meadowlarklogs | ARRIVAL LOG 010

ARRIVAL LOG 010

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: Evening of October 21 and 22
WHAT: The tenth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion, loss of autonomy, sexual themes and alcohol usage. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #010

Awareness comes to you in blurred snatches, cloudy fragments of sound and light, color, sensation. Hazy and difficult to grasp on to, but slowly aligning into focus. A series of regular, rhythmic beeps. A medicinal, astringent smell. The sensation of movement, a low hum and accompanying vibration under you. Your eyes are heavy, hard to keep open, but in the glimpses between slow, dark blinks you see four people in black body armor seated opposite you, as well as a man in dark gray scrubs.

You realize there are others next to you. All of you in white scrubs, hair recently cut but at various stages of growth, restrained by straps across your chests, arms, feet, holding you to the bench under you. To your left, an armored interior door, two more people visible, the movement of streets passing through a windshield. You try to open your mouth to speak, but it's as if your tongue is coated in tar, and you manage nothing more than an empty parting of lips.

The vehicle stops. The guard opposite you stands and comes to unbuckle you from the bench, helping you to your feet. Your limbs feel wooden and heavy, slow to move. One guard opens the back of the vehicle, and false, colored light, illuminating the streets in the distance will first alert your senses of being somewhere else, combined with air that's only cooled with the setting of the sun. The nurse moves to stand at the back, checking each passenger over one by one just before they're helped out of the vehicle, quick and methodical. He doesn't climb out after you, moving to sit as the last passenger is unloaded.

The guards keep their heads down. Their actions are quick, firm, but not entirely unkind. Once all the passengers are out, they drop some masks on the ground in a tan-colored tote bag. "Pick a mask," they bark, and then turn to climb back into the vehicle and close the doors. The engine powers up again, and then the bus is gone.

You're left alone in an alley, with no idea of where you are or why you've been brought here.

Around the corner of the alley, there is the sound of various different carnival rides and men yelling for someone to step right up and try their luck on the various assortment of games that are available. Off in the distance, there's a large, hulking structure – perfectly vertical in nature, and people on it twist upward and then come slamming down mere moments later. It seems that you've just arrived as a part of some festivity, though it's probably hard to tell if you're an attraction or a coincidence of this all.

Either way – time to pick a mask. They're nothing special: they go over the head, but no one was ordered to put one on. They show various monsters – generic and otherwise – and it looks like they were purchased in bulk.

◉ Though entirely capable of independent action and thought, new characters will find themselves completely, unquestioningly compliant to any verbal statement which could be taken as a command or request.

> 10 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: OPENING CEREMONY

The message from El comes the same as usual: insistent, not waiting for any active attempt to open it. Scrolling within your vision as if being written while you're reading it.

Here we go again. You know the drill by now. Our new batch has been thrown into the middle of a Halloween party. They should have masks on which doesn't make them much easier to find, but I trust you guys can figure this out. You know the signs to look for by now. So… Happy Halloween. 🎃

Having ten actual days dedicated to Halloween may seem like a bit much, but New Amsterdam takes the festivities seriously. Thanks to being a melting pot of two millenia's worth of cultures, they try to touch on every aspect of it. The launch party is a two-day event set in the cultural district. Thanks to the lack of ground traffic, the city easily rolls in what acts as a mini-carnival. The ground throughout the carnival is lit with candle-filled pumpkins, providing a warmth of inviting light as the nights grow cooler. While the carnival shuts down during the working day, it opens again in the evening, allowing working parents to bring their children before the hours come to a close. During this time, children run around with their friends in costumes to ask for candy or food from nearby businesses or carnival booths. Sometimes these children have to perform a task before they get what they've asked for – either through playing a game or answering a trivia question – but they're never turned away empty handed.

