( 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

terezi pyrope | ota

[iustitia]

( 0 0 1 ) » WAKE UP (Deck 3 Crew Quarters)

[Terezi wakes like a slug: slow, blind, and shell-less. She sort of just drools on the grimy floor in an undignified heap. A strange, unfamiliar repeating voice penetrates the hazy fog between waking and dreaming, There's a single, solitary blink as she sniffs her surroundings and realization finally kicks in.

This is not where she was before.

Not that there was a "where," really. Paradox space is an infinite, endless expanse of dumb bullshit and nothingness, made even worse by the fact that a good chunk of creation was still in the process of being sucked into a gigantic black hole. It would be very difficult to give her specific location at any time, let alone where she was last.

Fighting down the nausea that threatens to climb its way up her throat, she slowly pulls herself to her feet and wipes her face with the back of her hand. The jumpsuit is a new and decidedly un-delicious addition to her wardrobe, and she's very much not a fan of its implications.

Just how long has she been here?

She slaps the comms device onto her wrist, and starts teetering off to figure out just what the hell happened here.]

( 0 0 2 ) LOOK AROUND (Observation Deck)

[It's sometimes little difficult to pick up color through glass, though Terezi figured out the trick of it long ago. She gives the window a long, contemplative lick, smearing saliva against the surface, and then smacks her lips thoughtfully.

Yep.

That sure is space.

She'd remember the smell and taste of endless inky black any day of the week. After years and years and years of it, she's really quite tired of it! One of these days she'll find who she's looking for and be able to finally just... sort of rest. Relax. Get to enjoy the new universe she helped to make.

Sure sucks that's not today, though.]

Excuse me. Excuse me! Would you be so kind as to help out a poor, little blind girl?

[Terezi calls out to the nearest person, the razor sharp-toothed smile suggesting that she's anything but. She taps the one of the floor-to-ceiling windows with a candy orange claw.]

Someone please tell me I'm not stuck on an abandoned space station again.

( 0 0 4 ) NOISES IN THE WALLS

[Terezi is no stranger to voices in her head. As her session's Seer, she heard the commands of her exile much clearer than anyone else in the game, and she learned to pay attention to their directions.

But real talk? The voices on this station are spooky as shit.

Terezi is used to the background noise of her head being just a long, endless scream, but that's her existential despair, you know? She's the one mentally hollering into the void. It's very disconcerting when it's someone else doing the yelling.

She's not ready for the yank when it comes, and it sends her falling to the floor butt first. She lands with a painful thump, and she whips her head around accusatorily at the closest person.]

Hey! What gives?

( 0 0 4 . 1 )

[The voices won't stop.

It's getting annoying, and more than a little upsetting. They come and go, here one day and gone the next, and there doesn't seem to be a source. Terezi would almost think she was going crazy, but she knows other people have been hearing them.

She presses her ear against the wall and, just for a moment, doesn't breathe. The constant wash of smell and color fades with each moment she holds her breath, and she strains to listen to the ship.

help me

Terezi nods sagely to herself. Yep. This place is haunted as fuck.]

Hey, you got a wrench or something? I wanna try popping this panel open.

[Maybe she is going crazy. It almost sounded a little like Vriska.]

4.1

[neritic]

Look, if I had a wrench on my person I would have used it to take the walls apart hours ago. The disembodied whispering is driving me crazy.

(This point is moot, but Neptune does have something: a long, jagged piece of plexiglass. She'd been carrying it around loose and casual in one hand, keeping it lowered by her side. She didn't have any reason to use it, but it feels pretty good to have something. Just in case?? She has no idea what 'in case' constitutes.

Anyway. She offers it.)

You could try to jimmy it open.

[iustitia]

Well, it doesn't hurt to ask!

[Terezi gingerly takes the piece of plexiglass and curiously sniffs at it. The edges are a lot sharper than she expected. She better be careful not to slice her hand open on it.

She wedges a pointed, thinner edge into a small gap in the paneling and starts to lever it.]

You'd think that if they were really that desperate for attention, they'd try a little harder to be understood. Or heard, even! At least the screamers have the right idea.

