Cursed Night Market

[pantheraliam]

Welcome

You’re not sure how you got here, but you don’t seem to mind. You feel a pervasive sense of calm with regard to your environment. You have entered what appears to be a night market. Perhaps the concept is familiar to you, or perhaps it isn’t. Colorful stalls, glowing with lantern light, line the path before you. You know what you need to do to return to where you came from. Investigate the various stalls - buy and sell what you have, until you’re able to purchase a path back. The merchants will take any currency that you have on hand. If you don’t have any, you will find some coins of an ambiguous nature in your pocket.

Rare Items

The first stall that you encounter boasts that you can buy and sell rare items. After trading a coin, the merchant hands you something - insists you take it. You don’t recognize the item, but the person behind you does. It is something extremely dear to them. If they check their person, they will find the item missing. If you attempt to return the item to them, you will find that you are unable to. Helpfully, the merchant offers that the person the item belongs to must tell the buyer a story about the item before it can be returned.

Fortunes

The second stall you encounter claims to buy and sell fortunes. Trading a coin, the merchant will relay to you a fortune, but, as you listen, you realize that it isn’t your fortune at all. With a cackle, the merchant explains that you must deliver the fortune with the person behind you. Neither of you can leave the booth until you have revealed to them their future.

Memories

The third stall you encounter claims to buy and sell memories. You can choose to sell the merchant a memory you would like to forget, or you can ask to buy someone else’s memory. Selling your memory will transfer it to the person behind you. In return, you will gain one of their memories. Buying a random memory will instead cause you to forget one of the people most important to you. In some instances, you might feel a great urgency to find someone, although you don't know who it is.

Dreams

The fourth stall you encounter claims to buy and sell dreams. Trading a coin at this stall will cause you and the person behind you to be transported into a shared dream. The dream may be about the highest point in your life or the lowest. It may also be about a close friend, there or gone. It may reveal your greatest desire or your greatest insecurity. Or any number of other things!

OOC notes

Suggestions on prompts: if you’re going to write one where someone will be seeing/receiving something from your character, it’s helpful to describe it in detail in the brackets in your TL. I know some of these prompts are probably a little confusing, but, I mean…it’s roleplay. Just fuck around. No one’s gonna police how you do things here.

Please feel free to top-level, tag in, and share this meme wherever you’d like - it is open to anyone. The four stalls mentioned are prompt suggestions, but you can go crazy and have any stall do basically anything you want. Please see/use subject line CWs. This musebox doesn’t have a dedicated rule list because it’s just for my personal shit, but please be kind, follow standard RP rules - just be nice! Do the right thing! If you have any questions, hit me up here.

code by Flyleaf ❖ inspired by event code by 10billionghosts ❖ background via unsplash

Comments

Kel | OMORI

[orange8ro]

(ooc: Same mun as the bellismortis Basil further up. Kel has a more thorough infopost—and a paid, this month, so come get ‘im while he’s hot)

my stall now
[It’s anyone’s guess how a teenage boy ended up on the merchant’s side of a stall, but sometimes a fella needs coin, and he’s been set up with some real tasty delicious wares to sell!

[Reads the sign: ‘Milk.’

[He hates milk, is the thing.

[But! No matter! These cold glass jugs aren’t gonna sell themselves, and they’re getting warmer by the second, and that’s really no fun for anyone. So, at the first appearance of another soul at this less-traveled intersection, Kel quits slouching, jumps up, and waves his hands with a big ol’ grin.]

Got milk? I got milk! Getcha fresh dairy here, straight from… some unreadable mystery farm! Good for you, good for your bones—just one coin a pop!

wildcard?
(You know. One of the actual prompts. Or anything else! Toss me a starter or request one. We have fun.)

this is what ur getting

[abandonhumanity]

[. . .]

I don't need any milk.

LOVE IT

[orange8ro]

[Darn.]

—Well, you might not need it, buuut… [Quick, Kel, think! What does Hero say about milk?] It could make you taller!

[This guy’s like the same height he is—] And again, it strengthens up you bones. [He flexes.] Good ol’ calcium. It’s a fella’s best friend.

surprised he's not snapping his own arm to prove a point rn

[abandonhumanity]

That only works if you're still growing.

You don't even know where you got this?

eren no—

[orange8ro]

[Yeesh. Tough sell....]

Ehh… [Kel tilts his hand back and forth.] Well, I “got” it from the last vendor. He was like, [putting on a scratchy accented fantasy-salesman voice] “oi, kid, if you want coins, I got the deal for you,” and set me up here! Dunno where any of it came from before that.

[He shrugs.]

Cows, probably.

[abandonhumanity]

[Right.] So, at the first opportunity for money, you jumped despite not having any idea what you were getting into.

How is that working out for you?

[orange8ro]

Hey, hey, hey, [hands raised, still goofing around, but he does mean this;] don’t start thinking I’m some kind of money-grubbing charlton. [“Charlatan”—] It’s just a means of acquiring goods and services.