The first two days are largely billed as a time for people to come together and have a good time, but Halloween is also known for offering opportunities to local artists to get their work recognized. Whether digital or otherwise, artists are asked to commit to a theme and produce art on the first day of the event that's viewed throughout the next nine days. Part of the tradition is the crunch of trying to produce a work of art with limited notice and time. If they aren't done before the first two days are over, they won't be able to get free advertisement for their work. When the event is over, all of the art will go up for auction, and the artists will receive 75% of whatever is offered for their work. This year's theme is "Remembrance and Renewal" – and most themes from past years are just as open for interpretation.

As it gets deeper into the evening and children have returned home, the festivities turn toward being more adult. While barred from selling alcohol until 9 PM, the various carnival booths change their tune after that point, offering a wide array of alcohol – including their own takes on moonshine. The first night even features a competition over who's brought the best, and everyone's invited to try a sample and put in a vote – for free. A rather savvy individual would likely be able to find themselves well in their cups just off of these samples, as the moonshine contest is the way for the adults to get a treat of their own. For these evening festivities, everyone is allowed to wear a more risque costume, and sex workers come over from the neighboring Red Light District in order to advertise some of their more unique services for the evenings ahead. Every brothel will have a unique theme of its own to mark how special the event is, and their services will match.

Otherwise, the first two days of Halloween are known for allowing kids to have fun and for adults to be anonymous for a little while. Anyone who holds down a day job will still be expected to turn into work, but there's a tacit understanding that most people will be under the weather during this time.

◉ The carnival will have a wide array of rides that are set up rather quickly. There's a ferris wheel with seats that will rotate around a large machine like an atom, but with many different "branches" to allow a great deal of people to go on at once. Everyone gets on at the same time, and the seats "float." Each person can pay for how long their ride is in increments, and extend that time if they so choose. For the after dark people, there is a definite badge of honor in having a good time in a ferris wheel without getting caught with your pants down. Other rides include the Wicked Force – which rapidly takes people up 500 ft into the air and then drops them – as well as carousels that allow someone to customize their mount for an additional amount of money. Want a lewd mount? That's fine … after the kids have gone home to play, and some people like to show off whatever they thought up on Cooltalk.

◉ As always, there are a large number of food options available thanks to the local food trucks coming out to sell their food. Taco trucks are the most popular around this time, and that's most of what will be offered. Many trucks will have some homemade candy that they offer for free with each meal – with the option to get more.

◉ Throughout the city, there will be controlled bonfire pits that are lit every night at 8 PM, though they won't be present in the less cared for parts of New Amsterdam. Ahead of the event starting, there will be a website to let people know where these pits are going up so they can set up meeting places with their friends – or even reserve a pit for a private group. Reservations around the more popular areas cost more than ones that are nearing the "disreputable" sections – though "disreputable" is shorthand for rundown buildings in need of repair more than any crime.

◉ There are, of course, costume contests! While many local bars – dive and otherwise – will have smaller affairs, there is a large contest held on these first two nights. Because of the wide array of people and costumes available, someone has to enter their costume according to a certain theme. Some of the themes are: vampires, ghosts, zombies, pop culture (animation), pop culture (action movies), pop culture (celebrities), political figures, historical figures – and more! In the five days that follow, people will be able to go online and vote for their favorite costume. Whoever accumulates the most votes gets a meal of their choice at a number of participating restaurants – HAPPYHAPPYJOYJOY, SOL, Monde Pizza, Sweetwaffel and more – as well as 200 credits added to their funds.

◉ There will be dealers around the carnival trying to get someone to buy something to "heighten" their experience. While the "monster drug" is out in the city, it won't be available here. Halloween is thought of as a neutral ground for the city, and even the gangs recognize that. Most drugs will be hallucinatory in nature, providing effects similar to shrooms. Of course, any drugs are still illegal, and people will want to be careful not to get caught – or buy from the wrong person.

