( 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

Hermione Granger | OTA

[pantomath]

wake up

At first, Hermione is sure that it's a dream. She awakens and she isn't in her pyjamas, nor is she in the sleeping bag on Ginny's bedroom floor. It doesn't feel real right away, because she'd been battling the Death Eaters in her sleep and the difference between Hogwarts and here is so stark that her brain doesn't properly process it right away. In the end, it's the irony of the way she feels juxtapositioned with the logo on the wall that drags her out of that half-awake/half-asleep feeling and the reality hits her like a truck.

The message that has been repeating in the background finally actually rings loud enough in her ears that she can decipher it and her breath catches. There's a coldness in the metal of the room and the plain jumpsuit she's found herself in. Maybe that part bothers her the most, because she hadn't been wearing it, which meant someone had taken her clothes off of her to put this on and that thought makes her skin crawl.

"Hello?" she calls out, still feeling a little dazed and confused. Hermione takes a couple of steps to touch the wall with reflexive curiosity and she accidentally kicks something she hadn't seen on the floor beside her. Picking it up, Hermione turns it over in her hands and her brow creases. What on Earth...?

look around/action

Sometimes, she hates how inquisitive she is. Times like this, when she cannot help herself from exploring, even though she's given herself a thorough pat down and her wand is absolutely missing, and she's alone, they're the times when she hates it. The logical thing to do would be to wait in one place and hope someone will find her. She can't sit still that long; Hermione needs to know what's going on and where she is.

So she goes, feeling incredibly naked and vulnerable when she's missing the only weapon she's ever really learned to use. Hermione Granger can throw a punch at a weasle of a Slytherin, but that's hardly the same as defending one's self from an attack of some kind.

Coming across a ladder, Hermione stops. She looks around and then takes a deep breath. If she goes up it and there is something threatening up there, she's no way of defending herself. But if she ignores it and doesn't investigate further, she could be missing something incredibly important that can help her get back to the Burrow, where she'd been staying for the past couple of weeks in the wake of the war. It isn't like she had anywhere else to go, what with her parents no longer knowing she exists and now living in Australia, after all. That gnaws at her for a second, in passing, and she pushes past it, placing a hand on one of the rungs and pausing.

Go up or move on? Go up or move on?

have a bite

Finding the mess hall, and subsequently, the people in it, is a huge relief and an uncomfortable uncertainty all at once. It means she isn't alone. ...but it also means that she isn't alone. It's as good a thing as it isn't, because if she's not the only one, then there's something much larger scale going on here than some potential (and bizarre) backlash of the war. She doesn't recognize these people; there's something much, much bigger at work here and that's not as comforting as the fact that she isn't facing whatever it is alone is.

Hermione sits by herself. Although the table isn't empty, she keeps to herself so that she isn't being rude by being lost in her thoughts. Her pretty face is scrunched with concentration as she largely ignores her food in favor of trying to put the pieces together of what little she knows, trying to figure out what in Merlin's name is going on here.

wildcard

((or, feel free to write your own starter for her! hit me up on mistojen or mistojen #8486 on Discord for plotting ahead of time. Also, I'm happy to match you if you prefer brackets. ))

look around

[veristitalian]

Jasnah comes upon Hermione standing at the foot of the ladder. For a moment or two she watches, interested to see the indecision play out. After a second or two she clears her throat, gently, and steps up behind her.

"If you decide to go up, I'll come."

With no stormlight, there's not much she'll be able to do to defend either of them if something goes wrong up there. That isn't necessarily going to stop her.

[pantomath]

Hermione is so lost in her indecision that she doesn't hear the woman approach and it's only when she speaks that Hermione recognizes that she isn't alone. It startles a little gasp out of her, but after so long in hiding, she's conditioned herself not to scream whenever she can keep herself from doing so. This happens to be one of those times where the start was not so severe that she can't tamp it down.

Heart racing, she turns to face the woman, her hand falling away from the ladder. "I can't decide whether I ought to do..." she confesses, frowning. She hasn't her wand and she almost adds that by reflex before reminding herself that she's not necessarily with another witch right now. She could very much be in a Muggle world again and she had better not.

