Dead Mall
Welcome to the Dead Mall!
Once upon a time, Prospect Plaza was a bright shining gem of the Harbor district. Those days are long gone, along with first one anchor store, then another, then all the inner stores one by one until, with the arrival of newer, bigger, classier malls out in the suburbs, the Plaza was officially abandoned.
For years it languished, falling further into disrepair behind the forbidding fencing and 'no trespassing' signs. But waste not, want not, and Bone Gnawers don't tend to want to waste. Prospect's contingent of the tribe has taken it over, working their own form of renovation on the place.
If you're a 'Gnawer or their kin, c'mon by! If you're a friend, ask to drop in. If you're anyone else... beware of dog.
- AcaciaSanrio
- IrsaLL Bean
- BootsHot Topic
- RamonaBarnes & Noble
- VacantEB Games
- VacantMen's Warehouse
- VacantRegis Salon
- VacantFashion Bug
- VacantCamelot Music
- VacantSpencers
- VacantZany Brainy
Directory
Main Areas
Outside
The parking lot around the Dead Mall is cracked and weedy, where it exists at all, and is surrounded by a high chain link fence reinforced by a layer of salvaged corrugated steel sheets. A patch of solar panels has been set up in a clear area with lots of sun, thick braids of wires running to batteries stored in the Mall. Another large space no longer has any asphalt at all and instead grows a large amount of crops. Somewhat neatly arranged piles of materials and supplies take up a corner of the lot, with salvaged lumber, stone and metal for use.
The loading dock area is used frequently for bringing home the bacon, as it were. Near one of the more main entrances is a lounge area with tarps for shade stretched between poles, mismatched lawn furnishing and grill, and of course the pool, made from a cargo container lined in plastic.
Greg and Knight: Homid and Lupus Kinfolk, they help keep an eye on the parking lot, and have a radio to contact others if they see something hinky.
Greg is a scruffy adult with perpetual 5 o'clock shadow, and Knight is in his double digits, scrappy but solid looking.
Clairie: A weird little trash gaffling that lives outside in a dumpster which has been painted bright pink and stenciled with glittery designs. The bin is filled with rubbish from a local toy store, including dolls, sparkly play sets, and a few clothing items. A small sign on the dumpster reads: 'Girl toys only, please'. Kids often play in Clairie's dumpster and use her toys, but she doesn't mind in the slightest! In fact, she loves the aura of joy and encourages it.
Commons
The entrances all lead in to a central atrium bustling with community life and sound. Planter boxes grow thick with herbs and vegetables, and trees have long since burst of their old mall planters to grow tall and draw water from the flooded basement. Large skylights bathe atrium and halls in natural light, and highlight a huge sewn banner hanging overhead. Unmoving escalators provide access to the second floor.
Shops have been repurposed into homes and community mainstays, from 
trading to medical needs. There is bird song during the day mingled with the bustle of dozens of kinfolk residents, and the quiet rustle of rodents at night. Small dishes of food, water, and bird seed strategically placed all over the mall for spirit and physical critters alike.
Art: The Mall has been beautifully defaced all over inside. Murals cover walls and boards over missing shop windows, metal sculpture depicts crows in a spooky tree, and of course sculptures, and paintings of rats abound. Where art and beauty can be added to the dreary world of the Bone Gnawers, it has. And where it hasn't, they're just spots awaiting a creative person. Hope and inspiration radiate from every corner of the mall's open areas.
Cleansing: When you walk through the front door, there is an automatic cleansing that happens. This item emulates the spirit charm: Cleanse the Blight. (WW3801 - Werewolf The Apocalypse (Revised Edition) pg.#238)
Rage: Located in the Food Court is a collection of 8 glass plates depicting the different phases of the moon hanging from the trees around the koi pond. These plates infuse the entire mall (nothing outside the mall, though) with a heavy vibe of tranquility. Rage diffs for the mall's interior are 9, please RP accordingly!
Power: Electricity is mainly produced by solar panels, individual rooms have sorcerer created power strips that just produce electricity through magic. There's an emergency generator for when all else fails.
