( Ar Tonelico 1 post-game memory and Mayfield-induced nightmares here for reading )

[A.) Thursday, September 6th, Morning/Afternoon - The Dairy Portal, Locked to Chen & Dakki:

Aurica walked down the street, tailing the unfamiliar robot-thing that was claiming to be Dakki, her not!mom from the last time the girl was here. She was warned to not follow, but she couldn't help herself; as much as she wasn't sure to trust her, she wanted to know what was going on.

Though, with her acting just like how her drone self would, she couldn't ask directly, either. Not that she thought Dakki would tell her, at any rate. Mothers are nothing if not caring for the security of their children, real or not. She stepped out from a corner, eyeing the portal that her supposedlynot!mom was preparing to enter.]

[B.) Sunday, September 9th, Morning/Afternoon - The Church of Salvation:

Normally when one prays in the church, they close their eyes, don't they? It's what one does when they reach into their soul, to feel for what they believe in to support themselves. Something to feel good, wholesome. Better.

If one would look closely at the girl sitting there on the empty pew, they might just see that she had her eyes open briefly. If one pays attention for longer though, they could notice that the girl didn't close their eyes at all, all that time.]

[C.) Sunday, September 9th, Afternoon - The Post Office (Feel Free To Intercept At Any Point):

If you decide to walk anywhere near this area today, one might find a girl in Mayfield-style clothes dragging herself along, arms lifeless and head bowed, her posture somewhat off-balance. As she passes by the Post Office itself, she stops and looks up towards it for some time, before she lowers her head again and continues to walk by, her pacing uneven.]

[D.) Sunday, September 9th, Afternoon/Evening - John Doe Park:

It's a casual day for living, and that means recreation in the park for a lot of people. Some are having fun, playing games, and others are relaxing, just taking in the sun and air. Aurica will be one of the latter, seemingly, as she's propped up on a bench. Most of the bench actually, as she's lying down on it, an arm lazily hung downward and a finger twirling around some grass on the ground.]

[E.) Sunday, September 9th, Evening - Phone:

Most of the time people talk on the phone if they're on it. You might be yapping away, with whatever important things or otherwise talkative conversation you're expressing, but there's someone listening in to these things that won't be very cheery. It'll be a surprise if the person even talks at all to you, really. Though, she may not be in the right mind to appreciate you trying to talk to her. You won't know until she starts talking to you.]

[F.) Monday, September 10th, Morning/Aftenoon - Mayfield High:

There was a better step in her feet today, the girl with the long braid that bounced around as she walked through the crowds of students into the faculty office. When Aurica heard that she had to go back to school, she was a little happier. That is, until she found out that one of her favorite teachers no longer taught there. In fact, the drones acted like he never existed.

She moved as fast as she could to the music room, opening the door, and it was... empty. Save for the piano that sat there at the front, where she both heard and played music that touched her deeply.

For those that roam the halls today, you might hear musical notes being played, and if you want to follow it or know where the music room would be and have a reason for being there, you might find the girl there at any time of the day, randomly poking at the piano keys.]

[G.) Monday, September 10th, Afternoon/Evening - Front Porch of 458 Stone Street:

Neighbors or those walking by could see a girl on the steps of the front porch to the house. She's sitting there, back hunched over and arms folded over her knees. She's been there since the end of the school day, not budging at all. In fact, if you come across the residence or look out your window later on, you might see her still there. Did she even eat dinner?]

[A] Action: Dairy]

[Margot has definitely been tipped off that something is up during the early hours of the morning when the tv had gone on the fritz, waking her up from a booze induced coma on the couch.

It’s only amplified when, later, she tries to go out the backdoor to have a pre-breakfast cigarette and manages to pass through the door. She plays with this for a moment (in-out-in-out) before it becomes solid again, ramming her face rather painfully into the wood and feeling like a fool.

It gives her an idea, though.