[neritic]

(This is perfect because the mystery is abated with the removal of the panel, and Neptune doesn't have to do any of the work to get there.)

I don't care about the screaming. Screaming is bog-standard for scare tactics. Maybe everything would feel more high stakes if they were actually creative about it.

(Who knows.) Is it working?

[iustitia]

It's pretty basic stuff, I agree, but I don't want things to get worse, you know? Hallucinations and chucklevoodoos are very much not my cup of tea! I'm down with the hollering for now.

[It takes a bit of work, but the plexiglass finally slips under, wedging up the metal sheet.]

Yeah, it's - oof! - working. Can you hold this up while I try to get it in deeper?

4

[oculusriffs]

[what, he didn't do nothin. he just spotted a familiar face, and then, as he does, beelined right on over. just in time to witness what appears to have been ... Terezi taking herself out? somehow??]

Huh, not bad. Form was pretty good, but you definitely could have added an extra twirl or something there — it's not a proper fucking pirouette off the handle without a little pizzazz.

[does ... does she need help up. he'll probably offer it, if she's taking it.]

That would have earned you a bronze medal in the sports, at the very least.

[iustitia]

You're too kind. If I had to grade me, I wouldn't have even placed!

[She slaps her hand in his and takes that offer for help up. That fall stung a little. Once up, she makes a show of dusting herself off.]

That was just a standard splat. It's going to take a lot more than some back-to-basics BS to impress me. [Factually untrue. Terezi has hyena laughed at a man slipping on a banana peel before.]

What's up with you, coolkid? Heard any awful screaming lately?

[oculusriffs]

Yeah, I heard them. Figures we'd get trapped in another space station crammed to its air ducts in ghosts.

[hey, he even gets to be one this go-around. but Dave's not feeling particularly spooky — he's more looking her over curiously, thinking about questions he's not actually gonna ask. the last time he saw her, she was busy taking a clown to task. did she win? she looked like she was winning.]

Is that what you were doing just now? Getting haunted?

[iustitia]

Probably. I can't think of any other explanation for getting pulled to the ground by absolutely nothing. These ghosts are quite rude!

[The ghosts in the dream bubbles could be obnoxious as hell, but they usually behaved. At least none of them tried to pull any grade schoolfeeding nonsense like this on her before.]

Been a while, huh? I can't say I expected our reunion to be anything like this. I know I'm not looking forward to another who knows how many years of space station shenanigans.

2

[tumang]

[ What is it with the weird looking people on this fucking station? Why can't people look normal? This one looks like she bites, but also not like a killing machine pumped full of extra-solar goo.

So that's something. ]

Wouldn't call it abandoned anymore, exactly.

[ He shrugs. ]

But you're totally stuck, yep.

[iustitia]

Ha! You've got a point there.

[She pushes her glasses further up her nose and takes a discreet sniff at the new guy. Tall, human... probably an adult? It's weird being around so many of them around here. It's even that she's probably an adult by now too, come to think of it.

She sighs and puts her hands on her hips, shaking her head slowly.]

Not gonna lie, I'm getting really tired of this! I've spent way too much of my life in space. It'd be nice to have a change of scenery once in a while.

[tumang]

[ Not that he can tell that she's sniffing at him, but she might catch on some scent that's metal, oil, gunpowder. The mechanic, but lately, mainly the brute. ]

You'd rather be planet-side?

[ That doesn't compute, for him. Because the inner planets are the fucking worst. ]

[iustitia]

Well, yeah! Space is stressful and a whole lotta nothin'. It takes forever to get anywhere.

[There are just. So many bad associations with space and space stations at this point. Nearly dying to Jack Noir. Having to spend three years grappling with guilt and getting stuck in a submission hold to regret. Making out with Gamzee. (God, she's so glad she managed to retcon that shit out of existence.)

She just wants to find out what happened to Vriska and go home.]

Why, are you a fan?

4

[mapsio]

[The closest person around being Haru, except she just rounded the corner to find Terezi on the floor. So clearly she had nothing to do with the spill.]

Excuse me?

