GAME OPENING LOG

[pluviosamods]

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?

Comments

TALK TO THE SHIP

[pluviosamods]

And perhaps it will answer?

[featheradrift]

"That's what I want to ask you," the drifter retorts with a scoff at the ship's questions. "None of us boarded this ship willingly. Something or someone brought us here. Are you claiming you or whoever's behind this ship isn't the one to do it?"

[pluviosamods]

"We have sworn off accepting any more passengers," the voice of the Ship replies, less booming but still clear to everyone in range. "However, now that you are here, we have no choice but to accommodate you."

[featheradrift]

"Because this ship is clearly decrepit and in no condition to accept passengers? Congratulations on having some level of self-awareness!" He claps sarcastically before continuing his questioning. "Are you one of the crew members? What is this ship and where is it headed to?"

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Qinghua pauses on hearing the ship say it swore off accepting passengers. That seems to imply that it was, like, a possibility? “Has anyone tried to board and been rejected since you swore off passengers?” Did the ship leave people out in that wasteland?

[astraldownpour]

The voice seemed to be... just as confused as the drenched, exhausted passengers were about suddenly ending up here in this situation.

The whole idea was making the fatuus' head spin. What was going on here?

"I'm from Teyvat, and er. I'd like to know why I'm here too. I kind of just woke up here-- I was supposed to be on strict bed rest, actually. But I feel fine."

So. What was up with that.

"This is great and all, uh. Thank you, weird mysterious voice, but I'd like to go home at some point. I have a job and a family?"

[pluviosamods]

"Unknown locale: Teyvat. Noted for registry purposes." Always a promising start.

"As the method of arrival is yet to be determined, we cannot presently offer a method of return. Please look forward to further updates as we address this issue."

[astraldownpour]

"Okay..." Childe doesn't quite like the sound of it, but he guesses that this counts as a longer vacation for him. After a few moments of thought, he speaks up again.

"Another question: What normally happens to your passengers?"

Re: TALK TO THE SHIP

[luciacorina]

"I-- I'm from Vankrik. I don't know how I got here. I was rather hoping you would, once I heard some kind of... official voice." 317 years. She commits the number to memory. Whatever happened to the echoes of the people here, it was at least 317 years ago. "What happened here? To the previous passengers?"

[pluviosamods]

"Unknown locale: Vankrik. Noted for registry purposes."

"Previous passengers are presumed dead after 317 years, 6 months, 19 days since last contact."

[luciacorina]

"What was the last contact from the passengers?" Maybe that'll give some kind of hint what happened? Surely they didn't just vanish, not with all the ghosts crying out about catastrophe.

Re: TALK TO THE SHIP

[mamamias]

"Hey, Ship. Got a name? Who made you?"

Mario has given up on his quest for finding any branding under all the plants and grime. He might as well ask the ship itself.

[pluviosamods]

"This ship's systems are the original product of the Sky Hideaway Corporation. Original date of commission of operations: 748 years, five months, four days ago. The systems were further modified by the University of Samdéd Agricultural Research College 680 years, three months, twenty days ago."

"'Ship' is the preferred mode of address at this time."

[mamamias]

Okay, cool. Mario's not sure what exactly this tells him, other than hey, the argicultural research thing sure explains all the plants. And, uh, the 300 years since last contact certainly explains how overgrown everything got.

Well, that's all Mario wants to know. He pats the speaker he was addressing fondly. "Alright, Ship it is. Thanks, Ship."

[alzarian]

Adric is definitely paying very close attention to the announcements being made. Since no one appears to have any clue what's going on, it seems like the best source of information, and a very welcome surprise.

Once there's a lull in people asking questions, he definitely wants to ask some of his own. He also has no problem sharing some basic information.

"My name is Adric," he tells the Ship, standing near one of the speakers, both to be able to hear well, and because it feels the most like talking back. "I'm from the planet Alzarius in E-space, though most recently I was travelling N-space. I don't know how or why I arrived."

He pauses, making sure that's been registered.

"Please provide information about our current location, including name of planet and solar system," he requests. There's clearly a lot of things this ship has no clue about, so it's nice to get down to the very basics. Who knows, maybe Adric or someone else has heard of it?

[pluviosamods]

There is slightly more hesitation before this response than the others.

"Unknown locale: Alzarius. This planet is known as Matye." The word translates roughly as foundation, specifically as in the foundation of a building, in much the same way 'Earth' is also 'dirt.' "Current location: 30 degrees north by 75 degrees east, travelling east. This continent is called Admé. Further geopolitical information unavailable."

[airplaneskyward]

Cool, he loves sourceless mechanical voices that manage his life, those are his favorite fucking thing. But it's probably listening to everything anyway now that it's--awake, so it's not like it wouldn't get his information eventually anyway, when he talked to someone.

He prods his system mentally, just for the sake of thoroughness, and gets the same standby screen. Right. He can still do whatever, at least until the goddamn boat starts issuing missions.

"My name is Shang Qinghua," he informs the nearest speaker. "Family name Shang, courtesy name Qinghua. I don't know how I got here. I'm from..." he trails off. That's a great question. He never really named the world that Proud Immortal Demon Way took place in. "Cang Qiong Shan," he decides on. Probably more specific than it wanted, but he doubts it knows anything about his world anyway, if it's telling the truth about being mystified by places called 'Teyvat' and 'Vankrik' that he's heard other people report.

[pluviosamods]

"Unknown locale: Cang Qiong Shan. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Shang."

[aureatefantasia]

"I didn't fucking come here by my own fucking choice." John's voice darkens with each word, indignant, and twists into something snarling behind the mask, the air almost seeming to fray them. A shadow too thick and solid to just be a shadow, more a tentacle in its own right, hits the deck harder than necessary as John contemplates the merits of tearing out the nearest speaker.

Things that will not help him: that. It's still very tempting.

(The first question is soundly ignored in favour of this, because it's easier to lash out than to try to make sense of how to answer.)

[vermillionpledge]

The…man? she still isn’t sure - in yellow is substantially less intimidating in the light of day. Maybe it’s because he’s angry. She couldn’t trust kindness, not fully, but his anger is a controlled force. Knowing he’s just as stuck as she is helps too.
She moves a bit closer, making sure to announce her presence over the dull roar of the others in the room.
“Trying to make us a new window, are you?”

[pluviosamods]

The Ship does not reply, as this is not a question.

[vermillionpledge]

How specific does it want her to be? “I come from Eorzea. I don’t know why I’m here. Can you send us back?” The place is intriguing, for sure, and maybe there’s a way she can help here. But Alphinaud is sure to be worried sick, to say nothing of the others.

[pluviosamods]

"As the method of arrival is yet to be determined, we cannot presently offer a method of return. Please look forward to further updates as we address this issue." That sure is the exact same thing it said to Childe.

[whydoyoushine]

Come on, ship, Zed knows what's really going on here. "Gritta swallowed me." And he crosses his arms and looks surly like he is expecting some sort of apology from the ship that has been inside Gritta for an implausibly long time. Nothing about this makes any sense, and Zed lacks the imagination to put things together in a way that would. Not that a strong imagination would help here.

[pluviosamods]

There is a significant pause, where it appears even the Ship is at a loss as to how to respond to this.

"We're sorry to hear that."