EVENT ∞ LOG — July 125

[thediadem]

Event ∞ Log

In the Flesh

Jump ⇅ :: Visits — First Contact — Hitchhikers — Notes

∞ Prologue ∞

It's not real, it's not real.

Somewhere in the Blocks, late at night, a young woman repeats the words over and over, fumbling with her room key. She doesn't dare look over her shoulder again, begging her hand to obey. Her fingers are stiff and smooth, and it makes each movement more difficult. Eventually, the door gives way. She stumbles into the apartment, slamming it behind her and locking several bolts.

Leaning back on the door, she lets her key ring fall to the linoleum as she holds her hand up to her face. It isn't just her fingers now. Painted plastic has taken over her entire right hand, spreading up her forearm toward a ball-jointed elbow that creaks painfully. She grabs her neck with her flesh hand, sucking in a sharp breath as she tries to steady her heart.

It's not real, it's not real...

She takes another breath, then turns on the light. The bulb flickers. Hazy light flood the room with an incessant buzz.

She freezes.

A figure stands in the opposite doorway. It doesn't move, stuck in a pose with an outstretched hand—one made of flesh and bone. Her hand.

She screams.

Info & Mechanics — NPC Forum Post — Event Interaction ::: ⇅ Top

Strange Visits

Panorama

For the first week or two of July, life goes on as usual. You have a lot on your plate—jobs, loans, rent, that creep who won't stop staring at you when you're filling up your car—and the last thing you've got time for is other people's problems. Or maybe you find room to listen, anyway? Whatever the case, it's mostly a lot of stories and pointing fingers: a shopkeeper accuses his friend of stealing from him, somebody claims their boss must've skipped town to avoid paying the employees, and a woman is frantic about her missing husband. He never goes anywhere without telling her.

If you decide to look into it, none of the incidents seem connected. After all, people frequently go missing in the Diadem, friends betray each other, and businesses often go bankrupt, leaving their workers to pick up the pieces. Funny thing, though: here and there, you swear you glimpse a figure who isn't entirely flesh. Their features are just...a bit odd. Is it your imagination? When you move in for a closer look, something gets in your way and the figure disappears.

On the other hand, you think to yourself, it's not as though everybody on this planet looks standard. If a man can have horns, why can't his skin also be a bit plasticky?

Use the Event Interaction comment any time you need specifics or some direction for an element you're engaging within the event. This can be an NPC victim your character is questioning, an aspect of the diffusion zone your character is testing, or anything along those veins. While you're encouraged to make things up on your own, too, if you're ever unsure of the results or the answers you might get, approach us there!

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First Contact

The Fringes

Inevitably, you take the risk and head back into the Fringes. It has what you need, and the bizarreness in Panorama isn't making the city feel like much of a refuge, either. Besides, long trips aren't unusual for anyone in the Diadem. As you drive, you might even find yourself reluctant to return to the city. After all, there's so much across the multitude of diffusion zones that regardless of how dangerous it can be, perhaps some part of you is attracted to the thrill of the unknown.

If the promise of loot isn't enough, a note on the Forum might be. Here, you'll scroll across a brief message from who else but the ever-eager Felix Bjurstrom, joined by his daughter, Olive "Ollie" Bjurstrom. (Looks like he's got a new phone again!) If nothing else, the investigative or curious nature in you gets you going. What if this is a piece of the puzzle you need to go home?

If you want your character to scavenge items, check how that works. The Map identifies where each Quadrant is located.

Among the Shadows — Abandoned Mall

©

In Quadrant 1, about a 10-hour drive from Panorama, a standard American shopping mall rises through the cracked and broken highway. A portion of its vast parking lot melts into the road ahead and behind. There are cars in the parking lot, each one perfectly preserved: no rust, no dust, nothing.

The mall's lights are on. The moment you step inside, you'll notice that you're not alone. Inside, shadow corpses are everywhere, frozen in time. Their bodies show no signs of distress. If you try to touch them, a dark, ashy residue coats your fingers. You see a young couple linking arms, a mother bending over to pick up her child, and a man ordering his last meal at the KFC. It's as though they all just...stopped. While eerie, whatever force swept through here is long gone.

The upside is that nobody will bother you while you look around—aside from other fluxdrifts, of course. The shops and their offerings are stuck in the 90's. Big electronics are cosmic touched, rendering them worthless, but smaller electronics like cassette tapes, CDs, and Walkmans are all viable. You can also grab clothes, snacks, and (cheap) jewelry.

