pluviosamods: (Default)
Pluviosa Mods ([personal profile] pluviosamods) wrote in [community profile] pluviosa2024-02-14 09:13 pm
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GAME OPENING LOG

GAME OPENING
There's still dripping everywhere, and the gurgle of standing water shifting and draining to somewhere further down...

... But the sound of the rain outside has stopped. And you haven't heard the thunder in a while.

Take a moment. Look out the windows, the glass doors leading out to the balconies - the world beyond is lighting up. Mountains stand out against the distant eastern horizon, breaking up the first of the sunlight into scattered beams. The ship chases that light, running eastward towards the glow of dawn. Its motion is easier to bear now that the storm is over - the wind no longer tries to blow it off course.

You've survived the night - survived the storm. You get the feeling it won't be the last.


The storm abates over the course of the night - by midnight, it's dropped back enough that water and wind are no longer forcing their way through the bubble barriers, and by about an hour before sunrise - just when the sky is starting to get light - the rain has stopped completely. The clouds persist a bit longer, giving characters a spectacular sunrise to look at. When the first rays of the sun are visible over the mountains, any characters still affected by hallucinations feel their minds clear.

Fifteen minutes after dawn - about when it's getting to be a pain to look directly in the direction the ship is travelling because of the sun directly in the eyeballs - characters who are sensitive to electricity may sense the power kick back on. It's just in the wires and cables spread throughout the ship, however - the lights don't turn on, although the elevators do.

Five minutes after that, there's a crackle that is audible to all characters, from speakers spread throughout the hallways and rooms of the ship. Not every speaker is functional - some of them just continue to emit static instead of the message that follows - but enough of them are that every character will be able to hear a single piercing beep, followed by an artificial voice in an androgynous tenor:

"ALL PASSENGERS, PLEASE REPORT TO THE AFT LOUNGE ON DECK R-ZERO FOR A HEADCOUNT."

There's silence for a moment, and then another, quieter alert beep, and the same voice adds, almost as an afterthought,

"Please follow the emergency lighting in the hallways for guidance."

After that announcement, strips of lighting on the ceiling of the hallways - the lights are also on the floor, but even after the rain has washed so much dirt away, you're unlikely to see them anywhere except close enough to the stairs that you don't need them - light up. They begin to move in a pattern of diodes that leads characters to the staircases and elevators near the back of the ship, in the somewhat drier part of it that has more decks above the one where characters woke up.

The stairs are now navigable - even if there's still a decent amount of water flowing down them, not entirely contained by the channels cut into the outside of the turns of the staircase - and the elevators are now powered. Well, sort of. Although the elevators have power, the buttons inside do not - all of them are dark. Instead, the elevators automatically move characters upwards after they enter, depositing them on deck R0 for the indicated headcount.

Other than the increasingly large number of confused "passengers," however, there doesn't seem to be anything here. Some furniture in varying states of decay, sure, and puddles and debris from the storm's flooding, but no indication of humans or any other form of sapient life. The space is wide and open, and decently well-lit even with the overhead lights off, since the majority of the walls to either side appear to be made of glass.

AT THE CAFETERIA


Once everyone has assembled - or at least everyone who is willing to come, as nothing forces characters do follow instructions from a strange voice - there is another crackle of speaker feedback. At least there's no blaring alert tone to start this message.

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION."

The voice is the same as before - and anyone from a semi-modern world would be able to tell, from the pattern of speech, that this is a synthesized voice, not a real person, or at least not a real person willing to reveal themselves to be such. It speaks entirely in the language characters discovered knowing when they woke up here. The volume of the voice decreases somewhat after the initial announcement gets everyone's attention, but it is still audible to everyone.

"Please excuse the inadequate accommodations. Your arrival was unexpected. This ship has not entertained new passengers in 317 years, 6 months, and 19 days."

