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CURSED - mods ([personal profile] cursedmods) wrote in [community profile] cursedrp2022-09-08 03:47 pm
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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.
janescayre: (125)

[personal profile] janescayre 2022-09-22 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
A) Mallrats

[Horror may not be her genre, but Fukawa's got enough savvy to recognize when to abstain. Like, say, being whisked unawares into an empty mall and told to take "photos" with "free cameras" in order to leave.

No thank you. Absolutely not.

So if you're looking for your fellow kidnappees, you may be drawn to the nest of duvets on a certain bunkbed set, near the rear of the store, as far from sight as possible. There's a cold cup of tea, a box of saltines, and three stacks of stolen books on the side, each thicker and stuffier than the last. The cocoon of blankets will grumble if approached.]


G-go away.

[Can't you see she's busy?!]


B) Sympathy for the Damned

[Shocker of all shockers, these photographs have some wild side-effects. Who could have ever predicted?

Fukawa's an old hat at being locked inside a large building and being given ultimatums. In some respects, she's better off in White Pines than she was at Hope's Peak. In others, she's almost nostalgic for the good old days. At least those punishments were predictable.

If she catches someone taking a photo — or acting strange, bleeding suddenly, catching supernatural afflictions — she immediately scoots ten paces back, pointing her finger and paling to a ghostly white.]


Don't come any closer! St-stay back! [Who knows what effect they could have on her. Is it catching? Is this what the Mayor meant by a "curse"?] This is your own fault for t-taking that stupid picture! You should burn it! Before it's too late!


C) Punishment Time

[Eventually there's no helping it. She couldn't stay in the mall a minute longer, not when people were losing their damn minds. Not when the stakes could be raised at any moment. And while some people turned dangerous, or became a danger unto themselves, no one's died from the camera's effects. (Not yet.)

So Fukawa had squirreled away with a camera, snapped a polaroid, and nearly lost her lunch at what the camera spat out. One by one, her classmates had been reduced to spiteful memories and bloodied portraits on funeral stands. Now it was her turn. For god's sake, it even had her old braids intact, when she's been wearing her hair loose for ages.

She's having a somber breakfast in the Saturn Cafe when it first happens. Her chair was pulled further out from the table than she'd liked, so Fukawa had scooted herself back in. Then edges back again. She rights herself, frowning, and reaches to pick a piece off her blueberry muffin.

Then the chair pulls away from the table. Steady, slow, inescapable. Fukawa squawks, but she try as she might she can't lift free. It's as if she's strapped in place, her body welded to the wooden back and vinyl cushion. The pull is even and smooth. Until it rattles.

Thud.

The sound is coming from behind her, shaking the legs of the chair as it scrapes inexorably back. No one else reacts. The place is practically empty, can't these morons hear it?

Can't they see her?

THUD.]


Wh-what the hell? [Fukawa's voice is small, tight. Terrified. She's trying to wrench her hands out of her lap, but they won't budge. Isn't anyone listening? Watching? She twists as far as she can, but there's nothing behind her save for more empty tables. A waitress sweeps by and toddles back into the kitchen, completely oblivious.] H-hey! Hey! Come back! I need —

[THUD.

The chair shudders anew. It's drawing closer to the source. Fukawa blanches, mouth dropping open. Suddenly she doesn't need to see anything at all. She knows damn well what's about to happen.

THUD.]

HELP ME! [She throws her weight to the left. To the right. The chair creaks but never tips. It just keeps drifting back, back, towards the plunging piston no one but her can hear.] SOMEBODY! P-PLEASE! HELP ME!


WILDCARD!

[You know what to do! PM me or hit me up on the plotting post if you want to plan anything different!]
Edited 2022-09-22 21:31 (UTC)
vestigial: commissioned. (03045)

A.

[personal profile] vestigial 2022-09-24 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Daryl can track a 90lb drunk through a hot junkyard, finding a couple dozen people in a near-empty mall is cake. He's been quietly doing a round, seeing who all's here, and if anyone is freaking out. He only glimpses the paranoid sleepover setup the first time, but decides to leave it for now. When he returns, he makes sure his footfalls are audible and clunky. ]

Hey, kid.

[ He figures that'll annoy her. She seems the type. ]

C'mon out, I got you some cultural exchange tea.

[ Because it's iced tea. Only lightly sweet, not the tooth-rotting kind that Daryl prefers (and somehow still can't get here, goddamn west coast, what's a Georgia boy got to do). ]
janescayre: (102)

[personal profile] janescayre 2022-09-25 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's right, it is annoying. There's an indiscernible epithet of contempt lost to the mess of blankets before they unfurl, revealing a mussy-haired girl with one hell of a glower.

Though she can't begrudge him too much. Everyone must seem like a kid when you're so damn old.]


C-cultural exchange? That's got to be a joke. [Since when are Americans known for their tea? She yanks down the covers to free her arms, putting her book aside (Remains of the Day, Ishiguro Kazuo) to hesitantly take the cup. Her brows fold together.]

Oh. Is this a cold brew? [She wasn't expecting mizudashi, but she wouldn't turn it down either. Until she met Komaru nobody deigned to offer her much of anything, save for an obligation chocolate on White Day. Hard to feel special about that when it's the same low-quality slop they gave to every girl in the class.]
vestigial: commissioned. (0233)

[personal profile] vestigial 2022-09-26 08:45 am (UTC)(link)
[ It's true, he's practically the Cryptkeeper.