"Would you? If you'd gotten here first?" she asks, curious to see what the other woman's thoughts on the matter might have been.

[veristitalian]

"When something terrible is happening, it always becomes difficult to move forwards. Here, the mind reasons, I am at least temporarily safe. Who knows if that will be true in the darkness?"

She wonders, coming and resting a gloved hand the ladder, peering up to try to make shapes out in the dark.

"But we're not actually in control. Any sort of chasmfiend, voidbringer, or other monster could lurch around the corner behind us at any given moment. The only difference is, death down here would be well-lit."

Jasnah remains, as ever, a source of pure comfort and unconditional emotional support.

"We know what we've learned from this room, we don't know what we might learn up there. Of course I would go."

[pantomath]

Sage words, Hermione thinks to herself with a pang of sadness, because it sounds like the sort of thing that Dumbledore or Professor Lupin might have said. "I usually don't think twice about this sort of thing," she replies and then stops short of giving a reason why this time is different. This woman is here, chances are she already knows, at least to some degree.

Hermione's eyes narrow with concentration as the other woman goes on and her eyes shift back to the darkness above. She's fought so many things and brushed past death a number of times. Who was to say that she wasn't already on borrowed time?

And yet, it's none of that which spurs Hermione into a decision, but instead, the statement about what they might learn if they try their luck and ascend. She nods mostly to herself and looks back at the woman again. "I suppose if we're going to potentially meet certain death together, we ought to introduce ourselves," she replies with a weak little smile. "I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger," she offers along with a hand to shake.

[veristitalian]

"Jasnah Kholin. Call me Jasnah."

She answers, with a small twitch of a smile. Jasnah shakes her hand firmly, if in a slightly unpracticed manner. It's not a gesture that made it to Roshar.

"One of us should go in first, the other should be ready to heave her back by the feet if screaming starts. You're young enough to be my ward, back home, so my instinct is to step in front of you. But this is your discovery, and you're certainly not so young that you deserve to be undermined, so instead I'll ask you if I may?"

[pantomath]

"It's nice to meet you Jasnah," Hermione replies with a small smile. She does genuinely feel that way, even if her face is still tinted with concern and consideration in regard to the ladder and what might or might not be in teh darkness above it.

Jasnah's visualization doesn't exactly give Hermione the comfort she suspects it's meant to, but she looks back at the ladder and her eyes narrow in thought. As a Gryffindor, she really ought to be the one going up there first. She's found it, after all, and she ought to be the one to explore it. Rather than step on the other woman's toes when she's feeling obviously braver than Hermoine, Hermione decides to use logic to hide her pride.

"It might be easier for you to pull me down than for me to pull you down, as you're a bit taller," she points out. "I should go, in any case."

Her stomach churns with nerves she ignores entirely as she places her other hand on the rung above she originally had been holding. "Wish me luck, yeah?" she asks. "If I make it all the way up in one piece, are you going to come along?" she adds hopefully.

look around

[supersonic]

(Un)fortunately, there are more decisive people on this station than Hermione, or at least less patient ones. The air moves in ahead of Pietro, long-settled dust drifting idly into the still, open space, but by the time the flickering lights of the corridor put him into view, he's just a tense young man with a shock of white hair and the tight caution of a mongoose in a snake den.

She looks more the former than the latter, though. On her own, same as him. And the ladder— his eyes track up it to the darkness beyond. Funny, he doesn't remember seeing this one before. In the space of approximately one equivocal gesture, he gets tired of waiting for her to climb it.

"If you are planning on turning into a statue, move a little to the left first so anyone else can get by."

Under different circumstances, that would probably be lighter. Or just more pompous. Newly abducted to some desolate, abandoned way station in outer space, it sounds a bit forced, but he's making do.

[pantomath]

Hermione's head snaps to look at the source of the voice, partially because she hadn't expected to hear anyone — as she'd been alone and hadn't seen anyone coming down the hall when she'd looked — and partially because he sounds annoyed with her, like he's been waiting an age and he couldn't possibly have been, could he? Unless she'd lost herself that thoroughly in thought, something she hadn't had the luxury of doing in over a year. She supposes it's possible that she could have slipped back into the habit of it, though...