"We will do our best to prepare appropriate accommodations as quickly as possible. However, the immediate priority is to supply passengers with meals and other appropriate provisions. Please accept this with our sincerest apologies."

At the close of those words, the elevator doors to either side of the lounge area open, and self-propelled carts - the kind you might see in industrial kitchens - roll out. Their lower shelves are stacked with bowls, cups, and those plastic utensil holders filled with spoons, while the upper halves are full of food and drink. Specifically, the majority are full of cafeteria pans of oatmeal, the kind with the metal lids that keep the heat in. In addition to the oatmeal, there's a wide variety of raw fruits and vegetables, and some additional options for throwing in your oatmeal such as cinnamon, honey, both brown and white sugar, shaved almonds, and other things that can be made from plants and stored for a long time. There are also two carts at either end full of hot drinks - one of tea, one of coffee - and one each of cold drinks such as fruit juice. There do not appear to be any meat or dairy offerings, although there's both almond and soy milk for your coffee if you can tolerate the substitutes. (It tastes somewhat metallic, like it was dehydrated for a long time, but the coffee and tea themselves taste quite fresh.)

Once the carts have wheeled themselves out, the voice continues from the speakers.

"In order to better serve our passengers, we would like to ask you a few questions. First: What is your locale of origin? Second: Why have you come?"

OOC INFO


For OOC questions about this event, please use the OOC Questions header in the comments below. To respond to the Ship's questions, or ask it some of your own, please use the Talk to the Ship header. Otherwise, this post is a mingle, and players are encouraged to post their own top-level comments for their characters and reply to each other.

Following this post, simple food will be available in this area during "active" hours, starting from around dawn to two hours after sunset (the ship's days, at least at present, are about evenly divided). At night, the food carts roll away into one of the restaurants around the edges of this area. Instead, wheeled dumpsters with grabbing attachments collect up the old furniture and cram it into themselves, and starting the second night, 'new' furniture takes its place, mostly dining tables and chairs of various sizes.

Characters now have theoretically full access to the ship; however, the elevators are only mostly functional as debris is cleared from them. The rear elevators go all the way up the residential levels, but only as far down as deck 3. The front elevators only move between decks R0, 0, and 1.

More information on the schedule of shipwide upgrades will be available on the event plotting post in a few days. Until then - at least it's dry weather and smooth sailing for a while?
mamamias: Mario excited. (oh! ohh!!!!)

imagining abba but theyre all goombas or something (fondly)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-03-17 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Ooh!" Mario seems excited about the prospect of a piano. "Ooh, me too! Y'know what - we might even be able to find one! I've-a definitely seen one on a cruise ship before, surely there's one somewhere on here!! - mmmmaybe I'll have to fix it up, but..." He doesn't, exactly, sound perturbed by this. Like, he's not a piano technician, but that isn't deterring him at all. Not in concept, anyway.

He bounces along as Lucia Corina plucks, because, like, Waterloo is SUCH a catchy song, he can't blame her - can't blame him! He's humming along easy. It's so nice to bond with people! It's so nice that music can do this!

Oh, yeah - "Yes, yes, lots! I've-a been to see several myself!"
Edited (typo, wording, etc) 2024-03-18 17:37 (UTC)
luciacorina: (smile2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-19 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
Lucia Corina gives the mess of plants outside the windows a doubtful look. "You think it would still be in repairable condition? The ship said it had been centuries, and with all that water..." She'd love to play one, but instruments are generally made of things that suffer for the damp. "What are they made of?" Sorry, Mario, time for you to try and explain something again, oops.

"It must be really quite something, to have so many people together all in one place, for one purpose--and for that purpose to be music... Beautiful." She smiles at him, clearly a little enchanted by the idea. "I've played to no more than a few dozen."
mamamias: Mario caught by surprise, flailing. (ACK)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-03-19 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
"Well it might be a little..." And then Mario's enthusiasm fades as he processes what she says. Physical damage? Piano in pieces? No issue. Water damage? That, uh. There's no way to fix that. He sighs. "They're made of-a wood... and strings... And-a probably would be pretty hard to repair from water damage..."