Southern Americans are known for their tea, thanks. Sweet tea elsewhere blows. (Not that Daryl's seen much of elsewhere, but even the implants from Ohio he's met don't know what they're talking about with it.)

He snorts when she takes it, and sits down on a display table across from her pillowfort bed. ]


They make it hot, so the sugar melts right. [ And then let it cool, and dump ice into it. Perfection— or it would be, if it were correct; but he thinks this'll be alright for Fukawa, who didn't want to eat french fries and looked like she wanted to die while watching him eat.

Speaking of: enjoy this annoying straw slurp noise, as Daryl drinks from his own cup. Cherry Coke, since he's so offended about the PNW's attempt at sweet tea, which he hasn't had since he lived through the 80s the first time. Nice. ]


What're you doing holed up in here?
janescayre: (059)

[personal profile] janescayre 2022-09-27 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[Fukawa purses her lips. She's not always keen on sweetened tea, but it's not distasteful. She brings the cup in and takes a cautious sip.

There's a pause.]


Th-this is basically soda.

[No bubbles, but like, come on. It may not be as saccharine as cola or bubble tea, but there's a certain quality to it. She's sure you can't get it from just stirring sugar into fresh brew.

And in spite of all that, she's taking a second sip. Longer this time. It cuts off only when Daryl starts in on his slurping racket, for which she'll give him a flat look.]


Isn't it obvious? I'm r-reading. [Wriggling a bit in her seat, she fetches the novel back up and flips it so he can see the cover.] I th-thought I'd catch up, but then I remembered we're in the past. So I'm revisiting my favourites. It's not like there's m-much else to do.
vestigial: commissioned. (0219)

[personal profile] vestigial 2022-09-29 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Hardly. [ That's like 40% power of proper sweet tea. (Which would probably make Daryl sick anymore, like the Slurpee.) ] You'll live.

[ Since she's drinking it anyway, he counts it as a success. Same with the flat look. Better than her hiding under there terrified— this situation is obviously stupid, but he knows the dangers of cornering oneself. Better to be up, aware, informed. He thinks Fukawa should know that, too, but on the other hand she's young. She deserves to not think about shit like that, no matter what the world is like where she's from. ]

Not trying to get out?

[ Daryl's already taken a photo of himself, and shoved the thing in his pocket without waiting for it to develop. Sticking around for now just to see what's going on anyway. ]
maritorious: (untrusting)

B

[personal profile] maritorious 2022-09-26 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[The picture had long since turned out, but Nancy still can't stop turning it over and over in her hand. She likes the way she looks in it, with the smile eeked out by Mr. Hopper. That was one thing. The other thing, however, was that the figure in the background seemed to be growing sharper.

She didn't like it.

She's tracing the figure when she hears a girl screech at her like she's bloody possessed.]
Oi! [She says immediately, lowering her hand holding the photo.]

There's no need to be screaming, then, c'mon. There's nothing... no effects, nothing. Just a shadow. [She's trying to convince herself.] But I'm not burning it. I look pretty.
janescayre: (168)

[personal profile] janescayre 2022-09-27 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her shock and reflex had been so squarely fixed on the polaroid that she'd neglected to register the girl holding it. And wouldn't you know it? It's Nancy Sikes herself, off the page and in the flesh.]

Shit.

[Fuck, did she say that out loud? Fukawa grimaces and huddles against the wall further, as if to melt into the marble and vanish from view.]

M-maybe not yet. [She grumbles, low and bitter.] Don't be naive. You s-sound like the protagonist in a horror film. "Oh, this c-creepy old house will be a fresh start for us! Hey, that m-man with a mask and a bloody machete looks lost! Let's give him directions!"

[Spare her. Fukawa shakes her head and scowls.]

You w-won't catch me giving in to such obvious traps. I'm telling you, it's a mistake.
maritorious: (peace)

[personal profile] maritorious 2022-09-27 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, howdy, bestie.]

I have no idea what you're talking about, [she says with a blink.] Ain't seen anything like that. [She's read Castle of Otranto but that's another story.]

Is it? Keeping something that makes me happy? [And uneasy.] I've never had a picture of myself before.
janescayre: (104)

[personal profile] janescayre 2022-09-27 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a derisive snort. Right, she would have no context for that.]

That so? There's a show called P-Poltergeist in the theatre upstairs. You should check it out sometime.

[Just how far would her socks blow off jumping from short story spooks to silver screen fiends?

But all that's beside the point. There's another grunt, this time of exasperation (and the tiniest touch of sympathy, it's just too sad to fathom) as Fukawa peels one whole inch off the wall to explain.]


W-well, don't get too attached. Just because something feels good doesn't m-mean it is. [She bites at her thumb, sizing the other girl up. There's no way she'll touch the damn thing, but maybe...]

H-hold it up. Let me see it, if you look so damn spectacular.
maritorious: (-_-)

[personal profile] maritorious 2022-09-27 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Mayhaps I will. [She says with an air of stubborn pride. She has no idea if she has any intention of going or not, so it's best to play it safe.

She keeps the picture in her hand.]
I like the picture. [she repeats again, because that's what mattered. She was happy with it. For the most part.

She turns the picture for Fukawa to see, but holds on tightly.]
You can't have it. But you can look.