IC INTRO - JUNE '18

[phantasmods]

After the fight with the siren has settled, those characters with phones hooked to the KEystone network will get a text -

Okay, everyone, you had better come back in. There's a storm brewing just off the coast.

Even given Up's usual professionalism, it seems rather... subdued?

----

For once, there are no androids at all to greet you upon your return, or arrival, as the case may be. A shelter has been set up for the boats on the shoreline of Glitterstone, however. By the time you tromp up the lighthouse stairs to the level of the Station itself, the sky is beginning to grey with the promised storm.

There's not the typical feast outside, but there is a fairly extensive taco bar set up in the common room, left unattended as well. The room sign-up sheet and boxes of freebies are also there, complete with the Braille versions, and a note at the bottom of both room sheets reads "If all rooms are full, space has been made in the meeting rooms on the top floor. We'll have additional rooms available as soon as possible."

It does appear that someone has updated the murder counter while you were away, however, for the turning of the week. It now reads 15 weeks without murder.

Other than that, you're free to explore, including in the newly finished sections of the Annex (should you be willing to brave the storm to get between buildings). However, wherever you go, the androids are almost conspicuously absent - even in the medical bay and Down's workstation in the command center.

The meeting room they have for their own private use is securely closed and locked.

Comments

[karappo]

[Normally he'd be very confused, but since Ryslig...well, he's a magic user, too. Not that he can use very much of it, but it's there.]

Karamatsu. You are fortunate to have your brother with you.

[For...better or worse.]

How...long have you been here?

[founderinglight]

Ah, well, we're barely on speaking terms, actually, but I love him dearly.

[The Lucis Caelum twin situation is very complicated.]

A handful of months? I've been here since the beginning, so whatever it is the sign on the wall says. Ardyn, around four weeks? Perhaps five?

I'm sorry, my ability to judge time is very poor these days.

[karappo]

[Since the beginning. Those words rattle around loudly in Karamatsu mind, a finality. His antennae twitch, but he manages to keep any other signs of distress out of his expression.]

Then...you have answered one of my questions for me. I could not be where I came from, or else you would no longer be human.

[He says, bluntly.]

And I do believe you would have no reason to lie about your time here to a perfect stranger.

[founderinglight]

Well, the beginning of when people started to arrive through the Fissures, anyway.

[A pause, and then a shrug, which jostles his kitty enough that she mews a protest.]

I'll be happy to answer any questions I can.

[karappo]

[Karamatsu moves to fold both pairs of his arms, glancing down at his feet.]

I come from a peninsula known as Ryslig, where everyone who is taken there slowly turns into monsters due to a mystical influence. I had assumed I was still there, given the sheer number of mermaids I came across on the beach.

Of course, I am not from there. I was stolen from my original home.

[founderinglight]

The transformational effect was somehow tied to the magic of that particular Fissure - an unstable section of reality where people and other things appear from other worlds. The others haven't induced any transformations like that, though that was only the third we've stabilized.

[A thoughtful hum, as Verity decides to climb up and put her front paws on Izunia's shoulder.]

We have some handful of nonhumans around, but not any from a place like that that I know of.

[karappo]

[Karamatsu purses his lips, his eyes still cast elsewhere for the moment.]

Someone else mentioned Fissures to me before, though I did not quite understand what they were referring to. These Fissures are magic, you say?

[So no godly influence. That's...good to know, at least in the sense that the Fog God probably didn't put him here.]

Do they appear often?

[founderinglight]

It isn't so much the matter of how often they appear, I think, as that they've been appearing in this world for a very long time. Only recently have people started appearing in them.

[He sighs, somewhat into the kitty fluff.]

One of the androids, the original inhabitants of this station, would have a fuller explanation, but they're quite missing today, which is unusual.

[karappo]

Androids?

[Not simulacrum, he reckons.]

Where do you suppose they've gone off to?

[founderinglight]

I'm not entirely sure. I've never known them to leave the station unattended, but...

Mmm. Perhaps they're in that meeting room upstairs that they keep locked up. That's the only place I can think, though I've hardly done a full sweep looking for them. Just that it's odd none of them are here, since one of them serves as a part of the medical staff in particular.