And, as you pass by the store windows, you see many mannequins on display. That's normal, so you don't think twice. At least, until you swear one of them keeps moving around the store. Though its pose never changes, it almost appears to...follow you? That can't be right. You must be seeing things.

Zone Effects
Touching any of the frozen shadows will cause the victim to believe that their companion(s) have transformed into monstrous creatures. Attempts to approach you will only register as an attack rather than placating gestures, while words will sound like snarls or spoken threats. An induced panic will make it more difficult to think logically and see through the hallucination. The illusory creatures can take the form of anything that might frighten or threaten you the most.

You can break free of the illusion through a variety of methods, including your own willpower, being knocked out by your friends, or seeing/hearing something that makes you realize it isn't real. The hallucination isn't overly intense, but it can cause a bit of havoc among you and your companions...and increase the likelihood a mannequin might make contact unnoticed.

Wall of Refuge — Strange Temple

©

In Quadrant 1, about a 6-hour drive from Panorama—and on the way to the abandoned mall above—stands a geometric structure made of metal and stone. Sharp angles shoot up from the ground to form a distorted hexagon. The gateway is littered with sigils: some weathered by time, others freshly carved into the rocky surface. They glow when you drive forward, beckoning you closer. Come in, whispers an unknown compulsion in your mind. You are home.

You may succumb to the whispers for any number of reasons: sleep deprivation, desperation for a place to rest overnight, or a need to hide from raiders or dangerous creatures lurking in another nearby zone. Regardless, you give in and enter the triangular entrance. The stone gate lifts to grant you passage, revealing an effigy of a multi-limbed being. A deity? A symbol of power? Though you're unsure, you continue deeper. Your footsteps echo across the cavernous halls.

Behind you, the heavy gate slowly closes with a rumbling finality. Despite the chilly entranceway, the interior of the temple is warm and inviting. Candles line the walls. Fountains flow peacefully. You can enter one of the many rooms to find a soft bed, fresh cakes, succulent meat, and fine wine available for you. Behind a silk curtain is a steaming bath lined with soothing floral herbs and oils.

Meanwhile, throughout your explorations, you might sense a figure or a shadow in the passageway. A glimpse of shiny plastic appears oddly out of place in a temple of this kind.

Zone Effects

• If you are a believer and decide to trust the gifts bestowed upon you, then you may safely indulge. The wine will warm you up, the food will fill your belly, and you can sleep through the night. When you awaken, you can safely leave the temple refreshed. Your vehicle will be outside, untouched, as if some power within was protecting your belongings.
• If you are a heretic and doubt the offerings you've been graciously given, the gifts will begin to rot and all amenities will crumble to dust. The more your cynicism betrays you, the more the temple will take until nothing remains except the oddly textured walls bearing down on you. As you examine the surface, you realize the stone is built from a manifold of dozens—no, hundreds—of twisted bodies. Their arms are raised in reverence, piled upon each other like human bricks. Their gaping mouths are frozen in a silent scream. As for you and your companions...what fate will await the nonbeliever?

The Last Stop — Foggy Town

©

In Quadrant 4, about a 3-hour drive from Panorama, east of the currently unused train tracks, a thick mist rolls through the highway. Here, the sky darkens rapidly into night and the temperature drops. If you've traveled unprepared, presuming the heat in Panorama spreads into the Fringes, you'll find that's not so. A chill spreads into your bones and creeps up the back of your neck.

Then the ground rumbles. The tremors shake your vehicle. Maybe it even makes you lose control briefly or sends you swerving off-road, straight into the fields. And in the middle of the fog, you see it: a figure standing in the middle of the field. Behind it are a few houses, making up a tiny rural town. The houses are dilapidated, many crumbling. Supplies within are minimal, and many items are broken or spoiled.

Do you approach? Do you drive past? Merely staring for a second too long will be enough for the hitchhiker to choose you as its ride, but its appearance may not be all that keeps you in place. In the distance is another bigger shadow. A much bigger shadow. It looms in the distance without true mass or form. Within the void of its body, a searchlight sweeps over the misty town. It does not move. It simply looks while the ground shakes. Each time its light catches a glimpse of something that doesn't belong—an animal, a vehicle that drove too deep into the tall grass, a raider that went too far into town—a sonorous howl reverberates through the zone.

Then the shadow will teleport to its target and crush the intruder without mercy before retreating back to its watchful post. And the intruder is indeed crushed: any living organism caught by the Light Guardian will be flattened with a horrifying crunch of broken bones and squished organs.

