gy locations
Locations
graveyard
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This is a compact, nameless place, like a modern town far off a New England interstate exit that's been forgotten with time, surrounded by mist and deep forests. It's shabby and melancholic—in the way an under-maintained liminal space can be—especially because there's not a resident to be found, but the amenities are functional and supplies are constantly refreshed. What more do you need besides food, water, shelter, and grime?
Surrounding the wee town and rolling between its buildings is a thick, soupy fog, which permanently dilutes the light into a muted grayness. There are distant shapes in the vast haze, hinting at more, but traveling too deep into the fog will eventually cause characters to lose their way completely. After they've wandered for seemingly hours (days, weeks), they'll find themselves right back in front of any of the Graveyard locations, as though no time has passed at all. End to end, the town takes about fifteen minutes to traverse.
Also, there's an infestation of fire fleas here. "Fire what?" Yes.
Surrounding the wee town and rolling between its buildings is a thick, soupy fog, which permanently dilutes the light into a muted grayness. There are distant shapes in the vast haze, hinting at more, but traveling too deep into the fog will eventually cause characters to lose their way completely. After they've wandered for seemingly hours (days, weeks), they'll find themselves right back in front of any of the Graveyard locations, as though no time has passed at all. End to end, the town takes about fifteen minutes to traverse.
Also, there's an infestation of fire fleas here. "Fire what?" Yes.
WEEK 3 UPDATE: The fog permeates even more deeply around town. Even indoors, characters may find themselves enrobed in mist, which warps and alters their surroundings to reflect their thoughts and memories. Memshare is now permanently on. You may use this to share minor snippets of the past; more abstract, dreamlike changes to your surroundings; traditional, theater-style memshares; miniature 'heart games'; etc.
● Wood Side Apartments ● A rusty, dilapidated apartment building shrouded by patches of fog. Wedged between the front and back doors on the ground floor is a reception desk littered with dried-out plants, magazines, and a busted computer terminal; however, no one ever seems to be available for help. To the west is a windowless mailroom where walls of postbox cubbies are located, and nearby is a suspiciously unstable elevator with six buttons: B (basement) and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and P. On the eastern side, stairs lead up to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and penthouse floors. Each residential floor has ten rooms with a bedroom-living room combo and a bathroom.
The complex is always alive with sound–pops, creaks, groans, and the echoes of voices. Occasionally, tarry-looking puddles appear on the walls or floors when returning to an area for another time. It feels like something might try to emerge from their depths.
The elevator opens directly into the basement floor, a dark and foggy space illuminated by only a single candle on a table beside a large hole in the farthest wall. It’s a hole… There is an urge to look inside…
And something has changed. The hole has grown even larger, even more circular. You think you can hear something through it, muffled at first but quickly growing clearer. Characters can now hear and communicate with the living NPCs, allowing them to audience with any of them for a voice or what amounts to magical Facetime or a 'hologram' of them. You may now physically interact with NPCs and change what the room looks like during calls. Think of this place as your seance room.
The elevator can go up to the penthouse level as well, but you'll need permission first.
The complex is always alive with sound–pops, creaks, groans, and the echoes of voices. Occasionally, tarry-looking puddles appear on the walls or floors when returning to an area for another time. It feels like something might try to emerge from their depths.
Rooming: Characters can claim a room key at the reception desk (or be assigned one, if, for example, you want to OOCly be neighbors and have no IC reason for it). Each apartment is tailored after its resident: it can take on the general look and feel of whatever room best reflects them, whether it's a replica of a childhood bedroom or futuristic pod furniture. But it also reacts to their personalities and moods, e.g. a closed-off person may have boarded and barbed wired windows, an anxious individual could hear scratching under the floorboards, and someone struggling with their week might suddenly have a pipe burst. Feel free to get creative—the only limitation is that the space should stay the size of a roomy studio apartment, and it's bound to be a little darker and dingier than what characters remember from home.
The elevator opens directly into the basement floor, a dark and foggy space illuminated by only a single candle on a table beside a large hole in the farthest wall. It’s a hole… There is an urge to look inside…
And something has changed. The hole has grown even larger, even more circular. You think you can hear something through it, muffled at first but quickly growing clearer. Characters can now hear and communicate with the living NPCs, allowing them to audience with any of them for a voice or what amounts to magical Facetime or a 'hologram' of them. You may now physically interact with NPCs and change what the room looks like during calls. Think of this place as your seance room.
The elevator can go up to the penthouse level as well, but you'll need permission first.
● Lakeside Park ● A quaint little respite tucked in the corner of the area, lively and flourishing. The river cuts through, creating a small peninsula which can be reached by a wooden bridge. The area is misty with fog, particularly because of a large lake that the river eventually feeds into. The lake itself is too misty to traverse safely to, but the accessible park is lush and has small gazebos and grills for picnickers.