[She gives Terezi a look, approaching still.]

Are you okay? I rounded this corner when I heard a thump and you were on the ground.

[iustitia]

Nothing hurt but my pride.

[Terezi clambers to her feet, looking a little sheepish. It's clear that this person had nothing to do with her fall.]

Sorry about that! It felt like I got grabbed, and you were here and easy to blame.

[mapsio]

I, well— I guess it could have looked like that. But it really wasn't me.

[She will offer Terezi the help up if she needs it.]

What happened?

[iustitia]

I'm not sure! I was following the sound of some screaming down this hallway. I figured it was best to investigate, you know? Then someone yanked me to the ground. Or, at least, that's I think happened.

[Terezi nods in thanks for the hand up. It's always nice to have some help.]

Did you notice anyone else around? Any malicious pranksters making a quick getaway, perhaps?

2

[lssj]

[Kale's instinctual reaction, of course, is she absolutely has the time to help a lost blind girl because isn't they just the right thing to do? Even Terezi's appearance doesn't throw her off too much, considering she's used to all sorts. She may have never left her own planet, but the saiyans worked with a lot of different alien races out there. Unusual appearances are common.

It's just what she actually asks, well...]

...um. I'm sorry, but I don't know what to tell you then.

[She maaaaay have taken it too literally.]

[iustitia]

[Terezi sighs and shakes her head, making an exaggerated tsking noise. She can smell the syrupy shyness in every hesitation and apology.]

Lighten up, kiddo. We're trapped on a hunk of metal floating through the farthest reaches of unknown space, probably being haunted by what's probably the dead members of the previous crew! There's a lot more to worry about than a dumb joke told by a blind girl.

[lssj]

It was a...? Oh.

[RIGHT. JOKES.

She's not very good at this. Or maybe it wasn't funny. Maybe both? Either way she doesn't plan on doing anything with those thoughts except keeping them to herself.]

Well...sorry, but that's exactly where we are. I haven't found any way off the station yet either.

Even if there is anything like that, it'd probably just be broken too...

1

[hopefragment]

H-Hey. Hey!!

[It only feels like a couple minutes ago that Hajime woke up and found himself in a place that certainly doesn't feel like he'd imagine Hope's Peak to look like on the inside. The sight of a person is reassuring enough that not much else registers immediately.]

Hey! Where am I? Who're you?

[He sounds lost, confused, and more than a little angry, because what other emotion to you respond to unexpected events with?? He sure doesn't know.]

[iustitia]

Uh?

[It hasn't been too long since Terezi started wandering her way through the deck, and her head is still a little foggy from disorientation and the last lingering vestiges of sleep. She has to take a moment to register that she's the one being bombarded with questions, but once the synapses finish firing, it's like a light has been turned on in her head.

There's another person here. She doesn't know whether that's a good or bad thing, but at least she's not alone here.]

I'm Terezi Pyrope. Judging from the way you're bombarding me questions, am I right in guessing you just woke up here, too?

[hopefragment]

[That's not a Japanese name. Most of the staff of the academy were Japanese, weren't they? Not to mention now that he's taking a few cautious steps closer, she's decidedly, uh--

His brain skitters away from the thought that she's not human. It must be some kind of costume, or... something. He doesn't know what, or why, but that has to be it. Maybe she's sick? AND wearing a costume. With horns. Yeah.]

Y-yeah, that's right. I'm... supposed to be meeting with the, um, Hope's Peak Academy researchers. I'm Hajime Hinata. Are you... part of the Project?

[He sounds tense, uncertain, and a little angry.]

002

[givenofox]

[ It takes everything in Ren's power not to stare at Terezi's...everything.

As a beastkin, he's met some odd creatures. But gray and candy corn orange is definitely new. ]

...Again?

[iustitia]

[And Terezi sniff-stares in back in return! He looks human... but also kinda like an animal? She's met plenty of people online who like to do that kind of thing, but this seems more... legit.]

Well, yeah! [She puts on a look of mock surprise, and brings her hands to her mouth.] Don't tell me you've never been trapped in space before? It's all the rage nowadays.