ximilialog | STATION LOG.02

STATION LOG.02

● ● ● S T A T I O N 2.0

GO NORTH, YOUNG MAN • UNDERNEATH THE MISSILE TOAD

// PART I. go north, young man  

A few days following the arrival of the latest batch of the new Orbers, Viveca’s voice filters through the communications devices across the station.

// VIVECA.AI

Hi everyone. I know you’re all assuming this to be another call for a mission, but it’s not. We’re doing some maintenance on the teleportation platform to adjust to the number of people we now have on the team, so you won’t be going anywhere for a couple of weeks, at least. But I’m still asking you to come to the control room as soon as you can. So… see you there.

As soon as you arrive at the round room in the middle of the station, you’ll find that Viveca in her robot body isn’t the only one there to greet you, but Degar is present too, this time wearing a leather tunic and what appear to be cargo pants under his ever-present hooded cloak.

// DEGAR

Great you could make it! Right, so, Viv tells me you guys have been having questions about the North Wing and all that, and we figured we’d show you we’re not hiding, like, bodies or a giant chocolate cake there. So! Consider this your very limited time offer for a tour in the North Wing! We’re keeping it open for about a week, give or take, just so you can come back and see we’re not illusioning it up or anything.

With fingerguns directed at those on the team who can see through illusions, Degar grins and then turns towards the door to the North Wing, waving his hand — and with that, the doors slide open with a hiss.

// DEGAR

Ladies first!

Degar bows to Viveca with a flourish and waits until she’s past the door before he waves his hand again at the team with the universal sign of go, go, go.

And what else is there to do but go?

1.0 The room you step into is long and rectangular, and without any furniture to clutter the space — instead, you’ll find a large sphere, almost crackling with magical energy front and centre and surrounded by open circulation, perhaps for its own protection — the barrier of this object is so powerful that even those without any magical talent can feel the way it feels, almost like static electricity. A (slightly) closer look will wield three different globes of light circling each other in colours of gold, red, and green.

If you choose to take a step closer, you’ll immediately sense it: there’s an awareness, a quiet whisper in your ear, or a chorus of indistinct words, reaching out to you.

// DEGAR

Oh, whoops! Hold on —

Degar, walking back to the room, directs his steps right towards the sphere of energy… and as he walks right up to it, something strange happens — his cloak begins to glow with the same energy as the barrier, allowing him to simply walk into the field of energy… and disappear.

// VIVECA.AI

"Don’t worry, he’s fine. This is what he does most of the time, here… he’s making sure the orbs are contained." Viveca, floating closer, smiles wryly at the team. "Come on, go and have a look at the other rooms. I’m sure you’re dying to know what’s in there… but I have to warn you, it’s not very exciting."

Should you circle back into the room when neither Viveca or Degar is there, you might be overcome with the urge to approach the energy sphere still situated in the middle … but touch it and you’ll be flung across the space like a rag doll. Maybe some of you will stick the landing, but those of you without a 'Poser' finishing move might need some assistance after.

2.0 As you leave the room, it turns out Viveca really wasn’t joking about the lack of excitement. After a sight like the one you’ve just witnessed, this next room appears to have nothing of note except for a set of chairs lined up along the sides of the room, and then one larger one in the middle — a mechanical armchair with several different wires running directly into it.

On both sides of this space you’ll find maintenance rooms directly adjacent: one for the station itself, and one for the AI. Both of these rooms are filled with advanced machinery and screens — and one thing to note is how … clean the one designated for station maintenance seems to be. Not a fleck of dust to be found anywhere. On the other hand, the AI maintenance room feels quieter, looks darker … but as soon as anyone walks in, they’ll find a little cleaning robot beeping at them angrily. Whoops, it seems as though you’ve located the robot’s home, so make sure to not trail in any dirt. (This room is also spotless.)

