ximilialog | LOG.01

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LOG.01

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// PART I. summer cleaning  

The more days that pass on the station, one thing becomes increasingly apparent: the station is woefully unprepared for so many people arriving there at once. While the materials found in the lab or the armory are lacking, and characters don’t have many sets of clothes to change into, the most glaring problem is food: after days and days of nothing but dried jerky and canned beans, things may start to seem a little… well, dire.

But one morning, those who completed the tasks in the training room with the promise of a boon will wake up to a message on the network:

Congratulations! You have earned one (1) boon of your choice. Please enter your desired item here.

After they have entered whatever item they wish to get — well, at first nothing seems to happen. But after some minutes, those who are either in the living quarters or the kitchen area can hear the unmistakable whir of power turning on… and clatter. Lots of clatter.

1.0 Congratulations, it seems that the teleportation devices have finally stored enough power to send in a variety of items! On the platform near the living quarters, there is everything one might imagine from different planets: piles and piles of clothes in different styles, books, tools… oh, look, a headband and a comb! And that sure is a yoga mat. Best go sort through the pile and get what appeals to you, before someone else does.

2.0 For those characters who requested an item as their boon, the good news is that whatever they requested is there in the pile! The bad news is… it’s there in the pile, so good luck finding it — and convincing others it’s really yours, so give it back, please!

3.0 It’s not just the platform near the living quarters that is functional, now: it’s also the one near the kitchen. And that one is brimming with produce: fresh fruit, coffee beans, bread, different cuts of meat, cartons of milk and juice… there’s even some ice cream, though best get that to a freezer quickly! Enjoy the variety in your dishes, for now.

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// PART II. lights out  

Two weeks before their first mission is supposed to start, in the middle of the day, everyone’s earpieces start to crackle with static. It starts faint, a sound barely there, but it grows into a persistent buzz that nothing seems to help — not attempts to contact someone else, mute the sounds, nothing.

Just as you’re about to go crazy and chuck the earpiece as far away from you as can be, the static suddenly stops.

And all the lights on the station suddenly go out, leaving nothing but darkness behind.

The static starts again, and finally, Viveca’s voice filters through.

// VIVECA.AI

It’s no good, the platforms took too much power, we need ——. I’ve tried fixing it, but it’s not enough. I —— the backup ——.

The characters may try to answer, but their comms aren’t connecting — it’s as if they’ve tuned into a radio channel they’re not supposed to be hearing. And perhaps more surprisingly, the next voice they hear is not Viveca at all.

// ?̴̳̥̱͎͓̼͇͖̫̄̉̐̇̄̋̇?̸͙̼͎̙̙̳͖͈͆̓̈̓̊͆́̂͗̆́͠?̴̛͓̬̮̏̈́̃̍̍̌͗̈́͘̚̚͠?̸͙̼͎̙̙̳͖͈͆̓̈̓̊͆́̂͗̆́͠?̴̛͓̬̮̏̈́̃̍̍̌͗̈́͘̚̚͠

Sorry, —— will have to keep ——————. Try to ——... emergency mode?

The crackle keeps getting louder and louder.

// VIVECA.AI

I’ll —— but —— help! They have to ————

With that, the earpieces go silent… and even if characters attempt to contact Viveca, they will receive no answer.

4.0 Left in the darkness, minutes stretch into hours without a flicker of light. The hallways are eerily quiet, with only the faint hum of machinery assuring you that the station itself is still functional and not dead. Of course, you may stay where you are and hope that the lights miraculously return… or you can navigate your way through the hallways and rooms with nothing but your memory to help you. It may be a good idea to get someone to go with you so you’re not bumbling around in the dark on your own.

5.0 Those optimistic about the lights returning will have to be disappointed. After several hours and nothing but radio silence on Viveca’s end, it seems clear that this is a problem she can’t fix on her own. If you don’t want to be left in the dark (literally) forever, it’s best to try and do something about it.

If you’re technologically inclined, the lab is the place to be: you may be able to connect to the station’s system, at least enough to figure out what’s wrong and try to fix it. But perhaps you have other abilities, those of more magical origin… with those, you may be of assistance in helping to replenish the station’s diminished power supply.