● Heaven’s Night ● The paradise of God. A stripper bar with mediocre drinks to wash away the troubles. Two long bars decorate the southern interior, offering plenty of space for drinking with friends, or drinking alone. To the north, several four-chair and two-chair tables are gathered in front of a simple wooden platform stage. Multicolored lights at the front brighten the view of the pole in the center. In the back corner near the bar is a single, grimy bathroom.
Television screens that hang above the bar are for watching the big game—or would be, but actually, they just show a 24/7, grainy feed of the living.
● Central Square Shopping Center ● A large, ominous shopping mall with half-baked utilities. The expanse of windows at the front shows off the food court. Inside, the floors and walls are dirty and old, and only a few of the lights work while others wink eerily on and off. When glancing into the quiet, empty distance of the mall, there’s an air of isolated liminal space which causes loneliness and hopelessness. Six stores line up along the eastern wall, allowing shoppers to enter from the north or south of the mall and make a nice U around before leaving. Mannequins fill many of the stores, and, oddly, they are sometimes outside of the stores, too. Passing them by and returning will always run upon a different mannequin. Or maybe it’s the same one, only turned in another direction…? Actually, it’s uncertain whether or not these groups of mannequins were gathered here to begin with… The heads feel like they follow shoppers who come and go.
The food court has a questionable Food Grade Rating by the looks of it; however, there are several buffet-style restaurants to pick from.
Right now, only the first floor of stores is available to shop in—the rest stock only empty mannequins and emptier shelves.
Just Cats: A small pet store, but only for cats. There are cat-themed accessories as well as everything needed to take care of feline friends. Speaking of, plenty of cats roam the store (and the rest of the mall), and some are friendly! They won't leave the mall, and seem unperturbed by the eerie atmosphere, like they own this place. But feel free to drop in and give them some good scritches.
Scenesters: Like if a Hot Topic and a Spencers collided! Want N*ghtmare Before Christmas posters or a lava lamp for some reason? You're in luck. Scenesters is also stocked full with clothes, but they're mostly tacky graphic tees, pre-distressed goth wear, and wallet chains.
Cerebral Vortex: The local comics and games store, stocked with all kinds of playing cards, board games, vintage comic books, and manga. There are folding chairs and tables to play on. The true horror is that some crucial volumes are missing from most series... And also, there is no Un* to be found.
Ben, RPh, & Jerry's: A combination pharmacy and ice cream store. Why does this exist? In any case, various over the counter drugs can be picked up here, as well as first aid supplies and some convenience store wares. Additionally, there are 32 flavors of ice cream available! Some of them are mysterious and unlabeled and weird. Yum.
● Toluca Graveyard ● One of the only areas filled with the greenier of life, ironically. This quaint graveyard nestled between trees and bright grass doesn’t elicit feelings of fear so much as sadness. The tombstones are all busted or broken, but ever present as reminders of the history of people’s lives.
This is where freshly arrived dead appear.
● Midwich Elementary School ● The phantom giggling of school children can be heard when approaching Midwich. The building isn’t old or broken by any means, but it feels strangely inauspicious nevertheless. The lights inside mostly work, illuminating the desolate halls, administration rooms, and individual classrooms in a shower of harsh, fluorescent light. A billboard in Reception has a sign which says, NOTICE: Hell is coming. The classes are filled with every day education materials for young children, left behind as if something had happened suddenly without much warning. The courtyard in the center provides a small playground and periodically, the equipment moves without rhyme or reason. One of the stalls in the girls bathroom is locked; knocking on the door earns a knock in return, but nothing can be seen in the crack beneath the stall.
● The Fountain ● At the very core of the town is a small copse of trees around a large, stone fountain in the shape of a long-necked crane. There is a constant flow of water and fog from its beak; the mist is calming, though too much exposure will cause emotional numbness. But in moderation, it's a nice place to sit on one of the benches and take in some pleasant birdsong, even if the birds themselves always seem out of view.
● Brookhaven Hospital ● A three-story facility, the hospital has everything from surgical suites to cleaning rooms for linens, and is decently well-stocked with medical equipment, supplies, and bedding. But it isn't the most comfortable stay: the lighting is cold, the rooms eerily quiet except the occasional sound of muffled sobbing. Something thumps in the basement, which the elevator refuses to go down to. And sometimes, doors lock on their own, joined by the sound of a young girl's laugh and small footsteps pattering down the hall.
● Heaven’s Night ● The paradise of God. A stripper bar with mediocre drinks to wash away the troubles. Two long bars decorate the southern interior, offering plenty of space for drinking with friends, or drinking alone. To the north, several four-chair and two-chair tables are gathered in front of a simple wooden platform stage. Multicolored lights at the front brighten the view of the pole in the center. In the back corner near the bar is a single, grimy bathroom.
