( 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

002/003 idk

[monomachy]

[Even if the study of the sciences had never been her strongest subject in school, Diana still understands what's happening. The force that had been holding their bodies to the floors of the station is now gone, and they need to bring it back. The solution, once it's discovered, seems simple enough--they have to remove the debris that's stuck between the rings. The rotation of the rings had been disrupted, and once it returns, things will go back to how they were. It's a simple enough task, and once she feels she is well-suited for.

Except walking outside the station, knowing that on the other side of the seemingly flimsy spacesuit. But she pushes her misgivings down and walks along the side of the ring with her magboots, focusing solely on the task ahead. This, hopefully, will bring them all one step closer to returning to their own worlds.

The asteroids aren't heavy, exactly, but they're difficult to move, even for her. Eventually, however, one great push and the debris break free--but her triumphant shout is drowned by the low roar of the rings beginning to move again. A split second before they do, she hears Erik's yell across the comm.

Diana still isn't ready.

The sudden motion of the rings propels an asteroid roughly the same size as her in her direction. It isn't moving very fast, but the lack of real gravity makes her move too slow. The rock slams into her, sending her flying into the side of the station and bouncing back off again. Diana gasps, disoriented as she begins to spin away from the station's shaft, magboots too far from the metal surface to take hold.]

it's all part of the same mission

[magneticfields]

[ He doesn't see her get hit. He doesn't hear it, either, due to the dead silence of space. He doesn't feel any strange vibrations due to the entire structure shuddering as it whirs to life.

He sees the shadow cross the hull. He looks up in time to see her slam into the hull before bouncing off and spinning into the void.

There is no time. At the speed she's moving, she's already too far away from the station for him to just pull her back. He doesn't push off from the station physically. He repels himself from the hull in her general direction. Soon enough he's able to find the faint tug of her magboots and use them to pull himself to her. He doesn't bother saying anything. He just grips her around the waist with one arm and extends the other toward the station.

It's so far he has to reach for it. He can just barely grasp the outer edges of the station's fields and start tugging them back. Slowly at first, and then with increasing velocity. ]

Hold on.

aight

[monomachy]

[Amazons in general are very resistant to blunt force trauma, a gift of their divine heritage--Diana is even more so than most of her kin. She's had buildings topple atop her and thrown herself bodily into metal vehicles. But being thrown into the side of a space station in zero gravity is a little different. She has no opportunity to right herself, no chance to work herself out of her daze before she's more or less catapulted into the void.

Fear is not an emotion Diana handles well, and she does everything she can to shove it down. What she wouldn't give to have her Lasso now, or anything she could use to tow herself back to the ship. This is not the sort of danger she'd imagined she'd ever face in her life, but blearily, she watches the hulking metal structure begin to shrink as she drifts further from it with each passing moment.

Her head clears, barely, in time to see another figure zooming towards her. She wonders if this person had been as careless as she, and feels nothing but regret for a brief moment. But the closer he gets to her, the more certain she becomes that this has been done on purpose. Astonishment does not begin to cover what she feels. The outstretched arms are enough to make her head want to spin again, and on instinct she reaches towards them--at first, she isn't sure if she does it to reach back, or to indicate he should turn back if he can. The dangers of becoming lost in space had been explained to her thoroughly, and she would not wish the fate upon anyone on the station.

One arm loops around her waist and her astonishment becomes disbelief. She sees clearly now who it is: Henryk, a man she's only just met, who is now somehow, magically, pulling the two of them back towards the station.

Despite her bewilderment, she does hold on, wrapping her arms around his neck and struggling to find words. They seem to be moving towards the station faster every second, and she can see now that his "jet pack" is not turned on. It must be some kind of magic, though none she has ever seen.

Something makes her certain that they will reach the station in one piece, and though it takes a few moment, she finally speaks, still a little breathless from whirling through space for even just a short time:]

That was borderline insane. [A beat.] But very brave. Thank you.

[magneticfields]

[ It's better that Diana doesn't try to say anything. Erik's abilities are all about physics. The weight of the objects he's manipulating, how much they respond to magnetic fields, what way they respond to them. Gravity, air pressure, water pressure, even wind and current come into play. He is so accustomed to operating under such conditions that he's able to rapidly calculate exactly what force he needs to apply and where and in what direction to make things do what he wants them to do.