3.0 Connected to the station maintenance room is the power and life support, a room with a large engine at its back, and closed pods on its sides. Most of them have a blue, glowing stripe on them; only one has a red one. But no matter how you try to open any of them, they don’t budge.

On the other side, connected to AI maintenance, is a room that has clearly been used as sleeping quarters. If anyone were to check, they’d count twenty beds in the room, half of which are divided into bunk beds on either side of the room… and most of them still have some items near them: clothes, a few books written in a language that your translators can’t seem to decipher, a soft elephant toy, and a photograph of eighteen people — a diverse mixture of women and men, older and younger, of different races, and makes; a few droids among them, but all faces unfamiliar to the current team. The group are all posing with smiles across their faces — it’s a commemorative picture, that much is clear. The right upper corner of the photo has been torn away.

Only one of the beds seems to still be in use — everything else in the room smells slightly musty, as if none of it has been touched for a long time.

4.0 The last place to explore within the North Wing is a hexagonally shaped room that matches the ones teleporting food and other essentials onto the station. Indeed, in the middle of this one is an almost identical platform, though what it connects to is a little unclear — in any case, it doesn’t seem to be powered up right now. At the end of the room is circular cut-out and a heavy-duty latch, currently locked into place to seal whatever is beyond it. It’s a door, of course, but it isn’t just any door … for anyone wondering about exits on this station, you’ll realize now where it’d been all along. There’s a control panel on the wall next to it but it requires a passcode … unfortunate for anyone who wanted a scenic tour outside of the station itself.

Perhaps it’s a little less exciting than you were hoping for, or maybe it’s just what you expected — whatever it is, the mystery held above you for the last three missions has finally been revealed and you’ve now seen what the previously enigmatic North Wing has to offer. As most of you exit the wing, you’ll notice that there’s still no visible signs of Degar anywhere (and also no strange whispers in your ear, no awkward feelings of being watched) ... but if some of you decide to return to the orb room and watch for him, you’ll see him leaning against the wall, using magic to create different shapes out of a smoke he seems to have charmed into existence in front of him. Watching the little performance will demonstrate Degar forming a puff of smoke into a ship with many sails, moving through an orbit of several smoke rings. Pretty funny, right? Clearly word travels fast.

Throughout the week, whenever you return to the North Wing, you will find it unchanged.

TOP

// PART II. underneath the missile toad  

5.0 For those of you who often cross through the sunlight room to break paths into other areas of the station, you may notice some changes in the optics around you. Where the trees had once reflected images of a lush foliage of a typical temperate planet during its warmest season, now a series of various conifers (firs, spruce, cedars, hemlocks, pines) in deep greens and soft, spiky, needle-like foliage takes its place, scattered across your field of vision in no particular pattern. Snowflakes glisten and glitter at the tips like miniature crystals, catching the simulated wintery sunlight above from a crisp, cloudless blue sky.

Follow the path into the trees and you’ll find that the room’s detritus is now covered in a fluffy white blanket of snow not yet trodden over: perfect for your footprints. It even feels just a little cooler, brisker — each breath you exhale coming out in a cloud of fog, and yet it never feels uncomfortable enough to require any sort of winter gear.

When you’ve cleared the patch of forest, on the far end of the room is a snow-covered meadow just waiting to be populated with snow angels and maybe a family of snow-people. Grab some twigs for arms and a handful of pebbles for facial features, and you’re set to spend a couple of hours playing in the snow. The rest of the sunlight room has become something of a winter wonderland: the shallow river beneath the bridge has frozen over into ice, shiny and clear, leading into a small pond perfect for sliding across even if you’re lacking skates.

The atmosphere in the room makes for a pleasant in-between to the rest of the station’s rooms, or simply a pleasant space to chill (heh) for a little while.

6.0 During the early days of the festive month, Viveca’s cheerful voice will broadcast across every Orber’s communications device, announcing the appearance of a box to be left near the mess hall. The purpose, she explains, is for any Orber feeling the holiday spirit and wanting to spread a little joy and cheer by way of a surprise gift.