Zone Effects
While the Light Guardian can't be defeated or confronted, you can outrun or hide from its sweeping beam. If you stop far enough on the side of the road, it won't notice you...but you can still watch as it mangles an unfortunate raider or traveler. Possibly, you see the spray of blood or hear the screams before you run. Perhaps you realize how easily you could've met your own gory fate.

If you've left your car and gone too deep into the town before you realize the danger, you can do one of two things: you can risk hiding in an abandoned house in the town and hope that the sunrise comes. In zones like this, the day/night cycle is unpredictable, and many places are permanently cast in darkness. Or, you can try to run back to your vehicle and pray you don't get caught.

Alternatively, you've plowed directly into the field when raiders in pursuit force you into the zone. Should fortune favor you, they'll be obliterated by the Light Guardian while you flee. The beam tracks quickly, but can only shine in one direction at a time so the key is to bob and weave.

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Hitchhikers

Anywhere

Not everyone who enters the diffusion zone will pick up a mannequin, but the possibility is there. Once you make first contact, you will gain a hitchhiker. Unlike most aspects of the diffusion zones, this one has gathered into a storm, meaning the effects will breach even normally stable and anchored strongholds like Panorama.

Some fluxdrifts will brush off your problems while a few might believe you. Others will offer solutions in their own way, including a doctor who'll pay to obtain strange plastic limbs. Not everyone will pitch in to help. The city's big, populated, and somebody on the street turning doll-like doesn't affect them (...until it does). They've got a job to get to and mouths to feed.

Unwanted Passenger

When do you first notice your passenger? At any point, really. Perhaps it goes like this:

You glance in the rearview mirror and glimpse a figure in the backseat. When you spin around, there's nobody there. Then it happens again. This time, you realize it's not a person, but a dummy. A mannequin. It's sitting upright. And is it...wearing a seatbelt? Or maybe it's thrown itself across the back bench as though somebody tossed it there, uncaring.

This time, when you look back, it's still there. You pull over and dump it on the side of the road. That's taken care of, you think. You drive some more. For a few hours or even a day or two—depending on how long you've traveled—you don't think much of it. Then suddenly, it's back. And it keeps coming back no matter how much you try to get rid of it.

Or it goes like this:

You return from a standard trip into a diffusion zone. It went pretty well, you think. You found some clothes at a creepy mall and now you're ready to get some sleep. When you open your trunk to retrieve your belongings, you notice a mannequin stuffed inside, limbs bent at odd angles. You're a little weirded out, but you decide to dump it on the street and move on.

You shower. In the bathroom mirror, the mannequin suddenly appears behind you. Over the next few days, this continues. The mannequin appears in a booth across the diner as you're eating your eggs. It's behind a shelf in the corner store. It's in your closet. Each time you check, it vanishes...but then, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's right there in plain view. It'll even let you throw it away, burn it, anything you can think of. But it always comes back.

However it plays out, you realize that people around you do notice it...sometimes. That doesn't mean anyone will believe you that things are just that weird. Most people have better things to do. They don't know you, after all, and even if they did, well, this place does have a habit of driving people a little crazy. Witnesses casually push the mannequin aside and tell you that's a funny prank. Your regular waitress pats your shoulder and suggests you get some sleep. You're not looking well. The shopkeeper demands you take that thing before you go. He's not responsible for your junk.

But there's a small chance you run into someone who seems to be going through what you are. Unfortunately, they seem to actually have it worse and aren't making much sense. Still, you can try questioning them and see what answers you get. At least, before you lose them for good. For some of you, the victim you run into is in especially bad shape...and you have to wonder how long before you end up the same.

Trading Places

For some of you, the mannequins might not do more than be a nuisance. While that's not ideal, either, it doesn't completely upend your life. Others are less fortunate. If you're one of the latter, you'll begin to notice symptoms.

The first time it happens, you're startled to hear the mannequin speak. To begin with, its voice might be guttural and unnatural, incapable of stringing more than a few words together. Then it seems to learn. It talks in full sentences. Its voice smooths out. It starts to sound more and more like you...right down to your speech patterns and accent. As symptoms progress with varying intensity—over days or weeks—you realize with dawning horror that you're losing parts of yourself. When you wash your hands, you notice a part of your skin is smooth and shiny. The next time the mannequin appears, its previously plasticky appearance is more flesh and blood.

