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

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?
luciacorina: (sad)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-19 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Lucia Corina stares at him, scraps of memory filtering in. Not blood, but water. Lightning. Anger in the storm. “The ship. We— we’re on the ship. You’re— the Iudex. I’m sorry, your honor, I— lose track sometimes.”
highjustice: (u good)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-19 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"You have nothing to apologize for," he attempts to reassure her. "I am only concerned for your wellbeing."
luciacorina: (sad)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-19 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
A shaky, rueful smile. “This is… not entirely unusual for me. I escaped the hall, but… perhaps part of me will always dwell there.” She takes her hands off of the zither, trying to center herself. “It makes me more of a liability in our circumstances than I already am.”
highjustice: (dramatic eyes closed)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-20 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"Is there something that can be done to help you return?" he asks. "I admit, I was... at a loss for what to do. This is a situation I have only heard of before, not had any personal experience with."
luciacorina: (angelmaker)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-21 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
“Mostly it’s… things that would have been out of place in the Hall that remind me that I’m not there, I think. You’re—tall and well-dressed and handsome with pointed ears and wouldn’t be out of place as a guest at a ball, and I think being abducted again has made me… nervy… and I… lost track.” She blinks a little. “You’ve heard of similar?”
highjustice: (let me explain)

i hate that this is canon btw cn discussion of delusions

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-21 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"There's an endemic illness in Fontaine known as Loneliness Syndrome, where a person withdraws so fully into their own world from lack of contact with others that they can no longer tell the difference between reality and their imagination," Neuvillette says. "It made the news quite recently, actually, as a mother who had recently lost her son recovered from the syndrome and has gone on to advocate for other patients."
luciacorina: a pale woman with wild curly black hair with leaves stuck in it (basic)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-21 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
“Oh. I don’t know if it’s quite the same, but… it’s more that I lose track of when I am? I’m certainly not intentionally imagining the Hall. I would happily never think of it again, if I could, but circumstances seem to conspire to render such impossible.” She grimaces. “An after effect of being enthralled for so many years, perhaps. I know no others who have escaped enthrallment, to see if they experience similar. I know I’ll always be elf-touched.”
Edited (Forgot to remove title) 2024-02-21 17:11 (UTC)
highjustice: (u good)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-21 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Loneliness Syndrome patients are rarely consciously imagining the worlds they believe in after a certain point," Neuvillette says. "But the point is not without merit. Has it been long since your escape?" Perhaps what she really needs is more time outside of that situation - more memories of other things built up in between to keep her from falling back into that place.
luciacorina: (sad)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-21 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
“A year, perhaps. And it was— I have avoided counting how long I was there, I’m—afraid to know. It was long enough that… I tried to go home and there was no place for me left, no one left.” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “And I love music, and it’s what has kept me fed as I wandered since, but it is also… what I was taken for. A caged lark.” For half a moment, behind her eyelids, she can see her swing, but it’s only a moment, and she doesn’t lose the thread of the conversation. “It may be… an inciting factor, sometimes, to be doing what I did then. But I don’t wish to lose music to them as I lost so much else.” Her hair is still full of the leaves and twigs from their woods that she’s not aware of, her clothes tattered from the thorns. Much was lost, but she’s still here, as much as she is, as much as she can be.
highjustice: (dramatic eyes closed)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-21 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's not very long at all, in the greater scheme of things. Especially if your sense of time is already distorted." Which it must be - to all appearances she's no different from a normal human, but surely a great deal of time must have passed, if upon her return no one knew of her or recognized her. "That you've chosen to recover from the experience along a more difficult road is admirable. Given time, I'm sure you have the ability to conquer it."
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-21 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
She smiles up at him. “I hope you’re right, your honor.” A sigh, then. “I would feel more easy if I knew for what purpose we were taken. At least in the Hall I knew what was expected of me.”
highjustice: (HM.)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-23 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Humans are more comfortable with concrete expectations - or so a good friend of mine has told me." Given that said friend brought the chaos of Meropide into an almost pristine sense of order despite his near-complete lack of formal education, Neuvillette is willing to bet that Wriothesley's ideas on the matter are sound enough for him to parrot.
luciacorina: (2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-24 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
“I believe I am, anyway—at least then one knows what one is succeeding or failing at.” A pause. “Are you not? Comfortable, I mean. I don’t wish to be so rude as to demand your race.”
highjustice: (back)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-24 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"I generally have difficulties deciphering the expectations of humans." If that wasn't enough clue that he isn't one before, it's clear from the way he speaks of them now. "And my own comfort level in social situations. It has never been a strong point of mine."
luciacorina: a pale woman with wild curly black hair with leaves stuck in it (Default)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-26 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
"That sounds... potentially inconvenient?" Lucia Corina isn't quite sure what an appropriate response would be. She can definitely tell when she's uncomfortable. (She isn't right now, really, just a little uncertain how to proceed politely.) "Particularly if you must deal with them--us--often."
highjustice: (tldr in progress)

[personal profile] highjustice 2024-02-26 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
"It certainly does have its downsides." At least it does tend to make him hard to offend, fortunately for those who fret about offending him. "I've lived a great deal of time among humans, but even now they still both confuse and surprise me. Perhaps it's for that reason that I can't help growing fond of them."
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-03 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)
She smiles at him a little. "It can be easy to be fond of all that people have wrought, and all that we can do and be. It's why I fancy myself a historian--there's so much potential."