( 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

look around

[warfares]

[ The Fitness Area offers a solid point of reference when it comes to figuring out just where everything is. The hallways of this place seeming to go on endlessly.

He's surprised to find the room in use.

Perhaps he shouldn't be, given that the station is far from the floating ghost ship he'd initially expected (which just begged the question, really, as to how they'd all been brought here, and to what purpose) but it's nonetheless a surprise — albeit a mostly welcome one — when he turns away from the pool and notices that he is no longer alone. ]

I'm not sure I'd risk the water just yet.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ She's been at the treadmill for a good twenty minutes by the time someone walks into the room, and she's only vaguely aware of him until he draws her attention with his voice. It's a very distinctive voice, the intonation not the sort she's used to hearing. For half a second, she considers attempting to continue with her 'workout' while engaging in conversation, but her already labored breathing foretells disastrous results should she try, so instead she slows the machine (the whole one speed she'd managed to advance) and then stops it completely, leaning her arms on the supports. ]

I'd probably call you crazy if you did, sugar. That's just gross. [ There's a hint of a smile with the breathy words. ]

[warfares]

Pity, really. [ His inflection never dips beyond mildly conversational, an unperturbed sort of calm that suggests that much of what he's encountering right now isn't entirely new to him.

Eventually he'll push to his feet, hands smoothing down the front of his jumpsuit, before looking back at her over his shoulder. ]

If we're going to have this much water in one place, we might as well be able to enjoy it.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ A pity is right. She used to love swimming, the feeling of moving through the water. It was always the easiest workout and one of the most exhausting, both of which would sure be nice right about now. ]

I agree. Hopefully others do too - looks like it'll take some doing to get it back in working order.

[ Stepping off the treadmill, she lifts one leg and then the other, fighting against the stiffness trying to settle into her muscles. She should have stretched more; she's not used to being this out of shape. ]

[warfares]

[ It'd been awhile since he'd spent time in the water — years, possibly. ]

If I could just find the pool filter—

[ There was the small matter of tools, of course. So far his investigation of the surrounding rooms hadn't turned much of interest beyond a few personal keepsakes (which begged the question just where had the previous denizens of the station disappeared to: the planet, perhaps? ) that meant nothing to him. ]

I apologize if I interrupted.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ With a polite shake of her head, she steps closer, peering down at the pool and wondering if it's more like the ones back on Earth, the way the treadmill had been, or if there's something different about the way it works due to being in space. Clearly she's out of her depth, but the need to feel useful is one she's never been able to shake. ]

It's alright. I didn't really want to admit to myself that I needed a break.

[warfares]

[ Admittedly, he's no expert in what would pass for Earth tech — he knows of Earth, vaguely, from stories told to him by his father — but in lieu of anything else to occupy his time, this has become his unofficial new project.

Fingers crossed he won't make it any worse than it already is. ]

I'm not sure I'd trust the water on this level yet, [ he continues, ] Not to drink, anyway.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Trying to fix it and succeeding are two very different things. It's broken now, so it's as good a project as any. She could use one herself, really. ]

There's a lot of potentially questionable things on the station. My room's just down the hall and the water seemed fine, but I didn't try drinking any. [ She's planning on a shower later though, so hopefully it's as fine as it seems. ]

[warfares]

The larger the ship, the more complicated the filtration systems tend to become; stations abide by a similar logic, though given we haven't dealt with any traffic, it's safe to assume that wherever we are currently it's remote.

[ He thinks of the Observation Deck, of the planet and its moons. The message that had first woken him had suggested some kind of scientific endeavour gone awry. ]

Which means this place is probably built to last. [ Which was a comfort, at least. ] And that we probably have everything we need somewhere on board.

You're staying on this floor?

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ That's a huge comfort. It seems like most everyone she's met has little to no experience with space stations or space in general, so knowing that this place probably won't be falling apart around them is really nice. ]

Yeah, I'm in 4.03. First room I poked my head into, but I'm not complaining.

[warfares]

[ For now, at least. There are still enough unanswered questions that it sits uneasily with him, beginning with how they were brought here and ending with just what was behind those locked doors. ]

Did your deviceㅡ [ he waves vaguely, expecting her to get the gist of what he means. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Rogue has plenty of questions too, but she's in far less of a hurry to search out the answers to them. Sure, she'd love to know what the hell's going on here, but whereas everyone else seems in such a hurry to leave the station... She's just fine where she is, thanks. ]

Did itㅡ What, connect to the room? Yeah, soon as I walked in.

[warfares]

Interesting, [ the function itself isn't wholly remarkable, but the fact that the device auto-synchronized with the room meant that in all likelihood the devices they had were new rather than previously owned — or had at the very least been wiped prior to their waking. ]

I'm in 4.08. [ Just down the hall, in that case. Does that make them neighbors? ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ He's analyzing the process, she can practically see the gears turning. What conclusions he might be drawing, though... She'd be interested to hear them. ]

Well, hey there, neighbor. Can I borrow a cup of sugar? [ She smiles slightly at her own joke, wondering if he'll understand it. ]

[warfares]

Sugar might be a stretch, [ there's a hint of wry amusement as he says it, though; the reference is easy enough to catch in this context, ] though I do have a book I can lend you if you find yourself in need of something to put you to sleep.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Her smile grows a fraction larger, both at his response and the subsequent offer. ] Did you find it in your room? I found one too, by Charles Dickens. [ It had been quite a surprise, and a huge comfort. She's always loved reading. ]

[warfares]

[ a nod: ] I don't recognize the nameㅡ [ his book or hers, for that matter.

Whoever Miguel de Cervantes was, he evidently had a lot to say on his chosen subject. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

Dickens is one of the most well-known authors on Earth, from about two hundred years ago in my time. A lot of his stories focused on social issues and helped to change things for the better.

[ She's always enjoyed his works, the few she'd read over the years anyway. Every Christmas, she'd taken her turn reading aloud for the kids left at the mansion, trying to make them all laugh with voices for the various characters in A Christmas Carol. Those days seem like a lifetime ago now. ]

[warfares]

Earth, [ he rolls the word over, tasting it; something about the name pricks at him even if it evades him for the moment. ]

There are many people from Earth, here. [ Presumably, by now he's done something resembling the rounds ㅡ or at least communicated with enough people to have a decent idea of what the spread is like. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

There are, though it seems like we're not all from the same Earth. And we're certainly not all from the same time. It's strange, how spread out we all are.

[ She can't begin to guess the reasoning for them all being here, let alone why them. Whatever brought them to the station could have just plucked an entire town out of some point in time and space, but instead they'd been pulled from all over. It doesn't make any sense. ]

[warfares]

Then perhaps it was always Earth that was the target and the rest of us are merely outliers.

[ It's far from a perfect solution, leaving too many questions in its wake. However, until their hosts make themselves known or someone can offer a better alternative it's the answer he chooses to accept as the truth. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

Well, on that cheery note...

[ It's not completely implausible, though she has to hope it's not the case here. Or if it is, hopefully they'll find an explanation for it soon and find a way to send all of these people home. As for her. Well. ]

I should probably get back to it. [ Said with a gesture back to the machine she'd been using. ]