◉ Anyone who chooses to take part in the more illicit and sexual activities will be advised to go home to finish out their nights. Being handsy is fine, but getting caught on the ferris wheel? Well, the goal is to not get caught. Public acts are still illegal, though most people just spend a night in jail thinking about what they did. It's treated as more embarrassing than anything, but sometimes people let things get away from them. Many of the brothels will offer rooms to couples for the evening, complete with toys and supplies to practice safe sex. Even if they aren't spending their night with a sex worker, the themed goods are still there to enjoy.

> 10 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: THE NEXT EIGHT DAYS

After the rowdier events pass, Halloween splits into two main categories: corporate popups and remembrance. Halloween parties continue to be thrown at restaurants and bars, allowing people to enjoy a more low key version of what was previously available. Many of the bars have karaoke contests and themed parties, and many retail stores maintain a Halloween section until November first. If anyone's been invited to a party last minute – or they need a series of costumes to be extra about the whole occasion – they can hit these stores when needed.

◉ Pulsar's hover car-focused subsidiary, Bakker, advertises their 2512 line of cars by having hover hay rides around the city. Their trucks can hold up to six. Anyone hoping to go on a hover truck hay ride around the city to take in the sights and bonfires in the evening can call one on New Amsterdam's special Halloween app! These rides don't only show the city: they give a glimpse at the large amount of forestation just over the wall, allowing people to see that the Earth is gradually improving.

◉ There are, of course, haunted houses set up around the city! Haunted houses come in two varieties: virtual reality and 4D. Vyonation's gaming subsidiary, Vizija, sets up the virtual reality popups around the city. Due to the high tech nature of these setups, people do have to be on site to enjoy them. They interface with someone's neural implant, and depending on the experience, they can involve puzzles, escape rooms, murder mysteries, or even dissection tables. The 4D houses are the result of a joint partnership between Poe and Polarized – which are subsidiaries of Giles Bell and Pulsar, respectively.

4D haunted houses involve a great deal of props, realistic sights and smells, as well as the potential for certain drugs that can help provide a certain physical or emotional response. Whereas Vizija's simulation comes with the reassurance that nothing is real, Poe and Polarized team up to scare someone – and try to ensure it's as real as possible. Nothing offered at either is illegal, including the drug – though people with a history of heart issues won't be allowed to use the drug at all.

These experiences are made unique for everyone going in: people are allowed to opt out of anything that might make them uncomfortable, or even add in something along the way. If someone is feeling too much anxiety thanks to the drugs, they'll find a counter-drug added to their system to negate the artificial effects rather quickly.

◉ Remember that art contest? Anyone who finished a work will find their art somewhere in the city – and that includes anyone among the Displaced. If anyone is looking for artwork that's similar to what's been featured on the shrines, there will be a few, only they will seem more inviting. Whereas they celebrated people before, they now involve hands outstretched, welcoming someone down a blue-lit path. The same imagery – triangles and overlapping circles – will still be present, especially on the hands as tattoos.

◉ Five days before the 31st, there is a tradition of everyone donating a knife from their house to make it so that "spirits" can return safely. While no one in New Amsterdam genuinely believes that they might be visited by a spirit, the odd occasions around the city recently have lent some credence to this superstition. There will be knife disposal boxes all around the city – and anyone who doesn't give up a knife, butter or otherwise, will be seen as a bit of a spoilsport.

◉ On October 29th, there will be a procession from one end of the city to the other that starts just as the sun goes down and finishes when everyone has reached the other side. As you might imagine, this is a very, very long walk, and many people slip in and out according to what they can individually manage. People walk with candles along the way, and there will be booths selling new or replacement candles for a low price. Since the procession goes along the path of a lot of bonfires, it won't ever be difficult to get them lit. The purpose of this? Everyone uniting in remembrance: of a world that's healing, to celebrate the lives lost to usher in a peaceful era, to thank everyone on the colonies for offering a humanity a new home, and any personal losses that people might have faced. Even though there are still billions of people alive, there is the sense that everyone knows that they remain on Earth on borrowed time.

