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.

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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! ♪ ♪ ♪

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▶ NAV

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Without meaning to, her head tips a bit, copying his posture. He's just asked a curious question, one that makes her take pause and really have to think on how to best answer.]

Oh, there's plenty of war in my version of Earth. Violence too. We don't have aliens, not like Newt has.

[She wonders if that's where he's heard about the giant aliens from.]

But there are aliens. And things that've happened because of them. But it feels like it's been a long time since I've been on Earth. I gave up my life there long before I ever wound up here on the station.

[Aliens like The Doctor evidently, he's learned that much. Her answer doesn't end up completely solving his curiosity about Earth or the idea that there might - perhaps must - be different versions of it, but that's probably too big a question for a single answer anyway.

Instead, what she says is probably more interesting given how little he knows about her life.]

Mind if I ask why? I can't imagine most people gladly leaving their home planets for good. Seems like a big step to take.

Mm. [She makes a thoughtful sound at that question, reaching up to rub at the back of her head. It's not something anyone has ever asked her before, and she isn't sure that she has a good answer. All she can give is the truth, no matter how pathetic it is.]

You do drastic things for the people you love. I think that's a universal feeling, no matter what planet you're from. Sometimes that means giving up your old life to make something new with them. Something better than you had before.

Yeah. Yeah, I... Know exactly what you mean.

[Maybe not the literal details as it happened to her, but she's right about the feeling being universal.]

And I've heard of it not working out plenty of times, too, so, I'm glad in your case it was something better. Always nice to feel you made the right choice.

[The second he says that, she freezes in place, wide eyed. But she shakes it off as quickly as possible, so he won't think he's said the wrong thing. It's not his fault that she doesn't know if her choices were the right one. She isn't afraid of dying, but she regrets what that does to the Doctor.

So she can't say that there was something better waiting. No matter how much she loved every second of traveling with the Doctor before it happened.]

I'm not sure I feel that way. At least not all of the time.

[But she smiles to let him know that it's okay that she doesn't feel that way. A gentle pat to his arm accompanies it.]

[Had he misinterpreted her, then? Not severely, maybe, but just enough to make her react for a second, there. Enough for her to express uncertainty despite what she'd said a moment ago. He frowns, but it's sympathetic.]

No, and I'm sure it's natural to have doubts when you make a change like leaving your home behind. But - you said "something better", right? That's all I meant. That I'm glad you found something better, and someone to share that with.

[She gives a little shake of her head, trying to laugh off her momentary lapse into honesty. She doesn't want to make him worry, after all.]

The Doctor makes everything better. It's what he does. So getting to travel with him, getting to be here with him...it's better than the alternative. Honest.

[If her life is anything like his, and if the choices she made in abandoning home bear any similarity to what he's done, then there's no surprise she'd have concerns. She must have family somewhere that will never see her again, who might even wonder if she's still alive. In such a situation, of course she would wonder if her choice was the right one.

He does. He wonders all the time. But he knows, ultimately, he'd do the same thing all over again, and so would she, by the sound of it.

In one of those rare acts that must have rubbed off onto him from her, he curls an arm around her shoulders and squeezes her gently for a brief few seconds.]

I believe you. I barely know him, but I can see the appeal. And... I know that being from a place doesn't make it home, either. We don't get to choose where we're born or who we're born to, but I've found that home, and family, those are things you can find for yourself. Sounds like you've done that.

[The second his arm goes around her, she melts right into the gesture. He squeezes her for a few seconds, but she turns and brings her arms around him as best she can for a longer hug. His hugs are good at soothing away any lingering doubt she may have.]

Have you?

[She pulls out of the hug, having to tip her head back to peer up at him. He really is extraordinarily tall.]

Found family, I mean. You sound like you're speaking from experience here.

Yeah. I... haven't had much choice, though. Lost my parents when I was young. But - [he shakes his head as if to ward off any condolences, because really it was a long time ago and also something he absolutely does not want to talk about right now anyway] - Yeah. I have someone who's looked after me since then, and, the last half year before here I've been taking care of a kid who's kinda become my whole life.

