It doesn't start all at once. No, on the contrary, you may not even realize anything's going on at first — simply the soft glow of an orb out of the corner of your eye, surely just a reflection from a car passing by your apartment outside. Surely.
Is it just you, or is the cup of pumpkin spice goodness on your neighbor's table at Deja Brew starting to move towards the edge of the table on its own? No, it isn't just you; said neighbor manages to snatch the beverage just as it starts to tip over, grumbling a soft, "Not again." This has, apparently, happened in Cadelle before. A faint white orb that flickers like a flame seems to do a mischievous dance before vanishing into thin air, but not before laughter passes by your ear, sudden and loud like an express subway speeding through the station and then leaving just as quickly.
Later, perhaps you find yourself engaging in a little bit of what the kids call "Netflix and chilling" with an attractive fellow volunteer citizen. Things have never seemed Stranger than when, five minutes into your next episode of binge-watching, the app switches to a shrek-tacular musical starring a bunch of singing and dancing fairy tale creatures. You'll try to go back to the menu and restart your show, and within moments, the ogre has returned. Repeat the process and receive similar results; eventually, you'll notice a hovering, flickering ball of white right in the center of your living room once you resign yourself to your fate that doesn't bother concealing itself any longer, too delighted by the fact that things are looking UP here in Cadelle.
They aren't quite ghosts. They aren't quite spirits. No, they're more akin to will-o'-the-wisps — flickering orbs of light that are fabled to lead travelers from safe paths and guiding them elsewhere. Many of these will-o-wisps that gradually appear in Cadelle do seem to be trying to draw citizens elsewhere, towards the outskirts of the city, towards the rarely-visited forest...
But there are also will-o-wisps that — like most things in Cadelle — seem to divert from their intended purpose. Maybe you'll encounter one that just bounces with excitement and follows you all over your apartment like a stray puppy that just wants some love. Perhaps you won't even realize what's going on until you hear cackling and a burst of white light as you're pantsed by a particularly wily one in the middle of the downtown area. Maybe you'll experience flickering lights and spooky sounds and objects moving — gasp! — all on their own, attributed to a will-o-wisp that takes its spooky potential a little too seriously.
But what of those that you do choose to follow?
There is, contrary to public belief, a winding path that runs throughout the forest at the exterior of the city of Cadelle; sure, it's overgrown with deep tree roots, covered in leaves, and might have some completely trip-worthy holes amidst it, but it's there. And what lies at the end of said path? The Clementine House.
It's a sprawling mansion — dilapidated, yes, from over a century without regular maintenance — far too large to house merely one woman, but Clementine Cadelle was a strong, independent woman who didn't need no man, woman, or child to fulfill her. She founded the then community of Cadelle as a meeting place for selfless individuals to tirelessly devote themselves to charitable causes and helping others in any way that they could. This settlement grew and grew until it developed into a full-fledged town, and as technology in outer cities developed, into an entire city, the very one we know to this day.
No one knows the exact why, how, and when of Clementine Cadelle's passing, but ask any native Cadellian and they'll tell you the same tale, regardless of if it's true or not. Legend has it that Clementine was drawn — nay, pulled — to these grounds by the one and only Energem (and volunteer citizens may relate with this feeling, taken from their native worlds). While a good-hearted, docile woman initially, the Energem's constant rewards of gem fragments for her acts of goodwill proved addictive. With each good deed, she became obsessed with obtaining fragments of the gem and the wishes that it granted her. Her initial wish for more do-gooders is said to have started the volunteer program in Cadelle, followed by a wish to possess hundreds of acres of land on which the city stands today. Each of her wishes grew slightly more absurd, slightly more excessive: wealth beyond measure, topiaries in the shapes of creatures found only in zoos, the stamina to hand-build herself a magnificent estate...
Until one day, she was merely gone. No one ever found her remains; it was simply that nobody had seen her in weeks. Nobody, to this day, knows what happened to Clementine Cadelle.
