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where we're going--
✖ 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.
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.
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.
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.
Is anybody out there listening?
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.
CW: blood & nudity
In this shape, she can’t answer his question except with a nod, and even that seems disingenuous. She’s no more human than she is wolf, and every garou knows what it’s like to wake up with blood on their teeth, unsure of whose it was. Thankfully, he won’t have to worry about that (any more than he already has, anyway.)
It’s not her most elegant change, but she slowly shifts out of the gigantic Hispo and back into Homid. “More or less,” she finally croaks in reply, spitting out a mouthful of blood— The alien’s, sure, but mostly her own from where the spikes in the creature’s back got her.
On her knees, she sighs. Is it possible she’s getting too old for this shit? Leaning over to one side a little bit, she can see the open doorway behind Kyle, wires sticking out of the bottom of the casing haphazardly. “Y’did good, kid.”
Re: CW: blood & nudity
"Uh, thanks. Uh. We should get you cleaned up and stuff.
"Thanks for saving me, also. I'm not really equipped to fight monsters."
CW: full monty
“Sorry, cher. Occupational hazard.” Her own nudity doesn’t faze her in the slightest but, for his sake, she’ll drape one arm across her tits and the other over her lap in the the world’s most painfully awkward rendition of the Birth of Venus. “‘Pretty sure I was seconds away from meetin’ my maker, so… Let’s call it square, shall we? Even Steven…”
She glances around at the various glass enclosures, wires and tubes surrounding them. “What were y’doing down here, anyhow?”
Re: CW: full monty
He gestures vaguely at the room. "Looking for clues about what happened to the crew. You don't just build a space station and not staff it. So I figured, you know. Something must have happened. Probably something terrible."
He shrugs. "Guess maybe they got eaten. C'mon, let's get you to the med bay, ma'am."
no subject
Grimacing, she pushes up from the floor, stumbling over to the creature’s crumpled body. It sure looked like ‘something terrible,’ but, for all she knows… Maybe it wouldn’t have attacked them if she hadn’t reacted the way that she did. Maybe it was trying to communicate with Kyle. They’ll never know, now. Something like guilt twists in her stomach; She doesn’t dare check her scrywatch, not wanting to know what color it is. “They could have abandoned it.”
Ma’am. She snorts, almost involuntarily. “‘Name’s Oni. And that sounds like a banger of an idea, except I have no idea where it is.”
no subject
Kyle shrugs. "And left everything turned on? Unlikely."
He glances over, keeping his gaze high. "Oni? That's cool. I'm Kyle, and I know where it is. I find it generally pays to know where that shit is, especially when half the people you know are always getting themselves into trouble."
He says that like HE isn't the one who is frequently running towards danger in spite of being entirely ill equipped to deal with it.
"You have an accent. Where are you from?"
no subject
“Kyle, hm? I’d say it’s a pleasure to make yer acquaintance, but… ‘Circumstances ‘re less than ideal.” Between nearly getting her ass handed to her, and the fact that Kyle knows where the med bay is when she does not, this whole experience is nothing short of humbling. She should be thankful that he knows where it is, because something’s wrong. Her mouth’s stopped filling with blood and the gouges across her shoulders have healed… But the wound to her stomach hasn’t closed. She’s losing a lot of blood.
“You remind me of someone… She was the type to attract trouble-makers, too,” she smirks, despite her injuries, “Didn’t have much of an instinct for self-preservation, neither.”
“Témiscaming,” she blurts out. Then, realizing he may not know where that was, even if he is from Earth, she adds “Canada, though, technically, everyone has an accent… And you? Where are you from.”
no subject
He sighs. "Yeah, that's me. You need a hand walking? You're not looking so great." He's no doctor (much to his mother's disappointment) but he knows blood loss = bad.
Kyle makes a face. "FRENCH Canada? With the mimes and shit? Ugh. Uhm, I'm from Colorado. But I've been to Canada - that's where my little brother is from. He's a knight of Canada, actually! He saved your princess " As he talks he goes to help Oni walk, careful to look pretty much anywhere but at her.
no subject
"I'd like to see you do any better," she says, with mock-seriousness. Oni knows she looks like she's gone through a windshield, but she'll get to the med bay under her own power or die trying. "The day I can't get there on my own two feet is the day you can put me in the ground, or... Wherever." Down the trash incinerator? Out an airlock? Gaia knows...
He has some curiously strong feelings about Quebec. "Yes, FRENCH Canada. J'aurais dû laisser le monstre te manger," she grumbles. Next he'll say there's something wrong with speaking French and then she'll have to put him in a half-Nelson. "Maybe they have mimes in the City, but I grew up in the sticks."
"You must mean a British princess." There's an old, old, old dislike of the royal family simmering somewhere deep inside her, but it's so old that it hardly seems relevant anymore. Especially not here and now. Oni swats him away when he reaches for her, but while she's not ready to accept his help, she will follow his lead, since he knows where the med bay is. "They only made 'knights' for, like, a hot minute. I don't know how the 'ell your brother managed that."
no subject
Kyle snorts. "Have it your way. It should take us like, ten minutes to walk there probably."
Kyle shakes his head. "No, I mean the Canadian princess. Ike saved her and they knighted him on TV and everything. I dunno what part of French Canada I walked through but people sure sang an awful lot." How can she be this clueless about her own country? Honestly.
