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

[misanthropicprinciple]

Hm. I'll have to look into it. I know barely anything about this magic stuff, my version of Earth didn't have it.

[thoroff]

That also seems to be more often the case than not...

Mine does, but inter-realm travel is neither common nor well understood.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Now that I have more experience with. Though not of the magic kind, and, uh, previously, not to this extent.

[thoroff]

Is that so?

[Genuinely questioning, not dry.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Mm. My original world doesn't have magic, but it is aware of a... certain theory that allows for particular people to transfer their consciousness through time and space, under the right circumstances. And later, I got to experience more serious interdimensional travel, though don't expect me to explain the science behind that, it's five thousand years ahead of me.

[thoroff]

Five thousand... So you traveled into the future?

[She doesn't sound even slightly surprised by that. Like, yeah, time travel's not that weird when interdimensional travel's already a thing, but even so.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Forward into the future and somewhere to the side, distance-wise. Didn't get back to Earth--even the Earth of that future--until the end

[thoroff]

Where did you go, then?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Ah, wait. How familiar are you with the concept of outer space?

[thoroff]

Uh...

[That's a 'not at all'.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

I went to, uhhhh. Imagine another world, except it's really only a large house floating by itself. No land around it to speak of. I was trapped there for a couple months, escaped to another planet in that same, uh, plane of existence, and then was captured again at a waystation between worlds.

[thoroff]

I see...

[She thinks she understands? At least somewhat. But more important is:]

Someone was actually holding you against your will?

[misanthropicprinciple]

A-yup. Made us kill one another weekly. It was not the greatest of times.

[Oh, were we gonna be cagey about that...? Oops.]

[thoroff]

They made you what?!

[Sweet Naga that escalated quickly!]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Murder one another, once a week. Well, accidents and suicides also counted. And then we had a nice, big, amateur investigation to identify the culprit and kill them, too.

[thoroff]

I... [She stammers briefly.] Who would do something like that? Why?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Entertainment. Money. People were all hells of invested in the drama, not realizing we weren't actors.

[thoroff]

Gods...

[Such a base motive only makes it worse somehow.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah. [Shrug!] So I'm not exactly thrilled to have been arbitrarily kidnapped once more, but at least things here don't seem quite that dire yet.

[thoroff]

I owe you an apology; I'd thought you paranoid but if that's what you've been through your suspicion is quite reasonable.

[She glances away, looking thoughtful.]

I've truly seen nothing to suggest that anything of the sort might be going on here, though...

[misanthropicprinciple]

Oh, no, I am paranoid, it just happens to be a handy skill to have cultivated when I keep turning up in weird places against my will. I appreciate the assurance, though. Still gotta look around, but it helps to know how you guys have been finding the situation.

[He waves a hand, unbothered.]

No complaints on your end, then? You're treated all right?

[thoroff]

None at all. Our hosts have never demanded anything of us, least of all murder. They're mostly content to leave us to our own devices. They do ask for our help with the Fissures, but we're in no way obligated to go if we don't want to.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Most of you were there, though, right? So you go because you want to?

[thoroff]

Yes. It's the least we can do to repay their hospitality, I feel, and they've suggested that it might help find a way to return to our homes besides.

[She pauses.]

There would probably have been fewer of us for this one if we knew ahead of time what it would be like, but we don't until we're there.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Ah. The androids don't know, either? Guess they don't get out much...