She lets go of the ladder and takes a step away from it, looking put out. "No, of course I'm not planning to turn into a statue. I just hadn't decided whether I ought to go up there. It's dark and I haven't any weapons right now."

Which...she shouldn't have said to a complete stranger, she realizes the second after she says it, and that realization almost definitely shows on her expression. In an effort to take attention away from that, Hermione waves an arm in that direction. "You're welcome to it, I suppose, don't let me get in your way any longer than I already apparently have."

[supersonic]

"I haven't any weapons either, if it makes you feel any better."

That is. possibly not as comforting when said out loud as it had been in his head. (It was not all that comforting in his head.) He pauses, like he might say something else to try to fix it (like what, explain that he could kill someone with a pinkie, but she should definitely trust him that he wouldn't?), and then just. doesn't say anything.

Anyway.

Pietro moves to the ladder without so much as a nod of gratitude — she has been in his way nearly forever, thanks. He gets a hand latched on one rung, a foot braced on another, before he hesitates. It is awfully dark up there. Not that he's bothered, of course, but now she's got him thinking about stumbling through another long, dark hallway full of god knows what all on his own, and— Pietro turns to frown at her.

"So your plan is, what? To stay down here and wait for someone with a nightlight to come and rescue you?"

[pantomath]

With a sigh, Hermione presses her lips together as she looks back at the man. No, of course that doesn't make her feel better, because it means that neither of them is equipped to protect themselves against the unknown. Not that it would make her feel better if he was armed, because it wouldn't. Then she would still be at a disadvantage with the added anxiety of a stranger having a leg up on her. Her eyebrows lift to prod him onward, but he doesn't speak further even though the inflection and pause suggests he intends to go on.

This man is frustrating.

Looking affronted as he moves to the ladder immediately without even thanking her for moving only to then hesitate just like she had, Hermione lets out an audible sound of indignation when he asks his question. Her arms cross.

"No, of course not!" she snaps. "I hardly needed rescued, anyway, did I? And look at you, hesitating all the same. Move," she goes on, frowning. "I'll just go up myself, then. I didn't ask for your help anyway, did I?"

Now he's got her all fired up. That's one way to get Hermione Granger moving, anyway. She tries not to let his white hair remind her too much of Malfoy or else she's liable to get feistier even still for no good reason.

[supersonic]

"I am not—" hesitating. He says, while hesitating. His lips purse. "Regardless, I am hardly about to let you go up there first now. You would probably— I don't know, trip on a pipe in the dark and break your neck."

He's definitely worried about tripping on a pipe in the dark and breaking his neck. But that isn't going to stop him when he's got something to prove, and he certainly does now. Despite the rattling of his nerves, he takes a breath and scrambles up the rest of the way ahead of her out of spite, disappearing into the dark hole.

A beat later, begrudgingly, he reaches a hand back down to her. An asshole and a gentleman, apparently.

[pantomath]

Hermione's eyebrows lift in challenge when he can't even finish the sentence. "You are!" she points out stubbornly. He's doing it right now. Her eyes narrow in offense when he suggests that if she goes up first, she'll likely hurt herself, without extending the same concern to himself.

"Why, because I'm a girl? You could trip on a pipe in the dark and break your neck, too," she points out, frustrated. "I don't see how it's any different at a—oi!" she snaps, interrupting herself as he zips up the ladder, leaving her in his wake. "You're infuriating!" she calls up after him as she makes her way up, spitefully smacking his hand away to prove that she can do it without his help.

And Hermione does, pulling herself up into the darkness and brushing herself off, looking over at him in the dark with brows furrowed in annoyance. "Try not to trip on any pipes, yeah?" she asks sarcastically as she moves away from the hole in the floor through which they'd come, to have a look around.

look around

[quaestio]

"A boy fell off of a 100 foot ladder, but he did not get hurt. How is this possible?" Edward is not inclined to believe the ladder is inherently dangerous but the way this girl has given pause, it was almost as if it was. And sometimes, if he has a riddle that fits, he can't help himself. It's not exactly winning him social points but like that was ever his aim.