Eventually, the mannequin becomes independent. It shops with your money. It steals while wearing a face that looks nearly identical to yours, especially from a distance. It calls your friend and says the things you would never say out loud to them. They're thoughts you've had, sure, but you know better than to hurt your friend's feelings...except apparently, you have. And now you can't even use your own voice to explain yourself. Your leg has been getting stiff. Your joints don't bend properly.

Meanwhile, the mannequin is now striding around smoothly. Its appearance is still uncanny and odd if anyone pays attention, but at a glance, it easily passes as a part of the crowd. As its final act, it's even absorbed small bits of your abilities if you have any. Not all of them, but enough to cause trouble. Throughout everything, you cannot harm your hitchhiker. Some unknown force stops you any time you think about it. You simply can't.

Related Incidents

The impact isn't contained only to those directly affected. The hitchhikers' influence spreads through the city. For some incidents, it's difficult to trace back to the source. For others, that's a little easier. Regardless, these occurrences could help you determine how to solve your own situation. Alternatively, if you've escaped unscathed, you can still find yourself dragged into a situation involving someone else.

Return to Sender

July 11 — The Forum: An anonymous poster contributes this bit of information that might catch the eye of those affected. You can try the same method, but it's a risk going back into the diffusion zones. No one can guarantee the specific zone you found the mannequin in is still standing. Further, you have to remember where you made contact to begin with.

If you decide to try it, be sure to take a friend. The less independent the hitchhiker, the more likely it will stick to your side even as you return it home. If the assimilation has progressed too far, though, you might have to utilize methods such as duct taping inside your trunk or strapping it down with ropes. It may struggle and say vile things to you or your companion.

Victimless Burn Victims

July 14 @ 03:00 — The Pavilion (East End): A handful of troublemakers grabbed some freaky mannequins wandering the street and, in a drunken stroke of genius, set them all on fire for no reason other than that they wanted to. Not only has this resulted in damage to the corner store nearby, but Enforcers have linked the incident to four hospitalizations at roughly the same time. Doctors from Saint Margery's Hospital (located in the Blocks) report that all four individuals suffered massive shock and claim to have endured unimaginable agony as if they had been "set on fire."

Curiously, none of them bear any physical wounds and, by all accounts, are completely fine (trauma aside). Notably, all four individuals were also suffering from various stages of "joint stiffness" and "hallucinations"...which have since completely vanished. You might wonder, is this the solution? Or perhaps the better question would be, is it worth it?

The Sculptor

July 15 — The Pavilion (Medical Clinic): Around July 14 onward, word begins to spread that a Dr. Maggie Wright (who insists on being called the Sculptor, though nobody seems to heed this request) will not only do an amputation for free, she will pay you for your limb if you are boasting an "unusual trophic change to the skin, resulting in a smooth and shiny texture." All she asks is she gets to keep the sample. Her promise is that she will study it to find a more permanent cure and, if she does, she will return the limb to you for reattachment.

Some end up trusting her. You wonder, maybe she could help? Dr. Wright will happily accept you as her patient if you agree. Her methods are indeed proper and sterile: she'll put you under and provide you with plenty of pain meds. She appears to have all of the equipment required to preserve the limb, too.

If you're suspicious, you can also pay her a visit, but you won't have much luck getting her in trouble or sniffing out any evidence of nefarious deeds. Her office hasn't got anything strange, she is indeed a real surgeon, and there are testimonials from patients who've had success under her care in the past. Plus, nobody's going to her who isn't doing so voluntarily (they've signed waivers)—even if you could argue how much desperation plays into their decision. Still...the thing about her "title" is a bit weird, right?

Dr. Maggie Wright is 5'2, Caucasian with a light Northeastern accent and silver hair often worn in a bun. She's in her 50s and looks fairly good for her age. Her voice is soothing. She has intense, wide blue eyes, which some might find unnerving, but that's not necessarily her fault.

∞ Notes ∞

• Mannequin contact is not required. Not everybody who goes into the diffusion will make first contact, and many won't. Characters can explore the mall, the temple, and the foggy field without ever picking up a hitchhiker.
• The diffusion zones described are only examples. Others will exist where mannequins can be found, including grocery stores, gas stations, abandoned parks, and more. You can make up your own, but check with us if you have any questions about limitations!
• The speed and intensity of all mechanics are entirely up to you. Generally, the earlier a character makes first contact, the more severe their consequences.
• Investigating the zones or helping others are perfectly fine ways to participate! Since the hitchhikers are meant to be more insidious, it won't be strange if your character isn't in the middle of the action right away or notices things a bit late.

