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

Re: library

[seafoamgreen]

[Finally, someone who looks normal around here.]

Huh, really?

[She blinks in confusion, then seems to come to the same conclusion that he did.]

If I'm from the future, that's awesome. What year is it for you guys?

[meowna]

It's 20XX for us! What about you?

[Just..... assume that's an actual year he said, probably somewhere around 2018-modern-day-Earth sensibilities. Persona games try to be clever and disguise when they actually take place.]

[seafoamgreen]

Jeez, it's 201X for us...

[That's. Actually not a placeholder, it's literally what year the game says Undertale takes place in. She just straight-up said 'twenty-one x'.]

[Maybe you aren't using the same calendar.]

[meowna]

Huh? What kind of calendar uses 201X? I can't even tell if you're from before or after us.....

[seafoamgreen]

The Underground Standard Calendar, what else would we use?

[meowna]

.....Oh.

[He hadn't realized enough people lived underground for there to be a standard calendar, let alone one that's different from humanity's. She doesn't feel like a Shadow, but she's obviously not human, either, if she's trying to look up human history..... it must be some kind of world specific thing, huh?]

My world pretty much only has one now, and it only uses numbers. But either way, you might need to look in other sections for giant robots--since people are still figuring out how to make them where I'm from, they write stories about them instead.

[seafoamgreen]

[...huh. So apparently this guy isn't a cat monster, like she was thinking. Darn. She'd thought it was a little too convenient for someone else from home to be here, but she was hoping a bit anyway. Oh well, he's still not offering bad advice.]

I guess that makes sense, some of those history books Alphys lent me would've made pretty good stories.

[That's because they were literally just manga, Undyne.]

Know any really good ones?

[meowna]

Let's see..... the Phoenix Rangers are pretty cool! They've all got smaller robots that combine into one really big one. Oh, and Transfigurators is about a whole race of giant alien robots fighting each other! That series has a ton of stuff in it.

[seafoamgreen]

Huh, nice.

[She grins, looking intrigued at the prospect.]

Think they've got it here, somewhere?

[meowna]

Only one way to find out! It'd be over here if they do.

[He'll just lead her into the fiction wing; they've got to have some manga, even if they don't have those particular giant robot series.....]

[seafoamgreen]

[Undyne follows, looking around curiously. She doesn't see anything in particular she recognizes, but at least there's actual graphic novels here, even if they aren't titles she knows.]

[One in particular catches her attention, with a picture of a graceful-looking swordswoman on the cover. She pauses, and pulls it off the shelf with a nostalgic smile.]

[Alphys would've loved this...]

[meowna]

Ooh, what's that one?

[He'll just climb up a few shelves to get higher. It'll be easier to talk like this, right? And probably easier to find books, too.]

[seafoamgreen]

[Undyne flips to the back cover and takes a glance at the summary.]

Looks like it's about some kind of order of knights, and their princess who got kidnapped. They're on a quest to get her back. And... something about flying horses? Neat.