Television screens that hang above the bar are for watching the big game—or would be, but actually, they just show a 24/7, grainy feed of the living.
● Central Square Shopping Center ● A large, ominous shopping mall with half-baked utilities. The expanse of windows at the front shows off the food court. Inside, the floors and walls are dirty and old, and only a few of the lights work while others wink eerily on and off. When glancing into the quiet, empty distance of the mall, there’s an air of isolated liminal space which causes loneliness and hopelessness. Six stores line up along the eastern wall, allowing shoppers to enter from the north or south of the mall and make a nice U around before leaving. Mannequins fill many of the stores, and, oddly, they are sometimes outside of the stores, too. Passing them by and returning will always run upon a different mannequin. Or maybe it’s the same one, only turned in another direction…? Actually, it’s uncertain whether or not these groups of mannequins were gathered here to begin with… The heads feel like they follow shoppers who come and go.
The food court has a questionable Food Grade Rating by the looks of it; however, there are several buffet-style restaurants to pick from.
Right now, only the first floor of stores is available to shop in—the rest stock only empty mannequins and emptier shelves.
Scenesters: Like if a Hot Topic and a Spencers collided! Want N*ghtmare Before Christmas posters or a lava lamp for some reason? You're in luck. Scenesters is also stocked full with clothes, but they're mostly tacky graphic tees, pre-distressed goth wear, and wallet chains.
Cerebral Vortex: The local comics and games store, stocked with all kinds of playing cards, board games, vintage comic books, and manga. There are folding chairs and tables to play on. The true horror is that some crucial volumes are missing from most series... And also, there is no Un* to be found.
Ben, RPh, & Jerry's: A combination pharmacy and ice cream store. Why does this exist? In any case, various over the counter drugs can be picked up here, as well as first aid supplies and some convenience store wares. Additionally, there are 32 flavors of ice cream available! Some of them are mysterious and unlabeled and weird. Yum.
● Toluca Graveyard ● One of the only areas filled with the greenier of life, ironically. This quaint graveyard nestled between trees and bright grass doesn’t elicit feelings of fear so much as sadness. The tombstones are all busted or broken, but ever present as reminders of the history of people’s lives.
This is where freshly arrived dead appear.
● Midwich Elementary School ● The phantom giggling of school children can be heard when approaching Midwich. The building isn’t old or broken by any means, but it feels strangely inauspicious nevertheless. The lights inside mostly work, illuminating the desolate halls, administration rooms, and individual classrooms in a shower of harsh, fluorescent light. A billboard in Reception has a sign which says, NOTICE: Hell is coming. The classes are filled with every day education materials for young children, left behind as if something had happened suddenly without much warning. The courtyard in the center provides a small playground and periodically, the equipment moves without rhyme or reason. One of the stalls in the girls bathroom is locked; knocking on the door earns a knock in return, but nothing can be seen in the crack beneath the stall.
● The Fountain ● At the very core of the town is a small copse of trees around a large, stone fountain in the shape of a long-necked crane. There is a constant flow of water and fog from its beak; the mist is calming, though too much exposure will cause emotional numbness. But in moderation, it's a nice place to sit on one of the benches and take in some pleasant birdsong, even if the birds themselves always seem out of view.
● Brookhaven Hospital ● A three-story facility, the hospital has everything from surgical suites to cleaning rooms for linens, and is decently well-stocked with medical equipment, supplies, and bedding. But it isn't the most comfortable stay: the lighting is cold, the rooms eerily quiet except the occasional sound of muffled sobbing. Something thumps in the basement, which the elevator refuses to go down to. And sometimes, doors lock on their own, joined by the sound of a young girl's laugh and small footsteps pattering down the hall.
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LOCATION CHANGES / THEFT
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WEEK 2
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall... And beyond that, one of the trees at Lakeside Park has an odd-looking door in its bark now?
Additional References: (one) (two)
Additional References: (one)
The lake itself is peaceful though, and a nice place to have picnics! Neat! There is a pier and places to sit and rest your weary soul.
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WEEK 2 - TREE BONUS LOCATIONS
An oblong island smattered with a dreamcore, pastel veil and surrounded by the sea, perpetually caught at the very beginning of a tepid sunset. The grass is green and the trees are lush with ripened fruit like peaches, apples, and coconuts on the beach. Shaking any of these trees has a chance to drop a beehive out of the branches, and the bees will chase the perpetrator until they get inside an enclosed shelter. Gorgeous multicolored flowers bloom both wild across the island and neatly in tended beds near the center township.