For most of the morning, she listens in to the phone network, confirming that other strange things are happening (and, really, all she has to do is look outside at the drones to know). Before noon, after she’s taken a trip to the floor through one of the kitchen chairs, she works up the nerve to head out and towards the dairy, willing to try something.

It’s Dist’s words that urge her on -- things are falling apart. Time to act. She feels good about this, pumped. She can do it.

The dairy door is in sight, she keeps striding purposefully forward, almost there and...

BAM!

She bounces unceremoniously off the door and lands flat on her ass, rubbing her forehead.

Okay. It only worked part of the time with the door at home and then randomly with the chair, maybe it just needs a bit? She gives it a few more minutes and then tries again, but this time more cautiously.

Same thing. Solid as a rock.

She can be found at this for the next several hours with absolutely no success whatsoever. Gold stars for trying?]

[B] Phone]

Has anyone else tried going through the walls of the dairy or city hall or the post office? It seems like things are -- are flickering. Like something is wrong with the illusion?

I tried myself, but had no luck. Maybe someone else will get it.

[And yes, someone does sound bitter about this.]

[...the faintest memory of fog closing in on them, a horrible burning pain, and now waking with a start to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling is what welcomes Caesar back to the normal Mayfield. As normal as it is compared to the other one, at least, but it isn't a comparison he can make just yet.

He doesn't remember it, not beyond some panic-inducing nightmare which grows fainter and fainter in his memory. Memories... Where was he, anyway?]

( action; locked to 847 Goldberg St. )

[phone; no filters]

Hello? Is anyone there? [Caesar's talking in a hushed, uncertain voice, though not really all that panicked.] Can someone connect me to the authorities? Or at the very least tell me where I am? I think I've been kidnapped or I'm lost or...

[He's not quite sure, even though he should know better, having already been trapped in Mayfield for over a year!]

[action; the rest of town, later on in the week]

[And despite any warning about staying inside he may or may not have gotten, until his amnesia faded at the very least, Caesar can be found a day or so out and about after his confused call to the town. He may have snuck out through the window, but can you blame a guy for being curious?

He wanders aimlessly, stopping at certain places to look around and try to find anything to jog his memory. The school grounds, since it's closed itself. The park, following some half-remembered paths to places he thinks may have been old haunts, favorite trees to be in. The library gets a visit. He can even be found standing just outside the bakery, though turned to stare uneasily at the dairy instead of the other building. Even he can feel the dread about that place, though he wishes he could figure out why...]

(OOC note: Caesar is back from a grisly fog-ridden death! He did not revive immediately following the end of Event: Step Right Up and has been missing a day. His penalty is full amnesia for several days. He doesn't remember his time in Mayfield or his time in his original world beyond the extent of thinking the occasional person, place, or object is vaguely familiar.)

[phone]
That's it.

[It is the day after his encounter with Tara. Beast Boy slams a fist down on a table. Given that it is a gorilla fist, it breaks.]

I've had it. I'm sick of this. I just did this. I just did this! Three months and we were finally friends again!  I'm not going through this... this crap. This is crap. This is bull. Crap. [This sounds like the first time someone has ever said anything harsher than heck.] I don't know what you guys are gonna do, but I'm not letting some crappy fake doctor do this kind of thing to my friends!

Starfire, Raven. We're still the Teen Titans, Robin or not. You guys in or out?

I'm gonna be at the dairy. I'm getting to that machine and I'm fixing it. I hope whichever one of you bozos went in and blew it up is happy.

[Yeah, that's right. He said bozo. What're you gonna do about it, huh?]

[action, dairy]
[Once again, there is a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the loose in Mayfield.  This time, it pounds itself against the walls repeatedly, a desperate, kamikaze effort.  Beast Boy is not one to give in to his bestial urges.  There is nothing feral in this methodical battering except insofar as a man may be so enraged as to lose all that distinguishes him from an animal.

This will continue until he is droned.
Or... until after an hour has passed, when he slowly shrinks back into a skinny, green-skinned, pointy-eared kid, sinks to his knees and tries not to cry in pain, rage and despair.]

