( 002 » ENSEMBLE ) gravitational.

[reveriemod]

» WHO? EVERYONE
» WHEN? JUNE 1 onward
» WHERE? ALL OVER THE STATION (literally)
» WHAT? Gravity is always on, until it isn't.
» WARNINGS? zero g, paralysis, the vacuum of space, possible asphyxiation, possible character death

0 0 1 » LOSS OF GRAVITY

The outer rings of Reverie Station rotate around the shaft of the station, using inertial forces to simulate gravity. One moment, this works fine — people are walking along corridors, sleeping in their beds, eating in the mess hall or having a drink at the bar. The next moment? In some parts of the station, a crunching sound can be heard, like metal against metal, and shortly thereafter, the rings cease to spin, causing a jolt to go through all rings.

And then what passed for gravity just stops.

Your food, drink or blanket might have floated off after the jolt. Remember to engage your mag boots, if you're wearing them, lest you follow suit. Good luck getting around in zero g.

( ♪ )

0 0 1 . 1 » UPSIDE DOWN AND FLOATING

The lack of gravity may be disorienting at first for those not used to operating in zero g environments. Fortunately, mag boots mean you can continue walking along corridors — though the boots will engage with what used to be the ceiling of the corridors as much as what used to be the floor. No matter which part of the corridor you're attached to, if any, better make sure to collect anything that may be floating around, lest it becomes a dangerous projectile whenever gravity turns back on.

The mess hall and the gym area in particular are in a significant state of disarray. In the mess hall, some cutlery (of the grey, hard plastic variant) has been left unsecured and is floating harmlessly through the air. The same holds true for a large amount of protein powder. In the gym area, meanwhile, the entirety of the dirty water from the pool is no longer in the pool.

( ☺︎ )

0 0 1 . 2 » PARALYSIS INDOORS

One moment, you’re walking — or maybe you’re floating, mag boots disengaged. Either way, from one moment to the next, you become unable to move. Your arms, your legs, even wiggling a toe becomes a thing of impossibility. There’s a heavy weight on your chest, despite the fact that gravity is still not back on. Taking a breath is an ordeal. You can’t call for help, you can’t signal to anyone, you can only stay still.

( ♪ )

OOC: The length of paralysis is up to players.

0 0 2 » TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

It isn't clear why the rotation of the rings has stopped and gravity ceased, but one thing is certain: life on the station is a lot more difficult without gravity, especially for those not used to living and working in a zero g environment. The sensible thing would be to fix whatever is wrong, but in order to do that, you have to figure out what's wrong first.

One way to get an idea might be to put on a suit (if required) and go out an airlock to have a close look at the upper ring, where the crunching noise could be heard the loudest. The objective is to identify the problem and, if possible, fix it — but unless you have the power of flight and can breathe in the vacuum of space, the walk from the airlock to surveying the ring will be taxing in and of itself.

Better not lose hold of the station or each other and whatever you do, do not disengage those mag boots. Hopefully, no debris will come flying at you. The station may be built to withstand it, but you aren't.

( ♪ )

OOC: There are some 20 vac suits with oxygen packs and small thrusters for (weak) propulsion available in the spaces currently accessible to characters; these can be found in various airlocks.

0 0 2 . 1 » FLOATING AROUND

The station may be built to withstand debris, but you aren't — which makes it all the more unfortunate that some debris does catch you. In the side, in the face or in the legs, it doesn't matter: what matters is that the impact is strong enough to disengage the mag boots, which means you are now floating in space.

Did your suit take damage? Do its thrusters still work, or not? Is your oxygen pack still connected properly? If your connection to the station network is still intact, now would be a good time to call for help and hope that someone's close enough to get to you in time before you float too far from the station to still be reached, before your oxygen runs out, before any possible injuries you may have sustained take their toll.

( ♪ )

OOC: With this prompt, the extent of possible injuries, the time before rescue and factors such as oxygen or damage to the suit are all up to players. Please keep in mind that character death is very much a possibility — but that death means relatively little. Should a character die from their injuries or lack of oxygen, they will awaken again. As per the death mechanism outlined in the FAQ, characters are brought back to life (possibly repeatedly, if rescue takes a while), but they lose something. What they lose is up to players as well (a limb, memories, senses, social skills, ...) and the duration of the loss can range from a few days to permanent loss.

