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ximilialog2021-06-08 08:11 pm
- ! event log,
- ! open,
- fullmetal alchemist: edward elric,
- grishaverse: jesper fahey,
- grishaverse: the darkling,
- guild wars 2: syrlya,
- gundam seed/destiny: yzak jule,
- it (film): richie tozier,
- mcu: bucky barnes,
- mcu: natasha romanoff,
- mcu: sam wilson,
- one piece: rosinante donquixote,
- original: daylight vs lornlit,
- ouran: hikaru hitachiin,
- ouran: kaoru hitachiin,
- ouran: tamaki suoh,
- the 100: clarke griffin,
- the witcher: renfri,
- tokyo revengers: ken ryuguji
LOG.01
● ● ● L O G . 0 1
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.
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.
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.
The crackle keeps getting louder and louder.
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.
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.
F Y I
• 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!
4.0
she can already feel the bumps and bruises beginning to blossom on her skin, hissing out a breath when she fumbles into the corner — again — and knocks her hip into its sharp edge. it's poetic in the worst way, to be trapped back in the cold grip of darkness — a sun summoner that can't reach for the light, fizzing out every time she struggles to grasp it, in some vain attempt to illuminate her way through the ship. a frustrated sigh parts her mouth, breezing through, just in time for it to transform into a yelp as fingers pry into the delicate bones of her wrist.
her body senses him before she registers the demand of his voice, buzzing to life like the bulbs that have gone out above them, electric and whirring — only for her summoning to draw up short, flickering and fading into nothingness. an irritating confirmation that there's nothing for her power to draw upon, even amplified by aleksander's presence. she feels like a worse fool for hoping his touch would bring the solution, after all that he's done to bind her power to his control, biting back on her disappointment as she shoves her palm into his chest and pushes.
if he's truly followed her here, if they're truly trapped together, there's little more she wants than to scurry away before he can catch up to her again. ] Let go of me.
no subject
There is no way to see her, to know what happens next, except to listen to the sounds of clothes rustling and maybe her body hitting the floor.]
Careful what you wish for, Sun Summoner.
[And he buries his hope beneath contempt. Buries the deep disappointment that his touch didn't spark her Sun beneath layers of long-practiced disdain. She tried to kill him not that long ago, her and her tracker friend, the fight at the Fold and the cold, cruel embrace of the Volcra. His hand hurts just thinking about Alina.]
I might be tempted to give it to you.
no subject
thankfully, she's had her fair share of experience in enduring those. he won't be the one to break her as he had tried, remolded into his weapon. small fingers grope at the strange piping etched into the wall, relieved for the chasm of distance between herself and kirigan — even as a fist clamps around her lungs and squeezes at the sharpened point of her title spearing between her ribs. sun summoner. saints, what a fool she had been to believe she had been so valued, so wanted, when she's never been anything to him but a vessel for his own ambitions. just a girl conveniently containing the power he had sought for so long.
that fury — at his manipulation, at her own foolishness — twines together, dual flames that burn brighter. it heats her into imperious defiance when she bites out, ]
That's hardly a threat. I would take a thousand falls over letting you lead me through the dark.
[ he's done far worse to her than leave her with what will inevitably be a nasty bruise. there's a sound of fabric shifting and the sound of her tentative footfalls as she slides along the wall, unwilling to wait for him — and endlessly frustrated by her inability to get away from him quickly when she can scarcely tell left from right.
there may be no light in this hallway to draw to her fingertips and light the way ahead, but — he can't be faring any better, if he's going around grabbing at strangers. unseen, her lip curls into a purse, a stab of spiteful satisfaction tearing through her. ]
What's wrong? Can't find your way out of it on your own?
no subject
About the sacrifices he had made, all the plans for peace that she ground to dust under her small heels. In her ignorance and her foolish, misplaced pride. He had built the Little Palace for Grisha like her, had hunted the stag, and he had kept her safe. So that his dream of peace for Ravka could be brought to life. So that all Grisha would finally, finally be free to live the lives they were supposed to have. Not bound by oafish kings or the whims of the otkazat’sya, but free. Free to own land, to build a home, raise a family and to be, without the threat of being burned at the stake or thrown in a frozen lake hanging over their heads.