◉ For the last two days, people light candles and put them in their windows, and they also leave food outside of their windows and in the front of their apartments so that "spirits" can return safely. There's an implicit understanding that most of this food will be taken by people who aren't doing as well, and much of it is nonperishable. Anyone who's down on their luck will see candles in the window and will know that they will likely find food there. Many people stock up for this occasion so that they can replace any food. Unsurprisingly, most high-end apartments with well-off people don't honor this tradition, but people in mid-to-low end apartments will almost always have something to spare in the spirit of charity.

> SAFEHOUSE

Access to the safehouse is a hatch hidden behind stacks of empty storage shelves in the back of an abandoned supermarket in an outer district of the city. The immediate area is similarly abandoned, empty stores, flanked by several blocks of dive bars and clubs which cater to more niche tastes. A place where people can come and go unseen, or, if seen, not spoken of. A dark haired woman called Gaby is ready to greet the new arrivals and get them settled in, brusque and no-nonsense – she'll be open for in depth questions later, but will advise everyone to ask the people who brought them in for the beginning bits of information.

◉ The safe house is a large open space, filled with rows of basic cots set up to sleep a large amount of people. Basic, but outfitted with everything necessary for daily life. A few doors lead to back rooms for storage, medical care and a large communal bathroom, and past the long rows of cots there is a communal kitchen, fully stocked, and an eating area. Privacy is at a minimum.

◉ New characters will be asked to pick their beds, and provided with a change of (second-hand, mismatched and somewhat threadbare) clothes and basic toiletries.

◉ Any belongings from previous safehouse occupants have been packed up – and that includes any current Displaced who just got back from a trip. If someone left something out while they were in New Tokyo, Gaby will tell them where these objects can be found. For her part, she's just trying to get everything set up for the upcoming move.

◉ Gaby will make it clear to all new arrivals that if they have any requests or queries, they should contact her or El.

◉ Once everyone that El spotted has arrived back, they'll be informed that the safehouse will be a temporary location. By the end of the month, everyone will be moving to a new location about fifteen blocks away.

◉ The drugs making new characters compliant will remain in their systems for a few hours after their arrival at the safehouse before finally beginning to fade. They will be gone entirely after a night's rest. In the meantime, they may want to be careful of what others say to them.

◉ New characters will be given rudimentary access to the network on arrival in the safehouse, but will not have their ID set up yet. They will be able to make posts and replies, but their messages will be anonymous and they do not have inboxes yet.

◉ New characters will not be allowed to leave the safehouse until OCTOBER 25 (MAY 19). These 4 days are for them to adjust, learn about the world they've arrived in from their fellows, and for El to speak with them and work on setting up their IDs.

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Welcome to Meadowlark, newbies! You're now free to post to the network and logs comms. To reiterate, your characters will have no IDs or inboxes, nor be allowed out of the safehouse until OCTOBER 25 (MAY 19). At that point it's expected they'll have gotten a good idea of their new situation from their fellow characters, and will have discussed their background and job potentials with El in order for their false IDs to be set up.

If you have an artist character, please feel free to comment below under our QUESTIONS header to submit a description for a work of art! As long as they submitted something, you can feel free to assume they made some credits off of the whole experience!

Since there is a part of this log that involves explicit sexual activity, please remember content warnings. If your character engages in a sexual act, slap a warning on that! None of the drugs available at the event will involve aphrodisiacs or anything that will remove consent. Some of the brothels may involve play with that, but everyone entering those arrangements would need to consent from the start. We're well aware of the sensitive nature of having a Red Light District-adjacent event while characters are under the influence of compulsory drugs, so no characters will be forced or asked into any acts against their will. There will be no exceptions to this. In addition, any newcomers won't be able to skip off into a brothel because they're new, won't be able to confirm their ages, and they won't have any other identifying information. Otherwise, please be respectful and check everyone's permissions.

As a blanket reminder, all arrival logs are designed as mingle logs for the entire game.