It’s a peaceful paradise no one would ever want to leave.
Ten little houses sit together on a section of the island, each one unique, but vacant and unlocked. Evidence of a home’s inhabitant is left behind in color, room decor, and keepsakes; some houses even have hanging photos of bipedal goats, cats, and dogs. In the neighborhood center is a low platform stage strung with fairy lights, and a boombox nearby alternates between songs.
● Yodel Ranch ● On one corner of the island, a wooden farm fence encircles a large barn and a field. A Sheltie dog greets visitors immediately upon entering. Her collar proudly proclaims she is Dani, and she is extremely friendly and will sit and offer her paw. Inside the barn are several barn cats and a buckskin gelding whose stall has a name plate which reads Hårgas. On one wall of the barn hangs farm tools: a hammer, a hoe, an axe, a watering can, a sickle, and a fishing rod.
Alas, these items will leave stealing hands and return to their place at the barn if an attempt to leave with them is made.
The field is split into three different sections. The first has been tilled and planted, and turnips, sweet potatoes, cabbage, pumpkins, and spinach grow in neat rows. Somehow, these crops don’t seem to follow the rules of seasons. These all strangely regrow within a few hours after they have been picked. The second field is filled with fluffy white sheep, and the third field is filled with black and white heifers. Near the sheep and cow pens are a milk bucket, brush, and bell; ringing the bell will cause the sheep and cows to come over.
● Funky Fashionista ● The sound of a phantom running sewing machine can be heard while browsing the racks and shelves of this clothing store. The wallpaper and flooring are bright and chipper, and many of the headless mannequins show off the new fashion trends of the island. A small selection of clothing and accessories can be found at one time here, but all of it rotates on a day to day basis. A list of rotating, in-stock items can be found here. These clothing items can be taken.
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WEEK 3
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall... And beyond that, another one of the trees at Lakeside Park has an odd-looking door in its bark now?
Some of the bees bite. With their teeth.
Additional References: (one) (two)
Our establishment has multiple ninety-foot lanes that are perfect for any kind of event. This shooting range also supports different kinds of activities. If you do not wish to use a firearm, bring your own archery equipment and practice your skills on the archery range. This range is a wonderful place to celebrate a bachelor party, host a bachelorette party, make good memories with a group of friends, or host a corporate event. Experience Gunplay now!
Additional References: (one)
There is a TV here for watching the living, or reruns of bad commercials.
They look menacing, and even dangerous... but it turns out these are just replica items. Oops.
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WEEK 3 - BONUS TREE LOCATIONS
A desolate two-lane roadway winding through fog, trees, and hills for about a mile. No cars or trucks rumble down the road, though occasionally, white apparitions can be seen disappearing into the trees. Reaching the end of the road envelopes travelers in fog and loops them to the beginning once more. Along the journey, several eerie places spring out of the fog into view.
The store itself has rows and rows of shelves filled with snack foods as well as freezers along the back walls packed with water, sodas, and beers. The lights inside are so white and harsh they feel draining, and after spending several hours in the building, the uncertain dread of being watched seeps into every bone. The counter at the front is unmanned, but no matter how long of a wait, no one ever comes. Cigarettes are just out of reach on the wall behind the counter, and a case of lottery scratch-offs and 5-hour energy shots crowd the space where items go to be rung up.
In the back corner are two doors: one is a grungy, halfway clean bathroom; the second is a staff room only as big as a closet space where a small server buzzes to keep the split-screen camera monitor alive. Each camera points at a different area of the station, two inside, two outside (front and back). Watching the feed doesn’t reveal much for a long time, but every so often, a figure can be seen looming in the shadows of the building, especially when the lights flicker off.
● Toyama Residence ● This old minka house, sitting in endless night, has become dilapidated and overgrown by weeds. A single dirt path from the gate cuts through the brush straight to the creaking engawa and frosted-screen sliding front door. The genkan is nothing more than dirt which has turned into mud from an abundance of stale-smelling water, a shoe stone, and planks of wood on the other side welcoming visitors up into the first section of the house.
The dated exterior clashes with the transplanted interior decor from the 80s and 90s, and despite having electricity, none of the lights work. Most of the individual rooms are filled with tatami flooring except for the washroom and kitchen, and the brittle rice paper of the sliding doors have all been torn or ripped out. One of the front rooms has a small irori fire pit. Flickers of figures pass through the holes. Sometimes, a figure may be standing at the end of a hallway, or across through the sliding doors of several rooms. There and gone again.
There are two additional levels: a second floor, up a set of steep stairs; and an attic, up a ladder on the second story. A lot of old, hoarded junk spills out of the rooms into the hallways. Musty clothing, boxes, furniture, broken heirlooms and collectibles; handed down mementos mix with the modern age like a room with a kotatsu, a television, and video cassette player.
