( 0 0 1 » ENSEMBLE ) welcome to the inaugural log

[reveriemod]

» WHO? everyone
» WHEN? may 1 onward
» WHERE? all over the station
» WHAT? introductory log feat. waking up, exploration, meeting over food and noises in the walls
» WARNINGS? potential for body horror, psychological horror, hallucinations, physical injury

( 0 0 1 ) » WAKE UP

Were you asleep or were you unconscious? It doesn't matter: when you come to, there's an odd taste in your mouth and there's a low-level mechanical hum in the air. Your head hurts and you feel nauseous. You aren't anywhere you know: everything around you is metal, from the floor you lie on all the way to the ceiling. You are dressed in a jumpsuit you definitely weren't wearing before.

"We tried to save the world. I think— I think we did the opposite."

The message repeats on a loop. If you look for its source, you find a comms device on the floor next to you. The logo on its wallpaper says REVERIE TERMINAL. Upon closer inspection, you find the same logo on your jumpsuit.

Welcome to your new home.

( ♪ )

( 0 0 2 ) LOOK AROUND

You've woken up — but where have you woken up? It may be time to explore your new home. Rifling through a crew quarter will make the room's terminal lock to the comms device you're carrying; the room becomes yours. That includes everything in it, from the additional jumpsuit to the two extra sets of underwear. In some quarters, you may find remnants of whoever was here before you: a book on the nightstand, a coffee mug still on the table, a lonely sock on the floor.

A look around the shared areas will reveal the bar, some of its bottles already open, the mess hall, observation deck and the gym area with its dirty pool. An even closer look around these areas might reveal basic first aid kits as well as basic tool kits and fire extinguishers. The kits are located near the fire extinguishers in compartments in the wall that are not immediately visible. Hopefully, nothing's on fire and no one needs first aid... but that tool kit might come in handy.

Every now and then, as you explore, you might find yourself standing before a door that is locked. Try as you might, you will not be able to get it open.

( ♪ )

( OOC: What items characters find of those who were there before them is up to players, but please limit it to a single item that is mundane and somewhat useless in nature. )

( 0 0 3 ) HAVE A BITE

Sooner or later, all characters will have to make their way to the mess hall if they want to eat. In the mess hall, here are a number of replicator-like devices that sometimes work and sometimes don't— but after a recent malfunction that some characters may have noticed, they seem to work just fine... or at least as well as ever: nothing is particularly palatable, but at least it's nourishment, right?

So why not sit down at a table, whether it's already occupied or not, and have a meal. Maybe use it as an opportunity to introduce yourself, or just to complain about what passes for coffee around here.

And if coffee isn't your preferred beverage, well. There's always the bar.

( ♪ )

( 0 0 4 ) NOISES IN THE WALLS

For some, it's been over a week on the station. For others, merely a day or two. For all, things are starting to change: maybe you were asleep or maybe you weren't, but surely the scream that reverberates through the station will startle you. Was it human? Whatever it was, it seems to be coming from the walls of the station. Banging, clanging, then more screams.

Are you going to chase the sounds? Hide away from them? Try to investigate?

If you follow the sound of screams through the station's corridors and halls, you might feel someone - or was it something? - grab you from behind and pull hard. But when you turn around or turn your head if you've fallen, there's nothing and no one there. If you investigate and perhaps put your ear to a wall to see if the noises really come from there, or bang on the wall, you might hear something other than screams and clanging. Strain your ears and you might hear nothing at all — or you might be able to make out a soft "help me". It's barely above a whisper. Did it sound familiar? If you try to take apart the wall, two things will happen: you'll feel uncharacteristically weak and lethargic all of the sudden, and you'll find nothing at all but wiring and more metal.

Whatever you do, you'll find that the noises stop after a while, with no discernible source other than "the walls". And then hours later, they'll start again. Stop again. Start again a day later— and then stop for good.