Step into the Clementine House, its namesake's final, unfinished masterpiece. Upon entering through it's loudly creaking front doors, it's just about what you'd expect from your typical — ahem, haunted mansion. Long hallways are lined with portraits of Clementine's dear friends from the original group of do-gooders, and their eyes seem to follow you with each step you take; glance back at a photo and — was the woman in that painting always pointing at you? No matter. Surely, the sound of doorknobs turning and knockers rattling as you pass is even more unsettling. You might feel like leaving, afraid of getting caught trespassing, but something seems to keep you inside, keep you exploring.
The house is full of oddities in its construction and architecture. Open a door, and you may come face to face with a brick wall. Cautiously walk up each flight of stairs you encounter, for you may come to realize that the stairs lead to nowhere — simply constructed up until they reach the ceiling. In the attic, one may even turn a door knob and expect a balcony, but instead realize that it's a sudden drop off into the path below. Similarly, a door on the third floor will lead to a winding, metal slide and takes you to who-knows-where. Proceed with extreme caution, dear cuddlers.
Some will-o-wisps are better navigators than others; while the one you've followed so dutifully from the inner city of Cadelle may have gotten you this far, things get tricky once inside. If your guide is able to help you avoid the many misfortunate architectural elements of the home, you'll find yourself in the basement. There are gadgets and gizmos aplenty, abandoned and broken, and furniture covered in cloths take up much of the real estate. It's a dark room, lit only by the dim light filtering through the slim, dusty windows near the ceiling, but there is one thing that shines bright:
a fortune teller.
No, it's not a real person, or even the head of a woman floating around the room in a crystal ball. Instead, it's an old-timey arcade fortune teller in all her glory, mysteriously active though there's no power source in sight. Could she be the will-o-wisps' true destination? She must be, as once you approach, and press the button, she'll declare with a strong voice and mechanical motions that for a minimum donation of 1 CuddleBuck, you'll receive a fortune that's as certain as death itself.
Of course, this could be completely fake and a rip-off, but the machine will spit a card proclaiming your future at you once the minimum donation is received. Donate a few extra dollars — or many dollars, the fortune teller isn't picky — and perhaps the stars will align more in your favor. The only way to find out is to TRY IT and find out!
The Clementine House thanks you for your time, but please don't overstay your welcome. And no frisky business!
After the first night of sightings, one may see a multitude of appearances on local television of a very burly man who's definitely, definitely wearing Ed Hardy and fingerless gloves that make his hands look like skeletons. His name is Jack Zagans, and he never believed in spirits until he came face to face with one. He, along with his trusted friends, founded GUC — or, as he'll correct everyone who tries to abbreviate the name or dare to pronounce it phonetically as "guck" — the Ghost Undertaking Collective. Wanting to help his Collective further collect evidence that prove the existence of spirits (and maybe claim a few passionate volunteers as full-time members of the group in the process), he has decided to loan out equipment to you (yes, you) for all of your ghost hunting needs!
Interested parties who would like to learn a little bit about life on the other side and borrow said equipment are welcome to use it at home, at their places of employment, throughout town, or maybe follow the aforementioned will-o-wisps to the Clementine House and try to have a chat with Clementine Cadelle herself (but good luck — she's not very chatty; she'd done enough good deeds in her lifetime to be free from the obligation of speaking with nosy volunteer citizens).
Loaner equipment is as follows:
▸ Ovilus 5B: A device whose most popular mode is "dictionary mode", where it spits words at the user based on environmental energy. Did that will-o-wisp just say the words "CAT",
"TACO", and "YUM" in a row? What could it meeaaaan?!
▸ XCam SLS Camera: A device which maps a room and its objects and detects figures via heat mapping; anomalies are detected and mapped and can be seen in motion and interacting with others. Time for a will-o-wisp dance party!
▸ Digital Voice Recorder: This is your standard audio recorder used for menial uses like recording meetings and ghost hunting uses like recording EVPs (electronic voice phenomena). Ask questions, get answers. It's like your own ghostly talk show. You can even save yourself the secondhand embarrassment of interacting with the GUC and use the Voice Memos feature on your CuddlePhone with similar results!
Will you collect evidence?
Only time will tell. Be the best worst parody of a ghost hunting television show you can be!