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// PART III. mad world  

Eventually, everyone’s efforts will pay off and the station seems to regain some of its power back — at least enough for the lights to flicker back on, first in the living quarters, and then around the rest of the station. The resurgence of power also affects the simulation room as well, quiet and unassuming at first … but something seems a little off, the longer you remain in the space. For one thing, it flickers colour and light in a way that isn’t worrying, exactly, but doesn’t feel all that stable. And just when you think you should probably head back out, the doors close and a world builds up around you in meticulous detail — is it something you recognize or is it something altogether unfamiliar?

6.0 Creature Comforts: The simulation room picks up on the cues of its inhabitants, snatches of memory and knowledge of worlds that it isn’t wholly familiar with but seem to fit within the parameters of its code. Whatever world you’ve come from, you might note the familiarities, might even feel a little homesick. And so, the world around you might resemble a historical time period befitting of swords and gunpowder and large dresses with too much frill. Or maybe the simulation goes back even further than that: lush jungles and prickling heat, the sharp buzzing of hard-shelled insects hidden in foliage and the hiss of something else that seems a little ominous. Maybe the simulation slowly materializes into the place you’ve just come from before waking up here — all the way down to that coffee shop you like so much, the one with the really perfect latte.

7.0 A Fish Out of Water: It’s hard to say whether the simulation room has a sense of humour of its own, or if the power outage has made it a little unpredictable. Either way, the space around you fills up with images entirely unfamiliar to you, putting you completely out of your element. If you’re from a small town or a place where life’s a little simpler— castles, large stretches of field and open sky, say: what you see will be futuristic skyscrapers with all the lights on, and colourful bright screens everywhere. Is that a flying car? Geez, you’ve never seen one of those things before (not that you can reach it from that height). Or maybe you’re from a Dystopian wasteland: if so, welcome to experiencing an idyllic paradise with just the right amount of density, the right amount of kumbaya to fill in the questions you might have had of what life was like before you were born. The simulation room is here to put you out of your natural element without you realizing it.

8.0 101 Ways To Break Out (J/K, it’s 1): Of course you’re not stuck in this room. There’s always a way out, a lock to pick, the slight shimmer in the air that guides you to the seam that unravels the whole thing and lets you out. Depending on the setting your character happens to be delicately trapped in, it might take a bit of doing to find the One Thing Slightly Off anchoring you back to reality— a totem if you will. Find that thing, find the shimmer in the air and stick your hand through it, and you’ll find the room going dark around you, but in a ‘Hey, You’ve Completed this Simulation! Congrats!’ kind of way. The doors will slide open and you’ll be free to go, maybe on slightly shakier legs but in one piece nevertheless.

The TL;DR: Due to the power outage aboard the station, the simulation room is temporarily on the fritz. Here you’re free to choose the manner of simulation you want your character to stumble into, all the way down to the most minute detail. Go crazy! Remember whatever happens in this simulation stays only within this simulation and the room; it cannot and will not affect the rest of the ship. Simulations may have the possibility of changing halfway through, and depending on how many people enter the room after you, could end up changing more than once. The constant will be to find the exit trigger once you’ve been locked in.

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F Y I

• The events in this log span the month of June.

• No one will be able to contact Viveca after Part II, even after the lights come back and the station’s power supply has been replenished. If your character wants to talk to her before Part II, feel free to use the Ask the AI page.

• For Part I, those who completed the tasks in the TDM will be able to ask for one thing they want to receive here. It can be an item from their home, or something else they’d like to have. If they ask for something living (like a dog, for example), they’ll receive a plushie of said living thing instead. Note that you can handwave completing the tasks on the TDM — we're not going to demand links to threads or anything!

• For Part II, those who want to try and connect to the station’s system can ask questions and suggest what they’d like to try to do here. How your attempt goes is up to chance, as the mods are rolling the results. Note that this is not mandatory and the mods are fine with handwaving what exactly gets the power to come back, and it can (and likely will) be a combined effort of many characters. There is no one right thing to do, but if you’d like to ask questions of what your characters would be able to do or find out when connecting to the system, feel free!

