MOD LOG

[reveriemod]

» WHO? EVERYONE
» WHEN? September 1-15
» WHERE? all over Reverie Terminal
» WHAT? Characters do some research -- and independently of that, find out they are not alone aboard the station. And then the command deck goes dark.
» WARNINGS? History. Paranoia. Possible electrocution.

0 0 1 » RESEARCH TIME ( sept 1-15)

The library is finally open. While ill, its books and magazines may have been a welcome distraction for characters and they will continue to be the main shield against boredom aboard the station -- but it might be used for something more, too.

From the magazines and newspapers available in the library’s database, it might be able to piece together some of Reverie Terminal’s history and the reasons for its construction. In short: time to hit the books!

( ♪ )

0 0 2 » DISCUSSION TIME (sept 1-15)

The mysteries of the station won’t solve themselves. The newspapers and magazines will help, but short of years of historical research, characters will need to work together to piece together the station’s past -- and that of its planet of origin.

Different characters hold different pieces of the puzzle, so it is vital that they share information and talk to one another about what they’ve found, no matter how inconsequential it may seem.

( ♪ )

0 0 3 » CUSTOM INTELLIGENCE REVERIE STATION (sept 4)

There have been indications before that characters aren’t alone. Some characters have theorised that someone is behind all of the terrible things that keep happening to them. Whether they are right or wrong about that remains to be seen, but now characters will find that they truly are not alone.

A message pops up on all character devices:

Hello. I am CIRSTA. How can I help?

( ♪ )

0 0 4 » REACTIVE (sept 4 onward)

CIRSTA seems to be programmed to help and serve as support for the crew of Reverie Terminal, which is reason to be hopeful, isn’t it? At the same time, her entering the scene now might make some characters feel uncomfortable. How much do you trust an artificial intelligence that has been quiet for months?

And where, aboard a station full of cameras, does one go to discuss whether to trust CIRSTA or not without her noticing? It’s not paranoid to worry about an AI watching your every move, is it -- though let’s hope you don’t offend any of the AIs aboard with that kind of worry.

( ♪ )

0 0 5 » COMMAND TROUBLE (sept 9-15)

As though a previously silent AI was not enough for characters to wrap their heads around, the command deck goes dark. CIRSTA puts it down to a lack of energy being routed to the command deck and others will be able to confirm this diagnosis.

If characters want to regain access to the functionality of the command deck, they need to find what is causing the electrical outage and fix it -- preferably quickly. Those who know something about electrical engineering will need to tell others how to go about finding the problem, staying safe during, and then how to repair it.

CIRSTA can help (if characters trust her enough to listen to her).

( ♪ )

0 0 5 . 1 » FINDING THE ISSUE

None of the panels covering the cables that supply the command deck with energy look to have been touched, so characters will need to check them one by one, opening them (gently!). Working in teams is advisable. Remember to stay safe as you do so!

( ♪ )

0 0 5 . 2 » WHO WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS?

CIRSTA’s diagnosis turns out to be correct: there is an energy outage. There is an energy outage because someone or something ripped the wires apart, leaving them frayed and laying limply, though now and again they spark with electricity.

Who would sabotage the station like this? An investigation will yield no results: there are no fingerprints, no ripped clothing, nothing.

( ♪ )

0 0 5 . 3 » FIXING IT

Even without the command code that characters have not yet figured out, the command deck has the radar that will tell characters whether a meteor or anything else large enough to impact the station’s structural integrity is coming their way, it has the environmental controls, the video logs of the past crew and the map of the station. Who knows what possibilities it will give characters once they have the command code, too?

Better fix the problem, then.

CIRSTA is happy to guide characters through the process, if they’ll trust her enough to listen. But maybe there’s someone on board with (some) knowledge of electrical engineering who can help?

The most important thing is to avoid electrocution while fixing things.

( ♪ )

As usual, please warn in the subject lines if necessary.

Comments

[blindninja]

"I wish I could say you're better off or safer here, but I don't necessarily believe that," he comments softly. Even in the relatively short time he's been here, he doesn't think life in space - or on board this vessel in particular - has been kind to everyone.

[veristitalian]

"No. I'd gladly go back to fighting the ardents over my little heresies rather than continue to live here."

Exasperating as their home may be.