[karappo]

[Well that's not good...]

Perhaps they are busy someplace else, then. If you say there is a meeting room they go to, it seems likely they are...well, in a meeting of some sort.

[He sighs, uncrossing his arms to let them hang at his sides.]

But that is alright. I can settle with asking others like yourself if I have further questions about this station. I just hope that if my other brothers are here, they are safe.

[...]

...do you know if the changes brought on by that Fissure were temporary, by the way?

[founderinglight]

If they were not, I would - forgive the pun - not have a leg to stand on at the moment.

[Because, y'know, fish. Fishiness. Merness. Etc.]

[karappo]

[THAT ANSWERS THAT.]

...Okay. I ask because Choromatsu was not originally a merperson, either. He'd recently been changed into a Pooka, which is what I was expecting to find him as. Which means...he should be back to that, now.

[founderinglight]

[The fuck's a pooka, that doesn't like some kind of drug.]

Should be, yes. It's possible that the magic might have interfered with whatever otherwise changes you, but I think it more likely that he's back to whatever his 'usual' form is.

[karappo]

[THANKFULLY NOT, but you'd probably think you were on drugs if you saw one.]

Okay...that will at least make it easier to locate him. I was going to just look in the water again, otherwise.

[Karamatsu makes a face, gritting his teeth around thick mandibles.]

...I wish I could say this was not the usual, but even so...we both used to be human. Just...normal humans.

gets distracted like six times in the course of finishing this tag

[founderinglight]

Probably best to stay inside if you can, there looks to be a storm brewing.

[Izunia reaches up to stroke Verity's ears.]

I'd gathered as much, yes. Hardly any need to use color to distinguish when you're different sorts of creature, is there?

oh man you mean me always

[karappo]

[Karamatsu shakes his head a little, his antennae drooping forward.]

Hardly. I think a lot of us expected that if we would become anything, it would be the same thing at the very least, but that is not what happened at all.

Storms are not good for me, anyway. I can handle a bit of rain, but flying in it is asking for problems. I suppose I do not have much choice for the time being.

[founderinglight]

I would have once said the same, but in spite of having been matching in that Fissure, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Ardyn and I became very different things.

[He doesn't go into detail, but... It's also nice to talk to someone who gets it. He hasn't really had a lot of contact with other twins in his life.]

I think this is a climate region prone to summer storms, unfortunately. Lucky there's plenty to do inside, and a covered path to the other building should you get bored on this side.

[karappo]

Hm...

[That actually has him thinking, particularly now that it's becoming clearer that he's not going to actually get back to his house any time soon.]

Where do people here usually stay, by the way? In a more permanent sense, that is.

[As permanent as one can be in a place where people can probably just blip out of existence with no explanation because that's just what happens when reality is falling apart around you.]

[founderinglight]

There's a series of rooms here - should be a sign up sheet on a stand around somewhere, you'll want to claim one while you can. I think we might be just a tad overfull now.

[Catte starts squirming in Izunia's arms, so with a sigh he bends to put her down.]

[karappo]

I will check by that way, then. I am certain I could find something if I could not stay here, either way. I am used to the outdoors.

[Far more used than he'd like by now.]

How many can each room hold?

[He asks, just on the off chance he might need, uh

room for six]

[founderinglight]

Two if you're willing to cram - they're large single beds. I think a few people have gotten two rooms hooked together by having additional doors put in, though.

[He underestimates the amount that 'matsus are willing to cram, admittedly.]

I imagine the androids will probably build more housing if we overflow, they've already added one building. But that would take a bit of time.

[karappo]

[VASTLY. They will all squeeze into a single person room if they have to, just watch.]

If Choromatsu is the only one here at present, we will make do for the time being. I may ask these androids about that if they decide to show at some point, here...

[founderinglight]

I'm sure it won't be too long - they're usually in the research labs at all hours, it really is unusual for all of them to be missing at once.

[karappo]

So they are just...commonplace around here then, I assume? You do not seem very alarmed by their presence at least.