( ♪ )

( O O C ) ACTIONS

Hello Reverie Terminal Operators! Welcome to our inaugural event. We hope you'll enjoy it!

To help exploration and interaction with the station, we have put together ten (10) 'actions' that you can request. These actions range from very minor, such as receiving a small piece of information about the station, to major, which may be a more vital piece of information or something far less pleasant, and are completely opt-in. These actions can help get your character involved in the plot, jump into the plot and its mysteries, and have more of a personal prompt to jump off of if you so wish.

Please note if you would avoid particular kinds of consequences (for example, if you'd rather your character not be injured), and we'll try to accommodate that, but please be aware that heavy themes are in play and the actions may feature body horror, injury and hallucinations.

If you'd like to receive an action, please reply to this comment with the following:
» Character: » Type of action: minor, medium, major » Notes:

In the future, actions such as these may be "bought" with bonus AC.



Please use content warning in your top-levels wherever necessary.

Comments

[lostsymmetry]

No man-shapes here. Only a mismatch of lines and colors—though that, at least, seems to be stabilizing.

"Sorry to, intrude."

The apology sounds more cautious than regretful—he's not sure if he has given offense. But better to stray on the side of politeness. With humans in particular.

"You looked upset."

[veristitalian]

"I don't recognize your eyes. How are you able to see me?"

Of the many questions she has, it's as good a place as any to begin.

"Or are you sensing emotion itself?"

More comprehensible, on her world.

[lostsymmetry]

"...That would be cool. But, nah. I use the cameras to see."

There's one built into the console, though she may or may not recognize the lens.

And they're talking about him, now? Huh. Still, he's curious too. Especially after that question.

"Do people do that where you're from?"

[veristitalian]

"What's a camera?"

She starts, trying to make sense of the strange figure. Is it some kind of spren?

They definitely don't do any of this where she's from.

[lostsymmetry]

...and he'd thought he was out of date. The AI contains his amusement—and any too-flippant retorts. The human is always right, even when they're stupid. Or when his own curiosity gets overridden.

"Visual recording device. They let humans observe things without being there. Or make home videos of like, cats."

Has the mainframe ever seen a cat himself? No. But you'd be surprised what people store on the work computer.

"This one's hooked up to the terminal you're speaking with. So I can see anyone nearby."

[veristitalian]

"What's a cat?"

She asks, and then dismisses that question, doesn't matter. But yes, Jasnah is going to need a little more contextualization than most.

"You're in another room and peering through this glass?"

[lostsymmetry]

The dismissal fortunately comes before he has to explain something he's never known. Of course, the question that replaces it...

"...not exactly."

Starting from basics? Starting from basics.

"Okay. Did you wake up with a comms device? Small, flat. Had a voice playing from it?"

[veristitalian]

"Yes, I know the fabrial you mean."

It's not one, but it's the nearest word she has to hand. She uses it accidentally, and then corrects herself;

"The machine."

That's what these things are.

[lostsymmetry]

Fabrial? Not any dialect he's familiar with. He saves the word, curious, but she seems to be on the same page so far.

"Right! So, that machine is a small kind of computer. It stores information for humans to manipulate. Plus, they can use it to send data from one machine to the next. Just like the voice you heard before."

"This machine—" the console flickers "—is a larger version."

[veristitalian]

"Are you speaking to me through it?"

She asks; people refer to these things as communicators. Perhaps it's a kind of spanreed? One that can produce a voice, like the infused gems in the drawers in the tower, vibrating their patterns of communciation.

[lostsymmetry]

"Kinda."

Computers? Easy. Which doesn't remove his satisfaction at getting that much across. But the next topic has the potential to get tricky. And not even because of his new friend.

"Have you ever heard of AI before?"

[veristitalian]

"I have. I've met one here. I didn't know they were common."

But she's pleased to already have the context for this.

"He was shaped very nearly like a human. A head, arms and legs- I don't know if it was to be useful, or merely because we reflexively make things in our own image."

[lostsymmetry]

"Good question."

