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

[foolishjustice]

Psychic powers.

[Don't mind him pausing to drink a bit more.]

I can create any liquid I want.

[letsplayer]

[Her mind goes somewhere for a moment before she barely manages to stifle a laugh. ]

Yeah, guess that makes sense.

[Help.]

[foolishjustice]

[He seems to be recovering some awareness, since he's reaching up to smooth down his hair.]

...What's so funny?

[letsplayer]

You ever just conjure an entire bucket of lube?

[foolishjustice]

[Congratulations, Marla, you just wasted a mouthful of coffee, since Goro's choking on it. He's also turned quite the shade of red.]

That is none of your business, but no. And even if someone wanted me to, I can only create a typical cup or bottle's worth at a time.

[letsplayer]

Alright, so just a single cup of lube.

[She's having way too much fun making him squirm.]

Look, this is me holding back. If my dad was here he'd probably just name a random bodily fluid.

That's not blood, anyway, because chugging a glass of blood is actually kinda sweet and not gross.

[foolishjustice]

[That sort of vulgar humor, those eyes, a cane at that age, Pokemon...]

Your father reminds me of someone I know...

[letsplayer]

...I will give you like, fifty billion of whatever currency this place uses if they made some kind of weird sex joke.

[She seems... Slightly hopeful?]

[foolishjustice]

[Bright red and pinching the bridge of his nose.]

Does comparing the taste of salmon roe to...a particular bodily fluid count?

1/2

[letsplayer]

Oh come on, everyone who's had both knows it tastes like jizz.

2/2

[letsplayer]

I don't have any money.

[foolishjustice]

We essentially use a barter economy here, anyway. And regardless of whether or not you agree with the description, it's still not the sort of thing to say in mixed company.

[letsplayer]

So, realtalk: I'm pretty sure other regions don't do it, but back in Unova some families have a jar where you gotta put some money in every time you cuss or say shit like that.

So like, my mom made one when my dad first moved in with her? Put a little bow on it and everything.

A couple of years ago they managed to get the down payment on a car.

[foolishjustice]

Wouldn't the purpose of something like that be to discourage foul language?

[letsplayer]

Sanzashis aren't exactly known for playing by the rules. Or basic logic. So like, fuck that.

[Marla no, that's another quarter for the jar.]

[foolishjustice]

Sanzashi? Ah...would your father's given name be Ren, by any chance?

[letsplayer]

Y...es?

[foolishjustice]

[Well, this is...awkward.]

You...must be from a much different time than the last time I saw him, then. I was under the impression that his daughter was a young child.

[letsplayer]

...he's like, fifty-th-

Wait.

[ There's a certain hope in her voice. A certain longing. Homesickness, maybe? ]

...he was somewhere else?

[foolishjustice]

He was...in the last world I was in, other than my own. He was younger than that there, but I'm not unfamiliar with the idea of people being from different points in time.

[letsplayer]

[It honestly looks like she might cry.]

...I haven't seen anyone from back home in years.

Sorry, I just...

[foolishjustice]

[...Reaching out to give her a gentle pat on the shoulder.]

He was...very kind to me, vulgarity aside.

[letsplayer]

[ ...okay, the tears are pouring in now. ]

He was always like that.

[ Sniff. ]

He used to let my sisters paint his nails all the time, until they grew out of it. And then he'd always let us win whenever we tried to take him on in a Pokemon battle...

Fuck, I miss the guy.

[foolishjustice]

[He gives a faint smile.]

He is a good man. He encouraged me to be more accepting of who I really am, even if it might not be what others want of me.

[letsplayer]

Yeah, he'd do that for me, too.

[ She takes a deep sigh. ]

It's...kind of nice, this whole thing. Knowing I'm not the only one here who has those kinds of memories.