• Throughout the month, remember that all the locations in the two wings and the center of the station are available to use, even if they’re not detailed in the prompts in this log. So feel free to make your own wildcard prompts using the training room, the armory, the living quarters, the infirmary, the sunlight room etc.

• For those who didn’t get to play out their character’s arrival on the TDM, you can read more about what the characters see upon arrival here. Feel free to make your own prompts for that!

▶ NAV

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1511? Yeah. You might need it more than me. You can have it once I finish.

[It isn't like it is his from home? So it's fine. The only book he himself specifically owned was his alchemy research notes and even then that was coded. So well, even Alphonse couldn't read it. So Ed doesn't mind giving it to the other to borrow after him. This stuff just kind of showed up so it isn't like it seemed to belong to anyone in particular? He follows to the side when the other gestures for him to move.]

Thanks. I'm Rosinante, by the way.

[And he extends a hand downward to shake. He'll skip the surname until he can get a better read on the people around him but so far, not a single one has claimed to be from anywhere or any time he recognizes. Until he's sure, though, best to leave it off. No need to draw unwanted comparisons with his brother.]

We have stories where I'm from about people visiting the moon, but they're just stories. Nothing like this.

[Ed glances to the offered hand before extending his own to shake it. The other might note that there's the slight noise of metal, that even gloved, his hand isn't as warm as one might expect given the auto-mail underneath, the metal.]

Rosinate then. I'm Ed. Edward Elric. But -- I mean, yeah. We haven't actually managed to get to the moon either. At least, back home. I guess it's possible they managed it here?

[There are firm handshakes, and then there are firm handshakes. The rest of Ed looks flesh and bone enough that Rosinante assumes it's a prosthetic of some sort. Serious injuries and replaced limbs are common enough in his world where although it's a brief surprise, he doesn't say anything immediately. The bigger surprise is that the hand does seem to be, well, an actual hand with jointed fingers, and not just a hook or something else a little more basic.]

Could be. Maybe we're on our way there, or maybe we're just out in all the black somewhere. I wonder how far out we are? I take it Viveca's our navigator, but maybe she's got charts we could have a look at. Ever been on a ship? At sea, I mean, not like this.

[Some things must stay the same, right?]

I guess she is. I'm not sure on where we are or whatever. I just know this definitely ain't Amestris.

[He's talked to her a little. But that doesn't mean he knows on their exact location or that that would mean anything to him at all if he did know. Still, he can't say he has been on a ship exactly, and he gives a shrug at that.]

Small boats, sure. Mostly just rowing ones. I mostly get around on the trains back home actually.

Trains? Last I heard, some guy was trying to figure out how to build one that would go from island to island, but it's... Nobody thinks it'll actually work.

[But in the future, apparently things have changed. It's a span of several hundred years, though, so maybe that's not really a shock, but he's realizing that he has no benchmarks for how quickly technology should progress.

His original point about commonalities between sailing ships and this ship-in-space will have to be put aside for the moment.]

So is Amestris... An island? A kingdom? What sea is it in?

[It's entirely possible Ed is from a world that doesn't divide into seas the way his does, he's aware, but might as well ask since it's the natural way for him to place where something might be on a globe.]

Trains built over the ocean? That'd be new. Or, maybe like with a tunnel underneath somehow.....?

[At least. Ed's not heard of such a thing. But they're from different worlds, different times so of course there's likely to be some confusion, some differences there. He gives a shrug and doesn't seem too bothered himself by the idea of missing out on seeing the ocean, the shore.]

What sea? Ah, Amestris is actually landlocked. We're surrounded by the desert to Xing on the East, then Creta on the West, Drachma on the North and Aerugo to the South. So we don't have an ocean, a shore.

Landlocked? That's a pity.

[He drapes the pair of pants over his shoulder to free up his hands, finds his lighter and fishes a cigarette out of his pocket. This is still his pack from home, one of the few dwindling cigarettes left before he has to break into the ones he found here with their grotesque warning labels the likes of which he's never seen. Maybe they make them more dangerous in this place? Maybe someone can look at them for him, make sure they're still ultimately just tobacco and paper.]

