, you see, we write music together. I'm a composer. So... I could tell pretty easily when I hear Mafuyu's music.

[arsenist]

That's... strange. Even if they had some kind of recording equipment inside of them, why record it in the first place?

[It's a rhetorical question more than anything, but Akira's mind is racing, working.

...Oh. A grimace pulls at his face. It's not a reason, but that's one possibility, isn't it?]

I can't be sure without seeing it, of course, or Mafuyu-san giving answers to questions it's better not to ask, but... That sounds like the mannequins record the voice of the riders, or mimic it in some other way. And in the case before Mafuyu-san...

[Help me. Help me. Help me.

Akira shivers. He can't see it, but he can imagine it.]

[songsearching]

I don't know.

[ She shakes her head, her voice even quieter and concerned as her words keep going. ]

The ride is... it's there, but - I wouldn't recommend going there alone.

[arsenist]

...Yeah. It doesn't seem safe to check it out until we can find out more.

[If they can find out more, and that might be a big "if".

It's not worth the risk right now, though. It's one thing to seek a thrill, another entirely to walk headfirst into something suspiciously dangerous.

There's no way out through the front while that fog is there, and we're stuck in here with attractions trying to harm us... I have to find out as much as I can.]

Has it just been you and Mafuyu-san stuck here, or are there others besides us?

[songsearching]

I've seen a few others - but there's not too many of us here.

[ Not that it's any better but it could be a lot worse. ]