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ximilialog2022-06-06 09:01 am
- ! event log,
- altered carbon: takeshi kovacs,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: the doctor (11),
- doom patrol: rita farr,
- fear street: ziggy berman,
- grishaverse: the darkling,
- gundam seed/destiny: yzak jule,
- mass effect: kaidan alenko,
- one piece: rosinante donquixote,
- pacific rim: newton geiszler,
- star trek aos: james t. kirk,
- star trek aos: leonard mccoy,
- star trek aos: spock,
- supernatural: dean winchester,
- the 100: clarke griffin,
- the old guard: andromache,
- the untamed: wei wuxian,
- the witcher: yennefer of vengerberg,
- towards the terra: soldier blue,
- transformers: drift,
- transformers: megatron,
- transformers: minimus ambus,
- transformers: rodimus,
- yakuza: zhao tianyou
MISSION: THE FOX AND THE HARE, PART 1
● ● ● M I S S I O N 7 . 1
The time between the team’s return from Vrefesea and the start of a new mission seems to stretch on — instead of the usual lull between missions lasting a couple of weeks, two becomes three and three becomes four, until finally the tell-tale notification sound of a new file alerts the crew through their earpieces that a new mission has arrived. Upon opening it, Orbers will find the details of a planet called E-23b … and barely after having finished reading the available information, Viveca’s voice will begin to speak.
Her message cuts off there, leaving the team in a mad scramble to gather their required belongings and head over to the platform already humming loudly in wait, a palpable energy in the air.
Viveca is present when you all gather by the platform, her expression visibly tighter than usual. As soon as everyone is gathered there, she speaks again.
She floats closer to Sam, who happens to be standing near her, and hands him a small card upon which the revolution symbol has been drawn with ink.
With that, the lights of the teleportation machine intensify until they’re near-blinding, and as you close your eyes, you feel that familiar pull transporting you across time and space; and as ever, there is is the voice, a now-familiar chorus letting you know of the goal you must fulfill —
And then, just as suddenly, it’s gone. Instead, you open your eyes to a dark sky full of clouds, neon signage and shifting holograms filling your vision instead.
Welcome to the Arch, orbers.
Upon arrival, the Orbers are scattered throughout the Arch — some of you will be lucky enough to have got your apartments or hotels located within the First Circle, while others will find yourselves landing in the outer circles… but chances are that wherever you are, you’ve wound up at your destination with a familiar face, at least.
1.0 Those in the First Circle end up in the lobby of a large, fancy hotel called the Golden Courtyard. Rows of lights illuminate the walls, while a synthetic floor resembling glossy, speckled granite shines underneath your feet, reflecting the sound of your footsteps. Behind the front desk, an android receptionist (her tag reads, ‘Chiayi’) waits for you.
She hands you a card — all you need to do is carry it to access the red-and-blue circle of lights that will transport you to the upper floors of the hotel, and then again to enter your room. As Chiayi had explained, in the large room you will have clothing waiting for you, along with a golden card meant to be used for credit transfers (should you need money), as well as a map of the city.
2.0 Perhaps instead you’ll end up in the Second Circle, or Third, or Fourth, or Fifth — each getting further and further away from the high-tech neon splendor of the First Circle. In the Second and Third Circles, you’ll find your apartments still in high, sleek skyscrapers that you enter from the streetside; in the Fourth and Fifth, the apartments or hotels are smaller, not quite so clean, the neon signs flickering uncertainly above the entranceways.
You’ll find there’s already a key card in your pocket, one that lets you in to either the entire building or, if the front door is unlocked, then to your apartment — inside, floor-to-ceiling windows offer a view over the city, while there’s a bundle on your bed with clothes and a credit card waiting for you.
Of course, some larger apartments have been booked for more than one person, so before you claim the entire space as yours, it’s best to check whether someone else shares the same key card to the apartment as you do.
3.0 Every hotel room and apartment is equipped with access to the HOLONET, a city-wide network that takes care of everything you’ll need to navigate the city: credit transfers, maintaining databases, showing ads around the city, broadcasting news and movies, sending holomessages — everything one might need. To log in, one must first create an account and allow a retinal scan, which will then be your pass-code providing you access to everything the HOLONET has been programmed to allow you.
