where we're going--

[polymods]

✖ EVENT HORIZON

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
There has always been some confusion as to whether or not the ferry cuts through sea or sky, but this month as you glide along you will find yourself more and more convinced that it is the latter. It is nigh impossible to see where you are headed, the way forward shrouded in darkness.

At first you think the lights ahead are stars.

The ferry docks inside of a metallic bay of some kind. It’s an extension of what must be the island, although this one does not resemble any earthly land mass. It appears to be a deliberately constructed structure, contained on all sides. Maybe you’re familiar enough with technology or science fiction enough that you realise it resembles a space station more than an island.

Once you’ve disembarked from the ferry, you will find that you cannot go outside of the structure.

Inside, there are seemingly endless corridors for you to explore. The halls on the upper deck are rounded, metallic, with lights set at regular intervals. Here there are chambers roughly the length and width of a single bed, with sufficient height for a person to crawl in and sit up on the bed. There is a television screen set in the wall at the foot of the bed by the door, and sockets for electronics. That is all.


Also on this floor is a mess hall where you can get beige, mostly tasteless nutritional sludge dispensed from machines. Water and coffee are also available, likewise dispensed from machines. (There is a cookbook hidden on a shelf written by one Serak the Preparer, but no ingredients anywhere.) There are private showers and bathrooms, a small gym, and rooms clearly meant as places for people to sit and talk. There is a medical bay, although there is no staff. In fact, the whole place seems empty.

There are some rooms that are locked - these look like offices. The doors to these rooms are extremely difficult to break down, but if you have superhuman strength you could manage it. Or maybe you’re clever enough to work the electronic panels beside the doors.

Inside you will find round monitors on the walls and square tablet-like devices on desks. Attempt to work any of these and a soft, pleasant but emotionless voice will inform you that you do not have access. You can try to speak to the AI - called MUTHER - but it is supremely uncooperative. Someone very good with technology could use the tablet the old fashioned way, perhaps, to access files. You might want to be careful, though - MUTHER might decide to retaliate. Harshly.

There doesn’t seem to be a temple anywhere readily apparent.

Notes:
1. The High Temple and anything characters may have stored there is only accessible to those who are experiencing their first island outside of the TDM via a marked door. Everyone else must make do with what is available.

2. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

3. The televisions play mostly game shows. You can also find a set of controllers for it and play Pong. Just Pong.

4. MUTHER will not deliberately kill any people on the station - her programming forbids it. She is not above releasing hallucinogenic gas into the air vents, though.

5. Have fun!

---

Ⅱ. CONSCIENCE
CW: psychological trauma, threat of death.
It’s easy to get lost; nearly identical corridors branch off from one another. As you walk along you gradually become convinced that someone is following you. Periodically you’ll hear footsteps, a sigh, a rustle of cloth. But every time you turn around you see nothing… unless it’s one of your fellow Travelers. Or maybe you run into them because you’re so busy looking over your shoulder.

Regardless, as you walk along the lights in the corridor flicker, and when they turn back on you will find someone you know standing directly in your path. Someone who you know absolutely cannot be there.

Maybe they died. Maybe you haven’t spoken in years. Whoever they are, the feeling they inspire within you is one of intense guilt. You did something to this person, something for which you think you can never be forgiven.

The apparition might speak, or it might just watch you with silently accusing eyes. You begin to wither under its gaze, feeling weaker and weaker until you can barely stand. You just want to lay on the floor and close your eyes… maybe forever.

Your fate rests in the hands of whoever is with you or finds you. All they have to do is introduce a smidgen of doubt into your mind, a recognition that maybe it isn’t all your fault. Of course, that means you might have to tell them what you did.

Oh, dear.

Notes:
1. The severity of the offense is of course up to the player - this can be deadly serious, or played for laughs. No matter how it is played the only way to save a character from sleeping on the floor until they die from dehydration is to convince them of even the possibility that they might not be guilty. They do not have to feel completely absolved.

---

Ⅲ. STOWAWAY
CW: monstrous creatures.
The lower decks of the station are darker, more utilitarian looking. These are corridors that lead to rooms full of computers and machinery that keep the station running so it’s probably best to keep out of there.

