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

[mewsically]

For me?

[huh? she looks at the fortune. despite her misgivings, she reads it out loud, so that Freminet can hear]

... "Embrace change in order to advance. It's okay to be friendly with your rival. Also, stop chasing after weird men."

[well, that seems oddly specific. so specific that Nyaa's cheeks turn a particular shade of red]

Wh-what?

[scooba]

[And all Freminet could do was just stare at her. As much as he wanted to say something, he wasn't sure if he was going to make it worse.]

Uh...

[No seriously, what was he supposed to do or say??]

[mewsically]

[he doesn't have to say anything. Nyaa looks like she wants to run away and hide under a rock. she might, before the fortune teller gets her attention.

they give her a new slip of paper and she takes it, hoping that it will, you know, soften the blow of the last one. except this fortune is not meant for her, so it doesn't make sense.

after a moment, Nyaa turns and hands it to Freminet]

I-I think this is for you.

[scooba]

[As he looked at his fortune, he raised an eyebrow or two. This was quite the message he got.]

"I cannot help you for I am just a fortune. ☺️"

[In return, he just stared at the piece of paper and then looking back at Nyaa.]

Uh...

[mewsically]

[wait. so she got the embarrassing fortune and Freminet didn't have to say anything? Nyaa stares back, then turns her head to look at the fortune teller. but they have long since gone on to the next couple of people]

That was... unfair.

[scooba]

I-I'm sorry, I didn't know that this fortune would be this uh....unhelpful?

[Oh dear, now he felt terrible. What he to do? Starting to panic, he looked around to see what other things he could do to make her feel better.]

How about we get another one? Perhaps this one was just a bad fortune.

[mewsically]

I think I'm all fortuned out.

[she shakes her head and eventually pulls herself away from the stall. there will be no murdering the fortune tellers today. instead, she looks at Freminet]

Say, since you're here, do you know how you got here?

[scooba]

[As he tried to say something, he found himself unable to. Looking at his surroundings, he tilted his head to the side before mumbling to himself.]

....No, I'm afraid not. What about you? Do you remember?

[mewsically]

[a siiiigh]

No, I don't. I feel like I just walked in here, but I don't remember what steps I took to get here, or if I even wanted to come.

[scooba]

I see, it's the same for me as well. I somehow managed to walk here and I found myself at this stall.

[Pause]

...Is there a reason for this?

[mewsically]

Probably not, if this is all a dream.

But if it isn't, then... maybe it's like an omen?

[scooba]

An omen...? Like what kind...?

[mewsically]

I'm not sure, yet. The fortunes didn't really say much. We may have to explore a bit more to find out.

[scooba]

Then I suppose we have to go and see what else this place has for us.

[pause]

...However, I have to admit, I'm not even sure where to start. [That and he doesn't want to go around talking to a bunch of people he doesn't know!]