Complaints during the duration of these will-o-wisps' visit to the city administration reach an all time high. The city is certainly aware of the problem, as City Hall is being overtaken by these pesky aberrations as well, but truly, what can they do?
Enlist help. And who they gonna call? Cisco Ramon, apparently, volunteer citizen from Central City, developer of high-tech equipment, and pop culture aficionado. While the city administration doesn't want to harm the will-o-wisps, they wish to simply ... contain them, until their time has passed. (While they won't outright admit it, this type of thing has happened before in Cadelle, and the annoying things did end up vanishing on their own after five days.)
It's time to Bust some Ghosts — er, will-o-wisps. Mr. Ramon developed a piece of tech not unlike that of a certain popular movie franchise back in his universe on Earth-1. Brave and willing entities are enticed to visit City Hall and retrieve one of these very vacuum cleaner-like devices, lightweight and worn like a backpack, flip a switch, and sweep up some troublesome will-o-wisps. On the eve of October 31, these entities will be released simultaneously into the sky and will float away into nothingness.
Those seeking action in an otherwise innocuous city, this is your time. Nerdy fanboys looking to live out their wildest fantasies, this, too, is your time. We ain't afraid of no will-o-wisps.
tl;dr: HAUNTED MANSION.
GHOST HUNTIN'. GHOST BUSTIN'. The will-o-wisps, in game, will begin to appear during the evening of October 27 and will remain a factor in the city until the evening of October 31, in which they will vanish and not reappear to torment you. Feel free to play with them as you will — develop personalities for them!
As with most things in Cadelle, things don't quite go the way they're planned so feel free to use them as much of a serious plot device or silly plot device as you'd like. Similarly, the world is your oyster when it comes to the Clementine House; feel free to employ as many spooky haunted house tropes as you'd like, or give 'em a twist. We wanted to offer a number of prompt ideas (obviously, have you seen how out of hand this post got?) but don't feel limited by them!
Regarding the fortune teller, simply fill out THIS FORM to request a fortune! Responses to the questions are simply for fun, and will have no real bearing on your character's randomized fortune. You're free to play with your fortune as though it's come true for your character, or it can simply be another scam by the city of Cadelle to earn some money. If you choose to employ the effects of your fortune, they will remain in effect until October 31 as well.
REGARDING ACTIVITY, we're happy to announce that toplevels and comments in this event are permitted to count for November's activity check! Being a surprise event, we don't want to discourage our players from participating in the fun. Please also note that this event does not replace our monthly welcome event, which will still occur on November 1.
Of course, please don't forget that your mod team is here for you with answers to any questions you might have, whether related specifically to this event or the game in general. If you have any further questions specific to this event, we encourage you to ask away on our QUESTIONS COMMENT here in this post. If you have general questions, or prefer a more private venue, our GENERAL INBOX (and SCREENED INBOX) is always available for you.
Happy spoopin', cuddlers! |
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cuddlecity2017-10-27 05:24 pm
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Come on, you'd really rock an orange turtle-neck and it wouldn't clash with the house like a purple dress would.
Also, please, please never mention your happy thoughts again because they are giving me gross thoughts. Too much to hope someone knows how to communicate with the dead in this town? Apart from the zombie I met.
[ Buffy's face scrunched up once more because she really did not like having a problem she couldn't immediately deal with. Finally she reached out, fingers hovering as she decided whether or not she really wanted to touch one of these things. ]
If I get zapped, just promise me you'll never show me how bad my hair looks.
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[a shrug from mr. reyes. her loss, really. not that robbie is especially keen on the idea of sharing, so he's not that torn that kim's not buffy's idea of a good time.
the chill that runs down his spine leads him to believe for reasons unknown to him that the ghost are siding with buffy on the kim front too. damn]
Fine fine. We won't talk about happy thoughts. The ghosts aren't exactly pleased with the topic either. Jesus, I don't know that I've met anyone with the power to communicate with the dead. Know any witches?
[it's a stab in the dark on his part, really. robbie's particularly out of his element.]
The haven't zapped me yet but they also won't leave me alone. More of a nuisance. Like over-eager puppies. I promise I won't take blackmail photos or hand you a mirror if you end up with a bride of frankenstein hairdo.