If you have any questions or ideas about how you'd like to get your character involved in the world, please head over to the plot engagement post and drop us a comment! For questions specific to this log, there is a thread below.

Please check out our May calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month, as well as some additional notes from the mods.

As a reminder, AC for new characters accepted in May will be 10 comments across 2-4 threads, while current characters will need to provide the full AC of 20 comments across 2-4 threads. AC will be posted on June 1 at 12 AM UTC and close on June 8 at 12 AM UTC. If you do not reply to AC, you will be considered idled and dropped from the game. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

((OOC; Please note that V will not be going back with anyone to the safehouse, due to plot reasons!))

001. ARRIVAL

[Pick a mask, they had said, and V’s body had done as it was told, plucking one out of the pile and keeping it held tight with pale fingers. Soon shuffled off into flickering lights and loud noises, throngs of people caught in the festivities, images rattling around in his brain and pulsing painfully from behind his eyes.

Later, maybe, when the world starts to make more sense, he may question his choice. The face of a devil, cliche and kitschy, but oddly ironic; making him consider his subconscious mind, whether if he should mark it as traitorous or utterly droll. But for now there’s little more to do than to hold onto it tight, anchored to the feeling of something still clenched in his grip, if it cannot be the hilt of his now-missing cane.

His walk is slow and unsteady. Bumping into people passing by in a flurry of energy is nearly enough to send him careening in the opposite direction, his balance already compromised by more than a mere feeling of weakness. There’s something else, the edges of a fog that hasn’t cleared, like he’s woken from a too-long nap and the world has yet to realign. As if his whole reality might tip over, if whoever has brought him here hasn’t already done him the same favor.

Really, it’s all ridiculous, a revelation that begins to sink in like teeth splitting skin as he leans a hand against the wall of a building. The other flies out to halt a passerby, though the gesture might be interpreted as gracelessly smacking someone with his devil mask.]

Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter’s snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe

[hi did you ask for poetry because if not then too bad]

...A little early for Halloween, isn’t it?

[what the fuck is going on]

002. I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE

[His inability to ignore orders continue to be the bane of his existence. Even only jovial suggestions to participate are interpreted as strict commands, and a simple, Get in line! You won’t regret it! has him adjusting his course to hobble towards one of the rides, a grimace on his face as he fights against something as simple as gravity, his body dreadfully missing the use of his cane. There’s no one to save him before he’s on one, now wearing his mask to free up the use of his hands as he...]

[A: ...is a poor soul in one of the too-small cars of the Wicked Force ride, rising up, up, up. The promise of a much faster drop once they reach it apex is just seconds away, and V’s lips twist into a frown. He reaches up to pinch at a brow, or run a hand through his hair, but fingers bump against his mask. How annoying.

A muffled voice from beneath the disguise—] Which part is worse? The rise, the fall, or not wanting to be on the ride in the first place?

[B: …holds on tight to his chosen mount on the carousel, the world spinning in slow, torturous circles, doing very little good for a stomach already cresting with nausea thanks to the drugs in his system. Not that anyone can note the queasiness from behind the mask.

But if V hates this, he doesn’t hate it enough to not have chosen — on a whim, almost thoughtlessly — to customize his particular mount. It isn’t the strangest, not standing out amongst some of the more dramatic choices (or lewd ones, really), but the combination of a man in scrubs and a demon mask, leaning against and clutching onto the vertical pole bisecting his mount, while the carousel turns in casual circles… It might be worthy of questioning.

Or it might not. Either way, he’s not saying anything until the ride mercifully comes to a halt.]

WILDCARD

[Feel free to do come up with a prompt during the festivities! No safehouse shenanigans, though, since V won’t be making it there. As always, find me over at aurajen for plotting!]

[el's message comes through and prompto can't say that he is exactly surprised; something told him they were soon to be expecting a message from him, if past experiences proved to be a reliable pattern at all. at this point masks are not a a new deterrent in being able to locate any of the new displaced, but it sure becomes somewhat more difficult than usual. he's moving around in his costume, moving past the crowd and climbing up on ledges to try and scope out anyone with masks and scrubs that might appear pertinent to the kind of people they're on the lookout for.]