Questions? Ask here

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Comments

An Zhe | Little Mushroom| OTA

[littlemushroom]

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 Get in losers, we’re going shopping
A) With the news of a particularly potential filled diffusion zone in the fringes, there were a few posts on the forum trying to corral a few carpools. Some of those had caught An Zhe’s attention, since the thing called a ‘mall’ was just so far away. So far away that he almost figured it was out of the realm of possibility, except for a few compelling reasons. On one hand, if there was any chance that he could find any signs of Lu Feng, he needed to spring for it. On the other hand, he really needed to keep a healthy stock of clothes tucked away in his truck in case he ended up in more situations where his carefully (poorly) hidden piles went missing again. He’d learned several lessons about this. Embarassing.

So he had replied to a few, and there he was at what he thought was supposed to be the meeting spot. Were you also there to meet up for the carpool? Were you simply concerned that there was a bean pole hanging around in an undisclosed spot doing his best to look Very Confident in where he was standing? Did you want to steal him for your own carpool? Go right ahead.


B) Congratulations. The Mall had been Achieved. It was both smaller and bigger than An Zhe would have guessed. He’d seen far taller buildings, but maybe they would have been the same size if they had been lying on their side. The concept of having multiple different things in a building was familiar, but not quite to the scope of this. An Zhe imagined it would have been a very impressive place one upon a time ago, when the ghosts of someone’s Auntie Anne smelt far more delicious. It seemed that right now she was just manifesting as so many shadowy patrons.

Those did not sit very well with An Zhe. They reminded him of the androids at the resort and yet… the shade felt a touch more unsettling. He was going to try and avoid those.

“What did you want to look for?” He asked his companion, be it someone he had traveled with or simply ran into in the maze of capitalism.


𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 Little mushroom in the big city
A lot of An Zhe’s time was also spent back at the city. There were odd whispers and rumors whirling around, but that didn’t stop him from having Debts. He was trying his best to keep his part time gigs constant, so there was a chance to run into him in several spots. He could be handing out some more of those free samples in the Pavillion, or standing outside holding a few signs to usher people into a few businesses. The most consistent thing he had found so far was a tiny, dimly lit little coffee shop that did not trust him to touch a single bean. He could ring you up for a cup of them though, and maybe a tiny snack. The snacks were good. He couldn’t tell you what coffee was besides very bitter stuff that made him talk very quickly.

When he wasn’t trying to handle the weight of needing Money, he was trying to get used to the city. He was still looking out for his Person, and trying to find more of the reclusive green patches through out the stronghold. If someone looked particularly amicable, An Zhe might have gone up to them to politely inquire, “Excuse me, have you seen anyone with extremely beautiful eyes recently?”

The person he was asking might not have looked entirely… correct, however. If it was someone looking to cause a little mayhem, this was a mushroom that was extremely susceptible to Incidents.


𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 we just came for a vacation
An Zhe had not actually intended to be in the midst of this foggy zone. It had been another rideshare situation, and the sight of what looked like a town had been too alluring for the driver to resist. There could have been some really nice stuff, they’d said to An Zhe. It seemed like not many folks had been through yet. Stay with the car. Beep the horn if it seemed like anyone else was coming.

Being a trustworthy mushroom, An Zhe had done what he’d been told.

The silence was vast. Time stretched on. The night felt endless, and the cold was deepening. They probably should not be here for much longer, An Zhe decided. He wouldn’t go too far from the car, he reasoned, just far along enough to see if he could see what was taking so long. Everything seemed normal until suddenly it wasn’t. There was s heavy metallic scent in the air, and something soft caught his foot and sent him tumbling into the field. The screams that cut through the fog made his blood run cold as he pushed himself up.

Ah. That used to be a person.

Ah. The fog had swallowed up the whole field.

An Zhe slipped away in a rush of white tendrils. It’d be harder to find his way back but… This was no place for a human to be. The mushroom went tumbling back in what he hoped was the direction he’d come from, searching for the headlights of the stranger’s car he’d left behind. When the sound of more footsteps or voices became clearer, a fresh wave of worry swelled up in him for whomever it was.

So here was a pale hand shooting through the fog to grab this new person’s arm, attached to an equally pale young man in a thin white cloak with wide, worried eyes. “Don’t.”


𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 wildcard & contact
Feel free to mix and match, or just hit An Zhe up with something else entirely! You can bother me at bisasam if you wanna discuss something, or my plotting comment here. I will match styles if you would rather [[action]] tag.

A into B

[foretells]

"We should probably stop meeting this way."

The voice comes from the rolled down window of a car that pulls up, Sciel all smiles when she catches sight of him. The car is parked, ignition stopped, so she can slide over to the passenger side window and to peer out at him. It's at least better than just finding him looking for scraps of food in a crowded market. Sciel leans on her arms on the rolled down window.

"Who're you waiting for?" she asks, because that has to be the reason why he's here.

[littlemushroom]

Meeting people was the entire reason he was out there though???

Though it was a surprise when An Zhe looked over with owlish eyes to see that the person calling out to him from their car was the same person that had done this the first time. The confidence that he wasn't getting hit on made this processing time much faster, and An Zhe felt more comfortable leaving his awkward post to come say hello.

"But it is nice to see you?" He sort of greeted, amending it with a simple, "Hello."

He took a glance back over to where he had been waiting, scanning the area to see if anyone else had shown up. Nope. "I was supposed to travel with people."

[foretells]

"It's good to see you too, mon ami." He looks okay from what she can see, still on the thin(?) side of things. Maybe that's just how he is — and not that she can speak about it without being a bit of a hypocrite. The hot dogs and hamburgers had been nice but there's a line where processed things don't go so well with someone who isn't used to so much food.

"Oh, one of those..." What's the word? "Carpools?" Silly thing, that, because none of these cars have pools in them, but she understands. "I'm guessing no one's shown up yet. Where were you headed?"

[littlemushroom]

The clothes he'd scrounged up from the resort were not helping him look any less like a noodle. They were not his size at all, hanging off of him in a boxy way that was not quite correct even by this decade's standards. He wasn't a malnourished noodle at any rate.

An Zhe did not know what mon ami meant in the slightest, but she'd said it in such a friendly tone that he smiled gently all the same. "We were meant to go to the... it was called a mall."

Maybe he'd gone to the wrong spot? Or had he actually been too late...? Hm.

[foretells]

“Oh, yeah, I’ve been listening to the radio about that place.” She has…no idea what a mall is, actually! So when she sees it, it’s a coin toss whether she’ll even recognize that’s what she’s looking for. The radio was talking about a girl getting lost there, all because it showed up when she was out. Terrifying.

Sciel glances out the back of the car window, looking for lights or people… No such luck.

“I was going to head there at some point but, if you’d like, I can take you. Maybe you can meet up with your other friends there that you contacted.”

[littlemushroom]

An Zhe was also hoping that the mall would make itself obvious when it was nearby, because it was certainly very mysterious sounding. He had partially banking on one of those other people knowing what to look for, but… ah.

“Mm… I would not know them,” An Zhe admitted. There’d be little point in looking for them. More pressingly, he did not want to put her on the spot so suddenly. “I heard it is quite far though, so you don’t have to.”

Mall, B

[hexcurse]

Jayce had bumped into An Zhe a little earlier ago, having temporarily parted with Viktor to better search the shops within the building for supplies. There's a pack slung over his shoulder, and a hammer in one hand. As for the shadows - he finds them deeply unsettling as well, and does what he can to avoid them.

Sometimes, in the corner of his eye, he swears he sees their limbs shift, or the glow of eyes across their foreheads like a crown.

"Food first, anything packaged." Non-perishables, if possible. So, maybe not the pretzel stand.

"What do you like to eat?"

Whatever worries he had about An Zhe after their first encounter, it seems the young man is doing okay on his own. Jayce is glad for that, at least.

[littlemushroom]

An Zhe might not have had any friends, but he had at least gotten this far. Way to go little guy. You'd made it to the mall (mostly) unsupervised.

The lingering reminders of his first meeting with Jayce had mostly faded by now, so they could both see each other properly this time. A first meeting for the second time. So far An Zhe preferred these circumstances, even if the shadows were a little... Well. They just didn't need to go fiddling with them.

"Potatoes." That was simply the correct answer. They were just a wildly incorrect answer for what might be at this sort of place from what he could tell. "But I have been trying to try many new things, so I don't think I am picky."

[hexcurse]

Just potatoes? Alright. He doesn't think they'll find them here, but something new - that they can manage.

"Come on," he gives a faint smile, nodding in a direction. "Let's see what they have to try."