// VIVECA.AI

— we’ll be leaving this up just until the first supply drop arrives, giving us some time to make the arrangements, but we’d like to accommodate as many surprises as possible. No need to be shy about it — it’s nice to do something for your fellow teammates, right?

Anyone is welcome, of course, to put in a gift request for another Orber on the station. The intention is to spread good cheer and encourage team-bonding, and honestly? It’s just a nice thing to do. Once in a while you might come across another fellow Orber on their way to the box, or you might find someone already there, inputting their request onto the box’s screen. Don’t peek (or do, we’re not your mother) or you might ruin the surprise!

7.0 This month’s supply drop arrives like Christmas itself is here, in two parts and with a fairly obvious theme in both. There are a lot of reds, golds, greens, and blues, and the scents are unmistakably festive.

Part one arrives earlier in the month with a smattering of requested holiday goods: decorations in all colours of the rainbow (tinsel, streamers, bells, bulbs, and canes), a tree outfitted with a bright silver star at its top, and a small woven basket filled with sprigs of mistletoe tied in blue ribbon. There are also small bags of baking and cooking ingredients, as well as a modest array of equally quaint glass bottles filled with holiday-specific spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, to name a few.

Halfway into the Orbers’ reprieve at the station, a generous stack of completely concealed, gift-wrapped boxes will arrive on the transport, each one with a tag addressed to its recipient in bold black letters. They will have to be moved (some more carefully than others) to the tree that a few Orbers will have set up in the station by now, awaiting Christmas morning to be unwrapped.

8.0 As the month continues, anyone who stops by to visit the infirmary, either to visit patients currently in stasis, to replace some bandages, or grab something for that headache and the like — you might notice that the room seems to have changed enough for it to be noticeable even to the occasional passerby.

It’s bigger, for one thing, and some of the room has been sectioned off to include a pharmacology centre. Equipment to synthesize medications has been installed on one end of the new room, and adjacent to it are a couple of shelves with medical texts from across familiar and unfamiliar galaxies alike. Across from this are overhead cabinets to house a generous amount of first aid supplies, and similarly, stored in cabinets under a long counter space are more equipment: beakers, pipettes, meters, and basins.

Most of this will be foreign (and dare one say uninteresting?) to anyone who isn’t involved in the medical or chemical fields, but for those who are, it might feel like the Christmas spirit has spread to even the most practical ends of the station. Nevertheless, the upgraded infirmary room should prove useful in the future.

TOP

F Y I

• The events in this log take place during the month of December.

• 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 kitchen, etc.

• If you have questions about anything in this log, please direct them HERE.

• And finally, have a soundtrack for this log! ♪ ♪ ♪

TOP

▶ NAV

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Sunlight Room is one of Xichen's favorite places on the Ximilia in its normal state but the new snow covered forest reminds him of home, of the snow covered mountains and very similar forests there.

He's donned the blue robes he arrived in, though he's glad that it's not so cold that he misses the additional outer layers he wears in winter. It makes him nearly feel like he's home as he walks through the snow.

He spots Rosinante easily, offers a slight bow in greeting because it's a habit he cannot throw even if it's not customary here. "It seems Viveca wanted us to have a change? It looks like this time of year back home so perhaps she wanted those of us with such a winter to feel more comfortable."

And then he offers a wry smile, nodding about the matter of clothing. "I know we receive clothing during the supply drops. There might be something there if you do get cold? Though... some of what I have seen has looked questionable." Not that he's a good judge.

"I've never had much luck with those. Viveca tries, but I don't think she finds it easy to pick up things in my size. Most of what I've got, I bought in Braccia," he says with a shrug, then gestures to the poncho as an example.

"You're from Earth, then?" Must be, if this is what home looks like at this time of year for him. Everything seems like it's an Earth thing.