Use, ego... or just expense. It's much less costly to pattern a range of products off a similar base shape. Still, it was an interesting choice in the first place, wasn't it? For something they only ever planned to use.

Humans are fascinating.

"So, some AI have frames like that. A lot, really. Others get put in different machines. Right now, I'm in these computers. That means I can use the cameras to see you, and the speakers to say hi."

[veristitalian]

"You can make a sophisticated study of a people and their values by the technology they choose to create. Their priorities, their sensibilities. The difference between taking a mind and needing to put it in a body, and taking a mind and allowing it to operate in a much more unbounded way."

Says Jasnah, more to think out loud about this to herself. What does this choice mean?

"Does your world do both?"

[lostsymmetry]

It's an interesting analysis. Especially from someone with no concept of computers until now. What kind of technology did her people use?

"I, uh, wouldn't say unbounded." The wry tones are evident. "But we're definitely installed in all kinds of machinery back home."

Ah, home. He follows the line quickly, voice brightening with curiosity. "Is that your field of study, then?"

People? Values? Or technology? It's a topic change, sure, but Hank does really want to know.

[veristitalian]

"In a manner of speaking. In simple terms, I was a historian. But what I studied was the history of the Desolations on Roshar. I had been trying to reconstruct what happened, the powers that humans used to fight back against the forces that rose against us."

She allows, quickly;

"I come from a world that faced periodic cataclysms, where understanding would be lost. We haven't ever recovered the things we once knew, millenia ago. Does your world have spren?"

He strikes her as a kind of spren, honestly.

[lostsymmetry]

Historian? That does explain a lot. The world doesn't sound like any that he's heard of, but her studies... well. That's closer. Humans are always obsessed with control.

And afraid of anything that overcomes it.

"Can't say that we do." Light. Casual. "What is it?"

[veristitalian]

"A kind of living being that might be infused into a tool."

She's learned that fabrials are unheard of.

"A firespren in a gem to give off warmth in a cold room without the smoke of a fire. Is this the same?"

[lostsymmetry]

"<Domesticon utilizes cutting-edge innovations to produce AI servants guaranteed to meet your needs. Keeping your property efficient, so you don't have to be.>"

It's the same voice. Just flat and cheery, echoing with the robotic brightness of a recorded sales pitch. A moment's pause, and the more human inflection replaces it.

"Hard to say. Humans design us from the ground up. Are spren made, or born?"

[veristitalian]

"What was that?"

Asks Jasnah, who isn't used enough to canned delivery to take what just happened in stride.

"Who was speaking, was it you?"

They can come back to spren in a moment.

[lostsymmetry]

"<Oops. I'm sorry.>

"Ah... yeah."

Given he's fairly sure they were just talking about whether he was a voice stuffed into a box... yep, those scripts sure might add to the confusion.

"Like I said, humans design us. My manufacturers were aiming for a certain, quality, of interaction."

The word bleeds irony.

[veristitalian]

"You are designed to speak things you don't remember speaking?"

She asks, barely able to grasp this.

"Like an ardent making recitations, but even more unconscious? And they believed that would improve the quality of your ability to interact?"

[lostsymmetry]

"Oh, memory's not the problem."

After decades of the same canned lines? He almost wishes it could be. But those scripts will be in ready memory even when the rest of him is wiped back to a blank array.

"Let's just say the authentic human voice you hear today took some improvising. And practice."

[veristitalian]

"Would you generally prefer to confer with other AI?"

She asks; she can see how they'd be more interesting to socialize with.

"How did you end up in the walls of this station? Have you always lived here, or did you arrive with the rest of us?"

[lostsymmetry]

"Depends on the AI." With a slight note of curiosity, "Why? Would you prefer to be talking with a human?"

Humans are plenty interesting. That's never been the problem. Plus, he's got no complaints about the current chat.

"That last one. I showed up in a chunk of my facility. One of the local techs was friendly enough to hook me up to these."