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?
helborn: (yeah okay not sure about this)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-02-23 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"They think it's a trick of some kind. 'Magic' can also refer to sleight of hand tricks - like card tricks or making things look like they vanished when they actually went up your sleeve, for example. But it's uh... harder to fake a sudden crack in the earth with zombies crawling out of it, so some people are starting to believe."

... "Most people don't even really believe in ghosts, which is kind of sad for the ghosts."
luciacorina: (2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-02-26 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Surely there are other things it would be difficult to deny? Or do most people not wish for magic to be believed in, so they don't demonstrate it in public? All your travel and connection is... entirely mundane?" She pauses. "What's a zombie?"

"And you said most people couldn't see them... that is sad for the ghosts, and whatever drove them to linger."
helborn: (you better not)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-02-26 04:54 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes, it's all mechanical. Driven by engines that burn fuel to propel them forward. I know it's hard to imagine... I can try to draw a picture but I don't know that I'm a good enough artist, heh."

A zombie... hm. "It's usually the result of a curse or other necromantic magic, but... you know how a ghost is the soul not resting but it has no body? A zombie is the body not resting but it has no soul."
luciacorina: a pale woman with wild curly black hair with leaves stuck in it (Default)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-03 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
She smiles at him. "I appreciate the offer, but I can rely on your words! I doubt I would understand the picture anyway, since things seem to be so intricately developed."

"Oh, the risen dead! They're unpleasant to confront." Lucia Corina makes a face. "Is someone laying curses, to bring them forth?"
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-03 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"They are... I feel bad for them. And I imagine it's some Titan creating them? I've no idea which one. Someone who is associated with death clearly, but..." He shrugs. He's not sure which Titans are free - some of them? All of them?
luciacorina: (2)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-03 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Are you tasked to stand against them?" It kind of sounds like he is. "Does the Titan have a purpose, or merely anger?" She thinks of the storm, again, and its apparent rage.
helborn: (even while distressed i have pretty hair)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-03 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"I am. They're enemies of the gods. They hate them and their children for imprisoning them. But if they didn't, there just flat-out wouldn't be life in any realm." Or if it did exist it'd be horrifically twisted. He doesn't really want to think about that. "They're a class of beings... older than the gods, but just as if not more powerful." He frowns at the thought. "And on top of that my own pantheon has an 'end of the world' prophecy called Ragnarok that they've been trying to avert all this time."
luciacorina: (nervous)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-03 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"End of the world sounds... less than ideal. That's a heavy weight to rest on you." She rests a hand on his arm, light and hesitant. "Are you... do you have help?"
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-04 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
"I'm... well. People are trying to stop it. The other children of the gods - those that haven't defected, so most of them - were trying to decide what to do about the whole mess. Stop it, obviously, but how to do that in a more organized way. At least those from my continent... I'm not sure what other places are doing." So no, but... "Though in my small group I'm the only one from my pantheon." He thinks. (He's wrong, but Loki's Scions almost always choose to be sneaky.)
luciacorina: a pale woman with wild curly black hair with leaves stuck in it (Default)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-14 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
“I’m glad you’re not alone against it, though it doesn’t sound like there’s a great deal of… trust between those like you?” She squeezes his arm a little. “Does everyone know the world might end, or only the children of the gods?”
helborn: (the dark is scary)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-15 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
"No. Just us. Though there's... events starting to happen. Like the zombies crawling out of the earth kind of 'events'." Not like... a party. It'd be nicer if it was a party.
luciacorina: (angelmaker)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-15 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
"People must be frightened, not knowing what's happening, though knowing that the world might end is probably worse..." She trails off. "I'm sorry, this is unnecessarily upsetting, isn't it? You don't need to be here and worrying about things you can't do anything about there."
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-17 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
"It's... yeah. It's bad either way. ... And there's not much I can do right now, even if I feel like I should be doing things. I don't even know how we all got here... the Ship sure didn't seem to know we were here for a bit, so I doubt it's the one who brought us here." Something to think about for later, maybe.
luciacorina: (angelmaker)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-17 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
"There must surely be a reason we're here, for someone or something to have stolen so many of us from such different worlds... I wish we knew why." It's easy for her to set back on fretting on that topic, because... well. "If we knew why, or what was expected of us... I've changed my mind, I think uncertainty is worse. Though I suppose there's little I might be taken for besides... what I've already been stolen for. It's all I have to offer." She looks down, her face shadowed.
helborn: (is that what i think it is?)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-17 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's not and you know it." He squeezes her hand gently. "You're a good person. Honestly that's... novel enough for me. I'd definitely trust you to have my back a lot more than some of the other people I know."
luciacorina: a pale woman with wild curly black hair with leaves stuck in it (basic)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-17 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
“I couldn’t do much with your back other than watch it.” She sighs. “I don’t—I’ve no wish to perform violence, nor any likelihood to be skilled at such, but it would be… convenient, sometimes, I suppose. Useful.”
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-19 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
"... I know you don't want to fight. And that's okay. Sometimes there's a need to have some people to come back to at the end of things." Not like... boyfriend but... friend. He's pretty sure?
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-19 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
She smiles at him a little, soft and wry. "The welcoming fire at the end of the journey? I am equipped, at least, to make a pleasant evening at an inn for all who return."
helborn: (you're kind of cute)

[personal profile] helborn 2024-03-19 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. ... And you're sensible and funny and you're a good person. That's qualification enough to stand with anyone, I think." Especially the sensible part. Gods know he's used to people who are very much not sensible.
luciacorina: (smile)

[personal profile] luciacorina 2024-03-19 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thank you." She's genuinely touched. "I value your good opinion. You're a good person, too, and uncommonly kind. There's little enough of that in the world."