cursedrp | EVENT #1: SAY CHEESE

SAY CHEESE

The Rundown

Starting on September 8th, all characters will find themselves transported to White Pines Mall. During this time, the mall is closed to the public for renovations and no one suspects a thing! The power is on and everything is mysteriously functioning, but all the doors to the outside world are locked and no amount of pounding on them or trying to break windows will work. About an hour after arrival, an announcement will come over the PA system:

"Attention shoppers! Thank you for visiting White Pines Mall. We're excited to announce a new line of very special cameras available at Cutting Edge Electronics. For one week only, we're offering them for the low, low price of FREE! Present your photo at the front door to exit the mall, and have a wonderful day."

At Cutting Edge electronics, a row of Polaroid cameras will be on display, one for each character. All you have to do to leave the mall is get someone to take your picture with one of these cameras! Easy, right? Well...

The only issue is when the photo develops, there's something wrong with it. And that's not all: whatever's in the photo starts to come true! Effects from the photo can come on as quickly or as slowly as you like, and will wear off within the week (again, player's choice as to when exactly they wear off). If multiple photos of a character are taken, you have two options: have them be normal photos with no effect until the character's current effect wears off, OR have a new effect that replaces the old one. Characters cannot have multiple effects at one time.

Every character in the mall will need to present a photo in order to leave (and they won't be allowed to sneak out or piggyback with someone else). They can leave right away, or they can stay and try to deal with their new problem away from prying eyes until the event is over. The food court is fully stocked and anything your character orders will appear on the counter in front of them even though there are no employees there, so don't worry about starving.

The opt-out options for this event are as follows: one, say that your character was overlooked and not transported to the mall at all. They can continue to hang out in the city as normal but will not be able to enter the mall until the event is over. Two, have them be transported to the mall and end up with a "dud" photo where nothing has changed. It happens sometimes, lucky them!

Everyone will be kicked out at the end of the day on the 12th regardless of whether they took a photo or not. Any damage done to the mall will be repaired when it re-opens for business the next day.

After this event, the cursed camera item will be permanently available to purchase from Cutting Edge Electronics and can be used at any time. Why would you want to buy that? Revenge, maybe. Or maybe some meddling employee accidentally mixed the cursed stock with the regular stock. TL;DR if you want to play with this effect again after the event is over, the item will be there.

Extra Information

The effects of the camera are highly flexible. The effects don't have to be tied in to any specific fear they have, but of course you can use that as inspiration if you would like to. Some examples of effects can include:

Characters appear wounded in their photo, and the wounds start to manifest on them. Even wounds that should be fatal won't actually kill them during this event, but they sure hurt like hell and it may feel like they're dying if they keep progressing.

A character appears faded in their photo, and they gradually become intangible, unable to move anything or even let themselves out without help.

Characters who took a group photo to try and cheat the system find themselves fused together, or that they've swapped bodies.

There's a shadowy figure in the background of the photo, and for the rest of the week the affected character keeps seeing someone - or something - moving in their peripheral vision that feels like it's getting closer and closer.

Any of these effects are fair game but they are just examples, so feel free to make your own! Try and keep with the tone of these prompts and not go too big, some degree of transformation is fine but don't turn your character into a kitten or a three-headed dragon.

Characters can choose to leave right away or stay for a while, but they won't actually be told they'll be let go/kicked out on the 12th regardless.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The photos have been some weird shit. Daryl surprises himself, being interested in them— it makes him think of Maggie and Glenn, the instant camera they'd found, whose fate he doesn't know anything about. Beth had one of the photos in her diary, a goofy angle of both sisters. It makes him feel too much, and he's quick to snap one of himself and move on. Doesn't even look at it before shoving it into his back pocket.

But he doesn't leave. The mall's abandoned, and he's got half a mind to break open the ATM. Just has to find a few things first, and like, you know. Hope nobody's gonna have a cow about it.