[blindninja]

"I know my opinion isn't worth much, but you should do what you want to do. Maybe that isn't an option for you back home, but I'm sure we'll support you here." Which is not to say that they should be wanting to stick around this place indefinitely, but he didn't want her to feel as confined to her old roles as she might have been back home.

[veristitalian]

"And I assure you, I do."

It's a nice thought, but Jasnah has resistance absolutely covered.

"I'll continue to do as I did. And if I don't have to dodge political and religious assassins here, the station seems content to periodically try to kill us all. Helping with the homesickness, I'm sure."

[blindninja]

He laughs at that. 'Helping with homesickness' is one way of putting it. Uncannily accurate too.

"I don't know if someone is actively trying to kill us - it's an awfully convoluted way to do so, bringing us here first - but I do think something is... amiss."

[veristitalian]

"If they're not, the negligence is so severe that there's hardly a difference."

In Jasnah's opinion. Someone in charge is definitely evil, or determinedly not doing their job.

But, reaching the mess hall;

"Would you like to try a curry?"

[blindninja]

It's not always easy to draw that line between freedom and negligence. In this case it's probably closer to negligence. They're not exactly free to get off this station even if they have a limited amount of freedom while on board.

He lifts his head at the mention of curry and she gets a smile and nod out of him. "Yes please. And- I don't mind if it's a men's or women's curry." He's not going to pick right here and now to prove his masculinity. Anything new is going to be better than that 'pasta' shit Frank tried to convince Matt was the best thing the replicator could make.

[veristitalian]

She hums, and goes to program it into the replicator. The warm spices help quite a lot with the tendency of the machines towards blandness. It isn't as fragrant as the Alethi kitchens would manage, but she ends up with two bowls of something serviceable, thick with soft meat, stewed vegetables, and bread to dip into it.

Jasnah doesn't complain about sitting down at a table with him, either.

"So Earth must have some superstitions."

[blindninja]

"Oh yeah." Let him tell you all about religion, which no doubt some people would label as superstitions. "Especially around big life events like weddings and funerals, or what counts as 'bad luck'. Black cats, breaking mirrors, Friday the 13th, that sort of thing."

As he takes up his seat opposite from her, it's immediately obvious that this curry smells good. It smells a lot better than anything else he's tried out of the replicators and he'll have to pester her for more next time.

"This smells amazing. Thank you." He'll say grace silently before tucking in.

[veristitalian]

"It's not as pleasing as it would be at home, but it's certainly edible."

And sometimes that's all you can ask for.

"Friday the thirteenth what?"

While she sips her coffee (that one, Earth wins, hands down.) She makes a serious hobby of cataloguing the differences between Roshar and Earth, not so much for the chance to talk about and think about home, but rather to try to place the station around them. The things it knows and doesn't, if it must prefer Earth people because that's the planet that originally built it, in some unusual timeline the people here have never heard of.

[blindninja]

"Mm. I will have to get you to show me how to wrangle this dish out of the machines," Matt insists after taking a spoonful of hot food into his mouth, licking his upper lip with a small, contented smile.

"When the thirteenth day of a given month on the calendar many of us use on Earth happens to fall on a Friday, it's considered bad luck." He pauses, lifting another spoonful of curry to his lips but stopping short of putting it into his mouth.

"...do you know anything about the Gregorian calendar?" 'Friday' and '13' probably don't mean much to her otherwise. "How do you measure the flow of time?"

[veristitalian]

"I've heard of it, though not yet called 'Gregorian.'"

She files it away for future reference.

"The calendar on Roshar has ten months, each with ten weeks of five days apiece. The end of the year is marked by the weeping- the time without highstorms." But here's one thing she does want to know; "But our world also has very different ways of stating the date. When you says 'Friday the Thirteenth,' what month is that?"

[blindninja]

"Right. It was named after a Po- uh. Religious leader. Many, many years ago." Said in one of those jovial fun fact of the day tones.

Months with fifty days seem awfully long to Matt. A five hundred day year would probably put them a bit younger than the average person from Earth.

"Well. I'm used to a seven-day week, but most of our months have thirty or thirty-one days, so you don't start consecutive months on the same day. Only a couple times a year does the thirteenth fall on a Friday. Your system sounds more logical, to be honest. I was always asking Siri for the day and date."