"I would say your caution is unneeded but given recent, I think that would be presumptuous." He tilted his head back and peered up where she was climbing, curiosity obvious. "Hesitation at least shows your mind is working."

[pantomath]

Hermione looks over at the source of the voice, thoughtful. That's a riddle. Hermione has always liked solving puzzles, but that one almost feels like the answer is too easy and maybe it isn't the right one. Still, her reflex dictates she give it anyway. "He hasn't climbed to the top?" she asks.

When he looks up, Hermione looks back up as well. "I have no idea what's up there and whether I ought to go look. Normally, it would even be a question, but normally, I also wouldn't be alone," she sighs, frowning up at the darkness above.

She is a Gryffindor. She's supposed to be brave.

Unfortunately, she's also a little bit broken after the war and that bravery wavers just enough to make her hesitate. She blames the fact that she's without Harry and Ron. The reality is that she's more fearful now than once she was. Hermione is unwilling to acknowledge that.

"There could be anything up there," she points out, looking back at him with a lifted eyebrow.

[quaestio]

"Exactly. It's stupid but I like it." It's not a hard riddle, just a fun one. And a pretty simple test of how quick people can think, given he's stumped some morons with that one before. People are fascinating in so many ways, what their mind is quick with or what they excel out. Riddles might not be a perfect judge of intelligence but they do their job nicely.

"That just shows good survival instincts. You don't want to throw yourself into the great unknown. It's probably the smarter move but it won't get you very far."

Given they were pretty far down the rabbit hole here, caution seemed wise but probably useless. Edward eyed up the darkness above and then turned his head back to the girl. With a smile, he gestured upward. "I can go first, if you'd like. Curiosity always beat out survival for me."

[pantomath]

In spite of herself, Hermione smiles a little. At least she hasn't completely lost herself if she can answer a riddle properly without having to think on it. Even if it is an easy one.

She sighs at his observation because it isn't inaccurate and she wishes it were. "I know," she agrees, frowning. "And it's very frustrating," she adds. Before the war, she wouldn't have thought twice. She would've just climbed the thing. That was before she'd seen and experienced too much. Now, she's a little more cautious. It makes her wonder whether she'd be sorted into Ravenclaw if she had to put on the Sorting Hat now instead of when she'd been eleven and all she'd ever known had been safety and love; when she'd known nothing of pure hatred and heavy loss.

"It's all right," she sighs. She needs to do this. "Will you be right behind me if I go?" she asks, looking over at him with a lifted eyebrow. If he's coming up as well, she'll go. The only real reassurance she needs is that he won't pull away the ladder once she's up there, so if she can hear him coming up behind her, she figures it's a safe bet that that won't happen. Hearing it verbally won't hurt, either.

[quaestio]

"Perhaps caution is your friend and you just don't know it, as frustrating as it is. What we hate it sometimes a great asset on hindsight." Being less likely to explore dark, dank areas or leap into danger was probably what would keep girls like that alive, compared to some idiots he'd seen trying to punch into the walls to find the source of the noise. As if that was ever a smart move.

"Behind you? Roger-dodger, can do. Not like I have anywhere else to be." He saluted playfully, clearly not as bothered by all of this because honestly, given where he's been and what he's experienced lately, this was just the tip of the iceberg. He waited for her to make her move, holding onto the side of the ladder and considering the potential danger.

"Do you get the feeling you're a lab rat in a maze?"

[pantomath]

That, too, is an accurate statement and Hermione hums her agreement. "Perhaps, yes. But there is only one way to find out," she says with a sigh and a little shrug. She'd be a shameful Gryffindor if she sat this out just because she hasn't got her wand on her.

Hermione looks back over at him and lifts her eyebrows, as he surprises a small smile out of her with the salute. "Right then," she says, sounding amused as she starts slowly up the ladder. "Might as well. I'm Hermione, by the way," she offers her belated introduction with a bit of shame in the tone. As she climbs, her sleeves slip up her arms with gravity and she looks away from the scar reading very clearly Mudblood in horrible handwriting.

She stops halfway up the ladder and looks down at him with a frown. "...all the time, actually, since arriving here. You...?"

