( 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

[solarcharged]

Apollo is used to a sentient ship, the kind of ship where he can just ask sweetly for doors to open and, hey presto, his wish is the Carrier's command (usually). But this is so far beyond what he's used to that he can only watch in pensive, expectant silence as the other man works his magic.

At the sound of the pressure equalising on the other side of the door, Apollo's expression transforms in to one of impressed delight.

"Normally I'm a 'brute force' kind of guy," He replies happily as the sirens blare. The other man is built like he knows how to punch something (mechanical or otherwise) in to submission and Apollo can relate to that. But what impresses him is the fact that this guy can clearly back up his firepower with brainpower too.

"But seeing as that didn't get me very far before... let's say hotwiring."

[tumang]

Not that much brainpower, honestly. If it's away from machines and some electronics, Amos is useless. Violence above all, because it is all that he knows. He's trying, though - even harder now than he was before, because Naomi isn't here to guide him. Help him. And Prax isn't, either, which feels like a different kind of loss.

"What if there are no vac suits in there?"

Amos asks as he pops the panel open - at least, they're still making that easy. He fingers through the wires, following their circuit and making a few deductions.

"There's a chance doing this will put everything on complete shutdown mode, by the way," he says, just as he pulls at a wire, taking it out of its fitting, the ends sparking once dying out. Then another, and he brushes them together, inwardly crossing his fingers...

The door lets out a whine, long and creaky, before disengaging the lock. "Bingo."

[solarcharged]

"Vac suits aren't a problem," Apollo assures the other man distractedly as he watches him work. It's a good thing that Amos doesn't mention the minor issue of a possible complete shutdown earlier; Apollo opens his mouth to protest but the shower of sparks shuts him up.

"Good work," He says approvingly as the lock pops noisily and he leans on the wheel. It spins freely, deceptively easily given how much work had gone in to opening it, and the heavy airlock door slowly gives way.

"So you're a mechanic, right? What's your name?"

[tumang]

Vac suits aren't a problem, the guy says, and Amos's spine immediately stiffen. The hell does that mean? The last creature he's seen in the vacuum of space without a suit was not good news.

But, again, he has to take stock. Maybe, under other circumstances, Amos would immediately go on the attack - but. The protomolecule hybrid had not made conversation. It had not looked anywhere near human, or coherent, apart from its one mission. The protomolecule needed a biomass, energy, tons of it. That was what Cortazar talked about - it wasn't intelligent, it was a set of instructions.

So. Amos wipes the back of his hand under his nose. "How are vac suits not a problem? You're planning to go outside, right?"

The door is still whining as it opens, punctuating the conversation.

"Amos. Mechanic, engineer, depends on who you ask."

[solarcharged]

Letting himself in to the airlock is easy now; artificial light floods the little chamber as Apollo steps in, feeling the temperature drop significantly as he leaves the station proper. He half-turns at Amos's question and throws him a glittering smile.

"Vac suits are only a problem if you need to breathe," Apollo replies easily, knowing with a faint flash of sympathy that it must sound absolutely mad to your every day human.

"And I'm Apollo, by the way," He adds as he turns his attention to the inside of the airlock now, searching out the control panel that will empty him out in to space once the access door is locked behind him again.

"They don't make this easy, do they? Which button do you think I need to press?"

[tumang]

Well, Amos could not disagree more with that.

"Huh, do you also not need to keep your core temperature from dropping? Do you not need thrusters and magboots?"

What the fuck was this guy made of? Obviously he wasn't protomolecule adjacent - even if the timelines were being played with, Amos couldn't quite believe that Mao, or anyone for that matter, would bother with making their hybrids that pretty, or well-spoken. He could be wrong, he could always be wrong, but that didn't seem likely.

So, instead, what?

"I should be able to let you out from this side," he replies at Apollo's question, turning back to the panel to close the airlock door again, tapping around to get back to the pressure gauges. "I'll depressurize, now."

[solarcharged]

"No, I guess I don't," Apollo replies mildly in response to Amos's questions. There are probably an awful lot of things he should have been worried about, that first time way back in the past when he threw himself in to the Bleed. But there's an element of act now, think later that Apollo has stuck to and it has served him well so far. Space doesn't hold any horrors for him, not when he spends hours upon hours basking in the sun's photosphere.

So instead he gives Amos a little wave goodbye and a sunny smile.

"Thanks for your help, Amos. I owe you a drink."

He pauses, nodding at the vast expanse of space on the other side of the external-airlock behind him.

"When I get back."

Because this isn't an escape. Apollo does plan on coming back.