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

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.

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.

"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."

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.

"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?"

"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.

"Sound reasoning."

Yes, she would be more capable of heaving the other young woman down, if this somehow goes terribly wrong.

"I'm an Alethi woman, we don't credit luck. But I wish you focus, and I'll be right behind you."

Literally, because she's coming part way up with her, so she can grab on in a hurry if she has to. She could probably get Hermione down the ladder without breaking both their necks.

Let it be known that Hermione is never afraid to use logic for her own purposes when she needs to and the opportunity presents itself. Her stomach is is churning with nerves, but the woman presses her gently forward not with the wish of luck Hermione might have preferred, just for her comfort with the familiar phrasing.

Hermione starts to climb, and she almost asks what Alethi is, but holds her tongue if only because she's been wished focus over luck and she'd hardly be focused on what's in front of her if she's asking questions about the woman coming up the ladder behind her.

It's pitch black at the top and Hermione's steps once she hoists herself the rest of the way into the darkness above are uncertain, but she steps away from the light beneath her feet to let Jasnah up, while looking for the little light on her jumpsuit in the absence of her wand to light the tip.

"All right, Jasnah?" she whispers when she thinks the other woman has made her way all the way up.

"I'm here."

She answers, and after a moment of rustling, produces another light in the dark, and then another. Jasnah has the flashlight on her shoulder, yes, but she also has something she can pull out of her pocket. It's a small bead of glass, about the size of a marble, and at the centre of it is a little chip of gemstone. The garnet in the sphere is infused with stormlight, and glows, softly, against her hand, washing part of the space around them with a rosy purple light emitting in all directions, rather than as a focused beam.

"Let's see what we've got."

Hermione is surprised by the purple light, but grateful for it all the same. "What is that?" she wonders before she can stop herself. Only, a second later, she notices the door in front of them. "Hang on..." she interrupts before Jasnah can answer, moving forward. There appears to be a small window on it.

She gestures for the other woman to cross the space with her, and when Hermione tries the door, it's locked. "Alohomora," she says firmly, hoping that maybe this will be the time she finally excels enough at wandless magic that she can make something happen. Unfortunately, when she tries the door again, it would appear that today is not going to be that day.

"It's locked..." she says, frowning slightly. "Look..."

Unfortunately, Jasnah really doesn't have the cultural background to understand what this might be. Consoles don't really read as consoles yet, so she can't piece together the story she's seeing. A locked door, a room with another window. On her own, the leap to 'potential control station' doesn't come.

She presses the sphere up against the glass, trying to get a better view in, before trying the handle herself. Nothing.

"It's stormlight. What is all that?"

"Storm light?" Hermione asks, looking over at her new companion with curiosity returning because she wouldn't be Hermione if she weren't nosy about that sort of thing.

Also unfortunately, as Hermione peers back through the glass with Jasnah, she doesn't know for certain what most of it is. It looks like it could be some sort of computer, but she's never used one. Her parents hadn't had one and they didn't even know what computers were in the wizarding world. She has some muggle movies as a reference and that's about it.

"I dunno...but it looks like it hasn't been used in rather a while, doesn't it?" she asks, frowning thoughtfully as she reflexively tries the door again, to no avail. "It's bloody locked. Suppose that's why it looks all dusty in there but why have a ladder in the hallway leading to a door we can't open which is filled with things that look like they've been neglected for an age?"

"Stormlight. It's-"

A beat of distraction, as she tries to lean closer, trying to glean anything from the bits they can see.

"-if you leave a gem out in a passing highstorm, it'll infuse with stormlight, which can then be used. For illumination, to soulcast, as a surge."

She doesn't know what she's going to do when she uses this one, or it goes done.

Hermione finally looks away from the equipment she hardly recognizes and over at the woman beside her as the other woman explains. It sounds like some form of magic with which Hermione is unfamiliar and her immediate gut response is to think how badly she wishes she could research it. There aren't any books here that she's found, yet, and even if there were, would they even include something from this woman's world if she isn't from wherever this space station originated? Probably not.

"That's brilliant..." she mutters thoughtfully. "How long does it last, then?" If she can't read up on the stone, then maybe she can get her research in another way. Might as well ask the source, shouldn't she?

"This sphere would let me cast a volume of liquid that could fit in my cupped hands. If I had a hundred like it, I could transport myself to another place. If I drew the stormlight in it could heal a bad cut."

She estimates, but very precisly; Jasnah has made this a serious study.