0 0 2 . 2 » PARALYSIS OUTDOORS

One moment, you are walking along the hull of the station. The next, you're frozen. Your arms and legs no longer move and there's pressure on your chest. Even taking a breath becomes an ordeal. You cannot move forward. You cannot move back. You can't even signal or call for help.

What choice do you have but to wait out this paralysis and hope that it loses its hold on you before your oxygen runs out? Better not panic, lest you use up more of it.

( ♪ )

OOC: The length of paralysis is up to players.

0 0 3 » WORK IT

For those who've successfully made the walk across the hull of the station to find the problem, it will soon become obvious what has happened: debris crashed into the station and got lodged between the uppermost ring and the shaft of the station, where it is stuck, preventing the spinning of the ring.

You will need to work together to cut through the debris or dislodge it. It's heavy, and you have little leverage in the absence of gravity.

Keep in mind also that if you successfully dislodge the debris, the outer ring will start moving again. Be prepared, especially if you're still connected to the ring by your mag boots. Inertial forces can be quite strong, so you will need to brace yourself or risk being dislodged yourself.

( ♪ )

Comments

[marineris]

[Ugh, gross. She can't help but laugh when he flips her off, though. It feels so much less aggressive when he's floating like a moron.]

Alright, alright, come here.

[Bobbie just walks on over, her mag boots making their distinctive clanking sound against the metal, and reaches up to try to snag his hand. She's about six feet tall, so he doesn't feel that far away.]

[resleeves]

[ kovacs supposes he should feel lucky that she's still going to help him despite his very crude gesture. maybe he'll even say thank you once he has his feet back on the ground. or maybe he'll rail against the bar like it was the bar's damn fault that gravity was lost.

he uses his arms to try and get himself closer to her and then reaches out, snagging her hand and gripping tightly. he manages to push one leg off the wall to give him some momentum so she's not the one doing all the work.

though, that would have been fun to see her do too. she looked capable. ]

I'd say I owe you a drink after this but I think most of it's gonna end up on the floor.

[ what a fucking pity that was. ]

[marineris]

Hey, I'd pay to see you chase alcohol around in zero G.

[Her mag boots are still locked to the floor, so all she has to do is give him a good tug to get him headed towards the floor again. He's a bit taller than her, but leaner, and in zero G it takes no effort at all.]

Click your heels together and dream of home, Dorothy.

[In other words, engage your mag boots, Kovacs.]

[resleeves]

Any other day and I might take you up on that.

[ but really, what the hell was he going to do with money on this station? it wasn't like he could go down to some store or dealer and buy anything. it was pretty much worthless. ]

You're hilarious.

[ but miracle of miracles, he actually listened to her and got the damn boots engaged so he hit the deck with a thump and then cursed for about thirty seconds before he seemingly came back to himself and huffed. ]

What the hell just happened to cause that?

[marineris]

[Bobbie holds onto his upper arm for a moment, just to make sure he's balancing alright. Space can be disorienting.]

One of the rings must have stopped spinning. They're the reason we have gravity at all on this bucket.

[resleeves]

[ once kovacs is certain he's steady, he gives her the briefest of nods. both acknowledgement and maybe gratitude. he wasn't going to say the words so a cool, short nod was gonna have to suffice. ]

Well, that's fucked.

Someone should fix that.

[ not it. he called not it. ]

How long can this place go without gravity? It's not life support's down, right?

[ if there was no one that wanted to go out there and fix it, at least they could figure out how to live without gravity. it didn't seem so bad. ]

[marineris]

This isn't nearly as bad as if the life support systems crapped out, but we'll be dealing with muscle atrophy eventually. Our bones will weaken, and once that happens, there won't be a way to reverse it. Not here, anyway.

[So it's no bueno.]

My crew and I can figure out what's what. We'll likely need help, though.

[resleeves]

Oh, so everything's fine.

[ he was doing his best not to ruin this sleeve (for some fucking reason) and here was this stupid station, trying to ruin that. ryker was going to somehow come back to life and stab him in the eye if he took all the muscle off his body. ]

Handy that you guys are here.

