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

[polarvoid]

Y-yes! You, um...yo-you just startled me...

[Quite A Lot actually, but it's fine.

He loosens his grip a bit on the front of his sweater now that he realizes he's not just seeing things, smoothing it out stiffly.]

I didn't think anyone else would be out here.

[beathollow]

Oh. ...Sorry.

( she kind of is! that's progress, right? ena would be proud. after a moment, mafuyu shifts from crouching to sitting on the ground, legs curled close. )

There are a few of us here- sometimes more show up, but not all of them stay. We don't know what happens to them after that.

...

My name is Mafuyu.

[polarvoid]

[Cause, you know. Being told "sometimes people disappear here and we don't know what happens to them" isn't at all a terrifying thing to hear, and Basil honestly isn't sure how good of a job he does at keeping that out of his expression.]

...I'm Basil. I...

[...]

I fell into a lake, back home. Then...I ended up here, somehow.

[beathollow]

( it's honestly the least terrifying aspect of their captivity, because at least you can pretend those people got to wake up from this nightmare, got to go home and be okay again.

at least someone's arrival makes a bit of sense, though. )

I couldn't tell you how. I don't remember how I got here either. I'd been on my way home from school, and... then I was at the gates.

( after a moment, she reaches into her cardigan's pocket and then takes out a small pile of coins. )

You can earn these to buy food and clothes- the device on your wrist will tell you what cabin on the High Rize is yours. Take these until you can earn your own, okay? You get them from playing games.

[polarvoid]

[Oh...

Basil's expression softens when he sees the coins Mafuyu is offering him, and for a moment he's a bit torn. Honestly, as bad as it sounds, he hasn't even thought about food or clothing since he got here...he's had too much else on his mind to worry about it.]

Are you sure? I don't want to take yours from you...

[Like it sounds like she can earn more easily, sure, but still.]

[beathollow]

I have more than enough, it's okay.

( specifically, she has like. around 1,500. like... how did it happen? GOOD QUESTION, hell if she knows but she's at least set up nicely enough that she can do things like this on a whim.

she knows for a fact that she would offer this anyways, though- even if she didn't have a ridiculous surplus of coins. )

[polarvoid]

[It's really just...genuinely nice. It's a no-brainer kind of kindness really, yet it touches Basil all the same as he carefully takes the coins in hand.]

Thank you...

[But it still feels bad to just take them for nothing, which is why Basil finds himself looking away as he puts the coins into the pocket of his shorts...before reaching out to retrieve the little chain of grass he'd dropped when Mafuyu walked up. He'd almost finished with it anyway, so with a quick second to tie it into a loop, he holds it out for her to take.

...lamely. Because it's just. Grass.]

H-here. I know it's not...really much of anything, but you can have it.

[beathollow]

( oh... that's... really cute, actually? mafuyu smiles a little, taking it gently. )

I never learned to do anything like this... ( despite the ring of flowers on her wrist. ) This one was a gift as well. ... I'll keep it safe, don't worry.

[polarvoid]

[Even though he's visibly still a bit nervous, seeing Mafuyu smile is enough to encourage Basil to smile a little as well as he brings his hands back to himself, having honestly been unsure how that would have been received. It felt...very dumb in the moment, so he's glad it went over okay.]

It probably won't last for very long...but it's not too hard to make, as long as you can find grass long enough for it.