In this case… [He leans an elbow on the counter, as if preparing to share a trade secret. Voice doesn’t lower, though.] …word on the street is, you can buy your way outta this place. And I’ve had my fun, don’t get me wrong, but I should really get back before my [parents think I’m skirting curfew] little sister wakes up and throws a fit. Can’t be a negligent big bro, y’know?

throwing this in

[abandonhumanity]

[As flat as the day is long:] And you thought the milk stand was the secret exit.

[It is, by the way.]

[orange8ro]

Yup!

[He has no idea.]

[abandonhumanity]

[A beat.]

You're not very intelligent, are you?

[Says Eren "Garden Variety Idiot" Jaeger.]

[wormchick]

[ Confused and intrigued by what he's selling, Lily approaches Kel's stall with a soft, frowning sort of curiosity. ]

That's a lot of milk...Do you only sell it in jugs?

It'd maybe sell better in little cartons or bottles - and if it was in ice, too. That'd be better. That way harmful bacteria can't multiply in it. You can get all sorts of bacteria in milk - listeria, e.coli, salmonella, staphylococcus - all nasty.

[ Swaying gently to and fro, she adds; ] Did you know that milk's heavier than water, despite it being over 80% water itself? And that Polar bear milk is around 35% fat, whilst seal milk is 50%?

[ Milk facts, getcha milk facts here. ]

LILY BELOVED

[orange8ro]

[His eyes go very wide. Kel leans over the counter, propping his face up with both elbows; it’s a “:I” sort of curiosity right back!

[There’s a brief pause, eagerly awaiting more Cool Milk Facts In Your Area. But, with that seeming to be done for now:]

Man. You should be the one sellin’ these things, not me!

The fat really adds that much weight? [This is what he’s chosen to focus on, yes.]

. u .

[wormchick]

[ Immediate head shake. ]

Mm-nn, no thank you - I'm not good with counting money and things, you can keep selling the milk okay?

[ There you go, Kel - your dairy calling is still yours. ]

It does, yes! It doesn't sound right, does it? But it's true!

[orange8ro]

[Shoot. He could’ve used a business partner. But he accepts with a small nod—sort of.]

It doesn’t sound right, no. You listed off a whole lotta numbers for someone who says she’s not good at counting. [Kel, those were percentages—]

[wormchick]

I'm okay at remembering percentages if it's a fact I've learned recently; that's different to having to count and remember and add-up in the moment.

[ She peers a little closer at one of the jugs, mindful that the ends of her two matching plaits don't get unintentionally dipped. ]

Do you have chocolate milk? I bet that'd sell much quicker!

[orange8ro]

[Abruptly Kel claps. Points at his genius would-be customer.] Chocolate milk! Yeah, that’d fly off the shelf for sure.

[Beat.]

You see any stalls around here with chocolate?

BOYFRIENDS EDITION

[sadpoem]

[Cocking his head to the side. What is this silly guy up to?]

You got a stand...? [He speaks a little more confidently these days. His lips even twitch, nearly smiling.] No whey. [:30:]

HEHEHEHEH

[orange8ro]

It’s more dairy than I can stand! [Sunny’s the pun-master here, but Kel tries. By god, he does try.]

But you [pointing, with finger guns] get a boyfriend bonus. As many jugs as ya want, on the house!

[sadpoem]

[That pun was pretty good! Give yourself a little credit, Kel.

[The fingerguns are cute. He's cute.]

You think...we can take it with us?

[orange8ro]

[He glances back, at the multiple shelves of fragile calcium product, stacked nearly up to his eye level.

[He has two arms and no container. Sunny also has two arms, and as far as Kel can tell…]

Yes.

[Back to Sunny, he nods. Baps a fist on a flattened hand.]

We can do anything we set our minds to.

[sadpoem]

[...]

Not all of it. [That smile twitches on Sunny's lips again.] You're wrong.

[orange8ro]

Almost anything.

[That correction done, he reaches for a jug and plops it across the counter. It’s not terribly heavy, give or take an extra few pounds for that thick glass. But for one at a time? Sunny can handle it.]

I think our next point of business is gonna be finding a way out of this place. With milk. [A beat.] You see any wheelbarrows around here?

POST-CANON TALKATIVE SUNNY CAN U BELIEVE IT

[sadpoem]

You're getting us...into a really dairy situation.

[He takes the jug. It's open...]

This stinks...

MY BELOVED

[orange8ro]

[The pun-vengeance gears in Kel’s brain have only just started to turn, and then he gets a whiff of that milk and all the rest is discarded.]

Blegh! Heck, I’m never gonna sell that! [He swipes the nearest jug and, without checking, dumps it unceremoniously on the ground. Sorry, original milk vendor; not Kel’s fault you didn’t fridge your wares. Maybe the whole thing was a scam.]

Okay, [mostly-empty bottle tossed over his shoulder; cue comedic smash! in the background—] forget the milk. We get a cart, and some better drinks, and then we high-tail it outta here. How’s that sound?

"maybe" this whole thing was a scam

[sadpoem]

Was this...a beverage heist...all along?

[Why does he wanna bring drinks home so badly? Isn't the point to get home at all?]