So, unless Ship has some futuristic piano for him hidden away somewhere, that isn't made of wood and strings and whose battery hasn't become a pillow after hundreds of years and whose electronics are still functioning after having been submerged in water. A man can dream, but like...

"It is, it is!!! There's something really magical about being in the same place as so many people and - and everyone's singing along to the same song..." He sighs wistfully, starry-eyed.
luciacorina: (chinhands)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-19 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"We could ask the ship if it has one stored away wherever it got all the new furniture," she suggests. Mario looks so disappointed, and honestly, she's really curious about pianos now. Strings were not what she was picturing when he said 'like the carved blocks you play with hammers, but with your fingers'. What on earth is a piano? If the ship doesn't have one, she might ask Casper later, he's usually pretty good at explaining things in a way she can grasp. (Sorry, Mario.) And his world seems to have a fair amount in common with Mario's.

"That sounds incredible, so many singing together... I'd love to experience such a thing." She's a little misty-eyed herself at the notion.
mamamias: Mario tapping his chin as he thinks. (hmmm)

I could ask ship now I guess but

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-03-20 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Mario has a feeling chairs might be easier to restore than a piano, especially if they're plastic or metal, but. She has a point. "Ooooh, yeah! I should ask Ship later - maybe it does!" A man can dream...

"Even just a group of friends singing together can be magical," Mario says. "Maybe - well, I guess there won't be any songs all of us on the ship know. Hmmmm..."
luciacorina: (smile2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-21 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"I could learn something fairly quickly... I don't know if anyone else could, or would want to, though. Casper likes music, I think? He has a nice voice, for one untrained. Childe certainly seemed in favor of music, but I don't know if he sings. I certainly like singing with others." She's smiling at Mario's enthusiasm, finally on a point where they're not confusing each other.
mamamias: Mario looking smug. (smug man)

Certified Luigi Moment

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-03-22 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"Maybe!! It would be nice to try and find something." Mario hums over it. "Though I know it works best when it's a song everyone knows and loves, because then they cannot help but-a sing along..."

Oops, funny personal life annecdote activated! Mario's grinning fondly at the memory as he recounts:

"...which is why I'm not allowed to listen to Don Giovanni when Luigi's trying to work, haha! He will always-a tell me 'Bro, I love you, but you are not an opera singer, so cut that noise out!' - and then I will sing louder and more off-key just to bug him anyway." Mario laughs. He has to give his little brother grief sometimes "And that is why Don Giovanni is a home alone kind of activity."
Edited 2024-03-22 18:45 (UTC)
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-22 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes, it's always wonderful when everyone's singing along with a song they love... Difficult to find among our scattered company, however. Those from Teyvat might have something they all know, but..." It's actually possible that Shang Qinghua, Casper, Mario, and John would all have heard the same song, if very distantly possible, but it's not like she knows that.

"Luigi is your brother? Terribly rude of him, not to appreciate your singing." Her tone is light, teasing, with an amused smile.
mamamias: Mario grinning at the camera, mid-dance. (look at him)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-03-23 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
All Mario has to do is play Bohemian Rhapsody and see if he gets a response - or maybe Never Gonna Give You Up - but Mario doesn't know that, either, and he's only likely to get 2/3 besides. It'd have to be a much older song for John.

"Haha, it's alright! He's not wrong! My voice is alright but it's-a not meant for opera." He's grinning. He likes to think about his brother. "I love Luigi very much, anyway, so I would-a forgive him even if he was wrong."

"What about you? Do You have any brothers?"
luciacorina: (sad)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-04-02 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"I have-- I had, a brother and two sisters." Her face darkens with grief. "Before."
mamamias: Mario looking on in quiet surprise. (quiet surprise)

FORGOT I HAD THIS TO REPLY TO ok if you don't want to continue it tho o7

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-04-18 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh! You-a! ...oh." His own face falls with sympathy. "Before, huh? I-a get it."

