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

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

» 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:

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

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She's alert the moment his balance is interrupted, eyes darting from his face to the area just behind him for some attacker, and when he reaches for her, grabs onto her, 2B puts her hand on Ryuji's wrist, fingers locking down tight in a grip that would be impossible to break if someone where to try to rip him away from her. She draws him in closer with that hand and reaches for his shoulder with the other, pulling him in protectively-

And really it could be like some sort of Disney princess rescue, if it weren't for the setting and the disapproving look she gives him after she's looked behind him and made very sure-]

There's nothing there.

[He's still pretty spooked about it, even with 2B's vice grip on him in a way that would probably rip his arm off should an equally opposing force be tugging on him from the other direction. Thankful, still, he doesn't complain, tangled up in the very real threat that something beyond the normal levels of cognition are going on here.

Give Futaba all the shit he could in the world, her scanning abilities were superb. Maybe she'd pick something up that they couldn't see.]

I'm tellin' ya, something pulled me towards it!

[And he looks over at her, eyebrows furrowing.]

You don't believe in ghosts, do you?

There's nothing there now.

[It's just a small change in her wording, but that should help in some way, she thinks. She's not picking up a single trace of evidence to the contrary... at the moment. She's witnessed for herself that Ryuji isn't the most coordinated, but it did appear that he had been moved suddenly.]

I've never come across anything that might be considered a ghost, but I'm willing to be open to believing new things lately. Do you really think that was what it was?

[He's not really sure what he has to do to convince her to believe that it absolutely wasn't him jerking around like a rag doll for a hot minute, and he just stares on her with a level of incredulity matched only by his penchant for weird shit happening to him.]

UH. YEAH? THAT THING JUST ATTACKED ME, MAN.

[What thing?

It's all in your head, Ryuji.]

I've seen some weird shit back home. Shadows taking on all these crazy forms, walls that aren't walls, paintings that come alive. You gotta believe there's more out there than just flesh and blood.

I do believe that.

[She's certainly not flesh and blood, after all, and the belief of an android is a whole other concept that they don't really have time to unpack right now, but she has feelings and those aren't entirely different from beliefs.

She's not that likely to start a cult like the machines did, at least.]

But I also choose to believe in what I can see, not in what isn't there. For now, you're safe. Would you like me to escort you back to your room?

[Oh man... getting escorted back to his room would, by any other sort of circumstance, certainly mean something very exciting and possibly out of the realm of Ryuji's cruise control, but honestly, the spooked-out-ness of the entire thing makes him compliant and grateful for the suggestion.

He can't agree with her though- there are something things that you can't see that definitely exist. That's how cognition works, but he also... doesn't have the debate skills for that.]

Yeah. You wouldn't mind?

I don't mind. I'd rather be sure you're safe.

[There's a pause, then, before 2B adds thoughtfully,]

I would offer to let you stay with me, but with Makoto and Haru already in the room I was assigned it would be too many people.

[And, you know, co-ed dorms!!! Scandalous.]

If you are still distressed I could stay in your room, though. Those two can take care of themselves for one night.

[Not that they can't all the time, but the existence of so many humans, especially young ones, is recreating the same sort of protective feelings she'd had for the machine and his little collection of boars and moose. She wants to be sure they're safe, so it makes perfect sense to her to turn everything into an escort mission.]

[Makoto and Haru's roommate?!

There's a little bit of rapid blinking that goes on. He knows if he enters that room that he'll be executed. Not even yelled at, not fussed over. Sheer, cold blood murder. That's something you have to ask politely for and have a very goddamn good reason to have happen. He smiles, sheepishly and laughs at her. Fuckin' awkward.]

Haru and Makoto wouldn't want me in there.

[Said with a level of familiarity indicative that they're already on a first name basis. He doesn't know if she understands how formal Japanese people are supposed to be or how deeply scandalous that was, in and of itself, so he elaborates:]

We're from the same place. Uh... my best friend and roommate Ren is, too. We're all a team.

[Looks over at 2B slightly inquisitively.]

That makes us a team too, right? I mean, if you're with them.

[Oh god.]

[Because she's never been rated important enough, 2B doesn't know what the exact position a YoRHa unit like her would fill once humans did make their triumphant return to Earth. She's a soldier first and foremost, made for fighting and killing, and once it's safe for humanity to come home she doesn't see a reason for her kind to be kept around.

Scanner units like 9S, they'll still be useful. But 2B?

She never really thought she'd get a chance to stand side by side with a human, be considered a part of their team, and when Ryuji makes the offer she isn't entirely convinced her audio processors are working properly.]

A team, with you?

[But she says it softly, and there's a tinge of emotion creeping into her voice. It's... not quite hope, but it's close, and she can't help smiling faintly. Behind her visor her eyes are soft as she looks at Ryuji and knows, beyond anything else, that she's ready and willing to give her life for him.]

I accept. And if we're to be a team, you should know that my partner is here as well. He answers to 9S and you can ask of him anything you would ask of me. No YoRHa unit will ever tell you no.

[Not as long as she's there to whip them into shape.]

Yeah, of course. You gotta help out the girls if you're stayin' with them, and they'll help you out too. That's teamwork.

[Get those notions of usefulness out of your head, 2B. There's absolutely nothing that states anywhere a person's sole purpose in life is the only purpose that they can serve. If that's the case, Ryuji should've been taken out back after he broke his leg and couldn't race track anymore... and been offed. Everything's a sliding scale, he believes it so deeply- identity is what you define it to be.]

9S? Another android, huh?

[That sounds really cool. He's excited to meet him one day.]

Well, then he can look after us boys since you got the girls covered. [And he laughs a little, albeit awkwardly, at that. Little did he know that 9S would come swinging with the GLORY and YES, SIRS that he definitely didn't deserve.]