He's on the prowl for just such an endgame when he hears the call for help, and it makes him quietly slow to a stop, instincts honed for such sounds. For a long moment he just stands there, listening, trying to determine where the voice is coming from. When it hits him, like a 3D magic eye picture coming into focus, he almost reels back.

What the fuck. ]

We got ghosts now?

[ Hi. He walks in a cautious half-circle around what he thinks is the center mass of the apparition, and sees the polaroid slide on the ground. He picks it up, and frowns at it. ]

[John holds his breath, even though he wonders if that's even possible right now, since he seems to be mostly air at the moment.

They noticed him.

He waves his hands again, unsure how much of him is visible, but the more he moves, the more he tries to concentrate, he seems a little--well, not solid, but his outline seems to shift more into view, at least for a few seconds.]

Apparently so, but I'm still alive. I think!

[He tries to yell a bit, his voice still faint and echoing, but at least something seems to be working here.]

I need to get outta here!

[ Jesus Christ. Daryl sways back some when the bizarrely muted yelling begins, but he doesn't otherwise startle. His eyes narrow further, practically scowling.

Muttering, ] What in fucking hell's half acre..

[ He holds the photo up to the air, and stares it it, and then stares at the apparition, back and forth. After a minute of this he's forced to concede: yup, same thing. ]

S'real goddamn weird, man.

[ His own fate is not yet apparent; doomed by ordinary, non-curse circumstances to look distinctly grubby no matter what, Daryl's zombie-bite photo is slowly beginning to take hold. Deathly pallor, a bloody, rotting bite on his shoulder, hidden beneath his shirt and vest. Hour by hour it'll sink in, but for now, he just looks kind of clammy, but that could be anything. He sort of looks greasy all the time to begin with.

Also, other things to be paying attention to, currently. ]

You sure you should leave? What if you ... I dunno, vanish.

I know. It really is.

[But at least he's managed to get this far, so that's something. He's not sure if there's something going on with the other guy, after all, everyone probably had a chance to get a picture already but from his point of view it's hard to tell. Maybe the guy just looked slightly under the weather cause he was slightly under the weather...]

I'm gonna vanish anyway if I don't do anything about it.

[He truly doesn't know what will happen, but it's the only chance he's got to do something, he figures.]

[ He steps a bit closer, trying to get a clearer look. Carefully, he extends the photo, using it as a probing tool to see if the other man has any mass, or can feel anything.

Poke? ]

Can you... like.. are you... ?

[ Daryl is not a scientist, RIP. Awkward questioning. Some tiny part of his brain that's conditioned to expect social humiliation wonders if there's not a projector somewhere and he's being fucked with, but he shrugs it aside. Literally no point to that, and plenty of other people are flipping out in here, too. He heard somebody screaming and getting into a fight, earlier, but after an assessment from across the hall, he decided to leave them be. Sometimes sticking your hand in something already in progress just makes it worse, and he's not the Spooky Mall Police.

A spark of an idea, belatedly: ]

Did the photo look weird first, or did you look weird first?

[John stares.

That's...yep. That's a poke.

It makes sense, and he'd probably do the same thing, but still.

There doesn't seem to be any mass to him, and upon a poke, said photo would go right through him like he's made of air.]

I can pretty much walk through anything at this point.

[It's said with the driest tone.]

I was fine before I took the photo. I looked like a ghost in the picture, and then I'm suddenly in the cast of Ghostbusters.

[ Daryl shifts in place, uncertain. Seems simple, but it also seems insane. ]

Reckon it's the cameras, then. We got asked to bleed to get outta one door, then get our picture taken to get outta this one. Fuck's with this place and doors.

[ He's scouring his brain for any mythology about doors, but he draws a blank. Not that he's overly-educated about damn near anything, but he's had enough backwoods superstition put in him by virtue of simply living. Nothing clicks.

His hand itches to take his out again and give it a closer look, but he refrains. No use getting worked up. ]

Can you think of anything to try?

EVENT #1: SAY CHEESE

D.

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