[That sounds ridiculously sappy but there's no time to stop it before it comes out, and no chance to take it back afterward, not that he really wants to. He's pretty sure he's mentioned to Clara that he was looking after someone, but he never did go into the details. Law is a lot less like just some kid and a lot more like a best friend and maybe like a little brother in some ways too.

Better than the brother he still actually has, anyway.]

[She thinks she remembers him mentioning a child before, maybe in passing. The more she thinks on it, the more she remembers him mentioning that he takes care of someone. And now it makes more sense. Of course he'd be taking care of a child.

Learning that detail makes her smile a bit broader, because it's exactly something she would do. Find a kid and take care of them, letting that just be what her life becomes.]

You're a good man, Rosi.

[She pauses, almost looking awkward for a moment.]

Is it okay that I call you that?

Nobody's called me that since I was about six years old.

[He chuckles softly. Nobody has called him that except his brother, who manages to make it sound both affectionate and a threat, but again, now just does not feel like the time to bring that up. It's not bad, just awkward. But if she uses it, it'll get less awkward, he decides.]

So it's a little weird to hear. Guess I don't mind, though.

[She's glad that he doesn't seem to mind it too much. Awkward isn't great, but he doesn't ask her to not call him that. So she files away the nickname to try using again later.]

Right, so...got any other questions about Christmas?

[She gives him a chance to ask anything, thereby changing the subject away from things like homes and nicknames. She's starting to feel like she could waste hours of his time with idle chit chat, but isn't about to do that to him if he doesn't have anything else he wants to know.]

Uh, sure. Yeah.

[He smiles and adjusts his bangs so they're not quite hanging in his eyes so much. He doesn't fidget often, but it's a little like physically moving on from whatever that conversation might have been.]

Viveca said something about gifts? Is that for... Like in some places, there's holidays where only couples give each other gifts, and in other places I've seen people give their ancestors gifts... How are these ones supposed to go?

Christmas, at least where I'm from, is meant to be shared with everyone. So I suppose that means you could give a gift to anyone you like, as long as they're open to receiving it.

[There's a pause as her head tips to the side and she thinks something over.]

Though sometimes it's the people who don't seem receptive to gifts that need one the most. It helps to remind someone like that, that they're not alone. No matter how dark things may seem.

[But it all goes back to his concept of light warding away the darkness. She thinks that's the best way of describing Christmas in the end.]

[That gives him some ideas of what he'd do if he were at home, but not so much here. Law, he thinks, needs gifts. And maybe that's what Sengoku saw in him too, when he was that lost, lonely kid.

But here? If anyone's as bad off, he doesn't know it. The one exception, the person who seems the most alone, is someone who has made clear to him that he's not interested in celebrating Christmas for some very good reasons. Erik isn't simply 'not receptive to gifts', he clearly has an issue with the culture of Christmas itself.]

Huh, all right. Thanks. And - hey, are there other holidays coming up I should know about? These all keep catching me unprepared.

Nah. I think you're safe from any other Earth holidays. Least until next Halloween.

[She gives ~~spirit fingers~~ wiggly spooky fingers before making a ooooo sound. Spooky season is a legit thing that some people celebrate, though it's more of an American thing than anything.

Still, she's sure someone here will find a reason to celebrate if it's a possibility. ]

Good. Not - That's not to say I don't like them. [He gives a soft chuckle and a shake of his head.] I just keep hearing about them when I suddenly find myself in the middle of one. It's a cultural education, this place. Hope I remember any of it when it's all over.

[The technology, the many worlds, the people most of all. He started off telling himself not to get too attached, knowing it was all going to be temporary, but that's impossible, isn't it?]

[Clara doesn't have the heart to tell him about her experience with memories of this place. So she smiles a little and nods in agreement.]

An adventure like this? It would be impossible to forget completely.

[And with that said she lets things slip into a companionable silence. She only steals his time for a bit longer before she's saying her goodbyes, one last hug before she runs off to find another adventure around the station.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

STATION LOG.02

● ● ● S T A T I O N 2.0

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