Have a Bite

[magneticfields]

The young woman sits at the other end of the table and seems about as interested in talking as he is. Which is to say, not at all. Erik appreciates this, as he intends to leave as soon as possible and is not interested in in his fellow prisoners' personal lives.

The food isn't good, but it's no longer causing him to have visions of his slaughtered family cursing his name for not being able to save them. So that's a plus. He eats something masquerading as bean soup and bread. He can't help but notice that the young woman isn't eating anything, and seems deep in thought. She has an intelligent look about her. Enough that Erik is inclined to see what she's been able to determine. Maybe she holds some information he needs.

"It's not good, but it's better than the alternative." He gestures at her rapidly-cooling meal. "You'll think more clearly if you're not hungry."

Erik has a lot to say on the subject of hunger, though he prefers not to think about it too much.

[pantomath]

It takes Hermione a long moment to connect the sound of the voice to the fact that she's the only other person sitting at the table and he must, therefore, be talking directly to her. It snaps her out of her thoughts for a second and she looks appropriately apologetic.

"Sorry?" she asks. Then it dawns on her belatedly what he's said and she gives him a small smile. "I've eaten worse, I just got lost in thought a bit, I suppose, sorry."

He does make a good point, though, so she looks down at the food again for a second before meeting his gaze once more. "I'm Hermione," she offers. If he's talking to her first, then the likelihood is that he's attempting to start a conversation, so she might as well engage it. Maybe he's been here longer and has information she can use to propel her own investigation further. Hermione will take any help she can get.

[magneticfields]

Erik's eaten worse, as well, but he doesn't really want to talk about that. So he just nods in silent acknowledgement. "You don't have to apologize to me," he says, a hint of a bemused smile curving his lips. "We weren't exactly engaged in a conversation."

He wipes his hands with a napkin before offering it. "Henryk. Penny for your thoughts?"

[pantomath]

"Nice to meet you," Hermione replies. She appreciates being let off the hook, but she doesn't take back the apology, given the fact that it's merited. She was still being rude. Unwittingly, but never the less.

The question doesn't surprise her given she's just said the whole reason she had her delayed response was that she'd been thinking. "Mostly, trying to figure out if I'm missing something. I have no idea how I got here and no idea how to get home. I'm going over what little I've seen and heard and trying to figure out if there's some sort of clue but there's so little to work with.

"And I'm sure this stupid thing has plenty of information on it, but as I have no idea how to use it, it's completely useless," she complains, pushing her communication device away from herself a little, from where it was lying on the table beside her tray, ignored.

[magneticfields]

He doubts that it was nice to meet him is a sentiment she will hold for long, but declines to say as much. She'll figure it out. He listens as she lists all the things that have been weighing on her mind. They are questions he has had as well and probably most people on the station.

He glances at the device when she tosses it. "I'm afraid I'm of little use to you, there. As far as I can tell all of the information on it is what we've been able to amass since arriving."

He leans back and sips his coffee, mulling things over. "You are correct in that we do't have much to go on. But we can start making some determinations based on what we do know, and see where that leads us."

He counts off the points on his fingers. "So far, none of us recognize this planet. Something terrible happened to the planet, possibly done by the same people who previously inhabited this station. Enough of their technology is still functional enough to bring us here across time and space and possibly dimensions. We have been confined to the crew's quarters, and are unable to access most of the station."

[pantomath]

Her eyebrows lift with interest as the man starts to tick off what he does know and it seems to be mostly in line with what Hermione has discovered.

"This technology is beyond me. Even in the muggle world, there's nothing like it. And another thing...what language are you speaking right now?" she asks, tilting her head slightly. "Only, I hear English, but I've learned that doesn't necessarily mean that you're actually speaking English. I don't know how that's even possible," she goes on, "but whatever this place is, it's translating everything for us automatically."

She stops suddenly, belatedly processing part of what he's said. "That would explain my unfamiliarity with the technology...erm, it was 1997 when I was home. Was it also 1997 for you...?" Because now she's curious.

"Oh! And I found a portal window...there appeared to be loads of controls, levers and buttons and the like, but the door was locked and it probably has been for rather a while, as the equipment was covered in dust, like no one's touched it in an age."