There are also storage bays filled with both prosaic wooden crates and large metallic pods. Most of these are locked up tight. But not all. Investigate some of the pods and you’ll find that the floor around them is wet with some sort of milky, slimy substance that sure seems like it came from a living organism.

Maybe you should get out of here.

Before you can get good and gone to the upper decks, however, you find exactly what you probably didn’t want to unless you have a very exciting Tinder profile: an alien.

At least eight feet tall, with pale almost translucent skin, the creature has an elongated skull and a mouth that hosts two sets of jaws like a moray eel. It has a whiplike tail and spiky protrusions along its upper back. It is bipedal, and very, VERY fast.

Better hope you’ve got something to fight with! Your chances of survival are definitely greater if you work with a partner.

And you better hope there’s just the one.

Notes:
1. The aliens are extremely dangerous, but they CAN be killed. Their blood is thick and yellow but is not acidic or poison.

---

Ⅳ. TEMPLE
CW: potential insanity, violence.
If you wander the dark lower decks long enough, you will find yourself moving ever inward toward the very center of the station. There is a door there that is supposed to be locked, but often isn’t. It’s waiting for you, beyond that door and down a dark corridor: the station’s heart.

The room the solitary corridor opens into is round, walls sloping gently up to a domed ceiling. In the middle of the room is a machine of some kind: a series of concentric thick metal rings rotate in different directions around a sphere. The only noise it makes is the gentle swooshing of the circles as they spin out, up, around.


The air feels heavy and charged. It’s not pleasant.

Before you can leave, all of the rings line up so that they appear to radiate out from the sphere in the center. Light flares, and then in the space where the sphere once was you can see it:

Home.

It’s your homeworld, perhaps exactly as you left it, or perhaps earlier or later along in the timeline. It may be pleasant, or it may be awful, but it is undeniably the place from which you came. The place where you belong.

Stare into this portal home long enough and the compulsion to return will slip over you. You just need to jump into the glowing, trembling center of that dimensional gate.

Whoever is with you, however, realises that leaping headfirst into an unknown dimension might not be the smartest idea you’ve ever had, especially considering how ominous the whole place feels. They might be able to talk you down. Hopefully they can talk you down, because the longer you stare at the portal the more convinced you become that you MUST leap into it, and the only way to do so is to kill whoever is trying to get in your way.

If instead you turn away from the dimensional gate, the lights will flare once more before the rings resume their movement. That brief glimpse of home is gone. In its place is the sound of soft voices; people you have left behind, calling out to you with accusations of things left undone, begging to be told why you won’t come home...

These voices will follow you throughout the ship. They are not constant, but they never leave you alone for very long. They won’t be silent until you give them an answer to the question of why you have chosen to remain.

Notes:
1. If characters DO jump into the gate… They can pass through and emerge on the opposite side gravely injured or completely out of their minds. Or you may use this as a very dramatic exit from the game.

Is anybody out there listening?

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

Malcolm Bright | Prodigal Son

[prodigalmess]

I. ARRIVAL

Thanks, he hates it.

After the colorful and lively (though sometimes deadly) streets of the Victorian isle that they just left, this place feels sterile and bland. It also feels just a tad like a nightmare. All of the hallways look the same, and Malcolm can't shake the feeling that something awful happened here. He feels like something is going to jump out at him at any second. It gives him the creeps.

Malcolm frows at his tiny cell chamber. There's barely enough room in it for he and Sunshine. The bird chirps loudly in her cage, the sound echoing off of the metallic walls.

She sounds agitated. "Yeah," he says. "Me too."

Maybe the sound of the bird draws your attention, or maybe you're looking for a cubby hole to call your own as well.

II. TEMPLE

The brief look at home was nice, and even though Malcolm did feel a pull to jump through the sphere, a bigger part of his common sense knew that it wouldn't actually lead him home. That would be too easy.

Since then, Malcolm's been hearing a disembodied whisper. It doesn't happen all the time, but when he hears it, he realizes that it's actually multiple voices. His mother and his sister's voices don't bother him as much, but when he hears his father's voice, it's absolutely chilling for him. Malcolm keeps worrying that his father might actually be on the ship, and if that's the case, it won't just be a nightmare for him. It'll be a nightmare for everyone.

At one point, he gets fed up with the constant whispering. This particular time it's his sister's voice, asking right in his ear why he wouldn't come home and help her with the problem that was left before he disappeared and came to the isles.