If An Zhe follows, Jayce will lead the way to a shop with a bright display that proclaims SUNCOAST. Inside are rows of what might be mistaken for books. Closer inspection reveals something called DVDs and VHS, all of them with colorful titles.

That's not what Jayce is interested in.

He plucks an equally colorfully decorated bag from a row in front of the cash register. Pulling both ends opens it, and he hands the potato chips to An Zhe.

[littlemushroom]

The little lad obediently trotted along after Jayce, intrigued to see where he thought there might be things to try. Many of the names spanning the entrances were not very forthcoming about what might be inside. How much was a wool worth anyway?

SUNCOAST appeared to be lacking both the sun and the coast. That was a shame. An Zhe had wondered what a coast looked like. The colorful rows and posters were all very interesting looking, but that squeak and crackle of the bag in Jayce's hands quickly ended up occupying An Zhe's attention.

It continued to crinkle as An Zhe held it, blinking down into its depths. Those were a whole bunch of round (and distinctly not round) bits in there, and they smelled like the essence of something familiar. The bad definitely said potato on it but was it truly? A potato?

He plucked out a little one (crinkle crinkle crinkle). It was a lot more solid than he would have imagined, and he wasn't sure what that meant for him? But he took bite with a solid (and fully unexpected) cronch. The mushroom's eyes went round, blinking several times.

"Did science do this."

[hexcurse]

Jayce watches with amusement, even laughing at the question.

"I guess you could say that."

Most things come down to science, don't they?

"Should we grab a few more bags?" Jayce turns to the display in front of the cash register again, perusing the rest of the shiny bags. Many of them are different types of these fried slices of potato, coated in all different flavors. There's candy too - bars with fillings and bags of little round ones. Sometimes he catches himself thinking of what Viktor might like to try.

[littlemushroom]

You did so many things, science.

An Zhe thought about this carefully, slipping another chip into his mouth. A thinking chip, if you will. A chip of persuasion. “A few,” he ended up agreeing after a few crunchy cronchy moments. These did not feel like particularly satiating food options, but Simply Tasty had to win a few times when they were what was there. An Zhe carefully set the open bag aside while they pilfered the snack stand, but he gave it a pointed nudge towards Jayce so he could munch on them too.

“Are things like this common where you are from?”

big city.

[frostfist]

[ What a way to greet someone. Sure, he's heard stranger, both here in Panorama and back home, but it's still not every day a perfectly nice young comes up to him asking him about....beautiful eyes? There's a brief moment of surprise, followed by a quick laugh.

Is he looking for a special someone, perhaps? Or is this some new pick-up line he's never heard before? ]

You might want to be a little more specific than that. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[littlemushroom]

[[After that laugh had taken him by surprise, the tiny lad seemed to consider this very seriously. Of course, he had already met someone that had had similar eyes to those he was looking for. The point was extremely valid.]]

Ah… That’s true.

[[Hang on, he’s got this. This is so serious.]]

Um… they’re a wintery green? [[He nodded.]] Like the shine of an aurora.

[frostfist]

[ How poetic. The words certainly aren't doing much to convince him that this young man isn't some sort of starstruck, but he can keep his mouth shut about that. If he's learned anything, it's that most people don't enjoy him interfering with their (supposed) love lives. ]

Alright. I've met a few people with green eyes, but I'm not sure if any of them are who you're looking for. Do you have a name to go along with those eyes?

[littlemushroom]

[[An Zhe could not help the hopeful look that sparked in his eyes at the possibility. He'd been trying to be realistic about the chances, but...

He nodded again, a bit quicker this time.]]

His name is Lu Feng. He's-- [[he was lifting his hand to do a quick comparison of their heights, but it was only up for a moment because it was a pointless exercise; An Zhe's eye line was below his shoulders]] --about as tall as you.

[frostfist]

[ Lu Feng. Not one he's familiar with, but given the sheer number of people in the city the fact that he doesn't know is only to be expected. But he files the name away in the back of his mind, silently repeating it to himself to imprint it further in.

Outwardly, he only gives a shake of his head. ]

I'm afraid I haven't met anyone going by that name but I'll keep an eye out and let you know. [ Speaking of: ] And who is it I should be contacting in the event that happens? I'm afraid I don't know your name.

[littlemushroom]

[[Ah, well... He had known it was a long shot. The tall fellow can watch in real time as his words caused An Zhe first to droop a bit back into reality, and then gently perk up all over again at the kindness being extended.]]

Ah, thank you. My name is An Zhe. I'm sure he'd be looking for me as well.