Dank, shadowy bedrooms fill the second floor where remnants of occupants have been left behind in time. The ladder into the attic spills straight into a room covered in rows and rows of dusty Ichimatsu dolls. It’s difficult to tell if they move their eyes or their heads. One way here, another way there.
Outside, around the side of the house along another dirt path is a single outhouse with a hole in the ground. Low, scratchy whispering occasionally rises up from the depths of the dark hole.
● The Side Rooms ● A surreal, eerie labyrinth of different rooms stretched into the distance by a liminal space. This area can only be stumbled upon accidentally through a door in the Toyama Residence, or the Gas-N-Pass station. All who enter become lost within for some length of time; to the outside world, only about an hour, but to the lost it could be minutes, hours, days. Rooms are lit or dark, high or low. Some are upside down. Some are filled with pools. Some have strange geometric structures, or holes, or warping hallways, or doors through doors through doors. The air is lukewarm and quiet.
Travelers inside feel watched and stalked. Some unseen creature is hunting all who venture through the rooms with an insatiable, curious hunger. The urge to keep something living inside of this dimension. As the pressure of being chased builds up, running away will finally lead anyone lost suddenly back to the main village as they pass through the next doorway.
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WEEK 4
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall... And beyond that, another one of the trees at Lakeside Park has an odd-looking door in its bark now?
Additional References: (one)
The sign at the entrance of the cove announces it's the Skull Fortress of Health, Happiness and Prosperity, but at best only the happiness part is fulfilled.
Additional References: (one) (two)
However, on occasion, the water will turn an eerie red, with rust spreading along the bottom—then change back in the blink of an eye.
If you enter the pool with serious or fatal injuries please let your mods know, as there may be consequences.
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WEEK 4 - BONUS TREE LOCATIONS
These lands feel like waking after the end of the world. Quiet, desolate, seeing only the remnants of what once was great, or alive, or new. The sky is always overcast and grey, storms come and go. Great wars between gods and men have flattened the life out of this place, though pieces of nature still clinging to the world are beginning to flourish once more.
Outside of the bottom landing is a peppering of small marshes around the base of the cliffs. A ramp of earth leads up into the patio beside the first few buildings. Each building connects into the next–building and rock, rock and building–everything open to the air and sky through columns and doorless entries, no need for windows. Though mostly ruins, mementos of a regal, intelligent civilization are left behind in the decor. Scraps of parchment write highly of a group of paladins called the Eternal Edict who devote themselves to establishing and maintaining True Order and life and death in the land.
Everything winds upward and into the mesmerizing sky, though the orbs always seem just out of reach of a hand. When ascending, the ground grows slowly darker and darker, morphing into an empty reflection of the sky overhead. As above, so below. Standing high amid the stars, it’s easy to feel the vast reach of the universe even here underground, rendering everything insignificant and tiny, and yet grandiose in the presence of it all at once.
● Tree of Nascent ● A forest of yellow-leaved aspen trees huddles in the looming shadow of an immense, blooming dogwood tree. The eye-shaped knots on the aspen trees blink and shift when anything passes by along the winding path. The wind is gentle, but the forest is deathly silent otherwise, a noticeable lack of birdsong and animal scampering, making the air feel sacred. The great dogwood sits in a small clearing near the center, larger than anything imaginable and outlined in a soft, golden glow. The halo of light once encircling the back of the white canopy is now broken and dark; the shards of the halo are tangled in the branches, or lying in ruins among the roots of the tree. The trunk facing the path has been split open vertically, and where the giant, grotesque figure was cradled before is nothing but an empty and hollow area with a broken, twisted umbilical cord of bark dangling from above.
A stone plaque near some of the enormous roots reads: I am that I am.
A spigot has been lodged into the bark of one of the roots of the dogwood tree near where it meets the trunk. Turning the spigot on fills the steel bucket below it with strange gold and red blood.
● Ebonbriar Academy ● A colossal stone structure sitting on an island in a small lake and built into the sky almost like a fortress. Several towers stretch higher than the rest, emitting a blue glow from their arched windows.
The Academy has a multitude of different rooms between the winding halls, chilly, covered in banners of Academy design, and cramped by books, chalk placards, desks, gemstones, runic maps, and strange alchemic or magical devices.
A teleporting stone sitting on a balcony transports visitors directly before the large double doors of the enormous library. Shelves of books line every wall from front to back, and the shelves stack inward toward the center of the room where there sits an enormous cradle with a cracked gemstone egg inside; the shadow within the egg looks almost like an embryo. Thousands upon thousands of books from every universe are here, some in unreadable languages. Many of the books expand on the history of a group of Chaos following, immortal seeking mages called the Afflicted.