Fed up, Malcolm shouts into the air. "Because I'm tired of always trying to fix everyone's problems, okay?"

The whispering stops and there's silence. Malcolm looks up to find someone in the hallway ahead of him.

"Sorry." He's sure he looks insane yelling at no one.

III. WILDCARD

[ I'm always open to wildcard options! Send me a PM with your idea or hit me up at sparks_fly. ]

I

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth was looking at the sleeping quarters, and very immediately deciding he wanted nothing to do with them. They are like cells, and bring up all manner of unwanted associations-- so the unexpected sound of a bird in this place is a welcome distraction in the moment. His brow furrows, and he walks towards the noise until he can see into the tiny room. If it can even be called a room.

That sure is a bird.

"...you didn't find that here, did you?"

[prodigalmess]

That? Malcolm is mildly offended that his adorable green and yellow parakeet is being referred to as that.

"No," he replies a bit testily. "Sunshine has been with me since the mall island. I got her from Santa. She's my pet from home."

Malcolm's had her about five years. She may be tiny for an emotional support animal, but she is mighty.

[unkindled_madness]

How was he meant to refer to it before knowing its name?

"...I see." A faint frown. Sephiroth made no attempt to visit 'Santa'; it was just a foreign and silly myth to him, and he doubts he would have been on the appropriate list. "Not coal, then."

[prodigalmess]

"Guess I've been a good boy."

Not that Malcolm believes in Santa, but he figured he'd give it a shot after he saw what kind of gifts other people had gotten. He's glad that he did. He missed Sunshine a lot.

Something glinty on the other man's back catches his eye and Malcolm leans over to try to look at it.

"Is that a sword?" he asks.

[ ooc: Hope it's okay to assume that Sephiroth has his sword. ]

[unkindled_madness]

((Absolutely!))

It sure is a sword. With no sheath or belt, Sephiroth is just carrying it in his left hand with the blade angled upwards. He makes no move to allow the other a better view of it, but held like that it does extend above his head.

"Yes," he answered. "Not from 'Santa,' but it is from home."

[prodigalmess]

It's pretty noticeable, especially when Sephiroth is basically brandishing it. Not that Malcolm feels particularly threatened. The man is moody, but not necessarily hostile towards him.

He leans his head, trying to get a better look at the sword. "It must be special to you if it's a particular sword from home," he says.

ii

[wwrench]

The long corridors of their new home are like a labyrinth, and the utter sameness of each path he's walked has yielded nothing satisfying for Wrench. He'd rather be nearly anywhere than in his chamber, and he hasn't yet discovered the innermost point of the ship. He has seen the impact the dire choice has had on others, however, though he doesn't know enough to recognize it for what it is.

After tugging on doors to no avail, Wrench finds himself wandering the mess hall. He's nursing a cup of what passes for coffee, more out of want of something than any great need for the caffeine. Wrench can sense the agitation of the man nearby, but it's not until the stranger calls out that his ScryWatch picks up the words. He glances at the text that appears over his wrist and raises an eyebrow at the man.

No problems here, he signs, the watch acting in opposite and giving voice to the words. You don't think this is on you, right?

[prodigalmess]

The sameness has been very unnerving for him. Everything here looks the same, and it's easy to get lost. To Malcolm, it feels like a prison, a place that he's always been terrified about getting trapped inside. Add in the voices of his loved ones from back home, and Malcolm's been on edge since they got here.

The most curious thing about the man who overhears him in the hallway is that he's using sign language - and the ScryWatch is translating. He's never seen it do that before. It gives him something to focus his attention on instead of his own issues.

"I don't," Malcolm replies, watching the other man's ScryWatch. "I just... um... I think this place is getting to me."

II. TEMPLE

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter raises an eyebrow and offers Malcolm a friendly smile, "Hearing voices?" He asks casually and taps his finger against his temple.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna judge you on it. I've had to deal with it since I was eight...side effect of when you suffer from telepathy."

[prodigalmess]

Malcolm sighs. "I'm not sure if telepathy is any better than hallucinations," he replies. At least he can say that he has a source for these hallucinations. The ones he sometimes experienced at home stemmed from his own mental illnesses.

"Did you visit the sphere in the temple?"