"Then hopefully we visit another world where you are able to find clothes that fit." It is nice that he is able to pick from what Viveca provides, but Xichen does not take it for granted that that is not the case for all of the Orbers. "The clothes from Braccia are well made and should last. I picked up a few things there as well."

Xichen pauses at that question and nods. "Yes. At least I think so. I was not aware we were on a planet before arriving on the Ximilia, so I am not truly sure." A wry smile. "Everyone seems familiar with some aspects of my home even if I do not know theirs. That is not your home then? Earth, that is."

"No. One of the odd ones out here, since most come from Earth. If it's just chance, then maybe they have that many more people than we do. Yamato's the only one here I've met from my world," he says with a shrug.

And if the man hasn't spoken to Yamato, he's probably at least glanced at the only other person approaching his height, but the general loud volume and the horns might draw just as much attention.

"Earth must be an awfully busy place. I have to wonder if we'll ever get sent there after one of these orbs."

Xichen hasn't met Yamato yet but he'll keep an eye out now that he knows. He's curious to meet new people and get to know them, even if he does not think getting close is a good idea. It's good to be familiar with the crew.

"Maybe to a version of Earth?" he offers, "I do not think we are all from the same one. The monsters and spirits from my world aren't present in everyone's, for example."

Then a pause, as he realizes something. "If you have not been in such weather yet... Have you also not experienced a snow ball fight?"

"Oh, I've been in weather like this plenty often. Just didn't realize it was already time for that, but I guess it's time for anything Viveca wants. I know it's December, but you never know what that means from place to place, or what winter looks like on different islands," he says with a shrug.

Which is an unnecessarily long way to say, "And yeah. Been in plenty of snowball fights. That's about the first thing anyone does when they see snow for the first time, isn't it? After you get over how cold it is."

Ah, well then a fun first opportunity missed. Xichen chuckles at that and nods. "I think so? In my earliest memory of winter, snowball fights were a natural part of the season," a pause, "Even when they were not technically allowed by the rules."

Now, that's an odd addition. He raises an eyebrow, though it's barely visible beneath his long bangs.

"There were rules against snowball fights?"

"We have three thousand rules and while many revolve around one person, that leaves two-thousand for everything else."

Many he finds value in and follows, others feel easier to abide if he remembers life is not so black and white and things can be bent in the grey. "Snowball fights are not explicitly called out but there are rules about excessive noise, laughter for no reason, and running." Which are hard to avoid when in a snowball fight.

Rosinante visibly grimaces. There are difficult societies and then there are absolutely crushing ones.

"Sounds hard. I get having rules and laws, those have their place, but a rule against laughter? Sounds like a hard place to live."

The grimace is not unexpected. In truth, even people from his world outside of his Sect find it rigid, too strict and as some have called it "stuffy" but it is his family and home.

"I suppose, the bright side of it, is that it depends on who is judging if the laughter has reason or not." If he is around, then it often does. "It can be, if one only looks at the rules as limitations but it is not all they are."

Which, fairly, most do.

"Like I said, I understand that rules have their place. They keep people safe, keep society in order, they can be written to do things like keep schools open by providing taxes and food for students," he says, because that's his general understanding of laws. Not just limitations, but regulations that serve a purpose for the benefit of all who live under them.

"But maybe you mean more than just that, too. What purpose would a rule against unreasonable laughter serve?" he asks, because he's curious, and open to the idea that there might be a point to it. Things he's not used to aren't wrong by default.

"In that case, they are acting as guard rails as well," Xichen nods as Rosinante describes the rules he knows and their purpose.

"It can serve as a reminder to find a reason to laugh, to be honest and open with your laughter or as a reminder of the importance of the principles of restraint our Sect is built on. We cannot only follow the rules that are simple, if we want to say we are the students of Lan An's teachings."

All right, he's starting to get the idea, or at least see some of what's behind it, and nods along as Xichen explains.

