( 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

[magneticfields]

[ She's coming in fast and picking up speed. Erik lifts both hands and reverses the polarity of the energy he's pushing into the void. Bits of debris that have higher concentrations of iron and other metals start to fly in different directions. If one saw him from above, perhaps from Daisy's angle, it might look like what happens when one sprinkles iron filings on a piece of paper and then holds a magnet underneath the paper. Striations of space rock and dust curving around him in rounded shapes.

He manages to slow her descent enough to prevent her from slamming into the hull. Once she's close enough, he leaps to catch her and pull her back down to the ephemeral safety of the hull. ]

How are you? Any nausea? If you vomit you'll have to change.

[morethan084]

[What the hell is happening right now? Daisy realizes, as she gets closer, that he's doing this somehow. Like he's some gigantic magnet. For a moment she thinks she's going to go flying into the hull with how fast she's going, but then she slows a significant amount, for which she's relieved.

Once she's back in the hull, Daisy's knees almost buckle under her but she manages to stay on her feet. Both because he's still holding her and she's also holding onto the wall.]

How did you do that?

[So much for answering his question. Daisy lifts her head up to look at him, and maybe he's prepared for someone to be downright terrified of him, but she isn't.]

[magneticfields]

Don't worry about that.

[ His mind races for some kind of explanation that isn't the truth. There is none. How could there be? ]

Not here.

[ He'll have to give her something. She's the type who will go digging for answers if he doesn't provide any. He barely knows her and that's obvious. ]

Let's go inside, this is pretty much done anyway.

[morethan084]

[As much as she wants to ask more questions she respects his wish to not talk about it here. If it's one thing she's learned is that not everyone who has powers accepts that they're a part of him.

The moment they're inside and away from some of the others though, he better expect more questions.]

Thanks for that.

[And it was more than just a thanks for saving her, it was also a thanks for risking outing himself like that.]

[magneticfields]

[ He doesn't just expect questions, he's resigned himself to them. He glances away and nods with a sigh. ]

I couldn't just... watch.

[ Not when he could do something to help. ]

I haven't told anybody about this. A few knew before. But we tend not to do well when the humans find out about us.

[morethan084]

[When he explains how humans don't react well to finding out about people like him, well, she can only jump to one conclusion. Making sure there was no one else in ear shot, Daisy still keeps her voice low just in case.]

Are you an Inhuman?

[magneticfields]

[ It's a simple yes or no question, and a very simple answer, but the tone of her voice and the way she waited until now to ask makes him pause. There's something deeper in this question for her. ]

I'm a mutant. I don't know what an Inhuman is.

[ Maybe he's coming at it from the wrong angle. Maybe they call them different things on different worlds. ]

[morethan084]

[Well apparently she's going to be just as confused as he is. A mutant?]

Inhuman. People with powers. Like the ones you clearly have.

[magneticfields]

[ He shakes his head, sticking to the word because it matters, dammit. ]

No, mutants. Because of the mutated X-Gene that is the source of our abilities. Scientific classification "homo superior".

[morethan084]

[X-Gene? That’s definietly not something she’s heard of before in any of the studies she’s read during her research on Inhumans. So he’s something else. Regardless...]

How are your powers working here?

[Because hers definietly weren’t.]

[magneticfields]

[ The question stymies him. ]

The same way they always do. The more responsive a material is to magnetism the more I can work with it.

[morethan084]

[So it's just hers. Why aren't hers working?]

Well mine aren't, and I don't know why. I don't see an inhibitor anywhere on me.

[She does have a gnarly scar right behind her ear though, from where Fitz had surgically removed it against her wishes.]

[magneticfields]

[ Erik frowns deeply. That is a perplexing problem. ]

I don't know what an inhibitor is.

[ The name seems self-explanatory, but he's never come across such a thing. The closest would be... ]

Is it possible you've been dosed with some sort of serum? That's something that's been developed on my Earth. I don't know why they would focus it on just you, though. What are your powers?