One of the towers holds a single room filled with growing yellow and blue crystals as well as wicker baskets of the same harvested gems and miniature picks. Pieces of the crystals’ edges have been chipped away, though not all the cavities are even like they were done by tools. The room reverberates with the low, mental hum of an old, dark, and magical force. Standing inside for very long will instill a deep, insatiable hunger; at first for knowledge, for Truth, for power, and then, slowly, for the shimmering and tantalizing crystals inside the room. Scattered here and there on the floor are pieces of teeth.
Various traps are sprinkled within the building: hidden walls which vanish after being hit, leading to other rooms; tunneled hallways behind secret doors, detouring from one area to the next; teleporting objects transposing curious individuals across the Academy to other rooms, or dropped outside in a botanist’s garden on a cliff-face with no exit except to climb the stone railing and narrowly shimmy along the edge of the building to a broken window.
● Burgoswald Woods ● A dank and grey, coniferous forest with a canopy thick enough to make the forest floor relatively dark. An old, wooden sign at the mouth of the area warns of the dangers within.
The trees are exceedingly tall and very thick, old as time itself. Inside the forest, the air is chilly, and it smells of rotting bark, and moss, and leaves. A terrible, unnerving energy permeates the entirety of the radius mile, something akin to dark magic, something that makes the hair on the back of the neck and the arms stand on end.
Journeying through the forest is met with the periodic howls and growls of bizarre, unseen beasts, and travelers stumble upon tiny sections of gravestones sprinkled oddly throughout the trees. Tantalizing orbs of light bob quickly away from the path, and wanderers will be lead astray in the dark, often toward precarious bogs.
A clutter of green, dog-sized spiders live in one corner of the forest, their thick webs strung up between the trees. If they can't trap foolish prey with their webs, they will shoot webbing from their abdomen, or descend like lightning from the canopy to grab prey and paralyze them with their venom. Anyone caught will become a dried-up husk left in a coffin of silk.
If travelers can make it to the center, a clean, perfect stream several feet wide runs through it; the water is fresh and cold enough to shock the senses. Deer, rabbits, foxes, birds, and other gentle animals can often be found here searching for water and rest. A single ragged, old gravestone is here with a burning lantern hanging from the top. The light from the lantern is warm and comforting, and despite being a marker of the dead, the wordless stone feels like a nice place to rest.
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SPRING HEALS
An illuminated indoors pool with both a gentle ramp and set of steps leading into the warm water. The water seems to automatically purify itself after each use, and on occasion there are wisps of pale green light shimmering across the surface. Visitors will find themselves mentally refreshed after a soak, and their physical aches eased. There aren't any towels available, but oddly enough, visitors will emerge from the springs completely dried off.
However, on occasion, the water will turn an eerie red, with rust spreading along the bottom—then change back in the blink of an eye.
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no subject
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall... And beyond that, another one of the trees at Lakeside Park has an odd-looking door in its bark now?
Hotline: A red Bakelite telephone that makes your character hear intermittent, staticky voices.
Floppy Disk: Telekinetically launch small objects e.g. staplers, coffee mugs, binders, etc.
Benicoff TV: Levitate sporadically, up to 10ft.
Home Safe: Create a telekinetic shield, with small objects found inside the Bureau. Millions paperclips.
Songmaster Jukebox (OOP10-KE): Get rickrolled.
Additional References: (one) (two)
Additional References: (one)
In the back is a raised wooden stage with multiple jazzy instruments, including a piano, drumset, and vintage bass. Traditional microphones and amps stand ready to be used, but so are hand-held portable ones and a karaoke machine. Though lighting options are a bit limited, a few ambient colour options are available for those who want to set the mood a little more. Sometimes, a melancholic, familiar voice sings from the stage, and the lyrics on the machine change mysteriously.
Additional References: (one)
An area in the back carries formal accessories, including hair pieces, jewelry, shoes, handbags, folding fans, and more. Also, there's a framed picture of Cloud in a dress on the back wall. Who knows why.
Additional References: (one)
Additional References: (one) (two)
Additional References: (one)
Most importantly, there are cheap cell phones and send you may now all text/send audio messages and the worst quality photos imaginable. Think old ones: flip phones, bricks, old Blackberries. Maybe one of you can find a Razr and be the coolest kid in town.
Stay a while if you want to view the lake or get away from the apartments. But eventually, something about this place has you missing people you love until your heart aches, even after leaving.
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The warm days and chilly nights of the Atlantic northeast dominate the summer stay at Borrasca camp and the boardwalk. Some days are overcast, but most are bright and sunny. The waters are shockingly cool and the wildlife is abundant. Even this far north, the mosquitoes are bad in the evening and at night, buzzing incessantly, and the area comes alive at night with the sounds of crickets and frogs.