But all of those carefully made plans had come crashing down.]
We were ordered to help each other, the voice was clear on that.
[And he had had so many plans. Had spent centuries dreaming them up and carefully setting everything up for the day, the hour, when he would finally meet his equal. The mythical and iconic Sun Summoner, the one to bring him balance. The Light to his Darkness. The one who would live forever, with him.
The dreams of that day had been varied. Would it be a child, found by the Examiners, that he had assembled. The first line of defense to make sure that Grisha children were found and protected as soon as possible. To make sure they weren't killed or left to starve by ignorant villagers. Maybe they would have found the child and brought him or her to him. To raise without the sickening fear of having to bury them a few decades down the road. Or a liberated prisoner from the camps in Shu Han, rough and mistreated and grateful for the protection.
For years, there had been the bone-chilling fear of the Sun Summoner being captured by Fjerda without his knowledge. Burned and forgotten long ago, and he would have to wait in vain forever. The years stretching out, endless and alone, to a bleak future. One lifetime after another.
But it hadn't been any of that - it had been Alina. A First Army map maker. Too stubborn and too something to see the gift that she had been given. Too full of fear to see what he had been trying to show her. And she threw him to the volcra.
The Darkling's lips twist in the dark, as he feels his way forward towards her voice.]
Maybe I can't. Maybe I had hoped that your Sun would work here. It seems that I was mistaken.
no subject
You only want to help yourself.
[ a scoff gusts past her mouth, disbelieving. she has to sink her claws into that skepticism, refusing to release it, refusing to dwell on the sudden, unbidden curiosity that bleeds into her mind. asking after the regret that brought him here feels like digging fingers into a raw wound, too vulnerably human of him to bring her any comfort. she swallows the question down, letting it scrape her throat like shards of glass.
perhaps his disappointment is its own answer, in that regard. a slip of remorselessness over binding her, mourning that her power hasn't risen to his command here. her eyes narrow through the cloak of inky black, uselessly glaring in the direction of his voice. ]
Well, it doesn't work here. [ she snaps, a half-truth; it had operated well enough in the simulation, in the comfort of her own room when she had willed it to her for the reassurance it brought. panic colors the seams of her awareness, gripping and suffocating, but she stubbornly pushes through it. ] So you can haunt someone else.
[ in the aftermath, she wonders which would have been the more foolish choice: admitting that her summoning hasn't fully abandoned her, or leading him to believe she's useless. a chill shudders through her, struck by a vision of what aleksander must do when he discards an asset that no longer benefits him. maybe she's made a stupid miscalculation in hoping it would convince him to leave her be. ]
I have it — [ her knee jerks into a bend in the hallway when his blind reaching brushes his hand against her side and sets her jerking away, too loudly to be played off as anything but her own clumsiness. and still, stubborn as ever through more clanging as she edges into the next hallway, she grits out: ] I have it handled without you.
just wanted to add - unreliable narrator over here. Warning - evil lies, even to itself?
[And just like that, it's the skiff all over again. It's the Army tent on the dead sand in front of the Fold, and her face twisting up in anger and revulsion at him. As if he hadn't handed her the greatest gift in the history of the world. Had handed her a mistake, even. Because the amplifier was not, had never been, a one-way street and he should have known. He would have known, if all the decisions hadn't had to made in split-seconds and if all of his careful plans hadn't been ruined by her.
The Darkling knew that he felt it, every time they touched. That she felt it too, like calling to like, his powers surging under his skin to reach her and he misjudged the Stag. Had made a play that came around to bite him, that this one would be just for him. To let him use the Power she didn't even want.]
That all I do, I do for myself. I assure you, it's not.
[Never had been, not even his greatest mistake. The one he'd get a chance to undo by doing this. By being here and following orders from the voice in the little button he had put in his ear.
The only thing he had done for selfish reasons in the last century, had been her. To keep her. And all of the friendliness and kindness he had forced in to his voice while talking to the other people. To the ones from distant worlds as the notes and the voice kept repeating - trust each other, help each other, work together and your wish will come true. It disappears, and the Darkling's voice drips cold and angry.]
It will come back, Alina, and when it does you will come to me. Who else are you going to run to? No one here could possibly understand, no one here can help you. You'll have no one but me.