[Phone; backdated to the 20th]

There isn't a single fuckin' safe place in this whole damn town, is there? Ya'd think a school would be fine, what with all the people roamin' around, but nope! Goddamn maniacs can get ya anywhere!

Kid! You'll know if you're the one! I want ya to fall into a pit, break every single fuckin' bone in your body, and get a big damn rusty rake shoved up your ass!

.... That's all.

-- Wait, no, shit, it isn't. Satou, you're listenin', right?

I don't care what ya say, I'm not lettin' ya be alone at school anymore.


[Action; near the Dairy; some time before the raid]


[Normally, Clover would be all up for an attack like this, but what happened last Christmas - and specifically, the 24-hour droning - still weighs on her mind. Plus, the leaked phone call was so ominous, there's no way there isn't something terrible awaiting everyone in there.

If she knows you and sees you coming close, you can count on her trying to talk you into leaving.]

A: The preparations.
[ Are you up well before dawn, Mayfield? If so, you may notice someone in nothing but a pair of pants and a light white shirt digging and moving massive amounts of earth on Makeout Point. As for why he's doing that, well, who knows. ]


B: Johnathon's Tools . Morning
[ Garviel is at the counter, waiting patiently in line with a massive wheelbarrow full of wood, hammer, nails, screws, and various other small-scale construction implements. He is also buying a massive amount of white and black paint for some reason. ]


C: The Afternoon, after the fateful phone call.
[ Garviel is sitting in his garage, the door open, carefully repainting his entirely scratched out armor in a pearl white, with the old symbols of the Luna Wolves carefully painted on it as well, with the minute care of a posthuman hand. ]


D: Evening, locked to 2237 Stevens Road family
[ Garviel stands by the dinner table, imposing even without his plate armor, still drying in the garage. He looks over his family, and asks them ] Did you hear the phone call this afternoon?


E: Phonecall to General Armstrong, full filtering from drones and the Smiths, as well as the mayor and the other known minions of the town (as in the major)

We must speak in person, immediately.



F: Midnight: The Challenge is accepted [ Garviel is suiting up in his garage, noticeable to any neighbors as he slowly, carefully puts the recently-dried armor on, once again casing himself in the glorious colors of the Luna Wolves legion. ]



G: The next day, from 1 AM onward, the Vigil. [ A few houses down from the dairy, a tremendous motorcycle with enormous tires, two huge cannon on the front, and the same iconography as Loken's armor can be seen sitting out. There is a sense of presence nearby, but nothing readily visible. Dare you approach? ]

(Music and art to set the tone after the cut)

( Read more... )

[Mayfield stands empty for the third night in a row.

Midnight strikes on January 16th, and instantly every person and drone in Mayfield reappears in the exact position they were in before the disappearance. No one will remember or note the disappearance aside from the feeling that they lost consciousness for several seconds, and a splitting headache and general feeling of disorientation for a few hours upon return.

But it is impossible to fail to note the blaring alarm bells, so loud that they can be heard across town. They, too, are emanating from downtown. Should you choose to investigate, the source of the alarm bells is the Mayfield dairy.

The dairy remains closed an impenetrable as always. You may go near it, but you may not get inside or damage the exterior, and the bells are so loud in close proximity as to be unbearable.

The alarms will continue through the night until around 5 am, when they finally stop, and all is quiet once more. In fact, everything is back to normal, with two oddities. Mayfield suddenly added a new batch of citizens, all at once at midnight. They, too, were likely woken by the alarms. And there's the matter of calendars. Though no time seems to have passed since the evening before January 13, every calendar and drone in Mayfield now gives the date as January 16th.]

[ OOC: Mayfield on Dreamwidth is officially OPEN! Both new and existing characters may thread on this post or post new entries to the community.

We decided to open a little early, but all entries until the 16th will be considered to be forward-dated. ]