I'll have the boys covered too. He isn't bad at fighting, but 9S is a Scanner unit, not a fighter.

[Which is essentially her way of saying she'll fight in Ryuji's honor, and by extension the honor of all the Phantom Thieves, and she makes this commitment like it's the easiest thing in the world to her precisely because it is.

After so long fighting for this chance, she's finally able to stand in front of a human and offer her protection directly to them, rather than fighting on a lonely, destroyed planet in the hopes of one day making them proud. Without hesitation, she reaches her hand out to Ryuji, palm up.]

Take my hand.

[No more ghosts can get all handsy, try to shove him around, as long as she's got a good grip on him.]

[Ryuji's still not sure how this Aasimovian conjecture is supposed to work. 2B's job is to protect a humanity that no longer existed in her world, and yet, here they were, with actual charges to take care of. If Ryuji understood that a little bit better, he'd probably take this seriously. The extinction of his entire species was at stake, possibly, somewhere down the line. Who's to say that these crossed timelines don't hold an infinite amount of possibilities that gave rise to one of the ones that 2B, 9S and A2 came from?

And yet, since he doesn't know the consequences, he reaches out to 2B, as he's told. He smiles, bright, and dumb and filled with all the light humanity has to offer.]

Take my whole life too~

[And on that day, it became a little dimmer.]

[Ryuji.

No.

It's worse because of her absolute faith in him and his kind, too, means she has no idea that he's making a joke here. She just curls her fingers around his hand, protective and very gentle for her, and frowns at him a little.]

That would defeat the purpose of protecting you, wouldn't it?

[Why are all his best references completely laid waste to on people who don't get them, or people who do get them but don't appreciate them the way that they insist on being appreciated!?

He looks down at their intertwined hands.

Gulps.

Okay, maybe it's for the best that she doesn't know

THE EXACT NEXT LINE

Because that's embarrassing, too. He played himself. Don't notice him blushing, okay?]

I'm kinda thinkin' it's the better option at this point, tee be H.

[WHO SAYS THE ACRONYM OUT LOUD??? GOD.]

[Sorry buddy, sempai always notices. He's just lucky that he gets the kind reaction and not the teasing that 9S might get in this situation.]

That's Two Bee, Ryuji. Not Tee Be H.

[Look at that, she can make a joke.

Yes it hurt, don't judge her. Still holding his hand, she starts to lead him down the hallway.

Back towards his bedroom.

rip.]

[Oh.

My god.

Ryuji just stares at her, completely unaware of what to say or what to do with the situation of his misinterpreted joke. It's... it's way, way too goddamn precious to correct. And also, she's kind of intimidating, still, so maybe he probably shouldn't? What is he supposed to do.]

You got it. 2B. My bad.

[And as he's guided carefully back to his room, he bites his tongue. It's easier this way.]

9S insists that people call him Nines, but there's nothing like that that goes with my designation.

[She's saying that because Tee Be H almost sounded like a nickname and no thank you, please pick something better if you've got to call her a pet name. If she notices his awkwardness she doesn't say anything about it, but her hand in his is soft and warm, not at all like someone might imagine an android to be, and she decides that she doesn't mind this, holding hands this way.]

Tube.

[Hell, it comes almost naturally.

They're near the door to his room, though (thank god, he doesn't know how much more of this intensity he can actually take)- and he turns to smile at 2B cheekily.]

Get it? Two-buh. So. Tube?

No?

Okay, it's not that great.

[It's a good thing that he dials it back, really, because he's a human and she's not really in a place to deny him all that much. If he wanted to call her Tube she might actually let him get away with it.

For like a day.

Because that was really bad.]

You did better than I expected anyone to be able to.

[Tube is, after all, a real word. Good job Ryuji. She looks back at him, though, despite the fact that her eyes are covered up by her visor, and returns his smile with one of her own. It's small, clearly not used that often, but it's not that difficult to smile in the face of a real, living human.]

Would you be willing to tell me about your life? Most of the data we have is- confusing, without context.

[Wait, Nines is a real word too!!! Like, getting dressed to the nines. It's a perfectly valid nickname. Just as valid as Tubes. And probably, Achoo, if he puts his mind to it somewhere down the road when thinking about giving a moniker to A2. Yeah, he'll just... tuck that one away for later. A2 is far more likely to go against it. The lady doth always seem to protest.]

So... you come from a future where there's not much of us around?

[It's pretty obvious that humanity fucked up somewhere along the way.]

Yeah, come on in. I'll answer whatever questions you got about us. Or... uh, me. If you're interested in knowin' about that shit, too.

Aliens came to earth and wiped most of you out. The ones who are left are living on a base on the moon until we androids can purge the Earth of the machines the aliens left behind.

[You know, because that's a normal thing to tell someone.]

As a YoRHa Battle unit, I've been on the front lines wiping them out and working to make Earth more hospitable. There are more animals now than there were before, so I'd hoped...

[That there would be a chance she'd see the first humans walk on Earth again herself, but there's little chance of that now.]

Oh.

[Well... there's that. Ryuji should be a little bit more exasperated, a little more incredulous- but he just doesn't know what to say. Aliens? Probably.]

Kinda thought that we'd be the ones to wipe ourselves out, actually.

[That's a little more deep than what's par for the course when it comes to him. The part though... about humans living on the moon. Is that even possible?]

So, uh...

You know there's no water on the moon, right? And like. No food either. How... [He realizes it's not a very smart question to ask, and stops himself from going further in reconnaissance into 2B's future world. Maybe they learned to terraform or something. Who knows how good science gets as times goes on?]

You'd hope?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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