Food Court
A large and airy space at the heart of the mall, centered around a small indoor lake created by a section of floor that's collapsed into the flooded basement below. Koi and turtles happily splash and bask among the water plants and moss-covered cement rocks. Decorative trees with glass moon phases dangling from their branches wrap their roots around the wet rubble lining the lake's edge. Dappled sunlight and moonlight streams through the broken skylights high above. Hammocks and small seating spaces have been set up around
the lake perimeter. The gentle sounds of water and birdsong lend a tranquil aspect to the place. The small restaurants set into the walls are being used for communal kitchens and storage pantries. One of these, a sunlit Chik-fil-A, has been floored with straw and houses a number of live chickens for fresh eggs. Beware: the infamous Murder Hen haunts this area, bad-tempered and forever bushwhacking Kinfolk and Garou alike to steal their meals.
Murder Hen: While she can be found anywhere in the Mall, the Food Court is the most likely place to run across her.
Food, you know... She was one of the chickens that live in the Chik-fil-A, but she escaped years ago, driven mad by Garou Rage! Well not mad, maybe, but certainly feral and very definitely brave. She hides like a ninja where you least expect, her presence known only by the Jaws themesong-like muttering of the chicken. She will take your food by force if she must. AND YOUR SOUL!
Movie Theatre
At the end of a hallway, lit two stories above with broken skylights, sits a small movie theater. The marquee acting as an angled awning is lined in blinking yellow lights and reads 'THERAPY' in black block letters against backlit white. The taupe tiled floor of the lobby is swept clean and the red felt walls are dotted with poster cases also lined in blinking lights and containing artwork done by mall residents. A small, curved ticket booth has been stocked with cigarettes, candies, packets of chips, and other bar-style sundries.
To the right of the entrance and ticket booth is a decoratively arched room with a concession stand at the far end. Mismatched tables and chairs are scattered about, and the curved walls are painted all over with alchemical recipes specific to alcohols. 
A small alcove has a figure of a woman made of fruits and living things in honor of Gaia. Amid gentle lighting, the ceiling is lined in glass tubes etched and painted with arcane symbols and peppered with glass bulbs that collect colorful liquids and fumes as they course through the clear networks. The concession stand itself has been turned into a bar with padded stools in front, a bank of mini fridges hidden below the bar's top, and its back wall holding shelves of liquor bottles, mixers, and even a microwave for bar burritos. The ceiling's glass tube highways come from a large copper still in the back room, its sides etched and painted with enchantment symbols. After traveling the ceiling, their ends run down the walls behind the bar, ending in a dozen different taps labeled as different flavors.
Straight ahead of the entrance and ticket booth are a pair of theater rooms. One has a backlit white sign reading 'Physical Therapy' in black letters, 
while theater two's sign reads 'Music Therapy'. The Physical room has had all of its theater seats removed and has been filled with a plethora of makeshift and scavenged work-out equipment, from refurbished and jury-rigged weight machines to hand weights, with several cleared out fitness zones. The small stage has a sparring ring spray-painted onto the scuffed-up hardwood in front of the movie screen. The Music room has also had its banks of seats removed, and has been set with speakers and stereo equipment as well as an array of different party lights, turning the place into a colorful, thumping night club dotted with bean bag chairs, clear space to dance, and neon-paint-spattered walls that glow in blacklight. The stage in this room holds a huge variety of musical instruments set for performance in front of the movie screen. Projectors have been repaired and play an assortment of scavenged and stolen movie reels into both theaters from up in the projection booth.
Rite-Aid Reflecting Pool
A storefront behind a triangular lounge area that's been flooded to create a shallow reflecting pool. The edges are ringed with candle lamp jars and small potted herbs. A large coastal oak grows at the southern edge, spreading its broad canopy of shade. Birds nest in the tree and rats burrow among the roots, taking their fill of offerings from small dishes placed in the area.
Rite-Aid itself has been partitioned into shrines to honor Urban Gaian spirits: Rat's shrine is the largest one here. The large front windows have dozens of ritual plants on display, ready to be harvested at a moment's notice. Summoning and ritual areas marked with glyphs and decorated with murals, artwork, candles and greenery take up most of the majority of the floor space.
The pharmacy itself has been turned into storage for ritual components of all kinds. Need a thing? Ask Gregory Half-Foot, your handy-dandy, super-helpful Metis Theurge on duty for assistance! He's the nicest guy around.