I don't know of too many landlocked kingdoms. None with those names, but I guess it could still be possible we're from the same place, just separated by hundreds of years. Wars change things.

[Maybe there's no way to know. He shrugs, and offers the pack toward Ed in case he wants a smoke.]

Yeah. Amestris has expanded since the current Fuhrer came to power.

[That and, well. It's been so long. And Ed isn't sure he's bothered in checking for a map that old. For all he knows it might be possible they were still from the same world given hundreds of years separate what they were familiar with and all. Still, he shakes his head in answer to the offered cigarette.]

No thanks.

[With a shrug, Rosinante pockets the pack. More for him.]

Yeah? That a good thing or a bad thing?

[Is this Fuhrer a conqueror, or a benevolent leader who people want to join? He's curious about the state of things, and whether Ed follows politics at all, since it's one of his own core interests. Whether Ed prefers decisive action and conflict, considers himself more of a pacifist, or simply keeps out of the whole thing - which would be reasonable anyway, the guy doesn't look that old yet. Somewhere on that cusp of childhood and adulthood, he figures.

Rosinante himself is no politician, of course, but it pays to keep an eye on the ebb and flow of political sentiment in his career. Besides, being raised by an admiral of the World Government has made that government a constant backdrop in his own life. He can't help but know more about what goes on than he's probably supposed to.]

I guess that depends on who you ask.

[Sure. This guy has no stakes on things back home. But it's still kind of second nature to Ed to not go blabbing too much. He's still figuring out the details exactly on all that's going on with the military. Who exactly is involved and all. He gives a shrug, glancing down briefly, shifting his items he carries in his arms a little, that fidgeting and all probably making it obvious he knows more than he lets on. He always was rather an open book.]

I'm only a Major. Not like I have a huge amount of clout with the military or government exactly.

A Major? Should I be addressing you as "Major Elric," then?

[He allows his surprise to show, accompanied by a smile. Even if he's decided to keep his own military background for wraps until he knows exactly who these people are and what their sympathies are, it's probably all right to allow his own feelings to show through in a case like this. Ed doesn't read like he's lying, after all.

That exact rank isn't one they use in the Marines, though. A few minor non-World Government nations use it in their armies, but he's not sure exactly how it compares.]

Just Ed is fine. I mean. It isn't like it really matters, here. This isn't Amestris.

[At least. He figures. So he isn't expecting that anyone really cares about his status. Nobody here would even be aware of the significance of his pocket watch. Which, in a way is refreshing in a sense in that he has some anonymity here after people always having heard of him back home and the trouble that brought him at times. Though time would tell how long that would last exactly.]

Some people might be particular about things like that. Had to ask.

[He shrugs, but also, he gets it. He certainly isn't going around introducing himself to anyone here as Commander Donquixote.]

So, military life, huh? Sounds dangerous. Unless you're in peacetime there back home.

["Peace" is tenuous and never safe either, because people have to work to keep it that way, but for now he'll continue to play clueless civilian just to see what he learns.]

It isn't like I joined for the title. I don't care what my rank is. But -- yeah. We aren't in active war that us State Alchemists have been called in to fight at the moment.

[He's only heard about that back then with Ishval and remembers seeing the odd soldier around with living out East in Resembool growing up. As a kid though it wasn't something he paid a huge amount of attention to exactly, growing up. Not until he was older and having to decide whether to join to access the military's research records.]

That's good. You seem a little young for war, if you don't mind me saying so.

[Not that age always dictates who fights and who doesn't, and after sixteen, most kids can't be told to stay home anymore, anyway. He's one to talk, he enlisted as early as he could, but he can't help but think of Baby 5, and Buffalo, and Law and all the rest, all being raised to kill for his brother when they should have been able to be in school and lead normal kids' lives.]

Alchemy, that's a type of science, right?

Maybe. I joined when I was twelve. But I took the exam and all knowing there was the risk, the chance I'd be called up to fight.