[None of this is going to matter, not when he gets to undo a mistake. A wrong turn in the forked road of his long life. Not Alina, not this strange place and not the Fold.
He would get it all right the second time around.
So, he stops. Stops moving and he slows his breathing until it's barely there. Close to soundless as he stands in the dark, waiting her to run. Again.]
LMAO warning: when you're such a practiced liar, you lie to yourself without realizing it
[ her shout lashes like the sharp strike of a whip, barreling in an echo down the corridor. alina would flinch from the exposure of it, their argument rattling through the metallic insides of this ship for all to hear, if not for the sudden outpouring of her fury — and the reminder of the flint that had sparked its explosion. his betrayal, her enslavement. her naivete, and the endless centuries he's spent crafting the lies that fill his pockets, every glittering promise he had handed her as though it was treasure.
there's nothing pleasing in discovering how stupid, how wrong she had been to let him lure her, dangling acceptance and adoration like bait on a hook. to witness the lives he was willing to destroy, all that he would take from her to sate his lust for power. at her sides, her fists curl, accusation venomous on her tongue when she spits, ]
All you've done to me was for yourself.
[ even now, the promise of his help feels like a pointed threat aimed directly at her. a warning that promises punishment for her resistance. alina fights through the sudden shudder that wracks her, chilling the blood in her veins into an icy sludge. she thinks of the alliance kaz had extended, thinks of how easily aleksander could rend his limbs for daring to offer it at all, and bites into her tongue to prevent herself from insisting you're wrong. i do have help.
and to prevent herself from hearing how unconvincing it rings. only aleksander knows the shackles of this power, has felt the chains of eternity. she shoves past the thought, furiously shaking her head in the dark. ]
I know what your idea of help looks like. [ her fingers beat against her collarbone, avoiding the piercing thorns of bone that rest in her skin, hidden beneath the drapery of her dress. she swivels her glare in the general direction of his voice, squinting like she might be able to see him. ] Am I supposed to believe your summoning works here? I thought you would be used to navigating shadows. Can't you just ... banish them out of your way?
no subject
He sneers in the dark, lips pulled back from his teeth as he listens. Her voice echoing down the black corridor, and his heart beats stronger than ever.]
Using shadows on darkness is like pouring oil on a fire. I already explained this to you, months ago.
[Was it months? It could have been weeks, or years. Time is slow and too fast, all at once, after so long. The only clear memories imbued with strong emotions and caught like insects in amber, forever unchanging.]
How easily you forget. Did you also forget how willing you were to give yourself to me? [and the warmth seeps back in, hiding the truth in the lies he tells himself.]
no subject
stupid girl. baghra's snapping words ring, a shrill alarm in her head. she had made it so easy for him to mislead her, after all. had been too occupied with his attention, with learning to survive with her new power, with leaning on him to guide her. her lips thin into a purse, a futile attempt to imprison an argument ready to escape.
it flies out, a grumble to herself when she mutters, ] What good is a Shadow Summoner who can't find his way out of the dark?
[ she doesn't rise in defense of herself. her explanation and all of its curiosity — the fold is different, isn't it? — wastes away on her tongue. aleksander would only use her ignorance as another means to lecture and taunt. she won't give him that petty satisfaction. ]
I was willing to give myself to a lie. [ sturdy, forcible. she can't allow herself to question how much was true, and how much of it was carefully crafted to draw her in. to prey on her loneliness, her need. her footsteps begin again, loud thuds vibrating through metallic hallways. ] You are not who I thought you were.
no subject
[He says evenly to the sound of her retreating footsteps.]
I showed you who I am the very first day we met.
[Whatever delusions she had told herself later, wasn't on him. Everyone knew about the Black General. His ruthlessness in battle and how fiercely he protected Grisha. The only worthy cause in the world - the safety of his people.
Like Alina was his, whether she wanted to be or not. But he has time, an endless amount of it, to wait her out. And when she's watched the world burn bright and hot for long enough; when her friends have all died and their bones turned to dust, she would return.
She's have nowhere else to go. Only him, eternal and timeless. Waiting patiently.
The Darkling lets her go, he knows she's here and that's enough for now. He'll find her when he needs to. When the light comes back and the messages work again. He'll find her, force the Sun out of her.
His.]