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[ She's really not letting him live this down. Ever. She might even start calling him Skippy again.
And nope, he will never ever have to worry about sharing Kimberly. She couldn't hold back the smirk as he mentioned the displeasure of the ghosts and she would have patted the glowing balls if she still wasn't bracing herself against a possible electric shock. ]
Sure, one of my best friends from Sunnydale is a witch. But she's, you know, back in Sunnydale. So's her girlfriend - also a witch. We could really use both of them. Haven't people mentioned magic on the network? Think they'd help?
[ Magic was never Buffy's forte outside of using it with the held of Willow and Tara. And even then it was usually something she could throw at a problem, or she was just the vessel.
She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, and then like that oh so famous scene from E.T. she held her finger out as she aimed for one particular ghost.
Honestly, it felt a little anti-climatic when there was no zap. Her finger passed through and she shivered as she experienced a chill of her own before the ghost decided to change course like it was a little offended she had just stuck her finger into it. ]
Okay, so no voltage. That's gotta be a good thing. Now we're just back to finding out why they like you in particular.
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her return comes well timed to buffy's investigative poking of a particularly slow moving ghost, and kimberly can't help but stifle a laugh at the little thing's indignant scoot away. )
I don't think he liked that, ( she points out, words punctuated with a slow sip from a straw poked through the opening of a can of diet coke. ) Maybe they think you're their leader or something. ( a beat. ) You know, the whole flame-y skull thing?
( does buffy know about robbie's alter ego? file that under 'questions kimberly maybe could have asked before miss teen ghost hunter showed up'. oh, well. too late to take it back now. )
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[he raises an eyebrow and directs the next question back at buffy. they've talked a few times about vampires and slayers and he figures if anyone's going to be unphased by the reveal, it's probably her.]
Did I mention that my head lights on fire? Also hands. Basically, if you need a candle lit, I'm pretty handy
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[ Her face didn't show the surprise she felt at learning that particular nugget of information. For all their chats it did seem like something big to leave out, but she got it. Trust and revealing your true nature were big things. Buffy just seemed to be the only one that couldn't keep a secret.
Still, he was right about her taking it in her stride. Suprise reveal over she just smirked at him. ]
That really explains a lot about why I liked you so much. Also you would have been super handy for taking out whole vamp nests. Could have saved me a lot of time and bought me more chances to party.
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[it was a big secret, but for the longest time that was a secret that he kept from everyone, including those closest to him. it wasn't so much a lack of trust that kept him from saying anything before but rather out of self-preservation. nowadays though, it's just hard to explain.]
Sorry I wasn't around to give you a social life, Buffy. Maybe next time.
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[ She was joking. Mostly. It wasn't entirely inaccurate though. Her brow furrowed as she went back to considering the ghosts. She lifted her hand and started moving it like she was either doing a naked sock puppet, or signalling talking too much.
But actually it was neither. ]
What we need is Pac-Man. I have my crazy moments but I'm not about to try and eat some ghosts.
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[it's a rather macabre statement, but robbie is in fact here because he'd knowingly and willingly leapt into the unknown and probably to his own death. he's not sure but he figures you can't cheat death twice... or more.
it's funny that she should mention the beloved video arcade classic. robbie was definitely a fan, but how to solve this dilemma was lost on him. so defaulting to humor was his best coping mechanism.
a shrug of his shoulders and a 'help me out here' look to kim later, he replies to buffy, sounding no more sure than he was when he'd had kim send that first s.o.s. text.]
Too bad I left my last two quarters in my other leather jacket.
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with a disgruntled huff, kimberly does her best to catch the attention of the closest ghost, one that's meandering away and circling back every so often. ) Hey! Yes, you, floaty dude with the ADHD problem. What do you want?
( to her complete surprise, the answer comes. it's not words, of course, because that'd be entirely too obvious, but rather in gesture — the entire flock of floating apparitions beelines towards the front door, hovering up and down impatiently as if waiting for something.
well, why not... she takes an apprehensive step or two forward, and the sense of approval is almost impossible to miss. it doesn't hurt that whatever light source is inside them seems to glow just that much brighter, either. )
Come on, you weirdos, we're apparently playing follow the leader today.