"You think you're gonna need stitches?"
no subject
Poetic, isn’t she? And ten minutes is nothing, when you haven’t been shish-kebabed by an alien’s spiked tail. Luckily, Oni can choose to ignore the pain… For awhile. “Connard, there is no fucking Canadian Princess!” she grits out between her teeth. Naturally, she doesn’t expect Americans to know diddly-squat about Canada, but this is getting ridiculous.
At his question about stitches, Oni glances down her body. There’s a swath of blood, from her wound all the way down to her knee. When she tries to apply pressure to stem the bleeding, however, a sharp pain lances through her. “I sure hope not. Never was particularly handy with a needle.”
no subject
Kyle's mouth sets in a stubborn line. "Maybe not in YOUR reality," he huffs. He's going to die on this hill no matter what Oni and the other two Canadians on the island say.
"I guess we'll have to figure it out. Thank god we have David, he's basically a doctor so if we need to he can fix you up. Can you move any faster? I'm concerned about your blood loss."
Sorry for taking so long!
Her eyes narrow to slits. “Definitely. Not in my reality,” she maintains, because if he wants to go to the Stubborn Olympics, they can go. The closest she’ll come to budging is on the (remote) possibility of a Canadian monarchy in some alternate reality, but ”Wouldn’t surprise me if Muther put you on a bad acid trip, and you hallucinated the whole thing.”
“David…? Don’t believe I’ve met,” she breathes. The words basically a doctor make her more than a little nervous, so she’s hoping it won’t come down to that. On the other hand, it’s hard to stay mad at Kyle when he seems so worried about her bleeding. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” she cracks a smile, for his benefit, “But arguin’ about pointless shit… Believe it or not, it helps.”
don't be! chill fun times <3
"I did not hallucinate my entire life," Kyle says dryly, although there's people on board who would argue that it seems more likely than Kyle would admit. His life is weird as hell and he doesn't acknowledge it much.
"He's a super genius, and he has powers that mean he absorbs knowledge. So he hung around a doctor and now he knows doctor shit," Kyle explains. "He's a good guy. Kinda tightly wound - and that's coming from ME - but good." He offers her a smile back.
"Okay, well, I can distract you. And I do know first aid, so if we have to I can like... steri-strip you together enough that we can get someone with more training to look at you."
no subject
“‘Never said you hallucinated yer whole life— Just the bit about a Canadian monarchy, because that part’s absolutely bogus.” And it’s the only thing he’s said, thus far, that’s pinged her What The Fuck radar. Translucent cave-lizards from Hell she could rationalize in her sleep. People with powers too, though David’s ability does present some… Challenges.
“What kind of knowledge?” she asks, “Any kind?” Oni doubted he could become a shape-changer just by knowing how it worked— Like having a recipe, without the ingredients —But she’s already fucked around and shown one kid what she is, more or less. Now she’s gotta worry about breaking the Veil just by hanging around the wrong person.
“Wait, who’s stripping? Please keep your clothes on.” Not that kind of strip, Oni.
no subject
He nods. "Well, any skills. He's not a mind reader, although we have two of those, too. My best friend and my boyfriend both have telepathy and telekinesis. Carter - my buddy - he almost never uses either of them, though. He hates it."
Kyle rolls his eyes. "It's like, plasticy stitches, relax. You're awfully shy for someone who busted out of her clothes, jeez."
no subject
Mind readers. Two of them, fuck. Oni goes quiet for a few seconds as she indulges in a quick, private, mental breakdown. “If I had to listen to everyone’s freaky-deaky thoughts all day long, I’d probably hate it too.”
“… Oh,” she mutters, feeling a little like an idiot, but, then, less quietly, “I’m not shy, connard. And I ‘busted out’ of my clothes to keep your life from gettin’ ‘busted out’ of your body, or have we forgotten Snaggletooth already?”
She let’s go of the wall momentarily to pantomime the creature’s teeth with her fingers, “And the breath— You cannot imagine how bad it’s breath stank. Like it’s been eatin’ vomit and flossin’ with ass its whole life.”
no subject
That little pause does not go unnoticed, but Kyle doesn't think anything of it - most people find telepaths kinda creepy. "Yeah, exactly. So he pretty much never uses his powers unless he has to." A beat. "Quentin... is a little, uh. Less bothered. But he's gotten better about not just skimming people's brains." Sort of.
He snickers. "Nope, haven't forgotten. And thanks for THAT mental image." Oni sure has a way with words. "Okay, med bay is just around the corner here, thank god."
Thankfully no keycard of code is needed to enter - the door slides open for them easily. Kyle helps haul Oni to one of the medical beds. "Okay, you sit tight, we'll get you bandaged up in no time."
no subject
It’s also lucky for them that Oni’s so tiny, but she jerks, an involuntary hiss escaping her when she tries to lay back. “I think there’s something in there…”
no subject
"We're not from the same universe. I don't think anybody is from mine, actually. We met on the islands."
Kyle blanches a little. "In... the wound? Oh. Uhm. Okay. Lay back, I'll, uh. Look." He pulls what looks like glorified tweezers out of a drawer and puts on some gloves. "This will probably hurt."