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter lifts an eyebrow but when Malcolm mentions the sphere in the temple he nods, understanding a bit better now.

"Yeah I did, it felt really gross in there so I didn't stay very long. Long enough for it to show me home though which....I dunno, I guess was supposed to tempt me to do something but there's not much for me back there so I guess it didn't work."

[prodigalmess]

"I didn't like the feeling I got either," Malcolm says. That's part of why he decided not to go through the sphere. Nothing about it felt right, and Malcolm is a man who trusts his gut.

"Even though I have some things and people to go back to, I still didn't feel good about going." He laughs slightly. "That's saying something, considering that this place is awful."

Most of the other isles were bearable. This one is almost making him consider throwing himself through that sphere.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter's lips curve up into a wry smile and he nods, "Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. Everything about this place feels weird and off, I much preferred the last island. I'll take stinky fog and unwashed Brits over creepy space shit any day."

"I'm Carter by the way." He says and extends a hand.

[prodigalmess]

"Me too," he replies. "I actually kind of liked it there." That's weird, he realizes, but there's a lot about gothic Victorian England that fits his aesthetic. Perhaps he was born in the wrong time.

Space didn't necessarily have to be creepy, but somehow they've landed on the worst possible ship in the universe. "Malcolm," he replies, shaking the outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you. You've been here a while, right?"

II

[midsommaring]

"No -- " Dani shakes her head, wiping at her eyes and scrubbing her hands over her face. Trying to look like she hasn't been crying after her own visit to the Temple.

She had seen home, but... although the compulsion was there, she couldn't think of a reason to go back. There's no one for her there, anymore. Nothing to go back to. This place is strange and often frightening, but it's better than where she was.

"No, you're fine. There's a lot of things to yell at, around here."

[prodigalmess]

He feels even worse about the fact that this woman was already crying. Even though he wasn't yelling at her, he's sure that his yelling didn't help her mood.

Malcolm sighs. "You're right. There's a lot to dislike about this place." At least the voices have shut up for now while he's talking to someone else. "This might be the least hospitable island that we've been to."

[midsommaring]

"I don't know. The island where I saw a giant version of myself made out of stars was pretty disconcerting. This... this made me remember that this is all I have left.

Um -- sorry." She pushes her hair out of her face and tries to smile, offering her hand. "Dani Ardor. From Boston, originally."

[prodigalmess]

"I don't remember that," Malcolm replies. It's possible that she had a different experience than he did some place. Not everything on each island seems to affect everybody.

Hearing that she has nothing left back home is sobering though, and he nods. "Malcolm Bright." He shakes her hand. "Was... your home destroyed?"

I

[naturaldisasster]

Without second-guessing it, she went searching for the source of the sound almost as soon as she heard it. She rounds the bend in one of the many, identical corridors but, instead of spirits, she finds… Him, and a caged bird. Just flesh and feathers. She can’t help but look a little disappointed. “Oh.”

She scratches the back of her head in embarrassment, “Sorry. I heard your bird friend chirping, and I… I guess I took it for some sorta sign. Christ, that sounds dumb, doesn’t it? It does.”

[prodigalmess]

He can't say that's the first time someone has been disappointed to see him, though he wonders what in particular has disappointed this woman.

"A sign?" Malcolm asks. "What kind of sign?"

[naturaldisasster]

“What kind of bird is that?”

Not her smoothest redirection, but there’s no way to say ‘A spirit-bird guiding me the fuck out of this waking nightmare‘ without sounding certifiably insane, and she failed to think of an adequate alternative in the awkward silence between his question and her answer.

[prodigalmess]

"A parakeet," Malcolm replies, brow furrowed. "Her name is Sunshine."

Honestly, he's heard and seen a lot of strange things since he's been on the Isles. Not too much would shock him at this point.

[naturaldisasster]

“Sunshine,” she repeats, patentedly ignoring the expression on his face. In spite of everything, the name wrings just the hint of a smile out of her. “She’s lovely, but… How did she get here?”

[prodigalmess]

He will at least go along with her line of questioning for now.

"That's kind of a funny story. Does Santa Claus exist where you come from? I received her as a gift from him on one of the previous isles."

Malcolm was never so happy to see a living creature in his life. Sunshine is kind of an unofficial emotional support animal for him.