"In two weeks that glow cast will have faded, and all that potential would be halved, and in four the light will be gone entirely. You don't have any of this on your world?"

All of that sounds fascinating to Hermione, but she shakes her head when asked whether there's anything like that in her world. "I dunno. If there is, I haven't come across it yet. I can do all of those things with different spells," she admits.

Immediately, her face goes red because she shouldn't have said that, it's against Wizarding Law to talk to Muggles about magic. She thinks the only loophole are parents of Muggleborns like herself. Maybe, though, this is also a loophole, considering Jasnah sounds as though she has magic, too, only it's different than Hermione's own.

"But I don't think we have anything like your stone, no. Are you a witch, then?" she wonders aloud.

"I'm a Knight Radiant. We don't have witches."

Drawing back; she can't get in there, she can't waste stormlight breaking in.

"I can believe you not knowing there were Radiants returning, but there would be stormlight. That would be widely known. What's a witch, on your world?"

"I don't know what that is..." Hermione admits, feeling a bit foolish even if she has no reason to. She's never liked admitting when she doesn't know something. Mostly because she doesn't like it when she doesn't know something to begin with, never mind other people realizing that she doesn't. This place is going to be rather a challenge for her in that regard alone, she's fast realizing.

Wetting her lips, Hermione looks into the room through the portal window again, frowning as she tries to figure out what the equipment back there must be. It's not too important, she assumes, since it's clearly dusty. But then, actually, maybe it's been locked away for so long because it is important. Her brow creases with frustration.

"We can do magic," she replies absently. "Only...I haven't my wand, so I can't." The latter bit sounds as annoyed as she feels about it.

"A wand is the source of the power?"

She asks, imagining it working something like gemstones, a resource that can be used up- she doesn't really have a frame of reference for it.

"Let's see if there's anything else on this level."

Hermione hums slightly at that with uncertainty. "Not really," she replies. "Mostly, it's the conduit. Some people can do wandless magic, I'm just not very good at it myself," she admits almost begrudgingly. As per usual, she's not super comfortable with her own shortcomings.

Clearing her throat, Hermione nods. "There's bound to be something. If nothing else, maybe we can figure out how to open the door. It's locked for a reason and I want to know what that reason is, I don't know about you."

"Very badly. I don't know enough about how this station functions to be able to make guesses about why that door would even be locked. Some people have suggested it should have been a research base?"

If that's the case that could easily be some kind of delicate study.

"We don't have travel to space. We don't have almost any of this. It's all- a very different paradigm, everything runs on Stormlight, nothing on electricity."

"The whole station, you mean?" Hermione asks for clarification, her expression very much interested. She hasn't had a chance to hear any rumors, yet, so this is news to her and it's a lot more encouraging than anything she could have dreamed up on her own.

"I saw levers and buttons in there...I wonder if it's some sort of control room for something," she thinks aloud, looking over at the other woman with question in her eyes, wondering whether that sounds like something that might fit as far as Jasnah is concerned. The equipment might be out of Hermione's familiarity, but that doesn't mean it might not do the same thing that buttons and levers do at home.

Chewing her bottom lip, Hermione pauses. "We've the ability to travel to space, but it's limited to the government organizations of countries that wish to do so. It's nothing like this, to my knowledge. I'm used to things not running on electricity from the wizarding world, but I wasn't born into that world, so where I grew up, we had electricity. Only, most of this technology is very different than what my mum and dad had at home..."

"A control room."

She echoes, and flags it mentally. Jasnah is going to need to find writing materials, and work up a map.

"You don't have pen and ink, or anything the like, do you?"

Hermione strikes already as a woman who would know.

Frowning, Hermione shakes her head. She used to carry that sort of thing with her all the time, but she also always had her wand with her and that isn't with her either, however much she might want it to be. "No, unfortunately. But I think that's brilliant. Documenting where we go and what we see, I mean. Like a notated map of sorts," she replies. Then she sighs, because...again. They haven't anything to write on or with. Jasnah wouldn't be asking if she already had what they needed.

And while this suggestion isn't exactly ideal, Hermione offers it up anyway. "One of us could stay and the other could go get paper and a pen..." she says, chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully.

"I haven't even been able to find paper on board."

She admits; it isn't just here that she's worried about, it's anywhere.

"If you've discovered supplies you should go get them. I can stay by the door."

It doesn't feel too dangerous to her. Odd, maybe, but still utterly abandoned.

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