In the day, the camp is a peaceful, if lonesome, respite in the thick of the wilderness. Animals like deer, foxes, birds, squirrels, or other small mammals and reptiles roam the natural landscape just yards away from the border of the camp. The pawprints of a bear or a mountain lion can sometimes be spotted in the muddier areas near the lakeshore, and the lake itself is home to various fish and other aquatic animals even with the dock stretching out into the water split from the swimming platform in the distance by a bit of water. A gazebo stands near the lake, perfect for kissing your honey (or kissing a side piece behind your honey’s back). At the center of all the cabins on the shore of the lake is a small bonfire surrounded by seating, the best place for telling ghost stories late in the evening.
At night, the forest closes eerily inward onto the camp. Brush moves and branches snap somewhere in the trees, but it’s difficult to see through the heavy darkness all around. A strange, guttural howl pierces the night periodically from different areas around the outskirts of the camp as if circling it. With no light pollution, the sky above is a beautiful sliver of the universe, blue-black and violet and freckled by white stars for those brave enough to stand outside and look up.
The safest haven are the cabins: simple but sturdy sanded, stained-wood logs and a roof. Each cabin has two twin bunk beds, a fold-up table with two chairs, a tiny kitchenette, and a bathroom. A mini fridge in the kitchenette has a few cans of soda, hot dogs, eggs, and sandwich meat which periodically replenish. Ingredients for smores, crackers, and bread are on the counter. There’s electricity! Of course, it will go out from time to time, and campers are forced to use the flashlights available instead.
● Doyle House, Infirmary, and Radio Tower ● The camp office, named Doyle House after the founding family, serves as the liaison between the normal outside world and the hellacious two month summer stay in the heart of the wild. Inside is a large desk with an old rotary phone (which unsurprisingly doesn’t work) and stacks of papers and folders–supply inventory, a map of the lake camp, and a list of campers: Kaitlyn, Jacob, Emma, Nick, Ryan, Dylan, Abigail, Laura, and Max.
The infirmary is a tiny cabin sitting near the office, fitting only two chairs and two cots along with a kitchenette. The cabinets are filled with very basic medical supplies like bandages, aspirin, wound ointment, hot and cold patches, fire blankets, bug repellent, and bear spray.
Getting to the top of the radio tower is a long ladder climb not for the faint of heart, or those afraid of heights. At the end of the ladder is a wrap-around balcony and one 10 ft. by 10 ft. room with walls lined by windows. In the day, chunks of the camp can be spotted through the thick forest, but at night, there is nothing but darkness stretching for miles. A VHF radio box sits on a desk, and switching through any of the 14 channels gives a range of soft static to distorted, strange muttering, to animalistic growling. Reaching out through the mic will always earn a whispered, “Help me,” in reply.
● Turnpike Trailhead ● A winding, two-mile trail horseshoeing (with plenty of twists and turns) from the camp back to the camp once more. Strange, unnatural footprints are sometimes left in the dirt, mud, and brush along the trail. Trickling water can be heard, but none can be found. Dancing lights off in the trees tantalizingly try to pull hikers from the trail. If anyone wanders away from the path, they become lost for several hours before finding themselves once more on the trail, dazed and unable to remember how long they have been missing. Periodically, a whispery and waifish voice demands for hikers to “return The Slab” from somewhere in the distance. It can take hikers anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours to traverse the entire trail, and often even those hiking together feel as if the time they have spent on the trail differs.
● Sonica Manta Boardwalk ● A 500 meter stretch of salty wood and greasy, delicious concession stand food. During the day, the amusement park is plain, but functional, operating on its own. At the top of the ferris wheel, the ocean stretches endlessly for miles and miles; in the distance near the horizon, a gargantuan silhouette slithers away deep beneath the water. The sun is warm, the food is great.
At night, the amusement park is alive with light and sound as the rides and games continue on their loops of starting and stopping. The food is delicious, but doesn’t ever satiate, creating the urge to eat more and more. It’s difficult to resist the desire to stay here forever, lost in the fun of the park and the sights and food of the boardwalk. At the top of the ferris wheel, the ocean is only a black and eternal mass of rolling darkness, never-ending.
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WEEK 6
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall... And beyond that, another one of the trees at Lakeside Park has an odd-looking door in its bark now?
However, once you walk inside, you'll realize that it's actually... a DMV? Oops. Try to leave, and you'll find that the doors are locked tightly shut. You are now stuck in the DMV for the next 60 minutes. There's a purikura booth on one wall that only takes really unflattering photos, and the only sticker decorations are traffic safety signals. You can get a driver's license printed out, but somehow, every detail on it is wrong and also very rude. The Kidz Bop version of hit 90s songs play on repeat over crackly speakers, and every now and then, all of the tellers will look expectantly your way when they call a ticket number, even if you don't have one. They'll shame you for being slow and then try to charge you $200 as a standing in line fee. However, you are given a single juicy and delicious drumstick on your way out for your struggles. Enjoy!
