phantasmalrift | INTRO LOG

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:]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Goodness, no, I still cared that much for dignity back then. Cup over your armrest.

[And when Ignis reaches, he will find a mug of still-warm black coffee held out by the handle.]

A pity. Could you have imagined the scandal? [He takes the mug gladly, careful not to spill any on Izunia or himself before taking a careful sip.] Thank you.

It's no trouble. I carry plenty of extra these days. Every time I run the dishwasher it's a near full load of mugs.

[He summons another mug for himself and sips at it with a sigh.]

And I may not have slept on the throne, but that certainly didn't stop everyone. Peregrinus - the Wanderer, to you - was particularly notorious for it, likely because he sleepwalked at night.

I have plenty of cans to go through first, but I might have to take that idea in the future.

[He raaaises an eyebrow.]

I had no idea the moniker was that tongue-in-cheek.

I mean, he certainly did other kinds of wandering as well, but I suppose I'm more prone to remembering much of the family as people more than any sort of legendary figures.

You would know them better as the people they were than the legends, being able to watch them grow first hand.

So I'm sure you have stories for all the Kings of Yore...?

Oh, most of them, yes. The most scandalous would probably be... that Eugenius - the Clever - had a near-exclusive preference for men. This in itself is not that noteworthy - the family has always tended towards what you'd call 'bisexual' in general but we've had outliers in both directions - but the issue lay in his decision to marry anyway, and then not tell his future wife that he'd only ever slept with men and never even seen a naked woman before their wedding night.

...He also, not unrelatedly, invented an early form of artificial insemination.

[That's not at all what he was expecting to hear. It's not a surprise, that there was a member of the royal family who was gay, but it's still bizarre and baffling enough that it gets a laugh out of Ignis.]

I don't mean to speak ill of your family, but it seems like the clever thing would have been to inform his wife of his preferences before it became time to consummate their union.

No, no, Eugenius was definitely the sort that was incredibly intelligent in intellectual ways without nearly enough sense sometimes. We've had a few of those, but most of them didn't become quite so famous in the end.

I suppose finding ways around needing to continue the royal line without having to have sex with a woman is clever enough, despite the heinous lack of foresight. And with a legacy like that I imagine it's hard to beat.

He also provided the basic outline for several things that you use yet today, including the modern form of elemancy flask. The ones I have are little more than glorified vials, they contain excess energy well enough but they're not reusable.

You could upgrade them, now, if you wished. Though I'm not sure how likely it is you'll be coming across energy deposits here the way they were back on Eos.

I don't have as much need for them as Noctis, my capacity and channelling ability are both much greater. More on par with yours, actually, or where it would be if you were a member of the line, at any rate.

As for the deposits, I don't think they're a problem. Perhaps not of the same element, but I've already managed to make some water deposits work for elemancy - give me your hand a moment?

Still always a good idea to be aware of the resources available to you, lest you find yourself with nothing.

[He holds out his hand as asked, curious. It's not shocking or surprising there could be other elements you could harvest, but it's still a new, odd thing.]

[Into that hand, a tiny, damp crystal is dropped, tingling with power.]

That's a fragment of one of the deposits in the caverns below the station. There's a number associated with what seems to be wind energy as well.

[He turns the crystal over in his hand, curious. It's a strange thing, but not miles away from the crystals scattered around Eos.]

Finding a way to make it work would blow us all away.

[He's going to have to check this out for himself, too.]

INTRO LOG - APRIL/MAY 18

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