( 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

action

[oorah]

[ he sees her trying to sew herself up and comes to help - he's no doctor but he's done it enough times on himself. but when he sits down across from her, both his hands are bandaged. looks like she's not to only one going around damaging themselves here. frank doesn't say anything, just gestures for her to hand him the needle. ]

[oddbod]

[Clara almost doesn't relinquish it. She's stubborn, and she hates little more than being shown up by some man, but then she looks back down at her arm.

Okay, yeah, he can do it.

The cut is about four inches long, covering the middle half of her inner forearm, and from first glance it's strange. There's no redness, no swelling. It's like someone cut open paper, and there just happens to be a flesh and veins and tendons beneath it. There is blood, but it's stationary, waiting to spill only if she tilts her arm.]

Think I'll live, doc?

[Dry, a little too cavalier considering the circumstances.]

[oorah]

[ it is weird, especially for how this spot usually bleeds. but he doesn't need to think about it, he just needs to focus on the task at hand. he waits patiently for her to deem him competent, but only gives her an eyebrow raise for the question. ]

You clean this already? [ the wound. he pulls a lighter out of his pocket to sterilize the needle, heating it up while he waits for a reply. ]

[oddbod]

Yeah. Cleaned the razor first, too.

[At least with the very small amount of rubbing alcohol she could find. But at the moment, figuring out why it looked like there was a worm under her skin was more important than finding better equipment.]

[oorah]

[ the razor... she did this herself. frank meets her eyes in lieu of asking if she's ready, holding onto her arm with his worse off right hand while he carefully pushes the needle through after it's cooled enough and he's put the lighter back in his jumpsuit. he's not quite ambidextrous, but it's good enough for something as practiced as this, and he looks down into the wound now, wondering why she'd cut herself. unless- he looks up suddenly after getting two stitches behind them. she's a real trooper he's impressed okay. ]

What was it? [ for as gruff as his voice ever is, there's alarm mixed somewhere in there too. she cut something out. this place keeps getting better and better. ]

[oddbod]

[Her right hand reaches down into her pocket, and returns with the offender, dropping it on the table. It’s a metal wire, like something pulled from an electronic device, several inches in length. It’s specked with blood.]

This. I saw it wriggling about when I woke up.

[oorah]

When you say- [ wriggling okay then. he glances at the wire briefly before returning to his task. while they're sharing fucked up horror stories: ] A door tried to eat my friend. [ what a day they've had ]

[oddbod]

A door!

[She grabs onto that. While she's trying her best to be a trooper about the stitches, it's not exactly easy to tune out. The last time she had these, during her rugby days, there was anesthesia involved.]

What happened?

[oorah]

[ he shoots her an empathetic look, trying to go quickly. it's only another stitch or two, probably. ]

Yeah, a door. It turned to... liquid or something and trapped her inside. Nothin' we did worked, but then it happened again and I pulled her out.

[ frank swallows before leaning over her, tying off the wound once it's closed and cutting the thread on his teeth. ]

[oddbod]

[Her eyebrows go up. Well, she'll be a lot more careful around doors from now on.]

That was certainly lucky.

[Ooh. The last tug of the thread makes her wince a little, just a slight scrunch of her eyes. But then (blessedly) it's over, and she's lifting up her forearm to examine Frank's work.]

Thanks. [A pause. A slightly awkward shift of her eyes.] I'm Clara, by the way. Never covered that bit.

[oorah]

I would agree with you if it hadn't happened in the first place.

[ but he's glad karen is free and in mostly one piece. that's the important part, right? he nods at the thank you, gesturing with the needle. ] You mind if I borrow this, Clara? [ he pulls his lighter back out to re-sanitize the tip of it without waiting for the answer, tucking it away again and starting to unwind the bandages on his right hand. it's his turn for stitches, if the nasty gash across his palm is any indication. it's nowhere near as clean as hers is, though. and his skin is angry and red all around it. at least it's mostly stopped bleeding for the moment. ] Frank.

[ it's belated as he threads the needle anew and prepares to start the process over. ]

[oddbod]

Go right ahead.

[She watches as he works, chin propped on her free hand. The difference between their wounds a strange feeling in her stomach; his looks raw and messy and painful, and hers looks like clean paper. Like a mannequin sliced open for repair. Is this going to be the rest of her non-life, then? Noticing all the little ways she isn’t quite human anymore, and wondering how far it’ll go?]

You’re good at this.

[oorah]

[ he starts sewing himself up, glancing over at her as he pulls the thread up. ] Good at getting hurt, you mean. [ good at making it out the other side too, and as he leans over his arm to get a look at what he's doing, the mess of scarring on either side of his chest is visible as his jumpsuit gapes open a little. the one on the right is dark and long-healed, while the one over his heart looks rough and much fresher. visible too is a thin chain bisecting them both, one she might recognize as the lead for dogtags hidden under his clothing. ]

[oddbod]

[She watches with cool, calm interest, eyes flicking from his chest to his hands to his eyes.]

Soldier?

[There's no judgment in her question, no prying.]

[oorah]

[ his eyes flick up briefly before returning to his task. ] Once.

[oddbod]

[She nods, brief and polite. An "I'm sorry" almost passes her lips, but she withholds it.]

My boyfriend was a soldier. He was very sad, and very kind.

[oorah]

[ was. frank frowns, then nods. ] Sorry. [ more of a grunt than anything, but he is. sorry for her loss, as it were. all soldiers deserved mourning in frank's eyes, even the ones who had no one left to mourn them. of course, that doesn't extend to himself but he always was a hypocrite. ]

[oddbod]

'S alright. You don't need to be.

[She was just making conversation, if she's honest. Relating to the man who sewed up her arm.]

I'm a bit chatty, sorry. Mouth's got its own thing going.

[oorah]

[ he shrugs, if it bothered him he'd say something. ]

Sorry I'm not. Pretty boring really. [ he's making progress with his stitches at least, hoping clara isn't expecting anything from him in the way of conversation because that's usually the first thing he fucks up at. better not to say anything at all. ]

[oddbod]

You're not. No one is.

[She leans in over the table, eyes bright and interested.]

There's nothing boring about being alive. Not if you know where to look.

[oorah]

[ frank shrinks back, if only in expression, discomfited by her sudden interest. ]

No, guess there isn't. [ at least, it had always worked out that way for him. but he doesn't seem like the opening up to a stranger type - if only she knew. ] Your arm feel okay?

[oddbod]

Yeah. Barely hurts.

[Another funny thing about having your biological processes looped - nothing quite feels the same.]

Your hand?

[oorah]

That's... good.

[ disturbing actually, remembering the way her wound looked. at least it probably can't get infected, right? whatever, frank is done thinking about things he doesn't understand, he would never stop in this place. he leans down to cut the thread with his teeth the way he'd done with hers and shrugs a shoulder - good as new. ]

Hurts like a son of a bitch. [ he smiles, just a shadowy acknowledgment more than anything. then he hands her the thread back, pulling out the lighter to disinfect the needle one last time before giving that back too. ]

You should take those out in a week or two, depending how quick it heals. Let me know if you need help.

[oddbod]

[She gives him a little thumbs up and a positively charming smile.]

Sure thing, doc.

[oorah]

[ frank emits a little grunt of acknowledgment. definitely not a doctor, but he knows a few things. he thinks of donny then you were in the marines, you must know field medicine. and then of curtis. he swallows, clearing his gaze and steeling himself for the walk back to his cabin. without thinking that he maybe should give clara his contact info if she's going to tell him if she needs something... he flashes her a bland smile and an OK sign. if that's it he's gonna go okbye ]