( 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

[veristitalian]

Jasnah is there to watch him react to nothing and hit the ground. By this point, she's already been shoved hard once or twice during her searches for the disembodied voices, so the sight isn't too surprising. She moves over, cautiously, and bends to couch near him.

"Are you all right?"

People have been lucky not to end up hurt in the fall. She doesn't think there are healers on board.

[neuralnet]

Haruto has already had his share of injuries, if the stitches on his forehead are any indication. When the woman calls out to him, he blinks up at her, then realises what he must look like. He pushes himself up, shaking his head.

"I thought I saw..."

[veristitalian]

Saw? That's new. Everyone else has just reported hearing things. Jasnah shelves her assumptions, as she arrives at his side.

"What did the place show you?"

[neuralnet]

He remains focused on the ceiling, the walls, only sparing a glance towards the woman now at his side.

"There was an explosion... The ceiling caved in, and there were sparks. I fell..." He looks down at himself then, as if just now realizing he's sitting on the ground.

"But... Now everything's back to normal. Like it never happened."

[veristitalian]

"You saw that just now?"

She asks, glancing around, though she doesn't really need to ask. Obviously nothing is destroyed around them. But that's more advanced than the screaming. What are they hearing, what are they seeing?

"How long did the sight last?"

[neuralnet]

"Only a few moments." Long enough to send him tumbling to the ground. He feels sort of silly down here, though, so he stands up, hand reaching out to steady himself on the wall.

"That shouldn't have happened." He supposes his eyes can be fooled as much as anyone's, but his mind should be sharper. Harder to play tricks on. So either that really did happen, and time just reversed itself, or something is wrong with his brain.

[veristitalian]

Third option, which Jasnah lands on just because it's been happening so much;

"For some reason this place is showing us things." And, because it makes a difference... "You're sure you both saw the ceiling change, and heard the noise?"

Seeing things is rare, hearing things is common enough, both at once is actually quite rare, in her studies of lunacy. Roshar's collective knowledge on the subject is backwards, but they have a few useful insights.

[neuralnet]

"I'm sure. It was so real..."

He'd like to believe he didn't just imagine it. He can't think of why he would create a vision like what he saw.

[veristitalian]

"The place is showing us things."

She determines, glancing around.

"If not the place, then something in it. I think you're not the first one here who's been show a vision."

[neuralnet]

"But it shouldn't have..." He lets himself trail off. Better not to give any impression that he's any different from the average human abductee here.

He shakes his head, casts that doubt away.

"I'm not sure what it means."

[veristitalian]

"Tell me again what you saw. Which panel, which light, which part of the wall?"

Looking specifically around the space above him, in case there's some clue here, some hint in the destruction they can chase.

[neuralnet]

Haruto nods, distantly registering the reasoning behind her line of inquiry. With some effort, he pushes himself to his feet, dusting off his hands on the pant legs of his jumpsuit before reaching to indicate the specific areas he'd seen come crashing down.

"Here, and here. There was damage all over, but these two were nearest to me."

[veristitalian]

She gets up close, looking at the place he's indicating. It doesn't seem like there's anything on the wall to show even the distant memory of what he's describing.

"I have no idea what any of this could be."

Which is a singular experience. Usually she has a hint, a clue, but she can't even muster a suspicion.

[neuralnet]

"Neither do I." It had been shocking, when the corridor had exploded, but even more puzzling when it had reverted to normal. Haruto scratches his head, befuddled.

"I don't think it was a hallucination." For a few reasons, not least of which was that it was pretty much physically impossible for him to hallucinate.

[veristitalian]

"Why?"

Asks Jasnah, who isn't the sort of person who takes people's word for it. She doesn't happen to think so either, but wants to see if he shares her reasoning.

"What do you think it was?"

[neuralnet]

What he doesn't say is that he has reviewed his internal recordings of the past minute, and is able to prove that he really did see the corridor blast apart. He doesn't say that, because he doesn't want to reveal that he has the capability of playing back what he's seen and heard.

"It just... felt real."

[veristitalian]

"The thing about going mad is that you usually can't tell."

She says- not cruelly, but perhaps a little more matter of factly than such a delicate and potentially upsetting statement.

[neuralnet]

Haruto is fairly certain it's impossible for him to 'go mad,' but he won't refute the woman's words. It's best for now if he continues to pretend to be a normal human being, with normal susceptibility to insanity.

"Maybe."

[veristitalian]

"But it's unlikely."

She does readily admit.

"I've got someone I've got to meet- will you be all right from here?"

[neuralnet]

He smiles, nodding.

"I'll be fine. You can go meet... whoever it is you were on your way to meet."

[veristitalian]

"Be careful."

She agrees, which is as close as Jasnah gets to 'good luck.' She lifts herself back up, and goes.