Gregory Half-Foot: Adren Bone Gnawer Metis Theurge, ostensibly the master of the Rite Aid. Though he has a hobbling gate and is a little stooped in posture, this Metis is as friendly as can be and lives to help others achieve their mystical goals. He tends the shrines in the Rite Aid, keeps the supplies stocked and organized, and ensures ritual circles and areas are kept clean and consecrated.
Shrines: Rat's got the biggest and best, but there's a LOT of other shrines here dedicated to spirits of Rat's brood, urban totems aligned with Rat's ways and cause, and even totems for local packs. Do you have a pack or personal Totem? You can RP a shrine for it here, pay homage and know it will be respected and well kept.
Magic: Bone Gnawers are welcome to perform their rites, summonings and mystical craftings here if they don't have their own safe space for Theurge or Sorcerous works. Safety first, cast responsibly!
Upstairs
Stalled out escalators all over the Mall provide access to the residential floor, shops on this level are personal homes belonging to Gnawers both kin and kind. The walkways might be littered with kid toys or host quiet benches, you never know what'll be in any given hallway-neighborhood. All over are planters growing herbs and vegetables, little food and water dishes set out of the way for rats and birds, be they spiritual or physical.
A store towards the Mall's center has been turned into a large bath house, not every store-home has its own private plumbing after all. There are periodic maintenance closets with living necessities available to residents; cleaning supplies or spare toiletries. There's some access to climbable tree branches up here. Late at night the walkways are lit with candles in jars rather than electricity to keep the residents comfortable.
Homes: If you're a Bone Gnawer, Garou or Kinfolk, then you're allowed to have a home here at the Mall. See that directory right there? That's who lives where. Pick an unused store, put in a +buildreq (+help +buildreq) and get yourself a nice place to stay!
Hygiene: An entire store has been converted into a bath house for those that have not solved their hygienic needs problems on their own. Soaps and assorted alchemical bath products are always in stock, but you have to bring your own towel. Hopefully you're not too shy, there's only so much privacy. The lighting is kept a little bit low to help with a quiet and relaxing atmosphere.
Culture
The Dead Mall: The Mall was a forgotten, unwanted, over looked place. Something with potential, history and memories, a thing of family and community that was cast aside and shunned as dangerous, a thing to be feared and shied away from. There's a reason why the Mall is so special to the Bone Gnawers of Prospect, it's a thing like many of them, a voiceless cast away left to rot unwanted and unloved by the society around it. When the Gnawers took this place from the Wyrm and claimed it as their own, they filled it with families, laughter, hope. That's what it is today, a joyful community that prospers while it can, knowing each day that the Wyrm could try to tear it down. Each and every Gnawer, kin or kind, helps tend to this haven, whether they're repairing it, guarding it, embellishing or expanding upon it for the tribe as a whole. Teams take turns with the many gardens that sustain the population, ferry supplies back and forth to Hillfolk farms, scrappers and scavengers work for the Mall, for the people, and because of this, there is always something. Supplies for building might be scavenged but the stocks are flush. Food might be random, but it's always available. There is medicine for the sick, beds for the weary, and companionship for the lonely. You are never alone or in need at the Dead Mall.
The Local Sept: The Bone Gnawers of Prospect have a great relationship with the Sept of the Enduring Spirit as a whole. Sept members from other tribes helped with the establishment of this colony, providing food and supplies when there were none and helping the dream to come alive until it could sustain itself. It wasn't always so nice, but it would take an old timer to recall the days of animosity and woe. Now, though, there is none of that. The Sept accepts us, and so we accept the Sept, we mingle as brothers and sisters, share and share alike the duties and adventures. There is no debt due, no chiminage unmet, these relations are natural and organic. Hell, the caern Warder himself is a Bone Gnawer, Iron Flail, Elder Bone Gnawer Ahroun.
The Rabble: Whatever their reasons might be, there are always Gnawers that aren't interested in Septs, Nation politics, or anything else, preferring to keep to themselves and their own little stomping grounds. They aren't Ronin, they haven't cast EVERYthing aside. Even if they don't care for the majority of Garou bullshit, they're still family. They'll show up to a Tribal Moot, they'll help one of their own out, maybe they cant be counted on for the community work, but they handle the Wyrm as best they can and we make sure they're taken care of as best we can.