[ despite his lackadaisical tone, he probably actually meant that. it would have been pretty shitty to be on this station, have this happen and be stuck with a bunch of people who could only stare out the window and wait for their bodies to eat themselves. ]

Guess you'll be asking for volunteers?

[ he was calling dibs on staying inside and supervising. ]

Should take the biggest people first.

[marineris]

[Her lips quirk up. It's obvious he's trying to stay as far away from this mess as possible.]

Tallest, you mean? Because that would put you solidly on the list.

[resleeves]

I can't go.

[ and he had a very, very solid reason. which he was going to tell her right now: ]

Scared of space.

[ he smiles but it's clear to everyone, even whoever might be down on that planet below them that he's lying. ]

Besides, you don't want me out there. Wouldn't you want someone you trust?

That's not me.

[ no one should trust him ever. ]

[marineris]

Ah, right.

[She sounds very, very convinced.]

Are you planning on ripping my helmet off while we're out there? Disconnecting my oh-two?

[resleeves]

Could be.

[ nah, that wasn't in his plans. it'd be pretty dumb to try and kill someone in a place where he'd easily be caught and probably killed himself.

with no one to sleeve into, he'd end up dead too and that would be that. no, he's looking to stay alive for a little longer. ]

'Sides...

[ he trails off and looks her up and down but there's nothing lecherous about his gaze. ]

Doubt you'd let me.

[ she seemed pretty hardy to him and though kovacs was confident in his own strength and abilities and was pretty sure he could take her, she wouldn't make it fucking easy. ]

[marineris]

Nope. It would be fun to see you try, though.

[Apparently Bobbie is confident, too.]

[resleeves]

You don't sound very confident in my abilities.

[ because she was too busy being confident in herself. how rude. ]

I've ripped a lot of clothes off in my time.

[ he was sooooo charming! ]

[marineris]

[She snorts.]

I can't tell if you're trying to hit on me or if you're actually proud of ripping off shirts.

[Or something? They are getting way off track.]

[resleeves]

Pick your poison.

[ he hadn't actually been hitting on her but he was just fine with switching tact if that's what she wanted. he was good at a variety of things.

women loved him, it was a fact that could not be disputed. ]

I'm flexible.

[marineris]

[This is the worst conversation she's ever had.]

Apparently not, if you're so determined to stay in here and save the alcohol.

[resleeves]

[ oh don't try and make him feel bad, bobbie. there was a heart under there but it was hard to tug at. pretty much just a moldy receptacle that beat every so often to make sure he stayed alive. ]

Someone has to do it, don't they? You really wanna be stuck on a station for awhile without alcohol?

[ sounded like hell. ]

'Sides, what am I gonna do out there? I don't know ships or stations or any of that shit.

[marineris]

[She shrugs.]

Look, do what you want. I wouldn't mind having someone to watch my back, but I can find someone else.

[resleeves]

Is that your way of asking me for help?

[ well, color him surprised. he'd been under the impression no one would want his fucking help. if positions had been reversed, he wouldn't have asked himself. fuck that guy, he was useless until he didn't want to be. ]

What do you think's out there that your back might need watching?

[marineris]

If you want me to list everything that can go wrong on a spacewalk, we'd be here all day. Breaches in a suit, oh-two disconnecting, getting hit upside the head by space junk...

[Is she selling you yet, Kovacs?]

[resleeves]

Wow, you're really making a strong case for yourself here.

[ why did anyone even go into a fucking space? ]

And you want me to be the guy that stops all this from happening while you fix shit? I'd need a gun.

[ and that's something he, unfortunately, did not bring with him. such a fucking loss. ]

[marineris]

[She can't help it—she smiles at that.]

What, are you planning on shooting any rocks that get too close to me?

[resleeves]

Would you prefer I punch them?

[ he wasn't ortega, he didn't have and arm that was the best bancroft's money could pay for. he could hit and he could hit hard but space rocks might be a formidable foe. ]

[marineris]

[Bobbie laughs, and it's more genuine this time.]

If you save my life by punching a small meteorite, nothing in this universe would be able to shock me anymore.