Once you’ve settled into your temporary living quarters for the duration of this mission, you might find yourself itching to explore the city around you. No matter which circle you find your lodgings, the seven (well, six) circles are open to you. All you need are the credits to find your way by any variation of transportation methods: vehicle (both on ground and in the air), sky-train, the underground, or by foot. Due to the unlivable, borderline toxic quality of the atmosphere on E-23b, the everlasting heavy cloud-cover creates an eternal night-time that protects the buildings and the people from ultraviolet over-exposure, as well as all other harmful gasses that threaten to suffocate the world of life. The effects of the darkness are countered by neon lights that line buildings and light up interiors, and illuminated billboards advertising every commodity from the essential to the inconsequential.
4.0 The First Circle is largely occupied by the compound known as the Chacier House, which houses the movers, shakers, and rule-makers on E-23b. The compound comprises the main tower, the second building, and the parliament. Easily accessible by all available modes of transportation, the ‘second building’ is made up of an arc of office buildings for lower-level government employees which is raised over an open courtyard freely accessed by the public with fountains and benches perfect for lunch breaks. The Chacier itself sits on a podium for the parliament and is a tall, looming skyscraper with 50 floors total plus a penthouse to the North wing for the Mayor’s place of residence. On level 40, the building splits into two forks known as the North and South wings, and these are places of residence for the upper echelon of E-23b. The highest government officials and most prestigious militia leaders, their secretaries and second-in-commands make their homes within the North and South wings from levels 41-49 with their families.
Security into the Chacier building is extremely safeguarded and only accessible by way of bioscans, but the Chacier House has one exception: an organized tour (with body and bag checks) allows residents of the Arch to visit the building at Level 40 for the affordable admission price of 35 credits, and boasts an all-glass observation deck that offers the best view of all the seven circles in the city — great for photo ops.
The only way to gain any access into the rest of the main building and the parliament (which is connected to the military offices) is finding employment with the Chacier House. It is also a quick way to upgrade your housing, especially if you happened to get your start in the outer-circles of the Arch.
5.0 A handful of blocks away from the Chacier House by foot (two by train, and a quick 5 minute drive by vehicle), you’ll inevitably wander towards the sprawling campus of Archway University, an educational institution made up of three skyscrapers of white stone and colourful glass panels that create an almost dizzying pattern as you look up, and up, and up. The courtyard shared between the three buildings is reminiscent of the courtyard at the Chacier House, with a fountain and benches, as well as statues of renowned educators and the more famous graduates throughout E-23b’s history, including the Mayor himself.
Tuition into this prestigious academy is vastly beyond the budgets for the majority of the outer circles without scholarships or a letter of patronage from someone of prestige within the First Circle, and this creates a more competitive environment than any lesser school outside the circle. Here, the best professors and mentors have been hired to challenge and teach the crème de la crème of burgeoning talent. Anyone can take the entrance exams and receive an interview with the Dean and the admissions committee.
Once admitted (whether through persuasive means, a reference letter, or overconfidence), you’ll be able to attend lectures spanning all manner of subjects from the hard sciences to romantic literature, but those with an inclination towards engineering, cybernetics, and biochemistry will find themselves more favoured by the Archway than any other. Admittance into the university will also allow you full access to the campus library system, which is home to thousands and thousands of digital volumes backed up and saved to an unlimited server. Those in the sciences will have access to the labs.
As a full-time student, you will also have the opportunity for dormitory housing along with your fellow students. In nearby residential buildings that make up its own neighbourhood, these rooms are clean and utilitarian and occupied by other students who prefer to live on campus for ease of commute, for the community itself, or because alternate housing is decidedly less than ideal.
6.0 During those hours after work or between classes, you might decide to head into the commerce and entertainment district, joining your coworkers or classmates for a night out, or for your own exploration. Buildings here are densely packed in together, nearly blocking out the clouded skies overhead, with shops and clubs and lounges and market stalls crammed into every possible space.
If you look up, you’ll find holo-ads around the city’s buildings advertising Bottled Air — It’s just a breath of freshness away!, and discounts and offers on multi-packs of the sustenance tablet Food4Real, which is E-23b’s most popular and trusted food-source brand. A round through even one part of the entertainment district will make it clear the distinct lack of any restaurants serving organic food, and even water here is called Man-Wa, short for 'Manufactured Water'. Ticker-tape headlines scroll across the bottom of numerous screens reading headlines such as, ‘Catch “The Man Who Rose Above: The Jacques Reman Story” Which Tells the Mayor’s Tragic Family Story on E23bBC, Tonight At 2200’. Another screen reads, ‘But Where Is The Fox? an in-depth article into the missing revolutionary, by Callan Dela Cruz’ with bounties displayed for the Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf, accompanied with monotone images of masked figures against a deep fuschia backdrop.