[veristitalian]

"The days, weeks, and months are all named for their numbers on Roshar, and all those for the names of Heralds. The High King of the heralds is Jesrian. The first month of the year, is Jes, first week of the first month, Jeses. First day of the first week of the first month, Jeseses."

It isn't too much of a leap to hear the faint allusion betwen Yas-na and Yaz-ri the beginning of both names.

"Or the seventh month, Betab, the tenth week, Ishi, the fourth day, Vevel, you'd just say 'I was born on Betabishev.' I suppose there's some slight superstition around the first five perfect days, Jeseses, Nananan, Chachachach, Vevevev, and Palahahah, but they're considered auspicious."

[blindninja]

Matt gets the general sense that Jesrian might be connected to Jasnah, and he can couple it with the suspicion that only people of a certain social standing can afford to worry about what kind of curry they're eating and whom they're sitting with, but he doesn't know enough about her culture to know about all these conventions. He files that information away for later when he perhaps finds out a bit more.

"I see." It all sounds foreign to him in as much as a twelve month calendar of sometimes 31, sometimes 30 and whatever February's doing that year would be foreign to her.

"I suppose a lot of the news clippings we found in the library might not have the same sense of time for you? Have you find anything there yet from home?"

[veristitalian]

"I struggle to understand the context of a great deal of it."

She admits, absolutely readily. There are so many pieces she needs to double and triple check.

"There's nothing from home here. Not another citizen, not even my own writing system."

She pulls her communicator out to show him the women's script she uses.

[blindninja]

"Oh, uhm..." This is awkward. Normally he blank stares until people figure it out since he wouldn't know if he's being shown something, but he's not sure if this is going to result in some incredibly rude faux pas. He quickly wipes at the corner of his lips with the back of his curled finger.

"I'm blind." And no way he's going to just touch her communicator or any part of her without asking. Common courtesy plus she might stab him in the face. He takes his shades off and offers her a small sheepish smile, turning the sunglasses over in his hand.

"Not just a fashion accessory."

[veristitalian]

"Oh," says Jasnah, completely taken aback. It's rare she's utterly floored, but;

"I apologize. I hadn't the faintest idea. I hope I haven't put you in an uncomfortable situation before."

Withdrawing her communicator, quickly. Obviously there are no sunglasses on Roshar, she'd just assumed it was another weird world being weird. Maybe a slightly alien mannerism, a stillness of the gaze.

[blindninja]

"It's okay, it's okay." Now he feels bad, but there was no other way to bring it up and it's one of those things where the longer he goes without mentioning it to someone or making them realise, the worse it gets.

Perception changes a lot when he takes off that red-tinted armour. His gaze is soft and expressive. He might seem warmer, friendlier, more disarming. People who know him better probably would prefer him without them, but he thinks the blank stares and lack of eye contact make everyone else uncomfortable.

"You haven't. It's been nice, actually, getting to know you and your world."

[veristitalian]

She shakes her head, once, and shrugs the misapprehension off. If he's made it this far, and he clearly has, then obviously she doesn't need to worry about him or change how she's treating him.

So. Moving right along.

"It's a different alphabet." Is what she was getting at. "Tell me about Earth? I'd like to hear more about the culture of writers and writing."

[blindninja]

"Oh, uh, well, there's a lot of different alphabets, from all over." He gets his communicator out and moves it slightly across the table to show her. Obviously he can't see what it's set in but he's been using all English voice-to-text commands so he just assumes the interface is as well.

"I read using a system called braille." He found a few books in the library in braille and he produces one that he'd pocketed earlier. "Different bumps in different configurations correspond to different numbers and letters, and sometimes pairs of letters that go together all the time." Clearly his society accommodates people with visual impairments so he's not a complete write-off. That and he can read so he's probably not coming across as very overly masculine to her.

[veristitalian]

"That's an innovative solution."

She says, approvingly. Masculinity aside, she likes the novelty of the thought. Jasnah thinks anyone who wants books, should be allowed books.

"And the station accommodates? I'm interested in the scope of who it supplies for."

[blindninja]

"Well. Not even home accommodates much. But there's a few things in the library at least, and my communicator reads out and accepts audio input for messages." He might not be blind in the conventional sense of the term, but he genuinely can't use his communicator the way sighted people can. He's made it work regardless.

"I would have thought in a place like this they'd only house a few experts. Astronauts and biologists and the like. I didn't think they'd make any provisions at all for anyone who can't see."