[He just. Doubts if he could really go through it but it hasn't actually happened, hasn't actually come up in him being called to war so. It's Fine. Even in defending himself, Ed went too soft on Kimblee and got impaled because of it. He may end up facing that sort of situation again here in being expected to go against his morals. But he tries not to think on that, giving a nod.]

Yeah. It's a science. Analyzing, deconstructing and reconstructing matter. It's basically simple once you know the ingredients you are working with.

[Kids don't join up at twelve unless they have nowhere else to turn. That's not just his own story, but the story of any other dozen chore boys and girls out at Marineford, scrubbing ship decks and learning their knots.

So he'll hold off on asking about that, unless the information becomes volunteered at some point.]

I never was any good at science, but the folks who are always impress me. None of that sounds simple in the slightest, [he admits with a self-conscious chuckle.]

But I can picture that sort of thing being really useful for military uses. I bet someone always wants a better gun, bigger bombs.

Yeah. In Amestris, alchemy is used a lot with the military. Us State Alchemists are basically like their human weapons. Xing on the other hand with their alkahestry is more medical based, apparently. Depending on how you use it. Alchemy's pretty versatile. I've used it a lot in fighting or in fixing stuff that broke or such.

[He of course needs both hands. Or at least his left and something to draw with for the transmutation circle. But still. Even without going into detail, that is probably enough basics to kind of explain? Sort of.]

[There's something about this he doesn't quite understand, clearly. He has a draw from his cigarette, but as his hand drifts back down, his expression is puzzled. How to word this question...]

When you said it was about analyzing matter, I figured you did most of your work in a lab. But now I'm starting to think that's not the case. "Human weapon"?

Well, yeah most alchemists have a lab and a library. It is a science and there is research involved. But it all depends on the way you use alchemy. What you use it for. I've helped fix things for people and helped try stop a flooding river for example. I'm also aware that as a State Alchemist I could be called up by the military to use my alchemy to fight if we were at war. I can make weapons, assuming I have the metal, for example.

[But evidently. Whatever his motivations on joining the military they have more to offer him that he considers that risk of being called on to fight worth it. Or at least he did. He's kind of about to become a fugitive and all.]

Sounds versatile. If this place was picking us for skills, you're an obvious choice. I know they pitched it as us undoing our regrets, but I figure they're getting something out of it too, and they need us for that.

[He has Doubts about the whole undoing regrets thing, anyway. Sure, people are here from all different times and worlds, but that's still not the same as actually making changes to a personal timeline for new results.

Not that he doesn't want to do it, though.]

For skills? I guess so. Alchemy can do a lot of things. It's still limited by things like the conservation of mass and such, some things that are forbidden but, generally. As long as you have the ingredients to work with.

[Most things are simple enough at least. As long as Ed doesn't bust his arm and not have something to draw with on his person. He's trying to remain hopeful on that working out though even if he knows he should try prepare just in case his arm breaks. Ed gives a shrug, unsure on what to make of this whole thing just yet exactly.]

They must need these orbs for some reason, I guess. But yeah. Equivalent Exchange. They have to get something out of this too, from the orbs. For them to bring us here to collect them. Even if for our own reasons in cooperating with them, our regrets....

I figure it must be the orbs directly. Sure would be interesting to know what they really are, once we finally see them. Maybe a power source, or some sort of weapon.

[Since, sadly, that's what most people seem interested in, most of the time, and his voice betrays the fact that he knows it. It's tiring. All he's ever fought for was the safety and equality of the people who don't have those things, but even if many other Marines fought for those same things, there were others who were in it for the feeling of power, just like the pirates and dictators and others he tried to push back against.

He tilts his head toward Ed.]

Think that's something your alchemy could do? Maybe if we know what the orbs are made of, we'd have a clue about what they're really supposed to be used for.

I guess we'll find out. But -- my alchemy? I mean, assuming I could figure what it was made from, the orbs. And if I had the materials to work with I could make more if that's what you mean?

[Ed isn't sure either, on what to expect. What the orbs are or do. He figures that would come up later once they get the orbs and learn more about them then, probably. Ed's still focused on adjusting to things here in the space station yet. And being apart from Al. That's enough to be figuring for the moment here and now at least.]

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