The streets on ground level are lined with freelance vendors and business representatives advertising their shops to any passersby, many in costume, some showcasing the very services (in this case, cybernetic body modifications) they aim to sell.
There are lots filled with motorbikes and waiting cab cars if you’re finished here and want to return home … or continue past this Circle by way of train and into the next.
7.0 If you decide to venture into the Fourth Circle, either because you arrived here or you want to explore the full extent of the greater city, you’ll find that the environment here is dramatically different from the cleanliness and veneer of respectability that the First Circle possesses. The buildings are a little more run-down and lack maintenance but they’re still heavily in use, housing drinking holes and pawn shops and body-mod parlours that offer slightly more niche options. Here alcohol can be found aplenty, though you might find that it doesn’t taste anything like what you might be used to. Most of it comes in two forms: clear and strong, or dark and strong, and neither option tastes particularly like anything. But one or two glasses will do the trick for the majority — and a couple more for those with particularly high tolerances, and that's the point. Here establishments also have a little more space to breathe, sprawling across more area with some buildings only reaching a height of three or four stories as opposed to the skyscrapers of the busy entertainment and shopping district of the Second and Third Circles.
The Den can be found here, its entrance down a stair below ground level, making its name apt for its location. Two stories sit on top of the bar, presumably where its owner, Yvonne Craig, lives. Inside, the long rectangular space is dimly lit in a hue of dark green, reflecting the earthy tones of the lamp-shades that line the dark walls covered in old posters and decal reliefs of wildlife creatures rubbed out from age.
The owner herself is the only one behind the bar and she looks at you as you come in. There are a few tables occupied by nameless faces conversing amongst themselves, and a couple of lone drinkers on either side of the long bar itself, small glasses of liquor before them.
8.0 The Fifth to Seventh Circles start to blend into each other as you move past them and draw a little nearer to the waterside. The Fifth Circle still resembles some of the Fourth, with a scattering of bars and small stalls selling half-broken wares and offering far more suspicious modifications, but as you head into the Sixth Circle, the area starts to resemble a quiet wasteland. The streets are filled with cracks and potholes, and people have learned to build their own shelter in any place they can claim. Those with enough money and employment fill the tightly dense cluster of buildings in residential neighbourhoods, but some are not so lucky. Half-tattered tents are squeezed into corners for shelter against the elements, and there is an absence of neon lights and advertisements here.
It’s quiet.
But it’s an eerie sort of quiet, the kind that has you clutching your belongings just a little closer to your chest, or glancing over your shoulder every now and then.
Not everything is so dire, and you’ll find that there are groups here trying to help each other. Those with as much as they have offer food tablets and half-empty bottles of their manufactured water to those who have none under the shelter of a hollowed out ground-level building. Tables and chairs are crammed into the space, with a line of homeless waiting in their place for their daily meal. Helpers from all Circles are welcome here to try and help the others, volunteer positions (unfortunately there is no money to offer proper employment) are freely given to anyone who wants to help.
Beyond the Sixth Circle lies the Seventh, encompassing everything outside the livable land — and it’s this area that appears to be restricted to any access, all of the buildings quiet and guarded. The militia and any authority figures have been clearly remiss within these outer circles, but as you draw towards the Seventh, you’ll find that they return again, keeping guard of something.
It is after the team’s first week in the Arch that suddenly, when the clock strikes midday, all the HOLONET broadcasts grind to a halt, pictures freezing and shifting in pixellized form until the images morph into a masked face that resembles a hare; when they speak, their voice sounds deep and scrambled, making it impossible to tell whether the speaker’s gender or identity.
Our numbers grow every year. How long until the Arch sides with us entirely? Mr. Reman, just you watch and wait. We’ll be here. We’ll always be here.
Those who hear us — there’s always a way to make a difference. Never forget. And if you believe you will — well, that’s what I’m here for.
9.0 Depending on where you are, as the Hare starts to speak, you’ll bear first-hand witness to a variety of reactions: the mad scramble in the Chacier House, officials trying to trace the exact coordinates and the signal of the breach within the HOLONET, and questions of how the Fables were able to access and hack into the mainframe this time.
Out there in the Archway, or perhaps in one of the bars around the city, some people will applaud when the Hare is finished; others shush them, or say loudly, Well, finally that’s over.
For others, especially in the outer circles, it may be that their HOLONET suddenly starts to broadcast a map, upon which there are several locations marked; and on the streets, people are running, catching whatever vehicle they can. A particular hotel in the Fourth Circle suddenly changes its name on the front. Something is happening.