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Additional References: (one) (two??)
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WEEK 6 - BONUS TREE LOCATIONS
Standing at the bottom of the steps of a stone lighthouse brings the realization it is immersed in an all-consuming ocean. There is nothing in any direction except water, water, water. And foggy mist on the horizon. Up the steps is a large double, golden door left ajar, though it seems as if it shouldn't be open at all. Inside, lights wink on, illuminating a plaque on the back wall: A man chooses, a slave obeys. A two-person bathysphere awaits, and music plays gently from within. Hopping inside makes the round door shut, and the bathysphere drops through a glass tunnel 18 fathoms deep into the pit of the ocean.
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? The bathysphere is lopped out of the tunnel and onto a rail above an expansive, modern underwater city. A screen flickers on in the bathysphere, running through a static reel of a confident and handsome man regaling riders with the story of his creation: an entire city built for artists without censor, scientists without morality, and great men who would not be constrained by the small. A city for gods.
The bathysphere arrives in a docking area connected to a building, and ELYSIUM is embossed on the plating of the opening. After decompression, the bathysphere rises into the building and opens, releasing all passengers. Glowing advertisement boards all around the room sell EVE ("Running on empty? Fill up with EVE!"), plasmid ("Pick your Plasmid and evolve!"), and ADAM ("With ADAM, there's no reason NOT to be beautiful!"). For as much as the city touts its shining, golden accomplishments, the interior is left dilapidated and in ruins after what could only be civil unrest.
There is also Dental, one room with a single chair and arms and arms of dental drills and picks attached to the base. If the Surgery Ward was bad, one can only imagine what would happen here.
Already dead? No problem! The Crematorium has a giant, ever-burning furnace where any twisted, freakish body can be wiped from existence and turned to ash.
● EDEN ● One respite in the city below the sea: a few rooms of ecology stolen from the land above. A Tea Garden is lush with plants, small trees, and an abundance of flowers. Iron tables and chairs are set up, offering a place for food, drink, and gossip, or even love.
The tea garden flows straight into a Grotto where a small waterfall spills into a waist-deep pool of perpetually circulated, filtered water.
Adjacent to these is Atlas Farms, a hydroponic chamber full of artificially cultivated fruits and vegetables via growth lights.
● THE PAVILION ● A collection of merchant shops and restaurants for the wealthy and impressionable. Clothing, jewelry, and accessories are here in droves, but the styles follow 40s and 50s designs. Bookstores are filled with fiction and nonfiction, self help, and, of course, etiquette. Restaurants cater to all kinds of palettes and cultures via small, faceless robots, but every experience is elevated and rich. Vending machines are here, too, selling thin vials of ADAM - juice that makes you look and feel beautiful - and EVE - a 5-hour energy shot from hell. Both of these are extremely addictive and have bad withdrawal effects. A large ballroom sits at the end of the rows of shops, the inside left a mess from civil infighting.
● SOMNOVIUM ● The residential district is locked behind a large sliding, metal door.
Strange, blackish organic matter clings to the door itself,The black, organic material has been broken away by the opened door, leaving a mess on the floor, and a large robot is stuck in the same material on a wall nearby.Two thick tubes stretch from it to organic ports by the doorThe two thick tubes have been unplugged from the ports on the wall. A lever switch sits by the door, now turned off.The door hums with energy. The robot will tell those nearby in a man's voice it's very hurt and needs help, a doctor maybe, repeatedly; he always ends his sentences with, "Would you kindly?"The robot has become dormant and unresponsive.The large door has slid away, leaving behind an opening which leads straight into a spacious, open foyer full of elegant and rich architecture and decor marred by the mess of infighting. There are benches and chairs for sitting and an empty reception desk at the back. Two open archways on each side lead to two separate wings of high-end apartments neatly stacked side by side along two stories. Each room is furnished like a lavish penthouse: a den, a full kitchen, several bedrooms, and a big bathroom.
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WEEK 7
As the fog expands outward, new locations can be found at the expanded outskirts of the town, and there are additional stores that have suddenly moved into the mall...
There's also an area for manicures and pedicures that includes those great automatic massage chairs, and a selection of nail polishes, and beyond that is a small room where you can get a massage from... someone. Or somewhere. Who knows. Get cute!
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You may end up in appropriate labwear upon walking in, too!
You may end up in some fun Halloween costumes upon walking in, too! For the Ambiance.
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