[he almost goes past the carousel, thinking that's the last place any new displaced would want to go to, but he does a double take at the sight of a man in scrubs and demon mask coming around the turn.]

[screw the queue, as he jumps over the railing when the attendant isn't looking (they probably won't do anything, really), and he's nearly losing his balance soon as he steps up on the moving platform.]

—hey!

[that's the sound of the rubber under his running shoes sliding from the slick floor and him tumbling down. how's this for a rescue?]

[up on his feet, however, he's a little more paused and cautious as he approaches the man in the black cat mount. it might not be who he's looking for, but the scrubs are reminiscent of when he came here first.]

Hey?

[a hand on the man's back, he holds on to the pole, too.]

Weird question, but do you know where you're at?

[He can’t see well, the cutout eye-sockets not doing much for visibility. A bit like a horse with blinders on, range of vision practically limited to what’s directly in front of him, but V does perceive a strange flash of forest-green, dotted with strands(?) of white. Given the nature of the festivities, it isn’t hard to jump to the conclusion that this is someone donned in a costume, but guessing at what it could possibly be is beyond him.

And really the least of his concerns.

Whoever the stranger is, he’s clumsy. The telltale squeak of sneakers sliding against the slick surface of the platform, the slight jolt of weight being thrown against the pole. A hand on his back, which is not exactly as comforting as Prompto probably means for it to be, has V straightening a little, the majority of his thin form leaning into the pole in an almost humorous way.]

Going round and round a carousel, it would seem.

[Despite himself, dry humor floats up to the surface, the only weapon he can utilize. With his tattoos gone silent, energy no longer crawling against his skin, he has little else at his disposal.]

Super observation.

[looking around outward from the carousel has prompto feeling queasy; there's a reason he always rode shotgun. his sneakers squeak a few more times as he moves around and does his best at keeping his balance, at the other's attempt to sit up straighter.]

Uh.

[he doesn't want to activate the empathy bond, and he doesn't want to throw any commands at the other to try and test his theory of this being a displaced.]

[on his haunches now, being closer to the floor grounds him better.]

Do you remember how you got here?

Edited 2019-05-12 00:07 (UTC)

[Just looking out at the world passing by is grounds for queasiness, yes. Just imagine how one might feel when still reeling from disorientation, his mouth like cotton, his stomach empty yet still churning.

He relaxes only a mote when Prompto detaches his touch from his back, as much as he can relax in a situation nearly as worrisome as the one back home. The green blur disappears from his vision, and not wanting to talk to only a disembodied voice, V removes one hand from the pole just long enough to push his mask back.

It dangles on the back of his head precariously, and his vision expands fully to encompass everything around him. Thankfully, this means he can spot the stranger (dressed in a still baffling costume) on his haunches nearby. But unfortunately, it means he gets to perceive more of how the world is slowly sweeping by in a lazy spin.

The question itself is too pointed to not be purposeful, but V closes his eyes briefly, frowning.]

All a hazy dream. [Purposefully vague; he has patience on a normal day to deal with fishing queries, but tonight is an exception to that rule.] Maybe we should start simpler — if you have a point to these questions, consider getting to it.

[lavender eyes widen at the sight of the man's face once the mask is pushed away. it definitely wasn't what he was expecting. he's not sure what he was expecting, really, but — there are more pressing matters than to focus on appearances.]

Ah, right.

[he gets to it, keeping hands around his ankles for support.]

[condensed version, argentum.]

This is planet Earth, New Amsterdam, year 2511. You're probably gonna say "yeah, that can't be possible," and I'm gonna tell you you're right. Except it is. So, there's a whole bunch like you who arrived just like you have. There's a place you can stay at which is safe.

v | devil may cry

wheee

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