[morethan084]

I don't know, I guess anything here is possible. There's so much we don't know.

[Like how those weird metal worms got inside some of the people here. Daisy being one of them. It's been a long time since someone didn't actually know what she could do. Back home people knew exactly what she was capable of.]

I can manipulate the vibrations in everything. I could tear this place apart if I still had my power.

[magneticfields]

[ He rubs a hand over his hair. ]

So long as our only source of food is the replicators, they can dose us with whatever they want. If we could just get to the planet...

[ He trails off. The planet might as well be, well, another planet. And there's no guarantee that there are any resources they could use there, anyway.

Discussing her powers is more interesting. He ponders over her description a moment. ]

Do you mean on a molecular level? [ Astounding. ] The implications of that are staggering.

[morethan084]

We don't know how safe that planet is.

[She doesn't trust this place or the nearby areas. Especially because none of it was familiar to her.]

Yeah. I guess that's why it was shut off.

[He doesn't seem to be afraid of her though. Which was nice for a change. Or maybe he only felt that way because he knew her power wasn't working.]

[magneticfields]

We already know this station isn't safe. At worst it would be a lateral move.

[ He nods, concurring with her assessment. ]

Still. It's troubling that they have the ability. And you're handling it better than I would, in your place.

[ He looks at his hands. Who would he be without his abilities? He'd probably have died back at the camp. ]

[morethan084]

One issue at a time.

[Maybe he doesn't need the reminder, but the last thing they should be thinking about right now is working another major project so soon after just dealing with this one.]

It's not the first time I've had my power taken from me.

[magneticfields]

But we do have to plan ahead, don't we? That's how you strategize. With no clear goal in mind, we're just reacting to stimulus.

[ He frowns deeply. ]

I've known those who willingly gave up their powers through questionable means. But even they had the sense to keep such things out of the wrong hands. What an intolerable cruelty.

[morethan084]

I know, but give people time to recover from this first.

[She could stand here and explain the Kree to him, but she really didn't want to do that. As far as she knew they weren't involved with this. God, she hopes they aren't somehow connected to all of this.]

How did you do that anyway? Pull me back in like that.

[magneticfields]

[ He just gives her a doubtful look. They don't really have time to recover, and his mind is already mapping out moves six or seven steps ahead along several possible paths. It's just the logical course of action. The topic of how his own powers work is more interesting anyway. ]

I can manipulate magnetic fields. There is enough metal in the suits that I was able draw you in.

[ He smiles a little and gestures vaguely with his hand. ]

There's more to it, but that's the basic principle it all acts upon.

[morethan084]

[It doesn't sound that dissimilar to her own power, which has her wondering...]

So what's stopping you from breaking or bending the doors until we can get inside?

[She doesn't mean to sound so accusatory. She's more curious than not whether he's actually that powerful. He did just pull her back from a pretty major distance after all.]

[magneticfields]

[ He frowns and lifts his hands. ]

I don't know what they're made out of. But my powers only work on metal, and not all metal is affected the same way.

[ And certain very rare minerals but that's besides the point. ]

Certain metals, like aluminum or copper, have such a negligible response that it's rarely worth the effort to not simply manipulate them manually. And if the door is made of ceramic, plastic, glass, stone? It's even worse. With the right materials I can achieve nearly anything but with inert substances it's a waste of time.

[morethan084]

Or maybe they've done something to your powers too.

[If they can take her power away, what's to stop them from messing with someone else's? Daisy has never heard of it only working halfway, but it was a possibility.]

Unless this entire ship is made out of something that you are not capable of being able to manipulate, you could easily tear it apart.

[magneticfields]

[ He frowns. ]

My powers are fine. There's enough metal in the station that I could tear it to pieces if I wanted to. I haven't because I don't want to die. If there's ceramic or plastic or glass in the doors, there's nothing I can do to them.

[ He huffs. This is all so obvious. His powers are fine. ]