But in the vacuum of space everything is different. Mostly it just means that he has to exert much, much less of his abilities than he usually does. But also there are huge bands of electromagnetic radiation spanning across everything. Which he can compensate for, but are distracting, distractions he does not need when they are hurtling toward the hull at a rapidly accelerating pace. ]

What?

[ She said words, but they didn't register. He reverses the polarity of the force he's exerting on the station, slowing their approach enough that they can just coast in the rest of the way. ]

You took a nasty hit. Did it rupture your suit at all? If you're losing air we need to get you inside immediately.

[monomachy]

[She can tell he isn't really paying attention to her, and she wonders if it's because he really is concentrating on some kind of magic spell. So she holds her tongue until he speaks again, not wanting to interrupt him. When she starts to answer his question, her brows raise and she glances down at herself.]

I don't think so. At least, I can still breathe just fine.

[She can't help but smile with a bit of cockiness.]

And it wasn't so bad. Barely a tickle.

[Diana sounds as if she really means it, too.]

[magneticfields]

[ Her cheery response does little to alleviate his concerns. ]

You could have tears too small to notice. Lack of oxygen can cause euphoria.

[ He glances at the rings, spinning without much trouble. ]

We should probably get inside. If you pass out from hypoxia, you could end up in the same situation.

[ He hardly went through all that to just let her float off again.]

[monomachy]

[He may be right, but Diana can't help but roll her eyes slightly. She's a god, after all. What kind of immortal would she be if she couldn't handle a little lack of oxygen?

Still, she doesn't argue with him, making a gesture towards the airlock. The rings are moving, so there isn't much reason for them to stay out here any longer.]

If you insist. But I think I can walk there, unless you want to carry me the whole way.

[It's said with a hint of dryness; not that she isn't thankful he rescued her, but Diana is not a woman used to being hauled around like a sack of grain.]

[magneticfields]

[ Erik's never hauled a sack of grain, but he probably wouldn't princess carry it if he did.

He also makes no move to put her down, the memory of her spinning out into space a little too fresh to easily let go just yet. ]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should have to.

[ He does loosen his grip slightly, at least. ]

[monomachy]

[A petulant answer wells up on her tongue, but she keeps it to herself. At least he isn't holding her so tightly, which makes this a little easier to bear. Whoever heard of an Amazon being carried to safety when she wasn't injured?

Instead of letting her pride get the best of her, she swallows it and keeps her arms right where they are: gently around his neck, steadying herself.]

Do you have a lot of experience saving people from the void?

[She doesn't think he does, but she asks anyway. Maybe she's a little petulant.]

[magneticfields]

[ They're close enough to the airlock that his pulse has finally slowed and he helps her to her feet. ]

Ah, no. This is my first time in space.

[ Not to mention the fact that he very rarely uses his abilities for saving anybody. Unless it means killing somebody else in the process. He waits until the airlock has pressurized enough that he can turn off the comm before speaking again. ]

Nobody knows I can do that.

[monomachy]

[Once she's on her feet, Diana actually makes a mental check of herself to be sure she isn't injured. Disorientation mixed with adrenaline is a dangerous conversation, even for her. But she's in one piece, and she flashes him a smile.]

Mine too.

[She'd never even dreamed of going to space. The stars had only occurred to her as waymarkers, or in the context of the legends her mother had told her. Being among them is nearly beyond belief.

Once the airlock is settled she removes her helmet as well, and pulls her long fishtail braid over her shoulder. She cocks an eyebrow at Erik.]

I'm glad you can.

[magneticfields]

[ He lets out a soft laugh and nods, because yes this has proven very beneficial to her in this moment. And he's still jittery and euphoric from adrenaline and being in space, something he's not quite fully internalized yet. But she hasn't seen what his powers are really capable of.

The kind of destruction he can wreak. ]

I would prefer it if you kept this information to yourself. It's not... safe.

[monomachy]

[For a brief moment, she considers his request. Diana is not one to keep secrets--it is against everything she'd been taught on Themyscira. Then again, her people had kept the secret of her father from her for over five thousand years. And since leaving the island, she's found herself tangled in more secrets than she can count.

The moment of consideration passes, and she nods.]

I will hold it close to my heart.