In his tone you can tell - he has a Before, too, of some kind.
luciacorina: (sad)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-04-18 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"It-- I try not to... think too much about... what is lost. No answers lie in grief." She shakes her head, hair falling into her face. "What is gone cannot be regained, and I've tried... very hard not to count it."

She looks down at his phone. "Do you have other music on your device?"
mamamias: Mario grinning at the camera, mid-dance. (Default)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-04-18 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Mario is silent as he listens. He could try and be encouraging, or reassuring, but. It's not like he wants to talk about it. There's no reason to make her.

Music, however? He can do that for sure. "Oh, yeah, yeah!! Let me-a see..."

Well, he's already in ABBA's discography. "Here, this is another by the same band - a classic, really!" And he turns on Dancing Queen
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-04-18 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Her smile is a little shadowed, but present. "They make very cheerful music. What is this one about?" Her fingers move automatically on the zither as she catches the melody, eventually adding a harmony to the chorus.
mamamias: Mario bent down to fondly pat a goomba on the head. (kind mario)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-04-18 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"I like them because-a they're so cheerful!!"

Er. What is this one about? Mario pauses and listens for a second but, no, yeah. "It's-a just a song about dancing. For parties and things."
luciacorina: (smile2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-04-20 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Dancing is a good thing to sing of. Uncomplicated." Her fingers keep moving after the song ends, stretching out the melody, before shifting into a reel, then a festival circle dance, and back to Dancing Queen. "I wonder if anyone here would like to have a dance."
mamamias: Mario tipping his hat and grinning. (it's a me!)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-04-22 08:15 am (UTC)(link)
Mario continues bouncing along to her playing, idly flicking through his phone thinking of other songs he likes, might want to play, just so it's on his mind.

"Oh!! Maybe!!!" He laughs. "I wonder how different everyone here dances..."
luciacorina: (smile2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-05-02 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
"I can only imagine! As differently as the different peoples of my home country dance, or how the same dance can differ even between towns, it would be something of a confusion, I expect! But a lively one. Perhaps we should conspire to select some music for it, and put up some signs."
mamamias: Mario nodding with confidence. (let's a go)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-05-03 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, yes, yes!! That would be super fun, I think! We should do it. I've a definitely got a lot of dancing music - though I'm-a curious. What kind of music would you play for dancing, if you were the one playing? It'd be so so rude of me to play all the music."
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-05-05 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Perhaps something like this?" Her fingers shift on the strings into something lively, her foot tapping out a rhythm along with it. There's a thread of urge to dance in the music, but only a touch--the lingering magic comes out most strongly in formal elvish dances.
mamamias: Mario grinning at the camera, mid-dance. (Default)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-05-06 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
Mario has no shame and barely needs to be compelled, so of course the magic works on him - he loves to dance along to music! Of course he's mostly just swaying and tapping his feet, and whatever it is he's doing with his hands is not era-or-genre appropriate at all, but he is dancing.

"Ooooh, this is-a real fun! Surely this would'a get anyone dancing!!"
luciacorina: (2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-06-05 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Between your artifact and my zither, we can probably have enough music for a party, don't you think? And we could use some... recreation here. The lounge, you think, or the deck?" Her fingers are still moving, without her paying much attention to it, continuing to play the lively tune. "It might help the... feeling of being trapped that I'm sure I'm not the only one struggling with, if we have something to... let some steam out of the pot."
mamamias: Mario nodding with confidence. (let's a go)

[personal profile] mamamias 2024-06-09 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh!!" Mario lights up considerably, and snaps his fingers. "You know what, that's a great idea! I think - the lounge. That way people can sit, if they want to. But you're right. People love parties! Plus - not only would it let off some steam, but it would also be a great place for people to mingle and get to know each other better..."