( and if robbie thought he had a choice in the matter, the firm grip suddenly levied on his free hand should prove otherwise. buffy, at least, is given a little bit of choice, if only because kimberly's not quite sure they're at the suddenly-holding-hands stage of friendship yet. that, and she'd really like to keep a firm grip on the flashlight she's managed to find in the hall closet. it might come in useful. )
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he squeezes kim's hand tight and tosses buffy a look that says 'i have no idea what the fuck is happening.' robbie hurries to stand and as they make their way to the hall closet, he grabs his shoes and toes them on.]
Any idea exactly where we're going on this field trip today? Do you think we need to drive?
[robbie eyes the one that's closest to him as it shifts to and fro in a manner that seems to suggest that they don't need a car. or maybe that the ghosts don't like cars. who knows?]
Is it just me or do they seem a little more peppy now that we're outside?
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( it's definitely not the extra curricular activity she had in mind for the next time she slid into the front seat of the charger, that's for sure. so maybe not driving will keep her mind on more important things. like not tripping over an exposed root of the tree in the front yard, or managing to balance her grip on his hand with the weight of the heavy-duty flashlight in her other. )
So... ( her focus diverts from the bouncing line of ghosts in front of her to buffy, though her peripheral vision thankfully keeps the directions somewhat in view. ) What's your deal, then? I'm assuming you're less 'possessed by skulls that light on fire' and more 'weird shit fighting'...?
( and before anybody gets the wrong idea: ) I don't light on fire, for the record.
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Instead she kept her hands balled into fists since she wasn't going to walk around with Mr. Pointy in hand, even if she did still have him tucked in her jeans. Stakes were only helpful with vampires, not bouncing balls of ghostly mojo.
She snorted at Kimberly's question, a little amused. ] Good to know, but also kind of a shame. I was hoping for pink flames to complete Barbie's dreamhouse. Short version: yeah, I fight 'weird shit'. These really aren't the weirdest things I've seen in my lifetime.
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You sure about the no field trip bit? Looks like we're taking a ride. Hope you don't mind public transit, Buffy. [robbie turns to kim offering a sympathetic shrug of his shoulders as he taps his pass to pay his fare and board the car.] Sorry Kim.
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I hate you, ghosts.
( they don't seem very happy about her outburst either, bobbing up and down and looking nearly purple in the process. )
And God, I hate this trolley.
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She also couldn't help an amused snort. ]
The last time I went on a field trip one of my friends became a human hyena, so... I'm not overly fond of this notion either.
[ Oh, and then there had been the Incan mummy. Yeah, she did not miss high school or field trips. ]
So what is your awesome gig?
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It's not really a... a gig, I guess.
( and most importantly, always keep your identity a secret. no one may know that you are a power ranger. it's zordon's low voice that comes from her memory, echoing in her head as she tries to think of how to explain what it is she actually does.
she could say 'i'm a cheerleader', which wouldn't necessarily be too much of a lie... but it wasn't exactly honest, either, and it didn't seem fair to hide behind half-truths when they were both being so honest. especially when buffy was just trying to help. )
I'm a Power Ranger. ( a flex of her hand, wrist rolling as her fingers curl into a tight fist, and the very beginnings of pink metallic armor begin to creep up across her skin. when the sprawl reaches the crook of her elbow, kimberly flicks her fingers open, and the armor recedes almost instantly. ) The pink ranger, specifically.
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[ Buffy sat there as she tried to absorb this new information. And of course Kimberly was the pink ranger. That explained the house. As oblivious as Buffy could seem at times, caught up in letting her mouth do the work, she did listen. And she missed nothing that might impact on the safety of others.
Maybe Robbie's taste wasn't entirely questionable. She was starting to get it, and not just the cheerleader thing. Her gaze had been fixed on the armour, and there was a slight look of awe and appreciation. ]
Damn, you guys get all the cool tricks. I just have a pointy stick. Here's hoping you won't actually need to use that armour.