INTRO LOG - APRIL/MAY 18

[phantasmods]

Eventually, Charm starts herding people towards the parked exploratory drone, a few at a time, mostly people who have finished their noodles or other business. "It's almost nightfall at the Station," he says, "and with this many new arrivals, we're going to have to make multiple trips."

(For those who might ask, he also explains that they've chosen not to stabilize the noodle shop for the time being, as the other androids will almost certainly want to speak to Viella, and have no other way of doing so, due to the fact that they don't dream. Aside from that small region, the Fissure is largely stable.)

It in fact takes four trips total to get everyone to the Station. Those of you who don't fall asleep on the way there - the minute you hit stable reality, the inability to sleep vanishes, and most will be hit with a wave of exhaustion - will find that the Station Annex, a building off to the side of the main station, has been finished, at least outwardly.

By the time the first group arrives, the sun is dipping towards the horizon; by the time the last gets there, it's set, leaving a few pink-tinted clouds in the sky. The drones drop everyone off (and that is everyone, even though of you who have fallen asleep) on the observation deck, where those of you who didn't get your fill of noodles will find several buffet-style tables set up with...

...Pizza? Yeah, pizza, in damn near every variety you can think of, including a few things that only loosely fall under the heading of "pizza." Half a table is full of calzones of various varieties; another significant chunk is things that are just desserts in the general shape of pizza, including a couple of iced cinnamon pastries, a pair of brightly-colored "pizzas" made of canned fruit over cream cheese, and a two-layer cake that's just decorated to look like a pizza, with strawberry jam and round slices of strawberry 'pepperoni' sandwiching yellow icing. Finally, the last third of the third table is just three baskets of breadsticks with varying amounts of cheese and garlic, accompanied by two turrens of dipping sauce (one white, one red) and a tower of little plastic dipping cups.

(Those who opt to head directly to bed will find that the banquet gets packed up and moved back to the kitchens around midnight, though it stays warm under a stasis enchantment for roughly the next day before someone packs the remainder into the fridge.)

In the common room, meanwhile, the usual boxes of clothes and trading post sign are set up. Unclaimed rooms can be claimed by writing your name in on a list set up next to the boxes, on what seems to be a broken music stand with a large ROOMS AVAILABLE sign hanging from it. There is also a rather hastily assembled, hand-poked Braille version of the sheet (with the paper punched through in one or two places).

Those who go looking will find that the androids are somewhat more absent than they usually are after an expedition; save obviously for Charm, and Strange who arrives on the deck as usual not long after, you'll have to go looking. Considering the amount of the station you have available, they could be just about anywhere... But perhaps it'd be worth checking over in that new building...?

[Mod note: Strange is the only NPC with a top-level this round, but others may respond to your top-levels, especially in the Annex areas! Consider it a fun surprise. c:]

Comments

[theosophomoric]

[Even when she's not slipping into the very specific patois of the men and women who make their living on the broad subterranean saltwater lake that takes up most of the cavern of the Neath, Sonja's accent may be a bit difficult to pin down; she speaks English with an accent typical of the urban middle-class from the south of England in the late nineteenth century, with heavy influence from time spent among London's underclasses, and the occasional slight shading of the germanic around the edges.

The table, on the other hand, is perfectly intuitive, and Sonja slides Morgana's plate across to him before taking a seat opposite.]

Anyone you know here, Morgana, or are you here all on your own?

[meowna]

[Morgana has enough trouble just pinning down the most basic, broad accents, as limited as his ability to travel has been; to him, at least, Sonja just sounds Western. And as for him? .....Well, it's not easy to glean nationality from a cat, of all things. His accent is meowing, pure and simple; there's no native human language to tint it in the slightest.

He daintily picks up a slice of pizza between both paws and starts to eat.]

I know two people who have been here for a little while, and two others showed up around the same time I did.

[There's a beat of hesitation; he doesn't want to make Shido's life completely impossible around here, now that his heart has been changed, but he doesn't exactly want to protect the guy, either.]

One more guy from my world showed up, too, but that one's a lot more complicated. What about you, anyone you recognize?

[theosophomoric]

Mmm. [And she, likewise, doesn't wish to make an enemy of the canny deviless she'd met in the rift, but she's already heard worrying rumors about the infernal lady's conduct, too.] No one I know personally, but one whose extraction I recognize well enough, and she'll have brought complications of her own. Devils generally do.

[meowna]

Huh? A devil showed up from your world?

[Understandably, Morgana looks a little alarmed.]

What sort of person are they? Even the other guy who showed up from my world shouldn't be very dangerous here.....

[theosophomoric]

A deviless, really.

She was perfectly charming when I met her in the forest, but I suspect that the sort of dream I was caught up in at the time would have made it rather clear my soul's not on the market. I've heard rumor that she's already tried to purchase some other peoples' souls, but honestly, that may be for the best. I think if she's trying to bargain it's much less likely that she'll resort to force or outright trickery.

[meowna]

A deviless..... She wasn't..... part of the dream herself, was she? Did she vanish if you touched her?

[.....No, of course not. That'd be stupid. Could a dream try and purchase other people's souls? Morgana shakes his head at the thought.]

Bargaining is a lot better than what she could be doing. What's her name?

[theosophomoric]

I, ah... didn't catch her name. [Sonja smiles sheepishly.] Rather distracted at the time. She's distinctive enough, though, and I saw her in the group returning to the station so I'm fairly certain she' genuine. Golden-haired lady in smoked spectacles.