"Who is Lan An, then? What else do the teachings involve?"

"A monk who founded the Lan Sect and its teachings, the cultivation style we practice. He was the first Sect Leader." And Xichen's ancestor but that detail is not quite so relevant.

"His teaching of cultivation is focused on music, our weapons or tools we choose are often instruments we play, though we also study swordsmanship. His taught growing one's cultivation skills through restraint and diligence, following a set of precepts to show devotion to one's practice." He pauses then. "Not all the precepts are restrictive."

"Respect your elders, speak with clear intent, love and respect yourself. It is not bad advice."

"No, doesn't sound like it is. Good intentions all the way around," he says.

Doesn't sound like a life for him, but he can see the appeal for the right type of person. Sounds hard, but then most orders of monks and other similar religious traditions he's heard of aren't supposed to be easy, because that would defeat the purpose of studying and aspiring to live up to their ideals.

"How long have you been part of the sect? Are you a monk, or... is that the right word?"

"It is not easy." Xichen understands that. It is not for everyone and even to those who grow up in it, the precepts can seem oppressive.

"We are not quite monks, though some would say we are. Lan An left the order he was part of when he met his fated one," he says with a bit of a laugh. "All my life. I was born into the Sect and it is all I know. Lan An was an ancestor."

His fated one - a lover, maybe? Not a detail that matters, really, so he doesn't ask, but he finds the wording curious.

"Have you ever wondered what it's like to live by other rules?" he asks, just because he's interested. "More like the people here, for example?"

"Of course," Xichen says softly, looking a tiny bit amused. "It is natural to be curious and wish to experience other things, but if I abandon my morals, my beliefs for the sake of only curiosity-- I do not believe that that is not worth the cost."

"Right. I respect that. Integrity to the things you believe in is important," he says with a nod.

Especially since it doesn't harm anyone in the process. Spiritual beliefs aren't really his realm, though he holds a few simple ones of his own, but in general Rosinante does feel they have value. These sound on the more extreme side of things, but if the benefit is worth it, then good for him, truly.

"I haven't seen much of that here, that's all. All these worlds, all these people, and they don't talk much about beliefs. Holidays seem to bring them out."

"Ah -- Why do you think that is?" In his mind, it is because often such things are considered separate or old fashioned. While he can see the benefits of it, he can see where it muddles things as well. "That they don't talk about it, that is."

"Must not be that important in their culture. Or if it is, maybe it's considered polite to keep private. I haven't really asked, though."

Just guesses from how they act and how things are back home. He's pretty used to people not talking about religion much, at least in most places. There are certainly exceptions.

Xichen nods along, he had considered that. Most here are not familiar with cultivation, qi, or other energies he knows nor the Taoist principles that guide his life. He does not think of them as separate, but he also knows that even back home the Lan Sect is seen as too rigid by some.

"All fair points," he chuckles. Then realizes-- "If it is considered impolite in your world, I apologize."

"No, it's fine," he says with a smile and a shake of his head. "Fine where I'm from, anyway. It's a big world, with lots of different kingdoms and cultures. I won't pretend to speak for all of them. Sounds like Earth is just as varied too, we just have a lot of people here from one or two major places on it."

Something he reminds himself as he's begun to learn more about it, because it is really strange how many people managed to come from not just the same planet, but mostly the same country and time period, barring a few exceptions. Orbs must really have a soft spot (or a spiteful spot?) for those folks.

"Ah... Alright." His own smile is grateful, a more genuine and bright one than before.

"It seems so. Earth, that is," Xichen offers a bit of a confused look, then shakes his head slightly. "I did not know that was where I was from until I arrived here or that there are different planets at all."

Stars, yes, different bodies in the skies and celestial locations in the Heavens but not what the other Orbers describe. "There is a lot to learn here."

STATION LOG.02

● ● ● S T A T I O N 2.0

F Y I

2.5

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