The City: Not every Gnawer lives at the Mall, and that's okay. The city's big, and the homeless or struggling cant always just zip back and forth across town to do what they do to survive. Whether they're spread out on the streets, holed up in squats across town, living rough in a van somewhere or going hillbilly in the woods, the Prospect Bone Gnawers do what they can to make sure the entire tribe is as supported as it can possibly be. If we know where our people are, we make sure they've got food, blankets, medical care, transportation, shelter, or even someone to just be near by while they get some safe sleep. Our lives are hard, even with the colony thriving it always seems like our folk will struggle, but we do what we can for everyone that we can.
The Cubs: Gnawer kids tend to stay with their parents until their first change, sheltered if at all possible here at the Mall where their Rage can be managed and the Veil maintained. Metis kids do stay separate from kin kids, poor little guys got big claws and teeth after all and it's not their fault homids are so squishy. Found and adopted cubs are treated the same way, melded into the community until their first change if possible. After their first change, they alternate between training at the Mall and the caern. Gnawer kids need a proper city-Garou education and cant live in the woods all the time, but they also need a proper Garou education so they cant live in the Mall all the time. Gnawer nannies and cub minders work closely with the Den Father so that everyone's got tabs on everyone else's progress and lessons.
The Ratkin: The Bone Gnawers of Prospect have no formal treaties or alliance with the Ratkin of Prospect. We respect Rat's crazed children, some of us may befriend one for a time or work with one on some endeavor that satisfies a common goal, but be ever wary of the chaos and paranoia of the Rat God's warriors. They have great reason to loathe the Garou and many still view wolf shifters as enemies to be killed on sight. While they may not view Bone Gnawers as enemies right away, they will never love us as cousins.
Other Non-Residential Stores
Some other stores set up to provide residents of the colony with needful things:
Clinic: Run by: <NPC> One store has a sign marking it as a clinic and is being stocked with various medications and medical supplies. Its back room has been neatly furnished as a makeshift exam room. There is a supply of medical books and a seating area in the main room has games and old magazines to browse.
Trade: Run by: <NPC> Need a new fuel canister for your camp stove? Have to replace that ratty blanket? Have need of a particular tool for a project you're working on? This store has been outfitted with a wide variety of useful things, shelves stocked with all manner of usefulness. Don't worry about money, just trade something the store might need.
School and Library: Run by: <NPC> A large department store at the end of a wide hall has been given over to shelves and shelves of books, all neatly organized into genres and alphabetized by author. One section of floor has a collection of desks, chairs, even a few beanbags and small boards to use as writing surfaces, as well as a couple old blackboards secured to the walls with bits of scrap.
Clothes: Run by: <NPC> Sears has put its old mannequins, racks, tables and cubbies to use again, this time holding a wide variety of second hand clothes. Pants, dresses, skirts, teeshirts, even some light sweaters, they're organized by size and intended gender. Boots, shoes, sandals and other footwear can be found as well as accessories of all kinds. Most things are used, patched but clean, though new items can be found around as well. Don't worry about money, just trade in some clothes to be fixed, cleaned, and put out on the floor.
Trash and Scrap: Run by: <NPC> There's a space outside the mall that's defined by walls made of scrap and wood made to contain daily trash between trips to the dump. Another space defined the same way contains recycling and scrap of various types. Things that haven't been repaired or put to use yet can be found with the recycling as well as other sources of minor income. Trash and recycling gafflings exist here, but are kept separated to avoid fights over rubbish.
Logs
2016.10.29: Dead Mall Discovery
2016.11.04: Second Floor Fomor
2016.11.06: Cleansing Crew
2016.11.27: The Wading Dead
2020-10-26: Along came a Spider at the Dead Mall
2020.10.29: Motoroil and Woundings
2022.06.20:Blade Forging Talk, then Curry
2022.06.20:Journey Delegates a Job He Doesn't Want
2022.07.04:Live Times at the Dead Mall
2022.07.21:A Ragtag New Pack?
Music
- Rats Rule - Die Antwoord
- Welcome to Paradise - Green Day
- Mercedes Benz - Janis Joplin
- Talkin' 'bout a Revolution - Tracy Chapman
- What It's Like - Everlast
- Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant
- Royals - Lorde
- Know Your Rights - The Clash
- Common People - Pulp