10.0 Should you follow where the map leads you, you’ll see that the destinations are a set of nondescript government buildings located right at the border of the Seventh Circle. You make it there just in time to see a group of people, all with different animal masks, enter the buildings. Other citizens gather outside, breaths held and waiting — until shortly after, the masked Fables come out again, this time with people dressed in all white: those sentenced to the labour camps, held in the buildings before being taken there.
That is when those waiting outside spring to action, taking those freed and shoving them into their vehicles; whatever it takes to get them away from their holding cells. Maybe you’ve joined the rescuers; maybe you’re one of the ones helping now.
Or perhaps you happen to be standing in one of the locations in the Second Circle when a shiny black speeder slows to a halt in front of the building, the person still on it wearing the very same mask you’ve just seen on the HOLONET.
The Hare jumps off the speeder and runs to the door of the building, connects what seems to be a small device to the panel next to the door, and within the next five seconds, disconnects it — and turns to leave.
This may be your only chance to speak to the one in charge of the entire revolution.
F Y I
• If you have questions about any of the prompts or the mission in general, please direct them HERE.
• To submit a search request regarding any clues, or to speak with any of the NPCs mentioned in the log, trying to overhear conversations, or exploring any specific place during any of the prompts, please do so HERE.
• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪
jim & mccoy
McCoyDr. Horatio Kirk and his assistant (and spouse), Tiberius Kirk, have just returned from HX9, and are on the hunt for jobs in and around the inner circles!"Dr. Kirk" has an impressive resume as a neurosurgeon, with a few other notations about his experience– such as his additional work with an infectious disease unit during his "residency" (all highlights from his Starfleet career, with the serial numbers filed off) –while "Mr. Kirk" has an equally solid background as a surgical assistant.
Ideally, they'll focus on getting into a hospital or facility favored by the elite, wherever they can establish themselves, and start low key digging into medical records, both because McCoy just really wants to have a full look at the overall health of everyone in the city, not just those of the outer circles, and bc they both want to see if they can gain some kind of login access to more detailed health information about the Mayor, his family, and any potential research that may be coming out of the camps. What are they putting these kidnapped researchers to work for, basically-- and that's if the city has a broad health network that can be accessed. Who knows, maybe they throw all their dirt in the same place!
McCoy plans on sharing the neural grafting techniques he developed in Starfleet, specifically to flag interest and pull focus, while Jim has the necessary tech skills to snoop around.
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Are there any noted aftereffects of so much surgery and cybernetic. replacements in the Mayor's file? Pain, scarring, tremors, etc etc.
Since they've found records for the mayor's wife and daughter, after learning about the human experimentation in the camps, they'll see if "Tiberius" can do some hacking and access any lab records, journals, results, experiment documentation, formulas-- anything that would show specifics as to what they're working on, because:
Bones is passing along information about the toxins to Newt via the earpieces, and getting his files on removing toxins from Kaiju blood. Since Newt's already had a search request (and they don't know that icly ofc but for logistic purposes Newt is obv too busy to proceed past the info handoff SO) Kirk and Kirk will be bringing in Spock on the dl to help them try and formulate a version that will work for humans. They'll do this even if they can't access lab records from the camps, though of course, preexisting records will help speed things along!
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As for the hacking, Tiberius will find he'll reach dead end after dead end. Should he continue to make attempts, he will suddenly find this message pop up, addressed directly to him:Below the message is a single button marked REPLY (^>,<^).
Without access to any records from the camps, all Kirk, Kirk, and Spock will have to work with is that every citizen, regardless of age or level of cybernetics, possesses toxins in the blood by virtue of living within the planet's atmosphere.
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Lucky me you found me first, indeed.
Can't tell you much without giving everyone away, but— we're not from around here.
Still learning details about what's going on. I wanted to learn more about what's really happening in the camps and the Seventh Circle, and about the human experimentation that's been going on.
I don't like what's going on here. I want to help stop it.
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That's because we aren't. We come from farther away than that; from a place where Viveca is. A couple of people in our group uncovered she's originally from here.
We've been sent out on regular missions to retrieve these powerful entities that wreak havoc wherever they are. Most times, we believe we help the places we go to by taking them back with us. But not always.
We don't want that to happen here. We want to help this place. Find out what's poisoned your planet and try to fix it.
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Here, it could have poisoned your planet, or it could be what's keeping you within the safety of the Arch. It could also be what the Mayor's using to hold power over the city, or for some other purpose.
Whatever it is, it has a role in all of this. They always do.
no subject