[[But it would be awfully hard for him to tell An Zhe anything with just his name, huh?]]

Could I give you my phone's number, mister...? [[Mister mystery.]]

came for a vacation

[churnback]

Amos wasn't planning to stop here, not anywhere close to here, in fact. He was heading towards the mall, trying to track down any potential leads about that missing girl. But on his way, that fog had rolled in and he'd hit one of those weird fucking mannequins. When he'd stepped out of the jeep to check on what he'd hit, and then how much damage had been done to the car (if any), he'd heard the screaming.

Most people, he figures, try and get as far away from that sort of sound as they can. Then you've got guys like Holden who run towards the sound, because someone might need help and they gotta try. Then you've got Amos; he's not the kind of guy that heads towards sounds like that of his own choosing, though it's not for anything like fear. He just — keeps to himself, his own business. But it's hard to tell if a scream like that could've come from a kid, could be Millie? Unlikely, given the area he's in, but, it's enough to make him crouch down and hold up here rather than get in the car and leave. He doesn't feel anything like fear about it all. It's creepy, sure, but it would take more than this to stoke that old feeling that's been lost to him for so long. He hears more screaming, he waits, and when it tapers off, he takes a step closer to the fog, hoping that little girl isn't anywhere close to here. He's not expecting a hand to shoot out and grasp his arm.

"Jesus," muttered under his breath. "The hell happened?"

[littlemushroom]

Thank you for not immediately clocking him. An Zhe could tell just from this brief connection that it would have gone rather badly.

Though it might have been better than whatever it was happening in the depths of the fog. "I don't know." His fingers gave a small twitch on the stranger's arm. An Zhe really was not used to feeling this nervous but, ah... He let go, eyes darting briefly towards the way he'd come.

"It isn't safe."

[churnback]

"Yeah — pickin' up on that."

While Amos is generally no stranger to just clocking someone if he needs to, if he feels threatened, or feels like he's gotta take someone down a peg, he also likes to think he's got a decent enough understanding of what's an actual threat and what's not. In this case, someone reaching out from the depths of some creepy fog and kinda twitching a little tells Amos they might be more afraid than anything else right now. Which — yeah. Understandable.

"You feel steady?"

Does he need help moving? He must be fucking freezing, too.

[littlemushroom]

Correct. An Zhe was in fact freezing. The clothes he had been wearing before were already unsuited for hanging around for very long in this kind of weather, and those were currently stranded out in the depths of the field. Would they ever see the light of day again? Doubtful. The white cloak draped around his shoulders now was no thicker than a bedsheet, which on its own was little help from the cold. The bare human eye wouldn't have been able to tell but it was actually just an extension of himself, a thin web of mushroom threads just to keep him decent.

A lot of his twitching was probably just his efforts to keep his teeth from shattering.

"I can be steady." He hoped, at least. That assessment was probably going to change rapidly.

[churnback]

"Alright." He'll trust that. He can't waste time wondering if someone's really as okay as they say they are. Though, I can be does leave a little room for doubt, in his mind. The guy in front of him might not be a kid, not like the girl he's looking for, but — he's out here barely wearing anything, coming out of some dark fog. He's not planning to send him packing on his own, that's all.

Amos shrugs out of his outer coat, says nothing, just shoves it forward towards him.

"Start goin' that way," he points, back towards the way he came, near where his jeep should be parked. "Just gonna check somethin'. A girl went missing." Jesus, if she was in there, she'd be long gone, which is an unsettling thought, but. Might be fruitless. She also wasn't supposed to be around this area, so it could be fine.

[littlemushroom]

An Zhe's hands moved more out of habit to accept the coat being shoved at him, blinking in surprise. Ah, this was... He held the coat close, turning his head to follow the man's pointing through the mist. That's where they'd come from, An Zhe presumed.

But the notion that he was going to go deeper into the fog whipped his gaze back to him with wide eyes, the word 'don't' sitting on his tongue again. He couldn't say it though, the worry in his eyes shifting slightly to a defeated sort of understanding. This man was looking for a youngling. An Zhe already knew there'd be no convincing him, and he hoped with all his heart that such a beloved creature had not stumbled into those fields.

"Don't be seen," he said hurriedly instead, clutching the coat in his arms. "The body I found... there was no feeling in that violence." No anger, no hate, no simple need to survive. An Zhe's eyes flicked back in the direction he'd escaped from, searching for something unseen. "Nothing living did that."